The Second Row of Viennese Film in Exile

in German:
Die Zweite Reihe des Wiener Filmexils

 

Fritz Lang, Hedy Lamarr, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann and many others count among those in the film industry who originally came from Vienna and shaped the cinematic art of the city as early as the 1920s and 1930s but who, however, were later left with no option but to go into Hollywood exile as a result of the increasingly restrictive measures under Austro-Fascism and, later, the immediate threat posed by the Nazis. By carrying out intensive archive research in Vienna, Berlin, Munich and L.A. the film projects aims to shed light on the great artists overshadowed by their great names, to bring the blurred outlines of the protagonists into focus through the camera lens and to write a compelling chapter of the city’s history with compelling images.

in German:
Fritz Lang, Hedy Lamarr, Peter Lorre, Fred Zinnemann und viele mehr zählen zu den jenen ursprünglich aus Wien stammenden beziehungsweise in Wien tätigen Filmschaffenden, die noch in den 1920er- und 1930er-Jahren die Filmkunst der Stadt mitgestalteten, sich jedoch durch die kontinuierlich restriktiver werdenden Maßnahmen des Austrofaschismus und später durch die direkte Bedrohung des Nationalsozialismus gezwungen sahen, nach Hollywood ins Exil zu gehen. Durch intensive Recherchen in den Archiven Wiens, Berlins, Münchens und L.A.s vermag das Filmprojekt im Schatten der großen Namen stehenden KünstlerInnen ins Licht zu rücken, die verschwommenen Konturen der ProtagonistInnen durch die Kameralinse erkennbar zu machen sowie ein Kapitel einer bewegten Stadtgeschichte in bewegten Bildern zu schreiben.

Austrian Society for Contemporary History

in German:
Österreichische Gesellschaft für Zeitgeschichte

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16 Nov 2016

documentary film

Commemoration / remembrance

National Fund budget

The project contents and descriptions are based primarily on the submissions of the project applicants. These submissions are edited for publication and translated into English. Although it is subjected to rigorous checks, the National Fund does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided.