Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed: Like her father before her, the circus director Leni Peickert wants to show off high-class artistic performances. Yet she still feels naturalness to be her ideal. Her innovations cause the business to declare bankruptcy. Circus and revolution are radical forms of self-realization. Leni Peickert and her elephants try hard. "Utopia gets better and better as we wait for it." The Indomitable Leni Peickert: The circus director continues to pursue her activities. Circus in winter. Bitter times. "The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us." (T.W. Adorno). The 2-disc DVD also offers a 1970 TV discussion with Alexander Kluge, screenplay drafts and stories about elephants.
The films
Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos / Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed - West Germany 1968 - Directed and written by: Alexander Kluge - Cinematography by: Günter Hörmann, Thomas Mauch - Edited by: Beate Maika-Jellinghaus - Cast: Hannelore Hoger, Sigi Graue, Alfred Edel, Bernd Hoeltz, Eva Oertel, Kurt Jürgens, Gilbert Houcke, Wanda Bronska-Pampuch, Klaus Schwarzkopf - Produced by: Kairos-Film, Munich - Première: August 30, 1968 (Venice International Film Festival)
Die unbezähmbare Leni Peickert / The Indomitable Leni Peickert - West Germany 1970 - Directed and written by: Alexander Kluge - Cinematographed by: Günter Hörmann, Thomas Mauch - Edited by: Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus - Cast: Hannelore Hoger, Bernd Hoeltz, Nils von der Heyde, Sigi Graue - Produced by: Kairos-Film, Munich - Première: March 29, 1970 (WDR III)
Reformzirkus / Reform Circus - West Germany 1970 - TV discussion about film and society with Alexander Kluge, Dieter Schmidt, Siegfried Schober, Hans-Geert Falkenberg, Georg Alexander - Produced by: Westdeutsches Fernsehen, Köln - Première: April 3, 1970 (WDR III)
Hinrichtung eines Elefanten / The Execution of an Elephant - Germany 2000 - Directed and written by: Alexander Kluge - Produced by: Kairos-Film, Munich - Première: November 5, 2000 (RTL)
DVD features (2 discs)
DVD 1
- Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos 1968, 100'
- Chapter selection
- Hinrichtung eines Elefanten 2000, 15'
- 5 Stunden Parsifal 1998, 1'
- Screenplays by Alexander Kluge and article "Alexander Kluge and the Elephants" by Georg Stanitzek as ROM features (only in German)
DVD 2
- Die unbezähmbare Leni Peickert 1970, 33'
- Kapitelauswahl
- Reformzirkus 1970, 127'
- Die traurige Nachricht 2006, 1'
- 12page booklet with short stories by Alexander Kluge
DVD edited by: Filmmuseum München and Goethe-Institut, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
DVD authoring: Ralph Schermbach
DVD supervision: Stefan Drössler
First edition June 2007, Second edition January 2009, Third edition October 2014
