This post is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every other week.
PLOT: A series of intertwining stories set in a suburb outside Vienna during the hottest days of the year. The tales follow: a teacher who is controlled by a sleazy pimp, a hitchhiker with serious social problems, a private detective searching for some car vandals and a couple with just about the most unhealthy marriage you can imagine.
(I normally include a trailer but believe it or not I had trouble finding one that didn’t look like one giant pixel.)
MEMORABLE MOMENT: A woman takes part in an orgy in the back rooms of what appears to be a shopping center. Afterwards, she dresses in a locker room, becoming (at least in appearance) a typical housewife. She then drives to a memorial on the side of a highway that marks the site of a fatal car accident. She watches a man lay flowers but does not get out to speak with him. The woman then drives to a suburban house where we learn that the man is her husband. They go about their day barely acknowledging each other’s presence.
We learn so much about this woman in so little time, but there is still so much more we want to know.
THE IDEAL AUDIENCE: Dog Days is yet another film that’s very hard to sit through. It isn’t necessarily a bad movie. In fact there are many scenes that are downright brilliant. It simply shows how ugly human beings can be behind closed doors.
My initial reaction was to suggest this film to fans of Pulp Fiction or Wild Tales (the film I watched from Argentina), if nothing else than because this movie is also a series of grisly short stories. However, Dog Days is considerably less stylized. In fact there are several moments where the film almost looks like a documentary.
The violence in this film isn’t entertaining in that way that violence is entertaining in many action or horror films. It doesn’t come at us in short, loud bursts accompanied by quotable quips. Instead, the movie is filled with drawn out acts of sadism that last so long they become repetitive and eventually boring. (This may be intentional).
I don’t know if Dog Days is necessarily a film meant to be “enjoyed” so much as “appreciated” for its substance. In order to enjoy it, you would need to have an extremely thick skin. Unlike many other films of its genre, it’s not just a movie about people in harsh situations, it’s a movie about people who truly hate their lives.
While it’s worth a watch, go into this one warned. You won’t just find violence and profanity. You will find abuse, masochism and very bleak despair.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT?: It is available on Netflix DVD. You could also buy the DVD from Amazon for $22.99.
RUNTIME: 121 minutes.
DIRECTOR: Ulrich Seidl
WRITERS: Veronika Franz and Ulrich Seid
STARING:
