Synopsis
‘Passion’ is a film dairy in which daily events are related to archaic and evolutionary images. The chemical decomposition of the film emulsion blurs the borders between the microcosmic world of the embryo and macrocosmic elements. It leads to an alchemical quest for filmic expression based on the exploration of film’s physical material qualities. Sound segments and melody fragments combined with rhythmical pulsating, droning and hissing of natural events create a dramatic tension between image, sound and chemistry.
‘Passion’ is a personal film-journey in which Reble accompanies his unborn child in a filmdiary, following the seasons until his birth. Reble’s unfamiliar chemistry generates slowly pulsating structures and colors. Micro- and macroscopic imagery build a near-abstract, hypnotic landscape – an intimate perception of creation. (Re:Voir Video)
Preview
Germany 1990, 16 mm (Blow-up from Super 8), 55 minutes, color, sound
Premiere: European Media Art Festival Osnabrück, Mai 1990, Preis der deutschen Filmkritik im Bereich Experimentalfilm
Distribution: Light Cone, Paris, prints in:
- 16mm optical sound
- HD-Video, 1440x1080, stereo
A DVD-PALis available at: ReVoir, Paris
A 16mm print was acquired by: Filmmuseum München
Deutsch
In einer Art Filmtagebuch werden Ereignisse des täglichen Lebens gesammelt und in Beziehung zu archaisch-evolutionären Bildern gesetzt. Dabei verwebt sich Mikrokosmisches, speziell das Heranwachsen eines Embryos, mit Makrokosmischem. Die Grenzen verwischen durch chemische Zersetzungsprozesse in der Filmemulsion. Es kommt zu einer alchemistischen Spurensuche über die Erforschung des visuellen Ausdrucks von Film auf der Basis seines primären stofflichen Trägermaterials. Am Ende drängt es zur Geburt. Fetzen von Klang- und Melodiestücken kombiniert mit dem rhytmischen Pulsieren, Dröhnen und Sirren der Naturereignisse setzen dramatische Akzente. Es entsteht ein Spannungsgefüge zwischen Bildwelt, Chemie und Klängen.
LightCone Catalog text (fr)
PASSION est un film-voyage personnel. Reble y accompagne son enfant encore à naître selon un rituel qui suit les saisons jusqu'à sa naissance. Ses manipulations chimiques inédites génèrent de lentes vibrations de structures et de couleurs. Ses images micro et macroscopiques élaborent un paysage hypnotisant, aux frontières de l'abstraction, perception intime de l'acte créateur.
Booklet of the Re:Voir DVD 2014, Introduction:
Passion and Das Goldene Tor, two films made by Jürgen Reble between 1989-90 and 1992, form one of the most impressive diptychs in experimental cinema to take the natural cycle of birth and death as its subject matter, dealing with both the intrinsic nature of silver halide film and its chemical and imaginary potentials. Both films are darkly lit and traversed by predominantly red and gold chromatic flashes; they both re-evaluate the pagan archetypes of the night and its children, as per Hesiod, as well as the alchemical sources of the natural science of the elements. This combination of the material and the poetic, which references Paracelsus and the German Romantics as much as the ink drawings ofVictor Hugo and the crystallography of August Strindberg, is visible in Reble s earliest work as a member of the experimental group Schmelzdahin, which he created with Jochen Lempert and Jochen Müller at the end of the 1970s; the group disbanded in 1989. (Olivier Schefer 2014)
Buy the DVD to read the complete text