Constance (1998 film)

Constance
Directed by	Knud Vesterskov
Produced by	Lene Børglum Peter Aalbæk Jensen Lars von Trier
Written by	Knud Vesterskov
Starring	Katja Kean Anaïs Mark Duran Niels Dencker
Music by	Peter Kyed Peter Peter
Cinematography	Steen Møller Rasmussen
Editing by	Rikke Malene Nielsen
Distributed by	Team Video Plus (Denmark) Magma (Germany)
Release date(s)	1998 (Denmark)
Running time	70 mins
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish

Constance (1998) is an erotic film for women, 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 developed by Zentropa in 1997, and was the first in a series of pornographic films aimed particularly at a female audience.^[2] The others would be Zentropa's Pink Prison (1999) and All About Anna (2005).

Plot

It tells the story of a young woman, Constance (Anaïs), who 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 Susan Olsen and Helle Fagralid).

Critical reception

The film was shown in mainstream cinemas in Europe, and was reviewed by mainstream film critics.^[3] The Stockholm Film Festival arranged a special screening in Stockholm on Valentine's Day.^[3]

Constance became a considerable success, and generated considerable hype, especially in Scandinavia.^[3] It was nominated for three AVN Awards: Best Art Direction - Video, Best Music and Best Videography. The reaction of film critics was mixed however.^[3]

In 2006, the film's artistic merits were partly responsible for porn being legalized in Norway.^[4]

In September 2007, Germany's biggest 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."^[5]

References

1. ^ AVN Europe, November 2007, page 13
2. ^ Yvonne Tasker, Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers, Routledge, 2002, p.367 ISBN 0415189748
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Jack Stevenson, Fleshpot: cinema's sexual myth makers & taboo breakers, 2nd edition, Critical Vision, 2000. ISBN 1900486121
4. ^ Norwegian Media Authority none-censorship decision
5. ^ Stern #40, 27.9.2007

External links

• Constance at the Internet Movie Database
• Norwegian Media Authority none-censorship decision