14 Oct 1944 – 23 Nov 2025
The German cult actor Udo Kier, born Udo Kierspe, passed on to the movie studio in the sky on 23 November 2025. "Kier was born in Cologne on 14 October 1944, towards the end of World War II. The hospital where he was born was bombed by the Allies of World War II moments after his birth, and he and his mother had to be dug out of the rubble. Kier grew up without a father. In his youth, he was an altar boy and cantor. [Wikipedia]"
Udo Kier 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. 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 IV: 1979-81
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 IV: 1979-81
Die Geschwister
(1982, dir. Gábor Bódy)
Udo Kier's 1981 projects after Lola (1981, see Part IV) consisted (possibly) of two obscure short art films on video for his artist roommate Michael Buthe, which Buthe made with his friend Dietmar Werle, that seem to be impossible to find online today, should they even still exist: Heliogabal (1981) and When love is wrong, I don't want to be right (1981). Two more short films followed in 1982, the first being this one, Die Geschwister (usually translated as "Brother and Sister", the literal translation would be "Siblings"), the fourth and final film project Kier was to do with Hungarian Gábor Bódy — see: Katonák (1978) in Part III, and Krétakor (1979) and Narcissus and Psyche (1980) in Part IV.
Unlike all other Kier/Bódy (above) collaborations, this shot-on-video, 27-minute-long short was shot in Berlin, and possibly had its debut in West Berlin on 2 January 1982. Kier stars as the brother, and the Berlin multi-talent Tabea Blumenschein (11 Aug 1952 – 29 Feb 2020) as the sister.
Over at Letterbxd, Sam Prine says: "Two of the most strikingly beautiful actors in the world — Udo Kier and Tabea Blumenschein — eat each other's asses and discuss even darker desires, all while being brother and sister. It's a lo-fi, deadly affair and would probably be at its best as one in a series of curated Bódy shorts. As a standalone watch, while I sort of admire its dreamy perversity, the 'single take master shot' approach to most scenes is a bit dull."
The publication Bódy Gábor — A Presentation of His Work (1987) offers more detail: "In a hotel suite a brother and a sister (Udo and Tabea) are waiting for a due inheritance. Their relationship is ambiguous: it fluctuates between a tenderness, which develops into open sexuality, and an animosity, which turns into assault. In the course of a quarrel Udo shoves his sister onto the bed several times, slaps her face — then embraces her. (During the scene he seeks out his revolver, which will play a tragic role at the end of the story.) From time to time the man discusses the question of the inheritance with their plump aunt (Margie Ellgaard), meanwhile a former Lesbian girlfriend (Veruschka Bódy) re-enters the girl's life and moves to their flat, in a telephone conversation Tabea tells Udo that she cannot endure waiting any longer, she in no more interested in the inheritance and has been overcome by an erotic longing for death. The man entering home shoots five bullets at Veruschka (this latter heaving sighs under the blanket) then realising his error he commits suicide. [...]"
Some sources say that Die Geschwister is a.k.a. Der Dämon in Berlin ["The Demon in Berlin"], but that Bódy short — whence the image directly above comes — likewise shot in Berlin in 1982, is a project of its own and features neither Kier nor Blumenstein.
Sportliche Schatten – Kunst in Krisenzeiten
(1982, dir. Tabea Blumenschein)
Around the time of Gábor Bódy's short looked at above, Udo Kier also participated in this 9-minute, 8-mm short here, made by his "sister" from Bódy's Die Geschwister, the Berlin multi-talent Tabea Blumenschein (pictured below from neither film).
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The best description comes, possibly as to be expected, from Udo Is Love: "Tabea Blumenschein was part of the music groups Geniale Dilletanten and Tödliche Doris in the 1980s and became known for her role in the movie Bildnis einer Trinkerin (1979 / trailer below) by Ulrike Ottinger. Blumenschein made experimental films herself, in which she often appeared as an actress. In the Super-8 short film Sportliche Schatten, a couple, Kier and Blumenschein, hang around in a living room and start playing spooky shadow games out of boredom. Best end-time atmosphere."
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Bildnis einer Trinkerin (1979):
Die Insel der blutigen Plantage
(1983, Peter Kern & Kurt Raab)
Udo Kier returns to exploitation! "Peter Kern (13 Feb 1949 – 26 Aug 2015) and Kurt Raab (20 Jul 1941 – 28 Jun 1988), who started out as actors in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's repertory company, co-directed this 1983 exploitation movie about a women's prison on a tropical island. With Udo Kier and Barbara Valentin. 88 min. [Chicago Reader]"
A.k.a. Island of Bloody Plantation, Prison Camp Girls, and Jailed For Love, this German WIP flick is the only feature film that Kurt Raab, who also wrote this film and previously had played the infamous killer cannibal Fritz Haarmann (25 Oct 1879 – 15 Apr 1925) in Ulli Lommel's mildly interesting Tenderness of the Wolves (1973 / trailer below), ever directed.
Tenderness of the Wolves:
Plot: The former Nazi Otto Globocnik (Karl-Otto Alberty [13 Nov 1933 – 25 Apr 2015] of Bluebeard [1972 / trailer]) has fled to a South Sea island paradise, where he continues his penchant for exploiting and oppressing people. Having made himself the ruler of the island, he and his sex-obsessed wife, "The Bloody Olga" (Barbara Valentin [15 Dec 1940 – 22 Feb 2002] of Horrors of Spider Island [1960]), rule with an iron fist and an entire regiment of blood- and sex-thirsty soldiers. Rape and torture is the order of the day, but then the guard Hermano (Udo Kier), on whom Olga has cast an eye, falls in love with the beautiful Cora (Karen Lopez of American Commandos [1985 / trailer], Bruno Mattei's Strike Commando [1987 / trailer], and Hawkeye [1988 / trailer]) and, ultimately, decides to help them escape and take down the bad guys — but nothing goes as planned.
"Blood Plantation is a prison hell, where poor innocent and not really innocent girls are raped, tortured and humiliated. The whole prison is under control of one sadistic lesbian horny warden. You will find here one of the best lesbian rape scenes from all mainstream flicks. [WIP Films]"
Trailer to
Die Insel der blutigen Plantage:
Equally of note: the theme song, The Island of the Bloody Plantation, sung by an unknown Shane Colin, which bounces happily along totally at odds with the whole nature of the movie. In contrast, the opening scene makes it obvious what to expect: two excellently proportioned women in bathing suits, enjoying the remote idyllic tropic paradise they found, meet their maker when they are both shot dead by a rifleman hiding in nearby bushes. What a waste of pulchritude!
