Brothers, Let Us Be Merry

A film minute by Ulrich Seidl

As part of the 2006 Mozart Year, 28 Austrian filmmakers, including Ulrich Seidl, were commissioned to create a minute-long film featuring Mozart's music. Seidl decided on the slaves' chorus from Zaide: "Brothers, let us be merry and bravely defy adversity" rings out while two dimly-lit men give themselves over to purposeless pleasure. They masturbate mechanically and monotonously. Paper towels stand ready next to them, as if waiting for consummation, the climax. Nietzsche claimed that all pleasure seeks to be eternal; Brothers, Let Us Be Merry depicts the hangover left by this unfulfilled utopia.

Credits

Financed with funds from the City of Vienna's Vienna Mozart Year

Director's statement

"Two men pleasure themselves to the slaves' aria from Mozart's Zaide in the way you pleasure yourself when you are supposed to get in the mood and have fun on command." – Ulrich Seidl

Downloads

Pressphoto: 10x17cm / 300dpi / jpg / 800kb