DemonloverDoes someone know when they have become corrupt? Demonlover is a techno-thriller about Diane de Monx (Connie Nielsen), an employee at the Volf Corporation, which is considering acquiring the international distribution rights for a Japanese company's pornographic animation. Diane is secretly working for the competition, and wears the disguise of a savvy negotiator while she sabotages key aspects of the deal. When an American company that oversees a series of adult animation websites named Demonlover proposes a joint deal with Volf, Diane tries to undermine their bid through corporate espionage and disinformation; but her plan backfires, leaving her a pawn in a corporate conspiracy devoid of morality.
|
|
Released in 2002, Demonlover boldly wears its timestamp on its sleeve. The film was made at the advent of internet pornography, 3-D computer generated animation, and the insidious means of capitalizing on this relatively untapped venue for consumerism. Demonlover is considered a part of the "New French Extremity", owing to periodic instances of sexuality and graphic animation, yet it seems almost naive at times of in its depiction of corporate culture and the distribution of adult content. When Diane and her colleague, Hervé Le Millinec (Charles Berling), visit the TokyoAnime animation studio in Japan, they are given a sample of the product--a 3-D video that may have been cutting edge at the time, but is entrenched in the uncanny valley and seems comical by today's standards. Despite awkward instances of pixellated hentai and outdated CG, Demonlover is really about losing one's identity in the throes of deception. Diane drugs her colleague, Karen (Dominique Reymond), who is in charge of key documents for the deal with TokyoAnime, which she keeps in a briefcase that is literally handcuffed to her. She does this so that the briefcase can later be stolen with impunity, and Karen's reputation subsequently suffers. Diane shows no remorse after learning that Karen was locked in the trunk of her brand new Audi, traumatized from the abduction; Karen likens it to rape when she confides with her secretary, Elise Lipsky (Chloë Sevigny). Diane's scheme proves more advantageous than she expected when she is named as Karen's replacement to handle Volf's corporate dealings in Japan and with Demonlover. Volf's competition is represented by Elaine Si Gibril (Gina Gershon), who looks more like Joan Jett than Steve Jobs when she comes to France for their corporate pow-wow wearing a pithy graphic t-shirt that reads "I heart gossip". Diane attempts to subvert the deal by conjuring evidence of ongoing lawsuits against Demonlover, hoping to dissuade the Volf chairman, Henri-Pierre Volf (Jean-Baptiste Malartre), from merging with their American counterpart in online smut peddling.
Demonlover alternates between a sleazy web of corporate intrigue and a thriller exploring moral ambiguity and the ease with which ordinary people can commit atrocities. Desensitization to objectionable and even dangerous content is a key theme in the film, intimated from the start when the entire first class cabin--filled with Volf executives--is watching a random smattering of explosions and fires in some movie and it has no effect on them. When Diane is alone in her Tokyo hotel room, she orders a pornographic movie on demand. She watches the erotic scenes, but exhibits a total dearth of arousal or response--she might as well be watching CNN, like she tells Hervé she's doing when he calls; a cutaway reveals that he is also watching a dirty movie and is numb to its effects. When they deliberate and negotiate the terms of their deal with TokyoAnime, they discuss sexual violence without reservation; their concern about the perception of underage models used in the animation comes solely from a position of legal liability, not from worries about exploitation. Despite the subject matter, their boardroom discussions are boring by design, with an almost clinical detachment; that these scenes comprise a large chunk of Demonlover makes the film far less salacious than its lurid trailer purports. Diane gets a taste of her own medicine after an attempt to infiltrate Elaine's hotel room goes awry. Elise becomes an operative barking orders at Diane at the end of a pistol, in recompense for the browbeating Diane inflicted on her. Diane's insinuations that Demonlover was hosting a snuff and torture porn website called "The Hellfire Club" makes her a target in a conspiracy that she literally becomes unable to process, reflected by how the narrative of Demonlover breaks down. ("The Hellfire Club" gets its name from an infamous episode of the British TV series "The Avengers", called "A Touch of Brimstone".) Over a series of disjointed episodes, Diane's and Elise's roles are reversed at Volf--a power struggle that shares some superficial similarities with Ingmar Bergman's Persona. These scenes often fade suddenly to black, making the connections between them deliberately unclear--the audience can't be sure that the conspiracy isn't just in Diane's imagination. This injection of paranoia and delusion makes Demonlover a cousin to films like Videodrome and Mulholland Drive; both also explore exploitation as entertainment. The film also shares similar elements with William Gibson's techno-thriller, "Pattern Recognition", notably in portrayal of corporate paranoia and in its protagonist, Cayce Pollard. Cayce is not the unscrupulous saboteur that Diane is, but both women are cold and aloof, deal with esoteric internet content, and phase through the upper echelon of ethically vacuous consumer hierarchies like a phantom. (There is even a scene where Diane's apartment has been sacked that recalls a similar one from Gibson's book, stripping away the illusion of security and control for both women henceforth.) It is intimated that Diane was planted in Volf by Mangatronics as a sleeper cell, activated when the opportunity to destroy them from within arose, yet nothing else about Diane's past is explored. Following this line of thinking, Diane becomes just one more "product" of this vast consumer machine--made to facilitate the needs of one company, and ultimately being forced to serve the whims of another. This makes the cruel conclusion of Demonlover a foregone conclusion, suggesting that our semblance of individuality and choice is just a fabrication--as artificial as the twisted excuse for eroticism these companies pawn off on the masses as entertainment.
