mysteryb I read dozens of reviews about how this film didn't make any sense and was horrible - and I have to say I am more confused by the reviews than by the film. The narrative was continuous, and I had no trouble following the story line at all.---This is the spoiler part--- The real issue, for some people at least, behind corporate power, torture and sex, is control; they don't actually enjoy any of those activities per se. The plot followed Diane from the point where she thought she was in control (aka "puppet master"), to where she suspected she might not be, to where she lost it and someone else had to take control, to where she had to voluntarily give up limited control, then gave up a lot of control, and finally, involuntarily gave up all control. At first, in control, she is an "ice-queen," and she becomes more and more emotional as she slowly discovers the truth, leading up to the heartbreaking final shot of her face, trapped and condemning.There was no "rape," both characters are both so burned by porn that their understanding of sex was necessarily kinky and based in fantasy. First the rape fantasy, and then the fantasy of having sex with somebody who was asleep. I think she shot him as an unconscious reaction because her psyche correlated the sex act with a murderous act, as evidenced by her fascination with hellfire and the earlier 3-D porn meets "zombie" kill for all shown earlier on.Overall I thought it was a fine effort, and I enjoyed it far more than anticipated.

lastliberal Fans of the capitalist systems will naturally be opposed to the message in this film. Its is just an exercise in corporate power struggles and greed.Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, One Hour Photo) is a conniving, soulless corporate lawyer that is clawing her way to the top while spying for a rival company. She is negotiating a deal for a Japanese company that make anime porn and needs the deal to move into 3D.She steps over a rival, who's friend, Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry, Zodiac), stops playing her video games in the nude long enough to respond and ends up in the driver's seat. It's all about power and control and any means is fair game to get there.Gina Gershon (Bound) pops into the mix as a representative from an American company (Demonlover) that wants the same company. She exposes the hidden torture porn website that they own. Unfortunately, she doesn't last long in this game of corporate intrigue.Even a simple act of having sex becomes a power game as it turns from sex to rape to - well, I won't give that away.The ending ties it all up and show just what is driving all this mess, but unfortunately it just sort of pops into view and was not really set up properly. If done right, it would have made a good film into a great film.

gabrielcsaba The film looks slick, the actors are good, period. End of merits. Director Assayas needs to sit down and do some homework before he writes a script. You may not be familiar with things like corporate espionage and the porn industry -though if you're going to make a film about them, you certainly should- but being blatantly ignorant about "the Internets" is just unacceptable. This movie feels as dated in most of its plot contrivances as if it was made in the eighties, but it's only five years old as I'm writing this. I mean, things like: how can a website be "highly profitable" and "impossible to find" at the same time? And if so, how come a teenage kid just goes and finds it? Oh, them kiddos with them Googles and stuff...On top of this kind of ignorant devices it's pretentious, slow-paced, full of plot holes, and just doesn't go anywhere. It's hard to point my toes downward, but if I could, I would give this film a four-thumbs-down.

sarastro7 Demonlover is an intricate, absorbing and claustrophobically dramatic movie about corporate espionage, loyalty and betrayal. It tackles some interesting and relevant subject matter, and establishes characters and situations too complex to make clear sense out of. I've read some of the better interpretations by other users (for instance the thoughtful comment by the user panspermia, which however I don't agree with), and the events in this movie can certainly be perceived in a number of different ways. It's very true that there is a dominance/submission theme running through it, but the whys and wherefores of the events and reactions unfortunately tend to be too vague. I have my own interpretation of what went on (which is too lengthy to go into in detail), but my impression suffers a great deal from unclear descriptions of the companies and who are with which company. I think my interpretation works pretty well, though, even if there may be a couple of less than literal layers of the story that I'm probably missing (such as exactly what the DNA string at the end means, if anything). I'm looking forward to sometime seeing the movie a second time, and noticing more details. Disturbing as the movie is, however, I think it will be a while before I'll want to watch it again.But all in all it's an interesting and thought-provoking little movie, with great production values and good actors.7 out of 10.