wenn in Österreich ein Mädchen nicht in der Gnade ist sagen sie: a Buildl ohne Gnad.(Grundlsee/Mirzl Pürcher, noch heute trage ich die von ihr verfertigte Leinenjacke, sie slebst ist schon lange tot, die Geliebte des Wilderers, vom Förster erschossen und nie mehr geheiratet)

Sie, Es so zu machen, ist ein grosses Tun. Zum Bilde werden, das Wort. Hiess auch alle anderen Fotografen auszusperren. Eigene Geschichte der Bilder daraus.

Donnerstag, den 20. August
aktualisiert23:07 h

The artists and their grace

It is in 1982 that one exceptional recording of a colaboration between the actress Edith Clever and the director Hans Jürgen Syberberg is publicly presented. It’s “Parsifal”, based on Wagner’s opera, and one the movies that better illustrate Syberberg’s idea of translating into cinematographic language and images the connection between part of the German cultural heritage, nazism and present time. We can group “Parsifal” with other films through its thematic, intencionality, type of narrative and aesthetic style. Such is the case of “Ludwig - Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König”, “Karl May”, built upon the life of the homonimous writer, and “Hitler – ein Film aus Deutschland”, as well as “Winifred Wagner und die Geschichte des Hauses Wahnfried von 1914-1975”, the movie about the daugther-in-law of the composer and a close figure to Hitler.
In “Parsifal” Edith Clever is Kundry, whose voice when singing is dubbed by the singer Ivonne Minton. But in “Die Nacht”, Edith Clever is all alone, over six hours, saying text of Celine, Goethe, Nietzsche, Heine, Kleist among others while Richer plays preludes and fugues of the Well Tempered Clavier, from Bach.
She will remain alone in “Penthesilea”, “Die Marquise von O” (in 1976 she had already appeared in Eric Rohmer’s version), “Fraulein Else”, “Molly”. Goethe, Kleist, Schnitzler and Joyce are authors that veiculate one idea about a world departing from a demaning and incessant interior search that eventually shrivels and gives birth to human landscapes from where grace is absent, or so it seems, like nazism or other consumist versions of contemporary capitalism.
In 1993, during the FIT, Edith Clever and Hans Jürgen Syberberg presented in Portugal “Ein Traum, was Sonst”. Rarely have we seen similar thing on our stages despite the several amount of quality that is showned here. Edith Clever's movies done by Syberberg are the filmic version of an idea of theatre in wich the whole world can only be saved if each one, and the actress on stage, are able to fully recognize one entire responsability, a permanent, personal and public one. The world is made out of individuals and only from them can derivate true beauty of wich all can participate, if they’re willing to.

The Edith Clever/ Hans Jürgen Syberberg can be ordered through the website www.Syberberg.de
Check also Parsifal. Ein Filmessay, de Hans Jürgen Syberberg, München, 1982 [Parsifal. Notes sur un Film, Paris, 1982]

Text João Carneiro

Published in OBSCENA #20, July/August 2009, Lisbon, Portugal