Month: March 2021

MERAN

The short documentary Meran, made in 1912 and produced by the legendary Sascha-Film, is today considered one of the oldest and most precious documentaries in Austrian film history.

COPS

Fast paced, impeccable editing, an apparent daily routine that opens the feature immediately give us the idea of a thrilling action film, given also – and above all – the particular setting chosen by the director. And, in fact, there is plenty of action in Cops. And yet, this feature film is not just that.

LOSGELASSEN – JUGEND IN GRAZ

The famous Uhrturm peacefully watches over the Styrian capital. Numerous young people are interviewed about their daily lives, opinions and politics. Each of them shows us a different point of view. Each of them experiences the picturesque city of Graz in their own way. All this happens in the documentary Losgelassen – Jugend in Graz by Rene Brueger, which completes the programme of the upcoming Diagonale 2021 – section Sehnsucht 2020 – Eine kleine Stadterzählung.

MANN IM SCHATTEN

The Vienna of Mann im Schatten is a dark, shadowy Vienna, witness to the most horrific crimes, which, in its time, Carol Reed had so well depicted in The Third Man. And director Arthur Maria Rabenalt was equally able to stage a brutal crime, drawing heavily now from Reed’s own cinema, now from German Expressionism, now even from the legendary figures of detectives like Hercules Poirot or Lieutenant Columbo.

LUGANO AM LUGANOSEE

We are in 1914. World War I was imminent, just like the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Important changes were in the air. And yet, the extraordinary peace in Lugano am Luganosee has almost the power to transport us to a timeless place, or, better still, to a place where time itself seems to have stood still.

LAMORTE

Despite unconvincing moments from a directorial point of view, in many respects Lamorte turned out to be quite courageous and forward-looking, a small gem in the filmography of Xaver Schwarzenberger and of his wife Ulrike.

ME AND THE OTHERS

The bizarre situations staged by David Schalko in the series Me and the Others are initially presented as a pure divertissement: we do not know why the protagonist is able to make these wishes, nor do we know who is able to make his dreams come true. Then, slowly, the music changes. At the Berlinale 2021.