05/10/2005

The complete programme of the forthcoming Viennale (14-26 October) was finally revealed this weekend. Besides the sidebars already announced (news 24/08), such as the tribute to the Portuguese director Pedro Costa (whose eight films will be screened) and the Jane Birkin retrospective (including 11 features), the Viennale will present 62 fiction features, 52 documentaries, and 47 shorts.

Many of the selected features have been acclaimed at many festivals: The Child by the Dardenne brothers, Les amants réguliers by Philippe Garrel, The Beat that my Heart Skipped by Jacques Audiard, Magic Mirror by Manoel de Oliveira, Le petit lieutenant by Xavier Beauvois, Le promeneur du Champ de Mars by Robert Guédiguian, Manderlay by Lars van Trier. The festival also features Dias de campo by Raul Ruiz, Moartea Domnului Lazarescu by the Romanian director Cristi Puiu, and You Bet Your Life (Spiele leben), the directorial debut of one of the most successful Austrian producers, Antonin Svoboda, which was just presented in San Sebastian.

Films in German are particularly numerous in the documentary section, as this genre is very popular not only in Germany (represented for instance by Crossing the Bridge – Sound of Istanbul, Fatih Akin's Cannes entry, Painting Now by Stefan Hayn and Anja-Christin Remmert, The Irrational Remains by Thorsten Trimpop, D'Annunzio's Cave, and Horst Buchholz...Mein Papa a documentary directed by Christopher Buchholz and Sandra Hacker which was just released in Germany) but also in Austria for whom the highlight will certainly be Workingman's Death, a film Michael Glawogger presented in Venice ('Horizons') and at Toronto. Europe will also be represented by Mercedes Alvarez' The Sky Turns de (cf. Focus on), Edo Bertoglio's Face Addict (cf. news 7/15), the French film The Two Lives of Eva by Esther Hoffenberg, as well as Profils paysans – le quotidien by Raymond Depardon and Histoire(s) de cinéma – Moments choisis by Jean-Luc Godard, amongst others.

The detail of this fine programme and the tickets are available on the official website of the www.viennale.at

(Translated from French)