Maskerade

At Carnival 1905, painter Ferdinand persuades the married Gerda to pose for him wearing nothing but a muff and a mask. However, the muff belongs to Anita, who is engaged to Gerda's brother-in-law. When the latter sees the picture, he is not amused and confronts Ferdinand. In order not to complicate matters further, the artist quickly invents a name for his ‘unknown’ model - but this invention turns out to be extremely real ...

Slippery, tamed and subtly pointed from the interwar period, one of the greatest successes of the congenial comedy team Forst/Reisch, a blueprint for what is still referred to today as ‘Viennese film’, and a breakthrough for both Wessely (nationally) and Wohlbrück (internationally). (Florian Widegger)