Directed by:
Reinhold SchünzelCinematography:
Konstantin Irmen-TschetComposer:
Franz DoelleCast:
Anton Walbrook, Ernst Behmer, Rudolf Platte, Hermann Thimig, Renate Müller, Hilde Hildebrand, Friedel Pisetta, Fritz Odemar, Gertrud Wolle, Aribert Wäscher (more)Plots(1)
It is "impossible" to find Victor and Victoria jobs as actors and singers. But Victor at least gets engagements as a female impersonator. One day he falls ill, so Victoria stands in for him: She pulls on a pair of trousers and now – as a woman – acts as the part of a man playing a woman. At a guest performance in London, men and women scramble to see her ... The protagonists, by insisting that gender criteria be a subject of debate (in contrast to their fellow sufferers among the unemployed, who are calling for state measures – "We must have a law!"), turn a crisis comedy into a gender comedy, undermining not only clearly defined gender classifications, but also social hierarchies. The film, made six months after the Nazis took power, again combines all the qualities of Weimar cinema: Viktor und Viktoria is lively, cheeky, vivacious and provocatively anti-authoritarian. With his sound film operetta about sexual equality and ambivalence, Reinhold Schünzel, who once acted in Weimar "moral films", such as the homosexual drama Anders als die anderen (1919), created a classic of "Queer Cinema", which even outdoes Blake Edwards' British-American remake Victor Victoria (1982) in terms of subversive esprit. (Berlinale)
(more)Cast
Anton Walbrook
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
Die vertauschte Braut (1934)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Ernst Behmer
German Empire
Best movies:
The Young Count (1935)
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Berlin-Alexanderplatz - Die Geschichte Franz Biberkopfs (1931)
Rudolf Platte
German Empire
Best movies:
Flitterwochen (1936)
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Veronika Voss (1982)
Hermann Thimig
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
A Night in Paradise (1931)
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
The 3 Penny Opera (1931)
Renate Müller
German Empire
Best movies:
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Hilde Hildebrand
German Empire
Best movies:
Barcarole (1935)
The Stars Shine (1938)
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Friedel Pisetta
Best movies:
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Fritz Odemar
German Empire
Best movies:
Die vertauschte Braut (1934)
M (1931)
The Devious Path (1928)
Gertrud Wolle
German Empire
Best movies:
Two Times Lotte (1950)
Three from the Filling Station (1930)
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Aribert Wäscher
German Empire
Best movies:
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
The Man Between (1953)
Karl Harbacher
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Nana (1926)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1943)
Trude Lehmann
German Empire
Best movies:
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Ewald Wenck
German Empire
Best movies:
The Punch Bowl (1944)
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
Schloß Gripsholm (1963)
Herbert Paulmüller
German Confederation
Best movies:
Viktor and Viktoria (1933)