If we consider that Vienna, City of my Dreams was made in the late 1950s, at a time when national cinema had long been seeking to move in new directions, we realise how it can be regarded as a “nostalgic” film. Willi Forst sought to create a heartfelt tribute to his city, but also to an essential era in Austrian film history. Restored by Filmarchiv Austria and presented on the Filmarchiv On channel.
Although an overall pleasant staging, Scandal in Bad Ischl appears rather anachronistic today. What remains is the image of an era and a society that was at times too close-minded and often ridiculous, in a pleasant hour and a half.
Halfway between an actual advertising film and a documentary, Mariazell shows us in full, in just two minutes, the small town much loved by the Austrians, complete with a focus on the most characteristic sites of the place.
Third chapter of the successful saga directed by Ernst Marischka, Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress has an even weaker personality than the unconvincing Sissi, the Young Empress. Following step by step the structure of the previous works, the film almost seems to us like a transitional film, especially if we think about the fact that it was supposed to be followed by a fourth feature film of the saga – to whose production Romy Schneider herself was strongly opposed.