Original subtitles

VIEWERS ! Please turn up the volume of the following film.

Thank you for your understanding.

Storming the Bastille!!!

Faster! Can't you go any faster? Run! Run! Run!

A totally asocial massacre here. Give me eight minutes.

I need eight minutes to

Give me eight minutes for this "action hammer spectacle here".

What are you doing?

Faster! Faster! Give it to him!

Me TV, you victim!

Wenders would have called this film a melancholy parody.

Fassbinder never would have made it.

This film was sponsored by Filmbüro Bullshit and

Filmboard Brandenburg. The cast got together in bloody self-abuse

to knock off this film.

That's why we ask you not to expect too much.

Having breakfast and buying rolls can be boring, too.

We do it, although we don't feel like it.

RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER HOME

GERMAN FILM AWARDS

THE NIGHT OF THE COMEDIANS

Great!

"The Night of the Comedians."

Lots of us on stage, lots more in the audience.

And you and I are in the 1st row.

It's my job

It's open!

Hello, Kurt. How are you? Back from the Internet? - Well?

Be quiet. The National Film Awards ceremony is beginning.

Katja Riemann

sensational! Mayor Diepgen

and super star Götz George

Fantastic!

Harder! Come on, harder! What's wrong, you homo!

Do you know who I am? I'm Mary!

I'm Elvira!

I'm Petra!

I'm Burri!

The National Film Awards are on. lrm is waiting. Come on.

I'm Catharina Valente.

The Minister of the Interior will award the best German film.

You're here at last! The award for the best director!

A fantastic show: funny, entertaining, international.

The best director is

Sönke Buckmann for "Super- Men's Boardingshouse Deadmakers."

Years ago you put me in a home

and labelled me as handicapped.

And now I've made the most successful

German film

of all times. There's no one I hate more than Germany's

Minister of the Interior. - Right on!

Kanther!

Every century has fifteen moon years,

seven of which are years with thirteen moons.

Sensitive people are in danger of losing their relationship to life

and committing desperate deed. One of those years was 1945.

Another was 1975. 1997 is another one of those years.

Ladies and gentlemen, after our long search

for the director of our final New German film

we decided to choose Sönke Buckmann.

We are convinced that he's the only person capable

of making this final punk and funk film.

True genius is born of insanity.

NEUE VOLKSFILM presents

THE 120 DAYS OF BOTTROP the final New German Film

Hello, Margit. - Hello, Christoph.

How nice of you to pick me up. - Something has changed.

Volker recast me. I'm no longer the director. - Recast you?

But it's the final New German film. You have to make it.

I'm sure it'd be an emotional climax.

Greater than a Fassbinder.

And we're starting tomorrow. - Tomorrow? I'm not tan yet.

No matter. There's no light in the spaceship. - Spaceship?

They cut the scene where I cry? - Didn't you know that?

On Oct. 26, 1996 Fassbinder's last survivors

met for six days on Berlin's Potsdam Square,

Europe's largest construction site,

to do a remake of Pasolini's "120 Days".

This is the center of the entire film, Europe's biggest studio:

Potsdam Square!

A tremendous undertaking full of yearning and sadness.

A final attempt that ends in disaster!!!

What is it supposed to express? Mankind's final secret.

Us!Us!Us!

Run! Get moving! The other way, you assholes!

You stupid jerks! You're as dumb as welfare recipients!

Get over there, you asshole! - Where is it?

You got shit on the brain! - What's this? A building site!

Why do we have to film on Potsdam Square? I don't understand it.

Keep looking, you asshole!

Take it away!

Where is that damned studio? - Ms. Hermann.

I welcome you on behalf of "Cosmopolitan Films".

Volker Spengler sends his best regards. - Thanks. - He's

talking to Helmut Berger. - Who's that up there?

Get rid of that spastic. - Wonderful Wannsee

It's Sönke Buckmann, our director. - What?

Look at it and speak up! - What?

Hello! Mr. Buckmann!

Hello!

Ms. Hermann!

Hello Ms. Hermann. I've heard a lot about you.

You're a very well-known person. - Hello, Mr. Buckmann.

Hello. - Pleased to meet you.

Thank you, thank you!

Where is the studio? - The studio is in Babelsberg.

Oh, my goodness.

