Tuesday, January 04, 2011

My Udo My Udo What Have Ye Done

JA from MNPP here. Have you read this phenomenally odd and delightful interview with the actor Udo Kier at The AV Club? Odd and delightful are the two words I'd always use whenever mentioning Mr. Kier, but he really brings it this time around.

Over at MNPP  I picked out my fifteen favorite quotes from the interview, but I'm so oddly delighted in this chat's wake I've got to just keep on thinking about Udo, and what better way to do that then to mercilessly pick apart the work he's done over the years with a completely frivolous list. He's worked so much in such a vast array of projects that there are dozens of his performances that I've missed (I don't know how this is possible but it appears I've never seen any of the films he's done with Fassbinder, for example), but out of the many I have seen here are my five favorite performances of his.

5 Favorites



Lee Meyers, My Son My Son What Have Ye Done - I don't think it's often that Udo gets picked to play a straight man to somebody else's nuttery, but when stacked up against a way out there Michael Shannon it's not only possible, it's enthralling.

NSFW image after the jump





Hans, My Own Private Idaho - I think he sums it up best: "Amazing to have sex with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix!"
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Count Dracula, Andy Warhol's Dracula - It's hard choosing between his Dracula and his Dr. Frankenstein in the previous year's (superior) Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, but his sickly Drac casts an enfeebledly hypnotic spell I can't quite shake.


Aage Krüger / Little Brother, The Kingdom - You haven't truly lived until you've seen Udo's face emerge from the vital space of a birthing mother.
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Franz Hess, Grindhouse's fake trailer for "Werewolf Women of the SS" - Sure I could've picked something from his other classier works, like all the stuff he's done with Von Trier (he's Lars' most commonly used actor, ya know), but I think this one about sums it all up in a nice tight insane bow.

Runner-up: He played a character named "Wolfgang Herzog" on an episode of Nash Bridges. I haven't seen it, I don't need to see it, without knowing it demands a place upon this list.
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4 comments:

Andreas said...

I finally just read that interview, and it's easily one of the most entertaining that the AV Club has ever done. (Next to Ernest Borgnine.)

I knew that Kier had an eclectic, eccentric filmography, but I didn't know that he was personally so... bizarre. I especially loved his little shout-out to Marilyn Manson in the middle of the interview: "Hello Marilyn, I love you!"

And now he's going to be in Guy Maddin's next movie! How awesome is THAT?

Jason Adams said...

Their interview with Teri Garr is also a classic.

The people Udo's worked with read as basically a laundry list of my favorite film-makers of all time. Has he written an autobio? I need to check and see. If he hasn't he needs to, and immediately.

NATHANIEL R said...

he's such a freak. I love seeing him in the Madonna videos and book, too.

/3rtfu11 said...

He’s blunt and forward. And Keanu didn’t understand anything.
Does the same stereotype about early Brad Pitt [he’s dirty, he’s gay, he’s stupid] still apply to Keanu Reeves?