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History of Sex in Cinema: 1998, Part 1 |
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B. Monkey (1998, UK/US) Miramax's little-seen crime and romance thriller by director Michael Radford (his follow-up film to Il Postino (1994)) was taglined: "Angel By Day, Armed & Dangerous By Night." Even after being recut and reshot, the Miramax film - a cross between Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986) and Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), did very poorly at the box-office. The main character was:
She was frequently completely naked, portraying an Italian jewel thief practicing her trade in London. The underworld boss mobster was Frank Rice (Tim Woodward), and her partners-in-crime were a gay couple:
Uncharacteristically, she fell in love with Alan Furnace (Jared Harris), a geeky, middle-class elementary school teacher (who also moonlighted as a hospital PA system jazz DJ who loved Django Reinhardt records). She straddled two worlds while being sexually attracted to the mild-mannered London school-teacher (who became impotent the first time she proposed making love) when they fled to the Yorkshire countryside, but then she was haunted by her past life. |
    B. Monkey (Asia Argento) |
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Dark Confessions (1998, Czech./Canada) (aka Chained Heat III: No Holds Barred) European director/producer Lloyd Simandl made this sequel, one of so-called "Czechsploitation" women-imprisoned films - a direct-to-video release that was not to be confused with Chained Heat 3: Hell Mountain (1998). It was preceded in the series by:
[Note: All of the sequels to Chained Heat (1983) bore little resemblance to the original film.] This film's 91 minute plot opened with a view of a sinister European monastery (with hooded monks) known as Benedictus House (with the motto: "Where the running stops and New Life begins"). Inside, a group of pretty females was being held hostage - the monks bound them by their hands and collared them (marked with numbers to identify them). Obviously, they were sexually-enslaved, dominated, and indentured in order to serve the pleasure of others. After the opening credits, young American female Angeline (Kate Rodger) (called Angelica repeatedly in the film) was making love to her boyfriend Peter (Ljubo Tomanovic), but was interrupted by a phone call. She decided to vacation in Europe with her girlfriend Jennifer (Lisha Snelgrove). Driving in Europe, they were pulled over for speeding by an ominous, black-booted blonde police officer - later revealed to be villainous Erica (Rene Riffel). They were ordered out of the vehicle, subsequently falsely jailed for driving a stolen car, and then sexually violated by other jailed male inmates. They were able to escape from the sleazy jailer Ludwig (Richard Toth) by shooting him in the leg. As escaped fugitives heading for the border in a car (without enough gas), they were being tracked so that they could be easily caught by morning. Erica had orchestrated an illicit kidnapping/set-up scheme with Ludwig and Brother Benedict (Andrew McIlroy) at the monastery to entrap a number of female refugees, detainees and runaways and then enslave them and sell them off if they met his standards ("of the highest caliber"). Meanwhile at the monastery, six newly-arrived females were being voyeuristically stripped, viewed and rated by Brother Benedict. The two American escapees were apprehended in a wooded area and brought to the monastery by Erica, after she shot Ludwig in the back for attempted rape of Angelica. (Angelica was framed for Erica's murder of Ludwig. She wanted to silence him about her scheming and prevent him from blackmailing her.) Jennifer was threatened by the lesbian-leaning Erica: "We can be friends or we can be enemies." Angelica was also restrained and drugged and began to suffer from hallucinations (she briefly 'imagined' that Erica was making love to her boyfriend Peter - an IMPORTANT plot point). Erica converted Jennifer to her way of thinking, cooperation and implicit brain-washing with the threat: "Defy me and you suffer the consequences. Obey me and reap the benefits."
A formal cocktail party was held for exclusive wealthy buyers (male and female) to interact with the 'slave-girls' - before the film's most memorable scene - a slave auction sequence. Brother Benedict and Erica described the transactions as the monastery's outreach, functioning as an employment "placement agency." Each of the female 'products' was offered for sale (each sale was a one-year employment contract), with a minimum reserve bid of $25,000 dollars. In the auction area, each female dropped her robe to reveal full nakedness, then was forced to slowly walk down a runway as bidders ogled them and competed via live bidding. Jennifer was purchased by a gray-bearded, wheel-chaired gentleman (Ludvik Macak) (and lady) for an enormous sum, and later dressed as a schoolgirl for his sexual pleasure. And then he watched as she whipped his nude lady companion - a weird and kinky S&M sequence.
