Austria\'s 1960s Film Trauma: Notes on a Cinematic Phoenix

about the writer Rob e r t D as s an ow s k y is P r ofe s s or of Ge r man an d Film Stu d ie s at th e Un iv e r s ity of Color ad o , Color ad o Sp r in g s , an d V is itin g P r ofe s s or at UCLA. He is a w id e ly p u b lis he d cu ltu r al an d film h is tor ian an d an in d e p e n de n t p r od u ce r . His mos t r e ce n t b ook , Au s t r i an Ci n ema: A Hi s t or y (2005), is th e f ir s t comp r e h en s iv e s tu d y of th at n ation 's f ilm ar t an d in d u s tr y in En g lis h . He is cu r r e n tly w or k in g on an e x amin ation of film u n d e r Au s tr ofas cis m an d on p s ych e d e lic cin e ma as g e n r e .

notes [1] Mar t in Sch w e ig h ofe r , "V or w or t," Au s t r i an Fi l m Commi s s i on — Jah r es b er ich t 2001, e d . Kar in Sch ie fe r ( V ie n n a: Au s tr ian Film Commis s ion , 2002) , p . 3. [2] Gos w in D ör fle r , "Au s tr ia," I n t er n at i on al Fi lm Gu i d e 1977 , e d . P e te r Cow ie (Lon d on : Tan tiv y P r e s s , 1977), p . 80. [3] For an e x amin ation of th e r is e an d fall of th e g e n r e in th e p os tw ar e r a, s e e Ge r tr aud Ste in e r , D i e Hei mat -Mac h er : Ki n o i n Ö s t er r eic h 1946 -1966 ( Wie n : V e r lag fü r Ge s e lls ch afts k ritik , 1987). [4] H av in g b r oad cas t man y Au s tr ian mu s ical b iop ics o f th e 1950s on h is Ame r ican te l e v is ion p r og r ams , Walt D is n e y s e t u p a V ie n n a office in th e e ar ly 1960s w ith th e in te n tion of cr e a tin g Au s tr ian co -p r od u ction s on th e r oman ticiz e d Mi t t el eur op a th e me s s o d e ar to h im. O n ly a fe w films w e r e pr od u ced b e for e Walt D is n e y's d e ath in 1966, an d th e n e w s tu d io h e ad s ab an d one d th e p r oje ct. Amon g th e s e w e ll cr afte d "imitat ion s " of A u s tr ian

g e n re s an d s tyle s w h ich u tiliz e d Au s tr ian s u p p or tin g actor s an d cr e w is th e s tor y of a b oy' s life in th e V ie n n a Boys Ch oir in Al mos t An g el s (1962), d i r e cte d b y Ste v e P r e v in , w ith P e te r We ck , Han s Holt, an d Gu n th e r P h ilip p ; th e s ag a of V ie n n a's fame d Sp an is h Rid in g Sch o ol's Lip iz z an s tallion s at th e con clu s ion of Wor ld War I I an d Sov ie t occu p ation , Th e Mi r ac l e of t h e Wh it e St al l i on s (19 63), d ir e cte d b y Ar thu r Hille r , w ith Rob e r t Taylor , Lilli P alme r , an d Cu r d Jü r ge n s ; an d a Joh an n Str au s s b iop ic, Th e Wal t z Ki n g (1963), d ir e cte d b y S te v e P r e v in , w ith Br ian Ah e r n e an d Se n ta Be r g e r . Th e op p or tun ity to b r in g ab ou t th e lon g -h op ed con n e ction b e tw e e n V ie n na an d Hollyw ood film in th is w a y w as too s h or t -liv e d an d limite d in s cop e to h av e s p aw n e d any con tin u an ce . [5] For Ge r man lan g u ag e d is cu s s ion s r eg ar d in g 1.Apr i l 2000 ( Ap r i l 1, 200 0 , 1 952) , an all -s tar , g ov e r n me n t s p ons or e d s cie n ce -fiction f an tas y ab ou t Au s tr ia d e fyin g con tin u e d Allie d occu p ation in th e ye ar 20 00, s e e Er n s t Kie n in g e r , e t al, e d s., 1. Ap r i l 2000 (W ie n : Filmar c h iv Au s tr ia, 2000). An En g lis h e x amin ation is g iv e n in myAu s t r i an Ci n ema: A Hi s t or y (Je ffe r s on , NC an d Lon d on : McFar lan d , 200 5) . [6] For an an alys is of th e Wis e film as an alle g or y of th e Sch u s ch n ig g e r a s e e my article , "An Un claime d Cou n tr y: T h e Au s tr ian I mag e in Ame r ican Film an d th e Sociop olitics of T h e Sou n d of Mu s i c ," Br i g h t Lig h t s Fi l m Jou r n al 41 Ju ly (200 3) on lin e at: . [7] Elis ab e th Bü ttn e r an d Ch r is tian D e w ald , An s c h l us s an Mor g en . Ei n e Ges c h i ch t e d es ös t er r ei ch i sc h en Fi l ms v on 1945 b i s z ur Geg en w ar t (Salz b urg : Re s id e n z , 1997), p . 36 4.

[8] W alte r Fr itz , I m Ki n o er l eb e i c h d i e Wel t . 100 Jah r e Ki n o u n d Fi l m i n Ö s t er r ei ch (Wie n : Br an d s tätte r , 1997), p . 26 8. [9] Gos w in D ör fle r , "Au s tr ia," I n t er n at i on al Fi lm Gu i d e 1969 , e d . P e te r Cow ie (Lon d on : Tan tiv y, 19 69), p . 45. [10] I b i d . , p . 45. [11] Bü ttn e r /D e w ald , An s ch l u ß , p . 320. Tr an s lation b y Rob e r t v on D as s an ow s k y. [12] Fr itz , I m Ki n o , p p . 26 8 -269. Tr an s lation b y Rob e r t v on D as s an ow s k y. [13] Ö s t er r ei c h i sc h e Fi l m - u n d Ki n o Zei t u n g 815 (3 O ctob e r 1962): 1. [14] Fr itz , I m Ki n o , p . 26 1 . Tr an s lation b y Rob e r t v on D as s an ow s k y. [15] He r man n Nits ch p r e s en te d th e fir s t Action is t ar t in h is s h ow in g at th e Gale r ie D v or ak in V ie n n a in Mar ch 1 963. Th e b lood y car cas s of a lamb w as h u n g fr om th e ce ilin g an d th e n mov e d th r ou g h th e r oom in a s h a k in g motion in or d e r to s p latte r th e b lood on th e v ie w e r s . Blood w as p ou r ed fr om b u ck e ts on to th e floor , an d an a ctor flu n g r aw e g g s ag ain s t a w all. Th e s h ock v alu e of th e Action is ts is to b e fou n d n ot on ly in th e ir p r ov ocation of tr ad it ion al ar t v e n u e s an d ar t au d ie n ce s , b u t als o in th e r ad ical is m of t h e ir mate r ials an d th e u s e of t h e h u man b od y. Blood , an ima l e n tr ails an d car cas s e s fig u r e s tr on g ly in th e e ar ly p e r for man ces in w h at is i n te n d ed as r itu alis tic or D ion ys ian "r ap tu r e ." Late r , th e n ak ed h u man b od y w as d ir e ctly in v olv e d in th e act ion . [16] Th omas Els ae s s e r , The BFI Comp an i on t o Ger man Ci n ema , e d s . Th omas Els ae s s e r an d Mich ae l We d e l (Lon d on : B FI ,

1999), p . 29. [17] Bü ttn e r /D e w ald , An s ch l u ß , p . 284. [18] V alie Ex p or t, "Ex p an de d Cin e ma as Ex p an d e d Re ality," Sen s es o f Ci n ema 28 Se p te mbe r -O ctob er (2003) on lin e at: . [19] I b i d . [20] A s e le ction of Au s tr ia n action i s t film ( 1967 - 70) is av ailab le for v ie w in g on li n e at: . A r e ce n t in te r v ie w w ith O tto Mü h l b y An d r ew Gr os s man e xp lor e s th is s u b v e rs iv e an d a lie n atin g cr e ativ ity fr om th e ar tis t' s p e r sp e ctiv e . [21] Ex p or t. [22] Els ae s s e r , BFI Comp a n i on t o Ger man Ci n ema , p . 8 4. [23] D ör fle r , I n t er n at i on al Fi l m Gu i d e 1977 , p . 80 . [24] Gos w in D ör fle r , "Au s tr ia," I n t er n at i on al Fi l m Gu i d e 1974 , e d . P e te r Cow ie (Lon d on : Tan tiv y, 19 74), p . 78. [25] Te le v is ion ow n e r s in c r e as e d fr om 1,579, 000 in 1 971 to 1,686,0 00 in 197 2 in a n a t ion al p op u lation of 7,4 00,00 0. As of Jan u ar y 1, 19 73, th e r e w e r e on ly 702 c in e ma th e ate r s in Au s tr ia (as comp ar e d w ith 1,248 i n 1964), 103 of w h i ch w e r e in V ie n n a (as comp ar e d w ith 228 in 1953). D ör fle r , I n t ern at i onal Fi l m Gu i d e 1974 , p . 78 .

