"Bellaria" " As long as we live!" "What sort of film are you showing today?" " It's a comedy." "One ticket?" "That's 55." "Thank you." " You're welcome." "Goodbye." " Goodbye." "Hello." " Hello." "My ladies." "Here we go." "Vienna, in the year 2000" "I've been coming to the Bellaria cinema for 30 years, mainly for the old films, and the audience." "I like the audience." "They are regular, casual people." "I feel comfortable among them." "And of course the beautiful old films." "What's this?" " These are on me." " Thank you." "I love- it's an institution that is close to our hearts, I have to admit." "It's particularly interesting for me, seeing film stars I've known since childhood." "We used to go to the cinema, there wasn't anything else." "And the atmosphere, everything remains as it's always been." "Nothing has been modernised, thank God!" "The interior." "I think it's enchanting." "Who?" "And so he broke it?" " I think so." " You don't say!" "I've been coming to the Bellaria cinema with my mother for over 20 years." "We just love it." "I still love it." "Only here you see the beautiful old films, the glorious persons and stars from then, most of whom are dead now." "And the film has quality." "Today it's all tching-boom and lots of nudes." "I'm not interested in that." "Did you make these yourself?" " No, no." "I was married." "My husband and parents died, I don't have children." "Cinema has always consoled me." "You don't go to the cinema just for entertainment, but also" " I'm a teacher, a German teacher- but also, after Goethe:" "A comedian might teach a pastor." "A comedian might also teach a teacher!" "So I got inspiration for my lessons." "My old German teacher used to say:" "We don't go to the cinema to see how Hans gets Grethe." "But to learn manners, table manners, social norms." "I don't like realism, and today's film shows everything realistically." "I don't want to see birth, or operations, real blood." "And so forth." "It all used to be transfigured, a fairytale." "The dream-world film." "For dreaming." "There's no more dreaming today!" "Listen, it's not the way it used to be." " And what is?" "Nothing!" "Roses in Tyrol" "After the operetta "The birdmonger" by Carl Zeller" "I'm now 79 years old and I'll work as long as I can." "Until you drop dead?" " Yes- well, not necessarily." "I might go to the hospital." "It's worked so far." "This is a very tight space, can you handle that all day?" " There's always a way." "You have to use every square centimeter." "You have to make room." "The cabin's lack of space reminds me of the Second World War." "That was also caused by lack of space." "Lack of living space." "Isn't this a very lonely work?" " I don't suffer from loneliness, as I was educated in a monastery." "The abbot used to say: "Why would you need people?"" ""You have God." There's something to it." "When you concern yourself with something, you're not lonely." "There it is!" "What did I say?" "What's wrong with it?" "I've seen many chamois, but never one like this!" "We best finish it off!" "And rid this territory of it!" " But I can't!" "The damn thing won't stand still!" "It's just an idea:" "If we had a rutting season like the animal." "There'd be no celibacy, no striptease, no porno, no prostitution." "The nightclubs could all close down." "What is that?" "What are you thinking?" "Get out of here!" " Go to sleep, it's not you I'm singing for!" "The corpuscles have atrophied." "The theory goes like this:" "Woman staid in the cave while man was hunting." "So man was exposed to the sun, and woman was less exposed to the sun." "So in her these corpuscles atrophied." "That's why sex is fast for the man, like a locomotive, and slow for the woman." "It's finished already." "Beautiful!" "The film was just beautiful." "At 17 I always went to the cinema." "Two, three times a week." "Every Sunday!" "And collected autographs." "A young man came into my life, but at first all I had on my mind was cinema and acting, singing and dancing!" "The ladies prefer nostalgia, as it's something soft." "A hard person doesn't love the past." "And ladies are probably softer." "You'd think." " So why do you as a man come here?" "I'm not a hard man, I'm a sensitive person." "A sensitive man, probably." "Very much so." "Fantastic." "Fantastic!" "This is where the Bellaria cinema was born." "It's my private studio, where I show my films on Sunday afternoon." "For friends and acquaintances, people