Jesus Christ Saviour
Trailer
by Peter Geyer
Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle on 20 November, 1971. The lonely figure of Kinski appears in the spotlight on an empty stage to recite his own text, “Jesus Christus Erlöser”. The performance marks the realisation of a project which had preoccupied him for more than ten years. This is the age of the hippy movement; the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” is a sensational success. But Kinski’s “Jesus Christus Erlöser” is no hippy happening. It is intended as an intensely emotional reading, concentrating purely on the actor’s voice. The content, according to Kinski, is the “most exciting story ever told: the life of Jesus Christ”, as one of the “most fearless, most free, most modern of all people; a man would rather be massacred than to continue to live and fester”.