Wiener Film
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n film genre, consisting of a combination of comedy, romance and melodrama in an historical setting, mostly, and typically, the Vienna of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Wiener Film genre was in production between the 1920s and the 1950s, with the 1930s as its high period.
Definition
These films are always set in the past, and achieve a high emotional impact by their oscillation between extreme emotional states, between hope and suffering, for example, or pleasure and loss. Most of them are set in the Vienna of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when as the capital of the multiracial monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire it had its greatest social and cultural significance. The protagonists belong to a variety of social classes, which adds to the interest of the relationships between them. The concepts of honour and morality of the period are often of great significance in the development of the plots. The Wiener Film is almost always happy, life-affirming and relaxed. Music and song feature prominently, either in the form of orchestral and musical scenes or as interpolated songs by the characters. Humour often arises from misunderstandings, mistaken identity, misadventures and the resultant efforts to restore order, with often farcical consequences.Dramaturgically the Wiener Film generally contains several principal characters and several more subsidiary characters, all of whom recur frequently throughout the film as the action develops. They do not always all know each other, but are nevertheless connected by the plots and sub-plots running in parallel. The action mostly centres on love affairs great and small, often with elements of the comedy of mistaken identity. The films are generally unchallenging in terms of the contemporary socio-political issues and environment (for some rare exceptions see below).
Historical development
The first films that can be classed as Wiener Filme were created in the 1920s, in the days of the silent filmSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
. The genre reached its full potential however with sound film
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
, when the specifically Viennese dialect (see below), verbal dexterity and the characteristically Viennese acid wit (Wiener Schmäh) were able to come into their own and made the genre popular not only in Austria but also in Germany. Willi Forst
Willi Forst
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer...
's production Leise flehen meine Lieder, a biography of Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, was so successful that an English-language version was made, under the title Unfinished Symphony
Unfinished Symphony (film)
Unfinished Symphony is a 1934 British-Austrian musical drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Mártha Eggerth, Helen Chandler, Hans Jaray and Ronald Squire. The film is based on the story of Franz Schubert who, in the 1820s left his symphony unfinished after losing the love of his life....
. Willi Forst is one of the most significant directors of Wiener Film, and made what is generally reckoned to be the best of the genre, the 1935 film Maskerade
Maskerade (film)
Maskerade , is an Austrian operetta film, and a classic of German language cinema. The exceptional script of this, a great example of the genre of the Wiener Film, was by Walter Reisch and Willi Forst, who also directed...
.
The success of Wiener Film inspired Berlin to imitate the genre, substituting the Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
court for that of the Habsburg monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
and moving the setting from Vienna to Berlin. These films were admittedly also very popular in Germany, but the departure from the milieu of Vienna with its people and characteristic speech resulted in the loss of the distinctive atmosphere of the Austrian originals. A particularly good example is the 1931 UFA
UFA
Ufa is a city in Russia.UFA or Ufa may also refer to:*Ufa River, a river in Russia*Ufa, Ethiopia, a town in Ethiopia*Ultra flat architecture, a network architecture design for LTE 4G mobile telecommunication networks...
operetta Der Kongress tanzt by Erik Charell
Erik Charell
Erich Karl Löwenberg , later known as Erik Charell, was a German actor and director. He was best known as a director of musical revues and operettas, especially at Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin...
. On the other hand Max Ophüls
Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
demonstrated that Wiener Filme could also be made outside Vienna with his production Liebelei
Liebelei (film)
Liebelei is a German film directed by Max Ophüls. The film, based on a play of the same name by Arthur Schnitzler, describes an ill-fated love affair.-Plot:...
of 1933, in which he displays classic Viennese subject matter, although the film was produced in Berlin, with Willy Eichberger and Magda Schneider
Magda Schneider
Magda Schneider was a German actress and singer; she was the mother of the actress Romy Schneider.- Biography :Magdalena Schneider was born in Augsburg, Bavaria. After training as a stenographer, she studied singing at the Augsburg Academy and ballet at the local theater. She made her stage debut...
as the leads. Ophüls very carefully evoked the atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Vienna, while not neglecting to throw into sharp relief the hollow concepts of honour of that period.
During the time of the National Socialist government the popularity of the Wiener Film genre was assured: in almost every way it exactly met the National Socialist requirement for entertaining escapist cinema that distracted attention from reality to a dream world. The Wiener Film thus experienced a lengthening of its heyday, a sort of Late Baroque. Between 1938 and 1945 a few of these films were made with an anti-Semitic, anti-monarchist and anti-democratic undertone, for example E. W. Emo
E. W. Emo
E. W. Emo was an Austrian film director, specialising in comedies, 21 of them with the actor Hans Moser. He also worked outside Austria and wrote some screenplays....
's Wien 1910. Most Wiener Filme however remained, as previously, unpolitical. In a few productions, notably Willi Forst's masterpiece Wiener Blut, there were even some sly digs at National Socialism.
After the end of National Socialism and of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
many efforts were made to continue the Wiener Film with all its characteristic features. But the best were no more than mediocre, and the majority were simply bad copies of previous successes. The danger of exhausting the possibilities of what was in any case a very finite genre had been recognised by "Dr Volkmar Iro" as early as 1936: "the potential of Austrian film is nowhere near exhausted by the genuine Austrian milieu alone, and it would pose a certain danger for the continued development of the Austrian film industry if the artistic task of the Austrian film were to be regarded as the working over of nothing but Austrian film themes or the Austrian environment. For, as already mentioned, it is not possible with impunity continually to plunder a subject which is in any case limited."
Viennese dialect
The Viennese dialect was perhaps the strongest asset of the Wiener Film. The film critic Frieda Grafe once described it as "German made fluid, which makes the listener realise that speech is a matrix of tone which can bring forth meaning simply by the impression of its sound long before it becomes communication in the strict sense". The dialect's many possibilities of expression, the precision, rapidity and fluid formulation of speech come close to the idiosyncratic verbal wit of American screwball comedyScrewball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
.
Themes
Besides affairs from the social life of the period of the monarchy, Wiener Filme also occasionally deal with more remote history, generally in the form of biographies of famous people, predominantly musicians and composers.As a genre the Wiener Film is almost invariably light entertainment, but one or two exceptional films exploit the possibilities of a more intensive engagement with social or political issues. The effort to do so was seldom made, but the results are all the more noteworthy for their rarity and impact.
An example is … nur ein Komödiant (1935) by the German director Erich Engel
Erich Engel
Erich Engel was a German film and theatre director.- Biography :Engel was born in Hamburg, where later he studied at the School of Applied Arts...
. The anti-authoritarian plot, clearly directed against fascism, somehow managed to make it past not only the Austrian but also the German film censors, presumably because of the film's setting in the Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
period.
Werner Hochbaum, another German director who, like Engel, had taken refuge in Austria, made in 1935 the exceptional film Vorstadtvarieté, striking for a work of this genre in its contemporary political relevance. Set shortly before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, this film deals powerfully with a number of Austrian and Prussian characters whose assumptions about life are disrupted by a romantic drama.
Also in 1935, Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".-Selected filmography:...
produced Episode
Episode (film)
Episode is an Austrian film from 1935. It belongs to the popular Austrian light romantic comedy genre known as the Wiener Film, but also contains, for a film of this genre, unusually serious social comment. It was written and produced by Walter Reisch...
, another outstanding example of a high-quality Wiener Film with added significance. The film is distinguished by its use of the atmosphere of the economic crisis in Vienna in 1922, which is not only evoked but, especially through the acting of Paula Wessely
Paula Wessely
Paula Anna Maria Wessely was an Austrian theatre and film actress. Die Wessely , as she was affectionately called by her admirers and fans, was Austria's foremost popular postwar actress....
as a desperately impoverished student of commercial art, elevated into a moving psychological portrayal of Viennese double standards and hypocrisy. The film was also noteworthy as being the only Austrian film involving Jews in its production which after the takeover of the National Socialists in Germany succeeded in obtaining exceptional consent from the Reichsfilmkammer
Reichsfilmkammer
The Reichsfilmkammer was a public corporation based in Berlin that regulated the film industry in National Socialist Germany between 1933 and 1945...
to be shown in the Third Reich.
Other highlights of the genre include Paul Fejos
Paul Fejos
Paul Fejos was a film director in America.Fejos was born in Budapest, Hungary as Pál Fejös. He emigrated to the United States in 1924 and became a naturalized citizen in 1930...
' masterpiece, Sonnenstrahl (1933) in the style of Poetic realism
Poetic realism
Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s and through the war years. More a tendency than a movement, Poetic Realism is not strongly unified like Soviet Montage or French Impressionism. Its leading filmmakers were Jean Renoir, Pierre Chenal, Jean Vigo, Julien Duvivier, and Marcel...
, and several of Willi Forst's films, among them the hugely successful Maskerade
Maskerade (film)
Maskerade , is an Austrian operetta film, and a classic of German language cinema. The exceptional script of this, a great example of the genre of the Wiener Film, was by Walter Reisch and Willi Forst, who also directed...
of 1934/35.
Significant personalities
Some of the best-known stars of the Wiener Filme were Paula WesselyPaula Wessely
Paula Anna Maria Wessely was an Austrian theatre and film actress. Die Wessely , as she was affectionately called by her admirers and fans, was Austria's foremost popular postwar actress....
, Attila Hörbiger
Attila Hörbiger
Attila Hörbiger was an Austrian stage and movie actor.Hörbiger was born in Budapest, then Austria–Hungary, the son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger and younger brother of actor Paul Hörbiger...
, Paul Hörbiger
Paul Hörbiger
Paul Hörbiger was an Austrian theatre and film actor.-Life and work:Paul Hörbiger was born in Budapest, the son of Hans Hörbiger, an engineer who wrote Welteislehre on glacial cosmology, and elder brother of actor Attila Hörbiger. In 1902 the family returned to Vienna, while Paul attended the...
, Rudolf Carl
Rudolf Carl
Rudolf Carl was an Austrian actor who appeared in more than 150 German language films between 1934 and 1969. He also directed two films Der Leberfleck and Dort in der Wachau.-Selected filmography:* The White Horse Inn...
