In Eine Fahrt durchs Ötztal we can notice, in addition to the picturesque landscapes and villages visited, a special focus on the people encountered and the tourists themselves, further enhanced by important close-ups or shots in which we can see them intent on their activities.
The tourist documentary Von Steeg über Goasauschmied zum Gosausee und auf den Dachstein stands as almost an outstanding work within Karl Köfinger’s filmography. While, in his previous documentaries, the director had mainly focused on the routes and places visited, here much more emphasis is placed on the people.
Von Salzburg über St. Gilgen, Mondsee und Bad Aussee is a precious document, an undoubtedly valuable work, which spans the two great epochs of cinema: the silent era and the sound era.
Karl Köfinger opted mainly for a classical mise-en-scene, in his Wiener Neustadt, Schneeberg, Rohrbach/Gebirge. As was the case with his earlier films, the director deliberately avoided any experimentation. Yet within this work, signs of his unique directorial approach are evident.
Director Karl Köfinger always proved to be quite courageous when it came to experimenting with new languages and new ways of understanding cinema, while adapting, in part, to the norms of the time. His Flösserei auf der Salza can therefore be considered, today, one of his most unusual and courageous works, a precious document of the past and of Austrian film history.
We are in Austria, between the late 1920s and early 1930s, between the two world wars. And if the consequences of the first, terrible war are still being felt strongly, there are already hints of what will happen a few years from now. How much longer will these carefree days depicted in Von Salzburg nach Lofer last?
Suggestive landscapes, immense expanses of green and, last but not least, a vehicle full of tourists enjoying the panorama are, therefore, the absolute protagonists of this short and precious Wien – Mariazell und zurück, which, with a running time of about one and a half minutes, gives us a full idea of the beauty of the places we are visiting and all their many potentials.
At the end of the 1920s (when the film Von Mariazell über Admont nach Bad Aussee was made) a directorial approach full of virtuosity was by no means common in Austria. And this denotes above all the great foresight of director Karl Köfinger, now practically forgotten.
Von Dirnbach-Stoder nach Hinterstoder presents itself as a particularly intimate documentary, proving to be particularly close to the people who live in the places visited, who colour the whole thing with their picturesque folk traditions.
Kreuz und Quer durchs Burgenland immediately becomes an image of a happy era that was, unfortunately, about to come to an end, as well as a precious historical document realised between the two world wars and between two fundamental eras in film history: the silent era and the sound era.