Timetable

Die Jungfrauenmaschine

Virgin Machine

Monika Treut

DE
1987/1988
Feature Film
84’
OmeU, dt. UT
Specials

In this lesbian cinema classic, Dorothee Müller leaves her bourgeois life in Hamburg behind and moves out to San Francisco’s rich genderqueer scene. There, she meets Dominique, a Hungarian from Uruguay, Susie Sexpert, and Ramona, who she sees stripping in a lesbian bar and with whom she instantly falls in love. When Dorothee wakes up next to Ramona the next morning, euphoric, Ramona demands money for her »services«. Dorothee takes it with her typical good sense of humour.
Monika Treut’s film language is cool, direct and erotic, and she also weaves autobiographical elements into the narrative. Stylistically, the black-and-white film with its unusual shots and many close-ups closely resembles the cinematography of the 1920s and 30s. In wonderful, precisely composed images, Elfi Mikesch’s camera work and Renate Merck’s editing manage to create a film language that opposes the gaze approach of heteronormative conventions while at the same time honouring the visual innovations of silent cinema.
With the title of the film, inspired by the German title, Die Junggesellenmaschine, for Marcel Duchamp’s 1913 Dada work The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Treut seems to introduce another level: She positions herself against the libidinous incapacity of men taken aim at by Duchamp and contrasts it with an overabundance of lesbian erotic desire. With Virgin Machine, Treut became a pioneer of the New Queer Cinema movement.
Virgin Machine is part of the Salzgeber film series Lesbian Classics.

Director

Monika Treut

Cinematography

Elfi Mikesch

Editing

Renate Merck

Contact

Salzgeber

WWW

salzgeber.de

Monika Treut

Monika Treut

Monika Treut has been working in the medium of film for more than 30 years. Her works span all formats, from documentary and experimental films to feature films. She founded her own production company Hyena Films together with Elfi Mikesch in 1984. In the same year, she completed her doctorate at the Philipps University of Marburg with her dissertation The cruel woman. The image of women in de Sade and Sacher-Masoch. Treut has won numerous awards for her work. These include the Special TEDDY Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlinale in 2017 and an honorary award at the TLVFest (Tel Aviv International LGBT Festival) in the same year. Alongside her work as a film-maker, Treut teaches at numerous academic institutions, especially in the US.


Films by Monika Treut
Zona Norte 2016 | Von Mädchen und Pferden 2014 | Das Rohe und das Gekochte 2012 | Ghosted 2009 | Den Tigerfrauen wachsen Flügel 2005 | Kriegerin des Lichts 2002 | Gendernauts 1999 | My Father Is Coming 1991 | Die Jungfrauenmaschine 1988 | Verführung: Die grausame Frau 1985