This controversial film from director Barbet Schroeder (Barfly, Single White Female, The Valley) is both a conventional love story and a dark study of fetishism. Starring Gérard Depardieu as Olivier, the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maîtresse Ariane (Bulle Ogier), a leather clad dominatrix. Based on an encounter with a real-life dominatrix, this story of a Paris prostitute specialising in bondage and sado-masochism was refused a certificate by the BBFC on its original release. The film features graphic scenes of torture and fetishism which the Board described as 'miles in excess of anything we have ever passed in this field' in 1976.
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