He has long been a gay icon, but longer than that he has been a memorable presence in numerous movies, with a colorful career of ups and downs that spans from exploitation and arthouse classics to mainstream Hollywood product to D2V/D2D trash to television series. A truly great and memorable character actor, his always noteworthy presence and thick German accent will be missed.
Although he is in some of our favorite films — the original Suspiria (1977, see further below) and Mark of the Devil (1970, see Part I) and Flesh of Frankenstein (1973, see Part II) and Blood for Dracula (1974, see Part II) and Iron Sky (2012 / trailer), among others — to date only two films that we have reviewed here at a wasted life feature him: Blade (1998) and Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019). For that, we now honor him and his amazing career with one of our typically unfocused and all-over-the-place career reviews. Enjoy!
Also go to
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Part I: 1966-72
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Part II: 1973-75
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Part III: 1976-78
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Part I: 1966-72
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Part II: 1973-75
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Part III: 1976-78
Victor
(1979, writ. & dir. Walter Bockmayer & Rolf Bührmann)
Roughly 11 months after Udo Kier's appearance in the ultra-obscure Hungarian TV movie Soldiers a.k.a. Katonák (see Part III), Kier appeared as a has-been, heroin-addicted "pop star" in this slightly less obscure but now totally forgotten, short West German television movie that aired on ZDF on 4 January 1979. Victor was produced under the auspices of the channel's Kleine Fernsehspiel ["Small TV Play"] series, which has helped father numerous interesting projects over the years, including Rammbock (2010). Just how much singing actually occurs in this roughly 49-minute long TV production we know not, but it is based on Manuel Rigoni and Richard Schönherz's rock opera Victor, A Symphonic Poem,* the original double LP of which (i.e., the rock opera, not the TV movie) can still be had at eBay or Amazon.
* "Before Richard Schöenherz (born 1947) became known for working in bands such as Dawn and Einstein, he and Manuel Rigoni created the concept album Victor (cover below). It is viewed by many as a lost classic of progressive rock, as it balances between orchestrated and sophisticated rock in a unique manner. As well as Richard providing keyboards and lead vocals, and Manuel providing drums and percussion, they combined Kurt Hauenstein (Supermax), Harry Stojka, Achim Buchstab, Johan Daansers and Peter Wolf along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Academy Chamber Choir... [Progarchives]"
The plot of the TV play follows the plot of the rock opera closely: Victor (Peter Kaghanovitch) lives with his family in a third-rate circus. Her mother (Barbara Valentin [15 Dec 1940 – 22 Feb 2002]) was a trapeze artist who had an accident and is now stuck in a wheelchair, dreaming of her past. The father (Eddie Constantine [29 Oct 1913 – 25 Feb 1993]) is a clown, and it was always clear to him that his son would also become a clown. Victor has little say in the matter — had he, he might have become a tightrope walker, like his now-crippled mother — but when he makes his hated debut as a clown, it is a nightmare for him. The circus may a paradise for others, but Victor hates the career, the mask, that is being forced upon him. He decides for his freedom and leaves his parents and the circus. Udo plays "a popstar" ["a David Bowie pastiche (W Magazine)"] who — Spoiler! — "cuts the pulse veins and then falls to the ground. [Cinemorgue]"
Eddie Constantine needs no introduction, as he had a long film career in Europe and worked with numerous auteurs. Indeed, in one of his few English-language roles, he even worked with the American auteur Larry Cohen (15 Jul 1936 – 23 Mar 2019), playing a doctor in It Lives Again (1979).
It Lives Again:
Barbara Valentin is possibly less familiar, should you not be a fan of German cinema, but she holds a place in a wasted life's heart for her early exploitation films, above all her credited feature-film debut, the infamous and fun but nudity-excised Fritz Böttger (7 Aug 1902 – 1 Nov 1981) disasterpiece that is The Horror of Spider Island (1960/62).*
* The Horror of Spider Island is a Wolf C. Hartwig (8 Sep 1919 – 18 Dec 2017) production. Hartwig is a sorely overlooked fun embarrassment of post-war German exploitation film: The Horror of Spider Island is "one of the 15 films from producer Wolf C. Hartwig and Rapid-Film GmbH produced between 1957 and 1962. Academic Tim Bergfelder described Hartwig's productions as 'difficult to define' with the only common denominator being gratuitous amounts of female nudity, often provided by Barbara Valentin. Hartwig's films from the late 1950s and early 1960s were described [...] specifically as being films with minimal narrative, stereotypical characters, poor acting and plots involving themselves around brief film cycles of their respective periods. [Wikipedia]" His production Flitterwochen in der Hölle / Isle of Sin (1960) is breathtakingly inept.
* The Horror of Spider Island is a Wolf C. Hartwig (8 Sep 1919 – 18 Dec 2017) production. Hartwig is a sorely overlooked fun embarrassment of post-war German exploitation film: The Horror of Spider Island is "one of the 15 films from producer Wolf C. Hartwig and Rapid-Film GmbH produced between 1957 and 1962. Academic Tim Bergfelder described Hartwig's productions as 'difficult to define' with the only common denominator being gratuitous amounts of female nudity, often provided by Barbara Valentin. Hartwig's films from the late 1950s and early 1960s were described [...] specifically as being films with minimal narrative, stereotypical characters, poor acting and plots involving themselves around brief film cycles of their respective periods. [Wikipedia]" His production Flitterwochen in der Hölle / Isle of Sin (1960) is breathtakingly inept.
The full film —
The Horror of Spider Island:
The German film director, screenwriter, and actor Walter Bockmayer (4 Jul 1948 – 7 Oct 2014) of Victor, who died of lung cancer, directed only seven films over the course of his life, but like Werner Schroeter and Robert von Ackeren, he directed "crazy films that transposed the US American concept of camp into the German cinema" [Udo Is Love]. Walter Bockmayer tended to get the spotlight, but many of his movies — like Victor — were co-directed, co-written and/or produced by his lifelong squeeze Rolf Bührmann (2 Oct 1942 – 4 Nov 2016). (That's the two of the at the top of this segment.) Their most famous movie is probably Flaming Hearts (1978 / soundtrack), but we have a soft spot for their easily found German camp anti-classic Geierwally (1988).
Trailer to Bockmayer's
Geierwally:
Krétakör
(1979, dir. Gábor Bódy)
Udo Kier appears in another obscure, avant-garde Hungarian TV movie. Like his first obscure, avant-garde Hungarian TV movie Katonák (1978, see Part III), Krétakör was directed by Gábor Bódy a.k.a. Bódy Gábor and appears to have been broadcast in Hungary on 27 January 1979. As we mentioned in Part III when we looked at Katonák, the director, "Gábor Bódy (30 August 1946 – 24 October 1985) was a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, theoretic, and occasional actor. A pioneer of experimental filmmaking and film language, Bódy is one of the most important figures of Hungarian cinema. [Wikipedia]" Bódy, who may have collaborated with the Hungarian secret police (1973-83), died under mysterious circumstances in 1985: Hungarian authorities claim that he killed himself, while his widow claims that "unidentified parties" killed him. No official investigation followed and Bódy's fate remains a mystery to this day [Wikipedia]. Bódy met Udo Kier at the International Film Festival in Mannheim (1976) where Bódy's 'diploma film', Amerikai Anzix / American Postcard / American Torso (1975) won the Grand Prix. Krétakör, a.k.a. Chalk Circle [monoskop], is the second of four Gábor Bódy film projects Udo Kier was to take part in, the most famous of which is surely Narcissus and Psyche (1980), the largest Hungarian production of its time.
Scene from Krétakör —
recognize the actor?
