The Jewish Museum Vienna Shows "Bigger Than Life: 100 Years of Hollywood ~ A Jewish Experience"

Written by Otto Steiglitz Friday, 20 April 2012 20:42

Vienna.- The Jewish Museum Vienna is proud to present "Bigger Than Life: 100 Years of Hollywood: A Jewish Experience" on view through April 15th 2012. There can be few places in the twentieth century whose star has risen so steeply and whose name evokes so many expectations as Hollywood. It all began with a group of young central and eastern European Jews who came to the USA to seek a better future. They included Adolph Zukor (Paramount), William Fox, Louis B. Mayer (MGM), Carl Laemmle (Universal) and the Warner Brothers. They arrived in New York on overcrowded immigrant ships at the end of the nineteenth century and two decades later they “invented” Hollywood: the studio system, the stars, and the happy ending. How did they manage this cultural revolution? How did they succeed not only in establishing a whole industry but also in reinventing the American myth?

"Bigger than Life" traces one of the most fascinating stories in twentieth century culture. Milestones in the history of the cinema are set in the context of the European Jewish experience: the first two minutes of sound in film from 'The Jazz Singer' (Warner Bros.) are a dialogue between a Jewish mother and her returning son. "Bigger than Life" shows how Hollywood regarded the arrival of Austrian and German refugees in the 1930s, the Golden Era, and incorporated them in its pictures. It analyzes the initially hesitant anti-Nazi propaganda and the various attempts made by Hollywood and its producers of the decades to communicate the horror of the Holocaust. "Bigger than Life" takes visitors behind the scenes of the twentieth century. It features excerpts from film, huge and hitherto unseen film posters from the silent movie era, and surprising exhibits including a cigar box owned by the chain-smoking head of Paramount Adolph Zukor, a chair from Rick’s Café Américan from Casablanca, and costume and set designs for Gone with the Wind, the first Hollywood blockbuster.


The great Vienna- born producer Eric Pleskow, president of the Viennale, has lent the museum three of his fourteen Oscars, which he won for films as diverse as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Rocky (1976), and Annie Hall (1977). At the end of the exhibition is the baseball bat used by Bear Jew in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which the museum has acquired, a “fictional Jewish weapon” that symbolizes a new approach by Hollywood to the Shoah.

In the Middle Ages, Vienna was home to a thriving Jewish community, one of the largest and most important in Europe. Famous Rabbis taught and worked here, making Vienna into an influential center of Jewish knowledge. This lively and creative environment was forced to an abrupt and violent end in 1420-21, with the expulsion and murder of the Viennese Jews. The ruins of the then-destroyed synagogue, excavated under the Judenplatz in 1995, bear witness to the life and destruction of that medieval community.

In 2000, the Museum at Judenplatz was opened as a branch of the Jewish Museum Vienna. On the square itself, the city unveiled the solemn Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial: a reinforced concrete cube resembling a library with its volumes turned inside out, designed by British artist Rachel Whiteread.

Work started on the refurbishing of the Jewish Museum Vienna in Palais Eskeles, in Dorotheergasse 11, at the end of January 2011. In nine months not only the infrastructure has been modernized - from the installation of new elevators to the complete replacement of the air conditioning and building engineering system—but visible improvements for visitors have also been made. The façade has been completely restored and the foyer returned to its original state. There is now a large welcome area with a central ticket and information office and new Museumscafé Felber. Bookshop Singer is in its old place but has been completely modernized and offers an even greater selection. The new and larger event room is now on the second floor. Finally, the internationally renowned artist Brigitte Kowanz has designed a distinctive light installation for the façade. The permanent exhibitions are distributed over three exhibition areas. In the Visible Storage the collections are displayed and set in a historical context, with the places where the objects originated, the synagogues, and the collectors themselves like Max Berger or Martin Schlaff. The Atelier will not only be a workshop but also an exhibition area. The rituals in Jewish life are illustrated by both museum exhibits and everyday objects. In the audio guide two young people explain to visitors, young and old alike, the rituals and customs in Jewish life, from birth to death. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.jmw.at

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