Maitresse
Barbet Schroeder's Maitresse (1976) has retained an "underground" following, which perhaps is all one can expect from an X-rated romantic dark comedy that graphically portrayed professional S&M encounters using real customers, real masks, real chains, real cages, real torture racks, whippings, piercings, nailings. The film also portrayed the nuances of romance, the 
power struggles in new relationships, the limits of 1960s sexual liberation, and the role of class differences in social movements. Bulle Ogier starred as Ariane, a dominatrix working out of the basement of her bourgeois apartment (actually a separate downstairs apartment that is connected by a hidden mechanical stairway). This is Ogier's finest role, though she is excellent in her other work for Schroeder, including The Vallee (1972), set in the New Guinea 
rainforest, and the gambling movie Tricheurs (The Cheaters) (1984). She also has the distinction of having worked for Luis Bunuel in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and for taking on the Catherine Deneuve role of Severine in the 2006 sequel to Belle de Jour, called Belle Toujours which stars Michel Piccoli in his original role of Husson and was directed by (98 year old) Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. Starring alongside Ogier in Maitresse was Gerard Depardieu as Olivier, a cocksure ex-con who 
stumbles upon Ogier's dungeon while burglaring her building. Though Ogier attempts to keep her two worlds (and apartments, even with separate phones) separate, the lines between dominantion and submission blur as her relationship with Depardieu grows. He, still somewhat indignant to her lifestyle and her boss Gautier, tries to control her. She, by seducing him into her professional life, tries equally to control him. Neither the film nor these 
relationship boundaries are predictable or static, and Schroeder's tender "climax" of the film seems to suggest that only in masochistic desire--complete surrender--does true love reside. The film's extraordinary visuals--the domestic Parisian scenes, the dimly lit basement, the great scene at the country manor--were shot by Nestor Almendros, a Schroeder regular who won an Academy Award for Terrence Mallick's Days of Heaven (1979). The costumes were by Karl Lagerfeld. The breadth of Schroeder's work, like Werner Herzog, is both very obsessive and very diverse, directing feature films as well as 
documentaries such as General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), Koko: The Talking Gorilla (1978), and The Charles Bukowski Tapes (1987). He was also, famously, an important figure in the French New Wave, producing, among other movies, Eric Rohmer's The Girl at the Monceau Bakery (1963), Nadja a Paris (1964), La Collectionneuse (1967), My Night at Maud's (1969), Claire's Knee (1970), Chloe in the Afternoon (1972). He later produced Fassbinder’s Chinese Roulette (with Anna Karina)(1976) and was featured in Pierre Zucca’s infamous Roberte (1979) based on the novel and artwork of Pierre Klossowski, translator and interpreter of De Sade and brother of the painter Balthus.
Barbet Schroeder's Maitresse (1976) has retained an "underground" following, which perhaps is all one can expect from an X-rated romantic dark comedy that graphically portrayed professional S&M encounters using real customers, real masks, real chains, real cages, real torture racks, whippings, piercings, nailings. The film also portrayed the nuances of romance, the 
power struggles in new relationships, the limits of 1960s sexual liberation, and the role of class differences in social movements. Bulle Ogier starred as Ariane, a dominatrix working out of the basement of her bourgeois apartment (actually a separate downstairs apartment that is connected by a hidden mechanical stairway). This is Ogier's finest role, though she is excellent in her other work for Schroeder, including The Vallee (1972), set in the New Guinea 
rainforest, and the gambling movie Tricheurs (The Cheaters) (1984). She also has the distinction of having worked for Luis Bunuel in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and for taking on the Catherine Deneuve role of Severine in the 2006 sequel to Belle de Jour, called Belle Toujours which stars Michel Piccoli in his original role of Husson and was directed by (98 year old) Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. Starring alongside Ogier in Maitresse was Gerard Depardieu as Olivier, a cocksure ex-con who 
stumbles upon Ogier's dungeon while burglaring her building. Though Ogier attempts to keep her two worlds (and apartments, even with separate phones) separate, the lines between dominantion and submission blur as her relationship with Depardieu grows. He, still somewhat indignant to her lifestyle and her boss Gautier, tries to control her. She, by seducing him into her professional life, tries equally to control him. Neither the film nor these 
relationship boundaries are predictable or static, and Schroeder's tender "climax" of the film seems to suggest that only in masochistic desire--complete surrender--does true love reside. The film's extraordinary visuals--the domestic Parisian scenes, the dimly lit basement, the great scene at the country manor--were shot by Nestor Almendros, a Schroeder regular who won an Academy Award for Terrence Mallick's Days of Heaven (1979). The costumes were by Karl Lagerfeld. The breadth of Schroeder's work, like Werner Herzog, is both very obsessive and very diverse, directing feature films as well as 
documentaries such as General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), Koko: The Talking Gorilla (1978), and The Charles Bukowski Tapes (1987). He was also, famously, an important figure in the French New Wave, producing, among other movies, Eric Rohmer's The Girl at the Monceau Bakery (1963), Nadja a Paris (1964), La Collectionneuse (1967), My Night at Maud's (1969), Claire's Knee (1970), Chloe in the Afternoon (1972). He later produced Fassbinder’s Chinese Roulette (with Anna Karina)(1976) and was featured in Pierre Zucca’s infamous Roberte (1979) based on the novel and artwork of Pierre Klossowski, translator and interpreter of De Sade and brother of the painter Balthus.
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