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.

Source: 67. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)