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PREVIEW PRESS CONFERENCE
FIRST HIGHLIGHTS OF VIENNALE 2016
OCTOBER 20—NOVEMBER 2
Vienna, August 19, 2016
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are pleased to inform you about the current state of preparations for the Viennale 2016.
This year, the Viennale will take place from October 20 to November 2.
The existing documents present the first preview, as well as already established points of the program from the
54th edition of the Viennale. We also introduce the poster subject of the festival and the Retrospective.
Continuously updated information can be found on our website www.viennale.at/en; press material and photos to download at www.viennale.at/en/press/download.
Twitter & Facebook
Effective immediately, the Viennale press team is also active on social media. News, useful information and the
big secrets will, in future, also be available on Twitter (@ViennalePress) and Facebook (group: viennalepress).
Please register if interested.
Viewing Options
With immediate effect, a selection of films from this year’s festival can be viewed for press purposes. Upon request, we can provide DVDs or links for viewing. For members of our long-term partner Festival Scope, there
are many films available for viewing on their portal, https://pro.festivalscope.com
For any further questions, please contact us.
With kindest regards,
The Viennale Press Team
[email protected]
Fredi Themel 01/526 59 47-30
Lisa Kriechhammer 01/526 59 47-33
Katharina Riedler 01/526 59 47-20
Accreditations, from August 22:
Katharina Riedler 01/526 59 47-20
[email protected]
(Accreditation applications accepted until September 30)
printed by
VIENNALE 2016
OKTOBER 20 TO NOVEMBER 2
VIENNALE 2016
A Festival of Films
MAIN PROGRAM OF THE VIENNALE 2016
Feature Films
Documentaries
DANCER IN THE DARK
A Tribute to Christopher Walken
TIME AND TIDE
A Tribute to Peter Hutton
ANALOG PLEASURE. PART 1
The Film Festival as Cinematheque
ROBERT LAND
Rediscovering a Lost Émigré Filmmaker
RETROSPECTIVE
A SECOND LIFE – Themes and Variations in Film
VIENNALE 2016
A Festival of Films
As previously mentioned on several occasions, the Viennale aspires to be more than a simple “festival of festivals.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we can afford or want to do without a selection of the most important and crucial
new films that have premiered at other, larger or smaller festivals between Cannes and Buenos Aires over the
past year. Much rather, it means that the Viennale also tries to make the one or other unusual discovery off the
beaten tracks of the market and the media. But actually, the pressure of discovery has already become part of
the industry and its mechanisms in its own right. So, perhaps we should try to simply and humbly be what’s most
meaningful and beautiful: a big festival for the most exciting, independent, vibrant and essential films of the year.
In short: a festival of films.
Hans Hurch
LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV
Albert Serra, F 2016
FEI CUI ZHI CHENG
Midi Z, Taiwan/Myanmar 2016
DAFT PUNK UNCHAINED
Hervé Martin-Delpierre, F/GB 2015
Main Program of the Viennale 2016
Today, about two months before the start of the festival, the rich and diverse program of this year’s Viennale
begins to emerge. As in previous years, the current world situation often isn’t so much reflected as a direct image,
but rather appears like a watermark in the narrations of the new films. This is true for fictional works such as
AKHER AYAM EL MADINA or DARK NIGHT, as well as for BODKIN RAS or RADIO DREAMS . The imprint of the
political is far more evident in many documentaries of the Viennale 2016 program, including A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME, DUGMA: THE BUTTON , FI RASSI ROND-POINT or LA PERMANENCE . In the documentary genre we also present a number of interesting film portraits, for example on the director Brian De Palma,
the musician Frank Zappa, the authors Peter Handke and John Berger, and the controversial New York political
star Anthony Weiner.
CERTAIN WOMEN
Kelly Reichardt, USA 2016
DARK NIGHT
Tim Sutton, USA 2016
WEINER
Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA 2015
As always, the Viennale program features several major films, including Kelly Reichardt’s episodic movie
CERTAIN WOMEN with Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern, and the outstanding portrayals by
Isabelle Huppert of two completely different female figures in Mia Hansen-Løve’s L’AVENIR and Paul Verhoeven’s
ELLE . Further highlights are Don Cheadle’s fictional Miles Davis portrait, Jim Jarmusch’s PATERSON and Albert
Serra’s LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV with Jean-Pierre Léaud in the role of the dying French Sun King.
