Friday, 17. January 2025
Stummfilmfestival 2025
Filmpodium, Zurich
www.filmpodium.ch
This elaborately made, essayistic cultural film - far more successful at the time than the other Ufa production ‘Metropolis’ - presents mankind's knowledge of the earth and the universe at the time in a popular scientific way. The history of cosmology is explained in seven chapters and the moon, sun and universe are presented in more detail. Finally, the future of our planet is speculated about in dramatic scenes. A total of 15 special effects experts and nine cameramen worked on the film, which combines documentary scenes, historical documents, animations and play scenes, as well as adventure film and science fiction elements, and features astonishing animation technology. Sequences of a spaceship setting off into space seem like direct models for ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.
This visually impressive film is set to music by the Italian-Swiss electro-acoustic trio Niton with Zeno Gabaglio on electric cello, Luca Xelius Martegani on analogue synthesizers and El Toxyque, who performs exclusively in a luchador mask, on a variety of prepared instruments and amplified objects. The band was founded in Ticino in 2012 and moves between the genres of experimental electronics, ambient music and noise-industrial. The ideal mix to accompany us through the vast expanses of the universe. And as a guest, Niton has invited none other than The Ex guitarist Andy Moor, a veteran of the British and Dutch post-punk scene.