PREVIEW PRESS CONFERENCEFIRST HIGHLIGHTS OF VIENNALE 2016

OCTOBER 20—NOVEMBER 2

Vienna, August 19, 2016

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are pleased to inform you about the current state of preparations for the Viennale 2016.This year, the Viennale will take place from October 20 to November 2.

The existing documents present the first preview, as well as already established points of the program from the54th edition of the Viennale. We also introduce the poster subject of the festival and the Retrospective.

Continuously updated information can be found on our website www.viennale.at/en; press material and pho-tos to download at www.viennale.at/en/press/download.

Twitter & FacebookEffective immediately, the Viennale press team is also active on social media. News, useful information and thebig secrets will, in future, also be available on Twitter (@ViennalePress) and Facebook (group: viennalepress).Please register if interested.

Viewing OptionsWith immediate effect, a selection of films from this year’s festival can be viewed for press purposes. Upon re-quest, we can provide DVDs or links for viewing. For members of our long-term partner Festival Scope, thereare many films available for viewing on their portal, https://pro.festivalscope.com

For any further questions, please contact us.

With kindest regards,The Viennale Press Team

press@viennale.atFredi Themel 01/526 59 47-30Lisa Kriechhammer 01/526 59 47-33Katharina Riedler 01/526 59 47-20

Accreditations, from August 22:Katharina Riedler 01/526 59 47-20akkreditierung@viennale.at(Accreditation applications accepted until September 30)

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VIENNALE 2016OKTOBER 20 TO NOVEMBER 2

VIENNALE 2016A Festival of Films

MAIN PROGRAM OF THE VIENNALE 2016Feature FilmsDocumentaries

DANCER IN THE DARKA Tribute to Christopher Walken

TIME AND TIDEA Tribute to Peter Hutton

ANALOG PLEASURE. PART 1The Film Festival as Cinematheque

ROBERT LANDRediscovering a Lost Émigré Filmmaker

RETROSPECTIVEA SECOND LIFE – Themes and Variations in Film

VIENNALE 2016

A Festival of Films

As previously mentioned on several occasions, the Viennale aspires to be more than a simple “festival of festivals.”Of course, this doesn’t mean that we can afford or want to do without a selection of the most important and crucialnew films that have premiered at other, larger or smaller festivals between Cannes and Buenos Aires over thepast year. Much rather, it means that the Viennale also tries to make the one or other unusual discovery off thebeaten tracks of the market and the media. But actually, the pressure of discovery has already become part ofthe industry and its mechanisms in its own right. So, perhaps we should try to simply and humbly be what’s mostmeaningful and beautiful: a big festival for the most exciting, independent, vibrant and essential films of the year.In short: a festival of films.

Hans Hurch

Main Program of the Viennale 2016Today, about two months before the start of the festival, the rich and diverse program of this year’s Viennalebegins to emerge. As in previous years, the current world situation often isn’t so much reflected as a direct image,but rather appears like a watermark in the narrations of the new films. This is true for fictional works such asAKHER AYAM EL MADINA or DARK NIGHT, as well as for BODKIN RAS or RADIO DREAMS. The imprint of the political is far more evident in many documentaries of the Viennale 2016 program, including A MAGICAL SUB-STANCE FLOWS INTO ME, DUGMA: THE BUTTON, FI RASSI ROND-POINT or LA PERMANENCE. In the documen-tary genre we also present a number of interesting film portraits, for example on the director Brian De Palma,the musician Frank Zappa, the authors Peter Handke and John Berger, and the controversial New York politicalstar Anthony Weiner.

LA MORT DE LOUIS XIVAlbert Serra, F 2016

DAFT PUNK UNCHAINEDHervé Martin-Delpierre, F/GB 2015

FEI CUI ZHI CHENGMidi Z, Taiwan/Myanmar 2016

CERTAIN WOMENKelly Reichardt, USA 2016

WEINERJosh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA 2015

DARK NIGHTTim Sutton, USA 2016

As always, the Viennale program features several major films, including Kelly Reichardt’s episodic movie CERTAIN WOMEN with Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern, and the outstanding portrayals by Isabelle Huppert of two completely different female figures in Mia Hansen-Løve’s L’AVENIR and Paul Verhoeven’sELLE. Further highlights are Don Cheadle’s fictional Miles Davis portrait, Jim Jarmusch’s PATERSON and AlbertSerra’s LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV with Jean-Pierre Léaud in the role of the dying French Sun King.

