Austrian Cinema: A History
         by Robert von Dassanowsky

A Cinema Book Review

Austrian Cinema: A History
Robert von Dassanowsky
McFarland, 2005, hardcover, 322 pages
Black-and-white photo illustrations
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A Book Review by Hyde Flippo

“An Austrian among Germans is still an Austrian.”

In many ways Austria tends to get overshadowed by its much larger neighbor to the north, Germany. In no case has this been more apparent than in cinema history. Because the two countries share a common language—and only sometimes a common history—many film critics and historians have allowed themselves to be confused about precisely who and what should be credited to Austria rather than Germany. Many Austrians also worked in the German film industry and became well known in Berlin rather than Vienna, leading to added confusion. As the author of Austrian Cinema: A History points out, “...Austrian cinema has seldom been understood as Austrian in the English language world, when it has been discussed at all.”

Indeed it would be easy to believe that Austria has little or no cinematic tradition. The 1998 third edition of the respected “Katz” Film Encyclopedia dismisses Austrian cinema with a minuscule entry of fewer than 140 words! In the first book in English to offer a comprehensive overview of Austria’s cinematic history, Robert von Dassanowsky reveals a strong filmmaking tradition of movies made in Austria and in other countries by Austrians. Taking a straightforward chronological approach, von Dassanowsky moves chapter by chapter through Austrian film history, from the earliest days of motion pictures (1895 on) through the decades to the present. Starting with the very first chapter the author also presents some interesting bits of film history that will surprise most readers. For instance, not even many cinema historians are aware of the pioneering activities of the Austrian film director/producer Louise Veltée (1873-1950), her husband and photographer Anton Kolm (1865-1922), and cinematographer Jakob Julius Fleck (1881-1953). It was this team that formed Austria’s first true film company and produced the first mainstream feature film ever made in Austria—rather than the commonly accepted “father of the Austrian film industry” Count Alexander “Sascha” von Kolowrat-Krakowsky (1896-1927).

Austrian Cinema also exposes the sad truth that Austria has not always considered its own national cinematic identity important enough to promote or preserve. Following the Heimatfilm and royal romance “Sissi” trilogy boom of the 1950s, the Austrian film industry, battling competition from color television and a dearth of financing, came very close to extinction in the 1960s and ’70s. (In 1968 the only motion picture produced in Austria was the low-budget but groundbreaking made-for-TV movie Moos auf den Steinen directed by Georg Lhotsky.) In stark contrast to most other European countries, the Austrian government refused to offer any national subsidies for motion picture production until the 1980s. From the earliest days of the Austro-Hungarian empire Austria’s film industry has also had to face another problem: losing talented Austrian filmmakers to Germany’s much larger film studios and even to Hollywood. Austrian directors Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger are just two examples of talented Austrians (often mistaken for Germans) who ended up in Hollywood via Berlin. Over the years this cinematic “brain drain” has continued to be a problem for Austria.

Since its founding in 1955, but particularly since the 1990s, the Film Archive Austria in Vienna has been an important part of the effort to preserve Austrian cinema history. www.filmarchiv.at PHOTO © Hyde Flippo

Yet for most of its history Austrian cinema has been a very vital industry, and it managed to rescue itself from the brink of oblivion in the 1980s with the advent of the so-called “New Austrian Film.” Von Dassanowsky describes in detail the 20-year period between 1980 and 2000 when Austrian cinema regained its footing and gained international recognition. Although there had been limited regional film support in Austria, serious national film funding did not begin until 1981. (West Germany began subsidizing its own film industry in 1962.) Before that the Austrian public television broadcaster ORF had helped support made-for-TV movie production, and the city of Vienna had its own WFF film fund. But with the advent of national funding in the ’80s, Austrian filmmakers once again began to attract international attention. But the chapter about “The Missed Wave: 1960-1979” may be the most interesting. Von Dassanowsky’s account of these two decades reveals Austria’s indomitable artistic spirit in the face of adversity and makes the reader appreciate just how much of a “comeback kid” Austrian cinema was in the early 1980s.

