Sexual practices involving bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism are sometimes lumped together under the acronym BDSM. Whatever you call them, they’re all the rage at the multiplex.

  It was just a week ago that Fifty Shades of Grey started steaming up movie screens nationwide. And now the Gateway Film Center is offering a curtain call in the form of The Duke of Burgundy.

  The eccentric British film is about a lesbian couple whose sex life follows a rigid pattern of domination and punishment.

  The pattern begins when Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) arrives to clean house for Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a scholar who specializes in the study of butterflies and moths. Evelyn appears to take her chores seriously, but the poor girl invariably leaves something undone, and Cynthia finds it necessary to punish her.

  Though the pattern is cut-and-dried up until this point, what happens next isn’t—dried, I mean. Listening from the other side of the bedroom door, we realize that Cynthia is showering Evelyn with something, and it definitely isn’t praise.

  Written and directed by Peter Strickland, The Duke of Burgundy is most interesting when it subverts our expectations of BDSM relationships. Though one would expect the “D” partner to be in control, we soon learn that Evelyn is calling the shots. Not only does she type up instructions that Cynthia must follow to the letter, but she goes so far as to criticize her mate for not delivering verbal abuse with sufficient conviction.

  It’s not easy being the dominant one, we realize. For one thing, you can’t provide the kind of punishment Evelyn craves without drinking copious amounts of water.

  If you’re starting to wonder whether Strickland was trying to make a steamy drama or a raunchy comedy, be assured that you’ll still be wondering after watching it.

  The playful opening credits suggest the latter, especially when they include a credit for perfumes (!). It’s also hard not to smile at the implication that Cynthia and Evelyn live in a community of lesbians who share their interest in (1) BDSM and (2) butterflies and moths. What on earth is the connection?

  At times, it all sounds like a huge, if understated, joke. But after Strickland has assaulted us with montages of whirring insects accompanied by grandiose choral music, we get the impression that he takes this very seriously. (The title, by the way, refers to a European species of butterfly.)

  Is The Duke of Burgundy sexy? Though there’s no real nudity, and only flashes of graphic sex, some critics seem to think so.

  For myself, I think it works better as a psychological study—thanks to good performances from the two leads—or as a subtle comedy. But it doesn’t really work as either because the director overwhelms both elements with his gothic excesses.

  About the only thing you can say for sure is that this is one very bizarre film.

Rating: 2½ stars (out of 5)

Holocaust survivor marries the enemy

  Every year, filmmakers find new ways to respond to the Holocaust. Several minutes into Farewell, Herr Schwarz, I began wondering if this was one response I could have skipped.

  The documentary is a detective story of sorts in which director Yael Reuveny tries to determine the fate of her Polish great-uncle, Feiv’ke Schwarz, who was sent to a German concentration camp during World War II. It obviously was important to her to solve the mystery, but at first I had trouble sharing her concern. After all, he was one victim among millions.

  Then the facts of the case begin coming out.

  Reuveny’s grandmother, Michla, originally heard her brother had died in the camp but later learned he survived, only to die in a fire in 1945. As it turns out, neither report was true.

  Michla didn’t realize that while she was raising a family in the new state of Israel, Feiv’ke had changed his name to Peter and was doing the same in what was then East Germany. More shockingly, he was doing it with a Christian woman, and in the very town where he’d been held captive.

  When Michla’s descendants learn her brother consorted with his former enemies and that, as a result, they have a slew of formerly unknown German relatives, the news unleashes contradictory and powerful reactions. In the process of patiently sorting through those reactions, Reuveny’s film attains a level of emotional resonance that is unexpectedly powerful.  

  The upshot: This is yet another Holocaust story that is well worth telling.

Rating: 4½ stars (out of 5)

  The Duke of Burgundy (unrated) and Farewell, Herr Schwarz (rated PG-13) open Friday (Feb. 20) at the Gateway Film Center, 1550 N. High St., Columbus. For show times, visit gatewayfilmcenter.com.