Wolfgang Schulte

Egomania is a visually stunning end-of-the-world melodrama about lust, jealousy and murder set amidst solar eclipses, orchestral chants and the distant thunder of the boiling sea. The film’s characters – riddled with unconscious desires – find themselves imprisoned on an island. Drawing parallels to the work of British filmmaker Derek Jarman and staring Jarman’s actress-muse Tilda Swinton, Schlingensief’s raw and almost mythological film stands in contrast to his more offensive efforts.

A traumatized young man, abused by his father, imagines himself as Adolf Hitler when dreaming of revenge. Schlingensief released this film, which follows no linear narrative structure, at a moment when right-leaning German intellectuals argued for a coming to terms of the country’s relation with its Nazi past. Schlingensief disagreed. (MoMA)

Egomania is a visually stunning end-of-the-world melodrama about lust, jealousy and murder set amidst solar eclipses, orchestral chants and the distant thunder of the boiling sea. The film’s characters – riddled with unconscious desires – find themselves imprisoned on an island. Drawing parallels to the work of British filmmaker Derek Jarman and staring Jarman’s actress-muse Tilda Swinton, Schlingensief’s raw and almost mythological film stands in contrast to his more offensive efforts.

Firefighters Stefan and Johannes and psychologist Marta Weber, Stefan's girlfriend, are targeted by the psychopathic arsonist Kovacz. Johannes is killed by an insidious firebomb in an attack on Marta's apartment. Apparently the arsonist also dies in the flames, but his body is never found. Stefan fears that the madman is still alive...

This black and white silent film with music by Helge Schneider, starring Udo Kier as a vampire and Alfred Edel as an Indian chief was commissioned by the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf to inaugurate their cinema organ. The look and feel of the film stems from the silent film era, but the camp style and over use of clichéd characters bears the trade mark of Schlingensief all over. “I love all things kitsch, like opera, and I feel inspired by music. I was interested in silent film but not a great deal”, said the director.