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Despite having made more than a hundred films during his career, for a long time Franz Antel was considered a simple entertainment director. However, it was soon realised that Antel’s true peculiarity was precisely his great ability to relate to every possible film genre, each time making light but also well thought-out feature films in which nothing was left to chance.
He was called François Legrand
When talking about Austrian cinema, it is impossible not to think of director Franz Antel. Considered to be one of the most prolific and long-lived filmmakers, screenwriters and film producers in Austria, Antel had the opportunity during his long career to relate to different film genres (including Heimatfilms, comedies, musicals and even erotic films), often working in Italy and adopting the stage name François Legrand, especially abroad. Sadly remembered also for having joined the National Socialist Party (it is impossible not to think of some of his statements just a few years before his death, when he proudly declared himself to be anti-Semitic, after having called the Austrian journalist Hans Weigel a ‘lousy Jew’), the director caused much discussion regarding some of his stances. But how, in fact, did Franz Antel contribute to Austrian film history?
Franz Josef Antel was born on May 28, 1913 in Vienna. The son of a civil servant in the imperial administration, the young Franz initially did not seem to have much aptitude for studying and even before finishing high school he started working at the Technologisches Gewerbemuseum. The film world, however, fascinated him early on and as early as 1931 he joined the Sound Film Academy and started working as a cameraman. It was during these years that Franz started shooting his first film, a sport film starring only five actors, but which, due to insufficient funds, was never completed. Many years were to pass, in fact, before the director managed to make his first film.
Throughout the 1930s, Franz Antel worked mainly as a director of photography and production assistant, occasionally also writing a few short stories for some newspapers. It was during these years that Antel moved to Berlin for a while, since – as he himself stated – he was persecuted in Vienna as a member of the National Socialist Party. During World War II, he fought at the front, but was occasionally allowed to return home in order to take part in the making of some films. Franz Antel, unlike some of his colleagues, had no problem working after the war. And already after World War II, his career became increasingly prolific.
In 1947 his first film was finally made, The singing House, which already revealed the filmmaker’s predilection for comedies set in the world of the upper middle class at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The following years were made the films Kleiner Schwindel am Wolfgangsee (1949), Der alte Sünder (1951) and the cult film Hallo Dienstmann (1952), starring the outstanding Hans Moser and Paul Hörbiger as two clumsy bellhops.
Franz Antel soon became one of the most popular directors in Austria. His comedies thrilled and entertained audiences of all ages. Even today, in fact, films such as Espionage (1955), The Congress Dances (1955) and Emperor’s Ball (1956) – just to name a few – are considered must-see Wiener Film classics. As we know, however, Antel did not only devote himself to such films during his long career. Particularly interested in what was happening abroad, the director began travelling between Italy and France as early as the 1960s, making mostly erotic films. Famous in these years was the saga comprising the feature films The Sweet Sins of Sexy Susan (1967), Sexy Susan Sins Again (1968), House of Pleasure (1969), Frau Wirtin bläst auch gern Trompete (1970) and Frau Wirtin treibt es jetzt noch toller (1970), all of which were also produced by Italy and France.
Franz Antel was therefore considered one of the most famous entertainment directors at the time. He made numerous films (he shot more than a hundred films for cinema and television in his lifetime) and countless were the actors who worked with him: in addition to Hans Moser and Paul Hörbiger, he also collaborated with Oskar Werner, Oskar Sima, Waltraut Haas, Curd Jürgens, Edwige Fenech and even Tony Curtis (in Casanova & Co., 1976) and Terence Hill (in Call of the Forest, 1965).
Despite such an impressive career, however, for a long time Antel was considered a mere entertainment director. A director who did not deserve special attention in terms of the quality of his works. However, it was soon realised that Antel’s true peculiarity was his great ability to relate to every possible film genre, each time making films that were light, but also well thought-out, in which nothing was left to chance. And finally, in 1981, he made what is considered one of his most important films: Der Bockerer. This feature-length film is based on the play of the same name by Ulrich Becher and Peter Preses and depicts the adventures of the bizarre Viennese butcher Karl Bockerer (played by Karl Merkatz) at the time of World War II. It is the first chapter of a saga comprising three more films: Der Bockerer II – Österreich ist frei (1996), Der Bockerer III – Die Brücke von Andau (2000) and Der Bockerer IV – Prager Frühling (2003), the last film directed by Antel, when the director was already in his nineties. This film saga is now a true legend and, in addition to still entertaining many viewers today, above all, it shows an important chapter in Austrian history itself.
Franz Antel, who died in Vienna on August 12, 2007, had a long and eventful life. Married five times, he even married his last wife twice, as their first marriage ended in divorce. And throughout his life there was no lack of serious controversy, including the accusation that he sympathised with the National Socialist Party. Yet, today we are left with his many films. Films that we watch again and again with pleasure, films that are often unpretentious, but that reveal an incredibly mature gaze and the approach of someone who knew the seventh art well. Everyone, therefore, remembers Franz Antel today as one of the most important directors in Austrian film history. A filmmaker who contributed to writing an important chapter in the history of the last century.