The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 1079)

Analog Horrors

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Eric Brummer Electric Flesh, 1996
Electric Flesh is a riot of images thrown at you with maximum enthusiasm. Meaning is irrelevant. The only meaning is that this is cool. It’s a 15-year-old metalhead’s Algebra I notebook brought to life for eight minutes. Well, a chaste 15-year-old metalhead as most of the ones I know would have drawn massive dicks on all of these monsters, including the skull with batwings. That would have probably had dick wings, actually.’

 

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Piggy Soda Dog Nightmares – My New Best Friend!, 2024
Dog Nightmares follows Emily, a young woman who has lost her dog, Bailey. She tries looking for the pooch, only to end up rediscovering a strange dog-man hybrid she befriended as a kid. It’s told through her old childhood drawings, clips of the William Wegman shorts on TV, and eerie photographs and video footage of something lurking in the shadows. It’s a short series that packs a lot into its grim tales, with hints of domestic abuse, trauma, and insanity on top of its offputting canine creature.’

 

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Mike Heynes SCHLOCK! HORROR!, 2005
‘The souvenirs of a once great movie empire have been left to gather dust as the film industry embraces a brave new world of CGI. All that remained were a few moth-eaten props and end of the line merchandising gimmicks.’

 

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Unknown Untitled, 2021
‘This was included in an anonymous horror compilation.’

 

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Alluvium Valle Verde, 2022
Valle Verde takes the form of a VHS tape that Alluvium found in a metal box under a strange statue in the grounds of Parque Ecológico, La Plata, Argentina. It depicts a video game for the PS1 he had never heard of before. Aside from needing a peripheral called the ‘THBrain,’ it looked like a regular, Animal Crossing-esque life sim game. But as its on-screen avatar explores the world, it starts showing strange things.’

 

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Noble and Sue Webster Fucking Beautiful, 2000
‘Inspired in part by their drive to Glastonbury’s music festival, and their wait on a hillside, as the sun was setting, to hear a performance by David Bowie, the couple also cite the cover of Gary Numan’s ‘Warriors’ LP as an influence on this work. ‘We’ve ascended above the trash,’ says Sue Webster of The Undesirables, thus completing (in the tradition of nihilism) a classic circuit of Western romanticism.’

 

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Kane Pixels The Backrooms, 2022
‘On January 7th, 2022, interest in the Backrooms creepypasta was bolstered when a YouTube user named Kane “Pixels” Parsons released a viral found footage short about a camera operator who finds himself trapped in the Backrooms, unknowingly stalked by wire-like entities, one of which eventually decides to give chase. The video was given a VHS filter to disguise the CGI nature of the project, and many viewers were impressed with the lifelike camera movements that made the video feel real.’

 

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Starbag Figurebreeze Blackwater-EP, 2023
Blackwater-EP stands out from the crowd by being an analog horror musical. It chronicles a would-be serial killer roaming through his school with a video camera, picking out his victims. Then it jumps ahead 30 years to the school’s derelict ruins, where the killer returns to the scene of the crime. It makes for eerie viewing, especially in the first half where it looks like old 1980s camcorder footage. It may even be an actual old video repurposed for the project. Even with its freaky distortion, the video would be nothing special on mute.’

 

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Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg One Lost Egg, 2022
Styrofoam, epoxy putty, glass, resin, acrylic paint, polymer clay, metal wire

 

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Parker Boisvert Various, 2020-2024
‘Boisvert’s work often gets brought up in relation to analog horror, as it does have some grungy, live-action camera work among its stark, black-and-white animations. But it’s more personal and expressive. Appearing first in May 2020 via the _Boisvert YouTube channel, it follows an antler-headed figure trapped in their home trying to live without giving in to his demons. They’re a mix of figurative dark figures, representing depression, isolation, willpower, rage, and more. Or so the interpretation goes.’

 

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Kyle Edward Ball Heck, 2021
Heck feels like a prequel for Skinamarink, and Wikipedia confirms that Ball created it as a proof of concept for what he hoped would be a longer cinematic endeavor.’

 

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David Zink Yi Untitled (Architeuthis), 2013
‘According to the latest scientific research, a real-life architeuthis can grow to up to 46 ft long and lives in the sea at depths of up to 12,000 ft. It was only one year ago, in 2013, that an international research team managed to capture film footage of a giant deep-sea squid in its natural habitat – a world first, although the existence of giant squid had been scientifically established since the nineteenth century with the help of carcass parts washed up on beaches. Accordingly, David Zink Yi presents his architeuthis as an unmoving, lifeless form, pressed to the floor. It seems as if this deep-sea dweller too has been washed ashore and has perished, snatched away from its natural environment.’

 

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Alex Kister The Mandela Catalogue, 2022
The Mandela Catalogue is a series of videos spread across a series of VHS tapes. Some of them play out like instructional videos, others like surveillance footage. But they all feature people in Mandela County, Wisconsin, succumbing to mysterious figures called ‘Alternates.’ They’re shape-shifting creatures that take the form of other living things, then stalk their targets before eliminating them and taking their place. They can be indistinguishable from a person’s loved ones, human, animal, or otherwise until they attack. The Alternates can also affect TV and radio broadcasts, warping the videos and changing their messages. Their uncanny looks, using real police photofits, caught on quickly, freaking viewers out across the web. Alex Kister aims to continue the series, though after some behind-the-scenes drama, it may take a while to catch back on.’

