Robert Von
Dassanowsky, Ph.D.
Professor of German and Film Studies
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., Germanic Languages, UCLA.
MA, German (film spec.), UCLA.
BA, Political Science and German, UCLA.
American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory Program, Los Angeles
Graduate, American Academy of Dramatic Arts
BIOGRAPHY:
Robert von Dassanowsky is Professor of German and Film Studies, and Director of the Film Studies Program. He received his PhD at UCLA and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the AFI Conservatory. His research and instruction areas in film studies and media arts includes Austrian, German, and Central European cinema; British and American film; neorealism, surrealism, and neodecadence in Italian film; cinema of the 1960s; Western European and American popular culture; propaganda film; women filmmakers; postmodernism. Prof. Dassanowsky is founding vice president of the Austrian American Film Association, an award-winning playwright, has written for television, and serves on several festival, editorial, and publication boards. He is also active as an independent film producer. Professor Dassanowsky was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2001 and named a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London in 2007. He is the recipient of the 2001 UCCS Campus and 1998 UCCS College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Faculty Teaching Awards, the 2002 UCCS College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Faculty Research Award, and the 2006 UCCS Chancellor's Award. In 2004 he was named the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching/CASE U.S. Professor of the Year for Colorado and he was decorated for services to the Republic of Austria by the Austrian President in 2005.
MEDIA/ARTS/EDITORIAL (excerpts):
Candidate Evaluator, MacArthur Fellows Program.
Nominating Committee, Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowships
Cinema Series Editor and Field Advisor, University Press of the South, New Orleans.
Columnist, Celluloid: The Austrian Film Magazine
Board of Directors, TIE: The International Experimental Cinema Exposition http://www.experimentalcinema.com Advisory Board, Ariadne Press (USA)
Editorial Board, Poetry Salzburg Review. (Austria) http://www.poetrysalzburg.com
Editorial Board, Osiris (USA)
Editorial Board, Rampike (Canada)
Producer and Head, Belvedere Film, Los Angeles/Vienna. http://www.belvederefilm.com
Member, Association of Austrian Film Producers (AAFP)
FILM/VIDEO PRODUCTION:
See Filmography at the Internet Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0004184
PUBLICATIONS: DVD
Audio Commentary to Leni Riefenstahl's Tag der Freiheit (1935), Short Vision (8) Warners DVD, 2000.
PUBLICATIONS: Books
Trip to the Movies: Psychedelic Cinema. In progress.
Screening Transcendence: Film Under Austrofascism and the Hollywood Hope 1933-1938. In progress.
New Austrian Film. Eds. Robert von Dassanowsky and Oliver C. Speck. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2009.
Austrian Cinema: A History. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2005.
Mars in Aries: Translation (with Elisabeth L. Frech) of Mars im Widder by Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Afterword by Robert von Dassanowsky. Riverside: Ariadne, 2003.
Contributing Editor, Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 2nd Ed., 3 vols. Farmington Hills: Gale Research, 1999.
Telegrams from the Metropole: Selected Poetry 1980-1998. Salzburg: Poetry Salzburg/University of Salzburg Press, 1999.
Verses of a Marriage: Translation of Strophen einer Ehe by Hans Raimund. Los Angeles: Event Horizon, 1996.
Phantom Empires: The Novels of Alexander Lernet-Holenia and the Question of Postimperial Austrian Identity. Riverside: Ariadne, 1996.
PUBLICATIONS: Reference Book Contributions (excerpts)
"Primer: New Austrian Film," GreenCine Daily, June 2007, online: http//daily.greencine.com/.
"Primer: Austrian Film to 2000," GreenCine Daily, December 2006, online: http//daily.greencine.com/.
"European Film." Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Popular Cultures, (6 vols.) Vol. 3 Europe (British Isles, Western and Eastern Europe), Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006.
Editorial Advisor (Film) and Contributor: Entries on Marlene Dietrich and Barbara Stanwyck. Notable American Women, Vol. 5, Harvard Univ.
Press, 2005.
Editorial Advisor and Contributor, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 4th Edition, St. James Press, 2000.
PUBLICATIONS: Book Chapters (excerpts)
"To experience the taste of the Inexpressible:" Austrian Context and Intertext as Marxist Foil in Andrzej Kusniewicz's Krol obojga Sycylii (The King of the Two Sicilies). European Academy of Sciences and Arts Twentieth Anniversary Festschrift. EASA: Salzburg, 2010.
