Cynthia is an amateur butterfly collector who lives in a beautiful Victorian home in the dense forest. When Evelyn, her newly hired housekeeper arrives, the two women share instant passion, with their relationship being defined by clearly defined roles: Cynthia is the dominate force in the relationship, while Evelyn is the submissive one. As their intimacy and time together deepens, the two women's relationship begins to warp, with each woman's roles not being nearly as defined as once thought. Peter Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy is a hypnotic, psychosexual cat-and-mouse game about the roles we play in relationships and how they aren't as nearly as defined as we believe them to be. It's a brilliant move by Strickland to cast two woman in this film, stripping away the potential for any form of gender-bias by the audience as they experience these two woman's stories. The Duke Of Burgundy perfectly captures the ebb & flow of relationships and love, showing how in flux these roles can truly be in a constantly changing landscape of emotion and companionship. Exploring the relationship between power, love, and happiness, The Duke Of Burgundy subverts the viewers expectations by the end of the film, calling into question the idea of who is truly the dominate one in the relationship. There is something to be said about emotional vs. physical power with The Duke of Burgundy in how this unfolds, with Cynthia's character being dominant on the surface but much more fragile than Evelyn emotionally. Much like his last film, Berberian Sound System, Peter Strickland uses tight compositions to create a claustrophobic type of experience, throwing the audience deep into the world of this cat-and-mouse game. With elements remenscient of Bergman's Persona and Early DePalma, Peter Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy is an intoxicating journey into the power struggle of Cynthia and Evelyn's relationship.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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