Viennese art film industry

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The emblem of the Viennese art film industry

The Viennese art film industry was the first major Austrian film production company . It emerged from the first Austrian cinema industry , founded in 1910, and did pioneering work in almost all areas of Austrian silent film. The founders were the photographer Anton Kolm , his wife and daughter of a Panoptikum owner, Luise Kolm and Jakob Fleck .

Wiener Kunstfilm and its predecessor were founded at a time when the Austro-Hungarian film and cinema market was almost completely dominated by French companies. In order to be able to hold its own against these financially strong companies of international proportions, Wiener Kunstfilm, as the first Austrian film production company, could count on the support of patriotic media and cinema owners.

The company was responsible for the first Austrian newsreel and the first Austrian feature film. Since it almost incessantly recorded major events in the first few years, the production company is also of great importance as a chronicler of the last splendid years of the Danube monarchy .

history

Foundation of the first Austrian cinema film industry

In January 1910, Anton Kolm, Luise Kolm and Jakob Fleck founded the first Austrian cinema film industry at Währinger Strasse 15 in the ninth district of Alsergrund in Vienna . With the short documentary The Carnival procession in Ober-St. Veit first drew the young company's attention to itself. The recordings, which were made on February 6, 1910, were shown in cinemas in Vienna for the first time on February 8. A little later, on March 14th, the funeral of Mayor Karl Lueger was filmed. The report was very popular and was shown in 22 cinemas in Vienna. The Austrian Komet - one of two Austrian film magazines at the time - commented on this in its March 24th issue with "So finally a Viennese film that will make its way through the world." The first advertising production in the broader sense was also made in 1910: Since women's hats were very popular at that time, but caused poor visibility in the back rows in cinemas, Anton Kolm produced The Hat in the cinema to remedy this problem. The extremely positive media response, which is characterized by patriotism and the first Austrian film productions, secured sales for the company and at the same time drew the attention of investors. In order to be able to take on new investors, a change in the legal form was necessary. The film production company became a GesmbH .

Name changed to Austro-Hungarian Cinema Industry GmbH

From December 16, 1910, the new name of the company was Österreichisch-Ungarische Kinoindustrie GmbH . New investors ensured a capital base of 310,000 crowns . On February 27, 1911, a film rental company opened at Neubaugasse 33 in Vienna- Neubau . In addition to the in-house productions, selected foreign productions are also offered there for Viennese cinema owners. From the beginning, the focus was primarily on the French market, which at that time produced the film d'art .

The first announcements of their films in trade magazines were still very small, while French companies afforded up to two pages. Competition from foreign companies that still dominated the market was fierce. The Kolms and Jacob Fleck responded by filming as much as possible from the start in order to be able to provide the Viennese cinemas with current reports from Vienna. Including events such as the launching of the kuk-Kriegsmarine battleship SMS Zrinyi in the port of Trieste and the flight week at the Wiener Neustadt airfield - at that time one of the largest airports in the world in recent aviation history. There they even received permission, previously only granted to French filmmakers, to film the Kaiser, who was known to have a positive attitude towards film, as he quickly recognized the propaganda value of this medium. The popular Viennese bathing island Gänsehäufel and the Vienna Prater , as well as ski events, the Semmering in winter, the Plitwitzer Lakes , fire disasters, city images of Krakow , Mariazell and Prague were filmed and brought to the Viennese cinemas. With “Types and Scenes from Viennese Folk Life” , a documentary film with folk singers and other Viennese “originals” was also released in 1911 .

On July 29, 1911, the Viennese art film industry filmed the “Fire Catastrophe Vienna-Nordbahnhof” for the cinemas, and as a cynical reaction to the “ Humpelrock ” created by the French fashion designer Paul Poiret in 1910 , with which one could hardly walk, and its wearers frequently Were exposed to ridicule, the movie Martha was made with the culottes - which the hobble skirt had degenerated into.

Based on the French model, Anton Kolm also introduced the comic short film in Austria . With the Berlin actor Oskar Sabo he found his main actor in the 1910 production, The Evil Mother- in-Law. In 1911 Kolm filmed the folk singers and in 1912 Karl Blasel as a dentist with the main actor of the same name, who had been a popular Viennese comedian for around a decade.

The 1910 published drama " The Ancestor ", by Franz Grillparzer , was not only the first documented by contemporary records of Austrian film, but also provided the directorial debut of Jacob Fleck. With the film adaptation of this popular piece , the first Austrian film society embarked on a path that was already specified by France, but was again a pioneering achievement in Austria. Since the audience had gradually had enough of the less than imaginative short films around 1907/1908, and cinema attendance figures were falling for the first time, French producers reacted by filming contemporary literature. This movement, which gave cinema films more depth and content, was called Film d'Art and, with the Viennese art film industry, as the company appropriately called itself from 1911 onwards, was also copied in Austria. These "art films" were usually folk plays or (social) dramas from the common people. Several films of this kind were released in 1911: Der Dorftrottel , Die Glückspuppe , Mutter - tragedy of a factory girl and Just a poor servant . Ludwig Anzengruber's works were particularly popular and often filmed - ten times between 1914 and 1919. Some works have even been filmed twice.

