Penissimo is a cheerful and light-hearted, but also particularly meaningful documentary. Interviews, photographs of artworks, but also excerpts from the first erotic films made back in the silent era compose a lively and colourful fresco of “one of the two halves of the sky”.
The Diagonale is pleased to announce two special programs that can be seen in March at the Festival of Austrian Film. The first historical special is titled FINALE and comprises five programs that have been selected together with the Filmarchiv Austria and the Austrian Film Museum as well as in cooperation with the ORF Archive. SYNEMA – Gesellschaft für Film und Medien and Diagonale dedicate the second historical special to the filmmaker, critic, and author Bernhard Frankfurter (1946–1999).
My Best Enemy is a feature film with an international scope, which draws heavily on mainstream US cinema. World War II and the Holocaust are recounted in Austria in an important film, in which, alongside the story of the two friends/enemies and the dramatic war, there is also a great homage to the art world and to beauty.
At the end of the 1920s (when the film Von Mariazell über Admont nach Bad Aussee was made) a directorial approach full of virtuosity was by no means common in Austria. And this denotes above all the great foresight of director Karl Köfinger, now practically forgotten.
In the course of his life, Peter Kubelka made only nine films, with a total running time of about ninety minutes. Each of his films runs no longer than fifteen minutes, but this is a well-reasoned choice. Each frame has a precise aspect and only finds its fulfilment when it is edited together with a certain sound. Metrics therefore play a central role.
In the course of just two years, we see how people began to become more aware of their identity and rights. What better medium, then, than cinema to finally give them a voice? In this sense, then, Austrian proletarian cinema played a central role.
Vienna Table Trip looks almost like a timeless fairy tale, like a little reality where past and present meet to create something unique. Meanwhile, delicate minimalist music accompanies us on the “journey”. A great master of animation film, Virgil Widrich has once again made a little gem of Austrian avant-garde cinema.
Monte Verità is a wild run towards freedom. A constant search for beauty in all its forms. A desperate need for love that never seems to find its own fulfilment. A story of female emancipation in which there is also a sincere tribute to the world of photography and art in general.
Peter Kubelka’s Arnulf Rainer is one of the few metric films in film history. In just under seven minutes, we see the screen now white, now black, while, in the meantime, silence and white noise expertly alternate. Meanwhile, what we see and perceive is something unique.
Tales of Franz stands out immediately for its extremely simple and linear narrative structure, almost completely devoid of subplots. And if, on the one hand, the story of Franz and his friends is exciting and amusing, on the other hand, one feels the need for a few more twists and turns, as well as necessary insights into some secondary characters.