Gift

Myrkkyä / Venom.
    DK 1966. PC: Nordisk Film Kompagni. EX: Morten Schyberg, Bo Christensen. P: Henning Karmak, Knud Leif Thomsen.
    D+SC: Knud Leif Thomsen. DP: Claus Loof, Arne Abrahamsen. M: Niels Viggo Bentzon, ”My Situation” by Tommy Petersen, perf. The Matadors. S: Hans W. Sørensen. ED: Birger Lind.
    C: Sisse Reingaard (Susanne, daugher), Søren Strømberg (Per), Poul Reichhardt (Henrik Steen, father), Astrid Villaume (Hjørdis Steen, mother), Judy Gringer (Sonja, maid).
    99 min.
    A Jack Stevenson print, a Peppercorn-Wormser American release version (Venom) with English subtitles.
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Cinema and Sexuality), 19 March 2010.

Presented by Jack Stevenson. In the beginning we saw Hit House (Henning Kristiansen, DK 1965) with Danish, English-singing pop bands playing at Hit House, including "My Situtation", with Søren Strømberg as the lead singer. Jack showed also two samples of X-rated footage of the film from the dvd without the large white crosses (1: the montage starting with the stallion mounting the mare, 2: the female orgasm in an explicit intercourse scene).

An ok complete used vintage print but with large white crosses over the X-rated footage (nothing X-rated visible).

The story of the young intruder, Per, a film-maker, an advocate of the sexual revolution. He comes to the wealthy bourgeois seaside home where the daughter Susanne is about to graduate. His graduation gift: Fanny Hill, which the father throws into the fireplace. Per promulgates the "revolution of the flesh" and throws the family Bible into the fireplace. "I represent the future". The father deduces that "the only way to beat him is to agree with him" and invites Per to stay at their home. After Per has shown Susanne hard-core footage she asks "is it permissible to show that". His prophecy: "it will be". After Per has shown his wife his footage of him and Susanne having sex, the father throws Per bodily out of the house and in an anti-Buñuelian moment throws his film-making equipment out of the window.

An intriguing and significant film still relevant today. The actors are convincing. There are also interesting subplots: the frustration in the relationship of the parents who still love each other; the story of the clumsy maid Sonja whom they try to help.