Prater

Vienna's Prater is both an amusement park and a desire machine. No machine, no breakthrough concept, or sensational invention escapes incorporation into the Prater. In Ulrike Ottinger's film Prater, this realm of sensation becomes a contemporary cinema of attractions. The Prater's arc—from its origins to the present—is chronicled by its protagonists and by those who have documented it, drawing on current cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and international visitors, film quotations, and a range of photographic and written documentary materials. The significance of the Prater—the way it functions as a hub of technological innovation and as a cultural conduit—is reflected in the writings of Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner, and Elias Canetti, as well as in the music devoted to this amusement venue throughout its history.