Cinema
Der Herr Karl
Erich Neuberg · 1961
Synopsis
Vienna, 1961. Sitting in the stockroom of the delicatessen where he works as a storeman, a man of about sixty tells his life to a young employee who is never seen. He has lived through the end of the Empire, the Republic, the civil war, the annexation, the war and the occupation, and he has never done anything: things happened to him, and he made do.
Context
The monologue was written by Carl Merz and Helmut Qualtinger, who performed it alone in front of the camera; it was the first original television film commissioned by Austrian television, broadcast on 15 November 1961. The broadcast caused a scandal, the authors were accused of fouling their own nest, and the text was subsequently taken up on many stages. The character was composed from several real models, including Hannes Hoffmann, owner of an artists' café that Qualtinger frequented. The broadcast prevented the text from being passed over in silence, whereas other works on the same subject were ignored.
Who it is for
An hour of monologue in Viennese dialect, with no action other than a man talking. Some Austrian history is needed to grasp what he leaves unsaid.
Prizes and reception
The monologue by Qualtinger and Merz that the film brings to the screen is regarded as one of the great texts of postwar Austrian literature; translated into English in 2016.
Sources for this page 10
The pages consulted to check this page.