Prater

Director: Ulrike Ottinger    → show biography   ← hide biography

Biography: Ulrike Ottinger lived in Paris from 1962 to 1968, working as a painter and photographer. In 1966, she wrote her first screenplay, Die mongolische Doppelschublade. In 1969, she founded the filmclub visuell in Konstanz, which she headed until 1972. She has lived in Berlin since 1973. Since then, she has made 21 films, as well as directing plays and operas. Her films have been screened at every major international film festival. Her work has also been honored with numerous retrospectives and exhibitions from Mexico to Shanghai, New York to Oslo.

Country: Austria

Year: 2007

Synopsis: Now available on DCP - Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

Language: German

Forum participation year: 2007