Rimini

It’s worth your time, your discomfort, your possible scorn and your weirdly grudging affection, maybe all at once.

A blisteringly funny and often touching film about people struggling towards happiness despite having experienced lifetimes of disappointment.

We know there’s great tragedy and ugliness behind the smoke and mirrors, but we watch in amusement nonetheless. Sinisterly, Seidl reminds us how easy it is to turn people into objects for the taking.

The slight softening of the trademark Seidl savagery... tips the balance of the film from tragic to comic.

It’s impeccably performed, but with a dash of corn.

The film fleshes out the perhaps familiar characterizations at its center by tying contemporary wounds to the persistent presence of Europe’s ugly history.

By dint of the fact that Rimini showcases such a vast gulf between performance and direction, Seidl’s return to fictional filmmaking is, if nothing else, hugely interesting.

Having found his subject in Ricky Bravo and his perfect incarnation in Michael Thomas, [Ulrich Seidl] is content merely to stay with him, observing and recording his amiably unsuccessful life.

A film about decadence in a phantasmagoric world where racism is still present. [Full review in spanish]

Seidl observes the shadows of his country –and of Europe in this recent journey– without the glamor suit. [Full review in Spanish]