September 2003 - Nr. 9
"German Trilogy" at the Berlin Film Museum
TWIG - Germany’s film auteur par excellence Reiner Werner Fassbinder once called Luchino Visconti’s film "The Damned" (Die Verdammten, 1969) "the most German of all films." This week, an exhibition opens at Berlin’s Film Museum that sheds light on the Italian director’s so-called "Germany Trilogy," a trio of films dealing with German subjects that were made between 1969 and 1972.
Seven years after the concept for the exhibition was developed, curator Wolfgang Storch has succeeded in paying homage to some of the greatest films with German subjects ever made - albeit by an Italian director.
The exhibition begins in a room dedicated to memorabilia associated with the films, from posters and set photos to screenplay drafts and the director’s personal notes.
The second chamber - an installation by documentary filmmaker Thomas Heise - is the highlight of the exhibit. Here, the showcase is the opening sequence of "The Damned," the first film of the series. The film tells the true story of the von Essenbecks clan, a high-power industrialist family that falls apart in the wake of the Nazi regime. Corresponding to the first scene of the movie, in which the family sits down to a meal, visitors to the exhibit can sit down at laptops placed at a table and view the story lines of specific family members in a sequence of pictures.
Visconti’s second film in the series, "Death in Venice," (1970) inspired by Thomas Mann’s novel, is one of the most recognized film adaptations of German literature ever. While it received critical acclaim for its period costumes, music, and acting, its handling of homoeroticism remained largely misunderstood in its time.
"Ludwig" (1972) is by and large the least known of the three films, and deals with last Bavarian King Ludwig II, who is known for building his famous castles with public funds. In the film, the "Mad King" is portrayed as a dying breed, a figurehead so completely divorced from the people that he is lost in a world of whimsy and aestheticism. Romy Schneider reprises the role that she made famous as Austria’s Empress Elizabeth.
At the time of their release, critics measured the three films against the real stories they portrayed. Today, they are more appreciated for Visconti’s operatic sets, costumes, acting, and the director’s inimitable style.
Next to Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio DeSica, Visconti is known having been one of the pre-eminent directors of neo-realism after World War II. Directors of the movement were interested in portraying the brutality of the post-war period by stripping film of its artifice. Visconti himself wrote the movement’s manifesto.
All three films in the trilogy will be shown in September and October as a part of a celebration of Visconti’s works at Berlin’s Film Museum.
The exhibit runs through November 16, 2003.