Austrian cinema is strongly represented in the film selection with new works such as KATER (Händl Klaus),HOMO SAPIENS (Nikolaus Geyrhalter), MISTER UNIVERSO (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel), SÜHNHAUS (MayaMcKechneay), ACCELERANDO (Georg Wasner) and STILLE RESERVEN (Valentin Hitz).

The Poster Subjects of the Viennale 2016We would like to leave the solving and explaining of the main poster subjects of the Viennale 2016 to our curiousand informed audience. It is not particularly difficult to find out who is hiding behind the somewhat abstract anddistorted black-and-white portrait. Pay special attention to the hair and shoulders of this person, who is not reallythat mysterious.

The poster subject for the retrospective “A Second Life: Themes and Variations in Film” is a montage or suc-cession of two images from two different films of the same title, Elephant: the 37-minute Irish film ELEPHANT(1989) by Alan Clarke and Gus Van Sant’s film adaptation of the notorious massacre at the Columbine High Schoolin Littleton, Colorado. The similarities and differences of these two films, as well as many others, is the subject ofthis year’s retrospective.

Viennale 2016 Retrospective 2016

Selection from the feature film programAKHER AYAM EL MADINA Tamer El Said, Ägypten/D/GB/VAE 2016

L’AVENIR Mia Hansen-Løve, F/D 2016

BODKIN RAS Kaweh Modiri, NL/B 2016

CERTAIN WOMEN Kelly Reichardt, USA 2016

CORRESPONDÊNCIAS Rita Azevedo Gomes, P 2016

CUMP4RSIT4 Raúl Perrone, Argentinien 2016

DARK NIGHT Tim Sutton, USA 2016

DIAMANT NOIR Arthur Harari, F/B/Kanada 2016

ELLE Paul Verhoeven, F 2015

EL FUTURO PERFECTO Nele Wohlatz, Argentinien 2016

INFORME GENERAL II. EL NUEVO RAPTO DE EUROPA Pere Portabella, E 2016

KATER Händl Klaus, A 2016

LA LOI DE LA JUNGLE Antonin Peretjatko, F 2016

MILES AHEAD Don Cheadle, USA 2015

MISTER UNIVERSO Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, A/I 2016

LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV Albert Serra, F 2016

LE PARC Damien Manivel, F 2016

PATERSON Jim Jarmusch, USA 2016

RADIO DREAMS Babak Jalali, USA 2016

RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0 Anurag Kashyap, Indien 2016

EL REY DEL ONCE Daniel Burman, Argentinien 2016

STILLE RESERVEN Valentin Hitz, A 2016

I TEMPI FELICI VERRANNO PRESTO Alessandro Comodin, I/F 2016

UNTERWÄSCHELÜGEN Klaus Lemke, D 2016

ZHI FAN YE MAO Zhang Hanyi, China 2016

Selection from the documentary programA MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME Jumana Manna, Palästina/D/GB 2016

ACCELERANDO Georg Wasner, A 2016

AUSTERLITZ Sergei Loznitsa, D 2016

LE COMPLEXE DE FRANKENSTEIN Alexandre Poncet, Gilles PensoPoncet, F 2015

DAFT PUNK UNCHAINED Hervé Martin-Delpierre, F/GB 2015

DAISIS MIZIDULOBA Salomé Jashi, Georgien/D 2016

DE PALMA Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow, USA 2015

DUGMA – THE BUTTON Paul S. Refsdal, NO 2016

EAT THAT QUESTION – FRANK ZAPPA IN HIS OWN WORDS Thorsten Schütte, F/D 2016

ESCAPES Michael Almereyda, USA 2016

FEI CUI ZHI CHENG Midi Z, Taiwan/Myanmar 2016

FI RASSI ROND-POINT Hassen Ferhani, Algerien/F/Katar/Libanon/NL 2015

HOMO SAPIENS Nikolaus Geyrhalter, A 2016

LANDSTÜCK Volker Koepp, D 2016

OLEG Y LAS RARAS ARTES Andrés Duque, E 2015

LA PERMANENCE Alice Diop, F 2016

PETER HANDKE – BIN IM WALD. KANN SEIN, DASS ICH MICH VERSPÄTE … Corinna Belz, D 2016

THE SEASONS IN QUINCY: FOUR PORTRAITS OF JOHN BERGER Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth,

