Raphaela Schoenherr

An experimental biopic that explores the life of Swiss writer Robert Walser. The film deliberately avoids a linear narrative structure and approaches Walser more in the form of a poetic meditation on the life of a poet. Walser is portrayed as a role model for the film's author, who has radically distanced himself from or rejected the grammar and rhetoric of conventional film more than his colleagues.

The film Autoportrait is made up of four parts: Part 1: Search, Part 2: Work, Part 3: Daydream, Part 4: Family. Each of the parts can be shown as a self-contained film.

"This idyll was made for a Dracula film project by Ernst Schmidt of Vienna, who wrote to various European filmmakers in order to produce a bigger film with their participation." (HHK)

"In Germany, I bought an old 35mm Debrie camera. I spent several weeks working with this camera and found that its mechanics were marvelously thought out and that the way the camera was made was proof of the skilled craftsmanship back then. I developed a procedure which also allowed me to use the camera as a printing machine. The printing process is not so different from the filming process, as far as the transport of the film goes . . . It was a lot of fun to try to exhaust the possibilities of the Debrie. It was not only the mechanics that were exciting, like the works of a wonderful old clock, but the numerous possibilities for the realization of the second part of the film, too. This consists mainly of what has already been shot, but offers at least 50% more experimental manipulations in the printed part." (HHK)

A short film by Raphaela Schoenherr with HHK Schoenherr.