Movies and Television
While BDSM activity appeared initially quasi "subliminal" in some movies, in the 1960s famous works of literature like the Story of O and Venus in Furs were filmed, partly in very explicit form. The Spanish director Jess Franco developed several typical examples of the Exploitation-genres' approach, often based on the works of the Marquis de Sade and censored in many countries worldwide.
More recently, with the production of 9½ Weeks, the topic of BDSM was transferred to broader audiences with high impact and notable commercial success. Since the late 1990s movies like Preaching to the Perverted, a movie generally considered a reaction to Operation Spanner, and Secretary started to increasingly reconcile financial demands with authenticity.
With the development of documentary productions such as SICK: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, Bound for Pleasure and Wir leben ... SM! an increasingly broader approach to the subject matter is developing, targeting on wider audiences.
During the last four decades, the spectrum of productions has been greatly enlarged, showing the topic has arrived in mainstream movies:
- 1925: A Woman of the World (Based on The Tattooed Countess by Carl van Vechten.)
- 1967: Belle de jour, by Luis Buñuel
- 1967: Venus in Furs by Joseph Marzano
- 1968: La prisonnière, - H.G.Clouzot.
- 1969: Venus in Furs by Massimo Dallamano (not the Jess Franco version also from 1969)
- 1969: The Frightened Woman by Piero Schivazappa
- 1972: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- 1974: The Night Porter by Liliana Cavani
- 1974: Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August
- 1975: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom by Pier Paolo Pasolini
- 1975: Story of O
- 1976: In the Realm of the Senses by Nagisa Oshima
- 1976: Maîtresse
- 1976: The Image (The Punishment of Anne)
- 1978: The Mafu Cage',
- 1982: Cat People
- 1983: A Woman in Flames
- 1985: The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak
- 1985: Seduction: The Cruel Woman
- 1986: From Beyond (film)
- 1986: 9½ Weeks
- 1987: Personal Services
- 1989: Wild Orchid
- 1990: Tie Me Up Tie Me Down
- 1993: Tokyo Decadence
- 1993: Body of Evidence
- 1994: Exit to Eden
- 1994: Venus in Furs by Maartje Seyferth & Victor Nieuwenhuijs
- 1996: Fetishes
- 1997: Preaching to the Perverted
- 1997: SICK: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (Interviews with the dying BDSM performance artist Bob Flanagan)
- 1999: Lies (South Korea)
- 1999: Romance by Catherine Breillat
- 1999: Wildly Available
- 2000: Quills Drama loosely based on the Marquis De Sade
- 2000: Dirty Pictures IMDb (The Movie is based on the Mapplethorpe-exhibition in Cincinnati)
- 2001: The Piano Teacher
- 2001: Beyond Vanilla, IMDb
- 2002: Secretary
- 2002: The Fashionistas, IMDb
- 2002: A Snake Of June
- 2003: Wir leben... SM!, IMDb
- 2004: Going Under
- 2004: Bettie Page: Dark Angel
- 2005: Ecstasy in Berlin 1926 by Maria Beatty
- 2005: Mr. and Mrs. Smith
- 2005: The Notorious Bettie Page by Mary Harron
- 2006: 24/7 The Passion of Life, IMDb Homepage (German)
- 2006: Psychopathia Sexualis, IMDb Homepage
- 2006: Hounded, IMDb
- 2006: The Pet, IMDb Homepage
- 2007: New Tokyo Decadence - The Slave
- 2007: Walk All Over Me
- 2009: Modern Love is Automatic
- 2009: SM-rechter
- 2010: Leap Year
Besides these mainstream movies, there is a huge market for underground sadomasochistic direct-to-DVD and Internet-download films. The majority of these have no explicit sexual content, but a few are also pornographic films. These videos fall into specific fetish categories such as bondage, corporal punishment (domestic and school spanking), pony play (animal role-playing) and dungeon-based BDSM centered on the master/slave dynamic. The porn industry has responded to this growing trend by creating a number of sex films with an S&M theme. The most noteworthy being the award-winnng The Fashionistas (2002) and its 2003 sequel, The Fashionistas II.
In recent years, movies like 9½ Weeks, Tokyo Decadence and Secretary have been shown, sometimes edited, on television in several countries. In 2001 the Canadian documentary KinK was the first television series on the topic worldwide. It has yet not been broadcast in Europe.
Other example of BDSM in television and film:
- CSI has a recurring character, Lady Heather, a professional dominatrix.
- Payback (1999), a film with Lucy Liu as Pearl, a dominatrix and hit woman for the Chinese mafia.
- In Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000), Jennifer Tilly is a part-time dominatrix-for-hire and exotic dancer in leather fetish outfits.
- Mercy (film) (2000), Cable-movie with Peta Wilson as a submissive member of a secret S&M society.
- Fast Sofa (2001); Jennifer Tilly plays a porn star who is bound and gagged with elaborate leather gear and whipped by her manager (Eric Roberts) for misbehaving.
- EuroTrip (2004) features Lucy Lawless as a German dominatrix in an Amsterdam fetish club.
- On the fourth season of the reality show VH1's The Surreal Life (2005) Jane Wiedlin from the pop group The Go-Gos dressed in dominatrix gear and revealed her secret BDSM lifestyle. In that episode other cast members dabbled in S&M play in a makeshift dungeon room.
- In the "Love Hurts" episode of the TV series House, Dr. House treats a patient Harvey Park (John Cho) who has a dominatrix Annette Raines (Christina Cox)
- In the television series Desperate Housewives, the character Bree Van De Kamp's husband Rex had an illicit affair with a woman who was able to please him sexually as a dominatrix.
- nip/tuck has Tia Carrere in a recurring role as professional dominatrix Mistress DarkPain.
- Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007), a British series about a call girl who takes dominatrix lessons in one episode.
- BDSM: It's Not What You Think! (2008), a globally screened and well received documentary by Erin Palmquist.
- CSI: NY (season 1/episode 16 is all about case that involves BDSM community)
- Allo Allo (S1/episode 2)(S3/ episode5)
Read more about this topic: BDSM In Culture And Media
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