Ready-mades with Interest

When the filmmaker found a 1967 concert ticket in Vienna, this set her on a musico-historical journey in Austria that eventually led her back home to Scotland. Whilst she traced the information on the ticket and the history behind it, a letter arrived from her father that prompted a grander investigation into the sociopolitical backdrop of the music played that night. Together in conversation with her father, they explore a number of eras in Austria, spanning from the Strauss family’s waltz era to the rise of fascism and the stain it left on contemporary politics. The ticket and his letter become ‘ready-mades with interest’ which spark a contemplation on how past and present day intertwine, and upon the tension between the beauty of the waltz and the realities of the time that the waltz persists in. Whilst reflecting upon the ticket, the film becomes a touching portrait of her father as he shares his knowledge and, sometimes light-hearted, memories with her.