World Star (2007)

Directed by: Natasa von Kopp | 52 minutes | documentary

‘World star’, in certain circles Miroslav Tichy has become that with his paintings and – above all – his black-and-white photos. Director Natasa von Kopp tries to find out who the man really is in ‘Worldstar’ by looking him up in his hermitage.

The film opens with fascinating images in black and white, Miroslav appears as a small white figure against a black background. A little later we see the area where he lives, the town and the surrounding nature, filmed in color. When we arrive at Tichy’s house, the film becomes black and white again, with strikingly photographic images of the deficient house and Tichy’s minimal self-care expressed, for example, in two different worn slippers. Throughout the documentary, the contrast between the vibrant, colorful outside world and Tichy’s closed-off black-and-white world will be maintained, with just a little added color to show that the photos scattered across the floor in his room are actually black-and-white. to be.

Who was/is Tichy? At first glance, a terribly gruff, nihilistic man. He doesn’t believe in anything: not in God, not in feelings, not even in art. All he does all day is drink alcohol. He snaps at neighbors and gallery owners who, against their better judgment, would like to get in touch with the artist. Most of what we learn about Tichy’s past comes from neighbors and from a lecture at an exhibition opening. Thus, a different picture of the man emerges, the neighbors tell that he used to try to entertain them with jokes and the gallery owner tells that during the communist regime Tichy faced constant repression, to the extent that he was even sent to a mental institution. was sent. As a viewer you can draw your own conclusions, for example: this obnoxious man who no longer wants anything to do with the art world must have become this way because the sacrifices he had to make for art were too great. On the other hand, when you hear the lonely Tichy say that he has never been in love and that feelings have never interested him, you also get the idea that the man owes it to himself somewhere.

Von Kopp does a lot of things right: the cinematography is perfect, she includes the man as well as his work and the consequence of his work (via the gallery owners) in her documentary and she really seems to have built some kind of bond with Tichy. All this makes ‘Worldstar’ a fascinating documentary. The only question is for whom. People who admire Tichy’s work might not want to see how unkind the man behind it is, while for people who don’t know his work the question of who he is himself is less relevant.