Horst_In_Translation Review of The Prom

The Prom (1982)

Seidl walking the fine line again, and sadly crossing it at times

[4/10 · 18 July 2017]

"Der Ball" or "The Prom" is an Austrian live action film from 1982, so this one has its 35th anniversary already this year and this is actually an early career work by Ulrich Seidl, considered one of Austria's finest these days. He was only around the age of 30 when he made this one, maybe slightly under even. It only runs for 50 minutes, so it is probably his shortest full feature film (by IMDb standards). By the way, the title here does not refer to the round sports object, but "Ball" is also the German word for a dance event, not a wild party, something more distinguished. I think prom says it pretty well. But the topic here is so specific that I don't believe anybody outside the people in this video (and maybe their relatives) have an interest in checking this one out. Of course, the key is making these people look like normal people and they sure do, but there is absolutely nothing interesting or deep to them and eventually the entire film suffers from it. I know Seidl keeps walking the line with his films in terms of mixing documentary aspects with fictional aspects and this is true here as well. So I guess this is 100% documentary looking at how the one cast member we see in here is not portraying a character apparently, but it's still not entirely clear. What is clear to me, however, is that Seidl in the early 80s was still far from his peak, i.e. the really convincing quality of his Paradise trilogy for example. I give this one a thumbs-down and I am actually glad it only runs for under an hour. If there is one reason to see this one, then it is probably the music as it includes some fairly nice songs. That's enough though to make up for everything else. Don't watch.