Dorothea's Revenge (1974) Dorothea's Rache (original title)

Director:

Peter Fleischmann

Writers:

Jean-Claude Carrière (screenplay)
Peter Fleischmann (idea and screenplay)

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 | Absurdism | Love | Dysfunctional Family | Avant Garde

Cast

Anna Henkel	...	Dorothea
Alexander von Paczensky	...	Bert
Gerhard Gommel	...	Cliff
Henry Beuck	...	Iwan
Anemone Gehann	...	Anne Mone
Birgit Heise	...	Birgit
Mathias Herisch	...	Mathias
Barbara Ossenkopp	...	Nora
Monika Steffens	...	Elke
Elisabeth Potkanski	...	Sissi
Günter Thiedeke	...	Dorothea's Vater
Regis Genger	...	Dorothea's Mutter
Willi Schmidt	...	Bert's Vater
Rainer Hensel	...	Dr. Wagge
Rene Durand	...	Der Konsul (as René Durand)
Graziella Heyn	...	Seine Frau
Eddie Schmidt	...	Der Photograph
Fred Höpflinger	...	Seine Freunde
Peter Riecke	...	Seine Freunde
Klaus Kücker	...	Der Idiot
Gerhard Grawunder	...	4 Masochisten
Herbert Tobias	...	4 Masochisten
Martin Hoffmann	...	4 Masochisten
Adolf Lercher	...	4 Masochisten
Ella Mayer	...	Die Großmutter

Directed by
Peter Fleischmann

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean-Claude Carrière		screenplay
Peter Fleischmann		idea and screenplay

Original Music by
Philippe Sarde

Cinematography by
Jean-Jacques Flori
Klaus Müller-Laue

Film Editing by
Robert Polak
Maria Rock		(as Maria Heidemann-Rock)
Ernst Witzel

Production Management
Linda Gutenberg	....	production manager
Joseph Mehrlich	....	unit manager
Günter Zint	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Solange Michoulier	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Alain Sempé	....	sound (as Alain Sempe)
Christian Vallée	....	sound (as Christian Vallee)

Camera and Electrical Department
Jean-Pierre Sauvaire	....	assistant camera
Uwe Wichmann	....	grip
Günter Zint	....	still photographer

Production Companies

• Belmont Films
• Hallelujah Films
• Stéphan Films

Distributors

• Scotia (1974) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Planfilm (1974) (France) (theatrical)
• Arthaus Filmverleih (????) (West Germany) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2005) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Dorothea's Rache" - West Germany (original 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) | Portugal:17

Filming Locations:

Hamburg, Germany

Company:

Belmont Films

DOROTHEA'S REVENGE (Peter Fleischmann, 1974) **1/2

The 1970s saw a virtual explosion in uninhibited depictions of sexuality on celluloid particularly in Europe which belie their age when watched today; this saw the careers of exploitation film-makers like Jesus Franco and Jean Rollin blossom but also that of artier directors like Walerian Borowczyk getting stranded in sleaze once he had a significant commercial success in this vein! As often happens with cinematic trends, it is not long before they get sent up and this obscure German film is one such spoof. The film combines an air of theatricality (characters address the camera directly at times – right from the very opening scene), cine-verite' (students are shooting "The Lexicon of Love", a part-lecture by a masked 'professor' and part re-enactment of his bizarre teachings) and surreal fantasy sequences (the titular character – through whose eyes we follow the freewheeling, weird and often unpleasant narrative – is introduced by telling her parents that she had just been raped by an alien and produces a smoking meteorite to prove it, and later even a blond Jesus Christ pays her an unheralded visit to offer some controversial advice to sleep with "children and fools" which she proceeds to do instantly with a shoeshine boy and a retarded flasher!).

Dorothea's adventures in Sleazeland take her to try out group sex (a friend of hers is ostensibly invited for a photo session and when she calls at the hotel room to offer her support, she gets gang-banged by a mature trio of perverts whom she subsequently interviews while hiding their identities since some of them are married), prostitution (she follows a streetwalking friend as she plies her trade and gets beaten by her very first client – a middle-aged man – for causing him to ejaculate prematurely) and domination (the film's most outrageous sequence has a lesbian madam enjoying Dorothea's body; naked old men walking around in cages; and even a one-legged, bearded man stretched across a crucifix)! While the crazy song-fuelled imagery (including the intermittent display of laughing devices recorded and mass-produced by Dorothea's father) elicits the occasional laugh, the proliferation of the sordid details – especially the unabashed flailing of male genitalia – proves hard to take at times. Besides, for being a comedy and a celebration of free love, it does not flinch from showing the destructive effect this lifestyle has on the more sensitive souls who come in contact with it (namely a college professor infatuated with Dorothea who hangs himself after one rejection too many). While the presence of distinguished screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere may seem appropriate given the thematic similarities with Luis Bunuel's BELLE DE JOUR (1967), one has to wonder what the Spanish film-maker made of this film in view of his avowed revulsion towards graphic sexuality on film! The German director of DOROTHEA'S REVENGE is not a name that rings many bells, but it seems that Fleischmann hit it well with Carriere since he requested the latter's writing services again for his next film – a French thriller entitled LA FAILLE aka WEAK SPOT (1975) starring Bunuel regular Michel Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi, Mario Adorf and Adriana Asti (who had just appeared in the latest Bunuel-Carriere collaboration i.e. 1974's THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY)!