“The Cathedral of New Emotions” and "Asparagus" highlight surrealism

German director Helmut Herbst's 2006 "The Cathedral of New Emotions" packs on hour with hallucinogenic, surreal animation in a fanciful, psychedelic visit to a cosmic Berlin-sourced commune, circa 1972. However, this does not exactly qualify as a recognizable, inhabitable spacecraft since it consists of a packing container held by a huge, flying hand. That gives some scant idea of the conceit.

 Narrated by ship doctor Quistard, other personages include the female commander Bakunskaja, lizard tongued security chief Dierksen, James or possibly Jones (the name shifts), and two bare-breasted, heavy set twins. The itinerant group finds that passing by a Black Hole turns them into gray slime, from which they do repeatedly recover. Facing navigational problems, they will also contend with murder, time stoppage, repeated attempts at seduction, fear of an American nuclear bomb, questions over the end of the Vietnam War and the status of East and West Berlin. That list of characters and events barely hints at the bizarre interaction, the occasional pulsating light (anyone with seizures, beware), and equally unearthly music and sound.

A perfect complement with its singular preoccupation with the body, Suzan Pitt's 19 minute "Asparagus" accompanies "The Cathedral of New Emotions." Five years in development, Pitt's brightly colored, experimental animation benefits from Richard Teitelbaum's musical accompaniment. His electro-jazz score interprets the central female character's feminist exploration of sexuality, fetishism, and narcissism.

In 2007 Pitt described "Asparagus" as "the nature of the creative process portrayed as psycho-sexual intimacy." Integrating hand-painted cels (roughly 8,000 of them) and puppetry in a physical model, she symbolically explores identity construction and loss, motherhood's appeal and pain, phallic imagery and nature's enticement. Multilayered and complex, "Asparagus" remains a provocative film.  

In German with English subtitles, "The Cathedral of New Emotions" plus the animated nineteen-minute short "Asparagus" screen at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Saturday, November 23; Sunday, November 24; and Tuesday, November 26, at 7:00 each of those evenings. For more information, you may visit the film series website at: Webster.edu/filmseries.