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.
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.
The Royal Game is an endless journey between its protagonist’s past and present. The Royal Game is a rollercoaster ride, the meeting point between the outside world and the inner world. An experience that, at times, can really hurt.
The extreme realism of Northern Skirts gives way here to an impeccable elegance. And even if we are nostalgic for that suburbia so well depicted in the debut feature by the Viennese director, we have to admit that Mademoiselle Paradis shows a marked personality.
There really is a lot to be enjoyed in dealing with all the numerous ideas that the life of this brilliant artist has to offer us. All depends on knowing how to handle them well, in order to make a never predictable or didactic work that is able to portray one of Austria’s most important artistic personalities as passionately and faithfully as possible. And Dieter Berner has perfectly succeeded in this never easy and by no means banal task with his Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden.