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The Concise CineGraph
Film Europa: German Cinema in an International Context Series Editors: Hans-Michael Bock (CineGraph Hamburg); Tim Bergfelder (University of Southampton); Sabine Hake (University of Texas, Austin) German cinema is normally seen as a distinct form, but this new series emphasizes connections, influences, and exchanges of German cinema across national borders, as well as its links with other media and art forms. Individual titles present traditional historical research (archival work, industry studies) as well as new critical approaches in film and media studies (theories of the transnational), with a special emphasis on the continuities associated with popular traditions and local perspectives. The Concise CineGraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema General Editor: Hans-Michael Bock Associate Editor: Tim Bergfelder International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s Tim Bergfelder Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910–1933 S. S. Prawer Framing the Fifties: Cinema in a Divided Germany Edited by John Davidson and Sabine Hake A Foreign Affair: Billy Wilder’s American Films Gerd Gemünden Destination London: German-speaking Emigrés and British Cinema, 1925–1950 Edited by Tim Bergfelder and Christian Cargnelli Michael Haneke’s Cinema: The Ethic of the Image Catherine Wheatley Willing Seduction: The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich, and Mass Culture Barbara Kosta Dismantling the Dream Factory: Gender, German Cinema, and the Postwar Quest for a New Film Language Hester Baer Béla Balázs’ Early Film Theory: Visible Man and The Spirit of Film Béla Balázs Translated by Rodney Livingstone Introduction by Erica Carter
THE CONCISE CINEGRAPH Encyclopaedia of German Cinema
General Editor: Hans-Michael Bock Associate Editor: Tim Bergfelder With a Foreword by Kevin Brownlow
Published in 2009 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2009 Hans-Michael Bock Appendix: ©2009 Tim Bergfelder Die Herausgabe dieses Werkes wurde aus Mitteln des Goethe-Instituts gefördert. All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed in the United States on acid-free paper. ISBN: 978-1-57181-655-9 (hardback)
CONTENTS
Foreword
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Acknowledgements
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Introduction
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Guidelines for using the filmographies
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List of Abbreviations
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Encylopaedia: Names A–Z
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Appendix: Historical and Thematic Contexts Pioneers and Early Film: Wilhelmine Cinema
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Weimar
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Nazi Cinema
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Rubble Films
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DEFA and East German Cinema
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West German Film
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German Cinema Since Unification
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Austria
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Switzerland
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Exile and Transnational Traffic
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Other Themes, Genres, and Professions
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FOREWORD If only Cinegraph had been available in English a decade ago! I was working on a series about the European silent film, CINEMA EUROPE, in the mid-nineties. My partner David Gill and I found the German episode extremely challenging. We showed a roughcut to Hans-Michael Bock. His objection was the one I feared, that we had lavished time on the German art cinema, at the expense of the ordinary commercial releases. German audiences didn’t particularly care for those artpictures. So why didn’t we deal more with Joe May? And what about Richard Eichberg? Gerhardt Lamprecht? I made the excuse that we English had been badly served by books on German film. There was Kracauer’s revered volume, which sought to prove that German film-makers were preparing for the Fuhrer – even though so many of them proved to be Jewish. There was Roger Manvell’s helpful but thin survey. And there was Lotte Eisner on those art films we were so seduced by. But there was precious little else. I had thus been dependent on the CineGraph index, but it was a hopeless struggle with my inadequate German. So it is a godsend to discover that they have at last brought out this wonderful document in English. By doing so, they surmount two language barriers; not only are they written in clear English, they avoid the jargon so beloved of academics, so incomprehensible to normal people. Here are concise biographies of the most fascinating film people imaginable – Alfred Greven, who, as head of Continental Films, effectively ran the French film industry during the German occupation and, having aroused the disfavour of Dr Goebbels. escaped from Paris with illegally copied films and company funds. (Forgive me for concentrating on the Third Reich, but it fascinates me as much as the Weimar Republic.) Mutz Greenbaum, who started his career as a teenage cameraman came to work as a refugee in England (as Max Greene) and shot anti-Nazi films such as PASTOR HALL (1940). Photographing the 1949 Jules Dassin thriller NIGHT AND THE CITY, he transformed London into a sinister, atmospheric city of fear in classical German style. Remember that wonderful Kurt Gerron – the stage manager in THE BLUE ANGEL, and another Jew who tried to keep one step ahead of the advancing Wehrmacht? He was arrested in Holland and sent to the Czech ‘show camp’, Theresienstadt, in 1944, ordered to direct a film with which the Nazis hoped to win international approval for the camp system. Gerron complied and the film was so persuasive that Germany will still not allow it to be shown on its own. A number of documentaries have used the footage to explain how Gerron was betrayed; his reward was extermination. And what about the director of THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE, Henrik Galeen? ‘Until recently, not even his real name or place of birth was known…much of his biography remains as shadowy as the phantoms of his narratives.’ And all these I selected from a single letter of the alphabet. CineGraph offers so many surprises. Remember the ‘Dutch girl’ in De Mille’s THE BUCCANEER? Franciska Gaal was the star of Geza von Bolvary’s SKANDAL IN BUDAPEST (1933) – remade in Hollywood as the Astaire-Rogers vehicle TOP HAT (1935). Her picture was a success in Germany, but Gaal was Jewish and the Nazis banned her films from release in the Reich. Hard-core information of this sort is incredibly important for the film historian and film students and sometimes even the film-maker, and it is gaining in value as the practitioners of 20th-century cinema disappear. I thank those hard-working researchers who have produced this invaluable catalogue on behalf of posterity. Kevin Brownlow
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks … to all researchers and contributors of the ‘original’ CineGraph Lexikon since 1980; … to the publishers Berndt Oesterhelt (edition text + kritik) and Marion Berghahn (Berghahn Books) for their faith and patience in such a long-term project; … to the editors Christa Jordan, Hanni Forman and Clemens Heucke (edition text + kritik), and Mark Stanton (Berghahn Books); … Hans Helmut Prinzler, Antje Goldau, Wolfgang Jacobsen, Brigitte Corleis (with Daisy & Jakob) who helped in the early years of this project; … Jörg Schöning, Erika Wottrich, Johannes Roschlau, David Kleingers, Alexia Stephan, Jacek Grzondziel at CineGraph Hamburgisches Centrum für Filmforschung. Filmographical Editor: Olaf Brill (Bremen); Editorial Assistant: George Riley (Hamburg); Layout and Typography: Robert Wohlleben (Altona); Translators: Mathilde Rasmussen (Southampton), Robert J. Kiss (Heidelberg); Contributors and Advice: Siegbert S. Prawer (Oxford), Geoff Brown, Margaret Deriaz, Alastair King, David Meeker, Markku Salmi, Catherine A. Surowiec (all London), Sabine Hake (Austin, Texas), Horst Claus (Bristol), Anne Jespersen (Copenhagen), Catherine Wheatley (Southampton), Anna Maria Mullally (Warwick), and Paul Püschel (Bonn). A grant from the DEFA-Stiftung (Berlin) and two invitations as ‘Fellow Commoner’ at The Queen’s College (Oxford) gave me the opportunity to prepare the selection of materials in peace and solitude, away from everyday distractions. Hans-Michael Bock
INTRODUCTION CineGraph – Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film (Encyclopaedia of German-Language Film) began publication at edition text + kritik in Munich in 1984. Although its origins date back to the late 1970s and to earlier discussions about the need for a reliable and comprehensive source of factual information about German films and filmmakers, the early 1980s was a particularly poignant moment to launch such a project. Following the gradual demise of a domestic author-centred mode of filmmaking, the ‘New German Cinema’, and the simultaneous decline of traditional cinema exhibition in the 1970s, many in Germany and elsewhere believed that film had run its course as an economically and artistically viable mass medium, and had become an anachronism. At the same time there was a growing debate across many countries about how to engage – logistically and intellectually – with the material legacy of the 20th century’s most important form of visual communication, documentation, and entertainment. Chronically under-funded archives and museums had for decades catalogued, preserved and stored cinema-related documents and ephemera, as well as vast collections of films. The majority of the latter were (and still are) barely known even to professional film historians who have traditionally tended to think of their field in terms of selective lists of filmmakers, and of a limited number of canonical ‘masterpieces’. By the early 1980s, many archival holdings were in acute danger of being lost, owing to the threat of film stock decay as much as the lack of public interest and investment in securing an international audio-visual heritage for future generations. It was at this juncture that a productive dialogue between the archival communities, independent film scholars, University academics, and cultural critics commenced, which over the next two decades led to new directions and discoveries in empirically-based film research, and to festivals such as Hamburg’s cinefest (organised by CineGraph and Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv), as well as the Giornate del Cinema Muto at Pordenone, Il Cinema Ritrovato at Bologna, and the British silent cinema events at Nottingham, all of which are explicitly committed to promote the visibility of previously unknown or neglected material from the archives. It is from these exchanges and a multiplicity of interests and perceived priorities that a new cinema history emerged, to which CineGraph continues to contribute to this day. CineGraph’s first instalment in 1984 consisted of bio-filmographical loose-leaf entries on personalities from German cinema history, issued with a stylish ring binder for collecting a potentially infinite number of future instalments. A quarter of a century later, CineGraph is still going strong. After its forty-eighth instalment the encyclopaedia comprises eight binders (with their distinctive black-and-white film strip logo on a silver-grey background), which hold together a collection of more than 1,000 bio-filmographical entries (written by countless expert contributors) that extend to nearly 12,000 pages. In the last twenty-five years, the film medium and its historiography have undergone radical changes, some of which could not be predicted in 1984, some of which CineGraph anticipated. The end of film has not come to pass, even if the digital revolution and successive waves of do-
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mestication of the viewing experience (VHS, DVD, and most recently the web download) have further eroded the dominance of the cinema as the sole focus of film exhibition. And while the issues concerning a long-term solution for the international audio-visual heritage are as hotly debated as ever, digitisation technology has at least facilitated the accessibility of more archival material to a wider audience than was the case in the 1980s. In terms of the medium’s historiography, the development of the web has led to an explosion of hitherto unavailable information. CineGraph’s concept of an encyclopaedia as a ‘work in progress’ is now commonplace in sites such as the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb), All Movie Guide (AMG), or the German filmportal.de (developed in collaboration between DIF in Frankfurt and CineGraph, and partly consisting of the database that CineGraph created and the Lexikon is based upon), which are designed to be constantly evolving and responsive to changes, as well as wiki-based web pages such as Wikipedia, which allow and invite users to contribute content. Yet while information in the new millennium has become more accessible and comprehensive, this has not always been accompanied by a simultaneous advance in accuracy and reliability, making the efforts of projects such as CineGraph as important today as they were in the 1980s. Moreover, by its continued commitment to the print medium, CineGraph consciously draws attention to its own historicity, a quality often lost in the web’s perpetual present. Since its beginnings, CineGraph has branched out into a multitude of activities and has had a remarkable influence on critical paradigms and research agendas in German film history for the past two decades. cinefest has already been mentioned. In the late 1980s, CineGraph developed into a fully-fledged research institution, the Hamburgisches Centrum für Filmforschung. CineGraph’s first annual conference in 1988 was dedicated to a forgotten genius of the 1920s and 1930s, the Hamburg-born actor and director Reinhold Schünzel, a master of intelligent and commercially popular comedies. The conference, setting the example for subsequent occasions, was accompanied by a substantial film retrospective and provided a forum for archivists and film historians. The event, resulting in the first of many CineGraph-edited book collections, had set itself the task not only of rediscovering an isolated career, but also of reviewing the history of Weimar film, previously conceived exclusively as an arcane, ‘Expressionist’ art cinema. To this end, subsequent conferences focused on similarly neglected directors of the popular “Other Weimar”, such as Richard Oswald, Joe May, and E. A. Dupont. It is no coincidence that all of these figures eventually ended up in Hollywood as exiles from Nazi Germany. From early on, one of CineGraph’s aims has been to revive and maintain the memory of those (mostly Jewish) filmmakers whose careers and lives were interrupted, diverted, and often destroyed during the ‘Third Reich’. Since the early 1990s, the annual conferences in Hamburg (later extended to cinefest) have continued to innovate and inspire research by following three distinct yet interconnected strands. The first concerns the re-evaluation of popular film genres from the 1910s through to the post-World War II period, from exoticist adventures and early sound era musicals to comedies and melodramas of sexual education and exploitation. A second strand has focused on the trajectories of specific producers or production companies, from independents such as the Nebenzahl dynasty and Arnold Pressburger’s Cine-Allianz to multi-national media conglomerates such as Deutsche Universal and Tobis. The third strand has dealt with the connections between the German film industry and other national film cultures, chronicling Germany’s reciprocal relations with Hollywood, but also with Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and France. One conference charted the influence of Russian émigrés on both the German and French film industries in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution. At least a decade before the term ‘transnationalism’ became a fashionable buzzword in Anglo-American film and cultural studies, CineGraph challenged isolationist definitions of national film cultures and demon-
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strated cinema’s intrinsic internationalism and hybridity which is as old as the medium itself. This move away from introspective national navel gazing in research focus has been mirrored by the increasing number of international partners and collaborators whom CineGraph has drawn into its network over the years, a network which has extended its reach far beyond Hamburg and Germany. The present volume is part of CineGraph’s international outreach in promoting a better understanding of German film history across borders. As the word ‘concise’ in the title indicates, this book has condensed the sometimes extensive biographies in the German original into shorter, more compact entries. ‘Concise’ also means a smaller sample of individuals in comparison with this volume’s parent encyclopaedia, which remains the standard in terms of comprehensiveness. As a result, some users will inevitably encounter omissions, gaps, and missing names that ‘should’ have been included. Irrespective of how balanced, democratic, or inclusive editors attempt to be, selections are inescapably subjective, dependent on personal preferences as much as on wider cultural and research trends, and on what information is available at any given time. In this respect, any encyclopaedia such as this is always a product of its particular moment of publication. Nevertheless, even within its set limitations, Concise CineGraph follows the general ethos of its German model in a number of key principles. In determining who made it into this volume, we obviously could not, and would not want to, ignore the canonical names, the likes of Lang, Murnau, Dietrich, Kluge, and Fassbinder. Readers interested in German cinema’s acknowledged ‘classics’ will find their creators and stars discussed in these pages. At the same time they are not automatically accorded more space and detail than lesser known, but perhaps equally significant, figures, or individuals we felt had previously been neglected or merited a re-evaluation – the entry on the Cameroonianborn supporting actor Louis/Lewis Brody, one of the few black presences in German cinema from the 1910s to the 1940s, is a case in point. Variety informs this book’s selection also in terms of film professions, including not just actors and directors, but also writers, producers, cinematographers, production designers, composers, critics and theorists. Giving readers the opportunity for a (re-)discovery across as wide a spectrum as possible has been a stronger motivation behind this book’s editorial policy than to confirm the impression of an already known, clearly demarcated national film canon. In the case of German cinema, this canon has encompassed primarily a narrow selection of feature films, especially from the Weimar era and the 1970s. It has often lacked detail about the Wilhelmine and post-World War II periods in particular, but has also frequently excluded many other modes of creative activity, from popular genres to documentary traditions, animation, experimental cinema, and advertising film. To give concrete examples, names such as Ottmar Anschütz, August Arnold, Ferdinand Diehl, Harry Liedtke, Julius Pinschewer, or Franz Winzentsen may initially not mean much to (especially non-German) readers, except those with a highly specialised interest, yet in their particular area and in their particular time they were arguably as influential as some of the more recognisable stalwarts of German cinema. As with CineGraph’s other publications and activities, the selection compiled in this volume challenges simplistic notions of what the ‘German’ in German cinema means. As in the original CineGraph encyclopaedia, ‘German language’ is meant to encompass German, Austrian, and Swiss films and personnel, and of course the cinematic histories of both East and West Germany between 1945 and unification. This volume introduces German stars whose nationality was Danish (Asta Nielsen), Polish (Pola Negri), Russian (Olga Tschechowa), American (Louise Brooks), British (Lilian Harvey), Hungarian (Franziska Gaal), Czech (Lida Baarová), Dutch (Johannes Heesters), Swedish (Zarah Leander), French-Italian (Caterina Valente), and Romanian (Alexandra Maria Lara), among many similar examples in acting as well as
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other professions. This is not even taking into account the many individuals featured in this volume with multiple cultural and national affiliations, a characteristic that has only intensified as a result of globalisation. It is widely acknowledged that the effects of exile and migration, before and after World War II, have left an indelible mark not only on German cinema, but have also shaped film cultures and industries elsewhere. We have thus particularly prioritised the inclusion of émigrés and immigrants whose careers have spanned two or more national cinemas, in order to emphasise the continuities as well as the ruptures involved in such transitions. Most of the biographies in Concise CineGraph are based on existing articles in the German parent encyclopaedia, while some were written specifically for this book. All entries were significantly edited and re-edited with a non-German readership in mind, often employing culturally specific analogies and comparisons to give a clearer idea of certain figures and what their standing in German culture is. Following the main alphabetical section of the book, an appendix provides brief overviews of German, Austrian, and Swiss-German film history, divided into its main periods and themes. Brief contextual essays are accompanied by suggestions for further reading and lists cross-referencing names relevant for the respective theme (e.g. specific periods, genres, professions, etc.). We hope that the appendix encourages a creative usage of this encyclopaedia and that it fosters our objective to draw readers, whether experts of German film or novices, into unexpected connections, forgotten lives, and undiscovered pasts. Hamburg and Southampton, June 2009
Hans-Michael Bock and Tim Bergfelder
GUIDELINES FOR USING THE FILMOGRAPHIES The filmographies are (as far as possible) complete and in chronological order. The films are given in their original title(s). The abbreviations in square brackets at the top of each filmography set the standards for the entry, e.g. [act -- DD] means: Actor in (feature films) in the German Democratic Republic. Entries in the brackets after a title give departures from the set standard, e.g.: [TV -- dir,act -- AT] = director and actor in an Austrian television film. If there is a fundamental change in the career of a person -- e.g. migrating permanently to another country or changing from cameraman to direction -- a new standard can be set for the next paragraph, thus structuring a career that e.g. starts as a director and producer in Weimar cinema [dir,pro -- DE] then continuing as actor in exile in Hollywood [act -- US] and ending as script writer on television in Switzerland [TV -- scr -- CH].
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS act adv ani app arr asscam co-
actor, actress advisor animator appearance, interviewee (musical) arranger assistant camera (department) co-(director/script/ camera) cos costume cut editing des (production) design, art director dia dialogue dir director dra dramaturge, script editor gra graphic design ide idea lyr lyrics md music director mup make-up mus music pho stills photographer pro production (department), production manager scr script sfx special (optical) effects sma source material for script (novel, play) snd sound (department) sng singer supv supervision, artistic supervision voi voice, narrator
AG ANI DO FF MLV SD
avant garde animation film documentary feature film multi language version short documentary
SF TV TVD TVS VID
AL AR AT AU BE BG BR BY CA CH CN CR CS CU CZ
short film TV film, play TV documentary TV series (episodes, season) Video
Albania Argentina Austria Australia Belgium Bulgaria Brazil Belarus Canada Switzerland China Costa Rica Czechoslovakia Cuba Czech Republic (from 1993) DD DDR = German Democratic Republic 1949–1990 DE Germany (until 1945, from 1990) DE West Germany (1945–1990) DE (CS) Czechoslovakia under German occupation (1938–45) DK Denmark DZ Algeria EC Equador EE Estonia ES Spain FI Finland FR France GA Gabon GB United Kingdom
GH GR HK HR HU IE IL IN IQ IR IS IT JP KZ LI LT LU LV MA MK MN MX NL NO NZ PL PT RO RU SD SE SI SK SU SY TH TR TW UA US YU ZA
Ghana Greece Hong Kong Croatia Hungary Eire, Ireland Israel India Iraq Iran Iceland Italy Japan Kazakhstan Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Latvia Morocco Macedonia Mongolia Mexico Netherlands Norway New Zealand Poland Portugal Romania Russia (until 1918, from 1992) Sudan Sweden Slovenia Slovakia (from 1993) Soviet Union Syria Thailand Turkey Taiwan Ukraine United States of America Yugoslavia South Africa
ALFRED ABEL (Alfred Peter Abel) Born March 12, 1879, Leipzig (Germany) Died December 12, 1937, Berlin (Germany) Distinguished-looking Abel brought a controlled, nuanced style to his silent and early sound film performances, and is best remembered internationally for his role as Fredersen, the capitalist overlord of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/26). Abel abandoned his apprenticeship as a gardener and forester and took part-time acting work in the town of Mittweida prior to enrolling at the Academy of Arts in Leipzig and taking private acting lessons. He was engaged by Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1904, and went on to work under Max Reinhardt and Victor Barnowsky at various theatres in the German capital. Following his first film role in Max Reinhardt’s EINE VENEZIANISCHE NACHT (One Venetian Night, 1913), Abel’s restrained acting soon became a highlight in dozens of popular films by directors including Richard Oswald and Max Mack. The actor also brought psychological depth to his performances as the writer Gaston in Ernst Lubitsch’s RAUSCH (Intoxication, 1919) and, playing opposite Pola Negri, as the musician Raoul in Lubitsch’s DIE FLAMME (Montmartre, 1922). He likewise stood out as the hopelessly enamoured town clerk Lubota in F. W. Murnau’s PHANTOM (Phantom, 1922), and as professional cardsharp Count Told in Fritz Lang’s DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1921/22), as well as in Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/26). Abel furthermore undertook film work elsewhere in Europe, including Marcel L’Herbier’s L’ARGENT (Money, 1928), Richard Oswald’s CAGLIOSTRO (1928/29) in France, and Alfred Hitchcock’s MARY (1930), the German-language version of MURDER (1930). As one of Berlin’s most suave and debonair personalities, Abel’s sound film roles tended to find him cast playing well-heeled noblemen, such as Count Eberhard in Anatole Litvak’s DOLLY MACHT KARRIERE (Dolly Gets Ahead, 1930) or the King of Saxony in Erik Charell’s DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931). He was occasionally able to break from type, however, as with his comic performances as the mayor in Alexander Granowsky’s DIE KOFFER DES HERRN O. F. (The Trunks of Mr. O. F., 1931), as loopy poet
Knips in Detlef Sierck’s (Douglas Sirk) DAS HOFKONZERT (The Court Concert, 1936), or as the banker Terbanks in Paul Martin’s SIEBEN OHRFEIGEN (Seven Slaps, 1937). Abel also directed four films: the satirical DER STREIK DER DIEBE (Thieves on Strike, 1920/21) – the lone production of Abel’s own company, Artifex-Film, in which he also starred as head crook Will Tax; the drama NARKOSE (Anaesthesia, 1929), adapted by Béla Balázs from Stefan Zweig’s novella ‘Brief einer Unbekannten’ (Letter from an Unknown Woman); the romantic musical comedy GLÜCKLICHE REISE (Bon Voyage, 1933); and ALLES UM EINE FRAU (Everything for a Woman, 1934/35), a lovetriangle involving Anglo-German espionage in the aviation industry. [act – DE] 1913: Eine venezianische Nacht. 1914: Lache, Bajazzo!; Die Geschichte der stillen Mühle. 1915: Das Laster; Der Weg zum Guten. 1915/16: Das Spiel ist aus. 1916: Peter Lump; Ernst ist das Leben; Das Geständnis der grünen Maske; Wenn Menschen reif zur Liebe werden. 1916/17: Der Seele Saiten schwingen nicht. 1917: Ein Blatt im Sturm … doch das Schicksal hat es verweht. 1917/ 18: Die nach Glück und Liebe suchen. 1918: Es werde Licht! 4. Teil: Sündige Mütter (Strafgesetz § 218); Drohende Wolken am Firmament; Colomba; Lola Montez; Tanzendes Gift; Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell. 1919: Lucas, Kapitel 15. Der verlorene Sohn; Die rote Herzogin; Rausch; Eine junge Dame aus guter Familie; Kameraden; Die Geächteten. 1919/20: Die Frau ohne Seele; Das Tagebuch meiner Frau. Die Macht des Goldes. 1920: Der schwarze Graf; Wenn der junge Kaktus blüht; Der Ruf aus dem Jenseits; Die Frau im Himmel; Taumel; Mord … die Tragödie des Hauses Garrick; Fakir der Liebe; Das Geheimnis von Bombay. Das Abenteuer einer Nacht; Die Präriediva. 1920/21: Der Streik der Diebe [dir,act,pro]; Die große und die kleine Welt. 1921: Irrende Seelen (Sklaven der Sinne); Das Opfer der Ellen Larsen; Mann über Bord; Der Schrecken der roten Mühle; Grausige Nächte; Sappho; Die Geschichte des grauen Hauses. 1. EP: Der Mord aus verschmähter Liebe; Die im Schatten gehen; Lotte Lore; Die Intriguen der Madame de la Pommeraye. 1921/22: Der einzige Zeuge; Der brennende Acker; Menschenopfer; Die Jagd nach der Frau; Scheine des Todes; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922: Zwischen Tag und Traum; Die Flamme; Phantom; Bigamie; Der falsche Dimitry. Ein Zarenschicksal. 1922/23: Die Prin-
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zessin Suwarin. 1923: Arme Sünderin; Buddenbrooks; Das Spiel der Liebe; Im Rausche der Leidenschaft; Das Laster des Spiels; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs; Dudu, ein Menschenschicksal. Die Geschichte eines Clowns. 1924: Das Spiel mit dem Schicksal; Mensch gegen Mensch; Die Frau in Versuchung; Guillotine; Die Frau im Feuer. 1925: Der Gardeoffizier [AT]; Die Feuertänzerin; Der Herr Generaldirektor; Der Bankkrach Unter den Linden. 1925/26: Menschen untereinander; Tragödie einer Ehe / Human Law [DE/GB]; Metropolis. 1926: Eine Dubarry von heute; Die lachende Grille; Die Tragödie eines Verlorenen. 1926/ 27: Laster der Menschheit. 1927: Ein Tag der Rosen im August … da hat die Garde fortgemußt; Das tanzende Wien. An der schönen blauen Donau. 2. Teil; Jahrmarkt des Lebens; Das Geheimnis von Genf. 1927/28: Wer das Scheiden hat erfunden. 1928: Eine Nacht in Yoshiwara; Heut’ spielt der Strauß (Der Walzerkönig); Prinzessin Olala; Rasputins Liebesabenteuer; Ariadne in Hoppegarten; Mein Herz ist eine Jazzband; L’Argent [FR]. 1928/29: Autour de L’Argent [SHD – FR]; Cagliostro / Cagliostro. Liebe und Leben eines großen Abenteurers [FR/DE]. 1929: Narkose [dir,act,pro]; Giftgas; Ehe in Not; Sei gegrüßt, Du mein schönes Sorrent. 1930: Dolly macht Karriere; ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand; Das Schicksal der Renate Langen; Mary. Sir John greift ein [MLV – GB]. 1931: Das Ekel. Jung muß man bleiben; Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin; Der Herzog von Reichstadt [MLV – FR]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Der Herr Bürovorsteher; Die Koffer des Herrn O. F. 1932: Jonny stiehlt Europa; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; Das Mädel vom Montparnasse [MLV – FR/DE]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; Spione im Savoy-Hotel; Kampf. 1932/33: Salon Dora Green; Manolescu, der Fürst der Diebe; Brennendes Geheimnis; Die kleine Schwindlerin. 1933: Wege zur guten Ehe [MLV]; Glückliche Reise [dir]. 1934: Eine Siebzehnjährige; Die Liebe siegt. 1934/1935: Alles um eine Frau. Kameraden [dir]. 1935: Das Einmaleins der Liebe [co-dir]; Viktoria. Die Geschichte einer Liebe [co-dir, act]. 1935/36: Kater Lampe. 1936: Ein seltsamer Gast; Maria, die Magd; Spiel an Bord; Und Du, mein Schatz, fährst mit; Das Hofkonzert [MLV]; Skandal um die Fledermaus. 1936/37: Millionenerbschaft [AT]. 1937: Sieben Ohrfeigen; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Millionäre [AT]. 1937/38: Frau Sylvelin.
HERBERT ACHTERNBUSCH (Herbert Schild) Born November 23, 1938, Munich (Germany) Achternbusch is a challenging and frequently controversial artist whose work encompasses sculpture, painting and literature as well as films. His work is strongly rooted in the Bavarian landscape and language, and provides caustic and anarchic comments on the culture of his home region. Achternbusch was raised by his grandmother in the Bavarian countryside, and obtained his Abitur in Cham, near Regensburg, in 1960. Taking up painting and writing, he initially studied at Pasing teachertraining college in Munich before enrolling at the Arts
Academy in Nuremberg in 1961, and finally settling at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts. He married an art teacher in 1962, and set himself up as a painter. Achternbusch published his first collections of poetry and etchings in 1964, and his first anthology of short stories, ‘Hülle’ (Cover), in 1969. Achternbusch had already directed 8mm shorts in the early 1970s prior to making the acquaintance of Werner Herzog, Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta in 1973. He went on to write the screenplay for Herzog’s HERZ AUS GLAS (Heart of Glass, 1975/76), although it was his role as a teacher in Schlöndorff’s television film ÜBERNACHTUNG IN TIROL (Overnight Stay in Tyrol, 1973/74) that motivated him to make his own first feature film, DAS ANDECHSER GEFÜHL (That Andechs Feeling, 1974). On his subsequent pictures, Achternbusch took on the roles of scriptwriter, director, lead actor, producer, and occasionally also cinematographer and distributor. The thematic and stylistic cues often came from his own unconventional prose texts, and (as in his essays about other filmmakers) juxtapose literary, filmic and painterly elements. His films starred a stock company of friends, most of whom were amateurs, including Annamirl and Sepp Bierbichler, Heinz Braun, Gabi Geist, Alois Hitzenblicher and Franz Baumgartner, alongside Achternbusch’s wife Gerda and their children. His regular crew comprised cinematographers Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein and Jörg Jeshel, editor Micki Joanni, and costume designer Annegret Poppel. Achternbusch’s anarchic brand of comedy is reliant on his eccentric use of the local dialect and visual puns. His narratives, meanwhile, portray a love-hate relationship with several characteristics of his Bavarian homeland such as beer gardens, the Catholic Church, and steadfast faith in authority. They also frequently reflect his own biography, in particular his mother fixation, e.g. in DIE OLYMPIASIEGERIN (The Olympic Champion, 1983), and personal obsessions, all of which he explores through pared-down narrative structures, earthy humour, and a gleeful breaking of taboos. It is their taboo-breaking component that has gained his films attention beyond a small circle of fans, and has led to several instances of censorship, including a celebrated controversy in 1983, when West Germany’s Home secretary withheld state funding for DAS GESPENST (The Ghost) on account of the film’s supposed blasphemous content. All of this contributed to Achternbusch’s nationwide reputation as an embodiment of Bavarian independence and obstinacy, rendering him an anarchic successor of sorts to Karl Valentin. From the early 1980s he concentrated on theatre work, and on publishing illustrated film books, watercolours and autobiographical texts.
PERCY ADLON dir,scr,act,pro – DE] 1970: Das Kind ist tot [SF – dir,scr, cam,act,pro]. 1971/72: 6. Dezember 1971 [dir,cam,act, pro]. 1973/74: Übernachtung in Tirol [TV – act]. 1974: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle [act]; Das Andechser Gefühl [dir,scr,act]. 1975: Die Atlantikschwimmer. 1975/76: Herz aus Glas [co-scr]. 1976/77: Bierkampf. 1977: Servus Bayern. 1978: Der junge Mönch. 1979: Der Komantsche. 1980: Der Neger Erwin. 1981: Das letzte Loch. 1982: Susn [TV – sma – AT]; Der Depp; Das Gespenst. 1982/83: Der Platzanweiser. Porträt eines Kinomanen [co-scr]. 1983: Die Olympiasiegerin; Rita Ritter. 1983/84: Wanderkrebs. 1984/85: Blaue Blumen [DO – dir,scr,cam,cut,sfx,pro]; Die Föhnforscher. 1985: Heilt Hitler! [dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1986/ 87: Punch Drunk [dir,scr,cam,act,pro]. 1987/88: Wohin? 1988/89: Mix Wix. Ein Kapitalist gibt auf [dir,pro]. 1989/ 90: Hick’s Last Stand [dir,scr,cam,act,pro]. 1990: Das Schaf im Wolfspelz [TVD – act]. 1991: Niemandsland; I Know the Way to the Hofbrauhaus [dir,scr,cam,act,pro]. 1992: Ich bin da Ich bin da. 1993/94: Ab nach Tibet! 1. Es tut nicht mehr weh. Ein Wirtschaftsfilm. – 2. Die letzte Illusion. Ein Autorenfilm [dir,mus,act,pro]. 1994/95: Hades ade [SF]; Hades [dir,scr,act]. 1995: Der Niemandslandstreicher [TVD – act]. 1996/97: Picasso in München. 1997/ 98: Neue Freiheit Keine Jobs Schönes München Stillstand. 2001/02: Herbert Hellas – Achternbusch trifft Apollon [SD – app]. 2002: Das Klatschen der einen Hand. 2002/03: Musen, Macht und Glamour – Die Welt der Maximilianstraße [TVD – app]. 2007: Bierbichler [TVD – app]. 2008: Achternbusch [TVD – app]; Heimat – Deine Filme [TVD – 2 parts – app].
PERCY ADLON (Paul Rudolf Parsifal Adlon) Born June 1, 1935, Munich (Germany) Adlon’s television documentaries and theatrical features are best known for their closely observed and often whimsical portraits of individualists, dreamers, and social misfits. After studying art history, theatre, and German literature at Munich University, the son of operatic tenor Rudolf Lambenthal initially worked as an actor in the theatre as well as radio and television before becoming a prolific director of television documentaries at the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian broadcasting studio). Several of his television productions were about artists, such as TOMI UNGERERS LANDLEBEN (Tomi Ungerer’s Country Life, 1973) and the highly acclaimed semi-documentary DER VORMUND UND SEIN DICHTER (The Guardian and His Poet, 1978) about the schizophrenic Swiss author Robert Walser. In the 1980s, Adlon (and his frequent collaborator, wife Eleonore) began producing films for the big screen. CÉLESTE (1981) documented the life of Marcel Proust’s housekeeper (played by Eva Mattes) during the writer’s last years. FÜNF LETZTE TAGE (Five Last Days, 1982) re-enacted the final days in the life
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of student Sophie Scholl, who was executed by the Nazis. DIE SCHAUKEL (The Swing, 1983) was a nostalgic family portrait, based on a novel by Annette Kolb, set prior to World War I. Adlon became most famous in the mid-1980s with a trilogy of quirky comedy dramas starring the voluminous Bavarian actress Marianne Sägebrecht. In ZUCKERBABY (Sugar Baby, 1984/85), she played an overweight mortuary attendant who falls in love with a subway driver. In OUT OF ROSENHEIM (Bagdad Café, 1987), Sägebrecht was a Bavarian housewife and amateur magician who gets stranded in the Arizona desert and forges an unlikely friendship with a harassed black single mom (CCH Pounder) who runs a highway diner. The film became an international hit, revived the career of Hollywood veteran Jack Palance who played an eccentric artist, and was made into a television series in the United States. The Adlons then moved to California and most of their subsequent films were set in the United States. ROSALIE GOES SHOPPING (1988/89) teamed Sägebrecht up with Hollywood stars Brad Davis and Judge Reinhold. SALMONBERRIES (1991) co-written by Adlon and his son Felix, was set in Alaska and had an eclectic cast headed by Canadian singer k.d. lang, German actress Rosel Zech and ageing Hollywood hardman Chuck Connors. While Adlon’s feature films since the mid-1990s (such as YOUNGER AND YOUNGER, 1992/93, starring Donald Sutherland, and HAWAIIAN GARDENS, 2001) have rarely met the same acclaim as his films from the 1980s, he has continued to make some intriguing documentaries, including IN DER GLANZVOLLEN WELT DES HOTEL ADLON (The Glamorous World of the Hotel Adlon, 1996), an imaginative cinematic collage of fact and fiction concerning Berlin’s most famous pre-war luxury hotel founded by his mother’s family; and KOENIG’S SPHERE (2001/02) a film about a Bavarian artist’s sculpture that survived the 9/11 attacks. In 1996/97 the Adlons with their companies Leora Films Inc., Santa Monica, and pelemele Film, Munich, produced EAT YOUR HEART OUT, which marked the directing debut of their son Felix (b. 1967), and in 2004, they adapted OUT OF ROSENHEIM into a stage musical, which had its premiere in Barcelona. [dir,scr – DE] 1966: Fahnenweihe oder Thoma contra Ruederer [TV – act]. 1973: Tomi Ungerers Landleben [TVD]. 1974: Mann und Frau im Gehäuse – Alfred und Gisela Andersch [TVD]; Vati – Ein deutscher Neonfummler in Haiti [TVD]. 1975: Tacambaro. Der deutsche Komponist/Pianist Gerhart Muench in Mexico [TVD]; Hans Knappertsbusch. Ein Porträt post mortem [TVD]; Im schönsten Wiesengrunde [TVD]; Jean Paul – Phantasiestück über ein fränkisches Genie [TVD]. 1976: Der orientalische Schlamminger
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[TVD]; Rollwenzels Bunte Steine [TVD]; Der Tänzer Hans Bosl [TVD]; Der Vogel und der Jäger. Eine Reise mit dem Pantomimen Samy Molcho [TVD]. 1977: Die Bilek. Der Herr Hirnbeiss lebt am Hofbräuhaus [TVD]; Flora Innsbruck Hungerburg. Porträt Paul Flora [TVD] Fräulein Annette Kolb. Porträt einer couragierten Dichterin [TVD]; Lichtenberg. Ein deutscher Farmer in Südwestafrika [TVD]; Das Sindbadspiel des Freiherrn von Rittinger [TVD]; Taxifahrer [TVD]. [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1978: Der echte Liliom. Ein Schaukelburschenleben [TVD]; Fidirallala. Besuch bei Roger Siffer [TVD]; German Town, Jamaica [TVD]; Witwen. Bemerkungen zu einem verdrängten Problem [TVD – dir,scr]; Der Vormund und sein Dichter [TV]. 1979: Ich weiß nicht wer ich bin – Findelkinder [TVD]; Nebenbei hauptsächlich Rösser. Der Bildhauer Fritz Koenig [TVD]; Unterhaltung am Koffer. Karajans Orchesterdiener Heinz Bartlog [TVD]; Wir sind Babylon. Tomi Ungerer und der Horror unserer Welt [TVD]. 1979/80: Herr Kischott [TV]. 1980: Im Haus des Affenmalers Gabriel Max [TVD]; Tim, Rollerskater [TVD]. 1981: Céleste. 1982: Der Kellner [TVD]; Rafael Kubelik – Eine Begegnung [TVD]; Fünf letzte Tage; Fluchtwege eines friedliebenden Mannes – Leonhard Frank [TVD]. 1983: Ein Musikerleben 12 Meter 60. Franz Lachners ‘Lebensrolle’ von Ludwig von Schwind [TVD]; Die Schaukel. 1984/85: Zuckerbaby. 1985: Wolfgang Wagner – Herr der Ringe [TVD]. 1986: Stein in Bamberg [TVD]; Herschel und die Musik der Sterne [TV – AT/DE]. 1987: Out of Rosenheim [dir,co-scr,ide,pro]. 1988/89: Babycakes [TV – sma – US]; Rosalie Goes Shopping [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1990: Red Hot & Blue [TV – GB/US/DE/FR]. 1991: Salmonberries. 1992/93: Younger & Younger [dir,co-scr,pro – DE/US/FR]. 1993: Die Schönheit im Normalen finden – Die inneren Bilder des Percy Adlon [DO – act]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung [TVD – act]; In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon / The Glamorous World of the Hotel Adlon [TV – DE/US]. 1996/97: Eat Your Heart Out / American Shrimps [pro – US/DE]; Mann vor wilder Landschaft. Tomi Ungerer in Irland [DO – DE/US]; Tomi Ungerer – Un diable au paradis [DO – DE/US]. 1997: Maestro In Hollywood. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic [DO – DE/US]. 1998: Ganslberger Jahreszeit. In der Welt von Fritz und Maria Koenig [DO – DE/US]; Zirkus um Zauberflöte [DO – DE/US]. 1999: Mein München. In meiner Heimatstadt, damals und heute [DO – dir,scr,cam, pro – DE/US]. 1999/2000: Die Straußkiste / Forever Flirt [DO – DE/US]. 2000: Getting Ready in Topanga. Goethe – Werther – Eisermann. [DO – DE/US]. 2001: Hawaiian Gardens [DE/US]. 2001/02: Koenig’s Sphere / Koenigs Kugel. Der deutsche Bildhauer Fitz Koenig im Trümmerfeld von Ground Zero [TVD – dir,scr,cam,pro – US/DE]. 2002/03: Musen, Macht und Glamour – Die Welt der Maximilianstraße [TVD – app]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app]. 2007: Orbela’s People [DO – dir,scr,cam,pro, des,cut,mus – US/DE].
MARIO ADORF Born September 8, 1930, Zurich (Switzerland) Heavy-set, gruff-looking and often moustachioed, Adorf has enjoyed a prolific fifty-year career as a character actor in European cinema, often in villainous roles. Half-Italian by birth, Adorf studied in Mainz and Zurich, before gaining employment as an extra and assistant director at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus. He relocated to Munich in 1953, where he enrolled at the Otto Falckenberg acting school and took singing lessons before becoming a member of the troupe at the city’s Kammerspiele from 1954 to 1960. Following his film debut in 08/15 (1954/55), Paul May’s trilogy about life in the Wehrmacht, Adorf went on to win the German Film Award in 1958 for his portrayal of a mentally retarded serial killer in Robert Siodmak’s NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM (The Devil Strikes At Night). Adorf effectively communicated his protagonist’s inner turmoil by contrasting his bulky frame and rough appearance with a sensitive, understated characterisation. Subsequently, Adorf played a Polish stoker in Georg Tressler’s DAS TOTENSCHIFF (Ship of the Dead), a youth gang leader in Gerd Oswald’s AM TAG, ALS DER REGEN KAM (The Day It Rained, both 1959) and a villainous railway boss in Harald Reinl’s Euro-western WINNETOU I (Winnetou the Warrior / Apache Gold, 1963). From the mid-1960s, the actor worked increasingly in Italy, where he appeared in spaghetti westerns, comedies, crime thrillers, and was cast as Mussolini in Florestano Vancini’s IL DELITTO MATTEOTTI (The Assassination of Matteotti, 1973). Adorf has also worked with a number of internationally renowned directors, e.g. on Sam Peckinpah’s MAJOR DUNDEE (1964/65), Billy Wilder’s FEDORA (1977/78), John Frankenheimer’s THE HOLCROFT COVENANT (1984/85) and Claude Chabrol’s JOURS TRANQUILLES À CLICHY (Quiet Days in Clichy, 1989/90). In the 1970s and early 1980s, Adorf contributed to several high profile New German Cinema projects. He had prominent parts in Schlöndorff/von Trotta’s DIE VERLORENE EHRE DER KATHARINA BLUM (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, 1975) and as the hero’s father in Schlöndorff’s DIE BLECHTROMMEL (The Tin Drum, 1978/79), as well as in Rainer W. Fassbinder’s LOLA (1981). Adorf particularly stood out as the blind protagonist of Nikos Perakis’s black comedy BOMBER & PAGANINI (1976). From the early 1980s on, Adorf has worked primarily on stage and in German television, including the award-winning mini-series VIA MALA (1985), DER GROSSE BELLHEIM (The Great Bellheim, 1991/92) and DIE AFFÄRE SEMMELING (The Semmeling Affair, 2000–02). On the big screen, his performance as the owner of an Italian restaurant in Cologne, in
MARIO ADORF
Klaus Emmerich’s PIZZA COLONIA (1990/91), earned the actor a Filmband in Gold best-acting award. A few years later, he had a similar part in Helmut Dietl’s ROSSINI ODER DIE MÖRDERISCHE FRAGE, WER MIT WEM SCHLIEF (Rossini, 1996).
In the 1990s Adorf started publishing volumes of partly autobiographical books: ‘Der Mäusetöter’ (The Mouse-Killer, 1992), ‘Himmel und Erde’ (Heaven and Earth, 2004), ‘Mit einer Nadel bloß’ (Just With a Needle, 2005) and others. Adorf remains a regular presence on German television, and is a frequent guest on chat shows. Among a string of decorations and medals Adorf in 2004 received the Deutsche Filmpreis lifetime award. For Adorf’s 75th birthday Volker Schlöndorff shot a TV version of ENIGMA – EINE UNEINGESTANDENE LIEBE (Enigma – An Unacknowlegded Love, 2005), a two-hander they had previously produced for the stage. [act – DE] 1954: 08/15. 1955: 08/15 – II. Teil; 08/15 in der Heimat. 1956: Termin Julia wird gehalten [TV]; Die Tochter des Brunnenmachers [TV]; Kirschen in Nachbars Garten. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben; Mädchen und Männer / La ragazza della salina / Djevojke i muskarci [DE/ IT/YU]; Die Schwestern [TV]. 1957: Monsignores große Stunde [TV]; Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam; Mammis Wanderjahre [TV]; Der Arzt von Stalingrad. 1958: Schwester Bonaventura [TV]; Das Mädchen Rosemarie; Nachtasyl [TV]. 1959: Das Totenschiff [DE/MX]; Am Tag, als der Regen kam; Bumerang. 1960: Mein Schulfreund; Schachnovelle; Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben [act]. 1960/61: Qui êtes-vous, Monsieur Sorge? / La spia del secolo [FR/IT]. 1961: Le goût de la violence / Haut für Haut / Febbre di rivolta [FR/DE/IT]; A cavallo della tigre [IT]; Rennen [SF – voi]. 1961/62: Karol [TV]. 1962: Lulu [AT]; La leggenda di Fra’ Diavolo [IT]; Straße der Verheißung; Station Six-Sahara / Endstation 13 Sahara [GB/DE]. 1962/63: Die endlose Nacht. 1963: Moral 63; Die zwölf Geschworenen [TV]; La visità / Annonces matrimoniales [IT/FR]; Es war mir ein Vergnügen; Winnetou I / La valle die lunghi coltelli / La révolte des indiens Apaches [DE/IT/FR]. 1963/64: Vorsicht, Mister Dodd!; Der letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz [AT/DE]. 1964: Polizeirevier Davidswache; Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Die Goldsucher von Arkansas / Alla conquista dell’Arkansas / Les chercheurs d’or de l’Arkansas [DE/IT/FR]. 1964/65: Major Dundee [US]; Estambul 65 / Colpo grosso a Galata Bridge / L’Homme d’Instanbul [ES/IT/FR]; Vergeltung in Catano / Tierra de fuego [DE/ES]. 1965: Ten Little Indians [GB]; La guerre secrète / La guerra segreta / Spione unter sich [FR/IT/DE]; Die Herren. EP 1: Die Intellektuellen; La soldatesse / Des filles pour l’armée [IT/ FR]; Io la conoscevo bene / Je la connaissais bien / Ich habe sie gut gekannt [IT/FR/DE]. 1965/66: Ganovenehre. 1966: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [TV]; Operazione San Gennaro / Unser Boß ist eine Dame / Opération San Gennaro [IT/DE/FR]; Una rosa per tutti [IT]; Tendres raquins / Zärtliche Haie [FR/DE/IT]. 1967: Le dolci signore [IT]; Questi fantasmi / Fantômes à l’italienne [IT/
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FR]. 1968: … e per tetto un cielo di stelle [IT]; Engelchen macht weiter – hoppe, hoppe Reiter; Maßnahmen gegen Fanatiker [SF]. 1968/69: Krasnaja palatka / La tenda rossa [SU/IT]. 1969: Il commissario Pepe [IT]; Gli specialisti / Le specialiste / Fahrt zur Hölle, ihr Halunken [IT/FR/DE]; Cran d’arrêt / Il Caso ‘Venere privata’ [FR/IT]; L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo / Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Handschuhe [IT/DE]. 1969/70: Die Herren mit der weißen Weste. 1970: Deadlock. 1970/71: L’arciere di fuoco / El arquero de Sherwood / La grande chevauchée de Robin des Bois [IT/ES/FR]; Un’ anguilla da 300 milioni [IT]. 1971: Milano Calibro 9 [IT]; Malastrana / Chi l’ha vista morire? [DE/IT]; La corta notte delle bambole di verto / Malastrana [IT/DE/YU]. 1971/72: Quando le donne persero la coda / Toll trieben es die alten Germanen [IT/DE]; Herzbube / King, Queen, Knave [DE/US]; Le avventure di Pinocchio / Les Aventures de Pinocchio / Pinocchio [IT/FR/DE]; La polizia ringrazia / Das Syndikat [IT/DE]. 1972: La violenza: quinto potere [IT]; La mala ordina / Der Mafia-Boss – Sie töten wie Schakale [IT/DE]. 1972/73: Sans sommation / Ohne Warnung / Il clan del quartiere Latino [FR/ DE/IT]. 1973: Die Reise nach Wien; Il delitto Matteotti [IT]. 1974: La polizia chiede aiuto [IT]; Processo per direttissima [IT/FR]. 1974/75: La faille / Der 3. Grad / La smagliatura [FR/ DE/IT]. 1975: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum; MitGift; Cuore di cane / Warum bellt Herr Bobikow? [IT/DE]. 1976: Bomber & Paganini [DE/AT]; Gefundenes Fressen; Mein Kind. Lieder von und mit Anja Hauptmann [TV]; Naumachos [TVS – IT]. 1977: Un anno di scuola (Ein Schuljahr) [TV – IT]; Io ho paura [IT]; Der Hauptdarsteller; Tod oder Freiheit. 1977/78: Taugenichts; Deutschland im Herbst; Fedora. 1978/79: Die Blechtrommel / Le tambour [DE/ FR]. 1979: Milo Milo [DE/GR]. 1979/80: L’Empreinte des géants / Giganten der Landstraße [FR/DE]. 1980: The Little World of Don Camillo / Die kleine Welt des Don Camillo [TVS – GB/DE]; Gesucht wird … Drei Geschichten um nicht ganz ehrenwerte Herren [TV]. 1981: La disubbidienza / La désobéissance [IT/FR]; Lola. 1981/82: Invitation au voyage / Invito al viaggio / Nina [FR/IT/DE]; Smiley’s People [TV – GB]. 1982: Les tilleuls de Lautenbach / Die Linden von Lautenbach [TV – FR/DE]; La côte d’amour [FR]; Marco Polo [TV – IT]. 1983: La vigna di uve nera [TV – IT]; State buoni se potete [IT]; Klassenverhältnisse / Rapports de classes [DE/FR]. 1984/85: Coconuts [DE/AT]; Marie Ward – Zwischen Galgen und Glorie; Flucht ohne Ende [TV – AT]; The Holcroft Covenant [GB]. 1984-86: Kir Royal. 1. Wer reinkommt, ist drin [TVS]. 1985: The Second Victory [GB]; Via Mala [TV – DE/FR/IT]. 1985/86: Momo [DE/IT]. 1986: La ragazza dei lillà [IT]; Wiedersehen im Herbst [TV – dir,act]; Mino [TV – CH/DE/ IT]. 1986/87: Des Teufels Paradies; Heimatmuseum [TV]. 1987: Notte italiana [IT]; Vado a riprendermi il gatto [IT]. 1987/88: Rausch der Verwandlung [TV – FR/DE]. 1988: La grande fauche [FR]; Abendstunde im Spätherbst [TV]; Facciaffittasi. 4. Follie. / Gesicht zu vermieten. 4. Verrückt nach Liebe [TVS – IT/DE]; Rosamunde. 1988/89: I ragazzi di via Panisperna / Enrico Fermi – Sein Weg zum Ruhm [IT/DE]; Keine Gondel für die Leiche [TV]; La piovra 4 [TVS – IT]; Francesco / Franziskus [IT/DE]. 1989: La Trappola [TV – IT]; Sauf votre respect [FR]; Maxantimo [CH]; Eppur si muove! / Der Prozeß des Galileo [IT/DE]. 1989/90: Oceano
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FATIH AKIN
[TVS – IT]; Mat’ / La Madre [SU/IT]; Mio caro dottor Gräsler [IT/HU]; Présumé dangereux [FR]; Jours tranquilles à Clichy / Giorni felici a Clichy / Stille Tage in Clichy [FR/IT/DE]. 1990: Café Europa; Giochi di società [IT]. 1990/91: Ex und Hopp [TV]; Money / Money [IT/FR/CA]; Pizza Colonia [DE/IT]. 1990-94: Fantaghirò – La grotta della rosa d’oro (Prinzessin Fantaghiró) [TVS – IT]. 1991: Die KaltenbachPapiere [TV]. 1991/92: Lilli Lottofee [TVS]; Mario Adorf – Von der Eifel in die weite Welt [TVD]; Der große Bellheim [TV]; Le pilote du Rio Verde. [TV – FR]. 1992: Abissinia [TV – IT]. 1992/93: Uomo di rispetto [IT]; König der letzten Tage [TV]; Münster – ein Käfig voller Geschichte [TVD]. 1993: Amigomio [DE/AR]; Bauernschach [TV – AT]; Maus und Katz [TV]. 1993/94: Felidae [ANI – voi]; Inside the Vatican / Weltmacht Vatikan [TV – CA/GB/DE]; Missus [TV – FR/IT]. 1994: Höchstpersönlich: Mario Adorf [TV]; Ein Freund, ein guter Freund. Heinz Rühmann 1902–1994 [TV]. 1994/ 95: Der Schattenmann [TV]; Il Piccolo Lord / Der kleine Lord [TV – IT/DE]. 1995: Kommissar Klefisch: Vorbei ist vorbei [TV]. 1996: Schwarzmüller [AT]; Alles nur Tarnung; Tresko – Der Maulwurf [TV – act,sma]; Tresko – Im Visier der Drogenmafia [TV – act,sma]; Tresko – Amigo-Affäre [TV – act,sma – DE/FR]; Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief; Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee / Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne / Smilla’s Sense of Snow [DE/DK/SE]. 1997: La quindicesima epistola [TV – IT]; Alles für die Mafia [TV – AT]. 1998: Caraibi / Die Piraten der Karibik [TV – IT/DE]. 1998/99: Ama il tuo nemico [TV – IT/ DE]; Majestät brauchen Sonne [DO – voi – DE/NL]. 1999: Comeback für Freddy Baker [TV]. 1999/2000: Ein Mann für jedes Alter [TVD]. 2000: Vola sciusciù / The Savior of San Nicola / Der Held von Apulien [TV – IT/US/DE]; Gioco di specchi [TV – IT]; Il Ritorno del piccolo lord / Der kleine Lord – Retter in der Not [TV – IT/DE]. 2000-02: Die Affäre Semmeling [TV]. 2001: Geiger, Gaukler, Gentleman – Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD]; Epsteins Nacht [DE/CH/AT]. 2002: Die Nibelungen [TV]; Abgeschminkt: Mario Adorf [TVD]. 2002/03: Die Verhoevens [TVD]; Die Jungen von der Paulstraße / I ragazzi della via Pál [TV – AT/IT]. 2003: Gero von Boehm begegnet: Mario Adorf [TV]; Till Eulenspiegel / Tijl Uilenspiegel [ANI – voi – DE/BE]; Die schnelle Gerdi und die Hauptstadt [TVS]. 2003-05: Vera – Die Frau des Sizilianers [TV]. 2004/05: Kanzleramt [TVS]. 2005: Jennifer Nitsch – Tod einer Schauspielerin [TV]; Enigma – eine uneingestandene Liebe [TV – co-scr,act]; Es ist ein Elch entsprungen. 2006: Giganten: Karol Wojtyla – Geheimnisse eines Papstes [TV]. 2006/07: Rosa Roth: Der Tag wird kommen [TV]; Die rote Zora. 2007: Kleiner Dodo [ANI – voi]; Mein Leben – Mario Adorf [TVD]. 2007/08: Rebecca Ryman: Wer Liebe verspricht [TV]; Botero – Geboren in Medellin [DO – voi]. 2008/09: Gesang der Wale [TV].
FATIH AKIN Born August 25, 1973, Hamburg-Altona (West Germany) A key figure in post-reunification German cinema, Akin’s films are characterised by emotive, actor-centred narratives and a fast-paced fusion of Hollywood genre conventions and European art cinema.
Born to a factory worker father and a primary school teacher mother who emigrated from Turkey to Hamburg in the late 1960s, Akin gained his Abitur at age twenty-one, and completed a degree in visual communications at Hamburg’s College of Fine Arts in 2001. He directed two highly praised shorts: SENSIN – DU BIST ES! (Sensin … You’re the One!, 1995), a rumination on love and shattered illusions in which he plays a young Turk with a penchant for Robert De Niro, hunting for his perfect woman in a St. Pauli bar; and GETÜRKT (Weed, 1996/97), an ironic drug-comedy film again featuring Akin in the lead role, and set at a Turkish Black Sea resort. While still at school, he wrote the script to his first feature, KURZ UND SCHMERZLOS (Short Sharp Shock, 1997/98), which he offered to producer Ralph Schwingel of Wüste-Film, thereby inaugurating a long-term working relationship between the two. The film was a heady blend of German urban drama and Hollywood gangster film set in Hamburg and influenced by Akin’s own experiences and the works of his idol Martin Scorsese. The film details the ultimately tragic exploits of three young friends drifting between petty crime and involvement with the local Albanian mafia, and was singled out by critics both for its realist, near-vérité aesthetic, and the fact that it is a gripping action picture in which multiculturalism is featured as a natural aspect of modern urban life in Germany. Akin’s subsequent features picked up numerous national and international awards and confirmed him as one of the most important filmmaking talents to emerge since the 1990s. IM JULI (In July, 1999/2000) was a feel-good road movie about two twenty-somethings whose quest for love takes them on a sundrenched odyssey across Europe to Turkey. SOLINO (2002), a German-Italian co-production chronicled the experiences of a family of first generation Italian guest-workers in Germany’s Ruhr region in the 1960s. The erotically charged melodrama GEGEN DIE WAND (Head-On, 2003) about a raw and self-destructive love affair highlighted the emotional and lifestyle conflicts of second and third generation Turkish migrants in Germany, and provided an acting tour de force for its two principal stars, Birol Ünel and Sibel Kekilli. In 2004 it won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the European Film Award. The film was co-produced by Akin’s own company Corazón International that he founded in Hamburg in 2003. Akin subsequently contributed an episode to the short film anthology VISIONS OF EUROPE (2004), and made a well-received documentary about contemporary urban Turkish music, CROSSING THE BRIDGE: THE SOUND OF ISTANBUL (2004/05). Apart from directing and writing his own films, Akin has had cameo parts in several of his films, while also con-
HANS ALBERS
tributing to other film-makers’ productions, including lending his voice to Oliver Hirschbiegel’s DAS EXPERIMENT (2000), appearing in the Turkish comedy HIRSIZ VAR! (Robbery Alla Turca, 2004) and producing Özgür Yildirim’s gangster drama CHICO (2007/08). For the mournful transnational drama AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE (The Edge of Heaven, 2007) – the second part of his ‘Love, Death & Devil’ trilogy – Akin won the award for best script at Cannes as well as a European Film Award and was – with four Lolas (Best Film, Best Direction, Best Script, Best Editing) – the big winner at the 2008 German Film Awards. [act – DE] 1993: Stadtklinik [TVS – 1 episode]. 1995: Sensin – Du bist es! [SF – dir,scr,act]; SK-Babies [TVS – episode 10]. 1996: Einsatz Hamburg Süd [TVS – episode 1]. 1996/97: Getürkt [SF – dir,scr,act]. 1997: Überleben in der Großstadt [SF]; Back in Trouble [TV – LU/DE]; Trickser [TV]. 1997/98: Kurz und schmerzlos [dir,scr,act]. 1998: Der letzte Flug [SF]; Die Rosenfalle [SF]. 1999: Kismet. 1999/2000: Im Juli [dir,scr,act]. 2000: ‘Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren’ Die Türkendeutschen in Hamburg [DO – dir,scr]; Das Experiment [voi]. 2000/01: Ein göttlicher Job. 2001: DiggerDance: Digger Is a Dancer; Die Liebenden vom Hotel Osman [SF]; Wie Zucker im Tee [TVD – app]; Planet der Kannibalen. 2002: Solino [dir]. 2003: Durch die Nacht mit … Fatih Akin und Thea Dorn [TVD – app]; Gegen die Wand [dir,scr,act,co-pro]; Ein krasser Deal [TV]. 2004: Visions of Europe. 25 Directors – 25 Countries: Die bösen alten Lieder [SF – dir,scr,pro]; Kebab Connection [co-scr]; Hirsiz var! [TR]. 2004/05: Crossing the Bridge – The Sounds of Istanbul [DO – dir,scr,pro]. 2005: Durch die Nacht mit … Moritz Bleibtreu und Oliver Pocher [TVD – app]. 2006: Takva / Takva – Gottesfurcht [co-pro – TR/DE]. 2007: Auf der anderen Seite / Yasamin kiyisinda [dir, scr,pro – DE/TR]; Fatih Akin – Tagebuch eines Filmreisenden [TVD – app,pro]; Mein Leben – Fatih Akin [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Chiko [pro]. 2008: Ballhaus Klimaschutz-Initiative – Turquoise [SF – voi]; New York, I Love You: Chinatown [1 episode – dir,scr]; 1 1/2 Ritter – Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde; Deutschland 09. 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation [episode 3 – dir,scr]. 2008/ 09: Garbage in the Garden of Eden [DO – dir,scr,pro]; Mamarosh [co-pro – DE/YU]; Soul Kitchen [dir,scr,pro].
HANS ALBERS (Hans Philipp August Albers) Born September 22, 1891, Hamburg-St. Georg (Germany) Died July 24, 1960, Munich (West Germany) Affectionately referred to simply as ‘Blonder Hans’, blue-eyed and dashing Albers is an enduring icon of German stage, screen and song, whose films and recordings from the 1930s and 1940s remain popular favourites to this day. Albers failed to complete either his high school education or a commercial apprenticeship, and worked
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as a clerk for a silk merchant in Frankfurt/Main before starting acting lessons. In 1916, following his first theatrical engagements, he was drafted to serve in World War I. After the war, during which he was twice seriously wounded, Albers appeared at numerous theatres as an actor, singer, dancer, comedian and performer. His first serious part came in Ferdinand Bruckner’s ‘Verbrecher’ (The Criminals) at Deutsches Theater in 1928. His first starring role followed in the 1931 production of Franz Molnar’s ‘Liliom’ at the Volksbühne. Starting in 1917, Albers had numerous minor parts as felons, pimps, rakish lovers and other ne’er-do-wells in silent films. With the advent of sound, however, the actor’s unaffected and often mumbling manner of speaking allowed him to better showcase his expressive talents. Following a supporting role in Josef von Sternberg’s DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/ 30), Ufa producer Erich Pommer promoted Albers as a daredevil star in roles such as Captain Craddock alongside Heinz Rühmann in Hanns Schwarz’s BOMBEN AUF MONTE CARLO (Bombs Over Monte Carlo, 1931) and as a flying ace in Karl Hartl’s F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer, 1932). Although these films were shot as multilingual versions Albers, lacking international star status, acted only in the German versions. After the Nazis’ rise to power, Albers’s heroes took on Führer-like traits in propagandist films such as Gustav Ucicky’s FLÜCHTLINGE (Fugitives, 1933) and Herbert Selpin’s CARL PETERS (1940/41). However, such roles were the exception – Albers generally distanced himself from the regime, and refused to divorce his Jewish wife, actress Hansi Burg (1898– 1975), who survived the war in British exile. Albers’s on-screen persona during this time was usually that of the traditional – if occasionally downcast and often self-deprecating – adventurer in box-office hits of various genres, including Karl Hartl’s detective spoof DER MANN, DER SHERLOCK HOLMES WAR (The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes, 1937), Herbert Selpin’s western WASSER FÜR CANITOGA (Water for Canitoga, 1938/39), Josef von Baky’s extravagant fantasy MÜNCHHAUSEN (Baron Munchhausen, 1942/43) and as a disillusioned sailor in Helmut Käutner’s portrait of Hamburg’s harbour and redlight district St. Pauli in GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (Great Freedom No. 7, 1943/44). Albers’s post-war film roles most often found him cast as melancholy father figures such as the industrial magnate in Gottfried Reinhardt’s Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation VOR SONNENUNTERGANG (Before Sundown, 1956) or an elderly diver in Eugen York’s DER MANN IM STROM (Man in the Current, 1958). Albers’s popularity and reputation as an actor and one-of-a-kind singer of melancholy shanties and sen-
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timental ballads, continued to grow after his death, with the city of Hamburg providing a memorial for its famous son by naming a square in St. Pauli after him. [act – DE] 1915: Jahreszeiten des Lebens. 1917: Rauschgold; Die Tochter der Gräfin Stachowska; Halkas Gelöbnis; Baroneßchen auf Strafurlaub. 1917/18: Die Dreizehn; Das Spitzentuch der Fürstin Wolkowska. 1918: Das alte Bild; Am Scheidewege; Das Lied der Colombine; Irrwege der Liebe; Liebe und Leben. 1. Die Seele des Kindes [act(?)]; Das Licht des Lebens; Leuchtende Punkte; Sadja; Der Mut zur Sünde; Der Fluch des Nuri. 1918/19: Die Tochter des Bajazzo; Lola Montez. 2. Am Hofe Ludwig I. von Bayern. 1919: Das Tor der Freiheit [act(?)]; Der Fürst der Nacht; Die Prinzessin von Urbino; Aus eines Mannes Mädchenjahren [act(?)]; Madeleine; Das Grand Hotel Babylon; Die Marquise von O. 1919/20: Die 999. Nacht; Die Schlange mit dem Mädchenkopf. 1920: Falschspieler. Die Tragödie eines Entgleisten; Berlin W; Schieber; Taschendiebe; Die Kronjuwelen des Herzogs von Rochester. 1920/21: Die große und die kleine Welt. 1921: Der Schuß aus dem Fenster; Söhne der Nacht. 1. Die Verbrecher-GmbH / 2. Die Macht der Liebe; Der schwere Junge. 1921/22: Menschenopfer. 1922: Das Testament des Ive Sievers; Der böse Geist Lumpaci Vagabundus; Versunkene Welten; Lyda Ssanin; Der falsche Dimitry. Ein Zarenschicksal. 1922/23: Irene d’Or; Inge Larsen. 1923: Die letzte Sensation des Zirkus Farini; Fräulein Raffke. 1924: Gehetzte Menschen; Auf Befehl der Pompadour. Ein historisches Filmspiel im modernen Rahmen; Guillotine; Das schöne Abenteuer. 1924/25: Athleten; Die Venus vom Montmartre; Ein Sommernachtstraum. 1925: Luxusweibchen; Der König und die kleinen Mädchen; Das Mädchen mit der Protektion; Vorderhaus und Hinterhaus; Halbseide; Mein Freund, der Chauffeur; Die Gesunkenen; Der Mann aus dem Jenseits. Feldgrau; Der Bankkrach Unter den Linden. 1925/26: Deutsche Herzen am deutschen Rhein. 1926: Der Prinz und die Tänzerin; An der schönen blauen Donau; Wir sind vom k.u.k. Infanterie-Regiment; Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden; Die drei Mannequins (Die drei Probiermamsells); Jagd auf Menschen; Es blasen die Trompeten; Der Soldat der Marie; Küssen ist keine Sünd’ / Die letzte Einquartierung; Die Warenhausprinzessin; Nur eine Tänzerin / Bara en danserska [DE/SE]; Eine Dubarry von heute; Die versunkene Flotte; Schatz, mach’ Kasse; Der lachende Ehemann; Die Frau, die nicht ‘Nein’ sagen kann; Nixchen; Die Villa im Tiergarten; Die Sporck’schen Jäger [act(?)]. 1926/27: Rinaldo Rinaldini. Abenteuer eines Heimgekehrten. 1927: Üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit; Primanerliebe; Der größte Gauner des Jahrhunderts; Der goldene Abgrund. Schiffbrüchige des Lebens / Rapa-Nui [DE/FR]; Die glühende Gasse; En perfekt gentleman [SE]; Die Dollarprinzessin und ihre sechs Freier. Die Schicksalsnacht eines Telephonmädels; Eine kleine Freundin braucht ein jeder Mann; Es zogen drei Burschen … 1927/28: Wer das Scheiden hat erfunden. 1928: Frauenarzt Dr. Schäfer; O Jugend, wie bist du so schön; Saxophon-Susi; Herr Meister und Frau Meisterin. Ehret Eure deutschen Meister; Prinzessin Olala; Ein Tag Film [SF]; Rasputins Liebesabenteuer; Heut’ war ich bei
der Frieda; Weib in Flammen; Dornenweg einer Fürstin; Der rote Kreis. 1928/29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse; Mascottchen; Möblierte Zimmer. Der sturmfreie Junggeselle. 1929: Die Schleiertänzerin / Le meneur de joies [DE/FR]; Vererbte Triebe. Der Kampf ums neue Geschlecht; Ja, ja, die Frau’n sind meine schwache Seite; Teure Heimat; Heilige oder Dirne. Nebenbuhlerinnen; Die Nacht gehört uns [MLV]. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Der Greifer [MLV – GB/DE]; Hans in allen Gassen [MLV]. 1930/31: Drei Tage Liebe. 1931: Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV]; Der Draufgänger. 1931/32: Der Sieger [MLV]. 1932: Quick [German MLV]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; F.P.1 antwortet nicht [MLV]. 1932/1933: Heut kommt’s drauf an. 1933: Ein gewisser Herr Gran [MLV]; Flüchtlinge [MLV]. 1933/34: Gold [MLV]. 1934: Peer Gynt. 1934/35: Varieté [MLV – DE/FR]. 1935: Henker, Frauen und Soldaten. 1936: Savoy-Hotel 217; Unter heißem Himmel. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war; Die gelbe Flagge. 1937/38: Fahrendes Volk [MLV – FR/DE]. 1938: Sergeant Berry; Der Trichter bringt Allerlei aus aller Welt [SF]. 1938/39: Wasser für Canitoga. 1939/40: Ein Mann auf Abwegen. 1940: Trenck, der Pandur. 1940/41: Carl Peters. 1942/43: Münchhausen. 1943/44: Große Freiheit Nr. 7. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume [DE (CS) – unfinished]. 1947: … und über uns der Himmel. 1950: Föhn [DE/CH]; Vom Teufel gejagt. 1951: Blaubart [MLV – FR/CH/DE]; Nachts auf den Straßen. 1952/53: Käpt’n BayBay. 1953: Jonny rettet Nebrador. 1954: Hoppla, jetzt komm ich! [TVD]; An jedem Finger zehn; Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins. 1955: Der letzte Mann. 1956: I fidanzati della morte (Die Verlobten des Todes) [IT/DE]; Vor Sonnenuntergang. 1957: Der tolle Bomberg; Das Herz von St. Pauli. 1957/58: Das gab’s nur einmal [DO – act]; Der Greifer. 1958: Der Mann im Strom; Dreizehn alte Esel [act,lyr]. 1959/60: Kein Engel ist so rein. 1988/89: In meinem Herzen, Schatz … [DO – act]. 1991: Hoppla, jetzt komm ich. Hans Albers, ein Idol wird 100 [TVD]. 2005: Legenden – Hans Albers [TVD].
PETER ALEXANDER (Peter Alexander Neumayer) Born June 30, 1926, Vienna (Austria) From the 1950s through to the 1990s Alexander was one of the biggest German-speaking stars in light entertainment. As a singer he covered pop, musical, swing, and operetta, in films he was cast as a comedian and romantic lead, while on television he hosted phenomenally successful TV variety shows. The son of a banker, Alexander started his musical career at the age of five by joining the Wiener Sängerknaben, the renowned Viennese Boys’ Choir. During World War II, he was drafted into the army in 1944, and was captured by the British forces. After the war he briefly studied medicine, before attending the Max Reinhardt acting school. He subsequently began his stage career at the Vienna Burgtheater and other theatres. In 1951, he recorded his first hit
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song ‘Das machen nur die Beine von Dolores’ (That’s What Dolores’ Legs Do To Me) and in 1953 he won a singing competition in Munich with ‘La bella Musika’. Alexander’s film debut was in a supporting role in the Austrian revue film VERLORENE MELODIE (Lost Melody, 1952), followed by other minor appearances in West German and Austrian productions. His increasing popularity as a recording artist led to starring roles in the revue films LIEBE, TANZ UND 1000 SCHLAGER (Love, Dance, and 1000 Hits, 1955) and BONJOUR, KATHRIN (1955/56), where he was partnered with singer Catherina Valente. Over the next decade the two, together and separately, would dominate light entertainment cinema in West Germany and Austria. Quickly, Alexander’s films settled into a fixed narrative formula, executed by a team of regular collaborators. Apart from Valente, other female co-stars included Bibi Johns and Germaine Damar, while the comedians Georg Thomalla and Gunther Phillip frequently provided the slapstick foil to Alexander’s more strait-laced boy-next-door persona. Veteran filmmakers Geza von Cziffra and Paul Martin directed and wrote several of Alexander’s vehicles. Apart from pop musicals and revue films, Alexander’s films included versions of established operettas such as IM WEISSEN RÖSSL (White Horse Inn, 1960) and DIE FLEDERMAUS (The Bat, 1961/62) as well as remakes of comedy classics, such as the cross-dressing farce CHARLEYS TANTE (Charley’s Aunt, 1963). Cross-dressing was also a frequent device in a series of comedies featuring the playboy aristocrat Count Bobby, beginning with DIE ABENTEUER DES GRAFEN BOBBY (The Adventures of Count Bobby, 1960/61). A later entry, GRAF BOBBY, DER SCHRECKEN DES WILDEN WESTENS (Count Bobby, the Terror of the Wild West, 1965) was a western spoof. Following his last big screen appearance in HAUPTSACHE FERIEN (Holidays Are Our Priority, 1972), Alexander concentrated on television and his singing career, regularly touring West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. From the 1970s through to the mid-1990s, he hosted a series of variety shows on television, most notably DIE PETER ALEXANDER SHOW. Semi-retired since his last TV show in 1995, after the death of his wife in 2003 he announced his complete withdrawal from public appearances. [act – DE] 1952: Verlorene Melodie [AT]; Königin der Arena. 1953: Die süßesten Früchte. 1954: Rosen aus dem Süden; Große Star-Parade [act,sng]; Verliebter Sommer [AT]. 1955: Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlager. 1955/56: Bonjour, Kathrin. 1956: Kirschen in Nachbars Garten; Musikparade; Ein Mann muß nicht immer schön sein. 1957: Das haut hin; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut [act,sng]; Die Beine von Dolores. 1958: Münchhausen in Afrika; Wehe, wenn sie
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losgelassen; So ein Millionär hat’s schwer [AT]. 1958/59: Schlag auf Schlag. 1959: Peter schießt den Vogel ab; Ich bin kein Casanova [AT]; Salem aleikum. 1960: Ich zähle täglich meine Sorgen; Kriminaltango [AT]; Im weißen Rößl [AT/DE]. 1960/61: Die Abenteuer des Grafen Bobby [AT]. 1961: Saison in Salzburg [AT]. 1961/62: Die Fledermaus [AT]. 1962: Das süße Leben des Grafen Bobby [AT]; Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies [AT]; Die lustige Witwe / La veuve joyeuse [AT/FR]. 1963: Der Musterknabe [AT]; Charleys Tante [AT]; Schwejks Flegeljahre [AT]. 1964: Hilfe, meine Braut klaut [AT/DE]. 1964/65: Und sowas muß um acht ins Bett [DE/AT]. 1965: Das Liebeskarussell [AT]; Graf Bobby, der Schrecken des Wilden Westens [AT]. 1966: Bel Ami 2000 oder: Wie verführt man einen Playboy? / 100 ragazze per un playboy [AT/IT]. 1967: Zwischenstationen: Peter Alexander [TVD]. 1968: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 2. Teil: Zum Teufel mit der Penne. 1969: Wien nach Noten [TV]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 4. Teil: Hurra, die Schule brennt. [act,sng – TV – DE/AT] 1969-78: Peter Alexander präsentiert Spezialitäten [12 shows]. 1972: Hauptsache Ferien [FF – DE]. 1973: Peter Alexander – Ein Abend, ein Mann und seine Musik; Peter Alexanders Wunschkonzert. 1975: Die kleinen Engel von Korea [DE]; Treffpunkt Herz [DE]. 1976: Peter Alexander. Ein Konzert mit Johannes Fehring und seinem Orchester; Peter Alexander präsentiert Walt Disneys Welt. 1977: Peter Alexanders Wiener G’schichten. 1977-80: Musik ist Trumpf [4 shows]. 1979-86 Peter Alexander: Wir gratulieren [8 shows]. 1980: Peter Alexander: Danke, Robert Stolz! 1981: Schlager, die man nicht vergißt [DE]. 1983: 25 Jahre Wiener Stadthalle; Lieder sind die besten Freunde; Die Super-Hitparade [DE]. 1984: Peter Alexander. Ein Konzert aus der Dortmunder Westfalenhalle; Musik liegt in der Luft [DE]. 1985: Peter Alexander präsentiert Spezialitäten. 1986: Und die Musik spielt dazu. 1987: Groß hilft klein [DE]. 1987-93: Seinerzeit [5 shows – AT]. 1987-95: Die Peter Alexander-Show [6 shows]. 1988: Melodien für Millionen [DE]; Nase vorn. 1990: Peter Alexander: Ein Herz für Berlin. 1991: Das tu’ ich alles aus Liebe [TVD – AT]; ARD-Wunschkonzert [DE]. 1993: Die Fledermaus [AT]. 1996: Was sind schon 70 Jahre [AT]. 1998: Lebenskünstler. 2006: Der Mann, der Peter Alexander war [TVD].
EMILIE ALTENLOH Born July 30, 1888, Altenloh near Vörde (Germany) Died February 22, 1985, Hamburg-Hochkamp (West Germany) Altenloh was one of the pioneers in the academic study of film. Her 1913 doctoral dissertation on cinema audiences was one of the first sociological engagements with the medium, and one of the first major texts written about film by a woman. It remains an important document for understanding the structure and preferences of pre-World War I cinema in Germany. Altenloh studied economics and law at universities in Heidelberg, Munich, Kiel, and Vienna, before starting
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BETTY AMANN
her doctoral candidature under the supervision of Alfred Weber in Heidelberg, who supported her choice to study the social impact of cinema. Altenloh conducted her empirical research by visiting production companies in France and by drawing on information, gained through interviews and questionnaires from cinemagoers in the medium-sized towns of Heidelberg and Mannheim. In her thesis, Altenloh combined a solid understanding of the production processes and industrial practices within the film industry with a detailed stratification of audience patterns according to factors such as age, gender, and social status. One of her major conclusions was that at the time of her research cinema had reached all levels of society, albeit with certain variations. Unlike later sociological studies, her dissertation also addressed the aesthetic properties of the medium. She successfully defended her thesis under the title ‘Zur Soziologie des Kino. Die Kino-Unternehmung und die sozialen Schichten ihrer Besucher’ (A Sociology of Cinema. The Cinema Industry and the Social Classes of Film Audiences). Subsequently she only commented once more on film in a 1913 article for the journal ‘Bild und Film’ in which she provided a sociological explanation why cinema had superseded the theatre as the most favoured form of entertainment for the masses. Altenloh later became a social reformer and entered politics. In the early 1930s she was briefly a MP in the Reichstag in Berlin before seeking another degree in natural sciences. After World War II, she was one of the founding members of the liberal FDP (Free Democratic Party) in Hamburg. Over the next decades she held a range of political positions, and sat in the West German parliament in the early 1960s. In 1972 she was appointed Honorary Chairman of Hamburg’s FDP. Largely overlooked for decades, Altenloh’s doctoral thesis had a renaissance in film academia since the 1970s. Feminist film historian Heide Schlüpmann acknowledged Altenloh’s influence in her 1990 study of Wilhelmine cinema, ‘Die Unheimlichkeit des Blicks’ (The Uncanny Gaze, 1990), and in 2001 the film journal ‘Screen’ was the first to publish an English translation of a portion of Altenloh’s study.
BETTY AMANN Born March 10, 1905, Pirmasens (Germany) Died August 3, 1990, Westport (Connecticut, USA) Primarily remembered for her dynamic performance as a femme fatale in Joe May’s big city melodrama ASPHALT (1928/29), Amann’s career started and ended in Hollywood B-pictures. The daughter of German-American parents, Amann grew up in the United States, where she started out playing small parts on the New York stage. Initially
billed as Bee Amann, she made her film debut in the college romance THE KICK OFF (1926), before appearing in the western THE TRAIL OF THE HORSE THIEVES (1928). In 1928, she was cast by producer Erich Pommer and director Joe May as the female lead of the Ufa production ASPHALT, playing a jewel thief who seduces a naive policeman (Gustav Fröhlich) before falling in love with him. In one famous scene of the film, she attacks him like a cat, clinging to her prey with arms and legs. Amann’s assertive demeanour and aggressive sexuality, as well as her expressive eyes and fashionably bobbed haircut, were a revelation, but led to her being typecast as vamps and ‘fallen women’. Subsequently she starred opposite Russian screen idol Ivan Mosjoukine in the historical adventure DER WEISSE TEUFEL (The White Devil, 1929), seduced rising German star Hans Albers in HANS IN ALLEN GASSEN (Hans in Every Street, 1930), and played a millionaire’s daughter in the Old Heidelberg student romance O ALTE BURSCHENHERRLICHKEIT (How Wonderful It Was To Be a Student, 1930). From 1931 to 1933 Amann appeared in a number of British films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s black comedy RICH AND STRANGE (1931), in which she played a con artist pretending to be a princess. Her last German production was SCHLEPPZUG M 17 (Tugboat M 17, 1932/33), in which she portrayed a thief and prostitute who seduces a married man. In 1933, Amann left Germany for Britain, and later moved to the United States. In Hollywood, she only appeared in a few more films, such as the Hopalong Cassidy western IN OLD MEXICO (1938), and in a supporting role in the mystery NANCY DREW … REPORTER (1939). Her final role was in Edgar Ulmer’s ISLE OF FORGOTTEN SINS (1942/43), playing a prostitute in a dock-side dive. Married to a lawyer, she retired from the screen soon after that. [act – DE] 1926: The Kick-Off [US]. 1928: The Trail of the Horse Thieves [US]. 1928/29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse. 1929: Der Sträfling aus Stambul; Der weiße Teufel. 1930: Die große Sehnsucht; O alte Burschenherrlichkeit; Niebezpieczny romans [PL]; Hans in allen Gassen [MLV]. 1930/31: Das Lied der Nationen [MLV – FR]. 1931: The Perfect Lady [GB]; Rich and Strange [GB]; Strictly Business [GB]. 1932: Pyjamas Preferred [GB]; Der große Bluff [MLV]. 1932/33: Daughters of Today [GB]; Die kleine Schwindlerin; Schleppzug M 17. 1933: Strictly in Confidence [GB]. 1938: In Old Mexico [US]. 1939: Nancy Drew … Reporter [US]. 1942/43: Isle of Forgotten Sins [US].
GÜNTHER ANDERS GÜNTHER ANDERS Born November 8, 1908, Berlin (Germany) Died September 16, 1977, Munich (West Germany) One of German cinema’s foremost cinematographers, Anders’s precise, meticulous style was featured in numerous major productions from the 1930s to the 1960s. The son of the head of Ufa’s financial division, Anders was effectively born into the film industry, and appeared as a child actor alongside Reinhold Schünzel around 1918. In 1922 he began an apprenticeship in Ufa’s photographic section, while also working as a lighting technician. After further training at Munich’s State College of Photography he was placed under the tutelage of cameraman Carl Hoffmann, who hired him as regular assistant on Fritz Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungs, 1922–24). Anders also served as camera assistant to Karl Freund on E. A. Dupont’s VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925) and Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/26); Rudolf Maté, on Carl Dreyer’s LA PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928); Eugen Schüfftan, on Lupu Pick’s GASSENHAUER (Street Singers, 1930/31); and Franz Planer. In 1934, when Hoffmann turned to directing, Anders was promoted to the position of director of photography, and went on to photograph numerous productions, including his personal favourite, Veit Harlan’s DER HERRSCHER (The Ruler, 1936/37). In the late 1930s and early 1940s he collaborated most frequently with directors Karl Ritter and Gustav Ucicky. Anders relocated to Vienna in 1941, where he lived and worked almost exclusively until 1951. Anders’s first post-war credit was Harald Braun’s ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND MORGEN (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1947). In the 1950s he worked on several films directed by Kurt Hoffmann, the son of his former mentor, including the box-office hit DAS SPUKSCHLOSS IM SPESSART (The Haunted Castle, 1960). For DAS GLAS WASSER (A Glass of Water, 1960), he received both the Filmband in Gold and the West German Critics’ Award. Anders furthermore photographed Gustaf Gründgens’s celebrated stage production of FAUST (1960) and directed a number of documentaries and ballet films before retiring in the mid-1960s. His wife was costume designer Charlotte Flemming (1920–1993). [ass-cam – DE] 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1925: Varieté. 1925/26: Metropolis. 1928: La Passion de Jeanne D’Arc [FR]. 1930/31: Gassenhauer [MLV]; Der falsche Ehemann; Les quatres vagabonds [MLV]. 1931: Yorck. 1931/32: Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV]; La fille et le garçon [MLV]. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; La guerre des valses [MLV]; Inge und die Millionen.
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1933/34: Ich bin Du [SF]. 1934: Die Czardasfürstin [MLV]; Peer Gynt. [cam – DE] 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna [co-cam]; Das Einmaleins der Liebe; Der mutige Seefahrer; Viktoria. Die Geschichte einer Liebe; Die lustigen Weiber. 1935/36: Besserer Herr sucht Anschluß [SF]; Die letzten Grüße von Marie [SF]; Trau – schau – wem [SF]. 1936: Im Trommelfeuer der Westfront; Die Hochzeitsreise [SF]; Stradivaris Schülergeige [SF]; Bezirksvertreter gesucht [SF]; Fünf Personen suchen Anschluß [SF]; Die Lokomotivenbraut [SF]; Der Schauspieldirektor [SF]; Verräter [co-cam]; Heiratsbüro Fortuna [SF]; Susanne im Bade. 1936/37: Sein bester Freund [co-cam]; Der Herrscher [co-cam]. 1937: Patrioten; Mein Sohn, der Herr Minister; Unternehmen Michael; Brillanten; Pension Elise Nottebohm [SF]; Urlaub auf Ehrenwort. 1938: Capriccio; Un fichu métier; Pour le Mérite. 1938/39: Castelli in aria [MLV – IT]; Ins blaue Leben [MLV – IT]; Die Hochzeitsreise. 1939: Legion Condor; Barbara, wo bist Du? [SF]; Tee zu zweien [SF]; Der Weg zu Isabel [co-cam]. 1939/40: Das Mädchen von Saint Coeur [SF]; Bal paré. Münchner G’schichten. 1939/41: Kadetten. 1940: Wunschkonzert [co-cam]. 1941: Heimkehr. 1941/42: Hochzeit auf Bärenhof. 1942: Wen die Götter lieben. Mozart. 1942/43: Das Ferienkind. 1943/44: Am Ende der Welt; Schrammeln. 1944: Der gebieterische Ruf; Das Herz muß schweigen. 1944/45: Das Leben geht weiter; Ulli und Marei [co-cam]. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen. 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune [AT]; Fregola [co-cam – AT]; Das Kuckucksei [AT]. 1949: Der Kaiserdom zu Graz [SD – dir,cam]; [AT]. 1949/50: The Wonder Kid [co-cam – GB]. 1950: Erzherzog Johanns große Liebe [AT]. 1950/51: Das Tor zum Frieden [AT]. 1951: Wien tanzt [co-cam – AT/LI]; Der Weibsteufel [co-cam – AT]; Der blaue Stern des Südens [AT]. 1952: Ich hab’ mich so an Dich gewöhnt [AT]; Bis wir uns wiederseh’n; Im weissen Rössl. 1953: Ich und meine Frau [AT]; Liebeskrieg nach Noten. 1953/54: Meines Vaters Pferde. 1. Lena und Nicoline / 2. Seine dritte Frau [co-cam]. 1954: Kabarett / Dieses Lied bleibt bei dir; Feuerwerk; Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr. 1954/55: Der letzte Akt [AT]. 1955: Die Toteninsel; Ein Herz voll Musik; Die Barrings; Dunja [AT]. 1955/56: Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe [AT]. 1956: Fuhrmann Henschel [AT]; Lügen haben hübsche Beine [AT]; Heute heiratet mein Mann; Kaiserjäger [AT]. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben. 1957: Die unentschuldigte Stunde [AT]; Die Heilige und ihr Narr [AT]; Wien, Du Stadt meiner Träume [AT]. 1958: Herz ohne Gnade; Man müßte noch mal 20 sein [AT]; Stefanie; Ein gewisser Judas [TV]; Der Priester und das Mädchen [co-cam – AT]. 1958/59: Geliebte Bestie [AT]. 1959: Das schöne Abenteuer. 1959/60: Der liebe Augustin. 1960: Das Glas Wasser; Faust; Das Spukschloß im Spessart; Gustav Adolfs Page [AT]. 1960/61: Geliebte Hochstaplerin. 1961: Frau Cheneys Ende; Der Lügner. 1962/63: Miracle of the White Stallions [US]; Disneyland: The Waltz King [TV – US]. 1963: Ein fast anständiges Mädchen / Una chica casi formal [DE/ES]; Das Haus in Montevideo. 1964: Die Sanfte [TV]; Othello, der Mohr in Wien [TV – AT]. 1965: Der Nachfolger [TV – dir,cam – AT]; Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind [TV – dir,cam – AT]; Lumpazivagabundus [AT/ DE]. 1966: König Ottokars Glück und Ende [TV – co-cam –
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AT]. 1966/67: Schwanensee [TV]. 1967: Lipizzaner [DO – dir,scr – AT]; Rosalinde [TV]; Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe [TV]. 1968: Theaterg’schichten durch Liebe, Intrige, Geld und Dummheit [TV – dir,cam]; Pole Poppenspäler [TV – dir]. 1972: 18 Bilder mit der Hand. Kameramänner des deutschen Stummfilms [TVD – act].
RICHARD ANGST Born July 23, 1905, Zurich (Switzerland) Died July 24, 1984, Berlin (West Germany) Half-Swiss, half-German Angst learned his craft as a cameraman literally at the rock face, on Dr. Arnold Fanck’s mountain films during the 1920s and 1930s, and remained a sought-after cinematographer well into the 1960s. A keen skier and climber, Angst was discovered by cameraman Sepp Allgeier in 1923, and worked as his assistant on Arnold Fanck’s mountain pictures. His own first credit as cinematographer was on MILAK, DER GRÖNLANDJÄGER (Milak, a Hunter of Greenland), shot during Bernhard Villinger’s 1926 filmmaking expedition to Svalbard. Together with Allgeier and Hans Schneeberger, Angst became one of Fanck’s regular cameramen, working on films including DIE WEISSE HÖLLE VOM PIZ PALÜ (The White Hell of Pitz Palu, 1929), STÜRME ÜBER DEM MONTBLANC (Avalanche, 1930), DER WEISSE RAUSCH (Ski Chase, 1930/31), and DER EWIGE TRAUM (King of Mont Blanc, 1933/34). He also shot documentary footage of expeditions to Borneo and the Himalayas in the mid-1930s, and went to Japan with Fanck, where they made DIE TOCHTER DES SAMURAI (The New Earth, 1936). Returning to Germany in 1939, he was employed at Terra-Film and other studios, and worked repeatedly with director Hans Steinhoff, e.g. photographing both DIE GEIERWALLY (Geierwally, 1939/40) and REMBRANDT (1941/42); the latter became celebrated on account of its chiaroscuro camerawork emulating the look of te artist. After the bombing of Berlin, Angst initially took refuge among ‘his’ mountains, photographing Leopold Hainisch’s Heimatfilms ULLI UND MAREI (Ulli and Marei, 1944/45) and ERDE (Earth, 1946/47) in the Tyrolean Alps, and American director Irving Allen’s feature-length adventure HIGH CONQUEST (1946/ 47), footage from which was subsequently recut to make the short CLIMBING THE MATTERHORN, which picked up an Oscar in 1947. Angst’s first assignment in the Federal Republic of Germany was director Rolf Hansen’s remake of DIE WEISSE HÖLLE VOM PIZ PALÜ, starring Hans Albers and titled FÖHN (White Hell, 1950). He subsequently photographed four of Harald Braun’s sophisticated social dramas, beginning with DER FALLENDE STERN (The Falling Star, 1950), as well as
twelve of director Kurt Hoffmann’s high-end entertainment pictures, commencing with FANFAREN DER LIEBE (Fanfares of Love, 1951) and including DAS WIRTSHAUS IM SPESSART (The Spessart Inn, 1957) and RHEINSBERG (1967). Angst furthermore served as cinematographer on Fritz Lang’s DER TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR (The Tiger of Eshnapur) and DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, both 1958/59), and on Robert Siodmak’s KAMPF UM ROM (The Last Roman, 1968), billed on English-dubbed prints as ‘Richard Fears’. At the end of the 1960s, Angst retired from the industry to open a pub restaurant in Berlin’s Moabit district. He also lectured at Munich’s School of Television and Film, and received a Filmband in Gold lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1971. [cam – DE] 1926/27: Milak, der Grönlandjäger [DO – act]. 1927: Der große Sprung [co-cam]. 1928: Das weiße Stadion. Sportgroßfilm der 2. Olympischen Winterspiele St. Moritz 1928 [DO – co-cam – CH]. 1929: Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü [co-cam]. 1929/30: Die heiligen drei Brunnen. 1930: Zwei Menschen [co-cam]; Stürme über dem Montblanc. 1930/31: Der weiße Rausch. 1931/32: Die Wasserteufel von Hieflau. 1932: Abenteuer im Engadin [co-cam]. 1932/33: Brennendes Geheimnis [co-cam]; SOS Eisberg [MLV – DE/US]; S.O.S. Iceberg [MLV – US/DE]. 1933: Nordpol – Ahoi! [DE/US]; Die weiße Majestät [MLV – DE/CH/FR]. 1933/34: Un de la montagne [MLV – DE/CH/ FR]; Der ewige Traum [MLV – co-cam]; Rêve éternel [MLV – co-cam – DE/FR]. 1934: Der Springer von Pontresina [DE/ CH]. 1934/35: Der Dämon des Himalaya [CH/DE]. 1935: Der arme Reiche [SF]. 1936: Die Kopfjäger von Borneo [NL/DE]; Atarashiki tsuchi [MLV – co-cam – JP/DE]; Die Tochter des Samurai [MLV – DE/JP]. 1936/41: Japans heiliger Vulkan [SD – co-cam]; Frühling in Japan [SD – co-cam]. 1936/44: Bilder von Japans Küsten [SD – JP/DE]; In einer chinesischen Stadt [SD – dir,cam]. 1937: Kleine Scheidegg [co-cam – CH]. 1937/38: Hänschen klein [SF]; Kokumin no chikai / Das heilige Ziel [JP/DE]. 1939: Die unheimlichen Wünsche; Eine kleine Nachtmusik. 1939/40: Die Geierwally. 1940/41: Mein Leben für Irland. 1941: Der Strom. 1941/42: Rembrandt; Der große Schatten. 1943: Gabriele Dambrone; Ein schöner Tag. 1943/44: Melusine. 1944/45: Ulli und Marei (Der Berghofbauer [1950]) [co-cam]. 1946/47: High Conquest [US]; Climbing the Matterhorn [SHD – US]; Erde (Trotzige Herzen) [AT/CH]. 1948: Een koninkrijk voor een huis [NL]. 1948/49: Barry – Moines du Mont Saint-Bernard [co-cam – CH/FR]. 1950: Föhn [DE/ CH]; Der fallende Stern. 1951: Fanfaren der Liebe. 1951/ 52: Herz der Welt. 1952: VI. Olympische Winterspiele Oslo 1952 [DO – CH]; Borneo – Insel der Schönheit, Leidenschaft und Dämonie [DO]; Vater braucht eine Frau; Cuba Cabana. 1953: Hokuspokus; Schlagerparade. 1954: Der erste Kuß [DE/AT]; Ingrid, die Geschichte eines Fotomodells. 1955: Drei Männer im Schnee [AT]; Der letzte Mann; Ich denke oft an Piroschka. 1955/56: Ich suche
FRANZ ANTEL Dich. 1956/57: Das heilige Erbe [co-cam,supv – AT]. 1957: Kleines Biest mit langen Haaren / Meine schöne Mama [DE/AT]; Das Wirtshaus im Spessart. 1958: Petersburger Nächte; Wir Wunderkinder. 1958/59: Der Tiger von Eschnapur / La tigre di Eschnapur / Le tigre du Bengale [DE/IT/FR]; Das indische Grabmal / Il sepolcro indiano / Le tombeau hindou [DE/IT/FR]. 1959: Peter schießt den Vogel ab; La Paloma; Du bist wunderbar; Bilderbuch Gottes [DO – co-cam – AT]. 1959/60: Herrin der Welt (Teil I + II) / Les mystères d’Angkor / Il misterio dei tre continenti [dir, cam – DE/FR/IT]. 1960: Der brave Soldat Schwejk; … und sowas nennt sich Leben. 1961: Via Mala; Die seltsame Gräfin; Ramona. 1961/62: Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer. 1962: Axel Munthe, der Arzt von San Michele / Le livre de San Michele / Donne senza paradiso [DE/FR/IT]; Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes / Sherlock Holmes et le collier de la mort / Sherlock Holmes. (La valle del terrore) [DE/FR/IT]. 1963: Frühstück im Doppelbett; Der schwarze Abt; Schloß Gripsholm; Der Henker von London. 1963/64: Das Phantom von Soho. 1964: Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß; Das 7. Opfer; Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius. 1965: La guerre secrète / La guerra segreta / Spione unter sich [FR/IT/DE]; Heidi [AT]; Ferien mit Piroschka [DE/AT]. 1965/66: Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden …? 1966: Liselotte von der Pfalz. 1967: Herrliche Zeiten im Spessart; Rheinsberg. 1968: Kampf um Rom. 1. Teil / Kampf um Rom. 2. Teil: Der Verrat / La guerra per Roma [DE/IT]; De Sade / Das ausschweifende Leben des Marquis de Sade [co-cam – US/ DE]. 1969: Die Hochzeitsreise [DE/IT]. 1972: 18 Bilder mit der Hand. Kameramänner des deutschen Stummfilms [TVD – act]. 1981: Umbra [SF]. 1983: Kamera: Richard Angst [TVD].
OTTOMAR ANSCHÜTZ Born May 16, 1846, Lissa (Prussia, now Leszno, Poland) Died May 30, 1907, Berlin (Germany) Anschütz was as a photographer and inventor an important pioneer of pre-cinema. The son of a decorative painter, Anschütz learned his father’s trade, but in the 1860s visited some of the most prominent photographers of his time to learn the secrets of artistic photography. After taking over his father’s shop in 1868, he added a modern studio for portrait photography. Among other areas, he developed the technique of enlargement from small negatives, enabling the reproduction of moving objects, as well the development of a fast shutter. In the 1880s he succeeded in taking subjects at 1/1000th of a second. From a series of 12, then 24, single cameras with his fast shutter and an electrically timed release, in 1882 he constructed his chronophotographic camera, photographing horses as well as other animals. His images of storks in flight inspired the aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal to construct his gliders in the late 1880s. In 1886 he intro-
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duced the ‘Wundertrommel’ or ‘Schnellseher’, his adaptation of the Zoetrope, a series of pictures inside a rotating cylinder. The following year he developed his Tachyscope, a disc of 24 glass diapositives turned by a crank and intermittently illuminated. His ‘Elektrischer Schnellseher’ or Electro-Tachyscope was manufactured by Siemens & Halske in Berlin, and displayed at international exhibitions such as in London (1892) and at the Chicago World’s Fair (1893). From February 1895 Anschütz organized regular screenings in Berlin with the Projecting Electrotachyscope, patented in November 1894, which used two discs of images and a rotating shutter. When he photographed the ‘Kaisermanöver’ at Breslau in 1888 he met the Crown Prince, later Emperor Friedrich III. He became photographic advisor to the imperial family – later especially to the vain Kaiser Wilhelm II, whom he accompanied on their trip to Palestine in 1899. In Berlin he opened a shop for photographic supplies and equipment and became engaged in the construction of small cameras and amateur photography. He published the three-volume book ‘Die Photographie im Hause’ in 1901/02. [DO – pro – DE] 1894: Bäuerliche Genrescenen; Bilder aus dem Soldatenleben; Fliegende Granate; Thierbilder. 1895: Manöverbilder; Kanalfeierlichkeiten. 1896: Nelly Kneebs.
FRANZ ANTEL Born June 28, 1913, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died August 11, 2007, Vienna (Austria) Consistently panned by critics, Antel’s prolific output of undemanding entertainment pictures succeeded in making him one of German-speaking cinema’s most commercially successful directors and producers of the post-war period. The son of a civil servant, Antel studied acting and scriptwriting in Vienna, before enrolling at the city’s Sound Film School and training as a cameraman and assistant director. He directed his first film, the water sports comedy VAGABUNDEN (Vagabonds), in 1933, while also working as a journalist and, uncredited, as a scriptwriter. Three years later, he was appointed head of production at Terra-Film, a position he subsequently held at Tobis in Berlin, and finally from 1938 at the newly founded Wien-Film in Vienna. During World War II, he served as an officer in the entertainment corps in the Ukraine, and was placed in charge of the Kiev Opera House as well as of theatres in Vinnytsia and Poltava. Following his return from a prisoner-of-war camp, Antel specialised in cheaply made genre pictures that stood a good chance of doing well at the box office. These included unsophisticated comedies such
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FRANZ ANTEL
as KLEINER SCHWINDEL AM WOLFGANGSEE (The Little Wolfgangsee Swindle, 1949), nostalgically frothy evocations of the Austria of yesteryear, as in HALLO, DIENSTMANN (Hello Porter!, 1951), kitschy Heimatfilms such as HEIMWEH … DORT WO DIE BLUMEN BLÜH’N (Homesick for Where the Flowers Blossom, 1957), and revue films such as DIE GROSSE KÜR (Free Skating, 1964). In 1966, Antel’s company Neue Delta-Filmproduktion in Vienna started to produce sexploitation comedies, which Antel usually directed under the pseudonym ‘François Legrand’. The ‘Sexy Susan’ series, begun in 1967 with SUSANNE – DIE WIRTIN AN DER LAHN (The Sweet Sins of Sexy Susan), and ever raunchier softcore romps such as WENN MÄDCHEN ZUM MANÖVER BLASEN (Have a Look Please, 1974), helped to secure his financial success. However, Antel also directed at least two films that demonstrate a greater sense of artistic ambition: SPIONAGE (Espionage, 1954/55), a biopic about Colonel Redl of the Austro-Hungarian military, which starred heavyweights Oskar Werner, Ewald Balser and Rudolf Forster; and DER BOCKERER (Bockerer, 1980/81), a satire about Austria during the Nazi period, which spawned three lesser sequels in 1996, 2000, and 2003. JOHANN STRAUSS – DER UNGEKRÖNTE KÖNIG
(Johann Strauss: The King without a Crown, 1986/ 87), an international co-production shot at the DEFA studios in Babelsberg, meanwhile, proved to be one of Antel’s rare failures, in spite of its considerable budget and all-star international cast. [dir – AT] 1933: Vagabunden [SF]. 1935: Unsterbliche Melodien [pro]. 1936: Spiel an Bord [pro – DE]. 1936/37: Millionenerbschaft [pro]. 1938: Narren im Schnee [pro – DE]. 1939: Das jüngste Gericht [pro – DE]. 1940: Meine Tochter lebt in Wien [pro – DE]. 1946: Österreich ruft die Welt [SD]. 1947: Das singende Haus [dir,co-scr]. 1949: ForellenQuintett [SD]; Schubert-Messe G-Dur [SD]; Salzburger Bauernkirtag [SD]; Fledermaus-Ouverture [SD]; Zigeunerbaron-Ouverture [SD]; An der schönen blauen Donau [SD]; Polkas von Strauß [SD]; Kleiner Schwindel am Wolfgangsee [dir,co-scr]. 1950: Auf der Alm, da gibt’s ka Sünd [dir,co-scr]. 1950/51: Der alte Sünder [dir,co-scr]. 1951: Die Alm an der Grenze [dir,co-scr – DE]; Eva erbt das Paradies [dir,co-scr]; Hallo, Dienstmann. 1952: Ideale Frau gesucht [dir,co-scr]; Der Mann in der Wanne [dir,co-scr]; Der Obersteiger [dir,co-scr]. 1953: Heute nacht passiert’s [DE]; Kaiserwalzer [dir,co-scr]; Ein tolles Früchtchen [DE]. 1953/54: Der rote Prinz [dir,co-scr – DE/AT]. 1954: Rosen aus dem Süden [DE]; Kaisermanöver [dir,ide]; Verliebter Sommer. 1954/55: Ehesanatorium [dir,co-scr]; Spionage. 1955: Heimatland; Der Kongreß tanzt. 1955/56: Symphonie in Gold [dir, ide]. 1956: Lumpazivagabundus [DE]; Kaiserball; Roter Mohn. 1957: Das Glück liegt auf der Straße [DE]; Vier Mädels aus der Wachau; Heimweh … dort wo die Blumen blüh’n. 1958: Zirkuskinder; Ooh … diese Fe-
rien; Liebe, Mädchen und Soldaten. 1959: Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee [dir,pro – DE]. 1960: Glocken läuten überall / Die Glocke ruft [AT/DE]. 1961: … und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier [dir,pro]; Im schwarzen Rößl. 1962: Das ist die Liebe der Matrosen; Ohne Krimi geht die Mimi nie ins Bett; … und ewig knallen die Räuber [AT/LI]. 1963: Maskenball bei Scotland Yard / Ballo in maschera da Scotland Yard [scr,co-scr,pro – AT/IT/LI]; Im singenden Rößl am Königssee; Die ganze Welt ist himmelblau. 1963/64: Volles Herz und leere Taschen / … e la domma creò l’uomo [coscr,pro – DE/IT]. 1964: Frühstück mit dem Tod [DE/AT]; Die große Kür [DE/AT]; Liebesgrüße aus Tirol. 1965: Ruf der Wälder. 1966: Happy End am Wolfgangsee [dir,pro]. 1967: Das große Glück [dir,pro]; Susanne – die Wirtin an der Lahn / I dolci vizi della casta Susanna / Suzanne [dir, pro – AT/IT/HU]. 1968: Eine Brücke über die Alpen [SD – pro]; Otto ist auf Frauen scharf [dir,pro – DE/AT]; Der Turm der verbotenen Liebe / Le dolcezze del peccato / La Tour de Nesle [dir – DE/IT/FR]; Frau Wirtin hat auch einen Grafen / Susanna … e i suoi dolci vizi alla corte del re [dir,pro – AT/ DE/IT]. 1968/69: Frau Wirtin hat auch eine Nichte / Il trionfo della casta Susanna [dir, pro – DE/AT/IT]. 1969: Warum hab ich bloß 2 x ja gesagt? / Professione bigamo [DE/IT]; Liebe durch die Hintertür / Nacke-di, Nacke-du, Nacke-dei [dir,pro – DE/AT]. 1969/70: Frau Wirtin bläst auch gern Trompete / Susanna IV. / Le piacevoli notti di Justine [dir, pro – DE/AT/IT]. 1970: Frau Wirtin treibt es jetzt noch toller [dir,pro – DE/AT]; Musik, Musik – da wackelt die Penne [DE]. 1970/71: Mein Vater, der Affe und ich [dir,pro – DE/ AT]. 1971: Einer spinnt immer [dir,pro – DE/AT]; Außer Rand und Band am Wolfgangsee [dir,pro – DE/AT]. 1971/ 72: Sie nannten ihn Krambambuli [dir,pro – DE/AT]. 1972: Die lustigen Vier von der Tankstelle [dir,pro – DE/AT]; Die liebestollen Apothekerstöchter [DE]. 1972/73: Frau Wirtins tolle Töchterlein / Leva lo diavolo tuo dal … Convento [dir,pro – DE/IT]. 1973: Blau blüht der Enzian [DE]; Das Wandern ist Herrn Müllers Lust [dir,pro – DE/AT]. 1974: Wenn Mädchen zum Manöver blasen [dir,pro – DE/AT]; Die gelbe Nachtigall [TV]. 1974/75: Der kleine Schwarze mit dem roten Hut / Prima ti suono e poi ti sparo [dir,pro – AT/IT]. 1975: Die Brücke von Zupanja [pro – DE]; Ab morgen sind wir reich und ehrlich / E una banca rapinammo per fatal combinazion [dir,pro – AT/IT]. 1976/77: Casanova & Co. / Casanova & Company / Treize femmes pour Casanova [dir,pro – AT/IT/FR]. 1977: Poliziotto senza paura / Die Zuhälterin [scr,pro – IT/AT]; Arrête ton char, bidasse / Oh lala – Die kleinen Blonden sind da [pro – FR/DE]. 1978: Love-Hotel in Tirol / Das Liebeshotel in Tirol [dir,pro – DE/ AT]; Das Licht der Gerechten / La lumière des justes [TVS – pro – AT/FR/CH]. 1979: Austern mit Senf / La fac en délire [ide,dir – DE/FR]. 1980/81: Der Bockerer [dir,pro – AT/DE]. 1982: Ohne Ball und ohne Netz [TV – dir,scr]. 1983: Gunther, Philipp, 65 – Der Klamottenprozeß [TV – act]. 1984: Popcorn & Paprika [pro – DE]. 1986/87: Johann Strauß – Der ungekrönte König / Johann Strauß – Le roi sans couronne [dir,co-scr,pro – AT/DD/DE/FR]. 1991: Die Kaffeehaus-Clique [TV]. 1992: Die Zwillingsschwestern aus Tirol [dir,co-scr – DE]; Almenrausch und Pulverschnee [TVS – dir,scr – DE]. 1993/94: Mein Freund, der Lipizzaner [dir, co-scr – DE]. 1995/96: Der Bockerer II – Österreich ist frei
RUDOLF ARNHEIM [dir,co-scr – AT]. 2000: Der Bockerer III – Die Brücke von Andau [dir,co-scr]. 2003: Der Neue Bockerer – Prager Frühling [dir,co-scr].
KARL ANTON (Karel Anton) Born October 25, 1898, Prague (Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic) Died April 12, 1979, Berlin (West Germany) After an early career in Czech cinema and later working on multiple language versions of early sound films, Czech-born director Anton specialised in light comedies and musicals in German and Austrian cinema from the late 1930s to the late 1950s. As a teenager, Anton experimented with a prototype sound film system and worked as an actor in Vienna, Linz and Prague, before becoming assistant to director Karel Lamaè (Carl Lamac) on a number of documentaries shot during World War I. Anton’s directorial debut CIKÁNI (Gypsies, 1921) is credited, together with his POHÁDKA MÁJE (The May Fairy, 1926), as having inaugurated Czech cinema’s lyrical tradition. With his own production company Anton Film he started making documentaries and adapted American slapstick comedies and popular Czech novels, employing a regular team that included cinematographers Otto Heller and Václav Vich. Following the advent of sound Anton made the German-language EIN MÄDEL VON DER REEPERBAHN (A Girl from the Reeperbahn, 1930) in Prague, and then directed French and German multi-lingual versions (MLV) of Hollywood films for Paramount in Joinville and Prague. He also made a string of lightweight comedies in Paris during the early 1930s, most of which starred actress Edwige Feuillère. Relocating to Berlin in 1936, Anton joined the Tobis production company, for whom he directed lavish revue musicals such as WIR TANZEN UM DIE WELT (We Dance Around the World, 1939) and STERN VON RIO (Star of Rio, 1939/40), as well as sophisticated crime capers starring Viktor de Kowa, including DIE SACHE MIT STYX (The Styx Affair, 1941/ 42) and PETER VOSS, DER MILLIONENDIEB (Peter Voss Who Stole Millions, 1943–45). After World War II, Anton remade a number of prewar hits such as the operetta films DIE ROSE VON STAMBUL (The Rose of Stamboul) and DER VETTER AUS DINGSDA (The Cousin from Nowhere, both 1953), and he shot a new version of Reinhold Schünzel’s classic VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1957). None of these films achieved anywhere near the quality or success of the originals, nor did they match the quality of Anton’s own earlier work.
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[dir – DE] 1921: Cikáni [dir,scr – CS]. 1922: Mrtví ijí [act – CS]; Maharadovo potìšení. Harémy kouzla zbavené [dir,scr,co-scr – CS]; Poslední polibek [CS]. 1923: Tu ten kámen [dir, pro, scr – CS]; Únos bankéøe Fuxe [dir,co-scr – CS]. 1925: Do panského stavu [CS]. 1926: Otec Kondelík a enich Vejvara. I. [CS]; Pohádka máje [CS]; Otec Kondelík a enich Vejvara. II. [CS]. 1929/30: Tonka Šibenice [MLV – dir,cut,pro – CS]; Erlebnis einer Nacht [MLV – dir,cut,pro – CS]. 1930: Ein Mädel von der Reeperbahn / Lidé v bouøi [dir,co-scr,cut – DE/CS]. 1930/31: Aféra plukovníka Redla [MLV – dir,cut – CS]; Der Fall des Generalstabs-Oberst Redl [MLV – CS/DE]. 1931: Die nackte Wahrheit [MLV – FR/US]; Cordon-Bleu [FR/US]. 1932: Rien que des mensonges [US/ FR]; Simone est comme ça [MLV – US/FR]; Monsieur Albert [MLV – US/FR]; Criez-le sur les toits [FR/US]; Une petite femme dans le train [MLV – FR]; Maquillage [MLV – FR]; Le chasseur de chez Maxim’s [FR/US]. 1933: Un fil à la patte [FR]; Jsem dìvèe s èertem v tìle [MLV – CS]; Matricule 33 [FR]; Un soir de réveillon [FR/US]; Les surprises du sleeping [FR]. 1934: La cinquième empreinte [FR]. 1935: Monsieur Sans-Gêne [MLV – FR]; Arènes joyeuses [FR]. 1935/ 36: Martha. Les dernières roses [MLV]; Martha. Letzte Rose [MLV]. 1936: Weiße Sklaven. Panzerkreuzer ‘Sebastopol’ [dir,co-scr]. 1937: Mit versiegelter Order. 1939: Wir tanzen um die Welt. 1939/40: Stern von Rio. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger. 1941: Immer nur … Du! [dir,co-scr]; Menschen im Sturm [ide]. 1941/42: Die Sache mit Styx. 1942: Die große Nummer [dir,scr,pro]. 1942/43: Die Wirtin zum Weißen Röß’l [dir,co-scr,pro]; Kollege kommt gleich. 1943: Die Hochstaplerin [dir,pro]. 1943/44: Der große Preis [dir, scr,co-scr]; Der Täter ist unter uns [ide]. 1943-45: Peter Voss, der Millionendieb [dir,co-scr]. 1944/45: Ruf an das Gewissen [dir,pro]; Verlobte Leute [dir,pro]; Der große Fall [dir,pro]. 1948/49: Barry – Moines du Mont SaintBernard [dir,co-scr,pro – CH/FR]. 1952: Der Weibertausch. 1952/53: Von Liebe reden wir später [dir,co-scr]. 1953: Die Rose von Stambul; Der Vetter aus Dingsda [dir,co-scr]. 1954: Clivia [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1955/56: Bonjour, Kathrin. 1956: Die Christel von der Post. 1957: Viktor und Viktoria; Der kühne Schwimmer. 1959: Berlin – Die Stadt, die jeder liebt [DO – dir,pro]. 1960: Der Rächer. 1963: Maskenball bei Scotland Yard / Ballo in maschera da Scotland Yard [co-scr – AT/IT/LI].
RUDOLF ARNHEIM Born July 15, 1904, Berlin (Germany) Died June 9, 2007, Ann Arbor (Michigan, USA) One of the most influential writers on film, advancing a psychological approach to cinematic aesthetics, Arnheim’s journalistic and theoretical writings from the 1920s and 1930s count alongside those of Béla Balázs and Siegfried Kracauer as seminal works of international film theory. Arnheim studied philosophy and experimental psychology, with art and music history as minor subjects. Studying under such eminent Gestalt psychologists as Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Lewin and Max Wertheimer,
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Arnheim went on to complete his doctorate on the Gestalt theory of expression in 1928. Arnheim began writing for newspapers and magazines while still at university, publishing a collection of his reviews and articles under the title ‘Stimme von der Galerie’ (A Voice from the Gallery) in 1928. The same year, Arnheim was made editor of the cultural section of the influential magazine Die Weltbühne, penning some 170 articles in total, including around seventy film reviews that became the foundation for his principal work on film theory, ‘Film als Kunst’ (Film As Art, 1932). Arnheim continued to write for broadsheets and trade publications until the end of the Weimar Republic, as well as conducting interviews with filmmakers on radio. After the Nazis came to power, Arnheim emigrated to Italy where he authored a study on the aesthetics of radio, ‘Der Rundfunk sucht seine Form’ (Radio: An Art of Sound), and his last substantial essay on film, ‘Nuovo Laocoonte’ (New Laocoon) in 1938. Following a brief stint in England working for the BBC’s German-language news service, Arnheim arrived in the USA in October 1940. After undertaking a study of radio soap operas, he researched the application of Gestalt theory to aesthetics, leading ultimately to ‘Art and Visual Perception’ (1954). From 1943 to 1966, he lectured at New York’s Sarah Lawrence College, and at the city’s New School for Social Research. An abridged English version of ‘Film as Art’ that also contained some of his other essays, appeared in 1959, and it is in this form that his work on film is now most familiar. His next major work, ‘Visual Thinking’, was published in 1969. Thereafter professor in art psychology at Harvard, Arnheim relocated to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1974, where he remained a guest professor until well into his nineties. Even after his retirement, he continued to write essays and several books, with a number of his early works reprinted on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2004. Despite having moved away from writing about film during his American years, Arnheim certainly did not turn his back on cinema: in the mid-1950s, he was one of the first directors of the Creative Film Foundation, a funding body supporting the promotion of art in cinema; in 1963, he wrote an insightful review of his friend Siegfried Kracauer’s ‘Theory of Film’; and in 1964, he was on the jury of the Venice Film Festival. In 1978, Arnheim received the Filmband in Gold lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema. [DE] 1929: Baumblütenzeit in Werder [SD – co-scr]; Wochenmarkt auf dem Wittenbergplatz [SD – act]. 1987: Zeugen des Jahrhunderts: Rudolf Arnheim im Gespräch mit Ingo Hermann [TVD – act].
SIEGFRIED ARNO (Siegfried Aron) Born December 27, 1895, Hamburg (Germany) Died August 17, 1975, Woodland Hills (California, USA) An extremely popular German-Jewish stage and screen comedian in 1920s and 1930s Berlin, Arno moved on to have a lengthy career as a supporting actor in Hollywood after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933. Arno trained as a fashion illustrator at Hamburg’s College of Art and Design in order to appease his father’s desire that he ‘learn a trade’ rather than become an actor. At the same time Arno joined the Hamburg Theatre Union, and gained his first acting engagements at the Stadttheater and the Operettenhaus in Harburg. After World War I, he played at theatres in Hamburg, Altona and Prague, before moving to Berlin in 1921, where he swiftly made his mark as an actor, singer, dancer and eccentric comedian. By 1932/33, he was one of the leading lights at the Kabarett der Komiker variety theatre. From the mid-1920s, Arno also found success in films, specialising in underdog roles that often found him trussed up in soldier’s kit or slacking in civvies. The long-nosed, gawky and willowy actor also starred alongside hulking Kurt Gerron as half of slapstick duo ‘Beef and Steak’ in Herbert Nossen’s WIR HALTEN FEST UND TREU ZUSAMMEN (Through Thick and Thin, 1928/29) and Manfred Noa’s AUFRUHR IM JUNGGESELLENHEIM (Pandemonium in a Bachelor Pad, 1929). Arno also brought dynamic comic relief to a number of films directed by G. W. Pabst, playing a detective in DIE LIEBE DER JEANNE NEY (The Loves of Jeanne Ney, 1927), a stage manager in DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA (Pandora’s Box, 1928/29) and a gymnastics-fixated American in TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929). In the early 1930s Arno switched from supporting parts to leading roles in a number of slapstick comedies. In Carl Lamac’s DIE VOM RUMMELPLATZ (Fairground People, 1930) he plays a lowly fairground employee, while in Carl Boese’s KEINE FEIER OHNE MEYER (No Celebrations Without Meyer, 1931), he portrays a dapper and smooth-talking marriage broker. Arno’s Jewish characters in these films were mostly lower-middle-class everymen or loveable rogues, who get caught up in embarrassing or threatening situations, to which they responded with wide-eyed bewilderment and farcical evasion manoeuvres. After leaving Nazi Germany in 1933, Arno undertook cabaret and theatre work, and also appeared in a few films, while passing through the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. He also
AUGUST ARNOLD
directed a film in Belgium, LA GLOIRE DU RÉGIMENT (The Glory of the Regiment, 1936). Arno arrived in Hollywood in 1939, and found employment as a supporting player, billed from 1940 as ‘Sig Arno’. The actor supplemented his income by working as an graphic artist and portrait painter, while also taking stage roles on Broadway. He appeared as Professor Kropotkin on CBS television show MY FRIEND IRMA (1952–54), and enjoyed success at Deutsches Theater in New York during 1954/55, after which he undertook guest performances in Buenos Aires and West Germany. In 1966, Arno received the Filmband in Gold lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema. His younger brother Bruno Arno (1902–1990) also found success as an actor, dancer, choreographer and sculptor. [act – DE] 1921: Die rote Katze. 1924: Barfüßele. 1925: Die Frau von vierzig Jahren; Die vertauschte Braut; Die Frau für 24 Stunden; Vorderhaus und Hinterhaus; Der Hahn im Korb. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut; Nanette macht alles. 1926: Der Stolz der Kompagnie; Der dumme August des Zirkus Romanelli; Der Provinzonkel; Die dritte Eskadron [DE/AT]; Annemarie und ihr Ulan; Der Soldat der Marie; Das Panzergewölbe; In der Heimat, da gibt’s ein Wiedersehn!; Der Sohn des Hannibal; Schatz, mach’ Kasse; Die Villa im Tiergarten; Vater werden ist nicht schwer; Wenn der junge Wein blüht. 1926/27: Der Mann mit der falschen Banknote. 1927: Lützows wilde verwegene Jagd; Die Achtzehnjährigen; Üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit; Ein schwerer Fall; Familientag im Hause Prellstein; Leichte Kavallerie; Der große Unbekannte; Der Mann ohne Kopf; Die Dollarprinzessin und ihre sechs Freier; Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney; 1+1=3. Ehe man Ehemann wird; Eine kleine Freundin braucht ein jeder Mann; Dr. Bessels Verwandlung; Hercules Maier; Fürst oder Clown; Moral. 1927/28: Tragödie im Zirkus Royal; Die Dame und ihr Chauffeur; La danseuse Orchidée [FR]; Looping the Loop. 1928: Der Ladenprinz; Gaunerliebchen; In Werder blühen die Bäume …; Polnische Wirtschaft; G’schichten aus dem Wiener Wald; Das letzte Souper; Moderne Piraten; Serenissimus, der Vielgeliebte, und die letzte Jungfrau; Unmoral; Ihr dunkler Punkt; Spelunke. 1928/29: Wir halten fest und treu zusammen [act,pro]; Die Büchse der Pandora. 1929: Aufruhr im Junggesellenheim [act,pro]; Das verschwundene Testament / Ztracená závì [DE/CS]; Jenseits der Straße; Alte Kleider [SF]; Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Das Mädel mit der Peitsche; Die Kaviarprinzessin; Freiheit in Fesseln. Bewährungsfrist; Sigi, der eilige Bräutigam [SF]. 1929/30: Der Witwenball. 1930: Und so ein Glück kannst du nur haben [SF]; Wien, du Stadt der Lieder; Heute Nacht – eventuell …!; Zapfenstreich am Rhein; Im Kampf mit der Unterwelt; Die vom Rummelplatz; Eine Freundin so goldig wie du; Moritz macht sein Glück [MLV – FR]. 1930/31: Schuberts Frühlingstraum; Schachmatt. 1931: Die große Attraktion; Der Stumme von Portici [SF]; Das Geheimnis der
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roten Katze; Kabarett-Programm Nr. 1 [SF]; Kabarett-Programm Nr. 2 [SF]; Um eine Nasenlänge; Der Storch streikt. Siegfried der Matrose; Schützenfest in Schilda; Ein ausgekochter Junge; Keine Feier ohne Meyer; Die Nacht ohne Pause; Der schönste Mann im Staate. 1933/34: Gado Bravo [PT]. 1936: La gloire du régiment [MLV – dir – BE]. [act – US] 1939: Bridal Suite; The Star Maker; The Hunchback of Notre Dame]. 1940: The Mummy’s Hand; Diamond Frontier; A Little Bit of Heaven; The Great Dictator; Dark Streets of Cairo; This Thing Called Love. 1941: New Wine; Raiders of the Desert; The Gambling Daughters; It Started With Eve; Two Latins from Manhattan; The Chocolate Soldier; Sing for Your Supper; Hellzapoppin’; Passport to Heaven. 1942: Two Yanks in Trinidad; Juke Box Jenny; I Married an Angel; Pardon My Sarong; The Devil With Hitler; Tales of Manhattan [act]; The Palm Beach Story. 1942/43: The Crystal Ball; Let’s Have Fun; Du Barry Was a Lady. 1943: Taxi, Mister; Passport to Suez; Larceny With Music; His Butler’s Sister; Thousand Cheers. 1943/44: Standing Room Only; Up in Arms; Showboat Serenade; Once Upon a Time. 1944: And the Angels Sing; Song of the Open Road. 1944/45: A Song to Remember; Roughly Speaking; Bring on the Girls. 1946: One More Tomorrow. 1948/49: Holiday in Havana. 1949: The Great Lover. 1949/ 50: Duchess of Idaho. 1950: Nancy Goes to Rio; The Toast of New Orleans! 1951: On Moonlight Bay. 1951/52: Diplomatic Courier. 1952: Rebound: The Wedding [TV]. 1952/53: My Friend Irma [TVS]. 1953: Fast Company; The Great Diamond Robbery. 1955: December Bride [TVS]. 1956: Producers’ Showcase: Rosalinda [TV]. 1962: Wieder zurück: Siegfried Arno. Eine Musik-Show aus Studio 3 [TV – DE].
AUGUST ARNOLD Born September 12, 1898, Werfen (AustriaHungary) Died April 7, 1983, Munich (West Germany) A pioneering inventor and entrepreneur during the 1910s and 1920s, Arnold revolutionised location shooting worldwide by developing the Arriflex35 film camera in 1937. Interested in film technology since childhood, Arnold received formal training at the College of Engineering in Mittweida, before being conscripted to fight in World War I. In 1918 he and his childhood friend Robert Richter (1888–1972) founded their Arnold & Richter company in Munich – known for short as ARRI, a broad-based business involved in production, distribution and equipment rental. As a production company, ARRI specialised in stuntfilled action films including the Bavarian westerns DER SCHWARZE JACK (Black Jack, 1919) and DER TODESCOWBOY (Killer Cowboy, 1919/20), and sensational crime pictures such as VORSICHT! HOCHSPANNUNG! LEBENSGEFAHR! (Danger – High Voltage!, 1920) and DER GELBE WÜRGER (The Yellow Strangler, 1921).
