Schlingensief: A Voice That Shook the Silence (2020) - full transcript

451 PRESENTS

I really did a lot in 47 years.

I got to know lots of people.

I had many happy moments.

I experienced lots of things.

I had dear friends.

I was allowed to think.

Many thoughts were bestowed upon me,

lots of lucky things.

Before that. That has to go.

- The double exposure has to go.
- Get rid of that.



Drop all of this entirely.

So the beginning is calm.

Yes, this is more bearable.
It doesn't take so much away.

This is too much. I don't want that.

I don't want to be a representative.

I didn't want that before

and I don't want that now.

The lifeline here says where I
come from, where I'm racing off to.

If I make changes to it
that don't fit my natural disposition,

then I move
into this allowance zone here.

So, despite my lifeline,
I can change, move up and down,

without damaging myself.

However,
if I end up going beyond that...

In 2003, 2004, for example,
with the opening in Bayreuth.



That broke the linearity,
creating a chaotic situation.

Because I no longer know exactly who I
am, yet still hope people recognize me,

and do so even better than before.

That leads to congestion
that causes cells to degenerate,

and then my life's harsh situation
turns into a kind of simulated behavior.

As a result of that
this lifeline is destroyed.

Because I've broken through
this allowance zone at these two points.

What I'm trying to do now
with this section until 2030, 2040,

I hope until 2050 in an ideal world,

is to frame it more liberally,
yet to remain in the border area.

These are creation channels,
Big Bang, etc.

All things where I don't know how
all of this energy will ultimately...

It will never go away. I'm pretty
confident it'll remain forever.

Even if it's no longer named
"Christoph Schlingensief," or whatever.

Oh! No more of that.

And there he is!
Now we'll let this dummy go wild.

Please, enjoy the show!

TO BE WHAT I WILL BE

Put the chair down!

Stop wiggling. Are you silly?

REMEMBERING MEANS FORGETTING

"Remembering means forgetting,"
my dad always said.

The very instant I remember my past,
I actually daub over it.

But a few synapses become fixed.
Those are the pillars.

It's like architecture:

it has steeples and a door,
so it must be a church.

In between an image may flicker by
that doesn't belong.

That interested me in my films,

double and multiple exposures

that latched on to those set pillars,
to the assertion that it's a film.

SCHLINGENSIEF
A VOICE THAT SHOOK THE SILENCE

Help!

Help!

Help! Help!

Help! Help!

A FILM BY BETTINA BÖHLER

And if the little savior comes

It'll only eat your Dad and Mum

Not out of hate and woeful distress

But because that fine meal
tastes the best

If the little savior comes...

1960.

The most exciting year
of my parents' life.

They'd been trying to have a baby
for nine years and wanted six kids.

It didn't work,
and then the day arrived.

They had one and that was it.

And so I'm six children.
That's why my works are confusing.

Lossowitsch, start.

We're alone here.

We're secluded here.

Remember this,
you are standing on your own two feet!

No one to carry you.

No one to lift you.

No one to nourish you.

You have no one to lean on.

We will stand together

and we will

endure this adventure!

Now we'll all call out:

strength and power, strength and power!

My dad had a double 8 camera.
He had to wind the film.

After 7.5 meters
you had to swap the spools

under the bed or somewhere dark.

My dad did that twice.

He turned the spool around twice,
forgetting he'd already done it.

14 days later we got the developed spool
back from the Kodak factory.

Projector up, dimmed room,
then the lamp went on, burnt dust.

The automatic threading started
and the picture appeared.

A sensational image
of my mother and I on the beach

with people walking across our bellies.

It had been double exposed.

I saw it and thought, "Wow!
What's that?"

That's when I started thinking
perspective was the key.

What happens when you layer things
that are unrelated?

Then I asked my father

if he'd give me the camera.

In 1968, while others were demonstrating,
I made my first resistance movie.

Oh, look at this flag-waver!
We'll leave him to his business.

We had two little rooms in a small village
near Hagen, in the country, in Sauerland.

We went there every weekend. A farmer,
Mr. Meiwes, was the boss there.

It was just four houses.

I had him wave the flag.

That movie also has people
chasing after a go-kart.

It goes down a hill someplace or other.

But with that camera you had to reload
it every ten seconds or so.

So I kept calling out, "Stop!" They
stood still. The driver had to brake.

They stayed put.
I wound it up and looked through it.

I restarted it.

So people are running, the picture jumps,
they stand there and then they run again.

I don't know how it's all interrelated,
but it must have something to do with '68

and with some pending revolutions
that have yet to come.

The media is to blame for it all.
The media sucks.

- Someone has to get shot.
- Help!

Rudi Dutschke!
Here's Rudi Dutschke!

Ladies and gentlemen,
Rudi Dutschke has to die!

Film has a different quality
than the stage.

You preserve something ritualistic.

You deal with something you're
afraid of, an authority, like a teacher.

Very refreshing.

Why did you kick me?

But, Teacher,
you said let's kick it off.

Shameless beast!
Sit down. We'll continue.

One, two, three!
And one, two, three!

And one, two, three!

Christoph! You weren't here a
minute ago. Why are you so late?

Come over here! Here... Ah, help!

Where were you all this time? Tell me!

You had to go?

Oh, you had to go. Right,
we'll continue. One, two, three...

CAST...

It was 1970, I believe.
That film was a key moment.

Right off I told people, "I direct."
And I got, "Ah! What's that you say?"

A ten-year-old explaining how to direct.

Then I founded
the Amateur Film Company 2000.

That's the first time 2000 came up.

The different numbers, Terror 2000,

Quiz 3000, U3000,

Talk 2000.

That was to reveal it
to the great cosmos, to say,

"This is Oberhausen Amateur Film Company
for the year 2000 and for the universe."

I always made films
out of a positive dilettantism.

At 14, in '74, I made
Lady Florence's House of Death.

It was based on a dime novel.

That dime novel had a flaw
that I failed to see back then.

It had constant flashbacks.

My first problem was figuring out
how to do a flashback and flash-forward.

- How can you do that?
- I couldn't do it then.

Today I would just do without it.

Pastor! Pastor!

Pastor...

THE SECRET OF THE COUNT OF KAUNITZ

My shoots got more elaborate,
with police cars, and even a helicopter.

The Count of Kaunitz had a quality
to make you say,

"This guy could make a Tatort one day."

- Hello.
- Hello.

Pardon us, they sent us here
from the café over there.

We were wondering
if you knew more about that castle.

- The castle?
- We had an odd encounter there last night.

- I'm sorry. I have no time to spare.
- Yes, but...

Sorry. You must know something.

Well, my brother went there
with his girlfriend one day.

He never returned.

Over here with the camera. Come on!

Come over here! Come on.
Here! Come on.

- Come here!
- Watch out!

- Here!
- Rock!

Grandma! Grandma!

- Grandma...
- Come back!

Come back up! Grandma!

Oh, boy!

I presented Mama, We're Making a Movie
to WDR TV and a guy stood up

and said, "One thing is clear,
you'll never be able to love anyone.

You see it in this film.
You'll never love anyone."

I went outside and wept.

I toted that trauma around with me
for a very long time.

I thought, "How can I finally prove..."

It's the authority that's bred into us,
or whatever.

I wanted to show somebody
I can love people.

THE PORTRAYAL OF PAIN IS HORRIFIC...

Love pangs are "Liebesqualen."

ONE IS IN PAIN... OR ISN'T...

Love pangs are unsatisfied longing.

Love pangs are exchange.

Love pangs are motivating.

After high school I wanted
to go to film school and got rejected.

I didn't do well with the task
of naming my three favorite films.

I named Buńuel, Fassbinder. They
had no use for Fassbinder in Munich.

They were on a Wenders trip.

But I found out Wenders' dad was
a doctor, in Oberhausen-Sterkrade.

I called his dad and asked
how to contact his son.

"I'm Christoph Schlingensief,
from the pharmacy," which he knew.

Connections.

He said, "My son is in Venice right now,
with The State of Things.

I'm not sure you can meet him."
I said, "I'll drive down."

The next day he called and said to meet
him at two at a hotel bar on the lagoon.

I sat there and at 2:05 Wim Wenders
actually showed, with Isabella Rossellini.

I thought, "Uh... Rossellini!"

I could hardly talk. I whispered, "Could
you help me get into film school?"

He said he'd call Prof. Längsfeld.

He was the boss in Munich.
He watched my movies.

He said, "Very interesting.
Apply again, I'm informed now."

Then I applied again
and got rejected again. That was that.

My work was interrupted.

You assist and see big films being made,

but you can't get there,
you can't get the education.

