If we want to draw a quick outcome 2022 concerning Austrian cinema, we cannot fail to notice the presence of many very diverse feature films and short films, many of which, searching for their own new cinematic languages, stand out with a very personal directorial touch, as well as a strong, marked personality.
Many people, especially in Austria and Germany, will remember the famous Peter Alexander singing joyful Christmas songs on television. Yet the popular and versatile Viennese artist – still fondly remembered by many viewers today – also made a name for himself as an actor and TV host.
In Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht we immediately recognise a strong influence from the cinema of Georges Méliès, especially with regard to the double exposure scenes and the strongly fairytale-like (sometimes even dreamlike) atmosphere of the whole film. This short film tries its way without pretending to become a “revolutionary” film. Yet, with its elegant mise-en-scene and its simplicity, it seems to us, today, more precious than ever.
In Speak Easy everyone talks to someone on the phone. Yet this could even be considered a film about incommunicability. Every teenager has his or her own language that is often incomprehensible to adults and, at the same time, every conversation is “filtered” through the telephone.
The Zur Person series contemplates Austrian film and cinema culture by tracing the biography of acclaimed Austrian filmmakers. In 2023, the program format is dedicated to Goran Rebić, a filmmaker and screenwriter who has at times also appeared as an actor.
Mountain Trip is a little, refined miriorama through which the director wanted to show us the essence of Austria according to numerous clichés spread all over the world. On the postcards, each time, we can recognise mountains, small houses, church steeples that stand out above everything, but also large green meadows and lakes. And so, many postcards make up one endless landscape.
My Father, the Prince is a long journey between past and present. An often difficult and painful journey undertaken by a father and a daughter who, together, get to know each other better. A large wall is slowly filled with many photographs. The story of the Schwarzenberg family slowly comes to life on screen.
The Nouvelle Vague Viennoise was born around the end of the 1990s. A directorial approach halfway between documentary and fiction film often shows us the Viennese suburbs as the birthplace of alienation. A stark realism takes centre stage, along with a careful and never trivial characterisation of the figures.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s The Last Ten Days is the chronicle of the end of an era that would nevertheless have many consequences, even after many years. Sporadic ironic moments serve to soften the dramatic nature of the events. Particular care and elegance in the mise-en-scene make the film extraordinarily full of pathos.
What immediately stands out while watching He Flew Ahead – Karl Schwanzer is the choice of structuring the film on two different levels: on the one hand, the documentary develops in a purely classical way, on the other hand, fiction takes over and Karl Schwanzer magically comes to life thanks to actor Nicholas Ofczarek.