Demonlover (2002)
Points towards the screen at the dehumanization and commodification of kink as a macguffin in an absurd game of control fueled by lust for power and material greed, leans over to date and whispers "That's the demonlover!"
Demonlover (2002)
Although demonlover is not the success it wants to be, it certainly stuck with me. It made me think extensively about the issues Assayas was exploring. Connie Nielsen gives one of the more underrated performances in recent memory and is a highlight. The direction it goes in is all the more frustrating because of how well it builds up its first half. Love it or hate it, Olivier Assayas goes for broke with a film that is somehow both worthwhile and tiresome.
Much maligned and misunderstood, poorly received at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, as well as by the French press and public, demonlover suffered a triple failure (critical, popular, and financial) in proportion to the hefty size of director Olivier Assayas's investment (artistic, symbolic, and financial). But the film is now enjoying a certain rehabilitation with its recent dvd release in France and upcoming U.S. theatrical run.
Demonlover (2002): 4 out of 10: Wow, what an overlong train wreck of a movie. Before I begin to scratch the surface of the ineptitude of this film, let me explain the few things Demonlover does right.
Demonlover (2002) isn't a tale about a satanic seducer (à la Demon Rage/Satan's Mistress [1981]), but there are nevertheless many evil (and a couple of naked) people running about in this sordid cyber S&M flick. Competing corporate porn media moguls from America, France and Japan duke it out to see who ends up on top . . . of their games, that is. Connie Nielsen plays Diane, who finds a chrome-domed bully on top of her early in the flick, a fellow she shortly shoots in his clean-shaven head. At least there's a nice glimpse of her silicone sandbags and her ass during the struggle. Chloë Sevigny plays Connie's assistant Elise, who gets naked, but it's while she's lying on her stomach on her bed playing video games, so she doesn't show any naughty bits, just a little cleavage. When Diane stumbles across a website called "The Hellfire Club" that involves what might be REAL S&M, her life becomes endangered. Perhaps she should have stuck with listening to the terrible "Electric" techno band of the same name instead. 041b061a72