She's coming around 1:30 p.m.

At that time, every six months,

my father put out a filled out
application to study pharmacy

with a note saying, "Please sign here."

That bandage doesn't exist anymore.

I don't have anything to do here.

I have nothing to do here.

I do this to keep me busy
when I see cups with no water in them.

Then I do something.

But no one has followed my lead.

I couldn't set an example.

Then, by chance,
I met Werner Nekes in Essen.

Werner Nekes had just finished Uliisses.

It had a sequence
that he did with a camera.

He took photos
and stuck them together to make a film.

So in it you saw photos,
24 of them a second.

I recognized him on one
and said, "That was you."

He thought it was great
I could spot that one frame.

We rewound it and there he was.
The photo was upside down.

You were accepted
at an unofficial film history college.

Yes, suddenly I was in.

The next day he asked
if I wanted to be his assistant.

- Running.
- What?

The projector's running!
Say when the projector's running.

- It's running!
- Running.

Well, my idea is to...

- Louder please!
- Well, my idea is primarily...

Due to that traumatic experience
I have to realize I'm actually nothing.

I keep pretending I'm something,
like a fake experimental filmmaker.

I pretended to be Werner Nekes.

I'm totally free of political agitation
and know a film's exact frame count.

And I learned something.

It's why I advise everyone
to be chancellor, or Claudia Schiffer,

whether you have one breast or three.

Or just be the next-door market woman.

In any case, you should try it,
because we have nothing to lose here.

We'll make the real films later when
we find ourselves in the cosmic void.

Goodbye!

- Ireen...
- You always disturb the presentation!

Cleanliness and continuity

are essential to viewing perception!

Who do you think you are?

Then I had Alfred Edel play
an avant-garde researcher

who joins two other
avant-garde researchers

and tortures a couple to death.

Lights out! Lossow!

Tunguska was playing
in Hof's smallest theater.

The part with the burning film came on,

where it clatters and the picture jumps.

The projector goes off,
the lights go on.

I think, "What? Who turned on
the lights? The film isn't done."

I go to this bench
and knock on the window.

All I see is this very
hairy Bavarian guy.

I said, "No! It's in the film!"
He didn't hear me, so I ran in to him.

I said, "Don't do that. It's in the
film." "What's in the film?" "This!"

"Ah, what a load of bullcrap."

He decided it had
nothing to do with him.

He turned it back on.

Then the projector replicated
the trick from the film.

Suddenly the film burned in the
wrong spot, it tore open, stopped,

ripped more, then the plot continued.

At that point ten people left,
then ten more and ten more...

The film took on a life of its own.
I'm not esoteric, I don't use pendulums.

Still, it fascinated me to see
how a film starts to do the thing

that you subjected it to
and goes ahead and subjects you to it,

and how I get sucked into that process.

I am tired, let me sleep
My little eyes closed I keep

Father, look down I pray
as in my bed I lay

If I did wrong today
Please, Lord, look away

Menu Total was very existential.

It's the story of a little boy
who wipes out his whole family.

When it came out everyone assumed

I had a very difficult home life,
that my dad raped me

and danced in front of me
in women's clothes and so on.

All I can say is I don't recall that.

I never saw my dad in women's clothes. I
have no conscious memory of being raped.

But what it actually is
is a deep inner hellhole.

You see someone processing
his and his parents' fears and injuries.

It's kind of...
This sounds esoteric again.

But I do believe that we lug around
information in our cells

that was there long before we existed.

The little boy slowly drew nearer
to Hitler, to a sadness

from a deep hole
you sometimes have within.

I always had highs
and heavily depressive phases,

but I was always able

to find myself, to save myself,

by allowing those deep...

I'll just say abysses.

I wrote those down.
That's how a film like that came to be.

And Alfred always said,
"Is it defamatory?"

Because Alfred gets smeared with "shit."
It was a cornflakes mix.

Everyone thought, "Schlingensief,

the poor devil will keep making films
that come from his damaged soul

and we'll tag him
a heavily damaged artist."

Menu Total was in the Forum
for Young Film at the Berlinale.

Wim Wenders left after ten minutes.

400 other people left with him.

400 people were left afterwards
and a fight broke out.

Alfred Edel led a discussion.

He said something,

then we broke it off,
saying we had talks with distributors.

It wasn't true. No one wanted the film.

My father came crying
and asked why I made the film.

Werner Nekes said it was fascistic.

A critic said it was magnificent.

And my godmother, my dad's sister,
said, "Very funny."

She does nothing.

Hears nothing.

And says nothing.

And if the little savior comes

It'll only eat your Dad and Mum

Not out of hate and woeful distress

Not here, not there, but everywhere!

When they're outside doing this to signal
that you're about to be washed away

I can just stand there.

Like knowing the danger
under a tree in a thunderstorm.

Your heart pounds, you go into yourself,

and you're certain
nothing can happen to you.

I have a great trust in God.

The executive producer says,
"You have to meet this amazing woman."

I say, "Yeah, why not."
Tilda Swinton comes up.

We saw each other and fell in love.

We were instantly crazy for each other.

We hardly spoke each other's languages,
but there was no need.

We went all around the city,
then into the Florian bar.

Someone grabs my hand and says,

"I am Udo Kier."

That meant nothing to me.
Honestly, I admit it.

I knew the face. It was familiar to me.
But the name meant nothing to me.

"I saw your movie," etc.

I say, "Yes."
"I laughed my head off."

I was so happy to finally run
into someone who said that.

"Our desire awoke
when Mother walked in."

The key is: when do I feel desire?
If I feel no desire how can I induce it?

What is lust for life anyway?
Not conforming to what I have to be.

Who can create tension
by saying, "You can't be that."

Then I can say,
"Yes, I can be that. I can try."

What do you want?

Everything!
Absolutely everything!

Death.

Money.

Everything.

EGOMANIA
ISLAND WITHOUT HOPE

The situation on the island
was borne of love.

Kier was hopping mad and said,
"He's only filming her running over ice.

This has to end. Where am I?"

I'm an advocate of violent theater,

and of overload in theater and film.

All the energy flowed into that

and was borne
of a method of emotional survival

that still had to be found.

My concept of religion
is that it's a method of survival.

God was very creative for six days,

but after that he was pretty sapped.

He gave his all
and the seventh day was tedium.

That God can let things take
their course. That's a great quality.

But you have to wonder, "Was that all?"

At the end do I really want to say,
"That's it, peaceful silence?"

FEAR

TV movie market...
expenses... self-produced films...

Even when there was no money at all...

Together, we always had to...

That all sounds self-pitying,

but broadcasters
really do pursue policies

that prohibit expressive films

that are just trying to show
you can do things differently,

with a different worldview.

Such films are disregarded.

The City of Mülheim an der Ruhr
awards Christoph Schlingensief

the 1987 Ruhr Prize for Art and Science.

Mr. Schlingensief, good luck.

I'm giving you a bouquet of flowers.
Men look good with flowers too.

But perhaps you can give them
to your mother with our best regards.

Yes. Thank you.

Everything was clear to me
and to all the rest of us:

he had a chance!

"Now," he said
as he walked out of the room,

"Now everything will be different!"

What's this?

Mother has no time for you. Out!

How dare you do this!
Letting mother live in this barn!

And then being like this to me.
It's inhuman!

Willy, ever the dreamer.

She has to leave here. You see that!

He torments me.

MOTHER'S MASK

So, do you write your pieces yourself?

Now and then.
It depends on the mood I'm in.

And how kind the children are to me.

Ultimately, Fassbinder wasn't influenced
by Douglas Sirk but by Veit Harlan.

We made that film, which I love very
much, with music by Helge Schneider.

It's best if you watch
Veit Harlan's The Great Sacrifice first.

If you watch just Mother's Mask
you may think,

"Christoph, what's this?
Do you want to do opera soon?

Or take different pills?"

Thank you!

Willy, did you like it?

- Yes, very beautiful.
- I played it just for you!

An appetizer of sorts. Every Sunday at
the same time, intellectual sustenance.

"Every Sunday at the same time,
intellectual sustenance."

It all hovers in this foggy German thing
that's pregnant with meaning.

It's as if they're going to
run into Nibelungs.

Pardon me, please,
but it's not my intention to offend you.

I don't want to hurt you,
but it's the mood.

The mood interferes with the enjoyment.

Look outside. That's where life is!

Not in this gloomy...

hovel, in this dark vault.

Right.

Willy!

Nock the arrow nice and calmly. Try it.

Try again. Hurry up!

We have no time. Try!

Try! Try again.

- What is this?
- Shoot!

- Can you explain this?
- Els is healthy!

