Hall Lights

It couldn't get any denser: expanded cinema, quite classic with the shift from the screen to the cinema auditorium, the three-dimensional space of the audience, as well as of the equipment and staff, which are exposed and addressed here by being written about. At the same time, this is the ultimate contracted cinema (cinema, "condensed" and "in accordance with the contract", with the agreement between all those involved who engage in the dispositifs and procedures of cinema). Ernst Schmidt Jr. is the titan of titles, and this film consists of its title, scribbled on three pieces of paper, each of the words addressed to someone or something, and at the same time the word-image trace of an act of writing. With minimal accents. The writing has marked the first shot, "VORFÜHRER" (projectionist), with a check mark (a tick like a haiku), the second, "BITTE" (please), with particular politeness, namely in particularly large letters. And in the third, "SAALLICHT" (hall light), there are also traces of Schmidt Jr.'s melancholy, because this word seems to be painted, it melts away. Just as the projection will dissolve when the film has reached its end, its purpose, and the hall lights come on. (Drehli Robnik)