Reading Day 1
Jem Cohen, Museum Hours. 90' #review, #reality, #museum, #representation
Review by CP
Museum Hours (2012) is a film written and directed by Jem Cohen revolving around the transience of life, told through an encounter between two strangers at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. Anne has flown from Montreal to Vienna where her cousin, who she has not seen in years, lies in a coma without any close family. Johan has worked as a security guard at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna for the last six years, after his previous careers as a road manager and carpentry teacher. During her visit to the museum, in between hospital hours, Anne and Johan start a casual conversation which will evolve into him helping her find her way around Vienna, as well as handling the situation at the hospital, developing into a friendship. While one would expect Anne’s cousin’s condition to be the focus of the film’s story, this appears not to be the case. As it is beautifully described in a later scene, where a museum guide speaks about Bruegel’s paintings, what would at first seem to be the main topic or the most dramatic event, is not at the center of attention. On the contrary, all that seems to be important is everything that is taking place around it, the mundane.
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