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Index
of texts Excerpts
from the journalInterview with Ulrike Ottinger by Patricia Wiedenhöft Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia. An Interview with Ulrike Ottinger by Janet A. Kaplan From Ulrike Ottinger's journal July 13, 1988 Hohhote: Early morning look at the props. They offer me the cardboard props from a Ghengis Khan TV series. At the risk of not finding anything else, I refuse. Authentic old costumes and jewelry can only be had through personal contact to families way out in the grasslands. I hope for the cooperation of local people. The prayer banns are printed on horrible synthetics. I insist upon thin muslin-like material. The property master is a former Lamaist monk and understands immediately what I mean. July 15, 1988 Arrival in Xi Wu Zhu Mu Qi. We have neither wood nor iron, nor the old carts, wheels or other wooden parts we ordered and were promised 4 months ago. The beautiful old yurts and felt mats I chose at the time have also disappeared. The heavy generator hasn't arrived. But there's worse to come. The local authorities have forbidden us to leave the village or even the guest house where we are staying. We are waiting. July 16, 1988 We have a car now, but no gasoline. August 17, 1988 Film site Altangolo: the grass is not as high as expected, but everything is in bloom. Thousands of edelweiss flowers and the river is at low water. (In the Spring we broke through the ice while crossing with a horse-cart). Unless it rains very heavily we shouldn't have any problems crossing. There are three large white yurts standing almost exactly on the spot I had chosen for the Princess's summer camp. We are welcomed in the yurts with great hospitality and served mare's milk liquor and fat mutton. The yurt is pleasantly cool because the felt walls are rolled up from about 40 cm above the ground, letting in a cool breeze. Our Mongolian companion drinks numerous cups of mare's milk liquor. We have to leave him there and travel on with Xu Re Huar, our female lead, to visit neighbours in the widely-scattered yurts and enlist their cooperation. Once again I carefully pace out Altangolo and determine the camera positions. I find the obo (sacrificial site of piled stones) again easily. It stands on a large round boulder, a natural altar at whose base a spring flows from the roots of an old tree. It is even lovelier in summer than it was in winter. I decide to shoot at this mythical place. House arrest again. It is hard to tell what is going on. Official visitors are expected for dinner. Before that I give an introductory lecture about the project in the Party hall, standing in front of a red flag. The response is very friendly. I drink three times with everyone. We eat mutton which is cut from the bone with a sharp knife right before our mouths. The two Mongolian Banner chiefs sitting at my left and right cut off the best - that is, the fattiest - pieces for me. Many speeches to friendship and cooperation are made. A very jolly party, rounded off by a family photo. Clippings In this tri-lingual epic, seven western women travel in the Trans-Siberian Railroad and are kidnaped by a tribe of Mongolian female warriors. As fantastic as this tale sounds, it is as much substantiated by historical and ethnographical research as it is just another one of Ottinger's fictions of transformation, metamorphosis and the problem of dealing with otherness. In this film these strands are most benignly brought together and woven into a scintillating tapestry of cultural interrelation. Where railroad and caravan meet - both metaphors for trans-formation - the intitial clash, the fear of the uncertain other continent, turns into festivities as a result of receptive and accepting attitudes. Instead of combatting each other, customs and costumes reflect each other as in a mirror: "The whole film is a twin structure, cut through by doubles, repetitions, similarities and endless reflections. The images have a crease, established by the stories [...] In this way the Mongolian world casts a reflecting light on western customs and habits and cinema recommends itself as the instrument of investigation and the agent of old and new myths." Frieda Grafe, Süddeutsche Zeitung, April, 3rd,1989 The director is at her playful best in upsetting the clichés of strangers on a train[...] JOHANNA D'ARC turns into a travelogue. But few travelogues are this rich, ambitious and unusual." Caryn James, The New York Times JOHANNA represents the fanciful attempt of a unique German filmmaker to explore the way extremely different cultures migrate and influence each other. The theme of the wanderer/outsider, carrier of diverse ideas, runs through all of Ulrike Ottinger's strikingly original films. Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle Certainly, the (1989 Women in Film) Festival's most inventive work is the personal vision personified, it's JOAN OF ARC OF MONGOLIA, a wickedly delightful look at the headlong collision of two cultures by writer-director-producer Ulrike Ottinger [...] Sophisticated, mysterious and deliriously beautiful [...] Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times Ulrike Ottinger hat sich in ihrem neuen Film [...] zu einer höchst interessanten Vermischung by Fiktion und dokumentarischer Exkursion in eine fremde Kultur entschlossen [...] Komische Aspekte inszeniert Ulrike Ottinger dabei ganz als Situationskomik im Aufprall der beiden Kulturen. Jeder Anflug by Exotismus wird gebrochen im einerseits dokumentarischen Gestus und andererseits durch die Herausarbeitung der ästhetisch-autonomen Aspekte des Fremden. Die Reise in die Vergangenheit verläßt so nie die Moderne, sondern rettet sie als Wahrnehmungsstruktur. Der Faszinismus des in der Ferne Gesehenen wird als neue Erfahrung mit auf die Rückreise genommen [...] So schließt Ulrike Ottinger an die moderne Sicht auf die fremde Kultur an, ohne ihrem Mythos zu erliegen. Das gibt dem Film eine Fähigkeit zur Komik und auch Heiterkeit, die mitunter verblüfft, zumal sie der Aufbruchstimmung nachgibt, die Abenteuer möglich macht. Gertrud Koch, Frankfurter Rundschau, February, 16th, 1989 |
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Premiere: Internationales Filmfestival Berlin 1989 Festivals: Jerusalem, Toronto, Montréal Women's Film Festival, Films des Femmes (Créteil, France), New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals, u.a. Awards: Deutscher Filmpreis 1989 — Filmband in Gold für visuelle Gestaltung Audience Award, Festival International du nouveau Cinéma,Montréal 1989 "Outstanding Film of the Year", London Film Festival 1989 Distribution: Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek e.V. Potsdamer Str. 2 10785 Berlin Germany Contact: Karl Winter fon +49-30-269 55 150 fax +49-30-269 55 111 verleih@fdk-berlin.de www.fdk-berlin.de for Northamerica: Women Make Movies 462 Broadway 5th Floor New York, NY 10013 USA fon +1-212-925-0606 fax +1-212-925-2052 info@wmm.com www.wmm.com All available Films on VHS or DVD |
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