As part of an ongoing project, “Film Ist.,” assembling silent footage from European film archives, Austrian filmmaker-architect Gustav Deutsch’s “Film Ist. A Girl & A Gun” is a lyrical myth about the creation of the world, war and the battle between the sexes. Drawing from the flip epigram, “all you need to make a film is a girl and a gun,” attributed variously to Griffith and Godard, Deutsch works with the emphatic verve of someone born to make image history bloom, as well as with sly wit and a keen eye for the potential fineries of found footage. A little bit Griffith… a little bit Godard. Bill Morrison’s “Decasia” dealt with similar footage in states of distress; Guy Maddin infects his own fever dreams; and Adam Curtis is onto something altogether more punchy. Yet: image, sound, a hypnotic drone that becomes music: the forgotten history of cinema comprises not one, but many haunted houses. (The explicit bits are drawn from the Kinsey archives.) It’s prize delirium. 93m. (Ray Pride)
“Film Ist. A Girl & A Gun” plays Sunday-Monday and Thursday at Siskel. A fragment from the film is below; maybe not safe for work.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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