Mano Destra

Mano Destra (Italian for "right hand") is a 1986 Italian-language Swiss art film written, directed by and starring Cleo Uebelmann. In black and white, Mano Destra is a study of lesbian erotic objectification which depicts a woman tying up another woman in a lengthy act of consensual bondage.

This article is about the film. For the musical notation, "mano destra", see Glossary of musical terminology. For other uses, see Destra (disambiguation).
Mano Destra
Directed byCleo Uebelmann
Written byCleo Uebelmann
StarringCleo Uebelmann
Unknown model
Release date
  • 1986 (1986) (Switzerland)
Running time
53 minutes
CountrySwitzerland
LanguageItalian

Images from the film were later published in 1988 as part of a book, The Dominas - Mano Destra by the Cleo Uebelmann-Group.[1]

Accolades

In Women and the New German Cinema, Julia Knight describes it as a film which explores the liberating possibilities of sadomasochism, subverting audience expectations of what sadomasochism is like.[2] In New Queer Cinema, B. Ruby Rich described it as "deserving of instant cult status".[3]

In The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film, Cherry Smyth states that its imagery is "beyond sex", and that "like being offered an ice-cold, luscious fruit drink on a hot day, which you are forbidden to taste, this film encapsulates desire as death, as nothingness, and yet utter completeness".[4][5]

The director Peter Strickland has cited the film as one of his sources of inspiration for his film The Duke of Burgundy.[6]

In 2018, the British Film Institute cited Mano Destra as one of the best 30 LGBT films of all time.[7]

References
  1. Uebelmann, Cleo (1986). The Dominas - Mano Destra. Tübingen: Verlag Claudia Gehrke. ISBN 3887690389.
  2. Knight, Julia (1992). Women and the new German cinema. London: Verso. pp. 166–168. ISBN 0-86091-352-X. OCLC 25412660.
  3. Rich, B. Ruby. (26 March 2013). New queer cinema : the director's cut. Durham. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-8223-5411-6. OCLC 818416587.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Smyth, Cherry (Spring 1990). "The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film". Feminist Review (34): 152–159. doi:10.2307/1395314. JSTOR 1395314.
  5. Collective, The Feminist Review (2005-07-18). Feminist Review: Issue 34: Perverse Politics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-94034-9.
  6. "Peter Strickland: six films that fed into The Duke of Burgundy". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  7. "All voters and votes: The 30 Best LGBT Films of All Time". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

Further reading
  • Cherry Smyth. The Pleasure Threshold: Looking at Lesbian Pornography on Film. Feminist Review, No. 34, Perverse Politics: Lesbian Issues (Spring, 1990), pp. 152–159 doi:10.2307/1395314


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