In 1910, the Austro-Hungarian cinema industry and its predecessor, Erste Österreichische Kinofilms-Industrie , produced a total of four feature films and 14 documentaries - each with a length of around 10 minutes, which was customary for the time. The oldest Austrian feature film still preserved today, also dates from this period and comes from Wiener Kunstfilm. This is the All Souls story The Miller and His Child (1911). The film was a great success and could be played again every year as an "event film", but you can see the enormous budget shortage in the production in many ways. Because of the light-insensitive camera, the film was only shot in sunlight on a stage set up outdoors. Obviously inadequate scenes were not repeated, however, but kept for lack of film material - even if the wind moved the curtains and the Christmas tree in the house with the doors and windows closed. The last film of the Austro-Hungarian cinema industry was released on January 12, 1912 - it was the Kolm-Fleck-Filmgesellschaft's most complex production to date and was called Trilby , based on the book of the same name.

New establishment as the Viennese art film industry

Honorary grave of the Kolm-Veltée family at the Ober Sankt Veiter cemetery , with the signet of the Viennese art film industry on the gravestone

Due to differences with director Kühnel, a large investor in the Austro-Hungarian Cinema Industry GmbH , who also wanted to have an artistic say in the film production, Anton Kolm left the company in October 1911. As early as November 1, 1911, together with the original founding members Jakob Fleck and Luise Kolm, as well as their brother Claudius Veltée, he started operating Wiener Kunstfilm at Neustiftgasse 1–3 in Vienna's Neubau . Although the start-up capital was only a comparatively modest 30,000 crowns, recording halls were also built with the latest advances in film technology. One of the investors in the Viennese art film was Elias Tropp, whose wife Eugénie Bernay later became a silent film star.

Concerning film production, the most important change to earlier was the switch from documentary film production to mostly feature film production. Since Wiener Kunstfilm was financially weak, the first production had to be a success. This was made more difficult, among other things, by the fact that parts of the media of Viennese art film were less positively disposed than the previous societies. This was particularly evident in the film magazine Der Österreichische Komet , which suddenly had a negative attitude towards the new Antons Kolm film company. The reason for the change in sentiment was the differences with the former investors.

This first film project that was to bring immediate success was called "The Unknown" - based on the play of the same name by Franz Grillparzer . Advertisements of large sizes were placed, as previously only the financially strong French companies did, and renowned Viennese actors such as Eugénie Bernay , Claire Wallentin , Karl Blasel and Viktor Kutschera were hired for the Viennese population . Directed by Luise Kolm. The recipe worked at least partially: the film, which premiered on March 15, 1912, was a great success and was also successfully distributed internationally. However, this did not yet bring the hoped-for breakthrough to be on a par with the French competitors, at least in Austria. After the predecessor companies of Wiener Kunstfilm were already responsible for the first documentary film and the first feature and comedian films, Wiener Kunstfilm continued its pioneering work in Austrian film history. In November 1912, when other Austrian film production companies were already fighting for market share in the cinemas with foreign competition, Das Gänsehäufel was the first real documentation of the Viennese art film industry .

First major productions - at the transition from short to feature films

After the premiere of the large-scale production, The Unknown , costing 10,000 kroner , the Viennese art film, which tended to be financially weak, ran into even greater financial difficulties when Elias Tropp left the company and a little later co-founded Felix Dörmann's Vindobona film . Nevertheless, the Viennese art film continued its steady rise. In 1913 the controversial film adaptation of the "Waltz King" Johann Strauss appeared: Johann Strauss on the beautiful blue Danube . Controversial because Johann Strauss was not long dead and many still knew him from concerts and thus found an early film adaptation unworthy. After intensive research, the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in locating this film in spring 2007. After extensive analysis and restoration, the film will also be made available to the public. The film was not least one of those attempts to make film socially acceptable in Austria. Under the direction of Karl Zeska , Hansi Niese - the female counterpart to Alexander Girardi and thus also an answer to the great Sascha film production The Millionaire about and with Alexander Girardi - as well as Selma Kurz , Louise Kartousch , Richard Waldemar and Alfred Grünfeld - all of them well-known Viennese stage actors of that time. The first performance of the Strauss biography adapted for the film by Alfred Deutsch-German and Siegfried Löwy took place on November 20, 1913 in the opera cinema. The music was composed by Alfred Grünwald , who gave a live concert at the premiere. The production fell at a time when Sascha-Film had already become a serious competitor and film production in Austria was changing from short to long films.

In addition to the financially strong Sascha-Film, other Austrian film production companies were also established at that time. The proportion of French and other foreign films in Austrian cinemas was pushed back more and more - at the same time, Austrian productions continued to penetrate abroad. Wiener Kunstfilm was able to assert itself as the strongest Austrian film producer for the time being. From Valeni's wedding , which premiered on October 10th in the opera cinema, one success followed another. The pastor of Kirchfeld , with Max Neufeld in a leading role, was also able to achieve fantastic visitor numbers. With Austrian folk and native literature, which not only had the French film d'art as a model, but also more and more corresponded to this genre in quality with increasing experience, Wiener Kunstfilm asserted itself as the leading film producer in Austria.

