Status: 11.25.2022 00:01
Rosa von Praunheim is a director, author, theater director, icon of the LGBTQ movement – and today she turns 80. A conversation about old age, young filmmakers, poems and moments of shock.
He became famous in the early 70s with his film “It is not the homosexual who is perverted, but the situation in which he lives”. The film was intended as a statement and call for an end to the oppression of gays and lesbians and as the initial spark for many homosexual movements. Rosa von Praunheim’s films “Die Bettwurst” (1971), “City of Lost Souls” (1983), “Survival in New York” (1989) and many others have become world-famous cult films.
More recently he celebrated his project “Rex Gildo”, a tribute to the pop singer, huge film success. The eighty-year-old, who lives in Berlin, talks about his career and his life and shocking moments in the NDR Kultur studio.
Honestly, you still don’t feel old, do you?
Praunheim rose: This changes. It’s also time to go now, at 80. I mean, he’s actually too old to die.
You have often told this story of the fortune teller who predicted your death. I think it was October of 2023. Does that trigger something for you?
from Praunheim: Yes of course. I’m really looking forward to it. I mean, finally get some rest and sleep. I’ve always been driven to produce my whole life. And of course it’s a good feeling. But my boyfriend wants me to be a hundred, so I have to submit to him.
What have you already done today?
from Praunheim: I wrote 50 poems. I didn’t write it, she wrote me. This flows out. I’m just the medium.
What is this condition? Can you describe it in any way?
from Praunheim: This is easy enough. Sit down and write. I rarely correct, other than spelling mistakes. It’s a beautiful thing.
Sometimes when you say “write me” do you seem to be quite surprised by what came of it?
from Praunheim: Yes, totally surprised. Especially when I reread it. Then I’m really excited and I think to myself, who wrote something this big? My friend always says he’s arrogant, you don’t say things like that. But I think a lot of artists feel that way when they’ve done something. It was like this with my students, they were always enthusiastic about their first films. I think it’s like a baby pooping. The poop smokes and the kid is proud that he did. Same with me.
You are so incredibly happy to pass it on. You mentioned your students yourself. How do you tell them how to do it? I can imagine that some people find it very difficult to sit down and say that I am now writing myself.
from Praunheim: You have to work fast. They had to have an idea on Thursday morning, casting was on Friday, shooting on Saturday, and the edited short had to be ready on Sunday evening. Because they had to work so fast, great things came out.
The film is not thoughts in images, but feelings in images. The important thing is that you feel something in every scene. It’s not about information, it’s about sensuality. You usually have to teach it to people who have a high school diploma, because they were educated more scientifically. I had to do sensitivity exercises with them. Downstairs on my ground floor was an S&M club. I took students there. The ladies present then showed them the gynecological chair and how they nailed the clients to the cross. Then they turned green and pale and had to come to me and write.
So does it bring a shocker?
from Praunheim: That they have a strong feeling – that’s what it takes. The next lesson was the autopsy at seven in the morning at the Charité, where they saw a corpse dismembered. It was such an emotional shock. The third was an hour of boxing class. I say, “You have to box your way through life,” and then women had to box like men. They had fun and I think it made all the difference.
Katja Weise conducted the interview.
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