Monday, January 28, 2008

The Loving Dead

Nekromantik, Jörg Buttgereit's 1987 film is so much more than your standard gross out horror flick, it is the complex story of a love triangle between two deeply devoted sociopaths, Rob and Betty, and the corpse Rob brings home from his job cleaning roadside accidents. Things start off well enough but soon it becomes apparent that Betty prefers the company of the corpse, and Rob's world starts to decompose as does Betty's deceased paramour. I won't spoil the end, but let me say that is one the most bizarre and memorable scenes ever. Shot with 16mm film, Nekromantik has a grainy, low-budget look that doesn't detract from the film's inherent beauty at all. It is an unflinching and totally amazing piece of art that I can not recommend enough. Then there's the soundtrack. Sparse and lonely violins, pianos and orchestral pieces strain to convey the absolute desperation and misery of Rob, the callousness of Betty, and the indifference of the dead body that comes between them. Interestingly enough, the music was written and performed by Herman Kopp and the actor who played Rob, Daktari Lorenz. It is a simply beautiful soundtrack that compliments the film perfectly. John Waters called Nekromantik "The first erotic film for necrophiles." I call it a date movie for people who prefer Cannibal Corpse to "When Harry Met Sally." Enjoy.

Here

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can download the file but I can't extract it. Anyone else having problems with this one file?

Aesop said...

I gave it a try and had no problems with it.

Anonymous said...

Third time was the charm. Thank you once again for a top-notch post!

lance grabmiller said...

cannot find server. is it down now? cheers,

Aesop said...

Seems fine to me.

tanakabaka said...

oh boy, I'm such a gobber, FINALLY figured out how to remove a body of music from the CHearse. The Loving Dead. I may not be the most accomplished starman floating in the sky, but I'm DESPERATE. I'm in LA. And I just went to see the members of a band I played with for two years do music that was very similar and it totally was as meaningless and trite as the words, totally, dude, and so many other cuss words; well, acutally, I like those words better. And, yes...CHearse is everything I hoped it would be, fresh and lovely and soulful.

Aesop said...

Tanaka, you are a ruler, as usual. You are the target audience of the Hearse. You ride shotgun.