On location in Vienna
From The Third Man to Mission Impossible, Vienna’s stock as a film location is on the rise internationally. The capital also has a rich variety of cinemas and film festivals to its credit.
The Third Man is one of the best known films to feature Vienna in a starring role, with the Giant Ferris Wheel, the subterranean sewer network and Anton Karas’s haunting zither score all featuring prominently. Based on the novel of the same name by Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed, this masterpiece of 1940s British cinema presents an unflinchingly honest picture of a post-war Vienna on its knees. Today the city has its very own Third Man Museum and there are tours of the key locations, even including a trip down the sewers. 1973 US spy thriller Scorpio, saw special agent Cross (Burt Lancaster) pursue Jean “Scorpio” Laurier (Alain Delon) through a subway construction site on Karlsplatz. The Living Daylights (1987), starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond, featured a romantic kiss on the Giant Ferris Wheel and a horse-drawn carriage ride through the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace. Before Sunrise by Richard Linklater also featured several loving embraces. This 1995 cult classic charts the touching love story between American tourist Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and French student Celine (Julie Delpy), who spend a day and a night together in the Austrian capital.
Vienna is particularly in demand as a film set among directors on the lookout for an authentic fin-de-siècle ambience. In one such example, Café Central in the historic old town was among the locations for Klimt (2006), Raoul Ruiz’s silver screen portrait of celebrated Viennese Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt, starring John Malkovich and Veronica Ferres. In A Dangerous Method (2011) by David Cronenberg, Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) eat Sachertorte with whipped cream at Café Sperl and go for a stroll through the grounds of the Belvedere palace. Woman in Gold (2015, directed by Simon Curtis, with Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl and Katie Holmes) about US art collector Maria Altmann and five Klimt paintings from the Belvedere which were restituted in 2006, shows the Konzerthaus, Rathaus and Academy of Fine Arts. Vienna was also the location for multiple episodes of the popular crime show Inspector Rex, which was broadcast in almost 50 countres worldwide.
One of the latest blockbusters to be filmed in Vienna, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015), sees Tom Cruise and leading lady Rebecca Ferguson jump from the roof of the Vienna State Opera on to the Ringstrasse below – dressed in formal evening wear. Vienna is increasingly in demand for Bollywood productions, such as the romantic drama “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” (English: O Heart, its difficult), which came out in 2016.
A series of kitsch but beautiful Vienna motifs in the Sissi films (1955-57) by Viennese director Ernst Marischka live on in many people’s hearts. The legendary trilogy tracking the life and times of Empress Elisabeth – with a young Romy Schneider as Sissi and KarlheinzBöhm as Emperor Franz Joseph – is one of the most successful German-language films of all time. Among the countless scenes shot in Vienna were the wedding in the Michaelerkirche church, with others filmed at the legendary Rosenhügel film studio using original furnishings from the capital’s palaces. These props are the subject of a permanent exhibition at the Imperial Furniture Collection in the seventh district, entitled Sissi in Film.
Vienna Symphonic Library and Synchron Stage Vienna
Opened in 2016 and located in the former Synchronhalle at Rosenhügel film studios in the 23rd district, Synchron Stage Vienna is one of the leading venues for film music and orchestral recording sessions. The exceptional acoustics put it on a par with today’s top film music studios in Los Angeles, London and Berlin. At the same time, a film music session ensemble with the necessary skills to meet the exacting standards of the studios and leading music producers is being put together. Synchron Stage Vienna is operated by the Vienna Symphonic Library, a local company that specializes in the development of music software and sample libraries. With more than three million samples in its archives, the library already has a loyal following and lists Grammy award winner James Newton Howard among its devotees. By far the largest sample library of its kind, it is now the market leader.
Vienna’s cinemascape
From huge multiplexes to independent theaters, Vienna’s cinema scene has something for everyone. The capital’s first cinema opened in 1902 in the Prater, while the Breitenseer Lichtspiele (est. 1905) in the fourteenth district refers to itself as the world’s oldest surviving cinema to have never closed its doors. Vienna has around 30 cinemas with somewhere in the region of 26,000 seats. In addition to the primarily mainstream multiplexes there is a whole host of art house cinemas to choose from. Some of these, such as the Gartenbaukino on the Ringstrasse, are historic gems featuring original interiors. This 1960s masterpiece features an impressively large screen and 736 seats. One of the most attractive picture houses in the city, it is also one of the key venues of the Viennale film festival.
Also in the heart of the city, in the same building that houses the Albertina, is the Filmmuseum, which is not a museum at all: its only exhibitions are the films on show in its “invisible cinema”. The theater’s interior was finished entirely in black by experimental film-maker and artist Peter Kubelka to put the architecture in the background, allowing the film to take center stage. Dedicated to collecting, preserving and restoring celluloid works, the Filmmuseum is also home to one of the world’s leading collections of avantgarde films.
