Directed by: Peter Strickland.
Written by: Peter Strickland.
Starring: Sidse Babett Knudsen (Cynthia), Chiara D'Anna (Evelyn), Fatma Mohamed (The Carpenter).
The
opening credits of The Duke of Burgundy are a tease – promising a movie that
writer/director Peter Strickland doesn’t really deliver. Those opening credits
so precisely re-create the openings of 1970s, Euro-soft-core pornography, that
you cannot help to expect that is the type of movie you’re sitting down to.
There’s even a “Perfume by”, which is ridiculous, since no one in the audience
can really know what anything on screen smells like – although simply having
that credit there makes you think about it. The actual opening scene of the
movie perpetuates the ruse Strickland is playing a little bit longer. A young
woman, Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna), who has the perfect look to be the young woman
in a movie like this, somehow both virginal and dripping with sexuality at the
same time, rides her bike through the picturesque countryside. She arrives at
the door of a ornate mansion, and rings the bell – and is immediately chastised
by its owner, Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen), who again perfectly fits the bill
for the “older” woman in a movie like this (which means she is in her 50s) –
rich, severe, cold and cruel – she gives Evelyn one demeaning task after
another, all the while she either completely ignores her, or is outwardly
cruel. When Evelyn messes up Cynthia’s laundry – the pair disappear behind a
door, so that Cynthia can “punish” Evelyn – the punishment having something to
do with dripping liquids, and is clearly sexual in nature. So far, Strickland
seems to be delivering precisely the movie those opening credits promised. But
that’s just the beginning of the movie – one in which Strickland will do far
more than simply pay homage to those 1970s Euro soft core films – much like in
his last film, Berberian Sound Studio, where he did far more than simply pay
homage to the Giallo horror films of the same era. Strickland has a deep love
of those movies – who can feel that in how precisely he recreates aspects of
them. But he isn’t interested in making a copy – he has something deeper in
mind (SPOILER WARNING. If you plan
the to see the film, you may want to stop reading here. I won’t reveal
everything about the plot to be sure, but even the earlier twists, about which
it is impossible not to write, are something who may well want preserved.
You’ve been warned).
If
you go into The Duke of Burgundy expecting it to be what it looks like – like
the Seinfeld gang wanting to see Rochelle, Rochelle – a young girl’s strange,
erotic journey from Milan to Minsk – you will likely be disappointed. Yes, the
movie is about a Sadomasochistic lesbian relationship between Cynthia and
Evelyn, but Strickland doesn’t dwell on the sex in movie. Yes, there are a few
sex scenes – but surprisingly few. The movie does go into some detail about
their sex life, but much of it isn’t actually the sex part – and can be rather
un-erotic, as other people’s sexual fantasies often seem to outsiders, or else
played for subdued humor (as in an hilarious sequence where a carpenter,
specializing in bed with chambers, and human toilets, comes to speak to the
pair). What The Duke of Burgundy is really about – and what makes it a
universal story, even if it seems very specific – is what it means to really
love someone, what you sacrifice, and what you indulge them with to make them
happy, even if it doesn’t much interest you.
We
start to see this in a sequence almost immediately following the first one,
where Evelyn shows up, is chastised and demeaned by Cynthia, before being taken
into the backroom for punishment. We see what is essentially the same sequence
again – but this time, we don’t follow Evelyn, we follow Cynthia. She squeezes
herself into the clothes, makes an effort with her hair, reads what are
essentially cue cards trying to memorize what she is supposed to say, and drink
glass after glass after glass of water (we will see this throughout the movie,
and it takes on an edge of comedy eventually). Cynthia may be older, but Evelyn
is the one in charge – and Cynthia is indulging her. She will do this
throughout – from locking her into a box in the corner of the bedroom, and
other things. They get into a fight when Cynthia comes to bed wearing something
normal – and Evelyn is mad that she isn’t wearing the clothes she bought for
her. “I need instructions to get into half the clothes you buy me. I just want
to be comfortable for once” – Cynthia snaps back.
Do
the pair actually love each other? I think Cynthia does indeed love Evelyn –
which is why she indulges her in her sexual fantasies, even if they are not
fantasies she shares. We all indulge our partners in something we don’t really
like – whether it sadomasochistic fantasies or watching crappy TV. The pair of
them are entomologists, and they spend a lot of time at lectures (curiously,
only attended by women – I don’t think there is a man in the entire film).
Cynthia sometimes lectures, and is quite clearly well-respected. Evelyn is more
junior, and sometimes asks “silly” questions that embarrass her afterwards –
but Cynthia always comforts and reassures her afterwards.
But
at those same lectures, Evelyn cannot help noticing the woman who runs them –
and her nice shiny, leather boots. Cynthia has a pair of those, and it’s one of
Evelyn’s “duties” during their playtime to polish them. But what if she
polished this other woman’s boots? What if this other woman were to chastise
her, punish her. Evelyn eyes her hungrily, and her mind races. Does she love
Cynthia – or is she simply using her? What do we make of some of what Cynthia
does near the end of the movie – is she finally fed up, or is she just raising
the stakes of the “game”.
Strickland
is obsessive in the details of what is onscreen – those opening credits show that,
but it runs through the rest of the movie as well. The costume are precisely,
the score strangely erotic, yet also haunting, the sound mix is one of the most
complex you will hear this this year. The movie verges of the avant garde at
times – butterflies make an apt metaphor for the two women, and he has
sequences here that almost bring to mind Stan Brakhage in that regard.
All
of this is at a story that is at once very simple, and yet strangely moving and
even somewhat profound. Strickland doesn’t clutter the movie with anything
resembling a plot – nor even supporting characters. Aside from Cynthia and
Evelyn, only the saleswoman and the speakers at the lectures even speak at all
in the film. Strickland doesn’t need all those elements – he has everything he
needs in the house, these two women (both actresses, by the way, are brilliant
– especially Knudsen, who deserves Oscar consideration she will never receive)
and their relationship. This is an early highlight of the year so far.
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