Die Wirtin von Maria Wörth fits perfectly within the conventions of the Heimatfilm genre, which continued to be the favourite genre of the major national production companies. And so, this feature film by Eduard von Borsody tells through images the story of a musical romance that favours the style of a comedy of errors over drama.
With On These Evenings, it had become clear which direction Austrian cinema was heading in. The desire to experiment was growing ever stronger. So was the desire to leave behind a past that was perhaps a little too ‘burdensome’. Restored by Filmarchiv Austria and presented on the Filmarchiv On channel.
Vienna is more alive than ever in Symphonie Wien. Albert Quendler, for his part, has opted for an extremely innovative directorial approach, creating a successful mix of film, dance, theatre and, of course, documentary film, without being afraid to ‘play’ with the seventh art, exploiting every possibility it offers us.
In the ensemble film Viennese Girls, director, painter and photographer Kurt Steinwendner – so fascinated by Italian Neorealism that he was inspired by it in every way – draws a fresco of a hardly recovering Vienna after World War II, in which what seems most difficult is to make ends meet, due to the job insecurity that sadly combines with the inhuman conditions of the workers.
It is not surprising that a feature film like 1. April 2000 (a fine fantapolitical satire directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner) was made precisely in 1952, seven years after the end of the world war and only three years before the Austrian State Treaty by which, among other things, the nation’s neutrality was officially proclaimed.