A new mecca for cinema fans opened its doors in fall 2015in the shape of the Filmarchiv Austria operated by Metro Kinokulturhaus. In addition to the Metro cinema, which breathes new life into a beautiful former theater, the Kinokulturhaus in the first district even has its own bijou studio cinema. Filmarchiv Austria is the central repository and archive for Austria’s audiovisual heritage, with items in its collections dating from the 19th century all the way to the present day. Alongside films, programs, posters and books, it also has a wide array of original equipment.
There are many places to enjoy absorbing films in Vienna, including the Filmcasino with its delightful 50s interiors, the nostalgic and slightly antiquated Bellaria cinema, the art house Topkino and Schikaneder Kino, the Burg Kino which shows the original English version of The Third Man every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, the Votivkino, De France and many more besides. Many of the city’s art house cinemas have turned into popular hangouts thanks to the excellent food and drink they have to offer. Good examples include the Schikaneder-Kino, Topkino, Gartenbaukino and Filmmuseum bars, as well as the Ludwig & Adele restaurant in the Stadtkino inside the Künstlerhaus. The vast majority of the cinemas above screen films in the original language, while the English Cinema Haydn and the Burg-Kino specialize in English-language films.
Festivals and summer cinemas
300 movies, documentaries and short films in 14 days: Each year at the end of October comfortable and stylish cinemas throughout the old town host a cosmopolitan film festival that draws more than 94,000 film fans from Austria and abroad. The Viennale is Austria’s largest international film festival and one of the most tightly focused in Europe. As well as trying to reach out to as wide an audience as possible, it aims to present international cinema at a high aesthetic and political level with a view to stimulating intellectual debate.
Each summer, open-air cinemas reign supreme in the Austrian capital. In July and August Rathausplatz is a magnet for the kind of late-night crowds that are looking to get away from it all with a culinary and cinematic flight of fancy. The free Music Film Festival serves up a fantastic range of food and drinks to accompany genre films that cover all the bases from classical to pop. Meanwhile on Karlsplatz, the Baroque Karlskirche church provides the impressive backdrop for Kino unter Sternen. Running from late June to mid-July, it shows Austrian movies and documentaries. Between the end of May and late September the popular – and free – Volxkino sets off on a tour of Vienna’s districts, even stopping off for a stint on the top floor of the Main Library on the Gürtel for Kino am Dach. Autumn sees the Jewish Film Festival dominate the billings with a 14-day smorgasbord of Jewish-themed feature films, documentaries, shorts and animations.
Service and funding: Vienna Film Commission and Filmfonds Wien
Since its foundation in 2009, the Vienna Film Commission has been the go-to address for film-makers in the Austrian capital. Run by the city council, it provides local and international directors with all the support they need for their Vienna shoots. It helps producers secure permits, find the ideal sets and locations, and puts them in touch with industry partners. The Vienna Film Commission also works to promote the city as a film location on the international stage. Its website () includes an extensive image database and industry directory.
Filmfonds Wien’s overarching aim is to promote Vienna as a film and media location and enhance its reputation as an international film-making hub. Vienna City Council’s funding arm awards grants for project development, production and distribution. The applications are evaluated based on their cultural, artistic and cinematic merit for the capital’s film-making industry. Vienna contributes around EUR 11 million to the Filmfonds Wien each year.
Addresses:
Third Man Tour,
Third Man Museum, Pressgasse 25, 1040 Vienna,
Hofmobiliendepot. Imperial Furniture Collection. Andreasgasse 7, 1070 Vienna,
Synchron Stage Vienna, Engelshofengasse 2, 1230 Vienna,
Vienna Symphonic Library, Draschestrasse 89, 1230 Vienna,
Breitenseer Lichtspiele, Breitenseer Strasse 21, 1140 Vienna,
Gartenbaukino, Parkring 12, 1010 Vienna,
Austrian Film Museum, Augustinerstrasse 1, 1010 Vienna,
Metro Kinokulturhaus, Johannesgasse 4, 1010 Vienna,
Filmcasino, Margaretenstrasse 78, 1050 Vienna,
Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus, Akademiestrasse 13, 1010 Vienna,
Bellaria-Kino, Museumstrasse 3, 1070 Vienna
Topkino, Rahlgasse 1, 1060 Vienna,
Schikaneder-Kino, Margaretenstrasse 22-24, 1040 Vienna,
Burg-Kino, Opernring 19, 1010 Vienna,
Votivkino, Währinger Strasse 12, 1090 Vienna,
De France, Schottenring 5, 1010 Vienna,
Viennale,
Music Film Festival, Rathausplatz, 1010 Vienna,
Kino unter Sternen, Karlsplatz, 1040 Vienna,
Volxkino,
Jewish Film Festival Vienna,
Vienna Film Commission, Karl-Farkas-Gasse 18, 1030 Vienna,
Filmfonds Wien, Mariahilfer Strasse 76/1/10, 1070 Vienna,
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Last updated: January2018
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