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Rent Maîtresse (1976)

Based on an encounter with a real life dominatrix, Schroeder’s controversial story of a Paris prostitute specializing in bondage and sado-masochism was refused a certificate on its original release. The film features graphic scenes of torture and fetishism which the BBFC in 1976 described as ‘miles in excess of anything we have ever passed in this field’. Released at the time in a handful of club cinemas, in 1981 the film was cut by almost five minutes and finally awarded an X certificate. Maitresse is presented here uncut for the first time in the UK. Featuring a youthful Gerard Depardieu as the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maitresse, and Bulle Ogier as the leather clad dominatrix, the film is both a conventional love story and a dark study of fetishism. As the lovers’ relationship begins to mirror the power games of the bordello, they become unable to separate their ‘normal’ relationship form the perversions and masochism of the chamber below.