At least since the 1990s, Austria has commanded a central place within global cinema culture, certainly within that portion of it governed in a semi-official manner by film festivals and arthouses. Like many such European film scenes, many of its members have moved quite easily between fiction and documentary modes (Ulrich Seidl and Michael Glawogger, to cite the most obvious and prolific). Still, the documentary element remains too seldom remarked upon as a spiritual source for the unique, penetrating gaze that characterizes so many of key Austrian films. Generally speaking, fictional features by the likes of Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner and Michael Schleinzer have drawn more attention from programmers and distributors than the documentaries of Nikolaus Geyrhalter. This is par for the course with nonfiction cinema. But it nevertheless seems worth mentioning here because, in terms of the tone, construction, and global attitude of Geyrhalter’s cinema, his work seems...
- 7/24/2012
- MUBI
Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter's latest documentary is a nocturnal journey examining Europe's obsession with technology and security
The Austrian film director Nikolaus Geyrhalter makes documentaries with neither commentary nor music, bearing witness to a sick world. Pripyat, released in 1999, described the ghost town beside the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Six years later Our Daily Bread explored the world of processed food. Presented as a curtain-raiser for the Diagonale Austrian film festival in Graz and now on general release, his latest offering, Abendland, focuses on Europe's obsession with technology and security.
The word Abendland, the west in German, literally means "evening land", an implicit reference to our decadence. So what is so desirable about our lifestyle that makes so many people dream of partaking of it, and obliges us to raise walls to keep them out?
Geyrhalter addresses this question in several powerful sequences, formed by a relentless stream of pictures – he recorded 170 hours of material,...
The Austrian film director Nikolaus Geyrhalter makes documentaries with neither commentary nor music, bearing witness to a sick world. Pripyat, released in 1999, described the ghost town beside the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Six years later Our Daily Bread explored the world of processed food. Presented as a curtain-raiser for the Diagonale Austrian film festival in Graz and now on general release, his latest offering, Abendland, focuses on Europe's obsession with technology and security.
The word Abendland, the west in German, literally means "evening land", an implicit reference to our decadence. So what is so desirable about our lifestyle that makes so many people dream of partaking of it, and obliges us to raise walls to keep them out?
Geyrhalter addresses this question in several powerful sequences, formed by a relentless stream of pictures – he recorded 170 hours of material,...
- 4/26/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
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