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AUGUST ARNOLD
The company’s subsequent output included wildlife adventures starring Harry Piel, Heimatfilms, and public information documentaries. ARRI also developed its own short-lived sound film system, which in 1934 was used on just two pictures, Hanns BeckGaden’s GRENZFEUER (Border Fires) and Franz Seitz sen.’s DIE FRAUEN VOM TANNHOF (The Women of Tannhof). It was as a manufacturer of production equipment that ARRI gained international attention, by offering everything from cameras for both amateur and professional markets to film printers, studio lights and power units. ARRI’s bestseller, however, was the reflex motion picture camera (facilitating viewing what is being exposed to film on a matte focussing screen), launched to immediate acclaim at the 1937 Leipzig Trade Fair under the brand name Arriflex35. Lightweight, fitted with three lenses on a rotating turret head, and holding an easily changed 120 metre magazine of 35mm film, the Arriflex sold in high numbers both domestically and overseas. After the outbreak of World War II, it not only established itself as the favourite of axis newsreel cameramen, with special models being developed for use by the Wehrmacht. Hollywood director Delmer Daves’s celebrated noir feature DARK PASSAGE (1947) was shot entirely on a captured Arriflex. After the war, ARRI’s company buildings in Munich – which had been bombed out in 1944 – were rebuilt, and by 1948, Fox newsreels were being dubbed and copied there for the German-speaking market. The Arriflex35 once again became an export winner, and in 1952, a 16mm Arriflex was developed (which had an important impact on the documentary movement), followed by the ARRI Electronic-CAM-System in 1967, which revolutionised television production by facilitating simultaneous monitoring of four separate camera feeds. ARRI continued to optimise and improve the Arriflex35, receiving technical Oscars in 1967, 1974 and 1983. A legal battle between Arnold and Robert Richter’s estate followed the latter’s death in 1972, and in 1977 Dr. August Arnold ceded control of ARRI to his son Robert. The recipient of numerous awards during his lifetime, Arnold also served as chairman of the Organisation of Film and Television Equipment Suppliers from 1957, and as president of the West German film industry’s regulatory body SPIO from 1967. [pro – DE]. 1918/19: Der rote Reiter [cam]. 1919: Der Vampyr [cam]; Der schwarze Jack [cam,pro]. 1919/20: Die Geier der Goldgruben; Der Todescowboy [cam,pro]. 1920: Die Eisenbahnräuber [cam,pro]; Die Rache im Goldtal [cam,pro]; Die Rache des Mexikaners [cam,pro]; Der Liebesrausch; Vorsicht! Hochspannung! Lebens-
gefahr! [cam,pro]; Wer zuletzt lacht. 1920/21: Texas Freds Brautfahrt; Weltstadtbanditen [cam]; Das schwierige Testament [SD]. 1921: Der gelbe Würger; Hyänen der Welt. 1. Opfer der Hyänen / 2. Die einsame Insel [cam,pro]; Der Todessegler [cam,pro]; Die Flammenfahrt des Pacific-Express [cam,pro]; Beisetzungsfeierlichkeiten des bayerischen Königspaares am 5. November 1921 [SD]; Bayerische Skimeisterschaft Tegernsee 1922 [SD]. 1921/22: Werdenfelser Gau-Ski-Wettläufe Oberammergau 1922 [SD]. 1922: Der Weg zur Sonne. 1923: Die Abenteuer eines Pechvogels [SD]; Unter Blutschuld [cam]; Der Fluch der Protektion. 1924: Das große Fußballwettspiel in München [SD]; 8. Staffellauf Grünwald – München am 25. Mai 1924 [SD]; Der D.S.V.M. (Deutscher Sportverein, München) als Gast in Pfaffenhofen a.I. am 17.–18. Mai 1924 [SD]. 1924/ 25: Meisterschaft von Deutschland und Österreich im Skilauf 1925 am 7. und 8.2.25 in Kitzbühl [SD]; Reichswinterfahrt des A.D.A.C. in Garmisch-Partenkirchen [SD]. 1925: Das deutsche Museum in München [3 parts – SD]; Das Mädel vom Buchnerhof; Das Motorradrennen in Daglfing [SD]; Optische Werke, G. Rodenstock, München [SF]; Schutzvereinstagung Kufstein Pfingsten 1925 [SD]; Bekämpfung des Hederichs [SD]. 1926: München, die Kunst-Stadt [SD]; Landstraße und Verkehr [DO]; Das Kraftfahrzeug [DO]. 1926/27: Die Besteigung der Zugspitze [SD]; Festball des ungarischen Hilfsvereins [SD]. 1927: Eine neue Dampf-Turbinen-Lokomotive der Firma J. A. Maffai, München (Pacific-Type) [SD]; Ihr täglicher Traum [SF]; Die Braunkohle und ihre Verarbeitung [SD]; Floß- und Kajakfahrt Tölz-München [SD]; Alpine Hochtouren im Dachstein und den Zillertaler Alpen [SD]. 1927/28: Frühjahrsanfahrt des A.D.A.C., Gau Südbayern, nach Garmisch-Partenkirchen [SD]. 1928: Pfaff Nähmaschinen [SF]; Neujahrsspuk [SF]. 1929: J. Eibls Private Kraftfahrkurse, München, Lindwurmstraße 84/86 [SD]. 1930: Alpensünden; Ein Besuch in der Gautinger Virginier-Fabrik Austria GmbH, München aus Anlaß der Einweihung der neuen VerköstigungsEinrichtungen für die Belegschaft [SD]; Winterfahrt in die Silvretta [SD]; Der gute Rat [SD]. 1931: Mikro-Aufnahmen [SD]; Im Land der Dolomiten [DO]. 1931/32: Ein Tag im Laaser Marmorwerk [SD]; Trickfilm für Braunkohlenbrikett [SF]. 1932: Die Stammtischbrüder [SF]; Die Sorgen eines Hausherrn [SD]; Das Eigenheim [SD]. 1934: Schwarzes Gold [SD]; Grenzfeuer; Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen [SD]; Eine Stadt wächst aus dem Boden [SD]; 700 JahrFeier der Stiftskirche in Ellwangen 1233–1933 [SD]; Die drei Luftikusse [SF]; Die Frauen vom Tannhof; Seltsames aus der Pflanzenwelt [SD]; Der Zithervirtuose [SF]. 1935: Etwas über Almwirtschaft [SD]; Herstellung von Sprengkapseln und elektrischen Zündern [DO]; Der Hühnerhof [SD]; Berchtesgaden im Winter [SD]; Gesundheit – die Quelle des Glücks [DO]; Bei den Kannenbäckern im Westerwald [SD]; Es waren zwei Junggesellen; Die Zitrone [SD]; Ehre und Recht [DO]. 1935/36: Das Tier – des Menschen stummer Bruder [SD]. 1936: Beim Rechtsanwalt [SF]; Sommerliches Bergland [SD]; Ein Kamerad [SD]; Die karierte Weste [SF]; Kalte Füße [SF]; Der Bittsteller [SF]; Frühling [SD]; Kabarett der Kleinen [SD]; Musik zu zwein [SF]; Das Preislied [SF]; Der Holzweg [SD]. 1936/37: Puppenzauber [SD]. 1937: Werbefilm für den Gauverlag Bay-
AUGUST ARNOLD erische Ostmark [AD]; Herbst in den Alpen [SD]; Kampf dem Feuer [SD]; Das Alpinum [SD]; Kleines Kunterbunt [SD]; Ewig Dein [SF]. 1937/38: Hindelang [AD]; Serienreklame. 11 Sparfilme [AD]. 1938: Kunst und Handwerk im Bayerischen Wald [SD]; Der Antennendraht [SF]. 1938/ 39: Das neue deutsche Sparkassenbuch [AD]. 1939/40: Bergwinter [SD]. 1940: Der rettende Engel; Deutsche Frontflugzeuge [SD]. 1940/41: Ins Land der Dolomiten [DO]. 1941: Werbefilm der Photola, München [AD]. 1942:
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Der Sonderling. 1943: Brandverhütungsdienst der bayr. Versicherungskammer [SD]; Berg-Straßenbau [SD]; Heimat und Dschungel, Freiheit und Gitter [DO]; Schenken heißt denken [3 versions – AD]; Sichtbare Luft [SD]. 1944: Ruf der Heimat [DO]. 1953: Schönes Schweizerland [DO]. 1954: Schönes Alpenland [DO]. 1956: Fliegen einst und jetzt [DO]. 1959: Zauber der Dolomiten [DO]. 1972: 18 Bilder mit der Hand. Kameramänner des deutschen Stummfilms [TVD – act].
KARIN BAAL (Karin Blauermel) Born September 19, 1940, Berlin-Wedding (Germany) Starting out as a sassy, bleached blond teenage bad girl in 1950s West German cinema, Baal later settled into character roles. While studying at the Berlin College of Fashion, Baal was chosen from among 700 applicants to play the part of amoral teenage seductress Sissy Bohl in Georg Tressler’s juvenile delinquency melodrama DIE HALBSTARKEN (The Hooligans, 1956), delivering a memorable performance that defined her subsequent career. Initially typecast as a dangerous sex kitten, Baal played a prostitute in Rolf Thiele’s DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958) and a young woman who seduces her best friend’s father in Rudolf Jugert’s DIE JUNGE SÜNDERIN (The Sinful Girl, 1960). She won the German Film Critics’ Award in 1961, and was runner-up in that year’s Bambi awards for best upand-coming actress. Changing pace somewhat, she then became a recurrent fixture in the successful Edgar Wallace series and similar crime thrillers, portraying a succession of wide-eyed innocents in peril. One of Baal’s few international opportunities during this period was playing opposite Oliver Reed in Michael Winner’s World War II comedy HANNIBAL BROOKS (1968). Since the early 1970s, Baal appeared predominately on television in supporting and character parts in popular series such as TATORT (Crime Scene). Under the direction of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, she played Franz Biberkopf’s sister-in-law in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80), a member of the resistance in LILI MARLEEN (1980) and the heroine’s mother in LOLA (1981). In Thomas Brasch’s ENGEL AUS EISEN (Angels of Iron, 1980), in part a homage to the kind of juvenile delinquency film Baal started her career in, she played the mother of a youth gang leader. She also stood out in Hermine Huntgeburth’s debut picture, the black comedy IM KREISE DER LIEBEN (The Terrible Threesome, 1990/91), playing the mother of one of the main characters. Baal has furthermore appeared in films directed by Ula Stöckl, Vadim Glowna, Hans-Christoph Blumenberg and Margarethe von Trotta, as well as in Roland Suso Rich-
ter’s Berlin Wall drama DER TUNNEL (The Tunnel, 2000). [act – DE] 1956: Die Halbstarken. 1956/57: Jede Nacht in einem anderen Bett. 1957: Der müde Theodor; Das Herz von St. Pauli. 1958: Das Mädchen Rosemarie; Der Pauker; Der eiserne Gustav. 1959: So angelt man keinen Mann; Bobby Dodd greift ein; Arzt ohne Gewissen; Jons und Erdme. Die Frau des Anderen / La donna dell’altro [DE/IT]; Das letzte Aufgebot [TV]; Juke-box, urli d’amore [IT]; Es geschah an der Grenze [TVS]. 1959/60: Der Jugendrichter. 1960: Wir Kellerkinder; … und sowas nennt sich Leben; Die junge Sünderin. 1961: Die toten Augen von London; Vertauschtes Leben; Blond muß man sein auf Capri; Das letzte Kapitel. 1961/62: Julia, Du bist zauberhaft / Adorable Julia [voi – AT/FR]. 1962: So toll wie anno dazumal; Zwischen Schanghai und St. Pauli / I rinnegati di capitan Kidd [DE/IT]; Straße der Verheißung; Film an Bord [TV]; Der Privatsekretär [TV]. 1962/63: Karibisches Vergnügen [TV]. 1963/64: Voir Venise … et crever / La spia che viene dall’ovest / Mord am Canale Grande [FR/IT/DE]. 1964: Spätsommer [TV]; Das Blaue vom Himmel [TV]; Schloßpension Fürstenhorst [TV]. 1964/65: Michael Kramer [TV]. 1965: Ein Mädchen von heute [TV]. 1965/66: Ganovenehre; Gespenster [TV]. 1966: Der Mann aus Brooklyn [TV]; Avec la peau des autres / Sciarada per quattro spie [FR/IT]; Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [TV]. 1967: Der Hund von Blackwood-Castle. 1967/68: Tragödie auf der Jagd [TV]. 1968: Hannibal Brooks [GB]. 1970: Zum Diktat, Miss Smith [TV]. 1971: Der Kommissar: Die Anhalterin [TV]. 1971/72: Cosa avete fatto a Solange? / Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel [IT/DE]. 1972: Das System Fabrizzi [TV]. 1973: Der Bastian [TVS]; Ein für allemal [TV]. 1974: Sonderdezernat K 1: Hafenhyänen [TV]; Haus ohne Hüter [TV]. 1975: Der Kommissar: Fährt der Zug nach Italien? [TV]. 1976: Kennedys Kinder [TV – CH]; Derrick: Schock [TV]; Gefundenes Fressen; Erikas Leidenschaften [TV]; Sonderdezernat K 1: Der Stumme [TV – CH]. 1977: Haus der Frauen [TV]. 1978: Wo die Liebe hinfällt [TV]. 1979: Drei Freundinnen [TV]; Desperado [SF]; Der Alte: Illusionen über einen Mord [TV]; Wunder einer Nacht [TV – AT/DE]; Die Weber [TV]. 1979/80: Un-Ruhestand: Baldauf [TV]; Tatort: Hände hoch, Herr Trimmel [TV]; Der Alte: Das letzte Wort hat die Tote [TV]; Berlin Alexanderplatz: 1. Die Strafe beginnt / Epilog: Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Mein Traum vom Traum des Franz Biberkopf: Vom Tode eines Kindes und der Geburt eines Brauchbaren [TV]. 1980: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken: Acht Tage Urlaub [TV]; Derrick: Auf dem Gutshof [TV]; In Prag und anderswo [TV]; Lili Marleen; Sternensommer [TVS]; Engel aus Eisen. 1980/81: Leute
LÍDA BAAROVÁ wie Du und ich: 2. Briefe von unbekannt [TV]; Desperado City. 1980-82: Schicht in Weiß [TVS]; Die Jäger – Deadly Game. 1981: Lola; Derrick: Tod eines Italieners [TV]; Traumlage [TV]. 1982: Der Mann auf der Mauer. 1982/83: Das Traumschiff. Folge 11 [TV]. 1982-84: Liebe ist kein Argument. 1983: Bitterer Honig [TV]; Karin Baal. Begegnungen mit einer Schauspielerin [TVD]; Unternehmen Arche Noah [TV]. 1983/84: Taused Augen; Derrick: Ein Mörder zuwenig [TV]; Die Mitläufer; Blaubart [TV – DE/CH]; Le dernier civil / Der letzte Zivilist [TV – FR/DE]. 1984: Tod eines Schaustellers [TV]; Eine Klasse für sich. Folge 9 [TVS]; Die Abschiebung [TV]. 1984/85: Die Krimistunde. Folge 13 [TV]; Schöne Ferien: 4. Urlaubsgeschichten aus Portugal. [TV]. 1985: Der Alte: Hals über Kopf [TV]; Alte Gauner: 7. Urlaubsgeld [TV]; Die Schwarzwaldklinik: 18. Das Findelkind [TV]; Der Galaxenbauer [TV]; Rosa Luxemburg. 1985/86: Liebling Kreuzberg. 1. Der neue Mann [TV]; Die Fräulein von damals [TV]. 1986: Dann ist nichts mehr wie vorher [TV]. 1986/87: Ein Heim für Tiere: 12. Esel Egon [TV]. 1987: Morgen in Shanghai [TVS]. 1987/88: Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany [DE/CH/ GB]. 1988: Die Männer vom K3: Spiel über zwei Banden [TV]. 1989: Der letzte Gast [TV]; Justitias kleine Fische: 41. Mitternachtsmaler [TV]; Der neue Mann [TV]; Tatort: Tod einer Ärztin [TV]. 1989/90: Marleneken [TV]. 1990: Der Alte: Ende mit Schrecken [TV]; Edgar, Hüter der Moral [TVS]; Karin Baal und die Halbstarken [TVD]; Der Teufel und seine zwei Töchter / Blancaflor [TV – DE/ES/IT/FR]; Scheidung à la carte [TV]; Ein Fall für zwei: Schleuderkurs [TV]. 1990/91: Tatort: Tödliche Vergangenheit [TV]; Im Kreise der Lieben. 1991: Praxis Bülowbogen. [TVS – season 3]; Die Männer vom K3: Auge um Auge [TV]. 1991/92: Cosimas Lexikon. 1993: Wenn Engel reisen [TVS]; Clara [TV]; Ein starkes Team: Gemischtes Doppel [TV]. 1993-98: Schwarz greift ein: 17. Die Versuchung [TV]. 1994: Zu treuenHänden [TV]. 1994/95: 5 Stunden Angst. Geiselnahme im Kindergarten [TV]. 1995: Doppelter Einsatz: Faustpfand [TV]. 1995/96: Rosa Roth: Verlorenes Leben [TV]. 1996: Ein Fall für zwei: Ausweg Mord [TV]; alphateam – Die Lebensretter im OP: 1. Sprung ins kalte Wasser [TV]. 1996/97: Polizeiruf 110: Der Fremde [TV]. 1997: Schlosshotel Orth: 25. Familienbande [TV – AT]. 1998: Alice auf der Flucht [TV]. 1999: Tatort: Dagoberts Enkel [TV]. 2000: Kehrwoche [SF]; Tatort: Die Möwe [TV]; Der Tunnel [TV]. 2000/01: Sass. 20 1: Edel & Starck: 10. Hokus, Pokus, Exitus [TV]. 2001/02: Betty – Schön wie der Tod [TV]. 2002: Tote Fische schwimmen oben [SF]; Höchstpersönlich: Karin Baal [TVD]; Bloch – Schwarzer Staub [TV]. 2002/03: Für immer verloren [TV]. 2003/04: Tatort: Gefährliches Schweigen [TV]. 2004: Vinzent; Der letzte Zeuge: Brennende Gier [TV]; Das Kuckucksei [SF]; Fliege hat Angst [TV]. 2004/05: Irren ist sexy [TV]. 2005: Polizeiruf 110: Die Mutter von Monte Carlo [TV]. 2005/06: Blackout – Die Erinnerung ist tödlich [TV]; Sieben Tage Sonntag. 2006: Polizeiruf 110: Die Lettin und ihr Lover [TV]; Hurenkinder [TV]. 2007/08: SOKO Köln: Tod dem Tyrannen [TV].
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LÍDA BAAROVÁ (Ludmila Babková) Born September 7, 1914, Prague (AustriaHungary, now Czech Republic) Died October 27, 2000, Salzburg (Austria) Cast as a sultry Slavic siren in a series of Ufa hits in the mid-1930s, Baarová is today remembered less for her film career than for her affair with Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. At age fifteen, she joined the Prague Dramatic Conservatory, and it was there that she adopted the pseudonym ‘Lída Baarová’ while moonlighting as a film extra, something that was strictly against the institution’s regulations. Expelled on account of this in 1931, she soon established herself as a popular star in a string of Czech film comedies and in 1934 was engaged by Ufa to come to Berlin. Promoted as an exotic vamp, her most frequent screen partner became Gustav Fröhlich (with whom she also became involved privately), e.g. in Gerhard Lamprecht’s BARCAROLE (1934/35), Georg Jacoby’s LEUTNANT BOBBY, DER TEUFELSKERL (A Devil of a Fellow, 1935) and Paul Wegener’s DIE STUNDE DER VERSUCHUNG (The Hour of Temptation, 1936). Baarová’s Ufa contract furthermore provided for her to make two films a year in Czechoslovakia. Baarová’s widely known relationship with the married Goebbels – on account of which she declined a M-G-M contract to come to Hollywood in 1937 – was forcibly ended by Hitler ‘for reasons of state’, and Baarová was blacklisted. As a consequence, her final German film, Paul Martin’s PREUSSISCHE LIEBESGESCHICHTE (A Prussian Love Story) was shelved until after the war. In 1938 she returned to Prague, where she appeared on stage and, opposite her younger sister Zorka Janú (1921–1946) in lyrical films such as Frantisek Cáp’s OHNIVÉ LÉTO (Fiery Summer, 1939). However, after occupying German forces extended the ban on her working to Prague, Otakar Vávra’s TURBINA (The Turbine, 1941) became her final Czech film. Between 1943 and 1945, she fled to Rome with her sister and appeared in a number of Italian pictures. After the end of the war, the pair were taken into custody as collaborators in Prague, leading Janú to commit suicide. Baarová escaped to Austria, and eventually returned to Italy in 1950, where she once again appeared in films, including Federico Fellini’s I VITELLONI (The Young and the Passionate, 1953). A couple of years in Spain followed, before Baarová finally settled in Austria, where she was able to find stage work. From 1960, she also appeared in West Germany, including in a stage production of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant’ (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) in 1975.
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ROBERT BABERSKE
Following Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, she was permitted to visit Prague again in 1990, and brought out her autobiography the following year. Three television documentaries about her life were made in the 1990s. [act – CS] 1931: Kariéra Pavla Èamrdy; Obràcencí Ferdyše Pištory. 1932: Lelíèek ve slubách Sherlocka Holmese [MLV]; Funebrák; Malostranští mušketýøi; Šenkýøka ‘U divoké krásy’; Rùové kombiné; Zapadlí vlastenci. 1933: Okénko; Jsem dìvèe s èertem v tìle [MLV]; Madla z cihelny; Sedmá velmoc; Její lékaø. 1933/34: Zlatá Kateøina. 1934: Baby [SF]; Pán na roztrhání; Pokušení paní Antonie; Dokud máš maminku; Grandhotel Nevada; Na rùích ustláno. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV – DE]. 1935: Leutnant Bobby, der Teufelskerl [AT]; Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV – DE]. 1936: Komediantská Princezna; Die Stunde der Versuchung [DE]; Verräter [DE]; Švadlenka. 1936/37: Lidé na køe. 1937: Patrioten [DE]; Die Fledermaus [DE]; Panenství. 1938: Der Spieler [MLV – DE]; Preußische Liebesgeschichte [DE]. 1939: Ohnivé léto [sng,act – CS (DE)]; Dívka v modrém [sng,act – CS (DE)]. 1940: Artur a Leontýna [CS (DE)]; Maskovaná milenka [CS (DE)]; Zivot je krásný [CS (DE)]; Za tichých nocí [CS (DE)]. 1941: Palièova dcera [CS (DE)]; Turbina [CS (DE)]. 1943: La fornarina [IT]; Ti conosco, mascherina! [IT]; Grazia [IT]; La sua strada [IT]; L’Ippocampo [IT]. 1943/44: Il cappello da prete [IT]; Vivere ancora [IT]. 1950: La bisarca [IT]; Gli amanti di Ravello [IT]. 1951: La vendetta di una pazza [IT]; Gli innocenti pagano [IT]. 1953: I vitelloni / Les inutiles [IT/FR]. 1953/54: Pietà per chi cade [IT]. 1956: Miedo [ES]; Todos somos necesarios / Ritorno alla vita [ES/IT]; Viaje de novios [ES]; La mestiza [ES]. 1956/ 57: El batallón de las sombras [ES]. 1957: Rapsodia de sangre [ES]. 1990/91: Joseph Goebbels. Gesehen von dem Ufa-Star Lida Baarova [TVD – DE]. 1995: Sladke horkosti Lídy Baarové [TVD – CZ]; ¯ivot hereèky Lídy Baarové pohledem Otakara Vávry [TVD – CZ].
ROBERT BABERSKE Born May 1, 1900, Rixdorf (now Berlin-Neukölln, Germany) Died March 27, 1958, Berlin (East Germany) Revered for his technical adroitness and assured lighting skills, cinematographer Baberske’s work comprises Weimar classics, Third Reich entertainment and propaganda films, and several of DEFA’s most important early productions. His brother, an employee of the Messter film studio, helped to secure Baberske a job as assistant to cameraman Karl Freund. Working both on fiction and documentary films, he received hands-on training in all aspects of cinematography, and went on to assist Freund on almost all major productions of the 1920s, in particular those directed by F. W. Murnau. Baberske was one of three cameramen (together with Reimar Kunze and László Schäffer) entrusted with the occasionally arduous task of shooting footage us-
ing hidden cameras for Walther Ruttman’s topographical documentary BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (Berlin, Symphony of a Big City, 1926/ 27), produced by Freund. Following Freund’s departure for Hollywood in 1929, Baberske stayed in Berlin and worked as second cameraman alongside Eugen Schüfftan, Franz Planer and especially Fritz Arno Wagner on pictures directed by Anatole Litvak and Reinhold Schünzel, as well as on G. W. Pabst’s KAMERADSCHAFT (Comradeship, 1931). He graduated to director of photography in 1932, and received a full-time contract with Ufa in Neubabelsberg two years later. Shooting revue films, comedies, light dramas, crime pictures and adventure films, he worked repeatedly with directors Georg Jacoby, Peter Paul Brauer, Erich Waschneck, and Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk) on the latter’s melodrama SCHLUSSAKKORD (Final Accord, 1936). Baberske also photographed two explicitly propagandistic works, Erich Waschneck’s anti-Semitic DIE ROTHSCHILDS (The Rothschilds, 1940) and Fritz Kirchhoff’s anti-British ANSCHLAG AUF BAKU (Assault on Baku, 1940/41). Baberske spent the conclusion of the war in safety in Tyrol’s Ziller Valley, where he and a full camera crew were ostensibly shooting location footage for an Ufa romance – despite having no film stock available to them. Returning to Berlin, he was employed by Artur Brauner’s CCC-Produktion from early 1947, and then joined DEFA in the Soviet Zone. He shot Hans Müller’s 1–2–3 CORONA (1947/48), and was director of photography on Slatan Dudow’s UNSER TÄGLICH BROT (Our Daily Bread, 1949), employing a style that consciously emulated the look of late Weimar proletarian cinema. Dudow’s contemporary exposé FRAUENSCHICKSALE (Women’s Destinies, 1952) was Baberske’s first colour film, and other significant DEFA productions on which he worked include Falk Harnack’s DAS BEIL VON WANDSBEK (The Axe of Wandsbek, 1950/51) and Wolfgang Staudte’s satire on Wilhelmine masculinity, DER UNTERTAN (The Kaiser’s Lackey, 1951), based on the novel by Heinrich Mann. [ass-cam – DE] 1917: Christa Hartungen. 1918: Der tote Gast. Der Fall Rödern. 1919: Die Arche; Die letzten Menschen. Die Arche. 2. Teil; Die Spinnen. 2. Das Brillantenschiff. 1920: Der Januskopf; Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin; Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag; Katharina die Große; Die Frau im Delphin oder 30 Tage auf dem Meeresgrund; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam. 1921: Der Schwur des Peter Hergatz; Der tote Gast; Die Ratten; Kinder der Finsternis. 1. Der Mann aus Neapel. – 2. Kämpfende Welten. 1921/22: Der brennende Acker. 1922: Herzog Ferrantes Ende; Lucrezia Borgia; Maciste und der Sträfling Nr. 51. 1923: Die Austreibung. Die
JOSEF VON BÁKY Macht der zweiten Frau; Die letzte Sensation des Zirkus Farini; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. 1923/24: Michael. 1924: Der letzte Mann. 1925: Tartüff; Varieté. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut; Metropolis. [co-cam – DE] 1926: K 13 513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines; 1000 Schritte Charleston. 1. – 4. Teil [SD – cam]; Madame wünscht keine Kinder. 1926/27: Der Sohn der Hagar; Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [DO]. 1927: Doña Juana. 1928: Eine Nacht in London / A Knight in London [DE/GB]. 1928/29: Fräulein Else. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena. 1930: Lohnbuchhalter Kremke; Dolly macht Karriere. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]; Gassenhauer [MLV]; Les quatres vagabonds [MLV]. 1931: M [MLV]; Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]; Kameradschaft / La tragédie de la mine [DE/FR]; Ronny [MLV] Ronny [French MLV]. 1931/32: Es wird schon wieder besser … 1932: Das Lied einer Nacht [MLV]; La chanson d’une nuit [MLV]; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; La belle aventure [MLV]; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann?; Tell Me Tonight [MLV]; Das Abenteuer einer schönen Frau [cam]; So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht [DE/AT]. 1932/33: Brennendes Geheimnis; Spione am Werk [MLV]. [cam – DE] 1933: Das häßliche Mädchen; Johannisnacht; Kleines Mädel – großes Glück [co-cam]; Keine Angst vor Liebe; Die Sonne geht auf. 1933/34: Hanneles Himmelfahrt. 1934: Jede Frau hat ein Geheimnis; Ich heirate meine Frau; Besuch am Abend; Glückspilze. 1934/35: Die törichte Jungfrau. 1935: Les époux célibataires [MLV]; Mach’ mich glücklich [MLV]; Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV]; Un homme de trop à bord [MLV]; Der höhere Befehl. 1935/ 36: Kalbsragout mit Champignons [SF]. 1936: Schlußakkord; Inkognito; Das Mädchen Irene. 1936/37: La griffe du hasard; Die Kronzeugin. 1937: Karussell; Streit um den Knaben Jo; Gewitterflug zu Claudia. 1937/38: Kleiner Mann, ganz groß. 1938: Das Mädchen von gestern Nacht; Was tun, Sybille?; Eine Nacht im Mai; Das Verlegenheitskind; Preußische Liebesgeschichte. 1938/39: Ich bin gleich wieder da; Mann für Mann. 1939: Fräulein; Der Stammbaum des Dr. Pistorius; Ihr erstes Erlebnis [co-cam]. 1939/40: Liebesschule. 1940: Die Rothschilds. Aktien auf Waterloo; Zwischen Hamburg und Haiti. 1940/41: Jungens; Anschlag auf Baku. 1941/42: Zwischen Himmel und Erde. 1942: Der Seniorchef; Sommerliebe. 1942/43: Kohlhiesels Töchter. 1943/44: Familie Buchholz; Neigungsehe; Träumerei. 1944/45: Der stumme Gast; Wie sagen wir es unseren Kindern? 1947: Herzkönig. [cam – DD] 1947/48: 1–2–3 Corona. 1948/49: Die Kuckucks [co-cam]. 1949: Unser täglich Brot. 1949/50: Bürgermeister Anna [co-cam]. 1950: Familie Benthin [cocam]. 1950/51: Das Beil von Wandsbek. 1951: Der Untertan. 1952: Frauenschicksale [co-cam]. 1953: Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck. 1954: Leuchtfeuer [DD/SE]. 1954/55: Ein Polterabend. 1955: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder; Robert Mayer – Der Arzt aus Heilbronn. 1956: Das tapfere Schneiderlein. 1957: Die Schönste.
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JOSEF VON BÁKY (Báky József) Born March 23, 1902, Zombor (Austria-Hungary, now Sombor, Slovakia) Died July 31, 1966, Munich (West Germany) Primarily remembered as the director of Ufa’s 25th anniversary Agfacolor spectacular MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43), Báky was a commercially successful director and occasional producer from the mid-1930s through to the early 1960s. Báky worked as a cinema projectionist while studying for his Abitur in his home town. In 1920, the family moved to Budapest, where he enrolled at technical college and his father became proprietor of the Urania cinema. With his father’s financial assistance, Báky became a partner in a film distribution company that went broke after just two years. Relocating to Berlin in 1927, Báky at first took work as an extra in films including Jakob & Luise Fleck’s ‘sexual hygiene film’ FRAUENARZT DR. SCHÄFER (Dr. Schäfer, Gynaecologist, 1928) before making the acquaintance of fellow Hungarian director Géza von Bolváry, whose assistant he remained for the next eight years. Baky’s directorial debut was the light-hearted INTERMEZZO (1936), followed by other musicals such as MENSCHEN VOM VARIETÉ (Variety People, 1938/39). Despite the success of MÜNCHHAUSEN in 1943, Báky encountered problems with his final film made during the ‘Third Reich’. VIA MALA (1943/44), a noir Heimatfilm about a case of patricide in the Alps, was banned ‘on account of its sombre tone’. In 1947, Báky founded his own production company, Objectiv-Film in Munich, and produced … UND ÜBER UNS DER HIMMEL (City of Torment, 1947), a melodrama that combined realist footage shot amid Berlin’s ruins with the star appeal of MÜNCHHAUSEN leading man Hans Albers playing a soldier returning from the war. The company’s second production, DER RUF (The Last Illusion, 1948/49), was an ambitious film detailing an émigré’s return home to Göttingen. Starring and scripted by (returning émigré) Fritz Kortner, the film proved a financial disaster. After this, Báky established himself as one of the 1950s’ most reliable directors of extremely commercial light entertainment films. In 1951, he won the German Film Award for best director for his adaptation of Erich Kästner’s children’s novel DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN (Two Times Lotte, 1950). Báky often foregrounded a gripping story at the expense of any kind of social critique, e.g. in his errant teenager parable DIE FRÜHREIFEN (Juvenile Delinquents, 1957) and his newspaper thriller DER MANN, DER SICH VERKAUFTE (The Man Who Sold Himself, 1958/59). His final film was the Edgar Wallace thriller DIE SELTSAME GRÄFIN (The Strange Countess, 1961).
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BÉLA BALÁZS
[ass-dir – DE] 1928/29: Champagner / Bright Eyes [AT/GB]. 1929: The Vagabond Queen [MLV – GB]; Der Erzieher meiner Tochter; Vater und Sohn. 1929/30: Delikatessen. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt; Ein Tango für Dich; Das Lied ist aus; Der Herr auf Bestellung. 1930/31: Die lustigen Weiber von Wien. 1931: Der Raub der Mona Lisa; Liebeskommando. 1932: Ein Lied, ein Kuß, ein Mädel. 1934: Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]. 1934/35: Winternachtstraum. 1935: Stradivari [MLV]. 1935/36: Die Entführung. 1930: Das Schloß in Flandern. [dir – DE] 1936: Intermezzo. 1937/38: Die kleine und die große Liebe. 1938: Die Frau am Scheidewege [HU]. 1938/39: Menschen vom Varieté [MLV – HU/DE]; A varieté csillagai [MLV – HU]. 1939: Ihr erstes Erlebnis. 1940: Der Kleinstadtpoet. 1941: Annelie. 1942/43: Münchhausen. 1943/44: Via Mala. 1947: … und über uns der Himmel [dir,pro]. 1948/49: Der Ruf [dir,pro]. 1949: Die seltsame Geschichte des Brandner Kaspar. 1950: Das doppelte Lottchen. 1952/53: Der träumende Mund. 1953: Tagebuch einer Verliebten. 1954: Du bist die Richtige [co-dir – DE/ AT]. 1955: Hotel Adlon; Dunja [AT]. 1956: Fuhrmann Henschel [AT]. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben. 1957: Die Frühreifen. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!; Stefanie. 1958/59: Der Mann, der sich verkaufte. 1959: Die ideale Frau; Marili. 1960: Sturm im Wasserglas. 1961: Die seltsame Gräfin.
BÉLA BALÁZS (Herbert Bauer) Born August 4, 1884, Szeged (Austria-Hungary, now Hungary) Died May 17, 1949, Budapest (Hungary) Marxist film theorist Balázs distinguished himself from his contemporaries Rudolf Arnheim and Siegfried Kracauer by having practical experience in filmmaking, in particular as a screenwriter. Balázs studied German and Hungarian literature in Budapest and received his doctorate in 1908. Working subsequently as a teacher, he also published poems, short stories, reviews and essays in leading Hungarian journals, albeit with little immediate success. He came to greater public attention following the premieres of two Béla Bartók works, the fairytale ballet ‘A fából faragott királyfi’ (The Wooden Prince, 1917) and the opera ‘A kékszakállú herceg vára’ (Bluebeard’s Castle, 1918), both based on plays by Balázs. Actively involved in Béla Kun’s Communist Republic in 1919, Balázs fled to Vienna after Kun’s government was overthrown. In Austria, he wrote his first screenplays and some two hundred film reviews that served as the basis for his first book-length study of film aesthetics, ‘Der sichtbare Mensch’ (Visible Man), which immediately secured his reputation as a leading international film theorist upon its publication in 1924. Balázs relocated to Berlin in 1926 where he wrote the script for Berthold Viertel’s episodic ‘cross-section’ of modern urban life, K 13 513. DIE ABEN-
TEUER EINES ZEHNMARKSCHEINES (Adventures
of a Ten Mark Note), and Alexander Korda’s comedy MADAME WÜNSCHT KEINE KINDER (Madame Doesn’t Want Children). This started a prolific screenwriting period in Balázs’s life. A staunch supporter of proletarian cinema, Balázs helped found the ‘Volksfilmverband’ (People’s Film Association) in 1928, and prepared German release versions of Soviet films. His second book-length study, ‘Der Geist des Films’ (The Spirit of Film) appeared in 1930. Meanwhile, Balázs co-wrote screenplays for a number of sound films, including G. W. Pabst’s DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/ 31) and Leni Riefenstahl’s mystic mountain film DAS BLAUE LICHT (The Blue Light, 1931/32). Receiving an invitation from the Merabpom studio, Balázs moved to Moscow in October 1931. Opposed to Stalinist doctrine and stunted in his creativity, Balázs grew increasingly bitter during his years in exile. A film project about the 1919 Hungarian revolution was banned upon completion in 1934. Balázs’ anti-fascist children’s picture KARL BRUNNER (1935/36) was withdrawn following Stalin’s non-aggression pact with Hitler in 1939, but had a successful re-release when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. A third work of film theory was published in 1945 under the title ‘Iskusstvo Kino’ (The Art of Cinema). Returning to Budapest after World War II, Balázs again found himself at odds with the new communist regime. He published his memoirs in 1946, and his final work of film theory – ‘Filmkultúra’ (Theory of the Film) – in 1948. In the meantime, Balázs continued to work as a script doctor, on Isztván Szöt’s ÉNEK A BÚZAMEZÖKRÖL (Song of the Cornfields) and Géza Radványi’s VALAHOL EURÓPÁBAN (It Happened in Europe, both 1947). In 1949, East Germany’s DEFA studio offered him the position of artistic director. However, a few days later, Balázs suffered a fatal cerebral haemorrhage. [scr – DE] 1921: Kaiser Karl [AT]. 1922: Der Unbekannte aus Rußland [AT]. 1924: Moderne Ehen [scr,sma]; Høíchy v manelství [sma – CS/DE]. 1926: K 13 513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines; Madame wünscht keine Kinder. 1927: Grand Hotel …!; Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen; 1 + 1 = 3. Ehe man Ehemann wird [co-scr]; Doña Juana [co-scr]. 1928: Was wir wollen – Was wir nicht wollen [SD – co-dir,cut]. 1928/29: Fräulein Else [scr]. 1929: Narkose. 1930: Sonntag des Lebens [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – co-scr – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – co-scr – DE/US]. 1931/32: Das blaue Licht. 1933/34: Tisza garit [co-dir,scr – SU]. 1934: Vor [ANI – SU]. 1935/36: Karl Brunner [SU]. 1941: V èernyh gorah [SF – SU]. 1947: Ének a búzamezökröl [coscr – HU]; Valahol Európában [co-scr – HU]. 1947/48: Chemie und Liebe [sma – DD]. 1949/50: Der Rat der Götter
MICHAEL BALLHAUS [co-scr – DD]. 1957: Az igazi égszinkék [sma – HU]. 1959: A póruljárt madárijesztö [sma – HU]. 1963: Herzog Blaubarts Burg [TV – sma]. 1974: Álmodó ifjúság [sma – HU]. 1979: Karcsi kalandjai [TV – sma – HU]; Karlchen, durchhalten [TV – sma – DD]; Veszélyes játékok / Ernste Spiele [sma – HU/DD].
MICHAEL BALLHAUS Born August 5, 1935, Berlin (Germany) Famous for his sumptuous, almost sculptural colour cinematography, award-winning cinematographer Ballhaus helped define the look of New German Cinema in the 1970s prior to establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after craftsmen. The nephew of film director Max Ophüls, Ballhaus initially trained as a still photographer after gaining his Abitur. In 1959 Ballhaus took a permanent position at the Südwestfunk television station in BadenBaden, where he worked his way up from assistant cameraman to head cinematographer by 1966, collaborating with directors including Peter Lilienthal, Herbert Vesely and Johannes Schaaf. Ballhaus’s first work for the big screen was Ralf Gregan’s satire MEHRMALS TÄGLICH (Several Times Daily, 1968). Subsequently, he shot Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s WHITY (1970), inaugurating a long-running collaboration that would comprise fifteen films and two Filmband in Gold awards for best cinematography, for DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 1972) and EINE REISE INS LICHT – DESPAIR (Despair, 1977/78). Ballhaus also co-directed and produced the television documentary FASSBINDER PRODUZIERT: FILM NR. 8 (Fassbinder Produces Film No. 8) in 1970, before parting ways with Fassbinder during the preparations for BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80). Working with director Peter Lilienthal, he travelled to Nicaragua for DER AUFSTAND (The Uprising, 1979/80) and to New York for DEAR MR. WONDERFUL (1981/82). Having gotten acquainted with several US filmmakers during the latter project, Ballhaus debuted in America with John Sayles’s BABY, IT’S YOU (1982/83). After settling permanently in the States, a fruitful collaborative partnership with Martin Scorsese began in 1984 with the black comedy AFTER HOURS, and continued with THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986), THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1987/88), GOODFELLAS (1990), AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993), GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002), and THE DEPARTED (2006). During the mid-1980s, Ballhaus also became renowned as director of music videos for artists including Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, and Chaka Khan. He picked up Oscar nominations for best cinematog-
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raphy in 1988 for James L. Brooks’s BROADCAST NEWS, in 1989 for Steve Kloves’s THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS and in 2003 for Scorsese’s GANGS OF NEW YORK, and was named Cameraman of the Year in 1989. He worked with top Hollywood directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Barry Levinson, and Mike Nichols, as well as with German expats such as Volker Schlöndorff on the TV adaptation DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1985) and Wolfgang Petersen on the blockbusters OUTBREAK (1994/95) and AIR FORCE ONE (1997). Ballhaus maintained strong links with Germany, having lectured at Film Academies in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. After the death of his wife Helga (1935– 2006), an actress and art director, he announced his retirement from active film-making. In 2007 he received a number of honorary awards including the International Achievement Award of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) as well as an European Film Award. In 2008 Ballhaus announced a series of short documentaries shot by his students as part of an initiative (‘Ballhaus Klimaschutz-Initiative’) to combat climate change. Ballhaus conducted a book-length series of interviews about his career with director Tom Tykwer in 2002, published as ‘Das fliegende Auge’ (The Roving Eye). His son Florian Ballhaus (b. 1965) has been his regular assistant since 1983, and has worked extensively on German television productions since the mid1990s. [cam – DE] 1957-71: Sie schreiben mit [TVS]. 1959-61: Traumland der Sehnsucht [DO]. 1960: Die Nachbarskinder [TV – co-cam]. 1960/61: Die Kassette [TV]. 1963: Der Nachfolger [TV – co-cam]; Der Klassenaufsatz [TV]. 1964: Das Martyrium des Peter O’Hey [TV – co-cam]. 1965: Der große Wildenberg. Ein Feuilleton [TV]. 1965/66: Große Liebe [TV]; Abschied [TV]; Ein Haus aus lauter Liebe [TV]. 1967/68: Gold für Montevasall [TV]. 1968: Ganze Tage in den Bäumen [TV]; Der Eine und der Andere [TV]; Mehrmals täglich. 1968/69: Darf ich Sie zur Mutter machen?; Der Kidnapper [TV]. 1969: Deine Zärtlichkeiten. 1969/70: Wir – zwei. 1970: Whity; Der amerikanische Soldat [act]; Fassbinder produziert: Film Nr. 8 [TVD – co-dir, pro]. 1970/71: Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte. 1971: Der trojanische Sessel [TV]; Sand [TV]. 1972: Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant; Der Marquis von Keith [TV]; Der Held [TV]; Adele Spitzeder [TV]; Tschetan, der Indianerjunge. 1972/73: Ich bin Bürger der DDR [DO]. 1973: Welt am Draht [TV]; Tatort: Tote brauchen keine Wohnung [TV]; Martha [TV]; Das Sparschwein [TV]. 1974: Made in Germany und USA [co-cam]; Ein Haus für uns: Aus der Familie der Panzerechsen / Die Insel [TV]; Rosenmontag [TV]; Faustrecht der Freiheit. 1974/75: Das Amulett des Todes. 1974-76: Unter einem Dach [TVS]. 1975: Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt zum Himmel; Sonntag [TV]; Sommergäste; Die Wahl [TV]; Dorothea Merz [TV]. 1975/76: Ich will doch nur, daß
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WILFRIED BASSE
ihr mich liebt [TV]; Satansbraten [co-cam,act]. 1976: Chinesisches Roulette / Roulette chinoise [DE/FR]; Adolf und Marlene; Also es war so … [co-cam – DE/AT]; Auf dem Chimborazo [TV]. 1976/77: Curd Jürgens – Der Filmstar, der vom Theater kam [TVD – co-cam]; Nur zum Spaß – nur zum Spiel. Kaleidoskop Valeska Gert [DO]; Bolwieser [TV]. 1976/83: Bolwieser [FF]. 1976-78: Der kleine Godard an das Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film. 1977: Frauen in New York [TV]. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst. EP 1: Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair; Spiel der Verlierer [act]; Venedig – Die Insel der Glückseligen am Rande des Untergangs [DO]. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun [act,cam]; Der Gehilfe [TV]; Bourbon Street Blues [SF]; Die erste Polka. 1978/79: Trilogie des Wiedersehens [TV]. 1979: Groß und klein [TV]. 1979/80: Der Aufstand [acam]; Oye Raimundo, adónde vas? / Kindheit in Amacueca – Oye Raimundo, adónde vas? [pro – MX/DE]. 1980: Alpensaga V: Der deutsche Frühling [TV – AT]; Malou; Weihnacht 80. EP 1: Maria und Josef / EP 3: Das Menschenkindl [TV – AT]; Der Auslöser [TV]. 1981: Looping – Der lange Traum vom kurzen Glück; Heute spielen wir den Boss – Wo geht’s denn hier zum Film?; Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [DE/FR/IT]. 1981/82: Dear Mr. Wonderful. 1982: Heller Wahn / L’Amie [DE/FR]. 1982/83: Baby, It’s You [US]. 1983: Ediths Tagebuch; Old Enough [US]. 1983/84: Das Autogramm / L’Autographe [DE/FR]. [cam – US] 1984: Reckless; Heartbreakers. 1984/85: After Hours. 1985: Death of a Salesman / Tod eines Handlungsreisenden [TV – US/DE]; Landscape With Waitress [SF]. 1986: Under the Cherry Moon; The Color of Money. 1987: The Glass Menagerie; Broadcast News. 1987/88: The Last Temptation of Christ [US/CA]. 1988: Baja Oklahoma [TV]; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; The House on Carroll Street; Working Girl. 1989: The Fabulous Baker Boys. 1990: GoodFellas; Postcards from the Edge. 1991: The Mambo Kings; What About Bob?; Guilty by Suspicion / La liste noire [US/FR]. 1992: Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 1993: Age of Innocence. 1993/94: I’ll Do Anything. 1994: Quiz Show. 1994/95: Outbreak. 1996: Sleepers. 1997: Air Force One; Primary Colors. 1998: Wild Wild West. 1998/99: The Thirteenth Floor / The 13th Floor – Bist du was du denkst? [pro – US/DE]. 1999/2000: What Planet Are You From? 2000: The Legend of Bagger Vance; Gone Underground [SF]. 2002: Gangs of New York. 2003: Uptown Girls; Something’s Gotta Give. 2004: Triell [SF – DE]. 2004/ 05: Sonntagsluft – eine Theaterproduktion in Deutschland [DO – DE]. 2005/06: The Departed. 2006: Cinematographer Style [DO – app]. 2007: Der einsame König [SF – DE]; 8 neue Minuten-Filme [SF – DE]; Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app – DE]. 2008: Ballhaus Klimaschutz-Initiative: Eisblume / Finkenwerder Scholle / Marathon / Turquoise [SF – supv – DE]; Michael Ballhaus – Eine Reise durch mein Leben [TVD – app – DE].
WILFRIED BASSE (Wilhelm-Friedrich Heinrich Hermann Basse) Born August 17, 1899, Hanover (Germany) Died June 6, 1946, Berlin (Germany) A documentary filmmaker whose gently mocking avant-garde montages of everyday life epitomised the ‘New Sobriety’ of the Weimar Republic’s final years, Basse later made educational films for schools during the ‘Third Reich’. Basse inherited his father’s bank in 1923, and ran it successfully for several years while maintaining a keen interest in architecture and the arts. In 1927 he gave up his career to become a trainee at Hans Cürlis’s film company Institut für Kulturforschung (Institute for Cultural Research) in Berlin. Initially designing promotional artwork, he soon graduated to assistant cameraman. After purchasing his own handheld camera, Basse directed the short BAUMBLÜTENZEIT IN WERDER (Blossom Season in Werder, 1929), released through left-wing distributor Prometheus-Film, and founded his own production company, Basse-Film. The company’s first production, MARKT IN BERLIN (Market in Berlin, 1929), immediately gained acclaim for the intimacy and spontaneity of its handheld camerawork, as well as for its satirical take on the rituals of everyday life. Basse was thereafter commissioned to make two architectural documentaries, DER WIRTSCHAFTLICHE BAUBETRIEB (Economical Building Methods, 1930) and ABBRUCH UND AUFBAU (Demolition and Reconstruction, 1930/31), the latter of which rhythmically charted the regeneration of Berlin’s Alexanderplatz over an eighteen-month period. He also shot DAS ROTE SPRACHROHR (The Red Mouthpiece, 1931), featuring Maxim Vallentin’s communist theatre group of the same name. In 1932, Basse commenced work on a feature-length sound documentary about Germany, intended to highlight the nation’s broad array of different milieus and their distinctive inhabitants. However, by the time he had shot 14,000 metres of footage in over one hundred locations, the Nazis had seized power. The film was altered and trimmed of several minutes at the hands of the new censors, and gained the crypto-nationalist title DEUTSCHLAND – ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND HEUTE (Germany Between Yesterday and Today, 1932–34). Derided in the press for its apolitical stance and non-unifying character, it proved a huge financial disaster for Basse, although it did receive a special award at the Venice Film Festival. In 1935, Basse joined the Reichsstelle für den Unterrichtsfilm (RfU – Reich Institute for Educational Films) – the sole filmmaking body not under Propagandaminister Goebbels’s direct control – where he produced some forty shorts for to be shown in
ALBERT BASSERMANN
schools. However, these lacked the spontaneity of his earlier works, since they had to be given script approval, and were therefore mostly staged. Basse also contributed slow-motion and other specialist camerawork for Leni Riefenstahl’s OLYMPIA (1936–38), after which he produced a series of sports films for schools, one of which, KUGELSTOSSEN (Shot-Put, 1937), received a gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition. Following the outbreak of World War II, the Educational Film Unit was replaced with a new body producing wartime information films. Clinically depressed, Basse suffered a nervous and physical breakdown, and died during routine surgery in 1946. [dir – DE]. 1928/29: Die Donau. Vom Schwarzwald bis zum Schwarzen Meer [DO – ass-cam]. 1929: Baumblütenzeit in Werder [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]; Markt in Berlin [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]; Wochenmarkt auf dem Wittenbergplatz [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1930: Der wirtschaftliche Baubetrieb [DO – dir,cam,cut,pro]. 1930/31: Abbruch und Aufbau [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1931: Mit Optik 1,4. Kamerastudie [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]; Das rote Sprachrohr [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1932-34: Deutschland – zwischen gestern und heute [DO – dir,scr, cam,cut,pro]. 1934/35: Der Bötticher baut einen Zober [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Der Kohlenmeiler [SD – dir,cam, cut,pro]; Bunter Alltag [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]; Glückliche Heimat [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1935: Braunkohle-Tagebau [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]; Hausbau [SD – dir, cam,cut,pro]; Roggenernte [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Wie ein Pflasterstein entsteht [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]. 1935/36: Erbkranke – Erbgesunde [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]; Wie ein Ziegelstein entsteht [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]. 1936: Ein Brief wird befördert [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]; Dachschiefer [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]; Handweberei I. Scheren und Aufbäumen der Kette / II. Aufbringen der Kette und Weben [SD – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Ein Kohlenschleppzug auf dem Mittelrhein [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Der Schuhmacher [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Tabakbau in der Uckermark [SD – dir, cam,cut,pro]; Vom Korn zum Brot [SD – dir,cam,cut, pro]. 1936-38: Olympia. 1. Fest der Völker. – 2. Fest der Schönheit [DO – cam]. 1937: Dämmen einer Schornsteingruppe [SD – pro]; Kugelstoßen [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Kurzstreckenlauf [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Perspektivisches Sehen [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]; Schwälmer Bäuerin am Spinnrad [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Schwimmen [SD – dir, cam,cut,pro]; Städtische Feuerwehr [SD – dir,co-cam,cut, pro]; Weitsprung [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]. 1938: Das Anlernen junger Pferde im Zuge [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Junge Bären im Zoologischen Garten [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Junge Löwen im Zoologischen Garten [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Junge Paviane im Zoologischen Garten [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Schwäbische Kunde [SD]. 1939: Ein Tag auf einer fränkischen Dorfstraße [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Deutschland – Gastliches Land [SD – dir,co-cam,cut,pro]; Bunter Alltag im Zoo [SD – co-dir,co-cam,pro]; D-Zug fertig zur Fahrt [SD – dir, co-cam,pro]. 1939/40: Der Jockey [SD MLV – dir,cut, pro]; Le jockey [SD MLV – dir,cut,pro]. 1947: Es liegt an Dir
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[SD – co-cam]. 1968: Menschen im Deutschland von 1932 [DO – co-dir,co-cam,snd].
ALBERT BASSERMANN Born September 7, 1867, Mannheim (Germany) Died May 15, 1952, on a flight between New York (USA) and Zurich (Switzerland) Widely acclaimed as Germany’s foremost classical actor during the early 20th century, Bassermann played a key role in breaking the ban for theatre actors appearing in films during the 1910s, and continued to undertake regular film work for the rest of his life. After studying chemistry in Strasbourg, Bassermann was initially employed as a technician at a cellulose plant before training at Mannheim’s theatre from 1887. Engagements at numerous provincial venues followed, including the respected Meininger Hoftheater in 1891. Appearing at Berlin theatres from 1895, Bassermann made a name for himself especially as part of Otto Brahm’s ensemble at the Deutsches Theater (1899–1904) and at the Lessing-Theater (1904–09), and 1909–15 under Max Reinhardt’s direction at the Deutsches Theater. Bassermann’s screen debut in Max Mack’s DER ANDERE (The Other, 1912/13), a variant on the Jekyll & Hyde theme adapted by Paul Lindau from his earlier stage play, was heralded as a major event in the German-speaking press, and helped to alter attitudes towards the cultural standing of the new medium. Starring and supporting roles in over forty silent and sound films followed, with Bassermann working under directors including William Wauer, Adolf Gärtner and Richard Oswald. No longer tied to any one ensemble following his years with Reinhardt, the actor undertook guest appearances and tours across Germany and the Continent from 1915, mostly alongside his wife, actress Else Schiff-Bassermann (1878–1961). A Jew, Bassermann emigrated to Switzerland following the Nazis’ rise to power, and in 1934 publicly declared his émigré status. Sporadic stage work in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands followed, before the couple and their handicapped daughter relocated to the USA in 1939. After appearing in a small supporting role as Prof. Robert Koch in William Dieterle’s biopic DR. EHRLICH’S MAGIC BULLET (1939/40), the grey-haired Bassermann played primarily sympathetic, grandfatherly, roles in over twenty Hollywood films. He picked up an Oscar nomination for his performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), for which he had learned his dialogue phonetically. He also starred as a rather touching incarnation of the Captain of Koepenick in Richard Oswald’s PASSPORT TO HEAVEN (1941), and made his English-speaking stage debut in 1944.
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GIUSEPPE BECCE
Returning to Europe after the war, he staged a successful tour of over fifty German theatres, and undertook one final outstanding film role, as Professor Ratov in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s British-made THE RED SHOES (1948). Bassermann’s last stage appearance in Germany took place at the reopening of Berlin’s Schiller-Theater in 1951. [act – DE]. 1912/13: Der Andere. 1913: Der letzte Tag; Der König [scr,act]. 1914: Das Urteil des Arztes. 1917: Du sollst keine anderen Götter haben; Herr und Diener; Der eiserne Wille. 1918: Vater und Sohn; Dr. Schotte; Die Brüder von Zaarden; Lorenzo Burghardt. 1919: Der letzte Zeuge; Das Werk seines Lebens; Eine schwache Stunde; Die Duplizität der Ereignisse. 1920: Die Stimme; Die Söhne des Grafen Dossy; Masken. 1. Mister Rex. – 2. Varieté. – 3. Ein Trappistenkloster; Der Frauenarzt; Puppen des Todes. 1920/21: Die Nächte des Cornelius Brouwer; Brennendes Land. 1921: Die kleine Dagmar; Das Weib des Pharao; Frauenopfer. 1922: Lucrezia Borgia; Christoph Columbus; Der Mann mit der eisernen Maske. 1922/23: Erdgeist; AltHeidelberg. 1923/24: Helena. 1. Der Raub der Helena. – 2. Der Untergang Trojas. 1925: Der Herr Generaldirektor; Briefe, die ihn nicht erreichten. 1926: Wenn das Herz der Jugend spricht. 1928/29: Fräulein Else. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena. Der gefangene Kaiser. 1930: Dreyfus; Alraune; ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand. 1931: Gefahren der Liebe; Voruntersuchung [MLV]; Zum goldenen Anker [MLV – FR/US]; Kadetten. 1933: Ein gewisser Herr Gran [MLV]. [act – US] 1934/35: Letzte Liebe [AT]. 1938: Les héros de la Marne [FR]. 1939/40: (The Story of) Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet. 1940: Foreign Correspondent; Knute Rockne – All American; Moon Over Burma; A Dispatch from Reuters; Escape. 1941: A Woman’s Face; New Wine; The Shanghai Gesture; Fly-by-night; Passport to Heaven. 1942: Reunion in France; Invisible Agent; The Moon and Sixpence; Desperate Journey; Once Upon a Honeymoon. 1943: Good Luck Mr. Yates; Madame Curie. 1944: Since You Went Away. 1945: Rhapsody in Blue. 1945/46: The Searching Wind. 1947: The Private Affairs of Bel Ami; Escape Me Never. 1948: The Red Shoes [GB].
GIUSEPPE BECCE Born February 3, 1877, Lonigo (Italy) Died October 5, 1973, Berlin (West Germany) German cinema’s most prolific composer of original scores and stock music to accompany silent films, Italian-born Becce subsequently served as musical director on numerous sound films through the late 1950s. Becce attended the Padua Conservatory while still at school, studying flute and cello alongside linguistics and geography, and became conductor of Padua University’s student orchestra by age eighteen. In 1901, he moved to Berlin to study music under Leopold Schmidt and as a private pupil of Arthur Nikisch,
and went on to compose the operetta ‘Das Bett der Pompadour’ (Madame Pompadour’s Bed), which premiered with Becce as conductor in Bremen in 1910, and the opera ‘Tullia’, first produced in Breslau in 1912. In 1913 Becce began composing original pieces to accompany Oskar Messter film productions, in particular those starring Henny Porten. He also played the lead in Messter’s RICHARD WAGNER (The Life and Works of Richard Wagner, 1913) and supplied a ‘Wagnerian’ score after Wagner’s estate demanded too much money for the originals. 1915–23, Becce was conductor of the fifteen-piece orchestra at Berlin’s Mozartsaal cinema, and went on to conduct the orchestras at other first-run cinemas in the capital. As head of Ufa’s musical section in the 1920s, Becce wrote original scores to accompany Fritz Wendhausen’s DER STEINERNE REITER (The Stone Rider, 1922) and F. W. Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924) and TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925), and conducted his own music at premieres of films by directors including Gerhard Lamprecht, Joe May and Berthold Viertel. Becce also published the trade journal ‘Kinomusikblatt’ (later retitled ‘Film-Ton-Kunst’) from 1921, as well as ‘Kinothek’, an extensive series of stock music collections from 1919, some of which later turned up as cues on the soundtracks of Hollywood productions including James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN (1931). With the advent of sound, Becce became musical director on opera and operetta films such as Mario Bonnard’s FRA DIAVOLO (1930/31) and Max Neufeld’s DAS LIED DER SONNE (Song of the Sun, 1933), as well as on several vehicles for popular tenor Beniamino Gigli including DU BIST MEIN GLÜCK (Thou Art My Joy, 1936). Working in a broad range of genres throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Becce’s mountain film scores stood out in particular, emphatically underlining the drama of Leni Riefenstahl’s DAS BLAUE LICHT (The Blue Light, 1931/32), Luis Trenker’s BERGE IN FLAMMEN (Mountains on Fire, 1931) and the sound version of Arnold Fanck’s DIE WEISSE HÖLLE VOM PIZ PALÜ (The White Hell of Pitz Palu, 1929) in 1935. Spending much of World War II working in Italy, Becce’s post-war scores for West German productions included educational films, further mountain films and Heimatfilms including Helmut Weiss’s DAS SCHWEIGEN IM WALDE (Silence of the Forest, 1955) and Eduard von Borsody’s DER SCHÄFER VOM TRUTZBERG (The Shepherd of Trutzberg, 1958). Becce received a Filmband in Gold lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1971.
GIUSEPPE BECCE [mus – DE] 1913: Richard Wagner [mus,act]; Schuldig; Komtesse Ursel; Der Weg des Lebens. 1915: Auf der Alm, da gibt’s ka Sünd; Es fiel ein Reif in der Frühlingsnacht; Das Tagebuch Collins. 1915/16: Frau Eva. 1916: Abseits vom Glück; Das wandernde Licht; Die Räuberbraut. Eine tragische Posse; Der Ruf der Liebe; Gelöste Ketten; Feenhände. 1916/17: Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach; Der Liebesbrief der Königin. Intriguenspiel in drei Akten und 475 Küssen. 1917: Die Prinzessin von Neutralien; Gefangene Seele; Höhenluft; Die Faust des Riesen [2 parts]; Gräfin Küchenfee. Ein Film ohne Liebe und ohne Verlobung. 1917/18: Edelsteine. 1918: Auf Probe gestellt; Der Prozeß Hauers; Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall; Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier; Vater und Sohn; Dr. Schotte; Das Maskenfest des Lebens; Die Sieger; Die Heimkehr des Odysseus; Die blaue Laterne; Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell. 1918/19: Irrungen. 1919: Ihr Sport; Die Schuld; Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth; Die Rache des Titanen; Das Spiel von Liebe und Tod; Die lebende Tote; Eine schwache Stunde; Rose Bernd; Der Tempelräuber; Nachtasyl; Teufelchen; Die Fahrt ins Blaue; Monica Vogelsang. 1919/20: Mascotte. 1920: Kohlhiesels Töchter; Die goldene Krone; Christian Wahnschaffe. 1. Teil: Weltbrand; 10 Milliarden Volt. 1921: Scherben. 1922: Der Absturz. Ein Drama aus dem Künstlerleben [mus,act]; Der steinerne Reiter. 1923: Buddenbrooks. 1924: Dekameron-Nächte / Decameron Nights [DE/GB]; Die Andere; Komödie des Herzens; Schicksal; Das schöne Abenteuer; Der letzte Mann. 1924/25: Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit [DO – several international versions]; Der Demütige und die Sängerin; Der Farmer aus Texas. 1925: Tartüff; Schatten der Weltstadt; Die da unten. 1925/26: Geheimnisse einer Seele; Die letzte Droschke von Berlin. Alte Herzen – neue Zeit; Menschen untereinander. 1926: Kubinke, der Barbier und die drei Dienstmädchen; Die keusche Susanne; K 13 513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines. 1926/27: Der Himmel auf Erden. 1927: Üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit; Am Rande der Welt; Der Katzensteg; Die Leibeigenen; Paname n’est pas Paris / Die Apachen von Paris [FR/DE]; Die geheime Macht; Doña Juana. 1927/28: Die Durchgängerin. 1928: Angst; Leontines Ehemänner; Eine Frau von Format; Die große Liebe (Revolutionshochzeit); Unfug der Liebe; Der geheime Kurier; Der Ring der Bajadere; Die drei Frauen von Urban Hell; Die Siebzehnjährigen; Der Kampf der Tertia. 1928/29: Das brennende Herz; Der Zigeunerprimas. 1929: Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt; Der Günstling von Schönbrunn; Jennys Bummel durch die Männer; Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü; Schwarzwaldmädel; Sprengbagger 1010. 1930: Kirmes in Hollywood [ANI]; Skandal um Eva [mus,act]; Der Sohn der weißen Berge [MLV]; Les chevaliers de la montagne [MLV – DE/FR]; Das alte Lied; Die Erzeugung der echten Knüpfteppiche im Orient und in Deutschland [SD]; Zweierlei Moral; Tres Caballeros [ANI]. 1930/31: Fra Diavolo [MLV – DE/FR]. 1931: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen; Mündiges Volk [SD]; Sanssouci [SD]; Berge in Flammen [MLV – DE/FR]; Les monts en flammes [MLV – DE/FR]. 1931/32: The Doomed Battalion [MLV – DE/US]; Unter falscher Flagge; Das blaue Licht; Die Vier vom Bob 13 [MLV]; L’amour en vitesse [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: Razzia in St. Pauli; Küchen-Sinfonie [SD]; Extase /
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Ekstase [German + French MLV – CS/AT]; Der Rebell [MLV]; The Rebel [MLV – DE/US]. 1932/33: Der Läufer von Marathon; Camicia nera [DO – IT]; Spione am Werk [MLV]; Gipfelstürmer. 1933: Hans Westmar; La canzone del sole [MLV – IT/DE]; Das Lied der Sonne [MLV]. 1933/34: Der ewige Traum [MLV]; Rêve éternel [MLV – DE/FR]; Der verlorene Sohn. 1934: Polarstürme; Ich heirate meine Frau; Peer Gynt. 1934/35: Campo di maggio [MLV – IT/DE]; Hundert Tage [MLV – IT]; Wunder des Fliegens; Nanga Parbat [DO]. 1935: Künstlerliebe; Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü [sound version]. 1935/36: Der Kaiser von Kalifornien. 1936: Ein seltsamer Gast; New York. Ein Städtefilm [SD]; Die Stunde der Versuchung; Manja Valewska [AT]; Du bist mein Glück. 1936/37: Die Stimme des Herzens; Condottieri [German + Italian MLV – IT/DE]. 1937: Madame Bovary; Die gelbe Flagge; Der Berg ruft [MLV]. 1938: Pfälzer Land und Moselfahrt [SD]; Le joueur [MLV – DE/FR]; Der Spieler [MLV]; Liebesbriefe aus dem Engadin / Lettere d’amore dall’Engadina [DE/IT]. 1938/39: Schweizer Bergfibel [SD – CH]; Sieger des Friedens [SD]; Salonwagen E 417; Alpenföhn [SD – CH/DE]; Ein Abenteuer am Thunersee [SF – CH/DE]. 1939: Urlaub im Schnee [SD]; Frau im Strom; Der König der Berge [SD]. 1939/40: Der Feuerteufel. 1939/ 51: Atlantische Inseln und die Welt am Mittelmeer [DO]. 1941: Kampf um den Berg [SD]; Clarissa; Krishna; Amore imperiale [IT]; Non mi sposo più [MLV – IT]; Viel Lärm um Nixi [MLV]. 1941/42: La cena delle beffe [IT]. 1942: Orizzonte di sangue [IT]; Mit den Augen einer Frau. 1942/43: Fahrt ins Abenteuer; L’angelo bianco [IT]. 1943/48: Im Banne des Monte Miracolo [MLV – AT/IT]. 1947: Il corriere del re [IT]. 1947/48: Addio, Mimì [IT]. 1948/49: Bergkristall [DE/AT]. 1949: Bildschnitzer im Grödnertal [SD]. 1949/50: Paradies auf Erden [DO – CH/NL/DE]. 1950: Skiurlaub in den Dolomiten [SD]; An der Dolomitenstraße [SD]; Frühling in Südtirol [SD]; Schönes Venedig [SD]; Gondelfahrt durch Venedig [SD]; Niemals mutlos [SD]. 1950/51: Gesetz ohne Gnade [AT/DE]; Ewig läuten die Glocken [SD – AT]; Ewiges Handwerk [SD – AT]; Lofotenfischer [SD]; Aus König Laurins Rosengarten; Urlaub im Schnee [SD]. 1951: Was das Herz befiehlt; Nacht am Mont Blanc / Weiße Hölle am Mont Blanc [AT/DE]. 1951/52: Bergsommer [SD]; Straße zur Heimat; Hinter Klostermauern; Kleine Kletterfahrt [SD]. 1952: Karneval in Weiß; Der Herrgottschnitzer von Ammergau; Hofkirche Innsbruck [SD – AT]. 1952/53: Sonniges Südtirol [SD]. 1953: Junges Herz voll Liebe; Sonniges Spanien [DO]; Ehestreik; Kavaliere im Eis [SD]. 1953/54: SOS Zinnen-Nordwand [SD]. 1954: Hänsel und Gretel; Rotkäppchen; Ruf der Berge [DO – CH]. 1955: Auf Himmelsgraten [DO]; Wetterwart auf Deutschlands höchstem Gipfel [SD]; Ski Heil! [SD]; Das Schweigen im Walde; Kleiner Mensch gib acht! [DO]. 1956: Über Tal und Wolken [DO]; Der Jäger von Fall. 1957: Der Edelweißkönig; Unser Freund der Haflinger [SD]; Phänomen Klettern [DO]. 1958: Der Schäfer vom Trutzberg. 1959: Zauber der Dolomiten [DO]. 1968: Der Tageslauf eines Bergpfarrers [SD]. Erlebnisse am Matterhorn [DO].
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BEN BECKER
BEN BECKER Born December 19, 1964, Bremen (West Germany) The offspring of a clan of prominent actors, Ben Becker in the 1990s became one of the most popular young male film and television stars of unified Germany, sometimes aiming hard for the image of an enfant terrible in the tradition of eccentric Klaus Kinski. Becker is the son of actors Monika Hansen (b. 1943) and Rolf Becker (b. 1930), stepson of actor Otto Sander, and the brother of singer and actress Meret Becker (b. 1969). He grew up in Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin, and started out as a child actor in radio and in small roles in films. After training as an actor at the Schaubühne in Berlin where he earned his living as a stagehand, he secured his first contract with the Ernst-Deutsch-Theater in Hamburg. Becker subsequently had engagements at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In the late 1980s he appeared more frequently and in increasingly substantial parts on television. Initially cast as a young thug or macho in popular crime series such as TATORT (Crime Scene) and DER ALTE (The Old Fox) he gradually was given more serious character parts. In the TV-movie POLIZEIRUF 110: TOTES GLEIS (Dead End, 1995), he and Otto Sander played a pair of incompetent crooks in provincial East Germany. For his performance, Becker received the prestigious Adolf Grimme Prize. Becker and Sander teamed up again for the sequel DAS WUNDER VON WUSTERMARK (The Miracle of Wustermark). Other television assignments in the 1990s included the leading role of a police detective in ten episodes of the series FRIEDEMANN BRIX (1996/97). Becker’s first major film role was in Peter Sehr’s DAS SERBISCHE MÄDCHEN (The Serbian Girl, 1989/90), as a cad who disowns a Serbian girl he had a holiday affair with and who is expecting his child. His breakthrough came 1995 with Joseph Vilsmaier’s neo-Heimatfilm SCHLAFES BRUDER (Brother of Sleep) departing from his macho image by playing a gay character. For his portrait of 1930s singer Robert Biberti in Vilsmaier’s biopic COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (The Harmonists, 1997) he got his share of the numerous awards the film picked up. Becker strengthened his professional reputation with roles as diverse as a romantic SS officer in the Nazi melodrama EIN LIED VON LIEBE UND TOD – GLOOMY SUNDAY (1998/ 99), a Jewish journalist in EIN GANZ GEWÖHNLICHER JUDE (Just a Regular Jew, 2005), and the villain in the adaptation of the classical children’s book DIE ROTE ZORA (Red Zora, 2006/07). Even after achieving film and television success, Becker continued to work in the theatre. Alongside sister Meret, he staged his own production of ‘Sid &
Nancy’, and in 1999 he was cast in the leading role in Alfred Döblin’s ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. His other activities have included playing in a rock band and running a pub in Berlin. Becker repeatedly featured in Germany’s tabloid press for this erratic behaviour in public, and for his alleged substance abuse. Recovering from a serious breakdown in summer 2007 he subsequently went on tour reciting selections from the Bible. [act – DE – TV] 1978/79: Trilogie des Wiedersehens. 1980: Weltuntergang in Berlin. 1983: Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [FF – DE/FR]. 1986/87: Tatort: Tod im Elefantenhaus. 1987: Whopper-Punch 777 [FF]; Ein Fall für TKKG: Überfall im Hafen; Eine geschlossene Gesellschaft; Always Afternoon [AU]. 1988: Der Alte: Schweigen für immer; Der Alte: Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Mord. 1988/89: Der Landarzt.: Auf neuen Wegen / Das Leben geht weiter [TVS]. 1989: Die Männer vom K3: Augen zu und durch; Quarantäne. 1989/90: Die zukünftigen Glückseligkeiten [DE/CH]; Das serbische Mädchen [FF]; Der Fahnder: Das schwarze Schaf. 1991: Tatort: Tod im Häcksler; Ein Fall für zwei: Schweigen ist Geld. 1991/92: Landschaft mit Dornen; Die Serpentintänzerin / Szerpentintáncosnö [FF – DE/HU]. 1991-93: Der Brocken [FF]. 1992: Wolffs Revier: Katharina und Kaviar; Herzsprung [FF]. 1992/93: Die Vermummten. 1993: Hitzeschock!; Die Männer vom K3: Made in Hongkong; Julian H. entführt – Qualen einer Mutter. 1993/94: Polizeiruf 110: Arme Schweine; Polizeiruf 110: Totes Gleis. 1994: Apokalypse Pink [SF]; Tatort: Jetzt und alles [mus]; Zwei alte Hasen: Heißes Eis; A. S.: Der kleine Bruder. 1994/95: Faust [FF]: Tödliche Route; Peter Strohm: Kids; Schlafes Bruder [FF – AT/DE]. 1995: Tatort: Die Kampagne; Verliebte Feinde; Doppelter Einsatz: Wechselgeld. 1995/96: Die Drei: Supergirl; Die Drei: Ich habe Lünsmann nicht getötet; Friedemann Brix – Eine Schwäche für Mord [10 episodes – TVS]. 1996: Alles nur Tarnung [FF]; Samson und Delilah / Sansone e Dalila / Samson and Delilah [FF – DE/IT/US]; Engelchen [FF]; Gegen den Strom. 1997: Die sieben Feuer des Todes; Comedian Harmonists [FF]; Spiel um dein Leben; Polizeiruf 110: Das Wunder von Wustermark. 1998: Kurt Gerrons Karussell [DO – DE/NL/CZ]; Südsee, eigene Insel [FF]; Tatort: Bienzle und der Champion. 1998/ 99: Der Einstein des Sex – Leben und Werk des Doktor Magnus Hirschfeld [FF – DE/NL]; Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod – Gloomy Sunday [FF]. 1999: Bella Block: Geflüsterte Morde; E-m@il an Gott; Sturmzeit; Marlene [FF]. 1999/2000: Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm [FF]; Frau2 sucht HappyEnd [FF]. 2000/01: Planet Alex. 2001: Partner akut [ANI – voi]; Så vit som en snö [FF – SE/DK]; Sass [FF]; Die Akte Joel [TVD – voi – AT/DE]. 2002: Trenck – Zwei Herzen gegen die Krone. 2003: Gero von Boehm begegnet: Ben Becker [TVD]; Raumpatrouille Orion – Rücksturz ins Kino [FF – voi]. 2004: Das Traumschiff: Australien; Polizeiruf 110: Dettmanns weite Welt. 2005: Max und Moritz Reloaded [FF]; Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude; Santos – Heldentaten, die keiner braucht [DO – dir,ide,act,pro].
WOLFGANG BECKER 2005/06: Esperanza. 2006: Die Bibel – eine gesprochene Symphonie [TV]. 2006/07: Die rote Zora. 2007: Giganten: Luther – Kampf mit dem Teufel [TV]. 2007/08: Ben Becker – Ein Leben [TVD – app]; Unter Verdacht – Brubeck [TV]; Chaostage – We are Punks! 2008/09: Der Tiger oder Was Frauen lieben! [TV].
JUREK BECKER Born September 30, 1937, £odz (Poland) Died March 14, 1997, Sieseby (Germany) Prominent East German author Becker brought a wry blend of observational humour and polemics to a number of screenplays for DEFA in the 1970s, and continued in similar vein after moving to West Germany. After the Nazis invaded Poland, Becker’s Jewish family was ‘resettled’ in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, and he spent the last two years of the war in the concentration camps Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen, where his mother was killed. Moving to Berlin in 1945 after being reunited with his father, who had been in Auschwitz, Becker learned German and gained his Abitur in 1955. He studied philosophy at East Berlin’s Humboldt University, but was expelled for political reasons shortly before graduating, and set up as a freelance writer in East Berlin in 1960. He began scripting satirical shorts for DEFA in 1961, and in 1962 began collaborating with Klaus Poche on television dramas. Becker’s first feature was the comedy OHNE PASS IN FREMDEN BETTEN (Without a Passport in Unfamiliar Beds, 1964/65), directed by Vladimír Brebera. Becker’s script ‘Jakob der Lügner’ (Jakob the Liar), about a Jewish shoemaker who brings hope to fellow ghetto inmates by pretending to have a radio on which he hears news from the outside world, was rejected outright by DEFA. Becker went on to rework the tragicomic tale into a novel, which was published to international acclaim in 1969. A film version directed by Frank Beyer finally appeared in 1974, picking up both a National Prize and an Oscar nomination, and became the first DEFA production to be presented at the international film festival in West Berlin. Hollywood later produced a remake, JAKOB THE LIAR (1997/98), which starred Robin Williams. Becker further demonstrated his ability to address serious subjects in a light-hearted manner with his script for Joachim Hasler’s MEINE STUNDE NULL (My Zero Hour, 1969/70), a fast-paced adventure film set in 1943 and detailing a German soldier’s exploits with two Soviet officers. Much of the film’s success was due to the dry humour of its lead, Manfred Krug, a close friend of Becker’s with whom he collaborated repeatedly over the years. However, after working
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together on Frank Beyer’s comedy DAS VERSTECK (The Hiding Place, 1976/77), Krug moved to West Berlin, and the film was released with just five prints in East German cinemas. In late 1977, Becker also left East Germany. He continued to publish short stories and novels, and served as script consultant on two West German films about Jewish experiences under the Nazis, Peter Lilienthal’s DAVID (1979) and Thomas Brasch’s DER PASSAGIER – WELCOME TO GERMANY (Welcome to Germany, 1987/88). Becker also wrote the scripts for the first three seasons of the popular television series LIEBLING KREUZBERG (1985–89), again starring Manfred Krug as a non-conformist Berlin lawyer. Before Jurek Becker’s early death from cancer, he and Krug teamed up again for WIR SIND AUCH NUR EIN VOLK (Only One People, 1993/94), a nine-part satirical television series on East/West relations after unification. [scr – DE] 1960/61: Ballade vom freien Friedrich [SF – ide – DD]. 1961: Mit der NATO durch die Wand [SF – co-scr – DD]. 1962: Wenn ein Marquis schon Pläne macht [TV – co-scr – DD]; Komm mit nach Montevideo [TV – co-scr – DD]. 1963: Gäste im Haus [TV – DD]. 1963/64: Zu viele Kreuze [TV – DD]. 1964/65: Ohne Paß in fremden Betten [co-scr – DD]. 1967: Immer um den März herum [TV – co-scr – DD]; Mit 70 hat man noch Träume [TV – co-scr – DD]. 1967/68: Urlaub [TV – co-scr – DD]. 1968: Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir [co-scr – DD]. 1969/70: Meine Stunde Null [co-scr – DD]. 1974: Jakob der Lügner [co-scr – DD]. 1976/77: Das Versteck [co-scr – DD]. 1979: David [co-scr]. 1979/80: Der Boxer [TV – sma]. 1982: Schlaflose Tage [TV – sma]. 1985-89: Liebling Kreuzberg [seasons 1–3 – TVS]. 1987/88: Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany [co-scr – DE/CH/GB]. 1990: Neuner; So schnell es geht nach Istanbul [sma – DD]. 1990/91: Bronsteins Kinder [co-scr,sma]. 1991: Nach der ersten Zukunft [TVD – act]; Schlaflose Tage [TV – sma]. 1992/93: Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 4 – ide]. 1993/94: Wir sind auch nur ein Volk [TVS]. 1994/95: Wenn alle Deutschen schlafen [TV – scr, sma]. 1997: Manfred Krug und die DDR [TVD – act]; Liebling Kreuzberg [season 5 – TVS – ide]. 1997/98: Jakob the Liar [sma – US].
WOLFGANG BECKER Born June 22, 1954, Hemer (West Germany) Alongside Tom Tykwer, one of his collaborators, Wolfgang Becker was one of the most prominent new film directors to emerge in the 1990s. His films display a confident professionalism, yet retain an individual style. His international breakthrough was GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2002/03). Becker studied German literature, history and American studies in Berlin, followed by enrollment at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb).
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During this time he gained work experience as a production assistant on films by Hans W. Geissendörfer and Adolf Winkelmann. Becker’s graduation film SCHMETTERLINGE (Butterflies, 1988), based on a short story by Ian McEwan, concerned the mystery surrounding the drowning of a little girl. The film won the Student Film Oscar, as well as a string of other awards. Becker subsequently worked in television, directing an episode for the crime series TATORT (Crime Scene), as well as the drama KINDERSPIELE (Children’s Games, 1991/92), a childhood drama set in a provincial German town in the 1960s. The film was later released in the cinema. Becker’s proper cinema debut as a director was DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (Life Is All You Get, 1995–97), a story about a young slaughterhouse worker and his romance with an enigmatic woman. Co-written by Tom Tykwer, and drawing extensively on the changing topography of post-reunification Berlin, the film was a poetic urban fable, articulating the anxieties and aspirations of Germany’s twentysomething generation in the late 1990s. Further projects for television followed prior to his next film, the phenomenally successful GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2002/03), the story of a young East Berliner after reunification who creates the illusion for his gravely ill Communist mother that the German Democratic Republic still exists. As in his previous film, Becker successfully combined comedy with melancholy, and realism with surreal visual touches. The film was an international box office hit, and alongside Tykwer’s work revived international interest in German cinema in the new millennium. In 1994, Becker became co-founder with fellow directors Tykwer and Dani Levy, and producer Stefan Arndt of X-Filme Creative Pool. From the late 1990s the company became a powerhouse for a resurgent German cinema, also producing films by directors such as Ayse Polat (EN GARDE, 2004), Dominik Graf (DER ROTE KAKADU, The Red Cockatoo, 2006), and Nicolette Krebitz (DAS HERZ IST EIN DUNKLER WALD, The Heart Is a Dark Forest, 2006). Another – not related – Wolfgang Becker (1910– 2005) was active as editor from the 1930s and a prolific television director from the late 1950s. [dir – DE] 1980/81: Jede Menge Kohle [act]. 1983: Ediths Tagebuch [ass-cam]. 1988: Schmetterlinge [scr,cut]. 1988/89: Sturzflug [TV – co-cam,cut]. 1990: Soldiers of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia [DO – cam – US]. 1991: Tatort: Blutwurstwalzer [TV]. 1991/92: Kinderspiele [dir,co-scr,cut]. 1993/94: Alles auf Anfang [act]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1995-97: Das Leben ist eine Baustelle [dir,co-scr,act]. 2000: Stundenhotel [dir]. 2001: Freitagnacht [supv]. 2002/03: Good Bye, Lenin! [dir,scr]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app].
2004: Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]; Bem-Vindo a São Paulo [DO – co-dir – BR]; Good Bye, Lenin! – Deleted Scenes [DO – app]. 2005: Ballero [TVD – dir,scr]. 2005/06: Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler [act]. 2006: Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin [DO – app]. 2008: Deutschland 09. 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation [episode 12 – dir,co-scr].
FRIEDL BEHN-GRUND (Karl Friedrich Behn) Born August 26, 1906, Bad Polzin (Germany, now Polczyn Zdrój, Poland) Died August 2, 1989, Berlin (West Germany) Renowned for his atmospheric lighting, sublime facial close-ups and ability to adapt to the requirements of individual directors, Behn-Grund remained a soughtafter cinematographer from the 1920s through to the 1970s. Behn-Grund entered the film industry as a child performer in 1919. He became cameraman Erich Waschneck’s assistant at Ufa in 1923, and swiftly gained experience in all areas of cinematography. He ascended to the position of director of photography on KAMPF UM DIE SCHOLLE (Struggle for the Soil, 1924/25), which Waschneck directed. In 1929 Behn-Grund started to work for other production companies besides Ufa. The aesthetic realism of his cinematography in Leo Mittler’s JENSEITS DER STRASSE (On the Other Side of the Street, 1929), made for the left-wing Prometheus-Film, was praised as a new triumph of German cinema. He then worked under director Richard Oswald on DIE HERRIN UND IHR KNECHT (The Noblewoman and Her Bondsman, 1929), a picture for Henny Porten-Produktion, before shooting his first sound production under Oswald as well, the film operetta WIEN, DU STADT DER LIEDER (Vienna, City of Song, 1930). Behn-Grund was also active at Waschneck’s newlyfounded production company Fanal-Film from 1932. Back at Ufa, he and director Ludwig Berger developed the idea of employing tilted camera angles as a leitmotif for different characters in the multi-language production ICH BEI TAG UND DU BEI NACHT (1932, British version: EARLY TO BED). From 1936 to 1945, Behn-Grund had a full-time contract with the Tobis production company, for whom he photographed popular comedies such as Curt Goetz’s NAPOLEON IST AN ALLEM SCHULD (It’s All Napoleon’s Fault, 1938), Herbert Selpin and Werner Klingler’s big-budget disaster epic TITANIC (1942/ 43), as well as propaganda features such as the antiSemitic musical ROBERT UND BERTRAM (1939) or Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s pro-euthanasia film ICH KLAGE AN (I Accuse, 1941). On the final day of the war, Behn-Grund was seriously injured, and had to have a leg amputated.
FRIEDL BEHN-GRUND
Behn-Grund was back at work on the first post-war German film, Wolfgang Staudte’s DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS (The Murderers Are Among Us, 1946), and went on to shoot other major early DEFA pictures including Kurt Maetzig’s EHE IM SCHATTEN (Marriage in the Shadows, 1947) and DER RAT DER GÖTTER (Council of the Gods, 1949/50), for which he and Maetzig were awarded East Germany’s National Prize for best film in 1950. Subsequently, Behn-Grund worked as a freelance cameraman in West Germany, photographing box office hits such as Kurt Hoffmann’s DAS FLIEGENDE KLASSENZIMMER (The Flying Classroom, 1954) and the Thomas Mann adaptations BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (The Confessions of Felix Krull, 1957), again directed by Hoffmann, and BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1959), directed by Alfred Weidenmann. Behn-Grund received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1974. [cam – DE] 1919: Der Vampir von St. Louis [act]; Die Geächteten [act]; Liebe, Haß und Geld [act]. 1920: Das Blut der Ahnen [act]. 1924: Vitus Thavons Generalcoup [cocam]. 1924/25: Kampf um die Scholle. 1925: Segen der Erde [SD]; Mein Freund, der Chauffeur; Die Straße des Vergessens. 1926: Der Mann im Feuer [co-cam]; Die Warenhausprinzessin; Brennende Grenze. 1927: Regine; Die Frau mit dem Weltrekord; Der Sprung ins Glück / Totte et sa chance [co-cam – DE/FR]; Die geheime Macht. 1928: Vom Täter fehlt jede Spur; Die Carmen von St. Pauli; Die blaue Maus; Der Skandal in Baden-Baden; S.O.S. Schiff in Not [co-cam]. 1928/29: Diane. 1929: Die Schmugglerbraut von Mallorca; Der Günstling von Schönbrunn; Jenseits der Straße; Die Drei um Edith; Ehe in Not; Die Herrin und ihr Knecht. 1929/30: Der Witwenball; O Mädchen, mein Mädchen, wie lieb’ ich Dich!; Rotterdam: Der Pulsschlag des Welthandels / Wasserstraßen und Brücken / Wunder der Technik [SD series]. 1930: Stadt und Hafen Rotterdam [SD]; Wien, du Stadt der Lieder [co-cam]; Der Detektiv des Kaisers; Zapfenstreich am Rhein [co-cam]; Dreyfus; Die zärtlichen Verwandten; Holländische Reise[SD]; Das alte Lied; Der Hampelmann [co-cam]. 1930/31: Der Liebesarzt [co-cam]; Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff [MLV]; Les frères Karamazoff [MLV – cam(?) – FR/DE]; Die Faschingsfee; Leichtsinnige Jugend [MLV – co-cam – FR/US]. 1931: Salto mortale [MLV – co-cam]; Salto mortale [MLV – co-cam – DE/FR]; 24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau [co-cam]; Jeder fragt nach Erika; Paris – Béguin [co-cam – FR]; Luise, Königin von Preußen; Der Stolz der 3. Kompagnie. 1931/ 32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932: Melodie der Liebe [co-cam]; Ich will nicht [SF]; Die Tänzerin von Sanssouci; 8 Mädels im Boot; Geigenzauber [SF]; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV – co-cam]; À moi le jour, à toi la nuit [MLV]; Early to Bed [MLV]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]; Moi et l’Impératrice [MLV]; Hände aus dem Dunkel; The Only Girl [MLV]. 1933: Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Adieu les beaux jours [MLV]; Des jungen Dessauers
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große Liebe [MLV]; Tambour battant [MLV]; Der Polizeibericht meldet … Die Frau im schwarzen Schleier. 1934: Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV]; Mon coeur t’appelle [MLV – DE/FR]; Musik im Blut; Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV]; Nuit de mai [MLV]; Die englische Heirat; Petersburger Nächte. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV]; Barcarolle [MLV]. 1935: Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; J’aime toutes les femmes [MLV]; Liebesleute. 1935/36: Donogoo Tonka. Die geheimnisvolle Stadt [MLV]; Donogoo [MLV]. 1936: Flitterwochen; Eskapade; Ein Hochzeitstraum; Truxa. 1936/37: Sein bester Freund [co-cam]. 1937: Die göttliche Jette; Alarm in Peking; Versprich mir nichts!; Manege. 1937/38: Die kleine und die große Liebe. 1938: Ich liebe Dich; Der Tag nach der Scheidung; Napoleon ist an allem schuld. 1938/39: Silvesternacht am Alexanderplatz. 1939: Robert und Bertram; Schneider Wibbel; Die goldene Maske. 1939/40: Casanova heiratet; Was wird hier gespielt? 1940: Die 3 Codonas; Ritorno [MLV – IT]; Traummusik [MLV – DE/IT]. 1940/41: Kopf hoch, Johannes!; Ohm Krüger [co-cam]. 1941: Ich klage an; Das andere Ich. 1941/42: Die Nacht in Venedig. 1941-44: Philharmoniker. 1942/43: Titanic; Fritze Bollmann wollte angeln [co-cam]. 1943/44: Ich hab von dir geträumt; Jugendliebe. 1944: Die Jahre vergehen … Der Senator. 1944/45: Wir seh’n uns wieder [co-cam]; Die Kreuzlschreiber; Frau über Bord. Kabine 27. 1945: Dr. phil. Döderlein. 1946: Die Mörder sind unter uns [co-cam – DD]. 1946/47: Razzia [co-cam – DD]. 1947: Ehe im Schatten [co-cam – DD]. 1947/48: Die seltsamen Abenteuer des Herrn Fridolin B. [co-cam – DD]. 1947-51: A Tale of Five Cities / Passaporto per l’oriente / Fünf Mädchen und ein Mann / 5 Städte – 5 Mädchen / L’Inconnue des cinq cités [German episode – GB/IT/AT/ DE/FR]. 1948: Affaire Blum [co-cam – DD]. 1948/49: Begegnung mit Werther [co-cam]; Die Buntkarierten [cocam – DD]. 1949: Nächte am Nil. 1949/50: Der Rat der Götter [DD]. 1950: Skandal in der Botschaft; Rausch einer Nacht. Alexa. 1950/51: Begierde. 1951: Was das Herz befiehlt; Maria Theresia [AT]. 1952: Die Försterchristl; Alraune; Karneval in Weiß [co-cam]; Die große Versuchung [co-cam]. 1952/53: Käpt’n Bay-Bay. 1953: Einmal keine Sorgen haben / Einen Jux will er sich machen [DE/AT]; Der letzte Walzer. 1953/54: Meines Vaters Pferde. 1. Lena und Nicoline [co-cam]; Meines Vaters Pferde. 2. Seine dritte Frau [co-cam]. 1953/56: Meines Vaters Pferde. 1954: Morgengrauen; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer; Der Engel mit dem Flammenschwert. 1955: Geliebte Feindin; Griff nach den Sternen; Der Himmel ist nie ausverkauft; Vor Gott und den Menschen; Nacht der Entscheidung. 1955/56: Ein Mädchen aus Flandern [co-cam]. 1956: Liebe, die den Kopf verliert [AT]; Ohne Dich wird es Nacht; Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter; Stresemann. 1956/57: Wie ein Sturmwind. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Das einfache Mädchen; Der gläserne Turm; Der Graf von Luxemburg. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala. 1958: Nachtschwester Ingeborg [co-cam]; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; Polikuschka / Polikuska / Polikouchka [DE/IT/ FR]; Unruhige Nacht. 1958/59: Frau im besten Mannesalter; Der Mann, der sich verkaufte. 1959: Die unvollkommene Ehe [co-cam – AT]; Buddenbrooks [2 parts]. 1959/60: Als geheilt entlassen. 1960: Sturm im Wasser-
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HEINZ BENNENT
glas; Die Botschafterin; Mit Himbeergeist geht alles besser [co-cam – AT]. 1961: Das Riesenrad; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein / Pourquoi toujours du caviar? [DE/FR]; Diesmal muß es Kaviar sein! / Top Secret – c’est pas toujours du caviar [DE/FR]; Auf Wiedersehn; Eheinstitut Aurora. 1961/62: Finden Sie, daß Constanze sich richtig verhält? [DE/CH]. 1962: Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies [AT]; Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett / Tête-à-tête sur l’oreiller [co-cam – DE/FR]; Die lustige Witwe / La veuve joyeuse [AT/FR]. 1963: Ein Alibi zerbricht [AT]; Schwejks Flegeljahre [AT]. 1964: Heirate mich, Chéri [DE/AT]. 1965: Das unverschämte Glück, ein Mann zu sein [TV]; Die Sommerfrische [TV]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Ansichtskarte [TV65]; Die fromme Helene. 1965/66: Ganovenehre; Gespenster [TV]. 1966: Die Fliegen [TV]; Der Fall der Generale [TV]; Rasputin [TV]. 1966/67: Phaedra [TV]. 1968: Kidnap – Die Entführung des Lindbergh-Babys [TV]; Berliner Blockade [TV].
HEINZ BENNENT (Heinrich August Bennent) Born July 18, 1921, Atsch (Germany) Primarily a stage actor, Bennent also played numerous character leads in West German, French, Swiss and Austrian film and television from the 1950s onwards. After an apprenticeship as a metalworker, Bennent was conscripted into the Luftwaffe’s ground personnel in 1940. Taking acting lessons in Göttingen after the end of the war, he performed at various German theatres between 1947 and 1963. Bennent continued to undertake copious stage tours throughout the 1960s and 1970s. A resident of Switzerland since the early 1970s, he made his French-speaking stage debut in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Endgame’ at Lausanne’s Théâtre de Vidy in 1995. In television from 1954, Bennett appeared as the lead in Sylvain Dhomme’s version of Kafka’s DAS SCHLOSS (The Castle, 1962) and in Peter Zadek’s DER NEBBICH (The Milksop, 1965). He worked repeatedly with director Hans W. Geissendörfer, playing a hired assassin in EINE ROSE FÜR JANE (A Rose for Jane, 1970) and a released criminal in his PERAHIM – DIE ZWEITE CHANCE (Perahim’s Second Chance, 1973/74). Bennent furthermore starred as the eponymous lead in ZDF’s crime series DER ANWALT (The Attorney, 1975/76), directed by Heinz Schirk. After a starring role in Christian Rischert’s KOPFSTAND, MADAME! (Headstand, Madam!, 1966), Bennent did not have another significant big-screen appearance until his performance as sinister Doctor Hans Vergerus in Ingmar Bergman’s THE SERPENT’s EGG (1976/77). Bennett subsequently often played characters wrestling with inner demons, such as in playwright Samuel Beckett’s own film version of his monologue HE,
JOE (Hey Joe, 1979) and as a Jewish theatre director in François Truffaut’s LE DERNIER MÉTRO (The Last Metro, 1980). He portrayed middle-class men whose lives are disintegrating, in Theodor Kotulla’s television mini-series DER FALL MAURIZIUS (The Maurizius Case, 1981) and Claude Goretta’s DER TOD DES MARIO RICCI (The Death of Mario Ricci, 1982/83). Meanwhile, Bennent acted alongside his wife Diane Mansart and their children Anne (b. 1963) and David (b. 1966) in Geissendörfer’s small-screen drama DIE ELTERN (The Parents, 1973). He was seen again alongside Anne in Geissendörfer’s DIE WILDENTE (The Wild Duck, 1976) and had a supporting part in Volker Schlöndorff’s DIE BLECHTROMMEL (The Tin Drum, 1978/79), which starred his son. Since the early 1980s, Bennent has worked primarily in French-language productions, including a starring role as Sigmund Freud opposite Catherine Deneuve in Benoît Jacquot’s two-part television drama PRINCESSE MARIE (2004). [TV – act – DE] 1954/55: 24 alte Meister. 1956: Pariser Geschichten; Die Fahrt ins Blaue; Die Tochter des Brunnenmachers. 1958: Bäume sterben aufrecht. 1959: Schneider Wibbel; Arzt aus Leidenschaft [FF]. 1960/61: Der Teufel ist los. Eine ironische Revue. 1961: Das Rendezvous von Senlis. 1962: Das Schloß; Heroische Komödie. 1962/ 63: Der Maulkorb. 1963: Detective Story. 1964: Die erste Legion. 1965: Der Tod des Judas; Der große Wildenberg. Ein Feuilleton; Acht Stunden Zeit; Der Nebbich; Das Apostelspiel. 1965/66: Ein Haus aus lauter Liebe; Freiheit im Dezember. 1966: Der Kirschgarten; Kopfstand, Madam! [FF]. 1966/67: Die Frau des Fotografen. 1967: Tatzeit 15.56 Uhr; Sherlock Holmes: Sechsmal Napoleon; Heiraten ist immer ein Risiko; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Spur führt nach Amsterdam; Love from a Stranger. Ein Fremder klopft an. 1967/68: Nachtcafé. 1968: Ganze Tage in den Bäumen; Ein ehrenwerter Herr. 1968/69: Im Kreis. 1969: Intermezzo – Das Duell; Tatort: Exklusiv!; Nur der Freiheit gehört unser Leben; Alle hatten sich abgewandt. 1970: Solche Stunden vertragen Glas; Der Portland-Ring; Ich kenne die Geschichte [TV-SF]; Eine Rose für Jane; Mord im Pfarrhaus; Der Pott. 1971: Tatort: AE 612 ohne Landeerlaubnis; Auguri; Rendez-vous en forêt / Rendezvous im Wald [FF – FR/DE]; Die Witwen oder Eine vollkommene Lösung; Szenen aus dem Eheleben; Nasrin oder die Kunst zu träumen. 1971/72: Mandala. 1972: Der Kommissar: Tod eines Schulmädchens; Sonderdezernat K 1: Vier Schüsse auf den Mörder; Marie. 1972/73: Der Teufelsschüler; Entziehung – Ein Tagebuch. 1973: Alle lieben Célimare; Der Kommissar: Der Geigenspieler; Schneesturm; Die Eltern. 1973/74: Perahim – die zweite Chance. 1974: Ich suche Herrn Obolsky; Sirenengesang / Une femme fatale [FF – DE/FR]; Section spéciale / L’affaire della Sezione Speciale / Sondertribunal [FF – FR/IT/ DE]. 1974/75: Eiszeit [FF]; Tatort: Wodka Bitter-Lemon. 1974-76: Unter einem Dach [TVS]. 1975: Derrick: Paddenberg; Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [FF]; Die Verwandlung; Das
ANITA BERBER Netz [FF]; Lobster: Der Einarmige. 1975/76: Tatort: Zwei Leben; Der Anwalt [season 1 – TVS]. 1976: Néa [FF – FR]; Die Wildente [FF – DE/AT]; Ich will leben [AT]. 1976/77: Das Schlangenei / The Serpent’s Egg [FF – DE/US]. 1977/ 78: Son of Hitler / Hitlers Sohn [FF – GB/DE]; Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk [DE/AT]; Deutschland im Herbst. EP 12: Die verschobene Antigone [FF]; Kleine Geschichten mit großen Tieren. 1978: Derrick: Lissas Vater; Der Mann im Schilf [FF]; Brass Target [FF – US]. 1978/79: Die Blechtrommel / Le tambour [FF – DE/FR]; Clair de femme / Chiaro di donna / Die Liebe einer Frau [FF – FR/IT/DE]. 1979: Schwestern oder Die Balance des Glücks [FF]; He, Joe. 1979/80: Lulu / Lulù [FF – DE/FR/IT]; Aus dem Leben der Marionetten [DE/AT]. 1980: Le dernir métro [FF – FR]. 1980/81: Possession [FF – FR/ DE]. 1981: Guerre en pays neutre [FR/CH]; Der Fall Maurizius; L’Amour des femmes [FF – CH/FR]; Espion, lève-toi [FF – FR]; Derrick: Nachts in einem fremden Haus. 1982: Le lit [FF – BE/CH]; Via degli specchi [FF – IT]. 1982/ 83: Krieg und Frieden. EP: Atombunker [FF]; Derrick: Geheimnisse einer Nacht; La mort de Mario Ricci / Der Tod des Mario Ricci [FF – CH/FR/DE/AT]. 1983: Sarah [FF – FR]; Der Snob; Capucine [CH]. 1984: Le rapt [CH/FR]. 1985: Derrick: Die Tänzerin; Le transfuge / Stegers letzte Chance [FF – FR/ BE/DE]; Tiroir secret / Die Geheimschublade [TVS – FR/ IT/DE]. 1985/86: Gambit. 1987: Der einsame Weg [AT]. 1988: Im Jahr der Schildkröte [FF]; Le due croci / Im Schatten des Kreuzes [IT/DE]. 1990: Café Europa [FF]. 1990/91: Plaisir d’amour [FF – FR]. 1991: Jour blanc [CH]; Maigret: Maigret et le fantôme [FR/BE/CH]. 1992/93: Je m’appelle Victor / Mein Name ist Viktor [FF – FR/BE/DE]. 1993: Das Sahara-Projekt; König Lear; Elles ne pensent qu’à ça [FF – FR]. 1994: Une femme française / A French Woman / Eine französische Frau [FF – FR/GB/DE]. 1995: Tár úr steini [FF – IS]. 1995/96: Bruder Esel [TVS]. 1997: Endspiel. 1998: Bennent mal vier [TVD]. 1999: Jonas et Lila, à demain [FF – FR/CH]. 1999/2000: Kalt ist der Abendhauch [FF]. 2002: Abgeschminkt: Heinz Bennent [TVD]. 2004: Princesse Marie [AT/FR].
ANITA BERBER Born June 10, 1899, Leipzig (Germany) Died November 10, 1928, Berlin-Kreuzberg (Germany) Epitomising Weimar decadence, notorious nude dancer Berber often appeared alongside Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel in director Richard Oswald’s sexual enlightenment films and historical melodramas of the late 1910s and early 1920s. The daughter of a violinist and a cabaret singer who divorced when she was three, Berber was raised by her grandmother in Dresden before moving to Berlin in 1914. Studying acting under Maria Moissi and dance under Rita Sacchetto from 1915, she debuted as a dancer the following year. She gained her first engagements appearing nude at revue theatres in the capital in 1917, and swiftly became a scandalous fixture of Berlin nightlife, with artists Charlotte Behrend-Corinth and Otto Dix (re-
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printed on a German stamp in 1991) painting her, and a series of porcelain figurines based on her dances being produced. Richard Oswald first employed her to play dancer Giuditta Grisi in his adaptation of Franz Schubert’s DAS DREIMÄDERLHAUS (The House of Three Girls, 1918), after which she took the female lead in numerous of his enlightenment pictures, including DIDA IBSENS GESCHICHTE (The Story of Dida Ibsen, 1918), ANDERS ALS DIE ANDERN (Different from the Others, 1918/19), and DAS GELBE HAUS (Prostitution, 1919). Also working on adventure films and racy melodramas for other directors, Berber played a revue dancer in Fritz Lang’s DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1921/22), and made her final appearance under Oswald’s direction in LUCREZIA BORGIA (Lucretia Borgia, 1922). In 1922, Berber and her second husband, dancer Sebastian Droste, choreographed a new stage show called ‘Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase’ (Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy). The couple also brought out a book under the same title, and several of the routines were filmed by Austrian director Fritz Freisler. Divorcing Droste after he absconded to New York with her jewellery, she married American dancer Henri Châtin-Hoffmann in 1924, and the two toured extensively across the world before separating in 1927. Her body ravaged by years of drug and alcohol abuse, it was tuberculosis that ultimately brought an end to Berber’s turbulent life. Filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim paid suitably irreverent homage to her in his ANITA – TÄNZE DES LASTERS (Anita – Dances of Vice, 1987). [act – DE] 1918: Das Dreimäderlhaus. Schuberts Liebesroman; Dida Ibsens Geschichte; Peer Gynt. 1. Peer Gynts Jugend / 2. Peer Gynts Wanderjahre und Tod; Die Reise um die Erde in 80 Tagen. 1918/19: Anders als die Andern. 1919: Das gelbe Haus; Unheimliche Geschichten; Nachtgestalten (Eleagabal Kuperus). 1920: Yoshiwara, die Liebesstadt der Japaner; Falschspieler; Der Schädel der Pharaonentochter; Der Graf von Cagliostro [AT/DE]. 1921: Lucifer [AT]; Die Nacht der Mary Murton [AT]; Verfehltes Leben [AT]; Die goldene Pest. 1921/22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922: Die vom Zirkus; Schminke; Lucrezia Borgia; Die drei Marien und der Herr von Marana [AT/DE]. 1922/23: Wien, die Stadt der Lieder [AT]. 1923: Moderne Tänze [DO – AT]; Irrlichter der Tiefe [AT]. 1924: Die Zirkusdiva. 1925: Ein Walzer von Strauß / Der Walzer von Strauß [AT/DE].
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HELMUT BERGER
HELMUT BERGER (Helmut Steinberger) Born May 29, 1944, Bad Ischl (Austria) A former model and protégé of Italian director Luchino Visconti, the sexually ambiguous Berger has brought an intense, subtly menacing air to numerous European productions since the 1960s. After spending his childhood in Salzburg, Berger attended a Franciscan college in Feldkirch, near the Swiss border, where he gained his Abitur. He tried his hand at various jobs before undertaking modelling work in Paris and London. In 1965, he began his University studies in Perugia, while also working as a film extra at Cinecittà. The following year, director Luchino Visconti, with whom Berger was involved privately, gave him a small part in the portemanteau film LE STREGHE (The Witches, 1966), initiating a long-lasting professional partnership. In the first film of Visconti’s so-called ‘German trilogy’, LA CADUTA DEGLI DEI (The Damned, 1968/69), Berger portrayed a tormented paedophile who is famously introduced impersonating Marlene Dietrich in drag, while in the third film, LUDWIG (1972), he played the eponymous mad Bavarian king. Berger was also cast as an unscrupulous gigolo in GRUPPO DI FAMIGLIA IN UN INTERNO (Conversation Piece, 1974). Berger’s sinister edge and indeterminate sexuality were frequently the defining elements of his performances under other directors. In Vittorio de Sica’s IL GIARDINO DEI FINZI CONTINI (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, 1970) he played a closet homosexual; in Massimo Dallamano’s IL DIO CHIAMATO DORIAN (Dorian Gray, 1969/70) he starred as Oscar Wilde’s eternally young dandy. In Otto Schenk’s adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s play REIGEN (MerryGo-Round, 1973), he appeared as the young gentleman involved with a chambermaid and a married woman; and in Tinto Brass’s SALON KITTY (1975/ 76) he was a thuggish SS officer in charge of undercover surveillance at a brothel. From the late 1970s, the actor worked primarily on the small screen, playing master criminal Fantômas in four television films by Claude Chabrol and Juan Luis Buñuel, and appearing as a guest star on the British series RETURN OF THE SAINT and on the American soap DYNASTY. Berger recreated his role as the Bavarian king for the big screen in Donatello and Fosco Dubini’s LUDWIG 1881 (1992/93) and appeared in a number of experimental independent features, including Miriam Kruishoop’s UNTER DEN PALMEN (Under the Palms, 1999) and Mika Kaurismäki’s HONEY BABY (2003). In 1998, Berger published his kiss-and-tell autobiography, titled simply ‘Ich’ (Me). There is another Austrian TV-actor and director named Helmut Berger (b. 1949 in Graz) whose filmo-
graphy is often mixed up with that of the AustrianItalian star. [act – IT] 1966: Le streghe. EP 1: La strega bruciata viva / Les sorciéres [IT/FR]. 1967/68: I giovani tigri. 1968/69: Metti, una sera a cena; La caduta degli dei / Die Verdammten [IT/DE]. 1969: Sai cosa faceva Stalin alle donne? 1969/70: Il dio chiamato Dorian / Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray [IT/DE]. 1970: Il giardino dei Finzi Contini / Der Garten der Finzi Contini [IT/DE]; Un beau monstre / Il bel mostro [FR/IT]. 1970/71: Un’anguilla da 300 milioni. 1971: Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate. 1972: Ludwig / Ludwig … ou le crépuscule des dieux / Ludwig II. [IT/FR/DE]; Les voraces / Cosi’ bello, cosi’ corrotto, cosi’ conteso! [FR/IT]; La colonna infame. 1973: Reigen [DE]; Ash Wednesday [US]. 1974: Orden de matar / La testa del serpente [ES/IT]; Gruppo di famiglia in un interno / Conversation pièce [IT/FR]. 1974/75: The Romantic Englishwoman / Une Anglaise romantique [GB/FR]. 1975/76: Salon Kitty [IT/DE/FR]. 1976: Battle Force 9 [US]; Victory at Entebbe [TV – US]. 1977: La belva col mitra; Il grande attacco. 1977/78: Das fünfte Gebot / L’alba dei falsi dei [DE/IT]. 1978/79: Return of the Saint: The Murder Cartel [TV – GB]. 1979: Le rose di Danzica; Fantômas / Fantomas: 1. L’Échafaud magiqu e / Verhängnisvolles Rendezvous. / 2. L’Étriente du diable / Tödliche Umarmung. / 3. Le mort qui tue / Ein Toter mordet nicht. / 4. Le tramway fantôme / Der rote Diamant [TVS – FR/DE]. 1980: Mia moglie è una strega. 1980-82: Die Jäger – Deadly Game [DE]. 1982: Eroina [TV]; Femmes [FR/ES]; ¡Victoria! La gran aventura de un poble [ES]. 1983: ¡Victòria! 2. La disbauxa del 17 [ES]; Veliki transport [YU/US]. 1983/84: Dynasty [TVS – act – US]. 1984: ¡Victòria! 3. La razón y el arrebato [ES]. 1985: Code Name: Emerald [US]. 1988: I promessi sposi [TV]. 1990: The Godfather. Part III [US]. 1990/91: Adelaide. 1992/93: Ludwig 1881 [CH/DE]. 1993: Das Sahara-Projekt [TV – DE]. 1995: Verdammt, er liebt mich [TV – DE]. 1996: L’Ombre du pharaon [MA]; Ultimo taglio. 1997: Die 120 Tage von Bottrop [DE]; Teo [TV]. 1999: Unter den Palmen [NL]. 2002: Haider lebt – 1. April 2021 [AT]. 2003: Honey Baby [FI/LV/DE]. 2005: Damals warst Du still [TV – DE].
LUDWIG BERGER (Ludwig Gottfried Heinrich Bamberger) Born January 6, 1892, Mainz (Germany) Died May 18, 1969, Schlangenbad (West Germany) German cinema’s foremost director of silent film operettas during the Weimar period, Berger also briefly worked at Paramount in Hollywood. Berger studied art history and German literature in Munich and Heidelberg, and was awarded his doctorate in 1914. From 1917, Berger put on plays in Hamburg, Darmstadt and Berlin, making his name in the capital with a series of Shakespeare productions for which his brother Rudolf Bamberger (1888–1945) designed the sets and costumes. Berger’s film debut was DER RICHTER VON ZALAMEA (The Mayor of Zalamea) in 1919, followed by
SENTA BERGER
three lavish, all-star pictures for producer Erich Pommer at Decla-Bioscop. On EIN GLAS WASSER – DAS SPIEL DER KÖNIGIN (One Glass of Water, 1922/23) Berger first worked with actress Mady Christians, who became his regular leading lady for the rest of the decade. In 1925, he shot an ironic, self-reflective version of Oscar Straus’s operetta EIN WALZERTRAUM (The Waltz Dream) at Ufa, which began a fruitful collaboration with screenwriter Robert Liebmann, who furnished the scripts for almost all Berger’s German films until 1933. Praised by his contemporaries on account of their tangible musicality and fairytale qualities, Berger’s pictures were eulogised by critic Willy Haas as ‘a triumph of German filmmaking’. Enticed to Hollywood with a Paramount contract, Berger’s completed Mauritz Stiller’s THE STREET OF SIN (1927/28) after the latter’s return to Sweden. He directed two further silents and two sound films for the studio, before returning to Europe. In 1932, he directed the musical ICH BEI TAG UND DU BEI NACHT in three language versions (German, French and English) for Erich Pommer’s production unit at Ufa. The British version was released under the title EARLY TO BED. The film’s ironic juxtaposition of mundane day-to-day reality and dazzling fantasy typifies Berger’s style. After the Nazis seized power, Berger emigrated to the Netherlands, where his first film in exile was an adaptation of Shaw’s PYGMALION (1936/37). TROIS VALSES (Three Waltzes, 1938) was shot in France. The British-made THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1939/ 40), proved an ignominious experience mostly due to the interference of producer Alexander Korda. His final film prior to the Netherlands’ occupation by the Nazis was ERGENS IN NEDERLAND (Somewhere in Holland, 1940), after which he managed to survive using forged papers. Returning to West Germany in 1947, Berger’s last film for the cinema was the French production BALLERINA (Dream Ballerina, 1949/50). Subsequently, he directed stage and radio plays, before becoming one of the pioneers of West German television drama in 1954. His standout achievement was a series of six Shakespeare comedies in 1957 and 1958. Berger published numerous plays and novels throughout these years, as well as his memoirs in 1953. He was head of the performing arts section at West Berlin’s Arts Academy from 1956 to 1968, and received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1964, as well as the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1966. [dir – DE] 1919: Der Richter von Zalamea [dir,scr]. 1921: Der Roman der Christine von Herre [dir,scr]. 1922/23: Ein Glas Wasser. Das Spiel der Königin [dir,co-scr]. 1923:
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Der verlorene Schuh [dir,scr]. 1925: Ein Walzertraum. 1925/26: Faust. Eine deutsche Volkssage [sma]. 1926/27: Der Meister von Nürnberg [dir,scr]. 1927: Königin Luise. 1. Teil: Die Jugend der Königin Luise [scr]. 1927/28: Königin Luise. 2. Teil [scr]; The Street of Sin [co-dir – US]. 1928: The Woman from Moscow [US]; Sins of the Fathers [US]. 1928/29: Das brennende Herz. 1929/30: The Vagabond King [US]; Paramount on Parade. EP: The Gallows Song [MLV – app – US]. 1930: Playboy of Paris [MLV – US]; Le petit café [MLV – US]. 1932: Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; À moi le jour, à toi la nuit [MLV]; Early to Bed [MLV]. 1933: Walzerkrieg [MLV]; La guerre des valses [MLV – codir]. 1936/37: Pygmalion [dir,scr – NL]. 1938: Trois valses [FR]. 1939/40: The Thief of Bagdad [co-dir – GB]. 1940: Ergens in Nederland [dir,co-scr – NL]. 1949/50: Ballerina [dir,scr – FR]. 1954: Die Spieler [TV]; Der Schauspieldirektor [TV]; Frau Mozart [TV – dir,scr]. 1955: Undine [TV – dir, scr]. 1956: Stresemann [co-scr]. 1957: Der Tod des Sokrates [TV – dir,scr]; Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung [TV – dir, scr]. 1957/58: Was Ihr wollt [TV – dir,scr]; Viel Lärm um Nichts [TV – dir,scr]. 1958: Wie es euch gefällt [TV – dir, scr]; Maß für Maß [TV – dir,scr]; Ein Sommernachtstraum [TV – dir,scr]. 1959: Das Paradies und die Peri [TV – dir,scr]. 1960: Die Nacht in Zaandam [TV – dir,scr]. 1961: Hermann und Dorothea [TV – dir,scr]. 1961/62: Alpenkönig und Menschenfeind [TV – dir,scr]. 1964: Ottiliens Tollheiten [TV – dir,scr]. 1965: Rebell und Poet [TV – dir,scr]. 1967: ‘Herr, laß mich musizieren’. Aus Carl Zuckmayers Werken [TVD – co-dir]; Samen von Kraut und Unkraut [TV – dir,scr]. 1968: Odysseus auf Ogygia [TV]. 1969: Demetrius [TV – dir,scr].
SENTA BERGER Born May 13, 1941, Vienna (Austria) Multitalented and perpetually glamorous redhead Berger is perhaps best known outside Germany for her roles in international productions, but is also a successful producer of German film and television drama. At age sixteen Berger enrolled at Vienna’s Max Reinhardt Acting School. Despite being expelled after two semesters for having undertaken film work while a student there – e.g. appearing in Anatole Litvak’s THE JOURNEY (1958/59) – she was offered a contract to train at the city’s Theater in der Josefstadt, where she debuted in 1958. In 1960, Berger signed a five-year deal with producer Artur Brauner, and appeared in a succession of comedies, pop musicals and thrillers, as well as in the Disney television film THE WALTZ KING (1962/63), directed by Steve Previn. During the 1960s she also had a prolific career in Hollywood, playing alongside Charlton Heston in Sam Peckinpah’s western MAJOR DUNDEE (1964/65), starring with Kirk Douglas in Melville Shavelson’s war film CAST A GIANT SHADOW (1966), and opposite Dean Martin in the Matt Helm spy thriller THE AMBUSHERS (1967).
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SENTA BERGER
On U.S. television she appeared on THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and THE BOB HOPE SHOW. She was also cast in numerous pan-European sex comedies and spy thrillers during these years, while undertaking considerable stage work. In German films, Berger convinced as a serious actress in Volker Schlöndorff’s DIE MORAL DER RUTH HALBFASS (The Morals of Ruth Halbfass, 1971) and Wim Wenders’s DER SCHARLACHROTE BUCHSTABE (The Scarlet Letter, 1972/73). In 1965, together with her husband, director Michael Verhoeven (b. 1938), Berger founded production company Sentana Film in Munich. Her reputation as a producer increased considerably after the couple started making politically engaged films, and in 1983 they received the German Film Award as best producers on account of Verhoeven’s film about an antiNazi resistance group, DIE WEISSE ROSE (The White Rose, 1981/82). In 1987, Berger picked up the Association of German Film Directors’ Chaplin Shoe Award for her lead role in Helmut Dietl’s television mini-series KIR ROYAL (1984–86). Further highlights of her illustrious television career include the eponymous taxi driver in Verhoeven’s DIE SCHNELLE GERDI (Speedy Gerdi, 1988/89), the female lead in Frank Beyer’s two-part SIE UND ER (Her and Him, 1991), and a hard-nosed Munich prosecutor in the crime series UNTER VERDACHT (Under Suspicion, 2002–07). Berger was awarded the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998 and in 2003 she became the first president of the Deutsche Filmakademie. Her son Simon Verhoeven (b. 1972) is a film and television actor who memorably portrayed 1950s football legend Ottmar Walter in Sönke Wortmann’s DAS WUNDER VON BERN (The Miracle of Bern, 2002/03). [act – DE] 1957: Die unentschuldigte Stunde [AT]; Die Lindenwirtin vom Donaustrand [AT]. 1958: Der veruntreute Himmel. 1958/59: The Journey [US]. 1959: Katia [FR]. 1959/60: Ich heirate Herrn Direktor [AT]. 1960: Der brave Soldat Schwejk; O sole mio. 1960/61: The Secret Ways [US]; Das Wunder des Malachias. 1961: Eine hübscher als die andere; Junge Leute brauchen Liebe [AT]; Immer Ärger mit dem Bett; Adieu, Lebewohl, Goodbye; Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein / Pourquoi toujours du caviar? [DE/FR]; Diesmal muß es Kaviar sein! / Top Secret – c’est pas toujours du caviar [DE/FR]; Ramona. 1961/62: Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer. 1962: Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse; Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes / Sherlock Holmes et le collier de la mort / Sherlock Holmes [DE/FR/IT]. 1962/63: Disneyland: The Waltz King [TV – US]; The Victors [GB]. 1963: Kali Yug, la dea della vendetta / Kali-Yug, déesse de la vengeance / Kali Yug – 1. Teil: Die Göttin der Rache [IT/FR/DE]; Il mistero del tempio indiano / Le mystère du temple hindou / Kali Yug – Aufruhr in Indien [IT/FR/DE]; Jack und Jenny. 1963/64: Vol-
les Herz und leere Taschen / … e la domma creò l’uomo [DE/IT]. 1964: Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre: White Snow, Red Ice [TV – US]; See How They Run [TV – US]. 1964/65: Major Dundee [US]. 1964-65: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. [season 1 – TVS – US]. 1965: Schüsse im 3/4-Takt / Operazione ‘Terzo uomo’ [AT/IT]; The Glory Guys [US]. 1965/66: Our Man in Marrakesh [GB]; Lange Beine – lange Finger. 1966: Cast a Giant Shadow [US]; The Poppy Is Also a Flower [US]; The Quiller Memorandum [GB/US]; Operazione San Gennaro / Unser Boß ist eine Dame / Opération San Gennaro [IT/DE/FR]. 1966/67: Peau d’espion / Der grausame Job / Congiura di spie [FR/DE/IT]. 1967: Paarungen [pro]; The Ambushers [US]; Diaboliquement vôtre / Diabolicamente tua / Mit teuflischen Grüßen [FR/IT/DE]; It Takes a Thief: A Thief Is a Thief [TV – US]. 1968: Orson Welles’ Vienna [TV – US]; The Name of the Game: Collectors Edition [TV – US]; Istanbul Express [TV – US]; Babeck [TV]. 1968/69: If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium [US]; Les étrangers / Quelli che sanno uccidere / Frühstück mit dem Killer [FR/IT/DE]; De Sade / Das ausschweifende Leben des Marquis de Sade [US/DE]. 1969: Die Senta Berger Show [TV]; Wien nach Noten [TV]; It Takes a Thief: Flowers from Alexander [TV – US]; Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova veneziano [IT]; Cuori solitari [IT]. 1970: Quando le donne avevano la coda [IT]; Wer im Glashaus liebt … [act,pro]. 1970/71: Un’ anguilla da 300 milioni [IT]. 1971: Le saut de l’ange / Da parte degli amici. Firmato mafia [FR/IT]; Roma bene / Scandale à Rome / Roma Bene – Liebe und Sex in Rom [IT/ FR/DE]; Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass [TV – act,pro]; L’amante dell’orsa maggiore / La ligne de feu / Der Geliebte der großen Bärin [IT/FR/DE]. 1971/72: Causa di divorzio [IT/DE]; Quando le donne persero la coda / Toll trieben es die alten Germanen [IT/DE]. 1972/73: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe / La lettera scarlatta [DE/ES]; Bisturi la mafia bianca [IT]. 1973: Amore e ginnastica [IT]; Ein unheimlich starker Abgang [pro]; Reigen; Frühlingsfluten [TV]. 1973/ 74: Di mamma non ce n’è una sola [IT]; Krempoli – Ein Platz für wilde Kinder [TVS]. 1974: L’uomo senza memoria [IT]; La bellissima estate [IT]. 1974/75: Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua [TV]. 1975: Der Stargast: Senta Berger [TV]; MitGift [act,pro]. 1975/76: La padrona è servita [IT]; The Swiss Conspiracy / Per Saldo Mord [US/DE]. 1976: Brogliaccio d’amore [IT]; Das chinesische Wunder; Signore e signori, buonanotte [IT]; Gefundenes Fressen [pro]; Perry Como’s Christmas in Austria [TV – US]; Abschiede [TV – AT]. 1976/77: Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz / Cross of Iron [DE/GB]; Una donna di seconda mano [IT]. 1977: Halbzwei [TV – AT]. 1977/78: Ritratto di borghesia in nero [IT]. 1978: Freiheit [SF – AT]. 1978/79: La giacca verde [TV – IT]. 1979: Sonntagskinder [pro]. 1979/80: Am Südhang [TV – pro]. 1980: Die Ursache [TV – pro]; Speed Driver / Vértigo en la pista / Speed Driver [IT/DE/ES]; Die Priwalowschen Millionen [TVS]. 1981: Der Traum ein Leben [TV – AT]; Dantons Tod [TV – AT]. 1981/82: Die weiße Rose [pro]; Die Entscheidung [TV]. 1982: Notte e nebbia [TV – IT]; Die Mutprobe [TV – pro]; Heut’ abend … Senta Berger und Michael Verhoeven zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TV]. 1983: Spider Murphy Gang [pro]; Liebe Melanie [TV – act,pro]. 1984: Das Tor zum Glück [TV – pro]; Fatto su mi-
WERNER BERGMANN sura [IT]. 1984-86: Kir Royal. 1. Wer reinkommt, ist drin. / 2. Muttertag. / 3. Das Volk sieht nichts. / 4. Adieu Claire. / 5. Königliche Hoheit. / 6. Karriere [TVS]. 1985: De flyvende djaevle / De flygande djävlarna [DK/SE]; Le due vite di Mattia Pascal / Die zwei Leben des Mattia Pascal [TV – IT/FR/ DE]. 1985/86: Killing Cars [act,pro]; Stinkwut [TV – pro]. 1986: Stadtschreiber: Der Mainzer Tod [TV]; L’ultima mazurka [IT]. 1986/87: Gundas Vater [TV – pro]. 1987: Luisa. Quattro storie di donne [TV – IT]; Animali metropolitani [IT]. 1987/88: Semmelweis Ignaz – Arzt der Frauen [TV – pro – AT/DE]; Peter Strohm: Heißer Schmuck [TV]. 1988/ 89: Die schnelle Gerdi [TVS – act,pro]. 1988-91: La belle Anglaise / Ein Lord für alle Fälle [TVS – FR/DE]. 1989: Heut’ abend … Senta Berger zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TV]; So klingt’s bei uns: Der Wind weht [TV]; Begegnungen: Senta Berger im Gespräch mit Paul Burkhalter [TV]; Das schreckliche Mädchen [pro]. 1989/90: Oceano [TVS – IT]. 1990: Tre colonne in cronaca [IT]; Schlaraffenland [TV – pro]. 1991: Mütter: Bis auf den heutigen Tag [TV – AT]; Sie und Er [TV]. 1991/92: Lilli Lottofee [TVS – act,pro]. 1992: Auf der Couch: Senta Berger [TV]. 1993: Eine unheilige Liebe [TV – pro]; Gefangene Liebe [TV]. 1994: Ärzte: Dr. Schwarz und Dr. Martin [TVS]; Mütter: Hermi Löbl im Gespräch mit Senta Berger [TV – AT]; Die Nacht der Nächte [TV – AT]. 1994/95: Kommissar Rex: Der maskierte Tod [TV – AT]. 1995: Dopo ila tempesta / Mein Sohn ist kein Mörder! [TV – IT/DE]. 1995/96: Ärzte: Dr. Schwarz und Dr. Martin [season 2 – TVS]. 1996: Lamorte [TV – DE/AT]. 1996/97: Der König: Kap der Rache [TV]. 1997/98: Mammamia [TV]; Bin ich schön? 1998: Liebe und weitere Katastrophen [TV – DE/AT]; Mit fünfzig küssen Männer anders [TV]. 1998/99: Nancherrow / Rosamunde Pilcher – Das große Erbe [TV – GB/DE]. 1999: Zimmer mit Frühstück [TV]; Trennungsfieber [TV]. 2000: Scharf aufs Leben [TV]; Probieren Sie’s mit einem Jüngeren [TV – AT]. 2001/02: Bis dass dein Tod uns scheidet [TV]. 2002: Unter Verdacht – Verdecktes Spiel [TV]. 2002/03: Unter Verdacht – Eine Landpartie [TV]; Die Verhoevens [TVD – app]. 2003: Die schnelle Gerdi und die Hauptstadt [TVS – act,pro]. 2004: Die Konferenz [TV]; Einmal so wie ich will [TV]; Unter Verdacht – Gipfelstürmer [TV]. 2004/05: Unter Verdacht – Beste Freunde [TV]; Emilia – Die zweite Chance [TV]; Unter Verdacht – Das Karussell [TV]. 2005: Unter Verdacht – Willkommen im Club [TV]; Emilia – Familienbande [TV]. 2005/06: Nette Nachbarn küsst man nicht [TV]. 2006: Der unbekannte Soldat [DO – pro]; Unter Verdacht – Atemlos [TV]; Unter Verdacht – Ein neues Leben [TV]. 2006/07: Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]; Unter Verdacht – Das Geld anderer Leute [TV]. 2007: Unter Verdacht – Hase und Igel [TV]. 2007/ 08: Unter Verdacht – Brubeck [TV]; Menschliches Versagen [TVD – pro]. 2008: Sex und 68 [TVD – app]; Unter Verdacht – Die falsche Frau [TV]. 2008/09: Rosamunde Pilcher – Vier Jahreszeiten [TV – 4 episodes]; Unter Verdacht – Der schmale Grat [TV]; Unter Verdacht – Tausend Augen [TV]; Schlaflos [TV]; Mama kommt! [TV]; Laura – Ob ihr wollt, oder nicht! [DE/NL].
