It would be convenient to consider the narrator and his wife to be a couple who simply took their sex games too far

christopher-underwood

The ever underrated Polanski and one of his most underrated and overlooked films. Many have cited as possible reasons the director's difficulties with the US authorities but equally it must be said this is difficult territory. It would be convenient to consider the narrator and his wife to be a couple who simply took their sex games too far and then got their inevitable comeuppance. What we are forced to participate in here, however, is the very ebb and flow of love and lust between two people not afraid to let their passions take them to the edge and even over. The moral of this tale is not that men are evil bastards and women cruelly treated but that we all have those dominant and submissive elements within us that we can use for fun or for real. In the early stages Oscar revels in playing the humiliated one, later the tables turn and finally turn again. Everybody has been known to take a sexually orientated or humorously intended remark or game too far and can surely recognise the elements displayed here even if they are written rather larger than we are used to. A passionate, moving and insightful film.

score 10/10

christopher-underwood 11 February 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1596368/