The camera is constantly static. The characters are often backlit and we cannot see the whole flat itself. We can only get a vague idea of it every time the frame changes. The stories and dialogues between the protagonists and the director are the absolute protagonists. In A Millionaire’s Melancholy there is no need for anything else.
The Zur Person series reflects on Austrian film and cinema culture by tracing the biography of acclaimed Austrian filmmakers. This year’s film program, from April 6 to 10, 2022, is devoted to the internationally acclaimed duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, who most recently received, among other awards, the Grand Diagonale Prize Documentary Film for Notes from the Underworld, thus being honored for the fourth time in a main category of the festival.
Man kann nicht alles haben is an entertaining, but often too predictable comedy of errors. Michael Kreihsl, for his part, just as planned in the ORF series, has made the beautiful city of Graz a further protagonist, spectator of many intrigues, but also of tender love stories.
On January 26, 2022, Erni Mangold will celebrate her 95th birthday. Active for more than seventy years and decidedly tireless, the actress has recently published a book of photographs inspired by her extraordinary life: Sagen Sie, was Sie denken: Mein Leben in Bildern.
During World War I, certain production companies were commissioned by the army and the monarchy to make the best use of cinema for propaganda purposes. The shooting of films, however, was not always simple and straightforward.
La Esperanza, shot in Super8, is a documentary that leaves nothing to imagination, that faithfully testifies to what is happening on the other side of the world, that shows us painful images and that, through the stories of those who are personally involved in this ‘rebirth journey’, gives life to a sincere and exhaustive fresco of the life of a people who are still paying the consequences of years of dictatorship.
Reality and imagination. Past and present. War and peace. Pain and serenity. In Fever, all these elements play the leading role, they often get mixed up, they confuse us, but, all together, they point the finger directly at every war, which is responsible for ruining the lives of millions of people.
In A Day in Vienna, editing plays a key role. A highly experimental editing, which through associations of images conveys a very precise message. What does this remind us of?
Frau Maria and the Liquidation of Stastny Fabrics makes the few characters who appear on screen, their stories, the slowly emptying rooms and the hundreds of rolls of coloured fabrics its trademarks. And tender Mrs. Maria acts as precious witness of what has been.
Despite having made more than a hundred films during his career, for a long time Franz Antel was considered a simple entertainment director. However, it was soon realised that Antel’s true peculiarity was precisely his great ability to relate to every possible film genre, each time making light but also well thought-out feature films in which nothing was left to chance.