Metrograph

In Ottinger’s contemporary reinvention of Oscar Wilde’s famous morality tale, fin-de-siècle dandy Gray is reimagined as a drag role, played without comment on the switch by Veruschka von Lehndorff. Ottinger collides Wilde with Fritz Lang, featuring a splendidly sinister Delphine Seyrig as one “Dr. Mabuse,” the head of a sinister multinational newspaper agency that conspires to create, control, and ultimately destroy Gray. An odyssey through eye-popping tableaux—Mabuse’s vast, chilly board room and an unforgettable trip to the underworld are particular standouts—peopled by characters extravagantly coiffured and costumed by designer Gisela Storch, with regular Fassbinder collaborator Peer Raben contributing a characteristically entrancing score.

Q&A with Ulrike Ottinger moderated by NY Times critic Beatrice Loayza on Saturday, October 4th