17.09.22 | JERK (FR 2021, Gisèle Vienne) / STAGING DEATH (AT/D 2022, Jan Soldat) / ASMODEUS (CA 2021, Éric Falardeau)
Originally published as a novel by Dennis Cooper, JERK refers to the authentic story of sexual criminal and mass murderer Dean Corll, who abused, tortured and killed more than 20 young men at the beginning of the 1970ies. David Brooks, one of his accessories, put an end to the horror and killed Corll.
JERK
FR 2021, D: Gisèle Vienne, A: Jonathan Capdevielle, 60′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
In the fictional continuation of this story, David Brooks – sentenced to life imprisonment – looks back on the incidents and reappraises it as a therapeutic measure. The killer turns into the narrator and reconstructs the crimes in the form of a puppet theatre show. In this, setting and film language are minimized: only Brooks, performing with a couple of hand puppets, giving them – embodying perpetrators and victims alike – a voice. The horror of the crimes saturated with violence is accompanied by a sadist narrative. Within an aesthetic situation multiply broken by the theatre setting and the usage of puppets, Brooks’ imagination and the representation of his corporeality are completely absorbed in an extremely distance-free and what is for him a lustful reenactment of the killings.
| Sat 17 Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 9:30 pm | In the presence of Jan Soldat With an audience discussion after JERK regular: 6,5€ / reduced 5,5€ |
STAGING DEATH | German Premiere
AT/GER 2022, D: Jan Soldat, 8′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
During his acting career that started in the middle of the 1960ies, Udo Kier worked hard for the presumably longest records in the usual film databases. Beside engagements by cinematic artists including Lars von Trier, he is frequently booked for remote trash and low-budget productions. Here and there, the characters played by him are very often sent to kingdom come. In STAGING DEATH, Jan Soldat collects a selection of the more than 70 deaths that Kier has died in front of the camera. In the montage, iconic episodes are assembled, like Dracula being impaled, a moon-nazi being squashed by a T-Rex and the physical disappearance of Jason whose body can hardly be detected in the billowing reed. At the same time, the juxtaposition of scenes from over 50 years gives an entertaining insight into the evolution of special effects. One thing is for sure: Kier gives his unmistakable peculiarity even to his playful deaths – from falling asleep peacefully to being massacred.
ASMODEUS | German Premiere
CA 2021, D: Éric Falardeau, A: Éric Falardeau, Stéphanie Cadieux, Annaëlle Winand, 11′, no dialogue, DCP
In the form of an occult ritual, ASMODEUS depicts the invocation and awakening of three female incarnations of the eponymous demon of lust and wrath. In this, director Éric Falardeau, who plays the male protagonist, orients himself at the principles of the affective transgressions of gore and splatter: down with good taste! During the ceremony, blood and other body fluids are flowing, ecstasy lends the power to the people (men) to turn into a higher self, to get rid of handles and constraints of morality.
