The Act of Thinking

Baron Childerich III of Bartenbruch considers himself to be a descendant of the Merovingian dynasty and he has drawn up a chart of marriages and adoptions which show that he is his own father, grandfather, father-in-law, and son-in-law. He aims at achieving the "total family" based on one man. He persuades his french relative, Pippin, to help him. But the latter lets him down and breaks up the family... Among those who belong to the (surrounding) world of the Baron are Dr. Döblinger, a writer, who has formed a band of muggers and Professor Horn, a psychiatrist, who quiets his patients by leading them on nose rings and beating them up... Family satire with numerous personal and literary allusions based on the novel of the Austrian writer, Heimito von Doderer.

This film is a kind of anthology about Vienna, from the invention of film to the present day. The aim is to break down the usual clichéd "image of Vienna" such as that found in the traditional "Vienna Film" by juxtaposing documentary footage, newly shot material and subjective sequences created by various artists. Individual, self-contained sections of the film gain new meaning within the context of historical material. Familiar sites appear estranged when edited together with historical scenes. Other scenes appear like a persiflage or satirical. The film does not incorporate any commentary whatsoever. It is a collage of diverse materials aimed at conveying a distanced image of Vienna to the viewer

Recorded during a presentation of the "Performance Art Festival" in the Modern Art Galerie, Vienna. The presentation was officially put to an end by the police because of the infernal sound made by the accompanying noise orchestra. In this film short shots have been "mounted" in the camera. The film material is shown twice, whereas the sound is composed over the entire length of the film (out of elements of the real sound from the performance). (E.S.jr.)

In May 1965, Ernst Schmidt Jr. films the Otto Muehl performances Rumpsti Pumsti and Body Building. In this period Muehl conceives his actionist works almost exclusively for photographic and film documentation. The necessity of a spontaneous confrontation with the public, which plays a major role in Muehl's later actions, does not apply to these works.

‘Kunst & Revolution is a documentation on the famous action known as the “filthy uni mess”, which led to a jury court trial. I only had a few metres of film with me and they were quickly spent, but still the film gives one a rough impression of the events. As a whole mythology quickly arose around the event, I altered the material to counteract this effect (through repetition, and adding other material, for instance from a film about keeping dogs, and my own leftover footage from the Muehl action number 54 ‘Im Freudenauer Wasser’).’ In film 16 of his anthology Ernst Schmidt Jr. documented the actions of Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Peter Weibel and Oswald Wiener.

In a blank film, holes were punched with a office hole-punch. During the projection, only the black scratches present in the material, which form over the course of time, can apparently be seen in the holes as well. (E.S.)

The formal deconstruction of an Austrian tourist advertisement sign. The national colors red white and red have been removed, filmed separately. In the "white" area is the word "information." The sound is a montage made of parts of Filmreste (Film Remains) and is only audible when the "red" areas appear on the screen. This film echoes preceding films as well as the semantic meaning of the colors red-white-red and their "information"-value. (E.S.jr.)

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ - each letter is one frame (1/24 of a second) long and each letter originates from a company sign. The film shows the paradoxical relationship between film and written language. (E.S.jr.)

A nostalgic honoring as well as a reciprocal re-make of the film of the same name by Willi Forst. A setting to film of a 1930s book, literally: page by page. (E.S.jr.)

Expanded cinema with a real and a projected curtain. (This film is part of the 20 Action and Destruction Films.)

Steine (Stones) is a documentary film on a sculptorsŽ symposium in St. Margarethen, Burgenland. Behind this short description of content lies one of the most intelligently filmed and concepted documentary films in the history of Austrian film. The date of the last showing of this film could not be reconstructed.

This is a film with minimal content. Using a film pen, a line was drawn across a strip of clear leader, until it hit the edge of the frame ("cheers"), and then the line was drawn back to the other side ("cheers"), etc. This strip functioned as the film negative. The projection is the drawn out line as a white line that wanders back and forth, bringing light and darkness into the theater. Because of this one should not only watch the movie screen, but also the light that comes out of the projector and the reflections in the theater. A "light play." (E.S.jr.)

In this film the goal of destroying film semantics has been consistently followed though. Part of the film is composed of a seemingly collision of picture and sound. Whilst filming, the colors called out in the sound were really filmed. Because of the "mistakes" made (unfocusing, copying process, color temperature) the colors in the final printing were wrong. The audience is then confronted with these discrepancies. (E.S.jr.)

Ernst Schmidt Jr. SAALLICHT (1974, 30 sec, 16mm)

This film has two parts. In the first part, the film material is on 8mm uncut film, so that in the 16mm projection a 4-fold film can be seen. In the second part of the film, the 16mm film is shown in full size, that means the picture is now enlarged four times its size. I drew over the film after the fact, and abstracted it in many different ways. (E.S.jr.)

Material actions: Otto Muehl. Montage of left-over film material from film scraps, amateur films, film leaders, recordings of material happenings, etc. Edited according to an exact plan (60 blocks of 10 takes each), then largely drawn over. My most destructive film, the "model for a futuristic newsreel."