Edith Carlmar is recognized as Norway's first woman director. Her directorial debut, Death is a caress (1949), sees her challenging both gender and class norms and is maybe best described through the circumstances surrounding the work itself. It is a controversial film that was banned upon release in Kristiansand, and Carlmar herself received death threats during the Norwegian premiere in Oslo.

In the film, an upper class woman and a lower class man fall in love, and Carlmar expertly describes societal expectations of both femininity and masculinity, and what happens when these are confronted.