Ruth Beckermann’s investigation into Kurt Waldheim’s Austrian presidential campaign is as engrossing as it is relevant
During Kurt Waldheim’s Austrian presidential campaign in the spring of 1986, that nation’s collective consciousness experienced a painful return of the repressed, a psychological agony recalled by director Ruth Beckermann in this documentary. Waldheim, who had been Un secretary general from 1972 to 1981, was running for the presidency very largely on the grounds of his international prestige. As far as his war service went, Waldheim had claimed in his autobiography to have been invalided out of (conscripted) military service on sustaining a wound at the eastern front in 1942. But in the febrile few weeks leading up to the election, investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin, together with New York Times reporters and researchers from the World Jewish Congress, discovered documents showing his active membership of the Sa, the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing,...
During Kurt Waldheim’s Austrian presidential campaign in the spring of 1986, that nation’s collective consciousness experienced a painful return of the repressed, a psychological agony recalled by director Ruth Beckermann in this documentary. Waldheim, who had been Un secretary general from 1972 to 1981, was running for the presidency very largely on the grounds of his international prestige. As far as his war service went, Waldheim had claimed in his autobiography to have been invalided out of (conscripted) military service on sustaining a wound at the eastern front in 1942. But in the febrile few weeks leading up to the election, investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin, together with New York Times reporters and researchers from the World Jewish Congress, discovered documents showing his active membership of the Sa, the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing,...
- 3/21/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Dušan Makavejev was born on King Milutin Street in Belgrade on October 13, 1932. This was about nine years before the city was occupied by the Nazis, at which point the Chinese embassy across the street became the headquarters of the German Chief Command of the Southeast. As a child, he watched German officers go in and out of the building, one of whom, Kurt Waldheim, would later become the Secretary of the United Nations—though of course the young Makavejev didn’t know this at the time. Following the Second World War, it was under Tito's Communist, but anti-Stalinist Yugoslavia that Makavejev first emerged as a major Eastern European filmmaker, initially associated with the loosely defined Novi Film (new film) movement. His eclectic career, the subject of a major retrospective at New York's Anthology Archives, garnered praise from the likes of Amos Vogel, Robin Wood, Stanley Cavell, Jonas Mekas, and Roger Ebert,...
- 2/27/2020
- MUBI
Palm Springs International Ff 2019: ‘Waldheim Waltz’ directed by Ruth Beckermann‘The Waldheim Waltz’, a film about truth and lies or “alternative facts” shows exactly how a dishonest man can rise to power. This documentary by director Ruth Beckermann, one of contemporary Europe’s finest documentarians premiered in Berlin’s Forum section in 2018 where it won the Glashütte Original Documentary Award. Us Distribution by Menemsha marks it immediately as a film which will be watched in Us for many years to come.Ruth Beckermann. photo by Lukas Beck‘The Waldheim Waltz’, screening at this year’s Palm Springs Film Festival was released in New York on October 19 and in Los Angeles in November 19. The film has received 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was Austria’s submission for Academy Award consideration for Best Foreign Language Film and was also submitted for Best Doc Oscar nomination.By concealing two years of his wartime service,...
- 12/24/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Paris-based sales company Wide House has sealed a flurry of deals for two titles playing this week at Amsterdam’s Idfa documentary festival: Ruth Beckermann’s “The Waldheim Waltz,” Austria’s candidate for the 2019 Oscars, and Marcus Lindeen’s “The Raft.”
World premiering at February’s Berlinale, where it won the Glashutte Award for best documentary, “The Waldheim Waltz” focuses on the Nazi war-crimes scandal surrounding Kurt Waldheim, the former U.N. secretary general, who was president of Austria from 1986 to 1992.
Svod rights have been bought by Filmin in Spain and Turn Key Films for Scandinavia and Italy.
Distribution rights were acquired respectively by Menemsha Films in North America -in an already announced deal-, Elf Pictures in Hungary and Tricontinental in former-Yugoslavia territories.
In Switzerland, pubcaster Rsi took Italian-language rights; Israeli broadcasting rights went to Channel 8 and Kan.
“Waldheim” receives its Dutch premiere Thursday Nov. 22 as part of Master...
