Metropole - October 2017

Hans Hurch headed

the Viennale for 20

years, presenting

films from around

the world that others

overlooked.

ON SCREEN

film

Happy End

Haneke’s latest take on technology and family dysfunction

has anything but the above

A connoisseur of despair, acclaimed

Austrian director Michael Haneke is a keen

observer of the malignant absurdity of soci-

ety, winning two Palmes d’Ors for The White

Ribbon and A m o u r. His latest, Happy End,

retreads familiar ground while presenting

new perspectives on his favorite topics.

Offering a candid portrait of a wealthy

Calais-based family, Happy End doesn’t pull

punches, mercilessly exposing secrets, lies

and bourgeois hypocrisy as the protagonists

dive deeper into self-inflicted misery, oblivi-

ous to the refugees wandering the streets

around them. Slow paced and meditative,

Haneke comfortably settles into the niche

he created over the last decades: the de-

structive tendencies of modern technology

and the surveillance it encourages, spiritual

malaise amid material comfort, emotional

egotism and indifference to suffering.

His trademark long shots help create an

evocative yet unsettling atmosphere, his in-

cohesive narrative concealing layers of hid-

den meaning in each scene. Anchored by

Isabelle Huppert as a strong matriarch

keeping the family together, the riveting

cast stoically faces their intolerable exis-

tence in minute detail.

festival

Jewish Film Festival

From hummus to Yinglish drama, movie buffs can look forward to

over two weeks of acclaimed kosher cinema

A deliciously offbeat fixture in Vienna’s

busy cultural calendar, since the early

1990s Vienna’s Jewish Film Festival has

celebrated the living culture of one of the

city’s oldest and most vibrant communi-

ties. Now in its 25th year, this edition will

include lots of food, parties and, as always,

exceptional cinema, with most films either

shown or subtitled in English.

The festivities will start on Oct 1 with

1945, a film set in postwar Hungary re-

volving around the war’s survivors and the

trials they face during the Russian occupa-

tion. Director Ferenc Török will attend the

screening at Urania Kino.

Another must-see this year is Joshua Z.

Weinstein’s Menashe (pictured), which fol-

lows the life of a widowed Jewish- Orthodox

man in New York who struggles with the

challenges of fatherhood. The dialogue is

fully spoken in Yiddish and Yinglish.

Other highlights include Hummus! The

Movie, a documentary about food’s poten-

tial to help overcome religious differences;

and Antenna, a dramedy by Arik Rothstein

about holocaust survivor Yehoshua who at-

tributes all his ailments to a cellular anten-

na he discovers on his roof.

If Hummus! The Movie made you crave

yiddish cuisine, the live cooking show and

concert with Benjy Fox-Rosen (who will

also attend KlezMore, p 51), Deborah Gze-

shand and Alexander Shevchenko will sate

your appetite: The music will be accompa-

nied by Yiddish favorites like gefilte fish,

knish and chopped liver.

Finally, the festival will come to an end

with a closing party at Top Kino. Mazel Tov!

Oct 1-19, various locations. jfw.at

Starts Oct 6, Votiv,

9., Währinger Strasse 12. votivkino.at

Starts Oct 20, Burg,

1.,Opernring 19. burgkino.at

pioneering Austrian silent era star Carmen
Cartellieri, a huge draw in the early 20th cen-
tury but almost forgotten today; while the
Filmmuseum will be looking eastward with a
large retrospective on Soviet cinema, juxta-
posing Stalinist era masterpieces by the likes
of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein with
later works from the comparatively less
repressive 1950s–70s.
And as an extra treat, there will be a
Christoph Waltz special, showcasing his
work from his early days in Austria to his
more recent Hollywood blockbusters, with
the man himself scheduled to appear for the
gala screening at the Gartenbaukino.
As the Viennale has yet to appoint Hurch’s
permanent successor, next year’s festival
may be uncertain, but at the very least we’ll
get to enjoy the vision of a man who saw film
as an aesthetic rather than a commercial
medium, someone who loved the sheer art of
it – and the artists on both sides of the
camera. For one last time.