Biography

Johnny & Clara

Biography - Director

I was born in Vienna, Austria, Central Europe, on January 22nd, 1970. I first began shooting Super-8 movies when I was 18 years old, on my graduation trip.

TAKING PICTURES

Around the same time I began taking black-and-white pictures of friends and relatives, and developing them in an improvised darkroom in my attic. I loved this process and kind of miss it, but ever since breaking into making movies and music video clips I've given up the process of developing still photographs. I can recommend it to everybody, though. It's a quiet, calming, meditative process - especially if you're young and have a lot of time on your hands.

Biography – Actor

Until 2000 I starred in commercials and did extra work as an autodidact with no formal training. In 1999 I enrolled in Ingrid Sturm's "Schule des Theaters" ("School of Theater"). I attended this school for one year. Later I took classes in Stephan Perdekamp's acting studio "Schauspielstudio Act + Fun".

Plays and Films

1994:
"REAL SHORT CUTS", a self-portrait, Super-8, 16min - film festival, VIENNALE 1995 - myself
1998:
"MEMPHIS & THE BITTER END" – a road movie (Dir: J.Gerhart) – young man in a Renault 4 (car) – (Austrian film festival DIAGONALE 1998)
2000:
commercial for the newspaper KURIER - I got to accidentally wash a €100 bill and then fan it dry.
2001:
"PLAY" by Jeremy Weller (theater) – guitar player "Ed Martini", "LOO" – (Vienna film academy short, 16mm, b/w) – writer "Mario". I got to quarrel with my girlfriend, kiss a random girl in a loo and get her lipstick all over my beard. These things work better in your fantasy.
2001:
Stand-In for Benoît Magimel in Michael Hanekes "KLAVIERSPIELERIN". A classic high-point of my career. Standing-in for a movie-star! I lasted one week on the set. Although I am not, like the rest of the world, a particular fan of Mr. Haneke's movies, it paid my rent. Thank you, Michael! My old friend Norman, the head of the former Alphaville video store and now manager of the Viennese cinema 'Gartenbaukino', naturally a movie buff, actually spotted me in the credits. My Big Fat Credit Career!
2002:
"SCHLAGERSHOW" in TOKYO (yes, Japan!) with Barbara LIPPE (a dance performance) A 'Schlager' is a certain kind of hit record in German language, popular in the 50s, 60s and early 70s. We had the time of our life, dancing at various clubs in Tokyo. We even did one embassy, at a party. The Japanese love this shit. Some even came to watch it twice or three times. At the embassy I got to see a Japanese man break a spoon just by concentrating on it, using his sheer will power. When I told it to my Japanese friends they shrugged. 'Big deal', they said. Apparently they get to see this all the time. "ERIKA STORM NIMMT EINE DUSCHE auf der Mariahilferstrasse" ("ERIKA STORM TAKES A SHOWER on Mariahilfer street" …a street performance- blue guitar player. Great dancers – my friends Verena Brückner and Anna Mendelsson – a fun little schtick where I get out of an improvised shower cabin and play the guitar.
2003:
"Hotel Sleaze", directed by: J.Gerhart, 30 min, - boyfriend of main character.
2004:
Film "THE PINK VISITOR" (Super 8, 35min. Dir: Astrid Nolte) — salesman at the Vienna flea market. I got to sell a dildo in this film! I was dubbed by our friend Michael Lugmayr because I happened to be in Paris during post-production. Paris - don't get me started… "The Pink Visitor" is truly one of the greatest yet most underrated and probably most unseen pieces of film of our time. Everybody should own it. It should be shown at schools, etc. Astrid is probably the only filmmaker I know to use lower-tech equipment than myself. In terms of finishing feature length movies it's a tough, neck'n'neck race.
2005-2007:
Extra at the Royal State Opera of Vienna for DON CARLOS – heretic
2005:
I starred in a few short films at University of Texas at Austin: WOLF - ex-convict , REGINALD (16mm, Dir. Ryan Scott) – office clerk UTA NASA Project – man looking at 3D- book. Rehearsal scene from "SEVEN" (dir: David Fincher) – "Detective Somerset" "THE RETURN", 35mm, starring Sarah Michelle GELLAR and Sam SHEPARD (I was playing a dancer in a club). Another highpoint of my career. This is such a great movie. It even got almost five stars on the imdb - it's that good. When we shot the scene in the bar, Sarah Michelle GELLAR had to pass me by, and I swear to god, I could feel her breathe on me. On my neck. I didn't wash for a few days afterwards so it wouldn't come off. Sarah.
2006:
Trailer "HELL HONEY" – Austin, TX. (YouTube) - crying gangster. I love one of the YouTube watchers' comments of this: 'Well you can't go wrong with a lot of sex, violence and bad acting.'
2007:
"Tryptichon"- Gerhard SCHÄDEL (at "Neue Oper Wien" –modern opera) –waiter
2008:
Commercial for MEDIA MARKT- anti-body-builder-character in a red bikini. My beautiful head was replaced by that of a bodybuilder woman. Fate's way of coming back to me for exploiting girls in my erotic dinosaur drama. CHANGE – dir: Kerstin Cmelka – boyfriend of main character.
2009:
Extra at the Opera 'Theater an der Wien' (MITRIDATE, RE DI PONTO- W.A Mozart) – soldier. - Opera might be boring on TV, but it's exciting on stage. Extra for "IL TURCO IN ITALIA" (Opera from Rossini) – beach person, and lady in the Serail. Extra for "SUGAR- Some Like It Hot" – (Musical at the theatre "Kammerspiele", Vienna)- gangster. "As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a GANGSTER". I got to sit in a bar, watch girls in hot costumes, and shoot down a few other gangsters. They made hot gangster costumes for that! Fancy. '8mm LIEBE', documentary (TV) by Adama ULRICH for Mdr and ARTE about persons who film their partners on 8mm film. Finally, somebody did a movie about my glorious life. Or rather, about my glorious (ex)girlfriends' lives. You get to see my girlfriends on Super 8.
2010:
Extra for the opera "SEMELE" (G.F. Händel) – sleeping person, waiter, servant.