Lecture and Film Screening ‘Besetzte Bilder’ / Filmic Reflections on the Period of Occupation

For more than 10 years the four Allied powers were in control of Austria, with the politics of the cinema and media playing a central role. Domestic and foreign images created at that time retained their potency for many decades to follow.

The four Allied powers and the Austrian government used film specifically as a means of conveying information and propaganda. The documentaries, feature films and newsreels from 1945-1955 bear witness to the establishment of the Austrian national identity, how the Allies’ portrayed themselves, the cold battle for the sympathy of the Austrian population, and the political and social events of those years. The films of the post-war period show the idealisation of self-portrayals, humorous and critical images from outside and the instrumentalisation of a ‘cinema of fear’.

Lecture:
Karin Moser, media and modern historian, University of Vienna

followed by Film screening:
‘1. April 2000’, AT 1952, 105 min., German original version, R: Wolfgang Liebeneiner