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Film ist.
Direction, research: Gustav Deutsch
Austria, 1998, 60 min, 16mm
Film ist. is an “experimental”
film in the most radical sense of the word. Most of its material
comes from situations where film is only used in clinical tests,
either for measuring or observation purposes.
The films by Austrian Gustav Deutsch
are based on found footage. In his principal work Film ist.
images from educational films and science programmes are filtered
into a new kind of modern poetry. The trajectories of planets
and birds, the movements of microbes and water, x-rays, optical
illusions...Deutsch combines unrelated things into mysterious,
rhythmic entities by silencing the rationalizing voiceovers accompanying
his source material. The lyrical soundtrack, made up of sound
effects and carefully chosen excerpts of music, elegantly emphasizes
the film’s meditative feeling and gives these “emotionless”
pictures totally surprising meanings. MT
“When Muybridge or Marey produced
their first scientific films, they not only invented the technique
of cinema but also created the purest aesthetics of it. This is
the miracle of scientific film, its unfailing paradox. Only at
the extreme end of profit-seeking utilitarian research, when aesthetic
purposes as such are most sternly rejected, cinematic beauty will
follow with supernatural grace.” (André Bazin,
“Accidental Beauty”)
Friday 9.11.2001 - Kiasma Theatre
16:00 - Screening of Film ist.
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