Melancholie der Engel

Melancholie der Engel
DVD released by Shock Entertainment
Directed by	Marian Dora
Written by	Marian Dora Carsten Frank
Produced by	Georg Treml
Starring	Zenza Raggi Carsten Frank Janette Weller Bianca Schneider Patrizia Johann Peter Martell Margarethe von Stern Martina Adora Marc Anton Tobias Sickert Ulli Lommel Jens Geutebrück
Cinematography	Marian Dora
Edited by	Marian Dora
Music by	Samuel Dalferth Gerhard Heinz David Hess Greg Hilfman
Production company	Authentic Film
Distributed by	Shock Entertainment
Release date	1 May 2009 (2009-05-01) (Weekend of Fear)
Running time	158 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

Melancholie der Engel ([The Angels’ Melancholia] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a 2009 German experimental independent underground guerilla dramatic art film directed, shot, and, edited by Marian Dora, and, cowritten by Dora and Carsten Frank (under the pseudonym Frank Oliver, used, due to artistic disagreements, over content, with Dora, which, caused Frank to stop collaborating with him). It was planned since 2003, though, shooting was delayed, due to monetary issues, and, premiered at Weekend of Fear Festival in Erlangen and Nuremberg, Middle Franconia, Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, on 1 May 2009 (and, was, also, screened at New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in New York, New York, United States, on 27 October 2009, and, at BUT Film Festival on 7 June 2013, while the DVD got released on 30 July 2010 in Austria). To maximize authenticity, the director was the only one with access to the script during the shooting.

Synopsis

The film, shot, for a period of three weeks, described by Dora as nightmarish, around Eselsburg Valley, near Herbrechtingen, Heidenheim, Ostwürttemberg, and, Dornhaldenfriedhof, Degerloch, Filder, Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, and, Bogenhausener Friedhof, St. George, Bogenhausen, Bogenhausen, Munich, Upper Bavaria, and, Nördlinger Ries, near Nördlingen, Donau-Ries, Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, and, Auschwitz, Oświęcim, Gmina Oświęcim, Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, and, opens with a woman, named Katja I., giving birth to infant, immediately beheaded by two mysterious figures. Depressed, feeling his mortality, and, fearing he is reaching the end of his life, Katze (Carsten Frank) decides to meet up with his old friend, Brauth (Zenza Raggi), sporting a Jesus-like appearance, at an old house, in which they used to spend time, delving into dark pleasures. They meet two sixteen-years-old girls, Melanie (Janette Weller) and Bianca (Bianca Schneider). Together, they enter a bar, whereupon a woman, Anja S. (Patrizia Johann), joins the group. He, also, finds two other old acquaintances of his are attending, Heinrich (Peter Martell), elderly artist and werewolf, accompanied by a young woman, named Clarissa (Margarethe von Stern), tied to a wheelchair. Clarissa can only excrete via urine bag, or, via an artificial bowel outlet. The group decides to allow Katze to go out in style, as their fun turns increasingly more depraved and horrific. At the center of the film is Katze, whose thoughts and feelings are revealed to the audience via voiceover. The film’s dialogue is mainly spoken in poetic verses. Often, different philosophers and poets are quoted, e.g., Rainer Maria Rilke, Lord Byron’s 1816 poem Darkness, Marquis de Sade’s 1791 novel Justine and 1782 short story Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man, Eduard Mörike’s 1838 poem Am Walde and 1832 poem Verborgenheit, Georg Büchner’s 1828 poem Die Nacht and 1836 short story Lenz, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1832 poem Faust, Part Two, Wolfgang Koeppen’s 1954 novel Death in Rome (the book Katze is shown reading, and, being buried with, itself referencing Thomas Mann’s 1912 novel Death in Venice and Dante Alighieri’s 1321 poem Inferno), or, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in addition to Psalms 23 and 1 Chronicles 22:1. The film contains, amongst other things, explicit representations of coprophilic and urophilic actions: one scene involves a man defecating on a woman, while taking her panties, wiping himself, and, shoving the pair in her mouth, all the while, gesturing harshly to put her finger in his soiled anus. During the same evening, the protagonists begin to consume alcohol, tobacco, and, cocaine, and, to think about different philosophical approaches. Frederick Eckstein’s 1936 book, Alte, unnennbare Tage: Erinnerungen aus siebzig Lehr- und Wanderjahren, about Empedocles, John Dowland’s 1600 song Sorrow, Sorrow, Stay, Lend True Repentant Tears, Ray Hoekstra’s and Tex Watson’s 1978 book Will You Die For Me? The Man Who Killed For Charles Manson Tells His Own Story, and, Elly-Leonore Henkel-Michel’s works, about Gudrun Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe, and, Andreas Baader are mentioned, and, Katze, Brauth, and, Anja reveal their nihilistic nature to the two girls, claiming they do not believe in heaven, and, they will not be missed after dying. Then, Katze, using scalpel, deals with cuts on Anja’s breast, as she vomits semen, while cutting herself, under the enthusiastic look of Brauth, and, the perplexed look of Melanie and Bianca. The following morning, the group travels to a pond near a factory: here, Brauth reveals Katze does not have much time to live. Melanie and Katze move away from the others: she comes close to a farm, he meets a nun (Martina Adora), who leads him to a neighboring church. Here, the nun begins to pray and, then, undresses, and, masturbates, while Katze enters the crypts, watching the tombs with morbid curiosity; at the same time, Melanie assists hunting, and, slaughtering a pig, and, Brauth rapes Anja. Several newts, frogs, rats, cats, and, snails are, also, killed throughout the film. That night, Katze has an illness, whose cause is attributed, by Heinrich, to the indifference of God towards him. Shortly thereafter, Brauth, tired of Clarissa’s laments, slams her into a basement, and, tortures her colostomy, by ripping it off, as he jabs his fingers into the colostomy hole, followed by him throwing her down from her wheelchair, and, abandoning her. During the night, Bianca wakes up, and, says she “heard the voice of the dead.” Katze checks, and, finds nothing but a rabbit. hanged by Heinrich, beheaded, and, thrown, by Katze himself. The next day, Brauth connects Melanie and Blanca, and, locks them in a stable, before sending Heinrich to abuse them, however, the two girls succeed in escaping him: Heinrich himself, later, abuses Clarissa. The girl commits suicide the next morning, throwing herself down from a cliff; at the same time, Anja finds the remains of the pig, discarded by the butchers, and, is sexually excited by touching them, while having a goat lick between her legs. Clarissa is abused, and, locked in a sort of cellar room, and, commits suicide the next morning, by pushing her wheelchair down a slope. Towards the end of the film, young Bianca, derisively called Snow White, is, also, murdered by the group. After her womb has been removed with knife, her skull is thrown. Heinrich is, finally, murdered by Katze and Brauth, by having his entrails stabbed out of him. Afterwards, an orgy takes place, in which the four remaining members of the group burn Heinrich, still alive, at a pyre, while the participants engage in sexual acts, and, urinate, amongst other things, into the fire. The film ends with Katze dying: Anja finds Katze in confused state, painful, and, full of bruises, Bianca comes out crawling from the old house, while Melanie looks at a tiny skull inside a pendulum clock, and, finds a tape containing the film seen at the beginning of this film, the figures who just killed the infant turn out to be Katze and Brauth, and, the skull found in the clock is that of the infant itself. Melanie crushes the cassette, and, uses the tape to masturbate, while Bianca is reached, and, beaten by Anja, Heinrich, Katze, and, Brauth. The latter, then, knocks her with knife, and, abandons her to death. From the flames, there is a flash that hits Katze’s face, blinding him permanently. There are only few hours left to live, and, the following afternoon, Anja accompanies him to his tomb, where he speaks. Anja honors Katze by ornamenting his tomb, before reuniting with the nun, and, walking away, silently.

