The Little Death (2014)

Directed and written by Josh Lawson
Starring: Damon Herriman, Bojana Novakovic
Music by: Michael Yezerski
Language: English

Rating 4/5

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The Little Death is the French idiom for orgasm but it’s also the title of this not-so-popular Australian comedy written and directed by Josh Lawson, who also starred one of his characters (Paul).

Having a multi story narrative, The Little Death shows us the story of five different, normal, suburban couples, all somehow affected by their fantasies and fetishes. And additional character - a smiling man in his 60s who introduces himself to the neighbors to inform them he just moved in… and he is also a registered sex offender – serves here as a common element to  tie all the stories together. Apparently, none of these “couples” is interested in the controversial background of the new neighbour, being all too busy dealing with their desires and the consequences in their lives and relationships.

From a kinky perspective, this movie offers good material to think and talk about.

We have, for example, the couple who dive into role play with unexpected results and another one struggling with rape fantasies (and the difficulties of making it real) but we also have couples dealing with more controversial fetishes: Rowena, who is afraid to reveal his husband she gets sexually aroused from watching him cry (dacryphilia), does everything possible to put her partner in emotional distress while Phil, who is constantly rejected by his wife, finds out he can enjoy his wife’s company when she is practically unconscious (every night he drugs her tea).

The Little Death occasionally switches from the typical dark comedy shades to some kind of kinky romance (the last chapter, the story between the call center operator and the deaf man, winks at the most romantic audience), successfully remaining light and enjoyable with both registers. But it also seems to lack something in its narrative, giving the general feeling something is missing in the end.

The Neon Demon (2016)

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Screenplay by Mary Laws, Nicolas Winding Refn, Polly Stenham
Starring: Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves
Music by: Cliff Martinez
Language: English

Rating: 3/5

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Nicolas Winding Refn is definitely one of the best directors of our time – or at least one of the most promising – and he surely confirmed this with The Neon Demon, a glamorous, dark psychological horror where every scene is composed with an aseptic, elegant, obsessive attention to detail.

This is the style the Danish director is developing in years, something actually distant from Bronson’s aesthetics: as Refn finally entered Hollywood’s realm (with Drive), his style turned into something more sophisticated and visionary, something that lies between Tom Ford and David Lynch. It was already possible to witness this change in Only God Forgives but it’s with The Neon Demon that Refn’s intentions became utterly clear.

The problems is Refn is also becoming so self-absorbed to keep referencing his own aesthetics, leaving the rest aside. Like? A good plot. Or a proper characterization of his mannequins, who now look all empty and vague. And, sure, it’s cool to make minimal, slow-paced, aseptic movies starring young, good looking, soul-less actors like Ryan Gosling (Drive, Only God Forgives) or Elle Fanning, but the result is no one can actually feel some empathy for the characters they are asked to interpret or relate to them. Poor acting skills? Could be, but this does not seem to be the case. Director’s choices are here to blame in my humble opinion, even though I still believe Refn has a great potential to express.

The Neon Demon is about Jesse (Elle Fanning), an aspiring model whose natural beauty captivates everyone around. It does not take a long time before this overwhelming charm generates unwanted attentions and arouse envy among other girls within the industry. And Jesse, who is initially depicted as a helpless, naïve, little thing with a strong lack of confidence, soon decides to fully embrace the power of her beauty and turns into a narcissistic, arrogant teen revealing her true, “demonic” nature.

The movie does not show much from a kinky perspective, but being entirely focused on beauty and fascination it transpires sexual tension and subtle eroticism in all its length. Even when sex is completely missing from the scene: the test shoot with Jack, the professional photographer, is a good example of that. 

*** SPOILER ALERT: SKIP IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO WATCH THE MOVIE *** 

No sex is involved but still, it’s there, as Jack, who shows an indubitable dominant character, orders Jesse to pose fully naked, paint her body with his hands and mold her posture like a sculptor with a piece of clay. Yes, here I am talking about some kind of objectification.
The dream where Keanu Reeves - now a sinister motel manager - forces the girl to keeps her mouth wide as he slides a big knife in her throat might also trigger some dirty minds.