 

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Sarah Sitkin Untitled, 2010
‘The idea of creating moulds of the human body came to artist Sarah Sitkin while she was talking to her grandmother. “She asked me to take a mould of her foot,” the LA-based creator explains. “She wanted me to make a prosthetic appliance to correct her overlapping toes. During the mould we had a conversation about the disconnection she was feeling between the foot she knew was hers and the foot that was before her.” This conversation ultimately led Sitkin to think about what it means to simply ‘have’ a body, and the “lifelong struggle to identify with our ever-changing physicality, to preserve it, and to maintain agency over it.”‘

 

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Greenio Super Mario 64: CLASSIFIED, 2023
‘Nintendo 64 launch title Super Mario 64 has inspired its odd urban legends, like how every cartridge is allegedly personalized for each owner. One person’s copy of the game will play better for them because it was designed for them specifically. It’s more of a joke, but the YouTube series Super Mario 64: CLASSIFIED wonders what it would be like if it were true. They take the form of VHS recordings of a broken demo build of Super Mario 64. Through each video, it gradually becomes apparent that Nintendo was hiding a very dark secret about the game’s creation, one that may threaten the world as a whole.’

 

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Gooseworx D E E P _ B L U E, 2020
‘At first, BLUE_CHANNEL doesn’t offer a lot. The first video, THE_BLUE_CHANNEL, is literally just a blue backdrop with VHS distortion and the word ‘BLUE’ superimposed on it, set to wonky music. Then DEEP_BLUE occasionally changes the aspect ratio, hides subliminal messages (“You don’t belong here”), and offers a better look at the creepy figure hidden at the end of THE_BLUE_CHANNEL.’

 

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Kerry Stewart The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You, 1993
‘A door, off white, by Kerry Stewart, has a frosted glass pane that reveals on the other side a charity collection box boy, the type once found on every high street.’

 

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Martin Walls The Walten Files, 2021
The Walten Files involves a Chuck E. Cheese-like animatronic restaurant. The story involves a man called Anthony coming across a set of videotapes from the defunct Bunny Smiles Company. They were behind the Bon’s Burgers restaurant, which mysteriously vanished in the 1980s. It stands out from the crowd as it’s an animated series. Its main videos gradually reveal the mystery behind Bon’s Burgers, its animatronics, and its founders, Jack Walten and Felix Kranken. The visuals are crude, which adds to the disturbing atmosphere each video builds up, and lore that’s just as dark and bloody as its video game-based forebear.’

 

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Stephen Krasner Untitled, 2015
‘In the 2015 horror movie The Devil’s Candy, artist and metalhead Jesse Hellman moves into a new home with his wife, Astrid, and daughter, Zooey. The previous owners of the home had died, leaving behind their son Ray who regularly hears the voice of the devil. Upon the death of his parents, Ray finds that he is no longer able to drown out the voice, and begins to murder children in the town. At the same time, Jesse begins to hear the same voice and, falling into a trance-like state, paints a horrifying scene of children’s faces, their eyes smudged with black and mouth open in silent screams. Among the faces is his own daughter, who grips her head in pain and is surrounded by red-hot flames. Ray turns his attention to Zooey, and as her parents fight to keep her safe, Jesse soon realizes that all the faces he has been painting are those of the missing and murdered children in the town.’

 

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Paul Catalanotto The Children Under the House, 2022
‘Julia Luu, a child therapist, finds that a young girl’s imaginary friends might be more than they seem.’

 

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Vinyl -Terror & -Horror Samtalekøkken, 2012
‘Vinyl -terror & -horror is a collaboration between Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen. We are working in the field of cinematic soundscapes with a high tolerance level of possible hi- fi disasters.’

 

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Rob Voerman Tarnung #3, 2009
‘I try to create the architecture of fictive communities living in remote areas or occupying existing city-landscapes. The communities will consist of a mixture of utopia, destruction and beauty, a symbiosis of hippie-communities from the seventies, with their often highly decorated self-build structures, the cabin of the Uni-bomber hidden in the Montana forests, art-deco and other influences. Romanticism combined with the grim qualities of terror. It is often a direct translation of destruction in a purely aesthetic form.’

