Films by René Frölke

Germany 2024, 91 min
by René Frölke

Twenty years after Swiss publishing house Pendo closed its doors, the descendants of its founders repeatedly circle, examine and lose sight of its legacy. Frölke’s film gives structure to this archive via media experimentation.The film gives brief glimpses into rooms bathed in light. The Bolex camera whirs. Twenty years after the closure of Swiss publishing house Pendo, which was founded in 1971, its story is revealed by way of personification: heir Theresia Weigner and her partner, who repeatedly circle, examine and lose sight again of this legacy with all the weight it carries. Here articles of memory are piled high, cared for, stashed away. Remaining stock, no longer hot off the press, but still packaged up for sale, unfinished manuscripts, cover designs, cassettes, office supplies, correspondence and tax documents are all laid out like in a time capsule: books by Margarete Mitscherlich, Dorothee Sölle, Dom Hélder Câmara, illustrated volumes about Robert Lax or the Sihl Valley. René Frölke’s film gives a structure to this archive and becomes a simple chamber of wonders. He finds his own annotations within the inner pull exerted by the artefacts and accompanies these stubborn, overwhelmed preservers on their way through their everyday life amid the piles of material. Written elements from the film script also play a part.At the end of the corridor, jazz music sounds from a small radio. [74 BERLINALE Forum]

Germany, Uruguay 2018, 237 min
by Kristina Konrad (weltfilm gmbh)

Uruguay 1987-89. The filmmakers are on the streets of Montevideo, and in the country with farmers, talking with the people and asking them about their opinion of the referendum and plebiscite on the law of impunity for the human rights abuses committed by the military and police over the past 20 years, a law adopted by Parliament in 1986 during the transition from dictatorship (1973-85) to democracy. They listen to and observe the people as they contemplate what peace and democracy means to them – the first time they can express their views aloud after years of silence. A film about the power of discourse to shape history.Berlinale catalogue:What does peace mean to you? And justice? Following 12 years of military rule (1973–1985) and the accompanying silence, it couldn’t be taken for granted that people in Uruguay at the end of the 1980s would discuss such questions in such lively fashion in public. Two women take to public spaces across the country a U-matic camera and ask these questions of countless passers-by. The reason is a controversial amnesty law passed in 1986 that grants impunity for human rights violations and crimes committed by the police and the military under the dictatorship. Enthusiastically conducted conversations on the street are at the heart of this stirring film, which documents the mobilisation of civil society from collecting signatures for a referendum to the day of the actual vote. TV ads and campaign spots from the time supplement the smartly edited video footage, which has never been used previously. One can hear a plurality of opinions, experience a society in upheaval and recognise the importance of the public sphere as a stage for political debate. An example of democracy in action, of the kind that once again needs defending in many places in the world today.

2017, 83 min
by Ann Carolin Renninger, René Frölke

Willi is nearly 90 years old and lives alone on a farm in northern Germany. He likes to talk to his cat, he feeds his chickens and makes his rounds with the aid of a squeaky walker. The garden is overgrown. His house is full of all the things that have accumulated there over the course of a long life, relics of bygone times. Occasionally someone comes to visit, or a moped passes by, but not much happens otherwise. As the seasons change, the film paints a portrait of the everyday life of this resolute, slightly dishevelled old man. It’s also a visual essay on the cycle of life, as the camera observes nature, captures fruit and flowers in bloom in all their glory. Textures equally come to the fore: the cat’s fur, the pattern on the coffee service, the structure of a marzipan cake; at times the camera photographs apples or plastic garden chairs as if they were still lifes. The images transcend mere depiction – they contain a feeling of evanescence, which is enhanced by the fragility of the Super-8 and 16-mm material used to film them. Even the black screens that appear when the reels are changed reveal the passage of time.

Germany 2014, 100 min
by René Frölke

Le beau danger is a cinematic arrangment between documentary portrait and literary text. Interwoven with the moving image and divided into one hundred and seventy black and white text screens we read the work of the Romanian author Norman Manea. It is the attempt to have image and text question eachother and respond to eachother. Arising from the observation of the present of the author, which is also our present, the inner conflict of our time becomes visible, a conflict in which information becomes the counterpart of experience and therefore also of the memory itself.

Germany 2011
by René Frölke

What’s in this movie? It is but a small sequence – a 37minute excerpt of an encounter. A universal event: The statesman, the representative, the dignitary meets a group of representatives. There is talk of the arts and repeatedly of economy. It is also the attempt at communication under pressure. All those involved appear somewhat tense. Details are getting lost, simplifications occur. But underneath the rubble heap of text the movements of our time, our epoch become visible. Maybe something that in later days will be allocated as typical or characteristic for this time.

Germany 2010, 94 min
by René Frölke

A film about a young man. His name is Jürgen Stenzel. He paints. An artist who never went to art school. His mother, Edeltraud, recounts a journey that started a long time ago and has etched itself into the story of her life. And Günter, the father, always the silent companion in the background. Father, mother, son. The film feels its way into the lives of these three people. And then it follows the subtle ramifications of their stories. The images arising won't be complete. The portrait of a family, once brought together by coincidence. Their stories tell of families, dreams, traumas, setbacks and determination, allowing our perspective on the three people to change again and again. And just when the picture seems to come into focus, it blurs and is reset. The film is a search for traces, not aspiring to come to a conclusion, but rather seeking to endlessly evolve.