Tilda Swinton, Bartek Dziadosz, GB 2015

SÜHNHAUS Maya McKechneay, A 2016

V LUCHAKH SOLNCA Vitaly Mansky, RUS/D/CZ/LV/Nordkorea 2015

WEINER Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA 2015

Dancer in the DarkA Tribute to Christopher Walken

The American actor Christopher Walken is one of the most excep-tional and unconventional figures in American cinema from thepast few decades. His roles in about 100 productions include someof the most legendary films in the more recent history of cinema,such as THE DEER HUNTER, KING OF NEW YORK or AT CLOSERANGE. And sometimes a single cameo appearance by Walken,like the one in TRUE ROMANCE, is enough to make a whole filmforever unforgettable. Due to his slightly sinister looks and his par-ticular, sonorous way of speaking, broken up by strange pauses,early on he was typecast as the bad guy, the outcast and sometimesas a psychopath. But he is much more than that. ChristopherWalken is a trained dancer, something that repeatedly becomesapparent in his roles. He also has a good sense of highly subtlehumor and cool self-irony. And in the most wonderful moments,

Walken is everything at once: a dancing and dangerous, funny and ominous, but above all, great and completelysingular actor in a series of outstanding films.

In our tribute to Christopher Walken, we present his central works, including THE DEER HUNTER, THE DEADZONE, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and THE ADDICTION, along with less known films and some of his legendary side-steps, such as appearances in the music video WEAPON OF CHOICE by Fatboy Slim or the hilarious episode “MoreCowbell” from Saturday Night Live.

Time and TideA Tribute to Peter Hutton

A few weeks ago, the American filmmaker Peter Hutton, one of the most eminent exponents of contemporaryavant-garde cinema, passed away at the age of 71. Created over almost half a century, Hutton’s work representsan incomparable, personal cinematic cosmos and a great, radical and artistic appeal to the world at the same

time. His films are simultaneously simple and multilayeredartifacts, diary and travelogue, historical study and worldsurvey, painting and sculpture, captured with a fascinating,insistent, poetic and open view of both natural and culturalphenomena.

In comparison with most experimental filmmakers of hisgeneration, Hutton was a kind of retrograde avant-gardist,his work returning to the beginnings of cinema, the static,continuous silent view of the Lumière Brothers. A preciseand curious cinema of world observation, on the one hand,and a highly artificial and subtle composition of a different,new cinematic world on the other. His films include city por-traits and architectural descriptions, industrial studies and

private notes. A recurring theme is the ocean that Hutton traversed as a sailor for many years, and the HudsonRiver, the valley of which represented a kind of home and place of refuge for the filmmaker.

“I’ve never felt that my films are very important in terms of the history of cinema,” Peter Hutton once said.The tribute that we’re dedicating to this great friend of the Viennale in honor and commemoration shows thatwith each film by Peter Hutton, cinema starts all over again.

Analog Pleasure. Part 1The Film Festival as Cinematheque

At a time during which a film festival is the last place, apart fromarchives and cinematheques, where films are presented in the formthat their makers conceived and created them, the Viennale is start-ing a small series entitled “Analog Pleasure.” It shows a selection ofanalog works in various film formats – from 8mm in the small Eric-Pleskow-Saal at the Metro Kinokulturhaus to 70mm in the largeGartenbaukino. The idea behind this program is to make the pre-

sentation of analog material part of the festival, that is, to address a way of perception that is a genuine cine-matographic one. And not doing it with the strained aspiration to educate and instruct, but for the pure viewingexperience of a series of unusual cinematic works. These include restored copies of selected 8mm films by thelegendary Berlin artist group Die Tödliche Doris from the first half of the 1980s, the central French experimentalfilm LA VALLÉE CLOSE (1995) by Jean-Claude Rousseau in a 16mm copy, and Stephanie Rothman’s feminist sex-ploitation debut film THE STUDENT NURSES (1970), produced by Roger Corman. Furthermore, Jacques Tati’smasterpiece PLAYTIME in the original 70mm version can be seen in Austria for the first time.

