24/7: The Passion of Life (2005)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Roland Reber

Writers:

Mira Gittner (writer)
Roland Reber (writer)

Release Date:

16 February 2006 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A woman wants to know more about sexuality, especially about Femdom, Feminisation, Exhibitionism, the way to find your identity |

Plot Keywords:

Exhibitionism | Femdom | Swinger | Dominatrix | Moral Crusade

Cast

Mira Gittner	...	Lady Maria
Marina Anna Eich	...	Eva Hohmer
Christoph Baumann	...	Dominik
Michael Burkhardt	...	Mike
Reinhard Wendt	...	Elfriede
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lydia Hippel	...	Lydia
Bernhard Keberle	...	Fischer
Patricia Koch	...	Stefanie Evans
Sabine Krappweis	...	Alexandra Loskant
Claire Plaut	...	Swinger
Anja Schoenleben	...	Esther

Runtime:

116 min | 140 min (DVD)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:18 | Singapore:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

wtp-film GmbH

Soundtrack:

Lux aeterna (Communio), Requiem in D minor KV 626

OK but it could have been so much better!

This is a film about people searching for their own (sexual) identity. It raises many questions and it is a good basis for all sorts of discussions about sex, SM and above all the loneliness we experience on our search for identity.

It is not a bad movie... but it is not a very good one either. However, it could have been so much better....

I was incredibly excited when I heard that there would be a film about SM which is neither porn nor transporting typical clichés or stereotypes.

Indeed one of the things I liked best about this film is the fact that it is so incredibly well investigated. These filmmakers, who claim not to be into SM at all, did a brilliant job portraying why some people are into SM and what exactly they are yearning for.

I also loved the SM scenes shown - strangely beautiful and extremely well done. The religious scenes are not for the faint hearted Christian, but I loved them and they made sense to me.

Besides, I really liked the soundtrack, too.

All in all a good film if you are NOT into SM and want to know what it is about. It is OK if you are into SM because you feel like finally a filmmaker understood what people like about it and managed to use this knowledge in the film.

BUT: No matter how much I liked the whole idea, there were some major flaws.

I expected a film like "secretary" - I loved its lightness, its humor and the fact that it was not preachy at all. However, you can't say that about this film....

First of all:

-Some actors were incredibly BAD - but that might be because some of them were no actors at all. Some of them were good because they were just playing themselves, just like that old man. He was incredible - but that was him, he wasn't acting! Because of the overall bad acting most of the dialiogs sounded odd and fairly artificial(they in fact were artificial, which brings me to my next point...)

-What really ruined this movie for me were the dialogs: They were highly artificial and/or had a very strong moralizing undertone which really annoyed me. It was almost as if they were were so concerned they could fail to bring their message across that everything had to be over-verbalized. I personally like to think for myself and I love to read between the lines. This was not possible in this film. Everything was said. Every point was made way too clear in my opinion. Even though I perfectly agree with what was said I just wish they would have used the film and its storyline to convey their message and not just the sociological sermons of the domina. That was too much for me.

Maybe this is is a good film for people who don't have a clue about SM or those that have just begun their journey, but it definitely isn't if you've already been on that road.

In the end, what did soothe me to some extend was the fact that even this talkative domina has no answer whatsoever when it comes to the longing and the loneliness inside each and every human being.

PS, Months later....speaking of good films about the search for (sexual) identity --- better go and watch shortbus instead.