The Telephone Book

May 23 - July 11 2010

The Telephone Book is the only film ever produced by Merv Bloch (*1938, lives and works in New York), one of Hollywoods most acclaimed art directors and public relations managers. Shot in 1971, it is miles away from the then current New Hollywood trend in commercial cinema, but instead indulges itself in the visual spirit of the glamorous New York Pop Art scene. The story is about Alice, a pretty, young girl who falls in love with 'the world's greatest obscene phone call'. The movie was shown in New York and Los Angeles in only two cinemas in each; it was a complete failure and only survived in the memory of a few as a disappeared cult movie. In 2008 Florian Lambl and Moritz Peters from Hello Film in Berlin found a short clip on youtube; they got in touch with Merv Bloch, found a still existing copy of the film and produced a catalogue including a DVD. The show at Kunsthalle presents vintage film stills, the complete shooting script, various documents and of course the film itself. In collaboration with Hello Film a special limited edition of the catalogue has been published to accompany the exhibition.

Oliver Kielmayer