Peter Strickland builds strange, carefully ordered worlds and notices how tiring they are to live in. We rate him most when the elaborate rituals leave room for tenderness and dry comedy, though their repetition can test our patience.
Fi1m perspective
In The Duke of Burgundy (2015), the practical business of satisfying a lover keeps intruding on the elaborate sexual routines. Cynthia and Evelyn have organised their lives around insects and domination, but their appetites do not quite match. Strickland lets the oddness stand without explanation. He is interested in how much work it takes to keep such a life going, and what each lover can reasonably ask of the other. This is where we rate him most: funny about people’s arrangements, kind about their desires.
His first feature, Katalin Varga (2009), was shot in Romania; Berberian Sound Studio (2012) brought wider recognition. The latter’s 1970s Italian recording studio makes his fascination with sound part of the story. Across his films, listening matters as much as looking. The borrowings from older European horror and erotica are conspicuous, but The Duke of Burgundy gives us good reason to stay even if we do not recognise them.
Nic Knowland photographs the countryside in soft focus, giving the lovers somewhere secluded from ordinary working life. Pater Sparrow’s production design makes their gothic villa look thoroughly suited to its occupants’ routines. That is useful comic work: nobody seems to notice how peculiar the place is. The all-female community of insect specialists broadens the joke without requiring Strickland to explain how this society came about.
We were moved by Sidse Babett Knudsen’s performance because she makes the effort of fulfilling a lover’s fantasies feel tiring and familiar. Strickland’s writing allows that fatigue to be funny without making the desire itself ridiculous. Some of the repetitions go on too long. The repeated rituals test our patience, and the pace is the reservation we would attach to an otherwise warm recommendation.
In Fabric (2018) finds horror in a haunted garment. Flux Gourmet (2022) returns to sound and performance through artistic collectives and bodily discomfort. We would not want him to become less peculiar. Start with The Duke of Burgundy, if a leisurely romance suits the evening.
Biography
Peter Strickland is a British film director and screenwriter. He was born on 21 May 1973 in Reading, Berkshire, England. He began directing while a member of Progress Theatre in Reading and made short films, including one entered in the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. For much of the 2000s he lived in Slovakia and Hungary.
His first feature, Katalin Varga (2009), was shot in Romania on a low budget financed by an inheritance. It won the European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year. Subsequent features include Berberian Sound Studio (2012), The Duke of Burgundy (2014), In Fabric (2018) and Flux Gourmet (2022). He has also directed segments for anthology films and short works.
