Love Like Blood: Jorg Buttgereit's Nekromantik 2

Every genre of film has its presets of expectations. If it's a Western film, you expect dusty landscapes and dirty cowboys. If it's a Horror film, you expect some amount of screaming, blood and at least one false scare. If it's a love story, then you expect romantic pathos and a boy and a girl to meet and fall in forever, soulmate-esque love in spite of a few dramatic interruptions. Etc etc. All of this is why I love it when a filmmaker can take these little category boxes of film, wield a boxcutter to a bunch of them and then with some duct tape, construct something actually quite fresh and different. With this build up, you may not expect that the film I am segueing to is Jorg Buttgereit's sequel to his underground dark comedy/horror film, Nekromantik, but segueing I am! (Of course if you actually read the title to this article, then you already knew where I was going with all of this. In that case, never mind.)

Sequels are generally a bit of a creative gamble. Is it a crude way to lure in the rubes? Sure, if the minds behind it are bankrupt. A truly good and worthy sequel is one that can use all of the right elements from the first film and utilize that as a template to build a better garden. With a brilliant and fun director like Buttgereit at the helm once again, Nekromantik 2 is a fascinating film intertwined with one of the strangest love stories ever told.

The quote of “I just want to master life & death, ” courtesy of Theodore R. Bundy, better known as Ted Bundy, one of the most infamous serial killers from the past forty years, begins the first frame, right before a flashback to Rob's (Daktari Lorenz) climactic (literally and metaphorically) hari kiri scene from the first film. Nekromantik 2 truly begins with a stylishly dressed and slightly nervous looking young woman walking around a cemetery near a bombed out looking building. The deeper she goes, the more lush the vegetation grows, until she ends up in a more secluded section where Rob is buried. In some perfect cosmic kismet, the first film's death-obsessed protagonist ends up being dug up by a lovely lady with similar post-living obsessions!

Digging him up, she's able to move his corpse into her extremely colorful and tidy apartment. The grotto-grunge of Rob's apartment from the first film is replaced by clean, sunny walls and modern, neat-looking furniture. Jars of assorted body parts/mementos from Rob's dayjob are now an assortment of skull centric paintings and medical x-rays used as art as décor. The red haired woman, Monika (Monika M.), lays his body out and kisses him wetly with some tentativeness and a lot of barely held back erotic charge, before she begins to undress him. Meanwhile, we also meet Mark (Mark Reeder), a lanky looking young man on his way to his dayjob of dubbing over rangy-looking porn.

The dreamy edging into psychedelic camerawork that marked all of the love scenes from the first Nekromantik starts to return as Monika attempts to make love to Rob's blackened-by-rot form, but coitus interruptus arises as she physically gets ill and cannot resume the lovemaking. In short, Monika has the heart and drive for sexually loving the dead, but not quite the stomach. There's something about Rob, though, that makes her clean up his body, with her red lacquered nails tenderly touching the imprint of his fatal gut wound and dress him in fresh clothes. As Mark tries to plan a film date with an eternally tardy friend of his, Monika poses with Rob for her Polaroid with a self-timer, grinning like a new girl smitten with amour.

But life's strange glory comes into play yet again, when Monika happens to walk by the Sputnik Theater where Mark is waiting for his date. Impatient, he chats her up and offers Monika the spare ticket. Going to watch some bizarro world version of “My Dinner with Andre,” entitled “Mon Dejeuner avec Vera” (aka “My Lunch with Vera”), that consists of a highly chatty man and a less chatty woman, completely naked and eating eggs, Monika and Mark quickly hit it off. Soon, Monika will face the weirdest case of being “torn between two lovers” ever, only to be outdone by one hilarious and volatile resolution.

"Nekromantik 2" is a an intriguing and worthy sequel to its infamous and well made progenitor. The fact that Buttgereit switched the focus from a heart-sick and head-sick young man in the form of Rob, to the love-sick and balanced-in-her-own-strange-way, Monika, is unexpected and really smart. The eroto-death factor is still there, but with Monika, her own flesh won't allow her to do what her heart wants to. Even more intriguing is when she tries to dispose of Rob as she and Mark start to get more serious, Monika grows emotional and keeps Rob's head and genitals. (The latter comes into play with some great twisted humor, as she puts it on a plate, wraps it in plastic and places the severed member in her fridge like well-loved leftovers. Which is pretty fitting, now that I think of it!)

Monika is an unusually complex character, especially for being a woman. In the cinematic landscape, whether we're talking mainstream pap or underground DIY, women are more of than not, relegated to ether bitch, sex/brain starved nymphet-nympho, frumpy friend or Holly Sunshine: Pretty Girl Worthy of Love. So to see a female lead chase her heart and desires that play far outside the boundaries of what is “normal” (or legal for that matter), is pretty great. Especially as her relationship with Mark starts to show more cracks, with him unable to give her any sort of climax, Monika is forced to feed her need. Granted, I'm not saying “Ladies, start digging up your soulmate!” or anything, but there is an undercurrent of affection and respect for this character that is refreshing. Monika M. is likable as the lovely and chic girl with the strangest desires of profound morbidity. There is an understatedness to her performance that works quite well and helps keep the film anchored in an even keel. 

