Red Shoe Diaries 6: How I Met My Husband

 

Directed by: Bernard Auroux

Philippe Angers

Anne Goursaud 

Starring: Luigi Amodeo

Neith Hunter

Raven Snow

John Enos

Charlotte Lewis

Carsten Norgaard

Sue Kiel 

Host: David Duchovny as Jake Winters 

Released: 1995

Running time: 85 minutes

 

Reviewed by Ms. Kathleen for 'Predominant', October 2005
 

 

“Women Do You Keep a Diary?” So goes the ad in the personals section. 

 

Jake Winters (played by X-Files actor David Duchovny) is desperately trying to recover from the recent betrayal and the tragic death of his beloved fiancée. After the death of Marlene, Jake has a very difficult time adjusting to life without her. This is even more true when he discovers Marlene's diary. As he begins to read the diary he discovers that Marlene had a deep dark secret. She was having an affair with another man.  
 

Jack attempts a novel form of therapy to overcome his great loss. He advertises in the personals, under the pseudonym 'Red Shoes', to pay top dollar to women willing to send to him diaries of their most erotic experiences. Thus is the premise for the erotic series, The Red Shoe Diaries.  
 

The Red Shoe Diaries aired from June 1992 to June 1999 on Showtime with some of the more memorable episodes making their way to video. Each Red Shoe video contained three episodes. The sixth video was released in 1995 and it was called, “How I Met My Husband”. The sixth video contains the episodes “How I Met My Husband”, “Naked in the Moonlight” and “Midnight Bells”.  
 

The episode, “How I Met My Husband” has a FemDom theme. It begins with an almost naked man on all fours in front of a room full of women. A woman dressed in leather, Mistress Miranda, asks for a volunteer. A beautiful, shy woman in a conservative dress is picked from the audience. Miranda says, “Now remember ladies; Grip, Wrist, Follow-through!” 
 

Miranda hands Alice (Neith Hunter), the reluctant but curious volunteer, her whip and tells her to give the stern command, “Bernard, you’ve been a bad boy!” Alice repeats this dominant phrase to the vulnerable male as Miranda admonishes her to “follow-through”. Alice cracks the whip and strikes the male to the thunderous applause of the female audience. A satisfied look comes over Alice’s face. So begins “How I Met My Husband.” 
 

The next scene (each scene is divided by short shots of Duchovny reading the diary/letter) has Mistress Miranda telling her female audience about “dressing for power and control” as sexy women come walking down the fashion runway in leather and fetish attire, carrying whips and pulling handsome studs on leashes and chains. Alice looks on with obvious excitement and arousal. I think both men and women will find this scene to be quite erotic. 
 

In the next scene, Mistress Miranda offers Alice a job at her House of Domination. Through narration, Alice tells us that she is ready to be in control of men as she is tired of being the one controlled. Now she wants to be the boss. Miranda gives Alice a tour of her House of Domination and we see brief displays of the other Mistresses using bondage, teasing and denial and humiliation on the paying clients.
 

 

 

Miranda explains to Alice the house rules of no sex and no sexual touching between the Mistresses and the clients. All sex occurs in the realm of the mind. With that, Alice is ready for her first client and she assumes the scene name of Mistress Eve. 
 

Her first client is Giuseppe (Luigi Amodeo), a handsome, young Italian male. This is obviously his first time visiting a House of Domination therefore he is just as nervous as Alice. He is there to confess his sexual sins to a woman and be punished. Alice/Mistress Eve, dressed in a PVC outfit complete with mask, uses a blend of nurturing and discipline to get the young man to open up to her.
 

 

 

Through her dominance, he confesses that he has become a Gigolo and women grade his performance in bed.  
 

Mistress Eve interrogates Giuseppe about why he has come to see her. He confides that he wants to be punished and he wants to be broken of his bad and sinful habits so he can live a life pleasing to his Mother. Mistress Eve skillfully uses the whip as Giuseppe promises “No more women for money”. Mistress Miranda watches from the other side of an observation glass and comments to one of the other Mistresses that Alice is a natural. 
 

