TAPE END - a film by Ludwig Wüst

English | Deutsch | Français

Director's Statement (NO CUT!)

TAPE END is an attempt to extinguish the director.

I began to have a vague idea of TAPE END during rehearsals for my stage adaptation
of Ingmar Bergman's “Efter Repetichonen“. Bergman always wanted to make
a movie without any cut, yet unfortunately he never came to realize this concept.
TAPE END is the reconstruction of an experiment, consequence of possible incidents.
The film shows the moment of its creation. During shooting, only the actors were present.
The director was replaced by an actor performing as director – and also operating the camera.
The by-product of this „live“-performance is a 60 min realtime video tape.
The screening of this actual movie destroys the spectator's illusions from the very start.
Right in the first second the film refers to its making and with that to its central topic,
that is, vanity. No movie (no work of art one might ask) is made without this „fuel“ enabling
the director to, well, even to walk over dead bodies.
TAPE END reflects upon this vanity and the unforeseeable consequences of wanting to stage life.
To capture life by setting up a trap, and then be stuck oneself. Including thoughts –
and rather critical thoughts – about filmmaker's megalomania to drag something out of a shady
order yet without being prepared to respond by any means to smashing chaos. The artist is a
passion driven offender. His existential fear and denial result in the necessity of a counter-draft.
Which may well be a dystopia.
The first film in film history was a horror film: during the screening of „l'arrivée du train en gare“
the audience ran from the movie theatre.
The motive of death is treated narratively, there's no images to the related events, just like
in the messenger's report in ancient drama. As soon as the effect has acted on the character
as well as on the audience, the next statement is produced, that is, the next lie.
TAPE END is but one big lie and in its last seconds, even an auto-deconstruction takes place.
The only truth to be found in this movie lies in the straight 60 minutes without any cut.
TAPE END is an entertainment film. Organized in three acts (drama/tragedy and satyr play),
the film quotes the myth of Medea, relates human solitude as shown in Edward Hoppers paintings,
draws the silence of empty rooms – and the outer noise.