Museum Hours (2012)

This week in the A-to-Z Part Deux challenge we have the letter “P” and for the letter “P” we have Paolo Calamita (Production Manager). The movie Paolo worked on that we’re looking at today is…Museum Hours (2012).

What does a production manager do, you ask? Well, a production manager wears a lot of different hats over the course of a production. They oversee location scouting, are in charge of budgeting, hire crew, secure any permits and releases, and this is just scratching the surface.

Now that we’ve got a better idea of Paolo’s responsibilities were, let’s get to Museum Hours (2012).

Title: Museum Hours

Director: Jem Cohen

Released: September 6, 2013 (Premiered August 8, 2012, at the Locarno Film Festival)

Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes

Available to stream on: Kanopy and Mubi

Anne (Mary Margaret O’Hara) finds herself in Austria dealing with a family emergency. She has never been to Austria and has very little money on her while she’s there. What’s one place that you can visit, for a relatively inexpensive amount of money, and lose yourself for hours on end? A museum, of course.

While frequenting the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Anne encounters Johann (Bobby Sommer), a security guard at the museum. Johann has worked a variety of jobs prior to finding himself at the museum. However, he says he enjoys the museum the most because of the special quiet that one can find in a museum.

Johann and Anne explore not only the works within the museum, but the city of Vienna as well. As Johann shows us, there is art to be found all around us, no matter if it is in the city streets or on the walls of a museum. All you have to do is be willing to open your eyes to it.

The fun thing about doing this challenge is going in only knowing the Letterboxd synopsis of a film. I’ll have a general idea as to what I’m in for but nothing that will sway my overall view of a film prior to viewing it. Sometimes that means a film with an intriguing synopsis will absolutely blow you away, other times it can leave you frustratingly disappointed. Museum Hours (2012) manages to do both.

There is no music in this film. When we’re on the city streets, the only sounds are the hustle and bustle of the city. When we’re in the museum, rather than soft music or absolute silence, we get the audio of the museum guide as we journey through. This choice was a bold one that works well in getting the viewer to be more observant to what is around them. To get one to see that if you slow down and take in the moment, you’ll find that art is all around you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a famous painting, a work of art by an unknown artist who died poor and alone, or the architecture of a building. What matters is how the art is interpreted and absorbed by the viewer of it.

However, where Museum Hours (2012) lost me was the shoe-horned “plot” with Johann and Anne. I was so captivated by the sights and sounds of the city and the works on display in the museum. When we pivot back to Anne and why she’s there, it kind of took me out of it. Yes, I know that her reason for being there and what she’s dealing with plays into the larger themes that Jem Cohen is trying to get across.

That’s not to say that I didn’t find it interesting, quite the opposite actually. It’s just that the two types of stories didn’t seem to blend together in a complete way. I’d be interested in seeing more about Johann, his past, and his day-to-day interactions with complete strangers in the museum. Meanwhile, I’d also be interested in seeing more of the city of Vienna.

Unfortunately, the combining of the two left me frustratingly captivated from beginning to end.

Well, there you have it. Another letter in the books.

If you’ve seen Museum Hours (2012), I want to know what you thought of it. Tell me in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

Next week we’ll have the letter “Q”. Want a sneak preview as to who the crew member will be and what movie we’ll be reviewing? Keep an eye out on Threads and Instagram this Wednesday!

As always, you can follow what else I’m watching on Letterboxd.