BAFTSS New Connections Talk: A Failed Film Project in Austria: Interwar Star Franziska Gaal’s Unmade Post-War Comeback 23 April 2021, 2 pm (BST)

Hanja Daemon Announcement
Subject Fields
Film and Film History, German History / Studies, Humanities, Research and Methodology, Contemporary History

Dr Hanja Dämon’s talk intercedes in the growing field of unproduction studies, which focuses on the study of the unmade, unseen, and unreleased. It does so through a case study of post-war European production cultures and celebrity. A project prominently advertised in Austria between the end of 1946 and spring 1947 promised the return of a beloved star of the 1930s to Vienna: The Hungarian-born Jewish actress Franziska Gaal. Extremely popular in interwar German-language cinema, she left for Hollywood once she was no longer welcomed in Nazi Germany and Austria. Her post-war comeback was to be produced by the company ‘Kollektiv-Film’, founded by Franz Antel, who was to become a prolific Austrian director over a decades-spanning career. Other names associated with the project were Adolf Wohlbrück/Anton Walbrook, slated to return from Great Britain to Austria, and star composer Robert Stolz. The talk explores why the film remained unmade, touching on the conditions of filmmaking in Austria in this period, and providing a backstory to the ‘Kollektiv-Film’, which, in the end, only ever made one film, the musical comedy Das Singende Haus (The Singing House, dir. by Franz Antel) and soon collapsed.

This talk is hosted by Dr James Fenwick (Sheffield Hallam University, Centre for Culture, Media and Society) and sponsored by the BAFTSS New Connections programme.

Contact Information

Please join us for a forthcoming talk on unmade film by Dr Hanja Dämon, sponsored by the BAFTSS New Connections programme and hosted by James Fenwick (Sheffield Hallam University), taking place on Friday 23 April 2021 (1400-1530). Make sure to sign up on Eventbrite here to receive an invitation to this online event.

Attendance free 

Contact Email
J.Fenwick@shu.ac.uk