Schnitzler Talk: Early 20th-Century-Vienna, Arthur Schnitzler and the Birth of Film

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Austrian novelist and playwright Arthur Schnitzler, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Washington D.C. hosted a multimedia lecture on September 21. The speaker, Dr. Lorenzo Bellettini, mainly focused on Schnitzler’s largely neglected relationship with the nascent film industry. It was a time when Vienna was at the peak of its cultural influence and advanced in numerous areas, from literature and psychoanalysis to the use of electric light, automobiles and airplanes. In his multimedia lecture, Dr. Lorenzo Bellettini used unpublished material with the main focus on film scripts from Schnitzler’s extensive archive at the University of Cambridge Library. Lorenzo Bellettini, who read history and modern languages at the Universities of Bologna, Salzburg and Cambridge, is the author of numerous articles in academic journals. His works mostly revolve around Arthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud and Thomas Bernhard. His most recent book is called Schnitzler's Hidden Manuscripts.