Burning Palace
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Burning Palace |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 32 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Mara Mattuschka , Chris Haring |
| script | Mara Mattuschka, Chris Haring |
| production | Minus film |
| music | Andreas Berger, Glim |
| camera | Sepp Nermuth |
| cut | Mara Mattuschka |
| occupation | |
Burning Palace ( German Brennender Palast ) is an Austrian short film by Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring from 2009 . In Germany, the film celebrated its international premiere on May 1, 2009 at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen .
action
In the Hotel Burning Palace five people dance in pornographic poses , although only their shadows allow this interpretation. The starting point of the story are these five people who put on a show in a bar, live in this hotel and have very different forms of relationships with one another. These people are woken up by Pan for the night after the show, they are already sleeping, and with it the abysses that lie within them. These often have a sexual origin or are interwoven with it.
background
The production was funded by the Department of Culture of the City of Vienna and the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture (Innovative Film Austria).
Burning Palace is based on the stage play The Art of Seduction , which Chris Haring developed for the 2007 Biennale with the theme Body and Eros together with the performers Stephanie Cumming , Katharina Meves , Anna Maria Nowal , Luke Baio and Alexander Gottfarb .
The filming location of Burning Palace is the Hotel Altstadt in Vienna's 7th district . The gloomy atmosphere of the hotel is ideal for implementing the performance . Mattuschka comments on the selection of the premises as follows:
I always think of an atmosphere that embeds the whole plot and thus also creates a context .
The title Burning Palace refers to Eugène Delacroix 's provocative painting The Death of Sardanapal (La Mort de Sardanapale) . The picture shows the king lying on the bed, his palace is surrounded by enemy troops and is on fire. He has his concubines murdered so that they do not fall into enemy hands.
For me, Burning Palace is a symbol for the body. The body is our palace that we must temporarily inhabit. The body also burns constantly. Energy is nothing else than combustion processes .
Working method
The cameraman Sepp Nermuth usually stays very close to the bodies, faces and objects with the camera . This creates an intimate perspective on the body. The use of zoom and wide angle and the rapid rhythmic use of the montage create additional alienation of the body.
The alienated soundscape of breathing, singing and speaking developed by Andreas Berger creates a surreal , eerie atmosphere and partly contributes to the deconstruction of actions, gestures and events or reinforces them.
Mara Mattuschka thinks that not only the speech act, but also the aspect that language itself becomes material , is an important aspect in Burning Palace . The direct wording is not meaningful here. It is more like an emptying of language, the speech act takes place in and through the entire body.
Being lost is arguably the most dominant theme in Burning Palace . It is about very personal topics that are not alien to anyone. Confusion, loneliness and helplessness. Mattuschka's works are shaped by her empathy , she works with great sensitivity for atmospheres , moments and those who are opposite.
She is always looking for associations with mythology . For example, sirens appear in Burning Palace , and the Greek shepherd god Pan is also present.
In Germany, in addition to Oberhausen , the film was shown at the Münster Film Festival and at transmediale , in Austria at Vienna Independent Shorts and Diagonale . Other important festival participations include the London Film Festival , the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Uppsala International Short Film Festival .
Analysis of individual sequences
Dreams stand for the opposite world, which asserts itself against the dictates of instrumental and rational processes. The plot of Burning Palace was embedded in just such a dream landscape . In the dream come feelings expressed that during the day, in the waking state can be suppressed. But these are very important. Secret passions, fears and hidden feelings often occur only in the sleep state in appearance . So also in Burning Palace .
Five dancers journey through the emotions of Eros, in reality and in the imagination, in mythology and in the present day. Burning Palace was intended as a film on sexuality - it also turned out to be a film about loneliness .
Pan wakes people up for the night
We see one of the actors sneaking through the corridors of the hotel. He wakes up others and himself. The man can be seen lying on the bed and standing next to his bed at the same time. Mattuschka thinks that Pan will wake the residents for the night. That means they don't wake up in the real world. Everyone seems to be awakening and trapped in the same dream world . The recipients are torn between the different perspectives of the dream . As is often the case in dreams, the protagonists often see themselves from an outside perspective. They sneak through the corridors and eavesdrop on themselves. Each person is fixated on himself and the feeling that lies within him. A sensitivity to the others fail. The protagonists fluctuate between voyeurism and exhibitionism . They display their own bodies and at the same time follow them with a voyeuristic gaze.
Woman realizes her pain
One of the women hears a laugh from behind a locked door. She listens. Behind the door, the view viewers the other I the woman. The door could also be used as a metaphor for inside and outside. We see the woman standing in front of it from the outside. Behind it lies what is inside. This inner self describes a situation in which it is touched. The woman reports with relish of an unbelievable feeling and dives more and more into this intoxicating feeling. She begins to moan and gets lost in this feeling. But the moan turns into a pathetic scream that comes from deep inside. It seems like she can't take the situation. The feeling that has developed overwhelms them. The closeness that is suddenly there is too much for them. The scene can be interpreted to mean that the description is a sexual act. When it comes to penetration, not only in the sense of penetration , but also as allowing closeness, she cannot withstand the feeling. Your body winds in all directions. She gives a desperate cry. The feeling almost tears them apart. In the next adjustment is to see how the external-I open the door briefly. The camera approaches the inner ego in the form of a zoom , from the perspective of the point-of-view of the external ego. The recipients are very close to the person and their feelings. The woman in front of the door recognizes the pain and slams the door behind her. This act shows the repressing the inner pain that want to run away. 'Burning Palace' is often about repressed emotions that try to break out in intermediate levels, such as sleep. A little later we see one of the actors on stage. She sings out her pain. A man and a woman sit in front of the stage. The light and the posture make both of them seem fragile. You feel the pain expressed on the stage . He reminds her of her own, personal, inner pain. They sit in front of the stage, screaming and whimpering. Everyone feels the same, but everyone feels for himself.
