Also: “Icons of Austria – The Crystal Ball of Annemarie Moser-Pröll”, “The Culture Week” – on March 3rd from 9:05 a.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – The “matinee” on Sunday, March 3, 2024, at 9:05 a.m. on ORF 2 opens the “Women’s Month of March” designed by TV culture as part of ORF’s comprehensive focus on International Women’s Day (details at presse.ORF.at). At the start, the cultural morning presented by Clarissa Stadler honors the actress, singer, director and author, who is considered one of the most remarkable women in the Austrian theater and literary scene, on her 85th birthday with the portrait “Places of Childhood – Erika Pluhar”. Afterwards, the film “Elizabeth Toni Spira – I’m not important” (9.35 a.m.) pays tribute to the extraordinary documentarian of the Austrian soul, who died in 2019, on the fifth anniversary of her death. A female “icon of Austria” is the focus of one edition of the short series: “The Crystal Ball of Annemarie Moser-Pröll” (10.20 a.m.). At the end of the “matinee” “The Culture Week” (10.35 a.m.) brings current reports and tips on local cultural events.
“Places of Childhood – Erika Pluhar” (9:05 a.m.)
Erika Pluhar, who celebrates her 85th birthday today, February 28th, can look back on a varied artistic life. Together with Peter Schneeberger, the actress, singer, director and author visited her “places of her childhood” for a 2015 edition of the cultural documentary series of the same name and gives insights into her earliest memories in the film designed by Ute Gebhardt. Pluhar was a pretty, ambitious and imaginative girl, but her path into life and onto the stage was rocky and winding. Born in 1939, she was a child of war – everyday life in Vienna was characterized by bombing raids, destruction and fear. Getting on stage was already a childhood dream for her. When she saw the Burgtheater, which had been badly damaged by a bomb, she only wanted one thing: “To be an actress there one day.” She only experienced security, encouragement and confidence in Pfaffstätt in Upper Austria, where the family was evacuated. The peaceful landscape, the first cinema screening of her life, the dances for the old “Countess”, who discovered her stage talent at an early age, were formative for her.
Erika Pluhar’s greatest happiness, however, was her school days, when she finally learned to read and write. The world of letters and imagination gave her the opportunity to escape the harshness of post-war everyday life and the painful confines of her apartment. In the film she talks to Peter Schneeberger about why she loves the Danube so much and why her longing for a peaceful world shaped her so much.
“Elizabeth Toni Spira – I’m not important” (9:35 a.m.)
In the 1970s, a young, ambitious and curious journalist didn’t mince her words – whether it was a deadline solution, anti-Semitism, the fight for jobs or the Carinthian town sign conflict: Elizabeth T. Spira delivered many a great moment in political television. Constantly searching for the truth that lies hidden, she always offends. But success proves her right: ROMY, Nestroy, State Prize and lots of official honors. But what matters even more is that she is loved by her audience. With her “Everyday Stories” and later with “Love Stories and Marriage Things” she became the ratings queen of Austrian television.
In this portrait, produced in 2015, director and cameraman Robert Neumüller accompanies Elizabeth Toni Spira in her conversations with candidates for the “Love Stories”, but also delves into the world of her youth, which is still unknown to many – to the places of her childhood in Glasgow and London, meets the kindergarten teacher from the Anna Freud Home in London with her, visits the Jewish Krakow and the Stalinist Nowa Huta with her. The film presents many filmic rarities from the ORF archive, shows excerpts from Elizabeth T. Spira’s early documentaries – the socio-political works from her early years as a young journalist – and of course from the greatest successes of the cult series “Everyday History”.
“Icons of Austria: “The Crystal Ball of Annemarie Moser-Pröll” (10:20 a.m.)
An edition of the cultural documentary series “Icons of Austria”, designed by Weina Zhao and Martin Betz, focuses on “The Crystal Ball of Annemarie Moser-Pröll”. There are actually six crystal balls on display in the Café Olympia in their home town of Kleinarl, which represent the victory of the overall World Cup. But the youngest is the most important for the legendary ski racer. In the 1978/79 season she struggled with health problems and was still eight points behind Liechtenstein’s Hanni Wenzel in the overall standings before the World Cup final in Furano. In a hundredths thriller in the giant slalom, Moser-Pröll finally came second, while Wenzel came fifth. The wafer-thin lead gave her the crystal ball that motivated her to keep going for another season and win the long-awaited Olympic gold in the downhill the following year.