19 February - 12 April 2026
Long Takes
“What Schroeter does with a face, a cheekbone, the lips, an expression of the eyes [is a] multiplying and burgeoning of the body, an exaltation.”
— Michel Foucault
Born in Georgenthal, East Germany, in 1945, soon before the end of the Second World War, Werner Schroeter grew up in a bohemian household in an industrial surroundings, close to a much-beloved grandmother and his mother’s opera-singer girlfriend.
As much has been made about distance from as his connection to the New German Cinema, though a contemporary and peer of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, and Wim Wenders, with whom he studied (fleetingly) in the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, he has occupied an unclassifiable space in twentieth century cinema, leading to his cinema having been somewhat marginalised in comparison. Up until his death in 2010, across a huge corpus — twenty-two features and numerous shorter works — Schroeter’s cinema has been nothing else if not particular. A cinema of emotionality, queerness, improvisation and somatics. Utopian yet scuzzy, not straightforwardly political, yet radical in its heart of hearts.
From the outset, his early short and medium-length films, made in the late 1960s and early 1970s and most often on 8mm, demonstrated a fascination with theatricality, extravagant tableaux and transgressive sexuality, defined by early encounters with lifelong collaborator Magdalena Montezuma, artistic confidante Rosa von Praunheim, and Maria Callas (who never acts, but is nonetheless an ever-present star across his filmography). Through the 1970s and 1980s, with wider appreciation in festivals and cinematheques abroad, Schroeter’s cinema veered more ambitious, more of-the-world even, filmed across Argentina, the Philippines, Portugal, Italy and Mexico.
Opening in February 2026, Anguish & Ecstasy: The Cinema of Werner Schroeter is the first ever comprehensive UK retrospective devoted to his work. The three month season stands to re-introduce his cinema to London audiences, contextualised by specialist introductions, new restorations of rarely seen works and 35mm presentations.
The full programme will be announced on Thursday 8 January.
Priority booking opens for members on Thursday 8 January, 10am.
General booking opens on Thursday 15 January, 10am.
Long Takes
“What Schroeter does with a face, a cheekbone, the lips, an expression of the eyes [is a] multiplying and burgeoning of the body, an exaltation.”
— Michel Foucault
Born in Georgenthal, East Germany, in 1945, soon before the end of the Second World War, Werner Schroeter grew up in a bohemian household in an industrial surroundings, close to a much-beloved grandmother and his mother’s opera-singer girlfriend.
As much has been made about distance from as his connection to the New German Cinema, though a contemporary and peer of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, and Wim Wenders, with whom he studied (fleetingly) in the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, he has occupied an unclassifiable space in twentieth century cinema, leading to his cinema having been somewhat marginalised in comparison. Up until his death in 2010, across a huge corpus — twenty-two features and numerous shorter works — Schroeter’s cinema has been nothing else if not particular. A cinema of emotionality, queerness, improvisation and somatics. Utopian yet scuzzy, not straightforwardly political, yet radical in its heart of hearts.
From the outset, his early short and medium-length films, made in the late 1960s and early 1970s and most often on 8mm, demonstrated a fascination with theatricality, extravagant tableaux and transgressive sexuality, defined by early encounters with lifelong collaborator Magdalena Montezuma, artistic confidante Rosa von Praunheim, and Maria Callas (who never acts, but is nonetheless an ever-present star across his filmography). Through the 1970s and 1980s, with wider appreciation in festivals and cinematheques abroad, Schroeter’s cinema veered more ambitious, more of-the-world even, filmed across Argentina, the Philippines, Portugal, Italy and Mexico.
Opening in February 2026, Anguish & Ecstasy: The Cinema of Werner Schroeter is the first ever comprehensive UK retrospective devoted to his work. The three month season stands to re-introduce his cinema to London audiences, contextualised by specialist introductions, new restorations of rarely seen works and 35mm presentations.
The full programme will be announced on Thursday 8 January.
Priority booking opens for members on Thursday 8 January, 10am.
General booking opens on Thursday 15 January, 10am.
The retrospective is made possible with the support of Maren Hobein and the Goethe Institut London. We similarly owe thanks to the collaboration of the Munich Filmmuseum, EYE Filmmuseum and to Paulo Branco.
Full programme to be announced.
no. 236848.