Adebar

{{Infobox film | name = Adebar | image = Adebar title card.png | alt = | caption = Title card | director = Peter Kubelka | producer = | starring = | narrator = | cinematography = | editing = | music = | studio =  | distributor =  | released = {{Film date|1957}} | runtime = 2 minutes | country = Austria | language = }} '''''Adebar''''' is a 1957 Austrian avant-garde short film directed by Peter Kubelka. It is the first entry in Kubelka's trilogy of metrical films, followed by ''Schwechater'' and ''Arnulf Rainer''. ''Adebar'' is the first film to be edited entirely according to a mathematical rhythmic strategy.<ref name="tscherkassky">{{cite book |editor-last=Tscherkassky |editor-first=Peter |author-last=Tscherkassky |author-first=Peter |author-link=Peter Tscherkassky |year=2012 |title=Film Unframed: A History of Austrian Avant-garde Cinema |chapter=The World According to Kubelka |publisher=FilmmuseumSynemaPublikation |pages=65–75 |isbn=978-3-901644-42-9 }}</ref>

==Description== ''Adebar'' uses footage from only eight unique shots that show dancing silhouettes, arranged in 16 rigidly structured sequences. Each sequence spans 104 film frames and consists of four shots lasting 13, 26, or 52 frames.<ref name="tscherkassky"/> The shots always alternate between positive and negative images. Some freeze on the first or last frame of the shot.<ref name="pinto-simon-artforum">{{cite magazine |last=Pinto Simon |first=Elena |date=April 1972 |title=The Films of Peter Kubelka |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/197204/the-films-of-peter-kubelka-36221 |magazine=Artforum |volume=10 |issue=8 |page=35 |access-date=23 May 2022}}</ref> The film's soundtrack is a 26-frame loop of Pygmy music.<ref name="tscherkassky"/>

==Production== [[File:2015-05-06-PeterKubelka-GerhardRühm (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Filmmaker Peter Kubelka in 2015]] Kubelka was commissioned to create a commercial for Café Adebar, a dance bar in Vienna. He filmed dancers against a white wall, using extreme backlighting to create silhouettes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sitney |first=P. Adams |author-link=P. Adams Sitney |year=1974 |title=Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943–2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-514886-2 }}</ref> Compared to the production of his first film ''Mosaik im Vertauen'', Kubelka was less concerned with composition during production. He waited until after filming and selected images that fit what he wanted for use in ''Adebar''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=MacDonald |first=Scott |author-link=Scott MacDonald (media scholar) |year=2004 |title=His African Journey: An Interview with Peter Kubelka |journal=Film Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=3–12 |doi=10.1525/fq.2004.57.3.2 }}</ref>

==Release== Upon ''Adebar''{{'}}s completion, Café Adebar rejected it as an advertisement.<ref name="pinto-simon-artforum"/> The film was screened at the second {{ill|Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival|fr|Festival international du cinéma expérimental de Knokke-le-Zoute}} in April 1958.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=October 1968 |title=Program |magazine=Film Culture |volume=46 |page=13}}</ref> Kubelka also exhibited it at the European Forum Alpbach. The film strip had ripped in a projector, so he turned it into a sculpture by cutting it and attaching it to haystack posts so that viewers could examine it and cut off pieces.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wirth |first=Maria |year=2015 |title=Ein Fenster zur Welt: Das Europäische Forum Alpbach 1945–2015 |trans-title=A Window to the World: The European Forum Alpbach 1945–2015 |language=de |publisher=StudienVerlag |pages=87–88 |isbn=978-3-7065-5481-7}}</ref> ''Adebar'' is now part of Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Repertory collection.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://anthologyfilmarchives.org/about/essential-cinema |title=Essential Cinema |publisher=Anthology Film Archives |access-date=23 May 2022}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0377330}}

Category:1950s avant-garde and experimental films Category:1950s dance films Category:1957 short films Category:Advertisements Category:Austrian short films Category:Films directed by Peter Kubelka Category:Films without speech Category:Non-narrative films Category:Austrian black-and-white films Category:1957 Austrian films