Prof. Timothy Snyder, 2018 Vienna Lecture at Vienna City Hall, Vienna Humanities Festival 2018, 9.5* out of 10

Timothy Snyder's 2018 Vienna Lecture and the following conversation with the Director of the Institute for Human Sciences Prof. Shalini Randeria were a thoughtful and thought-provoking delight. His book The Road to Unfreedom on which his lecture was based is an invaluable and lasting contribution to a most important problem of our time. A great start to this weekend's 2018 Vienna Humanities Festival. 

The 2018 Vienna humanities festival takes the form of a series salons (for which 19th century Vienna was famous) bringing together leading figures from academia, the arts and culture. About half of the events are held in English.

The festival started last night with a 30-minute lecture by Yale history professor Timothy Snyder. Snyder is a meticulous researcher specialising in the 20th-century history of central Europe. But he is so much more:  a gifted writer, a brilliant speaker, and an inspiring educator. 

For him, history is not only there to explore and explain the past, but to provide a structure to understand it and analyse the present and the future. Despite spending many years of his research on arguably the darkest chapters of world history emanating from Europe and taking place in the heart of this continent, or perhaps because of it, Snyder is not a pessimist or fatalist. He believes in the power of agency, driven by a sense of individual human responsibility. We can and must distinguish between good and bad (or at least between better than bad and downright evil) based on the solid pursuit of facts and a fact-based pursuit of truth. Here Snyder is emphatic: facts exist, truth exists and all of us, but young people, in particular, deserve to be encouraged to pursue both from a normative perspective, i.e. taking a view, even if it might vary individually of what they consider good and bad.

In his latest book The Road to Unfreedom, Snyder speaks about two views of history that seem to have dominated the intellectual and political worldview after the fall of the iron curtain. The first is “inevitability” as exemplified by Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History”. This view claims that there is no alternative to the route leading from where we were. to capitalism and liberal democracy. The only room for discussion is the extent to which the capitalist order needs mitigation and regulation. The view that it needs rather little of both, fuelled the crisis of 2008 and the political response of bailing out the banks. Snyder believes that there were other alternatives, but the inevitability view blocks us from considering them. Criticising this worldview is also what Snyder sees as his mild criticism of Obama and Hilary Clinton.

The other worldview is the “cyclical view” of history. This is the view that history is an ever-repeating cycle of intranational and international conflict and victimhood and cannot ever truly progress. Gains for all will always be temporary phenomena as sooner or later history will repeat itself as tragedy or farce, and we must not be fooled by it. This is the view propagated by the Putins and the Trumps of this world who gain and maintain power not by claiming to be able to improve their people’s lives but by explaining whose fault it is that those they govern are suffering. 

To do this, they make use of time honoured techniques such as the so-called  “active measures” which the Russian authoritarians employed already in the 19th century. Here the manipulator finds some disposition in the target and gets them to do something that is not in their interest. Our dispositions to be at least a little bit racist, misogynist and threatened by open displays of homosexuality are candidates for employing this technique.  And the internet and social media have given the potential effectiveness of active measures an enormous boost. 

Snyder identifies the Russian government as the main villain of the peace – perhaps a little too much. He says that fascism was based on “The One Big Lie” (i.e. everything is the fault of the Jews), while the politicians exercising power under the cyclical view of history today work by the propagation of the many medium-sized lies. At the same time, they discredit the belief that there is such a thing as the truth and encourage the view that everybody lies anyway. As the author Peter Pomerantsev has put it succinctly in the title of his excellent book on Putin’s Russia: “Nothing is true and everything is possible”. 

Snyder rejects both the inevitability view and the cyclic view of history. The future of human affairs cannot be predicted for certain. Here he joins Karl Popper’s theses as expressed in The Open Society and its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism.  Snyder emphatically believes in the power of agency by individuals and organisations to shape the future.  Ideas and actions based on an understanding of the structure of history which is accessible to us all are important to make the exercise of that agency beneficial. (Snyder in contrast the general accessibility of the study of history with the study of advanced physics which is not accessible to everybody.) He emphasises the importance of fact and the need to proceed on an understanding of what is good and what is bad, or at least what is a little bit better and a little bit worse and what is truly evil. Finally, the importance of fact-based high quality local investigative journalism is crucial to give such an effort a chance to succeed and allow liberal democracy to flourish.

Unlike some other academics, Snyder takes his role as an educator as seriously as his job as an historian. Shakespeare’s Hamlet describes the world into which the Danish prince is thrown and says: “Time is out of joint”. These words contributed to Snyder feeling compelled to write The Road to Unfreedom (The similarity to the title to Viennese School economists Friedrich Hayek’s seminal Road to Serfdom may not be entirely coincidental, although Snyder comes from a very different school of thought than Hayek). Becoming a historian who - controversially for the members of his profession- looks at the present and the future through the lens of a thorough and structured analysis of the past. Snyder does so in a sharp-eyed yet moving and entertaining way. He may not be right in every aspect, but Snyder makes an invaluable and lasting contribution to a most important debate of our time. 

Snyder’s lecture was followed by a conversation with the Director of the Institute for Human Sciences Prof. Shalini Randeria who probed his ideas carefully and critically bringing China India and other key world players into the debate and allowing Snyder to clarify some of the concept and ideas he raised in his lecture and his book. He did so with great clarity, modesty giving occasional glimpses of a fine sense of humour. The interview rounded up another memorable evening with one of the great historians, communicators, and educators of our time. Thoughtful, thought-provoking an entertaining.

https://www.humanitiesfestival.at/

http://timothysnyder.org/books

Note: A number of error corrections and editorial changes to improve the readability of this text have been made several hours after it was first published.

Weapon of Choice, Documentary Film Austria (2017), directed by Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger, 6.5* out of 10

Hampered in his investigation by potential and actual legal and political threats, film-makers Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger have still managed to create a thought-provoking documentary about Austria's high-impact contribution to Rap and Hip-Hop Culture. Whether it will also be allowed to provoke debate in Austrian mainstream media and society is an altogether different question.  

Surrounding the decaying Jewish cemetery of Deutsch-Wagram, a small town close to the Vienna city limits are the buildings containing the original workshop of an inventor who is behind Austria’s most powerful contribution to rap and hip-hop culture. 

His name is Gaston Glock. In 1981, without any previous experience in gun-design Mr. Glock invented a handgun with its steel barrel encased in a plastic-moulding, the Glock. His invention revolutionized the modern handgun. It also made Mr Glock a billionaire when his eponymous company and product conquered the US gun market in the 1990s. Its conquest began with the Glock becoming the weapon of choice for police forces throughout North America and continued with the Austrian gun reaching cult status among the members of inner-city gangs. As Glock rhymes with cock, and (sort of) with drop, cop, pop, shop and other useful everyday words in rap and hip-hop circles, Gaston Glock's second name became synonymous with “handgun” and mad its entry in hundreds of rap and hip-hop lyrics. 

Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger's documentary "Weapon of Choice" concentrates on three sociopolitical arenas in which the use of the Glock has become widespread: suppliers of guns and services to supposedly law-abiding US gun lovers, who emerge as rather friendly and eloquent people, Chicago gangs, whose ex-members emerge as rather honest people about the high they got from shooting their Glock to kill, and the (civil) war in Iraq, whose shady gun traders were offering Fritz Ofner a share of their profits, if he could use his Austrian passport and connections to get them to become Glock-company-approved gun-traders; or if he could at least bring them a few Glock's on a future trip to Iraq from Austria. Apparently he said no to both propositions. 

Ofner also interviews two former close business associates of the secretive and litigious inventor-businessman Gaston Glock. Both have spent significant periods in prison. One is the former CEO of Glock in the US. He chillingly explains how the first mass killing with a Glock in the eerily named town of Killeen, Texas turned out to be a major marketing plus for the company, that is now turning out more than 1.5 million guns a year in its Austrian factories, mainly for export world-wide. This export success ensures the philanthropist nonagenarian entrepreneur and inventor Gaston Glock and his company considerable protection and goodwill from Austrian politicians. The other interviewee and business associate of Glock, a jovial, money–laundering Falstaff-like figure from Luxembourg known as "Panama-Charley", is locked up in a Luxembourg prison for allegedly ordering the murder of Gaston Glock. This supposedly resulted in a failed attempt by a former French wrestling champion to kill Glock in a Luxembourg car park with an unusual “weapon of choice”, a plastic hammer for laying bathroom tiles. It does make one wonder whether there were no Glocks available in Luxemburg at the time.

Ofner and Hausberger's approach in their documentary is to let the viewer make up their own mind about the responsibility concerning of Glock the gun, Glock the company, Glock the man and the Austrian government who all benefit from the sales success of the gun. What responsibility, if any, do they have in misdeeds carried out with Glocks?  How should responsibility be allocated between incitement, shooter and gun? And what does that mean for those who produce, sell and facilitate the export of the gun into gangland and other warzones? And what about the good guys who defend themselves and law abiding citizens against violent crime, mass shootings and ideologically driven terrorism? Do they not need the best equipment to do their dangerous jobs?  

In their documentary Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger never explicitly ask these questions, let alone answer them. They want the viewer to do the thinking. Moreover, it's not too difficult to work out where the filmmakers tend to on these questions.

As Austrian citizens and residents making this film in Austria, Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger have shown considerable courage and determination. The threat of Gaston Glock’s long reach and heavy hand exerted via powerful lawyers and other means was hanging over him during the six years it took to complete the documentary. 

Perversely, the film can engender admiration for the Glock-gun and its inventor as much as disdain towards the role of this Austrian company in mass shootings, terrorist actions, and gang warfare. Ofner and Hausberger's attempt with this film to start a debate in Austria is courageous, but will most likely remain a flash in the pan.

For investigative journalists outside Austria, things are less fraught, apparently. Paul M. Barrett’s 2012 New York Times bestseller “Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun” remains relevant background reading on the Glock and its maker.

Unsurprisingly, the legal and other worries in the 6 years it took to make this film and its non-campaigning approach have taken a toll on the end-product. Ofner's film is less hard-hitting, inquisitive and informative as a documentary than many viewers would have wished for. Nevertheless, “Weapon of Choice” is thought- provoking. Moreover, it is a worthwhile contribution to transparency and debate around gun culture, profits from weapons sales and the political protection for the benefit of potentially controversial companies in the land of Mozartkugeln, Sachertorte and the Sound of Music.

A mainly young audience packed the large Filmcasino cinema in Vienna at its premiere here and stayed on to listen intently to the understated and modest Fritz Ofner making his case for launching and inner-Austrian debate with his film. Clearly, he has found out a lot more about the subject than he could show on screen. 

Fritz Ofner (right) being interviewed 

at the premiere of  "Weapon of Choice" 

in Vienna's Film Casino 

Tracking Edith, Documentary Film Austria 2017, written and directed by Peter Stefan Jungk, 9* out of 10, seen at JW3 Cinema in London

Combining cultural, social and political aspects of European history of the 20th century, Peter Stefan Jungk presents a beautifully crafted, meticulously researched and highly entertaining documentary about his aunt, the Viennese-born socialist photographer and devastatingly effective Soviet spy Edith Tudor-Hart.  

The subject of her great-nephew Peter Stefan Jungk’s documentary is Edith Tudor – Hart née Suschitzky (1908 -1977). Born in Vienna to a highly educated atheist and social democratic Jewish family, she became a kindergarten teacher trained personally by the educationalist Maria Montessori, then a talented photographer and one of the most devastatingly successful spies the Soviet Union ever had. 

With her Rolleiflex camera, she documented the lives of the working classes in interwar Austria, moved her domicile to the UK and trained her camera on the working classes of London and the Welsh Rhonda Valley. 

Edith’s turbulent emotional life included a marriage with the English surgeon John Tudor – Hart who left his family for Edith and, in turn, left Edith and her new-born son for the Spanish civil war. Later, when her son develops autism and is treated by the renowned child psychiatrist David Winnicott, she also has an affair with him. 

The big family secret Peter Stefan Jungk uncovers about his aunt is that she was one of the most effective spies the Soviet Union ever had. In Vienna, she had had a relationship with spy handler Arnold Deutsch. This was at the origin of the crucial role she would later play in the recruitment of the “Cambridge 5”, a group of 5 Cambridge University graduates, including Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald MacLean who were all part of the most devastatingly successful spy-network of the Cold War period at the highest echelons of British society.

Based on Jungk’s excellent book, The Dark Rooms of Edith Tudor – Hart, Tracking Edith is a beautifully researched and crafted documentary, combining cultural, social and political aspects of European history of the 20th century. Jungk’s interviews with relevant experts and family members are an object lesson of a quiet, subtle and sometimes humorous style that makes his interviewees comfortable. Three of the members of the Suschitzky family interviewed by Jungk are renowned cinematographers. Perhaps there is a cinematography-gene in the Suschitzky family which would explain the beautifully inventive cinematography that brings Edith’s photographs to life and includes the use of animation. All this contributes to making Tracking Edith a most interesting, thought-provoking and suspenseful documentary about this multi-talented, idealistic and practical woman. Edith Tudor -Hart combined strong political convictions, great artistic skills, a naïve enthusiasm for Stalin’s Soviet Union, a surprisingly modern attitude to sexual relationships and the ability to face the challenges of everyday life with a special talent for the practical aspects of espionage. 