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WERNER BERGMANN Born January 14, 1921, Niederkaina (Germany) Died October 25, 1990, Potsdam-Babelsberg (Germany) Master cinematographer and occasional director Bergmann photographed some of the most stylistically innovative DEFA-pictures made in East Germany from the 1950s to the 1970s. From 1935 Bergmann trained as an industrial and portrait photographer in Dresden. Three years later, he started work as a laboratory and lighting technician and assistant cameraman at the city’s BoehnerFilm company, which produced advertising and industrial shorts. Called up following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he lost his right arm while serving as a cameraman at the front in 1943, whereafter he was posted to Ufa’s cultural film unit, again as a cameraman. Initially working as a freelance photographer in Potsdam after the end of the war, Bergmann shot and directed the documentary EIN KLEINES WUNDERWERK (A Small Marvel) in 1947. He joined DEFA’s educational film unit in 1946, photographing both his own documentary shorts and those of up-and-coming directors such as Heiner Carow and Gerhard Klein, before moving to the studio’s feature film division in 1953. On Klein’s ALARM IM ZIRKUS (Alarm At the Circus, 1953/54), Bergmann employed grainy high-speed film and short-focus lenses to create a documentarylike effect that stood in marked contrast to the standard look of other DEFA productions at this time. He then entered into a lengthy collaboration with leading DEFA director Konrad Wolf, lasting from EINMAL IST KEINMAL (Once Won’t Do Any Harm, 1954/55) to MAMA, ICH LEBE (Mama, I’m Alive, 1976). Bergmann experimented with everything from recreating the style of Weimar silents to the latest 70mm stock, and directed the test film DEFA 70 (1966) as a showcase for this new widescreen format prior to deploying it to artistic effect in Wolf’s GOYA (1970/71). Wolf and Bergmann received East Germany’s National Prize three times, for STERNE (Stars, 1958/59), ICH WAR NEUNZEHN (I Was Nineteen, 1967) and GOYA. From the 1960s onwards, Bergmann directed numerous documentaries and television films, including the chamber play NACHTSPIELE (Night Games, 1978) and the children’s film DIE DICKE TILLA (Fatso, 1981), which sought to promote a sense of tolerance and understanding towards others. He lectured at the Babelsberg Film Academy, as well as publishing extensively on still and motion picture photography. Retiring in 1984, Bergmann collated his huge personal archive of documents relating to his career (now in the collection of Potsdam Film Museum) and
40
ELISABETH BERGNER
ran a cinematography workshop in Tblisi, where he suffered an accident in 1990 as a result of which he subsequently died. His younger brother Helmut Bergmann (b. 1926) became also a cameraman at DEFA in 1949. [cam – DD] 1947: Ein kleines Wunderwerk [SD – dir,scr, cam]. 1948: Zurück ins Leben [SD – dir,scr,cam,act]. 1949: Der 13. Oktober. 1. Der durchbrochene Kreis [SD]; Tiergestalt [SD – co-cam]. 1949/50: Die Pferde [SD – co-cam]. 1950: Der Weg nach oben [DO]. 1951: Die neuen Herren von Lützgendorf [SD – dir,scr,cam]; Unsere jungen Künstler [SD]; Wildpflege im Winter [DO]; Gäste aus Moskau [SD – co-cam]; Aladin [SD – co-cam]; Unsere Stahlwerker aus Riesa [SD – dir,scr,cam]. 1951/52: Freundschaft siegt / My za mir! [DO – DD/SU]. 1952: Bauern erfüllen den Plan [SD]. 1953: Das kleine und das große Glück; Die DEFARakete 2. Folge. Satire – Humor – Zirkus – Tanz. 1953/54: Alarm im Zirkus. 1954: Formkokillenguß [DO – dir,cam, scr]. 1954/55: Einmal ist keinmal. 1955: Genesung. 1956: Der Hauptmann von Köln [co-cam]. 1956/57: Lissy. 1957/ 58: Sonnensucher. 1958: Die Feststellung [co-dir,co-cam]. 1958/59: Sterne / Zwezdy [DE/BG]. 1959: Krawatzke zur Kur [SF]; Schlauberger oder Die Kinderkonferenz! [SF]. 1959/60: Leute mit Flügeln. 1960/61: Professor Mamlock. 1961: Vielgeliebtes Sternchen [TV]. 1962: Mord in Gateway [TV – co-cam]; Fetzers Flucht [TV]; Monolog für einen Taxifahrer [TV]; Das DEFA-Film-Magazin Nr. 4: Die Direktsendung [SF]. 1962/63: Reserviert für den Tod [act]. 1963: Julia lebt [co-cam]. 1963/64: Der geteilte Himmel. 1964/ 65: Mörder auf Urlaub / Ubica na odsustva [co-cam – DD/YU]. 1965: BID 65 [SD – co-cam]. 1966: Heimweh nach der Zukunft. Max Steenbeck erzählt [TVD – co-cam]; 400 cm3 [SD]; DEFA 70 [SF – dir,scr,cam]. 1967: Ich war neunzehn. 1967/68: Rosen [TV – dir,scr – DD/SU]. 1970: Elektronische Datenverarbeitung [Folge 28–42 – TVS]. 1970/71: Goya / Goja, ili Tâkij put’ poznani’ [co-cam – DD/SU]. 1971: Zwischen Freitag und morgen [TV]. 1971/ 72: Januskopf. 1973: Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz. 1974: WMW Rufbild-Film 1974 [DO – dir,scr,cam]. 1974/75: Der arme Reiche, Hubert B. [TV]. 1975/76: Liebesfallen. 1976: Mama, ich lebe; DEFA Disko 77 [scr,cam]. 1978: Nachtspiele [dir,scr]. 1980: Darf ich Petruschka zu dir sagen. 1981: Die dicke Tilla [TV – cam, dir, scr]. 1981/ 82: Der Mann von der Cap Arcona [TV – cam,co-scr]. 1983/84: Meine Frau Inge und meine Frau Schmidt. 1984/ 85: Die Gänse von Bützow. 1985: Die Zeit die bleibt. Ein Film über Konrad Wolf [DO – app]. 1990/91: Schuß Gegenschuß [DO – app – DE].
ELISABETH BERGNER (Elisabeth Ettel) Born August 22, 1897, Drohobycz (Austria-Hungary, now Drogobych, Ukraine) Died May 12, 1986, London (England) Waif-like international theatre legend Bergner starred in a string of popular romantic films during the
Weimar period, and maintained an occasional – and highly successful – involvement with cinema for the rest of her life. Bergner trained at the Vienna Conservatory between 1912 and 1915. Over the next seven years, she appeared at theatres in Innsbruck, Zurich, Vienna and Munich, but it was in Berlin that Bergner had her greatest success. Her Rosalind in Max Reinhardt’s 1923 production of ‘As You Like It’ at Deutsches Theater was fêted as a triumph of modern stage technique, and an association both with Reinhardt and this venue continued for many years. Bergner’s film debut was Holger-Madsen’s DER EVANGELIMANN (The Preacher Man, 1922/23). However, she soon appeared exclusively in starring roles under the direction of Paul Czinner, whom she later married. These included NJU (Husbands or Lovers, 1924), DER GEIGER VON FLORENZ (Impetuous Youth, 1925/26), LIEBE (Love, 1926) and DOÑA JUANA (1927), all of which showcased the actress as a slightly androgynous femme fragile. The couple’s most successful silent was FRÄULEIN ELSE (Miss Else, 1928/29) based on Arthur Schnitzler’s novella. ARIANE (The Loves of Ariane, 1930/31), their first sound film, followed, which Billy Wilder remade in 1957 as LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, starring Audrey Hepburn in Bergner’s old role. Bergner’s final German film prior to emigrating was DER TRÄUMENDE MUND (Dreaming Lips, 1932). Czinner and Bergner moved to London in 1932, and stayed on in England after Hitler seized power. They continued to collaborate on stage and screen work, which included ESCAPE ME NEVER (1935), for which Bergner received an Oscar nomination; AS YOU LIKE IT (1935/36), in which her on-screen partner was Laurence Olivier; and a remake of her final German film called DREAMING LIPS (1936/37). Following the start of World War II, the couple relocated to the United States where Bergner was involved primarily in stage work and made only a single film appearance, in Edwin L. Martin’s anti-Nazi picture PARIS CALLING (1941). Bergner returned to London in 1951, where she undertook stage, screen and television work. From 1954, she also made a number of successful stage appearances in West Germany. She went on to receive a ‘Filmband in Gold’ award for her lead role in John Olden and Wolfgang Staudte’s family saga DIE GLÜCKLICHEN JAHRE DER THORWALDS (The Happy Years of the Thorwalds, 1962), and frequently appeared on German television from the 1960s to the 1980s. Performances as feisty old women became Bergner’s forte in later years, and she picked up an Ernst Lubitsch Award for her portrayal of a pensioner in Michael Günther’s light-hearted television film DER PFINGSTAUSFLUG (The Whitsun Outing, 1978).
KURT BERNHARDT
Bergner published her memoirs in 1978, and received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for her outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1985. [act – DE] 1922/23: Der Evangelimann. 1924: Nju. Eine unverstandene Frau. 1925/26: Der Geiger von Florenz. 1926: Liebe. 1927: Doña Juana. 1928/29: Fräulein Else. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]. 1930/31: Ariane [MLV]. 1931: Ariane [MLV – FR]. 1932: Der träumende Mund [MLV]. 1933/34: Catherine the Great [GB]. 1935: Escape Me Never [GB]. 1935/36: As You Like It [GB]. 1936/37: Dreaming Lips [MLV – GB]. 1938: Stolen Life [GB]. 1941: Paris Calling [US]. 1958: Stunde der Wahrheit [TV]. 1962: Die glücklichen Jahre der Thorwalds. 1963: Geliebter Lügner [TV]. 1968: A Touch of Venus: The Jewish Wife [TV – GB]. 1970: In Good King Charles’s Golden Days [TV – GB]; Cry of the Banshee [GB]; Strogoff / Michel Strogoff, le courrier du Tsar / Der Kurier des Zaren [IT/FR/DE]; Ein Mann seltener Art. Aussagen über Hans Otto [TVD – DD]. 1971: Release [TV – GB]; Thirty-Minute Theatre: The Proposal [TV – GB]. 1972/73: Der Fußgänger / Der Fussgänger [DE/CH]. 1975: Nachtdienst [TV]. 1976: Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture [TVD – CA]. 1978: Der Pfingstausflug [DE/CH]. 1980: Die Bergner [TVD]. 1981: Klaus Maria Brandauer im Gespräch mit Elisabeth Bergner [TV – AT]. 1981/82: Feine Gesellschaft – Beschränkte Haftung. 1982: Heut’ abend … Elisabeth Bergner zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TV]; Elisabeth Bergner im Gespräch [TV]; Der Garten [TV]. 1982/83: Angelo und Luzy [TVS]. 1983: Rummelplatzgeschichten [TVS]. 1984: Alles aus Liebe: Wenn ich dich nicht hätte [TV]. 1986: Fast verwehte Spuren. Erinnerungen an den Schauspieler Alexander Granach [TVD]. 1987: Elisabeth Bergner – Zwischen Gedankenstrich und Fragezeichen [TVD – DD].
KURT BERNHARDT (aka Curtis Bernhardt) Born April 15, 1899, Worms (Germany) Died February 22, 1981, Pacific Palisades (California, USA) Bernhardt established himself as a director in Weimar cinema in a variety of genres. Following his emigration to Hollywood, he became known as a specialist in ‘women’s pictures’, particularly at Warner Bros. in the 1940s. Bernhardt left school to complete a commercial apprenticeship, before being conscripted into the army in 1917. After World War I he lived briefly in Heidelberg, where he appeared on stage at the Stadttheater and undertook his first film work as an extra in one of Phil Jutzi’s westerns. Bernhardt moved to Berlin in 1922, where he was engaged by the avant-garde Renaissance-Theater. In 1924 the communist-affiliated Prometheus-Film company approached him to direct his first picture,
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NAMENLOSE HELDEN (Nameless Heroes), an anti-
war film that blended documentary elements with studio footage. A further seven silents for various production companies followed, including the melodrama QUALEN DER NACHT (Torments of the Night, 1925/26); an adaptation of ‘Jane Eyre’ titled DIE WAISE VON LOWOOD (Orphan of Lowood, 1926); the anti-abortion feature KINDERSEELEN KLAGEN EUCH AN (Children’s Souls Accuse You, 1926/27), sponsored by the Catholic church; and Marlene Dietrich’s first starring role in DIE FRAU, NACH DER MAN SICH SEHNT (Three Loves, 1929). Bernhardt’s first sound production was a film about the Napoleonic wars, DIE LETZTE KOMPAGNIE (The Last Company, 1929/30), starring Conrad Veidt. He went on to direct another Veidt vehicle, the exotic crime thriller DER MANN, DER DEN MORD BEGING (Stamboul, 1930/31), in both German and Frenchlanguage versions, as well as Luis Trenker’s patriotic mountain film, DER REBELL (The Rebel, 1932). After the Nazis seized power, Bernhardt received special permission to shoot the science fiction film DER TUNNEL (The Tunnel, 1933), a Franco-German coproduction, in Munich. However, after the filming was completed, he was arrested for having made derogatory remarks about Nazi idol Horst Wessel, and was lucky to escape with his life. Bernhardt shot a further four films in multiple-language versions in France and England before going to Hollywood in 1939 with a seven-year Warner Bros. contract. Changing his first name to Curtis in 1940, Bernhardt directed nine vehicles for female stars including Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Jane Wyman, Ida Lupino, and Barbara Stanwyck, as well as being lent out to Paramount for the musical HAPPY GO LUCKY (1942). Becoming an American citizen in 1946, Bernhardt made a further six pictures at M-G-M and another four for independent producers after his Warner Bros. contract ended. Also taking work in Europe from the mid-1950s, he directed the West German comedy STEFANIE IN RIO (Stephanie in Rio, 1960). His final picture was KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT (1964), a comedy about America’s first female president, produced by Bernhardt’s eldest son Steven (1937–1999), who also enjoyed a lengthy career as a Hollywood producer and assistant director. In 1970, Bernhardt received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema. [dir – DE] 1913: Fiesko [act]. 1924: Namenlose Helden (Infanterist Scholz) [dir,co-scr – AT]. 1925/26: Qualen der Nacht [dir,scr]. 1926: Die Waise von Lowood. 1926/27: Kinderseelen klagen euch an. 1927: Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen. 1927/28: Schinderhannes [dir,co-scr]. 1928:
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FRANK BEYER
Das letzte Fort. 1929: Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt. 1929/30: Die letzte Kompagnie. 1930/31: Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV]; L’Homme qui assassina [MLV]. 1932: Der Rebell [MLV – co-dir]. 1933: Der Tunnel [MLV – dir,co-scr – FR/DE]; Le tunnel [MLV – dir,co-scr – FR/DE]. 1934: L’Or dans la rue [FR]. 1934/35: The Dictator [pro – GB]. 1936: Le vagabond bien-aimé [MLV – dir,co-scr – GB]; The Beloved Vagabond [MLV – GB]. 1937: La chaste Suzanne [MLV – pro – GB]; The Girl in the Taxi [pro – GB]. 1938: Carrefour [MLV – dir,co-scr – FR]. 1939: Nuit de décembre [FR]. [dir – US] 1940: My Love Came Back; Lady With Red Hair. 1941: Million Dollar Baby. 1941/42: Juke Girl. 1942: Happy Go Lucky. 1942/43: Devotion. 1943: Conflict. 1943/44: My Reputation. 1945: A Stolen Life. 1947: Possessed; High Wall. 1949: The Doctor and the Girl. 1950: Payment On Demand [dir,co-scr]. 1951: Sirocco; The Blue Veil. 1952: The Merry Widow. 1953: Miss Sadie Thompson. 1954: Beau Brummell [GB]. 1954/55: Interrupted Melody. 1956: Gaby. 1960: Stefanie in Rio [DE]. 1962: Il tiranno di Siracusa [MLV – IT/US]; Damon and Pythias [MLV – US/IT]. 1963: Es war mir ein Vergnügen [co-scr,sma – DE]. 1964: Kisses for My President [dir,pro].
FRANK BEYER Born March 26, 1932, Nobitz (Germany) Died October 1, 2006, Berlin (Germany) Specialising in conflict-filled dramas addressing contemporary social and political issues, director Beyer’s challenging DEFA productions were at once hugely popular and the subject of several of the East German regime’s most notorious acts of cultural censorship. Beyer studied film directing at Prague’s FAMU Film School from 1952, and served as assistant to various directors, including Kurt Maetzig, before completing his dissertation film, ZWEI MÜTTER (Two Mothers, 1956/57). Beyer joined DEFA’s feature film studio in 1958, where his first assignment was EINE ALTE LIEBE (An Old Love, 1958/59), a drama set in an agricultural collective. Subsequently his films were often set against the backdrop of recent history: his adventure drama FÜNF PATRONENHÜLSEN (Five Cartridges, 1959/60) concerned the Spanish civil war; KÖNIGSKINDER ( And Your Love Too, 1961/62) focussed on conformity and rebellion under fascism; and NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN (Naked Among Wolves, 1962) depicted a young boy’s survival in Buchenwald concentration camp. Meanwhile Beyer’s KARBID UND SAUERAMPFER (Carbide and Sorrel, 1963), starring Erwin Geschonnek, is considered one of DEFA’s finest comedies. The director’s next film, SPUR DER STEINE (Traces of Stones, 1965/66), based on Erik Neutsch’s bestselling novel about living and working conditions on a building site in East Germany, was banned by the rul-
ing SED party – and led to a temporary suspension of Beyer’s film career. Over the next few years, he worked at various theatres and directed television productions such as the five-part ROTTENKNECHTE (Naval Subcommand, 1969/70), about a failed sailors’ uprising in May 1945. His eventual big-screen comeback was the tragi-comic ghetto drama JAKOB DER LÜGNER (Jakob the Liar, 1974), which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and was the only East German production ever to receive an Oscar nomination. Beyer’s subsequent DAS VERSTECK (The Hiding Place, 1976/77) received only a limited release, following the defection of lead actor Manfred Krug to West Germany, while his psychological TV-drama GESCHLOSSENE GESELLSCHAFT (No Exit, 1978) was again subjected to a ban, after which he was given leave to work on television films in West Germany. Further DEFA productions included an award-winning adaptation of Hermann Kant’s novel DER AUFENTHALT (The Turning Point, 1982) addressing questions of individual guilt in wartime, and the crime film DER BRUCH (The Break-In, 1988), whose all-star cast from both sides of the Iron Curtain was intended to attract West German box office attention. After German unification, Beyer continued to make films about the country’s recent past, and he remained one of the few leading DEFA directors to have escaped the widespread lambasting of former East German cultural figures. His television production DAS GROSSE FEST (The Big Celebration, 1992) offered a satirical look at German unification, while ABGEHAUEN (Getting Away, 1998), based on actor Manfred Krug’s bestselling account of his 1977 defection, also featured Beyer (played by his brother Hermann) as one of the characters embroiled in these events. The direction of a four-part TV-adaptation of Uwe Johnson’s novel JAHRESTAGE (Anniversaries) that Beyer had prepared was handed over to Margarethe von Trotta shortly before shooting began in 1999. Beyer received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award in 1991, and published his bitter autobiography ‘Wenn der Wind sich dreht’ (When the Wind Changes) in 2001. [dir – DD] 1954: Roznèky [SD – dir,co-scr – CS]. 1955: Blázni mezi námi [co-dir,co-scr – CS]; Zar und Zimmermann [ass-dir]. 1956: Schlösser und Katen. 1. Der krumme Anton. – 2. Annegrets Heimkehr [ass-dir]. 1956/57: Zwei Mütter [dir,co-scr]. 1957: Fridericus Rex – Elfter Teil [SF – dir,scr]; Polonia-Express [ass-dir,scr]; Das Gesellschaftsspiel – eine unglaubliche Geschichte oder? [SF – dir,scr]. 1958/59: Eine alte Liebe [dir,co-scr]. 1959/60: Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1961/62: Königskinder. 1962: Nackt unter Wölfen [dir,co-scr]. 1963: Karbid und Sauerampfer [dir, scr]. 1965/66: Spur der Steine [dir,co-scr]. 1968: Der
WILLY BIRGEL Geizige [TV]. 1969/70: Rottenknechte [5 episodes – TV – dir,scr]. 1971/72: Januskopf [act]. 1972: Der Egoist [TV – co-dir]. 1972/73: Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita [4 episodes – TV – dir,co-scr]. 1974: Jakob der Lügner [dir,co-scr]. 1976/77: Das Versteck [dir,co-scr]. 1978: Geschlossene Gesellschaft [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1980/81: Der König und sein Narr [TV – DE]. 1981: Die zweite Haut [TV – DE]. 1982: Der Aufenthalt. 1983: Bockshorn. 1988: Der Bruch. [dir – DE] 1990/91: Ende der Unschuld [TV]; Der Verdacht. 1991: Sie und Er [TV]. 1992: Das große Fest [TV]. 1992/93: Das letzte U-Boot [TV]. 1993: Zwischentöne: Frank Beyer über Manfred Krug [TVD – app]; Frank Beyer – Zwischen den Zeiten [TVD – app]; Die UFA – Mythos und Wirklichkeit [TVD – app]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1994/95: Wenn alle Deutschen schlafen [TV]. 1995: Nikolaikirche [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]. 1997: Manfred Krug und die DDR [TVD – app]; Spur der Zeiten – Der Regisseur Frank Beyer [TVD – app]; Film als Heimat – Frank Beyer [TVD – app]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV]. 1998: Abgehauen [TV]. 2001: Profile: Richard Schneider im Gespräch mit Frank Beyer [TVD – app].
WILLY BIRGEL (Wilhelm Maria Birgel) Born September 19, 1891, Cologne (Germany) Died December 29, 1973, Dübendorf (Switzerland) Raven-haired, moustached, with a forceful voice and aristocratic bearing, Birgel achieved leading man status only in his forties, becoming one of Germany’s best-known stars in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Birgel went to art college prior to studying at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, while also starting acting lessons in Cologne in 1910. Following active service in World War I he dedicated himself wholly to an acting career, joining Aachen’s Stadttheater in 1919, and then performing at the Nationaltheater in Mannheim from 1924 to 1936. Birgel stood out in his film debut, a supporting role as an English officer in Paul Wegener’s EIN MANN WILL NACH DEUTSCHLAND (A Man Wants to Get to Germany, 1934), and several shady character parts followed, including the Russian governor in Paul Martin’s Lilian Harvey vehicle SCHWARZE ROSEN (Black Roses, 1935). In the latter half of the decade, the actor changed gear decisively, however, becoming German cinema’s archetypal upstanding nobleman, especially in Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk) melodramas such as SCHLUSSAKKORD (Final Accord, 1936) with Lil Dagover, and ZU NEUEN UFERN (To New Shores / Life Begins Anew, 1937) with Zarah Leander. He also worked in a number of militaristic propaganda pictures, including Karl Ritter’s UNTERNEHMEN MICHAEL (The Private’s Job, 1937) and Viktor Tourjansky’s FEINDE (Enemies, 1940).
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However, it was his lead role in Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s … REITET FÜR DEUTSCHLAND (Riding for Germany, 1940/41) that established his enduring image in the popular imagination as ‘German cinema’s white knight on horseback’. Birgel also continued to do stage work in Berlin throughout the ‘Third Reich’, appearing primarily at the Volksbühne. His first post-war role, following a brief ban due to his participation in propaganda films, was in Harald Braun’s ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND MORGEN (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1947). Over the next decade, Birgel became typecast as dependable father figures, and his lone attempt at directing a film, ROSENMONTAG (Rose Monday, 1955), floundered at the box-office. From 1959, he refocused his career towards the theatre, appearing at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus and undertaking guest tours, while also becoming a regular face on West German television. Birgel was given the opportunity to pastiche his old wartime image in his turn as an author of hunting books in Peter Schamoni’s SCHONZEIT FÜR FÜCHSE (No Shooting Time for Foxes, 1965/66). He received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1966. [act – DE] 1934: Ein Mann will nach Deutschland; Fürst Woronzeff [MLV]. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV]. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna; Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV]; Schwarze Rosen [MLV]. 1936: Schlußakkord; Verräter; Ritt in die Freiheit. 1936/37: Menschen ohne Vaterland. 1937: Zu neuen Ufern; Unternehmen Michael; Filmstars privat: Willy Birgel [SD]; Fanny Elßler. 1937/38: Verklungene Melodie. 1938: Geheimzeichen LB 17; Der Fall Deruga; Der Blaufuchs. 1938/39: Hotel Sacher. 1939: Der Gouverneur; Maria Ilona; Kongo-Expreß. 1939/40: Das Herz der Königin. 1940: Feinde. 1940/41: … reitet für Deutschland. 1941: Kameraden. 1942: Diesel; Der dunkle Tag. 1942/43: Du gehörst zu mir. 1942-44: Musik in Salzburg. 1943/44: Der Majoratsherr. 1944: Ich brauche Dich. 1944/45: Die Brüder Noltenius; Leb’ wohl, Christina! 1944/45-48: Mit meinen Augen. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen. 1950: Vom Teufel gejagt. 1950/51: Das ewige Spiel. 1951: Wenn die Abendglocken läuten. 1952: Mein Herz darfst Du nicht fragen; Heidi [CH]. 1952/53: Der Kaplan von San Lorenzo. 1953: Sterne über Colombo. 1953/54: Die Gefangene des Maharadscha. 1954: Konsul Strotthoff; Rittmeister Wronski. 1954/55: Ein Mann vergißt die Liebe; Heidi und Peter [CH]. 1955: Die Toteninsel; Rosenmontag [dir,act]. 1955/56: Rosen für Bettina. 1956: Ein Herz kehrt heim; Johannisnacht; Zwischen Zeit und Ewigkeit / Entre hoy y la eternidad [DE/ES]. 1957: Die Heilige und ihr Narr [AT]; Frauenarzt Dr. Bertram; Familie Schölermann: Ferien an der See [TVS]. 1958: Die Erbin [TV]; Liebe kann wie Gift sein; Le bellissime gambe di Sabrina [IT]; Der Priester und das Mädchen [AT]. 1958/59: Geliebte Bestie [AT]. 1959: Arzt aus Leidenschaft; Wenn die Glocken hell erklingen [AT]. 1961: Frau Cheneys Ende. 1962: Romanze in Vene-
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dig [AT]; Sind wir das nicht alle? [TV]. 1963: Die Möwe [TV]. 1964: Der Gefangene der Botschaft [TV – CH]; Ein Sarg aus Hongkong / Du grisbi pour Hongkong [DE/FR]; Andorra [TV – DE/CH]; Die Sakramentskarosse [TV]. 1965: Die Löwenlotte [TVS]. 1965/66: Schonzeit für Füchse; Agent 505 – Todesfalle Beirut / La trappola scatta a Beirut / Baroud à Beyrouth pour F.B.I. 505 [DE/IT/FR]. 1966: Der Kreidegarten [TV]. 1966/67: Großer Mann – was nun? [TVS]. 1967: Der Meteor [TV – DE/CH]. 1968: Sommersprossen / I gangsters dalla faccia pulita [DE/IT]. 1969: Die Fee [TV – CH/DE]; Sind wir das nicht alle? [TV]. 1970: Professor Sound und die Pille [TV – CH]. 1971: Glückspilze [TV]. 1981/82: Die Erbin [TV].
HANS CHRISTIAN BLECH Born February 20, 1915, Darmstadt (Germany) Died March 5, 1993, Munich (Germany) With his blond hair, scarred face and intense gaze, Blech was frequently cast playing Nazis in European and Hollywood war films, while also working regularly in films by directors of the New German Cinema. After his stage debut in Baden-Baden in 1937, Blech appeared at theatres in Kiel, Freiburg and Leipzig. Emil Jannings discovered him for the cinema in 1939, and his first part was a rebellious sailor in Max W. Kimmich’s DER LETZTE APPELL (The Final Roll Call, 1939). However, produktion was abandoned mid-shoot following the outbreak of World War II, and Blech subsequently served as a soldier from 1940 to 1945. After the war, he joined the ensemble of Munich’s Kammerspiele, where he worked under directors including Fritz Kortner, Bertolt Brecht and Hans Schweikart between 1947 and 1955. Blech’s first completed film was Erich Engel’s DEFA production AFFAIRE BLUM (The Blum Affair, 1948), in which he played a murderer. He also appeared in the role of a deserter in the Hollywood production DECISION BEFORE DAWN (1951), before coming to widespread attention with his performance as the treacherous Sergeant Platzek in Paul May’s Wehrmacht trilogy 08/15 (1954/55). Blech’s television debut was Peter Beauvais’s SCHINDERHANNES (1956), while further big-screen roles as uniformed villains followed with THE LONGEST DAY (1961/62) and John Guillermin’s THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN (1969). Occasionally, Blech was able to break from type, playing a tortured concentration camp prisoner in Armand Gattis’s L’ENCLOS (Enclosure, 1961) and a resistance fighter in Bernhard Wicki’s Hollywood production MORITURI (1964/ 65). Blech was one of the few established actors from the 1950s who were also accepted by the directors of the New German Cinema. Edgar Reitz cast him as the murderous jeweller in CARDILLAC (1968). In the
1970s, Blech impressed as a tramp haunted by his Nazi past in Wim Wenders’s FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (Wrong Move, 1974/75), which picked up the 1975 German Film Award for best ensemble acting. In DER MÄDCHENKRIEG (The Girl’s War, 1976/77) by Alf Brustellin and Bernhard Sinkel he was a shady German banker in Nazi-occupied Prague. Blech also undertook numerous television roles, often playing broken men such as in Hans W. Geissendörfer’s mini-series THEODOR CHINDLER (1978/ 79), and in Hartmut Griesmayr’s two-part MEISTER TIMPE (Master Timpe, 1979). He furthermore excelled as an ailing alcoholic actor in Egon Günther’s DIE LETZTE ROLLE (The Final Part, 1984/85), and appeared alongside Curd Jürgens in Peter SchulzeRohr’s adaptation of Stefan Heym’s novel COLLIN (1981) as well as opposite Klaus Maria Brandauer in István Szabó’s OBERST REDL (Colonel Redl, 1985). Blech received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1976. [act – DE] 1939: Der letzte Appell [unfinished]. 1948: Affaire Blum [DD]. 1950: Epilog. 1951: Decision Before Dawn [US]. 1953/54: Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben. 1954: Geständnis unter vier Augen; 08/15; Phantom des großen Zeltes. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: 08/15 – II. Teil; Banditen der Autobahn; 08/15 in der Heimat. 1956: Weil du arm bist, mußt du früher sterben; Schinderhannes [TV – DE/AT]. 1957: Der Verdammte [TV]. 1957/58: Un homme se penche sur son passé / Schwarzer Stern in weisser Nacht [FR/DE]. 1958: Die Bekehrung des Ferdys Pistora [TV]; Solange das Herz schlägt; Der Flüchtling [TV]. 1959: Der Fall Pinedus [TV]; Ruf ohne Echo [TV]. 1959/60: Ich schwöre und gelobe. 1960: Hexenjagd [TV]; Das Erbe von Björndal [AT]. 1961: L’Enclos / Ograda [FR/ YU]. 1961/62: The Longest Day [US]. 1962: Zeit der Schuldlosen [TV]; Alle Macht der Erde [TV]. 1963: Detective Story (Polizeirevier 21) [TV]; Maria Stuart [TV]. 1963/ 64: Der Besuch / La rancune / La vedetta della signora [DE/ FR/IT]; Marie Octobre [TV]. 1964/65: Morituri [US]. 196466: Woyzeck [TV]. 1965: Battle of the Bulge [US]. 1966: La voleuse / Schornstein Nr. 4 [FR/DE]; Der schwarze Freitag [TV]. 1967: Blick von der Brücke [TV]; König Ödipus [TV]; Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt von der Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade [TV]. 1968: Cardillac. 1969: The Bridge at Remagen [US]. 1970: Le client de la morte saison / The Traveller [FR/IL]; Der Übergang über den Ebro [TV]. 1970/71: Tatort: Frankfurter Gold [TV]. 1971: Die absolute Frage [TV – CH]; Das Herz aller Dinge [TV]; Geheimagenten [TV]. 1972: Der Leuchtturm [TV – AT]. 1972/73: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe / La lettera scarlatta [DE/ES]. 1973: Giordano Bruno [IT/FR]; Das blaue Hotel [TV – DE/SE]; Das einsame Haus [TV]. 1973/74: Im Zeichen der Kälte [TV]; Tod in Astapowo. Die Ehe von Leo und Sophia Tolstoi [TV]; Le hasard et la violence / Amore e violenza [FR/IT]. 1974: ‘Weil Du auch ein Arbeiter bist’ [TV]; Les innocents aux mains sales /Die Unschuldigen mit
MORITZ BLEIBTREU den schmutzigen Händen / Gli innocenti dalle mani sparche [FR/DE/IT]; Van der Valk und die Toten / Pas de frontières pour l’inspecteur: Le bouc émissaire [TV – DE/FR]. 1974/75: La chair de l’orchidée / Das Fleisch der Orchidee / Un’ orchidea rosso sangue [FR/DE/IT]; Falsche Bewegung. 1975: Il faut vivre dangéreusement [FR]; Don Juan in der Hölle [TV]; Ansichten eines Clowns. 1975/76: Zerschossene Träume / L’Appât [AT/DE/FR]. 1976/77: Grete Minde – Der Wald ist voller Wölfe [DE/AT]; Das Verhör des Ernst Niekisch [TV]; Der Mädchenkrieg. 1977/78: Winterspelt 1944. 1977-79: Victoria [SE/DE]. 1978: Messer im Kopf; Grüß Gott, ich komm’ von drüben [TV]; Der Alte aus der Tomatengasse [TV]. 1978/79: Theodor Chindler [TV]. 1979: Meister Timpe [TV]. 1980: Der Prager Prozeß 1979 [TV]; Nasvidenje v naslednji vojni [YU]. 1981: Looping – Der lange Traum vom kurzen Glück; Collin [TV]; Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [DE/FR/IT]. 1981/82: Qualverwandtschaften [TV]. 1982/83: Satan ist auf Gottes Seite [TV]. 1984: Lenin in Zürich [TV]; Redl ezredes / Oberst Redl [HU/DE/AT]. 1984/85: Die letzte Rolle [TV]. 1985: Im Auge der Nacht [TV]; Das Schneckenhaus [TV]; Via Mala [TV – DE/FR/IT]; Die Orgel [TV]; Kennwort Möwe [TV]. 1985/86: Aus familiären Gründen [TV]; Aus familiären Gründen. 2. Ein Stück Vergangenheit [TV]. 1986: Bitte laßt die Blumen leben. 1987: Der Schrei der Eule [TV]. 1988: Cinéma [TV – FR]. 1988/89: Das Milliardenspiel [TV]. 1989/90: Der achte Tag; Mit den Clowns kamen die Tränen [TV]. 1990: Magyar rekviem [HU]; Wer zu spät kommt [TV]. 1991: Begräbnis einer Gräfin [TV]; La Paloma fliegt nicht mehr [TV]. 1992: Das große Fest [TV]; Die Ringe des Saturn [TV].
MORITZ BLEIBTREU Born August 13, 1971, Munich (West Germany) One of post-reunification German cinema’s most popular young stars, muscular and vaguely exotic-looking Bleibtreu’s roles have comprised sensitive new men, comic fools and urban criminal types. The son of actors Monica Bleibtreu (1944–2009) and Hans Brenner (1938 – 1998), Bleibtreu first appeared in Rainer Boldt’s children’s film ICH HATTE EINEN TRAUM (I Had a Dream, 1979/80), composed of three unaired episodes of television series NEUES AUS UHLENBUSCH (News from Uhlenbusch). After receiving his first formal acting training, he spent four years in Italy and the United States. Bleibtreu attended several small acting schools in New York, and worked as a production intern at the Actors Studio. Back in Germany, he acted at Hamburg’s Thalia Theater and Deutsches Schauspielhaus, and then moved into film and television roles from 1986, with his first sizeable parts in Peter Timm’s EINFACH NUR LIEBE (Simply Love, 1993/94), in which he played a German-Turkish teenage gang leader, and Bernd Schadewald’s television mystery thriller KINDER DES SATANS (Satan’s Children, 1995), in which he starred as a high school student. After appearing in Rainer
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Kaufmann’s TV thriller UNSCHULDSENGEL (The Little Innocent, 1994), Bleibtreu played Kai Wiesinger’s sexy-but-dim gay lover in Kaufmann’s STADTGESPRÄCH (Talk of the Town, 1995), as well as a terminally dense gangster in the road movie KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR (1996). Both characterisations gained Bleibtreu an estimable fan base, and led to Bleibtreu’s receiving the Ernst Lubitsch Comedy Award and a ‘Filmband in Gold’ award for best supporting actor in 1998. Bleibtreu’s subsequent role as Franka Potente’s petty criminal boyfriend in Tom Tykwer’s hugely successful LOLA RENNT (Run Lola Run, 1997/98) helped to raise the actor’s international profile, although his next film, Detlev Buck’s black comedy LIEBE DEINE NÄCHSTE! (Love Your Neighbour!, 1997/98) flopped with critics and audiences alike. Bleibtreu returned to form in Fatih Akin’s German-Turkish romantic road movie IM JULI (In July, 1999/2000) and gave a particularly intense performance in Oliver Hirschbirgel’s DAS EXPERIMENT (The Experiment, 2000), which proved another international success, and for which he gained a second ‘Filmband in Gold’ award. Subsequently, Bleibtreu’s roles have included a sex-obsessed librarian in Oskar Roehler’s AGNES UND SEINE BRÜDER (Agnes and His Brothers), a mobster in Pepe Danquart’s C(R)OOK, an Oriental ruler in Iranian-American director Kayvan Mashayekh’s big-budget THE KEEPER: THE LEGEND OF OMAR KHAYYAM (all three 2004), and terrorist leader Andreas Baader in Uli Edel’s DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (The Baader-Meinhof Complex, 2007/08). [act – DE] 1978-82: Neues aus Uhlenbusch [TVS]. 1979/ 80: Ich hatte einen Traum. 1986: Notturno. Mit meinen heißen Tränen [FR/AT]. 1986/87: Der Joker. 1993: Schulz & Schulz V: Fünf vor zwölf [TV]. 1993/94: Einfach nur Liebe; Geheim – oder was? [TVS]. 1994: Unschuldsengel [TV]; Doppelter Einsatz: Damenopfer [TV]. 1995: Stadtgespräch; Kinder des Satans [TV]; Jackpot [TV]. 1995/96: Der kalte Finger; Kabel und Liebe [TV]. 1996: Das erste Mal [TV]; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door; Einsatz Hamburg Süd [TVS – season 1]. 1996/97: Einsatz Hamburg Süd: Willkommen im Club [TV]; Die Gang [TVS]. 1997: Die einzige Chance [TV]; Back in Trouble [TV – LU/DE]; Kind zu vermieten [TV]. 1997/98: Lola rennt; Liebe Deine Nächste! 1998: Das Gelbe vom Ei. 1998/99: Luna Papa / Mondvater [DE/AT]. 1999/2000: Im Juli; Fandango – Members Only; The Invisible Circus [US]. 2000: Das Experiment. 2000/01: Taking Sides – Der Fall Furtwängler / Taking Sides – Le cas Furtwängler / Taking Sides [DE/FR/GB]. 2001: Lammbock. 2001-03: Germanikus. 2002: Solino. 2004: The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam [US]; Agnes und seine Brüder; Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO]; C(r)ook / Basta – Rotwein oder Totsein [AT/DE]; Fakiren fra Bilbao [DK]; Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe; Dittsche – Das wirklich wahre Leben [1 episode – TVS]. 2004/05: Mu-
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nich [US]. 2005: Durch die Nacht mit … Moritz Bleibtreu und Oliver Pocher [TVD]. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen. 2006: Le Concile de pierre [FR]. 2006/07: La masseria delle allodole [IT]; 2007: The Walker [US/GB]; Free Rainer – Dein Fernseher lügt [AT/DE]. 2007/08: Chiko; Les femmes de l’ombre [FR]; Speed Racer [US]; Der Baader Meinhof Komplex; Adam Resurrected [US/DE]. 2008/09: Lippels Traum; Soul Kitchen.
HARK BOHM Born May 18, 1939, Hamburg (Germany) The films of actor and director Bohm have since the 1970s charted a course between accessible narratives and social criticism. Many of his films have addressed legal dilemmas, and have often centred on the lives of those lacking a voice in society. Bohm studied law at the universities of Hamburg, Berlin and Lausanne. He came into contact with members of Munich’s film scene through his younger brother, actor Marquard Bohm, and had himself numerous minor roles in films by directors including Alexander Kluge and Rainer Werner Fassbinder from 1969. In the films of the latter he often played timid minor officials, fussy bureaucrats, and other socially dysfunctional petit-bourgeois loners, as in FONTANE EFFI BRIEST (1972–74), DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage of Maria Braun, 1978), and LILI MARLEEN (1980). Having directed a few shorts, Bohm’s first feature as a director was the humanist western TSCHETAN, DER INDIANERJUNGE (Chetan, Indian Boy, 1972) starring his brother Marquard and his brother-in-law Dschingis Bowakow. In 1974, Bohm founded his own production company, Hamburger Kino Kompanie, run by his wife Natalia Bowakow. Subsequently, he wrote and directed several pictures focussing on young people’s everyday lives, including NORDSEE IST MORDSEE (North Sea Is Dead Sea, 1975/76) and IM HERZEN DES HURRICAN (Eye of the Hurricane, 1979/80), both starring his adopted son Uwe Bohm (b. 1962). More controversial was DER FALL BACHMEIER – KEINE ZEIT FÜR TRÄNEN (The Bachmeier Case – No Time For Tears, 1983), based on the real life case of a mother who shot dead the killer of her daughter, with some critics accusing the film of exploiting the case’s notoriety. Bohm confirmed his ability to communicate serious subject matter within a mainstream aesthetic with DER KLEINE STAATSANWALT (The Little Public Prosecutor, 1987) and the multicultural romance YASEMIN (1987/88). Bohm continued to take on regular character parts as authority figures (generally of questionable integrity) in films and on television, e.g. in Margarethe von Trotta’s DAS VERSPRECHEN (The Promise, 1993/ 94), Emir Kusturica’s UNDERGROUND (1994/95)
and Thomas Jahn’s KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR (1996). Following a six-year hiatus, he returned to directing with the adoption drama FÜR IMMER UND IMMER (For Ever and Ever, 1996) starring his own adopted daughter Lili (b. 1989), after which he made the multiple-award-winning television courtroom drama VERA BRÜHNE (The Trials of Vera B., 2000/01), about one of Germany’s most famous miscarriages of justice. Apart from his work as director and actor, Bohm in 1970 was a founder member of the distribution and production company Filmverlag der Autoren, which played a crucial role in disseminating the New German Cinema domestically and abroad, and was the head of the film section at Hamburg University from its inception in 1992 until 2005. [act – DE] 1966/67: Na und …? [SF – act,catering]. 1969: Die Revolte [TV]; Rote Sonne [snd,act]. 1969/70: Der große Verhau. 1969/77: ‘Zu böser Schlacht schleich ich heut nacht so bang –’. 1969-71: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte. 1970: Wir verbauen 3 x 27 Millia. Dollar in einen Angriffsschlachter [SF]; Der amerikanische Soldat; Fassbinder produziert: Film Nr. 8 [TVD]. 1970/71: Wie starb Roland S? [TV-SF – dir,scr,pro]; Supergirl [snd]; Terror Desire [voi]. 1971: Einer wird verletzt, träumt, stirbt und wird vergessen [SF – dir,scr,pro]; Liebe so schön wie Liebe; Händler der vier Jahreszeiten. 1972: Tschetan, der Indianerjunge [dir,scr,pro]. 1972-74: Fontane Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen. 1973: Angst essen Seele auf; Ich kann auch ’ne Arche bauen [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 1974: Faustrecht der Freiheit. 1974-76: Wir pfeifen auf den Gurkenkönig [dir,scr]. 1975: Angst vor der Angst [TV]. 1975/76: Nordsee ist Mordsee [dir,scr, pro]; Der starke Ferdinand. 1976: Bomber & Paganini [DE/AT]; Adolf und Marlene. 1976-78: Der kleine Godard an das Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film; Wölfe [TVD – co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1977/78: Moritz, lieber Moritz [dir,scr, pro]; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun; Liebe und Abenteuer [TV – pro]. 1978/ 79: Der Durchdreher; Die dritte Generation; Der ganz normale Wahnsinn [TVS]. 1979: 1 + 1 = 3. 1979/80: Im Herzen des Hurrican [dir,scr,pro]; Panische Zeiten; Berlin Alexanderplatz. 3. Ein Hammer auf dem Kopf kann die Seele verletzen. / Epilog: Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Mein Traum vom Traum des Franz Biberkopf: Vom Tode eines Kindes und der Geburt eines Brauchbaren [TV]. 1980: Beobachtung an Wölfen [DO – dir,scr,pro]; Endstation Freiheit; Lili Marleen. 1980/81: Das ist Film – Kluge, Godard und andere … [DO]. 1981: Lola. 1981-83: Milo Barus, der stärkste Mann der Welt [pro]. 1982: Filmball-Spot [SF]. 1982/83: Alles unter Kontrolle. 1983: Besetzungsprobe [DO]; Der Fall Bachmeier – Keine Zeit für Tränen [pro, dir]; Der Beginn aller Schrecken ist Liebe. 1984/85: Das Rätsel der Sandbank [TVS]; Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie
KARLHEINZ BÖHM [TV]. 1985: Wie ein freier Vogel – Como un parajo libre [DO – dir,scr,act,pro]; Paradigma / Le pouvoir du mal / Il protere de male [DE/FR/IT]; Nicht nichts ohne Dich. 1985/86: Das Go! Projekt [TV]; In bester Gesellschaft [TVS – DE/AT/IT/FR/BE]. 1986: Warten auf Marie [pro]. 1986/87: Ossegg oder Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel. 1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [DE/AT/IT/CS]. 1987: Der kleine Staatsanwalt [dir,scr,act,pro]; Fucking Fernand / Zwei halbe Helden [FR/DE]; Das andere Leben [TV]; Prozesse der Weltgeschichte: Der Prozeß des Sokrates [TV]; Linie 1. 1987/88: Yasemin [dir,scr,act,pro]; Adrian und die Römer. 1988: Beim nächsten Mann wird alles anders; Eine Bonner Affaire [TV]; Treffen in Travers [DD]. 1988/89: Erdenschwer; Ein verhexter Sommer [TV]. 1989/90: Herzlich willkommen [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1990: NDR III-Werbespot [SF – dir]; Die neuen Postleitzahlen [SF – dir]. 1991: Lost in Siberia / Zaterânnyj u Sibiri (Gulag 3) [GB/SU]. 1991/92: Mit tödlicher Sicherheit [TV – DE/FR]; Schtonk! 1991-93: Ruby Cairo [US/JP]. 1992: Begegnungen: Hark Bohm im Gespräch mit Engelbert Sauter [TVD]. 1993: Justiz [DE/ CH]; MadreGilda / Madre Gilda / Mamangilda [TV – ES/DE/ FR]. 1993/94: Das Versprechen / Les années du mur [DE/ CH/FR]. 1994: Die Prärien der Meere. Jacques Costeau trifft Louis Malle, Hans Hass trifft Hark Bohm [TVD]; Balko [season 1 – TVS]. 1994/95: Underground [FR/DE/HU]. 1995: Die Partner [TVS]. 1995/96: Friedemann Brix – Eine Schwäche für Mord [TVS]. 1996: Gespräch mit dem Biest / Conversation with the Beast [DE/US]; Für immer und immer [dir,co-scr,act, pro]; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. 1996/ 97: … auch ohne Frau unglücklich … 1997: Koerbers Akte: Tödliches Ultimatum [TV]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV]; Härtetest; Die Straßen von Berlin: Terror [TV]. 1998: Tatort: Bildersturm [TV]. 1998/99: Letzter Atem [TV]. 1999: Ich wünsch dir Liebe [TV]; Das Hochzeitsgeschenk [TV]; ’ne günstige Gelegenheit. 2000/01: Vera Brühne [TV – scr,act, dir]; Invincible. 2001/02: Fálkar / Islandfalken / Falcons [IS/NO/DE/GB]. 2002: Der Ermittler: Schöner Tod [TV]; Stahlnetz: Ausgelöscht [TV]; Blond: Eva Blond!: Das Buch der Beleidigungen [TV]; Sterne, die nie untergehen [TV – dir,scr,act]. 2003: Alles kommt wieder … im Sauseschritt! Die 80er [TVD]. 2003/04: Das verräterische Collier [TV]. 2006: True North [DE/IE/GB]. 2006/ 07: Underdogs [TV]; Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app]. 2007: Die Todesautomatik [TV]. 2007/ 08: Leo und Marie – Eine Weihnachtsliebe [TV]. 2008: Was wenn der Tod uns scheidet?; Die Jagd nach dem Schatz der Nibelungen [TV]; Der Architekt.
KARLHEINZ BÖHM (aka Carl Boehm) Born March 16, 1928, Darmstadt (Germany) Projecting a squeaky-clean image in the 1950s, stage and screen actor Böhm memorably broke with type in Michael Powell’s controversial PEEPING TOM at the end of the decade and later taking on character parts for Fassbinder and other directors. The son of legendary conductor Karl Böhm, Böhm attended boarding school in Switzerland during World
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War II. After gaining his Abitur in 1946, he studied German and English literature at Graz University. In 1948, he began studying acting in Vienna under Albin Skoda and Helmuth Krauss, and debuted at the Burgtheater before joining the ensemble of the Theater in der Josefstadt from 1949 to 1953. Böhm’s first screen appearance was in Karl Hartl’s DER ENGEL MIT DER POSAUNE (The Angel With the Trumpet, 1948), but he rose to prominence alongside Hildegard Knef and Erich von Stroheim in Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s ALRAUNE (Unnatural, 1952). He gained true star status with his reserved portrayal of clean-cut and dutiful Emperor Franz Josef of Austria opposite Romy Schneider in Ernst Marischka’s historical romances SISSI (1955), SISSI, DIE JUNGE KAISERIN (Sissi: The Young Empress, 1956) and SISSI – SCHICKSALSJAHRE EINER KAISERIN (Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress,1957), which proved to be a box-office phenomenon across the German-speaking world, as well as in other parts of Europe. In Britain and America, the three films were edited into a single film, released as FOREVER MY LOVE. In an attempt to escape his clean-cut image Böhm went to London to play a psychopathic killer in Michael Powell’s PEEPING TOM (1959/60). He subsequently starred in numerous West German and international productions, including portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in the American TV production THE MAGNIFICENT REBEL (1960) and playing Jacob Grimm in Walt Disney’s THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM (1962). He also was part of the all-star cast of Vincente Minnelli’s war epic THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
(1962). He was named one of 1962’s ‘Top Ten Male Newcomers’ by Hollywood’s trade-organised Laurel Awards. Back in Germany, Böhm worked increasingly in theatre from the early 1960s, and made his directorial debut with a 1964 production of Richard Strauß’s ‘Elektra’ at the Stuttgart State Opera. In the 1970s, Böhm appeared in a number of films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including FONTANE EFFI BRIEST (Effi Briest, 1972–74) – which also featured Böhm’s third wife, the Polish actress Barbara Lass (1940–1995) – and FAUSTRECHT DER FREIHEIT (Fox and His Friends, 1974). Particularly memorable was his ice-cold portrayal of a sadistic husband in Fassbinder’s television psycho-drama MARTHA (1973), based on a story by thriller author Cornell Woolrich. From 1981, when during a TV-show he successfully appealed for aid to famine-stricken Ethiopia, Böhm increasingly dedicated himself to running the charity ‘Menschen helfen Menschen’ (People Help People), for which he fronted advertising campaigns and spent six months of each year in Ethiopia. He received a
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MARQUARD BOHM
‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1983 as well a a number of international awards for his humanitarian activities. His daughter, Katharina Böhm (b. 1964), is a highly successful television actress. [act – DE] 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune [ass-dir,act – AT]. 1951/52: Wienerinnen im Schatten der Großstadt [AT]. 1952: Haus des Lebens; Alraune; Der Tag vor der Hochzeit; Der Weibertausch. 1953: Salto mortale; Arlette erobert Paris; Hochzeit auf Reisen; Der unsterbliche Lump. 1954: Die Sonne von St. Moritz; Und ewig bleibt die Liebe; Die Hexe; Die goldene Pest. 1954/55: Die heilige Lüge. 1955: Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen; Unternehmen Schlafsack; Schwedenmädel / Sommarflickan [MLV – DE/ SE]; Dunja [AT]; Sissi [AT]. 1956: Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz; Nina; Kitty und die große Welt; Sissi, die junge Kaiserin [AT]. 1957: Blaue Jungs; Das Schloß in Tirol; Sissi – Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin [AT]; Le passager clandestin / The Stowaway [FR/AU]. 1957/58: Examen des Lebens [TV]. 1958: Man müßte noch mal 20 sein [AT]; En søman gar i land [DK]; Das Dreimäderlhaus [CH/AT]. 1959: Kriegsgericht; La Paloma. 1959/60: Peeping Tom [GB]; Too Hot to Handle [GB]. 1960: Der Gauner und der liebe Gott; The Magnificent Rebel [US]; La croix des vivants [FR]. 1962: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [US]; The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm [US]; Rififi à Tokyo / Rififi a Tokio [FR/IT]. 1963: The Virginian: The Golden Door [TV – US]; Come Fly with Me [US/GB]; Burke’s Law: Who Killed Julian Buck? [TV – US]; Combat: The Wounded Don’t Cry [TV – US]. 1964: L’Heure de la Veritá [IL/FR]. 1966: Ein idealer Gatte [TV]; The Venetian Affair [US]. 1970: Traumnovelle [TV]; Literatur [TV – AT]. 1971/72: Verdacht gegen Barry Croft [TV]. 1972/73: Immobilien [TV]. 1972-74: Fontane Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen. 1973: Vabanque [TV]; Schloß Hubertus; Martha [TV]. 1974: Im Hause des Kommerzienrates [TV]; Faustrecht der Freiheit. 1975: Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt zum Himmel; Motiv – Liebe [TVS – season 2]; Rest des Lebens: Seniorenschweiz [TV]. 1976: Die Tannerhütte. 1978: Tatort: Schwarze Einser [TV]. 1979: Kur in Travemünde [TV]. 1980-82: Ringstraßenpalais. [2 seasons – TVS – AT]. 1980/ 81: Die Laurents [TVS]. 1981/82: Inflation im Paradies. EP 4: Testschock Nr. 4. 1985: Das Sonntagsgespräch: Karlheinz Böhm [TVD]. 1986: Seine größte Rolle. Karlheinz Böhm als Nothelfer [TVD]. 1992: Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt. Der Filmemacher Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD]; Karlheinz Böhm erzählt Musikgeschichten für kleine und große Leute [TVS]. 1995: Der Bergdoktor. [season 4 – TVS – DE/AT]. 1997: Arthouse: A Very British Psycho [TVD – app – GB]. 2002: Romy Schneider, étrange étrangère [TVD – app – FR]; Legenden: Romy Schneider [TVD – app]. 2003: Die Farbe des Herzens. Der Weg des Karlheinz Böhm [TVD – app]. 2004: Das Lächeln des Sadisten. Karlheinz Böhm über Rainer Werner Fassbinders Martha [SD – app]. 2005: The Eye of the Beholder [SD – app – GB]. 2007/
08: Mr. Karl – Ein Mensch für Menschen [DO – app – AT/ DE]. 2008: Alles Gute Karlheinz Böhm – Ein Leben für Afrika [TVD – app].
MARQUARD BOHM Born June 27, 1941, Hamburg (Germany) Died February 3, 2006, Wetter an der Ruhr (Germany) A laid-back and ordinary-looking leading man who epitomised the ‘spirit of ‘68’, Bohm played supporting roles in numerous German films from the late 1960s onwards. The younger brother of actor-director Hark, Bohm initially went to Detmold to train as a gardener, and then held various jobs before serving a two-year apprenticeship at Hamburg’s Geyer film processing laboratory. Sidelining as a film extra, he appeared in Wolfgang Staudte’s television film DER FALL KAPITÄN BEHRENS (The Case of Captain Behrens, 1965) and got in contact with Hamburg’s young filmmaking scene. He co-directed and starred in an experimental short, NA UND …? (So What?, 1966/67) with Helmut Herbst, documenting a day in the life of an unemployed man, and then served as assistant to director Volker Schlöndorff during 1967. Lead roles in Rudolf Thome’s DETEKTIVE (Detectives, 1968) and ROTE SONNE (Red Sun, 1969), as well as in his television film SUPERGIRL (1970/71), led critics to proclaim Bohm briefly as ‘the German Jean-Paul Belmondo’. Bohm then directed a second film, TERROR DESIRE (1970/71), a film that drew variously on gangster films, road movies, pop art and French nouvelle vague. Thereafter effectively one of New German Cinema’s stock character actors, he appeared in numerous Rainer Werner Fassbinder productions, including as a private detective in DER AMERIKANISCHE SOLDAT (The American Soldier, 1970), and a police official in WILDWECHSEL (Wild Game / Jail Bait, 1972). He also was cast in Wim Wenders’s IM LAUF DER ZEIT (Kings of the Road, 1975), and Roland Klick’s sauerkraut western DEADLOCK (1970). Frequently collaborating with his brother, he played the shepherd Alaska in TSCHETAN, DER INDIANERJUNGE (Chetan, Indian Boy, 1972) and a put-upon father of a troubled teenage son in NORDSEE IST MORDSEE (North Sea Is Dead Sea, 1975/76). From the mid-1970s onwards, Bohm took to the stage, while his film and television appearances consisted mostly of scene-stealing bit parts and cameos, as in Thomas Arslan’s DEALER (1998) and Philip Gröning’s L’AMOUR, L’ARGENT, L’AMOUR (Love, Money, Love, 1999/2000). Bohm furthermore became a mascot of sorts in the films of Rudolf Thome, with whom he started out, and contributed small roles in JUST MARRIED (1997/98),
CURT BOIS PARADISO – SIEBEN TAGE MIT SIEBEN FRAUEN
(Paradiso: Seven Days With Seven Women, 1999). [act – DE] 1965: Der Fall Kapitän Behrens [TV]. 1965/66: Zwei wie wir … und die Eltern wissen von nichts [snd, act]. 1966/67: Na und …? [SF – co-dir,co-scr,act]. 1967/ 68: Jane erschießt John, weil er sie mit Ann betrügt [SF]. 1968: Detektive. 1968/69: Hans im Glück [SF]. 1969: Brandstifter [TV]; Die Revolte [TV]; Rote Sonne. 1969/70: Ein großer graublauer Vogel / Un grosso uccello grigio azzurro [DE/ IT]. 1969-71: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte. 1970: Nizza [SF]; Deadlock; Der amerikanische Soldat. 1970/71: Supergirl; Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte; Terror Desire [dir,scr,act]. 1971: Gangster [SF]; Liebe so schön wie Liebe. 1972: Zahltag / Mourier tranquille [DE/ FR]; Tschetan, der Indianerjunge; Wildwechsel; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag. 4. Harald und Monika [TV]. 1973: Angst essen Seele auf. 1973/74: Weihnachtsmärchen [SF]. 1974: Output; Ein Haus für uns: Aus der Familie der Panzerechsen / Die Insel [TV]; Karl May; Ein bißchen Liebe; Hase und Igel [TV]; Badische Revolte 1848. Friedrich Heckers Traum von der roten Republik [TV]; Faustrecht der Freiheit. 1975: Umarmungen und andere Sachen; Im Lauf der Zeit. 1975/76: Nordsee ist Mordsee; Satansbraten. 1976: Eierdiebe. 1977/78: Jauche und Levkojen [TVS]; Moritz, lieber Moritz. 1978: Das Spiel [TV]; Der Sturz. 1978/79: Theodor Chindler [TV]. 1979: Nirgendwo ist Poenichen [TVS]. 1979/80: Im Herzen des Hurrican; Theo gegen den Rest der Welt; Berlin Alexanderplatz. 2. Wie soll man leben, wenn man nicht sterben will [TV]. 1980: Endstation Freiheit. 1981: Zwei Stunden zu spät [SF]. 1981/ 82: Eine deutsche Revolution. 1982: Der Mann auf der Mauer. 1983/84: Smaragd. 1984: Zielscheiben. 1985: Betrogen. 1985/86: Gambit [TV]. 1986/87: Ossegg oder Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel; Jacob hinter der blauen Tür; Der Joker. 1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [DE/AT/IT/ CS]. 1987: Der kleine Staatsanwalt. 1988: Beim nächsten Mann wird alles anders; Der Philosoph. 1989: Antigone [TV]. 1989/90: Die Schönheit des Schimpansen [TV]; Mit den Clowns kamen die Tränen [TV]; 10 Minuten Berlin [SF]. 1990: Ein Fall für zwei: Der zweite Mann [TV]; Staub vor der Sonne [TV]. 1990/91: Herz in der Hand; Hafendetektiv. [season 3 – TVS]; Der Fahnder: Der vierte Mann [TV]. 1991: Die lila Weihnachtsgeschichte [TV]. 1992: Das Jahrhundert der Detektive: Der Fall Rojas [TV]. 1992/93: Die Denunziantin. 1993/94: Mach die Musik leiser; Die Weltings vom Hauptbahnhof – Scheidung auf Kölsch [TVS]. 1994: Derrick: Gesicht hinter der Scheibe [TV]; Anwalt Abel – Rufmord [TV]. 1994/95: Das Geheimnis; Blutige Spur [TV]. 1995: Heimatgeschichten: Rollo räumt auf [TV]; Die Partner [TVS]; Cuba Libre [TV]. 1995/96: Im Namen des Gesetzes. [season 2 – TVS]; Balko: Tödliche Neugier [TVS]. 1996: Willi und die Windzors [TV]; Crash Kids [TV]; Tatort: Tod im All [TV]. 1996/97: Ein Fall für Zwei: Bis aufs Blut [TV]. 1997/98: Just Married. 1998: Dunckel; Herzlos [TV]; Dealer. 1998/99: Die Häupter meiner Lieben. 1999: Paradiso – Sieben Tage mit sieben Frauen; Der Baldower / Kaliber Deluxe [AT/DE]. 1999/2000: L’Amour, l’argent, l’amour [DE/CH/FR]; Der Mörder in Dir [TV]. 2000: Mascha Rabben – … nur drei bis vier Sätze am Telefon [DO].
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CURT BOIS Born April 5, 1901, Berlin (Germany) Died December 25, 1991, Berlin (Germany) A popular German-Jewish all-round entertainer, Bois entered show business as a child, and enjoyed a stage and screen career spanning eight decades. His first stage performance, playing Heinerle in Leo Fall’s operetta ‘Der fidele Bauer’ (The Merry Farmer) at Berlin’s Theater des Westens in 1908, was itself filmed as a Tonbild (a short musical film with gramophone accompaniment), and numerous roles in plays and early film comedies followed, including Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers’s WILLY’S STREICHE: KLEBOLIN KLEBT ALLES (Stick-It Glue Sticks Anything, 1909). The teenaged Bois billed as a ‘respectable comedian’, toured between 1914 and 1920, while still occasionally appearing in films, sometimes alongside his comedienne sister Ilse Bois. He became a regular on the variety and cabaret circuits in the early 1920s, and also worked at theatres in Berlin and Vienna. Bois scored his greatest success as the lead in his adaptation of Brandon Thomas’s ‘Charley’s Aunt’ in 1928/29, and, together with Max Hansen, co-scripted the stage comedy ‘Dienst am Kunden’ (Customer Service) in 1931. From 1926, Bois also took the lead role in a number of feature-length film comedies, such as Richard Eichberg’s DER FÜRST VON PAPPENHEIM (The Masked Mannequin, 1927) – although his side-splitting appearance in women’s clothes in this picture would later be used to anti-Semitic ends in the Nazi propaganda films JUDEN OHNE MASKE (Jews Without Masks, 1938) and DER EWIGE JUDE (The Eternal Jew, 1940). For the most part, Bois played snappy young whitecollar workers whose hyperactive behaviour unleashed all sorts of confusion. His sound film debut, in Max Nosseck’s DER SCHLEMIHL (The Schlemiel, 1931), proved a huge success, and soon afterwards, Bois directed and starred in the romantic comedy short SCHERBEN BRINGEN GLÜCK (Broken Crockery Brings Good Luck, 1932). Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, Bois reached New York the next year, where he appeared in a string of disastrous productions on Broadway. Relocating to Hollywood, he was able to secure regular bit parts in films, appearing in Anatole Litvak’s TOVARICH (1937) and as the pickpocket in Michael Curtiz’s CASABLANCA (1942), as well as in larger supporting roles in Max Ophüls’s CAUGHT (1948) and opposite Buster Keaton in Richard Oswald’s THE LOVABLE CHEAT (1948/49). In 1950, Bois returned to Germany, and performed a number of roles at Deutsches Theater in East Berlin, including that of landlord Puntila in Bertolt Brecht’s production of ‘Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti’
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GEZA VON BOLVARY
(Mr Puntila and His Man Matti). Bois moved to West Berlin in 1954, where he was initially boycotted. Renewed stage success at theatres in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg followed between 1957 and 1978, especially in productions staged by Fritz Kortner. Bois also stood out in a number of films, such as Kurt Hoffmann’s DAS SPUKSCHLOSS IM SPESSART (The Haunted Castle, 1960), and on television in both East and West Germany, co-starring opposite Karl Paryla in Brecht’s FLÜCHTLINGSGESPRÄCHE (Conversations in Exile, 1964), and becoming a recurrent guest on detective series. Bois’s performance as an elderly Jewish man fleeing the Nazis in the Swiss film DAS BOOT IST VOLL (The Boat Is Full, 1980/81) was likewise both poignant and memorable. Bois received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1972, and was one of the subjects (alongside Bernhard Minetti) of Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander’s documentary GEDÄCHTNIS (Recollections, 1981/82). He also published two sets of anecdotal memoirs, and in 1988 received the Felix European Film Award for his supporting role in Wim Wenders’s DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (Wings of Desire, 1986/87). Bois – the actor with the longest film career in the world – famously threw out the entire schedule of the awards ceremony being held at the Theater des Westens, due to his lengthy reminiscences about first stepping out onto that very stage eighty years before. [act – DE] 1908: Der fidele Bauer. 1909: Willy’s Streiche: Klebolin klebt alles; Mutterliebe; Der kleine Detektiv. 1912: Ein neuer Erwerbszweig [SF]; Des Pfarrers Töchterlein. Ein Mädchenschicksal [SF]. 1913: Das Geschenk des Inders. 1916: Streichhölzer, kauft Streichhölzer!; Tante Röschen will heiraten; Bobby als Amor; BZ-Maxe & Co. 1916/17: Die Spinne. 1917: Max und Moritz von heute: Der Haupttreffer; Max und Moritz von heute: Das unruhige Hotel; Max und Moritz von heute: Ehestiftung mit Hindernissen; Max und Moritz von heute: Abenteuer im Warenhaus; Das Klima von Vancourt. 1917/18: Der Dieb. 1918: So ’n kleiner Schwerenöter; Der goldene Pol; Geschwollene Nasen; Der Gast aus der 4. Dimension. 1919: Die Austernprinzessin. 1921: Moderne Frauen oder: Der Dieb. 1922: Sie und die 3. Eine unwahrscheinliche Begebenheit in 5 Akten. 1926: Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen …! Sechs Akte aus dem Leben einer praktischen Berlinerin; Der goldene Schmetterling [AT/DE]; Gräfin Plättmamsell; Der Jüngling aus der Konfektion. 1927: Der Fürst von Pappenheim; Dr. Bessels Verwandlung. 1927/28: Majestät schneidet Bubiköpfe. Romeo und Julia von heute / Hans kunglig höghet shinglar [DE/SE]. 1929: Anschluß um Mitternacht. 1931: Der Schlemihl. 1931/32: Ein steinreicher Mann. 1932: Scherben bringen Glück [SF – dir,act]. [act – US] 1937: Tovarich; Hollywood Hotel. 1937/38: Romance in the Dark. 1938: Gold Diggers in Paris; The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse; Garden of the Moon; The Great
Waltz. 1939: Hotel Imperial; The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1940: Boom Town; The Lady in Question; He Stayed for Breakfast; Hullabaloo; Bitter Sweet. 1940/41: That Night in Rio. 1941: Hold Back the Dawn; Blue, White and Perfect. 1941/42: The Tuttles of Tahiti. 1942: My Gal Sal; Pacific Rendezvous; Casablanca. 1943: Destroyer; Paris After Dark; Princess O’Rourke; The Desert Song; Swing Fever; Saratoga Trunk. 1943/44: Cover Girl. 1944: Gypsy Wildcat; Blonde Fever. 1945: The Spanish Main. 1946: Vendetta. 1947: Jungle Flight; Arch of Triumph; The Woman in White. 1947/48: The Woman from Tangier. 1948: French Leave; Let’s Live a Little; Caught. 1948/49: A Kiss in the Dark; The Lovable Cheat. 1949: The Great Sinner; Oh, You Beautiful Doll! 1949/50: Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey. 1950: Fortunes of Captain Blood; Fireside Theatre: Operation Mona Lisa [TV]. 1954/55: Ein Polterabend [dir,co-scr – DD]. 1955: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [AT]. [act – DE – TV] 1958: Androklus und der Löwe. 1960: Das Spukschloß im Spessart [FF]. 1964: Flüchtlingsgespräche; Der eingebildete Kranke oder Von Menschen und Figuren; Blick zurück – doch nicht im Zorn. 1965/66: Ganovenehre [FF]; Die hundertste Nacht. 1966: Bert Brecht vor dem McCarthy-Ausschuß [TV]. 1967: Der Zauberberg. 1969: Amerika oder Der Verschollene. 1970: Der Pott. 1971: Der Kommissar: Tod eines Ladenbesitzers; Der trojanische Sessel; Nach meinem letzten Umzug … [DO]. 1974: Der Kommissar: Schwierigkeiten eines Außenseiters; Strychnin und saure Drops. 1977: Der Alte: Toccata und Fuge; Das Rentenspiel. 1979: Das Idol von Mordassow [TV – DD]; Liebe, Tod und Heringshäppchen; Die Alten kommen. 1979/80: Wochenendgeschichten; Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe. 1980: Curt Bois oder Mit Heinerle fing alles an [TVD – DD]; Bühne frei für Kolowitz; Gesucht wird … 1980/81: Das Boot ist voll [FF – CH/DE/AT]; Flächenbrand; Der Schützling. 1981/82: Gedächtnis. Ein Film für Curt Bois und Bernhard Minetti [TVD]. 1982: Die feine englische Art. 1982/83: Die wilden Fünfziger [FF]. 1983: Uta; Der Alte: Auf Leben und Tod; Haus Vaterland. 1984: Mensch Bachmann: Häschen mit Brille; Kleine Stadt, ich liebe Dich. 1984/85: War was, Rickie? [TVS]. 1984-86: Kir Royal. 4. Adieu Claire. 1985: ‘So schlecht war mir noch nie …’. 1986: Detektivbüro Roth. 16. Kunsthandel. 1986: Vormittag bei Rentners. 1986/87: Der Himmel über Berlin / Les ailes du désir [FF – DE/FR]. 1988: Das letzte Band [VID]. 1990/91: Rimbaud. Eines Adlers letzte Kreise [SF].
GEZA VON BOLVARY (Géza Maria von Bolvary-Zahn) Born December 27, 1897, Budapest (Hungary) Died August 10, 1961, Munich (Germany) Bolvary is primarily known as the director of film operettas from the 1930s to the 1950s, which, at their best, were narratively sophisticated and cinematically stylish concoctions, infused with old-world AustroHungarian charm and touches of melancholic irony. Bolvary joined the Austro-Hungarian army as a seventeen-year old and saw active duty during World War I. Subsequently, he worked as a freelance journalist,
GEZA VON BOLVARY
then as a film extra and directorial assistant for Budapest’s Starfilm. In 1920, Bolvary directed his first film, KÉTARCÚ ASSZONY, starring Ilona Mattyasovszky, who became his first wife in 1923. In 1922 the couple left Hungary for Vienna before settling in Munich, where Bolvary directed his first German film, the war tragedy MUTTERHERZ (A Mother’s Heart, 1922/23). By the mid-1920s, Bolvary had established himself as a prolific and versatile filmmaker both domestically and abroad, e.g. in Britain, where he shot comedies starring Betty Balfour, and crime thrillers such as the Anglo-German co-productions NUMBER SEVENTEEN (1928) and THE WRECKER (1929). Regarded as the film where Bolvary found his own style, DER FESCHE HUSAR / THE GALLANT HUSSAR (1928), another co-production, centred on an impoverished military officer who ends up with a rich bride after a series of romantic complications. Bolvary’s first international box-office breakthrough was the sound film ZWEI HERZEN IM 3/4 TAKT (Two Hearts in Waltz Time, 1930), a charming fairytale operetta that used the new technical possibilities of sound in an inventive and playful way. The film paved the way for the Viennese film operetta, one of the most successful film genres in German-speaking cinema for the next decades, and the genre with which Bolvary would be primarily associated from this time. ZWEI HERZEN IM 3/4 TAKT also marked the beginning of frequent collaborations with the actor Willi Forst (with whom Bolvary would make six more films), composer Robert Stolz, who supplied the score for fourteen of Bolvary’s films, and screenwriter Walter Reisch, who worked with Bolvary on seven films in 1930/31. In the early 1930s, Bolvary made films in France, Austria and Germany, but turned down an offer from Hollywood. Instead he directed TAVASZI PARADE (Spring Parade, 1934) in Hungary, which won an award for best musical comedy at the Biennale in Venice. During the late 1930s and into World War II, Bolvary continued to make light entertainment films for companies Terra and Wien-Film, and earned himself the reputation of a star-maker, launching the careers of actresses such as Zarah Leander, Hilde Krahl, Ilse Werner and Marte Harell. His films rarely attracted the attention of the censors, and stayed mostly clear of overt propaganda. After the war, Bolvary worked briefly in Rome, before settling again in Munich. He continued to direct light entertainment films in West Germany and Austria throughout the 1950s, e.g. SCHWARZE AUGEN (Dark Eyes, 1951) and had his first theatrical engagement at the Vienna Volksoper in 1959 with the operetta ‘Gräfin Mariza’, which was a big success.
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[dir – DE] 1920: Gyermekszív [act – HU]; Jön a rozson át [act – HU]; Kétarcú asszony [dir,scr – HU]; Lengyelvér [act – HU]; A tisztesség nevében [scr – HU]; A tizennegyedik [act – HU]. 1921: Tavaszi szerelem [dir,scr – HU]. 1922: Egy fiúnak a fele [dir,scr – HU]; Meseország [HU]. 1922/23: Mutterherz [dir,scr]. 1923: Der Weg zum Licht [dir, ide]; Wüstenrausch. 1924: Mädchen, die man nicht heiratet; Hochstapler wider Willen. 1924/25: Die Königsgrenadiere. 1925: Frauen, die nicht lieben dürfen; Die Liebe der Bajadere. 1926: Die Fürstin der Riviera; Das deutsche Mutterherz; Fräulein Mama. 1927: Die Gefangene von Shanghai; Der Geisterzug / The Ghost Train [DE/GB]; Artisten. 1928: Haus Nr. 17 / Number 17 [DE/GB]; Der fesche Husar / A noszy fiú esete tóth marival / The Gallant Husar [DE/HU/ GB]. 1928/29: Champagner / Bright Eyes [AT/GB]. 1929: The Vagabond Queen [MLV – GB]; The Wrecker / Der Würger [GB/DE]; Der Erzieher meiner Tochter; Vater und Sohn. 1929/30: Delikatessen. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt; Ein Tango für Dich; Das Lied ist aus; Der Herr auf Bestellung. 1930/31: Die lustigen Weiber von Wien. 1931: Der Raub der Mona Lisa; Liebeskommando. 1932: Ein Lied, ein Kuß, ein Mädel; Ich will nicht wissen, wer Du bist; Ein Mann mit Herz. 1933: Was Frauen träumen; Die Nacht der grossen Liebe; Château de rêve [MLV – co-dir]; Pardon, tévedtem [MLV – supv – HU]; Das Schloß im Süden [MLV]; Skandal in Budapest [MLV – DE/HU]. 1933/34: Ich kenn’ Dich nicht und liebe Dich [MLV]; Toi que j’adore [MLV – co-dir – DE/FR]. 1934: Tavaszi parádé / Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Abschiedswalzer [MLV]; La chanson de l’adieu [MLV – co-dir – DE/FR]. 1934/35: Winternachtstraum. 1935: Stradivari [MLV]; Stradivarius [MLV – co-dir – DE/FR]; Es flüstert die Liebe [AT/HU]. 1935/36: Die Entführung. 1936: Das Schloß in Flandern; Mädchenpensionat. Prinzessin Dagmar [AT/HU]; Die Julika [dir,scr – AT]; Lumpacivagabundus [AT]. 1936/37: Premiere [AT]. 1937: Der Unwiderstehliche; Zauber der Bohème [AT]. 1937/38: Finale [AT]. 1938: Spiegel des Lebens [AT]; Zwischen Strom und Steppe. Pußtaliebe [MLV – dir,co-scr – HU]; Tiszavirág [MLV – dir,scr – HU]. 1939: Künstler der Pußta [SD – dir – HU/DE]; Maria Ilona; Opernball. 1939/40: Wiener G’schichten. 1940: Ritorno [MLV – IT]; Traummusik [MLV – DE/IT]; Rosen in Tirol. 1940/41: Dreimal Hochzeit. 1941/ 42: Schicksal. 1942: Die heimliche Gräfin; Der dunkle Tag. 1943: Ein Mann mit Grundsätzen? 1943/44: Schrammeln. 1944-46: Die Fledermaus. 1945: Die tolle Susanne. 1947/ 48: Addio, Mimì [IT]. 1949: Wer bist Du, den ich liebe? 1950: Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies. 1951: Schwarze Augen. 1952: Meine Frau macht Dummheiten; Fritz und Friederike. 1953: La figlia del reggimento [MLV – IT]; Die Tochter der Kompanie [MLV – IT]; Einmal kehr ich wieder … / Dal matinska svadba [DE/YU]. 1955: Mein Leopold; Ja, ja, die Liebe in Tirol. 1956: Schwarzwaldmelodie; Was die Schwalbe sang; Das Donkosakenlied. 1957: Hoch droben auf dem Berg; Schön ist die Welt; Es wird alles wieder gut; Zwei Herzen im Mai. 1957/58: Das gab’s nur einmal [DO]. 1958: Schwarzwälder Kirsch; Hoch klingt der Radetzkymarsch [AT]; Ein Lied geht um die Welt. Die Joseph Schmidt-Story.
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HANS-OTTO BORGMANN
HANS-OTTO BORGMANN Born October 20, 1901, Hanover-Linden (Germany) Died July 26, 1977, Berlin (West Germany) Similar to Max Steiner in Hollywood, composer Borgmann was Germany’s foremost exponent of applying the leitmotif technique to film scores during the 1930s and 1940s, with characteristic recurrent melodies assigned to individual characters and situations to both illustrative and emotional effect. A musical prodigy, Borgmann started piano lessons aged four, played the violin by seven, and was state-appointed church organist at Schleswig’s Gottorp Castle by age sixteen. He trained to become a music teacher at the State Academy of Church and School Music in Berlin from 1920 to 1922, before qualifying as a conductor and working in this capacity with various theatre and opera companies between 1924 and 1927. He joined Ufa as a silent film orchestra conductor in 1928, but following the advent of sound became a musical assistant and ultimately the studio’s head composer and director of music in 1931. After the Nazis seized power, a melody he had written for use in a documentary about the island of Svalbard proved so popular with Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach that the latter penned lyrics to it and, as ‘Unsere Fahne flattert uns voran’ (Our flag waves before us), it became the movement’s anthem, as heard in Hans Steinhoff’s HITLERJUNGE QUEX (Hitler Youth Quex, 1933). Departing Ufa in 1937, Borgmann commenced an eight-film collaboration with director Veit Harlan on the film JUGEND (Youth, 1937/38), produced by Tobis. Under Harlan, Borgmann was able to develop his leitmotif approach, most often employing a heady combination of operatic flourishes and pseudo-religious choral music. Borgmann also created musical counterparts for purely cinematic effects, such as cross-cutting and dissolves, in order to achieve a yet more powerful unity between sound and image. Borgmann’s most ambitious work was on Harlan’s OPFERGANG (The Great Sacrifice, 1942–44), in which he not only furnished individual themes for the three leads, but also used musical cues to signal absent characters. Alongside his film work, Borgmann continued to compose for the stage throughout these years, with his musical play ‘Nante. Ballade des Eckenstehers’ (Nante – the Ballad of an Idler) premiering at Berlin’s Schiller-Theater in 1942. After the war, Borgmann’s final collaboration with Harlan was on the Agfacolor film noir HANNA AMON (1951). He thereafter moved into atonal music, composing a twelve-tone foxtrot while head of the Berlin division of the Association of German Composers during the mid-1950s. An introverted and highly sensitive individual with an expressed dislike of pop music, Borgmann found it
hard to establish himself in the 1950s film industry. His good friend (and Harlan’s former wife) actress Hilde Körber helped to secure him a post as lecturer in stage music at Berlin’s Max Reinhardt Theatre School, where he worked from 1959 to 1971, while penning some seventy new compositions. [mus – DE] 1931: Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]; Sein Scheidungsgrund; Der Hochtourist. 1931/32: Aufforderung zum Tanz [SF]. 1932: Der Frechdachs [MLV]; Vous serez ma femme [MLV]; Ein toller Einfall [MLV]; Une idée folle [MLV – FR]; Quick [MLV]; Quick [French MLV]; Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Un homme sans nom [MLV]; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; La belle aventure [MLV]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; Stupéfiants [MLV – DE/FR]; Strich durch die Rechnung [MLV]; Rivaux de la piste [MLV – DE/FR]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV]; F.P. 1 [MLV]; Wenn die Liebe Mode macht; Eine Tür geht auf. 1932/33: Lachende Erben. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen; L’Étoile de Valencia [MLV]; Der Stern von Valencia [MLV]; Ein gewisser Herr Gran [MLV]; Un certain M. Grant [MLV]; Alles für Anita [SF]; Hitlerjunge Quex; Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Adieu les beaux jours [MLV]; Eine ideale Wohnung [SF]; Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten; Der streitbare Herr Kickel [SF]; Der Störenfried; Inge und die Millionen. 1933/34: Ich bin Du [SF]; Gold [MLV]. 1934: L’Or [MLV]; Die Czardasfürstin [MLV]; Princesse Czardas [MLV]; Ein Mann will nach Deutschland; Lottchens Geburtstag [SF]; Die Insel [MLV]; Vers l’abîme [MLV]; Fürst Woronzeff [MLV]; Le secret des Woronzeff [MLV]. 1934/35: Straßen ohne Hindernisse! [SD]; Der eingebildete Kranke; Die törichte Jungfrau; Barcarole [MLV]; Barcarolle [MLV]; Ufa-Märchen [SF]. 1935: Deutschland kreuz und quer [SD]; Das Mädchen vom Moorhof; Cavalerie légère [MLV]; Leichte Kavallerie [MLV]; Liebeslied. 1935/36: Mädchenjahre einer Königin. 1936: Moskau – Shanghai; Die Unbekannte; Gleisdreieck; Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser. 1937: Tango Notturno; Schnelle Straßen [SD]. 1937/38: Jugend. 1938: Verwehte Spuren. 1938/39: Ein hoffnungsloser Fall. 1939: Die Reise nach Tilsit; Pedro soll hängen. 1940: Unser Fräulein Doktor. 1940/ 41: Jakko. 1940-42: Der große König. 1941/42: Die goldene Stadt; Der große Schatten. 1942: Diesel. 1942/43: Du gehörst zu mir. 1942-44: Opfergang. 1943/44: Familie Buchholz; Neigungsehe; Der Majoratsherr; Junge Adler. 1944/45: Wie sagen wir es unseren Kindern?; Die Brüder Noltenius; Die Schenke zur ewigen Liebe; Eine alltägliche Geschichte. 1946/47: Nürnberg und seine Lehren [DO]. 1947/48: 1–2–3 Corona [DD]. 1948: Schuld allein ist der Wein. 1948/49: Der große Mandarin. 1949: Verführte Hände. 1949/50: Nur eine Nacht. 1950: Zwischen Ebbe und Flut [SD]; Das Mädchen aus der Südsee; Die tödlichen Träume. 1951: Hanna Amon. 1952: Praterherzen [AT]. 1952/53: Der Kaplan von San Lorenzo. 1953: Die Stärkere; Die Prinzessin und der Schweinehirt. 1954: Konsul Strotthoff. 1955: Peter Schlemihl [TV]; Die Toteninsel; Vor Gott und den Menschen. 1956: Dany, bitte schreiben Sie; Von der Liebe besiegt. 1957: Sehn’se, das ist Berlin [SD]. 1958: Man müßte noch mal 20 sein [AT].
DIETER BORSCHE
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1961: Die kleinen Füchse [TV]; Deutsche Heimat im Osten [DO].
man cinema in 1979. His son Kai Borsche (b. 1937) enjoyed a career as a television director from the mid-1960s.
DIETER BORSCHE (Albert Eugen Rollomann) Born October 25, 1909, Hanover (Germany) Died August 5, 1982, Nuremberg (West Germany) An introspective and slightly stiff leading man, Borsche embodied an ideal of reserved, yet authoritative masculinity in 1950s West German melodramas. In the 1960s his screen persona changed radically when he frequently portrayed villains. Starting out as a ballet dancer, Borsche gained his first employment as an actor in Weimar, after which he also appeared in Danzig and Breslau (now Gdansk resp. Wroc³aw, Poland). Called up to fight in 1944, Borsche ended the war in a prisoner-of-war camp, but returned to work at Kiel’s Städtische Bühnen in 1946, where he was head stage director from 1947 to 1949. Although he had been appearing in films since Fred Sauer’s ALLES WEG’N DEM HUND (All for the Dog’s Sake, 1935), Borsche only became a star after the war, following his performance as a Catholic chaplain in Harald Braun’s NACHTWACHE (Keepers of the Night, 1949). He subsequently played numerous leads as dependable, almost saintly authority figures and faintly melancholy lovers, such as in Rudolf Jugert’s ES KOMMT EIN TAG (A Day Will Come, 1950) or in the title role of Rolf Hansen’s DR. HOLL (The Affairs of Dr. Holl, 1950/51). Borsche’s screen couplings with Maria Schell and Ruth Leuwerik proved particularly popular with audiences. In contrast, Kurt Hoffmann’s FANFAREN DER LIEBE (Fanfares of Love, 1951) confirmed Borsche as a capable comedian, and the film later served as the basis for Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT (1958/59). In the late 1950s, Borsche was appointed the first chairman of Export-Union, the organisation for the promotion of West German cinema abroad. Borsche’s clean-cut image was so established that his role as a murderer in Hans Quest’s six-part television adaptation of Francis Durbridge’s crime thriller DAS HALSTUCH (The Scarf, 1961) came as a shock to audiences, and the serial achieved an amazing eightynine percent viewing share in West Germany. Subsequently, Borsche became typecast as a villain in several Edgar Wallace adaptations. Regular character roles on television continued until the mid-1970s, as did stage appearances at Berlin’s Freie Volksbühne. Suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, Borsche was thereafter confined to a wheelchair, and worked principally in radio and as a dubbing artist. He received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to Ger-
[act – DE] 1935: Alles weg’n dem Hund. 1937: Wie einst im Mai. 1938: Preußische Liebesgeschichte. 1938/39: Die Geliebte. 1939: Die kluge Schwiegermutter. 1940/41: Jungens. 1949: Nachtwache. 1950: Es kommt ein Tag; Der fallende Stern. 1950/51: Dr. Holl. 1951: Fanfaren der Liebe; Sündige Grenze. 1951/52: Herz der Welt. 1952: Vater braucht eine Frau; Die große Versuchung. 1952/53: Der Kaplan von San Lorenzo. (Mea Culpa). 1953: Fanfaren der Ehe; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen?; Königliche Hoheit; Le guérisseur [FR]. 1954: Ali Baba et les 40 voleurs [FR]. 1954/55: Zwischenlandung in Paris / Escale à Orly [DE/FR]. 1955: Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen; Die Barrings. 1955/56: San Salvatore. 1956: Der Fächer [TV – dir]; Wenn wir alle Engel wären; Rot ist die Liebe. 1956/57: Königin Luise. 1957: Die Gangster von Valence [TV – dir,coscr]; Hoch droben auf dem Berg; Nachts im Grünen Kakadu; Zwei Herzen im Mai. 1957/58: A Time to Love and a Time to Die [US]. 1958: Die Beklagte [TV]; U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien. 1959: O Wildnis [TV]; Affäre Dreyfus [TV]. 1959/60: Ein Thron für Christine / Un trono paru Cristy [DE/ES]. 1960: Das hab’ ich in Paris gelernt; Paris, 20. Juli [TV]; Gaslicht [TV]; Sabine und die 100 Männer. 1960/61: Adieu, Prinzessin [TV]. 1961: Die toten Augen von London; Die kleinen Füchse [TV]; Die Wildente [TV – DE/CH/ AT]; Das Halstuch [TV]. 1962: Der Gefangene [TV]; Der rote Rausch; Muß i denn zum Städtele hinaus; Ein Toter sucht seinen Mörder [MLV – DE/GB]; Die glücklichen Jahre der Thorwalds. 1962/63: Das Feuerschiff. 1963: Der schwarze Abt; Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse; Der Henker von London. 1963/64: Dr. Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen [TV]; Das Phantom von Soho. 1964: Ein Frauenarzt klagt an; Der Schut / Au pays des Skipétars / Una carabina per Schut [DE/FR/IT]; In der Sache J. Robert Oppenheimer [SD]; Die Goldsucher von Arkansas / Alla conquista dell’Arkansas / Les chercheurs d’or de l’Arkansas [DE/IT/FR]. 1964/65: Die schwedische Jungfrau. 1965: Comeback [TV]; Durchs wilde Kurdistan / El savaje Kurdistan [DE/ES]; Requiem für eine Nonne [TV]; Dr. Murkes gesammelte Nachrufe [TV]; Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen / El ataque de los Kurdos [DE/ES]. 1965/66: Der Arzt stellt fest / Angeklagt nach § 218 [CH/DE]. [TV – act – DE] 1966: Der Zauberer Gottes; Das Lächeln der Gioconda; Der Vogel läßt das Singen nicht; Der schwarze Freitag; Die Karrieren des Dieter Borsche [TVD]. 1967: In Sachen Erzberger gegen Helfferich; Cliff Dexter [season 2 – TVS]; Viele heißen Kain; Wenn Ludwig ins Manöver zieht [FF]; Eine etwas sonderbare Dame. 1967/68: Gift für die Rosen. 1968: Berliner Blockade; Nur kein Cello; Madame Cailleaux; Der Arzt von St. Pauli [FF]; Der Reformator; Berliner Antigone; Lady Hamilton – zwischen Schmach und Liebe / Le calde notti di Lady Hamilton / Les amours de Lady Hamilton [FF – DE/IT/FR]; Der Senator. 1969/70: Das Haus Lunjowo; Gedenktag [voi]. 1969-71: Paul Temple [episodes 7, 8 – TVS – GB/DE]. 1970: Dem Täter auf der Spur: Puppen reden nicht; Der Pfarrer von St. Pauli [FF]; General Oster – Verräter oder Patriot; Krebsstation; Der Kommis-
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JÜRGEN BÖTTCHER
sar: Drei Tote reisen nach Wien; Preußen über alles – Bismarcks deutsche Einigung. 1971: Besuch auf einem kleinen Planeten; Besuch der Tochter; Glückspilze; Der Kommissar: Ein rätselhafter Mord; Hoopers letzte Jagd. 1972: Manolescu; Max Hölz. Ein deutsches Lehrstück; Das Geheimnis der alten Mamsell; Mit dem Strom. 1972/73: Algebra um acht [TVS]; Immobilien. 1973: Der Zuschlag; ‘Horch, Sie leben’. 1973/74: Die letzten Tage von Gomorrha. 1974: Aus Liebe zum Sport [episode 6 – TVS]; Der kleine Doktor [episode 8 – TVS]; Ich gehe nach München; Am Morgen meines Todes; Gruß nach vorn. 1975: Der Strick um den Hals; Der Kommissar: Eine Grenzüberschreitung. 1976: Die vollkommene Liebe; Glück privat (Tucholsky IV). 1976/77: Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein [TVS]. 1977: Sonderdezernat K 1: Zwei zu eins fürs SK1. 1980/81: Pseudonym Hans Fallada. 1981: Goldene Zeiten [TVS – DE/CH/FR]; In der Sache J. Robert Oppenheimer. 1982: Absender: Johann Wolfgang Goethe. 1984: Goldene Zeiten – Bittere Zeiten [TVS]. 1989: Ein Besuch in der Stille. 1999: Dieter Borsche – Liebhaber und Gentleman [TVD].
JÜRGEN BÖTTCHER (Hans Jürgen Traugott Böttcher, aka Strawalde) Born July 8, 1931, Frankenberg (Germany) The most acclaimed of former East Germany’s documentary directors, Jürgen Böttcher also won recognition as a painter under the pseudonym Strawalde. His films are celebrated for their striking visual style and for the remarkable sensitivity with which they capture the lives of their human subjects. Böttcher joined the communist party aged 17 and moved to Dresden to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. However he was soon alienated by the prevailing aesthetic ideology, and transferred to the newly opened German Film Academy in PotsdamBabelsberg, where he studied directing from 1955 to 1960. From 1961 he was employed at the DEFA studio for documentary films but his first film, DREI VON VIELEN (Three Among Many, 1961), an affectionate portrait of three artists, was banned for its alleged ‘defamatory’ depiction of the working class. In 1965/66 Böttcher made his only fiction feature, JAHRGANG 45 (Born 1945). Influenced by neo-realism, it captured the everyday rhythm of the lives of young people, portrayed mostly by non-actors, amid the urban decay of East Berlin. Alongside other DEFA films of the time, JAHRGANG 45 was banned by the authorities even before completion as a ‘glorification of perversity’. It was screened publicly for the first time in a restored version in 1990. Following this setback Böttcher found himself confined once more to documentaries which celebrated the achievements of the GDR. From the mid-1970s, however, he succeeded in developing a personal style marked by gentle observation, the ability to engage with his protagonists, and a lyrical eye for landscape.
Two award-winning films which garnered international acclaim were MARTHA (1978), a portrait of one of the women who helped to clear up the rubble of post-war Berlin, and RANGIERER (Shunters, 1984), an eloquent yet wordless visual symphony featuring men at work in East Germany’s biggest freight train terminal. In 1987 Böttcher and his regular cameraman Thomas Plenert travelled to Soviet Georgia, resulting in a lyrical record of their journey, IN GEORGIEN (In Georgia, 1987), which, even before the fall of the Wall, seemed to signal a ‘breaking out’ of the GDR. DIE MAUER (The Wall, 1989/90) then documented the actual fall of the Berlin Wall, and once again was a film that largely dispensed with verbal commentary. Throughout the 1990s, Böttcher devoted himself almost exclusively to painting, acclaimed in a number of successful exhibitions, and travelling with his son Lucas shooting video diaries. In 2000 he released his first film in a decade: KONZERT IM FREIEN (Open Air Concert), a fascinating meditation on the Marx and Engels monument in Berlin, past and present. [dir,scr – DD] 1957: Der Junge mit der Lampe [SD – dir, scr,cut]. 1958: Dresden, wenige Jahre danach [SD – dir,scr, cut]. 1960: Notwendige Lehrjahre [SD]. 1961: Drei von vielen [SD]. 1962: Im Pergamon-Museum [SD]; Ofenbauer [SD]; Drei von uns [SD]. 1962/63: Silvester [SD]. 1963: Stars [SD]; Charlie & Co [SD]. 1964: Drei Tage im Mai [SD – co-dir]; Barfuß und ohne Hut [SD]. 1965: Karl-Marx-Stadt. Gegenwärtiger Bericht und Erinnerung an Chemnitz [SD]; Kindertheater [SD]. 1965/66: Jahrgang 45 [FF]. 1967: Fest der Freundschaft [SD]; Der Sekretär [SD]; Wir waren in Karl-Marx-Stadt [SD]. 1967/68: Tierparkfilm [SD]. 1968: Ein Vertrauensmann [SD]. 1969: Arbeiterfamilie [SD]. 1970: Dialog mit Lenin [SD]; Der Oktober kam … [DO – co-dir]. 1971: Song International [SD]. 1972: Zum Beispiel Rewatex [SD]; Wäscherinnen [SD]. 1973: Wer die Erde liebt [DO – co-dir]. 1973/74: Erinnere dich mit Liebe und Haß [DO]. 1974: Weggefährten. Begegnungen im 25. Jahr der DDR [DO – co-dir]; Die Mamais [SD]. 1976: Großkochberg – Garten der öffentlichen Landschaft [SD]. 1976/77: Ein Weimarfilm [DO]. 1977: Im Lohmgrund [SD]; Murieta [SD]. 1978: Martha [DO]. 1981: Venus nach Giorgione [AG – dir,scr,cut,mus]; Potters Stier [AG – dir,scr, cut, mus]; Die Frau am Klavichord [AG – dir,scr,cut,mus]. 1983: Drei Lieder [SD]. 1983/84: Der schönste Traum [DO]. 1984: Rangierer [SD]; Kurzer Besuch bei Hermann Glöckner [SD]. 1986: Die Küche [DO]. 1987: In Georgien [DO – dir,scr,voi]. 1989/90: Die Mauer [DO]. 1990: La Vilette [DO – app]. [DE] 1992/93: Der DEFA-Komplex [TVD – app]. 1993: Videotagebuch Kalkutta [SD – dir,scr,cam]; 1996: The Skatalites in Amsterdam [DO – dir,scr,co-cam]. 2000/01: Konzert im Freien [DO – dir,scr,act,voi]. 2001: Gebrochene Glut – Meine Besuche 1999/2000 bei Jürgen Böttcher/ Strawalde, Regisseur und Maler [TVD – app]. 2003: Zur
MARTIN BÖTTCHER Person – Jürgen Böttcher [TVD – app]. 2003/04: Lichtzeichen [DO – dir,scr,cam].
MARTIN BÖTTCHER Born June 17, 1927, Berlin (Germany) One of the most prolific composers of commercial cinema and television in West Germany after World War II, Böttcher is mostly noted for composing ersatz western melodies for the successful Karl May series of the 1960s. Passionate about flying, Böttcher joined the Luftwaffe at the age of 17 but never saw action. In a POW camp he taught himself to play the guitar. After his release he went to Hamburg and until 1954 worked as a guitarist with the dance orchestra of the British-controlled radio station Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk. He got his first experiences in film music arranging for composers Michael Jary and Hans-Martin Majewski (LIEBE 47, Love 47, 1948/49). In the early 1950s he started composing for documentary shorts by director Peter Pewas as well as his experimental DER NACKTE MORGEN (Naked Morning, 1956). Böttcher’s feature film debut came in 1955 with the satire DER HAUPTMANN UND SEIN HELD (The Captain and His Hero). For Georg Tressler’s juvenile delinquency melodrama DIE HALBSTARKEN (The Hooligans, 1956) starring Horst Buchholz, Böttcher recorded his music with ‘Mr. Martin’s Band’, featuring some of the best German jazz musicians. They tried to repeat their success with ENDSTATION LIEBE (Last Stop Love, 1958). The film’s cameraman was Helmuth Ashley who later turned to directing and often employed Böttcher as his composer. Böttcher also wrote songs for DREIZEHN ALTE ESEL (Thirteen Old Donkeys, 1958), a vehicle for veteran star Hans Albers, and scored a series of films with Heinz Rühmann, some ‘Father Brown’ crime-comedies as well as MAX, DER TASCHENDIEB (Max, the Pickpocket, 1961/62). A tune from the latter, ‘Hawaii Tattoo’, written by Böttcher under the pseudonym ‘Michael Thomas’ and recorded by the Belgian band The Waikikis, became a huge hit in Germany and entered the charts in the USA and Britain. The producers of the Africa adventure UNSER HAUS IN KAMERUN (Our House in Cameroon, 1961), Horst Wendlandt’s Rialto-Film, continued co-operating with Böttcher on their greatest successes: the Karl May western series – DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE (Treasure of Silver Lake, 1962), WINNETOU Part I – III (1963, 1964, 1965), UNTER GEIERN (Among Vultures, 1964) and others – and some Edgar Wallace thrillers of the 1960s. Böttcher’s symphonic scores for the German westerns anticipated Ennio Morricone’s work for Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti westerns in Italy, and became hit records in Germany.
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Early in the 1960s Böttcher started working on television crime series such as STAHLNETZ (Dragnet) and DAS KRIMINALMUSEUM (Crime Museum), and as well as on documentaries. From the 1970s onwards, after the burn-out of ‘Papa’s Kino’, Böttcher’s television work covered all sorts of genres: the Lilli Palmer star vehicles EINE FRAU BLEIBT EINE FRAU (A Woman Stays a Woman); tourist comedies (SCHÖNE FERIEN, Beautiful Holidays); crime-series like SONDERDEZERNAT K 1 (Special Police Unit, 12 episodes), DER ALTE (The Old Fox, 16 episodes) and DERRICK (9 episodes); revivals of the Heimatfilm such as FORSTHAUS FALKENAU (Forester’s Lodge Falkenau, 18 seasons since 1989); and PFARRER BRAUN (since 2003), another rehash of Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown’ stories. [DE – mus] 1952: Putzke will es wissen [SD]. 1953/54: Der Modespiegel. 1 + 2. [SD]. 1955: Der Hauptmann und sein Held. 1955/58: Das verbotene Paradies. 1956: Der nackte Morgen [SD]; Die Halbstarken. 1956/57: Spielbank-Affäre [DD/SE]. 1957: Kindermädchen für Papa gesucht; Lemke’s sel. Witwe; Endstation Liebe. 1958: Willkommen an Bord [DO/SF]; Schmutziger Engel; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; Ohne Mutter geht es nicht; Dreizehn alte Esel; Meine 99 Bräute. 1959: Am Tag, als der Regen kam. 1959/60: Die Frau am dunklen Fenster. 1960: Donnerstag, 7. August in Hamburg [SD]; Für heute und morgen [SD]; Geprüfte Zuverlässigkeit [SD]; Handarbeiten [SD]; Eine neue Kraft [SD]; Wie wird’s Wetter? [SD]; Stahlnetz: E 605 [TV]; Pension Schöller; Marina]; … und sowas nennt sich Leben; Willy, der Privatdetektiv; Das schwarze Schaf; Auf Engel schießt man nicht. 1961: Desmodur – Desmophen [SD]; Pharmazeutische Spezialitäten [SD]; Schreib, wenn du kannst [SD]; Technik – 3 Studien in Jazz [SD]; Der Fälscher von London; Der Hochtourist; Mörderspiel / Le jeu de l’assassin [DE/FR]; Unser Haus in Kamerun. 1961/62: Max, der Taschendieb. 1961-66: Auf der Suche nach der Welt von morgen [TVD]. 1962: Bom dia, Brasil [SD]; Campo Limpo [SD]; High-Life in Lagos [SD]; Das Gasthaus an der Themse; Er kann’s nicht lassen; Straße der Verheißung; Stahlnetz: Spur 211 [TV]; Der Schatz im Silbersee / Blago u Srebnom jezeru / Le trésor du lac d’argent [DE/YU/FR]. 1963: Berühmt und begehrt [SD]; Geprüfte Qualität [SD]; Grün für 275 [SD]; Hartmetall [SD]; Öl für Generationen [SD]; Tag für Tag [SD]; Die wahre Geschichte [TVS]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Fünf Fotos [TV]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Nur ein Schuh [TV]; Der schwarze Abt; Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Witwe / Araña negra [DE/ES]; Winnetou I / La valle die lunghi coltelli / La révolte des indiens Apaches [DE/IT/FR]; Kriminalgericht: Der Fall Krantz [TV]; Der Fall Nebe [TV]. 1963/64: Das Phantom von Soho; Wartezimmer zum Jenseits; Der Fall Calmette [TV]. 1963-70: Das Kriminalmuseum (41 episodes – TVS – title theme). 1964: Bekenntnis zu Europa [SD]; Große Frachten – kleine Fische [SD]; Konstruktion 727 [SD]; Menschen und Märkte [SD]; Tausend gegen Einen [SD]; … zum Beispiel Brasilien [DO]; Arizona Karussell [SD]; Die Diamantenhölle am Mekong / Les diamants du Mékong / La sfida viene da Bangkok [DE/FR/IT]; Das Ungeheuer von London-
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KURT BÖWE
City; Der Schut / Au pays des Skipétars / Una carabina per Schut [DE/FR/IT]; Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Die Weimarer Republik [TVD]; Unter Geiern / Parmi les vautours [DE/FR]; Freispruch für Old Shatterhand [TV]. 1964/65: Der Fall Harry Domela [TV]. 1965: Das Mädchen mit der Geranie [TV]; Piraten der Landstraße [TV]; Sommer am Südpol [SD]; Die eigenen vier Wände [TV]; Der Ölprinz / Kraj Petroleja [DE/YU]; Winnetou III / Vinetu III [DE/YU]; Oberst Wennerström. Spion zwischen Ost und West [TV]; Old Surehand. 1. Teil / Lavirint smrti [DE/ YU]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Das Nummernschild [TV]; Der Fall Hau [TV]. 1965/66: Lange Beine – lange Finger. 196567: Gertrud Stranitzki [TVS]. 1966: Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi / Apanatsi [DE/YU]; Das Millionending [TV]; Tendres raquins / Zärtliche Haie [FR/DE/IT]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die rote Maske [TV]. 1966/67: Transall C 160 [SD]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Teerosen [TV]. 1967: Die blaue Hand; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Briefmarke [TV]; Der Mönch mit der Peitsche. 1968: Die Ente klingelt um ½ 8 / Siamo tuttu matti [DE/IT]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Der Scheck [TV]; Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten / L’uomo dal lungo fucile [DE/YU/IT]; Bengelchen liebt kreuz und quer; Ida Rogalski – Mutter von fünf Söhnen [TVS]. 1969: Klassenkeile – Pauker werden ist nicht schwer – Schüler sein dagegen sehr; Dr. med. Fabian – Lachen ist die beste Medizin; Spion unter der Haube [TV]; Die Kramer [TVS]; Weh’ dem, der erbt [TV]. 1969/70: Die Journalistin [TVS]. 1970: Ruppi, der Mann am Steuer [TVS-ANI]; Ich schlafe mit meinem Mörder / L’Amour, la mort et le diable [DE/FR]; Keiner erbt für sich allein [TV]. 1971: Verliebte Ferien in Tirol. 1971/72: Willi wird das Kind schon schaukeln. [mus – TV – DE] 1972: Der Illegale; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. I.; 1972-77: Sonderdezernat K 1 [13 episodes – TVS]. 1972/73: Eine geschiedene Frau. 1973: Die TausenderReportage [TVS]; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. II. 1973/74: Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi [26 episodes – TVS]. 1974: Ladendiebstahl. 1975-88: Derrick [9 episodes – TVS]. 1976/ 77: Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein [13 episodes – TVS]. 1977: Mein lieber Mann [TVS]. 1978: Brot und Steine [FF – CH]. 1979-88: Der Alte [16 episodes – TVS]. 1980: Familienfest; Knobbes Knoten und andere Geschichten aus der Schulzeit. 1980/81: Bahnhofsgeschichten. 1983: Der Trotzkopf. 1984/85: Schöne Ferien [TVS]. 1987: Flohr und die Traumfrau. 1988: Der Lebensretter. 1989: Alte Freundschaften. 1989-2008: Forsthaus Falkenau [19 seasons – TVS – co-mus]. 1990: Der Staubsauger. 1992: Siebenbirken [TVS]. 1992/93: Cluedo – Das Mörderspiel [TVS]. 1994: SPHINX Geheimnisse der Geschichte: Die Jagd nach dem Bernsteinzimmer [TVD]. 1994/95: Air Albatros [TVS]. 1995: Heimatgeschichten: Die tapfere Schneiderin [TV]. 1996: Gnadenlos – Zur Prostitution gezwungen [TV]. 1997/98: Winnetous Rückkehr [TV]. 1998/ 99: Gnadenlos 2 – Ausgeliefert und mißbraucht [TV]. 1999: SPHINX Geheimnisse der Geschichte: Sisi – eine unglückliche Kaiserin [TVD]. 2003-08: Pfarrer Braun [14 episodes – TVS].
KURT BÖWE Born April 28, 1929, Reetz (Germany) Died June 14, 2000, Berlin (Germany) A popular East German stage, screen and television actor renowned for his highly nuanced performance style, Böwe stood out when deploying his bulky frame to either endearing or threatening effect. Böwe, the son of a poor farmer, completed a degree in German literature at East Berlin’s Humboldt University in 1954. He then lectured in theatre history and stage-writing at the Institute of Theatre Studies from 1954 to 1960. Prominent stage director Horst Schönemann seconded Böwe to East Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater in 1960, where he started out in minor roles, before relocating with Schönemann to Halle/ Saale in 1967, and then returning with him to Berlin’s Deutsches Theater in 1973, where he continued to be a member of the ensemble until 1997. Böwe also worked in radio and television from 1961, as well as at DEFA’s film dubbing unit, where he lent his voice to foreign actors such as Latvian Donatas Banionis in Konrad Wolf’s GOYA (1970/71). Böwe’s first starring role in a film was as a stocky but sensitive sculptor in Wolf’s DER NACKTE MANN AUF DEM SPORTPLATZ (The Naked Man in the Stadium, 1973). Numerous other leading roles followed, including in Roland Gräf’s MÄRKISCHE FORSCHUNGEN (Research in Brandenburg, 1981), for which Böwe received the best actor award at the 1982 GDR Feature Film Festival. On television, meanwhile, he played out-of-the-ordinary character leads such as a middle-aged misfit in Achim and Wolfgang Hübner’s initially banned sixpart series EINZUG INS PARADIES (Entering Paradise, 1983/84) or a country doctor in Vera Loeber’s two-part television drama SPÄTE ANKUNFT (Late Arrival, 1987/88). After reunification, Böwe expanded his fan base with his performance as cranky but likeable Inspector Groth on the long-running cop show POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call), a role he gave up in 1999 only due to his worsening severe asthma, a life-long condition to which he alluded in the title of his memoirs, ‘Der lange kurze Atem’ (The Long Short Breath), published in 1996. [TV – act – DD] 1961: Das Urteil fällst Du. 1961/62: Für den Bildschirm erzählt: Herbstrauch. 1962: Geheime Front durchbrochen: Mord-AG; Fernseh-Pitaval: Der Fall Hellseher Drost; Geständnisse, Indizien, Beweise: Punkt zwölf in der Maskenbar; Tote reden nicht [FF]. 1962/63: Nacht über Nürnberg; Interview mit Pinselheinrich. 1963: Das Feuer; Ein Mann und sein Schatten; Sonntagsfahrer [FF]. 1963/64: Zu viele Kreuze. 1964: Der Neue. Teil II; Das elfte Gebot; Gesucht und gefunden; Rummelplatz; Verflixte Bande; Sommer in Heidkau; Die Wochen danach; Pension Boulanka [FF]; Seine Kinder. 1965: Noch an
KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUER diesem Abend; Tito in Deutschland [DO – voi]; Revision; Die Heinitzer; Der Nachfolger; Die Mutter und das Schweigen; Berlin um die Ecke [FF]. 1966: Blaulicht: Maskenball; Geheimkommando. 1. Geheimkommando Bumerang. 1967: Ich war neunzehn [FF]. 1968: Blaulicht: Leichenfund im Jagen 14; Die Toten bleiben jung [FF]. 1969: Drei von der K: Kupferdraht im Eichensarg (1952); Jede Stunde Deines Lebens. 1969/70: Ich – Axel Caesar Springer. 4. Der gemachte Mann / 5. Der Königsmacher. 1970: Zollfahndung [episode 2 – TVS]. 1971/72: Leichensache Zernik [FF]. 1972: Die Aula; Der Mann und das Mädchen. 1972/73: Den Wolken ein Stück näher. 1973: Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz [FF]. 1973/ 74: Johannes Kepler [FF]. 1973-75: Broddi. 1974/75: Zwischen Nacht und Tag [FF]; Heute ist Freitag. 1975: Ein Feigenblatt für Kuhle Wampe – oder Wem gehört die Welt; Er könnte ja heute nicht schweigen [SD – voi]. 1975/76: Heimkehr in ein fremdes Land; Ein altes Modell. 1976: Polizeiruf 110: Vorurteil?; Strategie der Träume; Ottokar der Weltverbesserer [FF]; Tambari [FF]. 1976/77: Happy End [voi]; Die Millionen des Knut Brümmer. 1977: Rückkopplung; Tod und Auferstehung des Wilhelm Hausmann. 1977/78: Der Übergang [FF]; Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr [FF]. 1978: Ein Kolumbus auf der Havel; Im Bruch hinterm Berge [TVD – voi]. 1978/79: Polizeiruf 110: Tödliche Illusion; Blauvogel [FF]. 1979: Pinselheinrich; Verlobung in Hollerbusch; Die Rache des Kapitäns Mitchell. 1979/80: Das Rad; Levins Mühle [FF]. 1980: Eine Anzeige in der Zeitung; Flüchtlingsgespräche; Puppen für die Nacht; Pugowitza [FF]; Asta, mein Engelchen [FF]; Suturp – Eine Liebesgeschichte. 1980/81: Jadup und Boel [FF]; Das große Abenteuer des Kaspar Schmeck. 1980-82: Hotel Polan und seine Gäste. 1981: Jegor Bulytschow und die anderen; ‘Bürger Luther’ Wittenberg 1508–1546 [TVD – voi]; Märkische Forschungen [FF]. 1982: Melanie van der Straaten; Die traurige Geschichte von Friedrich dem Großen; Das Luftschiff [FF]; Der entführte Prinz [voi]. 1982/ 83: Der Mann und sein Name [voi]; Automärchen [FF]; Es geht einer vor die Hunde; Die vertauschte Königin [FF]. 1983: Gespenster; Rublak. Die Legende vom vermessenen Land [SF]. 1983/84: Einzug ins Paradies [TVS]. 1984: Film-Salabim [DO]; Erinnerung an ein Gespräch [ani – voi]; Paulines zweites Leben; Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns [FF – voi]; Ab heute erwachsen [FF]. 1984/85: Besuch bei van Gogh [FF]; Der Junge mit dem großen schwarzen Hund [FF]. 1985: Die Zeit die bleibt. Ein Film über Konrad Wolf [DO]; Blonder Tango [FF]. 1985/86: Das wirkliche Blau; Weihnachtsgeschichten; Das Buschgespenst. 1986: Schauspielereien: Ein ehrlicher Finder; Die Souffleuse; Der unbekannte Großvater. 1987/88: Späte Ankunft. 1988: Der blaue Boll; Lieb Georg [voi]; Kikeriki; Verflixtes Mißgeschick! [FF]. 1988/89: Ein brauchbarer Mann [FF]. 1988-90: Marie Grubbe [DE/PL/HU/DK]. 1989/90: Pause für Wanzka [FF]. [TV – act – DE] 1991: Sturmgeselle Sokrates; Vaòek-Trilogie [act {EP 1}]; Die verschwundene Miniatur; Sprache der Vögel. 1991/92: Stilles Land; Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers. 1993: Karate-Billi kehrt zurück; Profile: Kurt Böwe [TVD]; Der Biberpelz; Polizeiruf 110: Bullerjahn. 1993/94: Polizeiruf 110: Kiwi und die Ratte. 1994: Poli-
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zeiruf 110: Über Bande. 1994/95: Polizeiruf 110: Taxi zur Bank. 1995: Polizeiruf 110: Alte Freunde. 1995/96: Polizeiruf 110: Gefährliche Küsse. 1996: Polizeiruf 110: Die Gazelle; Polizeiruf 110: Über den Tod hinaus; Polizeiruf 110: Glut unter der Asche. 1996/97: Polizeiruf 110: Der Fremde. 1997: Zur Person: Kurt Böwe [TVD]; Ferien-Fieber. Verflixtes Mißgeschick; Polizeiruf 110: Die Medienqualle; Polizeiruf 110: Live in den Tod; Spuk aus der Gruft [FF]. 1998: Polizeiruf 110: Katz und Kater; Die Brandenburger. Chronik eines Landes [TVD]. 1998/99: Polizeiruf 110: Rasputin. 1999: Polizeiruf 110: Über den Dächern von Schwerin; Polizeiruf 110: Ihr größter Fall.
KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUER (Klaus Georg Steng) Born June 22, 1943, Bad Aussee (Austria) One of the foremost German-speaking stage actors of his generation, Brandauer earned an esteemed position in international cinema both in mainstream films and art house releases. After gaining his Abitur, Brandauer spent two semesters at Stuttgart’s College of Music and Dramatic Arts before joining Tübingen’s Landestheater in 1963. The following year, he moved to the Landestheater in Salzburg, where he also directed his first production – Heinz Coubier’s ‘Aimée oder Der gesunde Menschenverstand’ (The Beloved) – in 1965. Working at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus theatre from 1966 to 1968 and at Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt from 1968 to 1971, he finally settled at Vienna’s Burgtheater in 1972. Establishing his commanding position in German-language theatre during the 1970s, he also made guest appearances in Munich, at the Salzburg Festival, and elsewhere. Brandauer was also guest professor in dramatic arts at the University of Tel Aviv in the late 1990s. Adaptations of stage plays made up the majority of Brandauer’s early television credits, and he undertook only two film appearances in the 1970s, in Lee H. Katzin’s thriller THE SALZBURG CONNECTION (1971) and András Kovács’s film EIN SONNTAG IM OKTOBER (A Sunday in October, 1978/79). His return to the screen came in István Szabó’s MEPHISTO (1980/81), in which he played an actor (modelled on Gustaf Gründgens), who sells his soul to the Nazis in exchange for celebrity and success. Brandauer also starred in the second and third parts of Szabó’s so-called ‘Central European trilogy’, OBERST REDL (Colonel Redl, 1984) and HANUSSEN (1987/88). Brandauer received a number of offers from international producers after MEPHISTO picked up a best foreign picture Oscar, leading to his roles as a Bond villain opposite Sean Connery in Irvin Kershner’s NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1982/83) and as Meryl Streep’s emotionally distant husband in Sydney Pollack’s OUT OF AFRICA (1985).
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He played two rather more heroic figures in Germanmade pictures about the Nazi period, in Bernhard Wicki’s DAS SPINNENNETZ (Spider’s Web, 1986– 89) and as Hitler’s would-be assassin in GEORG ELSER – EINER AUS DEUTSCHLAND (Seven Minutes, 1988/ 89), the latter of which Brandauer also directed. The actor maintained his international profile with roles in films such as Andrew Birkin’s BURNING SECRET (1988) and Fred Schepisi’s THE RUSSIA HOUSE (1989/90). Brandauer’s second film as director was the rather stolid Thomas Mann adaptation MARIO UND DER ZAUBERER (Mario and the Magician, 1993/94), in which he also played one of the leads. Since the late 1990s, he portrayed a variety of historical personalities in international co-productions, including Nebuchadnezzar in the television drama JEREMIAH (1998), the title role in Charles Matton’s REMBRANDT (1998/99) and Julius Caesar in Jacques Dorfmann’s VERCINGÉTORIX (Druids, 1999/2000), as well as Austrian émigré director Otto Preminger in the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated miniseries INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE (1999), directed by Martha Coolidge. [act – AT] 1965/66: Die Ballade von Peckham Rye [TV – AT/DE]. 1968: Das Käthchen von Heilbronn [TV – DE]. 1968/69: Der alte Richter [TVS]. 1969: Juno und der Pfau [TV]; Wie es euch gefällt [TV]. 1970: Der Tag des Krähenflügels [TV]; Das Wort [TV]; Friede den Hütten! Krieg den Palästen! Eine szenische Demonstration [TV – DE]. 1970/ 71: Emilia Galotti [TV]. 1971: The Salzburg Connection [US]; Zum großen Wurstl [TV – DE]. 1972: Oscar Wilde [TV – DE]; Weh’ dem, der lügt [TV]. 1973: Was ihr wollt [TV – AT/DE]; Wienerinnen [TV – AT/DE]. 1974: Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung [TV – DE]; Das Konzert [TV]. 1974/ 75: Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua [TV – DE]. 1975: Ein treuer Diener seines Herrn [TV]; Derrick: Pfandhaus [TV – DE]; Leonce und Lena [TV – AT/DE]; Frag nach bei Casanova [TV – DE]. 1976: Der Sauwald [TVD – voi]; Die Babenberger in Österreich. Wir waren zwölf [TV]; Darf ich mitspielen [TV – AT/DE]; Kabale und Liebe [TV – AT/DE]; Sonderdezernat K 1: Der Stumme [TV – CH]. 1977: Poesie und Revolution – Georg Büchner [TV]; Die Jüdin von Toledo [TV – dir,scr,act]; Zum großen Wurstel [TV – dir,act]; Der grüne Kakadu [TV – dir]. 1978: Rollen im Theater [TVD – DE]; Jean-Christophe / Jean Christophe [TVS – FR/DE]; Die Bräute des Kurt Roidl [TV]; Das Paket des lieben Gottes [TV]. 1978/79: Októberi vasárnap / Ein Sonntag im Oktober [HU/DE]. 1979: Wozu das Theater? Folge 1 – 3 [TVS – co-scr]; Jahreszeiten der Liebe [TV – DE]; Olympia [TV – AT/DE]; Die Weber [TV – DE]. 1979/80: Wochenendgeschichten [TV – DE]. 1980: Wozu das Theater? Folge 4 – 6 [TVS – co-scr,act]; Der einsame Weg [TV – dir – DE]; La quinta donna / Die fünfte Frau [TV – IT/AT/DE]. 1980/81: Mephisto [HU]. 1981: Wozu das Theater? Folge 7 – 9 [TVS]; Der Traum ein Leben [TV]. 1982: Der Weg ins Freie [TV]. 1982/83: Roda Rodas rote Weste. Ein Leben in Anekdoten [TV – AT/DE]; Never Say Never Again [GB]. 1983: Detskij sad [SU]; Der Snob [TV – DE]. 1983/84: Jedermann
[TV]; Quo vadis? [TVS – IT/CA]. 1984: Jedermann für jedermann [TV – AT/DE]; Redl ezredes / Oberst Redl [HU/DE/AT]. 1984/85: The Lightship / Das Feuerschiff [US/DE]. 1985: Out of Africa [US]. 1986: Streets of Gold [US]. 1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [DE/AT/IT/CS]; Schauplatz ‘Spinnennetz’ [TVD – DE]. 1987/88: Profeta / Hanussen [HU/DE/AT]. 1988: Burning Secret / Brennendes Geheimnis [GB/DE]; Europa und der zweite Apfel [TV – DE/IT]. 1988/89: Georg Elser – Einer aus Deutschland [dir,act – DE]; Bernhard Wicki: Regisseur [TVD – DE]; La révolution Française – Deuxième Époque: Les annees terribles / Die französische Revolution – Jahre des Zorns [FR/IT/CA/DE]. 1989/90: The Children [TV – GB/DE]; The Russia House [US]. 1990: White Fang [US]. 1990/91: Colette / Becoming Colette / Devenir Colette [DE/GB/FR]. 1991: Mütter: Bis auf den heutigen Tag [TVD]; Die Peter Ustinov Gala. Ein Abend zu seinem 70. Geburtstag aus dem Unesco-Center in Paris [TV – DE]. 1992: Das Spiel im Berg [TV – dir]. 1993/94: Felidae [ANI – voi – DE]; Mario und der Zauberer [dir,act – DE/FR/AT]. 1994: Der Verführer [TV – DE]; Der Verführer. Klaus Maria Brandauer verfilmt ‘Mario der Zauberer’ [TVD – DE]; Stars in der Manege [TV – DE/AT/CH]. 1994/95: Das Schnarchen Gottes [DE]. 1995: Die Wand [dir – DE/AT]. 1996: Das Land des Lächelns [TV – dir,act]. 1996/99: Jedermanns Fest / La dernière fête de Jedermann [TV – AT/DE/FR]. 1998: Speer [TV – dir,act – DE]; La Bibbia: Geremia / Die Bibel: Jeremia / Jeremiah [TV – IT/DE/US]. 1998/99: Rembrandt [FR/DE/NL]. 1999: Klaus Maria Brandauer: Speer in London [DO – GB]; Introducing Dorothy Dandridge [TV – US]; Dykaren [SE/ DK]. 1999/2000: Vercingétorix / Vercingétorix, la légende du druide roi [FR/CA]. 2000: Cyrano von Bergerac [TV]. 2000-02: Poem – Ich setzte den Fuß in die Luft und sie trug [DE]. 2001/02: Between Strangers / Cuori estranei [CA/IT]. 2003: Daddy / Entrusted / Im Visier des Bösen [TV – FR/GB/ DE]; Entführung aus dem Serail [TV – FR/CH]. 2005/06: Kronprinz Rudolf / Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe [TV – AT/DE]. 2006: The Salzburg Festival [TVD – GB]. 2006/ 07: Verstörung – und eine Art von Poesie. Die Filmlegende Bernhard Wicki [DO – DE]. 2008/09: Tetro [US].
JÜRGEN BRAUER Born November 6, 1938, Leipzig (Germany) One of DEFA’s leading cinematographers in the 1960s and 1970s, Brauer became a director in the 1980s and developed a visually rich, fantasy-oriented style. Studying physics at Dresden’s technical college, Brauer took a one-year job placement at the DresdenNiedersedlitz camera plant in 1957, and then trained as a cinematographer at Potsdam’s Film Academy from 1958 to 1962. Joining DEFA’s feature film studio thereafter, he worked on satirical shorts for the Stacheltier production unit before shooting the children’s film DIE REISE NACH SUNDEVIT (The Trip to Sundevit, 1965/ 66) for director Heiner Carow, with whom he collaborated repeatedly. The pair’s next picture, DIE RUSSEN KOMMEN (The Russians Are Coming, 1968),
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was banned and only reached cinemas in 1987 in a restored version. In contrast, their subsequent DIE LEGENDE VON PAUL UND PAULA (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1972), adapted in a highly lyrical fashion from Ulrich Plenzdorf’s script, was among DEFA’s greatest boxoffice hits. Equally successful was their subsequent BIS DASS DER TOD EUCH SCHEIDET (Until Death Does You Part, 1977/78). Brauer also worked regularly with director Günter Reisch, e.g. on three stylistically distinct historical films about the labour movement, UNTERWEGS ZU LENIN (Going to Lenin, 1969/70), TROTZ ALLEDEM! (In Spite of Everything!, 1971) and WOLZ – LEBEN UND VERKLÄRUNG EINES DEUTSCHEN ANARCHISTEN (Wolz: Life and Illusion of a German
Anarchist, 1973). Brauer picked up numerous national and international awards throughout these years. Brauer’s directorial debut was PUGOWITZA (1980) in which he used intimate camerawork and a minimum of dialogue to communicate the story of a young boy caught up in the chaos at the end of World War II. In the romantic fairytale GRITTA VON RATTENZUHAUSBEIUNS (The Legend of High Countess Gritta Von Ratsinourhouse, 1984), he made plentiful use of special effects including miniatures and mattes in presenting a playful, fantastic narrative. He broached more serious subject matter in HILDE, DAS DIENSTMÄDCHEN (Hilde the Housemaid, 1985/86), the story of a fourteen-year-old boy’s sexual and political awakening against the backdrop of rising fascism in 1938 Bohemia, which Brauer scripted and co-directed with Günther Rücker. Returning to fantasy films, he adapted Benno Pludra’s children’s novel DAS HERZ DES PIRATEN (The Pirate’s Heart, 1986/87), about a girl who imagines her absent father as a pirate. SEHNSUCHT (Desire, 1989), in contrast, was a rather more adult fusion of reality and dreams. Brauer’s most successful post-reunification film has been LORENZ IM LAND DER LÜGNER (Laurence in the Land of Liars, 1996), a blend of live-action and animation detailing the adventures of a little boy and his magic cat. Since the 1990s, Brauer has worked primarily in television, and directed episodes for the popular crime series TATORT (Crime Scene) and POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call) and numerous entries in the long-running hospital series IN ALLER FREUNDSCHAFT (Among Friends, from 2000). He also occasionally lectures at the Film and Television Academy ‘Konrad Wolf’ in Potsdam-Babelsberg. [cam – DD] 1960: Feuerwehralarm [SD]. 1962: Regenwäsche [SD]; Der Fluch der bösen Tat [SF]; Die Heilige und ihr Narr [SF]. 1962/63: Unglaublich [SF]; Der Dieb von San
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Marengo 1963: Paris sur glâce [SF]; Achtung, Selbstschüsse [SF]; Engel, Sünden und Verkehr [FF]; Das DEFAMagazin Nr. 4. [SF]; … keine Leute! … [SF]; Liebe braucht keine PS. Das Filmmagazin Nr. 5 [SF]. 1964: Peterle und die Weihnachtsgans Auguste [SF- cam,co-scr]. 1965: Jeder hat seine Geschichte [TV]. 1965/66: Die Reise nach Sundevit. 1966: Gisela May singt Brecht [TV]. 1966/67: Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz. 1967/68: Schüsse unterm Galgen. 1968/87: Die Russen kommen. 1968/70: Karriere. 1969: Der Weihnachtsmann heißt Willi. 1969/70: Unterwegs zu Lenin / Na puti k Leninu [DD/SU]. 1971: Trotz alledem! 1971/72: Januskopf. 1972: Die Legende von Paul und Paula. 1973: Wolz. Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten. 1973/74: Rückkehr als Toter [TV]. 1974: Suse, liebe Suse. 1974/75: Ikarus. 1976/77: Das Versteck. 1977: Ich zwing dich zu leben. 1977/78: Der Übergang; Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet. 1978/79: Lachtauben weinen nicht. 1979/80: Die Verlobte. 1980: Pugowitza [dir,co-scr,cam]. 1982: Die fidele Bäckerin. 1982/83: Fariaho. 1984: Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns [dir,coscr,cam]. 1985/86: Hilde, das Dienstmädchen [dir,coscr,cam]. 1986/87: Das Herz des Piraten [dir,cam]. 1989: Sehnsucht [dir,scr,cam]. 1990/91: Tanz auf der Kippe [dir,scr,cam DD/DE]. 1991-93: Anna annA [dir,scr,cam – CH/DE/LU]. [TV – dir – DE] 1992: Nach Nizza [dir,cam]; Hier und Jetzt [episode 2 – TVS – dir,scr,cam]. 1993/94: Geheim – oder was? [episodes 1-4 – TVS – dir,cam]; Olli in der Unterwelt [dir,cam]. 1995: Achterbahn [1 episode – TVS – cam]; Guten Morgen, Mallorca [episodes 1-7 – TVS]. 1995/96: Friedemann Brix – Eine Schwäche für Mord [4 episodes – TVS]. 1996: Tanz auf dem Vulkan; Lorenz im Land der Lügner [FF – dir,co-scr,cam – DE/LU]. 1997: Tatort: Mordsgeschäfte. 1997/98: Tatort: Blick in den Abgrund. 1998/99: City Express [TVS]. 1999-2009: In aller Freundschaft [48 episodes – TVS]. 2000: Der Fahnder: Alles aus Liebe; Der Fahnder: Verführung; Der Fahnder: Bis in den Tod. 2001/ 02: Polizeiruf 110: Der Spieler. 2007/08: Polizeiruf 110: Keiner schreit!
