Afterwards: documentary “Fire Flower – The Two Lives of Marisa Mell” – on February 26th from 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – The “kulturMontag” presented by Clarissa Stadler on February 26, 2024 at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2 is dedicated to the celebrated German actress Sandra Hülser, who is represented at this year’s Oscars with two films, including a nomination for “Best Actress”. The magazine also presents the successful Rabenhof production “Luziwuzi” with Conchita Wurst in the title role of the Habsburg enfant terrible Archduke Ludwig Viktor and welcomes director Ruth Brauer-Kvam live in the studio. The show also takes a look at the upcoming premiere of “Animal Farm” based on George Orwell’s world bestseller at the Vienna State Opera, where pigs are currently taking over the stage. The documentary “Fire Flower – The Two Lives of Marisa Mell” (11:15 p.m.) will then be on the program to mark the 85th birthday of the artist, who died in 1992.
The many faces of one woman – Oscar nominee Sandra Hülser in a portrait
She is considered an exceptional talent, whether on stage or screen. Her characters are both victims and perpetrators; it is not without reason that Sandra Hülser is currently the most celebrated German actress, receiving euphoric reviews and regular awards. The 45-year-old was almost omnipresent at the Cannes Film Festival last year, with the two films “Anatomy of a Case” and “Zone of Interest” winning the festival’s main prizes. In addition, the legal drama “Anatomy of a Case” was awarded the European Film Prize and is now in the Oscar race with five nominations. Hülser, who plays a successful writer who becomes the main suspect in her husband’s sudden death, is nominated for Best Actress. The oppressive concentration camp drama “Zone of Interest,” in which Hülser plays the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höß, is also nominated for the trophy in five categories. Hülser, who comes from a family of educators in Thuringia, discovered her passion for acting while she was still at school. Immediately after graduating from high school, she went to the renowned “Ernst Busch” Academy for Drama. Today she can look back on an impressive filmography; she has already appeared in more than 30 films – from the 2017 Oscar-nominated father-daughter tragicomedy “Toni Erdmann”, in which she shone alongside Peter Simonischek, to the black comedy “Sisi and I,” in which she brilliantly plays the quirky Hungarian lady-in-waiting Irma Sztàray to the Empress of Austria-Hungary. Critics applaud a woman who can do any role. If her acting career, with or without a golden trophy, were to go south at some point, she could always fall back on her forklift driver’s license, Hülser jokes with her typical self-irony. The “KulturMontag” with a portrait.
An eccentric oddball – Archduke “Luziwuzi” alias Conchita as a box office hit in the Rabenhof
The press is cheering, the audience is ecstatic: director Ruth Brauer-Kvam has shot the bird with her clever Rabenhof production “Luziwuzi – I am the Empress” about the black sheep in the Habsburg house: a great quartet of good actors, especially Tom Neuwirth aka Conchita Wurst, whose acting debut was rightly applauded, Kyrre Kvam provides a brilliant live music performance. But who was this Luziwuzi? Archduke Ludwig Viktor, the youngest brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, was an outsider at the imperial court, a non-conformist, a little boy who was granted a certain freedom by the otherwise strict court. A young man, a party type, who liked to wear women’s clothes, who was not provided with a “hygiene lady”, as was quite common with the other young archdukes. Things were different with “Luziwuzi”:
His homosexuality was an open secret, and yet under the pretext of “morality” it was not allowed to be spoken about openly and, thanks to strict press censorship, it was certainly not allowed to be written about. Decried by some as a free spirit with “special inclinations” and a vicious backbiter, he also distinguished himself as an art lover and darling of courtly society. He delivered idiosyncratic escapades and a serious scandal that ended with banishment from the Viennese court. “kulturMontag” presents the successful production and invites Ruth Brauer-Kvam to the studio for a live discussion.
Pigs in power – George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” at the Vienna State Opera
“Pigs to power” is the motto at the Vienna State Opera, which is bringing George Orwell’s world bestseller “Animal Farm” to the stage. The Italian director Damiano Michieletto stages the revolution that eats its children in the Haus am Ring. In the political fable published in 1945, anthropomorphized animals explore and critique the nature of political power and corruption. His experiences in the Spanish Civil War made the writer realize that every totalitarian “ism” is ultimately based on propaganda lies, which must be combated as fundamental evils. In 1945 he denounced Stalinism in “Animal Farm” – and thus celebrated his greatest literary success. It is power itself – its conquest, preservation, rituals and paranoia – that Michieletto wants to address. He found a congenial partner in the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov. He only knew the story by name, because the book was censored in Russia. Orwell’s warning is far from being over historically, on the contrary. Because today there are a lot of old “isms” on the move again and new, aggressive world views are growing on the Internet. The 70-year-old was born in the Soviet Union; his grandfather ended up in the Gulag and survived. The composer displays wit, charm and incredible self-irony in his fourth opera and is thus in the tradition of the political satire of Rimsky-Korsakov or Shostakovich. In the early 1990s, Raskatov turned his back on the Soviet Union and, after years in Germany, now lives in France. “kulturMontag” brings the first insights into his “Animal Farm”, which premieres on February 28th in Vienna and which attracted standing ovations and brilliant reviews at its premiere in Amsterdam last year.
Documentary “Fire Flower – The Two Lives of Marisa Mell” (11:15 p.m.)
As a “femme fatale” and “classic beauty” alongside famous male film stars such as Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Tony Curtis and Helmut Berger: This is how Marisa Mell is remembered. But who was she really? The documentary “Fire Flower – The Two Lives of Marisa Mell” explores this question. Director Markus Mörth contrasts the famous actress, whose career began with her studies at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, with the private individual Marlies Theres Moitzi, as her real name was. At the same time, the film also attempts to question the role of women in the film business from the 1960s to the 1980s with a current perspective.
Her mysterious, penetrating gaze and her flawless body made Marisa Mell a sex symbol in the 1960s and an internationally celebrated film star for several years. But her acting talent was rarely showcased in the roles for which she was cast. Mostly she was reduced to her looks.
From the 1980s onwards, the film offerings increasingly decreased and Mell had to reorient himself. After long periods of unemployment, she moved back to Vienna from Rome, where the native of Graz lived and worked for many years. In the last years of her life she performed in theater, painted and wrote, among other things. In 1990, the artist published her autobiography “Coverlove” – an anecdotal series of affairs that looks back nostalgically on her former jet set life. In 1991 she appeared in front of the camera for the last time in Houchang Allahyari’s film “I Love Vienna”. A year later, Marisa Mell died impoverished in Vienna after suffering from cancer. At the center of “Fire Flower – the Two Lives of Marisa Mell” are the memories and stories of her cousin Karin Moitzi-Aicardi and some of her companions such as the writer and actress Erika Pluhar, the actress Christine Kaufmann and the producer Dieter Pochlatko. In interviews, they contrast the fictional character Marisa Mell with the human being Marlies Theres Moitzi. Using film and theater excerpts as well as archive recordings, the production traces the life and career of the Styrian native.