The relationship between film and theater oscillates between proximity and distance, inspiration and emancipation. In spite of all thoughts of competition, the need for aesthetic and formal independence and the vehement refusal of particular artistic traditions – all aspects which characterized the relationship between film and theater at the beginning of the 20th century – the theatre offers a pool of subjects, models and forms as comprehensive as it is complex, via which the older medium repeatedly inscribes itself within film history. Approaching this relationship from the other way round, film also plays no small part in the "myth of theater" and has opened up long-concealed theatrical spaces and dynamics to the (theater) audience. We have collected several examples of the diverse connections between theater and film in this month's Magical History Tour, which span various different film historical periods, genres and styles. They draw on the wide-ranging potential of theater within cinema – theater as a source of inspiration or a microcosm, bringing together life and the stage and fiction and reality, blurring boundaries whilst also sometimes seeming to mirror the very world itself.

This project takes three films by American filmmaker and actress Sheila McLaughlin as representative of a trend in experimental film that took place in the 70s and 80s, moving it away from a radically material-based, self reflexive aesthetic towards the narrative forms of independent film, within which new forms of cinematic representation and documentation could be developed. Over three silent sequences, the short film INSIDE OUT (USA 1976/78) shows moments of sustained, internal tension just before an emotional outburst on the part of the protagonists. The internal bursts out of these portraits like the filling of a broken Piñata doll. The film COMMITTED (USA 1980–84), which Sheila McLaughlin realized together with Lynne Tillman, is not a biography of actress Frances Farmer but rather a fictional analysis of the same. It deals with the disturbed relationship between Farmer and her mother, the sociopolitical climate in the USA of the 30s and 40s, the role of psychiatry as an increasingly powerful determinant in this period and the destructive love story between a woman (actress) and a man (director). COMMITTED is conducted as a Film noir and a period piece – the latter of which is unusual for an independent film. SHE MUST BE SEEING THINGS (USA / West Germany 1987) weaves together a director’s efforts at adapting a novel by Thomas de Quincey for the screen and her conflict-filled relationship with her lover, which feeds off jealously and is hung up on day dreams and revenge fantasies. The production and aesthetic of these films deliver some interesting insights into the transatlantic cooperation being undertaken within independent filmmaking at the time, with all three being shown as part of the Living Archive project of Heinz Emigholz, who is also preparing a DVD release of the films. Sheila McLaughlin will be in attendance at the screening.

A silent Western from the Soviet Union: Lev Kuleshov's gold-panning drama PO SAKONU (By the Law, USSR 1926) is regarded as one of the most significant films of the 20s. It tells the story of five adventures who look for and find gold in the Yukon. After two murders, the survivors are confronted with an existential dilemma - in a log cabin in the midst of ice, snow and high water. Alexandra Chochlova plays the unusual leading role in this minimalist film of striking visual power. We are happy to be able to present the print restored by the Austrian Film Museum for the first time in Berlin – with the soundtrack especially composed for it by Franz Reisecker, one of the key figures in Austria's progressive crossover music scene, which will be performed by him live.