Although Hollywood still need not worry about Austrian cinema seriously cutting into its marketshare, recent Austrian motion pictures in the 1990s and the 21st century have drawn attention from both critics and audiences. One such film (one that I personally dislike) is Michael Hanecke’s Funny Games (1997). Von Dassanowsky writes: “Although showing no explicit violence, this deconstruction of the traditional thriller in which a couple and their young son arrive at their lakeside vacation home and are subsequently met by two well-mannered but bored young men who slowly menace the family and ultimately kill them offers no safety net for the audience.” Funny Games was something of a phenomenon in Austrian film history, not only for its topic and cinematic philosophy, but also the fact that it was the first Austrian film to play at Cannes since 1960, and it was sold to over 30 countries for theatrical, TV, and DVD release.

The director of Funny Games is also an illustration of what von Dassanowsky considers to be “Austrian” cinema. Hanecke was born in Munich but he attended university in Vienna and has worked in Austria ever since. He is a German “Eurodirector” making films in Austria, sometimes using French casts (Code Inconnu/Code Unknown, 1999). In the scope of his book von Dassanowsky includes pure Austrian films made in Austria by Austrians, foreign co-productions made in Austria at least in part with Austrian cast and crew (The Third Man, Great Britain/USA), German productions made in Austria (notably Leni Riefenstahl’s Tiefland), and other mixes as long as there is a true Austrian connection.

American and other readers will also recognize many names of Austrian actors, directors, and other film people who spent at least part of their careers in Hollywood. Two actors that stand out, Curt Jurgens (Curd Jürgens, 1915-1982) and Romy Schneider (1938-1982), had very different Hollywood experiences. Munich-born Jurgens, who became an Austrian citizen after World War II and is buried in Vienna, was one of the few German-speaking actors to achieve true star status in Hollywood. In films such as The Enemy Below (1957) and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Curt Jurgens became the charming, sophisticated German (or other foreigner) that filmgoers could relate to. Romy Schneider on the other hand enjoyed only fleeting fame in Hollywood, which managed to waste her talents in vapid Technicolor fare such as The Cardinal (1963, filmed partly in Vienna) and Good Neighbor Sam (1964) before she went back to Europe. Both Romy Schneider and Curt Jurgens are also good examples of film people who are usually considered German rather than Austrian. But the most famous Austrian in Hollywood today, now governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has played no role in Austrian cinema at all.

Von Dassanowsky’s writing style is readable, clear, and for the most part devoid of the “academic jargon” that he promises to avoid in the book’s introduction. Although some of the film plot descriptions were a bit too long and detailed for me, I found the book in general to be an interesting narrative of Austria’s cinematic history. I enjoyed reading it and learned some new things about a topic in which I consider myself well-read.

As good as Austrian Cinema is, there are a few things that would improve it. While writing this review, I found the lack of a full index to be one of the book’s major weaknesses. There is an index, but it is really what Austrians call a Namensregister, a name index. It only includes people; it does not list any organizations, films, studios, places, or other topics found in a regular index. If, for instance, you want to find the pages on which the Filmarchiv Austria is mentioned, the index won’t help you. If you want to find all the pages where the film Die Siebtelbauern is discussed, the index won’t help you. For a book on film history, it would also be nice if Austrian Cinema had a film index. Most of the other film history books in my library include a full film index with page numbers. While the scope of Austrian Cinema may be less encyclopedic than some cinematic history tomes, it would be a more useful reference if it included a full index and film list.

On the plus side, Austrian Cinema offers good footnotes and has an extensive bibliography section. This book is a must for anyone interested in world cinema and film history. It helps fill a gaping hole in the English-speaking world’s understanding of just how large a role tiny Austria has played in international cinema. - H.F.

About the Author of Austrian Cinema: A History
Robert von Dassanowsky is associate professor and chair of languages and cultures and director of film studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is also the vice president of the Austrian American Film Association. His mother, Elfi von Dassanowsky, is one of several female Austrian film pioneers mentioned in Austrian Cinema.

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