The Voluptuous Martyrdoms of the Magnificent Masturbators

‘….follows Georges Bataille’s trail, exposing the interstices of sacred and profane love, sex and death…. (Tony Rayns ) The title owes a lot to Dali because the film takes off from the fascination shared by the great Catalan and his friends Lorca and Bunuel with the wounds of the martyred saint Sebastian. But the text in the intertitles comes, of course, almost exclusively from Georges Bataille’s Eroticism. This film is a darker, more focused, companion piece to the slightly earlier Barbarêveuse . It really ought to be a treat for any self-respecting sado-masochist . I’m specially fond of the finale, shot on the rostrum, in which half a dozen or so dangling fish-hooks do their worst to a perfect peach.