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This Friday, January 16th, New York City’s Film Society of Lincoln Center will be holding a screening of one of our early favorites of the year, The Duke of Burgundy. The event, which kicks of at 7PM, features an extended Q&A with director Peter Strickland, a screening of his latest film, along with a short that inspired it. For our New York City readers, we’ve teamed with them to give away two (2) ticket packages, each consisting of a pair of tickets. See how to enter below and all entries must be received by 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, January 15th.

To enter, do the below steps:

1. Like The Film Stage on Facebook

2. Follow The Film Stage on Twitter

3. Retweet the following tweet:

We will select the winners at random and notify via a Twitter message. One entry per household. No purchase necessary. Winners must reside in New York City.

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
PETER STRICKLAND, 2014
UK | FORMAT: DCP | 104 MINUTES

Q&A with Peter Strickland!

Having improbably and triumphantly blended Italian giallo with British midlife angst in Berberian Sound Studio, director Peter Strickland returns with a May-September romance nested in a ’70s Euro lesbian fantasia. With a nod to Jean Genet, Evelyn (Berberian Sound Studio’s Chiara D’Anna) and Cynthia (Borgen’s Sidse Babbett Knudsen) enact a maid-mistress domination ritual, but while entomologist Cynthia takes on the role of stringent employer, it’s the younger, increasingly restless Evelyn dictating the terms of their relationship. So lush that its opening titles credit perfume and lingerie, The Duke of Burgundy, named for a species of butterfly, weds Jess Franco’s softcore aesthetic to the female codependency of Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, with trapped insect symbolism recalling William Wyler’s The Collector. Yet Strickland goes beyond pastiche to fashion a work that is both deliciously kinky and heartrendingly intimate. A Sundance Selects release.

Followed by:

Mano Destra
Cleo Übelmann, Switzerland, 1986, Digibeta, 53m
Cleo Übelmann’s seldom-seen meditation on restraint and anticipation transcends its bondage trappings with obsessively composed cinematography and evocative foley. At first, reminiscent of Chris Marker’s La Jetée, the seeming stillness is betrayed by the occasional twitch of a calf muscle under the severe rope trickery. Übelmann’s ice-cold approach to form serves the subject matter perfectly, as both willing “captive” and audience submit to waiting and waiting. High-heel footsteps within varying distances are what either promise or deny us and the submissive any release, both literal and metaphorical. I sawMano Destra at London’s Scala Cinema over 20 years ago, and some of the ideas found in it, as well as some of its tenderness (underneath the minimal, chilly surfaces), were strong influences on The Duke of Burgundy. Along with the films of Monika Treut, MM Serra, and Maria Beatty,Mano Destra is a vital and covert exploration of different desires in the absence of men.—Peter Strickland

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