Thomas Bernhard, Drei Tage

It’s 1970 and Thomas Bernhard has only published a few books but the acclaimed “Verstörung” (translated as “Gargoyles” in English and published in 1967) demonstrated a unique temperament. For Felix Radax, it’s a tricky task to interview a writer who has made it his mission to transpose his life – and through that, the life of his country, Austria – into literary material. The filmmaker, with his experimental background, had a hunch: he avoids the problem of biographical narrative by choosing to play with the practical circumstances of the interview – a deserted park, the solitude of the writer on his bench, his incomprehension about what’s happening before his eyes, his expressionless face and the warped or erratic timeframe of the shoot. “It is impossible to be intelligible. That doesn’t exist”. Radax invents a form that matches Bernhard’s insane literary project to assassinate classic narrative.

Arnaud Lambert
Director