"Secretary" film reviewed

Posted by Tanos on Mon 12 May 03, 7:20 PM

The distributors of "Secretary" sent me a copy to review last week, and there's a copy of my review below. The film goes on UK "general" release on Friday 16th May, mainly at art house cinemas. Well worth seeing.

Review of "Secretary"

Mainstream films with an overt BDSM theme are quite rare, and "Secretary" is the first I've received for review. I've tried to avoid major spoilers, but if you're looking to avoid them completely before seeing the film: yes, I enjoyed it and would very much recommend it as a black comedy played out within a BDSM relationship.

"In one way or another I've always suffered. I didn't know why exactly. But I do know that I'm not so scared of suffering now. I feel more than I've ever felt and I've found someone to feel with. To play with. To love in a way that feels right for me. I hope he knows that I can see that he suffers too. And that I want to love him."

The basic premise of the film is quite simple: the secretary (Lee) develops a BDSM relationship with her employer (E. Edward Grey) - which she enjoys - and they must then decide where to go from there. But that politically incorrect phrase "which she enjoys" seems to have added considerably to the difficulties independent film making always has to struggle with.

The film started life as 22-minute short by director Steven Shainberg, loosely based on a short story by Mary Gaitskill - a writer and college professor not afraid of using SM themes in her other stories. Every subsequent step of getting the film in cinemas seems to have been a struggle for Shainberg, who has had to overcome all manner of prejudices and worries in the process.

I think it's an important part of the film's success that the screen writer's worries were not the type based on unthinking Political Correctness. Shainberg persuaded playwright Cressida Wilson to help adapt the story and write the screenplay after addressing her concerns that she "did not want to write a story about a victim or about a woman 'overcoming' her deviance ... I had seen so many 'coming out' plays in the 80s and I wondered what it would be like to take this story, turn it on its head, and make it a 'coming out' movie for a masochist ... I was inspired by Mary Gaitskill's story to write a script that portrayed a submissive woman who was not a victim."

Shainberg faced problems assembling the cast and crew, apparently including seven female editors who refused even to discuss it, and male leads worried about the subject matter. Eventually he settled on Maggie Gyllenhaal to play the secretary (Lee) in her first leading role, and James Spader to play the lawyer who employs her (E. Edward Grey.) Despite Spader's previous risk-taking with voyeurism ("Sex, Lies and Videotape") and amputation/injury fetishes ("Crash"), he only accepted 18 months after his first refusal.

Once the film was made, it won a Special Jury Prize for originality at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002, but still only made it into US cinemas 9 months later in October, and now gets a UK release this month (May 2003.)

Since it's US release, there has been some concern in BDSM circles about the secretary's history of self harm, and the association of that with BDSM. This would play into the hands of the pseudo-feminists' argument that masochists and submissives are self-destructive or self-hating. However, it's clear to me that isn't the case: Lee's relationship with Grey hinges on structure and corporal punishment, and is a break from her private, skin-breaking mutilations. It's also made clear that each act of self-harm is directly prompted by events in her parents' destructive relationship (alcholic father and neurotic mother.) With her daytimes spent in the obsessively stable and predictable environment of Grey's office, she blossoms and begins to transfer her sexual feelings from her Nice Mate boyfriend to her demanding employer.

Grey himself has a bunch of obsessions, centering on neatness and exactness. He appears to have had a series of secretaries fail to live up to his requirements, to the extent that he has a permanant "Secretary Wanted" sign, surrounded by lights like a sea-side guesthouse "(No) Vacancies." There is a wry moment that's not unfamiliar in BDSM, when he issues an order, sweeps out of the room and then tries to decide what he's actually going to do next. There is also a broad hint that he has a history of struggling with BDSM feelings towards previous employees, as his ex-wife spits the word "submissive!" at Lee, as she struggles to get rid of a telephone salesman.

But it's wonderful to see a mainstream film dealing with the reality of this: Lee starts mousey and timid, not because she is some weak-willed doormat, but because she's been in a world that she doesn't understand and doesn't understand her. Under Grey's guidance, Lee begins to assert herself with other people, to speak loudly, firmly and proudly on the telephone, and to tell her neurotic mother that she will walk home by herself for the first time in her life. The film accepts that this assertiveness happens at the same time as her deepening submission to Grey, and sees that assertiveness is not about dominance, but about getting your wishes heard (maybe including the desire to submit.)

The film is full of little on-screen jokes: Lee keeps a dolls-house desk and red correction pen on her bedside instead of a photograph of Grey; and when fantasising about him breathlessly says to herself, "I'm ... I'm your ... ah ... secretary!" in a way some of us have gasped other words; and the catch-all marketing of some BDSM books, when Lee reads "Coming Out as a Dominant / Submissive"

The second part, when they struggle with the roles they have stumbled into, has frustrations for both Lee and Grey, and sees Grey's dominance persued in the office with deliberate mistakes and provocations, and it's made clear this is fundamentally a relationship driven by SM rather than D/s. (The bug / cockroach just confirms this.)

So what didn't I like? The publicity surrounding the "hunger strike" was a bit of a dead end and there wasn't time provided to do anything with it, and the procession of visitors (including the scolding pseudo-feminist with a pile of books) was rushed.

But out of that scene comes: "You are the child of god's holy gift of life. You comfort me. But you are not me. Your soul and your body are your own, and yours to do with as you wish."

"Secretary" opens in the UK on 16th May. See its website for details.

Edited Tue 22 Jan 08, 11:47 PM by Tanos