Dog Days (2001) User Reviews (44)

Experimental documentary-style study of depressed characters in a depressing suburb.

[barnabyrudge · 7/10 · 8 March 2009]

Hundstage is an intentionally ugly and unnerving study of life in a particularly dreary suburb of Vienna. It comes from former documentary director Ulrich Seidl who adopts a very documentary-like approach to the material. However, the film veers away from normal types and presents us with characters that are best described as "extremes" – some are extremely lonely; some extremely violent; some extremely weird; some extremely devious; some extremely frustrated and misunderstood; and so on. The film combines several near plot less episodes which intertwine from time to time, each following the characters over a couple of days during a sweltering Viennese summer. Very few viewers will come away from the film feeling entertained – the intention is to point up the many things that are wrong with people, the many ills that plague our society in general. It is a thought-provoking film and its conclusions are pretty damning on the whole.

A fussy old widower fantasises about his elderly cleaning lady and wants her to perform a striptease for him while wearing his deceased wife's clothes. A nightclub dancer contends with the perpetually jealous and violent behaviour of her boy-racer boyfriend. A couple grieving over their dead daughter can no longer communicate with each other and seek solace by having sex with other people. An abusive man mistreats his woman but she forgives him time and again. A security salesman desperately tries to find the culprit behind some vandalism on a work site but ends up picking on an innocent scapegoat. And a mentally ill woman keeps hitching rides with strangers and insulting them until they throw her out of the car! The lives of these disparate characters converge over several days during an intense summer heat wave.

The despair in the film is palpable. Many scenes are characterised by long, awkward silences that are twice as effective as a whole passage of dialogue might be. Then there are other scenes during which the dialogue and on-screen events leave you reeling. In particular, a scene during which the security salesman leaves the female hitch-hiker to the mercy of a vengeful guy - to be beaten, raped and humiliated (thankfully all off-screen) for some vandalism she didn't even do - arouses a sour, almost angry taste. In another scene a man has a lit candle wedged in his rear-end and is forced to sing the national anthem at gunpoint, all as part of his punishment for being nasty to his wife. While we might want to cheer that this thug is receiving his come-uppance, we are simultaneously left appalled and unnerved by the nature of his punishment. Indeed, such stark contrasts could act as a summary of the whole film - every moment of light-heartedness is counter-balanced with a moment of coldness. Every shred of hope is countered with a sense of despair. For every character you could like or feel sympathy for, there is another that encourages nothing but anger and hate. We might want to turn away from Hundstage, to dismiss it as an exercise in misery, but it also points up some uncomfortable truths and for that it should be applauded.

Not for anyone

[shaid · 8/10 · 29 January 2002]

This film show peoples in the middle of the hottest 2 days in Austria. It shows people humiliating other peoples and being cruel to other peoples. It show the inability of people to communicate or talk with others.

In the screening I have attended people were leaving in the middle because they could no longer watch the film. And rightly so. Because the film is not and easy one to watch. It has a very depressing message and there isn't any moment of mercy in the film. It is a very cruel movie, not for everyone's taste. You can not speak of terms of enjoyment from this film. It grips you in your throat and never let go and in the end you simply feels breathless because of its intensity.

I can not "recommend" or "not recommend" this film. You should make your own mind based on what I have said earlier. Just be aware that this is not a regular film and it is not for everyone's taste.

A perfect film about life as it often is: Brutal, hard to take but sometimes very beautiful

[anatolvitouch · 8/10 · 7 January 2005]

This film is great. As often heard, it is indeed very realistic and sometimes brutal, but unlike some other people I am clearly not of the opinion that it is depressing, negativistic or dismantling Austria as a proto-fascist society. Quite the contrary: While there are indeed some very heavy scenes in HUNDSTAGE and some characters are to be called very bad persons, at the same time you watch love, beauty and humor in Ulrich Seidls film. And that's exactly what distinguishes HUNDSTAGE for me from other films that try to show the lives of the 'ordinary people' in an intense, realistic way; their hustle, their wishes, their dark sides: Seidl clearly never tries to prove, that the lives of the working-class people are trash! In my opinion, viewers who come to this conclusion seem to be very afraid of admitting, that nearly nobody's live is as 'clean' and 'normal' as we would like other people to believe. And that every live has its dark and often depressing sides. The most beautiful scene: The old Viennese man, watching his old girl dancing 'the oriental way', as he is calling it. I think everybody who finds this scene ugly lacks a sense of beauty and should ask themselves what it is, that's proto-fascist: The characters in HUNDSTAGE or viewers, who are turned off by the body of a 70+ year old woman, dancing with all her charms for her lover.

