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MISS MARX

MISS MARX: OPENING FILM OF THE VIENNALE 2020

02 Oct 2020

MISS MARX: OPENING FILM OF THE VIENNALE 2020

Director Susanna Nicchiarelli and producer Alessio Lazzareschi to be festival guest

MISS MARX by Susanna Nicchiarelli is the opening film of the 58th Viennale. It is a film that celebrates the spirit of an unconventional and determined woman, Eleanor Marx, the youngest daughter of the great economist Karl Marx. After his death, she continued her father’s work with dedication and intelligence, fighting for workers’ and women’s rights and for the end of exploitation in factories. Eleanor was a brilliant woman who devoted her life to two extreme passions – work and the man she loved – and who had to deal with the painful compromises that came along with it.

Susanna Nicchiarelli has created an exciting portrait of this woman in her unusual and free film that subverts the conventions of both period film and biopic.

“Her protagonist is a modern woman, exposed to tensions that we also know from our everyday life,” says Viennale director Eva Sangiorgi. “We’re delighted to welcome Susanna Nicchiarelli and the film’s producer Alessio Lazzareschi as guests at the festival opening. They represent the energy of contemporary auteur cinema, in this case made in Italy.”

MISS MARX, Susanna Nicciarelli

Director's Statement

Eleanor’s story gave me an opportunity to explore startlingly contemporary themes within a period context, but to do so properly I was determined to first study and then overturn the clichés of the costume drama. I tried to subvert the image of a Victorian heroine and replace it with a modern, emblematic picture of a woman fighting battles on both the personal front and the world stage. I believe that Eleanor’s story requires delicate irony: her love life was both absurd and tragic, her plight more than familiar to women today. But the story also demands profound respect: Eleanor’s battles and those of her peers are just as modern and urgent today as they were in the past.

Kinosaal

Opening film will be shown in all Viennale cinemas

In this exceptional year, the Viennale is showing its opening film in all ten cinemas available to the festival.
The opening gala traditionally takes place in the Gartenbaukino. In addition, MISS MARX will be screened for our audience in nine other cinemas at the same time: in the traditional Viennale cinemas Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus, Metro Kinokulturhaus, Filmmuseum and Urania as well as in the circuit cinemas Admiralkino, Blickle Kino im Belvedere 21, Filmcasino, LE STUDIO Film and Bühne c/o Studio Molière and Votiv Kino.