Anita: Dances of Vice

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.

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. 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.

On face-value this is a film about the life of Anita Berber, as told through the thoughts and remembrance of an elderly lady (played by Lotti Huber) who is confined in a lunatic asylum and who thinks she is Anita Berber. The film is "split up" in two with all scenes of the "asylum part" shot clinicly and in black and white and the Anita Berber part shot very sensual and in beautiful colours.

This "split up" of the film is a very important aspect as I think thereby an another level is reached: Praunheim shows the life of Anita Berber, but also uses it to juxtapose the joy, passion and colorfulness of living in the 20's to the clinic and stale way of life in the 80's (as symbolized by the asylum). He shows that, though Lotti Huber may not be quite sane in the regular meaning of the word, she has a more sane attitude towards life than the people around her. But unlike Anita Berber, being in the 80's the Huber character (and much of Lotti Huber - she co-wrote - herself can be traced in this character) is no longer free to choose her own way of life, certainly as she is an elderly lady. The apotheosis is when she is told to take an example to Inge Meysel (the poor dear; a bit harsh, Mr von Praunheim!). Where Anita Berber by choice destroyed her own life using alcohol and cocaine, Lotti Huber is destroyed by the demand to behave like an elderly lady is expected to behave.

Does this sound too serious? Do not worry. The film is fast-paced, enormous fun and very funny, and a real treat as film. There is perfect cinematography by Elfi Mikesch and both Ina Blum and Lotti Huber are very good. As far as I can judge (from Berber biographies) the dances are well-performed and the details of Berber's bio are truthful. The Berber episodes are shot, directed and staged as the average expressionist film of the time, including magnificent expressionist inter titles. All in all: rewarding viewing.

This movie is a perfectly good waste of videotape. A better use would be to take that videotape and strangle the producer of this piece of junk.

I picked this movie up for .99 at a video store closeout and it was .99 too much! What is it about Germans that they have to produce such weird freaking films? I'm swearing off schnapps!

It's a biopic about some European siren whose claim to fame is that she dances nude, which causes a scandal for her art! The U.S. has biopics about strippers, "Blaze," being one. But "Blaze" had not only a more encompassing storyline, regarding Louisiana Governor Earl K. Long, but also Paul Newman in the role of Earl K.

I gave this movie 2 stars for several reasons: 1. When I voted, no one had yet given it two stars, but one person had given it one star. I follow no one's lead! 2. It's got some nudity. Where else can you get soft-porn video for .99? 3. I expect to hold onto it and sell it to some effete Eurotrash film snob on eBay for wads of cash. I can't believe it made it to video. It's got to be out of print.

Reclaiming the word vice as a glorious vision splendid , Anita (subtitled Dances of Vice) is a triumph of pleasure and madness over the restraints of society. The film traces the claims of a woman named Frau Kutowski - imprisoned in an institution - to be the lush, sexually scandalous, famous nude star of the early twentieth century Anita Berber. Its an eruption of a movie, flicking between the dour black and white present and the fantastic colour of the past (an interesting reversal of the flashback device). In a neat twist the past is populated with figures tending Kutowski in the present (the nurse is Anita in the past, the doctor is her gay suitor ). This is an inventive and liberated movie offering a dazzling array of colour, costumes and sets along with sexual displays and lewd nude dancing. When Sebastian does his nude dance its an eyeful indeed! This is a great film from the noted political animal and longtime activist Rosa Von Praunheim. There is also a documentary on Lottie Huber available - she plays Frau Kutowski - which is worth seeking out.