TWO A.M., 2016
Arbitrary control is a tool of power, as Molly and Holly, the Watchers in Loretta
Fahrenholz's€™ new film Two A.M. (2016) are well aware. There is no logical
explanation for what, when, and whom they watch. The unpredictability of these
mind-readers is intentional. It is expressed in their violent mood swings. Loosely
based on the exile novel After Midnight (1937) by Irmgard Keun, Loretta
Fahrenholz’ screenplay and socio-fiction film presents frightening analogies to a
contemporary world under the influence of surveillance, capitalism, and newly
emerging fascism. In her novel, Keun describes two days in the life of a young
woman, Sanna, in Nazi Germany. The brevity of the period covered by her story
gives the novel a degree of concentration that enables the reader to experience
that period of time as a state of being. Both rationally comprehensible fear and
hysterical angst are palpable. In the film, continuous social control is diffuse and
can only be managed with the aid of amphetamines—as was the case in Nazi
Germany. Rearmament, forced labor in the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and blitzkrieg
Germany. Rearmament, forced labor in the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and blitzkrieg
were inconceivable without speed. Fear, indolence, and paranoia cannot be
channeled into modernization efforts without MDMA. While Sanna and her lover
Franz appear to successfully escape in Keun'€™s novel, Molly and Holly pursue the
couple into the night. There is no escaping the globalized world of total
surveillance.
Loretta Fahrenholz produced the film Two A.M. for her first major institutional
exhibition in Germany. Three other films will be presented in addition to this
new work: Ditch Plains (2013), My Throat, My Air (2014), and Que Barbara (2011).
In her post-cinematic films, Fahrenholz documents the contemporary reality that
is shaped by collective fictions, staging, and media communcation.
The new film Two A.M. and the accompanying catalogue were produced in
cooperation with the Kunsthalle Zurich.
Curated by Susanne Pfeffer