08. January 2013

VIENNA – HOLLYWOOD – RETOUR

Bey, an Austrian actor of Turkish and Czech decent and leading man in Hollywood in the 1940s, was already 80 years old at the time of this interview. Nonetheless, you could sense his characteristic and remarkable ease with which he once turned his back on the rich and the beautiful in order to return to Austria after a few years. Eckert met the “master of self-irony” in his house in Vienna Dobling, where she managed to educe from him worldly-wise insights into his life during the Hollywood’s Golden Age, including a number of amusing anecdotes. He told her about a time when stars were treated like half-gods and when Lana Turner was just one of the many divas who adored the charming Viennese actor. Turhan Bey is the only person who speaks in this sensitive portrait. Thus, the film depicts his eventful journey through life solely from his personal perspective, accompanied by a great amount of his own photographs – and the viewer discovers that the true life passion of the famous actor was photography for most of the time, and not the movies.

Photo © Sabine Hauswirth