In her spare time, Erica also took some of her slaves to her bed, such as Lili.
The film ended with the resistant Angelica's escape from her jail-cell dungeon, and her confrontation outside the monastery by the Baroness while stealing her car. The Baroness complimented her: "I could use someone with your survival instinct," but Angelica rejected the offer and fled into the adjoining woods. After her recapture, however, Angelica was brought back and given the opportunity to make love with the Baroness, and they had a lengthy lesbian love scene. The next morning, the Baroness 'purchased' Angelica and they drove off together. It was Angelica's opportunity to escape a few miles down the road - she kicked the chauffeur-driver unconscious and fled from the vehicle. In the twist ending, when Angelica returned home, she found Peter murdered in his bed. Erica appeared and expressed her revenge: "The Baroness is very upset and so am I." Angelica was taken back to Europe and the monastery, where Erica (in voice-over) announced to a blind-folded Angelica: "So, why don't we start from the beginning? You had a fight with Peter when you found out he'd been sleeping with your best friend. So you came back here and murdered him in his sleep." Supposedly, Angelica's best friend was Erica - who had been cheating on her. When Angelica found out, she vengefully killed her boyfriend. The only part of the film that seemed real was Angelica's earlier 'hallucination' about Erica - everything else was her dream-fantasy! |
 Benedictus House  Opening Scene: Angelica (Kate Rodger) Making Love to Boyfriend Peter  Newly-Arrived Females at the Monastery  One of the New Females Inspected by Brother Benedict      Clothed Lesbian Seduction Sequence: Angelica with the Baroness (Katerina Kornová) |
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Edge of Seventeen (1998) Director David Moreton's (debut feature film) and screenwriter Todd Stephens' semi-autobiographical, unrated, nostalgic gay coming-of-age arthouse film was set in Sandusky, Ohio in the year 1984. It told about the sexual initiation and evolution of the relationship between a high school senior and a co-worker:
In a very frank and explicit scene set in a motel, Eric experienced sexual awakening through an awkward and clumsy physical coupling with Rod and then was left after their quick one-night stand and summer fling. Even after discovering his gayness, Eric pursued an unsatisfying romantic relationship with his best female friend Maggie (Tina Holmes) and eventually "came out," frequented the local gay bar, and changed his physical appearance with bleached hair, mascara, and an androgynous look. |
  
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Gia (1998) (TV) Director Michael Cristofer's provocative HBO made-for-cable TV to video film, his directorial debut film, was a dramatic and haunting biopic about one of the first US supermodels whose tragic career rose and swiftly fell with her 1986 death at the age of 26 due to AIDS (from a contaminated needle). Gia Marie Carangi (Golden Globe award-winning Angelina Jolie) was a doomed, wild, self-destructive, sexually-aggressive, bi-sexual cover girl. The film's tagline was: "Too Beautiful to Die. Too Wild to Live." The film was released in various versions, including an unrated one (with an additional six minutes of sexually explict footage). During the opening title credits (with close-up images of make-up being applied to a face), the script was based upon those who knew Gia and made comments - with recreated, faux-archival interview footage - about her past life, plus quotes from Gia's own journal. The statements made conveyed a sense of Gia's uniqueness, abrasiveness, and bold sexuality:
Born in 1960s Philadelphia and before being discovered, Gia grew up in a working class family, with her restaurant owner father Joe ((Louis Giambalvo)) and her mother Kathleen Carangi (Mercedes Ruehl), who called her daughter's life "a fairy tale come true." However, her parents had a contentious relationship and they separated when Gia was 11 years old. By the age of 17, Gia was working in her father's diner, sporting a rebellious hair-style - punk-styled pink. Her mother's departure was a turning point for Gia - causing her continuing future fears of abandonment. She admitted that she was full of fear: "You scare the s--t out of people and then they don't see how scared you are." One day, she impulsively took off for the day with a young, handsome gay male from the neighborhood named Tom Junior or "T.J." (Eric Michael Cole). She enjoyed being the subject of a photoshoot with a bi-sexual couple - a photographer and his blonde model girlfriend (Scott Genkinger and Vylette Fagerholm). According to one interviewee, the Philadelphia fashion world was not ready for Gia, but New York was. TJ accompanied her as her confidante, companion and friend, to explore becoming a model in a NYC agency known as Wilhemina's, run by powerful matriarchal agent Wilhemina Cooper (Faye Dunaway). Gia stunned the front desk receptionist (Audrey Wasilewski) by using a knife to carve her name into her desk mat. With Wilhemina in person, Gia was forthright: "If I knew you were looking for Marcia-f--king-Brady, I would've stayed home." Wilhemina knew Gia had potential but cautioned the wild child Gia to say less and let her images speak for themselves: ("What comes out of your mouth is totally irrelevant"). Wilhemina mentored Gia as a mother surrogate: "This is a life if you want it" - and was encouraged to interview and become a top model as a career, while becoming roommates with TJ.
