take 59: 4.12.2013

MORE KRAUT PLEASE!

Door open 20h

20h30: BRD 1969, 95min. opt. english subs

 

Bold, unconventional, très Godardian!

Directed by scandalous German theatre director Peter Zadek

Won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale 1969

Rull (Wolfgang Schneider) is in his last year at a classical German state school. Believing all authority figures are repugnant, he engages in a series of bizarre behaviors. He literally acts like a bull in a china shop, alienates his friends, loses his girlfriend and infuriates his teachers. When he paints a swastika on a wall of the Parliament building, he really gets in trouble. This film is based on the novel The Unadvised by Thomas Valentin. In the novel, the principle character was a hero, but he turns into an alienating buffoon in the celluloid version. Neither authority figures nor the counterculture is spared in this satire. Music is provided by Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

 

22h15: BRD 1984, 84min. 

 

"Der Biss" aka. "Der Biß" aka. "The Bite" is the only film Marianne Enzensberger - musician, actress and former member of Kommune 1 - ever directed. It's a weird, queer and keen Underground opera about vampires and outsiders, and a vivid example of Berlin based subculture back in the eighties. The soundtrack has been released on vinyl.
If anything, this highly obscure film is best known for its acting performances by (famous) German Schlager music singer Marianne Rosenberg and director Rosa von Praunheim. It was shot in 16mm on location in West Berlin and New York City. So far only 8 IMDb users did rate it, so it's time for people to discover it.

 This Berlin Underground spoof of a vampire movie begins with a few original ideas that are difficult to sustain through to the ending. Sylvana (Marianne Enzenberger, also the director) has arrived for a stay in New York City but after becoming exhausted wandering around somewhat lost, she is taken to a mysterious brownstone walk-up and is bitten by a vampire before she knows what is going on. Now with a slightly different perspective on life, she flies back to Berlin, anxious to sink her teeth into just about anyone she can find. But as she tries to entrap people -- ranging from commune dwellers to the staid middle classes -- no one is interested in being bitten, and they get a little irritated with Sylvana. This hardly bodes well for her future as a bat woman.