Writer of O

Part reenactments/part interview footage, this documentary about Dominique Aury's authorship of the scandalous erotic 1954 novel held my interest when actually speaking to Aury and her circle of friends, but lost me during the long, stylistic scenes from the novel Histoire d'O, which included narrative voice-overs (If I'm going to watch The Story of O, I'd like to at least watch a full adaptation, not just part of the story). These scenes were not needed in this documentary, and only distracted me from the real story: Aury's 40 years of silence, and the impact that writing this novel had on her friends and her lover.

Unfortunately, those subjects seemed just briefly touched on, and really didn't reveal that much. Footage from an interview taped shortly after she identified herself was among the most fascinating; including her description of her lover and his reaction to her writing it as a love-letter to him. Her frustration at not being able to come forward sooner was evident, though she realized the practicality of the situation due to the restraints of the era.

Outside of the erotica, the most disappointing thing to me was that director Pola Rapaport decided to cast an actress to play a younger Aury, having her not only reenact the writing of the novel, but actually read portions of an earlier taped interview. Again, something that was terribly distracting. I would have rather heard the actual taped interview, or just seen more of Dominique's (or her lover's) photos, letters, etc. Even having friends read aloud more passages from Histoire d'O (there were a few interspersed throughout) would have been preferable. In addition, the director interviewed Aury and only included a small bit of footage from that interview, as well as some photos of Dominique at her home. I would have liked to have seen a lot more.

Realizing that limits of the documentary (Dominique Aury’s passing in 1998 makes it impossible for her to have participated in new footage for the film), I understand that some filler was needed -- I just feel it was too much and I would have preferred to see a shorter, more put-together piece.