The Search (1970)

• 57%
• 1970
• Documentary
• Ann Bierlich
• Henning Christiansen
• Ursula Reuter Christiansen
• John Davidsen
• Peter Engberg
• Ole John
• Jørgen Leth
• Vagn Lundbye
• Peter Saske
• Camilla Skousen

The Search is the ultimate happening film created by a group of ABCinema members during a camp on the Juttish heath. The film consists of loosely composed sequences. The landscape is the setting for a series of peculiar occurrences in which individual members were free to realize personal ideas, fantasies and themes: a man runs across the heath, shouting, a Molotov cocktail flares on a beach, a man repeatedly falls over, an angel-like woman makes a solitary procession, a burning pine, a man breaking a tree with a shovel, etc. Several of the scenes obviously draw on religious themes but this does not mean that there is a thematic key to the film. It was shot in 35 mm and the images have a slightly russet hue. Henning Christiansen composed a soundtrack of gloomy organ music, occasionally augmented by urban noises contrasted with the countryside. Brief pieces of text by Jørgen Leth (hand-written by Per Kirkeby) resembling fragments of a film script have been inserted between the tableaux and inspire other readings or visions: "camouflage", "A car passes", "The Sun sets or rises", "The heath is alive", "Helicopters fly across the landscape in long lines, parallel lines".