Into Emptiness

"Masochism is basically neither about content nor about morals, but something formal and nothing but that." (Gilles Deleuze) The film Into Emptiness describes the example of a ritual game of bondage as it is practized in the "Studio for Bizarre Erotics". Subject of the game is a masochistic phantasy, in which the guest takes over the part of the devout slave and servant, while the woman employed at the "Studio" plays the mercilessly ruling and punishing domina. Language, gestures and developement of the staging follow a preset contract and the order of sadomasochistic conventions and rhetoric.

The film, a little documentary chamber-play about a woman, a man and a room, is the attempt to filmically document and condens elements of such a classic masochistic ritual and its specific form and theatricallity. (Astrid Ofner)