Ain’t Nothin’ Without You (Nicht nichts ohne Dich), dir. Pia Frankenberg, West Germany, 1985, German with English subtitles, 91 min.
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The Assault (Der Anschlag), dir. Pia Frankenberg, West Germany, 1983, German with English subtitles, 9 min.
“Someone can just slap me and call it art,” bemoaned the West German interior minister in 1983, while restricting funding for cultural productions that he deemed more “provocative” than “entertaining.” Pia Frankenberg’s striking satire runs with that image – the slap as art – and plays up the riotous fun that can be had in political provocation. Chasing after a frenzied wave of face-smacking, The Assault mobilises speed and associative montage to suggest how quickly individuals can fall in line with a new reality – whether that reality is violent and repressive, or liberatory and hilariously absurd.
Ain’t Nothin’ Without You (Nicht nichts ohne Dich), dir. Pia Frankenberg, West Germany, 1985, German with English subtitles, 91 min.
In Pia Frankenberg’s self-reflective first feature, a filmmaker, Martha, reckons with her commitments to the feminist and activist politics of the ’60s and ’70s. Martha shares her Hamburg flat with Portuguese immigrants, and speaks with an interviewer about filmmaking. Questions of feminist aesthetics, along with mediocre flings and class guilt, threaten to freeze Martha in a state of doubt. When she crashes into Alfred, an architecture student, while skating home from the cinema (swooning with admiration at Wim Wenders’s latest), she finds a partner in indecision.
Taking place in Hamburg one winter, Ain’t Nothin’ Without You is filmed beautifully by New German Cinema cameraman Thomas Mauch in hibernal black-and-white. Frankenberg casts herself as Martha, performing with self-deprecating charm and delightfully noisy musicality in her first lead role. A comedy of several moving parts – “like an orchestra… loud… and not necessarily in sync” – this lively film is capacious enough to poke fun not just at individual characters, but also at the wider sociopolitics of the ’80s. From the incompetence of immigration administrators to the superficial diversity of new media, little eludes Frankenberg’s wit.
This screening will be introduced by the season curator, Laura Staab.
“Someone can just slap me and call it art,” bemoaned the West German interior minister in 1983, while restricting funding for cultural productions that he deemed more “provocative” than “entertaining.” Pia Frankenberg’s striking satire runs with that image – the slap as art – and plays up the riotous fun that can be had in political provocation. Chasing after a frenzied wave of face-smacking, The Assault mobilises speed and associative montage to suggest how quickly individuals can fall in line with a new reality – whether that reality is violent and repressive, or liberatory and hilariously absurd.
Ain’t Nothin’ Without You (Nicht nichts ohne Dich), dir. Pia Frankenberg, West Germany, 1985, German with English subtitles, 91 min.
In Pia Frankenberg’s self-reflective first feature, a filmmaker, Martha, reckons with her commitments to the feminist and activist politics of the ’60s and ’70s. Martha shares her Hamburg flat with Portuguese immigrants, and speaks with an interviewer about filmmaking. Questions of feminist aesthetics, along with mediocre flings and class guilt, threaten to freeze Martha in a state of doubt. When she crashes into Alfred, an architecture student, while skating home from the cinema (swooning with admiration at Wim Wenders’s latest), she finds a partner in indecision.
Taking place in Hamburg one winter, Ain’t Nothin’ Without You is filmed beautifully by New German Cinema cameraman Thomas Mauch in hibernal black-and-white. Frankenberg casts herself as Martha, performing with self-deprecating charm and delightfully noisy musicality in her first lead role. A comedy of several moving parts – “like an orchestra… loud… and not necessarily in sync” – this lively film is capacious enough to poke fun not just at individual characters, but also at the wider sociopolitics of the ’80s. From the incompetence of immigration administrators to the superficial diversity of new media, little eludes Frankenberg’s wit.
This screening will be introduced by the season curator, Laura Staab.
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06:30 pm
Fri, 19 Sep 2025
Cinema 1
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
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Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
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