KARUSSELL by Gerda Leopold

The Austrian film maker Gerda Leopold creates a new cinema experience with her film »KARUSSELL«. Five films that were filmed exclusively from the perspective of the protagonists, are projected onto the four walls and the ceiling of the cubic room constructed especially for the screening. In addition to the public screenings there will also be screenings for school classes at the ZKM in the week from June 5 to June 12, 2016.

The film maker translates the structural principle of the stage production »Reigen« (debuted in 1920) by Arthur Schnitzler for »KARUSSELL« in a contemporary version. The audience becomes inescapably part of the action: during the filming, the actors wore helmets on which five cameras were mounted. The audience does not experience it from a passive, external perspective, but is directly drawn into the action: their counterparts look at them directly. With a story-telling format that embarks on new approaches in form and content, Gerda Leopold confronts the audience with emotions that become language in Schnitzler’s Reigen: love, belonging and responsibility.
 
Gerda Leopold (born in 1959 in Vienna) studied Painting at the University of Arts in Berlin. Since 2004 she has been realizing short films. »KARUSSELL« came about between 2011 and 2015: „I wanted to make a feature film with five cameras, told from the subjective experience of the protagonists. For this, I immediately thought of the »Reigen« by Schnitzler, because this is one of the few pieces in which there are no major or minor characters, but all occurring characters are equivalent. Judging characters through the subjective view is more difficult. It is more life than cinema.“

Screenings for school classes

Mon, 06.06.2016, Tue, 07.06.2016, Wed, 08.06.2016, Thur, 09.06.2016
Appointments after registration via: 0721/8100-1990 (Mon–Fri 9 am–1 pm, Tue 2 pm– 4 pm)

Public screenings

Sun, 05.06.2016, Fri, 10.06.2016, Sat, 11.06.2016, Sun, 12.06.2016
each at 3 pm and 6 pm
Thur, 09.06.2016
6 pm

Plot of the film

In »KARUSSEL« the plot, that revolves around love, belonging and responsibility, is told in ten scenes: two people arrive in Vienna. The lyricist only wants to change trains and continue on traveling, the puppeteer is tired of his tours and wants to finally go home to his wife and child. Both represent their own individual standpoints, but the lyricist lets herself be persuaded to stay. Both spend the day separately from each other, meet old acquaintances, bump into new ones, and on the next day they meet again. They do not want to tell each other what they experienced. The audience gets to know ten protagonists and their desires in total, each in search of happiness. An emotional rollercoaster ensues, of trust and distrust, lies and sincerity, arrival and running away.