Heinz Emigholz - DVD Edition

• THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I) 1972-1975, 142 min.)
• THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II) (1975-1977, 56 min.)
• THE HOLY BUNCH (1991, 89 min.)
• SULLIVAN’S BANKS (1993-2000, 38 min.)
• MAILLART’S BRIDGES (2001, 24 min.)
• GOFF IN THE DESERT (2003, 110 min.)
• THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP I-III (1974-1983 / 1995-2000 / 1986-2004, 94 min.)
• D’ANNUNZIO’S CAVE (2005, 52 min.)
• SCHINDLER'S HOUSES (2007, 99 min.)
• LOOS ORNAMENTAL (2008, 72 min.)
• SENSE OF ARCHITECTURE (2009, 168 min.)
• MISCELLANEA I-VII (1986-2010, 152 min.)
• PARABETON – PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE (2012, 100 min.)
• PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA (2012, 110 min.)
• THE AIRSTRIP (2014, 108 min.)
• 2+2=22 [THE ALPHABET] (2017, 88 min.)
• BICKELS [SOCIALISM] (2017, 92 min.)
• STREETSCAPES [DIALOGUE] (2017, 132 min.)
• DIESTE [URUGUAY] (2017, 95 min.) (incl. 3 short films: LE CORBUSIER [|||||] ASGER JORN [RELIEF], TWO BASILICAS, TWO MUSEUMS)
• YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION (2019, 93 min.)

Informations about the individual DVDs

THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I) (1972-1975)
DVD + 20 pages booklet – 142 min. + 87 min. Extras: Sound slide shows BROOKLYN BATHROOM PIECE + STAIR PIECE 
The project THE FORMATIVE YEARS makes visible and accessible seven early experimental works by Heinz Emigholz, which provided a crucial impetus for the international experimental film movement of the 1970s and 80s. SCHENEC-TADY I-III, ARROWPLANE and TIDE were published on the DVD THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I). They are counted among the few experimental works from Germany which have attained enduring international acclaim. Each film – ARROWPLANE, TIDE and all parts of the SCHENEC-TADY series – consist of thousands of photographs, taken frame-by-frame with a Bolex camera on 16mm film according to a previously established score. The human gaze is thus replaced by a sequence of images appeared as the product of a machine that isolated and saved the individual images, reconfiguring them in the projection in the context of an artificially created sequence of movement. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I)

THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II) (1975-1977)
DVD + 20 pages booklet – 56 min. + 120 min. Extras: Sound slide shows SCHUHSTÜCK + TASSENSTÜCK + WANDSBEK GARTENSTÜCK
HOTEL and DEMON were published on the DVD THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II). In HOTEL Heinz Emigholz ruptures temporally linear shots by breaking them apart and then editing these parts into one another according to recognizable patterns. While in DEMON Emigholz has given a spatial element to the words and thus approached Mallarmé's dream to be able to show that language can be an object, a counterpart. – With Silke Grossmann, Heinz Emigholz / Marcia Bronstein, Susanne Christmann, Silke Grossmann, Hilka Nordhausen, Gabriele Kreis, Renée Pötzscher, Christoph Derschau, Bodo von Dewitz, Hannes Hatje, Gernot Meyer, Steffen Poppenberg, Klaus Wyborny (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II)

THE HOLY BUNCH (1991)
DVD with 2 Discs + 16 pages booklet – 89 min. + 20 min. Extras
The death of a friend provokes a goup of artists to take a serious look at their own survival. THE HOLY BUNCH examines the manifold relationships between the edificies of a monumental architecture meant to last forever and the human body trapped in its finite life span. Five people leaf through the notebooks of the deceased editor Roy, who had been their mutual friend, and thereby construct their collective past: the writer Carl; the photographer Liza, with whom he lives; the architect Jon, for whom Liza takes pictures; the comic-artist Fred, with whom Carl runs through scenes for his novel; and the translater Bela who collects Freudian slips. Carl is having trouble writing. As the film progresses, his novelistic character develops into a real person who intervenes in his life with increasing menace. The lector Roy supports Carl but is marked by a severe illness. To escape his difficulties, Carl accompanies Jon and Liza on an architectural journey. Bela and Fred remain behind with Roy and are confronted with his approaching death. – With Klaus Behnken, Eckhard Rhode, Wolfgang Müller, Kyle deCamp, Carola Regnier, John Erdman, Bernd Broaderup (English subtitles)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE HOLY BUNCH

