Before I get started on my book reviews for 20 books of summer, I wanted to do a little write-up of this really horrible 1997 Austrian film, written and directed by Michael Haneke. Funny Games, notorious for its focus on sadistic violence, is now heralded as something of an art-house classic, and inspired a 2007 …
Tag Archives: austria
Return to Vienna: A Journal by Hilde Spiel review (Austria)
An account of the author’s return to Vienna from exile in the UK at the end of the Second World War
My Top 10 Tracks by Parov Stelar (Austria)
When it came to selecting a contemporary musician from Austria, Parov Stelar immediately sprang to mind. Dubbed the inventor of electro-swing, it’s possible he’s a bit of a ‘Marmite’ choice, and I have to be in the mood for his brand of eurotrash: it’s usually upbeat and sometimes cheesy, although there are works of pure …
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Film Review: The Dreamed Ones (Austria)
I’m interested in literary biography, and that extends to lives examined through film. I thought this 2016 Austrian movie, directed by Ruth Beckermann, could be interesting, focusing as it does on the correspondence between Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann and the German-language poet Paul Celan. The film is a low-budget affair, in which two actors (played …
The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European by Stefan Zweig (Austria – #Germanlitmonth)
Classic memoir of life in the first half of the 20th century Vienna
Book review: Baron Bagge by Alexander Lernet-Holenia (Austria, 1897-1976)
A newly reissued Austrian novella
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler (Austria)
A quietly life-affirming study of the passage from childhood to old age of an unassuming man, shortlisted for the International Booker
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (Germany)
Historical fiction, taking in mysticism, folk tale and the 17th century’s Thirty Years War, with a light touch and sly humour
Review no 104: Viennese artists Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
The contrasting work of artists Klimt and Schiele
Review no 67: The Wall by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer (1920-70)
My review of a 60s novel of life in an Austrian feminist-lite dystopia – can’t be worse than anything we’re experiencing right now can it? Oh, wait.
Imogen is Reading and Watching the World: On Books, Film, Art & More 