DIE ARTISTEN IN DER ZIRKUSKUPPEL: RATLOS

Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos (Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed) is made in a collage style, featuring newsreels and quotations from philosophers alongside the story of a failing circus whose director Leni Peickert wants to show off high-class artistic performances. Leni has just lost her father in a trapeze accident. She tries to keep the circus out of debt, but she must decide if her dedication to the show is realistic or merely wishful thinking: finally, her innovations cause the business to declare bankruptcy. How does one create art for an audience which mainly seeks entertainment? How does one balance art and commerce? The film is a symbolic representation of Kluge's own frustrations in trying to help stimulate the New German Cinema movement. The film took the Gold Lion award at the 1968 Venice Film Festival.

This work has been digitised in the frame of DCA Project