X LOVE SCENES

X LOVE SCENES is based on an ur-trope of cinema: the love scene, here restaged as an unresolved, traumatic, repetitive cycle.
An actress, a director and a script girl on a film set: the male lead is absent. He is replaced by a mark – a white chalk X on a black flag that becomes the actor’s stand-in. While the script girl reads his lines, the actress plays to an empty space. The character of the actress is based on the template of Giuliana from Michelangelo Antonioni’s (1964). Giuliana, now an actress, has devided herself into a number of sub-characters within the film-in-a-film. These represent versions of Bree from Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971) and of Hari from Solaris (Andrej Tarkowsky, 1972). The script girl refers to Nana from Godard’s Vivre sa vie (1962). Only the figure of the director has no film historial template.
Each of the five sequences tag basic coordinates of a love story – from the first meeting to the final parting – and are always dedicated to one character. The love scenes that are to be performed by the actress refer to their film templates and are rehearsed and shot in ever-new versions. X LOVE SCENES focuses on the interwoven fragments of figures as rhizomatic updates and identitary relay stations, which convey coded messages from a technologically staged comédie humaine. The ”other side” of the lover’s gaze is rendered as a view of the production aspect of the cinematographic apparatus as an imaginary hors-champ, simultaneousely a reverse shot of the desires and passion inscribed indelibly in the cinematic convention of the love scene, which here comes to nothing.
Constanze Ruhm

-> www.constanzeruhm.net

Orig. Title
X LOVE SCENES
Year
2007
Country
Austria
Duration
58 min
Director
Constanze Ruhm
Category
Essay
Orig. Language
German
Subtitles
English
Downloads
X LOVE SCENES (Image)
X LOVE SCENES (Image)
Credits
Director
Constanze Ruhm
Script
Constanze Ruhm
Cinematography
Astrid Heubrandtner, Peter Roehsler
Music
Otto Kränzler
Sound
Daniel Goschke
Editing
Constanze Ruhm, Ilse Buchelt
Sound
Günther Tuppinger
Dramaturgical Advisor
Fareed Armaly, Rainer Kirberg
Actor/Actress
Melanie Herbe, Josefin PLatt, Judith van der Werff
Art Direction
Dorothea Brunialti
Costumes
Regina Möller, Vera Wieczorek, Vera Wieczorek
Make-Up
Roman Aichinger
Production
Constanze Ruhm
Production Manager
Andrea Salzmann
Assistant Director
Eschi Fiege
Supported by
BKA. Kunst, Wien Kultur, Land Niederösterreich, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Festivals (Selection)
2007
Berlin - Int. Filmfestspiele Berlinale - Forum Expanded