The Duke of Burgundy

Year: 2014
Director: Peter Strickland

Slow, but beautifully-paced and exquisitely-shot exploration of the shifts in control in an unusual partnership between two lepidopterologists. The nature of the relationship shifts subtly over time with actual, but subtly inserted*, laugh-out-loud moments including one guffaw-tastic urolagniac set-up/joke which, thankfully, takes place off-camera.
Sidse Babett Knudsen is luminously beautiful throughout, and gives a heartbreaking performance at one juncture where identical dialogue to that used in a prior scene is recycled to devastating effect.
Possibly not a Friday night popcorn movie, I’d have said.

*Arf!

Might appeal to people who enjoyed:

Lesbians, butterflies, the cinematography of the ‘Raindrops are Falling on my Head’ scene in ‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’ and the song ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’, of which this is the closest (proably coincidental) visual representation I’ve seen. Arthouse movies, anything released through Artificial Eye.

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