Copy Shop (Virgil Widrich, 2001): Austria

Reviewed by Lisa Blondell. Viewed on DVD in Santa Barbara, CA.

A short film that kept my attention throughout all the repetitiveness was Virgil Widrich’s Copy Shop.  Widrich has only made a hand full of films, however, he is extremely talented, and his films are unique and original.

This wordless film tells a story about a man, Alfred Kager (Johannes Silberschneider), waking up and going to work at a local copy shop.  While he is at work making copies, the machine starts generating images of events that happened earlier that day.  A little frightened by this, he leaves work and heads home.  Throughout his day, he begins to see more and more images of himself in more and more places.

This film appears to be shot in images that would generally be produced by a copy machine.  The film is black and white, grainy, crinkly, and rhythmic.  It allows the audience to truly feel more connected to the parallel between the copy machine and his life.  Throughout the entire film, Kager is simply trying to make his life normal again.

The filmmaker did an excellent job telling a story without any dialog.  There are only two characters in the film, and this is a key component to the narrative.  Copy Shop is part of the Cinema 16, which a collection of short films.  Included in this remarkable collection are films such as Wasp and Six Shooter.

Copy Shop was nominated for an Oscar.  I enjoyed the film, however, I’m not sure if it’s Oscar worthy.  I do recommend the film though.