Maîtresse (1973)
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
Written by Barbet Schroeder & Paul Voujargol

Barbet Schroeder's Maîtresse is beloved by S&M fans for its pioneering depiction of the sexual domination fetish, but to me, it has more in common with Secretary than, say, Chloroformed, Gassed, & Fondled 5. That is, despite some still-shocking sex scenes, Maîtresse is really just a sweet, unconventional love story dressed up with darkness.

Gérard Depardieu is Olivier, a petty crook whose attempt to burgle the suburban bondage dungeon of Ariane (beautiful Bulle Ogier) results in his inadvertent immersion into her S&M netherworld. Upon being caught, Depardieu is tied to a radiator, only to be released when Ariane needs him to piss on the face of one of her clients. It's pure black comedy, yet there's an undeniable tenderness that arises between Olivier and Ariane from that moment. Well, who of us hasn't begun a beautiful relationship by peeing on someone's face?

Ariane's double life is kept strictly compartmentalized (she even has two phones, one for business, one for "real life") until Olivier begins to become more possessive of her, and seeks to banish her darker side in favor of their normal life together. This nearly splits them up until they reach a resolution wherein Olivier can allow her the dark side but still maintain a sense of connection and control. They reunite by fucking while driving, then crashing the car … again, hilarious, seedy, and somehow very sweet.

The ever-unpredictable Schroeder lures the viewer into the love story, which becomes artificially boring simply given the banal realities of couplehood—only to shock us with unexpectedly graphic sex-torture sequences (filmed with a real dominatrix stepping in for Ogier, and real clients). The tone therefore vacillates between soft-PG romantic comedy to hard-X porn as we follow Ariane from her domestic life down into the dungeon, where she, at one point, explicitly drives sharp pins into a guy's dick, in unforgiving close-up.

Barbet Schroeder's movies are all dissimilar to one another, yet they all seem to delve into the human psyche and explore the dualities we all have – that ol' Carl Jung persona-and-shadow balance that comprises a whole self. Maîtresse has a lot to say about how this factors into love, and though it's ostensibly salacious in spots, it comes out in the wash as a funny and emotionally warm look at coupling – the integration of oneself with another, and oneself with oneself.

Plus, it has plenty of graphic ass-slapping, just when you start to lose interest. More films should utilize this technique … how many Mechant-Ivory films might be saved with some sudden bare ass-slapping?

Review by La Fée