Debris documentar

This direct-to-video film, released on 28 September 2012 in Germany, whose length is 75 minutes, and, which was produced by Buna Films, and, distributed by Werkmann Filmverlag, meant as commentary on Melancholie der Engel, as part of a diptych, also containing Reise nach Agatis ([Voyage to Agatis] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), the title contains a variation of Agartha), deals with the everyday life of a man, Carsten (Carsten Frank), who works on the set of the 2004 film Zombie Nation for Ulli Lommel, and, was filmed at the time Dora worked therein as assistant, producer, actor, and, technician. At the same time, this man, whose full name is not known, is planning to realize his own film, a task he finds extremely difficult. First, the man tries to place casting ads in a supermarket. During his daily work on the film set, the man seems frustrated. Also, he is isolated in his private life, and, spends his time by watching, and, masturbating to his opulent VHS film collection of homosexual rape pornography and films such as Cesare Canevari’s 1977 Last Orgy of the Third Reich, Dennis Donnelly’s 1978 The Toolbox Murders, Peter Schamoni’s 1976 Potato Fritz, and, Rino Di Silvestro’s 1976 Werewolf Woman, and, tinkering with props for his own planned film. In his spare time, he shoots photos of animal cadavers, while playing with them, which, he, partly, also, collects to take home with him, as, he seems to have sexual attraction to them, and, rapes a woman (Carina Palmer) in the woods, while she urinates. He indulges in several disturbing sexual fetishes, including defecating, urinating, necrophilia, bestiality, anal fisting, rape, murder, nose-picking, and, other unspeakable acts. He has regular contact with a prostitute, Patrizia (Patrizia Johann), who puts an enema into her anus, and, defecates into a bucket, while placing the man onto a table, and, shoving her fist into his anus, pulling feces out of there, while he is putting the bucket to his face, as well as, via telephone, with Jesús Franco, Katja Bienert, Peter Martell, and, David Hess, who composed most of this film’s score (the rest is by Sebastian Veelbehr), playing fictionalized versions of themselves. After a while, he actually contacted a woman, Franziska (Alexandra Dumas), who read his advertisement in the supermarket. They arrange a meeting in the man’s house. When he tells her what he is supposed to do in his film, the woman gets scared, and, wants to leave the house. Then, the man overwhelms the woman, and, kills her, by strangling her with telephone cord, and, beating her head. Afterwards, he films himself, as, he is sexually aroused by her corpse. He cuts her nipples off in graphic detail, and, uses his scalpel to cut the dead woman’s clitoris off. He, then, takes the scalpel, and, peels the skin off one of her fingers, and, eats the pieces of dismembered skin. Astrid Proll’s 1998 book, Baader-Meinhof: Pictures on the Run, 67–77, about Ulrike Meinhof, is mentioned, and, the film ends with the fact that the man burns the same woman’s body and goes jogging, as in the first shot of this film. Other cast members include Martina Adora and Stefanie Müller.

