Directed by:
Christoph SchlingensiefCinematography:
Voxi BärenklauCast:
Udo Kier, Volker Spengler, Karina Fallenstein, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Eva-Maria Kurz, Susanne Bredehöft, Sergej Gleitmann, Alfred Edel, Renate Koehler (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
October 3, 1990. Berlin is celebrating reunification at the Brandenburg Gate. Far from the sententious political speeches about unity and freedom, East German Clara stabs her abusive husband, then flees to the West in their rickety Trabant car. But when she hooks up with her lover, Artur, at an abandoned factory complex, he is massacred by the family headed up by master butcher Alfred. While Clara manages in the end to escape the aggressive, incestuous tribe, an East German couple falls victim to their bloodthirsty frenzy. (Berlinale)
(more)Reviews (2)
In the second part of his loosely connected trilogy about Germany, Schlingensief presents a metaphor for the reunification of Germany and the relationship between West and East Germans, again in his characteristic hysterical meta-style. He tellingly and admittedly took inspiration from the classic horror flick The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, he didn’t use that film as the basis for some sort of remake or reflection on the genre, but in a typically punk spirit as a completely absurd standpoint from which he views his subject. Schlingensief’s provocation consists in his upending of the discourse of that time that depicted East Germans as those who came to feed off of years of western development. Contrary to that, The German Chainsaw Massacre shows West Germans as affected degenerates who, through a sense of privilege, appropriate everything and literally parasitize the East Germans who naïvely and guilelessly come to the West.
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This film has the problem of being cheap at first sight. I understand, there wasn't much money, but was it really a problem not to at least turn on the chainsaw in one scene to make it look a little more authentic, a bit grittier? Sure, nobody wanted anyone to get hurt, but in this case, nothing happens to the viewer either, they'll just stare blankly because even as trash, it doesn't really appeal.
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