One of the most noteworthy names in Weimar cinema, Henrik Galeen – to whom the Viennale 2021 has dedicated a special retrospective – stood out at the beginning of the last century above all for the dark and disturbing character he used to give his works, now as scriptwriter, now as director or actor.
Film critic, curator and film historian Amos Vogel would have turned 100 years old on April 18, 2021. To celebrate this, the Österreichisches Filmmuseum in cooperation with the Viennale organised the retrospective Amos Vogel – Film as a subversive Art, which takes its title from the book of the same name written by the author in 1974. The cinema he researched is a cinema considered ‘different’, made by filmmakers who wanted to ‘free themselves’ from the demands of the big production companies and who would have hardly received the attention they deserved.
At the Viennale 2021, director C. B. Yi presented his feature film Moneyboys. Cinema Austriaco had the opportunity to have a chat with him and learn more about his film and his career. Interview by Marina Pavido.
At the Viennale 2021, director Sebastian Meise presented his feature film Great Freedom, chosen by Austria as a candidate for the Oscars 2022. Cinema Austriaco had the opportunity to have a chat with him and learn more about his film and his career. Interview by Marina Pavido.
Peter Tscherkassky’s Train again is not simply a tribute to film history and to one of the most beloved and versatile means of transport, which has always had great significance in film. Train again is also – and above all – a tribute to the history of Austrian avant-garde cinema and to one of its most outstanding representatives. At the Viennale 2021.
There is no need for much dialogue in Great Freedom. Likewise, the music is minimal but significant. What stands out is, first and foremost, a desperate need for love, conveyed to the audience through simple gestures and a well-composed and never excessive direction. At the Viennale 2021.
2020 shows us what we have not been able to see in recent months. And it does so in an ironic but also highly provocative way. Friedl vom Gröller shows us an unusual 2020, a ‘forbidden’ 2020, which in sharp black and white almost takes on the connotations of a dream. At the Viennale 2021.
In Stories from the Sea by Jola Wieczorek we are told many different stories with great sensitivity and lyricism. The director’s camera gives us striking images made even more precious and timeless by an elegant black and white. At the Viennale 2021.
In Social Skills we witness also a lively protest. A living, pulsating protest against a conformist world in which rules no longer consider human beings themselves and their well-being. A world in which human beings often move like puppets. Not one, but many arts take on multiple meanings and, all together, become one: cinema. At the Viennale 2021.
Nullo was shot with very few means and in a single location. In the protagonist’s small bedroom, there is only him and the director. And even on this occasion, Jan Soldat’s poetics and style are clearly recognisable. At the Viennale 2021.