“Certainly, the earlier Intolerance is an unmistakeable influence, both for the scenographic reference to the monumental Babylonian palace (in the same respect Das Weib des Pharao, 1921, by Lubitsch is mentioned), as well as the presence of two different time periods in the same movie. Kertész was also a great admirer of Griffith. However, it seems to us, that Intolerance, in comparison with Sodom und Gomorrha, is not so much reminiscent, or a model to follow, but rather a striking example and an element of comparison: a challenge. Sodom und Gomorrha, therefore, is not a mere imitation; its purpose is to be like Intolerance, or even better. And what a challenge!. Vienna enters into competition with Hollywood and on its own ground. Sodom und Gomorrha, this ambitious project (the most important production effort by Austrian cinema in the Interwar Period), this Biblical drama which has no fear of homily, is taken seriously. The challenge is productive, but also ideological”.

(Michele Canosa, Cinegrafie, VI, n.9, 1996)

The restoration

[…] The restoration of Sodom und Gomorrha was begun in 1987 after several years of planning. […] In collaboration with the FIAF, fragments of Sodom und Gomorrha were able to be localised in different archives. In 1987 the film archives of the German and Hungarian Democratic Republics also made available the fragments of the film in their keeping which contained part of the realistic and modern part. […] Even with this new material, the film was full of lacunae; thus remembered texts were also inserted into the film, as well as the few authentic captions left. […] The film presented in 1987 was a synthesis of the original (2000m as opposed to the original 4.100).

When, in 1988, the Prague film archive offered the Österreichisches Filmarchiv a hitherto unknown nitrate copy of Sodom und Gomorrha, we were able to plan an improvement of the first restoration. […] In 1989 and 1990 all the available material was re-elaborated and analysed in exhaustive detail. For checking and identification we obtained some posters from the Danske Filmmuseum, summaries of the contents, critiques and a score of the original music (compiled by Giuseppe Becce) from the Deutsche Filmmuseum in Frankfurt. After the necessary montage work on the working copy and the negative, we finally had the latest updated and corrected version (of a length of 2745 m).

In June 1993, the news that in Italy the Cineteca di Bologna had found a nitrate copy of Sodom und Gomorrha in good condition arrived in Vienna. This was a copy with Italian captions and – this was the interesting news – was partly coloured. A first examination of its contents in Vienna revealed that it was a very short version (lasting less than an hour), which was patchy in many parts and sometimes missing entire sequences. The available material, however, contained some long complete scenes and some new shots with respect to the Vienna 1990 version.

Reconstruction work was completed in Vienna, while all the technical work was carried out in Bologna. A duplication of the Italian copy was made on dupe negative in black and white and from this a working copy was drawn, which was then sent to Vienna. On this basis we then proceeded with a complete re-working of the 1990 version. Thanks to the addition of many captions (present on the copy and retranslated from Italian) many parts were reorganised and many scenes changed in editing. The collation of all the available materials allowed us to clear up many obscure points; we were able, for example, to conclusively prove that the Italian copy was printed from the same nitrate negative as the one found in Berlin. […] The film (and thus the unfolding of the action) was reordered again, and is now faithful to the original version in two parts. This also allowed us to correct certain sequences and the structure of the film now follows the musical score written by Giuseppe Becce perfectly”.

(Josef Gloger,Oesterreichisches Filmarchiv)