Bisbee praises Pillion as “one of the most authentic depictions of a leather relationship I’ve seen on screen,” but he also suggests that a key scene is missing — one that might have made the central relationship seem healthier. “We never see Colin and Ray negotiate the terms of their relationship. To me, that’s one of the few things about this movie that isn’t authentic. In BDSM relationships, those conversations happen all the time,” Bisbee says. But at the same time, I can understand why Wroten left this out of the script. “From a filmmaker’s point of view, that kind of conversation would slow things down and break the tension,” she says. Skarsgard’s Rey remains a fascinating mystery until the end of the film, which adds to the character’s exotic charisma. He speaks with a soft American accent, and Skarsgård’s true appearance resembles a Hollywood star, but we’ll never know how he ended up living in a quiet corner of south London. And while we see Colin working hard at his menial job as a parking warden, we never see how Ray earns his living or how he spends his time during the day.
Wignall argues that this seductive elusiveness takes the film into “fantasy” territory. “It doesn’t feel like real life because there’s a lack of discussion about the limits of their relationship and Colin seems to just click into being Ray’s sub without any real communication,” he says. However, it’s worth noting that Righton took a step forward in making the film authentic by spending time with the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club, the largest LGBT+ motorcycle club in the UK and Europe. Some members have supporting roles in the film as Ray’s cycling buddies.
Ian Wilson, who also appeared in the film and served as the unofficial “twist coordinator”, said that Colin and Ray’s relationship contained echoes of unhealthy relationships he had experienced. “I think we discover Ray the same way we discover Colin. We see him at the beginning of the movie as this gorgeous guy…and we slowly start to fall out of love with him,” Wilson said. told GQ. While Skarsgård’s character doesn’t change much over the course of the film, Melling’s Colin grows in confidence and shows glimmers of independence, which feels like an important development.
Fifty Shades Comparison
Pillion is not the first film to depict the relationship between BDSM and weather controversy. Most notoriously, the first film in the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy was met with protests when it was released in theaters in 2015. Activists felt that the film’s central relationship between an overbearing male billionaire and a quiet college girl was deeply unhealthy. Natalie Collins, who led the Fifty Shades is Domestic Violence campaign, told the BBC at the time: “We are really concerned that he is stalking her, forcing her to have sex, forcing her to give up his car, harassing her and emotionally abusing her.” But Bisbee flatly denies any comparisons between “Pillion” and “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the movie based on the best-selling novel by L. James. “Most people in the kinky community hate those books and movies because they contain all kinds of bad cliches about BDSM,” she says. “On the other hand, I can’t think of another movie that depicts the relationship between BDSM and leather as much as Pillion. It’s just amazing.”
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