It is not easy to do justice to such a multi-faceted life in a single documentary. Tracking Edith succeeds handsomely, is informative and entertaining and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.

Edith Tudor - Hart

Licht (Mademoiselle Paradis), Film, Austria (2017), screenplay by Kathrin Resetarits directed by Barbara Albert, Jerusalem Film Festival, 9* out of 10

Based on true events, Mademoiselle Paradis is a beautifully observed psychological drama playing in 18th century Vienna, yet highly relevant for our time. Maria Dragus shines in the title role.

Vienna 1777. Maria Theresia Paradis (Maria Dragus) who was suddenly blinded as a young child has at the age of 18 obtained a stipend from Empress Maria Theresia of Austria due to her talent as a concert pianist. Her concerts are attended by Viennese society who love the spectacle of beautiful concerts being given by a blind girl. The young pianist’s parents Josef Anton (Lukas Miko) and Maria Rosalia (Katja Kolm) manage their daughter’s career. The Paradis family’s social position in Viennese society can only be maintained due to the dotage and stipend the young girl receives from the Empress. The controversial German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (Devid Striesow) who experiments with unusual therapies (magnetism, laying on of hands, talking therapies) is also in Vienna. He is married to Anna Maria von Posch (Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg), a wealthy Viennese widow. Their house contains a sanatorium for people who have been given up or in fact ruined by the traditional medicine of the time. With his research and therapies, Mesmer seeks to gain acceptance in the scientific circles of Vienna, who are highly sceptical of his innovative ideas. When the parents of Mlle. Paradis bring her daughter to Mesmer and he manages to achieve some progress with restoring sight, he hopes that she will become his ticket to scientific recognition. As her sight improves the young girl begins to gain confidence and stands up to her parents and the relationship between her parents and Mesmer deteriorates. Moreover, as Maria Theresia’s sight appears to improve she begins to lose part of the virtuosity on the piano, on which the family depends.

Kathrin Resetarits has skilfully adapted the excellent novel Mesmerized (Am Anfang war die Nacht Musik) by Alissa Walser which is based on true events. Under Barbara Albert’s excellent direction Mademoiselle Paradis is a beautifully observed psychological drama that provides an insight into different strata of Viennese society, focusing on the vulnerable position of women, without ever straying from telling a suspenseful story full of socio-psychological drama. On the surface Mademoiselle Paradis looks like an historical costume drama and the costumes and photography evoking the Vienna between Baroque and Enlightenment are of a high order, the story of a talented person finding herself being pulled in all directions their entourage and their public is as relevant today as it was then. Screenplay, direction, cinematography and ensemble acting are at a consistently high level of achievement throughout and fit together beautifully and even at this high level, Maria Dragus performance as Maria Theresia Paradis stands out.

Made by talented women, to be enjoyed by both men, women and any other gender, Mademoiselle Paradis is an outstanding psychological thriller in an historical setting. Highly recommended. 

  

You Only Die Twice (Der Mann der zweimal starb), Documentary Film Austria/Israel/Germany 2018, by Yaïr Lev and David Deri 9* out of 10

You Only Die Twice is two thrilling documentaries rolled into one. There is the story of the search for the past itself and how it leads to unexpected human encounters and connections. And there is the story it reveals of people's actions in the most extreme situations showing prejudice, discretion, courage and the strength of some to swim against the strongest currents. 

When Yaïr Lev’s mother, born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, hears that she has inherited a house in North London from a distant relative through who died without making a testament she is very happy because the money from its sale will come in very handy. She is the daughter of Ernst Beschinsky from Vienna who came to Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine) in 1935. But then she hears that she may not be entitled to the inheritance, as another person called Ernst Beschinsky with the same birth details as her father seems to have lived and died in Austria. What starts as the attempt to secure his mother’s inheritance, turns into a detective story. After World War II, the second Ernst Beschinsky lived in the provincial Austrian town of Innsbruck in the Tyrol where over many years he was the president of its small Jewish community. Innsbruck was a hive of Catholic anti-Semitism from the Middle Ages and of support for Hitler’s National Socialist Party before and during World War II. So, the question of who was the second Ernst Beschinsky and what motivated him to take on the identity of another person, a Jewish person to boot, becomes an explosive one for the Jewish community of Innsbruck. When a close connection to a Tyrolean family of committed Nazis, members of SA and SS, of the first hour comes to light everyone is starting to fear the worst.

Yaïr Lev and David Deri's thrilling documentary, which deservedly won the Audience Award and the Research Award at DocAviv 2018, tells two stories for the price of one. There is the story of what happened to the “Innsbruck” Ernst Beschinsky between 1935 and his death in 1987 and there is the story of the search by Yaïr Lev which brings him in contact with descendants of the family of committed Nazis to which the Innsbruck-Beschinsky was connected. Outwardly calm, Yaïr Lev, inwardly emotional Lev gets to find out about and meet Austrians of different generations and makes an inner journey that reveals the chaos and complication of war and the struggle of how to deal with knowing the facts about one’s people’s past. Lev’s thorough research shows that even extreme situations can be very complicated, and exceptional people confronted with the need to help others in questions of life and death can act with amazing courage, whatever their background. And true love and real friendship are sometimes found in unexpected places.

You Only Die Twice is an excellent documentary that holds the audience’s attention from beginning to end, a kind of road-movie thriller about a man's journey to discover and decode a turbulent past.

https://www.geyrhalterfilm.com/jart/prj3/geyrhalter/main.jart?rel=en&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1497604516536&film_id=1479125470173


German speakers with access to Austrian IP-addresses can watch it here on Flimmit.com against a small fee.

https://www.flimmit.com/catalog/product/view/id/18631

Il colore nascosto delle cose (Emma), Film Italy 2017, co-written and directed by Silvio Soldini, 7.0* out of 10

Il colore nascosto delle cose is a watchable romantic comedy with a little extra weight provided by Valeria Golina's moving performance in the role of the blind Emma. 

Teo (Adriano Giannini) is a successful copywriter in his forties. As he is quite happy with his disordered life, he does not want to commit to his girlfriend Greta (Anna Ferzetti) and give up the sexual trysts with his married mistress Stefania (Valentina Carnelutti). But when he meets the blind osteopath Emma (Valeria Golino), what starts out as an interesting challenge of just another sexual conquest gently becomes a loud wake-up call for Teo to change perspective and examine his life; but is he strong enough to take the consequences.

