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Vienna in Film - THE TOP TEN and More
01/05/2010
So what were our criteria? Intelligence, fresh perspectives, capturing the city's spirit and, of course, a good watch. Films that are curious about details of city life and bring a distinctive vision. Only half the films we've chosen were made by Austrians. But see these ten and you'll have a deeper understanding of what makes Vienna special. Some themes emerge - Nobody will agree with every film, but in consultation with those closest to the film-making process in the city, here is our list, in chronological order.
Weibliche Assentierung (1908, Austria, director unknown)
Early Austrian naughtiness.
Thomas Ballhausen (TB), Austrian Film Archive (AFA): “There was a tendency to make local eroticism, especially in the mute film era. The first-ever film production company in Vienna, Saturn, only made erotic short films. They mostly did adult remakes of French originals (made for a general audience). They tried to be more direct and they're often very funny.
There is a lot of the Viennese in these films, especially as they were often shot outside, so you can recognise the locations. They talk about the monarchy, the army, the government, and they are quite disrespectful, mocking institutions.
They made one about the power of hypnosis, so there's an element of Freud, about the imbalance between prostitutes and their clients. I specially recommend the Weibliche Assentierung. These films are very close to the everyday life of the Austrian monarchy.”
There was a 2010 show at the Kunsthaus in Wien, of these very Saturn films, and a kinky-looking dvd, in unmarked silver box, can now be bought from the better dvd handlers.
Letter from an Unknown Woman (USA, 1948, dir Max Ophuls, script by Stefan Zweig, starring Joan Fontaine)
Moving, atmospheric noir, as Hollywood discovers Vienna
TB: “Yes, I think that is a great film – about the aristocracy, set in 1900.”
Movie bible IMDB has this to say: “From the master of romantic period confections - Max Ophuls, an exquisitely beautiful and poignant tale of a teenage girl who falls in unrequited love with a concert pianist (Louis Jourdain).
The sets, lighting, smooth gliding camera, costumes, subtly matched musical accompaniment and delicate but aching emotion make for something quite wonderful; it's a film of supreme elegance and extraordinary luminous fragility, a tiny hidden jewel box filled with moonlight.
A dashing man arrives at his flat, instructing his servant that he will leave before morning: the man is Stefan Brand, formerly a concert pianist, planning to leave Vienna to avoid a duel. His servant gives him a letter from an unknown woman. In flashbacks we see Lisa Berndle’s lifelong passion for him: first as a girl who was his neighbour; next as a young woman who, in secret, has his child; then as a mature woman who encounters him again and abandons husband and son to be with him. Each time, he does not remember who she is or that they have ever met. By morning, he has finished the letter, and her husband awaits satisfaction...”
The Third Man (1949, UK, dir Carol Reed)
Murky goings-on in underworld ruins.
Alexandra Czernin-Morzin (AC), from the Vienna Film Commission (VFC): “It shows a part of Vienna which is not so known. I can say from 10 productions coming from abroad to shoot in Vienna, at least eight will ask to shoot exactly there, in the drains of the city, which is not so easy today. At that time we didn't have the same controls on the Danube, to regulate the flow. But we have those now, so you can't shoot there. It's too dangerous and you would get very wet. But it's still the film in everybody's brain. And people make lots of documentaries on the subject.”
TB: “[Long pause]. Well I like it. But I think it's a very narrow picture of Vienna. It’s very good with depicting post-war reality.” I admit, I was at first surprised that he finds the film realistic, but the more I learned, the more plausible it became. The black marketeers were a very authentic feature of Allied-administered Vienna, he told me. “I like this Graham Greene take on the city: this uncanny, post-expressionist Vienna. There is perhaps an echo from the 1930s, of debating identity – who is this person we are chasing? Does he exist? And I like the look of post-war Vienna. How powers move or won’t move.”
And do you see it as an outsiders’ view of Vienna?
TB: “Yes I think Austrians would have made it differently. Right now we [at the Film Archive] are looking into a lot of post-war amateur material and there are a lot of interesting views of the city still to be found there, [a kind] of buried treasure. Among 1950s experimental films he would recommend is The Raven, “not just as a Viennese film,” he says, “but strong film per se: a surrealist idea, a slow approach, more Austrian.”
