Michael Brynntrup | film video etc

Festival Paris Cinéma 29. Juni - 12. Juli 2005 29 juin - 12 juillet 2005 Werkschau \| Focus on Michael Brynntrup

The biblical prohibition of images word for word. God's life story in the form of a trailer: from zero B.C. to the Second Coming of Christ - coming soon.
{Information sheet of the film, 1986}

Brynntrup even went so far as to make a special promotional short for »JESUS« called »VERONIKA«. As well as raising theological questions on the Turin Shroud, »VERONIKA« divulges the best way to knock a nail through the hand; how to experience eternal mysteries anew, and that yes, He is coming "to this theatre - soon." - Still no joy with the Catholic church.
(Headpress Manchester, 3/91 - David Kerekes)

LIEBE, EIFERSUCHT UND RACHE
LOVE, JEALOUSY AND REVENGE
7 Min. | 1991 | 16mm | col | sound [MBCFILM#35]
(Lehrfilm) | (educational film)

Du weißt ganz genau, daß jetzt viele Länder Filme in ihrer Sprache herstellen ... (Original mit Untertiteln). - You know that every film has its own language ... (subtitled original)
{Informationsblatt zum Film, 1991}
You know very well, that nowadays many countries produce films in their own language ... (original with subtitles).
{Information sheet of the film, 1991}

The witty »Love, Jealousy and Revenge« explores the mobile meanings of language in film with the help of sophisticated telecommunications; an aural/oral offering.
(Hygiene and Hysteria Tour Program, UK 1994 - Sarah Turner, Ian Rashid)

My first video take, - a film, that rhymes between the lines.
So, very good, very good. And... to that I really don't want to add anything else. That was -as you've just now seen- my first Video.
{Information sheet of the film, 1993ff}

In »My Second Vers.« (1993), Brynntrup behaves like a kid with a new toy, cutting back and forth between his own videocam footage of him shooting.
(Reader Chicago, 05.11.99 - Ted Shen)

Using found footage from the early 70s porn films, Michael Brynntrup creates a humorous and titillating moving collage of mediated erotic imagery - one that keeps promising the viewer always anticipated cum shot, as well as asking the question, "How 'graphic' does an image have to be before it comes pornographic?"
(Mix '95 New York, Festival Catalogue)

»All You Can Eat« by Michael Brynntrup takes the 'cum-shot' to new heights with a montage of some of the wildest, orgasmic, facial expressions ever composed to a mellow, easy listening sound track.
(Boys On Film No.6, cover text, dangerous to know 1996)

KAIN UND ABEL - eine Moritat
CAIN AND ABEL - A Moral
10 Min. | 1994 | 16mm | col | sound [MBCFILM#45]
(Lehrstück) | (instructional play)

A queerly provocative retelling of the Bible story about a man's bloodlust for his brother.
(Mix '95 New York, Festival Catalogue)

Taking imitation to profane heights, Brynntrup even has the male character Abel, played by Ichgola Androgyn, give birth to a baby (doll) out of his anus. Here all recourse to notions of biology and gender specificity is abandoned.
(Alice Kuzniar, "The Queer German Cinema", Stanford University Press, July 2000)

TABU V (wovon man nicht sprechen kann)
TABU V (About Which One Cannot Speak)
13:00 Min. | 1998 | 16mm | col | sound [MBCFILM#52]
(Tagebuchfilm) | (film diary)

About which one cannot speak, one must make films.
(loosely based on Ludwig Wittgenstein)
{Information sheet of the film, 1998}

TABU V plays with the medium of film in a light-hearted and inquisitive manner; a concentrated, intelligent and multilayered film in which wit is juxtaposed assuredly with profound, searching analysis.
(New York Film Academy Award - Best Short Film, Panorama 1998)

There can be no doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.
(Immanuel Kant, Introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason, opening sentence)
Born in the body (...and in time...)
{Information sheet of the film, 2001}

Achtung - Die Achtung (Concentration Chair) takes a close look at the surface of the human body. Photographed over the course of eight years, the film shows six men and one pregnant woman who sit in or stand near a wire-mesh chair. They all exhibit their tattoos, piercings and scars. With a somehow spiritual concentration, a young man begins to actually pierce, in front of the camera, various delicate parts of his body. The explicit imagery, underlined by a faint but intriguing soundtrack, provokes a disturbing, almost physical effect on the spectator. At the same time, Brynntrup's film plays with the fundamental patterns of a Christian theatre of lust, pain and transgression.
(catalogue "Independent Film Show" 3rd Ed., E-M Arts / fondazione morra, Napoli, program notes "Ecstatic Bodies", curated by Florian Wüst, October 2003)