"Anatomie des Liebesaktes" is a sexually explicit film with a healthy attitude. I think we Americans are prudish deep down inside and so we react more strongly than Europeans to anything sexual. It taught me that a film can be truly erotic and not "dirty."
I happened to be an American student traveling in Stockholm in 1970 and went to see what I thought would be some "great Swedish porno." A lot of young people had this image of Sweden as the sex capital of the world and were just dying to see a real porno film. Oh well, what do you know about life when you're 20? This particular theater was showing eight films of a sexual nature. Six of these were only a few minutes long, all in very grainy film stock, showing various sex acts including one featuring two Lesbians.
There was one American film, maybe about an hour long, the story of a sexual pervert who uses prostitutes and drugs, and finally blackmails a single mother into sex by threatening her son's life. I can't remember the name of this masterpiece, but the only person who had even a hint of acting ability was the villain. And yes, he got his comeuppance in the end.
The year before I saw "I am Curious (Yellow) in California. That was the first "mainstream" movie in America to show real intercourse. We Americans reacted as you might expect. It was banned in my native Pittsburgh after a committee of civic and religious leaders previewed it three times and decided it had no socially redeeming value. And young people managed to get far enough out of town to see this Swedish import.
"Anatomie" was a whole different dimension. The few spoken parts were in German with English subtitles. It was by no means "pornographic' or prurient, featuring a young couple who goes to a sex therapist to improve their marriage. It was really very artistic and truly erotic. As part of "the sexual evolution," the message was that you can enjoy sex. The couple made love using various techniques to the music of Ravel's "Bolero." This was a decade before the movie "10."
Unfortunately this was long before I met my wife. I wish we could see "Anatomie" together.