Deeply disturbing and great film

[mrmjoh · 10/10 · 28 March 2002]

This film has got to be ranked as one of the most disturbing and arresting films in years. It is one of the few films, perhaps the only one, that actually gave me shivers: not even Pasolini´s Sálo, to which this film bears comparison, affected me like that. I saw echoes in the film from filmmakers like Pasolini, Fassbinder and others. I had to ask myself, what was it about the film that made me feel like I did? I think the answer would be that I was watching a horror film, but one that defies or even reverses the conventions of said genre. Typically, in a horror film, horrible and frightening things will happen, but on the margins of civilized society: abandoned houses, deserted hotels, castles, churchyards, morgues etc. This handling of the subject in horror is, I think, a sort of defence mechanism, a principle of darkness and opacity functioning as a sort of projective space for the desires and fears of the viewer. So, from this perspective, Hundstage is not a horror film; it takes place in a perfectly normal society, and so doesn´t dabble in the histrionics of the horror film. But what you see is the displacement of certain key thematics from the horror genre, especially concerning the body and its violation, the stages of fright and torture it can be put through. What Seidl does is to use the settings of an everyday, middle class society as a stage on which is relayed a repetitious play of sexual aggression, loneliness, lack and violation of intimacy and integrity: precisely the themes you would find in horror, but subjected to a principle of light and transparency from which there is no escape. It is precisely within this displacement that the power of Seidl´s film resides. Hundstage deals with these matters as a function of the everyday, displays them in quotidian repetition, rather than as sites of extremity and catharsis - a move you would encounter in said horror genre. One important point of reference here is Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder also had a way of blending the political with the personal in his films, a tactics of the melodrama that allowed him to deal in a serious and even moral way with political issues like racism, domination, desire, questions concerning ownership, sexual property and control, fascism and capitalism etc. Seidl´s tactic of making the mechanisms of everyday society the subject of his film puts him in close proximity with Fassbinder; like this German ally, he has a sort of political vision of society that he feels it is his responsibility to put forward in his films. During a seminar at the Gothenburg Film Festival this year, at which Seidl was a guest, he was asked why he would have so many instances of violated, subjugated women in Hundstage, but no instances of a woman fighting back, liberating herself. Seidl replied that some may view it as immoral to show violence against women, but that he himself felt it would be immoral not to show it. An artistic statement as good as any, I think. Thank you.

A bleak and at time funny reality

[ellkew · 28 November 2002]

An outstanding film by all accounts. Bleak, yes. Funny, yes. Shocking, yes. To all those reviewers harping on about lack of plot, then surely this is to miss the point. Seidl draws on his documentary background and indeed blends the this with the fictional elements. Do we really need the narrative signposts that we are force-fed in films. Life is not that black and white. I cannot understand the constant desire for fast paced cutting. Go and watch a commercial if you need to but leave the rest of us with well made, insightful films that speak about the bigger issues in life. This is a marvellous film that is disturbing and shocking but not in a gratuitous manner. I think it is in the tiny minutiae of life that these moments are revealed. I found the moment when the couple visit the grave and when the old woman does the striptease to be very moving. You need to look underneath the surface of the characters to see what makes them tick and Seidl has done this. As a result we have complex characters that seem too real for some viewers perhaps to stomach. I should stop defending the film. Just go and see it. Brilliant film-making.

Hard to Stomach but Well-Made and Poignant

[MichaelMargetis · 7/10 · 21 November 2007]

It's nothing brilliant, groundbreaking or innovative, but 'Dog Days' is for some reason an extremely fascinating character study. It's like CRASH tripping on a bad dose of heroin, but not really. It's an Austrian film following the lives of several depressed, deranged and annoying people and their abusive relationships with each other. It's disturbing, yet very well-acted and it's interesting to watch the crazy little things these characters do. Certainly not for the weak-hearted, this highly pessimistic film offers no conclusion or revelation at the end, we just see the lives of these sordid individuals over the course of two days. Grade: B

The truth is always reasonable, or is it?

[ifaz · 10/10 · 25 January 2002]

Trailers of this movie may show scenes of violence or non mainstream sexuality, but these scenes are just rare fragments, picked out to attract audience. They are, of course showing the main message of the movie:

People who are constantly kicked on their heads in their jobs and lives, using power, which they may have somewhere else, to notoriously oppress others. And at the low end of the oppression chain, mostly women.

