"HEIMKEHR DER JÄGER" (HUNTERS IN THE SNOW)
Synopsis
Interviews
Essay
Collection of paintings
Credits
Ulrich Tukur
Oliver Bokelberg
Julia Filimonow
Johannes Silberschneider
Trailer
Press comments
Press material
Score & Audio-CD
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DVD in der STANDARD EDITION "Der österr.Film #09"
Inhalt
Franz, ein Kopist im Wiener Kunsthistorischen Museum, hat in zunehmenden Maße mit dem Werteverlust und der immer stärker um sich greifenden Kapitalisierung seines Umfeldes zu kämpfen. Er lebt getrennt von Frau und Tochter. Seine Arbeit und die Auseindandersetzung mit den berühmten Gemälden üben enormen Einfluß auf ihn aus: Er entwickelt eine wachsende Sensibilität für im Alltag verborgene Konflikte. Als Franz von seiner Tochter ferngehalten wird wächst der Druck. Auch die Begegnung mit Mathilde, einer Supermarkt-Angestellten, die er im Museum kennenlernt, kann die zunehmende Verunsicherung und Wut nicht mehr verhindern. Die Bilderwelten drängen massiv und mit voller Wucht in die Realität. Franz wehrt sich nicht dagegen, sondern es sieht so aus als würde er voll und ganz in seine Imagination eintauchen. Die scheinbar banalen Veränderungen in seiner Umgebung empfindet Franz in zunehmenden Maße als persönliche Bedrohung un Zerstörung seiner Lebenswelt: Einen laufenden Motor bei einem geparkten Autobus, das Zusperren seines vertrauten Feinkost-Geschäftes in seiner Umgebung, die Zunahme von Werbeplakatflächen in seiner Straße. Franz reagiert. Eine Eskalation von Konflikten ist die Folge. Schließlich wird er von den Behörden als Verbrecher verfolgt...
DVD-Ausstattung:
DVD 5, PAL, codefree
Bildformat: 1: 1,85
Ton: Dolby SRD,
Sprache: deutschsprachige Fassung, englische Untertitel
Kapiteleinteilung, Interviews mit Ulrich Tukur und Michael Kreihsl, Trailer
Regie: MICHAEL KREIHSL
Buch: MICHAEL KREIHSL unter Mitarbeit von BARBARA ZUBER
Kamera: OLIVER BOKELBERG
Schnitt: CLEMENS BÖHM
Produktion: A 2000 - WEGA-FILMPRODUKTIONSGES.M.B.H Veit Heiduschka
Darsteller: ULRICH TUKUR, JULIA FILIMONOW, NIKOLAUS PARYLA, JOHANNES SILBERSCHNEIDER
DVD, 80 Min. + Extras, Farbe
"Der Filmtitel zielt auf ein Gemälde Pieter Brueghels, das im Wiener Kunsthistorischen Museum hängt. Die eisige Landschaft des Bildes findet ihre Entsprechung im Leben des Bilder-Restaurators Franz (Ulrich Tukur spielt ihn bravourös). Kreihsl hält die verbale Kommunikation auf Sparflamme. Dafür explodieren die Bilder. Außer von Peter Greenaway und Atom Egoyan ist derartig verdichtete Filmästhetik in jüngerer Zeit nie versucht worden."
- Kleine Zeitung Kärnten
"Mein Lieblingsfilm in diesem Jahr: HEIMKEHR DER JÄGER von Michael Kreihsl. Groteske österreichische Kapitalismus-Kritik."
