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Reviews
The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch (1995)
Chastising the voyeur, and making him love it ...
It would be difficult to fully extol the virtues of this film without revealing the ending, so, suffice it to say, this is a film that adheres to the De Mille formula of encouraging the viewer to revel in a sensual voyeuristic feast, safe in the knowledge that a moralising finale will negate the prurient plot.
To put the film in context, it was conceived as one of a series of short films on the trendy subject of 'eroticism' by different directors. Russell though, as ever, cleverly subverts the whole premise, by titillating throughout, but always leading us to the very moral (but funny) outcome. It's Ken, and his religious/hedonistic split as usual, but to get the full impact you must watch until the very end. The moral ... that sexuality in the end can never be truly separated from its function ... babies! The genius is not so much in the direction this time, but in the IDEA and the telling of it. As the plot thickens, the viewer's own voyeurism is teased out slowly until the hilarious mirror is unveiled and the realities of adulthood snap back with the Hitchcockian twist. You'll need a sense of humour for this, but the effort to stick with it is well worth it.