"Gendering the Crusade: Representations of Female Roles and Sexuality in Film under Austrofascism." Sexuality, Eroticism and Gender in Austrian Literature and Culture. Austrian Culture Series, Ed. Clemens Ruthner. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
"Finis Austriae, vivat Austria: The Re/Vision of 1918 in Austrian Film." Österreich 1918 und die Folgen. Eds. Karl Müller and Hans Wagener. Wien: Böhlau, 2008.
"Under the Image: On Criminality, Guilt, and National Allegory in Alois Hotschnig’s Leonardos Hände." Crime and Madness in Modern Austria: Myth, Metaphor and Cultural Realities. Ed. Rebecca Thomas. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
"Between Resistance and Collaboration: Austrian Film and Nazism Before and During the Anschluss." Cinema and the Swastika: The International Expansion of Third Reich Cinema (1933-1945). Eds. Roel Vande Winkel and David Welch. London/New York: Macmillan/Palgrave, 2007. (Book recipient of Willi Haas Prize 2007 for Film History from CINEFEST: Cinegraph/Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Germany)
"Der Einfluß Arnold Fanck und Leni Riefenstahl im zeitgenössischen amerikanischen Film." Der BergFILM 1920-1940. Ed. Friedbert Aspetsberger. Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2002.
"Expressionist Theater Before its Time: Max Dauthendey's Jugendstil Drama Glück." Insieme: Kunst und kulturgeschichtliche Beiträge. Ed. Günther Berger. Vienna: Peter Lang, 2001.
"Habsburgischer Meta-Mythos: Alexander Lernet-Holenias Die Hexen als postmoderner Roman." Alexander Lernet-Holenia: Poesie auf dem Boulevard. Ed. Thomas Eicher and Bettina Gruber. Köln: Böhlau, 1999.
"The Role of Austria will be played by... Ingeborg Bachmann's Requiem für Fanny Goldmann as Sociopolitical Allegory." Thunder Rumbling at My Heels: Tracing Ingeborg Bachmann. Ed. Gudrun Brokoph-Mauch. Riverside: Ariadne, 1998.
"Österreich contra Ostmark: Alexander Lernet-Holenia's Mars im Widder as Resistance Novel. Literatur der inneren Emigration in Österreich. Ed. Karl Müller. Wien: Döcker Verlag, 1998.
PUBLICATIONS: Guest Editor of Refereed Journals
Guest Editor, Modern Austrian Literature Special Issue: Michael Haneke, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2009).
Guest Co-Editor (with Gertraud Steiner), Filmkunst 154, Special Issue: Austria's Hollywood/Hollywood's Austria (1997).
PUBLICATIONS: Recent Articles
"Screening Transcendence: Emigrantenfilm and the Construction of an Austrofascist Identity in Singende Jugend." Austrian History Yearbook Vol. 39 (2008).
"You Know My Name: On Beginnings and Replications in the New Bond." With Jeffrey Bunzendahl. Senses of Cinema 47 (2008) online http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/08/47/james-bond.html
"A Wave over Boundaries: New Austrian Film." Film International 31 (Sweden) (2008).
"A Caper of One's Own: Fantasy Female Liberation in Crime Comedies of the 1960s." Journal of Popular Film and Television. 35.3 Fall (2007).
"Catch Hannibal At Mr. Ripley's Fight Club If You Can: From Eurodecadent Cinema to American Nationalist Allegory." Film International 27 (Sweden) (2007).
"Wien-Film, Karl Hartl und Mozart: Zum Versagen der Gleichschaltung des österreichischen Films nach der deutschen Besetzung 1938. "Österreich in Geschichte und Literatur 5/6 (2006).
"Fragmentation, Found Footage and Fallen Facades: New Austrian Film and Postmodern Anxiety." International Journal of the Arts in Society Vol. 1/1 (2006).
"Austria's 1960s Film Trauma: Notes on a Cinematic Phoenix" Undercurrent 3 Fall (2006) online. http://www.fipresci.org/undercurrent/issue_0306/dassanowsky_austria.htm
"'You Wouldn't Even Believe What Your Eyes Can See:' Hollywood's Messianism and Fascistic Reflection in Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust." Senses of Cinema 39 (2006) online http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/39/day_locust.html
"Austria Hungry: Return of a Film Nation. Vienna’s Forgotten Influence and New Austrian Film." Bright Lights Film Journal 51 (2006) online. http://brightlightsfilm.com/51/austria.htm
"Maximilian and Juarez in 1939: Dieterle’s Juarez Film as Mitteleuropa Metaphor." Central Europe (U.K.) November (2005).
