The story of a middle-aged woman, Cynthia, a wealthy academic who lives in her home with her lesbian lover. Both women appear to have personality disorders that do not appear to have been diagnosed. Cynthia has severe control issues and Evelyn appears to be an enabler; both of them feeding off the other while role-playing a sadomasochistic creepy fetish. It was interesting to see the madness that goes on in these type of domestic abuse relationships - but especially the twisted reality of mental illness and how any form of abuse if not dealt with can turn you into a monster. The director did well to tell the story of the hidden horrors in these types of relationships and there was a scene toward the end of the movie that really showed the character, Cynthia, revert to her inner child and place of pain. There appeared to be an improvement in their relationship after that. Good directing but the story was under-developed leaving those great scenes a little confusing and incomplete.

Peter Strickland's follow-up to BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO is an equally arty mood piece, although a film with even less plot (if that's even possible). Instead, the narrative structure focuses on building up characters and relationships and a very specific atmosphere, without worrying too much about story lines or character arcs.As with BERBERIAN, it's a film I'm in two minds about. On a physical level, it's very well made indeed and often beautifully shot. I particularly loved the '70s-themed opening credits which are quite breathtaking. As you'd expect from Strickland, the attention to detail in terms of sound is also quite wonderful; this is a film that has clearly been carefully edited, which must have been a painstaking process.What I didn't enjoy so much was the foot-dragging pace, or the lack of either resolution or explanation. In short, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY explores the relationship between a pair of lesbian lovers, where one is the dominant mistress and the other a submissive servant. Interest arises from a twist where it gradually turns out that the submissive girl is very much the one in control. I liked that aspect of it, and the two actresses are very convincing in their parts.But what's the overall result? This is a nice film to watch and enjoy purely on an artistic level. But it seems there's little to keep you coming back. This certainly isn't an exploitation piece, as any questionable material is kept off-screen and there isn't even any nudity. It's restrained, chilly, beautiful, sure, and I enjoyed the entomological background, but once I'd spent nearly two hours with this movie I was eager to go on to find something with more substance.

A rather simple "story" or rather vignette about the tensions in a relationship - the two lovers are lesbians (Evelyn and Cynthia) and are playing out a dominance and submission scenario - but basically the problems the couple faces are the same as with most relationships: Boredom by routine, a little jealousy, and Cynthia is having trouble with Evelyn's more and more demanding whims.What makes this film stand out for me is the all-embracing vision: Acting, costumes, set design, props, music, rhythm - everything works together perfectly to form a total work of art. Usually such a clear and uncompromising concept is restricted to short films; here it's drawn out to 100 lush minutes. I felt positively reminded of Peter Greenaway! There are also some fun visual jokes or references like the mannequins in the audience but they don't take away from the focus.Now, while that's some praise, there's also drawbacks that come with this single-mindedness: The plot is just a "plot", coming from and leading to nowhere; we never learn much about the characters; the whole thing begins to feel drawn-out. Basically you could have told the thing in 30 minutes without losing much impact. While I can wholeheartedly recommend this beautiful production, I doubt if I'll rewatch it anytime soon in its full length.

This movie tries to be so many things, and fails at all, the one thing it excels at is being a complete waste of time.The people writing good reviews for this film are either somehow affiliated with it, or truly have no idea what a decent movie is.The entire movie is based on little scripts the two women rehearse, and there is maybe three of them, and then it's a simple matter of 'rinse and repeat'.I have NO IDEA why the director thought that a woman peeing into another woman's mouth would be in any way appealing to anyone, apart of course for those out there that are extremely kinky, of course you don't see this, thank god for that, but you do hear it.As I mentioned the movie just repeats itself over and over again until it ends, it's just utter crap, and there are moments in the film where there is insanely annoying sounds with obscure images in the background, it's like the director/editors had completely run out of ideas and put these bits in to simply make the movie longer, of course they would have been doing us all a favor had they simply left them out, or better still, never made the movie in the first place.ABSOLUTE GARBAGE!.