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Winnipeg Free Press
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Art, morals and power
In this darkly absorbing and deeply intelligent novel, German writer Daniel Kehlmann charts the choices made by the real-life Austrian-born film director G. W. Pabst, a master of the silent and early sound eras. Known as 'Red Pabst' for his empathetic exploration of social issues, he leaves Europe after Hitler's rise to power, joining a community of cinematic exiles in Hollywood. Then, in a seemingly inexplicable turnaround, he returns to Austria — annexed by the Nazis and now called Ostmark — and ends up creating films under the patronage of the Reich propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Clearly, Pabst has struck some kind of Faustian bargain, but Kehlmann's writing is so subtle it's difficult to mark the exact moment at which the filmmaker falls into complicity. Testing the boundaries between art, power and moral responsibility, The Director evokes creative life under totalitarian rule with exacting precision and scathing effect. Heike Steinweg photo Daniel Kehlmann's latest novel traces the movements of director G.W. Pabst, who fled Austria after Hitler's rise to power but voluntarily returned while the Nazis were still in power. Dividing his time between Berlin and New York, Kehlmann has generated buzz in the English-speaking world with such works as Measuring the World and the International Booker-nominated Tyll (translated, as is The Director, by Ross Benjamin). Kehlmann's approach to period stories is idiosyncratic and urgent, cutting the realistic horrors of history with sharp, ironical humour. This is not a comprehensive or conventional biographical novel. Kehlmann uses the outline of Pabst's life but fills it in with passages that are imagined and inventive, sometimes terrifying and sometimes out-and-out surreal. Working in long, loosely connected chapters, many of which function as standalone vignettes, Kehlmann takes us first to 1933, with Pabst somewhat adrift at a Los Angeles party. He's awkward and overheated and his English is poor. Kehlmann also has a running joke about how Pabst is constantly being confused with fellow Weimar filmmakers F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. 'No good coffee anywhere, but the fruit juices are astonishing!' says a cheerful compatriot, but Pabst seems unable to adapt to this sunny paradise — and to his demotion to the cinematic B-list. Not longer after, the novel relocates to France, where Pabst and his wife, Trude, are spending a drunken evening with German refugees in a Paris bar. Desperate for documents and safe passage out of Europe, these actors, writers and critics are shocked when Pabst reveals he is voluntarily returning. (The chapter ends with a sombre listing of these historical characters' fates — who escapes to America, who dies by suicide when a transit visa expires, who is murdered by the Nazis.) Pabst's reasons for going back to Austria remain deliberately opaque. He explains that he must visit his aging mother, but Kehlmann slyly suggests this might just be the first of the director's many rationalizations and self-delusions. Pabst's actual biography has hazy areas, and Kehlmann demonstrates how this haze can be a byproduct of fascism, as people cover over guilt with blurred memories and disputed histories. The Director introduces us to various real-life figures, from Greta Garbo (aloof, imperious) to a comic British writer who is clearly P.G. Wodehouse (humorous, hapless) to Goebbels (whose meeting with Pabst showcases Kehlmann's brilliantly sinister use of doppelgangers and double meanings). Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl is portrayed as an appalling moral monster who is also inadvertently, grotesquely hilarious. Kehlmann also has an Orwellian eye for the kind of totalitarian infiltration that goes beyond controlling citizens' actions to policing their words and even thoughts. Trude attends a book club with the wives of high-ranking Nazis, a supposedly pleasant social occasion where a wayward opinion can have dire consequences. No wonder Trude enters into an 'internal exile' of perpetual drunkenness. The Director In another scene, prisoner-of-war Wodehouse — making a compulsory appearance at a film premiere — learns to his bemusement that the Hitler regime has outlawed criticism. Practitioners of this supposedly 'Jewish and Bolshevik' discipline are now replaced with 'describers.' (They aren't even allowed to say whether a film is good because that would imply that it could be bad.) The demand for 'genuine Aryan cinema' hangs over Pabst's film The Molander Case, based on a book by bestselling Nazi hack Alfred Karrasch. The film was in the late stages of production in Prague when the Soviet army reached the city and remains unfinished and unknown, allowing Kehlmann to turn it into an enigmatic question. Is it as cinematically brilliant as Pabst's (highly unreliable) narrative insists? And even if it is, could it possibly be worth Pabst's deal with the devil? Art remains when the mess of politics is over, Pabst says to Trude in one scene, but she seems to have a clearer sense of the cost. Kehlmann's own responses to Pabst's moral situation — the director's small, incremental compromises and then his sudden, terrible capitulation — are incisive and unsparing, full of absurdities and killing ironies. And they are never didactic, this novel of ideas remaining immediate, entertaining and a really good read. Alison Gillmor writes on film for the Free Press. Alison GillmorWriter Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto's York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Straits Times
