Artificial EyeFifty Shades Of Grey's arrival on the big screen this year might have been enough to satisfy the soccer moms looking for some safe and sanitized mainstream titillation, but for those who were looking for something more erotic with a lot more depth and craftsmanship, Peter Strickland's The Duke Of Burgundy was the film to see. Well-to-do Cynthia imposes a strict regime on her housemaid, Evelyn, punishing her whenever her work isn't up to the highest of standards. Yet there is more to this sub-dom relationship than at first meets the eyes, as it becomes apparent that Evelyn herself is in turn guiding the direction of events via notes she leaves for Cynthia. Strickland takes BDSM cinema in bold and often amusing new directions, but what really stands out is the ever increasing layers of complexity the characters display as Cynthia and Evelyn's mutual need for one another plays out - something which Fifty Shades lacked entirely.