 

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Kazuo Adamski Non-existent person portrait #193, 2024
oil on canvas F8 (455mm by 380mm), none sketch, none model, none training, no thinking

 

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Alex ‘Jadusable’ Hall The Father, 2020
Ben Drowned combined a written creepypasta about a haunted copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask with video footage. The distorted music, glitchy movements, and the game’s already morose and creepy atmosphere made it stand out from its rivals in haunting terror.’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** PL, Hi. Similar vegetation, that’s interesting. And strange. No, honestly, I don’t like the ‘Sluts’ cover very much. It just looks like something meant to bait gay readers. I like covers that are more complicated, I guess. If you have the artistic goods plus the looks to flirt successfully, why not, right? ** Dominik, Hi!!! I could see why people thought Berger was handsome until he opened his mouth, and then yikes (for me). I listened to a little of Soko, and, yeah, it’s quite nice. I, of course, recognized love’s karaoke of yesterday. I think that was kind of the last REM song I really liked. What is this feeling called love? What is this crazy scene I can’t work out no how?, G. ** Charalampos, That doc is hard to find? Huh. Like I just said, I don’t get Berger’s attractiveness, other then maybe technically. I’m weird, though. ** Misanthrope, Maybe they skied at a beginner slope in which case even hills could do the trick, I guess? What to do about David? Short of a forced intervention, he has become a difficult puzzle. ** Steeqhen, That’s a project indeed. I love pop-up books. If I was rich I’d probably collect them. There’s a great pop-up book store/museum-ish place here in Paris you should check out the next time you come back. I don’t think you need Diarmuid’s book to write your thing. It’s cool, but it has a number of inaccuracies too. How was the photoshoot? So nice to be needed, especially artistically, yeah. February? We need to finish the film completely, and there’s stuff to do and funds to raise to get there, so that’ll surely be February’s overriding thematic. Hoping to get to Efteling. There’s a rare screening of ‘Permanent Green Light’ coming up in Paris, and it’ll be nice to talk about that one again. Stuff like that. Did you break down and go to the ball game? ** James, It’s always blog time technically. At least in Paris, cocaine is back in vogue, I’m told, yes. Berger would have appreciated you. And probably felt competitive. Were the 2010s a good time for indie music? Why not, I guess. Oh, gosh, thanks about ‘Closer’. Keith Levy later Sherry Vine starred in one of Ishmael Houston-Jones’ and my performance works ‘The Undead’. That’s why he’s on ‘Frisk’. And in the show he sang a killer version of Husker Du’s ‘New Day Rising’ which he/she would never sing now in a million years. I’m kicking, thanks, with ice cubes for toes. Watch out. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey. Maybe that would be something to market, hm. Although in our film the only score is the sound of the haunted house, which is what she did — well, and one song sung by one character that she didn’t write — and it’s not exactly Oscar nomination material, sadly. Excellent about the writing start. Don’t worry about volume if you are, just keep leaking if nothing else. ** jay, Hi. Well, like I think I said, if I had groupies I probably wouldn’t even notice. My radar doesn’t go that way naturally. Oh, okay, it’s true that in the ‘Closer’ -> ‘Try’ era I did get fanmail where guys sent me sexy photos of themselves, and I guess I did ‘hook up’ with few boys at my readings, but we stayed in touch afterwards, so that seems different? Wow, thanks about the crush on my fictional self. I’m honored, and my past constructed self is winking back at you. I really need to get back into gaming. I took a short break, and then the habit fell by the wayside. And I do really want to play that ‘Lorelei’ game you recommended. Lots of love back from so far unstressed here and me. ** Bill, I’m actually quite surprised that book has never been translated into English. Seems kinda of inexplicable. Sorry to hear about the rough days, but happy they’ve smoothed out. ‘Spa’, okay, I’ll look into it. Thanks, bud. ** Lucas, Hey. ‘Wild at Heart’ is one of my least favorite Lynch films. But I think I’m in the minority. And I do love ‘Lost Highway’, so take that into account. There are great things in ‘WaH’ no matter what. Worth watching. Another week? Poor dude, that’s tough. Yep your chin up. And, yes, mega-luck on quitting cigs. Your future will reward you generously if you can. ** Steve, Yeah, Semiotext(e), right. I’m thinking there must be a rights issue, although it’s in French, so … It sounds like you should be nothing but amused and thrilled by his riposte. Nice you’re reviewing the new Destroyer. I’ve only heard the single, but I love it, and I just got tickets to see him live here. Curious to hear what ‘Being Maria’ is like obviously. I don’t know of Bertolucci talking about that, no, but he did stop disowning ‘Luna’ finally, which I understand he disowned because he thought it got a little too close to home, so maybe that was his reveal. I have a hard time getting Solidarity Cinema to work unfortunately. It’s molasses slow, but I keep trying again. ** Dan Carroll, RPG vibes, gotcha. Well, great for the reading time then. Cool you like Puce Mary. I’m a huge fan, obviously, I guess, and she’s a good pal of mine. Lives here in Paris. I would guess that, yes, Arca is pretty pricey at this point. I love ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ too. How awesome, and with Moseley there. I assume it was a blast? ** Chris Kelso, Hi, Chris. No, I’m not so into the idea of my books being adapted as films. They’re books and meant to work as books. More interesting to write something specially intended to be visualised. But if some amazing person had an amazing idea of how to transform a novel into a visual experience, I’d certainly engage with them. I so feel for you on the funding front. You’ll get there though. You sound like you’re sufficiently on it. I would just say try to raise enough funds to be able to cover the post-production too because those funds are even harder to raise on their own. We had no funds for the post- on our film going into it, that’s what really fucked things up. You can do a post about ‘Vantablack’, of course. That would be very welcome. I’m really excited that ‘Room Temperature’ is finally, finally going to be born, yes. Thanks a lot, man. ** Bernard Welt, Mr. Welt! Strangely I don’t think that Berger story was in the post, although it’s kind of famous, isn’t it? I did not know that about Georgia Holt. In fact, embarrassingly, I didn’t even know Lucy Ricardo ever went to Paris. I’ll see if YouTube can help me. The horribleness over there is absolutely unbelievable. And piling up higher every day. This is the key moment, right? Here’s where we find out what fighting back with sufficient force post-internet involves. Were the IRL outbursts re: Occupy or George Floyd blips or trial runs? I’m very worried, as I know you are, that people are so drugged by the belief that venting on social media is the entire playing field that they won’t be willing to invent the level of rebellion that this moment insists upon. That it’s taking time is no surprise, but … oh, I don’t know. Who knows how to fight this thing and not just hope/rely on elected officials and a romantic notion of the court system. It’s so huge. Unbelievable. Scandinavia is wonderful. Try to rent a car or something and drive around in Norway. It’ll blow your mind. Hope you get down here too, obvs. Love, me. ** Tyler Ookami, Hey, Tyler. I was good friends with this guy John Wentworth who was Lynch’s right hand man during the ‘Twin Peaks’ and concurrent films era. If you look at the credits of Lynch’s stuff back then, he’s all over them. Lynch offered to give John 1M to direct a film (he’d made a few shorts), John approached me to write the script with him. He wanted to adapt this novel ‘The Brave’, which Johnny Depp later ended up directing a film based on. But, like I said, we couldn’t agree on things. He said he was going to write the film on his own, but he never did, I never knew why. So I would have been the film’s co-writer, and John would have directed it. You and I rely on much the same sources. So great, those places, although I can’t get Solidarity Cinema to work well, even with Plex. I don’t if that’s because I’m in France or something. All hail those file swappers. What a mess. ** HaRpEr, Thanks about the premiere. I should be able to announce it in about three weeks or so. I like anecdote books too. I have a thing for oral history books like ‘Please Kill Me’, for instance. Me too, Birthday Party and the first three or four Bad Seeds albums are great. The whole preacher schtick doesn’t interest me. Maybe you have be religion damaged to fall for that something. Nice day you had, albeit with a little ouch in there. ** Justin D, Thanks, Justin. I can’t wait for the eventuality when you can see it. We’re working on how to get it out and about. MUBI featured Zac’s and my film ‘Permanent Green Light’ for about three weeks or a month. That’s what they bought, and then that was it. So it might be the same with those other films they list. But they shouldn’t say ‘not available at the current time’ or whatever as if the films will be back in play again. They should say ‘was available here in the past’ or something. That’s a bit of tomfoolery on their part, I think. Happy you liked ‘Gates of Heaven’. Such great things in it. That long shot of the woman in the red dress sitting on her stoop and meandering verbally all over the place about her son and her cat and etc. is so amazing, for instance. Snow! No snow here, just icy clear skies and a lot of buttoning up of the top button. Enjoy your daylight. ** Right. Today’s post is pretty self-explanatory, I believe? See you tomorrow.

