In Somewhere Else we see different approaches to life, to present and future. What Barbara Albert primarily wanted to communicate to us is an albeit weak and uncertain message of hope, as well as a strong, very strong desire to start again. At the Viennale 2022, section Österreich real.
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.
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.
Sunspots (the last short film before Barbara Albert’s debut into the world of full-length films, made in 1998), while presenting a decidedly experimental approach, is strikingly reminiscent of Nordrand, the debut film by the Viennese director, actress and film producer, directed the following year.
With Northern Skirts, Barbara Albert told dramatic and extraordinarily joyful stories, probably thanks to her own 29-year-old youthfulness, and managed to establish herself on the international film scene.