A movie showing this as brutally as Hundstage is surely tough to face, but having to endure such lives, is even tougher.

Technically the film is much like Short Cuts, but consisting of documentary style episodes, featuring people like your neighbour, playing just the way they are. Without any glitter, and most disturbingly, without any hope. Its documentary style makes the movie even more disturbing, because you realize, such people are out there, and there are many of them, although our society focuses on the nice exterior looks. Somewhere the porn industry has to do its business, somewhere unreported domestic violence has to take place, somewhere hopes have to shatter. I sure do know such people.

If you want to see a movie without any funny scenes (some may think the handicapped woman repeating the top ten supermarkets is funny, but this happens for real) and without any melodramatic, go watch this movie. However it will lose when you are focusing on subtitles I fear, as subtitles can´t transport accentuation.

very disturbing, very enlightening...

[borkoboardo · 7/10 · 12 June 2007]

Being an Austrian myself this has been a straight knock in my face. This movie tells a story about how misled people who suffer from lack of education or bad company try to survive and live in a world of redundancy and boring horizons. A girl who is treated like a whore by her super-jealous boyfriend (and still keeps coming back), a female teacher who discovers her masochism by putting the life of her super-cruel "lover" on the line, an old couple who has an almost mathematical daily cycle (she is the "official replacement" of his ex wife), a couple that has just divorced and has the ex husband suffer under the acts of his former wife obviously having a relationship with her masseuse and finally a crazy hitchhiker who asks her drivers the most unusual questions and stretches their nerves by just being super-annoying.

After having seen it you feel almost nothing. You're not even shocked, sad, depressed or feel like doing anything... Maybe that's why I gave it 7 points, it made me react in a way I never reacted before. If that's good or bad is up to you!

A purely Viennese tale? Or a universal one?

[borisnenchev · 10/10 · 30 August 2009]

There is something special about the Austrian movies not only by Seidl, but by Spielmann and other directors as well. This is the piercing sense of reality that never leaves the viewer throughout the movie. Hundstage is no exception. This effect is achieved not only by the depicted stories but also by actors playing. In Hundstage I have never had the feeling that these are actors playing, but real people instead. So real is the visceral feeling of the viewer...Almost as if the grumpy pensioner or lonely lady in the movie are living below you in your block.

Any person living in Vienna can without any doubt painfully recognize the people in the movie with their meckern/sudern (complaining), their hidden sexual urges and the prolo macho guys. This is further reinforced by the Viennese dialect which is, according to many, especially made for complaining as a way of life. A special parochialism and arrogance typical for Vienna are also very well portrayed.

The Viennese suburbs have a vivid presence in the movie with their stupor and drowsiness where nothing happens. Moreover, they have been turned into a celebration of materialism with shopping malls and huge department stores. Inbetween are the houses of the people where they indulge into what they reckon is pleasure-giving activities, trying to stay in touch with their human selves, yet in vain. The examples are the sexual game of the old lady with the men which bordered on rape, the prolo guy losing his nerves and hitting his girlfriend and the young woman who hitchhikes and irritates her drivers.

The film has no soundtrack as it concentrates on the normality/abnormality of its images only. Another typical feature of Seidl (and other Austrian directors) is his showing of disturbingly sexual images. These include the stripping of the old woman for her husband, the sexual scenes in the bath, the sexual game of the lady with the two men in her apartment, etc.

In Hundstage Seild has portrayed the lives of people who eventually may be as much Viennese as they could be citizens of Paris, New York or Madrid. The viewers should not despise or feel pity for the Viennese in the movie as they themselves could become victims of the same human estrangement and alienation, albeit in different circumstances. In the end, I believe Seidl's film is a warning to us about the terrible state of human relationships so brutally revealed in Hundstage. And if the viewer does not succumb to the reasons for this evil transformation, Seidl has achieved his goal.

film buff's delight

[zordy · 6/10 · 7 May 2002]

OK we know how it works. And we know that it works. Take the

worst out of everyday life: overweight widowers in underpants

doing the garden, maddened parents who lost their daughter and

don't talk anymore, a crazy hitch-hiker blabbing nonsense, fat men

brutalizing women etc. Not exactly the kind of humanity you're

aware of, but they're there anyway. Showing them with some

cinematic skill, crude, trivial and repetitive dialogue, blank setting

and the most desperate casting of all (don't forget big bellies and

varicose veins) won't assure you a hit at the box office but surely

will earn you a place in the heart of all arty film lovers. The film is

good and well done, but the spreading of this taste for no plot-bad

taste-dire normality-parking lot shots has become too much a

cliche' not to seem a bit pointless.