Ich *

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“I need love! Avete capito? The endless theme of my life is my longing for love. I just can’t get enough love.” — Helmet Berger

‘Unfortunately, Helmet Berger’s autobiography Ich has not been translated into English yet. So it is my duty and a pleasure to introduce you to the contents of Helmut Berger’s autobiography and provide you with a few anecdotes from the life of this great actor who was born in 1944 in the small Austrian town Bad Ischl. He wrote the book together with his friend Holde Heuer, a journalist from Munich.

‘As a sort of prologue Berger tells the reader: “Yes I am tainted by the beautiful things in life. But to all those who only want to see my as an agent provocateur and an excentric I can only say: With every day of my life the number of people I don’t give a damn about grows and grows. All my friends know: This book belongs to Luchino Visconti the great director. By the end of the book all my readers will know that the world is not only round and that love is the only true source of life.”‘ — Holde Heuer

 

 

‘Berger begins with his biggest personal problem: He has two sides – one nice and kind as an angel the other bad as the devil. He goes on and tells the reader a few examples of people who got to know his dark side: Alain Delon who wanted to take his part on Visconti’s side.’

“I fucked Delon’s wife Nathalie. I really liked her. We had fun in bed together with Maria Schneider who became famous on Marlon Brando’s side in The Last Tango in Paris. To make my success complete I contacted a journalist and made sure that Delon got to know about the whole affair. It is dangerous to pick a fight with me.”

 

 

Richard Burton was an alcoholic and had another quarrel with his wife Liz ‘Taylor. Berger sprayed chocolate truffles on a couch just before Burton lay down there. When he stood up again to go to the film set his trousers were all brown. Berger: “Richard looked shit.”‘

“Sometimes I don’t understand myself. I drink all night long I fight I destroy bars… I ask myself why I have to do this. After one of my excesses I was imprisoned in Rome for four days. A terrible time. But that other thing in me was stronger once again. That satanic devil just won’t let me be.”

 

 

‘He then goes back to 1974 and talks about the famous “Bad taste” Party on his 30th birthday in the famous “Jackie O.” Nightclub in Rome. Everyone: Valentino, Bianca Jagger, or Ursula Andress dressed in strange kind of ways. The more cocaine there was the crazier the party people became. Everything was fun to Berger back then. Over the past few years he became more and more thoughtful about many things in his life.

