Models

Ulrich Seidl's 1999 documentary follows three women trying to work as models in Vienna. Vivian will risk anything to reach a magazine cover, Lisa fills her time with cosmetic surgery and cocaine, and Tanja looks for another order through tarot and yoga. The line between Seidl's documentaries and his fiction is always unclear, and it is here too. Scenes look composed; the women talk in front of mirrors for minutes at a time and the camera never intervenes. The method forces the viewer to look long enough to become uncomfortable. The subject is not the beauty industry but the way of looking at oneself that the industry produces. The language the women use about their own bodies is a direct copy of the industry's language. Seidl does not interpret it, he only records. Who it's for: those curious about the hard observational strand of Austrian cinema and about Seidl. Who it's not for: viewers who need to avoid content about eating disorders, substance use and body image; the film shows all of it unfiltered.