REVANCHE 2008

Release date: May 2008
Premiere at the Diagonale 2008 (1 - 6 April) Graz www.diagonale.at

written/directed: Götz Spielmann

"Revanche is an emotional piece, like all my movies. The characters are searching, are infused with subconscious feelings of love, grief, revenge, longing, loneliness, affection, and compassion. I like emotional movies, and I loathe kitsch and sentimentality. They are manipulation, escapism. Emotions are not the opposite of lucid thought and formal precision." Götz Spielmann

cast: Johannes Krisch, Andreas Lust, Ursula Strauss, Irina Potapenko, Hanno Pöschl, Hannes Thanheiser,...

the movie's theme: "I keep going back and forth: Is it about revenge? Is it about reconciliation? The search for identity? These are all just catch phrases that don’t really say anything. That’s not the way I work. Revanche is a story – not theory enhanced by images. Maybe what my films are trying to do is to get to the bottom of life by focusing not on a social context but on existential questions. That’s my passion, what sparks my curiosity, impels me: tracking down the substance of life, its essence deep down inside. There is, behind all the conflicts and painful things I show in my films, a fundamental spark of optimism – the conviction that life isn’t a mistake, that it all somehow makes sense." Götz Spielmann

costumes: Monika Buttinger

prizes won at the Berlinale 2008:

>Winner of the "Europa Cinemas Label" as Best European film in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section
http://www.europa-cinemas.org/fr/index.php

>Winner of the "Art-Cinéma-Award 2008" of the CICAE (Confédération Internationale des Cinémas D´Art et Essai) http://www.cicae.org/

>Production designer Maria Gruber wins the Femina Film Prize for set design in Revanche

Statement of the Jury:
"The precision of Maria Gruber’s production design has convinced the jury. Her rooms hint in a subtle way to the characters’ personality. They conduce to the story and blend beautifully with the costumes to form a whole. Her production design is special without trying too hard. It manages to be at the same time surprising and truthfull while renouncing the cliche. This way places come into being that will be remembered." www.verbandderfilmarbeiterinnen.de


Check out the making of revanche.at

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Production designer Maria Gruber graduated from the HTL Graz (polytech high school), Department of Art and Design, field of specialization: Decorative Design. She studied stage design at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz.

Filmography (production designer): Vaterspiel (Michael Glawogger, 2008/part shot in Austria); Die Verzauberung (Wolfram Paulus, TV, 2007); Slumming (Michael Glawogger, 2007); Kotsch (Helmut Köpping, 2006); Augenleuchten (Wolfram Paulus, 2005); Slugs (Michael Glawogger, 2004)

Theater projects: Inauguration of Graz as Cultural Capital 2003 at the Grazer Oper (directed by Hauswirth, Klengel, Köpping); Assistant stage designer at the Kleinen Theater/Salzburg; Set decoration for independent theater groups in Graz; LKH – soap opera, Schauspielhaus Graz, Probebühne (directed by Helmut Köpping)

photo: Toni Slama, Irina Potapenko (Foto: © Lukas Beck)