Cinema
Kassbach
Peter Patzak · 1979
Synopsis
Vienna, in the late seventies. Karl Kassbach, a greengrocer of about fifty, tyrannises his wife and his son, whom he considers a failure, and finds that nothing goes as it should. When a far-right “Initiative” is founded in the back room of an inn, preparing attacks in the city, he sees in it at last the chance to act. Between scenes, he speaks to the camera about his tastes and his life.
Context
The film is based on Helmut Zenker's novel Kassbach oder das allgemeine Interesse am Meerschweinchen, of which the author co-wrote the screenplay, and was presented in competition at the Berlin festival in February 1979. The narrative is interspersed with interviews to camera, in Viennese dialect, in which Kassbach, his mother, neighbours and a policeman speak. Walter Kohut plays the title role, and the members of the Initiative practise shooting on guinea pigs.
Who it is for
One hundred and ten minutes with no hero, at the level of a man one never leaves. The film makes its character neither sympathetic nor explicable, which makes it harder to watch.
Prizes and reception
Shown in competition at the Berlinale in 1979; hailed as a milestone by the Filmarchiv Austria, judged reductive by part of the German critics.
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