Ulrich Seidl's Paradise Trilogy

[wilder]

On the beaches of Kenya they're known as "Sugar Mamas" -- European women who seek out African boys selling love to earn a living. Teresa, a 50-year-old Austrian and mother of a daughter entering puberty, travels to this vacation paradise. She goes from one Beach Boy to the next, from one disappointment to the next and finally she must recognize: On the beaches of Kenya love is a business.

Anna Maria (Maria Hofstätter) is a middle-aged Austrian woman who lives alone in a well-knitted house in Viena. When she doesn't work in the hospital then she clean her house thoroughly. But she doesn't feel alone; she has Jesus; she loves Jesus; This unconditional love to god, empowers her to overcome the temptations of her flesh, by praying and by using methodically all sort of self- punishments.

But she is not alone in her quest; she is member of a small ultra-religious group which tries to bring back the Catholic faith to Austria; when she takes a break from her work instead of going to vacations, she tries door to door, to bring God to the poor neighborhoods, which are occupied mostly by immigrants.

Although her faith is strong, it is going to be challenged not only by the various reactions of the people that she tries to approach, but also back home, where her past is vividly back. Her crippled Muslim husband is back and demands a share of her love, who offers gladly only to Jesus.

Her mother in Kenya, 13-year-old Melanie spends her summer vacation at a strict diet camp set in the Austrian countryside. Between workouts and nutrition classes, pillow fights and first cigarettes, she falls in love with a doctor 40 years her senior – and in all innocence sets out to seduce him. Paradise: Hope is a "teen camp" movie that tells of the unconditionality of first love.

Directed by Ulrich Seidl
Release Dates TBD

[jenkins]

which one did you see? i've had love, now hope is coming my way. it has a great los angeles trailer:
http://vimeo.com/79730828

"Fassbinder died, so God gave us Ulrich Seidl." — John Waters

[wilder]

I actually watched Hope the other night, and liked it, but I haven't thought about it since (bad sign). Will watch Love and Faith soon, for now my hands are tied.

[jenkins]

hope is the shortest and it's about teens. i'm not really sure why it's about teens or why it exists or why seidl exists, so i like all that. i'll go check it out. but aww dang, your uhoh makes sense. is it tough to find its center? i'm guessing it looks nice and feels slimy

[matt35mm]

I seen't all of them and they all have their charms.

I like LOVE the best. It has the most going on, in that it's about this woman and Kenya and different kinds of accepted prostitution, and it has a really palpable sense of this quiet desperation turned exploitation. I found it to be the most complicated and uncomfortable of the three movies.

FAITH is the most focused, in that it's just about one woman, and occasionally about her husband. It's the most psychologically interested of the three. I've heard that Seidl wanted to be a priest when he was young and so it stands to reason that this movie might be interested in God's role in life, but it's more about the psychology of faith. And it's not a pretty portrait.

HOPE is the most straight-forward of the three. I liked it, but like wilder, I haven't really thought too much about it. It's the most gentle of the three, but it's still got a lot of dark and brutal stuff in it.

All very worth watching. They are also all pretty funny. I want to say that the movies are confrontational, but the style isn't. The camera has a detached, observational quality, but it asks us to look at the things that movies never ask us to look at.