Austria's 1960s Film Trauma: Notes on a Cinematic Phoenix By Robert Dassanowsky With the emergence of New Austri an Fi lm on t he internati onal scene since the turn of the century, many crit ics o utside the country hav e erroneous ly prai sed this new wave as an unexpected and belated development o f critic al cinem a in Austr ia. At the 2001 Eu ropean F ilm Awards, Stephen Gayd os of Variety ann ounced t hat "the Au stri ans are enjoying perhaps the greatest flower ing of ci nematic talent in seven ty years." [1] While it i s a welc ome th ing to have intern ati onal cine a stes re cognize the sign i ficance of New Austr ian Fil m, Gaydo s might well cut his seven barr en Austria n decades by at least half. The trauma of the commerc ial motion picture indu stry collap se in V ienna durin g the 19 60s and the fil m ic experi mentati on of the Action ist s, which w a s so rad ica l a s to is olat e it from the var iou s Eu ropean new w aves of the era (Italy, Poland, France, B rit ain, Sweden , Denmark, Czechoslov a kia, West German y), removed Au stri a fro m th e cinem atic land scape a nd memory for dec ades. The slow but steady return to narrative fil m forms and the re - visio n of traditiona l genres into fresh crit ical and artist ic st atements by a new generation of f ilmm akers beginn ing in the late 1970 s ha s culmin ated in the cur re nt achievement and in a wide desire to le arn m ore about the nat ion' s cinem atic pa st. Austr ia' s vani shing a ct from n ation al and internat ion al s c reens dur ing the height of European fil m leadersh ip and popul arity prov ides a unique caution ary tale that should offer in sight to other "film nat ion s" bemo a ning cinem atic decl ine. The results of internat io nal cine ma' s los s of a su bstantia l porti on of it s a udience to televis ion and other lei sure activ ities were sw iftly felt in Au stri a, where the collap se of the fil m production boo m of the 1950 s was co mpounde d by lack of state film subvention and the increa sing We st Germ an control of Germ an -lan guage produc tion s a nd film di stributi on. The West Germa n indu stry m et the general cri si s no better, but signifi cant r eduction there did n ot mean the end of co mmer cial product ion as it wou ld in Au stri a. (Starting i n 19 62, West Ger man filmm akers c ould a lso c ount on gove rnment fi l m promot ion subsid ies.) Austri an c o -production with West Germ any h ad become c omm onplace by the late 1 95 0s as the on ly way to f inan ce and secure the e arn ings of a fil m. A ustri an produce rs were required to payKino sonde rsteue rn (cinema the ater taxes ), an d the rise in produ ction costs and sta r sa lar ies made luc rative We st German d istr ibution the only hope fo r produce r s. Hence, film s were

created for the tastes o f West German audience s and general Eur opean export, rather than in continu ance of any nat i o nal trad ition s o r develop ment of any arti stic styl es. In additi on, many prominent Austr ian ta le nts representi ng the na tional industry th rougho ut the 1950 s had n ow vanished fro m the scree ns: both Viennese F ilm auteur Will i Fo rst and c omedy directo r E. W. Emo retired at the end of the decade. Classic fi lm director s Eduard von Bor sody and Geza von Cziffra would jo in them in the m id -196 0s. Dr am a tic diva Paul a Wes sely f aced the s ame l ack of mature r oles that pl agued Hollywo od sta rs such a s Bette D avis and aband oned moti on pi ctures to revita lize her c areer in the the ater. Di rector Arthur M ar ia Rabenalt tu rned to televi si on, a s did actor P aul H örbige r. Romy Schneide r, on e of the new Austr ian star s with a major internati ona l follow ing, moved to Fr ance in 195 8 to es c ape typecast ing born of her role s i n imperi al epi cs, and turn ed her back on Au stri an film. Accl ai med young dramat ic a ctors Mar ia Schell and Osk ar Wern er found caree rs in H ollywood and then in internat iona l film s. Writer/D irecto r Hubert Mar ischk a died in 1 95 9. Producer/d irector Alfred Stöger, who had led both Austr ia' s Mundu s an d Thali a -Fil m co mpan ies, and Sch önbrunn -F ilm he ad Erne st Mül ler both died in 19 62, f ollowed b y Vienne se c om ic supers tar H ans Mo ser in 19 63, and one of the m ost succes sful direct ors o f the postwar era, Ernst Mari schk a, in 196 5. Just as cinem a critic is m/theo ry public a tions attained glob al po pular intere st through t he French Cahie rs du cinéma and the Brit ish Sight and Sound , Austr ian journ al s vani shed: the redoubtable Mein Film cea sed pu blic ation in 195 7, and Austr ia' s "Box Office" m agazine, Paimann s Filmli sten , founded in 191 6, ended its long run in 19 65.

B o o m t i m e s : r o m a n t i c h is t o r ic a l r e f l e c t i o n s f o r i n t e r n a t i on a l a u d i e n c e s : K a r l h e i n z B ö hm a n d R o m y S c h n e i d e r i n E r n s t M a r is c h k a ' s S is s i , d ie j u n g e K a is e r i n / T he Y ou n g E m p r e s s ( 1 9 56 )

In addition to the l ack of film funding, which h ad become the long in st ituted norm in other Western Eur opean c ountries, the Au stri an gover nment continued to vie w film a s s omething outside of the trad ition a l arti stic and cultura l es tablish ment. The film ta x had gone to support cinem a theater s, not fi lm, and the Mi nist ry of Educat ion and Cultu re, when it recogn ized cinem a at a ll, con sidere d only document ar ies on theater and oper a subj ects to be of cultur al or educat iona l value. De spite the efforts of d ire ctor Walter Kol m-Veltée, who chaired the f ilm institute at Vienn a's pre stigiou s Acade my of Mus ic and Perform ing Arts, the growth of a new generation of Aust ri an fi lmmake rs w as n ot forthc oming in any sign ific ant way, given the lack of government funding, which made a rtist ic or n on -commer ci al product ion s a near -i mpos sib ility. A

commer ci ally vi able new wave sim ila r to those o f other European c ountri es was thus stillb orn in Austr ia. W ith Austr ia n filmm akers f acing an adapt -or-die pro spect, only very trad ition al styles of the 19 50 s (ad ulterated to suit We st German popul ar de mand s) and inte rnati onal ly created generic entertai nment (bound for wider export) survived, while lack of funding and government prom otion made fil m experi menta tion m ore m argin al th an anywhe re on the continent. What l ittle e xperimentati on there w as fa iled to achieve a n ation al aud ience o r a critic al apprec iat ion tha t would launch it beyond Austria' s borders. Au s tria' s most i mportant production leg acy, Wie n -Film, had sh riveled i nto a min or relea sing firm, and the great Rosenhügel studio wa s, for a time, surviv ing on foreign rental and televis ion producti on. It was this largely artifi cial suffocat ion of Austr ian fil m that allowed fo r the erroneous an d widely spread not ion th at "there is no re al fil m c ulture"[2] in Au stri a. Given the pioneering aspects of the art and i ts technol ogy in the Au stro -Hungar ian Empi re a nd the Austr ian Fi rst Republic, Austr ia' s see di ng of Europe and Holly wood with fil m talent, the 193 8 -45 W ien - Fil m studio' s finely crafted costume and mu sic al fi lm subvers ions of the Third Reich, and the internati ona lly rec ogniz ed production s of the postwar er a, such a st atement seem s wholly absurd today. But in th e short mem ory of di str ibutors, cr itic s, film fe stival s and the world audience, Au stri a's appa rent no -show in the inte rnation al f ilm market for almo st three dec ades would seem to support s uch negative publ ic ity. The fall of Au stri an c inem a in the 1 96 0s w ould, however, not be the end of a nationa l industry th at had been absorbed an d broken before. The imper ial epic s, dra mas, and per iod comed i es had been left beh ind with the boom of the 195 0s. The next genre to fade from the screen s was the resi lient Hei m atfilm. Between 196 0 and 19 66, when the gen re final ly suc cumbed, o nly nine dr amat ic Hei ma tfilm s were produ ced. The first of the new decade was m ade by the man who would provid e post -1950 s Austr ian cinem a with its on ly l ast ing connect ion to the ea rly postw ar er a, to the r e -visioned tr aditi ons of the Viennese F ilm an d the Heimat genres, an d who would in fact, be the only c onstant in the faltering industry f or the next three decad es: Franz Antel. Han s S chott -Schöbinger' s Der Pfarr er mit der J azztrompete (The Pastor with the Jazz Trumpet , 1962), an Austr ian/We st German co-produ ction, continues to explo r e the religiou s/ secul ar conf lict of the traditi onal genre, but is an obvious and jarring conce ss ion to the West German fil m market. The central figure, a jazz - and spo r t - loving Protest ant pas tor (Joach im H ansen), i s a fo reign body in a dramat ic Au stri an Heim atfilm, which even in its most reduct ive forms ha s alw ays been ass oci ated with ma instr eam Au stri an or S outhe rn Germa n (read: Cath o lic) rur al culture. Hi s modern w ays attra ct th e youth but are rejecte d by the sm all town m ayor. In order not to alien ate th e Au stri an an d Bava ri an aud ience s, Der Pfar rer mit der Jazztrompete does include a sympatheti c Cathol ic pr iest, but with its unc o nventional e mbodi ment of the good and the safely progres sive, the film, which even suggests that several girls ca n s pend the ni ght in the rectory w ithout scand a l, is cle arly ai med at attra cting the w idest pos sible audien ce, particul arly the y outh m arket. It predi cts H ollyw ood's attempt to s ati sfy a bro ad internat ion al market with the image o f the non -conformist nu n in such musi cal s and c omedies as The Sound of Music (1965), The Singing Nun (1965), and The Trouble with Angels (1966). Franz Antel offered a r a re dram atic Hei matfil m i n 196 5, Ruf der Wälder (Call of the Fo re sts ), his se cond fil ming of Marie v on Ebner -Es c henbach's n ovella , Kr a mbambuli , this t ime modernized to include e lements of sex and cri m e, themes which would overtake Austr ian a nd West German f ilm s of a l l genres during the dec ade. The final se riou s H eimatfil m of the era, Georg Tressler' s product ion of Der W eibsteuf el (The She-Devil, 196 6), was a remake as wel l. The film wa s cr itic ally lauded for its "exper i mental" edge and a s a n antidote to clic hé formula s, for it s employ ment of a so lidly A ustr ia n cast and c rew, a neore ali stic tone, and bl ack and white photogr aphy. Tress le r als o rejected any trendy modern izati o n of the or iginal K arl Schönherr n ovel, aside fr om the contempor ary co stumes. The film, which was produced by Otto Dürer, one of the few su rviving produ cers of the 195 0s, s howc ases Ma ri a Emo, the daughter of director E. W. Emo. Dürer had ins isted she get the role over the German distribut or's preference for the new Austri an "face " of the moment, Senta Berger, a talented Will i For st discovery, who h ad ap peared in one of hi s final fi lms, Die unent schuldigte Stunde (The

