Germany 1997, 16 mm, 80 min, color, in English
Available on DVD (as bonus feature on the DVD FEMALE MISBEHAVIOR) via First Run Features
Synopsis
DIDN’T DO IT FOR LOVE is a documentary portrait of Eva Norvind, a.k.a. Mistress Ava Taurel, born Eva Johanne Chegodaieva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway.
The film follows Eva’s many careers, from her time as a showgirl in Paris to becoming Mexico’s Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s to establishing herself as New York’s most famous dominatrix in the 1980s.
Using clips from Norvind’s Mexican films, stills from various periods, and interviews with friends, partners and family, Treut’s documentary traces Eva’s search for the wellspring of her obsessive and dark sexuality.
Cast
Eva Norvind // Georg Kajanus, Eva’s brother; singer, songwriter // Johanne Kajanus, Eva’s mother, sculptress // Barbara White, Georg’s wife, writer // Juan Ferrara, actor // Juan Jose Gurrola, theatre director, actor // Rene Cardona, Jr., director // Nadine Markova, photographer // Luz Maria Rojas, film producer // Luis Cuevas, painter // Julia Carissima, girlfriend // Alejandro Carissima, student // Hugo Arguelles, writer // Jose Flores, actor // Nicholas Echeverria, film director // Nailea Norvind, Eva’s daughter; actress // Liisa Simola, film journalist // Franz Harland, film producer // Jan Baracz, painter // Veronica Vera, writer // Dieter from Frankfurt, client // Maria Beatty, artist and filmmaker // Ronald Moglia, professor at NYU // Mario Sprouse, minister // Gerard O’Neal, student // Paul Vernstad, alias Chegodaief Sakonsky, Eva’s father // Esther Maria Wiig, journalist // Alice Vernstad, stepmother // Ken Droumbolis, landscape architect
Crew
Cinematography (Mexico & New York): Ekkehart Pollack // Cinematography (Norway): Christopher Landerer // Sound: Andreas Pietsch // Music: Georg Kajanus // Editor: Eric Marciano // Production: filmgalerie 451, Irene von Alberti // Written and Directed by MONIKA TREUT
Festivals
Berlin (Panorama) // Brussels // Dublin // Lisbon // London // Los Angeles // Melbourne // Mexico City // Montreal // Munich // Oslo // Prague // Rio de Janeiro // San Francisco // Stockholm // Taipei // Toronto // Washington // Wellington and others.
Reviews
German-born filmmaker Monika Treut has always aimed her camera at the front lines of the sexual avant-garde. But with her latest documentary she’s managed to leap across the socio-sexual battlefield as never before…. Armed with more present lives than Shirley MacLaine has past ones, Norvind is as eloquent as she is paradoxical.
David Ehrenstein, New Times, Los Angeles
Her amazing life story is like a scandalous potboiler paperback you pick up at the airport. Treut nonjudgementally chronicles Norvind’s turbulent, unconventional life. The force of this utterly fascinating woman is completely fascinating.
Paper Magazine
Director Monika Treut has found a fascinating subject in Eva Norvind for the documentary DIDN’T DO IT FOR LOVE. Direct, intriguing, at times grotesque…
Daily News, New York
Reviews DVD release
Pop Matters smart review by Cynthia Fuchs
