Cries and whispers of advertising in dialogue with Flemish still lifes. Screening as part of the Still Life. Portrait. Landscape. Genre Beside Itself programme.
Registration opens three weeks before the screening
An Image. Still Life
- Date:
- 14 Dec 2026,
19:30–21:10
Registration opens three weeks before the screening
- Age restrictions
- 18+
Ein Bild
1983, Harun Farocki
Germany
25 minutes, German with Russian subtitles
Documentary
Stilleben
1997, 1983, Harun Farocki
Germany–France–Belgium–Austria
25 minutes, German with Russian subtitles
Documentary
T
Everything that was required to paint still lifes in the 17th century remains essential in contemporary advertising and fashion photography. In two short films, German documentary filmmaker Harun Farocki examines the process of creating a photograph, from setting up the scene to positioning the model within the frame—and lays bare the industry’s complexity and contradictions.
Still from An Image, 1983
Still Life is not a lesson in art history and aesthetics, nor is there the presence of moral didacticism... The power of the message underlying Still Life—as in many of Farocki’s films—is the role of the spectator.
— Danica van de Velde, Senses of Cinema
In An Image, the viewer becomes an observer of an erotic photoshoot for Playboy magazine. Still Life, made 14 years later, is structured as a dialogue between Flemish still lifes and the work of photographers creating perfect advertising shots of cheese, beer, and watches.
