For a film to be convincing as a complete work of art, everything has to be just right. The acting, set, lighting, camera, sound – and also the background images, which are usually shot by the ‘second unit’, i.e. a second crew, to be inserted into the film later. But these images are more than just ‘filler material’. They are the guarantee, that the cinematic illusion is maintained. In his new experimental film ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER, filmmaker Christoph Girardet takes some second-unit shots from the film MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON as the basis and mixes them with text panel inserts that defragment a quote from Abraham Lincoln from his Gettysburg Address (‘The world will little note nor long remember what we say here’). This creates a completely new image-text connection and a meditative pull that sensitises the viewer to both the greatness and the transience of the place and the moment. A highly interesting and clever short experimental film about the effect of images, masterfully staged and edited by Girardet.