SULLIVAN’S BANKS (1993-2000) 
DVD + Folder – 38 min. + 53 min. Extras: Bonus film by Heinz Emigholz and Lior Shamriz THE WHITMAN PROJEKT (53 min., English and German) with texts by Walt Whitman
Sullivan’s writings and constructions set out central positions of modernism, including its ambiguity. His organic ornamentation, conceived and created in conjunction with modern methods of construction, was barely noticed in Germany. Although Sullivan’s work was displayed at the centre of the “Exhibition of New American Architects” in Berlin’s Academy of the Arts in 1926, Europeans did not consider Sullivan to be of interest as a theoretician, nor his famous credo „Form follows function“. SULLIVAN’S BANKS shows the last eight buildings Louis H.Sullivan has designed and furnished at the end of his career. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about SULLIVAN’S BANKS

MAILLART’S BRIDGES (2001) 
DVD + Folder – 24 min. + 90 min. Extras
14 works of the swiss artist, civil engineer and legendary bridge builder Robert Maillart designed between 1910 and 1935. Maillart revolutionized with his functional reduction of material the work of bridge building and created his own world of forms. His topics and inventions explored the possibilities of reinforced concrete construction and set new aesthetic standards worldwide in their complex simplicity and elegance of the load-bearing parts. His turning away from solid construction and reduction to the essential lines of force, generated the distrust of the authorities and led to absurd building regulations. His groundbreaking experiments can be found in remote valleys of small cantons where he was given a free hand in designing. In MAILLART’S BRIDGES Heinz Emigholz seeks out these places and captures the local forces and their composition. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about MAILLART’S BRIDGES

GOFF IN THE DESERT (2003) 
DVD + Folder – 110 min. + 50 min. Extras
GOFF IN THE DESERT presents 62 buildings from the American architect Bruce Goff (1904-1982) – from the smallest cottage to an impressive museum pavilion – and is the only cinematographic collection of almost all of his buildings still in existence. Bruce Goff is considered to be one of the ”greatest unknowns“ of American architecture. As a determined experimenter, his works and designs were often in significant contrast to the ”International Style“ movement, and the controversies surrounding his works have since become legendary. Almost all of his buildings created a shock in the landscape, paving the way for new, yet unimaginable avenues in architecture. – With Christian Reiner (Narrator) (German OV: short off-comment, mostly without dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about GOFF IN THE DESERT

THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP I-III (1974-83 / 1995-2000 / 1986-2004) 
DVD + Folder – 94 min. + 50 min. Extras: Talk with Heinz Emigholz and Eugen Blume, curator of the exhibition THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP (1974-2007) at the museum "Hamburger Bahnhof" in Berlin (German)
The films THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP (I-III) are the starting point of over 30 film works of the series “Photography and beyond”, which also includes the subgroup “Architecture as Autobiography”. Shown are over a hundred of note books and drawings on thousands of pages as well as photographies, sketch books and short cinematographic sequences, that relate to Heinz Emigholz’s later work. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP I-III

D’ANNUNZIO’S CAVE (2005)
DVD + Folder – 52 min. + 60 min. Extras
15 rooms of the Villa Cargnacco in Gardone on Lake Garda, where Gabriele D’Annunzio moved in 1921 and lived until his death. D’ANNUNZIO’S CAVE is the product of a cinematic jam-session held in Gabriele D’Annuzio Villa Cargnacco: four cameramen and film-makers (Irene von Alberti, Elfi Mikesch, Klaus Wyborny and Heinz Emigholz) simultaneously document the rooms of the villa in their specific styles. The villa is part of the Vittoriale, a museum-like theme park that D’Annunzio himself and his personal architect Giancarlo Maroni spent almost two decades designing and furnishing. – With (Narrators) Logox's Bill & Christiane, Lesefix Pro's Girl, Peedy, Merlin & Genie, Loquendo's Katrin, Stefan & Simon, ScanSoft RealSpeak's Tom & Emily, 2nd Speech Center's Sidney, Stefan & Peter, Rhetorical's M027 & DFKI's DE6 (German and English OV)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about D’ANNUNZIO’S CAVE

