Female Misbehavior

You'd think with a decade and a half between the release of this 1992 anthology (four shorts and one feature) and today, the impact would be blunted—that some cracking of the secrets of women's sexuality would have made these portraits of bold and aggressive women less shocking and riveting. But the power of documentarian Monika Treut's perspective comes from her understanding of how the larger culture, no matter how sexualized, doesn't really want to hear women's secrets. Talking with each of her subjects in friendly but blunt language about their sexual experiences, Treut—a pioneer of independent lesbian filmmaking—focuses on a porn star in “Annie” (Annie Sprinkle, whose performance art includes inviting the audience to look into her cervix thanks to a speculum), an S&M devotee in “Bondage,” the philosopher Camille Paglia in “Dr. Paglia,” the “Mexican Marilyn Monroe” who later became New York's leading dominatrix feminist in Didn't Do it For Love (the feature-length film), and—most intriguingly—a female-to-male transsexual in “Max.” Even by contemporary standards it's all deliciously shocking and wonderfully radical...not because these women are particularly unusual, but rather because it's so rare to see women publicly claiming their places as sexual beings in their own right and for their own enjoyment. DVD extras include an interview with Treut. Recommended for more adventurous collections. Aud: C, P. (M. Johanson)