Volker Pantenburg

Volker Pantenburg is a German film scholar and professor at the University of Zurich. He has previously taught at institutions including the University of Münster, Bauhaus University Weimar, and the Free University of Berlin. His research interests encompass essayistic film practices, experimental cinema, and the intersection of cinema and museum contexts. Pantenburg has authored several influential works, including Einfachheit ohne Vereinfachung. Zur Praxis Harun Farockis (Diaphanes, 2024), Aggregatzustände bewegter Bilder (August Verlag, 2022), Farocki/Godard. Film as Theory (Amsterdam University Press, 2015, translation of Film als Theorie), Ränder des Kinos. Godard – Wiseman – Benning – Costa (August Verlag, 2010/2014), and Film als Theorie. Bildforschung bei Harun Farocki und Jean-Luc Godard (2006), most of which are available through open access. He is also a co-founder of the Harun Farocki Institute in Berlin.

Reading Frieda Grafe

Six Moments

Volker Pantenburg, 2025
ARTICLE
EN

Frieda Grafe’s thinking was only accessible to those who read (and hear) German. Only recently, her articles and essays have started to be translated into English and other languages. It will be exciting to see what happens when new readers encounter her thoughts. Some things will be lost in translation, other aspects will come to the fore. Different sounds and rhythms will meet different ears. It’s always a risk, but a risk worth taking.

Des gestes qui ne sont jamais payés

Papa comme maman d’Anne-Marie Miéville (1977)

Volker Pantenburg, 2023
ARTICLE
FR EN

Anne-Marie Miéville a toujours été particulièrement discrète lorsqu’il s’agissait d’évoquer la spécificité de sa collaboration avec Godard. Dans ses œuvres ultérieures, soit les films qu’elle tourne entre Le Livre de Marie (1984) et Après la réconciliation (2000), on trouve des éléments visuels et sonores qui rappellent le travail de Godard (le travail typographique des génériques, les sons et la dimension abrupte du montage sonore, entre autres). Mais ceux-ci sont entièrement transformés. Pendant les années Sonimage, Papa comme maman donne un aperçu unique du style de Miéville, puisqu’il s’agit de la seule œuvre qu’elle ait réalisé à cette période sans la participation de Godard.

Gestures That Are Never Paid

Anne-Marie Miéville’s Papa comme maman (1977)

Volker Pantenburg, 2023
ARTICLE
FR EN

Anne-Marie Miéville has always been notoriously shy about the specific character of her collaboration with Godard. In her later work, the films between Le Livre de Marie (1984) and Après la reconciliation (2000), we recognise elements that look (and sound) familiar from Godard’s work (the typography of the opening credits, the sounds, the abruptness of acoustic editing, for example), but they are entirely transformed. During the Sonimage years, Papa comme maman provides a unique insight into Miéville’s style since it is the only work she directed outside of the AMM/JLG framework.

Related