User Reviews

You know how most 'erotic films' are burdened with long, boring, overly graphic sex scenes? This isn't one of them. Oh, there are some sex scenes, but most of the long, boring passages in this Scandinavian drama involve serious discussions about nymphomania or lots and lots of classical music. Anita is actually quite well-acted (Christina Lindberg is genuinely good) and reasonably serious, but still can't help itself when it comes to the requisite lesbian encounter, which comes out of left field and isn't terribly convincing. And watch out for the continuity error when Anita doffs her clothing for another soulless sexual liaison and magically pulls her hair back into a ponytail whilst her hands are, er, otherwise occupied. Not bad, not particularly good, and not very sexy, Anita will leave your Swedish meatballs lukewarm at best.

As you can notice, this film is both Swedish and french in production; there are two versions of this film that differ considerably; the french version has a logical plot evolution and is more sleazy than the Swedish version. The latter if more moral in tone and has an unlogical plot evolution; it also has less sex(y) scenes. In the Swedish version, the plot line of the young students forming a classical music group is more elaborated (and dull). The french version focuses more on the nymphmaniac addiction; in this version Christina Lindberg tries out a therapy to bring her relief of her addiction. The french version runs for 74 minutes; this makes the plot evolution more compact. The 'solution' of both versions is the same.

For the french version I would give an 8 out of 10; for the Swedish version I would give a 6 out of 10

I saw this disc offered by Synapse at the latest Horrorfind Convention, and immediately the cover of a topless Christina Lindberg caught my attention. I didn't purchase the disc at the convention, but needless to say, I grabbed this one up the first chance I had.

ANITA is the story of a misunderstood 17-year-old nymphomaniac outcast (Lindberg) who bones anyone and everyone in sight. Shunned by her family and everyone in town, Anita whiles away her days and nights in the arms (and beds, and floors, and coat-rooms, etc...) of any willing man (and in some cases, woman) she lays eyes on. During one of her clandestine "rendevous'" she accidentally runs into (literally...) a young psychology student who takes an interest in her and her "illness". The two form a platonic friendship as the budding psychologist attempts to figure out the cause, and better yet, a cure for young Anita's ailment...

Honestly - this film isn't that great. It's a little too serious in tone to be a fun, sexploit style erotic romp - and yet a bit too shallow to be very thought-provoking. Lindberg looks amazing (as usual...) and does a decent job of playing the role of the conflicted, sometimes ruthless, but always "fragile", girl-next-doorish sex-addict - and as would be expected, she provides several nude-scenes (the main reason for my above average rating). Unfortunately, as this film seems to try to be a semi-serious "case-study" of this troubled young girl - the sex scenes are more sad than arousing. It's also a damn shame that Lindberg never did any hard-core scenes, as this would have easily gotten this film a 37-out-of-10 from me. Serious Lindberg fans will most definitely wanna cop this one, most others will probably find it pretty dull. At least it's FAR better than the extremely boring Swedish WILDCATS, which also has Lindberg in it - but she is grossly underused in that film. 7/10 for ANITA - but only because of the several Lindberg nude shots...

Anita is a nubile sixteen year old girl living in a bleak industrial town somewhere in the wilds of Sweden. She has a problem, in that her reputation in the town is at a low due to the fact that she insists on propositioning every man she meets - young or old, mostly ugly - and then giving them a blow job and sometimes more. The local girls call her a "slut", the local lads rough her up and her parents dismiss her in favour of her swat of a younger sister. Eventually Anita runs away to Stockholm (nobody misses her) and is lucky enough to hook up with a cute and well-mannered young man who not only falls in love with her but also understands that she's a textbook example of a nymphomaniac (him having access to the textbooks as he is a psychology student). The young man falls in love with Anita and eventually they get together, once Anita has been cured of her nymphomania by having an orgasm with a lesbian lover. Hold on, the plot goes a bit mad at the end there, doesn't it? Anita the film is as schizoid as its protagonist. It comes on like a particularly bleak version social realist cinema, all grimy interiors and ruined or soulless exteriors and does go some way to suggesting that Anita's sexual compulsiveness is an outcome of a particularly loveless family life (a la Ken Loach's film of the same name) in the context of a meaningless consumer society of shopping malls and urban development. Yet at the same time, the film voyeuristically finds excuse after excuse for getting the gorgeous actress (Christina Lindberg) who plays Anita naked at every opportunity. It is as if the film is itself suffering from the same compulsion as its heroine, and what's more it expects its audience to be suffering from the same malady.

In the final third, the film loses all pretence to realism, with the completely gratuitous soft-core lesbian footage and an equally unnecessary trip to a strip joint, where Anita supports a saucy dancer in her routine. Logic is thrown completely out of the window, as Anita's completely unbelievable "cure" leads to her settling down to a life of doe-eyed monogamous bliss with her psychiatric student now boyfriend, ending in a church where the organ player notices them canoodling and so strikes up one of those jaunty & jolly tunes that we expect to find at the close of one of the late 60s Carry On films.

Anita - Swedish Nymphet (as it is currently know in its UK DVD release) is certainly not a film which has anything much constructive to say on the subject of sexual compulsion (although its portrait of the malady in the first hour is convincing enough); instead, it's rather more intriguing as a symptom of the sexual compulsion of the society which made it and watched it: like the men accosted by Anita, the makers and viewers of the film may be made uncomfortable by her excesses but they aren't saying "no" to taking part in them themselves, compulsively.

When reading reviews from prolific IMDb reviewers,this title stuck out,partly thanks to the review by lazarillo,but also due to the easy on the eye poster at the time with Christina Lindberg. Making a note of the flick,I was happy to find it in a Swedish Erotica DVD collection,which led to me finding out how much of a nymphet Anita is.

View on the film:

Making remarkable progression from the plodding The Language of Love, (1969-also reviewed) co-composer/(with Lennart Fors)/production designer/ writer/director Torgny Wickman takes the naturalism displayed within the sex scenes of Language to the kitchen sink Drama of Anita, as Wickman & cinematographer Hans Dittmer cram the camera into cramped real locations, where the restrained tracking shots reflect Anita's inability to become freed from the tight grip of her obsession. Whilst Anita looks sexy, Wickman subtly clips the erotic with fading,dour colours and icy close-ups on Anita's face left feeling unfulfilled.

Having Anita sleep with anyone with a pulse, the screenplay by Wickman presents a thoughtful examination of nymphomania, via each "partner" Anita has drifting away anonymously, leaving Anita alone with her consuming obsession, which Anita goes increasingly to the outskirts of to get a hit for her craving, that ends up leaving any attempt family/friends make to build a bond ruined. In the midst of all the sex, Wickman is impressively able to find a young innocence in Anita's relationship with Erik,thanks to Erik being given an open, compassionate stance, which remains firm even when running into Anita being in the moment of trying satisfy her craving.

Revealing decades later he had fallen deeply in love with the actress on set,but kept it quiet due to "Her being out of my league",Stellan Skarsgard gives a outstanding turn as Erik, who Skarsgard avoid from looking like a push-over by gradually building his empathic mind-set to helping Anita, and also capturing in his open body language Erik falling in love. Looking incredibly alluring, Christina Lindberg gives a fantastic performance which balances a erotic sensuality with a psychological awareness of everything else in her life crumbling, and Anita grinding down to the risk of the only company she will have left in her nymphomania.