''Constance'' is a 1998

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

erotic film Sexual content has been found in films since the early days of the industry, and the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, especially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or sugges ...

directed by

Knud Vesterskov Knud Vesterskov is a Danish film director who originally made his mark with a long string of experimental art films. He later wrote and directed two highly unusual hardcore pornography films, ''Constance (1998 film), Constance'' (1998) and ''HotMe ...

and produced by

Puzzy Power Puzzy Power (also known as HotMale) 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 compan ...

, a division of

Lars von Trier Lars von Trier (né Trier; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...

'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 co ...

. It was the first hardcore

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

ever to have been produced by an established mainstream film studio. ''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. The others would be Zentropa's ''

Pink Prison ''Pink Prison'' is a 1999 erotic film for women, directed by Danish director Lisbeth Lynghøft, and produced by Puzzy Power, a division of Lars von Trier's film company Zentropa. As the follow-up to ''Constance (1998 film), Constance'' (1998), it ...

'' (1999) and '' All About Anna'' (2005).

Plot

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 Hella Joof (born 1 November 1962) is a Danish actress and director. She was born to a Danish mother and an aristocratic Gambian father who belonged to the Joof dynasty. Joof directed '' En kort en lang'' (2001), '' Oh Happy Day'' (2004) and ...

. (In the English-language version, narration is by Danish actress Susan Olsen and Helle Fagralid).

Critical reception

The film was shown in mainstream cinemas in Europe, and was reviewed by mainstream film critics.Jack Stevenson, ''Fleshpot: cinema's sexual myth makers & taboo breakers'', 2nd edition, Critical Vision, 2000, The Stockholm Film Festival arranged a special screening in Stockholm on Valentine's Day. ''Constance'' became a considerable success, and generated considerable hype, especially in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. It was nominated for three

AVN Award The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') annually to honor achievements in the global Sex industry, adult entertainment industry. ...

s: Best Art Direction - Video; Best Music; and Best Videography. The reaction of film critics was "mixed." 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 Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. In September 2007, German weekly magazine ''

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

'' 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.

is the first to have realised this and produced valuable quality porn films for women."''

'' #40, 27 September 2007

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Constance (1998 Film) 1990s pornographic films 1998 films Danish erotic films