14:14, 13 October 2012 - Monoskop

88 Harun Farocki
there in a pinstriped jacket, wearing a scarf, the kind artists wear. O.L. ‘I’ll
remember.’ Boss ‘Don’t remember it, don’t remember it; you’re meant to do
it!’ O.L. ‘It won’t happen again.’ The boss could have insisted that O.L. respond
with: ‘I will remember it, and I will do it.’ However, he has to worry
about O.L. getting another opportunity to express his submissiveness in
words, without his transgression being mentioned. So the boss mentions
that O.L. has smuggled alcohol into this institution – a homeless shelter –
which cannot be tolerated – or would he perhaps prefer that he causes another
commotion and smashes more furniture? O.L. responds no. As the
camera recedes again back to the boss, and it becomes clear that the two
have been sitting in the middle of the almost empty room exactly opposite
each other; O.L. has stood up and walks through the door again which
closes behind him; the number of the next chapter appears.
2. This chapter lasts barely a minute and ends with the ‘Oh-oh’ of a man’s
voice offscreen. O.L. has walked through the hostel dormitory, at one point
arranging a card game for half a pfennig per point and attempting to get a
laundry order. This scene doesn’t reveal very much, and the decision to end
it emphasises this short scene.
3. O.L. is at the food counter asking what there is to eat today. The woman
from the kitchen tells him as she serves him his food: one portion of bread,
one of fruit, one of margarine, and one of sardines in oil. O.L. gives back the
brown bread and demands white bread. When he receives it, he says in
voice louder than necessary that they don’t like handing that out. He is told
that he is really being brash today with the word ‘Today’ addressed to the
camera, which O.L. is playing to in making his demand. This chapter consists
of a single shot and ends with O.L. asking, ‘What’ll there be tomorrow?’
4. As he is doing the laundry in the washroom, he shouts to someone, ‘What
are you looking at?’ Later when he comes to hang the wash on the line, the
effort of stretching is too much for him. His toothless mouth falls open. The
shirts drip.
5. Back in the dormitory, he has put on his spectacles and is reading a cheap
novel and smoking. As he sits upright in order to take a cigarette from one
of the four packs, which at that time were still only available in West Berlin,
a few bars of music waft in from a distant radio. A sense of nostalgic expectation
arises. O.L. draws on the cigarette and begins to cough. There is mucus
in his mouth, which he tries to hide. There is a cut, and he is shown in
another shot, still occupied with the mucus so that you are left wondering
whether the witnessing camera is being discreet or particularly intrusive.
O.L. turns to the camera and for a moment it seems that a smile is about to