"All in all, Die Insel der blutigen Plantage is a successful little trashy flick in the best grindhouse tradition. The first-class technical implementation and the artistic aspiration that shines through again and again make it a remarkable curiosity, which is probably quite unique because of its roots. [Schnittberichte]"
"Torn apart by the critics and ignored by a disapproving public, Peter Kern and Kurt Raab created a showcase trash film [...]. With the aim of producing a successful blockbuster, a brutal horror tale was written [...] that still enjoys cult status on the Asian market today, remaining a financial debacle in Europe. [Film Archive Asutria]"
Over at Split Tooth Media, they share the story behind how the movie [barely] came to be: "[...] Raab and Kern formed a production company, Luxor-Film. Kern would produce, Raab would write, and they'd enlist their friends — many from Fassbinder's stable — to contribute in various capacities. The first Luxor-Film venture was the surreal 1981 comedy Heute spielen wir den Boß / Today We Play the Boss (1981) [... which] failed to muster much enthusiasm from the general public. [...] Kern and Raab turned to exploitation filmmaking, a tried and true method for low-budget filmmakers to turn a quick profit. [...] When it came time to start thinking about where to shoot the film, Kern recalled a conversation he had with Celso Ad. Castillo (12 Sept 1943 – 26 Nov 2012), a Filipino filmmaker he met at a film festival, who invited him to make a movie in the Philippines. [...] Castillo knew how to make action movies on a low budget, which was exactly the kind of expertise Kern needed. More importantly, his offer came with the promise of financing. Castillo brought in friend and colleague Felipe G. Ortega, Jr., who he assured would be able to cover half of the production costs. Kern and Raab would rope in a few friends — Udo Kier, Barbara Valentin, Hans Zander — and a couple of bigger name German actors, while Philippine locals would fill out the rest of the cast and majority of the crew. [...] Once Kern and the rest of the West German crew arrived in Manila, however, the situation deteriorated with alarming rapidity. Kern barely settled into his hotel room when Ortega showed up to inform him that the money he promised didn't exist. [...] Shaken but undeterred, Kern resolved to finance the movie entirely on his own, even as the obstacles continued to mount. [...] In his memoirs, Raab paints a hellish picture of the morale-obliterating experience: 'The Filipino director [Castillo] is constantly drunk and he can't think of anything to do with our screenplay. We fire him and I have to take over the direction now, too. I become a tyrant and a fanatic, ignoring fatigue. I work 16 hour days because I'm overcome with fury and my only ambition is to finish the film, whatever the cost. I rage, scold and bluster, I'm obnoxious and disgusting, I yell at people moodily, justified or not, and by the end I'm so exhausted that I'm falling over and needing glucose infusions to keep me going.' [...] Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him and the rest of the crew, Ortega initiated legal proceedings to halt the production. If he and Castillo couldn't be involved in making the movie, neither could anyone else. A judge ordered Kern to surrender his camera and equipment [...]; he had to relinquish everything — including footage in the can — to Ortega. It seemed they reached the end of the road. Except Kern refused to give in. Instead, he devised a plan: When Ortega arrived on set to collect the materials, Barbara Valentin would convince him to move everything indoors to her air-conditioned hotel room, where it would be safe from the blazing sun. This hotel room, quite fortuitously, had two ways in and out — but only one obvious entry and exit point. Once they arrived in the room, Valentin would charm Ortega over drinks to distract him, while Udo Kier quietly slipped into the room through the other door to grab the negatives and get the hell out of Dodge. To their astonishment, the plan went off without a hitch and Ortega walked away with the decoy: a box full of rocks."
Die wilden Fünfziger / The Roaring Fifties
(1983, dir. Peter Zadek)
"The Roaring Fifties [...] is a 1983 West German comedy film directed by Peter Zadek and [...] based on the novel Hurra, wir leben noch by Johannes Mario Simmel (7 April 1924 – 1 January 2009). It is set around the German Wirtschaftswunder economic miracle of the 1950s, with the title alluding to the Roaring Twenties. [Wikipedia]
Used in the film —
Milva's Hurra, Wir Leben Noch:
Udo Kier has a decidedly tertiary role as a man named Fromm — Kier's name isn't even on the poster — but once again, he is in a film from an important German director: "Peter Zadek (19 May 1926 – 30 July 2009) was a German director of theatre, opera and film, a translator and a screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater. [Wikipedia]"
"This film is a superficial extravaganza on the 'roaring 1950s' in West Germany and West Berlin, when the rich, according to director Peter Zadek, were partying through the decade with little else on their minds than hedonistic pleasures, and the poor were struggling to become richer. [mubi]"
Spanish trailer to
The Roaring Fifties:
Over at the great website for the great magazine Shock Cinema, Steven Puchalski writes: "Featuring an immense cast, broad performances and stridently hysterical tone, this sprawling satire of the rich and powerful — set during the German Wirtschaftswunder ('Economic Miracle'), an era of massive economic growth and prosperity, spanning the post-war 1940s into the '60s — is a stupendously indulgent vision from director Peter Zadek, one of Germany's most acclaimed and controversial theatre directors. [...] No surprise, Zadek continued to piss off people with this film. [...] As German multi-millionaire businessman Jakob Fuhrmann (Juraj Kukura) lays dying following a freak auto accident, flashbacks reveal how this opportunist took advantage of any potential money-making situation — working as a post-World War II translator and swiping a plane full of eggs from the bumbling US military, managing an Allied Forces chicken farm in Munich, linking up with shifty importers, cutting deals with socialist politicians and ex-Hitler holdovers, recruiting intellectuals to create a top-selling magazine, monopolizing the German plastics industry, and even building pre-fab houses in Siberia. Fuhrmann is driven as much by his libido as his greed, so there's loads of sex and nudity throughout, handled with all the subtlety of a Porky's sequel, as he screws secretaries, writers, prostitutes, and becomes oddly obsessed with a sexual act known as the 'Chinese Sleigh Ride.'* Zadek also tosses in randomly bizarre episodes, like when a brawl erupts between Fuhrmann and his old girlfriend's fiancé (Udo Kier!) in the midst of a funeral, ending with the two men wrestling in an open grave. Basically, just imagine if Citizen Kane (1941 / trailer) had been remade by Golan-Globus! This ambitious, utterly daft production looks incredible, [...] but is breathtakingly wrongheaded in every other way (this print's English dubbing doesn't help matters). A hodgepodge of gross stereotypes (Americans are particularly boorish and stupid) and barely-fleshed-out supporting characters popping in and out of Fuhrmann's life [...]."
* "English: Clitoral glans without contact, for example in the missionary position when the man raises his upper body, in the 'Chinese sleigh ride' position [...] with the man in an upright position and the woman lying down. This is a perspective often shown in porn films, as the viewer can see the vulva clearly, but it is a sex position that does not enable clitoral orgasm for women [...] unless the external clitoris is stimulated directly or indirectly at the same time with the hands or a vibrator. [Wikipedia]"
Fan trailer to Peter Zadek's first feature film,
Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame (1969):
Johannes Mario Simmel, the Austrian author whose work inspired the film, threatened legal action if the movie's title wasn't changed since Zadek's narrative had so little to do with the book's story. Scriptwriter Robert Muller (1 Sept 1925 – 27 May 1998) allegedly was so incensed by the rough cut that he used the pseudonym 'Wolfgang Bornheim' instead of his real name. Sometime before to his death, Rainer Werner Fassbinder had intended to adapt Johannes Mario Simmel's novel Hurra, wir leben noch for the cinema, and had even completed the script. But he ended up leaving the project, and though he recommended Peter Zadek as his replacement, Zadek tossed Fassbinder's script.
Used in the film —
Milva's Auch Der Mensch:
"Extremely nauseating film [...]. It gets stuck in an orgy of bad jokes and lots of naked (but attractive) women who are there just for show; furthermore, everything is wrong here: acting, directing, scripting, editing etc. How could ever an actress like Eva Mattes become involved; was she forced? One is not always expected to like a film, but must it be that bad? The makers had the nerve to dedicate this film to Rainer Werner Fassbinder [...]. The film is very preoccupied with the 'Chinese sleigh ride' [...], and I recommend to do that rather than to watch this awful rubbish. [J.Steed @ imdb]"
Pankow '95
(1983, writ. & dir. Gábor Altorjay)
Another arty film directed by an artist: Gábor Altorjay. Born in Budapest in 1946, Gábor Altorjay is best known as one of the organizers of the first happening in Hungary (together with Tamás Szentjóby: The Lunch. In Memoriam Batu Kán, 1966). He began as a poet in the first half of the '60s, then studied theology, and worked as a tour guide in Poland. He sought and received asylum in the West in 1967.
