Christoph Girardet
Filmography
(all short, selection) Schwertkampf (1991), Release (1997), Phoenix Tapes (1999, co-dir), Scratch (2001), 7:48 (2001), Absence (2002), Manual (2002, co-dir), Beacon (2002, co-dir), Play (2003, co-dir), Mirror (2003, co-dir), Ray (2004, co-dir), Catch (2005, co-dir), Ground (2005, co-dir), Hide (2006, co-dir), Kristall (2006, co-dir), Pianoforte (2007), Contre-jour (2009, co-dir), Meteor (2011, co-dir), The Eternal Lesson (2012), Cut (2013, co-dir), Fabric (2014), It Was Still Her Face (2017), Screen (2018, co-dir)
Christoph Girardet at IFFR
Phoenix Tapes
Brilliant reordering of fragments from Alfred Hitchcock's opulent oeuvre alienates and also does justice to the master.
45'
Germany
IFFR 2000
Nebel
Enchanting, hypnotic film about the seasons, mist, light, nostalgia, poetry, based on a poem by Ernst Jandl.
12'
Luxembourg
IFFR 2001
Phantom
Short film originally made as installation in which silhouettes are imprisoned in the (negative) image and a 'loop'.
5'
Germany
IFFR 2002
Beacon
A timeless and imaginary portrait of the coast, with waves of melancholy and nostalgia.
15'
Germany
IFFR 2003
Enlighten (installation)
Installation based on Girardet's short film Enlighten, in which found images of scenes of lightning taken from a variety of existing films are brought together. Due to the alternating light/darkness, associated with 'electricity', the monitor recalls a machine that permanently seems to be switching On and Off. Rhythmic montage, the increasing speed between constantly shorter sequences and breaks, as well as the synchronically cut sound montage heightens the original intensity of the images, which is transformed into a suggestive interplay between light and darkness, presence and illusion.
Germany
IFFR 2003
Enlighten
Enlighten collages found images of scenes of lightning taken from a variety of existing films. The images are not 'filmed from reality', but were artificially produced for those films.
6'
Germany
IFFR 2003
Manual
Combining closeups of redundant technology gleaned from 1960s US scifi television series with a female voice of a 1950s Hollywood melodrama, Manual makes absolute detachment clash with magnified emotion. With its record of the minutiae of endless buttons, switches and control panels and its choreography of a machinelike body language, Manual reduces the notion of any manageability of life to sheer absurdity.
Germany
IFFR 2003
60 Seconds (Analog)
A found-footage film in which time ticks away on the watches of the film industry. They do not just function as dramatic signs for expectation and suspense, but also as icons for the limitation of film (and its shelf life).
1'
Germany
IFFR 2004
Fiction Artists
Salutary, clever film about 'the artist in feature films'.
45'
Germany
IFFR 2005
Mirror
Collection of frozen tableaux only moved by the light. With echos of Antonioni.
8'
Germany
IFFR 2005
Play
Play is a montage of archive footage of audiences in which the on-screen action can only be seen reflected in the facial expressions and gestures of the audience. Individual behaviour condenses into collective behaviour. The event is transferred from the stage to the hall; audience members become the actors in an unpredictable drama.
8'
Germany
IFFR 2005
Contre-jour
Dana Linssen wrote about this work in de Filmkrant: 'A film that wants to make us experience nothing else but Light! Light! Light! and life between the flashes.'Screened before Was du nicht siehst.
11'
Germany
IFFR 2010
Meteor
A voyage from the children's room to outer space, using elements of feature films, fairy tale moments gone astray and vintage science fiction motifs.
15'
Germany
IFFR 2012
Fabric
Girardet reconstructs a 1950s fashion commercial using only remnants of the original footage, resulting in an intriguing silent pantomime.
10'
Germany
IFFR 2015
It Was Still Her Face
Portraits of women. And men, who are spellbound by them. The painted portraits are revenants, omens of absence, metaphors for loss and death, objects of desire and fixation. (Light Cone)
8'
Germany
IFFR 2018
Screen
A mesmerising accumulation of floating imagery reverses the relationship between the hypnotised subject and the hypnotist, and between the spectator and the screen.
18'
Germany
IFFR 2019