Ah, 365 Days. It’s not just the length of a year–it’s a new Polish film that’s become an internet phenomenon since being added to Netflix. As of my writing this article (6/28/20), it is currently the third top movie on Netflix in the US.
It’s also one of the worst films I have ever seen in my entire life. And I gotta tell you, I’ve seen a lot of bad movies.
Let me preface things by saying that generally, I actually like bad movies. A good bad movie–one that’s firing on all cylinders of dumb and ridiculous–is a ton of fun, great for a laugh or a movie night with friends. There’s something deeply enjoyable to me about watching a film that is a true trainwreck.
365 Days is not a good bad movie. It is a bad bad movie. And I mean really bad. It’s tediously boring, the dialogue is so cringe-worthy it’s not even amusing, and the plot oscillates between being nonsensical and nonexistent. Visually, it’s pretty, but that’s essentially all it’s got going for it. Much of the movie could be described as “pretty people existing on screen while the worst music you have ever heard plays in the background.”
So why is 365 Days so popular? Simple: the sex.
365 Days is an erotic drama, similar to Fifty Shades of Grey. The two films actually have a lot in common–they’re both based on novels, they’re both intensely popular despite being quite bad, and both glorify relationships that are deeply unhealthy. Fifty Shades of Grey came under fire from the kink community for it’s dangerously inaccurate portrayal of BDSM. 365 Days is also concerned with power dynamics, but it takes things even further and is even more irresponsible than Fifty Shades with its portrayal of them.
365 Days would like to convince you that it’s about a sexual power struggle between two characters, Laura and Massimo, who are more or less equally matched. The movie tries to establish this early on in the story, juxtaposing the two being power players in their respective businesses as a means of showing that they’re cut from the same cloth. Except that for Laura, being powerful is showing up a sexist coworker with her drive and shrewd mind for business, while for Massimo, being powerful is homophobically blackmailing “business partners” over a bad deal. Did I mention he’s a mafia boss?
Ah, right: the premise. Let me pitch this one to you. Massimo is a volatile, domineering mafioso who has developed an obsession with businesswoman Laura, after seeing her once on the beach briefly before his father was murdered and he himself was terribly wounded in a deal gone wrong. Five years after his father’s death, Massimo runs into Laura in Sicily by chance, so he does what any logical person would do: he kidnaps her! He traps her in his lavish mansion, threatens her and her family, throws her around like a ragdoll, and tells her she has 365 days to fall in love with him. (He assures her he’ll release her unharmed if she has not fallen for him after a year is over. We are expected to believe him, despite his whole… everything.)
It’s Stockholm Syndrome: The Movie. But don’t worry, it gets worse.
The film would like you to believe that deep down, underneath his rough exterior, Massimo is a good guy. There’s another early scene of him torturing a former member of his gang who has been ousted for his involvement in child sex trafficking. See, Massimo knows rape is evil, the scene screams. He’s one of the good guys!
He is not.
Massimo promises Laura that he won’t touch her without her consent, which is funny because he is literally holding her down and groping her while he says it. And by funny, I mean revolting. This continues throughout the film, with Massimo repeatedly violently grabbing Laura, restraining her, and even sexually assaulting her while she is tied up. The film, of course, doesn’t portray any of this as bad. It’s all “sexy.” It’s framed as something Laura wants, even–she’s “purposefully provoking him” with her “disobedience,” which makes it totally okay for him to violate her consent, apparently.
Anyway, they do fall in love by the end. For no damn reason. It happens, of course, after Massimo victim blames Laura for nearly being assaulted. Romance.
It would be very easy to write off 365 Days as a ridiculous but ultimately innocuous piece of erotica.
It’s not. This is not harmless.
There seems to be a prevalent idea that erotica should somehow be exempt from meaningful criticism because it’s “just a fantasy.” Ethical concerns are dismissed as being prudish or sex-negative, the pearl clutching of people who can’t tell fiction from reality. Of course it’s not meant to be taken seriously, it’s meant to titillate.
But the fantasy that 365 Days presents is a love letter to cruel and abusive men. 365 Days says violence against women is “sexy,” being controlled and frightened by your partner is “sexy,” being sexually assaulted is “sexy.” And I have to be honest: if that titillates you, I think you have to ask yourself why.
The fact is that fiction does not exist in a vacuum and media needs to be consumed critically. That means all media, including erotica. To see the impact from fiction to reality, one might look no further than the Rough Sex Murder Defense; a defense employed by people accused of murdering a sexual partner, claiming that the death was a result of injuries sustained during consensual sex. The advocacy group We Can’t Consent To This has identified 60 suspects or defendants in the UK between 1972 and 2020 who have used this defense. In 45 percent of cases, this resulted in a lesser charge, lighter sentence, acquittal, or the case not being pursued. The Rough Sex Defense is known colloquially as the “Fifty Shades Defense.”
If something appeals to you in fiction, you should examine why you like it.
1 in 4 women in the United States have experienced severe violence from intimate partners, be it physical violence, sexual violence, and/or stalking. This film has three for three, and it romanticizes all of them. I shouldn’t have to explain how disturbing that is.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with kink or dominant/submissive relationships. There’s nothing inherently wrong with erotica! Erotica is fun. Erotica can be wonderful. It can also be dangerous.
It’s up to you to keep your eyes open and to tell right from wrong.
Laura Browne
Hi, I’m Laura! I’m a 24 year old artist, performer, and educator from Westchester, New York. I joined Survivors to Superheroes because I believe we need to get rid of the stigma surrounding talking about sexual violence. I want survivors to feel supported and heard. With my articles, I hope to open the door to honest conversations about sexual violence in the world around us. Beyond my work with Survivors to Superheroes, I love to bake, draw, and write comedy!
