Eika Katappa (1969) by Werner Schroeter
Sunday, December 4, 1988, 8:00 pm
Eika Katappa by Werner Schroeter Floria by Roger Jacoby
Fassbinder has said that all of the New German Cinema borrowed from Werner Schroeter. Though his films have won festivals and prizes in Europe, they are virtually unknown in the U.S. Eika Katappa was Schroeter’s first 16mm feature and includes all of his favorite themes: overwrought melodrama, Teutonic mythology, campy acting, and a musical score running from grand opera to contemporary pop. Schroeter joyously embraces the German High Romantic tradition, celebrating both its saccharine adolescent yearnings and its truly profound revelations of the human soul. This is the first of two evenings devoted to Schroeter’s films and is part of a larger overview that includes the participation of the Roxie Cinema, Pacific Film Archive, Goethe Institute and the organizing impetus of Frameline.