Netflix Picks: Of Bondage Both Physical And Emotional

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We love it when people tie each other up and do nasty things to them, physically speaking. Being tied down emotionally isn't really that fun, but sometimes it makes for unusual circumstances that erupt in steamy action! With that in mind, today's round of Netflix Picks is all about the ties that bind.

1. I Am Love: Tilda Swinton, playing the elegant wife of a powerful man in a rich family, stalks one of her son's friends so that she may have a "chance encounter" with him in San Remo, and there begins their affair. Watching Tilda Swinton undress is always hot, but watching Tilda be undressed by a younger man is straight-up steam city. In the act of taking off her pants, her wedding ring, and her shirt, the young man is removing all of the connections Tilda has to the world; he's both freeing her and isolating her at the same time (and he's fucking her, too, which is impressive multi-tasking).

2. Map of the Sounds of Tokyo: Rinko Kikuchi works nights as a fishmonger in Tokyo, but by day, she's a hitwoman! And by other nights, she whimpers sweetly as she gets eaten out by by the sound engineer who is, for some strange reason, totally into her. They screw in a bedroom made out of a subway train! We can't think of how bondage fits into this, and for that we apologize, but let us assure you that Rinko's naked body is totally worth the inconsistency of this post.

3. Damage: This spectacular novel by Josephine Hart was turned into a movie by Louis Malle in 1992, and it is every bit as erotically thrilling as it is psychologically fascinating. An emotionally flat British MP (Jeremy Irons) develops an uncontrollable obsession with his son's fiancee (Juliette Binoche), and he meets her in various European cities for odd trysts that walk the line between businesslike and desperate. There's nudity and insanity all over, and Juliette Binoche is straight-up foxy in a "You can't touch me because I'm made out of intellectual hatred but I'm sexy anyway" sort of way.

4. The Last Mistress: In 19th century France, A poor man has been having a 10-year affair with Asia Argento, but he must get married to the wealthy young aristocrat Roxane Mesquida. (We use "poor" in the financial sense, because clearly this guy is rich with luck.) All goes as planned, he moves to a castle by the sea and begins having kids with Roxane, but then Asia shows up with a six-pack of drama to share with everyone. If you know Catherine Breillat, you know that she doesn't play around with sex scenes, and here she has a number of willing and able beauties to work with: Roxane Mesquida, Asia Argento, Madeline West, Peta Sergeant, Boyana Novakovic, and Yesse Spence all show skin, and none of it is frivolous! (To us, there is no such thing as frivolous nudity.)

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!: A young, long-haired Antonio Banderas gets out of a psych hospital and makes it his life goal to have a normal and cozy life with a former porn star turned B-movie actress (played by Victoria Abril); his first step is to kidnap her and keep her tied up in his room. If this had been directed by anyone but Pedro Almodovar, we'd be wary of the sexual dynamics at work, but the tone is always light and humorous (save for the sex scenes, which are steamy and only vaguely smell of Stockholm syndrome). Neat little fact: this movie was instrumental in getting America's X-rating toned down to the easier-to-market NC-17.

[Above: Tilda Swinton is so damn fine in "I Am Love"]