who are interested in and enjoy old films." "This is where it all started." "Here I met my friend and colleague Ernst Birke, who was also a collector." "He was a textile merchant by trade, but an aficionado of old films." "So we had a common interest." "One day I saw the old Bellaria cinema, behind the People's Theatre, and it was for sale." "This was after the war." "I told Mr. Birke and persuaded him to invest financially and buy the cinema." "We started it as a reprise cinema for old films, some of which had to be imported." "Sometimes it was difficult to get the rights." "This induced Mr. Birke to also buy a distributor." "The distributor was mainly a tool to get films for the Bellaria cinema." "Sadly Mr. Birke died early." "The cinema is now owned by his heirs, by his nephew." "I think it is the only one of its kind in the German speaking regions, profiting of course from elderly people who like to come and revisit their own youth." "When you see a great film like Tolstoy's "War and Peace" on television you get sick." "That's impossible! "War and Peace" belongs on the big screen!" "That's where it has an effect." "The great masses!" "A film can't achieve this on television." "Philosophically, and psychologically, it's a diminution of the world-view!" "With a little box, like this, I myself am boxed in!" "And the big screen takes that away!" "The big screen puts me right in the middle!" "Especially, and even more so today, with the sound coming right out of the actor's mouth." "I had never intended to become a teacher." "I wanted to become an actor." "And then I thought I could apply my artistic talent in a school environment." "And then I had more and more opportunities to stage performances with an entire class." "I saw I was more keen to direct than act." "Every performance was a success!" "Women are never faithful, that's nothing new, mein Herr." "Women have a sense, for you we're a game, mein Herr." "Never in life should one trust you, I tell you, in the name of women." "Yet we still love you." "Only men, mein Herr." "I started a barber's apprenticeship in '47 but I didn't like it and quit." "I did nothing for a while." "Then I auditioned to be an artiste." "Singer, dancer, not actor." "I passed and worked internationally as a cabaret artist." "For some years I did impressions, I sang, I danced." "This went on for years." "Some 15, 20 years ago at 50, 60 years old I couldn't do it anymore and stopped." "Then I worked as a house manager." "You can't dance at 55 or 60 years old." "Mrs. Schicho, why do you have so many clocks?" " It's a hobby." "I inherited two clocks from my cousin that I cared for." "The one outside, and the little one." "And this one, as well!" "And this one my neighbour gave me because his wife can't stand the ticking." "She said if she should ever care for me I have to put all the clocks outside." "They shouldn't all toll at the same time!" "You have to adjust them so they toll in succession." "I don't even hear it when I sleep." "In the day I often think: did it toll now or didn't it?" "Does it calm you?" " Yes, I enjoy it." "I live for the day, I don't think much of it." "It makes no difference at my age." "I'm basically a positive person." "At my age you only have the past." "I live in the past." "A future I don't have." "And the present..." "It's not for me." "I use to say:" "I should be gone already!" "I have circled the world twice already." "I am now a world famous artist." "My most recent booking was in Brazil at the opera!" "But my first time whistling, that was quite a story!" "Soraya and the Shah in Tehran." "That's where I first whistled and that started my whistling career." "How did that happen?" " They saw me during their official visit in Germany at the Hamburg Hanse Theatre." "They booked me as a dancer and singer." "I never used to whistle, I danced and sang, as you can see." "This young lady, that's you?" " Of course!" "I was slim and slender." "And beautiful!" "I couldn't walk the streets alone in Tehran, I had to be protected." "The men would touch me and they wanted a lot more!" "I studied ballet and singing in Munich, after the war I ended up in the varieties frequented by the American soldiers." "Varieties were reopening everywhere, I was in Hanover, with Olga Czechova, Marika Roekk, let me see, we were in Hamburg." "Then I moved to Vienna, where I had always wanted to live." "I had guested here at the Moulin Rouge almost