Il colore nascosto delle cose could easily be just another romantic comedy, with the advantage to English speaking viewers that it has the exotic charm of being Italian and unless one assiduously follows contemporary Italian cinema, the actors are new to us. But what makes this film a bit special is that wrapped in the comedy it deals with the drama of women trying to cope with blindness and visual handicap. It is in that part that the film is unusual and succeeds to be moving with drama and humour rather than pathos. The characters of Emma and her friends, the visually handicapped Patti (Arianna Scomegna) and the young recently blinded Nadia (Laura Adriani) are well written and acted. Valeria Golino as Emma stands out.

Il colore nascosto delle cose is a watchable comedy drama for those looking for light romantic comedy entertainment with a little emotional extra that keeps the tear ducts active.

Wagner, Hofmann, Loos – The Furniture Design of Viennese Modernity, Imperial Furniture Collection, Vienna, Austria 9.5* out of 10

This exhibition at the Imperial Furniture Collection in Vienna shows the protagonists as furniture and interior designers in the context of a network of intellectuals and business people who furthered their development by giving and getting them commissions.  Open until 28 October 2018, it is the most enjoyable and interesting exhibition I have seen so far this year on Vienna around 1900.  If you live in Vienna or plan to visit the Austrian capital, don’t miss it.

This year, many museums in Vienna are putting on special exhibitions in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I and the Habsburg Empire and the death of several important representatives of “Viennese Modernity”. These include painters like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and architects/designers like Otto Wagner and Koloman Moser. 

Internationally, the painters are very well known. The architects and designers who developed a Viennese Style contemporary with Art Nouveau and the English Arts and Crafts Movement, less so. Yet their aesthetic has remained influential well into our time.

An excellent exhibition at Vienna’s Imperial Furniture Collection, which concentrates on three architects of Viennese Modernity, Otto Wagner, Josef Hofmann and Adolf Loos now allows visitors to Vienna to get to know them and their furniture and interior designs in the context of Viennese cultural intellectual and fashion life of the time.

The exhibition shows stunning examples of furniture and interior design by the three protagonists, presents the people who commissioned them to design their apartments and tells the stories of companies such as Thonet, who turned beautiful designs into reality. It shows the networks of Viennese salons and intellectuals in which Wagner, Hofmann and Loos moved and thanks to which they obtained many of their most important commissions. These include such interesting characters as the Austrian writer and cultural critic Karl Kraus, Bertha Zuckerkandl a journalist who kept an influential literary salon and Eugenie “Genia” Schwarzwald, a writer and pioneer of education for women in Austria. A vivid picture of a striving future-oriented rather optimistic Vienna emerges, in which mainly Jewish intellectuals and business people are involved in commissioning work from the non-Jewish Wagner, Hofmann and Loos. Sadly a few years later, many of their clients will perish in the Holocaust, others manage to flee Vienna in time to escape this fate and go into exile.

Apart from wonderful examples of interiors and pieces of furniture, supplemented by contemporary photographs, the panels are full of stories and quotes that enlighten, entertain and create a vivid context for the exhibited pieces and show cooperation and competition among the protagonists on a very human level. All the panels are in German and English. The quality of the translation is excellent.

This exhibition is the most enjoyable interesting I have seen this year on Vienna around 1900. It is a pity, that the well-researched and beautifully written accompanying catalogue is only available in German.

The exhibition at the Imperial Furniture Collection in Vienna is open until 28 October 2018. If you live in Vienna or plan to visit the Austrian capital before that date, don’t miss it.

http://www.hofmobiliendepot.at/ausstellung/aktuelle-sonderausstellung/wagner-hoffmann-loos-und-das-moebeldesign-der-wiener-moderne.html

Unfortunately, like the accompanying catalogue, the website of the exhibition is only in German but all the panels in the exhibition are in English as well as German.

Tully, Film 2018, written by Diablo Cody directed by Jason Reitman 8.5* out of 10

"Tully" succeeds as a personal drama with funny moments that puts the spotlight on the experience of a woman in an educated middle-class household in the US trying to raise kids and manage a family. Charlize Theron's understated performance as Marlo,  a wife and mother on the edge of a nervous breakdown, trying to hold it together is outstanding.

Marlo (Charlize Theron) and her husband Drew (Ron Livingstone) live in the suburbs near New York City. They are in their late 30s and have two young children Emmy (Maddie Dixon –Poirier) and Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica), who has mild behavioural problems, and a third child is on the way. Like many middle-class families Marlo and Drew are just about managing financially. Drew is absorbed in his work project, while Marlo is struggling with her pregnancy and running the household. When Marlo’s financially successful brother Craig (Mark Duplass) offers to pay for a “night-nanny” to help Marlo through the first weeks of the baby’s arrival, she first says no, but later changes her mind. Tully (McKenzie Davies), the young attractive night-nanny arrives and not only takes care the new baby but also of Marlo. Thanks to Tully taking care of her physically and spiritually, Marlo for the first time in a long while has time to take a breath and think about herself and assess her situation in a new light. As Marlo revisits her life and younger self she becomes ever more confident and adventurous; but gradually her initiatives start to cross conventional lines and not only Drew is starting to question where all this will lead….

"Tully" succeeds as a personal drama with funny moments that puts the spotlight on the experience of a woman in an educated middle-class household in the US trying to raise kids and manage a family. Meanwhile her husband struggles to provide the financial means, a good university education and an expert-level white collar job. This being an American film, it simultaneously questions and celebrates the virtue of self-reliance rather than engaging in social criticism let alone in questioning of the economic system. In Europe, one cannot help but compare the situation Marlo finds herself in, with women in countries such as Sweden where generous provisions for parental leave are designed to give both mothers and fathers sufficient time and money to organise family life in a calmer and more balanced manner. 

“Tully” stands out above the more standard Hollywood fare, as an unusual, intelligent and suspenseful story. Yet, like Hollywood often does very well, it successfully bundles humour, drama and emotion. Strong writing, excellent acting performances and competent direction combine to hold the audience attention and emotion from beginning to end through some moments of uncomfortable viewing. Charlize Theron's understated performance as Marlo, a wife and mother on the edge of a nervous breakdown, trying to hold it together is outstanding, and McKenzie Davis is excellent as her not quite perfect young helper in the title role. “Tully” is worth a visit to the cinema.

The Cleaners, Documentary Film 2017, directed by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, 8.5* out of 10

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck have created a thrilling documentary about the human challenges of a hitherto unexamined part at the frontline of the social media. By focusing on the individuals in the frontline of examining extreme content they show the human drama and thereby raise the systemic issues in an accessible and impressive way. 

