DIETMAR BREHM. SCHWARZER GARTEN.
Saturday 31 May 2003, at 8pm
London Film School

THE MURDER MYSTERY (2ND VERSION)
Dietmar Brehm, 1987/92, 16mm, colour, sound, 18 min
“In about 1987 I wanted to make a film more for the audience than previous films. When working on The Murder Mystery, I hesitated which style to give the film. Not that The Murder Mystery was to be a slick film, quite the opposite. But the question for me was what to show, and with what kind of clarity? Not with regard to the sharpness of the film, but more the relationship between the time structure and the determination of content; the question was what did I want to show, and how did I want to show it? In any event, I wanted the film to be optically manipulated using the ‘pumping screen’ technique. In previous films (eg Kopfstücke) I formulated more abstracted structures and blurred films, which drive the viewer from the film image into his own world of presentiment. The Murder Mystery was to be more direct. I had some fantastic super-8 material, partly found, partly bought by chance. In addition, I had some pornographic material with an ideal scene. I devised a plan, whereby I ensured that I had enough room to manoeuvre in order to hallucinate my way cinematically into the prepared material. Nevertheless, this plan had to retain a rigorous structure; it was not to become indistinct. I filmed approximately another 30% in addition to this outside material, and then filmed myself into the montage of the scenes. An effective sadistic-pornographic matrix was generated.
“The Murder Mystery was to be deceptive. The story of The Murder Mystery begins to speak in the minds of the viewers.” —Dietmar Brehm

BLICKLUST
Dietmar Brehm, 1992, 16mm, b/w, sound, 18 min
“In 1991 I received a non-identifiable + worn out super-8 S/M Porno film, which shows a woman tied up in various manners + I couldn’t resist. I knew that I had film material of surgery + I mixed the tied-up woman with the surgery material confrontationally + still a few more + and to 2/3 of a drawer of found footage until Blicklust-end.
“The ‘pumping screen’ films The Murder Mystery + Blicklust are the first two of a planned six-part series which reflects on sexuality + violence + which will possibly be combined under the title “Dietmar Brehm Horror”. Title of next episode: Party. Basically, I show in this series what I always see on TV. The TV set is one of my favourite sources. I like to watch TV without sound + with other manipulations. And I watch restlessly the real + fake dead bodies. They are always there + I have simply gotten used to the fact that TV is a pump of corpses. In fact, I like better the filtered reality than the actual one. I prefer distance rather than closeness. At the moment, Yugoslavia + Somalia produce a mountain of corpses, others next. According to schedule. The planet is a planet of destruction. The bullet flies without contact somewhere + all around the area of inexplicability + sometimes I have the feeling that all is a process of decay of bodies alive + I suspect that all the structures of society, as well as the way their function, are legalised diseases of the mind. Everything should work differently. Parallel to the film work, which tackles the problem of sexuality/violence, a matrix develops in several short and longer films, in which various cinematographical manifestations of light will be investigated + next to filmic considerations are a few considerations to graphical and painting work on paper surface and on screen.” —Dietmar Brehm

PARTY
Dietmar Brehm, 1995, 16mm, b/w, sound, 18 min
“Sometimes I film so that the actors seem to belong to the undead. The construction of the Found-Footage-Party shows Russian, Japanese, American and my own material which is hallucinated into a matrix in which functioning and non-functioning body parts appear as optical lubricant shadow labyrinth whilst simultaneously we hear someone shaving.” —Dietmar Brehm

MACUMBA
Dietmar Brehm, 1995, 16mm, b/w, sound, 18 min
“Sometimes the camera films of its own volition. Macumba shows an optical tangle in 13 scenes. As a start signal one hears a double hammer blow arising from a black screen, a sound like the nailing shut of a coffin. Macumba develops slowly out of the black. A black porno couple on the telephone in London. Then they meet on a snake in a park and are, together with Kalahari Bushmen, mixed to a film matrix which is as incomprehensible as real life. Throughout Macumba the sound of rain can be heard.” —Dietmar Brehm

KORRIDOR
Dietmar Brehm, 1998, 16mm, b/w, sound, 18 min
“At the end of 1996 in an old shop in Vienna specialising in film materials I found a tin with indeterminable pieces of 16mm film showing much wear and tear. They dated from the late 60s. After a cursory glance I thought ‘yes’. The found footage material was ideal for the horror series.
“I prepared the film for compilation using mirror projection and filmed myself in detailed structures through the light axis. For the introductory sequence I chose the top of a poplar tree and a neo-gothic house. The lighting of the body scenes as filmed is very harsh, whereas I shot the poplar top and the neo-gothic house both over and under-exposed. Then I mixed associative tones throughout the corridor. The first version cut showed the bodies in a state which was too excited and then I began to structure the film with black frame sequences of varying lengths.
“The man who is lying in bed with the woman who appears dead was perfect for the start of the body scenes. I concentrated the lens on a very narrow view and allowed the horde of found-footage actors to react with each others. I wanted to construct a insidious / traumatic phenomenon in which the head and body glide through the picture again and again and are extinguished in the black frames. At the end a man whips a man and an actress is tied up. The top of the poplar tree appears under-to-over exposed while a hand glides through the picture twice.” —Dietmar Brehm

ORGANICS
Dietmar Brehm, 1998/99, 16mm, b/w, sound, 18 min
“Since 1996, parallel to all the other paintings and film work I made hundreds of pictures each with the title “Organics”, and each on the same size of paper – 61 x 43.5 cm. It is from this drawing phase that the film Organics developed. I already had the perfect found-footage lead whom I named ‘Hey Joe’. Round ‘Hey Joe’, who appears repeatedly as an observer, I constructed a matrix of body details which are broken up by a number of explosions.
“Organics begins with the observation of a Zorro mask and a distorted / veiled woman’s face. A shot of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris develops into a women’s foot scene which leads to a longer kiss scene punctuated by an explosion, falling leaves, a tank, touching hands, a hand in a plaster cast, bunches of grass and a dark cellar door. After observation of a skeleton detail, the found footage actors become involved in slowly feeling each other’s body. A man swings a necklace back and forth like a pendulum, a head being bandaged, attempts at face make-up, details of operations… in a flickering, pumping screen light until, in the end, ‘Hey Joe’ centres the picture briefly with his penis. After the hand movements which follow, the veiled face of a woman appears again, longer this time, to be observed by ‘Hey Joe’ until the film floodlight is turned off. The Organics soundtrack is pared down to a few slow note combinations.” —Dietmar Brehm

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