La Vie En Rosa: Film director Rosa von Praunheim

[Butterfly]

La Vie En Rosa: Film director Rosa von Praunheim
ArtVoice
By Ed Grant
July 9, 2009


http://artvoice.com/issues/v8n28/film_feature


Rosa von Praunheim may not be the best-known German director, but like the man himself, his name isn't easily forgotten. After four decades as a filmmaker, Von Praunheim has grown from a gay renegade in the German "underground" film scene to a well-respected documentarian—albeit one known to moonlight as an aging enfant terrible.

Don't ask him, for instance, if he approves of the spread of gay marriage in the US. As he recalls the history of gay rights in his home country, "In Germany we were influenced by the student movement in 1968. We wanted a total change of society, a total change of sexuality. We didn't want the smaller family unit, we wanted bigger groups to come up, the education of children in bigger groups, and not just the possession of one or two children by a frustrated mother. We didn't want marriage, we didn't want military, we didn't want religion.