Ads for defunct and foreign products are interspersed with newsreel and documentary footage. The result is a distanced view of the link between desire and commodities. For instance, footage of the Hitler youth with ‘S’ shirts performing a swastika is overlaid with an ad for “Stabil”. Products become strange interlopers when they pop up in romantic movies of the Nazi period. Ads in other languages also strip products of desire: Soviet fashion is demonstrated in Cyrillic, phallic chocolates unwrap magically, and a product named ‘Time’ is sucked dry to a Japanese voiceover. A hollow product of unknown use floats in space like the monolith of 2001.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
B1000112
Languages
English
German
Audience classification
unclassified
Subject categories
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White and Colour
Object Types
Artwork
Materials
Single channel moving image, black and white and colour and audio
Holdings
Digital Betacam [PAL]; Master
Digital Betacam [PAL]; Sub-master
VHS [PAL]; Reference - timecoded
MOV file ProRes4444; Digital Preservation Master - overscan
MPEG-4 Digital File; ACMI Digital Access Copy - overscan