Pankow, for those of you don't know, is a neighborhood in Berlin that, up until the fall of the Wall, was a neighborhood in East Berlin. The film, though set in the East, was made in West Germany and premiered 27 Oct 1983 in Frankfurt am Main, aired on West German TV not long after on 10 November 1983, and then slid into obscurity. "Rediscovered" a few years ago, the movie has since been restored and can now easily be gotten on DVD...
German trailer to
Pankow '95:
"It is the sixth year after the as surprising as predictable demise of global capitalism. The Wall has fallen, as real existing socialism rules the world. One of the few who rebel against the new era is the young scientist Zart (Udo Kier). He is imprisoned in an insane asylum in Pankow, together with his beautiful wife Laura (Christine Kaufmann [11 Jan 1945 – 28 Mar 2017] of Murders in the Rue Morgue [1971, with Herbert Lom]), the first German test-tube baby (the Hungarian musician Tom Dokoupil, dubbed by a bright child's voice), and Angelo (the Hamburg sex-theater impresario René Durand [13 Jun 1927 – 17 Jan 2013]). When the threat of a lobotomy at the hands of Dr. Frisch (Dieter Thomas Heck [29 Dec 1937 – 23 Aug 2018]) looms, Zart and his compatriots naturally have to flee... [Rapid Eye Movies]"
Nina Hagen's big scene:
"Who would have thought that Diedrich Diederichsen, this famed theoretician of subculture, once appeared in a film alongside popular show master Dieter Thomas Heck? Pankow '95 is a 1983 curiosity of German film history that begs to be rediscovered. Udo Kier stars as Marxist musicologist Wolfgang Amadeus Zart, who is locked up in a mental facility for his theories [...] in what can only be described as a sort of experimental New Wave Sci-Fi version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975 / trailer). [FFCGN]"
"The place is East Berlin and the year is 1995, sort of, in Gábor Altorjay's campy, deliriously extra sci-fi romp [...]. In Pankow '95, Altorjay, a filmic outsider better known as an artistic companion of the Fluxus group, has created a fruitcake of early-80s' paranoia. Gleefully picking at East/West division, artificial insemination, technological mind control, radical youth, and political collapse, Pankow '95 is punched up by a bizarrely catchy synth score by Tom Dokoupil (of band Der Wirtschaftswunder) and held together by a vintage turn from Udo Kier, alongside an extraordinary supporting cast that includes Germany's equivalent of Dick Clark and rock star Nina Hagen. Remastered and re-released, the film is finally available in the US, nearly 40 years late. But the delay doesn't matter much. 'Pankow '95 is a film about the future of the past,' says Altorjay. 'As such, it is always current.' [Martin Schwartz @ German Cinema Now]"
Der Wirtschaftswunder —
Preziosen & Profanes:
Hur und Heilig
(1984, writ. & dir. Cornelia Schlingmann).png)
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Released 28 Jan 1984 in West Germany, this movie, "Whore and Holy", the first and apparently only feature-length film directed by Cornelia Schlingmann, has, like the director herself, disappeared into a great big black hole...
Plot: "A housewife, annoyed by her husband, who is constantly going to a bordello, and by her child, who she eventually tosses into the River Rhein, starts a new life and moves in with a prostitute. An experimental feature-film grotesque that attempts to conceal its lack of craftsmanship with some 'arty' ideas and 'visual defamiliarizations'. [Film Dienst]" Who knows who plays whom...
The Last Trip to Harrisburg
(1984, dirs. Bernd Brummbär, Udo Kier & Edward Lachman)
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German title: Die letzte Fahrt nach Harrisburg. Udo Kier writes and co-directs his first short film in which he plays two parts, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (unseen) reads from the Bible.
At Letterbxd, Doc Lyon says: "[...] Udo Kier co-directed a short film back in 1984 that involved him dressing as a soldier and as a woman (in extremely impressive drag) while mouthing apocalyptic biblical dialogue towards himself. [...] This strangeness is accompanied by sinister drum and bass music and Lachman's dynamic black and white photography that somehow manages to have survived the ravages of time that have affected the rest of the print I saw. [...] However, for fans of Kier who may be intrigued by this [...], be warned that the film begins and ends with footage of a man graphically slaughtering a lamb. It is real and it is jarring."
Kier took the film to the IFF Mannheim, where the 11-minute short had its debut on 8 Oct 1984. According to Udo: "I was in Mannheim [...] at the film festival, I had made a short film myself, The Last Trip to Harrisburg, which was in competition with Lars von Trier's first feature film Element of Crime (1984 / trailer below). So I said to my colleagues: We can actually go home, whoever made this film wins the competition. And he did. [Watson]" And thus Udo Kier did meet Lars von Trier.
Element of Crime:
How did Kier end up making The Last Trip to Harrisburg, his only directorial effort? According to him: "[...] Wolf Wondratschek wanted to make a film in Munich and had hired me and Ingrid Caven (of The Satin Spider [1985 / full film]), who was also married to Fassbinder at one time. Then after three days, he said he wouldn't make the film. Ingrid was there, I was there, the cameraman was there — completely unknown, but now Oscar-winner, Ed Lachman. I said, okay, then I'm going to make a film now, no matter what, and if I hold on to the tree in the English Garden and scream for 15 minutes. I thought I could make a short film about using Jean Genet's texts from prison — and Fassbinder said: 'You'll get into trouble over the rights. Why don't you buy the Bible?' There I found things in the Bible that I would never have thought — texts like: 'The hands of loving women cooked their own children'. Then I made a collage from the Bible and played a U.S. soldier in the train compartment to Harrisburg [...]. He fantasizes seeing a beautiful blonde like Marlene Dietrich, whom I play as well. [web.demagazine]"
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Gespenstergeschichten: Schatten des Zweifels
(1985, dir. George Moorse)
The German name translates into "Ghost Stories". A TV series that ran one year and six episodes, each episode a standalone 30-minute story, all set in Great Britain of the 1920s and '30s, and all introduced by the narrator, Wolfgang Büttner (1 Jun 1912 – 18 Nov 1990), smiling further below, of Secret of the Red Orchid (1962 / trailer) and Endstation Rote Laterne (1960, with Joachim Fuchsberger). The directorial chores of the six episodes were divided equally between Wolfgang Panzer and George Moorse (1 May 1936 – 30 Jul 1999).
Title song to Gespenstergeschichten —
Oliver Onions' Ghost:
Moorse, with whom Udo Kier had already worked with way back in 1973, on the obscure documentary Pan (see Part II), directed the episode in which Udo Kier appears, Schatten des Zweifels (or, "Shadow of Doubt"). The 4th episode of the series, it aired 11 Feb 1985 and was based on a short story by the German writer Marie Luise Kaschnitz (31 January 1901 – 10 October 1974), and was written for the TV screen by Oliver Storz (30 Apr 1929 – 6 Jul 2011).
At the time, the German comic book Gespenster Geschichten (1974 – 2006) was still being published by Bastei-Verlag — the TV series, however, was not based on the comic and used none of its stories. By the time the comic book Gespenster Geschichten was discontinued, it had had 1654 issues!
