The lesbian auteur Ulrike Ottinger proudly waved her freak-flag high with dizzyingly stylish films that radiate rage and lust, which is perhaps why Seyrig, always keen to break with her demure image, gravitated toward Ottinger’s work in the latter half of her career. A key figure of the New German Cinema, the director was responsible for some of Seyrig’s wackiest roles; Ottinger applied the actress’ iconic status in the world of European art film to her efforts to rewrite and queer the canon. Seyrig appeared in Freak Orlando (1981) and Joan of Arc of Mongolia (1989), but her role as Dr. Mabuse in Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press stands out. With her signature purr employed toward uproariously sinister ends, Seyrig plays the conniving head of a media empire, a figure so hyperbolically feminine as to disrupt womanhood’s association with passivity. Instead, she personifies the seductive decadence of capitalism itself.