Bildrausch Filmfest Basel 9, Catalogue 2019

Mertens & Marti highly condensed, as mentors as
well as creators, and thus: as friends of ruthless satire
and practitioners of a worldly-wise and concise poetry
of sounds, light and colours. In Do It Yourself, the debut
filmmakers Erich Langjahr and Walter Marti demonstrate
how to fight the excesses of television and
consumption: by scrapping, burning or chopping up
television sets. What is discarded in the process (including
European ideals) – from morning debate programmes
to glossy TV drama – hovers through space
in a ghostlike way. A scornful new world… And then,
Héritage: a film about how an individual embodies the
persistence of ideals – in an intimate way, internally.
This individual is the composer and painter Peter Mieg,
observed in his own four walls and garden: a still life
with music and an attempt to tell the story of a person
from within his surroundings. Mieg’s ideas are conveyed
by Mertens & Marti through his music, which
is played on the soundtrack, as well as through the
world that he has built around himself over decades,
quasi as a projection of his inner life. A world that
Mertens & Marti break down into forms and structures,
which ironically thwart the pathos of bourgeois
culture and the preservation of traditions with a deft
hand and affectionate observation. (om)
· Héritage (Heritage)
· Switzerland 1980
· 60 min. Colour. 16 mm. No dialogue
· Director, Concept: Reni Mertens,
Walter Marti
· Cinematography: Urs Thoenen,
Erich Langjahr
· Editing: Edwige Ochsenbein
· Music: Peter Mieg
· With Peter Mieg
· Producers: Teleproduction, Zurich,
Reni Mertens, Walter Marti
· Contact: Langjahr Film GmbH, Root,
www.langjahr-film.ch
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Supporting film
· Do It Yourself
· Switzerland 1982. Colour. DCP. DE/en
· Director: Erich Langjahr, Walter Marti
International Premiere of the restored
and digitised version
SUN 23.6. 16:00
Stadtkino Basel
In attendance of Urs Thoenen and
Erich Langjahr
HÉRITAGE