On the swashbuckler’s ship Orlando (a nod to the titular protagonist of Virginia Woolf’s novel), the flags of attack — leather, weapons, lesbian love, and death — are raised with one goal in mind: total domination. German surrealist filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger’s debut feature stars her then-girlfriend Tabea Blumenschein as the titular Madame X, the leather-clad ruler (Blumenschein also designed the costumes) who promises "gold, love, and adventure" to all women who'll leave their humdrum lives behind. All aboard: a frumpy housewife, a glamorous diva, a psychologist, a very German outdoorswoman, a bush pilot, and a roller-skating Yvonne Rainer.