SCHINDLER'S HOUSES (2007)
DVD + 16 pages booklet – 99 min. + 40 min. Extras
40 buildings by the Austro-American architect Rudolph Schindler from the years 1931 to 1952. Schindler’s pioneering work in Southern California is the cornerstone of a branch of modern architecture. The Austrian-American architect Rudolph Schindler (1887-1953) worked with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright at the beginning of his career. Like Bruce Goff, he is a sin-gularity of modernism and the founder of his own Californian style of building. His turn away from the “International Style” isolated him in the world of architecture for many years. His style is characterized by the use of wood and by the unified design of furnishings for entire households. His own home, built in 1922 in West Hollywood, is considered an epochal masterpiece. SCHINDLER’S HOUSES documents the interiors and exteriors of 40 of his houses in and around Los Angeles in the context of their surroundings today. Using no voiceover, archival photos, or other conventions of standard documentaries, the film presents beautifully composed shots of the 40 buildings in the order in which they were built. Emigholz’s style is formal and subtle, but the cumulative effect is a provocative meditation on Schindler’s ideas regarding architecture and environment. – With Christian Reiner (Narrator) (German and English OV)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about SCHINDLER'S HOUSES

LOOS ORNAMENTAL (2008)
DVD + 16 pages press kit (booklet)  – 72 min. + 30 min. Extras: Bonus film based on Adolf Loos’ famous essay “Ornament and Crime” read by Carola Regnier (30 min, English and German)
27 still-existing buildings and interiors by Austrian architect and pioneer of European Modernist architecture Adolf Loos in order of their construction. Adolf Loos was one of the pioneers of European Modernist architecture. His vehement turn against ornamentation on buildings triggered a controversy in architectural theory. The development of his “spatial plan” launched a new way of thinking about spaces to be built. His houses, furniture for shops and apartments, facades, and monuments were built between 1899 and 1931. LOOS ORNAMENTAL captures the buildings in their present surroundings in Vienna, Lower Austria, Prague, Brno, Pilsen, Nachod, and Paris. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about LOOS ORNAMENTAL

SENSE OF ARCHITECTURE (2009)
DVD with 2 Discs + 16 pages booklet – 168 min. + 260 min. Extras
42 contemporary architectural projects of Austrian origins. As an independent work, the film emerged from the material for 57 short films that Heinz Emigholz produced for the exhibition Sense of Architecture conceived in Graz. Unlike the exhibition, which grouped the architecture thematically, the film SENSE OF ARCHITECTURE assembles the project into a social reality in which modern buildings were constructed for all areas of life.The film starts with a bell tower in the Seetaler Alps and a construction site and then leads through the various stages of a fictive life: from a kindergarden, a single-family home, a botanical garden, ein track house, a pharmacy, a housing development, a museum for children, an apartment house with a workshop, a dialect institute, an art house, an office building, a shool, a shoe shop, an apartment block, a town hall, a community center, a medical center, past a pedestrian bridge, in a room for studying, an airport tower, a church reconstruction, a community center, a reginal exhibition, a residential area, a city council, a renovated castle, a villa, a restaurant, a hall, a building extension, a justice center, a prison, a cloister, an art house, a hospital, a vacation house, a castle, a museum, a stone house, a nursing home, a crematorium, and to a columbarium. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about SENSE OF ARCHITECTURE

MISCELLANEA I-VII (1986-2010)
DVD + 8 pages booklet – 152 min.
The films of the MISCELLANEA series can be seen as vessels for collections of film shots, footnotes, remarks and references, to be regarded as vanguard and memory. For example, the films EL GRECO IN TOLEDO and ON BOARD THE USS TICONDEROGA emerged from two scenes of the film THE HOLY BUNCH from 1991, in which the images appeared only marginally as a component of the story. Yet the necessity to examine them more closely lived on beyond the limited time of a feature film. MISCELLANEA IV-VII form an independent series named A SERIES OF THOUGHTS. – MISCELLANEA I (1988-1997, 20 min.) – With Kyle DeCamp, John Erdman, Jochen Nickel, Eckhard Rhode / MISCELLANEA II (1988-2001, 19 min.) – With Ueli Etter, Jochen Nickel, Ronny Tanner / MISCELLANEA III (1997-2004, 22 min.) / MISCELLANEA IV – A MUSEUM IN ESSEN (2009/10, 21 min.) / MISCELLANEA V – EL GRECO IN TOLEDO (1987-2010, 29 min.) – With Hanns Zischler (Narrator) / MISCELLANEA VI – LEONARDO’S TEARS (1986-2010, 29 min.) – With Heinz Emigholz, John Erdman, Eckhard Rhode, Hanns Zischler (Narrator) / MISCELLANEA VII – ON BOARD THE USS TICONDEROGA (1987-2010, 12 min.) – With Imri Kahn (Narrator) (English subtitles)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about MISCELLANEA I-VII