Austrian cinema is strongly represented in the film selection with new works such as KATER (Händl Klaus),
HOMO SAPIENS (Nikolaus Geyrhalter), MISTER UNIVERSO (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel), SÜHNHAUS (Maya
McKechneay), ACCELERANDO (Georg Wasner) and STILLE RESERVEN (Valentin Hitz).
The Poster Subjects of the Viennale 2016
We would like to leave the solving and explaining of the main poster subjects of the Viennale 2016 to our curious
and informed audience. It is not particularly difficult to find out who is hiding behind the somewhat abstract and
distorted black-and-white portrait. Pay special attention to the hair and shoulders of this person, who is not really
that mysterious.
The poster subject for the retrospective “A Second Life: Themes and Variations in Film” is a montage or succession of two images from two different films of the same title, Elephant: the 37-minute Irish film ELEPHANT
(1989) by Alan Clarke and Gus Van Sant’s film adaptation of the notorious massacre at the Columbine High School
in Littleton, Colorado. The similarities and differences of these two films, as well as many others, is the subject of
this year’s retrospective.
Viennale 2016
Retrospective 2016
Selection from the feature film program
AKHER AYAM EL MADINA Tamer El Said, Ägypten/D/GB/VAE 2016
L’AVENIR Mia Hansen-Løve, F/D 2016
BODKIN RAS Kaweh Modiri, NL/B 2016
CERTAIN WOMEN Kelly Reichardt, USA 2016
CORRESPONDÊNCIAS Rita Azevedo Gomes, P 2016
CUMP4RSIT4 Raúl Perrone, Argentinien 2016
DARK NIGHT Tim Sutton, USA 2016
DIAMANT NOIR Arthur Harari, F/B/Kanada 2016
ELLE Paul Verhoeven, F 2015
EL FUTURO PERFECTO Nele Wohlatz, Argentinien 2016
INFORME GENERAL II. EL NUEVO RAPTO DE EUROPA Pere Portabella, E 2016
KATER Händl Klaus, A 2016
LA LOI DE LA JUNGLE Antonin Peretjatko, F 2016
MILES AHEAD Don Cheadle, USA 2015
MISTER UNIVERSO Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, A/I 2016
LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV Albert Serra, F 2016
LE PARC Damien Manivel, F 2016
PATERSON Jim Jarmusch, USA 2016
RADIO DREAMS Babak Jalali, USA 2016
RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0 Anurag Kashyap, Indien 2016
EL REY DEL ONCE Daniel Burman, Argentinien 2016
STILLE RESERVEN Valentin Hitz, A 2016
I TEMPI FELICI VERRANNO PRESTO Alessandro Comodin, I/F 2016
UNTERWÄSCHELÜGEN Klaus Lemke, D 2016
ZHI FAN YE MAO Zhang Hanyi, China 2016
Selection from the documentary program
A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME Jumana Manna, Palästina/D/GB 2016
ACCELERANDO Georg Wasner, A 2016
AUSTERLITZ Sergei Loznitsa, D 2016
LE COMPLEXE DE FRANKENSTEIN Alexandre Poncet, Gilles PensoPoncet, F 2015
DAFT PUNK UNCHAINED Hervé Martin-Delpierre, F/GB 2015
DAISIS MIZIDULOBA Salomé Jashi, Georgien/D 2016
DE PALMA Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow, USA 2015
DUGMA – THE BUTTON Paul S. Refsdal, NO 2016
EAT THAT QUESTION – FRANK ZAPPA IN HIS OWN WORDS Thorsten Schütte, F/D 2016
ESCAPES Michael Almereyda, USA 2016
FEI CUI ZHI CHENG Midi Z, Taiwan/Myanmar 2016
FI RASSI ROND-POINT Hassen Ferhani, Algerien/F/Katar/Libanon/NL 2015
HOMO SAPIENS Nikolaus Geyrhalter, A 2016
LANDSTÜCK Volker Koepp, D 2016
OLEG Y LAS RARAS ARTES Andrés Duque, E 2015
LA PERMANENCE Alice Diop, F 2016
PETER HANDKE – BIN IM WALD. KANN SEIN, DASS ICH MICH VERSPÄTE … Corinna Belz, D 2016
THE SEASONS IN QUINCY: FOUR PORTRAITS OF JOHN BERGER Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth,
Tilda Swinton, Bartek Dziadosz, GB 2015
SÜHNHAUS Maya McKechneay, A 2016
V LUCHAKH SOLNCA Vitaly Mansky, RUS/D/CZ/LV/Nordkorea 2015
WEINER Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA 2015
Dancer in the Dark
A Tribute to Christopher Walken
The American actor Christopher Walken is one of the most exceptional and unconventional figures in American cinema from the
past few decades. His roles in about 100 productions include some
of the most legendary films in the more recent history of cinema,
such as THE DEER HUNTER , KING OF NEW YORK or AT CLOSE
RANGE . And sometimes a single cameo appearance by Walken,
like the one in TRUE ROMANCE , is enough to make a whole film
forever unforgettable. Due to his slightly sinister looks and his particular, sonorous way of speaking, broken up by strange pauses,
early on he was typecast as the bad guy, the outcast and sometimes
as a psychopath. But he is much more than that. Christopher
Walken is a trained dancer, something that repeatedly becomes
apparent in his roles. He also has a good sense of highly subtle
humor and cool self-irony. And in the most wonderful moments,
Walken is everything at once: a dancing and dangerous, funny and ominous, but above all, great and completely
singular actor in a series of outstanding films.
