Film Screenings / Programs / Retrospectives
THE STRANGE CASE OF UDO KIER
May 17 – June 4
A living legend who’s still going strong almost sixty years after his screen debut, Udo Kier has amassed a truly incomparable body of work. To characterize his career as a distinctive one would be a bit of an understatement. Perhaps there’s another actor, conceivably even a living one, who can boast of having worked with such an extraordinary array of great filmmakers: in Kier’s case, the list of collaborators encompasses everyone from Fassbinder and Miklós Jancsó to Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey; Walerian Borowczyk and Lars von Trier to Christoph Schlingensief and Dario Argento; Gus van Sant and Guy Maddin to John Carpenter. But what other actor could boast of having played Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll, Jack the Ripper and the devil, Adolf Hitler and…Adolf Hitler (a role he’s returned to repeatedly)? What other actor has amassed such an extravagant collection of dramatic onscreen deaths (enough to inspire Jan Soldat’s recent supercut, STAGING DEATH)? What other actor has graced films as wildly diverse as SPERMULA, SUSPIRIA, FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, DANCER IN THE DARK, DOGVILLE, BLADE, and ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE?
This May, Anthology realizes a years-long ambition to celebrate Udo Kier by presenting a selection of his most extraordinary films. Though even the most extensive repertory film program could only represent the tip of the iceberg of Kier’s career (he has appeared in well over 200 films, not to mention numerous TV movies and series), our series aims to reflect the mind-boggling variety of roles Kier has embodied over the years, and to emphasize his collaboration with many of the greatest filmmakers of our time.
The series will be graced by the presence of Udo Kier himself, who will appear on Fri & Sat, May 19 & 20 to present the screenings of BLOOD FOR DRACULA, EGOMANIA – ISLAND WITHOUT HOPE, and BACURAU!
The series is co-presented with the German Film Office, an initiative of the Goethe-Institut and German Films.
Special thanks to Udo Kier; Richard Schwartz; and Sara Stevenson (German Film Office), and to Brian Belovarac (Janus Films); Bret Berg (AGFA); Brian Block; Neal Block (Magnolia Pictures); Chris Chouinard (Park Circus); Brian Darwas; Stephanie Hausmann (Filmmuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum); Stephan Holl (Rapid Eye Movies); Viviana Kammel (Filmgalerie 451); Nanna Lykke (DR); Guy Maddin; Tamara Nagy (National Film Institute Hungary); Jürgen Pohl (Salzgeber & Co.); George Schmalz (Kino Lorber); Michael Seidel (Edition Filmmuseum); and Jan Soldat.
