Wednesday, May 19, 2010

DER TODESKING (1989)

I really dug NEKROMANTIK, but this film made me sleepy. The movie tells the separate stories of a number of people either killing themselves or killing others. Between the stories is a long boring shot of a corpse rotting. That sounds exciting, but it's not.

First off you got a lonely guy doing shit around his apartment for a long time. Then he gets in the bathtub, takes a bunch of stuff and dies. Exciting!

Then (in the highlight of the movie) there's a dude who goes to the video store and rents ILSA, SHE WOLF OF THE SS, except it's not ILSA instead it's a really low budget film about some Nazi's who cut a dude's penis off (on screen!!!) and then smear a swastika on his chest in his own blood. The guy's girlfriend comes home while he's watching the movie and he immediately shoots her in the head splattering her brains all over the wall. He puts a empty picture frame on the wall around her brain particles then hangs himself. OK?

Next there's a lonely guy sitting on a bench. A woman sits down and the dude starts whining like a bitch about his life. The woman pulls out a gun, the dude takes it and shoots himself in the head. Yawn.

Long slow shot of a bridge with subtitles of people's names. WTF?

Woman looking out the window of her apartment sees two lovers below. She stops watching and eats some candy instead then falls asleep and dreams of a child (her?) watching people hump. We then see the two lovers from earlier in bed covered in blood. Uhh?

Woman with gun kills people at a concert. Somebody kills her. I don't give a shit.

Man bangs his head into a wall a bunch. I know the feeling.

Other than curiosity, there is absolutely no reason to watch this film. I like Buttgereit's style of film making, but you must have a story. I know he was going for something, but instead of having seven unfocused stories it would have been better off if he'd concentrated on say like three strong stories instead. That's my two cents.

Watch it if you want, I don't give a shit if you want to waste your time, but don't come bitching at me when you get bored. Skip it.