[Frankie Teardrop]

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY – More Strickland, who followed up ‘Berberian Sound Studio’ with TDOB, arguably an even stranger film. TDOB explores the sadomasochistic relationship between two lepidopterists whose household is a strange kingdom, well, queendom, full of rituals and games. Games and game-like ways of relating are pretty much central to TDOB. What we see is very opulent and the visual stylisation is pretty striking, but Strickland’s aim is more conceptual in that he’s asking us to consider the limits of role-playing and identity, the boundaries we put around ourselves and others for the sake of sharing our love. If that sounds a bit high-flown, don’t expect TDOB to be all whips and garters. The S&M theme is used more to enable the depiction of this stagey world made up of artifice and ceremony, and to push the emotional levers when the mask of ritual finally slips. But there is no big drama here really, the narrative is almost tranquil, the horror elements ‘in the air’ rather than in-yer-face; it’s a subtle approach that succeeds because the film is so atmospherically strange, even showing us a wider reality that seems to seems consist of little else besides female biologists who gather in seminar rooms full of mannequins and dummies. Much has been made of TDOB’s homage to surreal Euro erotica from the likes of Jess Franco and Jean Rollin, but there are also shades of Peter Greenaway and David Cronenberg. Hypnotic, wonderful and odd.