Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 15: Thu Jan 15

City of Lost Souls (Von Praunheim, 1983): Barbican Cinema, 8.30pm


Here is the Barbican introduction:
This underground, trans-spectacular punk musical from 1983 centres on a group of American ex-pats in bohemian West Berlin.

These various ‘lost souls’ are drawn into the orbit of one Angie Stardust, a black singer and drag artist from Harlem, and the cast of unapologetic misfits includes: the glamorous Southern transvestite Tara O’Hara, sexual trapeze artists Tron von Hollywood and Judith Flex, a quasi-cult leader and practitioner of erotic black magic, Gary Miller, and Lila, a trashy, spotlight-seeking Southern blonde played by celebrated punk singer Jayne County.

Directed by Rosa von Praunheim, the film is a hysterical, historical document of a particular time and place. Emerging as a genuine cult classic it is screening here from a recent re-master.

We are pleased to be joined by Juliet Jacques, journalist, cultural critic and author of Trans: A Memoir (Verso, 2015) to introduce this screening. 

Chicago Reader review:
West German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim (
Red Love, Army of Perverts) lights out for the territory again, the sexual terra incognita of underground Berlin. It's a musical that takes place mostly in a hamburger joint and a hotel, with an all-glitter-dust assortment of uninspired talents (American expatriates stranded in Berlin) waiting for their big break on the nightlife scene. With Jayne County, Angie Stardust, and La Habana (1983).Pat Graham


Here (and above) is an extract.

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