Clemens Klopfenstein is a Swiss film director, scriptwriter, camera man, film producer and trained art teacher. Having completed school in 1963, he studied Drawing and Painting at Basel’s Applied Art Academy. Later he studied film under Kurt Früh at Zurich’s Applied Art Academy in Switzerland. Klopfenstein is considered one of Switzerland’s most important film makers.
In the mid-seventies, Klopfenstein worked on a photo series entitled »Paese sera«, (»Night Films«) , that he executed with highly light-sensitive film, and which then culminated in the 1978 compilation film »Story of Night«. This takes as its subject night shots made in fifty European cities from Dublin to the Bosporus.
In 1981 Klopfenstein went to Berlin for his DAAD grant. The short film »Silesian Gate« was made here. Klopfenstein made many films in the ensuing years, such as »Sybillas Kiss« (1985), »Macao« (1988), (»Macao«), »Das Schweigen der Männer« (1996) (»The silence of the men«) or »WerAngstWolf«(»Whyafraidwolf«) (1998). His most recent film is entitled »St. Francis Bird Tour« (2005) with Polo Hofer and Ursula Andress.
The desire for adventure and the discovery of the foreign and exotic, as well as an ironic, self-critical observation of the familiar and banal, are Klopfenstein’s basic motifs.
Klopfenstein and his work are a regular feature at the Berlinale film festival.
www.klopfenstein.net
