2014 Directed by Peter Strickland
Day in and day out, lovers Cynthia and Evelyn enact an elaborate sadomasochistic fantasy as mistress and maid. But as their ritual of domination and submission begins to turn stale, Cynthia yearns for something more conventional, while Evelyn tries to push their taboos even further.
Caresses sensuelles, Pestrobarvec petrklíčový, Ο Δούκας της Βουργουνδίας, הדוכסית מבורגונדי, Burgundia hercege, 더 듀크 오브 버건디, Duke of Burgundy. Reguły pożądania, O Duque de Burgundy, Герцог Бургундии, Motýle, Burgundski vojvoda, Burgonya Dükü, Герцог Бургундський, 勃艮第公爵, 慾情勃根第
Moving relationship stories Humanity and the world around us Relationship comedy Intense violence and sexual transgression Gothic and eerie haunting horror Erotic relationships and desire Emotional LGBTQ relationships Captivating relationships and charming romance Dreamlike, quirky, and surreal storytelling Show All…
Canada
Toronto International Film Festival
USA
UK18
Canada
South Korea18
Denmark
France
Sweden
Spain12
Canada
Denmark
France
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
UK
USA
Great moments in gay panic: My (male) Drafthouse server asks me if I need "anything else?" at the same time that Cynthia asks Evelyn that exact same question. We both chuckle at the coincidence, but I sense a quickening in the air, and I remember that I didn't even watch the Super Bowl this year.
This movie is unbelievable. It unfolds like you're staring at an image of a mirror within a mirror; as you approach the center, what you next see is the same as what you last saw, only slightly altered, slightly disturbed - until eventually the image is completely obscured and you're no longer sure of what you're seeing at all.
It's all in the execution. The story itself is rather simple, but Strickland has positioned a very real and very vivid world of an intimate relationship within an utterly surreal, male-absent landscape of moths, bubbles, butterflies and a sea of reflections. The autumn flavored B-roll is simply gorgeous, I wouldn't change a single thing about the score, and it's even quite…
"It would be nice if you did it without having to be asked."
In retrospect, it should have be obvious that it would take the specificity of sadomasochism to reach such universal truths about love, romance, and sexuality. Part of the brilliance of the S&M premise is that it foregrounds the performative nature of desire.
The film opens on a scene of a domineering house mistress Cynthia ordering around her subservient cleaning lady Evelyn—but then we see this supposed matriarch reading a card which outlines the ways in which she's supposed to be domineering over the cleaning lady. Then the opening scene plays again, but with a totally different meaning. Cynthia is enacting a fantasy scenario for Evelyn, which is…
93/100
Dreams cannot exist without reality. A grounded sense of time and place must first be cemented before our minds can wander and our desires can be released. However, as the drifting into dreams becomes more frequent, some might forget about the duties and the important relationships waiting back in the realm of physical existence. Skeletons don't just appear out of nowhere. Or do they?
A full-fledged, peerless, and dreamy masterwork. Peter Strickland is a genius, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D'Anna bring two devastating performances, and I am now oddly aroused by moths. Don't worry, it's normal. I think.
84/100
Showed this to my father. He was bored by it. I explained to him that the fact that he loves me enough to watch any film I want him to is what the film is basically about. He said "No Julian, it's about lesbian lepidopterists."
It's still a masterpiece, Dad.
Absolutely transcends its Eurocore roots to say more about love and romantic partnership than just about any movie I can think of recently, if not ever.
The moths, butterflies, and other insects that seem to fascinate all the characters in this chilly film initially seem like a bafflingly pervasive and specific metaphor. (At one point, one of the protagonists tries to bribe a maker of exotic sex-furniture with some butterfly samples, as though that would obviously be far more persuasive than offering her money.) But eventually, it becomes clear that director Peter Strickland is specifically exploring how repetition, ritualization, and one-sided control has turned the protagonists' sex lives from something beautiful and natural, like a butterfly, into something rigid and uncompelling, like a hundred identical dead butterflies mounted on the boards seen in the early part of the film, or like the recorded insect calls played…
