‘Perversions’ Is Brave Look at Sexuality
“Female Perversions” sounds like a porno title, but it is in fact a deadly serious exploration of how society--indeed, the entire weight of culture and history--shapes and can distort a woman’s sense of her own sexuality, consciously and unconsciously, and therefore her identity as well. It suggests how this in turn affects her whole life--her self-esteem, how she sees herself and how she conducts herself at every turn of her existence.
Directed by Susan Streitfeld and adapted by her and Julie Hebert from a book of case histories by Dr. Louise J. Kaplan, “Female Perversions” is nothing if not ambitious. Even if it works better as a provocative psychological treatise than as art, it does come alive and does provide major roles for Tilda Swinton and Amy Madigan, formidable actresses who are more than up to the challenge.
And it stands as a powerful argument that as the end of the 20th century approaches, women still need to liberate themselves in regard to their psyches and how such liberation remains crucial to self-confidence and self-fulfillment in all aspects of their lives.
An ever-venturesome Scottish actress in her American film debut, Swinton plays a stunningly beautiful Los Angeles public prosecutor up for a governor-appointed judgeship. Her Eve has a ruggedly handsome and successful lover (Clancy Brown), a nifty loft, a fabulous wardrobe (designed by Bela Freud, a descendant of Sigmund!)--and a cool demeanor that hides gnawing insecurities.
Just as Eve’s anticipating the all-crucial interview with the governor, she has to cope with the arrest for shoplifting of her sister (Madigan), a UCLA graduate student in feminist studies up for her doctoral exams. The sisters’ mother died when they were young, and their father, described as a “brilliant banker,” remains remote. Both women could use therapy--it seems there may be repressed family secrets as well. They need to learn to help each other.
As a first-time director, Streitfeld has taken on too much. There’s a whole slew of images supposedly welling up in Eve’s dreams and imagination that vacillate between the too literal and the too obscure. There are too many other characters in the film, serving all-too-obviously as illustrations of various types of female hang-ups. Streitfeld has trouble differentiating between taking herself and her film seriously, a problem that of course chronically afflicts critics as well as filmmakers.
The film’s strength lies not in glimpses of bondage rituals and a repeated shot of Eve’s family’s swimming pool, which just happens to have been designed in the shape of a cross and in which she feels she’s drowning. It’s in Eve’s worrying about a loose thread dangling from the hem of her skirt during that all-important gubernatorial interview; in a moment of one-upmanship between Eve and her public prosecutor successor (Paulina Porizikova) when they discover they use the same new lipstick; and in Eve’s hot fling with a lesbian psychiatrist (Karen Sillas) in a state of such self-absorption she never considers her impact on the lesbian’s emotions.
It is unfortunate that Streitfeld did not trust the power of what she has to say to reveal itself in such detailing and skip the surreal stuff entirely.
Too didactic in tone, “Female Perversions” has its share of foolish, over-the-top moments, but it is also brave, illuminating and honest. There are worse sins than pretentiousness.
* MPAA rating: R, for intense depictions of psychoerotic themes, scenes of strong sexuality and strong language. Times guidelines: The film’s themes and relationships are decidedly adult in treatment and depiction.
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‘Female Perversions’
Tilda Swinton: Eve Stephens
Amy Madigan: Madelyn Stephens
Karen Sillas: Renee
Clancy Brown: John
An October Films presentation. Director Susan Streitfeld. Producer Mindy Affrime. Executive producers Zalman King, Gina Resnick, Rena Ronson. Screenplay by Julie Hebert and Streitfeld; based on the book by Dr. Louise J. Kaplan. Cinematographer Teresa Medina. Editors Curtiss Clayton, Leo Trombetta. Costumes Angela Bellows. Swinton’s gowns by Bela Freud. Karen Perry. Music Marcus Miller. Production designer Missy Stewart. Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes.
* In general release throughout Southern California.