In Woodland, the romanticism of the Waldeinsamkeit has the resigned eyes of Gerti, the habitual proxemics of Franz and the inner chaos of Marian, the only one who seems to be able to draw something positive from the encounter of two worlds, both old and new.
The Tobacconist is undoubtedly an interesting feature film, but it gets lost in the many paths it decides to take. And not even the presence of Bruno Ganz or a cameo by the great Erni Mangold can do much.
Despite an interesting story and distinctly clever insights, Above the World stands out for certain stylistic and narrative choices that caused it to lose personality. At the Diagonale’22.
Narcissus and Goldmund is a film that, despite the undoubted mastery of director Stefan Ruzowitzky, despite the high budget employed and a respectable cast, despite visually and symbolically powerful moments, is overall excessively contrived and pretentious.
There is apparently no way of salvation for the protagonists of Götz Spielmann’s Revanche (as in any other work by the Austrian director). This implicit cosmic pessimism – filled, in its own way, with a subtle religiousness – assumes immediately a universal connotation concerning every historical period.