Sunday, June 03, 2007

MATTHIAS MUELLER AND BAVO DEFURNE

(correction: After I made this post on Sunday, I found out later that the director of BROKEN GLASS is Marte Maren Holth, not Marte Holte, so I made the correction accordingly. I also corrected the year of the release of ALPSEE)


After reading Mubarak Ali’s post on Matthias Mueller and Juergen Reble in his blog, I felt very inspired and decided that I should write something, too.

Mubarak Ali’s post on Matthias Mueller:
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2007/05/sing-body-electric.html

Mubarak Ali’s post on Juergen Reble:
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2006/08/jrgen-reble-alchemist-of-cinema.html

Mike Hoolboom’s article on Matthias Mueller:
http://www.mfj-online.org/journalPages/MFJ30,31/MHoolboomScattering.html

Daniel Kotenschulte’s article on Matthias Mueller:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/38/pensao_globo.html

Canyon Cinema on Matthias Mueller:
http://www.canyoncinema.com/M/Muller.html

I have seen only five films by Matthias Mueller. They are:

1.VACANCY (1999, A+)
This film ranks no.4 on my favorite film list for 2002.

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/24/favourites3.html#phokaew

“If you found Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971) bewitching in the way it magically transforms the Sahara desert into a sci-fi landscape, Vacancy does the same by magically transforming a city from the past into a futuristic town. For me, Mueller is not only one of the greatest experimental filmmakers, he is also one of the greatest filmmakers. There are a lot more emotions in his films than in most narrative cinema, and his films prove very well that there is more to experimental films than style, forms or concepts.”


2.ALPSEE (1994, A+)

I like the use of colours in this film and the milk spilling scene very much. This film should be screened together with BROKEN GLASS (Marte Maren Holth, animation, A+), and SEP.30TH, '99 (Atsushi Ito).


3.BEACON (2002, co-directed with Christoph Girardet, A+)


4.PHOENIX TAPES (1999, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244136/


5.PHANTOM (2001, A+)
http://docentes.uacj.mx/museodigital/museodigital/Nueva/expo%20ICP/ICP%201.htm


--VACANCY affected me as strongly as INDIA SONG or TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND (1976, Bruce Conner). These films made me afraid to move any part of myself, even any finger, or to breathe loudly while watching them. I felt as if I had witnessed one of the holiest event in the history. These films seem to come from twilight zone, bordering between our conscious and subconscious. They are sacred to me.

--Bavo Defurne was an assistant director in ALPSEE. He is a very interesting Belgian gay director. He directed SAILOR (1997, A+), CAMPFIRE (1999, A), SAINT (1996, A), and "PARTICULARLY NOW, IN SPRING" (1995, A-). These four short films are released as DVD. Though Defurne was an assistant to Mueller's, I don't think I find any obvious similarity between their films.
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TWDAMNGSL._SS500_.jpg


--Matthias Mueller might be one of the best directors in the "found footage film group". Last year I made a list of interesting found footage films. I think I should post it again here.

INTERESTING FOUND FOOTAGE FILM LIST
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2006/09/coldcut.html

1.DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1998, JOHAN GRIMONPREZ, A+)

One of my most favorite documentaries
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/07/42/2006-world-poll-3.html#Phokaew


2.ALONE: LIFE WASTES ANDY HARDY (1998, MARTIN ARNOLD, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157304/


3.REPORT (1967, BRUCE CONNER, A+)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130976/

4.LOVE (2003, TRACEY MOFFATT + GARY HILLBERG, A+)http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c633.shtml


5.RE:VOLUTION (2001, A+) – a music video of COLDCUT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6KnJ0k_u7w

6.HAPPINESS IS (2006, Thanes Mankasakul, A+)


7.ALL YOU CAN EAT (1993, MICHAEL BRYNNTRUP, A)


8.MY FIRST FILM (1991, SASITHORN ARIYAVICHA, A)


9.SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM (1997, CRAIG BALDWIN)http://www.canyoncinema.com/B/Baldwin.htmlhttp://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0007LBLZA.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1106165488_.jpg

Information from amazon.com:

"Agitprop genius Craig Baldwin, director of TRIBULATION 99 and SONIC OUTLAWS, returns with his grandest work to date! SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM plunders Baldwin's treasure trove of early television shows, industrial and educational films, Hollywood movies, advertisements and cartoons, combining these with live-action footage, no-budget special effects, and relentless narration to generate a wholly original paranoid science-fiction epic."


