Hundstage

Not the sort of movie you expect to find for 99p in a medieval market town's Cash Converters!

I HAD seen Dog Days before, probably on Film 4, where such oddities belong but unaware of this director's subsequent films, though I had seen Import/Export on F4 but not made the connection.

Firstly, I find it strange that many, including some reviewers here have the notion that Austria to be a genteel place. They're human as everybody is everywhere, whether that be LA, London or Vienna. And didn't a certain A. Hitler come from Austria and more significantly, cinematic provocateur extraordinaire, Michael Haneke is Austrian and all his early movies were about and showing almost exactly the same kind of under-the-target unrest and spiralling human life of his fellow Austrians.

To be honest, whilst Haneke is much more the international film-maker (the Oscars in 2013, I believe?) and is much revered, critically, I find his rather sadistic and humourless approach just a bit too trying.

Uri's sardonic and often ridiculous scenarios are often achingly funny - such as the habitual hitch-hiker who soon gets spouting off crazy top ten lists, obviously not knowing what they mean (top ten positions for lovemaking, for example, then, for most popular models of TVs).

Filmed in one long heat-wave with lots of (frankly) overweight Austrians removing their clothing as much as they can - and not just for sex - adds to the strangeness and won't appeal to everyone, but in the 34C heat and in and around our own homes, wouldn't we want to do this too?

There are quite long periods of fairly trivial talk about trivial things - but what might be trivial to the modern suburban Viennese, is actually strangely fascinating for us. Then, there are quite long periods of sadistic cruelty - visiting Haneke's 'Funny Games' territory and as much enjoyment. These, as they should be, are an uncomfortable watch and their inclusion might be questioned, but I would guess are as otherwise the whole exercise would be a quirky, near freak-show comedy.

There are simply too may elements to go into - and if you're not one who can handle a couple of minutes of actual hardcore orgy porn, filmed specially, not as a video on someone's TV, simply ignore this movie. Over ten years have passed since this movie came out and time and viewing habits and expectations have obviously lessened many of the potential shock elements, now.

Indeed, there's almost nothing new here, that hasn't been said, now. That aside, no genre is seemingly unique now and Dog Days still appeals due to its fresh fizz and liberal attitudes. It still remains a unique viewing experience and for the liberally minded adult, has much to offer as both an offbeat social statement as well as entertainment.

Being absolutely unfamiliar with Austrian cinema, I've got simply astounded by this movie. More than two hours long and all the time developing the slow, monotonous rhythm it could have been a real torture for the beholder, but instead it offers something unique and very captivating.

Here are few characters, whose life paths constantly interlock in a little city in tragic coincidences. The old widower with his dog. The mad hitch-hiking girl, whose hobby is exasperating her companions with useless chatter. The middle-aged couple, whose only daughter had died in an accident some time ago and who hardly speak to each other, despite their living in the same house. The hysterical guy, torturing his girl, who works in a strip club. The aging woman who gets bullied by her macho-looking hairy boyfriend. Everyone is unhappy and that's the simple keynote. But almost no one stirs up sympathy. The world is sweaty, dried-up, brutal, senseless. And all the kindness it can provide is epitomized in the final strip-tease that the elderly maid is doing for the old man with the dog.

The dog is certainly already poisoned to that time. The mad girl is raped. The aging woman is humiliated.

The "everything is bad" slogan can seem trite, but the director Ulrich Seidl proves it with cogency. "Hundstage" is probably the most dismal film of the 21th century so far, but it works great due to its exceptional cinematic merits. According to what I know it's the first Seidl's feature film, all his previous outings were strictly documentary. Spreading his meticulous attitude to things on this work, Seidl attains the highest degree of realism, maybe even what we use to call hyper-realism. "Hundstage" is stunning by all means and comes highly recommended for all art-film fans.

This film has got to be ranked as one of the most disturbing and arresting films in years. It is one of the few films, perhaps the only one, that actually gave me shivers: not even Pasolini´s Sálo, to which this film bears comparison, affected me like that. I saw echoes in the film from filmmakers like Pasolini, Fassbinder and others. I had to ask myself, what was it about the film that made me feel like I did? I think the answer would be that I was watching a horror film, but one that defies or even reverses the conventions of said genre. Typically, in a horror film, horrible and frightening things will happen, but on the margins of civilized society: abandoned houses, deserted hotels, castles, churchyards, morgues etc. This handling of the subject in horror is, I think, a sort of defence mechanism, a principle of darkness and opacity functioning as a sort of projective space for the desires and fears of the viewer. So, from this perspective, Hundstage is not a horror film; it takes place in a perfectly normal society, and so doesn´t dabble in the histrionics of the horror film. But what you see is the displacement of certain key thematics from the horror genre, especially concerning the body and its violation, the stages of fright and torture it can be put through. What Seidl does is to use the settings of an everyday, middle class society as a stage on which is relayed a repetitious play of sexual aggression, loneliness, lack and violation of intimacy and integrity: precisely the themes you would find in horror, but subjected to a principle of light and transparency from which there is no escape. It is precisely within this displacement that the power of Seidl´s film resides. Hundstage deals with these matters as a function of the everyday, displays them in quotidian repetition, rather than as sites of extremity and catharsis - a move you would encounter in said horror genre. One important point of reference here is Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder also had a way of blending the political with the personal in his films, a tactics of the melodrama that allowed him to deal in a serious and even moral way with political issues like racism, domination, desire, questions concerning ownership, sexual property and control, fascism and capitalism etc. Seidl´s tactic of making the mechanisms of everyday society the subject of his film puts him in close proximity with Fassbinder; like this German ally, he has a sort of political vision of society that he feels it is his responsibility to put forward in his films. During a seminar at the Gothenburg Film Festival this year, at which Seidl was a guest, he was asked why he would have so many instances of violated, subjugated women in Hundstage, but no instances of a woman fighting back, liberating herself. Seidl replied that some may view it as immoral to show violence against women, but that he himself felt it would be immoral not to show it. An artistic statement as good as any, I think. Thank you.

This film is great. As often heard, it is indeed very realistic and sometimes brutal, but unlike some other people I am clearly not of the opinion that it is depressing, negativistic or dismantling Austria as a proto-fascist society. Quite the contrary: While there are indeed some very heavy scenes in HUNDSTAGE and some characters are to be called very bad persons, at the same time you watch love, beauty and humor in Ulrich Seidls film. And that's exactly what distinguishes HUNDSTAGE for me from other films that try to show the lives of the 'ordinary people' in an intense, realistic way; their hustle, their wishes, their dark sides: Seidl clearly never tries to prove, that the lives of the working-class people are trash! In my opinion, viewers who come to this conclusion seem to be very afraid of admitting, that nearly nobody's live is as 'clean' and 'normal' as we would like other people to believe. And that every live has its dark and often depressing sides. The most beautiful scene: The old Viennese man, watching his old girl dancing 'the oriental way', as he is calling it. I think everybody who finds this scene ugly lacks a sense of beauty and should ask themselves what it is, that's proto-fascist: The characters in HUNDSTAGE or viewers, who are turned off by the body of a 70+ year old woman, dancing with all her charms for her lover.

It's nothing brilliant, groundbreaking or innovative, but 'Dog Days' is for some reason an extremely fascinating character study. It's like CRASH tripping on a bad dose of heroin, but not really. It's an Austrian film following the lives of several depressed, deranged and annoying people and their abusive relationships with each other. It's disturbing, yet very well-acted and it's interesting to watch the crazy little things these characters do. Certainly not for the weak-hearted, this highly pessimistic film offers no conclusion or revelation at the end, we just see the lives of these sordid individuals over the course of two days. Grade: B