Udo Kier dies his way through film history. He screams, falls, lies, is cut into pieces, shot or commits suicide. Again and again his empty gaze, again and again his rigid body. In 54 years as an actor, Udo Kier played in more than 170 feature films, 120 series episodes and 50 short films. More than 70 times Udo Kier tried to give an expression to dying and death. In Staging Death, these representations of death merge into a montage of the most diverse shots, film formats, special effects and sound designs. "Directors are now thinking increasingly strained about what new ways they can kill me. […] At some point, somebody would have to make a montage of all my film deaths." Udo Kier (Interview Subway Magazine #145, December 1999)
Editing
Seamless death-to-death cuts across decades of film formats.
Direction
Soldat lets Kier's body become pure cinematic material.
Director
Jan Soldat
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kier's first screen death was in 1968's 'Shameless.' His most recent included here? Still actively dying for directors well into his 70s.
The film premiered at Berlinale 2022, cementing Kier's post-'Swan Song' critical resurgence—he finally became a 'serious' actor by playing himself as artifact.
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