Phantom

In Phantom, each face, each body appears, like cinema itself, from beneath a curtain that flutters and flickers to reveal haunted silhouettes that never quite take shape. These secret sensations, resurrected from beneath the surface of the film, appear as light and shadow, seeming to beckon us to follow them on a journey into the deep space of dreaming behind the curtain.

(Victoria Lynn, In: Deep Space: Sensation and Immersion, ex. cat., Melbourne, 2002)


Phantom seems to come straight from the realm of the spirits; it’s a blood-red colored fantasy about what lies beyond the curtains that apparently separate the living from the dead. Again, it seems as if these are the figures that wander unredeemed through film, without our noticing them. Projecting these images on a curtain intensifies the notion that a breath of air would be enough to scatter the, all to the four winds.

(Michael Althen)


A geography of shadows. Silhouettes that never quite take shape. Anaemic figures, seen in negative, forced to wander between narratives restlessly, but caught in a loop which repeats without end. They are living dead confined to a cinematic space they cannot leave. They are the secret that lies between stories.

(Viennale Catalog, 2001)

Orig. Title
Phantom
Year
2001
Country
Germany
Duration
5 min
Director
Matthias Müller
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
Phantom (Image)
Phantom (Image)
Phantom (Image)
Credits
Director
Matthias Müller
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264)