Page 218 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

a long interview, speaking candidly about his changing reactions to his own input, as his career has
developed from amateur enthusiast to professional script editor.
The questions posed to Buttgereit and Rodenkirchen ranged from intrinsic-to-the-theme
convictions, for example, that surely there were subtle sexual codes at work in the use of colour 'red'
in the films, to the downright banal: 'Why is sexual failure as a theme so recurrent in your films?'
An academic would not normally ask these questions; the interviewees might refuse to comment on
such personal topics to journalists. In effect, the result is a collaboration where a kind of intellectual
intertexuality is taking place, and some of the honest, blunt answers are not easy to contextualise.
Many of the odd details about the films (why is the opening of Nekromantik so dark? Why did
Joe's street-cleaning agency not wear gloves?) are simply down to budgetary considerations: 8mm film
is hard to shoot at night, using gloves would have added another 100 marks to the over-stretched
budget. Many of the clothes and make-up choices were selected by the actors themselves rathet than
being designed, and so it is difficult to demarcate the consciously constructed images that Buttgereit
and Rodenkirchen intended from those that are circumstancial.
Similarly, any attempt to analyse the script of Nekromantik proves reductive; Franz Rodenkirchen
explains simply, 'The first screenplay was completely ridiculous looking at it from screenplay
standards. It was just a file with little ideas brought into a sequence that we immediately dropped
when we started shooting.' However, despite many of the pragmatic explanations, certain themes and
obsessions seem to be inextricably bound up in the films: an aesthetic preference for the use of the
colour red and the depiction of plastic wrapped bodies. Additionally, the themes of cutting/castration
and sexual dysfunction seem to be privileged above all others. All of these responses provide fascinating
insight into the ways in which 'alternative' European films like those of Buttgereit's transcend the
barriers between art-house and exploitation, not only providing an insight into the director's personal
concerns, but also a crucial post-mortem on the troubled German imagination.

JORG BUTTGEREIT INTERVIEW I

Initially, Buttgereit does not want to talk about his utilisation of necrophilia as a theme and, in-con-
veniently, many of his influences prove to be American rather than German. However, he does say
that 'Werner Herzog's remake of Nosferatu taught me that it is not impossible to do a horror film in
Germany. In his remake I felt the desire I also have: to continue the tradition of horror films that we
Germans started in the early twentieth century with Nosferatu and Caligari.'

Marcelle Perks: Your films are dominated by the figure of the serial killer. What kind ofserial killers
do you know a lot about?
Jorg Buttgereit: I just did a radio play for a German radio and television station called Ed Gein
Superstar, so I'm kind of educated in Ed Gein.
And German serial killers?
Haarmann of course. I've only read the book by Theodore Lessing. It's quite obvious if you are
interested in certain parts it's not very easy to find books, especially in German, about serial killers.
Nowadays it is, but ten, fifteen years ago it wasn't.

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