5 S&M Themed Movies You Can Stream On Netflix

The Duke of Burgundy is so unlike any other movie out there. It’s essentially a lesbian love story told through the prism of an S&M relationship. The degree to which director Peter Strickland and stars Sidse Babette Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna take this relationship seriously and portray it with sensitivity and specificity makes the movie far more than anything that could be called exploitive. Plus where else are you going to get a movie featuring a cost-benefit analysis of purchasing a human-toilet aparatus for the home?

[Stream The Duke of Burgundy on Netflix.]

Nymphomaniac is Lars Von Trier’s expansive, explicit sex film got a lot of attention during its production for its reported unsimulated sex scenes, but its provocations go well beyond that. Charlotte Gainsbourg was no stranger to intense sexuality and darkness with Von Trier. Where else is left to go after playing a woman who cuts off her own clitoris, as Gainsbourg did in Antichrist? In Nymphomaniac she plays the title character who essentially takes a winding tour through sexuality, including more than a few stops at S&M. Gainsbourg has said that the embarrassment inherent in the S&M scenes were more challenging than the sex scenes or having to wear a prosthetic vagina.

[Stream Nymphomaniac Volume 1 on Netflix.]
[Stream Nymphomaniac Part 2 on Netflix.]

KNOW YA HISTORY! Geoffrey Rush got an Oscar nomination for playing the Marquis de Sade, the namesake of the concept of sadomasochism. Quills itself doesn’t feature a ton of explicit S&M action, but it’s a fascinating portrait of the man whose legacy is so notorious. Kate Winslet and Joaquin Phoenix are also excellent in supporting roles.

[Stream Quills on Netflix.]

Based on a stage play that is itself based on an 1870s Austrian novel (that was itself the inspiration for a Velvet Underground song), Venus in Fur has a good bit of legacy behind it. Roman Polanski’s film doesn’t quite have the verve of the play (missing out on the Tony Award-winning performance of Nina Arianda doesn’t help), but it’s regardless a fascinating battle of wills between a man and a woman and the competing dominant/submissive desires that exist between them.

[Stream Venus in Fur on Netflix.]

Say what you will about James Franco’s art-school-thesis approach to filmmaking, his fascination with the notorious gay film Cruising ultimately led to this look at the film from a modern perspective. Interior: Leather Bar isn’t always as revelatory as it thinks it is, but the way it strips away everything from Cruising but the S&M club scenes makes it at the very least a curiosity worth seeking out.

[Stream Interior: Leather Bar on Netflix.]