Moss On The Stones

This literary adaptation based on Gerhard Fritsch's novel of the same name is considered by film scholars to be the first exhibit of the New Austrian Cinema because of its clear distinction from earlier films in terms of content and style. It is about hostile literary friends Petrik (young, idealistic, unsuccessful) and Mehlmann (enterprising, successful) who spend a weekend at a crumbling baroque castle in the Marchfeld, illustrating very different ideas of a post-war Austria, manifested in their equally very different relationship to the castle and its inhabitants. The film music is by Friedrich Gulda.

"I wanted to make this Marchfeld castle Schwarzwasser a symbol for Austria. For the forces that are at work in it." GERHARD FRITSCH