EIN SOHN AUS GUTEM HAUSE
Will we ever learn from the mistakes of the past? Unfortunately, we cannot know, but we can sadly observe how Karin Brandauer’s Ein Sohn aus gutem Hause is still a deeply relevant film today.
Actor: Georg Friedrich
THE PIANO TEACHER
The Piano Teacher is a sometimes cruel, painful and disturbing film, which, in depicting the drama of a woman with whom none of us (almost never) feel empathy, shows above all a great understanding of the human soul. At the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
KLIMT
Made and edited as if it were an ideal continuation of his legacy as an artist, Klimt stages a dramatic depiction of episodes from the painter’s life in a highly imaginative and artificial Vienna. At the Viennale 2023, retrospective Raúl Ruiz.
WICKED GAMES RIMINI SPARTA
Wicked Games Rimini Sparta, through the story of three people, immediately becomes a picture of the era in which we live, of a sick world in which everyone seems to be hopelessly alone, destined never to find the longed-for serenity. At the Diagonale’23.
HOTEL ROCK’N’ROLL
In Hotel Rock’n’Roll one never knows what to expect, and alongside amusing misunderstandings, clumsy policemen, “impossible loves” and speed cameras ready to treacherously take photographs, there is always time for an evening with old and new friends, singing and drinking merrily.
SISI & I
Meticulously detailed and quite original in its costumes, with an excellent cast and locations that almost seem to belong to enchanted dimensions, Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I is definitely the most “feminist” version of all the feature films dedicated to Elisabeth of Austria. At the Berlinale 2023.
MY BEST ENEMY
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.
SPARTA
A strong inner conflict is the real focus of Sparta. Ewald laughs when he plays with the children. Slowly, however, his laughter turns into a cry. A cry that nobody notices, that only vents inside a car or in the retirement home where his father is. Subtle facial expressions say more than a thousand words. Ulrich Seidl (and the excellent Georg Friedrich) render all this perfectly and show us how the protagonist is actually the only real victim of his own weaknesses. At the Viennale 2022.
THE WHORE’S SON
The Whore’s Son is the story of a desperate mother-son relationship. A continuous chasing after each other without ever actually meeting. A love-hate relationship that can often lead to the most extreme solutions.
RIMINI
With Rimini, Ulrich Seidl once again gives us a merciless portrait of the world in which we live, in which no one is given a chance to save themselves, in which there is no hope for a better future, in which old songs from World War II still echo through the corridors of a shabby retirement home and act as a sad leitmotif in our lives.