Robert LandRediscovering a Lost Émigré Filmmaker

Robert Land is regarded as one of the great unknowns of German-language cinema from the interwar period.The documentation of his cinematic work could be described as fragmentary, at best, and his biography was

virtually unheard of. As in the case of so many émigré film-makers, the political circumstances of expulsion led to almost complete obliteration. And yet, Robert Land, bornin 1887 in Kroměříž, Moravia, can be considered a truefilm-historical discovery. Preserved works already pointedto the director’s mastery: DER FLUCH (The Curse, A, 1924),the story of a young woman in a Jewish shtetl (Land discov-ered and cast Lilian Harvey in the leading role) and ICHKÜSSE IHRE HAND, MADAME (I Kiss Your Hand, Madame,D, 1927), an enthusiastically received silent film with thefirst sound elements and starring Marlene Dietrich. Many

other titles – including DURCH DIE QUARTIERE DES ELENDS UND VERBRECHENS (Through the Quarters of Mis-ery and Crime, A, 1920), based on Emil Kläger’s famous social reportage, and UNSCHULD – DIE KLEINEVERONIKA (Innocence – Little Veronika, A, 1929), a screen adaptation of Felix Salten’s novella filmed in the Viennese demimonde – were merely regarded as promising, for the films were presumed lost.

A few years ago, the Filmarchiv Austria initiated a large international research project on Robert Land. Manyinternational partner archives as well as private collectors were contacted in order to uncover the buried legacyand life story of a documented film maniac, who ultimately became a victim of a murderous regime. In additionto several archive findings, these efforts were also rewarded with some sensational discoveries, such as that of acomplete version of UNSCHULD, a late masterpiece of Austrian silent film that can now be seen on the big screenagain in a restored version. Robert Land, who was obsessed with cinema and also started the first crowd-fundedprojects in order to realize his projects beyond the established film industry, did not live to enjoy the recognitionof his work. Following exile stops in Italy and Czechoslovakia, he died during his escape in 1938, in Paris, France.At this year’s Viennale, the Filmarchiv Austria will show the first presentation of Robert Land’s work, thus com-plementing the history of Austrian exile cinema with a significant entry.

A PROGRAM BY FILMARCHIV AUSTRIA

RETROSPECTIVE

A SECOND LIFEThemes and Variations in Film

Allegedly, everything has been done before. History repeats itself, be it as tragedy or as farce or just because orfor no particular reason. Everywhere, we constantly hear: back to the beginning, start all over, second chance,new attempt. What luck! In this way everything stays in motion, a free-floating interplay of the elements, keepingopen the possibility that everything could actually also be completely different or will be one day.

For instance, that it is not about the money that can be made with a spiffed-up remake of a cherished old film,but about passing on a story to a new generation: David versus Goliath in SHICHININ NO SAMURAI by AkiraKurosawa (1954) and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN by John Sturges (1960). Or about conveying a character: poolplayer Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen’s THE HUSTLER (1961) and Martin Scorsese’s THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986).Or about communicating a feeling: revenge in SHURAYUKIHIME by Toshiya Fujita (1973) and Quentin Tarantino’sKILL BILL: VOL.1 (2003). Or about readdressing a theme: class conceit in Douglas Sirk’s ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1956), Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF (1974) and Todd Haynes’s FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002). And in this regard it is, then, about capturing another facet of a certain story or character, acertain feeling or theme, nurturing them in the present or in a changed context.

In this sense, the 2016 Retrospective by the Viennale and the Austrian Film Museum focuses not on one theme,but on many. It devotes itself to themes and their variations in film, from the past to the present day, crossinggenres and continents, while sounding out a few terms with regard to their content and usability along the way.The aim is to get beyond the mercantilist vocabulary of contemporary mainstream cinema, beyond words suchas remake, sequel, prequel, reboot and spin-off, in order to explore the subject matter, its wealth (of meaning)and the numerous possibilities of processing it.

For even seemingly simple retelling quickly becomes complex, if we think of Alfred Hitchcock, who decidedthat his 1934 film THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was the work of a talented amateur and therefore simplyshot it again in 1956. And what, for example, happens when subject matter is transferred from one cultural contextto another? What does it look like when a Japanese classic (YOJIMBO, Kurosawa, 1961) is revived as a milestonespaghetti western (PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI, Sergio Leone, 1964)? And what does a landmark of Americanindependent cinema (MILLER’S CROSSING, Coen Brothers, 1990) have to do with its two predecessors? Mean-while, in the vast field of film adaptations, more precisely the numerous film versions of Emily Brontë’s rough romantic novel Wuthering Heights (1847), the question is not so much whether the book or the film is “better,”but rather in what way which adaptation comes close(r) to which aspect of the original. Something to reflect uponon the example of WUTHERING HEIGHTS (William Wyler, 1939), ABISMOS DE PASIÓN (Luis Buñuel, 1953) and HURLEVENT (Jacques Rivette, 1985).