Based on an ancient, classic Chinese play attributed to Li Hsing-Tao a.k.a. Hszing-Tao a.k.a. Li Xingfu (1279–1368), Krétakör won the Hungarian Television Critics' Prize (Gábor Bódy – Video Works). Udo Kier's character is supposedly named Pao Cseng — we assume that would be the Prince Po of the original play.
About Bódy's video production: "There is genre, for a long time damned, which hovers between drama and film: it is the so-called teleplay. It unites the drawbacks of both: like drama, it is tied to place and time, but it lacks the aura of a personal presence. Like a film, it is composed of broadcast images, but it does not have the latter's inherent editing possibilities. Whether it has any advantages, has still not been proved. Yet it does exist — although its possibilities and limitations are not clear to the public, let alone the experts. The latter view it as they would any other programme: after all, it lasts 90 minutes and is full of images. Technology has grown up prematurely without a genre. It is a language in which speech has not yet been invented, and the avant-garde art merely experiments with it. In Hungarian TV, it is mainly used for adapting dramatic and literary works: this is the principal genre of disseminating works of world literature. At any rate, for a film director it is both an adventure and a gift to be allowed to work from the volumes of world classic writers. [...] With Lenz' Soldiers and recently with Chalk Circle I strove to present theatrical works which were generally unknown to Hungarian audiences. Yet here is another common feature marking drama and teleplays: both are marked by a didactical and decorative construction — with raw realism from deep inside. These traits — it seems to me — may turn out to be beneficial even amid within the limitations of a teleplay. Whoever can, should see it in colour — the Chinese theatre is both circus and opera at the same time: clothes and masks play a major role in teaching. I cannot boast of having freed this caged genre, all I did was to try to expand its space by making a side-cut to it. I meant Chalk Circle to be an ethical horror, and it ended as a sort of fairy play. I hope you will understand and enjoy it. [Gabor Body — A Presentation of His Work]"
About the original play from the Yuan dynasty (1259-1368): "The narrative centers on a murder case involving a tragic love story between Hi-tang, a young girl sold into a teahouse, and Prince Po. The plot thickens as Hi-tang becomes the concubine of the wealthy mandarin Mr. Ma, leading to a series of manipulative and morally complex events. A central theme is the symbolic circle of chalk, used to determine the true mother of Hi-tang's child through a dramatic test of strength. The play explores themes of justice, class struggle, and the plight of women, reflecting Confucian ethical values while also providing satirical commentary on societal flaws. The text has been adapted over time, notably by German poet Alfred Henschke a.k.a. Klabund (4 Nov 1890 – 14 Aug 1928), who introduced additional romantic elements that altered the original focus on justice and morality. This adaptation, while broadening its appeal to Western audiences, also sparked further adaptations, such as Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Overall, The Circle of Chalk presents a rich tapestry of emotional depth and social critique that resonates with diverse audiences. [EBSCO]"
About the original play from the Yuan dynasty (1259-1368): "The narrative centers on a murder case involving a tragic love story between Hi-tang, a young girl sold into a teahouse, and Prince Po. The plot thickens as Hi-tang becomes the concubine of the wealthy mandarin Mr. Ma, leading to a series of manipulative and morally complex events. A central theme is the symbolic circle of chalk, used to determine the true mother of Hi-tang's child through a dramatic test of strength. The play explores themes of justice, class struggle, and the plight of women, reflecting Confucian ethical values while also providing satirical commentary on societal flaws. The text has been adapted over time, notably by German poet Alfred Henschke a.k.a. Klabund (4 Nov 1890 – 14 Aug 1928), who introduced additional romantic elements that altered the original focus on justice and morality. This adaptation, while broadening its appeal to Western audiences, also sparked further adaptations, such as Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Overall, The Circle of Chalk presents a rich tapestry of emotional depth and social critique that resonates with diverse audiences. [EBSCO]"
For your listening displeasure —
Atti I & II of Alexander Zemlinsky's opera
Der Kreidekreis (1931/1932):
The Third Generation
(1979, writ. & dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
"Dedicated to someone who truly loves. So to no one — probably."
Original German title: Der Dritte Generation. The fame of Fassbinder (31 May 1945 – 10 Jun 1982), the enfant terrible and master of the New German Cinema, grew in three main stages: early films like Love Is Colder than Death (1969 / trailer) drew critical (if often negative) attention as well as occasional nominations and awards; by the time Ali: Fear Eats the Soul / Angst essen Seele auf (1974 / trailer) reaped in the international awards and press, his name was pretty much internationally known; and finally, with The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979 / trailer), his most commercially successful movie, his name was internationally familiar and cemented in film history.
Trailer to
The Third Generation:
The Third Generation, a black comedy, was his follow up project to The Marriage of Maria Braun and, interestingly enough, he had problems getting it financed in Germany, where anything mildly linked to internal terrorism — something the nation was all too familiar with at the time — left those in charge of financing (if not much of the general public) cold. Thus, his budget was once again low and financed with his own and borrowed money. The movie, which was shot in the then-walled city of Berlin from November 1978 to 22 January 1979 (the timeframe of the film itself), subsequently debuted in West Germany on 14 September 1979, a good three months after its international debut in France on 30 May 1979.
The Third Generation —
bank robbery scene:
"A cross between Godard and Melville, but wholly a Fassbinder provocation, The Third Generation is a stylish 'anti-noir', and at times hilarious to boot. [Eternal Tan]" Now considered one of Fassbinder's best films, The Third Generation eventually made its way onto The New York Times' list of the Best 1000 Movies Ever, but when released in Germany, the movie was met mostly with anger and controversy — famously, at a screening in Hamburg, the projectionist was beaten unconscious; in Frankfurt, people destroyed the cinema screen.
Some music from
The Third Generation:
Fassbinder's cast was a familiar of troupe regulars, supplemented with two notable international names cum European "stars": Eddie Constantine (29 Oct 1913 – 25 Feb 1993), who had previously worked with both the director — i.e., the movie Beware of a Holy Whore / Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte (1971 / trailer) and the early version of unjust box office bomb The 13th Floor (1999 / trailer), the German mini-series World on a Wire (1973 / trailer) — and Udo Kier (see Victor further above), and Bulle Ogier, of the hippy flick with the Pink Floyd soundtrack, The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) (1972), who had also previously worked with Udo Kier (Goldflocken [1976]; see Part III).
The Valley (Obscured by Clouds):
Mubi's plot description misses the point of The Third Generation by making it sound like a straight thriller: "Winter 1978/79 in West Berlin. A group of inept middle-class German radicals — united less by their political convictions than their secretive behaviour — goes underground after the killer Paul (Raúl Gimenez [14 Sept 1950 – 25 Feb 1994]) is shot by the police. The young terrorists kidnap Peter Lurz (Constantine), the representative of a US computer firm."
Hal Erickson had a better insight to the events: "Displaying a sense of humor that can most kindly be described as perverse, Fassbinder follows the exploits of a group of well-heeled German terrorists. Without truly taking sides, the director demonstrates how the terrorists are essentially shooting themselves in the foot. The more havoc they spread, the tighter the government restrictions against other radicals."
Dennis Schwartz clarifies the generations from a male-centric slant: "It's Fassbinder's intention to show how the terrorists are playing into the repressive West German state's hands by lacking any understanding of how they are being used to keep the totalitarian regime growing in power and alienating the masses as it keeps the public in fear and in need of a false 'law and order'. Fassbinder is calling out the terrorists because they have no more goals, no utopia and have lost the sense of despair other terrorists may have had. He calls these moderns the Third Generation. The first generation was that of the idealists of '68, who wanted to make the world better. The second generation was the Baader-Meinhof Group, who went from legality to armed struggle and total illegality. The third generation is of today and acts without thinking, has no policy or ideology, and is easily manipulated by others. They are the descendants of the German bourgeoisie from 1848 to 1933. They are the inheritors of what their grandfathers lived through during the Third Reich and their fathers in postwar Germany, who squandered their new freedom (the most a German ever had) to seek a consumerist society and ignore how limiting the government became."
