Ticket of No Return

Ulrike Ottinger's 1979 German film follows a woman who arrives in Berlin having decided to spend the rest of her days drinking. She barely speaks; her clothes change in every scene and she moves through the city's bars as though following a schedule. The film is not a realistic account of alcoholism. Ottinger turns the situation into performance: the locations are fictional, the costumes elaborate, and the character's body is placed in the frame like an art object. Three women who attach themselves to her keep offering statistics and moral commentary, functioning as a kind of chorus. Tabea Blumenschein is both the lead and the costume designer. The film came out of the subcultural scene of West Berlin in the seventies and counts as a reference work in the history of queer cinema. Who it's for: those who like experimental cinema and the queer avant-garde. Who it's not for: viewers looking for narrative and psychological explanation; the film refuses both and aestheticises alcoholism.