Films by John Cook

Canadian-born filmmaker and photographer John Cook (1935–2001) was one of the key figures in the "Austrian New Wave" of the 1970s. A maverick artist still to be discovered among international cinephiles, Cook almost single-handedly introduced a type of freewheeling auteur cinema in Austria, reminiscent of both Italian neorealism and the works of the French nouvelle vague.

 

In 2006, the Austrian Film Museum restored Cook's three most important works and published a book on his life and work. This 2-Disc-Set includes the two features Langsamer Sommer / Slow Summer (1974–76) and Schwitzkasten / Clinch (1978) as well as Cook's early documentary Ich schaff's einfach nimmer / I Just Can't Go On (1972/73) and additional written and filmed essays on the filmmaker.

 

"One of the most important modern Austrian filmmakers – his three features and two medium-length works are heralded as being amongst the finest Austrian films ever made." (Cinema Scope)

"One of the happiest consequences of the advent of specialized DVD labels involves the efforts of film connoisseurs to make the work of heretofore-obscure directors available to a larger public. The Austrian Film Museum's label has been exemplary in this regard; their recent release of a set of three films by the little known Austrian (although Canadian-born) director John Cook unearths previously submerged treasures for anyone in possession of a multiregion player." (Cineaste)

 

"Two newly-restored features by the Canadian-born, 'Viennese by choice' John Cook, who in the 1970s segued from fashion photography to low-budget cinema with Slow Summer (1976) and then Clinch (1978) – both of them fascinating as time-capsules but still impressively fresh and funny." (Neil Young)