Udo Kier, with unflattering curly hair and glasses, plays third-generationist Edgar Gast, the composer husband of third-generationist Susanne Gast (Hanna Schygulla), who, aside from having an S&M-tinged affair with her policeman father-in-law Gerhard Gast (Hark Bohm [18 May 1939 – 14 Nov 2025] of the fun Rote Sonne / Red Sun [1970 / trailer], the mesmerizing Underground [1995 / trailer], the unjustly forgotten Knockin' on Heaven's Door [1997 / trailer], and the unsettling and brutal Gold Glove / Der goldene Handschuh [2019 / trailer]), works for the businessman Peter Lurz (Eddie Constantine), who uses the terrorists as chess pieces in his game to increase the sales of his security products — the ace up his sleeve is the leader of the terrorists, August Brem (Volker Spengler [16 Feb 1939 – 8 Feb 2020]), who is in cahoots with the industrialist...
Hungarian Rhapsody / Magyar Rapszódia
(1979, dir. Miklós Jancsó)
Udo Kier in yet another Hungarian film, the third of his untold number of obscure (?) Hungarian projects. Hungarian Rhapsody is the first of two films of an intended trilogy; released in Hungary on 4 Oct 1979, its sequel Allegro Barbaro followed a week later — the films bombed so badly that the intended third part, Concerto, was never made.
Extract from
Hungarian Rhapsody:
Directed by Miklós Jancsó (27 Sept 1921 – 31 Jan 2014), "the greatest Hungarian film director of all time", and written by Jancsó and Gyula Hernádi (23 Aug 1926 – 20 Jul 2005), the first movie's title alludes to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, to which there are 19 pieces. The second film's title, to Bartok's Allegro Barbaro, the intended title to the unmade third movie, to Joachimb's Concerto — which Concerto, who knows. We assume Violin Concerto #2).
One of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies —
No. 2 in C-sharp minor:
The "plot": "This liturgical-surrealistic parable evokes the model-like events of the second decade of the century as reflected by the inner spiritual transformation of István Zsadányi (György Cserhalmi), inspired by the figure of Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky. The young Zsadányi brothers of licentious habits kill the peasant leader András Baksa (József Madaras [19 Aug 1937 – 24 Apr 2007]) because he had humiliated their father. The fiercely nationalist István fights through World War I and in the following era of White Terror becomes a racist detachment officer and a Member of Parliament. After a lost battle, ridden by visions, he has his most devoted followers butchered. A mystical and fanatic love of freedom and the land turns him gradually to the common people. He leaves for the Baksa farm to face the son of the murdered old Baksa and the fate that awaits him. [Rare Film]" Udo Kier plays a character named Poór...
György Cserhalmi, one of Hungary's most respected actors, later supplied the (Hungarian) voice for the lead character of Hungary's first feature-length animation film, Johnny Corncob / János vitéz (1973)...
Six minutes of
Johnny Corncob:
About the only film that József Madaras made that a wasted life readers might probably be familiar with is the irrationally entertaining 5th entry of The Howling franchise, the "whodunit" that is the D2V Howling V: The Rebirth (1989)...
Howling V: The Rebirth:
"And what can one say of Hungarian Rhapsody [...]? This retelling of the revolutionary history of Hungary is so relentlessly artificial, so pretentious, so ludicrous that the only response it elicits (apart from boredom) is exasperation. How could so much visual beauty be squandered on such numbing rubbish? But of course that's just my opinion — Jancsó is highly esteemed in Europe, I believe, for his method of compressing whole facets of history into a single formal movement (of course, he has to scrap such unnecessary elements as the traditional dramatic scene — not to mention plot — and character...). And formal is the word. The whole thing is carefully choreographed — the central figures, the massed extras, complex camera moves all blended together into a single elaborate movement. The first film is so stately and formal that it allows absolutely no sense of involvement — Jancsó wants to make sure early that you know these figures aren't anything so mundane as human characters. There are no emotional shifts as the film moves between the formally staged decadent revels of the bourgeoisie and the formal movements of battle. The whole thing is supposed to symbolize an inner struggle — Istvan Zsadanyi's 'schizophrenia'; not an illness, but a conflict between his aristocratic received ideas and the truths of communism. He's cured by a revelation of those truths and his resulting identification with the peasantry. [...] I know: Jancsó would object that he's not trying for ordinary drama — no doubt he's trying to impose the forms and structures of music to film. The transplant doesn't take, and the patient doesn't survive. And it's definitely not a proletarian work. So utterly stylized and 'intellectual'. You need annotations to work it all out — but it's so tedious and uninvolving, it's not worth the bother. Even the satire on the bourgeoisie with which it begins is humourless and staged without feeling. But, god, it's superbly photographed, loaded to the hilt with stunning images. What a waste. [Cagey Films]"
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silent & from 1928:
A counter argument: "I'm biased cuz I'm Hungarian but I like this movie. I think it's cool; it almost reminds me of Wes Anderson in a way. I think it's really good and shows a lot about Hungarians' feelings towards the country during the war [Alex @ Letterbxd]"
Allegro Barbaro
(1979, dir. Miklós Jancsó)
Udo Kier in yet another Hungarian film, the fourth of his untold number of obscure (?) Hungarian projects. Allegro Barbaro is the second of two films — it was preceded by Hungarian Rhapsody — of an intended trilogy; it was released in Hungary on 11 Oct 1979, a week after Hungarian Rhapsody.
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The two films bombed so badly that the intended third part, Concerto, was never made. Directed by Miklós Jancsó (27 Sept 1921 – 31 Jan 2014), "the greatest Hungarian film director of all time", and written by Jancsó and Gyula Hernádi (23 Aug 1926 – 20 Jul 2005), the movie's title alludes to Bartok's Allegro Barbaro. The first title of the first film, of course, alludes to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, while the intended title to the never-made third movie alludes to Joachimb's Concerto (but which one, who knows). Supposedly: as in Hungarian Rhapsody, in Allegro Barbaro Udo Kier plays a character named Poór.
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A version of
Bartok's Allegro Barbaro:
"Hungarian Rhapsody and Allegro Barbaro (both [filmed in] 1978) formed the first two parts of an uncompleted trilogy on the life of a nationalist executed in 1944 for his involvement in an anti-Hitler plot. Both were judged too parochial to travel abroad.* [Wikipedia]" Allegro Barbaro takes place "a number of years after the events of the first movie, [and] Istvan (György Cserhalmi) is now in love with Marie (Zsuzsa Czinkóczi) and has adopted revolutionary ideas while his brother Gabor (Lajos Balázsovits [4 Dec 1946 – 19 Jul 2023]) has become a minister for the government. How will the shadow of war affect them both?"
