Experiencing Interruptions?

Destruction of Pleasure

Millie begins to work out her sexual identity, but is interrupted at every turn. She receives a creepy handheld film of her in the mail from an anonymous sender, causing the actress playing Millie to refuse any further involvement in the film.

  • Alex Olsen-Smith
    Director
  • Alex Olsen-Smith
    Writer
  • Allegra Hunter
    Writer
  • Alex Olsen-Smith
    Producer
  • Vienna Betham
    Key Cast
  • Corey Middleditch
    Cinematographer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Erotic, Thriller, Psycholigical, Concept
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 19 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 21, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    500 NZD
  • Country of Origin:
    New Zealand
  • Country of Filming:
    New Zealand
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Alex Olsen-Smith

This guy is a 23 year-old film student in Christchurch, New Zealand. He eats, breaths, and smokes celluloid.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

'Destruction of Pleasure' is inspired by such works as 'Last House on the Left', 'The Piano Teacher', 'Caché', 'Ju Dou', 'Serial Experiments Lain', and Jafar Panahi's 'The Mirror'. For some time I was mesmerised by the body-horror of films that exploit female sexuality, not so much for the twisted gravity of the plot as much as the greater actions of their respective directors - forcing masculinist ideals of sex, gender, age and pain on the cast and then the audience. Mulvey's essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' is also a considerable influence, regarding the destructive immersion into sex into which these films delve (the film's title also comes from this essay). Jafar Panahi's gritty, realist style enabled me to subvert the filmic structure and narrative, resulting in an examination of the director rather than the director's choice of subject matter, while Serial Experiments Lain, an anime, brought in the idea of technological perspective - aided by Walter Benjamin's critical theory of art in the age of mechanical (in this case digital) reproduction.

In a few words, 'Destruction' is about the male gaze, psychoanalysis and the reality that many highly esteemed directors have historically exploited their lead cast to achieve their idealised product.