Recommended for: Fans of a thriller that explores themes like desensitization and the compromised morality that follows. Despite a few examples of graphic sexuality, Demonlover occupies most of its time with plots and schemes than with the kind of adult content the characters ostensibly peddle. The movie is best suited for mature audiences, who will no doubt smirk at the unintended comedy that comes with the poorly aged 3-D animation, more embarrassing than erotic--just as it probably was in 2002.
Demonlover alternates between a sleazy web of corporate intrigue and a thriller exploring moral ambiguity and the ease with which ordinary people can commit atrocities. Desensitization to objectionable and even dangerous content is a key theme in the film, intimated from the start when the entire first class cabin--filled with Volf executives--is watching a random smattering of explosions and fires in some movie and it has no effect on them. When Diane is alone in her Tokyo hotel room, she orders a pornographic movie on demand. She watches the erotic scenes, but exhibits a total dearth of arousal or response--she might as well be watching CNN, like she tells Hervé she's doing when he calls; a cutaway reveals that he is also watching a dirty movie and is numb to its effects. When they deliberate and negotiate the terms of their deal with TokyoAnime, they discuss sexual violence without reservation; their concern about the perception of underage models used in the animation comes solely from a position of legal liability, not from worries about exploitation. Despite the subject matter, their boardroom discussions are boring by design, with an almost clinical detachment; that these scenes comprise a large chunk of Demonlover makes the film far less salacious than its lurid trailer purports. Diane gets a taste of her own medicine after an attempt to infiltrate Elaine's hotel room goes awry. Elise becomes an operative barking orders at Diane at the end of a pistol, in recompense for the browbeating Diane inflicted on her. Diane's insinuations that Demonlover was hosting a snuff and torture porn website called "The Hellfire Club" makes her a target in a conspiracy that she literally becomes unable to process, reflected by how the narrative of Demonlover breaks down. ("The Hellfire Club" gets its name from an infamous episode of the British TV series "The Avengers", called "A Touch of Brimstone".) Over a series of disjointed episodes, Diane's and Elise's roles are reversed at Volf--a power struggle that shares some superficial similarities with Ingmar Bergman's Persona. These scenes often fade suddenly to black, making the connections between them deliberately unclear--the audience can't be sure that the conspiracy isn't just in Diane's imagination. This injection of paranoia and delusion makes Demonlover a cousin to films like Videodrome and Mulholland Drive; both also explore exploitation as entertainment. The film also shares similar elements with William Gibson's techno-thriller, "Pattern Recognition", notably in portrayal of corporate paranoia and in its protagonist, Cayce Pollard. Cayce is not the unscrupulous saboteur that Diane is, but both women are cold and aloof, deal with esoteric internet content, and phase through the upper echelon of ethically vacuous consumer hierarchies like a phantom. (There is even a scene where Diane's apartment has been sacked that recalls a similar one from Gibson's book, stripping away the illusion of security and control for both women henceforth.) It is intimated that Diane was planted in Volf by Mangatronics as a sleeper cell, activated when the opportunity to destroy them from within arose, yet nothing else about Diane's past is explored. Following this line of thinking, Diane becomes just one more "product" of this vast consumer machine--made to facilitate the needs of one company, and ultimately being forced to serve the whims of another. This makes the cruel conclusion of Demonlover a foregone conclusion, suggesting that our semblance of individuality and choice is just a fabrication--as artificial as the twisted excuse for eroticism these companies pawn off on the masses as entertainment.
Recommended for: Fans of a thriller that explores themes like desensitization and the compromised morality that follows. Despite a few examples of graphic sexuality, Demonlover occupies most of its time with plots and schemes than with the kind of adult content the characters ostensibly peddle. The movie is best suited for mature audiences, who will no doubt smirk at the unintended comedy that comes with the poorly aged 3-D animation, more embarrassing than erotic--just as it probably was in 2002.