Princess is a danish mixed-media movie directed by Anders Morgenthaler. Most of the movie is animated with some live action scenes.
The movies starts with August, a priest visiting his sister and seeing her in action making a pornographic movie, while heavily pregnant. Jump forward five years and the sister, Christina, has died and August takes his five year old niece, Mia into his custody. As the movie unfolds, we get a glimpse of August and Christina when they were teenagers and how they gradually moved apart. Christina found fame as a porn star nicknamed Princess working for her former lover Charlie.
As August tries to begin his life with Mia, Christina's past keeps coming back to haunt him in many different form. He requests the porn company to recall pornographic materials involving Christina and is turned down. He also finds out that Mia had been physically and sexually abused. He then sets out to destroy all pornographic materials featuring Princess and to avenge her downfall.
The movie is NOT meant for kids, not even for teenagers. It is a complex, disturbing and emotionally draining movie. The mixed media, especially the underdeveloped anime media is jarring in the beginning, but as the movie progresses and gets more and more violent, it blends in with the theme very well.
Two emotions run amuck through the entirety of this movie, innocence and guilt. August and Christina. Christina and Mia. Mia and Multe. August, Mia and Multe. The use of anime probably heightens the impact of innocence while the narrative edges the viewer to a realization of the guilt.
Why, o why, do we not have more directors who treat their audience with respect as this director does?
If and when you watch this movie, be prepared to be left feeling breathless and hollow in the stomach.