every year, it was a first class nightclub." "I met Mr. Birke at the Moulin Rouge." "He loved my dancing and invited me to a party at his house." "There I learned that he had a film distribution company and owned several cinemas." "That's how I got into that milieu." "It was great." "The Bellaria used to be sold out every day." "You had to stand in line for tickets." "I was ecstatic to see La Jana dancing again, and the famous films!" ""Tiger of Eschnapur", "The Indian Tomb", "Kora Terry" with Marika Roekk!" "And Zarah Leander!" ""It was a Glamorous Ball"." "I used to sing this song, as well." "It was beautiful." "No, it's impossible!" " No one will recognize you, it's a masquerade ball." "This is my mother's apartment." "She moved out 25 years ago." "She had found a life partner and signed it over to me." "I had already lived here for 25 years." "She was my comrade, my friend, my mother, my father." "My father died when I was two." "She was everything to me." "My whole family was like that." "I was born May 16, 1921 in Vienna, in this apartment." "My mother was twelve years old when I was born." "The father, a great rogue, bolted." "Grandma said she could have had him arrested." "At twelve years, that's illegal." "He went to America and became a big producer." "I never got anything." "His secretary wrote to my Grandma that there was no telling how many children he has." "I never addressed my Mum as "mother", just "Hedi"." "We were like siblings." "She was very handsome." "A cat, as the Viennese would say." "My mother was 25 years younger than my father, which makes for beautiful children like myself." "The other way around doesn't work." "Old mother and young father, that's bad for the child." "I do have girlfriends, at least sex dreams." "That works just as well." "I returned from Russian war captivity ill." "It came from eating wood, the doctor said." "So sex was over." "Enviable?" "Who cares." ""Everything" " Mother"" "I'm not sure what's in it." "Well, documents of my mother's." "This is my sanctuary." "These are little letters she would put down for me almost daily." "Congratulations and other personal things." "These mean a lot to me." "A lock of hair of hers I do have." "This wasn't quite easy to get." "I had to tip somebody at the morgue to get me this lock." "I missed my chance at the apartment." "I could have gotten the most beautiful lock." "This is my mother's hair." "My mother meant a lot to me." "She taught me to go to the cinema." "From three years old I went to the cinema." "I'm very thankful for that today." "I've always lived with my books and spent my time in archives and museums like this one." "Retirement didn't startle me." "I'm not like the elderly who sit in parks feeding the birds." "I have worked all my life and I don't feel any difference today." "What gets me is adverts for "parlour games to kill time"." "I once asked a shopkeeper this:" "The most precious thing in the world is time, it can't be bought for all the money in the world, and what do you do?" "You recommend games to kill the most precious thing in life: time!" "We've known each other for many, many years." "It must be some forty years now." "We meet up occasionally, go for dinner." "It's not love, it's a close friendship." "We help each other out, he brings me books." "I give him things I don't need, technical stuff." "It's a very old friendship." "I don't know about sex, we aren't a couple." "Never have been, seriously!" "It's better now, yes." "Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, enough." "That was C major." " It was A flat minor!" "Or F sharp?" "Probably shi" " No!" "It was F sharp." "Now let's do the soles." "I always have to give him commands." "There's a lot left, isn't there?" "That needs to be gone!" "On the left!" "The little toe!" "There's always" " Yes!" "There!" "That's terrible." "This is fun!" " A true joy." "Residential housing complex of Vienna municipality." "Built 1952-53." "I can live without television, but not cinema." "That's everything to me, I go every day." "There's a memory in these beautiful, old films." "That means a lot to me, it really does." "How much does it cost you every month?" " It's 55 shillings each day." "It's still the cheapest cinema in all of Vienna." "I scrimp on food and everything, just to go to the cinema every day." "This is my October ration for food." "Because canned food is cheap." "And for November." "I don't drink coffee." "It's