HARALD BRAUN Born April 24, 1901, Berlin (Germany) Died September 24, 1960, Xanten (West Germany) A prominent West German producer-director in the early post-war years, Braun’s films contained strong religious messages and iconography. The son of a protestant minister, Braun studied German literature at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin and defended his doctorate in 1922. He then worked for the Information Office of Germany’s Protestant Church, and became head of its Press Association’s literary section, under whose auspices he founded the literature review magazine ‘Eckart’ in 1924, of which he was also editor-in-chief. Braun furthermore worked as an editor at the Scherl publishing house, before becoming a section manager for radio station Funkstunde and head of drama at broadcaster Berliner Rundfunk.
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In 1937, Braun started out at Ufa as a screenwriter and assistant director on the films of director Carl Froelich. His own directorial debut was an adaptation of Otto Ludwig’s novel ZWISCHEN HIMMEL UND ERDE (Between Heaven and Earth, 1941/42), about a pair of diametrically opposed brothers working together as roofers. Braun’s first post-war film was ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND MORGEN (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1947), a film whose title perfectly encapsulated the social and political uncertainty of the time. Braun’s first major success was NACHTWACHE (Keepers of the Night, 1949) about a disillusioned doctor whose spirituality is reawakened by a Catholic chaplain. With its promise of unconditional salvation from alienation and absolution from the sins of the past, the film captured again the ‘Zeitgeist’ and became one of the period’s greatest box-office triumphs. Many of Braun’s subsequent productions also addressed ethical and religious dilemmas, such as DER FALLENDE STERN (The Falling Star, 1950), and DER GLÄSERNE TURM (The Glass Tower, 1957). Braun also specialised in literary adaptations, such as KÖNIGLICHE HOHEIT (His Royal Highness, 1953), based on the Thomas Mann novel, or the television drama DIE GLASMENAGERIE (The Glass Menagerie, 1958), adapted from a Tennessee Williams play. The director’s biopic of pacifist Bertha von Suttner, DAS HERZ DER WELT (The Alfred Nobel Story, 1951/52), meanwhile, received a string of awards and prizes. In 1957, Braun founded a new production company called Freie Filmproduktion GmbH together with directors Helmut Käutner and Wolfgang Staudte; however, its lone production prior to Braun’s sudden death was Käutner’s DER REST IST SCHWEIGEN (The Rest Is Silence, 1959), a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, which picked up a ‘Filmband in Gold’ award for best motion picture. Braun was also a chairman of the Association of German Film Directors, and a fellow of West Berlin’s Academy of Arts from 1955. [dir – DE] 1914: Träumereien. 1937: Die Umwege des schönen Karl [ass-dir,co-scr]. 1938: Heimat [ass-dir,scr]; Die 4 Gesellen [ass-dir]. 1939: Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht [ass-pro]. 1939/40: Das Herz der Königin [ass-dir, scr,lyr]. 1940/41: Der Weg ins Freie [scr,lyr]. 1941/42: Zwischen Himmel und Erde [dir,co-scr]. 1942: Hab’ mich lieb! 1943: Nora [dir,scr]. 1943/44: Träumerei [dir,scr]. 1944/ 45: Der stumme Gast [dir,co-scr]. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1948: Das verlorene Gesicht [co-scr,pro]. 1949: Heimliches Rendezvous [pro]; Nachtwache [dir,scr,pro]. 1950: Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte [scr,pro]; Der fallende Stern [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1951: Fanfaren der Liebe [pro]; Nachts auf den Straßen [pro]. 1951/52: Herz der Welt [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1952: Vater braucht eine Frau [dir,pro]; Der Weibertausch [pro]. 1953: Solange Du da bist [dir,pro]; Fanfaren der Ehe [pro]; Muß
man sich gleich scheiden lassen? [pro]; Königliche Hoheit. 1954: Feuerwerk [pro]; Der letzte Sommer [dir,co-scr,pro]; Unsere kleine Stadt [TV – dir,scr]. 1955: Geliebte Feindin [pro]; Griff nach den Sternen [pro]; Der letzte Mann [dir, pro]; Himmel ohne Sterne [pro]; Mädchen ohne Grenzen [pro]. 1955/56: Regine [dir,pro]. 1956: Herrscher ohne Krone. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben [pro]. 1957: Monpti [pro]; Der gläserne Turm [dir,co-scr]; Eurydice [TV – dir,scr]. 1958: Die Glasmenagerie [TV – dir,scr]. 1959: Kabale und Liebe [TV – dir,scr]; Der Rest ist Schweigen [pro]; O Wildnis [TV – dir,scr]; Buddenbrooks [2 parts – co-scr]. 1960: Kirmes [pro]; Die Botschafterin [dir,co-scr].
ARTUR BRAUNER (Abraham Brauner) Born August 1, 1918, £odz (Poland) West Germany’s most prolific producer of light entertainment films from the 1950s to the early 1970s, ‘Atze’ Brauner also occasionally embarked on more ambitious projects, most of which dealt with the plight of those persecuted under National Socialism. Brauner, born into a middle-class Jewish family, studied at a polytechnic college before fleeing to the Soviet Union after the Nazis invaded. Surviving the Holocaust, his parents emigrated to Israel after the war, while he and his brother Wolf relocated to Berlin. Brauner founded his Central Cinema Company, known for short as CCC, in September 1946. The box-office success of CCC’s first own production, HERZKÖNIG (King of Hearts, 1947), gave him the confidence to produce MORITURI (1947/48), a semi-autobiographical film about the escape of a group of concentration camp prisoners and their experiences hiding out on the Russian-Polish border. The film was a financial flop, leading Brauner to institute CCC’s defining production ethic of specialising first and foremost in genre cinema with proven stars, while only occasionally dabbling in more ambitious projects. Establishing its own studios in 1950, CCC made its profits with an endless cavalcade of swiftly-put-together comedies, musicals, and remakes of Weimar classics. CCC also gained critical acclaim for its literary adaptations, including Robert Siodmak’s DIE RATTEN (The Rats, 1955) and Aleksander Ford’s DER ACHTE WOCHENTAG (The Eighth Day, 1957/ 58), and for its films about the Nazi period, such as Falk Harnack’s DER 20. JULI (The Plot to Assassinate Hitler, 1955). It was Brauner who invited Fritz Lang to return to Germany and direct remakes of DER TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR (The Tiger of Eshnapur) and DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, both 1958/ 59), as well as DIE 1000 AUGEN DES DR. MABUSE (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, 1960). A brief attempt at establishing a separate CCC art film studio failed to get off the ground in the early 1960s,
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and for the rest of the decade the company continued churning out westerns and crime thrillers, in addition to two-part epics such as Harald Reinl’s DIE NIBELUNGEN (Siegfried, 1966/67) and Robert Siodmak’s KAMPF UM ROM (The Last Roman, 1968/69), whose promise of spectacle was intended to recapture dwindling audiences. Meanwhile, Brauner’s forays into television production proved for the most part shortlived. From the early 1970s, Brauner, concentrating on real estate deals, downsized CCC’s operations considerably, and the company made just ten features between 1972 and 1980. A long-standing member of Jewish organisations and supporter of Jewish causes, in the 1980s Brauner consciously set out to memorialise the Holocaust through cinema, leading to a cycle of films that included Andrzej Wajda’s EINE LIEBE IN DEUTSCHLAND (A Love in Germany, 1983), Agnieszka Holland’s BITTERE ERNTE (Angry Harvest, 1984/85) and EUROPA, EUROPA (1989/90), István Szabó’s HANUSSEN (1987/88), Fons Rademakers’s THE ROSE GARDEN (1989/90), Janusz Kijowski’s DER DAUNENTRÄGER (Warsaw – Year 5703, 1992), Dmitri Astrakhan’s VON HÖLLE ZU HÖLLE (From Hell to Hell, 1996/97), Jeff Kanew’s BABIJ JAR (2002/03), and Joseph Vilsmaier’s DER LETZTE ZUG (The Last Train, 2005/06). Brauner who contributed to some of his films’ scripts under the pseudonym ‘Art Bernd’, received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1990. [pro – DE] 1946: Sag die Wahrheit [co-pro]. 1947: Herzkönig. 1947/48: Morituri [ide,pro]. 1949: Mädchen hinter Gittern; Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe; Fünf unter Verdacht. 1950: Maharadscha wider Willen [ide,pro]; Epilog [ide,pro]. 1951: Unschuld in tausend Nöten; Sündige Grenze [ide,pro]; Schwarze Augen. 1952: Der keusche Lebemann; Man lebt nur einmal; Dem deutschen Volke [SD]; Die Spur führt nach Berlin [ide,pro]; Der Onkel aus Amerika. 1953: Hollandmädel; Die Kaiserin von China; Die Privatsekretärin. 1953/54: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1954: Meine Schwester und ich; Große Star-Parade; Roman eines Frauenarztes; Der Zarewitsch [MLV]; Le Tzarevitch [MLV – DE/FR]. 1954/55: Stern von Rio [MLV – DE/IT]; Stella di Rio [MLV – DE/IT]. 1955: Liebe ohne Illusion; Der 20. Juli; Die Ratten; Der Hauptmann und sein Held; Hotel Adlon; Les héros sont fatigués / Die Helden sind müde [FR/ DE]; Du mein stilles Tal; Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlager; Das Bad auf der Tenne. 1955/56: Studentin Helene Willfüer; Frucht ohne Liebe. 1955/58: Das verbotene Paradies. 1956: Vor Sonnenuntergang; Der erste Frühlingstag; Mein Vater, der Schauspieler; Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter; Liebe / Uragano sul Po [DE/IT]; Du bist Musik; Suprema confessione / Die große Sünde [IT/DE]; Musikparade; Ein Mann muß nicht immer schön sein; Die schöne Meisterin; Das alte Försterhaus. 1956/57: Wie ein Sturmwind; Die Welt baut in Berlin [SD]; Die Letzten werden die Ersten
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sein. 1957: Die Unschuld vom Lande; Kindermädchen für Papa gesucht; Siebenmal in der Woche …; Franziska; Einmal eine große Dame sein; Das einfache Mädchen; Die Frühreifen; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut; … und führe uns nicht in Versuchung; Der Graf von Luxemburg; Italienreise – Liebe inbegriffen. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala; Tumulto de paixoês / Tom Dooley – Held der grünen Hölle [BR/DE]; Ósmy dzieñ tygodnia / Der achte Wochentag [PL/DE]. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!; Münchhausen in Afrika; Es geschah am hellichten Tag / El cebo [CH/DE]; Mädchen in Uniform / Jeunes filles en uniformes [DE/FR]; Petersburger Nächte; Der Czardas-König; Der Mann im Strom; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; … und immer ruft das Herz / Avaruusraketilla Rakauteen [DE/FI]; Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen; Polikuschka / Polikuska / Polikouchka [DE/ IT/FR]; Der Stern von Santa Clara; Ohne Mutter geht es nicht; Kleine Leute – mal ganz groß; Scala – total verrückt. 1958/59: Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich; Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt; Der Tiger von Eschnapur / La tigre di Eschnapur / Le tigre du Bengale [DE/IT/FR]; Das indische Grabmal / Il sepolcro indiano / Le tombeau hindou [DE/IT/ FR]. 1959: Hauptstädte Europas: Kopenhagen [SD]; Aus dem Tagebuch eines Frauenarztes; Lockvogel der Nacht; Peter schießt den Vogel ab; … und das am Montagmorgen; Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; La Paloma; EinEngel auf Erden / Mademoiselle Ange [DE/FR]; Melodie und Rhythmus; Du bist wunderbar; Geheimaktion Schwarze Kapelle / I Sicari di Hitler / R.P.Z. appelle Berlin [DE/IT/FR]; Abschied von den Wolken; Am Tag, als der Regen kam; Marili; Alt-Heidelberg. 1959/60: Kein Engel ist so rein; Herrin der Welt [2 parts] / Les mystères d’Angkor / Il misterio dei tre continenti [DE/FR/IT]. 1960: Liebling der Götter; Marina [ide,pro]; Scheidungsgrund: Liebe; Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / Il diabolico Dr. Mabuse / Le diabolique docteur Mabuse [DE/IT/FR]; Der brave Soldat Schwejk; Bis daß das Geld euch scheidet …; … und sowas nennt sich Leben; Un amore a Roma / L’Inassouvie / Liebesnächte in Rom [IT/FR/DE]; Sabine und die 100 Männer; Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehn; O sole mio; Lebensborn. 1960/61: Zu jung für die Liebe?! 1961: Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi [CH/DE]; Immer Ärger mit dem Bett; Die Schatten werden länger [CH/DE]; Das Riesenrad; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Adieu, Lebewohl, Goodbye; Via Mala; Robert und Bertram; Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse / Le retour du Docteur Mabuse / F.B.I. contro Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]; Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein / Pourquoi toujours du caviar? [DE/FR]; Diesmal muß es Kaviar sein! / Top Secret – c’est pas toujours du caviar [DE/FR]; Ramona; Auf Wiedersehn. 1961/62: Café Oriental; Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer; Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse [ide,pro]. 1962: Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse; Axel Munthe, der Arzt von San Michele / Le livre de San Michele / Donne senza paradiso [DE/FR/IT]; Ein Toter sucht seinen Mörder [MLV – DE/GB]; Vengeance [MLV – GB/DE]; Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes / Sherlock Holmes et le collier de la mort / Sherlock Holmes. (La valle del terrore) [DE/FR/IT]; Station Six-Sahara / Endstation 13 Sahara [GB/DE]; Meine Frau Susanne [TVS]. 1962/63: Der Fluch der gelben Schlange; Wir sind Gottes Utopia [TV]; Wiedersehen auf Raten [TV]; Sophien-
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lund [TV]; Verführung am Meer / Ostrva [DE/YU]; Hunderttausend Taler [TV]; Ein Windstoß [TV]; Bunbury [TV]. 1963: Aller Unfug ist schwer [TV]; Berlin-Melodie [TV]; Die Mondvögel [TV]; Frühstück im Doppelbett; Der Fall Maria Rohrbach [TV]; Mensch und Bestie / Covek i zver [DE/YU]; Der Fall Rohrbach [TV]; Bezauberndes Fräulein [TV]; Der Würger von Schloß Blackmoor; Kater Lampe [TV]; Frauen sind keine Engel [TV]; Eine leichte Person [TV]; Kleine Leute ganz groß [TV]; Die ‘Kleinen’ unserer Großen [TV]; Einmal ganz anders [TV]; Musik-Expreß [TV]; Herr Lamberthier [TV]; MeloDiebereien [TV]; Safeknacker Suite [TV]; Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse; Fräulein, schreiben Sie [TV]; Spatzen in Gottes Hand [TV]; Mein Leopold [TV]; Der Henker von London; Die lustige Witwe [TV]; Liebeshändel in Chioggia [TV]; Ball der Diebe [TV]; Heute Nacht in Samarkand [TV]; Casanova wider Willen [TV]; Elektra [TV]; Das Kaffeehaus [TV]; Jenny und der Herr im Frack [TV]; Napoleon greift ein [TV]; Geliebte Barbara [TV]. 1963/64: Das Phantom von Soho; Der Kaiser vom Alexanderplatz [TV]; Old Shatterhand / La battaglia di Fort Apache / Les cavaliers rouges [DE/IT/FR]; Der Weiberheld [TV]. 1964: Ein Frauenarzt klagt an; Das Ungeheuer von London-City; Das Doppelspiel [TV]; Freddy und das Lied der Prärie; Kleine Leute ganz groß [TV]; Der Schut / Au pays des Skipétars / Una carabina per Schut [DE/FR/IT]; Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse / Les rayons de la mort du Docteur Mabuse / I raggi mortali del Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]; Fanny Hill / Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [DE/US]; Der Fall Jakubowski [TV]; Das 7. Opfer; Das Blaue vom Himmel [TV]; Freispruch für Old Shatterhand [TV]; Leider lauter Lügen [TV]; Simone, der Hummer & die Ölsardine [TV]. 1964/65: Vergißmeinnicht [TVS]; Der Schatz der Azteken / I violenti di Rio Bravo / Les mercenaires du Rio Grande [DE/IT/FR]; Genghis Khan / Dschingis Khan [GB/DE]; Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes / I violenti di Rio Bravo / Les mercenaires du Rio Grande [DE/IT/FR]. 1964/67: Der Fall X 701. 1965: Un lugar Ilamado ‘Glory’ / Die Hölle von Manitoba [ES/DE]; … Geist und ein wenig Glück [TVD – app]; Mädchen hinter Gittern; Jean [TV]; Vorsicht bei grauen Schläfen [TV]; Durchs wilde Kurdistan / El savaje Kurdistan [DE/ES]; Mrs. Cheneys Ende [TV]; Champagnerlily [TV]; Zeugin aus der Hölle / Gorke trave [DE/YU]; The Boy Cried Murder / Decak vikao ubistvo [GB/YU]; Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen / El ataque de los Kurdos [DE/ES]; Prairie-Saloon [TV]. 1965/ 66: Spätsommer [TV]; Der Arzt stellt fest / Angeklagt nach § 218 [CH/DE]; Wer kennt Jonny R ? / La balada de Johnny Ringo [DE/ES]; Lange Beine – lange Finger; Mivtza Kahir [IL]. 1966: Die Hölle von Macao / Les corrumpus / Il sigillo di Pekino [DE/FR/IT]; Lucky el intrepido [ES]. 1966/67: Die Nibelungen: 1. Siegfried von Xanten / 2. Kriemhilds Rache; Die Brücke von Remagen [TV]; Das kleine Teehaus [TV]. 1967: Geheimnisse in goldenen Nylons / Deux billets pour Mexico / Segreti che scottano [DE/FR/IT]; Heißer Sand auf Sylt; Ein Spiel von den heiligen drei Königen [TV]; Die Pickwicker [TV]; Eine etwas sonderbare Dame [TV]. 1967/68: Straßenbekanntschaften auf St. Pauli; Tevye und seine sieben Töchter / Tuvia vesheva benotav [DE/IL]; Columno lui Trajan [RO]. 1968: Der Fall Tuchatschewskij [TV]; Erotik auf der Schulbank; Shalako [GB]; Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten / L’uomo dal lungo fucile [DE/YU/IT];
Kampf um Rom / La guerra per Roma [2 parts – DE/IT]; L’Astragale / Astragal [FR/DE]. 1968/69: Ramon Yendias Flucht [TV]; Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne … Kurt Weill in Berlin [TV]; Contronatura / Schreie in der Nacht [IT/ DE]; De Sade / Das ausschweifende Leben des Marquis de Sade [US/DE]; Attentat auf den Mächtigen [TV]. 1969: Himmelfahrtskommando El Alamein / Commandos [coscr,pro – DE/IT]; Asternplatz 10 Uhr 6 [TV]; Josefine, das liebestolle Kätzchen / Sì pura come un angelo … resterà vergine? [DE/IT]; Die Hochzeitsreise [DE/IT]; Lovebirds (Una strana voglia d’amore) / Liebesvögel [IT/DE]; L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo / Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Handschuhe [IT/DE]. 1969/70: Der tägliche Rummel [TV]; Familie Werner auf Reisen [TVS]. 1970: Strogoff / Michel Strogoff, le courrier du Tsar / Der Kurier des Zaren [IT/ FR/DE]; Il giardino dei Finzi Contini / Der Garten der Finzi Contini [IT/DE]; Mrs. Hyde / Sie tötete in Ekstase [ES/DE]; La morte risale a ieri sera / Das Grauen kam aus dem Nebel [co-scr,pro – IT/DE]; La venganza del Doctor Mabuse / Dr. M schlägt zu [co-scr,pro – ES/DE]. 1970/71: Der Teufel kam aus Akasawa / El diabolo venia a Akasawa [DE/ES]; Vampyros Lesbos – Erbin des Dracula / El signo del vampiro [DE/ES]; X 312 – Flug zur Hölle / Vuelo al inferno [co-scr, pro – DE/ES]; Black Beauty / Caballo Negro [MLV – scr,pro – DE/ES]. 1971: Yester – der Name stimmt doch? [TV]; Zum zweiten Frühstück: Heiße Liebe; El muerto hace las maletas / Der Todesrächer von Soho [co-scr,pro – ES/DE]; L’Etrusco uccide ancora / Das Geheimnis des gelben Grabes [IT/DE/YU]. 1971/72: Jungfrauenreport [ide,pro]; Gelobt sei, was hart macht; Robinson und seine wilden Sklavinnen / Trois filles nues dans l’île de Robinson [scr, pro – DE/FR]. 1972: Altersheim [TV]; HochzeitsnachtReport [ide,pro]; Lilli – die Braut der Kompanie [ide,pro]; Ruf der Wildnis / La selva blanca / Il richiamo della foresta / L’Appel de la forêt / Call of the wild [MLV – DE/ES/IT/ FR/GB]; La isla del tresoro / L’isola del tesoro / L’Île au trésor / Die Schatzinsel [MLV – ES/IT/FR/DE]; Finito l’amor [TV]. 1973: Die Gräfin von Rathenow [TV]. 1973/74: Sie sind frei, Dr. Korczak / Korczak ve’hayeladim [DE/IL]. 1975: Das Leben des schizophrenen Dichters Alexander März [TV]; Zwei Teufelskerle auf dem Weg ins Kloster / Che stangata … ragazzi! [DE/IT]. 1975/76: Zerschossene Träume / L’Appât [AT/DE/FR]; Folies bourgeoises / Twist / Die verrückten Reichen [FR/IT/DE]. 1976: Néa [FR]; Le jour de gloire [FR]. 1976/77: Jede Woche hat nur einen Sonntag [TVS]. 1977: Die Freiheiten der Langeweile [TV]. 1977/78: Leidenschaftliche Blümchen; Mulligans Rückkehr [TV]. 1978: Ein Hut von ganz spezieller Art [TV]; Enigma rosso / Trafico de menores / Orgie des Todes [IT/ES/DE]. 1978/ 79: Die Totenschmecker; Die Schattengrenze [TV]. 1979: TILT [TV]. 1979/80: Kreuzberger Liebesnächte; Heiße Kartoffeln [ide,pro]; Poliziotto solitudine e rabbia / Der Mann, der Venedig hieß [co-scr,pro – IT/DE]. 1980: Charlotte [DE/ NL]. 1980/81: Die Pinups und ein heißer Typ [co-scr,pro – DE/IL]. 1981: Nach Mitternacht. 1981/82: La passante du Sans-Souci / Die Spaziergängerin von Sans-Souci [FR/DE]; Die weiße Rose. 1982: Dannys Traum [TV]; S.A.S. à San Salvador / S.A.S. Malko – Im Auftrag des Pentagon [FR/ DE]. 1983: Plem, plem – Die Schule brennt; Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [DE/FR]; Annas
FELIX BRESSART Mutter. 1983/84: Zu Freiwild verdammt / Wedle wyroków twoich [ide,pro – DE/PL]. 1984: 250.000 Mücken im Pappkarton [TV]. 1984/85: Bittere Ernte. 1985: Gefahr für die Liebe – Aids / A.I.D.S. Trop jeune pour mourir [DE/FR]; Der träumende Mund oder Die Liebe des Filmvorführers [TV – act]. 1986/87: Der Stein des Todes. 1987: Die Gunst der Sterne [TV]. 1987/88: Profeta / Hanussen [HU/DE/AT]. 1989/90: Der Rosengarten / The Rose Garden [DE/NL/US]; Der Hammermörder [TV]; Die Schönheit des Schimpansen [TV]; Hitlerjunge Salomon / Europa, Europa [DE/FR]. 1991/92: Le mirage [FR/DE/CA/CH]. 1992: Der Daunenträger / Le porteur de duvet / Tragarz puchu [scr,pro – DE/FR/PL]. 1993: Grešnica v maske [scr,pro – UA/DE/US]; Alaska Kid / Alâska kid [TVS – DE/PL/RU]. 1993/94: Die Wölfe / The Wolves [scr,pro – DE/US]. 1994: Heinz Rühmann. Kleiner Mann ganz groß [TVD – app]. 1994/95: Fremdsein in Deutschland [DO – app]. 1995: Russisches Roulette / Russkaâ ruletka – Moskva 95 [DE/BY]. 1995/96: Luise knackt den Jackpot; Die Tunnelgangster von Berlin / Supermosg [TV – pro,ide]. 1996: Höchstpersönlich: Harald Leipnitz [TVD – app]. 1996/97: Die Kinder des Kapitän Grant / Deti kapitana Granta [DE/RU]; Von Hölle zu Hölle / Is ada v ad [scr,pro – DE/BY]. 1997/98: Fotoamator [TVD – voi (German version) – PL]. 1998: Ein Leben für die Traumfabrik [TVD – app]; Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin – Les films allemands [TVD – app – FR]. 1998/99: Weihnachten für einen Engel / Ledi iz Kazahstana [DE/BY]. 1999: Zeugen des Jahrhunderts: Artur Brauner im Gespräch mit Christa Schulze-Rohr [TVD – app]. 1999/2000: Apokalypse 99 – Anatomie eines Amokläufers [DE/BY]. 2002: Der Teufel, der sich Gott nannte / D’âvol, kotor’ij naz’ivaet sebâ Bogom [DE/BY]. 2002/03: René Deltgen – Der sanfte Rebell [DO – app – LU]; Babij Jar [scr,cut,pro – DE/BY]. 2003: Artur Brauner – Ein jüdisches Leben in Berlin [TVD – app]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app]. 2005/06: Der letzte Zug / Poslední vlak [sma,pro – DE/CZ]. 2006/ 07: Hitlers nützliche Idole: Heinz Rühmann – Der Schauspieler [TVD – app]. 2007: Legenden: Heinz Rühmann [TVD – app].
FELIX BRESSART Born March 12, 1890 (maybe earlier), Eydtkuhnen (Germany, now Chernyshevskoye, Russia) Died March 17, 1949, Hollywood (California, USA) Gawky Jewish comedian Bressart was a regular face in early German sound films, playing comically fastidious authority figures, as well as charming scoundrels. He later found success with similar roles after emigrating to Hollywood. Appearing in provincial theatres from 1914, Bressart (who changed his birthdate over the years) joined Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt in 1925, before working under director-manager Victor Barnowsky on various Berlin stages between 1926 and 1931. Recognised as one of the most capable character actors, he continued his stage career in the capital at the Künstlertheater in 1932, and at the Komödienhaus and the Kabarett der Komiker in 1933.
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Bressart appeared in films from 1928, and stood out especially in popular musical comedies such as Wilhelm Thiele’s DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends) and DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (Sunshine Susie / The Office Girl, both 1930), as well as in military farces such as Carl Boese’s popular DREI TAGE MITTELARREST (Three Days in the Guardhouse, 1930) and DER SCHRECKEN DER GARNISON (Terror of the Garrison, 1931). Endowing his characterisations with both humanity and biting satirical wit, Bressart played the lead in two comedies poking fun at middle-class pedantry, Hans Behrendt’s DER HERR BÜROVORSTEHER (The Office Manager, 1931) and Victor Janson’s HOLZAPFEL WEISS ALLES (Holzapfel Knows Everything, 1931/32). Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Jewish Bressart emigrated to Switzerland, and then Austria – where he appeared in a number of Austro-Hungarian coproductions – before settling in Paris, and finally leaving for the United States in 1938. Playing up his gangling appearance and Central European accent, Bressart was cast in numerous supporting roles as heavy-hearted misfits and eccentrics in Hollywood productions. He worked repeatedly with Ernst Lubitsch, in NINOTCHKA (1939), he was one of three dissolute Soviet officals living it up in Paris; he was part of the ensemble cast of THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1939), and, perhaps most memorably, he played the Jewish actor Greenberg in the anti-Nazi satire TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1941/42). Bressart was also seen in more serious roles in antiNazi dramas such as Richard Thorpe’s ABOVE SUSPICION (1942/43) and Fred Zinnemann’s THE SEVENTH CROSS (1944), the latter based on the novel by Anna Seghers. Lending his services as a performer at Los Angeles’ German-Jewish Club in 1941 and 1942, Bressart – who had qualified as a medical practitioner prior to World War I – also gave colleagues free advice about complementary and pharmaceutical approaches to their medical complaints throughout his time in Hollywood. [act – DE] 1928: Liebe im Kuhstall. 1929: Alte Kleider [SF]. 1929/30: Es gibt eine Frau, die dich niemals vergißt. 1930: Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragödie des Untermieters [SF]; Der Sohn der weißen Berge [MLV]; Die zärtlichen Verwandten; Der keusche Josef; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Das alte Lied; Drei Tage Mittelarrest; Eine Freundin so goldig wie du; Die Privatsekretärin [MLV]. 1930/31: Der wahre Jakob. 1931: Der Schrecken der Garnison; Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Trara um Liebe; Ausflug ins Leben (Hirsekorn greift ein) [AT]; Der Herr Bürovorsteher. 1931/32: Holzapfel weiß alles; Goldblondes Mädchen, ich schenk’ Dir mein Herz – Ich bin ja so verliebt … 1932/33: Und wer küßt mich? [MLV]. 1933: Wie d’ Wahr-
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heit würkt [CH]; C’était un musicien [MLV – FR]. 1934: Bleeke Bet [NL]; Salto in die Seligkeit [AT]; Peter / Peter, Peter [AT/HU]; Ball im Savoy / Bál a Savoyban [HU/AT]. 1934/35: Alles für die Firma [MLV – AT]; De vier Mullers [MLV – AT]. 1935: 4 1/2 Musketiere / Három és fél muskétás [AT/HU]. 1936: Heut’ ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben! [AT]. [act – US] 1939: Three Smart Girls Grow Up; Bridal Suite; Ninotchka; Swanee River; The Shop Around the Corner. 1939/40: It All Came True. 1940: Edison the Man; Third Finger, Left Hand; Escape; Bitter Sweet; Comrade X. 1940/ 41: Ziegfeld Girl. 1941: Blossoms in the Dust; Married Bachelor; Kathleen; Mr. and Mrs. North. 1941/42: To Be or Not to Be. 1942: Crossroads; Isle of Missing Men; Iceland; Three Hearts for Julia. 1942/43: Above Suspicion. 1943: Song of Russia. 1944: The Seventh Cross; Greenwich Village; Blonde Fever. 1944/45: Without Love. 1945: Dangerous Partners. 1946: Ding Dong Williams; I’ve Always Loved You; The Thrill of Brazil; Her Sister’s Secret. 1947/48: Portrait of Jennie. 1948: A Song Is Born. 1949: Take One False Step.
LOUIS BRODY (aka Lewis Brody) Born February 15, 1892, Duala (now Douala, Cameroon) Died Februar, 11, 1952, Berlin (West Germany) From the 1910s right through the Nazi period, Lewis Brody was the leading ‘exotic’ of the German screen, playing Africans as well as Chinese or Indians in adventure films as well as Nazi propaganda. Born M’bebe Mpessa in the capital of the German colony of Kamerun (now Cameroon), Brody came to Berlin in the early years of the 20th century. In 1915, he made his screen debut in Joe May’s DAS GESETZ DER MINE (The Rule of the Mine), the first episode of a successful serial chronicling the adventures of fictional detective Joe Deebs. In May 1918 Brody was one of the founding members of the ‘Afrikanischer Hilfsverein’ (African welfare organisation) in Hamburg, one of the first organisations of immigrants in Germany. From the late 1910s Brody established himself as the leading black actor in German cinema. In Joe May’s eight-part adventure serial DIE HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1919) he played characters of various races around the globe; in DIE FREUNDIN DES GELBEN MANNES (The Girlfriend of the Yellow Man) he was a roguish Chinese servant; in OPHIR, DIE STADT DER VERGANGENHEIT (Ophir, City of Yesterday) and DIE FRAU MIT DEN MILLIARDEN (The Lady With the Billions) he was the dumb African chief of a prehistoric tribe of slaves liberated by superior European technology. Since exoticism was a popular element in many films from the early years of Weimar Cinema, Brody was much in demand, although he was rarely credited
in the productions he contributed to. Among his verifiable appearances were art films such as Robert Wiene’s GENUINE (1920), and Fritz Lang’s DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny, 1921), as well as adventure serials like Georg Jacoby’s DER MANN OHNE NAMEN (The Man Without a Name, 1920/21) and Joe May’s two-part spectacle DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921). Mostly his image was that of a demonic ‘moor’, typified in Konrad Wiene’s ‘colonial adventure’ ICH HATT‘ EINEN KAMERADEN (I Once Had a Comrade, 1926). Aside from his activities in film, Brody pursued a career as a singer, musician, and dancer in Berlin cabarets and music halls. Because of his excellent knowledge of German Brody had no problems making the transition to sound films. For Anatole Litvak’s NIE WIEDER LIEBE (No More Love, 1931) and Kurt Gerron’s drug thriller DER WEISSE DÄMON (White Demon, 1932), he was cast in both the German and French language versions. Specialising in servants and sailors, the range of his roles changed little in Nazi cinema, as can be seen in Detlef Sierck’s (Douglas Sirk) melodrama LA HABANERA (1937) and Herbert Selpin’s western WASSER FÜR CANITOGA (Water for Canitoga, 1938/39). Although black Germans were in danger of being sterilised or killed in a concentration camp, Brody – registered as ‘Ludwig Mpessa’ in a list of ‘approved’ exotic performers by the Reichfilmkammer – managed to survive by participating in a series of prestigious propaganda productions, including the anti-British OHM KRÜGER (1940/41), directed by Hans Steinhoff, and GERMANIN (1942/43) by Max W. Kimmich. Even under Nazi rule Brody enjoyed certain privileges and, in 1938, was allowed to marry a black German woman. He earned additional money by working as a wrestler. After the war Brody continued as a singer on stage and acted in some DEFA productions. [act – DE] 1915: Das Gesetz der Mine. 1919: Der Dolch des Malayen; Die Herrin der Welt. 1. Die Freundin des gelben Mannes / 5. Ophir, die Stadt der Vergangenheit / 6. Die Frau mit den Milliarden. 1920: Genuine; Das Geheimnis von Bombay. 1920/21: Der kleine Muck; Die Verschwörung zu Genua; Der Mann ohne Namen (6 part serial). 1921: Die Abenteuer eines Ermordeten: 2. Der Smaragd des Badjah von Panlanzur; Die Perle des Orients; Der müde Tod; Der vergiftete Strom; Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur; Die Insel der Verschollenen. 1921/22: Lebenshunger. 1922: Wildnis; Homo sum (Sklaventreue) [AT]. 1923: Knock-out! [AT]. 1925: Irrgarten der Leidenschaft / The Pleasure Garden [DE/GB]; Die tolle Herzogin. 1926: Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden; Die Boxerbraut; Das Panzergewölbe. 1927: Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin. 1929: Das verschwundene Testament / Ztracená závì [DE/CS]; Die Todesfahrt im Weltrekord. 1930: Stürmisch die Nacht
DANIEL BRÜHL [AT/DE]. 1931: Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]. 1931/32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932: Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; Stupéfiants [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932/ 33: Die Blume von Hawaii. 1934: Pechmarie; Die Reiter von Deutsch-Ostafrika. 1934/35: Punks kommt aus Amerika. 1935: Stützen der Gesellschaft. 1937: Das Geheimnis um Betty Bonn; La Habanera. 1937/38: Der unmögliche Herr Pitt. 1938: Kautschuk; Sergeant Berry; In geheimer Mission. 1938/39: Wasser für Canitoga. 1939: Kennwort Machin; Brand im Ozean. 1940: Die 3 Codonas; Jud Süß; Blutsbrüderschaft. 1940/41: Carl Peters; Ohm Krüger; Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska! 1941: Groteske [SF]. 1941/42: Giungla [MLV – IT/DE]; Vom Schicksal verweht [MLV]. 1941-44: Philharmoniker. 1942: Dr. Crippen an Bord. 1942/43: Münchhausen; Germanin. 1943: Herr Sanders lebt gefährlich. 1943/44: Quax in Afrika. 1943-45: Peter Voss, der Millionendieb.1950/51: Die letzte Heuer [DD].
LOUISE BROOKS (Mary Louise Brooks) Born November 14, 1906, Cherryvale (Kansas, USA) Died August 8, 1985, Rochester (New York, USA) With her trademark black bobbed hair and insistently modern depictions of childlike femmes fatales, American Brooks is one of Weimar cinema’s most recognisable icons. First performing in public alongside her mother at fairgrounds in Kansas, Brooks was by 1922 a member of the Denishawn Dancers, supporting Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn throughout their East Coast appearances. She debuted on Broadway in ‘George White’s Scandals’ in 1924, and subsequently worked as a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1925, Brooks signed a five-year contract with Paramount and received her first film role, a bit in Herbert Brenon’s THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN. A number of roles in snappy comedies followed, with Brooks playing self-confident young women and shop girls. At the same time establishing her public image as a quintessential flapper and 1920s party girl, Brooks moved on to more substantial parts in Howard Hawks’s buddy movie A GIRL IN EVERY PORT (1927) and William Wellman’s BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928). Later the same year, G. W. Pabst brought the actress to Berlin and what would become her most celebrated film appearances – as Lulu in DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA (Pandora’s Box, 1928/29) and Thymian in TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929). Brooks stayed on in Europe to make just one further film in France, Augusto Genina’s PRIX DE BEAUTÉ (The Price of Beauty / Miss Europe, 1929/30), before returning to the USA. However, few film roles followed, and Brooks drifted into work as a night club dancer and shop assistant. She had a brief stint with
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her own daily radio show at CBS in Manhattan during 1943. From 1955, Brooks started to take a renewed interest in her past film career, and in 1956 relocated to Rochester where she was able to begin researching and writing at George Eastman House. Offering a frank, witty and sarcastic insider’s view of the vagaries of Hollywood stardom, Brooks swiftly became a favourite among film historians. She appeared in Richard Leacock’s documentary A CONVERSATION WITH LOUISE BROOKS (1974), and published a series of autobiographical essays that were later drawn together in her memoirs, ‘Lulu in Hollywood’ (1982). [act – US] 1925: The Street of Forgotten Men; The American Venus. 1925/26: A Social Celebrity. 1926: Love ’Em or Leave ’Em; It’s the Old Army Game; The Show-Off; Just Another Blonde. 1927: Evening Clothes; Rolled Stockings; Now We’re in the Air; The City Gone Wild; A Girl in Every Port. 1928: Beggars of Life; The Canary Murder Case. 1928/29: Die Büchse der Pandora [DE]. 1929: Tagebuch einer Verlorenen [DE]. 1929/30: Prix de Beauté (Miss Europe) [FR]. 1930/31: It Pays to Advertise; God’s Gift to Women; Windy Riley Goes Hollywood [SF]. 1936: Empty Saddles. 1936/37: When You’re in Love. 1937: King of Gamblers. 1938: Overland Stage Raiders. 1974: A Conversation with Louise Brooks [SD]. 1975-78: Hollywood [TVD – GB]. 1976: Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture [TVD – CA]. 1984: Lulu in Berlin [DO]. 1986: Louise Brooks [TVD – GB]. 1998: Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu [TVD].
DANIEL BRÜHL (Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo) Born June 16, 1978, Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) Handsome and fresh-faced Brühl established himself as one of the new stars of the new century, especially following his lead in the worldwide success GOOD BYE, LENIN! The son of a German stage and TV director and a Catalan teacher, he grew up in Cologne where, still at school, he started working for radio plays and dubbing parts in films, including the juvenile protagonist in THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) by Philip Ridley. He moved on to small parts in TV soaps and films, and eventually the male lead in Miguel Alexandre’s DER PAKT – WENN KINDER TÖTEN (Over the Edge, 1996). After leaving school and completing his national community service, he resumed professional acting. With roles in coming-of-age comedies such as SCHULE (No More School, 2000), VAYA CON DIOS (2000/ 01), NICHTS BEREUEN (No Regrets, 2001), and DAS WEISSE RAUSCHEN (The White Sound, 1999–2001), Brühl won acclaim for his naturalist and intense performance style, culminating in a German Film Award 2002 as best actor.
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International success followed with the unification comedy GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2001/02), in which he portrayed a young man determined to prevent his terminally ill mother from discovering that the GDR has ceased to exist. Directed by Wolfgang Becker, the film picked up awards around the world, including several German und European Film Awards, among them three Best Actor Awards for Brühl. With a fresh face allowing him to play roles several years younger than his actual age, Brühl was a troubled adolescent in WAS NÜTZT DIE LIEBE IN GEDANKEN (Love in Thoughts, 2002/03), where his co-star was August Diehl, another up and coming star of the German screen. In DIE FETTEN JAHRE SIND VORBEI (The Edukators, 2003/04), he played a political activist who breaks into villas with his friends (Stipe Erceg, Julia Jentsch) and who gets into trouble when they are surprised by one of their victims. Branching out into international productions, Brühl starred as a mysterious Polish violinist opposite Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in LADIES IN LAVENDER (2004), set in pre-war Cornwall. In the World War I trench-melodrama JOYEUX NOËL / MERRY CHRISTMAS (2004/05), Brühl was cast as a brooding lieutenant. Bilingual in Spanish and German, Brühl portrayed Catalan anarchist Puig Antich, executed in 1974 under the Franco regime, in the Spanish production SALVADOR (2006), and also starred in the romantic drama UN POCO DE CHOCOLATE (A Tram in SP, 2008), the feature debut of Basque director Aitzol Aramaio. Following a supporting role in the Hollywood franchise THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2006), Brühl concentrated once again on European assignments, such as the Russian-British-Luxemburg coproduction IN TRANZIT, and Julie Delpy’s romantic comedy DEUX JOURS À PARIS (2 Days in Paris, both 2007/08). [act – DE] 1994: Verbotene Liebe [5 episodes – TVS]. 1995: Svens Geheimnis [TV]; Der Pakt – Wenn Kinder töten [TV]. 1997: Freunde fürs Leben [3 episodes – TVS]; Polizeiruf 110: Der Sohn der Kommissarin [TV].1997/98: SOKO 5113: Ausgetrickst [TV]. 1998: Blutiger Ernst [TV]. 1998/ 99: Schlaraffenland. 1999: Hin und weg [TV]; Sturmzeit [TV]. 1999/2000: Honolulu. 1999-2001: Das weiße Rauschen. 2000: Eine Hand voll Gras; Tatort: Die kleine Zeugin [TV]; Deeply [CA/DE]; Ein mörderischer Plan [TV]; Eine öffentliche Affäre [TV]; Schule; Stundenhotel. 2000/01: Vaya con dios. 2001: Nichts bereuen; Elefantenherz. 2001/02: Good Bye, Lenin! 2002/03: Die Klasse von ’99 – Schule war gestern, Leben ist jetzt; Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken. 2002-04: Farland. 2003: Der letzte Flug [SF]. 2003/04: Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei [DE/AT]; Ladies in Lavender [GB]. 2004/05: Joyeux Noël / Merry Christmas [FR/DE/GB/BE/RO]. 2004-06: Ein Freund von mir. 2005/06: Cargo [ES/GB/SE]. 2006: Salvador (Puig Antich) [ES]. 2006/
07: Deux jours à Paris [FR]; Penélope, camino a los Oscar [TVD – app – ES]; In Transit / In Tranzit [GB/RU]; The Bourne Ultimatum [US]. 2006-08: Krabat. 2007/08: Un poco de chocolate [ES]; John Rabe [DE/CN/FR]. 2008/09: Die Gräfin / The Countess [DE/FR]; Inglourious Basterds [US/DE]; Lila, Lila [DE/CH].
HORST BUCHHOLZ (Horst Werner Buchholz) Born December 4, 1933, Berlin (Germany) Died March 3, 2003, Berlin (Germany) Bursting onto West German screens as a dark-haired, fresh-faced rebel in the mid-1950s, Buchholz, who enjoyed a brief international career in the 1960s, was frequently referred to as the ‘German James Dean’. At age fourteen, Buchholz became an extra at Berlin’s Metropol-Theater. He received his first significant role in the theatre’s 1949 production of ‘Emil und die Detektive’ (Emil and the Detectives), and also worked dubbing films and on student radio prior to leaving school, whereafter he performed at venues including Berlin’s Schlosspark-Theater and Schiller-Theater between 1950 and 1955. Buchholz’s film debut was Frank Rovell’s short WARUM? (Why?, 1951), followed by a more substantial part in Julien Duvivier’s Franco-German coproduction MARIANNE (1954/55). He received the German Film Award as best newcomer for his performance as a Russian soldier in Helmut Käutner’s HIMMEL OHNE STERNE (Sky Without Stars, 1955), and then appeared in the role that would shape his star image for years, as surly teenage rebel Freddy in Georg Tressler’s juvenile delinquency melodrama DIE HALBSTARKEN (The Hooligans, 1956). In Tressler’s DAS TOTENSCHIFF (Ship of the Dead, 1959) Buchholz gave an equally intense performance. He soon became familiar to international cinemagoers as well. His bravura performance in Kurt Hoffmann’s BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (The Confessions of Felix Krull, 1957) led to his casting in J. Lee Thompson’s British production TIGER BAY (1958/59). Subsequently, Buchholz became a film legend as one of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960). Playing a hot-blooded young Communist in ONE, TWO, THREE (1961), Billy Wilder’s acerbic comedy about Cold War Berlin, Buchholz showed a hitherto untapped side as a comic actor, though most of his roles in the 1960s consisted of bland heroic parts in rather uninspired costume swashbucklers such as LE MERAVIGLIOSE AVVENTURE DI MARCO POLO (Marco The Magnificent, 1964/65) and CERVANTES (1967). In the early 1970s, after several unsuccessful bids to gain financing for his directorial debut, Buchholz became primarily a television actor, working on popular
DETLEV BUCK
shows such as crime series DERRICK in Germany. He returned to the stage from the 1970s onwards, and remained a prolific dubbing artist, lending his vocal skills to the German-language versions of over one thousand films. Experiencing a modest comeback in the 1980s, he received the 1985 German Film Award for his performance as a television director going through a midlife crisis in Christian Rischert’s WENN ICH MICH FÜRCHTE … (Fear of Falling, 1983), and he was among the veteran cast of Wim Wenders’s IN WEITER FERNE, SO NAH! (Faraway, So Close!, 1992/93). His final standout role was in Roberto Benigni’s Oscarwinning LA VITA È BELLA (Life Is Beautiful, 1997). From 1958 until his death Buchholz was married to French actress Myriam Bru (b. 1932). Their son, Christopher (b. 1962) has appeared in a wide range of European films since the 1980s and participated as co-director, scriptwriter and producer on a critically acclaimed documentary about his father, HORST BUCHHOLZ … MEIN PAPA (2001–05). [act – DE] 1951: Warum? [SF]. 1952: Die Spur führt nach Berlin. 1954/55: Marianne [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955: Die Schule der Väter [TV]; Himmel ohne Sterne. 1955/56: Regine. 1956: Die Halbstarken; Herrscher ohne Krone. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Monpti; Ein Stück vom Himmel; Endstation Liebe. 1958: Nasser Asphalt; Auferstehung / Resurrezione / Résurrection [DE/IT/FR]. 1958/59: Tiger Bay [GB]. 1959: Das Totenschiff [DE/MX]. 1960: The Magnificent Seven [US]; Fanny [US]. 1961: One, Two, Three [US]. 1962: Nine Hours to Rama [GB]. 1963: La noia / L’Ennui [IT/FR]. 1964/65: Estambul 65 / Colpo grosso a Galata Bridge / L’Homme d’Instanbul [ES/IT/FR]; Le meravigliose avventure di Marco Polo (Lo scacchiere di Dio) / La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (L’Échequier de Dieu) [IT/FR]. 1966/67: Johnny Banco / Jonny Banco – Geliebter Taugenichts [FR/ IT/DE]. 1967: Cervantes / Le avventure e gli amori di Miguel Cervantes / Les aventures extraordinaires de Cervantes [ES/ IT/FR]. 1967/68: The Danny Thomas Hour: Fear is the Chain [TV – US]. 1968: L’Astragale / Astragal [FR/DE]. 1968/69: Come, quando, perche? [IT]. 1970: La colomba non deve volare [IT]. 1971: Le sauveur [FR]. 1972: The Great Waltz [US]. 1973: … aber Jonny!; Lohngelder für Pittsville [TV]. 1975/76: Frauenstation. 1976: Derrick: Das Superding [TV]; Klimbim [TV]; The Savage Bees [TV – US]. 1976/77: Raid on Entebbe [TV – US]; Dead of Night [TV – US]. 1977: Logan’s Run [TVS – US]; Return to Fantasy Island [TV – US]. 1977/78: How the West Was Won [TV – US]; The Return of Captain Nemo [TV – US]; The Amazing Captain Nemo [US]. 1978: Derrick: Solo für Margarete [TV]; Charlie’s Angels: Angel Come Home [TVS – US]; Der große Karpfen Ferdinand und andere Weihnachtsgeschichten [TV]; Avalanche Express [IE/US]. 1978/ 79: De Dunquerque à la victoire / Contro 4 bandiere / De Dunkerke a la victoria [FR/ IT/ES]. 1979: The French Atlantic Affair [TV – US]; Kur in Travemünde [TV]. 1980: Derrick: Auf dem Gutshof [TV]. 1980/81: Berlin Tunnel / Berlin Tunnel 21 [TV – US/DE].
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1982: Aphrodite [FR]; Derrick: Die Tote in der Isar [TV]. 1982/83: Sahara [US]. 1983: Der Alte: Liebe hat ihren Preis [TV]; Wenn ich mich fürchte … 1983/84: Funkeln im Auge und andere Geschichten [TV]. 1985: Code Name: Emerald [US]. 1985/86: Die Fräulein von damals [TV]. 1986: Der Schatz im Niemandsland [TVS]; Crossing (Im Feuer der Gefühle) [TV – US]. 1988: I skrzypce przestaly grac / And the Violins Stopped Playing [TV – PL/GB]. 1988/89: Fuga dal paradiso / La fuite au paradis [IT/FR]. 1989: Affari di famiglia [IT]. 1990/91: Chi tocca muore / Touch and Die / Bei Berührung Lebensgefahr [TV – IT/GB/DE]. 1990/94: Fantaghirò – La grotta della rosa d’oro [2 episodes – TVS – IT]. 1991: Requiem por Granada / Granada, addio [TV – ES/IT]; Aces: Iron Eagle III [US]. 1992/93: In weiter Ferne, so nah! 1993: Sylter Geschichten [1 episode – TVS]. 1993/ 94: Tödliches Erbe [TV]. 1993/ 94: Evelyn Hamanns Geschichten aus dem Leben [episode 2 – TV]. 1994: Heinz Rühmann. Kleiner Mann ganz groß [TVD]. 1994/95: Der Clan der Anna Voss [TV]. 1996: Der Feuervogel / Pták Ohnivák [DE/CZ]. 1996/97: Geisterstunde. Fahrstuhl ins Jenseits. [TV]. 1997: La vita è bella [IT]. 1997/98: Der kleine Unterschied [TV]. 1998: Minefield [SF]; Dunckel; Voyage of Terror / Die Schreckensfahrt der Orion Star [TV – US/DE]. 1999: Kinderraub in Rio – Eine Mutter schlägt zurück [TV]; Klinikum Berlin Mitte – Leben in Bereitschaft [2 episodes – TVS]. 2000: Heller als der Mond [AT]; Dr. Stefan Frank – Der Arzt dem die Frauen vertrauen: Das Schweigen der Liebe [TV]. 2000/01: Tatort: Der Präsident [TV]. 2001: The Enemy [US/GB/DE]; Der Club der grünen Witwen [TV]; Traumfrau mit Verspätung [TV]; Planet B: Detective Lovelorn und die Rache des Pharao. 2001/02: Abschnitt 40 [1 episode – TVS]. 2002: Sterne, die nie untergehen [TV]; In der Mitte eines Lebens [TV].
DETLEV BUCK (aka D. W. Buck) Born December 1, 1962, Bad Segeberg (West Germany) A major protagonist of the generation of post-reunification directors that eschewed the auteurist approach of New German Cinema for audience-pleasing entertainment, Buck specialised in quirky comedies that frequently focus on Germany’s urban/rural divide. Growing up on his parents’ farm, Buck attended agricultural college after gaining his Abitur. In 1984, while still studying agriculture, he directed and starred in the low budget ERST DIE ARBEIT UND DANN!? (First Work, Then What!?) about a bored young German farmhand who ‘borrows’ his father’s Mercedes and undertakes a nocturnal odyssey through Hamburg. A surprise cinema success, the film led to Buck’s studying at Berlin’s Film and Television Academy from 1985 to 1989. His dissertation film HOPNICK (1989/ 90) was a Berlin-based variant on his debut, documenting a border guard’s after-work shenanigans in Kreuzberg and again amusing audiences with its com-
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bination of wry situation comedy and endearing characterisations. Together with cinema owner and distributor Claus Boje, Buck set up a company, Boje Buck-Produktion Berlin, in 1991, which produced all his subsequent pictures. The first of these, KARNIGGELS (Rabbits, 1990/91), charted the ups and downs of a rural police officer whose desire to escape to the city is beset by a series of cow slayings. WIR KÖNNEN AUCH ANDERS (No More Mr. Nice Guy, 1992), a witty generic parody of spaghetti westerns and gangster films, followed two illiterate brothers and a Red Army deserter on their quest to track down a house they have inherited in the former East Germany. The heroes of Buck’s next feature, MÄNNERPENSION (Jail Birds, 1995) – played by the director and Til Schweiger – manage to get out of prison (admittedly only a short conceptual leap within Buck’s worldview) when they are placed into the care of an all-female help group’s experimental rehabilitation programme, with both amorous and amusing consequences. Buck’s only flop, both commercially and critically, was the Salvation Army caper LIEBE DEINE NÄCHSTE! (Love Your Neighbour!, 1997/98) starring Moritz Bleibtreu, and he reverted to more familiar subject matter with LIEBESLUDER (Bundle of Joy, 1999), in which Mavie Hörbiger plays a flashy, streetwise city girl who drives the male inhabitants of a small village to (ultimately deadly) distraction. Buck usually co-scripts and acts in all of his films, while also appearing in films of other directors including Wolfgang Becker, Reinhard Münster and Edgar Reitz. He had substantial roles in Leander Haußmann’s SONNENALLEE (Sun Alley, 1998/99) and NVA (2004/05), which he also produced. In addition
to his films, Buck has also directed commercials and music videos. [act – DE] 1982: Was sein muß, muß sein [SD]. 1984: Erst die Arbeit und dann!? [dir,scr,act]. 1985/86: Es gräbt [SF – co-dir]. 1986: Normal bitte [SF – dir,scr]; Gesichter [SF – dir]. 1987: Eine Rolle Duschen [SF – dir,cut]; Worauf wir abfahren [SD – dir,cam,cut]; Was drin ist [SD – dir,cut]. 1988: Schwarzbunt Märchen [SF – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1989/90: Hopnick [dir,co-scr,act]. 1990: Alles offen [SF]; Solinger Rudi. 1990/91: Karniggels [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1991/ 92: Kinderspiele. 1992: Wir können auch anders … [dir, scr,act,pro]. 1993/94: Alles auf Anfang; Fernes Land PaIsch; Unter der Milchstraße. 1994: Polizeiruf 110: Über Bande [TV]; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1994/95: Küss mich! 1995: Bismarckpolka; Erotic Tales II: Der Elefant vergißt nie [TV – dir,ide]; Männerpension [dir,co-scr, act,pro]. 1995/96: Im Namen des Gesetzes: Frohe Weihnachten [TV]. 1996: Der Lober [SF – act,pro]. 1996/97: Nackt im Cabrio. 1997/98: Liebe Deine Nächste! [dir,coscr,act,pro]. 1998: Lift [SF – GB]; Candy [TV]; Aimée & Jaguar. 1998/99: Der große Bagarozy; Sonnenallee [scr, act,pro]. 1999: LiebesLuder [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1999/ 2000: Flashback – Mörderische Ferien. 2001: Der Kuscheldoktor [SF]. 2001/02: Platzangst; Blue Moon [AT]. 2002/ 03: Mein Name ist Bach [DE/CH]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2003: Herr Lehmann; Edel & Starck: Der Glückspilz [TV]; Nacktschnecken [AT]. 2003/04: Liebe süß-sauer: Die Verlobte aus Shanghai [TV]. 2004/05: NVA [act,pro]. 2005: Kabale und Liebe [TV – act,pro – DE/AT]. 2005/06: Knallhart [dir,pro]. 2006: Vom Ende der Eiszeit [TV]. 2006/07: Hände weg von Mississippi [dir,act,pro]; Midsummer Madness / Janu nakts [GB/AT/LT]. 2007/08: Die Gustloff [TV]; Der Mond und andere Liebhaber [TV]; Robert Zimmermann wundert sich über die Liebe [act, pro]; Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar. 2007-09: Contact High [act,pro – AT/DE]. 2008/09: Zwölf Meter ohne Kopf; Der Kriminalist: Zwischen den Welten [TV].
HEINER CAROW Born September 19, 1929, Rostock (Germany) Died January 31, 1997, Berlin-Buch (Germany) One of East Germany’s foremost directors, Carow’s films often foregrounded close personal relationships in their addressing of broader social concerns. After attending film directing classes at DEFA’s talent school in East Berlin in 1950, Carow was taken on as a director at DEFA, where he debuted with a documentary short about pig-fattening, titled BAUERN ERFÜLLEN DEN PLAN (Farmers Meet the Plan, 1952). Further shorts followed, mostly in collaboration with cameraman Helmut Bergmann, until Carow joined DEFA’s feature film studio in 1956. Drawing on the realist style of Gerhard Klein’s ‘Berlin films’, he made SHERIFF TEDDY (1956/57), based on Benno Pludra’s popular children’s book. Carow then collaborated with scriptwriters Wera and Claus Küchenmeister on SIE NANNTEN IHN AMIGO (They Called Him Amigo, 1958), which successfully blended youth-oriented film thrills with anti-fascist subject matter. Two further features based on works by Benno Plundra followed – JEDER HAT SEINE GESCHICHTE (Everybody Has a Story, 1965), for East German television, and DIE REISE NACH SUNDEVIT (The Trip to Sundevit, 1965/66). Carow’s DIE RUSSEN KOMMEN (The Russians Are Coming, 1968) was banned outright – ostensibly due to its provocative title following the Soviet invasion of Prague, but also due to its complex portrayal of German sentiments during the collapse of fascism. Parts of the film together with newly shot, ‘politically correct’ scenes appeared in KARRIERE (1970). Only in 1987 was an original version restored and released in cinemas. The director’s subsequent project, ‘Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.’ (The New Sufferings of Young W.), which he developed with writer Ulrich Plenzdorf, was turned down by DEFA and became a successful book and play only years later. Plenzdorf did, however, furnish the treatment for the highly popular DIE LEGENDE VON PAUL AND PAULA (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1972), about a supermarket assistant (Angelica Domröse) whose desires come into conflict with prescribed social values. BIS DASS DER TOD EUCH SCHEIDET (Until Death Does You Part, 1977/78) also proved a major box office success, with its graphic depiction of a battered
young wife’s responding to her husband’s brutality by attempting to kill him. Carow broke one of East Germany’s major taboos with his gay love story COMING OUT (1988/89). However, his post-reunification assessment of the GDR’s political system in VERFEHLUNG (Off Target, 1990/91) was widely regarded as a work unworthy of a director of his standing. He rather resignedly turned to directing television series such as KANZLEI BÜRGER (1995) and the disaster film FÄHRE IN DEN TOD (Ferry to Death, 1995/96). Carow was vice-president of the State Academy of Arts from 1982 until 1991. He was also briefly in charge of the Film and Media department at the West Berlin Academy of Arts in 1996. Carow’s wife Evelyn Carow, whom he married in 1954, was an accomplished editor at DEFA, and worked in that capacity on most of his major films. [dir,scr – DD] 1952: Bauern erfüllen den Plan [SD]. 1952/ 53: Winterurlaub mit dem FDGB [SD]. 1953: Flugmodellbau [SD – dir,co-scr]; Startarten für Segelflugmodelle [SD – dir]; Ein Schritt weiter [SD]; Dorf im Herbst [SD – dir]. 1954: Die Wette gilt [SD]; Forschung und Schaffen.1. Der Strukturbohrer / 2. 280 am Tag / 3. Der Musikpädagoge [SD – co-dir,co-scr]. 1954/55: Leipziger Messe 1954 [SD – codir]; Stadt an der Küste [SD – scr]. 1955: Martins Tagebuch [SD]. 1956/57: Sheriff Teddy [dir,co-scr]. 1958: Sie nannten ihn Amigo [dir,co-scr]. 1959: Das Leben beginnt [dir]. 1961: Mongolia [DO – DD/MN]. 1962: Diagnose [SF – scr]. 1963: Die Hochzeit von Länneken [dir,co-scr]. 1964: Das Märchen von Jens und dem Kasper [SF – sma]. 1965: Jeder hat seine Geschichte [TV – dir]. 1965/66: Die Reise nach Sundevit [dir,co-scr]. 1968/87: Die Russen kommen [dir, co-scr]. 1968-70: Karriere [dir, co-scr]. 1972: Die Legende von Paul und Paula [dir,co-scr]. 1974/75: Ikarus [dir,coscr]. 1975: Jestem Baba – ich bin ein Weib [SF – scr]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [act]; Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet [dir, co-scr]. 1980: Pugowitza [co-scr]. 1985/86: So viele Träume [dir,co-scr]. 1988/89: Coming out [dir]. [dir – DE] 1990: Tapferkeit [TV]. 1990/91: Verfehlung. 1991: Nachtausgabe: Verbotene Filme der DDR [TVD – app]; Hotel Deutschland [DO – app]; Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [TVD – app]; Begräbnis einer Gräfin [TV – DE]. 1991/92: Ich bin meine eigene Frau [DO – app]. 1992/93: Vater Mutter Mörderkind [TV]. 1993: Zwischentöne: Heiner Carow über Angelica Domröse [TVD – app]; Großstadtrevier [3 episodes – TVS]. 1994: Träume und Legenden – Der Regisseur Heiner Carow [TVD – app].
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1994/95: Praxis Bülowbogen. [3 episodes – TVS]. 1995: Kanzlei Bürger [13 episodes – TVS]. 1995/96: Fähre in den Tod [TV]; Die Drei: Hoffmeyers Millionen [TV]. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]. 1996/97: Die Drei: Das Leben der Cora Herrlich [TV]. 1998: A. S. (Steins Fälle): Mord ist kein Zufall [3 episodes – TV].
MATHIEU CARRIÈRE Born August 2, 1950, Hanover (West Germany) A European film and television regular, Carrière initially brought boyish looks, sexual ambivalence, and brooding intensity to his screen appearances in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, before moving into roles as refined authority figures. Carrière gained his Abitur in Lübeck. While still at school, he played the lead role in Rolf Thiele’s Thomas Mann adaptation TONIO KRÖGER (1964) as well as the eponymous, highly sensitive boarding school student in Volker Schlöndorff’s debut DER JUNGE TÖRLESS (Young Toerless, 1965/66). Carrière settled in Paris in 1969, where he began appearing in French films and international co-productions, while also studying philosophy at the Sorbonne and in Vincennes until 1978. Specialising in edgy, not infrequently emotionally damaged characters, he picked up the Karlovy Vary actor’s award for his performance in Jacques Doniol-Valcroze’s LA MAISON DES BORIES (The House of the Bories, 1970). He went on to a string of theatrical coups beginning with his 1974 appearances at the Alcazar de Paris, reciting ‘Hamlet’ and speeches by Goebbels while dressed in drag. From 1975, he also worked at the Théâtre National de Paris, toured with Hanna Schygulla, and headlined at the Salzburg Festival. Carrière’s film work spans a wide variety of genres, from Harry Kumel’s surreal horror film MALPERTUIS (1971/72) to Marguerite Dumas’s avant-garde INDIA SONG (1975) and LE NAVIRE NIGHT (Night Ship, 1978), and Eric Rohmer’s art house success LA FEMME DE L’AVIATEUR (The Aviator’s Wife, 1980/81). His German credits include Volker Schlöndorff’s DER FANGSCHUSS (Coup de grâce, 1976), Robert Van Ackeren’s DIE FLAMBIERTE FRAU (A Woman in Flames, 1982/83) and the lead in Werner Schroeter’s MALINA (1990). Carrière furthermore wrote the script to LE NEVEU DE BEETHOVEN (Beethoven’s Nephew, 1984/85) together with director Paul Morrissey, and gained his first solo directing credit on ZUGZWANG (Fool’s Mate, 1988/89). Frequently on television from 1973, Carrière’s most prominent assignment was Herbert Ballmann’s series EIN MANN WILL NACH OBEN (A Man Wants to Get to the Top, 1978), adapted from the novel by Hans Fallada. He also appeared in occasional episodes of pop-
ular series such as DERRICK and DER ALTE (The Old Fox). Since the 1990s, Carrière’s more mature, grey-haired bon viveur appearance served his roles such as the king in Lamberto Bava’s two-part Italian-German television co-production LA PRINCIPESSA E IL POVERO (The Princess and the Pauper, 1997), Cardinal Jakob Cajetan in Eric Till’s LUTHER (2002/03), and the Duke of Orléans in Jean-Paul Salome’s ARSÈNE LUPIN (2004). Carrière published a monograph on Heinrich von Kleist in 1981, titled ‘Für eine Literatur des Krieges, Kleist’. His sister Mareike Carrière (b. 1954) is a successful film, stage, and television actress. [act – DE] 1964: Tonio Kröger. 1965/66: Der junge Törless / Les désarrois de l’élève Toerless [DE/FR]. 1967: L’amore breve [TV – IT]; The Gates to Paradise / Vrata raja [GB/YU]. 1970: Thomas Chatterton [TV]; Le petit matin [FR]; La maison des Bories [FR]; Rendez-vous à Bray [BE/FR]. 1971/72: L’Homme au cerveau greffé / L’uomo dal cervello trapiantato [FR/IT]; Malpertuis: Histoire d’une maison maudite / Malpertuis – Geisterschloß des Todes [FR/BE/DE]. 1972: Der gute Gott von Manhattan [TV]; Barbablù / Barbe Bleu / Blaubart [IT/FR/DE]. 1972/73: Don Juan ou Et si Don Juan était une femme / Una donna come me [FR/IT]; Il n’y a pas de fumée sans feu / Non c’é fuomo senza fuoco [FR/IT]. 1973: Der Kommissar: Sonderbare Vorfälle im Hause von Professor S. [TV]; Giordano Bruno [IT/FR]. 1973/74: Tod in Astapowo [TV]; Feinde fürs Leben [TV]. 1974: La jeune fille assassinée / Ein wildes Leben / Una vita bruciata [FR/ DE/IT]; Tausend Francs Belohnung [TV]. 1974/75: Parapsycho – Spektrum der Angst [DE/AT]. 1974/75: Nouvelles de Henry James: Un jeune homme rebelle / Der junge Rebell [TV – FR/ DE]. 1975: Isabelle devant le desir [BE]; India Song [FR]; Met Dieric Bouts [DO – BE]. 1975/76: Zerschossene Träume / L’Appât [AT/DE/FR]; Die Hinrichtung / … E la notte si tinse di sangue / Né pour l’enfer / Born for Hell [DE/IT/FR/ CA]; Police Python 357 [FR/DE]. 1976: Derrick: Das Bordfest [TV]; Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce [DE/FR]; Blondy / Germicide [FR/DE]. 1976/77: Bilitis [FR]; Le portrait de Dorian Gray [FR]. 1977: Könige sterben einsam / Le jeune homme et le lion [TV – DE/FR]; Les indiens sont encore loin [CH/FR]. 1978: Ein Mann will nach oben [13 episodes – TVS]; Der zoologische Palast [TV – co-dir]; Derrick: Der L-Faktor [TV]; Le navire Night [FR]. 1978/79: L’Associé / Mein Partner Davis [FR/DE/HU]; Wege in der Nacht [TV]. 1979: Pareil pas pareil [FR/IL]; Vrouw tussen hond en wolf / Femme entre chien et loup [BE/FR]. 1979/80: Egon Schiele – Exzesse / Egon Schiele, enfer et passion [DE/AT/FR]. 1980: Justocoeur [FR]; La Pitié dangereuse / Ungeduld des Herzens [TV – FR/AT]. 1980/81: La femme de l’aviateur [FR]; Derrick: Eine ganz alte Geschichte [TV]; Anima – Symphonie Fantastique [TV – DE/AT]; Die Laurents [TVS]. 1981: La guerre des insectes [TV – FR]; Dantons Tod [TV – AT]; Histoires extraordinaires: La chute de la maison Usher [TV – FR]; Die Versuchung [TV]. 1981/82: La passante du SansSouci / Die Spaziergängerin von Sans-Souci [FR/DE]. 1982: Conrad Kilian, le fou du désert [TV – FR]. 1982/83: Die
MADY CHRISTIANS flambierte Frau; Benvenuta [BE/IT/FR]. 1983: L’Ange foudroyé [TV – FR]; Der Alte: Der Tote im Wagen [TV]; Der Alte: Perfektes Geständnis [TV]. 1983/84: Zu Freiwild verdammt / Wedle wyroków twoich [DE/PL]; Le dernier civil / Der letzte Zivilist [TV – FR/DE]. 1984: Angelan Sota / Angelas Krieg [FI/DE]; The Bay Boy / Un printemps sous la neige [CA/FR];Matt in 13 Zügen [TVS]; Flügel und Fesseln / L’Avenir d’Émilie [voi – DE/FR]. 1984/85: Yerma [HU/DE/CA]; L’Amour en douce [FR]; Marie Ward – Zwischen Galgen und Glorie; Le neveu de Beethoven / Beethoven [co-scr, act – FR/DE]. 1985: Bras de fer [FR]. 1985/86: Spenser: For Hire: When Silence Speaks [TV – US]. 1986: Le soldat Richter / Soldat Richter [TV – FR/DE]. 1986/87: Terminus [voi – FR/DE]; Johann Strauß – Der ungekrönte König / Johann Strauß – Le roi sans couronne [AT/DD/DE/FR]; Les aventuriers du Nouveau-Monde / Abenteuer einer Lady [6 episodes – TVS – GB/FR/CA/DE]. 1987: Série noire: Mort aux ténors [TV – FR]; Erloschene Zeiten [TV]; Derrick: Mordträume [TV]; El placer de matar [ES]. 1987/88: Sanguines [FR]; Cérémonie d’amour [FR]. 1988: L’Oeuvre au noir [FR/BE]; Europa und der zweite Apfel [TV – DE/IT]; Rosamunde; I promessi sposi [TV – IT]. 1988/89: Francesco / Franziskus [IT/DE]; Zugzwang [dir,scr,act]; Una ombra en el jardí [ES]. 1989: Une fille d’Ève [TV – FR]; Quantum Leap: Honeymoon Express – April 26, 1960 [TV – US]; Rock Hudson [TV – US]. 1990: Magyar rekviem [HU]; Aschenglut [TV – AT]; Malina [DE/AT]; Erfolg [TV]. 1990/91: Il corragio di Anna [TVS – IT]. 1991: La nuit de Valognes [TV – FR]; Cómo levantar 1000 kilos [ES]; Shining Through [US]. 1991/92: Manila [ES]; Christopher Columbus: The Discovery / Cristóbal Colón: el descubrimiento [GB/US/ES]. 1992: Die Zeit danach [AT]; Un placer indescriptible [ES]. 1992/93: Böses Blut [TV]. 1992-94: Schloß Hohenstein. Irrwege des Glücks [2 seasons – TVS]. 1992/93: Freunde fürs Leben: 20. Eifersucht / 21. April, April [TVS]. 1993: Eurocops: Flamingo [TV]; Von Frau zu Frau – Die Sammlerin [TV – DE/AT]; Cognacq-Jay [TV – FR]; Die Kommissarin: Schatten der Vergangenheit [TV]. 1993/94: Dieu, que les femmes sont amoureuses … [FR]; Nur eine kleine Affäre [TV]. 1994: Charlotte et Léa [TV – FR]; Herz aus Stein. 1994/95: Il grande fuoco / Flammen der Liebe [TV – IT/DE]; L’Amour conjugal [FR]; Faust: Mordpoker [TV]. 1995: Zwischen Tag und Nacht [TVS]; Eine tödliche Liebe [TV – AT]; Alte Freunde küßt man nicht [TV]. 1995/96: Schuldig auf Verdacht [TV]; Ein flotter Dreier [TV]; Das Mädchen Rosemarie [TV]. 1996: Tatort: Bei Auftritt Mord [TV]; Il Ritorno di Sandokan / Die Rückkehr des Sandokan [TV – IT/DE]; Doppelter Einsatz: Wunder auf Bestellung [TV]; L’avvocato delle donne I. / Für Liebe und Gerechtigkeit. 1. Verbrechen im OP [TV – IT/DE]; Inseln unter dem Wind [TV]. 1997: Il deserto del fuoco / Prinzessin Amina – Das Geheimnis einer Liebe / Le Désert de feu [TV – IT/DE/FR]; Orphée aux enfers [TV – BE]; Die falsche Prinzessin / La principessa e il povero [TV – DE/IT]; Wie eine Spinne im Netz [TV]. 1997/98: Rideau de feu [TV – FR]; Tatort: Manila [TV]. 1998: L’elefante bianco / L’Éléfant blanc / Der weiße Elefant [TV – IT/FR/DE]; El Far [ES]; La poursuite du vent [TVS – FR]; Preis der Unschuld [TV]; Wer liebt, dem wachsen Flügel … [DE/AT]; Männer aus zweiter Hand [TV]; Der Alte: Die Wahrheit ist der Tod [TV]. 1999: Tre addii [TV – IT]; Ich wünsch dir
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Liebe [TV]. 1999/2000: Küstenwache: Das letzte Ufer. [TV]. 2000: Kommissar Rex: Der Vollmondmörder [TV – AT]; L’Impero [TV – IT]; Ternitz, Tennessee [AT]. 2000/ 01: Gli amici di Gesù – Giuda [TV – IT]. 2001: Gli amici di Gesù – Tommaso [TV – IT]; Regarde-moi [BE]; Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale [TV – US]; Davon stirbt man nicht [TV]. 2001/02: Utta Danella – Die Hochzeit auf dem Lande [TV]. 2002: Ein Fall für zwei: Erics Tod [TV]; Joy-Rider [LU/IT/GB]; High Speed [US]. 2002/03: Luther. 2003: Das unbezähmbare Herz [TV]. 2004: Tears of Kali; Der Ermittler: Schönheitsfehler [TV]; Arsène Lupin / Arsenio Lupin [FR/IT]; Das geheime Leben der Spielerfrauen [TVS]. 2004/05: Pfarrer Braun: Adel vernichtet [TV]; Die Rosenheim-Cops: Mord im Paradies [TV]; Masz na imiê Justine / Your Name Is Justine [PL/LU]. 2005: Unter uns [TVS – 2 episodes]; Jennifer Nitsch – Tod einer Schauspielerin [TV]; Der Bulle von Tölz: Liebesleid [TV]; La Signora delle camelie [TV – IT]. 2006: Commissaire Moulin: La dernière affaire [TV – FR]. 2006/07: Die ProSieben Märchenstunde: Aschenputtel – Für eine Handvoll Tauben [TV]; Du bist nicht allein. 2007: Les cerfs-volants [TV – FR/BE]; Les murs porteurs [FR]. 2007/08: The Fakir of Venice [IN]. 2008: Hallo Robbie!: Robbie und der Pelikan [TV]; Anna und die Liebe [TVS – 4 episodes ].
MADY CHRISTIANS (Marguerita Maria Christians) Born January 19, 1900, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died October 28, 1951, South Norwalk (Connecticut, USA) Equally adept at light-hearted musical comedy and serious drama, Christians was one of the most subtle actresses of Weimar cinema, and the muse of director Ludwig Berger. In American exile, she was fêted on Broadway, but Hollywood relegated her to supporting parts. Christians grew up in Berlin and New York (1912–17), where she made her first stage appearances at the German-speaking Irving Place Theatre, managed by her actor-father. Also in New York, she had her film debut in Robert Vignola’s melodrama AUDREY (1916). Back in Berlin in 1917, Max Reinhardt engaged her for small stage parts, while she also appeared in six films for Friedrich Zelnik’s company Film-Manufaktur, starting with DIE KRONE VON KERKYRA (The Crown of Kerkyra). Christians gained wider recognition on screen in Georg Jacoby’s six-part adventure serial DER MANN OHNE NAMEN (The Man Without a Name, 1920/21), before beginning a long-term professional association with director Ludwig Berger. Their first collaborations included EIN GLAS WASSER (A Glass of Water, 1922/23), based on a stage comedy by Eugène Scribe, and the fairy-tale film DER VERLORENE SCHUH (The Lost Slipper, 1923), based on ‘Cinderella’, in which Christians impressed less with her acting ability, but her natural screen presence. A major box-office hit and a critical success for
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Christians personally was her next film with Berger, EIN WALZERTRAUM (A Waltz Dream, 1925), based on the operetta by Oscar Straus. In the two-part historical drama KÖNIGIN LUISE (Queen Luise, 1927/28), directed by Karl Grune, Christians lent maturity and depth to her portrayal of the duty-bound Prussian queen. From the mid1920s, Christians’s career branched out into international appearances, such as the French adventure film DUEL (Duel in the Air, 1927), set and partly shot in the North African desert, and the Anglo-German co-production THE RUNAWAY PRINCESS / PRISCILLAS FAHRT IN GLÜCK (1928), directed by Anthony Asquith. After the coming of sound, Christians appeared in several film operettas such as FRIEDERIKE (1932) and ICH UND DIE KAISERIN (The Only Girl, 1932/ 33) as well as SALON DORA GREEN (1932/33), a crime thriller directed by Henrik Galeen. After emigrating to the United States in 1933, Christians became a dependable supporting actress in films by directors including Max Ophüls, in whose LETTER FROM A UNKNOWN WOMAN (1947/48), she played the heroine’s mother. Christians found greater recognition on the American stage, where she played leading roles, most memorably in the Broadway production of Lillian Hellman’s ‘I Remember Mama’ (1944). Christians began teaching acting at Columbia University in 1945. A victim of the McCarthy witch hunts, Christians’s left-wing sympathies led to her being blacklisted in 1950, shortly before her death from a cerebral haemorrhage. [act – DE] 1916: Audrey [US]. 1917: Die fremde Frau; Die Krone von Kerkyra; Das verlorene Paradies; Das Edelfräulein; Frau Marias Erlebnis. 1917/18: Die Dreizehn. 1918: Am Scheidewege; Die Verteidigerin; Am anderen Ufer; Nachtschatten; Eine junge Dame von Welt. 1919: Die Sühne der Martha Marx; Fidelio; Die Peruanerin; Der goldene Klub; Not und Verbrechen; Wer unter Euch ohne Sünde ist …; Die Gesunkenen; Die Nacht des Grauens. 1919/20: Der indische Tod. 1920/21: Der Mann ohne Namen [serial, 6 episodes]. 1921: Der Schicksalstag; Das Weib des Pharao. 1921/22: Kinder der Zeit. 1922: Es leuchtet meine Liebe. 1922/23: Ein Glas Wasser. 1923: Der Wetterwart; Buddenbrooks; Der verlorene Schuh; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. 1924: Mensch gegen Mensch; Soll und Haben. 1924/25: Der Farmer aus Texas. 1925: Die Verrufenen. Der fünfte Stand; Die vom Niederrhein [2 parts]; Der Abenteurer; Ein Walzertraum. 1925/26: Nanette macht alles. 1926: Die Welt will belogen sein; Wien, wie es weint und lacht; Zopf und Schwert; Die geschiedene Frau; Die Königin vom Moulin Rouge [AT]. 1926/27: Der Sohn der Hagar. 1927: Grand Hotel …!; Heimweh. Das Schicksal der Vertriebenen; Duel [FR]. 1927/28: Königin Luise [2 parts]. 1928: Fräulein Chauffeur; Eine Frau von Format; The Runaway Princess / Priscillas Fahrt ins Glück [GB/DE]. 1928/29: Das brennende Herz. 1929: Rund um die Liebe
[DO]; Und Nelson spielt … Eine Tonfilm-Schlager-Revue [SF]; Mady Christians: Englisches Chanson [SF]; Meine Schwester und ich; Dich hab’ ich geliebt. 1930: Leutnant warst du einst bei den Husaren; Mon coeur incognito [MLV – DE/FR]; Das Schicksal der Renate Langen. 1931: Die Frau, von der man spricht. 1932: Der schwarze Husar; Friederike. 1932/33: Salon Dora Green; Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]; Manolescu, der Fürst der Diebe; The Only Girl [MLV]. [act – US] 1934: A Wicked Woman. 1935: Escapade; Ship Cafe. 1936: Come and Get It. 1936/37: The Woman I Love [MLV]. 1937: Seventh Heaven; Heidi. 1943: Tender Comrade. 1943/44: Address Unknown. 1947/48: Letter from an Unknown Woman. 1948: All My Sons. 1949: The Philco Television Playhouse: Papa Is All [TV].
ERNST HUGO CORRELL Born June 9, 1882, Neubreisach (Alsace, Germany, now Neuf-Brisach, Alsace, France) Died September 3, 1942, Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) Although his name was generally little-known to the public, producer Correll was highly regarded within the German film industry and, during his time as production head at Ufa, helped to ensure the studio’s successful transition to sound. Correll qualified as a second lieutenant in the army prior to becoming an assistant at the Ministry of Justice and Culture in Alsace-Lorraine. He subsequently served as a junior prosecution attorney, before rejoining the military upon the start of World War I and twice being awarded the Iron Cross for bravery on the western front. Entering the film industry immediately after the war, he founded production company Albertini-Film together with Italian actor Luciano Albertini in 1919. Correll was sole owner, while Albertini starred in the company’s films. Correll also held a substantial stake in Capitol-Film GmbH, which subsequently merged with PhoebusFilm AG. Under Correll’s management, Phoebus-Film developed into a major industry player, making higher-budget pictures and owning its own chain of cinemas which included some of Germany’s most prestigious first-run houses, such as Berlin’s Marmorhaus and Munich’s Phoebus-Palast. Correll undertook numerous fact-finding trips abroad during these years, including to the United States, and served as first chairman of the newly-founded Association of Film Producers from 1924, as well as being on the committee of the German Legal Academy as a specialist in issues of film copyright. Correll was enticed to Universum-Film AG (Ufa) as production head in February 1928. Undergoing major restructuring since its takeover by Alfred Hugenberg’s consortium, Correll was credited not only with helping bring the studio back on track with his ‘no
AXEL CORTI
nonsense’ approach to budgets, schedules and advances, but also with carrying Ufa seamlessly into the sound era with commercial and critical coups such as DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30), DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930), DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931) and F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer, 1932), all produced as multi-lingual versions for the international market by Erich Pommer, who had been called back from Hollywood by the new management. An old-school flag-waver, it was Correll who advocated the production of one patriotic film per year as well, leading to director Gustav Ucicky’s hugely successful YORCK (1931) and MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/33). Seemingly an ideal candidate to continue steering Ufa under the Nazis, Correll retained all his professional posts after 1933, as well as being invited to deliver papers at the Reichfilmkammer’s 1937 and 1938 conferences. However, propaganda minister Goebbels distrusted Correll, viewing him as a loose canon who was fundamentally incapable of adapting to the needs of National Socialist filmmaking, and in February 1939 he was forced to tender his resignation. As compensation, he was to be contracted to produce six films for a sizeable fee and a share of the profit; Ufa almost immediately reneged on the deal. In increasingly bad health since the early 1930s, Correll succumbed to a coronary embolism in 1942. His heirs sought to gain restitution from Ufa for the cancelled six-film deal in 1954, without success.
AXEL CORTI Born May 7, 1933, Paris (France) Died December 29, 1993, Oberndorf (Austria) An Austrian director, primarily of literary adaptations for television, Corti had occasional though often less successful forays into cinema. Following a nomadic wartime childhood in France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Germany, and Austria, Corti read German and Romance studies at Innsbruck University. From the 1950s he divided his time equally between prolific careers as a writer and director for radio (where he became an Austrian institution as a passionate champion for experimental art and literature), theatre (in the late 1960s he worked as an assistant to Peter Brook), television, and cinema. In the latter two media Corti established himself as an expert for faithful literary adaptations, such as his TV version of Frank Wedekind’s DER MARQUIS VON KEITH (1961/62), or EINE BLASSBLAUE FRAUENSCHRIFT (A Woman’s Pale Blue Handwriting, 1984), based on Franz Werfel. In his cinema debut, Fritz
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von Herzmanovsky-Orlando’s KAISER JOSEPH UND DIE BAHNWÄRTERSTOCHTER (Emperor Joseph and the Gateman’s Daughter, 1961/62), legendary Austrian comedian Hans Moser had his final film appearance. By the 1970s, Corti worked primarily in television, where his work included routine assignments, such as episodes of the crime series TATORT (Crime Scene), as well as the highly acclaimed trilogy WOHIN UND ZURÜCK (Where To and Back), comprising of AN UNS GLAUBT GOTT NICHT MEHR (God Doesn’t Believe in Us Anymore, 1981/82), SANTA FÉ, and WELCOME IN VIENNA (both 1985). The trilogy told the story of an Austrian’s exile in America, and his eventual return after World War II as an expansive panorama of mid-20th century history. Critics were less enthusiastic about Corti’s venture into costume melodrama, the ‘Europudding’ THE KING’S WHORE / LA PUTAIN DU ROI (1990), starring a miscast Timothy Dalton as a lovesick 17th century monarch. Corti’s swan song was the epic Joseph Roth TV adaptation RADETZKYMARSCH (The Radetzky March, 1993/94), a three-part family saga set against the backdrop of the gradually disintegrating Austro-Hungarian Empire of the late 19th and early 20th century, with an international cast headed by Max von Sydow and Charlotte Rampling, and which was completed by cameraman Gernot Roll after Corti’s death. [dir – TV – AT] 1959: Bilderbuch Gottes [DO – voi]. 1961/ 62: Der Marquis von Keith [TV – DE]; Kaiser Joseph und die Bahnwärterstochter [dir,act]. 1963/64: Wie ein Dieb in der Nacht [TV – dir,co-scr – DE]. 1965: Miriam [dir,scr]. 1968: Gogoscope. 1969: Die Katze auf dem Gleis. 1971: Der Fall Jägerstätter. 1972: Einer geht in den Wald und kommt dabei unter die Leute [voi]; Don Pasquale [TV – DE]. 1973: Ein junger Mann aus dem Innviertel. 1974: Der Sohn eines Landarbeiters wird Bauarbeiter und baut sich ein Haus. 1974/75: Totstellen [TV – AT/DE]; Man lernt nie aus [TVS – DE]. 1975: Jakob, der Letzte; Zar und Zimmermann [TV – DE]; Tatort: Wohnheim Westendstraße [TV – DE]. 1976: Der junge Freud [TV – DE]; Drei Wege zum See [TV – voi – DE]; Der Bauer und der Millionär. 1978: Die beiden Freundinnen [TV – DE]. 1980: Das eine Glück und das andere; Tatort: Herzjagd [TV – DE]; Wie der Mond über Feuer und Blut. 1981/82: Wohin und zurück: An uns glaubt Gott nicht mehr. Ferry oder Wie es war. 1983: Herrenjahre [dir, co-scr]. 1983/84: Donauwalzer [TV – act – AT/DE]. 1984: Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift [dir,co-scr,act]. 1985: Wohin und zurück: Santa Fé; Wohin und zurück: Welcome in Vienna [TV – AT/DE]. 1987: Sonntagsgespräch: Axel Corti [TVD – app – DE]. 1990: La putain du roi / La donna del re / The King’s Whore [dir,co-scr – FR/IT/GB]. 1993/94: Radetzkymarsch / La Marche de Radetzky [TV – AT/FR/DE/IT]. 2003: Warst Du Axel Corti? [TVD].
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CURT COURANT
CURT COURANT (Kurt Kurant) Born May 11, 1899, Berlin (Germany) Died April 20, 1968, Los Angeles (California, USA) A prolific cinematographer of Weimar and French impressionist cinema, as well as British films of the 1930s, Courant approached his work as a technical innovator and as an accurate observer of social and aesthetic detail. Trained as a photographer, Courant began his film career in 1917 as a camera assistant for Joe May’s production company. In 1920/21 Courant was director for the only time in his career for the feature film KAMERADEN (Comrades). From the early 1920s, Courant freelanced for various companies, and shot films such as DAS MÄDCHEN AUS DER ACKERSTRASSE (The Girl from Ackerstrasse, 1919/20), an atmospheric social study directed by Reinhold Schünzel. An eye for social detail became Courant’s speciality in films such as the Jewish-themed FAMILIENTAG IM HAUSE PRELLSTEIN (Family Convention At Prellsteins, 1927). Courant showed himself equally adept at photographing stars, such as Asta Nielsen in the title role of HAMLET (1920). In 1924 Courant travelled to Rome to photograph the spectacular historical epic QUO VADIS? The film impressed not only with its starry cast, its army of extras and its circus animals, but also with its early experimentation with wide-screen formats, for which Courant received the Grand Prix de Cinéma International. In 1927 Courant signed a contract with Ufa, and subsequently photographed big-budget exotic spectacles such as GEHEIMNISSE DES ORIENTS (Secrets of the Orient, 1927/28) and DER WEISSE TEUFEL (The White Devil, 1929), as well as melodramas, including Kurt Bernhardt’s DIE FRAU, NACH DER MAN SICH SEHNT (The Woman They Yearn For, 1929), starring Marlene Dietrich. Alongside Otto Kanturek, Courant also contributed to Fritz Lang’s science fiction adventure FRAU IM MOND (Woman in the Moon, 1928/29). Having worked in various countries on European co-productions since the late 1920s, the Jewish Courant left Germany permanently in 1933. In Britain, he worked for Alfred Hitchcock on the thriller THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934), for Berthold Viertel on THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK (1935), an intriguing combination of documentary realism and spiritual allegory, and on John Brahm’s remake of D. W. Griffith’s BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1936). In France, Courant photographed some of the most significant French films of the decade, and collaborated with directors including Jean Renoir (LA BÊTE HUMAINE, The Human Beast, 1938), Marcel Carné
(LE JOUR SE LÈVE, Daybreak, 1939) and Max Ophüls (DE MAYERLING À SARAJÉVO, From Mayerling to Sarajevo, 1939/40). Following the fall of France, Courant fled to the United States. During World War II, he worked for Frank Capra in the Special Service Division, yet he failed to become a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), barring him from studio work in Hollywood. Denied official recognition he nevertheless contributed occasionally to films, including Charles Chaplin’s MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1946/47). In the absence of any continuous film work, Courant started teaching film at UCLA, where he supervised in 1954 the highly acclaimed student film A TIME OUT OF WAR. [cam – DE] 1917: Hilde Warren und der Tod; Krähen fliegen um den Turm; Der Onyxknopf; Der schwarze Chauffeur; Das Klima von Vancourt; Die Kaukasierin; Ein Lichtstrahl im Dunkel; Sein bester Freund. 1917/18: Der lebendige Tote. 1918: Wogen des Schicksals; Opfer; Das Haus gegenüber. 1918/19: Staatsanwalt Jordan; Zwischen zwei Welten. 1919: Stürme – Ein Mädchenschicksal; Der zündende Blitz; Die liebestolle Detektei; Die verwunschene Prinzessin; Die goldene Lüge; Irrlicht; Die Bodega von Los Cuerros; Schloß Einöd; Schwarze Perlen; Das Gebot der Liebe; Eines Mannes Wort; Das Herz des Casanova; Artistentreue; Die Fee von Saint Ménard; Die Braut des Entmündigten; Das Hohelied der Liebe; Nur ein Diener; Das törichte Herz; Der letzte Sonnensohn; Der Weltmeister; Der verrutschte Poseidon; Allerseelen; Verbotene Liebe; Die fremde Frau; Der Mitternachtsassessor; Der Mann seiner Tochter; Zwischen Lachen und Weinen; Im Wirbel des Lebens. 1919/20: Zwangseinquartierung; Weiße Rosen; Bobbys Pumpstation [SF – ?]; Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße. 1920: Die Warenhausmieze; Welt ohne Krieg; Der Erbe von Carlington; Der Feuerreiter; Alfred von Ingelheims Lebensdrama; Der König von Paris [2 parts]; Hamlet; Präsident Barrada; Ein Tag auf dem Mars. 1920/21: Kameraden [dir]. 1921: Die Gassenkönigin; Die Fremde aus der Elstergasse; Das Blut; Der Silberkönig: 1. Der 13. März / 2. Der Mann der Tat / 3. Claim 36 / 4. Rochesterstreet; Der Abenteurer; Das Mädel von Piccadilly [2 parts]. 1921/22: Das Geheimnis von Schloß Ronay. 1922: Peter der Große [co-cam]; Der Pantoffelheld [AT/DE]. 1923: Das Paradies im Schnee [co-cam – DE/CH]. 1923/24: Quo vadis? [cocam – IT]. 1924: Komödianten des Lebens; Zwei Kinder. 1924/25: Ich liebe Dich! 1925: Liebesfeuer; Die Insel der Träume. 1925/26: Die Fahrt ins Abenteuer. 1926: Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen …!; Die Welt will belogen sein [cocam]; Die Kleine vom Varieté; Der fesche Erzherzog; Gräfin Plättmamsell; Die Flucht in die Nacht [co-cam]. 1926/ 27: Die Czardasfürstin. 1927: Familientag im Hause Prellstein; Der Kampf des Donald Westhof [co-cam]; Schuldig. 1927/28: Geheimnisse des Orients / Shéhérazade [co-cam – DE/FR]. 1928: Hurrah! Ich lebe! [co-cam]. 1928/ 29: Das brennende Herz; Frau im Mond [co-cam]. 1929: Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt [co-cam]; Der weiße
PAUL CZINNER Teufel. 1929/30: Der Raritätenladen [SD]. 1930: Der König von Paris [MLV – FR/DE]; Le roi de Paris [MLV – FR/DE]; Der Hampelmann [co-cam]; Die singende Stadt [MLV – co-cam – GB/DE]; City of Song [MLV – co-cam – GB]. 1930/ 31: Son altesse l’amour [MLV – FR/DE]; Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV]; L’Homme qui assassina [MLV]. 1931: Meine Cousine aus Warschau [MLV]; Ma cousine de Varsovie [MLV]; Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst? [MLV]; Le chanteur inconnu [FR]; Coeur de lilas [FR]. 1931/32: Rasputin. Der Dämon der Frauen. 1932: Gitta entdeckt ihr Herz; Un fils d’Amérique [co-cam – FR]; Die – oder keine; Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / Um einen Groschen Liebe [MLV – cocam – DE/AT]; Perfect Understanding [co-cam – GB]; Un peu d’amour [MLV – co-cam]. 1932/33: Ich will Dich Liebe lehren [MLV – co-cam]; L’Homme qui ne sait pas dire non [MLV – co-cam – DE/FR]. [cam – FR] 1933: Cette vieille canaille [MLV]; Ciboulette [co-cam]; Le voleur. 1933/34: Ces messieurs de la santé. 1934: Amok; The Iron Duke [GB]; The Man Who Knew Too Much [GB]. 1935: Me and Marlborough [GB]; The Passing of the Third Floor Back [GB]. 1936: She Knew What She Wanted [GB]; Broken Blossoms [GB]; Spy of Napoleon [GB]; Dusty Ermine [co-cam – GB]; The Man in the Mirror [GB]. 1937: Clothes and the Woman [GB]; Le puritain [cocam]; Le mensonge de Nina Petrovna [co-cam]. 1937/38: Tarakanova [MLV]; La principessa Tarakanova [MLV – cocam – IT]. 1938: Le drame de Shanghai; Lumières de Paris [co-cam]; La maison du Maltais [co-cam]; La bête humaine [co-cam]. 1938/39: Louise [co-cam]. 1939: Le jour se lève; Monsieur Brotonneau [co-cam]. 1939/40: De Mayerling à Sarajévo [co-cam]. 1945/46: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock [US]. 1946/47: Monsieur Verdoux [cocam – US]. 1954: A Time Out of War [SF – US]. 1962: It Happened in Athens [US].
PAUL CZINNER Born May 30, 1890, Budapest (Austria-Hungary, now Hungary) Died June 22, 1972, London (England) The long-time director and husband of actress Elisabeth Bergner, Czinner enjoyed a fifty-year stage and film career, working in Austria, Germany, Britain and the United States. An industrialist’s son, Czinner received a Ph.D. in literary theory and philosophy in Budapest before becoming a dramaturge at the city’s Deutsches Volkstheater. In 1914, he moved to Vienna, where he worked as a journalist and met Carl Mayer, with whom he would later regularly collaborate on film scripts. Czinner also wrote plays, including ‘Satans Maske’ (Satan’s Mask’, 1919), which was produced at Vienna’s Kammerspiele, and directed his first films, the expressionist-influenced HOMO IMMANIS and INFERNO (both 1919). In Berlin from 1924, Czinner directed a series of psychological films which starred Reinhardt-trained actress Elisabeth Bergner as young women thrown into
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emotional turmoil and inner conflict by the actions of caring, and generally older, men. These included Emil Jannings in NJU (Husbands or Lovers, 1924), Albert Steinrück in an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s novella FRÄULEIN ELSE (Miss Else, 1928/29), and Rudolf Forster in both ARIANE (The Loves of Ariane, 1930/31) and DER TRÄUMENDE MUND (Dreaming Lips, 1932). Czinner’s DOÑA JUANA (1927), scripted by Béla Balázs, and FRÄULEIN ELSE were produced by his own company, Poetic-Film GmbH. However, while critics consistently showered praise on Czinner’s leading lady, their assessments of his abilities proved rather more mixed, with both Herbert Ihering and Siegfried Kracauer appraising him as little more than a workmanlike supplier of backdrops against which Bergner could shine. Czinner and Bergner travelled to London in 1932 to shoot a British-German co-production for Alexander Korda. Following the Nazis’ rise to power in Spring 1933, the couple decided not to return and pursued their careers in England. They had already married on January 9, 1933, and became British citizens in 1938. After the beginning of World War II, the couple moved to Hollywood, but producers were uninterested in Bergner, while Czinner refused to work without her. The couple relocated to New York, where Czinner became a theatrical producer and was able to put Bergner on Broadway in productions including Martin Vale’s suspense thriller ‘The Two Mrs. Carrols’, which also went on tour 1943–45, and John Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ in a 1946 adaptation by W. H. Auden and Bertolt Brecht. Czinner returned to Austria in 1949, and then to London in 1950, where he founded a new company called Poetic Films, which produced ballet and opera films for the Rank Organisation. Czinner succeeded in capturing the energy and verve of some of Europe’s foremost live dance and music performances on film, including Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting DON GIOVANNI (1954/55) at the Salzburg Festival and productions by the Bolshoi and Royal Ballet Companies. Czinner received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award in 1967 for his outstanding contribution to German cinema. [dir – DE] 1919: Homo immanis. Der Unmensch [dir,scr – AT]; Inferno [dir,scr – AT]. 1922: Opfer der Leidenschaft. 1924: Nju. Eine unverstandene Frau [dir,scr,pro]. 1925: Eifersucht [scr]. 1925/26: Der Geiger von Florenz [dir,scr]. 1926: Liebe [dir,scr]. 1927: Doña Juana [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1928/29: Fräulein Else [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1929: The Woman He Scorned [dir,sma]. 1930/31: Ariane [MLV – dir,scr]. 1931: The Loves of Ariane [MLV – dir,scr,pro – FR]; Ariane, jeune fille russe [MLV – dir,scr – FR]. 1932: Der träumende Mund [MLV – dir,scr]; Mélo [MLV – dir,co-scr – FR/DE].
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[dir – GB] 1933/34: Catherine the Great. 1935: Escape Me Never. 1935/36: As You Like It [dir,pro]. 1936/37: Dreaming Lips [MLV – co-dir,pro]. 1938: Stolen Life [dir,pro]. 1941: Paris Calling [US]. 1952/53: Der träumende Mund [co-scr – DE]. 1954/55: Don Giovanni [co-dir,pro]. 1956: Kings and Queens [SD – dir,pro]; Salzburg Pilgrimage [SD].
1957: The Bolshoi Ballett: Spanish Dance. Spring Water. Polonaise and Cracovienne. Walpurgisnacht. The Dying Swan. Giselle [DO – dir,pro]. 1958/59: The Royal Ballet: Swan Lake / The Firebird / Ondine [DO – dir,pro]. 1960: Der Rosenkavalier [DO – dir,pro]. 1966: Romeo and Juliet [DO – dir,pro].
LIL DAGOVER (Maria Antonia Siegelinde Martha Lilitt Seubert; a.k.a Martha Daghofer) Born September 30, 1887, Pati (Java, Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia) Died January 23, 1980, Munich-Geiselgasteig (West Germany) Owing to her delicate appearance, regal manner and reserved performances, actress Dagover was referred to as the grande dame of German cinema for much of her seven-decade career. Dagover’s film debut was as a serpentine dancer in 1913. After World War I, still under the name Martha Daghofer, she secured a three-year contract with production company Decla, which established her as one of Weimar cinema’s foremost leading actresses. Director Robert Wiene selected her to play Jane in the classic DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919/20), and Dagover also worked with Fritz Lang on DIE SPINNEN: DER GOLDENE SEE (The Spiders, Part 1: The Golden Lake, 1919) and DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny / Between Two Worlds, 1921). Under F. W. Murnau’s direction, she appeared in PHANTOM (Phantom, 1922) and in his adaptation of Molière’s TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925). Dagover’s second husband from 1926, production manager Georg Witt, oversaw much of her career from the mid-1920s, which also included stage work. Her first sound film was Erich Waschneck’s crime comedy VA BANQUE (1930), after which she travelled to Hollywood to star in a single picture, Michael Curtiz’s THE WOMAN FROM MONTE CARLO (1931). One of Hitler’s favourite actresses, she remained in demand throughout the 1930s, with lead roles in films such as Heinz Hilpert’s Oscar Wilde adaptation LADY WINDERMERES FÄCHER (Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1935) and SCHLUSSAKKORD (The Final Chord, 1936), by director Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk). Dagover furthermore starred in Germany’s very first colour fiction film short, DAS SCHÖNHEITSFLECKCHEN (The Beauty Spot, 1936), and was involved with the Army Entertainment Corps throughout World War II. Much of Dagover’s post-war film career consisted of supporting roles and guest appearances. This included serious dramas dealing with the Nazi period and its aftermath, such as Rolf Meyer’s DIE SÖHNE
DES HERRN GASPARY (Mr. Gaspary’s Sons, 1948) and Rudolf Jugert’s ES KOMMT EIN TAG (A Day Will
Come, 1950), as well as comic turns as in Harald Braun’s KÖNIGLICHE HOHEIT (His Royal Highness, 1953), for which she received the German Film Award for best supporting actress. Dagover also played a memorably melodramatic villainess in the title role of the Edgar Wallace thriller DIE SELTSAME GRÄFIN (The Strange Countess, 1961). Continuing an active career in films, on stage, and from 1958 also in television, Dagover’s most significant later roles included a string of guest appearances in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s KARL MAY (1974), and in Maximilian Schell’s DER FUSSGÄNGER (The Pedestrian, 1972/73), DER RICHTER UND SEIN HENKER (Deception / End of the Game, 1975), and GESCHICHTEN AUS DEM WIENER WALD (Tales from the Vienna Woods, 1978/79). Dagover received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for her outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1962, and published her memoirs, ‘Ich war die Dame’ (I Was the Lady), in 1979. [act – DE] 1913: Schlangentanz [DO]. 1916: Die Retterin; Das Rätsel der Stahlkammer. 1917: Siegende Sonne. Die schwarze Gasse. 1918: Lebendig tot; Der Volontär; Clown Charly; Der Wilderer; Das Lied der Mutter. 1918/19: Die Rache ist mein!; Bettler-G.m.b.H. 1919: Die blonde Loo; Die Maske; Der Tänzer. 1.Teil; Die Spinnen. 1. Der goldene See; Phantome des Lebens; Harakiri; Der Richter von Zalamea. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. 1920: Spiritismus; Die Frau im Himmel; Das Blut der Ahnen; Die Augen der Maske; Toteninsel; Die Jagd nach dem Tode [2 parts]; Die Kwannon von Okadera; Das Geheimnis von Bombay. 1920/21: Das Medium; Die Jagd nach dem Tode. 3. Der Mann im Dunkel. 1921: Der müde Tod; Der Mord in der Greenstreet. 1922: Luise Millerin; Die Macht der Versuchung; Tiefland; Phantom. 1922/23: Die Prinzessin Suwarin. 1923: Seine Frau, die Unbekannte. 1923-25: Zur Chronik von Grieshuus. 1924: Komödie des Herzens. 1924/ 25: Der Demütige und die Sängerin. 1925: Tartüff; Liebe macht blind. 1925/26: Die Brüder Schellenberg. 1926: Der Veilchenfresser; Nur eine Tänzerin / Bara en danserska [DE/ SE]. 1926/27: Hans Engelska Fru / Die Lady ohne Schleier [SE/DE]. 1927: Orientexpreß; Der Anwalt des Herzens. 1928: Le tourbillon de Paris [FR]; Ungarische Rhapsodie; Der geheime Kurier; La grande passion [FR]. 1928/29: Die Ehe; Monte-Cristo [2 parts – FR]. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]; Es flüstert die Nacht…; Der Günstling von
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Schönbrunn; Spielereien einer Kaiserin; Der weiße Teufel. 1929/30: Es gibt eine Frau, die dich niemals vergißt [MLV]. 1930: Die große Sehnsucht; Va Banque [MLV]; Das alte Lied; Boykott. Primanerehre. 1930/31: Der Fall des Generalstabs-Oberst Redl [MLV – CS/DE]; Madame Blaubart [AT]. 1931: Elisabeth von Österreich; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Le congrès s’amuse [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]; The Woman from Monte Carlo [US]. 1932: Die Tänzerin von Sanssouci; Das Abenteuer einer schönen Frau. 1933: Johannisnacht. 1933/34: Der Flüchtling aus Chicago. 1934: Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will [MLV – CS]; Ich heirate meine Frau. 1935: Der Vogelhändler; Lady Windermeres Fächer; Der höhere Befehl. 1935/36: August der Starke / August Mocny [DE/PL]. 1936: Schlußakkord; Das Schönheitsfleckchen [SF]; Das Mädchen Irene; Fridericus. 1936/37: Die Kreutzersonate. 1937: Streit um den Knaben Jo. 1937/38: Rätsel um Beate; Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Dreiklang; Maja zwischen zwei Ehen. 1939: Umwege zum Glück. 1940: Friedrich Schiller – Der Triumph eines Genies; Bismarck. 1941/42: Wien 1910. 1942: Kleine Residenz. 1942-44: Musik in Salzburg. 1948: Die Söhne des Herrn Gaspary. 1949: Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe. 1950: Es kommt ein Tag; Vom Teufel gejagt. 1951: Das Wunder einer Stiftsruine [SD]. 1951/52: Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee / Die Jungfrau mit der Peitsche [MLV – CH/ FR/DE]. 1953: Rote Rosen, rote Lippen, roter Wein; Königliche Hoheit. 1954: Schloß Hubertus. 1955: Ich weiß, wofür ich lebe; Der Fischer vom Heiligensee; Rosen im Herbst; Die Barrings. 1955/56: Meine 16 Söhne; Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe [AT]. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Unter Palmen am blauen Meer / Vacanze a Portofino [DE/IT]. 1958: Bäume sterben aufrecht [TV]. 1959: Buddenbrooks. 1960: Eine etwas sonderbare Dame [TV]; Ich fand Julia Harrington [TV]. 1961: Der Mann von draußen [TV]; Die seltsame Gräfin. 1963: Reisender ohne Gepäck [TV]. 1964: Bis ans Ende [TV]. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Lil Dagover und Willy Birgel [TVD]. 1966: Erinnerungen eines Flügels [TVS]. 1967: Siedlung Arkadien [TV]; Lösegeld für Mylady [TV]. 1968: Unwiederbringlich [TV]. 1969: Bitte recht freundlich, es wird geschossen! [TV]; Das Interview [TV – AT]; Hotel Royal [TV]. 1970: Lil Dagover [TVD]; Professor Sound und die Pille [TV – CH]; Paradies der alten Damen [TV]. 1971: Kolibri [TV]; Glückspilze [TV]. 1972/73: Der Fußgänger / Der Fussgänger [DE/CH]. 1974: Karl May; Memento mori [TV]. 1974/75: Tatort: Wodka BitterLemon [TV]. 1975: Der Richter und sein Henker / Il giudice e i suo boja [DE/IT]. 1976/77: Die Standarte / La Última bandera [DE/AT/ES]. 1977: Die Teufelsbraut [TV]. 1978/ 79: Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald [DE/AT].
PAUL DAHLKE (Paul Victor Ernst Dahlke) Born April 12, 1904, Groß-Streitz (Germany, now Brdzino, Poland) Died November 24, 1984, Salzburg (Austria) Starting out as a leading man in the 1930s, Dahlke became best known by playing father figures and grumpy old men during a film career that lasted fifty years. Dahlke studied German literature and theatre studies at the Charlottenburg Technical College in Berlin in 1924, and received a place at Max Reinhardt’s Acting School in 1927. His professional debut was at the Lessing-Theater in 1929, after which he toured in repertory before again returning to Berlin, where he played the male lead in Heinz Hilpert’s original 1931 production of Ödön von Horváth’s ‘Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald’ (Tales from the Vienna Woods) at Deutsches Theater, where Dahlke was a permanent member from 1934 to 1944. His film debut was Hilpert’s LIEBE, TOD UND TEUFEL (The Devil in a Bottle, 1934), based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Bottle Imp’. Stocky in appearance, Paul Dahlke often portrayed ordinary characters with a straightforward outlook on life, such as a farmer in Gustav Ucicky’s Heinrich von Kleist adaptation DER ZERBROCHENE KRUG (The Broken Jug, 1937). Equally adept at playing quick-tempered and apathetic characters, one of his most memorable performances was as a self-righteous accountant whose marriage ends in tragedy in Helmut Käutner’s lyrical masterpiece ROMANZE IN MOLL (Romance in a Minor Key, 1942/43). Dahlke joined Munich’s Kammerspiele theatre in 1946, and then moved to the city’s Staatstheater from 1949 to 1953. In films he started to specialise in benevolent but often authoritarian patriarchs, while the actor’s dry sense of humour was given free rein especially in Kurt Hoffmann’s sophisticated comedies, such as DAS FLIEGENDE KLASSENZIMMER (The Flying Classroom, 1954), DREI MÄNNER IM SCHNEE (Three Men in the Snow, 1955) and the Thomas Mann adaptation BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (The Confessions of Felix Krull, 1957). In contrast, Dahlke gave a more serious performance as an emotionally distant father in Veit Harlan’s controversial melodrama about homosexuality, ANDERS ALS DU UND ICH (Bewildered Youth, 1957). From the late 1960s, Dahlke appeared almost exclusively on television. Memorable roles included a grumpy river boat captain in Wolfgang Staudte’s eight-part MS FRANZISKA (1976/77), a cash-strapped West Berlin pensioner in Hartmut Griesmayr’s LEBEN IM WINTER (Life in Winter, 1982) and a cantankerous grandfather in Konrad Sabrautzky’s UN-
PAUL DAHLKE TERNEHMEN ARCHE NOAH (The Noah’s Ark Pro-
ject, 1983). Dahlke received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1974. [act – DE] 1934: Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]. 1935: Lady Windermeres Fächer. 1936: Verräter; Fridericus. 1937: Patrioten; Mein Sohn, der Herr Minister; Daphne und der Diplomat; Der zerbrochene Krug. 1938: Capriccio; Schwarzfahrt ins Glück. Die kleine Sünderin; Verwehte Spuren; Pour le Mérite; War es der im 3. Stock?; Frauen für Golden Hill. 1938/39: Walfänger in der Antarktis [DO]; Die Hochzeitsreise. 1939: Morgen werde ich verhaftet; Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht; Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes; Die barmherzige Lüge; Wer küßt Madeleine?; Kennwort Machin; Die unheimlichen Wünsche; Befreite Hände. 1940: Das Fräulein von Barnhelm; Friedrich Schiller – Der Triumph eines Genies; Die keusche Geliebte. 1940/41:… reitet für Deutschland. 1941: Venus vor Gericht; Kameraden; Die Kellnerin Anna; Heimaterde. 1941/ 42: Andreas Schlüter. 1942: Dr. Crippen an Bord; Geliebte Welt; 5000 Mark Belohnung. 1942/43: Romanze in Moll; Ich vertraue dir meine Frau an. 1943: Seine beste Rolle [DE (CS)]; Gefährlicher Frühling. 1943/44: Der Täter ist unter uns; Orientexpreß; Das war mein Leben. 1944: Ich brauche Dich; Ein Mann wie Maximilian. 1944/45: Der Posaunist; Dreimal Komödie; Frech und verliebt. 1944/45: Das Gesetz der Liebe. 1947: Und finden dereinst wir uns wieder… 1947/48: Menschen in Gottes Hand. 1948: Lang ist der Weg; Das verlorene Gesicht; Der Apfel ist ab; Die Zeit mit Dir. 1948/49: Begegnung mit Werther. 1949: Krach im Hinterhaus; Der Bagnosträfling; Die Reise nach Marrakesch. 1949/50: Kein Engel ist so rein. 1950: Der Fall Rabanser; Der Schatten des Herrn Monitor; Gute Nacht, Mary; Der fallende Stern; Falschmünzer am Werk; Rausch einer Nacht. Alexa. 1952: Liebe im Finanzamt; Der Tag vor der Hochzeit; Lockende Sterne. 1952/53: Vergiß die Liebe nicht. 1953: Arlette erobert Paris; Einmal kehr ich wieder … / Dal matinska svadba [DE/YU]. 1953/54: Die tolle Lola. 1954: Und ewig bleibt die Liebe; Clivia; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer; Drei vom Varieté. 1955: Drei Männer im Schnee [AT]; Ihr erstes Rendezvous [DE/AT]; Wunschkonzert; Meine Kinder und ich; Der letzte Mann; Roman einer Siebzehnjährigen. 1955/56: Frucht ohne Liebe. 1956: Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz; Der erste Frühlingstag; Kitty und die große Welt; Stresemann; Made in Germany. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Liebe, wie die Frau sie wünscht; Anders als Du und ich (§ 175); Heute blau und morgen blau. 1957/58: Alle Sünden dieser Erde. 1958: … und immer ruft das Herz / Avaruusraketilla Rakauteen [DE/FI]. 1959: Il Vendicatore / Dubrowsky [IT/YU]; Die feuerrote Baronesse; Die Nackte und der Satan; Die Wahrheit über Rosemarie; Liebe, Luft und lauter Lügen; Abschied von den Wolken; Drillinge an Bord. 1959/60: Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen. [act – DE – TV] 1960: Ein Student ging vorbei [FF]; Hexenjagd; Der Rächer [FF]. 1961: Alle meine Söhne; Nora; Komm wieder, kleine Sheba; Der Fall Winslow; Jedermann [FF – AT]; Sansibar. 1961/62: Deutschland, Deine Stern-
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chen [FF]; Unsere Jenny. 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt [FF]; Affäre Blum; Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein. 1963: Mein Bruder Alf; Mit besten Empfehlungen [FF – AT]; Die schwarze Kobra [FF – AT]; Die Entscheidung; Das Haus in Montevideo [FF]; Um acht Uhr kommt Sadowski; Der Vater; Eiche und Angora; Begegnung in Salzburg / Deux jours à vivre [FF – DE/FR]. 1964: Das Kriminalmuseum: Gesucht: Reisebegleiter; Ein langer Tag; Das Geheimnis der chinesischen Nelke / Il segreto del garofano cinese / FBI contre l’oeillet chinois [FF – DE/IT/FR]; Eines schönen Tages; Sechs Stunden Angst; Sie werden sterben, Sire; Tabula rasa. 1964/65: Ende einer Saison. 1965: Das Geheimnis der drei Dschunken / A 009 Missione Hong Kong [FF – DE/IT]; Die Sommerfrische; Situation Hopeless – But Not Serious [FF – US]; Die 5. Kolonne: Besuch von drüben; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Ansichtskarte; Der zerbrochene Krug; Pflicht ist Pflicht. 1966: Ernest Barger ist sechzig; Ein unruhiger Tag; Erinnerung an zwei Montage; Ein Riß im Eis; Der Renegat. 1967: Der Querkopf; Der öffentliche Ankläger; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Zündschnur; Das Attentat: Walther Rathenau; Ein Schlaf Gefangener; Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche [FF]; Die Flucht nach Holland. 1968: Laubenkolonie; Kidnap – Die Entführung des Lindbergh-Babys; Der Richter von Zalamea; Die fremde Frau und der Mann unter dem Bett; Donnerwetter! Donnerwetter! Bonifatius Kiesewetter / La casa della demi-vierges [FF – DE/IT]. 1968/69: Der Punkt ‘M’. 1969: Liebe gegen Paragraphen; Spion unter der Haube; Die Reise nach Tilsit; … tot im Kanapu. 1969/70: Heintje – Einmal wird die Sonne wieder scheinen [FF]. 1971: Die sieben Ohrfeigen [AT/DE]. 1972: Novellen aus dem Wilden Westen [TVS]; Halbe Wahrheiten; Der Illegale. 1973: Oh, Jonathan – oh, Jonathan [FF]. 1974: Der Kommissar: Tod eines Landstreichers; Sonderdezernat K 1: Kein Feuer ohne Rauch; Der Monddiamant; Der Katzensteg. 1974/75: Die Stadt im Tal. 1975: Der Biberpelz; Liebe mal so – mal so. 1976: Nur bitte nicht heut’ nacht; Die Tannerhütte. 1976/77: Des Doktors Dilemma; MS Franziska [TVS]. 1977: Sonderdezernat K 1: Der Regen bringt es an den Tag; Polizeiinspektion 1: Der Vermisste. 1979: Jahreszeiten der Liebe; Tödlicher Ausgang; Nachbarn und andere nette Menschen [TV – DE/AT/CH]; Diamantensucher [TVS – SU/DE]; Ländliche Idylle [TV]. 1979/80: Kein Geld für einen Toten; Der Alte: Die tote Hand. 1980/81: Leute wie Du und ich (III) [TV]. 1981: Wie würden Sie entscheiden? 36. Der lachende Erbe; Sonderdezernat K 1: Die Spur am Fluß; Oh du fröhliche. Besinnliche Weihnachtsgeschichten. 1982: Heimkehr nach Deutschland; Die Krimistunde. Folge 2; Leben im Winter; Kontakt bitte … [season 1 – TVS]; Derrick: Die Tote in der Isar. 1983: Uta [12 episodes – TVS]; Die zweite Frau; Unternehmen Arche Noah. 1984: Freundschaften; Geschichten zur Weihnacht: Heute und damals. 1984/85: Die Krimistunde. Folge 15.
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PAUL DAVIDSON
PAUL DAVIDSON Born March 30, 1867, Loetzen (Germany, now Gizycko, Poland) Died July 18, 1927, Ebershausen (Germany) Cinema-chain owner and producer Davidson played a key role in making film respectable in Germany, both by introducing vertical integration to the domestic industry prior to World War I, and by promoting the careers of directors and stars such as Ernst Lubitsch, Emil Jannings, Asta Nielsen, and Pola Negri. Having completed a commercial apprenticeship, Davidson spent many years as a travelling representative for the textiles industry before becoming manager of a security firm in Frankfurt/Main around 1900. It was during this period that he first came into contact with cinema, attending a showing of Georges Méliès’s films while on a trip to Paris. In March 1906, Davidson – together with three industrialists who served as silent partners – set up the Allgemeine Kinematographen-Theater Gesellschaft (AKTG). Four months later, the company opened Mannheim’s first permanent cinema, the UnionTheater, which was followed by forty ‘U.T.’ cinemas in locations including Frankfurt, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Brussels and, from 1909, Berlin. In some cities, there were several ‘U.T.’ cinemas, whose ornate décor and clean surroundings were intended to help draw in middle-class patrons. In order to consolidate the company’s expanding market position, Davidson took on a fourth silent partner and founded the Projektions-Aktiengesellschaft ‘Union’ (PAGU) in March 1910, which was the German film industry’s first joint-stock company and its first vertically integrated business, in charge of everything from the production of films to distribution and equipment hire for exhibition. After Germany adopted the system of exclusive rights distribution following the success of Danish film AFGRUNDEN (The Abyss, 1909/10), Davidson set up the Vienna-based Internationale Film-Vertrieb-Gesellschaft along with the film’s star Asta Nielsen and its director (and Nielsen’s then-husband) Urban Gad. This company controlled the rights to all Nielsen pictures and products throughout Europe. In late 1912, PAGU moved the base of its operations from Frankfurt to Berlin, which was emerging as Germany’s filmmaking centre, and built a studio in the Berlin suburb of Tempelhof. Over the next years Davidson managed to attract a considerable range of talent to PAGU, including the directors Ernst Lubitsch and Paul Wegener, as well as stars such as Asta Nielsen, Fern Andra, Pola Negri, Ossi Oswalda, Emil Jannings, and Harry Liedtke. In January 1914 Davidson and Jules Greenbaum merged their companies to form PAGU-Vitascope, at the time the biggest film conglomerate in Germany. They visited America and arranged an international
distribution deal with Pathé Frères in Paris. This whole operation ended already in November 1914 when the war blocked all cooperations and Davidson and Greenbaum parted ways. In 1917, PAGU’s assets became part of the emerging Ufa. Davidson was retained as artistic director and head of production. Now working with more lavish budgets, Lubitsch shifted from comedies to historical epics, starting with DIE AUGEN DER MUMIE MA (The Eyes of the Mummy, 1918). Following the international, and particularly American, success of films such as CARMEN (Gypsy Blood, 1918), MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919) and ANNA BOLEYN (Deception, 1920), Davidson resigned from his post and left Ufa in late 1920, followed by Lubitsch. In 1921, Davidson became director of the short-lived Europäische Film-Allianz (EFA), funded by Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players-Lasky. EFA’s only completed features were Lubitsch’s DAS WEIB DES PHARAOH (The Loves of Pharao, 1921) und DIE FLAMME (Montmartre, 1922), after which Lubitsch left Germany for a career in Hollywood. In 1922, Davidson tried to buy back his PAGU, but his bid was torpedoed by legal maneuvering on the side of Ufa’s lawyers. In September 1924, Davidson founded the production company Paul Davidson AG, which – like numerous other so-called ‘independents’ at this time – produced pictures exclusively for Ufa. Davidson ended this affiliation in early 1927 and in July of that year, following a bout of mental health problems and a lengthy period in a clinic, he committed suicide, which the trade press discreetly covered up. [pro – DE] 1907: Hoffmanns Erzählungen: Barcarole. 1909: Musikalisches Haus: Das Gebet einer Jungfrau. – Steh ich in finstrer Mitternacht. – Ich laß mich nicht verführen; Schlangentänzerin. 1911: Heißes Blut; Großes Eisenbahnunglück bei Müllheim, Baden [SD]; Um ein Menschenleben; In dem großen Augenblick; Zigeunerblut; Der fremde Vogel; Die Verräterin; Die Macht des Goldes. 1911/ 12: Die arme Jenny. 1912: Mit dem Zeppelin; Zu Tode gehetzt; Der Totentanz; Jugend und Tollheit; Die Kinder des Generals; Wenn die Maske fällt; Das Mädchen ohne Vaterland; Komödianten. 1912/13: Die Sünden der Väter; Der Tod in Sevilla. 1913: Basso, der Wunderaffe; Die Helden des Bergwerks; Eine venezianische Nacht; Heimat und Fremde; Excentric-Club; Die Suffragette; Die Insel der Seligen; Der Shylock von Krakau; S 1; Tangofieber; Die FilmPrimadonna; Engelein; Drei Zeichen am Kreuzweg; Die Firma heiratet. 1913/14: Das Fischermädchen von Manholm; Zum Paradies der Damen; Das Kind ruft; Zapatas Bande. 1914: Es war in Schöneberg; Die falsche Zaza; Die Hochstaplerin; Der schöne Albert; Sturmzeichen; Der Traum einer Christnacht; Leiden eines Doppelgängers; Die Perle; Das Feuer. Die alte Gnädige; Wem gehört das Schwein?; Weib gegen Weib; Ein Kindesherz; Peterchen spielt ‘Schiffchen’; Peterchen spielt Köchin; Der verhängnisvolle Schatten; Die beiden Rivalen; Die blaue Maus. 2. Teil; Die
PAUL DAVIDSON Schleuse; Sein eigener Mörder; Nelly [2 parts]; Die Toten leben; Das Urteil des Arztes; Wollen Sie meine Tochter heiraten?; Der Stolz der Firma; Marketenderin; BallhausAnna. 2. Teil; Ein Skandal in der Gesellschaft; Das einsame Haus; Lache, Bajazzo!; Bräutigam wider Willen; Der große Diamant; Gute Freunde; Ivan Koschula; Kognac; Der Sieger; Ein seltsamer Fall; Das eiserne Kreuz; Sylvesterfeier im Schützengraben; Detektiv Braun; Die Erbtante; Wie werde ich meine Schwiegermutter los; Die Geschichte der stillen Mühle; Die Direktion verlobt sich; Hans und Hanni; Engeleins Hochzeit; Die ewige Nacht; Die falsche Asta Nielsen; Vordertreppe und Hintertreppe; Aschenbrödel; Die Tochter der Landstraße; Die weißen Rosen. 1914/15: Kehre zurück! Alles vergeben!; Fräulein Seifenschaum. 1915: Almhütte [DO]; Das Geheimnis der Fee; Die Heldin in den Karpathen; Im Kaukasus [DO]; Immer mit der Ruhe; Ein Pechvogel; Pelz auf Kredit; Silvesterfeier im Schützengraben; Zwei glückliche Paare; Wer bezahlt die Zeche?; Die schwarze Nelke; Wer heiratet wen?; Das achte Gebot. Du sollst nicht falsches Zeugnis reden wider deinen Nächsten; Der falsche Schein; Nur eine Lüge. Colombine; Die kluge Hilde; Arme Maria; Der Katzensteg; Der Bär von Baskerville; Blindekuh; Der möblierte Herr; Nur ein einziges Mal; Der Onkel aus Amerika; Das verrückte Büro; Alberts Hochzeitstag; Das dunkle Schloß; Heiratsschwindler Lulatsch; Der geheimnisvolle Wanderer; Der gemischte Frauenchor; Das Spiel mit dem Tode; Albert als Berlock Scholems; Der Schuß im Traum; So rächt sich die Sonne; Die Tänzerin; Das verbotene Lachen; Das verhängnisvolle Schicksal; Alberts Hose; Der Bräutigam mit dem Kind; König Motor; Sein einziger Patient; Therese; Der Tunnel; Vaterliebe; Fräulein Tollheit / Die Dame im Glashaus; Robert und Bertram oder: Die lustigen Vagabunden; Pension Lampel; Albert als Naturphilosoph; Auf der Alm; Die geheime Macht; Albert als Lebensretter; Alberts Jagd nach dem Glück; Ihr Kind; Irrende Liebe; Der Loder; Der Mann ohne Gedächtnis; Die fesche Sassa; Das Geheimnis der Ehe; Der Herr Kantonsrat; Der Kraftmeyer; Der letzte Anzug; Die letzte Partie; Nur mit der Ruhe; Der schwarze Moritz; Als ich tot war; Die Klabriaspartie; Die Liebe zu einer Toten; Nahira; Der sonderbare Fremdling; Bald hier, bald da; Ein gesunder Junge; Das Geheimnis der Mumie. 1915/16: Ein durchschlagender Erfolg; Dr. Satansohn; Meine Braut – seine Frau. 1916: Im schwarzen Rössl; Albert als Golem; Seine Braut; Wolken und Berge; Eine kitzliche Sache; Der Verschönerungsverein; Ein toller Einfall; Die Reise ins Jenseits; Die Last; Talarso, der Mann mit den grünen Augen; Eine ‘uhr’komische Geschichte; Die Braut des Reserveleutnants oder ‘Fürs Vaterland’; Bilder aus einer deutschen Schiffswerft [SD]; Schuhpalast Pinkus; Bogdan Stimoff [AT/DE]; Der Skandal; Das zweite Leben; Der Schal der Sünde; Seine Durchlaucht; Das Geschick der Julia Tobaldi; Die bleiche Renate; Das lebende Paket; Die Laune einer Modekönigin; Auto 444; Börse und Adel; Das schönste Geschenk; Leutnant auf Befehl; Der G.m.b.H.-Tenor; Gold; Der tote Gast; Der Yoghi; Fräulein Muschi; Rübezahls Hochzeit; Die Zwillingsschwestern; Die neue Nase; Hosenbein und Locke; Albert fliegt; Keiner von beiden; Stein unter Steinen; Tyrannenherrschaft. Aus Polens schwerer Zeit. 1916/17: Die Zigeunerbaronin; Die Grubenkatastrophe; Walzernacht;
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Der feldgraue Groschen; Eine Autofahrt durch Jahrhunderte [DO]; Graf Dohna und seine Möwe [DO]. 1917: Wer weiß?; Käsekönig Holländer; Der Golem und die Tänzerin; Unsühnbar; Aus vergessenen Akten; Der Blusenkönig; Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart; Albert als Erzieherin; Albert verschläft die Trauung; Ossi’s Tagebuch; Lulu; Vorsicht Schulze. Feuergefährlich; Die Wasserhose; Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland; Wenn vier dasselbe tun; Bravo Albert; Albert ohne Unterleib; Schmerzlos und prompt; Das fidele Gefängnis; Prima vera; Rafaela; Die schöne Prinzessin von China [ANI]; Eine Nacht in der Stahlkammer; John Riew; Der Sultan von Johore; Rafaela; Prinz Sami; Dornröschen; Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari; Der weiße Schrecken. 1917/ 18: Dem Licht entgegen; Panzerschrank Nr. 13; Albert und der falsche Max; Nach zwanzig Jahren. 1918: Der Rodelkavalier; Das Mädel vom Ballett; Empfang der Wiener Philharmoniker durch die Kgl. Kommandatur Berlin [SD]; Mania; Ich möchte kein Mann sein; Der Fall Rosentopf; Ringende Seelen; Fantasie des Aristide Caré: 1. Der Geburtstag des Meisterdetektivs / 2. Die drei von van Hells / 3. Der Schmuck der Gräfin; Verhalten beim Fliegerangriff [SD]; Der Flieger von Görz; Keimendes Leben [2 parts]; Die Augen der Mumie Mâ; Der gelbe Schein; Meyer aus Berlin; Der fremde Fürst; Der Rattenfänger; Barmherzige Hände; Apokalypse; Carmen; Das Schwabemädle; Der zerbrochene Schlüssel; Der Mann der Tat; Gegen den Bruderkrieg. 1918/19: Meine Frau, die Filmschauspielerin; Das Karussell des Lebens; Moral und Sinnlichkeit – Keimendes Leben. 3. Teil. 1919: Die Austernprinzessin; Das Mädchen mit dem Goldhelm; Vendetta. Blutrache; Kreuziget sie!; Der lustige Ehemann; Das Millionenmädel; Das Teehaus zu den zehn Lotosblumen; Die Tochter des Mehemed; Madame Dubarry; Aberglaube; Der Galeerensträfling. 1. Der Dolch des Malayen / 2. De profundis. Aus der Tiefe; Komtesse Dolly; Der heulende Wolf; Die Puppe; Das rosa Trikot; Der rote Henker; Der Tod aus Osten; Comtesse Olly geht bummeln; Hundemamachen. 1919/20: Die Marchesa d’Arminiani; Abenteurerblut; Mascotte; Die Wohnungsnot; Tamburin und Castagnetten; Die letzten Kolczaks. 1920: Kaliber fünf Komma zwei; Mephistophela; Kakadu und Kiebitz; Sumurun; Der vereitelte Selbstmord; Das Skelett des Herrn Markutius; Brigantenliebe; Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag; Edi und das Tigertier; Edi und die wilden Bestien; Das Valutamädel; Filmsterne [2 parts]; Großer internationaler Boxkampf. Triers Trickfilm [ANI]; Viechereien; Der Zauberer; Das Martyrium; Putschliesel; Die Dame in Schwarz; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam; Die geschlossene Kette; Anna Boleyn; Arme Violetta; Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadscha. 3. Teil; Die Entführung aus dem Serail oder Triumph der Liebe; Schönheitsabend, Triers Trick-Film [ANI]; Pitje Rüt, der Leichtmatrose. 1920/21: Das Geheimnis der Mumie; Der Markt von Titipu [SD]; Der Mann ohne Namen. 1. Der Millionendieb / 2. Der Kaiser der Sahara / 3. Gelbe Bestien / 4. Die goldene Flut / 5. Der Mann mit den eisernen Nerven / 6. Der Sprung über den Schatten. 1921: Die Bergkatze; Das Opfer der Ellen Larsen; Ein Erpressertrick; Das Weib des Pharao. 1922: Die Flamme. 1923: Alles für Geld. 1924/ 25: Ich liebe Dich! 1925: Liebesfeuer; Die Insel der Träume; 1926: Die Kleine vom Varieté.
