Alpenglühn im Dirndlrock

Alpine Glow in Dirndl Skirts is a showcase of all of the clichés of Tyrolian sex comedies – from the kind-hearted parish priest and the comical gay character to the exuberant calisthenics and demonisation of marital sex to atrocious humour with jokes whose punchlines viewers see coming from a mile away. This time, however, there is the added bonus of a peculiar premise that turns the traditional no-strings-attached and consequence-free romps that are typical of the genre on their head. Because of state subsidies, the village of Vogelbrunn decides to cross the demographic threshold to a higher territorial administrative status, which means that everyone has to start having children. The frenzy of folk humour here elicits incredulous head shaking rather than peals of laughter. I will thus take the liberty of mentioning the sociological experiment that we carried out at the Shockproof Film Festival, where we screened Alpine Glow in Dirndl Skirts with a faithful translation of the original and encouraged viewer interaction with a game of movie bingo. In addition to stimulating discussions about which of the many creative synonyms such as “darling” can or cannot be applied to individual scenes of the film, the screening also demonstrated the power of a collective experience in which the awkwardness of jokes becomes their comedic essence. (18.03.2023)