Liebeskonzil (1982)

Plot Summary

Oskar Panizza’s The Council of Love (1895) is a blasphemous play set in 1495, during the first recorded outbreak of syphilis, which Panizza satirically presents as the punishment from Satan for sexually active humans. As a result, Panizza was imprisoned for obscenity. Schroeter alternates scenes from the Panizza’s work with a dramatization of his trial, presenting the play as an expressionist spectacle performed by actors wearing exaggerated makeup who gesture and grimace grotesquely. The film thus forms a bridge between Schroeter’s use of tableaux in his early experiments with the political urgency of his 1980s films. On the eve of the AIDS crisis, Schroeter is presciently worried about disease as an excuse for governmental repression and the oppression of sexuality. - Harvard Film Archive

Full Cast & Characters

Antonio Salines

Teufel / Dr. Panizza

Magdalena Montezuma

Doppelzeugin

Kurt Raab

Gerichtspräsident

Renzo Rinaldi

Gottvater

Margit Carstensen

Staatsanwältin

Heinrich Giskes

Verteidiger

Agnès Nobecourt

Maria

Roberto Tesconi

Christus

Lauro Versari

Cherubim

Patrizia La Fonte

Selbstmörder-Engel

Guido Polito

2. Engel

Kristina van Eyck

Agrippina

Director & Crew

Where to Watch Liebeskonzil Online

Frequently Asked Questions