PARABETON – PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE (2012)
DVD + Blu-ray Disc – 100 min. + 72 min. Extras
PARABETON starts with the first still exstant dome built of concrete by the Romans in the 1st century BC in Baiae near Naples. Followed in chronological sequence by 17 buildings of Italian civil-engineer Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979) – inventor, grandmaster of concrete structures and the architect’s architect of the 20th century: among others the Pirelli-skysraper in Milano, the Headquarters of Unesco in Paris, the Palazzo del Lavoro in Turin,  the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome and the Papal Audience Hall at Vatican City. This succession is from time to time halted by cinematic studies of large Roman structures, among others the Pantheon and the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. In doing so the film relates Nervi’s path-breaking constructions with the pioneering Roman inventions in his field 2000 years ago. The film is the first part of the series DECAMPMENT OF MODERNISM, which also includes PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA and THE AIRSTRIP. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about PARABETON – PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE

PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA (2012)
DVD + Blu-ray Disc – 110 min. + 113 min. Extras
The film PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA presents 30 buildings and architectural ensembles of the French architects and construction engineers Auguste and Gustave Perret. Auguste Perret has masterfully refined concrete construction in the implementation of his projects and instilled in them a classical expression. Working in parallel to the execution of numerous construction projects in France, Perret was building under conditions of colonialism in North Africa. The film traces this division chronologically. The buildings erected in Algeria from 1912 until 1952 are for the first time the subject of a film, as are the ones built in France. The edifices of Perret in France and their continued existence in the present are thus juxtaposed to his projects realized in North Africa. A differentiated interaction with the “architectural heritage” in diverging cultures thereby becomes visible. The fate of Western architectural modernism along with its symbolic value and sustainability in the everyday interaction with its resulting products in varying social conditions and landscapes comes into view. PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA is the second part of Heinz Emigholz’ series DECAMPMENT OF MODERNISM, which also includes PARABETON and THE AIRSTRIP. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA

THE AIRSTRIP (2014)
DVD + Blu-ray Disc – 108 min. + 18 min. Extras: short film TWO MUSEUMS
Imagine an airspace into which a bomb has been dropped. The bomb has not reached the site of its detonation, but there is no way to stop its speedy approach. The time between the bomb’s release and its explosion is neither the future (for the ineluctable destruction has not yet happened) nor the past (which is unavoidably about to be extinguished). The flight time of the bomb thus describes absolute nothingness, the zero hour, consisting of all the possibilities that in just a moment will no longer exist. Thus, this story will end before it has begun; here it is told in defiance: an architectural journey from Berlin through Arromanches, Rome, Wrocław, Görlitz, Paris, Bologna, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Atlántida, Montevideo, Mexico City, Brasilia, Tokyo, Saipan, Tinian, Tokyo, San Francisco, Dallas, Binz and Mexico City back to Berlin – into the abyss. After PARABETON and PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA, THE AIRSTRIP is the third part of the series DECAMPMENT OF MODERISM. – With Ueli Etter and Natja Brunckhorst (Narrator) (German and English OV)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE AIRSTRIP

2+2=22 [THE ALPHABET] (2017)
DVD with 2 Discs – 88 min. + 54 min. Extras: 7 music videos of the German Avantgarde/Postrock/Electronica band KREIDLER directed by Heinz Emigholz
A cinematographic composition of three distinct elements: scenes of the German band Kreidler (Thomas Klein, Alexander Paulick, Andreas Reihse, Detlef Weinrich) at work on their album “ABC” in a recording studio in Tbilisi, Georgia, 26 densely filled notebooks of Emigholz, and shots of anonymous buildings and streets in Tbilisi. 2+2=22 [The Alphabet] is the first part of Heinz Emigholz’s STREETSCAPES-series, which also includes BICKELS [Socialism], STREETSCAPES [Dialogue] and DIESTE [Uruguay]. – With KREIDLER (Thomas Klein, Alexander Paulick, Andreas Reihse, Detlef Weinrich) and Natja Brunckhorst (Narrator) (English and Spanish subtitles)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about 2+2=22 [THE ALPHABET]

