I Løvens tegn / Под знаком Льва (Werner Hedman, Happy Film) [1976 г., Adult | Comedy | Romance, DVD5] [rus]

Скриншоты

This one is a true curiosity.
The following text appeared in the Swedish magazine Se #26/1977. Se was one of several weekly gents’ magazines in Sweden at the time, offering a mix of naked girls, sports and motor reports, crime stories, dirty cartoons and more naked girls.
The film in this piece is not named, and no illustrations appear, but it’s clear that it’s I løvens tegn (In the Sign of Leo/The Lion) from the Danish zodiac series. The anonymous writer is Ann-Marie Berglund, who plays the part of Rosa in the film. Berglund, a Finnish-born Swede (not Danish as stated elsewhere in this forum), did a handful of porn films in the 70s, but soon had success as a writer, mainly of poetry and short stories. These days, she is respected and picks up literary awards from time to time. This will partly explain the style of the writing, which some might find a bit arty, a bit contemplative (and a bit long) - I can only wonder what the editors of Se said when they got it... But also quite funny.
I post it here “uncut”, as it is a rare and intimate report on what happened behind the scenes of a 70s pornographic film - a well-known and popular one at that. Here, you will find none of the usual raunchy porn jargon. Instead, it’s pretty honest, pretty unique for this genre and offers some interesting info on some of the co-stars of the film.
I have put some additional info in brackets as to who is mentioned, plus some illustrations at the end of the text (some courtesy of egafd). Because of the length, I have divided the text in two posts.
So, the year is 1976…
I acted in a porno movie
We prepare to display ourselves to the producer [Anders Sandberg] and the director [Werner Hedmann]. I [Ann-Marie Berglund] have flown all the way from Stockholm to Copenhagen to show them a body that I actually don’t have - no wonder I’m nervous. It doesn’t really help that I put on lots of make-up, I don’t have the beauty it takes and I dread hearing them saying the inevitable ”We can’t use her!”
I pretend to smile when they pick me up at the airport. I pretend to be a little girl who’s hungry for money, sexually numb, a little stupid, things like that.
We’re a bunch, all waiting to get scrutinized. First, we are to be made up properly by the make-up assistant, then undressed, then dressed up in sexy outfits, then displayed in front of whisky-drinking gentlemen. We are supposed to be turn-of-the-century ladies, but we really look like little girls who are up in the attic, trying on some of grandmother’s old stuff. “You have a strange body”, says the dresser. I try to laugh and tell him that my breasts look like those on Red Indian women and that they really don’t work well in corsets. “Well, if we’d only known”, he mutters…
In we go, into a large room, in front of three gentlemen, cheerful, perhaps kind to their children, perhaps handy in the kitchen, what do I know. I’m no success. “Well… she’ll do”, they mutter. And I feel like turning my bottom towards them like a monkey and just stroll out of the room. All the other girls are prettier than me, that is, more shaped according to the expectations of the men. They have ample bosoms, long, slim legs, slender waistlines, long hair and almond eyes. My stocky legs don’t really fit into the picture, but maybe they need a kitchen maid or something… Anyway, it is decided that I am to be in the movie.
After the audition, I lunch with one of the beauties. We are at the airport, she’s going to Hamburg, I’m going back to Stockholm. She tells me she’s Puerto Rican and performs in a Hamburg club. She shows pictures of herself, dressed only in feathers and plumes. A star, in other words. As she is very daringly dressed, all the businessmen stare. It's like we're already in some kind of movie. She remains etched into my memory, this rare bird of the night, and when I'm later informed that She really is a He, I am very amused. Unfortunately, I never get to see “her” again. “She” was given a very small part, as “her” hermaphrodite features posed some serious problems [This is the second "woman" together with Louise Frevert in the “Apache” dance scene.]
First day of shooting. I haven’t been able to sleep very well. I’ve had half a bottle of whisky in the hotel room, though, and in the morning I report for work a bit puffy-faced, a little like Simone Signoret.
I look myself in the mirror a thousand times maybe, front, back, between the legs, I put on deodorant everywhere, I apply lotion like mad. I’m pretty beside myself. This all really seems like a stupid joke I’ve gotten myself into. What am I doing here?!
We are driven to the set. Cows peacefully stand in the fields, honest workers are going to their jobs and I long for an ordinary life. The set is cold, the actors are the only ones who’ve arrived, plus a make-up artist and a dresser. No one really pays any attention to me. I am aware of the fact that I got this job because I have a female sex organ between my legs and because I am prepared to display it. And I know well what I have gotten myself into. I have already done some posing in “gents’ magazines”, have already been “exploited” by the camera lens…
At the same time all this is unreal. I watch my face being made-up and unrecognizable in the mirror. But my eyes glow, like two stubborn pieces of evidence of the fact that there’s something else beside the sex, a person, a will, a passion… I look down and try to continue to pretend to be just breasts, thighs, ankles and a well-shaped behind.