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* "If the synopses of his films make them sound forbiddingly parochial (since they almost invariably revolved around aspects of his native Hungary's history), their visual and visceral impact could hardly be more immediate. [BFI]"
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"An allegory long on broad strokes and short on specificities or 'realistic' details. Istvan's estate is 20th-century Hungary, 1910-1950; he wants to pull a Tolstoy and turn his farm into a co-op for the peasant's benefit; everything he proposes for their post-feudal life is described as festival, celebration, heavily pagan-inflected dance, party, nakedness... but the Austrio-Hungarian Empire and then the Nazis and their Magyar collaborators have other plans. There are Communists at the very end, but the movie fades out before their regime takes shape. The dance/party/nakedness stuff is the most compelling part of the movie; I'm usually wary when paganosity and politics are yoked together, but the intention here clearly isn't fascist-leaning the way one might fear. [Lencho of the Apes @ Letterbxd]"
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"[Allegro Barbaro] continues exactly where [Hungarian Rhapsody] ended, after the main character's transformation from a white terrorist into a friend of the people. This transformation seemed very poorly managed to me throughout Hungarian Rhapsody [...]. Fortunately, this problem no longer exists in Allegro Barbaro (and it is therefore paradoxical that a story in which characters do not transform is better), and we can enjoy the eternal struggle of arrogance and brutality of wealth and power with the suffering and resistance of poverty in the background of passing history. There is no need to talk about the mastery of mise-en-scène, and the playful placement of individual characters is also very pleasing, which is not only the result of clever movement of actors on the stage but also of miraculous film editing. [Film Booster]"
Maybe the piece that never became a film title —
Joachimb's Violin Concerto #2:
"While often associated with German, Danish, and American productions, [Udo] Kier also holds a meaningful place in Hungarian film history. In 1979 [...] Kier appeared in two films by Miklós Jancsó — Magyar Rapszódia (Hungarian Rhapsody) and Allegro Barbaro. These works came at a transitional moment in Jancsó's career, as he expanded his thematic focus to more international contexts. Kier's presence brought an added layer of internationalism to both productions and helped bridge Hungarian filmmaking with the broader European arthouse community. [Budapest Reporter]"
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Phantomas Phantastico
(1979, dir. Ferdi Roth)
After the flops that were Hungarian Rhapsody and Allegro Barbaro, Udo Kier was next seen in this short "documentary" about the Cologne painter, sculptor and performance artist Michael Buthe (1 Aug 1944 – 15 Nov 1994), yet another (now forgotten) West German television project that aired on 26 December 1979. Whether Ferdi Roth — seen below on set with the artist Michael Buthe and, in the background, Udo Kier — actually directed it is possibly open to contention. Buthe himself subsequently distanced himself from the final cut, but the "documentary" was nevertheless aired.
"'At first, [TV broadcaster] WDR wanted to make a film about Buthe, but Buthe quickly took over the direction and turned the film into his own, very special performance,' recalls cameraman Peter Kaiser. The Cologne-oriental fairy tale that emerged in this way thrives largely on Kaiser's casual, sensitive gaze, which succeeds in empathizing with Buthe's world. Udo Kier is carried to Cologne as a prince or phantom on a palanquin and becomes the centre of a series of rituals. In Phantomas Phantastico, Buthe's 'individual mythology' (Klaus Honnef) appears less escapist than in an exchange with the cultural influences of migrant milieus, such as the Cologne bohemians of the time. One of the film's highlights is a banquet to which Buthe's contemporary artistic environment is invited. Like the two other joint video works, Phantomas Phantastico is also a document of the friendship between Buthe and Kier, who lived together with [German video artist] Marcel Odenbach in a former substation in Cologne-Ostheim in the 1970s. [Udo Is Love]"
"'At first, [TV broadcaster] WDR wanted to make a film about Buthe, but Buthe quickly took over the direction and turned the film into his own, very special performance,' recalls cameraman Peter Kaiser. The Cologne-oriental fairy tale that emerged in this way thrives largely on Kaiser's casual, sensitive gaze, which succeeds in empathizing with Buthe's world. Udo Kier is carried to Cologne as a prince or phantom on a palanquin and becomes the centre of a series of rituals. In Phantomas Phantastico, Buthe's 'individual mythology' (Klaus Honnef) appears less escapist than in an exchange with the cultural influences of migrant milieus, such as the Cologne bohemians of the time. One of the film's highlights is a banquet to which Buthe's contemporary artistic environment is invited. Like the two other joint video works, Phantomas Phantastico is also a document of the friendship between Buthe and Kier, who lived together with [German video artist] Marcel Odenbach in a former substation in Cologne-Ostheim in the 1970s. [Udo Is Love]"
Lulu
(1980, dir. Walerian Borowczyk)
After his little intermezzo on TV, Udo Kier was off to France to make his first film with the Polish-born bad boy and sex-obsessed auteur Walerian Borowczyk (21 Oct 1923 – 3 Feb 2006), a man who liked to push boundaries and be as "artistically" explicit without being hardcore.* Borowczyk's best known movie is arguably the infamous La bête / The Beast (1975 / trailer below), possibly followed by Contes immoraux / Immoral Tales (1973 / trailer) and/or, for fans of nunsploitation, Interno di un convent / Behind Convent Walls (1978 / trailer).
* As far as we can tell, only one film of Borowczyk's (inferior) films, the rent-paying project that was Emmanuelle 5 (1987 / trailer),
is available in a hardcore version, but whether the hardcore scenes are
made of inserts shot by an unknown or were truly shot by Borowczyk is
unascertainable.
La bête / The Beast:
Lulu, first released in Italy in March of 1980, was a critical and commercial flop when released, and is considered one of Borowczyk's lesser films, when considered at all. Easily found on DVD today — censored cover below — it looks more like a porn DVD than like a "serious" project.
The movie is based on the character created by the divisive German author Frank Wedekind (24 Jul 1864 – 19 Mar 1918); Lulu's most famous portrayal is probably that of Louise Brooks (14 Nov 1906 – 8 Aug 1985), who plays her in G.W. Pabst's silent film masterpiece, Pandora's Box (1929). Indeed, that film is so impressive, so perfect, one wonders why anyone would bother remaking it...
Pabst's Pandora's Box —
full film:
To roughly rewrite the German plot description found at Italo Cinema, which also asks the question "Why did Borowczyk makes this movie?": "Wedekind's Lulu (Anne Bennent) is a dancer who breaks hearts by the dozen. Men and women alike lie at her feet. This is also the case with Dr. Goll (Jean-Jacques Delbo [10 Jan 1909 – 20 May 1996] of The 1,000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse [1960 / trailer] and Bava's Erick the Conqueror [1961 / trailer]), an influential, wealthy man who takes the 'beauty' off the streets and brings her into higher social circles. He dies of a heart attack when he catches Lulu screwing the painter (Michele Placido of The Pyjama Girl Case / La ragazza dal pigiama giallo [1978 / trailer] and E tanta paura / Plot of Fear [1976 / trailer]), whom she later drives to suicide. A scandal initiated by Lulu prevents Dr. Schön (Anne Bennent's real-life father Heinz Bennent [18 Jul 1921 – 12 Oct 2011]) from marrying another woman, so he finally ties the knot with Lulu instead, not knowing that she is already having an affair with his son, Alwa (Hans-Jürgen Schatz). Dr. Schön is killed when a shot goes off in a scuffle with his newly wedded wife. The court finds the dancer guilty of manslaughter, but Lulu manages to escape to England, where she keeps her head above water as a streetwalker in London. Then comes the fateful Christmas Eve when she meets Jack the Ripper."
Full film —
while it lasts:
Over at Letterbxd, Gwaynee liked the movie and offers a rare paean: "Lulu is another insanely perverted film from the Polish weirdo aka director Walerian Borowczyk. [...] It's insane the amount of perversion on screen, and that's why I find this director amusing — when you think he may have a limit, he really doesn't. [...] Once again cinematography is well done, dreamlike visuals paired with Borowczyk creepy way of filmmaking and perversion from start to finish."
