Directed by: Erika Lust
Starring: Venus O’Hara,
Anna Linng
Released: 2010
Language: English
Length: 6 minutes
Back in 2012 I was contacted
by a gentleman who was one of the organizers of the Fetish Film Festival, the
subcultural film conference that meets in Kiel, Germany each year. The Fetish
Film Festival explores narrative works about consensual erotic encounters. This
gentleman was a fan of my movie reviews and he extended a personal invitation
for me to attend the Fetish Film Festival. He also sent me a list of the
Festival’s winners for 2011.
A flick that caught my
attention was one of the nominees for best short film, a D&S goodie titled
“Love Me like you Hate Me”. It didn’t win the award for best short film (that
honor went to a film called “Fourplay” about a cross-dressing male
prostitute). However, the star actress of “Love Me like you Hate Me”,
Venus O’Hara, did win the award for best actress in a short film.
And when I say short
film, I really mean ‘short’ film. “Love me like you Hate Me” is a mere six
minutes in length. Yet, I loved every second of it and that surprised me a
little because although the film is about D&S (and more specifically female
domination) the film explores female dominating female.
Why did I like it so
much? That’s a good question (and I’m glad I asked it). I think I liked it for
a number of reasons.
For one thing, seeing
that I have red hair, I am kind of partial to red headed dominant women. I
think we are a fraternity (or sorority if you prefer) unto ourselves. Red hair,
fair skin, and freckles are not the easiest body traits for a teenage girl to
deal with when she is coming of age in a society that is obsessed with
sunbathing, tanning beds and bronzed skin. When the Beach Boys (and later David
Lee Roth) sang “I wish they all could be California girls”, well thank God they
didn’t get their wish because that wasn’t me.
Growing up I always felt
a kinship with Katharine Hepburn, Maureen O’Hara and other famous red heads.
These women were sexy and glamorous and I idolized them. Of course some people
liked to stereotype me with zany female red heads such as Lucille Ball and
Carol Burnett. But that’s the beauty of red heads. We can be glamorous, sexy,
wacky, fiery and very dominant.
So maybe I was drawn to
Venus O’Hara because of her hair color. I had never heard of her before but
Venus O’Hara is a fetish model, an actress, and a writer.
In fact, “Love Me like
you Hate Me” is also a book, a coffee table book, written by Venus O’Hara and
another woman, Erika Lust. Here is a brief synopsis of the book;
“This book provides a
modern perspective on a variety of practices that may be considered taboo for
many women: to be tied up oneself or to tie someone else up, role-play and
dressing up, giving pain or receiving it, being a strict dominatrix or being a
submissive slave, punishing our partner or being punished by them... Explore
with Venus O’Hara and Erika Lust the seductive thrills of domination or the
fear and excitement of submission.”
The short film “Love Me
like you Hate Me” is based on the book with the same name and it stars Venus
O’Hara. Oh, did I mention that she plays all the parts in this short film? I
didn’t realize it the first time I watched it but when I went back and watched
it again, sure enough, all 7 characters in this short film are indeed the
red-headed Venus O’Hara. She plays herself plus six additional personas of her
personality, including 3 dominant personas as she interacts with and dominates
… well … herself, in a variety of role-playing scenarios.
She is the strict French teacher who spanks
her female student when she isn’t able to comprehend the lesson.
She is the cruel housewife who humiliates and
exploits her female housekeeper by throwing her cigarette on the floor that the
housekeeper is scrubbing and grinds it with her shoes, all the while verbally
degrading the submissive housekeeper about the poor job she is doing.
She is the evil Dominatrix who abuses her female slave. She locks her in a closet and only lets her out after she begs. She verbally humiliates her about her hygiene, binds her in a tub, and cruelly dunks her head under the water. All of these characters are played erotically by Venus O’Hara.
How does she pull this
off? With the help of another actress, Anna Linng. We never see Anna’s face but
she is the stand-in when the camera captures female hands spanking female
bottom or female legs and shoes standing in front of the submissive housekeeper
or the gloved hand of a Dominatrix pushing the head of her slave under the bath
water.
It’s very clever and I love the haunting piano music that accompanies the scenes as it adds to the domination, the cruelty and the intense humiliation.
So do I have different
dominant personas? Absolutely! I can be the cruel Dominatrix or the fun-loving
independent spirit or the sensual temptress or the quiet intellectual or the
spoiled brat who is accustomed to getting her way or the fiery Irish Bitch with
the bad temper.
Do I have submissive
fantasies? No, I can’t say that I do but I have known dominant women who like
to be on the other end as they explore their submissive fantasies with other
dominant women. Back when I was active in ClubFEM, I had a dominant woman in
our group who asked me if I would be open to dominating her within a
role-playing scenario. She didn’t want any of the other Mistresses (or
submissive men) knowing but she had a long-held fantasy that involved a specific
role-play where she was submissive to a woman. And believe me, she was dominant
in real life, and very dominant with her husband. Did I oblige her request?
Now, now … that’s private information between just me and her.
So even if you’re not
into seeing a woman dominating another woman, “Love Me like you Hate me” should
still be an erotic viewing experience. I think you’ll find Ms. O’Hara’s
dominant style to be quite arousing.
You can see the film at this
link http://xeeex.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/love-me-like-you-hate-me-short-film-erika-lust/
One final thought about
this short and that’s the title. You may recall that I explored my hubby’s
masochism and one area that I had difficulty comprehending is when he would ask
me to be cruel. I finally caught on and what he was really saying was … love me
like you hate me. To a submissive and a masochist, when a woman agrees to treat
him cruelly, she is in fact demonstrating to him that she loves him. She is
giving him what he needs, what he craves. To refuse to be cruel is to be cruel.
To grant him the cruelty he longs for is to love him.
Of course I am talking
about role-playing and D&S exploration. To take this into everyday life and
treat someone cruelly 24/7 would be unhealthy for all involved. I could never
be cruel as it is more in my nature to be tender-hearted. But I do enjoy being
cruel in our D&S play. Yes, I admit it. When it comes to my hubby, I enjoy
loving him like I hate him.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars