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Nekromantik
Die beiden Filme Nekromantik und Nekromantik 2 von Jörg Buttgereit werden uns ewig beschäftigen. Liebe, Tod und Sex sind die größten Themen der Menschen. Jörg Buttgereit hat sie in seinen Filmen so eng miteinander kombiniert, dass die auf Schmalfilm gedrehten Kinofilme zunächst als Splatterstreifen landesweit beschlagnahmt und verboten wurden und heute als hervorragende Kunstwerke gelten.
Wie es dazu kam, beschreiben sechs Filmliebhaber in diesem Buch. Ihre Interpretationen reichen von den Anfängen der Filmgeschichte bis in unsere heutige Gesellschaft mit ihren Tabus, Möglichkeiten und Fehlern. Radikal reflektieren die Filme von Jörg Buttgereit den Umgang mit dem bewegten Bild und seine Bedeutung über das Filmgenre hinaus - mit Humor und Verstand.
Dieses Buch hat zwei Cover auf beiden Seiten und kann durch eine Drehung deutsch oder englisch gelesen werden.
Wie es dazu kam, beschreiben sechs Filmliebhaber in diesem Buch. Ihre Interpretationen reichen von den Anfängen der Filmgeschichte bis in unsere heutige Gesellschaft mit ihren Tabus, Möglichkeiten und Fehlern. Radikal reflektieren die Filme von Jörg Buttgereit den Umgang mit dem bewegten Bild und seine Bedeutung über das Filmgenre hinaus - mit Humor und Verstand.
Dieses Buch hat zwei Cover auf beiden Seiten und kann durch eine Drehung deutsch oder englisch gelesen werden.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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February 16, 2015Nekromantik is a 1987 West German horror film directed by Jörg Buttgereit concerning a man and woman who make love to a corpse. As one can gather from that (admittedly simplified) plot synopsis, it is a movie difficult to watch, and one that has seen its share of controversy. Nekromantik has been literally difficult to watch as well, as it has been long out of print until Cult Epics Limited Edition simultaneously released a DVD and Blu-ray edition earlier this year. Now, perhaps, is the time to reevaluate this much maligned and misunderstood “video nasty.” More widely (in)famous outside of West Germany where it was conceived and filmed, Nekromantik (the book), edited by Buttgereit himself, attempts to complicate the preconceived notion that Nekromantik (the film) is pure exploitative trash, while also realigning the film as distinctly German cinema.
Nekromantik contains six essays, in addition to a preface by Buttgereit in which he admits he would “never have deduced many of these insights and connections in relation to my small films by myself” (7). This is the first suggestion of the oftentimes contradictory profile of Buttgereit that immerges throughout the book: is he an intelligent and thoughtful filmmaker, forcing his audience to confront their desensitization to violence, as Linnie Blake argues in her brilliant essay, “Things to do in German, With the Dead,” because a “desensitization to violence is just as likely to happen when we refuse to look” (100)? Or are his films suspended “between artistic distinction and horny exploitation,” (69) as Dietrich Kuhlbrodt claims in his essay, “Loving Corpses”? This ambivalence pervades the essays of Nekromantik as well, as crude, gloating personal anecdotes, such as Johannes Schönherr’s reminiscence on being a grave digger in the GDR entitled “Reality Check – The Grave Digger’s Perspective” sit beside more polished, theoretical explorations, like Marcus Stiglegger’s “City of the Dead- Berlin as a Mirror of the Broken Soul in Nekromantik 2.” A Frankensteinian approach to a book, where theoretical arguments contrast with garish, affronting behind-the-scene photographs of Buttgereit’s films, seems especially necessary and apt, considering its subject matter.
Nekromantik is not without its faults: an all-in-one bilingual edition (one half of the book is in German, the other half an English translation), the English translations are sometimes sloppy, slapdash, or even incomprehensible. Photographs are not replicated in the German and English sections, but rather each language has its own selection of photographs, which makes one question whether any thought was given to their inclusion. Full-page photographs are given no citation or caption of explanation at all, but because they are almost entirely depictions of sexualized gore, they seem designed to provoke merely a visceral reaction in the viewer. Finally, with the exception of Buttgereit’s brief preface, there is no overarching editorial “voice” to the book: the reader is never introduced to Buttgereit, his world or movies, but is assumed to be already familiar enough with him to jump right in to a conversation involving his most avid fans. This lack of orientation is alienating to the uninitiated, as is the lack of much of any dissenting opinion on the worthiness of Buttgereit’s work.
Yet Nekromantik never presents itself as a collection of critical analysis; as a matter of fact, it never presents itself as anything. Its chief asset and fault is its lack of cohesion, a trait I have suggested it perhaps shares with its subject matter. Nekromantik (the book) might be ambiguous in its design and purpose, but then so is Nekromantik (the film). Not much criticism of Nekromantik exists outside of this book, but as the film is now in the process of being unearthed by a new generation, perhaps new criticism will be once again blown into its corpse.
Nekromantik contains six essays, in addition to a preface by Buttgereit in which he admits he would “never have deduced many of these insights and connections in relation to my small films by myself” (7). This is the first suggestion of the oftentimes contradictory profile of Buttgereit that immerges throughout the book: is he an intelligent and thoughtful filmmaker, forcing his audience to confront their desensitization to violence, as Linnie Blake argues in her brilliant essay, “Things to do in German, With the Dead,” because a “desensitization to violence is just as likely to happen when we refuse to look” (100)? Or are his films suspended “between artistic distinction and horny exploitation,” (69) as Dietrich Kuhlbrodt claims in his essay, “Loving Corpses”? This ambivalence pervades the essays of Nekromantik as well, as crude, gloating personal anecdotes, such as Johannes Schönherr’s reminiscence on being a grave digger in the GDR entitled “Reality Check – The Grave Digger’s Perspective” sit beside more polished, theoretical explorations, like Marcus Stiglegger’s “City of the Dead- Berlin as a Mirror of the Broken Soul in Nekromantik 2.” A Frankensteinian approach to a book, where theoretical arguments contrast with garish, affronting behind-the-scene photographs of Buttgereit’s films, seems especially necessary and apt, considering its subject matter.
Nekromantik is not without its faults: an all-in-one bilingual edition (one half of the book is in German, the other half an English translation), the English translations are sometimes sloppy, slapdash, or even incomprehensible. Photographs are not replicated in the German and English sections, but rather each language has its own selection of photographs, which makes one question whether any thought was given to their inclusion. Full-page photographs are given no citation or caption of explanation at all, but because they are almost entirely depictions of sexualized gore, they seem designed to provoke merely a visceral reaction in the viewer. Finally, with the exception of Buttgereit’s brief preface, there is no overarching editorial “voice” to the book: the reader is never introduced to Buttgereit, his world or movies, but is assumed to be already familiar enough with him to jump right in to a conversation involving his most avid fans. This lack of orientation is alienating to the uninitiated, as is the lack of much of any dissenting opinion on the worthiness of Buttgereit’s work.
Yet Nekromantik never presents itself as a collection of critical analysis; as a matter of fact, it never presents itself as anything. Its chief asset and fault is its lack of cohesion, a trait I have suggested it perhaps shares with its subject matter. Nekromantik (the book) might be ambiguous in its design and purpose, but then so is Nekromantik (the film). Not much criticism of Nekromantik exists outside of this book, but as the film is now in the process of being unearthed by a new generation, perhaps new criticism will be once again blown into its corpse.
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