In our tribute to Christopher Walken, we present his central works, including THE DEER HUNTER , THE DEAD
ZONE , CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and THE ADDICTION , along with less known films and some of his legendary sidesteps, such as appearances in the music video WEAPON OF CHOICE by Fatboy Slim or the hilarious episode “More
Cowbell” from Saturday Night Live.
Time and Tide
A Tribute to Peter Hutton
A few weeks ago, the American filmmaker Peter Hutton, one of the most eminent exponents of contemporary
avant-garde cinema, passed away at the age of 71. Created over almost half a century, Hutton’s work represents
an incomparable, personal cinematic cosmos and a great, radical and artistic appeal to the world at the same
time. His films are simultaneously simple and multilayered
artifacts, diary and travelogue, historical study and world
survey, painting and sculpture, captured with a fascinating,
insistent, poetic and open view of both natural and cultural
phenomena.
In comparison with most experimental filmmakers of his
generation, Hutton was a kind of retrograde avant-gardist,
his work returning to the beginnings of cinema, the static,
continuous silent view of the Lumière Brothers. A precise
and curious cinema of world observation, on the one hand,
and a highly artificial and subtle composition of a different,
new cinematic world on the other. His films include city portraits and architectural descriptions, industrial studies and
private notes. A recurring theme is the ocean that Hutton traversed as a sailor for many years, and the Hudson
River, the valley of which represented a kind of home and place of refuge for the filmmaker.
“I’ve never felt that my films are very important in terms of the history of cinema,” Peter Hutton once said.
The tribute that we’re dedicating to this great friend of the Viennale in honor and commemoration shows that
with each film by Peter Hutton, cinema starts all over again.
Analog Pleasure. Part 1
The Film Festival as Cinematheque
At a time during which a film festival is the last place, apart from
archives and cinematheques, where films are presented in the form
that their makers conceived and created them, the Viennale is starting a small series entitled “Analog Pleasure.” It shows a selection of
analog works in various film formats – from 8mm in the small EricPleskow-Saal at the Metro Kinokulturhaus to 70mm in the large
Gartenbaukino. The idea behind this program is to make the presentation of analog material part of the festival, that is, to address a way of perception that is a genuine cinematographic one. And not doing it with the strained aspiration to educate and instruct, but for the pure viewing
experience of a series of unusual cinematic works. These include restored copies of selected 8mm films by the
legendary Berlin artist group Die Tödliche Doris from the first half of the 1980s, the central French experimental
film LA VALLÉE CLOSE (1995) by Jean-Claude Rousseau in a 16mm copy, and Stephanie Rothman’s feminist sexploitation debut film THE STUDENT NURSES (1970), produced by Roger Corman. Furthermore, Jacques Tati’s
masterpiece PLAYTIME in the original 70mm version can be seen in Austria for the first time.
Robert Land
Rediscovering a Lost Émigré Filmmaker
Robert Land is regarded as one of the great unknowns of German-language cinema from the interwar period.
