Schramm is a movie that really impressed me. It's one of those rare movies that stand above the typical serial killer movie. I would say that it definitely belongs to the best within the genre.
It's not a movie with a typical story line. Instead, we are dragged in to Lothar Schramm's mad mind. The soundtrack, the grain of the film, the camera-work, it all adds to a grim and disturbed feeling of madness and desolation.
*Spoilers*
Lothar Schramm is a very lonely man. On one hand, he is quite modest, charming and even protective in his normal contact with his befriended neighbor, a prostitute. Secretly though, he lusts for her, but he can't find a normal way to make it work. So, when he gets the chance he abuses her, but without her knowing about it. Still, she comes off pretty well, as other people get brutally slaughtered by him. His only way to get intimacy is with the dead or unconscious. And for sure he is not left cold by this, as multiple scenes make very clear that he is struggling with himself big time. He also punishes himself (and it is one brilliantly painful graphic scene.. very well done!) for what he is, for what he does.
There is quite some metaphorical stuff. For example the cut-off and the fake leg. My idea of that, is that he sees himself as not capable to have both legs firmly on the ground. He is in a way handicapped, he is loosing control, and it shows through the image of the leg. At the end, it kills him. Lothar Schramm really fears female intimacy, and it's IMO the fear of being emotionally castrated which is shown in his hallucinations of the teethed vagina.
* End of spoilers*
This whole movie is not linear in time line. This only adds more to the madness of it. It is also a movie in which (repressed) sexuality and frustration have the constant overtone. Lust, frustration and, to a lesser extent but definitely there, rage. Schramms repressed sexuality seeps through in the whole movie, and I found this to be really strong and impressive. Jörg Buttgereit did a brilliant job in sucking us in to the deranged world of a sad and lonely, but also very disturbed and dangerous madman.
This film is definitely not for everyone! What I do like about it, other people might totally dislike. The fact that it's not really a story for example, at least not in the way most plots are worked out. It's more a series of events, scrambled up. It's not as much a normal film, but more an experience. It also has an amateuristic feel to it which you may dislike, but which I think works perfectly for Schramm. It's never polished, it never just shines in cinematic perfection, it has no ambitions in being anything even close to a Hollywood production. Instead, it is raw, very raw. It's grainy, gritty, uncomfortable. And wow, did I like it!
It's not a movie with a typical story line. Instead, we are dragged in to Lothar Schramm's mad mind. The soundtrack, the grain of the film, the camera-work, it all adds to a grim and disturbed feeling of madness and desolation.
*Spoilers*
Lothar Schramm is a very lonely man. On one hand, he is quite modest, charming and even protective in his normal contact with his befriended neighbor, a prostitute. Secretly though, he lusts for her, but he can't find a normal way to make it work. So, when he gets the chance he abuses her, but without her knowing about it. Still, she comes off pretty well, as other people get brutally slaughtered by him. His only way to get intimacy is with the dead or unconscious. And for sure he is not left cold by this, as multiple scenes make very clear that he is struggling with himself big time. He also punishes himself (and it is one brilliantly painful graphic scene.. very well done!) for what he is, for what he does.
There is quite some metaphorical stuff. For example the cut-off and the fake leg. My idea of that, is that he sees himself as not capable to have both legs firmly on the ground. He is in a way handicapped, he is loosing control, and it shows through the image of the leg. At the end, it kills him. Lothar Schramm really fears female intimacy, and it's IMO the fear of being emotionally castrated which is shown in his hallucinations of the teethed vagina.
* End of spoilers*
This whole movie is not linear in time line. This only adds more to the madness of it. It is also a movie in which (repressed) sexuality and frustration have the constant overtone. Lust, frustration and, to a lesser extent but definitely there, rage. Schramms repressed sexuality seeps through in the whole movie, and I found this to be really strong and impressive. Jörg Buttgereit did a brilliant job in sucking us in to the deranged world of a sad and lonely, but also very disturbed and dangerous madman.
This film is definitely not for everyone! What I do like about it, other people might totally dislike. The fact that it's not really a story for example, at least not in the way most plots are worked out. It's more a series of events, scrambled up. It's not as much a normal film, but more an experience. It also has an amateuristic feel to it which you may dislike, but which I think works perfectly for Schramm. It's never polished, it never just shines in cinematic perfection, it has no ambitions in being anything even close to a Hollywood production. Instead, it is raw, very raw. It's grainy, gritty, uncomfortable. And wow, did I like it!