The Belle Starr Story

Mirabelle grows up in a family in which her father - after returning from the civil war - does not tolerate any dissent and everyone has to submit to his ‘whims’. He rapes a maid and demands her execution when she dares to report the offence. Mirabelle is horrified, frees the maid and manages to escape. On the run, she kills one of her pursuers and finally becomes the female outlaw ‘Belle Starr’. What reads like colportage in a western guise - it is! If you add to this the German dubbing, which is so flippant that it makes no sense, you might ask yourself at first glance: Why should I watch this film? Admittedly, ‘My Body for a Poker Game’ is more likely to appeal to cineastes with a sense of the marginal - but perhaps they are not the only ones who will be amused and amazed by this rediscovery. In this country, ‘My Body for a Poker Game’ was rediscovered by the International Women's Film Festival Cologne + Dortmund. The catalogue states: ‘‘Il mio corpo per un poker’ is considered the ‘only female-feminist spaghetti western’ and, according to Lina Wertmüller, is ‘a case that doesn't happen twice, an impromptu film’. Its production story follows a worst-case scenario: after the director has left the team, the leading actress calls her friend the director to the set in Yugoslavia. She accepts the job under a pseudonym and tries to save what can be saved. But that's not all: the leading actor also runs away... Il mio corpo per un poker' is a remarkable B-movie with a somewhat incongruous storyline, hasty zooms and an obsessive use of close-ups of its heroine. Elsa Martinelli takes centre stage as Belle Starr, the freckle-faced shotgun woman with a long, red mane. Her appearances in a skin-tight black leather suit with sombrero, colt or cigar are marvellous. Dressed like this, she sings ‘No Time for Love’, rides ahead of her gang on the prairie and takes her girlfriend from the gallows while shooting. (This film is also very much about sexual violence, and for a moment it even looks as if the narrative taboo of patricide is broken). Lina Wertmüller only acknowledged her authorship of ‘Il mio corpo per un poker’ very late in the day.’