When the Austrian writer Elfriede JELINEK was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004, it came as a bit of a surprise at the time. The author was also very well known in other language countries, and her numerous works were available in various translations. In Austria itself she had largely withdrawn from the public eye.
Between 1985 and 1995 things looked completely different. As a television viewer in those years, one had the impression that public life in neighboring Austria was no longer conceivable without "the JELINEK" (see also a corresponding song by the Austrian music group WANDA). It all started in the mid-1960s, when Elfriede JELINEK came to prominence primarily through experiments with language and literature. In this documentary film about her work, this becomes very clear in her work on the hit lyrics of the EUROVISION winner Udo JÜRGENS (for Austria he won the EUROVISION Song Contest in 1966 with MERCI, CHERIE!). In the 1970s she also worked as a translator. She translated the century novel GRAVITYs RAINBOW by Thomas PYNCHON into German. Her best novel, THE PIANO PLAYER, followed in the early 1980s, which was successfully made into a film 20 years later by ACADEMY AWARD winner Michael HANEKE.
However, JELINEK only became truly (scandalously) famous in 1985, when she addressed the involvement of the iconic actress Paula WESSELY in the Nazi propaganda film HEIMKEHR (1941) in the play BURGTHEATER. From then on there was no stopping him. The two literary critics Sigrid LÖFFLER and Marcel REICH-RANICKI argued bitterly about JELINEK's novel LUST on the German television station ZDF. She resurrected the ghosts of the past like a zombie in THE CHILDREN OF THE TOTEN. Also a work worth reading by this remarkable author.
Even after the Nobel Prize, Elfriede JELINEK remained very productive. Today she is still one of the most frequently performed contemporary playwrights in the German-speaking theater landscape. It makes sense to dedicate an insightful documentary film to her. The true meaning of this writer can be found in her illuminating writing. Experiencing a JELINEK play in a German-speaking theater is and remains an event. A merit of this documentary is to spark a desire for it.
Between 1985 and 1995 things looked completely different. As a television viewer in those years, one had the impression that public life in neighboring Austria was no longer conceivable without "the JELINEK" (see also a corresponding song by the Austrian music group WANDA). It all started in the mid-1960s, when Elfriede JELINEK came to prominence primarily through experiments with language and literature. In this documentary film about her work, this becomes very clear in her work on the hit lyrics of the EUROVISION winner Udo JÜRGENS (for Austria he won the EUROVISION Song Contest in 1966 with MERCI, CHERIE!). In the 1970s she also worked as a translator. She translated the century novel GRAVITYs RAINBOW by Thomas PYNCHON into German. Her best novel, THE PIANO PLAYER, followed in the early 1980s, which was successfully made into a film 20 years later by ACADEMY AWARD winner Michael HANEKE.
However, JELINEK only became truly (scandalously) famous in 1985, when she addressed the involvement of the iconic actress Paula WESSELY in the Nazi propaganda film HEIMKEHR (1941) in the play BURGTHEATER. From then on there was no stopping him. The two literary critics Sigrid LÖFFLER and Marcel REICH-RANICKI argued bitterly about JELINEK's novel LUST on the German television station ZDF. She resurrected the ghosts of the past like a zombie in THE CHILDREN OF THE TOTEN. Also a work worth reading by this remarkable author.
Even after the Nobel Prize, Elfriede JELINEK remained very productive. Today she is still one of the most frequently performed contemporary playwrights in the German-speaking theater landscape. It makes sense to dedicate an insightful documentary film to her. The true meaning of this writer can be found in her illuminating writing. Experiencing a JELINEK play in a German-speaking theater is and remains an event. A merit of this documentary is to spark a desire for it.
