User Reviews

C'mon. Even artistic types (and I can be one at times) will find this endless mess tiresome. I think I will make my own film. I thought my bed mattress could use about seven minutes of doing nothing on film. Or I have a burned out bulb that never got a chance to be a star. When I was in college back in the Stone Age, my friends and I would attend every art film we could. Even the worst of those can't hold a candle to this (the candle would get bored and leave). Alas, some find meaning in nothing.

Flickering, flashing patterns of light, irritating bits of sound moaning in the background. While watching "Arnulf Rainer" the viewer is put into an uncomfortable and unpleasant position, one that is headache inducing and arguably excruciatingly pretentious. But, despite this, I found the film to be sort of likable in a way, and also very fascinating.

Firstly, I want to warn any potential viewers that there is a 98% chance that you will hate this movie and I only recommend it for the biggest fans of experimental cinema. i mean, this film is so, so, SO minimalist it is somewhat ridiculous, which is why I have formed a mild theory that Peter Kubelka, the man behind the camera, is sort of trolling the audience with this film. now, it is probably more likely that this work is just an experiment with light and sound, which does not diminish from my liking and interest in it, but considering the story between him and his Schwechater "commercial" I feel as if it makes sense to suppose that at least some of his work is tongue in cheek in fashion. Anyway, this film also provoked a wide open mouth from me as well as blinking, squinting, confusion, laughter, and appreciation for the occasional joys of abstract short films.

The cinema feels invaded by Peter Kubelka's "Arnulf Rainer". It's less like watching a film than watching a predator at a mysterious zoo. The strobing of black and white frames and electronic scratches is a minimal set of variables but evokes a seizing presence, a greedy indurate screeching that sucks all the light out of the cinema as it recedes. This quasar creature is practically oracular, chawing untranslatable screams. A gradually increasing battering of the eyeballs fed me dancing rectangular phosphors and reticulated patterns appearing inside a tear, though physically all that happens is an alternation of black and white (a true black produced by the expunging of white).

The Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer, appeared as the subject of Kubelka's film Pause! and was fascinated by destruction and the atom bomb so it's not entirely lateral thinking for it to be dedicated to him. You could say perhaps that the result of both Pause! and "Arnulf Rainer" though antipodean in technique, is to record episodes of self-sensate mania.

It's important to add that the exhibition space is important for this piece of work. I've seen it in two cinemas, and it had far more effect in the first, which was cosier, and had less distracting lighting (exit signs and such). Since I first wrote about this I've realised that Kubelka designed the Invisible Cinema in New York, where there was no light source except the screen, and each viewer sat in a black velvet lined cubicle unable to view any of the other patrons. Kubelka was definitely aware of the power of the environment to distract!

This film is stripped of all content to create what is probably the most minimal work that still can confidently be called a film as it marries picture and sound by being either picture on or picture off and sound on or sound off. So in any given moment (frame) the film is in one of four possible modes: -) white frame, no sound -) white frame, white noise -) black frame, no sound -) black frame, white noise

Those are all the possibilities Kubelka gives himself to create excitement, anticipation, humor and many other things that cinema is capable of provoking. This is achieved by its unpredictability. When for example after a passage of rapid flickering a long passage follows that has just the black frame one waits for the flickering to kick in again. Or when after a long passage in which the sound is perfectly in sync with the flickering (eg white frame with sound on and black frame with sound off) it creates disorientation if suddenly this noticeable pattern gets interrupted.

Contemporary Film is nothing more than a series of flashing images and recorded sound. This Structuralist piece emphasizes this idea by exploiting the anti-standards that the general population feels towards cinema today. There is no enjoyment derived from this piece, and in fact it is bordering irritation. Nonetheless, it is amazing that a film with such bold innovations can still exist, albeit it was filmed in the 60's. I also recommend wikipedia-ing who Adulf Rainer is...I still haven't quite figured out his connection to the film, but I'm sure Kubelka has some sort of intention. It also may be beneficial to study the Structuralist movement before you watch this piece as well.