The Cleaners in the title of this documentary are the people on the frontline of social media who view posts, photos and videos and decide whether they need to remove them. To make this decision they view content which has been identified by some Artificial Intelligence software as potentially problematic and refer to policies they have received from the clients of their employer, among them Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Google-Alphabet). These global market-leaders of social networking have outsourced these task, but by ordering it to be done, they have explicitly assumed a certain editorial responsibility for. Their software, policy manual, and the outsourcer they have chosen are there to ensure that certain types of content posted by anyone of their billions of users will be removed if it is “unacceptable”. Examples of the unacceptable are child pornography, terror propaganda, lots of types of lewd nakedness and certain forms of lèse majesté, particularly if images or representations of prominent figures involve lewd nakedness or sex.

The job of the cleaners involves being relentlessly assaulted by the most brutal and disgusting pictures and videos. From child rape to ISIS beheadings, a cleaner must view thousands of disgusting pictures every day and decide which of these they need to remove and why. 

The go-to country for finding an outsourcing company to do this job are the Philippines. One can only speculate that it is the combination of low wage cost together with its “Christian values” of this former Spanish and US colony that has something to do with the Filipinos and Filipinas being considered the most suitable work-force for this task. The cleaners who are recruited are mainly smart though, well educated, young people who are in the front-line of the most popular social media being paid USD 1.--  to USD 2.-- per hour.

The film presents five former “cleaners” who, despite the non-disclosure agreement they have signed with their former employers, articulately explain what they did, why they did it, how it made them feel and what impact performing this task had on them in the long run.

The social media giants and the outsourcing companies are secretive about the “cleaning” aspect of their operations; therefore, the pioneering work done by Block, Riesewieck and their team to bring to light how this work is performed in the frontline and by whom, is not only a scoop, but also a valuable contribution to the important debates concerning social media, fake news, freedom of expression and its limits. By focusing on the cleaners and their experiences and giving them ample room to present themselves, warts and all, the filmmakers have made a documentary that feels like a psychological drama. This approach makes their documentary interesting for a very wide audience beyond those who are interested in social media. In fact, it shows how ordinary people with whom we can identify and empathise try to cope under extreme conditions. Some of this makes for uncomfortable yet compelling viewing.

Block and Riesewieck have also found former mid-level managers from the social media giants who speak very eloquently and clearly about real live examples of the challenges they faced and how they tried to cope with what often were unprecedented situations. The testimony of Nicole Wong formerly responsible for policy in this area at Google and Twitter lays out the complex issues she was faced with very well.

Their documentary is least interesting when they show examples of people and cases who generate the posts that the cleaners must deal with, but thankfully this part of the documentary is not overlong. The case for Facebook posts containing hate-speech being mainly responsible for the escalation of the conflict between Buddhists and Rohingyas in Myanmar was not convincingly made,

With The Cleaners, Block and Riesewieck have created a thrilling documentary about the human challenges of a hitherto unexamined part at the frontline of the new media. By not adding a commentary voice, they avoid telling the viewer what to think, thereby making the impact of what the protagonists tell us even stronger and more direct. The research behind the documentary cannot have been easy and is clearly of high quality. The Cleaners is a remarkable first effort and one can hope for more great documentaries from these filmmakers. 

With the rapid development and convergence of new technologies (Artificial Intelligence, picture and film editing tools) the task of the human cleaners may soon be replaced by software while the challenge may soon be overtaken by ever greater manipulative technologies used to appeal to people’s emotions.  Nevertheless, The Cleaners is the timely product of the kind of documentary journalism which should be reinforced and multiplied. Organisations to which film-makers can turn for support (financial, technical, commissioning and more) have a crucial role to play here. Independent Public Broadcasters like the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF and the BBC in the UK have played an important role in making this documentary possible. They and the others are to be congratulated and supported for successfully fulfilling they’re role of critically examining important political, social and economic developments in an accessible and suspenseful way.

The Cleaners is a documentary, that holds the viewer’s full attention, informs you, makes you think and will stay with long after the final credits. Highly recommended.

Heartburn, Novel (1983) and Audiobook (2013), written by Nora Ephron, performed by Meryl Streep 9* out of 10

In Heartburn Nora Ephron worked deep hurt and an awful sinking feeling into a hilarious book with many pithy observations and useful cooking recipes. What can be more compelling than reading this book? Listening to the audiobook of Meryl Streep performing it as a soliloquy.

In Heartburn Rachel Samstat tells the story of the break-up of her second marriage. Rachel is a food writer and her second husband is a journalist in the Washington of the 1980s. The Washington of the time after the story told in the recent movie The Post, the Washington of the time after the story told in the not so recent movie All the Presidents Men: post Nixon, post-Watergate, post the heroics of the two journalists who unravelled the Nixon White House, Edward Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

But that is not what Heartburn is about. What Heartburn is about, is a woman being left in the lurch by her husband. 7-months pregnant, she is fighting the battle against letting herself become a victim for the rest of her life using the weapons at her disposal: an acute sense of observation honed by a successful career in journalism and a great sense of humour, occasionally self-deprecating, often hilarious, always from the heart. 

What makes Heartburn stand out is that with all the journalism and with all the humour, the deep hurt and that awful sinking feeling of “how do I ever get out of this one without going into a never-ending spiral of bitterness and decline” is palpably there behind the truly funny and hugely entertaining telling of the story. 

So, what can be more compelling than reading this book? Listening to Meryl Streep performing it as a soliloquy. And this enjoyment can be yours, if you get Heartburn performed by Meryl Streep in audiobook form. 

A few words about the genre Audiobook, which and which has enriched my cultural life after I discovered it, about a year ago. I always get the paperback or Kindle version, as well as the audiobook; sometimes I read along while I listen, or perhaps I listen while I read. At other times, I read, then listen (often while pottering about the home, doing my laundry, preparing breakfast), then read again. An audio book performance can be much more than having a book read to you; it can be an art-form in its own right. Heartburn performed by Meryl Streep is a case in point.

Although a novel, Heartburn is quite closely based on true events. In her second marriage Nora Ephron was married to Carl Bernstein (of Woodward and Bernstein / Watergate fame) who had an affair with Margaret Jay the very tall wife of the then British Ambassador to the United States and daughter of the former British Prime Minister James Callaghan. But that, although considered very interesting at the time, is very much by the by as far as what makes this novel and Meryl Streep’s performance a great read and listen.

After writing Heartburn, Nora Ephron went on to write great screenplays of romantic Hollywood comedies, including Heartburn (starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson), When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail. She died much too soon of Leukaemia in 2012. The 2017 film The Post (starring Meryl Streep) was dedicated to her memory. 

