Besides his critical engagement with contemporary film, Enno Patalas’ lifetime devotion to cinema was always concerned with its history, which can be understood as the foundation for critique. This research project aims to ascertain the inherent idea of Patalas’ film history based on his written legacy. Initially, as an editor and writer for the magazine “Filmkritik”, later as the director of the Filmmuseum Munich, he significantly influenced German film culture in the 1960s as well as the developing field of academic film studies. The concept of “Modern Film” as an aesthetic paradigm in film history is one that defined the cinematic socialization of Patalas and his milieu. On one hand, this project questions Patalas’ theoretical background and, on the other hand, it addresses his impact to date, particularly in relation cinematheques and film restoration practices, which became his focus before retirement.

Ronny Günl is a PhD student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Junior Fellow at International Research Center for Cultural Studies University of Art and Design Linz since 2024. He completed his studies in Theatre, Film, and Media Studies at the University of Vienna with a master’s thesis titled “Concrete in Debris: Towards a Critical Theory of Incident”. Afterwards, he joined the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History and worked as a researcher in the projects “Visual History of the Holocaust” and “Modern Vienna Time Machine”. Alongside his academic pursuits, he actively contributes to journals focusing on both contemporary and historical film culture. As part of the Filmclub Tacheles, he organised several screenings with films from Claude Lanzmann, held introductory speeches and edited an anthology on the works of Austrian filmmaker Ruth Beckermann.