Jeffrey’s Cinema #30

Jeffrey’s Cinema is back! In relation to Lydia Schouten’s solo exhibition Jefrrey selected two films by Ulrike Ottinger.

THE ENCHANTMENT OF THE BLUE SAILORS  1975
(Die Betörung der blauen Matrosen)
Directed by Tabea Blumenschein, Ulrike Ottinger
54 minutes
In German with English subtitles

“These early rambunctious movies of the flamboyant Tabea Blumenschein and surreal Ulrike Ottinger were actually love poems. They were the vision of two women in love, making a pact, and knocking out a queer phantasmagoria that defied the outside world of boring politics, useless jobs, and dead dreams.

These flicks are composed of various skits and scenarios… all executed in a devil-may-care joie de vivre steeped in queer pageant-politics. In these films gender roles are scrambled and women become pirates taking off for the high seas and adventure, leaving the old world behind. The aesthetics are kitschy, playful and explosive… a prism of shamans, sailors, sirens, glitter, and strange bird-spirits all unfolding with mythical proportions.

In this film we not only have Tabea Blumenschein performing, but also gay icons Frank Ripploh and Rosa von Praunheim—along with the powerhouse expressionist dancer from the 1930s Valeska Gert who amazingly was in her 80s when this film was made. “So many great universes are forgotten. Who are the great forgetters who teach us to forget such and such a part of the world? Where is the Columbus to whom we owe the forgetting of a continent?”

Jeffrey Babcock

PRIDE   1986
Directed by Ulrike Ottinger
17 minutes
In German with English subtitles

Seven female directors were asked to make a short movie about seven deadly sins. This was Ulrike Ottinger’s piece… a flamboyant criticism of the military in all its gray arrogance.