Audience Member
Here's the tl;dr: Die Gstettensaga is what would happen if Beckett and Brecht collaborated on a post-apocalyptic cautionary tale against the dangers of cargo culture in the modern world. If you liked most of the words in that sentence, just skip the rest of this review and go watch the movie.
The film has a quality of constant anachronism. It takes place in a sparsely populated and ambiguous Europe after a war between the last great superpowers has destroyed civilization. However, the last great superpowers here were China and Google, which gives an idea of the tone of the entire project. It's either constantly winking or possibly squinting against the glare of the postmodern spectacle, and it's impossible to tell which. This kind of ambiguity runs through the whole film, but it comes off not as ill-defined so much as a mirror to the ambiguity of the modern world. The chiptune-flavored soundtrack creates an atmosphere of retro-futuristic uncertainty in much the same way that Wendy Carlos' moog classical did for _A Clockwork Orange_, and it's never clear if the ridiculous outfits are due to post-collapse scarcity or the progress of fashion. Constant in-jokes to nerds of a certain age create a sense that society was rebuilt by a cargo cult who primarily had access to technical manuals of the 90s, which, if you think about the ways in which we archive things, may not be too far-fetched. Despite this, my movie watching partner, who is not nearly as steeped in that world as I, was in hysterics through most of the movie, so this quality isn't alienating to other viewers.
There's a print magnate (who claims to have invented typesetting) trying to come to grips with New Media (the "Tele-O-vision"). There's a musical number that could be straight out of Jesus Christ Superstar involving what happens when you try to recreate NASDAQ with broken household items. And, without giving spoilers, there is a scene which somehow manages to deconstruct both zombies and cat memes. With one foot firmly planted on critical theory, the other in the mire of internet culture, and a third, recently evolved pseudopod grasping for meaning in a post-meaning world, Die Gsettensaga is a darkly hilarious commentary on our culture from a perspective only allowed by it having been destroyed and rebuilt by nerds.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The last two remaining superpowers - China and Google - start a war and end the world. This is how "Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl" starts, and it's no-bullshit hilarity that you wish you could see on screen more often. The feature was co-produced by art-tech group monochrom and their friends at the Viennese media collective Traum & Wahnsinn (German for Dream & Madness; what a name!).
Well, you expect high weirdness from a writer-director like Johannes Grenzfurthner, who fronts monochrom and is known for the freakiest shenanigans and the most thorough academic theories - and you get a lovin' spoonful of all of it delivered through this production.
Decades after the disastrous "Google Wars," a shady media tycoon (with a weakness for Boris Vallejo) hires a pestilent journalist and an over-enthusiastic technician to do the first live broadcast of (post)-post-war history, using the emerging medium of "Tele-O-Vision." Who is to be interviewed? Echsenfriedl, a strange "pioneer of contraptions" who lives hidden in the hinterland (Austrian slang: "Gstetten") of the Alpine fringes. It's a quest to kick-start the future's future. Will it succeed? Depends on how you define "success."
"Die Gstettensaga" was shot in less than a week for 5000 Euros (quite a metric!), so it is clearly a super-low-budget endeavor; but it is neither trashy nor campy, except when it wants to be trashy or campy. The film is packed with nuggets of weirdness and wisdom, and the translator of the English subtitles cannot be praised highly enough.
Grenzfurthner's doctrine, if there is one at all, is to do it yourself, to try, to make it happen, maybe fail, but to do so with levity, and never let yourself be blinded by the succubus of "wrong life." It cannot be lived rightly, and many members of the oh-so-liberal hacker community should be more aware of their level of complicity with the ruling elite. Maybe they need postal officers with huge guns (flawlessly portrayed by Roland Gratzer and Evelyn Fürlinger) to remind them.
Thomas Weilguny's cinematography is crisp, almost documentarian, and Sarah Strauss' costumes are a real (cost-effective) joy. Tinsel-decorated, Crocs-wearing power-line-deniers never looked that swell.
Is there anything to criticize? Sure...here and there, but I'm not going to tell you, because what I could perceive as a flaw is probably another viewer's favorite innuendo. Decide for yourself.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A surprising gem of a glittertrash roadmovie that manages to blindside with fresh ideas more often than is considered appropriate these days.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
An Austrian fantasy comedy about the reestablishment of a new order in the aftermath of the disastrous "Google Wars". It is a very funny and enjoyable little movie, yet brutally honest in its dark political message.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
Full Review
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