 

The filmmaking quotient is even better here, with Nekromantik 2 featuring more of budget with the former's 8mm format being replaced with a more glossy looking 16mm print. That may sound like a sell-out to a less-slackful underground film fan, but given that the plot is more of a love story, a fact even mentioned by Buttgereit himself in the intro to the lovely Cult Epics blu-ray release, it makes more sense for it visually to look bright and crisp. The first film was more of a tonally extreme film, so the 8mm format was perfect for it. The camerawork and editing are even tighter, with some especially great use of movement in the “hunt for Rob” cemetery sequence near the beginning. One big link between the two films is the amazing soundtrack, featuring more stellar work courtesy of Herman Kopp and “John Boy Walton,” both returning from the first film. The fact that such beautifully composed music is intertwined with a film about necrophilia is all sorts of subversive sweetness.

Speaking of great music, one of my personal favorite scenes is the musical number that seemingly pops out of nowhere with Monika singing “Squelette Délicieux” like a post-modern Zarah Leander. The fact that the title loosely translates to, “Delicious Skeleton,” makes me love this scene all the more. Beatrice M.'s cameo (Betty from the original Nekromantik) is also a hoot.

It's that combination of humor, heart and a willingness to explore transgressive imagery and taboo topics that sear Nekromantik 2 into the minds of any viewer worth his or her salt. There's still a bit of the requisite gore and animal death, though neither are quite as heightened as they were in the first. (A warning to the squeamish, the animal footage involves Monika and her lady-gang of death-loving friends watching footage of a dead seal getting dissected. It's really gross but given that the animal was already dead and the video in question looks clinical in nature, it is still a far cry from the cruelty-tango of the Italian cannibal films of the 70's.)

It is inconceivable to think that out of the two Nekromantik films, this was the one that was quickly seized by German authorities, just a mere 12 days after its initial release. To the extent that they even attempted, and mercifully failed, to find and destroy that actual negative. The reasoning? It allegedly “glorified violence.” Never mind that the first one had more violence or even worse, the numerous Hollywood action films that were more inherently immoral in their revery of death and maiming. Especially coming off the heels of the 80's, where people were consistently being used as pure blow-up fodder for the beefy, gun wielding hero du jour. Case in point: Which film has a higher body count? Nekromantik 2 or any of the Rambo films? Exactly.

Luckily for us, Nekromantik 2 is still here and is out via another gorgeous blu ray release from Cult Epics. If there's a supplement you would want, this film has it, from director commentary to a behind-the-scenes-featurette to trailers and even a moment of silence via a home video peek into Jorg and friends' road trip to Ed Gein's gravesite. This whole release is a fitting tribute to a great film and director.

Nekromantik 2 is further proof that out of the unholy hordes of indie filmmakers that emerged out of the 1980's, few are true auteurs like Buttgereit. There was and is no director out in the cinematic landscape quite like him. Even if 8,000 foolhards tried to imitate him, they would fail because a real artist has their own unique fingerprint and that is Jorg Buttgereit all the way. 

Copyright 2015 Heather Drain 

I Love the Dead: Jorg Buttgereit's NEKROMANTIK

It takes a hardy artistic soul to explore cultural taboos with a flat-out bare-knuckles, wild Turk type of approach. But it takes an even hardier (and often, beautifully mad!) artistic soul to incorporate comedy with said culturally taboo exploration. Ladies and gents, let me pull back the curtain and introduce you to Jorg Buttgereit's 1988 underground classic, NEKROMANTIK. It's not the first film to delve into the topic of romancing the dead, since an earlier example of that would be the Lyle Waggoner wonder LOVE ME DEADLY from 1973, but it is truly unlike anything made past, present and future. Necrophilia or not.

Looking like a cross between a scratchy handwritten note and bathroom graffiti, the film opens with, “Warning! Some of this film may be seen as 'grossly' offensive & should not be shown to minors!!!” That kind of lurid hullabaloo can only mean that you are either in for a fun smear-on-your-soul kind of dark ride or a just bad carnival ride. Mercifully, it is the former. After that, the actual opening begins with a woman peeing by the side of the road at night. As she is relieving herself, her flowery panties splayed, her male companion starts yelling at her from the driver's side to hurry up. Getting back in the car, they almost get hit by one car and then as he starts to bitch more about her small bladder, it's time to cue up the Bloodrock since they get in a nasty and very fatal car wreck.

The beginning credits roll over the highly gruesome crash site, including the woman being not so neatly bisected and her partner's eye dangling from his newly empty socket. Soon the J.S.A. (Joe's Streetcleaning Agency) show up to tidy up the accident scene. The newest member of the crew, Robert (Daktari Lorenz), despite constantly irritating his team's leader, quietly enjoys his job. To the extent of bringing home little mementos---this time around being the driver's now completely severed eyeball. In a beautifully composed sequence, we get to see Robert, in his Ed Gein-meets-junkie-esque pit apartment, meticulously prepare a jar of (presumably) embalming fluid for him to place his newest acquisition in. There's a great shot of some of his previous souvenirs, including a hand, some organ meat and what looks like a fetus. (Hey, it beats the hell out of Precious Moments figurines.)

He's greeted by his girlfriend, Bettie (Beatrice M.) who shares Robert's enthusiasm for the dead and their assorted bits. Later on, she takes a bath in some especially ruddy looking water while the sounds of an academic discussion involving fear, desensitization and even, briefly, the video nasties, plays in the background. The sound is emanating from Robert's television. As fear and the confrontation of it continues on, it triggers a particular troubling flashback for him, inter-cutting footage of a live rabbit being killed and promptly skinned with Robert performing an autopsy of sorts on a corpse and removing some lard-type gunk out of the incision. Adding to the no fun ambiance is the quite brilliant white noise soundtrack. The whole sequence is hard to watch but so well put together that it puts you through a seesaw effect of compelling and wanting to look away from your screen.

