Frieda Grafe – Selected Writings

On the occasion of the publication of the index, the twelfth and last volume of Frieda Grafe’s "Ausgewählte Schriften in Einzelbänden" by Verlag Brinkmann & Bose, edited by Enno Patalas, we would like to commemorate the film critic, who was singular in her thinking and writing, and draw attention to the complete edition of her writings. Along with a reading of Grafe’s texts, we will screen Jean-Marie Straub's DER BRÄUTIGAM, DIE KOMÖDIANTIN UND DER ZUHÄLTER (The Bridegroom, the Actress and the Pimp, FRG 1968) and the rodeo movie THE LUSTY MEN (USA 1952) by Nicholas Ray, with Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy and Susan Hayward. The film tells the story of life on the road, of the wish to find a place to stay, of the compulsion to succeed and the fear of failure. In 1977 Frieda Grafe wrote: "These cowboys are so washed-out. They can no longer bear the image that words burden them with." And in 1983: "Today, THE LUSTY MEN appears as the beginning of the end: The dream factory and the American dream are superimposed."