Today's director for our Female Filmmakers series we are going across the pond to check out a European filmmaker who has worked with a lot of major stars in Denmark, England, and America. Even if she hasn't directed the most naked nude scenes in cinema, she has worked with a lot of stars who have skintastic nude scenes so I wanted to use this as an excuse to showcase naked actresses that I don't usually get the chance to highlight. Let's see Lone Scherfig's body of work and the bodies that she has worked with.
The quiet director from Copenhagen graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 1984. Several years later she released her first feature film called The Birthday Trip in 1990. It went around the world in film festivals. She followed it up with a TV movie that starred Danish starlet Lisbet Lundquist who had great nudity in 1970's Quiet Days in Clichy. Lisbet did not go nude for Lone, but this is a great time to give her previous nude scenes a shout-out!
In 1998, she released her second feature film called On Our Own. She really upped the ant with her work in 2000 with Italian for Beginners which earned her international acclaim and interest. Her first England-language feature came soon after with 2002's Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself which lead to one of her most successful films next. She proved that she could direct an English-language film, so her next English-language film really popped off.
She directed Carey Mulligan in An Education which earned Carey an Academy Award nomination and, to this day, the first of Lone's films to get such a distinction. An Education won the Audience Award at Sundance and was nominated for eight BAFTAS. This nomination leads to her directing three British films: One Day,The Riot Club, and Their Finest. The best part about her English language and British projects? They included skin! Finally!
She even cast Anne Hathaway in 2011's One Day. That was not the day that Anne went nude - although she appears nude when she strips naked and skinnydips, the camera is too far and blurry to really make anything out - but her costar Heida Reed did stand up naked from bed to showcase her marvelously British bum. Cheers to that!
She has directed a lot of TV shows such as The Astronaut Wives Club which was a hit on ABC in 2015. No one went nude on that series because of basic cable etiquette, but these swingin' 60s babes did look out-of-sight in their bikinis. She also directed Quiet Waters and Better Times which starred Anne Louise Hassing. Again, Anne did not go nude in Better Times, but this is a great time to showcase her previous nude scene in Goltzius and the Pelican Company. Her full frontal scene really was an indication of Better Times.
Now back to Lone. She has most recently spent her time directing the series Dag and Nat, so we aren't sure what she will decide to dig her hands into next. I hope her next work includes some real nudity, but if it doesn't then I will just continue to use showcasing Lone Scherfig as an opportunity to show off Danish actresses with no clothes on.
