#sidse

Professor Andrea Lavin - Prime target

Professor Andrea Lavin - Prime target

Though I've long been curious about this film and thought it time to watch it when I saw it available on Tubi, the film couldn't quite hold my attention after a certain point. Even though it features Sidse Babett Knudsen. Partly because the film/script is repetitive, by design, but it was a repetition that made me go: Ladies, you're willing to put all this work into role playing, why don't you come up with some new, original scenarios instead of repeating three over and over?

I get it's because Cynthia is a (mostly) reluctant/unsure dom who is being directed by Evelyn, the actual person in control, and that this tension in their dynamics and their struggle to communicate about their needs outside of play drive the film, but, like, doesn't Evelyn want more spice??? Ladies, imaginations! For all of our sakes! (I understand Evelyn is actually quite exacting, but... variety!)

The other thing, deriving from this, is that there are huge violations of trust/the rules that... don't really get addressed???? ???? Unfortunate because that feels like the most interesting conundrum in the setup: feeling unfulfilled because there isn't an equal degree of participation and/or enjoyment vs being pushed to acting out of actual malice. I kept thinking: How can you trust one another again? (The film didn't really answer that.)

That distance between loving someone and yet having desires the other might not be able to fulfill and what that means in terms of making a relationship work is teased but not really unpacked and that's the question I was left with.

I did enjoy the very pleasant sales pitch of the bed maker and the erotic framing of measuring a bed through Evelyn's POV. Also this woman's business was apparently thriving.

Also... were there mannequins among the women in the crowd at the lectures? I found myself staring at figures out of focus trying to discern if they were people or not.

I can’t remember if I did, but I met her briefly at Nordicana the first year of it and she was delightful. Exactly as smiley and witty and everything you’d hope for in person. She did an hilarious Q&A then we got to talk to her for a minute or two during a signing. She flipped from Danish to English to French super easily, and she was so gracious to everyone. I don’t remember what we talked about, just nonsense about taking the pictures together and was she having a nice time in London. Oh, we talked about theatre briefly, because she’d love to do a show in the West End.