An interstitial sequence involving apple picking and the dangers of doing so near a drunken German redneck who is listening to military-style music and trying to kill innocent birds plays out. (Here's a hint. It doesn't end too well for our intrepid apple picker.) The J.S.A. are called on an unrelated case, this time involving removing a long decomposed body out of a pond. (One of Robert's teammates remarks, “Picked a good day to go swimming!”) Everyone goes home and Robert's boss tells him to take over the wheel, leaving him alone with the husked out, waterlogged corpse. Faster than you can throw on Alice Cooper's “Cold Ethyl,” Robert brings the body home, to a very delighted Bettie. It has been said that necessity is the mother of all invention and as Robert saws off part of a pipe, the truth of this old saying has never been brighter. Attaching the metal form of a luscious apparatus to their new “friend,” Bettie makes sure to sheath it with a condom before one of the strangest menage-a-trois' ever to be committed to film occurs. It is, despite all of its tawdry eyeball licking and rot-goo glory, strangely arty and as tasteful as a three-way with a drowned corpse is going to be. Also, I absolutely dare you not to get what I am going to call “Love Theme from Nekromantik” out of your head. It's a strangely sweet tune that is more befitting of a chaste lovers holding hands in a field than rubbing your naughty bits up on a putrefied body. 

The afterglow is nice but things soon deteriorate when Robert loses his job and Bettie, worried about where they will find the next one, ends up leaving him. Everyone has a breaking point and for Robert, Bettie's terse departure is it. His path of self-destruction leads him from drinking to killing a cat (in a mercifully faked scene) and inevitably, murder. There's also a hilarious dream sequence involving a lovely maiden in white and playing a game of hot potato with a severed head. All of this leads him to one fluid and anguished climax, which I dare not spoil here. You just really need to see this for yourself, not to mention the sweet little twist ending.

For being only 75 minutes, NEKROMANTIK packs a lot into its fairly short running time. Having first read about it back when I was in junior high and managed to find an issue of the long defunct magazine, Film Threat Video, I thought I knew what kind of ride I would be in for. The associated still, a shot of Beatrice M. cuddling up to her long dead amour, flanked by a picture of Charles Manson on the wall, backed my assumption up. But NEKROMANTIK is more than just an extreme tale of the love that is hopefully outlawed in your home country. Sure, it has plenty of inventive uses of gore, ooze, goo and outre imagery to horrify your family and delight your more hardy friends. But if NEKROMANTIK was simply just another gross-out gore film, it would not have the level of notoriety that it does today.

For starters, despite its extremely DIY origins, complete with being originally shot on Super 8mm and taking around two years to complete, the film is incredibly well made. There is some great camera work that is utilized with a keen eye on composition, especially during the sequence when Robert finds out Bettie has left him. Another visually remarkable scene is when Robert and Bettie sit down to eat dinner. As they smile and eat quietly in the bright primary red room, the film keeps cutting back to the squalid gray of where their lover is hanging on the wall. It's a truly rich juxtaposition. Equaling the cinematography is the editing, which is tight and rhythmic when it needs to be. There's some especially great editing during Robert's meltdown, where the film is cut back and forth between him murdering the stray cat and burning a picture of Bettie. Then there's the soundtrack, which is terrific and ranges from schmaltzy love tones to industrial white noise. The fact that one of the composers is credited as “John Boy Walton” makes it all the better. The acting is fun with both Daktari Lorenz (who is also credited as one of the composers) and Beatrice M. being especially good as the young, attractive and damaged necrophiliacs in love. There could not have been better casting. Also, keep an eye out for director Buttgereit as one of Robert's co-workers at the J.S.A.

Director Jorg Buttgereit with the film's love interest.

Buttgereit, who had made a number of film shorts (including HOT LOVE, whose poster you can see in the film when Robert goes to a local movie theater) before his feature film debut with NEKROMANTIK, manages to do the near-impossible and deftly include both a fabulously twisted sense of humor as well as genuine horror. Merging the worlds of comedy and horror can be tricky, which is why most films that have tried are usually terrible. (There are exceptions, but that is a different article!) Buttgereit handles it like a director twice his age and three times as experienced. (He was only in his early 20's when he started shooting NEKROMANTIK.) The fact that you have this humor juxtaposed with gruesome imagery and a subject matter that is automatically going to put a lot of viewers in an extremely uncomfortable head space is borderline Artaud-like. It is a queasy but needed combination. It's healthy. After all, art can only hurt you if you let it.

Formerly available via Film Threat Video and Barrel Entertainment, NEKROMANTIK has found a new home in the US via Cult Epics. Thanks to them, the film is now available in a definitive edition of the film and on Blu Ray to boot! This release includes both a HD transfer of the original Super 8mm negative, as well as the “Grindhouse” version that was taken from the film's sole 35mm print. The former features the film looking as crisp as Super 8mm footage shot in the mid-80's is ever going to look and the latter features the film looking especially gritty and murky. Interestingly enough, one of the disc's extras includes Buttgereit introducing this version at a film festival and noting that it was his favorite since it looked more “dirty.” Which is pretty apt. In addition to these two versions, there is also a director's commentary, a “Making Of” featurette, the aforementioned HOT LOVE short and the gem itself, the film's soundtrack. It's a beautiful release of a still very much controversial and striking film.

