Stretched Wide Open

Published in Paris in 1954, Story of O was an immediate bestseller and literary scandal: an elegantly written S&M fantasy that had all the hallmarks of being an autobiographical account by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage. In 1994 Dominique Aury, a mild-mannered, dowdy editor for France’s prestigious Gallimard press, revealed her authorship. Pola Rapaport explores Aury's inspiration, recreating the world of '50s literary Paris and setting it against dramatic sequences that bring the infamous book to life. The author as well as various French intellectuals expound on the thorny relationship between sexuality and power, submission and freedom, liberation and non-being.

Misaki Amemiya is an assistant inspector for the Metropolitan Police Department's Community Safety Bureau who becomes ensnared in a trap while investigating a mysterious illegal video website called "Babylon". Soon, she's bound and tortured along with Shizuko and an oversexed housewife named Ruri.

A writer, researching a book on male prostitutes, finds a young man to serve as a guide on the streets of Los Angeles.

After breaking into a house he believes is empty, thief Olivier is caught by the owner, Ariane, who turns out to be a dominatrix. Improbably falling for her, Olivier returns periodically, and an impulsive romance blossoms despite Ariane's profession. Soon Olivier becomes more familiar with her work, even joining in on occasion. However, when he discovers that Ariane has a son, he attempts to "fix" her, hoping to give her a better life.

Footage of a brutal murder becomes a feature on the internet.

Shizuka is the aristocratic wife of the president of a large company. When she wants to divorce her domineering husband, he orders his employee Yoshi, the son of an adult toy store owner, to train his wife to become sexually submissive.

A couple is kidnapped while driving and sent to the training house where Queen Mary Aoi lives. They are trained in unimaginable SM techniques with the woman becoming a true masochist and the man a true sadist, and both becoming full-fledged SM instructors.

In total despair, Anja is about to throw herself from a bridge. At that very moment, Henry drives past in his car. Thinking she's a prostitute, he invites her home with him. Anja pretends to be what Henry initially thought. She refuses to explain the reasons for her apparent attempt at suicide. The two begin to play strange games, engage in unusual sex, leading Anja to try fleeing the apartment, but Henry catches her. Forced by Henry, Anja tells him about Lilly who was raped and then killed someone, leaving Henry with the impression that Lilly and Anja are one, the same person. They play more mind games, make love, and after Anja going back and forth trying to leave, Henry finally lets her go. She goes, but is back again soon after. And with a vengeance, she causes a series of strange events which will change the course of both of their lives

The "Torture Club" is an official after-school activity at the private school Saint Honesty Gakuen. Yuzuki has no idea about the club when she enrolls, and gets abducted by the club members and hauled off the club-room. There, she finds out that upper-class student Aoi, her secret idol, is in the club, and decides to join, but…

Documentary look at doomed male prostitutes in Prague, ages 15 to 18, who troll at the public swimming pool, the train station, a video arcade, and a disco. After the boys talk about how they got in the game, the camera follows them to the home of Pavel Rousek. Under the name Hans Miller, he makes gay porno videos, primarily for German distribution. Intercut with a movie shoot chez Rousek is an interview that follows him to his day job at a morgue, where he performs an autopsy as he talks about his work. The sex is without protection; the boys are without family. They talk about their bodies and souls, money, their sexual orientation, AIDS, their dreams, and death.

A young woman in dire financial straights accepts an offer to be a wealthy aristocrat's human "pet" for six months. Then ruthless modern "pet-nappers" kidnap the woman to sell her on the GSM (Global Slave Market).