Mano Destra
1986 BDSM art film by Cleo Uebelmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mano Destra (Italian for "right hand") is a 1986 Italian-language Swiss art film written, directed by and starring Cleo Uebelmann. Shot in black and white on 16mm film, Mano Destra is a study of lesbian erotic objectification which depicts Uebelmann as a dominatrix.tying a woman in a lengthy series of acts of consensual bondage.[1] The film dwells at length on the bound woman tied in a series of positions, in a series of extended almost static shots. The film has music and sound effects, but is without dialogue.
Unknown model
- 1986 (Switzerland)
| Mano Destra | |
|---|---|
A bound woman, a central subject of the film | |
| Directed by | Cleo Uebelmann |
| Written by | Cleo Uebelmann |
| Starring | Cleo Uebelmann Unknown model |
Release date |
|
Running time | 53 minutes |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Language | Italian |
Images from the film were later published in 1988 as part of a book, The Dominas - Mano Destra by the Cleo Übelmann-Group.[2]
The music is by the Swiss electro-wave group The Vyllies.[3]
Accolades
In Women and the New German Cinema, Julia Knight describes it as a film which explores the liberating possibilities of sadomasochism, subverting audience expectations of what sadomasochism is like.[4] In New Queer Cinema, B. Ruby Rich described it as "deserving of instant cult status".[5]
In The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film, Cherry Smyth states that its imagery is "beyond sex", and that "like being offered an ice-cold, luscious fruit drink on a hot day, which you are forbidden to taste, this film encapsulates desire as death, as nothingness, and yet utter completeness".[6][7]
The director Peter Strickland has cited the film as a favourite[8] and one of his sources of inspiration for his film The Duke of Burgundy.[9] In a 2015 interview with Sight & Sound, he described it as “a very interesting [film], not really sexploitation at all, more like Chris Marker doing a female-female bondage film".[10]
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