Vienna and the Movies
Vienna and the Movies
July 7–October 9, 2016
The influence of Vienna—an essential cockpit of modernism—on cinema. Includes films by Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Max Ophuls, Josef von Sternberg, Billy Wilder, and more.
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The Third Man
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Sunset Blvd.
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The Blue Angel
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Amadeus
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Fear
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Events
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Saturday, September 10, 4:30 PMDavid Thomson Lecture
Past Films
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Max Ophuls
United States, 1948Restored Print
Thursday, July 7 7 PMView DetailsIntroduced by David Thomson
Joan Fontaine stars as a young woman in love with a concert pianist (Louis Jourdan) in this Ophuls classic set in a turn-of-the-century Vienna of spiral staircases, mirrors, and elaborate grillwork.
The Third Man
Carol Reed
United Kingdom, 1949Digital Restoration
Saturday, July 9 6 PMView DetailsJoseph Cotten pursues Welles through postwar Vienna in Graham Greene and Carol Reed’s cynical masterpiece. “Seeing it on the big screen is like watching it for the first time" (NY Times).
The Marriage Circle
Ernst Lubitsch
United States, 1924Restored Print
Sunday, July 10 4:30 PMView DetailsLive Music / Judith Rosenberg on piano
Adolphe Menjou, Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, and Florence Vidor square the circle in Lubitsch’s Vienna-set comedy of marital manners.
The Smiling Lieutenant
Ernst Lubitsch
United States, 1931Restored Print
Friday, July 15 6:30 PMView DetailsMaurice Chevalier is caught in a tug-of-war between lovely Claudette Colbert and royal Miriam Hopkins. An Oscar-nominated hit, and “a work of nearly total assurance” (James Harvey).
The Blue Angel
Josef von Sternberg
Germany, 1930Thursday, July 21 7 PMView DetailsPrim professor Emil Jannings is destroyed by his obsession with cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich in the film that launched Dietrich’s screen career.
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Fritz Lang
Germany, 1931Digital Restoration
Saturday, July 23 6 PMView DetailsA precursor to American film noir, Fritz Lang’s masterpiece is a terrifying excursion into an urban underworld where it is difficult to distinguish morally between organized crime and law enforcement. Peter Lorre stars.
Sunset Blvd.
Billy Wilder
United States, 1950Wednesday, July 27 7:30 PMView DetailsIntroduced by David Thomson
Fledgling screenwriter William Holden stumbles into the mansion of faded silent-film superstar Gloria Swanson in Billy Wilder’s poison pen letter to Hollywood. Winner of three Academy Awards.
Liebelei
Max Ophuls
Germany, 1932Archival Print
Friday, July 29 6:30 PMView DetailsFrom Ophuls's early German period, an adaptation of a Schnitzler play about love that outlives life under an oppressive military authority. Set in turn-of-the-century Vienna.
The Third Man
Carol Reed
United Kingdom, 1949Digital Restoration
Friday, August 5 6:30 PMView DetailsJoseph Cotten pursues Welles through postwar Vienna in Graham Greene and Carol Reed’s cynical masterpiece. “Seeing it on the big screen is like watching it for the first time" (NY Times).
From Mayerling to Sarajevo
Max Ophuls
France, 1940Saturday, August 13 6 PMView DetailsIn this neglected masterwork, a historic love affair becomes "a fascinating study of repression and isolation . . . love as a shifting series of masquerades" (Paul Willemen).
A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Dieterle, Max Reinhardt
United States, 1935Archival Print
Sunday, August 14 3:30 PMView DetailsHollywood studio power meets theatrical German Expressionism in this ornate post-Code collaboration between Warner Bros. and Max Reinhardt, starring James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, and Dick Powell.
La ronde
Max Ophuls
France, 1950BAMPFA Collection Print
Saturday, September 3 5:30 PMView DetailsLove's ceaseless roundabout, set in the Vienna of the waltz. “Ophuls displays dazzling technical virtuosity and cinematic elegance” (Chicago Reader).
Oh...Rosalinda!!
Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
United Kingdom, 1955Sunday, September 4 5 PMView DetailsPowell and Pressburger's adapation of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus is “as light and tart as Viennese pastry” (David Thomson). Set in postwar Vienna and starring Michael Redgrave.
Lola Montez
Max Ophuls
France, Germany, 1955BAMPFA Collection Print
BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Saturday, September 10 5:30 PMView DetailsFree Prescreening Lecture by David Thomson at 4:30.
In Max Ophuls’s audacious final film, a life of passion becomes the stuff of carnival. “The ultimate cinephilic object: a color-and-CinemaScope dream” (Boston Phoenix).
Fear
Roberto Rossellini
Germany, Italy, 1955Saturday, September 17 6 PMView DetailsBased on a novella by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, Fear was Rossellini’s last collaboration with his then wife Ingrid Bergman.
Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
West Germany, 1972Sunday, September 18 4 PMView DetailsTwenty-eight chapters from the life of Ludwig II of Bavaria add up to what Syberberg calls “a summary of the Germany of the 19th century as experienced by the Germany of 1972."
Fear
Roberto Rossellini
Germany, Italy, 1955Friday, September 23 6:30 PMView DetailsBased on a novella by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, Fear was Rossellini’s last collaboration with his then wife Ingrid Bergman.
Amadeus
Milos Forman
United States, 1984BAMPFA Collection Print
Director's Cut!
Thursday, October 6 7 PMView DetailsPrague stands in for eighteenth-century Vienna in this visually stunning life of Mozart as seen through the eyes of an envious rival. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Screenplay, and Sound Design.
Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick
United States, 1999BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Friday, October 7 7 PMView DetailsIn this adaptation of Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, a married couple (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) free fall through a psychological landscape of sexuality and fantasy. “A spellbinder: provocatively conceived, gorgeously shot, and masterfully executed” (Chicago Tribune).
The Piano Teacher
Michael Haneke
Austria, France, 2001BAMPFA Collection Print
Sunday, October 9 6:45 PMView DetailsIsabelle Huppert is a musician driven by dark sexual compulsions in Michael Haneke's scandalous melodrama. "At once an emotional thriller and a domestic horror movie" (LA Weekly).