The Night Porter (1974, ltaly, Liliana Cavani, original title: Il Portiere di Notte, in Italian)
Dark relations between former SS commander and his concentration camp detainee: An ex-Nazi scientist hides out as a hotel porter after the War. One day a very rich woman enters the place, a woman he recognizes as one of his concentration-camp sex-experiment subjects...
Thirteen years after WWII, the camp survivor (Charlotte Rampling) and her tormentor (Dirk Bogarde) fall back into their sado-masochistic relationship. Melancholy stuff.
Seven percent Solution (1976, UK/USA, dir Herbert Ross, featuring Alan Arkin as Freud, also Nicol Williamson (Holmes), Robert Duvall (Watson), Vanessa Redgrave (Lola Devereaux), and Laurence Olivier (Mor
iarty
), 2 Oscar nominations.
Holmes meets Freud.
TB: “It starts in London, with Sherlock Holmes completely down and Watson tricks him into coming to Vienna, where Freud is going to analyse him. So as Freud is helping Holmes, Holmes
starts to help Freud. It’s a smart and funny film. In the end, of course there is a case going on, dealing with Freud and his cocaine experiences back in his pre-analytical phase when he wrote a few papers on cocaine. He took some himself, of course, and tried to cure one of his friends from another addiction, but of course he replaced one addiction with the other. There is some mystery surrounding the cocaine papers, and the film successfully brings together two key figures of pop culture. “The Seven Percent Solution” refers to the solubility of cocaine. It's an insider film, a cult.”
Wow! A British Sigmund-meets-Sherlock film! This is the Film Archive at its best.
Kottan Ermittelt (Kottan Investigates, 1976-83, ORF tv)
Amoral, Pythonesque crime series.
TB: “Definitely on the list! It was a television experiment in how to think about police work. There was a lot of discussion and angry letters to ORF. It was brave to do that, and to question the possibilities of narration. Sometimes the plot falls apart and you see the director going on the set saying 'No, we can't do that'. It is seriously funny, with great dialogue.”
Do the criminals always get caught? “No, it's far from moralistic.”
Some people see the Vienna police as old-fashioned and corrupt. Does it reflect that? Or is it from the perspective of the police? “Yeah, but it gives a very blurred and absurd picture of the police at work. The idea was genius, to look at dirty, lowlife Vienna.”
IMDB says: “One of the defining moments of Austrian television. Satire, running gags, murder. That rarest of things, a cult Austrian series.”
Currently being re-made, with the original widely available on dvd.
(1980, Austria, dir: Franz Novotny)
A gangster film set around Prater.
TB: “You have Exit on your list, and rightfully – it is one of the most important Austrian films ever. The script by Gustav Ernst and Franz Novotny’s work as a director is brilliant.
[on Austrians' relationship with nudity on film] There were always discussions going on if that was the proper way to do it. There is a very ordinary way to deal with nudity, it’s nothing special. Just the way it is. I like it.”
Good News (1990, Austria, dir: Ulrich Seidl)
A documentary on the lives of street newspaper-sellers.
From Ulrich Seidl, who also directed the more famous [and notorious] Hundstage. TB: “Great film, out of this very difficult realm between documentary and fiction. Focused on this city, a very good Viennese and Vienna-looking film.”
This is the one with the most humanity, and the most Vienna. A deeply ironic title.
Before Sunrise (1995, USA, dir: Richard Linklater, starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy)
Two students fall in love walking around the city
Two students, one American, the other French, meet on a train from Budapest to Vienna and get to know each other better as they explore Vienna for one day and night. A quirky, arthouse hit which looks at the city in a beautiful way. Residents will note it is impossible to make some of the strolls they seem to, since at every turn, they are in a new part of the city.
TB: “That’s nice, a good idea, much better than the second part [Before Sunset, 2003, where the couple are reunited in Paris eight years later]. Very romantic and it works. Well done. The conversation feels natural and they get all the details right.”
Revanche (2008, Austria, dir Götz Spielmann, foreign-language Oscar nominee)
TB: “Yes, I enjoyed this a lot. It's well-narrated and things are worked together cleverly. It's influenced by the British and American ideas of an unreliable narrator. A strong and intense look inside parts of Viennese society. There was a lot of discussion going on in the press about nudity and intercourse in the film. I think it’s valid to do it that way. The camera doesn’t blink away if there is a struggle going on, so why do it when people are having sex?”
