The first viewing of the legal Nekromantik (Film 4 Fright Fest 2014)

To all of you who have read my previous entries in this here blog, you know that I have been a fan of Mr Jorg Buttgereit for a while now, and desperately wanted to see his films for many years. Well, the Empress of Luck obviously had her metaphorical eye on me, and I stumbled across the first legal showing of Nekromantik, with the wonderful Mr Buttgereit in attendance, here in little olde London! I snapped the ticket up without any thought and on Sunday set on my way down to Leicter Square.

Being an avid fan of the Fright Fest season on Film 4, I had always wanted to go to the film festival, but always had stupid anxiety over the choice of films and the location (I am one of those people who cannot make a decision when I have many amazing options placed in front of me... Don't tell any future employers!) but am glad I put all of that aside to see this amazing film on the big screen. 

Jorg introduced the film, along with one of the main men from Arrow Video*, and then came the film. Many people laughed, no one seemed to groan, and only one person walked out when the rabbit scene came on.... But I cannot begin to express how nice it was to be in a crowd that thought the film was as great as I do. We all laughed at the odd and satirical scenes, we all loved the bloody cum filled ending... It was great.

*Arrow Video are releasing the HD restored version of the film, and this was one of the two UK promo Events.

After the film ended, Mr Buttgereit took to the stage and answered a huge array of fan based and Mr Lead Arrow Video man's questions and I was genuinely in awe. I, admittedly, have never been to a film Q&A before, so maybe it was due to that, but I have never been in the presence of someone so down to Earth and so up front and honest about how he makes films and the stories behind them. I can't even put into words how much my respect for a man I already respected has grown due to this experience.

Here are some pictures I got (and a now treasured autograph, complete with a little doodle of the Der Todesking skull, which I am still stupidly smiling at) from the event:

 The Q&A

A collab project that will be coming out soon, watch this space!

 Such a shakey photo considering I am a graduated artist, but I literally was shaking from talking to one of the people that inspired me to make MORTEM (my end of Art School show piece) 

 

So all in all, this experience has swung me into the ways of possibly attending more Q&A's in the future, as well as allowing me to fan girl with other fangirls (and boys) and meet a director who is fucking great. I will consider going to the full Fright Fest Festival next year, and cannot wait until Nekromantik is legally out! 

Until next time,

Jessiefer.

Nekromantik 2: Power to the Ladies.

This will be a brief review of Nekromantik 2, mostly because me and words are not going together that well at the moment, and because in all due respect, most of the gist of this film is expressed in Nekromatik 1's review too. 

I found that  the story line to N2 was pretty concise, and much better than the other Buttgereit films I have seen thus far. The plot follows a necrophile lady by the name of Monika (one of the most beautiful ladies I have seen in a B Movie in a long while) who digs up the previous film's protagonist Rob. 

After taking Rob's newly decaying corpse into her highly decorated flat, we see that she has chosen her prey based on an article in a Newspaper (I'm assuming this article expresses how Rob was a necrophile, but from what I can remember, it doesn't out rightly say that) and has decided to indulge in her dead body loving desires with somebody who understood them. 

This story is interjected by another person's story. We see Mark (a character that will become key in the middle scenes of the film) doing a voice over for his... shall we say awesomely bizarre job of being a porno voice over artist (where can I sign up to a job like that?!). We see him and his co-voice over female colleague having to do several takes of a scene, as they aren't making realistic noises. 

After a scene that shows Monika's love making to corpse Rob, we finally have the scene where both characters meet for the first time, and see another movie within a movie from Buttgereit. After this, we see the full of life romance between the two develop, until they are so involved that Monika needs to make a painful decision- does she devote herself to a live man, or to her corpse? She hesitantly chooses her alive and kicking man, and decides the right thing to do to Rob is to chop him up into smaller pieces. As she chops him up, she is devastated, and you can really see that even though he was dead, she really loved him. (aahhh trueeee loooveee) 

After a while, we hear that Mark isn't fond of the way that Monika makes love to him, she demands that he is deadly still, and takes 'weird photographs of him' (there is a lovely scene where we see Mark hanging from the ceiling, expecting him to be dead but unfortunately he isn't) he is unnerved by these demands, but continues to see Monika as his love for her is deepening (such a deadly romantic comedy <3) 

Mark calls unannounced at Monika's flat during an all girl film evening (featuring the key oddity of the night, Robs severed head), and after the ladies leave to give the couple some alone time, they continue to watch a video of a seal being cut up, which leaves Mark disgusted and angry. Mark expresses that Monika is perverse for watching such films, and leaves in a rage-filled mood. 

We then see Monika having a quiet and reflective walk along the beach, where we suspect that she is understanding the repercussions of her 'perverse' actions with Mark. We then see the couple kiss and make up in the most literal of terms, and are thrown into a full blown (haha) sex scene. During this, we see Monika reach for a cleaver knife and, you guessed it, cuts Marks head (not that one!) off. She then lovingly crowns Marks shaking body with Robs mummified head, and for the first time in the film, orgasms. 

The closing scenes are the best throw in clips I have seen in a film, and well, let's just say you'll be like 'HOW, WHAT, WHY, BUT THAT CANT BEEEEE!' when you see it. 

All in all, I am glad I saw this continuing part of the Nekromantik films, as even thought it wasn't as shocking as the first installment, it was still pretty good, and well, the scenes of dead body love making still really got to me! I later saw a 'Behind the making of' film (I shall link below) that expressed that Buttgereit saw this film as a woman positive film, as it was about a woman getting what she fully wanted sexually, which I do agree with, and it was refreshing to see, especially in this exploitation/b movie genre. It's definitely worth a watch, and it is a stunningly visually beautiful film, even the corpse is a work of genius!! 

Until next time, 

Jessiefer.