Alexander Tuschinski

Alexander Tuschinski (born October 28, 1988, Stuttgart, West Germany) is a German film director, film producer, writer, actor and musician. Internationally, he is best known for his feature films that won awards at various film festivals,[1] as well as his academic writing on the early works of Tinto Brass.[2] Notably, his research and interest of Brass's work on Caligula was examined in his feature documentary Mission: Caligula.[3] At the documentary's premiere, Penthouse announced plans to work with Tuschinski on a new cut of Caligula that aims to restore and finish Brass's original version of the film.[4] Though 85 minutes of his original workprint will be used, it remains unclear if Brass himself will be involved in finishing the film's edit.

Alexander Tuschinski
Alexander Tuschinski on the set of Timeless.
Born
Alexander Tuschinski

(1988-10-28) October 28, 1988
Stuttgart, West Germany
Alma materHochschule der Medien (B.Eng.)
Universität Stuttgart (B.A.)
OccupationFilm director, film producer, writer, actor, musician
Years active2008 – present
AwardsSee list of awards in the article.

Life

Alexander Tuschinski attended school in Stuttgart, Germany, and originally wanted to study physics after finishing school in 2008. However, he changed his mind shortly before enrolling at university realizing that film was his main passion, and instead started studying Audiovisual Media at Hochschule der Medien. Graduating 2011 as a Bachelor of Engineering in Audiovisual Media, he enrolled at University of Stuttgart afterwards to study history and literature, graduating in 2014 with his second degree as a Bachelor of Arts. He continues pursuing a master's degree there. He produces his works parallel to his studies.

Prior to 2008, Tuschinski had already produced short videos that he published on YouTube.[5] He is friends with Tinto Brass and Hugo Niebeling whose 1960s films influence his cinematic style. He considers them his "mentors".

Works

Films

Feature films

For Tuschinski, his films Menschenliebe, Timeless and a planned upcoming project called Revolution! form an informal Trilogy of Rebellion: The films are independent of each other, but feature similar themes, styles and the same two main characters (Arnold and Konstantin). The scope of the topics they address increases with each instalment: While Menschenliebe deals mostly with relationships between individuals, Timeless addresses topics from all aspects of society. Break-Up is a smaller film, independent of the trilogy, but featuring the character of Arnold and some references to the other films.[6] As of 2015, Tuschinski considers Timeless "by far" his best film.

Year Film Credited as
Director Producer Writer
2008 Killer-Squirrels Yes Yes Yes
2010 Menschenliebe Yes Yes Yes
2014 Break-Up Yes Yes Yes
2016 Timeless Yes Yes Yes

Short films
Year Film Credited as
Director Producer Writer
2012 Quasicrystal Research Yes Yes
2012 Hollow Date Yes Yes Yes
2014 Break-Up: The Making-Of Yes Yes
2014 The Critic Yes Yes
2015 Gold. Yes Yes Yes
2018 Caligari in the Desert Yes Yes
2018 Cycle - Kreislauf Yes Yes Yes
2019 The Songwriter of Botnang[7] Yes Yes Yes

Music videos
Year Film Credited as
Director Composer Performer
2008 Internet-Liebe Yes Yes Yes
2009 Eine heisse Nacht Yes Yes Yes
2009 Looking for my Messages Yes Yes Yes
2011 Mutant Calculator Yes Yes Yes

Writing

Academic writing/Film Restoration

Tuschinski has been called an "encyclopledic Brass expert" on Caligula.[8] Tuschinski wrote an essay on Tinto Brass' film The Key.[9] In 2012, Tuschinski restored some of Brass' 1960s films using material from the director's private archive. They were later screened at a retrospective in Hollywood.[10]

In 2018, at the premiere for his documentary Mission: Caligula, Tuschinski made a joint announcement with Penthouse regarding a new cut of Caligula. The project aims to restore and finish Tinto Brass's version of the film. Brass was dismissed by Penthouse in post-production before he could complete his cut of the film.[11] In July 2018, Tuschinski released Mission: Caligula on Vimeo.[3]

Other writing

Tuschinski's first novel "Das Fahrzeug" was published in Germany in 2011.[12]

Music

Tuschinski frequently composes and performs songs and instrumental music for his own films.[5] He occasionally performs his songs live on stage, often combined with comedy routines.

In 2014, Tuschinski published an album featuring classical music recorded on synthesizer and vocoder.

Filmmaking style

General description
Helmut Berger (right) and Alexander Tuschinski on the set of Timeless (2015)

Alexander Tuschinski's films have been compared to "the early works of Woody Allen".[13] He uses an impressionistic camera- and editing-style that is considered experimental by some. His films frequently employ classical music with scenes edited to the rhythm and the structure of the music, as well as satirical songs that are often used to progress the story.

I find it boring when I can predict a film's outcome and find that conventional filmmaking can be quite uninteresting at times. My films have a strange, surrealistic logic to them.