One of the most inspirational lessons that one can take from NEKROMANTIK (and there's a sentence I have always wanted to type out) is that it is proof that you can be a film school reject with limited resources and finances and still make something that is potent enough for people to still be shocked, repulsed and entertained by twenty plus years down the road. With the right vision, tenacity and attention to technical film details that you don't need a lot of money for, like good editing, framing and music, you can create something unforgettable too. Even better is that Buttgereit is still working on film to this day, including a segment on the upcoming anthology film GERMAN ANGST. Like any true fringe film, it's not for everyone but if it was, where would the fun be in that? Let other people watch the latest codified, bloated boring-as-beige Hollywood epic. Thanks to film distributors like Cult Epics and artists like Buttgereit, we have better alternatives.

Copyright 2014 Heather Drain

Post-Apocalyptic American Dream: Rene Daalder's POPULATION 1

Back in 2011, I discovered a trailer for the then new release from Cult Epics of the great Rene Daalder's post-apocalyptic musical of sorts, POPULATION 1. This trailer was one of those magical moments where the tidbit you're given is so good, so electric that your heart races a little faster and you are absolutely compelled to see this film. Luckily for me, not only did I get to see it, but I also got to review it for Issue #164 of Video Watchdog. (A fine issue by the way and one that you can still get a copy of on Video Watchdog's website.)

Anyways, I still love this film so much and really, Daalder's name should be much bigger because the man is brilliant. If this film does not convince you, then locate yourself a copy of MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH. I digress. Below is my original review, so read and enjoy!

The death of the American dream is a black cloud that has loomed over many a weary mind, but never has it been explored in such a vivid and surrealistic way than in Rene Daalder's brilliant POPULATION 1. Imagine a collage art film with melded imagery from a rustic, pie-eyed America, musical numbers utilizing influences ranging from Rene Magritte to the German Expressionists and a post-punk video art sensibility, then you would be somewhere near the ballpark of POPULATION 1.

In a surprise move, this was the first finished project Daalder made after helming the cult classic, MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH. The latter is more traditional on the surface, but has a sad-eyed cynicism towards humanity and a streak of uncompromised intelligence that marries these two seemingly different films together. In lieu of a passive Andrew Stevens, we get Tomata Du Plenty (best known for being the front man for the synthpunk group The Screamers) as the last surviving man after nuclear holocaust. He is America's son, literally, as we get to see him lose his mother, a ruddy-cheeked rural Statue of Liberty (Maila Nurmi), to a giant flood. Along his journey, he becomes a matinee idol and falls in love a gothic 20's vamp (Sheela Edwards). The Great Depression hits, splitting them apart, when she is forced to become a taxi dancer for money. Their paths continue to diverge and cross throughout WWII, where she becomes a popular pin-up and USO singer. Love's bloom never fades, even after she is ultimately robbed from him, along with the rest of the population. Tomata is left amongst the rubble, dancing and singing in his red walled bunker, never wavering in his optimism and patriotism. All this despite him being surrounded by his twin ghosts of America and Sheela. But the darkness of the human condition will always bleed through when things are at their worst and the ending of POPULATION 1 is no exception.

Saying a piece of art is unlike anything one has ever seen is about as cliché as your drunken Uncle's stash of nudie playing cards. But for this instance, I feel like it can be 100% accurately written. It is rare for something so experimental to have such a cohesive heart. This is even more amazing when delving into the films origins, which go back to an unfinished project in the late 1970's called MENSCH. A good portion of the musical numbers, especially those utilizing a large, impressive looking sound stage, is from MENSCH. At that stage, there was little to no narrative and more of an emphasis of an old school musical sensibility, albeit one put through a post-modern art blender. The funding eventually ran out and with that so did access to the sound stage.

Cue up a few years later, with Daalder and company coming up with the a well-fitted narrative skeleton to gel perfectly with the visual muscle that was MENSCH. The sound stage being no longer an option, they managed to build a great post-nuclear bunker set within Tomata's apartment. What started off as a free form video project in one decade became a truly innovative cautionary tale in another. The use of chroma key in particular, while taken for granted now in the digital age, still looks incredible. The whole film is ripe with layers upon players of imagery, mixing old public domain westerns and burlesque shorts into Tomata's apocalyptic world. The pioneering spirit that went into this project, along with the wholly successful merging of the actual story along with the experimental visuals is something that every budding artist/filmmaker should instantly take to heart.

Another great brush stroke is the use of animation mixed with the live-action performers, often looking like a cross between rotoscoping and pop art. Nowhere is this used better than in the “Jazz Vampire” number. This is the first real introduction to Sheela, who is already looking like an art deco horror hostess, but then is further vamped out through some stylish animation. She's given big canine fangs, gets surrounded by black bats and then finishes the song with spitting up a small gush of red cartoon blood onto the screen. 

Performance wise, it would be near impossible to think of a more perfect vehicle for the multi-talented Tomata Du Plenty. Small and almost frail looking at times, his big energy and ebullient charisma is in full bloom here. Looking like a young Sinatra, Du Plenty is a figure you cannot take your eyes off of and will instantly fall in love with. His character has all the pluck of a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland “let's put on a show” film mixed with a true chaotic crackle. His character is someone who loves what's best about their country and yet gets lost in the rubble of bad humanity decisions. It's a gift to have this film in print, especially given how little footage exists of Tomata, save for a handful of Screamers live footage (some of which is on this set) and an even smaller amount of interviews. 