"Mon Cousin de Liernut: France as Code for Idealized Personal and Political Identity in the ‘Austrian Novels’ of Alexander Lernet-Holenia." Austrian Studies (U.K.) Vol. 13 September (2005).
"Entdekung einer Filmnation: österreichischer Film der Gegenwart aus amerikanischer Sicht." Die Furche (Austria) 10 March 2005, sec III: 3.
"Great Directors Series: Louise Kolm-Fleck." Senses of Cinema (Australia) October (2004) online www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors.
"Es 1939--por que Juarez?" ("Its 1939--Why Juarez?") with Fernando Feliu-Moggi. Encuadres: Revista Venezolana de estudios cinematograficos (Venezuela) November (2003).
"Going Home Again? Ruzowitzky's Die Siebtelbauern and the New Austrian Heimatfilm." The Germanic Review. Spring (2003).
"An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music." Bright Lights Film Journal 41 (2003) online. http://brightlightsfilm.com/41/soundofmusic.htm
"A Mountain of a Ship": Locating the Bergfilm in James Cameron's Titanic. Cinema Journal 40, No. 4, Summer (2001).
"Märchen vom Glück: Postwar Austrian Cinema's Iconoclastic Missing Link." Maske und Kothurn (Austria) 46/1 (2001), Special Issue: Das Märchen vom Glück: Österreichischer Film in der Besatzungszeit.
"Casino Royale at 33: The Postmodern Epic in Spite of Itself." Bright Lights Film Journal. 28 (2000) online. http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/28/casinoroyale1.html Reprinted in Blimp Film Magazine 44 (Austria) (2001).
PUBLICATION REVIEWS (excerpts):
Gemünden,Gerd. A Foreign Affair: Billy Wilder's American Films. Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2008. In: Austrian Studies Newsletter (ASN). (2008).
Aurich, Rolf, Andreas Hutter, Wolfgang. Jacobsen, Günter Krenn, eds. Billie. Billy Wilders Wiener journalistische Arbeiten. Wien: Filmarchiv Austria, 2006. In Modern Austrian Literature Vol. 40. No 3(2007).
Markus, Georg. Die Hörbigers. Biographie einer Familie. Wien: Amalthea, 2006. In: Modern Austrian Literature Vol. 40. No. 2(2007).
Rauchenbacher, Marina. Wege der Narration. Subjekt und Welt in den Texten von Leo Perutz und Alexander Lernet-Holenia. Wien: Praesens, 2006. In: Modern Austrian Literature Vol. 40, No.1 (2007).
Reichhardt, Hans J. and Wolfgang Schäche. Von Berlin nach Germania: Über die Zerstörungen der 'Reichshauptstadt' durch Albert Speers Neugestaltungsplanungen. Berlin: Transit, 2005. In: The Germanic Review Spring(2006).
Cargnelli, Christian, Ed. Gustav Machaty: ein Filmregisseur zwischen Prag und Hollywood. Wien: Synema, 2005; and Mayr, Brigitte, Cargnelli, Christian, Omasta, Michael, Eds. Carl Mayer, Scentar(t)ist Wien: Synema, 2003. In: The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Vol. 26, No. 1, March (2006).
Brook-Shepherd, Gordon, Uncrowned Emperor: The Life and Times of Otto von Habsburg. New York: Palgrave, 2003. In: American Book Review. March/April (2004).
Mitchell, Michael, Trans. Adolf Loos: On Architecture. Selected and Introduced by Adolf and Daniel Opel. Riverside: Ariadne, 2002. In: Southern Humanities Review. Winter (2004).
Görtschacher, Wolfgang and Laima Sruoginis, Raw Amber: An Anthology of Contemporary Lithuanian Poetry. Salzburg: Poetry Salzburg, 2002. In: Southern Humanities Review. Fall (2003).
Hake, Sabine, German National Cinema. London/New York: Routledge, 2002. In: Bright Lights Film Journal 38 (2002) online. Reprinted in The Germanic Review. Spring (2003).
Lützler, Paul Michael, Die Entropie des Menschen: Studien zum Werk Hermann Brochs. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 2000; ---, Ed. Der Tod im Exil. Hermann Broch Annemarie Meier-Graefe Briefwechsel 1950/51. Frankfurt aM: Suhrkamp, 2001. In: Monatshefte. Volume 94, No. 3 Fall (2002).
