Vaginal Davis presents 'Erdgeist'

Saturday evening I went to the Arsenal Kinemathek with a good friend of mine. The occasion was "Rising Stars, Falling Stars", a regular event of this film institution, hosted by queercore big name and artist Vaginal Davis, who apparently lives here in Berlin since 2007. I was obviously really curious, and decided that my period of forcible ascetism should come to an end for good. The movie shown this time was Erdgeist, a Dutch film adaption of a popular play by Frank Wedekind which was, I must say, lots of fun to see. I was especially impressed by the actress who played Lulu, the main character: Asta Nielsen. I don't have the words to describe her, so I'll just post a picture here. She's... plastic enough to have played the role of Hamlet, apparently. Me, I've always drooled with the expressionist aesthetic, so I was more than happy. Here the elegance of the scenography, in really ductile chiaroscuro, is topped up by art déco interiors, a sober and really theatral reenactment of the original, the spirit of the roaring twenties, and a sense of humour I really didn't even expect. Vaginal Davis appeared came into the auditorium from the projection room, walking clumsily and looking as if just arrived from her husband's funeral. She advanced to the next row staring at people manically, and trying to reach for people's shoulders, muttering in a creeky voice "Are you my lover?". Everyone was terrified. Davis's second victim was girl who looked like Saffron from Absolutely Fabulous (or alternatively, like a certain poet I know...). They shaked hands and exchanged mortified looks. I was thinking about answering "yes" or "maybe" when in the end she seemed to go for us, and she what could happened, but she finally let us go. The young pianist, because yes it's a silent movie, and we needed one, looked really amused to be there -I think she was underage)- among such a bizarre crowd. There was quite a good stash of queers, natürlich, in all sorts, including the creepy man in a colourful suit that was sitting next to me (and who was far more attentive to me than to the movie). After the screening we moved to the foyer where it became clear that arthouse events are still a bit of a geeky thing, no matter how expensively cool people appear to be.

Surely there wasn't much of a chance for intermingling, which I'm actually thankful for because it helped ward the weird guy off. My friend and I downed some four "Grüne Witwen", green widows, allegedly the director's favourite cocktail according to Vaginal Davis, which was probably just made up. It was a shame we didn't get to talk... surely next time. Since we were already enticed to keep on drinking, we hopped on a bus to Neukölln where I had been invited to go in . We got there some five hours later than expected, but the party was still going on. Coincidental connections between people revealed themselves as usual in small village, which has always made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but what the hell, sometimes it can be pleasant to know someone you lost track of won't suddenly vanish. There are always chances for them to resurface among other people's friends, or maybe they'll turn out to be married to your boss, or a keen visitors of some graveyard in your vicinity. Berlin, Berlin...