It goes without saying that the selection chosen for this show is altogether subjective and can only be represen-tative in view of its function: to offer a body of films on the basis of which narrative strategies may be consideredin a motif-historical, (film-)historical and geographic context. After all, the seventh art is a mythical driving forceof modernism and not a capitalist franchise factory.

Alexandra Seitz

A RETROSPECTIVE BY VIENNALE AND AUSTRIAN FILM MUSEUM

October 14 – November 30, 2016Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Augustinerstraße 1, 1010 ViennaTel. 01/533 70 54 • www.filmmuseum.at

Films shown at the retrospective

ROMEO UND JULIA IM SCHNEE 1920, Ernst LubitschROMEO UND JULIA AUF DEM DORFE 1941, Hans Trommer, Valerien Schmidely

FAUST: EINE DEUTSCHE VOLKSSAGE 1926, F.W. Murnau THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER 1941, William Dieterle

PYSHKA 1934, Michail Romm STAGECOACH 1939, John Ford

UKIGUSA MONOGATARI 1934, Ozu Yasujiro UKIGUSA (ABSCHIED IN DER DÄMMERUNG) 1959, Ozu Yasujiro

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 1934, Alfred Hitchcock THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 1956, Alfred Hitchcock

M – EINE STADT SUCHT EINEN MÖRDER 1931, Fritz Lang M 1951, Joseph Losey

LA CHIENNE 1931, Jean Renoir SCARLET STREET 1945, Fritz Lang

THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID 1946, Jean Renoir LE JOURNAL D’UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE 1964, Luis Buñuel

WUTHERING HEIGHTS 1939, William Wyler ABISMOS DE PASIÓN 1953, Luis Buñuel HURLEVENT 1985, Jacques Rivette

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT 1944, Howard HawksBACALL TO ARMS 1946, Bob Clampett & Arthur Davis, ca. 7 minTHE BREAKING POINT 1950, Michael Curtiz

THE KILLERS 1946, Robert SiodmakUBIJCY (DIE KILLER) 1956, Andrej Tarkovskij

ANNI DIFFICILI 1948, Luigi ZampaANNI FACILI 1953, Luigi Zampa

MESHI (DAS MAHL) 1951, Naruse Mikio VIAGGIO IN ITALIA 1954, Roberto Rossellini

LE PLAISIR 1952, Max Ophüls

TRAVIATA ’53 1953, Vittorio CottafaviLA SIGNORA SENZA CAMELIE 1953, Michelangelo Antonioni

THE RAID 1954, Hugo FregoneseVIOLENT SATURDAY 1955, Richard Fleischer

SHICHININ NO SAMURAI (DIE SIEBEN SAMURAI) 1954, Akira Kurosawa THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN 1960, John Sturges

YÔJIMBÔ (DER LEIBWÄCHTER) 1961, Akira Kurosawa PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI / A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS 1964, Sergio Leone MILLER’S CROSSING 1990, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS 1956, Douglas Sirk ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF 1974, R.W. Fassbinder FAR FROM HEAVEN 2002, Todd Haynes

THE HUSTLER 1961, Robert Rossen THE COLOR OF MONEY 1986, Martin Scorsese

EL CASTILLO DE LA PUREZA 1973, Arturo RipsteinKYNODONTAS / DOGTOOTH 2009, Yorgos Lanthimos

SHURAYUKIHIME (LADY SNOWBLOOD) 1973, Toshiya FujitaKILL BILL: VOL. 1 2003, Quentin Tarantino

AIRPLANE! 1980, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry ZuckerZERO HOUR! 1957, Hall Bartlett

ELEPHANT 1989, Alan ClarkeELEPHANT 2003, Gus Van Sant

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 1935, Josef von Sternberg NORTE, HANGGANAN NG KASAYSAYAN (NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY) 2013, Lav Diaz

This year’s festival has been achieved thanks to the contribution of a large number of sponsors and partners.Their names will be announced at our press conference on October 11.

We would like to use our summer press briefing as an opportunity to thank our most important supportersand sponsors without whose generous support the festival would not have been possible in this way.

SUPPORTERS

SPONSORS

RECYCLING PARTNER FESTIVAL SPONSOR

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VIENNALE – Vienna International Film FestivalSiebensterngasse 2, 1070 Vienna, Austria • T +43/1/526 59 47 • F +43/1/523 41 72office@viennale.at • www.viennale.at