usually things that are on sale." "Would you like to die at the cinema?" " Sure, why not?" "Watch a film and be gone..." "Mrs. Vera and me usually agree." "We meet up an hour before we may enter the cinema." "She arrives on the 49 line and I'm usually waiting." "Or she is and I arrive from the subway." "Mrs. Vera has no television." "She listens to the news and I watch television and we talk about that." "Or about the young people passing by, impossibly dressed, holding hands." "And at four the cinema opens and we go in." ""The Wife"" ""A Woman like You"" "You're generous." " Well, thanks." "One at 55?" " Yes, please." "Thanks." "That one with Romy Schneider plays on Sunday?" " At two." "And what about next Sunday at two?" " Next Sunday at two is "Year of the Lord", a serious film." "Who's in that?" " Meinrad, Josef Meinrad." " Oh?" "He's not alive, anymore..." "Such great actors." "The good ones went and the criminals we kept." "People do tell me about their little problems." "When they're a bit ill." "They moan a bit about it to me and then they're better." "And 45, thanks." " Hello, how are you?" "Do you want the fiver?" " The more the better." "Now a 16-year-old killed a taxi driver." " The one with the hammer, right?" "Where are we going?" " To Rome!" " For me to become what?" "Your mistress?" "Isn't it better I make my wife my mistress than my mistress my wife?" "I don't need a jealous man!" " Do you want another man that isn't jealous?" "I'm not used to this tempo." "I need time!" " You must decide this instant!" "Will you marry me?" " I don't know!" "I assume mostly women come to the Bellaria because we show men of pre-war character." "You don't find that kind today." " What do you mean by pre-war character?" "Well, post-war character, that's the shimmy, boogie-woogie, alcohol." "And changing partners." "And pre-war character, that's a steady man, of military rank." "As you see in these old films." "My husband died in '88." "Did you miss him much?" " Not really, to be honest." "How come?" " My God, well, things happen..." "What did happen?" " Well, not too friendly..." "You can't really say it." "I made it through and now I'm glad." "A free person." "I would have liked to leave him, but he would threaten me with violence." "Not funny..." "But you didn't kill him?" " No, that wouldn't have been worth it." "You would have liked to?" " Well, no." "But he could have behaved..." "Everybody makes mistakes." "I did, too." "It is what it is." "I was happily married for 27 years." "Same interests, Bellaria cinema, opera, everything!" "Both of us had great humour." " Do you miss your husband?" "A lot." "He's been dead for nine years." "But still." "I still talk to him all day." "I'd be happy to still have him sit there." "I wish him goodnight, I have his picture up." "I calms me." "I think you hear that." "Stupid, right?" "But I still do it." "I have to carry big, heavy reels." "The shaker helps with tension in the neck." "It's better than a girlfriend!" "A girlfriend can't do this." "Most women want to be massaged." "We have travelled here from Munich." "We are huge Vienna fans, because of the cultural offers." "Among others we're very fond of the Bellaria cinema." "Old people meet there daily and watch old films." "It's a nice little community." "It's our home cinema." "You feel like in the olden days." "It doesn't matter which film is showing." "It's all about the atmosphere." "You don't get that today." "All the films are worth seeing." "Everything is right, from direction to the wonderful actors!" "Didn't I hear horse steps?" "It must be Old Shatterhand's Mustang!" "Has the Great Paleface returned to my hunting grounds?" "Old Shatterhand, Great Paleface, welcome to my wigwam!" "Winnetou, great chief of the Apaches, my red brother, I have come to share great loot" "Funny, right?" " Are you a regular at the Bellaria?" " Yes, of course!" "The others show modern films." " Those don't appeal to us at all." "They have an entirely different mentality." "The foreigners annoy me, who don't even learn German." "Finally someone dares speak up!" " And such an old one, too!" "[Unintelligible]" "Finally a man who dares speak the truth." " Your idol Marika Roekk is a foreigner, though." "That's a pity." " She was from Hungary, and born in Cairo." "Did you know?" "Yes, she was born in Cairo, and she's Hungarian." "But she became famous- she lived in Austria." "And Hungary was part of the