Vita-Film was founded in 1919

1919 in film

The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 5 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists...

 as the successor company to Wiener Kunstfilm-Industrie by Anton

Anton Kolm

Anton Kolm was an Austrian photographer who became one of the first film directors and film producers in the history of Austrian cinema....

 and Luise Kolm.

By 1923 Vita-Film had built the Rosenhügel Film Studios in the Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 suburbs, which still stand and are still used for film production. On the surrounding site, in 1922, even before the completion of the studios, the film Samson und Delila

Samson and Delilah (1922 film)

Samson und Delila is an Austrian silent film, premiered in Vienna on 25 December 1922. It was released in the United Kingdom in October 1923 as Samson and Delilah...

was produced, an epic

Epic film

An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...

 on the then very popular American model. With extravagant sets and costumes, as generally used by Vita-Film's direct competitor, Sascha-Film

Sascha-Film

Sascha-Film, in full Sascha-Filmindustrie AG and from 1933 Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG, was the largest Austrian film production company of the silent film and early sound film period.-History:...

, the production lasted a considerable time and cost 12 million Austrian crowns.

"Samson und Delila" was not however a typical Vita-Film production. Unlike Sascha-Film, which took its lead from American productions, Vita-Film sought international success by following French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 models. In 1923 directors employed on specific projects included Germaine Dulac

Germaine Dulac

Germaine Dulac was a French filmmaker, film theorist, journalist and critic. She was born in Amiens and moved to Paris in early childhood. A few years after her marriage she embarked on a journalistic career in a feminist magazine, and later became interested in film...

 (Die sterbende Sonne, 1923), Jean Legrand (Das Haus im Walde, 1923), Severin Mars (Horoga, 1923), M. Liabel (Die Insel ohne Liebe, 1923) and Edouard-Emile Violet (Clown aus Liebe, 1923). The Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 director and one of the earliest realists

Poetic realism

Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s and through the war years. More a tendency than a movement, Poetic Realism is not strongly unified like Soviet Montage or French Impressionism. Its leading filmmakers were Jean Renoir, Pierre Chenal, Jean Vigo, Julien Duvivier, and Marcel...

, Jacques Feyder

Jacques Feyder

Jacques Feyder was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema...

, filmed Das Bildnis in 1924 in Rosenhügel and Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, based on a screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by the well-known author Jules Romains

Jules Romains

Jules Romains, born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule , was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement...

. The film, the last Vita-Film production, was released in 1925.

The company went bankrupt in 1924, like many other European film companies at this time, because of the flood of low-priced but technically high-quality productions from the United States. The Rosenhügel studios were taken over in 1933 by Sascha-Film.

Productions

(selection)

• 1922 - Samson und Delila
  Samson and Delilah (1922 film)
  Samson und Delila is an Austrian silent film, premiered in Vienna on 25 December 1922. It was released in the United Kingdom in October 1923 as Samson and Delilah...
  
  
• 1922 - Eine versunkene Welt
• 1923 - Hoffmanns Erzählungen (directed by Max Neufeld
  Max Neufeld
  Max Neufeld was an Austrian film director, actor and screenwriter. He directed 70 films between 1919 and 1957. He directed the 1934 film The Song of the Sun, which starred Vittorio De Sica.-Selected filmography:...
  
  ; premiere on 6 April 1923 at the Schwarzenberg Cinema)
• 1925 - Das Bildnis (L'Image) (direction by Jacques Feyder
  Jacques Feyder
  Jacques Feyder was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema...
  
  ; last Vita-Film production at Rosenhügel)