Arguably, Walerian Borowczyk's Lulu isn't even a remake of Pabst's Pandora's Box, but a new version of Wedekind's play(s). Whatever it is, Udo Kier has a relatively small if climactic role in Lulu: he plays Jack the Ripper — perhaps the only true stroke-of-genius casting in this somewhat tedious movie.* "Udo Kier would of course work with Borowczyk again the following year playing Dr. Henry Jekyll in Borowczyk's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osborune (1981). While being interviewed for DVD release of Dr. Jekyll, Kier described working with Borowczyk as amazing due to his aesthetic mindedness and specifically singled out his scene in Lulu as Jack the Ripper, stating that Borowczyk took an unusual amount of time in getting the position of the hat Kier was wearing in the scene just right. Interestingly, Kier also reminisces about Borowczyk wanting him to play the role of the infamous French child murderer and comrade of Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, in a film centering around his trial, although the film never came to fruition. Just one of several projects Borowczyk was unable to find support for in the 80s. Lulu, however, did get made and again; the film may be one of Borowczyk's most ignored, but the film's visual design along with Borowczyk's approach to Wedekind's plays [...] make Lulu well worth the time for Borowczyk fans. [Vortice Mortale]"
* In Pabst's Pandora's Box, Jack is played by Gustav Diessl (30 Dec 1899 – 20 Mar 1948), who went on to become rather a star before his untimely death at the age of 48. Amongst his numerous interesting projects: the once lost Swiss horror film Der Dämon des Himalaya (1935 / full film) and, of course, Fritz Lang's Testament of Dr Mabuse (1933 / full film).
Perhaps, but the movie does suffer a major miscasting that undermines it completely. As Lulu, the perennially naked and rather ordinary-looking 16-year-old Anne Bennent (unlike the older Brooks in Pabst's version of the tale — or, for that matter, Mariel Hemingway in Woody Allen's Manhattan [1979 / trailer]) lacks any and all allure or charisma or innocence that her character demands; thus, not only does she fail to garner any audience sympathy, but the attraction everybody in the film has for her becomes not only unbelievable but oddly pedophilic. (That, due to the casting, she makes out with and eventually kills her real-life father Heinz Bennent — also found in the WTF Possession [1981 / trailer below] — can be put down to European professionalism.)
Trailer to
Interestingly enough, according to the imdb, Borowczyk the Auteur co-wrote the screenplay to Lulu with the hack directors Anton Giulio Majano (5 Jul 1909 – 12 Aug 1994) and Géza von Radványi (17 Dec 1907 — 27 Nov 1986), two lesser talents known for a rare "fun" film: Majano, for example, made Italy's vampireless Atom Age Vampire (1960 / trailer below), while von Radványi, with Denis Héroux (15 Jul 1940 – 10 Dec 2015), did the violent and sleazy tax shelter exploiter Born for Hell (1976 / trailer) and the divisive Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965 / trailer, with Herbert Lom), which was later "adjusted" into Al Adamson's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1977 / full film, with Herbert Lom and Marilyn Joi). Wethinks the "collaboration" between the two and Borowczyk was little more than the translation of dialog (Majano into Italian, von Radványi into German), but it could be that like-minded pervs found each other...
Trailer to the vampireless
Atom Age Vampire:
BTW, about Borowczyk: A "genius who also happened to be a pornographer", he was born in Kwilcz near Poznań and studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Subsequently an award-winning poster artist, he also made short, surreal animation films (some only a few seconds long), culminating in his acclaimed shorts Był sobie raz / Time upon a Time (1957 / film) and Dom / House (1958, with Jan Lenica), after which he immigrated to Paris. More shorts led to his first feature-length animation movie, Mr. and Mrs. Kabals Theatre (1967 / complete film), after which he started making live-action dramas and cultivating his reputation as sex-obsessed auteur....
Dom / House (1958) —
The complete short:
Deutschland Privat 1 — Eine Anthologie des Volksfilms
(1980, dirs. Erwin Kneihsl & Robert van Ackeren)
Supposedly a.k.a. Germany Private 1 — Ethnologist of a People. We have our doubts about Udo Kier's participation in this project, but across the web it says Udo Kier is part of the cast of the film which, per say, has no "real" cast: it is a documentary, and one that above all focuses on what Germany's Max and Erika Mustermann (as in: John and Jane Doe) do in their private time. As such, it also never gives anyone's name, other than those mentioned by the people doing the voiceover of their given segment.
This interesting film premiered in Switzerland at Switzerland at Locarno Film Festival on 1 August 1980 and is still available on DVD. Divided into two main parts — the first half is family friendly, the second half is not. Thus, the film is more or less "Adults Only".
Family safe section:
Basically, Robert van Ackeren and Erwin Kneihsl placed diverse adverts in several magazines (supposedly only in Berlin) asking Mr & Mrs Normalo to send in their 8mm films, the best of which they would blow-up for a feature-film documentary. "For several years, Robert van Ackeren and Erwin Kneihsl [...] went through more than 300 hours of material for their compilation. They only arranged and organized the films in Deutschland privat, and let the original 'directors' comment on their films. Besides family and holiday films, the largest thematic section was the so-called 'secret Germany': self-made strip and porn movies. [Film Portal]"
Roughly translated from OFDB: "Deutschland Privat is a more than interesting compilation of a total of 23 short, private Super-8 films, which truly presents the Germans in all the situations that a German could get into, then as now, from the harmless birthday party to fierce S/M sex. A hodgepodge that nowadays is most likely to make you laugh to death, but is also still likely to cause wild flashbacks for many a child of the 70s and 80s. All in all, it was a nice and a free time, which you get to watch again with this mega-hit of the 80s. You should see it, no matter what the reason!"
Roughly translated from Film Dienst: "The compilation of various Super-8 amateur films into a feature-length panorama of West German intimacies. Declared to be a sociologically and historically valuable cultural study, the film soon reveals its voyeuristic and speculative character — especially since the origin of the material is not sufficiently proven and the boundary between found and staged footage remains unclear."
Regarding the "adults only" part, Erotic Age was moved to say: "This is one of the most authentic classic porn releases you'll ever see. The first part covers a guy with a great dick who goes to film himself. It's like witnessing the early cam streams or video blogs of some kind. You don't get to see him cum on his chest, but there's a masturbation part. Then we switch to a female with red bikini that reveals just some parts of her body. Thankfully, the third time's the charm since you get stunning pussy shots with a blond and then an 19-year old German adult actress whose name is unknown."
Twenty seven years later, in 2007, Robert van Ackeren and Catharina Zwerenz brought out a sequel, Deutschland privat 2 - Im Land der bunten Träume ("Germany Private 2 — In the Land of Colorful Dreams").
Twenty seven years later, in 2007, Robert van Ackeren and Catharina Zwerenz brought out a sequel, Deutschland privat 2 - Im Land der bunten Träume ("Germany Private 2 — In the Land of Colorful Dreams").
Trailer to
Deutschland Privat 2:
Berlin Alexanderplatz
(1980, writ. & dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
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Berlin Alexanderplatz — the Moby Dick of modern German literature? The classic novel by Alfred Döblin (10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957), portrait below by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880- 15 Jun 1938), is perhaps the only novel of his that almost every German can name, even if they have never read it.
Berlin Alexanderplatz was first published in 1929 to instant national and international success, and by 1931 the first film version was released. The filmscript was written by Alfred Döblin, Hans Wilhelm (18 Oct 1904 – 23 Dec 1980), and Karlheinz Martin (6 May 1886 – 13 Jan 1948), the last of whom had directed, some years earlier, the oddly overlooked Expressionist oddities, Pearl of the Orient (1921) and Von morgens bis mitternachts / From Morn to Midnight (1920).
