12/18/2024

Newsletter December 2024

“The Man with the Ice Eyes” was the title of the Bild newspaper’s article marking Udo Kier’s eightieth birthday on 14 October. Kier, known for his distinctive and striking appearance, has had a career that is as dazzling as it is difficult to categorize. He has almost 300 entries in the IMDb film database and his career is defined neither by genre boundaries nor hierarchies between trivial and high culture or low-budget and mainstream. He has appeared in films by, among others, Fassbinder, Lars von Trier, Christoph Schlingensief, Dario Argento, Gus Van Sant and Paul Morrissey. And even though his roles have often been small, they have always remained unforgettable.

In the online film magazine Filmdienst, Daniel Moersener congratulates Kier and describes him as having a “campy glamour” and “cosmopolitan sex appeal”. Kier, he writes, plays a “Janus-faced, dual role in German and international cinema”, representing on the one hand the escape from the narrowness of post-war German society, and on the other, the “return of the repressed, as a permanent reminder of the henchmen and accomplices of National Socialism who were so thoroughly concealed in Germany”. You can read the entire text here: https://www.filmdienst.de/artikel/69355/udo-kier-portrat-zum-80-geburtstag

It is fitting that this milestone for the actor coincides with the release of with the new film portrait DER WUNDERBARE UDO KIER, which is currently available in the Arte media library: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/118625-000-A/der-wunderbare-udo-kier/

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/118625-000-A/udo-kier-dracula-trash-et-dandy-magnetique/

Arte is currently also paying homage to another Fassbinder star. From 18 December, the documentary BARBARA SUKOWA – SPIELEN WIE EIN KIND will also be available in the broadcaster’s media library. https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/107085-000-A/barbara-sukowa-spielen-wie-ein-kind/ https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/107085-000-A/barbara-sukowa-une-egerie-du-cinema-allemand/ For Fassbinder, Sukowa played Mieze in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1980) and the title character in LOLA (1981). This last October, she was given a special prize in recognition of her illustrious career at the 35th Hessian Film and Cinema Awards., and she remains busy internationally as an actress. Following appearances in films by Ben Affleck, Mary Harron and Noah Baumbach, she is currently working with Edgar Reitz.

This year’s Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival (IFFMH) came to an end on 17 November. Once again this year, the festival’s international jury presented the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Award for Best Screenplay, which is sponsored by the RWFF and brings with it 15,000 euros. This year, Sarah Friedland was honored for her feature film debut FAMILIAR TOUCH, which is about an 80-year-old woman struggling with dementia and the transition to assisted living. In her video-streamed acceptance speech, Friedland emphasized how important Fassbinder’s ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1974) was to her and that, as a work dealing with the experiences of an older woman, it even influenced here while writing this particular screenplay.

A new documentary by Spanish director Albert Serra was also screened at the IFFMH. AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE portrays the bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey. In his review of the film for Critic.de Lukas Foerster writes: “The fights are […] mainly filmed in close-ups. […] The film finds its center in the wildly determined, bloodied face of the man, who at this moment […] has a kind of primal experience that people today generally no longer face.” The entire text is available at: https://www.critic.de/special/der-rest-ist-rahmung-san-sebastian-film-festival-2024-4715/

AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE is currently still touring festivals. Until the film finds a distributor, anyone interested in Sierra’s work can watch, for example, his experimental short film CUBA LIBRE. The title refers to the drink of the same name, which is eagerly consumed in Fassbinder’s BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE (1971). The film – which is part of the 101-hour dOCUMENTA project THE THREE LITTLE PIGS (2012) – consists of a single bar scene featuring characters and motifs inspired by Fassbinder’s work. It can be streamed for €1.90 on the website of the distributor Filmgalerie 451: https://www.filmgalerie451.de/de/filme/cuba-libre

On 18 September, the film scholar and publicist Klaus Kreimeier passed away. After working as a program consultant for the TV and radio broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk in the 1960s and a long Maoist-activist phase, he went on to publish numerous books on film, for example on the history of the UFA film company and on the directors Akira Kurosawa, Rosa von Praunheim, Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau.

When asked to choose a “magical cinematic moment” for the Austrian film magazine Ray, Kreimeier chose Fassbinder’s FONTANE EFFI BRIEST (1974), which for him revolved around the question: “Why is it not possible for people to simply cast off what torments and oppresses them, to break open their shackles, to rebel and leave behind what oppresses them?” The entire text is available here: https://filmgazette.de/2017/06/12/magische-momente-25/

On 26 November, the actress Karin Baal died at the age of 84. She made her debut in Georg Tressler’s youth drama DIE HALBSTARKEN (Teenage Wolfpack) in 1956 and later appeared in post-war classics such as DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958), DIE JUNGE SÜNDERIN (The Young Sinner, 1960) and WIR KELLERKINDER (We Cellar Children, 1960). In his obituary in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Andreas Kilb describes Baal’s particular quality as a mixture of “pride and vulnerability, tenderness and toughness”. The New German Cinema movement rediscovered the actress, who had “fallen into television”, just in time. In the early 1980s, she appeared in films by Wim Wenders, Vadim Glowna and Thomas Brasch and in three Fassbinder films. The full obituary is available here: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kino/karin-baal-gestorben-man-dreht-nur-zweimal-110146741.html

Contrary to what its title suggests, the upcoming Berlinale retrospective “Wild, Weird, Bloody – German Genre Films of the 70s” is dedicated less to German exploitation cinema than to the interface between New German Cinema and commercial cinema. In addition to Klaus Lemke’s ROCKER (1972) and Roland Klick’s SUPERMARKT (1974), the program also includes Ulli Lommel’s DIE ZÄRTLICHKEIT DER WÖLFE (The Tenderness of Wolves, 1973) about the gay serial killer Fritz Haarmann.

The ensemble cast in Lommel’s second directorial work consists mainly of Fassbinder actors such as Kurt Raab, Margit Carstensen, Brigitte Mira and Hans Hirschmüller. RWF himself was not only involved in the editing and production, but also took on a small role. The Berlinale will take place from 13-23 February 2025 under the direction of its new head, Tricia Tuttle. The festival’s press release is available here: https://www.berlinale.de/de/2025/news-pressemitteilungen/258248.html DE https://www.berlinale.de/en/2025/news-press-releases/258248.html

We wish our readers and friends a Merry Christmas, peaceful holidays and a Happy New Year. We will be back in 2025 with more exciting news from the world of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

More on the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder:

https://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/filme-von-fassbinder/?lang=en

More on the plays Rainer Werner Fassbinder:

http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/theaterstucke/?lang=en