Clemens Klopfenstein

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A kaleidoscopic panorama of the world. A visual anthology of twelve short stories by twelve innovative directors from all over the world.

A group of actors making their way to Rome ends up losing its way due to the fog, the darkness, the ice and their own feelings of guilt, suddenly getting completely lost in the hills.

A daft road movie about two aging thesps in search of Klopfenstein himself.

Max and Chrige, a married couple of Swiss linguists, hike the Alps searching for rare words still uttered by the rural population. While on his way to a conference, the husband's plane disappears over the sea. Chrige is advised to give up hope of ever seeing him alive, but her heart tells her otherwise. Max comes ashore on a tropical island with another survivor, the plane's pilot. But where are they in reality?

In Bern, a confluence of events forces Max, a radio commentator, to face the personal sense of frustration he feels in politics, his job and his relationship. A veteran of the ’68 generation, he confronts the demise of that utopian dream, breaking the bonds of his dreary existence during one night.

An experimental conclusion to Klopfensteins trilogy of walk-and-talk philosophical films, presented mostly in negative black-and-white pictures

While working on a new railway tunnel, a geologist stumbles upon a hidden valley that is not marked on any map. The inhabitants are Jews who fled here 50 years ago and initially treat the intruder with suspicion.

It’s a black-and-white record of European cities in the dark (2-5am), from Basle to Belfast. Quiet, and meditative, what emerges most strongly is an eerie sense of city landscapes as deserted film sets, in which the desolate architecture overwhelms any sense of reality. The only reassurance that we are not in some endless machine-Metropolis is the shadow of daytime activity: a juggernaut plunging through a darkened village, a plague of small birds in the predawn light. The whole thing is underscored by a beautiful ‘composed’ soundtrack, from quietly humming streetlights to reggae and the rumble of armoured cars in Belfast. A strange and remarkable combination of dream, documentary and science-fiction.

A sequel to Klopfenstein's movie "E nachtlang Füürland" (1981).

A contemplation on night travelling in various weather conditions through seemingly endless landscapes in Europe, only briefly disrupted by shreds of conversation in a foreign language.

Philosophical road movie with Max Rüdlinger and Polo Hofer. First they go hiking in the Swiss mountains, then Max is off to Italy where he meets two lovely ladies, one of which accompanies him to Egypt, where they meet Polo Hofer.

In the film, Klopfenstein portrays a metaphorical renovation of the burned-down church of his past in and with cinema. As tools, he merely has his computer and files of his own films, as well as masses of faces long gone and places razed from memory. One drifts deliciously with Klopfenstein through a super-edit of his own oeuvre, removed from established modes of this type of filmmaking and instead functioning in an intimate and poignant expression, where fleeting gestures can unleash avalanches of unexpected memories.

The return of juvenilia! Shots of Rome circa 1973 on splendid Ferraniacolor reversal stock, developed years later and then lost, that somehow survived the decades. Half a century and some digital editing later, this footage is a piece of cinehypnotica that is at once visionary and soothing.

Heavily improvised fairy-tale voyage in Italy involving a bickering Swiss couple and a magic liqueur.

Images of Berlin, the Silesian Gate – last underground station before the wall, the suburb of Asakusa, Tokyo, and of Hong Kong, from the tram in Kowloon are mixed together with studies of the director’s room in Berlin, accompanied by westernized Chinese music.

Dialogueless Clemens Klopfenstein short film, part of the City Life anthology but available separately. Also known as "Et In Arcadia Ego."