"Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King"
1972
Directed by Hans Jurgen Syberberg

The first film in Han-Jurgen Syberberg's "German Trilogy" (followed by Karl May and Our Hitler) is this low budget, but nonetheless imaginative interpretation of the life of Ludwig II of Bavaria. Harry Baer portrays the so-called "mad king," who was the patron of Richard Wagner, the man who sold Bavaria to Prussia, and the builder of many a mythic castle in the Rhineland. Modernist to the core, Ludwig is both theater and film--a montage of sketches and tableaux with cabaret music, wild costumes, and even wilder characters. In German with optional English, Spanish, French, Portugese, or Greek subtitles.  134 minutes.