Selected covers to
Gespenster Geschichten:
The plot: "The wealthy American couple Alistair (Peter Faerber of Midsummer Madness [2007 / trailer]) and June Benson (Leslie Malton, also found somewhere in Possession [1981 / trailer]) visit London. They spend a nice evening with Vivian (Gabriele Isakian) and Laurie Scott (Udo Kier). But then things get tense, and the Bensons leave the party. They doubt whether Laurie is really a writer, as he said. When they want to visit the Scotts again, they hear from the neighbor (Ellen Umlauf [17 Aug 1925 – 9 Feb 2000] of Bloodlust [1976/ trailer below]) that the house has not been inhabited for a long time. [fernsehserien.de]"
Trailer to
Bloodlust:
Nasty Video Ghoul calls the collected episodes, which are now available on DVD, "old school scares": "The lovely thing about the series is that it is completely bloodless but not boring, and wonderfully atmospheric. Wafts of fog, good make-up, charming actors, and somewhat creepy but contemporary backdrops give the episodes the kick they need. With a total running time of just under three hours, you can watch the series on a Sunday afternoon, at best on a gloomy evening, to get a creepy feeling."
First 13 minutes of the episode dubbed into Hungarian:
Seduction: The Cruel Woman
(1985, writ. & dir. Elfi Mikesch & Monika Treut)
Udo Kier in another typically European, sex-obsessed art film, this one assumedly with a somewhat more feminist viewpoint.
Monika Treut, who is "famous for her queer films" and whose last project appears to be Genderation (2021 / trailer), made her directorial debut with Verführung: die grausame Frau; Elfi Miesch had already been directing for 15 years, if sporadically. Miesch's first "success" would probably be the documentary...
full film in German:
Seduction: The Cruel Woman debuted on 22 February 1985 at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it is reported numerous viewers left the screening. Although not credited, the film is "inspired" by the rather repetitive and dull novel Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (27 Jan 1836 – 9 Mar 1895), and as such, was preceded onto the silver screen by Joseph Marzano's five-day NYC wonder, Venus in Furs (1967 / trailer), and Massimo Dallamano's Eurotrash Devil in the Flesh a.k.a. Venus in Furs (1969 / trailer below, with Maria Rohm).
Trailer to
Dallamano's Venus in Furs:
"Monika Treut [...] is a German director who, at least in the 1980s, made really bizarre arty sex movies. This was no exception. [...] There's not much to say in retrospect except to make sure you are in that experimental arty mood if you are going to sit down and watch this. If you are, then you could possibly enjoy it. I kind of did. [Through the Shattered Lens]"
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Has nothing to do with the film —
The Velvet Underground's Venus in Furs:
The plot borrows a bit from Jess Franco's Succubus (1968, with Janine Reynaud), though probably unintentionally: "In her Hamburg gallery, Wanda (Mechthild Großmann) stages bizarre stage shows for paying audiences: sadomasochistic rituals as an aesthetic form and profitable business. Wanda is also a sovereign ruler in her private life, who determines the rules of lust. When her slavish stage partner Gregor (Udo Kier) falls in love with her, he is cured of his romantic infatuation. Wanda's docile student Justine (Sheila McLaughlin of Born in Flames [1983 / trailer]) also understands that seduction is a diabolical game. And the journalist Märsch (Peter Weibel [5 Mar 1945 – 1 Mar 2023] of) discovers, alongside his professional interest in Wanda, his masochistic character. [Uncut]"
Trailer to
Seduction: The Cruel Woman:
"[...] This oh-so-'80s slice of lesbian chic plays like a Fassbinder film stuck in a universe somewhere between The Hunger (1983 / trailer) and Liquid Sky (1982 / trailer below). [...] A film more about the dynamics of sexual power than the physical mechanics, Seduction: The Cruel Woman is a compellingly weird experience with the most extreme use of Dutch angles this side of Battlefield Earth (2000 / trailer). While some of the visuals steer into tacky territory (especially a frenzied climax filled with lesbians in new wave make-up), the bulk of the film is extremely pleasurable to watch and filled with music video-inspired color schemes. The sexual content is limited to some fairly chaste topless nudity (with nipples covered in black lipstick at one point), so most of the shock value comes from the characters' behavior and the blurring of lines between genders and sexual orientation. [Mondo Digital]"
Liquid Sky (1982):
"Watching Seduction: The Cruel Woman is like looking at a nine foot tall dominatrix. It looks great, but there's far too much of it. Its storyline concerns Wanda, a Hamburg art gallery owner, who is also an S&M dominatrix. She gives customers kinky performances starring herself, her maids and slaves. The performances dominate (there's that word again!) much of the film's 84-minute running time. Like the story, the dialog is at a minimum, which actually works. [...] Had the film been cut by about twenty minutes, the images of love and bonding turning sour and upside-down would have haunted my sleep for days, but as it is, it just got repetitive. [Films in Review]"
Gee Gee Triple Eye has only three things to say about the movie: "Featuring the most masculine women ever to be seen in make-up — some even look like Boy George... This is early Treut...it does prove that some filmmakers do improve with age. Laughably bad, painfully amateur, excruciatingly pseudo."
Heard in the movie —
Georgette Dee's Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte:
Der Unbesiegbare
(1985, dir. Gusztáv Hámos)
A.k.a. The Invincible. Udo Kier had something for Hungarians — or at least Hungarian filmmakers: yet another obscurity directed by yet another Hungarian artist. Director "Gusztáv Hámos (1955, Budapest) is an artist, curator, author and publisher. His artistic practice includes film and video works, photography, installations, and interactive sculptures. He is also editor of various publications and curator of film series and exhibitions. [...] Studied at the German Film & Television Academy (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin, DFFB) in West Berlin, 1979-83. From 1980 artistic work with videotapes and installations. Numerous television productions. [Monoskop]"
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Der Unbesiegbare premiered at the Munich Film Festival on 27 June 1985 and made its TV broadcast debut almost a month later on 24 July 1985. "Hamos's Der Unbesiegbare / The Invincible (1985) uses a mix of film and video to recreate and extend the American science-fiction serials of the thirties. [Moma]
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"The tension arises from the associative possibilities of what is narrated and what is seen. This video project is the simulation of a story of a hero."
Roughly 7 minutes of
Der Unbesiegbare:
"Hámos' fascination with the cultural mythology of the hero culminates in this witty, elaborately crafted drama, which was produced for European television. Hámos intercuts two parallel narratives to tell his story: a cartoonish, campy science-fiction adventure, shot on video; and an elegant, cinematic political thriller, shot on film. Hámos blends the two genres into a tragicomic tale of the role of heroes, their immortality, and the catharsis of a heroic death. The science fiction melodrama features a comic book superhero, Hurry Cane (Piero von Arnim [29 Apr 1950 – 2012]), who saves the earth from the evil Emperor Argon (Udo Kier); in the film noir, hired killers have a contract out on the hero Cane. Hámos' analysis of the myth of the hero is articulated in his collusion of the two stylized dramas and their contrasting representational modes. Among the international cast members are the German actors Udo Kier and Lotti Huber (15 Oct 1912 – 31 May 1998). [Electronic Arts]"
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If we are to believe Indulandus, check your attic: "The film itself mostly falls into the category of lost media [...]. A few days ago I spent a whole afternoon with Guszti, we talked about avant-garde, cults, and of course about this self-reflective, campy adventure movie that we will never see again."
Die Einsteiger
(1985, dir. Sigi Rothemund)
Sigi Rothemund, a.k.a. Siggi Götz (14 Mar 1944 – 13 Jan 2024), was a German film director of no note who, prior to finding constant employment directing German TV programs, started his career making prime examples of the heavy-handed and clumsy, breast-heavy German sex comedies of the '70s, the first of his being Love Bavarian Style / Geh, zieh dein Dirndl aus* (1973 / trailer below). A dozen similarly heavy-handed and clumsy, breast-heavy flicks later, his films started showing less breast and the "humor" became more family friendly, but still of the type that doesn't import well — much like this film here.
* A straight translation of the title would have been "Go Take Off Your Dirndl". It did reach the North America somewhere along the way as Come On, Take Off Your Dress. The plot: "Vittorio (Rinaldo Talamonti) pretends to be gay so he can chaperone a rich man's daughter on vacation in Germany. Unfortunately his driver really is gay and Vittorio has a problem." The original German poster below was drawn by the great Klaus Dill. Over at our Babes of Yesteryear on Dolly Read, we mention: "[...] Klaus Dill (6 Oct 1922 – 19 Feb 2000), [was] a graphic artist and illustrator known above all for his western art. The nephew of the German Impressionist Otto Dill, Klaus entered art school in 1939 only to be drafted in 1940; from 1943 to 1947 he was a prisoner of war. Returning to post-war Germany, he resumed his studies (1949-52) and subsequently became a successful book and comic illustrator and film poster artist, doing some 627 film posters by 1987. He died of a brain tumor on 19 Feb 2000."
Geh, zieh dein Dirndl aus:
Die Einsteiger (translated as "The Invaders" in Japan), which hit the German screen on 3 October 1985, was the third and last movie Rothemund directed in 1985, preceded by the internationally famous (Not!) comedies Drei und eine halbe Portion (while it lasts, the full film in German) and Big Mac (trailer). Die Einsteiger, like many of Rothemund's later films, featured German TV stars in the lead roles, in this case Thomas Gottschalk (playing "Tommy") and Mike Krüger (playing "Mike"); Mike Krüger & Thomas Gottschalk also wrote the script to Die Einsteiger. Die Einsteiger, in turn, was the fourth and final movie to feature Thomas Gottschalk & Mike Krüger's respective characters Tommy and Mike, who had already appeared in Rothemund's Piratensender Power Play (1982 / trailer), and Dieter Prottel's Die Supernasen (1983 / trailer) and Supernasen II: Zwei Nasen Tanken Super a.k.a Supernoses II (1984 / trailer).
German teaser to
Die Einsteiger:
As for Sigi Rothemund, he took part in one last feature film, the forgotten Starke Zeiten (1988 / trailer below), with David Hasselhof (!), before spending the rest of his life doing television.
Starke Zeiten:
The plot to Die Einsteiger: "Mike (Mike Krüger) has invented a 'video integrator', with which is possible to enter any film that is running on his video machine. He tries it out by entering a western film with his roommate Tommy (Thomas Gottschalk) — and they find themselves at the end of the hangman's rope. After barely managing to escape, guest appearances follow from Indiana Jones, Dracula (Udo Kier*), Rocky, some 'paradise' island, and a gangster film with Humphrey Bogart (Kenny Whymark). Naturally, Tommy can't keep his trap shut and two video companies learn of the invention. They send out two attractive spies, Linda (Anja Kruse of Metamorphosis [2007 / trailer]) and Ling Ling (Ankie Lau of Enter the Fat Dragon/ Fei Lung gwoh gong [1978 / trailer below])... [Hannes' Filmarchiv]"
* Mr Kier actually plays "Count Frackstein". Per Taliesin Meets the Vampire: "From our point of view [...] this is clearly a spoof of The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967 / trailer). Tommy and Mike arrive at the castle (the process clothes them appropriately) and are mistaken by Graf Frackstein (Udo Kier) and Gräfin Frackstein (Thea Gottschalk) as guests and are taken through to the vampire ball, where the Graf curses the name of their enemy Professor Liborius (Ossy Kolmann [10 Jan 1928 – 18 Jul 2016]) of the University of Karlsbad. Having turned down a drink containing offal as garnishes (and asking for a Bloody Mary, which leads to a woman being carried in to drink from), Tommy ends up dancing with the Gräfin and Mike with a gentleman vampire (Kurt Weinzierl [15 Apr 1931 – 10 Oct 2008]) – this is an on-running joke as the same actor appears in every film they enter and is always attracted to Mike. During the dance the lack of scar bite marks on their necks, their warmth and a reprisal of the dancing alone in the mirror gag, get them spotted as human. In his escape from the Gräfin's bite, Tommy wedges the remote in her mouth — reminiscent of a similar escape using a book in the original film."
Enter the Fat Dragon:
"Everyone familiar with the humor of Gottschalk and Krüger knows that terms such as 'depth' or 'class' are less than to be expected when the two star in the leading roles of a feature-length film (99 minutes). But then, neither was the intention when 'Supernoses' went into production. Above all, the 'Supernoses' are simply meant to offer feature-length, witty entertainment — and that they certainly do, in any case, and in this last installment they even do it better than ever before, without the below-the-belt jokes and embarrassments of the earlier films. Thomas Gottschalk and Mike Krüger are, of course, not first-class actors, but their respective roles are simply tailor-made for them. The scenes from various cult films (including Indiana Jones [1981 / trailer], Quo Vadis [1951 / trailer]) the two visit are lovingly re-enacted and are an absolutely riot, and not just for connoisseurs. Every scene involving the running gag, Kurt Weinzierl as a homosexual Krüger fan, always gets a laugh. [PowerMetal]"
Oliver Onions's for
Supernoses:
"Conclusion: Die Einsteiger is, of course, a must for fans of the 'Supernoses'. If you can overlook the lousy actors, incompetent Japanese agents, and the poofery of Kurt Weinzierl, what you have presented in front of you is an aging German comedy that is quite fun. [OutNow]"
Der Adler & Mr Klein
(1985, dirs. unknown)
While Udo Kier was known in Europe and to non-European fans of Eurotrash and Euroart films, it is arguable that he first truly entered the consciousness of the international masses in 1991, with the film My Own Private Idaho. In that film, when his character Hans meets Mike (River Phoenix [23 Aug 1970 – 31 Oct 1993]), a song titled Mr Klein, can faintly be heard on the car radio. Later, Hans sings a song, titled Der Adler, using a table lamp as his "microphone" — indeed, "[...] his rendition puts his handsome young co-actors in the shade. [Dream Idea Machine]"
Lyp synching in
My Own Private Idaho (1991):
Surprise! Both songs were actually recorded by Udo Kier six years earlier in 1985, although it appears as if — maybe — only Der Adler was given an official releases.
The original video to
Der Adler:
"No offense to Madonna, but her best music video could not touch the bizarre majesty of the one for Der Adler. Unless, she has one I haven't seen where she plays a married father who turns into a were-hawk, that is! [Mondo Heather]"
The extended mix of
Der Adler:
Udo's band for both songs probably consisted of Helmut Zerlett, Detlev Kühne, Asli Tanriverdi, and Tom Dokoupil, the last of whom co-wrote the songs with Udo Kier. Tom Dokoupil was a member of the German Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) group Der Wirtschaftswunder, and he and Udo Kier appeared together in the obscure German science-fiction film Pankow '95 (1993), which we looked at earlier. Helmut Zerlett was one of the composers of the film music to Udo Kier's short film, The Last Trip to Harrisburg (1984), which we also looked at earlier, and is now a busy film composer. Detlev Kühne was, with Tom Dokoupil, a member of two forgotten bands, Slinky Gym School and Quick Culture. Asli Tanriverdi is a female singer who released some songs in the late '80s and early '90s (like Eastern Lover).