BICKELS [SOCIALISM] (2017)
DVD with 2 Discs – 92 min. + 190 min. Extras
Showing 22 buildings by the Kibbutz architect Samuel Bickels, filmed in Israel in 2015, BICKELS [Socialism] deals with the sediments of the 20th century. Bickels’ buildings are the heart of an idea, an interaction, social and cultural. His architecture reflects a will to create a civilization. BICKELS [Socialism] is the second part of Heinz Emigholz’ STREETSCAPES-series, which also includes 2+2=22 [The Alphabet], STREETSCAPES [Dialogue] and DIESTE [Uruguay]. – With Galia Bar Or (Narrator) (German and Hebrew subtitles)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about BICKELS [SOCIALISM]

STREETSCAPES [DIALOGUE] (2017)
DVD – 132 min. + 122 min. Extras
There are streets, paths, motorways, alleys, boulevards and promenades. And there are life paths, intersections and dead ends. Two men sit on the shady raised platform of a brick building somewhere in Montevideo. They are submerged in a conversational marathon that never ceases throughout the entire film. The younger of the two is an analyst; the older man his analysand. Their nationalities are unclear; they speak a simple, internationally understandable English. They talk about a childhood among the ruins and the traumatised people of Germany shortly after the Second World War, about fleeing, about an obsessive interest in architecture and about manic writing. And they speak about work with the film camera, which is a technical instrument for the young analyst, but a lifeline for the old film director. The starting point of the six-day marathon is the psychological and physical block that prevents the director from starting a last great film, the Streetscapes saga. STREETSCAPES [Dialogue] is the first part of Heinz Emigholz’ STREETSCAPES-series, which also includes 2+2=22 [The Alphabet], BICKELS [Socialism] and DIESTE [Uruguay]. – With John Erdman, Jonathan Perel, Natja Brunckhorst (German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew subtitles)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about STREETSCAPES [DIALOGUE]

DIESTE [URUGUAY] (2017)
DVD with 2 Discs – 95 min. + 83 min. Extras: 3 short films LE CORBUSIER [|||||] ASGER JORN [RELIEF], TWO BASILICAS, TWO MUSEUMS
Eladio Dieste’s innovations and alternative construction methods were for a long time more efficient than conventional methods and made it possible to build large spans in a manner never seen before. Today he is regarded as an outstanding construction-engineering artist. His writings on architecture and construction and his ideas on creating form and on the relationship between architecture and art establish him as a profound thinker on social architectonic practice. DIESTE [Uruguay] documents 29 buildings by the Uruguayan architect and shell-construction master Eladio Dieste (1917-2000). DIESTE [Uruguay] is part of Heinz Emigholz’ STREETSCAPES-series, which also includes 2+2=22 [The Alphabet], BICKELS [Socialism] and STREETSCAPES [Dialogue]. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about DIESTE [URUGUAY]

YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION (2019)
DVD with 2 Discs + 32 pages booklet – 93 min. + 202 min. Extras
The renovation, demolition and reconstruction of different parts of the Kunsthalle Mannheim between 2013 and 2018. The before and the after are brought together in 93 minutes, allowing their comparison rather than letting them disappear in nebulous time windows. Starting from the fountains in the Friedrichsplatz opposite, Emigholz’s camera approaches the building complex. A passage leads from the imposing Jugendstil edifice to the 1983 extension by Hans Mitzlaff. The sculptures it was built for seem to be trying to find their place in a space not big enough for them. The architecture isn’t suitable for paintings: it casts light and shadow according to its own whims. In between, Emigholz shows streets that cross at right angles, bridges and overpasses, the city of Mannheim. References to the vision of architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners: after the demolition and construction phase, a complex of cubes, passages and terraces appears and forms an interior. A stone and a clock swing through the air: “The Moving Emptiness of the Moment” is the name of the installation. Metal meshing holds the new Kunsthalle – a mighty cube when seen from the outside – firmly in its grip. Shot over five years, YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION traces how one wing of the Kunsthalle Mannheim is torn down and re-built. Images rich in contrasts question the role of architecture and reflect on how the building ensemble relates to the rest of the city. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION

All DVDs are also available individually.​