Dieter Schnebel, composer and theologian, born in 1930, is one of the most prominent composers of New Music. Susanne Elgeti's film portrays the composer in an insightful way and conveys his view of music that refuses every kind of dogmatism. The present outcome is an authentic picture of the life and work of an important witness and co-creator of the musical development in the 20th and 21st centuries. Susanne Elgeti did not want to show Dieter Schnebel only as a composer and theologian; she also wanted to make clear how his artistry and theology are mirrored in his life. The connection and structure of the individual strands of themes are not presented directly, they rather are results in the mind of the viewer through the ways and means in which the visual and sound materials are put together. Besides, images give viewers more room for their own personal associations, depending on the background and life experiences they bring to the film. With the help of extracts from rehearsals, performances, interviews and documentary scenes from the life of the Schnebels, Elgeti was able to combine the artistic with the human in this film in an impressive manner. One strand arose out of the work on the new composition 'Utopien' in which Schnebel takes up many threads from his compositional and theological past and pursues them. The second strand is made up of sequences from the private life of the married couple. Through the inclusion of very intimate personal scenes from the period when Dieter Schnebel was composing 'Utopien', just when his wife Iris Schnebel-Kaschnitz was succumbing to Alzheimer’s, it becomes a very touching film about a life shared. Language: German Subtitles: English Sound format: Stereo Disk type: DVD 9 Country code: (0) PAL Length: ca. 110 min Production: Susanne Elgeti
