Fanni has had enough of money and Anna has had enough of pigs. Fanni leaves the city and her pearls behind, while Anna is stuck wearing muddy overalls. When they finally cross paths, they embark on a punk adventure towards Marxist liberty.Read More »
The earlier films of Valie Export, one feels, were motivated by the author’s desire and need to investigate her own subjectivity, with the audience as a necessary part of the transference and the polemic. Man & Woman & Animal shows a woman finding pleasure in herself, the whole film is a kind of assertion and affirmation of female sexuality and its independence from male values and pleasures… (Joana Kiernan)Read More »
Two women move through their day in an urban environment, physically present yet emotionally isolated, transmitting the tense unfolding of young adulthood. Read More »
A neo-Nazi organization is recruiting in the 1980s, and two youths of high-school age join for similar reasons, despite class differences. Thomas is the son of a self-made industrialist father and a scolding social-climbing mother. He attends private school and has a brother who’s an accomplished musician, but neither can satisfy mom’s constant demands for school and social success. She belittles them, and there’s incessant bickering at their table. Charly, a dropout, is the son of an abusive, alcoholic laborer. In the youth group, each finds order, respect, camaraderie, and adults who seem to value them. Where do domestic abuse and sanctioned political violence end?Read More »
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In this intriguing experiment, four Austrian filmmakers (Barbara Albert, Michael Glawogger, Ulrich Seidl, Michael Sturminger) take their cameras to the streets to find out what’s going on in their country, most notably why in the last election the country elected a far-right candidate (Jörg Haider) to the presidency. The film is divided into six documentary segments of varying lengths, capturing the rhythms of life around the country.Read More »
Gerhard, an Austrian early retiree, finally settles for Thailand, the land of the sun, to live a good life with his girlfriend Amy. He cuts all ties with the old world and passionately starts to build a home for both of them – and Amy’s family.Read More »
Milan tells the story of his older brother Sascha, the pride of the Tomic family in Vienna. The war in their nearby homeland hits the family hard, destroying their dreams of a happy life. Sascha disappears in the chaos of the civil war and then returns to the family after a year, rootless and transformed by what he experienced as a soldier. Sascha quickly tries to forget by evoking memories of peace and tranquillity in Vienna. He has married Suza and intends to start a new life with her in Austria. However, the war catches up with the Tomic family, infecting them with hate. Sascha tries to fight it, while his embittered father adds fuel to the fire. The situation ends in a rupture between father and son. Milan, the family’s youngest, is helpless and lost between the two men, who were his childhood heroes. After Sascha’s tragic and unavoidable death, the insanity finally ends and Milan becomes an adult.Read More »
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What do you do if a stranger comes to your home and politely asks to borrow some eggs?
So far, it doesn’t sound like a good film, but Funny Games isn’t a good film. There’s no way it can be middle-of-the-road, it’s either brilliant or awful, depending on your point of view. Consider that when this film was first shown at Cannes, a lot of the audience walked out, including some professional film critics. In short, this is a film you need to see to have any true appreciation of how it works. I could describe everything that happens in minute detail, and still not impart what actually happens.Read More »
Synopsis:
In 1980s Vienna, a dissident artist’s life is turned upside down when her estranged partner reappears after prison, prompting a perilous journey back to Czechoslovakia that threatens her newfound family..Read More »