The Duke of Burgundy

Peter Strickland follows up his chilly giallo-horror Berberian Sound Studio with something altogether warmer and sweeter – though no less strange. Set in an enchanting pastoral world of butterflies and country houses, populated exclusively by women, it has a dreamy quality about it; a quality which accelerates wildly during a hallucinatory third act, triggered by the camera tumbling towards a lead character’s crotch.

Strickland’s fondness for a choppy, unconventional narrative structure initially suggests an S&M sexual-awakening movie – an arthouse Fifty Shades, if you will. But he deftly bait-and-switches early on, quietly reframing it as a tender love story (albeit one with a human toilet). As well as the inevitable physical strain, the sadomasochistic relationship between Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) takes on an emotional toil, and the film grapples with the logistics of a submissive love affair. Stagey dialogue and languid pacing make it unlikely The Duke of Burgundy will find a wide audience, but with such magisterial cinematography and an atmosphere all of its own, it deserves one. [John Nugent]