Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed, Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos, 1968, Alexander Kluge

Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed (German: Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos) is a 1968 West German film written and directed by Alexander Kluge. The film is made in a collage style, featuring newsreels and quotations from philosophers alongside the story of a failing circus whose owner, Leni (Hannelore Hoger), must decide whether her dream of a new kind of circus is too optimistic. The film is a symbolic representation of Kluge’s own frustrations in trying to help stimulate the New German Cinema movement. Movie is a “Neues Kino movie“ about life in the circus dome narrated in Brechtian spirit; deceptively illusionist grip is broken violently by aloofness and sweeping subjective tracking shots. Awards The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film was also selected as the West German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 41st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.