16th - 20th OCTOBER 2013
ul. Jaskółcza 1, Gdansk - Dolne Miasto
SYBERBERG AND WAGNER
The review of multimedia and inter-medial pieces by Hans-Jurgen Syberberg, is organised in frames of celebrations of the year of Wagner. During the five day review, totalling 20 hours of projections, it will be possible to see the pieces inspired by Wagner, through his character, work and ideas. Aside from the adaptation of the opera Parsifal, Wagner's letters to the women and surrealistic piece Ludwig - requiem for the Virgine King, there will also be shown a very controversial document - an interview with Wagner's Daughter-in-law. At the end of the review it will be possible to see the most famous and recognisable Syberberg’s piece: Hitler: A film from Germany.
Programme of the review
16.10.2013, at 7 pm
Ludwig - requiem for the Virgine King
1972, 134 min
17.10.2013, at 7 pm
The Night, Part 1: Wagner's letters to the women . Monologue, 1985, 131 min.
18.10.2013, at 5 pm
The Confessions of Winifred Wagner, 1975, 302 min
with 30 minutes intermission (after 141 min.)
19.10.2013, at 1 pm
Hitler: A film from Germany, 1977, 437 min
with 30 minutes intermission (after 215 min)
20.10.2013, at 5 pm
BIOGRAPHY:
Hans Jürgen Syberberg was born in 8 December 1935 as a son of an estate owner in Nossendorf, Pomerania. Syberberg lived until 1945 in Rostock and Berlin. In 1952 and 1953 he created his first 8 mm takes of rehearsals by the Berliner Ensemble.
In 1953 he moved to West Germany where he in 1956 began studies in literature and art history, completing them the following year. He earned his doctorate in Munich with his thesis on "The Absurd in Dürrenmatt”. In 1963 Syberberg began producing documentary films about Fritz Kortner and Romy Schneider for Bavarian Radio and others.
For Syberberg, cinema is a form of Gesamtkunstwerk. Many commentators, including Syberberg himself, have characterized his work as a cinematic combination of Bertolt Brecht’s doctrine of epic theatre and Richard Wagner’s operatic aesthetics. Well known philosophers and intellectuals have written about his work, including Susan Sontag, Gilles Deleuze and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe.
His most characteristic films studies German history in XX century, e.g. The Confessions of Winifred Wagner, a documentary about Winifred Wagner, an Englishwoman who had married Richard Wagner’s son Siegfried. The documentary attracted attention because it exposed Mrs Wagner’s unrepentant admiration for Adolf Hitler. Made in 1972 „Ludwig – requiem for a virgin king” is the first part of of Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s ‘German Trilogy’. The second film, made two years later, „Karl May” is dedicated to the best seller German artist. The last part is „Hitler: a film from Germany” which aroused controversy because of a Third Reich depiction as a consequence of German romanticism. Syberberg is also noted for an acclaimed visual interpretation of the Wagner opera Parsifal in 1982.
FILMOGRAPHY:
2003 Syberberg/Paris/Nossendorf, a Retrospective and Installation
2002 Hommage for Einar Schleef (Installation of 12 self-made films)
1997 Hohle der Erinnerung (Cave of Memory) (Installation of 31 projections/ documentaries/self-made films)
(Installation of 12 self-made films)
1994 Nietzsche/Weimar (Installation of several self-made films)
1994 Ein Traum, was sonst
1993 Syberberg filmt Brecht (Digital restoration of Nach meinem letzten Umzug)
1989 Die Marquise von 0
1987 Penthesilea
1986 Fräulein Else
1985 Edith Clever liest Joyce (Molly Bloom-Monologue)
1984 Die Nacht
1981-82 Parsifal
1978 Hitler: Ein Film aus Deutschland (Our Hitler)
1975 Winifred Wagner und die Feschichte des Hauses Wahnfried von 1914-1975 (The Confessions of Winifred Wagner)
1974 Karl May
1972 Theodor Hirneis oder: Wie man ehem Hofkoch wird
1972 Ludwig – Requiem fur einen jungfräulichen Konig (Ludwig II: Requiem for a Virgin King)
1971 Nach meinem letzten Umzug (8mm films of Brecht's plays, made in 1952-1953)
1970 San Domingo
1969 Sex-Business-Made in Passing
1968 Scarabea – Wieviel Erde braucht der Mensch
1966 Fritz Kortner spricht Monologe fur eine Schallplatte
1966 Die Grafen Pocci-einige Kapitel zur Geschichte einer Familie
1965 Romy: Anatomie eines Gesichts
1965 Fünfter Akt, Siebente Szene: Fritz Kortner probt Kabale und Liebe
Links:
Hans Jürgen Syberberg website
Susan Sontag about „Hitler“ – video-essay [YouTube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8sfBoid8_Y
Far into a German soul. An interview with Hans Jürgen Syberberg
http://www.goethe.de/ins/pl/lp/kul/dup/flm/fif/pl11369788.htm
The Parsifal Project
http://www.monsalvat.no/sybrbrg.htm
Organizers of the project; Goethe - Institute, International film festival T-Mobile new horizons, CCA Laznia in Gdansk, Filmoteka Narodowa, Foundation artistic campaign.
BIP