Retrospective: Elfriede Jelinek

“I hope this interests someone…” That was about all Elfriede Jelinek had to say regarding the short film tribute marking her 80th birthday. It is a remark that sounds both casual and programmatic: self-deprecating, skeptical, and perhaps a touch wary of the very idea of ​​being celebrated. Yet—anniversary aside—there is certainly cause for celebration. Jelinek is one of the most significant contemporary German-language writers; she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 and, through her novels, plays, and essays, dissects Austrian post-war society like few others. The fact that her work frequently intersects with cinema represents far more than a mere sideline to her literary output.

After all, Jelinek’s texts operate through voices, images, repetitions, ruptures, and montages. They reveal how language does not merely describe reality but actively constructs it. None of this automatically renders her literature “cinematic”—quite the opposite: Jelinek’s language is idiosyncratic and resists any straightforward translation into imagery. Yet perhaps that is precisely what makes her texts so compelling for the screen. Her novels have repeatedly served as the starting point for remarkable films: “Die Ausgesperrten” (The Outcasts) paints a bleak social portrait rooted in Austria’s repressed past, while Michael Haneke’s “Die Klavierspielerin” (The Piano Teacher) translates the source material’s oppressive inner world into a cool, visceral cinematic language. With “Liebhaberinnen” (Women as Lovers) by the young Luxembourgish artist Koxi, a modernized adaptation of an early Jelinek work is poised for theatrical release—and will also be screened as part of the retrospective.

Yet Elfriede Jelinek is not merely an author in the realm of cinema; she is also an attentive and passionate viewer. Her engagement with film follows principles similar to those found in her literature: she distrusts the obvious and questions the power of images, yet is simultaneously able to immerse herself in them. It is no coincidence that “Vertigo”, “Carnival of Souls”, and “Lost Highway” are included in this program; these films reveal something of the very gaze with which Jelinek herself views the world and its imagery. Then there is “Heimkehr”—Gustav Ucicky’s propaganda film—which points to a major constant in Jelinek’s work: the question of how a society represses its past in order to endure the present. We thus encounter an author capable of using her thought to unsettle images and instill a sense of skepticism in us. Will this be of interest to anyone? We certainly hope so!
(Florian Widegger)