Vienna: The Mask of Gold
A personal documentary written and presented by Michael Frayn.
At the turn of the century. Vienna was still one of the world's great Imperial capitals. Seventy years on. all that remains of the golden mask of Viennese culture are the heavy imperial fagades, the tourist attractions and a nostalgia for past greatness.
Playwright, novelist and journalist, MICHAEL FRAYN explores the cultural legacy of those years. Behind the uniforms and rigid moral codes of court life, he examines the new world that was being born -the erotic world of the painters Klimt and Schiele, the world of the unconscious mapped by Freud, the new musical worlds of Mahler and Schoenberg. This film is an attempt to evoke the vanished civilisation that has shaped our lives.
A bewitching essay ... packed with beautiful things to look at and awash with glorious things to hear. (THE TIMES) A television achievement (9BSERVER)
Executive producer BILL MORTON Producer DENNIS MARKS