This film begins with fingerprints made directly on the film stock. The rapid, machine-gun-like rhythm created by seeing a different image on each frame creates an exhilerating and disorienting rush. The colors progress from pinks to murky greens to deep blues. The soundtrack, created by rubbing a finger on a phono cartridge, is a barrage of scratches that perfectly match the frantic pace of the images.
These pale fingerprints give way to higher contrast ones which look like they were made on a photocopier. At times I felt like I was falling headlong into the swirling images; at times as if rushing away. At the climax, we suddenly see conventionally filmed images of skin in extreme close-up, the only continuous images in the movie. The images go back to changing on every frame, but lit so that the specular highlights of the skin seem to detatch themselves and become pools of out-of-focus light, as if flesh were dissolving itself and becoming pure energy.
This beautifully crafted and shaped film is an exhilerating piece of visual music. The images speak poetically of a merging of technology, projected light, and the human body. The extreme close-ups remind us of the fragility and beauty which covers our bodies.
FIVE SHORT FILMS BY THORSTEN FLEISCH This film is part of the series of “Five Short Films by Thorsten Fleisch.” These five short films all explore Fleisch’s obsession with creating dialogues between the human body and machines. Read all of the reviews including HEIMWERKER (HIGH TECH), VIDEOHAUT (VIDEO SKIN), K.I.L.L., BLUTRAUSCH (BLOODLUST), HAUTNAH (SKINFLICK).
