Losses to Be Expected

When I started watching Losses to be Expected, I didn't know it was from the same director as Hundstage. But after the very first striptease scene I knew it had to be Ulrich Seidl. He has a unique talent of revealing common patterns in the human behavior, and he is the master of depressing cinema. After watching Hundstage and La Pianiste van Haneke within one week, I have even decided to never watch an Austrian movie again. But this one is a good excuse to break the promise.

The main character of the documentary is the 60+ retired Austrian who's just lost his wife and is looking for a new one across the Austrian-Czech border. He is very lonely and needs somebody to share his last years with. He uses all the tricks to lure Paula, who lives in Czech Republic, into his nets. He shows her an Austrian supermarket, an Austrian shopping mall, takes her to a fair in the nearby town etc. Whatever the characters do is so recognizable, beginning with a conversation of the 60+ widows about the sex, and ending with complaints of a village idiot about the communists who failed to repaired his window and cupboard.

I liked the movie for its almost transcendental spirit, although I would cut it back from 120 to 90 minutes to keep the pace and to let it gradually grow to the climax. And I would definitely stop after the second striptease scene performed by the village idiot. But Ulrich didn't and kept repeating his scenes and ideas.