Paradoxically, the most explicit scenes are not as interesting as those where sex is entirely missing: there is, for example, a long lesbian, necrophiliac scene (don’t be surprised: blood baths and cannibalism are also featured in this elegantly gross movie) but it’s probably there just for the director’s pleasure in shocking the audience 

*** KEEP READING FROM HERE ***

What we have in the end is not a must-watch masterpiece but if on a Friday night you have nothing better to do, well, The Neon Demon might still be an esthetically pleasant way to waste two hours of your time with a plot-less, visionary movie from a director I hope to see soon at his best again.

Shame (2011)

Directed by Steve McQueen
Written by Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan
Music by: Harry Escott
Language: English

Rating: 4/5

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Listing this movie in this blog might look like a mistake, as Shame, a 2011 British drama directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, has nothing to do with BDSM. Still, I thought it was important to include this movie as well: Shame is in fact a "must watch" movie for everyone who is interested in investigating sexuality, human mind or both and in the age of Tinder, which has completely changed the way we interact with each other, this movie tells something to us all.

The whole movie is about sexual addiction and its effects on the private life and the affective sphere. And here is the first interesting aspect: a man is the protagonist of the story. This obliges the spectator to see things from a different perspective, far from the stereotypes of female hypersexuality, which - for obvious reasons, I would say - use to be the preferred one whenever film-makers try to investigate the world of sexual addiction (just think of Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, for example). 

Shame is then a lustful, elegant movie about satyriasis where the main role is well tailored to its occupant, Michael Fassbender, who previously worked with McQueen in Hunger - the "couple" seems to work well together.

A second interesting aspect: unlike Nymphomaniac, which I promise to comment one day on this blog, Shame is not simply the mere sequence of explicit scenes reflecting the protagonist's sexual addiction. Shame - as the title suggests - focuses on the psychological impact of sexual addiction and actually shows how it affects the protagonist's life. At work, with family (Carey Mulligan is here the main character's sister: together they represent a good example of dysfunctional family), in intimate relationships (Brandon, the protagonist, is unable to maintain his erection when emotions and affection are involved; can only satisfy his needs if having detached rough sex with occasional sexual partners). 

Kinky spectators will probably find the movie boring, as it does not display that much in the end - just some encounters with sex workers, a threesome and an occasional gay experience - but the underlying, constant sexual tension together with some stylish scenes could keep you aroused most of the time. Not a masterpiece, but definitely worth watching.

The Night Porter (1974)

Directed by Liliana Cavani
Written by Liliana Cavani
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling
Music by: Daniele Paris
Language: English

Rating: 5/5

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Liliana Cavani's Night Porter is a controversial, provocative movie entirely based on the so-called Stockholm syndrome, the psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy toward their captors. In this particular case, the captor is Max, a a former Nazi SS officer (played by Dirk Bogarde), and the victim is Lucia, a concentration camp survivor (played by Charlotte Rampling).

The movie is set years after World War II, in Vienna, where Max works as a night porter, but alternates also flashbacks showing the couple during the times at the concentration camp, where Max used to be Lucia's protector. As Max and Lucia accidentally meet again years after the end of the war, they immediately fall back into their sadomasochistic relationship.

The Night Porter has to be celebrated for the bravery of the director, who dared to portray such a thorny topic resorting to a Nazi Holocaust narrative. It was not easy, in particular considering when the movie was shot and the self-righteous Italian culture (Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter). In addition, there is an aspect that should always be underlined: the Night Porter filmmaker's is a woman. So it is possible to say that Liliana Cavani did to cinema what, twenty years before, Anne Desclos did to literature: showing that the interest for sadomasochistic relationships is not typical of men only.

La Pianiste (2001)

Directed by Michael Haneke
Written by Michael Haneke, Elfriede Jelinek (novel)
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Magimel
Language: French

Rating: 5/5

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Based on Nobel Prize for Literature winner Elfriede Jelinek's novel, La Pianiste can be undoubtedly considered the best Haneke's movie (so far). Helped by the masterful Isabelle Huppert's interpretation, the Austrian director here perfectly portrayed the sexually and emotionally repressed piano teacher, who is the main character of this intimist drama. 

Erika is in fact a cold, castigated woman in her forties who still lives with her mother - a controlling, asphyxiating figure who tries to take her daughter away from every kind of frivolousness and instead pushes her hard to succeed in her professional life. The relationship between the two women is unhealthy and based on unresolved issues that slowly consume them both. Moreover the cumbersome presence of her mother stops Erika from having normal, healthy intimate relationships, which she replaces with a long list of paraphilia: she enters a sex shop to watch porn and smell semen from the used tissues she finds in the video cabin; she walks a drive-in theater to stare at couples having sex; she self-inflicts genital injuries. 