‘After arriving in London, Berger took his first acting lessons and worked as a waiter in an ‘In-Restaurant’ on King’s Road and as a model. All of the houses of the stars (for example Cat Stevens) were open, joints were smoked and free love – to be precise: orgies – were en vogue. Berger made his first sexual experiences involving men.

“There were so many of us. You touched your neighbour. It just happened. You are relaxed, a bit high, you caress and want to be caressed. Everything gets very erotic and you feel horny. You undress. Feel free from rules and morals. Oh, I, I, you play with yourself and with others. We are all sisters and brothers. A sweet boy turns me on, it feels natural.”

 

 

‘His first LSD-experience was in the USA, during the promotion-tour for The Damned (it must have been 1969). He was there together with his friend Ylia Suchanek from Austria. Berger took it in the house of Hair producer Michael Butler, “a master of this drug”. He describes his trip – thank god, a good one! – and tells the reader that it is necessary to drink a lot of juice to clean the body. No alcohol! But we all love Berger because he is so human. He makes mistakes. Berger’s cocaine-career started in 1971 in Rome (Nightclub “Number One”).’

“It was the jet-set-drug. If everybody was on it, I had to be too. You know, I am very easily influenced by other people. I like modern things. I wanted to be “in” back then. Immediately I took half a pound…”

‘His friend Egon von Furstenberg lead him to the club “The Glory Hole”, a nasty place. There were holes everywhere. The two men put their private parts in there. You never knew who or what was behind there. They had great fun there an stayed until six in the morning. Visconti had to leave America soon (he was not wanted as a communist and only allowed to stay for the premier of “The Damned”. Visconti did not like the USA anyway, but he must have enjoyed the “dirty” T-shirts Berger brought him.)’

 

 

‘The craziest thing happened on the ball of Monte Carlo. Berger sniffed cocaine of bad quality. Then he sat down to eat, but a fart become very liquid and landed in his trousers. He wore white trousers! So they became brown and he could not stand up and had to sit still from 9 till 4 in the morning. All his friends thought he was sick because he did not want to dance with them – usually, Berger is a passionate dancer. After he got home he changed his clothes and danced ecstatically in a club because he had to get all the stress of the evening out of his head.’

“I become the opposite of what I really am. A person that I hate. This liar, this monster, this anti-human being, it acts as if it were the devil himself. A horror! It started after Visconti’s death in 1976. The shock of my life. I used strong alcoholicas, drank them more and more often. I knew: My life is divided in the Helmut Berger before Luchino Visconti and the one with L.V. And, of course, the one after L.V. And this one could be a nightmare.”

 

 

‘When they first met and had lunch, Visconti would not leave Berger for one second, but the young man was afraid of his feelings. Berger wanted a real relationship. He wanted to live in Paris. And – he wanted luxury. They lived together in Paris. Visconti was a bit conservative, he did not want people to know he was gay – even the people working for him (he had several maids, a cook, etc.). So they had seperate bedrooms, but Berger would come to Visconti’s room at night… But Visconti also told him to leave afterwards and sleep in his own bed. His behaviour shows that he belonged to a different generation. Berger needed young people around him. So often at night he left the house in secret. And his night flights became wilder and wilder. Visconti prefered to read and hear classical music between his films or wrote scripts. Berger confesses that he played a game first, but very soon he really fell in love with Visconti.

‘Visconti also introduced him to new people. Were it musicians and models first (in London), was Berger now introduced to international artists – conductor Leonard Bernstein, opera singer Maria Callas, ballet dancer Rudolf Nurejev – Berger had an affair with him, Nurejev was sexually hyper-active, but Berger disliked the Russian’s passion for garlic and vodka. Nurejev wanted to live with Berger but he could not give him the safety of Visconti. For a short time, Nurejev was his lover, Visconti was his husband and his father.

‘The Beatles played a concert in Rome in 1967. Visconti wanted to make Berger happy, so he invited the Fab Four to a private dinner. They talked about music. Visconti said that pop and classical music should come together, they should make a concert with Leonard Bernstein. The Beatles were enthusiastic about this idea, but their manager did not like it. It was too soon for such a project back then. Berger liked all four of the Beatles, but he had the best relationship to Ringo Starr, they are still friends. The superstars were all a bit shy and nervous because of Visconti. But when he talked about his opera productions for too long, they also got a bit bored. After the Beatles had left Visconti said: “Why don’t they cut their hair?” Berger also wanted to have long hair, but Visconti had forbidden it.’

“Love is easier with men. They all have a mother complex, they don’t look at the eyes of a woman or at her hands, but at her breasts. Men don’t think about love and rainbows. You go out and then you do it, simply because you are horny. You say “Ciao” afterwards and not “Ti amo”.”

 

 

‘Berger writes about his friendship with Liz Taylor. They shot “Aschermittwoch” (“Ash Wednesday” 1973) together. Richard Burton was very jealous when Berger and his wife had to play a love scene. They all celebrated new year’s party in Switzerland afterwards, Burton broke his arm, because he was drunk and fell. Berger liked him, although Burton often treated his wife Liz Tayler bad. They had great fun. When Liz Taylor woke them in the morning, both men wore very small red slips. She was surprised. But Italians say that you should wear red clothes for the first 24 hours of ever new year. If you do it, it will become a happy year.

‘Berger was very tired after that film and so Visconti told him to visit Florinda Bolkan in her house in Rio de Janeiro. Florinda and her friends behaved strangely. Berger knew that something was wrong. After a few hours they told Berger that Visconti had suffered a stroke and died while Berger was flying from Rome to Rio. Visconti had smoked 80 cigarettes a day his whole life through!’

“I had a black out. I beat up Marina, Florinda’s friend. After I had come to my senses again, I packed my suitcases and drove to the airport. I wanted to buy my first-class-ticket to Rome, but the Italian “Alitalia” took me to Rome for free. Why? Because of respect for the master Luchino Visconti. Only Italians do such things. There was a state funeral for Visconti. Everyone was there: the government, Fellini, de Sica, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, everyone. They all wore dark sunglasses. Only I didn’t. I wanted that people could see my face. I wanted to say goodbye to Luchino naked. There was nothing to hide. No tears were rolling out of my eyes. I guess I was in a state of trance. I only looked at the huge heart made of flowers that I built for the funeral. Everything else seemed unreal to me. I was acting in a film, without sound, without soul, without Luchino. I was alone. God, I think I deserved it. No!”

“One year later, March, 17, 1977, I wanted to follow Luchino. I believed and hoped to meet him in his new world. What should I do down here on earth withouth him? My preparations were perfect. I had collected all the pills I could get. I had to be careful, because all my friends and Maria were watching me. When I had enough pills, I was happy and swallowed them. But by chance, Maria, who started working in the afternoon already arrived in the morning on that day. She found me. I don’t know if this was good or not. I don’t know that, even now, twenty years later. Scusi!”

 

 

‘Berger talks about his friendship with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. They were partying in New York, Paris, everwhere. No city was safe from them. Bianca Jagger was there, too. Berger liked both of them, he even landed in bed with them. But he tells us that there was no sex. The window of their hotel room was open, so they awoke at noon. Beneath their window was the garden of the hotel, with an outdoor cafe. Mick and Helmut could not fall asleep again. Angry, as they were, they urinated on the heads of the guests of the cafe. Of course, their hotel bill was enormously high. There are bans on Berger entering the Paris “Plaza”, the Munich “Four Seasons” and “Palace”.’

“Without sex I get nervous and hysterical. I take a cold shower. I am not one of those men who have to fuck every night. My libido is quite controlled. I need one or two drinks before I can really feel free. When I was young, I wanted to be seduced. Now I take all the pretty young men into my bed and say: ‘Rock me, babe.’ My affairs never last long. I often ask myself ‘Why?’. I am too critical. I am bossy, aggressive. I ask for too much. If I think about it, sex really is not that important for me. Why not masturbate for six months?”

 

 

‘Berger went skiing in the winter time. Visconti wanted him to go to Kitzbhel, because he thought that Berger would only be doing nasty things in St. Moritz. Of course, that could not stop Berger. He spent the annual income of many people in four weeks (although he had a cheap room). Visconti feared that Helmut hurt himself when he skied, so he had a good insurance for “Ludwig II”, which started a bit later. Berger liked playing Ludwig and still can identify with this man who was against war. He says that Ludwig is the role of his life. He was very nervous at the shootings and could not sleep.’

‘It was a hard shooting and Berger would not have survived it without co-star and friend Romy Schneider. She did not want to be in “Ludwig II” first. But Visconti changed her mind: “Times have changed. You are not the little Sissy any more. Trust me. Start to hold your head up high. And walk like an empress.” But Schneider was not happy in real life. Though she was married again and had an affair with German Chancellor Willy Brandt, she still loved Alain Delon. He was the love of her life. She was a great actress, but pills and alcohol lead to her early end.’

“Who understands the schizophrenia of an actor? You play a role for months, as if it was your real life. Then you are at home for a while, but after that you play the next role. What a chaos. And then there are all the people, they want to know what sort of life you lead. The looks behind your back. I don’t feel good all the time. It is a very exhausting job. And if I have a problem, I simply leave and travel around. That’s me. I don’t want to talk about problems. I just leave.”

 

 

‘In 1978 Berger played in “The Fifth Commandment” (Duccio Tessari), a film about two brothers who are gangsters and are finally shot by the police. The film was shot in Germany. In Munich he was introduced to Holde Heuer, the co-author of his autobiography. She was responsible for the promotion of the Hilton Hotel and saved Berger from being kicked out of the house due to misbehaviour: Holde saved Berger. She kept him from the cheap Munich drug scene. She warned him not to deal with the people around Rainer Werner Fassbinder. During this time in Germany Berger had lunch with Maria Schell, Curd Jegens and director Werner Herzog. Berger paid the enormous bills. A project with Fassbinder did not work out.’

