Film review: 'Fetishes'
Nick Broomfield, that documentary filmmaker with the Robin Leach accent and a propensity for inserting himself into his stories, gets down and dirty in "Fetishes", an account of the goings on at Pandora Box,'s a New York S&M parlor specializing in domination.
Perhaps his immersion into the world of prostitution in "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam" whetted his appetite for even more sordid subject matter. The film opens exclusively at New York's Cinema Village.
Surprisingly enough, "Fetishes" is more straightforward and less idiosyncratic than many of Broomfield's previous efforts, and except for a brief segment at the end -- in which he experiences a little domination first hand -- he is mostly an inconspicuous presence.
Needless, to say, not everyone will respond to the sight of grown men and women getting spanked or being used as human ashtrays with the same degree of enthusiasm. "Fetishes" is less analytical than it is illustrative in its depiction of the many ways in which people desire to have themselves humiliated -- for up to $1,000 a session.
We meet the various employees of Pandora's, headed by chief dominatrix Mistress Raven, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Cher during her Gothic period. She informs us that the most sensuous part of the human anatomy is the skin, since it's "all over your body." Among the other employees are Mistress Natasha, who sleeps with her pet iguana and complains of her difficulties meeting eligible men, and Mistress Catherine, who is someone you would not want to mess with while she's wielding her bull whip. All the mistresses seem to enjoy their work. As one puts it, "It's kind of nice to be able to beat somebody up once in a while."
Among the clients whose sessions we get to witness are a lawyer, a magazine publisher and a retired bank manager. They each attempt to explain their obsessions, but, as the footage demonstrates, a picture is worth a thousand words. The filmmakers also capture the occasional misunderstanding, an example being the client who walks out in a huff during one particularly athletic session, proclaiming "I came to wrestle, not get abused."
Sessions are individually tailored to the clients' particular needs for domination. We learn that many Jewish clients favor Nazi themes, for instance, while black patrons sometimes opt for plantation fantasies. It's hard not to sometimes feel for the hapless patrons despite the fact they're more than happy to be there. One example is the poor man who simply couldn't get his penis to perform according to his mistress' commands.
On a technical level, "Fetishes" is fairly perfunctory, which is understandable since the filmmakers had to contend with such problems as determining the proper sound level for someone whose head is stuck in a toilet.
FETISHES
Cinema Village Features
Director Nick Broomfield
Producers Nick Broomfield, Michelle D'Acosta
Executive producer Sheila Nevins
Co-producer Jamie Ader-Brown
Director of photography Christophe Lazenberg
Editors Betty Burkhart, Nick Broomfield
Music Jamie Muhoberac
Color/stereo
Running time - 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Perhaps his immersion into the world of prostitution in "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam" whetted his appetite for even more sordid subject matter. The film opens exclusively at New York's Cinema Village.
Surprisingly enough, "Fetishes" is more straightforward and less idiosyncratic than many of Broomfield's previous efforts, and except for a brief segment at the end -- in which he experiences a little domination first hand -- he is mostly an inconspicuous presence.
Needless, to say, not everyone will respond to the sight of grown men and women getting spanked or being used as human ashtrays with the same degree of enthusiasm. "Fetishes" is less analytical than it is illustrative in its depiction of the many ways in which people desire to have themselves humiliated -- for up to $1,000 a session.
We meet the various employees of Pandora's, headed by chief dominatrix Mistress Raven, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Cher during her Gothic period. She informs us that the most sensuous part of the human anatomy is the skin, since it's "all over your body." Among the other employees are Mistress Natasha, who sleeps with her pet iguana and complains of her difficulties meeting eligible men, and Mistress Catherine, who is someone you would not want to mess with while she's wielding her bull whip. All the mistresses seem to enjoy their work. As one puts it, "It's kind of nice to be able to beat somebody up once in a while."
Among the clients whose sessions we get to witness are a lawyer, a magazine publisher and a retired bank manager. They each attempt to explain their obsessions, but, as the footage demonstrates, a picture is worth a thousand words. The filmmakers also capture the occasional misunderstanding, an example being the client who walks out in a huff during one particularly athletic session, proclaiming "I came to wrestle, not get abused."
Sessions are individually tailored to the clients' particular needs for domination. We learn that many Jewish clients favor Nazi themes, for instance, while black patrons sometimes opt for plantation fantasies. It's hard not to sometimes feel for the hapless patrons despite the fact they're more than happy to be there. One example is the poor man who simply couldn't get his penis to perform according to his mistress' commands.
On a technical level, "Fetishes" is fairly perfunctory, which is understandable since the filmmakers had to contend with such problems as determining the proper sound level for someone whose head is stuck in a toilet.
FETISHES
Cinema Village Features
Director Nick Broomfield
Producers Nick Broomfield, Michelle D'Acosta
Executive producer Sheila Nevins
Co-producer Jamie Ader-Brown
Director of photography Christophe Lazenberg
Editors Betty Burkhart, Nick Broomfield
Music Jamie Muhoberac
Color/stereo
Running time - 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/13/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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