Viennale 2024 Roundup
I’ve been attending Viennale since 2021. I’ve been returning to it each year because of its intelligent film curation that doesn’t just focus on crowd pleasers or best films of the year from the festival circuit, but always makes room for film history and opportunities to discover and learn from the past. With a strong presence of new films alongside the old, it enables us to find new connections between past and present, or learn things have not changed that much after all.
A couple of months before the festival started, when a preview of the festival line up was announced, it included a statement by the festival acknowledging the current troubling violent and prejudiced state of the world. Even though it didn’t specify which conflicts and in which parts of the world, I found it refreshing and assuring compared to lots of other festivals this year. The statement included,
Against the backdrop of conflicts for which there is no solution in sight and which have shockingly become part of our everyday existence, we have witnessed increasingly absurd moments of intolerance over the past year and in recent weeks. The recent Olympic Games may serve as an example of this.
This is the result of the ethical and social disintegration of an order that only thinks of politics in terms of large systems, thereby depriving solidarity-based associations of their strength and erasing the basis for a communal, community culture. But we are tirelessly searching for antidotes, not escape routes.
On the last day of the festival, Eva Sangiorgi, the Viennale’s Artistic Director said the following in her closing remarks:
“It was a wonderful edition, which of course had to deal with the political climate of uncertainty and concern and the conflict situations on so many fronts internationally. Audience participation has been exceptional, and the generosity of the guests has encouraged encounters, discussions and many reflections which, I am convinced, have given us all the feeling of being part of a community that does not want to adapt to violence, but opposes it through the many languages of cinema.”
My most memorable screening from this year’s edition happened on a Saturday morning at the Filmmuseum, a double bill of Revolving Rounds, a short film by Johann Lurf and Christina Jauernik and Godard’s 2014 film Goodbye to Language. Both were screened in 3D.
I felt a sense of discovery, and thought to myself how there’s still more things to learn and discover from cinema, despite the constant bemoaning by film industry publications and naysayers about the death of cinema. It was a perfect pairing of two films about new ways of seeing and looking, tantalising our eyes and minds.
Revolving Rounds is a technical and research collaboration between filmmaker Johann Lurf and architect, artistic researcher, and performance artist Christina Jauernik. A dialogue free 11-min film shot on 35mm and 16mm using two synchronised cameras, two projectors and a cyclostéréoscope, a cinematic device developed in 1942 that uses a revolving cone and projection screen to conjure depth illusions without the need for glasses (you can read more technical information about it here).
Filmed at an agricultural field outside Vienna, starting with an early morning exterior shot of three greenhouses, the camera moves inside and eventually we see footage of a plant on the cyclostéréoscope. The camera gets closer and closer to the device and the film strip projecting the images we see, and eventually we are visually submerged into abstracted details of the film strip’s chemical composition and images of a pea plant contained in these strips. A merging of nature, technology, forms and colours. It made me think of the Star Gate sequence in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but about something that is far more tangible yet hidden.
Jean-Luc Godard’s first attempt to use 3D technology to make Goodbye to Language doesn’t look or feel dated 10 years later. Digitally shot, the 3D effects are not used for gimmicky effects like we usually see in studio films, but as an attempt to reflect on visual language in this medium, and to experiment with colours and framing. It is fragmented and pensive, and I do not have the confidence to write about a Godard film. Instead I will share this English translation of the film synopsis written by Godard in 2014, which explains it better than I ever could.
The idea is simple:
A married woman and a single man meet.
They love, they argue, fists fly.
A dog strays between town and country.
The seasons pass.
The man and woman meet again.
The dog finds itself between them.
The other is in one,
the one is in the other
and they are three.
The former husband shatters everything.
A second film begins:
the same as the first,
and yet not.
From the human race we pass to metaphor.
This ends in barking
and a baby’s cries.
In the meantime, we will have seen
people talking of the demise of the dollar,
of truth in mathematics
and of the death of a robin.
There was more of Godard in Short Film Program: Godard, presented by Fabrice Aragno who has worked and collaborated with Godard since 2002, and it was another double bill, a pairing of Scénarios (18 min) and Presentation of the Trailer of a Film “Scénario” (36 min).
Scénarios which was completed in September 2022, the same week Godard passed away.
Presentation of the Trailer of a Film “Scénario” was shot in 2021, where we watch Godard flicking over a book version of Scénarios akin a storyboard in a form of book containing his words and collected images. We also see him cut and past images and adding pages to the book, and hear him talking through it all, outlining the structure of a film he wants to make. A documentation of Godard thinking and making before our eyes.
