THE LAST REVENGE
(DIE LETZTE RACHE)
dir. Rainer Kirberg, 1982.
85 mins. Germany.
In German with English subtitles.
Music by Der Plan.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 10 PM
While Spectacle has been host to a number of films noteworthy for their soundtracks (ROCK N’ ROLL HOTEL, HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS) as well as their love of the sepulchral (MARQUIS, BLACK PAST), Rainer Kirberg’s little-seen German No Wave oddity straddles both sensibilities. First broadcast in on the second TV channel in West Germany (ZDF), THE LAST REVENGE is a camp nightmare, a Brothers Grimm-style fairy tale told in bravura musical numbers. The score (and subsequent album) by legendary electronic group DER PLAN (Moritz R., Kai Horn, and Frank Fenstermacher) is at once jarring, hypnotic, abrasive, flouncy and dissonant, but the film is more than just an extended riff on the wild and subversive pop paegantry of the band’s concert appearances: Moritz designed the spellbinding 2D sets in the style of METROPOLIS and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. The plot, such as it is, concerns Worldly-Wise (Erwin Leder), an adventurer duped into participating in an experiment to help an aristocratic ruler gain immortal life. Something goes terribly wrong in the process, and Worldly sets his sights on the ruler’s two children, and their possibly incestuous relationship…