Tied

COMING SOON: Helen Fillieres' Tied (France, 2013) - Although the end result comes perilously close to being a parody of a certain kind of European art film in which troubled, isolated, individuals suffer in sleek settings reeking of affluence, the willowy, androgynous, French actress Hélène Fillieres makes an assured directing debut with Tied (Une Histoire d’amour). This glacial fictionalisation of the true tale of an obscenely wealthy French banker who was wearing a form-fitting latex body suit when his mistress killed him - possibly at his own request - charts an S & M romance without so much as a homeopathic dose of backstory. This take-it-or-leave-it approach will irritate some, but Benoit Poelvoorde and Laetitia Casta are occasionally brave and never less than intriguing as the transgressive couple known only as “The Banker” and “The Young Woman.”