Edgard Varèse

A doctor's research into the roots of evil turns him into a hideous depraved fiend.

Although loved by a respectable doctor, a society-girl is fascinated by a prince and follows him to Rome. When he reveals himself in his true colours, she has a nervous breakdown and her faithful doctor restores her to health - and to himself.

Animations (only parts in nuclei in the film) and images, many of them archival and foreign, illustrate that the notion of time is associated with movement and its measurement is performed by the rotation of the Earth around its axis and the Sun. The angle of inclination of the Earth in this last movement also marks the climatic seasons. From the need for greater accuracy in measuring time, gnomons and solar quadrants arose, for whose reading the duodecimal numbering is used. Based on this numbering, time zones and mechanical measuring devices were established, illustrated by the clock mechanism with a church bell. The evolution of astronomy determines the creation of more accurate electronic devices for the evaluation of time, such as the meridian telescope, the Markowitz chamber, the electronic oscillators and the telescope, with which astronomers work at the National Observatory.

Déserts was created to accompany a live performance of the work of avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse (1885-1965). The Ensemble Modern, a contemporary music group based in Frankfurt, commissioned Viola to create a visual score for Varèse's Déserts after discovering notes by the composer referring to an unrealized image component of his composition. The resulting film/videotape was produced with the European television stations ZDF/Arte. In October 1994 Viola's Déserts premiered in a live performance in Vienna with conductor Peter Eötvös and the Ensemble Modern.

Shapes projected onto an abstract environment. The movement and scale of the forms in the film is a beautiful equivalent of the dynamics of the soundtrack