Kino immer anders
Femina Ridens seems to be telling a very typical story: Dr. Sayer, a successful director of a philanthropic foundation, pursues sadistic fantasies with a prostitute in his free time. When his regular prostitute suddenly becomes unavailable at the last minute, he drugs his employee, Maria, to substitute for her. The beautiful Maria is now trapped in a game of power with the sinister Dr. Sayer. But the winner will be the one who gets the last laugh.
With pop art interiors, groovy colour palettes, and dreamlike, even nightmarish, cinematography, Femina Ridens invites the viewer into a hypnotic experience of dominance and submission. Like many midnight movies, it walks the line between exploitation and critique. It wants us to feel exactly that tension: as subversive as it is seductive, and as disturbing as it is beautiful.
Kim Spieser
