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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 »
Follow-up to Ulrich Seidl’s previous film, Rimini. It focuses on Richie Bravo’s brother, Ewald.
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Ewald moved to Romania years ago. Now in his 40s, he seeks a fresh start. Leaving his girlfriend, he moves to the hinterland. With young boys from the area, he transforms a decaying school into a fortress. The children enjoy a new, carefree existence. But the distrust of the villagers is soon awoken. And Ewald is forced to confront a truth he has long suppressed. Sparta is the brother film to Rimini, and the conclusion of Ulrich Seidl’s diptych about the inescapability of the past and the pain of finding yourself.Read More »
Ulrich Seidl’s documentary debut is about the foreigners who sell newspapers in their red uniforms on the streets of Vienna. A comparison between the world of the foreigner selling the newspaper and the Austrian who reads it in his living room.Read More »
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Ewald moved to Romania years ago. Now in his 40s, he seeks a fresh start. Leaving his girlfriend, he moves to the hinterland. With young boys from the area, he transforms a decaying school into a fortress. The children enjoy a new, carefree existence. But the distrust of the villagers is soon awoken. And Ewald is forced to confront a truth he has long suppressed. Sparta is the brother film to Rimini, and the conclusion of Ulrich Seidl’s diptych about the inescapability of the past and the pain of finding yourself.Read More »
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Six Catholics share their thoughts and problems with Jesus in different churches. The camera accompanies them.
Great, uncompromising semi-documentary about six people who tell Jesus any given detail that is on their mind. They practice in such detailed manner that not seldomly you won’t manage to keep serious. For instance Elfriede who while cleaning the church’s floor and dusting the crucifixes starts her whining soliloquy about her Muslim husband’s behavior after sickness, his TV habits which appear to have taken influence on their relationship. Read More »
The death of his mother brings Richie Bravo back from his adopted home in Italy to his teenage bedroom in Lower Austria, where Charlton Heston is still flexing his biceps and Winnetou is still alive.Read More »
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Dog Days is an incredible film, though what it has to offer will certainly not be appreciated by every viewer. This is not to be meant as condescending – I simply mean not everyone will enjoy Ulrich Seidl’s aesthetics which have more than a little in common with Von Trier’s Domga 95 movement. Though Seidl doesn’t explicitly articulate his aesthetics the way Von Trier does, it features the same sense of realism. The characters are mostly non-actors wearing their own clothes and without makeup (except where diegetically necessary). The acting is very raw with many scenes calling for displays of intense emotional pain. There is no non-diegetic music. The film is shot entirely with hand-held DV. The film is, however, very aesthetically appealing. There are many beautiful, sun-drenched compositions, even if all the characters are sweating!Read More »
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Dog Days is an incredible film, though what it has to offer will certainly not be appreciated by every viewer. This is not to be meant as condescending – I simply mean not everyone will enjoy Ulrich Seidl’s aesthetics which have more than a little in common with Von Trier’s Domga 95 movement. Though Seidl doesn’t explicitly articulate his aesthetics the way Von Trier does, it features the same sense of realism. The characters are mostly non-actors wearing their own clothes and without makeup (except where diegetically necessary). The acting is very raw with many scenes calling for displays of intense emotional pain. There is no non-diegetic music. The film is shot entirely with hand-held DV. The film is, however, very aesthetically appealing. There are many beautiful, sun-drenched compositions, even if all the characters are sweating!Read More »
SYNOPSIS:
A film about news, life, love and death. Four days in Vienna, four days in world news.
At home children are born, the dead are washed, or people simply wait for the bus. At the same time television broadcasts very different images. A ferry sinks off the Philippines, Sadam Hussein decorates his soldiers with medals, and in Vienna a war breaks out that in reality never took place. With news reports from: Argentina, Austria, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Irak, Italy, Japan, Libya, Luxemburg, Monaco, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, West Germany, USA, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia.Read More »