- That's dangerous!
- She's fit as a fiddle!

There! A rabbit!

- What is it?
- A dead rabbit.

- What of it?
- It was in the yard.

- Got it!
- Well done, Els. You did that.

You see? Els is as fit as a fiddle.

If you sense a focus of disease
somewhere you should try to stimulate it,

let it manifest itself,
then take photos of it.

Then you could develop the antidote.

People mistakenly think
I want to be provocative.

As a pharmacist's son...
I've said this often.

My father healed people
by giving them mini-doses of poison.

It caused their
organisms to self-adjust.

It's self-provocation.

All of...

Germany

is my home.

All of Germany is my home.

I have that fear in me.
I have those molecules.

I'm related to Goebbels.
My grandma was born Goebbels.

She's a cousin of a cousin or something.
Maybe I have those molecules.

That could be a fear,
hoping they don't take effect.

So I have to wear it out
before it perhaps puffs itself up

and says, "Here I am, back again!"

That's the problem with the
neo-Nazi scene and all those things.

Sadly,
we haven't worn Hitler out since '45.

He wasn't put out for use.
No one said, "Read that crap.

Wear it out so eventually
it's squandered and tattered

and no one wants to wear
that beat-up jacket."

But instead the aristocratic culture
chimes in and says,

"No! Cover it up.
Don't say anything wrong."

...Wenders won Best Director
for Wings of Desire

We can improve the images of the world,
and in doing so we can improve the world.

Quiet!

100 YEARS OF ADOLF HITLER
THE LAST HOUR IN THE FÜHRERBUNKER

I would like to conclude with this.

It is not the people
who will long for a Führer.

If anyone will, it will be the artist,
who has to learn not to be resigned

but to use the boundaries
surrounding him.

For Hitler, too,
and I'm sure you'll agree with me,

was an artist.

The Third Reich interests me,
as does all human megalomania.

You sell something, infect people,

commit crimes and then disaster hits
and the events begin to flow.

It's when you lose control

and don't know
how to put it right anymore.

Then it makes sense as a reference. It
fascinates me because I can't grasp it.

I think Hitler sat with his people,
somewhat more grimly than otherwise,

but that he said, "Then I'll demonstrate
to you that it's nothing at all anyway.

And nothing will come of it.

I'm demonstrating that to you,
and the German people weren't ready."

He'd chuck that in at the end.

- He wrote that in his testament.
- Yes.

And then to consider
if all the machines to destroy humanity

that were activated then

were all depictions of powerlessness

of the kind leaders, directors,
chief editors of arts pages,

critics, and so on, strive for

to explain to others
the powerlessness they feel.

That is the only way they
have of saying, "Yes, I am."

People assume otherwise, but my dad had
pleuropneumonia and didn't go to war.

He was a lanky weakling,
at 14, 15 years old.

My godfather was in Stalingrad,
where his brother died.

That's ambiguous, but I've always said

I believe anyone who claims

they got through the
Third Reich otherwise

must have been extremely resilient,

and very few were.

Maybe there were loads. I don't know.

I think I would've been vulnerable too.

FAMILY FRIEDRICH KNIPP
SON FRIEDR. KILLED 1941 IN RUSSIA

Turn it off.

Did you read the Spiegel article?

No.

Positive thinking isn't really positive.

When a person starts having problems,

he or she actually has other...

defense mechanisms and...

sees himself or herself differently
and is more likely to be happy.

- Christoph, please turn it off.
- Why? I want to film you.

Of course. All the time.

- The two of us together. It's good.
- Yes.

- The plot contract runs out next year.
- I thought you renewed.

Then we'd have to renew for 30 years.

TEACHER JOSEF SCHLINGENSIEF
HELENE NÉE GÖBBELS

With the freedom of self-determination

we achieve the unity and freedom

of Germany.

For our tasks...

THE GERMAN CHAINSAW MASSACRE

...we are aware
of our responsibility before God...

The day things kicked off and Weizsäcker
was at Brandenburg Gate with Brandt

and Weizsäcker mumbled,
"Now the national anthem should play."

I thought that was
an incredible staging.

Now the national anthem should play.

On a Sunday evening Spiegel TV broadcast

I saw Trabis driving around
with women waving from inside

and men with bananas in their hands
yelling, "We are the people!"

I thought, "What is this?"
It was disgusting and wrong.

The moment I saw
those phony apes with bananas yelling,

"Deutschland über alles"
and "We are the people."

The hypocrisy.

I thought it's time for
The German Chainsaw Massacre.

West Germans
turning East Germans into sausage.

They came as friends
and ended as sausage.

She wants to visit relatives!

Where are her relatives?
Relatives from there?

Or relatives from there?

- Let's look for her relatives.
- Yes, that's right.

Let's have a look-see
where your relatives are.

They don't want anything to do with you.
They'll be happy if you stay away.

Anyway, maybe you've heard,

we don't like it
when people mess things up.

The camps are closed!

- Remember that.
- I think that's enough.

Watch TV, listen to the radio.

The tide has turned.

My dearest!

Ms. Mertens!

We are the people!

Dietmar Hochmuth is a DEFA director.
He saw the film here in Hof.

He wrote about it in TIP magazine.
He's a big fan of it.

He said this film was good
because they have to face the truth.

They see what happened to them

in a different way than Spiegel TV
or news shows have presented it.

Above all, not so self-pitying.

Germany, ungovernable!

Wall! Wall! Wall!

Wall!

Wall!

The intrinsic virtue in today's world is
that one must avoid absolutely everything

that encourages destabilization.

That was Egon Krenz saying that.

Avoid everything
that leads to destabilization.

That was cleverly thought out of him.

But it did him no good.

What kind of an asshole is that?

- Westerners.
- Really?

Definitely. No one else honks.

Well, then, like always.

I'd say ten percent benefited at all
from reunification.

It's different for the rest.
Those are all questions that I have.

Why did reunification have to go down
so that it came to such a violent break?

How much do you weigh?

That's none of your business.
Data privacy.

Okay. Okay.

Maybe a style
depicting an exaggerated situation

allows you to find more truth
than forced realism.

And the excessiveness that it shows

is much more real
than reconstructed reality.

- Yes.
- Okay.

And now shut your mouth!

The market begins now.

- Do you understand?
- Yes.

Say "okay."

- Okay.
- And say "victory."

Reality is what's staged.

What we present on the street,

what politicians do,
what the social system accepts,

that's what's truly staged,
so let's recognize that.

Let's develop mechanisms
so we can finally see the staging again.

The Nazis are coming!

WIENER BOX

- In the name of Rassau, welcome!
- The Führer has reached Rassau.

The Führer greets Rassau.

- Long live Rassau!
- These damn Nazis.

Germany is full of them.

- What are you doing?
- I'm noting down the plate numbers.

Margret, we know the numbers!

- There they are.
- There are the Bösslers.

Pigs!

Oh, where does it come from?
All this hate!

Oh, where does it come from?
All this hate!

In 1985 I made Menu Total.
In many ways I wasn't sure what it was.

What I did was just work through
my fears and obsessions.

That was already perceptible in 1985.

Everyone acts
like it became acute in 1993.

Turks' houses are burning and so on.

Of course it's acuter
with increased violence,

but you wonder
how long they've believed

it's just a mob of guys gone wild.

No question, they did something now.

But why have they never wondered
about it being around so much longer?

If I notice I'm not needed
in a market economy like this one,

in globalization process like this,
I'm worthless.

Then I have to give myself a worth.
I could get that from fear.

I only get that if I run off
and chase Ali through a window.

I'm going to finish you!

I wanted to make it clear that the center
is further right than the extremes.

The intelligence service,
society, the far left and far right...

"THROUGH THE NIGHT"
WITH DIRECTOR CHRISTIAN THIELEMANN

They create that, so you feel
the center is the right side to be on.

Then you can latently model
the kind of laws you want.

You can admit that.

Simply admit it. I don't want
to forbid them to ostracize others.

I'm just saying
you might be able to expose them

or bring them back into the social fold

if you really engage with them.

Last night six to eight masked people
destroyed two reels of Terror 2000.

A projectionist in Berlin got beat up.

The film was doused in acid.

...and sprayed an employee with teargas.

Some lesbian groups said
the film was misogynistic.

Gay groups said it was homophobic.

Some leftists found it anti-leftist.

I honestly couldn't quite get that
through my head,

because I thought,
"It can just be fun too."

Not laugh-your-head-off funny,
but it can be fun

in the sense
that it makes you feel unsure

and you think the exaggerated depiction
might be true.

Then the Volksbühne called
and asked if I could imagine

doing theater, which I'd never done
and never interested me.