Unexcused Hour , 1957). After losing the Tressle r picture, Berger rose to fame in West Germa n cinem a and w as a sty l ish fo reign sex symbo l in m id -196 0s Hollyw o od and i nternati ona l entertainment before re turning to West Germany and Austri a to seek better par ts and to work as a produ cer. Tressler hoped to restart the Heimatfil m genre and a form of Austr ian "new wave" with h is film, wh i ch was subsequentl y sh o wn at the 1 96 6 Be rlin a nd 196 7 M osc ow fil m festival s. Despite its quality and in novati on and the cr itic a l p ra ise it rece ived, Die unentschuldigte Stunde failed to influence e ither filmmake rs or the ma rket. The 196 0s began w ith s eriou s attempt s at cont i nuing both the com ic an d mus ica l vers ion s of the Heimatfilm genre. [3] The first was Paul L öwinger's Do rf ohne M o ral (Village Without Moral s, 196 0), a tale about a village fool lo st in the nightlife of a big city. Very popular was the semi-ser ies (made b y different production c ompan ies and dire ctor s) of "White Horse Inn " musi cal s. These were ba sed on R alph Benatzky's imperi al -era operetta, I m Weiß en Rößl /(At the White Hors e Inn ), which had been previ ously fil med as a Ger man silent in 1 92 6, an Au stri an sound fe ature in 1 93 5, and a West Ge rman feat ure in 1 945 and 1 952 (the latter d irected by Willi For st). Werner Jac obs inc ongruou sly updat ed the i mperia l-era ope retta to contempo rary times fo r the 1 96 0 vers i on with W altraud Ha as. Characte r na mes were c hanged to su it m odern tastes, the musi c wa s g iven jazz and pop temp i, yet Emper or Franz J oseph st ill make s a n appeara nce here — a lbeit as a gh ost! Rec all ing the apparit ion of Joh an n Straus s, Jr., in von Bor sody's V erlo rene M elo die (Lost Melody , 195 2), the suturing of contem porary Au stri a to the imperi al myth succeeded as a cine mat ic refle ctio n of n ation al/ cultura l identity into the 1 96 0s. The following year' s F ra nz Antel entry, Im Schwarzen Rößl (At the Black Hors e Inn , 196 1), was not so much a sequel a s an exploitat ion of the 19 60 ver si on to adapt and sel l yet a nother summer va cati on film. Its thin narrat ive plot was formu lated to give screen time to po pular singers Gu s B ackus, Li l Babs, and Peter K rau s. Antel would revi sit the subject one final t ime in Im Singenden Rö ßl am Königse e (At the Singing Horse In n , 196 3). It again pre sents Wa ltraud Haa s as an innkeeper (o ne of the few female authority role s in Hei matfi lm comedy), but this film w as a mél ange of themes fr om the or igin al operetta and several other pe riod work s, including a 1 9 -century Nestroy pl ay. The blat ant adverti sement of K önigsee, whic h i s in Bava ri a, helped market the film in West Germany . Rolf Olsen's Hochzeit a m Neusedl ers ee (Weddi ng at the Neusedlers e e , 196 3) shifted the traditi onal Alpine He im atfilm venue to Aust ri a's Hung ari an -border l ake reso rt, and al so dispensed with any att empt at a trad ition al narr ative by creat ing what was ba si call y a cinem atic var iety sho w featuring West German aud ience plea sers: Austr ian pop singer/ compo ser Udo Jür gens and attract ive ingé nue Mady R ahl. Cur ious l y, the film w as one of the very few that pre miered in Vienn a at this ti me. The trend to dilute and vulg ar ize the Heimatfilm wa s expl oited by F ranz Antel's Liebesgrüß e au s Tirol ( From the Tyrol with Love, a.k.a. Hully Gully in Tirol , 19 64), and given blatantly er otic situat ions in Ern st Hofbauer's Di e Liebesqu elle (The Fountain of Love , 1966) with Ann Sm yrner, the Danish - born sex symbol in Austr ia n film. The ultimate hybridizati on that se aled the end of the comi c Heim atfilm wa s F ranz Antel's absurdly tr endy 00Sex am W olfgan gsee (Double-O-Sex at Lake Wolfgang , a.k.a Ha ppy End at St. Gilg en, 196 6), in which the James Bond pheno menon and Beatle man ia cr os s o ver into the Austri an rur al film. Whi le the musi c is provided by a "mod " pop-rock band, the bikin i h as replaced the di rndl , and whi le pa rt of the plot pretends t o be a 007 spo of with come d ia n Paul Löwinger a s a se cret agent m anqué, at i ts core the fil m is a typical Antel rust ic c om edy from the late 195 0s. Also attempting cl oak -a nd-dagger comedy was West German televi si on directo r Sa mmy Drechsel, who hel med the Austri an/We st German/ French -c o-produ ced Cold War comedy, Zwei Girls vom Roten Stern (An Affair of States, 19 66), which ta kes place at a nu clear - disa rma ment conferen ce in Geneva, where an Ameri can "super weapon " is revealed. Whi le the S oviets attempt to ga in th e device by u sing sex as a lure, the U.S. (Curd Jürgens) and Soviet (Lill i Palmer) delegates fa ll i n love. But the major spy spo of of the ye ar wa s the Au stri an/Ita lia n/F r ench co -product ion, Ger n hab' ich die F rauen gekillt (Killer's Carn ival , 1966), directed by Sheldon Reynolds, A lberto Cardone, Robert Lynn, and Loui s S oulane s, writ ten by Reynolds, Vittor io Salern o, and Rolf Olsen, and featur ing a very non-Austri an intern ation al cast in cluding Stewar t Granger, Lex Barker, and Pierce Br ice. The desire to intern ati onal i ze Austri an c o medy sp elled the r apid l oss o f true nati ona l fil m

