Gustav Deutsch, A Girl and a Gun

Trawling through the pixels in any search engine we’re met by an endless series of images of faces and places, past and present. They’re seemingly random, but are linked together by the original search word that produced them. This modern phenomenon

Trawling through the pixels in any search engine we’re met by an endless series of images of faces and places, past and present. They’re seemingly random, but are linked together by the original search word that produced them. This modern phenomenon is echoed in the “Kuleshov effect”, created in the 1920s by Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov, who suggested that the power of cinema is not created by a single image, but by juxtaposing images seamed together to create a wider, more profound meaning. For the past 20 years, Austrian filmmaker Gustav Deutsch has crystallised the “Kuleshov effect”, creating hypnotic, esoteric, amusing and beautiful films. One of the leading lights in found-footage cinema, his fragmented films are crafted together from rediscovered footage from the 1890s to today – lost science documentaries, dusty porn reels, war footage – intertwined to create a tapestry of illusionary journeys. Part of Deutsch's Film ist film series playing at the ICA tonight and on November 19, A Girl And A Gun unfolds in five acts that explore war, sex and romance. The film's magic is found in the surreal and poetic passages that Deutsch extracts from cold, rational, and often scientific footage.

Text by Luke Seomore

Luke Seomore is a filmmaker, musician and one half of Institute For Eyes