Book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heartburn-Virago-Modern-Classics-Ephron/dp/0349010358/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527925430&sr=8-1&keywords=heartburn+nora+ephron

Audio Book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heartburn/dp/B00DGKZNOO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527932517&sr=1-1&keywords=heartburn+nora+ephron+audio

Nora Ephron

The Bookshop, Film 2017, directed by Isabelle Coixet, 7.5* out of 10

The Bookshop depicts the good and evil of English village life in the 1950s: repressed emotions, intrigue of the  upper classes towards the lower ones, calm determination without guile in the face of overwhelming odds. Somewhat flawed, yet very watchable.

1958 in the sleepy English seaside village of Hardborough, Suffolk. Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) is a war widow in her late 30s who has bought and moved into the “old house” an abandoned, long neglected abode. She also wants to turn part of her new home into a bookshop. This risky plan upsets quite a few people in Hardborough, most notably the wife of retired General Gamart (Reg Wilson), Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson). Violet Gamart holds a lot of sway in the aptly named Hardborough. She would like to turn the “Old House” into an Arts Centre run by her would be lover, the slimy author of questionable talent Milo North (James Lance), who undeservedly lives off public broadcasting licence fees. Florence’s unlikely allies in this uneven struggle are the redoubtable 13-year-old Christine (Honor Kneafsey), who becomes her shop assistant, and the mysterious gentlemen recluse Edmund Brundish (Bill Nighy), who becomes her first regular customer.

Adapted from a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop is a film for bibliophiles with a penchant for books by Ray Bradbury and Vladimir Nabokov and a rather Manichean view of English seaside village society. Mr Brundish likes biographies about good people and novels about evil ones. And as the narrator (the very pleasant voice of Julie Christie) puts it, the world consists essentially of two kinds of people: those who destroy and those who are to be destroyed by them. The Bookshop shows us all the good and all the evil that we continental Europeans think of, when they think of England of the 1930s to the 1960s: repressed feelings, evil intrigue of the  upper classes towards the lower ones, calm determination and stiff upper lip without guile in the face of overwhelming odds. 

An interesting ideological aspect of the story is the honest shopkeeper battling without any state support against undeserving would be artists subsidised by the public broadcaster (BBC) and supported by the upper classes who are apt of using their privileged position to influence politics to further their personal interests. A rather unfashionable, somewhat Thatcherite view of what is wrong in the England of the late 1950s. English viewers of the Bookshop might object to this and to the internationality brought into the filming of such a very English story: Suffolk is set in Northern Ireland and Spain, a Spanish director is in charge, an American actress (Patricia Clarkson) plays a very English lady. 

In the end virtues to commend this movie outweigh its flaws: Director Isabelle Coixet tells a moving story in a clear and straightforward way; the ensemble acting is good, with Emily Mortimer delivering a beautifully judged performance; Bill Nighy is well-cast, doing what Bill Nighy does so very well; young Honor Kneafsey is a plucky street-wise Christine. The cinematography by Jean-Claude Larrieu is beautifully atmospheric. All this makes The Bookshop very watchable.

Lady Bird, Film (2017), written and directed by Greta Gerwig, 9.5* out of 10

“Lady Bird” is a beautiful coming of age drama rewarding us with moving and witty scenes, dialogues and characters.  Saoirse Ronan in the title role and Laurie Metcalfe as her mother are outstanding. With this film, Greta Gerwig establishes herself as a supremely talented filmmaker with an original and intelligent voice. 

Christine “Lady Bird” MacPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is in her last year at the private catholic St. Xavier High School in Sacramento (California). Her parents can hardly afford to send her there. Her father (Tracy Letts) an IT specialist in his late 50 is in a precarious job position. Her mother, a psychiatric nurse, runs the family household, which includes an adopted brother and his girlfriend , with an eye on its worsening economic prospects. Making ends meet is her greatest challenge, just at a time when Lady Bird is dreaming of attending an expensive college on the East Coast of the USA. “I want schools like Yale, but not Yale, because I probably couldn't get in.” 

Meanwhile Lady Bird is making her final year experiences, rebelling against authority, falling in love, conducting real friendships and engaging in useful ones. Lady Bird is not beyond a bit of cheating in pursuit of her worthy academic goals and love interests. She is in that place where behaviour can dramatically switch, from needy child to self-assured adult with bouts of hard-nosed rebelliousness, mainly against her mother. A mother who wants to instil a tough realism into her daughter who sees the future as exciting open and full of possibilities: the hopes you have for your future are not likely to be fulfilled; make the best you can with the hand you are dealt; do your duty to your family and your community; be a good rather than happy person, live in dignity but prepare on living with very limited means. As she starts into the new phase of her life Ladybird does not want to settle for that. With mother and daughter are both headstrong and persistent.

For me, “Lady Bird” is drama with hilarious moments, rather than a comedy.  With this film, Greta Gerwig shows that she is a supremely talented filmmaker with an original and intelligent voice. As a writer, all the characters in her film are complex and interesting, all have something to commend them to us – no stereotypes or caricatures here. As a director, Gerwig packs a great deal of content into a scene.  Dialogue, pictures and music each tell a different aspect of the story, but everything is carefully composed, like separate melodies that come together beautifully, but are not always in obvious harmony. This makes for cognitively challenging but exciting viewing. For me it took two viewings to fully appreciate the punch “Lady Bird” packs. I find it difficult to decide whether this is a criticism of me, or of the film. Important developments in the plot and the dialogue happen spontaneously –  you snooze you lose. Witty lines and great cinematography seem to come at you seemingly out of nowhere and yet they are clearly carefully crafted. If you are attentive, they will delight you. 

Saoirse Ronan in the title role and Laurie Metcalfe as her mother are outstanding in the way they embody their characters and render the turbulent relationship between mother and daughter utterly believable. They movingly bring to life the great scenes and wonderful lines they have been gifted by Gerwig. Together they have created characters that will stay with us long after the film has ended. The supporting roles are memorable too, notably Beanie Feldstein as Lady Bird's best friend Julie.  

“Lady Bird” is a truly original coming of age film rewarding us with moving and witty scenes, dialogues and characters, which will stay etched in our memories for a long time. 

The Shape of Water, Film 2017, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro starring Sally Hawkins, 7.5* out of 10

Big Oscar Winner of 2018, Guillermo del Toro's 1960s fantasy is a simplistic politically correct fairy tale, celebrating "the other". Yet even the most critical viewer will be tempted to surrender to this irresistibly beautiful film.  

