What is it about?
"Visions of Vienna" explores the way in which this city has been conjured up in international cinema of the 1920s and 1930s. Famous directors such as Erich von Stroheim, Ernst Lubitsch or Max Ophüls have frequently recreated the city in their canonical films. Vienna is often associated with anti-modern imagery from the turn of the century and the Habsburg monarchy. "Visions of Vienna" shows that films set in Vienna, despite their fin-de-siècle-setting, often articulate very radical modern experiences such as anti-feminism, anti-Semitism and dislocation.
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Why is it important?
There are rarely any books that deal exclusively with the representation of Vienna in international cinema. Vienna is typically associated with modernism in painting, literature, and music, but hardly ever with cinema. This book shows how the experience of modernity gets articulated in the represenation of a seemingly unmodern city. In particular the representation of the Viennese Girl, a female figure generated in the literature of Arthur Schnitzler, gains great importance in Vienna-set films, and is thouroughly discussed.
Perspectives
"Visions of Vienna" fills the gap in the studies of modernity, city and cinema, which is usually reserved for cities such as Berlin or Paris. It stresses the importance of the Viennese Girl, a female stock figure that helps to articulate the pressures of modernity. A study of These particular female character is unique and adds to Feminist film history.
Alexandra Seibel
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This page is a summary of: Visions of Vienna, July 2017, Amsterdam University Press,
DOI: 10.5117/9789462981898.
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