In her first sexual experience with gay friend TJ, she allowed him to kiss her and tempted him to have sex, but then provocatively proposed being 'turned on' by stripping him of his underwear and putting them on over her own panties. She admitted that the one time she had sex with a man, she "could've done that with a German shepherd." Before her first major photoshoot in NY, she met bisexual photographer's assistant make-up artist Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell). Gia posed behind a chain-link fence, but then after the official shoot, the long-haired photographer Chris von Wagenheim (Alexander Enberg) suggested that further photos could be taken in the nude: ("Who wants to stay and make some art?...Keep the fence, lose the clothes.") Gia opted in - with one condition, sensing an immediate attraction to Linda: "I'll stay if Linda stays."
In a series of scenes, beginning with this one, Gia began to play passionate love games with make-up artist Linda. Their love affair began when both became involved in the daring fashion-shoot behind a chain-link fence. At first, Linda watched as Gia was photographed stark-naked, but then joined in, stripped down - and the two kissed each other across the links. In the next extended sequence, once the photoshoot was over, the two engaged in full-body kissing in Gia's apartment.
After being together with Linda for the night, a fully nude Gia attempted to stop the conflicted Linda from leaving and pursued her into the hallway naked. She asked: "What happened? What's the matter?" Linda only remarked: "You don't have any clothes on." Gia quickly replied: "Don't change the subject." Linda confessed: "I have a boyfriend...so, I have to go." In her inimitable manner, Gia quipped: "Where the f--k does everybody go when they have to go, huh?" Linda then admitted: "I'm really very square." Gia promised to make breakfast for Linda if she didn't go. The elevator door behind Linda opened, and a startled gentleman in the lift asked: "Going down?" Gia was in for a meteoric rise in the fashion world, as Wilhelmina cautioned her about what would happen next: "You are in for the ride of your life." With other models, she frequented late-night clubs, witnessing S&M gay sex, sexual couplings, cocaine use on a female's naked front, and kissing with strangers. She began to use drugs herself - snorting cocaine.
During an executive meeting held by an Anna Wintour-styled Vogue Editor (Tricia O'Neil), she dismissed many other face shots of models for the next Vogue Magazine winter cover, complaining that she needed a new model or type: "Boring. Played out. Fat. Boring. Too dumb. For winter, we need meat. We need someone with blood in her veins. Not just suntan oil and mineral water. Oh, God, I am so sick of her face." But then she paused on the slide of Gia's face - Wilhelmina's new girl:
In the next scene, Gia surprised Linda outside her apartment with her new red sports car, and pressured Linda into joining her for a ride to her home-town of Philadelphia. She drove to her mother's residence and introduced her mother to her "girlfriend" Linda, and proudly showed off her cover photo on the latest issue of Vogue. Later, she tried to interest Linda in furthering their lesbian relationship when she didn't respond to phone calls, by sending her bouquets of yellow roses, and by confronting Linda at her home with her drunk boyfriend Billy. Billy asked: "I'll bet you're a model," to which Gia quipped: "Why? Do I look stupid?" In an attempt to break up Linda's 'straight' relationship, she stunned Billy by boldly calling Linda "the most beautiful woman I have ever seen" before kissing her, and then abruptly left. Even though she was at the height of fame and in high demand, further fears of abandonment by her mother caused the very emotionally-unhappy Gia to turn to more drug use. During a photoshoot with a very understanding photographer named Francesco (Edmond Genest), he advised Gia how to not be so unhappy:
