2008

Monday, February 11:
Brutality in Stone. West Germany. 1966. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge und Peter Schamoni. Cinematography by Wolf Wirth. 11 min. Using images of the Nuremberg rally grounds and plans of a giant convention hall built in Roman style, Kluge’s first film (in collaboration with Peter Schamoni) tries to analyze the national socialist system based on its architecture.
Screened together with:
Yesterday Girl. West Germany. 1966. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Edgar Reitz, Thomas Mauch. Edited by Beate Mainka. With Alexandra Kluge, Günther Mack, Hans Brammer, Eva Maria Meineke. 84 min. Anita G., a Jewish woman, comes from the GDR, from "over there." Suitcase in her hand she meets strangers, who let her discover an unknown country: the Federal Republic of Germany in 1966. All the stumbling blocks on her way are shown in an almost documentary manner, which makes the grotesque moments of daily life very apparent.

Tuesday, February 19:
Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed. West Germany. 1968. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Thomas Mauch, Günter Hörmann. Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus. With Hannelore Hoger, Alfred Edel, Bernd Hoeltz, Siegfried Graue. 100 min. Circus director Leni Peikert is in the process of establishing the circus of the future. Animals are not to appear all dressed up any more but are to remain natural, artists are not to perform any conjuring tricks any longer but instead explain physical laws. Implementation of this utopia, however, meets with a never ending series of obstacles...
Screened together with:
Execution of an Elephant. Germany. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. 2000. 15 min.

Monday, February 25:
The Big Mess. West Germany. 1971. Directed by Alexander Kluge. Screenplay by Alexander Kluge, Wolfgang Mai. Cinematography by Thomas Mauch, Alfred Tichawsky, Günter Hörmann, Hannelore Hoger, Joachim Heimbucher. Edited by Maximiliane Mainka, Beate Maika-Jellinghaus. With Maria Sterr, Vinzenz Sterr, Siegfried Graue, Silvia Forsthofer, Henrike Fürst, Hannelore Hoger, Prof. Hark Bohm, Hajo von Zündt, Horst Sachtleben, Bernd Hoeltz, Claus Dieter Reents. 90 min. There’s a civil war going on between governments, tycoons, space pirates in the first century of the third millennium. Astronaut Douglas, the Sterrs, a space admiral, engineer Bodenham, and various others cleverly fight their way through outer space …

Monday, March 17:
Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet. West Germany. 1971. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Dietrich Lohmann, Alfred Tichawsky, Thomas Mauch. Edited by Maximiliane Mainka, Beate Maika-Jellinghaus. With Alfred Edel, Kurt Jürgens, Hark Bohm, Natalia Bowakow, Sabine, Steffi und Angela Skalla, Hannelore Hoger. 78 min. Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet takes place during the galactic civil war of 2040. In a world in which galactic encirclement battles rage, Willi tries to save himself by obtaining a position at the center of power. In doing so, he ultimately sides with the wrong party in the civil war.

Tuesday, March 25:
Part-Time Work of a Female Slave. West Germany. 1973. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Thomas Mauch. Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus. With Alexandra Kluge, Franz Bronski, Sylvia Gartmann, Traugott Buhre, Ursula Dirichs, Walter Flamme. 97 min. Roswitha Bronski is married with three children and runs an abortion agency in order to support her student husband Franz and to be able "to have more children ourselves." Alexander Kluge shows Roswitha's work with shocking accuracy at the very beginning of the film, although abortion as such is not the film's main topic.

Monday, March 31:
In Danger and Deep Distress, the Middleway Spells Certain Death. West Germany. 1974. Directed by Alexander Kluge. Screenplay by Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz. Cinematography by Edgar Reitz, Alfred Hürmer, Günter Hörmann. Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus. With Dagmar Bödderich, Jutta Winkelmann, Norberg Kentrup, Kurt Jürgens, Alfred Edel, Jutta Thomasius. 86 min. For ten days Alexander Kluge and Edgar Reitz roamed through Frankfurt with their camera. The film they made is a mixture of a documentary with images of the city, of demonstrations, occupied houses, carnival bustle, lively controversies at the SPD party congress, plus two stories: one about Inge Maier, a woman who sleeps with men to rob them, and the other about Rita Müller-Eisert, an agent from the Eastern Bloc.

