ACFNY RECOMMENDS | FILM SCREENINGS | ULRICH SEIDL | PARADISE: HOPE
Paradise:Hope (2013)
Directed by Ulrich Seidl
Drama, Austrian, 100 minutes
In German with English subtitles
Paradise: Hope, the new film by acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, will see its theatrical release in New York City, where it will screen at Anthology Film Archives starting December 16, 2013. This new feature tells the story of overweight 13-year-old Melanie and her first love. While her mother travels to Kenya (PARADISE: LOVE) and her aunt (PARADISE: FAITH) does missionary work, Melanie spends her summer vacation at a diet camp for overweight teenagers. Between physical education and nutrition counseling, pillow fights and her first cigarette, Melanie falls in love with the camp director, a doctor 40 years her senior. As the doctor struggles with the guilty nature of his desire, Melanie had imagined her paradise differently.
The latest work by Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, one of the most uncompromising and provocative contemporary filmmakers, was originally conceived of as a single film portraying three different (but related) women through the lens of the vacations they choose to take during their holidays.
Finding himself generating far more material on each character than intended, Seidl expanded the film into a trilogy, devoting a full feature to each woman. In its completed form (comprising PARADISE: LOVE, PARADISE: FAITH, and PARADISE: HOPE) it’s a typically no-holds-barred achievement that, while not for the faint-of-heart, adds up to a razor-sharp and unsentimental but not uncompassionate depiction of the search for happiness in contemporary Western society. PARADISE: HOPE will be presented at the Anthology Film Archives, supplemented by special screenings of the first two films in the trilogy, allowing them to be seen together as intended!
>> More information: ulrichseidl.com
“Fassbinder died, so God gave us Ulrich Seidl.” — John Waters
VENUE
Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
For tickets and screening times, please visit: anthologyfilmarchives.org
$10 General Admission
$8 Essential Cinemahttp://anthologyfilmarchives.org/../../film_screenings/programs/essential-cinema (free for members)
$8 Students, seniors, and children (12 & under)
$6 AFA Members