Year: 1973
Duration: 1:58:22
Directed by: Johannes Schaaf
Actors: Per Oscarsson, Rosemarie Fendel, Olimpia
Language: German (embedded English subtitles)
Country: West Germany
Also known as: Dream City, Dream Town, La ciudad de la libertad
Description: Adaptation is the only novel by Austrian artist Alfred Kubin’s “the Other side” taken by Johannes Schaaf looks as if the Director was not shooting a movie, and drew vivid pictures. However, how else should look the film, inspired by the literary works written by the artist? Moreover, the artist known as the master of the grotesque… a Mysterious lost city in the deserts of Arabia, whether in the mountains of Afghanistan, inaccessible to ordinary mortals, is a haven for creative souls, the embodiment of hidden dreams, shelter to shun the vain world. Should only get here, and all my dreams come true…
Here the artist Florian Zand with his wife and fall, using a strange invitation received from watching them on the street man. But that’s not all dreams are pleasant and not all dreams should come true. It is because of the “sleep of reason”, which warned Goya, and visionary dreams of Hieronymus Bosch… Colorful and happy at first Traumstadt, resembling a fairytale town with a Christmas card, very quickly turns to Floriano its reverse side, not owning his own imagination Anna just absorbs like a hungry beast…
A series of colorful, surreal scenes passing in front of the eyes of the protagonist (and the viewer, of course) looks like the living embodiment of paintings by Goya, Salvador Dali, Bosch, Brueghel and other artists, depicting images from his subconscious. While sand remains largely a bystander, desperately trying to understand the meaning of what is happening with him for a miracle. These scenes are absurd, sometimes funny, sometimes horrific — but gradually they all add up to one… not even a scene — pointer. A huge arrow directing towards entropy, destruction, decay, death… the Decadence. Almost everyone who wrote about this film pointed to his ideological closeness to the “Castle” of Kafka. Perhaps the last really wrote his novel under the influence of books and paintings Kubina — who knows? Moreover, that “the Other side” in the Russian language was never published… But the film Schaaf, frankly, with Kafka has very little in common. It is really very beautiful, very expressive, very vivid picture of the coming Apocalypse. It is the PICTURE that I want to hang in a specially designed room of the Museum, such as “the appearance of Christ to the People” Ivanova — and led to her tour. The perfect embodiment of the concept of art-house cinema where form is more important than content, even content that warns humanity about the danger of death. But did Johannes Schaaf (or Alfred Kubin) to be heard? Hardly… a Handful of critics, of course, will pay attention to the hidden meaning, but she buries it under oleraceum description of artistic delights. The rest and even more so to ideological content and there is no case. Beautiful? Very… So that sometimes take eye — but other things are best said Margaret Mitchell his words of Scarlett O’hara: “I’ll think about it tomorrow!”.
Screenshots
Download