Right along side Tomata, is Sheela Edwards, a raven haired force of nature who also happened to briefly be a member of the Screamers. There is very little information about her, which is a real shame because she is fantastic here. Distinctive looking, gorgeous and with a volatile voice that is harsh, edgy and yet, really lovely, she is a huge stand out. The entire “Taxi Dancer” number alone should have made this girl a star.

The rest of the cast is pretty colorful, with Fluxus artist and overall genius Al Hansen and Carel Struycken, whom would later on get some bigger recognition for his work in TWIN PEAKS and the ADDAMS FAMILY movies, being stand-outs in their small roles. In more bits of casting weirdness, Avengers singer Penelope Houston is briefly featured, as well as the Mentors front man Il Duce, looking surprisingly halfway healthy and humanoid. (Anyone familiar with the Mentors and their GG Allin-esque work will understand exactly where I am coming from on this. For anyone who isn't, feel free to check out the episode of Jerry Springer where he and members of GWAR have a debate. It's brilliantly ridiculous.)

Music wise, POPULATION 1 is like if Berthold Brecht put on a post-apocalyptic Broadway show with a punk rock DIY ethic. The concept of the musical number is generally an artificial one. Nine times out of ten, most people are not going to randomly break out into song. However, with the emphasis on wild visuals and experimental video techniques, the musical numbers here feel as natural as a heart beat. Having such energetic and kinetically charismatic performers like Du Plenty and Sheela don't hurt either. 

For a relatively obscure film that has been resting in the weeds of cult film for the past few years, Cult Epics has done an absolutely stellar job here. Just having it legally available at all is sweet, but there is so much icing with this release. For starters, the print looks incredibly bright and crisp. Given that a bulk of the media here is based in video, not film, makes it even more amazing. The 1.33.1 aspect ratio is pristine, as is the audio, boasting a Dolby digital 2.0 stereo sound. All and all, it's a near perfect presentation.

But to keep the viewer feeling spoiled, there are more useful extras here than you can shake a post-punk stick at. Disc One features the original trailer and a re-cut one that is concurrent with the DVD release. There's also a great clip of the Screamers doing their song ,“Vertigo,” live at the Whiskey from 1979 and some rare audio tracks featuring Tomata and Sheela performing some of the songs from the film. The real gift here is the clips from the unfinished MENSCH. Not only do you get to see some of the genesis of POPULATION 1, but you also get an extension of Penelope Houston's scene, including a song that didn't make the director's cut. There's also a whole scene with Al Hansen singing and playing the accordion that definitely should have made the cut. There's also a still gallery and the trailer for the “Palace of Variety” multimedia art performance, which was coincidentally the Screamers' last live show. 

 Disc two features the Frans Bromet short mockumentary, JE MAINTIENDRAI, with the director visiting his old friend Daalder in Hollywood. Featuring POPULATION 1 co-stars Hansen and Carel Struycken, with the latter wearing his costume from his role as “the Brute” in the SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB movie, the loose plot is centered on Daalder making a slavery film set in the urban decay of Los Angeles as the background. It's cute and features some amazing footage of a now long gone LA.

There's an entire Screamers live show included, which is incredible. Despite their big cult status in the West Coast punk scene, there is not a lot of documentation, video and otherwise, of their performances. So this is fantastic, as is the recent and fairly comprehensive sit-down interview with Daalder himself. He gets to talk about his time apprenticing Russ Meyer, leading to him contributing to the Sex Pistols film, THE GREAT ROCK & ROLL SWINDLE, he briefly talks about MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH and of course, POPULATION 1. 

In addition to that, there is a sweet tribute to Tomata, focused mainly on the paintings he created after his work with the Screamers. There's a tasty sample of a documentary about Al Hansen entitled THE MATCHSTICK TRAVELER and some outtakes from the VAMPIRA documentary. To finish it all off, there's a never released music video for Penelope Houston's song “Girls,” capping off one sweet-sweet set.

POPULATION 1, in an age of hyper-scare about the end of the world, whether it is from a millionaire religious fundamentalist or a state of perpetual war, still holds a power wrapped in a startling and beautiful visual skin. 

Gilded Melancholy: Radley Metzger's CAMILLE 2000

Perfection and warmth are two elements that are not always put together hand in hand. Warmth is often emotion, that wonderful, horrible, messy thing that sets species apart from rocks and sociopaths. On the other hand, you have perfection, which is most definitely not anything related to humanity. Perfection is often perceived as beauty without heart, but there are some key exceptions to this rule, most notably Radley Metzger's updated version of Alexandre Dumas's classic novel, The Lady of the Camellias. Metzger's film, CAMILLE 2000, is both sumptuous to look at but also, at heart, incredibly melancholy. (Which would be in keeping in spirit with the source material.) 

The lovely Daniele Gaubert

 

The story begins with Armand (Nino Castelnuovo), a handsome and somewhat unambitious young lad who is being sent to Italy to attend to some business for his rich and powerful father (Massimo Serato). He meets up with Gastion (Roberto Bisacco), a dandy about town who takes Armand to a gala. While he points out the various available women and their assorted scandals, Armand ends up seeing the beautiful and fragile Marguerite (Daniele Gaubert). Gastion tries to dissuade him, deeming Margeurite “impossible,” but the match has been lit and both ends are burning. 