He told her that the secret was to "work. It's the only answer I know....Work now. You can live later." To escape and ease the pain, another model offered her a stronger drug to snort as: "the answer to all your prayers." The camera focus blurred, conveying the idea that drugs were a way to lessen the pain of her intense life. During one of her fashion trips, she remembered Wilhelmina's words to her: "You will always be somebody to me." But then Wilhelmina was hospitalized in New York with a sudden illness, and Gia was suddenly inundated with offers to join other agencies, including pressure from Mike Mansfield at the startup Largo Agency. From her sick bed, Wilhelmina encouraged Gia: "You have the whole world at your fingertips. You have to be strong. Seize the moment." Soon after Wilhelmina succumbed to lung cancer, and the very volatile Gila went into a depression, and turned to further drug use - including heroin ("the dragon"). Following a photoshoot with Gia wearing Japanese-looking facial makeup and a bright red dress, she claimed she was sick and was driven on the back of a motorcycle to a junkie hangout in town, where she begged to meet up with Satellite, her fixer. He was unavailable, and everyone told her that they had nothing for her. When offered an injection by a junkie addict, she replied: "I don't shoot. Do you have anything else dry?" but then she resorted to unwisely being injected with his dirty needle ("I want it. You do me") - it was a deadly choice. Afterwards, looking sickly and with a bruise on her forehead (from a beating at the junkie's place?), she visited Linda's apartment and learned that Linda's boyfriend had left her. They took a cleansing shower together to wash the blood from various bruises on Gia's body. They were determined this time to make their relationship work (Linda being interviewed later: "And I believed we could make things work"). In the year 1980, Gia disappeared from her agency and the fashion scene in NYC and fled to her hometown of Philadelphia.
While living with Linda, and with her encouragement, 20 year-old Gia went on 21-day rehabilitation Methadone drug program to end her heroin addiction. She informed her mother that she wasn't returning to work, but then she went into another decline and returned to her drug addiction. She stole money and jewelry (wedding ring) from her mother to buy more drugs before speeding back to NY and being arrested for resisting arrest and reckless driving. Gia realized she had to go back to work for financial reasons - to maintain her lifestyle and be independent of Linda's support. She negotiated with Mike Mansfield of the Largo Agency, who feared that Gia was a liability - she had a confirmed and indiscreet drug problem and other agencies were afraid of signing her. When he asked to check her arms, she angrily refused: "It's not my arms you want. It's my face and my tits. And they're fine." When she claimed she was "clean," he took a risk and hired her for a "television piece on models." As the shoot was about to proceed, with Linda as her makeup artist, Gia was caught by Linda snorting in the bathroom. On camera, Gia lied about being free of her drug problem. Disgusted by Gia's lie, Linda left, and was upset to see Gia later that evening, especially since Gia had broken their pledge about ending her addiction: "We had a deal. We made a bargain." Gia tried to beg for Linda's love rather than condemnation: "You going to judge me? I did one f--king line," but Linda refused to believe her lies. Linda confronted Gia about her complete dependence on the drug: "This is what makes you do everything....It's not me. It's not you. It's this. This s--t holds you." And then she gave Gia an ultimatum: "You choose...This or me." Gia's choice left Linda crying in despair. Gia's career as a fashion model on the runway was over when she became disoriented and collapsed backstage, with her drug paraphernalia in her lap. One of her favored photographers Francesco specifically asked for Gia to be a model for a photo-shoot, even though he knew she had become volatile and had track marks on her arms and an ugly infection on her hand. He noted how the industry quickly discarded its 'has-been' models: "We use them up, throw them away." She sincerely thanked him for giving her a second chance. He remarked as he began shooting: "Gia, this is life, not heaven. You don't have to be perfect." Out of money and suffering from withdrawal, and with nowhere to go (even her mother turned her down about returning home), a degraded Gia was forced to declare herself "indigent" to receive drug-rehab treatment and group therapy. She attempted to seek some closure by phoning Linda to ask for forgiveness for hurting her during her drugging. The film concluded with Gia's approaching death from