I expect total obedience from you. Only screw in front of the camera.

If I catch one of you fucking without my permission

I'll tear you apart. ls that clear?

I asked if that was clear? - All clear!

Last year 300 times ten makes 1.000.

Extras are all present!

Step away! - Yes, Sir. - Fly! Fuck!

What's going on here?

Just a minute. I'm almost finished.

Oh, my goodness. I should have known.

Nothing has changed.

Oh, lrm.

You're here at last. Make yourself pretty. Time to eat.

Not in that tone of voice, Volker. Talk to THEM that way

but I expect composure. Do you understand?

You do understand that it isn't easy for me to produce and act.

At first, Schlöndorff's success, then the trouble with Brecht.

Oh, lrm, I have so many pictures in my head.

I have a terrible headache, this constant pounding.

I feel like in "13 Moons", hammering and sawing all night.

Is Helmut Berger here already? Have him come to my dressing room?

Berger? Berger? It's always Berger! Berger!

It's going to be good, very good!

Very good.

The New German Film latest from the sixties into the eighties.

Girls were pretty, smiles were sweet, pains were great

and black and white was artistic.

Helmut Berger with Visconti in Rome.

Udo Kier with Warhol in New York,

Romy Schneider with Sulavsky in Paris.

A big, fashionable world.

But now? New German pros are as athletic and intellectual

as a soccer team.

Yeah! Film those big boobs!

It's more difficult than that.

Hold your head up.

Do it again!

Udo is willing to join us. - Yeah!

Sure, for nothing. - I've got money, Volker.

What about Helmut Berger? Have you reached him or not?

He's lying. - Berger's going to Paris.

What's he going to do in Paris?

He's probably going to buy himself a new drag outfit.

Then give him my regards,

and tell him I'll singlehandedly stomp on Visconti's grave

if the doesn't show up tomorrow. Over! Ouch!

Back up! Back up! Turn around!

Go for her butt! Go back to her butt!

This is Ms. Margit Carstensen.

Regina?

1, 2, 3, 4 Welcome! Welcome!

Thank you for you. - Sure thing.

Dear Margit, congratulations on your final New German Film.

You've come a long way

and lots of things have changed. Many are dead, many are undead.

To be honest, I'd already written you off.

Show business has changed so much

from what it used to be, but who cares!

At least I'm not buried yet.

I'm really involved in politics, and that's okay.

I have my ideals, and you're one of them.

That's why we want to give you a little present.

A pug?

A delicacy.

A Japanese prairie pug. They live for one day, then they die.

That's a really strange idea. It isn't funny at all.

I don't think it's funny No.

Okay, fine. Get ready! Open the door!

The screenplay author has come. (Stephen W. Hawking)

Stephen W. Hawking, how did you come to work with Sönke Buckmann?

I don't understand you. Speak up a bit, please.

Once more, please! Speak loudly and clearly!

Once more, please!

Who's that? - Stephen Hawking, the famous scientist.

What's he doing here? - He wrote Buckmann's latest screenplay.

Listen! Listen! Listen!

If the movie's like him, I'm not going. - Me neither.

You stupid little cunt!

Listen! Listen! Listen!

TRIUMPH Of the WILL

Ready! Back up the camera! Light change!

1933! 1933!

The blue light! - Ready with the blue light!

If that's Leno Riefenstahl, then I'm Liselotte Pulver.

What's she doing here?

Louder! - I didn't say anything. - Want me to get louder?

Then I'm Liselotte Pulver.

1933! - Margit, go after lrm.

She's your rival I want to see you two

fight the dirtiest, most obscene mud-slinging battle ever.

But Why?

Is that why I got all dressed up? - Exactly!

I can't do that. - Sure, you can, Margit!

Come on, what's your line? Sönke?

What's she supposed to say?

You're lrm? "If you're open down below stay shut up on top."

Whose line is that? It's not in the script. - It's just a line.

What's it got to do with Pasolini? - It's from Christoph.

What about Pasolini? - It's from Christoph.

Pasolini was gay. So shut up, Margit. Come on, lrm. Action!

You're lrm. "If you're open down below, stay shut up on top."

This spaceship! I'm not going to play, these vulgar games!

The refrigerators are broken. We'll burn the kids for heat.

