Styria is among the most picturesque and surprising federal states in Austria. And, in this regard, Romantisches Steyrtal shows us just how much potential and charm there is in the Steyrtal, one of the largest and best known Styrian valleys, with its small villages, watercourses, waterfalls and small tourist resorts.
Drawing heavily from American noir films, as well as from the successful French polar films, Torment of the Flesh takes its cue from a series of feature films produced in Austria from the immediate post-war period, in which for the first time – just as had happened in Italy with Neorealism – there was talk of poverty and of the numerous consequences – moral and material – that the war had had on the entire population.
Werner Jacobs’ Heidi is a pleasant and extremely simple fairy tale, considering Spyri’s novel from which it is inspired. Nowadays, it seems to us to be a film intended almost exclusively for young and very young audiences, in which there are no real villains. Each character, therefore, is driven by personal, strong motivations that, at the end of the screening, are mercifully justified.