The Raspberry Reich
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THE RASPBERRY REICH A movie by Bruce LaBruce Produced by Jürgen Brüning Written and directed by Bruce LaBruce Germany 2004 Original version (english) · 90 minutes Official entry, Sundance 2004 Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 2004, Panorama Cast And Crew Gudrun Susanne Sachsse Holger Daniel Bätscher Patrick Andreas Rupprecht Andreas Dean Stathis Clyde Anton Z. Risan Che Daniel Fettig Helmut Gerrit Horst Joeffrey Neighbour 1 Ulrike S. Drag Queen Stage Sherry Vine Neighbour 2 Stephan Dilschneider Drag Queen Door Pünktchen Policeman Sven Reinhard TV Personality Genesis P. Orridge Muslim Naushad Arab terrorist 1 Hüseyin Günus Arab terrorist 2 Alfredo Holz Arab terrorist 3 Claus Matthes Arab terrorist 4 Rafael Caba Diplomat Mischka Kral Chauffeur Marco Volk Baby Darius Sautter Aschkanpour Voice Patrick Christoph Glaubacker Voice Che Andreas Stadler Voice Helmut Ralf Grawe Voice Horst Mario Mentrup Additional voices David Arnold Marco Volk Daniel Hendricksen Claus Matthes Set Design Stefan Dickfeld Editor Jörn Hartmann Director of Photography James Carman Second Camera Kristian Petersen Additional Camera Torsten Falk Bruce LaBruce Sound Recordist Luis Hoyos Assistant Director Marco Volk Production Manager Claus Matthes Production Assistant Robert Dilly Manfred Rauch Matthias Knapp Production Advise Gamma Bak Second Unit Porn Jürgen Anger Kiki La Sunrise Christian Slaughter Lights Sören Salzer Stills Jörn Hartmann Make up Andreas Bernhardt Costumes Ludger Wekenborg Catering Daniel Fettig Visual Effects Ron Geipel Sound Design Jörn Hartmann Post Dubbing David Arnold, Loft Studios, Berlin Sound Mix Jan Dejozé, Loft Studios, Hamburg THE RASPBERRY REICH The Raspberry Reich The Raspberry Reich is a film about „radical chic“, specifically the phenomenon of the modern left in Germany adopting the signifiers and postures of extreme left wing movements of the seventies, particuarly the Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang. The movie starts off with the abduction by a gang of bumbling, would-be terrorists of Patrick, a young man who is the son of one of the wealthiest bankers in Germany. A scene of chaos and slapstick humour ensues in which Clyde, one of the aspiring terrorists – or activists, as they prefer to refer to themselves – accidentally hand-cuffs himself to the kidnapping victim and is forced to join him in the trunk of their stolen BMW. Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, Clyde, whose job it was to follow Patrick and report his whereabouts to his cohorts, has already had a sexual liason with Patrick, and the two young men are already planning Patrick’s escape as soon as the abduction takes place. The gang does not realize that Patrick’s father disowned and disinherited him when Patrick came out as gay, and therefore he has no value as a hostage. Nothing seems to go right for this well-meaning but ineffectual gang of aspiring terrorists. In the meantime, the leader of the Raspberry Reich, Gudrun, a charismatic young woman who has patterned herself after Gudrun Ensslin, one of the main members of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, is indoctrinated the other members of the gang to her cause. Gudrun, a strict devotee of Wihelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse, believes that heterosexual monogamy is a bourgeois construct that must be smashed in order to achieve true revolution. To that end, she forces her straight male followers to have sex with each other to prove their mettle as authentic revolutionaries. When Holger, one of her followers, protests that he is her boyfriend, Gudrun tells him not to be ridiculous, that the revolution is her boyfriend! Gudrun is constantly preaching her revolutionary rhetoric to the impressionable young men, but she often finds it diffucult to live up to the extreme ideals by which she attempts to govern her life and the lives of her followers. After having sex in a public elevator with Holger and visiting a shooting range with Andreas, the senior member of the gang, Gudrun starts to hatch her hostage scheme in order to extort money from Patrick’s father which she plans to distribute to the oppressed, impoverished working class, and also to draw attention to their glamorous cause. Unfortunately for Gudrun, Clyde and Patrick have ambitions of their own. The eventually escape and become bank robbers, stealing money from one of the banks owned by Patrick’s own father. After the terrorists’ plot is foiled, the film traces what becomes of each of the members. Helmut and Horst, who were previously straight, become gay lovers. They run into Andreas, who seems to be in the closet, in a gay bar on an evening that has a terrorist chic theme. Che, another member of the gang, who patterns himself after Che Guevera, moves to the Middle East where he begins to train real terrorists how to abduct real victims. Sometimes those who indulge in radical chic do become real - and dangerous - terrorists. And of course Gudrun and Holger get married and have a child and become members of the bourgeoisie, although Gudrun still pays lip