Seidl's rise to fame

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 24 February 2016]

"Hundstage" or "Dog Days" is an award-winning Austrian 2-hour film from 15 years ago written and directed by Ulrich Seidl. And while I did not think this was a bad movie, I must say that I prefer his more recent works, especially his "Paradise" trilogy which is quite a thing of beauty. Seidl's approach, however, is certainly visible in here too. His films always have a dark and slightly depressing take on love and especially sexuality. You should also not be surprised to see graphic nudity in here, but I think it was working in the context as it simply belonged to the story. It is basically the "Paradise" trilogy packed in one movie as we follow the fates and sexual identities of a whole bunch of people that have very loose connections to each other. Nonetheless I have to say that I was not too well entertained while watching this film. It could have been shorter I think and still would not have lost and of its substantial message, but this way it felt a bit overblown. And occasionally I also felt that the stories were just written in a way to be as controversial as possible and not really as means of telling a great movie. The actors still do a good job, especially Maria Hofstätter once again. Finally, even German speakers may have problems with the thick Austrian accents in here, even if I found most of it was not too difficult to understand. So just in case make sure you have subtitles. Overall, I was slightly underwhelmed by this film. Seidl has done better on several occasions.

Oddly Compelling....

[tim-764-291856 · 8/10 · 21 February 2013]

Not the sort of movie you expect to find for 99p in a medieval market town's Cash Converters!

I HAD seen Dog Days before, probably on Film 4, where such oddities belong but unaware of this director's subsequent films, though I had seen Import/Export on F4 but not made the connection.

Firstly, I find it strange that many, including some reviewers here have the notion that Austria to be a genteel place. They're human as everybody is everywhere, whether that be LA, London or Vienna. And didn't a certain A. Hitler come from Austria and more significantly, cinematic provocateur extraordinaire, Michael Haneke is Austrian and all his early movies were about and showing almost exactly the same kind of under-the-target unrest and spiralling human life of his fellow Austrians.

To be honest, whilst Haneke is much more the international film-maker (the Oscars in 2013, I believe?) and is much revered, critically, I find his rather sadistic and humourless approach just a bit too trying.

Uri's sardonic and often ridiculous scenarios are often achingly funny - such as the habitual hitch-hiker who soon gets spouting off crazy top ten lists, obviously not knowing what they mean (top ten positions for lovemaking, for example, then, for most popular models of TVs).

Filmed in one long heat-wave with lots of (frankly) overweight Austrians removing their clothing as much as they can - and not just for sex - adds to the strangeness and won't appeal to everyone, but in the 34C heat and in and around our own homes, wouldn't we want to do this too?

There are quite long periods of fairly trivial talk about trivial things - but what might be trivial to the modern suburban Viennese, is actually strangely fascinating for us. Then, there are quite long periods of sadistic cruelty - visiting Haneke's 'Funny Games' territory and as much enjoyment. These, as they should be, are an uncomfortable watch and their inclusion might be questioned, but I would guess are as otherwise the whole exercise would be a quirky, near freak-show comedy.

There are simply too may elements to go into - and if you're not one who can handle a couple of minutes of actual hardcore orgy porn, filmed specially, not as a video on someone's TV, simply ignore this movie. Over ten years have passed since this movie came out and time and viewing habits and expectations have obviously lessened many of the potential shock elements, now.

Indeed, there's almost nothing new here, that hasn't been said, now. That aside, no genre is seemingly unique now and Dog Days still appeals due to its fresh fizz and liberal attitudes. It still remains a unique viewing experience and for the liberally minded adult, has much to offer as both an offbeat social statement as well as entertainment.

Alpha Dogs

[jcappy · 7/10 · 11 May 2012]

Dog Days 7 Alpha Dogs "Dog Days" may employ hot humid summer days to express a grim and atomized social reality, but it more effectively, intentionally or not, turns to the microwave heat of male sexuality to express an even grimmer reality of violations and violence. In "Dog Days," DE Sade is not dead.

The question is: what is its director's stance? Is "Dog Days" a rebuke of men's abuse and use of women? Is it an expression of content which may raise a few questions? Or, does it accept, given the hot weather and the heat generated by male sexuality, the normalcy of such raw force?

