Toni Erdmann is the film one does not expect. Is it, perhaps, a comedy? A drama? The story of a tender but complex father-daughter relationship? A deep social investigation in which we are shown how capitalism seems to have definitively taken over our lives? Probably, each of these elements.
Club Zero is a mercilessly sincere feature film, extremely rigorous in its mise-en-scene, which finds its ideal mood in a sharp irony. The image of society depicted here has the sharp, vivid colours of a world in which no half-measures are allowed. Just like in the cinema of Hausner, who has been minutely analysing every single aspect of this very world for years now. In competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2023.
Moonbound is all in all an enjoyable, colourful and, at times, adrenaline-fuelled feature film for families. A film with an international scope that, however, both in terms of the script and the realisation of the CGI pictures, suffers greatly from the comparison with other animated films made in the meantime all over the world. At the Diagonale’22.
Close-ups of thoughtful faces, contemplative sunsets over the sea, but also colourful handprints creating a big painting fully convey the essence of Me, We. At the Diagonale 2021.
With In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl explores the inner self of the characters he filmed by entering their tidy, impeccable-looking homes, until he reaches their basements. And it is here that each of them finally reveals his or her true nature.
In Falling, Barbara Albert, in staging a strong nostalgia for the past, together with the desire to find oneself and one’s affections, skilfully avoids excessive emotionalism, showing a necessary detachment and a mature rationality in observing the five protagonists closely. Detachment and rationality that, in this case, manage to make us gradually get more and more connected with each individual character.
In competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival, Jasmila Zbanic gives us, with her Quo vadis, Aida?, a powerful and deeply painful story. And in order to stage the war and the personal drama of the protagonist, a skilful minimalist mise en scene proves to be the director’s best ally, who, in turn, knows how to reach the audience by skilfully avoiding any rhetoric. Except for a few missteps as we approach the finale.
A film, You bet your Life, which focuses entirely on the inner self of its protagonist and which, consequently, boasts a highly appropriate direction, with frequent use of shoulder-mounted cameras and frenetic editing to show us his anxieties.
Disenchanted, rational and appropriately satirical – with even a touch of subtle irony – Lourdes, by pointing the finger at a hypocritical and “respectable” society that lives only on illusions, shows us a very different reality from the one we imagine.
Hotel sees its greatest strength in a direction made up of static and symmetrical frame compositions, with colours turning mainly to green or red. A power of images achieved thanks to the contribution of the cinematographer Martin Gschlacht, a long-time collaborator of Hausner and co-founder of the production company Coop99.