I never went to the theater.
I found it boring, an awful affair.

Then I had the meeting with Castorf
and Lilienthal, the head dramaturg then.

They loved the movie
and asked if I wanted to do a play.

One director cancelled,
another said no.

Did I want to do it?
So I asked around about the Volksbühne.

I said, "Okay. What?"
"Whatever you want."

I could do what I wanted.

Then I started working on a play,
100 Years of the CDU.

We have to change
the images of the world.

That's the only way
we can change the world.

We have to change
the stages of the world.

That is the only way
we can change the world.

We have to change
the history of the world.

That is the only way
we can change the world.

We will certainly go down in history

and go down because of our history.

I'm a pharmacist's son from Oberhausen.

And you came here to watch this crap.

But it isn't just crap.

That really is true.

And now, for you, I'm going to stick
this thing into my arm.

Get lost!

- I wanted to help, but...
- Get lost!

Turn the lights off!

Turn the lights off!

I now know that, in everything I do,

it's not loathing but fear
that it rests upon.

Kind of like laughing too early,

or moaning too late.

Giving too nasty of a look.

I am the homeland!

It isn't an evening about

the shit going on in Germany
and why we have to be outraged.

It's actually that little heap
of honesty that remains,

and that has to do
with an unpleasant feeling.

There was a little palace,
The palace Bellevue

It was Bellevue Palace in Berlin

All the people in the
city were delighted

Because the city we mean is Berlin

After doing 100 Years of the CDU
I hit a pretty deep valley.

It was at its worst when Alfred
Edel died. I hit rock bottom.

He played a big part in my development.

He was a father figure,
he grappled with my films,

which my parents
don't really like to do.

Hello!

Until I was 30 years old I refused to say
Buńuel or Fassbinder were my role models.

I learned to when Alfred Edel died.
I said, "Alfred Edel is my role model."

You may be in heaven
or you may be with the devil.

Somehow, sometime,
we will all be reunited.

Farewell, Alfred!

In Tristan and Isolde there's a part
where everything's possible.

- It's in An Andalusian Dog.
- What Tristan and Isolde music?

I don't know Buńuel's film.

What part is that?

I'm really bad at singing.

I've just about got it...
Yes, it's very difficult.

That's a good question.
I'm a bad singer.

- It's the theme, the "Liebes" thing.
- It starts to play.

Perhaps one more thing. One more thing!

Michael Kühnen could come

in the form of a Nuremberg
mechanical doll made of Lebkuchen.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ADOLF HITLER

I'd be delivered
and have defeated puberty! Yes!

I allow myself the luxury
of being "pubescent."

That's why I jump on stage and cavort, to
check what the guy next to me is doing.

Then to go out and watch,
from above or below.

- It's skilled stage direction?
- Yes.

...of Adolf Hitler

Bring me the head of Adolf Hitler

He was in prison eight years,
four, then three, then one

He was in prison eight years,
four, then three, then one

He was in prison eight years,
first four, then three, then one

It started in Hamburg

Sleeping under birds, putting up posters
Walking in trenches

It started in Hamburg...

It's extremely interesting
how incredibly an abstract situation

ticks people off, unlike reality.

Why can't they let themselves
be exposed to it

by saying, "I won't police this,
I'll let it have its effect on me."

When you get in a bath you don't ask

if your feet relax first, and then up here
and then you talk about the faucet, etc.

You just get in and let it happen.

I claim that ideology-based politics
are misanthropic,

because they force people to go down

a predetermined path!

So that the people who come later

will one day

have it better.

Rocky Dutschke was not an attempt
at an evening of theater

with a cognitive process leading to
the conclusion: "This is how he sees it.

Now send him to another city
where he'll reinterpret

his worldview in another play."

It was just the process of ellipses.

There's only one chance,
in chaos theory it's this point here.

It happened that, in our helplessness
trying to carry out that evening,

we found ever more allies,
ever more people who joined in

to get that evening off the ground
so it came to an end.

It climaxed in Helmut Kohl's murder.

I asked those in the audience
who were for us to exit right,

put on paper hats and
grab a German flag,

and those against us to exit left,
be quiet and not disturb us.

He tries to deceive us
using all means available to him.

I see a great opportunity in theater
because it can bring things together.

You can think things you'd get
arrested for thinking in public.

I can do that on stage.

Kill Helmut Kohl!

Kill Helmut Kohl!

Stay there. Stay right there.

Stay there.

Put that thing away.
We'll confiscate it.

- Hands off Christoph Schlingensief!
- Yes!

Kill Christoph Schlingensief!
Kill Christoph Schlingensief!

Received yesterday at 4:19 p.m.

Hello, Christoph, it's me.

You were supposed to call me.

I just want to know how you are.

Bye.

They entered the room with the
police dog and it had no muzzle on.

...my father.

Kill my father.

Kill my father.

Love my mother.

Love my mother.

Love my mother.

AUGUST 31, 1997

Two of them yelled
at Christoph very heatedly,

"Hearing it would encourage
a right-winger.

If he went by the Orangery and heard
'Kill Helmut Kohl,' he'd go do it."

There are ever more crazy people
who come together due to some hogwash.

They feel prompted to do something
once someone says, "Do that!"

It's interesting that the person
who says, "Do that!" is blamed.

In reality, the person to blame
is the one who made everything possible.

My thoughts become ever narrower,
Ever blinder my sight

Daily more and more real
Becomes my terrible fate

I feebly drag myself through life

All lust for life bereaved

I've no one who knows my great misery,
And believes

- Christoph, how's the mood?
- What mood?

- The mood! How do you feel?
- I'm in no mood.

- I'm appalled.
- What?

I don't even know. I'm speechless.

- I've never seen such amateurs.
- What?

- Really.
- In Berlin of all places!

- What is it you want?
- Oh, I...

THE 120 DAYS OF BOTTROP
THE LAST NEW GERMAN FILM

This is total bullshit, this is.

Roland Emmerich's residence.

We're through, Christoph.
Emmerich. Hollywood.

Well, I am totally appalled.

I'm so appalled, I...
What can I even say?

CALL NOW!

One moment. I'll ask him.
Hold the line.

Roland, a call from Germany.
A guy wants 9,000 marks to remake

Independence Day Massacre.

That'll do now, okay?

What did he say, Christoph?

No...

No!

120 Days of Bottrop -
The Last New German Film,

with Roland Emmerich
as the guy from Germany

who made the most successful
film of all time.

Martin Wuttke as me on the roof
of Weinhaus Huth at Potsdamer Platz.

He's denied 9,000 marks
to remake Independence Day Massacre

and Wuttke has a nervous breakdown.

He wants to jump. His parents try
to hold him back. "Chris, Chris!"

His father says, "He's old enough.
He knows what he wants."

Leave him. He's old enough.

I had a comrade

You won't find a better one

Would you please get out?

- I have to tell you the truth.
- Yes.

Adolf Hitler

wasn't the worst architect.

It's not just sawing and screaming.

Everyone in it is a dinosaur of
film history, or at least lots of them.

It's a temple,
and a temple's built of fragments.

The film builds a temple.

How can German cinema go on

with so much money
going into monumental films?

What's the idea behind this anyway?
Does he even have one?

What a dumb question!

He can make a 20-million-mark movie
look like a low-budget TV movie.

He's supposed to be talented!
What a laugh!

Everything's fine.
A director in terrific shape.

Leave me alone, would you?
Leave me alone!

Leave me alone. Dad!

Dad! I'm dead. Leave me alone.

Leave me alone.

1,000 YEARS LATER

Let me put it this way, none of your films
follow established narrative patterns.

They're very different.

Did you really want to make films,
or did you just want to be provocative?

You always hear that hogwash.

The old government was utter provocation.
I don't know the new one's plans.

Again, obsession is important.

- He's not even listening.
- I am.

- Young people...
- I was talking about you.

I think you...
The only reason I came on the show

was that I wanted to see you.

I really wanted to tell you one thing.

I think it's very important
that TV stations, Radio Bremen too,

but especially ARTE and other
purportedly intellectual networks...

It's a dumping ground for editors
who couldn't make it otherwise.

They have a manner of speaking
that's akin to German for kids.

"This evening you'll see a film about a
Pakistani girl living in an apartment."

I don't want to see that.
Get young people to the movies.

Infect them as early as possible,
I always say.

That's not happening.
I propose you pass a law.

You two, or everyone.

That from 1:00 a.m. on
people get to broadcast back.

Yeah.

That's a very odd idea.

It isn't funny at all.
I don't find it funny.

I always wanted a show
with Hildegard Knef,

Heiner Müller and Sophie Rois.

