Valie Export

Valie Export’s daring film about relationships, “Menschenfrauen” (loosely translated, “humanwomen”), focuses on Franz S., a journalist, and his relationship with four women: the kindergarten nurse Petra, he teacher Gertrude, barmaid Elisabeth and his wife Anna.

Franz “doles out honorary pieces of himself to the ‘human women’ in his seraglio, whispers the same assurances. Eventually, everyone catches on and makes some effort toward independence” (East Village Eye). “A landmark film…Valie Export achieves in ‘Menschenfrauen’ what Godard strove for but failed in his ‘Every Man for Himself’–a human view of a woman’s place in a man’s world…From credits to close, ‘Menschenfrauen’ eludes conventional cinematic vision” (Seattle Film Festival).Read More »

Quote:
Judith, an investigative journalist, begins to unravel a murder mystery that implicates one of her current lovers. When she checks out a peep-show business on the seedy side of Hamburg as part of the investigation, she runs into a former boyfriend who used to be a psychiatrist but is now an arms dealer. Judith is lured back into his fold, cheating on her current lovers, one of whom is also a shrink. Despite her profession, or perhaps because of it, Judith tends to blend fantasy and reality, so small wonder she is attracted to psychoanalysts. But, two shrinks and a murder prove more than Judith can handle. Nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at the 1985 Berlinale.Read More »