Establish contact.
I love you.
Has this been a real experience for you?
Or have you just recited your text?
I'm sorry.
I... I love you!
Did you believe her?
Give her an impulse.
Oh please...
No.
I'll try it again.
I love you.
I... I love you!
I love...!
I love you!
I love you!
I love you!
O thou pure sunlight...
...and thou air, earth's canopy...
How often have ye heard
the strains of my lament...
...when dark night falls!
And my wretched couch...
She hasn't read the play.
How often I bewail my hapless sire...
To whom deadly Ares gave not
Of his gifts in a strange land!
But my mother...
But my mother and her mate Aegisthus...
...as woodmen fell an oak...
...cleft his head with murderous axe!
- Thank you.
We can't accept all candidates.
We have definite standards and tasks.
Some are lucky, some are not.
Of course you can attend
our next audition.
Don't be too discouraged.
I liked what you did.
But I'm not the only one to decide.
I'm sorry.
I'm a collector of these.
Look, I don't know if this
might interest you...
...but I recently visited a performance
in this small private school in Britz.
It was pretty good.
- Mateusz Gdula?
Is this a Russian name?
- Polish!
They are kind of crazy,
these guys from Poland.
Maybe it's something like Grotowski.
Thank you.
Good luck.
IN THE SCHOOL THEATER STELLA
ALREADY PLAYS THE LEADING PAR I was so good, so emotional.
One of the examiners was really
blown away by my performance.
But he wasn't the
only one to decide.
They said they would have taken me, if
there wouldn't have been so many candidates.
Okay.
- What do you mean with "Okay"?
Well, I just mean "Okay"!
You are the best actress
in the whole wide world.
Do you still have some schnapps?
Lots of it?
LATE SUMMER DREAM 2011
DRAMA SCHOOL MATEUZ GDULA
They even have a bus stop.
So you don't have to wait for me.
But I love waiting for you.
Florian, I appreciate what you are try...
Are you crazy?!
Is everything alright?
Good luck.
OFFICE
CLOSED
Barbie alert!
Looking fora hairdresser?.
Where is the entrance examination?
First you have to register.
Second door on the left.
- Okay. Thank you.
I love the smell of fear.
Can't be mine.
If they have taken you, the
entrance examination can't be that hard.
I'm performing "Elektra" by Sophocles.
Alright.
Please begin.
O thou pure sunlight...
And thou air, earth's canopy...
How often I bewail my hapless sire...
To whom...
To whom...
Sorry, can I start again?
Go ahead.
O thou pure sunlight...
...and thou air, earth's canopy.
How often I bewail my hapless sire...
To whom deadly Ares gave not
of his gifts in a strange land!
But my mother...
But my mother and her mate Aegisthus...
...as woodmen fell an oak
cleft his head with murderous axe!
Thank you.
I can't find anything in your vitae
about the situation of your family.
What about your parents?
- My father left us, when I was a child.
And my mother became ill.
Did your mother support you?
- She loved it, when I acted for her.
She even let me dance
in front of her friends.
What are you planning to do,
if youracting careerfails?
What do you mean?
- What is your plan B?
What will you become then?
Pop star?.
Hotel heiress?
Pit babe?
I'll become a whore
and then we'll meet again!
I'm sorry.
Wait!
Come back.
Don't be sorry for losing your temper.
It was the actual quality
of your performance.
We saw something genuine of you.
Behind this beautiful mask.
Mateusz Gdula, the man,
who founded this school...
...he said, that the actor's dancing
on the edge of the knife...
The uncertainty...
That is the experience, an actor
should make while being on stage.
This is the goal.
Do you think you could achieve it?
Or will you continue to excuse
yourself for the anger inside you?
Florian?
It's me.
Yes!
Yes!
Open the champagne.
What has happened at that school?
Nothing!
It looks pretty ugly for being "nothing".
- Leave me alone. You are not my mother.
Britt, in this school...
...did someone...
Tomorrow I will talk to a friend.
He's a lawyer.
Whatever they did to you...
I'll make it public.
Lydia?
Can I sleep in your bed tonight?
Please, I don't want to be alone.
I make some tea first, okay?
Lydia?
Lydia?
Lydia?
Please! Go away!
Go away!
Go away!
Go away!
Leave me alone!
Please!
I won't tell anybody!
Please!
Please go away!
Please!
Go away!
Go away!
Go away!
Stop it!
Go away!
No!
No!
I love you.
Daniel, do you believe her?
And do you know,
why he didn't believe you, Stella?
Because you only have eyes for yourself.
You just watch yourself.
You just listen to yourself.