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)
This was my no. 1 film from this year’s line. Spanning 22 years consisting of footage shot between 2001-2023 by the director, including footage from his older films (many I have yet to see).
An assembly of a footage from the past creating of a new story, about a man, Guao Bin (Li Zhubin), a woman Qiao Qiao (Zhao Tao) and China.
Stating in the industrial city of Datong, we see Qiao Qiao doing various jobs s a singer, model and night club dancer to make ends meet. Her manager and lover Guao Bin decides one day to leave to find better financial opportunities elsewhere. Qiao goes on a journey to find him, a journey that spans years.
A story about love, separation, alienation, rapid and profound changes of a society and a country, and also about getting older. What is lost, what is forgotten and what remains?
Accompanied by great soundtrack of Chinese pop and dance (I need to know more about their relevance and context in this film), it is a remarkable film about the passage of time.
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Klára Tasovská)
Another film that consists of an archive of past work, but of photography and diary entries. A documentary about Libuše Jarcovjáková, described as the “Nan Goldin of Czechoslovakia”, a self taught artist who began to photograph her life and her city Prague in the 1960s, and eventually her travels. The film spans 50 decades of her life till the present.
Klára Tasovská’s has made a thoughtful and effective portrait of an artist relying solely on Libuše’s photographs and diary entries read by her. We learn about her life as a young woman and an artist during the stifling and challenging conditions under Soviet era Prague, her constant search and understanding of who she is, finding community, the different relationships in her life, and about her city and its marginalised society.
Today Libuše Jarcovjáková is 72 and continues to photograph herself and her surroundings. Her work is recognised and has been exhibited in several acclaimed cultural institutions. An uplifting and moving story about resilience, curiosity and self discovery. The film ends with “I think I’ll never stop asking myself who I really am“.
Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath)
This was my favourite film at the Berlinale earlier this year, and I was very happy I had a second opportunity to watch it, this time in Horwath’s home city and in the Austrian Film Museum where he was the Director for 16 years between 2002-17. It was followed by long post screening discussion between him and Neil Young which was an added bonus. (Horwath was also the Director of Viennale between 1992-1997.)
A rich and absorbing film essay narrated by Horwath about the history of the Fonda family dating back to 1651 and their migration from Holland to America, Henry Fonda the actor and the characters he embodied in his films, and American history traced through these films like Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath, The Wrong Man to name a few.
Audio from a recording of Fonda’s last interview with Lawrence Grobe in 1981 are also used to narrate the film. In addition to the Henry Fonda film clips, we also see contemporary scenes of America filmed in the past few years of places linked to Fonda, like Nebraska where he was born, the migrant labour camp that appeared in his film The Grapes of Wrath, and a village called Fonda in upstate New York.
Far from being a biopic about the actor or an objective history of the country, the film examines a man who was not outwardly political, but his films and the characters he played certainly were, a reluctant celebrity (“I will not be there and put up with that shit” when asked about attending the Oscar ceremony”, American myth and idealism, or at least the perception of an American political and social idealism that started dissipating post the Reagan years. From the interview audio we hear Fonda say “Reagan upsets me so much”.
A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari)
A film made of reappropriated images from an archive looted from the Palestinian Research Centre by the Israeli Defence Force during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Founded in 1964, the Palestinian Research Center held the official archive of Palestinian history and identity and was a library that included historical records, publications and films. Whatever was seized remained hidden, “except for its tiny part contained in 120 uncatalogued boxes returned as a part of a prisoner swap in 1983”.
Jaafari uses footage from the archive that he could access to present a history about made by Palestinians. filmed between the early 1900s and the 1980s. There is life, beauty and hope, but also the painful reality of occupation, displacement and destruction.
Jaafari superimposed the colour red on certain parts of the footage and covers any text imposed on them by the IDF, signifying their violence and brutality.
If the media today is an unreliable record of current times, a film like this can shed light on what is avoided or seen in mainstream media. In the post screening discussion, Jaafari said that the longer you look at archival footage and images, a pattern appears. Everything happening in Gaza since last October isn’t new. It’s a cycle of a violent history of occupation and killings that repeats itself again and again.
Top 10 films in alphabetical order apart from no. 1:
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)
Being John Smith (John Smith)
Drowning Dry (Laurynas Bareiša)
The Damned (Roberto Minervini)
A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari)
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Klára Tasovská)
Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
The Outrun (Nora Fingscheidt)
Razeh-del (Maryam Tafakory)
Revolving Rounds (3D) (Johann Lurf, Christina Jauernik)
+
Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath), Matt and Mara (Kazik Radwanski) - rewatched both after first seeing them at Berlinale
Honorable mentions, also alphabetically:
7 Walks with Mark Brown (Pierre Creton, Vincent Barré)
The Antique (Rusudan Glurjidze)
Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
The Other Way Round (Jonás Trueba)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (Johan Grimonprez)
Universal Language (Matthew Rankin)
Who by Fire (Philippe Lesage)
Rewatched:
Queer (Luca Guadagnino) - this was the surprise film and I ended up liking it a bit more compared to the first time I saw it in Venice
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, 70mm) after the screening fiasco in Venice, I had a second chance to watch this projected correctly. I left disliking it even more.