The First World War - battle with Sascha-Film for the Austrian market

When the First World War broke out, most of the companies from now warring countries had to leave the country. The Austrian market, which until recently was dominated by French production and rental companies, was now open to Austrian producers. For the time being, however, there was only sparse investment and foreign films, e.g. from Germany, continued to make up the majority of films shown in Austria. The Austrian film market only began to develop in 1915 - numerous competitors emerged. The only competitor on an equal footing with Viennese art film was Sascha-Film, which grew steadily in strength - it had the family fortune of its founder, Count Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky , behind it.

The first "battle", if you will, went to Wiener Kunstfilm. As early as September 1914, she published reports on the war in her new weekly newsreel, the “War Journal”, which was shown in the cinemas every week. Raimund Czerny and Heinrich Findeis were on the front lines as cameramen . The first big feature film success of the war years was also due to the Viennese art film. With Liane Haid , who rose to become the first Austrian film star after this role, the perfect lead cast for the propaganda film Mit Herz und Hand fürs Vaterland (1915) had been found. This was followed by other productions of this kind, such as The Dream of an Austrian Reservist (1915), With God for the Emperor and the Reich (1916) and Im Banne der Duty (1917). The folk literature films such as The Perjury Farmer (1915) and The Schandfleck (1917) continued to be very successful . Jakob Fleck and Luise Kolm directed all of the productions just mentioned. The longest production of Viennese art films to date was also released during the war years: Der Verschwender . In this, as in many other films, Wilhelm Klitsch and Liane Haid are the main cast of the Viennese art film of these years. Other popular actors are Hermann Benke and Karl Baumgartner . The popular actor Max Neufeld, on the other hand, is deployed in the war.

In 1919, Anton and Luise Kolm founded the Viennese art film industry as Vita-Film .

Employee

The permanent employees of the Viennese art film industry on an undated recording, in the middle Luise Kolm and Jacob Fleck .

In the first few years in particular, the company founders Anton Kolm, Luise Kolm and Jakob Fleck and Luise Kolm's brother Claudius Veltée acted almost exclusively as directors - mostly as a team. Marco Brociner was the first time someone outside of the founding team worked as a director. From 1913 Alfred Deutsch-German was a screenwriter for the Viennese art film industry.

Other directors who worked at least irregularly for Wiener Kunstfilm were Walter Friedemann , Ludwig Ganghofer , Max Neufeld and Hans Otto Löwenstein .

studio

The studio of Wiener Kunstfilm was in what was then the Viennese suburb of Mauer , according to a contemporary advertisement. Presumably they were in the same place as the Rosenhügel film studios that still exist today and were built by the successor company Vita-Film .

Productions

The productions of that time were all without sound and usually had a maximum playing length of around 20 minutes. Of course, this also applied to the Viennese art film industry. Some themes were also produced twice. The following is a selection of their works - mostly feature films and dramas - from the countless weekly productions only a small selection is given.

  • The carnival procession in Ober-St. Veit (newsreel production, 1910)
  • The funeral procession of Sr. Excellency of the Mayor Dr. Karl Lueger (newsreel production, 1910)
  • The Wicked Mother-in-Law (1910)
  • The ancestor (1910, 1919)
  • Types and scenes from Viennese folk life (documentary, 1911)
  • Folk singer (1911)
  • The village idiot (1911)
  • The lucky doll (1911)
  • Mother - Tragedy of a Factory Girl (1911)
  • Just a Poor Servant (1911)
  • Martha with the culottes (1911)
  • The miller and his child (1910, 1911; premiere on October 21, 1911)
  • Trilby (1912)
  • Das Gänsehäufel (documentary, 1912)
  • Karl Blasel as a dentist (1912)
  • The Unknown (1912)
  • The Psychiatrist (second title: The Proletarian Heart , 1913)
  • The pastor of Kirchfeld (1913/1914; premiere on October 30, 1914)
  • Svengali (1914)
  • The fourth commandment (1914)
  • The Perjurer (1915)

literature

  • Francesco Bono, Paolo Caneppele, Günter Krenn (eds.): Electric shadows. Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-901932-02-X .
  • Walter Fritz : I experience the world in the cinema: 100 years of cinema and film in Austria. Brandstätter, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3854476612 .
  • Markus Nepf: The pioneering work of Anton Kolm, Louise Veltée / Kolm / Fleck and Jakob Fleck up to the beginning of the First World War. Thesis. Vienna 1991. (Excerpts also in: Elektro Schatten. Vienna 1999)

Web links

Commons : Viennese art film industry  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. filmarchiv - Mitteilungen des Filmarchiv Austria , 03/07, page 68
  2. Francesco Bono, Paolo Caneppele, Günter Krenn (eds.): Elektro Schatten , Vienna 1999, Verlag Filmarchiv Austria