Synopsis
Pleasure is a 2021 drama film from Sweden that tells the story of the adult film industry through the eyes of a determined young woman. Directed by Ninja Thyberg, the film is her debut feature. It won both the Best Scripted Feature award as well as the Audience Award for Best Film at the Nordic Film Festival. Blending a documentary-like realism with scripted drama, Thyberg’s feature penetrates the psychological and physical toll of ambition, and the gendered power dynamics of the industry.
The film follows a young woman named Linnea, a 19-year-old from a small Swedish town. She believes her sole purpose is to become a pornstar. Once she arrives in LA, she adopts the stage name Bella Cherry and enters the industry. She is determined to make as much adult film money as possible and is bright-eyed and “conf_ident_” about the fame that comes with the industry. Thyberg allows the audience a glimpse of the cold, and competitive world that is laid in-front of Linnea.
Bella absorbs the unwritten rules of the business almost instinctively. To start, she films Introductory Scenes for her portfolio. Currently, she stays in a model house with a group of women who are aspiring actresses as well. Their bond resembles a sisterhood, but beneath the surface lurk rivalry and self-doubt. Bella nurtures friendships with some of the older girls in the house, namely Joy, who is more caring and protective, helping deepen the emotional aspects of Bella’s experiences.
In an effort to stand out in the crowded marketplace, Bella takes to performing more intense, rough, and demeaning scenes that are more physically and emotionally taxing than anything she’s done before. Her ambition tempts her to shoot scenes that involve fight aggression, for her to be more in control while working with the directors and put her in places that are uncomfortable, unsafe, or both.
One important instance that stands out to me is Bella’s participation in one of the more intense scenes, a mixture of emotionally traumatizing and a supposed to be consensual. One of the more important elements of the scenes was that some parts of the scenes are emotionally traumatizing and while on the outside seem to bubble under pressure. Within the scenes, she suggests elements of her traumatizing experiences. What’s important to note is that she does not seek any form of support. What’s important once again is that she does not try to rework her narrative. What’s important to note is that she does not seek any form of support.
Bella ultimately captures the attention of top-tier agents and starts landing more important roles. But her rise comes at a price. She loses friends, shifts her morals, and emotionally shuts down to navigate an industry that treats actors as mere objects to be used. By the film’s end, Bella has unlocked a new level of success, but has undergone a transformation—hardened and alone, she grapples with the uncertainty of whether the sacrifices she made were worth it.
Cast and Characters
Sofia Kappel as Bella Cherry / Linnéa: As her debut performance, Kappel captures the spirit of a woman with unyielding ambition and jaded vulnerability. Her blend of strength and cold ambition makes her both sympathetic and disturbing.
Revika Anne Reustle as Joy: Bella’s roommate and her first ‘mentor’ into the industry. While she serves as a source of emotional support, she embodies the fragility of friendships amidst rivalry.
Turning to actual personalities from the adult film industry, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond, and Mark Spiegler, among others, have cameos as fictionalized versions of themselves. By employing these actors, the film loses the boundary of fiction and reality.
Several members of the film’s cast came from the world of adult cinema, which contributed to the film’s convincing and immersive atmosphere.
Crew and Production
This section outlines Pleasure’s crew and production team. Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure was originally a short film from 2013. She sought to study the intertwining of pornography with a person’s ambition, gender dynamics, and the associated hierarchy, sans sensationalism.
Producers: The film was produced by Plattform Produktion, the Swedish company also known for producing Ruben Östlund’s films Force Majeure and The Square. A24 acquired the US distribution rights, although some content changes were made for broader release.
With the use of handheld cameras and natural lighting, Sophie Winqvist the cinematographer emphasized the realism and authenticity of the film’s surrounding environment, achieving a realist style.
Pulling from the sterile and toxic Los Angeles nightlife and social media world, the sound design, coupled with Bella’s experiences, builds discomfort and emotional distance through the use of silence, background noise, and mechanical sounds. The editing and sound design reflects the spiraling chaos of Bella’s life and evokes a distinct emotional detachment.
Analyzing the Themes
- The Price of Ambition
Bella’s story intertwines with her relentless ambition. While she isn’t a victim in the traditional sense — she takes an active role in pursuing her goals — she tries to accomplish goals in a system that demands compromise both emotionally and physically. Her story attempts to answer how far one can go in pursuing success and what personal sacrifices are acceptable.
- Consent and Authority
The film delves deeply into the idea of consent. The emotional and psychological ramifications are far more complicated in this context. Consent, in this pleasure does not wholly condemn the industry, but critiques the fuzzy boundaries between consent and coercion and performance.
- Feminism and Exploitation
Pleasure focuses on a sexually empowered female protagonist, but does not reduce her story to one of victimhood or one of liberation. The film instead treats the adult film industry as a miniature version of the world where women are forced to grapple with systems created by men where their freedom to act is often constrained by unseen forces.
- Identity and Performance
To enter the porn industry, Bella adopts a new name and persona, but over time, the line separating reality and performance begins to fade. Bella’s emotional reality becomes more difficult to access, and she risks losing her sense of self beyond the performance frame. The film probes the dehumanizing effects of performative identity in porn and in celebrity culture.
Tone and Style
Pleasure depicts a world of stark, at times brutal, reality. Although graphic material features in the film, the camera remains a distant observer rather than a peeping voyeur. This distance is evident in the sex scenes that emphasize the stark, procedural professionalism, repetition, and lack of glamour that defines sex and porn work.
Somewhere in this detached observation, a more intense emotional register develops, and the audience is led to believe Bella’s life is more of a ‘descent into ambiguity’. Amorphous in nature. Audiences are compelled to think about “who is ‘successful’ in a world of bodies and images commodified under the gaze of power?”
In Bella’s friendships, the audience glimpses warmth and humor, but these are fleeting. The film’s last scenes haunt the audience with a sense of unresolved discomfort, starkly capturing the emotional cost of surviving in a world that is cold and brutal.
Critical Reception
Pleasure received acclaim for fearlessly advancing the lines of the adult film industry. Critics praised Ninja Thyberg for her more nuanced and multi-dimensional portrayal of sex work and female agency, resolving not to sensationalize or moralize the industry.
Sofia Kappel received acclaim for her layered and bold performance, particularly because it was her first acting role. She transforms and haunts Bella, carrying the film with strength and vulnerability.
The film, however, received controversy for its sex scenes. Although the sex scenes serve the film’s story, their intense realism might have transcended the limits of what is acceptable to view in a non-pornographic film. A majority, however, defended the film’s choices for the purpose of honesty while telling the story.
It was showcased at a number of international festivals and received multiple nominations for its direction, screenplay, and lead performance.
Conclusion
Pleasure is a film that challenges the viewers with an emotionally stirring narrative that confronts the topic with stark honesty. It is neither a critique of the porn industry masquerading as a thoughtful documentary, nor a glamorized tale of stardom. It examines the tension between agency and exploitation, power and vulnerability, ambition and identity.
Thanks to a gripping and unapologetic performance from Sofia Kappel and precise direction from Ninja Thyberg, the movie compels audiences to interrogate issues of sexuality, commodification, and the price of performance in today’s world. It is not easy, but Pleasure is an important and contemporary feminist film. Its raw and fearless exploration of the commodification and performance of modern sexuality makes it one of the most talked-about pieces of feminist cinema in a long time.
Watch Free Movies on Onionplay