From Morn to Midnight:
The first version of Berlin Alexanderplatz starred Heinrich George (9 Oct 1893 – 25 Sept 1946), whose politics proved changeable and who ultimately died in a Soviet prison camp. It was directed by the relatively forgotten Phil Jutzi (22 July 1896 – 1 May 1946), whose depressing silent Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness (1929 / full film) is definitely worth a watch.
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The full film —
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1931):
Two years later, with Hitler's accession to power, the then still Jewish Alfred Döblin fled Germany via Switzerland to France, where he stayed until fleeing to Los Angeles at the start of WW2, where he eventually converted to Catholicism. Hans Wilhelm also fled in 1933, eventually reaching LA, where he didn't convert to Catholicism but worked on Esther Williams films, among other things.
Music:
For whatever reason, Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz was never adapted to the screen again — until 1979/80, when Rainer Werner Fassbinder converted it into a 14-episode television series, the first episode of which was broadcast 12 October 1980.
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But to get to the plot of a miniseries "masterpiece prefigures [that] Twin Peaks (intro) as a work that straddles the definition of film and television": "Hulking, childlike Franz Biberkopf (Günter Lamprecht) is released from prison and vows to become an 'honest soul'; however, he soon finds himself embroiled in Berlin's criminal underworld, amid the corrosive urban landscape of Weimar-era Germany. [mubi]"
Fassbinder pulled many of regular players for parts big and small, and Udo Kier was given small part: he can be seen in two episodes, the 7th (Remember — An Oath Can Be Amputated) and 14th (My Dream of the Dream of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin, an Epilogue), as "Young man in the bar" — a character described elsewhere as "a queer billiards player" (see below).
The 14th episode, the "epilogue", arguably has as much to do with Döblin as it does with Fassbinder: "Whereas the series was based on a book and develops an existential character study of a weak-willed, violent, naive man, the epilogue is Fassbinder's surreal interpretation of this story as a mad Ken Russell biopic. Characters, events and dialogue are reshuffled as in a dream, traumatic highlights of the man's life re-appear in different ways, there are strange characters in shiny costumes, anachronisms, random nudity, characters re-interpreted as gay, the Nazi subtexts are exposed, Franz has several nightmares in an insane asylum involving violence, strange doctors, torture and revelations about his friends and girlfriends, and all kinds of artistic, symbolic scenes are included such as Jesus crucified against a backdrop of a nuclear bomb. A mess, and a complete clash with what came before. [Worldwide Celluloid Massacre]"
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"In Berlin Alexanderplatz Fassbinder is really at his peak as a director, confident to steer the ensemble, elicit unique and other worldly performances, enabling a modern take on the production values of cinematic melodrama. He matches a conventional melodramatic style, as found in the films of Douglas Sirk, with more avant-guarde's tropes; re-evaluating and breaking with cinematic conventions. This odd match of melodrama and the avant-garde builds towards the final episodes of the film, where tragedy blurs into surreal fantasy. These ending episodes are in some ways a pay off, for what can at times be a gruelling ride. [Blueprint]"
Never again aired in Germany after 1984, the deteriorating 16-mm film was eventually digitally restored by the original cinematographer Xaver Schwarzenberger. It took over 6 years and around 1.4 million euros (about US 1.85 million at the time) to clean it and transfer it to 35mm. The miniseries' first home-media release, Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered, was on DVD in 2007.
Of Berlin Alexanderplatz, Udo Kier once said: "[...] In Alexanderplatz, Franz Bieberkopf was him [Fassbinder]. Veronika Voss (1982 / trailer) was also him. He gave always a big part of himself, of his personality, to the role. And the actors knew that, so they're trying to bring something from knowing him. Especially if you worked with him a lot, as many did, then you adopted certain things. But he became more and more difficult, not because he became more known, he was just burning himself out."
In 2020, Döblin's classic was adapted again for the cinema, this time updated to the times, as a three-hour movie, by a young German filmmaker to watch, Burhan Qurbani.
Berlin Alexanderplatz:
Narcissus and Psyche
(1980, dir. Gábor Bódy)
In Hungarian: Nárcisz és Psyché. The fifth of his untold number of obscure (?) Hungarian projects in total, and the third and final project Udo Kier made with auteur director Gábor Bódy. The movie premiered in Hungary on 22 December 1980.
The screenplay, by Gábor Bódy, Vilmos Csaplár and Vera Varga (1949 – 1979), is based on the novel Psyche, by Sándor Weöres (22 June 1913 – 22 January 1989), the last of whom is considered one Hungary's most important man of letters of the 20th century. Weöres' Psyche is written as a collection of letters, poems, and various documents that chronicle the life of a fictional 19th-century woman, Erzsebet Lonyai, the Psyche of the film. In the film, Psyche is played by the Spanish actress Patricia Adriani.
Narcissus and Psyche, in turn, exists in three different versions: the original 217-minute theatrical cut, an edited 136-minute version, and an extended, 261-minute television version. "The arthouse drama is full of surrealistic elements, philosophical symbolism and visual experimentation with the use of slow-mo; time lapse sequences; hypnotic sex scenes; motion trails; and colour filters. It spans a century (between the Napoleonic wars and the Second World War,) yet is miraculously condensed into a lifetime experience exploring Psyche's enduring love for Narcissus (a blond-haired Udo Kier). Their affair is often ambivalent but never consummated and withstands a lifetime of influences from other relationships, sexual disease and tragedy. [Filmuforia]"
Trailer to
Narcissus and Psyche:
The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre, which seems to suffer from outdated moral attitudes, rates the film as "Worthless", saying: "An epic four-and-a-half hour movie in three parts [...]. It borrows these two mythological beings and places them in modern times against a backdrop of 120 years of history. [Psyche and Narcissus] never age, they are transported to many countries, various social settings, wars and personal changes, their larger-than-life existences contrasted with the more down-to-earth 'evils' of modern life such as social manners, standards and repressions, marriage, careers, wars, diseases and brutal medicinal practices. Psyche is a sexual force of nature (i.e. slut) who is reviled, used, adored, and exiled for her many sins of seduction and irrepressible nature (cheap sex). She loves her teacher and friend Narcissus but their love is doomed by circumstances and sexual diseases and she finds herself marrying someone else (György Cserhalmi). This is the heart of the story, but most of the movie consists of fragments of an epic, poetic dialogue, artsy theatrics and atmosphere, and lots of experimental cinematography: color filters, bizarre superimpositions, dream-like sex scenes, motion trails, etc. Most of the surrealism is in the third part, with striking artistic visions of modernity and flying pigs. Strictly for fans of artistic expression and literary theatrics [...]."
Five minutes of the film:
Udo Kier himself said the following about the movie: "I made a film, Narcissus and Psyche, with one of the best directors, Gábor Bódy. I play a poet who is a mythological figure from 1800 – 1920 and we had a year of shooting because the director wanted all four seasons. So, they put a camera on my grave and you see the snow coming and going away and the camera took a picture every day for a year. I don't know how they did that. [Salon]"
And speaking of Bódy, Kier once said: "He was a good friend of mine and unfortunately he killed himself. And he killed himself exactly the same way he directed me in the movie. When I die — I did not like it — he told me to do it with both wrists open and put together pressed between knees, waiting. And of course, at one point you get tired, still losing blood and you die. I made a film with him — very talented, very talented director — Narcissus and Psyche and I played a poet. [Screenanarchy]"
As for Udo's Narcissus / Laci Tóth, well: Spoiler! "[He] dies from the effects of syphilis. His dead body is seen lying on the bed. [Cinemorgue]"
Lili Marleen
(1981, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Released in West Germany on 14 Jan 1981, Lili Marleen is one of the rare films that Fassbinder made in English and subsequently dubbed into German, and his only film that got submitted for Academy consideration for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination — which it didn't get. Less based on Lale Andersen's autobiography Der Himmel hat viele Farben ("The Heavens Have Many Colors") than inspired by it, little of what occurs in the movie has much basis on reality. (Lale Andersen,* for those of you who don't know it, was the original singer of the song Lili Marlene, which she recorded in 1939. It went on to become the biggest international hit of WWII, popular with both the Axis and the Allies and covered by everyone.)
