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The Last Organ Grinder Director: Jörg A.EGGERS Camera: Walter KINDLER Author: Herbert HOLBA, Ernst A.EKKER Cast: Bruno HÜBNER, Hans PUTZ, Ernie MANGOLD, Brigitte SWOBODA, Grete ZIMMER, Günter HAEMEL, Kurt SOWINETZ, Heinz PETTERS, Herbert PROPST, Michael JANISCH, Hugo GOTTSCHLICH, Kurt JAGGBERG, Heinz MARECEK, Johann SKLENKA u.v.a. Crew: Musik: Karl HODINA, Liedertexte: Herbert HOLBA, Produktionsleitung Günther KÖPF Year: 1971 Historyfilm (89 min.) Up to now two types of documentaries dominated the genre: the reconstruction of an authentic, political and historic event or that of authentic personal histories. With the film “The Last Organ Grinder” a completely new approach was taken. The focus was not on a specific historic incidence. Instead the spirit of the time was illustrated by documenting a collective fate. The fate of the Viennese organ grinders was an arbitrary choice and is exchangeable. However, the unity of visuality and language (both components complement and contrast each other) with regard to the background description and the integrated mosaic of individual destinies are not exchangeable. The story is driven by the destinies and situations, which were only comprehensible and able to develop in the context of the given historic period. Previously the dramaturgy of the Viennese local films employed stereotypes of local culture or stereotypic mentality traits and built a story around these or tried to prove them by that means. “The Last Organ Grinder” employs a new dramaturgy. The common construction of “documentation plus fiction equals story” is replaced by “documentation plus integrated historic account equals reflection of a happening as such”. It leads to an objective presentation, forcing the audience into the context, and substituting the conventional purpose of the documentation with a new reality. “The Last Organ Grinder” is the response to the call for a new dialect folk play to overcome clichés about the simple people being turned into historic material, which paralleling collective stories or clichés in other countries are perceived as a common matter of concern. Reflection of historic relationships is part of a socio-political conscience. “The Last Organ Grinder” is a fictitious documentary, built on this concept. The actual substance of the film is not based on clichés, but the ability to “relate to the historic reality” of 1914. A collective experience explains the individual of the time and its perception of the political developments. These developments are in the end analogies, which allow for conclusions for the future. The film is able to dispense a common “hero” or “anti-hero”. Instead it illustrates mechanisms of human attitudes toward the mechanical behaviour of dominant functionaries. The historic “back-ground” is nothing but a platform for compulsory unions of human beings and reflects a given period of time. To some extent wrong decisions still impact our time today and occasionally surface in an archaic manner. The filmmakers were aware of the fact that a completely new film making technique had to be developed in order to illustrate a collective fate. The principal of the style is: to leave a dialog in its social context. Meaning, parts of speech and the emphasis on sound are linear and of equal importance as different dialects, which are part of the sound-effect and intensify the viewer’s ability to relate to the story. The collapse of the monarchy and the resulting attitudes presented both verbally and visually, are revealing for the future. Reactions and actions point to our past. The viewer is free to form his opinion and to draw his conclusions. This film is critical and does not impose an opinion, but offers food for thought. Peter Spiegel |
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