In our VIENNALE DAILIES you'll find everything you need to know about what's happening around the festival!
Fear and love, cinema and hypnosis, the future and the void, these concepts go very well together
(Bertrand Bonello)
NEED SOME FILMTIPS? HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS!
BIRTH/REBIRTH
Laura Moss | USA 2022 | 98 min | OV
Wednesday, October 25: 11.30 pm - Gartenbaukino
Monday, October 30: 11.15 pm - Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus
What if the monster was someone Frankenstein loved? This is the conundrum posed by Laura Moss’ feature debut. A psychological horror film that re-envisions the maternal desire to create life, BIRTH/REBIRTH centres on the fraught relationship between Rose (Marin Ireland), a brusque, unemotional scientist, and Celie (Judy Reyes), a nurse who has just lost her seven-year-old daughter (A. J. Lister) to bacterial meningitis. Rose discovers that the dead girl has the perfect blood type to allow her to realise her dream of reversing death. Eventually, science and emotion come into conflict; the experiment begins to fail, but Celie will not lose her daughter again. Cold rationality and passionate attachment are neatly divided between BIRTH/REBIRTH’s two main characters, but eventually these positions begin to evolve and even switch. Moss makes the unexpected move of combining Cronenbergian body-horror with a tragic mother/daughter narrative, locating the overlap between a woman’s absolute love for her child and the almost Faustian quest for knowledge. BIRTH/REBIRTH ofers a scenario in which the emotional stakes and the ethical quandaries could not be greater. (Michael Sicinski)
ANQA
Helin Çelik | Austria, Spain 2023 | 91 min | OV w/ EN subtitles
Wednesday, October 25: 6.00 pm - Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus
Thursday, October 26: 4.30 pm - Metro, Historischer Saal
How can cinema produce an ethical depiction of trauma? Helin Çelik’s experimental documentary ANQA provides a tentative answer. The film observes and interviews three Jordanian women, all of whom have experienced violence and abuse. One woman copes with her past by listening to a soap opera whose drama mirrors her own biography. Another professes to love her children, but insists that they would be better of if she killed them. A third woman’s struggles are palpable but less easily defined. Çelik adopts a patient, elliptical approach, in part to disguise the identities of her subjects. But her method also suggests that trauma is ordinary, that it lingers among the textures of daily life. ANQA films its interviewees in close-ups that highlight the surface of their skin and often employs rack focus or of-kilter framing to show the details of their domestic spaces. The film examines the surfaces of shag carpet, the intricate patterns of wallpaper and the light filtering through curtains. In this way, Çelik shows that although these women’s worlds have become incredibly small, with close attention revealing great complexity. (Michael Sicinski)
In the presence of Helin Çelik.
THE FIRST SLAM DUNK
INOUE Takehiko | Japan 2022 | 124 min
Wednesday, October 25: 11.30 pm - Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus (OV w/ EN subtitles)
Sunday, October 29: 6.30 pm (OV w/ GER subtitles) - Urania
The undisciplined hothead. The playground enemy turned teammate. The player living in the shadow of his all-star brother. The final Hail Mary pass. THE FIRST SLAM DUNK is a classic underdog basketball movie in anime form, delivering all the expected narrative beats right on time. But writer-director Inoue Takehiko offers a twist on the formula. Instead of showing the physical and emotional struggles leading up to the all-important big game, THE FIRST SLAM DUNK is the big game from start to finish, providing characterisation mostly through flashbacks.
The main focus of the film is Ryota, a relatively short, scrappy player still mourning the death of his older brother Sota, star of the Shohoku High School team. As the film evolves, it turns away from Ryota’s personal turmoil, expanding to include the other Shohoku players, who mirror Ryota’s own development. He must become an unselfish team player if he wants to win it all. Although Inoue mostly maintains a realistic animation style, he uses the visual potential of anime to amp up the brutal kinetics of hard-in-the-paint b-ball, resulting in rousing, old fashioned entertainment for all ages. (Michael Sicinski)
GÉNÉALOGIES D'UN CRIME
Raúl Ruiz | France, Portugal 1997 | 115 min | OV w/ EN subtitles
Wednesday, October 25: 9.45 pm - Filmmuseum
Friday, December 29: 6.00 pm - Filmmuseum
Young René is accused of killing his aunt Jeanne. He is aided by Solange, a lawyer who is in mourning for her son. Partly told like a Hitchcockian parody as a tricky Whodunnit that nests time layer within time layer, the film does not have a plural in its title for nothing. Various derivations of the crime are presented. Two enemy psychoanalysts, themselves moderately deranged, are particularly prominent. The search for the supposed predetermination of the crime develops into a confusing conundrum, to which the striking similarity of aunt and lawyer may have provided the key from the beginning. (Barbara Kronsfoth)
SOME OF OUR GUESTS TODAY
Kitty Kino
Director of DIE NACHTMEERFAHRT
Helin Çelik
Director of ANQA
João Canijo
Director of MAL VIVER
Catherine Breillat
Director of L'ETÉ DERNIER
Claire Simon
Director of NOTRE CORPS
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE VIENNALE ZENTRALE?
TALK WITH CATHERINE BREILLAT
Ab 6.30 pm - FREE ENTRY!
Because of her provocative and explicit approach to relationships, sexuality and gender dynamics, French director, writer and screenwriter Catherine Breillat is well known – and controversial. In addition to human desires, Breillat's films always address power relations and existential questions of identity. As part of the Viennale, she talks about her vision and her work, with a special focus on her screenwriting.
Moderation: Marie Luise Lehner.
In French with translation..
In cooperation drehbuchFORUM Wien.
AFTERWARDS IN THE Viennale Campari Lounge
Party: PETER NACHTNEBEL - from 8.30 pm:
As co-operator of the Fluc, Peter Nachtnebel has helped shape Vienna's music scene for 20 years. He puts on vintage vinyl from the 70s and 80s and takes you musically from Addis Ababa to Lagos, from Nairobi to Bamako and back. His mixes include favorite genres Afrobeat, Afrodisco, Benga and Ethio Jazz. Get on up!
FROM 10 PM IN THE VIENNALE ZENTRALE:
Party: DISCO ARABESQUO / LUMA / QAMAREEN AKA LUNA ALMOUSLI / ABU NAIMA
PRESS
"Los muertos": Unwrite them, unwrite us
Viennale 2023: Große Namen, Nachwuchsregisseure und Filmgeschichte