A lot of heartbreak emerges from this pursuit of amour. Right from the start, both Armand and Marguerite are doomed for a myriad of reasons, whether it is her financial debt and borderline kept lady status with a wealthy but mal-emotional Duke or Armand's money conscious father. Mme. Fatale radiates off of Marguerite. Like all truly damaged and self destructive people, it is only a matter of time that the shrapnel will be felt by those closest to her, especially Armand. 

 Gaubert & Nina Castelnuovo

 

Metzger, a bred New Yorker born with the aesthetic soul of a European, has become renowned for his attention to visuals and deft use of erotic themes. While some of his later work definitely fits that bill, the sexuality that lies within CAMILLE 2000 is less erotic and more reflective of the emotional mental state of the characters. Some of the scenes are bold for their time but in typical Metzger fashion, are tasteful not matter how outre they may border on. In fact, Metzger's whole soft-toned, high fashion sexuality pre-dated filmmakers like Just Jaeckin (EMMANUELLE, THE STORY OF O) and David Hamilton (BILITIS) by a number of years. (Oddly enough, both Jaeckin and Hamilton are European and come from a fashion photography background.) This is definitely the case of a film that may have been marketed in some areas as arty sexploitation (complete with then X rating) but that would have been more at home in your friendly neighborhood arthouse. (Though don't think the twain never met with those two either.) 

Speaking of visuals, the attention to detail in CAMILLE 2000 is gorgeous. This film is David Lean lush. From the 60's futuristic plastic furniture and light up cubes to the rococo color schemes of the Italian coastal landscape and the natural beauty of the actors themselves, CAMILLE 2000 is eye candy in motion. 

  Luckily for us, there is more than meets the eye, with strong performances from both Gaubert and Castelnuovo as the lovers who suffer due to bad family and even worse habits. Gaubert is alternately lovely, ethereal and sad in a role that had been previously played by such early screen legends as Greta Garbo and Alla Nazimova. Castelnuovo is a good match with his earnest, handsome Armand, who transforms from a borderline shy young man to a heartbroken firebrand within the 131 minute running time. The other actors are good, with Zachary Adams being a real standout as Gody, a sweet gay fashion designer who is one of the few humane people in Marguerite's life, even despite her occasionally stank behavior.

 Zachary Adams as the good intentioned Gody

This film's beauty is equally matched by Cult Epics' loving release. It is sweet to see a filmmaker of Metzger's caliber getting his proper due thanks to the hard work of companies like Cult Epics and Distribpix (for the cherried out release of THE PRIVATE AFTERNOONS OF PAMELA MANN.) CAMILLE 2000 has never looked better. In addition to this fine transfer, there are also a slew of extras, including a 30 minute featurette, “On the Set,” that has behind-the-scenes footage along with some fascinating and revealing commentary throughout courtesy of the man himself, Radley Metzger. On top of that, there is also an equally good feature commentary with Metzger and moderator Michael Bowen, striptease footage that had been excised before the film's initial release, a featurette on the restoration process complete with before and after shots and trailers for CAMILLE 2000, the even more lush looking THE LICKERISH QUARTET and SCORE.

CAMILLE 2000 is an interesting cinematic creature. It's art, it's sexy, it's sad and leaves its lonely and beautiful mark on you once you have witnessed it. Bless Radley Metzger and his European creative heart, film making ways.

 La ronde

© Heather Drain 2011

Passion, Pleasure & Pain: In Praise of Gitane Demone's “Life After Death”

Passion and fluidity are two key ingredients for any great artist but are often the hardest to possess. Passion is vital for anything truly good since otherwise it's like faking an orgasm. You can give the best moan and grind all you want, but it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Even more than that, you need fluidity to keep things interesting. Talent helps out a lot, too. When I think of all these factors, singer, musician and artist Gitane Demone comes immediately to mind.

I first became familiar with her work when a friend of mine lent me a compilation that had her single, “Incendiary Lover”, on it. The angel-sweet vocals made an instant impression on me, though the pop-ness of the production gave me little indication of what was in future store. There was her amazing work with the band Christian Death, at first with leader and founder Rozz Williams, resulting the essential albums “Ashes” and “Catastrophe Ballet.” Then after Rozz left, she continued with the band with guitarist and former Pompeii 99 band mate Valor Kand. This line-up resulted in such great songs as “Church of No Return” and “Believers of the Impure.” But if this is all you know of Gitane's work, it is literally just the tip of this brilliant woman's creative release. Her work with both incarnations of Christian Death displayed someone whose vocals range from ethereal banshee to rock goddess, all the while sounding effortlessly perfect. But nothing could have prepared the music world for the next chapters of Gitane's career, all lovingly captured and covered from the beginning of her solo work around 1991 to 1998 on Cult Epics lush special edition 2 DVD and 1 CD set, “Life After Death.” 

After leaving Christian Death, a band whose own work had done some genre-bending in both incarnations, Gitane's career went into the one trajectory that no one could have guessed. Utilizing her influences by such legends as Billie Holiday, she transformed herself into a torch singer with heavy jazz and blues influences (which is only one petal to this multilayered flower). While some jazz musicians initially looked down on this “rock and roll girl” back then, Demone is a talent that demands respect and this set will silence whatever naysayer that is left. Janis Joplin was a rock and roll force who could sing the blues as well as the talented old ghosts and so does Gitane.