So there is no more room for your partner.
But if you want to succeed here...
...we must be able to see
behind your freckles.
Can I practice with her?
I will certainly get her attention.
Congratulations, if Dr. Braun can't stand
you, you've won the lottery.
He is not really into women.
- Even if they are blonde as you.
Just don't let them screw with your head.
Everything else is a piece of cake.
Nice to meet you, Paris.
Thanks.
Nice to meet you too...
Welcome to the shark tank.
- Come on, it's getting boring.
This is the dark area of the school.
The Rat School.
Here he practiced his filthy habits.
You can not imagine how filthy.
What are you talking about?
- What do you think?
This was the part of the building
where Mateusz Gdula teached...
...until the mid 70s.
Then this accident happened.
And the school had to move.
Since that time nobody
Uses this wing anymore.
It is in a ruinous state now.
Is Gdula still alive?
He committed suicide in 1973.
I... I've seen somebody
behind the window.
You must be wrong.
Nobody is allowed to enter the building.
It is extremely dangerous.
Well, thank you.
That's it.
Keith Johnstone said that we enter into
a state of trance while wearing a mask.
For that moment we are possessed by it.
Chaplin didn't know anything
about the tramp character...
...before dressing up like one.
The glued on beard took
possession of him.
Suddenly he knew the character.
Now he felt the feelings of the tramp.
Thought his thoughts.
So...
Who is next?
Stella?
Choose one.
Let the mask guide you.
Whatever happens is the right thing.
She looks less stupid now.
Okay.
Take it off.
I'm sorry.
I couldn't feel anything.
You didn't let it happen.
Maybe we need a stronger mask.
Go on. Don't worry.
It's perfectly safe.
Go ahead.
Good.
You've experienced something.
What was it?
You are not willing to let yourself fall.
But where there is fear...
there is the path.
You will recognize small impulses
from your partner. React to them.
This prevents that you
are watching yourself.
Change your partner please!
Hello, Mrs. Novak.
- Hello.
Mrs. Janowska said
I should attend classes again.
Really?
Well, then join us...
...before you vanish into thin air again.
The final third phase.
Read you partner
and interpret him.
You are cautious.
I'm cautious.
And you... are curious.
I'm curious and my name is Stella.
Cecile.
I'm curious.
You are hiding something.
I'm hiding something and you...
You are looking for something in my eyes.
- I'm looking for something in your eyes.
You...
You...
You are scared.
- I...
...am scared.
Hello.
Hello.
You were excellent in that scene today.
- Thank you.
How did you...
- I'm not a permanent student, just a guest.
A workshop brought me here.
This school is... different.
But I got used to it.
Just now I apply for the
role of the class clown.
You are way too beautiful for a clown.
See. This is how a clown looks like.
- Nonsense.
Of course.
The nose and stuff.
My older sister broke mine
two times when we were kids.
After that she used to tell me
that I look even more like a clown.
Nice sister.
- Yes, a very nice sister.
She was the first born
and didn't like it when I was born.
I thought that you shined
like an angel today.
But I'm still working on the flying.
I hope they will teach me that too.
- Flying?
No. Shining.
What's up?
I'm not allowed to talk about it.
About what?
The method.
I have to go.
See you tomorrow, okay?
If you wait five minutes
we can take the bus together.
Cecile!
Cecile!
Cecile!
Looking for something?
I just wanted...
Students are not allowed to stay
in this part of the school building.
I... I thought I saw Cecile
disappear behind that door.
That's impossible.
There is nothing behind that door.
Look what I've got here.
- Thank you. You are so nice.
Great that you've found it.
I thought I'd lost it.
I'm pretty sure
that you stayed in school yesterday.
What were you doing?
- I had lessons.
Private lessons.
Please don't ask.
Don't you have class now?!
I hope you have dreamed about me.
Fair friend, stay for the night.
Apply with your wings
silk dust on my soul...
...which is longing for...
Silk... Apply with your wings silk dust...
...on my soul
which is longing for honey...
Good lord, Stella!
The stiffness of your hips is starting
to infect my other students.
I don't see any real passion
between you two.
Mannequins are more lively than you.
Come on, relax.
Touch each other.
I thought I've made myself clear.
Break.
Did someone...
...adopt the bad habits
of your older sister?
It can get pretty rough during...
- ... the private lessons?!
When training the method...
Gdula's method.
Can you lock the room, you two lovebirds?
Who can participate training the method?
Only the chosen ones.
You don't ask them.
They ask you.
There is no class schedule forit.
No leaming material.
No books.
The method doesn't exist.
