The Age of Commercialism

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The acting in this movie is really good.

"Ludwig - Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König" or "Ludwig - Requiem for a Virgin King" is a West German color film from 1972, so this one has its 45th anniversary next year. The writer and director is Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, who made this film in his mid-30s. If you know Syberberg, you will probably know that his films are usually very long. His take on Hitler lasts for 7 hours, his take on Parsifal for 4 hours. So it is actually fairly surprising that Ludwig only gets slightly under 2.5 hours. As his other works, it is really more of a stage production than a film in the traditional sense. The cast includes a handful of actors that you usually know only mostly from working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This includes Harry Baer, who plays the title character, but also Ingrid Caven, Günther Kaufmann and Rudolf Waldemar Brem. Other than these, there are some of Syberberg's regular actors in here, but also people who never appeared in films at all, just in stage performances. For me, this film was a bit too bizarre and lacked focus and order in many occasions. Also it felt pretty strange how Syberberg went so far away from the Ludwig Story that he included also Hitler again, who of course lived a long long time after Ludwig. I cannot say I enjoyed the watch and maybe I would have if this film had been an hour shorter and really only about the title character and those close to him. Not recommended.

Hans Jürgen Syberberg is best known for his film of Wagner's opera 'Parsifal', a film that I did not like at all. I call myself a Wagnerian and found his cinematic attempt to film that great masterpiece pretty much of a flop. I avoided Syberberg for years and years after that until Facets released his early films 'Our Hitler' and this one entitled 'Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King' fairly recently. I loved this film of Luwig. It helped a great deal that I am very familiar with his life's story and the history of Germany in the 19th century. It was also extremely helpful that I am very familiar with the operas of Richard Wagner. The surreal and often absurd tone of the film falls into place in my head because I've read a lot about these things. The cumulative effect is extremely moving though a tad mawkish at the very end, in the old German manner.For film buffs who have no experience or pre-knowledge of the people and historical events depicted here this film will be a great challenge. The best approach is simply to let the images and, especially, the text wash over you and sink in over time. It might even inspire people to read more about Ludwig and listen to Wagner's operas. I hope so.For the casual film goer Syberberg's masterpiece is a non-starter. But for the adventurous and mentally active film buff it is highly recommended. It is required viewing for all Wagnerians and Ludwig-ites.

This film is an allegorical presentation of the story of Ludwig II. That is, this film depicts the *myth* of Ludwig II. But don't expect the myth to amount to much in terms of a plot. Ludwig's life is told in a series of episodic tableaux, or loosely related visual metaphors (a technique which happens to be one of Syberberg's specialties). This is a good thing, contrary to what you might expect. The clever poetic quality of the film is what constitutes its enjoyment value. At times, however, the symbols are far too ambiguous or esoteric to actually represent anything. The pacing is also unbearably slow at points.Although Syberberg is usually considered a member of the "Neues Deutsches Kino" movement, his style really has little in common with his contemporaries. You will not find the ungainly, haphazard, gratuitous incoherence typical of Wenders and Herzog. Nor will you find the dark cynicism of those two directors. I would argue that most of this film is genuinely funny, in a subtle and lighthearted way.You should be aware that Syberberg is prone to the unfortunate Franco-German tendency of characterizing ideas as products of a particular race, and that he spends much time in the film attacking the "Anglo" idea of industrialism. That being said, he also takes swipes at Nazi figures (largely by associating them with the "Anglos"). The politics are at least strange enough to seem pleasingly exotic.

I gave this a 9 because I acknowledge that not everyone will appreciate Syberberg's cutting-edge techniques and also because I haven't seen this film in almost 10 years (it's very hard to find), and I stumbled upon this site in a quest for it.For anyone who is interested in film, this is a must see. You can see that Verhooven (The Nasty Girl) and Lars van Trier (Zentropa, Breaking the Waves) must be intimately familiar with this film: the montages, the backgrounds, the different textures. The sound effects. This film may require patience and some background in German history to be completely enjoyed, but even without an iota of either it's still a wild ride.