Just Messing About
(Fisimatenten)

Screening on Film

Directed by Jochen Kuhn.
With Maximilian Schell, Edgar Selge, Tonio Arango.
Germany, 1999, 35mm, color, 97 min.
German with English subtitles.

Edward, a young painter who lives in an idyllic old country inn, loves art and Hanna, his model. Sponsored by a discerning and witty gallerist with political ambitions, he works on a single picture which he paints over repeatedly. After losing his home, however, Edward becomes determined finally to earn money with his art and prepares for an exhibition of "painted over" pictures. To bankroll the exhibit he sells a religious art object to a pastor, performs action-art in a museum, and promotes his work on a talk show. Life soon begins to imitate art, however, becoming a "painted over" picture itself and forcing Edward to take action.