Spanking Director Makes Masterpiece

[bcholmes]

The Film Festival is in town. I've never actually been to the Film Festival, for no very good reason.

My friend Harry had an extra ticket to see Secretary, and invited me to join him. It was a good flick. Touched on a lot of interesting dynamics in BDSM -- self-acceptance, coming out, and does the top have the power or the bottom? I also liked the way that narrative focalization was on the Maggie Gyllenhaal character, rather than the James Spader character. Harry was disappointed that it wasn't more hard core (personally, I think he was hoping for light porn).

This was the Canadian premiere of the film, so many people from the production crew were there, as well as the director (Steven Shainberg) and the lead actors. The director held a question and answer period at the end, which was interesting. Someone reviewing the film for a university newspaper asked him for a hook line, and he said, "Spanking Director Makes Masterpiece!"