I've just finished the 16th disc, having never before, to my shame, seen a Kluge film ... and I concur. None of the films will enter the ranks of my favorites, but pretty much every one of them was fascinating. The man is, apparently, brilliant.

And Kluge's simultaneously whispery, excited, and didactic voice - heard in interviews and in VO throughout the set - is, for me, hands down the single greatest in the history of cinema.

Just found an interesting link with tv interviews between Heiner Müller and Alexander Kluge…i only had time to flip through the first one - it has a subtitle option!!! (not sure if the other ones do have one as well)

Looks like at least kind of the new(est) Kluge book is now available in the US. As opposed to the (original) German edition it only consists of 38 tales (120 in the Germen edition) so i am not sure if its the same book…uurghh…

This is buried in that Amazon link:


Ugh.

This set has now been pushed to March, and it will contain 15 double-DVDs with more than 160 feature films, shorts, documentaries, and other television work + ROM sections with entire books on and about Kluge, while each DVD will have an informative booklet in German and English.

Does anyone know enough about Kluge's "other" work -- that not included in the first 16-DVD boxset -- to comment on what is in store for us on this set? As Denti already pointed out, this second set will be available from Edition Filmmuseum, and at €200 will be twice as expensive as the initial set, although the price is still a steal for the amount of material.

This also confuses me in some way as far as all "feature" films are allready presented on the recent box set plus all the "major" shorts. Of course there must be tonns of bits and pieces he put together in all the years (excluding all the tv work!) but i can not imagin how this would make up an extended dvd box set! Being a big fan of his books as well (actually in particular) i must admit that not everything his tv production company puts out suits me well. Maybe there is a much bigger ROM part attached to the DVDs with certain books, essays etc…

I am looking forward to his "Minutenfilme" shot in 65mm with Ballhaus as DP. By the way, Ballhaus and Jean Luc Godard will receive the (not so famous) European Film Price for lifetime achivement this December in Berlin…

My understanding is that this second box does not "exclude all the TV work", and that this accounts for the extra material.

"Include me out" - sorry for my confusing post - you are probably right. I was thinking about stuff he put together during his years in Ulm (school) for example. I have been watching his tv work/show/essays for years now and of course this would be an obvious choice for an extended edition. However, i must admit that i did not like all of the tv stuff just for that fact that they are heavily related to specific topics-and i am not into everything…
Nevertheless the (fake) interviews are pretty much all enlighting and stand out in intellectual and television terms. (check the latter link i posted with the Heiner Mueller interviews for example).

We will see…

"The Film Museum's first DVD collection (to be released in North America by Facets Multimedia in January 2008), comprised of all the features and short films Kluge produced for the cinema from 1960 through 1986—to be followed by a second collection consisting of primarily video, film and television material shot since 1985 (…)

CINEMASCOPE points out that indeed the second collection is about his post 1985 work.

Facets is releasing it here? Ugh.

Glad I bought the German set.

Recently some NEWS & STORIES popped up on youtube - no subtitles! (these are more like comedies, however they might be of interest for those who just know Kluge as the serious pessimistic marxist of the 60s/70s…)

Georg Schramm/Cabaret artist as Oberstleutnant Schramm: Teil 1 - Teil 2 - Teil 3 - Teil 4 - Teil 5

Helge Schneider as Studienrat und MAjor Max von Gerlach: Teil 1 - Teil2

Helge Schneider as Kampfschwimmer vor Heiligendamm: Teil 1 - Teil 2

DCTP: Kluge interviews Ken Loach

Voiceover is German but on the other hand Kluges questions are translated into English so everything should be understandable for the English speaking audience! Quite interesting piece!

Kluge talking about his new "plan" - filming Marxs "Das Kapital" with partners as diverse as Peter Sloterdijk, Grünbein and Tykwer alongside others. Nothing is confirmed yet - however, i thought this is worth mentioning.


Interesting 20min. long interview with Kluge - no subs.!

Click on the "Web-TV" window on the right to start the stream.

