Published in Paris in 1954, The Story of O was an immediate bestseller and literary scandal: an elegantly written S&M fantasy that had all the hallmarks of being an autobiographical account by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage. In 1994 Dominique Aury, a mild-mannered, dowdy editor for France's prestigious Gallimard press, revealed her authorship. Pola Rapaport explores Aury's inspiration, recreating the world of '50s literary Paris and setting it against dramatic sequences that... (Full plot summary below)
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Published in Paris in 1954, The Story of O was an immediate bestseller and literary scandal: an elegantly written S&M fantasy that had all the hallmarks of being an autobiographical account by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage. In 1994 Dominique Aury, a mild-mannered, dowdy editor for France's prestigious Gallimard press, revealed her authorship. Pola Rapaport explores Aury's inspiration, recreating the world of '50s literary Paris and setting it against dramatic sequences that bring the infamous book to life. The author and various French intellectuals expound on the thorny relationship between sexuality and power, submission and freedom, liberation and non-being. Even today, The Story of O mystifies in its power and confounds in its contradictions.
Leave your thoughts about Writer of O.
| Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaThe real reason to see this slight but interesting documentary is to watch and listen to the radiant Aury. |
| Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldThe movie is a fascinating, if often confusing, mix of dramatized scenes from the novel, re-created and actual interviews with Desclos. |
| Film Journal InternationalRex RobertsRapaport intersperses her reflections and those of people who knew her with dramatizations. |
| Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckA dry compendium of talking-head interviews. |
| TV GuideMaitland McDonaghNo voice is more vivid than that of the writer of O, who died in 2002. |
| Boston GlobeTy BurrThis gulf between a woman's public and private faces is an intensely rich subject that Rapaport glosses over. |
| Salon.comAndrew O'HehirAn elegant but muddled affair, worth seeing despite (and maybe because of) its own split personality. |
| New York Daily NewsJami BernardIt is a mash note from first-time filmmaker Pola Rapaport to Aury, but its attempts to dramatize passages of the book are at odds with Aury's advice that "Story of O" was a piece of writing "not meant to be spoken." |
| VarietyDennis HarveyHodgepodge of archival, re-enactment and staged fictive elements. |
| Village VoiceJessica WinterPola Rapaport's slender documentary-cum-reconstruction Writer of O disappoints in its workmanlike approach to such fragrant material. |