Grosenick, Uta, Ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. Köln, London, New York: Taschen, 2001. In: American Book Review. September/October (2002)
RECENT INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS, CONFERENCES, CURATORIAL WORK (excerpts):
"Post-Chandos, Post-Imperial and Pre-Sound: The Cinematic Influence on Der Schwierige." The Nameable and the Unnamable: Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Der Schwierige. Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University ofLondon,May 21-22, 2008.
"Finis Austriae, vivat Austria: The Re/Vision of 1918 in Austrian Film." Symposium Austria 1918. Department of Germanic Languages, UCLA, February 21-23, 2008.
Curator and presenter, feature film section, New Austrian Film Festival, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, June 18-22, 2007.
Section Moderator and Presenter, "Gendering the Crusade: Female Types and Sexuality in 'Austrofascist' Film." Sexuality, Eroticism and Gender in Austrian Literature and Culture. Annual International Conference of the Modern Austrian Literature and Culture Association. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, April 13-15, 2007.
"Heil Hannibal: The Return of Eurodecadent Cinema's Fascist Vampire." Vampires, Cannibals and Other Horrific Creatures: Artistic and Political Monstrosities in Literature and Cinema. UNC Wilmington, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Fifth Annual Multidisciplinary Colloquium on Art and Politics, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, March 16-17, 2007.
"Mob as Nation: Notes on Cinema Imagery and Reception." Mobs Conference, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, November 9-11, 2006.
Section Moderator and Presenter, "Traces of Transcendence: Singende Jugend (1936) and the Austrofascist Emigranten Entertainment Film." Section: Screening Austria, German Studies Association (GSA) Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, September, 28-30, 2006.
Presentations on Karl Hartl's films Wen die Götter lieben (1942) and Mozart (1955). Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, May 16-17, 2006.
Austrian Cinema and Mozart. public lectures with screenings at the Austrian Cultural Forum/Embassy of Austria, Washington DC, April 24-25, 2006.
Section Moderator and Presenter, "A Memory of One’s Own: On Criminality, Guilt, and Identity De/construction in Alois Hotschnig’s Leonardos Hände." Illness, Madness and Criminality in Austrian Literature: Annual International Conference of the Modern Austrian Literature and Culture Association. Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, April 20-23, 2006.
"An Unyielding Subject: Mozart as Cultural Propaganda in Cinema 1942-1984." Mozart at 250 Conference. Scripps College, Claremont, CA, March 25, 2006.
"Fragmentation, Found Footage and Fallen Facades: New Austrian Film and Postmodern Anxiety." Session on Austrian Culture. AATG/ACTFL Conference, Baltimore, November 20, 2005.
Section Moderator and Presenter, "’To experience the taste of the Inexpressible:’ Austrian Context and Intertext as Marxist Foil in Andrzej Kusniewicz's Krol obojga Sycylii (The King of the Two Sicilies)." Transcending the Borders. Austria in the Context of Central Europe: Annual International Conference of the Modern Austrian Literature and Culture Association. University of Montana, Missoula, April 21-24, 2005.
Panel Participant with Ray Müller, Jan-Christopher Horak, and Janet Bergstrom. "Leni Riefenstahl Program/Retrospective," Goethe Institute Los Angeles/Taschen Publishers/UCLA School of Film and Television, Los Angeles, November 13, 2004.
Presenter of Land ohne Eigenschaften (film) by Harald Friedl. Gender, History, and Memory: Annual International Conference of the Modern Austrian Literature and Culture Association. Rice University, April 22-25, 2004.
"New Austrian Film: A Re-vision of National (Film) Identity?" Continuities and Discontinuities in the Austrian Twentieth Century: International Conference of the Centre for Austrian Studies at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, April 5, 2003.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILATIONS:
Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
Association of Austrian Film Producers (AAFP)
Film Independent (Los Angeles)
Independent Filmmakers Alliance (IFA)
European Pictures Association (EPA)
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA)
Modern Austrian Literature and Culture Association (MALCA)
International Association for Germanic Studies (IAG)
American Association of Teachers of German (AATG)
Concordia Press Association, Austria
Internationale Alexander Lernet-Holenia Gesellschaft
Internationale Hermann Broch Arbeitskreis
Europa Nostra
PEN/USA
Austrian PEN
ACADEMIC HONORS AND GRANTS (Excerpts):
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and CASE 2004 Colorado Professor of the Year.
Research completion grant from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Sciences and Arts for Austrian Cinema: A History, 2003.
UCCS College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Faculty Research Award, 2002.
Elected Member, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2001.
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Outstanding Teaching Award, 2001.
President's Fund for the Humanities Grant, University of Colorado: Hubert Sauper Project, 2001.