Hans Neuenfels
GER 1983, 144 min
The centre of Hans Neuenfels film is Kleist’s “Penthesilea”. Like from a distance Kleist observes the relationship beween man and woman, when he transfers into mythical Greece what in his time became a problem for him in Prussia – and remains to be a problem also for us. Bringing his own associations during the work in, Hans Neuenfels blends reality and fantasy to an imaginary biography of Kleist. Fix identifications mix up as the main protagonists more and more assimilate to Kleist himself.
GER 1988, 110 min
Hans Neuenfels engages in INNOCENCE UNKNOWN with Kleist’s most important essay “On Marionette theatre”, which is a key to his complete work. In the center of it is Kleist himself.
“The great question of Europe, identity and its loss, is touched in this linguistic masterpiece as much as the longing for a new innocence to be won, which – according to Kleist – was already lost at the gate of paradise.” (Hans Neuenfels)
GER 1984, 130 min
The aristocratic families of Rossitz and Warwand, who are relatives, have started to treat each other with mistrust and hatred, since a testamentary contract has stated, that the complete goods will be inherited to the respective surviving line. At the same time the young generation is in love, how can the tender ties between Agnes of Warwand and Ottokar of Rossitz be protected? Killed by their own fathers, they lie in their blood. A radical drama about the term “family”.