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Clip description
On the videotape, Alexandra (Helen Buday) displays the vibrator Steve (Gary Sweet) gave her on her birthday and accuses him of buying it for his pleasure only. She calls it a machine, and says that in his eyes it makes her just another machine.
Curator’s notes
The exceptional power and emotional rawness of Buday’s performance comes through very clearly here. On the video Alexandra is confronting Steve with details of their sex life in an extremely intimate way, saying things she has never felt able to manage face to face. Alexandra’s accusation about the vibrator making her feel like 'a machine’ is typically hard to read. The conviction and emotional authenticity of Buday’s performance tells us that Alexandra seems to be very sincere about what she is feeling. Beyond that nothing is certain as, by this point, audiences may see Alexandra as an unreliable narrator.
We have already witnessed her telling Steve a blatant lie. This doesn’t mean she is being untruthful elsewhere, only that viewers do not know whether to trust the truthfulness of what she says or not, and are not fully equipped to judge the accuracy of her accusations about her husband’s sexual behaviour and attitudes (though many viewers will no doubt judge her in a way that reflects their own attitudes and experiences).
The gift of the vibrator might indeed say something unflattering about Steve and his attitude towards his wife. Equally some viewers might think she is reacting in an uptight, neurotic manner. We know from an earlier reference on the videotape to her allegedly refusing to take Prozac that she is probably suffering from depression, but some of her more extreme behaviour suggests her mental health may be seriously affected.
