Central (Zentrale)

black and white, silent, 9 min
scans not available
Astral bodies engaging in group sex: Dietmar Brehm's Zentrale is a meditation on the human body's outer limits and the material nature of the skin. The first image shows a naked light bulb, its rays barely ...
Rental format: 16mm

About

Astral bodies engaging in group sex: Dietmar Brehm's Zentrale is a meditation on the human body's outer limits and the material nature of the skin. The first image shows a naked light bulb, its rays barely able to illuminate a dark room. This is followed by a supine naked body stretched out like in Courbet's famous painting depicting the origin of the world. But the figure's genitals remain invisible, outside the visual fields exposed in Zentrale. Even if men and women busy themselves with each other, stimulating one another's anuses with sticks or penises with their mouths, this can only be suspected, or assumed. In Zentrale skin is given a pulsing white quality that makes it flow out of the darkness into which this film's world has been plunged. The more visible the figures become, the more comical their actions; they go at each other in a manner suggesting mollusk-like beings which are no longer equipped with sex organs, having become sex organs themselves. Sexuality is transformed into a symbiotic process opposed solely by the negativity of the blackness, which the bodies at times seem to cover before it dominates the scene again. The supine woman, who caresses her own breasts and then spreads her arms again, is one of those typical Brehm leitmotifs which behave paradoxically in light of the film's "story."
The genital fixation, the central idea in all cum-shot staging, is altered to create a setting in which lust again coincides with reproduction on the level of the film material: The cell division typical of pornographic films can be observed in Zentrale.
(Bert Rebhandl)
Translation: Steve Wilder

Films

  • Other films by this artist in our catalogue

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    Blicklust
    Experimental

    Blicklust
    Dietmar Brehm

    16mm, color, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Body
    • Erotic
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    The Murder Mystery
    Experimental

    The Murder Mystery
    Dietmar Brehm

    16mm, color, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Psychology / Mental Health
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    MIX-1 (32 Films 1989-1994)
    Experimental

    MIX-1 (32 Films 1989-1994)
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, sound, 24 min
    Rental format: 16mm
  • Read More
    Party
    Experimental

    Party
    Dietmar Brehm

    black and white, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Macumba
    Experimental

    Macumba
    Dietmar Brehm

    black and white, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    MIX-2 (21 Scenes 1997)
    Experimental

    MIX-2 (21 Scenes 1997)
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, sound, 38 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Korridor
    Experimental

    Korridor
    Dietmar Brehm

    black and white, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Organics
    Experimental

    Organics
    Dietmar Brehm

    black and white, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Bolts of Lightning (Blitze)
    Experimental

    Bolts of Lightning (Blitze)
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, silent, 8 min
    Rental format: 16mm
  • Read More
    MIX-3
    Experimental

    MIX-3
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, sound, 14 min
    Rental format: 16mm
  • Read More
    MIX-4
    Experimental

    MIX-4
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, sound, 21 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Twisted Eyes (Verdrehte Augen), Second Version
    Experimental

    Twisted Eyes (Verdrehte Augen), Second Version
    Dietmar Brehm

    black and white, sound, 13 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Basis-pH
    Experimental

    Basis-pH
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, silent, 11 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Films About Film
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    Fit
    Experimental

    Fit
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, silent, 17 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Echo-Echo
    Experimental

    Echo-Echo
    Dietmar Brehm

    color, silent, 6 min
    Rental format: 16mm