AllMovie

The German Anita, Dances of Vice (Anita-Tanze des Lasters) is the deliberately nonlinear story of notorious nude dancer Anita Berber. In the 1920s, Berber was thrown into a mental hospital after exposing herself on the streets of Berlin; she died of tuberculosis at age 29, immediately assuming martyr status in the eyes of many. Instead of adhering to this narrative, however, director Rose von Praunheim concentrates upon 75-year-old Mrs. Kutowski (Lotti Huber), a fat, foul-mouthed mental case who thinks she's Anita Berber (the "real" Berber is played in flashback by Ina Blum) To describe the excesses of bad taste that attend this premise would be robbing the viewer of revelling (or, rather, wallowing) in those excesses. Strange as it may seem, some of the imagery in Anita, Dances of Vice are heartbreakingly beautiful -- but not, please be advised, in the mental-institution sequences.