Copy Shop (2001)

Unknowingly, a copy shop employee sets off a bizarre series of events with utterly unforeseen consequences.

Director:

Virgil Widrich

Writer:

Virgil Widrich

Stars:

Johannes Silberschneider, Elisabeth Ebner-Haid

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 31 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Johannes Silberschneider	...	Alfred Kager
Elisabeth Ebner-Haid	...	Flower girl

Storyline

In a typical morning just like any other, Alfred Kager wakes up, puts on his clothes and prepares to go to work at the copy shop. There, while making one copy after another, he unknowingly photocopies the palm of his hand, and as if by magic, the mysterious machine starts generating duplicates of himself and his surroundings, as well as random scenes of previous events. The machine is unstoppable and the consequences of this chain reaction, utterly unforeseen. Can Alfred put an end to this nightmare before the world is consumed by "Alfred"?

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Plot Keywords:

photograph | photocopy | product comes alive | cloning | photograph becomes animated | 

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Genres:

Drama | Short | Comedy

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was shoot with a digital video camera. After filming, all images had been manipulated in the computer, printed with a regular laser printer (about 18,000 single pages) and then filmed with a 35mm film camera.

User Reviews

Layers

Interesting films are copies of life (or something related to life) that enclose and acknowledge themselves.

I call this "folding," where the film does something and them does something with itself, usually the same "something." That's the idea in many, many films. It is a hot topic in some films schools and many script labs.

And that's what this veteran of film intellectual circles addresses (even though he is from a historically daft area cinematic ally).

Nominally, this is about a man who copies his own reality and encounters the copies. What makes it interesting viewing is how the "copying" is woven into the actual making of the film: what we see was "filmed," then each frame made into a photocopy (with many artifacts of paper) and then filmed. So we get two layers of paper and two layers of film interwoven. Only the paper artifacts are acknowledged.

Very clever. It is only an essay compared to a real folded film like "Moulin Rouge," but a fun film school exercise in real folding.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Details

Official Sites:

official site Official site

Country:

Austria

Language:

None

Release Date:

November 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Φωτοτυπείο

Company Credits

Production Co:

Virgil Widrich Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

12 min

Color:

Black and White