Streetscapes [Dialogue]

A film director confides in his interlocutor. He talks about the working process, about creative blocks, about artistic crises and expressive forces. At some point, the idea takes hold that this conversation could be turned into a film. And this is the very film we’re watching the two of them in.
The screenplay for the feature Streetscapes [Dialogue] focuses on the essential questions of filmmaking and is based on a five-day analytical marathon that Heinz Emigholz undertook with trauma specialist Zohar Rubinstein. Their re-enacted exchange becomes the key not only to the Streetscapes series, but also to the director’s entire oeuvre, which is largely dedicated to the experience of architecture.
In and around buildings by Julio Vilamajó, Eladio Dieste and finally Arno Brandlhuber, John Erdman plays the director and Jonathan Perel the analyst. They discuss breakdowns, breakthroughs and the mediating effect of the camera, they sift through the artist’s childhood for clues. The architectonic backdrops ensure that the subject is always present. In this playful film, Emigholz achieves something his work has long sought to do: to give equal weighting to both foreground and background.
by Heinz Emigholz
with John Erdman, Jonathan Perel, Natja Brunckhorst
Germany 2017 English 132’ Colour

With

  • John Erdman
  • Jonathan Perel
  • Natja Brunckhorst

Crew

Director Heinz Emigholz
Screenplay Heinz Emigholz, Zohar Rubinstein
Cinematography Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Editing Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Sound Design Christian Obermaier, Jochen Jezussek
Sound Rafael Álvarez, Rainer Gerlach, Markus Ruff
Producer Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti

Additional information

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Heinz Emigholz

Born in Achim, near Bremen, Germany in 1948. He has worked as a filmmaker, artist, writer, cinematographer, producer and journalist in Germany and the USA since 1973. In 1974, he began an encyclopedic series of drawings, “Die Basis des Make-Up”, which was the subject of a major exhibition in the Hamburger Bahnhof gallery in Berlin in 2007/08. In 1984, he embarked on the “Photography and Beyond” film series. From 1993 to 2013, he was professor of experimental filmmaking at the Berlin University of the Arts where he also co-founded the Institute for Time-Based Media and the art and media course. He has been a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin since 2013.

Filmography (selection)

1973 Schenec-Tady I; 27 min., Forum 1975 · Schenec-Tady I; Short film · Schenec-Tady II; Short film 1974 Arrowplane; 24 min., Forum 1974 · Arrowplane; Short film · Tide; 33 min., Forum 1976 · Tide; Short film 1975 Schenec-Tady III; Short film 1976 Hotel; Short film · Hotel; 27 min., Forum 1976 1977 Demon – Die Übersetzung von Stéphane Mallarmés Le Demon de l’Analogie (Demon - The Translation of Stéphane Mallarmé´`s The Demon of Analogy); Short film 1981 Normalsatz · Normalsatz; 105 min., Forum 1982 1983 The Basis of Make-Up I (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 1); Short film 1985 Die Basis des Make-Up (The Basis of Make-Up) · Die Basis des Make-Up; 85 min. 1987 Die Wiese der Sachen (The Meadow of Things) · Die Wiese der Sachen (The Meadow of Things); 87 min., Panorama 1988, Forum Expanded 2016 1991 Der Zynische Körper (The Holy Bunch) 1999 Sullivans Banken (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 2) (Sullivan's Banks); Short film · Maillarts Brücken (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 3) (Maillart's Bridges); 24 min., Forum 2001 · Maillarts Brücken (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 3) (Maillart's Bridges); Short film 2000 The Basis of Make-Up II (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 4); Short film 2003 Goff in der Wüste (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 7) (Goff in the Desert); 110 min., Forum 2003 · Goff in der Wüste (Goff in the Desert) 2004 The Basis of Make-Up III (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 9); Short film 2005 D’Annunzios Höhle (D'Annunzio's Cave) · D’Annunzios Höhle (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 8) (D'Annunzio's Cave); 60 min., Forum 2005 2007 Schindlers Häuser (Schindler's Houses) 2008 Loos ornamental (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 13); 72 min., Forum 2008 · Loos ornamental · Ornament und Verbrechen von Adolf Loos (Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos); co-directed by Benjamin Krieg 2009 Sense of Architecture 2011 Eine Serie von Gedanken (A Series of Thoughts) 2012 Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi und römischer Beton (Parabeton - Pier Luigi Nervi an Roman Concrete) · Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi und römischer Beton (Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi and Roman Concrete
); 100 min., Forum 2012 · Auguste Perret in Frankreich und Algerien (Auguste Perret in France and Algeria) · Perret in Frankreich and Algerien (Perret in France and Algeria); 110 min. 2014 The Airstrip – Aufbruch der Moderne, Teil III (The Airstrip – Decampment of Modernism, Part III); 108 min., Forum 2014 · The Airstrip 2015 Le Corbusier [IIIII] Asger Jorn [Relief]; 29 min., Forum Expanded 2016 · Le Corbusier [IIIII] Asger Jorn [Relief]; Short film 2017 2+2=22 [The Alphabet]; 88 min., Forum 2017 · 2+2=22 [The Alphabet] · Bickels [Socialism]; 92 min., Forum 2017 · Bickels [Socialism] · Streetscapes [Dialogue]; 132 min., Forum 2017 · Streetscapes [Dialogue] · Dieste [Uruguay]; 95 min., Forum 2017 · Dieste [Uruguay] 2018 Two Basilicas; 36 min., Forum Expanded 2018 · Two Basilicas; Short film 2019 Years of Construction · Years of Construction 2020 Die letzte Stadt (The Last City)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020