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 & 9 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 | art | museum | friendship | museum guard | 

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Taglines:

A fresh way of seeing.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Austria USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

6 September 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Godziny otwarcia

Filming Locations:

Vienna, Austria

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$29,435, 30 June 2013, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$83,725, 7 July 2013

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

Did You Know?

Quotes

Johann: There's one with a dog at the bottom of the picture and even the dog looks a bit embarrassed.

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Connections

Featured in The 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards (2014)

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Soundtracks

Never, No
Written and Performed by Mary Margaret O'Hara
Yet Courier Music

User Reviews

We Are All Subjects in a Painting by Pieter Bruegel

This is a mostly plot less, mostly reflective, semi-serious, semi-whimsical movie with the tone of a PBS documentary. It is a lot like a landscape painting. It will work best for photographers, lovers of photography and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, museum goers who routinely rent audio guides, and anyone else predisposed to view the condition of humans in the 21st century as alternately harsh and exuberant (or punctuated by esthetic surprises), hemmed in by the state, and leading inevitably to the grave. Have a good life.

A woman from Montreal, in Vienna to visit a hospitalized childhood friend, meets a taciturn guard at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and together they take in the city and its inhabitants, which together become a reflection of the art housed in the museum.

"Museum Hours" is a bit ponderous at times but rarely slow.