Screening Transcendence

During the 1930s, Austrian film production companies developed a process to navigate the competing demands of audiences in Nazi Germany and those found in broader Western markets. In Screening Transcendence, film historian Robert Dassanowsky explores how Austrian filmmakers during the Austrofascist period (1933-1938) developed two overlapping industries: "Aryanized" films for distribution in Germany, its largest market, and "Emigrantenfilm," which employed �migr� and Jewish talent that appealed to international audiences.

Through detailed archival research in both Vienna and the United States, Dassanowsky reveals what was culturally, socially, and politically at stake in these two simultaneous and overlapping film industries. Influenced by French auteurism, admired by Italian cinephiles, and ardently remade by Hollywood, these period Austrian films demonstrate a distinctive regional style mixed with transnational influences.

Combining brilliant close readings of individual films with thoroughly informed historical and cultural observations, Dassanowsky presents the story of a nation and an industry mired in politics, power, and intrigue on the brink of Nazi occupation.

In anii 1930, companiile austriece de productie cinematografica au dezvoltat un proces pentru a naviga cererile concurente ale publicului din Germania nazista si cele gasite pe pietele occidentale mai largi. In Screening Transcendence, istoricul filmului Robert Dassanowsky exploreaza modul in care cineastii austrieci din perioada austrofascista (1933-1938) au dezvoltat doua industrii care se suprapun: filme „arianizate” pentru distributie in Germania, cea mai mare piata a sa, si „Emigrantenfilm”, care a angajat „emigrant” si Talent evreiesc care a atras atentia publicului international. Prin cercetari detaliate de arhiva atat in Viena, cat si in Statele Unite, Dassanowsky dezvaluie ceea ce era in joc cultural, social si politic in aceste doua industrii cinematografice simultane si suprapuse.