Film Screening
Margarethe von Trotta – The Personal is Political
London Screenings & UK-Wide Tour of Four Vital Films
From October 2018, the Independent Cinema Office (ICO) will be touring four restored films by Margarethe von Trotta for a whole year. As part of a three-day launch of the tour, the Barbican Cinema will present the films Rosa Luxemburg The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum and her directorial solo debut The Second Awakening of Christa Klages.
The first female director to win the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, Margarethe von Trotta (born 1942) is to thank for some of the most trailblazing films of the past five decades. She is one of the most gifted – but often overlooked – directors to come from the New German Cinema movement at the same time as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog. It is high time that von Trotta’s films are brought back to the big screen for the recognition they deserve.
Often hailed as the world’s leading feminist filmmaker, von Trotta has never shied away from topics that resonate with contemporary lives and prompt revolutionary discussions. The power of mass media, historical events, radicalisation and women’s rights pre-#MeToo have all been visible elements in her films since the politically turbulent 1970s. Not to mention her wonderfully complex and outspoken female characters, precursors of those now taking centre stage in the best works by contemporary directors including Jane Campion, Andrea Arnold, Lone Scherfig and Desiree Akhavan.
The four essential pieces of film history the ICO selected for their tour represent the best of New German Cinema and von Trotta’s exceptional talent in portraying how the personal is political. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum) is a stinging commentary on individual freedom and media manipulation that still feels as topical as ever. The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (Das Zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages) is based on a true story of a young mother who robbed a bank in order to raise funds for her daughter’s day-care centre. And in Rosa Luxemburg, one of the most fascinating figures in modern German and European history is brought alive by von Trotta’s long-time regular, actor Barbara Sukowa (Fassbinder’s Lola). And The German Sisters (Die Bleierne Zeit) looks at another aspect of German history, the terrorism of the Red Army Faction, from the perspective of the sisters Marianne and Juliane, fictionalised versions of Gurdrun und Christiane Ensslin.
If you are interested in booking the films for your cinema, you find more information on the ICO website.
Margarethe von Trotta Revisited - Screenings at the Barbican
2 Oct 2018, 18:30
Rosa Luxemburg (PG*)
The screening is followed by a discussion with writer and curator Isabel Stevens and film studies professor Erica Carter.
3 Oct 2018, 18:30
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (12A*)
6 Oct 2018, 16:15
The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (15*)
Details
Barbican Cinema
Beech Street
EC2Y 8DS London