Dorotheas Rache (1974)

Director:

Peter Fleischmann

Writers:

Jean-Claude Carrière (writer)
Peter Fleischmann (writer)

Release Date:

7 February 1974 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Dorothea, a 16-year-old bourgeois girl from Hamburg, plays with her friends of both sexes, imitating the production of adult movies...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Rape | Spoof | Surrealism | Female Frontal Nudity

Cast

Anna Henkel	...	Dorothea
Alexander von Paczensky	...	Bert
Gerhard Gommel
Henry Beuck
Anemon Gehann	...	Anemone
Birgit Heise
Mathias Herisch
Barbara Ossenkopp	...	Nora
Monika Steffens	...	Elke
Elisabeth Potkanski	...	Sissi
Günter Thiedeke	...	Dorothea's father
Regis Genger	...	Dorothea's mother
Willi Schmidt	...	Bert's father
Rainer Hensel	...	Dr. Wagge
Rene Durand

Also Known As:

Dorothea (France)
Dorothea's Revenge (International: English title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

West Germany | France

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:18 (re-rating) | West Germany:Not Rated (cinema release)

Filming Locations:

Hamburg, Germany

Company:

Belmont Films

Well, it's certainly different

What to say about this? Well, it's kind of like Dushan Makasheyev's "Sweet Movie", but more exploitative and a little less arty. It also kind of resembles one of those late 60's Swedish movies like "I Am Curious--Yellow" where a young woman "explores her sexuality" (i.e, casually screws pretty much everybody), but whereas those movies were serious more or less, this movie has a wry, subversive sense of humor. Being German, it also of course resembles the then-popular "Schulmadchen Report" films, but it is far more bizarre than titillating.

Dorothea is a 17-year-old girl, who when we first see her, looks very disheveled, is holding a strange object, and announces to her parents that she's just been raped by aliens (but they are only concerned about whether "the pill" would be effective against such a sexual encounter). Next she participates with her friends in strange sex film they are making. Her father owns a novelty factory and she befriends one of his female employees, who has an appointment with a seedy photographer to take some "modeling pictures". She tries to defend her new friend's virtue against the photographer, but doesn't do a very good job--she instead gets gang-banged by him and two of his sweaty, overweight friends. Afterwards, she pulls out a film camera and "interviews" the three men. They all sit through the interview, but insist on covering their faces with towels (but unfortunately not the rest of their grotesque naked bodies). Next she finds out that a teacher who was in love with her has committed suicide, so she responds by becoming a prostitute. That doesn't go too well, so she becomes a dominatrix instead where she runs across masochistic, derelict Christ figure. . .

I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a sexploitation movie, but it doesn't really work as such. The actress playing "Dorothea" has a nice body, but she's not exactly a raving beauty. And there is A LOT of very unappealing male nudity. I just can't imagine ANYONE in any time or place draining their dragons to sex scenes involving all these fat, pale, wrinkly-assed German guys. Also, despite the title, I'm not sure at exactly what point "Dorothea" gets revenge. But, oh well, if you just want to see something different. . .