World premiering at February’s Berlinale, where it won the Glashutte Award for best documentary, “The Waldheim Waltz” focuses on the Nazi war-crimes scandal surrounding Kurt Waldheim, the former U.N. secretary general, who was president of Austria from 1986 to 1992.
Svod rights have been bought by Filmin in Spain and Turn Key Films for Scandinavia and Italy.
Distribution rights were acquired respectively by Menemsha Films in North America -in an already announced deal-, Elf Pictures in Hungary and Tricontinental in former-Yugoslavia territories.
In Switzerland, pubcaster Rsi took Italian-language rights; Israeli broadcasting rights went to Channel 8 and Kan.
“Waldheim” receives its Dutch premiere Thursday Nov. 22 as part of Master...
- 11/18/2018
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
For most of the 60-plus years in which foreign-language film and documentary feature have been competitive Oscar categories, they have had very little to do with each other: separate fields to honor the kinds of film that most Academy voters won’t consider for best picture, with no intersection between them. To this day, no film has ever been nominated for both awards.
In recent years, however, a few have come close, beginning with a 2008 landmark: Israel’s “Waltz With Bashir.” Ari Folman’s path-breaking animated Lebanon War memoir made history by becoming the first documentary ever nominated for foreign-language film; the documentary branch, however, ruled it ineligible due to its lack of a bi-coastal qualifying run. (The animation branch didn’t spring for it either.) One doc has cracked the foreign-language category since: Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh’s Khmer Rouge reflection “The Missing Picture,” in 2013. Unlike Folman’s film,...
In recent years, however, a few have come close, beginning with a 2008 landmark: Israel’s “Waltz With Bashir.” Ari Folman’s path-breaking animated Lebanon War memoir made history by becoming the first documentary ever nominated for foreign-language film; the documentary branch, however, ruled it ineligible due to its lack of a bi-coastal qualifying run. (The animation branch didn’t spring for it either.) One doc has cracked the foreign-language category since: Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh’s Khmer Rouge reflection “The Missing Picture,” in 2013. Unlike Folman’s film,...
- 11/8/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The Waldheim Waltz director Ruth Beckermann on getting the footage of Kurt Waldheim before he delivers his presidential acceptance speech: "This was really a lucky moment."
In the final instalment of my conversation with Ruth Beckermann on The Waldheim Waltz, Austria's Oscar submission for the 91st Academy Awards, we discussed her filmmaking style (for The Dreamed Ones on the letters of Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann; Those Who Go Those Who Stay on chance encounters; Paper Bridge on Beckermann's family; Return To Vienna with Josef Aichholzer; East Of War), the Waldheim family, the historians, and the archival footage that included a "lucky moment" finding Kurt Waldheim preparing, minutes before he delivered his televised presidential acceptance speech.
We met at the Hudson, the former American Woman's Association clubhouse, that was turned into a hotel. It was renovated by designer Philippe Starck and Ian Schrager, co-owner of Studio 54, who is featured in Matt Tyrnauer's documentary.
In the final instalment of my conversation with Ruth Beckermann on The Waldheim Waltz, Austria's Oscar submission for the 91st Academy Awards, we discussed her filmmaking style (for The Dreamed Ones on the letters of Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann; Those Who Go Those Who Stay on chance encounters; Paper Bridge on Beckermann's family; Return To Vienna with Josef Aichholzer; East Of War), the Waldheim family, the historians, and the archival footage that included a "lucky moment" finding Kurt Waldheim preparing, minutes before he delivered his televised presidential acceptance speech.
We met at the Hudson, the former American Woman's Association clubhouse, that was turned into a hotel. It was renovated by designer Philippe Starck and Ian Schrager, co-owner of Studio 54, who is featured in Matt Tyrnauer's documentary.
- 10/19/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Waldheim Waltz director Ruth Beckermann: "Roland Barthes wrote that it's strange that some people when they speak about culture, they go back to nature." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Ruth Beckermann's documentary on Kurt Waldheim, The Waldheim Waltz, is Austria's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film and was a Spotlight on Documentary selection of the 56th New York Film Festival. The director, cinematographer, writer, narrator and producer of The Waldheim Waltz, edited by Dieter Pichler (Constantin Wulff's Ulrich Seidl: A Director At Work) joined me for a conversation at the Hudson hotel the afternoon following her New York festival première at the Walter Reade Theater of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Roland Barthes and nature, Claude Lanzmann and Shoah, Us Congressman Tom Lantos and Kurt Waldheim's son, Austrian folklore and an American-style election campaign came up in the first instalment.