My take is that Seidl settles for ambiguity. For one, the resistance position is not an option for him, because he can and does use his camera as an accomplice in male sexual abuse. This is most evident in the prolonged sadistic scene involving the teacher and her porn-head boyfriend. Here Seidl chooses pornography over implication, thus aligning himself with the victimizer over the victim. In a sense Seidl is like his character, the salesman, Hrubl, who is disturbed by his role in the rape of the hitch-hiker, but perhaps because his escape hatch is a room filled with porn, cannot muster the will not stop it. But, ironically, this is a scene in which Seidl himself chooses only to indicate rape, proving that he understands how his camera can compound crime.

Seidl also extends too much sympathy to his men, all of whom are guilty of various levels of misogyny. While his female characters are mainly pacified, silent, and one dimensional, the men who sell them out are given more latitude, action, and centrality, which in turn makes them more worthy of consideration. In other words, the victims are bound by duty and love, and locked up in involuntary lives; whereas the men who ooze contempt for them get to display freedom and "human" markings.

This makes for a convenient circularity because it refuses to point to the agent of an exploitative, power-linked sexuality. Seidl cannot judge them, monsters as some of them are, because he himself is drenched in masculine assumptions. One might say that his unflinching view reveals men, but his hard look softens before their acts.

When Lucky, the porn-head's buddy, returns to apologize to the teacher he says "I'm sorry that you had to take sh-t yesterday because of the sins of all women," adding that his participation in her unrelenting degradation was both a pleasure and a valuable experience--and no doubt a pumping up of his male identity. Whether Seidl hears all this as a galling reversal or a wrong-headed apology isn't that clear, but lines such as these make it obvious that Seidl is immersed in the arena of sexual politics.

There are other indications of Seidl's stand throughout the film. As the opening credits roll, the camera espies several sun bathers--all have unnoticeable or shapeless bodies except for two model-like topless young women. He extends this same type of bodily exception to the bar dancer, whose waif-like, sexually-charged figure serves as a kind of exclamation point in a slowly evolving film. Then there is the swing scene that subtly eroticizes the plain hitch-hiker as a kind of foreshadowing of her rape.

In sum, when it comes to sex objectification Seidl seems to follow the lead of his male-ordered culture.. He cannot critique women as male property because of an equivocation which seems to start with his invasive camera (remember the porn-head walks right into the teacher's apt) and ends up affecting his judgment. Give him credit for revealing male sexual aggression, fail him for refusing to connect criminal acts to their male agents. A blurb on the DVD describes "Dog Days" as "strangely entertaining." Which begs the question: FOR WHOM?

Seidl is Deeply Disturbed

[billcr12 · 5/10 · 10 June 2012]

Huntstage, or dog days in German, is an almost documentary style look at every day folks in casual circumstances. The strangest is a plain girl named Anna, who hangs out in parking lots at supermarkets and hitchhikes rides with passersby. Once in their car, she rambles on in stream of consciousness rants and also sings badly.

Mrva sells alarm systems door to door as he warns people about the dangers of burglars on the prowl. His boss decides to force him to catch the person responsible for a rash of car vandalism.

A divorced Greek guy and his wife still live in the same house without speaking. Her new boyfriend visits, while the ex plays ball outside. Eventually, a confrontation is inevitable.

An old widower returns from shopping and weighs the food on a scale. He finds a small discrepancy, and argues with the manager on a regular basis. He also is a nightmare to his neighbors, with unending complaints. He forces is housekeeper to wear his dead wife's clothes.

A lonely, middle aged teacher dresses up for her sadistic, much younger boyfriend, who brings home a friend to humiliate her. This segment is the most repulsive of the film.

The director, Ulrich Seidl has an extremely perverse view of human nature, and Hundstage is not for anyone feeling down before a viewing. This may push you over the edge.

Stunning

[levgan · 25 August 2003]

Being absolutely unfamiliar with Austrian cinema, I've got simply astounded by this movie. More than two hours long and all the time developing the slow, monotonous rhythm it could have been a real torture for the beholder, but instead it offers something unique and very captivating.

Here are few characters, whose life paths constantly interlock in a little city in tragic coincidences. The old widower with his dog. The mad hitch-hiking girl, whose hobby is exasperating her companions with useless chatter. The middle-aged couple, whose only daughter had died in an accident some time ago and who hardly speak to each other, despite their living in the same house. The hysterical guy, torturing his girl, who works in a strip club. The aging woman who gets bullied by her macho-looking hairy boyfriend. Everyone is unhappy and that's the simple keynote. But almost no one stirs up sympathy. The world is sweaty, dried-up, brutal, senseless. And all the kindness it can provide is epitomized in the final strip-tease that the elderly maid is doing for the old man with the dog.