You have to be prepared to endure a lot.
Even after a short time
something happens with you.
You radiate something.
Gdula called it "orgiastic potency".
It's a kind of energy.
Something special.
I envy you.
I would love to give it back.
You have to pay a high price for it.
And it is not true.
But it feels true.
Help me.
Forget it.
Please, forget it.
I'm sorry.
I...
Cecile?
Cecile!
Cecile?
Cecile!
Cecile!
Cecile!
THE GDULA METHOD
A DOCUMENTARY BYASTRID WARD
The exiled Pole Mateusz Gdula
combined the theories of...
...Wilhelm Reich, Arthur Janov
and Lee Strasberg...
...to an amalgam, from which he
intended to form the perfect actor.
It is our own orgiastic potency...
...that we acquire here.
No more normality.
Everything is extreme.
We live on emotions...
...like others from water.
The lessons of the Theatre Radical
Group are no ordinary school teaching...
...it's more like real life.
Do you understand?
Nobody is acting.
We actually feel it.
Damn it!
I nearly got a heart attack!
I planned that it should
look like an accident.
How was class today?
- Fine.
This looks pretty interesting.
What's that?
- This school has an eventful past.
Really?
- They had their own teaching methods...
...until the late 70s.
Really weird stuff.
...along the lines of
Jerzy Grotowski's "theatre laboratory".
In 1973 he allowed me to
interview members of his group.
Did you see them?
- Sure.
You know from the start they must be cops.
- What do they want?
I don't know.
She had been a difficult girl.
You have to know...
...we really go to the limits of one's
capacity in our acting classes.
Difficult characters can be
the biggest talents.
But they can also reveal
the abyss of their own madness.
So she wasn't a member
of this school anymore?
No, I had to let her go.
Our witness mentioned
a person with a mask.
Some kind of theatre mask.
He said there was something
strange about this mask.
May I ask you a question?
Do you know her?.
No, I mean yes...
I have seen her just briefly the day I
arrived here for the entrance examination.
Are you an actress as well?
- Do you want my autograph?
Could I show off with it?
- Maybe in ten years or so.
If I write about you, things might speed up.
I could invest in you like in stocks.
So you are not a police man?!
- Never said I was. I work for the "Kurier".
Thank you.
- I'm sorry.
I got hold up.
What's going on?
- Cecile isn't attending class anymore.
Possibly because of an engagement.
- What kind of engagement?
From a mental institution?
- Who is playing the role of Helena now?
We have to recast.
- Why the long faces?
You should be glad that she is gone.
She was a psycho bitch anyway.
I just can't believe it.
- Ouch!
Cecile has broken her heart.
- Shut up, okay?!
Cheer up, Barbie!
Just look at your advantage.
Well, as you do not have to
lick Cecile's clit anymore...
...your mouth is now free
for more important things.
You stupid slut!
Stop it, you two!
Have you lost your mind completely?!
Stop it! Break it up!
You haven't seized your chance.
I don't want to have
any more trouble in class.
I have to expel you from the class.
Stop!
Wait.
That doesn't mean that you are
expelled from school.
Deep inside of you exists
so much potential.
I know that Cecile told you
about the method.
She shouldn't have,
but nevertheless she did.
Stella...
Now that Cecile's place is vacant,
do you want to study Gdula's method?
Strange, that someone is still
interested in Gdula's methods nowadays.
Mateusz' goal wasn't alone acting.
That was just the basis for him.
- For what?
Gdula's method intends to integrate the
lives of the students in the mise-en-scne.
My own life, my fate became the script.
My soul his stage.
But I got lucky.
Some kind of survival instinct...
...pulled me out of my love
For this genius of a teacher.
Without this instinct...
...the method would have devoured me.
Siegfried?
Can we continue?
Mr. Heldt, one last question please.
Hurry up!
And if someone would still teach
the Gdula Method today...
Then he would be a madman.
Or a criminal. Goodbye.
It means no contact to the
outside world for you in the next weeks.
You can only bring with you
what fits in a small handbag.
You don't need anything else.
But you have to remain silent about it.
Before you walk through this gate
you have to give up your soul.
Your mobile phone.
I'll keep that over the duration of study.
You will only use the rooms
that I'll show you.
Unless you want to break your neck.
The bathroom is right next door.
Sometimes there is no warm water.
Then you have to inform the janitor.
Thank you.
Now relax.
When does the work start?
- From now on...
...everything will be work.
Wait here for me.
Hello, Peter. It's me.
I'm working on it.
As soon as I know more,
I'll contact you, okay?
Okay, so long.
Bye.
