The Complaint of an Empress

This brilliant video notebook offers an unfiltered insight into Bausch’s wide-ranging imagination. Spanning the seasons of autumn, winter, and spring, The Complaint of an Empress consists of a series of evocative intersecting scenes set in and around Wuppertal. Out from the confines of the theater, Bausch’s performers traverse streets, fields, and forests as well as appearing in cafés, flower shops, and swimming pools. The situations depicted range from bizarre to beautiful, uncanny to comical, disturbing to tender, and are accompanied by haunting folk songs and popular music from around the world.