All About Anna
Cast: Eileen Daly, Gry Bay, Mark Stevens, Ovidie
Director: Jessica Nilsson

A friend once said that every woman needs three men: One for adventure and fun, one for stimulating conversation and one for good sex. Johan was all three.

Eventually I got tired of crying over Johan. I'd learned my lesson. I was going to master my emotions. I was NOT a victim of love. From now on it was going to be all about fun. From now on, I would be living life to the hilt.

All About Anna is a slice-of-life romantic comedy with explicit erotic scenes, directed by award-winning director Jessica Nilsson and stars Gry Bay as Anna, with Thomas Raft, Eileen Daly and Ovidie.

Called “Scandinavian erotica by women for women and couples," the film made its North American theatrical debut as part of "Cinematic Sexualities Of The 21st Century," a month-long survey of global erotica sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Doc Films.

"All About Anna" received awards for Best Scandinavian Couples Film, Best Scandinavian Actor (Thomas Raft), and Best Selling Scandinavian Star (Gry Bay) ­ and Jessica Nilsson was also nominated for Best Director ­ at the Scandinavian Adult Awards.

This 2-disc Collectors Edition includes two different versions of the film: the Producers’ Cut and the Director’s Cut; commentaries by actors Gry Bay, Mark Stevens, Eileen Daly, and Ovidie; unedited sex scenes; photo gallery; trailer and TV ad; screenplay; synopsis; biographies; and press materials.

THE STORY: Anna (Gry Bay) is a young costume designer, focused on her job and wary of getting caught in romantic relationships. She has just found a new apartment, and is tempted to let her latest boyfriend, Frank (Thomas Raft), move in with her. Instead, she finds a tenant: The flamboyant, fun-loving Camilla (Eileen Daly), who shares Anna’s views on love and commitment. For both of them, it’s all about fun. Strangers without strings. No commitment, no casualties. But Anna’s resolve is challenged after an unexpected encounter with an ex-boyfriend, Johan (Mark Stevens), who once upon a time was the man in her life. Johan is ready to start over, and Anna is tempted – but also afraid of losing her newly won independency and, not least, of getting hurt. More than ever, she needs to get back on the merry-go-round and move on. In order to forget all about Johan’s existence, she stages one obstacle after another. Fortunately, she receives an offer to design costumes for a theatre in Paris. As far away from romantic temptation as possible. Or so she thinks.

Anna’s problem is her determination to become an independent, untouchable person. She is too scared to rely on anybody else, even those with the best intentions. Unless she learns to accept that human relationships of importance sometimes do hurt, a woman like Anna risks becoming very lonely. And that is the real story of “All About Anna”.

Structurally, the film is divided into a prologue and four chapters. The four chapters can be watched as sensual bed-time stories, alone or with one’s partner of choice; each has an erotic highlight but climaxes in sexual frustration as Anna and Johan almost manage to get back together, and yet not. Unfulfilled desire is as much a part of life as those magic moments of total rapture. This film has both.

“All About Anna” is an attempt to create a new type of erotic film, based on real life rather than on the wish-fulfilling fantasies that characterize traditional sex movies. It portrays a type of woman with whom we all are familiar, fighting with problems most women know all too well.

The film is also an attempt to integrate explicit sex as part of the storytelling and character development. The film’s sex scenes never come out of nowhere but are part of defining the characters and their relationships, just as you’d expect from a song in a musical or a pas-de-deux in a Bournonville ballet. Without the sex scenes, the film’s drama would fall apart.

This was a particular challenge to the film’s cast, who had to cope with the traditional social and human traumas associated with having real sex in front of a camera. Fortunately the film’s actors and actresses managed to extent their dramatic performances way beyond the norm and truly managed to push the envelope, achieving new means of dramatic expression. The sex scenes were carefully planned and rehearsed prior to shooting, allowing the actors to stay in character through every embrace and caress.

Striving for optimal realism, “All About Anna” was shot on location in Copenhagen and Paris. The romantic prologue and flashbacks were shot at sea in a Greenlandic icebreaker, a bittersweet conversation was shot in front of the Eiffel Tower, and the story’s emotional climax features such landmarks as Copenhagen’s Royal Castle, usually off-limit to film crews. The scenes in Anna’s apartment were shot in the real apartment of actress Gry Bay. Here, the film’s first major sex scene was performed repeatedly by Gry Bay and Thomas Raft in front of a huge window, witnessed by astonished neighbours while traffic and everyday life passed by on the busy city street outside.

“All About Anna” marks a culmination of the gradual slide towards use of explicit images in art house cinema which was initiated by Lars von Trier’s Dogme-success “Idioterne” (aka: “The Idiots”). Renowned for his search for cinematic truth, realism and new means of expression, Lars von Trier is the founder and co-owner of Zentropa Productions. “All About Anna” is a co-production between Innocent Pictures and Zentropa Productions. --Innocent Pictures

All About Anna is available at Adult DVD Empire