Rimini

Synopsis

Ageing lounge singer Richie Bravo (Michael Thomas) returns home for his mother’s funeral. His father suffers from dementia and is now in a home. After the funeral, Richie and his brother Ewald—the subject of Seidl’s companion film Sparta—return to their own lives. Richie makes a living crooning to off-season German and Austrian tourists and tops up his income by having sex with some of the fans for money. But everyone’s past always catches up with them in the end.
Ulrich Seidl once again brilliantly reveals his characters’ moral bankruptcy and exposes the most sordid and grotesque aspects of our society through his trademark coldly critical eye. A series of increasingly desperate situations paints a portrait of a family’s collapse as we witness the tragedy of one of life’s losers, even with the occasional hint of tender humour.

Bio/Filmo

Director, screenwriter and producer Ulrich Seidl (Vienna, 1952) made his first films in the 1990s, including the documentaries Good News and Tierische Liebe, which we rescreened as part of the special sessions celebrating 20 years of l’Alternativa, having dedicated a parallel section to him in 2005. His international career really took off in 2001, after Hundstage won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Subsequent films, such as Import/Export and his Paradise Trilogy were screened to great acclaim in festivals in Cannes and Berlin, among others. After Im Keller and Safari, Seidl made one of his trademark duos, Rimini and Sparta, both being screened at l’Alternativa this year.