Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine

Film directed by Peter Tscherkassky in 2005. Sound design by Dirk Schäfer.

Synopsis
'The hero of Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine is easy to identify. Walking down the street unknowingly, he suddenly realizes that he is not only subject to the gruesome moods of several spectators but also at the mercy of the filmmaker. He defends himself heroically, but is condemned to the gallows, where he dies a filmic death through a tearing of the film itself.
Our hero then descends into Hades, the realm of shades. Here, in the underground of cinematography, he encounters innumerable printing instructions, the means whereby the existence of every filmic image is made possible. In other words, our hero encounters the conditions of his own possibility, the conditions of his very existence as a filmic shade.

Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine is an attempt to transform a Roman Western into a Greek tragedy. --Peter Tscherkassky

Author: 

Year: 

2005
Technical data

Original format: 

35mm

Speed: 

24FPS

Aspect ratio: 

2.35:1

Colour: 

B&W

Sound: 

Optical

Length: 

17 minutes

Distribution/sales: 

Copies for rent:

Light Cone

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