The documentation of his cinematic work could be described as fragmentary, at best, and his biography was
virtually unheard of. As in the case of so many émigré filmmakers, the political circumstances of expulsion led to
almost complete obliteration. And yet, Robert Land, born
in 1887 in Kroměříž, Moravia, can be considered a true
film-historical discovery. Preserved works already pointed
to the director’s mastery: DER FLUCH (The Curse, A, 1924),
the story of a young woman in a Jewish shtetl (Land discovered and cast Lilian Harvey in the leading role) and ICH
KÜSSE IHRE HAND, MADAME (I Kiss Your Hand, Madame,
D, 1927), an enthusiastically received silent film with the
first sound elements and starring Marlene Dietrich. Many
other titles – including DURCH DIE QUARTIERE DES ELENDS UND VERBRECHENS (Through the Quarters of Misery and Crime, A, 1920), based on Emil Kläger’s famous social reportage, and UNSCHULD – DIE KLEINE
VERONIKA (Innocence – Little Veronika, A, 1929), a screen adaptation of Felix Salten’s novella filmed in the
Viennese demimonde – were merely regarded as promising, for the films were presumed lost.
A few years ago, the Filmarchiv Austria initiated a large international research project on Robert Land. Many
international partner archives as well as private collectors were contacted in order to uncover the buried legacy
and life story of a documented film maniac, who ultimately became a victim of a murderous regime. In addition
to several archive findings, these efforts were also rewarded with some sensational discoveries, such as that of a
complete version of UNSCHULD , a late masterpiece of Austrian silent film that can now be seen on the big screen
again in a restored version. Robert Land, who was obsessed with cinema and also started the first crowd-funded
projects in order to realize his projects beyond the established film industry, did not live to enjoy the recognition
of his work. Following exile stops in Italy and Czechoslovakia, he died during his escape in 1938, in Paris, France.
At this year’s Viennale, the Filmarchiv Austria will show the first presentation of Robert Land’s work, thus complementing the history of Austrian exile cinema with a significant entry.
A PROGRAM BY FILMARCHIV AUSTRIA
RETROSPECTIVE
A SECOND LIFE
Themes and Variations in Film
Allegedly, everything has been done before. History repeats itself, be it as tragedy or as farce or just because or
for no particular reason. Everywhere, we constantly hear: back to the beginning, start all over, second chance,
new attempt. What luck! In this way everything stays in motion, a free-floating interplay of the elements, keeping
open the possibility that everything could actually also be completely different or will be one day.
For instance, that it is not about the money that can be made with a spiffed-up remake of a cherished old film,
but about passing on a story to a new generation: David versus Goliath in SHICHININ NO SAMURAI by Akira
Kurosawa (1954) and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN by John Sturges (1960). Or about conveying a character: pool
player Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen’s THE HUSTLER (1961) and Martin Scorsese’s THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986).
Or about communicating a feeling: revenge in SHURAYUKIHIME by Toshiya Fujita (1973) and Quentin Tarantino’s
KILL BILL: VOL.1 (2003). Or about readdressing a theme: class conceit in Douglas Sirk’s ALL THAT HEAVEN
ALLOWS (1956), Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF (1974) and Todd Haynes’s FAR FROM
HEAVEN (2002). And in this regard it is, then, about capturing another facet of a certain story or character, a
certain feeling or theme, nurturing them in the present or in a changed context.
In this sense, the 2016 Retrospective by the Viennale and the Austrian Film Museum focuses not on one theme,
but on many. It devotes itself to themes and their variations in film, from the past to the present day, crossing
genres and continents, while sounding out a few terms with regard to their content and usability along the way.
The aim is to get beyond the mercantilist vocabulary of contemporary mainstream cinema, beyond words such
as remake, sequel, prequel, reboot and spin-off, in order to explore the subject matter, its wealth (of meaning)
and the numerous possibilities of processing it.
For even seemingly simple retelling quickly becomes complex, if we think of Alfred Hitchcock, who decided
that his 1934 film THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was the work of a talented amateur and therefore simply
shot it again in 1956. And what, for example, happens when subject matter is transferred from one cultural context
to another? What does it look like when a Japanese classic (YOJIMBO, Kurosawa, 1961) is revived as a milestone
spaghetti western (PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI , Sergio Leone, 1964)? And what does a landmark of American
independent cinema (MILLER’S CROSSING , Coen Brothers, 1990) have to do with its two predecessors? Meanwhile, in the vast field of film adaptations, more precisely the numerous film versions of Emily Brontë’s rough
romantic novel Wuthering Heights (1847), the question is not so much whether the book or the film is “better,”
but rather in what way which adaptation comes close(r) to which aspect of the original. Something to reflect upon
on the example of WUTHERING HEIGHTS (William Wyler, 1939), ABISMOS DE PASIÓN (Luis Buñuel, 1953) and
HURLEVENT (Jacques Rivette, 1985).
