From “once upon a time” to “happily ever after,” love stories are pretty much the same around the world. But there are those who refuse to play that game, who see love webbed up in anguish, crime, fetish, and deception. The Metrograph has gathered 20 such films in a series titled “Under My Thumb,” and fairy tales they are not. For instance, there’s American Beauty (1999), a drama that sees Kevin Spacey fixating on his teenage daughter’s best friend, and Belle de Jour (1967), in which a frigid young wife (Catherine Deneuve) begins working covertly as a prostitute. Not for the faint of heart. —Jack Sullivan