By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Jem Cohen
Starring: Bobby Sommer | Ela Piplits | Mary Margaret O’Hara
Country: austria, united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 107
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2268732/combined
Chris says: “Art is a tricky subject for a movie. Most filmmakers take the artist biopic route (and many of them end up feeling stuffy and hermetic) while others utilize a more experimental approach (RUSSIAN ARK and its feature-length tracking shot, for example) often emphasizing form over content. Jem Cohen’s film undoubtedly falls into the latter category, which is expected given the director’s unconventional, decades-long filmography of Super 8 MM shorts, still-photo heavy tone poems, feature length documentaries and numerous other hard-to-classify works. However, here he centers our focus towards the film’s content (in this case, the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum in Vienna), even when it leaves the museum for other environs. Without trying to sound too scholarly, his thesis is to show how art complements and also has the potential to complete one’s life.
“Although it resembles a documentary at times (observing patrons of the museum as they view its collections), MUSEUM HOURS is primarily a narrative film with two characters: Johann (Bobby Sommer), a middle-aged guard/docent at the Kunsthistorisches, and Anne (Mary Margaret O’Hara), a Canadian visiting Austria to watch over her cousin, who lies comatose in a nearby hospital. As Anne begins frequenting the museum, she and Johann become close friends. Their initial conversations relate strictly to art and getting around Vienna, but as they start meeting up outside the museum, they find themselves confiding in each other and reflecting on a plethora of topics: food, sex, death, the band AC/DC. We see how art can serve as a jumping-off point to our thoughts, laments, hopes and desires (no matter how profound or mundane).
“If this all sounds a tad pretentious, it’s not, thankfully. Early on, Cohen sets a modest, low-key tone (there’s no musical score) with wistfully paced opening shots of Vienna in all of its historical beauty (and some of its industrial squalor). Soon, he begins alternating between actual landscapes and close-ups of the museum’s paintings, making the connection between art and life clear but with a graceful, understated touch. Even an extended scene that amounts to a presentation on Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel by a visiting lecturer (Ela Piplits) feels far from dry due to her becalmed but passionate demeanor in making fully accessible what Bruegel means to her. Still, the most compelling parts of MUSEUM HOURS often feature Johann and Anne, alone and together—for instance, cult singer/songwriter O’Hara sings two songs to herself that are as breathtaking as any of the visual art featured. Art may complete one’s life, but it’s the living that gives art meaning. 4.5 cats”
Diane says: “4 cats from me. Inventive, subtle. (I only dozed off a couple of times.) An extremely unusual combination of appealing characters, simple plot, sensory experience, and symbolism. I’m sorry that I forget who among us wrote that he saw the world outside differently for the rest of the day after seeing this movie. MUSEUM HOURS surely does help us transfer our
aesthetic appreciation from fine art to what’s in front of us on the street. I only wish I hadn’t seen it at night…”