"Death is a German master ..." Ouch, that hurts!

Margit, the main thing is that you do a good job of acting.

You're the victim! - I'm not your victim!

If you think I'm your playground for wild obsessions, you're wrong!

GERMAN ART needs FREEDOM!

Faster! Faster!

Hello, sugar baby. Put your hand in front of your eye.

Or I'll burn a hole in it with a cigarette. I called you, right?

And if you fail me, I'm up shit creek, right?

I demand top-quality work, right? Or else, heart attack.

I'll get out my heart attack. - You're nuts. What do you want?

Every human has three sweat glands when he dies,

and they all run out at the same time.

Hey, Margit. I'll be damned.

Hey Margit. Don't you recognize me?

Anywhere. Potatoes live longer. - It's me!

Kurtie, Kurt Raab.

Kurtie Raab. I thought you were dead. - No!

I'm going through chemical therapy. I'm feeling great.

Chemical therapy. That's great.

You've hardly changed. You look really good.

You've hardly changed either. - Me?

I really got it bad. I got the "Ace of Spades".

What a beautiful ring you have.

That's my lffland Ring. The best one passes it on every year.

The best one passes it on.

That's great! It reminds me of my damn disease.

Sorry, but I have to wash my hair right now.

I think she was afraid that I'd give her my disease.

I don't want to get Aids

Christoph?

FASSBINDER'S CURSE!

You know, Margit. Somehow I don't feel very good at the moment.

I don't know. I just don't know.

I've somehow been shelved, all I wanted to achieve with films

That's just the way it is, and

He keeps telling me to do this or to do that.

And Riefenstahl's Third Reich aesthetics are a disaster.

I really liked Fassbinder. He was constantly spitting.

Christoph, what are you doing? - I don't want to die at 40.

I don't want to choke on my puke. I'm sure Helmut isn't coming.

I can't take it when you feel so bad.

I've never experienced this before.

I thought you loved me and we'd do something together.

I do love you. We'll do something. - Hello, Margit.

Hello.

Oh my God!

The thread the famous thread that runs through everything.

Oh my God!

Margit, there will never be such a thread!

What? There'll never be such a thread? My lffland Ring.

Oh, God, I'm losing my lffland Ring! There it goes!

We have the lffland Ring!

Iffland Ring!

Fire came from the heavens

and the earth burned

and the lowest part of the earth was the ocean floor

because the human face was adorned with the pomp of vanity.

What's going on, Christoph? You've changed since you left Oberhausen.

I can talk to Helmut Berger!

Mom!

Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. - Christoph.

Can you see me? - A bit. - It's nice you're here!

It's nice you're here! - Christoph!

Do you have a blanket? - I talked to Reich-Ranicki on the plane.

We're really proud of you. You've caused quite a stir

with those old actors. Not like the shit you normally do.

Do you think Helmut Berger is coming? I have my doubts.

I just wanted you to go to the hotel and so on.

I forgot what I wanted to say.

Helmut! Helmut!

I'm Justine of the Universe.

Films free your mind.

The space-travelling goddess of desire.

More, lrm!

Get that jerk to come!

Volker, I can't take care of both the money and Helmut Berger.

Tell him I'll kill him!

"Death is a German master."

More! - Volker!

Of course I won't play the role. - No company will insure him.

No! I want him here tomorrow!

I'm like a wolf!

It isn't easy to act and produce.

Our minds are full of pictures.

It's worse than in "13 Months" Sawing and hammering all night.

Get going! - Don't scream at me. I can get angry, too.

Where were you when we called for you?

Where did you spend all those filthy years, you filthy pig?

I believed in you, and you left me here.

I'd have done everything for you, you filthy pig!

Let me go!

Get the shooting finished with TV cunt!

What's so great about Kurt dying?

Or that you visited him at the hospital?

Or that nobody knew they'd come to get him?

Okay! ls that shit finished? The torches are coming!

Get up, you poor thing! Go out and return to the city!

Because the obsessions

that torture you have entered the pigs

and the pigs have fallen off the cliffs!

I'm going to shoot now, okay?

Hurrah! Hurrah!

You're Ms. Corstensen, right? We're Christoph's parents.

Oh, how nice. Carstensen.

We've always admired your work.