Na sowas! was a German television talkshow with a lot of music guests that aired from 1982 to 1987. It was hosted by Thomas Gottschalk (see: Die Einsteiger [1985]). On the 41st episode, airing Saturday 2 November 1985, Udo Kier was one of the musical guests (the other two being Trio, who performed Ready for You, and Twiggy, who sang Feel Emotion).
Udo Kier on TV performing
Der Adler:
Mr Klein — or, apparently, I Wait For You (Mr. Klein) — was probably recorded at the same time as Der Adler, but disappeared for years into the void. The song was inspired by the Joseph Losey film starring Alain Delon, Monseieur Klein (1976 / trailer). Plot of the movie: "Set in occupied France, the Kafkaesque narrative follows an apparently Gentile Parisian art dealer (Delon) who is seemingly mistaken for a Jewish man of the same name and targeted in the Holocaust, unable to prove his identity. [Wikipedia]"
Udo Kier (& Tom Dokoupil) — Mr. Klein:
Udo Kier — Musik a Go-Go
(1985?, dir. unknown)
While there is at least some available information to be found about Der Adler & Mr Klein, absolutely nothing can be found about this recording and music video — it isn't even included in Udo Kier's imdb filmography [yet], so who knows when it was made. Still, it does have a late '80s feel to it, so let's lump it to this decade. "Udo's [...] Musik a Go Go. I pretty much think he was on drugs when he wrote the lyrics because they make no sense, but that's just Udo I suppose. [Fuck Yeah Udo Kier]"
Music video to Udo Kier's
Musik a Go Go:
Der Fahnder: Ein König ohne Reich
(1986, dir. Dominik Graf)
Der Fahnder was a German crime series that ran from 1984 to 2005. Udo Kier was on the 28th episode (a.k.a. episode 3 of season 2), Ein König ohne Reich ("A King without a Kingdom"), which aired on 17 April 1986 — for whatever reason, the episode, which was produced in 1983 and meant to be episode 10, was held back almost two years. Udo Kier plays someone named Uli Weber. The episode was written by Bernd Schwamm, whose first job in the industry was as background filler in the obscure arthouse vampire flick, Jonathan (1970). Ein König ohne Reich was directed by Dominik Graf, who's still around making movies.
Jonathan (1970):
Der Fahnder ("The Investigator") went through different titular investigators over the years, but Ein König ohne Reich fell within the timespan of the series first investigator, Hannes Faber (Klaus Wennemann [18 Dec 1940 – 7 Jan 2000]), and his colleague, "the younger and far more observant Max Kühn (Hans-Jürgen Schatz)".
Plot to the episode: "The prostitute Monika Lindner (Iris Disse) is found seriously injured. Faber's investigations point to her pimp, Werner Rothmann (Wolfram Berger), who does not exactly make himself less suspicious by fleeing. But the case is too pat for Faber, especially since some of Rothmann's establishments have been attacked — a fact that is very calmly accepted by Rothmann's partner. When Faber learns that those higher up are considering the opening of another official Red Light district, he understands the stakes of the pimp war: Rothmann has been booted out and now has nothing left to lose. He just wants revenge... [fernsehserien.de]"
Am nächsten Morgen kehrte der Minister nicht an seinen Arbeitsplatz zurück
(1986, writ. & dir. Monika Funke-Stern)
Udo Kier's next appearance after the above TV series was in this arty science fiction TV movie that aired six days later on 23 April 1986: German public TV isn't — well, once wasn't — afraid of art. He plays the title character of Am nächsten Morgen kehrte der Minister nicht an seinen Arbeitsplatz zurück ("The Next Morning the Minister Didn't return to Work"), the Minister, and a second character, Kali.
"The Ministry of Pleasure, formerly known as Ministry of Economy, is responsible for a constant growth of the Net Pleasure. We meet the Minister (Udo Kier) preparing a conference to lay down the basic premises of his economic leadership. He is supported by his giver Energy-visionaries. In the very moment when everything is ready for the final fixing up of the Net Pleasure, the minister disappears. There are several speculations about his whereabouts and the film follows every hint. [Film Fest Gent]" The film can watched here.
"'Es lebe das Lust-Netto!' (roughly: 'Long live lust-after-taxes'), exclaim the Minister's confidants in unison, before they point their weapons at him and pull the trigger. Monika Funke Stern's dystopian portrait of a society that makes economic growth the basis of all political decisions and, in doing so, exploits the Earth's natural resources excessively is, even after thirty years, astonishing for its topicality. The film premiered one day before the Tschernobyl meltdown. [imai]"
"'Es lebe das Lust-Netto!' (roughly: 'Long live lust-after-taxes'), exclaim the Minister's confidants in unison, before they point their weapons at him and pull the trigger. Monika Funke Stern's dystopian portrait of a society that makes economic growth the basis of all political decisions and, in doing so, exploits the Earth's natural resources excessively is, even after thirty years, astonishing for its topicality. The film premiered one day before the Tschernobyl meltdown. [imai]"
Kir Royal
(1986, dir. Helmut Dietl)
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Udo Kier in another supporting TV roll: he has a small part as Holger in one episode — the fourth — of the 6-episode TV mini-series Kir Royal – Aus dem Leben eines Klatschreporters ("Kir Royal – From the Life of a Gossip Reporter"). The episode, titled Adieu Claire, aired 13 October 1986. We couldn't find Udo Kier in any photo or clip from the TV show.
"Tadellose Beine" in Kir Royal:
A Helmut Dietl (22 Jun 1944 – 30 Mar 2015) production, he also directed and co-wrote all episodes — you might know his name from Schtonk (1992 / trailer) and Rossini (1997 / trailer), both of which are enjoyable comedies. Kir Royal was such a critical and popular success that Dietl regurgitated aspects of it for the internet age in 2012 in the movie Zettl (2012 / trailer).
In German —
the curse of Kir Royal:
Dietl's co-scribe on the series was the almost reclusive German author Patrick Süskind, who, the year previously, wrote the bestselling book Perfume (1985), "one of the best-selling German novels of the 20th century". Tom Tykwer made an excellent movie of the book...
Perfume — The Story of a Murderer (2006):
About Kir Royal, Mubi says: "This ironic mini-series deals with Baby Schimmerlos, gossip reporter of Munich tabloid MATZ, and the city's legendary high-society circles."
Wikipedia offers more detail: "A satirical portrayal of Munich's 1980s elite 'Schicki-Micki' (chic and trendy) social scene, the show parodies the Munich-based newspaper Abendzeitung and its real-life gossip columnist Michael Graeter and publisher Anneliese Friedmann. The series centers on fictional tabloid reporter Baby Schimmerlos (Franz Xaver Kroetz), who navigates the glamorous yet cutthroat world of celebrity journalism, chronicling the excesses and intrigues of Munich's high society."
