Madame X
An Absolute Ruler
On the women's ship Orlando the flags of attack, leather, weapons, lesbian love and death are raised with a beauty which dispenses with a total domination of the viewer's gaze.
The aesthetic is strictly stylized, exhibiting itself without overwhelming us.
| Madame X | Tabea Blumenschein |
| Noa-Noa | Roswitha Janz |
| Karla Freud-Goldmund | Monika von Cube |
| Blow-up | Irena von Lichtenstein |
| Josephine de Collage | Yvonne Rainer |
| Hoi Sin | Hella Utesch |
| Betty Brillo | Lutze |
| Omega Zentauri | La Mona |
| Orlando | Ulrike Ottinger |
| Flora Tannenbaum | Claudia Skoda |
| Belcampo | Mackay Taylor |
| Moorenhut | Jean Matelot |
| Lady Divine | Mireille Wunderly |
| Passengers and Staff of the Yacht |
Peggy von Schnottgenberg, Jenny Capitain, Hans-Gebhart von Lenthe, Adelheid Westphal, Cynthia Beatt |
| Screenplay Director Cinematographer |
Ulrike Ottinger |
| Assistant Director | Peggy von Schnottgenberg (aka Frank Ripploh), Cynthia Beatt |
| Assistant Cinematographer | Wolfgang Senn |
| Costume | Tabea Blumenschein, Hella Utesch, Claudia Skoda |
| Make-Up | Tabea Blumenschein |
| Editor | Dörte Völz |
| Sound Montage | Ulrike Ottinger |
| Sound | Christian Moldt |
| Mixing | Hans-Dieter Schwarz |
| Music by | Eric Satie, Gioacchino Rossini, Reynaldo Hahn, Franics Poulenc |
Premiere
Steirischer Herbst 1977, Graz
Festivals
Filmfestival Rotterdam 1978
Filmfestival Berlin, International Forum 1978
Filmfestival Edinburgh 1978
Locarno 1978
Aperto 80, Biennale di Venezia
Festivals in New Delhi San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago etc.
Karsten Witte, Die Zeit
What makes the film disturbing is that women willingly succumb to the fascination of rituals of power and - in men's imagination - abandon the territory of innocence and the presumption of women's moral superiority, rejecting the gentleness of other women's films, which, like Agnès Varda's last work, promise 'love without cares'. This film shows not a trace of fearfulness. On the contrary, it is calculated to evoke fear in those who put up resistance against the fascination of this ritualized and totally aestheticized power.