WILLOW SPRINGS & DAY OF THE IDIOTS (TAG DER IDIOTEN)

The 2-disc DVD set presents new restored versions of two rare classics by Werner Schroeter. WILLOW SPRINGS (1973) was shot in a village in the Mojave desert and describes a house run by three man-eaters. TAG DER IDIOTEN (1981) was shot in the USSR. A woman experiences psychic disintegration and ends up in a mental institution. Rare short films by and about Werner Schroeter as well as stills from the shooting of TAG DER IDIOTEN are added as bonus features.

"WILLOW SPRINGS (1973) is the only film which Werner Schroeter has shot in the United States. The scene is a lonely, dilapidated house with a bar on the edge of the Mojave desert; the house, like the place in which it is located, is called "Willow Springs". The three Amazons sit in their lair, waiting for men to rob, love, and kill. But in this "feminist" counter-world, "male" power structures continue to function: the "master thinker" and priestess Magdalena (Montezuma) dominates the ethereal Christine (Kaufmann), who, in love with herself, is the sterile embodiment of an art grown unsensual. At the very bottom of the hierarchy is Ila (von Hasberg), the maid who says next to nothing. She not only finds sexual contact with the stranger Michael (O'Daniels), but also love. The two contrive to flee, but the murderous Magdalena kills them. "Art" also kills herself, before she goes out into the desert as the Black Angel, the title of Schroeter's next film, which was made in Mexico in 1973/74…Eroticism and force, introversion and exaltation, sensual happiness and destructive power – all these things come forth in the “Kammerspiel” intimacy of the allegorical drama WILLOW SPRINGS."

– Wolfram Schütte

"DAY OF THE IDIOTS (1981) opens with a frenetic overture. A beautiful, young woman (Carole Bousquet) puts on an eccentric act in an attempt to attract the attention of the world around her and that of her boyfriend – she smears her face with lipstick, orders three cups of coffee at once in a café, and occasionally switches from men’s to women’s clothing. Her conformist, considerate boyfriend, whom she “wishes she could see into to find out if he really loves her”, is crazy about his records, which she then tramples on. When the public is called upon by the media to assist in the search for “terrorists and their accomplices”, the line linking the insanity of Carol’s puberty and that of the public at large hums with life. She randomly denounces innocent women to the police until she is caught one day and sent to an asylum…DAY OF THE IDIOTS (1981), a fantasy on the torment and joy of yearning, on insanity and reality, transgression and identity of the self ranks among the most mysterious, the most perplexing of Werner Schroeter’s narrative films."

– Wolfram Schütte

  Contents

Format: DVD-PAL / Region 0
(No Regional Code)

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WILLOW SPRINGS
(West Germany, 1973)

Director, writer, cinematographer, producer: Werner Schroeter
Editor: Ila von Hasperg, Werner Schroeter
Cast: Magdalena Montezuma, Christine Kaufmann, Ila von Hasperg & Michael O'Daniels

• 78 minutes
• 16mm   
• Color
• Sound
  

     _________________________________________

DAY OF THE IDIOTS (TAG DER IDIOTEN)
(West Germany, 1981)

Director: Werner Schroeter
Writer: Dana Horáková & Werner Schroeter
Cinematography: Ivan Slapeta
Editor: Cathérine Brasier
Music: Peer Raben
Cast: Carole Bouquet, Ida di Benedetto, Ingrid Caven, Christine Kaufmann, Tamara Kafka, Hermann Killmeyer, Magadalena Montezuma, Marie-Luise Marjan, Mostefa Djardam & Carola Regnier
Production Company: OKO-Film K Dirkaarel

• 106 minutes
• 35mm
• Color
• Sound

     _________________________________________

Bonus Material

AGGRESSION
(West Germany, 1968)

Director, writer, cinematographer, editor producer: Werner Schroeter
Cast: Heidi Lorenzo & Knut Koch

• 22 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Sound

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DIETRICH KUHLBRODT IM GESPRÄCH MIT WERNER SCHROETER
(Germany, 2010)

Editor: Stefan Drössler & Christain Ketels
With: Werner Schroeter & Dietrich Kuhlbrodt

• 8 minutes
• HDcam
• Color
• Sound

◊

WOLF WONDRATSCHEK: LAUDATIO AUF WERNER SCHROETER
(Germany, 2011)

Editor: Stefan Drössler & Christain Ketels
With: Werner Schroeter, Monika Keppler & Wolf Wondratschek

• 20 minutes
• HDcam
• Color
• Sound

◊

DAS LETZTE JAHR: BEGEGNUNG MIT WERNER SCHRÖTER
(Germany, 2008)

Director, writer, cinematographer, editor producer: Klaus Wyborny
With: Klaus Wyborny & Werner Schroeter

• 10 minutes
• DV
• Color
• Sound

◊

• Production Stills

     _________________________________________
     _________________________________________

Total Running Time: 04:04:00 (2 Discs)

Language: German & English. German, English, Italian and French subtitles.

Booklet Text: Werner Schroeter (German & English), Wolfram Schütte (German & English) & Carole Bouquet (French)

Published By: Edition Filmmuseum

Institutional Price: $300 (plus shipping)

To order call: 212.280.8654 or click here for information on ordering by fax, e-mail or post.