- Dorothée Wenner, Die Zeit
Michael Kreihsl und sein Film "HEIMKEHR DER JÄGER"
Zitate aus einem Interview von Gernot Zimmermann mit dem Regisseur
Über seine Vorliebe für Gemälde und Museen:
"Schon als Kind bin ich gerne in Museen gegangen, weil ich aus den Gemälden etwas herauslesen konnte, was nicht logisch oder kognitiv erfahrbar ist. Sachen, die man nur übers Auge erfahren kann. Auch im Film gibt mir das "Bildnis" oft zu wenig, da sehe ich oft nur sprechende Köpfe. In "Heimkehr der Jäger" ist das Stilleben in verschiedener Hinsicht wichtig. Es hängt mit Vanitas und Vergänglichkeit zusammen, mit unseren fünf Sinnen. In meinem Film
Über die Wortkargheit:
"Die Sprachlosigkeit ist natürlich auch Thema des Films. Denn Bilder sind ja nicht geschwätzig. Es gibt zwei Welten: die Welt des Museums und der Alltagswelt, die den Kopisten aus dem Tritt bringt und in die Selbstfalle lockt. Die Sensibilität für Details zerfällt in der Supermarktwelt. Wie bei 'Charm's Zwischenfälle' geht es um einen Mann, der verschwindet."
Über Ernst, Humor und Originalität:
"Ich glaube, daß 'Heimkehr der Jäger' gar nicht so ein ernster Film ist, dennoch liegt die Unterströmung des Films mehr an der Oberfläche als beim Charms-Film. Das Biographische an meinem neuen Film ist natürlich der Verlust und das Verschwinden von Dingen, die unsere geistige Nahrung waren. Apropos Verschwinden: viele unserer Motive haben sich nach unserem Dreh in Luft aufgelöst, d.h. wurden entweder abgerissen oder total renoviert. Jedenfalls hoffe ich, daß mein Film als ein originär österreichischer Film auch in Polen und Südindien verstanden wird. Mein Weg ist ein poetischer Weg, der gewiß aus unserem östlichen Dunstfeld von Bernhard bis Kafka zu verstehen ist, und wir sind dabei, unsere originäre Erzählweise zu entwickeln, wenn auch die Akzeptanz im eigenen Land immer noch zu wünschen übrig läßt.
SCREENPLAY AND DIRECTOR Michael Kreihsl
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Oliver Bokelberg
PRODUCTION DESIGNER Christoph Kanter
COSTUME DESIGNER Martina List
SOUND ENGINEER Bernhard J.Schmid
EDITORClemens Böhm
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Ulrike Lässer
PRODUCTION MANAGER Gebhard Zupan
PRODUCER Veit Heiduschka
PRODUCTION COMPANY Wega-Filmproduktion
FORMAT 86 min., 35 mm, Colour, Dolby SRD, © 2000
CAST Ulrich Tukur, Julia Filimonow, Nikolaus Paryla, Johannes Silberschneider, Sophia Gorgi, Justus Neumann, Claudia Martini a.o.
Country: Austria
Runtime: 85 min.
Director: Michael Kreihsl
Language: German
Premier Status: n/a
Event Code: HUNTE
DVD: 5, PAL, codefree
Picture Ratio: 1: 1,85
Ton: Dolby SRD
Language: German, english Subtitles
Weltvertrieb/World Sales: AUSTRIAN FILM COMMISSION
Stiftgasse 6, A-1070 Vienna
Tel.: 0043 1 526 33 23
Fax: 0043 1 526 68 01
e-mail: office@afc.at
http://www.afc.at
Produktion/Production: WEGA-Filmproduktionsges.m.b.H
Dr. Veit Heiduschka
Hägelingasse 13, A-1140 Vienna
Tel.: 0043 1 982 57 42
Fax: 0043 1 982 58 33
e-mail: office@wega-film.at
http://www.wega-film.at/
Synopsis
Franz, a copyist at the Viennese Museum of Art History, finds himself struggling increasingly with the degradation and the encroaching influence of capitalism on his environment. He lives apart from his wife and daughter. His work and his involvement with the famous paintings in the Museum exert a huge influence on him: he develops a growing sensitivity to the conflicts going on under the surface of everyday life. Then, when Franz is denied access to his daughter, the pressure mounts. Even his encounter with Mathilde, a supermarket employee whom he meets at the Museum, is not able to stem his growing unease and anger. The universes conjured up by the Museum paintings begin to pervade and invade his reality with full force. Franz does not resist, but feels himself becoming utterly immersed in his imagination. Franz increasingly experiences the seemingly banal changes in his surroundings as a personal threat and destruction of his personal world: a parked bus with its motor running, the closure of the familiar delicatessen in his district, the increasing amount of space taken up by advertising hoardings across his street. Franz reacts, leading to an escalation of conflict. In the end he is hunted down as a criminal by the authorities…
Michael Kreihsl and his film "HUNTERS IN THE SNOW"
Interview with the filmmaker
On his predilection for paintings and museums:
"Even as a child I liked going to museums, because I could read something in the paintings which could not be experienced in a logical or cognitive way; things which one can only experience using one's eyes. In film too, the "portrait" often gives me too little: often I see only talking heads. In "Hunters in the Snow", the still life is important in various ways. It is linked to vanity and ephemerality; with our five senses. For my film is about a man who descends into a spiral of self-destruction, where death and vanity ultimately, in broad terms, play a vital role."