Filmmuseum's ultimate 30-disc, 150 film (!) Kluge box set now has a release date of November 2008. Fingers crossed there won't be another slippage.

I suspect we won't see this until 2009. It was first announced for 2007, wasn't it?

-sigh- Yes, I think so. It was 'February 2008' for a while as well, I think.

Kluge's "Das Kapital" is scheduled for release on DVD in October 2008, here.

Too soon to say whether there will be English subtitles, as the company tends not to post that information until shortly before the release date.

News on the 2nd (TV) Box on Kluges own homepage - coming in December 2008 again through Zweitausendeins. Looks like this is the missing 50% of the supposed to come Complete Kluge so that the ones who allready bought the first Zweitausendeins Box are able to get the whole thing without double dipping - cool!

Lengthy interview on Kluges Das Kapital - DVD soon to be released.

edit: For the record of Format issues, Kluge throws in his 2 cents:

Q:Das Spiel der Gesichter ist ein Zentrum Ihrer Arbeit: Auf den Gesichtern Ihrer Gesprächspartner läuft das Denken wie auf einer Leinwand, wie ein Film ab.

Kluge: Das liegt am Bildausschnitt. Ich arbeite stets in dem Format 1:1,33, das ist das Format des klassischen Stummfilms. An dem hänge ich, solange ich lebe. Mit dem neuen Format 16:9 fange ich nichts an; das ist ein Format für liegende Katzen oder abstehende Ohren. Das alte Filmformat dagegen ist dem menschlichen Gesicht genau angepasst.

Seems Kluge and Godard are in agreement on that one, not surprisingly of course. It brings to mind Fritz Lang's dismissal in Contempt: only good for snakes and funerals.

Yes - and i am even wondering what he could have meant with "liegende Katzen/chilling cats" and "abstehende Ohren/stick out ears" (i hope my translation is not tooo way off...) - in fact i think that this might even be a direct refernce to Le Mépris i.e. Cats/Bardot in the opening sequence and Lang for the ears ... Plus, Kluge was quite close to Lang - working as an "assistent" on Das indische Grabmahl and shows lots of admiration in his literate output for Lang and the Silent Film in general.
As for other similarities in Kluge and Godard it would be fun to add Syberberg to that list in regards to their "History" films and make up some kind of comparison - unfortunatly i don't have the time for that ...

ps: Odipax, werent you posting some screens of your own videography somewhere else on this board? i am not up to date with the new cams but am interested how are they capturing the image with their 16:9? Are you still able to shoot 4:3 with the recent 16:9 camers? I am thinking of consumer cameras here. Thanks in advance!

Addition to previous post: I am not interested in buying a new camcorder but was just thinking about the impact that major companies have on the Format (in terms of AR and quality!) on the consumer/cinematographer and after all in the way people (are able/allowed to) look at things? Actually its the same story as with 16:9 TVs and the brutal mutilation of 4:3 images when the industries forces these to fit on the 16:9 screen.

You can with mine - a five-year-old Sony model. And the 16:9 mode is genuinely anamorphic, as opposed to letterboxed (which some of the cheaper models try to get away with).

Probably should get cut and tacked onto a tech thread, but in the matter of widescreen home movie making, I switched my camera over to 16:9 anamorphic about a couple months before I bought my first 16:9 TV, basically when I finally realised that I was going to have to give in and go wide. And my camera is a Sony TRV-730 that I bought in 2001.

Thanks Michael & Skuhn! Don't think this has to be moved somewhere else - was just a little BTW question...
Actually i have a GL2 (XL2 in Euroland) for 5-6 years now that is sloppily in use - 16:9 is still a "feature among others" with the possibility to matte the 4:3 viewfinder to 16:9 to make your cadrage. I was more interested in the new camcorders that come with 16:9 everything and how they are able to be adjusted to 4:3? To get back on topic - and i am exaggerating here - will the 4:3 image dissappear? Everybody is talking about the aspect ratio and its importance but seldom its said why its so important! So if Kluge points out that the 4:3 image precisley fits the human face - what is the quality of this/The Human Face?