AIDS-related complications ("Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome") due to her IV-drug use. She began to suffer serious symptoms, including skin lesions and hair loss, pneumonia, and a disintegrating body. She knew the end was near but remained quasi-optimistic: "I think that God has a big plan for me. Just not in this life. I'm on top of everything. I'm super cool." Those close to Gia in those "early days" were scared about having close contact with Gia, including her mother and T.J., so Gia was housed in a hotel room. She paid one final visit to Linda and gave her the reflective journal ("fairy tales" and "other crazy s--t") she had been writing. Gia explained that she had no definite plans for her future, although Linda suggested giving themselves "another chance" - possibly beginning with a summer beach house. As Gia left, she told Linda: "You were the one. You were the only one." However, with the little remaining money she had, Gia visited a junkie hang-out to buy more drugs and was robbed, beaten up and raped. Her mother Kathleen visited her daughter and told her what she had always wanted to hear: "I'm gonna take you home, baby." Her father also recollected his brief visit in the hospital: "I couldn't help thinking to myself - 'My God, she's just a kid.'" TJ remembered: "She knew she was dying" - and how her wish to tape a video warning to kids about drugs never came to fruition. Gia's last question to her mother was: "Do you forgive me, Kathleen?" and added: "I forgive you, too." Her mother raised the bed's cover sheet and saw that Gia was soaked in blood. She died soon after, and her mother mentioned how it was difficult to find a mortician in the AIDS-era to apply makeup to her ravaged face (the images under the opening title credits), to remember her as "beautiful." Gia's voice-over narration (with words from her own journal) was heard as she made her last curtain call - she rose from her death bed aided by white-garbed angels, seemingly purified by her suffering, and walked toward the camera surrounded by heavenly white light - ending with a freeze-frame:
The film's closing credits ("This film is a dramatization based on certain facts. Some of the names have been changed and some of the events and characters have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes") seemed to contradict the opening title card. |
 Gia's Mother Kathleen Carangi (Mercedes Ruehl)  As a Young Girl (Mila Kunis as Age 11), Gia With Her Younger Mother  Gia Working In Her Father's Diner at Age 17    Gia Wearing Her Boyfriend's Underwear Briefs - Tempting Him  First Meeting With Make Up Artist Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell)  At Gia's First Major Fashion Photoshoot     The Scene of Linda's Threat to Leave Gia After Their Sexual Night Together  Gia's Car Ride with Linda to Philadelphia  Boldly Kissing Linda in View of Her Drunk Boyfriend Billy  The Unhappy Gia With Continuing Fears of Abandonment By Her Mother ("I need you now!")   Photographer Francesco Offering Gia Advice on How to Be Happy  Stronger Drugs to Ease the Pain  Sick After a Film Shoot - Injected With Heroin by a Dirty Junkie  Hired by Mike Mansfield at the Largo Agency  Gia Caught by Linda Snorting Before Her New Job  Linda's Disgust At Gia's Lies About Being Clean  Gia Disoriented and Collapsing During Runway Show  Suffering Withdrawal During Drug-Rehab  Her Last Few Days Dying in a Hospital  Gia's Ascent to Heaven? |
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The Girl of Your Dreams (1998, Sp.) (aka La Niña de Tus Ojos) This Spanish film production from director Fernando Trueba was based on the true story of the events that occurred during the filming of Carmen, La De Triana (1938) (aka Carmen, the Girl from Triana) and Andalusische Nächte (1938) (aka Nights in Andalusia). In reality, both films, funded by Spain's dictator Franco during the Spanish Civil War, starred actress Imperio Argentina and were made by Spanish film companies at UFA Studios in Nazi Germany (during the Spanish Revolution). In the comedy-drama film, Spanish film-makers in UFA Studios in Berlin were making two versions (one Spanish, one German) of the Andalusian musical 'The Girl of Your Dreams' with sexy Andalusian star-actress Macarena Granada (Penelope Cruz). She had accepted the role after the producer promised to try and get her anarchist father out of jail.
