City of Lost Souls (1983 film)

City of Lost Souls (German: Stadt Der Verlorenen Seelen) is a 1983 German musical film directed by Rosa von Praunheim and performed by drag queens, travesty artists and transgender people. The film received international attention and became a cult movie beyond the LGBT community.[1]

City of Lost Souls
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRosa von Praunheim
Written byRosa von Praunheim
Screenplay byRosa von Praunheim
Produced byRosa von Praunheim
Starring
CinematographyStephan Köster
Music byHolger Münzer
CountryWest Germany
Languages
  • German
  • English

Plot

City of Lost Souls is a primarily fictional narrative about the lives of US cabaret performers and other immigrants in Berlin. The performers struggle for social recognition and professional prospects, bringing autobiographical and authentic aspects of their biographies and life experiences into the plot.[2]

Awards

Reception

In the context of the time, the transgender film was praised as revolutionary: "This riotous and massively ahead-of-its-time intersectional queer-punk musical has gone on to greatly influence transgender politics." (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)[4] Phil Ieropoulos, Professor of Directing at Buckinghamshire New University, wrote in a treatise on art films: "Featuring trans and genderqueer characters and drag superstars of the era, but also a bizarre structure that alternates between interviews, voice-overs, songs and performance art, City of Lost Souls is one of the coolest films you'll ever see."[5] "[...] Praunheim succeeds in creating a space in which transgender women and sexual pluralism are celebrated without violence or rebuke." (Another Gaze Film Journal)[6] "This 1983 trans punk musical is the instant cult classic [...]". (Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art)[7]

Notes
  1. "STADT DER VERLORENEN SEELEN". Mubi. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  2. "Rosa von Praunheim: The City of Lost Souls". Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  3. "Rosa von Praunheim - Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  4. "City of Lost Souls". Australian Centre for the Moving Image. September 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  5. "Phil Ieropoulos selects 50 important works of experimental and queer cinema and video". Phil Ieropoulos - Athinorama. 28 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  6. "Reconceiving Trans Womanhood And Sexual Pluralism In Rosa Von Praunheim's 'City Of Lost Souls'". Another Gaze Film Journal. 9 April 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  7. "City of Lost Souls (1983)". Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 2019. Retrieved 2022-04-27.

References
  • Murray, Raymond. Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. TLA Publications, 1994, ISBN 978-1-880707-01-2
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