production, s ince most o f these film s a imed at b road export reduced act ual Au stri an c ast a nd crew to les s than a thi rd. Although neither D r echsel o r Reynolds coul d compete with the expensive global -st andar d spy sat ires such as H ol lywood's "Fl int" f ilm s, or the mega -star J ames Bond spoof, Casi no Roy ale (GB/USA 1 967) — which employed Aust ro -H ollywood a ctor Kurt Kaszna r and uti lized Bill y Wilder a s one of the m any unc redited wr iters o f the spr awling f ilm — their works rema in inte resting example s of the brief reson ance of the era's Angl o -Amer ica n cinem atic fads in Centra l Europe. There were also more se riou s crime, myste ry an d spy films, such as Hub ert Frank's D as Rätsel der roten Qua ste (The Puzzle of the Red Ta ssel, 196 3), Alfred Vorher' s E in Alibi zerbricht (An Alibi Collaps es , 19 63), Eddy Saller' s sexy Geise l des Flei sches (Hostag e of Flesh , 1 965), the Austri an/It ali an/Sp ani sh co -production of F ranz Josef Gottlieb's Mister Dynamit -Morgen küßt euch der Tod (Mr. Dyna mite-Death Kis se s You T omor row , 1 967), and the Austr ian entr ies in the internati ona lly pr oduced Kommi ssa r X ser ies, a Bond -like ser ies th at spanned fro m 1 96 6 into the 1970 s, with various director s, that picked up the trail of Agent Joe Walker, aka Kom mi ss ar X, played by Italia n -Am erican acto r Tony Kenda ll (Lucian o Stell a). Anot her si mil ar se rie s was Ernst H ofbauer' s Tim Fr a zer jagt den gehei mnisvo llen Mr. X (Tim Fr azer a nd the Mysteri ous M r. X, 1964). But the most s uccessful "Aust ria n" spy film on the global m arke t came at the peak of the craze in m id -decade: the Austri an/Ita l ian co -pr oduction of Wie tötet man eine Dame? (Secret of the Yellow Monk s , 196 6), directed by Manfred R. Köhler, featuri ng three actor s from past a nd future James B ond film s — Kari n Dor, Adolfo Celi, a nd Curt Jürgens. Becau se the Au stri an federal government refu sed to support fi lmm ak ers with the type of subsid ies that h ad beco me the norm in other Eu ropean c ountrie s, a 1 961 initi ative by the Vic e Mayor of Vienn a, Fel ix Slavik, led to the estab lish ment of the Stadth al le product ions, wh ich would utilize V ienna' s la rge modern city audito r ium a s a studio. Underw ritten by the city of Vienna, this product ion s tudio was certa inly un iq ue in European film, but rather than strive for artist ic excel lence, th e producti ons continue d the trends that had made Austr ian f ilm unremark able by the end of the 1950 s. The first Stadthalle product ion w as the comedy Uns ere tollen Tanten (Our Craz y Aun t s, 196 1), the fir st of a trio of cr os s -dress ing farce s whi ch included Unser e tollen Nichten (Our Crazy Nie ces , 196 3) and Unser e tollen Tanten in de r Südsee (Our Crazy Aunts at the South Sea , 1964) , all obviously i nspi red by Billy Wilder' s Som e Like it Hot (1959). Rolf Olsen, who had begun his ca reer a s an acto r an d screenwriter i n the immed iate po stwar year s, directed the ser ies, which fe atured popul a r si nger Udo Jürgens paired with either Ba rbara Frey or V ivi Bach, another D ani sh -born gl a mour gi rl in Germ anlanguage fi lms, and i ncluding c omedi an Gun ther Phil ipp, who als o co -wrote the fir st insta llment. Geza von Cziffra cas hed in on t he brief cros s -dress ing craze with his own treatment of the famo u s B randon Thom as pl ay, Charleys Tante ( Charle y's Aunt , 196 3) with Peter Alexander, before the Olsen series ended. The Stadthalle studio a lso produced the onl y two true Western s in Austri an c inem a h istor y: Rolf Olsen's De r let zte Ritt nach Santa Cruz (Last Ride to S anta Cruz , 19 64), written by Alex Berg, shot on the Canary Isl ands by K arl Löb, and Olsen's Mein F reund Shorty (My Frie nd Shorty , a.k.a. Heiß weht der Wind [The Hot Wind Blows], 196 4) co -produced with Bero lin a -Fi lm Berl in. Neither could compete in qual ity or popular ity with the Itali an - and Spanis h -based "S paghetti Westerns."

B r o a d c o m e d y a t t h e c o l l a p s e o f t h e c o m m e r c i a l i n d u s t r y: R o l f Ol s e n ' s U n s e r e t o l l e n N i c h t e n / O u r C r a z y N i e c e s , 19 6 3

The few foreign dire ctor s to uti lize the St adthall e studio at fi rst gave th e impre ss ion th at the undertaking m ight actu a lly ri se above the ban al ity of it s co medy fact or y with mo re a rtist ic product. Director Steve Previn, who was helming Walt Disney' s proje cts i n Vienna, [4] directed a Disney-like Stadthalle p roduction w ith young G erman pop -st ar Conny F roboes s, Ist Geraldine ein Engel? ( Is Ger aldine an Ange l? , 196 3). Axel von A mbesse r gave UFA 's le ading -man of the 193 0s, W illy Fr itsch, a n ew caree r i n father ly r ol es in hi s Da s hab e ich vo n Papa gele rnt (What Papa Taught Me , 196 4), and Wolfgang Liebene in er returned to the Austr ian s creen with Jetzt dreht die Welt sic h n ur um dich (The World Revolves Ar ound You , 196 4). One of the internati ona l pseudo -epi cs of the era, The Poppy is also a Flowe r (196 6 ), which had the most curiou sly gr andi ose pret ension s of any A ustr ian film s ince L iebeneine r's 1. April 2 000 in 1 952, was als o a St adthalle production. In fact, th e sa me pr oblem s that plagued Liebene iner's "Austr ia F ilm " [5] — sli m plot, heavy me ss age, overcrowded st ar c ast ing — contr ibuted to the dism al failu re of Poppy at the world's box offices. It had what seemed to be all the fashion able ingredients for a majo r internati ona l hit: based on a story by Ja mes Bon d author Ian F leming and directed by Terence Young, with music by Georges Auri c, Poppy was commi ss ioned by the United Nation s to br ing awarene ss to the cr ime of the global network of drug traffick ing and abuse. The feature fil m , which w as introdu ced in a do cument ary -style manne r by P rince ss Grace of M onac o, told the story of United N ati ons agents wh o attempt to follow the her oin trade from Iran by injec ting a shipment of opi u m with a r adio active c o mpound. The trai l le ads them acro ss the c apit al s of Europe. Young's n ar rative, which owed mor e than a little to the plots and loc atio n "bu mp" style of the Ja mes Bon d films, and to the mid - 60s trend for all - st ar spy spo ofs, offers a ro ster of fa shi onable and veteran inte rnati onal actor s: Senta Berger, Stephen Boyd, Yul Bryn ner, Angie D ickin son, H ugh Griffith, Jack Haw kins, Rita Hayw orth, Trevor Howard, Trini L opez, E.G. Marsha ll, Marcell o Ma stro iann i, Anthony Quayle, Gilbert Roland, Omar Sh ar if, Ha rold Sak ata, Barry Sull ivan, Nadja Tiller, M ar ilù Tolo, and El i Wal lach. Becau se of its he avy -han ded propaganda s lant, the film ha s not found th e cult status acco rded the many of the inter nation al acti on/ spy extravaganz as of the 196 0s. Its reflecti on o f the Zeitgeist and its un ique collect ion of ta le nts, however, have ma de it a soc iopol itic al document of an era an d a statement on t he folly of broad internat io nalizat ion in Au stri an cinem a.

T r e v o r H o w a r d a n d S e n t a B e rg e r i n T h e P op p y I s A l s o a F lo w e r ( 1 9 66 )

Despite the l ack of true box -office succe sse s, th e Stadthalle studi o c reat ed a di stribut ion arm in 196 5, in an effort to promote this new studio abroad. But its mo st ambitiou s film wa s als o its l ast, a fin anci al d is aster — for rea sons had little to do with the s tate of Au stri an fi lm industry, but rather wit h the shift in aud ience t astes acro ss the globe. Der Kongr es s amü siert sich (Congress of L ove , 1 966), a grand -s cale per io d music al set at the 18 1 5 Congres s of Vienn a, was shot in 7 0mm Super Panoram a. This lavi sh A ustri an/F rench co - produ ction was di rected by Geza von Radvanyi and co -scripted by him w ith Fred Denger and A ldo von Pinelli. The expensive film revi sed t he 19 40s Wien -F ilm mu si cal fo r the internat iona l blockbuster ma rket of the 196 0s with a la rge cast includ ing Curd Jürg ens, Lill i Pa lmer, and Walter Slez ak. Like s o many overbl own mu sic al production s of the era — Star! (1968), Hello, D olly! (1969), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (196 9) — it wa s a majo r flop th at on ly succeeded i n cl os ing the Stadthalle studi o a nd finally kil ling off the i mperia l mu si cal -epic ge nre in Aust ria n fil m. Bu t just as Au stri an fi lm faded from intern ati onal recogniti on, an A meri ca n recreat ion of the mu si cal Hei matfilm, s hot in S alzburg and Holl ywo od, gave the wor ld it s most indelible i ma ge of the nati on in Robert Wise's The S ound of Mu sic (1965). The fil m wa s wildl y popul ar abro ad and h as been either uncriti call y accepted by Austri ans a s a vaguely positive amb as sado r of the nation — despite the lead char acters' emb odiment of the monarch i s t/Catho lic co rpor ate state ideology under Chancell ors D ollfus s and Schuschn igg (193 3 -38) and the im ages of Au str ian Naz ism — or el se rejected as a n exampl e of Hollyw ood's kitsc h co -opting of A ustr ian culture. The subject matter, ba sed on the a u tobiography of Mar ia vo n Trapp, had alre ady be en the subject of two earlie r West Ger man f i lms by W olfgang Liebe neiner, Die Tr app -Famil i e (The Trapp Famil y , 195 6) and Die Trapp - Fam ilie in Amerik a (The Trapp Family in Amer ica , 19 58). [6] More m odestly m ounted operetta or re make s of c las sic W ien -Fi lm mu si cal s contin ued to have a smal l niche in the Euro pean market, and Austri a continued to produce these best. Even this evergreen genre eventually outstayed its welco m e with the audiences of th e mid -1960 s, which no longer accepted Bel l e Époque senti mental ity nor ca red for the c ostu me fanta sy. Even the widely popular spe ctacle of the Viennese ice -revue film had al so fina lly l ost its novelty. It was now a sl ickly pack aged and safe exotic is m, a "S u nday drive" with l ittle fantasy left to it, by compa ris on with the consc iou snes s -expanding palette of the decade's art. [7] Jacques Demy's Le s Par apluie s d e Che rbou rg (The Umbrella s of Cherbourg , 1 9 64) s ignaled th at the French New Wave, contempora ry popular mu sic, and pre -psychedelic set design concepts m ight save the music al genre , but even this refreshing jazz -opera was a dead end, as was the icono cla stic V ietn am e r a anti -war f arce presen ted in World War I guis e, Oh! What a Lovely War (196 9). The mus ica l survived ma inly in the pop/rock var iety fil m, r anging fro m Ho llywo od vehicles for Elvi s Pre sle y to The Beatle s' A Ha rd Day' s Night (1964) and i ts foll ow -up (parti ally filmed in Austr ia), Help! (1965). But mo st of t hese works we re li mite d by the immedi ate popular ity of thei r sta rs and quick ly dated by th e rush of the decade's fads a nd trends. Fr anz Antel had understo od an d exploited the quick entertainment value of thi s genre since the mid 195 0s. (He was n ow in c ompetitio n with Rolf Ols en, who attempted nearl y every genre and film fad the decade had to offer.)

