Quote:
“To live in Vienna, you either have to be cynical or stupid,” says the director’s alter ego at the end of the semi-documentary feature Slow Summer. A summary as temperamental as the film which deals with personal states of mind, the filmmaker’s very own existential entanglements one of which is crucially the stranger’s view of the semi-familiar city of Vienna but yet aims at an insight that goes beyond the private. This is only one of many self-reflective double entendres in a work rather unusual in Austrian cinema.

John Cook, a Canadian fashion photographer who had ended up in Vienna, was certainly neither cynical nor stupid. With only four films, made between 1972 and 1982, he gave Austrian cinema a taste of the innovative film movements which had flourished in other European countries decades before.

Slow Summer was shot on a minimal budget on Super-8 film (a 35mm blow-up was produced for the theatrical release). It positions itself close to the “real” life of its protagonists, a loosely assembled Viennese Bohème characterized by idleness and aimless drifting. One summer scene after the other unfolds in a documentary manner, framed by a film-in-film scenario which makes the construction apparent. The scenes are ruled by intensities those of the characters, but also of the mood of the day. The film is about nothing but then about everything: an image of time, the reflection of mental states that continuously change, and almost in passing it’s also a portrait of the city and the life hidden in its alleys.

Langsamer Sommer AKA Slow Summer (1976).avi

General
Container:	AVI
Runtime:	1h 23mn
Size:	1 000 MiB
Video
Codec:	XviD
Resolution:	560x416
Aspect ratio:	4:3
Frame rate:	25.000 fps
Bit rate:	1 450 Kbps
Audio
Deutsch 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/548975D1FB193EA/Langsamer_Sommer.avi

Language(s):German
Subtitles:English

The post John Cook – Langsamer Sommer AKA Slow Summer (1976) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

“John Cook found the subject of his first documentary in front of his doorstep. In order to pierce the heart of reality you do not need the largest bow – the protagonists and their story are simply too stimulating to pass them by. The janitor Gisi and Petrus – half her age, a gypsy , boxer and delinquent – are an unusual couple of the film , surrounded by a bunch of children . Today we would say that “I Just Can’t Go On” is a film about about precarity . It might be more precise to gescribe Gisi and Petrus as belonging to the class of the “outsiders” who at the margins of society build an enclave constantly threatened to tumble . Gisi works to her limit ; she cleans the house during the day and takes care of the children in the evening . Petrus shifts between energy-sapping occasional jobs and his boxing training , none of which he ever finishes successfully .
But working relations are only relevant as they relate to the possibility of a different life . Cook did not make a conventional social documentary : in “I Just Can’t Go On” people are not crushed by their circumstances without being able to reflect on them.”

766MB | 50m 20s | 768×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/DDAC86D2C900991/I_Just_Can’t_Go_On__John_Cook_1978_.mkv

Language:German
Subtitles:English

The post John Cook – Ich Schaff’s Einfach Nimmer AKA I Just Can’t Go On (1973) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Peter, a 20 year old Viennese photographer, has made the bookings for a holiday with his friend Liesl in the south of France. A French tourist seduces him and he falls for her. Liesl is mad at him. But she wants to go on the trip so she leaves with him. But they do not spend their time together. She flirts with the men on the beach while Peter falls for Simone, a southern beauty, even though they don’t speak the same language. Simone’s fiancé arrives and their affair is over. He misses her exotic charm and doesn’t find it in Liesl who’s just ‘the girl next door’ for him. Liesl flies back home when their vacation ends but Peter wants to stay on in France and look for a job. Contemporary love story about the confrontation of French and Austrian culture.

https://nitro.download/view/E41E0DC1C39D150/Artischocke_Cook.avi

Language:German
Subtitles:None

The post John Cook – Artischocke (1982) first appeared on Cinema of the World.