The Duke of Burgundy was a largely critically acclaimed, well-directed art film that unflinchingly explores a lesbian BDSM relationship and all the relationship facets thereof. Yet despite all this critical acclaim and beautiful cinematography, I wasn’t a huge fan.
The Duke of Burgundy was released the same weekend as 50 Shades of Grey which I imagine was probably intentional. The Duke of Burgundy really does improve on a lot of things 50 Shades did wrong. The BDSM relationship is much more dynamic and also they didn’t tone down the BDSM aspects to sexually appeal to viewers. The relationship is more extreme and many of the acts they engage in are things that a larger majority of people wouldn’t find sexy. It’s also not meant to be titillating. There’s actually no nudity in this film and its characters are subjects, not objects. Also, the BDSM aspect was a way to structure a story, romance and character development within universe. In general, it had more depth and class than 50 Shades. Still, that’s a pretty low bar to clear.
The cinematography in this film is really beautiful. It’s a visual treat to watch even as its characters engage in sexual activities that one may find uncomfortable. The Duke of Burgundy is a case of beautiful cinematography not being a bonus but being necessary. The story is very simple and the script definitely wouldn’t pop if you read it rather than saw the movie. The visuals are where this movie focuses its artistic endeavours and it is largely successful. It’s a gorgeous film to look at and it does carry the movie when the story is minimal.
And yet despite all this praise, I just didn’t like The Duke of Burgundy as much as I’m probably supposed to. I found it too cold. I’m not saying that it should’ve been exploitative, lesbian BDSM fun times, but the whole thing felt too detached for me. All the passion Peter Strickland put into making this film a character piece and not an exploitation film unfortunately had the side-effect of making the film feel dispassionate and chilly. I didn’t feel any sense of empathy or sympathy from Strickland towards his characters. I felt like he chose this topic not because he had great insight into these characters but because this sort of relationship lends itself well to an artsy film with beautiful visuals. That second part is definitely true but I just wanted more. I wanted to care about these characters like, at all and I just didn’t.
So I didn’t personally enjoy The Duke of Burgundy. But a lot of other critics do. And despite my general arrogance and certainty that nobody knows more about WLW films than I do, I don’t think this is a case where I’m right and everyone else is wrong. There’s a lot going for the film. It’s beautiful to look at, it’s not exploitative and it’s a much better exploration of a BDSM relationship than 50 Shades. If you like this film, you’re probably correct in doing so. If you haven’t seen it but it sounds like something you might like, it’s at least worth checking out because there is a lot of good here. For me personally though, The Duke of Burgundy felt so indescribably chilly and as such, I never fully connected with it.
Overall rating: 6.2/10
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Hi! Thanks for reviewing this movie, I haven’t seen many reviews of it online. I get what you’re saying about the detachment, but I guess I didn’t find it as dispassionate. After watching the movie I got a sense that it wasn’t really about wls relationships or BDSM, but about relationships in general and the power balance (or imbalance) that exists in all of them. I found the mix of their sexual practices and domisticity quite fun and their attempts to overpower each other in different ways interesting. The ultimate message I thought was quite bleak – that you can’t change your partner or yourself. At least that’s what I thought about it.