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An Austrian film noir?
Odd concept, you might think, but consider how many of the classic noir directors – Lang, Preminger, Wilder, Ulmer – were Austrian-born. Besides, Götz Spielmann’s Oscar-nommed film is anything but conventional noir.
Though it takes several characters who’d fit well into the genre – the ex-con with big ambitions, the Ukrainian prostitute, the local cop, his restless wife – it entangles their lives in unforeseen ways.
And while we kick off in the grim streets and sleazy knocking-shops of Vienna’s red-light district, most of the action is set amid the woods and lakes of Austria’s quiet countryside.
Spielmann overturns expectations – time and again, scenes don’t play out as anticipated. He takes his time, too – this is no slam-bang actioner.
But the deliberate pacing lets us look deeper into these lives than most crime movies would trouble to do. Revanche (French for ‘revenge’) is that rarest of things – a thoughtful thriller.
Ex-Bethesda dev turned indie says "good things often happen by accident," like that time Skyrim players convinced themselves the RPG's foxes were leading them to treasure
Palworld dev says the studio went dark for months because "the team was getting burnt out from all the social media stuff, I was getting burnt out, our CEO was under attack in Japan"
Metaphor: ReFantazio had to dial back an early battle system inspired by a notoriously brutal 2003 JRPG, because 20 years later, players found it "irrational" and "just not fun"
