Aimless Walk

synopsis

In his first feature film, Alexander Hackenschmied used a subjective camera to evoke a modernist dilemma: the celebration of the big city and social criticism. The protagonist, who is to some extent Hackenschmied’s alter ego, travels by tram from the city centre to its outskirts. The hustle and bustle of traffic gives way to the shabbiness of the suburbs, and the protagonist remains torn between the two worlds.

biography

Alexander Hackenschmied (1907–2004) was a key figure in Czech interwar photography and film. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States and became part of the New York avant-garde scene. In 1943, in the film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, co-directed with Maya Deren), he revisited the motif of the doppelganger, which he had also employed in his directorial debut, Aimless Walk (1930)

film details

director:	Alexander Hackenschmied
producer:	Lukáš Hanzal