"In total independence Matthias Mü;ller has created one of the most unique and exciting oeuvres of the recent years. This body of work is as fascinating as a secret garden, one that everybody can find access to."-Jacques Kermabon, Bref, ParisMatthias Mü;ller, the German filmmaker noted for his exquisite, brilliantly edited investigations of Hollywood cinema and his elegiac diaries, returns to the Bay Area with two new works. Phoenix Tapes (1999, 45 mins, Color/B&W, Beta SP), made with Christoph Girardet, is an encyclopedic collection of moments from Hitchcock films revealing with intelligence and wit both Hitchcock's obsessions and his rigor. In Vacancy (1998, 15 mins, Color, 16mm), Mü;ller explores Brasilia, a city as old as himself, through amateur and feature films. The haunting shots reveal the city as an eerily empty monument to a utopian ideal. Pensão Globo (1997, 15 mins, Color, 16mm) also depicts a city, but here the decaying streets of Lisbon foreshadow a man's approaching death. Mü;ller's earlier Sleepy Haven (1993, 15 mins, Color, 16mm) uses nineteenth-century sea tales to create a dreamy, watery world of longing and melancholy.-Kathy Geritz