Constance (1998 film)

1998 erotic film

For the New Zealand film, see Constance (1984 film).

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

* 1998 (1998)

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).

## Plot

[edit]

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).

## Critical reception

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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]

## References

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1. ^ AVN Europe, November 2007, page 13
2. ^ Puzzy Power Manifesto Archived 2019-09-11 at the Wayback Machine text
3. ^ Yvonne Tasker, Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers, Routledge, 2002, p.367 ISBN 0-415-18974-8
4. ^ a b c d Jack Stevenson, Fleshpot: cinema's sexual myth makers & taboo breakers, 2nd edition, Critical Vision, 2000, ISBN 1-900486-12-1
5. ^ Film Appeals Committee: Complaints regarding Films "Constance", "Pink Prison" and Zazel: The Scent of Love Archived 2010-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, text of the Norwegian Media Authority regarding censorship, 12 March 2006 (in Norwegian)
6. ^ Stern #40, 27 September 2007

## External links

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* Constance at IMDb
* Constance in the Danish Film Database