The Duke of Burgundy

Name: The Duke of Burgundy
Genre: Drama
Released: January 23, 2015
Duration: 104 min
Rating: 87
Cast: Monica Swinn, Sidse Babett Knudsen

2015

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 24 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 53 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 53 Ratings

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The Duke Of Burgundy

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: January 23, 2015 | Not Rated

Starring: Monica Swinn, Sidse Babett Knudsen

Summary: Day after day, Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) act out a simple yet provocative ritual that ends with Evelyn's punishment and pleasure. As Cynthia yearns for a more conventional relationship, Evelyn's obsession with erotica quickly becomes an addiction that may push the relationship to a breaking point.

Director: Peter Strickland

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 104 min

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Critic Reviews

100

The Telegraph Robbie Collin

Sep 13, 2014

Strickland has made something uniquely sexy and strange, built on two tremendous central performances and a bone-deep understanding of cinema’s magic and mechanisms. Read full review

100

Stephanie Zacharek

Jan 20, 2015

Strickland builds the film, artfully, into a complex and ultimately moving essay on the privileges of victimhood and the nuances of what it means to suffer for love. Read full review

100

Empire Kim Newman

Feb 17, 2015

Of course, this is a film you have to meet half-way. If you’re willing to enter its world, it’s an immensely rewarding, amusing, wise, melancholy and involving experience. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Jan 18, 2015

Peter Strickland charges full-tilt into the objectifying whims of his fantasies in order to somehow reach the other end of perception, which acknowledges the ultimate empathetic limitations of said fantasies. Read full review

A.O. Scott

Jan 22, 2015

In the end there is nothing especially campy about “The Duke of Burgundy,” which neither mocks its heroines nor the breathless, naughty screen tradition to which they belong. It’s a love story, and also a perversely sincere (and sincerely perverse) labor of love. Read full review

The Guardian Jordan Hoffman

Sep 13, 2014

The Duke of Burgundy will have its detractors. But this is not just a filthy movie. It's a considerable work of art, and one that touches on a rarely discussed side of human sexuality completely free of judgement. Read full review

Walter Addiego

Jan 22, 2015

This is highly skilled filmmaking, but the movie is not for everybody — the relationship involves dominance and submission, sexual games played at a high pitch. This material falls short of pornographic, but still packs plenty of erotic punch. Read full review

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User Reviews

beast18

Mar 12, 2022

Amazing. Beautiful. Haunting. Poignant. Lush. Beautifully crafted. hyper-real, to the point that every squeak of a rusty bicycle chain, every rustle of a cotton sheet, and every bead of water dripping from that hand-washed laundry echoes through the surround speakers like a thunderclap. It’sAmazing. Beautiful. Haunting. Poignant. Lush. Beautifully crafted. hyper-real, to the point that every squeak of a rusty bicycle chain, every rustle of a cotton sheet, and every bead of water dripping from that hand-washed laundry echoes through the surround speakers like a thunderclap. It’s as if sound carries its own erotic quality for Strickland, and it’s how he pulls the audience deeply into his movies’ very particular, peculiar worlds.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

EdgarReviews

Jun 27, 2015

Evocative and provocative, The Duke of Burgundy is an astounding work of art; Strickland takes an intriguing plot and masterfully weaves it into a gem filled with a fine mixture of uncanny eroticism and unexpected sadness. One of 2015's best films so far, and one of the best films I've everEvocative and provocative, The Duke of Burgundy is an astounding work of art; Strickland takes an intriguing plot and masterfully weaves it into a gem filled with a fine mixture of uncanny eroticism and unexpected sadness. One of 2015's best films so far, and one of the best films I've ever seen about love.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

thaiinme

Nov 22, 2015

I really enjoy watching this movie the twist and turns I had to watch it more than once to realize who was really the dominate one in the relationship. I love both of the characters especially the one played by Knudsen she just exudes the sexual sensuality I haven't seen in a long time. II really enjoy watching this movie the twist and turns I had to watch it more than once to realize who was really the dominate one in the relationship. I love both of the characters especially the one played by Knudsen she just exudes the sexual sensuality I haven't seen in a long time. I can just breathe her in and yes she does make women in their 40's so sexually inviting. The movie remain in my mind the following giving me goose bumps and made me smile and think of my own lover who I take for granted. Strickland has great vision very thought provoking artsy sexually exotic movie without being vulgar.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

alwayswatching

Jan 4, 2016

"The Duke of Burgundy" is a movie about dynamics of sex between Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her maid, Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna). But I would like to read more into it and think it is also a movie about guilt.

The setting, characters, and order of events in the movie does not resemble"The Duke of Burgundy" is a movie about dynamics of sex between Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her maid, Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna). But I would like to read more into it and think it is also a movie about guilt.

The setting, characters, and order of events in the movie does not resemble anything in real life. The is no sense of time, there are no men around at all, and people have unusual professions. This all indicates that the the story is happening inside someones head.

From the opening scene we see that Cynthia is cruel to her maid. She punishes the made with pithy excuses. At one point in the movie, we see her opening a big coffin-like box in the woods to find the maid's skeleton in it. It appears that Cynthia's cruelty killed the maid.