It is 1962 in the USA, when nice people were elected President and nasty people joined the military-industrial complex. The mute Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) has a very organised life with a set daily routine, including a daily bout of sexual self-sufficiency in the bath with an egg-timer ensuring it does not make her too late for work. Elisa also has two friends. One is her middle-aged neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) a commercial artist who has fallen on hard times. The gay Giles is a fan of 1930’s musical films featuring Betty Grable and Shirley Temple. Her other friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer) is a feisty black lady with whom Elisa works as cleaner in a secret underground laboratory complex of the US Department of Defence in Baltimore. 

One day a mysterious humanoidly-handsome water creature caught in the Amazon is brought there by Strickland (Michael Shannon) a brutal careerist working for military intelligence. He and his bosses are afraid of falling behind in the cold war space and scientific race with the Soviets and believe that water-creature vivisection is the path scientific dominance over the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Elisa gains the mistreated creature’s trust and a romantic attachment forms between the two outsiders. A race against the clock begins as Elisa helped by her two friends tries to set the water creature free.

The story of Guillermo del Toro’s movie is largely a remake of some of our favourite fairy tales and iconic films, such as Beauty and the Beast, Frankenstein or ET. Given the watery theme, the “frog prince” comes to mind - with the slight twist that the princess feels sexually attracted to the frog and does not want him to turn into a prince. The characters are helpfully stereotyped to underline the simplicity: white men are evil unless they are gay. Women are good unless they are suburban white housewives. Hofstettler (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Soviet spy scientist is the only ambivalent and conflicted character. 

Having said that, it is difficult to escape the attraction of this simple tale of good and evil. Casting is excellent and the actors led by Sally Hawkins do a very good job. But above all it is the captivating visual power of this film with its early 1960s aesthetic (reminiscent of the iconic television series “Mad-Men”) and the magical dream-like watery sequences that win you over.  Designer Paul Austerberry and cinematographer Dan Laustsen are the creators of the atmosphere and of film sequences which together with Paul Desplat's music ensure that The Shape of Water will remain etched into viewers’ memories. 

Watching the Shape of Water all my critical faculties slowly ebbed away; I surrendered to this irresistibly beautiful film. 

The Great Wave, Play written by Francis Turnly, directed by Indhu Rubasingham, National Theatre London, 8* out of 10

The Great Wave is a suspenseful political thriller based on recent true events, which successfully juxtaposes this with the moving story of a small, close family in Japan.  It holds the audience's attention from beginning to end.

1979: Teenage sisters Hanako (Kirsty Rider) and Reiko (Kae Alexander) live with the mother Etsuko (Rosalind Chao) in a house near the Japanese coast. After a typical teenage sister quarrel, Hanako and Reiko are caught up in a storm and a great wave. Hanako disappears. Has a local boy from Reiko’s class who claims to have seen her that night on the beach murdered her? Has she been swallowed by the great wave? Hanako’s body cannot be found but her mother feels that Hanako is still alive. She and Reiko will not rest until they find out what has happened to her. It will take years before they get a first clue which points to Japan’s neighbour North Korea. Moreover, their tireless efforts  to find answers will be frustrated over decades by successive Japanese governments' "Realpolitik" towards the volatile neighbour North Korea overriding the duty to individual citizens in distress.  

At the heart of this play is the plot hatched by Kim Il-sung the President of the “Democratic Republic of Korea” (North Korea) and his courtiers. Like his grand-son Kim Jong-un, the current President, he is at the head of a brutal and unscrupulous regime that demands adulation and spreads fear and preemptively deploys mental and physical cruelty. Playwright Francis Turnly has managed to write a suspenseful political thriller based on true events, which successfully juxtaposes this with the moving story of a small, close family in Japan. Through no fault of their own find mother and daughters find their lives permanently changed by a mysterious secret service operation almost too fantastical to be believed. With the help of a great set by Tom Piper and Indhu Rubisingham’s straightforward direction production tells the story in a manner which holds the audience’s attention from start to finish. There are strong acting performances by Rosalind Chao, Kirsty Rider and Kae Alexander. The Great Wave is a good example of how a modern political story can be told in an engaging and deeply human way that we can all share rationally and emotionally irrespective of “identity” and culture.

For those who have missed the short run of the play at the National Theatre's Dorfman Theatre, one can hope that this play, which had its world premiere on 15 March 2018 will transfer to another London theatre in due course. 


https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-great-wave

Die Stadt Ohne.... Juden Moslems Flüchtlinge Ausländer (The City Without…Jews Muslims Refugees Foreigners), Exhibition at the Austrian Film Archives, Vienna, 8* out of 10

Illustrated by projections of scenes from the recently rediscovered 1924 film "The City Without Jews", this exhibition explains and demonstrates the escalating steps by which members of a majority group can be made to ultimately exert violence on a distinct minority group. The curators are to be commended to doing a good job with a difficult subject.

Die Stadt Ohne… is an exhibition at the Austrian Film Archives in Vienna that attempts to illustrate the mechanisms by which majority groups in society can deal with minority groups in dysfunctional ways that lead to increasing marginalization, dehumanization and mistreatment of minorities. The title of the exhibition alludes to an Austrian silent film of 1924 by Karl Breslauer, "The City Without Jews" which was thought to be lost until a complete version was found by accident in a Paris flea-market in 2015. The first showings of the film, which has been restored with funds obtained from a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign, took place this week in Vienna. 

The film, based on a satirical novel by the Austrian journalist, writer and activist Hugo Bettauer published in 1922, describes a fictional city, resembling Vienna after the World War I. The population and its politicians round on its Jewish population. They blame, exclude, mistreat and finally expel the Jews. But once the Jews have left the city ceases to function properly. In an improbable happy ending the Jews are asked to come back. They return to resume their crucial role in the economic and social life of the city. 

Hugo Bettauer, himself a Jew who had converted to Christianity,  became a campaigner for women’s rights, decriminalization of homosexuality and proponent of free love. He was assassinated in March 1925 by Otto Rothstock, a young National Socialist whose subsequent trial turned into tribunal against the victim. His fellow citizens sent Rothstock letters of support brimming with antisemitic invective; some of these letters are on show in the exhibition. Rothstock was still proud of his heinous deed when interviewed for Austrian television in 1979. 

The exhibition takes place at a moment where Austria is commemorating the “Anschluss” to Hitler’s Germany in March 1938 and the accession to government of the Austrian Freedom Party, a party that has antisemitism and virulent resistance against anything that in their view threatens the German nature of Austria in its DNA. That includes migrants and asylum seekers from Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East that bring their customs and religions, in particular Islam, to Austria. 

