Quarterly 4 · 2006 - German Cinema

Christoph Schlingensief (photo © Aino Laberenz)
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT
Born on 24 October 1960 in Oberhausen, the son of an
apothecary and a nurse, Christoph Schlingensief is
a film and theater director, radio drama author and performance
artist. At seven years of age, he shot his first
film with a narrow-gauge film camera. From 1981-1983,
he studied German, Philosophy and Art History in
Munich. As a director’s assistant and camera assistant, he
worked with Franz Seitz, Georg Tressler, and Werner
Nekes. From 1983-1986, he had university teaching positions
in Film Design and Technique at different colleges
and academies, and since 2005 he has been a professor
of “Kunst in Aktion“ (“Art in Action”) at the Hochschule
fuer Bildende Kuenste Braunschweig.
A selection of his films includes: Tunguska – Die
Kisten sind da (1983/1984); Menu Total
(1985/1986); Egomania – Insel ohne Hoffnung
(1986); 100 Jahre Adolf Hitler – Die letzte
Stunde im Fuehrerbunker (1988); Das deutsche
Kettensaegenmassaker (1990); Terror
2000 – Intensivstation Deutschland (1991/
1992); United Trash (1995/1996); and Die 120
Tage von Bottrop – Der letzte Neue
Deutsche Film (1997), to name but a few. His radio
dramas include: Rocky Dutschke 68; Lager ohne Grenzen;
and Rosebud. At the Volksbuehne Berlin, the Deutsches
Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Schauspielhaus Zurich, the
Burgtheater Wien, in Graz, Reykjavik, and Bayreuth he
has staged : 100 Jahre CDU – Spiel ohne Grenzen; Kuehnen
94 – Bring mir den Kopf von Adolf Hitler; Rocky Dutschke
68; Berliner Republik; Bitte liebt Oesterreich; Hamlet;
Parsifal; Der Animatograph – Odins Parsipark; African
Twintowers – der Ring 9/11; and Kaprow City. A selection
of his performances includes: Mein Filz, mein Fett, mein
Hase – 48 Stunden Ueberleben fuer Deutschland (at the
documenta Kassel); Toetet Moelleman; and Nazis raus,
among others.
Contact:
www.schlingensief.com
THE ANIMATOR
A portrait of Christoph Schlingensief
Whoever has seen him at work, surrounded by a dozen able-bodied
helpers and ephebic assistants, has also seen the definition of charisma.
He must have already possessed it as a seven-year-old, perhaps
as an altar boy at his Catholic church, but certainly as the boy with the
camera, who knew how to animate others to participate.
The first encouragement came from his parents, “who filmed a lot on
double 8, children’s films, in the forest, in the mountains, in the bathtub,
at the Zugspitze; my father filmed, my mother edited, an ideal
apportionment.“ Then came the Lichtburg in Oberhausen with
Godzilla and Fuzzi and the Adalusischen Hund, which, “for a 12-yearold,
was a horror film.” Buñuel has always remained important, for
example Das verbrecherische Leben des Archibaldo de la Cruz. “That is
my aspiration: to be active without being capable of being guilty, driven
obsessively … hating oneself for it and transforming that hate into
a vital force.”
He transformed horror and splatter films into vitality. And films of
obsession, Freaks, as well as Die 120 Tage von Sodom, films by Oshima
and Das Grosse Fressen. He got to know the Americans Brakhage,
german films quarterly director’s portrait
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