Disc One begins with a biographical piece that was aired on VPRO, a Dutch Television channel, from 1991. It covers her intense childhood which included being surrounded by nature, aggressive, girl-hungry boys and getting her first taste of death. They soon go into her discovery of love, sex and music. We get to see Gitane at the piano while the camera passes lovingly but fleetingly over a Billie Holiday album in the corner. There is some footage featured here that I would kill to see more of including shots of Gitane singing live while playing with fire (literally) and breaking a mirror and then a TV set with a hammer. Like any artist worth his/her salt, she is a seeker and it is this artistic freedom that is going to shine for the rest of this set. Speaking of which...

Gitane in the Dutch TV Special "The Dark Side of Life."

Following that is a live, B&W clip from the Mazzo in Amsterdam shot in 1989 that includes a blistering version of Holiday's now-classic “Strange Fruit.” This song is a standard that, by the time the '90's hit, had been covered to death by x,y and z performers. It is a powerful song but like a great image, it cannot truly ring true unless the person expressing can actually feel the song. Anyone with the right training can pull this off technically but then you are going through the motions, which is an insult to the material and audience. Gitane is not a faker and brings the right amount of emotional pain and realness that this song warrants and deserves.

Mazzo, Amsterdam 1989

After that is a one-song performance of “Sound of War” for Dutch Television from 1992. It's classic and simple, complete with a great saxophone solo. Again, like “Strange Fruit,” the temptation to do an anti-war song and wring it like the grasp of death is upon it is too irresistible for most, but Gitane and her band find a great balance of emotion without letting any well-meaning but ill-plotted out cheese sully it.

 

Singing "The Sound of War" in 1992.

  Courtesy of VPRO Radio in Holland, we then get a three song clip from '93 featuring the great “Love for Sale” (excellent audio on this batch, by the way). The show following this one, from the ISC Club in Bern, Switzerland in 1993 is one of the best on this disc, featuring the show stopper, “I Have a Right to Sing the Blues.” Mein Gott, this is phenomenal stuff, featuring some great, experimental-type sonic horns, percussion and keyboards bleeding together and perfectly offset by Gitane's big, smooth and at times scouring voice. Screw anyone whose “blues” music is basically raping the corpse of Robert Johnson (Clapton, I am looking at you) and/or morphing what were once some good chords into Michelob-lite butt-bar-rock. This is the real blues (Also see, Pierce, Jeffrey Lee. Can you imagine if those two could have worked together? A girl can dream). This is raw and infernal and beautiful, which is really what all great music should be. Especially the blues.

Rounding up Disc One is a killer live-set from the Indie Tour in 1995. The six-song set includes a deconstructed, dreamy cover of “I Only Have Eyes for You,” Jimi Hendrix's “Manic Depression” and the original “These Vulnerable Eyes.” (The latter two are both featured on the collaborative album between her and the late, great Rozz Williams, “Dream Home Heartache.”) Seeing Gitane playing an open-air venue doing these gorgeous torch songs in broad daylight, dressed in a crimson-red evening gown and nose chain is a sight to behold. While typically these are songs that were born in the smokey hothouse of seedy clubs, it all works. When the material and performer are this good, it's proof that they can shine anywhere.

 

 Singing on the Indie Tour in Querfort, Germany.

Disc One is a great representation of the blossoming of the early stages of Gitane's solo career with a defined focus on the blues/jazz side of of her work. Disc two has some shades of this but goes further into the other sides of her 90's solo work and also her collaborative work with Rozz. It's all shades of brilliant blues, blacks and reds from here on out.

The opener for Disc Two is the promotional video for the single, “Heavenly Melancholy,” directed by Nico B. (Who also helmed the brilliant short film PIG and is the man responsible for giving us Cult Epics.) Made and released in 1992, its sonic sleekness and dance-floor friendliness is the perfect opener. There's some jazz tinge to Gitane's voice but the music is different, letting you know that you are in for a wholly unique ride. The video itself features a bewigged Gitane wandering the streets rejected until she finds herself welcomed into the arms of a large S&M club! (If only the rest of us would be so lucky when lost in large European cities!) The club scenes are contrasted with some beautifully lit scenes of Gitane, with her platinum hair close cropped, singing, while some other latex-clad lovelies of both genders dance around. There's some gorgeous jewel-tone sets and lighting going on here, with all that black vinyl and rubber looking especially shiny against cobalt blue and fire orange backgrounds. It may not re-invent the music video wheel, but it does add some lovely new tones to it.

Goddess in Vinyl: Still from "The Heavenly Melancholy" Video

Then there's a brief clip from the UK video magazine “Skin Two” from 1994 featuring a lot of preening S&M enthusiasts and a way too short clip of Gitane singing while tied up and blindfolded as a a Domme teases her with a whip. What you hear is great but undoubtedly the “Skin Two” folks were more focused on the obvious and less creative side of things.

After that, we get a short but chewy documentary from Denmark in 1995 entitled “Fetish Generation,” courtesy of Steen Schapiro. There's some good interview footage where Gitane talks about her involvement with the S&M community and how it is reflected in her music, noting that fetish is a facet of the her music, not the other way around. This take is so intriguing, since so many musicians have employed sexuality as a manipulative, borderline cynical tool of intention, with the music often being an afterthought. With Gitane Demone, it is refreshing because sexuality is just one of the many colors she is painting her music and words with. Featured here are the songs, “Tongue of Fire,” “Cool Domina” and “Perv,” which are all very strong. You also get to see Gitane ride a guy around like a pony on stage and then man-up with a willing submissive lass, all with the help of a luscious apparatus. (You'll have to buy the DVD for further detail, folks.)

