After letting in an easy goal, the experienced German goalkeeper, Josef Bloch, believing it is offside, engages in a loud and fierce argument with the referee. Moments later, Josef is sent off, then, packs his things in a small bag, and catches the first tram into Vienna, to wander aimlessly from his cheap hotel to the local cinema. Before long, Gloria, the movie theatre’s polite cashier, catches Josef’s eye. She seems willing to hear him; however, can she provide a cathartic means of escape?
Tag: AUSTRIA
A boy and his mother stay in a hotel near a lake. The teenager meets a fascinating man who can be a singer, a conjurer, and can take him for a ride in his sports-car. Then the mother seems attracted by the man too. The boy’s jealousy rises, culminating in a scene on the road at night where he waits for the man who is stealing his mum. He discovers how hard it is growing up. Is he himself in love with his mother, or does he fear his parents’ marriage may be in jeopardy?
Franz West (1909-85) remembers his youth in Vienna: the variety of the Jewish population of the so called Matzah-Island, his commitment to the worker’s movement of the Red Vienna and the rise of Austro-fascism and National Socialism. West’s masterly narration combined with impressing archive footage illustrate and elucidate the complex Austrian history between WW1 and WW2.
Bernhard’s last play Heldenplatz, viewed as an attack on Austria, caused a media sensation in Vienna in 1989 and brought widespread reactions of outrage that ranged from the man in the street to the highest government officials. Such criticism totally misconstrued the nature and purpose of the play, which in form, style, and content fits directly into the normal sequence of his plays. Using his standard technique of exaggeration and employing his outstanding linguistic talent, Bernhard contributes to the theme of Vergangenheitsbewältigung on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Anschluβ. A sickly character, Robert Schuster, representing a fatally ill Bern-hard, makes a last effort to confront the deficiencies of the land Bernhard loved, not hated, as is commonly assumed.
Eva has just gotten married to an older gentleman, but discovers that he is obsessed with order in his life and doesn’t have much room for passion. She becomes despondent and leaves him, returning to her father’s house. One day while bathing in the lake she meets a young man and they fall in love. The husband has become grief stricken at the loss of his young bride, and fate brings him together with the young lover that has taken Eva from him.
After a frank confession by his wife, a doctor is called to see a dying patient. The cause of the night brings him to meet an old friend, a pianist, who tells him of a mysterious ball where he is due to perform. Based on the book “Traumnovelle” (“Rhapsody: A Dream Novel”) by Arthur Schnitzler.
Described as an answer to Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun, Fraulein tells the story of a German woman and a former French prisoner of war living in 1950s Germany. Instead of playing a role in rebuilding her country, Haneke’s heroine remains preoccupied with her personal affairs. Shot predominantly in black and white (with a color sequence added toward the end), Fraulein asserts Haneke’s place alongside the masters of the New German Cinema.