STADT IN FLAMMEN (1984, SCHMELZDAHIN, A+++++)

THIS IS MY COMMENT IN MUBARAK ALI'S BLOG (with some added information):
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2007/05/sing-body-electric.html

I don’t know if this information will be useful or not, but I would like to tell you or anyone interested in Matthias Mueller that you can watch his film ALPSEE (1994) from a videocassette called X-PILATION. This video is available from

1.www.amazon.de

2.You might be able to borrow it from a library in your local Goethe Institute.

This video has no English subtitles, but I strongly recommend this video for any non-German speakers. This video include 7 short German experimental films, 5 of them need no subtitles, because they barely have dialogues or voiceovers. Only 2 short films in this video should have had English subtitles. I haven't heard that there is a DVD version of this video.

The short films in this video are:

1.ALPSEE
15 min


2.THE BASIS OF MAKE UP (1983, Heinz Emigholz, A+)
20 min, silent


3.THE STATICS—ENGINEERING MEMORY BRIDGES (1990, Michael Brynntrup, A+)
21 min.
This film has voiceover and should have had English subtitles. I saw this film once with English subtitles in the Michael Brynntrup retrospective held at the Goethe Institute in Bangkok in 2001. The film puzzled me in a similar way as Alexander Kluge's films.


4.BETWEEN (1989, Claudia Schillinger, A+)
10 min
People who love Catherine Breillat might love this film.


5.THE NARRATIVE FILM (1988, Uli Sappok)
4 min
This film has voiceover and should have had English subtitles.


6.STADT IN FLAMMEN (1984, Schmelzdahin, A+)
6 min
This is a found footage film and is my most favorite in this video compilation. Schmelzdahin is a group of filmmakers who worked together between 1979-1989. This group comprises Jochen Lempert, Jochen Mueller, and Juergen Reble.

This is the description of the film by Owen O'Toole:

"Stadt in Flammen is the most volcanic film I've ever seen; the emulsion literally crawls off the film base, like a lava flowing across terrain. Vague generic hospital (soap opera?) footage cracks and crumbles, seeths in the frame in a slow-motion dissolve. Like ancient paintings crack and fall away from their surfaces. This is the other side of Schmelzdahin - the mutilated film. Though they may sumtimes claim to shoot no film themselves (only re-working found footage), don't believe it. Schmelzdahin also have built a super 8 optical printer with which they make their film discoveries. (Owen O' Toole 1989/90)"


7.EIN BEWAEHRTER PARTNER (A PROVEN PARTNER) (1993, Juergen Reble, A+)
21 min

For more information about Juergen Reble and Schmelzdahin, please read:
http://www.filmalchemist.de/publications/MFJ_97.html


This is a photo of STADT IN FLAMMEN. The photo is from
http://www.filmalchemist.de/15.html