1990 TV movie of a theater production
Rating: n/r (I don't feel like I can rate this because I don't speak German. Most of the dialogue is in German.)
Plot: Based on the German folktale Der Freischutz, this is about a guy who falls in love with the daughter of a hunter. In order to impress her father, he gets the titular bullets from the devil. These bullets are guaranteed to hit anything the guy wants. It all leads to a denouement that will be predictable to anybody who knows how depressing German folktales usually are.
This is a stage collaboration that has Robert Wilson doing the stage design (very German expressionistic) and direction, William S. Burroughs handling the story, and Tom Waits providing most of the song lyrics. Two of those people are my favorite people ever. Of course, I bought the Waits studio versions of most of these songs the day it came out because that's the type of Tom Waits fan I am, but other than some photos, I'd never seen the musical. I've always loved the songs, and it was fun hearing them sung by other performers, especially the haunting "November," the tragically-beautiful "Briar and the Rose" or "I'll Shoot the Moon," and the weird gothic polka of "Flash Pan Hunter." Or "Crossroads," a rockabilly beatnik downer with lyrics written by Burroughs. Oh, and the gnarly freak show sing-a-long title song. The band's good, but although you get to see them on the screen for parts of this, you don't get to see any of the weirdo instruments Waits used for the music for this thing. The story's easy to decipher even if you watch this without understanding a word in German (except for "Ich bin ein scheibenwischer" ["I am a windshield wiper."] which none of the characters said, probably because the story exists in a world without motor vehicles), and it eerily parallels Burroughs' own life story, at least the part where he was addicted to heroin and shot his wife in the head. Oops. Spoiler alert. There's a documentary on Robert Wilson on Netflix that I'm going to have to check out because I really liked the look of this. It's pretentious enough with all the characters the color of Klaus Nomi, but it's at least playfully avant-garde. There are laughs to be had with the production. The shapes and the acting styles recall 1920's German movies, and the sets are minimalist but clever in the way the space and color are used. The performers were terrific in a bilingual performance, belting out things with their voices that I thought were really amazing although maybe I'm really easy to please. And, of course, it's always great to hear William S. Burroughs' voice. He was one of those guys I could hear read anything, even if that anything is a sentence like "That's the way the teeth gnashes" which is grammatically painful. Anyway, this is also in that category of entertainment that a lot of people would hate, but for a fan like me, it's the perfect meeting of the minds of three geniuses, and I'm really glad I finally got a chance to check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment