Toilette

The discovery of slowness. A woman in a kimono - Friederike Pezold herself - in front of camera and monitor. With the removal of the textile, a hypnotic sweep of the overloaded image jumble of our present takes its course. One part of the body always comes extremely close to the video image. Only once you have become accustomed to the deceleration do details become recognisable. The body does not ultimately reveal its secret, or to put it another way: it regains its aura of mystery. Premiered in 1979 in the Forum of the Berlinale, Toilet decouples the gaze from any kind of economy. It is radical cinema in the best sense of the word: revolutionary, but without being overtly missionary and with clearly understandable messages. A body film full of sensuality, an excursion by means of its very own cinematic form. Cinema of the physical - on the screen and as an experience in the auditorium. (Sebastian Höglinger)

We are showing a digital restoration by the Austrian Film Museum based on a 16mm duplicate negative from its own collection; the sound source comes from a 16mm serial print from the collection of the Filmarchiv Austria. Commissioned by Friederike Pezold and supported by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.

Julia Franz Richter reads from the unpublished autobiography of Friederike Pezold

Photo: Austrian Film Museum