Königin der Lust

After the playfully subversive Pussy Talk and the caustic satire The Kinky Ladies of Bourbon Street, Claude Mulot made a nihilistically bitter postscript to the topic of women’s sexual emancipation. Whereas in the first above-mentioned film, the female protagonist’s desire was given its own autonomous voice that would not be silenced, and in the second the ladies are freed from the shackles of a phallocentric society through a definitive gesture, in Supreme Delights, there is no fantastical motif or exaggeration to come to their rescue. On the contrary, the narrative remains on a realistic level and inevitably brings with it disappointment and disillusion. Annoyed with the way their partners treat them, the three women rebel against their situation and become independent. However, their newly gained (not only sexual) freedom doesn’t last long, as it clashes with the norms of the patriarchy. Their personal rebellion inevitably leads to rebellion at work, where they are exposed to sexism and expected to submit to the will of their superiors. Getting fired from their jobs deprives them of their livelihoods and thus their independence. When they decide to make a living with their own bodies, they get stepped on by another absurd apparatus of the patriarchy in the form of the vice police. After all of the peripeteias that they experience, the bitter climax comes when the women return to their former partners, who, with the words “They’re glad that they have us”, begin to pimp them out themselves. Mulot’s indiscriminate indictment of the hypocrisy and stupidity of macho chauvinism runs is apparent only at the plot level, but also in the overall stylisation of the film, the characters and the main attractions. All of the porn sequences in which men initiate sex and the women merely submit to their will are absolutely anti-erotic and their apathetic and mechanical nature emphasises the objectification of women. Conversely, the sex initiated by the women is fun, expressive and packed with spontaneity, imagination and pleasure. Indeed, the film directly contrasts male and female sexuality in a brilliant parallel montage sequence in which the women’s sensual masturbation after they have gained their freedom alternates with the utilitarian wanking of their abandoned partners. The film is most expressive in its criticism of the double standard involving sexuality and its acceptance by society. Whereas men are seen as enjoying themselves and promiscuity is an accepted ideal and a matter of status in their case, sexually active women are seen as sluts. Though Mulot employs humour and exaggeration in the film, he uses them for the purpose of creating a caricature that is intended to evoke in viewers a catharsis over the atrociousness and, primarily, the weakness of chauvinism. (11.09.2014)