Loosely based on the double suicide of poet and playwright Heinrich von Kleist and his friend Henriette Vogel in 1812,
Jessica Hausner’s unique take on the romantic comedy speculates about what may have come before such a passionate act. Was it not because of a ‘mad love’, but rather the result of banal misconceptions about oneself and the other?
With bemusement and sympathy, the film observes its protagonists in the context of the Prussian upper class and its stiff ritualistic gatherings. These are rendered as carefully composed tableaus, in which the colours and patterns of
Tanja Hausner’s costumes are carefully matched with the interior decoration of the rooms to underline the film’s aim at creating an ironic distance to its story and the period film genre.
After the screening costume designer
Tanja Hausner will be in conversation with costume designer
Amy Roberts.
Austria 2014, colour, 94 mins.
Directed by Jessica Hausner.
In collaboration with, and organised by EUNIC London and the Goethe-Institut London
In association with the London Film School. Supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.
Tanja Hausner Biography
Born in Vienna in 1970, Tanja Hausner trained in industrial, fashion, costume and stage design at various design schools and through learning on-the-job experiences, as for example during an internship with Vivienne Westwood in 1996.
Since the mid-90s, Hausner has created costume designs for theatre and opera productions, with film becoming increasingly important in the 2000s. Apart from designing the costumes for the films directed by her sister Jessica Hausner, including Lovely Rita (2001), Hotel (2004), Lourdes (2009) and Amour Fou (2014), she has also provided the costumes for Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy (2012–2013) and most recently for Stille Reserven by Valentin Hitz and Kater by Klaus Händl (both 2016). For her designs for Der Fall Wilhelm Reich by Antonin Svoboda (2012) and Amour Fou, she was nominated for the Austrian Film Award.
Amy Roberts Biography
Amy grew up in South London. Her only ambition was to go to art school where, at Croydon College of Art, she discovered the joy of the theatre design dept. This led to a career in costume design starting in regional theatre and the BBC. Then on as a freelance designer working in film, theatre, opera and television. Recent work includes: Swallows and Amazons, Call The Midwife, Prime Suspect 1973, Cilla, Upstairs Downstairs, An Inspector Calls and The Virgin Queen. She has four BAFTA awards, one RTS award and has been nominated for an Olivier and an Emmy.
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