I didn't think that would happen
on my first talk show.

Ms. Knef we just talked about family.

- Yes.
- My father was a pharmacist.

My mother was a pediatric nurse.

My parents wanted six kids,
but it was nine years before I arrived.

I'm six children.

Deep inside myself I hear
both factions in a constant battle,

three children are down-to-earth,
the others off-the-wall.

That makes things harder than necessary.
My godfather is the best example.

He had high hopes for me.

He now has doubts
whenever he sees me naked on TV

or reads
that I want to topple the government.

Yet I only use that as a way to vent
about all the barriers and limits

that have affected you, my parents
and many in both our generations

more than you have
perhaps ever imagined.

Yes, stasis... Now I'm flustered.

Stasis, yes, we have
roughly six million unemployed people.

People in total stagnation,

but going full speed ahead,
and with no charisma!

Those people have no charisma,
so we no longer notice them.

- So I say we need to reevaluate.
- What goes on in them?

If I go out the door
and then come in back here.

I'll come in this door.

Like this.

- No charisma.
- No charisma.

At top speed, but with no charisma.

And if I just sit myself down here.

And sit like this.

You have no charisma then either.

I've been fooling myself all my life.

Germany is full of metastases.

And the metastases know
that they coexist in the same body.

So that means the metastases
have to get in touch with one another

to move the German body that is
two meters away from the operating table

towards the exit.

Every centimeter, every meter...
Pardon me.

What's going on here?

Look how quickly politicians go from
the health ministry to the railway.

That's accepted,
but our kind should stick to one thing.

That's hard to realize in art,
because I connect it to life.

I noticed
the shift in perspective in my work.

I rebelled a lot.

Perhaps I can't say
what I rebelled against, besides optics,

besides that false situation
where I meet someone

who knows exactly
where we should be looking.

Many here in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
have shot nerves.

They're reunification's losers.

They called out "market economy,"
but meant "exploitation."

This man is plugging his ear to show
he wishes to hear no more.

He supported reunification,

but it got him nothing
but a pair of white jeans.

Nothing but a pair of white jeans.

I think there's a primal scream
deep inside us that says,

"Something has to change," as you say.

The question Chance 2000
is addressing is,

can we allow ourselves to found
a form of familial terrorism?

That is, a new worldview.

Terrorism works better in the family
than anywhere else.

We have to pull out all the stops
to spur on individual autonomy,

even at the risk
of digging your own grave.

On August 6
we're vacationing on Wolfgangsee

and ask all unemployed
people to join us.

We want all the minorities who are now
the majority to vacation there.

At 4:00 p.m.
we'll all get into Wolfgangsee.

Does the local tourist office know?

If six million people get into the water
it'll rise two meters.

Water will reach some of the houses.

Kohl's house is higher up on a hill,

but the changing room
will be totally underwater.

I'm going swimming fully aware
that six million unemployed people

in Germany can't afford to come here.

But I will represent
those six million unemployed people.

Everyone can do that for themselves.

FAILURE AS CHANCE

It isn't about whether the water rises
when you would like it to rise,

but about it rising
when life decides it will.

Helmut! Helmut! Helmut!

It wasn't six million.
That was a big disappointment to us all.

But it was still incredible.
Especially the thing with all the media.

They were all filming one another.

- What else happened?
- Bravo! Great.

Um... Nothing really.

They want change,

but they don't have what you have
with this show and with lots of money...

I'm giving you this show
as a platform to speak out.

- That's what we do.
- We'll do it every week.

I can't wait to see

if the jobless vote for this party.

We'll see about that.
We'll give an update.

I brought a graph. Can I show you this?

We'll show those on the next show.
Put those away.

- I...
- Mr. Müntefering compiled this.

Opposition, coalition, church, union
and industry are all in minus.

- And Chance 2000...
- ...is there too.

Mr. Schlingensief,
I'll just keep talking too.

And if tomorrow someone asks you,

"Why did you guys have so much fun?"

Then tell them it's because
you're serious about it.

Because, as of now,
seriousness is tough and fun-loving.

We always meant it genuinely.

I've often been asked, "Christoph,
where do you get all the strength?"

And I've always said,

"Because I believe in it!"

Because I believe in it!

And I myself am "it."

And Kerstin is it. And Alex is it.

And you and you and you!
Everyone is it!

And everyone takes it seriously.

Life! Life! Life!

It was serious, but it was hard.

I had 180,000 marks
in tax debt afterwards.

No one had told me donations
shouldn't go to a private account.

That was
during Berliner Republik rehearsals.

I got the tax assessment,
look at it and think, "180,000!

What is this? 180,000?
What's this sum?"

Then I got colder,
started trembling and thought,

"They can't be serious."
I called, it was dead serious.

Then I stopped directing.
I just sat around at rehearsals.

They did whatever. The premier was
45 minutes of laughing and shouting.

Everyone was happy, and after 45 minutes

everyone stood around on stage
and I did a slide show.

It was a disaster.

We're coming back to ourselves.
We make the decisions!

Screw Chance 2000. Forget that crap.

It earned you enough money.

Put a cross on yourselves.

You can't vote for yourself anyway.
Put a cross on yourselves!

You'll let the OSCE pick them. Yes.

It's really this specific case.
We say yes.

Now we want to see...

Macedonia is about to be
wiped off the map.

These people really hate each other.
They can just decide to book the plane.

I went into the camp
with my immunization card.

On the top it has
a little World Health Organization logo.

The leaves and the head.

I showed that to the border guards
and got waved through.

My immunization card
got me in and out all over the place.

Then I got into an area that
consisted of a big fenced off field.

300 or 400 people
with suitcases and plastic bags

were in that barnyard-type area.

A ZDF TV camera team was there,
doing a lot of zooming

and panning over to the reporter
who was speaking very dedicatedly.

I walked on and had this experience.

I turned around 300 meters on
and they were still there.

They weren't on TV anymore.

That process dawned on me right then.

They're still there.

The Volksbühne has decided
to seek out the proper authorities

and to check if it would be possible

to transport
between 50 to 200 refugees to Berlin.

They're worried about their theater.

I can say this internally,
we could be talking about 200.

If it's 50,
that's already an insane amount.

And it'll be precisely the focal point
we think is needed now.

Frank was yelling like a madman
at rehearsal today.

And he said,
"No technician cares about this!

No one around here wants
any of these foreigners here."

A good idea is like a tent,
destructible yet protective.

A bad idea is indestructible.
It just hangs around, it's an "opinion."

That really gets on my nerves. I
can't stand all the opinions in Germany.

I'd really like to have ideas on hand.

Stop!

That is the beginning!
Personal political decisions.

That's the future. It's nothing bad.

I'm looking for what's real, and know I
seem very phony doing so to many people.

But I know it's realer,
because my ideas are still destructible.

In any case, that's the hope.

This is about the simple reflex to give
a fleeing person a lift to safety

without asking for reasons first.

If you think that's cynical and no longer
have that reflex, you're already dead.

I thank all of our staff.

I am...

The Berlin Republic is over.

It never existed,
and certainly not after such a war.

Turn that off. It's too sappy.

This evening, with all its uniqueness,
examined the possibilities of theater.

Probably only some people
were able to accept that.

Until the undecided battle
between staff and management ends

I've swapped frontal theater
for refugee theater.

That seems more honest to me

than sacrificing the nice times here
to total stasis.

Get all the torches over there!

All the torches over there!

All of them!

They all seem to be contained systems,

yet we endeavor to organize life
together in Germany and the world

as if that containment didn't exist.

All you feel is, "Keep it all together.
Hold hands. More decency!"

The gesture of humility missing
in the party thing is replicating

Willy Brandt's genuflection
at the Statue of Liberty.

That genuflection symbolizes
handing Germany over to globalism.

Don't buy from Germans!

Don't buy from Germans!

This is Wole from Nigeria.
The Austrians pick another black man.

Yesterday one left
and today it's another black man.

That's consistency for you.
It continues unchanged.

All my site requests got rejected.

We don't know Mr. Schmitz's politics,
but he works for the city.

He said, "No, we're not doing that. No!
We'll do it like this..." He drew a line.

FOREIGNERS OUT

Then he said, "No, forget that."

We were disappointed.
Then he said, "There."

DEPORTATION
8:00 P.M.

We looked and I thought, "What?" The
coolest spot, right next to the opera.

Come to the info stand
and chose your asylum seeker.

Then dial the telephone number.

Every evening we'll have
two asylum seekers deported.

They'll be thrown out of Austria.

Come on inside. It's free.

Have a look at your asylum seeker.

I love it.

