Above, Katja Kean in Pink Prison, shot on the same prison set as Dancer in the Dark.
 
Although this is hardly a secret In Europe, few American fans of Oscar-nominated Danish director Lars von Trier are aware of the fact that the controversial Dogme auteur responsible for films like Antichrist, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville, also produces porno films.

“High Art” porn, to be sure, von Trier’s company Zentropa has owned two subsidiary companies, first Puzzy Power, then Innocent Pictures, aimed at the elusive female/couples sex film market. The goal is/was to produce porn with mainstream cinema production values and their movies have few anatomical close-ups of female genitalia. A Puzzy Power manifesto laid out the original company’s aims and can be read here.

Nevertheless, they are hardcore fuck flicks, with two of them, Constance (1998) and Pink Prison (1999) starring Danish porn actress Katja Kean, who’s best described as Denmark’s Jenna Jameson (Kean, also called Katja K, is a crossover to the world of TV comedy and the lingerie business).

Lars von Trier himself is said to have little to do with the films, himself, except for signing off on them, and in a free-thinking country like Denmark, of course, pornography has never had the shame associated with it as in other countries. A 2005 film called All About Anna, starring mainstream Danish actress and singer, Gry Bay, and the third sex film produced by Zentropa, was their biggest success.

Innocent Pictures has also produced a hardcore gay feature, HotMen CoolBoyz, which starred bloody LA-based performance artist Ron Athey. It is the only hardcore gay porn film ever produced by a mainstream studio.