filmclub münster: Das Schreiben und das Schweigen

Das Schreiben und das Schweigen

Direction: Carmen Tartarotti, Germany 2009, 90 min., FSK not specified
Film plea by Rike Hoppse & Son Lewandowski for an eloquent film about the poetry of the unspeakable

Friederike Mayröcker is not a protagonist who obeys the laws of the media. In the light of her aura, many categories collapse. Das Schreiben und das Schweigen leads the viewer into the centre of a poetic existence, so that even the most inconspicuous things flourish into an animated cosmos.

After her first Mayröcker film ("1 Häufchen Blume, 1 Häufchen Schuh", 1990 for Kunststücke on ORF), filmmaker Carmen Tartarotti decided 15 years later to attempt a second film with the poet; this time without any restrictions in terms of content and form, length or deadline from the client. Over the course of several years, she accompanied and interviewed the poet in her flat and on her reading tours as discreetly as possible, mostly alone with camera and microphone, as the protagonist had expressly requested - but with decisive support from Swiss cameraman Pio Corradi.

One of the prerequisites for making the film was absolute consideration for the writer's current living situation and her working rhythms. This necessitated a different methodology and approach to that used in conventional productions: the fragile room architecture in Mayröcker's flat does not allow the use of normal camera and lighting equipment under any circumstances. Over a period of months, the director endeavoured to obtain statements from the poet that were not answers to questions, but statements of the most seemingly self-evident kind: unspectacular and for this very reason of great appeal.