In Paradise: Love we find all the constants of Ulrich Seidl’s cinema in a deeply intelligent, painful and merciless work. The cynicism and hypocrisy of human beings, the difference between social classes, but also – and above all – a deep loneliness and a desperate need for love are the absolute protagonists. Can there ever be an even faint chance of salvation? The director seems to have no doubt about it.
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.
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.
A cynical and disillusioned perspective focuses mainly on the numerous paradoxes that come to life when different realities are shown to us one after the other. We laugh a lot, we laugh almost from beginning to end, while watching War in Vienna. Yet, on closer inspection, what we are shown is quite disturbing. At the Viennale 2022, section Österreich real.
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.
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.
Extremely complex moral issues bring up secrets and grudges, while at the same time giving rise to merciless revenge. Side Effects and Risks stages all this in a never banal or predictable way (thanks also – and above all – to the play by Stefan Vögel from which it is inspired), proving to be a deep and entertaining film at the same time, which, however, precisely because of the particular directorial approach adopted, would seem more appropriate for television broadcasting.
The Hawk is a bizarre, irreverent feature film with an almost TV-like style, which, through a simple and at the same time complex story, questions certain family dynamics and precarious balances that risk breaking down forever when the past comes knocking at the door again. At the Diagonale’22.
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.
A great melancholy and a deep sense of loneliness pervade Whores’ Glory. A multifaceted, colourful, but also incredibly touching and painful documentary. Not one, but many stories that only the attentive and sensitive gaze of Michael Glawogger could have told so well.