'Lost' Austrian film predicting rise of nazism restored and relaunched

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

'Lost' Austrian film predicting rise of nazism restored and relaunched

City Without Jews premiered in Vienna in 1924. Now the original version, lost for 90 years, has been saved from decay

Philip Oltermann in Vienna@philipoltermann
Friday 9 December 2016 02.00 EST

It is the end of the first world war, inflation is soaring and the inhabitants of a German-speaking city are starting to turn on each other. Politicians are quick to find a scapegoat: “The people,” the chancellor announces, “demand the expulsion of all Jews.”

What may sound like a snippet from a history book about the Third Reich is in fact the synopsis of a film produced at a time when the Nazi party was still banned and Adolf Hitler was putting the finishing touches to Mein Kampf in a Bavarian prison cell.

Based on a dystopian novel by the Jewish publicist Hugo Bettauer, Die Stadt ohne Juden (“The City Without Jews”) originally premiered in Vienna in July 1924, but the original version vanished in the war years and was considered lost for more than 90 years.

Now, thanks to a chance discovery in a Parisian flea market and the biggest crowdfunding campaign to date in Austria’s culture sector, the silent film is set to be digitally restored and re-released in its original form for the first time, with a premiere including a new live score scheduled at Vienna’s concert hall for autumn 2017.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/09/lost-austrian-film-predicting-rise-of-nazism-restored-and-relaunched

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Meh. They can record v 2.0 at it happens. nt

[MADem]

2. WOW. This is a big deal.

This is going back to the root of the root. It's like watching a seed pod burst.

I will seek this ugly, cautionary tale of a film out--the best way to recognize evil easily is to study it.

I'm quite sure the parallels with today will be ... glaring.

[burrowowl]

3. K&R!!!!!!

[Bucky]

4. about a year too late for us