Museum Hours (2012)

When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads that sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways in which works of art reflect and shape the world.

Director:

Jem Cohen

Writers:

Jem Cohen, Natalie Lettner

Stars:

Mary Margaret O'Hara, Bobby Sommer, Ela Piplits

2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mary Margaret O'Hara	...	Anne
Bobby Sommer	...	Johann
Ela Piplits	...	Gerda - Visiting Lecturer
Marcus O'Hara	...	Bruegel Tour Group
Deborah Gzesh	...	Bruegel Tour Group
Marco Calamita	...	Bruegel Tour Group
Nina Calamita	...	Bruegel Tour Group
Sigrid Mölg	...	Bruegel Tour Group
Evelyne Egerer	...	Bruegel Tour Group
Gerda Hartl	...	Museum Visitor
Ivo Hunek	...	Museum Visitor
Anna Maria Innerhofer	...	Museum Visitor
Anna Nowak	...	Museum Visitor
Michaela Buchegger	...	Museum Visitor
Hellmut Goebl	...	Museum Visitor

Storyline

In the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum in Vienna, Johann is a security guard who finds a special quiet magic there. One day, a Canadian woman arrives to visit to the city, and the two strike up a friendship through their appreciation of art. That relationship helps put all the other goings-on at the museum and in the city in perspective, as Johann observes and participates in them in a world where art can say so much more than a casual visitor might know.

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Plot Keywords:

field trip | reference to w.h. auden | art | museum | friendship | 

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Taglines:

A fresh way of seeing.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Quotes

Johann: And I also play poker, sometimes at the café, but even more often online.

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Connections

Featured in The 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards (2014)

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Soundtracks

Dark, Dear Heart
Written and Performed by Mary Margaret O'Hara
Yet Courier Music

User Reviews

Slow? That's what it's about.

I left the theater in a sort of observational trance, and vowed to get to the Metropolitan Museum ASAP and back to Vienna as soon as I can.

I'll admit I'm kind of like the characters in the film. If you are a 13 year old boy whose favorite movie is The Transformers this might not be for you. Then again, you might learn something. There isn't much plot and there isn't much conflict but it isn't about plot or conflict. It's about art and life and to me it wasn't irritatingly slow at all and I wouldn't have cut a second. The pace and observational tone of the film are necessary to what it's about.

The two nonactor main character actors do a wonderful job. They aren't called on to do a lot off complex stuff, and maybe they wouldn't cut it as Martha and George, but they are perfect here.

The film has a lot to say about art and life, without being in any way didactic. The only part that I had the least impatience with was the scene with the somewhat annoying curator lecturing a group, although it did serve its purpose of making some points about the art while revealing a bit about the observers of art as well. There is also one scene that stands out in its sudden deviation from the flat observational realism of the rest of the film into a bit of symbolic surrealism but it's not without meaning either.

Most of the film is about quiet introspective moments. One scene that isn't is of Johann and Anne joining in with patrons at the bar drinking and dancing to ethnic music on Immigrant Night. (Really, I think that's what they called it). Later, thinking about Breugel's Peasant Wedding...

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Austria USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

6 September 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Museum Hours

Filming Locations:

Vienna, Austria

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$29,400, 30 June 2013

Gross USA:

$561,457

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$639,121

Company Credits

Production Co:

Little Magnet Films, Gravity Hill Films, KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1