Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume

May 5 1958 N/A 1h 44m
Comedy, Music

In the made-up country of Alanien, King Alexander I has been overthrown while abroad. Now, he's in Vienna with his daughter, the city of his fondest memories since studying there as a boy. It doesn't take long for the charm of Vienna to work its magic on the former king: he quickly comes to terms with the new situation and is able to enjoy the Austrian capital sans all the ceremony and trappings which would otherwise accompany him on a state visit. The princess is content with preparing herself for a career as a pianist concert, while the former king takes a job as a chauffeur in the embassy of the country he once ruled. The revolutionaries are shocked; and his days in Vienna are numbered.

Plot

This last film of director Willi Forst is his melancholy view on a modernizing Vienna and his longing for a more gracious world. He mocks the tourist industry in the Vienna-in-24-hours sequence including a reference to Carol Reed's "The Third Man". There are some other nice ideas in the script, but most of them take too long and/or are not elaborated well-enough; as a whole the writing is mediocre. Fortunately Forst had a fine cast that makes the best of things, although Adrian Hoven's presence is non-descript.More importantly the film misses the old Schwung,the Forst style, the former light touch of Forst. It is a very uneasy film of a tired and disillusioned man who had lost interest and in whom the audiences had lost any interest. As Forst himself said after completing this film: my style is not wanted anymore, it is better to go than to be asked to leave. The film is a sad Servuß of a very fine director.

Written by

Willi Forst, Kurt Nachmann, Hans Rameau

Directed by

Willi Forst

Production Countries

Austria

Production Companies

Lux-Film Wien, Sascha-Verleih

Languages

Deutsch

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
57
Average Rating
5.2 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA