The Great Museum

Description

In 2013, Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum prepared an ambitious renovation and reinstallation of its palatial Kunstkammer galleries, a magnificent collection said to be the most important of its kind in the world. While the museum’s staff prepared for this momentous occasion, director Johannes Holzhausen set up shop alongside them to reveal the inner workings of the institution. Working and filming alongside the museum’s curators, conservators, registrars and administrators, he and his crew documented the daily interpersonal dramas that form the human soul of this imposing institution. As for the galleries themselves, deep focus and wide angles accentuate the vastness of the museum while tilts and pans soak up the sumptuous details of the building and the collection. But the true pleasure of the film lies in its empathy for the staff, noting their successes, frustrations and idiosyncrasies. Holzhausen assembles his portrait with exquisite pacing and wry humor, perceptively laying out the subtle politics at work as the museum faces the 21st-century necessities of branding and marketing to compete for audiences and funding. With its subject matter and direct cinema style, the film draws inevitable comparisons to the works of the great documentarian Frederick Wiseman, a high standard that it emphatically meets. The Great Museum is a feast for the eyes and something more, an empathetic account of the people whose cooperation and hard work are responsible for making this institution great. –Jesse Dubus

Film Details