In Absentia (film)

In Absentia, a short film commissioned by the BBC as a part of a series called Sound on Film International, was a collaboration with the filmmakers The Brothers Quay and musical composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, elder statesman of the twentiethcentury musical avantgarde. Keith Griffiths produced the film with production companies, Illuminations Films and Koninck. Marlene Kaminsky plays the woman in the film.

Karlheinz Stockhausens composition, Zwei Paare Two Couples, an electronic piece originally composed for the opera Freitag aus Licht in 1991, plays throughout the film and inspired the imagery and style in it. BBC producer Rodney Wilson set up the collaboration in 1999. The story found its inspiration in an exhibition in the Hayward Gallery called Art and Psychosis or Beyond Reason 19967, which consisted of works from the Prinzhorn Collection, a collection of artworks and artifacts created by the inhabitants of mental institutions. The Brothers Quay said, In particular there was one set of drawings by a woman called EH, which was Emma Hauck, born in 1878, died in 1928. Marital status married, diagnosis dementia praecox. The image was so powerful of letters written to her husband that were deeply disturbed writing, where she would write over the top of the original letter again and again until it became a graphite blur of imagery. So we said this is what the film would be about. The film is dedicated to E.H. who lived and wrote to her husband from an asylum. The Brothers Quay later learned that composer Karlheinz Stockhausen found their film compelling on a more intimate level. They later said, The surprising thing is that when Stockhausen saw the film at an avantpremiere he was moved to tears. We only later learned that his mother was imprisoned by the Nazis in an asylum, where she later died. Even for us this was a very moving moment, especially because we directed the film without knowing any of this.The black and white film, with some parts color, was originally created in 35mm format and is twenty minutes long. It was released by Zeitgeist Films in 2000. ........

Source: Wikipedia