Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King
In resonance to the performances of Châteaux du ciel by Marie-Claude Verdier and Claude Poissant at the Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, we present the film by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King, about the same historical figure. Considered the first part of the director's "German trilogy", this epic movie, with its baroque scenography traces the stormy and tragic destiny of Louis II of Bavaria, an extravagant and spendthrift king who was, among other things, the visionary patron of Richard Wagner.
It tells the story of the legendary King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886), his passion for opera and his friendship with theatrical personalities such as Richard Wagner and Joseph Kainz, and at the same time reflects the 1800s in Germany.
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
For Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, cinema is a form of Gesamtkunstwerk. Many commentators, including Syberberg himself, have characterized his work as a cinematic combination of Bertolt Brecht's doctrine of epic theatre and Richard Wagner's operatic aesthetics. Well known philosophers and intellectuals have written about his work, including Susan Sontag, Gilles Deleuzeand Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe.
In 1975 Syberberg released The Confessions of Winifred Wagner, a documentary about Winifred Wagner, an Englishwoman who had married Richard Wagner's son Siegfried. Syberberg is also noted for an acclaimed visual interpretation of the Wagner opera Parsifal in 1982.
