Horses
The film “Rosse” is about a syce who comes fro the old world of rustic farming techniques and principals and his fear of the encroaching changes that modernization brings about. His fear is of breaking old fashioned techniques for the world of new advancements. A world which is becoming more and more impersonal technically and mechanically. Billinger saw this and was afraid that these changes would occur. Looking at things today, he was very correct. This particular “industrial metamorphosis” really did occur in the country in the countryside, in this case, the Innviertel, during the mid-30’s. This is the time in which our film takes place. The syce, Franz (Josef Bierbichler) sees Alois (Karl Friederich) a machine handler, as personifying this “new world” and becomes this enemy. The syce, who must experience the appearance and technology o a large Lanz-Bulldog machine is threatened by what the sees. The machine soon moves into the farm and Franz tries to fight back with all of this primitive instincts, however, he immediately sees the futility of it all. Between the two men stands a widow (Agathe Taffertshofer) for whom the old ways of farming soon become too cramped. She turns away from this life style in hopes of finding a better, more convenient one but is unsuccessful at doing so. The fifty minute film was taken on location at St. Agatha and Grieskirchen in upper Austria. The 1949 munich born, Jo Baier, has been working since 1979 for the Bavarian Television as Documentary film maker. He filmed “Rosse” right after “Schiefweg – Bilder aus der kindheit der Emerenz Meier” in 1986/7. This was his first piece of work which was awarded the foremost prize for television: The Adolf Grimme Prize in 1989. The film “Rosse” told in minimal dialogue and is strong cinematography shows its story very well. With R. Billinger’s “expressionistischer” language, Jo Baier converts the film in a natural quality.
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