Your films were the only entertainment in the camp.

In the camp?

Were you in Bergen-Belsen, too?

People who have been on earth as long as us have been everywhere.

I know you: lmmensee and Opfergang.

Yes, we've been alive long enough to read people's wishes

from their lips.

Hello, Vollie. Can I come in?

What are you doing with me? What scene is this?

Why don't I know about it? Nobody has talked to me yet.

You have to do a low, low, low- budget film, so you can practice.

What's going on here? What kind of film is it?

It's getting too expensive for me.

What about Helmut Berger? ls he coming, or isn't he?

Margit, you're ill! Incurably ill!

Incurably? Why incurable?

I want it to be like it was, that you're the woman you were.

That you love me the way you used to.

I love you.

Revision of the 30s!

I'm the woman I always was.

You have to feel it, right? - Yes, I'm the director here.

I haven't changed, but I can't become a lesbian.

I wouldn't survive a love like that. - Bravo!

I have to feel it when I write, deep down inside. - Exactly.

You have to do what I say. If I say, "go left", you go left.

If I say "look at the camera", you look at it.

When I write, I do the opposite. - Exactly.

That's it. - Exactly. - That's how we'll do it.

Yes! Yes! Yes! - No. - Yes!

It's a revision of the 30s. - Yes.

That's how we'll do it. - That's right.

Stop it! I want her to stop it!

I can't stand it any longer!

They got it, together again

I want it to be like it was!

Was that good? Now I know. Was that good?

In the Vicious Circle of Doubt!

Every century has fifteen moon years,

seven of which are years with thirteen moons.

Sensitive people are in danger of losing their relationship to life

and committing a desperate deed.

My guest this evening is Heiner Müller with his new book.

In your newest book "My Last Mission",

you tell the story of a homosexual submarine captain

who's abducted by extraterrestrial beings and dies in Berlin.

Why? - I know an Italian who opened a restaurant.

His right hand is being removed and the political connotations

are clearly intended. - I don't know anything about it.

Pardon? - I don't know about it!

You wrote it, didn't you? - Maybe.

And you're really Heiner Müller? - Yes.

Storming the Bastille!!!

DO YOU REMEMBER?

800 FILMS A DAY!

8,000 STARS!

80,000 EDITORS!

800,000 LITERS OF BLOOD!

In television! Only victims!

GERMANY HAS TO GET TOUGHER!

CALL NOW!

Missionary Station Africa (at the same time)

I open the American Water Week! - The AFRICAN Water Week!

That's what I meant!

Master Böhm! Master Böhm!

A call from Germany! Margit Carstensen. - Thank you.

Margit! Yeah! Yeah!

This is Karl-Heinz Böhm, PEOPLE AGAINST PEOPLE IN DANGER.

Karl-Heinz, this is Margit. I'm really down. I need your advice.

I'm here in Sodom. We're filming "The 120 Sodom Days".

Sodom near Berlin. It's so inhuman and ultra-brutal.

I have to get out of here. How can I get out?

Here comes the sunburn!

Yes,yes,yes."

How did you get out of the contract with Fassbinder?

Margit, forget that shit. Come to Africa. Forget German films.

Martha!

You can do things here. We have real humans here

You have the feeling you're needed.

Everything is intact here. Humans are still humans.

Kiss my ass!

Hello, hello! Karl-Heinz?

Margit, it's me! Udo!

Who's on the line? Karl-Heinz?

Karl-Heinz, this is Martha. I have a sunburn.

Don't get hysterical, Margit!

My name is Martha. Who's on the line?

It's me, Udo. Fassbinder is dead.

What? Rainer?

Who's on the line? - Just imagine! Fassbinder is dead!

Rainer is dead? What?

Rainer?

"Have a big cock, do everything. No s/m. Tel. 8221705.

Hurry, I'm really horny."

On middle door of public toilet, West Berlin Volkspark, Nov. 2, 78.

Irm, have you seen Rainer? - What's up? You have a sunburn.

Sure. Martha! It goes faster than you think. The past catches up.

You're a wreck. - Sure, I am. I'm a total wreck.

It's driving me nuts. - But why?

Yes, well That Rainer was a lot finer

No social security, no health insurance.

I don't have anything. Maybe that isn't so smart.

