FEATURE

FAST FILM by Virgil Widrich

 

A kiss, a well-known face from films past: déjà vu. But by the time you're able to connect it with an entry in your memory banks, a different one appears and is then split a few seconds later by a precise tear in the paper it's been printed on, revealing a new layer underneath.

Most of the scenes in Virgil Widrich's new 14-minute short entitled Fast Film are no more than a few seconds in length. Together with a team of 12, he spent two and a half years working on this project: Images were printed out, folded into figures and then arranged in complex tableaux. They tell the story of the film's hero, who faces great danger to free his heroine from the enemy's clutches and hold her in his arms again.

 

The Oscar-nominated (Copy Shop) director's experimental and high-tech interpretation is an homage to the classic action-movie plot which also covers the entire history of film. Thanks to brief clips from no less than 300 films, ranging from early silents to the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and shots which unite four, five and up to thirty films, each audience member will have his or her own viewing experience. According to the filmmaker, "The fun thing about Fast Film is that, when watching it, the audience switches back and forth between their perception of Fast Film and the films it references, so that everyone sees a completely different film." (ks)