Monika Treut:
A film that caused a stir over 40 years ago. Fritz Zimmermann, then CSU Minister of the Interior, on the decision to withhold funding: ‘No one should be expected to put up with this mixture of eroticism and foul language.’ At the Canadian premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, the local censorship board initially banned its screening. Film professor Kay Armatage subsequently wrote an open letter on behalf of the festival in defence of artistic freedom. Thus, the festival got rid of the puritanical censorship board for good. In 1986, the Federal Review Board of the Federal Republic of Germany placed SEDUCTION on the so-called ‘List of Publications Harmful to Minors’ for 18 years. At the time, few people in this country came forward as fans of the film, such as H.C. Blumenberg in ‘Die Zeit’: ‘One is unlikely to see more exciting, subversive or stranger cinema here any time soon.’ In any case, we filmmakers are delighted that SEDUCTION: THE CRUEL WOMAN has, over time, earned a reputation as a classic of darkly humorous camp aesthetics.
Elfi Mikesch:
Seen from the camera’s perspective, these are forms and images that must be constantly re-examined. In our film, it is the gaze and the stylisation that provide the key. The basis is the book ‘Die grausame Frau’ by Monika Treut, published by Stroemfeld/Roter Stern in 1984.
In many areas of life, oppression and exploitation still exist. Wars and cruelty. Power – abuse.
It is the question of the price – for whom and why. Cruelty.
The ‘cruel woman’ teaches the lessons. It begins with her using humour to knock stereotypical roles off their pedestal.
