Downloading NancyThis is a completely engrossing yet very difficult film to watch. It examines human sexuality in a complex nuanced way too rarely seen on film. Where is the line between consensual S&M and abuse? Can you be into healthy S&M if you were abused as a child? What if your masochism is part of a suicidal ideology? How are love and pain connected and when is inflicting pain really showing love? Where are the lines too be drawn and who draws them? How can people into S&M avoid the fact that the lifestyle attracts some bad people.
Maria Bellows is amazing in this film as a women into masochism but also suffering deep seated psychological scars from years of abuse and from living with a man unwilling or unable to understand her sexual nature.
In many ways this film is similar to
Secretary, in that both women are psychologically scarred and into masochism. However, the woman in
Secretary finds a loving man who accepts her while Nancy is not so lucky.
On a bit of a tangent, I must comment on one of my pet peeves in films. Given the complex way the film examines sexuality I was saddened to see it make the common Hollywood mistake of showing female orgasm in the cartoonish way portrayed in porn movies when she instantly orgasms the second cunnilingus begins.
Great film Skjerva!
Grade:
A-