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Through his ongoing exploration of language, of the act of watching, and of the relationship between cinema and the viewer, Peter Tscherkassky is one of the undisputed masters of avant-garde cinema, not only in Austria but also internationally. Winner of the Orizzonti Award for the Best Short Film at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.
The power of analogue
It was back in 2010 when Coming Attractions, directed by Austrian avant-garde cinema legend Peter Tscherkassky, won the Best Short Film award in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival; the film is also an interesting reflection on the language of cinema itself and its relationship with the viewer. Yes, because, in fact, these are themes that have always been particularly dear to the Viennese filmmaker, who, in turn, has often drawn heavily on films made in the past in order to create something entirely new.
To fully understand Peter Tscherkassky’s cinema, however, we must not focus solely on his meticulous work with found footage. Before reaching this point, in fact, the Viennese director embarked on a much longer journey that embraced numerous other disciplines in addition to cinema itself. After completing his studies in journalism and political science, he began to take an interest in experimental cinema, first by attending conferences held by film historian P. Adams Sitney and meeting personalities such as Gerti Fietzek, Reinhold Vorschneider, Thomas Kiesel and Frieder Butzmann, and then finally making his first films on Super 8.
It was, in fact, in 1979 that Peter Tscherkassky first began to experiment with the camera, officially marking the start of what is now considered the first phase of his career (which roughly ended in the mid-1980s). Through the making of films such as Kreuzritter (his debut feature), Liebesfilm (1982) and Urlaubsfilm (1983) — just to give a few examples — Tscherkassky, despite not yet having any formal academic training, began filming scenes of everyday life, only to deconstruct them through frenetic editing, frequent freeze frames, or even repetitive loops. Each filmed scene thus took on a different and very specific meaning each time, and even in these early works we see the act of watching and the close relationship between cinema and the viewer taking centre stage.
Following a debut that could be described as almost instinctive and visceral, the cinema of Peter Tscherkassky (who, in the meantime, had completed his PhD in philosophy with a thesis on the theory and aesthetics of avant-garde cinema) gradually began to take on increasingly specific characteristics. From the mid-1980s onwards, in fact, he completely abandoned his old, decidedly amateur Super 8 camera in favour of the 16mm format.
Furthermore, for the first time in these years, we see how Tscherkassky devoted himself to the use of found footage (which had by then become his trademark), drawing inspiration from both structural cinema and psychoanalysis itself, with the aim of dismantling the numerous clichés with which traditional cinema typically manipulates the viewer, whilst at the same time experimenting with a completely innovative technique, whereby existing films were manually printed onto new film in the darkroom, aided by the use of light pointers and lasers. In this sense, therefore, works such as Motion Picture (1984), Manufracture (1985), as well as Shot-Countershot (1987) and Parallel Space: Inter-View (1992) are particularly emblematic.
The real revolution in Peter Tscherkassky’s cinema, however, took place in 1997, when the director abandoned the 16mm format to devote himself to CinemaScope and make his films even more ‘extreme’. It was in that very year, in fact, that the CinemaScope Trilogy began – a series that finally brought him international fame and which comprises L’Arrivée (1997), Outer Space (1999) and Dream Work (2001).
Multiple superimpositions, almost brutal cuts in the film, frantic editing combined with a strong sense of anguish and a sophisticated eroticism, as well as a musical score (often composed by Dirk Schaefer) that acts as the perfect co-star, contribute not only to an even more in-depth psychological exploration, but also to the deconstruction of classical narrative, at times even paying homage to true milestones in film history or entire cinematic genres (it is interesting to observe how the origins of cinema, and in particular the legendary train — which had already fascinated and frightened numerous viewers since the Lumière era — frequently recur in Tscherkassky’s works, such as in L’Arrivée and the recent Train Again, made in 2021).
Through his constant exploration of language, of the act of watching, but also of the relationship between cinema and the viewer, Peter Tscherkassky’s cinema can almost be described as visceral, tactile and artisanal. Something that can be manipulated at will within a darkroom. And so, in stark contrast to what digital technology is capable of achieving today, with all its perfect images, analogue is, therefore, an essential component of this filmography. And every tiny scratch on the film, every deliberate imperfection, every superimposition offers us, each time, a unique and unrepeatable experience.
Founder, in 1990, of the sixpackfilm (dedicated to promoting and distributing Austrian experimental works), author of the excellent Film Unframed (a true bible of Austrian experimental cinema), Peter Tscherkassky, who also frequently works as a curator at major festivals and events around the world, is one of the undisputed masters of his field, not only in Austria but also internationally. And we know for certain that his constant search for new forms of expression and new ways of manipulating film will never cease to evolve.