The onlookers, the shoppers,

want to look through the window,
but see themselves in the mirror foil.

The Nigerians were usually
behind the foil thing,

asking, "What's he doing?
What do these people think?

Are they bad? Is this dangerous?
What's going on?"

Show what's going on in Austria,
the land of fascists.

This is Nazi central, where homes
for asylum seekers burn every night.

- Foreigners out!
- Transport them out of here!

Out with them! Public executions.

Every day, execute
as many as 20 or 30 foreigners.

Here on this square.

The "Square of Heavenly Execution."

In Vienna, that was violent theater.

I didn't initiate it by going
and smacking people on the head.

On the contrary,

they started shouting
and shaking things.

If I weren't so cowardly,
I'd go up and rip that thing down.

You are an enemy of Austria
and you need to be deported!

We want to have our peace!
All of us, together!

We want our peace!

This isn't art! Who's responsible
for this mess? This is warmongering!

It's now 6:32 p.m. I'm officially
deputizing you a resistance fighter.

You say, "Mr. Schlingensief
is disturbed." Do you feel provoked?

I don't feel at all provoked by him,

but using political agitation
as cultural policy is symptomatic.

We reject that, as we do glorifying
child abuse, violence per se,

blasphemous topics.

We don't consider that art.
This is using art to mask...

- You peddle hate.
- This is using art to...

- What about the slogans on your posters?
- Agitate in your container, not on ORF.

It's my turn on ORF, not yours.

- In Austria...
- I'm not going to...

I've seen it. The fear is growing.

I'm telling you, the fear is growing.

My work isn't about

waiting for someone to spread nonsense
that I can latch onto.

That do-gooder situation
I had then in Vienna,

it got on my nerves
to have only friends afterwards

because I had taken it to the Austrians.

SCHLINGENSIEF'S
U3000

Help!

Stop the train!

Stop the train!

"Deification of the intellect includes
the admission of defeat in reality."

In reality! You see, we are in reality.

We're not just in a subway,
or just our imaginations.

We're reality! We're here!

Where's the water?

This is a ritual in Islam.
Penis washing!

Penis washing. Washing your penis.

It was time for self-defilement.

U3000 on MTV was only possible,

in that predominantly
unsuccessful and disastrous form.

But it made sense, because afterwards
most people didn't like me so much.

They said, "He smears paint on himself
and pulls his thingy out.

That's not the nice boy
who just made fools of the Austrians."

I got naked in front of the Hellwigs.
You don't do that.

That was the worst for my parents.

They sit alone in Oberhausen

and keep hearing, "Everyone else has
a career and he romps around.

What happened to Christoph?
That's garbage!"

One harsh postcard said,
"Mr. Schlingensief,

Why didn't you cum in the Ruhr River?"

They've gotten things like that,
and I have to sort it out.

And they were extremely loving
and kept saying,

"Yes, of course, we understand.
Keep going. Keep doing your stuff.

QUIZ 3000
YOU ARE THE CATASTROPHE!

Order the following concentration camps,
going from north to south.

A: Auschwitz.

B: Bergen-Belsen.

C: Dachau.

D: Ravensbrück.

Here comes...

Dietrich, how does it look?
Do we have a result?

Ravensbrück is correct.

It is further north than Bergen-Belsen,

which is further north than Auschwitz,
which is further north than Dachau.

- That was the right answer.
- The last one?

An actionist artist asks,

"How do I get back into the picture?"

- Go on, perform the story!
- Sure.

The father tells his decay product

words have no meaning now,
it has floated away.

Nothing can be resolved or sounded out.
Everything is changing.

Every single image cancels itself out.

And then that harlot fate...
Humanism raises its voice:

"Please don't kill me.
Give me another chance."

Hamlet was an ally to me.

In him I discovered a person whose
parents had given him quite a few tasks,

but who also had his doubts.

I'm not capable of telling
even my best friend he does bad work.

He wasn't... It wasn't him! Stop it!

- Greek tragedy.
- No! Yes.

- Greek tragedy.
- You have to work for it.

Not, "Hm?
Oh, I'm about to come with flowers.

There. I have a cart.
Now I'm here too. Hello!"

He's an educated humanist.

He has trouble killing people,
but can imagine doing it.

I feel that in myself
and in many of my friends.

In bed they imagine beating up and
kicking the teeth out of their tormentors.

I did that in school.

The next day at recess I saw
the kids I'd killed the night before

and ran away from them screaming.

It's very tough as a humanist.

To be,

or not to be,

that is the question.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind

to suffer the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune,

or

to take arms against a sea of troubles,

and by opposing...

If thou didst ever
thy dear father love...

O God!

Revenge his foul
and most unnatural murder.

We take a Gründgens' staging
that he performed for the Nazis.

Then, in 1963, he performed it again,
with Maximilian Schell

and Marianne Hoppe.

The time

is out of joint.

O cursed spite.

Sebastian Rudolph spoke
like Maximilian Schell,

Irm Hermann like Marianne Hoppe.

And then you notice
we can no longer reproduce that time.

We can't go back.

But on the basis of the past
we can comprehend where we are now.

The indifference of language,
that we can't speak it that way,

tells us who we are in the here and now.

Everything's free. Everything for free.

The SVP must be banned!
It is a right-wing extremist party.

It has anti-Semitic, racist views.

The turnout is wonderful,
thank you all for coming to our event.

And now the people on this square,

in another ghetto,
get to ask the neo-Nazis questions.

You have to get them interested
in something else. Hamlet did that.

Yes, doubts remain,
but I have to live with that.

Still, over days, I got them interested in
something else, and they're still going.

And who in death seeks a false friend...

How can you get across the credibility

of neo-Nazis who wanted to get out
and who've left in the meantime?

How far can we remove this project
from the confines of the theater

so that people become
more aware of this situation?

If you say anti-Semitic and racist
things and are violent toward others

that's criminal,
society does not provide for that.

Society can't accept it if...

Hamlet! Hamlet!

Please stop muttering up there.

You're here and paid for tickets
to keep your mouth shut, got it?

I paid to see Hamlet.

What's that supposed to mean?
Describe what "to see Hamlet" means?

Describe what you want to see.

A Shakespeare play.

And not your blabbering.

If it were proper and serious
you'd have to act more seriously.

- The cultural in-crowd, the arts pages...
- You can...

They don't take you seriously anymore,
and I get the feeling

the SVP ban isn't what you're misusing,

it's the "I rehabilitate people,"
the people you described.

You know what?

The whole "We don't take
that theater joker seriously," racket.

We can put all the articles on a scale

and see what the theater critics
here in the city usually say.

- If people reject...
- Dieter Bohlen gets lots of headlines too.

What do you have against Dieter Bohlen?

- So is he a great singer?
- He doesn't sing himself. I do.

I talk, I'm vulnerable,
and I do like to laugh.

The funny thing is many people
who aren't from the cultural jet set,

who I really don't give a... about.

People from lower classes relate to it.

It was that way with my party
and it'll always be that way.

"KILL MÖLLEMANN!" FDP SECOND-IN-CHARGE
SUES SHOCK DIRECTOR

WHOEVER WEARS THIS MARK
IS AN ENEMY OF OUR PEOPLE

IS SCHLINGENSIEF CRAZY? NO!
FASCISTIC? YES!

When politicians say the Jewish
community is filthy and blame Jews,

which is what Westerwelle and Möllemann
did together,

they decided an anti-Semitic spiel
would win votes.

I drove over to his place,
a little arms company,

and dumped laundry detergent in a piano.

He said, "Everything has to be cleaned
up. This all has to be cleaned up."

And then I threw 40 kilos
of very old fish in his yard.

I had the Israeli flag with me
and tried to light it.

You have to find out
what you can do beforehand.

You can burn a flag without punishment

if the president of that country
isn't in Germany.

- That's going too far.
- Fire!

Möllemann is to blame!

Möllemann is setting us back 30 years.

Möllemann is to blame for us having
this sort of thing in Germany again!

Israel is being trampled on!

I curse you!

Germany needs a jolt!

Germany, conform!

Germany needs a jolt!

But what do you say about the fact

that Schröder hasn't spoken out
about anti-Semitism?

I don't know. If you have no money,
you can't buy anything.

- We want the Wall back.
- Yes.

One day Germany
will die a miserable death.

And do you know why?

We need a woman in power in government,
a mother.

Here we go!

They're so confident and so lucid.
They're just there.

I can't go from my vantage point

and explain
so-called healthy people to them.

In that moment I ruin everything
I can learn from these people.

Then I ruin it.

I don't get this. Achim?

Achim?

- Helga, tell me, where's...
- I haven't seen Achim.

