Ric Schachtebeck

Frank, a dedicated schoolteacher, embraces the sexual freedoms of the city’s underground scene—navigating a double life in public restrooms, cinemas, and cruising spots. When he meets Bernd, a sweet and steady museum worker, he finds himself torn between the comfort of domestic partnership and the allure of anonymous desire.

The final installment in Ulrike Ottinger’s Berlin Trilogy (following TICKET OF NO RETURN and FREAK ORLANDO) casts Delphine Seyrig as the nefarious Fritz Lang supervillain Dr. Mabuse, here the head of a powerful media empire that seeks to create headlines by manufacturing (and then publicly destroying) its own celebrity: the wealthy, handsome playboy Dorian Gray.

The professionally successful fund manager Sandra surprises her fiancé Gregor in a compromising situation with a stormy nurse and subsequently dumps the doctor. When she urgently needs a male companion for a business dinner with conservative foreign investors and turns to a gigolo agency, Gregor slips into the role of the hired man in order to convince his fiancée of his innocence in this ticklish situation.