monarchy!" "And the Hungarian isn't a foreigner to me." "Able foreigners" " Are welcome!" " Are welcome." "We're people who get along with the whole world." "Mr. Mosch, you have nothing against foreigners?" " No, no." "Pola Negri was foreign, and Emil Jannings." "Where was Jannings from?" " From America." " Was Jannings an American?" "Maybe born there, but he was a German, Jannings!" "Who did the Russians kill?" " George." " Heinrich George, yes, after the war." "Okay." "That's that." "Good evening." " Good evening." "Say, these are all foreigners here?" "No, they're all Austrians." " But they all speak so differently!" "See, our old Austria is like a hotel." "So many rooms, so many peoples, all under one roof!" "State of nationalities, that means you never know who you can count on." "Well, the Germans, obviously." " And possibly the Poles." "But let's not talk business." "Very good!" " Otto, a riddle!" " Yes?" "When two educated Austrians talk in private, what do you call that?" " Well?" " High treason!" "In the beginning we did occasionally have trouble, with films from the era of the Third Reich." "Both Mr. Birke and I ignored politics entirely." "It was all about the quality of the film, the filmmakers, the actors that were famous back then, that you'd like to reminisce about." "The noble Germans brought literature!" "The great Germans were dreaming! "From the Maas to the Memel, from the Etsch to the Belt!"" ""All one German people!" "The best there is!" That's what it was like!" "Goebbels played it like a piano!" "He said the films, the weekly news must never show a dead German!" "I never saw the weekly news at the sickbay." "You saw Russians, no dead German soldiers." "Only wounded." "You have to feel that inside!" "And that's what I'm getting at:" "The great actors could really convey that!" "Whether people watched it knowingly, like me, that's a different question." "But it went inside them!" "Look, Zarah Leander!" "We'll go to the cinema together!" "Come." "Sit." "Sit." "I thought I'd just stay." "I don't really care for travelling, anyway." "At the ocean I often stood, waiting for what?" "Gazing after the birds, my happiness shattered like glass." "The wind told me a song." "It knows what my heart longs for." "How it beats and glows!" "Come!" "Come!" "The wind told me a song, of a heart I miss." "The wind..." "We were having dinner at the Park Hotel Huebner, not just us, several people." "And she wanted to throw away the empty pack." "So I asked: "May I keep it as a souvenir?"" "And she says: "Of course." "But I'll put something on it." So she takes it- it's damaged, it's 40 years old." "And writes on it:" ""For my Ernstl, Zarah"" "And then she presses her lipstick on it." "She came to Vienna in '51, after the war." "I went to her concert, and applauded zealously." "She noticed me in the audience." "Because of my loudness." "I was around 20 years old." "I gave her flowers after the show." "That's how I met her." "It kept going from '51 till '63." "It was my impression that this great actress was used up in the film business just like Paul Hoerbiger." "Who could also play great dramatic roles." "For example in Bajazzo, with Beniamino Gigli." "And Zarah Leander was also like that." "And she was pushed towards operetta, and comedy." "And this singing of hers, it moved me so much." "And that scene of the outcast child." "An unscrupulous banker had seduced her." "He wanted to get her a job abroad, but eventually left her." "I don't recall the director." "But the situation between father and daughter, this situation had me shattered." "When the father, the colonel, says:" ""Magda, it's just you and me." "What you say only God and us will hear."" "My child, you will agree that I am very calm." " Yes." "What has happened, has happened." "Nobody can change that." "Yes." "But I just gave your fiancé my word." "Either you swear on your child's life, to become his father's wife" "Well?" "Or none of us will leave this room alive." " No." "Then God have mercy on us!" "Magda!" "That made such an impression on me." "I can't explain it to you." "That a father would take his daughter into death like that!" "Obviously George was great in this scene, as always." "And Zarah Leander proved she had depths of portrayal none of the other films ever showed." "I get up at six." "I start cutting, organizing." "The hours fly by." "I work till the evening." "Ten, fifteen hours every day." "Newspapers