This all seems very strange to me.

Me, too.

Through theater I had to learn
that if there's someone

who I can't interrupt
and have to put up with,

then I have to look longer.

And now I've got Achim and Kerstin
and Horst and Werner, etc.

I can watch them for hours
without feeling a need to edit them out.

Yes, you have to grab chickens
out of a basket,

hang them up, heads get cut off,
they're plucked and cut up.

And then they go to the market section.

What do you get per chicken?

They didn't tell me.
It's a works' project. They pay me.

And who arranged that? Who employs you?

- The WSF.
- The WSF?

- What's that?
- Workers' Samaritan Federation.

They want you
to slaughter 60,000 chickens a day?

- The Workers' Samaritan Federation.
- Yes!

- Confess!
- Yes.

- They want you to slaughter chickens?
- Yes.

- But we are abusing you here, correct?
- No.

- People say you get abused here.
- Who says that?

People say you get abused here.
Tell the people.

People watching TV
say you're being abused here.

In loads of letters.

- I'd like to see them.
- We want to see them!

He slaughters 63,000 chickens a day!

For the Workers' Samaritan Federation.
That's not abuse?

In 1993 we shot Terror 2000 in Massow,
in an old National People's Army ground.

There was a psychiatric clinic there.
I met the professor.

I asked if anyone there wanted
to make a movie, to get out.

He named
Achim von Paczensky and Frank Koch.

Then the time began when they were around
ever more often and became friends.

Then it started: is it inhuman
to put disabled people on display?

It wasn't.

Over the years I've seen
that these people have a dimension

and do fine with our rules system,
which is a huge achievement.

Right, you should get up at 7:00 a.m.

At 7:30 there's coffee.

At 9:00 there's coffee.

At 12:00 there's coffee.

At 5:00, 5:30 p.m. there's supper

and you can brew yourself a coffee.

It's a musical thing.
I assume the world has an atonal order.

If an actor develops a breathing method

that's unique and takes it to the stage
where everyone has to accept it,

then it's the right tone.

Want to sit here?

Can you scooch a bit, Helga?

And that's what society can't stand.
Everything has to work.

Society has to know
why you're on that bike.

Why am I in a chair
and not on a bike too?

"Why is the cut there and there?

Is that effective?"
1,000 people at the station have a say.

Everyone out there knows what's right.
When will we breathe together?

This is Achim.

And this here is Helga.

He's been with them
for a very long time now.

How shall I put it, they are misfits.

But I'm not to blame.

ATTA ATTA
ART HAS BROKEN LOOSE

Him being with them
wasn't due to my parenting.

It wasn't my parenting!

In Atta Atta I took the audience
seriously by totally ignoring it.

We try to draw nearer
ourselves atonally.

"The work of art establishes

a reality of its own

that differs

from ordinary reality."

- What is that?
- Look, Mom!

I'm full of ideas!

It all has to come out.
We're going to reorganize the world.

We'll just reorganize the world.

No politics anymore,
just active resistance.

The burka for men.

The burka for men!

- That's nonsense!
- Put it on, Mom.

- No! No!
- Put it on!

Atta Atta - Art has broken loose

is about breaking loose
from simulating reality.

One person tells you how to solve terror,
one says you're a good, successful person.

You break away from that simulation
for a moment.

At least you try. That's a huge step.

WE WON'T LET OUR FEAR
BE TAKEN FROM US

It's the risk of Church of Fear.

You don't know, yet that fear projects
an image into you that's liberating.

That's the new art
that you were nowhere near 20 years ago.

So you've taken a bold step towards art.

- Yes.
- From theater?

The issue was always
the art of survival.

Even 20 years ago. Yes.

Finding an end that shows deliverance
but is also a threat.

I think that'd be the moment I'd
like to strive for as my last in life.

To simply say, "The deed is done,"
but to be aware of the doubt in that.

At first I thought
there was a hidden camera.

I said, "Sure, Bayreuth. Of course."

They then called me in Venice and said,
"We officially appoint you."

"Salvation for the savior," someone
said. I said, "Thanks. I can't wait."

I was just...
The day was done for me.

Then the phone rang and my mother said,

"Christoph, Möllemann fell from the sky.
Keep quiet if the police call."

Oh, God, Christoph.

Right, stop filming. It's secret.

Done!

It can't go public. I have a contract.

Nothing goes public before the premier,

or I'll be held accountable.

Never ever show this before the premier.

Don't show this staircase,
or they'll beat me to death.

NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS

TOUR OF FESTIVAL HALL
NO TOURS TODAY, REHEARSAL

PARSIFAL, DUTCHMAN, RHEINGOLD, LOHENGRIN

All the lyrics, like "...the last time,"
really stick with you.

"Amfortas, Die Wunde."
"Where is my wound?"

The wound!

It burns in my heart!

Yes, and then you go that way,
so you appear here.

I became obsessed
and kind of lost my foothold.

I wanted to do it well
and saw it as the chance

to give my parents a son
who really did something.

It started out well. I'll read it:

"Dear Mr. Schlingensief, my husband,
Wolfgang Wagner, our daughter Katharina

and the staff of the
2004 Wagner Festival

welcome you to the "Green Hill"
with this letter.

I'll be unable to visit rehearsal tomorrow
due to an extremely painful tooth abscess,

unfortunately.

No one regrets that more than me.

I am most anxious to hear
my husband's eye and earwitness report,

as he will be representing me,
should you consent."

A huge row.

That's forbidden in the opera house.

Schlingensief just started
photographing people.

He can't do that. It's unheard of.

"Our daughter Katharina is very eager

to profit from
your value standards and experience.

From experience, I can ensure you

our daughter will be prepared
to give you everything she has."

That bowls me over.
No mother has ever written that to me.

"As she told us herself, she has had
several restless, even sleepless nights.

Please allow this little anecdote
to give you a sense

of the esteem your work enjoys here,
esteem that I share without restriction.

Feel at home and wish me all the luck
in the world at the dentist tomorrow.

Best regards, Gudrun Wagner"

Take back my inheritance

Close my wound

That holy

I may die

Pure...

and whole for thee!

The opera house ban situation,
did you have to give back your pass?

I still have my pass but can't go on
stage during the Parsifal performance

because then someone can't sing.

I have to accept that.
I've done my job.

He has to do his job in the performance
and I don't want to hinder him.

I suddenly thought

that it was maybe wrong to show
the entire six-minute film of the hare.

Because sometimes all you read is
"decaying hare..."

And then "an attempt at provocation,
but people wouldn't be provoked," etc.

The ending would be different,
still with dead hares,

then the choir of angels, the clouds,
the hare's first transformation,

then clouds again
and the ripped open body,

but then Parsifal
recedes into the light,

the door closes and the curtain falls.

That could be it.

It's better than getting angry
for having gone all out in showing that.

I can do that at the Volksbühne,
or next year,

or when I'm alone, what do I know?

The impossibility of salvation
is a key theme in Parsifal.

It is the divine principle.

That's why we don't need
to continue up there with a harp.

We can enjoy it all here
and optimistically push it forward.

The moment of a change in consciousness
is just starting now.

We have to work on that,
not on saying, "It's senseless.

What'll happen now?" but "Yes, sir!"

We still have the chance
to be hurt, to fail, to not be loved.

This is a lush magnificent life
that people forbid us

who want to preserve it in stasis.

But preservation also means knowing
history comes from a maelstrom of events

and that it constantly overlapped.

The director is unwelcome here.

He's a disturbance,
because everyone suspects

he doesn't get
that the music should shine here.

Now a guy comes and says,
"We're all wearing pointed hats today."

EVERYTHING SEEMS CHANGED

FOR THE END WE THANK: "SCHLINGENSIEF!"

Then we had the premier
and there were bravos and lots of boos.

But there was plenty of positive reaction.
Then they handed me a letter backstage.

"We're informing you
you needn't return next year

because Katharina is going to do it."

I said, "Nothing doing.
I had four years of this scheduled."

And they had to pay their lawyer.

ART AND VEGETABLES

At home

everything goes according to my will.

Only Father is behaving as usual.

Of course, Mother cries incessantly.

And Sister is mean!

But I have made it clear to them,
in no uncertain terms,

that I, Katharina Bach,

am the mistress of my own destiny.

And I want

people to obey my word in my house.

"Following this year's festival

I have come to the conclusion

that we will perform Art and Vegetables

in its current form next year.

However, next year's rehearsals

shall be led
by the first assistant director.

Best wishes,

Gudrun Bach"

Gudrun Bach!

In essence, Bayreuth was about saying,

"I get to do something
I never expected I'd do,

Wagner's farewell, Parsifal,
is death music.

