UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) presents Werner Schroeter: Maginificent Obsessions, a spring film series from January to May 2013.
Archival print!
(Germany, 1972)
Schroeter, whose goddess was the diva Maria Callas, was inspired by the romantic fate of yet another mythical opera star, Maria Malibran, who, in 1836, literally sang herself to death, collapsing on stage. The Death of Maria Malibran, Schroeter's 1972 masterpiece, seems bent on emulating its eponymous heroine; the film is Malibran's passion, condensed. Magdalena Montezuma, Ingrid Caven, and Warhol superstar Candy Darling head a cast of women and trans* actors who perform still-life duets in a series of theatrical, painterly tableaux in this tribute to Maria Callas, Maria Malibran, and other divas.