Fetishes

Fetishes

1996 · 84 min · ★ 5.9 · Documentary

Nick Broomfield and a documentary crew visit Pandora's Box, an up-scale house of bondage on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, where clients pay $175 an hour to be subservient to mistresses. Mistresses talk about their craft; a few clients, usually masked, are interviewed as well. Then, the camera watches sessions organized around fetishes: rubber, wrestling, corporal punishment, masochism, and infantilism. Mistress Raven, the owner of Pandora's Box, explains that pain need not be part of the subservient experience: it is, at its root, a transfer of power. After their session has ended, clients talk about how drained, relaxed, relieved, and at peace they are.

Directed by Nick Broomfield · Written by Nick Broomfield

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 10m together

Fetishes

Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam

Both from Nick Broomfield.

More from Nick BroomfieldSee all →

The Stones and Brian Jones

The Stones and Brian Jones · 2023

The Stones and Brian Jones

MovieDocumentaryMusic

A look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, as well as the creative musical genius of Brian Jones, key to the success of the band.

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer · 1992

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer

MovieDocumentaryCrime

In this documentary, filmmaker Nick Broomfield follows the saga of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who has been accused of committing a brutal series of murders. Broomfield conducts interviews with Wuornos herself, and his crew films her trial as well as her interactions with religious fanatic Arlene Pralle, who gives Wuornos dubious advice and legally adopts her. The cameras also roll as the accused's attorney ignores the case at hand to negotiate a deal to sell his client's story.

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer · 2003

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

MovieDocumentaryCrime

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.

Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam

Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam · 1995

Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam

MovieDocumentary

A documentary crew from the BBC arrives in L.A. intent on interviewing Heidi Fleiss, a year after her arrest for running a brothel but before her trial. Several months elapse before the interview, so the crew searches for anyone who'll talk about the young woman. Two people have a lot to say to the camera: a retired madam named Alex for whom Fleiss once worked and Fleiss's one-time boyfriend, Ivan Nagy, who introduced her to Alex. Alex and Nagy don't like each other, so the crew shuttles between them with "she said" and "he said." When they finally interview Fleiss, they spend their time reciting what Alex and Nagy have had to say and asking her reaction.

Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie and Tupac

Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie and Tupac · 2021

Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie and Tupac

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Last Man Standing takes a look at Death Row and how L.A.’s street gang culture had come to dominate its business workings, as well as an association with corrupt LA police officers who were also gang affiliated. It would be this world of gang rivalry and dirty cops that would claim the lives of the world’s two greatest rappers: Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

Whitney: Can I Be Me

Whitney: Can I Be Me · 2017

Whitney: Can I Be Me

MovieMusicDocumentary

The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.

Soldier Girls

Soldier Girls · 1981

MovieDocumentaryDrama

A documentary about women's basic training in Fort Georgia.

Ghosts

When a young girl, Ai Qin, pays $25,000 to be smuggled into the UK in order to support her family back in China, she becomes another one of 3 million migrant workers that have become the bedrock of our economy. Forced to live with eleven other Chinese people in a two bedroom house, they work in factories preparing food for British supermarkets. Risking their lives for pennies these unprotected workers end up cockling in Morcombe Bay at night.

Biggie & Tupac

Biggie & Tupac · 2002

MovieMusicDocumentary

In 1997, rap superstars Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G.) were gunned down in separate incidents, the apparent victims of hip hop's infamous east-west rivalry. Nick Broomfield's film introduces Russell Poole, an ex-cop with damning evidence that suggests the LAPD deliberately fumbled the case to conceal connections between the police, LA gangs and Death Row Records, the label run by feared rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight.

Monster in a Box

Monster in a Box · 1992

Monster in a Box

Monologuist Spalding Gray talks about the great difficulties he experienced while attempting to write his first novel, a nearly 2,000-page autobiographical tome concerning the death of his mother. Among his many asides, Gray discusses his problems in dealing with the Hollywood film industry, recounts the trips he took around the world in order to avoid dealing with his writer's block and describes his ambivalence about acting as stage manager for a Broadway production of "Our Town."

Driving Me Crazy

Driving Me Crazy · 1988

Driving Me Crazy

MovieDocumentary

Broomfield's behind-the-scenes document of the making of a musical becomes a ceremonious unmaking-of as egos, budgets and general calamity conspire to ruin the best efforts of all involved in the New York rehearsals for an extravagant, glitzy production.

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love · 2019

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

MovieDocumentaryMusic

A story of enduring love between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse, Marianne Ihlen. The film follows their relationship from their early days in Greece, a time of "free love" and open marriage, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

Tales of the Grim Sleeper · 2014

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

MovieCrimeDocumentary

When Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested in South Central Los Angeles in 2010 as the suspected murderer of a string of young black women, police hailed it as the culmination of 20 years of investigations. Four years later documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield took his camera to the alleged killer’s neighborhood for another view.

Battle for Haditha

Battle for Haditha · 2007

Battle for Haditha

MovieActionAdventure

An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgents who plant the roadside bomb.

Kurt & Courtney

Kurt & Courtney · 1998

Kurt & Courtney

MovieDocumentaryMusic

After rocker Kurt Cobain's death, ruled a suicide, a film crew arrives in Seattle to make a documentary. Director Nick Broomfield talks to lots of people. Portraits emerge: a shy, slight Kurt, weary of touring, embarrassed by fame, hooked on heroin; an out-going Courtney, dramatic, controlling, moving from groupie to star.

Lily Tomlin

Lily Tomlin · 1987

MovieDocumentary

Backstage record of how Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner and their associates put together "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," Miss Tomlin's one-woman Broadway play.

More Like This

The Wolfpack

The Wolfpack · 2015

MovieDocumentary

Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed ‘The Wolfpack’, the brothers spend their childhood reenacting their favorite films using elaborate home-made props and costumes. Their world is shaken up when one of the brothers escapes and everything changes.

Cinemania

Cinemania · 2003

MovieDocumentary

This documentary about the culture of intense cinephilia in New York City reveals the impassioned world of five obsessed movie buffs. These human encyclopedias of cinema see two to five films a day, and from 600 to 2,000 films per year. This is the story of their lives, their memories, their unbending habits and the films they love.

Crumb

MovieDocumentary

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter