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Austrian artist, author and director Peter Patzak, who achieved cult status with the crime series “Kottan Determined”, dies at the age of 76 on Thursday. This is the end of a multi-layered artistic resume. Patzak was born on January 2, 1945 in Vienna. Growing up in the working-class district of Brigittenau should have a lasting impact on both him and his partner, author Helmut Zenker.
After graduating from school, he studied psychology, art history and painting and had his first exhibition with Albert Paris Gütersloh. Soon after, the first turn to film followed when Patzak was invited to the “Films of Art” show in New York in the mid-1960s. The path to feature films was not far off. The young filmmaker worked from an early age with prominent actresses, such as Rita Tushingham in the thriller “The Situation” (1972) or Paula Wessely, who starred in “Glückssache” (1977). One of Patzak’s most important cinematographic works was the neo-Nazi portrait “Kassbach” (1979), for which he received international recognition for his clear confrontation with petty-bourgeois forms of racism, fascism and violence. “Kassbach” is one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite movies.
- Video: Film director, painter and author Peter Patzak has died.
“Kottan”, a fragment of television history
At the time he didn’t know yet that he would write a legendary figure and a piece of television history at the same time as Major Kottan, on whom he was working with Zenker. In 1983 he had made 19 episodes of the unusual series of crimes, as well as the film “The world belongs to the capable” (1981). Finally, with “Kottan determined: Rien ne va plus” in 2010, Patzak put the cult commissioner back on screen.
But his work was infinitely more extensive. In the 1980s, he was responsible for the film “The Last Round (Strawanzer)” (1983) with Elliott Gould and the thriller “Joker” (1987) with Peter Maffay. With “Killing Blue” (1988), “Gavre Princip – Heaven under Stones” (1990) or “Burning Heart” (1995) caused an international sensation. For “Shanghai 1937” (1996) he received the “Russian Filmmakers Award” and the Max Ophüls Award in Moscow. Doderer’s film “The Falls of Slunj” won an award in Venice.
Since 1993, Patzak has been teaching directing at the Vienna Film Academy, which he also directed as director of the institute. And yet at this point there was a break with television, which he thought he had forgotten. This was another driving force to turn more towards the theater. In 2007 he organized “Interview” with Theo van Gogh at the Stadttheater Walfischgasse for the stage. In addition, painting once again occupied a central place in his work. The Bank Austria Kunstforum dedicated a belated birthday exhibition to him in September under the title “From the Archive of Remembrance.”
