Starfilm

The Viennese filmmaker, artist and part-time projectionist Johann Lurf works on an amusing structuralist oeuvre that revolves around essential questions about perception and projection. In short, how do humans see the universe? This might sound high-flown, but the result is always of a dizzying clarity and free of psychological airs.

This is also the case for his only long film (2017-now), appropriately entitled ★. It is a cosmic trip through film history, composed of chronologically arranged sequences from hundreds of films in which only a starry sky is visible—or more accurately, is depicted.

The fragments are removed from their original context, but retain their original soundtrack. Ranging from the jazzy to the hypnotic, the film’s audio track thus reflects the many ways in which directors have used a star-filled sky.

Meanwhile, Lurf continues to update ★ with recent clips, meaning the once 90-minute film has expanded somewhat—rather like the universe itself.