are expensive, but I get them from the film agencies." "I have ten to fifteen, or seventeen every day." "I could never afford that." "These are the living, these are the deceased." "In the boxes down there are also deceased." "They should be separated but that's impossible for want of space." "So I do it like this:" "Red is alive, black is dead." "I need a cemetery like Central Cemetery." "That's how much space my artists take up." "And what you see up there, also dead." "Dead, dead, dead." "This is quite something." "Someone's in there who was one of the greats." "Musically, Viennese, a true great!" "Were I wearing a hat, I would raise it." "To Willi Forst." "The times he gave us! "Operetta", "Viennese Blood", "Viennese Girls"." "Those films showed in all of Europe, America even." "He was a typical representative of Vienna, and a great director." "He filmed with Marlene Dietrich." "I ran into him a couple of years before his death." "He was walking in the city, an old man." "I often approach actors." "I recognize everybody!" "They can be a 100 years old!" "I greeted him and we exchanged some words, in the First District." "I asked him what he thought of today's film?" "And this was around 25 years ago." ""Don't ask me", he said. "It's horrible!"" "And then film was still..." "relatively normal." "Here's a portrait of him." "Here he is as director." "Look at these wonderful portraits." "This is him in the director's chair." "This is from "Bel Ami"." "Look, this is also how it's engraved in the tombstone." "It isn't an honorary grave." "It's no honorary grave." "Where these artists are stacked now, that's where my wife used to sleep." "Since she's gone..." "There's Mama Roekk, and Rex Gildo." "And Paula Wessely." "And a good one, Millowitsch." "I was a guest at his." "I'm especially proud of this one." "It's with Mama Roekk." "She was a great woman." "She was always in demand, in war and peace." "Especially in war." "The German Wehrmacht always shouted:" ""Up the Roekk!" "Up the Roekk!" ["Up the skirts!"]" "And now for my wedding!" "Which one of you should I marry?" "We've come to Vienna to meet Marika Roekk again after many years." "We hope it works out." "It's a surprise visit and we hope it will be a pleasant surprise." "...which fits her." " What might she like?" " Certainly not carnations." " No, no." "Let's see, maybe orchids?" " These ones?" "Careful, the pistils leave stains." " You're right." "What's one more stain?" "Maybe some green with these?" " Or some white ones?" "It reminds me of that Bartoli bouquet." "You know?" " Margret, of all these beautiful choices..." "This should be the one!" " Yes, right!" " It's in full bloom." " Yes." " She will love it." "The windows are closed." "That's not a good sign." "The shutters also." " Everything's closed, right?" "There's barking!" "The dog's barking!" "That's wonderful!" "Hello!" " Hello!" "I'll say it." "We're here for a couple of hours today, and we'd like to leave flowers for the lady." "Is Mrs. Roekk available?" "She's here but..." " Oh, you're also Hungarian?" " No, no, I'm Yugoslavian." "Or Yugoslavian!" " Would it be possible to get this title page autographed?" "Will you bring it back to us?" " The pen, as well?" " And the flowers!" "And with lots of love!" " May we at least photograph the dog?" "We can!" "What's its name?" " What's its name?" " Irma." "Irma, yes." "Irma!" " She's very tame." " We have some dog food for you!" "Now!" "Yes!" " In focus or not, it doesn't matter." " This is lovely!" " What a nice dog." "I will cherish this pen forever." " And thank you again!" "All the best to Mrs. Roekk and a great health!" "A great health!" "And tell her thanks for all the joy she's given us over the years!" "Many thanks!" "We've never left empty-handed." "We've always gotten results." "Whether it's one or both of us." "We always get a result." "And that's a nice feeling." "A joy!" "A memory." " Many memories!" " Precious memories." "I don't have a television." "It would only keep me from pursuing my interests." "Which are these phonographs and old films I have on Super 8." "Here at home." "There's Bela Lugosi in "White Zombie is Back", a horror classic." "They spent a fortune on the old horror films." "Dracula had a nail in his head which would continuously leak blood." "When he opened his mouth a pale light would shine out." "He couldn't act for long in that mask." "That was scary." "Yes, I like goosebumps." "Here." "Rita