The 2-disc DVD set presents new restored versions of two rare classics by Werner Schroeter connecting private stories with history: Der Bomberpilot tells the story of three eccentric women in Germany during the Nazi period who try to become show stars in America after the war. Nel Regno di Napoli is a chronicle of post-war Italy told from the perspective of a Neapolitan family. Additional features are an interview with Werner Schroeter by Gérard Courant, a video showing Werner Schroeter in a talk with the audience at the Austrian Filmmuseum, and stills from the shooting of Nel Regno di Napoli by Digne M. Markovicz.
The films
Der Bomberpilot - West Germany 1970 - Directed, written and photographed by: Werner Schroeter - Cast: Carla Aulaula, Mascha Elm, Magdalena Montezuma, Werner Schroeter, Daniel Schmid - Produced by: Werner Schroeter Filmproduktion, München - Premiere: November 3, 1970 (ZDF)
Nel Regno di Napoli - West Germany 1978 - Directed by: Werner Schroeter - Written by: Werner Schroeter, Wolf Wondratschek - Cinematography by: Thomas Mauch - Music by: Roberto Predagio - Cast: Romeo Giro, Antonio Orlando, Tiziana Ambretti, Maria Antoniella Riegel, Cristina Donadio, Dino Melé, Renata Zamengo - Produced by: P.B.C., Rom / Dieter Geissler Film, Munich - Premiere: Mai 28, 1978 (Cannes Film Festival)
Vivre ŕ Naples et mourir - France 1978 - Directed, written and photographed by: Gérard Courant - With Werner Schroeter, Jean-Claude Moireau, Gérard Courant - Produced by: Gérard Courant - Premiere: January 15, 2010, (Centre Pompidou, Paris)
Werner Schroeter im Österreichischen Filmmuseum - Austria 1978 - Edited by: Stefan Drössler, Christian Ketels - With Werner Schroeter, Peter Konlechner - Premiere: First Release
About Werner Schroeter
Fassbinder famously wrote, in 1979, of his colleague's cinema: "Werner Schroeter will one day have a place in the history of film that I would describe in literature as somewhere between Novalis, Lautrémont, and Louis Ferdinanad Céline; he was an 'underground' director for ten years, and they didn't want to let him slip out of that role... His films were given the convenient label of 'underground,' which transforms them in a flash into beautiful but exotic plants that bloomed so unusually and so far away that basically one couldn't be bothered with, and therefore wasn't supposed to bother with them. And that's precisely as wrong as it is stupid. Werner Schroeter's films are not far away; they are beautiful but not exotic. On the contrary." Schroeter's cinema is a studied mélange, fusing the seemingly associative nature of avant-garde film production with the exquisite, aesthetic rigor of German theatre or opera forms. His cinema speaks through its often breathtaking images. Schroeter was a timeless aesthete with the ability to traverse a full range of extravagant epochs in a singular frame, while remaining defiantly trained on the contemporary. His panache for the excessive and the hysterical nature he commanded of his performers gave way to a new brand of melodrama and an unprecedented potential for allegory in the cinema.
Bradford Nordeen
DVD features (Doppel-DVD)
DVD 1
- Der Bomberpilot 1970, 65'
- Vivre ŕ Naples et mourir 1978, 87'
- Trilingual booklet with texts and essays by Werner Schroeter, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wolf Wondratschek, Bradford Nordeen, and Gérard Courant
DVD 2
- Nel Regno di Napoli 1978, 130'
- Werner Schroeter im Österreichischen Filmmuseum 1978, 16'
- Stills by Digne M. Markovicz
Edited by: Filmmuseum München, Österreichisches Filmmuseum and Goethe-Institut München
DVD authoring: Ralph Schermbach
DVD supervision: Stefan Drössler
First edition April 2013, Second edition August 2013