On the economic use of dialogue:
"The inability to articulate is of course also a theme of the film. For after all, images are not talkative. There are two worlds: the world of the Musem and the everyday world, which knocks the copyist off-balance and lures him into a trap of his own making. Sensitivity to detail crumbles in the world of the supermarket. As with "Charms Zwischenfälle", the film is about a man who finds himself disappearing."
On seriousness, humour and originality:
"I believe that "Hunters in the Snow" is not such a serious film, but the undercurrent of the movie lies more on the surface than it does with the "Charms" film. Of course, the biographical element in my new movie is the loss and disappearance of things which used to constitute our spiritual nourishment. And a propos disappearance: many of our motifs vanished into thin air after filming, i.e. they were either torn down or completely renovated. In any event, I hope that my film will be understood as an original Austrian film, also in Poland and south India. My path is a poetic one which undoubtedly must be understood as having its source in our eastern European cultural and artistic climate, from Bernhard to Kafka, and we are engaged in developing our own original narrative style, even though the degree of acceptance found in our own country still leaves something to be desired.
Franz (a stunning performance by Ulrich Tukur) is a divorced painter who works as a copyist at the Vienna Museum of Art History. A delicate artist, he struggles with the encroaching influence of capitalism on his already precarious environment. Seemingly banal changes become ominous portents of personal threat, as well as signs of the world's impending destruction: a smirking billboard across the street from his apartment marks the ultimate degeneration of art; every bus seems to leave its motor running, and the toxic fumes pollute the already stale air; the neighbourhood store where he buys the fruit he uses as models for his still-life paintings is shut down. When Franz is denied access to his daughter, the pressure mounts, and the last straw may have come; even though he has entered a friendly relationship with a beautiful fellow museum denizen, something must happen. And it does. Michael Kreihsl's film is a bold statement about the contemporary world, and a convincing internal portrait of one man's descent into paranoia. "Even as a child I liked going to museums, because I could read something in the paintings which could not be experienced in a logical or cognitive way; things which one can only experience using one's eyes. In film, too, the "portrait" often gives me too little; I see only talking heads. In Hunters in the Snow, the still life is linked to vanity and ephemerality. For my film is about a man who descends into a spiral of self destruction, where death and vanity ultimately, in broad terms, play a vital role."--Michael Kreihsl
This is a powerful and compelling study of an artist born into the wrong century, who is struggling to hold on to traditional values and a simple, quiet life, and eventually is forced to take drastic action when he feels his world collapsing around him.
Franz (Ulrich Tukur), a middle-aged divercee, works in a Viennese art gallery, where his job is to paint reproductions of old masters. He shops at an old-fashioned greengrocers which sells the ancient varieties of fruit and vegetables he needs to recreate his still lives. At night he listens to classical music alone in his apartment.
Modern life, however, is oncroaching more and more into his peaceful existence. Tourist coaches spew endless exhaust fumes into the air, and their passengers disturb Fraz at work as they pass through the gallery, never pausing long enough to actually look at the art. Ugly advertising hoardings are erected outside his apartment, and the sound of traffic at night is constant. When his beloved greengrocers closes down, he is forced to shop at the supermarket which put it out of business, and is disoriented and atlenated by neon-Tit. Glossy. Shrink-wrapped consumerism. A new colleague at the gallery seems to threaten his job, and his ex-wife will no longer let him have access to his precious child It seems to Franz that everything he cares about is being destroyed. Gradually his behaviour becomes more irrational and self-destructive, until it spirals out of control.
