This is not a movie for those who wait to be exhilarated! Pleasure of
Ninja thyberg, discovered at Cannes Critics’ Week in Cannes and then awarded at Deauville, certainly evokes the world of porn, but the life of a young woman whom the film describes is absolutely nothing sexy.
“The film evokes the porn industry on which I researched,” explains the filmmaker to 20 minutes. But pornography is also a metaphor for talking about the oppression suffered by women in a patriarchal society. “
The concept of consent
Embodied by discovery Sofia kappel who plays her first role on the screen here, the actress Bella Cherry whom we follow here will discover a universe not rosy at all, where the notion of consent is at the very least blurred. “We ask you for your opinion, but how can you resist when you have to undergo the pressure of a whole team which awaits your approval in order to be able to earn a living? Ninja Thyberg asks. Her heroine experiences this dilemma during a violent shoot where she receives beatings from her male partners during one of the harshest scenes of the film. “I had absolute confidence in Ninja Thybeg who looked after my well-being,” explains Sofia Kappel to 20 minutes. This sequence is important to show what porn actresses can have to go through. “
The performance of the actress has a lot to do with the empathy that the viewer feels towards her character, inhabited by a devouring ambition that pushes her to always go further “Not all porn actresses have such terrible experiences as Bella, says Ninja Thyberg, but all of them experience traumatic moments. “However, the filmmaker believes that things are developing in a positive way in the middle of the X.” There is still a long way to go, she said. It is high time that we also thought about making porn with a feminine gaze, films that could appeal to women. “
Important but violent
Sofia Kappel admits she wouldn’t have accepted the role of Bella Cherry if Pleasure was not made by a woman. “I believe in the benevolence of the feminine gaze,” she said. The film does not show explicit sex scenes, it is its violence that has earned it an under-16 ban. The brutality of certain sequences makes it intended for an informed public.