Illustrated by projections of scenes from the film "The City Without Jews", the escalating steps by which members of a majority group can be made to ultimately exert violence on a distinct minority group are demonstrated explained: polarisation, scapegoating, loss of empathy, brutality/violence. The reality of what happened to Vienna’s Jews between 1938 and 1945 is recalled by photographs of the empty apartments Vienna’s Jews left behind on their way into exile or to the death camps. A second line of narrative looks at how similar mechanism play out after World War II against Jews (not that there were many left in Austria, but that did not matter) and other minority groups in Austria. Posters from post-World War II electoral campaigns, and quotes from Austrian politician show that playing the antisemitism card and the anti-"foreigners amongst us"-card was common among all political parties in Austria, Nationalist, Christian, or Socialist. The National Freedom Party and the student fraternities with which it is associated use antisemitism in the most openly blatant way while the Christian people’s party in a clever way ensuring plausible deniability. For the Socialists, it’s complicated, but less so when they are not in government, as is the case right now. They are ideologically opposed to antisemitism and racial prejudice, but while the statutes are willing the flesh is often weak. The exhibition illustrates all this with a series of antisemitic and racist quotes from 1945 to 2018 asking the visitor to indicate which political party the quoted politician belonged to. 

While mistreatment a minority by the majority and the state does not necessarily lead to mass murder, it still undermines the humanity of a society and of individuals within it. At the same time, each one of us is potentially attracted to the narratives and mechanisms shown and predisposed to conform with our social group. This makes it hard for individuals to resist; but resist we can, particularly if we are aware of our own predispositions. 

Bettauer’s vision of the Jews being expelled was not just an eerie premonition of what was to happen to the Jews of Vienna within 20 years of the book being written and the film made. Jews had been expelled from Vienna in the 18th century by the empress Maria Theresia who had very much the same visceral dislike for them as the politicians in Bettauer’s novel, a relevant episode in Viennese history which is unfortunately not mentioned in the exhibition.  And, of course, Jews were expelled from other countries too, for example in Spain at the end of the 15th century. 

I can recommend this exhibition which is compact and to the point. The curators Andreas Brunner, Barbara Staudinger and Hannes Sulzenbacher are to be commended to doing a good job with a difficult subject. Texts are in both German and English. There is also a useful Digitorial (digital tutorial) on the exhibition’s website including excerpts of the film; an excellent use of modern media in conjunction with the exhibition. This is only in German; an English version would be welcome. The digitorial includes interesting excerpts from “The City without Jews”. Perhaps there will be an English version in due course.  One hour to 90 minutes is plenty to see everything. The link to the newly rediscovered film-version of The City Without Jews gives a topic that is not new an interesting and original aspect. I happened to be present when school classes (14 to 17 year olds) were led through the exhibition by guides from the Austrian Film Archives and they were not bored. I was pleased that the guides made clear that their comparisons of the mechanisms that played in 1938 against Jews and that are playing now against Muslims and other migrants do not mean that another Shoah is in the offing; only that certain patterns and mechanisms of exclusion and dehumanization can be recognised. In that way, young and old who visit the exhibition do not only learn about the history of their country and of film but by thinking about the methods used to set the in-group against vulnerable minorities can resist our innate tendencies to conform and develop our individual critical spirit which can help to resist this temptation. 

Perhaps a future exhibition can look at the problem from the other side: what strategies have been deployed by individuals and groups within minorities to prevent, combat or avoid being targeted by majorities and how successful were they? Is it a realistic goal to eliminate antisemitism and racism or is the best we can do to reduce harmful effects to a minimum? 

If you cannot make it to Vienna, the film “City without Jews”, will have its London premiere in November 2018 at the Barbican Cinema. 

https://www.filmarchiv.at/en/program/exhibition/die-stadt-ohne/

Poster of the Exhibition

Hugo Bettauer

John, Play by Annie Baker, National Theatre, Dorfman, London 9* out of 10

With "John", playwright Annie Baker (born 1981) confirms that she is a brilliant original voice in today’s American theatre. Mary Louise Burke is unforgettably brilliant as Mertis, the chatty self-effacing bed and breakfast host with flashes of depth. Because of its length of 3 hours 20 minutes "John" will appeal mostly to the more confirmed theatregoer.

Elias (Tom Mothersdale), a musician, and Jenny (Anneika Rose), a writer of questions for television quiz shows, are a couple in their late 20ies on their way back home to New York City from visiting Jenny’s parents in Ohio for Thanksgiving. Elias, who has a passion for American history has persuaded Jenny, who has other interests and says that she is not feeling all that well, to make a stopover in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. They have booked a stay in a quaint 19th century bed and breakfast, which is gothicly over-decorated with dolls and all kinds of kitschy paraphernalia. Their hosts are the chatty 72-year-old Mertis (Mary Louise Burke) and allegedly her husband who remains behind the scenes.

What follows is a series of conversations, punctuated by long silences and unexpected twists and turns from which we can glean that Jenny and Elias' (Asian-Jewish-neurotic-New York-hipster) relationship is going through a bit of an existential crisis.  Furthermore, there is more than meets the eye to Mertis and her blind friend Genevieve (June Watson). Moreover, the bed and breakfast with its bric-a-brac interior has somewhat of a life of its own.

Over 3 hours and 20 minutes not a lot happens on stage, but the conversations among the characters compelling and some indefinable threat hangs in the air as if things could seriously go off the rails at anytime. Conversations start with banal remarks and almost imperceptibly become in turn revealing, hilariously funny or moving in unexpected and entertaining ways.

On one level, “John” is classic sort of play telling a story with realistic characters. On another level, it is stunningly original in the way it makes the story unfold and with it our perceived understanding of the protagonists, their character traits and foibles. We watch like one listens in to conversations on the table next to us in a coffeehouse and is progressively drawn in, filling in the gaps with our imagination an exercise that is entertaining and rewarding.

The power of this production starts with the writing. After her success with her play "Flicks", the young playwright Annie Baker (born 1981) confirms that she is a brilliant original voice in today’s American theatre. In this production, the wonderful set (Chloe Lamford) and the great direction (James Macdonald), emphasising the physicality (movement, body-language) of the protagonists is perfectly attuned to the writing. As far as the character of Jenny is concerned, I imagine her more as Chinese or Korean-American and not South-East Asian American as the casting in this production implies; but all acting performances are of a high standard. June Watson’s disconcerting Genevieve is outstanding, Mary Louise Burke unforgettably brilliant as the chatty bed and breakfast host with flashes of depth. 

Because of its length of 3 hours 20 minutes, John is a play that will appeal mostly to the more confirmed theatregoer. But it is not overlong, every moment being valuable to the development of the characters and the plot and the potent silences are conducive to allowing the audiences to use their imagination and so play their part in making this production of “John” what it is: great theatre.

Playwright Annie Baker