Stills: A Movie is a stream of consciousness, an affectionate and nostalgic look at what has been and what, even if only in the form of cards or photographs, continues to be today. What if, instead, it is primarily a simple yet complex reflection on art in all its forms? It is up to the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions at the end of the screening.
With a simple and essential directorial approach, Ruth Beckermann’s Those who go Those who stay is a rich and colourful documentary, in which human beings are always put in the foreground and sincerely and reverently observed in all their wonderful diversity.
Semra Ertan is what we do not expect, an intentionally fragmentary work, whose fragments, just like many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, compose a living, breathing portrait of a person who is now forgotten by most, but who did so much to make the world we live a better place. At the Viennale 2022, section Österreich real.
With a few simple shots and a single sentence repeated over and over again, Ulrich Seidl has fully conveyed the essence of his entire filmography. In Hakuna Matata – part of the collective project Venezia 70 Future Reloaded, realised on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival – there is no need for anything else.
Im Augenblick. Die Historie und das Offene plays with sensations and perceptions, is constantly searching for new ways of staging, is not afraid to dare or to exaggerate. The yellow of the cinematography almost suggests imminent danger. What if the danger is represented by humans themselves?
The working-class struggle, the need to ‘grow up’, but also – and above all – love torments are the absolute protagonists in Taking it Back. Andreas Schmied, who has always had a great aptitude for entertaining comedies, has attempted a mix of social discourse and sentimental aspects, paying more attention to the latter.
In Reign of Silence, the word is left exclusively to the images. There is no need for anything else, not even for redundant captions or music. Pure cinema. A directorial approach that is certainly extreme, but also incredibly mature and self-conscious. A directorial approach maintained by Lukas Marxt over the years.
If, while watching Omsch, on the one hand we are fascinated by such a tender and sincere story, on the other hand, we cannot help but notice how, as we approach the finale, the whole work seems somewhat self-referential.
In The First Sea there is very little place for adults. Everything is told on a child’s dimension and, overall, it slowly takes on the connotations of the cinema of François Truffaut or, better still, Abbas Kiarostami.
In Electro Moscow, the two directors, perfectly in line with what they wanted to stage, opted for an unconventional directorial approach, where the absolute protagonists are – as one can well imagine – sounds and colours, past and present, which alternate with frenetic rhythms, leaving the audience no time to catch their breath between one scene and the next.