Watching a film that was made in your travel destination can be a great way prepare for your upcoming visit. Well-made films can capture the spirit of the place and its people, especially films that artistically evoke a different period.
I have listed below four films with Vienna connections that I can personally endorse. These cover a variety of genres and eras. Normally I like to limit my lists to films made no more than a few years before today’s college students were born, but here I have included two absolute classics from 1949 and 1984. Also, all four of these are in English. There just aren’t very many internationally known films set in Vienna.
The films are listed below in chronological order. I included year of release, genre, and overall IMDB rating. I also added a sentence or two of background and context. As a bonus at the end of the list I included some other notables to consider and also some to avoid.
The Third Man 1949 mystery IMDB: 8.1/10
The ultimate Vienna classic. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Third Man the greatest British film of all time (!). Here are at least five reasons to love this film about the mystery of what happened to Harry Lime: 1) The extensive use of the ‘Dutch angle’ filmmaking technique (that is, with the camera at an oblique angle). 2) A powerful performance from Orson Welles, cultural icon of the mid-20th century, and his famous cuckoo clock speech at the Riesenrad (Ferris wheel). 3) Filmed in 1948, scenes of life in postwar Vienna getting back to normal, with huge piles of rubble still spread throughout the city. Vienna is still an occupied city, with districts run by the major Allied powers, just as the Cold War is brewing. 4) More than 70 years later, ‘Third Man tours’ of the film’s iconic locations are still running in Vienna. On the modern tour, you can still walk down the famous spiral staircase into the real sewers featured at the end of the film. 5) Finally, the haunting zither background music by Austrian composer Anton Karas was quite unusual for its time – and for ours.
Amadeus 1984 drama 8.3
Winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. The film is about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a fictional rivalry with the real composer Antonio Salieri. While the premise is fictional, it highlights the challenges of genius, and the entirely different challenges of wanting to be great, and confronting the realization that you are not. Considered one of the top 100 films of all time. Set in Vienna, although hardly any of it was filmed in Vienna, but Mozart’s music is heavily featured. It also won Oscars for costumes and makeup, and these, together with the hair, are all legendary classics.
Before Sunrise 1995 rom dram 8.1
A young American man and a young French woman meet on a train and they spend the night walking around Vienna, falling in love. There is not much plot in director Richard Linklater’s film; they pretty much walk and talk. But this is considered one of the best romance films of all time. I also included the 2004 sequel, Before Sunset, on my Paris list.
Woman in Gold 2015 drama 7.3
Starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, this is a true story about the eponymous painting (formal titled: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I) by Viennese painter Gustav Klimt that was completed in the early 1900s and stolen by the Nazis in 1941. The painting was displayed in The Belvedere in a famous collection of Klimt works until 2006. It was there when I visited The Belvedere in 2004, but when it was no longer there when I returned in 2014, I was surprised to learn about the legal case and the reparations that are documented in this excellent film.
Here are some other candidates to consider and not consider.
A Dangerous Method 2011 drama 6.4
About the schism between Freud and his one-time disciple Carl Jung, and also the role of Sabrina Spielrein, one of the first female psychoanalysts. A few scenes in Vienna, notably on the grounds of The Belvedere. This film was well regarded by critics, especially for the acting, but this one is not so much about Vienna as about the early days of psychoanalysis.
Museum Hours 2012 drama 6.9
This one is very much set in Vienna, albeit mostly in the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum. An art film about art. The pace is meditative (i.e., slow) and it is heavy on conversation with themes related to how art reflects the world around us.