The HSBC German Film Festival is paying tribute to the great German actor Udo Kier, who passed away late last year.
As part of the festival program at Luna Palace Cinemas, the 1974 film Blood For Dracula will be shown in remembrance of Kier, highlighting one of his most remarkable performances.
Known in the United States as Andy Warhol’s Dracula, the film was directed by Paul Morrissey – a director, screenwriter and producer known for his close affiliation with Warhol’s Factory movement.
Blood For Dracula follows Kier as a weak, ailing Count Dracula, who makes his way from Transylvania to Italy, now on the brink of fascism, to find new victims.
Kier performance is both outrageously camp and eerily wicked, taking centre stage across from Joe Dallesandro, Maxime McKendry and Vittorio de Sica.
Kier has said his life as a gay man was never a secret, sharing in 2022 that he had been in a relationship for more than 20 years.
In 1991 he had a standout role in Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho where he played a man who hires River Phoenix’s sex worker character to clean his home while dressed in a provocative uniform.
Kier worked with singer Madonna on several occasions. He appears in her Sex book, and pops up in the videos for Erotica and Deeper and Deeper which were released in the same period of the early 1990s. He also appeared in videos for rock band Korn and Gwen Stefani’s video for Let Me Blow Ya Mind.
In his later career Kier worked several times with boundary pushing director Lars von Trier appearing in works including Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville and Nymphomaniac II. He also received wide acclaim for his lead role in the 2021 film Swan Song.
While he was a huge identity in arthouse films, Kier also popped up in more mainstream works including credits in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Armageddon, Johnny Pneumonic and Blade.
Blood For Dracula is screening at Luna Leederville on Friday, 22 May. For tickets, head to lunapalace.com.au