Hayworth sat on these stairs." "That was quite original." "A couple of artists were at my place, and after a while she sat down here." "She never suspected how dirty it was." "That was criminal, her beautiful white dress!" "I'm used to a lot, but that was quite original with Rita." "How does Rita Hayworth come to pay you a visit?" " When they were shooting in Austria the producers would tell the artists someone in Vienna had made an archive about them and they got curious and came." "I started this when I was small." "In 1928." "That results in quite an amount." "I'm also in the Guinness book of records." "It stands at over four million." "I'm just glad to show the Americans where Austria is." "Yes, I venerate Lilian Harvey." "I visited her at a concert." "I wrote her that I had married and had a baby." "She sent me an autographed card, all good wishes, including the baby!" "I saw something in Lilian Harvey that wasn't fulfilled for me, you know?" "When I saw her I was in another world." "I never loved another actress like her." "She danced, she sang." "She was so... so delicate." "Just lovable!" "I went to the concert with the autograph and introduced myself." ""So you are Mrs. Rieger!" "I'm glad to meet you." We were very excited both of us." "We have taken between 90,000 and 100,000 photos, slides, et cetera." "Give or take a couple." " Centners of them, we weigh them in centner." "How does it feel to be photographed with a star?" " When we were apprentices it was a hassle." "It was all top down, you were a doormat!" " You were a zero, you were just nothing." "It was all work, all drudgery." "So it was an idyllic world, the shiny world of film and later theatre." "The big world!" " A lifeline." " Yes, like a lifeline." " So you knew there was something besides work." "It was a compensation." "We took it in like mother's milk." "This glamorous world." " I wouldn't say glamorous!" "But it was, Margret, the film world was more glamorous than today." " Yes, it was special." "Like reaching for the stars." "We often say that." "It was reaching for the stars." "And a lifeline." "Not to be drowning in just work and daily routine." "I accomplished in 1959, that at Western Station in Vienna, over all the loudspeakers, when Leander was leaving for Berl- pardon, for Hamburg, that over all the loudspeakers, they played one of Leander's songs, about parting, which was "Servus, from the Beautiful City of Songs"." "Having come to the city gladly, I have grown anxious already, since for a couple of hours only, I have found my old happiness." "I have to leave you already today, walking the streets one last time," "At night when a thousand lights shine, I hear soft voices of a sudden:" "Servus, the beautiful city of songs bids me farewell, again and again:" "Servus, servus!" "Servus, unfamiliar people greet me today." "Servus, servus!" "Is it true Mr. Schoenboeck is giving autographs today?" " Yes." " At what time?" " 16:30." "You couldn't talk with him a lot." "Ask questions, and he'd give yes or no replies." "It's like that on purpose, it photographs better." " It's prettier." " Yes, you don't see the wrinkles." "You're going on 80." " So are others!" "One?" " Yes, one." " 55, yes?" "Thanks." " Bye." "This is '48." " That's wonderful!" " I got this photo for 800 shillings." "800 shillings!" " For one autographed photo!" " Autographed?" " Autographed." " That's worth it." "We'd become stone rich, we have so many!" " Well, I'm also stone rich!" "Gallstones!" " Kidney stones!" "Let's not trip now." "Hello everybody!" "Welcome to the Bellaria cinema!" " Thank you." "And two for me, if you would." " Sure." " Thank you." "Over here if you would." " While I'm writing I can't be looking!" "Bye!" "We were admiring your posture!" " Sorry?" " Your posture." "Straight like a candle!" "We are so glad to meet you here for your birthday!" " Again!" "May we take a photo?" "Thanks a lot!" " Thanks!" "And best regards from Mrs. Markus, she told me to tell you!" " Thanks!" "Dear Mr. Schoenboeck, here we are together!" " Well, well!" "Congratulations!" "That was something!" "1939, the film ball in Austria!" " Yes!" "My name is Schauer, I wrote a documentation for the film academy about your work many years ago." "Thank you." " Your films are wonderful." "You are the last gentleman, old school!" " Thank you." "Stay healthy and grow very old!" " Hello, dear Mr. Schoenboeck, hello!" "If you would, Mr. Schoenboeck, on