'The Duke of Burgundy:' Throwback erotica, all-gauze and all-girl

Something's up when a film's opening credits cite the lingerie designer (Andrea Flesch) and the perfume (Je Suis Gizella) along with the director (Peter Strickland). What's up in The Duke of Burgundy is a straight-faced homage to 1970s European erotica, full of soft-focus nudity and soft-core kink.

Strickland, a British filmmaker steeped in the vintage horror and porn of directors such as Italy's Jesús Franco and the United States' Radley Metzger, creates a tiny, tasteful throwback to more innocent times, when actresses with exotic names would strip off their costumes while embracing far-fetched scenarios - and one another.

Never mind the title of Strickland's reverie, there are no men - none - in The Duke of Burgundy. It's the tale of Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna), a young woman we first encounter bicycling through a gauzy continental countryside, and Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a somewhat older, more worldly looking woman who lives in a large house with a collection of butterflies pinned to the wall.

At first, the women's relationship seems perfectly ordinary. Evelyn comes to clean the house, and to wash Cynthia's lacy underthings while Cynthia sits in a chair, reading a book and drinking from a pitcher of water.

But when Cynthia makes her inspection, her countenance turns stern and scolding. Eveyln must be punished for the shoddy, lazy job she's done. The punishment usually involves doing penance in a locked trunk - naked, of course - after which the couple retreat to a bed, or a chaise longue, and explore each other's nooks and crevices.

It soon becomes apparent that Evelyn and Cynthia are seriously into role-play, domination, and submission, and that their rituals go a long way toward defining who they are. Between clinches and costume changes, the pair hie off to town to hear lectures on insects - on "Rose Chafer Beetle Larva" and "Grizzled Skippers." The film takes its title from another of these creatures, the Duke of Burgundy, or hamearis lucina to the lepidopterists out there.

What passes for drama in The Duke of Burgundy comes with the arrival of a blond woman (Fatma Mohamed) who is a carpenter of some renown. Her specialty is a bed that can be outfitted with a hidden enclosure. (Who needs a trunk when you can lock your lover right under your mattress?)

But the carpenter is backlogged. She can't possibly have the order ready in time for Evelyn's birthday. Would a "human toilet" suffice?

Don't ask.

Well, you can ask, but you won't get an answer. The Duke of Burgundy leaves this and other mysteries to the imagination, hanging in the sun-dappled mist, punctuated by lulling woodwinds and the chirrup of bugs.

Directed by Peter Strickland. With Chiara D'Anna, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Fatma Mohamed. Distributed by IFC Films.

Running time: 1 hour, 44 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (sex, nudity, adult themes).

Playing at: Ritz Bourse.EndText

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