Constance | |
---|---|
Directed by | Knud Vesterskov |
Written by | Knud Vesterskov |
Produced by | Lene Børglum Christian Sylvest |
Starring | Katja Kean Anaïs Mark Duran Niels Dencker |
Cinematography | Steen Møller Rasmussen |
Edited by | Rikke Malene Nielsen |
Music by | Peter Kyed Peter Peter |
Distributed by | Team Video Plus (Denmark) Magma (Germany) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | Denmark |
Language | Danish |
Constance is a 1998 feminist erotic film directed by Knud Vesterskov and produced by Puzzy Power, a division of Lars von Trier's film company Zentropa. It was the first hardcore pornographic film ever to have been produced by an established mainstream film studio. [1]
Constance is based on the Puzzy Power Manifesto [2] developed by Zentropa in 1997, and was the first in a series of pornographic films aimed particularly at a female audience. [3] The others would be Zentropa's Pink Prison (1999) and All About Anna (2005).
A young woman, Constance (Anaïs), arrives at the mansion of the experienced Lola (Katja Kean), where she is initiated into the mysteries of sexuality. The story is told in flashback via a framing device with lyrical diary excerpts and narration read by mainstream actresses Christiane Bjørg Nielsen and Hella Joof. (In the English-language version, narration is by Danish actress Susan Olsen and Helle Fagralid).
The film was shown in mainstream cinemas in Europe, and was reviewed by mainstream film critics. [4] The Stockholm Film Festival arranged a special screening in Stockholm on Valentine's Day. [4]
Constance became a considerable success, and generated considerable hype, especially in Scandinavia. [4] It was nominated for three AVN Awards: Best Art Direction - Video; Best Music; and Best Videography. The reaction of film critics was "mixed." [4]
In 2006, it was in part this film's claim of mainstream audience viewing behind a process that ended up with porn being legalized in Norway. [5]
In September 2007, German weekly magazine Stern wrote: "Women too like to see other people having sex. What they don't like is the endless close-ups of hammering bodyparts without a story. Lars von Trier is the first to have realised this and produced valuable quality porn films for women." [6]
Lars von Trier is a Danish filmmaker. Trier's career has spanned more than four decades and his works have gained notoriety for several trademarks, including film trilogies, handheld camerawork, upsetting subject matters, genre and technical innovation, themes of religious imagery, confrontational examination of existential, social, and political issues, and his treatment of subjects such as mercy, sacrifice, and mental health. He frequently collaborates with the actors Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård.
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, 18+ films, or also known as blue movie or blue film are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective.
The Idiots is a 1998 Danish black comedy-drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is his first film made in compliance with the Dogme 95 Manifesto, and is also known as Dogme #2. It is the second film in von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves (1996) and succeeded by Dancer in the Dark (2000). It is among the first films to be shot entirely with digital cameras.
Europa is a 1991 experimental psychological drama period film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier. The film is an international co-production between Denmark and five other European countries, it is von Trier's third theatrical feature film, and the third and final installment in his Europa trilogy, following The Element of Crime (1984) and Epidemic (1987).
Constance Money is an American former adult film actress. She played the lead role of Misty Beethoven in the 1976 adult classic The Opening of Misty Beethoven.
Ovidie is a French director, actress, producer, journalist, former porn actress and a writer. First known as a porn actress from 1999 to 2003, she has since directed pornographic films as well as documentaries and has written several books.
Rebecca Lord is a French pornographic actress who has been active since 1993. After moving to the U.S., she achieved popularity in the porn industry there. She has appeared in over 200 porn movies. She is the owner of Rebecca Lord Productions. In 2013, Rebecca Lord was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.
Denmark has been producing films since 1897 and since the 1980s has maintained a steady stream of product due largely to funding by the state-supported Danish Film Institute. Historically, Danish films have been noted for their realism, religious and moral themes, sexual frankness and technical innovation.
All About Anna is a 2005 Danish erotic film directed by Jessica Nilsson and starring Gry Bay and Mark Stevens. The film is explicit in its exploration of sexual relationships.
Women's erotica is any erotic material that caters specifically to women target-demographic of various sexual preferences. When erotica is specifically directed at lesbians, it is referred to as lesbian erotica. Women's erotica is available from a variety of media including video games, websites, books, comics, short stories, films, photography, magazines, audio, anime and manga. The content may cover many aspects of sexuality, from relationships to fetishes; the main idea being to convey sex-positivism from a woman's perspective, or to feature female empowerment and sexual fantasies.
Pink Prison is a 1999 erotic film for women, directed by Lisbeth Lynghøft, and produced by Puzzy Power, a division of Lars von Trier's film company Zentropa.
Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film Europa (1991), which started the collaboration between von Trier and Jensen.
Puzzy Power is a Danish film company started in 1997 as a subsidiary to Lars von Trier's company Zentropa, with the goal of producing hardcore pornographic films for women. It is the only time ever a mainstream film company has openly produced hardcore pornographic films.
Innocent Pictures ApS is a Danish independent film company founded in 2001, originally as a subsidiary of Lars von Trier's film company Zentropa, which is best known for the production of the erotic feature film All About Anna (2005), starring Gry Bay.
Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity". These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists", as opposed to the studio. They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme is the Danish word for dogma.
Melancholia is a 2011 apocalyptic drama art film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland, with Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film's story revolves around two sisters, one of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth. Melancholia is the second film in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy. It was preceded in 2009 by Antichrist and followed by Nymphomaniac in 2013.
Katja K, also known as Katja Kean and Sussi la Cour Dollenz, is a Danish former pornographic actress, businesswoman, actress, singer, author, and media personality. Kean studied experience leadership at Roskilde Universitetscenter (RUC) in Denmark. She married Constance co-star Marco Dollenz whose last name she took in 2016. They live at Sitges, Spain. She owned an underwear company, which she ran for five years. Author Henrik List wrote a biography titled Katja KXXX – Stjerne I Syndens By (ISBN 9788779730533).
Feminist pornography is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and members of the LGBT community.
Porn for women, women's porn or women's pornography, is pornography aimed specifically at the female market, and often produced by women. It rejects the view that pornography is only for men, and seeks to make porn that women enjoy watching instead of what is being offered in male-centric mainstream pornography.
Yurizan Beltrán was an American pornographic actress, model, and mainstream actress. In addition to her successful pornographic and modeling career, Beltran also starred in the 2006 horror film Werewolf in a Women's Prison and later in 2017 the romantic comedy Rice on White.