the white." " I'll write where you can read it, sure." "Could you write: "For Mr. Ernst"?" "Could I have one" " Please." "And this one as well, please." " Yes." "I found it very interesting." "Obviously..." "I noticed some things that were done due to the times." "But besides that, it was exciting." "Mr. Schoenboeck, how long ago did you last see this film?" " Since back then!" "All this time!" " 58 years!" " Yeah, I never saw it." "After so much time you have a whole different view on everything." " Yes." "Where's my coat, anyway?" "May I lead you?" "A little higher." "The three of us can do it!" "Goodbye." " All the best!" "Thanks so much for coming!" " Thank you." "Best wishes and may you live to be 130 years old!" " Let's hope not." "This way out?" "Thank you for coming!" "Are you afraid of death?" " No!" "I say it like that but obviously you can't know that beforehand." "I'm not afraid now." "How I'll feel when it's going towards the end, nobody can say that." "Karl Schoenboeck died shortly afterwards in Munich." "See, when you walk through the mortuary, all the people that may have been enemies, that fought each other, now they all lie there in the showcase, next to each other." "In death they are all equal, no matter what they used to be." "Now one lies peacefully next to the other." "Such is life." "In the morning I have a Digimerck, for the heart." "Venoruton in the evening, for the veins." "At midday a Thrombo ASS, a blood thinner." "What else?" "Against cholesterol, Bezafibrat." "In the evening, this one's for the heart." "Molsidolat." "Harmomed, that's for the nerves." "That doesn't really do anything." "The artists basically give me a reason to live." "With my pain and everything..." "My doctors say:" "Mr. Treitl, you're lucky to be doing this." "Otherwise I'd just" " Especially after my wife's death." "And the pain on top of it." "The doctor said:" "Two gentlemen had something similar." "One jumped off St. Stephen's Tower, the other off a high-rise." "I said, I'll take my time before suicide." "I was at the doctor's, for a check-up." "He said:" "Go dancing, and do some kissing." "I said sure thing!" "When they hand me an invoice at the store I say:" "Don't bother, I owe nobody anything!" "I don't believe in rebirth." "What's dead is dead." "Ideally we would both die together." "If the Good Lord could arrange that." "If one was left behind, it would be such grief." "It would be like only half-living." "If that!" " The one left behind" " But since that may not be possible..." "Could you cut off a little?" " Sure, some green with it?" " No, no, it's fine." "There's a little hole next to the stone." "And when I visited a couple of days ago, I was startled!" "Something's moving!" "It was a very small mouse, just the head peeked out." "What's this?" "Something living in my mother's grave." "There's probably a lot more down there, but" "A very small mouse!" "I think a young one." "There may be more." "Does it mean anything?" "I don't know." "Do you want to be buried next to your mother?" " Naturally!" "Firstly, it's our family grave." "It's for four persons, three are there." "This is my grandmother, Maria Anna Weizmann." "This is my aunt, my mother's twin sister." "And my mother was married Muellner." "One spot is left, I'm the fourth." "I've been told I should already have it engraved!" "But I don't want that." "To have that feeling while alive that my name's already on the tombstone." "He who fears death, dies twice." "It's a Chinese saying." "When I die, I want a mediocre funeral." "Just like everything in my life was mediocre." "Never in splendour, never in need." "I favour cremation, to kill the microbes and germs." "Also you don't take up as much space in an urn." "Sometimes I do feel we're not alone in the world." "This is when I toil and fail, then I stop caring and everything works out." "You feel something is pushing." "But what it is I don't know." "Some say that's God, but it's questionable if it is." "We don't know what came before birth." "And we don't know what comes after death." "Death will probably be a state just like life." "Like I said, I'll take it as it comes!" "This is the man I met five months ago." " Excuse me, it's been seven months." " Seven months!" "I'm sorry!" "At 91 years old it is just beautiful to love someone again." "Especially my Lily." "I do get butterflies in my stomach." "At every kiss, thank God!" "Right?" " I hope so!" "I hope so!"