Please Note: Class, This film will start promptly at 8pm and...
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Johanna D'Arc D'Mongolia
Ulrike Ottinger's epic adventure traces a fantastic encounter between
two different worlds. Seven western women travelers meet aboard the
sumptuous, meticulously reconstructed Trans-Siberian Express, a rolling
museum of European culture. Lady Windemere, an elegant ethnographer
played by the incomparable Delphine Seyrig in her last screen role,
regales a young companion with Mongol myths and lore while other
passengers-a prim tourist (Irm Hermann), a brash Broadway chanteuse and
an all-girl klezmer trio-revel in campy dining car cabaret. Suddenly
ambushed by a band of Mongol horsewomen, the company is abducted to the
plains of Inner Mongolia and embark on a fantastic camel ride across the
magnificent countryside. Breathtaking vistas, the lavish costumes of
Princess Ulun Iga and her retinue, and the rituals of Mongol life are
stunningly rendered by Ottinger's cinematography.WMM
Ulrike Ottinger's bio and website