Austri a's few West German - and Swedish -in spi red sex comedies or dr ama s that outdid the suggestiveness of An tel's playful yarn s were Paul Mila n's Da s M ädchen mit dem Mini (The Girl in the Miniskirt , 1965), Hubert Frank's D as Mädche n mit dem sex -ten Sinn (The Girl with the Sex th Sense, 19 66), Walte r Häu selm ayer' s Verbote nes Begehr en (a.k.a. Die nackte H aut) (The Naked Skin, 19 66), and Frit s Fron s's Vi a Eroti ca(1967) and Männ er in den be sten Jahr en erzählen Sexgeschichten (Sex Stories, 196 7). These offered adult c on tent unavai lable on televisi on but proved to be more popul ar abroad th an at ho m e. Pure variety fil ms like Schlagerr evue '6 2 (Hit Parade ' 62 , 1 96 1), directed by Thoma s Engel , drew in more youth audience s. Only German -born dir e ctor A lfred Weiden man n man aged, with s ome crit ica l and popula r succes s, to br iefly re -Austria nize i nternati on al c o -production s alon g the lines of the sophi stic ated Willi For s t films of the 195 0s. H is Julia, du bist zauberhaft (Adorable Julia , 196 2), based on W. Somerset Maugha m's sh ort story "Theater" a nd script ed by Guy Bolton and Pasc al Jardi n, featured a styli sh Fren ch/Au stri a n cast inc luding Lil li Pa lmer, Charle s Boye r, and Cha rles Regnier in a film abo ut a young man 's l ove for an older wom an. It wa s o ne of the few Austri an f ilm s of th e period t o be well di str ibuted intern ation ally an d to attr act A meri can audience s. In 196 5, Wei denmann jo ined Rolf Thiele and Axel von Ambe sser in direct ing a n episodi c fi lm (a type of fil m th at had b ecome p opular in Ita ly and Fr ance), Das Liebesk arus sell (The Car ousel of Lov e , 19 65). This sol idly Au stri an produ ction pa ired many of the big Europe an na mes of the era into fou r st ories: Gert Fröbe, a wel l -known German actor who became a qua si -st ar that sa me year in G oldfinger (19 65), with France' s most popul ar ingénue, Catherine Deneuve; Curd Jürgens with Austria n sex symbol Nadja Tiller; German comedi an Heinz Rühman n with German ingenue Johanna von K oczia n; and music al lead ing man Peter Alexander with the Swedish star of Fell i ni' s La Dolce vita (1960 ), Anita Ekberg. The failure of this for mula l ed Wiedenmann to return to more tradition al fil mmak ing with Maigret und seine r größter Fa ll (Maigret and his Gre ate st Case , 196 6), an Au str ian/It ali an/ French co production w ith Hei nz Rüh mann as Geo rges S ime non's fa med detective. The unexpected casting of Rühmann, known for his gentle fool ish ness, in the role of the seri ous M aigret attr acted compa ris ons with the ea rlier Fren ch and Brit ish incar nati ons and ultim at ely did not help the film's reception or Rü hmann' s ca reer. [8] Fran z Antel comb ined the mystery genre w ith screwbal l comedy i n Ohne Krimi geht die Mimi nie ins Bett (Mimi Loves Mysterie s , 196 2). He also attempted a cr ime adventure in .... und ewig knallen die Räube r (The Robbers Alway s Shoot , 196 2), with Kar in Dor, before anti cipat ing psychedelic cine ma by writing and pr oducing a bizar re romp d irected by Domenic o Pa olell a, Maskenb all bei Sc otland Yard (A Costume Ball at Scotland Ya rd , 1 963). This b lack -and-white p s eudo -narrat ive ab out an inventor of a device that can inter rupt any televised bro adca st is a s eries of l inked sketches that owed more to the slapda sh Ita li an exploi tation c omedie s of th e time tha n to any A ustri an co medic f il m traditi ons. The film’s str ucture, its polyglot c ast, and its a sso ci ation of televisi on culture w ith mind contr ol gives it a vague role in the devel opment of the transn ati onal epi sodi c counter culture sat ires of the mi d - and late 19 60s, but it is la rgely inc omprehen si ble. More succe ssful, however, than any i mported genres were two long -running comedy seri als: the Graf Bobby (Count Bobby) fil ms of Geza von Cziffra a nd the Wirtin(female innkeeper) films of Fr anz Antel. Not compar able to these director s' p eriod fil ms of the 1 95 0s in any a spect of production, both serie s f unctioned through a for m of cine mati c no stalgi a , offering a suggesti on of such bygone costume opulence and lac ing it wi th the physical and sexu al co medy of the era. There were a few notable drama s during the earl y 1960 s, but these had become a ra rity. Rolf Thiele's c inem atic trea tment of F ranz Wedek i nd's cont rovers ia l turn - of-the-century dram a about sexua l obse ss ion a nd manipu lati on, Lulu (1962), with N adja Tiller as the fem me fata le, began the decade. Edwin Zbonek scr ipted and fi lmed Theodor Csok or's p lay on the col lapse of the Austro-Hungar ian E m pire, 3. November 1 91 8 , in 196 5. One of the few Austri an film s of the 196 0s to deal with the i mperia l past, it was a startlingly intim ate and n eoreal isti c antidote to the grand imperia l cost ume epics of the 195 0s in its portray al of the divergences of the multicultu ral Empire, as represented by a group of soldie rs in a convale s cent home at the end of the Great War. Zbon ek, a young Au stri an fil mmaker of the time s wh o seemed to span the wide cleft between the dying Austr ian c omm ercia l cine ma and the isol ated ava nt -garde

