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Early Austrians
Austrian cinema 1906-1918
The Filmarchiv Austria presents an overview, a draft for the catalogue of Austrian film production until 1918, thereby setting first points of navigation in a terrain that is still hardly explored, first highlights illuminate outlines of a film landscape of surprising diversity and full of sparkling finds. Austrian cinema pioneers were all closer to manufacture than industrial film production. Improvisational talent and the art of creating highest cinematography with very humble means were sought after. More important than the expectations of cultural establishments were the laws of curiosity. Playfully and in a way that is occasionally still astounding today, the adventurous entrepreneurs of modernism tested the possibilities and effects of the new medium with much lust, thereby going through many popular cultural genres - from Anzengruber-like folk plays to the staging of fast-paced detective stories. The show «Early Austrians» broadens the material basis for a reassessment of Austrian film history before 1918 - it is meant as a contribution to the expansion of the horizon of knowledge of that which has hitherto been known to us as Austrian film history. Curated by Anton Thaller and Nikolaus Wostry. |