Typen und Szenen aus dem Wiener Volksleben (1911) Review

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by Various Authors

grade: 6.5

Typen und Szenen aus dem Wiener Volksleben is one of the first films made in Austria. Despite its directorial naivety, it has a hybrid character, halfway between documentary film and fiction film. At the Viennale 2019, as part of the retrospective dedicated to Louise Kolm-Fleck.

On the streets of Vienna

What was life in Vienna like in the early 20th century? From the moment cinema was invented, numerous cameramen of the Lumière brothers, as well as other colleagues from the Pathé production company, immediately travelled there (and similarly to other places in the world) in order to document life there. And while in France cinema immediately developed to the point of becoming a very popular art, in Austria the first films were produced several years later. In this regard, Typen und Szenen aus dem Wiener Volksleben (‘characters and scenes from Viennese city life’) – re-presented to the audience at the Viennale 2019, as part of the retrospective dedicated to Louise Kolm-Fleck by the Filmarchiv Austria – is one of the first films produced here. Film pioneer Louise Kolm-Fleck, for her part, as the head of the Österreichisch-ungarische Kino-Industrie, certainly supervised the production. Yet, to this day, it is impossible to say who actually directed this work, as the reel that has come down to us, as is often the case with many films from this era, is completely lacking in credits.

A documentary, this, which has drawn on previous years’ works in the field of the seventh art, to the point of assuming a character halfway between documentary film and fiction film. Its nature as a hybrid film is due to the fact that, in integrating moments filmed directly from the street (see, for example, the tender image of an old florist intent on selling her flowers seated on a pavement), the director also opted for amusing sketches in which some actors, usually working in theatre, take on the role of bizarre citizens.

And while a woman is being waited on outside her house by her boyfriend, suddenly scenes filmed directly at the Naschmarkt – Vienna’s oldest and most characteristic market, located close to the city centre – witness events taking place in another part of the city. And if the audience, in the meantime, gets carried away by the cheerfulness of some diners sitting at the table of a Heurige (a characteristic Austrian tavern), immediately we see a drunkard who tries to enter a tavern, but is stopped by a policeman who leads him away by comically taking him by the arm.

All this happens in Typen und Szenen aus dem Wiener Volksleben. An important historical document and, at the same time, a real gem within Austrian cinema. And yet, one cannot fail to acknowledge this work’s decidedly rudimentary direction (all shots are, in fact, filmed strictly with a fixed camera), especially if one thinks that in 1911, i.e. a good sixteen years after the invention of cinema, many steps forward in this sense had been made in the rest of the world. After all, one way or another, one had to start becoming familiar with this new invention. And at the end of the day, this precious little work is pleasant like this, even with all its funny and tender naivety.