20 Action and Destruction Films

1) Ja/Nein (Yes/No) 1968, 16mm, b/w, silent, 3 min.
2) Weiß (White) 1968, 16mm, b/w, silent, 2 min.
3) Prost (Cheers) 1968, 16mm, b/w, silent, 3 min
4) Rotweißrot (Red-white-red) 1967, 16mm, color, sound, 1 min.
5) Schnippschnapp (Snip, snip) 1968, 16mm, b/w, sound, 2 Min. Together with Peter Weibel
6) Filmisches Alphabet (Film Alphabet) 1971, 16mm, b/w, silent, ca. 1 sec.
7) Burgtheater (Imperial Theater) 1970, 16mm, b/w, silent, 6 min.
8) Gesammelt von Wendy (Collected by Wendy) 1979, 16mm, color, silent, 2 min.
9) Eine Subgeschichte des Films (A Sub-history of Film) 1974, 16mm, b/w, silent, 2 min.
10) Denkakt (The Act of Thinking) 1968, 16mm, b/w, sound, 3 min. Text, speaker and actor: Peter Weibel
11) Mein Begräbnis ein Erlebnis (My Funeral an Experience) 1977, 16mm, b/w, silent, 1 min. Actress: Sara Suranyi.
12) 12 Uhr Mittags - High Noon 1977, 16mm, color, sound, 4 min Actress. Sara Suranyi, Music: Wolfgang Ernst.
13) The Merry Widow 1977, 16mm, b/w, sound, 1 min. Actress: Sara Suranyi; Music: Wolfgang Ernst.
14) Gertrude Stein hätte Chaplin gerne in einem Film gesehen, in dem dieser nichts anderes zu tun hätte, als eine Straße entlang und dann um eine Ecke zu gehen, darauf die nächste Ecke zu umwandern usw. von Ecke zu Ecke (Gertrude Stein would have liked to have seen Chaplin in a film where he would have nothing other to do than walk on the street and then go around a corner, and then around the next corner, etc. From corner to corner) 1979, 16mm, b/w, silent, 3 min. Actress: Brigitte Kowanz.
15) N 1978, 16mm, b/w, sound, 6 min.
16) Kunst & Revolution (Art & Revolution) 1968, 16mm, color & b/w, silent, 2 min. Actions by: Günter Brus, Otto Muehl Peter Weibel, Oswald Wiener, an unidentified masochist.
17) Bodybuilding 1965, 16mm, c, sound, 9 min. Material actions: Otto Muehl
18) Einszweidrei (Onetwothree)1965-68, 16mm, color, silent, 10 min. Actions: Otto Muehl Günter Brus, Peter Weibel, Valie Export.
19) Filmreste 1966, 16mm, b/w, sound, 10 min. Material actions: Otto Muehl.
20) Farbfilm (Color Film)1967, 16mm, color, sound, 30 sec.

Most of the films are also available separately. See individual titles for descriptions.

This anthology is a closed work of 20 films with lengths from 1 second to 10 minutes and is based on the experience of 15 years of work with the medium film. Films 15) to 19) are documentaries of happenings of the Viennese actionists, including the sensational action at the Viennese University in 1968. This led to the arrest of the "ringleaders" Brus, Muehl and Wiener after day- and week-long pursuit by the Austrian mass media; to court proceedings with strict sentences for Brus and Muehl and to the emigration of the Viennese actionists. (E.S.jr.)

The 20 Action & Destruction Films by Ernst Schmidt jr., a filmmaker and filmhistorian in one person, shows that an abundance in formal richness and thematic content is possible. These films truly document the development of the Austrian avant-garde film, interprete it and value it. Within this illustrative material the inherent dynamic of the avant-garde movement is reflected and demonstrated thanks to the richness of its cinematography. (Siegmar Gassert, "Basler Zeitung," 16.6.80)

A comparison with cosmology can be made, when Schmidt makes the beginning of this selection to nothing less than the "creation of film language". The irony which goes with it makes this claim acceptable. They are short simple films which reflect the medium film itself. The action films with Muehl and Nitsch, with their complicated structures form the center of this creative arch which typically for Schmidt, ends violently, with the "destruction of film language." (Hans Scheugl, "Falter" 4/84)