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Zoo-Magazin.Pdf interview—Ulrich Seidl Ulrich Seidl’s production offi ce is located on 68 either—I was too young for that. In 1968 I was jolly little nation with a nice clean slate! the second fl oor of an elegant town house at a Catholic boarding school for boys. Of course, The Dog Day Afternoon near the banks of the picturesque Danube news of the student riots got through to us there JK: Does that make someone like Ulrich canal in Vienna. The Austrian director’s and I was very interested in what was going on. Seidl, who likes to look under the carpet, a A long, lazy chat with Austrian fi lmmaker Ulrich Seidl offi ce is cozily furnished, with creaky But my opportunities to protest or rebel at school pessimist, a person obsessed by the dark side wooden fl oorboards and kitschy Catholic were rather limited. Going back to what you said of things? by Jan Kedves/photography Jork Weismann icons. “This is our peripatetic Virgin, a prop though, I should perhaps ask what you mean by US: I have always been accused of pessimism. But for a new project I’m working on,” explains provocation in the fi rst place. that in itself is no worse than being an optimist, Seidl, pointing to a pastel-colored Mother of whose take on reality is equally skewered, or God. “The rest is just irony.” JK: Have 30 years of making fi lms which have un-objective. Optimists desperately want to repeatedly outraged the public—fi lms about see things differently than they really are. And Seidl started producing his series of highly pets, models, prostitution—not given you an besides, there is a vision behind my pessimism, original documentaries in the late 1970s. answer to that question? a vision of greater dignity, of greater individual Combining fact and fi ction, they were US: Good point. I’ve noticed that the things freedom; a vision of change. shown in both cinemas and on television. people usually fi nd provocative are things that His home country of Austria was often the make them feel awkward, catch them red- JK: In a book which the well-known Austrian main subject of his scathing wit. But it wasn’t handed, confront them with things that relate to critic Stefan Grissemann once wrote about until the success of his 2001 fi lm, Hundstage their everyday lives in some way but which they you, Sündenfall—Die Grenzüberschreitungen (Dog Days) at international festivals that refuse to accept. They usually get aggressive quite des Filmemachers Ulrich Seidl (Fall from Grace: Seidl fi nally found international acclaim. quickly, which is when I see that I’ve hit a sore The transgressions of fi lmmaker Ulrich Seidl), he Import Export, which followed in 2007, was point. accuses you of trying to arouse emotions in another global success. This story about viewers, while simultaneously negating that migration portrays an expanded Europe of JK: Is it a question of denial? cinema can do anything to change society or open borders and uprooted lives. I spoke to US: Of course. Let me give you an example: The change the world. That is a contradiction. the fi lmmaker about prostitution, feel-good scenes we shot in the geriatric ward of a Vienna US: I accept that contradiction. I think every one terrorism, black-and-white photography, hospital for Import Export with the lonely old of us has to live with certain contradictions. antidepressants, and Austria’s seeming inmates sparked huge protest. Olga, the main obsession with cellars. character of the fi lm, is a cleaner on this ward. JK: But aren’t all the emotions, the dismay We spent about half a year preparing these scenes and outrage that your fi lms provoke among Jan Kedves: Mr. Seidl, you are known for on location. We spoke to all the people there, we cinema audiences intended to provoke your die-hard perfectionism and unrelenting asked them about their past, or often just held change? self-criticism. When was the last time you their hands. We were very welcome visitors on US: I think the most you can aspire to in cinema felt satisfi ed? that ward! But then the critics said that the scenes is to infl uence public awareness, to provoke Ulrich Seidl: I can’t remember, to be honest. we shot there were an unacceptable intrusion debates and discussions of certain issues. As I I’m a very restless, dissatisfi ed sort of person. into the lives of these senior citizens. A very keep repeating, I could never content myself with Of course, I admit that’s got a lot do with being strange opinion in my view, for if you take these making fi lms for pure entertainment. The main a perfectionist, which doesn’t make being a critics seriously, what they actually mean is that challenge I set myself is to make fi lms that do fi lmmaker any easier. My staff knows I can be old people are so ugly, so repugnant that we more than entertain and make people feel good. very trying during a shoot. should not be allowed to portray them at all. My worst nightmare is to hear people come out of an Ulrich Seidl fi lm saying, “Well, that was JK: But would you also say that your greatest JK: In other words, the critics’ views say quite nice…” successes so far—fi lms like Hundstage (Dog far more about them than what they are Days), which won the Grand Jury Prize at allegedly concerned about. JK: But humor is also a key element of your the Venice Film Festival in 2001, and Import US: Precisely. In our societies, subjects like old fi lms… Export, which was shown in competition at age, fragility and death are taboo. And perhaps US: True, but this humor has quite a different Cannes—fall short of the mark? some people feel bad when they see scenes shot in source than in comedy, for example. Humor is US: No, I wouldn’t go that far. When I fi nish a geriatric ward because they put their mother in usually precision-engineered through written working on a fi lm, there is usually a moment a similar sort of institution. Speaking for myself, I dialogues, clever staging and orchestrated pauses after which I am pleased with the result because have always found it very enriching when a work between key sentences. But in my fi lms, it’s an I know that I have done my best. You can’t do of art draws my attention to things I vaguely unspoken combination of images and plot that more than that. So I should probably say, yes I am know about, but that I have never spent, or never suddenly seem comic. But that’s quite diffi cult to happy with these fi lms. At any rate, I wasn’t able wanted to spend, much time thinking about. plan or foresee. to make them any better. JK: Are Austrians good at denial? JK: So you wouldn’t mind your fi lms being JK: You started making fi lms at the end of the US: Oh absolutely! Austrians are perpetually a bit more comedic sometimes? 70s. Were you ever a punk? in denial, as I never tire of pointing out. The US: Not at all. I know my fi lms can be US: No. Punk never appealed to me at all. country’s Nazi past is a case in point. When I hard-going, so a bit of humor is quite welcome. was a kid at school, I was still taught that the I really love these moments in the cinema when JK: But you’re no stranger to provocation… Austrians were victims of National Socialism. some people in the audience laugh while others US: My life simply went in a completely different The opposite is true: we were every bit as don’t fi nd it funny at all, and are even upset that direction. With the exception of alcohol, for criminal as the Germans! But Austria never made other people are laughing. I think moments like example, I never really had any interest in a confession of guilt after the war, not a word of that are especially interesting—moments drugs—which are usually part of the punk it. Austria just carried on as usual and swept the of awkwardness and pain but which you can lifestyle after all. But I didn’t belong to Generation dirt under the carpet. We like to see ourselves as a laugh about as well. 181 ZOO MAGAZINE–2009 NO.22 interview—Ulrich Seidl JK: Moments where the laughter sort of clothes off on my set, I know that it isn’t anything sticks in your throat, like the scene in Dog extraordinary for them—that they would do that Days where the hitchhiker is kidnapped and kind of thing without the camera too. abused? US: Exactly. Those are the best moments. JK: Working like that must very taxing, emotionally. You seldom work with JK: Is it true that you originally wanted be a professional actors, but usually prefer non- photographer before you discovered fi lm? professionals, which you fi nd in extensive US: I did. casting processes. You need to get to know all these people in the run-up stages to the JK: Was it the camera itself that attracted shoot, explain everything to them, deal with you? their issues… US: No, I’ve never been dazzled by technology. US: It can be a very taxing experience, yes.
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