The Dam & Film or Power - 2-DVD Set ( Kradja dragulja / La peau de chagrin / Don Kihot / General i resni ?lovek / Madeleine, Madeleine / Der Damm / Prometheus / Italienisches Capriccio / Film oder Macht / Tigerkäfig ) ( Theft of Jewels / The Magic Skin / Don Quixote / The General / Madeleine, Madeleine / The Dam / Prometheus / Italian Capriccio / Film or Power / Tiger Cage )

The Dam & Film or Power - 2-DVD Set (DVD) (*)

$36.99

Original Title: Kradja dragulja / La peau de chagrin / Don Kihot / General i resni ?lovek / Madeleine, Madeleine / Der Damm / Prometheus / Italienisches Capriccio / Film oder Macht / Tigerkäfig
Alternate Title: Theft of Jewels / The Magic Skin / Don Quixote / The General / Madeleine, Madeleine / The Dam / Prometheus / Italian Capriccio / Film or Power / Tiger Cage
Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Mono )
French ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Mono )
German ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Germany ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
280 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Storyboards
Black & White
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1959 - 1971 and produced in:
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )
Yugoslavia ( Russia, Eastern Europe )

Directed By:
Mladen Feman
Vlado Kristl

Written By:
Berislav Brkic
Honoré de Balzac
Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra
Vlado Kristl
Michaela Berchtold

Actors:
Mladen Feman
Elisabeth Holzner
Rolf Huber
Theo Rauch
Marika Silbernagl
Madeleine Sommer
Petra Nettelbeck ..... Das gelähmte Mädchen
Vlado Kristl ..... Der 'Clown'
Felix Potisk ..... Der 'Spießer'
Erich Glöckler ..... Telefonstimm
Uwe Nettelbeck
Christine Maier ..... 1. Boxeuse
Marlene Zargos ..... 2. Boxeuse
Sylvia Kekulé ..... Schöner Busen
Heinz Badewitz ..... Radfahrer
Rajo Böhm ..... 1. Anitfahrradmensch
Christian Schleuning ..... 2. Antifahrradmensch
John Andrews
Vlado Kristl
Denyse Noever
Uschi Obermaier

Synopsis:

Zagreb-born artist Vlado Kristl (1923 - 2004) was the most radical of the German auteur filmmakers. This two-disc set represents a re-discovery of his work. It comprises early animated films, made in Yugoslavia, his first live-action film, first feature-length film, a parody of holiday home movies, a pamphlet, and a previously unreleased 8mm film. The ROM section features sketches, storyboards, scripts, and texts by Kristl.
Kradja dragulja / Theft of Jewels, 1959 (9 min.)
La peau de chagrin / The Magic Skin, 1960 (10 min.)
Don Kihot / Don Quixote, 1961 (11 min.)
General i resni ?lovek / The General, 1962 (10 min.)
Madeleine, Madeleine, 1963 (10 min.)
Der Damm / The Dam, 1964 (77 min.)
Prometheus, 1966 (10 min.)
Italienisches Capriccio / Italian Capriccio, 1969 (28 min.)
Film oder Macht / Film or Power, 1970 (101 min.)
Tigerkäfig / Tiger Cage, 1971 (14 min.)

Kristl does not serve up ideology or the odd and sundry message; no nice, tidy leftist ethos. The director displays no purposeful aspiration to social criticism or the wide-ranging, life-long complex of problems, turgid with meaning, that have since the dawn of time been capable of sending the German soul into throes of ecstasy. And, as in his earlier film Madeleine Madeleine, in The Dam, although it is an experimental film, Kristl eschews the necessary earnestness in addressing his subject. The manufactured, unambiguously humorless profundity proffered up by Herbert Vesely, Ottomar Domnick, Walter Krüttner, and others is absent here. Laughter is allowed. Kristl takes the dreadful liberty of tomfoolery, sending up himself, the characters, the action, "tragedy," and everything else, including the audience, that might be held sacred. Kristl's film is a jest, if you will, a jest of despair. Within the framework of the action, we recognize a love triangle, one of the simplest of dramatic configurations. Not only the basic idea, but also numerous particulars, both in subject and style, are reminiscent of the films of Roman Polanski, which Kristl doubtless saw and holds in esteem. We meet two men one is meant to embody the outsider, the artistic, intellectual, individualist (Kristl plays this role himself, with the voice dubbed by Uwe Nettelbeck). The other looks like the embodiment of the well-to-do man, the burgher, the functionary, the capitalist. The two battle for the favor of an indecisive and domineering girl (Petra Krause). The subject matter and the denouement with the well-off man the victor and the outsider sinking bombastically without further ado are familiar from Madeleine Madeleine. In The Dam, however, everything is much more explosive, corrosive, confusing, and enhanced with distinguishing aspects and a multitude of repetition. Kristl seems to be extremely discomfited by "normal" procedures. Among other things, he loves to vandalize the conventional, "natural" logic of occurrences, say by putting the opening shots at the end of a scene or vice versa. Of course, that process and similar "gimmicks" contain a goodly portion of capriciousness and coincidence. It could be argued, however, that those are inherent in any creation, regardless of which order it might belong to. The question is what Kristl achieves by shattering and deforming the accustomed course of events; by working not within established logic, but rather alogically, in end effect emotionally. What he achieves, at a minimum, is that after seeing The Dam, you can't watch a normal film without questioning its slick plausibility. All at once, you feel dissatisfaction with all too common cinematic action, situations, and forms that are more rip-offs than revelations of reality. And you begin to understand that Kristl, in the best moments of the film, is interested in the actual truth of an occurrence, which is not necessarily identical to the visible, obvious course of events. He cracks the shell to extract the kernel; he films thought.

DVD 1
Kradja dragulja 1959, 9'
La peau de chagrin 1960, 10'
Don Kihot 1961, 11'
General i resni clovek 1962, 10'
Madeleine, Madeleine 1963, 10'
Der Damm 1964, 77'
Prometheus 1966, 10'
Documents, sketches, scripts, and drawings as ROM features
DVD 2
Italienisches Capriccio 1969, 28'
Film oder Macht 1970, 101'
Tigerkäfig 1971, 14'
20-page trilingual booklet mit essays

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 10 June, 2015.

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