Michael Glawogger

Directing

Michael Glawogger

Born 1959-12-03 · Graz, Austria

Michael Glawogger (3 December 1959 – 23 April 2014) was an Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. From 1981 to 1982, Glawogger studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, and from 1983 to 1989 at the Vienna Film Academy. Like fellow Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, with whom he collaborated several times, he was mainly known for his documentary films, such as Megacities (1998), Workingman's Death (2005) and Whores' Glory (2011). In 2008 he was a member of the jury at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival. In 2013, Glawogger contributed one chapter to "Cathedrals of Culture", a 3-D film on architecture produced by Wim Wenders. Four days after incorrectly being diagnosed with typhus, he died from malaria on 22 April 2014 shortly before midnight in Monrovia, Liberia during a movie production. In February 2015, a book of stories entitled 69 Hotelzimmer was released. The stories used hotel rooms Glawogger had visited (or in some cases only heard about in passing) as a departure for stories that reflect the visual richness for which his films are celebrated.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Lovable Lies poster
3.7

Successful actress returns to her family home in rural Austria to visit her ailing father and her sister who spent her whole life taking care of him and her family. The reunion is marked by jealousy, introspection and a secret.

Lovable Lies

1995

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero poster
4.2

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

2011

Contact High poster
6.6

Gangster boss Carlos orders the dodgy Viennese junkyard owner Harry to bring him a bag from Poland. Harry passes the order on to his "best man" Schorsch. Schorsch, not exactly the brightest, is currently without a driver's license and completely fixated on the 24-hour car race of Le Mans. So he gives the order to Mao and sends in their place the takeaway lessees Hans and Max to Poland. Their journey leads to a seemingly endless drug trip full of extraordinary phenomena.

Contact High

2009

Contact High poster
6.6

Gangster boss Carlos orders the dodgy Viennese junkyard owner Harry to bring him a bag from Poland. Harry passes the order on to his "best man" Schorsch. Schorsch, not exactly the brightest, is currently without a driver's license and completely fixated on the 24-hour car race of Le Mans. So he gives the order to Mao and sends in their place the takeaway lessees Hans and Max to Poland. Their journey leads to a seemingly endless drug trip full of extraordinary phenomena.

Contact High

2009

Whores' Glory poster
6.8

In Bangkok, Thailand, women punch a clock and wait for clients in a brightly lit glass box; in the red-light district of Faridpur, Bangladesh, a madam haggles over the price of a teenage girl; and in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico, crack-addicted women pray to a deity named Lady Death.

Whores' Glory

2011

Whores' Glory poster
6.8

In Bangkok, Thailand, women punch a clock and wait for clients in a brightly lit glass box; in the red-light district of Faridpur, Bangladesh, a madam haggles over the price of a teenage girl; and in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico, crack-addicted women pray to a deity named Lady Death.

Whores' Glory

2011

Hotel Rock'n'Roll poster
6.4

Mao inherits her uncle Waberl’s – a former icon of Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll – hotel on the countryside. With the help of her friends Max (a wannabe entertainer with brilliant concepts but lacking structure) and Jerry (a skilled Guitarrero but less skilled chef) they try to put together a hotel band to save Rock’n’Roll as well as their bankrupt hotel.

Hotel Rock'n'Roll

2016

The Mozart Minute poster
5.0

Twenty-eight well-known filmmakers living and working in Austria were invited by WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006, to produce associative miniatures on Mozart. Requirement: they had to be one-minute artistic short films. The directors come from a whole range of different backgrounds, ranging from animated, experimental and short film to documentaries and feature films. The result is a multi-facetted sampler of diverse formal and contextual positions with regard to Mozart’s person and his influence on today’s society, art and culture. The contributions run the gamut from experimental-conceptual statements through socio-critical and documentary observations to pithy short feature films.

The Mozart Minute

2006

Slugs poster
5.6

Three loser-type ex-students who earn too little money and don´t get laid as much as they want, try to change that by producing a home made porn movie starring themselves. They loan money from a pimp and begin casting the girls. When filming starts they find out that sex in front of the camera is hard work. Also you should know how to work a video camera. Frustration, relationship problems and cabin fever culminate in a dope induced garden orgy. But is it a film?

