Beaches

Images of a family vacationing at the strand: In a changing cast of colors, grainy Super 8 footage tells a story of gently foaming waves whipped by winds at an Adriatic beach. Little children play in the water while watched over by their mother. Their father soon joins them. An older lady passes by, later a man flies a kite in the foreground. The images are tinted pale pink, yellow and blue.

Astrid Ofner´s fragile analog film footage would convey the longing for the hours of summers past and tender familial bonds were it not for the quick-tempered off-screen voice of Sylvie Rohrer pouncing upon images of the quietly rippling sea from the very start. "I must have experienced sorrow as a natural condition," she quotes from an interview with Marguerite Duras: "All women must have suffered without realizing it", her voice continues: Especially when they talked about how happy they were during family vacations at the sea when their children were still young – they were telling themselves a lie. The joy they thought they remembered was dictated to them by men because in reality, "The beaches bored them like crazy."

Sylvie Rohrer´s disillusioned voice pierces the tranquility of the vacation footage and lends the seemingly harmless constellation of father, mother and children a gender specific slant. Super 8 film vaguely reminiscent of home movies from the 1970s is stripped of its implicit retrospective nostalgia by the severity of a biographically tainted estimation articulated by an enraged woman. Her rejection of a patriarchal imagination of intact familial happiness takes time to clench its fist but thereby impacts all the more powerfully: Firstly, there is Astrid Ofner´s citation of the passage in German, three decades after it was published and functioning as a soundtrack parallel to historically resonant images. And then a second time, when the film begins over again, Sylvie Rohrer repeating the text in French. This gradual approach to the original allows Marguerite Duras a far more direct mode of expression, her words speaking to our own contemporary reality with greater aggression and unconsolability. (Alexandra Seibel)

Translation: Eve Heller


It is summer. A summer by the sea. It is hot, a wind is blowing and the waves are foaming in an endlessly melodic, eternally even rhythm, rolling the tide to the shore. Little children play, a mother is watching over them, soon joined by the father. An older lady walks by, later a man flying a string of kites that rise up in the wind. All is quiet and languid. The sea is steady, likewise the light.
A forever unchanging holiday at a flat sandy beach characteristic of the Adriatic coast. Family vacation, endless hours, boredom, memories and dreams. The longing for a different life, for a new love, for transgression.

Grainy Super 8 images, viridescent light, pale colors, the voice of Sylvie Rohrer reverberating as if transmitted by phone. And a few of Marguerite Duras´ thoughts are conveyed, about what women would need and what men do need. (Astrid Ofner)

More Texts

Viennale catalogue text 2019

Faded Super-8 footage of days at the beach, with glimpses of family members at rest or play by the water: could there by any sweeter cue for nostalgia? But a voice begins to tell us something very diferent: that holidays like this were hell for women, imposed by clueless, bossy husbands, a sign of social control. This soundtrack, a superbly performed recitation in German and French by Sylvie Rohrer, is a transcription from an interview with Marguerite Duras; Astrid Ofner raises the text from the status of ordinary speech to a veritable oratorio concerning the female pain behind everyday appearances. (Adrian Martin)

Viennale Katalogtext 2019

Im Bild ein retro-idyllischer Sehnsuchtsort: körnige, verblichene Super-8-Urlaubsszenen an der Adria, wie ein Homemovie der 70er. Kleine Kinder spielen am Strand, die Mutter gibt acht, der Vater kommt hinzu, eine ältere Frau geht vorbei, ein Mann lässt Drachen steigen. Dagegen zu hören: eine Absage an patriarchale Familienglücksvorstellungen, vorgetragen von Sylvie Rohrer aus einem Interview mit Marguerite Duras, auf Deutsch und noch einmal, eindringlicher, wütender, auf Französisch. Ein Film-Doppel als scharfe Text/Bild-Schere. Nostalgie „sieht“ anders aus. (Roman Scheiber)
Orig. Title
Die Strände - Les plages
Year
2019
Country
Austria
Duration
10 min
Category
Experimental
Orig. Language
German, french
Subtitles
English
Downloads
Beaches (Image)
Beaches (Image)
Beaches (Image)
Credits
Director
Astrid Johanna Ofner
Concept & Realization
Astrid Johanna Ofner
Technical Assistance
Ekaterina Kormilitsyna
Text
Marguerite Duras
Postproduction
Simon Rabeder
Voice
Sylvie Rohrer
Supported by
BKA - innovative film
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Sound Format
Dolby 5.1.
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264)
Festivals (Selection)
2019
Viennale - Vienna Int. Film Festival
Mar del Plata - Int. Film Festival
2020
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Dortmund / Köln - Internationales Frauenfilmfestival