Brief performance shot from "Fetish Generation" Documentary

Then we get some straight up live footage, with a killer set from a show in Hamburg in 1994. This is the show where we really get into the meat of the music from this era. Featured here are some crunchy renditions of “Tongue of Fire,” “Perv” (which positively smokes and crackles, here) and “Loveless.” The band is really great here, as is the striking image of Gitane belting out these saucy-raw rock & roll songs and wielding everything from a cat o'nine tails to a large double ended dildo with the total authority of someone who knows exactly what to do with them. This is definitely one of the best highlights of this already stellar disc.

 "Tongue of Fire" in Hamburg, Germany.

 

Segueing smoothly into the next aspect of her career is some choice footage from the “Dream Home Heartache” tour along with co-collaborator/conspirator Rozz Williams. Anyone who is a fan of the album will be extremely happy to hear these tracks live, complete with the non-album cover of David Bowie's “Time,” courtesy of Rozz. (An excellent cover to boot.) Even more lucky is that we get a healthy selection of material totaling 7 songs, which is basically almost the whole album sans Gitane's “Manic Depression” and the tune “These Vulnerable Eyes.” This is okay though since you get to hear them on Disc One. Hearing their soul-burrowing cover of Roxy Music's otherwise uncoverable song, “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” live is extremely special, capturing the cold claustrophobia of the original. The only hiccup is that the climax of the song is cut off, which is a total sonic interruptus.

From the "Dream Home Heartache" tour.

Given that this was far from a huge tour, having this type of documentation of this legendary collaboration complete with clear audio and video, is a huge gift. The stage set-up is as unique as the music, with the mise-en-scene being more of a beaten down European cafe than rock & roll club. Whenever it is a solo turn, the other one sits at a small table with a glass of wine and a lit candle, with the vibe being slightly decadent and melancholy. The only real annoyance is that there are various times where you can hear people loudly talking in the background. Seriously, folks, if you want to have a big conversation with your friends, go to a regular bar or coffee shop. Doing it at a live performance is just flat out rude. Anyone who has been on stage and exposing their art can attest to that.

Rozz singing Bowie's "Time."

That unavoidable nuisance aside, this is a great set and gives a sweet peek into another facet of both Gitane and Rozz's art. The beauty of these two geniuses coming together is that you have two equals with diverse abilities, raw talent and a total willingness to experiment and take a risk. Which is honestly the biggest reason why both the album and performance works so well. This whole set (and DVD) is a Stendhal Syndrome inducing experience of live art. 

 

Following that up is no mean feat but we get more rare footage with Gitane making a special appearance at a Christian Death show with Rozz at the Astoria II in London, 1996. The footage is good, the band's tight and Gitane sounds powerful. The big problem here is the audio on Rozz's mic. While he is absolutely on fire here, with a nice high-energy contrast to the quiet moodiness of the “Dream Home Heartache” tour, you can barely hear his voice at all. Which is a bit of a bummer but anyone who has to shoot video in a live situation can tell you that audio is a bitch-goddess that can give as much as she takes. That said, it is still great to have this preserved and hearing Gitane sing “Lament” off of “Ashes” is beyond gorgeous. There is literally nothing this woman can't do.

Gitane & Rozz during a Christian Death show 

 in London, 1996.

Rounding out this disc is a 1998 performance in Kato, Berlin. After all of the lush blues, lovely melancholia and sexual decadence, we get a stripped down but powerful mini-set of four songs, opening with “I Lost a Friend to Heroin.” A song like this could easily slip into sap but instead it is crunchy and appropriately gut level. Being someone who has lost some loved ones to addiction, this song pretty much nails the feeling. But even if you are someone who hasn't, it will still hit you. Continuing the great streak is “Speed” and “Incendiary Lover.” The live version of the latter is a vast improvement over the studio one I heard many moons ago.. The studio one is pretty but very polished. Live, it sparkles. But the true standout here is the final song, sung a-Capella and being the classic French song “What Now, My Love?” This is a song that has been covered by everyone ranging from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley, but it is Gitane's that is the most heart wrenching, finding that rare middle of raw emotion and a rich voice. There is no better note to end on than this hard hitting and beautiful song. 

Souring through "What Now, My Love?"

  Cult Epics has done an absolutely primo job of preparing and compiling material. This set is both a valentine to any fan and also to Gitane herself. There was some obvious good thought put into what material to mix and how it was placed. The real testament to this is that not only is it perfect for someone who is familiar with her work, but it is also a very good introduction to someone who is new.

In addition to all of this audio-video goodness, there is even a bonus CD featuring unreleased covers of such songs as “Time,” “Them There Eyes,” “In My Solitude” (a big favorite) and “Gloomy Sunday,” among others. It is beyond a treat.

One of the best things about this set is the idea of having this lovely and comprehensive documentation of a truly unique and great artist. Some of our best artists are the ones that often get overlooked by the mainstream press. But others can keep going through the motions while those of us in the know can celebrate and support the real artists. The cream will rise and the proof is in “Life After Death.” 

Now, here's hoping for a follow up disc in the next few years covering her post-1998 work, with the most recent being the amazing, jangle-indie rock band The Crystelles. The beautiful thing about artists like Gitane Demone is that both their past, present and future work only gets richer and more layered with time. 

BONUS VIDEO!

 

© Heather Drain 2011