She was sleeping with the director Blas Fontiveros (Antonio Resines), but then caught the eye of lustful, evil Nazi Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels (Johannes Silberschneider), whom she needed to pacify in order to get the Spanish version of the film completed. When she stripped for Goebbels and allowed him to kiss her breasts, he was knocked over the head (from behind) with a revolver in the hands of her Russian-Jewish fugitive lover from a concentration camp prison. Then, they had sex together next to the unconscious Goebbels. The film concluded with a Casablanca-like ending, as Macarena tried to help her lover escape, endangering the entire troupe. |
 Macarena (Penelope Cruz) |
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Great Expectations (1998) Alfonso Cuarón's R-rated modern adaptation of Charles Dicken's novel featured lushful cinematography set in Florida and New York City. It told about the long-term relationship over a period of years between an artist and the love of his life:
It included two water fountain kissing scenes (one in their youth as 10 year-olds - portrayed by Jeremy James Kissner and Raquel Beaudene, and one as adults), a nude painting scene (with only brief partial-nude glimpses of Paltrow, although the sketch displayed full-frontal nudity), and a passionate love-making scene. |
 Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow)  Passionate Love-Making |
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Controversial film-maker Todd Solondz's infamous and subversive unrated film about pedophilia was a black satire on middle-class suburban dysfunctionality. The film won the Cannes International Critics Prize in 1998, but was considered repulsive by the MPAA -- it received an NC-17 rating, even without explicit intercourse or violence. The film portrayed an unlikeable suburban dad and psychiatrist - Dr. Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker), who was a predatory pedophile. He exhibited his disorder in the scene at a little league game, in the backseat of his car (where he masturbated to a teen magazine), and during a sleepover hosted by his adolescent son Billy (Rufus Read) when he drugged and molested his son's schoolpal and teammate, and then bragged about enjoying it. The shocking film included the scene of an honest conversation between father and son regarding the father being a "serial rapist" and "pervert."
Also its famous ending scene was of Billy proudly admitting to his stunned family at the dining table: "I came" (he masturbated while spying on a buxom sunbather from the balcony). Semen dripped from the balcony pole, and was licked up by the dog. |
  Dr. Maplewood (Dylan Baker) - Portrayed as a Predatory Pedophile 
Conversation Between Father and Son |
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High Art (1998) Writer/director Lisa Chodolenko's honest and convincing 'lesbian chic' film (her feature film debut) won the screenwriting award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. It told about a doomed and troubled lesbian relationship between two females who gradually fell in love and experienced deeper feelings for each other:
Yuppified Syd was living with her boyfriend James (Gabriel Mann), while the decadent Lucy lived with her masochistic, frequently-stoned partner Greta (Patricia Clarkson), an ex-Fassbinder German film actress in the neighboring upstairs apartment.
Syd was able to convince her employers, including frequently hung-over executive editor Dominique (Anh Duong), to have Lucy work for the journal, with Syd as her editor. During a trip to upstate New York in a pivotal scene, they experienced a slow, intimate and maturely-presented sex scene as they explored their insecurities and decided to have sex for the first time, blurring the lines between their personal and professional lives. Both were cheating on their respective love-partners, and Greta in particular became a rival for Lucy's affection. |
 Lucy with Greta (Patricia Clarkson) |
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How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) This R-rated erotic romantic comedy (and 'weeper' melodramatic chick flick), by director Kevin Rodney Sullivan, told the May-December love story of an escapist affair between two African-Americans. Its tagline described the unusual wish-fulfillment, "jailbait" pairing: "Sometimes you have to break the rules to free your heart." The romance was between two individuals with a vast age discrepancy (title character Stella described it as "almost not a felony"), who first met while on a Montego Bay-Jamaican getaway vacation.
Stella was vacationing with her best friend Delilah Abraham (Whoopi Goldberg). The film's sensual intensity was found in its earliest scenes when the couple first met, flirted, and experienced several sexual encounters, after Delilah answered Stella's question: "What would I do with a twenty-year-old?" --- "F--k him!" In MTV-film style, the couple were "intimate" in bed and also in a shower sequence with sensual kissing and non-explicit body touching (and an extended, lingering gratuitous shot of Winston's bare buttocks), followed by a scene in bed when Stella sat on Winston's lap and experienced an orgasm. |
  Winston (Taye Diggs) with Stella (Angela Bassett) |
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Danish filmmaker Lars Von Triers filmed this stark black comedy with a hand-held camera - it was the second film made under the rules of Dogme '95. The subversive and unconventional film was made to protest bourgeois principles and conventions. Its story was about a Copenhagen commune of eccentric, middle-class individuals who pretended to be "spazzing" - or finding one's 'inner idiot' as if they were retarded or mentally challenged, to liberate themselves from social restrictions. It was an extremely controversial film due to its nudity (including one quick view of an erection in a shower scene), group sex, and a brief graphic view of unsimulated penetrative sex. The extended orgy sequence of the R-rated film was censored for U.S. audiences with black bars blocking images of male genitalia.
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 Nana (Trine Michelsen)  Josephine (Louise Mieritz) |
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Happiness (1998)