Lale Andersen singing
Lili Marlene:
"Rainer Werner Fassbinder's intriguing and stylish-looking 1981 German film surprisingly overflows with sentiment and self-importance, and lacks the satiric bite and critical awareness of his best work. However, in other ways it is fascinating as a typical Fassbinder film with its detachment from reality, its high style, startling imagery in Xavier Schwarzenberger's cinematography, striking production designs, and its homage to period Hollywood melodrama. And a fine performance by Hanna Schygulla holds the centre firm and strong. [Derek Winnert]"
German trailer:
Udo Kier is there playing the character of Drewitz, who is not mentioned in the following synopsis originally found at the Fassbinder Foundation, Inc.: "1938. Willie (Hanna Schygulla) and Robert (Giancarlo Giannini of Libido [1965 / trailer], La tarantola dal ventre nero / Black Belly of the Tarantula [1971 / trailer] and Darkness [2002]) are in love: She, a minor German singer who appears in a Zurich nightclub and waits for her big breakthrough. He, son of a rich Jewish family. His father (Mel Ferrer [25 Aug 1917 – 2 June 2008] of Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City [1980] and Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive [1976]) is the head of an organization that helps Jews flee from Nazi Germany. While he is against Robert's relationship with a German, as he feels that this could jeopardize the work of his organization, he permits Willie to accompany Robert on a secret mission to Germany. Upon their return to Switzerland the lovers find out that Robert's father played a cruel trick on them: Willie is not allowed back into the country. They are forced to part. She remains in Germany and becomes famous. First she appears with Lili Marleen in Munich's 'Alter Simpl'. Then Henkel (Karl-Heinz von Hassel [8 Feb 1939 – 19 Apr 2016]), an influential Nazi, supports Willie and has the song recorded. When Belgrade's German Military Radio Station plays the tune, Willie suddenly becomes a big German Nazi star who is celebrated and admired even by the Führer himself. Robert visits Willie in Berlin using an assumed name. However, their meeting is monitored by the Gestapo. Robert is arrested while the clueless Willie goes on tour to the Eastern Front. She agrees to carry information about extermination camps with her that are supposed to be handed to the Zurich organization so that Robert's father can use the evidence to free his son. Willie's career is ruined when her plans surface. Out of desperation and fear of the Nazis, she tries to commit suicide. Robert helps her by getting the British Military Station in Calais to broadcast her arrest and report her subsequent assassination. Willie's incredible popularity forces the Nazis to deny the news. Willie is forced back onto the stage once more. When the war is over, she sees Robert again, and she must acknowledge that their former private happiness is in shambles."
"Lili Marleen is not one of Fassbinder's great films. But it has a wicked sense of humor, displayed in Fassbinder's two favorite opposites, understatement and hyperbole. His characters take the most amazing things quietly in stride, and then get hysterical over trifles; their little ambitions and intrigues obsess them while, half-noticed in the background, civilization crumbles underneath the lamplight. [Roger Ebert]"
Contrary to what some people might say, Fassbinder's Lili Marlene is NOT a remake of Arthur Crabtree's "implausible" Lili Marlene (1950), which was such a success in its day that it had a sequel The Wedding of Lilli Marlene (1953). Neither film is easy to get nowadays.
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"[Fassbinder's film] is the kind of love story Hollywood wishes it could make in its more serious and testy moments. What keeps it whack is all the kitsch and usual Fassbinder hysterics thrown into the mix, which those Hollywood types would never risk trying just for a new way to look at something old or as a possible means for a bright idea. But for those who like their films intelligent, edgy and unpredictable, the antics here should be no problem to stop them from enjoying this intriguing and necessary film. [Dennis Schwartz]"
Udo Kier was still sharing a flat with Fassbinder* when filming started for Lili Marleen: "We were living together for a while at the time of Lili Marleen, and at one point I had to move out. We were still friends when I left, but it was just too — heavy . . . telling me every morning that I'm the worst driver, the worst actor, the worst everything. He had to let his emotion out to somebody. If it would be the cleaning woman in the morning, she would get it. The first person gets it, and that was me for a while, so I left. [Index Magazine]"
* Udo: "I did not have an affair with him."
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
(1981, writ. & dir. Walerian Borowczyk)
According to Udo Kier: "Walerian Borowczyk wanted me to meet in Paris because he wanted to do a film about Gilles de Rais, and Borowczyk wanted to shoot a trial with him because when you were speaking at a court in those times, nobody was allowed to go to bathroom. They had to piss and shit in their pants because he was talking for twenty hours. And Borowczyk wanted to do that but ultimately he did not realize the project, so he offered me the part of Jack the Ripper in Lulu (1980) and also the role of Dr. Jekyll in Dr. Jekyll and the Women [Docteur Jekyll et les femmes also known as Blood of Dr. Jekyll, among other names]. And [afterwards] I never saw him again. [Screenanarchy]"
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Interestingly, Borowczyk is perhaps the only director to have two different actors play the two different ids: Kier plays the definitely less than altruistic Dr. Jekyll, while Mr. Hyde is played by Gérard Zalcberg (of Jess Franco's Faceless [1988 / trailer]).*
* Regarding the casting of two actors, Udo Kier told Empire magazine: "[...] Of course I wanted to play Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The whole idea as an actor is that you play both. As an actor, transforming is the best thing. But Borowczyk convinced me that it wouldn't work. I could have done it, but in his brain it wasn't practical, and you don't fight a director if he has an idea."
* Regarding the casting of two actors, Udo Kier told Empire magazine: "[...] Of course I wanted to play Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The whole idea as an actor is that you play both. As an actor, transforming is the best thing. But Borowczyk convinced me that it wouldn't work. I could have done it, but in his brain it wasn't practical, and you don't fight a director if he has an idea."
More "inspired by" than "based on" Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, the French-West German coproduction premiered in France on 17 June 1981. It never opened in the United States, and played for a mere week in Great Britain (as The Blood of Dr. Jekyll). It did bring Borowczyk the award for Best Feature Film Director at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival, but it remains another one of Borowczyk's more-forgotten films. Given the nature of Dr Jekyll's "giant, pointed cock" and how he uses it, one might see the movie as a not-so-distant relative of Frank Henenlotter's Bad Biology (2008).*
* "The process of [Dr Jekyll's] transformation is a bit different compared to other versions: he now bathes in blood-red bathwater containing his elixir, and his transformation into Mr. Hyde also gives him an oversized, fatal endowment, an aspect censored from most prints of the film. [Mondo Digital]"
* "The process of [Dr Jekyll's] transformation is a bit different compared to other versions: he now bathes in blood-red bathwater containing his elixir, and his transformation into Mr. Hyde also gives him an oversized, fatal endowment, an aspect censored from most prints of the film. [Mondo Digital]"
Frank Henenlotter's Bad Biology:
"Dr Jekyll Et Les Femmes has been one of the more neglected of Walerian Borowczyk's films, the victim of a fallout between producer and director and subjected to assorted cumbersome and unrepresentative title changes [...], heavy censorship (the British VHS release was a particularly brutal bastardisation of the film) and Borowczyk's deteriorating reputation amongst the more boring film critics who took his move into erotica as a personal affront and could never bring themselves to look at his work seriously again. Despite Borowczyk's reputation and the sometimes very graphic nature of the film, Dr Jekyll is not by any means an erotic film. [...] As a sign of what might have been, had he been given the budget and respect that he was due, Dr Jekyyll Et Les Femmes remains — despite recent Blu-ray editions — something of an undiscovered masterpiece and is well worth seeking out. [Desperate Living]"
Teaser to
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne:
Even the Worldwide Celluloid Massacre finds the movie "Of Some Interest", saying: "Borowczyk's take on Stevenson's story explores wild and nihilistic passions, violence, vandalism and lust. [...] Not as over-the-top as The Beast (1975 / trailer), but more of an atmospheric and wild horror movie."
