Love's Debris
(Poussière d’amour)
Screening on Film
Directed by Werner Schroeter.
With Anita Cerquetti, Martha Mödl, Rita Gorr.
France/West Germany, 1996, 35mm, color, 130 min.
French, German and Italian English subtitles.
With Anita Cerquetti, Martha Mödl, Rita Gorr.
France/West Germany, 1996, 35mm, color, 130 min.
French, German and Italian English subtitles.
Love’s Debris unites three of the leading obsessions of Schroeter’s art: a fascination with the role of the performer, a passion for opera and an interrogation of the nature of love. Schroeter invited three of his favorite singers – Anita Cerquetti, Martha Mödl and Rita Gorr – to be interviewed (by Isabelle Huppert and Carole Bouquet) about their thoughts on performing and to sing an aria chosen by the filmmaker. Through his interventions in these interviews and the bits of staging he adds to the film, Schroeter points to his thesis: that the affective quality of the voice derives its power from its direct relationship to love, of which it is a by-product.