Manfred Blank

A young man, recently arrived in New York from Europe, becomes swept up in a series of events that are beyond his knowledge or control.

A tribute to Mallarmé that not only asserts the continuing relevance of his work but also confronts its literary ambiguities with political and cinematic ambiguities of its own. In outline, the film could not be more straightforward: it offers a recitation of one of Mallarmé’s most celebrated and complex poems (it was his last published work in his own lifetime, appearing in 1897, a year before his death) and proposes a cinematic equivalent for the author’s original experiment with typography and layout by assigning the words to nine different speakers, separating each speaker from the other as she or he speaks, and using slight pauses to correspond with white spaces on the original page.

Short documentary vignettes and interviews revolving around cinephile life in Paris.

A superb, moving and thrilling interview with American actor Sterling Hayden (1916-86), held in Besançon, France, on board a dilapidated barge, when he was 65 years old. An unparalleled portrait, in his own words and without any qualms, of a legendary Hollywood star, icon of film noir and the western, who was also a marine, an OSS agent, an anti-communist informer, a writer and a wandering sailor: the hero of his own life.

Blank's TV documentary on Straub-Huillet.

This film is at once a self-portrait and an homage to Jean-Marie Straub, Farocki's role model and former teacher at the Film Academy.

Short documentary vignettes and interviews revolving around cinephile life in Paris.

A superb, moving and thrilling interview with American actor Sterling Hayden (1916-86), held in Besançon, France, on board a dilapidated barge, when he was 65 years old. An unparalleled portrait, in his own words and without any qualms, of a legendary Hollywood star, icon of film noir and the western, who was also a marine, an OSS agent, an anti-communist informer, a writer and a wandering sailor: the hero of his own life.

Blank's TV documentary on Straub-Huillet.

A portrait cut for television using takes not used for the film “Leuchtturm des Chaos“. According to Bühler, the film was considered unsuitable: “A two-hour film with a drunk who constantly drinks and smokes in front of the camera and smokes hashish and speaks obscene words.”

An issue of the magazine Kino 81, designed for the film department of WDR by staff of FILMKRITIK

Contribution from 1992 to the television magazine "Buchladen" (West 3): on the publication of a bilingual volume of poetry by the legendary Greek lyric poet Konstantinos Kavafis.

Recurring motifs in Bresson’s cinema

Filmmaker Manfred Blank (director of the excellent Pharos of Chaos) interviews Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub at some length about their then-current production, Klassenverhältnisse (Class Relations), in which he, himself, performed as an actor.

Presentation of Giono's book

This short segment by Manfred Blank for the magazine Buchladen focuses on Luis Buñuel.

Sunrise is an educational “tips film” that analyzes F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Through selected excerpts and commentary, it draws attention to Murnau’s use of framing, movement, and light, offering viewers guidance on how meaning and emotion are constructed in silent cinema.

A segment from the 1992 TV magazine "Bookshop" (West 3): French sociologist Laurence Caillet chronicles the life of a Japanese woman who, born in a village in a remote province, rose to become the manager of a hair salon in Tokyo and a sought-after expert on hair care and bridal attire on Japanese television. Includes excerpts from films by Ozu.

Explores the culture and lives of the Ainu people

Presentation of Marguerite Yourcenar's book about the famous Loire water castle Chenonceau as the "Castle of Women"

A documentary about the last Turkish shadow players and the German orientalist Hellmut Ritter

1. A modern Bavarian brewer, Emanuel Holzbauer, faces a sales crisis and targets his competitors to save his brewery. 2. In 1567, Protestant merchant Johann Christof Paumgartner—outlawed by church and state—compassionately aids the poorest in his town. 3. A fairy-tale rivalry: peasant boy Franz Niederholzer learns a harsh lesson about greed when he mistakes ordinary metal for gold. 4. A Moritat set during hyperinflation, as shopkeeper Max Geiger is forced to desperate measures to survive. 5. April 9, 1865: In her diary entry on the Confederacy’s surrender, Missis Marilyn Haley-Care confronts the illusion of freedom that costs the enslaved Ben his life. 6. A musical conversation piece finds Laura Wohlbrück passionately campaigning to humanize industrial labor, earning unexpected acclaim. 7. At displaced Walter Gladek’s wedding, a friend’s song about a hunter’s horn rekindles memories of building an industrial enterprise in their homeland.