Maîtresse

Barbet Schroeder wrote this after meeting a real dominatrix. Olivier, played by Gérard Depardieu, is a small-time thief who breaks into an apartment, meets Ariane, played by Bulle Ogier, and discovers her profession. What follows is a love story and simultaneously the question of whether Olivier can tolerate her work. Some of the shooting involved actual clients; Schroeder built the scenes downstairs from the people of that world rather than from professional actors. Néstor Almendros shot it, and the film's gaze is accordingly not voyeuristic but composed and observational. In Britain the censors rejected it in 1976 under the obscenity legislation. The examiners' reports accepted that it was well made and not exploitative, but found the scenes far beyond anything passed before. It could only be shown in private cinema clubs, a cut version was permitted in 1981, and the complete film was not passed until 2003. Who it is for: viewers interested in seventies French cinema and in films that handle taboo subjects with composure. Who it is not for: anyone disturbed by explicit sadomasochistic material, which the film does not withhold.