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RENÉ DELTGEN
RENÉ DELTGEN (Renatus Heinrich Deltgen) Born April 30, 1909, Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) Died January 29, 1979, Cologne (West Germany) Usually moustachioed and slightly exotic in appearance, Deltgen excelled playing unscrupulous adventurers and smooth-talking lady-killers in German films of the 1930s to 1950s. Deltgen attended acting school in Cologne from 1927. He joined the city’s Städtische Bühnen theatre in 1929, and after a period at the Städtische Bühnen in Frankfurt/Main in 1934, relocated to Berlin in 1936, where he appeared at various theatres, including the Volksbühne, until 1944. Deltgen’s screen debut was in Gustav Ucicky’s DAS MÄDCHEN JOHANNA (Joan the Maid, 1935). In the late 1930s he rapidly gained star status playing ‘exotic’ rogues in action and adventure films such as Eduard von Borsody’s KAUTSCHUK (The Green Hell, 1938) and KONGO-EXPRESS (Congo Express, 1939). Given the opportunity, Deltgen was also convincing in more complex parts, such as the melancholy trapeze artist in Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s DIE 3 CODONAS (The 3 Codonas, 1940) and as Ludwig van Beethoven in Karl Hartl’s Mozart biopic WEN DIE GÖTTER LIEBEN (Whom the Gods Love, 1942). At the end of the war Deltgen was imprisoned in Luxembourg due to his collaboration with the Nazis during the occupation years. Resuming film work in 1949, Deltgen’s post-war roles included an emotionally unbalanced actor in Harald Braun’s NACHTWACHE (Keepers of the Night, 1949), as well as ‘ethnic’ villains such as a KGB officer in Victor Vicas’s WEG OHNE UMKEHR (No Way Back, 1953) – for which Deltgen received a German Film Award – and a treacherous prince in Fritz Lang’s two-part saga DER TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR (The Tiger of Eshnapur) and DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, both 1958/59). In the Edgar Wallace thriller DER HEXER (The Ringer, 1964), Deltgen had an uncredited guest appearance in the title role of a master criminal, a part he reprised in the sequel NEUES VOM HEXER (Again the Ringer, 1965). Deltgen appeared on television from 1960, and stood out in John Olden’s adaptation of the Thomas Wolfe novel SCHAU HEIMWÄRTS, ENGEL (Look Homeward, Angel, 1961) and in the Francis Durbridge crime thriller DAS MESSER (The Knife, 1971). He was a regular guest star on early episodes of popular cop shows such as SONDERDEZERNAT K1 (Special Investigation Bureau, 1972) and DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner, 1973/74). One of his final roles was the heroine’s kind grandfather in the worldwide syndicated series HEIDI (1976/77), based on Johanna Spyri’s novel.
René Deltgen received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1978. In 2002/03 the documentary RENÉ DELTGEN – DER SANFTE REBELL (René Deltgen – The Gentle Rebel) examined the different aspects of his career. [act – DE] 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna; Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV]. 1936: Savoy-Hotel 217; Port Arthur [MLV – CS/FR]; Unter heißem Himmel. 1937: Starke Herzen (Starke Herzen im Sturm); Urlaub auf Ehrenwort. 1937/ 38: Ab Mitternacht [MLV – FR/DE]. 1938: Geheimzeichen LB 17; Schwarzfahrt ins Glück; Nordlicht; Kautschuk. 1938/39: Der grüne Kaiser. 1939: 12 Minuten nach 12; Kongo-Expreß; Brand im Ozean. 1940: Die 3 Codonas; Achtung! Feind hört mit!; Das leichte Mädchen. 1940/ 41: Mein Leben für Irland; Spähtrupp Hallgarten; Anschlag auf Baku. 1941/42: Fronttheater. 1942: Das große Spiel; Dr. Crippen an Bord; Wen die Götter lieben. Mozart. 1942/43: Wenn der junge Wein blüht. 1942-44: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen / Augen der Liebe. 1943: Zirkus Renz. 1943/44: Sommernächte; Das Hochzeitshotel. 1944/45: Der stumme Gast; Wir beide liebten Katharina. 1949: Tromba; Nachtwache. 1949/50: Tobias Knopp, Abenteuer eines Junggesellen [ANI – voi]; Export in Blond. 1951: Torreani. 1951/ 52: Das letzte Rezept; Die Stimme des Anderen. 1953: Weg ohne Umkehr; Sterne über Colombo; Kuca na Obali [MLV – YU]. 1953/ 54: Die Gefangene des Maharadscha; Der Mann meines Lebens. 1954: Der letzte Sommer; Frühlingslied [DE/IT]; Phantom des großen Zeltes. 1954/55: Vom Himmel gefallen [MLV]; Special Delivery [MLV – DE/US]. 1955: Hotel Adlon. 1956: Ohne Dich wird es Nacht; Londra chiama Polo Nord [IT]. 1956/57: Königin Luise. 1958/59: Der Tiger von Eschnapur / La tigre di Eschnapur / Le tigre du Bengale [DE/IT/FR]; Das indische Grabmal / Il sepolcro indiano / Le tombeau hindou [DE/IT/FR]. [act – TV – DE] 1960: Die Friedhöfe. 1961: Schau heimwärts, Engel; Ein verdienter Staatsmann; Golden Boy (Goldene Hände). 1962: Der Gefangene. 1963: Das Kriminalmuseum: Nur ein Schuh. 1963/64: Umbruch. 1964: Der Hexer [FF]; Die goldene Göttin vom Rio Beni / Duelo en el Amazonas / Les aventures de la jungle [FF – DE/ES/FR]. 1964/65: Der Sündenbock. 1965: Neues vom Hexer [FF]; Alle meine Söhne; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Marianne Hoppe und René Deltgen [TVD]; Die eigenen vier Wände; Dem Himmel näher [AT]. 1965/ 66: Der Arzt stellt fest / Angeklagt nach § 218 [FF – CH/ DE]. 1969/70: Ohrfeigen [FF]. 1970: Spiele der Macht [CH]; Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit. 1970/71: Pretty Maids All in a Row [FF – US]. 1971: Klassenkampf [CH]; Die Auferstehung des Stefan Stefanow [AT]; Das Messer [3 episodes]. 1972: Sonderdezernat K 1: Ganoven-Rallye. 1972/73: Eine geschiedene Frau. 1973: Mein Onkel Benjamin. 1973/74: Der Kommissar: Die Nacht mit Lansky. 1975: Trotzki in Coyoacan; Die Herausforderung. 1976: Die Affäre Lerouge; Gefundenes Fressen [FF]. 1976/77: Achsensprung [TVD – voi]; Sonderdezernat K 1: MP 9mm frei Haus. 1976-78: Heidi [TVS – DE/CH/AU]. 1977: Ein
IVAN DESNY Tisch zu viert; Morgen [CH]. 1978: Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte [DE/AT]; Großstadt-Miniaturen; Wo die Liebe hinfällt.
LYA DE PUTTI (Amália ‘Lia’ Putty) Born January 10, 1896, Vecse (Austria-Hungary, now Veca, Slovakia) Died November 27, 1931, New York (New York, USA) Projecting a carefully engineered public persona at once mysterious and reckless, dark-haired de Putti excelled playing exotic characters, jazz age ‘flappers’, and vamps in Weimar Germany before pursuing her career less successfully in Hollywood. Raised and given a convent education in the Transylvanian town of Kolozsvár, de Putti was married to a local landowner at age seventeen, and had two children with him before running away to Budapest. She worked in the city as a nurse while taking acting lessons, took walk-on roles in stage plays, and extra work on films. However, she swiftly graduated to more substantial parts, as in Béla Balogh’s A CSÁSSÁR KATONÁI (The Emperor’s Men, 1918), and the lead role in the Romanian production PE VALURILE FERICIRII (The Waves of Love, 1920), directed by Dolly A. Szigethy. De Putti came to Berlin and performed at the Scala variety theatre in 1920, while making her German film debut the same year in Karl Otto Krause’s lyrical ZIGEUNERBLUT (Gypsy Blood). Supporting roles including an exotic servant girl in Joe May’s two-part adventure DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921) and alongside Emil Jannings in Dimitri Buchowetzki’s OTHELLO (1921/22) followed, as did noteworthy parts in two F. W. Murnau pictures. In DER BRENNENDE ACKER (Burning Soil, 1921/22) she played the daughter of a countess, and in the Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation PHANTOM (The Phantom, 1922) she portrayed the dual role of Veronika, with whom the town clerk Lubota is besotted, and Melitta, who brings about his downfall after he seeks solace with her. The actress achieved international attention as the temptress who incites Emil Jannings to murder in E. A. Dupont’s VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925), after which she appeared in the title role in Arthur Robison’s elaborate costume drama MANON LESCAUT (1925/ 26). Relocating to Hollywood in 1926, the actress was initially cast in supporting roles as exotic, mostly European femmes fatales, before being given lead roles as a cabaret dancer who becomes a gangster’s moll in James Young’s MIDNIGHT ROSE (1927) and as a Russian revolutionary in Alan Crosland’s THE SCARLET LADY (1928).
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De Putti travelled to London to appear in Arthur Robison’s drama THE INFORMER (1929), where her naturalistic and complex characterisation of the fiancée of an IRA informer significantly contributed to the film’s success. She subsequently undertook a disastrous American theatrical debut in New York in 1930, and died a year later after contracting an infection following surgery to remove a chicken bone from her throat. De Putti, incidentally, is the silent film star Liza Minnelli’s character models herself after in Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1972). [act – DE] 1918: A csássár katonai [HU]. 1920: Pe valurile fericirii [RO]; Zigeunerblut. 1920/21: Die Liebschaften des Hektor Dalmore. 1921: Treibende Kraft; Du bist das Leben; Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur; Ilona. 1921/22: Othello; Der brennende Acker. 1922: Phantom; Die drei Marien und der Herr von Marana [AT/DE]. 1922/23: Die Fledermaus. 1923: Die Schlucht des Todes. Pampasreiter; S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen. 1923/24: Thamar, das Kind der Berge. 1924: Claire, die Geschichte eines jungen Mädchens; Malva; Komödianten; Ein Weihnachtsfilm für Große. 1924/25: Im Namen des Kaisers. 1925: Eifersucht; Varieté. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut; Junges Blut. [act – US] 1926: Sorrows of Satan; Prince of Tempters; God Gave Me Twenty Cents. 1927: The Heart Thief; Midnight Rose. 1927/28: Charlott etwas verrückt [DE]; Buck Privates. 1928: The Scarlet Lady / The Scarlet Woman. 1929: The Informer [MLV – GB].
IVAN DESNY (Ivan Nikolai Desnitzky) Born December 28, 1922, Peking (China) Died April 13, 2002, Ascona (Switzerland) In his early career often cast as an impetuous lover, Desny became the embodiment of cosmopolitan elegance, sophistication, and irony. The perennial outsider in West German and other European films for nearly fifty years, he charmed his audiences with his sonorous, French accented voice, and with self-effacing melancholy. Born to Russian and Swedish parents working for the French diplomatic service, Desny had a nomadic childhood, and initially worked as an illustrator before commencing his acting career on the Paris stage. He had small roles in French films from the late 1940s, before British director David Lean cast him opposite Ann Todd in the murder melodrama MADELEINE (1949/50) as the heroine’s socially ambitious and ill-fated lover. In the early 1950s Desny’s career became more international with appearances in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Italian production LA SIGNORA SENZA CAMELIE (The Lady Without Camelias, 1952/53).
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In the same year he was cast in his first German production, Victor Vicas’s WEG OHNE UMKEHR (No Way Back, 1953). Soon after, Desny settled in West Germany and became a regular fixture in domestic productions, while continuing to appear in French, other European, and occasionally Hollywood films. Apart from countless dashing officers, e.g. in Max Ophüls’s LOLA MONTEZ (1955), Russians (DUNJA, 1955; ANASTASIA, 1956) and other assorted welldressed dandies, he also portrayed a disillusioned homecoming exile in John Brahm’s post-war black market and drug trafficking thriller DIE GOLDENE PEST (The Golden Plague, 1954), and was cast in one of veteran director G. W. Pabst’s final films, ROSEN FÜR BETTINA (Roses for Bettina, 1955/56). Unlike many actors of his generation, Desny made a seamless transition into the films of the New German Cinema, and was cast by directors including Wim Wenders (FALSCHE BEWEGUNG / Wrong Move, 1974/75), Jeannine Meerapfel (MALOU, 1980), and especially Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who repeatedly worked with Desny and gave him one of his best roles as the melancholic returning émigré Karl Oswald in DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage of Maria Braun, 1978). Since the 1980s he was a familiar face in TV series such as TATORT (Crime Scene) and DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (the German version of the U.S. hit show LOVE BOAT), while one of his last film roles was in André Techiné’s LES VOLEURS (Thieves, 1996). In more than 150 film and television roles from the late 1940s to the late 1990s Desny stayed largely faithful to his established persona, modifying it only according to match his advancing age. [act – DE] 1947: La fleur de l’âge [FR]. 1948: Bonheur en location [FR]. 1949/50: Madeleine [GB]. 1950: Caroline chérie [FR]. 1951: Les mousquetaires du roi [FR]. 1952: La p… respecteuse [FR]; Foreign Intrigue: Free Germany [TV – GB]. 1952/53: La signora senza camelie / La dame sans camélia [IT/FR]. 1953: À nous deux Paris! [SF – FR]; Le bon Dieu sans confession [FR]; Weg ohne Umkehr; Un acte d’amour / Act of Love [FR/US]. 1954: Geständnis unter vier Augen; Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Winthrop Legend [TV – US]; Die goldene Pest; Herr über Leben und Tod. 1954/55: Frou-Frou [FR/IT]. 1955: André und Ursula; Dunja [AT]; Mädchen ohne Grenzen; Lola Montès / Lola Montez [FR/DE]. 1955/56: Rosen für Bettina. 1956: Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter; Mannequins de Paris [FR]; Anastasia [GB]; Club de femmes / Club di ragazze [FR/IT]; O.S.S. 117 n’est pas mort [FR]. 1956/57: Wie ein Sturmwind. 1957: Von allen geliebt; Donnez-moi ma chance [FR]; Skandal in Ischl [AT]. 1957/58: Alle Sünden dieser Erde; Une vie / Una vita [FR/IT]. 1958: Petersburger Nächte; La vie à deux [FR]; Polikuschka / Polikuska / Polikouchka [DE/ IT/FR]; Le miroir à deux faces / Lo specchio a due facce [FR/IT]; Frauensee [AT]. 1958/59: Heiße Ware; Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt. 1959: Monsieur Suzuki [FR].
1960: Der Satan lockt mit Liebe; Song Without End [US]; Femmine di lusso [IT]; Geständnis einer Sechzehnjährigen [AT]; The Magnificent Rebel [US]. 1961: The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre: Number Six [TV – GB]; Zarte Haut in schwarzer Seide / De quoitu t’mêles, Daniela? [DE/FR]; L’ammutinamento / Les révoltés de l‘Albatros’ [IT/FR]. 1962: Bon Voyage! [US]; Disneyland: Escapade in Florence [TV – US]; Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes / Sherlock Holmes et le collier de la mort / Sherlock Holmes.[DE/FR/IT]. 1963: Der Unsichtbare; Commandant X: Le dossier Pierre Angelet [TV – FR]; Ist Geraldine ein Engel? [AT]; Jack und Jenny. 1964: Frühstück mit dem Tod [DE/ AT]; Die letzte Folge [TV]; La sfinge sorride prima di morire stop – Londra / Heiße Spur Kairo – London [IT/DE]; DMKiller [AT]. 1965: Intercontinental-Express: Des Rätsels Lösung [TV]; Der Nächste bitte: Die Leiden des Playboys [TV]; Das Geheimnis der Lederschlinge / Il misteri della giungla nera [DE/IT]; L’uomo di Toledo / La muerte se llama Myriam / Der Mann von Toledo [IT/ES/DE]; Das Liebeskarussell [AT]; Die Flasche [TV]. 1966: L’Affare Beckett / L’Jungle des tueurs [IT/FR]; Tendre vouyou / Un avventuriero a Tahiti [FR/IT]; Der Tod eines Doppelgängers / Les diamants d’Envers [DE/BE]. 1966/67: Da Berlino l’Apocalisse / Le tigre sort sans sa mère / Heißes Pflaster für Spione [IT/FR/DE]; J’ai tué Raspoutine / Addio Lara! [FR/IT]. 1967: Sie schreiben mit: Die Lektion [TV]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Briefmarke [TV]; Liebesnächte in der Taiga. 1967/68: Les Atomistes [TVS – FR]. 1967-69: Les Chevaliers du ciel [TVS – FR]. 1968: La bataille de San Sebastian / I Cannoni di San Sebastian [FR/IT]; Mayerling [FR/GB]; Reiterattacke [TV – AT]; Heißes Spiel für harte Männer / El crimen tambien juega / Rebus [DE/ES/IT]. 1969: Die Kriminalerzählung: Die Premiere in der Villa [TV]; The Adventures of Gerard / Les aventures de Gérard / Le avventure di Gerard [GB/CH/IT]. [act – TV – DE] 1969/70: Tanker. 1970: Die Feuerzangenbowle; Tournee [TVS]; Tatort: Kressin und der tote Mann im Fleet. 1970/71: Tatort: Kressin und der Laster nach Lüttich. 1971: Die Tote aus der Themse [FF]; Tatort: Kressin stoppt den Nordexpreß. 1972: Tatort: Kressin und die Frau des Malers; Nocturno; Tatort: Kressin und der Mann mit dem gelben Koffer; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Kein Hafer für Nicolo; Little Mother / Sie nannten ihn kleine Mutter [FF – US/DE/YU]. 1972/73: Der Vorgang; Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre: Der Schein trügt; Touch Me Not / Una secretaria para matar / Verfolgungsjagd um Mitternacht [FF – FR/ES/ DE]. 1973: Okay S.I.R.: Sand im Getriebe; Tatort: Kressin und die zwei Damen aus Jade; Welt am Draht; Who? [FF – GB]; Sylvie; Rückfahrt von Venedig. 1973: Sergeant Berry [2 episodes – TVS]. 1974: Die Kinder Edouards; Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Alte Freunde [TV – AT/DE]; Paper Tiger [FF – GB]. 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung [FF]; Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes / Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen [TV – FR/DE]. 1974-77: Die Fälle des Herrn Konstantin [TVS]. 1975: Streng geheim; Die Dubarry; Les brigades du tigre: De la poudre et des balles / Mit Rose und Revolver: Von Bomben und sonstigem Spielzeug [TV – FR/DE]; La vérité tient à un fil [TVS – FR]; Lobster: Das Kind. 1975/76: Die Eroberung der Zitadelle [FF]. 1976: Der Baum des vergessenen Hundes [TV – AT]; Une place forte [TV – FR]. 1977: Halbe-Halbe [FF]; Heinrich Heine; Anton Keil, der
PAUL DESSAU Specialkommissär [TVS]. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun [FF]; Enigma rosso / Trafico de menores / Orgie des Todes [FF – IT/ES/DE]; Die Protokolle des Herrn M. [TVS]. 1978/ 79: Gesundheit; Bloodline / Blutspur [FF – US/DE]. 1979: Detektiv Harvey: Mr. Bakers Masche; Desnyland; Mathias Sandorf [TV – DE/FR/IT/HU]; Fabian [FF]. 1979/80: Carnapping: Bestellt – geklaut – geliefert [FF]; Kein Geld für einen Toten; Berlin Alexanderplatz [8 episodes – TVS]; Exil / L’Exile [TV – DE/FR]. 1980: Die längste Sekunde; Odio le bionde / Je hais les blondes / Ich hasse Blondinen [FF – IT/ FR/DE]; Malou [FF]. 1980/81: Die Laurents: Die ungleichen Brüder – 1730. 1980-82: Ein gutes Land [FF – DE/IN]. 1981: Zum Frühstück zwei Männer; Lola [FF]; Die KnappFamilie: Es ist alles wie im Märchen; Der Gerichtsvollzieher oder Die Gewissensbisse des Florian Kreittmayer: Penetrant ehrlich; Das Traumschiff [episode 3 – TVS]; Les brigades du tigre: Le complot [TV – FR]. 1982: The Captain’s Doll / Der Offizier und die Puppe [TV – GB/DE]; Ein Fall für zwei: Partner; Hellseher wider Willen [TVS]; Der Untergang Wiens [TV – AT]; Les Dames à la licorne [TV – FR]; Ringstraßenpalais: Leben auf Abruf / Der Staatsvertrag [TV – AT]. 1982/83: Die wilden Fünfziger [FF]; Das Gesicht auf der Wand; Das Traumschiff [episode 12 – TVS]. 1983/84: Manfred Krug: Krumme Touren. 1984: Der Mörder [TV – AT]; Flügel und Fesseln / L’Avenir d’Émilie [FF – DE/FR]. 1984/85: Schöne Ferien [TVS]. 1985: Le caviar rouge [FF – FR/CH]. 1985/86: SOKO 5113: Das harte Geschäft; Auf den Tag genau; Detektivbüro Roth: Flieg, Vogel, flieg; Jimmy Allegretto. 1986: Die Krimistunde (episode 21); Wie das Leben so spielt. C’est la vie; Das Traumschiff: Bali; Motten im Licht [TV – CH]. 1986/87: Hôtel de France [FF – FR]; Praxis Bülowbogen: Die Zeit heilt keine Wunden. 1986-89: Der vierte Mann [4 episodes – TVS – AT]. 1987: Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret: Maigret voyage [TV – FR]; Wunschpartner [TVS]; Ein Fall für TKKG: Haie an Bord; Mrs. Harris fährt nach Moskau; Schwarz Rot Gold: Zucker Zucker; L’Or noir de Lornac [TVS – CH]. 1987/88: Un amore di donna / Der Himmel ist fern [FF – IT/DE]; Lorentz & Söhne: Reise in die Vergangenheit; Quicker than the Eye / Passe – Passe [FF – CH/FR]. 1988: Zockerexpress [FF]. 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat. 12. Die Zeit der vielen Worte. 1989: Rally [TVS – IT]; Mein Butler und ich [TVS]; Mon dernier rêve sera pour vous [TVS – FR]; Hotel Paradies [3 episodes – TVS – DE/AT]. 1989/90: God afton, Herr Wallenberg [FF – SE]. 1989-93: Heidi und Erni [4 episodes – TVS]. 1990: La Désenchantée [FF – FR]; Die Kupferfalle; Stocker und Stein [TVS]; Mrs. Harris und der Heiratsschwindler. 1990/91: Eine Dame mit Herz, teils bitter, teils süß…; Ein Heim für Tiere: Shiran, der Pfau; Il corragio di Anna [TVS – IT]. 1991: J’embrasse pas / Niente baci sulla bocca [FF – FR/ IT]; Peter Strohm: Der schwarze Schwan; Auf der Suche nach Salome [TVS – CH]. 1991/92: Glückliche Reise: Australien; Berlin Break: Byline / Riskante Recherche [TV – US/ DE]. 1991/92: Der Millionär [TVS]. 1992: Navarro: Le dernier casino [TV – FR]; Freunde fürs Leben: Blinde Angst / Teufelskreis [2 episodes – TVS]. 1993: Sylter Geschichten: Alles auf Rot; Tatort: Gefährliche Freundschaft; Der Mann vom Eaton Place / The Mixer [TVS – AT/DE/GB]; Alaska Kid: Das große Rennen / Aljaska kid: Bol’shie gonki [TV – DE/SU/ PL]; Tatort: Laura, mein Engel; Einsatz für Lohbeck: Rhein-
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gold. 1993/94: Die Weltings vom Hauptbahnhof – Scheidung auf Kölsch. [2 episodes – TVS]. 1994: Schwarz greift ein: Bis der Tod euch scheidet; Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet: Raum ist auch in der kleinsten Hütte; Ohne Schein läuft nichts: Kreuzungsroulette; Wer wagt, gewinnt; Natale con papà / Weihnachtsfest mit Hindernissen [TV – IT/DE]. 1995: Verliebte Feinde; Eine Frau wird gejagt [4 episodes – TVS]; Die Eisprinzessin / Ice Princess [TV – DE/US]; Molly / Molly Greenfield [TV – FR/GB]; Guten Morgen, Mallorca: Hass-Liebe; Verschollen in Thailand [TVS]. 1995/96: Peter Strohm: Familienbande; SOKO 5113: Außer Dienst; OP ruft Dr. Bruckner: Zwischen Hoffnung und Tod; Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1996: Les voleurs [FF – FR]; Tatort: Tod im Jaguar; Sünde einer Nacht; Zwei vom gleichen Schlag; Schlosshotel Orth: Das Oldtimertreffen [TV – AT]; Die Unzertrennlichen: Nobody is perfect. 1996/97: Tatort: Eulenburg. 1997: Höchstpersönlich: Ivan Desny [TVD]; Schutzengel auf Reisen [TV – AT]; Der kleine Dachschaden. 1998: Rot wie das Blut; Weißblaue Wintergeschichten; Un Prete tra noi: Per troppo amore / Priester im Einsatz [TV – IT/DE]. 1999: Beresina oder Die letzten Tage der Schweiz [FF – CH/DE/AT]; E-m@il an Gott. 1999/ 2000: Anwalt Abel – Der Voyeur und das Mädchen. 2000: Mister Boogie [FF]; Tatort: Tod vor Scharhörn. 2001: Scheidung mit Hindernissen; Edel & Starck: Wunderkinder; Die Rettungsflieger: Der Neue. 2002: St. Angela: Der erste Tango.
PAUL DESSAU Born December 19, 1894, Hamburg (Germany) Died June 28, 1979, Berlin (East Germany) A frequent collaborator of Bertolt Brecht in later years, German-Jewish composer Dessau was one of the most innovative composers working in late Weimar pictures, and in the 1940s contributed to several Hollywood productions. Taking violin lessons from age six, Dessau’s first public performance was aged ten. Between 1912 and 1915, he held posts as répétiteur at Hamburg’s Stadttheater and as a conductor in Bremen until he was conscripted into the military. After World War I, he served as conductor and composer at theatres in Hamburg, Cologne and Mainz, and then joined Berlin’s Städtische Oper in 1925, with his first symphony premiering in Prague in 1927. Also conducting cinema orchestras, Dessau took charge of the fifteen-person orchestra at Berlin’s Alhambra film palace on the Kurfürstendamm in June 1928. Although relying primarily on stock music, his striking modernist arrangements were consistently acclaimed, for example following the premiere of Phil Jutzi’s MUTTER KRAUSENS FAHRT INS GLÜCK (Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness, 1929). He furthermore wrote original music for animated shorts including Ladislas Starewitch’s LA FORÊT ENCHANTÉE (The Enchanted Forest) and L’HORLOGE MAGIQUE (The Magic Clock, both 1928), as well as
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for the 1928 German release of Walt Disney’s ALICE cartoon series. When the Alhambra turned to sound in 1930, Dessau’s employment ceased. However, he had already been working on experimental sound films since 1929, and composed original scores for four musicals starring tenor Richard Tauber. He did atmospheric arrangements – including electronic effects achieved on the Welte player pipe organ and the trautonium – for mountain films by director Arnold Fanck, such as STÜRME ÜBER DEM MONTBLANC (Avalanche, 1930), DER WEISSE RAUSCH (Ski Chase, 1930/31) and SOS EISBERG (S.O.S. Iceberg, 1932/33). After the Nazis seized power, Dessau emigrated to Paris, where he scored Helmar Lerski’s documentary AVODAH (1933–35), shot in Palestine, as well as several features directed by other émigrés. He moved to New York in 1939, where he eventually wound up working at a poultry farm in New Jersey. In 1942, Bertolt Brecht advised him to come to Hollywood, where he was employed as a musical arranger at Warner Bros. and was able to compose scores for a few poverty row productions, including Edgar G. Ulmer’s THE WIFE OF MONTE CRISTO (1945/46) and RUTHLESS (1947/48). Uncredited, he also collaborated with Hans J. Salter on the score for HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944/45). Several of his stock cues continued to be used in Universal horror pictures long after Dessau had departed America. While in California, Dessau composed the music to Brecht’s play ‘Der gute Mensch von Sezuan’ (The Good Person of Szechuan). Returning to East Germany in 1948, several years of fruitful collaboration with Brecht followed, including the 1949 ‘’production of ‘Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder’ (Mother Courage and Her Children) at Deutsches Theater. Dessau again scored films from the mid-1950s, working on propagandist documentaries by Andrew and Annelie Thorndike and having one of his requiems included on the soundtrack to Egon Günther’s ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1967/68). Dessau taught at the State Acting School from 1952, where he was made professor in 1959, and was also a member of East Berlin’s Academy of Arts, as whose vice-president he served 1957–62. He was married to celebrated choreographer and stage music director Ruth Berghaus (1927–1996) from 1954 until his death. Their son Maxim (b. 1954) became a film director. [cinema music – original compositions – DE] 1928: Alice’s Monkey Business [ANI – US, 1926]; Alice in the Wooly West [ANI – US, 1926]; Alice the Fire Fighter [ANI – US, 1926]; Alice Helps the Romance [ANI – US, 1926]; L’Horloge magique [ANI – FR]; La forêt enchantée [ANI – FR]; Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere [ANI].
[mus – DE] 1929: Verkehrsstörung / Episode [AG]. 1929/ 30: Ich ’glaub’ nie mehr an eine Frau [mus,md,lyr]; Die heiligen drei Brunnen [sound version – mus,md]. 1930: Das lockende Ziel [mus,md]; Zärtlichkeit [MLV – mus – FR]; Die große Sehnsucht [md,act]; Eine Stunde Glück; Das Land des Lächelns [md]; Stürme über dem Montblanc [mus, md]. 1930/31: Der weiße Rausch [mus,md]. 1931: Die große Attraktion [mus,md]; Salto mortale [MLV – mus, md]; Salto mortale [French MLV – mus,md – DE/FR]. 1932: Melodie der Liebe [md]; Der Orlow [md]; Abenteuer im Engadin [mus,md]. 1932/33: SOS Eisberg [MLV – mus,md – DE/US]; S.O.S. Iceberg [MLV – mus,md – US/DE]. 1933: Anna und Elisabeth; Nordpol – Ahoi! [DE/US]. [mus – FR] 1934: L’Or dans la rue. 1934/35: Awodah [Palestine]. 1935/36: Tarass Boulba. 1936: Cargaison blanche. 1937: Yoshiwara. 1938: Siwa, escale du desert; Carrefour [MLV]; Werther; Gibraltar; Accord final / Symphonie am Genfersee [CH/FR]; Chartres [SD]; Les Indiens Sorciers [?]. 1938/39: L’Esclave blanche; Le grand élan. [mus – US] 1943/44: Summer Storm [co-mus]. 1944: Mr. Skeffington. 1944/45: House of Frankenstein [co-mus]; Hotel Berlin [co-mus]. 1945: Combat Fatigue [DO]; The Naughty Nineties [co-mus]; House of Dracula [co-mus]. 1945/46: The Wife of Monte Cristo. 1946: Her Kind of Man. 1947: Nora Prentiss [co-mus]; The Two Mrs. Carrolls [co-mus]; Winter Wonderland; The Pretender [md]; The Paradine Case [co-mus]; Adamah [DO – US version – Palestine]. 1947/48: Adventures of Casanova [md]; Ruthless [md]; The Vicious Circle [mus,md]. 1948: The Devil’s Cargo [mus,md]; Joan of Arc [co-mus]. [mus – DD] 1954-56: Du und mancher Kamerad [DO]. 1955: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder. 1957: Archive sagen aus: Urlaub auf Sylt [SD]; Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [TV]. 1957/58: Archive sagen aus: Unternehmen Teutonenschwert [DO]. 1958: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis [TV – DE]; Reportage aus Rossendorf [SD]. 1959/60: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder. 1959-63: Das russische Wunder [2 parts – DO]. 1965: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [TV – DE]; Die Ausnahme und die Regel [TV]. 1966: Mann ist Mann [TV – DE]; Der arme Konrad [TV]; Hilmar Thate singt Dessau, Eisler, Hosalla [TV]; Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [TV – DE]; Die Ermittlung [TV – mus,app]; Der gute Mensch von Sezuan [TV – DE]; Gisela May singt Brecht [TV]; 400 cm3 [SD]. 1966/67: Paul Dessau [SD – app,mus]. 1967/68: Abschied. 1969: Anno Populi – Im Jahre des Volkes 1949 [DO]. 1973: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis [TV]; Ändere die Welt, sie braucht es. Begegnungen mit Hanns Eisler [TV – app]. 1974: Paul Dessau [TVD – app, mus]. 1978: Coriolan [TV]. 1979: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [TV]. 1983: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis [TV]. 1988: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [TV – DE]; Der gute Mensch von Sezuan [TV]. 2003: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [TV – DE].
AUGUST DIEHL ERNST DEUTSCH (ak.a Ernest Dorian) Born September 16, 1890, Prague (Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic) Died March 22, 1969, Berlin (West Germany) Deutsch was a stage and screen luminary fêted for his expressionist performance style. After fleeing Nazi Germany, Deutsch found little demand for his talents in Britain or the USA and returned to Europe and renewed success soon after World War II. A childhood friend of playwright and novelist Franz Werfel in Prague, Deutsch served a year in the Austrian Imperial Army. His first theatrical engagement was at the Volksbühne in Vienna in 1914. Deutsch first appeared at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1917, and thereafter remained active on various Berlin stages until 1933, while also undertaking guest performances in Hamburg, Munich and Vienna. It was above all his stylized characterisation of the eponymous lead in Walter Hasenclever’s drama ‘Der Sohn’ (The Son) that secured his reputation as an expressionist actor par excellence. Highlights from Deutsch’s prolific silent film career include his sticky-fingered book-keeper in Karlheinz Martin’s VON MORGENS BIS MITTERNACHTS (From Morn to Midnight, 1920) and his performance as Baruch Mayr, a rabbi’s son who finds stardom on the nineteenth-century stage, in E. A. Dupont’s DAS ALTE GESETZ (This Ancient Law, 1923). After leaving Nazi Germany in 1933, the Jewish Deutsch was initially able to gain theatre work in Vienna and Prague, and undertook guest tours of Zurich and Brussels, before moving to London in 1936, and then to New York in 1938. He arrived in Hollywood in 1939, the same year that he became a US citizen, but film work proved thin on the ground. Appearing under the pseudonym Ernest Dorian from 1942, the actor was cast primarily as a Nazi or other uniform-wearing baddies, as in James Hogan’s ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN (1942) or Irving Pichel’s THE MOON IS DOWN (1942/43). In 1947, Deutsch returned to Vienna where he joined the ensemble at the Burgtheater. The following year saw him pick up the Venice Film Festival’s best actor award for his performance in G. W. Pabst’s DER PROZESS (The Trial, 1947/48). To international audiences he is probably best known as sinister Baron Kurtz in Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN (1949) From 1951 he played at West Berlin’s Schillertheater and Schlossparktheater, while embarking on guest tours both at home and abroad. Deutsch also appeared on television in his trademark role as Lessing’s NATHAN DER WEISE (Nathan the Wise, 1955/56), and in 1964 received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema.
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[act – DE] 1916: Die Rache der Toten. 1917: Die zweite Frau. 1918: Pique Dame; Apokalypse; Aladin und die Wunderlampe. 1918/19: Irrungen; Die Tochter des Henkers. 1919: Das Kloster von Sendomir; Die Geisha und der Samurai; Kurz ist der Frühling; Die Frau im Käfig; Blondes Gift; Der Galeerensträfling [2 parts]; Fluch der Vergangenheit; Vom Schicksal erdrosselt; Monica Vogelsang; Der gelbe Tod [part 2]. 1919/20: Haß; Erpreßt; Fiebernächte. 1920: Ferréol; Gerechtigkeit; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam; Die Jagd nach dem Tode: 2. Die verbotene Stadt; Judith Trachtenberg; Lady Godiva; Das Frauenhaus von Brescia; Von morgens bis mitternachts. 1920/21: Hannerl und ihre Liebhaber; Brennendes Land. 1921: Die Dame und der Landstreicher. 1921/22: Der alte Gospodar. 1922: Herzog Ferrantes Ende; Sein ist das Gericht; Der Kampf ums Ich; Liebe kann man nicht kaufen. 1922/23: Die Pagode. 1923: Mutter, dein Kind ruft!; Das alte Gesetz. 1924: Soll und Haben. 1925/26: Dagfin. 1927: Das Frauenhaus von Rio; Zwei unterm Himmelszelt; Artisten. 1935/36: The Marriage of Corbal [GB]. 1939: Nurse Edith Cavell [US]. 1940: The Man I Married [US]. 1940/41: So Ends Our Night [US]. 1942: Reunion in France [US]; The Prisoner of Japan [US]; Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen [US]. 1942/43: The Moon Is Down [US]. 1945: Isle of the Dead [US]. 1947/48: Der Prozeß [AT]. 1949: The Third Man [GB]. 1950/51: K – Das Haus des Schweigens. 1952: Symphonie Wien [DO – AT]; Wenn abends die Heide träumt. 1955/56: Nathan der Weise [TV]. 1958: Jedermann [TV – AT]; Sebastian Kneipp – Ein großes Leben [AT]. 1961: Ein Mädchen vom Lande [TV]. 1962: Vor Sonnenuntergang [TV]. 1962/63: In der Strafkolonie [TV]. 1964: Nathan der Weise [TV – AT]. 1966: Der Fall Bohr [TV – AT].
AUGUST DIEHL Born January, 4 1976, Berlin (West Germany) Often portraying brooding idealists, intense romantic leads, and quietly menacing fanatics, August Diehl emerged as one of Germany’s top young actors after unification, starring in film, television, and stage productions. The son of the actor Hans Diehl and a set designer studied at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’ in Berlin. In 1997 he started his acting career at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, subsequently gaining recognition in stage productions in various theatres, including Sarah Kane’s ‘Cleansed’ at the Hamburg Kammerspiele (under the direction of Peter Zadek), and as Kostja in Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’, directed by Luc Bondy at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The latter role won him several acting awards. Still at acting school, his first major film role was a computer nerd in Hans-Christian Schmid’s internet thriller 23 – NICHTS IST SO WIE ES SCHEINT (23 – Nothing Is As It Seems, 1998), securing him a German Film Award as best actor. Following roles in Egon Günther’s Goethe-biopic DIE BRAUT (The Bride, 1998/99) and Rainer Kaufmann’s KALT IST DER
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ABENDHAUCH (The Cold Evening Breeze, 1999/
2000), he was cast opposite Hollywood stars Adrien Brody and Pam Grier in Peter Sehr’s New York-set romantic crime drama LOVE THE HARD WAY (2000/ 01). In Robert Schwentke’s serial-killer thriller TATTOO (2001/02), he played a rookie cop who teams up with Christian Riedl’s hardboiled detective. Working again for Hans-Christian Schmid, he was an architect in the director’s portemanteau film LICHTER (Lights, 2002/03). Alongside another up-and-coming star, Daniel Brühl, Diehl won acclaim as a gay student in WAS NÜTZT DIE LIEBE IN GEDANKEN (Love in Thoughts, 2002/ 03), a melodrama set against the backdrop of the last days of the Weimar Republic and concerning a group of self-destructive idealists whose entangled personal relationships end in tragedy. In Volker Schlöndorff’s DER NEUNTE TAG (The Ninth Day, 2003/04), a drama depicting Catholic resistance in wartime Luxemburg, Diehl portrayed a relentlessly manipulative Gestapo officer. Once again a tragic romantic hero, Diehl played the male lead in Leander Haussman’s adaptation of Friedrich Schiller’s classical tragedy KABALE UND LIEBE (Intrigue and Love, 2005), while in Margarethe von Trotta’s mystery melodrama ICH BIN DIE ANDERE (I Am the Other Woman, 2005/06), he was a successful engineer who falls head over heels for an enigmatic femme fatale (Katja Riemann). In Heinrich Breloer’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novel DIE BUDDENBROOKS (2007/08) Diehl took the part of the bohemian misfit of an otherwise respectable 19th century bourgeois mercantile family. Diehl’s international recognition increased significantly after his appearance in the Academy Awardwinning Holocaust drama DIE FÄLSCHER (The Counterfeiters, 2006). Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, for whom the actor had previously worked on the horror sequel ANATOMIE 2 (Anatomy 2, 2002), Diehl’s role, as a taciturn concentration camp inmate, was yet another idealist who upholds his principles in the face of adversity. [act – DE] 1998: Poppen [SF]; 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint; Entering Reality [SF]. 1998/99: Die Braut. 1999/ 2000: Kalt ist der Abendhauch. 2000: Der Atemkünstler [SF – act,co-scr]. 2000/01: Hilflos [SF]; Love the Hard Way – Atemlos in New York. 2001: Abgeschminkt: August Diehl [TVD]. 2001/02: Tattoo. 2002: Haider lebt – 1. April 2021 [AT]; Anatomie 2. 2002/03: Lichter; La petite prairie aux bouleaux / Birkenau und Rosenfeld [FR/DE/PL]; Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken. 2003/04: Der neunte Tag / Le neuvième jour [DE/LU]. 2004: LiveMovie: Feuer in der Nacht [TV]. 2005: Wattläufer [SF]; Mouth to Mouth [DE/GB]; Kabale und Liebe [TV – DE/AT]. 2005/06: Slumming [AT/CH/DE]; Hamburger Lektionen [DO – voi]; Ich bin die Andere. 2006: Die Fälscher [DE/AT]. 2006/07: Nichts als Gespenster; Freischwimmer; Herrn Kukas Emp-
fehlungen / Lekcje pana Kuki [AT/PL]. 2007/08: Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin; Dr. Alemán; Buddenbrooks. 2008: Gero von Boehm begegnet … August Diehl [TVD – app]; Where In This World [SF]. 2008/09: Inglourious Basterds [US/DE].
FERDINAND DIEHL Born May 20, 1901, Unterwössen (Germany) Died August 27, 1992, Gräfelfing (Germany) An animation filmmaker and stop motion specialist, Diehl spent over thirty years as an independent director of puppet films. His cute hedgehog character Mecki remains as instantly recognisable in Germany as Mickey Mouse. After training as a violinmaker and attending art and design college in Munich, Diehl gained a job as effects technician in the animation department of Munich’s Emelka film company in 1927, where his brother Hermann (1906–1983) worked as an illustrator. After the department closed down the following year, the brothers set up independently and spent two years making KALIF STORCH (The Caliph Stork, 1928–30), a short silhouette film inspired by the work of Lotte Reiniger and based on the fairytale by Wilhelm Hauff. Subsequently, the duo turned their attention to stopmotion puppet films. Hermann created malleable figures with exchangeable facial expressions, while Ferdinand was animator and director. Under their trademark ‘Gebrüder Diehl-Film’, their shorts for distributor Tobis accompanied main features, as well as advertising films and numerous educational documentaries. The Diehls also started making featurelength films, including DIE SIEBEN RABEN (The Seven Ravens, 1937) and ERSTÜRMUNG EINER MITTELALTERLICHEN STADT UM DAS JAHR 1350 (Storming of a Mediaeval City Circa 1350, 1944). The as-yet-unnamed Mecki debuted in DER WETTLAUF ZWISCHEN DEM HASEN UND DEM IGEL (The Race Between the Hare and the Hedgehog, 1938), a silent short based on the Brothers Grimm version of Aesop’s fable ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. After the war Mecki became the mascot of radio (and later television) listings magazine ‘Hör zu’ and was marketed as a toy by Steiff. Further film adventures – in addition to illustrated books and other tie-ins – followed, and licensing agreements for Mecki represented the financial backbone of the brothers’ company for decades. Alongside Mecki, only one other of the Diehls’ thousands of puppets, Punch-like Kasperl Larifari, achieved any lasting success. After appearing in the brothers’ second feature-length production, IMMER WIEDER GLÜCK (Endless Good Fortune, 1949/50), he returned in their adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s DER FLASCHENTEUFEL (The Bottle Imp,
WILHELM DIETERLE
1952) – which, rather than using stop-motion, resorted to stick and glove puppets. Following the advent of children’s programming on television and a new West German Youth Protection Act prohibiting children under the age of six from going to the cinema, the Diehls turned their skills primarily to educational re-enactments. For GUTENBERG (1960), they recreated scale models of late Gothic rooms and buildings, as well as the marketplace in front of Mainz Cathedral and the first printing press, while fashioning their puppets’ faces and costumes after historical plates and engravings. Alongside some of their earlier work, it is now considered the highpoint of naturalist puppetry in German cinema. The brothers finally made two fairytale films for television, DIE WICHTELMÄNNER (The Gnomes, 1968) and DIE BREMER STADTMUSIKANTEN (The Bremen Town Musicians, 1969/70), and then lived off the profits from Mecki. [dir,pro – ANI – DE] 1928-30: Kalif Storch. 1931: Zwischpaduri der Strolch. 1931/32: Wupp als Hochtourist; Wupp verbessert den Weltrekord. 1932: Kohlweißlings Töchter; Wupp spielt Schach; Wupp lernt Gruseln; Tönende Handschrift. Serenade / Barcarole; 1933: Der Diamant; Nautilus; Romanze; Wiener Walzer; Wupp filmt in Afrika; Zigeunerweisen. 1934: Miniatur-Kabarett; Sträfling Nr. 3; Standard-Film ‘Handschuhe und Krawatten’ [SF – pro]; Standard-Film ‘Herrenbekleidung’ [SF – pro]; StandardFilm ‘Juweliere’ [SF – pro]; Standard-Film ‘Pelze’ [SF – pro]; Standard-Film ‘Friseure’ [SF – pro]; Nachtasyl; DiehlWeihnacht; Ski Heil. 1934/35: Diehl-Reklame-Film 23 [SF – pro]. 1935: Die Macht der Liebe; Von einem, der auszog, das Gruseln zu lernen; Der Jägertoni schafft’s [SF – pro]; Ein guter Entschluß [SF – pro]; Wenn einer eine Reise macht [SF ANI – pro]; Es war einmal [SF ANI – pro]; Das rollende Rad [SF – pro]. 1935/36: Ein Wiedersehen [SF – pro]. 1936: Tischlein, deck’ dich; Achtung! [SF – pro]; Kathreiner. (Marco Polo-Tee) [SF – pro]. 1937: Die sieben Raben; Kalif Storch. 1938: Tapferes Schneiderlein; Der Wettlauf zwischen dem Hasen und dem Igel. 1938/ 39: Fantasien am Schreibtisch. 1939: Der gestiefelte Kater; Stadtmaus und Feldmaus; Wer will fleißige Handwerker sehen; Der Wolf und die 7 Geißlein; Der neue Chef [SF – pro]. 1941: Dornröschen; Max und Moritz. 1944: Erstürmung einer mittelalterlichen Stadt um das Jahr 1350. 1949/50: Immer wieder Glück. 1950: Märchen und Schnurren. 1951: Spuk mit Max und Moritz. 1952: Mecki stellt sich vor; Der Flaschenteufel. 1953: Der Diktator. 1954: Die Karre im Dreck; Mecki und der Gerechte; Mecki und die Kaktusblüte. 1955: Kasperl und die Wunderschachtel. 1956: Kasperl im Wilden Westen. 1957: Der Liebesbrief. 1958: Das Werkkonzert. 1959: Spielverderber. 1960: Gutenberg. 1963: Der Ausflug. 1964: Der Fund; Geburtstagsständchen; Zirkus. 1968: Die Wichtelmänner. 1969/70: Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten. 1988: Ich habe mein Leben lang mit Puppen gespielt [TVD – app].
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WILHELM DIETERLE (aka William Dieterle) Born July 15, 1893, Ludwigshafen am Rhein (Germany) Died December 9, 1972, Ottobrunn (West Germany) Dieterle was an established leading actor and director in Weimar cinema before becoming one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors during the 1930s and 1940s. After serving an apprenticeship as a glass- and woodworker, Dieterle attended acting classes in Mannheim, and worked in repertory and at several provincial theatres. From 1920 to 1923 he was at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, and thereafter worked at various theatres in the capital. Dieterle appeared in films from the late 1910s, and with his heavy 6’4” frame rapidly established himself as a youthful lead, playing opposite female stars such as Henny Porten. His roles included rugged heroes in E. A. Dupont’s Heimatfilm DIE GEIER-WALLY (Vulture Wally, 1921); historical figures such as in Richard Oswald’s CARLOS UND ELISABETH (Carlos and Elisabeth, 1923/24); and the working-class protagonists of Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni’s HINTERTREPPE (Backstairs, 1921) and Friedrich Zelnick’s DIE WEBER (The Weavers, 1927). In Paul Leni’s portmanteau film DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks, 1923), Dieterle appeared in all three episodes and the framing sequence, and served as assistant director. He debuted as director with DER MENSCH AM WEGE (Man By the Wayside, 1923). With his wife, actress and screenwriter Charlotte Hagenbruch (1895– 1968), he founded production company Charha-Film in 1927, and a string of successful pictures followed, which starred and were directed by Dieterle (and occasionally written and/or produced by him as well). These films included DIE HEILIGE UND IHR NARR (The Saint and Her Fool, 1928), GESCHLECHT IN FESSELN (Sex in Chains, 1928), DAS SCHWEIGEN IM WALDE (Silence in the Woods, 1929) and LUDWIG DER ZWEITE, KÖNIG VON BAYERN (Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, 1929). In 1930, high in debt, Dieterle went to Hollywood, initially to shoot German-language versions of Warner Bros. productions. From 1933, he switched to making melodramas, comedies and thrillers such as SATAN MET A LADY (1935/36), and he co-directed Max Reinhardt’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1934/35). Subsequently, Dieterle became a specialist at Warner Bros. for prestigious biopics, including THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1935), the triple-Oscar-winning THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA (1937), DR. EHRLICH’S MAGIC BULLET (1939/40) and A DISPATCH FROM REUTERS (1940). Enjoying considerable influence, he gained employment for numerous émigrés from Nazi-Germany on
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THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939), and
also offered direct financial support to émigrés at this time. While his own William Dieterle Production Co. folded following the commercially unsuccessful ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY (1941), Dieterle continued making stylish melodramas such as I’LL BE SEEING YOU (1944) and PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1947/48) for producer David O. Selznick. Dieterle returned to Europe in 1958. Contracted by Artur Brauner, he shot HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1959/60), a two-part European co-produced remake of Joe May’s Weimar-era adventure serial. His final German big-screen release was the Carl Zuckmayer adaptation DIE FASTNACHTSBEICHTE (Carnival Confession, 1960). Dieterle subsequently became manager of Bad Hersfeld’s open-air theatre from 1961 to 1965, while also directing numerous plays for West German and Austrian television as well as his final big-screen film in Hollywood (THE CONFESSION, 1964). Dieterle received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1970. [act – DE] 1913: Fiesko. 1919/20: Die Vermummten. 1920/21: Die Verschwörung zu Genua. 1921: Die GeierWally; Hintertreppe; Fräulein Julie; Die Silbermöve; Frauenopfer. 1922: Es leuchtet meine Liebe; Der Graf von Charolais; Lucrezia Borgia; Marie Antoinette. 1922/23: Bohème; Die Pagode; Die grüne Manuela [ass-dir,act]. 1923: Der zweite Schuß; Der Mensch am Wege [dir,scr,act]; Die Austreibung; Das Wachsfigurenkabinett [ass-dir,act]. 1923/ 24: Carlos und Elisabeth. 1924: Moderne Ehen; Høíchy v manelství [CS/DE]; Mutter und Kind. 1924/25: Wetterleuchten; Lena Warnstetten; Die Blumenfrau vom Potsdamer Platz. 1925: Sumpf und Moral; Die vom Niederrhein [2 parts]; Der Hahn im Korb; Der rosa Diamant; Die Dame aus Berlin; Die Gesunkenen. 1925/26: Die Mühle von Sanssouci; Die Försterchristl; Qualen der Nacht; Faust. 1926: Familie Schimeck; Die Flucht in den Zirkus; Zopf und Schwert; Hölle der Liebe; Wie bleibe ich jung und schön?; Der Jäger von Fall; Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Droomkoninkje / Die vom Schicksal Verfolgten [NL/DE]; Violantha [DE/CH]. 1926/27: Der Zigeunerbaron. 1927: König für einen Tag [dir,scr,act, pro]; Am Rande der Welt; Die Weber; Ich habe im Mai von der Liebe geträumt [act,supv,pro]; Liebesreigen; Petronella [CH/DE]; Heimweh; Das Geheimnis des Abbé X [dir,scr,act, pro]; Frau Sorge. 1928: Die Heilige und ihr Narr [dir,act, pro]; Diebe – 10 000 Mark Belohnung; Ritter der Nacht; Geschlecht in Fesseln [dir,act]. 1928/29: Ich lebe für Dich [dir,act]. 1929: Durchs Brandenburger Tor [supv]; Frühlingsrauschen [dir,act]; Das Schweigen im Walde [dir,scr, act]; Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern [dir,co-scr,act]. [dir – US] 1930: Eine Stunde Glück [dir,scr,act – DE]; Der Tanz geht weiter [MLV – dir,act]; Die Maske fällt [MLV]; Dämon des Meeres [MLV – dir,act]. 1930/31: Kismet [MLV]; Die heilige Flamme [MLV – US/DE]. 1931: The Last Flight; Her Majesty Love [MLV]. 1932: Man Wanted; Jewel
Robbery; The Crash; Six Hours to Live!; Scarlet Dawn. 1932/33: Grand Slam. 1933: Adorable; The Devil’s in Love; From Headquarters; Female; Fashions of 1934. 1934: Fog Over Frisco; Dr. Monica; Madame Du Barry; The Firebird; The Secret Bride. 1934/35: A Midsummer Night’s Dream [co-dir]. 1935: Dr. Socrates; A Dream Comes True [SD – act]; The Story of Louis Pasteur. 1935/36: Satan Met a Lady. 1936: The White Angel; The Great O’Malley. 1936/ 37: Another Dawn. 1937: The Life of Emile Zola. 1938: Blockade. 1938/39: Juarez. 1939: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1939/40: (The Story of) Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet. 1940: A Dispatch from Reuters. 1941: All That Money Can Buy [dir,scr,pro]. 1941/42: Syncopation [dir,scr,pro]. 1942: Tennessee Johnson. 1943/44: Kismet. 1944: I’ll Be Seeing You. 1944/45: Love Letters. 1945: This Love of Ours. 1945/46: The Searching Wind; Duel in the Sun. 1947/48: Portrait of Jennie. 1948: The Accused. 1948/49: Paid in Full. 1949: Rope of Sand; Vulcano [dir,pro – IT]. 1949/50: September Affair. 1950: Dark City. 1950/51: Red Mountain. 1951: Peking Express; Boots Malone. 1951/52: The Turning Point. 1952: Salome [dir,sma – US]. 1952/53: Elephant Walk. 1953/54: Joseph and His Brethren. 1954/ 55: Magic Fire. The Story of Richard Wagner [dir,pro]. 1956: The Screen Director’s Playhouse: One Against Many [TV – dir,scr]; Omar Khayyam. 1959: Il Vendicatore / Dubrowsky [dir,act – IT/YU]. 1959/60: Herrin der Welt [2 parts] / Les mystères d’Angkor / Il misterio dei tre continenti [DE/FR/IT]. [dir – DE – TV] 1960: Die Fastnachtsbeichte [FF]; Ich fand Julia Harrington. 1961: Die große Reise; Spiel um Job. 1961/62: Das Vergnügen, anständig zu sein [dir,scr]. 1962: Die Kartothek; Gabriel Schillings Flucht [dir,scr]; Antigone; Das große Vorbild [dir,scr]. 1964: The Confession [FF – US]; Macbeth; Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon. 1965: Ein Sommernachtstraum. 1966: Samba [TV – AT]; Die Mongolenschlacht.
HELMUT DIETL Born June 22, 1944, Bad Wiessee (Germany) Munich-based filmmaker Dietl has picked up numerous German and international awards for his meticulously cast and intelligently scripted film and television satires. Dietl worked as a television floor manager and as assistant theatre director at Munich’s Kammerspiele before starting to direct commercials. He subsequently began scripting and directing television series. These included MÜNCHNER GESCHICHTEN (Munich Tales, 1974), which provided the veteran actress Therese Giese with her final role, and the twelve-part DER GANZ NORMALE WAHNSINN (Snafu, 1978/79), both of them pointing to a penchant for Munich-based narratives, which combined a keen sense of observing everyday life realistically with satirical bite and show-stopping performances. Together with producer Jürgen Dohme and writer Patrick Süskind (author of the best-selling ‘Perfume’, 1976), Dietl subsequently made two phenomenally
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popular series about (fictitious) members of Munich’s in-crowd: MONACO FRANZE – DER EWIGE STENZ (Monaco Franze, the Eternal Dandy, 1982) starred Helmut Fischer as a boastful womaniser, and was characterised by gentle and subtle comedy. The award-winning KIR ROYAL (1984–86), in contrast, concerned the farcical exploits of a gossip columnist, played by Bavarian playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz, and relied more heavily on exaggeration and slapstick. Dietl cemented his reputation with his cinema debut, SCHTONK! (1991/92), a satirical re-enactment of the scandal in 1983 surrounding the notorious fake Hitler diaries, in which he effectively poked fun not only at the West German mass media, but also at Germany’s preoccupation with its national past. The film received the German Film Award for best director, as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, though it was only mildly successful abroad. Dietl’s next film was a humorous insider’s account of the Munich filmmaking scene, ROSSINI ODER DIE MÖRDERISCHE FRAGE, WER MIT WEM SCHLIEF
(Rossini, 1996). Criticised in some circles on account of Dietl’s supposed failure to maintain sufficient distance from his subject matter, this film nevertheless won German Film Awards for best picture and best director. He next lampooned the ruthless world of ratingsconscious German television producers with LATE SHOW (1998), starring real-life German television celebrities Thomas Gottschalk and Harald Schmidt, before embarking on a contemporary pastiche of ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ with Moritz Bleibtreu and Alexandra Maria Lara in the lead roles, titled VOM SUCHEN UND FINDEN DER LIEBE (Looking for Love – and Finding It, 2004). [dir – DE] 1971/72: Das Jahrhundert der Chirurgen [2 episodes – TVS – scr]. 1974: Münchner Geschichten [6 episodes – TVS – dir,co-scr]. 1975: Eine Frau zieht ein [TV]. 1978/79: Der ganz normale Wahnsinn [12 episodes – TVS – co-dir,scr]; Der Durchdreher. 1982: Monaco Franze – Der ewige Stenz [12 episodes – TVS – co-dir,co-scr]. 1984-86: Kir Royal: 1. Wer reinkommt, ist drin / 2. Muttertag / 3. Das Volk sieht nichts / 4. Adieu Claire / 5. Königliche Hoheit / 6. Karriere [TVS – dir,scr]. 1991/92: Schtonk! [dir, scr,pro]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung [TVD – app]; Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief [dir,co-scr]. 1998: Late Show [dir,co-scr,pro]; Jack’s Baby [TV – supv,pro]. 2000/ 01: Wambo [TV – pro]. 2001/02: Erkan & Stefan gegen die Mächte der Finsternis [act]. 2004: Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe [dir,co-scr,pro].
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MARLENE DIETRICH (Maria Magdalene Dietrich) Born December 27, 1901, Berlin-Schöneberg (Germany) Died May 6, 1992, Paris (France) A cinema legend, Dietrich remains a potent icon of Weimar culture’s international legacy and epitomises the glamorous, self-mythologising classical Hollywood star. Dietrich studied music in Weimar and Berlin from 1919 to 1921. However, poor health forced her to turn to photographic modelling, before joining Max Reinhardt’s acting school and taking small roles at various theatres in the German capital. Her film debut was as a chambermaid in Georg Jacoby’s SO SIND DIE MÄNNER (The Little Napoleon, 1922). Production manager Rudolf Sieber (whom Dietrich would subsequently marry) cast her in Joe May’s TRAGÖDIE DER LIEBE (Love Tragedy, 1922/ 23), and Dietrich went on to numerous supporting parts, not least in Alexander Korda’s high-society dramas MADAME WÜNSCHT KEINE KINDER (Madame Wants No Children) and EINE DUBARRY VON HEUTE (A Modern Dubarry, both 1926). She appeared opposite Harry Liedtke in Tobis’s first part-sound film, ICH KÜSSE IHRE HAND, MADAME (I Kiss Your Hand Madame, 1928), directed by Robert Land, before starring in the two films that would establish her image as a long-legged, blond, man-eating femme fatale – Kurt Bernhardt’s DIE FRAU, NACH DER MAN SICH SEHNT (Three Loves, 1929) and Josef von Sternberg’s Heinrich Mann adaptation DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30), playing nightclub singer Lola Lola. Signed by Paramount in 1930, the actress made six heavily stylised films under Sternberg’s direction in Hollywood, which – together with studio publicity – presented Dietrich as an iconic embodiment of icy sexuality. These films included MOROCCO (1930) with Gary Cooper, and THE SCARLET EMPRESS (1934), in which Dietrich’s real-life daughter Maria Sieber (b. 1924) played her mother’s character as a child. After parting ways with Sternberg, Dietrich appeared in Jacques Feyder’s British-made KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR (1936/37), and in two further Paramount pictures produced by Ernst Lubitsch – Frank Borzage’s DESIRE (1935/36), which once again paired her with Cooper, and Lubitsch’s own romantic comedy ANGEL (1937). George Marshall’s comedy western DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939), and pictures like Tay Garnett’s SEVEN SINNERS (1940) and Lewis Seiler’s PITTSBURGH (1942) helped secure a new Americanised image – practical, dependable, and groomed to within an inch of her life. Dietrich became an American citizen in 1939, and from 1943 spent three years with the US Army’s enter-
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tainment corps. She received her last regular film work between 1946 and 1951, before launching a new career as a chanteuse in Las Vegas in 1953. This second, highly lucrative episode in Dietrich’s showbusiness life came to an end in 1975, following a fall from the stage in Australia. Dietrich’s film appearances became less frequent during these years, although she still put in enigmatic performances in Billy Wilder’s WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), and as the widow of a German general in Stanley Kramer’s JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961). Otherwise, she was featured primarily as a guest star, e.g. playing a saloon hostess in Michael Anderson’s all-star romp AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956), the madam of a brothel in Orson Welles’s TOUCH OF EVIL (1957/58), or – in her final film – a wheelchair-bound baroness in David Hemmings’s SCHÖNER GIGOLO, ARMER GIGOLO (Just a Gigolo, 1977/78). Dietrich’s 1960 West German tour was overshadowed by protests about her pro-American stance during World War II, and only in 2002 was she posthumously made an honorary citizen of Berlin as a belated act of reconciliation. She published her memoirs, ‘Nehmt nur mein Leben …’ (titled ‘Marlene’ in English) in 1979, and participated in taped audio interviews with Maximilian Schell in 1982/83, which he used as the basis for his award-winning documentary MARLENE. A swathe of biographies have, if anything, only added to the opaqueness of the Dietrich legend, not least of which have been daughter Maria Riva’s book ‘My Mother Marlene’ (1993) and grandson David Riva’s feature-length documentary MARLENE DIETRICH: HER OWN SONG (2001/02). In 1993, the City of Berlin for a few millions of Mark acquired a warehouse full of memorabilia collected by Dietrich and handed it over to Deutsche Kinemathek that now runs Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin (MDCB) as part of its Filmmuseum. [act – DE] 1922: So sind die Männer. 1922/23: Tragödie der Liebe [4 parts]. 1923: Der Mensch am Wege; Der Sprung ins Leben. 1924: Der Mönch von Santarem. 1925/ 26: Manon Lescaut. 1926: Eine Dubarry von heute; Kopf hoch, Charly!; Madame wünscht keine Kinder; Der Juxbaron. 1927: Sein größter Bluff; Café Elektric [AT]. 1928: Prinzessin Olala; Ich küsse ihre Hand, Madame. 1928/29: Gefahren der Brautzeit. 1929: Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt; Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. [act – US] 1930: Morocco. 1930/31: Dishonored; Kismet [MLV]. 1931: Shanghai Express. 1932: Blonde Venus. 1933: The Song of Songs. 1934: The Scarlet Empress. 1934/35: The Devil Is a Woman. 1935/36: Desire. 1936: I Loved a Soldier; Garden of Allah. 1936/37: Knight Without Armour [GB]. 1937: Angel. 1939: Destry Rides Again. 1940: Seven Sinners; The Flame of New Orleans. 1941:
Manpower; The Lady Is Willing. 1942: The Spoilers; Pittsburgh. 1943/44: Kismet. 1944: Follow the Boys. 1946: Martin Roumagnac [FR]; Golden Earrings. 1947/48: A Foreign Affair. 1948/49: Jigsaw. 1950: Stage Fright [US/ GB]. 1951: No Highway / No Highway in the Sky [GB/US]; Rancho Notorious. 1956: Around the World in 80 Days. 1956/57: Montecarlo / The Monte Carlo Story [IT/US]. 1957: Witness for the Prosecution. 1957/58: Touch of Evil. 1961: Judgment At Nuremberg. 1962: The Black Fox. The True Story of Adolf Hitler [voi]. 1963: Paris When It Sizzles. 1977/78: Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo [DE]. 1982/83: Marlene [DO – DE/FR/CS – voi]. 1996: Marlene Dietrich: Shadow and Light [TVD – US/GB]. 2001/02: Marlene Dietrich – Her Own Song [TVD – DE/US].
KLAUS DOLDINGER (Klaus Erich Dieter Doldinger) Born May 12, 1936, Berlin (Germany) A multiple-award-winning composer and musician in his capacity as leader of German jazz-rock fusion group ‘Passport’, Doldinger has written hundreds of film scores, television show tunes and advertising jingles. Growing up in Vienna Doldinger started taking piano lessons at Düsseldorf’s Robert Schumann Conservatory in 1947, where he subsequently also studied clarinet and acoustics. A age sixteen he joined the amateur Dixie band ‘The Feetwarmers’, then ‘Oscar’s Trio’. From 1958 to 1963 he studied music while simultaneously training as a sound mixer. Founding the ‘Klaus Doldinger Quartet’ in 1962, he produced his first solo album the following year, and also taught saxophone at the School of Music in Remscheid from 1962 to 1967. Some of his more pop oriented records were published under the pseudonym Paul Nero. Undertaking numerous foreign tours to promote German culture abroad under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, he worked as musical director on several stage musicals in Düsseldorf, including a 1964 production ‘Girl Crazy’ and the 1967 production of ‘Hello Dolly’. In 1969 he set up the group ‘Doldinger Motherhood’ with himself as lead singer, which contributed the title song to Hans W. Geissendörfer’s television drama EINE ROSE FÜR JANE (A Rose for Jane, 1970), though Doldinger abandoned this venture shortly after to launch ‘Passport’, the group with whom he enjoyed his greatest international and chart success. Doldinger’s first film scoring work was for several cartoons by director Henry Piper in 1960, after which he composed for documentary and industrial films, and provided advertising jingles for corporate clients such as Lufthansa, Siemens and Volkswagen. Particularly memorable have been Doldinger’s punchy theme tunes to popular television series including TATORT (Crime Scene, from 1970), EIN FALL FÜR ZWEI (A
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Case for Two, from 1981), LIEBLING KREUZBERG (Darling Kreuzberg, 1985–97), WOLFFS REVIER (Wolff’s Turf, from 1992), and DIE KOMMISSARIN (The Female Inspector, 1993–2006). After performing on the soundtrack of Will Tremper’s film PLAYGIRL (That Woman, 1965/66), his first feature film score was Klaus Lemke’s NEGRESCO **** – EINE TÖDLICHE AFFÄRE (Negresco / My Bed Is Not for Sleeping, 1967/68). He went on to work for Volker Schlöndorff on BAAL (1969) and DER PLÖTZLICHE REICHTUM DER ARMEN LEUTE VON KOMBACH
(The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach, 1970). He also scored films by directors including Reinhard Hauff, Hark Bohm, Margarethe von Trotta, and Doris Dörrie, as well as occasional international projects such as Jack Arnold’s THE SWISS CONSPIRACY (1975/76), and Hall Bartlett’s LOVE IS FOREVER / IN DEN DUNKLEN FLUTEN DES MEKONG
(1982/83). Initially characterised by somewhat strident and unruly jazz-type arrangements, his scores in later years blended a variety of styles, employing full orchestras, choirs and electronic effects. This is particularly true of his work with director Wolfgang Petersen from 1974 through to the big-budget DAS BOOT (The Boat, 1980/81) – incidentally, the best-selling German film soundtrack of all time on CD – and DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE (The NeverEnding Story, 1983/84). Since the 1990s, Doldinger’s tempered yet highly emotive scores accompanied the two six-part documentary series HITLER – EINE BILANZ (The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler, 1995) and HOLOKAUST (Hitler’s Holocaust, 2000). In 2002, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He has been married to former model Inge Beck since 1960. [mus – TV – DE] 1960: Es steht in der Zeitung [ANI]. 1961: Notizen aus der Jazzwerkstatt 2. 1963: Verpaßt den Anschluß nicht [SD]. 1964: Eine gute Idee [SD]; Notizen aus der Jazzwerkstatt 17. 1965: Arena 61 [SD]; Strahlenwirkung – Strahlenschutz [SD]. 1965/66: Playgirl [FF]. 1967: Show Real [mus,app]; Ein gewisser Swing ist immer drin [TVD]; Wirb oder stirb. 1967/68: Negresco **** – Eine tödliche Affäre [FF]. 1969: Wie kommt ein so reizendes Mädchen zu diesem Gewerbe? / Dove vai senza mutandine? [FF – DE/IT]; Baal. 1969/70: Ein Schlager wird gemacht [mus,app]. 1970: Ein Wochenende; Eine Rose für Jane; Tatort: Taxi nach Leipzig; Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach [FF]; Tatort: Kressin und der tote Mann im Fleet. 1970/71: Tatort: Kressin und der Laster nach Lüttich. 1971: Tatort: Kressin stoppt den Nordexpreß; Concerto für Jazzband und Sinfonie-Orchester; Lester Wilson Show. 1971/72: Tatort: Der Fall Geisterbahn. 1972: Ein Toter stoppt den 8 Uhr 10; Tatort: Kressin und die Frau des Malers; Tatort: Kressin und der Mann mit dem gelben Koffer; Sommer-Sprossen; Swing in. Klaus
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Doldinger 1972; Tatort: Kennwort Gute Reise. 1972-74: Okay S.I.R. [TVS]. 1973: … aber Jonny! [FF]; Tatort: Kressin und die zwei Damen aus Jade. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden [FF]. 1973-75: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit [TVS]. 1974: Deutschland [SD]; Tatort: Der Mann aus Zimmer 22. 1974/76: Doldinger Jubilee Concert. 1975: Klaus Doldingers Passport mit Inga Rumpf und Philip Cathérine; Bis zur bitteren Neige [FF]; Das Netz [FF]; Die Rakete; Alle Jahre wieder. Die Familie Semmeling. 1975/76: The Swiss Conspiracy / Per Saldo Mord [FF – US/DE]; Halbzeit [TVS]. 1976: Tatort: Transit ins Jenseits; Vier gegen die Bank. 1976/77: Eichholz & Söhne [TVS]; Planübung; Sanfter Schrecken. 1976-80: Jörg Preda berichtet [TVS]. 1977: Tatort: Spätlese; Der Alte: Konkurs; Passport do Brazil; Der Hauptdarsteller [FF]; Paradiso [FF – FR]; Das Rentenspiel; Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages [FF]. 1977/78: Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk [DE/AT]; Moritz, lieber Moritz [FF]; Der Alte: Ein Koffer. 1978: Derrick: Solo für Margarete; Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte [DE/AT]; Tatort: Sterne für den Orient; … von Herzen, mit Schmerzen; Der Sturz [FF]; Appartment für drei. 1979: … es ist die Liebe; Andreas Vöst; Zimmer frei, UNO-Nähe [TVS]; Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt [TV]. 1980: Ein zauberhaftes Biest [TVS]. 1980/81: Mit Gewissenhaftigkeit und Würde; Das Boot [FF]; Ausflug zum Vater [TVS]. 1981: Kriegsgefangene im Westen [TVD]; Ein Fall für zwei: Die große Schwester; Derrick: Der Untermieter; Ein Fall für zwei: Das Haus in Frankreich; Tatort: Im Fadenkreuz; Ein Fall für zwei: Todfreunde; Kriegsgefangene im Osten [TVD]. 1981/82: Ein Fall für zwei: Tollwut. 1982: Was sein muß, muß sein [SD – app]; Ein Fall für zwei: Der Jäger als Hase; Kriegsgefangene Frauen [TVD]; Ein Fall für zwei: Partner; Erwin Rommel [TVD]; Ein Fall für zwei: Zwielicht. 1982/83: Wie hätten Sie’s denn gern? [FF]; Love Is Forever / In den dunklen Fluten des Mekong [US/DE]; Satan ist auf Gottes Seite; Die wilden Fünfziger [FF]. 1983: Ein Fall für zwei: Die große Wut des kleinen Paschirbe. 1983/84: Die unendliche Geschichte [FF]. 1984: Jazz In [CH]; Jazz in Concert: Klaus Doldinger [CH]. 1985: Flight Into Hell / Flug in die Hölle [AU/FR/DE]. 1986: Der Alte: Killer gesucht; Zwölf Tage zwischen Angst und Hoffnung [TVD]; Torquemada [TV – GB]. 1986/87: Waldhaus [TVS]. 1987: z.B. Otto Spalt [FF]; Der Verführer [TVD]. 1987/88: A Father’s Revenge; Ich und Er [FF]. 1987-90: Peterchens Mondfahrt [ANI]. 1988: Nonni und Manni [DE/IS]; Peter Strohm: Grüne Brigade; Ekkehard [DE/HU]. 1989/90: Vorwärts; Abenteuer Airport [2 episodes – TVS – act]. 1990: Neuner [FF]; Der Erfolg ihres Lebens. 1990/91: Hurenglück. 1991: Ein Fall für zwei: Hannas letzte Liebe; Ein Fall für zwei: Filmriß; Die lila Weihnachtsgeschichte; Ein Fall für zwei: Schweigen ist Geld. 1991/92: Tatort: Blindekuh; Tatort: Stoevers Fall; Salz auf unserer Haut [FF]. 1992: Tatort: Das Experiment; Vera Wesskamp [TVS]; Wolffs Revier: Witwe in Weiß; Wolffs Revier: Katharina und Kaviar; Wolffs Revier: Schnell reich, schnell tot; Wolffs Revier: Verbrecher sind nicht pünktlich; Ein Fall für zwei: Feiglinge töten nicht; Wolffs Revier: Mord ist strafbar; Die Umarmung des Wolfes; Das tödliche Auge. 1992/93: Ein Fall für zwei: Rache; Ein Rucksack voller Abenteuer [TVS – DE/PL]; Grüß Gott, Genosse; Die Wildnis; Liebling Kreuzberg [season 4 – 13 episodes – TVS]. 1992-94: Hecht &
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ANGELICA DOMRÖSE
Haie [TVS]. 1993: Wer zweimal lügt. 1993/94: Tatort: Ein Wodka zuviel; Alles außer Mord: Die Frau ohne Gesicht; Tatort: Singvogel; Wir sind auch nur ein Volk [8 episodes – TVS]; Tatort: Tod eines Polizisten. 1993- 2006: Die Kommissarin [theme tune – 6 seasons – TVS]. 1994: Faust: Jagd auf Mephisto; Alles außer Mord: Der Mann im Mond; Alles außer Mord: Wer Gewalt sät …; Alles außer Mord: Der Name der Nelke; Das Wunder von Bern – Deutschland und die Fußball-WM 1954 [TVD]; Ein Fall für zwei: Tödlicher Gewinn; Ein Fall für zwei: Schuß ins Herz; Ein Fall für zwei: Ein todsicheres Geschäft; Tödliche Wahrheit; Alles außer Mord: Wahnsinn mit Methode. 1994/95: Ein Fall für zwei: Mordsfreunde; Alles außer Mord: Tödlicher Irrtum; Alles außer Mord: Marion Nr. 5; Alles außer Mord: Das Kuckucksei; Alles außer Mord: Blutiger Ernst; Alles außer Mord: Y.?17. 1995: Tatort: Tödliche Freundschaft; Ein Fall für zwei: Ein anständiger Mörder; Hitler – eine Bilanz [TVSDO]. 1995/96: Polizeiruf 110: Der Pferdemörder; Zwei Männer und die Frauen [TVS]. 1996: Wer hat Angst vorm Weihnachtsmann? [SF]; Polizeiruf 110: Lauf oder stirb; Tatort: Lockvögel; Alles wegen Robert De Niro [act,mus]; Agentenfieber … oder Wie betrügt man seine Frau; Verdammtes Glück; Tatort: Ausgespielt; Null Risiko und reich; Tatort: Mord hinterm Deich. 1996/97: Living Dead [SF]. 1997: Sperling und die verlorenen Steine; Nur eine Hure; Liebling Kreuzberg [season 5 – 18 episodes – TVS]; Tatort: Undercover Camping; Palmetto / Palmetto – Dumme sterben nicht aus [FF – US/DE]; Wolffs Revier: Urlaub in den Tod; Tatort: Am Ende der Welt [TV – CH]. 1998: Tatort: Arme Püppi; Tatort: Tanz auf dem Hochseil; Wolffs Revier: Ein todsicherer Plan; Wolffs Revier: Die Tote an der S-Bahn; Wolffs Revier: Freiwild; Wie stark muß eine Liebe sein; Tatort: Habgier. 1999: Tatort: Traumhaus; Tatort: Der Duft des Geldes; Tatort: Der Fluch des Bernsteinzimmers; Zimmer mit Frühstück. 1999/2000: Vasilisa [FF]. 1999-2004: Faszination Natur – Seven Seasons [DO]. 2000: Tatort: Rattenlinie; ‘Wenn ich singe’. Manfred Krug – Der Sänger [TVD – app]; ‘Lieber Fidel’. Maritas Geschichte [DO]; Tatort: Der schwarze Skorpion; Holokaust [6 episodes – TVSDO]; Verzweiflung [FF]; Tatort: Tod vor Scharhörn; Polizeiruf 110: Seestück mit Mädchen. 2001: Sind denn alle netten Männer schwul?; Ein Fall für zwei: Ein schändlicher Plan. 2002: Die SS – eine Warnung der Geschichte [6 episodes – TVS-DO]; Ein Fall für zwei: Alpträume. 2002/03: Im Schatten der Macht. 2003: Willy Brandt – Eine Jahrhundertgestalt [TVD]; Der Herr der Wüste; Ein Fall für zwei: Doppelmord. 2003-05: Der Kommunismus – Geschichte einer Illusion [3 episodes – TVD]. 2004/05: Offiziere gegen Hitler [3 episodes – TVD]. 2005: Drei Schwestern Made in Germany. 2006: Home [SF – GB/DE/CA]; Max von Oppenheim [TVD]. 2006/07: Rosa Roth: Der Tag wird kommen. 2007: Klaus Doldinger – Eine deutsche Musikerlegende [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Die Frau, die im Wald verschwand.
ANGELICA DOMRÖSE Born April 4, 1941, Berlin-Weißensee (Germany) Stage, screen and television actress Domröse was one of East Germany’s most popular stars, and remained in demand after German reunification. At age sixteen, Domröse was selected by director Slatan Dudow for the role of a recalcitrant mischiefmaker in VERWIRRUNG DER LIEBE (Love Confused, 1958/59). She subsequently studied acting at Babelsberg Film Academy until 1965, while appearing on television and in DEFA films such as Frank Vogel’s JULIA LEBT (Julia Lives, 1963) and as a Jewish former concentration camp internee in Joachim Hasler’s CHRONIK EINES MORDES (Chronicle of a Murder, 1964). She joined the Berliner Ensemble after graduating, and later worked at Berlin’s Volksbühne, while collaborating with actor Wolf Kaiser on programmes of Brecht recitations, several of which were broadcast on television. Domröse appeared in many television dramas, includng Martin Eckermann’s WEGE ÜBERS LAND (Overland, 1968), the five-part serial KRUPP UND KRAUSE / KRAUSE UND KRUPP (Krupp and Krause / Krause and Krupp, 1967/68) and Wolfgang Luderer’s adaptation of Theodore Fontane’s novel EFFI BRIEST (1968/69), in which she played the title role. Domröse also won accolades in the portrayal of a woman’s life over several decades in Horst Seemann’s FLEUR LAFONTAINE (1977/78), being named East German ‘television artist of the year’ three times. Domröse’s career highlight was the title role in Heiner Carow’s tragicomic depiction of contemporary East German reality, DIE LEGENDE VON PAUL UND PAULA (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1972), a cult film in which the emancipated, unsatisfied yet optimistic outlook of Domröse’s heroine found resonance with an entire generation of viewers. Part of a group of East German artists who had signed an open letter demanding the repatriation of expelled songwriter Wolf Biermann, Domröse eventually left the GDR alongside her second husband, actor Hilmar Thate (b. 1931). Subsequently, Domröse headlined at theatres in Hamburg, West Berlin and Stuttgart, and starred on television in films such as Marianne Lüdcke’s FLÜCHTIGE BEKANNTSCHAFTEN (Fleeting Acquaintances, 1981/82). She worked repeatedly with directors who had also left the GDR, appearing in Frank Beyer’s DIE ZWEITE HAUT (Second Skin, 1981) and Egon Günther’s HANNA VON ACHT BIS ACHT (Hanna from 8 Till 8, 1983). Domröse also made a glamorous guest star appearance in Helmut Dietl’s series KIR ROYAL (1984– 86) and performed alongside Thate in Otto Schenk’s production of the Wilhelminian satire DIE HOSE (The Bloomers, 1985).
KARIN DOR
After German reunification, Domröse reunited with director Heiner Carow, in his post hoc assessment of the East German political system, VERFEHLUNG (Off Target, 1990/91), while repeatedly appearing in the television crime series POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call, 1994–97). Although continuing to be primarily a stage and television actress, she also appeared in Branwen Okpako’s debut feature TAL DER AHNUNGSLOSEN (Valley of the Innocent, 2003) as the biological mother of a black German woman hunting for her past amid East Germany’s Stasi files. Domröse published her autobiography, ‘Ich fang mich selber ein’ (Capturing Myself), in 2003. [act – TV – DD] 1958/59: Verwirrung der Liebe [FF]. 1959: Dämmerstunde [SF]. 1960: Papas neue Freundin; Die Liebe und der Co-Pilot [FF]. 1961: Vielgeliebtes Sternchen; Die aus der 12b [FF]; Wenn Du zu mir hältst [FF]. 1961/ 62: An französischen Kaminen [FF]. 1962: Oh, diese Jugend. 1963: Sonntagsfahrer [FF]; Julia lebt [FF]; Drei Kriege. 1. Tauroggen; Engel, Sünden und Verkehr. 2. Der Wettlauf des Hasen mit dem Igel [FF]. 1963/64: Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt [FF]. 1964: Tolles Geld; Drei Kriege. 2. Hinter den Fronten; Das Schauspielerporträt: Angelica Domröse [TV-SD]; Chronik eines Mordes [FF]. 1964/65: Entlassen auf Bewährung [FF]. 1965: Bäume sterben aufrecht; Jeder hat seine Geschichte. 1966: Der Archipel Lenoir; Die Tage der Kommune; Schatten über Notre Dame; Emilia Galotti. 1966/67: Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz [FF]. 1967: Die Hose; Já, spravedlnost [FF – CS]. 1967/68: Krupp und Krause [episodes 1-3 – TVS]. 1968: Wege übers Land [5 episodes]; Alchimisten. 1968/69: Effi Briest. 1969: Der große Klaus; Die Zeichen der Ersten. 1970: Erlesenes [episode 12]. 1970/71: Artur Becker; Salut Germain / Résistance [13 episodes – TVS – DD/FR]. 1971: Arzt wider Willen; Die Chansonreise; Weil es mir Spaß macht [SD – app]. 1971/72: Die Brüder Lautensack; Eva und Adam oder Gefechte mit Napoleon. 1972: Liebeszauber; Die Legende von Paul und Paula [FF]; Eva und Adam oder Privat nach Vereinbarung. 1972/73: Eva und Adam oder Wieviel Sterne hat der Himmel. 1973: Eva und Adam oder Drum prüfe!; Unterm Birnbaum [FF]. 1974: Mein lieber Mann und ich. 1975: Die Wildente; Der goldene Elefant; Die Ausgezeichneten. 1975/76: Daniel Druskat. 1976/77: Abschied vom Frieden. 1977/78: Fleur Lafontaine [TV + FF]; Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet [FF]. 1979/80: Der Galgensteiger [CH/DE]; Am grauen Strand, am grauen Meer. [act – TV – DE] 1980/81: Don Quichottes Kinder [FF]. 1981: Die zweite Haut. 1981/82: Flüchtige Bekanntschaften. 1982/83: Randale [FF]. 1983: Hanna von acht bis acht. 1984: Mamas Geburtstag. 1984/85: Fraulein – Ein deutsches Melodram. 1984-86: Kir Royal. 6. Karriere. 1985: Rosarot bis Schwarz; Die Hose; Blanche – oder Das Atelier im Garten. 1988: Frauen-Krieg-Lustspiel [TV – AT]; Der Alte: Blackout; Stalin [TV – AT]; Das Sonntagsgespräch: Angelica Domröse [TVD – app – DE]. 1989: Die Skorpionfrau [FF – AT]. 1989/90: Der Alte: Die Wahrheit. 1990: Eine Legende vom Glück ohne Ende [TVD – app – DD]; The
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Beatles Forever. 1990/91: Hurenglück; Verfehlung [FF]. 1991: Tote Briefe. Wer kennt Joshua? 1993: Zwischentöne: Heiner Carow über Angelica Domröse [TVD – app]; Angelica Domröse und Hilmar Thate: Erinnerungen an ‘Daniel Druskat’ [TVD – app]. 1994: Polizeiruf 110: Samstags, wenn Krieg ist; Brandheiß: Die letzte Entscheidung. 1995/96: Faust: Der Goldjunge. 1996: Polizeiruf 110: Kleine Dealer, große Träume. 1996/97: Kalte Küsse. 1997: Eine unmoralische Frau: Aufstieg und Fall der Neuberin [TVD – app]; Polizeiruf 110: Hetzjagd. 2003: Tal der Ahnungslosen.
KARIN DOR (Kätherose Derr) Born February 22, 1936, Wiesbaden (Germany) Often typecast as a well behaved, intelligent, and attractive girl-next-door, brunette Dor was one of the most prolific female stars of 1960s West German popular cinema. Dor began her film career as an extra. Director and future husband Harald Reinl gave her a first speaking part in the Heimatfilm ROSEN-RESLI (1954), marking the beginning of several collaborations. Throughout the 1950s Dor appeared in a range of genres, from Heimatfilms to musical comedies, although her career only really took off in the early 1960s. In the popular Edgar Wallace crime series she was frequently cast as the stereotypical ‘woman in peril’ and as the love interest of dynamic young Scotland Yard inspectors, although her characters always retained a sense of personal independence and self-determination. Only in ZIMMER 13 (Room 13, 1963/64) where the film’s denouement revealed her character to be a psychopathic killer, was she allowed to deviate radically from her established persona. For her prolific appearances in the Wallace series, not to mention countless other crime and spy thriller productions during the decade, Dor earned herself the affectionate soubriquet ‘Miss Krimi’. Dor also left her mark on a series of westerns based on the adventure novels of German author Karl May. In DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE (Treasure of Silver Lake, 1962) she was being rescued out of a bandits’ lair, while in WINNETOU II (Last of the Renegades, 1964) she played a demure chieftain’s daughter. In the final entry of the series, WINNETOU UND SHATTERHAND IM TAL DER TOTEN (Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death, 1968) Dor portrayed a young woman determined to restore the honour of her dead father. Less formulaic were Reinl’s unintentionally hilarious horror film DIE SCHLANGENGRUBE UND DAS PENDEL (The Snake Pit and the Pendulum, 1967) and his remake of Fritz Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN (1966/67), in which Dor played a passionate and vengeful Brunhilde.
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Even further away from her established screen persona was her sexy villainess Helga Brandt in the James Bond film YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1966) where Dor, her hair dyed red, got the opportunity to seduce Sean Connery. She continued her international career in Alfred Hitchcock’s spy thriller TOPAZ (1969), where she played the doomed leader of a Cuban resistance group, her death scene being a dramatic high point of the film. In the late 1960s, the combination of a cancer operation and her divorce from Reinl enforced a temporary suspension of her career, but she soon resumed it, and from the 1970s concentrated primarily on stage and television work, including appearances on U.S. crime series such as IRONSIDE and IT TAKES A THIEF, later also on German television series. [act – DE] 1953: Der letzte Walzer. 1954: Rosen aus dem Süden; Rosen-Resli; Der schweigende Engel; Ihre große Prüfung. 1955: Solange du lebst. 1956: Santa Lucia. 1956/ 57: Kleiner Mann – ganz groß. 1957: Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal; Almenrausch und Edelweiß [AT]. 1958: Mit Eva fing die Sünde an; Worüber man nicht spricht; Dreizehn alte Esel; Skandal um Dodo [AT]. 1959: So angelt man keinen Mann; Das blaue Meer und Du; Ein Sommer, den man nie vergißt. 1960: Die Bande des Schreckens; Im weißen Rößl [AT/DE]. 1960/61: Der grüne Bogenschütze. 1961: The Playgirls and the Bellboy [US/DE]; Bei Pichler stimmt die Kasse nicht; Der Fälscher von London; Am Sonntag will mein Süßer mit mir segeln gehn; Im schwarzen Rößl [AT]. 1961/62: Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse. 1962: Der Teppich des Grauens / Terrore en la noche / Il terrore di notte [DE/ES/IT]; Ohne Krimi geht die Mimi nie ins Bett [AT]; Der Schatz im Silbersee / Blago u Srebnom jezeru / Le trésor du lac d’argent [DE/YU/FR]. 1963: Die weiße Spinne; Der Würger von Schloß Blackmoor; Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Witwe / Araña negra [DE/ES]. 1963/64: Zimmer 13 / L’Attaque du fourgon postal [DE/FR]. 1964: Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Der letzte Mohikaner / El ultimo Mohicano / La valle della ombre rosse [DE/ES/IT]. 1964/65: The Face of Fu Manchu [GB]. 1965: Hotel der toten Gäste / El enigma de los Cornell [DE/ES]; Winnetou III / Vinetu III [DE/YU]; Io la conoscevo bene / Je la connaissais bien / Ich habe sie gut gekannt [IT/FR/DE]; Der unheimliche Mönch. 1965/66: Der Mann mit den tausend Masken / Upperseven, l’uomo da uccidere [DE/IT]. 1966: Gern hab’ ich die Frauen gekillt / Spie contro il mondo / Le carnaval des barbouzes [AT/IT/ FR]; Das Geheimnis der gelben Mönche / Tiro a segno per uccidere [AT/IT]; You Only Live Twice [GB]. 1966/67: Die Nibelungen: 1. Siegfried von Xanten / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1967: Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel. 1967/68: Caroline chérie / Caroline chérie / Caroline chérie – Schön wie die Sünde [FR/IT/DE]. 1967-75: 1968: Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten / L’uomo dal lungo fucile [DE/YU/ IT]. 1969: It Takes a Thief: The Three Virgins of Rome [TV – US]; Topaz [US]. 1969/70: El hombre que vino de Ummo / Dracula jagt Frankenstein / Dracula contro Frankenstein [ES/DE/IT]. 1970: The F.B.I.: The Target [TV – US]; Ironside:
Check, Mate; and Murder. Part 1+ 2 [TV – US]. 1970/71: Haie an Bord. 1974: Warhead (Mission Overkill) [US]; [TV – GB]; Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies [TV]; Die Antwort kennt nur der Wind / Seul le vent connait la réponse [DE/FR]. 1975/76: Frauenstation. 1977: Klimbim [episode 19 – TVS]. 1980/81: Achtung Zoll [season 4 – TVS]. 1983: Der Lord und das Kätzchen [TV]. 1985: Harald Reinl – Kino ohne Probleme [TVD]; Gipfeltreffen [TV]. 1986/87: Johann Strauß – Der ungekrönte König / Johann Strauß – Le roi sans couronne [AT/DD/DE/FR]. 1988: Tele-As. Das große Spiel rund ums Fernsehen [1 episode – TV – DE/AT]. 1990/ 91: Die große Freiheit [8 episodes – TVS]. 1993/94: Mein Freund, der Lipizzaner. 1997/98: Rosamunde Pilcher – Der Preis der Liebe [TV]; Höchstpersönlich: Karin Dor [TVD]. 2000: Rosamunde Pilcher – Ruf der Vergangenheit [TV]. 2001: SOKO 5113: Ludwig der Letzte [TV]. 2004: Inga Lindström – Sehnsucht nach Marielund [TV]. 2005/06: Ich bin die Andere.
DORIS DÖRRIE Born May 26, 1955, Hanover (Germany) One of the best-known directors to emerge in the 1980s, Dörrie continued as a versatile filmmaker, producer and writer. After studying at Munich’s Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in the mid-1970s, Dörrie worked freelance for television, directing a number of children’s films and documentaries. Her first feature film, MITTEN INS HERZ (Straight in the Heart, 1983) recounted the unhappy story of the financial and emotional transactions binding a 22-year-old cashier to an older dentist. Although both her debut and her next film, IM INNERN DES WALS (Inside the Whale, 1984), a North German road movie, were well received critically, Dörrie achieved an unanticipated level of popular success with the hit comedy MÄNNER in 1985. Starring Heiner Lauterbach and Uwe Ochsenknecht as ideological and romantic rivals, the film used the two main characters to wittily send up the compromises made by members of the 1968 generation. Some critics argued though that her film had sacrificed real satirical sharpness with its conciliatory ending. Dörrie’s tragicomedy PARADIES (Paradise, 1986) was seen as an attempt to move away from the terrain covered in MÄNNER, although Heiner Lauterbach again starred as a husband in a troubled marriage. The lacklustre international production ICH UND ER (Me and Him, 1987/88), however enjoyed neither critical nor popular acclaim, and Dörrie’s next film GELD (Money, 1988/89) seemed further evidence that her career was failing to fulfil the early promise shown in MÄNNER. In 1989, Dörrie set up her own production company Cobra Filmproduktion GmbH. Her adaptation of the Jakob Arjouni crime novel HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TÜR-
ANDREAS DRESEN KE! (1991) was a partial return to form. The film, cen-
tred on a private detective of Turkish descent, used to considerable effect a stylised visual palette to create a neo-noir atmosphere for its seedy Frankfurt locale. Dörrie was also enjoying a growing critical reputation as a writer, with several collections of short stories and novels to her name. Often her films would develop characters and storylines introduced first in her writing, such as KEINER LIEBT MICH (Nobody Loves Me, 1994) which portrayed the bittersweet and occasionally surreal relationships of a disparate selection of lonely and anxious characters living in a Cologne apartment block. BIN ICH SCHÖN? (Am I Beautiful?, 1997/98) successfully assembled a cast that included stars from several generations of German cinema. The interwoven stories of love, death, dislocation and deception confirmed Dörrie’s ability as a gifted storyteller in print and on screen. Dörrie followed this up with ERLEUCHTUNG GARANTIERT (Enlightenment Guaranteed, 1999), which starred Gustav-Peter Wöhler and Uwe Ochsenknecht in a portrayal of the midlife crisis of two estranged brothers. For her next film, NACKT (Naked, 2001/02), she adapted her own play into a stylised and episodic film structured around the troubled relationships of three young couples. Dörrie’s subsequent work can be termed her ‘Japanese period’ as it often explores the cultural connections between East and West. Films in this vein included DER FISCHER UND SEINE FRAU (The Fisher and His Wife, 2004/05) yet another study of fractured relationships but with a cross-cultural twist, HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE – WIE MAN SEIN LEBEN KOCHT (2006/07) a documentary about Zen cook Edward Espe Brown, and KIRSCHBLÜTEN – HANAMI (Cherry Blossoms, 2007) about a widower who travels to Japan to visit his son – an explicit homage to Yasujiro Ozu’s TOKYO MONOGATARI (1953). [dir,scr – DE] 1976/77: Ob’s stürmt oder schneit [DO – co-dir,co-scr,ass-cam,pro]. 1977: Ene, mene, mink [SF – dir]; Der Hauptdarsteller [act]. 1978: Alt werden in der Fremde [TVD]; Hättst was Gscheits glernt [TVD – dir,co-scr]; Der erste Walzer [dir,co-scr]. 1979: Paula aus Portugal [TV]. 1979/80: So weit das Auge reicht / À perte de vue [ass-dir,scr – DE/FR/CH]. 1980: Katharina Eiselt, 85, Arbeiterin [TVD]. 1980/81: Von Romantik keine Spur [TVD]. 1981/82: Dazwischen [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1983: Mitten ins Herz. 1984: King Kongs Faust [act]; Im Innern des Wals [dir,co-scr]. 1985: Männer. 1986: Paradies. 1986/ 87: Wann – wenn nicht jetzt? [scr]. 1987/88: Ich und Er. 1988/89: Geld. 1989: Die Filmemacherin – Begegnungen mit Doris Dörrie [TVD – app]. 1990: Love in Germany [voi]. 1991: Happy Birthday, Türke! 1993: Was darf’s denn sein? [DO]. 1994: Keiner liebt mich. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung
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[TVD – app]. 1997: … augenblick … [TVD – dir,scr,voi, act]. 1997/98: Bin ich schön? [dir,co-scr,sma]. 1999: Erleuchtung garantiert [dir,co-scr]. 2000: Zurück auf Los [act]; Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app]. 2001/02: Nackt. 2002/03: Musen, Macht und Glamour – Die Welt der Maximilianstraße [TVD – app]. 2003: Ein seltsames Paar [TV]. 2004/05: Der Fischer und seine Frau. 2006/07: How to Cook Your Life – Wie man sein Leben kocht. Die Zen-Kochkunst des Edward Espe Brown [DO – dir,scr,co-cam]. 2007: Kirschblüten – Hanami; Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app].
ANDREAS DRESEN Born August 16, 1963, Gera (East Germany) One of the more promising directors to emerge after the fall of the Wall, Andreas Dresen’s films since the early 1990s have often dealt with the aftermath of German reunification and everyday life in provincial Eastern Germany. Dresen attended school in Schwerin, and began making amateur films in 1979. After working as a sound technician at the Schweriner Theater, he undertook an apprenticeship at DEFA, working as a directorial assistant under Günter Reisch. He studied directing at the Babelsberg Film Academy between 1986 and 1991, before becoming a student of Günter Reisch at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Dresen’s earliest films included shorts and documentaries. His breakthrough first feature, STILLES LAND (Quiet Land, 1991/92) was an award-winning portrayal of the reactions of an East German provincial theatre company to the momentous events of 1989. He followed this with two documentaries, KRAUSES KNEIPE (Krause’s Pub) and KUCKUCKSKINDER (The Cuckoo Children, both 1993), and two films made for television, DAS ANDERE LEBEN DES HERRN KREINS (The Other Life of Mr Kreins) and MEIN UNBEKANNTER EHEMANN (My Unknown Husband, both 1994), a comedy drama. By the mid-1990s, Dresen had established himself as a sought-after director for television films and series, and he also briefly worked as director at the Cottbus theatre in 1996, before releasing his second feature film, the acclaimed study of post-unification Berlin, NACHTGESTALTEN (Night Creatures, 1998), which followed the lives of a number of characters living on the margins of the busy metropolis. Dresen’s third feature, DIE POLIZISTIN (The Policewoman, 2000), a realistic and gritty depiction of the professional and personal challenges faced by a female police graduate in a poor district in the north-east German city of Rostock, was awarded the Adolf Grimme Award, and his next film, an everyday humorous love story again set in a provincial east German city, HALBE TREPPE (Halfway Up the
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Stairs, 2001/02), was another critical, if not commercial, success. In 2002, he followed a politician during an election campaign in the rural area of north-western Brandenburg for his documentary HERR WICHMANN VON DER CDU (Mr Wichmann from the Christian Democrats, 2002). Dresen’s next feature film, WILLENBROCK (2004/05) charted the psychological disintegration of a brashly confident car dealer after being robbed in his own home, and starred Axel Prahl, one of Dresen’s favourite actors. Based on a screenplay by DEFA veteran Wolfgang Kohlhaase and taking its cue from the latter’s Berlinthemed films of the 1950s, SOMMER VORM BALKON (Summer in Berlin, 2005) was a romantic drama chronicling the friendshop of two young women from East Berlin. The unexpected love affair of an ordinary married woman in her late sixties was the subject of WOLKE 9 (Cloud Nine, 2007/08), which won acclaim at ‘Un certain regard’ and received the ‘Coup de coeur’ award at the 2008 Cannes Film festival. [dir,scr – DD] 1985: Der kleine Clown [SF]. 1985/86: Wie die Alten sungen … [ass-dir]. 1986/87: Schritte des anderen [SF]. 1987: Konsequenzen – Peter/25 [SF]. 1988: Nachts schlafen die Ratten [SF]; Was jeder muß … [SD]. 1989: Jenseits von Klein Wanzleben [DO]; Zimbabwe – Dreams of the Future [DO]. 1989/90: Zug in die Ferne [SF]. 1990: So schnell es geht nach Istanbul [dir,co-scr]. [dir,scr – DE] 1991: Lulu [SF – DE/FR]; Die Narren sterben nicht aus [TVD]; Es bleibt alles ganz anders [TVD]. 1991/92: Stilles Land [dir,co-scr]. 1991-2002: Achterbahn [TVS – dir,co-scr]. 1992: Die Brautwahl [SF]. 1993: Krauses Kneipe [SD]; Kuckuckskinder [TVD]. 1994: Das andere Leben des Herrn Kreins [TV – dir]; Mein unbekannter Ehemann [TV – dir]. 1995: Heimatgeschichten: Alte Freunde [TV – dir]; Heimatgeschichten: Sprung ins Glück [TV – codir]. 1997: Polizeiruf 110: Der Tausch [TV – dir]; Raus aus der Haut [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1998: Nachtgestalten. 2000: Die Polizistin [TV – dir]. 2001/02: Halbe Treppe. 2002: Nelken für Reisch [SD – app]; Herr Wichmann von der CDU [DO]. 2002-04: Last Minute [supv]. 2004/05: Willenbrock [dir]. 2005: Sommer vorm Balkon [dir]. 2007: Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]. 2007/ 08: Wolke 9 [dir,co-scr]; Freundschaft! – Die freie deutsche Jugend [TVD – app]. 2007-09: Whisky mit Wodka. 2008/ 09: Mein Leben – Andreas Dresen [TVD – app].
ROLAND DRESSEL Born April 26, 1932, Meerane (Germany) Noted for his experimental camera set-ups, high contrast lighting, and atmospheric close-ups, cinematographer Dressel brought a unique visual style to several of DEFA’s most challenging films of the 1970s and 1980s. Dressel trained as a photographer in Glauchau (near Chemnitz) from 1953, and joined DEFA’s feature film
studio the following year, where he worked as a stills photographer and assistant cameraman on shorts, documentaries and early television. Simultaneously studying cinematography at DEFA’s training academy, he served as cameraman on several television films from 1965. Dressel’s big-screen debut as director of photography was Siegfried Kühn’s DAS ZWEITE LEBEN DES FRIEDRICH WILHELM GEORG PLATOW (The Second Life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow, 1972/73). The film was heavily criticised, and much of its experimental look was dismissed as bad camerawork. Dressel went back to television, where he collaborated repeatedly with director Manfred Wekwerth, who gave him a relatively free hand to be inventive on productions such as ZEMENT (Cement, 1972/73), DIE UNHEILIGE SOPHIA (The Unholy Sophia, 1974/75) and HAPPY END (1976/77). He subsequently worked for many years with director Rainer Simon, lending a stark pictorial quality to films including his critical assessment of East German state politics JADUP UND BOEL (Jadup and Boel, 1980/81, premiered 1988); DAS LUFTSCHIFF (The Airship, 1982), a narrative which spanned several decades; the metaphorical chamber-play DIE FRAU UND DER FREMDE (The Woman and the Stranger, 1984); and WENGLER & SÖHNE (Wengler & Sons, 1986/87), charting the life of a German family from 1871 to 1945. With director (and former cameraman) Roland Gräf, he also shot the features DAS HAUS AM FLUSS (The House By the River, 1984/85) and FALLADA – LETZTES KAPITEL (Fallada: The Final Chapter, 1987/88), which offered differing views of everyday life under Nazi rule. For his work with Simon and Gräf Dressel received the East German Feature Film Festival’s award for best cinematography three consecutive times. His style also stood out in Evelyn Schmidt’s controversial debut, DAS FAHRRAD (The Bicycle, 1981), and in Iris Gusner’s comedy KASKADE RÜCKWÄRTS (Cascade Backwards, 1983). He likewise added considerably to the expressive pictorial qualities of Ulrich Weiss’s OLLE HENRY (Old Henry, 1982/83). Since German unification, Dressel’s talents have been underused by producers, with almost all his credits stemming from collaborations with former DEFA colleagues, in particular Roland Gräf and Michael Gwisdek. Nevertheless, he received the German Film Award for best cinematography on Gwisdek’s sombre ABSCHIED VON AGNES (Farewell to Agnes, 1993/94), and subsequently helped to bring an expressionistic look to Helma Sanders-Brahms’s lateWeimar set romance MEIN HERZ – NIEMANDEM! (My Heart is Mine Alone, 1996/97), as well as a chiaroscuro intensity to Marcus Lautenbach’s black-
HORST DRINDA
and-white feature debut, VERZWEIFLUNG (Despair, 1999/2000). [ass-cam – DD] 1954/55: Einmal ist keinmal. 1958/59: SAS 181 antwortet nicht. 1959: Zu jeder Stunde. 1959/60: Das hölzerne Kälbchen. 1960: Steinzeitballade. 1960/61: Der Fall Gleiwitz. 1961: Das Kleid. 1963: Drei Kriege. 1. Tauroggen [TV]; Was ihr wollt [TV]. 1964: Die goldene Gans; Salon Pitzelberger [SF]. 1967: Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog [co-cam]; Heißer Sommer. [cam – DD] 1969: Operationsforschung [DO]. 1969/70: Botschafter morden nicht [TV]. 1970: Zwei Briefe an Pospischiel [TV]; Anlauf [TV]. 1971: Junger Mann [TV]. 1971/72: Der Regimentskommandeur [TV]. 1972/73: Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow; Zement [TV]. 1974/75: Die unheilige Sophia [TV]; Heute ist Freitag [TV]. 1975: Jede Woche Hochzeitstag [TV]. 1976: Absage an Viktoria [TV]. 1976/77: Happy End [TV]. 1977: Der gepuderte Mann im bunten Rock oder Musjöh lebt gefährlich [TV]. 1977/78: Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr. 1978/79: Aber Doktor! [TV]. 1980/81: Jadup und Boel. 1981: Das Fahrrad. 1982: Das Luftschiff. 1982/83: Olle Henry. 1983: Kaskade rückwärts. 1984: Die Frau und der Fremde. 1984/ 85: Das Haus am Fluß. 1986/87: Wengler & Söhne. Eine Legende. 1987/88: Fallada – letztes Kapitel. 1988/89: Die Besteigung des Chimborazo [DD/DE]. [cam – DE – TV] 1990/91: Der Fall Ö. [FF]; Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen [FF]. 1991/92: Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers [FF]. 1992: Hier und Jetzt. 1993/94: Abschied von Agnes [FF]; Polizeiruf 110: Arme Schweine. 1994: Faust: Der Club des Drachen. 1994/95: Imken, Anna und Maria; Faust: Mordpoker. 1995: Verbrechen, die Geschichte machten; Sommergeschichten: Quartett zu fünft. 1996: Tatort: Bei Auftritt Mord. 1996/97: Mein Herz – Niemandem! [FF]. 1997: Ein Bernhardiner namens Möpschen. 1997/98: Das Mambospiel. 1999/2000: Verzweiflung [FF].
HORST DRINDA (Horst Eckhart Drinda) Born May 1, 1927, Berlin-Wedding (Germany) Died February 21, 2005, Berlin (Germany) Unexceptional-looking stage, screen and television actor Drinda excelled in playing character leads and everyday figures in East German productions, and enjoyed bona fide star status among GDR audiences. While still in his mid-teens at the height of World War II, Drinda was trained in avionics and sent to work constructing aeroplanes. In 1944, aged seventeen, he became a technical officer with the Luftwaffe, but was wounded near the end of the war and placed in a prisoner-of-war camp, from which he managed to escape. Shortly after Germany’s capitulation, he received a scholarship at Deutsches Theater’s acting school in East Berlin, and from 1946 to 1971 – with one brief break in the 1960s – remained a member of the theatre’s ensemble.
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Drinda’s film debut was a bit part in Gustav von Wangenheim’s … UND WIEDER 48! (It’s ’48 Again!, 1948), followed by roles in satirical shorts at DEFA’s Stacheltier production unit, as well as in a few feature-length comedies. His first notable role was as an SA officer in Konrad Wolf’s LISSY (1956/57), but his greatest performance was portraying a committed communist in Günther Rücker’s DIE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years, 1964/ 65). He also portrayed anti-Nazi spy Arvid Harnack in Horst E. Brandt’s KLK AN PTX – DIE ROTE KAPELLE (KLK Calling PTX: The Red Orchestra, 1970), as well as controversial West German media magnate Axel Springer in the propagandist television series ICH – AXEL CAESAR SPRINGER (I – Axel Caesar Springer, 1967–70). A member of East Germany’s state television actors ensemble from 1971, Drinda appeared in numerous series, especially those concerning everyday life in the GDR. Starting in the mid-1970s, the actor frequently portrayed middle-aged authority figures in both contemporary and historical dramas, including the Prussian war minister in Wolf-Dieter Panse’s SCHARNHORST (1977/78); Bulgarian communist Dimitroff in DER TEUFELSKREIS (Vicious Circle, 1982), which he codirected with Klaus Grabowski; and Karl Marx in Michael Knof’s DAS INTERVIEW (The Interview, 1983). Drinda also directed a number of television productions, including a 1972 adaptation of Molière’s DON JUAN. Following German unification, Drinda continued to make occasional guest appearances in popular television series POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call, 1989/90) and UNSER MANN (Our Man, 1995/ 96), as well as in ZDF’s one-off thriller GEFÄHRLICHE WAHRHEIT (Dangerous Truth, 1998/99) and hospital soap IN ALLER FREUNDSCHAFT (Among Friends, 2003). [act – DD] 1948: … und wieder 48! 1949: Der Auftrag Höglers. 1949/50: Semmelweis – Retter der Mütter. 1951: Zugverkehr unregelmäßig. 1953: Bitte nicht stören [SF]; Die DEFA-Rakete 1. Folge. 1953/54: Gefährliche Fracht. 1954: Die Nacht des Grauens [SF]; Der Untermieter [SF]. 1954/55: Einmal ist keinmal. 1955: Der Fischer un sine Fru [SF]; Pep [SF]. 1956: Das Konzert [TV]; Das tapfere Schneiderlein; Kleine Fische [SF]. 1956/57: Lissy. 1957/ 58: Sie kannten sich alle. 1958: Klotz am Bein; Einer unserer Besten [SF]; Sie nannten das Justiz [SF]. 1959: Bevor der Blitz einschlägt. 1959/60: Hochmut kommt vor dem Knall. 1959-63: Das russische Wunder [2 parts – DO – voi]. 1960: Das Film-Magazin Nr. 1; Produktion geht vor [SF]; Spotkania w mroku / Begegnung im Zwielicht [PL/DD]; Die Liebe und der Co-Pilot; Ärzte; Enge Verbundenheit [SF]. 1961: Der Traum des Hauptmann Loy; Das Kleid. 1961/62: Das verhexte Fischerdorf. 1962/63: Der Dieb von San Marengo. 1964/65: Die besten Jahre. 1965: Der Nachfolger [TV]; Ballade vom roten Mohn / Four Soldiers
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[TV – voi – DD/GB]. 1965/66: Die Reise nach Sundevit. 1966/67: Er ging allein [TV]; Begegnungen [TV]; Der Mord, der nie verjährt.1967: Kleiner Mann – was nun? [TV]. 1967/68: Ich – Axel Caesar Springer [3 episodes – TV]. 1968: Iphigenie auf Tauris [TV]. 1969/70: Ich – Axel Caesar Springer [2 episodes – TV]. 1970: Die Kassette [TV – dir]; Kein Mann für Camp Detrick [TV]; KLK an PTX – Die Rote Kapelle. 1971: Die Unbequemen [TV]. 1971/72: Eva und Adam oder Gefechte mit Napoleon [TV]. 1972: Don Juan [TV – dir,act]; Eva und Adam oder Privat nach Vereinbarung [TV]. 1972/73: Polizeiruf 110: Gesichter im Zwielicht [TV]; Eva und Adam oder Wieviel Sterne hat der Himmel [TV]. 1973: Eva und Adam oder Drum prüfe! [TV]. 1974: Egmont [TV]; Brennende Geduld [TV]. 1974-76: Zur See [9 episodes – TVS]. 1975: Im Netz [TV]. 1975/ 76: Auf der Suche nach Gatt [TV]. 1976: Schließt mir nicht die Augen [TV]; Fernseh-Pitaval: Der Weg ins Nichts [TV]. 1977/78: Scharnhorst [TV]; Addio, piccola mia. 1978: Nachtspiele; Sami sred vâlzi [5 episodes – TVS – BG]. 1978/ 79: Plantagenstraße 19 [TV]; Gelb ist nicht nur die Farbe der Sonne [TV]; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Zur Feier des Tages [TV]. 1979: Polizeiruf 110: Risiko [TV]. 1979/ 80: Anamnese [TV]; Unser Mann ist König [7 episodes – TVS]. 1980: Der Direktor [TV]. 1980/81: Zwei Zeilen, kleingedruckt / Dve stroèki melkim šriftom [DD/SU]; Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Der kleine Doktor [TV]. 1981: Kabale und Liebe [TV]. 1981/82: Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Arzt in Uniform [TV]. 1982: Der Teufelskreis [TV – co-dir,act]; Im Spiegel [TV]. 1983: Das Interview [TV]. 1983-85: Mein lieber Onkel Hans [TV]. 1984-87: Katja unterwegs in der DDR [TVS – DE]. 1985: Die Hose [TV – dir]; 1913 [TV – dir, act]. 1986: Duell mit dem Feind [TV]; Der Snob [TV – dir, act]. 1987/88: Eine Magdeburger Geschichte [TV – dir, scr,act]. 1987-89: Die gläserne Fackel [7 episodes – TVS]. 1988/89: Rita von Falkenhain [TV]. 1989/90: Polizeiruf 110: Falscher Jasmin [TV]. 1990: Der zerbrochene Krug [TV]. [act – DE] 1990/91: Aerolina [TVS]. 1991: Agentur Herz [TVS]. 1993: Einsatz für Lohbeck. [season 1 – TVS]. 1994: Einsatz für Lohbeck: Betriebsunfall [TV]. 1995: Gezeiten der Liebe [TVS]; Verliebte Feinde [TV]; Männerpension [DE]. 1995/96: Unser Mann. [TVS]. 1996: Von Fall zu Fall: Stubbe und das Kind [TV]; Für alle Fälle Stefanie [season 3 – TVS]; 1996/97: Leinen los für MS Königstein [2 episodes – TVS]; Die Drei: Teufel in blond [TV]; Der letzte Zeuge: Wenn das Böse erwacht [TV]. 1998/99: Gefährliche Wahrheit [TV – DE]. 1999: St. Angela: Das Sommerfest [TV – DE]. 2003: In aller Freundschaft: Am Ende siegt die Liebe [TV – DE].
SLATAN DUDOW (Slatan Theodor Dudow) Born January 30, 1903, Caribrod (Bulgaria) Died July 12, 1963, Berlin (East Germany) A veteran of left-wing filmmaking and theatre since the Weimar period and a close collaborator of Bertolt Brecht, dynamic Dudow became one of the leading artistic figures in the early years of DEFA.
Dudow studied architecture in Berlin, before turning to acting and then Theatre Studies. In the late 1920s he met Bertolt Brecht for the first time, beginning a life-long association. Dudow had been active in agitprop theatre since 1926, producing ‘Heer ohne Helden’ for the Theater der Arbeiter and, alongside Brecht, in 1930 ‘Die Massnahme’ (The Measures Taken) with the Arbeiterchor Groß-Berlin. In 1930, Dudow made his first film for communist owned Prometheus-Film/Weltfilm, a short montage ZEITPROBLEME: WIE DER ARBEITER WOHNT
(Problems of Our Time: How the Worker Lives, 1930), which contrasted the lives of rich and poor. Subsequently, Dudow and Brecht came up with the idea for KUHLE WAMPE ODER WEM GEHÖRT DIE WELT (Whither Germany? / Kuhle Wampe, or: To Whom Does the World Belong?), which was filmed in 1931/32, the only film of the Weimar period to take an openly communist point of view. The film was banned twice by German censors, and it premiered in Berlin on 30 May 1932, following cuts as well as protests from film critics. After the Nazi takeover, KUHLE WAMPE was immediately banned. Dudow, protected as a foreign national, was able temporarily to continue making films in Germany. He started filming the short satire SEIFENBLASEN (Soap Bubbles, 1933/34), but the finished material had to be smuggled over the border to France after the Reichsfilmkammer (Reich Film Chamber) had demanded to view a copy. Dudow went into exile in Paris, completing the film in a French version with a French script written by Jacques Prévert. Dudow’s attempts to make further films in exile failed, and he concentrated on theatre. In October 1937, with an ensemble of exiled actors, he staged Brecht’s ‘Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar’ (Señora Carrar’s Rifles) in Paris, with Brecht’s wife Helene Weigel in the lead role. After the fall of Paris, Dudow sought asylum in Switzerland with his wife and daughter. In 1946 Dudow relocated to East Germany, joining the DEFA film studio. His first postwar film was UNSER TÄGLICH BROT (Our Daily Bread, 1949), which received a National Award. FAMILIE BENTHIN (The Benthin Family, 1950) dealt with the Cold War conflict between East and West. In 1952 Dudow had his greatest success for DEFA, FRAUENSCHICKSALE (Women’s Lives), a portrayal of women in postwar German society which achieved wide acclaim but was also met with disapproval by the authorities. Owing partially to Wolfgang Staudte’s departure for the West, Dudow became the leading artistic authority at DEFA. His youth comedy VERWIRRUNG DER LIEBE (Love Confused, 1958/59), became a huge hit, and with CHRISTINE (1963), he returned to focus on women’s lives. The film remained unfinished, as Dudow died in a car accident during shooting.
EWALD ANDRÉ DUPONT [dir – DD] 1929/30: Sprengt die Ketten! Mopr, Internationale Rote Hilfe [SD – ass-dir – DE]. 1930: Rot Sport marschiert [DO – ass-dir – DE]; Zeitprobleme. Wie der Arbeiter wohnt [SD – DE]. 1931/32: Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? [DE]. 1933/34: Seifenblasen / Soap Bubbles [dir,scr,cut – DE/FR]. 1949: Unser täglich Brot [dir,co-scr]. 1950: Immer bereit [DO – scr]; Familie Benthin [co-dir,coscr]. 1952: Frauenschicksale [dir,scr]. 1954: Stärker als die Nacht. 1956: Der Hauptmann von Köln [dir,scr]. 1958/59: Verwirrung der Liebe [dir,scr]. 1959: Der Hauptmann von Köln [TV – sma]. 1963: Christine [dir,scr].
EWALD ANDRÉ DUPONT (Ewald Andreas Dupont) Born December 25, 1891, Zeitz (Germany) Died December 12, 1956, Los Angeles (California, USA) After making a name for himself as an influential film critic and a scriptwriter, E. A. Dupont became one of Weimar cinema’s most successful directors, before embarking on an international career that included some of the earliest European sound films. The son of a newspaper editor started out as a journalist, working for various Berlin papers from 1911, and from 1915 regularly wrote the ‘Variety and Cinema’ column in the daily ‘B.Z. am Mittag’. He wrote his first film script in 1916, an episode of the popular Harry Higgs detective series titled MEIN IST DIE RACHE (Vengeance Is Mine), and then had a further eleven of his screenplays filmed over the next two years, including instalments of director Joe May’s Joe Deebs detective series, and the first three sequels to Richard Oswald’s sexual enlightenment film, ES WERDE LICHT! (Let There Be Light!, 1916/ 17). He was then hired by production company SternFilm, for whose detective series starring Max Landa he had written another twelve scripts by the end of 1919. He joined Gloria-Film as a director of up-market melodramas, on several of which – such as DER WEISSE PFAU (The White Peacock), PATIENCE (both 1920) and the two-part KINDER DER FINSTERNIS (Children of Darkness, 1921) – he collaborated with designer Paul Leni. He gained widespread attention with his Henny Porten vehicles DIE GEIER-WALLY (Vulture Wally, 1921), the first of several film adaptations of a popular Heimat novel, and the Jewish-themed DAS ALTE GESETZ (This Ancient Law, 1923). In 1925, Dupont scored an international success with VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925), made for producer Erich Pommer at Ufa, and received an invitation to come to Hollywood. After a single assignment, LOVE ME AND THE WORLD IS MINE (1926), he returned to Europe and became director general of production at the newly-founded Elstree Studios in London.