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Austria's Straka happy to fly under radar at Quail Hollow
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - Austria's Sepp Straka enjoys flying under the radar but may find that harder to do at this week's PGA Championship given he is fresh off the biggest win of his career that moved him into the top 10 of the world rankings. Straka, whose triumph last week at the PGA Tour Signature Event in Philadelphia put him alongside Rory McIlroy as the only multiple winners in 2025 on the U.S.-based circuit, may have no choice but to start coming out of his shell. "I'm not very outgoing. I'm not a big people person. I'm a little bit shy. So I definitely enjoy being under the radar a little more," Straka said at Quail Hollow on Wednesday. "It makes it maybe a little bit easier to prepare for tournaments because you don't have all the eyeballs on you." By the time he tees off early on Thursday, Straka will have had little time to prepare for the year's second major given he arrived in Charlotte on Monday evening. Straka, who in 2022 became the first Austrian-born player to win on the PGA Tour, acknowledged the challenges of trying to regroup after the physical and emotional fatigue that comes with a big win. "It's definitely tough. I've had a lot of off weeks after my wins recently, which definitely helps to decompress, take it all in, get your energy back. But when it's a quick turnaround like this, it's hard," said Straka. "The big thing is getting energy back. You get kind of drained. There's a lot of pressure. You're wrestling a lot of things, and then obviously after you win, there's a lot of adrenaline still going." Straka, who lived in Vienna until age 14 when his family moved to the United States, said golf had grown a lot in Austria and he was enjoying the support he was getting from his home country. "It's definitely not one of the major sports in Austria. Pretty limited with the seasons. But they're definitely golf crazy, and it's awesome to see the support that I get from Austria," said Straka. "Every week there's somebody from Austria in the crowd that's rooting me on, or I get messages from friends. It's really cool to see kind of the support from Austria." Straka will tee off on Thursday from the 10th tee at 7:27 a.m. ET (1127 GMT) alongside Max McGreevy and Sahith Theegala. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Austria's Straka happy to fly under radar at Quail Hollow
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, May 14 (Reuters) - Austria's Sepp Straka enjoys flying under the radar but may find that harder to do at this week's PGA Championship given he is fresh off the biggest win of his career that moved him into the top 10 of the world rankings. Straka, whose triumph last week at the PGA Tour Signature Event in Philadelphia put him alongside Rory McIlroy as the only multiple winners in 2025 on the U.S.-based circuit, may have no choice but to start coming out of his shell. "I'm not very outgoing. I'm not a big people person. I'm a little bit shy. So I definitely enjoy being under the radar a little more," Straka said at Quail Hollow on Wednesday. "It makes it maybe a little bit easier to prepare for tournaments because you don't have all the eyeballs on you." By the time he tees off early on Thursday, Straka will have had little time to prepare for the year's second major given he arrived in Charlotte on Monday evening. Straka, who in 2022 became the first Austrian-born player to win on the PGA Tour, acknowledged the challenges of trying to regroup after the physical and emotional fatigue that comes with a big win. "It's definitely tough. I've had a lot of off weeks after my wins recently, which definitely helps to decompress, take it all in, get your energy back. But when it's a quick turnaround like this, it's hard," said Straka. "The big thing is getting energy back. You get kind of drained. There's a lot of pressure. You're wrestling a lot of things, and then obviously after you win, there's a lot of adrenaline still going." Straka, who lived in Vienna until age 14 when his family moved to the United States, said golf had grown a lot in Austria and he was enjoying the support he was getting from his home country. "It's definitely not one of the major sports in Austria. Pretty limited with the seasons. But they're definitely golf crazy, and it's awesome to see the support that I get from Austria," said Straka. "Every week there's somebody from Austria in the crowd that's rooting me on, or I get messages from friends. It's really cool to see kind of the support from Austria." Straka will tee off on Thursday from the 10th tee at 7:27 a.m. ET (1127 GMT) alongside Max McGreevy and Sahith Theegala.
