Just be there is a precious depiction of one of the many manifestations of Beauty in a wide sense. A highly realistic, poetic and contemplative documentary, which has made immortal moments that now belong to the past. At the Diagonale’22.
The camera is constantly static. The characters are often backlit and we cannot see the whole flat itself. We can only get a vague idea of it every time the frame changes. The stories and dialogues between the protagonists and the director are the absolute protagonists. In A Millionaire’s Melancholy there is no need for anything else.
Frau Maria and the Liquidation of Stastny Fabrics makes the few characters who appear on screen, their stories, the slowly emptying rooms and the hundreds of rolls of coloured fabrics its trademarks. And tender Mrs. Maria acts as precious witness of what has been.