cinem a, also worked in West Germany and wrote film critic is m. Canadi an filmmaker J ohn Olden directed a televi sion pr o duction (which went on to cinem as) on the then still tab oo subject of Austri a's b rief c ivil wa r and the introdu ction o f Chancello r Dollfu ss' a uthorita ri an corp orate state in 1 93 3 -34. The ir onic ally n amed fil m, An der schönen bl auen Do nau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube , 19 65) sta r red Attila Hörb iger and Lotte Lang. Finally, Wer ner Jacobs attempted to outdo Walt Disney wit h a neoreal ist -tinged version of Heidi (1 965). The most n otable liter ar y mater ial brought to fil m in the era wa s cert ai nly Kais er Jo seph und die B ahnwärte rstochter (Emperor Jos eph and th e Stationm aster 's D aughter , 196 3). The film is based on a pl ay by the one of the final expon ents of turn -of-the -century Viennese liter ary Impress ion ism, Fr itz von Herzmanov sky -Orlando, as interpreted by Hans H olt, Inge Konradi, and Hans Mo ser. It wa s Mos er's fin al film, and the first major work f or P a ris -born Au stri an fi lm director Axel Corti, w ho would be a sign ifi cant, if too br ief, presence in comb ining experimental ism and c o mmerc ial is m in the lead -in to New Austria n Fil m during the 1980 s. Goswin Dörfler, who reported on Austrian cine ma for the influential Br iti sh annual Intern ationa l Fil m Guide , officially decl a red the Austrian fil m ind ustry dead in 19 68: Last yea r we report ed th at "Au stri an fil m product ion and cine ma attendan ces are in a state of cris is." A s far a s 19 68 i s concerned, thi s cri si s has been res olved — the patient having died peacefully.... In practic e there is no more n ati onal fi lm produ ction. Th e Austri an c in em a ha s reached its year zero, thus giving the hope f or a new start. Both the state and p rivate enterprise have g iven se riou s thought t o thi s, a nd there are veheme nt discu ssi ons at var ious levels for the reconstru c tion of the home industr y. The king is dea d; long live the king! [9] By 19 66, only e ighteen Austri an fil ms (half wer e co -production s) were made and by 1 96 7, the amount had fallen to t welve, the majority (and the "best" as Dörfle r insi sted) were co production s. By 196 7, fourteen cine ma the aters had clo sed in V ienn a s ince the st art of the decade. Attendance ha d fallen drast ica lly: from 65.8 mill ion in 19 6 6 to 57.6 m ill ion in 196 7. [10] The paucity of Austrian c inem a art ha d also co mprom ised a m ajor film festiv al, the Viennale, whi ch had been founded as the Vien na Fil m Fe stival in 19 6 1. Its 196 8 theme of "Humo rous Cine ma" had to be aband oned due to the lack of m ateri al an d the festival in stead managed to convey the disa ster of A ustr ian pr o duction a nd lack of aud ience by s crap ing the bottom of the barrel with "Film s That Failed To Reach Us." Hungarian a nd Soviet f ilms were presented in the se ries to make up not only for the lack of Au stri an fi l m but for the obviou s uninterest by Western E uropean rele as ing comp anies in contr ibuting an ything to the failin g Austri an ma rket. Even the remain ing "art" hou s es had abandone d Austr i an cinem a for foreign avant -garde film. Still, the Austri an government continued to res ist the concept of support for film producti on and distr ibution. More than ten years aft er the death of the imperial epi c, and while Austria n filmm akers were att empting to break fro m Agfacol or/Geva colo r n ostalg ia with m ore cr itic al exami nati ons of the past, the British, Fre nch , and American s ca me to Vienna to create a bloc kbuster version of thi s Austri an genre with MGM's May erling (19 68), directed by Terence Young . This lavish examin ation of the love affair and apparent su icide de aths of Cr own Prince Rudolf and hi s mistre ss, Bar ones s M ar ie Vetser a, wa s m ore politi cal ly fra med th an previ ous ver si ons, particul arly as it m irr ored the contempora ry era in scene s of stud ent revolts and the "generati on gap" in the Habsburg dyna sty. Filme d on locati on throughou t Vienna, the imperi al costume dr ama wa s so lid ly un -Austri an in its c ast . The only true Aust ri an film of 19 68 wa s one ma de for televis ion, an OR F producti on with the regiona l West -Film (Breg enz) company, and only later entered European c inema s. But Moos auf den Steinen (Mos s o n the Stones ) w as w ithout doubt the mo st rem ar kable and memo rable Austri an fil m of the dec ade. Based on the 19 56 novel by Austr ian author Gerhard Fr itsch, the film features E rika Plu har, Heinz Trixner, Fri tz Muliar, Loui s Ries, and Wilfred Zeller Zellenberg, who h ave al l indel ibly beco me ass oc iated with th is pionee ri ng work. In the m idst

of the worst cri si s in Au s tria' s film h isto ry, young filmm ake r Georg Lhotsk y offered a work that not only embraced and succes sfully ad apted French New Wave stylistic s , but also provided a brilli ant al legory for A ustri a's s oci ocultur al pr oblems as a sm all rep ublic haunted by the memory of a once pow erful empire. The fil m projected the very qualitie s of wh at would resurrect A ustri an fil mm aking late in the next decade: a cultur ally lo ca lized topic, region al on-locat ion ph otography , mild experi mentati on, Austr ian ca st and cre w, and a low budget funded by private me an s an d by co-product ion with televis ion. Sh ot in black -and-white and color by Wa lter K indler, Lhotsky' s fil m inte rprets the Mitteleurope an me ditation s of Gerhard Frits ch with gre at po ignancy. In ea stern A ustr ia , where the phantom pr esence of the fo rmer crown land s of the Em pire are st ill to be fel t, the collisi on of the past and the present, traditi on and pr agmati s m, monar chy and repu blic are acted out in micr oco sm by an old ari stocr at whose bar oqu e castle is ove rrun by vi sitor s who intend to refurbish it a s a c ultur al center. Recall ing the no stalgi a of the 19 50 s imp erial epic s, the fil m pl a ys between the pa st and present, the me mor i es of the old Baron and his d aughter Jutta, and the enthusi asti c plan s of Jutta's fi ancé, Mehl m ann, and hi s friend, the writer Petri k. A s Jutta l eads Mehl mann th rough the room s of the ca stle and the fa mi ly's p ast, t he rom antic ritu al of im perial life is evoked, but Jutta also offers her memor ies of the executi on of two deserter s hid i ng at the castle in the final d ays of the Sec on d Worl d Wa r. As they don the antique cloth in g of her fa mily and joyously ro mp acr oss th e grounds, the temporal boundarie s seem to d isappe ar. The Baron paral lels this es cap ism by writing a novel about Austria' s past, Moo s a uf den Steinen , where the chara cters "lo ve the mos s that grow s on the crumbl ing wall s of the Danube Mon archy, the soft pillow s of trans ito rines s on stone s that are no longer Au stri a." [11] The bittersweet masquer ade in a l ost identity must however com e to an end: the Bar on casts the page s of hi s novel into the w ind, and when the costu med lov ers re ach the end of the estate, they see the barbed wire and m achin e gun turrets of the Iron Curtain. Mehlm ann ult imately ret reats fro m his modern ization plan s and al lows the ca stle to find its slow, eleg ant de ath. The mos s re ma ins on the stones.

T h e c o l l i s io n o f t h e i m p e r i a l p a s t a n d t h e Co l d W a r p r e s en t : H e i n z T r i x n e r l e d b y E r i ka P l u h a r i n G e o r g L h o t s k y ' s M o os a u f S t e i n e n (1 9 6 8 )

While it suggests the c apital ist exploit ation of a roma ntic ized imperi a l past in the Second Republic, Lhotsky's wo rk also is a metaf ilm ic co mmentary on the 19 50 s i mperia l epic fi lms, in which the audience des ired to "co stume" thems elves in a mythic pa st for a few hour s in a fantasy of identity, wh ich must then be aban doned for C old W ar re ality. M ost imp ortant, however, is the exposur e of this no stalg ia as a symptom of Austr ia' s li n gering identity cr is is. Literary hi stor ian Reinh ard Urba ch find s th at f or author Fr itsch "pre s erving trad ition s als o

means t o mou rn their p ass ing. Such an interest in the Austr ian p ast is not ab out a de sire f or collap se, or decaden ce, or cyni cis m towa rds a pr esent, which could n ot preserve the past and had no strength for a new beginning. Rather it is about the sadness for the loss of continu ity and about preservat ion and renewal." [12] Lhots ky's film was not the o nly 196 0s attempt at delivering an Au stri an "n ew wave," but it was the most com merci al appr oa ch. Although Au stri a h ad n o equiva lent of an or g anized m ovement to d i spel poo r co mmer cia l product, as was announc ed by young West German cinema arti sts in thei r Oberhausen Man ifest o of 196 2, there were several s chool s of experimentat ion and av a nt -garde filmmak ing. Unfortunately, these de velopments were s hunn ed by the failing m ain stream industry. The surviving Aust ria n fi lm p ublicat ion Fil m und Kino zeitung (Film and Cin em a New s ) did not even report on the West Germ an Oberhausen event but eventually offered a ba ckhanded explanati on for the overa ll avo idan c e of what wa s happeni ng in cr itic al a nd art isti c film o utside of Austr ia. It blatantly adm itted that the r isi ng co st of fi lm ma king and the lack of b ox -office suc cess in a shrink ing Austri an ma rket made feature experimentation proh ibit ive. [13] Discu ss ion of such trends was obvio usly de e med useless and unneces sary. The first appear ance of Austri a's av ant -garde c in ema h ad actual ly c ome o n the heels of It ali an neoreal is m and before the French New Wave. The early 19 50 s s aw the creati on of the Vienna "Art Club" where non -c ommerc ia l filmm aker s found a home. Wolfgan g Kudranofsky, Kurt Steinwender, Ferry Rad a x, Gerhard Rühm, and others as sembled a loo se -knit alternative - fil m movement whi ch wa s l a unched by the 1 951 cre ation of " D er Rab e" ("Th e Raven"), Kudran ofsky and Steinwender's f ilm ic transl a tion of Edgar Al l en Poe's poem. Other lit erary subjects bec ame the subject of alte rnativ e filmm aking, not ably He rbert Vesely' s K afka mon tage, " Und die Kind er spielen so g ern S oldaten " ("And the Chi ldren L ike to Play S oldie rs," 19 51) , and a fi lm ba sed on Trakl's Express ion ist poe try, " An die sen Ab enden " ("On These Evening s," 195 2). Soon, arti stic interpretati ons of sh ort literary work s were re placed by origin al sc rip ts on a si mil ar theme that ran through the French New Wave — the persona l interpretat ion of so ci al al ienati on. Vesely's "Nicht meh r Fli ehen " ("Flee No More," 1 955) an d Edwin Zbonek's "Erschießung sbefehl " ("E xecution Order," 19 62) managed to m arry avant -garde techniques into a still se mi -co mmer ci al narr ative form. Ferry Ra dax, Peter Kubelka, and Kon rad Bayer led the avant garde into the 19 60s, and joined togethe r to cre ate " M osa ik im Vertraue n" ("Mo sa ic of Trust," 195 5), while Jörg Ortner offered " Eine Fuge" ("A Fuge," 19 59) as " aggress ive melanch oly again st a c ity" [1 4] Rada x, who was one of the few filmm akers wh o managed to acqu ire subvention fro m the Min istry of Educ ation fo r a n experimental work, to ok advantage of this unique occur rence by making sever al vers ion s of his ab stract " S on nehalt!" ("Stop Sun!") between 1959 and 19 62 with Ingrid Schuppan, Alberto Jolly, and Konrad Bayer. Fi lm hi stori an Walter F ritz ha s co mpar ed Bayer, an av ant -garde litera ry figure who w orked on sever al f ilm projects and com mi tted suic ide in 19 64, to Frenc h New Waver Jean -Luc Godard, for his r adic al style and overt soc iopol i tical co mment ary. Over 100 fil ms were cre a ted between the early 1950 s and 1 96 8 by the members of the Art Club movement — such a rtist s as Peter Weibel, Kurt Kren, Valie Export, Marc Adrian, Ern st Schm idt Jr., Peter Kubelka, Otmar B auer, H ans S cheugel , Günter Brus, and G ottfried Schle mmer. Yet for al l thei r st artli ng new vis ions and for all the new perfor man ce -art tact ics that were employed in the sh owing of th ese fi lms, the l ack of government a nd medi a -industry spon sor ship disal lowed any su ch s h owcas ing a s w as ava ila ble in We st Germ any, where theater s and televisi on attempted to offer at lea st a ta ste of such alte rnative c reati on s. Another fact or that made Au st ri an a lternat ive filmm aking le ss acce ss ible to the audience s th an its counterp arts in other Europe an countr ie s was it s rad ical style. Fir mly grounded in tren ds outside c inem a, it began with abstract art and moved only very slo wly toward film narr ativ e, ins tead of moving from na rrat ive film to a more ab stra ct interpret ation, a s other "new wa ve" movements tended to do. The intellectual/ artist ic core of this fil m movement, which totall y opposed domin ant or commer ci al m otion pict ures (rather than influe nce them o r repl ace the m, as w as the ca se in France, Ita ly and to so me extent, England), found their ideol ogy in m odern paint ing and the

