Film series
Short films from 1960 to 1970
![Kluge Kurzfilme Banner Kluge Kurzfilme Banner](/resources/files/jpg1170/banner-kluge-2-formatkey-jpg-w320m.jpg)
Kino x 3: Alexander Kluge
We are screening short films from 1960 to 1970, almost never seen in Chicago, by the doyen of New German Cinema with titles like Feuerlöscher E.A. Winterstein, Porträt einer Bewährung, Lehrer im Wandel and Brutalität in Stein, proving that Kluge created some of the more convoluted and straight forward titles to his films.
Born on Valentine’s Day 1932, Alexander Kluge turned 90 this year.
![Rohstoff Rohstoff © (c) Irmi Maunu-Kocian Rohstoff](/resources/files/jpg1170/kluge-square-formatkey-jpg-w320m.jpg)
His films attempt to reflect the complications of post-war Germany, which means that you will hardly ever find a seamless narrative, since, according to Kluge, that is never realistic and lacks Zusammenhang (context). Instead you will find his ambitious protagonists going on tangents the audience is free to follow or ignore. “Der Film entsteht im Kopf des Zuschauers.” (AK)
“In his train of thought he remains the conductor” (Toni Kaes) and the audience is free to get off or follow Kluge, who, after all, chooses what we see and hear.
![Brutalität in Stein Brutalität in Stein © (c) Alexander Kluge Brutalität in Stein](/resources/files/png121/1-v21-formatkey-png-w320m.png)
1960/61, b/w, 11 min
Kluge co-directed his first short film with Peter Schamoni entitled Brutality in Stone, a poetic montage film reflecting on the notion that the past lives on in architectural ruins; that the ruined structures of the Nazi period in particular bear silent witness to the atrocities committed.
![Lehrer im Wandel Lehrer im Wandel © (c) Alexander Kluge Lehrer im Wandel](/resources/files/png121/3-v21-formatkey-png-w320m.png)
1962/63, b/w, 12 min.
'Teachers in Transformation'
Kluge connects between education and situational occasion, and how they influence our morals. It all begins quite innocently but very soon the slow pacing speeds up and the the subject changes to how politics change our mental states.
![Portrait einer Bewährung Portrait einer Bewährung © (c) Alexander Kluge Portrait einer Bewährung](/resources/files/png121/2-v16-formatkey-png-w320m.png)
1964/65 b/w, 13 min
An account of a police officer who "proved himself" under such different political systems as the Kaiserreich, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the Federal Republic, because the fulfillment of duty was his highest professional imperative. A soberly critical film that makes clear how much this subordinate thinking stands in the way of democratic development.
![Feuerlöscher E.A. Winterstein Feuerlöscher E.A. Winterstein © (c) Alexander Kluge Feuerlöscher E.A. Winterstein](/resources/files/jpg1170/1000-feuerloescher-formatkey-jpg-w320m.jpg)
1968, b/w, 11 min
Kluge advocates a particularly subjective approach to history, evidenced in some of his non-fiction films featuring average individuals. In Fire Fighter E. A. Winterstein he at times dwells upon seemingly banal and undramatic moments, moments that would usually end up on the cutting room floor, moments that historian Judith Keene might call the “dandruff of history”.
Details
Comfort Station Logan Square
2759 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago
Language: German with English subtitles
Price: Free and open to the public
info-chicago@goethe.de
Part of series Kino x 3
Please follow all Covid protocols of the venue