Speaking of film

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Apropos film ( proper spelling = APROPOS FILM = ) was a film magazine on television that was produced by ORF from 1967 onwards . The creators were the Viennese film journalists Peter Hajek and Helmuth Dimko . From 1970 until it was discontinued in 2002, the program was co-produced with ZDF and also broadcast in Germany.

Speaking of film , production took place after Hajek and Dimko suggested to the then television director of the ORF, Helmut Zilk , to produce a film journal for television that was new of its kind and should show the film industry in a similarly bizarre way as it was in the opinion of Hajek and Dimko were ultimately inside her. Zilk got involved in the experiment and was rewarded with the success of the format. Especially in the first few years taboos were broken several times. For example, Mel Ferrer reported on his Mayerling production at the grave of Mary Vetsera , and James Mason skated with a mask based on his role as Franz Joseph I. The creators had Richard Romanowsky report on his longing for the afterlife during his last public appearance and were the first to interview Roman Polański eight months after the murder of his wife Sharon Tate . Various Viennese women felt cheated after they reacted to the advertisement of a fictional Hollywood producer, played by the castle actor Wolfgang Gasser , and dropped their covers in large numbers for him. After the broadcast, some of the women reacted indignantly and reported the producers to fraud. At the request of the up-and-coming director Hans Schyugl , Hajek and Dimko projected parts of his work, which primarily consisted of toilet sayings, onto the walls of a Viennese urinal at Vienna's Westbahnhof. After a few minutes, the police intervened and ended the operation, the two were charged with distributing pornography , but acquitted.

In terms of content, the magazine dealt with almost all areas of the film industry: with people in front of and behind the camera, films, festivals, new trends and film production itself. The magazine reported early on about the development of New Black Cinema or the new way of looking at the natives of North America in film. Hedy Lamarr , largely forgotten at the time, was interviewed again for the first time in a long time in a New York hotel in 1970 ; part of the fee was a Sachertorte . Apropos Film reported from the Cannes Film Festival in 1969 as the only film team besides French television. Over time, the time slot, the running time, the moderators and even the format changed again and again. The pilot episode was broadcast on November 26, 1967, moderated by Peter Schratt , the actual first episode ran on January 5, 1968 and was moderated by Dietmar Schönherr . In the first few years, six episodes ran in the year. In the first year Hajek and Dimko were supported by the director Jörg A. Eggers , in the second year by cameraman and designer Xaver Schwarzenberger . Since 1970 they have been solely responsible. Well-known cameramen such as Helmut Voitl , Walter Kindler , Karl Kases , Hans Selikovsky , Sepp Riff , Wolfgang Simon , Peter Rösler , Jürg V. Walther, Rick Robertson, Mike Oates and Harry Dawson were behind the camera . Other long-term employees included Herbert Krill , Helga Oswald (both USA), Herb Andress , Veit and Margit Mölter (Rome), Gerhard Hynek (Paris), Joe Hembus (Germany) and Simon Witter (London). Since the distributors did not provide any film excerpts in the early days of the magazine, the cameramen shot scenes in the cinema halls without interrupting operations. The show has been produced by the production company mungo-film since 1976 . The show, which mostly ran first on ZDF and about a week later on ORF, was later also taken over by SRF . In the course of time, the moderation was given up for an off-screen commentator. During the last redesign, the quarterly broadcast was switched to.

It was praised that the makers of the show did not take themselves and their product so seriously, often acted with a wink and still offered serious entertainment and information. Looking back on the 25th anniversary, it was praised, for example, that the program was "still the best cinema show on television" in German-speaking countries or that the most lively cinema show on German TV programs is produced abroad - = APROPOS FILM =. the most recent episode, which once again offered the tried-and-tested, skilful mixture of film scenes, interviews and background. Facts instead of gossip, object-related instead of superficiality [...] They let Diane Keaton report on her first directorial work unpretentiously, with a wink, as script consultant Linda Seger was allowed to portray herself. After more than 35 years and 400 episodes, the program with the last episode was discontinued on November 25, 2002, the reason given was that the changed working conditions in the film market made it more and more difficult to freely journalistic, comprehensive and differentiated processing of trends and backgrounds . The final picture was an obituary for Apropos film that was placed in the Daily Variety .

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary, Apropos Film was the subject of a retrospective at the Munich Film Festival in 1992 , where a compilation of the best scenes was shown. In 2005 Apropos Film was again part of a retrospective on Austrian television history at the Viennale . In 1972 the magazine was awarded the Golden Camera .

literature

  • without author: “APROPOS FILM”. Holy wish. In: Der Spiegel 16/1970, pp. 224–228.
  • without author: 25 years = APROPOS FILM =. 1991 (brochure for the 25th anniversary and for the retrospective at the Munich Film Festival).

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ ZDF press release: Four times "Apropos Film" in 2001 / ZDF-Kinomagazin from February 4th on Sundays at 11:45 pm. February 2, 2001, Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Rofl-Michael Simon in Neue Ruhr Zeitung , Essen, March 14, 1991
  3. ^ ZDF yearbook - November 2002. Retrieved on March 9, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Anton Silhan: TV history without nostalgia - film archive series "ORF 3" presents the fictional, alternative TV channel of the same name at the Viennale. In: Wiener Zeitung. Retrieved March 9, 2019 .