The Mozart Bird is an almost clinical research into the relationship between two people. The characters, Howard and Selene, are English speaking foreigners living in Amsterdam. They're both University educated and jobless, enjoying all the freedoms that the liberal city has to offer. The writer-producer-director cynically refers to these characters as "the dope 'n dole refugees" and with more than a slight touch of self-mockery has called The Mozart Bird the second installment in his "urban wasteland serial". But Kerkhof's camera is not interested in placing Howard and Selene in a social context and consequently virtually the entire film takes place in an apartment which starts of as Selene's but ends up as Howard's.
Former Rotterdam Film Festival director Emile Fallaux has described The Mozart Bird as a "choreography for three: two actors and a camera" and the film is indelibly stamped with a highly strategised camera plan which foregrounds eight basic camera movements. Editing moments are never determined by continuity of action. The resultant tension between the spectatorial interest in Howard and Selene, and how the camera presents these events is quite unlike anything else being done in the cinema today. Kerkhof's fascination with experimental and avant garde cinema movements coupled with a genuine love of the sentimental so-called "woman's film" makes for an often uncomfortable but always fascinating narrative experience.
