Thomas Koerfer – Der Tod des Flohzirkusdirektors AKA Death of the Flea Circus Director (1973)

Quote:
Marcel Martin, International Critics Week (Cannes 1974):
This is the most perfectly Brechtian film to come along in some time. This qualification, unfortunately too often used up, is here in evidence in the treatment of the image and the sound (use of intertitles and of off- screen voice) as well as in the conception of the entire work. The Death of the Flea Circus Director is a kind of political fable.

Flea circus director Ottocaro Weiss, delightfully interpreted by François Simon, must find something else to do after the death of his crafty insects. During a village wake he discovers that the memory of the plague can shake people out of their consumer- sleep. At the same time, a mysterious capitalist decides that the terror springing from an eventual plague epidemic could be an agent for the revival of faith, and a good occasion for him to gain control of an increasingly subversive society. Ottocaro, without knowing it, becomes the tool of the diabolical capitalist.

«Ideas have as much contaminating power as diseases» states one subtitle. But, while the director is a true revolutionary, the capitalist is obviously trying to propagate reactionary ideas against the red plague («A red spectre haunts Europe», wrote Karl Marx, «the one of communism»), and he wants to rouse a black plague (fascism) which would throw the terrorised and lost population towards «law and order». When he is caught, he regrets that he has not paid attention to the fact that Weiss is a Jew, and was therefore «a natural fomentor of revolution».

Thomas Koerfer’s ending, in which one can easily recognise the influence of the German school, in particular Alexander Kluge, is a brilliant example of the blossoming of Switzerland’s cinema. The film is a difficult and dense piece of work that requires constant attention. If it’s very serious moral leads to reflection, the humour that nourishes it and the pleasure it gives us are worthy of Master Brecht.

File Name .........................................: Der Tod des Flohzirkusdirektors.avi
File Size (in bytes) ............................: 1,157,172,122 bytes
Runtime ............................................: 1:48:14

Video Codec ...................................: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Frame Size ......................................: 720x512 (AR: 1.406)
FPS .................................................: 25.000
Video Bitrate ...................................: 1284 kb/s
Bits per Pixel ...................................: 0.139 bpp
B-VOP, N-VOP, QPel, GMC.............: [], [N-VOP], [], []

Audio Codec ...................................: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Sample Rate ...................................: 48000 Hz
Audio Bitrate ...................................: 128 kb/s [2 channel(s)] CBR
No. of audio streams .......................: 1

https://nitro.download/view/3E1A5D0F86F7E9E/Der_Tod_des_Flohzirkusdirektors.avi
https://nitro.download/view/4D3D5C0B689E96A/Der_Tod_des_Flohzirkusdirektors.srt

Language(s):German
Subtitles:English