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The Duke of Burgundy (18) Peter Strickland DVD/Blu-ray (104mins)
“Stay by my feet and continue doing what I asked you to do,” Cynthia (Borgen’s Sidse Babett Knudsen) demands of lover Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) in Peter Strickland’s sensuous drama in which two kinky entomologists role-play (reading from a script at times) some sadomasochistic master-and-servant games for erotic kicks. Strickland, maker of the extraordinary Berberian Sound Studio and Katalin Varga, has fashioned another totally distinctive picture, with lots of lingering shots of dead butterflies and moths, zero male actors and plenty of winks and nods to 1970s exploitation cinema, in particular the work of the Spanish film-maker Jess Franco. What compels most, however, is Nic Knowland’s scrumptious cinematography and Knudsen’s poignant and nuanced performance as the anxious older lover.
****
Exodus: Gods and Kings (12) Ridley Scott DVD/Blu-ray (150 mins)
Ridley Scott’s $140m blockbuster (most of the budget seems to have gone on the eyeliner) centres on doughty Moses (Christian Bale) trying to keep a lid on the excesses of his ambitious brother, Rameses (Joel Edgerton, who appears to be impersonating Mussolini). When publicising Exodus, Bale maintained that he didn’t want this biblical epic to come across like Life of Brian. If only Exodus had a smidgen of the Monty Python film’s absorbing narrative and Ben Mendelsohn’s slimy viceroy didn’t resemble Michael Palin’s Pontius Pilate so much. A bleak, overlong Egyptian drama with a shocking script (“I’ve not been entirely honest with you”) and a noisome score but a couple of spectacular sequences.
**
Indian Summers (15) various directors DVD/Blu-ray (630 mins)
A fiendishly attractive cast, including Jemima West, Nikesh Patel and Amber Rose Revah, adorn Channel 4’s lavish British Raj saga, set in Simla at the foothills of the Himalayas in 1932. Dissent and rebellion is in the air, but the snooty Brits are more concerned with chin- wagging at the British Club, run by force of nature Cynthia (Julie Walters). Indian Summers isn’t as subtly devastating or penetrating as EM Forster’s A Passage to India or Orwell’s Burmese Days but it’s exquisitely shot and quietly seething about colonial rule. It’s certainly better and less condescending than Downton Abbey.
****
Raised by Wolves (15) various directors DVD/Blu-ray (180 mins)
“Right, let’s do some parenting, then,” maintains formidable mother-of-six Della in Caroline and Caitlin Moran’s perky sitcom, based on the sisters’ home-schooled childhood in Wolverhampton. The script is smart and tangy but it’s the sprightly acting that makes this Channel 4 comedy zing, especially from the always excellent Rebekah Staton as the straight-talking Della (she’s claims to have channelled Clint Eastwood for the role), Helen Monks as quick-witted Germaine and Alexa Davies as cerebral Aretha.
****
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