在这部马戏院帐篷顶上的艺人剧情片中,老艺人曼弗雷德·派克特为了改变马戏团的处境建议经理加一个大象表演的节目，可他自己在表演空中飞人时，失足摔断了脖子，轮到他的女尔莱妮接棒用父亲的思想进一步改编马戏团的节目。对她来说这无疑是一种考验，她开始制订改革马戏团的计划，但在经济现实面前低头屈服，把马戏改造成电视上的常备节目。此时，莱妮的好友去世，她继承了好友的财产，决定买下旧的冬季马戏团表演场所，与男友一起重建马戏团，可是这一切都成为徒劳。
"Neues Kino movie" about life in the circus dome narrated in Brechtian spirit; deceptively illusionist grip is broken violently by aloofness, sweeping subjective tracking shots interrupted by a flat snapshot of an old stick, calm color sequence stops up a moving black and white scene and interviewed people in close-up becomes suddenly silent. Kluge has also taken a different motto from Brecht to heart, namely, that the artist's task is to maintain: despite its ambiguity "Circus performers" in a somewhat simplified format, could have been a film for children.
《马戏院帐篷顶上的艺人》：我不能让动物站着。观影日记。台词，台词。《马戏院帐篷顶上的艺人（Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos）》：马戏团痴狂证患者【第33届威尼斯电影节金狮奖】。