Sirens
In another scene, the three women strut along a red carpet with their heads held high, down stairs. You seem strong and confident. They stop in the middle. A cut to a writhing man from the previous scene follows. There is a constant, beguiling chant. Women lasciviously open their mouths. With the help of montage , a picture is created in which the women worship or attract the man while singing. This winds his body in a transparent curtain. The women gleefully circle their hips. The picture with the curtain and the subsequent reaction of the women expresses the mutual desire . You want to be fulfilled by it. He wants to be in them. This is not just about sexual desires, but also about the need to be close to someone on the emotional level . The women move faster and faster. High notes emerge from their bodies. They are reminiscent of the mythological figure of the siren . Sirens also attracted the men with their singing. The women's bodies are controlled by desire, they almost vibrate. Excessively they tear their clothes off the body . They long for the satisfaction of their lust. As already described, here too it is very much about not being able to allow feelings. The joyful singing turns into a panic screeching.
Using the foreign body
Towards the end of the film, we see two women lounging on what appears to be a piece of fabric-covered seating. Limbs soon appear and it becomes clear that a man is hiding under the fabric blanket. The women roll over the fabric with relish. They seem comfortable and secure feeling. For the first time, they seem happy. But when their feelings are satisfied, they get up and leave the 'used' bodies lying around. Through the use of the blanket, the body becomes alienated . It's not about the people under the covers. The man is treated like an object that only serves to satisfy the lust of women. It is not a mutual act of love. One person has recognized what he needs and gets it from the other. It remains unclear whether Mattuschka consciously chose this person constellation in order to deconstruct the prevailing image of men using women's bodies . The man left behind under the covers begins to sing the song Lonely . The text passage “ I am a soldier, a lonely soldier, away from home ... ” expresses the main theme of the film very well: loneliness, the fact that all people are alone and everyone is on their own. He is alone. For the partner, the get-together was satisfactory, but his need was not met. He feels used and lonely.
You can never really get into someone. Even with a possible penetration one only glides on the surface. The skin just wrinkles inwards. Even if you stick a tongue into another person, it still remains outside. so Mattuschka.
In the last scene we see a close-up of the third woman. She listens to the man singing. At first she seems curious, but her face soon cramps. She tries to fight the tears, to keep the facade up. Again and again she tries to force a smile. She doesn't succeed. The sad, pain-distorted grimace forms the final picture. The helpless look turns directly to the audience .
Conclusion
Mattuschka shows us in Burning Palace people who are hiding behind a facade . They cannot stand the feeling of closeness and yet they long for nothing more than security. You are autonomous , strong and independent. But the more they prove this strength to themselves, the more difficult it becomes for them to be close to others. Everyone has difficulty admitting weaknesses. Maybe Burning Palace is a call to people to communicate with one another. Mattuschka chose a hotel to film the performance. A hotel is a volatile space. People don't live here permanently. New people keep coming to this place. Everyone brings personal stories and feelings with them. The hotel is not a personal place. It is a place where different people with all their passions, fears and dreams live side by side for a certain period of time. A hotel is not a home. But that's exactly what the residents of this hotel long for, for a place where you feel at home. The great thing about this film is that you can watch it over and over again and that new dimensions keep opening up. The main themes are sexuality and loneliness . Two topics that are very closely linked. But beyond that, there are always new possibilities for interpretation .
Reviews
“This year we decided on a film in which physical and emotional boundaries are crossed and redefined in a breathtaking, intelligent and audience-effective way. We would like to highlight the consistent cinematic implementation of a stage play with impressive dancers. Sound, image and montage are of a sensual quality, the clever opulence of which impressed us all. "
Awards
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2009
- Prize of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Individual evidence
- ↑ filmvideo.at: Burning Palace : Credits ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Schwärzle, D. (2009). Slide along each other. Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring in conversation. Colic , 11, p. 29
- ↑ "Unrefined to Excess" ( taz.de, March 25, 2009)
- ↑ Schwärzle, D. (2009). Slide along each other. Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring in conversation. Colic , 11, p. 35
- ↑ "In reality it is spiritual hedonism". In: derStandard.at. March 16, 2009, accessed December 17, 2017 .
- ↑ filmvideo.at: Burning Palace : Festivals (selection) ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Innovative film austria, Vienna bm: uk
- ↑ Schwärzle, D. (2009). Slide along each other. Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring in conversation. Colic , 11, p. 33
- ↑ "Prize of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, endowed with 500 EUR"
Web links
- Burning Palace in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Burning Palace in the online film database
- Burning Palace on YouTube (excerpt)
- sixpackfilm: Burning Palace