Seeking out the
5000 greatest films
in a century of cinema
Museum Hours
Directed by
Jem Cohen
Produced by Jem Cohen, Paolo Calamita, and Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Written by Jem Cohen
Produced by Jem Cohen, Paolo Calamita, and Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Written by Jem Cohen
With:
Mary Margaret O'Hara, and Bobby Sommer
Cinematography:
Jem Cohen and Peter Roehsler
Editing: Jem Cohen and Marc Vives
Editing: Jem Cohen and Marc Vives
Runtime:
107 min
Release Date: 06 September 2013
Aspect Ratio: 1.78 : 1
Color: Color
Release Date: 06 September 2013
Aspect Ratio: 1.78 : 1
Color: Color
Museum Hours is the first film I’ve seen by the
New York indie-arty filmmaker Jem Cohen, acclaimed for his observational urban
film portraits and experimental documentaries about musicians. The quasi-narrative about two lonely
strangers in Vienna who strike up an unusual friendship is a bit frustrating as
a work of cinema. On one hand, it succeeds beautifully in drawing an
audience into its quite and seemingly directionless chronicle of encounters
between the two main characters--and between human beings with art. It is a
film about ideas rather than a story with a theme, and there are moments that
occur while watching it when you can become lost in the ideas it conjures
up. At the same time, the film is often self-conscious and distancing. Cohen
and cinematographer Peter Roehsler photograph the art that hangs in the museum
in a way that summons all sorts of thoughts about perception and artist
intention. However, when photographing the living characters, they downgrade to an
intentionally awkward style with odd framings and limited coverage which makes
one feel unpleasantly aware of the camera and the fact that we are watching
actors rather than actual people. Museum Hours seems to be
going out of its way to be a piece of found art, rather than a film about the
power of art.