Slugs

2004

Slugs poster
5.6

Three loser-type ex-students who earn too little money and don´t get laid as much as they want, try to change that by producing a home made porn movie starring themselves. They loan money from a pimp and begin casting the girls. When filming starts they find out that sex in front of the camera is hard work. Also you should know how to work a video camera. Frustration, relationship problems and cabin fever culminate in a dope induced garden orgy. But is it a film?

Slugs

2004

Megacities poster
6.7

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

Megacities

1998

Megacities poster
6.7

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

Megacities

1998

Kill Daddy Good Night poster
5.6

The story and fate of three families: A Jewish family destroyed by the massacres of the Nazis in Lithuania; the family of the culprit, who flew to America and keeps grotesque family cohesion; the family of Ratz, a social democratic family, dissolving itself miserably in today's Vienna. The condemnation of the last century bundled in these three families showing clearly that one could never escape from its own past. Written by themoth-1

Kill Daddy Good Night

2009

Kill Daddy Good Night poster
5.6

The story and fate of three families: A Jewish family destroyed by the massacres of the Nazis in Lithuania; the family of the culprit, who flew to America and keeps grotesque family cohesion; the family of Ratz, a social democratic family, dissolving itself miserably in today's Vienna. The condemnation of the last century bundled in these three families showing clearly that one could never escape from its own past. Written by themoth-1

Kill Daddy Good Night

2009

The Woman with One Shoe poster
6.8

Blond, half-long hair floats in a seepage pond. A well-to-do lady calls the police, and departmental inspector Franzi fishes out a scalp.

The Woman with One Shoe

2014

The Woman with One Shoe poster
6.8

Blond, half-long hair floats in a seepage pond. A well-to-do lady calls the police, and departmental inspector Franzi fishes out a scalp.

The Woman with One Shoe

2014

Cathedrals of Culture poster
5.7

"If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world's most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.

Cathedrals of Culture

2014

Cathedrals of Culture poster
5.7

"If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world's most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.

Cathedrals of Culture

2014

France, Here We Come! poster
6.0

FRANKREICH WIR KOMMEN is a highly enjoyable documentary, obviously intended for TV, but showing at film festivals. It shows us the highlights of the 1998 World Cup Championships in France through the eyes of several interesting and diverse fans of the Austrian national team. Entertaining, even for those not interested in football.

France, Here We Come!

2000

France, Here We Come! poster
6.0

FRANKREICH WIR KOMMEN is a highly enjoyable documentary, obviously intended for TV, but showing at film festivals. It shows us the highlights of the 1998 World Cup Championships in France through the eyes of several interesting and diverse fans of the Austrian national team. Entertaining, even for those not interested in football.

France, Here We Come!

2000

The Whore's Son poster
5.2

Ozren is raised in Vienna by his mother Silvija, who works as a prostitute, and his aunt and uncle. The film shows the demimonde of Vienna in the early 1990ies and deals with Ozren's finding out that his mother is not a waitress (as he was initially told) and with the way he copes with it.

The Whore's Son

2004

Workingman's Death poster
7.0

Is heavy manual labour disappearing or is it just becoming invisible? Where can we still find it in the 21st century? Workingman's Death follows the trail of the HEROES in the illegal mines of the Ukraine, sniffs out GHOST among the sulphur workers in Indonesia, finds itself face to face with LIONS at a slaughterhouse in Nigeria, mingles with BROTHERS as they cut a huge oil tanker into pieces in Pakistan, and joins Chinese steel workers in hoping for a glorious FUTURE.

Workingman's Death

2005

Untitled poster
7.5

More than two years after the sudden death of Michael Glawogger in April 2014, film editor Monika Willi realizes a film out of the film footage produced during 4 months and 19 days of shooting in the Balkans, Italy, Northwest and West Africa. A journey into the world to observe, listen and experience, the eye attentive, courageous and raw. Serendipity is the concept - in shooting as well as in editing the film.

Untitled

2017

Untitled poster
7.5

More than two years after the sudden death of Michael Glawogger in April 2014, film editor Monika Willi realizes a film out of the film footage produced during 4 months and 19 days of shooting in the Balkans, Italy, Northwest and West Africa. A journey into the world to observe, listen and experience, the eye attentive, courageous and raw. Serendipity is the concept - in shooting as well as in editing the film.

Untitled

2017