The only one who tries to shake Erika from her lonely, severe routine is Walter, a young engineering student and talented piano player who claims he falled in love with her. Erika, who initially rejects his exhausting avances, in the end will drag him in a world of humiliation and masochism the student can hardly understand. Powerful.

Love Object (2003)

Directed by Robert Parigi
Written by Robert Parigi
Starring: Desmond Harrington, Melissa Sagemiller, Rip Torn
Music by: Nicholas Pike
Language: English

Rating: 4/5

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As Wikipedia summarizes, Love Object is the story of Kenneth (Desmond Harrington), "an efficient but socially awkward technical writer who develops an obsessive relationship with Nikki, a realistic sex doll he purchases". Unfortunately this summary is incomplete, as it does not mention Lisa, the co-worker Kenneth falls in love with (Kenneth thinks of her when he order his "tailor-made" doll). Love Object is therefore the story of the bizzarre love triangle (yes, I love New Order) between Kenneth, Lisa and Nikki.

Apparently the plot has nothing to do with William Wyler's The Collector - Love Object is not a remake, definitely - but still, there are many common elements between the two movies. Too many to think of some randomness. Love Object actually looks like a tribute to Wyler's movie. 

*** SPOILER ALERT: SKIP IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO WATCH THE MOVIE ***

Let's consider the main characters, for example. Both Frederick and Kenneth are shy, lonely, socially awkward middle class workers around the same age. They both have a boring job (Frederick is a bank clerk, Kenneth writes technical manuals) and stupid colleagues who jerk them around. They both develop an obsessive attention for a girl in particular - Miranda, the art student from The Collector, and Lisa, the intern who loves writing and dancing waltz - and both Frederick and Kenneth come to the conclusion they have to kindap their beloved ones. Even the final is exactly the same: both girls die, Frederick and Kenneth are not prosecuted for their crimes but labeled as victims and plan to start the cycle all over again with a new girl.

*** KEEP READING FROM HERE ***

From a BDSM / kinky perspective, Love Object is pure gold. It contains scenes of submission (Nikki becomes a sort of Mistress to Kenneth), restraints (Lisa got bound and gagged), sexual ecouterism (Kenneth jerks off listening to his landlord having sex) and obviously agalmatophilia (the paraphilia involving sexual attraction to a statue, doll, mannequin), sexual objectification and dollification (Kenneth first creates Nikki in Lisa image; then expects Lisa to become like Nikki). Unmissable.

Irréversible (2002)

Directed by Gaspar Noé
Written by Gaspar Noé
Starring: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel
Music by: Thomas Bangalter
Language: French

Rating: 4/5

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Irréversible is probably one of the bravest and most original French movies of the past 15 years but unfortunately it is destined to be remembered for the controversial rape-scene, not for its unquestionable merits. The movie can boast of an excellent cast (Bellucci-Cassel - at that time still married), an interesting soundtrack (Thomas Bangalter is one half of the internationally acclaimed Daft Punk) and an experimental structure (something here reminds both the early Christopher Nolan and David Fincher).

Irréversible follows Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) as they try to find the one who raped and brutally beaten into unconsciousness Marcus’ girlfriend, Alex (Monica Bellucci). 

The movie is divided into thirteen scenes presented in a reverse chronological order. This is probably the the best and worst aspect of the whole movie. In fact this non-linear narrative introduces some original elements but at the same time makes impossible to create a sort of climax, with the result that the most intense scenes - the one at the gay BDSM club and the rape - are displayed at the very beginning and in the middle of the movie, respectively. As the end of the movie approaches, Irréversible gets boring and loses tension, this is the reason why it is not possible to rate it 5/5.

For the two scenes mentioned above the movie has been labeled as "unwatchable" but it should definitely meet the taste of many BDSM lovers (at least those who are not easily impressed). For example, the scene in the gay BDSM club is epic: here everything looks confused and claustrophobic, the twirling camera movements accidentally show men having rough sex, involved in sadomasochistic practices or even self-fisting; the controversial rape scene is on the other hand somewhat "chaste" - the camera lies in front of the two actors but there is nothing explicit in it, the act itself and the violence after the rape make the scene brutal. Paradoxically, it was enough to capture all the attention of the critics on that part only. Underrated.