service to her radical beliefs. The Raspberry Reich is an art/porn film that, like all my films, uses pornography as a starting point to examine sexual politics and homosexual radicalism. (For me, working in pornography is like a genre excercise.) Like my previous two films, „Hustler White“ and „Skin Flick“, The Raspberry Reich concerns an all-male gang that does not strictly identify itself as homosexual but whose members nonetheless are sexually active with THE RASPBERRY REICH each other. („Hustler White“ is about male prostitutes, „Skin Flick“ is about neo-Nazi skinheads.) Each of the movies examines identity politics, emphasizing that homosexual identity is fluid and can be separated from a strict gay politic. In The Raspberry Reich, Gudrun initiates the sexual dynamic between the heterosexual males who idolize her; she recognizes the innate radical potential of homosexual expression and attempts to manipulate it towards her revolutionary ends. The fact that she is constantly quoting Reich and Marcuse is no coincidence: the RAF and other radical movements of the seventies believed in the sexually revolutionary ideals of these post-Freudian thinkers, and fought against all forms of sexual repression and the constraints of gender. (One of Gudrun’s favourite slogans is „Heterosexuality is the Opiate of the Masses!“) It is essential that my film engage these notions with sexually explicit content, for in this way it mirrors all the sexual ambivalence and ambiguities of the radical movements that emerged in the sixties which are now being revived in art and fashion, but which could soon become a new social and political force in modern culture. Bruce LaBruce, director Here is an introduction to an interview with the director by J T Leroy in „Film-maker magazine“ that further explains the thesis of The Raspberry Reich. They kidnapped business leaders, gunned down police officers and hijacked an airliner. But even after Sept. 11, the failed German revolutionaries who spread fear in the 1970s and ’80s have acquired a certain chic.” Thus began a recent article, („Terror Films, Fashion Stir Germany“) by Associated Press writer Stephen Graham, reporting on the resurgence of interest in the Red Army Faction (aka the Baader-Meinhof Gang) among young German filmmakers and designers. In addition to a half-dozen German films „that attempt to give the RAF a more human face“ – such as „Baader“, „Black Box Germany“, „The State I Am In“, and „What To Do In Case of a Fire“ – writes Graham, „RAF symbols, such as its trademark machine gun and red star have been recycled … Stores have marketed underwear bearing the slogan ,PRADA-MEINHOF’, and a Berlin boutique offers T-shirts for infants with the word ,Terrorist’ in bright colors across the chest.“ Not surpringingly, this pop culture mythologizing of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, „rankles older Germans,” says Graham. When the Associated Press article appeared, Canadian director Bruce LaBruce – who keeps his finger on the pop culture zeitgeist – was on his way to Berlin to begin shooting his latest film, The Raspberry Reich. (The Raspberry Reich, also known as „Schili“ – a cross between „chic“ (schick) and „left“ (linke) – were the affluent German leftists who supported the Baader-Meinhof Gang during their time on the run, providing them with shelter and money.) LaBruce – a self-described sexual revolutionary who launched the homocore movement in Toronto in the late ‘80s in response to the homophobia of the punk rock scene – describes The Raspberry Reich as „a critique of terrorist chic“. THE RASPBERRY REICH Bruce LaBruce, director Bruce LaBruce is an independent film-maker and writer whose features have developed an international following. His most recent film project, „Skin Flick“, was released in both hardcore and softcore versions, the former of which was nominated for nine gay adult video awards, the latter of which has played at over thirty international film festivals. Prior to that, his feature film „Hustler White“, a collaboration with Los Angeles based photographer Rick Castro, premiered at the l996 Sundance Film Festival, followed by screenings at the International Film Festivals in Berlin, Dublin, Copenhagen, Thessaloniki, Toronto, Vancouver, Helsinki, Slovenia, Gijon, Lille, etc., and at Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals including Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Milan, Oslo, San Francisco, London, Barcelona, Melbourne, etc. „Hustler White“ won first prize at the Freak Zone Film Festival in Lille in 1997, earning it a screening at the Cannes Film Festival. LaBruce co-stars in this romantic comedy with actor/supermodel Tony Ward. „Hustler White“ has been picked up for distribution world-wide, including Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Australia, U.S.A, Canada, and Japan, and has been sold to television in Germany, Hong Kong, and England. In January l996, LaBruce’s most recent music video, for the song „Misogyny“ by popular Toronto band Rusty, was the most requested video for three consecutive weeks on City TV’s MuchMusic and won a MuchMusic video award for Best Concept Video in 1996.