DOCUMENTARY

Das Auge des Taifun

The Eye of the Typhoon

Paulus Manker
Vienna, the night of 16th May 1992. The city lies hushed and deserted. Suddenly there is a distant muffled tone, then a beam of light, gleaming bright as it extends out into the dark night sky. It is the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Academy of Fine Arts, and a spectacular performance created by set-designer Erich Wonder is taking place on the magnificent boulevard of the Viennese Ringstrasse, at which the rock band "Einstürzende Neubauten" are appearing as the main act. Bathed in a torrent of blood-red and ice-blue light, a huge mobile stage surges along, pulled by huskies and enveloped in a snow storm, proceeding past the strolling masses of spectators from the Museum of Art to the State Opera House. Created in the style of a medieval station drama, the passage of this impressive theatrical procession is punctuated by emergency stops and bewildering interventions, implanted into the heart of the city as fleeting monuments to acoustic terror and optical violence. Part polar ice-breaker and part inert-galactical spaceship, the "Eye of the Typhoon" invokes the great festive processions held in Vienna at the turn of the century, it is a reference to a lost age, a stunning spectre of sound and light, glistening and resounding as it breaks forth out of the darkness and then vanishes back into the night. The next morning the Viennese Ringstrasse is as it was before, as if nothing had ever happened.
Technical Data
Running time: 70
Format: 16 mm (FAZ 35 mm)
Sound: Einstürzende Neubauten
Language spoken: German
Production year: 1994
Credits
Director(s): Paulus Manker
Writer(s): Blixa Bargeld (based on Pliny the Younger, Adalbert Stifter and Heiner Müller)
Cinematography: Joachim Berc, Christian Berger, Hermann Dunzendorfer, Walter Kindler, Helmut Pirnat, Peter Roehsler, Hans Selikovsky
Editing: Michael Hudecek
Key cast: Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, Andrew Chudy, Frank-Martin Strauss, Mark Chung ("Einstürzende Neubauten")
Producers: Veit Heiduschka
Production company
WEGA Filmproduktion
Hägelingasse 13
1140 Vienna
tel:+43 1 982 57 42