Sophia`s Sofa
An ominous chord ends. Fade in. The lights of a big city, towers of glass and a slender silhouette rise into view. Sophia is on a dangerous mission. In her catsuit and fashionably styled red hair, and with an apparently endless arsenal of burglar tools, she nimbly climbs a façade. Sophia´s Sofa doesn´t bother with long explanations: It´s night, there´s no time to lose, and dangers abound. The rhythm is set by the high-hat; a lascivious bass line accompanies Sophia as if she were the heroine in a movie scored by Lalo Schifrin. As mysterious as Irma Vep and tough as Trinity in The Matrix, she makes her way through a labyrinth of oblique angles and treacherous laser traps. Her goal is in the strong room; the object of her desire waits under a glass cover. Suddenly, there are quiet steps behind her. A flash of white announces the presence of a rival: Sophia is not the only burglar here tonight...
Sophia´s Sofa is a light-footed homage to comic-book heroines: cosmopolitan criminals able to run up walls and jump several meters in a single bound and who still find time to do their hair. In less than three minutes, AUGE tells a story which has been reduced to the bare minimum, in expressive tableaus, split screens and to the rhythm of its eclectic soundtrack. The video winds down in a happy ending and an easy-going bossa nova groove.
(Michael Loebenstein)
Sophia`s Sofa
2001
Austria
3 min