Rimini
Ulrich Seidl (Paradies: Liebe) shows us the tragicomic fortunes of schlager singer Richie Bravo who moonlights as a gigolo in wintry Rimini.
Think of an Austrian mix between Demis Roussos and Johnny Hallyday and you have Richie Bravo. The epitome of past glory who finances his drinking and gambling addiction with gigs for elderly tourists, paid sex with, indeed, elderly fans and renting out his totally tasteless house, which is full of his effigies. Richie’s life is turned upside down when his daughter Tessa reappears in his life. She demands €30,000 from him, as compensation for all the missed birthday presents and the car the constantly absent father never bought for her.
No one knows how to turn sex, tourism, and amorality into such poignant films as Ulrich Seidl. His films are extremely stylised, with tight frames, without any frills. He shows mankind at its ugliest: plodding and without moral sense. The same goes for the shifty narcissist Richie, for whom you develop sympathy despite everything. That, too, is part of Seidl. Where we might see a misanthrope, Seidl considers himself a humanist who shows human life in all its vulnerability.