Hundstage (2001)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 121 minuten
Alternative title: Dog Days
Country:
Austria
Directed by: Ulrich Seidl
Stars: Maria Hofstätter, Alfred Mrva and Erich Finsches
IMDb score:
7,0 (6.809)
Releasedate: 3 September 2001
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Hundstage plot
The 'dog days' of July and August: while temperatures soar above 35 degrees, six residents of a Viennese suburb try to keep their feet. Chatty Anna pesters people with her top ten lists, the alarm system representative Hruby sweats through doors and a masochistic teacher receives her cruel lover twenty years her junior. Heat, boredom and alcohol destroy the facade of neatness and raw emotions violently force their way out.
Actors and actresses
Die Anhalterin
Der Mann für die Sicherheit
Die Freundin des Opel-Freaks
Lehrerin und Geliebte von Vikerl
Vikerl
Angetrunkener Freund von Vikerl
Die geschiedene Frau und Freundin des Masseurs
Der geschiedene Mann
Haushälterin des Alten Mannes
Alter Mann
Reviews & comments
Insignificance
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- 3220 messages
- 5589 votes
Civil Vienna through the wringer. A pale film that abounds in intense sadness over a number of more or less random people, whose repressed heartache and hidden desires flare up during the hottest days of the year. Behavior that is not intended for the outside world, for example, a shutter is regularly lowered, but behind that facade, Seidl is ready to register all their ugliness in an unabashed way. He doesn't really let go of his life-drawn characters.
Because they are definitely recognizable. Walter, for example, when he turns on his lawnmower or is complaining in the supermarket. Of course, the scenario pushes them to a slightly higher level, but at the core these people exist. This gives the film a kind of bitterly realistic character, which is emphasized again by the banality that Seidl displays. Terraced houses and commercial buildings along the road. It is almost impossible. The film has the appearance of a documentary without any frills.
It produces all kinds of sad, painful, absurd, harrowing, but also hilarious situations of people who make each other's life miserable, whether consciously or not. Anna is priceless. An ever-clucking woman with elevators without a destination as a daytime activity, where she gets the blood from under the nails of many. You can already see the mood for everyone, it literally comes and the film gets a bit tougher over time, but these kinds of social reckonings are for me. I'm going to separate.
Translated from Dutch · View original
josseheijmen
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- 503 messages
- 213 votes
Masterpiece.
This is one of those movies where you can put all your intelligence into it. If you want.
Looking intently. Senses sharpened. What do I see? What do I hear?
Details that Seidl only shows for a few seconds. What does it mean? Does this detail have a decisive influence on the meaning of the story?
But, perhaps more importantly:
What does what I see do to me?
Finally a film that reminds me of what cinema can do, why I fell in love with the art form.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Timey
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- 71 messages
- 647 votes
Had the film continued on the first 80 minutes, I would have said the following:
"What an ominous, depressing picture. Where Import/Export still had room for hope, endearment and compassion, this is real sadness and nihilism at its best. Almost impossible to turn off this ride: a narrow 3 stars."
Fortunately, there is a climax, a series of improbable (albeit...) and dramatic events that ensure that humanity and compassion return among the characters. Admittedly, I was annoyed by certain 'parts' of the film (like that crazy, annoying hitchhiker bitch) and actually had a problem with the lack of story. There is a common thread, though: boredom, narrow-mindedness, intolerance; an all too gray reality, but an aligned story where you can identify with characters is not there. The film is packed with powerful images (the couple in the rain on the swings, the hug of 'the slut' with her lover after the gun threats, and I could list more) and leaves a very deep impression, as with Import/Export.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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