This activity should only take about one class day, and is part of a 2-day Ulrike Ottinger unit. The Ulrike Ottinger unit is a part of a broader week-long unit entitled “Through her Lens”.
Bildnis einer Trinkerin, 1979
Conceptual Frames and Background
Ulrike Ottinger’s paintings, photography, and films stem from her interest in pop art and nouvelle figuration. A member of the 1960s Parisian pop art movement, her works comment on mass media and culture, advertising and consumerism, and now and again align with and bump up against the feminist movements of the time, specifically regarding feminine identity in postwar Europe.
Although this overall unit’s goal is to focus on women’s subjectivity as represented by postwar women artists, students are encouraged to explore how Ottinger’s art plays with, questions, and subverts the language and visuals of advertising, consumerism, and global events. Topics worth discussing are pop art, nouvelle figuration, fantasy, avant garde, and dream-like soundscapes and visuals.
Introduction
The films of lesbian director Ulrike Ottinger are heavily influenced by her formal artistic education in Munich and participation in the pop art movement of 1960s France. We will notice in this lesson, when we discuss the film Bildnis einer Trinkerin, the juxtaposition of these perspectives when we look at the formal staging of the shots and the dramatic (to the point of parody) costumes and locations. In many ways, her films look like pop art come to life, and play out just as surreal.
Preparation
To prepare for this lesson, students should watch the entirety of the film Bildnis einer Trinkerin. Students should be directed to pay attention to:
- The elaborate and colorful costumes, specifically of “She”, the main character. And finally, who is “She”?
- One might say that She is not a woman, but rather the picture of a woman, as the title suggests
- Desire and passion in all its forms- what desire does “She” embrace, and what desires does She reject?
- Is interested in aesthetics- the look of food, fashion, drink, but rejects “normal” or practical desires like communication, life, eating, and sex.
- Look at the role of glass- its shattering, reflections, opacity
- Where do students notice German identity and symbolism in the film? How does Ottinger use this, and what is the significance of “She” being a foreigner?
- How would students describe the relationship between “She” and her homeless friend?
Students should also look into the character type of the Dandy. I recommend having students read Charles Baudelaire’s short piece linked here. Students should then think about how “She”, as a figure, is the feminine picture of a dandy.
- Much of the scholarship on the film has discussed “she” as a dandy-type. Baudelaire notably described the dandy (man) as one who elevates aesthetics to the level of religion, and the dandy has also been described as merely a “clothes-wearing man”. With this, Dandyism is also close to Romanticism- lives devoted to beauty, thought, passion…
- One might also discuss this in combination with narcissism or even self-centered nihilism
- For some photos of modern-day dandies from Zeit, click here.
As the instructor, in addition to whatever observations you have of the film, it might be helpful to read some scholarship on the film, in particular Miriam Hansen’s article Visual Pleasure, Fetishism and the Problem of Feminine/Feminist Discourse: Ulrike Ottinger’s Ticket of No Return.
Text and Discussion
Information in italics is for instructors only
Begin by asking students- what is the narrative of the film, if there is one at all?
- Students might recognize that there is no development or narrative, but rather that the point of the film is already made clear at the introduction. She is in Berlin to drink herself to death, which is what she does. What then is the purpose of the film?
Draw students’ attention to the title of the film- Bildnis einer Trinkerin– Is the film a portrait of a drinker, or is “She” the portrait of a woman?
- To get students thinking about this, perhaps ask them why Ottinger chooses “Bildnis” and not “Geschichte”, for example
- Tying back to the narrative image, we might say that we are supposed to read and analyze the film the way we might analyze a painting. We can’t read it like a book, but instead make inferences and connections to create meaning.
- Students might also want to discuss the illusions to other literary “portraits”, ones which influence Ottinger’s title or ones which may have joined this group of “portrait pieces”- specifically “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, or even “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
Give students the opportunity to discuss their answers from the preparatory discussion questions in small groups, and then open the floor for class discussion regarding these questions.
- In preparation for this discussion, perhaps screengrab scenes which you will likely discuss so you can call them up during class- in particular, track some of her costume changes, find some of the glass/mirror scenes, and the scenes which depict or hint at German-ness.
Finally, leave time for students to have a discussion about the Dandy. They can bring up whatever thoughts they had from their reading, but here are some questions to get things started:
- Based on the reading from Baudelaire, how would students describe the Dandy character?
- Why do scholars compare She to this Dandy type?
- Is it significant that most Dandy characters are men, yet She is a woman? With this, how do we read the scenes where She is in drag?
- What seems more important in the film- The telling of a story, or the aesthetics?
- It is costume, location, and attitude which remain significant in an otherwise collage-like picture. Aesthetic/form over function. Fantasy over meaning.