However, Alice finds herself becoming attached to her client. She finds him to be both attractive and innocent. Her dominant posture with him appeals to her as she loves having this kind of control over a man. She follows him to his place of employment where Giuseppe dances for women. Naturally he does not know who Alice is since she always wears a mask at the House of Domination. Alice watches as women proposition him and one woman picks him up and they have sex in her car. 
 

The next time he visits the House of Domination, Giuseppe is interrogated by Alice/Mistress Eve and she gets him to confess his failure. She punishes him and tells him that he has dishonored his mother and all women by selling himself to women for money. He is humiliated and ashamed.  
 

Alice goes and watches him dance again and afterwards she approaches him and tempts him by offering him money. He declines her offer but he asks her out to dinner instead. He falls for her and the next time he visits Mistress Eve he confides to her that he has met someone whom he really likes. As he tells her his innermost thoughts about how he has fallen for Alice (not knowing that Mistress Eve and Alice are the same woman) she realizes that she loves him and they touch.  
 

Mistress Miranda barges into the room to separate them, she reminds Alice that she is violating a house rule and she forbids her to see Giuseppe. Mistress Eve removes her mask and reveals to Giuseppe that she is indeed Alice. He is hurt and feels betrayed and runs out. Alice seeks out Giuseppe at the restaurant where he works. He admits that he wants to be with her but he asks “what would I tell my Mother when she asks how we met?” Alice tells him to tell her the truth because no one would ever believe it.  
 

The next scene is interesting as it shows them about to make love for the first time. Alice is dressed in a leather corset, boots and long gloves while she is holding a whip. They are not at the House of Domination but alone at the place where he dances. Giuseppe is on his knees and Alice is in the obvious dominant position. She uses the whip not as a tool of discipline but as an erotic implement which she utilizes to caress his body. They begin to make love as he embraces her with a submissive posture. She is still in control but she is no longer Mistress Eve but Alice, his dominant girlfriend and lover. She will be in charge of the relationship but it will be a relationship based on love, passion and trust.  
 

The movie switches back to David Duchovny reading from Alice’s diary and he reveals that Alice and Giuseppe got married a few months later, the Gigolo and the Dominatrix.  

 

 

 

I enjoyed “How I Met My Husband”. It was very light FemDom, nothing hard or complex, yet it had sensuality and reality. The profession of being a Dominatrix is treated with admiration and respect, whereas being a Gigolo is wrong and immoral. Mistress Miranda is shown to be a smart business woman, not a freak, and her establishment is shown to be valuable and necessary, not weird nor perverted.  
 

I also liked the professional relationship between Mistress Eve and Giuseppe. In my opinion, that is how a Pro Dom and her client should relate to each other. Had they not fallen in love, such a professional relationship would be valuable for a man. Confessing one’s sins and shortcomings to a woman and receiving both understanding and punishment would be therapeutic and healthy for a man. Mistress Eve got Giuseppe to give up his erroneous ways and he was accountable to her. He trusted Mistress Eve and he needed Mistress Eve. She represented Loving Female Authority to him. However, the writer did not want this story to be simply about a professional relationship but rather a story about finding your soul mate when you least expect it. 
 

To me, the moral of "How I Met My Husband" is that FemDom can be romantic and it can exist within a loving, caring relationship. This short story begins in the secret and mysterious world of Mistress Miranda but it ends with two people getting married because they complete each other. Alice needed to be the dominant partner in a relationship and Giuseppe needed female guidance and authority to give his life meaning and direction. 
 

“How I Met My Husband” is the kind of video that may appeal to women, especially the novice woman. It introduces the concept of FemDom and D&S in a light, sensual way. Women and couples might also enjoy the other two stories on this video “Naked in the Moonlight” and “Midnight Bells”.  
 

I read on a website dedicated to the Red Shoe Diary series that volume 6 was judged to be the best of all the Red Shoe videos. A used VHS copy can be purchased on Amazon for as low as $5.95.
 

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars