Beer Battle
Bierkampf
West Germany
1977
85 Min
Color
German
Synopsis
On the surface, Beer Battle is a mad example of cinéma vérité. The camera observes an inebriated crowd of people at the Munich Oktoberfest as they react to the provocations of an impertinent individualist (again, played by the director). In one extended sequence, Achternbusch moves through rows of the intoxicants, swipes a hat, drinks from strangers’ mugs, flirts with women, and annoys people until he barely escapes the attacks of the guests and is forced to hide under a bench in front of the beer tent. As in much of the director’s work, the film interweaves private obsession and public experience, here appropriating the raucous annual event—a reveling mass of thousands that features sideshows, beer tents, and sundry other diversions—into a personal encounter he would later describe as “a kamikaze mission.” —http://hcl.harvard.edu
Director
Herbert Achternbusch
Herbert Achternbusch, born November 23, 1938, in Munich, wanted to become a painter and poet after finishing secondary school. But from 1960 to 1962, he consecutively studied at Pädagogische Hochschule München-Pasing, at Nuremberg’s Kunstakademie, and for three semesters at Munich’s Akademie der Bildenden Künste instead. Then, from 1962 on, Achternbusch worked in several jobs before colleagues and friends such as Martin Walser advised him to become a writer rather than a painter.
In 1969, Suhrkamp published “Hülle”, a collection of stories, Achternbusch’s first publication of meanwhile more than 50 books. Shortly after the publication, Achternbusch started to make films on substandard film and became part of the German auteur film scene. Achternbusch then played parts in films by Werner Herzog and Volker Schlöndorff and wrote the screen play to Herzog’s Herz aus Glas (Heart of Glass). —filmportal.de
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