The Star
14-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Golf-Austria's Straka happy to fly under radar at Quail Hollow
May 13, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Sepp Straka on a practice day for the PGA Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) -Austria's Sepp Straka enjoys flying under the radar but may find that harder to do at this week's PGA Championship given he is fresh off the biggest win of his career that moved him into the top 10 of the world rankings. Straka, whose triumph last week at the PGA Tour Signature Event in Philadelphia put him alongside Rory McIlroy as the only multiple winners in 2025 on the U.S.-based circuit, may have no choice but to start coming out of his shell. "I'm not very outgoing. I'm not a big people person. I'm a little bit shy. So I definitely enjoy being under the radar a little more," Straka said at Quail Hollow on Wednesday. "It makes it maybe a little bit easier to prepare for tournaments because you don't have all the eyeballs on you." By the time he tees off early on Thursday, Straka will have had little time to prepare for the year's second major given he arrived in Charlotte on Monday evening. Straka, who in 2022 became the first Austrian-born player to win on the PGA Tour, acknowledged the challenges of trying to regroup after the physical and emotional fatigue that comes with a big win. "It's definitely tough. I've had a lot of off weeks after my wins recently, which definitely helps to decompress, take it all in, get your energy back. But when it's a quick turnaround like this, it's hard," said Straka. "The big thing is getting energy back. You get kind of drained. There's a lot of pressure. You're wrestling a lot of things, and then obviously after you win, there's a lot of adrenaline still going." Straka, who lived in Vienna until age 14 when his family moved to the United States, said golf had grown a lot in Austria and he was enjoying the support he was getting from his home country. "It's definitely not one of the major sports in Austria. Pretty limited with the seasons. But they're definitely golf crazy, and it's awesome to see the support that I get from Austria," said Straka. "Every week there's somebody from Austria in the crowd that's rooting me on, or I get messages from friends. It's really cool to see kind of the support from Austria." Straka will tee off on Thursday from the 10th tee at 7:27 a.m. ET (1127 GMT) alongside Max McGreevy and Sahith Theegala. (Reporting by Frank PingueEditing by Toby Davis)
Irish Independent
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Today's top TV and streaming choices: For the Love of Dogs, Forever and Jesus Christ Superstar
Marie Antoinette BBC Two, 9pm It's time to scurry through the corridors of Versailles and take a long, hard look at the Hall of Mirrors — yes, we're returning to the world of 18th-century French royalty, and it's certainly an extraordinary place to be. As viewers of the drama's first series are already aware, Marie Antoinette is set during a lavish yet scandalous period in European history; Austrian-born Marie was thrust into it at the age of 14 when she was sent to Paris to marry the Dauphin of France. So far, we've seen her grow from being a stubborn young princess into an independent woman. The second run continues to depict her as a feminist icon, revealing her to be rather more avant-garde than some history books have led us to believe. The sharp scripts are, once again, written by the show's creator, Deborah Davis, who previously received an Oscar nod for her work on acclaimed historical movie The Favourite, while Emilia Schüle returns as Marie, with Louis Cunningham as her husband, who is now Louis XVI, the king of France. The couple's story picks up with the duo at the height of their powers. However, an unprecedented financial crisis looms large on the horizon, while attacks on the royal family from Provence and Chartres stir up hatred against them that threatens to spiral out of control. And there's even worse to come thanks to the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Life in court may never be the same — or safe — again... Tarrac na