FAVOURITES OF THE MOON

An old painting and valuable old crockery: those are the objects of desire for adventurers of all shapes and colours. The title paraphrases a line by Falstaff in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.”: “... being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.” The normal confusion of the world shuffles people like a pack of cards, then brings them together and separates them again. In this way, petty thieves and prostitutes, policemen and arms dealers become hostages of those works of arts that they destroy, and in the process lose their human characteristics. People driven by passion, who have, however, lost nothing of their ironically magnetic attraction, themselves become images of an alienated culture that has degenerated into a commodity. 1984: DIE GÜNSTLINGE DES MONDES / FAVOURITES OF THE MOON: Grand Special Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival