Cosmodrome
Cosmodrome (= Launch pad for space rocket) is a film about the connection between cinema and the cosmos. A revolving globe, the distribution logo of the Universal Film Studio reveals to the viewer an act of initiation which takes place in the cosmos - a key image located somewhere between cinema architecture and cinematic space.
Two ideas thread their way through Schönwiese's film at the same time. The first follows the thread of order, of making order, the structure and measurement of space and the stategic geometries that connect to the idea of the midpoint and where it is simultaneously proposed to erect the subject and body above that middle.Deriving from this, the first part of the film has the form of a musical round which circles the idea of the middle (and its deconstruction) and continuously re-defines the structural relationship between cinema, observatory, aeroplane, church and space rocket - as an applied method to both observe and imagine the world as seen from a (moving) point. A constant motif in this rondo is the Universal Pictures company logo, used as an identity-inducing and pathetic symbol of this universal, centred idea of a world encircling arena.
The second idea explores Ciceros "Dream of Scipio" (which serves the film as motto) and the concept of the harmony of the spheres - especially those inaudible (for the human ear) background noises caused by the rotation of the world - as an atmosphere of overpowering sensual stimulation. It is the paradoxical, and simultaneously tragic attempt to explore the very abyss which is not accessable to the light of the projector. Without doubt Schönwiese can only show these bodies, when they are disassociated from their individual motivation, blunt and in a trance, broken on the sound of the music, irrational, tapping in the dark. (Michael Palm)
Cosmodrom
1995
Austria
30 min