Austri an perfo rm ance art known a s Wien er radic ali sm, a s Thoma s El saes ser suc cinctl y notes,

Aktionis mus (Vienne se

Act ioni sm). [15] Its

was quite different fro m that of other Europe an "young" c inem as a nd New Waves of the 196 0s. Austri an experiment al c i nema divide s into an ab stract -form al ist wing (K ubelka and Radax) and a pol itic ally intervention ist group ing ar ound Ku rt Kren, Günther Br us, and Otto Mühl, who c ame out of the "fluxus" m ovement and "h appenin g" aesthetic s, sc andal i zing the public with provocat ive, often pornographic and s catol ogic al body -centered action pie ces. [16] The iconocl asti c ai m was to angr ily protest a gainst what wa s seen a s the calcif ied, even fasci stic s oci opol itic s a nd a retrograde cultur al eliti sm of the natio n. Since avant -garde Austri an fi lm owed mo r e to suc h fringe f orces as Andy W arhol and Y oko Ono th an to any main strea med Eur opean "new wave " na rrat ive s tyles, there wa s l ittle popular interest f rom nation al or internat ion al audien ces, whi ch h ad a l ready abandoned interes t in Au stri an pr oduct. As with the anti -estab l ishment perfor man ce pi eces, Action ist fil m ai med at loca l allu si on rather than un ivers al me ssage. Through its vi scer al reference s to ecsta sy, wounding, pain, and death, Actioni sm c ould, in fact, trace its vi su al art to the Baroque, which presented the metaphys ica l through the extremes of the physical.

A f r a m e f r o m K u r t K r e n ' s A c t i o n i s t f il m " S e l b s tv e r s t ü m m e l u n g " / " S e l f - M u t i l a t io n " ( 1 9 6 5)

Ultimately, it wa s c ons ervative cen sor ship tha t won the d ay, and se veral pr oponents of Viennese Act ion ism e mig rated to West Germany to avoid pro secutio n in Austri a and set up an "altern ative Aust ria n government in exile." [1 7] In response, film artist s Kren, Weibel, Schmidt, Scheugl, Schle mmer, a nd Export fo rme d the Austr ian F ilm make rs Co operat ive in 1 968. It managed to pr omote and distr ibute the alter native fi l ms of its me m bers and even broke through the export barrier that h ad severel y limited the aud ienc e for Austri an fil m experimentati on. The i nfluential West Ger man public ation Film na med Han s Sc heugl's " Z ZZ Hamburg Special " (196 8), which con si sted of thre ad being pulled through a projector, a s one of the ten best films of 19 6 7/6 8 al ong with Goda rd's Weekend (196 8) and Art hur Penn's Bo nnie and Clyde(196 7). Scheugl commented: "In this way the viewer is forced to think about whether the thread is re ally on fi l m or whether it is re ally runn ing through the projector. Thus an import ant requirement o f intermedia i s fulfilled: the creative input of the projectioni st." [18] Peter Weibel and Valie Export had also obl itera ted the axiom that "film requires cellul oid " or even a screen with their theory of "expanded cin ema," which pr ofessed t o move illu si on cine ma to materi al cinem a by cr eating what they called " Instant Fil m":

Film w as bro ught back once aga in to its va lue as a med ium, liber ate d from any lingu isti c char acter wh ich it h ad t aken on in the co urse of its development. The f orma l arra ngement of the elements of film, whereby elements are exc hanged or replaced by o thers — for example, electric l ight by fire, celluloid by re ality, a be am of light by ro ckets — had an effect which was arti stic ally liber atin g and yie lded a we alth of new pos sib ilit ies, s uc h as film in stal lati ons and the film -envir onmen t. In the production of t he film medi um, cellul oi d is only one a spect that could (a lso) be de le ted. Instead of the proje cted image, the fi lm stri p itself c an bec ome a site for expanding the medium and, consequent ly, if the cellulo id beco mes a fi lmi c im age a s materi al rather than t hr ough projection, a trans parent PVC -foil, held before one's eyes, can supply the de sired im ag e, since if the user proj ects hi s own i mage of th e world onto the foil, he sees the world in acc ordance with hi s own im age [19] Beyond these metafil mi c experiments, Kurt Kren's abstra ct " Schatzi" (1968), which presented shock im ages in rap id posit ive/negative man ipulati on, gained cult attention, and Peter Kubelka, who h ad becom e the curator of the Aus trian F ilm Mu seum i n Vie nna upon its found ing in 1 964, moved towa rds semi -na rrat ive style in " Unsere Afrika rei se " ("Our Afri ca Tr ip," 1 966). Ferry R adax moved even more s o in thi s d irecti on with " Test ament" (19 68), a p olit ic a l sati re depicting Vienna run by a mad dictat or and in th e midst of a revoluti on l ed by the literati. The apolit ica l her o Ja mes at tempts to t opple the d ic tator, but the result s ar e as co ntradi ctory a s the global anti -war and youth revolts of 1968. Otto Mü hl remained lo yal to the Actioni st ideology and for m and t ook part in a present ati on by sever al A ction ist artist s and film maker s including Osw ald Wiene r , Günter Brus, and Peter Weibel at the Univer sit y of Vienna on June 7, 196 8. Their " Kun st und Revolution " (Art and Re volution) inc luded a " le cture" which fe atured excretion, vomit ing, and masturb ation. It resu lted in arre sts, psycho logic al exam inati ons, an d jail sentence s for the artist s. Günter Bru s lat er com mented that as i de from Aust ri a, only Franc o's Sp ain and the E astern Bloc h ad such ne gative attitudes tow ards progress ive art. Mühl went on to fil m " S odom a" (196 9) and "De r geile Wotan" ("The L asc iviou s Wotan," 197 0), which blended sex acts and body -oriented performa nce art in an arch ic/ abstr act non -narr atives. [20]

P o l i t i c al p r o t es t a n d c i n e m a ti c e x p e r i m e n t : F e r r y R a d a x ' s T es t a m e n t ( 1 9 6 8 )

