Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013) - A chubby teen camp meets the Seidl eye

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Three large young women sit awkwardly on a gym bench on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope

Melanie is an overweight teenage girl who is sent away to a camp for girls like herself for a time to alter her lifestyle.

Paradise: Hope is written by Veronika Franz (Kern (2012, documentary)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 3rd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, also consisting of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Faith (2012). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

We follow Melanie's camp stay, which Seidl investigates without much of a direction with the added label 'Hope', which also doesn't seem to say much about the characters here. They are young; yes, hopeful; perhaps. - But we never learn where they end up. There are still fine and unusual scenes in Paradise: Hope, but it is the weakest in the trilogy and fundamentally it is missing something.

 

Related post:

 

Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) - Strong Catholic faith through Seidl's lens 

Paradise: Love/Paradies: Liebe (2012) - Woman's love safari fertile ground for Seidl drama

 

 

Watch a teaser for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 457k $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.25 times its cost)

[Paradise: Hope premiered 8 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Austria. The film opened #75 to a 2k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, spreading to 3 theaters but unable to gain a higher rank, grossing 6k $ (1.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 189k $ (41.4 %), Austria with 168k $ (36.8 %) and Spain with 44k $ (9.6 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. Seidl returned with In the Basement/Im Keller (2014, documentary). Melanie Lenz (Paradise: Love (2012)), who plays Melanie, did not return to the screen after the film. Paradise: Hope is fresh at 88 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Paradise: Hope?

Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) - Strong Catholic faith through Seidl's lens

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A woman in front of a crucifix exposes her butt on this curious poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Faith

Marianne is a deeply religious Catholic cancer ward nurse, and in her off time she walks outside with her sculpture of the Virgin Mary. When her invalid Muslim husband returns home, sparks between the two erupt.

 

Paradise: Faith is written by Veronika Franz (Safari (2016)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 2nd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, which also consists of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Hope (2013). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

It is presents a peculiar and original as well as a completely straight-lined and understandable narrative with impressively authentic performances, made in Seidl's signature docu-style. Especially Maria Hofstätter (Orkester (2021)) in the unembarrassed lead as Marianne, a fascinating and inspiring character, because she lifts her faith so actively, going out to confront her fellow (sad, miserable) Austrian countrymen with it. Her conflict with her husband has depth and nuances: Are we here witnesses to a rare artistic reflection of the cultural clash between Muslims and the West? Is Marianne's mission hopeless, pointless? Or meaningful and reputable? 

Paradise: Faith lets the questions stand open until the last scene, SPOILER in which Seidl's own assessment of Catholicism as a judgmental, restrictive kind of sadomasochism seems to take over, - which at best does not fully cover it, and at worst is an unfair rejection.

 

Related post:

 

Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Love/Paradies: Liebe (2012) - Woman's love safari fertile ground for Seidl drama

 

 

Seidl talks about the film in a video here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 618k $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.34 times its cost)

[Paradise: Faith premiered 30 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 2011 in Vienna, Austria. The film opened #95 to a 2k $ first weekend in North America, where it never ranked higher and grossed 6k $ (1 % of the total gross). Its biggest markets were Austria with 295k $ (47.7 %), Germany with 226k $ (36.6 %) and Spain with 48k $ (7.8 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film won a European Film award, among other honors. Seidl returned with Paradise: Hope (2013). Hofstätter returned in Braunschlag (2012, TV-series) and theatrically in Paradise: Hope. Paradise: Faith is fresh at 73 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Paradise: Faith? 

Paradise: Love/Paradies: Liebe (2012) - Woman's love safari proves fertile ground for Seidl drama

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European women enjoy drinks, the ocean and local male attention on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Love

Our plus-sized, love-starved heroine leaves her teenage daughter back in their home in Austria to go on a solo vacation to Africa, where the local men simply adore the middle-aged European woman "as they are!" - Or do they now also...?

 

Paradise: Love is written by Veronika Franz (Import Export (2007)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/producer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It it the first film in his Paradise trilogy, also comprised by Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) and Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

Seidl's film about female sex tourism ultimately becomes a reflection of the fundamentally unjust layout of the world, - both as it has become arranged by man but also how it is handed to each one of us from God's or nature's hands. Watching Paradise: Love, I also couldn't help but wonder what might have been different if the film had looked into male sex tourism instead of female. 

Margarete Tiesel (Sargnagel - Der Film (2021)) is without vanity and fear in her lead performance, and Seidl (and cinematographers Edward Lachman (Carol (2015)) and Wolfgang Thaler (Toulouse (2018, TV movie))) capture a lot of absurd comedy with their visual mastering and eye for images, so that the film in periods is also pretty funny. It is also tender, sad, though-provoking and remarkably empathetic. If any of the individuals in the story are to be judged, that job is obviously left up to us.

Paradise: Love is an outstanding film with a couple of scenes that last a really long time, but which in doing so reveal something about the relations between the people involved, which is only possible due to their length. Something about the flux of exploitation in unnatural romantic relations.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 3.6 mil. €, approximately 3.8 mil. $

Box office: 1.7 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.44 times its cost)

[Paradise: Love premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2009 - September 2010 in Austria and Kenya, back-to-back with the other two films in the trilogy. They were initially planned to be one film but the length and other factors made Seidl realize that they should be released as three films. The film opened #84 to a 6k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #78 and in 4 theaters, grossing 24k $ (1.4 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 698k $ (41.1 %), Austria with 448k $ (26.4 %) and Spain with 165k $ (9.7 %). The film lost the Palme d'Or to Amour. It was also nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Seidl returned with Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012). Tiesel returned in 2 TV and a short credit prior to her theatrical return in Das Pferd auf dem Balkon (2012). Paradise: Love is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Paradise: Love?