Reise nach Agatis

This film, whose length is 74 minutes, which premiered at Weekend of Fear on 2 December 2010, and, was nominated for the BUT Award at BUT (B-Movies, Underground, and, Trash) Film Festival in Breda, Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands, on 8 September 2011, and, which opens with a scene of a woman being tortured, and, killed on beach, deals with a seemingly innocent and pleasant yachting cruise under the sun: an attractive couple, Rafael (Thomas Goersch) and Isabell (Tatjana Lommel), entice young prostitute, Lisa (Janna Lisa Dombrowsky, who wrote the poem recited in the film), to a dreamy vacation. However, before the end of the day, she will run for her life, as they reveal their psychopathic, and, violent nature, hoping to wake up from a demented nightmare. Charles Berlitz’ 1974 book The Bermuda Triangle, René Cardona Jr.’s 1978 film The Bermuda Triangle, Tonino Ricci’s 1978 film Bermuda: Cave of the Sharks, and, David D. Osborn’s 1974 novel Open Season are mentioned, and, the film ends with Lisa being stabbed multiple times in extremely graphic detail. Blood splatters onto Rafael, killing her. He, then, proceeds to ram a knife into her vagina, followed by disemboweling. The film, shot between 27 and 29 May 2008, in Croatia, on a budget of €10,000, was produced by Engelfilm, distributed by Target Media Entertainment, Werkmann Filmverlag, and, Massacre Video, released on DVD on 16 April 2014 in the United States, and, its producer was Adrian d’Angelo, who, also, came up with the original idea for the film, while its music was composed by Transmitted Dreams.

Cast

• Zenza Raggi as Brauth
• Carsten Frank as Katze
• Janette Weller as Melanie
• Bianca Schneider as Bianca
• Patrizia Johann as Anja S.
• Peter Martell as Heinrich
• Margarethe von Stern as Clarissa
• Martina Adora as Nun (Novizin)
• Marc Anton as Monk (Mönch)
• Tobias Sickert as Tall Man (Großer Mann)
• Ulli Lommel as Katze as Angel (Katze als Engel) (voice)
• Jens Geutebrück as Priest

Reception

The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre panned the film, writing “[t]here is no plot or comprehensible meaning to speak of, there is no rationale, philosophy or understandable characters, just very broken people doing disgusting things in an ‘artistic’ movie pretentiously pretending to be exploring the German psyche. I would have liked to say that the movie merely depicts very disturbed people, cruelty and vileness, but the movie actually revels in it and seems to think of this as art and emotional pathos.” Melancholie der Engel was referred to as “the most notorious, undeniably hardcore German release to date” by Severed Cinema, which said that, while it could be annoying, and, suffered from dullness and repetition, due to its length, the film was beautifully shot, possessing haunting and nightmarish cinematography, with lyrical quality to it. The website concluded its review by saying, “[f]illed with unspeakable atrocities, Melancholie der Engel is completely devoid of morality. It is a depraved, perverse and nihilistic endurance test.” Horror News, similarly, commended the cinematography and acting, however, it also said of the film, “[t]here is talk of spirits and demons and ghosts, there is talk of a mysterious event from the past, there is talk of a change for the future, but the story itself is lost amongst everything else and we find ourselves watching disgusting and/or horrifying scenes but not sure what it all means.”

Awards

The film won the Best International Feature Film – Arthouse Genre Award at New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in 2009.

Further reading

• Blomdahl, Magnus. Äkta skräck 2. Malmö: Vertigo förlag, Maj 2017, 155 s., ISBN 9789186567781. Template:Sv icon
• Bordage, Tinam. Les dossiers Sadique-master: Dissection du cinéma underground extrême. Rosières-en-Haye: Éditions du Camion blanc, Mars 2017, 540 pp., ISBN 9782357799370. Template:Fr icon
• Keesey, Prof. Dr. Douglas. Twenty First Century Horror Films: A Guide to the Best Contemporary Horror Movies. Harpenden: Kamera Books, March 2017, 264 pp., ISBN 9781843449065.

External links

• Melancholie der Engel at IMDb
• Melancholie der Engel at Rotten Tomatoes
• Melancholie der Engel at AllMovie
• Debris documentar at IMDb
• Reise nach Agatis at IMDb
• Reise nach Agatis at Rotten Tomatoes
• Reise nach Agatis at AllMovie
• Reise nach Agatis at filmportal.de Template:De icon
• Melancholie der Engel Trailer on YouTube
• Debris documentar Trailer on YouTube
• Reise nach Agatis Trailer on Vimeo