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Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Posted By: Someonelse
SD / DVD IMDb
Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Anita - Dances of Vice (1987)
DVD9 Custom | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | Cover + DVD Scan | 01:25:17 | 7,29 Gb
Audio: Deutsch AC3 2.0 @ 384 Kbps | Subtitles: English (added)
Genre: Art-house

Director: Rosa von Praunheim
Stars: Lotti Huber, Ina Blum, Mikael Honesseau

On a dirty grey street in Berlin, a crowd gathers round an eccentric old woman who is performing a strip-tease. Dragged off to a psychiatric hospital, she demands cocaine instead of thorazine, tries to seduce everyone in sight, and insists that she is the legendary dancer Anita Berber, darling of the decadent '20s. Suddenly, in true Wizard of Oz style, the film departs from monochrome reality into the colour-drenched world of the woman's fantasies, a wildly exaggerated evocation of Weimar Berlin filmed in full-blown expressionist style.



Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

The structure of "Anita: Dances of Vice" is like a postmodernist updating of Karel Reisz's "The Loves of Isadora," with its framework of the fat, decrepit, middle-aged Isadora Duncan just before her death interposed with vignettes of herself as a revolutionary modern dancer. Even more it reminds me of Ken Russell's wonderful docudramas about composers and artists, with their combination of razzle-dazzle showmanship and compassionate insight into the personalities involved. But "Anita" is very much a tour de force on its own terms, stylistically and substantially.

Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

As befits a German film about a German heroine "Anita" is filled with classic Germanic motifs. There is the Nietschean superwoman Anita who turns the tables on her audience: revealing her naked body, it is SHE who leeringly objectifies THEM, joyfully savoring their reactions to her defiant poses. The film is also filled with Doeppelgangers. There is the beautiful, sharp-as-a-tack Anita whose double is her raddled, cocaine-crazed dancing partner Droste; there is also the doubling effect of the terrifyingly seductive young Anita in her dancing days juxtaposed with the comical old fat woman who "channels" Anita's soul, articulating the meanings behind the dance.

Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Naturally, the subject of Hitler comes up, with Anita explicitly embodying the anarchic life force that flourished between the two world wars–and that we would do well to recognize and respect in our own time, uncomfortable as it may make us.
IMDB Reviewer
Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

I’d like to think that there are at least a dozen people on the planet who enjoyed Anita–Dances of Vice (Anita-Tanze des Lasters) as much as I did. With a ‘John Waters Meets German Silent Film Expressionism’ approach, director Rosa von Praunheim explores the brief and wild life of the notorious actress/dancer, Anita Berber. In scandalous no-holds barred Weimar Berlin, Berber was considered the wildest and most excessive of them all. Berber–who was addicted to numerous substances–died of Tuberculosis in 1928. Von Praunheim’s brilliant, provocative film begins on the streets of modern Berlin as the plump, elderly Frau Kutowski (Lotti Huber) begins stripping in front of an appalled–yet fascinated–crowd. The tubby old lady (who looks remarkably like an escapee from a John Waters film) loudly proclaims that she’s Anita Berber, and she takes off her clothes to prove it. She ends up in a mental hospital still insisting she’s the infamous dancer.

Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Scenes flash back and forth between Anita Berber’s life in the 20s and Frau Kutowski in the mental hospital. Von Praunheim takes an interesting approach–the scenes of Anita’s life in the 20s are conducted in silent film fashion. There are no spoken words–just the text at the bottom of the screen, and the scenes are announced in silent film style. Unlike silent film, however, the scenes of Anita’s life are shot in bold colour–scarlet ostrich plumes, turquoise beads, purple silks, but the actors (even though they are filmed in colour) still carry the silent film look–heavy eye makeup, and all the action is accompanied by strident piano music. Anita (Ina Blum) is shown performing her scandalous nude dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy, turning to prostitution to support her habits, whooping it up with lover Droste (Mikael Honesseau), and smashing champagne bottles over the heads of audience members.

Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Scenes depicting the madness and decadence of the 20s are in stark contrast to the sections depicting the sterility of the mental hospital. The mental hospital represents the depository of German ideology, and in one scene Decadence (Anita/Kutowski) clashes with Marxism (a patient who thinks she’s Rosa Luxemburg). Frau Kutowski almost causes a riot when she incites the patients with one of her dances, and when the staff threatens to sedate her, she is delighted by the prospect and begins demanding stronger stuff. Accosting the orderlies, and molesting the doctors, she claims, “My revolution is to smash all restraints.”

Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Adding to the film’s complications, the actress playing Anita Berber also plays Frau Kutowski’s nurse, and the actor playing Droste also plays the role of the doctor. This little known film from German director Rosa von Praunheim is a gloriously creative, surrealistic masterpiece–but with its avant-garde approach and emphasis on the grotesque and the bizarre, it’s not for all tastes.
Anita - Dances of Vice (1987) Anita - Tänze des Lasters

Special Features:
- 'Lotti-Huber-Special' featurette (01:10:14, in German only)
- Trailer
- Bios

All Credits goes to Original uploader.