This is a three-volume set about the founding, the 50-year history, and the collections of the Austrian Film Museum. Volume 1 (in German) is a work of historical research, describing in detail the establishment and development of the institution—from postwar Viennese film culture and its protagonists to the tenth anniversary of the Film Museum in 1974. Volume 2 (in German, with some parts in English) extends the time-frame to the year 2014 and offers a richly illustrated anthology of essays, documents, memoirs, and correspondence. It highlights the major retrospectives staged by the Film Museum over a period of 50 years and celebrates many of the visiting artists as well as the writers who contributed to the museum's international recognition and to its curatorial positions. Volume 3 (in German) focuses on the museum's holdings by picturing and describing 50 objects from various subfields of the collectionVand suggesting a non-dogmatic reading of film history.

In his 1929 Hollywood production The Case of Lena Smith, director Josef von Sternberg vividly brought to life his youthful memories of the turn of the 20th century through the story a young woman fighting the oppressive class system of Imperial Vienna. Critic Dwight Macdonald called it “the most completely satisfying American film I have seen.” And yet, only a short fragment survives.

Assembling 150 original stills and set designs, numerous script and production documents and essays by eminent film historians, the book reconstructs one of the legendary lost masterpieces of the American cinema. It also includes essays by Janet Bergstrom, Gero Gandert, Franz Grafl, Alexander Horwath, Hiroshi Komatsu and Michael Omasta, a preface by Meri von Sternberg, as well as contemporary reviews and excerpts from Viennese literature of the era.