Page 46 - Studio International - November December 1975

Accordingly, experimental film in Germany and Austria referred to it from outside. In his last film, Makimono
leads an existence on the border of the fine arts and the 1974, he shows the 'Unfolding of a continuously
film system. Nobody feels responsible. Therefore neither varying expression of the representation of a landscape.'
art nor film magazines report on it ; neither at art nor at He also works here with multi-exposures and camera
film schools is it represented fairly. The most recent, pans. The space of the image widens with a
though insufficient, source of information about the permanently increasing movement, which in the end
German and Austrian films was the 1974/75 festival at leads to the dissolution of the landscape image into pure
Knokke. This made clear that an existence for the light motion.
film-makers is possible only on an international basis. The experience of space and light recalls Michael
It therefore follows that a discussion of German and Snow. But Nekes does not work with continuous
Austrian film cannot be limited to the national area, and camera movement like Snow. He composes the film
that the films can only be viewed in relation to the from single images, which create the impression of
international scene. continuous motion only in the perception of the viewer.
Essential here is the differentiation from American film, In his theoretical concept the single-frame structure of
which plays a dominating role. In Europe two directions the film has a central position. The basic element for him
have developed : the first largely follows the main line is the 'Kine', a unity of each two consecutive frames. The
of American film with its famous representatives Snow collision and interplay of the frames evoke a new visual
and Frampton, and the second stands in opposition to it. construct in perception, which does not exist on the film
In the first direction Werner Nekes Dore 0, Heinz strip : 'Especially important is the "third image", the Kine,
Emigholz and Klaus Wyborny work in Germany. Thus, the image which develops in the spectator's head by the
unlike his early films, the most recent works of Werner collision of two single images. For each development
Nekes show a romantic-poetic understanding of art, of the film language can be reduced to the possible
which comes close to the mystical experience of nature differences between two frames. Only over new
in Snow's and Frampton's films. Although the appearance structures of space and time differences inside the Kine
of Nekes' films is very different at first glance, you can groups, will the visual grammar be extended. To the
find in them similar principles of filmic organization : illusion of movement can be added among others the
real environment, mostly landscapes, is transformed into change of shape and the melting of shape. Film which
artificial images by means of complicated camera and has to search out a new way from eye to brain becomes
montage techniques. This phase in his work started about possible, another maybe quicker projection course,
1971 with his film Spacecut. It consists of single-frame because the eye is the camera and at the same time the
takes, which describe extreme spatial movements of the projector directed into the brain.'
camera. Nekes sees the means for the structural extension of
The technique of dissection and re-combination of image language in 'polyvisuality', 'image cluster' and
image material by single-frame, multi-exposures, space 'camera movement which is determined by space
and time intervals during the shooting of the same area, co-ordinates.' This extended language of images is for
are all variously applied in Nekes' following films : him a way of starting to 'change the minds (thinking) of
T-wo-men 1972, Diwan 1973 and Makimono 1974. the recipients, by changes in the medium.'6
The range of expression in his work can be Dore 0 also takes the original material for her films
characterized by the extremes of the Iightflashes in from her private domain, which includes far journeys
Spacecut and the smooth floating of contours in through strange landscapes, for example in Iceland.
Sun-a-mull 972/73, which is a part of Diwan. A But her films are not, like those of Werner Nekes, built
certain insecurity in his concept becomes apparent in on mathematical principles of structure. She creates
that in each film title he mentions the actors, although a flow of images — multi-exposed landscapes and strange
they are mostly unrecognizable because of their cut-in-image metaphors—as a poetic expression of her
shadowy appearance, and obviously fulfil no function. feelings. She works in the tradition of Brakhage in that
These 'actors' are usually Nekes himself, his wife, child she presents reality through the interpretation of her own
and friends. He tries to bring personal experience into emotions. Just how much she is guided by her feelings is
the film by naming the actors and thus recalling the shown in the descriptions of her films, where she tries
actual events of the shooting. The formal aspect seems to to express the visual poetry of her films through verbal
be insufficient, and he therefore tries to enrich it by poetry.
emotional values which do not lie in the film but are Her most clear and beautiful film is surely Kaskara,

Dore 0 Kaskara 1974

which got the main prize at Knokke in 1974/75. It is a
description of a summer holiday in Sweden, reduced
to the continuous changing of the two main motifs :
views of a landscape through door and window. The
human reference who comes and goes, at the same
time present and absent, is Werner Nekes. Inside and
outside melt. The inside becomes transparent and thus
Werner Nekes Makimono 1974 determined by the outside. 'Landscape exists only as a
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