Hundreds of clips from hundreds of films are wittily re-edited into a wicked deconstruction of Hollywood’s clichéd portrayal of the tortured artist. Supported by four of the year’s most dazzling experimental shorts.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2005
Fiction Artists 2005
Christoph Girardet and Volker Schreiner are masters at sculpting mind-bending new works from old fictions. In this new collaboration they compile hundreds of clips from hundreds of films into a witty and humorous deconstruction of Hollywood’s clichéd portrayal of the tortured artist. Combining everything from highbrow classics to cheapo B-movies, the generic portrait of an artist they uncover is psychopathic, depressive and sexually deviant. Neurotic losers with shattered psyches, they brood and sigh as a cacophony of stereotypes are exposed. The programme is supported by works from two more renowned ‘fiction artists’ who apply Germanic precision to investigating the inner workings of cinema. Three short films from Siegfried A. Fruhauf use sprocket hole peepshows, multiple exposure and reflections to shed new light on old footage. Peter Tscherkassky’s Instructions for a Sound and Light Machine delves into the dark underworld of cinematography; Sergio Leone meets ancient mythology — a wonderfully enlightening raid on the toolbox of cinema.