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Introduction to Austrian cinema
Moving images were first seen in Austria at an exhibition of the Lumière Cinématographe in Vienna on 27 March 1896, but local fiction film production is thought to have begun only in 1908 with Heinz Hanus’s Von Stufe zu Stufe. At around a thousand films in total, film output during the silent era was small compared with that of other countries in Europe; but a substantial proportion of these, some 120 productions annually, were made during the peak years of 1918 to 1922. Although the local cinema culture was dominated from early on by the output of studios in neighbouring Germany, a number of firms did successfully establish production bases in Austria during the silent era, most prominent among them being Sascha-Film, established in Vienna in 1914. During the 1920s and 1930s directors Willi Forst (Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna, 1934), Sándor (Alexander) Korda (Samson und Delila/Samson and Delilah, 1922), and Mihély Kertész (Michael Curtiz) (Das sechste Gebot/The Sixth Commandment, 1923) made films in Austria. Korda later migrated to Britain; and Kertész, along with fellow Austro-Hungarians Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinneman, and Edgar G. Ulmer, to Hollywood (see hungary, film in). Forst’s Maskerade is a significant example of the operetta film, an influential middle-European variant of the film musical. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Austria, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 Aug. 2022
In the library's collections/Searching the online catalog
You can start your search here with these subject headings below:
- motion pictures austriaCall number range PN 1993.5 .A83 on Baker Level 4.
Introductory reading(s)
Austrian cinema: a history by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .A83 D37 2005ISBN: 9780786420780This comprehensive English survey of Austrian film provides an examination of the influences of Austrian social-critical and comedy genres on the international cinema. The work introduces more than a century of Austrian cinema, following the development of the industry chronologically through the nation's various transformations since 1895.
New Austrian film by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .A83 N49 2011ISBN: 9780857452320Out of a film culture originally starved of funds have emerged rich and eclectic works by film-makers that are now achieving the international recognition that they deserve: Barbara Albert, Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, and Stefan Ruzowitzky, to give four examples. This comprehensive critical anthology, by leading scholars of Austrian film, is intended to introduce and make accessible this much under-represented phenomenon. Although the book covers the full development of the Austrian new wave it focuses on the period that has brought it global attention: 1998 to the present. ...
Film unframed: a history of Austrian avant-garde cinema by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .E96 F528 2012ISBN: 9783901644429The unique contribution of Austrian avant-garde film to world cinema is widely acknowledged. This is the first book in English dedicated to its historical and aesthetic evolution. The expansive introductory essay by the editor provides a detailed overview of avant-garde film production in Austria, followed by twenty contributions from international film scholars who engage with the work of individual filmmakers. ...
Selected book title(s)
Cinema and social change in Germany and Austria by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781554582259During the last decade, contemporary German and Austrian cinema has grappled with new social and economic realities. The 'cinema of consensus'; a term coined to describe the popular and commercially oriented film-making of the 1990s, has given way to a more heterogeneous and critical cinema culture. Making the greatest artistic impact since the 1970s, contemporary cinema is responding to questions of globalization and the effects of societal and economic change on the individual.
Austria made in Hollywood by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .A836 V36 2019ISBN: 9781571139450Considers over sixty Hollywood films set in Austria, examining the film industry, the influence of domestic factors on images of a foreign country, and the persistence of clichés. Maria von Trapp, watching the final scene of The Sound of Music for the first time as "her" family escaped into Switzerland, exclaimed, "Don't they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!" Had she thought about the beginning of the film, which transports viewers to "Salzburg, Austria in the last Golden Days of the Thirties," when the country was in fact suffering from extreme political and social unrest, she might have asked, "Don't they know history either?" In The Sound of Music as well as in Hollywood's many other "Austria" films, the projections on the screen resemble reflections in a fun house mirror. ...
Other library resource(s)
Media history digital library by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe Media History Digital Library digitizes collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access. The project is supported by owners of materials who loan them for scanning, and donors who contribute funds to cover the cost of scanning.
The Collection feature extensive runs of several important trade papers and fan magazines.
Finding scholarly articles and journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about Austrian cinema can be found in many publications. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about these national cinemas.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie title(s)
Find more Austrian films in the library's catalog.
Böse Zellen = Free radicals by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #3855Austrian housewife Manu narrowly escapes from an airplane accident only to die six years later in a car accident. The results of the accident transform Manu's young family, the lives of the teenagers in the other car, and the entire community. The film explores the Butterfly Effect and the randomness of fate.
Museum hours by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16842ISBN: 9780781514545When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads which sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways artworks reflect and shape the world.
Therapy for a vampire = Vampir auf der Couch by Call Number: Streaming videoA vampire in 1930s Vienna seeks marriage counseling from Sigmund Freud and meets the reincarnation of his one true love in this ensemble comedy, a hilarious mess of mistaken identities that proves 500 years of marriage is enough.
The third man by Call Number: Streaming videoHolly Martins, a writer of fictional pulp novels, arrives in Vienna in 1947, in the midst of the post-war period, with the Austrian capital divided into different sectors occupied by the victorious allied troops in World War II, and where there are still food supply problems, which has caused a huge black market to flourish. The reason for his trip was the possibility of accepting a job offered by a childhood friend, Harry Lime. However, when he arrives they tell him that his friend has died in a peculiar traffic accident. After talking to various friends and associates of the victim, Holly begins to find inconsistencies in the different versions of what happened and suspects that his friend could be involved in the black market plot. Holly decides to investigate. ...- Vienna 1900: recollections of a Viennese girl in Paris byCall Number: Streaming videoAt the turn of the nineteenth century, Vienna appeared to be one of Europe's most affluent and cultured capitals but, behind its elegant façade, a young generation of artists, musicians, writers and thinkers was struggling to escape the strait-jacket of the old Austrian Empire and its frivolous trappings. This film looks at the traumatic re-birth of Vienna and at the pioneers of a new age - Klimt, Schiele, Loos, Zweig, Kraus, Schoenberg, Hofmannsthal and Freud, among them.
Internet resource(s)
- Austrian Film CommissionThe Austrian Film Commission (AFC), founded in 1986, is an organization dedicated to promoting Austrian cinema throughout the world.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
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