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Then you go to LA, this anti-city.
I had fun shooting underground there, at places that have rarely been filmed in the past. After LA the obvious thing, of course, was to continue on to Latin America, but I wanted to continue on westward. Capitalism and how it has come out on top in Tokyo represents the future for me. The film continues westward, from the middle course between capitalism and communism? The basic idea was analyzing social systems and creating varieties. We begin in Vienna and end up in Vienna, though the return to Europe is at the conclusion, in Moscow. Is he also your alter ego? The subway is a system where everything runs "on rails" and is controlled, where safety plays an important role, and at the same time one of your interviewees claims that for him the subway is a place where you lose all orientation in time and space.
Do you consider the subway a place with a number of contradictions? In all five cities we stay in the range of the legal and controllable. This buildup of tension does a little more to illustrate my thinking. Can you briefly describe the five cities? In Vienna we had a problem right away, so I had to get out.
Communication works without a hitch. It represents the city and life there. The walls outside the system are just as thin as they are underground. We chose someone who can talk to anybody, who knows the subway and uses it. We have a figure we follow.
One statement sums things up extremely well: The Japanese are so punctual because the trains are punctual. There are no performers in the subway, no standing still, just functioning, quietly, courteously, without a lot of fuss. This company buys empty spaces, builds huge apartment buildings and the subway at the same time. As a result, completely insignificant empty land is suddenly turned into an expensive residential area. It can happen that you pay your rent to a company, use its subway and work at one of its shops. Sometimes they determine your entire life. Fortunately, we found some interviewees who have a critical view of this.
And the distances between the stations are endless in Moscow; once I made the mistake of getting out too soon on the edge of the city and then spent an hour and a half walking. While doing research did you visit other cities that you ended up not shooting in? Yes, I also went to Seoul, Paris and London.
I wanted two Asian, two American and two European subways. I wanted not only urban cities, but this city too, which pretends to have a mass-transport system. I traveled around the world for three months doing research, then I filmed in New York for seven weeks, which was an exception, in most cases it was two weeks. Is filming permitted in all subways?
In New York they interpret the law in an extremely ambiguous way. Filming is not permitted, but videography is.
Whatever the difference may be. We had permits in the other cities. How is it possible to shoot in the tight space of a subway? In New York I wanted to talk to as many people as possible. In those cases we often asked right away if we could bring the camera along and left it up to the individual whether they slept, read, or just sat there.
The New Yorkers were extremely open. In Tokyo and Hong Kong our approach was similar, though we sent two interpreters ahead with a camera, and then another two of us stayed in the background with a telephoto lens.
When the interpreters thanked the interviewees and they relaxed, we were able to shoot that moment of relaxation with the telephoto lens. Those are often the most honest moments, because the awareness of being filmed always makes people a little less natural.
So we found a solution that was legally OK and gave naturalness a chance. I was waiting for this Japanese single-lens reflex camera, I ordered one right away and then we could get started. This camera was a godsend, you hold it like a normal camera. Again and again we tried to pose as a couple of tourists to be as inconspicuous as possible.
In New York especially, where, as I said, the subway ride is often the only time in the day when people can withdraw into themselves. In Moscow we always made sure to stay out of the way. Half the time I operated the camera myself, and the rest of the time I had several different camerapeople.
Music represents an essential element in your work. Does every subway have its own sound and rhythm? Yeah, I think so. But I think that they all have sounds and speeds.
In Moscow the trains generally move fast, and when you turn the volume on your iPod all the way up, you can barely hear the music. Talking on a telephone is also a huge no-no there. Speeds and sounds are extremely characteristic, and right away I always knew which of the Sofa Surfers I would have do the music for a certain city. That was extremely helpful for this film. After Life in Loops, Trains of Thoughts is your second full-length film, and the focus of both is the city as a theme. It was the only Austrian film that hit me like a lightning bolt.
Although I like to spend my entire vacation at the beach, I generally like to be in cities exclusively the rest of the time. Urbanity just fascinates me, and my images focus on architecture.
I have more affinity to architecture than people. In documentary film in particular I think cities are the most interesting locations of all. With all the off-camera voices reflecting on movement underground, would you call Trains of Thoughts an essay or a documentary? I wanted the off-camera voices, they fit the idea I developed with my assistant director, Jakob Barth.
The train of thought or track of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as the. Similar to the subway of unconsciousness and the airplane of logic, the train of thought is used to casually describe one's thought process. It is usually lost.
In the course of editing we finally figured out that the people sitting on the subway are necessary so you can hear the off-camera voice better. For a long time we tried to make a purely architectural film with a number of emotional and personal intellectual levels. In terms of the basic idea it was important that all the voices were off camera. And it was important to me that the approach was different for each city.
In New York I wanted to have everything come from off camera, in LA there was the entertainer, in Moscow we had the tourist group. Being alone underground in LA was always an unpleasant experience. How did you come up with the title Trains of Thoughts? I was thinking about the train and the tracks and a lot of other things, and I thought that they came together so well in this image. Films should also be entertaining. I tried to find a middle course where you can feel the atmosphere without being bored with facts and statistics.
Trains of Thoughts is an audio-visual essay, which reflects upon and compares metro-systems around the world. Australian Chart Book — Illustrated ed. Minor Earth Major Box. Ending on a High Note Tour. Discography Awards Savoy Apparatjik.
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