Christoph Girardet, Matthias Müller II

On screen, we see the audience at a play. As a mosaic of scenes from feature films appears, the audience remains in the center of the frame. In Play, the spectacle is the reaction of those watching, interacting with one another. Enthusiastic crowds are hijacked by individuals, with reactions ranging from the audience’s exuberant applause right through to anger, disgust, and an empty theater. This film by Girardet and Müller was screened at the festivals in Toronto and Rotterdam (2005).

Joanna Ostrowska

A melodramatic story made out of a series of scenes from various feature films that takes place in reflected spaces. In Kristall, intimate gestures by the characters are continuously reproduced, the distorted reflection of which creates completely new images. The mirror only appears to crack, as the broken faces of the characters continue to multiply, inducing feelings of anxiety and doubt.

A reception for an exhibition ends in a practically empty space. The sound of illuminated light bulbs can be heard, and flickering lights alternately reveal and hide the protagonists: a man and a woman against a background of other guests and empty chairs. There is a moment of tension just after something important happens, and everyone waits to see how it will turn out. Mirror was screened at the festivals in Oberhausen (2004) and Rotterdam (2005).

At the beginning of Maybe Siam, there is just a black frame that lasts for several seconds. This is immediately followed by a scene in which there is no sound. Throughout the entire film, images and sound alternate. The scenes are edited together from feature films in which the characters are blind. The characters try to overcome this distance, to find themselves in a particular space by imagining rather than seeing. In the background, the somewhat ironic song Far Away Places can be heard. This film by Girardet and Müller was screened at the Torino Film Festival (2010), among others.

"Tell me. What do you see? (…) If you could only see what I see." In contre-jour, the point of departure is a situation where a doctor and a patient try to understand each other’s "way of seeing". They cannot see in the same way. Disturbances, strange visions, strobe lights, and a "pseudo-medical" attempt to describe our perception of another individual creates something of a visual experiment in which light controls our perception of images.

The world of a child’s imagination – that of a frightening boy in black-and-white from the films of Ingmar Bergman, Jean Vigo, and Francois Truffaut, among others – is combined with  fragments of old science-fiction films. In Meteor,growing up and maturing are seen through the metaphor of conquering colorful Outer Space in tune to the rhythm of music by Puccini. This film by Girardet and Müller was screened in the section Horizons at the 68th Venice International Film Festival (2011).