From Kir Royal —
Mario Adorf explains (in German) what lobbyism is:
Wikipedia even has the plot to episode four, Adieu Claire ("Goodbye Claire"): "Amid a slow news cycle, Baby resorts to stealing newspapers for research. He stumbles upon a story involving composer Friedrich Danziger (Curt Bois [5 Apr 1901 – 25 Dec 1991]*), who is terminally ill, and his estranged lover Claire (Marianne Hoppe [26 Apr 1909 – 23 Oct 2002]* of Ten Little Indians [1965] and The Strange Countess [1961 / trailer]), a French singer who vowed never to return to Germany after fleeing the Nazis. Baby orchestrates a reunion in Munich, but his efforts are co-opted by authorities, culminating in a bittersweet toast to the police chief rather than a heartfelt resolution."
* In real life, Marianne Hoppe (above, circa 1941-44) stayed in Nazi Germany where her Aryan looks made her one of Nazi Germany's biggest stars — big enough that she was even invited to dinner by Adolf. Her career didn't suffer much once the war ended. Curt Bois, on the other hand, of Jewish decent, fled Germany in 1934 to become a popular character actor in Hollywood. He returned to Germany in 1950. You might remember him as the pickpocket in Casablanca (1942 / trailer)...
"Kir Royal [...] immediately earned critical praise and has long since achieved cult status. Its success is based on the excellent actors as well as on the quality of the scripts. Franz-Xaver Kroetz as the headstrong reporter, Senta Berger (of The Swiss Conspiracy [1976] and Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace [1962] and so much more) as his girlfriend Mona, and Dieter Hildebrandt (23 May 1927 – 20 Nov 2013) as the cynical photographer Herbie breathe life into their characters, turning them — albeit satirically exaggerated — into believable characters. Aside from the main roles, however, the marginal characters are also well cast. Mario Adorf, Marianne Hoppe and Udo Kier are just a few well-known examples of this. The phenomenon behind Kir Royal also wells not least from the curiosa that the mocked chic quite willingly made fun of themselves and willingly played along. [filmreporter]"
People in Germany still remember Kir Royal today — the scene above in which Generaldirektor Heinrich 'Heini' Haffenloher (Mario Adorf) explains to Baby (Franz Xaver Kroetz) how he will ultimately buy him, too, is considered a classic...
Egomania: Island without Hope
(1986, writ. & dir. Christoph Schlingensief)
Udo Kier takes part in another art film, his first film of many for the man that was to become German's Bad Boy of theatre/film/culture, Christoph Schlingensief.
The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre, which merits Egomania as "Of Some Interest", describes Christoph Schlingensief (24 Oct 1960 – 21 Aug 2010) as follows: "A German enfant-terrible, cult-director who is also involved in theatre and politics. His approach is a unique blend of art using Dadaist shocks, intellectual subversion and some black comedy, pop-culture and camp. Described as 'filth for intellectuals', his movies usually mix real events and political statements with over-the-top absurdism, gore and filth backed by maniacal energy, and explore ideas by following whims and anarchy. The results are usually completely insane films. Many of his musings and jokes are probably better appreciated by Germans however. Died in 2010 [of lung cancer]."
Egomania – Insel ohne Hoffnung had its debut at the Hof Film Festival on 24 Oct 1986 and had its general release in West Germany on 20 May1987. Egomania was made while Schlingensief was still just a young, mostly unknown spud beginning to get attention. Udo Kier plays the character Baron Tante Teufel ("Baron Aunt Devil"), while a young and virtually unrecognizable Tilda Swinton plays Brünhilde.
"Dr. Faustus in eternal ice: [...] A young couple trapped in eternal ice, bound to each other in tender love, threatened by everyone. A desolate island in the Baltic Sea is governed by the creepy vampire-like Baron Aunt Devil. Where once peace and love shaped the lives of the islanders, now hopelessness and discord rule. When suddenly a true love threatens the tristesse of his island, the Baron cracks up ... A torrent of desire, intrigue and murder ensues. [Filmgalerie451]"
"[Kathrin Rhomberg said:] Dr. Faustus in eternal ice: 'While Egomania is among Schlingensief's most deliberately ugly and offensive films, it stands out as unexpectedly beautiful with its seemingly mythological series of scenes, images, and characters. The film shows an unconscious struggle between creative and destructive forces on an island in the Baltic Sea where peace and joy have been replaced by hopelessness and discord. When true love threatens the island's state of sadness, it provokes panic in the vampiric baron who reigns over the islanders.' [Viennale]"
"[...] Christoph Schlingensief, the enfant terrible of German cinema and art world who died at a very young age, was only 26 years old when he made this film. Accompanying him was the uncanny Udo Kier and otherworldly beauty Tilda Swinton. Egomania is a drama that deals with grand issues such as love, jealousy, greed and murder. The events take place during winter on a little island in the North Sea. The synopsis included in the press release distributed at the premiere of the film contains several references: 'Dr. Faust in the ice ... or ... a German story about the collapse of civilization, following in the footsteps of the Nibelungenlied Epic.' [Istanbul Modern]"
"Egomania is a tract on the power of evil. The devil (Udo Kier) meets the Virgin Mary (Tilda Swinton). [VOEBB]"
"[Laurence Kardish said:] 'Tilda Swinton, for a short while, was Schlingensief's muse and passion. She was known then for her performances in the films of Derek Jarman. And it was with and for Swinton that Schlingensief made Egomania, a post-Apocalyptic Romantic tone poem about loss photographed under glorious Caspar David Friedrich skies. Shot on a small island, with a small cast and crew, Egomania was improvised according to the vagaries of the weather and the spectacular natural panoramas the team would come upon each day. It is a film full of mannered poses, portentous glances, and brooding landscapes.' [Viennale]"
"Egomania is a visually stunning end-of-the-world melodrama about lust, jealousy and murder set amidst solar eclipses, orchestral chants and the distant thunder of the boiling sea. The film's characters — riddled with unconscious desires — find themselves imprisoned on an island. Drawing parallels to the work of British filmmaker Derek Jarman and staring Jarman's actress-muse Tilda Swinton, Schlingensief's raw and almost mythological film stands in contrast to his more offensive efforts. [qagoma]"
Die Schlacht der Idioten
(1986, writ. & dir. Christoph Schlingensief)
This may have possibly been made prior to Egomania, but it appears to have been released afterwards, on 30 November 1986 in Wessieland. The German title translates directly into "The Battle of the Idiots", but was given the English title of Idiot's Battle.
"Described by filmmaker Herbert Achternbusch as 'filth for intellectuals', Schlingensief's work combines excessive B-movie aesthetics with a critique of contemporary politics. He described his films as 'Cinema Direct', a label stemming from the Viennese Actionists notion of 'Direct Art', and produced an aesthetic and DIY working methodology that tackled complex themes of nation, violence and Western materialism in a direct and immediate way. In particular, Schlingensief used his films to mobilise debates on the spread of far-right political parties across Europe, the politics of fear after the events of 9/11, and the legacy of the Third Reich in post-war Germany. [qagoma]"
Over at imdb, sprengerguido says: "In this outrageous short — shot for the inauguration of the movie organ at the Film Institute in Dusseldorf, Germany — Schlingensief demonstrates that he's quite able to put his disjunctive, aggressive punk style to a purpose. Filmed in the manner of a silent movie, complete with all the breaks, smears and distortions of an eighty-year-old copy, this film lumps together quite a weird amount of characters. A vampire (Kier), an Indian chief (Alfred Edel [12 Mar 1932 – 17 Jun 1993] of Roland Klick's Supermarket [1974 / trailer below]) and various other cliché figures lifted from the silent-film repertoire struggle to get out of their movies and fight for 'Queen Quelly' (Anastasia Kudelka). The film thereby does not only relate to film history, but to Schlingensiefs personal history of film reception: The characters also seem to stem from a child's imagination, consequently ending up in a big mess on a playground. Like most of Schlingensief's films, this one is deliberately disgusting, funny, highly conscious of its form and powerful."
