Helmut Herbst's THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS + Spaced-Out Shorts!

This program is part of 7th House's OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION series. Series info below and series passes available!

7th House’s OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION series drifts ever further into the outer reaches, arriving at its most singularly strange destination: German director Helmut Herbst’s utterly insane THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS, easily one of the most surreal, psychedelic, truly cosmic animated features ever made — accompanied by a choice selection of rare, trippy-dippy animated sci-fi short films curated by artist, filmmaker, and writer Navid Sinaki!

On a shortlist with Eiichi Yamamoto’s BELLADONNA OF SADNESS and René Laloux’s FANTASTIC PLANET as one of the most way out animated features ever made, Herbst’s sublimely strange, ethereal oddity follows a commune of Berlin stoners and intellectuals who get set adrift in space in 1972 in a packing container clutched in a giant flying hand. Various space flotsam smashes into the windshield – enormous insects, Mighty Mouse, a Bird Man from “Flash Gordon” – while hypnotic Krautrock drones in the background moaning “Where am I??”, and a naked man bounces up and down off a massive red pepper. So begins our descent down the psychotic rabbit hole of CATHEDRAL, a true hallucinogenic Space Freakout if there ever was one: imagine Ralph Bakshi animating an R-rated version of John Carpenter’s DARK STAR, or the animated equivalent of Can’s “Ege Bamyasi,” and you’re only part way there.

Narrated by the ship’s doctor Quistard (in the same synthesized voice everyone uses), the crew includes the female commander Bakunskaja with long gray hair and a pink hippie frock; lizard-tongued head of security Dierksen; and James and Jones, a pair of redheaded and often topless twins. The crew spend their days staring into the pulsating light of the fusion reactor wondering about the outcome of the Vietnam War, or bemoaning their sexual inertia: “Do you know what an erotically stale situation is? … Eternal lust and unspeakable horror. All empty promises.” Their descent into moral and political lethargy is interrupted by the arrival of an attractive young man, Mulligan, who’s discovered in their monthly supply shipment from the discount store. Eventually this screwy crew of seriously baked stoners find themselves searching for the enigmatic Matthew Madson, a Yeti-like wild man who may be the mysterious astronaut who first convinced them to embark on their deranged odyssey.

Visually the film is like no other, filled with holographic blue phallus plants and characters morphing into gray fleshy blobs every time they pass a Black Hole, constantly disrobing and attempting to seduce each other (and despite the random nudity, the crewmembers are weirdly androgynous as if genders are becoming meaningless.) The dialogue is equally bizarre, littered with cryptic sound bites: “Did you know that neutrons can smile?”, “I think you are also just fiction” and the film’s mantra, “My eyes are cast down in awe.” The movie’s genesis is equally strange: based on a 1974 film by Herbst called Die phantastische Welt des Matthew Madson, CATHEDRAL was eventually finished after a decades-long gestation in 2006 (Herbst passed away in 2021). One of the rarest and most obscure tiles in world animation and never before officially released, CATHEDRAL has been restored from the original camera negative and sound elements by Deaf Crocodile Films with the cooperation of Herbst’s wife, Renate Merck, floating across time and space to land on the big screen, melt your eyeballs, and blow your mind.

Dir. Helmut Herbst, 2006, 60 min, Germany, German w/ English subtitles, Unrated (Adult Audiences Only), Digital.

Tickets: $12 | $45 Series Pass ($+60 value) (All Screenings Are In Person Only)

Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

ABOUT NAVID SINAKI (Shorts Curator)

Navid Sinaki is an Iranian-born artist and writer who lives in Los Angeles. He is the creative director of Cinespia at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. His works have been exhibited at museums and art houses around the world, including the Lincoln Center, British Film Institute, Cineteca Nacional in Mexico, and the Modern Museum in Stockholm. His debut novel Medusa of the Roses is out now (Grove Press).

OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION (April — June!)

This April–June, 7th House is picking up strange signals from distant worlds — hand-hewn visions of tomorrow dispatched from impossible planets and the furthest reaches of inner and outer space. Prepare for blast-off with OUT THERE: FAR-OUT INTERGALACTIC ANIMATION!

Animation, with possibilities as boundless as imagination itself, has long served as a vessel for the cosmic, the surreal, and the otherwise unknowable. This globe-spanning series gathers a constellation of visionary works that harness the medium’s unique power to conjure radically other worlds, from psychedelic galaxies to metaphysical dreamscapes.

Spanning France, Canada, the Soviet Union, Romania, Germany, and Japan (with a surprise special USA/North Korea transmission arriving soon..!), these films traverse distant planets and interior landscapes alike — mapping strange futures, alternate dimensions, and the fragile architectures of consciousness itself.

Discounted series passes available!

• (1973)
• (1983) (co-presented by Uh Oh Canadia at WHAMMY! Analog Media) *Not included in series pass
• (1988)
• 5/10 — THE CATHEDRAL OF NEW EMOTIONS (2006) - Spaced-Out Shorts!
• (1988)
• (1985)
• Plus Surprise June Screening Announcing Soon!

ADVISORY DISCLAIMER

With some exception, The Philosophical Research Society’s 7th House Screenings does not typically provide advisory warnings about potentially upsetting content or subject matter, as sensitivities are particular to each viewer. Please be sure to read event listings, research on the web, or visit Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com for thorough info on content and age-appropriateness. If you have any specific content advisory questions, please email [email protected].

CONTENT DISCLAIMER

The views, opinions, and thoughts expressed within exhibited works are solely those of their creators and may not represent those of the Philosophical Research Society (PRS), its affiliates, or any individuals associated with PRS. Screenings are intended for educational and entertainment purposes.

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