DIE SELBSTZERSTÖRUNG DES WALTER M. DIGGELMANN

Possibly the most enigmatic film by Mertens & Marti, if only because it throws us back on ourselves in a way that drives us crazy. The writer Walter Matthias Diggelmann is given one hour to hold forth in front of a running camera and sound recorder. Nothing is edited. Everything stays as it is. Diggelmann could simply have said nothing for an hour, or spoken in Swiss-German dialect, which we can assume would have been easier for him, judging by the way he wrestles with High German. Diggelmann, however, gets on with things. But does he destroy himself in the process? And what is that: self-destruction? Can one ever be hard enough on oneself in the public eye? And what use is all honesty when you, to the best of your knowledge and conscience – like in the confessional box under the eyes of the Heavenly Father – tell it as it is, but this does not correspond to what is expected of you, and what the others see in you? How much humanity can cinema convey? Can it convey any? An applied contribution to the philosophy of film.