The dog is certainly already poisoned to that time. The mad girl is raped. The aging woman is humiliated.

The "everything is bad" slogan can seem trite, but the director Ulrich Seidl proves it with cogency. "Hundstage" is probably the most dismal film of the 21th century so far, but it works great due to its exceptional cinematic merits. According to what I know it's the first Seidl's feature film, all his previous outings were strictly documentary. Spreading his meticulous attitude to things on this work, Seidl attains the highest degree of realism, maybe even what we use to call hyper-realism. "Hundstage" is stunning by all means and comes highly recommended for all art-film fans.

Austrian Art Cinema

[mr_spaceman · 8/10 · 5 September 2003]

Every country which has a working film industry has some sane (and maybe some insane) artist which make movies that you can only completely understand when you're a part of this country. I guess Hundstage is such a movie.

You see the lowest level of Austria's society, dirty, disturbed, weird, hateful. But they still have enough money so they can afford tuned cars and big houses. And they are definitely doing a lot of strange things here which maybe seems for them 'normal' because they're doing it through their whole life. From a normal human viewpoint you can now easily follow the movie and be disgusted or fascinated and watch a fine piece of Austria's art movies.

But if you LIVE here and you know the people you see the characters in Hundstage as the tumor of the society. A society that is going more insane from day to day, creating their own rules that nobody else can understand, cave the social system from within. And you SEE the people. Sitting in the park, standing at the opposite street corner, queuing in the same line. Maybe you meet 'em in a bar or a disco you may visit. Maybe you even work with them in your job or they are living next to your house. You start to hate them without exactly knowing why. You'll try to get away - but you cannot. Maybe you'll end up like them. But it seems 'normal' for you because you're doing it through your whole life now...

Life isn't so bright though Austria is one of the richest countries in the world. It has beautiful people... but some are also ugly. There are a lot of hard working persons trying their best... but there are also some riding on the back of others and destroying everything that the folk of Austria has built up so far.

A very pessimistic movie.

An unblinking study of the human condition

[GregForstner · 7/10 · 6 March 2017]

Austrian film-maker Ulrich Seidl is known for his documentary-style cinema that subjects the oftentimes dreary everyday life to a closer examination. In his famous "Paradies"-trilogy he studied "Liebe", "Glaube" and "Hoffnung" in 3 movies and showed how sordid reality can look when confronted with human ideals. In "Dog Days" there are no ideals – we observe people – most of them downtrodden and hopeless in their aspirations – surviving the hottest days of a merciless Viennese summer. 6 different episodes are intertwined to offer a disturbing medley of sex, violence, desperation, examples of pettiness and greater evils:

• a security salesman is confronted with a lot of pressure to track down a vandal - a mentally retarded woman hitchhikes through her day and gets on the nerves of the drivers - an estranged couple is forced to live together even though they have nothing to say to each other - a female music teacher feels fatally drawn to an antisocial brute is abused and gets her (involuntary) revenge later on… - an old man, who otherwise spends a lonely uneventful life, celebrates the marriage anniversary even though his wife is long deceased - a teenage- looking stripper is harassed by her pathologically jealous boyfriend

These episodes are more or less interconnected (rather less) but certainly not as artfully interwoven in a masterpiece like "Magnolia". It has to be questioned whether an overall message is intended except for the existentialist layer that mirrors the fundamental misery these people are in. The first premise of making such a movie was – according to the director – that conflicts are more likely to erupt under the sweltering conditions of a midsummer heatwave. Fittingly, the characters appear to be permanently on the edge, ready to yield to violent outbursts, ready to leave the confines of common sense. The second premise that makes the movie special is that Seidl almost exclusively relied on non-professionals who were asked to improvise most of the scenes as there was no real screenplay.

Apparently, the desired effect was a heightened level of authenticity in the depiction of everyday reality. However, as Seidl laconically remarked in an interview, it is impossible to imitate reality in all of its horror and depravity. Well, this movie certainly represents a valiant effort: filming bloated beer bellies sweating in the unforgiving sun sets the aesthetic tone for a movie that does not shy away from showing not- quite-attractive middle- aged women and men engaging in a porno. The overarching theme is the subjugation of women in a male-dominated society as almost every episode makes its contribution. Especially hard to watch is the excessive party where the female teacher is ridiculed and abused by her rowdy boyfriend and his younger pal….

