Mutters Maske / Mother's Mask (1988)

Mutters Maske aka Mother's Mask is a free adaptation of the film Opfergang (1944) aka The Great Sacrifice of Veit Harlan. Using motives from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal aka Flowers of Evil Schlingensief draws the drama of a family settled in the Ruhr aristocracy. The hated mainstream cinema is lead ad absurdum by using and overstraining it's rule observance. An important moment, also for Schlingensief's later theatre work: he makes acquaintance with the stylistic device of affirmation. By a voluntary ridiculousness he reduces the tragicomedy to the level of a daily soap.