more or less

She is a phone operator, he is a cab driver. In the evening their times meet again in the shared apartement. Reading comics, having sex. He watches TV (football), she has a bath. Indesicively they try out other possibilities, gestures, stylings. The preparations for breakfast are a routine of well coordinated motions.
In just 18 minutes the film takes a lot of time to show the course of events in their duration and repetition. Everything is always the same and yet different. This is a film one should see at least twice in a row: then the expectation of a narrative development and/or a point won´ t even arise and one can concentrate on the subtle details, that sketch and deconstruct a "good" relationship (and the "relationship film"). The film doesn´t operate towards the exterior like Speak Easy, rather it implodes in small, exact gestures and escapes. (Birgit Flos)

The largest part of love life is set neither in the "seventh heaven" nor in a "relationship hell", but rather in the extensive in between where conventional narrative cinema rarely strays. The young couple, whose love life Mirjam Unger sketches accurately in more or less, shares its most tender moments while reading comics together in bed. And there is no need to have a big fight to torture each other - the everyday heedlessness and rejections are enough. In between there are a few little, irrelevant escapades: indecisive approaches in other people´s bedrooms, or kisses, that want to be forgotten the next day. (Robert Buchschwenter)

Orig. Title
mehr oder weniger
Year
1999
Country
Austria
Duration
18 min
Director
Mirjam Unger
Category
Short fiction
Orig. Language
German
Subtitles
English
Downloads
Filmstill (Image)
Filmstill (Image)
Credits
Director
Mirjam Unger
Script
Mirjam Unger
Available Formats
35 mm (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,66
Sound Format
Dolby Surround
Frame Rate
24 fps
Festivals (Selection)
1999
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Wien - StudentInnenfilmfestival (Golden Bobby Beste Regie)
München - Internationales Festival der Filmhochschulen
Viareggio - Europa Cinema & TV Film Festival
2000
Rotterdam - Int. Filmfestival
Angers - Premiers Plans
Poitiers - Recontres Internationales Henri Langlois
Triest - Alpe Adria Cinema - Film Festival
Hamburg - Int. Kurzfilm-Festival & No Budget
Melbourne - Int. Film Festival
Uppsala - Int. Short Film Festival
Kiew - Molodist Int. Film Festival
Madrid - Semana de Cine Experimental
Montréal - Festival International du Nouveau Film et de la Video
Austin - Cinetexas - Int. short film&video&new media festival
Winterthur - Kurzfilmtage
Barcelona - L’ALTERNATIVA - II Mostra Internacional de Cinema Alternatiu
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
Olympia - Film Festival
2001
Torino - Festival Int. Cinema delle Donne
Manchester Int. Short Film & Video Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
2002
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
Istanbul - Int. Short Film Festival
2004
Pesaro - Film Festival