Rest of the movie shows how Cynthia is coping with her guilt. She goes through a mental gymnastic to convince herself she is not guilty. She imagines what she could have done differently. She deceives herself into thinking that she was in love with the maid and did everything to prove her love. In her distorted narration of the events, her cruelty to the maid was not punishment, it was sexual favors.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DRauchDoes2015

Apr 25, 2015

A lush, slow-burn erotic art film, The Duke of Burgundy is a hauntingly gorgeous, emotionally astute (if not exactly insightful) drama, one that solidifies Peter Strickland's place at the head of the new wave of British auteurs. His film seeps with hypnotic imagery, complimented by aA lush, slow-burn erotic art film, The Duke of Burgundy is a hauntingly gorgeous, emotionally astute (if not exactly insightful) drama, one that solidifies Peter Strickland's place at the head of the new wave of British auteurs. His film seeps with hypnotic imagery, complimented by a pulsating, seductive score from Cat's Eyes (Strickland's replacement composer after the unfortunate death of electronic veteran Broadcast). The pacing is intentional, teasingly so, and Strickland's vintage, yet modernly sensible aesthetic is on display in it's fully realized prowess. None of this would've come across as anything more than a respectable exercise in pretentious experimentalism, however, had we not been graced by two absolutely revelatory performances from Knudsen and D'Anna. Their understated dynamic is what sells The Duke of Burgundy and what prevents it's accomplished cinematic technique from dwarfing it's thematic focus.

The most unforeseen pleasantry of The Duke of Burgundy is actually how funny it is, laugh out loud, at times. The humor is often amplified by just how muted the delivery is. The lead characters' intimate interactions are sometimes interrupted or sabotaged by mundane circumstance, often to hilarious effect. Such a scene as Evelyn urging a disgruntled Cynthia to urinate on her behind a closed door is a high-note worth mention that, in spite of sounding crude on paper, is tastefully gut-busting. Strickland, in spite of wholly committing to an approach that fluctuates between dreamy abstraction and solemn directness, never takes his material too seriously. This is a BDSM film in essence, but one pitched so perfectly that it dodges exploitation and surface-level titillation entirely, whilst not stifling indulgence in it's sensual backdrop.

The metaphorical cinematography, though occasionally obscure and isolated, generates a consistent mood of intrigue from start to finish. Though some visual cues lead to the occasional rabbit's hole, Strickland comes through for the most part and makes a movie that is discernible, yet challenging enough to warrant retrospection. From the (I swear it's in there) fuzzed-out mannequin seated in the crowd of female observers, to the ongoing display of taxidermic moths, to the numerous angles shot into mirrors, to the puzzling blur in the central relationship when the two alternate between the bedroom and reality, etc. The Duke of Burgundy is accomplished enough as an art film to the point where an air of pretentiousness is for the most part absent throughout.

Every moment is exuberantly executed by playing off of a tension of expectation. Many of the scenes don't rotate around a central mechanism of conflict. Rather, they all build to a potent, singular atmosphere that makes the most mundane interaction captivating. Though in a more wholesome sense there isn't any primary issue driving the narrative, the subtlety of the storytelling and sheer command of tone throughout makes the story feel somehow universal, and always intentional. The slick polish of the film would leave me feeling cold, but damn, do Knudsen and D'Anna manage to captivate. There is a genuine emotional undercurrent running through every second of screen time they have together, and for a story such as this, it's a testament to their incredible nuance as well as their willingness to tackle dauntingly revealing subject matter. Their romance is an alien one, true, but nonetheless believable.

There is also a commendable, and at times bizarre, subversion of societal expectations relating to gender and sexual orientation. Strickland's film is very modern in that it doesn't bat an eye at the homosexual relationship at the center of this story. It is eerie, though equally laudable, that his film also contains nary a single male character. In an age where female roles are either secondary or lackluster, here we have a cinematic universe ripe with femininity in all it's splendor. Whether this is simply unintentional or another brilliant cue from Strickland that adds to the feeling of fantasy, kudos. It's a film of entirely positive female characters, and one that humbly (or even non-existantly) asserts it's matriarchal overtones.

There comes a movie every so often that breaths fresh life into archetypes of cinema, and I'm proud to announce that The Duke of Burgundy is the first great film of 2015, and the best movie on the subject of Sadomasochism I've ever seen (sorry, Secretary). Definitely give this one a watch, it's a challenging, sublimely beautiful film.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

Mancunian2014

Mar 4, 2015

Visually fascinating and emotionally mature. Probably the most of any film in the last decade. Despite the bizarre and completely unbelievable setting for Duke of Burgundy, one can imagine themselves in a relationship with different power dynamics where it is not always evident who is inVisually fascinating and emotionally mature. Probably the most of any film in the last decade. Despite the bizarre and completely unbelievable setting for Duke of Burgundy, one can imagine themselves in a relationship with different power dynamics where it is not always evident who is in control and who is more vulnerable. Such is the case with professor Cynthia and student Evelyn. The power dynamic is not what it seems. The outrageously rehearsed, and mildly comical, "BDSM" routine these two women do is only made more entertainingly puzzling by eccentric background characters. All the characters are colourful and flutter about in accordance with the metaphor of the butterfly designated to the movie.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

xXAlways_RiteXx

Mar 27, 2015

In my opinon, this is one of the most incisive, penetrating, and empathetic films ever made about what it truly means to love another person, audaciously disguised as salacious midnight-movie fare. No better picture is likely to surface all year.

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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