Schwechater (1958)
2m
Running Time
January 1, 1958Release Date
Plot.
In 1957, Peter Kubelka was hired to make a short commercial for Schwechater beer. The beer company undoubtedly thought they were commissioning a film that would help them sell their beers; Kubelka had other ideas. He shot his film with a camera that did not even have a viewer, simply pointing it in the general direction of the action. He then took many months to edit his footage, while the company fumed and demanded a finished product. Finally he submitted a film, 90 seconds long, that featured extremely rapid cutting (cutting at the limits of most viewers' perception) between images washed out almost to the point of abstraction — in black-and-white positive and negative and with red tint — of dimly visible people drinking beer and of the froth of beer seen in a fully abstract pattern.
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Cast & Crew.
Media.
Details.
Release DateJanuary 1, 1958
StatusReleased
Running Time2m
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Wiki.
Schwechater [ˈʃvɛçaːtɐ] is a 1958 experimental short film by Austrian filmmaker Peter Kubelka. It is the second entry in his trilogy of metrical films, between Adebar and Arnulf Rainer.
Originally commissioned to make an advertisement for Schwechater Bier, Kubelka edited footage from the shoot based on a complex set of rules, producing a rapid procession of images. Although the company was displeased with the commercial, Schwechater found favour as a work of avant-garde cinema.