Sabine Schirdewahn
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Video presentation, underlaid with 35mm projector sound, presentation in loop, 4:13 min, 2000
Concept and direction, screenplay, script Sabine Schirdewahn
Production Stiftung Weimarer Klassik, besucherfilm (Frankfurt a. M.)
Directors Sven Hain, Sabine Schirdewahn
Camera Jürgen Rumbuchner
Editing Sven Hain
Special effects (analog) Lutz Garmsen
Cast Helga K. Männche-Kolb, Alfred Hartung
Format shot on 35mm b/w
Premiere April 15, 2000, Schiller Museum Weimar
Elisabeth's Will consists of four film sequences that provide brief insights into the life of the ailing Friedrich Nietzsche. The gestures shown between him and his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche are quite unspectacular. Sometimes Nietzsche is seen sitting on a chair or armchair, sometimes half-sitting on a hospital bed. He moves slowly, sometimes reacting to his sister, who talks to him, adjusts his blanket or gives him something to drink.
The sequences are based on photographs of the sick Nietzsche taken by the artist Hans Olde in 1899. At the time, Olde had been commissioned to paint a portrait of Nietzsche. He may have taken photographs to be on the safe side due to the patient's condition.
The first moving pictures were taken in 1895. In the early years in particular, these were often everyday situations. It is therefore conceivable that Friedrich Nietzsche was not only photographed, but also filmed. In the Villa Silberblick, he had become a living exhibit of his own memorial through his sister.
Please send me an e-mail if you would like to watch the video: info(at)sabineschirdewahn(dot)de