Models

More revealing about the human condition than any documentary (including Ulrich Seidl's own, which in comparison seem like they are only scratching on the surface of what it means to get through everyday life as a human being) while being just as real, honest and immediate as a great documentary.

Although the film is about female models it's really about average human beings with a lot of spare time to preserve their bodies to be beautiful for the camera and to poison and futch up their bodies again to get their mind into a different state or simply out of laziness on a rotating basis. Average people with a lot of spare time to be alone and lonely and to flee into the beds of lovers and fornicate with strangers while the boyfriend (who usually ISN'T waiting at home) isn't any less guilty of caring only about himself. Average people going through short highs, longer lows and a lot more void times that are somewhere in between (the film focuses more on the highs and lows of its main characters, though).

"You don't really know what's going on around you until you look at it from the outside" was never truer than in the case of Ulrich Seidl's films. Through his completely objective camera we have a more insightful look at the characters than the characters themselves. It might seem paradox but although this film again shows that men and women are very different creatures who inherently aren't compatible the female characters in 'Models' are as understandable for men as they are for women. And again it made me think that women are the superior creatures of the two, at least in direct comparison when one man and one women encounter, cope and talk with each other (which describes basically every scene in the film in which a man plays a role) the woman always seems like the more intelligent gender. Maybe it reflects how everything a man really wants is procreation and women have a bit more complex goals like conceiving and raising this offspring. Or maybe it just reflects how little men expect to get from women compared to how much women hope to get from men.

Enough with the rambling. I can't help but wonder how Ulrich Seidl writes his films and especially how he works with his non-actors to create such real films. Just as good as 'Hundstage', 1999 won another brilliant movie.