Everyone will agree that the cinema is one of our culture’s most powerful art forms. What it is best at is heightening emotions. With the form’s camera framing, music, editing techniques, and other elements, a master of the movies can concentrate our attention on the minutia and nuances of certain states of mind. This is especially potent when it comes to the erotic arts. In this series of bulletins, I will highlight films that capture some essentials of BDSM, D/s, S/m sessions, and power dynamics. We can do this because since at least the 1990s, dominant women have ceased to be a gag moment of comedy relief and become accepted, normalized if you will, from Julie Strain appearing suddenly an heart-stopingly as a Dominatrix in full regalia in The Naked Gun 33 1/3 [Photos: Julie Strain Naked Gun pix 1 and 2] to the devil’s assistant Mazikine (Lesley-Ann Brandt) in the recent TV series Lucifer.
This trend of “normalization “ probably began in rock and roll and punk-Goth, migrated to movies, and ended up on TV, where sexy characters enliven a fantasy show, or being a professional Dominatrix is viewed as a viable career option on programs such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Law and Order: SVU, and Castle. Here are three films that might inspire a mood of submission and motivate a visit to Domina Katherine.
On the surface a crime comedy, this fish-out-of-water tale serves as a joyous opportunity for two gorgeous actresses to play dress up.
Alberta (LeeLee Sobieski) is a small town girl who gets into serious money trouble and flees the burg for Seattle, where she seeks out her old babysitter.
But Celene (Tricia Helfer, of Battlestar Galactica) has made significant life choices since the days she was supervising the teen: she is now a Pro Domme, catering to the fantasies of well off men.
Alberta soon keys in to her new roommate’s career, and become intrigued with its money making potential.
But it turns out that being a professional Dominatrix comes with care and responsibilities, and before she can master the craft, events get out of hand and Alberta’s recent past catches up with her.
Usually in older movies there is maybe one scene featuring a Dominatrix, and it passes by in a flash, for humor potential. Here in this modern movie the women are garbed in Thigh Boots, stockings, latex leotards and numerous other signatures of the Dominant Woman. You can pay attention to the plot, or you can bask in the beauty of the ladies as they go about their business and parade their fashions, though most of the film’s 98 minutes.
Most important, though, is that amid the often strained hilarity and hijinks, there is a realistic attitude toward the working life of a professional Dominatrix. The film seems highly accurate, as if the filmmakers know what they are talking about. There is even some self-help philosophy. At one point Alberta asks, “How do you get them do to what you want?” Celene replies, “Don’t give them a choice. Believe in something strongly enough, even if it’s total bullshit, and so will everyone around you.”
Here’s another film with LeeLee Sobieski, this time in a minor role (as the seductive daughter of a costumier). The last film by Stanley Kubrick after only 12 features (like Orson Welles, Kubrick made only 13 full length films), Eyes Wide Shut also proved to be his most controversial as it explored the dynamics and fearfulness of marriage and relationships in the form of a dark night of the soul as a doctor (Tom Cruise) wrestles with his jealousy over some stoned bedroom comments of his wife (Nicole Kidman), during which he encounters a city teeming with sexual energy but which is often frustrated, including a crowd of frat boy gay bashers, a call girl, Leelee’s nymphet (a call-back to Lolita), and finally an orgy attended by Bohemian Grove élites – anticipating in a way the Jeffrey Epstein case.
There is no explicitly BDSM content in the film, but the sense of power imbalances permeates the narrative. Sex in the New York of Eyes Wide Shut is fraught and perilous, as it can be in real life (which is why some desire the clarity of a session with Domina Katherine), and the rich people at the orgy eliminate this tension with their rules and libertinage. Power broker Victor Ziegler (director Sidney Pollack) tries to explain the illusion that the Doctor has been operating under, but is he lying to keep the secrets of the cult? Did a woman really sacrifice herself to save the doc? The ending’s ambiguity hints at the hidden world of power and control behind the ostensibly “normal” world.
Peter Strickland’s film is an arty enterprise inspired by exotic French and Italian quasi-horror films such as Daughters of Darkness (1971).
The “duke” of the title is a butterfly, and just about the only male in the film. Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is an older woman who lectures on lepidopterology, and the younger Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) is her student – but also her maid. And Cynthia has high standards of cleanliness, which Evelyn frequently fails, resulting in harsh punishments.
But soon the viewer realizes that Cynthia is the one catering to Evelyn’s fantasies. Evelyn leaves carefully detailed scripts for her Mistress, which Cynthia then enacts the next day.
Thus the story is a variation on Venus in Furs, wherein Wanda is enacting Severin’s fantasies. But also as in Venus, Cynthia soon bristles under the “topping from below,” and goes “off script.”
Eventually feels betrayed when she comes to believe that Evelyn polished and cleaned the boots of another instructor. The film ends ambiguously. Has Evelyn changed? If so, why are they enacting yet another fantasy?
The Duke of Burgundy explores the unusual, indeed unique tensions within a dominant and submissive relationship. The topsy-turvy quality of these romances, the fun-house mirror reality, comes unexpectedly. Nobody teaches you how to navigate them. You are learning as you go.
Thank the Goddess, then, for people such as Domina Katherine, who know with great clarity how to control, subjugate, and command.
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