Framing Landscapes: The Sound of Music meets Elfriede Jelinek

#1 The Sound of Music meets Elfriede Jelinek (Season 4)

We start our new season with the all-time classic „The Sound of Music“ (US 1965), an escapist dream set in the Austrian landscape of Salzburg. The musical is based on the true lives of the Family von Trapp who could flee the Nazi terror and make a career as musicians in the States. Being one of the highest grossing films in history it stirs a longing for harmony in its audience that seems to last till this day. But which values does the story pursue and naturalize? We analyze the protagonist Maria (Julie Andrews), her roles as a nun, a governess, a wive and potenzial mother – and as a queer icon. We analyze how traditional gender roles and nature oppose the evil - the threat by the Nazis. We also take a close look the narrative of „Austrianness“ that the film creates. Additionally we are asking which role the landscape takes in „The Sound of Music" and how the Trapp Family received the film.

With our second film we deepen the critical look on the questions posed. „Ramsau am Dachstein“ (AT 1976), a TV film that Elfriede Jelinek wrote and realized with director Claus Homschak questions the romanticized depiction of Austrian landscapes in media. Made available with Englisch subtitles by the distributor sixpackfilm we seized the occasion for a comparison. With Jelinek we ask: Who do we see as working in and on this landscape? Who does profit from it? And why is a film like „Ramsau am Dachstein“ and it’s scandalous reception so telling for a discourse on what Austria is, could and should be after 1945?