Summary
Ewald André Dupont’s 'Variety' (Varieté) unfolds as a jagged, expressionistic confession, framed by the stooped silhouette of a man known only as 'Boss' Huller. After a decade of silence behind prison bars, Huller unspools a narrative of vertiginous ascent and moral freefall. Once a titan of the trapeze, now reduced to the tawdry voyeurism of a carnival side-show, Huller’s existence is a stagnant pool of domesticity until the arrival of Berta-Marie, an orphan whose presence ignites a dormant, primal fire. Abandoning the wreckage of his family, Huller chases a phantom of his former glory to the neon-drenched arenas of Berlin. Under the tutelage of the predatory Artinelli, a trio is formed, predicated on the 'Salto Mortale'—a leap of death that mirrors the precariousness of their emotional entanglement. As Artinelli systematically dismantles Huller’s sanity through the calculated seduction of Berta-Marie, the circus ring transforms into a crucible of jealousy, culminating in a violent reckoning that proves the most dangerous fall isn't the one from the high wire, but the descent into the abyss of the human heart.
Synopsis
Prologue: The murderer "Boss" Huller - after having spent ten years in prison - breaks his silence to tell the warden his story. "Boss", a former trapeze artist, and his wife own a cheap side-show that displays ''erotic sensations''. But he longs for his former glamorous life in the circus. When he meets the orphan Berta-Marie, he falls under her spell and leaves his wife and young son behind. He makes Berta-Marie his partner in a new trapeze number. One day, the famous trapeze artist Artinelli takes note of them and engages them for his trapeze show in Berlin. Their salto mortale becomes an immediate sensation. Calculatedly and cold, Artinelli seduces Berta-Marie and destroys "Boss'" happiness.
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