Vienna 1900

At the turn of the nineteenth century Vienna appeared to be one of Europe's most affluent and cultured capitals but, behind its elegant façade, a young generation of artists, musicians, writers and thinkers was struggling to escape the strait-jacket of the old Austrian Empire and its frivolous trappings. This film looks at the traumatic re-birth of Vienna and at the pioneers of a new age – Klimt, Schiele, Loos, Zweig, Kraus, Schoenberg, Hofmannsthal and Freud, among them.