Supermarket:
"The look and feel of [Die Schlacht der Idioten] stems from the silent film era, but the camp style and over use of clichéd characters bears the trade mark of Schlingensief all over. 'I love all things kitsch, like opera, and I feel inspired by music. I was interested in silent film but not a great deal', said the director. [TMDB]"
"Cheesy and camp, expressionist with some slapstick, geniously parodic, dynamic and self-ironical as hell. [...] Even 10 years after Warhol's attempts in cinemarxist vampire film making Udo Kier still finds so much fun in mocking some Dracula stereotypes. And how witty he is, oh Jesus. [St Sebastian@Letterbxd]"
"Die Schlacht der Idioten is as infectious as kids playing dress-up and role-playing, and simultaneously acts as an effective throw-back to the infancy of cinema itself, when movies as a whole were just that. Schlingensief movies are always hyperactive and, since a better term presently eludes me, loud, and the lack of sound does little to dampen this. Don't look for subtleties! [DartsInEyes@Letterbxd]"
"Artist and Amateur both start with the letter A. Do you think that's a coincidence? [InvincibleAsia@Letterbxd]"
Epidemic
(1987, writ. & dir. Lars von Trier)
Back in 1984, when Udo Kier took his 11-minute short The Last Trip to Harrisburg to the IFF Mannheim, he was introduced to Lars von Trier, whose first feature film, Element of Crime (1984 / trailer), was also being shown there. And thus, three years later, Udo Kier did make his first of many appearances in a Lars von Trier project: in this case, in von Trier's next feature film, the somewhat meta semi-horror Epidemic. The movie, in which Udo Kier plays Udo Kier, proved to be the only Udo Kier project to be released in 1987.
Trailer to
Epidemic:
Released in Denmark on 11 Sept 1987, Epidemic pretty much flopped and, probably as a result, didn't get officially released in Germany until 12 May 2005. "Epidemic is the second film of Lars von Trier's Europa trilogy, which the director had already announced while he was planning the first installment, The Element of Crime (1984). [Filmz]"*
* The final entry in the trilogy, Europa (1991), we look at in a later blog entry.
Lars von Trier co-wrote all three of the films [of the trilogy] with Niels Vørsel who, like von Trier, plays himself in the Epidemic. Unlike Vørsel, von Trier also plays a second role in Epidemic, that of Dr. Mesmer, the lead character of the film that Vørsel and von Trier are writing in the movie.
The plot, as supplied at Surrender to the Void: "A screenwriter (Niels Vorsel) and his director (Lars von Trier) talk to their producer Claes (Claes Kastholm [18 Dec 1942 – 6 Feb 2016]) about a project called The Cop & the Whore but the actual script is lost due to a computer malfunction [...]. Knowing that they can't a create a new script for this project, the two decide to work on a script a plague epidemic that threatens Europe. [...] The writer and director work on a storyline with help from the screenwriter's wife (Susanne Ottesen), who sets up a party with a wine expert (Jorgen Christian Krueff) [...]. The director has more visions of the doctor going on a helicopter ride, as a nurse (Caecilia Holbek [16 Apr 1953 – 21 Nov 2023]) watches him go on this journey. Arriving into Germany, the two meet their friend Udo (Udo Kier) who is grieving the death of his mother [...,] which inspires the two to write up a scene where the doctor meets a priest (Michael Simpson [9 Feb 1954 – 1 Aug 2022]) as the plague worsens, leaving the doctor's mission to be more important. Returning from Germany to Denmark [...] things start to get surreal. [...]."
Epidemic We All Fall Down:
"Having declared his arrival in such a powerful way, von Trier took a very different tack with his second feature, Epidemic (1987) – made on a bet with Claes Kastholm Hansen, a consultant with the Danish Film Institute, that he could make a feature for only a million kroner (about US $150,000). The visual aesthetics of Element of Crime are completely discarded in favour of a starkly unadorned approach which seems to point towards the Dogme 95 manifesto. Largely improvised with a small cast, the film is something like an unreliable document of its own making. [Cagey Films]"
"When released, Epidemic was deemed an unwatchable failure by the Danish public. It has been little seen and is difficult to obtain outside of the country. Lars von Trier has perversely called it his best film, although given von Trier's penchant for provocative statements and outright exaggeration, this is a claim that should probably be regarded dubiously. [...] Epidemic, if it ever becomes better known, may develop a cult, but in truth it is Lars von Trier's worst film. The film is tedious. The 16-mm scenes almost entirely consist of monologues between von Trier and Niels Vørsel about the process of scriptwriting and the project they were working on, a dull sidetrack to Germany to meet Udo Kier [...], dinner parties, the problem of wine selection with girlfriends, and an amusing, albeit rambling, monologue from Niels Vørsel about how he contacted a newspaper in Atlantic City for penpals and ended up with dozens of young schoolgirl correspondents to whom he had to pretend to be sixteen years old. [Moria]"
"What the hell. All a n***a needs are loose shoes, tight pussies, and a warm place to shit."*
Priest / Cabbie (Michael Simpson [9 Feb 1954 – 1 Aug 2022])
Priest / Cabbie (Michael Simpson [9 Feb 1954 – 1 Aug 2022])
* Lars von Trier likes to offend, but he didn't come up with this [infamous] highly offensive and racist phrase himself. It is a version of a remark attributed to Earl Butz (3 Jul 1909 – 2 Feb 2008), who served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture under presidents Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon (9 Jan 1913 – 22 Apr 1994) and Gerald "Klutz-in-Chief" Ford (14 Jul 1913 – 26 Dec 2006). In those pre-Trump days, Butz was forced to resign after it became public that, during a private conversation, he said: "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit." The title of the movie Loose Shoes (1978 / trailer, with Susan Tyrrell) is a reference to his statement.
Loose Shoes:
Trivia: The story Udo Kier tells Lars and Niels is the real story of Udo Kier's birth. Also, the script von Trier and Vørsel accidentally lost at the beginning of the film is titled 'The Policeman and the Whore', an obvious reference to their previous collaboration, Element of Crime, the lead characters of which are a detective (Michael Elphick [19 Sep 1946 – 7 Sep 2002] of I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle [1990 / trailer]) and a prostitute (Me Me Lai of Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive [1980 / trailer] and Man from Deep River [1972 / trailer]).
Another trailer to
Epidemic:
"The look of the film is your basic low-budget grainy black and white beginner's art film, with the rattle of the camera audible in almost every scene. The photography is good, but not really anything special. The movie shows promise, but it's not really good. [I Hate Movies]"
"Ambitious yet ultimately underwhelming [...]. Even this early in his career and working with a seemingly zero-dollar budget, von Trier's pessimism towards human beings and deliberate glee with making his audience uncomfortable are still very persistent. In one particular scene, he and his screenwriter (both playing themselves and both spending very few of their scenes not smirking at everything) map out their film-within-a-film on a wall and delight in how hopeless its outcome will be and what a great mockery of religion they will make. The movie's lack of production values and meandering pace certainly make for an unpleasant watch, but perhaps not in the profound way von Trier pretentiously intends. [Nerd Lists and Horror Movies]"
Coming eventually —
Udo Kier, Pt VI: 1988-92
