Links:
Interview by Dr. Siegfried Tesche for FilmFest Spezial during the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück on 29—04—2011.
Special Jury Mention — VIS Vienna Independent Shorts (Austria)
Audience Award — VIS Vienna Independent Shorts (Austria)
Special Jury Prize — ISAFF Open Cinema (St Petersburg, Russia)
An English transcript is available here (pdf)
Film scholar Laura Rascaroli's paper: Sonic Interstices — Essayistic Voiceover and Spectatorial Space in Robert Cambrinus's Commentary was published in Media Fields Journal (University of California, Santa Barbara) 9/2011.
The full article can be downloaded here (pdf)
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Interview with Lorenzo Rossi for the Cortopotere Short Film Festival in Bergamo, XI edition 23-29 October 2011.
The English transcript can be downloaded here (pdf)
A German version can be downloaded here (pdf).
sixpackfilm
Neubaugasse 45/13
A-1070 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 (0)1 526 09 90-0
e-mail: [email protected]
Genre: Essay Film
Production: UK 2009
Running Time: 15 min
Language: English
Shooting Format: DVCPRO-HD
Original Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Sound Mix: Stereo LTRT
Writer/Director — Robert Cambrinus
Cast
Voice-over — Robert Cambrinus
Khalil — Menis Yousry
Nada — Zmira Wicking
Ayesha — Alice Brickwood
Jan — Louie Seers
Mehmud — Farhan Khan
Ali — Abbas Daya
Yusuf — Amir Boutrous
Newsagent — Robert Cambrinus
Crew
Director of Photography — Jun Keung Cheung
Focus Puller — Hu Hsuan Wei
Assistant Cameraman — Brian Lockyer
Grip — Ed Lancaster
Gaffer — Duncan Riedl
2nd Gaffer — James Matai
Spark — Adrianna Tsigara
Sound Recordist — Roger Johnson
2nd Sound Recordist — Rowan October
Boom Operator — Jason Creasey
Production Designer — Renee Kharag
Runner — Lorraine Brown
Make-up Artist — Laura Jane Sessions
Hair — Almut Gramar
2nd Make-up Artist — Soraya Gonzales
Stills Photographer — Joana Gauer
Composer — Nicholas Singer
Sound Designer/Mixer — Markus Moll
Offline Editor — Nathan Cubitt
Online/Colourist — Oladoke Fagbenle
Assistant Director — Mark Vella
Production Manager — Audrey Destandau
Producer — Robert Stokvis
Text by film critic Christoph Huber (Die Presse)
"Hi, I'm Robert Cambrinus, the director of this film!" This friendly greeting can be heard on the soundtrack, then it is immediately swept up by the film's own images: The wooden lion will play an important role later. Cambrinus pays no attention to the film's title, Commentary, as he takes a look at the next scene as in the audio commentary on a DVD: He intended to allude to Arabian deserts, shooting took hours, but the camera was, unfortunately, "a little shaky". In addition, formations that resemble dunes turn out to be wrinkles in a vaguely sand-colored blanket.
With a hefty portion of irony Cambrinus comments on his short film The Good Muslim, about a Muslim man who has emigrated to England, where he suffers from the pressures of life. The narrative literally overlays the images in a way that is often equally illuminating and disillusioning. Vitally important decisions are made on the basis of shockingly banal circumstances during shooting: The ending was intended to be quite different, but a technical problem arose during the last scene, and the use of a certain piece of music is purely coincidental — the editor chose it because of the title. Seemingly anecdotal digressions and doubts are simply left hanging, while a number of details concerning the story of the film's creation and the backstory are reflected in the film. Irritatingly enough, they are two wholly different things. Deconstruction and (over-) interpretation merge: What is left of the images beyond set paths (thematic, technical, autobiographical, etc.) on the soundtrack? This is a clever game of deception and commentary on a contemporary viewing regime which has, for the most part, rarely been dealt with in cinematography: As if in an effective final point, Cambrinus promises a version of the film without audio commentary as a DVD extra. The remaining credits are accompanied by the characteristic embarrassed sighing that's audible on DVD soundtracks when the person doing the commentary has nothing more to say.
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Warsaw Film Festival (Poland) — Premiere
Flanders Film Festival (Ghent, Belgium) — in competition for a nomination as Best European Short Film (EFA)
Viennale (Vienna, Austria)
Diagonale (Graz, Austria)
Cinequest (San Jose, USA)
Festival de Cine Internacional de Barcelona (Spain)
Malta International Film Festival (Valetta, Malta)
Filmini International Short Film Festival (Sofia, Bulgaria)
New Vision International Film Festival (Kiev, Ukraine)
Leuven International Short Film Festival (Belgium)
Bamberger Kurzfilmtage (Germany)
New York Short Film Festival (USA)
Courtisane Festival (Ghent, Belgium)
European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück, Germany)
video_dumbo video art festival (New York, USA)
Cortopotere Short Film Festival (Bergamo, Italy)
L'Alternativa Independent Film Festival (Barcelona, Spain)
Opuzen Film Festival (Croatia)
Okto TV/Oktoskop (Vienna, Austria)
A filmmaker starts out to comment on his film…
The reversal of film and commentary creates a new film. While the filmmaker gradually deconstructs the filmmaking process a new story is being told.