The most internat ion ally recogniz able exponent of this altern ative f ilmm aking i s V al ie Export, a photographe r and per forman ce and video arti st who succe ssful ly mad e the transit ion fro m the "expanded cinema" e xperiments and abstr act shorts of the mid -196 0s to narrative feature

films in the late 1 970 s and beyond, as one of the inspir ation s to New Austri an F ilm. Working with her p artner Peter Weibel, she created the " Tapp und Ta stkino " (" Touch Cine ma," 19 68), which she ca lled the "fir st real wom an's film. " Thi s perfo rma nce art a ctio n cons isted of invit ing the viewer to insert their hands int o the box strapped to Export's chest . It was intended to transcend m ale -dom inat ed cinema by a fem ale materi al destruct ion o f cinemati c illu si on. Export maint ained that: Tact ile receptio n counte racts the fraud of voyeu ris m. In state -sancti one d cinema, they sit in the dark and see how two people make it with each other, and they themselves a re not seen. In Tapp und Tastkino , s oci al pre scr iption s a re n o longer obeyed; the int ima te sphere of what the state per mits i s for c ed open int o publi c spac e. Since the con sumer c an be anyone — ch ild, man, woma n — it is an unveiled intrus ion i nto the taboo of homo sexu ality; the mor ality of state pres cripti ons, the state, fam ily, property, is e xploded. F or as l ong as the c itizen re ma ins sati sfied with a repr oduced copy of sexual fr eedom, the state will be spared a sexual revolution. [21] She cont inue d to "rede fine the audience - perfo rmer relat ionsh ip and to extend cine mati c convention s"[2 2] in othe r film "happeni ngs" such as " Cutting" (1967-19 68 ) and "Der Kuß" ("The Kis s," 196 8) which explored the value of the female body in a patri arch al soc iety. Her twelve minute fil m, Mann&F ra u&Animal ("Man &Wom an &Anim al," 1 97 3), returned to her Actio nist roots, wh ich featu res a mong other visu al s, the arti st fil ming he r m en s truation in a v isce ral examin ation of gender a nd the "art isti c nature of blood." Exper imenta l filmm aker Frieder ike Petzold took thi s voyeur i sm to its ultim ate step with " Toil ette" (19 79). I n 19 77, Export offered her fir st feature film, Unsichtbare Gegner (Invi sible Adve rsa rie s ), writ ten by Peter Weibel, which wa s not only a co hesive na rrat ive, but showed that humor and wi t could al so exi st in a film about female identi ty, social repre sentati on , and the environment. Export called the film a "fem ini st s cience -fi c tion fi lm" which m ana ged to be both vi sua l ly and ideol ogic ally progress ive and enterta i ning. A tabloid newsp aper, Die Kronen Z eitung , launched a c amp aign again st the film labeling it "perverse trash " and condemned the rare government subvention it received for suppo rting i ts "ca ll to an archy." Alth ough Export's work wa s s elected by a jury for the 197 8 Au stri an State Prize in the a rts, Fred S i nowatz, the Mini ster of Educati on and Cultu re, refused to award Export and g ave no pri ze that year. S he fo llowed thi s s cand al with Menschenfr auen (H uman Wom en , 19 79), an d later with a wide ly se en traditi onal n arr ative film, Die Praxis der Lie be (The Practice of Love , 1984), a leading fem inist work regard ing a female journa li st whose sudden encounte r with a "glas s ceil ing" sugges ts soc ial a nd politi cal cover-ups in a dystop ic A ustri an republic.

P h o t o I ns e r t : F e m i n i s m a n d th e g a z e : V a l i e E x po r t ' s U ns i ch t b a r e G eg n e r ( 1 9 7 7 )

Despite the shock v alue of Vienne se Action is m and the few a lternat ive film s that received signifi cant attention in s ide and outs ide Au stri a, the ma instre am film in dustry cont inued its nadir into the new deca de of the 1 970 s. Even b leaker tha n the previ ou s ye a r, in wh ich the Austri an f ilm indust ry w as dec lared "dead," 1 969 offered onl y four co mm ercia l fil ms. The only critic al su cces s was P eter Beauva is’ Austr ia n/West German televi s ion film of Arthu r Schnitzler's D as weite L and (The Distant Land ), with O. W. Fi scher and Ruth Leuwerik, which was given belated theatr ical di stribut ion in 1 97 3. Although the Soc ia list major ity government and its pr agm atic ch a ncellor Brun o Kre isky promi sed a l aw to enc ourage fil m product ion and prom otion in 1 97 0, comm ittees, party demands, and offic ia l pr ocra stin ation del ayed an y implement ation of s upport until the end of the decade. The city of Vienna aga in attempte d to support film production while there was still someth ing to be sa ved, and upstaged the nation al govern ment in its cre ati on of a fil m promoti on law in 19 77. That same ye ar, the nationa l government shelve d its planned law, and offered only the "laugha ble" [23] sum of abo ut $ 1,5 00,0 00 a s an an nual subsidy for the entire nation al industry. In th e meanti me, Au stri an t elevisi on h ad only stre ngthened its hold on audience s. On New Year' s D ay, 1 969 , Austri a's nat ion al telev isi on netwo rk ORF began col or br oadc ast, and as Go swin D örfler report ed, the access ibil ity of great entertain ment and art wa s on the sm all screen: "Why bother to go to the cinema, when every week one can view in the comfort of one's own h ome (and in color t oo) a c ros s -sect ion of all the m ajor fi l ms (includ ing fam ous clas si cs like B attleship Potemkin and Metr opolis, and premiere s of works s uch as Wajda' s Pilate and Others and Saur a's The Garden of D elights )?"[24] While Au st ri an cinem a fl oundered, Austri an telev isi on pre sentatio ns developed i nto one of the best sour ces of fil med entertainment on the c ontinent. As the aud ie nces st ayed aw ay fro m the ever -decreas ing number of cinem a venues, registered televis i on owners in Au stri a i ncreased at a rapid rate. [25] After having lo st its large Gartenbau c inema (the second la rgest in Vienna), which was dem oli shed to make roo m for a computer c enter, and given the p a ucity of mater ia l, the Viennale Fil m Fest ival n o longer even attempted to offer a theme, and resorted to s elect ing nation al and intern atio n al works whol ly on the basi s of merit. An as so ciati on known as D er gute Film (The Good Film), which had offered an Austri an film se rie s a nd awards s ince 1 956, began to show wo rks by foreign direct ors. The A ustri an F ilm A rch ive man aged to mount sever al well-attended retrospec tives, ranging fr om G. W. Pabst to Han s M oser, suggesting that whi le the comme rci al industr y langui shed and the a vant garde m argin alize d itself, Austr ia was nevertheless a nat ion of film fans, one that mi ght again be made aware of its signific ant role in the develop ment of th e moti on pi cture. The de cade of the 19 70 s bo re t his b as ic fa ct out. A s the government stalled on film support, and co mmerc ial produ ction wa s only to be found with a few mult inati ona l c o-p roduction s, a new gener ation of fil mmake rs arr iv ed on the s cene to re invent the nationa l n arrat ive cinem a with privately r aised fundin g, vastly downsized production s, and unknow n talent. Despite all odd s agai nst it, the embryo nic New Austr ian F ilm was being formed. Remnants of the co mme rcia l film modes of the 196 0s m aint ained a pre sence throughout the 197 0s, but a s the A ction ists returned to perfo rm ance a rt or ev olved into narr ative fil mm akers, and the intern ati onal ly co -produced sex come dy or thr iller receded, the only c omme rci al director of the 196 0s to outlast the 1 970 s wou ld be Franz Antel. After a brief pau se, he would reinvent his style on ce again in the 19 80 s and become a p art of the ea rly New Austr ian Fil m. His tr agico mic ser ies ce ntering on a c u rmudgeo nly Vienne se butcher, K arl Merk atz, and his family, beginning with D er Bocker er (The Bocker er ) in 19 81, would take on Austri a's p ast under Nazism and later the Cold War, blending sub jects that had been avoided by ma instre am Austri an cine ma int o the entertainment appro ach Antel was known for. Cable televi si on wa s int roduced in 1 97 9, and wi th the prol iferat ion of home vide o re corder s and films o n video, there was a sense th at the medium m ight well succ eed in clos ing Austri a's rema ining c inem a theat ers. Nevertheless, po st -196 0s f ilmm aker s suc ce eded in attra cting a

younger generat ion wh o se parent s had aband on ed cinem a dur ing the d ecline of com merc ial product and in the per io d of Action is m and m argi nalized experiment ation. Unlike the director s of the New G erm an Cine ma's Autoren film dur ing the 197 0s and 80s who s aw themse lves in the traditi on of the French cinéma d'auteur in thei r a ll -controll ing c ombi nati o n of wr iter, di rector, and producer, Austr ian multita sking, while al so a rejection of co mmerc i al cine ma co nvention s, was dr iven by poverty an d neces sity. Whi le New German C inem a w as mad e pos sible by generou s government funding and promoti on, and West G erman c riti cs helped ele vate the movement a s artist ica lly and cultu rall y important, Au stri a's ea rly film re viv al wa s mos tly heralded by word of-mouth and the per severance of its c reator s. A growing intere st in the new narr ative style, in cr itic al subject m atter, and i n lo cal product io n indi cated the p ath for Austr ian film maker s into the following decad e and kep t the theaters open. Robert Dass anowsky © FIPRESCI 20 06 top

undercurrent issues # # # # # # #

7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(1.2 011) (4.2 010) (5.2 009) (10. 2008) (11. 2006) (7.2 006) (4.2 006)

issue #3 (11.2006) Con t en t s Au s tr ia Au s tr ian c in e ma n ow Au s tr ia in th e 1 960s O tt o P r e min g e r Mich ae l Gl aw og g e r Max O p h u ls Th e P as s en g er D an iè le Hu ille t Tr ib u te Jon ath an Ros e n b au m Cah i er s d u c i n éma Ad r ian M ar tin Ch r is Fu jiw ar a Joh n G ian v ito