I still know nothing about who my partners are, or what we are supposed to be doing. The synopsis did not bring up any specific details, especially not regarding any of the sex scenes. I knew I didn’t really know what I got myself into. Or: I was up for “anything”. And that’s why I'm doing it...
The scene contains a room full of mirrors with a big bed in the middle in which three persons, a man and two women, are to make love. I’m one of the women. We crawl into bed like obedient school children, the guy looks nice and kind, no more and no less, the woman who is a little girl [Anne Magle], looks like a doll. “Start caressing each other”, the director shouts. There are about ten people in the room, camera operators, lightning assistants, the make-up assistant, the producer, and some others.
Here, in bed, with all these strangers around me, I reach the high of my ill ease. I break into a sweat, little red spots break out on my body, my mouth gets dry, my sex gets dry. Strong lights do their best to drive me insane. They are persistent, they glow until the skin burns and you feel like an insect under a magnifying glass. Hands feel me, they tickle, they hurt, I usually enjoy being felt and to touched, I suddenly don’t know what do to or where to do it. During all this, I never ever forget to pant and moan. The girl is more used to it than I am and performs the whole pleasure-scale of the classic erotic cinema. I imitate her as well as I can. Sometime I even get a real, private erotic memory in there, but then I feel even more ashamed and I quickly go back and hide behind a classic “face”. “Lick her!” demands the director. I do as I’m told and she tastes like perfumed soap, her sex is like a little girl’s, light pink and slightly withdrawn, like a flower. Despite this un-romantic situation, I am overcome by tenderness and can't help smiling at her pussy. The room is quiet.
The guy works like mad to keep his member erect, for it has a tendency to go down. Such is his fixation that he hardly notices us. When any of us suck him, I get the feeling that he thinks we’re a sucking machine. He radiates certain vulnerability and his eyes gleam from desperation from time to time. “Damm it”, he mumbles. “What if this doesn’t work out.” We girls do our best; we can’t just remain aloof and indifferent when it really comes to cooperation. We really need to get into the game with all possible feeling. Otherwise, his sensitive member might never rise at all.
I’m ashamed, I don’t want to relax, I don’t want to give myself in front of all these demanding eyes, but I also really would like the whole spectacle to end one of these days… So, finally, it stands. Back and forth it flutters in front of our mouths. We silently draw a breath of relief and think that now it’s just to continue doing what comes naturally. I’m the first receiver. It sniffs at the entrance, probes a bit, and then it shrinks into nothingness. The whole lick n’ suck procedure starts again. Then it’s her try. Same result. The director is beside himself but tries not to show it, as the situation would only get worse. “Just take your time and try again”, he says between clenched teeth. Whispers and small talk is heard in the room again, we lie there, sweaty, struggling, and of all things we are not sexually aroused. We even see all our strained efforts in all these mirrors; they are even in the ceiling. The horror! The guy excuses himself and says that he doesn’t know what has gotten into him, he who always can get it up… She tries again, softer… it rises again; seemingly it does not fear lips as it fears vaginas.
The director sneaks around close to us, just in case, ‘cause you never know when it decides to rise… Time passes, a lot remains to be shot, if we’re going to stick to the schedule. Finally, we’re ready for a new try. Team members who aren’t indispensable are sent out. Nothing must affect our “concentration”. Poor guy, he’s getting redder and sweatier and doubting his abilities more and more by the minute. The whole thing ends with us having to fake it all by sucking and caressing the whole scene. Then we just lie down and on with the fake faces of fake sexual ecstasy. [The guy is possibly Rutger of Rutger & Ramona, a popular live show couple at the time. Ramona isn’t in “Leo”, but the two can be seen in "I tvillingernes tegn"/"The Sign of Gemini", as the chauffeur and the chambermaid.]
End of part 1. Next: cocks sticking out of holes, outdoor sex with an acrobat who can suck himself and some thoughts on the sexual revolution.
I løvens tegn/In the sign of Leo - a unique look behind the scenes, part 2.
Part 2 of a look behind the scenes of I løvens tegn as reported by Ann-Marie Berglund.
New scene. Me in black stockings and black garter belt in a chair, caressing myself. Just like “Emmanuelle”. But it’s not Emmanuelle in her beautiful wicker chair, it’s me, in some armchair in Denmark.
“This OK?”
“No. Pull up your legs even more. No. Even more…”
Until I can’t pull them up any more, after which the gentlemen get a bit cross. “For Christ sakes, you don’t see nothing, you got to see something, that’s the whole point, we’re doing a close-up here, come on. Try a little more…”
I don’t know why I’m here, showing a boring body, I don’t know why these men want to look at it, why they want to pay to own the image of it, if it now happens to be that boring. It’s great secret to me.
I’m sitting in my chair, spread-eagled, looking like a wounded flower. And I’m supposed to look like I enjoy it. The director says nothing. The camera hums. “That’s enough!” the director says.
