In the mesmerizing and strangely beautiful documentary “Matter Out of Place,” which world premieres in International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival on Wednesday, Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter looks at how we dispose of our trash. But, taking a broader view, he is trying to gain a better understanding of mankind, and the impact it is having on the planet, he tells Variety.
The locations for the film are wide ranging: it moves from the mountains of Switzerland to the coasts of Greece and Albania, to an Austrian refuse incinerator, and then to Nepal and the Maldives, and finally to the deserts of Nevada for the Burning Man event.
When choosing locations, sound was as much of a consideration as the images. Geyrhalter says he invested heavily in capturing high-quality surround sound, which is designed to be heard using Dolby Atmos, and then carefully fine tuned the results when it...
The locations for the film are wide ranging: it moves from the mountains of Switzerland to the coasts of Greece and Albania, to an Austrian refuse incinerator, and then to Nepal and the Maldives, and finally to the deserts of Nevada for the Burning Man event.
When choosing locations, sound was as much of a consideration as the images. Geyrhalter says he invested heavily in capturing high-quality surround sound, which is designed to be heard using Dolby Atmos, and then carefully fine tuned the results when it...
- 8/10/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Clara Stern’s debut feature “Breaking the Ice,” a drama about the blossoming love between ice-hockey player Mira and her new teammate Theresa, has debuted its trailer. The film will have its world premiere Saturday in the Viewpoints section of the Tribeca Film Festival. Julien Razafindranaly at Films Boutique is handling world sales.
The Austrian film follows on from Stern’s prize-winning short film “Mathias,” about a transgender man’s struggle to find his place in the world. “Mathias” screened at more than 30 festivals, and won best short film at Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film in 2017, and the Austrian Academy Award for best short film in 2018.
Frédéric Boyer, Tribeca’s artistic director, commented: “She brings that same sensitivity to ‘Breaking the Ice,’ a film that explores what happens when someone with a very rigid approach to life meets their freewheeling opposite.”
Alina Schaller stars as Mira, the heir to an...
The Austrian film follows on from Stern’s prize-winning short film “Mathias,” about a transgender man’s struggle to find his place in the world. “Mathias” screened at more than 30 festivals, and won best short film at Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film in 2017, and the Austrian Academy Award for best short film in 2018.
Frédéric Boyer, Tribeca’s artistic director, commented: “She brings that same sensitivity to ‘Breaking the Ice,’ a film that explores what happens when someone with a very rigid approach to life meets their freewheeling opposite.”
Alina Schaller stars as Mira, the heir to an...
- 6/9/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
At least since the 1990s, Austria has commanded a central place within global cinema culture, certainly within that portion of it governed in a semi-official manner by film festivals and arthouses. Like many such European film scenes, many of its members have moved quite easily between fiction and documentary modes (Ulrich Seidl and Michael Glawogger, to cite the most obvious and prolific). Still, the documentary element remains too seldom remarked upon as a spiritual source for the unique, penetrating gaze that characterizes so many of key Austrian films. Generally speaking, fictional features by the likes of Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner and Michael Schleinzer have drawn more attention from programmers and distributors than the documentaries of Nikolaus Geyrhalter. This is par for the course with nonfiction cinema. But it nevertheless seems worth mentioning here because, in terms of the tone, construction, and global attitude of Geyrhalter’s cinema, his work seems...
- 7/24/2012
- MUBI
Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter's latest documentary is a nocturnal journey examining Europe's obsession with technology and security
The Austrian film director Nikolaus Geyrhalter makes documentaries with neither commentary nor music, bearing witness to a sick world. Pripyat, released in 1999, described the ghost town beside the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Six years later Our Daily Bread explored the world of processed food. Presented as a curtain-raiser for the Diagonale Austrian film festival in Graz and now on general release, his latest offering, Abendland, focuses on Europe's obsession with technology and security.
The word Abendland, the west in German, literally means "evening land", an implicit reference to our decadence. So what is so desirable about our lifestyle that makes so many people dream of partaking of it, and obliges us to raise walls to keep them out?
Geyrhalter addresses this question in several powerful sequences, formed by a relentless stream of pictures – he recorded 170 hours of material,...
The Austrian film director Nikolaus Geyrhalter makes documentaries with neither commentary nor music, bearing witness to a sick world. Pripyat, released in 1999, described the ghost town beside the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Six years later Our Daily Bread explored the world of processed food. Presented as a curtain-raiser for the Diagonale Austrian film festival in Graz and now on general release, his latest offering, Abendland, focuses on Europe's obsession with technology and security.
The word Abendland, the west in German, literally means "evening land", an implicit reference to our decadence. So what is so desirable about our lifestyle that makes so many people dream of partaking of it, and obliges us to raise walls to keep them out?
Geyrhalter addresses this question in several powerful sequences, formed by a relentless stream of pictures – he recorded 170 hours of material,...
- 4/26/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
First Run/Icarus Films
NEW YORK -- Nikolaus Geyrhalter's beautifully shot and elegantly edited documentary belies the frequent ugliness of its subject matter. A silent, impressionistic portrait of agricultural food preparation that vividly illustrates the complexity of the process that puts food on our tables, Our Daily Bread is an eye-opener that handles its themes in a refreshingly nonexploitative manner. The film recently was showcased at the New York Film Festival.
Dispensing with narration or explanatory titles, the film, co-written by the director and Wolfgang Widerhofer, occasionally can try patience with its lengthy and often repetitive static shots. But it also approaches a sublime beauty at times with the sheer scope of its gorgeously photographed images, from the seemingly endless rows to bright red tomato plants to the mechanized production lines that all but cry out for the presence of Charlie Chaplin.
There also are more than a few disturbing images on display, from the thousands of tiny chicks packed together in horribly confined spaces to numerous scenes explicitly depicting the slaughter and dissection of cows and pigs.
Using only ambient sound, the film manages to convey the hustle and bustle of the various activities on display as well as the narcotizing efficiency of the process. It also includes numerous quiet scenes depicting the workers taking breaks and having meals, reminding us both of the necessity for what is transpiring and the humanity underlying the mechanical procedures on display.
Our Daily Bread will be receiving a theatrical run at New York's Anthology Film Archives beginning Nov. 24.
NEW YORK -- Nikolaus Geyrhalter's beautifully shot and elegantly edited documentary belies the frequent ugliness of its subject matter. A silent, impressionistic portrait of agricultural food preparation that vividly illustrates the complexity of the process that puts food on our tables, Our Daily Bread is an eye-opener that handles its themes in a refreshingly nonexploitative manner. The film recently was showcased at the New York Film Festival.
Dispensing with narration or explanatory titles, the film, co-written by the director and Wolfgang Widerhofer, occasionally can try patience with its lengthy and often repetitive static shots. But it also approaches a sublime beauty at times with the sheer scope of its gorgeously photographed images, from the seemingly endless rows to bright red tomato plants to the mechanized production lines that all but cry out for the presence of Charlie Chaplin.
There also are more than a few disturbing images on display, from the thousands of tiny chicks packed together in horribly confined spaces to numerous scenes explicitly depicting the slaughter and dissection of cows and pigs.
Using only ambient sound, the film manages to convey the hustle and bustle of the various activities on display as well as the narcotizing efficiency of the process. It also includes numerous quiet scenes depicting the workers taking breaks and having meals, reminding us both of the necessity for what is transpiring and the humanity underlying the mechanical procedures on display.
Our Daily Bread will be receiving a theatrical run at New York's Anthology Film Archives beginning Nov. 24.
- 11/2/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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