SECRETS OF A SOUL

After previous successful silent movie-projects, Eric Sleichim returns to this medium once again. His new composition is scored for the four percussionists of BL!NDMAN [drums] and live-electronics. The Lyric Suite of Alban Berg, also dating back to 1926, inspired Sleichim’s use of musical material. BL!NDMAN [drums] adds to the striking visual impact of the performance, using infrared signals to manipulate electronically modified sounds.

When Martin Fellman suddenly feels the inexplicable urge to kill his beloved wife, he seeks an answer to his problem by visiting a psychiatrist. While on the couch, different memories and a long dream from the first part of the movie pass by again. Through the analysis of the dream, the psychiatrist is able to explain facts from Fellman’s past and concludes that the urge to kill is to be seen as a result of an underlying jealousy of a friend from his youth and an inferiority complex because he is childless. As soon as Fellman realises which problems are causing his sudden urge, he is cured instantly.

In order to develop the elaborated dream sequence, Pabst consulted two assistants of Freud, who himself was rather averse of the cinematographic medium and had refused all collaboration. The didactical structure of the film, which can be considered as characteristic for the New Objectivity, and the almost stereotypical presentation of the psychoanalysis may seem remarkable to a 21st century audience. For the composer Eric Sleichim, it lays down a specific challenge, trying to give a contemporary musical answer to the question of how the brain is working.