In Vista Mare everything is shown to us “from behind the scenes”. The workers are the great protagonists of this interesting documentary by Julia Gutweniger and Florian Kofler. Perfectly static shots – true pictures that, together, create a visually striking harmony – prove to be the right way to show us a reality that is only apparently idyllic. At the Locarno Film Festival 2023.
*Women (Nico), starting from the figure of the legendary singer, opens up a complex and topical discourse, immediately taking on universal connotations and, at the same time, paying homage to an artist who shaped the history of music (and pop culture) of the last century. At the festival Sotto le Stelle dell’Austria 2023.
In The Body is so resilient, Moana Vonstadl has opted for a minimalist yet incredibly effective mise-en-scène. The figure of Eva has sharp teeth and eyes that yearn for something undefined. She needs to feed herself, to nourish her self, to free herself from the grey world in which she has been imprisoned for a long, long time. At the festival Sotto le Stelle dell’Austria 2023.
Under the endless Sky is a little poetic short film that in its apparent simplicity has found the right way to convey the idea of what the young director’s world was like. A few essential blue strokes represent each time a new image. A bright, proud yellow, meanwhile, serves as a background. The colours of the Ukrainian flag thus tell us an extremely intimate and personal story. At the festival Sotto le Stelle dell’Austria 2023.
Serviam – I will serve immediately strikes us with its shots (all shot strictly with a fixed camera) of the schoolyard, but also of the interiors, so cold and perfectly tidy that they immediately convey a certain unease. A little girl’s voice recites a prayer. In the boarding school, life seems to proceed quietly and without any particularly noteworthy events. The feeling that, however, something terrible is about to happen accompanies us from beginning to end. At the festival Sotto le Stelle dell’Austria 2023.
With an animation that is indeed essential and minimalist, but also extremely colourful and rich in detail, Frida und Sisi Partner in Crime by Regine Kafaeder is an extremely free, living and pulsating work in its short but effective running time. At the festival Sotto le Stelle dell’Austria 2023.
Sotto le Stelle dell’Austria 2023 kicks off. In Rome, at the Forum Austriaco di Cultura, from June 20 to July 5, 2023.
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.
With Midas, Edgar Honetschläger has made a completely original and surprising feature film, a feature film that one does not expect, which skilfully deals with universal themes while at the same time taking a completely personal form. At the Diagonale’23.
The Fox might at first seem to be one of the many (too many?) films that depict a special friendship between humans and animals. And when approaching such stories, the risk of creating something overly rhetorical is higher than ever. Adrian Goiginger, fortunately, has managed to avoid such mistakes, focusing mainly on the childhood traumas of the young protagonist. At the Diagonale’23.