Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Oberhausen Manifesto 2

Screened with e-subtitles in English (SDK), operated by Lena Talvio, Cinema Orion, Helsinki (The Oberhausen Manifesto), 14 March 2013

Curated by Olaf Möller, based on the Oberhausen retrospective Provokation der Wirklichkeit: 50 Jahre Oberhausener Manifest (2012) curated by Ralph Eue und Olaf Möller. Programme notes: 58. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 26. April–1. Mai 2012: Oberhausener Manifest 1962. Festival Catalogue.

Bau 60
Building 60. DE 1961. 12‘, 35 mm, b/w, sound . D+P Dieter Lemmel. DP: Wolf Wirth. Distributor: Deutsche Kinemathek.
    The art of building has changed. Old jobs with new tools. That which is created is somehow not at one with those who created it. The built environment of the new West Germany of the economic miracle is cool, strict, angular. That may be nice and modern. But life takes a slower, or at least different, course. - AA: Virtually a silent film, with no meaningful dialogue. An impressionistic view of a construction site, sometimes almost abstract shots of building elements and muscles.

Kommunikation – Technik der Verständigung
Technology of Communications. DE 1961. 11‘, 35 mm, colour, sound. D: Edgar Reitz. Distributor: Deutsche Kinemathek.
    An industry film for the West German Post Office. Using the latest communications technology to link up the world. A technophile ballet in the mysterious world of relays, very high frequency channels and decimetre bridges. - AA: A montage film, often based on stills, with electronic music, showing the way of mail, money, and telegraphs. A times I thought about Fritz Lang and also that Risto Jarva may have seen this; at least he did similar public service and industrial non-fiction films, such as Tietokoneet palvelevat [Computers at Our Service], now priceless documents of the expansion of the computer age.

Der heiße Frieden
Hot Peace. DE 1965. 37‘, 35 mm, colour, sound. D+SC: Ferdinand Khittl. DP: Ronald Martini. Distributor: Deutsche Kinemathek
    Research is a natural process that can be studied like any other natural process. It will have its difficulties, but also its laws, which we can keep. (promotion suggestion for Hot Peace) - AA: An inspired industrial film focusing on science and the scientific impulse based on curiosity. There is an interesting excursion into the question of patents. A passionate plea for research and development. The title "hot peace" means "competition".

Die Maschine
The Machine. DE 1966. 11‘, 35 mm, sound, colour. D: Wolfgang Urchs. Distributor: Deutsche Kinemathek.
    The film is a rigorous essay about a person who starts building a machine, developing it further and further until it becomes too powerful and in the end turns its inventor into a part of itself. (Wolfgang Urchs, 2010) - AA: Limited animation. A cutout animation with affinities with the Polish school (Lenica). The machine which produces anything, including cannons. The machine of production becomes a machine of destruction. No translation is needed for this movie.

Die Utopen
The Utopias. DE 1967. 9‘, 35 mm, sound, colour. D: Vlado Kristl. P: Boris von Borresholm. Distributor: Deutsche Kinemathek.
    When I made animated films, people criticised me, saying they were conceived as live-action films. When I then made live-action films, the term ‘animated film’ was mentioned. Before, I thought that the two forms were actually close and that no decision needed to be taken in favour of the one or the other. Now I know that this is not the case at all: that ani-mated film basically belongs to painting. (Vlado Kristl, 1966) - AA: Limited animation, cutout animation, artpen, and pastel. Electronic music. The Utopists are executed. The imagery is macabre. Disjecta membra, "splatter", blood spills over the canvas.

Brilliant new 35 mm prints in an intelligently mounted show.

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