Strange days indeed

>> Victor Rathbone on his odd role in the ultra-odd Dog Days

by MATTHEW HAYS

Perhaps the strangest film to emanate from September’s Toronto Film Festival was Dog Days, the spawn of Austrian documentarian Ulrich Seidl. And that’s saying something, considering this was the same festival where Mulholland Drive and Waking Life also screened.
If Austria is thought of as an uptight and conservative place, Seidl is reacting to it here, with every fibre of his body and soul. Days has an odd mélange of characters interact in the strangest ways. The film chronicles the often-depraved lives of these people, as they face off against the four hottest days in an Austrian summer. Seniors do stripteases for one another, a schizophrenic woman bombards others with a series of abrasive questions (“How old are you? Do you still get your period?”), and people behave very, very badly after succumbing to too much booze.

It’s all part of Seidl’s unique vision, says Victor Rathbone, the Uruguay-born actor who stars in Days as a disgruntled Greek man who still lives in the same house with his estranged ex-wife. A trained clown who lived in Quebec City years ago, Rathbone was a guest at Montreal’s New Film Fest in October, where Days also screened. One of the director’s talents, says Rathbone, has proven to be quite controversial on his home turf of Austria. Seidl mixes professional and non-professional actors. “I’m not an actor in the traditional or academic sense,” says Rathbone. “I’m not an actor by trade. I started in the theatre when I was 17 and I’m a professional clown, too. But I mainly operate a business in Austria [Rathbone runs a stationery store in Vienna]. But Austria is so conservative. It’s a very diploma-oriented society. If you didn’t go the right schools, they’ll always look at you like you’re a non-actor.”

Venice vitriol

Rathbone says it’s this mix of pro and non-pro, along with the bizarre plot twists and behaviour in the film, that made it one of the most controversial films at the Venice Film Fest in August. There, it set off a press frenzy that matched that of Bully, the Larry Clark film that also premiered at the same event. Nanni Moretti, the Italian filmmaker who headed the jury, was reportedly put off by the crass sexual depictions in Days, feeling it too raunchy. “He also didn’t like La Pianiste,” recalls Rathbone. “I guess it was too much for him that two Austrian films were doing so well!”

While the film is set over four days, it took over three years to shoot. Many of the cast members never actually met one another, and shooting involved a lot of weekends and evenings. “Ulrich comes from this heavy documentary background. He controls everything technically. Then he allows the actors to come up with dialogue themselves. He tells us the setup for the scene, and then gives us a good degree of freedom.”

Sex and the silly

Rathbone says he has been surprised by the universalism of the film—that so many have responded to its characters and plot so effusively. “This film plays anywhere in the world. We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. Some of the response was ‘How can you show these old people naked?’ My response was, ‘Why are you categorizing what should and shouldn’t be shown?’ There’s also a scene where the actors sing a few lines from the Austrian national anthem. That was criticized as well.”

But the cast stuck together in Venice, where some of the questioning during a press conference grew nasty. “It was fantastic there. It was the first time all of the main actors had actually met. We all knew we were together on this film. One of the actors was accused of prostituting. We all stood by one another. I think the film is very risqué, very brave. I’m very proud of this film. It’s the kind of thing that I will be able to show my grandchildren one day.” :

Dog Days opens Friday, April 19