Madame X: An Absolute Ruler

I had stumbled upon the works of Ulrike Ottinger while walking through SOHO one afternoon. It was there I came across an exhibit of her film stills and was taken away by the imagery, especially "Joan of Arc of Mongolia." There happened to be mini festival of selected films at Anthology Film Archives and Madame X was the film I chose to view.

Not only are the seats at Anthology uncomfortable but it made the experience of sitting through this ponderously, didactic film unbearable. The quality of the film was mediocre. I felt as if I was being beaten over the head with feminist ideology to the point where I wanted to scream. I really didn't care for Madame X and found that even with meticulous editing, it still wouldn't be watchable, since it seemed to run for about 3 hours.

The only saving grace about Madame X is one specific shot, where a dummy in a wheelchair goes off the side of a ship. This broke up the monotony of a truly painful experience...but only briefly.