Werner von Mutzenbecher : Film is a Mystery

Though von Mutzenbecher has achieved greater recognition as a painter, his film-making has followed a distinct and equally effective path. His approach to each medium stays true to their unique characteristics. Routinely working alone, the filmmaker himself frequently appears in his films. Other people are rarely seen. Instead, we are given spaces and objects to observe. The spaces between objects, private and public environments, commonplace domestic items, noteworthy architecture, suggestions of psychological states.
-Mark Webber

A relatively slender body of work produced over the last fifty years, von Mutzenbecher’s films occupy a distinctive place in the history of experimental film-making. They are neither properly “structural” or “objective,” nor just personal, diaristic, or generically “poetic.” They combine both modes, lyrical and descriptive, through their structural, often deadpan formal approach to personally charged recorded material.
-Adam Szymczy