Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – The Duke of Burgundy (Movie Review)

The Duke of Burgundy (UK Rating: 18)

In an unnamed European country and in an unspecified time, Cynthia (Borgen's Sidse Babett Knudsen) and Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) are both fascinated by entomology, especially butterflies and moths. To the outside world, Evelyn is Cynthia's maid but they are concealing something more intimate and complex. Time sees a shifting of the dynamics between them. Evelyn gives in to temptation and Cynthia yearns for a more conventional relationship, and the strain starts to show.

That's the narrative, but this is a film of layers and themes. What the audience sees at the outset is based on assumptions: that Cynthia is a cold, over-demanding mistress, and Evelyn a docile maid at her beck and call. The reality is rather different. Evelyn may be the one that washes the lingerie, but she definitely also wears the trousers, inventing new ways to spice up their relationship and imposing her wishes on the older woman to the point where she scripts it down to the last detail, including the words she wants to hear. Once that's understood, early scenes from the film are replayed, allowing the audience to see and understand them with the benefit of hindsight.

The couple inhabit an all-female world - there isn't a man to be seen throughout the entire film - but given that this is a highly stylised movie full of artifice, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. So the title, The Duke of Burgundy, immediately raises an obvious question. It's not a nobleman Strickland is referring to, but a rare butterfly, studied and examined in just as much detail as the two women on the screen. They also give the film some of its most striking visual images and one especially jaw dropping piece of detailed cinematography partnered with the mind bending sound of beating wings.

8/10

Great - Silver Award

Peter Strickland isn't to everybody's tastes but The Duke of Burgundy reinforces his position as one of the most innovative filmmakers around today. It's a film that alternately fascinates, frustrates, and intrigues. The one thing it doesn't do, despite the nature of the relationship at its core, is titillate. The cool detachment shown by Cynthia in the early scenes is reflected throughout the entire film. It's almost like looking at insects through a microscope.