Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
werwolf_dk
This was on Austrian TV some months ago. For people outside Austria, TV is often the only source to see Austria films. In addition this was produced for the domestic market, as everyone is speaking in their specific dialect, which means this is one of the charms of this film to me. It is not a "sophisticated comedy" though, but still one where language is one source of enjoyment. The title gives away what this film is about. And as it is a comedy, the ending gives itself. So, a perpetual student has not reported the death of his grandmother and is still claiming her pension and attendance allowance. As someone from town hall wants to congratulate her on her 95th birthday, things become critical. The student wants to "borrow" a sedated person from a hospital, but as he elopes with a famous actress, a lot crazy situations ensue. Yes, it is some kind of crazy comedy. The humor is often rather blunt, but they never fall into the trap of vulgar overacting. It might have helped to trim the film a bit, as some jokes are repetitive. I am also sure that this film definitely will lose in translation. Some characters seem to have stepped out from a Seidl flick. Watch it to ensure yourself Austria also has mainstream movies.
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Die unabsichtliche Entführung der Frau Elfriede Ott" or "The Unintentional Kidnapping of Mrs. Elfriede Ott" is an Austrian German-language movie that runs for 110 minutes roughly and premiered back in 2010, so it's not that recent of a film anymore. Still it is one of the more recent works by director Andreas Prochaska and he is also among the writing quartet who worked on the script here. It is probably also among his more known works, even if not as famous as his darker (horror) works. As for this one here, the long title already suggests that it is all about the comedy here. Austrian actress Elfriede Ott, around the age of 85 when this was made, came back from retirement to play herself in this film and she already acted in the late 1940s. She plays herself in a retirement facility and there she gets abducted in a series of unfortunate events. The premise is actually pretty hilarious, but eventually I was not too convinced. The thriller/drama component that goes with the abduction is missing completely, but that's not a problem I think if the comedy had been delivered in a refreshing and funny way. But I did not like it and for a film that is closer to 120 minutes than to 90 minutes, it just wasn't enough in terms of funny scenes. And apart from the quantity, the quality isn't convincing either. The film has quite a few lengths and the plot and the minor twists aren't enough for such a long-running movie. The performances were fairly mediocre overall too and I don't really think the film deserves any of the awards attention it received. Shocking to see this was picked as the best Austrian movie of the year back then? Seriously? I can't second that at all either. Same can be said about the relatively high rating here on IMDb either. I feel as if this film used several scenes and parts from American, more known films that focus on the abduction of characters that may or may not be dead with the intention to get financial profit from that. So yeah it's been done before and frequently better. Do not watch.