Favourite rep screening:
Strangers in the Night (Anthony Mann, 1944), under an hour, watched on a Tuesday morning in Metro Kinokulturhaus and great energy in the room laughing together at some of the twists and revelations in it.
Also had a good laugh watching:
Eight Postcards from Utopia (Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz)
Rumours (Guy Maddin)
Breakfast Screening:
6.30am screening of The Room Next Door at Gartenbaukono followed by coffee and cake with Sara Gazini at Cafe Hawelka. It was a lovely way to start the day.
Mixed feelings:
All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia) - I wish the storyline remained in the city.
Anora (Sean Baker) - Everyone is talking about Mikey Madison, but why haven’t I heard anything about Yuriy Borisov? My favorite parts of the film are thanks to him, and Karren Karagulian as Toros was my second favourite actor and character. I’d be happy if someone makes a Toros spin-off.
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg), but loved this line, “You have delicious thighs.”
Better end credits than the film itself:
Motel Destino (Karim Aïnouz)
Wish I skipped:
Dream Team (Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn)
Lots of graveyards:
Jelena (Friedl Vom Gröller)
The Other Way Round (Jonás Trueba)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
Sleep #2 (Radu Jude)
(The last two would strangely work as a double bill.)
Favourite post screening discussions:
Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
Being John Smith (John Smith)
The Damned (Roberto Minervini)
Eight Postcards from Utopia (Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz)
A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari)
Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath)
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Klára Tasovská)
Matt and Mara (Kazik Radwanski)
Scénarios + Presentation of the Trailer of a Film “Scénario” between Fabrice Aragno and Johann Lurf
Sleep #2 (Radu Jude)
Who by Fire (Philippe Lesage)
Favourite hangouts and chats:
Neil Young, Alexander Horwath and Regina Regina Schlagnitweit, plus a mini Il Cinema Ritrovato/Bologna reunion wih Sara Gazini, Sarah Dorman and Alice Miller.
All the films I watched at Viennale 2024:
Viennale Trailer:
Viennale Trailer 2024 by Radu Jude
Retrospective: Robert Kramer
The Ghosts of Electricity (1997)
Sous le Vent / Leeward (1991)
Route One/USA (1989)
Cinematography: Helene Thimig
The Hitler Gang (John Farrow, 1943)
Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, 1945)
The Man Without a Name (Gustav Ucicky, 1932)
Strangers in the Night (Anthony Mann, 1944)
Short Film Program: Godard
Scénarios
Presentation of the Trailer of a Film “Scénario”
Short Film Program 2: Outbursts
Simultaneously Naked (Ursula Pürrer, Ashley Hans Scheirl)
Stone, Hat, Ribbon (Eva Giolo)
Like An Outburst (Sebastián Schjaer)
Emergency Exit (Friedl Vom Gröller)
Jelena (Friedl Vom Gröller)
Being John Smith (John Smith)
Short Film Program 4: Forms Of Freedom
Grandmamauntsistercat (Zuza Banasińska)
Razeh-Del (Maryam Tafakory)
Habā (Helin Çelik)
Features:
7 Walks with Mark Brown (Pierre Creton, Vincent Barré)
Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia)
Anora (Sean Baker)
The Antique (Rusudan Glurjidze)
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, 70mm)
By the Stream (Hong Sang-soo)
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)
The Damned (Roberto Minervini)
Dream Team (Lev Kalman, Whitney Horn)
Drowning Dry (Laurynas Bareiša)
Eat the Night (Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel)
Eight Postcards from Utopia (Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz)
A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari)
Goodbye to Language (3D) (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014) + Revolving Rounds (3D) (Johann Lurf, Christina Jauernik)
Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath)
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Klára Tasovská)
Matt and Mara (Kazik Radwanski)
Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
Motel Destino (Karim Aïnouz)
The Other Way Round (Jonás Trueba)
The Outrun (Nora Fingscheidt)
Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
Rumours (Guy Maddin)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
Sleep #2 (Radu Jude)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (Johan Grimonprez)
Universal Language (Matthew Rankin)
Who by Fire (Philippe Lesage)