“Fassbinder wanted to work with me. I sat in the cafe and waited. He arrived an hour late together with a friend, just as I was about to leave. He was full of cocaine. I told him that I could not talk to him in the state he was in. And I left. Fassbinder tried to get me for two of his films later. But I did not like the fact that Fassbinder never had a script and only followed his intuition. And I also did not like Fassbinder’s looks, his dirty leather-clothes and that he had not shaved for days.”

“After Luchino’s death, I received hundreds of letters. But only three from Rome (from Flora Mastroianni, Virna Lisi and his agent Carol Levy). But what about all the other friends and artists? What had happened? Suddenly people said that Visconti’s style was out of fashion. ‘Viscontian’ was a negative word. But his films were classics. I believe that his colleagues were envious. He was dead, so there was no one who could show that all the films of the other directors were crap. I was out of my mind for the next years. For the other directors I was a ‘Viscontian’ actor. Without Luchino I was not half the man and actor I used to be. He had tainted me. Tainted by the beautiful things in life. The taste in his films, the style, the design. … All those things were reasons for my suicide attempt. Even now I am not used to the fast-food-filming of so many other actors. I want quality in the films. Is that too much? The producers fear that I want my own make-up artist, Alberto del Rossi, that I want my own secretary. They fear class and style. But I believe in the creative power in artists. I don’t give up.”

 

 

“Let’s think big. I was never interested in mediocrity. I wanted to play big parts.”

‘And so he did, in The Voracious Ones (Sergio Gobbi), Vittoria (Antonio Ribas) or in the American movie Entebbe with Liz Taylor, Richard Dreyfuss, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster and Linda Blair.’

“Linda Blair – we had a wild, fast flirt. We had an affair in the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. But I also had sex with her brother. He seduced me. It was a family-affair. I hope that God will not damn me.”

 

 

‘When Berger became a member of the cast of the TV series Dynasty – Denver Clan he was not allowed to even speak to colleagues and friends who played in Dallas, because there was a rivalry between the two tv-series. His colleagues Linda Evans, Joan Collins, Pamela Sue Martin and John Forsythe were friendly in the beginning, and so were Spelling’s secretaries. But Berger immediately realized that they did not mean what they said. As said before, he never liked America and its citizens. The Denver people said that Berger was not allowed to meet people like Nicholson or Marlon Brando because everyone in Hollywood knew that those people were sniffing cocaine. He was also not allowed to visit the best night club, “Studio One”, because it was known for his homosexual guests.’

“I could not believe it. All those jerks. Puritans. But secretely they all watch porno movies. I did not follow their rules. I had to come to the office every second day. They told me that my role would slowly disappear, if I would not do what they said. I answered: ‘You really believe that I stay at home and don’t meet my friends? Really? Heil Hitler.’ So I was only part of Denver for eleven episodes. In the end my airplane crashed against a mountain.”

“I was out of my mind for the next years. For the other directors I was a ‘Viscontian’ actor. Without Luchino I was not half the man and actor I used to be. He had tainted me. Tainted by the beautiful things in life. The taste in his films, the style, the design. … All those things were reasons for my suicide attempt. I want quality in the films. Is that too much? The producers fear that I want my own make-up artist, Alberto del Rossi, that I want my own secretary. They fear class and style. But I believe in the creative power in artists. I don’t give up.”

 

 

‘A very strange fact is that Berger says he is attracted to Fidel Castro, he calls him “a sexy bitch” and states that Cuban men are “well-built”. Berger would like to be alone with Castro and a video camera….!’

“I take a lot of power from nature nowadays. I go to the country, visit friends in Upper Austria and relax. I read Musil and erotic books. My wildest days are over. Only sometimes I allow myself to act crazy. When I travel. Shopping- and party-orgies. But even when Luchino was alive I could have a quiet day without any action. Well, of course I became a bit restless on the second day. If I don’t feel free, I just leave. There are so many beautiful things, I would not want to miss them. I went out or drove to Ischia. You know, life goes on. And today? I am still curious about new roles, new impressions, my friends and about myself. You know, I like myself. I am what I am. Take me or leave me!”

 


Helmut Berger ICH ICH ICH


Helmut Berger interview naked in bed with a cigarette talking about Visconti


Helmut Berger on German TV in “Harald Schmidt Show“


Official Trailer – HELMUT BERGER, ACTOR (2015)

