A Peek in Sempel’s Laboratory

“The print’s really bad, but the film is good!” So yelled German filmmaker Peter Sempel as the lights went down on a recent screening of his best-known work, the 1988 film “Dandy.” Playing to an overflow crowd equal parts blue-haired goth kids and graying high-culture aficionados at the Goethe Institut, Sempel had just finished excitedly introducing the film, the first in a partial retrospective that culminates with tonight’s U.S. premiere of “Lemmy,” his look at the leader of hard-rock band Motorhead, and Sunday with a special presentation at American Cinematheque of his multi-projector “Kino Extreme.”

Making the rounds of world cultural institutions in celebration of 20 years as a filmmaker, Sempel, 49, has carved out a niche for himself as a chronicler of post-punk bohemia, making films that are part documentary, part psychodrama. Although his subjects may include a cross section of highbrows and hardscrabblers--Jonas Mekas, founder of the underground New York film space Anthology Film Archives; singer Nick Cave; Japanese butoh dance master Kazuo Ohno; guitarist Blixa Bargeld--Sempel’s films are always at least in part about himself.

On a sunny afternoon before the evening screening of “Dandy,” Sempel takes a break from hanging and organizing the photo exhibition that accompanies his film series to sit for an interview in the courtyard of the Goethe Institut’s Mid-Wilshire offices. Literally in the shadow of offices housing E! Entertainment Television and Variety, neither of which will be rushing to cover his work any time soon, the incongruity of the setting only makes Sempel’s proselytizing, by turns earnestly heartfelt and infuriatingly self-serving, seem that much more out there.

“When you are making something, you don’t realize, you just make. You realize afterwards,” he says by way of explaining his process and intentions. Born in Germany but raised through his teenage years in Australia, he eventually returned to Hamburg, where he still lives. He speaks in a rush with an idiosyncratic accent. “My films are music and dance films. I’m not a thinking filmmaker. Which may be a problem for you interviewing me today. But when I’m working I’m not thinking. And once I’m done, I say, ‘Hey, what did I do?’ How do I know what I am doing when I am doing it? I just know that I’m doing it.”

Sempel usually takes years to finish his films, partly out of financial necessity and partly out of a desire to create the most complete portraits of his subjects. “They’re not actually portraits,” he explains. “They’re more like moments. I suppose they are very personal portraits, as I see them. I’m not documenting anything. I’m using them to show how I see the world. A person has many different angles and moments. Like a painter needs many colors. So I get all the moments and colors I can and then I make my painting at the editing table.”

Considering the work involved, Sempel chooses his subjects carefully. Mostly they come from his own pantheon of personal heroes. “‘Hero’ is not the right word,” he corrects. “I’d say I love them. Nick and Blixa, how can you not love them? Lemmy, once you get to know him, you have to love him. Otherwise, you’d never work with these people. The films require two or three years’ work.

“In the process of making my film on Jonas Mekas, somehow Al Pacino wanted to be in it. His managers were against it, but we have a nice moment with him. It’s important these Hollywood people support the avant-garde, the underground, because without them Hollywood wouldn’t be what it is. All those camera tricks? Excuse me, where do they come from? They should be forced to support the arts more because so many ideas and techniques come from the poor, hard-working bums of the art world. It’s true.”

For someone who decries commercialism, Sempel seems to define himself by his own proximity to famous people. For example, would his footage of Nick Cave bungee jumping in “Jonas in the Desert” seem quite as exciting were it not Nick Cave? “I’ve often had people say, ‘Oh, Peter Sempel films are just about celebrities.’ It doesn’t disturb me, but that’s not my reason for doing it,” he responds. “I’d be happy if Nick Cave was not so famous. It’s becoming much more difficult to get a camera on him.”

As seemed to be the case at the recent “Dandy” screening, what of those people who come to his films largely to see the stars? “It’s often that way,” he concedes, “and that’s no problem for me. The point is they watch the film and then they like the film too, not just to see their star. But the main thing is they take it seriously and treat it with respect, that they don’t go just because it’s fashionable. That’s the problem with so many of the undergrounders, it becomes fashion. I’m never sure how many go because their emotions and their heart are with this film or this concert, or because they heard about it and it’s the thing to do. Fans are good people who really love the stuff. Making ‘Lemmy,’ I’ve seen so many Motorhead fans who just love and adore that band. They don’t care how popular they are. And that’s how I feel too.”

Considering Sempel’s art-world credentials, a rock ‘n’ roller like Lemmy Kilmeister might seem a strange subject. Having been introduced by a mutual acquaintance (and Sempel subject), musician Nina Hagen, the two hit it off. Following the band on tour, into the studio and around Lemmy’s L.A. haunts, Sempel explains, “he confirmed what I thought might be true--how elegant and delicate and kind-hearted and tender he can be. Very poetic and extremely political as well. Ozzy Osbourne says in my film that Lemmy is totally underrated. He says if an atom bomb fell, there would be three survivors: cockroaches, Keith Richards and Lemmy.”

Sempel has performed his “Kino Extreme” only a handful of times, and Sunday will mark its Los Angeles premiere. Asked to explain it, Sempel grabs a pen and flier to draw a convoluted diagram. Using three projectors, he shows his films all at once, sometimes even letting the images overlap. Changing reels around as he goes, images from one film might appear in different places on the screen, while he also does a live sound mix.

“The point is, as you’re watching, suddenly, say, Blixa Bargeld, who appears in many of my films, is on all three screens at once, like a flash. All three films come together like an opera, and you won’t believe your head.”

In many ways, “Kino Extreme” is Sempel’s culminating work, bringing together his interests in music, film, performance and chance. “Other filmmakers, Mekas for example, every film goes with another film, their whole life is one film. Now I’ve put all of mine on one screen. Every time I do it, it’s a different show.”

Part artist, part huckster and all energy, Sempel shows only a momentary lapse in his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for his own work. “I wouldn’t want to promote the ‘Kino Extreme’ too much, as it’s a side thing, an exotic experience. The films as such are what’s important to me. And I wouldn’t want to do it too often; it’s too exhausting.”

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“Lemmy” screens at 7 tonight at the Goethe Institute, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100. Tickets: $5 Info: 323-525-3388. “Kino Extreme” screens at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at American Cinematheque, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. Tickets: $8. Info: 323-466-FILM.