Genre. Tone. Fiction. Fact. Documentary. Drama. These terms donยt seem to mean much to Switzerlandยs Thomas Imbach, a director for whom the term ยexperimental filmmakerย may be too narrow and specific. The selections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houstonยs ยHappiness Is a Warm Gun: The Thomas Imbach Films,ย playing throughout this weekend, include 1994ยs Well Done, a strangely whimsical look at the history and day-to-day workings of the computer that runs Switzerlandยs stock trade. Ghetto (1997) is a matter-of-fact documentary on the hard choices Swiss teenagers have to make upon graduating high school (a topic American studios usually reserve for PG-13 movies featuring dick jokes). Happiness Is a Warm Gun (2001) is a fictionalized portrait of famed German Green Party activist Petra Kelly and the lover who killed her and then himself, but it portrays the life they could have had if the 1992 murder-suicide had never taken place. And 2006ยs Lenz is a bit of meta-filmmaking, following a fictional documentarian as she traces the real history of German author Georg Bรผchnerยs unfinished novel (also named Lenz). Today brings 2007ยs I Was a Swiss Banker, a fantasy about a successful financier who is caught up in the black market. When he dives into a lake to escape police, he finds that heยs entered an alternate universe, complete with witches and Herculean tests to pass.
Screenings run Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27. 1001 Bissonnet. For tickets and a complete list of screening times, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org/film. $6 to $7.
Sat., April 26, 7 p.m., 2008
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2008.