Monday, April 7:
Strongman Ferdinand. West Germany 1976. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Thomas Mauch, Martin Schäfer. Edited by Heidi Genée. With Heinz Schubert, Verena Rudolph, Gert Günther Hoffmann, Joachim Hackethal, Heinz Schimmelpfennig, Siegfried Wischnewski, Erich Kleiber. 91 min.
The former detective inspector Ferdinand Rieche is now head of company security in a large chemical corporation. He was dismissed from the police force at the age of fifty because of misplaced competence and lack of obedience to his superiors. His job in the chemical corporation is to organize a smoothly functioning company security system based strictly on the principles of legality. He goes about his work methodically, sets up a "loan office" and orders a few security exercises, but basically he is frustrated. Apart from occasional demonstrators at the factory gates, there isn't really anything for him to do.

Monday, April 14:
Germany in Autumn. West Germany. 1978. Directed by Alexander Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alf Brustellin, Bernhard Sinkel, Katja Rupé, Hans Peter Cloos, Edgar Reitz, Maximiliane Mainka, Peter Schubert. Written by Alexander Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alf Brustellin, Bernhard Sinkel, Katja Rupé, Hans Peter Cloos, Edgar Reitz, Heinrich Böll, Peter Steinbach. Cinematography by Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, Michael Ballhaus, Jürgen Jürges, Bodo Kessler, Dietrich Lohmann, Colin Mounier. Edited by Beata Mainka-Jellinghaus, Heidi Genée, Ursula Goetz-Dickopp, Tanja Schmidbauer, Christina Warnck, Juliane Lorenz, Roiland Henschke, Martin Müller, Günther Stadelmann. With Hannelore Hoger, Helmut Griem, Katja Rupé, Vadim Glowna, Angela Winkler, Heinz Bennent, Mario Adorf, Manfred Zapatka, Enno Patalas. 119 min. Alexander Kluge about Germany in Autumn:
“Fall 1977. Almost simultaneously: the events in Mogadishu, the catastrophe in the prison in Stammheim and the assassination of Hans Martin Schleyer. The weekend after hearing this news, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, some other filmmakers and I meet at the producer Theo Hinz. We arrange a collaborative film. There are emotions in the room. Fassbinder completed filming his part after just three days. The rest of us drove to Stuttgart for the burial at the Dornhalden graveyard and for Schleyer's funeral. Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus and I were responsible for editing the entire film. This type of collaborative film is a consequent continuation of the auteur film. It allows for the mixing of temperaments. It brings together the strengths and sets countless future films into motion (Fassbinder subsequently filmed The Matrimony of Maria Braun, I filmed The Patriot, Reitz filmed Zero Hour).”

Monday, April 21:
The Patriot. West Germany. 1979. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Günter Hörmann and three other teams. Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus. With Hannelore Hoger, Dieter Mainka, Alfred Edel, Kurt Jürgens, Willi Münch, Marius Müller-Westernhagen. 121 min. History teacher Gabi Teichert digs a hole: "She either digs a hole as a dugout for World War III, or she is digging up German history." And she is digging deeper and deeper. In her research she deals with bombings, the SPD party convention, the history of the human body. She examines the connection between a love story and history, etc. She does all this very thoroughly. She tests tools and instruments. It is known how cars are handled, but how does one handle history? Alexander Kluge reviews German history.

Monday, May 5:
The Candidate. West Germany. 1980. Written and directed by Stefan Aust, Alexander Kluge, Alexander von Eschwege, Volker Schlöndorff. Cinematography by Igor Luther, Werner Lüring, Thomas Mauch, Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, Bodo Kessler. Edited by Inge Behrens, Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus, Jane Seitz, Ursula Goetz-Dickopp. With Franz Josef Strauß, Marianne Strauß, Ernst Albrecht.124 min. Another collaborative film motivated by the election campaign for the West German Bundestag in 1981, in which Franz Josef Strauß was running for chancellor. Time and again a political dinosaur fails because of the West German reality. “To get a place in the sun isn't easy; when you get there, the sun has already set.”

Tuesday, May 20:
The Power of Emotion. West Germany. 1983. Written and directed by Alexander Kluge. Cinematography by Werner Lüring and Thomas Mauch. Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus. With Hannelore Hoger, Alexandra Kluge, Edgar Boehlke, Klaus Wennemann, Erwin Scherschel, Beate Holle, Uwe-Karsten Koch, Suzanne von Borsody, Paulus Manker. 115 min. A child dies during the war; a child is beaten to death; state funeral for a politician who has been murdered; farewell; departure of a train; Guiseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, final act. Five changes of time, five changes of place - numerous fragments and one time lapse, transmitting an experience different from experience of the actual moment.

The presentation of Alexander Kluge's films will continue through the spring and is part of Kino@Goethe, a series by the Goethe-Institut New York, in which the Goethe-Institut presents films from its archive on a regular basis.