In my opinion this is quite a serious movie about desires, power and commerce. I found certain very graphic scenes of torture and humiliation hard to take, and I suspect that there must be different versions around. I must hasten to say that nothing I saw seemed to me gratuitous and that Maitresse is anything but an exploitation movie. It deals with the issue masochism openly and with an honest curiosity, in that aspect almost like a documentary. However, after seeing it I am more puzzled than before but probably that was the intention of the makers of his movie.
Maitresse is very carefully constructed. A young man comes to Paris and teams up with a professional burglar. They pretend to be door-to-door art book dealers so they can find out which flats are empty. A very nervous woman begs them after some hesitation into her spacious flat. She needs their help as her bath tub is overflowing. Asking her if she is not concerned about the downstairs neighbors, she says that they are away on a holiday. That, of course, is the sign for the two to strike the next night. What they see in the light of their torches there are latex clothes, torture instruments and even a gallows ready for use. The older man's reaction: It's all cheap, unsellable stuff, let's get out. Then the ray of their flashlight hits a cage with an old naked man crouching in it, then from the ceiling a folding staircase is lowered and the woman from the day before descends, together with a fierce dog called Texas.
I decided to describe this opening scenes because they set the tone. A large part of the movie is about deceiving, pretending and make believe which seems to be one of the major kicks masochists get out of their apparently precisely timed rituals. It seemed evident to me that the woman planned the burglary in order to lay her hands on the young hunk played by a then not yet famous Gerard Depardieu. Apart from an instant sexual attraction there evolves a kind of a love story as the man moves into the (upstairs) apartment (the movable staircase, incidentally is hidden underneath a coffee table with Chinese wood inlays). But commercial interests are never far. The woman clearly expects him to participate in the business giving her an occasional helping hand. He, for his part, thinks that maybe more money could be squeezed out of the enterprise. But he abhors bodily maltreatment. Before he moved to Paris, so he tells, he worked in a slaughterhouse and could not stand it getting used to the slaughter ritual. The whole business rather sickens and stuns him. The prevailing nature of the couple's relationship never becomes clear up to the enigmatic final scene. And strangely, this is an asset here.
As to the issue of masochism, the movie bluntly states that there are people who are in need of being occasionally tortured and humiliated. And that it is no easy issue with devastating emotional effects. These people are the woman's customers and expect full service. No doubt is left that they are rich and influential to the point of being above the law. It also becomes apparent that they leave very precise directions as to how they want to be treated it is as horrific as it is dull and uninspired, the movie shows even that. Sometimes the directives become too much even for the experienced dominatrix.
The question of who is on top and who is under the heel (here: literally) becomes a new, rather quirky significance. The upstairs/downstairs situation in the woman's establishment shows this masterfully. The movie makes it clear that the downstairs people have the say. After all, they are the customers. Those upstairs are merely servants. So, why not just quit? The couple makes an open end attempt in that direction in the final scenes of this interesting, thought provoking movie.
Maitresse is very carefully constructed. A young man comes to Paris and teams up with a professional burglar. They pretend to be door-to-door art book dealers so they can find out which flats are empty. A very nervous woman begs them after some hesitation into her spacious flat. She needs their help as her bath tub is overflowing. Asking her if she is not concerned about the downstairs neighbors, she says that they are away on a holiday. That, of course, is the sign for the two to strike the next night. What they see in the light of their torches there are latex clothes, torture instruments and even a gallows ready for use. The older man's reaction: It's all cheap, unsellable stuff, let's get out. Then the ray of their flashlight hits a cage with an old naked man crouching in it, then from the ceiling a folding staircase is lowered and the woman from the day before descends, together with a fierce dog called Texas.
I decided to describe this opening scenes because they set the tone. A large part of the movie is about deceiving, pretending and make believe which seems to be one of the major kicks masochists get out of their apparently precisely timed rituals. It seemed evident to me that the woman planned the burglary in order to lay her hands on the young hunk played by a then not yet famous Gerard Depardieu. Apart from an instant sexual attraction there evolves a kind of a love story as the man moves into the (upstairs) apartment (the movable staircase, incidentally is hidden underneath a coffee table with Chinese wood inlays). But commercial interests are never far. The woman clearly expects him to participate in the business giving her an occasional helping hand. He, for his part, thinks that maybe more money could be squeezed out of the enterprise. But he abhors bodily maltreatment. Before he moved to Paris, so he tells, he worked in a slaughterhouse and could not stand it getting used to the slaughter ritual. The whole business rather sickens and stuns him. The prevailing nature of the couple's relationship never becomes clear up to the enigmatic final scene. And strangely, this is an asset here.
As to the issue of masochism, the movie bluntly states that there are people who are in need of being occasionally tortured and humiliated. And that it is no easy issue with devastating emotional effects. These people are the woman's customers and expect full service. No doubt is left that they are rich and influential to the point of being above the law. It also becomes apparent that they leave very precise directions as to how they want to be treated it is as horrific as it is dull and uninspired, the movie shows even that. Sometimes the directives become too much even for the experienced dominatrix.
The question of who is on top and who is under the heel (here: literally) becomes a new, rather quirky significance. The upstairs/downstairs situation in the woman's establishment shows this masterfully. The movie makes it clear that the downstairs people have the say. After all, they are the customers. Those upstairs are merely servants. So, why not just quit? The couple makes an open end attempt in that direction in the final scenes of this interesting, thought provoking movie.