Ruptured Review: Schramm

Country of origin- Germany 

Year of release- 1993  

Director- Jörg Buttgereit

Stars- Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Monika M., Micha Brendel

The film follows Lothar Schramm, a polite, lonely taxi driver and track runner who appears to suffer from a form of borderline schizotypal personality disorder. Lothar is also plagued with near constant urges to self-mutilate, all while being mentally tortured by horrific paranoid delusions and hallucinations. Lothar is ultimately driven to a life of murder when the constant rejection of a prostitute (played by Monika M. of Nekromantik 2) whom he loves drives him to go beyond mere fantasies as he begins to kill, photograph and eventually rape victims who he invites into his home.

This is the generally considered by most to be the last great film of iconic director Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromantik, Der Todesking) and it may well be his most experimental and possibly his most shocking feature work to date. This film could accurately be described as Nekromantik meets Angst, as Schramm draws greatly upon the nihilistic masterpiece that is Angst all while delivering stunning music and visuals that only Buttgereit could truly pull off. One aspect of this film that did take me by surprise was the use of truly unpleasant body horror imagery that is used throughout the film to track the rapid mental decline of Lothar, one of these scenes in particular could very well be the most revolting thing ever condemned to celluloid by Buttgereit.

The character of Lothar is very interesting, he seems to be driven to his crimes by sheer social and sexual ineptitude, part of the cause for this is a possible incestuous relationship with his mother which is hinted at during the film. He is also plagued with many visions of him having a false leg, or even an amputated leg, thus representing his feelings of being trapped in the very grim and lonely place he finds himself in. He is also fuelled by ager and jealousy towards the clients of the prostitute he loves, as he is forced to listen to them have sex with her in the next apartment while he desperately seethes.

Overall this is a superb and shocking look into a truly disturbed mind all set to a typically brilliant score from the highly talented Hermann Kopp who was also the composer for the film Nekromantik. If you want an arthouse film to shock and disgust then this is the one for you, I give Schramm 8/10.