Sex and the Law is a Danish “White Coater” (a sex flick that purports to be a documentary on sex starring “real” doctors dispensing healthy sex advice, but it’s really just an excuse to show a bunch of nudity) on the permissive attitudes regarding sex in modern-day Denmark. A woman (who sports a badly dubbed Danish accent) tells us she got busted for appearing in porn and then lists reasons why pornography is actually helpful. We also see scenes of men buying dirty magazines in adult bookstores (one even uses a book to seduce his girlfriend), man on the street interviews where a reporter asks passersby their views on sex and pornography, and a comic segment on Peeping Toms.
The most interesting aspect is the discussion on the fine line between art and porn. Even for a rather straightforward exploitation flick, they manage to make a couple of valid points. A sculptor who uses nude models is more or less left alone while a porno director lives in constant fear of being busted by the authorities. There is also a frank talk about the hypocrisy of S & M smut being against the law while violence in mainstream cinema goes unchecked.
Most of Sex and the Law is in black and white, but it does switch to color (although the palette is still somewhat muted) for a few instances. The most notable is when a man and woman model various sexual positions for the camera. There’s also a handful of color fantasy vignettes near the end. Other sex scenes end abruptly or are done for comic effect or are just plain unsexy on purpose, which can be a tad frustrating. (The shooting of a porno is scored like a horror movie.) If you can’t already guess, all this is uneven as hell, but when it works, it manages to be kinda amusing.
Director Gabriel Axel later went on to direct Babette’s Feast, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film!
AKA: Danish Blue. AKA: The Dear Toy.