What is this?
- In the 70s...
...Gdula used LSD and Mescaline
for his lessons.
But it caused problems.
Today we have this. It's much better.
If you are reasonable...
...then you will not drink it.
When you embrace the method
it will tum you into a free being.
But it has its price.
Now lie down.
What do we have here?!
Okay...
Name:
Virginia Klein.
Date of birth:
January 14th, 1978.
Must check that.
Collection of personal belongings.
There's something shady about it.
Hello?
Hello?
Is somebody there?
Hello?
Is somebody there?
Well, I'm leaving now.
No harm meant.
Please! Please!
Please!
Please don't!
Help!
Good morning.
Morning.
Did you sleep well?
I...
I dreamt of...
...of music that...
...that I heard a long time ago.
- Music?
My mom used to listen to those oldies.
This is very good.
You see, it awakened your memories.
It won't be your last dream.
Stop it!
You are not doing it right!
Forwhom are you dancing?
For me.
You are dancing like a doggy! Like a
doggy doing tricks so it won't get beaten!
Stella, for whom are you really dancing?
Did that hurt?
Are you angry now?
Then dance!
Dance the pain! Dance the anger!
Faster!
Come on!
Hurry up!
Dance yourself back into your childhood!
Dance!
Help!
I can't breathe!
Stella!
- I tear you out of your mom!
Go out into the light.
Go, fight...
I told you it would hurt.
And it will hurt even more.
But the pain... it will make you shine.
Disappear vipers...
...reptiles and beasts...
...so that you wouldn't banish the light.
Black Fem and flower bed...
...where the dream decays.
Fair friend, stay during the night.
Apply with your wings
silk dust on my soul...
...which is longing for honey beehive
and is consumed by the senses.
You'll suffer for this!
Do I have to hate you and
beat you and kill you...
...because you feast on my
lover's grief in front of him?
In this farce...
in this farce aimed...
In this farce aimed against me.
I'm utterly surprised at this ugly talking.
My dear, I really don't sneer at you.
Look at me.
Oh bride of the sun...
...I will bloom in your light.
I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone.
It was a really wonderful play.
And all the acting was quite stunning.
The buffet is now open.
The best of luck
for your holidays.
Da Capo.
- Florian, what are you doing here?
I was just passing by,
thought I'd look you up.
You were great tonight.
Thank you.
Is something wrong?
- No.
Underneath the make-up
you don't look very well.
Florian, I've no time for that now.
- Come home.
Stella...
I don't know what happens here,
but it's not good for you.
Please leave now.
- Not without you!
You have to come back with me.
I'll search a different school.
Really?! Can I grab my toothbrush first?
There are two of them at my
house with your taste on it!
Damn it, Florian!
I think you better leave now.
- And I will take her with me.
Florian, leave me alone, okay?!
I'm happy for the first time
and you don't ruin it!
Don't touch me!
Get lost! Go away! Leave!
Leave me alone!
Get lost!
Piss off!
Piss off, damn it!
Go away!
Would you leave me alone for a minute.
Please.
So you are Stella's white knight.
Well?
- You could try to save me too.
Child, what's up?
- Shall I call a medic?
Wait!
She may have taken drugs.
Sure, what else?!
- I'll take care of her.
You will not see her again,
when the new school year begins.
Go back to your earliest memories.
What is it, Stella?
Mama is right here.
Mama, don't leave me alone!
You're always leaving me alone!
What do you do?
What does a baby do,
to get mommy back?
No, please don't!
Where am I?
What has happened?
The party!
I can't remember anything!
Brave little one.
You've made a journey.
You've come very far.
I...
Now I remember everything.
The glass.
You've put something in it.
Why did you do that?
Why in front of everybody?
It's part of it.
That's the method.
Total transformation through art.
He only accepted those
who were prepared...
...to abandon their bourgeois roots.
Only those without any family ties...
...were ready to make this experience.
Emotions.
The most extreme emotions.
Acting that was more real
than life itself.
Could you describe that in detail?
Everybody who has experienced all
that firsthand worshipped him.
Me too!
1973 a part of me died.
Gdula's method intends to integrate the
lives of the students in the mise-en-scne.
My own life, my fate became the script.
My soul his stage.
But I got lucky.
Some kind of survival instinct...
...pulled me out of my love
for this genius of a teacher.
Without this instinct...
...the method would have devoured me.
Gdula's method led the students
to one inevitable destination:
Death!
Stella?
Is something wrong?
No.
Do I really have to drink that stuff again?
Only one or two more times.
You have almost achieved your goal.
It opens the door to your memories.
