«It's a good fucked up film!» Michel Auder Making the private sphere the subject of films and thereby emphasizing the voyeuristic aspect of film viewing was already at the heart of Michel Auder's video diaries at the end of the 1960s. As part of Andy Warhol's circle, he used this approach to transform his surroundings through the camera into a staging of his own perception. Between fiction and reality, cinematic forms develop that are composed of the most diverse influences of the filmmaker's subjective perspective.
The 1970 film Cleopatra shows these self-reflexive references. Based on the 1963 film of the same name by J. L. Mankiewicz and its scandal-ridden production, Auder uses his actors' improvisations to create his own version of the film. Auder turns Egyptian horse-drawn carriages into snowmobiles in New York, and Cleopatra is embodied by Viva, Auder's wife and Warhol's muse. The interpretation of the Hollywood material reaches its climax in an orgy scene that is definitely a must-see.
