Mano Destra
Directed byCleo Uebelmann
Written byCleo Uebelmann
StarringCleo Uebelmann
Unknown model
Release date
  • 1986 (1986) (Switzerland)
Running time
53 minutes
CountrySwitzerland
LanguageItalian

Mano Destra (Italian for "right hand") is a 1986 Italian-language Swiss art film written, directed by and starring Cleo Uebelmann. In black and white, Mano Destra is a study of lesbian erotic objectification which depicts a woman tying up another woman in a lengthy act of consensual bondage.

Images from the film were later published in 1988 as part of a book, The Dominas - Mano Destra by the Cleo Uebelmann-Group.[1]

Accolades

In Women and the New German Cinema, Julia Knight describes it as a film which explores the liberating possibilities of sadomasochism, subverting audience expectations of what sadomasochism is like.[2] In New Queer Cinema, B. Ruby Rich described it as "deserving of instant cult status".[3]

In The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film, Cherry Smyth states that its imagery is "beyond sex", and that "like being offered an ice-cold, luscious fruit drink on a hot day, which you are forbidden to taste, this film encapsulates desire as death, as nothingness, and yet utter completeness".[4][5]

The director Peter Strickland has cited the film as one of his sources of inspiration for his film The Duke of Burgundy.[6]

In 2018, the British Film Institute cited Mano Destra as one of the best 30 LGBT films of all time.[7]

References

  1. ^ Uebelmann, Cleo (1986). The Dominas - Mano Destra. Tübingen: Verlag Claudia Gehrke. ISBN 3887690389.
  2. ^ Knight, Julia (1992). Women and the new German cinema. London: Verso. pp. 166–168. ISBN 0-86091-352-X. OCLC 25412660.
  3. ^ Rich, B. Ruby. (26 March 2013). New queer cinema : the director's cut. Durham. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-8223-5411-6. OCLC 818416587.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Smyth, Cherry (Spring 1990). "The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film". Feminist Review (34): 152–159. doi:10.2307/1395314. JSTOR 1395314.
  5. ^ Collective, The Feminist Review (2005-07-18). Feminist Review: Issue 34: Perverse Politics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-94034-9.
  6. ^ "Peter Strickland: six films that fed into The Duke of Burgundy". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  7. ^ "All voters and votes: The 30 Best LGBT Films of All Time". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

Further reading

External links


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