10.L’ARRIVEE (1997-1998, PETER TSCHERKASSKY)


Unfortunately, I haven't seen any films by Baldwin or Tscherkassky yet. I only hear about their reputation.


Tscherkassky also wrote about SLEEPY HAVEN (1993, Matthias Mueller) in THE METAMORPHOSIS OF EROS (Stadtkino Vienna, 1993). I think it is very interesting, so I quote Tscherkassky here:

"SLEEPY HAVEN is an erotic day dream's own tropical late afternoon fantasy turned film; a cocktail in which the new takes melt and flow into the found footage like the act of making love. Instead of the cocktail shaker however, Mueller's own film developing tank has left marks on the material. The sailors continually flare-up solarised, and their naked bodies are lent a glowing aura of physical lust via the emulsion's tattooing effect. Only slowly does Mueller turn his material, metaphor for metaphor, towards love. One sees ocean going steam ships lying at anchor in port at the beginning of the film; continual fade ins and fade outs which leaves the screen breathing heavily, open up once more and then close. Ringed apertures associate with the body's orifae..."
------------------------------------------------------------

This is a photo by Bavo Defurne from his website.
http://www.bavo.org/



2 comments:

Mubarak Ali said...

I wish I could see some of these. Screenings for such works of the avant-garde are really rare here.

Another filmmaker I'd add to the found footage club (there are more, of course, but his name comes to me first) is Arthur Lipsett. I wrote about him a bit here: http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2006/08/arthur-lipsett.html.

celinejulie said...

--I also wish there were more avant-garde films shown in Bangkok. I think the chance for Bangkokians to see non-mainstream films depend on who is the cultural attache or who is in charge of the cultural affair of each foreign embassy at the moment. I think positions like these are replaced once every three or four years. Whenever these positions are taken by people who love art films, art films from that country would be shown in Bangkok. As for now I have to thank a lot for anyone who is in charge of the cultural affairs at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, because there have been many video installations from Australia shown in Bangkok during the last few years. Before that, there were none of these Australian video installations shown in Bangkok in the 1990’s.

Unfortunately, while Bangkokians are exposed to many good films from Australia during 2000’s, Bangkokians have much less chance to see good films from Germany during the same period. In the 1990’s, the Goethe Institute in Bangkok showed German films nearly every week. We used to have a chance to see about 40 good German feature films every year. But in 2000’s, the Goethe Institute in Bangkok changed some policies. Now we can see only 10 German feature films every year. I feel very sad about this, because this policy doesn’t apply worldwide. You can compare the cultural program of the Goethe Institute in San Francisco with the one in Bangkok, and you will know how sad I feel.

The Goethe Institute in San Francisco’s website:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/enindex.htm

The Goethe Institute in Bangkok’s website:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/th/ban/enindex.htm

However, as for me, the current problem is not only the availability of the avant-garde films shown in Bangkok, but also the availability of my free time to see them. Now many experimental films are shown in ubuweb, but I don’t have enough time to see them.


--I hadn’t heard of Arthur Lipsett before, but after I read your article, I think he must be very interesting. I also hadn’t known about your avant-garde blog-a-thon before. I think this blog-a-thon is really great. I will try to read most of these avant-garde articles when I have time.


--My found footage films wish list:

1.Films by Douglas Gordon

I have seen only one film of his: “10MS-1” (1994), and I haven’t watched the Zidane film he did with Philippe Parreno (though this one is not found footage). From what I read, I think Douglas Gordon’s projects are very interesting.