"Hundstage" is in many respects the very opposite of light-hearted entertainment – if there is love, it is doomed to turn into misery. If there is comic relief, it is only by the absurdity of what is shown and by the futility of human efforts. The undoubted authenticity is the strongest quality of a movie that may leave you with a bland feeling. "Hundstage" falls definitely short of true greatness as the story lacks coherence and the episodes seem arbitrarily chosen. However, as an unblinking study of the human condition, it works just fine.

ulrich seidl's best film

[vahli · 10/10 · 9 September 2001]

"Hundstage" is seidl's first fiction film (before this he directed great documentaries as "animal love" or "models"). seidl worked on this project for more than 3 years but it only cost around 2 million dollars. the actors are very good especially the non-professional actors who nearly played themselves.the cinematography is good too. the whole film is shocking disturbing and some scenes may be too much for "ordinary" viewers.the film shows a lot of sex and violence but also that people are lonely and not able to communicate with each other. finally i've to say that this is one of the best and most rewarding austrian films in the past years. please excuse my bad english.

say it ain't so, Ulrich

[richardv-johnson · 7/10 · 7 February 2006]

Oh my, from the box description I thought it would be LA-crazy like 2 Days in the Valley or Hugo Pool. Ulrich Seidl must be a very strong man. Most, after directing this, would have driven off a cliff or at least committed a mass murder. I confess to only watching the first half hour (for now). Reading all the comments here, I have a lot to look forward to. Professional reviews often mention the Swedish film Songs from the Second Floor as a parallel but that's graced with humor and fantasy and this is unrelenting in its dour realism. What hath the Marshall Plan and the EU wrought? Seeing this in a theater with anyone I know would have only resulted in an enforced departure after many fewer minutes than I got through on DVD. There's a more annoying creature in the universe than Jar Jar Binks - the Hitchhiker from Hell. Whatever happens to her, it isn't enough! Soulless suburbia that I thought only existed in Arizona and Florida thrives in Lower Austria. Oh no! I thought sex clubs had ceased to exist even in New York and San Francisco, and here they are in suburban shopping malls? Was it Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru who said when asked about Western Civilization, 'why that might be a nice idea'? If the world were truly like this film, bring on that black hole, we're ready.

Interesting, and disturbing at a dangerous level!

[Exiled_Archangel · 9/10 · 13 April 2003]

It's not a brilliant idea to watch Hundstage if you're not 100% sure of your mental stability, because it will be severely tested with this film no matter how sane you are. I have to say Hundstage is an art film rather than an entertainment film, so the majority of the viewers wouldn't have the level of "maturity" to reach in to its delightful side. Kind of like Tarkovsky films, but different in a way. I, myself, can't say I had a lot of fun watching it. But it's an outstanding and very interesting experience for those who are only tormented by the cliché that Hollywood offers. Hundstage sticks a finger right into your brain and scratches your mind all over. You can't simply sit back and watch it, you'll be using exclamations or looking with eyes wide open throughout the film. A film that's similar to this in style is Nachtgestalten, but it was considerably better, and way less violent. This one for instance, is not for children or those who are mentally tender or bad-tempered. Most viewers would most likely give either a 10 or a 1 to this film. I give it a 9 because I've seen the multiple-stories-in-one-film phenomenon in another film and it was better. But this one's an outstanding piece on its own. Worth watching, but get ready to see something disturbing.

Dark and Disturbing

[aliasme · 1/10 · 17 January 2005]

This film is in no way entertainment but more of a look deep into the depths of the darkest side of human behaviour. Loosely linking a half a dozen stories of the worst kind of depravities, perverted sex, greed, violence and intolerance. All the action is played out over a few very hot and sticky days during a heatwave in Vienna and the heat is maybe responsible for some of the anger and hate in the film. For me the treatment of the retarded girl by the security equipment salesman was about the worst episode, closely followed by the scenes of drunkenness and perversity in the 'slags' flat. You will be gripped and I hope horrified by this film. I hated it but I felt compelled to see it through. 1/10 for 'fun' 8/10 for displaying 'man' as he sometimes is.

Humanity at its most Desperate and Pathetic.

