Picturing Austrian Cinema: 99 Films/100 Comments ed. by Katharina Müller and Claus Philipp (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Picturing Austrian Cinema: 99 Films/100 Comments ed. by Katharina Müller and Claus Philipp
• Jakub Gortat

Katharina Müller and Claus Philipp, eds., Picturing Austrian Cinema: 99 Films/100 Comments. Leipzig: Spector Books, 2022. 250 pp.

This book is a game—one hundred writers and journalists from the fields of media, film theory, literature, and science were asked to choose one frame from one postwar Austrian film and to express their feelings about what in the selected image should be regarded as particularly Austrian. However, as the [End Page 137] editors explain in a short introduction, the book is "full of broken rules" (ii) with some texts too short, others too long, and one even addressing a British film, Carol Reed's The Third Man. Actually, there are even more cases of non-adherence to the rules—some authors refer to films made before 1945: Wellen schlagen gegen die Küste, beobachtet von einer Frau, made between 1914 and 1918 (9–10); Liebelei, made in 1933, which is in fact a German production inspired by nineteenth-century Vienna (181–82); one author even writes about the music video of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" (15–16). The book thus has a heterogeneous quality; as mentioned, the length of the texts varies, and the excerpt about The Third Man resembles an appendix planted in the middle of the book, printed in a different font size and on a different type of paper, with handwritten text in German, unlike all of the other contributions, which have been translated from German into English. Therefore, this invitation to learn more about Austrian cinema takes on the appearance of a game, an experiment, a collage, and a stream of thoughts from numerous intellectuals who share their opinion on what can be regarded as "Austrian."

A common element of Austrian film, to cite the book's editors, is its creative function: it "creates identity through critical discourse, diversity through a democratic-pluralist reflection of society, and excellence through courage and an unwillingness to compromise" (v). Various contributors' thoughts lead to the conclusion that contemporary Austrian cinema is to be understood mostly in postmodern terms. Films, scenes, and frames discussed here offer an image of a type of film that is deeply engaged in criticizing politics and society and that addresses the problems of people on society's margins, excluded individuals, and other abjects. These issues include international trafficking of illegal female migrants in Austria, as in Kurz davor ist es passiert, explored by Birgit Kohler (93–94); women working in the sex and pornography industry, as in the case of Revanche, described by Thomas Mießgang (111–12), Die Praxis der Liebe, commented on by Esther Buss (43–44), and Joy, presented by Teresa Präauer (165–66); and the integration of immigrants in Austria, as we can see in David Perrin's comment on Bewegungen eines nahen Bergs, which features a Nigerian mechanic working somewhere in Styria in the Austrian Alps (85–86). Austrian cinema also participates in postcolonial discourse, which has been noted by Devika Girish writing on Unsere Afrikareise (35–36), Christine Scheucher commenting on Angelo (145–46), and Sonja Gangl and Robert Woelfl focusing on Darwin's Nightmares (153–54). [End Page 138]

It is beyond doubt that the emergence of New Austrian Film in the 1970s revised the common image of Austrian cinema, which had previously been associated with the splendor of the Habsburg monarchy, pristine Alpine landscapes, and villages inhabited by friendly, hospitable people. Most films discussed in Picturing Austrian Cinema address the contemporary problems of Austria and do not have a picturesque, eye-pleasing backdrop, either rural or urban, but are rather set against a background of "non-places," in accordance with the term proposed by Marc Augé, and which, as Robert Dassanowsky and Oliver Speck argue in their standard anthology New Austrian Film, has many examples in new Austrian film. In this respect, only a few texts mention popular Austrian trademarks and prominent symbols (e.g., Wiener Schnitzel as in the case of Indien, 59–60) or are dedicated to a film associated with operetta, musical, or imperial tradition, such as Sissi, die junge Kaiserin...