The South is Everywhere
directed by Herbert Krill
Vienna, Austria
The South Is Everywhere
A documentary on the worldwide influence of Tennessee Williams' South
In English and German with English subtitles.
A rare 45-minute film of the life and work of Tennessee Williams, as seen through the eyes of an Austrian-American filmmaker, aired on German Public TV on the day of the playwright's 100th birthday.
In a search for Tennessee Williams' South, the Austrian film maker Herbert Krill traveled over the Mississippi Delta, north to Saint Louis and west to New Orleans.
Krill pointed his cameras over the paper-piled desk of Williams scholar, Kenneth Holditch, shot the annual state-wide High School competition of Williams scenes in Clarksdale, Mississippi, caught the light through the stained-glass windows in Williams’ family church, and visited the shoe factory where Williams wrote poetry on shoebox lids.
"What began as Southern drama
has long since achieved the status of universality...
The South is now everywhere.”
- Thomas Janssen, 3sat Television
Additional footage shows off Williams' plays in recent productions with decidedly European approaches: a Dresden Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a Berlin Glass Menagerie, a dreamlike staging in Mulheim, Germany of Williams' early play Stairs to the Roof, several eye-opening Streetcars including good coverage of the controversial French version directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, performed by Isabelle Huppert.
As a special treat there’s rare 1976 footage of a politically outspoken Williams on Austrian Public Television.
Herbert Krill (pictured, left) was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. He studied directing and producing at the Vienna Film Academy before making his way to New York and Los Angeles. As a film reporter, he interviewed almost two thousand actors, writers, directors, and other film people. Among them, Austrian immigrants to the U.S., such as Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Wolfgang Puck, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Since 2001 he has been working exclusively as a documentary film maker, with occasional publications in print. He now divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Vienna.