KARACHI, Nov 2: Goethe-Institut on Thursday screened first of the four epic pictures directed by Helmut Kautner, one of the most influential German film directors ever. The film Ludwig-II (The Splendor and Misery of a King) was a romantic, spectacular production about the life of the 19th century Bavarian ‘Fairytale King’ Ludwig II and his relations to Sissi, later Empress of Austria, and music wizard Richard Wagner.

The director took a great insight into the life and times of King Ludwig II of Bavaria who, unlike other kings, hated wars, loved music and building beautiful and luxurious castles and had a failed love affair with Sissi as both had childhood affection but they could not marry.

The king tried to resist to side with Austria in its war with Prussia and had to be defeated as Bismarck of Prussia later declared him as Kaiser of Germany. Fed up with his conspiring ministers, he shifted from his residence in capital Munich to remote areas and became a symbolic ruler with all the powers to his cabinet. In the end, the cabinet got court doctors to declare him a patient of paranoia and imprisoned him in an isolated castle. He tried to escape with the help of Sissi and for the first time in his life killed a human, Dr Gudden, but ended up dying in a lake, the ultimate obstacle between him and freedom.

Kautner from 1940s to 1960s directed as many as 49 films, some of which became evergreens. Kautner’s films often circle around political themes. However, instead of advocating some sort of political engagement, they depict personal, private aspects: tragic powerlessness, or the victor of cleverness. In this respect, Kautner’s work shows a characteristically forgiving, humanistic trait.

The second of the four Kautner’s films would be screened in the Goethe-Institut auditorium on Nov 16.