An experimental conclusion to Klopfensteins trilogy of walk-and-talk philosophical films, presented mostly in negative black-and-white pictures

Das Ächzen der Asche

The return of juvenilia! Shots of Rome circa 1973 on splendid Ferraniacolor reversal stock, developed years later and then lost, that somehow survived the decades. Half a century and some digital editing later, this footage is a piece of cinehypnotica that is at once visionary and soothing.

The Roman Light Filmed by Ferraniacolor

In the film, Klopfenstein portrays a metaphorical renovation of the burned-down church of his past in and with cinema. As tools, he merely has his computer and files of his own films, as well as masses of faces long gone and places razed from memory. One drifts deliciously with Klopfenstein through a super-edit of his own oeuvre, removed from established modes of this type of filmmaking and instead functioning in an intimate and poignant expression, where fleeting gestures can unleash avalanches of unexpected memories.