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Interview with Elfi von Dassanowsky (Part 2)
> CONTINUED from Part 1
G-HC: Tell me about your cultural work with the Allies after the war. What were some of your favorite things about that period?
von Dassanowsky: I was asked by a representative of the British press to give what was essentially a one-woman-show, a musical evening of opera and operetta, for the Allied High Command. I agreed and sang for the American General Geoffrey Keyes, the French General Bethouart, the British General Galloway, their wives, guests and the Allied press in a villa on the outskirts of Vienna. It was a great success and I was asked to create other High Command performances which I did with much pleasure, since it gave me the opportunity to show true Viennese and Austrian musical culture. I was the only native civilian woman who influenced some of their cultural decisions in Austria and who spoke on both Allied Forces Radio and the BBC. It was at one of these performances that I first met the Soviet representatives who “invited” me to go to Moscow as a “star” for the Soviet opera. I had known of instances where those invited for whatever reason, were never heard from again. I declined this offer just as I rejected those in the Reich. I later learned that part of the reason for their interest in me and other artists had been Stalin's desire to reduce Austria's cultural importance and western orientation. They would not take no for an answer, calling and visiting my home several times. My mother finally told them I had left Vienna, and I had—I fled to Linz after a botched kidnap attempt. Under the protection of the American, British and French Commands, I was able to return safely to Vienna.
G-HC: You were producing films in Austria shortly after the time that Leni Riefenstahl was active in Germany. You founded a film studio at the age of 22. How did you first develop an interest in film production? How did that come about?
von Dassanowsky: I always loved film as much as opera and the piano. I was also an actress. After my opera debut in St. Polten and during the season there, I met Emerich Hanus, the Austrian silent film director, and brother of producer Heinz Hanus, who had just completed one of the first Austrian films since the end of the war . He wanted a new start for Austrian cinema. This was my dream too. Together we founded Belvedere Film in 1946, and our studio was in the middle of old Vienna in a large building on the Bauernmarkt. Hanus and I co-produced, and although he had to sign for everything, the fact that a woman was producing was hardly a controversial factor. There were so few men around that I slipped into the roles that were available. What we made then has been rediscovered as the modernization of the Austrian “Heimatfilm,” so I suppose our dreams found some realization. We made the first films with Nadja Tiller and Gunther Phillip, who are now international stars, and we tried to find a suitable role for a young actor by the name of Oskar Werner. Unfortunately, Karl Hartl found it first with “Engel mit der Posaune” (Angel with the Trumpet, 1948). But Oskar and I became friends and we met again in Hollywood.
G-HC: Did you ever meet Leni Riefenstahl or other filmmakers of the time? What do you think of her and her work?
von Dassanowsky: No, I never met her, although our films shared an actor—the great Karl Skraup. She is an amazing talent who had the misfortune and bad choice to be a pioneering woman in one of the most oppressive of regimes. My son, a film scholar and writer, has written on her work and I find his analysis convincing.
G-HC: Music has been very important in your life. Do you regret not being able to continue your promising opera career?
von Dassanowsky: Music runs all through my life—even in the films. I did continue with opera and operetta as guest performer, and on tour with my ensemble in Austria and West Germany. My work in film in Vienna and later as studio administrator and casting director in Hamburg were exciting opportunities and made me feel I was really contributing to a new era. I did not want to exchange that for a typical contract that limited me to a single opera house.
G-HC: I understand you worked with and knew Curd Jürgens well. Was he a "good student" of yours? What was he like as a person and as an actor?
von Dassanowsky: I was a student at the Hochschule, prior to my labor service, and Karl Hartl was preparing to film Wen die Götter lieben, a film on Mozart, which he later remade in the 1950s. Much of Amadeus is already to be found in his versions. A young actor being groomed for stardom, Curd Jürgens, was to do the role of the Emperor, and it was important that he could play piano on screen, but Jürgens had no musical training at all. As an advanced student I was already instructing piano and was chosen by Hartl and the Hochschule to train Jürgens. I had already noticed him before this at the Hochschule. He had a wonderful speaking voice, which he liked to show off. He was a good student, a quick study, but he was very conscious of everything he did. It was all in the service of his future stardom and that was his only devotion. Without the public around, he would relax, but in public, he was always "on." I think his work is underrated and that he is one of the important actors of the postwar era.
G-HC: Did you know the “old guard” Austrians in Hollywood? - People like Preminger or Lang? What do you think were some of their most important contributions to cinema?
von Dassanowsky: Yes, I met Werner and Jürgens again, and became their vocal coaches. Through them I also worked for Otto Preminger and with many of his usual stars. Of course, the concept of Hollywood is at least half Austrian! This is only being explored now, in books and articles by Rudolf Ulrich, Gertraud Steiner and in your important work. Most of the studio heads and early talent were Austrian or Austro-Hungarian. The Austrian presence runs through the entire era of the studio system. Perhaps this Hollywood connection, actually it is much more than that, has something to do with the Austrian nature, the theatricality of the past, the mix of cultures. One must remember that the Viennese film industry was one of the first in the world. The Hanus brothers were among its pioneers.
