Cult and Quirky

Cult and Quirky 

11th edition of the Deutsche Kinemathek streaming service

From 1 Feb www.deutsche-kinemathek.de/streaming 

 
Spies, cosmonauts, megalomaniacs, and drop-outs dance, sing, and murder their way through nine films in bright, eccentric, and very unconventional performances. The big picture – love, sex, the depths of the soul, and how to save the world from evil – is always in sight. Sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, always offbeat, the nine films in the 11th edition of »Selects« relish playing with genre conventions that range from the psychedelic DEFA sci-fi movie ›The Dust of Stars‹ (GDR 1976) to ›Macumba‹ (FRG 1982), a hypnotic narration that blurs the boundary between dream and reality.

Tongue in cheek, the 11th edition of »Selects« complements the film program of this year’s Berlinale Retrospective, »Wild, Weird, Bloody. German Genre Films of the 70s« with a refreshing mixture of film formats.

Selects #11 program: Cult and Quirky 

‘Serenade for Two Spies’

FRG 1965, directed by: Michael Pfleghar, Alberto Cardone, 85 min, German without subtitles, rated: 16 

Featuring: Hellmut Lange, Tony Kendall, Barbara Lass, Wolfgang Neuss, Heidelinde Weis

This screwball parody of the James Bond movies features John Krim, Agent 006. He’s on the trail of an FBI agent who is thought to be behind the theft of a laser rifle from a German laboratory and is allegedly working with a gang of arms dealers. Like his famous colleague 007, Krim stumbles from one adventure to the next, crossing seas and deserts. Bond girls feature too: Tamara and Goldfeather ensnare Krim in their web and pursue their own shadowy goals. Although some of the gags may seem sexist to a modern audience, the film’s ageless appeal as a genre parody has survived.

‘In the Dust of the Stars’

GDR 1976, directed by: Gottfried Kolditz, 96 min, English subtitles, rated: 6

Featuring: Jana Brejchová, Alfred Stuwe, Ekkehard Schall, Milan Beli, Sylvia Popovici, Violeta Andrei, Leon Niemczyk, Regine Heintze

The spaceship Cynro answers an emergency call and sets course for planet TEM. There, the crew is invited by the rulers to a dazzling party with psychedelic dance and music. But in the depths of a mine, forced labor is being carried out by the inhabitants of the planet. The resistance of the oppressed eventually leads to rebellion. This sci-fi film is more notable for its eccentric costumes, oddball dance scenes, and colorful 70s set design than for its allegorical meaning.
 

‘The Man Who Replaced Grandma’

GDR 1971, directed by Peter Rocha, 93 min, German with no subtitles, rated: 6

Featuring: Winfried Glatzeder, Rolf Herricht, Marita Böhme, Katrin Martin, Rolf Kuhlbach, Ilse Voigt, Herbert Köfer

Günter and Gudrun Piesold are a hardworking couple. Grandma is responsible for the household and children — until one day she gets married and renounces her role. When chaos breaks out as a result, the Piesolds place an ad for a new house help. A young man applies, and this time, confusion ensues. Erwin Graffunda is charming, intelligent, and energetic; he organizes the household and gives the neighbors plenty to gossip about. With humor and a playful reversal of gender roles, the film became one of DEFA’s most successful comedies and still has cult status today.

‘Bel Canto or May a Hooker Sob?’

FRG 1977, directed by: Robert van Ackeren, 95 min, with English subtitles, rated: 12

Featuring: Kurt Raab, Romy Haag, Udo Kier, Nikolaus Dutsch, Helga Krauss, Gabriele LaFari

This stylized satire, inspired by Heinrich Mann’s novel A World Reception, sheds light on the ominous alliance of money and culture. An unsuccessful theatre manager tries to raise money for a new opera house (thereby also securing his own career) at a gala with personalities from the cultural and financial world. But he fails miserably. Cult performers such as Kurt Raab, Udo Kier, and Romy Haag, and the film’s expressive black-and-white images, exaggerated gestures, and a cappella singing, offer viewers an unusual cinematic experience.

‘Anita – Dances of Vice’

FRG 1987, directed by: Rosa von Praunheim, 87 min, with English subtitles, rated: 16

Featuring: Lotti Huber, Ina Blum, Mikael Honesseau, Rosa von Praunheim

In 1920s Berlin, nude art dancer Anita Berber caused a scandal with her unconventional and uncompromising presence. In retrospect, she represents the ideal of these wild times marked by war, inflation, sexual liberation, and intoxication. Rosa von Praunheim frames his homage to this radical actress through the story of Anita as an old woman, played by Lotti Huber, who is confined to a psychiatric hospital. The patient, played by cult actress Lotti Huber, thinks she is Anita Berber. Her memories draw on the imagery of expressionist silent film, presented in strong visual language by camerawoman Elfi Mikesch.

‘That is an End’

FRG 1981, directed by Ulrike Pfeiffer, 15 min, with English subtitles, rated: 6

This experimental short film plays on genre conventions and expectations. Loosely linked elements from Nouvelle Vague, crime, and silent film raise questions: What do the three young men in the car have to do with the woman in the café? Who is she waiting for? Electronic sounds by the artist padeluun, reminiscent of radio noises, link the scenes and give the impression that aliens are the observers of these mysterious events.

‘Macumba’

FRG 1982, directed by Elfi Mikesch, 88 min, with English subtitles, rated: 18

Featuring: Magdalena Montezuma, Bernd Broaderup, Heinz Emigholz, Carola Regnier, Fritz Mikesch, Frank Ripploh, Edith Lechtape 

In a building scheduled for demolition in Berlin, a group of young people drift from one day to the next. Their dreams, wishes, and obsessions are more real than the outside world. Magda invents the detective Max Taurus, who is obsessed with crime and delves deeper and deeper into the house. He is suspicious of everyone — especially the strange inhabitants and their relationships, which oscillate between love and violence. Fantasy and reality blur to a soundtrack of atmospheric, occasionally strange music, creating a web of nightmarish quality. A hypnotic work about the power of imagination.

‘Fucking City’

FRG 1982, directed by Lothar Lambert, 89 min, with English subtitles, rated: 16

Featuring: Ulrike Schirm, Stefan Menche, Lothar Lambert, Dagmar Beiersdorf, Mustafa Iskandarani, 
Erika Rabau

In this low-budget film, underground director Lothar Lambert explores longings and sexual fantasies that link the main characters – namely, Berlin couple Rüdiger and Helga, their butcher colleague Kurt, and his sister Klara, who is visiting. In a mix of voyeurism, porn flick, and group sex, the film depicts stereotypes and clichés but also questions them. This humorous and provocative look behind the façade of ‘normality’ provides an unvarnished examination of exoticized fantasies and projections about society. 

‘The German Chainsaw Massacre’

GER 1990, directed by Christoph Schlingensief, 63 min, with English subtitles, rated:16 

Featuring: Karina Fallenstein, Susanne Bredehöft, Artur Albrecht, Volker Spengler, Alfred Edel, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Reinald Schnell, Udo Kier, Irm Hermann

Genre classics such as ›Psycho‹ and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‹ inspired Christoph Schlingensief to make this crude splatter film about German reunification. During the celebrations on October 3, 1990, East German Clara stabs her husband and flees to the West. There, a butcher family is bent on slaughtering former GDR citizens. A trashy, acerbic, and radical commentary on German Reunification that, rather than ›coming together as one nation‹, depicts garish scenes of dismemberment and cannibalism. 

Selects #11: Cult und Quirky, 1.2.–30.4.25, click here for the trailer 
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