It goes without saying that the selection chosen for this show is altogether subjective and can only be representative in view of its function: to offer a body of films on the basis of which narrative strategies may be considered
in a motif-historical, (film-)historical and geographic context. After all, the seventh art is a mythical driving force
of modernism and not a capitalist franchise factory.
Alexandra Seitz
A RETROSPECTIVE BY VIENNALE AND AUSTRIAN FILM MUSEUM
October 14 – November 30, 2016
Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Augustinerstraße 1, 1010 Vienna
Tel. 01/533 70 54 • www.filmmuseum.at
Films shown at the retrospective
ROMEO UND JULIA IM SCHNEE 1920, Ernst Lubitsch
ROMEO UND JULIA AUF DEM DORFE 1941, Hans Trommer, Valerien Schmidely
FAUST: EINE DEUTSCHE VOLKSSAGE 1926, F.W. Murnau
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER 1941, William Dieterle
PYSHKA 1934, Michail Romm
STAGECOACH 1939, John Ford
UKIGUSA MONOGATARI 1934, Ozu Yasujiro
UKIGUSA (ABSCHIED IN DER DÄMMERUNG) 1959, Ozu Yasujiro
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 1934, Alfred Hitchcock
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 1956, Alfred Hitchcock
M – EINE STADT SUCHT EINEN MÖRDER 1931, Fritz Lang
M 1951, Joseph Losey
LA CHIENNE 1931, Jean Renoir
SCARLET STREET 1945, Fritz Lang
THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID 1946, Jean Renoir
LE JOURNAL D’UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE 1964, Luis Buñuel
WUTHERING HEIGHTS 1939, William Wyler
ABISMOS DE PASIÓN 1953, Luis Buñuel
HURLEVENT 1985, Jacques Rivette
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT 1944, Howard Hawks
BACALL TO ARMS 1946, Bob Clampett & Arthur Davis, ca. 7 min
THE BREAKING POINT 1950, Michael Curtiz
THE KILLERS 1946, Robert Siodmak
UBIJCY (DIE KILLER) 1956, Andrej Tarkovskij
ANNI DIFFICILI 1948, Luigi Zampa
ANNI FACILI 1953, Luigi Zampa
MESHI (DAS MAHL) 1951, Naruse Mikio
VIAGGIO IN ITALIA 1954, Roberto Rossellini
LE PLAISIR 1952, Max Ophüls
TRAVIATA ’53 1953, Vittorio Cottafavi
LA SIGNORA SENZA CAMELIE 1953, Michelangelo Antonioni
THE RAID 1954, Hugo Fregonese
VIOLENT SATURDAY 1955, Richard Fleischer
SHICHININ NO SAMURAI (DIE SIEBEN SAMURAI) 1954, Akira Kurosawa
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN 1960, John Sturges
YÔJIMBÔ (DER LEIBWÄCHTER) 1961, Akira Kurosawa
PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI / A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS 1964, Sergio Leone
MILLER’S CROSSING 1990, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS 1956, Douglas Sirk
ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF 1974, R.W. Fassbinder
FAR FROM HEAVEN 2002, Todd Haynes
THE HUSTLER 1961, Robert Rossen
THE COLOR OF MONEY 1986, Martin Scorsese
EL CASTILLO DE LA PUREZA 1973, Arturo Ripstein
KYNODONTAS / DOGTOOTH 2009, Yorgos Lanthimos
SHURAYUKIHIME (LADY SNOWBLOOD) 1973, Toshiya Fujita
KILL BILL: VOL. 1 2003, Quentin Tarantino
AIRPLANE! 1980, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker
ZERO HOUR! 1957, Hall Bartlett
ELEPHANT 1989, Alan Clarke
ELEPHANT 2003, Gus Van Sant
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 1935, Josef von Sternberg
NORTE, HANGGANAN NG KASAYSAYAN (NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY) 2013, Lav Diaz
We would like to use our summer press briefing as an opportunity to thank our most important supporters
and sponsors without whose generous support the festival would not have been possible in this way.
SUPPORTERS
SPONSORS
RECYCLING PARTNER
FESTIVAL SPONSOR
WIEN
This year’s festival has been achieved thanks to the contribution of a large number of sponsors and partners.
Their names will be announced at our press conference on October 11.
VIENNALE – Vienna International Film Festival
Siebensterngasse 2, 1070 Vienna, Austria • T +43/1/526 59 47 • F +43/1/523 41 72
offi[email protected] • www.viennale.at