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** James, Les Blank no doubt sends his greetings back to you from the grave. As do I from aboveground, much appreciated attentive one. Haha, age verification. Happy to have helped de-virginize you on the tentacle front. Well, presumably, depending on what you do with your newfound wisdom. Thanks for using ‘Closer’ as a metaphoric champagne bottle on the stern of your 2025-housed bookwormy future. I think the dude on the cover of the American ‘Frisk’ is underwater too but more subtly. Trivia: the dude/model on the cover grew up to be the currently rather well known drag performer Sherry Vine. Socks need to be reinvented. I hope you survived Tuesday. Seemingly so, no? ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’ve fallen way behind on PJ Harvey. Strange how that happens. Same with Nick Cave, but, in that case, I’ve lost actual interest. I had to look that love up. Soko. Never heard of that entity. And it says they’re French. Okay, this one’s easy. I love L.A. (We love it!), G. ** Misanthrope, What’s that old saying … ‘Fool me once, … etc.’. Yikes, poor Elio. Where do people ski around where you are? My geography knowledge isn’t that good, but I think of your general realm as being pretty mountain-free. Enjoy home while it lasts. Or probably lasted by now. ** _Black_Acrylic, Excellent, re: Blank’s impression upon thou. I hope you were sufficiently rested that your ‘pen’ met ‘paper’. I haven’t seen ‘The Girl with the Needle.’ I need to. I think you know Puce Mary did the score for Zac’s and my imminent new film, and she said working on that film was conventionally fun. ** James Bennett, Hi, James. Naturally, sir. Okay, your story sounds very promising and fascinating. And I can see why it might’ve been labor intensive. Excellent. Enjoy the last polishing. I really look forward to partaking. Have a fine midweek day. ** Steeqhen, Hi. Good, or better than the alternative: it having in fact been exhaustion. I used to be obsessed with the Oz books. I think I read every single one of them. And in fact I have a pop-up book edition of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ right here on my desk (only because I can’t figure where else to put it). I think Bresson was a semi-lapsed Catholic. I might be misremembering that, but it would make sense. Your dissertation is exciting to hear about and such an honor, thank you, man. It sounds pretty sharp to me. No rush on the Who post, obviously, just whenever or if-ever t’would be swell. ** Steve, Sadly, to my mind at least, gay tentacle porn is pretty lame looking. UbuWeb was still there, but it was a dead duck. I’m very happy it’s back in action too. Amazing resource, and not only for the blog. The Bertolucci stuff I was thinking of was: Pierre Clementi’s character molesting the young boy and getting shot by him in ‘The Conformist’, Donald Sutherland’s character having sex with the young boy then killing him by swinging him around by his legs and smashing his head over and over against stone walls of his hut in ‘1900’, the fact that Maria Schneider’s character in ‘Last Tango’ was originally supposed to be a boy, the young boy in ‘Luna’ being picked up forcefully in the gay bar, and etc. Some pretty heavy, cramped authorial intent going on there. ** Chris Kelso, Hi, Chris. I thought so. Obviously. I wasn’t influenced by David Lynch, but I think he was an enormously important artist. I can’t think of another visionary, avant-garde American filmmaker whose work not only became widely popular but influenced so many younger artists. Yes, in the early 90s David Lynch offered to produce a film that would have made by his assistant and me, but the assistant and I did not see eye to eye, so it never happened very unfortunately. How are you intending to fund the film? That part of filmmaking is so fucking awful, or can be. It took us four years to raise the funds for ‘Room Temperature’, and it was a massive struggle. You stay as well and safe as well and safe can be too. ** HaRpEr, Yeah, when you say zap it’s almost like the word has a little electrical jolt. It’s nice. Agreed, of course, about repression’s value to art making. There must be thousands of examples. My favorite Bertoluccis are ‘The Conformist’ and ‘Luna’. I think all of his films up through ‘Luna’ are very worth seeing. Ha, interesting/funny about the Corn Flakes guy. Makes me want to buy a box. ** Charalampos, Hey. Yes, I know that Rivette film. I like it a lot. Ideally one never makes sense of romantic encounters. If they start to make sense, they aren’t working. Maybe. The blog has a secret text feature, but only I can use it. Kind of a fascist set up really. Warmest from not warm here. ** PL, Welcome back. Sounds lively. No, I’ve never been to Brazil. One of my brothers lived there for a while. The only countries in South America I’ve been to are Peru, Venezuela, and Chile. That is unexpected about the largest expat Japanese population. Do you know why? Or does anyone know why? No, I had no say in ‘The Sluts’ cover. Usually I get a say, but in that case they just published it and didn’t let me see it until it was already a book. I have no idea what the story is behind it. No, I don’t have any groupies as far as I know. I’m not so sharp at picking up on those kinds of signals though. When I was young and starting out I got hit on by a number of older gay writers, most of whom probably weren’t interested in my work at all, which was most unpleasant. Not recently, but I used to get these young writers who seemed to think they would have to put out for me to support their work, so there was flirting there, but I’ve never been an exploitative guy, and I just ignored the come-ons. But mostly I’m kind of clueless and don’t really notice if someone has groupie intentions with me. Enjoy the fruits of your lustful fans, I guess? I mean it’s better than being treated like you’re a possible predator? ** Justin D, Happy to trigger your latent Les Blank interest. ‘The Here After’, hm, interesting. Okay, I think I need to watch on that. It’s actually streaming on MUBI? Cool. MUBI can be such a tease with that ‘not currently streaming’ tag they put on so many of the films they act like they house. Thanks! Here’s the evolution of your day! ** Uday, I didn’t remember that you look like Jesus. That could come in handy. Except amongst the grudgeful. Kant, yikes, okay, got it. That kind of important. Physical mail is weird because I”m so completely out of the habit of writing letters and buying stamps and so on that when I get mail, I feel immediately guilty because I know I’ll never respond. But I do still appreciate the effort people put into writing to someone in an analog way. Get some sleep. I can’t survive without at least 7 1/2 hours of sleep a nights, so, yeah, sweet dreams. ** Okay. I have brought Helmut Berger back to blog life so he can glom onto you for 24 hours. See you tomorrow.

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