Barbet Schroeder – director – Amnesia

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews director Barbet Schroeder, whose latest directorial work Amnesia was one of the special screenings from the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Barbet Schroeder was in Cannes to present his latest work Amnesia, but also to present the restored edition of one of his first masterworks – More (1969). He talks about the similarities between the two films, and the common subtext that strangely enough seems to link them.

AMNESIA: Ibiza, the early nineties, Jo is a twenty-five-year-old music composer. He has come over from Berlin and wants to be part of the nascent electronic music revolution, ideally by getting a job first as a DJ in the new nightclub on the island, Amnesia.

Martha has been living alone in her house facing the sea for forty years. One night Jo knocks on her door. Her solitude intrigues him. They become friends even as the mysteries around her accumulate: that cello in the corner she refuses to play, the German language she refuses to speak…

As Jo draws her into his world of techno music, Martha puts everything she had previously lived by into question.