Ruth Beckermann on Kurt Waldheim's presidential...
Ruth Beckermann's documentary on Kurt Waldheim, The Waldheim Waltz, is Austria's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film and was a Spotlight on Documentary selection of the 56th New York Film Festival. The director, cinematographer, writer, narrator and producer of The Waldheim Waltz, edited by Dieter Pichler (Constantin Wulff's Ulrich Seidl: A Director At Work) joined me for a conversation at the Hudson hotel the afternoon following her New York festival première at the Walter Reade Theater of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Roland Barthes and nature, Claude Lanzmann and Shoah, Us Congressman Tom Lantos and Kurt Waldheim's son, Austrian folklore and an American-style election campaign came up in the first instalment.
Ruth Beckermann on Kurt Waldheim's presidential...
- 10/17/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film now has a clear frontrunner, because Mexico has submitted Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” in the category.
Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and one of the most acclaimed films of the fall festival circuit, “Roma” is a beautiful black-and-white film based on moments from Cuaron’s childhood, growing up in a suburb of Mexico City. The Netflix release is also a strong Best Picture contender, the only one of the 40-plus foreign-language entries to be in the running for both awards.
At this point, for it not to land a foreign-language nomination would be astonishing, though Netflix failed to make the cut last year in the category even though it had by far the highest-profile submission, Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father.”
Also Read: 'Roma' Film Review: Alfonso Cuarón's Intimate Epic Proves Less...
Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and one of the most acclaimed films of the fall festival circuit, “Roma” is a beautiful black-and-white film based on moments from Cuaron’s childhood, growing up in a suburb of Mexico City. The Netflix release is also a strong Best Picture contender, the only one of the 40-plus foreign-language entries to be in the running for both awards.
At this point, for it not to land a foreign-language nomination would be astonishing, though Netflix failed to make the cut last year in the category even though it had by far the highest-profile submission, Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father.”
Also Read: 'Roma' Film Review: Alfonso Cuarón's Intimate Epic Proves Less...
- 9/14/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Netherlands and Austria have chosen Joram Lürsen’s “The Resistance Banker” and Ruth Beckermann’s “The Waldheim Waltz” as their respective foreign-language Oscar candidates.
“The Resistance Banker” is set in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II and tells the true story of Walraven van Hall, a banker who financed the Dutch Resistance by defrauding the Central Bank. Netflix has acquired global rights to the film outside of China, Belgium and the Netherlands and plans a rollout on Sept.11.
The movie was produced by Sytze van der Laan, Sabine Brian and Alain de Levita for the Dutch banner Nl Film and TV, in co-production with Eo-Evangelical Broadcasting and Belgium’s Zilvermeer Productions.
Lürsen is best-known for directing “In Orange” and “The Magicians.” “The Resistance Banker” has been nominated for a record 12 Golden Calf nominations, the national film awards of the Netherlands Film Festival. “The Resistance Banker” is also one of...
“The Resistance Banker” is set in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II and tells the true story of Walraven van Hall, a banker who financed the Dutch Resistance by defrauding the Central Bank. Netflix has acquired global rights to the film outside of China, Belgium and the Netherlands and plans a rollout on Sept.11.
The movie was produced by Sytze van der Laan, Sabine Brian and Alain de Levita for the Dutch banner Nl Film and TV, in co-production with Eo-Evangelical Broadcasting and Belgium’s Zilvermeer Productions.
Lürsen is best-known for directing “In Orange” and “The Magicians.” “The Resistance Banker” has been nominated for a record 12 Golden Calf nominations, the national film awards of the Netherlands Film Festival. “The Resistance Banker” is also one of...
- 9/7/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Errol Morris’ look at Steve Bannon, Alexis Bloom’s dissection of Roger Ailes, and James Longley’s unflinching portrait of life in war-torn Afghanistan are just a few of the politically charged documentaries that will screen as part of this year’s New York Film Festival.
The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.
The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...
The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.
The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...
