As part of a joint tour with the Österreichisches Filmmuseum and the Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz, the Diagonal 21 premieres in Graz Paris Calligrammes (DE/FR 2019) di Ulrike Ottinger. La Ottinger, who received a lifetime achievement award at the Berlinale 2020, will be present in person at the screenings in Linz, Vienna and Graz.
The Diagonal, the Austrian Film Festival, will project his “cinematic visual poetry” (calligramma), which already premiered in Berlin last year, as an implementation of his special Longing 20/21 – A small city story in the festival section In reference. After the screening in Graz, there will be a long conversation with Ulrike Ottinger (Diagonal im Dialog).
Because of their temporal proximity and as a sign of mutual solidarity, the Diagonal and the Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz (1-6 June) they will also present ten national works in joint preview, including the world premieres of Arthur Summereder's first documentary Motorcity (AT 2021) e 2551.01 di Norbert Pfaffenbichler (AT 2020), a free adaptation of Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece The Brat. More information on the films below.
Preview dates Paris Calligrammes:
Crossing Europe Film Festival, Linz
— Friday 4 June 2021
Austrian Film Museum, Vienna
— Sunday 6 June 2021
Diagonal – Austrian Film Festival, Graz
— Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Ulrike Ottinger, who lived in Paris working as a painter in the 1960s, weaves together his personal memories of bohemian Paris and the serious social upheavals, political and cultural of the time “in a sparkling self-portrait” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Come in Prater (Diagonal’08), in which he explores the charm and cultural history of the Viennese amusement park, in Paris Calligrammes the filmmaker creates a “topography of thought” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and tells of a Paris in which the fullness of life and the fragility of every cultural and political achievement stand out.
At the Austrian Film Festival, Paris Calligrammes will be screened within a joint program curated by Diagonal, from Filmarchiv Austria, dall’Österreichisches Filmmuseum and dall’ORF archive: the special Longing 20/21 – A small city story, already scheduled for Diagonale'20 and which revolves around the concepts of city and desire.
Motorcity preview e 2551.01
retrospective-diagonal, the Diagonal and the Crossing Europe Film Festival of Linz 2021 they had to be postponed. Due to the ongoing state of emergency, the two festivals and the Viennese short film festival Vienna Shorts (27 May – 1 June) are collaborating more intensely this year. All three festivals will take place immediately one after the other in 2021, which is why the premiere status will be managed in parallel with an overlapping program selection. A total of ten Austrian works will be premiered in the competition of the Diagonal and Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz, including feature films Motorcity e 2551.01. Eight short films will be presented together in Graz and Linz (Crossing Europe Film Festival) and in Graz and Vienna (Vienna Shorts). The titles will be announced during the presentation of the programs.
Per Motorcity, his first work, Arthur Summereder travels to Detroit to investigate the world of auto racing. The engines thunder. The souped-up vehicles reach high speeds in no time, and a race lasts only a few seconds. A magical time span in which Detroit's present and past overlap. Sport turns into a “purist manifesto” whose disciples push the laws of space and time to their limits.
One hundred years later The Brat by Chaplin, Norbert Pfaffenbichler's free adaptation takes us into a dystopian underground world inhabited by "shady" individuals: 2551.01, selected for the competition Innovative cinema, tells a story of violence that celebrates not only the oppressed and marginalized, but also the political potential of cinema.
The Diagonal 21 will take place in Graz from 8 to 13 June. The full program will be published on 28 May. Ticket sales will begin on 2 June 2021.