2.INTERVISTA (1998, Anri Sala)
http://www.frif.com/new99/intervis.html

Description of this film from FIRST RUN ICARUS FILMS’ website:

“In the process of moving house with his family, Anri Sala, an Albanian art student, discovered a twenty-year-old 16mm newsreel film, containing images of a congress of the Albanian Communist Party. In the film a young woman, a leader of the Communist Youth Alliance, is seen making a speech, and later giving an interview. But Anri could not make out what she was saying, because the sound had been lost.

With the passing of years this woman had left behind the hopes and fears, ideals and disappointments, deceptions and rebellions of her youth. She was his mother, Valdet.”


3.THE FLAMETHROWERS (Owen O’Toole + Alte Kinder + Schmelzdahin)

http://www.filmalchemist.de/schmelzfilms.html

Description of this film from Juergen Reble’s website:

“The original material of this film triptych (which was later transferred onto one 16-mm filmstrip) was an almost burnt print of Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray. The American artist Owen O'Toole sent this film to the members of Alte Kinder asking them to react on it artistically - the beginning of a transatlantic co-operation of filmmakers. The Bonn based artist's group Schmelzdahin created the third and final part of this game of visual associations. (Alte Kinder, 1990)”



4.NEGATIVE MAN/GIVE AIDS THE FREEZE (Cathy Joritz)

Information about this film comes from the website below:
http://astroqueer.tripod.com/bio/biaf.html

“Irreverent and amusing reappropriation of old 1950s b/w films in which Joritz has scratched devils and safe sex messages over the original images of deadpan preaching psychologists.”


--I also noticed that you mentioned Thomas Koener in your blog on Juergen Reble. I like Koener very much. I had a chance to see only one of his films. I saw SUBURBS OF EMPTINESS (2003, Thomas Koener, A+) in January this year. It is my most favorite film of that month, and it will surely be in my top ten most favorite short films of this year.

My most favorite list for this year so far:

Most favorite film of January:
SUBURBS OF EMPTINESS (2003, Thomas Koener)

Most favorite film of February:
SORRY (2007, Noraset Vaisayakul)
This is a Thai video installation.

Most favorite film of March:
MUANG SAMUT (A TOWN BY THE SEA) (2007, students in the faculty of communication arts, Chulalongkorn University)
This is a short Thai documentary about Burmese immigrants in Thailand and the injustice and prejudice they face. It made me cry.

Most favorite film of April:
FIREFLIES (2007, Chawit Waewsawangwong)
This is a Thai short experimental film. It is like a music video for a techno song. The color, the sound, and the rhythm of this film are very powerful to me.

Most favorite film of May:
AMOUR D’ENFANCE (BOYHOOD LOVES) (2001, Yves Caumon, France)


--I also like the fact that Thomas Koener has his own website. This website makes it very easy for us to know what he did in the past and what he is doing at the present.

I think I should make a list of the websites of some of my favorite directors, and I will try to put the links to these websites on my blogroll when I have time, so it will be easy for us to check for the information on their current projects.

WEBSITES OF MY FAVORITE DIRECTORS:

1.KHAVN DE LA CRUZ
http://www.kamiasroad.com/khavn/

2.ALEX DAVIES
http://schizophonia.com/

3.THOMAS KOENER
http://www.koener.de/

4.CHRISTELLE LHEUREUX
http://christelle.lheureux.free.fr/sommaireEngl.html

5.GEERT MUL
http://www.geertmul.nl

6.PHILIPPE PARRENO
http://www.airdeparis.com/parreno.htm

7.JUERGEN REBLE
http://www.filmalchemist.de/

8.CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF
http://www.schlingensief.com/index_eng.html

9.ULA STOECKL
http://www.ula-stoeckl.com/

10.SZUPER GALLERY
http://www.szuper.org/