Oskar Panizza’s The Council of Love (1895) is a blasphemous play set in 1495, during the first recorded outbreak of syphilis, which Panizza satirically presents as the punishment from Satan for sexually active humans. As a result, Panizza was imprisoned for obscenity. Schroeter alternates scenes from the Panizza’s work with a dramatization of his trial, presenting the play as an expressionist spectacle performed by actors wearing exaggerated makeup who gesture and grimace grotesquely. The film thus forms a bridge between Schroeter’s use of tableaux in his early experiments with the political urgency of his 1980s films. On the eve of the AIDS crisis, Schroeter is presciently worried about disease as an excuse for governmental repression and the oppression of sexuality. - Harvard Film Archive
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Cast
23 people
Antonio Salines
Teufel / Dr. Panizza
Known for
The Voyeur
Frivolous Lola
Magdalena Montezuma
Doppelzeugin
Known for
World on a Wire
Beware of a Holy Whore
Dietrich Kuhlbrodt
Known for
Europa
Peter Berling
Known for
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Fitzcarraldo
Werner Schroeter
Known for
World on a Wire
Beware of a Holy Whore
Kurt Raab
Gerichtspräsident
Known for
World on a Wire
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?
Hanns Eckelkamp
Horst Alexander
Renzo Rinaldi
Gottvater
Known for
Paprika
All Ladies Do It
Roberto Lerici
Margit Carstensen
Staatsanwältin
Known for
Possession
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Oskar Panizza
Werner Schroeter Director · Dietrich Kuhlbrodt Screenplay Horst Alexander Screenplay
First release March 12, 1982 · Produced in Germany
Production
Trio Film
Production
Germany
Produced in
Languages
Original language
German
Spoken on screen
German
Release dates
Germany · March 12, 1982
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
France
February 1, 1984
More from Werner Schroeter
Other films they directed, best known first.
Some details come from TheTVDB.