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Working as scriptwriter, director and production manager at British International Pictures (B.I.P.) until the end of 1930, his sophisticated melodramas MOULIN ROUGE (1927/28) and PICCADILLY (1928) not only provided star vehicles for their respective stars Olga Tschechowa and Anna May Wong, they also helped German set designer Alfred Junge and cameraman Werner Brandes to launch their careers in the British film industry. Playing a key role in Elstree’s shift to sound film production, Dupont shot the Titanic epic ATLANTIC (1929) in both English- and German-language versions, the latter being fêted as ‘the first 100 % all-talking German picture’ and doing colossal business on the Continent. In 1930, he followed this up with English, French and German MLVs of TWO WORLDS, a tragic romance between a Jewish woman and an Austrian officer during World War I, and CAPE FORLORN, a claustrophobic lighthouse drama, both of which confirmed Dupont’s reputation as a master director. Back in Germany, he shot the circus melodrama SALTO MORTALE (Trapeze, 1931) and, as a tie-in to the Los Angeles Olympics, the sports picture DER LÄUFER VON MARATHON (The Marathon Runner, 1932/33), which again brought Dupont to Hollywood’s attention. However, once there, he was perceived as ‘difficult’, and Universal, M-G-M and Paramount alike entrusted him only with lacklustre projects that stood little chance of success. Following a quarrel with one of the juvenile stars during the shooting of HELL’S KITCHEN (1939), he was sacked and was not offered any directing assignments for over a decade. With fellow director William Dieterle’s financial support, he was briefly able to try his hand at journalism again as editor of ‘The Hollywood Tribune’, and then worked as a press agent from 1940. His eventual comeback, THE SCARF (1951), bombed at the box-office, and Dupont was thereafter consigned to B-films such as THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (1952/53) and RETURN TO TREASURE ISLAND (1954). He was able to script and direct a few episodes of CBS television crime series BIG TOWN (1952/53), but was removed as director of MISS ROBINSON CRUSOE (1953), and finally bowed out with a co-writer’s credit on William Dieterle’s Richard Wagner biopic MAGIC FIRE (1954/55) and providing the story for the programmer PLEASE MURDER ME! starring Raymond Burr. [dir,scr – DE] 1916: Mein ist die Rache [scr]. 1916/17: Wer küßt mich? [co-scr]. 1917: Sturmflut [scr]; Der Onyxknopf [co-scr]; Der Saratogakoffer [co-scr]; Die Faust des Riesen [2 parts – scr]; Durchlaucht Hypochonder [scr]; Die sterbenden Perlen [scr]. 1917/18: Es werde Licht! 2. Teil [scr]; Das Perlenhalsband [scr]; Der ewige Zweifel [scr]; Renn-
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fieber [scr]. 1918: Es werde Licht! 3. Teil [co-scr]; Nur um 1000 Dollar [scr]; Die Buchhalterin [co-scr]; Europa postlagernd; Es werde Licht! 4. Teil: Sündige Mütter [scr]; Mitternacht; Ferdinand Lassalle [co-scr]; Der lebende Schatten; Der Teufel; Die Japanerin. 1918/19: Das Geheimnis des Amerika-Docks. 1919: Die Apachen; Die Maske; Die Spione; Das Derby; Der Würger der Welt; Alkohol; Das Grand Hotel Babylon [scr]. 1919/20: Funken unter der Asche [scr]. 1920: Patience [scr]; Der weiße Pfau [dir,coscr]; Whitechapel [dir]; Herztrumpf [dir]; Der Mord ohne Täter [dir,co-scr]. 1921: Die Geier-Wally; Kinder der Finsternis. 1. Der Mann aus Neapel / 2. Kämpfende Welten. 1922: Sie und die 3 [dir]. 1922/23: Die grüne Manuela [dir]. 1923: Das alte Gesetz [dir]. 1923/24: Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924/25: Der Demütige und die Sängerin. 1925: Varieté [dir,co-scr]. 1926: Love Me and the World Is Mine [US]. 1927: Madame Pompadour [scr,pro – GB]. 1927/28: Moulin Rouge [dir,scr,cut,pro – GB]. 1928: Piccadilly [dir,pro – GB]. 1929: Atlantic [Engl. V.] [MLV – dir,pro – GB]; Atlantic [Ger. V.] [MLV – dir,co-scr,pro – GB]. 1929/30: Atlantic [Fr. V.] [MLV – co-dir,pro – GB/FR]. 1930: Two Worlds [MLV – dir,co-scr,ide,pro – GB/DE]; Zwei Welten [MLV – dir,ide,pro – GB/DE]; Les deux mondes [MLV – dir,ide,pro – GB/DE/FR]; Menschen im Käfig [MLV – dir,co-scr,pro – GB]; Le cap perdu [MLV – dir,co-scr,pro – GB]; Cape Forlorn [MLV – dir,co-scr,pro – GB]. 1931: Salto mortale [MLV – dir]; Salto mortale [Fr. V.] [MLV – DE/FR –
dir]. 1931/32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932/33: Der Läufer von Marathon [dir]. [dir – US] 1933: Ladies Must Love. 1935: The Bishop Misbehaves. 1936: Forgotten Faces; A Son Comes Home. 1937: Night of Mystery; On Such a Night; Love on Toast. 1939: Hell’s Kitchen [co-dir]. 1951: The Scarf [dir,scr]; Pictura. An Adventure in Art [DO]. 1952: Big Town: Lady in Black [TV – dir,sma]; Big Town: Hit and Run [TV – sma]; Big Town: Chinese Story [TV – dir,sma]; Big Town: Dead Men Talk Too Much [TV – sma]; Big Town: The Guilty Package [TV – dir,sma]; Big Town: Cinder Dick [TV – dir,sma]; Big Town: Marry My Past [TV – sma]; Big Town: Wedding in Coral Point [TV – dir,sma]; Big Town: The Baby Sitter [TV – sma]; Big Town: Tape Recorder [TV – dir,sma]; Big Town: Locomotive [TV – sma]; Big Town: Dr. Damon’s Dilemma [TV – co-scr,sma]; Big Town: Please Murder Me [TV – coscr,sma]; Big Town: Father and Son [TV – sma]; Big Town: Waterfront [TV – sma]. 1952/53: Big Town: The Assassination Story [TV – co-scr,sma]; Big Town: The Homestretch [TV – co-scr,sma]; The Neanderthal Man. 1953: Problem Girls; Big Town: Crime and Punishment [TV – co-scr,sma]; Big Town: The Confession [TV – co-scr,sma]; Mother’s Day [TV – co-scr,sma]; Big Town: Murder by Messenger [TV – co-scr,sma]; The Steel Lady; Miss Robin Crusoe; Big Town: Fall Guy [TV – co-scr,sma]. 1954: Return to Treasure Island. 1954/55: Magic Fire. The Story of Richard Wagner [co-scr]. 1956: Please Murder Me! [sma].
ULI EDEL (Ulrich Edel) Born April 11, 1947, Neuenburg am Rhein (Germany) From his beginnings in the Munich film scene in the 1970s, Edel established himself as a workman-like director on both sides of the Atlantic, on the big screen and in television. His best work, while solidly rooted in popular conventions, displays visual flair, while his less successful films tend towards excessive stylization. After studying theatre at Munich’s University, Edel was accepted onto the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (College of Film and Television), where one of his contemporaries was future producer and director Bernd Eichinger, with whom he remained associated for decades to come. During his time at the HFF, Edel directed several short films; co-wrote the screenplay and was assistant director on Hans W. Geissendörfer’s PERAHIM – DIE ZWEITE CHANCE (Perahim’s Second Chance, 1973/74); and edited the HFF ‘training film’ SILVESTERNACHT (New Year’s Eve, 1977), supervised by guest lecturer Douglas Sirk (Detlef Sierck). Edel’s big-screen debut, produced by Eichinger, was CHRISTIANE F. – WIR KINDER VOM BAHNHOF ZOO (Christiane F – We Children from Bahnhof Zoo, 1980/81), based on a magazine exposé of a teenage heroin addict living on the streets of Berlin. The stylishly shot film was a box-office success, though this owed perhaps less to its hard-hitting social theme and more to the soundtrack dominated by songs by rock star David Bowie, who also appeared in the film. Throughout the 1980s, Edel’s work consisted of more low-profile assignments for television, but his and Eichinger’s adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr’s novel LETZTE AUSFAHRT BROOKLYN (Last Exit to Brooklyn, 1989) covered similar themes to their previous hit, and had a similarly stylish look to it. The film was shot and set in 1950s New York, starred Jennifer Jason Leigh, and led to stateside work offers for Edel. After directing a few episodes of cult series TALES FROM THE CRYPT and TWIN PEAKS, Edel was assigned the erotic thriller BODY OF EVIDENCE (1992/ 93), starring Madonna. The film’s overblown melodramatics were widely panned by critics, and Edel subsequently concentrated on television work, in-
cluding the historical drama RASPUTIN (1995/96), starring Alan Rickman in the title role. In 1999/2000, Edel directed the German-Dutch coproduction DER KLEINE VAMPIR (The Little Vampire), based on a popular German children’s book about a family of loveable vampires. He returned to television epics with the Arthurianlegend THE MISTS OF AVALON (2000/01), the historical biopic JULIUS CAESAR (2002), and following in the footsteps of Richard Wagner and Fritz Lang, DIE NIBELUNGEN (2003/04). Once again produced (and co-written) by Eichinger, DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (2007/08) chronicled the history of 1970s’ West German terrorist group, the RAF. The film was Edel’s first major international success in years, and was nominated for an Oscar. [dir – DE] 1973/74: Perahim – die zweite Chance [TV – coscr,ass-dir]; Weihnachtsmärchen [SF – ass-dir]. 1974/75: Der wilde und der zahme Westen [3 episodes – TVS]. 1975/76: Die Erzählungen Bjelins [TV – co-dir]. 1976: Nord-Ost-Passage [TV]. 1977: Bürger [TVS]; Silvesternacht [SF – cut]. 1978: Der harte Handel [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1979: Das Ding [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1980/81: Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo [dir,scr]. 1982: Point Hope [TV – act – DE/IT]. 1983/84: Eine Art von Zorn [TV]. 1986/ 87: Waldhaus [2 episodes – TVS]. 1989: Letzte Ausfahrt Brooklyn. [dir – US] 1990/91: Twin Peaks [episode 21, season 2 – TV]. 1992/93: Body of Evidence [US/DE]. 1993: Tales from the Crypt: Came the Dawn [TV]. 1994: Rebel Highway: Confessions of a Sorority Girl [TV]. 1995: Tyson [TV]. 1995/96: Rasputin [TV]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung [TVD – app – DE]; Sunset Boulevard – 27 Meilen Amerika [TVD – app – DE]. 1996/97: Homicide: Life on the Street: Have a Conscience / Double Blind [TV]. 1997/98: Homicide: Life on the Street: Something Sacred (Part 1 + 2) [TV]. 1998: Oz: Ancient Tribes [TV]; Purgatory [TV]. 1999/2000: Der kleine Vampir / De kleine vampier [DE/NL]. 2000: Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app – DE]. 2000/01: The Mists of Avalon / Die Nebel von Avalon [TV – US/DE]. 2001/02: King of Texas [TV]. 2002: Julius Caesar / Giulio Cesare / Caesar [TV – DE/IT/US]. 2003: Evil Never Dies [TV – dir, pro]. 2003/04: Die Nibelungen – Der Fluch des Drachen [dir,co-scr – DE]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – act]. 2007/08: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [dir,co-scr – DE].
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RICHARD EICHBERG (Richard Albert Eichberg) Born October 27, 1888, Berlin (Germany) Died May 8, 1953, Munich (Germany) Long overlooked by film history, Eichberg was one of most prominent directors of popular German cinema from the 1910s to the 1930s, specialising in crime films, comedies, and exoticist melodramas. Eichberg was also a star-maker, launching and developing talents as diverse as Lilian Harvey and Anna May Wong. Eichberg began his career acting on the Berlin stage, playing both comic parts and romantic leads, while also occasionally appearing, uncredited, in films. In 1914, Eichberg co-founded a film company (which would eventually bear his name), and debuted as director with STROHFEUER (Summer Lightning, 1914/15). DAS TAGEBUCH COLLINS (Collin’s Diary, 1915) inaugurated a long-running series of crime melodramas starring Ellen Richter. During World War I, Eichberg also directed a documentary about children born out of wedlock, DIE IM SCHATTEN LEBEN (Those Who Live in the Shadows, 1917), and the topical melodrama IM ZEICHEN DER SCHULD (The Sign of Guilt, 1918), promoting the rehabilitation of former convicts. In 1918, Eichberg married acress Lee Parry (b. Mathilde Benz, 1901–1977), whose dancing and acrobatic talents he showcased in star verhicles such as DIE LIEBESABENTEUER DER SCHÖNEN EVELYNE (Beautiful Evelyn’s Love Adventures, 1921). A production and distribution agreement with Munich-based company Emelka gave Eichberg access to bigger budgets, though with the exception of the historical epic MONNA VANNA (1922), he continued to concentrate on genres such as crime thrillers, melodramas and from the mid-1920s, comedies and operettas. After both professional and personal separation from Parry in 1925, Eichberg began working with Britishborn Lilian Harvey, who quickly established herself as a major comedy star with films such as DIE TOLLE LOLA (Crazy Mazie, 1927). Other productions from this period included the cross-dressing farce DER FÜRST VON PAPPENHEIM (The Masked Mannequin, 1927), starring Curt Bois and yet another Eichberg discovery, Mona Maris. Losing Harvey to Ufa in 1928, Eichberg signed a contract with British International Pictures (B.I.P.), and for the next few years concentrated on Anglo-German co-productions, frequently starring the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong. SONG / SHOW LIFE (1928) and GROSSSTADTSCHMETTERLING / PAVEMENT BUTTERFLY (1928/29) in particular were exquisitely photographed – by his standard cinematographer Heinrich Gärtner – and emotionally effective melodramas, though Wong and
Eichberg’s collaboration came to an end with the coming of sound. In the early 1930s Eichberg scored international hits with the crime thriller DER GREIFER / NIGHT BIRDS (1930), making an star out of Hans Albers, and the film operetta DIE BRÄUTIGAMSWITWE / LET’S LOVE AND LAUGH (1931), starring Marta Eggerth. After 1933, Eichberg helmed multi-lingual co-productions in France (QUADRILLE D’AMOUR, 1934), and Bulgaria (MICHEL STROGOFF / DER KURIER DES ZAREN, 1935), while the two-part remake of Joe May’s adventure serial, DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL / DER TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR, (The Indian Tomb / The Tiger of Eshnapur, 1937/38) was largely shot near Berlin. Eichberg emigrated to the United States in 1938. Unable to find film work in Hollywood, he returned to West Germany in 1949, but although he attempted to revive his pre-war formula of exoticist spectacle and light entertainment, neither of his final two films proved a box-office hit. [dir,pro – DE] 1912: Im Banne der Schuld [act]; Problematische Naturen [act]. 1913: Die Freuden der Reserveübung [act]. 1914: Die Unschuld vom Lande [act]; Erstarrte Liebe [act]. 1914/15: Piff und Paff … Strategen [act]; Strohfeuer; Der Krieg brachte Frieden [act]. 1915: Vom Spielteufel befreit [dir,co-scr,pro]; Robert als Lohengrin; Der indische Tod [pro]; Das Tagebuch Collins. 1915/16: Leben um Leben. 1916: Der Ring des Schicksals; Frauen, die sich opfern; Das Skelett. 1917: Das Bacchanal des Todes; Die Flucht des Arno Jessen; Katharina Karaschkin; Die im Schatten leben; Für die Ehre des Vaters; Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung; Strandgut oder Die Rache des Meeres. 1917/18: Die Schuld des Dr. Adrian Dorczy. 1918: Die goldene Mumie; Der Narr hat sie geküßt; Im Zeichen der Schuld; Die letzte Liebesnacht der Inge Tolmein. 1918/19: Kinder der Landstraße. 1919: Arbeit [dir]; Die Tragödie der Manja Orsan; Wehrlose Opfer; Jettatore; Sünden der Eltern; Nonne und Tänzerin; Sklaven fremden Willens. 1919/20: Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan. 1. Sybil Young / 2. Der Tod des Großfürsten. 1920: Der Fluch der Menschheit. 1. Die Tochter der Arbeit / 2. Im Rausche der Milliarden; Staatsanwalt Briands Abenteuer. 1. Die ungültige Ehe / 2. Dem Wellengrab entronnen; Sträflingsketten. 1. Der Schrei aus der Verbannung / 2. Das Geständnis vor dem Tode. 1920/21: Die Macht des Blutes. 1. Der Tod in Venedig / 2. In der Schlinge des Inders. 1921: Der lebende Propeller; Die Bettelgräfin vom Kurfürstendamm; Die Ehe der Hedda Olsen oder Die brennende Akrobatin; Die Liebesabenteuer der schönen Evelyne oder Die Mordmühle auf Evanshill. 1921/22: Der Roman einer armen Sünderin. 1922: Das Straßenmädchen von Berlin; Die Tochter des Wucherers; Ihre Hoheit die Tänzerin; Monna Vanna; Der Leidensweg der Eva Grunwald [pro]. 1923: Fräulein Raffke. 1923/24: Der Film im Film. Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen [DO – app]. 1924: Die schönste Frau der Welt; Die Motorbraut. Liebe, Leid und Sport. 1925: Leidenschaft; Luxusweibchen [supv,pro]; Die Frau mit dem Etwas [supv,pro];
WILLY EICHBERGER Liebe und Trompetenblasen; Der Liebeskäfig [supv,pro]; Die Kleine vom Bummel. 1926: Der Prinz und die Tänzerin; Prinzessin Trulala [supv,pro]; Die keusche Susanne; Der Soldat der Marie [pro]; Vater werden ist nicht schwer [pro]; Durchlaucht Radieschen. 1927: Die tolle Lola; Das Fräulein von Kasse 12 [pro]; Der Fürst von Pappenheim; Eheferien [pro]; Die Leibeigenen; Nur eine kleine Diebin [pro]; Du sollst nicht stehlen [pro]. 1928: Das Girl von der Revue; ‘Song’. Die Liebe eines armen Menschenkindes / Show Life [DE/GB]; Die tolle Komtess [pro – DE/GB]; Rutschbahn [DE/GB]. 1928/29: Großstadtschmetterling / Pavement Butterfly [DE/GB]. 1929: Ein kleiner Vorschuß auf die Seligkeit [pro – DE/GB]; Wer wird denn weinen, wenn man auseinander geht. 1929/30: The Flame of Love [MLV – co-dir,pro – GB/DE]; Hai-Tang. Der Weg zur Schande [MLV – GB/DE]; Hai-Tang [MLV – co-dir,pro – GB/DE]. 1930: Der Greifer [MLV – GB/DE]; Night Birds [MLV – GB/DE]. 1931: Let’s Love and Laugh [MLV – GB/DE]; Die Bräutigamswitwe [MLV – GB/DE]; Trara um Liebe; Der Draufgänger [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1932: Die unsichtbare Front. 1933/34: Csibi, der Fratz [co-scr,supv – AT]. 1934: Die Katz’ im Sack [MLV – FR]; Quadrille d’amour [MLV – FR/DE]. 1934/35: Le contrôleur des wagons-lits [MLV – DE/FR]; Der Schlafwagenkontrolleur [MLV]. 1935: Der Kurier des Zaren [MLV – FR/DE]; Michel Strogoff. Le courrier du tzar [MLV – FR/DE]. 1936: Es geht um mein Leben [dir,scr,pro]. 1937/38: Der Tiger von Eschnapur [MLV – dir,co-scr,pro]; Le tigre du Bengale [MLV – dir,scr]; Das indische Grabmal [MLV – dir,co-scr, pro]; Le tombeau hindou [MLV – dir,scr]. 1949: Die Reise nach Marrakesch. 1950: Skandal in der Botschaft [supv,pro].
WILLY EICHBERGER (Carl Cäsar Willy Simon; a.k.a Carl Esmond) Born June 14, 1902, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died December 4, 2004, Brentwood (California, USA) A dashing romantic lead in Austrian, German, and British films of the 1930s, Eichberger later became a prolific screen villain in Hollywood cinema and television. The son of a Jewish Austrian accountant and his German wife, Eichberger studied at Vienna’s University and at the Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his first stage appearances in small parts at the Burgtheater. Moving to Berlin in 1932, Eichberger’s screen debut was Friedrich Zelnik’s KAISERWALZER (The Emperor Waltz), co-starring Martha Eggerth. He then won further recognition as a sympathetically roguish, worldly Austrian officer in Max Ophüls’s mournful romance LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932/33). Contracted at Ufa, he quickly established himself as a popular leading man in romantic comedies, operettas, costume films, and melodramas, appearing opposite Dolly Haas in KLEINES MÄDEL, GROSSES GLÜCK
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(Little Girl, Great Fortune, 1933) and alongside Brigitte Helm in INGE UND DIE MILLIONEN (Inge and the Millions, 1933). After the Nazis’ rise to power, Eichberger initially continued to appear in German and Austrian productions, for example in the Bosnian-set BLUTSBRÜDER (Blood Brothers, 1934), in Willi Forst’s BURGTHEATER (1936), and Herbert Selpin’s ROMANZE (Romance, 1936). He also increasingly acted on the London stage and in British films under the name of Carl Esmond, including the Franz Schubert biopic BLOSSOM TIME (1934), which starred the Austrian tenor Richard Tauber, and Victor Saville’s EVENSONG (1934), where he was teamed up with British stage actress Evelyn Laye. Spotted by Louis B. Mayer in the London stage production of Laurence Housman’s play ‘Victoria Regina’, in which Esmond portrayed Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, he left Britain for Hollywood, where he settled after Austria’s annexation by Germany in March 1938. Eichberger’s family later mostly fled to Italy, while his father was deported and died in the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942. From his first Hollywood appearance in the Errol Flynn vehicle THE DAWN PATROL (1938), Esmond was typecast in parts that required him to be sophisticated, and quietly sinister villains, often Nazis, as in William Cameron Menzies’s ADDRESS UNKNOWN (1943/44) and Fritz Lang’s MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944), although he did occasionally play more heroic parts, as in THE NAVY COMES THROUGH (1942). In the 1950s, Eichberger returned to Europe to appear in a number of mostly West German productions, again under the name of Eichberger, including his reunion with Ophüls in LOLA MONTEZ (1955), where he was cast as the heroine’s doctor. Among Esmond’s final big-screen parts were Field Marshal Keitel in Stuart Heisler’s HITLER (1962) and a German Navy Commander in Bernhard Wicki’s MORITURI (1964/65). From the early 1950s Esmond also had a prolific career on US television, with guest appearances in popular series such as 77 SUNSET STRIP, THE BIG VALLEY, and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. His last television appearance was the biopic MY WICKED, WICKED WAYS (1984), based on Errol Flynn’s memoirs. [act – DE] 1932: Kaiserwalzer. 1932/33: Liebelei [MLV]. 1933: Kleines Mädel – großes Glück; Inge und die Millionen. 1934: Blossom Time [GB]; Evensong [GB]; Die Liebe siegt; Blutsbrüder. 1935: Invitation to the Waltz [GB]; Die Pompadour [AT]; Der Postillon von Lonjumeau [AT/CH]. 1935/36: Der Favorit der Kaiserin. 1936: Fräulein Veronika / Der Schlaumeier [CH/AT]; Prater [AT]; Burgtheater [AT]; Romanze [AT].
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[act – US] 1938: The Dawn Patrol. 1939: Thunder Afloat. 1940: Little Men. 1941: Sergeant York; Sundown. 1941/ 42: Panama Hattie. 1942: Pacific Rendezvous; Seven Sweethearts; The Navy Comes Through; Margin for Error. 1943: First Comes Courage. 1943/44: Address Unknown. 1944: The Story of Dr. Wassell; Resisting Enemy Interrogation [DO]; The Master Race; Ministry of Fear; Experiment Perilous. 1944/45: Without Love. 1945: Her Highness and the Bellboy; This Love of Ours. 1946: The Catman of Paris; Lover Come Back. 1947: Smash Up – The Story of a Woman; Slave Girl. 1948: Walk a Crooked Mile. 1950: The Desert Hawk; Mystery Submarine. [act – US – TV] 1951: Racket Squad: The Case of the Not-So-Old-Masters; Stars Over Hollywood: The Iron Mask; Gruen Guild Playhouse: The Sword Strikes. 1951/52: The World in His Arms [FF]. 1952: Biff Baker, U.S.A.: Crash Landing; Schlitz Playhouse of Stars: A String of Beads. 1953: The Ford Television Theatre: The Bet; Liebeserwachen [FF – DE]. 1953/54: Regina Amstetten [FF – DE]. 1955: Lux Video Theatre: Casablanca; Du mein stilles Tal [FF – DE]; Lola Montès / Lola Montez [FF – FR/DE]. 1956: Soldiers of Fortune: Return of the Hawk; Lux Video Theatre: Little Boy Lost; Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre: Sound of Thunder; Cheyenne: Fury at Rio Hondo; On Trial: The Nevada Nightingale. 1957: Climax!: Bait for the Tiger; Meet McGraw: The Florentine Shield; Meet McGraw: The Cheat. 1958: From the Earth to the Moon [FF]; Behind Closed Doors: The Germany Story. 1958/59: Thunder in the Sun [FF]. 1958/59: General Electric Theatre: Deed of Mercy. 1959: 77 Sunset Strip: Out of the Past; Five Fingers: Operation Ramrod. 1960: Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond: The Lonely Room. 1960/61: The Deputy: Second Cousin to the Czar. 1961: Maverick: Diamond Flush; Hawaiian Eye: The Pretty People. 1961/62: Brushfire! [FF]. 1962: Hitler [FF]. 1962/63: The Kiss of the Vampire [FF – GB]. 1963/64: The Travels of Jamie McPheeters: The Day of the Pretenders. 1964/65: Morituri [FF]. 1965: Convoy: The Assassin; Run for Your Life: The Cold, Cold War of Paul Bryan. 1966: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. [season 3 – TVS – US]; Agent for H.A.R.M. 1967: Insight: The Edith Stein Story; The Big Valley: Explosion! Part 1; Garrison’s Gorillas: The Big Con. 1970: To Rome with Love: Beautiful People. 1971/72: O’Hara, U.S. Treasury: Operation: XW-1. 1972: McMillan & Wife: Terror Times Two.1977: The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries: The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula [2 parts]. 1984: My Wicked, Wicked Ways … Legend of Errol Flynn.
BERND EICHINGER Born April 11, 1949, Neuburg/Donau (Germany) One of the most influential and internationally successful figures in the German film industry since the late 1970s, mainstream producer and sometime director Eichinger’s projects are renowned for their straightforward storytelling and visual effects. Eichinger was among the inaugural year’s intake at Munich’s Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (College of Television and Film) in 1970. Simultaneously
gaining practical experience at Bavaria Studios, he graduated in 1973 with the forty-five-minute-long film WEIHNACHTSMÄRCHEN (A Christmas Tale), in which he starred alongside Marquard Bohm, with Uli Edel as assistant director. Working briefly as a scriptwriter and production manager for Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Bavarian public broadcasting station, he founded his own company, Solaris-Filmproduktion, in 1974, and was able to take advantage of various financial incentives such as state grants, television sponsorship and tax write-offs to turn a profit on films such as Wim Wenders’s FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (Wrong Move, 1974/75), Roland Klick’s LIEB VATERLAND, MAGST RUHIG SEIN (Dear Fatherland, Be At Peace) and Alexander Kluge’s DER STARKE FERDINAND (Strongman Ferdinand, both 1975/76). For a while, Solaris-Filmproduktion became New German Cinema’s most important producer alongside Filmverlag der Autoren, with films by directors including Edgar Reitz, Hans Jürgen Syberberg, and Hans W. Geissendörfer featuring in its portfolio by 1977. Geissendörfer’s DIE GLÄSERNE ZELLE (The Glass Cell, 1977/78) picked up both a German Film Award and an Oscar nomination. In 1979, Eichinger implemented a major restructuring plan to rescue ailing production and distribution company Constantin-Film, and consequently became its CEO. Turning his back on New German Cinema’s auteurs, he focussed instead on internationally appealing ‘high concept’ films shot by reliable but workmanlike directors. These included Uli Edel’s CHRISTIANE F. – WIR KINDER VOM BAHNHOF ZOO (We Children from Bahnhof Zoo, 1980/81) and the English-language LETZTE AUSFAHRT BROOKLYN (Last Exit to Brooklyn, 1989), as well as Wolfgang Petersen’s DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE (The NeverEnding Story, 1983/84). Eichinger’s strategy of producing films that combined ambitious narratives and entertainment values in sufficient measure to garner glowing reviews and numerous awards, paid off again with Jean-Jacques Annaud’s DER NAME DER ROSE (The Name of the Rose, 1985/86), an adaptation of Umberto Eco’s historical thriller that nevertheless took few real risks by being filmed in English and starring Sean Connery. Even though a relative financial weakling, Constantin asserted itself as a major player, and was bolstered over the years by additional financing and exclusive distribution deals with German media mogul Leo Kirch. Since the 1990s Eichinger managed to bounce back from a series of financial problems. Despite a failed 1991 bid to launch a Constantin subsidiary in Los Angeles and an unsuccessful series of television remakes of German film classics in the mid-1990s – as well as the 2002 bankruptcy of the Kirch media group –
BERND EICHINGER
Eichinger basked in the glory of other triumphs. Eichinger’s own theatrical feature debut, DER GROSSE BAGAROZY (The Devil and Ms. D, 1998/99) became a box-office hit. Eichinger’s output since the late 1990s comprised a strategic combination of slapstick comedies for the youth market, such as Michael ‘Bully’ Herbig’s DER SCHUH DES MANITU (Manitou’s Shoe, 2001), one of the biggest ever domestic box-office hits; more prestigious German-language releases designed to garner international attention, such as Caroline Link’s NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA (Nowhere in Africa, 2001) and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s film about Hitler’s final days, DER UNTERGANG (Downfall, 2003/04); DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (2007/08), the latter two of which Eichinger also scripted; and English-language releases such as the computer-game franchise RESIDENT EVIL (2001/02), which spawned two sequels (2004, 2007). Leaving his position as Constantin’s CEO in 2001, in order to concentrate more fully on production, Eichinger has been Chairman of the company’s Advisory Board since 2003. [pro – DE] 1972: Canossa [SF – dir,scr]. 1973: Die Eltern [TV – scr]. 1973/74: Perahim – die zweite Chance [TV – co-scr,pro]; Weihnachtsmärchen [SF – dir,scr,act]. 1974: Karl May [pro]. 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung. 1975: Umarmungen und andere Sachen; Michael oder Die Schwierigkeit mit dem Glück [TV]. 1975/76: Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein; Der starke Ferdinand; Ich heiß’ Marianne, und Du …? [TV]. 1976: Nord-Ost-Passage [TV]; Die Wildente [DE/AT]. 1976/77: Stunde Null [TV]; Grete Minde – Der Wald ist voller Wölfe [DE/AT]. 1977: Tauwetter [TV – CH/DE]; Die Konsequenz [TV]; Hitler. Ein Film aus Deutschland. 1977/78: Taugenichts; Die gläserne Zelle. 1978/79: Theodor Chindler [TV]; Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald [DE/AT]. 1979: … sonst würde das Kino sterben [TVD – app]. 1979/80: Die Ortliebschen Frauen. 1980/ 81: Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo; Trokadero [DE/AT]; Stachel im Fleisch. 1981/82: Der Tod in der Waschstraße; Une glace avec deux boules / Super-Biester! ’nen Freund zum Geburtstag [FR/DE]. 1981-84: Heimat. Eine Chronik in elf Teilen. 10. Teil: Die stolzen Jahre (1967–1969) [TV – act]. 1982/83: Gib Gas – Ich will Spaß. 1982-84: Das Arche Noah Prinzip. 1983: Kehraus. 1983/ 84: Die unendliche Geschichte. 1984: King Kongs Faust [act]. 1985: Der Formel Eins Film; Zahn um Zahn; Drei gegen Drei. 1985/86: Der Name der Rose / Il nome della rose / Le nom de la rose [DE/IT/FR]. 1986: Die Abtei des Verbrechens [TVD – act]. 1986/87: Tatort: Zabou; Der Unsichtbare. 1987/88: Man spricht deutsh; Ich und Er. 1989: Letzte Ausfahrt Brooklyn; Heut’ abend … Bernd Eichinger zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TVD – app]. 1989/90: Werner – Beinhart! [ANI/FF]. 1990: Feuer, Eis & Dynamit. 1991: Manta Manta. 1991/92: Ein Fall für TKKG: Drachenauge; Salz auf unserer Haut. 1992/93: Body of Evidence [US/DE]; The Cement Garden / Der Zementgarten [GB/DE/ FR]. 1993: Das Geisterhaus / Åndernes Hus / A casa dos
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espíritos [DE/DK/PT]. 1994: The Fantastic Four [US]; Der bewegte Mann; Voll normaaal; 500 Nations [TVD – US]. 1994/95: Vom Tatort zur Traumfabrik. Deutsche Filmemacher zurück in Hollywood [TVD – app]. 1995: Und keiner weint mir nach; Das Superweib. 1995/96: Abbuzze! Der Badesalz Film; Werner – das muß kesseln!!! [ANI]; Das Mädchen Rosemarie [TV – dir,co-scr,pro]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung [TVD – app]; Die Halbstarken [TV – co-scr,pro]; Charleys Tante [TV]; Es geschah am hellichten Tag [TV – scr,pro]; Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee / Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne / Smilla’s Sense of Snow [DE/DK/SE]. 1996/97: Prinz Eisenherz / Prince Valiant [DE/GB/IE]. 1997: Die drei Mädels von der Tankstelle; Prinz Eisenherz; Ballermann 6 – Auf der Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens; Eskiya / Eskiya – Der Bandit [TR/DE]; Der Campus. 1997/98: Opernball [TV – DE/AT]; Bin ich schön? 1998: Wrongfully Accused / Leslie Nielsen ist sehr verdächtig [US/DE]. 1998/ 99: Der große Bagarozy [dir,scr,act,pro]; Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 1 – TVS]. 1999/2000: Harte Jungs; The Calling. 2000: Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app]; Schule. 2000/01: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 2 – TVS]; The Mists of Avalon / Die Nebel von Avalon [TV – US/DE]; Freche Biester! / Slap Her, She´s French! [DE/US]; Vera Brühne [TV]. 2001: Die Entstehung des Films ‘Vera Brühne’ [TVD – app,pro]; Der Schuh des Manitu; Sass; Nirgendwo in Afrika; 666 – Traue keinem, mit dem du schläfst! [act, pro]. 2001/02: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 3 – TVS]; Knallharte Jungs; Resident Evil [DE/US/ GB]; Erkan & Stefan gegen die Mächte der Finsternis; Wie die Karnickel. 2002/03: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 4 – TVS]; Musen, Macht und Glamour – Die Welt der Maximilianstraße [TVD – app]; Werner – Gekotzt wird später! [ANI]; Die Klasse von ’99 – Schule war gestern, Leben ist jetzt. 2003: Bewegte Männer [season 1 – TVS]. 2003/04: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 5 – TVS]; Bewegte Männer [season 2 – TVS]; Der Untergang [scr,pro]; Hitlers letzte Tage. Der Film ‘Der Untergang’ [TVD – app]. 2004: Resident Evil: Apocalypse [US/DE/FR/CA]. 2004/05: Fantastic Four [US/DE]; Der Fischer und seine Frau. 2005: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 6 – TVS]; Bewegte Männer [season 3 – TVS]. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen; DOA: Dead or Alive / Dead or Alive [US/DE/GB]; Das Parfum – Die Geschichte eines Mörders / El perfume – Historia de un asesino / Le parfum – Histoire d’un meurtrier [co-scr,pro – DE/ ES/FR]. 2006: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 7 – TVS]. 2006/07: Hausmeister Krause – Ordnung muß sein [season 8 – TVS]; Pornorama oder Die Bekenntnisse der mannstollen Näherin Rita Brauchts [co-scr,pro]. 2007: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer [US/DE]; Resident Evil: Extinction [DE/FR/GB/US]. 2007/08: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [pro, scr].
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HANNS EISLER
HANNS EISLER (Johannes Eisler) Born July 6, 1898, Leipzig (Germany) Died September 6, 1962, Berlin (East Germany) A committed communist and the composer of East Germany’s national anthem, Eisler’s most productive period of writing film scores was during his years as an émigré in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. The youngest son of philosopher Rudolf Eisler (1873– 1926), he was raised in Vienna and taught himself musical theory from textbooks at an early age. While still at school, he attended illegal socialist meetings, before gaining his Abitur in 1916 and being conscripted to fight. After World War I, Eisler became a private student under Arnold Schönberg. Leading two workers’ choirs at the same time, he received the Vienna Art Award for his first piano sonata in 1922, but subsequently grew increasingly dissatisfied with the disparity between his political convictions and the world of avant-garde chamber music. Eisler made a decisive break in 1925, when he went to teach at Berlin’s Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory and started to publish articles about music in the left-wing press. He also joined the agitprop group ‘Das rote Sprachrohr’ (The Red Mouthpiece), with whom he could be seen performing in Slatan Dudow’s KUHLE WAMPE (Whither Germany?, 1931/32). Throughout the remainder of the Weimar period, he composed only works that related to proletarian political struggle, including a number of anthems that were frequently sung at protest marches as well as short pieces for radio and scores for leftist stage and screen productions. His music for Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Die Massnahme’ (The Measures Taken, 1930) inaugurated a life-long working relationship between the two men. Fleeing back to Austria after the Nazis’ rise to power, Eisler travelled across Europe and the United States to promote the anti-fascist cause, before receiving an invitation to teach composition and music history at New York’s School for Social Research in 1938. A grant to research contemporary film music ultimately led to his seminal 1947 study ‘Composition for the Film’, co-authored with Theodor W. Adorno. During this project in 1941 he wrote music for scenes from THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1939/40) as well as for Joris Ivens’s avant garde short REGEN (1929). Living in Pacific Palisades (near Los Angeles) from 1942 to 1947, Eisler scored some eight Hollywood features, and was Oscar-nominated both for Fritz Lang’s HANGMEN ALSO DIE! (1942) and, together with Constantin R. Bakaleinikoff, for Clifford Odets’s NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART (1944). In 1947, Eisler, whose brother Gerhard was a leading communist agent in the USA, was summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities
Committee, and was deported the following year. Returning to East Berlin in 1949, he collaborated with poet Johannes R. Becher on a series of patriotic songs and the national anthem of the new East German state, while being appointed professor at the Berlin State Conservatory which was later renamed in his memory. He continued to write stage music and scored a number of DEFA productions including Kurt Maetzig’s DER RAT DER GÖTTER (Council of the Gods, 1949/ 50) and Slatan Dudow’s UNSER TÄGLICH BROT (Our Daily Bread, 1949) and FRAUENSCHICKSALE (Women’s Destinies, 1952). He subsequently adapted most of his scores into chamber sonatas. Numerous of Eisler’s compositions have been reused on film soundtracks since his death, including ‘The Secret Marriage’ in Mike Newell’s FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (1993/94). His son, Georg Eisler (1928–1998), was a prominent Austrian artist. [mus – US] 1923-25: Ruttmann Opus III [ANI – DE]. 1930/ 31: Das Lied vom Leben [DE]. 1931: Niemandsland [MLV – DE]. 1931/32: Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? [DE]. 1932: Pešn o gerojach [DO – SU]. 1933: Dans les rues [FR]; Nieuwe gronden [SD – NL]. 1933/34: Le grand jeu [FR]. 1934/35: Abdul the Damned [GB]. 1936: Pagliacci [GB]; La vie est à nous [FR]. 1938/39: The 400 Million [DO]. 1939: Pete Roleum and His Cousins [ANI]. 1940: A Child Went Forth [SD]; White Flood [SD – US]. 1941: The Forgotten Village [US]; Our Russian Front [DO – US]. 1942: China Fights [CN]; Hangmen Also Die! [US]. 1944: None But the Lonely Heart [US]. 1945: Jealousy [US]; The Spanish Main [US]; Deadline At Dawn [US]; A Scandal in Paris [US]. 1946/47: The Woman on the Beach [US]. 1947: So Well Remembered [GB/US]. 1948: Køíová trojka [CS]. [mus – DD] 1949: Unser täglich Brot. 1949/50: Der Rat der Götter. 1950/51: Wilhelm Pieck – Das Leben unseres Präsidenten [DO]. 1952: Frauenschicksale. 1954: Schicksal am Lenkrad [AT]. 1954/55: Bel ami [MLV – AT]; Bel ami [French MLV – FR/AT]. 1955: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [AT]; Gasparone [co-scr,mus – AT]. 1955/56: Nuit et brouillard [SD – FR]. 1956: Fidelio [co-scr,mus – AT]. 1956/ 57: Les sorcières de Salem / Le vergini di Salem / Die Hexen von Salem [FR/IT/DD]. 1957: Katzgraben [TVD]. 1958: Das verlorene Gesicht [TV]; Die Mutter [DO]; Geschwader Fledermaus. 1959/60: Trübe Wasser / Les arrivistes [DD/FR]. 1960/61: Aktion J [TVD]. 1961: Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg [TV – DE]; Das Leben des Galilei [TV – DE]. 1962: Esther [TV]; Unbändiges Spanien [DO]. 1966: Die Tage der Kommune [TV]; Hilmar Thate singt Dessau, Eisler, Hosalla [TV]; Gisela May singt Brecht [TV]. 1967/68: Die Gesichte der Simone Machard [TV]. 1969: Anno Populi – Im Jahre des Volkes 1949 [DO]. 1970: Der Oktober kam … [DO]. 1970/71: Die Mutter [TV – DE]. 1973: Ändere die Welt, sie braucht es. Begegnungen mit Hanns Eisler [TVD – app]. 1974: Galileo [GB/CA]. 1978: Quand le siècle a pris formes [DO – FR]; Das Leben des Galilei [TV]. 1978/79: Deutschlandgeschichten … können mir
HANNELORE ELSNER doch Arbeit geben, die Philister … [DO – DE]. 1980: Die Mutter [TV]. 1982/83: Fariaho. 1983: Walter Ballhause – einer von Millionen [SD]. 1985: Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe [TV]; Die Tage der Kommune [TV – DE]. 1989: Komm ins Offene, Freund! oder Gegen die Dummheit in der Musik [SD]. 1992: Das große Fest [TV – DE]. 1996: ¯ycie Galileiusza [TV – PL]. 1997: Solidaritätslied. Hanns Eisler – eine Geschichte [TVD – DE]; Dies verlauste, nackte Leben / To wszawe, nagie ¿ycie [TV – DE/PL]. 1998/99: Der Vulkan / Le volcan [DE/FR].
LOTTE H. EISNER (Lotte Henriette Eisner) Born March 5, 1896, Berlin (Germany) Died November 25, 1983, Garches (France) Starting as a film critic in Germany in the late 1920s, Eisner later became one of the most important historians of German silent cinema, a renowned archivist, and a champion of a new generation of German filmmakers in the 1960s. After studying history of art, archaeology and history at the Universities of Berlin and Munich, Eisner began writing about film for the daily ‘Film-Kurier’ in 1927 cooperating closely with Hans Feld, and over the next years established contacts with many important figures of Weimar cinema, including Fritz Lang and G. W. Pabst. As a Jew, Eisner fled Germany after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. She settled in France where she only occasionally managed to contribute to film publications, including the World Film News, edited by Feld in London. Following the German occupation of France in 1940, Eisner assumed a false identity and went into hiding, but was discovered and kept temporarily in an internment camp in Gurs, in southern France. After the end of World War II, Eisner joined Henri Langlois in establishing the Cinémathèque française, and remained with this institution as a curator until her retirement in 1975. Eisner’s familiarity with key artistic figures of the silent period helped the Cinémathèque’s collection acquire many important treasures. While also writing occasional reviews and articles for French journals including ‘Cahiers du cinema’, Eisner’s main postwar achievement was a series of books, which, alongside Siegfried Kracauer’s 1947 study ‘From Caligari to Hitler’, had a profound impact on the retrospective evaluation of Weimar cinema, and which shaped the understanding of 1920s film for decades to come. In ‘L’Écran démoniaque’ (1952, published in 1973 in English as ‘The Haunted Screen’) Eisner provided an illustrated study of 1920s Expressionist film, and the movement’s roots in German Romanticism, with perceptive references to its influences on paintings,
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architecture, literature, and Max Reinhardt’s stage design. She also wrote two widely acclaimed booklength analyses of the films of F. W. Murnau (1964), and of Fritz Lang (1976), the latter of which written with Lang’s cooperation. In the late 1960s, Eisner became impressed with the films of a new generation of West German filmmakers, Werner Herzog’s in particular, and established contact with them. She eventually contributed the voice-over for Herzog’s eerie documentary FATA MORGANA (Mirage, 1968–71). For filmmakers such as Herzog and Wim Wenders Eisner came to represent a living link to a lost past, and they expressed their devotion to her in sometimes unusual ways. In 1974, when Eisner fell seriously ill, Herzog underwent a widely publicised pilgrimage on foot from Munich to Eisner’s flat in Paris. In 1979, Iranian-born director Sohrab Shahid Saless made a film about her for West German television, DIE LANGEN FERIEN DER LOTTE EISNER (Lotte Eisner’s Long Holiday). Still intellectually sharp but nearly blind towards the end of her life, Eisner collaborated with Herzog’s former wife Martje Grohmann on her autobiography ‘Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland’ (I Once Had a Beautiful Homeland), which was published posthumously in 1984.
HANNELORE ELSNER (Hannelore Elstner) Born July 26, 1942, Burghausen (Germany) A dependable character actress in German film and theatre for over thirty years, chestnut-haired Elsner rose to celebrity status in the 1990s as a striking fiftysomething whose powerful and sensual performances have gained her wide acclaim and numerous awards. Elsner took acting lessons in Munich, and was already appearing in films by the late 1950s. However, due to the higher cultural standing of theatre at this time, the young actress focused her attention primarily on stage work, playing at theatres including Munich’s Kleine Komödie and Kammerspiele. It was only in the early 1970s that she started to appear more regularly on television, and this soon became the mainstay of her career. With over one hundred television drama credits to her name, Elsner has worked with the cream of German directors, taking prominent roles in Dieter Wedel’s SCHWARZ ROT GOLD – ALLES IN BUTTER (Black Red Gold – Everything’s OK, 1982), Wolfgang Staudte’s SATAN IST AUF GOTTES SEITE (Satan Is on God’s Side, 1982/ 83) and Uli Edel’s EINE ART VON ZORN (A Kind of Anger, 1983/84). She gained popularity in the title role of the series DIE SCHÖNE MARIANNE (Beautiful Marianne, 1974–76).
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It was her lead role as Police Superintendent Lea Sommer opposite newcomer Til Schweiger on ARD’s series DIE KOMMISSARIN (The Lady Cop) starting in 1993 that launched Elsner to national stardom, and this remains the part for which she is best known. Her recurrent guest appearances on a string of other 1990s television hits also kept Elsner firmly in the public eye, and in 1996 – following an absence of fourteen years – she returned to the stage, starring in ‘Eine tot-normale Frau’ (A Deathly Normal Woman) at Frankfurt’s Theater am Turm. Elsner’s powerful portrait of an ageing, suicidal novelist in Oskar Röhler’s character study DIE UNBERÜHRBARE (No Place to Go, 1999) won her both a German Film Award for best actress, as well as the Silver Hugo award for best actress at the Chicago Film Festival. In 2002, she picked up a Bambi and a second German Film Award for her tour-de-force monologue in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s study of an actress, MEIN LETZTER FILM (My Last Film, 2001/02). Now specialising in women of a certain age who have to face the realities of getting older, she delivered further strong performances in two bittersweet romantic dramas directed by Rudolf Thome, DU HAST GESAGT, DASS DU MICH LIEBST (You Told Me That You Loved Me, 2005), and DAS SICHTBARE UND DAS UNSICHTBARE (The Visible and the Invisible, 2006/07). Roles in a similar vein included an enigmatic older woman in Angelina Maccarone’s lesbian love story VIVERE (2006/07), and Doris Dörrie’s KIRSCHBLÜTEN – HANAMI (Cherry Blossoms, 2007), as a self-sacrificing wife of a terminally ill husband. Elsner was married to actor Gerd Vespermann from 1964 to 1966, and was the partner of director Alf Brustellin from 1973 until his death in a car crash in 1981. Her third marriage, to theatre director Uwe Castensen, lasted from 1996 to 1999. Elsner’s son Dominik (b. 1981), meanwhile, stems from a relationship with TV director Dieter Wedel. [DE – TV – act] 1959: Ein unbeschriebenes Blatt; Immer die Mädchen [AT]; Freddy unter fremden Sternen [FF]; AltHeidelberg [FF]. 1960: Marina [FF]; … und sowas nennt sich Leben [FF]; Das Mädchen mit den schmalen Hüften [FF]. 1961: Immer wenn es Nacht wird [FF]; Sie schreiben mit: Liebesbriefe auf vier Beinen. 1961/62: Funkstreife Isar 12: Am hellichten Tag. 1962: Tante Jutta aus Kalkutta (Familie Hannemann); Stahlnetz: Spur 211; Die Nacht der Schrecken. 1962/63: Die endlose Nacht [FF]; Spiel im Morgengrauen. 1963: Die Teilnahme; Allotria in Zell am See [FF]; Ein Alibi zerbricht [FF – AT]; Casanova wider Willen. 1963/64: Der Seitensprung. 1964: General Frederic; Patentlösung; Leider lauter Lügen. 1965: Der Nachtkurier meldet: Wendung im Mordfall Gormann; Die 5. Kolonne: Blumen für Zimmer 19; Die spanische Fliege. 1966: Schöne Geschichten mit Mama und Papa; Vater einer Tochter. 1966/67: Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Kiste. 1967: Das Kri-
minalmuseum: Die Briefmarke; Herrliche Zeiten im Spessart [FF]; Der Trinker; Das Kriminalmuseum: Das Goldstück. 1967/68: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 1. Teil: Zur Hölle mit den Paukern [FF]. 1968: Die Mördergesellschaft; Knüpfe das Netz nach dem Fisch; Der blaue Strohhut; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 2. Teil: Zum Teufel mit der Penne [FF]. 1968/69: Das Rätsel von Piskov. 1969: Beichte eines Mörders [TVS]; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Das Fenster zum Garten; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 3. Teil: Pepe, der Paukerschreck [FF]; Christoph Kolumbus oder die Entdeckung Amerikas; In einem Monat, in einem Jahr; Der Bettenstudent oder: Was mach’ ich mit den Mädchen? [FF]; Der Kommissar: Das Ungeheuer. 1969/70: Die Herren mit der weißen Weste [FF]. 1970: Hurra, wir sind mal wieder Junggesellen! [FF]. 1971: Die Eroberung; Der Kommissar: Der Tote von Zimmer 17; Dreht Euch nicht um – der Golem geht rum! oder Das Zeitalter der Muße; Iwanow. 1971/72: Willi wird das Kind schon schaukeln [FF]. 1972: Eine Handvoll Brennesseln; Auf den Spuren der Anarchisten; Der Stoff, aus dem die Träume sind [FF]; Deutsche Novelle; Tod auf der Themse. 1972/73: Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts [FF – DD]. 1973: … aber Jonny! [FF]; Die Reise nach Wien [FF]; Ein Fall für Goron. 1974: Il ritorno di zanna bianca / Die Teufelsschlucht der wilden Wölfe / La revanche de croc blanc [FF – IT/DE/FR]. 1975: Berlinger [FF]. 1974-76: Die schöne Marianne [13 episodes – TVS]. 1976: Bomber & Paganini [FF – DE/AT]; Die Babenberger in Österreich. Wir waren zwölf [TV – AT]. 1976/77: Grete Minde – Der Wald ist voller Wölfe [FF – DE/AT]. 1976-80: Jörg Preda berichtet [TVS]. 1977: Flucht. 1977/78: Tochter des Schweigens [TVS]. 1977-80: Pariser Geschichten [5 episodes – TVS]. 1978: Der Schneider von Ulm; Der Sturz. 1979: Der grüne Vogel. 1980: Weekend. Heufieber. 1981: Wer den Schaden hat … 1981/ 82: Wer spinnt denn da, Herr Doktor? [FF]. 1982: So oder so ist das Leben II; Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten [TVS]; Schwarz Rot Gold: Alles in Butter; Flöhe hüten ist leichter; Tatort: Peggy hat Angst. 1982/83: Satan ist auf Gottes Seite. 1983: Ein Fall für zwei: Der Zeuge. 1983/84: Mann ohne Gedächtnis [FF – CH/DE]; Eine Art von Zorn. 1984: Geschichten aus der Heimat. IV; Parker [FF – GB]. 1984/85: Kaminskys Nacht [FF]; Marie Ward – Zwischen Galgen und Glorie [FF]. 1985: Ein Mann ist soeben erschossen worden; Morgengrauen [TV – AT]; Tatort: Schicki-Micki. 1985/86: Operation Dead End [FF]; SOKO 5113: Das Duell [2 parts]. 1986: Bitte laßt die Blumen leben [FF]; Das Mord-Menü; Irgendwie und sowieso [TVS]. 1986/87: Ein Treffen mit Rimbaud [FF]; Tatort: Tod im Elefantenhaus. 1987: Blue Blood. Leben und Sterben in der Society. 1987/88: Lorentz & Söhne [TVS]; Georges Simenon: Das Fenster der Rouet; Die Schwarzwaldklinik: Die Reise nach Amerika / Carola will nach oben [2 episodes]; Pizza-Express; Peter Strohm: Es muß doch mehr als alles geben. 1987-89: Mondzirkus [FF]. 1988: Das Nest: Die Frau gegenüber. 1988/89: SOKO 5113: Rache [TVS]; Tam Tam oder Wohin die Reise geht; Noch ein Wunsch [TV – CH/DE]. 1989: Blaues Blut [TVS]. 1989/90: Liebes Leben I; Der achte Tag [FF]; Alles Paletti: Erste Klasse, einfach. 1990: Tatort: Howalds Fall; Mit Leib und Seele [season 2 – TVS]; Der Zauberkasten; Das lange Gespräch mit dem Vogel [FF]; Steuergeheimnisse; Der
ROLAND EMMERICH Alte: Liebe und Tod; Schwarz Rot Gold: Schmutziges Geld. 1991: Der Tod kam als Freund; Die Männer vom K3: Ein ganz alltäglicher Fall; Auf Achse: Doppel-Spiel. 1991/92: Der Millionär [TVS]. 1992: Der Alte: Der Tod ist kein Ende; Wolffs Revier: Notwehr; Tatort: Renis Tod; Klippen des Todes; Auf Achse [season 6 – TVS]. 1992/93: Doberstein. 1993: Harry & Sunny [13 episodes – TVS]; Im Teufelskreis; Das Babylon-Komplott [TV – AT/DE]; Ärzte: Die Narbe des Himmels; 1993/94: Die Kommissarin [season 1 – 13 episodes]. 1994: Höchstpersönlich: Hannelore Elsner [TVD – app]; Das Traumschiff: Dubai. 1994/95: Spreebogen; Blutige Spur. 1995: Die Kommissarin [season 2 – 13 episodes]. 1995/96: Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1996: Ein Mord für Quandt: Die Hellseherin. 1996/97: Die Drei: Der Preis der Liebe. 1997: Tatort: Gefährliche Übertragung; Tatort: Die Kommissarin – Gefährliche Übertragung; Tatort: Alptraum; Schmetterlingsgefühle. 1997/98: SOKO 5113: Das Ritual; Andrea und Marie. 1998: Mein großer Freund [FF]; Kai Rabe gegen die Vatikankiller [FF]; Traumschiff 2000: Jamaica/Galapagos; Ich schenk dir meinen Mann. 1999: Der Schrei des Schmetterlings [FF]; Die Kommissarin [season 3 – 13 episodes]; Die Unberührbare [FF]. 2000: Tatort: Die Kommissarin – Alptraum; Ich schenk dir meinen Mann 2; Die Kommissarin [season 4 – 6 episodes]. 2000/01: Suck My Dick [FF]. 2000-02: Poem – Ich setzte den Fuß in die Luft und sie trug [FF – voi]. 2001: Solange wir lieben. 2001/02: Mein letzter Film. 2001-04: Die Kommissarin [season 5 – 13 episodes]. 2002: Fahr zur Hölle, Schwester!; Eine Liebe in Afrika. 2002/03: Rot und Blau [FF]. 2003: Durch die Nacht mit … Christoph Schlingensief und Michel Friedman [TVD – app]; Das Kleine Fernsehspiel – reloaded [TVD – app]. 2003/04: Frau fährt, Mann schläft [FF]; Die Rosenzüchterin. 2004: Alles auf Zucker! [FF]. 2004/05: Die Sturmflut. 2004-06: Not a Lovestory [FF]. 2005: Die Spielerin; Du hast gesagt, dass Du mich liebst [FF]. 2005/06: Die Kommissarin [season 6 – 7 episodes]. 2005/06: Rauchzeichen [FF]; Nicht alle waren Mörder. 2006/07: Vivere [FF – DE/NL]; Münchner (Filmfest-) Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]; Das Sichtbare und das Unsichtbare [FF]; War and Peace [TV – IT]. 2007: Mein Herz in Afrika; Kirschblüten – Hanami [FF]; Jakobs Bruder [FF]. 2007/08: Mein Herz in Chile; Insomnie [FF – FR/BE]. 2008: 1 1/2 Ritter – Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde. 2008/09: Herzensbrecher / Ach Glück …
ROLAND EMMERICH Born November 10, 1955, Sindelfingen (West Germany) Producer-director Emmerich established himself as one of Hollywood’s foremost exponents of the multi-million-dollar special effects blockbuster in the 1990s, after having rehearsed his populist ambitions on smaller-scale productions made in Germany. Even prior to leaving school, industrialist’s son Emmerich was illustrating books and holding exhibitions of his artwork. After gaining his Abitur, he joined Munich’s College of Television and Film,
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where he served as art director on Doris Dörrie’s dissertation film DER ERSTE WALZER (The First Waltz, 1978) before debuting as director with the short FRANZMANN (Frog, 1979). Shot cheaply with a crew of former schoolfriends, it played at the Hof Film Week. He set up production company Centropolis in 1982 to attract financing for his dissertation film – the most costly in the college’s history – DAS ARCHE NOAH PRINZIP (The Noah’s Ark Principle, 1982–84). A visually dazzling sci-fi film, it opened at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received both criticism for its thin and illogical narrative as well as praise for having avoided taking the usual route of relying on government subsidies. Emmerich’s next film was the formulaic JOEY (Making Contact, 1984/85), about a young boy with psychic powers, followed by the equally derivative Horror-sci-fi productions HOLLYWOOD MONSTER (Ghost Chase, 1986/87) and MOON 44 (1988/89). Filmed principally in old factory buildings in and around the small Swabian town of Sindelfingen, all three were financed primarily through advance sales of worldwide rights. After seeing MOON 44, producer Mario Kassar invited Emmerich to Hollywood, resulting in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (1992), which liberally plundered the plots of THE TERMINATOR and ROBOCOP and starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as genetically altered killing machines. Emmerich followed this up with the more imaginative time-travel adventure STARGATE (1993/94), but it was the alien invasion epic INDEPENDENCE DAY (1995/96) that proved a worldwide box-office hit. Alongside Wolfgang Petersen, whose AIR FORCE ONE (1996) came out at about the same time, Emmerich convinced the major studios that German directors could be entrusted with Hollywood’s most high profile blockbusters. A cameo appearance in Christoph Schlingensief’s trash comedy about New German Cinema, DIE 120 TAGE VON BOTTROP (The 120 Days of Bottrop, 1997), meanwhile, showed that Emmerich had not lost the ability to poke fun at himself. In Hollywood, monumentalism remained Emmerich’s watchword, showcased in his monster film remake GODZILLA (1998), the American Revolution saga THE PATRIOT (1999/2000), the heavily apocalyptic ecological disaster film THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2003/04), the retro-sci-fi 10,000 BC (2006–08), and the end-of-the-world film 2012 (2008/ 09). His films continue to be produced through Centropolis, run by Emmerich with his sister Ute and, until May 2001, his long-time partner and collaborator Dean Devlin; in 2006 Michael Wimer joined them as a partner. Emmerich is renowned in Hollywood for
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bringing in his pictures for significantly less than other directors. [dir – DE] 1978: Der erste Walzer [des]. 1979: Wilde Witwe [SF]; Zeitansage [SF]; Keep on; Lotte [des]; Franzmann [SF – co-dir,scr,cut]; Liebe & Laster [SF – pro]. 1980: Verlieben vielleicht [SF – act]; Alto Sax [SF – co-scr,act]. 1981: ASA 400 [SF – dir,scr]. 1982-84: Das Arche Noah Prinzip [dir, scr,des,pro]. 1984/85: Joey [dir,co-scr,co-cam,sfx,pro]. 1986/87: Hollywood Monster [dir,scr,pro]. 1988/89: Moon 44 [dir,ide,pro]. 1990/91: Eye of the Storm [pro – US/DE]. 1992: Universal Soldier [dir,scr – US]. 1993/94: High Crusade. Frikassee im Weltraum [pro]; Stargate [dir,co-scr – US]. 1993-96: Movie Magic [TVS – act – US]. 1995/96: Independence Day [dir,co-scr,pro – US]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung [TVD – app]. 1997: Die 120 Tage von Bottrop [act]; The Visitor [TVS – scr,pro – US]. 1998: Godzilla [dir,co-scr,pro – US]; Godzilla, King of the Monsters [TVD – app – GB]; Master of Desaster [TVD – app]. 1998/99: The Thirteenth Floor / The 13th Floor – Bist du was du denkst? [pro – US/DE]. 1999/2000: The Patriot [dir,pro – US]. 2001/02: Eight Legged Freaks [pro – US]. 2003/04: The Day After Tomorrow [dir,co-scr,ide,pro – US]. 2006: Trade – Willkommen in Amerika / Trade [pro – DE/US]. 2006-08: 10,000 BC [dir,co-scr,ide,pro – US].2008/09: 2012 [dir,co-scr,pro – US/CA].
ERICH ENGEL Born February 14, 1891, Hamburg (Germany) Died May 10, 1966, Berlin (West Germany) Closely associated with poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht for over thirty years, stage director Engel simultaneously enjoyed a successful career as a popular film director. Engel served an apprenticeship at a coffee wholesaler’s before attending Leopold Jessner’s acting school in Hamburg between 1909 and 1911 and touring in repertory in the years thereafter. Engel was called up in 1914, and worked in a military hospital until being seconded to join Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus theatre as a scenarist in 1917. He then took a position as both scenarist and director at the city’s Kammerspiele from 1918 to 1921, after which he relocated to Munich and made the acquaintance of playwright Brecht and set designer Caspar Neher. His early successes as a director of Brecht’s plays included the original production of ‘Im Dickicht’ (In the Jungle of Cities) in 1923, and the two undertook their first attempt at filmmaking the same year, co-directing the slapstick comedy short DIE MYSTERIEN EINES FRISIERSALONS (The Mysteries of a Hairdresser’s Shop) starring Karl Valentin. Further stage collaborations between Engel and Brecht followed, including Engel’s original 1928 staging of ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’ (The Threepenny Opera) at Berlin’s Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.
Following the introduction of sound films, Engel worked exclusively as a film director between 1930 and 1935. Specialising in comedies, he shot eleven films in a row – from WER NIMMT DIE LIEBE ERNST? (Who Takes Love Seriously?, 1931) through to VIEL LÄRM UM NIXI (Much Ado About Nixi, 1941) – with Jenny Jugo as his star. He made some concessions to the ‘Zeitgeist’, such as in the Jannings vehicle ALTES HERZ WIRD WIEDER JUNG (Old Heart Gets Young Again, 1942/43) that mixed elements of family comedy with ideological concepts of the Nazi’s ‘New Order’, but his central theme throughout remained the individual’s potential to alter his or her life and circumstances. He also directed a number of plays by Shakespeare at the Deutsches Theater in the late 1930s. After World War II, he was theatre manager at Munich’s Kammerspiele from 1945 to 1947, and then rejoined the recently returned Brecht at Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where the two worked together in 1948 and 1949. Engel’s first post-war film was the award-winning DEFA production AFFAIRE BLUM (The Blum Affair, 1948), which provided a realistic depiction of the rise of fascism in 1920s Germany. Between 1950 and 1955, Engel undertook film work in West Germany, directing DER FRÖHLICHE WEINBERG (The Grapes Are Ripe, 1952), based on the play by Carl Zuckmayer, and serving as artistic supervisor on the Erich Kästner adaptation PÜNKTCHEN UND ANTON (Punktchen and Anton, 1953), directed by his son Thomas Engel (b. 1922), later a sucessful director of feature and television films. Following Brecht’s death in 1956, Engel took over as director of the latter’s production of ‘Leben des Galilei’ (The Life of Galileo) at the Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin, and thereafter worked exclusively in East Germany, while continuing to reside in West Berlin. There was another German film director and producer of light comedies named Erich Engels (1889–1971) whose filmography in some sources gets mixed up with that of his near namesake, especially as both worked with Bavarian comedian Karl Valentin. [dir – DE] 1923: Die Mysterien eines Frisiersalons [SF – dir,scr]. 1930/31: Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff [MLV – ass-dir]. 1931: Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst? [MLV]. 1932: Fünf von der Jazzband. 1933: Inge und die Millionen. 1934: Pechmarie [dir,co-scr]; Hohe Schule. Das Geheimnis des Carlo Cavelli [DE/AT]. 1935: Pygmalion; … nur ein Komödiant [AT]. 1935/36: Mädchenjahre einer Königin. 1936: Ein Hochzeitstraum; Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser. 1936/37: Gefährliches Spiel. 1937/38: Der Maulkorb. 1938/39: Ein hoffnungsloser Fall; Hotel Sacher. 1939: Nanette; Der Weg zu Isabel. 1940: Unser Fräulein Doktor. 1941: Non mi sposo più [MLV – co-dir – IT]; Viel Lärm um Nixi [MLV]. 1942: Sommerliebe. 1942/43: Altes Herz wird
HEINZ ERHARDT wieder jung. 1943: Man rede mir nicht von Liebe. 1943/ 44: Der Vater; Es lebe die Liebe. 1944/45: Wo ist Herr Belling?; Fahrt ins Glück. 1948: Affaire Blum [DD]. 1949: Der Biberpelz [DD]. 1950: Land der Sehnsucht / Terra d’amore [co-dir – DE/IT]. 1950/ 51: Das seltsame Leben des Herrn Bruggs. 1951: Kommen Sie am Ersten …! 1951/52: Die Stimme des Anderen [dir, co-scr]. 1952: Der fröhliche Weinberg. 1953: Pünktchen und Anton [supv – DE/AT]. 1953/54: Der Mann meines Lebens [dir,scr]. 1954: Konsul Strotthoff; Du bist die Richtige [DE/AT]. 1955: Liebe ohne Illusion; Vor Gott und den Menschen. 1957: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [TV – DD]. 1958: Geschwader Fledermaus [DD]. 1959/60: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [DD – co-dir]. 1994: Erich Engel – Ein Hegel unter den Komödianten [TVD – app].
HEINZ ERHARDT Born February 20, 1909, Riga (Russian Empire, now Latvia) Died June 5, 1979, Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel (West Germany) With his comically fastidious and finicky patter, the rotund and bespectacled Erhardt established himself as one of West Germany’s most popular comedians of the 1950s and 1960s. He retains a sizeable following some thirty years after his death. Raised initially in Petrograd, Erhardt commenced schooling in Riga, and completed his education studying piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1926 to 1928. He was employed at his father’s art and music shop in Riga, but when the business went bust, he started over as a public speaker and master of ceremonies. Erhardt came to Berlin in 1938, appearing at the Kabarett der Komiker variety theatre and, by 1939, was doing guest spots on the La Jana variety show, which included broadcasts on the experimental television station ‘Paul Nipkow’. He joined the navy’s music corps in 1941, and then the entertainment corps. Settling in Hamburg in 1945, Erhardt undertook radio work for NWDR (Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk) and other stations in the Western Zones, before making his theatrical debut in 1946. After a couple of supporting roles, Erhardt’s cinema career commenced in earnest in the mid-1950s, with his first starring role in Geza von Cziffra’s DER MÜDE THEODOR (Theodore the Tired, 1957). Erhardt’s film roles showcased his verbal dexterity and fusspot persona, presenting him as a tin-pot rogue – sometimes out of naivety, as in Erich Engels’s WITWER MIT FÜNF TÖCHTERN (Widower with 5 Daughters, 1957), and sometimes with more malicious motivation, as in Hans Deppe’s DER HAUSTYRANN (The Domestic Tyrant, 1958). From the early 1960s, Erhardt appeared in films less often, while continuing to work in theatre. His Ham-
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burg-based production company HEP (Heinz Erhardt-Produktion), founded in 1960, gave him the opportunity to make television films in which he could adopt a less boisterous style than in his films, and his characterisation of financial accountant Willi Winzig – a kind of cheeky alter ego to the ‘little man’ created by West Germany’s economic miracle – became synonymous with the comedian. Erhardt also supplied comic relief in a number of operettas on television and on the screen in Karl May adaptations, memorably in DER ÖLPRINZ (Rampage at Apache Wells, 1965) and DAS VERMÄCHTNIS DES INKA (Legacy of the Incas, 1965/66). He hosted entertainment programmes and was a regular television guest star, and from 1968, appeared reading extracts from various books of prose and verse that he published. Erhardt’s final film appearances came in four ‘Willi’ films featuring variations on his Willi Winzig character, before the comedian suffered a massive stroke in December 1971. Erhardt’s son Gero Erhardt (b. 1943) became a television cameraman and director, and his grandson Marek Erhardt (b. 1969) is a prolific voice-over and dubbing artist who supplies the voice of Johnny Depp for German-dubbed release prints. [act – DE] 1948: Fräulein Mabel [SF]. 1948/49: Gesucht wird Majora. 1949: Was macht wer falsch? [SD – voi]. 1950: Liebe auf Eis. 1955: Drei Tage Mittelarrest. 1956: Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Die gestohlene Hose; Mädchen mit schwachem Gedächtnis; II-A in Berlin. Drei Bayern an der Spree. 1957: Der müde Theodor; Witwer mit fünf Töchtern [act,lyr]. 1958: Immer die Radfahrer [AT/DE]; Vater, Mutter und neun Kinder; So ein Millionär hat’s schwer [AT]; Der Haustyrann. 1959: Natürlich die Autofahrer; Drillinge an Bord. 1960: Der letzte Fußgänger; Der Vogelhändler [TV]; Kauf Dir einen bunten Luftballon [DE/AT]; Mein Mann, das Wirtschaftswunder. 1961: Ach Egon!; Abenteuer in Norfolk [TV – scr,act,pro]; Drei Mann in einem Boot [DE/AT]; Freddy und der Millionär / La signorina miliardo [DE/IT]; Willi Winzig [TV – scr,act,pro]; Eine gewisse Marietta [TV – scr,act,pro]; Der Fachmann [TV – scr,act,pro]; Ein ruhiges Stündchen [TV – scr,act,pro]. 1962: Der Kurpfuscher [TV – scr,act,pro]; Die Post geht ab; Axel Munthe, der Arzt von San Michele / Le livre de San Michele / Donne senza paradiso [DE/FR/IT]; Hotel Victoria [TV]; Ohne Krimi geht die Mimi nie ins Bett [AT]. 1963: Apartment-Zauber; Das wissen die Götter! [TV]. 1963/64: Die Reise auf den Mond [TV]. 1964: Wenn man baden geht auf Teneriffa …; Die große Kür [DE/AT]; Doddy und die Musketiere. Ein Märchen mit Musik [TV]; Frau Luna [TV]. 1965: Der Ölprinz / Kraj Petroleja [DE/YU]. 1965/66: Das Vermächtnis des Inka / Viva Gringo / El ultimo rey de los Incas [DE/IT/ES]. 1966: Come imparai ad amare le donne / Das gewisse Etwas der Frauen / Comment j’ai appris à aimer les femmes [IT/DE/FR]. 1967: Aktien und Lorbeer [TV]; Andere Zeiten – andere Sitten [TV]. 1967/68: Die Landstreicher [TV – DE/AT]. 1968: Otto ist auf Frauen
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scharf [DE/AT]. 1969: Charley’s Onkel; Warum hab ich bloß 2 x ja gesagt? / Professione bigamo [DE/IT]; Klein Erna auf dem Jungfernstieg. 1969/70: Die Herren mit der weißen Weste. 1970: Das hat man nun davon [TV – scr]; Was ist denn bloß mit Willi los?; Das kann doch unsren Willi nicht erschüttern; Das hat man nun davon [TV – scr,act]; Der Opernball [TV]. 1971: Unser Willi ist der Beste; Glückspilze [TV]. 1971/72: Willi wird das Kind schon schaukeln. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper [TV – sma,mus,act]. 1979: Erinnerungen an Heinz Erhardt [TVD]. 1984: Erhardt Gala [TV]. 1988: Was bin ich wieder für ein Schelm [TV]. 2005: Legenden – Heinz Erhardt [TVD].
ESMOND, CARL see EICHBERGER, WILLY
HANNS HEINZ EWERS (Hans Heinrich Ewers) Born November 3, 1871, Düsseldorf (Germany) Died June 12, 1943, Berlin (Germany) A writer of lurid horror stories, Ewers was among the first German authors to extol the artistic potential of cinema. He scripted a series of early 1910s features regarded as foundation stones of German cinema’s fantastic tradition. Ewers studied law and was awarded his doctorate in 1898. He set up as a freelance writer in Düsseldorf, publishing dramas, poetry, short stories and travelogues. Ewers secured fame and fortune with his gleefully perverse 1911 novel ‘Alraune’, about a scientist’s creation of a female homunculus by inseminating a prostitute with the semen of a hanged sex criminal. Phenomenally popular, the novel was translated into twenty-eight languages and filmed three times as a silent (1918, 1919, 1927) and twice (1930, 1952) as a sound film. Ewers’s vociferous support of the cinema began in 1907. Advocating the need for a new dramaturgical style that could at once exploit the new medium’s unique possibilities and help to raise its cultural standing, he joined Deutsche Bioscop as a staff writer for a planned series of ambitious ‘art films’. Written by Ewers, DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1913) was favourably received, in particular due to its painterly compositions and copious special effects by cameraman Guido Seeber, including extensive split-screen set-ups with Paul Wegener as the student and his Doppelgänger. Considered first and foremost an ‘Ewers film’ at the time, he was even credited as director, although Danish Stellan Rye had actually performed this function. Similar fantastic features followed, starring stage luminaries such as Tilla Durieux and Alexander Moissi. In Cuba at the start of World War I, Ewers settled in the United States, but was interned in 1917 for publishing tracts supporting the Kaiser. Returning to
Berlin in 1920, he continued to flout conventions, publishing a series of volumes on erotic art together with celebrated sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld. Joining the Nazi Party in 1931, staunch nationalist Ewers sought to inveigle himself with the new leadership after 1933 with his novels ‘Reiter in deutscher Nacht’ (Riders in the German Night) and ‘Horst Wessel’, a eulogy to the murdered SA storm trooper and pimp whom Ewers portrayed as a political martyr. However, the Nazis were unhappy to be associated with Ewers, both because of his sordid literary past and his well-known belief in a master race composed of Aryans and Jews. The film version of ‘Horst Wessel’, directed by Franz Wenzler and scripted by Ewers, was eventually released only in a drastically altered form, as HANS WESTMAR (1933) and in 1934, all Ewers’s books were banned. Vilified for many decades, Ewers in fact left the Nazi Party following the introduction of the Nuremberg race laws in 1935, and thereafter dedicated himself to helping Jewish friends to escape from Germany. He wrote several (unpublished) satires about the Nazis, and was romantically involved with half-Jewish architect Rita Grabowski from 1939 until his death to lung cancer in 1943. [scr – DE] 1913: Der Student von Prag; Die ideale Gattin; Evinrude; Der Verführte; … denn alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erden; Ein Sommernachtstraum in unserer Zeit; Die Eisbraut [scr,sma]; Die Augen des Ole Brandis. 1914: Die Launen einer Weltdame. 1916: Der unsichtbare Mensch [sma]. 1917: Mein Lachtäubchen [sma]. 1918: Alraune [sma]. 1919: Alraune [sma]. 1921: Die Geheimnisse von Berlin. 1. Teil: Berlin N. Die dunkle Großstadt. 1923: Der Geisterseher [sma]. 1926: Der Student von Prag [scr, sma]. 1927: Alraune [sma]. 1930: Fundvogel [sma]; Alraune [sma]. 1932/33: Blutendes Deutschland [new extended version – DO]; Acciaio [IT]. 1933: Hans Westmar. Einer von vielen [sma,act]. 1935: Der Student von Prag [sma]. 1952: Alraune [sma]. 1973/74: La Paloma [sma – CH/FR].
VALIE EXPORT (Waltraud Höllinger, born Lehner) Born May 17, 1940, Linz (Austria) The work of experimental Austrian feminist filmmaker EXPORT is characterised by a multimedia aesthetic and challenging non-narrative structures. She studied textile design and manufacture in Vienna from 1960 to 1964, and during this time handcrafted tapestries for artists such as Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Dieter Roth. Between 1965 and 1968 she worked as a model, a film extra (e.g. appearing in films by director Kurt Hoffmann), a script assistant and as an assistant editor. She made the acquaintance of pop artist Peter Weibel (b. 1944) in 1967 and, adopting the name ‘VALIE EX-
VALIE EXPORT PORT’, launched a career as an installation and performance artist. She became the foremost proponent of the so-called ‘expanded cinema’ movement, which sought to liberate film from its traditional modes of exhibition by drawing on mixed media and interactive approaches. Her ‘mobile street picture’ TAPP- UND TASTKINO (Touch and Feel Cinema, 1968) garnered attention for its refusal to accommodate cinema’s scopophilic drive: passers-by experienced the film’s ‘screening’ by placing their hands in a darkened box covering EXPORT’s breasts, but were not able to see them. PING PONG (1968) consisted of a series of dots projected onto a screen, with viewers receiving a racquet with which to hit them – thus rendering transparent the hierarchical relationship between director and spectator. In 1969, EXPORT was critically injured by incensed visitors to her ‘Kriegskunstfeldzug’ (War Art Campaign) exhibit – in which she and Weibel threw projectiles at the audience. The pair were prosecuted for distributing pornography on account of their book ‘Wien – Bildkompendium Wiener Aktionismus und Film’ (Vienna – a Pictorial Compendium of Viennese Activism and Film’, 1970). EXPORT’s first feature-length film was UNSICHTBARE GEGNER (Invisible Adversaries, 1976). Notionally a science fiction narrative concerning a female photographer’s discovery that extraterrestrial parasites are taking over the world, the film soon develops into a study of women’s representation in art and suppression in everyday life. Formally innovative, it made ironic use of video footage to depict high culture. In MENSCHENFRAUEN (People-Women, 1978/79) different media are employed to depict the lives of four women whose sole point of contact is the lead male protagonist. Coldly received even by sympathetic reviewers on account of its disjointed structure, the film in fact exemplified EXPORT’s increasing rejection of cohesive narrative. DIE PRAXIS DER LIEBE (The Practice of Love), which became Austria’s entry at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival, centred around a female journalist’s inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
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One of the founder members of the Austria Filmmakers Cooperative in 1968, as well as of the Graz Authors Forum in 1973, EXPORT joined Susan Sontag, Mai Zetterling and Agnès Varda in establishing UNESCO’s Film Women International project in 1975. She staged numerous international exhibitions of her work and, together with Maria Lassnig, represented Austria at the Venice Art Festival in 1980. Moving into academia subsequently, she held professorships on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been professor of multimedia performance at Cologne’s Academy of Media Arts since 1995. dir – AG – AT] 1965-68: Einszweidrei [act]. 1966/67: Nivea [cooperation]. 1967: Hernais [act]; Menstruationsfilm. 1968: 333; Abstract Film No. 1; Ars lucis; Auf + zu + ab + an; Cutting; Das Eine; Exit [ide]; Ein Familienfilm von Waltraud Lehner; Gesichtsgrimassen; Hör zu [ass-dir,ide,cam]; Instant Film; Der Kuß; Ohne Titel Nr. 2; Ohne Titel xn; Ping Pong; Splitscreen – Solipsismus; Tapp- und Tastkino; VALIE EXPORT; Vorspann. 1968-75: World Cinema. 1969: 23/69 Underground Explosion [SD – act]; Das magische Auge; Eine Reise ist eine Reise wert. 1969-73: Bewegte Bilder über sich bewegende Körper. 1970: Manotest [act]; Split Reality. 1971: 49 Steine [DO – app]; Facing a Family [TV]. 1971-72: Die unterbrochene Linie. 1972-75: Schnitte. 1973: Adjungierte Dislokationen; mann & frau & animal; Remote … Remote; Zeit und Gegenzeit; Interrupted Movement; Autohypnose; Sehtest; Die süße Nummer; Asemie; Hyperbulie. 1974: Raumsehen und Raumhören; Body Politics. 1975: Bewegungsimaginationen; Implementation; Inversion. 1976: Positiv Negativ Transfinit [co-dir]; Unsichtbare Gegner [dir,co-scr,ide,pro]. 1976/77: Wienfilm 1896–1976 [TV – scr]. 1978: Adjungierte Dislokationen II; I Beat It. 1978/79: Menschenfrauen [dir,co-scr, pro – AT/DE]. 1983: Syntagma. 1984: Das bewaffnete Auge [TVD]; Die Praxis der Liebe [dir,scr,pro – AT/DE]. 1986: Sieben Frauen – Sieben Sünden. EP 7: Wollust – Ein perfektes Paar oder Die Unzucht wechselt ihre Haut [TV – dir,pro].
EYCK, PETER VAN see VAN EYCK, PETER
ARNOLD FANCK Born March 6, 1889, Frankenthal (Germany) Died September 28, 1974, Freiburg im Breisgau (West Germany) A maverick director operating on the periphery of the mainstream film industry, director Dr. Arnold Fanck almost single-handedly invented the ‘Bergfilm’ (mountain film) genre in the 1920s, and is perhaps best remembered for launching the career of Leni Riefenstahl. After studying geology and a brief stint as a carpet salesman, Fanck and ski guide Deodatus Tauern founded Freiburg-based production company Bergund Sportfilm GmbH in 1920. Already in his earliest films about skiing, glacier trekking and mountain climbing, Fanck sought to integrate a rudimentary narrative, and he later started employing actors, such as Luis Trenker in DER BERG DES SCHICKSALS (Mountain of Destiny, 1923/24) and Leni Riefenstahl, who starred in many subsequent Fanck productions, in DER HEILIGE BERG (The Holy Mountain, 1925/26). Many prominent cameramen learned their craft on Fanck’s open-air adventures, including Richard Angst and Hans Schneeberger, while Fanck served as editor, employing a collage-like ‘free montage’ approach. He was, however, forced to rein in his style to the norms of narrative cinema once he began working for other production companies – although even then, his exceptional visuals were often accompanied by clumsy staging and plodding narratives. This applied not only to his Ufa skiing comedy DER GROSSE SPRUNG (The Big Jump, 1927), but also to his films for producer Henry R. Sokal, which included DIE WEISSE HÖLLE VOM PIZ PALÜ (The White Hell of Pitz Palu, 1929), for which G. W. Pabst handled the acting sequences, and Fanck’s first sound film, STÜRME ÜBER DEM MONTBLANC (Avalanche, 1930). In 1932, Fanck travelled to Hollywood at the invitation of Carl Laemmle, and consequently undertook the ‘Universal Pictures-Dr. Fanck Greenland Expedition’ to shoot SOS EISBERG (1932/33), in which Riefenstahl and celebrated aviator Ernst Udet starred. An English-language version, S.O.S. ICEBERG, was shot simultaneously under the direction of Hollywood director Tay Garnett. Although the mystical bond between man and nature in Fanck’s films struck a chord with Nazi ideologues,
he refused to join the Nazi Party. In the mid-1930s, Fanck travelled to Japan and China and shot a series of documentaries as well as the feature DIE TOCHTER DES SAMURAI (The New Earth, 1936), about a young man trapped between tradition and Westernisation. EIN ROBINSON (A Robinson Crusoe, 1938/39) – an unambiguously propagandist tale of a sailor returning from twenty years abroad to the ‘Third Reich’ – was shot partly on location in South America, and Fanck thereafter worked on films detailing the scheme to construct a ‘New Berlin’ produced for the regime’s central planning office, and on documentaries about the Atlantic Wall defence line and Nazi artists such as Arno Breker and Joseph Thorak for Riefenstahl’s production company. After World War II, Fanck re-formed his Freiburgbased production company Berg- und Sportfilm GmbH in 1946, but was unable to get any new schemes off the ground. [dir – DE] 1913: 4628 Meter hoch auf Skiern. Besteigung des Monte Rosa [DO – act]. 1919/20: Das Wunder des Schneeschuhs [DO – dir,co-scr,co-cam,cut,act,pro]. 1920: Die Meister des Wassers [SD – pro]. 1921: Mit der Jungfraubahn in die Regionen des ewigen Eises [SD – pro]; Im Kampf mit dem Berge. 1. In Sturm und Eis [DO – dir,scr, cam,cut,pro – DE/CH]; Jiu-Jitsu. Die unsichtbare Waffe [SD – pro]; Der große Boxkampf Dempsey – Carpentier [ANI – pro]; Moritz, der Träumer [ANI – pro]. 1921/22: Die sterbende Stadt [pro]; Das Wunder des Schneeschuhs. 2. Eine Fuchsjagd auf Skiern durchs Engadin [DO/FF – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1922: Die deutschen Kampfspiele 1922 [DO – pro]; Pömperlis Kampf mit dem Schneeschuh [ide,pro]; Auf rauschender Fahrt [SD – pro]; Ali-Baba und die 40 Räuber [ANI – pro]; Chufu [ANI – pro]; Fußballwettspiel Erde – Mars [ANI – pro]. 1923: 1000 Dollar Belohnung [SF – pro]; Franzens Lebensrettung [ANI – pro]; Das Herz des Menschen [SD – pro]. 1923/24: Der Berg des Schicksals [dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1924: Das Wolkenphänomen in Maloja [SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; ‘Die begehrte Lotte’ oder ‘Welch entzückende Füßchen’ [SD – pro]; Der Totenwolf [SF – pro]; Die weiße Kunst [DO – ide,cut,pro]. 1925: Das Rudern [DO – pro]. 1925/26: Südtirol. Ein Vorposten deutscher Kultur [DO – cam,pro]; Der heilige Berg [dir,scr, cut]. 1926/27: Milak, der Grönlandjäger [DO – ide]. 1927: Wintersport im Schwarzwald [SD – pro]; Der große Sprung [dir,scr,cut]. 1928: Das weiße Stadion. Sportgroßfilm der 2. Olympischen Winterspiele St. Moritz 1928 [DO – co-dir,
HARUN FAROCKI cut – CH]; Der Kampf ums Matterhorn [scr]; Om mani padme hum [DO – cut]. 1929: Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü [co-dir,co-scr,ide,cut]. 1929/30: Die heiligen drei Brunnen [ide]. 1930: Stürme über dem Montblanc [dir,scr,ide]. 1930/31: Der weiße Rausch. Neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs [dir,scr,cut]. 1930-32: Fliehende Schatten [DO/FF – dir,cut]. 1931/35: Höchstleistungen im Skilauf [SD]. 1932: Abenteuer im Engadin [ide]. 1932/33: SOS Eisberg [MLV – dir,scr,cut – DE/US]; S.O.S. Iceberg [MLV – sma,supv – US/ DE]; Die Seehunde [SD]; Der Walfisch II. Verarbeitung [SD]. 1933: Nordpol – Ahoi! [ide – DE/US]. 1933/34: Der ewige Traum [MLV – dir,scr,cut]; Rêve éternel [MLV – dir,scr – DE/FR]. 1934: Badinga, der König der Gorillas [scr]. 1935: Training zum Skifilmen [SD – dir,cut]. 1936: Die Wildnis stirbt! [DO – cut]; Atarashiki tsuchi [MLV – co-dir,scr,cut, pro –JP/DE]; Die Tochter des Samurai [MLV – dir,cut,pro – DE/JP]. 1936/38: Kaiserbauten in Fernost [SD – dir,pro]; Winterreise durch Südmandschurien [SD]. 1936/40: Reis und Holz im Lande des Mikado [SD]. 1936/41: Japans heiliger Vulkan [SD]; Frühling in Japan [SD]. 1936/44: Bilder von Japans Küsten [SD – JP/DE]. 1937/38: Hänschen klein [SF – dir,cam,pro]. 1938/39: Ein Robinson [dir,scr]. 1938/ 40: Von Patagonien nach Feuerland [SD]. 1939: Auf neuen Wegen [SD]. 1941: Kampf um den Berg [SD]. 1943: Josef Thorak – Werkstatt und Werk [SD – co-dir,co-cam]. 1944: Atlantik-Wall [SD]; Arno Breker – Harte Zeit, starke Kunst [SD – co-dir,co-cam]. 1950: Föhn [sma – DE/CH]. 1952: Karneval in Weiß [ide]. 1956: Kleines Zelt und große Liebe [ide]. 1963-65: Der weiße Rausch – einst und jetzt [DO]. 1989: Wer war Arnold Fanck? [TVD]. 1998: Zwischen weißem Rausch und Abgrund. Arnold Fanck, der Extremregisseur [TVD – act].
HARUN FAROCKI (Harun Faroghi) Born January 9, 1944, Neutitschein (Sudetenland, now Novy Jicin, Czech Republic) Part of the first generation of the New German Cinema in the 1960s, Harun Farocki made his name with playful and cine-literate avantgarde and agit-prop films, video work and later multi-media installations, and worked as a director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor of a film journal, and as a teacher. Often compared with Jean-Luc Godard and Chris Marker, many of Farocki’s films were so-called essay films, not infrequently drawing on references from film history. From 1962, Farocki studied drama, sociology and journalism, followed by a course at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb). At the height of the student protests in 1968, the politically active Farocki was temporarily suspended alongside fellow student Hartmut Bitomsky (b. 1942), who would later become a frequent collaborator, and in 2006 became head of the academy. Farocki started making films in 1966, many commenting on the major political and social developments
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of the time. A particular impact had NICHT LÖSCHBARES FEUER (Uncontrollable Fire, 1968/69) a short agit-prop film condemning the Vietnam war in which Farocki, sitting at a desk, read out a report of an US air attack on a Vietnamese village, before stubbing out a burning cigarette on his hand, reminding viewers that a cigarette burns only at 500 degrees, compared to a Napalm bomb burning at 4000. In the 1970s, Farocki co-edited the influential film journal ‘Filmkritik’, while working as a lecturer, writing for radio, and directing programmes for television, including episodes of SESAMSTRASSE, the German version of the children’s show SESAME STREET in 1973. The same year, Farocki shot the programmatic DER ÄRGER MIT DEN BILDERN (The Trouble With Images), a scathing critique of conventional narrative cinema. Together with Bitomsky, he directed an acerbic satire on pulp novel formulae with EINMAL WIRST AUCH DU MICH LIEBEN (One Day You Too Shall Love Me, 1973). In 1976 Farocki staged two plays by Heiner Müller at the Basel theatre, starring Hanns Zischler. He continued making experimental films, including ZWISCHEN ZWEI KRIEGEN (Between Two Wars, 1978), a film that explored the interrelations between industry, fascism and war in the 1920s; and ETWAS WIRD SICHTBAR (Something Becomes Visible, 1980–82), a study of how images of the Vietnam War politicised the German Left in the late 1960s. The thriller BETROGEN (Betrayed, 1985), a Hitchcock homage, attested to Farocki’s cinephilia, as did his portrait of the actor Peter Lorre, DAS DOPPELTE GESICHT: PETER LORRE (The Dual Face, 1984). Farocki won further acclaim with WIE MAN SIEHT (As You See, 1986), and BILDER DER WELT UND INSCHRIFT DES KRIEGES (Images of the World and Inscription of War, 1988). The latter continued the director’s ongoing exploration of the interdependencies of media, politics, war, and terrorism, which resurfaced in his later study of the media representation of the Gulf War, ERKENNEN UND VERFOLGEN (Identification and Pursuit, 2002/03). GEFÄNGNISBILDER (Prison Images, 2000), drawing on theories by Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, contrasted footage of prisons and surveillance tapes with quotations from film history. From the late 1990s, Farocki regularly collaborated on the director Christian Petzold’s films. He was a guest professor at the University of California in Berkeley from 1993, taught at the Universität der Künste in Berlin from 2000, and was a visiting professor at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna from 2004. In his films Farocki often used the pseudonyms ‘Rosa Mercedes’ or ‘Louis van Rooky’ for his contributions as cameraman or editor.
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RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER
[dir,scr – DE] 1966: Zwei Wege [TV-SD]; Jeder ein Berliner Kindl [SF]. 1967: Der Wahlhelfer [SF]; Die Worte des Vorsitzenden [SF – dir,scr,act]. 1968: Ihre Zeitungen [SF – dir,scr,cut,act]; Ohne Titel oder: Wanderkino für Ingenieurstudenten [TV]; White Christmas [SF]; Drei Schüsse auf Rudi [SF – dir,pro]; Brecht die Macht der Manipulateure [DO – act,pro]. 1968/69: Erziehung zum Untertan [ass]; Nicht löschbares Feuer [SF – dir,cut,pro]. 1968/96: Die rote Fahne [DO – co-dir]. 1969: Nixon kommt nach Berlin [SF]; Anleitung, Polizisten den Helm abzureißen [SF – dir, scr, cut,pro]. 1969/70: Die Teilung aller Tage [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1971: Eine Sache, die sich versteht. (15 mal) [DO – co-dir, pro]. 1972: Remember Tomorrow Is the First Day in Rest of Your Life [TV-SD – dir,scr,cut]; Die Sprache der Revolution [TV-SD – dir]. 1972/73: Sesamstraße [several episodes – TV-SD – dir,scr]. 1973: Einmal wirst auch Du mich lieben [TV]; Der Ärger mit den Bildern [TV-SD]; Brunner ist dran. Frei nach Baudelaire [TV – dir,scr,pro]; Make Up [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Telekritik: Moderatoren im Fernsehen [TV-SD]. 1974: Kino 74: Über ‘Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin’ [TV-SD]; Moderatoren [TVD – dir]; Kino 74: Plakatmaler [TVD – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Die Arbeit mit Bildern [TV-SD]. 1974/75: Kampf um ein Kind [act]. 1975: Telekritik: Über ‘Song of Ceylon’ von Basil Wright [TV-SD]; Auf Biegen oder Brechen. Die Geschichte eines Aufsteigers [scr]; Erzählen [TV – co-dir,co-scr,cut,act,pro]. 1976: Die Schlacht. Szenen aus Deutschland [TV – co-dir,co-scr]. 1977/78: Industrie und Fotografie [TVD – dir,scr,co-cam]. 1978: Einschlafgeschichten 1-3 / Katzengeschichten [TV-SD – dir, scr,pro]; Ein Bild von Sarah Schumann [TV-SD – dir,scr, pro]; ‘Amerika’ vor Augen oder Kafka in 43 min. 30 sec [TV – act]; Zwischen zwei Kriegen [dir,scr,cut,act,pro]; Kino 78: Zu: ‘Zwischen zwei Kriegen’ [TV-SD – dir,scr,cut, pro,app]; Häuser 1–2 [TV-SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1979: Der Geschmack des Lebens [TVD – dir,scr,cam,pro]; Zur Ansicht: Peter Weiss [TV – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Anna und Lara machen das Fernsehen vor und nach [TV-SD – dir,cam,cut,pro]; Henry Angst [act]; Time to love [TVD – dir]. 1980: Zeit der langen Nächte [TV – act]. 1980-82: Etwas wird sichtbar [dir,scr,pro]. 1981: Stadtbild [TV – dir,pro]; Logik des Gefühls [act]. 1982: Kurzfilme von Peter Weiss. Vorgestellt von Harun Farocki [TV-SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1983: Ein Bild [TV-SD – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Jean-Marie Straub und Danièle Huillet bei der Arbeit an einem Film nach Franz Kafka’s Amerika [TV-SD – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Kino ’83: ‘L’Argent’ von Bresson [TV-SD – co-dir,co-scr,pro]; Klassenverhältnisse / Rapports de classes [act – DE/FR]. 1984: Das doppelte Gesicht: Peter Lorre [TVD – co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1985: Betrogen. 1986: Filmtip: ‘Tee im Harem des Archimedes’ [TV-SD]. 1986: Kino ’86: Filmbücher [TV-SD]; Filmtip: ‘Kuhle Wampe’ [TV-SD]; Filmtip: Schlagworte – Schlagbilder. Ein Gespräch mit Vilém Flusser [TV-SD]; Wie man sieht [DO – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1987: Ziele: Die Schulung [TV – dir,scr,co-cam]; Filmtip: ‘Der Tod des Empedokles’ [TVSD]; Die Menschen stehen vorwärts in den Straßen [TVSD – dir,co-scr,cut]; Bilderkrieg [TV-SD – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1988: Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges [DO – dir, scr,cut,pro]; Georg K. Glaser – Schriftsteller und Schmied [TVD – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Kinostadt Paris [TV – co-dir,co-scr]. 1989: Umbra Vitae [TV-SD]; Image und Umsatz oder: Wie
kann man einen Schuh darstellen [TV – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1990: Leben – BRD [TVD – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1991: Was ist los? [TVD – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1992: Nachtschichten [TVD – pro]; Das warme Geld [SF – co-scr]; Videogramme einer Revolution [DO – co-dir,co-scr,pro]; Kamera und Wirklichkeit – Rumänien 1989 [TVD – co-dir,co-scr,pro,app]. 1993: Ein Tag im Leben der Endverbraucher [TVD – scr, pro]. 1994: Die Umschulung [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Die führende Rolle [TVD]; Kein Bild, das traf [TV – dir]; Pilotinnen [TV – co-scr]. 1995: Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik [TVD – dir,scr,pro,voi]; Schnittstelle / Section [TV – dir,scr,pro,voi]; Cuba Libre [TV – co-scr]; Das Bild der Uhr [TV-SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1996: Die rote Fahne [DO – co-dir]; Die Sache mit der Realität: Eine Collage über den Dokumentarfilm. [TVD – app]; Theater der Umschulung [TV-SD – dir,scr, pro]; Der Auftritt [TVD – dir,scr,co-cam,pro]; Der Werbemensch [TV-SD – dir,scr,co-cam,pro]. 1996/97: Die Bewerbung [TV-SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1997: Die Werbebotschaft [TV-SD – dir,scr,cam]; Stilleben / Nature morte [dir,scr, cut,pro – DE/FR]; Dokumentarfilmzeit: Arbeit mit Bildern [TVD – app]; Der Ausdruck der Hände [TV – dir,co-scr,app, voi,pro]; Nach dem Spiel [TV – pro]. 1998: Der Finanzchef [TV-SD – dir,scr,pro]; What Farocki Taught [SF – co-scr – US]; Worte und Spiele [TVD – dir,scr,cam]. 1999: Deutsche Polizisten: Viele Kulturen – Eine Truppe [DO – pro]. 1999/ 2000: Die innere Sicherheit [co-scr]. 2000: Ich glaubte Gefangene zu sehen [SD – dir,scr,snd,pro – DE/FR]; Gefängnisbilder [TVD – dir,scr,snd,pro]. 2001: Toter Mann [scr]; Die Schöpfer der Einkaufswelten [TVD – dir]. 2001: Die Schöpfer der Einkaufswelten [TVD – dir,sce,cam,snd, pro]; Toter Mann [co-sce]; Starbuck Holger Meins [DO – app]. 2001-03: Auge/Maschine I-III [SD – 3 parts – dir, pro]. 2002/03: Wolfsburg [co-sce]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2003: Erkennen und verfolgen [TVD – dir,sce,cam,snd,pro]. 2004: Nicht ohne Risiko [TVD – dir,co-sce,pro]; Gespenster [dra]. 2004/05: Dokumentarisch arbeiten: Harun Farocki im Gespräch mit Christoph Hübner [TVD – app]; Die Hochzeitsfabrik [TVD – pro]. 2005/06: Am Rande der Städte [DO – pro]. 2006/ 07: Yella [dra]. 2007: Memories – Jeonju Digital Project 2007: 1. Aufschub [SD – dir,sce,pro]. 2007/08: Übertragung [DO – dir,co-cam,pro]. 2008: Jerichow [dra]; Ich gehe jetzt rein [DO – pro]. 2008/09: Zum Vergleich [DO – dir,co-scr,pro].
RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER Born May 31, 1945, Bad Wörishofen (Germany) Died June 10, 1982, Munich (West Germany) One of the most significant filmmakers of German cinema to emerge after World War II, Fassbinder’s staggering output of forty-four film and television productions between 1966 and 1982, often centred on social outsiders, focussed international attention on the New German Cinema of the 1970s. Raised by his translator mother after his parents divorced in 1951, Fassbinder dropped out of school before gaining any qualifications, and instead attended acting classes in Munich from 1964 to 1966. He made
RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER
his film debut as director, scriptwriter and actor with the shorts DER STADTSTREICHER (The City Tramp, 1966) and DAS KLEINE CHAOS (The Little Chaos, 1967); however, his application to Berlin’s newly founded Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie (dffb) was rejected the same year. Joining the independent Munich-based theatre group Action-Theater in 1967, he started out as an actor, but by 1968 was already staging his first self-authored play, ‘Katzelmacher’, concerning the institutional racism shown to a Greek ‘guest worker’. When ActionTheater folded later that year, he and future frequent collaborators Hanna Schygulla, Peer Raben and Kurt Raab set up a new group called antiteater, which also produced his early films. The first of these, LIEBE IST KÄLTER ALS DER TOD (Love Is Colder Than Death, 1969), in which Fassbinder also played the lead, met with a lukewarm response, whereas his next picture, a starkly lit, and deeply contemplative reworking of his play KATZELMACHER (1969), received a German Film Award and numerous other accolades, with Fassbinder being fêted in the press as German cinema’s ‘new wunderkind’. He also gained attention on account of his astounding productivity: during 1969 and 1970 alone, he directed not only stage and radio plays, but completed ten features – including WARUM LÄUFT HERR R. AMOK? (Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?, 1969/70), WHITY and DER AMERIKANISCHE SOLDAT (The American Soldier, both 1970) – as well as one television film, PIONIERE IN INGOLSTADT (Pioneers in Ingolstadt, 1970). HÄNDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN (The Merchant of Four Seasons, 1971) also received the German Film Award, and featured schoolteacherturned-actress Ingrid Caven (b. 1938) – to whom the openly gay Fassbinder was married from 1970 to 1972. Throughout his frequently extremely personal works, the director combined methods akin to those of Andy Warhol’s Factory – principally, reusing a stock company of regular performers and crew members – with generic modes of representation borrowed from folk plays, melodrama and gangster films. Attesting to his fascination with Hollywood, Fassbinder occasionally used the pseudonym Franz Walsch, the latter name a reference to director Raoul Walsh. His tale of love torn across the dual boundaries of age and race, ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, 1973), starred veteran actress Brigitte Mira and Fassbinder’s Algerian lover El Hedi ben Salem, while taking its inspiration from Douglas Sirk’s (Detlef Sierck) Hollywood melodrama ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955). Fassbinder chronicled the history of postwar West Germany in a celebrated trilogy of films, which comprised DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage
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of Maria Braun, 1978), starring Hanna Schygulla; LOLA (1981), which concerned the life of a 1950s small-town prostitute; and DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (Veronika Voss, 1981/82), which
charted the decline of a morphine-addicted actress, and which was inspired by the real-life case of former Ufa star Sybille Schmitz. During this period, Fassbinder also shot the Jewish-German Third Reich love story LILI MARLEEN (1980) based on the life of Nazi-era songstress Lale Andersen. His final film was the Jean Genet adaptation QUERELLE (1982). Fassbinder’s television ventures included the ‘alternative’ family series ACHT STUNDEN SIND KEIN TAG (Eight Hours Are Not a Day, 1972) and a thirteen-part adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80). He also acted in numerous films directed by members of his entourage and others. His early death following a drug overdose and a subsequent string of biographies, studies and documentaries about his life cemented his cult following, while many commentators believed that his death also marked the symbolic end of the New German Cinema. After his death his mother Liselotte Eder aka Lilo Pempeit (1922–1993), who played small parts in some of his films, started the Fassbinder Foundation to promote his legacy, and in 1992 handed it over to film editor Juliane Lorentz, Fassbinder’s collaborator and companion in his final years. [act – DE] 1966: Ein Platz für G. [DO – ass-dir]; Der Stadtstreicher [SF – dir,scr,act]; Hoffnungsgruppe [DO – snd]; This Night [SF – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1967: Das kleine Chaos [SF – dir,scr,act]; Mit Eichenlaub und Feigenblatt; Tonys Freunde [TV]. 1968: Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter [SF]. 1968/69: Frei bis zum nächsten Mal [TV]. 1969: Fernes Jamaica [SF – scr]; Liebe ist kälter als der Tod [dir,scr,cut,des,act]; Katzelmacher [dir,scr,sma,cut,des]; Al Capone im deutschen Wald [TV]; Alarm [TV]; Baal [TV]. 1969/70: Ende einer Kommune [TVD]; Götter der Pest [dir,scr,cut,act,pro]; Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? [co-dir, co-scr,cut]. 1970: Das Kaffeehaus [TV – dir,scr]; Whity [dir,scr,lyr,cut]; Rio das Mortes [dir,scr,act]; Der amerikanische Soldat [dir,scr,lyr,act,des]; Die Niklashauser Fart [TV – co-dir,co-scr,cut,act]; Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach; Fassbinder produziert: Film Nr. 8 [TVD – app]; Pioniere in Ingolstadt [TV – dir,scr]. 1970/71: Supergirl; Mathias Kneißl [TV]; Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte [dir,scr,cut,act]. 1971: Haytabo; Händler der vier Jahreszeiten [dir,scr,mus,act,pro]; Die Ahnfrau [TV]. 1972: Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant [dir,scr,mus,sma, pro]; Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – app – DK]; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag: 1. Jochen und Marion / 2. Oma und Gregor / 3. Franz und Ernst / 4. Harald und Monika / 5. Irmgard und Rolf [TVS – dir,scr]; Bremer Freiheit [TV – dir,scr, act]; Wildwechsel [dir,scr]. 1972/73: Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe [cut,act,pro]; Die Wohngenossin [TV]. 1972-74:
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Fontane Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen [dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1973: Fru Geesches frihed [TV – sma – DK]; Welt am Draht [TV – dir,co-scr]; Angst essen Seele auf [dir,scr,act,des,pro]; Nora Helmer [TV – dir]; Martha [TV – dir,scr]. 1974: 1 Berlin-Harlem; Faustrecht der Freiheit [dir, co-scr,act,pro]; Wie ein Vogel auf dem Draht [TV – dir,scr]. 1975: Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt zum Himmel [dir,co-scr]; Angst vor der Angst [TV – dir,scr]; Schatten der Engel [coscr,sma,act – DE/CH]. 1975/76: Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt [TV – dir,scr,act]; Satansbraten [dir,scr]. 1976: Zeitgenossen: Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – app]; Chinesisches Roulette / Roulette chinoise [dir,scr – DE/FR]; Adolf und Marlene. 1976/77: Bolwieser [TV – dir,scr]. 1976/83: Bolwieser [FF – dir,scr,cut]. 1976-78: Der kleine Godard an das Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film [app]. 1976-84: The Last Trip to Harrisburg [voi]. 1977: Frauen in New York [TV – dir]; Lebensläufe: Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – app]. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst – 1: Rainer Werner Fassbinder [dir,scr,act]; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair [dir,cut]; Spiel der Verlierer [cut,pro]. 1977/ 96: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977 [DO – app]. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun [dir,scr,ide,cut,act,pro]; In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden [dir,scr,cam,cut,cos,des,pro]; Bourbon Street Blues [SF]; Filmarbeit mit Douglas Sirk [TVD – app]. 1978/79: Die dritte Generation [dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1979/ 80: Berlin Alexanderplatz: 1. Die Strafe beginnt / 2. Wie soll man leben, wenn man nicht sterben will / 3. Ein Hammer auf dem Kopf kann die Seele verletzen / 4. Eine Handvoll Menschen in der Tiefe der Stille / 5. Ein Schnitter mit der Gewalt vom lieben Gott / 6. Eine Liebe, das kostet immer viel / 7. Merke – einen Schwur kann man amputieren / 8. Die Sonne wärmt die Haut, die sich manchmal verbrennt / 9. Von den Ewigkeiten zwischen den Vielen und den Wenigen / 10. Einsamkeit reißt auch in Mauern Risse des Irrsinns / 11. Wissen ist Macht und Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund / 12. Die Schlange in der Seele der Schlange / 13. Das Äußere und das Innere und das Geheimnis der Angst vor der Angst / Epilog: Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Mein Traum vom Traum des Franz Biberkopf: Vom Tode eines Kindes und der Geburt eines Brauchbaren [TVS – dir,scr,act]; Berlin Alexanderplatz. Beobachtungen bei den Dreharbeiten [TVD – app]. 1980: Douglas Sirk: Über Stars [TVD – app]; Lili Marleen [dir,co-scr,cut,act]. 1981: Cinemania: Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – FR – app]; Polnischer Sommer [TV]; Lola [dir,scr]; Theater in Trance [DO – dir,scr,cut]. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss [dir,ide,act]; Kamikaze 1989; Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Letzte Arbeiten [TVD – app]. 1982: Querelle – Ein Pakt mit dem Teufel / Querelle [dir,scr,cut – DE/FR]; Der Bauer von Babylon. Rainer Werner Fassbinder dreht ‘Querelle’ [DO – app]; Chambre 666 / N’importe quand … [DO– app – US/FR]; ‘Etwas, wovor ich Angst habe setzt mich in Gang’ [TVD – app]; Les filles héréditaires / Die Erbtöchter. EP 1: Dérapage – Flüchtige Umarmung [TV – FR/DE]. [app – DE – TVD] 1984: ‘Der Mensch ist ein häßliches Tier’. 1992: Frauen über R. W. Fassbinder; Ich will nicht nur, daß
ihr mich liebt. 1995: Es ist nicht gut, in einem Menschenleib zu leben. 1997/98: Life, Love & Celluloid [DO – mus]. 1999: Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brûlantes [sma – FR]. 2000: ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’; Las amargas lágrimas de Petra von Kant [TV – sma – ES]. 2002: Fassbinder in Hollywood; Du liebst mich sowieso! [SD]; Rainer Werner Fassbinder – Der Theatermensch [TV].
EBERHARD FECHNER Born October 21, 1926, Liegnitz (Germany, now Legnica, Poland) Died August 7, 1992, Hamburg (Germany) Fechner, an international-award-winning documentary filmmaker, combined meticulous research with eyewitness accounts and dramatic re-enactments to create works that served as entertaining and instructive chronicles of twentieth-century German life and culture. Beginning a commercial apprenticeship at Ufa in 1943, Fechner was called up the following year and was taken prisoner by the U.S. Army in April 1945. He learned soon after that his biological father was a Jewish student who had been murdered in a concentration camp. Returning to Berlin, he studied at the Deutsches Theater’s acting school from 1946 to 1948 and made his stage debut in Gustaf Gründgens’s 1947 first-run production of Evgeny Shvarts’s ‘Der Schatten’ (The Shadow). His film debut was a bit part in Carol Reed’s THE MAN BETWEEN (1953), after which he appeared on television and in Fritz Genschow’s fairytale picture FRAU HOLLE (Mother Holly, 1954) and Kurt Hoffmann’s BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (The Confessions of Felix Krull, 1957). In 1965, Egon Monk, head of drama at television station NDR, gave Fechner his first opportunity to direct. Starting with SELBSTBEDIENUNG (Self Service, 1966/67), Fechner shot a series of four heist comedies based on real-life cases that he researched in minute detail. His first genuine documentary was NACHREDE AUF KLARA HEYDEBRECK (Eulogy to Klara Heydebreck, 1969), a portrait about the life and suicide of a working-class pensioner in Berlin that used primarily documents, photographs and interviews with her acquaintances to highlight the interplay between national and personal history. Fechner continued to explore German history through individual case studies. In KLASSENFOTO (Class Photo, 1970), Fechner documented the life of a middle-class high school student in Berlin; UNTER DENKMALSCHUTZ (Listed Building, 1974/75), explored the various well-to-do families who at different times had resided in a single Frankfurt/Main property; and COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (1975/ 76) about the fates of the male vocal harmony group
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of the 1920s and 1930s. DER PROZESS (The Trial, 1975–84) was a mammoth project recording the sixyear-long trial of war criminals from the Majdanek concentration camp. Fechner also adapted Walter Kempowski’s bestselling two-part family saga TADELLÖSER UND WOLF (Everything’s Hunky-Dory, 1974/75), which covered the years of World War II in Rostock. His final film was the documentary WOLFSKINDER (Children of the Wolf, 1989–91), charting the reunion of six brothers and sisters who had not seen each other since being separated during the war. Eberhard Fechner was a Fellow of the motion picture and media arts department of Berlin’s Academy of Arts from 1984 and one of the promoters of a Television Museum in Berlin (now part of Deutsche Kinemathek). [act – DE] 1953: The Man Between [GB]. 1954: Frau Holle. 1955: Straßenknotenpunkt [TV]. 1955/56: Ein Mädchen aus Flandern. 1956: Zehn Jahre und drei Tage [TV]. 1956/ 57: Ein Ausgangstag [TV]. 1957: Interpol [TV]; Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. 1962: Der Schlaf der Gerechten [TV]. 1964: Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches [TV]. 1965: Ein Tag. Bericht aus einem Konzentrationslager [TV]; Im Schlaraffenland [TV]; Stahlnetz: In der Nacht zum Ostersonntag [TV]. 1965/66: Preis der Freiheit [TV]. 1966: Das Märchen [TV – ass-dir]; Socialaristokraten [TV]. 1966/67: Selbstbedienung [TV – dir,scr]. 1967: Zuchthaus [TV]; Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt von der Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade [TV]. [dir,scr – DE] 1967/68: Vier Stunden vor Elbe 1 [TV – dir]. 1968: Über den Gehorsam [TV – act]. 1968/69: Damenquartett [TV]. 1969: Dem Täter auf der Spur: Das Fenster zum Garten [TV – act]; Der Versager [TV – dir,co-scr]; Altersgenossen [TV – act]; Nachrede auf Klara Heydebreck [TVD]. 1969/70: Gezeiten [TV – dir]. 1970: Die Ernte von My Lai [TVD – voi]; Klassenfoto [TVD]. 1970/71: Tatort: Frankfurter Gold [TV]. 1971: Zwei Briefe an Pospischiel [TV – act]; Geheimagenten [TV]. 1972/73: Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben [TV – act]. 1973/76: Aus nichtigem Anlaß [TV]. 1974: Lisa – Aus dem Leben einer Unentbehrlichen [TV – act]. 1974/75: Unter Denkmalschutz. Lebensbeschreibungen aus einem Frankfurter Bürgerhaus [TVD]; Tadellöser & Wolff [TV]. 1974-76: Lebensdaten. Alltagsgeschichten aus Berlin [TVD]. 1975/76: Von Emma, Türkenpaul und Edwin mit der Geige [TV – act]; Comedian Harmonists [TVD]. 1975-84: Der Prozeß. Eine Darstellung des sogenannten ‘Majdanek-Verfahrens’ gegen Angehörige des Konzentrationslagers Lublin/Majdanek in Düsseldorf von 1975-81 [TVD]. 1977/78: Winterspelt 1944 [dir,scr,pro]. 1978/79: Ein Kapitel für sich [TV – DE/ AT]. 1981: Die Knapp-Familie [TVS – act]. 1982: Die Geschwister Oppermann [TV – act]. 1983: Keine Übung [SF – act]. 1983/84: Im Damenstift [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1985: Les tombes du président [TVD – act – FR]; Abschiedsvorstellung [TV – act]. 1987: Kinder wie die Zeit vergeht [TVD – dir]. 1987/88: Ödipussi [act]. 1987-89: La Paloma
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[TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1989: Chronist des einzigartig Normalen [TVD – app]. 1989-91: Wolfskinder [TVD – dir,scr, pro]. 1991: Kennen Sie Dieter Meichsner? [TVD – app]; Begegnungen: Eberhard Fechner im Gespräch mit Engelbert Sauter [TVD – app]. 2003: Schnitt. Der Regisseur und die Cutterin [TVD – app].
HANSJÖRG FELMY (Hans-Jörg Hellmuth Felmy) Born January 31, 1931, Berlin (Germany) Died August 24, 2007, Eching (Germany) Highly popular with West German film and television audiences, gaunt, perpetually cool, and smartly dressed Felmy made a career of playing straight-laced ‘good guys’ and laidback heroes from the late 1950s onwards. The son of a Luftwaffe general, Felmy grew up in Brunswick, where he left high school aged fourteen and worked as a metalworker and a printer before joining a small repertory theatre. From 1947, he took acting classes at Brunswick’s Staatstheater, and made his legitimate stage debut in 1949. Felmy’s film debut, playing a German World War II fighter pilot in Alfred Weidenmann’s DER STERN VON AFRIKA (The Star of Africa, 1956/57), met with wide acclaim, as did his starring role in Kurt Hoffmann’s WIR WUNDERKINDER (Aren’t We Wonderful?, 1958). Felmy excelled playing authoritative and reliable ‘good guys’ or stern father figures, as in Weidenmann’s two-part Thomas Mann adaptation BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1959). Parts in further big-screen adaptations of literary classics followed, such as Gerd Oswald’s SCHACHNOVELLE (Three Moves to Freedom, 1960), based on the Stefan Zweig novella, and Kurt Hoffmann’s DIE EHE DES HERRN MISSISSIPPI (The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi, 1961), based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play. From 1963, Felmy also became a regular in crime thrillers including several in the popular Edgar Wallace series, mostly in the part of a police inspector. He also had a sizeable role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Cold War thriller TORN CURTAIN (1966). From 1962, Felmy increasingly began to focus on theatre and television work, with his first significant small-screen performance in Franz Peter Wirth’s three-part mini-series FLUCHT OHNE AUSWEG (No Place to Run, 1966). Felmy’s performance as habitually grouchy Superintendent Haferkamp in the longrunning police series TATORT (Crime Scene) proved a second career high spot, and he also appeared in the series DIE MÄNNER VOM K3 (The Men from K3, 1988) and ABENTEUER AIRPORT (Airport Adventure, 1989/90). Felmy directed and starred in the television drama MEINE FRAU ERFÄHRT KEIN WORT (Not a Word to
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My Wife, 1982), which – like much of his 1970s and 1980s work – also featured his long-time partner (and, after 1986, wife), actress Claudia Wedekind (b. 1942). In the 1990s, Felmy effectively retired from show business, although he still made occasional chat show appearances. [act – DE] 1956/57: Der Stern von Afrika / La estrella de Africa [DE/ES]. 1957: Haie und kleine Fische; Das Herz von St. Pauli. 1957/58: Der Greifer. 1958: Herz ohne Gnade; Wir Wunderkinder; Der Maulkorb; Unruhige Nacht. 1958/59: Der Engel, der seine Harfe versetzte; Rommel ruft Kairo [MLV]; Der Mann, der sich verkaufte. 1959: Menschen im Netz; … und ewig singen die Wälder [AT]; Buddenbrooks [2 parts]; Ein Tag, der nie zu Ende geht. 1960: Die zornigen jungen Männer; Schachnovelle; Die Botschafterin; An heiligen Wassern [CH]. 1961: Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi [CH/DE]; Die Schatten werden länger [CH/DE]; Das letzte Kapitel. 1961/62: Genosse Münchhausen [act]. 1962: Die glücklichen Jahre der Thorwalds; Station Six-Sahara / Endstation 13 Sahara [GB/DE]. 1963: Die Flußpiraten vom Mississippi / Agguato sul grande fiume / Les pirates du Mississippi [DE/IT/FR]; Der Henker von London. 1964: Der Nebelmörder; Das Ungeheuer von London-City; Das 7. Opfer. 1965: An der Donau, wenn der Wein blüht [DE/AT]. 1966: Torn Curtain [US]; Flucht ohne Ausweg [TV]. 1971: Die Tote aus der Themse; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Flugstunde [TV]. [TV – act – DE] 1972: Alexander Zwo: Der Trumpf. 1974: Tatort: Acht Jahre später; Tatort: Zweikampf; Tatort: Der Mann aus Zimmer 22; Sonderdezernat K 1: Flucht. 1974/ 75: Tatort: Wodka Bitter-Lemon. 1974-76: Unter einem Dach: 11. Seine erste Frau / 19. Mein Freund Krapohl [TVS]. 1975: Tatort: Die Abrechnung; Liebe mal so – mal so; Tatort: Treffpunkt Friedhof. 1975/76: Tatort: Zwei Leben; Fluchtversuch [FF]. 1976: Klimbim [episode 18 – TVS]; Tatort: Fortuna III; Tatort: Abendstern. 1977: Tatort: Spätlese; Tatort: Drei Schlingen; Tatort: Das Mädchen von gegenüber. 1977/78: Tatort: Rechnung mit einer Unbekannten. 1978: Tatort: Lockruf; Tatort: Der Feinkosthändler; Tatort: Die Kugel im Leib. 1978/79: Tatort: Ein Schuß zuviel. 1979: Tatort: Schweigegeld; Tatort: Schußfahrt. 1980: Tatort: Der Zeuge; Tatort: Schönes Wochenende; Tatort: Herzjagd. 1982: Meine Frau erfährt kein Wort [dir,act]; So oder so ist das Leben I; Urlaub am Meer; Die Vernehmung der zwangsgeräumten Mathilde Ä. oder Christian hätte …. 1982/83: Rendezvous der Damen. 1984: Ein Fall für zwei: Chemie eines Mordes; Abgehört. 1985/86: Unternehmen Köpenick [6 episodes – TVS]. 1986: Die Wilsheimer [6 episodes – TVS]. 1988: Die Männer vom K3: Familienfehde. 1988/89: Affäre Nachtfrost. 1989/90: Abenteuer Airport [12 episodes – TVS]. 1993/94: Hagedorns Tochter [2 seasons, 12 episodes – TVS]. 1995: Taten, Orte, Kommisare [TVD – app]; Faust: Drei Tage Zeit. 2000: Mord nach der Tagesschau [TVD – app].
HEINO FERCH Born August 18, 1963, Bremerhaven (West Germany) A very physical and versatile actor, Ferch belongs to the generation of post-reunification stars whose approach to acting draws heavily on Hollywood performance styles. A former national-level gymnast, it was an appearance as an acrobat at Bremerhaven’s Stadttheater aged fifteen that led Ferch to pursue an acting career. He graduated with a master’s degree in dance and drama from Salzburg’s College of Music and Performing Arts in 1987, having made his television debut in an episode of the crime series DER ALTE (The Old Fox, 1985) while a student. Ferch’s first film role was in Peter Schamoni’s historical farce SCHLOSS KÖNIGSWALD (Königswald Castle, 1987). He gained minor attention as a mute village idiot in Dietrich Haugk’s television thriller DIE MÄNNER VOM K3: SCHÜTZENFEST (The Men from K3: Shooting Festival, 1988) and as a wife-batterer in Heiko Schier’s drama WEDDING (1989). Greater acclaim followed his portrayal of a young stormtrooper in Volker Schlöndorff’s DER UNHOLD (The Ogre, 1995/96), and as Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie in Claude Berri’s LUCIE AUBRAC (1997). Ferch ascended to star status with his performance as ski instructor Marco – a complex mélange of macho conceit, sensitivity and emotionally debilitating regrets – in Tom Tykwer’s romantic thriller WINTERSCHLÄFER (Winter Sleepers, 1996/97). His roles since the mid-1990s demonstrated a considerable range – he played womanisers and heartbreakers in relationship comedies such as Sherry Horman’s WIDOWS – ERST DIE EHE, DANN DAS VERGNÜGEN (Widows); an uptight yuppie in Vivian Naefe’s 2 MÄNNER – 2 FRAUEN – 4 PROBLEME!? (Two Men, Two Women, Four Problems; both 1997); an ex-soldier in Thomas Bohn’s STRAIGHT SHOOTER (1998); the father of a young boy dying of leukaemia in Anno Saul’s GRÜNE WÜSTE (Green Desert, 1999); as well as two roles as neurotic psychopaths for director Uwe Janson, in the television film DER SCHUTZENGEL (Guardian Angel, 1997) and in the big-screen black comedy NACHTS IM PARK (Night Time in the Park, 2001). He also appeared in the Icelandic drama MÁVAHLÁTUR (The Seagull’s Laughter, 2001). Ferch received awards for his portrayals of three reallife figures: as Jewish singer Roman Cycowksi in Joseph Vilsmaier’s COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (The Harmonists, 1997), as a former East German swimming champion who digs his way to freedom in Roland Suso Richter’s DER TUNNEL (The Tunnel, 2000), as Franz Wolbert, leading the trapped miners in Kaspar Heidelbach’s DAS WUNDER VON LENGEDE (A Light in Dark Places, 2003) and as the assistant
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of the Head of West Germany’s Federal Police Force fighting RAF terrorists in DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (2007/08). Among his other roles were Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, in Uli Edel’s mini-series JULIUS CASEAR (2002), Nazi architect Albert Speer in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s DER UNTERGANG (Downfall, 2003/04), one of the three musketeers in the multinational remake of Alexander Dumas’s classic, D’ARTAGNAN ET LES TROIS MOUSQUETAIRES (The Four Musketeers, 2005), and archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in DER GEHEIMNISVOLLE SCHATZ VON TROJA (The Mysterious Treasure of Troy, 2006/07). [act – DE – TV] 1985: Der Alte: Der Leibwächter. 1986/87: Der Alte: Der sanfte Tod. 1987: Der Alte: Wie das Leben so spielt; Schloß Königswald [FF]. 1988: Die Männer vom K3: Schützenfest; Europa und der zweite Apfel [DE/IT]. 1989: Berliner Weiße mit Schuß. XII; Praxis Bülowbogen: Sieg auf der ganzen Linie; Wedding [FF]; Reise hinter den Spiegel [FF]. 1990: Der zerbrochene Krug; Scheidung à la carte. 1990/91: Wer hat Angst vor rotgelbblau? [FF]. 1991: … bis Montagmorgen; Mocca für den Tiger; Company Business [FF – US]; Der Tod kam als Freund. 1991/92: Schön ist’s im Labyrinth [DO – voi]; Alles Lüge [FF]. 1992: Das Haus am See: Versprochen und nie gebrochen. 1992/93: In weiter Ferne, so nah! [FF]. 1993: Sylter Geschichten: Der Einbruch; Neues Deutschland: Heilige Kühe; Gefährliche Verbindung; Ein unmöglicher Lehrer; Ein starkes Team: Gemischtes Doppel; Wolffs Revier: Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden. 1993/94: Der letzte Kosmonaut; Lauras Entscheidung. 1994: Schneewittchens Baby; Polizeiruf 110: Samstags, wenn Krieg ist; Das Baby der schwangeren Toten; Freundinnen; Nur der Sieg zählt. 1994/95: Peter Strohm: Unter Brüdern; Küss mich! [FF]. 1995: Tatort: Mordnacht; Deutschlandlied; Polizeiruf 110: Jutta oder Die Kinder von Damutz; Wer Kollegen hat, braucht keine Feinde. 1995/ 96: Der Unhold / Le roi des aulnes / The Ogre [FF – DE/FR/ GB]. 1995-97: Das Leben ist eine Baustelle [FF]. 1996: Buddies; Es geschah am hellichten Tag; Koma – Lebendig begraben. 1996/97: Winterschläfer [FF]. 1997: 2 Männer – 2 Frauen – 4 Probleme!? [FF]; Lucie Aubrac [FF – FR]; Comedian Harmonists [FF]; Der Schutzengel; Spiel um dein Leben; Widows – Erst die Ehe, dann das Vergnügen [FF]; Single sucht Nachwuchs. 1997/98: Lola rennt [FF]. 1998: Straight Shooter [FF]; Todfeinde – Die falsche Entscheidung; Il Cielo sotto il deserto / Das Geheimnis in der Wüste [IT/DE]. 1999: The Unscarred [FF – GB/DE]; Grüne Wüste [FF]; Der Feuerteufel – Flammen des Todes; Marlene [FF]. 2000: Der Tunnel. 2001: Mávahlátur [FF – IS]; Nachts im Park [FF – DE/CH]. 2001/02: Napoléon / Napoleon [FR/GB/ DE]. 2002: Extreme Ops [FF – US/GB/DE/LU]; Der Anwalt und sein Gast; Julius Caesar / Giulio Cesare / Caesar [DE/IT/ US]. 2002/03: Le Lion [FR]; Das Konto. 2003: Le lion [FR]; Das Wunder von Lengede. 2003/04: Freedom2speak v2.0 [DO – app]; Der Untergang [FF]; Hitlers letzte Tage [TVD – app]. 2004: Mord am Meer; Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]; Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe [FF]; Hölle im Kopf. 2004/05: Ghetto [FF – LT/DE]. 2005:
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Hunt for Justice / Jagd nach Gerechtigkeit [CA/DE]; Die Luftbrücke – Nur der Himmel war frei. 2005/06: Die Mauer – Berlin 61. 2006: Auf ewig und einen Tag. 2006/07: Der geheimnisvolle Schatz von Troja; The Trojan Horse [CA]. 2007: Meine schöne Bescherung [FF]. 2007/08: Das Wunder von Berlin; Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [FF]. 2008: Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen. 2008/09: Entführt; Krupp – Eine deutsche Familie; Die Toten vom Schwarzwald; Vision – Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen [FF – DE/FR]. 2009: Kennedys Hirn.
