Seduction: The Cruel Woman
I don't think we'll have a chance to see anything more exciting, strange, and subversive anytime soon, wrote German director and critic Hans-Christoph Blumenberg about this film. A provocative mix of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's cinema and Bob Fosse's Cabaret, declared Caryn James in The New York Times. The production by Elfi Mikesch and Monika Treut, Seduction: The Cruel Woman, garnered attention even before its premiere—the Minister of Culture withheld its funding and distribution was halted after its initial screenings at the Berlinale. Seduction: The Cruel Woman quickly became a cult film, surrounded by scandal and mystery, and one of the most important titles of 1980s German queer cinema. Its main character is Wanda, a dominatrix and art gallery owner who organizes BDSM shows. Among the participants is Gregor (Udo Kier), who is in love with her and subjected to public humiliation by the woman. The film loosely adapts Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs.
Monika Treut
Monica Treut was born in 1964 in West Germany. She studied political science and literature, and it was her passion for literature that led her into the world of film. In 1978, she completed her doctoral thesis on women in the writings of Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Her feature film debut, Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1985), was inspired by the latter's Venus in Furs. Transgressive and non-normative sexuality remains one of the main themes in her work. Since the 1980s, she has run the production company Hyena Films with Elfi Mikesch, the co-director of Seduction: The Cruel Woman and the cinematographer of her later films.
Selected filmography
1985 Uwodzenie: Okrutna kobieta / Verführung: die grausame Frau / Seduction: the Cruel Woman
1988 Die Jungfrauenmaschine / Virgin Machine
1998 Didn’t Do It for Love (doc.)
1999 Gendernauci / Gendernauts - eine Reise durch die Geschlechter / Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities (doc.)
2001 Kriegerin des Lichts / Warrior of Light (doc.)
2014 Von Mädchen und Pferden / Of Girls and Horses
2021 Genderacja / Genderation (doc.)
Elfi Mikesch
Elfi Mikesch is an Austrian director, photographer, and cinematographer born in 1940 in Judenburg. She is known for her experimental films that blend narrative, essay, and documentary elements. Mikesch initially studied photography and began her artistic career as a painter. In the mid-1960s, she moved to West Berlin, where she started collaborating with Rosa von Praunheim on larger photography and film projects. In 1970, she directed her first short film, Charisma, inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe story. One of her recent films, Fever (2014), received the Teddy Award at the 64th Berlinale.
Selected filmography
1970 Charisma. Eine Erinnerung an den Tod / Charisma
1978 Ich danke of an Hawaii
1982 Macumba
1997 Verrückt bleiben, verliebt bleiben / Mind the Gap
2001 Die Markus Family
2014 Gorączka / Fieber / Fever