Director
Director
The firefighter Erik wants to make a proposal to his girlfriend Sofie, but at the crucial moment sparkles the attractive Melissa in between. When Sofie learns that Erik had a fleeting affair with Melissa on Carnival, a world collapses for her. But the two gather again, as Erik promises high and holy that such a thing will never happen again. To underline the seriousness of his intentions, he makes her an unconventional offer: he "gives" her an infidelity. He should not have done that, because suddenly he threatens to lose Sofie to his best friend.
Director of Photography
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.
Director of Photography
An early declaration of war on narrative cinema, using a barrage of visual and acoustic elements while at the same time juggling ironically - as he still does - with the term 'avant-garde'. A number of other preferences and obsessions were evident at an early stage, e.g. the mind-numbing habit of having his people stumbling and screaming around: life as a race track. His films likewise feature a lot of theatrical and cryptic outpourings. No wonder that they failed at the box office. No wonder either, however, that Schlingensief was attracted to theatre.
