Séance / Unter dir die Stadt
Director
Christoph Hochhäusler
Germany / 2009
9 min.
/ Digital file
/ Original version with English subtitles
The catastrophe has already occurred. Humans were forced to leave Earth forever and now live in a colony on the Moon. Since memories pose the greatest danger, they are erased during séances. Voluntary mind control is also employed to prevent any outbreaks of the disease known as “longing.” While a voiceover narrator calmly recounts these events, we see a living space, a desk, books, photographs, and everyday objects. Created as one of the short film episodes for the omnibus film Deutschland ’09 – 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation, SÉANCE follows in the footsteps of Chris Marker’s La Jetée, reflecting on the images we carry within us, on personal and collective memory. On the moon, an escape attempt does finally take place—and a woman writes a single word in the sand. (bik)
Director
Christoph Hochhäusler
Germany / 2010
110 min.
/ Digital file
/ Original version with English subtitles
Recently named banker of the year, Roland Cordes (Robert Hunger-Bühler) is at the very pinnacle of his career. His office is at the top of one of Frankfurt am Main’s glass banking towers. Svenja Steve (Nicolette Krebitz) is the wife of one of his employees and new to the city. She also knows how to put on a show. Both of them are bored. To clear the way for his desire and to schedule meetings with her, the scheming Cordes uses his position to transfer Svenja’s husband to a dangerous post abroad. Drawing inspiration from the biblical story of David and Bathsheba, Hochhäusler’s screenplay, co-written with author Ulrich Peltzer, dissects a milieu in which power, biographies and even emotions are performed. Bernhard Keller’s camera captures the architecture of the office buildings in the financial metropolis in understated imagery. The final glance downward promises nothing good: “Here we go.” An apocalypse in the present. (bik)
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