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.
Genre: historical
A LAND WITHIN
In A Land Within, the strong sense of claustrophobia that is conveyed to us is particularly meaningful. Claustrophobia and helplessness, due to a context from which it seems practically impossible to find a way out.
THE DEVIL’S BATH
While watching The Devil’s Bath, we immediately get the impression that something terrible is about to happen. Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala have made a sophisticated and disturbing feature film that is extremely topical and rich in strong symbolism. In competition at the Berlinale 2024.
CROWN PRINCE RUDOLPH’S LAST LOVE
Despite being a heavily fictionalised feature film with many flaws, Crown Prince Rudolph’s last Love by Rudolf Jugert works. And it does so with a decidedly simple screenplay, which focuses first and foremost on the essentials without digressions and almost entirely devoid of subplots. Everything foreshadows an impending tragedy. The shadows get the better of the lights. Mary Vetsera’s naive face speaks for itself.
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.
THE TOBACCONIST
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.
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.
THE LAST TEN DAYS
Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s The Last Ten Days is the chronicle of the end of an era that would nevertheless have many consequences, even after many years. Sporadic ironic moments serve to soften the dramatic nature of the events. Particular care and elegance in the mise-en-scene make the film extraordinarily full of pathos.
ADVENTURES OF A MATHEMATICIAN
Adventures of a Mathematician meticulously analyses the most important professional achievements of young mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, drawing a multifaceted and honest portrait not only of its protagonist, but also of a crucial period in world history.
HELDENKANZLER
In Heldenkanzler we get a close look at the disturbing figure of Engelbert Dollfuss, whose voice-over tells us about the last years of his life. Two-dimensional drawings, a constant black and white only occasionally ‘contaminated’ by the red of the National Socialist flag or a few other details of the sets perfectly represent the gloom of the 1930s.