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Seduction: The Cruel Woman
A film by Elfi Mikesch & Monika Treut 84 minutes, fiction, color, 1985, German w/ English subtitles
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| Synopsis
Pina Bausch dancer Mechthilde Grossmann plays Wanda, a dominatrix who runs a "gallery" in a building on the Hamburg waterfront, where audiences pay for the privilege of watching her humiliate her slaves. Along the way, Wanda leaves her German lesbian lover, a shoe fetishist, for her American "trainee," and does more than step on the toes of a male performer who has broken the rules of the master/slave relationship by falling in love with her. Rather than dwelling on the rituals and perfomances, the film explores the psychological aspects of power and submission, and focuses on the shifting roles in S&M relationships. Reviews "This is the most sophisticated lesbian film I've ever seen, carefully stylized in the color-coordinated mode of the late Fassbinder. Or like Helmut Newton photography come to life." - Village Voice "Seduction is a stunner...this is S&M by Avedon, outfits by Dior." - Film Comment "Probably the only intelligent inside view of consensual sado-masochism ever put on film." - NOW Toronto Disc Features ● Director Interview
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