Hello, Leander. It's me, Petra von Kant.

Look what I can do.

I'm turning and turning.

Don't get excited. I just wanted to say

that you haven't got the leading role anymore.

I have to pay my taxes in advance.

I have to get the money together every three months,

and I get most of it back, because it's usually less

than what I have at the end of the year.

Lead me, my Lord. Accompany me with your words.

Be my guardian and my refuge.

I don't feel this safe with anyone else but you.

It's over.

The New German Film lasted from the sixties into the eighties.

Girls were pretty, smiles were sweet, pains were great.

An incredible wave of blood!

Black and white was artistic.

Helmut Berger with Visconti in Rome.

Helmut Berger with Visconti in Rome.

Udo Kier with Warhol in New York.

Romy Schneider with Sulavsky in Paris.

A big fashionable world. But now?

Three camera crews directed by Leno Riefenstahl

The new German pros are as athletic and intellectual

as a soccer team.

Hello! Oh no! Hello!

For that reason, for the very last time,

the champion at his last performance,

Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Fassbinder wore a toupet.

Fassbinder wore a toupet.

If I find somebody by tomorrow with a moustache,

then I'll tear it off and stick it between his wife's legs.

Margit!

"The Night of the Comedians"

Margit! What's wrong?

You damned idiots!

Why not let me work for Pro 7 or RTL or some other shit?

What are you saying, Margit? - Shit!

This inflated TV crap! - How can I help you?

I'm no monument. - It's not my problem.

You're the filth underneath me, stuck in my foundation.

Help! Help!

THE NIGHT OF THE STARS!

Margit's gone crazy!

You'll see! I'm going to jump!

Margit, don't!

I'm fed up with all this! Just wait and see what I'll do!

Don't jump! It's dangerous!

I'll jump as often as I like.

Maybe you'll get an award. You could start all over again.

I'm radical! I am what I am! Here!

I'm going to jump! - Margit! NO! NO! HELP!

Christoph!

I think somebody should take her away.

Herbert, you do it. Take her away! - My Roderich.

My Roderich. Shut up!

Come on.

You see, Margit. It's what I told you in the restroom.

Everything's going to pot.

Oberhausen Manifest.

Oberhausen Manifest.

FOR RAINER!

Okay, keep quiet. You can start now, Herbert.

Okay, let me sum up.

We're filming "120 Days" of you slugging each other, because

you don't want to permit unlimited hetero promiscuity to touch you.

We're fed up with that shit. The thought behind it

is an ensemble film with lots of actors. Thank you.

Excuse me. For my longtime girlfriend, Margit Carstensen,

who had a terrible accident yesterday: I'll recite a poem.

Where is the past? Great, hollowed-out names

out of context, with no connection.

Art was born in an industrial wasteland.

Longing was its mother's milk and fear its childhood dream.

I thought I'd start all over again, because it's

Longing was its mother's milk and fear its childhood dream.

It wanted to travel far and wide before it had grown up,

but that was its mistake. And so it awoke, lonesome,

in darkness, in a hotel room.

Thank you all. Thank you, lrm.

I'd really like to thank you all.

I'm incredibly happy to be here with you,

here in this studio again. Here again at last.

We just keep on making films here. We just keep filming.

Essentially it's the first film we've made here

without dear old buddy Alfred Edel.

I had a comrade.

You won't find a better one.

The drum called out to battle.

And I walked beside him

where he went.

Hello!

Yes, of course, we're going to start shooting today.

It said so on the postcard.

Your postcard didn't arrive here and nobody cares.

Give me Berger at once, or somebody's going to get hurt.

Forget about Helmut Berger! - Stop yelling the neighbors.

Helmut!

I'll call when I get there. - Tell Volker he's nuts.

Bye.

Hello hello!

THE FIRST DAY OF SHOOTING!

ARTISTS HELPLESS

What's wrong? Why aren't we shooting?

Sorry.

Where's the rest of the crew?

Are these the tracks?

Riefenstahl must be crazy.

Do you know your lines? - What lines?

Come on, your lines. Concentrate. - Yes

Sönke!

Where the hell is he? - Get ready, please!

A bit higher.

This chaotic organization is driving me mad.

This all seems to be too much for that Buckmann.

