Idomeneus, King of Crete, one of the great heroes during the total destruction of the famous city of Troy was sailing back to his realm when a terrible storm broke loose near the city of Sidon. The storm was of such violence that in his fear Idomeneus made a solemn promise to Neptune, God of the Seas, to sacrifice the first person -no matter who it be- that he would meet on the shore if he and his people would only get there safely.
The film tries to retain the memory, the compulsion and the nostalgia of a text by Marguerite Duras.
Witty, literary and intellectual Kammerspiel film which presents the day after the end of the world as an allegory.
After a car accident, Sebastian contracts an uncanny sleeping sickness. Every day he sleeps a minute longer than the preceding day. Sebastian attempts to find out on his own what sleep is.
Pictures of everyday life of an old woman: During the week she waits for one event, the visit of her daughter on Sunday.
A film about news, life and death. Before the media became so prevalent, we were concerned about our immediate neighborhood. At the end of the day, news was the subject of our conversations, but now it's possible to converse with someone at the other end of the globe. We do it all the time. It's simple. The world has become one big neighborhood. Now Headline News has replaced the back fence. That's the news service of the eigthies. It's a new idea and a new approach.
Two women in two different countries leading different lives. One lives in Austria, one in Yugoslavia, yet their lives become strangely entangled for a moment in time. What if you wake up in somebody else's head and the city around you isn't the one you used to know?
"Studio Schönbrunn" is an ironic play with quotations. Paula Wessely in the Nazi-Wien-Film-production "Heimkehr", Leni Riefenstahl's biography, as well as Nestroy, Mozart, Marx, Frank Sinatra, Jandl. The text is adapted, de-familiarized and de-subjectivized. Consequently, the leading actor shoots the film's author.
If you get six when you throw the dice, you can continue to play - so always come up with six! You can advance on as many fields as you have points. White begins. The white pawn advances on six fields and takes the castle. The next pawn takes the bishop. The bishop takes the black pawn. The last pawn takes the black king. You win the game.
O snail Climb Mount Fuji But slowly, slowly! ― Kobayashi Issa
A petrol pump attendant falls in love with a waitress of the service station restaurant. He manages to get the relationship started and even goes as far as buying her a new pair of shoes, but in the end fails to win her heart.
A man wakes up and doesn't know what has happened. Moments of memory and traces, which seem to fall in place, lead him to believe that he has murdered a woman.
In order to obtain his rehabilitation with his professional association because of malpractice committed in the past, Dr. Wilhelm Andacht, a dentist, must track down an ex-colleague, Dr. Engelbert Lang, and do away with him. The latter has been using rather unusual, very successful but unapproved methods of treatment. In addition, he enjoys great popularity among the population of the Totes Gebirge. To help him do his job, Dr. Andacht has been given a doctor, a masseur and an operating room aid. All of them are to be rehabilitated too. Their undertaking is a disastrous flop.
A man reads a book. Ordinary enough, except that he is sentenced to death and scheduled to be shot in ten minutes. Obviously, he will not get to the end of the story. Based on an unfinished short story by Arthur Schnitzler.
Somewhere in America, some time in the thirties, a gangster is fighting for his life, an Italian is fighting for his money, and an Asian is fighting for recognition. Raw fish and seaweed, and Lizzy in the midst of it all...
A permanent disposal site is being sought for toxic waste, and a protest movement develops. A film crew travels through Lower Austria to find out the real implications of the contamination we read about every day in our newspapers.
The portrait of an 87 year old woman who has been writing poems for 3 years. The seven thousand poems she wrote in this short period show her strength and her will to live.
A gasman at work. A couple who go big-game hunting have a collection of trophies. Daily life in the jungle of the city, biding time and drinking tea.
All are waiting everywhere
The Macedonian Soltana is the last original inhabitant of Europe. She still remembers the first automobile: she thought it was a terrible monster. She is neither capable of reading nor writing. At the age of 18, her family takes her to Austria, where she has the opportunity to marry a rich man. No use to think twice about it - Soltana obeys. As a woman, she says, she has no alternative. In Soltana's life no big events took place. But those who look closely are bound to discover tremendous openness and vitality in the small steps of her life.