The plot, as found at 2,500 Movies Challenge: "Noted scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) is engaged to the lovely Ms. Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro of Jean Rollin's The Living Dead Girl [1982 / trailer]), and some of the most important people in London have been invited to a dinner party celebrating their impending nuptials. Among those in attendance are General William Danvers Carew (Patrick Magee [31 Mar 1922 – 14 Aug 1982]) and his beautiful daughter Charlotte (Agnès Daems); The Rev. Donald Regan Guest (Clément Harari [10 Feb 1919 – 16 May 2008]); Mr and Mrs. Enfield (Eugene Braun Monk, Catherine Cost) and their teenage daughter Victoria (Magali Noaro); and Dr. Lanyon (Howard Vernon), Dr. Jekyll's mentor and a first-class surgeon. What none of them realizes is that another guest will soon be joining them: Mr. Edward Hyde (played by Gérard Zalcberg), Dr. Jekyll's volatile, over-stimulated alter-ego. An unfortunate side effect of one of Jekyll's experiments, Mr. Hyde occasionally takes over Jekyll's body, raping and killing every young woman he encounters. Moments after Mr. Hyde makes his first 'appearance', dinner guests begin to die in grisly fashion. [...]"
"[The dinner guests] are all like escapees from some savage Buñuel satire, pompous, self-satisfied and bubbling over with barely concealed desires as they exchange pleasantries and hotly debate Jekyll's new theory of transcendental medicine. They are the apotheosis of British Imperial self-satisfaction, smirking through the evening, oblivious to the noise their clay feet make, clumping on the parquet. [...] There is more than a little vampire/Nosferatu in Hyde when he appears, an eyebrow-less fiend and something of Jack the Ripper as well with his murderous phallus. His assault on the guests is savage, and yet they are complicit in their own downfall, either because he stirs in them their own (scarcely) hidden desires, or because they rather bathetically provide him with the weapons of their destruction. His sadism is pitched against their own hypocrisy and general vileness. In a twist which the title anticipates, Marina Pierro's yearning raven-haired heroine has a yen for some self-transformation as well. Violence and murder are intertwined with a longing for freedom, but Borowcyzk's film is dark and claustrophobic, locked in Jekyll's hollow townhouse. His characters don't find emancipation via their potions and transformations, but rather murderous and self-destructive rage. [Electric Sheep]"
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne proved to be the last feature film of Patrick Magee (of The Monster Club [1980], Dementia 13 [1963, with William Campbell] and much, much more), who died soon after filming his scenes. Of the actor, Miss Osbourne (Marina Pierro) was to say: "He spent a lot of time wandering around with a bottle — but he always managed to hide it when he was on set. I was dazzled by him, his talent. Some people have a touch of magic about them. And he was one of them. Truly one of the great actors. [Wikipedia]"
Another pleasant casting surprise is the great stock lead player of the low-grade, campy horror and Jesús Franco films, Howard Vernon (15 Jul 1908 – 25 Jul 1996), of Zombie Lake (1981), Succubus (1968, with Jayne Reynaud) and so much more, who, unlike Magee, could continue taking every role offered to him for another 19 years.
Lola
(1981, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Fassbinder's third to last directorial project before his death, and the second of the three films considered as part of the BRD Trilogy; it was preceded by The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979 / trailer) and followed by Veronika Voss (1982 / trailer). "BRD", for those of you not into geography, stands for Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the official name of Germany since 1949; but back in the day when there was an East and a West, BRD, as in "West Germany", was used a lot more than now.
Trailer to
Lola:
In any event, Udo Kier makes his last appearance in a Fassbinder film and plays, uncredited, a waiter, but is listed in the credits as one of the production designers. Lola is a "loose" adaptation of the classic Heinrich Mann (27 Mar 1871 – 11 Mar 1950) novel, Professor Unrat (1905), which is also the source material for Josef von Sternberg's classic Der blaue Engel / The Blue Angel (1930).
The Blue Angel:
"Fassbinder lays bare the politics of post-war capitalist opportunism, yet resists the temptation to denounce its obvious pleasures, instead depicting an exploitative yet functional society enjoying the fruits of capitalist amorality – one whose delights echo the hedonism of the pre-war Weimar period. Yet Lola transcends broad satire, too, and as with Fassbinder's best pictures, finds the raw humanity at the heart of the film's heightened reality. [Cinevue]"
Plot: "Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola (Barbara Sukowa), a seductive cabaret singer/prostitute, exults in her power as a tempter of men, but she wants more – money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor (Mario Adorf of Short Night of Glass Dolls [1971 / trailer] and Deadlock [1970 / trailer below]) against the new straight-arrow building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl of The Thirteenth Floor [1999 / trailer]), Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything — and everyone — is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lola, an homage to Josef von Sternberg's classic The Blue Angel, is a wonderfully satirical tribute to capitalism. [Criterion]"
Trailer —
Mario Adorf in Deadlock (1970):
"This film is Fassbinder at his witty, delirious best, deftly blending political satire and overwrought melodrama [...]. Sukowa, especially, is a revelation in the only starring role Fassbinder gave her; she tears into a juicy performance as the cold but sexy Lola. Her character ranges from woozy sentimentality to joyous singing on stage at the whorehouse to icy manipulation, and in the scene where Von Bohm (Mueller-Stahl) sees her at the brothel, she breaks into a jaw-dropping striptease, throwing her anguish at her lover's discovery into every violently jerky movement and crack in her voice. Mario Adorf is equally notable in his only role for Fassbinder, burning up the screen as the sleazy but undeniably vibrant contractor Schukert, his energy swallowing up everything around him. [...] Fassbinder bit player Hark Bohm ([18 May 1939 – 14 Nov 2025] of the fun Rote Sonne / Red Sun [1970 / trailer], the mesmerizing Underground [1995 / trailer], the unjustly forgotten Knockin' on Heaven's Door [1997 / trailer], and the unsettling and brutal Gold Glove / Der goldene Handschuh [2019 / trailer]) is cagey and opaque as the city's corrupt mayor. This is a typically complex film from Fassbinder, in which politics and personal conflicts are inextricably wed together, making 'the personal is political' much more than a shallow catch-phrase. The film both opens and closes with a black and white photo of Konrad Adenauer, the post-war first Chancellor of West Germany, and in between is a whole world of private and public dramas happening under the auspices of his administration. For Fassbinder, this is the only way to look at the world, as a web of interpersonal connections interwoven with the necessities of politics and economics, and Lola is a glorious farce that unravels some of these threads. [Only the Cinema]"
"Lola is a spectacular film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder that features a sensational leading performance from Barbara Sukowa in the titular role. Along with its supporting cast, themes on greed and corruption, Xaver Schwarzenberger's lush cinematography, dazzling art direction, and Peer Raben's offbeat music score. The film is a fascinating and compelling film that presents itself as an offbeat melodrama [...]. In the end, Lola is a tremendous film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder. [Surrender to the Void]"
Coming eventually —
R.I.P. Udo Kier, Pt. V: 1982–86
A public-service message from a wasted life:
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