A strong central performance from Ulrich Tukur combines with accomplished direction to create an almost tangible sense of disintegration and paranoia. This is further enhanced, particularly in the scences of Franz at work and in his apartment, by luminous cinematography which echoes the paintings he loves and subtly conveys the impression of beauty being lost to modernity.
Jenny Loask
VANCOUVER,
19th International Film Festival
Michael Kreihsl brings a subtle, understated and wonderfully idiosyneratic tone to bear on his new film Hunters in the Snow, a deft tale about a misfit who decides to make a statement on modern life. Franz works in an art gallery where he paints faithful copies of the old masters. The gallery is his refuge from the world, one he finds increasingly unbearable. He despairs at the increasing pollution he sees all around him, signified by the tourist busses that rattle through town. Ugly billboards promoting silly consumer products stare out at him and closer to home his beloved local store is in danger of being replaced by a modern supermarket. Franz finds his carefully maintained and structured life is in danger of succumbing to an increasingly anonymous world, one where the values found in the art he loves are threatened by attitudes he abhors.
Franz’ life is further complicated by an ex-wife who starts to make it tough for him to see his beloved daughter, and a competitive atmosphere that starts to appear at work. Finally, susceptible to all these competing pressure, he decides to make a bold gesture. Happily, he is not alone, for he has met the liked-minded Mathilde, a beautiful young woman who values those things that are so dear to his heart. Together, they set out on a remarkable journey – employing a kind of guerrilla warfare that is quaintly out of touch with reality.
What makes Hunters in the Snow enjoyable is Kreihsl’s grasp of the wayward nature of his subject. Franz sets out to subvert the modern world with a wide-eyed freshness, a modern-day Don Quixote waving his sword at the forces of unbridled progress. His anachronistic gesture will strike a reverberant chord for many, for in the end Franz represents the humanist core of a civilization undergoing tectonic changes.
Piers Handling
TORONTO,
25th International Filmfestival
The carefully composed images, assembled in a serene rhythm (Camera: Oliver Bokelberg), convey the constituent elements of a world where people run amok, a world in which a greengrocer who keeps an apple with a leaf still attached - for a painter - is pushed aside by soulless supermarkets where the only apples available are polished to a high gloss and wrapped in foil. HUNTERS IN THE SNOW is one of the high points of the Berlin Film Festival so far.
(Stuttgarter Zeitung, February 2000)
HUNTERS IN THE SNOW (HEIMKEHR DER JÄGER) is one of the high points of the Berlin Film festival so far, well beyond the confines of the Forum.
Stuttgarter Zeitung, Februar 2000
"My favourite film (from those shown in the "International Forum of Young Films") this year: HUNTERS IN THE SNOW by Michael Kreihsl. A grotesque Austrian critique of capitalism."
Dorothee Wenner, Die Zeit, Februar 2000
"Without an explanatory word too many, HUNTERS IN THE SNOW - the exiting second work by director and successful theatre director Michael Kreihsl - manages very well indeed. (. . .) Kreihsl restrains verbal communication and allows images to explode and implode. .... In order to visualise the alienation of his protagonist, Kreihsl oppressively reconstructs Brueghel's picture. Apart from examples by Peter Greenaway and Atom Egoyan, a film aesthetic of this sort has not been attempted recently."
Hansjörg Spies, Kleine Zeitung Steiermark, 31. 3. 2000
"In Michael Kreihsl's feature film HUNTERS IN THE SNOW the director employs bizarre and surreal visual ideas in order to combine graphic art with the inventions and narrative traditions of authors like Franz Kafka and Thomas Bernhard. ………………..
Peter Angerer, Tiroler Tageszeitung, 4. April 2000