Eine Fahrt mit der Bernina-Bahn seems to us a quite exceptional film, which in a little less than four minutes gives us a fairly comprehensive idea of a small reality in the Alps. A precious historical and artistic document, one of the oldest railway films from the origins of (Austrian and world) cinema.
An extraordinary calm and a welcome serenity pervade Vorfrühling am Attersee, conceived, like many other tourist documentaries made in the early 20th century, to appeal to as many tourists as possible in Austria and to give abroad an image of the nation where prosperity was commonplace.
We are in 1914. World War I was imminent, just like the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Important changes were in the air. And yet, the extraordinary peace in Lugano am Luganosee has almost the power to transport us to a timeless place, or, better still, to a place where time itself seems to have stood still.