Farraige RTÉ One, 7pm New series focusing on the fishing industry, as experienced by a wide variety of people living in the nation's coastal communities as they fight to remain cost effective amid a sea of change. For the Love of Dogs with Alison Hammond Virgin Media One, 8.30pm A lively bulldog-cross puppy takes a shine to the presenter's gloves — he may need to calm down a little if he's to find a new home. Meanwhile, a nervous Bernese mountain dog needs some TLC. Nashville, Seo Muid ag Teacht! TG4, 9.30pm ADVERTISEMENT Cameras follow singers Diane, John and Kelly Cannon from Donegal as they head to Nashville to attend the Country Music Association festival, where they rub shoulders with the likes of Dolly Parton, Shaboozey and Steve Earle. Jesus Christ Superstar BBC Four, 8pm Lavish musical adapted from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage show. The plot follows the final days of Jesus Christ, as seen through the eyes of his disciple-turned-betrayer Judas Iscariot. Ted Neeley and Yvonne Elliman star. Mara Brock Akil has adapted Judy Blume's seminal 1975 book for a new generation. Set in 2018 LA, it's an epic love story about two black teenagers who explore their identities via the seismic experience of being each other's firsts. Untold: Shooting Guards Netflix, streaming now We're getting treated to our annual dose of Untold a little bit earlier this year. Usually released in the autumn, the always revelatory and expertly shot documentary series continues to chronicle the untold aspects of some of sport's darkest stories. With three all-new films releasing weekly across May 6, 13, and 20, this new series kicks off with an anatomy of former Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton. Their collective claim to fame is jarring the world of basketball by drawing guns on each other in their NBA locker room in 2009. Through raw first-hand accounts, Arenas and Crittenton unpack the events that had a life-altering impact on both men, which ultimately led Crittenton down a dark and tragic path. Keeping with sporting releases, season two of Full Speed has landed, chronicling all the drama surrounding the 2024 NASCAR championship. The Devil's Plan: Death Room Netflix, streaming now Prepare to be amazed, enraged, and very confused at certain junctures as a clutch of new contenders convene for a new battle of minds (and those all-important pieces). From a poker pro to the mandatory 'Go' legend, to a Hollywood actor and another lawyer, who will triumph through this season's endless challenges? Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld Disney+, streaming now Where else would you be getting yet more unsolicited Star Wars-related viewing? This time it's animated and features the tribulations of bounty hunter Asajj Ventress and outlaw Cad Bane over six episodes. The Handmaid's Tale Prime Video, streaming now While I still can't bring myself to watch it, for those of you fully immersed in the 'fictional' realm of Gilead, the sixth and final season is now available. The Four Seasons Netflix, streaming now Three couples — Kate (Tina Fey) and Jack (Will Forte), Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), plus Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani) — face serious introspection when one of the couples announces their split. For more saccharine aspirational viewing, Prime Video has released Another Simple Favour, starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. A Complete Unknown Disney+, streaming now Arriving in 1960s New York armed with his guitar, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (portrayed by Timothée Chalamet's impressive jawline) is set to revolutionise American music. Angi: Fake Life, True Crime Netflix, streaming now In 2008, the remains of 35-year-old designer Ana Páez were discovered in Barcelona. Dubbed 'The Almost Perfect Crime', this documentary revisits the case and explores the dark past of María Ángeles Molina ('Angi') and her late husband. In other European offerings, the final instalment of Lost Bullet arrives Wednesday, while AppleTV+ is now offering pastry, espionage, and Bridgerton levels of fornication in Carême.
