Legendary film acting families | The Marischkas # 2023

Two of the greatest acting families get a new, comprehensive cinematic presentation i our documentaries. We shed some light on the personalities and careers of the Albach|Retty|Schneiders and the Marischkas with dedication and a love of detail. The idea is to look at these great performers from multiple angles - and throw a new light on their careers.

THE MARISCHKAS

Films from 1945 to 1963 say a lot about how Austria saw itself during the Second Republic. Popular films – and the Marischkas were masters at this – showed a squeaky-colored present in which – thanks to Franz Marischka – free sex drove its (un)being in leather pants, or it wallowed in an opulent pre-war time. The lavishly designed and sensitively staged story about the eccentric Austrian Empress Elisabeth, known as Sissi, is one of the great successes of German-speaking post-war cinema with over 6.5 million cinemagoers. Ernst Marischka managed to pull all the strings to show the maximum splendor and staged a glamorous dream finale that until then had only been seen in Hollywood films.

THE MARISCHKAS | GABRIELE FLOSSMANN

As a guide for the viewer, the story of the Marischkas dynasty is told as a family tree goes. From this, the life stories and their “fruits” (films) were developed, with the focus on the three “marischkas films” – Uncle Ernst and his nephews Georg and Franz. The "ideal world" that we encounter in Ernst Marischka's films was compared with images of the reality of the time and reconstructed in various interviews.

Interviews

Nicole Marischka, also to her father Georg Marischka, Ingeborg Schöner - wife of Georg Marischka and mother of Nicole Marischka. 

Family members and colleagues who are (still) alive and able or willing to speak.

Uwe Ochsenknecht and/or Veronika Ferres (colleagues of Georg Marischka in film "Schtonk!").

Thomas Gottschalk directed a film with Georg Marischka (Zärtliche Chaoten). Frank Stern, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, who dealt with the political aspects of entertainment films, Oliver Rathkolb, Univ. Prof. for Contemporary History, on the denazification of street names in Vienna (including Hubert Marischka Park).

Didi von Rossek, cameraman for Franz Marischka's "Lederhosen" films.
Waltraud Haas played in "Season in Salzburg" directed by Ernst Marischka.

Xaver Schwarzenberger was Fassbinder's cameraman in the "Countermovement" film to the Marischka's homeland film, but later directed the "Sisi" film - and he also directed two other films with Nicole Marischka.

Barbara Albert and/or Veronika Franz as contemporary directors on the film style and image of Marischkas women from today's perspective.