Iconoclast, enfant terrible, agent provocateur. While many would call German filmmaker-performer-activist Christoph Schlingensief (1960-2010) fearless, he himself said shortly before his untimely death that to make good work, “I have to approach those I fear”. On May 10+15+17,
GOETHE FILMS features core Schlingensief projects that tackle the ghosts of Europe's past, present and future – fascism, capitalism, division and reunification – in his signature no-holds-barred splatter style.
Here Christoph Schlingensief is in conversation with the media on the occasion of the release of his film THE 120 DAYS OF BOTTROP in November 1997:
Mr. Schlingensief, you can be seen and heard everywhere at the moment. First you put on "48 hours Survival for Germany" at documenta in Kassel, and while doing it, you were arrested. Then you made headines with your talk show on German TV RTL, and after your "Railway Mission" at Hamburg Theatre now comes the premiere of your new film. Why this ecstasy of production?
My favourite sentence comes from Helmut Berger: "It's never too late to want the impossible, even if you know that you can never reach it." We had to edit ten times because he was so pissed that he could only memorize parts. That is to say it's really a good film. For me this is a test track. We have just a bit more than two years to go until the turn of the millennium. From 2000 on, everything will be different, won't it? Cars can fly, we live on pills. But until then anything goes, just do it. I'm doing it with a pure lust of doing.
And what comes after the last New German Film you are propagating in 120 DAYS OF BOTTROP?
If they give me the Four Seasons, I would like to become a hotel owner and manage it for half a year. Or I become a bus driver, one of those who drives around with a microphone in their hand and show places to people. I don't like being on earth, but now I'm here, I at least want to experience a couple of things.
What does Fassbinder mean to you?
I like it if somebody does so many things. I believe that he has been misjudged, that he was a cynic who had a second look atall the genres to see what's left, and then blasted himself into space.
So if auteurism is over now ... You are an auteur, aren't you?
One should have a castle in Scotland, invite friends, make films, and then send them the tapes. But if that doesn't work, I think one should drag the actors into some village for three weeks and shoot something there on location without a screenplay. We don't need to make ourselves perfect. We have to raise the quota of mistakes in film.
Make mistakes.
Your opinion on the state of television production is very determined ...
If I was the chancellor, I would have a few TV content editors brought here to the Grand Hotel in Berlin and coraled behind barbed wire and watchtowers. I would feed them lobster and caviar all day and have to watch their own productions all the time. Suicide would definitely become an option. I would hide a gun somewhere for them to find.
Have you ever seen a psychiatrist?
Once. But as I don't want to change, I don't need to go again. I feel splendid.
text and Image courtesy Filmgalerie451 Berlin
