Amazon.com video review:
Drifter Olivier (Gérard Depardieu) lands in Paris and partners up
on a
friend's home invasion. Ostensibly they're breaking into the vacant flat
of a vacationing old lady, but in reality it's the kinky dungeon of a high-class
dominatrix with a powerful client list. The bearish Depardieu falls
for the lithe professional, blonde Ariane (Bulle Ogier) in a black bob wig
and dressed in tight leather and latex, and soon moves into her handsome
flat while she plies her trade downstairs. Barbet Schroeder's kinky little
slice of sexual decadence is initially titillating and erotic, but soon
turns grotesque. Ariane's clients desire her domination but only as
contracted: They control their abuse. The romance becomes a warped mirror
of her career, Ariane allowing Olivier the appearance of control as he
slides behind the driver's seat of her car, but setting the parameters of
his dominance. Easygoing Olivier soon begins to simmer with frustration and
jealousy, unable to comprehend her twisted world of sexual deviance, and
attempts to "save" her from her lifestyle. Schroeder pushes the portrayal
of S&M and bondage to the limits with graphic scenes of pain, torment, and
mutilation, presented with a bland detachment that makes them all the more
uncomfortable to watch. He brings that same dispassionate attitude to the
romance, which results in an uninvolving yet undeniably fascinating story
of a quirky affair. --Sean Axmaker
