“Drehbuch/Script” is the blueprint for a film which comes to life exclusively in the head of the reader: „Cinema doesn’t get more beautiful than this!“ (An enthusiastic reader)

“The time has come to pose the question of the culture of cinematic language without reservation. It is important that everyone involved in film making expresses their views on this matter.” (S. Eisenstein)

It is no secret that Godard works without a script and makes up the actors’ lines on the set - at times much to their annoyance. The artist and film maker Clemens von Wedemeyer turns this approach on its head. In „Drehbuch/ Screenplay“ he develops a script for a film which exists on paper only. Within the context of a story line following the production of a film, it reflects on cinema in the form of a text montage from Arnheim to Zizek. In seven chapters von Wedemeyer gives a voice to the film production personnel from the cutter to the voice-over artist, the sound editor, the director’s assistent, the producer and even an audience member and the ice cream seller in the cinema, as they go about their cineastic work. Out of their mouths Truffaut, Hitchcock and Krakauer are speaking about the history of cinema.

The scenes switch with sharp cuts between theory and practice, between an imagined ideal of film production and the harsh reality of the cutting table, where the producer reads out his list of changes to the young auteur.

In the film script style of Guy Debord the assembled text in “Drehbuch/Screenplay” joins and separates the temporalities and (in-)visibilities of the scenes.

language: english