— Alexander Tuschinski, Interview by Steve Williams for Take One 2012.[14]

Visual language

Tuschinski himself uses an analogy to language when describing his approach to cinematography and editing, calling different shots nouns (e.g. shots showing an object / a person without any additional intention than showing it, like establishing shots), verbs (shots used to depict an action or movement) or adjectives (shots "describing" things, like quick cut-aways and details), comparing regular visual rules of filmmaking to classical literature, while his way of filming is rather like slam poetry.[15]

To return to the example of slam-poetry vs. classical literature and the comparison to language: I throw around "words", meaning shots, in my films; might use more adjectives, nouns etc., than others, but still each sentence needs subject, verb and object so the recipient understands it. But it shouldn't be worded according to textbook rules, else it gets boring.

— Alexander Tuschinski, Interview by Ursula Drees for plusinsight 2015.[16]

In almost all of Tuschinski's films, him and Matthias Kirste share the cinematographer-credit. When Tuschinski is acting, Kirste operates the camera, and when Tuschinski is not seen in the frame, he often operates the camera himself. Sebastian B. is often cast as the lead actor in Tuschinski's films.

Awards (excerpt)
Alexander Tuschinski at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival 2015, receiving awards for "Break-Up".

Additionally, Tuschinski's documentary Quasicrystal Research was selected to play during the Australian National Science Week in 2012, being shown in 400 venues around Australia during that week.[33]

gollark: Anyone else with loads of refusals?
gollark: They are too desirable.
gollark: No wall shall be possible
gollark: I bred my surprisingly small number.
gollark: Yep

References
  1. See list of awards below.
  2. See list of sources in the section about academic writing.
  3. Tuschinski, Alexander (July 26, 2018), Mission: Caligula, retrieved July 27, 2018
  4. AVN, Mark Kernes. "Penthouse Event Previews New Version of Classic Film 'Caligula' | AVN". AVN. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  5. "Stuttgarter Zeitung: Article on Alexander Tuschinski's works". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  6. "Alexander Tuschinski: Official website - Article about the Trilogy of Rebellion". Archived from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2015..
  7. Mostbacher-Dix, Petra (June 21, 2019). "Liedermacherin mit Mut und Humor". Stuttgarter Zeitung. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  8. "Mondo Digital: Review of the Blu-Ray edition of Tinto Brass' "The Key", to which Tuschinski wrote the booklet". Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  9. "Arrow Video: Website for the Blu-Ray release of Tinto Brass' film "The Key", featuring a booklet with an essay by Alexander Tuschinski". Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  10. "Films in Review: Article about Nerosubianco, and about the retrospective". Archived from the original on August 29, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  11. AVN, Mark Kernes. "Penthouse Event Previews New Version of Classic Film 'Caligula' | AVN". AVN. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  12. "Google Books: Entry for Das Fahrzeug". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  13. "Program Guide of Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, found on official website". Archived from the original on June 18, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  14. "Take One: Interview with Alexander Tuschinski". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  15. "plusinsight: Interview with Alexander Tuschinski (German)". Retrieved June 22, 2015..
  16. "plusinsight: Interview with Alexander Tuschinski (German)". Retrieved June 22, 2015.. Original quote in German: "Um das Beispiel Slam-Poetry vs. klassische Literatur aufzugreifen, und die Analogie zur Sprache darin: Ich werfe „Wörter“, also Einstellungsarten, darin durcheinander, arbeite vielleicht mit mehr Adjektiven, Substantiven etc. als andere, aber jeder „Satz“ muss doch Subjekt, Prädikat, Objekt haben, damit der Rezipient ihn verstehen kann. Aber er sollte nicht nur lehrbuchmäßig formuliert sein, sonst wird es dabei langweilig."
  17. "Maverick Movie Awards: Official Website". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  18. "List of 2011 winners on website of California Film Awards". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  19. "Take One Awards: Official Website with winners 2012". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  20. "American Movie Awards: Official Website". Archived from the original on November 5, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  21. "Stuttgarter Zeitung: Article about Alexander Tuschinski's film "Timeless", mentioning win at American Movie Awards". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  22. "Article on official website of Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart". Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  23. "Article on official website of the festival". Archived from the original on June 18, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  24. "Park City Film Music Festival official website: List of past awards-winners". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  25. "Hochschule der Medien: Article on "Menschenliebe" and its awards". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  26. "List of 2011 winners on website of Nevada Film Festival". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  27. "Winners of 2012 Honolulu Film Awards on official website of the festival". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  28. "WorldFest Houston: List of Awards Winners". Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  29. "Oregon Independent Film Festival: List of Awards Winners". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  30. "Oregon Independent Film Festival: Entry for "Break-Up", mentioning award". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  31. "Berlin Independent Film Festival: List of winners 2013". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  32. "Stuttgarter Zeitung: Article on Mutant Calculator winning at Las Vegas Film Festival". Retrieved November 5, 2014..
  33. "Official Program Guide to the Festival of Science film, taking place as part of the National Science Week" (PDF). Retrieved November 5, 2014..
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