Straight to the next scene. Change of costume, new make-up. My fear is gone, and replaced by a sense of wonder. Everything is done so correct, so business-like. Still, it’s all a game, some magic game. Why be ashamed? Why be scared?
The next scene has three cocks sticking out of holes in a wall and three ladies bottoms receiving them. It’s one of the most fun scenes to do in the whole film. The cocks peek out of the holes like hesitant little snouts. Just when one has gathered enough courage, another shrinks and disappears. They just have such different temperaments, haven’t they? On our side of the wall, we wait, rather gleefully. On the other side, the guys eagerly struggle in order to get some life into their unreliable members. What they don’t know is that they can be seen by us, thanks to the mirror in the ceiling. I see, for the first time, how men do it when they aren’t observed (or think that they aren’t). Some of them help each other. Oh, the tenderness, the carefulness! One really gets the impression that it’s a tenderness more holy than the one given to a woman.
Finally all of them peek out of the holes. Then it’s up to our holes to adapt to them. Not that easy, as the holes in the wall are a bit too high up for us. There is a certain sadistic feeling of content with which I notice that his member gets both torn and blistered by my hands, before we get into the right position.
[The three girls are Gina Janssen, Anne Magle and Ann-Marie Berglund. The men are Bent Warburg, Peter Loury and Knud Jörgensen. Loury is probably the one who is coupled with Berglund. Warburg might have a stunt penis, possibly Acrobat Guy. See below.]
Several of the male models as well as some male members of the team are gay.
One of the male models is good and tender, just like a little god. He likes men as well as women and he can suck himself, he’s an acrobat. It’s with him that I have the next scene. It’s a couple of days later now, and we’re outdoors. It’s early spring and the ground is still a tad frozen. The sun is shining, but it’s nippy, and my skin can feel it. We are four models [Berglund, Magle, Jörgensen and Acrobat Guy] and we’re supposed to tumble around with each other. Sheep are grazing about and a large ram would very much like us to leave. He’s the worst thing about this shoot, the ram, and he looks quite threatening. We have two camera operators with us, and that’s it. Much nicer than the studio.
When we get down and at it, I forget the camera. I’m a teenager again and all the smells are just like then; grass, moist earth. And a little chill. I remember it well; you’d freeze, it was late, you’d be in the arms of someone, you’d do anything not to shiver, not to chatter with your teeth, just so you could be touched by awkward boy hands at places on your body where no one had been before. The ensuing triumph, when that place was no longer untouched. Someone touched me there, someone really touched me there, such euphoria, for several days ahead. And what for? For what you’d think would be the start of an ecstatic life when it was really the start of a life in prison of sorts.
Well, right now it’s the acrobat man with the kind eyes who is on top of me and above us the blue skies. It’s a reminder of the decidedly good sides of a porno shoot, because they really exist. [This scene is only seen is a short glimpse in the Danish version. It does appear in the French cut, though, available on DVD through Blue One as "Les belles femmes du temps jadis". The acrobat – a baby-faced, jumpy guy who licks his mouth a lot - also turns up in several CeeCee loops, like “Big Orgy”, “Sex Show Orgy” and “Sex Club Service”, and also in “I tyrens tegn”/"The Sign of Taurus". In the last three, he demonstrates his autofellatio talents. This guy is weird and legendary. I know nothing about him.]
We lie on the grass and chat a little after the shoot, the acrobat and I. “I do this because it can be so heavenly sometimes”, he says. “My day job is being a ticket seller at the Tivoli fair ground. I don’t think you should be cool and detached just because it’s film. Why can’t we be more tender, more sensuous with each other, us porn models? It would make our “job” much more pleasant.”
Of course he’s right. But porn models are not usually liberated spokespersons for free sex. They are prudish and petty bourgeois, greedy for money. And they suffer because of what they have chosen to do, from this “demeaning” work. How can anyone who doesn’t appreciate his or her own body really afford to be tender or sensuous? Most people I’ve worked with do everything to maintain their dignity even in the most daring of scenes. They work so hard; they get so tense, to the point of not even noticing their onscreen partner. And they are full of shame and disgust, to the point that it gets contagious towards the others.
Everything that liberates our erotic imagination, and with it our creative force, is revolutionary. But such a revolution is nothing that anyone wants, not even the left wing.
There are no boundaries broken by participating in a pornographic film, not within oneself, not out there in society. But there’s still a bit of fun to be had. Especially as there's always someone out there, willing to get really offended by it.
[soon after this, Berglund did make her own version of “tender porn”, in “Veckända i Stockholm” (1976), a film she also directed, and which co-stars Knud Jörgensen. Berglund also provides the narration, and possibly wrote the script, for “L'Éducation d'Orphelie” (1981), a French-Swedish co-production]
Attached: Anne Magle (from hole in the wall-scene), Acrobat Guy (from "Sex Club Service"). Any additional info on him would be greatly appreciated.

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