[rstout3526 · 9/10 · 15 July 2013]

Austria is my least favourite European country and this film sums it up a treat. Like Germany or Holland without the humour factor. This is Ulrich Seidl's best film to date. Self parody, like a lot of Austrian cinema, such as Import/Export and most of Michael Haneke's output. Brilliant film-making. An experimental documentary-style study of depressed characters in a depressing suburb in Austria during a summer heatwave. A thought-provoking film and its conclusions are pretty damning on the whole. But not for everyones viewing. There is no plot and therefore the viewer is forced to continue to watch the six character stories or observations in order to see the point of it all. Rather slow-paced, it deals with everyday life's madness. A collection of 6 parallel stories - more like incidents from the most miserable people'e everyday life. It shows people humiliating other people and being cruel to other people. It shows the inability of people to communicate or talk with others. It is also one of those films that you have to watch again and again just in case you missed something. Hundstage is an intentionally ugly study of life in a dreary suburb of Vienna. I could be based in any other tidy and organised Austrian city. As observational cinema it is a little gem - and very challenging.

So much better than the standard Hollywood carp we are all fed these days.

A truly horrible experience

[Frankensteinmonster · 1/10 · 22 February 2002]

I once promised never to walk out of any film ( a personal policy that made me suffer through the most different kinds of dreck, such as Rambo 3, Baise Moi, Deep Impact) - but Mr. Seidl almost succeeded. Hundstage was a truly awful experience. Anyone who sees this movie will think that Austrians are a miserable, pathetic bunch of retards. It shows a world where love and humanity don't exist, a world where people humiliate each other only for one reason - to distract from their own miserable existence. By choosing a documentary-like style with non-professional actors (most of them look like straight from the imagination of Austrian shock-cartoonist Deix) director Seidl wants to make us believe that this is real life in Austrian (European? Western?) suburbs. The viewer is confronted with depictions of sex orgies, violence against women and handicapped people, madness and degradation. But this isn't social criticism. This is just pure shock without any aesthetic value. Instead you get bad acting, bad cinematography, bad filmmaking. If anybody needs a film like this to realize that there are things wrong in our society then this person must have walked through life with closed eyes. This is pseudo-social criticism with a sledge hammer. And it looks down on people in a disgustingly condescending way. It shows ugly people - that is not the reason why I hate it. But it depicts average people in an ugly, misanthropic way. And this is why this film is truly despicable.

Exceptional film. But not for everyone.

[prempremprem-1 · 16 April 2008]

It is often said that the purpose of all art is to at as a mirror to life in ways that common observation cannot. In Dog Days, one finds that mirror shedding some brutal, uncompromising and deeply disturbing light on modern day life.

At the core of the film is a deep sense of loneliness. Seen through the lives of its characters, the film begins with an over-possessive boyfriend and his abusive relationship with his girlfriend.

The opening scenes of the film quickly set the tone for the rest of the film. The brawl in the strip-club and the highly disturbing scene of physical abuse in the car leave you in no doubt that this not a film will be apologetic or polite.

The rest of the film does not disappoint on this count. There is the old widower whose only companion, his pet dog, is poisoned. The mentally unbalanced hitchhiker who meets with some rather tragic consequences. The security equipment salesman who spends endless hours trying to sell his wares, with little success. The estranged couple that lives under the same roof, mourning the death of their little daughter but refusing to speak with each other. And finally, and possibly the most unhinging of all, the aging woman and her inexplicable love for her sadistic, violent and abusive man.

The film offers little in terms of relief from the dark and disturbing lives of its characters. Often described as highly pessimistic, the film chooses to focus on the extremities to make a larger point about the isolation of modern urban life and the redemption we seek from it.

Highly realistic and engrossing, this a truly gifted piece of film making from, astonishingly, a débutant film-maker.

wow

[marymorrissey · 10/10 · 13 January 2005]

at first I had the reaction a lot of people left with after seeing this: that shots of fat people sunbathing, etc were cheap shots in a way. OK so he's doing diane arbus meets. . . whatever. . . but it wasn't long before I realized that this wasn't being done in a dehumanizing way, as the images unfold I felt that the problem was entirely the audience's: we are conditioned by Hollywood and also movies from just about everywhere actually to feel that to watch people above a certain age behave in a sexual way is something unseemly, something that ought not to be shown. if this were all the film offered it would be a great deal. however, the story of the woman with the abusive boyfriend and his drunk friend really hits like a ton of bricks: very eloquent storytelling, incredible performances, and to think the scene was improvised. that blonde guy is a genius actor. finally I want to contradict those who say this film is all about how pathetic all these people are. the old man who is on the make with the woman who finally dances for him is completely an a OK character that breaks that mold, so don't oversimplify the film by overlooking him. yes his dog gets killed. this ain't a rosy picture of the world but it's not . . . completely hopeless. anyway I felt really grateful to the filmmaker for making such a beautiful film all in all. I wouldn't say each of the threads were as strong as the strongest, but I say this movie basically kicks ass and would highly recommend it. . .