A white field dominates the picture, which is bordered by narrow black lines. Slowly an image of a fruit basket moves up from below. This classic motif of a still life is followed by a home movie from the 1960s: A man and a woman are eating and drinking?a normal everyday activity, though there is nothing natural about it. Their movements are slowed down, the gloomy soundtrack accompanying these scenes implies a threat in the near future.
Gradually the film strip starts to crack, scratches appear, crossing the picture like veins. The colors change, and it dissolves.
The degree of damage increases successively. Before long the unknown familys outings and coffee klatsches, documented in these home movies for themselves and their children, are no longer recognizable. In the same way as the memories of these events, their film document fades. The images equivocality is lost, and with it their trivial nature. Chemical treatment has given these home movies a painterly quality, and the immediacy of their unspectacular everyday themes yields to the threat of transience. The film proceeds in fits and starts, its images begin to resemble frescoes or abstract paintings. Near the conclusion the scenes which are still recognizable become increasingly serious: A church and a hospital suggest a last supper. Again and again faces appear in the damaged footage as if struggling against their deletion, which cannot be stopped. (Aki Beckmann)
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