Anita

Anita: Swedish Nymphet (1973)

** (out of 4)

Cult star Christina Lindberg of Thriller: A Cruel Picture fame stars as Anita, a 16-year-old girl who has to have sex and it doesn't matter with who. She picks up lawyers, junkies, little boys, drunks or even the homeless. Her sexual behavior gets her kicked out of towns but one day she meets a doctor who thinks he can help her. This Swedish picture is rather strange because it's certainly a sexploitation title and the main goal is for the beautiful Lindberg to get naked every chance she gets but the overall tone of the movie is so serious that it's hard to have fun with the film. The story is pretty straight forward, which means it gets pretty boring as it rarely goes over the top outside of a 16-year-old wanting any guy she can get. As for Lindberg, this is only the second film I've seen with her but she certainly deserves her cult status. She's certainly easy on the eyes but unlike a lot of erotic stars, she can also act and she brings a lot life to her character.

Christina Lindberg was already selling herself in nude pinups and movies several years before this movie. This movie is yet just another "social issue" excuse for selling Christina Lindberg and soft-core porn.

The movie pretends to explore the true life of a teenage sex-addict but in reality it's just an excuse for the nude and sexual content matter of the movie. There are of course the pompous analyses by her psychologist but they're simply a vehicle to deepen the chaotic and kinky erotic state of the character, played by Christina Lindberg.

Overall, the movie lacks depth, the acting is poor and 70's-cliche' in its settings and seems to have no real purpose other than to sensationalize popular Christina Lindberg in yet one more sexually exploitative movie.

This is a good solid well made film and not at all like I expected. Indeed although there is much sexual activity depicted, we see nothing like as much of Christina Lindberg as we do in say, Exposed. Because the film is serious we do not get an exploitative showing of the leading lady's numerous liaisons and due to the constant reminding that these are desperate encounters of an unhappy young girl, we find ourselves in a rather uncomfortable position for most of the time. There are moments, nevertheless! For those that reckon Lindberg cannot act, she certainly does well enough here in many a varied situation, be it talking with her psychiatrist chum, trying to relate to her parents, or sucking some old man's d***. Stellan Skarsgard, who plays the said psychiatrist, and very convincingly too, he had a most illustrious career ahead of him and is still very much working today, having appeared and even sung in Mamma Mia! Worth seeing but it is rather downbeat a lot of the time.

The seventeen year-old outcast Anita (Christina Lindberg) has neither a good relationship with her parents and sister nor has friends. She is a nymphomaniac and has intercourse and BJ with most of the men in her little town regardless of their ages.

When she meets the psychology student Erik (Stellan Skarsgård), he brings her to live with his friends that are artists and she discloses her sexual experiences to him. Further, Erik discuss her problem with his adviser, he also realizes that he has fallen in love with her. But Anita needs an orgasm to cure first before staying with Erik.

"Anita" (1973) is a Sweden-French movie of exploitation about a seventeen year-old nymphomaniac forty years before the hype in the Lars von Trier's "Nymphomaniac". The story lines are the same, but the Danish director has detailed the plot along four hours running time. Stellan Skarsgård works in both movies listening to the nymphomaniac. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

The English title of this film is Anita (Swedish Nymphet). At the time of release of this film, in the United States, this was regarded as a duplicate title; by our standards at that time all Swedish girls were considered nymphomaniacs! That was NOT right for us to do so; I am the first to admit that. Rather it reflects the morality, or perceived morality, of that era. In some locations of the US a nymphomaniac was a woman who had sex twice a night with her husband; except perhaps for her honeymoon when such "immoral" behavior was tolerated. The Swedish women were much more advanced in human sexuality; it was the United States that had to catch up in this field. This movie is interesting in that it does portray a true Swedish nymphomaniac in a realistic fashion.

The movie explains in some detail that nymphomania is actually a comparatively rare condition; the psychology student mentions that nymphomania is improperly used to describe the activities of a woman who is simply enjoying a healthy sex life (when I was growing up the healthy sex life of a woman was considered to be having sex only when her husband was extremely desperate). Rather, nymphomania is a reflection of a very deep seated mental disorder. The question is whether or not Anita can be cured. Not deprived of all sexual desire but having the sexual desire that is properly balanced with L-O-V-E! The uncut movie was banned in the United Sates for some time. Though you could show breasts and butts by 1974 one found it quite difficult to legally show a woman's pubic area-this being about the same time that Larry Flynt was going to prison for doing just that. The uncut version of this film shows a little more of that area than what was allowed in the U.S. then. Christina Lindberg did a remarkable acting job in the private nude and sexual scenes. Today this film would be regarded as more or less normal fare; back then it was considered pornographic to a tremendous degree. Hence my high regards for her.