- 8/22/2018
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Ruth Beckermann’s tremendously relevant documentary The Waldheim Waltz is an excellent barometer for measuring what 40 years of collective willful amnesia and denial can do to a country’s self-image. The stage is Austria in March, 1986, in the midst of the presidential election when revelations come to light regarding candidate, and former Un General Secretary, Kurt Waldheim’s war-time record between 1941 and 1944 in Yugoslavia and Greece, whereby he is accused of possible involvement or at least having had knowledge of war crimes, including the deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jewish population—details that he conveniently chose to omit from his autobiography. Less concerned with establishing the facts and validity of these charges, Beckermann chooses rather to zero in sharply on Waldheim’s own dance around the truth, his waltz from one obfuscating statement to another, his shameful gaps in memory and frustratingly daft expressions of bewilderment when questioned by the media about the issue.
- 3/27/2018
- MUBI
In 1986, former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim launched his election bid to become president of Austria just as a wave of shocking revelations broke about his Nazi military exploits during World War II. Protestors gathered on the streets of Vienna trying to derail this debonair, religiously devout, politically conservative candidate. They mostly came up against a brick wall of denial against Austrian complicity in Nazi war crimes. One of these young activists was future film director Ruth Beckermann, who chronicled the anti-Waldheim campaign in shaky monochrome on an early portable video camera.
Revisiting these contentious events more than 30...
Revisiting these contentious events more than 30...
- 3/5/2018
- by Stephen Dalton
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Waldheim WaltzThe Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, is a cultural event well-used to hand-wringing by all sorts over its programming and trajectory. This is, of course, also true of the other two major European film festivals, Cannes and Venice, but the discussion around the mission and scale of the Berlinale always seems more acute. To this outsider, such debate can be a real curiosity and, at its best, invigorating: it is unusual in the American tradition to question cultural institutions, but particularly rare in the field of film, which still struggles to be recognized as an art by the greater public. Every year I come to Berlin some group seems upset about something or other about the film festival. There's the too-often tepid competition—whose admirable acclaim for including sharply politically-engaged films ironically holds it to a standard too high to achieve (and actually says more about other...
- 2/17/2018
- MUBI
Shadows From My Past is like a box stuffed with old letters and photographs: Things may be out of order, but, stay with it, and you’ll soon have voices in your head, a story even. This is what Carl and Gita Kaufman have essentially done in this documentary — collected letters and photos of Gita’s family, who lived in Vienna happily until Hitler’s “anschluss” with Austria. Kaufman, who was a small child then, dutifully reads from the letters. Her voice is deadpan and slow, as though she wants to let the words speak for themselves, but it can be monotonous. Kaufman also lands startling, if brief, interviews with luminaries like Kurt Waldheim and Simon Wiesenthal, plus journalists and academics who ruminate about Austria a...
- 8/26/2014
- Village Voice
In 1992, Wg Sebald turned a walk through Suffolk into an extraordinary book. As a film inspired by the work is premiered, Stuart Jeffries retraces his steps
The sea wind whips through my thermals and the driving rain mocks my decision to leave the waterproofs in the car. Cliff-top paths, walkable last spring, have toppled into the sea. The nearest pub is miles away. Yet here we are, standing on the cliff at Covehithe in Suffolk, on the very spot where the great writer Wg Sebald stood, in August 1992. Hmm, perhaps we shouldn't have come in January.
We, that is film-maker Grant Gee and I, are retracing a portion of the walk Sebald did over several days for what is arguably his greatest book, 1995's The Rings of Saturn. Gee has broken off from editing Patience (After Sebald), his film based on the book. We're hoping to go from Covehithe to...
The sea wind whips through my thermals and the driving rain mocks my decision to leave the waterproofs in the car. Cliff-top paths, walkable last spring, have toppled into the sea. The nearest pub is miles away. Yet here we are, standing on the cliff at Covehithe in Suffolk, on the very spot where the great writer Wg Sebald stood, in August 1992. Hmm, perhaps we shouldn't have come in January.
We, that is film-maker Grant Gee and I, are retracing a portion of the walk Sebald did over several days for what is arguably his greatest book, 1995's The Rings of Saturn. Gee has broken off from editing Patience (After Sebald), his film based on the book. We're hoping to go from Covehithe to...
- 1/26/2011
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
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