I do think you want to die in Bayreuth.

I think the Nazis loved it

because they could celebrate
themselves and death in Bayreuth.

Good night!

I couldn't abide by that
with my view of Christianity.

I don't want to imply that the
Wagner family had fascist ideas,

but the system was
Stasi and fascist rolled into one.

They policed you.
They constantly sent letters.

It really was hell.

Mama!

What are they?

Modern people?

The Germans have always proven
their greatest abilities

in times of adversity,

hunger and war.

The achievement of the Germans,
when viewed unbiased by politics,

in and following both world wars
was tremendous!

1969, 1970

I projected my Super-8 movie onto at TV
and turned the screen away.

The movie suddenly had different audio
and it made a great story.

That's what I mean about energies.

Only when I allow other audio in
does a new associative power kick in.

The Animatograph is a "soulwriter,"
that feeds off its surroundings.

The films are cast in from the outside
while films are beamed in from behind.

The films edit themselves.

They're fragments,
like the Edda, the Bible or the Koran.

The space-and-time machine
turns them into an endless story,

so space becomes time.

...paintings...

...steeples and a door,
it must to be a church.

In between an image may flicker by
that doesn't belong, and...

This Animatograph,
in this exposed setting,

may one day be on display in a museum
but it'll be out in the open again too.

The world is ending! Come on!

The world is ending!

Forget the other crap.
The world is ending!

- Where's the boat?
- Where is salvation? Noah's Ark?

From here.

Go far away. Long shot. Zoom.

That's the cursed habit
of seeing everything as a film.

I've done that since I was eight.

I can only endure the world
as a story or via manipulation.

When I edit a film I have power.
I rewind it, fast-forward it.

I examine it. If I destroy a spot,
I kill the film there.

If I correct it again, I kill it again.
The picture wobbles more.

Those are my instruments of power,

but they and my power are finite.

It's important to understand
the many layers,

and I think I've had film in my life

to have end credits,
as a film's premier is also its death.

Film, or what I do, or I myself,
am the echo of my own creation.

Come on, come on! Forward, forward!

- Hold it in front of the camera.
- The cord won't reach.

15.

It's crazy, Wagner announces the theme,
then it comes.

It's asynchronous. You don't know,
but you sense something's happening.

That's the instant of foreboding.

The idea of foreboding
is the idea of death.

It's about asking
"When will I be redeemed?"

JEANNE D'ARC
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF SAINT JOAN

Professor Kaiser was just here.
He said I did great.

The results were great,
the oxygen great.

I played along really well.
He was ecstatic. It was the only way.

He said I was terrific.

So, actually, great.

Really great stuff.

It's all incomprehensible.

Even though you're beat,
you enjoy every second right now.

Because you're proud you did it.

Yeah.

That's how things are.

I'm really happy.
I thank God I'm able to be part of this.

A CHURCH OF FEAR
VS. THE ALIEN WITHIN

That I get to be here again,
without that horror in my chest, and...

I want to live.
And we'll manage that somehow.

Every day is great.

Like the radiologist said:
"It's a new life

and every day is a new day.

You don't need to listen to
all the bullshit,

or to worry about everything."

And that's true.

I feel that, that it can be something
very liberating.

Just to say, "I'm tired now."

I can't do it anymore.

"The will to live
I've been feigning this whole time,

the feeling of, 'Yes, him,

he's got strength, he'll manage it.'

That's over.

I'm tired. I'm beat.

I've been tired for a long time.

I've kicked and screamed
and done enough."

When you're overtired
you push even harder.

- That's why I love to sleep.
- You too?

I can't sleep at all.

I'm surprised I don't have red eyes.
I'm so wiped out.

- No, you don't.
- I sleep and I'm still wiped out.

What's with that? I'm...

- I'm the happiest one of us. How nice.
- Yes, you can take...

It's too much for me.

Shall we continue now?

It's four o'clock now.

When are the altar boys and all coming?
The children's choir?

Is it at 7:30 p.m., or did you
change it? And is it with the...

I don't think this is the essence
of all my work.

I think it calms me to look at things
in a more controlled manner sometimes

and to not break it all to pieces.

Nevertheless, in this instance
I've decided I want to talk about it.

Especially about the feeling: what is
life that wants to get by without death?

The other thing is
it's easier to keep away those

who say,
"He's being provocative again."

I read in a Catholic magazine that I
want to use cancer to provoke people.

It said I should learn about death
before it's too late.

Those are the threats the Catholic
Church in particular has at the ready.

"Before it's too late!"

I don't want this.

I don't want to.

I don't feel like it anymore.

I don't want to be a representative.

I didn't want that before

and I don't want that now.

You can pack up
all of your church bric-a-brac.

- Amen.
- Amen!

Godard claimed
25 frames a second is truth.

Bullshit!

Some people can comprehend
everything flowing by in 16 frames.

We're not all the same.

Pain isn't always the same.
Patients have very different approaches.

Conductors aren't always the same.
Orchestras change, actors die.

That's me.
I was still young there.

I was still young!

I was still young!

My father died last year.

And I don't really want
to meet him already.

I don't have any desire
to see my relatives again now.

I'll be glad to see them,

or Alfred Edel or all those
who've died over the years.

But, honestly, no.

- Hello?
- Next message.

Received yesterday at 6:13 p.m.

Hello, Christoph,
you sure are torturing me.

You made a solemn promise
that you would call me.

Bye, My Boy.

Margit, I have...

very bad news.

But I don't want to say too much yet.

- How much longer do I have?
- I don't know that.

I have very bad news.

I often didn't understand
anything in church.

- Sure.
- You can't always understand. You're back.

- So today instead of tomorrow.
- I wanted to give you this.

- What is this photo? Terrific.
- Where is it?

It's...

- Somewhere near here?
- Well, in Germany.

"I think it's sad
that you're dying so young."

I'm not dying yet.

- But it's nice. Thank you.
- It's not decided yet.

Not yet.

Maybe this performance
will help me live on.

Four paths lead to the objective

Firstly,

the means of medicine

What's foreign destroys what's foreign

What's foreign destroys what's foreign

In this case I can't say it's art.
It's something particular.

When I shouted "Helmut Kohl"
that still was "art."

I could still run away.
I can't run away from this.

This is a dead honest first-hand report.

And I do that because then I start
to think about how one can maybe

move closer to oneself
through such a crisis.

Quadraphonic

Quadraphonic

Africa

Africa

Ayurveda

Ayurveda

Healing!

FESTIVAL THEATER
AFRICA

- I don't have the film.
- What film?

The Super-8 film I want to put in there.

I wanted to put my
Super-8 film in there.

Katja, can you call quick?

In my room on the table
there are lots of books...

This capsule will go in the well
at the groundbreaking.

I'll throw this rock
through the Wagners' window in Bayreuth.

Each African country had something

I couldn't find in Germany
or elsewhere on my travels,

but I didn't know exactly what.

Something must've happened
in my frantic and tense life in Germany

to make me forget who I actually was.

A billion bacteria are in it,
but they won't harm you.

They'll just get rid of what's bad.
Believe me. At least I believe that.

No plans were conceived in Berlin

then imported and realized here.

Nature has a model for us
and we're using it.

Further. The movement does it.

The snail.

Boy, Boss,
it was a really good day today.

- We really did a lot.
- We did. Now it's the others' turn.

Get out of here! This is our property!

Out of here!

I wonder why I felt I sometimes
had to disguise myself as a child.

Why did I always care so much
that my parents were all right?

Although there was depression at home,
why did I always fight

so they thought
their son was happy and content?

Although I was already
very melancholic then.

I wasn't a cheery kind of boy.

I liked to laugh, but fundamentally I
was a sad or melancholic person at home.

I always fought
so my parents thought I was doing fine.

Those are factors that I think
cause a person's immune system

to slowly start to fracture and tear.

It's a matter of incorporating the pain
that already existed on earth prior to us.

That includes the pain of people who died
because others thought they were better

and stuck them in ovens.

All of those levels are now
much, much more important to me.

I can't live for the moment and say,
"That's just how it is."

That I'm still here at all
gives me a huge sense of responsibility.

I'm...

The rest is...

silence.

Now cracks a noble heart.

Good night, sweet prince.

And flights of angels sing thee
to thy rest!

So shall you hear of unnatural acts.

And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

fall'n on the inventors' heads.

All this...

can I truly deliver.

For he was likely, had he been put on,

to have proved most royally.

For me,

with sorrow I embrace my fortune.

Christoph Schlingensief died in Berlin
on August 21, 2010 at the age of 49.