Wiener Film

The Viennese film is a film genre that represents a linkage index Comedy, Romance, melodrama and historical film essentially. As delimit own genre but it can be explained by the fact that getting together with its specific environment form the historic city of Vienna, the core element. The Vienna Film as a genre existed between the 1920s and the 1950s, the 1930s represented a climax.

The Viennese dialect is considered the Vienna film 's strongest asset. The film critic Frieda Grafe described the dialect once called " liquid -cooked German, which one sounds that language is a resounding template that already generated by their phonetic expression, even before it is communication in the true sense meanings. " Impressing express themselves, the precision, speed and liquid formulation of language come close to the unique wit of the American screwball comedies.

Definition

The Viennese film is always in the past and achieved a high degree of emotionality through the swing back and forth between hope and suffering, pleasure and loss. Most movies playing in Vienna at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, when the capital of the multiethnic monarchy of Austria - Hungary gained its greatest importance in society and culture. The acting persons usually belong to different social levels, what the relations of people to each other brings more explosive. Concepts of honor and morality of that time are of importance to the plot. The Vienna Film is almost always happy, life-affirming and exuberant. Music and singing play a major role, either by orchestra and musical scenes or vocal performances by persons acting itself Humor often arises from misunderstandings, confusion, mishaps and the resulting efforts to bring everything back in order, which is often more Tollpatschigkeiten triggers.

Dramatically, the Vienna Film on usually several main acting and some more besides acting individuals who all through the movie repeatedly occur in appearance and are involved in the action. The people, not all know each other, but are by several parallel storylines linked. The plot mostly revolves around small and big love affairs and often has elements of comedy of errors on. Time History films in most cases are politically and socially irrelevant.

Historical Development

The first of the Vienna Film attributable films were already in the 1920s, when the film was still silent. The climax saw the genre but with the beginning of the sound film era, whereby the specific, own Viennese melody of speech, the wit and the Viennese humor could come into play, which the Viennese film made ​​popular in Germany. Willi Forst's production My songs beckon softly, a biography of Franz Schubert, was so successful that even an English version was made. Willi Forst is the preeminent director of the Vienna film because he knew how best to combine talent, professionalism and personality to each other. 1935 From him came also the best film of the Vienna film, wherein the film history is unanimous: masquerade.

The success of the Vienna film also inspired Berlin to emulate this genre. The action location was changed from Vienna to Berlin, instead of the Habsburg Monarchy, there was the Prussian court. The films were in Germany, although quite successfully, but lost with the departure from the Viennese milieu, including its inhabitants and its language and the unique atmosphere that makes the Vienna Film. The best example of this is the UFA operetta The Congress Dances (1931 ) by Erik Charell. That Viennese films also can be produced outside of Vienna, proved Max Ophüls. With flirtation he chose a classic Viennese cloth, which he directed in 1933 with Willy calibration Berger and Magda Schneider as the lead in Berlin. Gently he captured the atmosphere of the turn of the century Vienna, calculated at the same time sharply with the wrong concepts of honor this time from.

During National Socialism, the popularity of the Viennese film was used, which corresponded to the Nazi ideas of entertaining, distracting from reality into a dream world, the film in many areas. The Vienna Film witnessed an extension of its flowering stage, a kind of " Late Baroque ". Between 1938 and 1945 some films received an anti-Semitic, anti - monarchist and anti- democratic undertone. Most Viennese films remained apolitical as always. In some productions, such as Willi Forst's masterpiece Wiener Blut, also swipes were occasionally made ​​to National Socialism.

After the end of Nazism, after the Second World War, attempts were often continue the Viennese film, with all its characteristic features. It arrive at best, only average productions - the most was just a bad copy of former successes. The danger of the finiteness of the genre recognized Dr Volkmar Iro in 1936: "With the genuine Austrian milieu but alone are the ways of the Austrian film by no means exhausted, and it would be a certain risk for the development of the Austrian film production, considering the artistic tasks Austrian film saw, above all, to work only Austrian film materials or Austrian milieu. Because you can, as already mentioned earlier, not with impunity robbing a least restricted environment. "

Topics

In addition to affairs of the social life of the monarchy the Viennese film tells also other less recent stories. This usually happens when the biography of a historical figure, most important musicians and composers, is filmed. However, the apparently purely fixed on light entertainment genre also provides space for more intensive examination of the society in terms of history and politics. Such serious issues were rarely taken up though, but these works are more interesting and outstanding.

An example of this is " ... just a comedian " (1935 ) by German director Erich Engel. Despite the anti-authoritarian action directed against fascism film escaped both the Austrian and the German censorship, presumably due to the fact that the movie played in the Rococo period.

Also in the Austrian exile created Werner Hochbaum 1935 " suburban vaudeville " an extraordinary, because time-related and political, contribution to the Vienna Film. From Prussian and Austrian characters acting successive bounces their view of life in a love drama just before the First World War, is one of this work as one of the strongest Austrian films ever.

Walter Reisch succeeded in 1935 with "Episode " another outstanding example of the Viennese film with which few other productions could keep up. The film is distinguished in that the atmosphere of Vienna at the time of economic crisis, thanks to Paula Wessely could be implemented as a penniless student of Arts and Crafts in a coherent psychogram Vienna ambiguity. The film made ​​it the only Austrian production, were involved in the Jews to receive exemption from the Reich Film Chamber for performance in the Third Reich in Germany after the seizure of power by the National Socialists.

Among the most prominent film credits include the Vienna staged in the style of poetic realism masterpiece by Paul Fejos, " sunbeam " (1933 ) and several films Willi Forst, especially its globally successful "Masquerade " (1934 ).

Personalities

Some of the stars of the film were Viennese Paula Wessely, Attila Hörbiger, Rudolf Carl, Fritz Imhoff, Leo Slezak, Magda Schneider and Willi Forst, who was both as an actor and as a director of significance. The best known representatives of the comedian film were the opposite Hans Moser and Szöke Sakall. While Hans Moser his fellow actors frequently played by its language and facial expressions unique, natural appearance to the wall, Szöke Sakall shined with a snappy intellectually to sadistic- aggressive humor. With Richard Romanowsky still another comedian was among the spectacle of the early sound film sizes. Also German movie stars found themselves time and again in Vienna films.

Among the most sought-after composers of Viennese films included Willy Schmidt- Gentner and Robert Stolz.

Major Viennese Movies

• The Pratermizzi (1927 )
• Flirtation (1933, directed by Max Ophüls )
• Sunbeam (1933, directed by Paul Fejos )
• My songs beckon softly (1933, directed by Willi Forst)
• Masquerade (1934, Director: Willi Forst)
• High School (1934, directed by Erich Engel )
• Episode (1935, directed by Walter Reisch )
• Suburban vaudeville (1935, Director: Werner Hochbaum )
• Only a comedian ... (1935, directed by Erich Engel )
• Burgtheater (1936, Director: Willi Forst)
• Bel Ami (1939, Director: Willi Forst)
• Hotel Sacher (1939, directed by Erich Engel )
• Operetta (1940, Director: Willi Forst)
• Der liebe Augustin (1941, directed by E. W. Emo )
• Wiener Blut (1942, Director: Willi Forst)
• Mädeln Vienna ( 1945/49, directed by Willi Forst)
• Hello porter (1952, directed by Franz Antel )
• The German champion (1955, directed by Ernst Marischka )
• Opera Ball (1956, directed by Ernst Marischka )