VERONICA FERRES (Veronika Maria Cäcilia Jansen) Born June 10, 1965, Solingen (West Germany) A supremely popular character lead in German films and television from the late 1980s onwards, Ferres had to struggle to shake off her early image as an archetypal dumb blonde. While still at school, Ferres worked as a dancer and extra at theatres in Wuppertal and Cologne, and then commenced a degree in theatre studies in Munich in 1983, which she gave up after a few semesters. Rejected by twelve acting schools, she paid for private classes with coaches including Margret Langen of the Max Reinhardt Seminary, while taking jobs in radio and as a dubbing artist and film extra. Gaining state certification in 1985, Ferres made her stage debut the same year. Her first speaking part in a film was as a ticket collector in Ulf Miehle’s DER UNSICHTBARE (The Invisible Man, 1986/87), after which she had a supporting role in Walter Bockmayer’s Heimatfilm spoof DIE GEIERWALLY (Geierwally, 1987). Ferres gained greater attention after her performance as a waitress-turned-artist’s model in the Hitler diaries farce SCHTONK! (1991/92), directed by Helmut Dietl (with whom she was romantically involved from 1991 to 2000). Rallying hard against being typecast as a ditzy airhead, her first film lead was as DAS SUPERWEIB (The Super Woman, 1995). Ferres parodied her public image in Dietl’s award-winning satire of the Munich filmmaking scene ROSSINI ODER DIE MÖRDERISCHE FRAGE, WER MIT WEM SCHLIEF (Rossini, 1996). Since the late 1990s, Ferres established herself as Germany’s ‘queen of prime time television drama’, with her performance as a single mother in Christian von Castelberg’s DIE CHAOS-QUEEN (The Chaos Queen) pulling in over six million viewers, and her lead in Vivian Naefe’s emancipation drama EINE UNGEHORSAME FRAU (A Disobedient Woman, both 1997) almost ten million. In 2000, Ferres portrayed writer Heinrich Mann’s second wife Nelly Kröger in Heinrich Breloer’s threepart DIE MANNS – EIN JAHRHUNDERTROMAN (The Manns, 2000/01), for which she picked up
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her first Bavarian Television Award. Internationally, Ferres gained recognition for her appearance alongside Gérard Depardieu in Josée Dayan’s LES MISÉRABLES (2000), and starring opposite John Malkovich in Raoul Ruiz’ biopic of Austrian artist KLIMT (2005/06). Meanwhile in domestic productions, Ferres was repeatedly cast as mothers who face various adversities, in Uwe Janson’s FÜR IMMER VERLOREN (Forever Lost, 2002/03), Xaver Schwarzenberger’s ANNAS HEIMKEHR (Anna’s Homecoming) and Nikolaus Leytner’s STÄRKER ALS DER TOD (Stronger Than Death, both 2003). In 2001, Ferres married advertising executive Martin Krug, and the couple subsequently set up the child protection charity PowerChild as well as their own production company, Bella Vita GmbH, which coproduced Roland Suso Richter’s television adaptation of Kerstin Cameron’s autobiography KEIN HIMMEL ÜBER AFRIKA (No Sky Over Africa, 2004), with Ferres in the lead role. Based on the autobiography of Hans Jürgen Massaquoi, NEGER, NEGER, SCHORNSTEINFEGER (2006) featured Ferres as the mother of a coloured child in Nazi Germany, and in DIE FRAU VOM CHECKPOINT CHARLIE (The Woman of Checkpoint Charlie, 2006) she played a woman fighting for her children held ransom by the East German authorities after she tried to defect to the West. [act – DE] 1986/87: Der Unsichtbare. 1987: Die Geierwally [act,ass-pro]. 1988/89: Tatort: Blutspur [TV]. 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat: 4. Ansgars Tod / 5. Das Spiel mit der Freiheit [TV]. 1989: Pyjama für Drei [TVS]. 1991: Der CastilloCoup [TV]; Babylon – Im Bett mit dem Teufel. 1991-96: Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht [season 1-4 – TVS]; Schtonk! 1992: Der Bergdoktor: Der Fiedel-Joscha [TV – DE/AT]; Der Papagei. 1992/93: Ein Bayer auf Rügen [season 1 – TVS]. 1993: Tatort: Alles Palermo [TV]; Das Sahara-Projekt [TV]; Peter & Paul [4 episodes – TVS]; Moritz Kowalsky [TVS]. 1994: Tonino und Toinette [AT]; Voll normaaal; Kommisar Rex: Ein perfekter Mord [TV – AT]; Ärzte: Dr. Schwarz und Dr. Martin – Rosenkavaliere [TV]; Tatort: … und die Musik spielt dazu [TV]; Fatale Mutterliebe [TV]; Katharina die Große / Catherine the Great [TV – DE/US]. 1995: Der Bulle von Tölz: Unter Feunden [TV]; Das Superweib; Honigmond. 1996: Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief. 1996/97: Doktor Knock oder der Triumph der Medizin [TV]. 1997: Eine unmoralische Frau: Aufstieg und Fall der Neuberin [TVD]; Die Chaos-Queen [TV]; Eine ungehorsame Frau [TV]. 1998: Ladies Room [CA/GB]; Late Show; Die Braut; Jack’s Baby [TV]. 1999: Höchstpersönlich: Veronica Ferres [TVD – app]. 2000: Les Misérables / Los Miserables / Les Misérables – Gefangene des Schicksals [TV – FR/IT/ES/DE/US]; Sans famille / Findelkind [TV – FR/ DE]. 2000/01: Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman [TV]. 2001: Drehtage [TVD – app]; Bobby [TV]. 2002/03: Für immer verloren [TV]. 2003: Annas Heimkehr [TV]; Till Eu-
lenspiegel / Tijl Uilenspiegel [ANI – voi – DE/BE]; Abgeschminkt: Veronica Ferres [TVD – app]; Stärker als der Tod [TV]. 2003/04: Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers [TV – AT/ DE]. 2004: Sterne leuchten auch am Tag [TV]; Jedermann [TV – AT]; Kein Himmel über Afrika [TV – act,pro]. 2005: Die wilden Hühner; Liebling, wir graben Harry aus! / Bye Bye Harry! [DE/GB/BE]. 2005/06: Klimt [AT/DE/GB/FR]. 2006: Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger [TV]; Vom Ende der Eiszeit [TV]; Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie [TV]; Mein alter Freund Fritz. [TV]. 2006/07: Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe; Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]. 2007: Gero von Boehm begegnet … Veronica Ferres [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Das Wunder von Berlin [TV]; Die Patin [TV]; Adam Resurrected [US/DE]. 2008/09: Gesang der Wale [TV]; Die Wilden Hühner und das Leben; Unter Bauern.
GÜNTHER FISCHER Born June 23, 1944, Teplitz-Schönau (Bohemia, now Teplice, Czech Republic) Film composer Fischer, also a jazz saxophonist and recording artist, left his mark on hit films of almost every genre produced by DEFA in the 1970s and 1980s. Taking piano and violin lessons from early childhood, Fischer studied at Zwickau’s Robert Schumann Conservatory from 1960 to 1963, and then at East Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Music College from 1965 to 1969, after which he joined the institution’s teaching staff in 1972. He formed his own quartet (subsequently expanded into a quintet) in 1967. Fischer’s compositions blended elements of modern jazz, beat and rock, and from the early 1970s he scored numerous stage musicals and ballets at the Deutsches Theater and Berliner Ensemble, as well as at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus and Vienna’s Burgtheater. Fischer’s first film score was for Volker Koepp’s documentary DIE ROLLE DES MEISTERS IM SYSTEM DER SOZIALISTISCHEN BETRIEBSWIRTSCHAFT (The Role of the Foreman Within the Socialist Economic System, 1970). Over one hundred scores for documentaries, cultural films and promotional shorts by directors such as Uwe Belz and Georg Kilian followed over the next twenty years. Fischer’s work on features, meanwhile, began with Herrmann Zschoche’s science fiction adventure EOLOMEA and Hans Kratzert’s western TECUMSEH (both 1971/72), and he thereafter worked repeatedly for directors such as Zschoche, Roland Gräf and, in particular, Frank Beyer. Fischer’s specialty became composing ‘original’ scores that nevertheless closely imitated the style of popular music from the West to avoid expensive licenses in hard currencies. Perhaps Fischer’s greatest success was Konrad Wolf’s SOLO SUNNY (1978/79), where his lyrical score contrasted with Renate Krößner’s live performances (dubbed by
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a singer), thus reinforcing the narrative dichotomy between performance and reality. Fischer’s first film work outside East Germany was a 1920s score for David Hemmings’s SCHÖNER GIGOLO, ARMER GIGOLO (Just a Gigolo, 1977/78), in which several of his compositions were sung by Marlene Dietrich, with whom he additionally collaborated on an LP. Royalties from these projects allowed him to build a state-of-the-art sound studio, and further contracts from the other side of the Iron Curtain followed, including a solemnly portentous score for Thomas Brasch’s exploration of Nazism DER PASSAGIER – WELCOME TO GERMANY (Welcome to Germany, 1987/88) and several collaborations with director Bernhard Wicki, for example on DIE GRÜNSTEIN-VARIANTE (The Grünstein Version, 1984) and DAS SPINNENNETZ (Spider’s Web, 1986–89). Since the late 1980s, Fischer worked predominately for television, working on hit drama series and sitcoms such as UNSER LEHRER DOKTOR SPECHT (Our Teacher Dr. Specht, 1991–99), DIE STRASSEN VON BERLIN (Streets of Berlin, 1996–2000) and FÜR ALLE FÄLLE STEFANIE (It’s … Stefanie, 1995–2004). For Bernhard Sinkel’s big-screen adaptation of Gert Hofmann’s novel DER KINOERZÄHLER (The Film Explainer, 1992/93) he created a faux Weimar-era score. Fischer has also written two stage musicals, ‘Jack the Ripper’ (1989) and ‘Marilyn’ (1992). [mus – DD – SD] 1970: Die Rolle des Meisters im System der sozialistischen Betriebswirtschaft; 365 Meter über Berlin; Spaß im Schloß [SF]. 1971: Bildnotizen aus einem Reiseland; Leo oder wer rastet der rostet [ANI]; Weil es mir Spaß macht. 1971/72: Eolomea [FF]; Tecumseh [FF]. 1972: Zukunft Kali; Hund über Bord [SF – DD/CS]; Hochzeit – Hochzeit [SF]; Musik in Scheiben [SF]; Das Lachen soll euch nicht im Halse stecken bleiben [DO]. 1972/73: Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita [TV]; Ferien und das alte Haus [SF]; Zement [TV]; Ansichtssachen [SF]. 1973: DEFA-Treff Nr. 1; Der Wüstenkönig von Brandenburg; Manfred Krug; Wie füttert man einen Esel [FF]. 1973/74: Hans Röckle und der Teufel [FF]. 1973-76: IN ‘Internationales Jugendmagazin’ [7 episodes]. 1974: Das bin ich – der Millionste; Demonstration – Fakten – Information; Mähdrescher E 516; Robur – Leistung – Fortschritt. 1974/75: Die unheilige Sophia [TV]. 1975: Impulse, Lösungen, Effekte; Mähdrescher E 516; Wegweiser Gesundheit; … die böszewichter müssen dran [FF]; Leben und Tod König Richard des Dritten [TV – CH]; Geschwister [TV]; Bei Günther Fischer; Bei Laky; Bei Manfred Krug; Floh de Cologne; Im Zentrum der US-Mili tärspionage; Ich lenke eine Rakete [TVD]; Hostess [FF]. 1975/76: Damals in Sosa. 1976: Textilveredlung mit Roburanlagen; Wegweiser Gesundheit; Leben und Tod König Richard des Dritten [TV]; KM – 100 Jahre nach Highgate; Vier Kapitel DDR [DO]; In Sibirien; Ottokar der Weltverbesserer [FF]; Camping – Camping [TV]; Trini [FF]; Eine Kiste B. H.; Feuer unter Deck [FF]. 1976/77: Auskunft
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über Pludra; Brüder im All; Dieter Süverkamp; ‘F. J. Strauß’; In Sowjet-Mittelasien; Rock mit Skorpio; Vaclav Neckar; Happy End [TV]; Ein irrer Duft von frischem Heu [FF]; Die Flucht [FF]; Der Meisterdieb [TV + FF]; Eine Handvoll Hoffnung [FF]; Das Versteck [FF]. 1977: Blumen; MZ Arena 77; Eine zuverlässige Chance, ein gutes Ziel; Liebeserklärung an Berlin [TVD]; Kundschafter in München [DO]; Das Raubtier [FF]; Vera Spinarová; Der gepuderte Mann im bunten Rock oder Musjöh lebt gefährlich [TV]; Puhdys II. 1977/78: Modern Soul und Rugby; Berlin; Gruppe ‘Aparco’ [DO]; Wie soll sich eine Frau entscheiden? [TV]; Severino [FF]; Ein Sonntagskind, das manchmal spinnt [FF]; Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo [FF – DE]. 1978: Ein Gesicht mit vielen Varianten; Korn; Positionen – Begegnungen in der VIII. Kunstausstellung der DDR; Schauspielereien: Alles im Lot, alles im Eimer [TV]; Geschlossene Gesellschaft [TV]; Des Henkers Bruder [FF]; P. S. [FF]. 1978/79: Die große Flatter [TV – DE]; Solo Sunny [FF]; Glück im Hinterhaus [FF]. 1979: Dokumentation Festival; Die Enkel [SF]; IGA 79; Komplette Anlagen für die Textilreinigung; MKF 6; Neustadt. 3 Folgen; RBT; Das Werk an der Havel; Alltag der Venus [TV – DE]; Verlobung in Hollerbusch [TV]; Glück und Glas [TV]; Heute abend und morgen früh [FF]; … es ist an der Zeit darüber zu sprechen. 1979/80: Friedhelms Geburtstag und andere Geschichten [TV]; Und nächstes Jahr am Balaton [FF]. 1980: Fortschritt 80; Lernen für die Zukunft; Metallurgie; Nightkill [FF – DE]; Rohrmelkanlagen; Yvonne [TV]; Die drei anderen Jahreszeiten; Pugowitza [FF]; Darf ich Petruschka zu dir sagen [FF]. 1980/81: Spuren; Der König und sein Narr [TV – DE]; Bürgschaft für ein Jahr [FF]. 1981: Fortschritt 81; Generallieferant Fortschritt; Leistung im Zeichen des VEB Kombinat Keramische Werke Hermsdorf; Metallurgie 81; Mit MZ auf großer Fahrt; Multi-IFA; Russisch für Sie [3 episodes – TV]; Spot-Fortschritt; Spot-Metallurgie; Wirtschaft ohne Wunder [TVD]; Die zweite Haut [TV – DE]; Jegor Bulytschow und die anderen [TV]; Romanze mit Amélie [FF]; ‘Bürger Luther’ Wittenberg 1508–1546 [TVD]; Märkische Forschungen [FF]; Der Theaterdampfer. 1981/82: Geburt einer Familie; Der Prinz hinter den sieben Meeren [FF]; Jan und Tini auf Reisen: 50. Im Zirkus [TV-ANI]. 1982: 341 – Siegel für Qualität; Energie zuverlässig beherrschen; Glasbläser [TVD]; IFA-Multicar; Multi-Fortschritt 82; Neubrandenburg – Stadt der vier Tore [TVD]; Guten Morgen, Dornröschen! [TV]; Der Aufenthalt [FF]; Im siebzigsten Frühling; Der entführte Prinz [TV]. 1982/83: Der Dompteur [TV]; Der steinerne Fluß [DE]; Fariaho [FF]. 1982-84: Liebe ist kein Argument [DE]. 1983: Kehrmaschinen KM 2301; Mann und Frau intim; Metallurgie 83 (Multivision); Mikroelektronische Erzeugnisse in Hybridtechnik; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Ein gefährlicher Fund [TV]; Alarm im Morgengrauen [TVD]; Copyright by Luther [ANI]; Fortschritt 83 (Multivision); Geodätische Geräte aus Jena; IFA W50 – bewährte Konstruktionen – perfekte Produktion – solides Erzeugnis; Polygraph – Plamag präsentiert; Rallye-Impressionen; Schutz vor Verlusten – Silo-Anlagen vom Kombinat Fortschritt; Um Haaresbreite; Weiberwirtschaft [FF]; Bockshorn [FF]; Die Lehrwerkstatt. 1983/84: Bürgermeister in M.; Biberspur [FF]; Meine Frau Inge und meine Frau Schmidt [FF]. 1984: IFA-Simson, IFA-MZ Enduro; Metallurgie 84; Ruh-
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laer Uhren; Ludwig Richter (1803–1884) [TVD]; Entscheidung für’s Leben [TVD]; Die schöne Wilhelmine [TV – DE]; Die Grünstein-Variante [TV – DE]; Die Platzanweiserin [TV – DE]; Chinese Boxes [FF – DE/GB]; Zwischen Coffeebaum und Bartel’s Hof – Leipziger Baudenkmale [TVD]; Die Abschiebung [TV – DE]. 1984/85: Didi und die Rache der Enterbten [FF – DE]; Das Haus am Fluß [FF]; Der Bärenhäuter [FF]. 1985: Bus stop Ghana; Dresden erleben – Hotel Bellevue; Fortschritt – Service im Dienste des Kunden; Die Zeit die bleibt [DO]; In Amt und Würden [TV – DE]; Hautnah [TV – DE]; Vertrauen für Paul; Jan und Tini auf Reisen: 66. Bei den Hunden [TV-ANI]; Silbergrau und Regenbogen; Ein Jahrhundertkerl – Heine in Paris. 1985/86: Joe Polowsky [DO – DE]; Pattbergs Erbe [TV – DE]. 1985-87: Sansibar oder Der letzte Grund [TV – DE/CH/DD]. 1986: Auf dem Familienschacht; Geprägt durch Tradition. 1986: Von zwölf bis Mittag [TV – DE]; Wenn man eine Liebe hat [DO]. 1986-89: Berliner Weiße mit Schuß [11 episodes – TVS – DE]; Die Alleinseglerin [FF]; Froschkönig [FF]. 1986-88: Sound-Synthese. 1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [FF – DE/AT/ IT/CS]. 1987: 10 Jahre Mikroelektronik – 10 Jahre Erfüllung der Beschlüsse des ZK der SED; Grand-Hotel; Die Perspektiven von Perfecta; Rechentechnik – Herausforderung und Chance; Wir haben mehr als Technik; Wie ein Fisch im Wasser [DO]; Einer trage des anderen Last … [FF]; Leben und leben lassen [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Der Mann im Baum [TV]; Die Entfernung zwischen dir und mir und ihr [FF]. 1987/88: A.D.A.M. [FF – DE]; Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany [FF – DE/CH/GB]; Rheinsberg [TV]. 1988: Die Wette des Försters; Blinde Leidenschaft [TV – DE]; Friedrich und Friederike [TVS – DE]; Der schöne Mann [TV – DE]; Zeitflug [TVD]; Der Bruch [FF]; Waldmenschen in der Großstadt [TVD]; Grüne Hochzeit [FF]; Ruppiner Schweiz – Am Ende eines Sommers. 1988/89: Eine unheimliche Karriere [TV – DE]; Jan und Tini auf Reisen: 76. Bei der Straßenbahn [TV-ANI]. 1989: Starke Männer; Wir vom Kombinat ‘Fortschritt’ Landmaschinen [DO]; Praxis Bülowbogen [season 2 – TVS – DE]; Radiofieber [TV – DE]; Traumlos?; Der Streit um des Esels Schatten [FF]; Jan und Tini auf Reisen: 82. Bei den Puppenmachern [TV-ANI]. 1989/90: Schauspielereien: Die Traumrolle [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Falscher Jasmin [TV]; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Küsse und Schläge [TV]; Der achte Tag [FF – DE]; Albert Einstein [TV]. 1990: Siloanlagen – Symbole für die Ernährung; Wüstenfieber [TVS – DE]; Eine deutsche Geschichte. Wir haben die Mauer durchbrochen [TVD – DD/DE]; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Blonder Tiger – Schwarzer Tango [TV]; So ein Theater [TV – DE]; Der Tangospieler [mus,act – DD/DE]. [mus – DE – TV] 1990/91: Bronsteins Kinder [FF]; In Teufels Küche; Polizeiruf 110: Big Band Time; Ende der Unschuld; Engel mit einem Flügel; Farßmann oder Zu Fuß in die Sackgasse [FF]; Der Verdacht [FF]; Der Hausgeist [TVS]. 1991: Kinder, Kader, Kommandeure [DO]; Viel Rummel um den Skooter [TVS]; Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [TVD]; Das Trio; Sie und Er. 1991-99: Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht [season 1-5, 69 episodes – TVS]. 1992: Geboren 1999; Wenn ich sonntags in mein Kino geh’ … [TVD – mus,act]; Das große Fest. 1992/93: Inge, April und Mai [FF]; Der Kinoerzähler [FF]. 1992-94: Tücken des Alltags [TVS]. 1993: Harry & Sunny [TVS]; Durchreise; Sylter
Geschichten [season 1 – TVS]; Von Frau zu Frau – Die Sammlerin [DE/AT]; Elbflorenz [TVS]. 1994: Um jeden Preis; Zwei alte Hasen [TVS]; Nich’ mit Leo [FF]. 1994/95: Frauenarzt Dr. Markus Merthin [season 1 – TVS]; Tödliches Geld – Das Gesetz der Belmonts; Peter Strohm: Wanderer im Watt; Peter Strohm: Der Tod der kleinen Lady. 1994-2000: Der Havelkaiser [season 1-4, 11 episodes – TVS]. 1995-97: Ein Bayer auf Rügen [season 5-6, 41 episodes – TVS]. 1995-2004: Für alle Fälle Stefanie [season 1-10, 304 episodes – TVS]; Ein Biest aus gutem Haus; Wozu denn Eltern?; Ach du Fröhliche. 1995/96: Friedemann Brix – Eine Schwäche für Mord [10 episodes – TVS]. 1995-99: Der Kapitän [7 episodes – TVS]. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]; Tresko – Der Maulwurf; Helden haben’s schwer. 1996/97: Nackt im Cabrio [FF]. 1996-2000: Die Straßen von Berlin [16 episodes – TVS]. 1996-2007: Der letzte Zeuge [season 1-9, 73 episodes – TVS]. 1997: Ein unvergeßliches Wochenende … auf den Kanarischen Inseln; Der Prinzgemahl; Freiwild. 1997/98: Am liebsten Marlene [TVS]. 1998: Abgehauen; Letzte Chance für Harry. 1998/99: Im Visier der Zielfahnder [TVS]. 1999: Ein Mann steht auf; The New Adventures of Pinocchio / Die neuen Abenteuer von Pinocchio [FF – GB/ DE/LU]. 2000: ‘Wenn ich singe’. Manfred Krug – Der Sänger [TVD – app]; Preis der Schönheit. 2000/01: Drehkreuz Airport [TVS]. 2001/02: Tanners letzte Chance; Unser Papa, das Genie; Die Hinterbänkler [TVS]. 2002/03: Nicht ohne meinen Anwalt [TVS]; Verliebte Diebe. 2003-06: Familie Dr. Kleist [season 1-2, 26 episodes – TVS – DE]. 2005: Mein Haus [DO – DE].
O. W. FISCHER (Otto Wilhelm Fischer) Born April 1, 1915, Klosterneuburg (AustriaHungary) Died January 29, 2004, Lugano (Switzerland) Often referred to as ‘Germany’s Cary Grant’ on account of his dashing looks and suave air of sophistication, Austrian actor Fischer was one of the highestpaid stars of 1950s West German cinema. Studying English and German literature and art history in Vienna from 1933, Fischer also took acting classes at the local Max Reinhardt Seminary from 1936, and made his stage debut at the Theater in der Josefstadt the following year. After a brief stint at Munich’s Kammerspiele, he joined Vienna’s Deutsches Volkstheater from 1938 to 1944, playing handsome bon viveurs and character roles. He also worked in radio during these years, and made his film debut with a bit part in Willi Forst’s BURGTHEATER (Burg Theatre, 1936). More substantial parts followed in the Hans Moser comedies ANTON DER LETZTE (Anthony the Last, 1939) and MEINE TOCHTER LEBT IN WIEN (My Daughter Lives in Vienna, 1940), both directed by E. W. Emo. Thereafter Fischer specialised in playing affable young men, often either artists or aristocrats.
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Fischer’s first film lead was in the Austrian Heimatfilm ERZHERZOG JOHANNS GROSSE LIEBE (Archduke Johann’s Great Romance, 1950). After this, he rose to fame as the male half of various romantic screen pairings in West German pictures, for example with Maria Schell in Josef von Báky’s DER TRÄUMENDE MUND (Dreaming Lips, 1952/53) and Harald Braun’s SOLANGE DU DA BIST (As Long As You’re Near Me, 1953), and with Ruth Leuwerik in Rudolf Jugert’s EIN HERZ SPIELT FALSCH (A Heart’s Foul Play, 1953) and Helmut Käutner’s BILDNIS EINER UNBEKANNTEN (Portrait of an Unknown Woman, 1954). Fischer subsequently moved into playing more complex characters, such as the Bavarian monarch in Käutner’s LUDWIG II. (Ludwig II, 1954), for which he received the German Film Award. He co-directed and starred in HANUSSEN (1955), and was director of the award-winning ICH SUCHE DICH (I’m Looking for You, 1955/56), in which he played an alcoholic. Contracted by Universal Pictures to star in the Hollywood production MY MAN GODFREY (1957), Fischer was replaced by David Niven after sixteen days of shooting following a bout of memory loss and artistic differences with director Henry Koster. The incident did little to dent the actor’s reputation in Germany, and he started to appear in comic and self-deprecating roles, including in a screen version of George Bernard Shaw’s HELDEN (Arms and the Man, 1958), for which he again picked up the German Film Award. Turning his back on films in the early 1960s, Fischer worked primarily in theatre, while occasionally taking parts in television dramas such as Rolf von Sydow’s TEEROSEN (Tea Roses, 1976), which again teamed him with Maria Schell. Living a secluded existence in the tiny Swiss village of Vernate for the last decades of his life, Fischer published his memoirs and wrote books on topics including philosophy and hypnosis. Fischer received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1977. [act – DE] 1936: Burgtheater [AT]. 1939: Anton der Letzte; Schwarz gegen blond [SF]; Fräulein Figaro [SF]. 1940: Meine Tochter lebt in Wien. 1941: Der Meineidbauer. 1941/ 42: Wien 1910. 1942: Sommerliebe. 1943: Die beiden Schwestern. 1943/44: Glück unterwegs [DE (CS)]; Sieben Briefe [DE (CS)]. 1944: Spiel [DE (CS)]. 1944/45: Leuchtende Schatten [DE (CS)]; Sag’ endlich ja. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume [DE (CS)]. 1947: Triumph der Liebe [AT]; Das unsterbliche Antlitz [AT]; Hin und her [AT]. 1947-51: A Tale of Five Cities / Passaporto per l’oriente / Fünf Mädchen und ein Mann / 5 Städte – 5 Mädchen / L’Inconnue des cinq cités [GB/IT/AT/DE/FR]. 1948: Verlorenes Rennen [AT]. 1948/49: Liebling der Welt [MLV – AT/FR]. 1949: Märchen
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vom Glück [AT]. 1950: Erzherzog Johanns große Liebe [AT]. 1950/51: Verträumte Tage [MLV – FR/DE]. 1951: Heidelberger Romanze. 1951/52: Das letzte Rezept. 1952: Ich hab’ mich so an Dich gewöhnt [AT]; Tausend rote Rosen blühn; Bis wir uns wiederseh’n; Cuba Cabana. 1952/53: Der träumende Mund. 1953: Ein Herz spielt falsch; Solange Du da bist; Tagebuch einer Verliebten. 1953/54: Eine Liebesgeschichte. 1954: Bildnis einer Unbekannten; Ludwig II. – Glanz und Elend eines Königs; Napoléon / Napoleone Bonaparte [FR/IT]. 1955: Hanussen [dir,act]. 1955/56: Ich suche Dich [dir,co-scr]. 1956: Mein Vater, der Schauspieler; Herrscher ohne Krone. 1957: Skandal in Ischl [AT]; El Hakim. 1958: … und nichts als die Wahrheit; Peter Voss, der Millionendieb; Helden; Don Vesuvio und das Haus der Strolche / Il bacio del sole [DE/ IT]. 1958/59: Whirlpool [GB]. 1959: Das Künstlerporträt: O. W. Fischer [TV – app]; … und das am Montagmorgen; Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Abschied von den Wolken; Peter Voss, der Held des Tages. 1960: Scheidungsgrund: Liebe; Mit Himbeergeist geht alles besser [AT]. 1961: Das Riesenrad; Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein / Pourquoi toujours du caviar? [DE/FR]; Diesmal muß es Kaviar sein! / Top Secret – c’est pas toujours du caviar [DE/FR]. 1962: Axel Munthe, der Arzt von San Michele / Le livre de San Michele / Donne senza paradiso [DE/FR/IT]. 1963: Berlin-Melodie. Vom Zille-Ball zum Jazzlokal [TV]; Frühstück im Doppelbett; Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa [pro]; Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Witwe / Araña negra [DE/ES]. 1965: Onkel Toms Hütte / La capanna dello zio Tom / La case de l’oncle Tom [DE/IT/FR]; El Marques [ES/DK]. 1966: Non faccio la guerra … faccio l’amore / Non hago la guerra … prefiero el amor [IT/ES]. 1968: Die Rückkehr des O. W. Fischer [TV – app]. 1969: Lovebirds / Liebesvögel [IT/DE]; Transplantation [TV]. 1970: Das weite Land [TV – AT]; Der Tag des Krähenflügels [TV – AT]; Die Fliege und der Frosch [TV]. 1972: Amouren [TV]. 1976: Ein Glas Wasser [TV]; Teerosen [TV]. 1986: Auferstehung in Lugano [TVD]. 1987/88: Herbst in Lugano [TV]. 1990: Ich möchte noch erwachsen werden [TVD]. 1997: Leben, Tod und Teufel …: Zu Besuch bei O. W. Fischer [TVD – AT].
OSKAR FISCHINGER Born June 22, 1900, Gelnhauen (Germany) Died January 31, 1967, Hollywood (California, USA) A key influence on American experimental cinema, the work of abstract filmmaker Fischinger occupies a unique position between the avant-garde and commercial production. Following military service in World War I, Fischinger qualified as an engineer in the early 1920s, and began stop-motion experiments using a wax-cutting machine synchronised with a camera. Producing animated shorts independently from 1922, STROMLINIEN (Currents, 1921/22) featured swirling liquid formations, while WACHSEXPERIMENTE (Wax Experiments, 1921–26) made use of three-dimensional
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wax figures. Together with composer Alexander Lászlo he developed a live lightshow combining music with multiple overlapping projected images. Meanwhile, his series of six black-and-white STUDIEN (Studies, 1929/30) set abstract movements to music and commanded considerable attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Fischinger also created title sequences and special effects for a number of features including Fritz Lang’s FRAU IM MOND (Woman in the Moon, 1928/29), and by 1932, his Berlin studio employed five full-time members of staff, including his wife Elfriede (1910–1999) and brother Hans (1909–1944). Using the richly saturated three-strip Gasparcolor process, Fischinger made his first colour film in December 1933, a commercial for advertising agency Tolirag titled ALLE KREISE ERFASST TOLIRAG (Tolirag Reaches All Circles). His subsequent colour advertisement MURATTI GREIFT EIN (Muratti Marches On, 1934), featuring Busby Berkeley-like columns of choreographed cigarettes, and the abstract KOMPOSITION IN BLAU (Composition in Blue, 1934/35), found favour with audiences and critics alike. The Nazi regime, however, declared his modernist output as ‘degenerate art’ in 1936, and he departed with his wife for Hollywood with a contract from Paramount, for whom he made the three-minute-long ALLEGRETTO (1936). Fischinger’s inability to speak English or to integrate himself within the studio system scuppered his further progress: his outlines for the ‘Toccata and Fugue’ sequence of Walt Disney’s FANTASIA (1939) were rejected as ‘too abstract’, and a project with Orson Welles likewise came to nothing. He thereafter established himself as an abstract painter, financed by a series of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, and documented the creation of some of his artworks in the three-part film series MOTION PAINTING (1947–61). His only other contact with cinema took the form of a few advertisements in the early 1950s and the deployment of his patented (but commercially unsuccessful) lightshow apparatus for the home, the Lumigraph, as a special effect in Ib Melchior’s cult sci-fi feature THE TIME TRAVELERS (1964). Following Fischinger’s death, his widow Elfriede did much to promote his reputation, travelling worldwide with his films. In 2004, William Moritz’s biography ‘Optical Poetry’ was published. [dir,pro – ANI – DE] 1921-22: Stromlinien. 1921-26: Wachsexperimente. 1924: Louis Seel Filmbilderbogen: Pierette wird übermütig / Amors Tagebuch / Amors Tagebuch II / Pierette im Kino [dir]. ca. 1926: Spiralen. 1926/27: Sintflut [sfx]; Natur und Liebe. Vom Urtier zum Menschen. Schöpferin Natur [DO / FF – sfx]; Der Weltkrieg. 2. Des Volkes Not [DO – sfx]. 1926-30: Seelische Konstruktionen.
1927: München-Berlin Wanderung [SD]; R-1. Ein Formspiel. 1927/28: Dein Schicksal! [DO – sfx]. 1928: Der Unüberwindliche [sfx]. 1928/29: Frau im Mond [sfx]. 1929: Studie 1. 1929/30: Tanzende Linien [Studie 2]. 1930: Studie 3; Studie 4; Das Hohelied der Kraft [DO / FF – sfx]; R. 5. Ein Spiel in Linien [Studie 5]; Studie Nr. 6 von Oskar Fischinger. 1930/31: Die Försterchristl [sfx]; Studie Nr. 7. 1930-32: Studie Nr. 10. 1931: Liebesspiel; Schule Oskar Fischinger, 9. Studie, gezeichnet von Hans Fischinger; Studie Nr. 8 von Oskar Fischinger. 1931/32: Studie Nr. 11. 1932: Experimente mit synthetischen Ton; Gitta entdeckt ihr Herz [sfx]; Schule Oskar Fischinger, 12. Studie: ‘Lichtertanz’, gezeichnet von Hans Fischinger; Das Blaue vom Himmel [sfx]. 1933: Eine Viertelstunde Großstadtstatistik [SD]; Studie Nr. 14; Alle Kreise erfaßt Tolirag. 1933/34: Studie 11a von Oskar Fischinger; Annette im Paradies [MLV – sfx – DE/CS]; Studie Nr. 13. 1934: Euthymol; Muratti; Quadrate; Schweiz-Reise / Flüsse und Landschaften [SD – CH/DE]; Muratti greift ein. 1934/35: Muratti Privat; Komposition in Blau. 1935: Lichtkonzert Nr. 2. [dir – ANI – US] 1936: Allegretto. 1937: An Opitcal Poem. 1939: Fantasia [ANI – sfx]. 1940-49: Radio Dynamics. 1941: American March. 1944: Jane Eyre [sfx]. 1946/47: Mutoscope Reels. 1947: Motion Paiting No. 1. 1952: Stereo Film. 1953: Bon Voyage [SD – US]; Muntz TV Commercial. 1957: Motion Painting No. 2. 1961: Motion Picture Painting No. 3.
WILLI FORST (Wilhelm Anton Frohs) Born April 7, 1903, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died August 11, 1980, Vienna (Austria) Debonair and sophisticated, Forst was a popular Austrian leading man of the 1930s and 1940s, and a widely respected director of well-made, elegant, and witty entertainment films. Forst spent several years on provincial stages prior to appearing in operettas and revues in Berlin and Vienna from 1925. He made his screen debut in Hans Otto Löwenstein’s DER LETZTE KNOPF (The Last Button, 1919) but undertook regular film work only after 1927. He stood out particularly in the first German allspeaking sound film, ATLANTIC (Atlantic, 1929), made under E. A. Dupont’s direction at British International Pictures, and thereafter ascended to star status with a series of leads in musical comedies including seven pictures directed by Géza von Bolváry, Paul Martin’s EIN BLONDER TRAUM (Happy Ever After) and Karl Hartl’s DER PRINZ VON ARKADIEN (Prince of Arcadia, both 1932). Forst’s debut as screenwriter and director followed with the Franz Schubert biopic LEISE FLEHEN MEINE LIEDER (Unfinished Symphony, 1933). His subsequent film operetta MASKERADE (Masquerade in Vienna, 1934) made a star of Paula Wessely and was fêted at the Venice Film Festival, while Pola Negri re-
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turned to Germany after over a decade in Hollywood to appear in his MAZURKA (1935). In 1936, he founded Willi Forst Film-Produktion in Vienna, and after the unification of Austria with the Reich served on the board of directors at Wien Film GmbH from 1938 to 1945. His greatest success during these years was as director/star of BEL AMI (1938/ 39), an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s fin-desiècle novel. The subject matter of his other films was likewise distinctly retrospective, with the majority set in the halcyon days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the war he directed the succès de scandale DIE SÜNDERIN (The Story of a Sinner, 1950), which faced bans and boycotts on account of its ruminations on suicide and a brief shot of a naked Hildegard Knef. Otherwise, Forst’s post-war pictures failed to make any kind of mark, and he bowed out of the industry in 1957. He received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1968. [act – DE] 1919: Der letzte Knopf. 1920: Der Wegweiser [AT]. 1922: Sodom und Gomorrha – Die Legende von Sünde und Strafe. 1. Die Sünde / 2. Die Strafe [AT]; Oh, du lieber Augustin [AT]. 1922/23: Lieb’ mich und die Welt ist mein [AT]. 1924: Strandgut [AT]. 1927: Die drei Niemandskinder; Die elf Teufel; Café Elektric [AT]. 1927/28: Amor auf Ski. 1928: Ein besserer Herr; Die lustigen Vagabunden; Ein Tag Film [SF]; Die blaue Maus; Unfug der Liebe; Liebfraumilch. 1928/29: Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist Du!; Fräulein Fähnrich; Gefahren der Brautzeit. 1929: Die weißen Rosen von Ravensberg; Der Sträfling aus Stambul; Atlantic [German MLV – GB]; Katharina Knie. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt; Ein Tango für Dich; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg; Das Lied ist aus; Der Herr auf Bestellung. 1930/31: Die lustigen Weiber von Wien. 1931: Der Raub der Mona Lisa. 1931/32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932: Der Prinz von Arkadien [AT]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht [DE/AT]. 1932/33: Brennendes Geheimnis. 1933: Leise flehen meine Lieder / Schuberts unvollendete Symphonie [MLV – dir,scr – AT/ DE]; The Unfinished Symphony [MLV – dir,co-scr – AT/DE]; Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin [MLV]. 1933/34: Ich kenn’ Dich nicht und liebe Dich [MLV]. 1934: Maskerade [dir,co-scr – AT]; So endete eine Liebe. 1935: Königswalzer [MLV]; Mazurka [dir]. 1936: Allotria [dir,co-scr]; Burgtheater [dir,co-scr,mus,pro – AT]. 1937: Capriolen [co-scr,pro]; Serenade [dir,scr,pro]. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938/39: Bel Ami [dir,co-scr,act]. 1939: Ich bin Sebastian Ott [dir,act,pro]. 1940: Operette [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1941/42: Wiener Blut [dir,co-scr,act]. 1942/43: Frauen sind keine Engel [dir,pro]. 1943/44: Hundstage [pro]. 1944: Am Vorabend. 1944/45: Wiener Mädeln [dir,co-scr, act,pro]. 1947: Der Hofrat Geiger [pro – AT]. 1948: Die Frau am Weg [pro – AT]; Das Kuckucksei [pro – AT]. 1949: Die Stimme Österreichs [DO – pro – AT]. 1950: Die Sünderin [dir,ide]. 1951: Es geschehen noch Wunder [dir,co-scr, act]. 1952: Alle kann ich nicht heiraten [ide]; Im weißen
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Rössl [dir,act]. 1953/54: Bei Dir war es immer so schön. 1954: Kabarett / Dieses Lied bleibt bei dir [dir,ide]; Weg in die Vergangenheit [AT]. 1954/55: Ein Mann vergißt die Liebe. 1955: Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV – supv]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV – supv – DE/FR]. 1956: Kaiserjäger [dir – AT]. 1957: Die unentschuldigte Stunde [dir,co-scr – AT]; Wien, Du Stadt meiner Träume [dir,co-scr – AT].
RUDOLF FORSTER (Rudolf Heribert Anton Forster) Born October 30, 1884, Gröbning (Austria-Hungary) Died October 25, 1968, Bad Aussee (Austria) Best known for his portrayal of ‘Mack the Knife’ in G. W. Pabst’s DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER, Austrian actor Forster enjoyed a fifty-year career on stage and screen, encompassing two distinct and (usually) opposing types in his film roles – rogues and noblemen. After attending the Vienna Dramatic Conservatory, Forster appeared at various theatres across the German-speaking world, including Berlin’s Staatstheater, where his acting style was heavily influenced by his work under Berthold Viertel and Max Reinhardt. Forster started to appear in films from 1919. He worked repeatedly with directors Friedrich Zelnik and Richard Oswald, including the former’s DIE ERLEBNISSE DER BERÜHMTEN TÄNZERIN FANNY ELSSLER (The Escapades of Famous Dancer Fanny Elssler) and the latter’s KURFÜRSTENDAMM (both 1920), in which he played ‘Ernst Duffer, a nasty sort’. Forster’s sound film debut was as Macheath in G. W. Pabst’s DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/31), followed by a significantly different performance as urbane Konstantin Michael opposite Elisabeth Bergner in Paul Czinner’s ARIANE (The Loves of Ariane, 1930/31). Forster reprised this type of well-heeled character in Czinner’s subsequent production DER TRÄUMENDE MUND (Dreaming Lips, 1932). In Gustav Ucicky’s YORCK (1931), Forster played Prussian monarch Friedrich Wilhelm III, and in the nationalist MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/ 33), he portrayed a World War I U-boat commander. From 1934 to 1937, Forster focused primarily on theatre work, which ultimately took him across the Atlantic to play on Broadway. While in the USA, Forster appeared in one Hollywood film, Kurt Neumann’s B-picture ISLAND OF LOST MEN (1939), before returning to Germany the same year, undertaking further stage work in Berlin and Vienna. During the war, he appeared in three films, including the role of anti-Semitic Viennese mayor Dr. Karl Lueger in E. W. Emo’s WIEN 1910 (Vienna 1910, 1941/42). From 1947, Forster performed at theatres in West and East Berlin. From 1950 until his death he accumulated over forty film credits playing refined noblemen,
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as in Helmut Käutner’s DAS GLAS WASSER (A Glass of Water, 1960), or in Rolf Thiele’s LULU (No Orchids for Lulu, 1962) and TONIO KRÖGER (Tonio Kroeger, 1964). In 1965, Forster received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema, and in 1967, he published his memoirs, ‘Das Spiel, mein Leben’ (The Play, My Life). [act – DE] 1914: Lepain, der König der Unschuldigen [part 1]; Lepain, der Kampf mit dem Meisterdetektiv John Hawkes. 1916: Das Bild der Ahnfrau. 1919: Der Fall Popinoff [AT]. 1919/20: Lepain, der König der Verbrecher [part 3-6]. 1920: Frauenruhm; Der Schieberkönig; Morel, der Meister der Kette: 1. Die Kette / 2. Glanz und Elend; Die Erlebnisse der berühmten Tänzerin Fanny Elßler; Kurfürstendamm; Moj; Anna Karenina; Die rote Redoute; Die Fürstin Woronzoff; Manolescus Memoiren; Tyrannei des Todes; Der Schädel der Pharaonentochter; Der Mann mit den drei Frauen; 10 Milliarden Volt; Die rote Hexe; Das Geheimnis der Gladiatorenwerke: 1. Im Banne der Frau / 2. Unter der Maske des Juweliers. 1921: Die Amazone; Amor am Steuer; Der Abenteurer; Die Jagd nach Wahrheit; Der ewige Fluch. 1921/22: Frau Sünde; Die Jagd nach der Frau. 1922: Zwischen Tag und Traum; Das Licht um Mitternacht; Die Schuhe einer schönen Frau; Am Rande der Großstadt; Lyda Ssanin; Die Männer der Sybill. 1922/23: Erdgeist; Tragödie der Liebe [4 parts]; Fridericus Rex. Ein Königsschicksal. 4. Schicksalswende; Das Erbe; Die Sonne von St. Moritz. 1923: Adam und Eva; Katjuscha Maslowa; Die Marionetten der Fürstin; S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen; Fröken Fob [SE]. 1923-25: Zur Chronik von Grieshuus. 1924: Horrido [DO/FF]. 1926: Sein großer Fall. 1927: Pique-Dame; Feme; Die Hose. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; Ariane [MLV]. 1931: Yorck. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Der träumende Mund [MLV]. 1932/33: Morgenrot. 1934: Hohe Schule [DE/AT]. 1935: … nur ein Komödiant [AT]. 1937: Die ganz großen Torheiten. 1939: Island of Lost Men [US]. 1941/42: Wien 1910. 1944: Der gebieterische Ruf; Am Vorabend. 1944/45: Fahrt ins Glück. 1950: Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte; Die tödlichen Träume. 1950/51: Unvergängliches Licht. 1952: Im weissen Rössl. 1954: Viktoria und ihr Husar; Rittmeister Wronski. 1954/55: Spionage [AT]. 1955: Eine Frau genügt nicht?; Der letzte Mann. 1955/56: Regine. 1956: Waldwinter; Liane – das Mädchen aus dem Urwald; Kaiserjäger [AT]. 1956/57: Spielbank-Affäre [DD/ SE]. 1957: Die unentschuldigte Stunde [AT]; … und führe uns nicht in Versuchung; Skandal in Ischl [AT]. 1958: Man müßte noch mal 20 sein [AT]. 1958/59: Die Halbzarte [AT]. 1959: Der Rest ist Schweigen; Morgen wirst Du um mich weinen. 1959/60: Der liebe Augustin. 1960: Das Glas Wasser; Schachnovelle. 1960/61: Der Teufel spielte Balalaika. 1961: Das Riesenrad; Via Mala; Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse / Le retour du Docteur Mabuse / F.B.I. contro Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]. 1962: Lulu [AT]; Die letzten Masken [TV]; Funken in der Asche [TV]; Er kann’s nicht lassen. 1963: Gassenhauer [TV]; Moral 63; Der Henker von London; The Cardinal [US]; Robinson soll
nicht sterben [TV]. 1964: Haus Herzenstod [TV]; Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß; Wälsungenblut; Tonio Kröger. 1964/65: Die Reise [TV]. 1965: Pleins feux sur Stanislas / Rendezvous der Killer [FR/DE]. 1965/66: Das Abgründige in Herrn Gerstenberg [TV]. 1966: Grieche sucht Griechin; Der Kirschgarten [TV]. 1967: Das Profil: Rudolf Forster im Gespräch mit Friedrich Luft [TVD – app]; Siedlung Arkadien [TV]. 1967/68: Die Gesichte der Simone Machard [TV – DD]. 1968: Der Turm der verbotenen Liebe / Le dolcezze del peccato / La tour de Nesle [DE/IT/FR]; Der Eismann kommt [TV]; Vanillikipferln. – Ein Abend zu dritt. – Donau so blau [TV]. 1969: Von Haut zu Haut.
HORST FRANK (Horst Bernhard Wilhelm Frank) Born May 28, 1929, Lübeck (Germany) Died May 25, 1999, Heidelberg (Germany) Blond, intense, and often with a subtly menacing air, character actor Frank was regularly cast as a villain in both West German and European co-productions in the 1960s and 1970s. After serving a commercial apprenticeship and a tour of duty as one of Hitler’s teenage soldiers at the end of the war, Frank took acting lessons at Hamburg’s College of Music. He made his stage debut in Lübeck, and subsequently appeared at theatres in Bonn, Basel, Baden-Baden and Wuppertal. Undertaking television work at the Südwestfunk studios while in Baden-Baden, he soon ventured into films as well, playing a cowardly cynic in Alfred Weidenmann’s war film DER STERN VON AFRIKA (The Star of Africa, 1956/57). He played austere and enigmatic characters in Frank Wysbar’s HAIE UND KLEINE FISCHE (Sharks and Little Fish, 1957) and Rolf Thiele’s DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958), as well as a neurotic in Eugen York’s DER GREIFER (The Copper, 1957/58), and thereafter became typecast as a villain. From 1959 onwards, Frank also worked in French and Italian productions, while simultaneously running a vegetable farm and coffee plantation in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where he lived full-time from 1961 to 1963. In the 1960s, he was a fixture of action and adventure films, as well as of co-produced Italian-German spaghetti westerns and gialli including Dario Argento’s IL GATTO A NOVE CODE (The Cat o’ Nine Tails, 1970). Under German directors, he appeared in thrillers such as Jürgen Roland’s DIE ENGEL VON ST. PAULI (Angels of the Street, 1969) and Jürgen Goslar’s DER FLÜSTERNDE TOD (Albino, 1975/76). A decided break from type came when he was cast as the mysterious baron unable to laugh in the children’s television drama series TIMM THALER (The Legend of Tim Tyler, 1978/79), directed by Sigi Ro-
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themund. Even more unusual was his kindly father figure in Ulrich Schamoni’s DAS TRAUMHAUS (Dream House, 1979/80). In addition to regular guest spots on popular television series such as DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner, 1968–74), DERRICK (1976–82) and TATORT (Crime Scene, 1986–97), Frank toured extensively in stage revues from 1973, including self-produced adaptations of Noël Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’ and Peter Ustinov’s ‘The Life in My Hands’. [act – DE] 1955: Die Geschichte vom Soldaten [TV – CH]; Die Puppen von Poshansk [TV]; Wo die Liebe ist, da ist auch Gott [TV]; Geschwader Fledermaus [TV]. 1955/56: Das salomonische Frühstück [TV]; Der kleine Friedländer [TV]. 1956: Kolibri [TV]; Unheimliche Begegnungen: Der Fingerzeig [TV]; Unheimliche Begegnungen: Das Präludium [TV]; Schatten in der 3. Avenue [TV]; Schinderhannes [TV – DE/ AT]. 1956/57: Der Stern von Afrika / La estrella de Africa [DE/ES]. 1957: Bei Tag und bei Nacht oder Der Hund des Gärtners [TV]; Haie und kleine Fische; Eurydice [TV]. 1957/58: Blick zurück im Zorn [TV]; Der Greifer. 1958: Blitzmädels an die Front; Das Mädchen Rosemarie; Das Mädchen vom Moorhof; Schwarze Nylons – heiße Nächte; Meine 99 Bräute. 1958/59: Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben. 1959: Die Nackte und der Satan; Lupi nell’abisso / Les loups dans l’abîme [IT/FR]; Abschied von den Wolken; Bumerang; La chatte sort ses griffes [FR]. 1959/60: Kein Engel ist so rein. 1960: Die zornigen jungen Männer; Le bois des amants / Il bosco degli amanti [FR/IT]; Fabrik der Offiziere. 1960/61: Ein wahrer Held [TV]; Tu ne tueras point [FR/YU/ FI]. 1961: Treibjagd auf ein Leben; Haß ohne Gnade; Unser Haus in Kamerun; Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel / Cariño mio [DE/ES]. 1962: Heißer Hafen Hongkong / Il segreto di Budda [DE/IT]; Zwischen Schanghai und St. Pauli / I rinnegati di capitan Kidd [DE/IT]. 1963: Der schwarze Panther von Ratana / La belva di Saigon [DE/IT]; Die weiße Spinne; Der Tod des Handlungsreisenden [TV]; Les tontons flingueurs / Mein Onkel, der Gangster / In famiglia si spara [FR/DE/IT]; Die Flußpiraten vom Mississippi / Agguato sul grande fiume / Les pirates du Mississippi [DE/IT/FR]. 1963/ 64: Weiße Fracht für Hongkong / Da 077, criminali a Hong Kong / Le Mystère de la jonque rouge [DE/IT/FR]; Die Tote von Beverly Hills. 1964: Die Diamantenhölle am Mekong / Les diamants du Mékong / La sfida viene da Bangkok [DE/ FR/IT]; Die letzten Zwei vom Rio Bravo / Las pistolas no discuten / Le pistole non discutono [DE/ES/IT]; Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Das Geheimnis der chinesischen Nelke / Il segreto del garofano cinese / FBI contre l’oeillet chinois [DE/IT/FR]; Die Goldsucher von Arkansas / Alla conquista dell’Arkansas / Les chercheurs d’or de l’Arkansas [DE/IT/FR]. 1964/65: Die schwarzen Adler von Santa Fe / I gringos non perdonano / Les aigles noirs de Santa Fé [DE/IT/FR]; Der Fluch des schwarzen Rubin / Espionnage à Bangkok pour U 92 / Agente S3S – Operazione urania [DE/FR/IT]. 1965: Das Geheimnis der drei Dschunken / A 009 Missione Hong Kong [DE/IT]; Corrida pour un espion / Persecución a un espía / Der Spion, der in die Hölle ging [FR/ES/DE]; Die letzten Drei der Albatros / La
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morte viene da Manila / L’aventure vient de Manille [DE/ IT/FR]; Blue Light [TVS + FF – US]. 1965/66: Apfelsinen [TV]; Um null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu. 1966: Safari diamants / Für eine Handvoll Diamanten / Un gettone per il patibolo [FR/DE/IT]; Caligula [TV]; Fünf vor 12 in Caracas / Inferno a Caracas / Ça casse à Caracas [DE/IT/FR]; I Deal in Danger [US]. 1966/67: Die Rache des Dr. Fu Man Chu / Vengeance of Fu Man Chu [DE/GB]. 1967: Geheimnisse in goldenen Nylons / Deux billets pour Mexico / Segreti che scottano [DE/FR/IT]; Attentato ai tre grandi / Attentat à Casablanca / Fünf gegen Casablanca [IT/FR/DE]; Eine Handvoll Helden / Per un pugno di eroi [DE/IT]; Preparati la bara! [IT]. 1967-69: Emilia Galotti [TV]. 1968: Odia il prossimo tuo [IT]; Quella sporca storia del West [IT]; Django – Ein Sarg voll Blut / Il momento di uccidere [DE/IT]; La porta del cannone [IT/YU]; Le paria / Jaque mate [FR/ES]; Der Kommissar: Ratten der Großstadt [TV]. 1968/69: Cathérine. Il suffit d’un amour / Cathérine – Ein Leben für die Liebe / Cathérine: un solo impossibile amore [FR/DE/IT]; Marquis de Sade: Justine / Justine ovvero le disavventure della virtù [DE/IT]. 1969: Die Engel von St. Pauli; Così dolce … così perversa / Si douces, si perverses [IT/FR/DE]. 1969/70: Die Journalistin [TVS]. 1970: Unter Kuratel [TV]; Frisch, fromm, fröhlich, frei; Das Glöcklein unterm Himmelbett; Il gatto a nove code / Le chat à neuf queues / Die neunschwänzige Katze [IT/DE/FR]. 1970/71: Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen; Der scharfe Heinrich; Carlos [TV]. 1971: Die Nacht von Lissabon [TV]; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Tod am Steuer [TV]; Fluchtweg St. Pauli; Der Kommissar: Traum eines Wahnsinnigen [TV]; L’occhio nel labirinto [IT]; L’etrusco uccide ancora / Das Geheimnis des gelben Grabes [IT/DE/ YU]. 1971/72: Im Namen der Freiheit [TV]; Cosa avete fatto a Solange? / Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel [IT/DE]. 1972: Dem Täter auf der Spur: Der Tod in der Maske [TV]; Il grande duello / Drei Vaterunser für vier Halunken / Le grand duel [IT/DE/FR]; Sonderdezernat K 1: Ganoven-Rallye [TV]. [act – DE – TV] 1972/73: Der Vorgang. 1973: Vabanque; Hallo und Adieu. 1976: Klimbim [episode 16 – TVS]. 1974: Der Kommissar: Drei Brüder; Der Scheck heiligt die Mittel; Cautio Criminalis oder Der Hexenanwalt; Tausend Francs Belohnung; Carambola, filotto … tutti in buca [FF – IT]; Schließfach 763. 1974/75: Herbstzeitlosen; Das Amulett des Todes [FF]. 1975: Spiel zu zweit. 1975/76: Auch Mimosen wollen blühen [FF]; Der flüsternde Tod [FF]; Einöd. 1976: Wege ins Leben [TVS]; Derrick: Auf eigene Faust; Rosemaries Tochter [FF]; Die Elixiere des Teufels [FF]; Der Winter, der ein Sommer war. 1976/77: Das Gesetz des Clans [FF]; Operation Ganymed. 1977: Liebesgeschichten: Der Heiligenschein; Das Lamm des Armen. 1977/78: Geschichten aus der Zukunft: Geburt eines Waisenkindes. 1978: Jean Paul: Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise [voi]; Wunnigel [voi – DE/AT]; Wo die Liebe hinfällt. 1978/79: Wege in der Nacht; Timm Thaler [TVS]. 1979: Wie Rauch und Staub; Galadiner zum 75. Geburtstag von Salvador Dali; Der Alte: Eine große Familie; Herz mit einem Sprung. 1979/80: Das Traumhaus [FF]. 1980: Fröhliche Geister [dir,act,des]; Derrick: Dem Mörder eine Kerze. 1980/81: Flächenbrand. 1981: Der Fuchs von Övelgönne [TVS]; Warnung aus dem Käfig; Das Traumschiff [season 1 – TVS]; Sonderdezernat
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K 1: Die Spur am Fluß. 1982: Derrick: Die Tote in der Isar. 1982/83: Mandara [TVS]. 1983: Geschichten von nebenan [TVS]; Der Mann von Suez / L’Homme de Suez [TV – DE/FR]; Haus Vaterland; Der Besuch. 1985: Es war ein bißchen laut … 1985/86: Lebenslänglich – ganz ohne Gnade. 1986: Neuland-Suite. 1986/87: Tatort: Pleitegeier. 1986/87: Losberg [TVS]. 1987: Die Krimistunde [episode 26]; Großstadtrevier: Dame in Not. 1988: Elf Sekunden oder Das Glück der Endlichkeit; Peter Strohm: Die sieben Monde des Jupiter; Achterloo IV; Rivalen der Rennbahn [TVS]. 1988/89: SOKO 5113: Eine unvergeßliche Nacht. 1989/90: Ein Heim für Tiere: Was ist los mit Ira? 1990: Das Erbe der Guldenburgs: Der schöne Fremde / Die große Versuchung / Die wahre Liebe; Juhnke & Co [TVS]. 1990/91: Safari [IT]. 1991: Marie Galante [FR]; Großstadtrevier: Revanche. 1991/92: Glückliche Reise: Singapur – Borneo; Tatort: Stoevers Fall. 1992: Abenteuer Kriminalistik: Rundfunkwellen; Karriere mit Elefanten; Ein besonderes Paar. 1992/93: Cluedo – Das Mörderspiel [TVS]. 1993: Täter unbekannt – Sternstunden der Kriminalistik / Dobrodruzství kriminalistiky: Hon na rozhlasových vlnách [DE/CS]; Salzburger Nockerln: Die Versuchung; Der Nelkenkönig [TVS]; Großstadtrevier: Kein Tag wie jeder andere; Elbflorenz: Schiff auf Grund / Gute Freunde, schlechte Freunde; Im Namen des Gesetzes: 1. Kalaschnikow frei Haus / 9. Die schöne Studentin / 12. Menschenschlepper [3 episodes – TVS]. 1993/94: Die Stadtindianer: Madonna ist weg; Tatort: Tod eines Polizisten. 1994: Der Landarzt: Heringstage; Höchstpersönlich: Jürgen Roland [TVD – app]; Ein besonderes Paar: Lügen haben kurze Beine; Großstadtrevier: Karambolage; Katharina die Große / Catherine the Great [DE/US]. 1994/95: Der Landarzt: Heringstage. 1995: Doppelter Einsatz: Noch zwei Tage bis Rio; Feuerbach: Falsches Spiel. 1995/96: Peter Strohm: Häftling 3304; Im Namen des Gesetzes: Detektive. 1996: Sünde einer Nacht; Tatort: Ausgespielt; Der Fahnder: Speedy in Schwierigkeiten; Der Fahnder: Rumpi Menden. 1996/97: Unser Charly: 13. Schneegänse / 15. Stürmisches Wochenende / 17. Charly auf Abwegen [3 episodes – TVS]; Park Hotel Stern: Im roten Bereich. 1997: Duell zu dritt [TVS]; Tatort: Undercover Camping. 1997/98: Geiselfahrt ins Paradies; Adelheid und ihre Mörder: Sondereinsatz. 1998: Die Menschen sind kalt; Zwei allein [TVS]; Großstadtrevier: Zeugen. 1998/99: Freunde fürs Leben: Hilfeschreie; Polizeiruf 110: Rasputin. 1999: Höchstpersönlich: Horst Frank [TVD – app]. 2000: Harte Schale, harter Kern. Porträt Horst Frank [TVD – app].
KARL FREUND Born January 16, 1890, Königinhof (AustriaHungary, now Dvur Králové nad Labem, Czech Republic) Died May 3, 1969, Santa Monica (California, USA) Credited with developing the ‘Entfesselte Kamera’ (unchained camera) of F. W. Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924), legendary cinematographer Freund also brought a Weimar-style look to Universal Studios’ 1930s horror classics.
Raised in Berlin, Freund took a job as a projectionist while still a teenager, and in 1908 joined Pathé as a newsreel cameraman. Serving as technical assistant on Oskar Messter’s Tonbilder (short musical films with gramophone accompaniment), he photographed his first feature in Belgrade in 1911, and was thereafter employed at the newly-founded Sascha-Film-Fabrik in Vienna. Returning to Berlin in 1913, he was cameraman with Axel Graatkjaer on PAGU’s series of Asta Nielsen films directed by Urban Gad, and went on to shoot newsreels and features, most often with Robert Baberske as his assistant. Freund founded his own specialist laboratory Karl Freund GmbH in 1919, and established himself as a freelance from this point. Considered one of the leaders in his field during the 1920s, he worked under directors including Paul Wegener, Richard Oswald, Ludwig Berger, Paul Czinner, Fritz Lang and E. A. Dupont, as well as Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, in whose MICHAEL (Heart’s Desire / Chained, 1923/24) he also played the cameo of an art dealer. Freund then became part of what was arguably the artistically most significant off-screen ensemble in the history of Weimar cinema, comprising director F. W. Murnau, set designers Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig, scriptwriter Carl Mayer and producer Erich Pommer. First ‘unchaining’ the motion picture camera on DER LETZTE MANN by mounting it on a bike or letting it travel up in an elevator, he subsequently affixed it to a trapeze for E. A. Dupont’s VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925). During his time as production head at the European offices of the Fox Film Corporation in 1926, groundbreaking projects such as Berthold Viertel’s K 13 513. DIE ABENTEUER EINES ZEHNMARKSCHEINES
(Adventures of a Ten Mark Note, 1926) and Walther Ruttmann’s BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (Berlin, Symphony of a Big City, 1926/27) came to fruition. Following experiments with sound and colour filmmaking in London at the end of the 1920s, Freund headed to Hollywood and gained a position as director of photography at Universal. After photographing Tod Browning’s DRACULA (1930/31) and Robert Florey’s MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1931) – both of which established Béla Lugosi as a horror star – the studio entrusted him with a number of assignments as director, beginning with the Boris Karloff vehicle THE MUMMY (1932). Moving to M-G-M in 1935, he directed Peter Lorre’s Hollywood debut in MAD LOVE (1935), and then reverted to camera duties, photographing two Greta Garbo films and gaining an Oscar for best cinematography on Sidney A. Franklin’s THE GOOD EARTH (1936/37).
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Setting up his Photo Research Corporation in 1944, Freund continued to experiment in all areas of camera technology, and his inventions included the Norwood exposure meter, for which he and Frank Crandell jointly received an Oscar for technical achievement in 1955. As head cameraman at the Desilu television studio from 1950, meanwhile, he developed the multi-camera system facilitating cutting between different cameras, which he deployed to full effect in the first six seasons of I LOVE LUCY (1951–57). He retired to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley in 1960, but remained active as an inventor and mentor to the next generation of technicians until his death. [cam – DE] 1907: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Das Lied von der Glocke. 1912: Jadna majka [AT]; Pampulik als Affe [AT]; Pampulik hat Hunger [AT]; Pampulik kriegt ein Kind [AT]. 1913: Eine venezianische Nacht; Die Suffragette; Die Insel der Seligen; S 1; Die Film-Primadonna; Engelein; Die Firma heiratet. 1913/14: Das Kind ruft; Zapatas Bande. 1914: Das Feuer. Die alte Gnädige; Der Hund von Baskerville; Engeleins Hochzeit; Die ewige Nacht; Vordertreppe und Hintertreppe; Aschenbrödel; Die Tochter der Landstraße; Die weißen Rosen. 1915/16: Frau Eva. 1916: Abseits vom Glück; Der Mann im Spiegel; Dick Carter; Bummelstudenten; Das wandernde Licht; Die Räuberbraut; Der Ruf der Liebe; Gelöste Ketten; Feenhände. 1916/17: Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach; Der Liebesbrief der Königin. 1917: Christa Hartungen; Die Prinzessin von Neutralien; Gefangene Seele; Die Claudi vom Geiserhof; Höhenluft; Die Faust des Riesen. 1. Teil; Gräfin Küchenfee. 1917/18: Edelsteine. 1918: Auf Probe gestellt; Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall; Der tote Gast. Der Fall Rödern; Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier; Das Maskenfest des Lebens; Die Sieger; Die Heimkehr des Odysseus; Die blaue Laterne; Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell. 1919: Das gelbe Haus; Rausch; Die sich verkaufen; Die Arche; Die Gesunkenen; Die letzten Menschen; Unheimliche Geschichten; Phantome des Lebens; Augen; Satanas; Die Spinnen. 2. Das Brillantenschiff; Die Welteroberer. 1920: Die Nacht auf Goldenhall; Der Januskopf; Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin; Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag [cocam]; Katharina die Große; Die Frau im Delphin oder 30 Tage auf dem Meeresgrund; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam; Louise de Lavallière. 1920/21: Verlogene Moral; Aus dem Schwarzbuch eines Polizeikommissars. 1. Loge Nr. 11 [co-cam]; Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna. 1921: Das Schicksal der Comtessa Dolores; Der Schwur des Peter Hergatz; Der tote Gast [dir]; Die Ratten; Der Roman der Christine von Herre; Kinder der Finsternis. 1. Der Mann aus Neapel / 2. Kämpfende Welten. 1921/22: Der brennende Acker. 1922: Herzog Ferrantes Ende; Lucrezia Borgia [co-cam]. 1923: Der große Sensationsprozeß [dir, cam]; Die Austreibung; Die letzte Sensation des Zirkus Farini; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs [co-cam]. 1923/24: Michael [cam,act]. 1924: Der letzte Mann. 1925: Tartüff; Varieté [co-cam]. 1925/26: Metropolis [co-cam]. 1926: K 13 513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines [pro];
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1000 Schritte Charleston [4 parts – SD – supv]; Madame wünscht keine Kinder [pro]. 1926/27: Der Sohn der Hagar [pro]; Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [DO – coscr,cam,pro]. 1927: Doña Juana [co-cam]. 1928: Pocket Novelties [SF – dir,cam – GB]; Eine Nacht in London / A Knight in London [co-cam – DE/GB]. 1928/29: Fräulein Else [co-cam]. [cam – US] 1929/30: All Quiet on the Western Front [co-cam]. 1930: The Boudoir Diplomat [MLV]. 1930/31: Dracula [MLV]. 1931: Bad Sister; Up for Murder; Personal Maid; Strictly Dishonorable; Murders in the Rue Morgue. 1932: Scandal for Sale; Back Street; Air Mail; Afraid to Talk; The Mummy [dir]. 1933: A Kiss Before the Mirror; Moonlight and Pretzels [dir]; Madame Spy [dir]. 1933/34: The Countess of Monte Cristo [dir]. 1934: Uncertain Lady [dir]; I Give My Love [dir]; The Gift of Gab [dir]. 1935: Mad Love [dir]. 1935/36: The Great Ziegfeld. 1936: Camille. 1936/ 37: The Good Earth. 1937: Parnell; Conquest; Man-Proof. 1937/38: Port of Seven Seas. 1938: Three Comrades; Letter of Introduction. 1939: Rose of Washington Square; Golden Boy; Barricade; Balalaika [co-cam]; The Earl of Chicago; Green Hell. 1939/40: Florian. 1940: We Who Are Young; Pride and Prejudice; Comrade X; Keeping Company. 1941: Blossoms in the Dust [co-cam]; The Chocolate Soldier. 1942: Tortilla Flat; The War Against Mrs. Hadley; A Yank At Eton. 1942/43: Du Barry Was a Lady. 1943: The Cross of Lorraine; Cry Havoc; A Guy Named Joe. 1944: The Seventh Cross; The Thin Man Goes Home. 1944/45: Without Love. 1945: Dangerous Partners; A Letter for Evie. 1946: Two Smart People; Undercurrent. 1947: That Hagen Girl; This Time for Keeps. 1948: Wallflower; Key Largo; The Decision of Christopher Blake. 1948/49: South of St. Louis. 1949/50: Montana. 1950: Bright Leaf. 1951-57: I Love Lucy. [7 seasons, 179 episodes – TVS]. 1952-56: Our Miss Brooks [4 seasons, 130 episodes – TVS]. 1955: December Bride [5 seasons, 156 episodes – TVS]. 1959: Open Windows: Men and Women [TV].
WILLY FRITSCH (Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch) Born January 27, 1901, Kattowitz (Germany, now Katowice, Poland) Died July 13, 1973, Hamburg (West Germany) An audience favourite in romantic comedies and other light-hearted genres from the 1930s to the 1950s, romantic lead Fritsch exuded a blend of youthful mischievousness, charm and joie de vivre. Raised in Berlin from 1912, Fritsch held a number of jobs prior to debuting at the Großes Schauspielhaus theatre in 1919. He made his screen debut in Ludwig Czerny’s silent film operetta MISS VENUS (1921), and his first leading role, as an artist blinded during the war, followed in Benjamin Christensen’s SEINE FRAU, DIE UNBEKANNTE (His Mysterious Adventure, 1923). Subsequently, producer Erich Pommer signed him to Ufa, where he played opposite Henny Porten and Ossi Oswalda, and then ascended to star status with
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his performances as a supposed aristocrat’s son in Joe May’s DER FARMER AUS TEXAS (The Farmer from Texas, 1924/25) and as a dashing officer in Ludwig Berger’s EIN WALZERTRAUM (The Waltz Dream, 1925). He was given occasional opportunities to play against type, however, donning blackface in Johannes Guter’s DIE BOXERBRAUT (The Boxer’s Bride, 1926) and appearing under Fritz Lang’s direction as a doggedly determined special agent in SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28) and as a rocket engineer in FRAU IM MOND (Woman in the Moon, 1928/29). Fritsch’s first all-talking sound film was Hanns Schwarz’s Ufa-operetta MELODIE DES HERZENS (Melody of the Heart, 1929), after which he was paired with Lilian Harvey in Wilhelm Thiele’s seminal contributions to the genre, LIEBESWALZER (The Love Waltz, 1929/30) and DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930). He and Harvey became known as German cinema’s ‘dream couple’ and their singing duets became evergreens. Although most of the operetta-films were produced in multi language versions (MLVs), Fritsch’s lack of international appeal meant that he was replaced by French or English stars as partners of the multi-lingual Harvey. Gradually developing into a restrained character lead in subsequent years, his performances sometimes possessed an ironic edge, as in Reinhold Schünzel’s AMPHITRYON (1935), in which he played both a lecherous old Greek god and a virile young centurion, or in Paul Martin’s screwball comedy GLÜCKSKINDER (Lucky Kids, 1936). Following Harvey’s departure to France in 1939, his leading ladies included Marika Rökk and Marte Harell. After the war, Fritsch parodied his screen lover image in Rudolf Jugert’s FILM OHNE TITEL (Film Without a Name, 1947/48), and thereafter appeared primarily in lightweight entertainment pictures and Heimatfilms. His son Thomas (b. 1944) also became an actor and the two appeared together in Fritsch’s final film, Axel von Ambesser’s DAS HAB’ ICH VON PAPA GELERNT (I Learned It from Father, 1964) and on the television nostalgia show DAS GIBTS DOCH ZWEIMAL (Sometimes It Happens Twice, 1965). Fritsch published his memoirs in 1963 and received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1965. [act – DE] 1921: Miß Venus; Die kleine Midinette. Erlauschtes aus der Konfektion; Razzia; Gelbstern. 1921/22: Schande. 1922: Der Heiratsschwindler. 1922/23: Hallig Hooge. 1923: Seine Frau, die Unbekannte; Die Fahrt ins Glück. 1924: Mutter und Kind; Guillotine. 1924/25: Der Farmer aus Texas. 1925: Blitzzug der Liebe; Das Mädchen
mit der Protektion; Der Tänzer meiner Frau; Ein Walzertraum. 1925/26: Die Fahrt ins Abenteuer. 1926: Der Prinz und die Tänzerin; Die Boxerbraut; Die keusche Susanne; Die sieben Töchter der Frau Gyurkovics / Flickorna Gyurkovics [DE/SE]. 1926/27: Die selige Exzellenz. 1927: Der letzte Walzer; Die Frau im Schrank; Schuldig. 1927/28: Spione. 1928: Der Tanzstudent; Die Carmen von St. Pauli; Ungarische Rhapsodie; Ihr dunkler Punkt. 1928/29: Frau im Mond. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]; Melodie des Herzens [MLV]. 1929/30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Einbrecher [MLV]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Im Geheimdienst; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Ronny [German MLV]. 1932: Der Frechdachs [MLV]; Ein toller Einfall [MLV]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe [MLV]. 1934: Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV]; Die Insel [MLV]; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV]; Schwarze Rosen [MLV]. 1936: Boccaccio; Glückskinder [MLV]. 1936/37: Menschen ohne Vaterland. 1937: Sieben Ohrfeigen; Streit um den Knaben Jo; Gewitterflug zu Claudia. 1937/38: Zwischen den Eltern. 1938: Das Mädchen von gestern Nacht; Am seidenen Faden; Preußische Liebesgeschichte. 1938/ 39: Die Geliebte. 1939: Frau am Steuer. 1939-41: Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten. 1940: Die unvollkommene Liebe; Das leichte Mädchen; Die keusche Geliebte; Wunschkonzert. 1940/41: Dreimal Hochzeit; Anschlag auf Baku. 1941: Leichte Muse. Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt. 1941/42: Wiener Blut. 1942: Geliebte Welt. 1942/43: Liebesgeschichten. 1943: Der kleine Grenzverkehr; Die Gattin. 1943/44: Junge Adler. 1944/45: Das Leben geht weiter. 1944-46: Die Fledermaus. 1945: Die tolle Susanne. 1947/48: Film ohne Titel. 1948: Finale; Hallo – Sie haben Ihre Frau vergessen. 1949: 12 Herzen für Charly; Derby; Kätchen für alles; Schatten der Nacht. 1950: Die wunderschöne Galathee; Mädchen mit Beziehungen; König für eine Nacht. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein. 1951: Die verschleierte Maja; Grün ist die Heide; Die Dubarry; Zwei in einem Auto [AT]. 1952: Mikosch rückt ein; Ferien vom Ich; Am Brunnen vor dem Tore. 1952/53: Von Liebe reden wir später. 1953: Damenwahl; Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht. 1953/54: Ungarische Rhapsodie [MLV – DE/FR]; Par ordre du Tsar [MLV – DE/FR]. 1954: Maxie [AT]; Weg in die Vergangenheit [AT]. 1954/55: Stern von Rio [MLV – DE/IT]; Stella di Rio [MLV – DE/IT]. 1955: Drei Tage Mittelarrest; Der fröhliche Wanderer; Liebe ist ja nur ein Märchen; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV – DE/FR]. 1956: Schwarzwaldmelodie; Wo die alten Wälder rauschen; Das Donkosakenlied; Solange noch die Rosen blüh’n; Der schräge Otto. 1957: Die Beine von Dolores; Zwei Herzen im Mai. 1958: Mit Eva fing die Sünde an; Schwarzwälder Kirsch. 1959: Tunisi Top Secret / Akte Sahara – streng vertraulich [IT/DE]; Hubertusjagd. 1960: Liebling der Götter; Wenn die Heide blüht. 1961: The Playgirls and the Bellboy [US/DE]; Was macht Papa denn in Italien?; Isola Bella. 1963/64: Jazz und Jux in Heidelberg. 1964: Der Himmel kann warten [TV – AT]; Das hab’ ich von
GERT FRÖBE
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Papa gelernt [DE/AT]. 1965: Das gibt’s doch zweimal [TV]. 1967: Andere Zeiten – andere Sitten [TV]. 1969: Star unter Sternen. 4. Begegnung mit Willy Fritsch [TVD].
BANG BANG (1968), again based on an Ian Fleming novel, and Ken Annakin’s THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES (1964). Other credits include Luchino Visconti’s LUDWIG (1972) and Ingmar Bergman’s THE SERPENT’S EGG
GERT FRÖBE (Karl-Gerhart Fröbe) Born February 25, 1913, Planitz (Germany) Died September 5, 1988, Munich-Großhadern (West Germany) Best known to international audiences as James Bond’s nemesis Goldfinger, character actor Fröbe appeared in over one hundred German and international productions during a forty-year film and television career. A talented violinist, Fröbe played solo on radio and at dance events while still at school, before studying stage design at Dresden’s Staatstheater. Also taking acting lessons, he went on to appear at the Städtische Bühnen theatres in Wuppertal, Frankfurt/Main, and Vienna’s Volkstheater, during which time he made his screen debut in a short information film. He also played an illiterate farmer in Eduard von Borsody’s DIE KREUZLSCHREIBER (Signed With an X, 1944/45), although the film was not released until 1950. After the war, a then undernourished and rake-thin Fröbe undertook recitals, as well as performing in mime plays and cabaret in Munich, before being cast in the lead role of a gullible returning soldier and everyman in Robert A. Stemmle’s BERLINER BALLADE (The Ballad of Berlin, 1948). He thereafter worked predominately as a juggler and parodist at circuses and variety theatres until Jules Dassin rediscovered him in the late 1950s, leading to various supporting roles in French films. Having developed a portly figure and commanding air in the interim, Fröbe now took a wide array of parts in West German productions as well, including slavedriver Mr. Gillis in Josef von Báky’s ROBINSON SOLL NICHT STERBEN (The Girl and the Legend, 1956/57); a capitalist riding high on the profits of the economic miracle in Rolf Thiele’s DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958); a child murderer in Ladislao Vajda’s ES GESCHAH AM HELLICHTEN TAG (It Happened in Broad Daylight, 1958); as well as police superintendent Lohmann in Dr. Mabuse films at Artur Brauner’s CCC. His character lead as the lovable rogue in Axel von Ambesser’s DER GAUNER UND DER LIEBE GOTT (The Crook and the Cross, 1960) earned him a Silver Bear, in addition to an Ernst Lubitsch Award and accolades from the San Sebastián and Acapulco Film Festivals. After gaining worldwide notoriety in Guy Hamilton’s GOLDFINGER (1964), Fröbe appeared in other 1960s classics such as Ken Hughes’s CHITTY CHITTY
(1976/77), while he played the title villain in Gustav Ehmck’s children’s film DER RÄUBER HOTZENPLOTZ (Robber Hotzenplotz, 1973/74), and appeared opposite Elisabeth Bergner in Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s made-for-television golden years love story DER GARTEN (The Garden, 1982). His last role was a centenarian in the final episode of long-running medical soap DIE SCHWARZWALDKLINIK (Black Forest Clinic, 1987/88), broadcast six months after his death. He was awarded the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1978. [act – DE] 1940: Die Historie der Puppe [SD]; Wagen Nr. 1 kämpft sich seinen Weg [SD]. 1944/45: Die Kreuzlschreiber. 1948: Der Herr vom andern Stern; Berliner Ballade. 1949: Nach Regen scheint Sonne. 1952: Der Tag vor der Hochzeit. 1952/53: Man on a Tightrope [US]. 1953: Salto mortale; Ein Herz spielt falsch; Die vertagte Hochzeitsnacht; Arlette erobert Paris; Hochzeit auf Reisen; Die kleine Stadt will schlafen gehen. 1954: Morgengrauen; Das Kreuz am Jägersteig; Double Destin / Das zweite Leben [FR/DE]; Mannequins für Rio / They Were So Young [MLV – DE/US]; Ewiger Walzer. 1954/55: Confidential Report / Dossier secret / Mister Arkadin [US/FR/ES]; Vom Himmel gefallen [MLV]; Special Delivery [MLV – DE/US]; Mr. Arkadin [Spanish MLV – ES/CH]. 1955: Der dunkle Stern; Ich weiß, wofür ich lebe; Les héros sont fatigués / Die Helden sind müde [FR/DE]; Das Forsthaus in Tirol. 1955/56: Ein Mädchen aus Flandern; Ein Herz schlägt für Erika. 1956: Waldwinter; Typhon sur Nagasaki / Wasureenu bojo [FR/JP]. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben; Celui qui doit mourir / Colui che deve morire [FR/IT]. 1957: Der tolle Bomberg; Das Herz von St. Pauli; Charmants garçons [FR]; Échec au porteur [FR]. 1958: Nasser Asphalt; Es geschah am hellichten Tag / El cebo [CH/DE]; Grabenplatz 17; Das Mädchen Rosemarie; Der Pauker; Das Mädchen mit den Katzenaugen; Nick Knattertons Abenteuer; I battellieri del Volga / Les bateliers de la Volga [IT/FR]. 1959: Douze heures d’horloge / Ihr Verbrechen war Liebe [FR/DE]; Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Jons und Erdme / La donna dell’altro [DE/IT]; … und ewig singen die Wälder [AT]; Am Tag, als der Regen kam; Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee; Alt-Heidelberg. 1959/60: Das kunstseidene Mädchen / La gran vita / La grande vie [DE/IT/FR]. 1960: Le bois des amants / Il bosco degli amanti [FR/IT]; Soldatensender Calais; Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / Il diabolico Dr. Mabuse / Le diabolique docteur Mabuse [DE/IT/FR]; Bis daß das Geld euch scheidet …; Der Gauner und der liebe Gott. 1960/61: Der grüne Bogenschütze. 1961: Via Mala; Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse / Le retour du Docteur Mabuse / F.B.I. contro Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]; Auf Wiedersehn. 1961/62: The Longest Day [US]. 1962: Die Rote / La rossa
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[DE/IT]; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse; Heute kündigt mir mein Mann. 1962/63: Le meurtrier / Der Mörder / L’omicida [FR/DE/IT]; Die Dreigroschenoper / L’Opéra de quat’sous [DE/FR]. 1963: Peau de banane / Buccia di banana [FR/IT]; 100.000 dollars au soleil / 100.000 dollari al sole [FR/IT]. 1964: Échappement libre / A escape libre / Scappamento aperto [FR/ES/IT]; Goldfinger [GB]; Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines [GB]; Tonio Kröger. 1964/65: A High Wind in Jamaica [GB]. 1965: Das Liebeskarussell [AT]; Paris brûle-t-il? / Is Paris Burning? [FR/US]. 1965/66: Du Rififi à Paname / Rififi Internazionale / Rififi in Paris [FR/IT/DE]; Ganovenehre. 1966: Triple Cross / La fantastique histoire vraie d’Eddie Chapman [GB/FR]. 1966/67: Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon [GB]; J’ai tué Raspoutine / Addio Lara! [FR/IT]. 1967/68: Caroline chérie / Caroline chérie / Caroline chérie – Schön wie die Sünde [FR/IT/DE]. 1968: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [GB]. 1968/69: Gonflés à bloc / Quei temperari sulle loro pazze, scatenate, scalcinate carriole [FR/IT]. 1969: Stars unter Sternen. Friedrich Luft im Gespräch mit Gert Fröbe [TVD]. 1971: $ [US]. 1972: Ludwig / Ludwig … ou le crépuscule des dieux / Ludwig II. [IT/FR/DE]. 1972/73: Morgenstern am Abend [TV]. 1973/74: Der Räuber Hotzenplotz. 1974: And Then There Were None / Ein Unbekannter rechnet ab / Dix petits nègres / Diez negritos / … E poi, non ne rimase nessuno [GB/ DE/FR/ES/IT]; Nuits rouges. L’Homme sans visage [FR/IT]. 1975: Docteur Justice [FR/ES]; Mein Onkel Theodor oder Wie man im Schlaf viel Geld verdient; Alte Hüte aus Wien [TV]. 1976: Les magiciens / Die Schuldigen mit den sauberen Händen / Profezia di un delitto [FR/DE/IT]; Sonntagsgeschichten [TV]. 1976/77: Das Gesetz des Clans; Das Schlangenei / The Serpent’s Egg [DE/US]. 1977: Tod oder Freiheit; ‘Als wär’s heut’ gewesen …’ [TV]. 1977/78: Der Schimmelreiter; Der Tiefstapler. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper [TV]; Bloodline / Blutspur [US/DE]. 1979/80: Peter Frankenfeld [TVD]. 1980: Le coup du parapluie [FR]; Das kleine Kino an der Ecke [TV]. 1980/81: Banoviæ Strahinja / Der Falke [YU/DE]. 1981: Ein sturer Bock [TV – DE/AT]; Parcelle brilliante [TV – FR]. 1982: Der Garten [TV]; Der Raub der Sabinerinnen [TV]. 1983: August der Starke [TV]. 1984: Alte Sünden rosten nicht [TV]. 1985: Der kleine Vampir [TVS – DE/CA/GB]. 1987/88: Auf ein Neues … Gert Fröbe erzählt aus seinem Leben [TVD]; Showgeschichten [TVD]; Die Schwarzwaldklinik: Hochzeit mit Hindernissen [TV].
CORNELIA FROBOESS Born October 28, 1943, Wrietzen an der Oder (Germany) West Germany’s first child star after World War II, Froboess gained a greater following still as a teenage pop sensation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before embarking on her third career as a serious character actress on stage and screen. When the daughter of film-soundman and musician Gerhard Froboess (1906–1976), billed as ‘Little Cornelia’, sang in 1951 her father’s song ‘Pack die Badehose ein’ (Get ready for a swim) on Berlin radio station RIAS it became an instant hit and made her a
star. She began her film-career in Robert A. Stemmle’s SÜNDIGE GRENZE (Sinful Border, 1951). She subsequently appeared in hit musicals such as AN JEDEM FINGER ZEHN (Ten to Each Finger, 1954), GROSSE STAR-PARADE (Big Hit Parade, 1954) and LASS DIE SONNE WIEDER SCHEINEN (Let the Sun Shine Again, 1955). In 1958, she was remarketed as a teen idol, now called ‘Conny’, by producer Nils Nobach, and scored hits with cover versions of Paul Anka’s ‘Diana’ and ‘I Love You, Baby’. She repeatedly entered the Top Ten performing duets with male singing partners including Peter Kraus, Rex Gildo and Peter Alexander. Many of these songs came from their films together, such as Fritz Umgelter’s WENN DIE CONNY MIT DEM PETER … (When Conny and Peter …, 1958), Heinz Paul’s HULA-HOPP, CONNY (1958/59) or Hanns Grimm’s JA, SO EIN MÄDCHEN MIT 16 (A Girl of Sweet Sixteen, 1959). From 1961 onwards she attempted to establish a more mature persona in films such as Helmut Käutner’s DER TRAUM VON LIESCHEN MÜLLER (The Dream of Miss Average), and she also appeared in international productions, such as Jean Renoir’s LE CAPORAL ÉPINGLE (The Elusive Corporal, 1961). Froboess simultaneously launched a bid to become a serious stage actress. She debuted at Salzburg’s Landestheater in 1963, and her naturalistic style soon won over previously sceptical critics. When theatre manager Hellmuth Matiasek relocated to Brunswick’s Staatstheater in 1965, he took Froboess with him (the pair subsequently married in 1967). Largely concentrating on stage and television work during the 1970s, she made a big screen comeback in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (Veronika Voss, 1981/82). Between 1984 and 1994 she toured extensively on stage as Eliza Doolittle in ‘My Fair Lady’, while appearing occasionally in films such as Hans-Christoph Blumenberg’s DER SOMMER DES SAMURAI (The Summer of the Samurai, 1985/86). From the 1990s, Froboess often portrayed mothers or grandmothers of central characters in films such as Thomas Jahn’s KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR (1996) and Joachim Masannek’s DIE WILDEN KERLE (The Wild Soccer Bunch, 2003). On television, she has been a series regular on medical drama PRAXIS BÜLOWBOGEN (Buelowbogen General Practice) from 1991 to 1995, and picking up best television actress awards for her leads in Peter Keglevic’s TAG DER ABRECHNUNG – DER AMOKLÄUFER VON EUSKIRCHEN (Judgment Day, 1994) and Matti Geschonnek’s ANGST HAT EINE KALTE HAND (The
Cold Hand of Fear, 1995). [act – DE] 1951: Sündige Grenze. 1952: Drei Tage Angst; Ideale Frau gesucht [AT]. 1954: Große Star-Parade; An je-
CARL FROELICH dem Finger zehn. 1955: Laß die Sonne wieder scheinen. 1958: Der lachende Vagabund; Wenn die Conny mit dem Peter … Teenager-Melodie. 1958/59: Hula-Hopp, Conny. 1959: Wenn das mein großer Bruder wüßte! [AT]; Ja, so ein Mädchen mit 16. 1960: Meine Nichte tut das nicht [AT]; Conny und Peter machen Musik; Schlager-Raketen; Mein Mann, das Wirtschaftswunder. 1961: Junge Leute brauchen Liebe [AT]; Mariandl [AT]; Der Traum von Lieschen Müller; Le caporal épinglé [FR]. 1962: Der Vogelhändler; Mariandls Heimkehr [AT]; Sein bester Freund. 1962/63: Sophienlund [TV]. 1963: Der Musterknabe [AT]; Ist Geraldine ein Engel? [AT]. 1964: Hilfe, meine Braut klaut [AT/DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1965: Wahn – oder der Teufel in Boston; Ein Wintermärchen. 1965/66: Bei Pfeiffers ist Ball. 1966: Wo wir fröhlich gewesen sind. 1967: Im Ballhaus ist Musike; Rheinsberg [FF]. 1967/68: Mathilde Möhring. 1968: Im Ballhaus wird geschwoft. 1968/69: Die Wilde. 1969: Der Bürger als Edelmann [AT/DE]; Konzert am Mittag: Musik und Dichtung. 1970-74: Der schwarze Graf [TVS]. 1971: Der Wald [AT]; Der Kommissar: Der Tod des Herrn Kurusch. 1972: Weh’ dem, der lügt [AT]. 1973: Crazy – total verrückt [FF]; Fernsehverweigerung; ‘Horch, Sie leben’. 1973/74: Am 35. Mai muß der Mensch auf das Äußerste gefasst sein [AT/DE]. 1974: Auguste Bolte; Hallo Peter!; Polly oder Die Bataille am Bluewater Creek; Glückliche Reise; Zwischen den Jahren. 1974/75: Lieben Sie Kishon? [TVS]. 1975: Beschlossen und verkündet [TVS]; Musik ist Trumpf [DE/AT/CH]; Zwischen den Jahren. 1975/76: Liebe mit 50; Die Story. 1976: Hallo Peter! 1976: Die Reportage. 1977: Derrick: Via Bangkok; Polizeiinspektion 1: Keine besonderen Vorkomnisse. 1978: Geschichte einer Liebe; Derrick: Ute und Manuela. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper; Balthasar im Stau. 1980: Der Alte: Mord nach Plan. 1980/81: Das Käthchen von Heilbronn oder Die Feuerprobe. 1981: Sagen Sie doch Lill zu mir; Derrick: Eine Falle für Derrick; Der Regenmacher. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss [FF]. 1982/83: Ein Fall für zwei: Das Opfer. 1983/84: Kaltes Fieber [FF]. 1984: Klotz am Bein. 1985: Shakespeare 1984 [TVD]. 1985/86: Der Sommer des Samurai [FF]. 1986: Lorenzaccio. 1987: Was Ihr wollt; Der einsame Weg [AT]. 1987/88: Faust [FF]. 1988: Derrick: Das Ende einer Illusion. 1989: Derrick: Des Menschen Feind. 1990: Drehort Pfarrhaus; Die Frau vom Meer. 1991: Der Alte: Kälter als der Tod; Praxis Bülowbogen [season 3, 20 episodes – TVS]. 1992: Das Geheimnis des Glücks. Cornelia Froboess und Hellmuth Matiasek [TVD]. 1993: Derrick: Nach acht langen Jahren. 1994: Alles außer Mord: Wer Gewalt sät …; 1945 [AT]; Helmut Griem – Ein deutscher Hamlet [TVD]; Tag der Abrechnung – Der Amokläufer von Euskirchen; Die Männer vom K3: Keine Chance zu gewinnen. 1994/95: Praxis Bülowbogen [season 4, 15 episodes – TVS]. 1995: Angst hat eine kalte Hand; Fesseln; Der Sohn des Babymachers. 1996: Kommissar Rex: Annas Geheimnis; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door [FF]. 1996/97: Koerbers Akte: Kleines Mädchen – großes Geld. 1997: Koerbers Akte: Tödliches Ultimatum; Wolffs Revier: Clever und tot. 1999/2000: Polizeiruf 110: Totenstille. 2000: Mein Bruder, der Idiot; Tatort: Mord am Fluß; Hirnschal gegen Hitler. Der satirische Ätherkrieg der BBC [TVD]. 2000/01:
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Anwalt Abel – Salut, Abel! 2003: Die Wilden Kerle – Alles ist gut, solange du wild bist! [FF]; Nicht zu verkaufen! [FF – AT/CH]; Stärker als der Tod. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD]. 2005: Höchstpersönlich: Cornelia Froboess [TVD].
CARL FROELICH (Carl August Hugo Froelich) Born September 5, 1875, Berlin (Germany) Died February 12, 1953, Berlin (West Germany) Considered one of Germany’s most dependable directors of melodrama and comedy during the 1920s and 1930s, Carl Froelich was referred to by colleagues as ‘the old hand’ due to his lengthy career in the industry. After studying electrical engineering at Darmstadt’s Technical College, he started out at Siemens in Berlin before joining Oskar Messter’s company – the foremost maker of cinema apparatus at the time – in 1903. Helping to instigate technological developments such as the Tonbild system (allowing short musical films to be shown with synchronised gramophone accompaniment), Froelich additionally worked as a cameraman on scientific documentaries, actuality and fiction films, and Tonbilder including Henny Porten’s debut in MEISSNER PORZELLAN (Meissen Porcelain, 1906). He also undertook sporadic directing work, e.g. codirecting the biopic RICHARD WAGNER (The Life and Works of Richard Wagner, 1913) together with William Wauer. He then served as one of the company’s newsreel cameramen at the front during World War I. From 1919 to 1921, he was a director both at MaximFilm and Decla-Bioscop, where his films included the Asta Nielsen picture IRRENDE SEELEN (Souls in the Mire, 1921); and in 1920 he founded his own Berlin-based production company, Froelich-Film GmbH (known for short as FFG). Following the success of his Henny Porten film MUTTER UND KIND (Mother and Child, 1924), the latter was superseded by Henny Porten-Froelich Produktion GmbH, which produced some fifteen vehicles for the star under Froelich’s direction. When the two parted ways in 1929, FFG resumed production with the early sound film DIE NACHT GEHÖRT UNS (The Night Is Ours, 1929) starring Hans Albers. The company had its own sound studio in Berlin-Tempelhof near the Ufa lot, and also produced other directors’ works, including Leontine Sagan’s MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1931), on which Froelich served as artistic director, as well as Germany’s first colour fiction film short, DAS SCHÖNHEITSFLECKCHEN (The Beauty Spot, 1936), directed by Froelich’s long-term assistant Rolf Hansen.
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GUSTAV FRÖHLICH
Closely affiliated with Ufa, Froelich produced and directed a succession of entertainment pictures such as the rural farce KRACH UM JOLANTHE (What a To-Do!, 1934); the award-winning TRAUMULUS (The Dreamer, 1935) starring Emil Jannings; numerous Zarah Leander melodramas including HEIMAT (Homeland, 1938), ES WAR EINE RAUSCHENDE BALLNACHT (One Enchanted Evening / The Life and Loves of Tchaikovsky, 1939) and DAS HERZ DER KÖNIGIN (Mary, Queen of Scots / The Heart of a Queen, 1939/40); as well as the comedy DIE 4 GESELLEN (The Four Companions, 1938), featuring a young Ingrid Bergman; and the nostalgic Henny Porten two-parter FAMILIE BUCHHOLZ (The Buchholz Family) and NEIGUNGSEHE (Love Marriage, both 1943/44). A Nazi party member since 1933, Froelich was appointed head of the Gesamtverband der Filmherstellung und Filmverwertung (Association of Film Producers and Distributors) the same year, and from 1934 made works for the regime’s propaganda section. He was later given a professorship and in 1939 became president of the Reichsfilmkammer (Reich Film Chamber). Imprisoned after the war, he was declared ‘denazified’ in 1948, and in 1950/51 his newly-licensed Froelich-Film GmbH produced three films that failed to cause a ripple. Shortly before his death, he was made honorary president of the West German industry’s trade body SPIO on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary in the business. [cam – DE] 1906: Meißner Porzellan. 1908: Berliner Hochbahnkatastrophe vom 26.9.1908 [SD]. 1910: Japanisches Opfer. 1911: Das gefährliche Alter; Tragödie eines Streiks; Ein Fehltritt; Die Großstadt bei Nacht, wie sie weint und lacht; Adressatin verstorben. 1911/12: Ein Leben. 1912: Sonnenfinsternis am 17.4.1912 [DO]; Schatten des Lebens; Ein Ehrenwort; Maskenscherz; Die Toten schweigen; Einer Mutter Opfer; Teuer erkauftes Glück; Die Königin der Nacht; Um Haaresbreite; Jung und Alt; Kämpfende Herzen; Der Schatten des Meeres; Erloschenes Licht; Des Pfarrers Töchterlein; Problematische Naturen [dir,cam,des]; Das Opfer; Zu spät [dir,cam]. 1912/13: Ihr guter Ruf. 1913: Eva; Richard Wagner [co-dir,cam]; Der Feind im Land; Schuldig; Der wankende Glaube; Komtesse Ursel; Der Weg des Lebens; Ihre Hoheit; Um das Glück betrogen. 1913/14: Tirol in Waffen [dir,cam,des]; Das Tal des Traumes; Bergnacht. 1914: Die große Sünderin; Erstarrte Liebe [dir,cam]. [dir – DE] 1914/15: Fürst Seppl. 1915: Nur nicht heiraten; Musketier Kaczmarek. 1915/16: Der Schirm mit dem Schwan. 1916: Werner Krafft. Der Maschinenbauer. 1916/17: Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach [co-scr]. 1917/18: Die Kunst zu heiraten [scr]. 1918: Der Rubinsalamander [scr]; Ikarus, der fliegende Mensch. 1919: Unschuldige Sünderin [scr]; Die Verführten [dir,co-scr]; Arme Thea [dir,scr]; Die Liebschaften der Käthe Keller; Der Tänzer
[2 parts – dir,co-scr]; Der Klapperstorchverband [dir,coscr]. 1920: Die Brüder Karamasoff; Toteninsel [dir,co-scr, act]; Die Kwannon von Okadera. 1921: Irrende Seelen (Sklaven der Sinne) [dir,co-scr]; Im Banne der Kralle [dir, pro – AT]. 1921/22: Der Taugenichts [dir,co-scr,pro]. [dir,pro – DE] 1922: Luise Millerin. 1922/23: Der Schatz [pro]. 1923: Der Wetterwart. 1924: Mutter und Kind. 1924/25: Kammermusik. 1925: Um ein Haar; Das Abenteuer der Sibylle Brant; Tragödie. 1925/26: Rosen aus dem Süden. 1926: Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen …! [dir,co-scr, pro]; Die Flammen lügen; Violantha [DE/CH]. 1926/27: Meine Tante – Deine Tante. 1927: Die große Pause. 1927/ 28: Liebe und Diebe. 1928: Lotte; Zuflucht; Liebe im Kuhstall; Liebfraumilch. 1928/29: Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist Du! 1929: Die Nacht gehört uns [MLV]; La nuit est à nous [MLV]. 1930: Brand in der Oper [MLV]; Barcarolle d’amour [MLV – co-dir,pro]; Hans in allen Gassen [MLV]; La folle aventure [MLV]; Les amours de minuit [MLV – pro – FR]. 1930/31: Mitternachtsliebe [MLV – co-dir,pro – FR/ DE]. 1931: Mädchen in Uniform [pro]; Luise, Königin von Preußen [dir]. 1932: Gitta entdeckt ihr Herz; Die – oder keine; Mieter Schulze gegen Alle; Diva in Vertretung [SF – pro]; Liebe auf den ersten Ton; Ein Griff in die Mottenkiste [SD – pro]. 1932/33: Der Choral von Leuthen; Wintersport mit Hindernissen [SD – pro]. 1933: Reifende Jugend; Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz [pro]; Volldampf voraus! [dir,scr,pro]; Was unsere lieben Kinobesucher nicht zu sehen bekommen [SD – pro]; Schlagerpartie [SF]. 1933/34: Der Kuckuck am Steuer [SF – pro]. 1934: Frühlingsmärchen; Krach um Jolanthe; Ich für Dich – Du für mich; Oberwachtmeister Schwenke. 1934/35: Der Traum vom großen Los [SF – pro]. 1935: Lärm um Weidemann [pro]; Liselotte von der Pfalz. Frauen um den Sonnenkönig [dir,co-scr,pro]; Ich war Jack Mortimer; Traumulus. 1935/36: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen [pro]; Wenn der Hahn kräht. 1936: Das Schönheitsfleckchen [SF – scr,supv,pro]; Wenn wir alle Engel wären! 1937: Die ganz großen Torheiten; Gabriele eins, zwei, drei [pro]; Die Umwege des schönen Karl. 1938: Heimat; Carmen la de Triána [MLV – pro]; Andalusische Nächte [MLV – pro]; Die 4 Gesellen; Das Leben kann so schön sein [pro]. 1939: Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht; Sommer, Sonne, Erika [pro]. 1939/40: Das Herz der Königin. 1940/ 41: Der Weg ins Freie [pro]; Der Gasmann. 1941/42: Hochzeit auf Bärenhof. 1943/44: Familie Buchholz; Neigungsehe. 1950: Drei Mädchen spinnen. 1951: Stips [dir,ide, pro]; Torreani [pro].
GUSTAV FRÖHLICH (Gustav Friedrich Fröhlich) Born March 21, 1902, Hanover (Germany) Died December 22, 1987, Lugano (Switzerland) Most familiar to international audiences as the hero of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/26), Fröhlich was a popular leading man in German cinema from the 1920s through to the 1950s. After serving as a volunteer at the army’s press monitoring post in occupied Brussels from 1916, Fröhlich began an apprenticeship with a newspaper in Celle,
GUSTAV FRÖHLICH
before undertaking appearances in variety and as a cinema lecturer. He then took acting lessons and spent a couple of years in repertory and at provincial theatres prior to arriving in Berlin in 1921. His screen debut was playing Franz Liszt in Heinz Goldberg’s PAGANINI (1922/23). His breakthrough followed in METROPOLIS, after which he took leads in two films by Joe May, as a policeman seduced by a jewel thief played by Betty Amann in ASPHALT (1928/29), and opposite Dita Parlo in HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1928). He and Parlo travelled to Hollywood in 1930 to star in German-language versions of Warner Bros. multi-language productions directed by Berthold Viertel and Wilhelm/William Dieterle. Back in Germany, he attained his greatest popularity playing dashing officers in films such as Géza von Bolváry’s LIEBESKOMMANDO (Love’s Command, 1931) as well as in his own first two films as director, RAKOCZY-MARSCH (Rakoczi March, 1933) and ABENTEUER EINES JUNGEN HERRN IN POLEN
(Love and Alarum, 1934). His kindly and agreeable performance as OBERWACHTMEISTER SCHWENKE (Police Sergeant Schwenke, 1934), directed by Carl Froelich, similarly proved a box-office hit. Fröhlich’s career was not stalled even by his coming to blows with Goebbels over their shared lover, the Czech actress Lída Baarová, in 1935; although the propaganda minister did briefly have him conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1940. In the early post-war years, Fröhlich again worked as director on the films WEGE IM ZWIELICHT (Paths in Twilight, 1947/48), DER BAGNOSTRÄFLING (The Prisoner, 1949) and DIE LÜGE (The Lie, 1950), while starring as a dying painter in Willi Forst’s succès de scandale DIE SÜNDERIN (The Story of a Sinner, 1950) and as a cab driver under suspicion of murder in the Austrian-American noir ABENTEUER IN WIEN (Stolen Identity, 1952). He also undertook theatre work in Munich in 1946, and then joined Gustaf Gründgens’s ensemble at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus theatre until 1953. Thereafter he made guest appearances at stage festivals and popular playhouses, and could occasionally be seen on television. Fröhlich received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1973, and published a self-aggrandising autobiography in 1983. [act – DE] 1922: Ein neues Leben / De Bruut [DE/NL]. 1922/ 23: Paganini. 1924/25: Die Frau mit dem schlechten Ruf. 1925: Schiff in Not; Friesenblut. 1925/26: Metropolis. 1926: Die Frau, die nicht ‘Nein’ sagen kann. 1926/27: Die leichte Isabell; Der Meister von Nürnberg. 1927: Jugendrausch; Gehetzte Frauen; Ihr letztes Liebesabenteuer; Die Pflicht zu schweigen; Die elf Teufel; Jahrmarkt des Lebens; Schwere Jungens – leichte Mädchen. 1927/28: Wenn die
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Schwalben heimwärts ziehen. Der Fremdenlegionär; Die Rothausgasse. 1928: Heimkehr; Angst. Die schwache Stunde einer Frau; Hurrah! Ich lebe! 1928/29: Das brennende Herz; Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse. 1929: Hochverrat. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]. 1930: Brand in der Oper [MLV]; Zwei Menschen; Liebeslied [MLV – IT]. 1930/31: Kismet [MLV – US]; Die heilige Flamme [MLV – US/DE]. 1931: Voruntersuchung [MLV]; Wir schalten um auf Hollywood [MLV – US]; So lang’ noch ein Walzer von Strauß erklingt; Gloria [German MLV]; Liebeskommando; Mein Leopold. 1931/32: Unter falscher Flagge. 1932: Die verliebte Firma; Gitta entdeckt ihr Herz; Ein Lied, ein Kuß, ein Mädel; Ich will nicht wissen, wer Du bist; Ein Mann mit Herz. 1933: Was Frauen träumen; Die Nacht der grossen Liebe; Sonnenstrahl [MLV – AT]; Rund um eine Million [MLV – FR]; Gardez le sourire [MLV – AT]; Rákóczi induló [MLV – HU/AT]; Rakoczy-Marsch [MLV – co-dir,act – HU/AT]. 1933/34: Der Flüchtling aus Chicago. 1934: Abenteuer eines jungen Herrn in Polen [dir,act]; Oberwachtmeister Schwenke. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV]. 1935: Nacht der Verwandlung; Stradivari [MLV]; Leutnant Bobby, der Teufelskerl [AT]; Liebesleute; Es flüstert die Liebe [AT/HU]. 1935/36: Die Entführung; Die unmögliche Frau. 1936: Die Stunde der Versuchung; Inkognito; Stadt Anatol [MLV]; Gleisdreieck. 1937: Alarm in Peking; Gabriele eins, zwei, drei. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne; Die kleine und die große Liebe. 1938: Frau Sixta; In geheimer Mission. 1939: Adieu Vienne [FR]; Renate im Quartett; Alarm auf Station III. 1939/40: Ihr Privatsekretär; Alles Schwindel. 1940: Herz modern möbliert; Herz geht vor Anker. 194042: Der große König. 1941: Clarissa; Sechs Tage Heimaturlaub. 1942: Mit den Augen einer Frau. 1942/43: Tolle Nacht. 1943/44: Familie Buchholz; Neigungsehe; Der große Preis; Das Konzert. 1944/45: Eine alltägliche Geschichte; Leb’ wohl, Christina! [dir,co-scr]; Der große Fall. 1946: Sag die Wahrheit. 1947/48: Wege im Zwielicht [dir, act]. 1948: Das verlorene Gesicht. 1948/49: Diese Nacht vergeß’ ich nie [ide,act]. 1949: Der Bagnosträfling [dir,scr]. 1949/50: Dieser Mann gehört mir. 1950: Die Lüge [dir, scr]; Die Sünderin. 1951: Stips; Torreani [dir,act]. 1952: Abenteuer in Wien [AT]; Haus des Lebens. 1952/53: Ehe für eine Nacht; Von Liebe reden wir später. 1953: Die kleine Stadt will schlafen gehen. 1954: Rosen aus dem Süden; Ball der Nationen. 1955: Seine Tochter ist der Peter [dir, co-scr – AT]. 1956: Der erste Frühlingstag; Vergiß, wenn Du kannst [DE/AT]. 1960: … und keiner schämte sich. 1961: Der neue Talar [TV]. 1963: Das Kriminalmuseum: Frau im Nerz [TV]; Die Dubarry [TV]. 1966/67: Premieren von gestern [TVD]. 1968: Laubenkolonie [TV]. 1976: Der lachende Apfel [TV]. 1980/81: Die Laurents [3 episodes – TVS]. 1981: Schicht in Weiß: Der Flaschenteufel [TV]; Pommi Stern [TV]. 1982: Die schönsten Melodien der Welt [TV – DE/CH]; Komödianten [TVD]. 1983: Rummelplatzgeschichten [TVS]. 1984: Treffpunkt mit Gustav Fröhlich [TVD]; Jud Süß. Veit Harlans Film und das deutsche Gewissen [TVD].
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KURT FRÜH Born April 12, 1915, St. Gallen (Switzerland) Died March 24, 1979, Boswil (Switzerland) Swiss filmmaker Früh is celebrated for the emotional intensity of his local dialect dramas, which comprise both idyllic comedies and tragic character studies. The son of a postal worker, Früh played children’s roles at St. Gallen’s Stadtheater before starting high school in Zurich, where he became involved in left-wing political causes. He attended five semesters of university courses in literature and music theory, and then joined a Marxist student group and came into contact with the communist-affiliated Volksbühne theatre. Working as actor, playwright, director and ultimately manager between 1933 and 1939, he staged plays by Brecht, adapted works by Walter Mehring and Kurt Tucholsky, and wrote agitprop plays and anti-fascist sketches. He later worked in a similar capacity at other theatres, including Erika Mann’s Die Pfeffermühle cabaret and Bern’s Bühne Bärentatze, of which he was co-founder. Früh was also employed directing industrial films, documentaries and commercials at Zurich’s CentralFilm AG from 1936, and following the outbreak of war in 1939 was entrusted with producing Swiss newsreels in Geneva, which he edited, scripted and narrated. After 1945, he served as assistant director on Leopold Lindtberg’s features MATTO REGIERT (Madness Rules, 1946/47), SWISS TOUR (Four Days Leave, 1949) and DIE VIER IM JEEP (Four in a Jeep, 1950/51). His own feature debut was POLIZISCHT WÄCKERLI (Police Officer Waeckerli, 1955), a breezy small-town comedy adapted from the popular radio plays by Schaggi Streuli, whose works likewise provided the basis for Früh’s upbeat OBERSTADTGASS (Uptown, 1956). BÄCKEREI ZÜRRER (Zuerrer’s Bakery, 1957) starring Emil Hegetschweiler, succeeded in a warts-andall neorealist depiction of lower middle-class life in Zurich that went on to receive the city’s municipal award. Subsequent projects were either scuppered by the unavailability of funding or else, like his afterhours drama CAFÉ ODEON (1958/59), substantially toned down while in pre-production. Nevertheless, his vagrancy comedy HINTER DEN SIEBEN GLEISEN (Behind the Seven Tracks, 1959) starring Max Haufler stood out on account of its self-reflective structure and use of musical numbers and Brechtian alienation effects, even if it offered a sanitised depiction of life on the streets. Working chiefly in television in the 1960s, Früh became director general of broadcaster DRS’s television section in 1964. From 1967 to 1969, he taught film at Zurich’s Kunstgewerbeschule (College of Art and De-
sign) where his students included Markus Imhoof and Clemens Klopfenstein. He was also active in theatre and radio during these years, before making two final films that are now considered classics signalling the beginning of German-speaking New Swiss Cinema. DÄLLEBACH KARI (1970) focussed on a Bern hairdresser’s increasing isolation on account of his own stubbornness, while DER FALL (The Fall, 1971/72) charted the decline of a down-on-his-luck private detective. Despite receiving glowing reviews, both films were commercial disasters, and Früh was never again able to obtain grant money for further projects. [dir – CH] 1937/38: Hans im Glück [SF – ass-dir]. 1938: Menschen und Maschinen [SD – co-dir]; Die Eroberung des Himmels [SF – ass-dir]; Füsilier Wipf [snd]. 1939: Der schönste Tag meines Lebens [SF – co-scr]; Hände wollen Arbeit [SD]; Kermesse blanche [SD]. 1940: Mein Traum [dir,co-scr]. 1942: Le drapeau de l’humanité [SD – co-scr]. 1943: Ein Weg bleibt offen [SD]. 1945: Prisonniers de guerre [SD – dir,co-scr,cut]. 1946/47: Matto regiert [assdir]. 1949: Wer mit der Zeit geht [SF]; Entendons-nous, tout ira mieux [SF MLV – co-dir,co-scr]; Mitenand gahts besser [SF MLV – co-dir,co-scr]; Swiss Tour [ass-dir]; Demokratie in Gefahr [SF – dir,co-scr]. 1950/51: Die Vier im Jeep [ass-dir]. 1951: Fliegt Ballone! [SF]. 1952: Ein Lied vom Reisen [SF – dir,scr]. 1952/53: Unser Dorf / The Village [ass-dir,co-scr – CH/GB]. 1954: Der Prozess der Zwanzigtausend [dir,scr]; Landarzt Dr. Hilfiker heiratet [SF – dir, co-scr]. 1955: Von der Kunst des Brauens [SD]; Polizischt Wäckerli [dir,co-scr]; Souvenirs [SF – scr]. 1955/56: Gegen den Strom [co-scr]. 1956: Die weite Welt [SF]; Oberstadtgass [dir,co-scr]. 1957: Spalebärg 77 A [SF – co-scr,supv]; Bäckerei Zürrer [dir,co-scr,lyr]. 1958: Eine Freundin in der großen Welt [SF – co-dir,co-scr]; Der Mann, der nicht nein sagen konnte / Manden, der ikke ku’ sige nej [CH/DK]. 1958/59: Café Odeon [dir,scr]. 1959: Hinter den sieben Gleisen [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1960: Der Teufel hat gut lachen [dir,coscr,pro]; D’Zäller Wiehnacht [TV]. 1961/62: Es Dach überem Chopf [dir,co-scr,sma,pro]. 1962: Typo [SD – scr]; Der 42. Himmel [MLV – dir,co-scr,pro]. 1963: Antlitz der Zukunft [SD]; Im Parterre links [dir,co-scr]. 1964: Mein General-Motors-Abenteuer [SD]. [dir – CH – TV] 1965: Gsetz isch Gsetz [dir,scr]; Die hölzerne Schüssel. 1966: Die Akte aus der Chelsea Street [dir, scr]; Das Haus auf der Insel; In einem Monat ohne R [dir,scr]. 1967: Welche Zukunft hat begonnen? [DO]; Das Bett; Die Hausordnung; September, den 12.; Zoo. Mörder aus Menschenliebe; Love from a Stranger. Ein Fremder klopft an [TV – DE]. 1968: Die Konvention Belzebir. 1969: Das irische Mädchen oder Warum bist Du nicht berühmt? [dir,scr]. 1970: Dällebach Kari [FF – dir,scr]; Das Landhaus [dir,scr]. 1971/72: Der Fall [FF – dir,scr,pro]. 1973: D’Zäller Oschtere; In den Wassern sind alle Tugenden [SD]. 1986: Rückblenden. Annäherung an Kurt Früh [TVD – app].
JOACHIM FUCHSBERGER JOACHIM FUCHSBERGER (Joachim Karl Fuchsberger) Born March 11, 1927, Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen (Germany) Smart, handsome, and intelligent leading man of popular genre films from the mid-1950s onwards, Fuchsberger, affectionately known in Germany as ‘Blacky’, was later an authoritative and well-loved German television show host. Leaving school early after being conscripted into a parachute regiment, Fuchsberger was taken prisonerof-war in 1945. He subsequently held a number of jobs, including stints as a miner and a promotions manager, before becoming a radio announcer and documentary and newsreel narrator in Munich in the early 1950s. Following two supporting film roles, he was cast (alongside real-life actress-wife Gundula Korte) as the lead in Paul May’s Wehrmacht trilogy 08/15 (1954/ 55), based on the bestselling novels by Hans Hellmut Kirst. Thereafter, Fuchsberger appeared in war films such as Harald Reinl’s DIE GRÜNEN TEUFEL VON MONTE CASSINO (The Green Devils of Monte Cassino, 1957/58) and C. M. Pennington-Richards’s British-made MYSTERY SUBMARINE (1963), as well as in Euro-westerns such as José Luis Madrid’s WER KENNT JONNY R.? (Who Killed Johnny Ringo?, 1965/66). Fuchsberger found lasting fame playing detective heroes in the long-running series of Edgar Wallace Krimis, debuting in the very first, Harald Reinl’s DER FROSCH MIT DER MASKE (Face of the Frog, 1959), and bowing out in the penultimate entry, Massimo Dallamano’s DAS GEHEIMNIS DER GRÜNEN STECKNADEL (What Have They Done to Solange? / The School That Couldn’t Scream, 1971/72). At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Fuchsberger was chosen as the official stadium announcer. In addition to being a television chat show regular, Fuchsberger appeared in small-screen thrillers and mini-series such as DER TOD LÄUFT HINTERHER (Death Behind Me, 1967) and 11 UHR 20 (11:20, 1969). He then hosted some TV-shows, among them 60 episodes of the long running celebrity game show AUF LOS GEHT’S LOS (Ready Steady Go) from 1977 to 1986 and the chat show HEUT ABEND … (This Evening) with 300 episodes from 1980 to 1991, which he also produced with his company Greenwood Production. Dividing his time between Munich, Sydney and Hobart since the 1980s, he has presented an occasional travelogue series TERRA AUSTRALIS from 1988 to 2005, with a musical score by his son, composer Thomas Fuchsberger (b. 1957). Following a television acting comeback as an aristocrat in several international co-productions in the late 1990s, he found success on stage opposite Ralf Baum
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in Bill C. Davis’s two-hander ‘Mass Appeal’, with which he toured seventy different theatres in 2001 and 2002, before being revived in Munich in 2004. After some thirty years absence from the big screen, Fuchsberger returned in Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert’s spoof NEUES VOM WIXXER (The WiXXER Returns, 2006), a parodist take on his earlier roles as Scotland Yard inspectors in Edgar Wallace Krimis. Alongside numerous acting awards, Fuchsberger holds the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. [act – DE] 1953: Geh’ mach’ dein Fensterl auf [DE/AT]; Sonniges Spanien [DO – voi]. 1954: Wenn ich einmal der Herrgott wär [DE/AT]; 08/15. 1954/55: Das Lied von Kaprun / Das Lied der Hohen Tauern [DE/AT]; Das Paradies der Zelte [DO – voi]. 1955: 08/15 – II. Teil; Der letzte Mann; 08/15 in der Heimat. 1955/56: Smaragden-Geschichte [TV]; Symphonie in Gold [AT]. 1956: Lumpazivagabundus; Manöverzwilling [AT]. 1956/57: Vater macht Karriere [DE/ AT]; Kleiner Mann – ganz groß. 1957: Ascoltami / Das Lied von Neapel [IT/DE]; Illusionen [TV]; Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal; Eva küßt nur Direktoren [AT]. 1957/58: … und vergib mir meine Schuld / Ascoltami [DE/IT]; Die grünen Teufel von Monte Cassino. 1958: Liebe kann wie Gift sein; U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien; Das Mädchen mit den Katzenaugen; Mein Schatz ist aus Tirol. 1958/59: Zwischen Glück und Krone [DO]. 1959: Die feuerrote Baronesse; Endstation Rote Laterne. Blonde Mädchen für Havanna; Froen [DK]; Mein Schatz komm mit ans blaue Meer. 1960: Die zornigen jungen Männer; Die Bande des Schreckens. 1960-61: Nur nicht nervös werden [TVS – app]. 1961: Zu viele Köche [TV]; Die toten Augen von London; Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen [MLV – DE/GB]; Die seltsame Gräfin; Auf Wiedersehn. 1962: Der Teppich des Grauens / Terrore en la noche / Il terrore di notte [DE/ES/IT]; Das Gasthaus an der Themse; Barras heute. 1962/63: Der Fluch der gelben Schlange. 1963: Die 5. Kolonne: Zwei Pistolen [TV]; Mystery Submarine [GB]; Die weiße Spinne; Der schwarze Abt. 1963/64: Zimmer 13 / L’Attaque du fourgon postal [DE/FR]. 1964: Der Hexer; Der letzte Mohikaner / El ultimo Mohicano / La valle della ombre rosse [DE/ES/IT]. 1964/65: The Face of Fu Manchu [GB]. 1965: Hotel der toten Gäste / El enigma de los Cornell [DE/ES]; Io la conoscevo bene / Je la connaissais bien / Ich habe sie gut gekannt [IT/FR/DE]. 1965/66: Wer kennt Jonny R.? / La balada de Johnny Ringo [lyr,act – DE/ES]; Lange Beine – lange Finger. 1966: La battaglia dei Mods / Siebzehn Jahr – blondes Haar [IT/DE]; Bel Ami 2000 oder: Wie verführt man einen Playboy? / 100 ragazze per un playboy [AT/IT]. 1966/67: Mister Dynamit – morgen küßt Euch der Tod / Mister Dinamita, mañana os besara la muerte / Mister Dinamita, muori ta lentamente … te la godi ti più [DE/ES/IT]. 1967: Der Mönch mit der Peitsche; Feuer frei auf Frankie / Mision en Ginebra [DE/ ES]; Der Tod läuft hinterher [TV]. 1968: Im Banne des Unheimlichen. 1968/69: Contronatura / Schreie in der Nacht [IT/DE]. 1969: Himmelfahrtskommando El Alamein / Commandos [DE/IT]; 7 Tage Frist; Hotel Royal [TV]; 11 Uhr 20
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[TV]. 1970: Heißer Sand [TV]. 1971/72: Cosa avete fatto a Solange? / Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel [IT/DE]. 1972: Ehen vor Gericht – In Sachen Rethy gegen Rethy [TV]; Ein Käfer gibt Vollgas. 1972/73: Das Mädchen von Hongkong [DE/FR]. 1973: Das fliegende Klassenzimmer. 1973-75: Der heiße Draht [TVS – host]. 1974: Go and Win [SD – voi]. 1975/76: Spiel mit mir [TVS – host]. 1976: Gefundenes Fressen. 1977-86: Auf Los geht’s los [60 episodes – TVS – host]. 1980-91: Heut’ abend … [300 episodes – TVS – host]. 1981/82: Der Fan. 1988-2005: Terra Australis [21 episodes – TVD – dir,scr,app,pro]. 1990-94: Ja oder Nein [TVS – host]. 1994/95: Il grande fuoco / Flammen der Liebe [TV – IT/DE]. 1996: Der vierte König [TV – DE/IT]. 1998: Il cuore e la spada / Tristan und Isolde – Eine Liebe für die Ewigkeit / Heart and Sword [TV – IT/DE/FR]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app]. 2006: Neues vom WiXXer. 2007: Ein Leben wie im Flug [TV – app]. 2007/08: Der Bibelcode [TV – DE/AT/FR]. 2008: Heimat – Deine Filme [TVD – app]. 2008/09: Live Is Life [TV – AT].
BENNO FÜRMANN Born January 17, 1972, Berlin (West Germany) Gaunt, wiry, with a chiselled face and steely gaze, Fürmann established himself as one of post-reunification cinema’s most prominent leading men, often playing quietly intense characters. Orphaned at the age of fifteen, Fürmann worked as a bouncer and waiter before starting an acting career. Following minor parts on television, including in Edgar Reitz’ DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT (The Second Heimat, 1992), he attended acting classes at the Actor’s Studio in New York. Back on German television, he played the title role as a boxer in the biopic DIE BUBI SCHOLZ STORY (The Bubi Scholz Story, 1997) and appeared in the TV crime series around overweight inspector Sperling, especially Dominik Graf’s outstanding episode SPERLING UND DER BRENNENDE ARM (Inspector Sperling and the Burning Arm, 1998). On the big screen he had a supporting part in Caroline Link’s adaptation of Erich Kästner’s classic children’s novel PÜNKTCHEN UND ANTON (1998/99). In the horror film ANATOMIE (Anatomy, 1999), Fürmann chillingly portrayed a medical student turned homicidal psychopath, while in the crime melodrama FREUNDE (Friends, 1999/2000) Fürmann was seen in a more heroic mode, playing a policeman who is forced to act against his childhood friend. Tom Tykwer’s allegorical fable DER KRIEGER UND DIE KAISERIN (The Princess and the Warrior, 1999/ 2000), in which he played a taciturn ex-soldier, reunited Fürmann with his ANATOMIE co-star, Franka Potente. Fürmann subsequently contributed to the ensemble cast of Doris Dörrie’s NACKT (Naked, 2001/02), and gave a nuanced central performance in Christian Pet-
zold’s WOLFSBURG (2002/03), playing a motorist who kills a child in a hit-and-run accident and who becomes tormented by his guilt, for which he received an Adolf Grimme-Award. Fürmann’s career turned more international with his part in the occult thriller THE ORDER (2002/03) and the pan-European World War I drama MERRY CHRISTMAS (2004/05). In Uli Edel’s TV epic DIE NIBELUNGEN (2003/04), Fürmann portrayed the quintessential Germanic hero Siegfried, while on the big screen he played a teacher in the children’s comedy DIE WILDEN HÜHNER (Wild Chicken, 2005) and its sequel DIE WILDEN HÜHNER UND DIE LIEBE (Wild Chicken in Love, 2006/07). He subsequently starred as a mountaineer in the neo-Bergfilm NORDWAND (North Face, 2007/08). In the film noir remake JERICHOW (2007/08) he was reunited with director Petzold and his WOLFSBURG co-star Nina Hoss. In international productions, he had supporting roles in Andy and Larry Wachowski’s cartoon adaptation SPEED RACER, and as a Teutonic mercenary in the science-fiction film THE MUTANT CHRONICLES (both 2008). [act – DE] 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat. Chronik einer Jugend in 13 Filmen [TVS]. 1991/92: Die ungewisse Lage des Paradieses. 1991-93: Durst [DE/AT]. 1992: Schuld war nur der Bossa Nova [TV]. 1993: Schicksalsspiel [TV]; Die Kommissarin: Jugendsünden [TV]. 1993/94: Einfach nur Liebe. 1993-98: Schwarz greift ein [TVS]. 1994: Tatort: KlassenKampf [TV]; Lemgo [TV]; Beckmann & Markowski: Tödliches Netz [TV]. 1994/95: Tot auf Halde [TV]; Und tschüss! [TVS]. 1995: Die Partner: Die Schande [TV]; Belle Époque [TV – FR]; Und tschüss! – Auf Mallorca [TV]. 1995/96: Sperling und das Loch in der Wand [TV]; Und tschüss! – In Amerika [TV]. 1996: Landgang für Ringo [TV]; Das erste Mal [TV]; Sperling und der gefallene Engel [TV]. 1997: Scarmour [SF]; Sperling und die verlorenen Steine [TV]; Sperling und sein Spiel gegen alle [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Der Sohn der Kommissarin [TV]; Boomtown Berlin: 5 Minuten Ikarus [TV]; Die Bubi Scholz Story [TV]; Sperling und der falsche Freund [TV]. 1998: Sperling und die Tote aus Vilnius [TV]; Kiss My Blood; Candy [TV]; Sperling und der brennende Arm [TV]; Der Eisbär; Mein Freund, der Bulle [TV]. 1998/99: Pünktchen und Anton; St. Pauli Nacht. 1999: ’ne günstige Gelegenheit; Anatomie; Kanak Attack. 1999/2000: Freunde; Der Krieger und die Kaiserin. 2001: Das Staatsgeheimnis [TV]; Jeans. 2001/ 02: Nackt. 2002/03: Wolfsburg; My House in Umbria / La mia casa in Umbria [TV – GB/IT]; The Order / Sin Eater – Die Seele des Bösen [US/DE]. 2003/04: Kleine Schwester [TV]; Die Nibelungen – Der Fluch des Drachen. 2004: Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]; Gespenster. 2004/ 05: Joyeux Noël / Merry Christmas [FR/DE/GB/BE/RO]; Die Sturmflut [TV]. 2005: Jack und Bob [SF]; Die wilden Hühner. 2005/06: Kruistocht in spijkerbroek / Crusade in Jeans / Kreuzzug in Jeans [NL/GB/DE/ BE/LU/HU]. 2006/07: Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe;
BENNO FÜRMANN Pornorama oder Die Bekenntnisse der mannstollen Näherin Rita Brauchts; Survivre avec les loups [FR/BE]. 2007: Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken. 2007/08: Speed Racer [US]; Nordwand. 2007-
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09: Hinter Kaifeck. 2008: The Mutant Chronicles [US]; Jerichow. 2008/09: Die Wilden Hühner und das Leben; Deutschland 09: 10. Feierlich reist; Lara; Mullewapp – Das große Kinoabenteuer der Freunde [ANI – voi].
FRANCISKA GAÁL (Franciska Silberspitz; aka Franziska Gaal) Born February 1, 1904, Budapest (Austria-Hungary, now Hungary) Died August 13, 1972, New York (New York, USA) A petite auburn-haired Hungarian-Jewish musical actress and gifted comedienne, Gaál’s star shone intensely for a very brief period in German and Austrian films of the early 1930s. One of thirteen children, she went against her parents’ wishes and studied at Budapest’s Stage Academy in 1919, and was appearing at the Eskü téri and other theatres around the city by 1920. She gained a following not only as an actress who excelled in lighthearted and ingénue roles, but also as a soubrette in popular operettas. Her film debut came in Pál Aczél’s fairytale picture MÁTÉ GAZDA ÉS A TÖRPÉK (Farmer Matthias and the Dwarfs, 1919), and she played the female lead in dramas including István Altmayer’s AZ ÁRUHÁZ GYÖNGYE (The Pearl of the Warehouse) and Lajos Gellért’s AZ EGÉR (The Mouse, both 1921). Gaál then refocused her attention on theatre work for the remainder of the decade. She was discovered for sound films by talent scout Joe Pasternak who caught one of her performances in Budapest and immediately engaged her for the lead in Deutsche Universal’s light romance PAPRIKA (Marriage in Haste, 1932). The film proved a huge success, as did the musical GRUSS UND KUSS – VERONIKA! (Greetings and Kisses, Veronika, 1933). An overnight international star, Gaál was signed by Universal. However, following the Nazis’ rise to power, this contract had to be fulfilled in Vienna and Budapest between 1933 and 1937. Her next two films, István Szekély (later Steve Sekely) and Géza von Bolváry’s SKANDAL IN BUDAPEST (Romance in Budapest, 1933) – remade in Hollywood as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers vehicle TOP HAT (1935) – and Bolváry’s FRÜHJAHRSPARADE (Spring Parade, 1934), both proved successful in Germany, after which the Nazis banned Gaál’s films from release there. Nevertheless, profits from other territories were sufficient for her to headline in a further five pictures, three of which – PETER (1934), KLEINE MUTTI (Little Mother, 1935) and KATHARINE, DIE LETZTE (Catherine the Last, 1935/36) – were directed by Hermann Kosterlitz (later Henry Koster).
