Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Museum Hours

Play trailer Poster for Museum Hours 2013 1h 47m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
94% Tomatometer 72 Reviews 61% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A Vienna museum guard befriends a visitor, and the two explore their lives, the city and the ways artwork reflects the world.
Watch on Fandango at Home Stream Now

Where to Watch

Museum Hours

Museum Hours

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Its languid pace may frustrate some viewers, but for patient filmgoers, Museum Hours offers a carefully observed portrait of the human condition.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More
J. Hoberman ARTINFO.com 02/22/2019
Museum Hours offers neither a city symphony nor a love story but a serenely eccentric way of looking. Go to Full Review
Isabel Stevens Sight & Sound 06/15/2016
Emotion is often considered the enemy by experimental filmmakers, but Cohen's films depend on it. Go to Full Review
Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune 03/06/2014
4/4
Sommer is perfect. So is O'Hara. This is the "Before Sunrise" for a very different (and platonic) pair of individuals. Go to Full Review
Dustin Chang Floating World 02/24/2021
Gently weaving real life and chance encounters of these two people with numerous paintings in the museum, the film is a sublime beauty. Go to Full Review
David Walsh World Socialist Web Site 02/12/2021
Cohen's film is quietly, carefully and honestly made. At times perhaps, one would like to see a few more fireworks in the drama, but an elegant, sensitive film in defense of life and art ... how many of those do we have at present? Go to Full Review
Jordan M. Smith IONCINEMA.com 11/12/2020
4/5
Subtle in its emotional grounding and profound in its ability to harness art history to question the world's current relationship with it, Museum Hours is nothing less than a brilliant film. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
12/05/2020 This has its moments of grace, such as the songs sung in the privacy of a cramped hotel room. The docent's talk about Breugel's paintings was instructive. The shots of art in the museum cut with shots from the streets of Vienna seem to say, "Here, this is art too! Don't forget." The story that propels the narrative is not important at all, nor was most of the dialogue. See more 07/14/2016 "Museum Hours" moves slowly but the intervals between the narrations give us time to fully digest and understand what we experienced before the next phase is presented. There is also the comparison of the past event to the immediate moment and the realization that some things are beyond human comprehension. The film shows that so much escapes our notice. It also shows how different are our individual viewpoints. It is a walking through way of experiencing art through living it. See more 03/17/2016 One of the most peaceful films I've ever seen. A chance human connection casts beauty and warmth over a nameless man's simple life in a seemingly prosaic town. See more 11/26/2015 A weirdly fascinating blend of poetry and documentary, Museum Hours had me captivated for most of its running time. Somehow, with its mix of art education, tourism, and focus on human psychology, I was stimulated by seemingly banal visual montages of everyday, modern European city life. I loved the analysis of the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel and how his "genre painting" of peasant life in the 16th century informed the look at modern 21st century life through the eyes of the museum guard and his verbal diary. This is definitely a piece of filmmaking to be studied, enjoyed, and revisited periodically with new eyes to see what new details can be gleamed from it. See more 11/12/2015 This is a quiet movie meditating on friendship, art and reality, and the under-fabric of living. Nothing really happened, and there is no strong emotion nor expression. If this film tells no story, it gives us a rumination of human consciousness both lives in the individual's present time (Anne and Johann) and the life in the collective's past (museum's art pieces) and present (Vienna's street and people). See more 09/01/2014 An unexpected meditative gem, I feel like I just spent an hour in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. See more Read all reviews
Museum Hours

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
Ship of Theseus 95% 91% Ship of Theseus Watchlist The Garden of Earthly Delights 67% 66% The Garden of Earthly Delights Watchlist The Truth About Emanuel 39% 35% The Truth About Emanuel Watchlist Nobody Walks 40% 23% Nobody Walks Watchlist Falling Overnight 40% 65% Falling Overnight Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A Vienna museum guard befriends a visitor, and the two explore their lives, the city and the ways artwork reflects the world.
Director
Jem Cohen
Producer
Jem Cohen, Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Paolo Calamita
Screenwriter
Jem Cohen
Distributor
Cinema Guild
Genre
Drama
Original Language
German
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 28, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 16, 2014
Runtime
1h 47m
Most Popular at Home Now