Museum Hours
| Museum Hours | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jem Cohen |
| Written by | Jem Cohen |
| Produced by | Jem Cohen Paolo Calamita Gabriele Kranzelninder Guy Picciotto Patti Smith |
| Starring | Mary Margaret O'Hara Bobby Sommer |
| Cinematography | Jem Cohen Peter Roehsler |
| Edited by | Jem Cohen Marc Vives |
| Music by | Mary Margaret O'Hara |
Production companies | Gravity Hill Films Little Magnet Films KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production |
| Distributed by | The Cinema Guild (US) Soda Pictures (UK) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 106 minutes[1] |
| Countries | Austria United States |
| Languages | German English |
| Box office | $554,361[2] |
Museum Hours is a 2012 Austrian-American drama film written and directed by Jem Cohen. The film is set in and around Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Plot
When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum becomes a crossroads that sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways art reflects and shapes the world.
One Vienna winter, Johan, a guard at the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum encounters Anne, a visitor called to Austria for a family medical emergency. Never having been to Austria and with little money, she wanders the city in limbo, taking the museum as her refuge. Johann, initially wary, offers help, and they're drawn into each other's worlds. Their meeting sparks an unexpected series of explorations – of their own lives and the life of the city, and of the way artwork can reflect and shape daily experience. The museum is seen not as an archaic institution of historical artifacts, but as an enigmatic crossroads in which, through the art, a discussion takes place across time with vital implications in the contemporary world. The "conversations" embodied in the museum's collection revolve around the matters that most concern us: death, sex, history, theology, materialism, and so on. It's through the regular lives of the guard and displaced visitor that these heady subjects are brought down to earth and made manifest.
Near the film's end, Johann and Anne are exploring on the fringe of the city when her ill cousin's condition reaches a crisis point.
Cast
- Mary Margaret O'Hara as Anne
- Bobby Sommer as Johann
- Ela Piplits as Gerda Pachner
Release
Museum Hours premiered at the 2012 Locarno International Film Festival, had its North American premiere within the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, and screened within such U.S. film festivals as South by Southwest and Maryland Film Festival.
The film was acquired for U.S. distribution by The Cinema Guild.
Awards and nominations
Film
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Independent Spirit Awards[3] | John Cassavetes Award | Nominated |
| 2014 | Independent Spirit Awards[4] | Best Editing | Nominated |
References
- ^ "MUSEUM HOURS (12A)". Soda Pictures Ltd. British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
- ^ Museum Hours at Box Office Mojo
- ^ "Independent Spirit Awards". Archived from the original on 10 December 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
- ^ "Independent Spirit Awards". Archived from the original on 30 January 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