I... I don't need that to remember.
My child, you have to trust me.
I don't want to drink that stuff!
It makes me sick!
My child, only your fear makes you sick.
It's just for your own good.
Well done.
Forgive me.
Hey Ho - Let's go! This is Florian.
Leave me a message!
Florian.
It's me.
Forget what happened at the party.
I'm in trouble!
I got to leave here!
Please, please call me back!
I hope the dose was enough.
She spit a lot of it out again.
You have to check on her immediately.
Before classes start again,
you must get rid of her body.
Stella!
Stella!
Cecile?
Cecile, do you hear me?
Stella...
Schh!
Cecile, you have to get up.
Come on, Cecile.
Come on, get going.
Cecile, get going.
My child.
She simply hung up on me.
Oh drama, drama.
Are you still attached to her?
Are you listening to me?
What's going on at this school?
I knew from the start that there
is something shady about it.
Before Janowska removed
Cecile from our class...
...she was completely clueless about
acting and looked like shit.
Three weeks later, when she returned
from the private lessons...
...she suddenly performed like Audrey
Hepburn. And it was the same with Stella.
Stella never looked like shit.
Look!
This is the documentary Stella had found.
Mateusz has opened my soul.
And I will stay with him forever.
We are reckless in our emotions
because we want to live.
That was a long time ago. No one does
something like that anymore nowadays.
...to bring into relation what happened
to Gdula's drama school students...
...during a fateful
late summer week in 1973.
We broke the door open
and entered the room.
Inside we found them
hanging from the ceiling.
Five people.
And if someone would continue
using this fucking method, then what?
A fan or some pupil.
- And who?
Do you mean Mrs. Janowska?
Bullshit!
Have you ever tried to hang
yourself upside down?
They were all hanged by the feet.
And they bled to death.
Can we get into the school?
What do you want from me?
Your time has come, Stella.
Prepare yourself for the major test.
Let me go.
You?!
Look, I don't know if
this might interest you...
You've set a trap for me.
It was all just a trap.
- No, Stella.
It's not a trap.
It's a drama.
And it's yours alone.
I staged it.
Just for you.
It is your drama.
The stage alone was never enough for me.
My stage is life itself.
Your life!
Including all that belongs to it.
Your hope...
Your ambition...
Everything that affects you...
- Help me.
Love...
Passion...
Unsatisfied desire...
Mysteries that surround you...
Fear that urges you...
Why are doors open
that should be locked?
Why does a phone go missing...
...while a key is delivered
to you like a gift?
These are elements of a story.
Your story, Stella.
Your drama.
But why?
Why me?
Stella, calm down.
Relax.
I must be crazy doing this.
- Then leave.
Do you think that I'm frightened?
Farewell, Stella.
What was that?
We have to find the stairs.
No, let us leave, please.
- Stop it, that hurts.
Let us call the police, they can bust them.
And what are you going to tell them?
- Don't worry.
I'll think of something,
when were out of here.
Fine.
Bye.
Hello?
Valerie, wait!
I have a message from
Stella on my mailbox.
So what?
- Maybe you can use it as...
Go way back, Stella.
Remember.
Mommy is coming.
Mommy?
Cecile, your time has come.
There is your older sister.
She is going to hurt you.
Mommy...
In a moment you will look even
more like a clown, sister.
And while you cry,
she will be laughing.
I told you to shut up!
Shut up!
Stella, defend yourself!
Fight back!
Give her back the pain!
Are you scared, sister?
Cecile?
Stella...
She will never hurt me again, right?
She will never hurt you again, never.
He was like a son to me.
And you have torn him from my heart.
You have killed Cecile!
- I have saved your life.
She would have killed you.
She was ready.
Ready for what?
You've backed off, Stella.
Your moral and blocking has stopped you.
Cecile has made the experience.
She was full of emotions.
Her blood was flooded with feelings.
When she died her blood was full of life.
In the 30s in Russia
the Bolshevists tried to keep...
...their party members young and vibrant...
...by injecting them the
blood of younger people.
They've been on the right track
to disclose the secret...
...but overlooked one important thing:
It had to be vital blood.
Filled with emotions.
Do you understand?
Look at me, Stella!
Establish contact!
Your hand is trembling!
You feel the anger!
- Shut up.
Your anger rises.
Stay with me and your anger.
Your friend was just worthless meat to me.
Worthless!
Lenka!
Lenka!
She is ready now!
I will stay with him forever.
I will never leave him.
A flood of emotions...
Emotions are our blood!
We live on emotions...
...like others from water.
We are reckless in our emotions
because we want to live.