, Fritz Imhoff, Leo Slezak
Leo Slezak
Leo Slezak was a world-famous Moravian tenor. He was associated in particular with German opera as well as the title role in Verdi's Otello.- Beginnings :...
, Magda Schneider
Magda Schneider
Magda Schneider was a German actress and singer; she was the mother of the actress Romy Schneider.- Biography :Magdalena Schneider was born in Augsburg, Bavaria. After training as a stenographer, she studied singing at the Augsburg Academy and ballet at the local theater. She made her stage debut...
and Willi Forst
Willi Forst
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer...
himself, who was not only an important director but also an actor. German filmstars also often put in an appearance. The best-known comics in the genre were the very different Hans Moser
Hans Moser (actor)
Hans Moser was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film...
and Szöke Sakall, and in early sound films Richard Romanowsky.
The most popular composers were Willy Schmidt-Gentner
Willy Schmidt-Gentner
Willy Schmidt-Gentner was one of the most successful German composers of film music in the history of German-language cinema. He moved to Vienna in 1933...
and Robert Stolz
Robert Stolz
Robert Elisabeth Stolz was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music.- Biography :...
.
Selected Wiener Filme
- Die PratermizziDie PratermizziDie Pratermizzi is an Austrian silent drama film made by Gustav Ucicky in 1926, released in January 1927, which was long believed lost until its rediscovery in 2005.-Plot:...
(1927, director: Gustav UcickyGustav UcickyGustav Ucicky was an acclaimed Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He was one of the more successful and acclaimed directors in Austria and Germany from the 1930s through to the early 1960s...
) - LiebeleiLiebelei (film)Liebelei is a German film directed by Max Ophüls. The film, based on a play of the same name by Arthur Schnitzler, describes an ill-fated love affair.-Plot:...
(1933, director: Max OphülsMax OphülsMaximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
) - Sonnenstrahl (1933, director: Paul FejosPaul FejosPaul Fejos was a film director in America.Fejos was born in Budapest, Hungary as Pál Fejös. He emigrated to the United States in 1924 and became a naturalized citizen in 1930...
) - Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933, director Willi ForstWilli ForstWilli Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer...
) - MaskeradeMaskerade (film)Maskerade , is an Austrian operetta film, and a classic of German language cinema. The exceptional script of this, a great example of the genre of the Wiener Film, was by Walter Reisch and Willi Forst, who also directed...
(1934, director: Willi Forst) - Hohe Schule (1934, director: Erich EngelErich EngelErich Engel was a German film and theatre director.- Biography :Engel was born in Hamburg, where later he studied at the School of Applied Arts...
) - EpisodeEpisode (film)Episode is an Austrian film from 1935. It belongs to the popular Austrian light romantic comedy genre known as the Wiener Film, but also contains, for a film of this genre, unusually serious social comment. It was written and produced by Walter Reisch...
(1935, director: Walter ReischWalter ReischWalter Reisch was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".-Selected filmography:...
) - Vorstadtvarieté (1935, director: Werner Hochbaum)
- … nur ein Komödiant (1935, director: Erich Engel)
- Burgtheater (1936, director: Willi Forst)
- Bel AmiBel Ami (1939 film)Bel Ami is a German film version of Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami directed by Willi Forst and released in 1939.- Plot :In Paris, in about 1900, George Duroy, just returned from Morocco, spends a night with the singer Rachel, who is rehearsing the song Bel Ami. Later at a party he tells the...
(1939, director: Willi Forst) - Hotel Sacher (1939, director: Erich Engel)
- Der liebe Augustin (1941, director: E. W. EmoE. W. EmoE. W. Emo was an Austrian film director, specialising in comedies, 21 of them with the actor Hans Moser. He also worked outside Austria and wrote some screenplays....
) - Wiener Blut (1942, director: Willi Forst)
- Operette (1942, director: Karl HartlKarl HartlKarl Hartl was an Austrian film director.-Life:Born in Vienna, Hartl began his film career at the Austrian Sascha-Film company of Alexander Kolowrat and from 1919 was assistant to the Hungarian director Alexander Korda...
) - Wiener Mädeln (1945/49, director: Willi Forst)
- Hallo Dienstmann (1952, director: Franz AntelFranz AntelFranz Antel was a veteran Austrian filmmaker.Born in Vienna, Antel worked mainly as a film producer in the interwar years. After World War II, he began writing and directing films on a large scale...
) - Die Deutschmeister (1955, director: Ernst MarischkaErnst MarischkaErnst Marischka was an Austrian screenwriter and film director. He wrote for 93 films between 1913 and 1962. He also directed 29 films between 1915 and 1962...
) - Opernball (1956, director: Ernst Marischka)
Sources
- Fritz, Walter: Der Wiener Film im Dritten Reich. Vienna 1988
- Fritz, Walter, and Tötschinger, Gerhard, 1993: Maskerade - Kostüme des österreichischen Films; ein Mythos. Vienna: Kremayr & Scheriau Verlag. ISBN 3-218-00575-2