Mano Destra

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Mano Destra
Mano Destra still.png
A bound woman, a central subject of the film
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. Shot in black and white on 16mm film, Mano Destra is a study of lesbian erotic objectification which depicts Uebelmann as a dominatrix.tying a woman in a lengthy series of acts of consensual bondage. [1] The film dwells at length on the bound woman tied in a series of positions, in a series of extended almost static shots. The film has music and sound effects, but is without dialogue.

Contents

Images from the film were later published in 1988 as part of a book, The Dominas - Mano Destra by the Cleo Übelmann-Group. [2]

The music is by the Swiss electro-wave group The Vyllies  [ de ]. [3]

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. [4] In New Queer Cinema , B. Ruby Rich described it as "deserving of instant cult status". [5]

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". [6] [7]

The director Peter Strickland has cited the film as a favourite [8] and one of his sources of inspiration for his film The Duke of Burgundy . [9] In a 2015 interview with Sight & Sound, he described it as “a very interesting [film], not really sexploitation at all, more like Chris Marker doing a female-female bondage film". [10]

References

  1. ↑ Dozier, Ayanna. "Mano Destra + Kissy Suzuki Suck". Screen Slate. Retrieved 2026-02-09.
  2. ↑ Uebelmann, Cleo (1986). The Dominas - Mano Destra. Tübingen: Verlag Claudia Gehrke. ISBN   3887690389.
  3. ↑ "Mano destra". Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  4. ↑ Knight, Julia (1992). Women and the new German cinema. London: Verso. pp. 166–168. ISBN   0-86091-352-X. OCLC   25412660.
  5. ↑ 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)
  6. ↑ Smyth, Cherry (Spring 1990). "The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film". Feminist Review (34): 152–159. doi:10.2307/1395314. JSTOR   1395314.
  7. ↑ Collective, The Feminist Review (2005-07-18). Feminist Review: Issue 34: Perverse Politics. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-94034-9.
  8. ↑ "All voters and votes: The 30 Best LGBT Films of All Time". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  9. ↑ "Peter Strickland: six films that fed into The Duke of Burgundy". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  10. ↑ Matheiu, Demetrios (March 2015). "Of Human Bondage". Sound & Sight. p. 48.

Further reading


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