LAND OF GOLD ~

THOMAS BERNHARD ~

B L A S T     B O O K S    2016

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Over the course of three days, June 5, 6, and 7 in

1970, simply sitting on a white bench in Hamburg

park, Thomas Bernhard delivered a powerful

monologue for Three Days (Drei Tage), filmmaker

Ferry Radax's commanding film portrait of the great

Austrian writer. Radar interwove the monologue

with a variety of metaphorically resonant visual

techniques — blacking out the screen to total

darkness, suggesting the closing of the observing

eye; cuts to scenes of cameramen, lighting and

recording equipment; extreme camera distance and

extreme close-up. Bernhard had not yet written his

autobiographical work Gathering Evidence, published

originally in five separate volumes between 1975

and 1982, and his childhood remembrances were a

revelation. This publication of Bernhard's monologue

and stills from Radax's artful film allows this unique

portrait of Bernhard to be savored in book form.