G-HC: You don't live far from one of my idols, Billy Wilder. I understand he's one of your favorites too. Do you have much contact with today's Austrian contingent in Hollywood? Who are the ones you respect the most?
von Dassanowsky: The Austrians in Hollywood today are independent artists. There is no strong community as it was even during my experience in the final years of the studio system. We often meet at consular gatherings or cultural events. I admire Robert Dornhelm and Bernt Capra. And Arnold Schwarzenegger has, of course, reinvented the Austrian presence in Hollywood.
G-HC: In what ways are Hollywood and Los Angeles different today from when you arrived in 1962, particularly regarding the role of women in the film industry?
von Dassanowsky: It is strange but true—as a woman, I could not do in Hollywood in the 1960s what I did in postwar Austria and Germany. The space was open for a woman there and then because the social structure was also changed. Despite my contacts and friends, I was not able to produce in Hollywood. Preminger told me no studio would accept a woman, especially a foreign one. My only opportunity would be as a starlet—such fine actresses as Romy Schneider, Elke Sommer, Senta Berger all began their Hollywood careers around this time. They all went back to Europe to get real parts later on. I refused to be a mindless decoration. With a family to raise, I remained and became a vocal trainer, a studio German coach and later a businesswoman. Now, finally, there are women in production and direction, but it is only a beginning.
G-HC: I know you remain very active today. What are your main interests and activities currently?
von Dassanowsky: I continue to promote Austrian culture as a member of several academies and organizations, and as an individual. I have been working to have the building that housed Belvedere Studios in Vienna put under historical protection and I hope to become active in film or television again. There are several opportunities for this, given the recent founding of the Austrian-American Film Organization. I am also working on my autobiography which I am happy to say has already interested several producers.
G-HC: You have received numerous awards in the last few years for your cultural work. Which one has been the most satisfying for you personally?
von Dassanowsky: Of course, the work itself is the greatest award, in this case because I see more women doing what I did 50 years ago, and because Austria is once again a flourishing art capital not just a museum. I am honored by the people who have communicated with me because they have found my work important, such as President Clinton and the late Princess Diana. The UNESCO medal is the one that surprised me the most. The UN and I both celebrated 50 years of our work in 1996, and I am very moved that they believe my ideas also worked.
BACK > Part 1 of this interview
Copyright © 1998-2007 Hyde Flippo - All rights reserved
Elfi von Dassanowsky Connections
Interview Notes, Links, and Additional Information:
- Bernt Amadeus Capra (1941- ), not to be confused with the Italian Frank Capra, was born in Vienna and was even a Vienna Choir Boy. He studied architecture and also earned an MBA before going into cinema art direction and set design. His first Hollywood project was as a design assistant for King Kong (1976). Capra has been art director, assistant art director, or production designer for Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Killing Time (1987), Percy Adlon's Bagdad Café (1987, aka Out of Rosenheim), Mindwalk (1990), Danger Sign (1993), and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993).
- Robert Dornhelm (1947- ) has directed several films in Hollywood. He was born in Romania to Austrian parents, and the family managed to flee the communist country, eventually settling in Vienna. There Dornhelm worked on some 100 films for the Austrian broadcaster ORF. He first came to Hollywood in 1977 and has directing credits for She Dances Alone (1980, a US-Austrian co-production about the Viennese dancer Kyra Nijinsky), Echopark (1985), Cold Feet (1990), and the TV movie Marina's Story (1993).
- Emerich Hanus (1888-1956) and his brother Heinz Hanus (1882-1972) were Austrian filmmakers. Producer, director Emerich Hanus co-founded Belvedere Film Productions in Vienna with Elfi von Dassanowsky in 1946. Heinz was a screenwriter and director.
> Filmography for Emerich Hanus @ IMDb
> Filmography for Heinz Hanus @ IMDb
- Nadja Tiller (1929- ) was Miss Austria in 1949 and she also made her first film appearance that year, in Das Märchen vom Glück. She has appeared in many German-language television productions and European films. > Nadja Tiller Filmography from IMDb
- Robert von Dassanowsky's article on Riefenstahl appeared in Vol. 35 (1995/96) of Camera Obscura: "'Wherever you may run, you cannot escape him': Leni Riefenstahl's Self-Reflection and Romantic Transcendence of Nazism in Tiefland" - While not denying Riefenstahl's Nazi ties, von Dassanowsky points out that Riefenstahl has been more cursed by her past than other—mostly male—Nazi-tainted filmmakers, including Veit Harlan (who worked directly with Goebbels), G.W. Pabst, Douglas Sirk, and others, who were able to revive or continue their film careers—unlike Riefenstahl. The article also looks at the fact that it was probably Riefenstahl's exceptional talent and good looks that made colleagues and critics reject her. Even fifty years later, Riefenstahl remains a pariah. - The core of the article is the premise that Riefenstahl's Tiefland—completed in 1953 and then largely ignored—comprises her "cinematic rejection of Hitler." (See the full text of Dassanowsky's article, now available from The German-Hollywood Connection.)
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Copyright © 1998-2007 Hyde Flippo
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