Were you surprised such a grimy, low budget effort was nominated for an Oscar?
TB: “I was happy. They deserved it. Spielmann films are good and very focused. I like his idea of a very intense style of cinema.”
And bubbling just under the top 10 are the following, also worth a look...
Müller's Buro (1982, Austria, dir Niki List)
New wave, poppy postmodernism, filmed in the centre around the club scene
Amadeus (1984, USA, dir Milos Forman). Won 8 Oscars. Screenplay and original stage production by UK writer Peter Shaffer (UK). Camp Mozart biopic told in flashback by rival Salieri. No major stars. 2h 40mins long! Says Ballhausen of the Film Archive: “Perhaps that is one of my guilty pleasures; it's really high pop. A lot of clichés about Austria and the court. But not conscious cliché. It is like a bad Peter Greenaway film, packed with stuff. The dialogue is heightened and stylised, glossy and dated.
Klimt (2006, Austria/France/Germany/UK, dir Raoul Ruiz) Starring John Malkovich. TB: “That’s a nice one. It’s properly done, well-crafted, didn’t do much business. Not a really big or intellectual film, but a great advert for turn of the 20th century Vienna.
Nordrand (1999, Austria, dir Barbara Albert) Some beautiful moments, but this is grim and grimy contemporary Vienna, intensely urban, featuring sexual harassment and refugees, focused on the lives of two confused young women.
The Piano Teacher (Der Klavierspielerin, 2001, Austria/France/Germany, dir Michael Haneke, from a story by Elfriede Jelinek, German/French language, starring Isabelle Huppert) A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher. Parts of it are unwatchable and cruel. Deeply uncomfortable viewing, and not for the faint-hearted.
AC: “My favorite Vienna film, again is about the dark side of the Austrian psyche. A lot of very beautiful shots of Vienna, and this little bit of ill-humor. Haha!”
Café Elektric (1927, Austria, dir Gustav Ucicky, starring Marlene Dietrich)
TB: “It shows the underground world of Vienna in the late 20s. A great, evocative movie, giving women a very high-profile and modern look.
And finally a few curiosities, not recommended for their quality, but other reasons...
Promotional films made by City of Vienna recently to promote itself, but getting it all wrong!: wien.gv.at/english/multimedia/vienna-international/viennafilm.htm
Rock me Amadeus (1985, Austria, dirs Doletzer & Roffsacher) Pop video by the late Falco. Hopelessly 80s now, but still fascinating and the only German-language song to top the Billboard Hot 100 singles in USA. (See also Vienna video by Ultravox for many of the same ideas five years earlier).
TB: “A good mixture of baroque ideas and leather post punk. A cool video. Partying Viennese people from different eras.”
Sissi (1955, Austria, dir Ernst Marischka, starring Romy Schneider)
A naive romantic matinee. Not the greatest film, but, like Sissi herself, occupies an iconic position in many Austrian women’s hearts.
AC: “This is the cliché. That's not Vienna today, which is a modern, lively city. The court doesn't exist anymore. We are living now.”
Kesariya Balam (Love Knows no Limits, 2010, Austria/India, dir Sandeep Kumar) Billed as the first Austrian Bollywood film, this is Vienna Bollywood-style, reflecting the opulence and splendour of the city, and its kitsch.
The Illusionist (2006, Czech/USA, dir Neil Burger) Uses Cesky Krumlov as a - presumably cheaper - place to re-create what purports to be 1900 Vienna. If you want to see a film which gets Vienna completely wrong, the dialogue, clothes, the settings, the pace of the city, social situations, accents, then this is the one.
TB: “It’s not a great film. But yes it is a good example of a movie which gives a very strange impression of the city. What it did with history is odd. It’s really nothing, it didn’t touch me in any way.”
If you disagree with anything on the list, or feel we've missed something, please write in and we will feature your responses next month. We recommend the film exhibition at the Wien Museum, which is sure to be beautiful, stirring and comprehensive.
Vienna in Film - a century of city images
27 May to 19 Sept. 2010
Wien Museum
Karlsplatz
wienmuseum.at
For clips from movies shot in Vienna, see: viennafilmcommission.at
see also: A House of Melancholy - Vienna in Film
