Rimini (Ulrich Seidl)

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Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. Trapped between permanent intoxication and concerts for busloads of tourists, his world starts to collapse when his adult daughter breaks into his life.

Directed by Ulrich Seidl
Written by Ulrich Seidl & Veronika Franz
Release Date - TBD

Rimini is pretty much a remake of Aronofskys The Wrestler carefully dosed with spicy Seidl sauce and austrian Kaiserschmarrn. the fabulous Michael Thomas even has the same presence, looks and gazes like Mickey Rourke. sure, there's less of a sweetening melancholic undertone (and score) to it, and the dirt in this broken, battered, rundown punk version is much more palpable, but this gets contrasted by Seidls wonderfully rich, extremely stylized imagery, that always stands right next to the diametral world of smut he depictures. like this it feels very much like his very own, unique version of the same ground material Aronofsky covered nearly 15 years ago.

aged men in decline, trapped in foggy paradises, covered in mists of permanent crises, bankruptcy, alcoholism, prostitution (on all levels) and lost identities. Rimini is a place like a nebula of broken souls. the absent father now gives all reason to judge. our ruptured singer here is - much more than Rourke was - a decidedly narcissistic asshole. the guilt is real. while The Wrestler had the daughter installed as an unused pathway to a better world, reflecting the failure of the father, with Seidl this mirroring act needs to be naturally nasty. there's nothing to repair, only money counts, and fake moments of closeness as in Richie Bravos sleazy songs. however - as one of Ulrich perpetuating themes - within this grease and smudge there's always honesty and candor to find aswell.

while the inclusion of migrants as bystanders on the one hand, unwelcome voiceless intruders on the other is "just" a (very reasonable) gimmick to showcase that you cannot orchestrate such a world without brushing motifs of racism and xenophobia, the role of the late Hans-Michael Rehberg as demented nazi-grandpa is actually very key, cause Seidl understands that this fake happy lollipop world of Schlager being in moral decline since the moment it started right post-war, is undeniably connected with the horrifying past of a nation unable to deal with their own past, guilt and ethics. rightfully so Rehberg is very present, and - similarly to the muslim "intruders" - looks like a provocation but ultimately is a very serious objective of Seidl. the beautiful, highly impactful finale scene is the last proof of this. it's 2022, over 75 years post the european atrocities whose roots might still lie dormant beneath the idyll of the western world (and perverted symptoms like Schlager music) and Ulrich still twists the knife in the national wound. en passant he delivers like a (wrestling) champ.

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Ulrich Seidl To Screen New Combined Version Of His Films 'Rimini' & 'Sparta' At Rotterdam Film Festival
Deadline



Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl is set to debut a new combined version of his 2022 films Rimini and Sparta at the Rotterdam Film Festival later this month.

The new pic is titled Wicked Games Rimini Sparta and runs 205 minutes long. A description of the pic on the Rotterdam festival website states that footage from both films is "tightly interwoven," creating a "devastatingly bleak vision of lost childhood as a state of mind."

Sparta follows a German man battling his inclination to pedophilia who seeks a fresh start in a Romanian backwater where he transforms a decaying school into a safe place for local children.

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Rimini is coming to blu-ray from Big World Pictures