You made pictures, but who knows why this one and why that one.

You have to link them together with a literary idea. - Yeah.

Christoph, how's the mood? - What mood?

How do you feel? - I don't have any mood.

Do what I say. I'm the director.

Sure but not exactly. You become productive when I disrupt you.

What? - I'm talking about a film! - What film?

Then do it. Use the disruptions.

It just can't go on like this.

What do you say to the criticism about your work?

I don't give a damn! It doesn't bother me, you asshole!

People and pictures are just waiting to be disrupted. - Right!

For goodness sake! - Yes!

I'm shocked. - What? - I'm shocked.

But this is going to be a terrific film. - I'm speechless.

What? - I'm speechless. - What?, Ms. Hermann?

I've never seen such amateurs! - In Berlin of all places!

What do you want? Well

This is real bullshit!

Roland Emmerich's residence.

The line is free, Christoph: Emmerich Hollywood.

I am so shocked. What should I say now?

CALL NOW!

Just a minute. I'll ask him.

Roland, a call from Germany. A guy wants 9,000 for a remake

of "lndependence Day Massacre". - Enough of that!

What did he say?

No! No!

What's wrong? - Tell your workers to stop.

What? He said that? I can't believe it!

Stop working! Go home! - Christoph!

Stop this shit! Take care of your families!

Give me that.

It's too much for Christoph! Don't believe him!

The film will be wonderful! We'll do one take after the other.

He's old enough to do the right thing! Leave him alone!

My work is done. Why wait'? George Eastman + rechtsbflndig

I had a comrade.

You won't find a better one.

IS HELMUT COMING?

Your personal video program.

Hello, where are you now?

Guess who I met here.

Where are you? Why's my meter ticking so fast?

Just a minute. I'll show you. Give me the camera.

Girls were pretty. Helmut Berger was with Visconti in Rome.

Udo Kier was with Warhol in New York.

Romy Schneider was with Suvlavsky in Paris.

He's coming. He's coming.

What a nightmare.

IT'S STARTING!

Ladies and gentlemen! I'd like to welcome you

He has no say here! - A fiasco! A huge fiasco!

I'd like to welcome you to the press conference. Thanks.

Every fifteenth year has thirteen moons.

This year will be bigger than cincecitta.

We're starting!

Sometimes nothing is better than everything.

A speaking mushroom cloud, a singing universe.

Any questions for the director?

Be quiet! Come over here!

Where's Helmut Berger? Where is he, huh?

Quiet! He's coming!

Would you please get out?

I have to tell you the truth.

Adolf Hitler was not the worst of architects.

Let's drive on. Thank you.

Is this a new Münchhausen film you're shooting, Münnchhausen?

What's your opinion on movies in general

when so much money is being spent on monumental movies?

What's the idea behind all this? Does he even have one?

What stupid questions! He can make a 20-million-mark movie

look like it was made for TV.

And he can take a 4.5-million-mark movie

and make it into a TV movie.

He's supposed to be talented! What a laugh!

Berlin Berlin.

Quiet! Damn it! Quiet!

This is a construction site. It isn't Berlin.

Quiet! Quiet!

That may be Berlin for you, but not for me.

Everything's great, Director! We're in terrific shape.

Leave me alone! Leave me alone!

I'm dead! I want to die!

Bang!

1,000 YEARS LATER

Get ready! Move the camera back! Light change!

It's never too late to want the impossible.

Even if you'll never achieve it.

Kiss my ass! Get back! Come on.

I can walk again!

A miracle!

I've had enough. If I had to act in one more German movie

it would be suicide.

That was the final New German Film that claimed

to work with the true means of European films.

The tragic end of a great era written in the year of recovery

when everything got better and worse for everyone,

a time of extremes and trouble- making, but only in our minds,

because everything has already taken place.

Go forth, find your dream. Explain it to your extraterrestrial being

as we have done to ours. And if he understands it,

you can turn on your TV again,

because you'll have come back to the German sound-film.

"Let me add these culturally historical remarks:

I consider the momentary German trend of deceiving the public

to be necessary. We have to brave it for a new tomorrow,

so that a young harsh artforum will begin to smile

on the ruins of our celluloid factories."

Viktor Auburtin, "Berliner Tageblatt", April 8, 1915.