With anti-Semitism on the rise within the Austrian film industry, and with Universal’s parent company in Hollywood suffering financial difficulties, the company pulled out of operations in Europe. Gaál received an offer from Paramount to take the lead in Cecil B. DeMille’s THE BUCCANEER (1937) and travelled to Hollywood. However, she made little impression, and went on to appear in only two further films. Pasternak and Koster(litz), meanwhile, had replaced their former star with a younger American model in the same mould – Deanna Durbin – whom they even starred in a straightforward remake of FRÜHJAHRSPARADE called SPRING PARADE (1940). At this juncture, Gaál unwisely flew to occupied Europe to see her parents and had to spend the next four years in hiding near Lake Balaton. After being liberated, she began work on a Soviet-backed German-language film in Budapest in February 1946, titled ‘XIV. Renée’, but the project was scrapped after just ten days. Returning to America in 1947, Gaál again met with Hollywood disinterest and received scant work on Broadway, where she made her last known appearance in 1951. After this, she descended into total obscurity, and when she died of a thrombosis in 1972, only a single newspaper, the Hungarian Magyar Nemzet, published an obituary – some five months after the event. [act – HU] 1919: Máté gazda és a törpék. 1921: Az áruház gyöngye; Az egér; A corneville-i harangok; New-York express kábel. 1932: Paprika [MLV – DE/IT]. 1933: Gruß und Kuß – Veronika! [DE]; Pardon, tévedtem [MLV – HU]; Skandal in Budapest [MLV – DE/HU]. 1933/34: Csibi, der Fratz [AT]. 1934: Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Peter / Peter, Peter [AT/HU]. 1935: Kleine Mutti / Kismama [AT/HU]. 1935/ 36: Katharina – die Letzte [AT]. 1936: Fräulein Lilli [AT]. 1937: The Buccaneer [US]. 1938: The Girl Downstairs [US]; Paris Honeymoon [US].
URBAN GAD (Peter Urban Gad) Born February 12, 1879, Korsør (Denmark) Died December 26, 1947, Copenhagen (Denmark) Danish-born director Gad launched the career of German cinema’s first film diva, Asta Nielsen, to whom he was married from 1912 to 1915.
HENRIK GALEEN
The son of writer and women’s rights advocate Emma Gad (1852–1921) and her vice-admiral husband, Gad was raised in Copenhagen, before attending art school in Paris. He subsequently returned as an accomplished stage director and playwright in 1906, and wrote and directed his first film, the erotic melodrama AFGRUNDEN (The Abyss), in 1910. Starring Asta Nielsen, it was a phenomenal hit – especially in Germany – and immediately brought the actress international stardom. She and Gad were signed to an exclusive contract with Deutsche Bioscop and distributor PAGU in Berlin, for whom they made a string of hugely successful ‘Asta Nielsen/Urban Gad Film Series’, with Gad writing and directing. Deutsche Bioscop’s technical director and cameraman Guido Seeber worked closely with the couple on many productions, which stood out both on account of Nielsen’s naturalistic acting and their wide array of visual styles and subject matter. Apart from the circus melodrama DEN SORTE DRØM (Gypsy Blood), there was the tragic romance DER FREMDE VOGEL (The Strange Bird, both 1911), shot in the Spreewald forest south of Berlin; the espionage drama DAS MÄDCHEN OHNE VATERLAND (The Girl With No Homeland, 1912); the comedy JUGEND UND TOLLHEIT (Youth and Folly, 1912), in which Nielsen undertook her first role in male attire; and the Spanish-set drama DER TOD IN SEVILLA (Death in Seville, 1912/13). Gad and Nielsen addressed contemporary politics in DIE SUFFRAGETTE (The Suffragette), and reflected on their own profession in DIE FILM-PRIMADONNA (The Film Prima Donna, both 1913) and ZAPATAS BANDE (Zapata’s Gang, 1913/14). After his divorce from Nielsen, Gad continued to work primarily in Germany, and published his theoretical treatise ‘Filmen, dens midler og maal’ (The Film: its Practice and its Goals) in 1919, with a German-language edition following in 1921. His final German films were the H. G. Wells-inspired shocker DIE INSEL DER VERSCHOLLENEN (The Island of the Lost, 1921) and a reworking of Gerhart Hauptmann’s play HANNELES HIMMELFAHRT (Hannele’s Heavenly Journey, 1922). Gad then obtained a highly lucrative and sought-after contract to run Copenhagen’s prestigious Grand Teatret film palace from 1922. He ventured into filmmaking twice more while in Denmark, co-scripting and directing LYKKEHJULET (The Wheel of Fortune, 1925/ 26), the most commercially successful instalment of the popular slapstick series starring the comic duo ‘Fy og Bi’ (known in Germany and Russia as ‘Pat and Patachon’ and in English-speaking territories as ‘Long and Short’), as well as the comic drama JONNA OG HENDES PLEJEMODER (Jonna and Her Wet-Nurse, 1926).
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[dir,scr – DE] 1910: Afgrunden [DK]; En Rekrut fra 64 [dir – DK]. 1911: Nachtfalter; Heißes Blut; In dem großen Augenblick; Den sorte drøm [DK]; Zigeunerblut [dir]; Dyrekøbt Glimmer / Hulda Rasmussen [dir – DK]; Der fremde Vogel; Den store Flyver [dir – DK]; Die Verräterin [dir]; Gennem Kamp til Sejr [dir – DK]; Die Macht des Goldes. 1911/12: Die arme Jenny. 1912: Zu Tode gehetzt; Den hvide Slavehandel III [dir – DK]; Der Totentanz; Jugend und Tollheit [dir,scr,pro]; Die Kinder des Generals; Wenn die Maske fällt; Das Mädchen ohne Vaterland; Komödianten. 1912/13: Die Sünden der Väter; Der Tod in Sevilla. 1913: Die Suffragette; S 1; Die Film-Primadonna; Engelein. 1913/ 14: Das Kind ruft; Zapatas Bande. 1914: Das Feuer; Engeleins Hochzeit; Die ewige Nacht; Die falsche Asta Nielsen [dir]; Vordertreppe und Hintertreppe; Aschenbrödel; Die Tochter der Landstraße; Die weißen Rosen. 1915: Das Spiel mit dem Tode; Der erste Patient [dir]. 1916: Die verschlossene Tür; Der rote Streifen; Der breite Weg; Die Gespensterstunde. 1917: Klosterfriede [dir]; Die Vergangenheit rächt sich; Die neue Daliah [dir]; Der Schmuck des Rajah [dir]. 1918: Das sterbende Modell [dir]; Das verhängnisvolle Andenken [dir]; Vera Panina [dir]; Die Kleptomanin [co-dir]; Der schuldlose Verdacht [dir]. 1919: Das Spiel von Liebe und Tod. 1919/920: So ein Mädel [dir]. 1920: Mein Mann, der Nachtredakteur [dir]; Der Abgrund der Seelen; Ich – bin – Du … [dir]. 1920/21: Christian Wahnschaffe. 1. Weltbrand / 2. Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker [dir]; Der vergiftete Strom [dir]; Die Insel der Verschollenen [dir]. 1922: Hanneles Himmelfahrt [dir]. 1925/26: Lykkehjulet [dir,co-scr – DK]. 1926: Jonna og hendes Plejemoder [dir – DK].
HENRIK GALEEN (Heinrich Wiesenberg; aka Heinrich Galeen; aka Henryk Galeen) Born January 7, 1881, Stryi near Lemberg/Lwów (Austria-Hungary, now Lviv, Ukraine) Died July 30, 1949, Randolph (Vermont, USA) Though much of his biography remains as shadowy as the phantoms of his narratives, scriptwriter, actor and director Galeen was one of Weimar fantasy cinema’s key figures. Until recently, not even his real name or place of birth was known. Meanwhile it became clear that in 1903 he lived in Vienna and was a friend of John Gottowt (Isidor Gesang, 1881 – 1942) who became an actor, director and writer as well. The friends, later married to two sisters, moved to Berlin, where Galeen ostensibly worked as a journalist and actor prior to becoming Max Reinhardt’s assistant in 1906. From 1907 to 1909 he was an actor on various stages in Bern, Stralsund and the Swiss St. Gallen, before returning to Berlin where the earliest authenticated mention of his name is as a bit-part player during the 1909/10 season at Deutsches Theater. He then joined the city’s Volksbühne as a director in 1911, before moving to the Deutsches Künstlertheater in 1914.
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In 1913, he was assistant to writer Hanns Heinz Ewers, and possibly, uncredited, worked with him on the script for Stellan Rye’s art film DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague), in which Gottowt starred as Scapinelli and Paul Wegener as Balduin. Rye subsequently hired Galeen to write the script for DAS HAUS OHNE TÜR (House Without a Door, 1914) and in the same year Galeen worked on DER GOLEM (The Golem / The Monster of Fate), on which he (with Paul Wegener) was credited as co-director and co-author; he played the Jewish antiquarian as well. While the legend of a clay figure brought to life by a rabbi clearly continued to interest Galeen, it is questionable whether he contributed to the final script of Wegener’s DER GOLEM, WIE ER IN DIE WELT KAM (The Golem: How He Came Into the World, 1920), for which he frequently receives credit. After World War I, he joined Messter-Film – recently absorbed into Ufa – and furnished scripts to Rudolf Biebrach’s DIE ROLLENDE KUGEL (The Spinning Ball), adapted from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Gambler’, and DIE BEIDEN GATTEN DER FRAU RUTH (Ruth’s Two Husbands, both 1919) starring Henny Porten. He also directed another Jewish subject, JUDITH TRACHTENBERG (1920), scripted by Franz Schulz, with whom he would collaborate on a treatment for DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks), eventually directed by Paul Leni in 1923. In the interim, for one season in 1921, together with Gottowt he ran a small theatre in Berlin, showing plays of the ‘Jüdisches Künstlertheater’ (Jewish Artist’s Theatre) from Wilna. The same year, he adapted Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ – changing character names and places since the original was (erroneously) believed to be in copyright – for F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU. Together with his highly stylised remakes of DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1926) and ALRAUNE (A Daughter of Destiny, 1927), these provide the basis for Galeen’s esteemed reputation. However, he directed and even took lead roles in a number of other long-forgotten silents. He furthermore scripted a whole series of adventure films starring Harry Piel. In the late 1920s, Galeen travelled to Britain to shoot the crime thriller AFTER THE VERDICT (1928) starring Olga Tschechowa (Chekhova) and scripted by Alfred Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville, after which he served as producer and production supervisor at various London studios and directed several short sound and singing puppet films. Returning to Germany in 1931, he wrote one more script for Harry Piel and undertook his final job as director on the spy thriller SALON DORA GREEN (The House of Dora Green, 1932/33). A Golem sound film under Galeen’s direction and starring Paul Wegener was announced as his next project, but the
Nazis’ seizure of power put an end to this. Emigrating in 1933 to England and Sweden, Galeen turned up in the United States in 1940, where he lived as a recluse in New York and Vermont for the rest of his life. [scr – DE] 1914: Das Haus ohne Tür; Der Golem [codir,co-scr,act]. 1919: Die rollende Kugel; Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth. 1920: Der verbotene Weg [dir,scr]; Judith Trachtenberg [dir]. 1921: Die Geliebte Roswolskys; Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens. 1922/23: Stadt in Sicht [dir,scr]; Das Haus ohne Lachen [act]. 1923: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett [co-scr]. 1924: Auf gefährlichen Spuren; Die Liebesbriefe der Baronin von S. [dir,scr]. 1925: Zigano, der Brigant vom Monte Diavolo / Zigano [DE/FR]; Das Fräulein vom Amt. 1926: Achtung Harry! Augen auf!; Der Student von Prag [dir,scr]. 1927: Sein größter Bluff; Alraune [dir,scr]. 1928: Die Dame mit der Maske [ide,scr]; The Gorno Marionettes [SF – dir – GB]; After the Verdict / Die Siegerin [MLV – dir – GB/DE]. 1928/29: Mr. Smith Wakes Up [SF – pro – GB]. 1929: Acci-Dental Treatment [SF – supv – GB]; Dimples and Tears [SF – supv – GB]. 1931: Schatten der Unterwelt [MLV]; Ombres des bas fonds [MLV]; Bobby geht los [MLV]; L’Auberge du père Jonas [MLV]. 1932/33: Salon Dora Green [dir]. 1978: Nosferatu – Phantom der Nacht / Nosferatu – Fantôme de la nuit [sma – DE/FR].
BRUNO GANZ Born March 22, 1941, Zurich-Seebach (Switzerland) With his haunted looks and specialising in doomed, introspective protagonists, half-Swiss, half-Italian Ganz developed into one of the German-speaking world’s most highly respected stage and screen actors from the 1970s onwards. Ganz trained at the Zurich Stage Studio before making his film debut with a minor role in DER HERR MIT DER SCHWARZEN MELONE (The Man in the Black Derby, 1960). He then relocated to West Germany, joining Göttingen’s Junges Theater in 1962 and moving to Bremen’s Theater am Goetheplatz in 1964, where he worked under director Peter Zadek. His first part in a film of the New German Cinema movement was Haro Senft’s DER SANFTE LAUF (Another Love, 1966/67), and in 1967 he appeared in his first stage production under Peter Stein, with whom he would collaborate further at theatres in Munich and Bremen, as well as at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus and, from 1970, at West Berlin’s Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer. Ganz ascended to principal lead in productions by Stein and Klaus Michael Grüber, many of which were also televised, as was his performance as the doctor in the premiere of Thomas Bernhardt’s DER IGNORANT UND DER WAHNSINNIGE (The Ignoramus and the Madman), directed by Claus Peymann at the 1972 Salzburg Festival. In 1982, Ganz was be-
BRUNO GANZ
queathed the Iffland ring – handed down from actor to actor as the highest accolade of the entire profession – by Josef Meinrad of Vienna’s Burgtheater in the latter’s 1996 will. In 2000 Ganz received favourable reviews for his bravura lead in Stein’s twenty-onehour production of Goethe’s ‘Faust I’ and ‘Faust II’. Ganz’s film career began in earnest with Stein’s SOMMERGÄSTE (Summer Guests, 1975), and he dedicated himself purely to film work at times. He received the German Film Award for his lead in Eric Rohmer’s DIE MARQUISE VON O… (The Marquise of O…, 1975) and gained international attention with his portrayal of a picture framer in Wim Wenders’s DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND (The American Friend, 1976/77). He subsequently worked with countless directors of note, including Hans W. Geissendörfer, Kurt Gloor, Reinhard Hauff, Werner Herzog, Wolfgang Petersen and Volker Schlöndorff. Alongside Otto Sander, Ganz also co-directed the documentary portrait of actors Curt Bois and Bernhard Minetti, GEDÄCHTNIS (Recollections, 1981/82). He furthermore stood out as the eponymous idealistic detective in Hajo Gies’s television series TASSILO – EIN FALL FÜR SICH (Tassilo – a Case of Its Own,1989), adapted from the radio plays by Martin Walser, and twice played (former) angels, in Wim Wenders’s DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (Wings of Desire, 1986/87) and IN WEITER FERNE, SO NAH! (Faraway, So Close!, 1992/93). Ganz undertook English-speaking roles in Gillian Armstrong’s Australian drama THE LAST DAYS OF CHEZ NOUS (1991) and in Jonathan Demme’s THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004), and played a dying author in Greek director Theo Angelopoulos’s MIA AIONIOTITA KAI MIA MERA (Eternity and a Day, 1998). In 2004, Ganz caused a storm with his tour de force performance as the ailing Hitler in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s DER UNTERGANG (Downfall). [act – DE] 1960: Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone [CH]. 1961: Chikita [CH]. 1961/62: Es Dach überem Chopf [CH]. 1964: Der Spaßvogel [TV]. 1966: Frühlings Erwachen [TV]; Die Unberatenen [TV]. 1966/67: Der sanfte Lauf. 1967/68: Die Schlacht bei Lobositz [TV]. 1967/81: Rêce do góry / Hands Up! [PL/GB]. 1968: Maß für Maß [TV]; Im Dickicht der Städte [TV]. 1969: Torquato Tasso [TV]. 1969/70: Eine große Familie [TV]. 1970/71: Die Mutter [TV]. 1971: Peer Gynt [2 parts – TV]. 1972: Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige [TV – AT]; Prinz Friedrich von Homburg [TV – DE/ AT]. 1973: Optimistische Tragödie [TV]. 1974: Die Bakchen [TV]. 1975: Sommergäste; Die Marquise von O… / La Marquise d’O… [DE/FR]. 1975/76: Lumière / Scene di una amicizia tra donne [FR/IT]. 1976: Die Wildente [DE/AT]. 1976/77: Der amerikanische Freund / L’Ami américain [DE/ FR]. 1977: Die linkshändige Frau. 1978: Geschichte einer Liebe [TV]; Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte [TV – DE/AT]; The Boys from Brazil [US]; Messer im Kopf; Nosfe-
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ratu – Phantom der Nacht / Nosferatu – Fantôme de la nuit [DE/FR]; Retour à la bien-aimée [FR]. 1979: Bruno Ganz: Dienstreise [TVD]; Oggetti smarriti [IT]; 5 % de risque [FR/ BE]. 1980: Polenta [CH]; Der Erfinder [CH]; La provinciale / Die Verweigerung [FR/DE/CH]. 1980/81: La dame aux camélias / La storia vera della signora dalle camelie / Die Kameliendame [FR/IT/DE]. 1980-82: Etwas wird sichtbar. 1981: Fermata Etna [TV – IT]; Die Fälschung / Le faussaire [DE/FR]; Logik des Gefühls. 1981/82: Gedächtnis. Ein Film für Curt Bois und Bernhard Minetti [TVD – co-dir,co-scr, act]. 1982/83: Krieg und Frieden; Dans la ville blanche / A cidade branca / In der weißen Stadt / In the White City [CH/ PT/DE/GB]; System ohne Schatten. 1983: Killer aus Florida [SF – CH]. 1983/84: Der Riß durch die Welt – ‘Anton Reiser’ [TV]. 1984: De Ijssalon [NL]. 1984/85: Väter und Söhne [TV]. 1985: Tucholsky – ‘Es muß einer sehr stark sein, wenn man ihn nicht totschweigen kann’ [TV]; Der Park [TV]. 1985/86: El rio de oro [ES/CH]; Der Pendler [CH]. 1986/87: Der Himmel über Berlin / Les ailes du désir [DE/FR]. 1987: Andenken [TV – voi]. 1987/88: Un amore di donna / Der Himmel ist fern [IT/DE]. 1988: Von Zeit zu Zeit [CH]; Strapless [GB]. 1988/89: Bankomatt [IT/CH]; Noch ein Wunsch [TV – CH/DE]. 1989: Die Verteidigungsrede des Judas [TV – CH]; Brev ur Tysnaden [DO – voi – SE]; Undergångens architektur [DO – voi – SE]; Tassilo – ein Fall für sich: 1. Verteidigung von Friedrichshafen / 2. Hilfe kommt aus Bregenz / 3. Zorn einer Göttin / 4. Lindauer Pieta / 5. Das Gespenst von Gattnau / 6. 100 Jahre Bickle [TVS]. 1989-90: Sazka – Die Wette / Sazka [DE/CS]. 1990: Schrödingers kat [SF – NL]; Erfolg [TV]. 1990/91: La domenica specialmente / Le dimanche de préférence [IT/FR/BE]. 1991: Börn náttúrunnar / Children of Nature – Kinder der Natur / Reisen tilbake [IS/DE/NO]; The Last Days of Chez Nous [AU]. 1991/92: Prague [GB/FR]; Brandnacht [TV – CH/DE]. 1992: Die Abwesenheit / L’Absence / La ausencia [DE/FR/ES]; Le quatuor des possibles [DO – voi – CH/FR]. 1992/93: In weiter Ferne, so nah! 1993: Asmara [DO – voi – CH]; Heller Tag. 1994: Aterkomster [TVD – voi – SE]. 1994/95: Bookmark: Saint-Ex [TV – GB]. 1995: Anwalt Abel – Ein Richter in Angst [TV]; Il Grande Fausto [TV – IT/FR/DE]; Lumière & Compagnie [FR/ES/SE]; Tatort: Schattenwelt [TV]; Diario senza date [TVD – IT]. 1995/96: Tödliches Schweigen [TV]. 1996: Ich erzähle mir einen Mann; Von Tasso zum Tatort – Der Schauspieler Bruno Ganz [TVD]. 1996-2000: WerAngstWolf [CH/IT]. 1997: St. Stephan – Der lebende Dom [TVD – voi – AT]. 1997/98: Bitter is de verbanning [DO – voi – NL]; Gegen Ende der Nacht [TV]. 1998: Mia aioniotita kai mia mera / L’Éternité et une jour / L’Eternità e un giorno [GR/FR/IT]. 1999/2000: Pane e Tulpani [IT]. 2000: Das Faust-Ensemble probiert FAUST [TVD]; Faust, Teil I und II [TV]. 2001: Profile: Richard Schneider im Gespräch mit Bruno Ganz [TVD]; Zur Person: Bruno Ganz [TVD]; Epsteins Nacht [DE/CH/AT]. 2001/02: Bruno Ganz – Behind Me [TVD – cam,app – CH/DE]. 2002: La forza del passato [IT]. 2002/03: Luther. 2003/04: Der Untergang; Hitlers letzte Tage [TVD]. 2004: The Manchurian Candidate [US]. 2005: Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II [TV – US/LT]. 2005/06: Vitus [CH]. 2005-07: Von einem der auszog – Wim Wenders’ frühe Jahre [DO – app]. 2006: Baruto no gakuen [JP]. 2006/07: Copacabana [TV]; Youth Without
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Youth [US]. 2007: Ein starker Abgang [TV]. 2007/08: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex. 2008: Stairway to Nowhere; Trilogia II: I skoni tou Xronou / Triology II: The Dust of Time [GR/IT/DE/RU]; The Reader / Der Vorleser [US/DE]; Brot [SF]. 2008/09: Der große Kater [CH/DE].
KARL GASS Born February 2, 1917, Mannheim (Germany) Died January 29, 2009, Kleinmachnow (Germany) Gass established himself as East Germany’s most prolific documentarist with his award-winning films about 20th century German history. Gass studied economics and business studies before being conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1940. After the war, he became economics editor at Colognebased radio station NWDR, and then moved to Berliner Rundfunk station in East Berlin in 1948, where he served as commentator, reporter and chief economic editor. Contracted by documentary filmmaker Andrew Thorndike to write the narration for VON HAMBURG BIS STRALSUND (From Hamburg to Stralsund, 1949/50), Gass thereafter freelanced at DEFA’s studio for newsreels and documentaries, and co-directed the feature-length DER WEG NACH OBEN (The Ascending Path, 1950) with Thorndike. He was appointed artistic director of DEFA’s Studio for popular science films in 1954, where he made KOSMOS (Cosmos, 1960), which deployed new and archival material as well as animation sequences in its depiction of the life of explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Returning to the Studio for newsreels and documentaries from 1960 until 1991, Gass headed his own production group for twelve years, while simultaneously leading courses in documentary filmmaking at the Babelsberg Film Academy until 1970, after which he remained a guest professor there. Winfried Junge, Konrad Weiss and Gitta Nickel (to whom he was married from 1964 to 1970) were among his students. During this period, Gass’s output included travelogues, analyses of East German state progress and areas for improvement. But his perhaps most (in)famous creation was the feature-length SCHAUT AUF DIESE STADT (Look At This City, 1962), which offered a polemic justification for the construction of the Berlin Wall. From the mid-1960s, Gass gained attention for his reports on everyday life under socialism, the most famous of which was ASSE (Aces, 1965/66), about a brigade of oil workers. Thereafter focussing on 20th century history, his mammoth project DAS JAHR 1945 (The Year 1945, 1984) used largely unseen archival footage to document the end of World War II. EINE DEUTSCHE KARRIERE (A German Career,
1987) charted the exploits of admiral Karl Dönitz, while his final film, NATIONALITÄT: DEUTSCH (German Nationality, 1990), provided a portrait of a village teacher who had unquestioningly followed the dictates of each regime from the Weimar Republic through to the end of the GDR. Unwilling to do the same, Gass retired as a filmmaker after reunification and refocused primarily on writing historical studies and appearing at retrospectives of his work. Apart from his film work, Gass was also the presenter of television quiz show SIND SIE SICHER? (Are You Sure?) from 1965 to 1972. [scr – DD – SD] 1949/50: Von Hamburg bis Stralsund [DO]. 1950: Besserer Stahl; Meister des Schnellzerspanens; Der Weg nach oben [DO – dir,scr]. 1951: Freundschaft und Frieden [SD – co-dir]; Großbauten des Kommunismus; Schwermaschinenbau. Im ersten Jahr des großen Plans. 1952: Forschen und Schaffen. Folge 1; Die Kohle ruft; Schutz der Arbeitskraft; 1952 – Das entscheidende Jahr; Unser schwarzes Gold; Ami go home; Erwachendes Land. 1953: Im Paradies der Ruderer [dir,scr]; Nach 900 Tagen [dir,scr]; Turbine I; Leipziger Messe 1953 [dir,scr]; Jagd um Sekunden; Wir erleben Bukarest. 1953/54: Werke in Deutschland [dir,scr]. 1954: Clowns, Dompteure und Artisten [co-scr]; Vom Alex zum Eismeer [dir,scr]; Die große Initiative [dir,scr]. 1955: Gebirge und Meer [co-scr – CS/ DD]; Unser Erzgebirge; Ein heißes Eisen [voi]; Im Dienste der Menschheit [DO – voi]. 1956: … unter anderem Schwarze Pumpe [voi]. 1957: Die große Wanderung; Insel der Rosen [dir,scr]; An der Via Egnatia [dir,scr]; Hellas ohne Götter [dir]; Zwischen Himmel und Erde [dir,scr]. 1957/58: Bilder aus Athen und Rhodos [dir,scr]. 1958: Uns mahnt ein November [co-scr – DD/CS]; Reportage aus Rossendorf [scr,app]. 1959: Deine Erde [dir,scr]; Versuch Nr. 27 [scr, app]; Die Stiere des Hidalgo [dir,co-scr]. 1959/60: Freiheit, Freiheit über alles [dir,scr]. 1960: Pflanzenzucht auf neuen Wegen; Kosmos – Erinnerungen an Alexander von Humboldt [DO – dir,scr]; Fünf Jahreszeiten [dir,scr]; Licht für Palermo [dir,scr,app]. 1961: Ich singe den Frieden; Septembergedanken [dir,scr]; Wertvolles Schilf [co-scr – DD/RO]; Mit Combi und Camping nach Tunesien [dir,scr]; Pionierwochenschau VII/61: Sorah und Ali [dir,scr]; Allons enfants … pour l’Algérie [DO – dir,scr,voi]; ‘Wenn ich erst zur Schule geh’ …’ [pro,ide]; Der Affenschreck [pro]. 1962: Schlager der Woche [dir,co-scr]; Schaut auf diese Stadt [DO – dir,scr,voi]. 1963: Globke heute [voi]; Papiergeschichten [dir,scr]. 1963/64: Feierabend [dir,scr]. 1964: Revolution am Telefon [dir,co-scr]. 1964-73: Sind Sie sicher? [TVS – host]. 1965: Marhab – Willkommen! [DO – dir,scr,app]; … zum Beispiel Frankfurt/Oder. 1965/66: Asse [DO – dir,co-scr,voi]; Über’n Fluß. 1966: Bei uns im Mai [dir,scr]. 1966/67: Paul Dessau [pro]. 1967: Vorwärts die Zeit [DO – dir,scr]. 1969: Operationsforschung [DO – dir,scr]; Prognose Informationssystem der VVB Schiffbau [dir,scr]; Technologie im schwedischen Schiffbau [co-dir, co-scr]; Anno Populi – Im Jahre des Volkes 1949 [DO – dir,scr]. 1970: Optimum [DO – dir,scr,voi]; Der Oktober kam … [DO – scr,supv]. 1971: Betrieb und Territorium
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[DO]; Mit Netz und Spinne [DO – dir,scr,voi]; Drum links, zwei, drei [dir,scr,voi]; Lichtmacher [DO – voi]; Ich schreibe [dir,scr,voi]. 1971/72: Icke – icke [dir,scr,voi]. 1972: Spaß mit Gästen [dir,scr]; Raketeers [TVD – co-dir,scr,voi]. 1972/73: Sehen – Hören – Selber machen … [voi]. 1973: Fünfe auf einen Streich [TVD – dir,scr]. 1974: Asse – Anno ’74 [DO – dir,scr,voi]. 1975: Kulturnotizen aus der Toscana [dir,scr,voi]; Toscanerinnen [co-dir,scr,voi]; Die verdammten Toscaner [dir,scr,voi]; Die grüne, weiße, rote Toscana [TVD – dir,scr,voi]; Montagnana – verlassenes Land [dir, scr,voi]. 1976: Einsatz: Atomstation [TVD – dir,scr,voi]; Heimkehr ins Gestern [TVD – dir,co-scr]; Wollt ihr unser Elend filmen? [dir,co-scr]. 1977: Grüße aus der Altmark [TVD – dir,co-scr]; Richard der Bauer [TVD – dir,co-scr,voi]. 1978: Die Silberfüchse oder Spiegelungen vor Wanne C [DO – co-dir,scr,voi]; Lüssower Landbote [TVD]. 1979: Der Leutnant von Ulm [TVD – co-scr]. 1980: Ecken und Kanten. Bei Leuten an der Dosse [TVD – dir,scr,voi]. 1980/81: Lebensläufe. Die Geschichte der Kinder von Golzow in einzelnen Porträts [DO – ide]. 1981: Klaus G. und seine 100 Mädel [dir,scr]. 1982: Jetzt lebe ich [TVD – dir,scr,voi]; Wenn NATO-Generale träumen [DO – dir,scr]; 2 Tage im August [dir,co-scr,voi]. 1983: ‘An alle … an alle …’ [DO – dir,coscr,voi]; Die brisante Branche [dir,co-scr,voi]. 1984: Racketeers [dir,scr]; Das Jahr 1945 [DO – dir,scr]; Am Tag danach (Made in Germany) [dir,scr]. 1985: Nürnberg – nicht schuldig [dir,scr]. 1987: Eine deutsche Karriere. Rückblicke auf unser Jahrhundert [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1988: Jeder konnte es sehen [dir,co-scr]. 1990: Nationalität: deutsch [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1992: Der DEFA-Komplex: Cinéma vérité made in GDR [TVD – app – DE]. 1999: Karl Gass – Filmdokumentarist im Sozialismus [TVD – app – DE]. 2005/06: Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind … Die Kinder von Golzow. Das Ende der unendlichen Geschichte [DO – ide – DE].
led to his casting in the lead role in Arzen von Cserépy’s four-part biopic FRIDERICUS REX (1920–23). Gebühr returned to the part in a succession of nationalist epics spanning both Weimar and Nazi productions, and ending with Veit Harlan’s DER GROSSE KÖNIG (The Great King, 1940–42). Although forever associated with Frederick the Great, he also played other famous historical figures, including Prussian Field Marshall Blücher in Karl Grune’s WATERLOO (1928) and the King of Saxony in Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s BISMARCK (1940). In Carl Boese’s SCHIFFE UND MENSCHEN (Ships and People, 1920), Heinrich Brandt’s IN TREUE STARK (Eternal Allegiance, 1926) and Leo Lasko’s SCAPA FLOW (1929/30), Gebühr portrayed naval commanders. Gebühr was afforded few opportunities to demonstrate his versatility: he played a money-lender in director Preben Rist’s adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s GOBSECK (1923); took a dual role as a tailor and a priest in Berthold Viertel’s DIE PERÜCKE (The Wig, 1924); and portrayed the father on horseback in the French-made avantgarde-adaptation of Goethe’s ballad DER ERLKÖNIG (The Erl-King, 1930), directed by Marie-Louise Iribe. Gebühr furthermore had supporting roles in comedies such as Viktor de Kowa’s CASANOVA HEIRATET (Casanova’s Marriage, 1939/40) and Erich Engel’s VIEL LÄRM UM NIXI (Much Ado About Nixi, 1941). After the war, he resumed stage work at the Berliner Komödie in 1947, and undertook several national tours. He also played dotty eccentrics and fogeyish authority figures in melodramas and Heimatfilms.
OTTO GEBÜHR Born May 29, 1877, Kettwig (Germany) Died March 13, 1954, Wiesbaden (West Germany) Character actor Gebühr specialised in playing military leaders and aristocrats,and is best remembered for portraying Prussian monarch Frederick the Great (1712–1786) in seventeen historical films between 1919 and 1942. Gebühr started out in repertory theatre in 1896, and then joined Görlitz’s Stadttheater. Ten years at Dresden’s Königliches Hoftheater followed, as well as a stint at the Irving Palace Theatre in New York in 1909. Thereafter appearing on various Berlin stages, he served in an artillery regiment in World War I. Gebühr’s screen debut was the Messter-Film production VEILCHEN NR. 4 (Violet No. 4, 1917) and he was subsequently recommended by actor Paul Wegener for the part of Frederick the Great in Carl Boese’s DIE TÄNZERIN BARBERINA (Barberina the Dancer, 1919/20). Gebühr’s physical resemblance to Adolph von Menzel’s 19th century portrait of the Prussian monarch
[act – DE] 1917: Veilchen Nr. 4; Der Richter. 1918: Die singende Hand. 1919: Der Flimmerprinz; Sündiges Blut; Verrat und Sühne. 1919/20: Drei Nächte, Gold und Feuer; Die Tänzerin Barberina; Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße. 1920: Das Wüstengrab; Schiffe und Menschen; Der Menschheit Anwalt. 1. Die Wunde der Zeiten; Whitechapel; Abend – Nacht – Morgen; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam; Das Floß der Toten. 1920/21: Aus dem Schwarzbuch eines Polizeikommissars. 1. Teil; Fridericus Rex. Ein Königsschicksal: 1. Sturm und Drang / 2. Vater und Sohn. 1921: Wie das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße die Heimat fand; Die Furcht vor dem Weibe; Der Schatz der Azteken; Der Schrecken der roten Mühle; Der Gang durch die Hölle; Der Schatten der Gaby Leed. 1921/22: Sterbende Völker: 1. Heimat in Not / 2. Brennendes Meer. 1922/23: Fridericus Rex. Ein Königsschicksal: 3. Sanssouci / 4. Schicksalswende. 1923: Wilhelm Tell; Die Vergeltung; Mutter, dein Kind ruft!; Gobseck; Der Geldteufel; Jim als Hochtourist [SF – pro]. 1923/24: Neuland oder Das glückhaft Schiff [pro,act]. 1924: Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden [pro,act]; Die Perücke. 1924/25: Das Paradies Europas / O Schweizerland, mein Heimatland! [DE/CH]. 1925: Leidenschaft; Sein Chef [pro,act]; … und es lockt ein Ruf aus
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sündiger Welt; Die eiserne Braut; Die Gesunkenen. 1925/ 26: Die Mühle von Sanssouci. 1926: In Treue stark; Die Sporck’schen Jäger. 1927: Die heilige Lüge; Der alte Fritz: 1. Friede / 2. Ausklang. 1928: Waterloo. 1928/29: Die keusche Kokotte. 1929: Aus der Werkstatt des Filmschauspielers: Otto Gebühr [SD – app]. 1929/30: Scapa Flow. 1930: Der Detektiv des Kaisers; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci; Le roi des aulnes [MLV – FR]; Der Erlkönig [MLV – FR]. 1932: Die Tänzerin von Sanssouci. 1932/33: Der Choral von Leuthen. 1936: Heiteres und Ernstes um den Großen König [SF]; Fridericus. 1936/37: Das schöne Fräulein Schragg. 1938: Nanon; Frauen für Golden Hill. 1939: Die barmherzige Lüge. 1939/40: Casanova heiratet; Leidenschaft. 1940: Bismarck. 1940/41: Kopf hoch, Johannes! 1940-42: Der große König. 1941: Viel Lärm um Nixi [MLV]. 1941-43: Nacht ohne Abschied. 1942/43: Wer zuletzt lacht …!; Fritze Bollmann wollte angeln; Wenn der junge Wein blüht; Immensee. 1943: Die goldene Spinne. 1943/44: Der Erbförster. 1947: … und über uns der Himmel. 1948/49: Anonyme Briefe. 1949: Der Bagnosträfling. 1949/50: Tobias Knopp, Abenteuer eines Junggesellen [ANI – voi]. 1950: Die Lüge; Melodie des Schicksals; Drei Mädchen spinnen; Unsterbliche Geliebte. 1950/51: Dr. Holl; Das ewige Spiel. 1951: Sensation in San Remo; Stips; Grün ist die Heide; Torreani; Wenn die Abendglocken läuten. 1952: Mein Herz darfst Du nicht fragen; Tausend rote Rosen blühn; The Devil Makes Three [US]; Fritz und Friederike; Oh, du lieber Fridolin; Wenn abends die Heide träumt. 1952/53: Hab’ Sonne im Herzen; Die blaue Stunde. 1953: Rote Rosen, rote Lippen, roter Wein; Vati macht Dummheiten; Straßenserenade; Sterne über Colombo. 1953/54: Die Gefangene des Maharadscha; Meines Vaters Pferde. 2. Seine dritte Frau; Der Mann meines Lebens; Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben. 1954: Rosen-Resli. 1961: Knock-out [TV].
MARTINA GEDECK Born September 14, 1961, Munich (West Germany) A prolific and versatile actress of post-unification German stage, screen and television, Gedeck has played everything from comic divas to downtrodden tragediennes. Aged eleven, Gedeck first appeared in children’s television in 1971. She studied acting at Berlin’s Max Reinhardt Seminary from 1982 to 1986, and debuted at Frankfurt/Main’s Theater am Turm while still a student in 1985. Engagements at theatres in Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt/Main and Hamburg followed. On Ulrich Waller’s unification-themed stage soap opera HEIMATABEND (Homeland Evening, 1990), staged at Hamburg’s Kampnagel-Fabrik and later televised, Gedeck met actor Ulrich Wildgruber (1937–1999), with whom she became romantically involved until his death. Gedeck’s film debut was Dieter Funk and Beat Lottaz’s RETOUCHE (Retouched, 1983–85). A succession of bit-parts and supporting roles followed prior
to the leads in Dominik Graf’s television whodunit DIE BEUTE (Loot, 1987/88) and his comedy TIGER, LÖWE, PANTHER (Tiger, Lion, Panther, 1988/89). Gedeck also stood out as a young Jewish woman in Jörg Grünler’s award-winning melodrama KRÜCKE (Crutches, 1991–93), set amidst the rubbles of postWorld War II Germany. She reached even bigger audiences in Sönke Wortmann’s box-office hit DER BEWEGTE MANN (Maybe … Maybe Not / The Most Desired Man, 1994). Gedeck received her first Bavarian Television Award for her performance in Jo Baier’s small-screen adaptation of Oskar Maria Graf’s story HÖLLEISENGRETL (1994/95), and her second for her bravura turn as a woman struggling to cope with the death of her husband and son in Dominik Graf’s DEINE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years of Your Life, 1998/99). Gedeck earned her first German film award for supporting roles in Wolfgang Becker’s DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (LifeIs All You Get, 1995–97) and Helmut Dietl’s ROSSINI ODER DIE MÖRDERISCHE FRAGE, WER MIT WEM SCHLIEF (Rossini, 1996). She found further acclaim in Graf’s family drama GRÜNE WÜSTE (Green Desert, 1999), and in the title role of Sandra Nettelbeck’s romantic comedy BELLA MARTHA (Mostly Martha, 2000/01). Gedeck’s first US-based picture was Sherry Hormann’s small-screen PRIVATE LIES (1999/2000), and she was nominated for a German Television Award for her portrayal of East German writer Brigitte Reimann in the biopic HUNGER AUF LEBEN (Thirst for Life, 2003/04), directed by Swiss Markus Imboden, Gedecks companion since 2005. She became internationally known playing an East German actress pursued by party officials and the Stasi in the Oscar winning film DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN (The Lives of Others, 2004/05). This led to a role in Robert De Niro’s Berlin rubble film THE GOOD SHEPHERD (2006). In 2007/08 she demonstrated her versatility in portraying the Romantic composer Clara Schumann in Helma Sanders-Brahms’s GELIEBTE CLARA (Beloved Clara) as well as Ulrike Meinhof, the West German journalist turned terrorist, in Uli Edel’s DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX. [act – DE – TV] 1983-85: Retouche [FF]. 1986: In der Kälte der Sonne [FF]. 1986/87: Aquaplaning. 1987/88: Der Fahnder: Familienbande; Die Beute; Goldjunge. 1988/89: Tiger, Löwe, Panther [FF]. 1989: Ein Fall für zwei: Die Quittung; Eurocops: Der Schwur; Schulz & Schulz; Liebling Kreuzberg: 22. Selbsthilfe / 23. Ausnahmsweise umsonst [TVS]. 1989/90: Eine Frau für Alfie [CH]; Hard Days, Hard Nights [FF]. 1990: Der doppelte Nötzli [FF]; Heimatabend 1990: Das Mitbringsel aus dem Osten. 1990/91: Schulz & Schulz II: Aller Anfang ist schwer; Hausmänner. 1991: Hasenpiepe [SF]; Leo und Charlotte [6 episodes – TVS]; Ein
HANS W. GEISSENDÖRFER Fall für zwei: Blattschuß; Heimatabend 1991: Golfkrieg auf der Reeperbahn; Unter dem Berg; Das Nest: Blaue Augen; Auf Achse: 60. Der Duft der Wüste. 1991/92: Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht: Klassenfahrt; Schulz & Schulz III: Wechselspiele; Berlin Break: 6. Russian White / Roter Schnee / 21. The Marriage of Valentin R. / Alte Liebe [2 episodes – TVS – US/DE]. 1991-93: Krücke [FF]. 1992: Mutter und Söhne; Barmherzige Schwestern [FF]; Endstation Harembar; Wolffs Revier: Schwerkraft des Mordes; Schulz & Schulz IV: Neue Welten – alte Lasten; Heimatabend 1992: Der Kurschatten. 1992/93: Auf eigene Gefahr: 6. Der verlorene Sohn; Liebling Kreuzberg: 30. Rote Ohren / 34. Widerstand und so weiter / 35. Spatz in der Hand / 36. Wer schmeißt denn da mit Lehm / 40. Weiche Landung [5 episodes – TVS]. 1993: Ruhestörung [SF]; How I Got Rhythm [SF]; Schulz & Schulz V: Fünf vor zwölf; Heimatabend 1993: Die Reise nach Mallorca; Im Namen des Gesetzes: Zweimal ermordet; Die Kommissarin: Blumen für den Mörder. 1993/94: Die Stadtindianer: Roter Morgen; Nur eine kleine Affäre: Ein bißchen Lügen. 1994: Der König: Auch Mörder müssen sterben; Der bewegte Mann [FF]; Ein schamloser Nachschlag; Heimatabend 1994: Einmal Millionärin sein; Ein Bayer auf Rügen: Wiederseh’n macht Freude; Les jeux à deux – Die Spiele zu zweit [FF]; Das Schwein – Eine deutsche Karriere. 1994/95: Frauenarzt Dr. Markus Merthin: 1. Vorbereitungen / 3. Blechschaden / 13. Urlaub [3 episodes – TVS]; Man(n) sucht Frau; A. S.: Rosen und Tod; Hölleisengretl. 1995: Die Unbestechliche: Familienglück; Stadtgespräch [FF]; Kriminaltango: Das Amigos-Komplott.; Faust: Unfallflucht; Wer Kollegen hat, braucht keine Feinde; Heimatabend 1995: Das Silber-Jubiläum. 1995/96: Der schönste Tag im Leben; Friedemann Brix – Eine Schwäche für Mord: Bommel in der Klemme; Adelheid und ihre Mörder: Blaubarts letzte Frau. 1995-97: Das Leben ist eine Baustelle [FF]. 1996: Liane; Alles außer Mord: Totkäppchen; Rosa Roth: Nirgendwohin; Harald [FF]; Heimatabend 1996: Das Casting; Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief [FF]. 1996/97: Rosa Roth: Langer Samstag; SOKO 5113: Letzte Hilfe; Lea Katz – Die Kriminalpsychologin: Das wilde Kind; Der Neffe; Frauen lügen nicht [FF – AT/DE]. 1997: Bella Block: Tod eines Mädchens; Heimatabend 1997: Nichts ist sicher; Der Laden. 1997/98: Frau Rettich, die Czerni und ich [FF]; Single Bells [AT]; Lea Katz – Die Kriminalpsychologin: Einer von uns. 1998: Heimatabend 1998: Das Jahr mit Monica. 1998/99: Viehjud Levi [FF – DE/CH/AT]; Alles Bob! [FF – DK/DE/AT]; Deine besten Jahre. 1999: Grüne Wüste [FF]; Ich habe nein gesagt [FF]; Schamlos! Die ganze Geschichte; Heimatabend 1999: Die beste Party. 1999/2000: Harte Jungs [FF]; Private Lies / Scheidung auf amerikanisch. 2000: Happy Hour oder Glück und Glas … [AT]; Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe [DO]; O Palmenbaum [AT]; Romeo. 2000/01: Jenseits der Liebe; Bella Martha [FF – DE/IT/CH]. 2001: Verlorenes Land. 2001/02: Andreas Hofer – Die Freiheit des Adlers [AT/DE]. 2002: Die Mutter; Das Adoptivkind. 2002/03: Ich bedaure nichts; Ins Leben zurück. 2003: Geheime Geschichten; Unsre Mutter ist halt anders. 2003/04: Freedom2speak v2.0 [DO]; Das blaue Wunder; Hunger auf Leben; Sergeant Pepper [FF]. 2004: Der Stich des Skorpion; LiveMovie: Feuer in der Nacht; Casanova.
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2004/05: Spiele der Macht – 11011 Berlin; Das Leben der Anderen [FF]. 2005: Liebe nach dem Tod. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen [FF]; Un ami parfait [FF – FR]; Sommer ’04 an der Schlei [FF]. 2006: Auf ewig und einen Tag; Gero von Boehm begegnet … Martina Gedeck [TVD – app]; The Good Shepherd [FF – US]. 2006/07: Verlassen. 2007: Meine schöne Bescherung [FF]. 2007/08: Geliebte Clara [FF – DE/FR/HU]; Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [FF]. 2008/ 09: Tris di donne & abiti nuziali [FF – IT].
HANS W. GEISSENDÖRFER (Hans Wilhelm Geißendörfer) Born April 6, 1941, Augsburg (Germany) Director and producer Geissendörfer has remained a fiercely independent creative force in German cinema and television for over three decades, and is best known as the mastermind behind Germany’s longest running television soap opera, LINDENSTRASSE. Having studied German literature, theatre studies, psychology and African languages at universities in Marburg, Erlangen, Vienna and Zurich from 1962, Geissendörfer ‘dropped out’ in 1967 to travel Europe, Asia and Africa. He undertook first attempts at 16mm documentary and experimental filmmaking while underway, and was able to sell the results to television. Settling in Munich, he wrote and directed the television film DER FALL LENA CHRIST (The Case of Lena Christ, 1967) about the life of a Bavarian author, then served as assistant director on George Moorse’s LIEBE UND SO WEITER (Love etc., 1967/68). His modern-day vampire tale JONATHAN (1969) got a cinema release and earned Geissendörfer a ‘Filmband in Silber’ award for best new director as well as a critics’ award. He then made a string of genre-based films for television, including the gangster pictures EINE ROSE FÜR JANE (A Rose for Jane, 1970) and PERAHIM – DIE ZWEITE CHANCE (Perahim’s Second Chance, 1973/74); the psychological dramas MARIE (1972) and DIE ELTERN (The Parents, 1973/74); and a western version of Friedrich Schiller’s ‘Don Carlos’ titled simply CARLOS (1970/71). In 1975/76 he created and directed the crime comedy series LOBSTER. A number of big-screen literary adaptations followed, such as the Heimatfilm STERNSTEINHOF (The Sternstein Farm, 1975), based on Ludwig Anzengruber’s novel; the Henrik Ibsen drama DIE WILDENTE (The Wild Duck, 1976); and two psychological thrillers based on books by Patricia Highsmith, DIE GLÄSERNE ZELLE (The Glass Cell, 1977/78), which received an Oscar nomination in 1979, and EDITHS TAGEBUCH (Edith’s Diary, 1983). Geissendörfer also directed two lavish television drama miniseries set in the early decades of the 20th
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century, THEODOR CHINDLER (1978/79) and DER ZAUBERBERG (The Magic Mountain, 1981), adapted respectively from novels by Bernhard von Brentano and Thomas Mann. While these elegant productions consistently met with a mixed response from critics, they picked up national and international accolades, including three German Film Awards. A partner in the Filmverlag der Autoren production company from 1971, he founded Geissendörfer Filmund Fernsehproduktion (known as ‘gff’) in 1985, which has produced both other directors’ works and Geissendörfer’s own occasional forays into cinema: BUMERANG – BUMERANG (Boomerang Boomerang, 1989), GUDRUN (1991), JUSTIZ (Justice, 1993), another Oscar Nominee, and SCHNEELAND (Snowland, 2003/04), an adaptation of Swedish writer Elisabeth Rynell’s novel ‘Hohaj’. GFF also cooperates with film companies in London where he spends part of his time. However, Geissendörfer and GFF’s activities have since 1985 focussed principally on the weekly soap opera LINDENSTRASSE, a national TV institution which celebrated its 1000th episode in January 2005. Loosely modelled on British formats such as CORONATION STREET and EASTENDERS, Geissendörfer’s series has not only consistently managed to address topical social issues, it has also proved a career stepping stone for screen and TV stars such as Til Schweiger. [dir – DE] 1966: Befriedung / Lächle, Seki [SD – dir,cam]. 1967: Anna Kahn [SF – dir,cam]; Dynamitfischerei [SD – dir,cam]; Eins & Eins [SF – dir,cam]; Fastentage in Griechenland [SD – dir,cam]; Netzfischfang im Aegäischen Meer [SD – dir,cam]; Manfred Schoof Quintett [SD – dir,cam]; Der Fall Lena Christ [TV – dir,scr]. 1967/68: Liebe und so weiter [TV – ass-dir]. 1969: Jonathan [dir,scr]. 1970: Eine Rose für Jane [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1970/71: Carlos [TV – dir,scr]. 1972: Marie [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1973: Die Eltern [TV – dir,scr]. 1973/74: Perahim – die zweite Chance [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1975: Sternsteinhof [dir,co-scr]. 1975/76: Lobster: Der Einarmige / Zwei Fliegen / Stirb! / Handschellen / Blut / Das Kind [6 episodes – TVS – dir, co-scr,ide]. 1976: Die Wildente [dir,scr – DE/AT]. 1977/ 78: Die gläserne Zelle [dir,co-scr]. 1978/79: Theodor Chindler [TV – dir,scr]. 1981: Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [dir,scr – DE/FR/ IT]. 1982: Hundert Tage auf dem Zauberberg [TVD – app]. 1982/83: Der Platzanweiser [app]. 1983: Ediths Tagebuch [dir,co-pro]. since 1985: Lindenstraße [TVS – pro,supv,ide,co-dir,co-scr]. 1986: Rebellion der Gehenkten [TV – co-scr – DE/MX/FR]. 1987: Die Kraft der Frauen steckt in ihrer Phantasie [TVD – app]. 1988: Im Jahr der Schildkröte [pro]. 1989: Bumerang – Bumerang [dir,pro]. 1991: Gudrun [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1993: Justiz [dir,pro – DE/CH]. 1993/94: Loaded [co-pro – GB/NZ]. 1994: Rules of the Road – Reise ohne Hoffnung [DO – pro]; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1998: Dolphins of the Shadow-
land / Die Delfine der Nebelschlucht [TVD – pro – NZ/DE]. 1999: The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz / Die neun Leben des Tomas Katz [co-pro – GB/DE]. 2002: Footprints [DO – co-scr,pro – GB/DE]. 2003/04: Schneeland [dir,scr,pro]. 2006: Pik und Amadeus – Freunde wider Willen [TV – pro]. 2006/07: Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app]. 2007: Was kann denn schöner sein – Gedanken zum deutschen Heimatfilm [TVD – app]; Zelle [pro]. 2007/08: Selbstgespräche [pro]. 2008: Pazar – Der Markt / The Market – A Tale of Trade / Pazar – Bir ticaret masali [pro – DE/ GB/KZ/TR].
GÖTZ GEORGE Born July 23, 1938, Berlin (Germany) Stage and screen actor George has won acclaim for his vivid characterisations of alternately comic, tragic, heroic and villainous loners, and he remains a household name in Germany after having played television detective Schimanski for over two decades. The son of prominent stage and film actors Heinrich George and Berta Drews (1901–1987), he was schooled in Berlin and Zuoz (Switzerland) and debuted aged twelve at Berlin’s Hebbel-Theater. His first screen role was alongside Romy Schneider in Hans Deppe’s sentimental Heimatfilm WENN DER WEISSE FLIEDER WIEDER BLÜHT (When the White Lilacs Bloom Again, 1953). Studying at Ufa’s acting studio from 1955 to 1958, he appeared in films including Hans Heinrich’s DEFA comedy ALTER KAHN UND JUNGE LIEBE (Young Love and an Old Barge, 1956). George then joined the ensemble of Göttingen’s Deutsches Theater from 1958 to 1963, and toured in numerous productions. He won a German Film Award as best newcomer in Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s JACQUELINE (1959), and stood out in two films by director Wolfgang Staudte, as a war-weary soldier in KIRMES (The Fair, 1960) and as a young man rebelling against the previous generation’s Nazi past in HERRENPARTIE (Destination Death, 1963/64). For the rest of the decade he was frequently cast as a muscular action hero in popular European genre series such as Karl May westerns and Fu Manchu spy thrillers. In a different vein, George impressed as the brutal and all-too-human Auschwitz commandant in Theodor Kotulla’s AUS EINEM DEUTSCHEN LEBEN (Death Is My Trade, 1976/77). From 1981 to 1991, George played cool maverick cop Schimanski in the television series TATORT (Crime Scene), a role that made him one of the most popular and recognisable stars in the German media landscape of the 1980s and 1990s. George resumed the part in the spin-off series SCHIMANSKI which has been running since 1997, as well as in two big-screen films. His talent as a comedian was presented in a series of comedies SCHULZ & SCHULZ with George playing two brothers exchanging their places in divided Germany.
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The actor’s other parts have stood in marked contrast to his Schimanski image, with his award-winning performances including a macho advertising executive in Carl Schenkel’s claustrophobic thriller ABWÄRTS (Out of Order, 1983/84), a scandal-mongering journalist in Helmut Dietl’s satire SCHTONK! (1991/92), real-life Weimar-era serial killer Fritz Haarmann in Romuald Karmaker’s internationally acclaimed DER TOTMACHER (Deathmaker, 1995), and KZ doctor Josef Mengele in Roland Suso Richter’s NICHTS ALS DIE WAHRHEIT (After the Truth, 1998). On television, he has stood out in particular as a murder suspect in Nico Hofmann’s DER SANDMANN (The Sandman, 1995) and as an Alzheimer sufferer in Andreas Kleinert’s MEIN VATER (My Father, 2001/ 02). He has also directed occasional stage plays. George was married to Austrian actress Loni von Friedl (b. 1943) from 1966 to 1976. Recovering from life-threatening heart surgery in 2007 George authorised the publication of his biography ‘Mit dem Leben gespielt’ (Played With Life) written by Torsten Körner in 2008. [act – DE] 1953: Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht. 1954: Ihre große Prüfung. 1956: Alter Kahn und junge Liebe [DD]. 1957: Kolportage [TV]. 1958: Solange das Herz schlägt. 1959: Jacqueline. 1960: Kirmes; Die Fastnachtsbeichte. 1960/61: Der Teufel spielte Balalaika. 1961: Alle meine Söhne [TV]; Mörderspiel / Le jeu de l’assassin [DE/ FR]; Unser Haus in Kamerun. 1961/62: Ihr schönster Tag. 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt; Der Schatz im Silbersee / Blago u srebnom jezeru / Le trésor du lac d’argent [DE/YU/FR]; Ipnosi / Hipnosis / Nur tote Zeugen schweigen [IT/ES/DE]. 1962/63: Liebe will gelernt sein. 1963: Mensch und Bestie / Covek i zver [DE/YU]. 1963/64: Herrenpartie / Muski izlet [DE/YU]; Wartezimmer zum Jenseits. 1964: Unter Geiern / Parmi les vautours [DE/FR]. 1964/65: Sie nannten ihn Gringo / La ley del forastero [DE/ES]. 1965: Alle meine Söhne [TV]; Ferien mit Piroschka [DE/AT]. 1966: Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi / Apanatsi [DE/YU]. 1967: Premieren von gestern [TVD – app]; Der Werbeoffizier [TV]; Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte [TV]. 1967/68: Ich spreng’ Euch alle in die Luft! – Inspektor Blomfields Fall Nr. 1. 1968: Match [TV]; Der Todeskuß des Dr. Fu Man Chu / Fu Manchú y el beso de la muerte / Kiss & Kill / Fu Man Chu and the Kiss of Death [DE/ES/US/GB]; Der Eismann kommt [TV]. 1969: Himmelfahrtskommando El Alamein / Commandos [DE/ IT]; Spion unter der Haube [TV]; 11 Uhr 20 [TV]. 1969/70: Der Kommissar: Tod einer Zeugin [TV]; Vento dell’est / Le vent d’est / Ostwind [IT/FR/DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1971: Diamantendetektiv Dick Donald [13 episodes – TVS]; Tatort: Blechschaden; Glückspilze. 1972: Der Kommissar: Ein Amoklauf; Der Illegale. Biografie eines Spions; Tatort: Rattennest; Die Theaterwerkstatt: Kesselflickers Hochzeit. 1973: Hamburg Transit: Eifersucht; Die Gräfin von Rathenow; Der Kommissar: Sommerpension; Zwischen den Flügen: Ein Wiedersehen. 1974: Mandragola. 1976: Café Hungaria [13 episodes – TVS – HU]; Tatort:
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Transit ins Jenseits. 1976/77: Aus einem deutschen Leben [FF]. 1978: Derrick: Der Spitzel; Der Alte: Der schöne Alex. 1979: Der Alte: Der Auftraggeber; Die Sonnenpferde / Les chevaux du soleil [TVS – DE/FR]. 1980: Überfall in Glasgow. 1980/81: Der König und sein Narr. 1981: Tatort: Duisburg-Ruhrort; Dantons Tod [AT]; Tatort: Grenzgänger; Tatort: Der unsichtbare Gegner; Der Regenmacher. 1981/ 82: Tatort: Das Mädchen auf der Treppe. 1982: Tatort: Kuscheltiere; Tatort: Miriam. 1983: Das schöne Ende dieser Welt; Tatort: Kielwasser; Tatort: Zweierlei Blut; Tatort: Rechnung ohne Wirt. 1983/84: Abwärts [FF]. 1984: Abgehört; Tatort: Doppelspiel. 1984/85: Tatort: Das Haus im Wald; Tatort: Schwarzes Wochenende. 1985: Zahn um Zahn [FF]; Tatort: Der Tausch; Tatort: Freunde; Tatort: Spielverderber. 1986: Atelier [TVD – app]; Tatort: Gebrochene Blüten. 1986/87: Tatort – Zabou [FF]. 1987: Die Katze [FF]. 1987/88: Tatort: Einzelhaft. 1988: Tatort: Moltke; Der Bruch [FF – DD]; Tatort: Der Pott. 1988/89: Zwei Frauen [FF – co-pro]; Tatort: Blutspur; Blauäugig [FF]. 1989: Spielen willst Du ja alles [TVD – app]; Tatort: Katjas Schweigen; Schulz & Schulz. 1989/90: Tatort: Schimanskis Waffe. 1990: Tatort: Medizinmänner; Tatort/Polizeiruf 110: Unter Brüdern [DE/DD]. 1990/91: Schulz & Schulz II: Aller Anfang ist schwer; Tatort: Bis zum Hals im Dreck. 1991: Tatort: Kinderlieb; Tatort: Der Fall Schimanski. 1991/ 92: Schtonk! [FF]; Schulz & Schulz III: Wechselspiele; Morlock: König Midas. 1992: Schulz & Schulz IV: Neue Welten – alte Lasten; Morlock: Kinderkram. 1992/93: Ich und Christine [FF]. 1993: Morlock: Die Verflechtung; Schulz & Schulz V: Fünf vor zwölf; Le tunnel / Morlock: Der Tunnel [FR/DE]; Die Sturzflieger [FF]. 1994: Der König von Dulsberg; Das Schwein – Eine deutsche Karriere. 1995: Taten, Orte, Kommisare [TVD – app]; Der Totmacher [FF]; Der Sandmann; Der Mann auf der Bettkante. 1995/96: Tote sterben niemals aus. 1996: Das Tor des Feuers; Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief [FF]. 1996/97: Das Trio [FF]. 1997: Immer auf dem Sprung – Der Schauspieler Götz George [TVD – app]; Schimanski – Die Schwadron; Schimanski – Blutsbrüder; Schimanski – Hart am Limit; Die Bubi Scholz Story. 1998: Solo für Klarinette [FF]; Schimanski – Muttertag; Schimanski – Rattennest; Schimanski – Geschwister; Nichts als die Wahrheit / After the Truth [FF – DE/US]. 1999: Die Entführung; Racheengel – Stimme aus dem Dunkeln; Schimanski – Sehnsucht. 1999/ 2000: Die Spur meiner Tochter. 2000: Schimanski – Tödliche Liebe; Mord nach der Tagesschau [TVD – app]; Schimanski – Schimanski muss leiden; Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man [FF]. 2001: Bargeld lacht; Schimanski – Kinder der Hölle; Liebe. Macht. Blind. 2001/02: Liebe ist die halbe Miete; Gott ist tot [FF]. 2002: Der Anwalt und sein Gast; Schimanski – Asyl; Mein Vater. 2002/03: René Deltgen – Der sanfte Rebell [DO – LU]; Verliebte Diebe. 2003: Geheimnisvolle Freundinnen; Familienkreise; Alpenglühen; Schimanski – Das Geheimnis des Golem. 2003/04: Blatt & Blüte – Die Erbschaft [AT]; Alpenglühen zwei – Liebe versetzt Berge. 2004: Einmal so wie ich will; Kein Himmel über Afrika. 2004/05: Die Sturmflut. 2004-06: Maria an Callas [FF]. 2005: Schimanski – Sünde; Kabale und Liebe [DE/ AT]. 2005/06: Als der Fremde kam. 2006: Commissario Laurenti – Die Toten vom Karst. 2006/07: Schimanski – Tod
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in der Siedlung; Der Novembermann; Die Katze. 2007/08: Meine fremde Tochter; Schokolade für den Chef. 2008: Schimanski – Schicht im Schacht; Nicht reden, machen [TVD – app]. 2008/09: Herzensbrecher / Ach Glück …; Mein Kampf [DE/AT/CH].
HEINRICH GEORGE (Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz) Born October 9, 1893, Stettin (Germany, now Szczecin, Poland) Died September 26, 1946, Sachsenhausen Internment Camp (Germany) In every sense a heavyweight in left-wing theatre and film during the Weimar Republic, George went on to become a stalwart of the Nazi propaganda industry. After dropping out of high school in Berlin, George took acting lessons in his home town of Stettin, and began working in provincial theatres in 1912. He signed up voluntarily following the outbreak of World War I, and served with the German army between 1914 and 1917, when he was badly wounded. George returned to the stage in Dresden and Frankfurt/Main from 1917 to 1921, while undertaking guest appearances in Berlin in 1920, and his first film roles the following year. Together with Alexander Granach, Elisabeth Bergner and other theatrical luminaries, George founded the Schauspielertheater in 1923, and was at the Volksbühne with Erwin Piscator from 1925 to 1928. He became a regular at the Heidelberg Festival between 1926 and 1938, and also directed his own productions from 1927. Most often embodying heavy-set proletarian types in Weimar cinema, such as the foreman in Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/26) or Franz Biberkopf in Phil Jutzi’s BERLIN – ALEXANDERPLATZ (Berlin Alexanderplatz, 1931), George also brought his burly frame to bear in theatrically-inspired moments like his delivery of Zola’s speech for the defence in Richard Oswald’s DREYFUS (The Dreyfus Case, 1930). In 1930, George appeared in E. A. Dupont’s MENSCHEN IM KÄFIG, the German-language version of his B.I.P. production CAPE FORLORN, and in 1930/ 31, the actor travelled to Hollywood to star in two German-language versions at M-G-M: WIR SCHALTEN UM AUF HOLLYWOOD (based on THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929) and MENSCHEN HINTER GITTERN (based on 1930’s THE BIG HOUSE). During the ‘Third Reich’, George became one of the most recognisable faces of Nazi cinema, playing a Communist converted to National Socialism in Hans Steinhoff’s HITLERJUNGE QUEX (Hitler Youth Quex, 1933), the decadent duke in Veit Harlan’s virulent JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940), and the unwavering local mayor in Harlan’s exhortation to total war, KOLBERG (Burning Hearts, 1943–45). He also took on authoritative, Führer-like roles in Herbert Maisch’s
biopics FRIEDRICH SCHILLER – DER TRIUMPH EINES GENIES (Friedrich Schiller, 1940), in which he played the Duke of Württemberg, and ANDREAS SCHLÜTER (1941/42). George delivered somewhat more nuanced performances in a number of pictures adapted from literary sources, including Detlef Sierck’s (Douglas Sirk) Ibsen adaptation STÜTZEN DER GESELLSCHAFT (Pillars of Society, 1935), his departmental chief von Wehrhahn in Jürgen von Alten’s Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation DER BIBERPELZ (The Beaver Coat, 1937), and in particular his lead in Gustav Ucicky’s DER POSTMEISTER (The Stationmaster, 1939/40), based on Pushkin’s novella. Appointed director of Berlin’s Schiller-Theater in 1938, George was also given his own film production unit at Tobis in 1942. At the end of World War II, Soviet forces interned George at Hohenschönhausen, then at Sachsenhausen, where he died following an appendectomy. George’s two sons from his marriage to actress Berta Drews (1901–1987), Jan George (b. 1931) and Götz George (b. 1938), both went on to acting careers in West Germany, and in 1994 were able to bury their father’s remains, which had finally been located and identified. In 1997 director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg shot the German-Polish coproduction DIES VERLAUSTE, NACKTE LEBEN / TO WSZAWE, NAGIE ¯YCIE (Lousy, Bare Life), a TV-biopic about George’s last months in internment. [act – DE] 1921: Der Roman der Christine von Herre; Lady Hamilton; Kean. 1922: Die Perlen der Lady Harrison; Lucrezia Borgia; Das fränkische Lied; Lola Montez, die Tänzerin des Königs. 1922/23: Erdgeist; Fridericus Rex. Ein Königsschicksal: 4. Schicksalswende; Die Sonne von St. Moritz. 1923: Der Mensch am Wege; Quarantäne. 1923/24: Steuerlos. 1924: Soll und Haben; Zwischen Morgen und Morgen. 1925/26: She / Mirakel der Liebe [GB/DE]; Metropolis. 1926: Das Panzergewölbe; Überflüssige Menschen; Die versunkene Flotte. 1926/27: Das Meer (Insel der Leidenschaft). 1927: Orientexpreß; Bigamie; Die Ausgestoßenen; Die Leibeigenen. 1927/28: The Constant Nymph [GB]. 1928: Die Dame mit der Maske; ‘Song’ / Show Life [DE/GB]; Das letzte Souper; Das letzte Fort; Rutschbahn [DE/GB]; Der Mann mit dem Laubfrosch; Kinder der Straße. 1929: Manolescu. Der König der Hochstapler; Der Sträfling aus Stambul; Sprengbagger 1010. 1930: Der Andere [MLV]; Dreyfus; Menschen im Käfig [MLV – GB]; ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand. 1930/31: Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV]; Menschen hinter Gittern [MLV – US]. 1931: Wir schalten um auf Hollywood [MLV – US]; Berlin – Alexanderplatz. Die Geschichte vom Franz Biberkopf. 1931/32: Goethe lebt …! 1932/33: Das Meer ruft; Schleppzug M 17 [co-dir,act]. 1933: Hitlerjunge Quex; Reifende Jugend. 1934: Hermine und die sieben Aufrechten / Das Fähnlein
KURT GERRON der sieben Aufrechten [DE/CH]. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna; Nacht der Verwandlung; Stützen der Gesellschaft. 1935/36: Die große und die kleine Welt; Wenn der Hahn kräht. 1936: Stjenka Rasin (Wolga – Wolga). 1936/37: Ball im Metropol. 1937: Versprich mir nichts!; Unternehmen Michael; Ein Volksfeind; Der Biberpelz. 1937/38: Frau Sylvelin; Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Heimat. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz. 1939: Sensationsprozeß Casilla; Pedro soll hängen. 1939/40: Der Postmeister. 1940: Jud Süß; Friedrich Schiller. Der Triumph eines Genies. 1941/42: Schicksal; Hochzeit auf Bärenhof; Wien 1910; Der große Schatten; Andreas Schlüter. 1942: Zeitspiegel Nr. 02: 12 Minuten mit einem bekannten Schauspieler [SD]. 1943/44: Der Verteidiger hat das Wort! [act,pro]; Die Degenhardts [act,pro]. 1943-45: Kolberg. 1944/45: Das Leben geht weiter; Frau über Bord. Kabine 27 / Das Mädchen Juanita [act,pro]. 1945: Dr. phil. Döderlein.
KURT GERRON (Kurt Gerson) Born May 11, 1897, Berlin (Germany) Died October 28, 1944, Auschwitz Concentration Camp (Owiêcim, Poland) A popular German-Jewish cabaret star and comedian in the 1920s and early 1930s, Gerron was among the most prominent of the many Jewish entertainment industry professionals who were murdered in Nazi concentration camps. At the outbreak of World War I Gerron signed up as a soldier. He was wounded in action and returned to the capital to study medicine, only to be drafted back to the front in 1917, to serve in the medical corps. After completing his studies he commenced a career as a cabaret performer, appearing at Berlin venues including Trude Hesterberg’s ‘Wilde Bühne’ and several of Max Reinhardt’s theatres. Gaining popularity as an actor-singer in variety and revue shows, Gerron also scored a hit in 1928 as Tiger Brown in Erich Engel’s first-run production of Brecht and Weill’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’. Gerron started to act in films in the early 1920s, specialising in roles that required some brawn, such as a dockworker in E. A. Dupont’s VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925), a wrestler in Richard Oswald’s HALBSEIDE (Semi-Silk, 1925), and a boxer in Max Mack’s EIN TAG DER ROSEN IM AUGUST (When the Roses Bloom in August, 1927). Frequently cast alongside Hans Albers, and later opposite Heinz Rühmann, the hulking Gerron also teamed up repeatedly on both stage and screen with gawky, willowy Siegfried Arno, for example in Oswald’s VORDERHAUS UND HINTERHAUS (Front Door and Back Steps, 1925). From 1928 to 1929, the pair launched an unsuccessful bid to revitalise German slapstick comedy, appearing as duo ‘Beef & Steak’. Gerron also had a guest appearance in G. W.
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Pabst’s TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929). His melancholy stage manager Kiepert in Josef von Sternberg’s DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30) proved a tour-de-force, and standout roles in other early sound films included a lawyer in Wilhelm Thiele’s DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930) and a casino manager in Hanns Schwarz’s BOMBEN AUF MONTE CARLO (Bombs Over Monte Carlo, 1931). Debuting as a director with the crime film DER LIEBE LUST UND LEID (Love’s Joys and Woes, 1926), Gerron went on to direct several of Heinz Rühmann’s early hit comedies, such as MEINE FRAU, DIE HOCHSTAPLERIN (My Wife, the Con Woman, 1931) and ES WIRD SCHON WIEDER BESSER … (Things Are Getting Better Again, 1931/32). Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, Gerron emigrated via France and Austria to the Netherlands, where he undertook stage and cabaret work with other émigrés. He was arrested in the summer of 1943, and in 1944, he was sent to Theresienstadt (Terezín) near Prague where, along with other eminent camp internees who hoped that working on the project might ensure their survival, he agreed to direct the so-called ‘documentary’ THERESIENSTADT: EIN DOKUMENTARFILM AUS DEM JÜDISCHEM SIEDLUNGSGEBIET (A Documentary of the Jewish Settlement, also erroneously known as ‘Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt’, or ‘The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews’, 1944/45), with which the Nazis attempted to gain international approval for the use of concentration camps. After the shooting was completed Gerron and other participants were taken to Auschwitz and sent to the gas chamber. Gerron’s tragic fate in Theresienstadt was the topic of several documentaries and feature films over the years, as well as the play ‘Camp Comedy’ by Roy Kift. [act – DE] 1913/14: Fräulein Puppe – meine Frau. 1920: Hutsalon Riedländer [scr]; Spuk auf Schloß Kitay; Die Präriediva. 1920/21: Die Apotheke des Teufels. 1921: Der Held des Tages; Im Strudel der Großstadt [dir]. 1921/22: Wege des Lasters; Frau Sünde; Scheine des Todes. 1924: Schmiede. 1925: O alte Burschenherrlichkeit; Varieté; Vorderhaus und Hinterhaus; Halbseide. 1926: Der goldene Schmetterling [AT/DE]; Die drei Mannequins; Wien – Berlin; Die Kleine und ihr Kavalier; Annemarie und ihr Ulan; Im weißen Rößl; Der Soldat der Marie; Der Liebe Lust und Leid [dir,act]; Mädchenhandel; Eine tolle Nacht; Die Tragödie eines Verlorenen. 1926/27: Die schönsten Beine von Berlin. 1927: Einbruch; Die Dame mit dem Tigerfell; Üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit; Sein größter Bluff; Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen; Pique-Dame; Feme; Was weißt Du von der Liebe; Die weiße Spinne; Ein Tag der Rosen im August … da hat die Garde fortgemußt; Ein schwerer Fall; Gehetzte Frauen; Die Pflicht zu schweigen; Das Frauenhaus von Rio; Ramper, der Tiermensch; Das tanzende
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Wien; Der große Unbekannte; Wer wirft den ersten Stein?; Dr. Bessels Verwandlung; Benno Stehkragen; Manege. 1927/28: Liebe und Diebe; Heut’ tanzt Mariett. 1928: Vom Täter fehlt jede Spur; Casanovas Erbe; Die Yacht der sieben Sünden; Unmoral; Die Regimentstochter / Daughter of the Regiment [DE/GB]; Nachtgestalten. Nur ein Gassenmädel / The Alley Cat [DE/GB]; Überfall [SF]. 1928/29: Wir halten fest und treu zusammen [act,pro]; Die Flucht vor der Liebe. 1929: Aufruhr im Junggesellenheim [act,pro]; Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü; Menschen am Sonntag. 1929/30: Liebe im Ring; Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Die vom Rummelplatz; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Dolly macht Karriere; Einbrecher. Eine musikalische Ehekomödie [MLV]; Die Marquise von Pompadour [MLV]; Ihre Majestät die Liebe [MLV]; Der Weg nach Rio. 1931: Der Stumme von Portici [SF – dir]; Salto mortale [MLV – act]; Kabarett-Programm Nr. 1-6 [6 episodes – SF – dir,act]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin [dir]; Eine Nacht im Grandhotel [MLV]; Vater geht auf Reisen; Man braucht kein Geld [MLV]. 1931/32: Es wird schon wieder besser … [dir]; Zwei in einem Auto / Eine Reise ins Glück [MLV – FR/DE]. 1932: Ein toller Einfall [MLV – dir]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV – dir]; Stupéfiants [MLV – dir – DE/FR]. 1932/33: Heut kommt’s drauf an [dir]. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen [dir]; Paris Music-Hall Numéro 1-6 [6 episodes – SF – dir – FR]; Une femme au volant [dir – FR]; Incognito [dir – FR]. 1934/35: Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten [dir – AT]. 1935: Het mysterie van de Mondscheinsonate [dir – NL]. 1936: Merijntje Gijzen’s jeugd [dir,scr – NL]; Een dag bij de A.V.R.O. [DO – dir – NL]. 1937: Drie wenschen [MLV – dir – IT/NL]; I tre desideri [MLV – dir – IT]. 1944/45: Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet [DO – scr – DE (CS)]. 1962: Transport z ráje [FF – CS]. 1964/65: So schön war es in Terezin [DO]. 1988: Kurt Gerron – Seine Gage war der Tod [TVD – DD]. 1998/99: Kurt Gerrons Karussell [DO – DE/NL/CZ]. 2000: They Fought Back! [DO – US]. 2002: Prisoner of Paradise [DO – CA].
ERWIN GESCHONNECK Born December 27, 1906, Bartenstein (Germany, now Bartoszyce, Poland) Died March 12, 2008, Berlin (Germany) A survivor of Nazi concentration camps and a committed communist, Geschonneck rose from a background as an unskilled labourer to become one of East Germany’s most versatile and best-loved stars. Raised in Berlin, Geschonneck participated in socialist agitprop theatre prior to joining the German Communist Party in 1929. He worked as an extra for Erwin Piscator at the Volksbühne theatre and had a small part in Slatan Dudow and Bertolt Brecht’s KUHLE WAMPE (Whither Germany?, 1931/ 32). After the Nazis seized power, Geschonneck emigrated to the Soviet Union via Warsaw and Czecho-
slovakia. Reaching Moscow in late 1934, he appeared at Gustav von Wangenheim’s theatre ‘Kolonne Links’ as well as at German-language theatres in the Ukraine. Expelled to Czechoslovakia by the Stalinist regime in 1938, he was arrested by the SS and interred initially in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, then in Dachau, and finally in Neuengamme, near Hamburg. He was one of the few survivors of the concentration camp ship ‘Cap Arcona’ after it was mistakenly bombed by the RAF in 1945. After the war, he joined Hamburg’s Kammerspiele theatre, while also working as a drama and children’s hour announcer on radio station NWDR. His first substantial screen role was in Helmut Käutner’s IN JENEN TAGEN (Seven Journeys, 1946/47), followed by other films of Hamburg-based Real Film, run by camp survivors Walter Koppel and Gyula Trebitsch. Moving to East Germany, Geschonneck was a member of the Berliner Ensemble under Brecht from 1949 to 1955, appearing as Matti in ‘Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti’ (Mr Puntila and His Man Matti) and as the army chaplain in ‘Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder’ (Mother Courage and Her Children). He appeared in dozens of supporting and lead roles in DEFA and East German television productions. Of particular note is his first DEFA starring role, as a Nazi executioner in Falk Harnack’s adaptation of Arnold Zweig’s novel DAS BEIL VON WANDSBEK (The Axe of Wandsbek, 1950/51), a film that was banned for several years. Geschoneck continued to demonstrate a supremely broad range that at once drew on his working class background, anti-fascist activism and on his comedic abilities. He played an anarchic uranium miner in Konrad Wolf’s SONNENSUCHER (Sun Seekers, 1957/58; released 1972), a concentration camp inmate in Frank Beyer’s NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN (Naked Among Wolves, 1962), and as the hairdresser in a Jewish ghetto in JAKOB DER LÜGNER (Jacob the Liar, 1974). His characterisation of a sly worker crisscrossing the iron curtain just after the war in KARBID UND SAUERAMPFER (Carbide and Sorrel, 1963) remains one of the best film comedies of the German cinema. Lothar Bellag’s television film DER MANN VON DER CAP ARCONA (The Man Fom the Cap Arcona, 1981/ 82) was a loose retelling of Geschonneck’s life story with the actor in the lead role. Under the direction of his son Matti Geschonneck (b. 1952), he played an elderly West German who unexpectedly inherits an East Berlin house in MATULLA & BUSCH (1995). Geschonneck published his memoirs, ‘Meine unruhigen Jahre’ (My Restless Years), in 1984, and was presented with a German Film Award for outstanding lifetime achievement in 1993.
WALTER GILLER [act – DE] 1931/32: Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? 1946/47: In jenen Tagen. 1948: Finale. 1948/49: Die letzte Nacht; Liebe 47. 1949: Hafenmelodie; Der Biberpelz [DD]. [act – DD] 1950: Das kalte Herz. 1950/51: Das Beil von Wandsbek. 1951/52: Schatten über den Inseln. 1952/53: Die Unbesiegbaren. 1953: Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar [TV]. 1953/54: Alarm im Zirkus. 1955: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [aborted]; Das Haushaltswunder [SF]; Es geht um die Wurst [SF]. 1956: Les aventures de Till l’Espiègle / Die Abenteuer des Till Eulenspiegel [FR/DD]; Der Hauptmann von Köln; Schlösser und Katen: 1. Der krumme Anton / 2. Annegrets Heimkehr. 1957: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [TV]; Katzgraben [TV]; Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti [TV]. 1957/58: Sonnensucher. 1958: Die Geschichte vom armen Hassan; Der Lotterieschwede; Ohm contra Watt [SF]. 1958/59: SAS 181 antwortet nicht. 1959: Herzlichen Glückwunsch [SF]; Musterknaben. 1959/60: Leute mit Flügeln; Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1961: Gewissen in Aufruhr [TV]. 1961/62: Ach, du fröhliche … 1962: Wind von vorn; Nackt unter Wölfen. 1963: Der andere neben dir [TV]; Karbid und Sauerampfer. 1964: Asphalt-Story [TV]. 1965: Tiefe Furchen [TV]; Berlin um die Ecke. 1965/66: Liebesbriefe [SD – voi]. 1966: Die Ermittlung [TV]. 1966/67: Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz; Geschichten jener Nacht: Der große und der kleine Willi. 1967: Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog. 1969/70: Jeder stirbt für sich allein [TV]. 1970: Wir kaufen eine Feuerwehr. 1971: Implacabilis [TVD – voi]; Nach meinem letzten Umzug … [DO – DE]. 1971/72: Täter unbekannt [6 episodes – TVS]. 1972: Das Geheimnis der Anden [TV]; Anfang am Ende der Welt [TV]. 1973: Tûzoltó utca 25 [HU]. 1973/74: Der Untergang der Emma; Polizeiruf 110: Der Tod des Professors [TV]. 1974: Ein Freudenfeuer für den Bischof [TV]; Jakob der Lügner; Looping. 1974/75: Bankett für Achilles. 1975: Ein Feigenblatt für Kuhle Wampe – oder Wem gehört die Welt [TV]; Im Schlaraffenland [TV]. 1975/76: Das Licht auf dem Galgen; Ein altes Modell [TV]. 1976: Ostrov støíbrných volavek / Die Insel der Silberreiher [CS/DD]; Tambari. 1976/77: Die Millionen des Knut Brümmer [TV]; Abschied vom Frieden [TV]. 1977: Schau heimwärts, Engel! [TV]; Die Entdeckung [SF]; Anton der Zauberer. 1977/78: Rentner haben niemals Zeit [TVS]. 1978: Des kleinen Lokführers große Fahrt [TV]; Das Ding im Schloß; Herbstzeit [TV]. 1978/79: Plantagenstraße 19 [TV]. 1979: Verlobung in Hollerbusch [TV]. 1979/80: Friedhelms Geburtstag und andere Geschichten [TV]; Levins Mühle. 1980: Circus Maximus [HU/DE]; Asta, mein Engelchen; Wir stellen vor: Morgens in der Kneipe [TV]. 1981: Meschkas Enkel [TV]. 1981/ 82: Benno macht Geschichten [TV]; Der Mann von der Cap Arcona [TV]; Das Graupenschloß [TV]. 1984/85: Goethe in D. oder Die Blutnacht auf dem Schreckenstein oder Wie Erwin Geschonneck eine Hauptrolle spielte [DO – DE]. 1985/86: Ein Wigwam für die Störche [TV]; Wie die Alten sungen … 1987/88: Mensch, mein Papa …! 1995: Der Fall Cap Arcona [DO – DE]; Matulla & Busch – Zwei Alte pokern hoch [TV – DE]; Zwischentöne: Erwin Geschonneck [TVD – DE].
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WALTER GILLER Born August 23, 1927, Recklinghausen (Germany) One of Germany’s best-loved ‘old school’ comedians, Giller was equally adept at subtle and sophisticated characterisation, deft satire, and broad slapstick, and also convinced in a number of dramatic roles. Raised in Hamburg, Giller was enlisted as an assistant in the Luftwaffe aged fifteen and was taken prisonerof-war in 1944. Breaking off a degree in medicine after the war to become a trainee at Hamburg’s Kammerspiele theatre, he made his stage debut stepping in for an ill (female) colleague in 1947. He continued to appear as an extra while receiving acting lessons, as well as serving as assistant to directors including Wolfgang Liebeneiner and Helmut Käutner. Giller’s screen debut was a bit part in Wolfgang Wehrum’s ARTISTENBLUT (Born a Clown, 1949), after which he starred as a bashful young lover in films such as Rolf Thiele’s PRIMANERINNEN (College Girls, 1951). Gaining attention with his witty characterisations in Erich Kobler’s SKANDAL IM MÄDCHENPENSIONAT (Scandal At the Girls’ School, 1952/53) or Kurt Hoffmann’s SCHLOSS GRIPSHOLM (Gripsholm Castle, 1963), Giller twice won German Film Awards for his non-comedic performances as a former soldier in Wolfgang Staudte’s ROSEN FÜR DEN STAATSANWALT (Roses for the Prosecutor, 1959) and as an East German lorry driver in ZWEI UNTER MILLIONEN (Two Among Millions, 1961) by Victor Vicas and Wieland Liebske. However, the remakes of DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1955), directed by Hans Wolf and Willi Forst, and DIE FEUERZANGENBOWLE (Burnt Punch, 1970), directed by Helmut Käutner, in which Giller took on the roles originally performed by Heinz Rühmann, were box-office flops. Giller spent much of the 1960s appearing in West German and internationally co-produced action films, sexploitation pictures and Karl May westerns, and subsequently had guest appearances in Rudolf Zehetgruber’s German ‘Herbie’ films EIN KÄFER AUF EXTRATOUR (Superbug – the Wild One, 1973) and DAS VERRÜCKTESTE AUTO DER WELT (The Maddest Car in the World, 1974/75). Becoming a television comedy regular in the early 1970s, Giller had his own sketch show, LOCKER VOM HOCKER (Fancy Free) from 1978 to 1987, and has since guested on numerous popular entertainment series. Married to actress Nadja Tiller since 1956, the pair have repeatedly undertaken stage tours of Germany, Switzerland and Austria since the 1960s, and also appeared together in a number of film and television productions. [act – DE] 1949: Artistenblut. 1949/50: Kein Engel ist so rein. 1950: Das Mädchen aus der Südsee; Insel ohne Mo-
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ral; Falschmünzer am Werk. 1951: Die Frauen des Herrn S.; Sensation in San Remo; Wildwest in Oberbayern; Primanerinnen. 1951/52: Der bunte Traum. 1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad; Liebe im Finanzamt; Der Tag vor der Hochzeit; Fräulein Casanova [AT]. 1952/53: Skandal im Mädchenpensionat. 1953: Irene in Nöten / Irena v stisci [AT/YU]; Südliche Nächte; Heimlich, still und leise; Schlagerparade. 1953/54: Die tolle Lola. 1954: Mit und ohne Begleitung [TV]; Sie; An jedem Finger zehn; Musik, Musik und nur Musik. 1955: Schwedenmädel / Sommarflickan [MLV – DE/ SE]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Charley’s Tante; Das Bad auf der Tenne. 1956: Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Schwarzwaldmelodie; Das Sonntagskind; Was die Schwalbe sang; Nichts als Ärger mit der Liebe [AT]; Spion für Deutschland; Der schräge Otto. 1957: Das Glück liegt auf der Straße; Blaue Jungs; Die große Chance; Drei Mann auf einem Pferd; Frühling in Berlin; Zwei Herzen im Mai; Italienreise – Liebe inbegriffen. 1958: Peter Voss, der Millionendieb. 1958/59: Geliebte Bestie [AT]. 1959: Kriegsgericht; So angelt man keinen Mann; Liebe auf krummen Beinen; Bobby Dodd greift ein; Rosen für den Staatsanwalt; Liebe verboten – Heiraten erlaubt; Peter Voss, der Held des Tages. 1959/60: Kein Engel ist so rein. 1960: Heldinnen; Ingeborg. 1960/61: Geliebte Hochstaplerin. 1961: L’Affaire Nina B. [FR]; Drei Mann in einem Boot [DE/AT]; Zwei unter Millionen. 1961/62: La chambre ardente / I peccatori della Foresta Nera [FR/ IT]. 1962: Liebling, ich muß dich erschießen; Schneewittchen und die sieben Gaukler [CH/DE]. 1962/63: Die Dreigroschenoper / L’Opéra de quat’sous [DE/FR]; L’ape regina / Le lit conjugal [IT/FR]. 1963: Der Würger von Schloß Blackmoor; Schloß Gripsholm; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/ AT]; Begegnung in Salzburg / Deux jours à vivre [DE/FR]. 1963/64: Die Tote von Beverly Hills; Der letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz [AT/DE]. 1964: Fanny Hill / Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [DE/US]; Heiß weht der Wind / Mein Freund Shorty [DE/AT]; Heirate mich, Chéri [DE/AT]; DM-Killer [AT]; Tonio Kröger. 1965: Schüsse im 3/4-Takt / Operazione ‘Terzo uomo’ [AT/IT]. 1965/66: Ich suche einen Mann; Das Vermächtnis des Inka / Viva Gringo / El ultimo rey de los Incas [DE/IT/ES]. 1966: Gern hab’ ich die Frauen gekillt / Spie contro il mondo / Le carnaval des barbouzes [AT/IT/FR]; Dýmky / Pfeifen, Betten, Turteltauben [CS/AT]; Der geborgte Weihnachtsbaum [TV]. 1966/67: Johnny Banco / Jonny Banco – Geliebter Taugenichts [FR/ IT/DE]. 1967: Le soleil des voyous / Il più grande colpo del secolo [FR/IT]; Elsk … din næste / Vergiß nicht deine Frau zu küssen [DK/DE]; Nadja Tiller und Walter Giller [TVD]. 1967/68: Gold für Montevasall [TV]. 1968: Die Mördergesellschaft [TV]; Ruba al prossimo tuo … [IT]. 1968/69: Ramon Yendias Flucht [TV]. 1969: Der rasende Lokalreporter [4 episodes – TVS]; Klassenkeile – Pauker werden ist nicht schwer – Schüler sein dagegen sehr; Grimms Märchen von lüsternen Pärchen; Flucht nach Ägypten [TV]. 1969/70: Am Ziel aller Träume [TV]; Die Herren mit der weißen Weste. [act – DE – TV] 1970: Die Feuerzangenbowle [FF]; Jonas oder Der Künstler bei der Arbeit. 1971: Hallo, wer dort?; No, no, Nanette. 1973: Pariser Nächte; Ein Käfer auf Extratour [FF]; Wenn auch die Jahre enteilen. 1974/75: Das ver-
rückteste Auto der Welt [FF]. 1975: Der Kommissar: Sturz aus großer Höhe; Herz mit Schnauze [TVD – AT – app]; Zwischen den Jahren. 1975-77: Lady Dracula [FF];Omaruru [26 episodes – TVS]. 1976: Hallo Peter!; Zwischen den Jahren. 1976/77: Heiße Ware; 4tel vor 8 [TVS]. 1977: Nicht von gestern; Nun siegt mal schön; Polizeiinspektion 1: Und keine Kopeke weniger; Mein lieber Mann [TVS]. 1977/78: Karschunke & Sohn [6 episodes – TVS]. 1978: Kinderparty. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper. 1978-87: Locker vom Hocker oder Es bleibt schwierig [TVS]. 1979/ 80: Peter Frankenfeld [TVD – app]; Unsere heile Welt [3 episodes – TVS]. 1980: Liebling, ich laß’ mich scheiden. 1981: Das Traumschiff [1 episode – TVS]; Behaltet Mut! 1982: Auf der Suche nach dem verlorenen Ei; Die Krimistunde 2; Man müßte Klavier spielen können; Kleine Geschenke erhalten die Freundschaft; Die feine englische Art; Wir lachen durch bis morgen früh. 1983: Das Traumschiff [1 episode]. 1983: Überall ist Wunderland. 1984: Geschichten aus der Heimat: Die Bauernfänger. 1985: Nun siegt mal schön. 1987: Die Krimistunde 28; Ein Abend für Nadja Tiller und Walter Giller [TVD – app]. 1988: Spielergeschichten: Glück ist machbar. 1989: Calafati Joe [TVS – AT]. 1990: Ein Nikolaus für alle Fälle. 1991: Kommissar Klefisch: Ein unbekannter Zeuge. 1991/92: Kommissar Klefisch: Tod am Meer. 1992: Geschichten aus der Heimat XX. 1993/94: Cornelius hilft [TVS]. 1994: Geschichten aus der Heimat XXXIII; Die Gerichtsreporterin: Der Märchenonkel; Halali oder Der Schuß ins Brötchen. 1995: Mordslust [episode 2]; Sonntags geöffnet; Guten Morgen, Mallorca: Hass-Liebe. 1995/96: Sylter Geschichten [season 2 – TVS]; Evelyn Hamanns Geschichten aus dem Leben: Nicht gemeldet / Der Wasserhahn. 1996: Doppelter Einsatz: Weihnachtsüberraschung; Rosamunde Pilcher – Stunden der Entscheidung [DE/AT]; Stunden der Entscheidung. 1999: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Eine zweite Chance; Immer [SF]. 1999/2000: Meine Mutter, meine Rivalin. 2001: Vorspiel mit Nachspiel; Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Alte Bäume, junges Grün. 2003/04: Broti & Pacek – irgendwas ist immer: Waschen, Schneiden, Umlegen; Das Bernstein-Amulett. 2004/05: Liebe wie am ersten Tag; Der Dschungel verändert sich nie [DO]. 2005: Lauras Wunschzettel [AT]. 2006/07: Liebling, wir haben geerbt! 2008: Und ewig schweigen die Männer [AT]. 2008/09: Wilmenrod – Es liegt mir auf der Zunge.
WINFRIED GLATZEDER Born April 26, 1945, Zopot (East Prussia, now Sopot, Poland) Nicknamed ‘the East German Jean-Paul Belmondo’ in the early 1970s on account of his unconventional looks and broken nose, DEFA leading man Glatzeder also found success as a character lead after relocating to West Germany in 1982. Growing up in East Berlin, he helped found a cabaret at his college while training as a mechanical engineer and then studied acting at the Film Academy in Babelsberg from 1965 to 1969, graduating with a dissertation analysing the figure of the clown. He joined
WINFRIED GLATZEDER
Potsdam’s Hans-Otto-Theater until 1971, and was thereafter at the Volksbühne in Berlin until 1982. After a couple of small roles in DEFA films, the thin, angular, 6’3’ actor gained attention as the happy-golucky lead in Siegfried Kühn’s romantic drama ZEIT DER STÖRCHE (Time of the Storks, 1970), and rose to fame playing Erwin Graffunda, the substitute grandmother in Roland Oehme’s comedy DER MANN, DER NACH DER OMA KAM (The Man Who Replaced Grandma, 1971) and as Paul, the romantic lead in Heiner Carow’s popular DIE LEGENDE VON PAUL UND PAULA (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1972). He subsequently played the title part of the sixteenthcentury jester and revolutionary in Rainer Simon’s TILL EULENSPIEGEL (1973/74), and portrayed a pyromaniacal fireman in Simon’s satire ZÜND AN, ES KOMMT DIE FEUERWEHR (Set Something Alight – the Fire Brigade’s Coming!, 1977/78). Following a permitted appearance at West Berlin’s Schiller-Theater in 1982, Glatzeder was expatriated by the East German regime. Working solely in film and television for the next few years, his West German debut was Peter Beauvais’s DER KUNSTFEHLER (Malpractice, 1982), followed by supporting roles in Helmuth Ashley’s DANGER – KEINE ZEIT ZUM STERBEN (No Time to Die, 1984) and Margarethe von Trotta’s ROSA LUXEMBURG (1985). Glatzeder also played leads in Diethart Küster’s VA BANQUE (1985) and in Berengar Pfahl’s television film BRÜCKE AM SCHAWARZEN FLUSS (Bridge on the Black River, 1986). Performing on stage again from 1987, he appeared at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus until 1996, and undertook national tours, not least in Mary Chase’s comedy classic ‘Harvey’ in 2001. In addition to guest performances on almost every popular television detective series – including DER ALTE (The Old Fox), DERRICK, POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call) and DIE WACHE (The Nick) – he was regular character Inspector Roiter on TATORT (Crime Scene) from 1994 to 1998. Glatzeder returned to DEFA after the fall of the Wall to appear in Jürgen Brauer’s TANZ AUF DER KIPPE (Dancing At the Dump) and Horst Seemann’s ZWISCHEN PANKOW UND ZEHLENDORF (Between Pankow and Zehlendorf, both 1990/91), and pastiched his famous role of ‘Paul’ in Leander Haußmann’s GDR comedy SONNENALLEE (Sun Alley, 1998/99). [act – DD] 1966/67: Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz; Geschichten jener Nacht: Materna. 1967/68: Spur des Falken. 1968: Wir haben schon eine ganze Stadt gebaut [SD – voi]; Wie heiratet man einen König; Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir. 1969: Unbekannte Bürger [TV]; Junge Frau von 1914 [TV]; Hart am Wind; Dr. med. Sommer II. 1969/70: Unterwegs
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zu Lenin / Na puti k Leninu [DD/SU]. 1970: Du und ich und Klein-Paris; Zeit der Störche. 1970/71: Salut Germain / Résistance [TVS – DD/FR]. 1971: Nachtasyl [TV]; Der Mann, der nach der Oma kam. 1971/72: Tecumseh. 1972: Die Legende von Paul und Paula. 1972/73: Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita [TV]; Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow. 1973/74: Heiße Spuren [TV]; Till Eulenspiegel. 1974/75: Goroda i gody [SU]; Polizeiruf 110: Ein Fall ohne Zeugen [TV]; Requiem für Hans Grundig [TV]. 1975: Der goldene Elefant [TV]. 1975/76: Nelken in Aspik; Auftrag für M & S [TV]. 1976: Das Untier von Samarkand [TV]. 1976/77: Polizeiruf 110: Vermißt wird Peter Schnok [TV]; Die Flucht. 1977: Trampen nach Norden [TV]. 1977/ 78: Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr. 1978: Der Nachlaß [TV]; Für Mord kein Beweis. 1978/79: Ein gemachter Mann oder ‘Falsche Fuffziger’ [ANI – voi]; Hochzeitsreise [TV]; Koèièi princ / Der Katzenprinz [CS/DD]. 1979: Der Menschenhasser [TV]. 1979/80: Johann Sebastian Bachs vergebliche Reise in den Ruhm [TV – DD/DE]. 1980: Yvonne [TV]; Asta, mein Engelchen. 1980/81: Die Kolonie. 198082: Hotel Polan und seine Gäste [TVS]. [act – DE – TV] 1982: Der Kunstfehler. 1983: Haus Excelsior. 1983/84: Didi – Der Doppelgänger [FF]; Bali; Gnadenlos. 1984: Danger – Keine Zeit zum Sterben / No Time to Die [FF – DE/GH]; Vergeßt Mozart / Zabudnite na Mozarta [FF – DE/CS]. 1984/85: Der Tod des weißen Pferdes [voi]; Hoffnungsspuren: Vorsichtige Berührung. 1985: Va Banque [FF]; Rosa Luxemburg [FF]. 1985/86: Detektivbüro Roth: Skandal im Schrebergarten. 1986: Wasser für die Blumen; Was zu beweisen war; Die Katze läßt das Mausen nicht; Alles aus Liebe: Heirat nicht ausgeschlossen; Brücke am schwarzen Fluß. 1986/87: Acht Tage in den Bergen; Priester: Acht Tage in den Bergen; Schlüsselblumen; Praxis Bülowbogen: 3. Die Vollmacht / 16. Zwei Väter zuviel / 17. Putz im Kiez [TVS]. 1987: Der Alte: Mord ist Mord. 1987/ 88: Liebling Kreuzberg: Zweimal Entlassung. 1988: Spielergeschichten: Die tödliche Wette; Rivalen der Rennbahn: Pilot: Gewinner und Verlierer / 1. Das Attentat / 3. Verdacht. 1988/89: Lockvögel; Tam Tam oder Wohin die Reise geht. 1989: Derrick: Die Kälte des Lebens; Don Juan oder Der steinerne Gast; Wenn du mich fragst … [TVS]. 1989/90: Die Spreepiraten [TVS]; Abenteuer Airport [TVS]. 1990: Vincent Vincent: Dachschaden; Gefährliche Verführung / Plagio [TV – DE/IT]; Edgar, Hüter der Moral: Der Fahrstuhl; Ron & Tanja [TVS]; Stocker und Stein [TVS]. 1990/91: Tote leben länger; Tanz auf der Kippe [FF – DD/ DE]; Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen [FF]; Zwischen Pankow und Zehlendorf [FF – DD/DE]. 1991: Gossenkind [FF]; Tote Briefe. Wer kennt Joshua?; Ein Heim für Tiere: Rabauke im Seidenfellchen; Tandem; Die Männer vom K3: Halali für einen Jagdfreund. 1992: Sterne des Südens; Sterne des Südens [6 episodes – TVS]. 1992/93: Glückliche Reise. 1993: Zwischentöne: Jaecki Schwarz über Winfried Glatzeder [TVD – app]; Der Alte: Korruption; SOKO 5113: Besuch aus der Vergangenheit; Happy Holiday [season 2 – TVS]; Ein Haus in der Toscana: Der Runenmagier. 1993/ 94: Geheim – oder was? [TVS]; Olli in der Unterwelt. 1994: Karfunkel. 2. Das Mädchen aus Tschernobyl; Zwei Schlitzohren in Antalya: Ende gut, alles gut; Tatort: Jetzt und alles; Derrick: Gesicht hinter der Scheibe; Birkenhof & Ler-
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chenau; Der Mond scheint auch für Untermieter: Hüttenträume. 1994/95: Sonntag & Partner: Die Sekte. 1995: Samstag, Sonntag, Montag; Kanzlei Bürger: Die Mauer; Derrick: Mitternachtssolo; Ärzte: Weiß wie Schnee, rot wie Blut. 1995/96: Hallo Onkel Doc!: Kuckucksei; Auf eigene Gefahr: Alles hat einen Anfang. 1996: Achterbahn: Vollkornsocken – 2. Familiengeheimnis; Die kaukasische Nacht; Tatort: Tod im Jaguar; Mensch, Pia! [TVS]; Tatort: Der Phönix-Deal; Tatort: Buntes Wasser; Tatort: Krokodilwächter. 1996/97: Tajemnica Sagali / Das Geheimnis des Sagala [5 episodes – TVS – PL/DE]. 1997: Pension Schöller; Zwischentöne: Winfried Glatzeder [TVD – app]; Tatort: Mordsgeschäfte; Tatort: Schlüssel zum Mord; Tatort: Geld oder Leben; Tatort: Eiskalt. 1997/98: Tatort: Blick in den Abgrund; Tatort: Ein Hauch von Hollywood. 1998: Tatort: Der zweite Mann; Tatort: Berliner Weiße; Der Alte: Der Tod ist nur ein Augenblick. 1998/99: Sonnenallee [FF]. 1999: Polizeiruf 110: Über den Dächern von Schwerin. 2000/ 01: Die Wache: Zirkusluft. 2001: Pinky und der 1.000.000 Mops [FF]. 2004: Die Boxerin [FF]. 2004/05: Berlin, Berlin: Rituale. 2005: Freunde zum Essen; Tantalus [SF]. 2006: Winnetou III – Karl-May-Spiele Bad Segeberg 2006. 2006/ 07: Die Flucht. 2007: Die Jäger des Ostsee-Schatzes. 2008: Sex, Tabus und Kalter Krieg [TVD – app]; Tischlein deck dich.
ROCHUS GLIESE Born January 6, 1891, Berlin (Germany) Died December 22, 1978, Berlin (West Germany) Although primarily a set designer and director for the theatre, Gliese contributed significantly to the aesthetics of German fantasy cinema from the late 1910s onwards. Studying at Berlin’s Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum (National Museum of Applied Art) from 1909 to 1911, he joined set decorator Leo Impekoven as a costume designer in 1913, and was then employed as set designer at various major theatres in Berlin. While his early style was heavily influenced by expressionism, he subsequently favoured minimalist functionality in his designs. From 1914, Gliese also designed sets and costumes for Paul Wegener’s mythical and fairytale pictures, such as DER GOLEM (The Golem / The Monster of Fate, 1914) and DER RATTENFÄNGER (The Pied Piper of Hamlin, 1918), additionally directing those scenes in which Wegener appeared and occasionally taking on small acting roles. He was furthermore available as a director-for-hire, tackling projects as diverse as a war bonds commercial for the military titled DER PAPIERENE PETER (Paper Peter, 1917) and the anti-war short APOKALYPSE (Apocalypse, 1918) for the Weimar government’s Foreign Office. The latter contained effects sequences by Lotte Reiniger, with whom Gliese had first collaborated on the shadow play film DIE SCHÖNE PRINZESSIN VON CHINA (The Beautiful Chi-
nese Princess, 1917), in which silhouettes were projected onto a transparent canvas. Continuing to undertake occasional film work throughout the 1920s, Gliese was engaged by F. W. Murnau to design the monumental sets for SUNRISE (1926/27) at Fox in Hollywood, and consequently received an Oscar nomination for best art direction. Cecil B. DeMille then contracted him as director, scriptwriter and designer, but over the space of two years, only a single project was realised. Returning to Germany, Gliese completed his final film as director, DIE JAGD NACH DEM GLÜCK (The Pursuit of Happiness, 1929/30), a mix of live-action and shadow play on which he again collaborated with Reiniger. From 1934 to 1944, Gliese was in charge of set design on Gustaf Gründgens’s stage productions in Berlin and Vienna, and his only substantial contribution to cinema during the Third Reich was as costume designer on Reinhold Schünzel’s AMPHITRYON (1935). He was briefly appointed manager at theatres in Berlin, Weimar and Potsdam in the immediate post-war years, and subsequently worked as a set designer and stage director in numerous West German cities before retiring in 1970. His postwar set and costume designs for big-screen productions comprises a handful of films, including Veit Harlan’s visually stunning HANNA AMON (1951). Gliese received a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1973. [des – DE] 1914: Der Golem [des,cos]. 1916: Der Yoghi [ass-dir,des]; Rübezahls Hochzeit [ass-dir,des,act]. 1917: Der Golem und die Tänzerin [ass-dir,des,act]; Der papierene Peter [dir,scr,act]; Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland [des,act]; Die schöne Prinzessin von China [ANI – dir,act]. 1917/18: Der Antiquar von Straßburg. 1918: Der fremde Fürst [ass-dir,des,act]; Der Rattenfänger; Apokalypse [dir, des]. 1919: Rausch; Malaria. Urlaub vom Tode [dir,des]; Der Galeerensträfling [2 parts – dir]. 1920: Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag [dir,co-scr,cos]; Katharina die Große [co-des]; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam [cos]; Steuermann Holk. 1921: Die Sängerin. 1921/22: Der brennende Acker [des,cos]. 1922: Das Liebesnest [2 parts]; Alexandra [NL/DE]; Der Kampf ums Ich; Brüder. Zwischen Himmel und Erde [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1923: Mutter, dein Kind ruft! [dir,des]; Die Austreibung; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs [co-des]. 1924: Komödie des Herzens [dir,co-scr]. 1924/25: Die gefundene Braut [dir]. 1925: Der rosa Diamant [dir]. 1926/27: Sunrise – A Song of Two Humans [US]. 1927: The Main Event [scr,des – US]. 1929: Menschen am Sonntag [co-dir]. 1929/30: Die Jagd nach dem Glück [dir,co-scr,co-des]. 1932: Eine Stadt steht Kopf [codes]. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV – cos]; Les dieux s’amusent [MLV – cos]. 1938: Tanz auf dem Vulkan [co-des]. 1942: Ein Walzer mit dir [co-des]. 1950/51: Das ewige Spiel [cos]. 1951: Hanna
VADIM GLOWNA Amon. 1954/55: Ein Polterabend [DD]. 1956: Fidelio [AT]. 1961: Hermann und Dorothea [TV]; Die Lästerschule [TV]. 1966: Moral [TV – des,cos].
KURT GLOOR Born November 8, 1942, Zurich (Switzerland) Died September 20, 1997, Zurich (Switzerland) A key exponent of New Swiss Cinema, director and screenwriter Gloor’s documentary and fiction films often focussed on socially and economically excluded groups, and were marked by exacting research and use of local dialect. After training as a graphic designer, Gloor became assistant cameraman with a company producing commercials. After directing his first shorts, FFFT (1967), HOMMAGE and MONDO KARIES (both 1968), Gloor founded his own production company and made DER LANDSCHAFTSGÄRTNER (The Landscape Gardener, 1969), a documentary that deconstructed romantic illusions of farmers’ lives by exposing the poverty of the rural working classes. The film received the FIPRESCI Award at Oberhausen. Gloor followed it up with DIE GRÜNEN KINDER (Country Children, 1971), highlighting the detrimental effects of life in rural Switzerland for those relocated there as part of a new housing project. A scandal ensued after the Swiss parliament overturned the decision to honour the documentary with the Zurich Film Award, leading to the resignation of the jury. DIE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years, 1973) followed the everyday lives of four married women and argued that emancipation can be achieved only within a conducive political and cultural climate. Gloor’s first fiction film was DIE PLÖTZLICHE EINSAMKEIT DES KONRAD STEINER (The Sudden Loneliness of Konrad Steiner, 1976), which he scripted, directed and produced. It featured Sigfrit Steiner as an elderly shoemaker ordered to give up his home and workshop and to move into an old people’s home following the death of his wife. A box-office success, the film picked up several awards. It led Gloor to make further narrative features both for cinema and television, including DER ERFINDER (The Inventor, 1980), the real-life story of non-conformist Jacob Nüssli (played by Bruno Ganz) whose inventions triumphed despite his ostracisation from intolerant local villagers. Gloor’s subsequent MANN OHNE GEDÄCHTNIS (Man Without Memory, 1983/ 84) focussed on psychiatric methods as a conduit for critiquing the mechanisms of social repression. Returning primarily to documentary work during the 1990s, Gloor’s final film was TREKKING AM LIMIT (Trekking to the Limit, 1997), about a trekking tour composed of prison inmates and the handicapped. Shortly after the film’s completion, Gloor committed suicide.
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[dir,scr – CH] 1967: ffft [SF – co-dir,scr,cam,cut,act,pro]. 1968: Hommage [SF – dir,scr,cam,snd,pro]; Mondo Karies [SF – dir,scr,cam,snd,pro]. 1969: Die Landschaftsgärtner [DO – co-dir,scr,co-cam,cut,pro]. 1970: Ex [DO – dir,scr, cut,pro]; Wanted [SF – dir,scr,cam,cut,snd]. 1971: Die grünen Kinder [DO – dir,co-scr,cam,cut,pro]. 1972: Was halten Sie von autoritärer Erziehung? [SF – dir,co-scr,cam, cut,pro]. 1973: Die besten Jahre [TVD – dir,co-scr,cut,pro]. 1976: Die plötzliche Einsamkeit des Konrad Steiner [dir, scr,pro]. 1977: Em Lehme si letscht [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1978: Der Chinese [TV – dir,co-scr – DE/CH]. 1980: Der Erfinder [dir,scr,pro]. 1981: Matti brewitt [TV – co-dir,co-scr]; Kleines Kammerspiel [TV – co-scr]. 1983/84: Mann ohne Gedächtnis [dir,scr,pro – CH/DE]. 1991: Visages Suisses / Gesichter der Schweiz: EP 1. Wilhelm Tell, Mythos [DO – dir]. 1992/93: Jessica: Die ersten Tage im Leben eines Methadonbabys [TVD]. 1993: Traumjob für Schutzengel [TVD]; Blindlings ins Leben [TVD]. 1994: Frühstart ins Leben [TVD]. 1995: Das ist mein Leben [TVD]; Leben unter Riesen [TVD]; Lahmgelegt [TVD]. 1996: Ein Herz und eine Seele [TVD]; Mit einem Fuß im Jenseits [TVD]; Doktor Clown [TVD]. 1997: Piloten für die Dunkelheit [TVD]; Trekking am Limit [TVD].
VADIM GLOWNA Born September 26, 1941, Eutin (Germany) As a prolific supporting actor in German film and television for over forty years, Glowna played a wide range of characters, and he also directed several acclaimed films in the 1980s and early 1990s. He made his screen debut as a baby in Veit Harlan’s melodrama IMMENSEE (1942/43). Raised in Hamburg, he abandoned a degree in theology to study acting in 1961, and was engaged by Gustaf Gründgens at the city’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus upon qualifying in 1963. Thereafter at theatres in Munich, Berlin and Bremen, Glowna made his directorial debut with a production of Ann Jellicoe’s ‘The Knack … and How to Get It’ in Hamburg in 1973. Undertaking film and television roles from 1964, Glowna specialised mainly in social outsiders and losers, and he also appeared in international productions such as Sam Peckinpah’s CROSS OF IRON (1976/77) and the BBC science fiction mini-series THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES (1979). Together with actress Vera Tschechowa (b. 1940), to whom Glowna was married from 1967 to 1991, he founded production company Atossa Film GmbH in 1980, and made his mark as writer and director with his debut feature DESPERADO CITY (1980/81), a bleak realist drama set in St. Pauli, Hamburg’s red light district, which was awarded the Golden Camera at Cannes. DIES RIGOROSE LEBEN (Nothing Left to Lose, 1982) was a similarly downbeat tale of second-generation German-Jewish immigrants living a trailer trash existence in Texas, and again starred Tschechowa,
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whose illustrious ancestry provided the subject for Glowna’s documentary TSCHECHOW IN MEINEM LEBEN (Chekhov in My Life, 1984). DES TEUFELS PARADIES (Devil’s Paradise, 1986/87), meanwhile, was a big budget adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel ‘Victory’, showcasing exotic locations and an international cast. Glowna directed two further films in 1991, EINES TAGES IRGENDWANN (Some Day …, 1991/92) and the comedy DER BROCKEN (Rising to the Bait, 1991– 93) about an elderly widow on the Baltic coast island of Rügen battling the post-unification solicitations of profit-crazed westerners. Otherwise, Glowna settled into a career as a busy character actor in an endless succession of television films and crime series. He delivered an impressive portrait of actor Heinrich George in Soviet internment in Hans-Christoph Blumenberg’s biopic DIES VERLAUSTE, NACKTE LEBEN / TO WSZAWE, NAGIE ¯YCIE (Lousy, Bare Life) in 1997. He received the German Film Critics’ Award (and was nominated for a German Film Award) for his performance alongside Hannelore Elsner in Oskar Röhler’s psychomelodrama DIE UNBERÜHRBARE (No Place to Go, 1999). Subsequent roles include Röhler’s SUCK MY DICK (2000/01), DER ALTE AFFE ANGST (Angst, 2003) and AGNES UND SEINE BRÜDER (Agnes and His Brothers, 2004). Dominique de Rivaz’s debut feature MEIN NAME IST BACH (Jagged Harmonies, 2002/03), in which Glowna portrayed composer Johann Sebastian Bach, received the 2004 Swiss Film Award for best picture. Glowna’s self-produced DAS HAUS DER SCHLAFENDEN SCHÖNEN (The House of the Sleeping Beauties), an adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata’s novel ‘Nemureru bijo’, received bad reviews and flopped at the box office in 2006. In the same year he published his autobiography ‘Der Geschichtenerzähler’ (The Storyteller). His adopted son Nikolaus Glowna (b. 1961) became a renowned composer, scoring some of his father’s films. [act – DE – TV] 1942/43: Immensee [FF]. 1963: Hafenpolizei: Die Party. 1964: Der Spaßvogel; Held Henry. 1964/65: Im Schatten einer Großstadt. 1966: Frühlings Erwachen. 1967: Zuchthaus; Verbrechen mit Vorbedacht. 1967/68: Liebe und so weiter; Tramp. 1968: Der Eine und der Andere. 1968/69: Horror. 1969: Die Reise nach Tilsit; Der Kommissar: Auf dem Stundenplan Mord; 11 Uhr 20; Die Gartenlaube. 1969/70: Gezeiten; Feuerpredigt. 1970: Die Theaterwerkstatt: O. Szenengespräche; Opfer; Der Kommissar: Der Mord an Frau Klett; Recht oder Unrecht: Gerechtigkeit für Dettlinger. 1971: Die Tote aus der Themse [FF]; Die Nacht von Lissabon; Biskuit [TV – mus,act]; Leb wohl, Judas. 1972: Danton; Herlemanns Traum oder Das andere Leben; Victor oder Die Kinder an der Macht. 1973: Der Fall Lebach. 1973/74: Ermittlungen gegen Un-
bekannt; Ulla oder Die Flucht in die schwarzen Wälder. 1974: The Pidgeon of Soho Square; Der Kommissar: Jähes Ende einer interessanten Beziehung; Polly oder Die Bataille am Bluewater Creek. 1974/75: Insomnia. 1975: Ein deutsches Attentat; Evridiki B.A. 2037 / Eurydike BA 2037 [pro – GR/DE]; Amphitryon; Cuore di cane / Warum bellt Herr Bobikow? [FF – IT/DE]. 1975/76: Police Python 357 [FF – FR/DE]. 1976: Derrick: Schock; Ketten; Sladek oder Die schwarze Armee; Die Brüder [FF]. 1976/77: Die Kriminalerzählung [season 2 – TVS]; Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz / Cross of Iron [FF – DE/GB]; Gruppenbild mit Dame / Portrait de groupe avec dame [FF – DE/FR]. 1977: Prosperos Traum; Der Alte: Zwei Mörder; Der Hauptdarsteller [FF]; Zeit der Empfindsamkeit; Das verschollene Inka-Gold. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst. EP: Der Grenzposten [FF]; Freddie Türkenkönig. 1978: Der Schneider von Ulm [FF]. 1978/79: Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald [FF – DE/ AT]; L’Associé / Mein Partner Davis [FF – FR/DE/HU]. 1979: Schattenspiel [SF]; Jettchen Geberts Geschichte; The Martian Chronicles: The Settlers [TV – US]. 1979/80: La mort en direct / Death Watch – Der gekaufte Tod [FF – FR/DE]; Exil / L’Exile: 1. Benjamin / 7. Exil und kein Ende [TVS – DE/ FR]. 1980: Monitor [SF]. 1980/81: Desperado City [FF – dir, scr,act,pro]. 1981: Polnischer Sommer; Tatort: Sterben und sterben lassen; Limuzyna Daimler-Benz / Der Konsul [FF – PL/DE/AT]. 1981/82: Feine Gesellschaft – Beschränkte Haftung [FF]. 1982: Dies rigorose Leben [FF – dir,scr,act, pro]. 1983: Ediths Tagebuch [FF]. 1983/84: Blaubart [DE/ CH]. 1984: Ein Jahr der ruhenden Sonne / Rok spokojnego s³onca / A Year of the Quiet Sun [FF – DE/PL/US]; Tschechow in meinem Leben [DO – dir,scr,pro]; Kaweh [FF – DZ]. 1984/85: Ein fliehendes Pferd. 1985: Tarot [FF]; Das Totenreich. 1986: Retuorn [CH]. 1986/87: Des Teufels Paradies [FF – dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1987/88: Wo immer du bist … / Gdziekolwiek jest, jeli jest [FF – DE/PL]. 1988: Der Lockspitzel; Drei D [FF]. 1988/89: Alte Zeiten; Lucas läßt grüssen [CH/DE]; Das Milliardenspiel; Tatort: Blutspur; Georg Elser – Einer aus Deutschland [FF]. 1989: Er – Sie – es; Ein Fall für zwei: Der Schlüssel; Die Jagd nach dem Killergas / Opération Ypsilon [DE/FR/CA]. 1989/90: Jours tranquilles à Clichy / Giorni felici a Clichy / Stille Tage in Clichy [FF – FR/IT/ DE]; Der Fahnder: Der zweite Zeuge. 1990: Ovunque tu sia [IT/DE/PL]; Das zweite Leben / La main [DE/FR]; Insel der Träume: Einmal kommt der Tag; Scheidung à la carte. 1991: Die Bank ist nicht geschädigt; Tandem. 1991/92: Eines Tages irgendwann [FF – dir]. 1991-93: Schewardnadse, Georgien [DO – dir,co-scr,pro]; Die Lügnerin [FF]; Der Brocken [FF – dir,act]. 1992: Wolffs Revier: Mord hat Vorrang; Ein Fall für zwei: Gier; Extra Large: Miami Killer / Zwei Supertypen in Miami – Der Kindermörder [US/IT/DE]; Verflixte Leidenschaft; Projekt Aphrodite [6 episodes – TVS]; Die Männer vom K3: Zu hoch gepokert; Mandelküßchen. 1992/93: Ein Fall für zwei: Eine mörderisch gute Idee. 1993: Im Himmel hört dich niemand weinen; Tatort: Bauernopfer [dir,co-scr,act]; Hörigkeit des Herzens. 1993/94: Die Stadtindianer: Krieg im Kiez; Das gläserne Haus; Faust: Jagd auf Mephisto; 1945 [AT]. 1994: Doppelter Einsatz: Kleine Fische; Anwalt Abel – Rufmord; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]; Inka Connection [DE/IT]. 1994/95: A. S.: Affäre Cicero; Peter Strohm: Babuschka. 1995: Eine Frau
JOACHIM GOTTSCHALK wird gejagt [pilot + 14 episodes – TVS – dir,act]. 1995/96: Peter Strohm: Einsteins Erbschaft [dir,act]; Balko: Ein Toter zuwenig. 1996: Der Alte: Die Spur des Todes [dir]; Der Alte: Der Mordauftrag [dir]; Ein Mord für Quandt: Pech und Schwefel. 1997: Das elfte Gebot; Dies verlauste, nackte Leben / To wszawe, nagie ¿ycie [DE/PL]; Der Schnapper – Blumen für den Mörder [dir]; Highspeed – Die Ledercops: Unter Haien. 1998: Das Datum [SF]; Der Alte: Der Mann mit dem Hund [dir]; Dunckel [FF]; Candy; Der Alte: Tod eines Freundes [dir]; Siska: Tod einer Würfelspielerin [dir]; Der Alte: Die Wahrheit ist der Tod [dir]. 1998/99: Siska: Regen in Wimbledon [dir]. 1999: Der Alte: Im Angesicht des Todes [dir]; Siska: Das Ende von Haug; Rosa Roth: Die Retterin; Todsünden – Die zwei Gesichter einer Frau; Die Unberührbare [FF]. 1999/2000: Polizeiruf 110: Böse Wetter; Kalt ist der Abendhauch [FF]. 2000: Mordkommission: Gefallener Engel; Siska: Laufsteg ins Verderben [dir]; Les Misérables / Los Miserables / Les Misérables – Gefangene des Schicksals [FR/IT/ES/DE/US]; Tatort: Quartett in Leipzig; Das Traumschiff 2000 – Olympia; Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man [FF]; Sternzeichen [FF]. 2000/01: Suck My Dick [FF]. 2001: Endstation Tanke [FF]; Ein Fall für zwei: Tod eines Models; Verbotene Küsse; Der Alte: Fahrlässige Tötung [dir]; Planet der Kannibalen [FF]. 2001/02: Baader [FF]. 2002: Dienstreise – Was für eine Nacht; Liebe. Eis. Schmerz [SF – dir,scr]; Der letzte Zeuge: Tod eines Stars; Wolffs Revier: Aus Fehlern wird man klug; Schwabenkinder [AT/DE]; In der Mitte eines Lebens; Die Verbrechen des Professor Capellari: Mord und Musik. 2002/03: Der alte Affe Angst [FF]; Mein Name ist Bach [FF – DE/CH]. 2003: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder; Die Rückkehr des Vaters. 2003/04: Der letzte Zeuge: Bitter im Abgang; Die Rosenzüchterin. 2004: Agnes und seine Brüder [FF]. 2004/ 05: Mutterseelenallein [FF]; Kanzleramt: Außer Kontrolle. 2005: Tatort: Schattenhochzeit; Nachtschicht: Tod im Supermarkt. 2005/06: Lapislazuli – Im Auge des Bären [FF – AT]; Der Alte: Tod eines Mandanten [dir]; Der Alte: Tödliches Schweigen [dir]; Vier Minuten [FF]. 2006: Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen [FF – dir,scr,act,pro]; Breathful [pro]; Siska: Schwer wie die Schuld [dir]. 2006/07: Der Alte: Tag der Rache [dir]. 2007: Ein starkes Team: Blutige Ernte. 2007/08: Der Alte: Tot und vergessen [dir]; Der Alte: Wiedersehen mit einer Toten [dir]; Der Alte: Die Nacht kommt schneller als du denkst [dir]; Smoqing [SF – pro]; Siska: Der unbekannte Feind [dir]; Siska: Keiner von uns dreien [dir]. 2007/08: Alles was recht ist; Der Alte: Tot und vergessen [dir,act]; Der Alte: Die Nacht kommt schneller als du denkst [dir]; Der Alte: Wiedersehen mit einer Toten; Auftrag Schutzengel. 2008: Der Alte: Das Dunkel hinter deiner Tür [dir]; Gonger – Das Böse vergisst nie; Die Rebellin. 2008/09: Der Alte: Tod auf dem Großmarkt [dir].
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JOACHIM GOTTSCHALK Born April 10, 1904, Calau (Germany) Died November 7, 1941, Berlin (Germany) A popular leading man of late 1930s cinema, known for his natural, understated performance style, Gottschalk was driven to suicide by the Nazis on account of his refusal to leave his Jewish wife. After gaining his Abitur in 1922, Gottschalk spent three years at sea with the merchant navy, and subsequently attended acting school in Berlin. He later worked at theatres in Stuttgart, Zwickau and Kolberg (now Kolobrzeg, Poland) before securing engagements at Leipzig’s Altes Theater and Frankfurt/ Main’s Städtische Bühnen. Having married Jewish actress Meta Wolff (1902– 1941) in 1931, he refused an offer of film work on Karl Ritter’s war film UNTERNEHMEN MICHAEL (The Private’s Job, 1937) in order to maintain a low profile. However, he soon started to make a name for himself as a high-principled hero – most often opposite Brigitte Horney – in films such as Gustav Ucicky’s AUFRUHR IN DAMASKUS (Uprising in Damascus, 1938/ 39), Viktor Tourjansky’s EINE FRAU WIE DU (A Woman Like You, 1939), and Hans Schweikart’s DAS MÄDCHEN VON FANÖ (The Girl from Fano, 1940). His final film role was a masterfully unassuming yet sincere performance as unhappy-in-love writer Hans Christian Andersen in Peter Paul Brauer’s DIE SCHWEDISCHE NACHTIGALL (The Swedish Nightingale, 1941). After being informed of the impending deportation of his wife and their eight-year old son to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, Gottschalk sought permission to go with them, which the Culture Ministry refused. All three committed suicide in their Berlin apartment on the evening of the planned deportation; the press was banned from breaking the news of the deaths, and Gottschalk’s films kept playing in cinemas. In 1946, the Award of the German Stage Workers’ Co-operative was dedicated to Gottschalk’s memory in the Soviet Zone, and the following year, Hans Schweikart published a novella based on the actor’s plight, ‘Es wird schon nicht so schlimm’ (It Won’t Be So Bad), which DEFA adapted into a highly acclaimed film version, Kurt Maetzig’s EHE IM SCHATTEN (Marriage in the Shadows, 1947). A Berlin street was named after the actor in 1967, and the Gottschalks’ grave in the city was declared a national monument in 1999. [act – DE] 1938: Du und ich. 1938/39: Aufruhr in Damaskus. 1939: Flucht ins Dunkel; Eine Frau wie du. 1940: Ein Leben lang; Das Mädchen von Fanö. 1941: Die schwedische Nachtigall. 1987: Es wird schon nicht so schlimm [TVD – DD].
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DOMINIK GRAF
DOMINIK GRAF Born September 6, 1952, Munich (West Germany) Television and film director Graf’s work marked a turn in West German film production of the 1980s towards popular narratives. He worked in a wide array of genres since then, but is best known for action films and character-based dramas. The son of actors Robert Graf (1923–1966) and Selma Urfer-Graf (b. 1928), he started a degree in German literature and music at Munich University in 1972, before transferring to the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (College of Television and Film) in 1974. Completing the short CARLAS BRIEFE (Carla’s Letters, 1974/75) in his first year there, he also wrote scripts for television series while still a student, and acted in films including Alf Brustellin and Bernhard Sinkel’s DER MÄDCHENKRIEG (Maidens’ War, 1976/77) and Heidi Genée’s comedy 1 + 1 = 3 (1979), in which he played the male lead. After his dissertation film DER KOSTBARE GAST (The Valued Guest, 1978/79) received a Bavarian Film Award, Graf was able to establish himself as a television director. Early assignments included episodes of the crime series KÖBERLE KOMMT (Köberle Investigates, 1982) and DER FAHNDER (The Investigator, 1982–93). Employed primarily by Bavaria Studios, a few of his productions also made it into cinemas, including the coming-of-age drama about a trio of teenage motor-bike aficionados, TREFFER (Bull’s Eye, 1983/84), and a comedy about three thirty-something women trying to escape everyday drudgery, TIGER, LÖWE, PANTHER (Tiger, Lion, Panther, 1988/89). Among Graf’s greatest critical and box-office successes during the 1980s was DIE KATZE (The Cat, 1987), a well-paced, suspense-filled, and intelligent action film centring on a bank robbery that develops into a twelve-hour hostage crisis – which earned him a German Film Award for best director. Nevertheless, his critically acclaimed DIE SIEGER (The Invincibles, 1993/94) about a crack team of special police operatives flopped spectacularly at the box office, and Graf for several years turned exclusively to television. Since his emotionally intense drug scene exposé DER SKORPION (The Scorpion, 1997), his name has become a fixture on nominations lists for best television drama. DEINE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years of Your Life, 1998/99), a tale of a middle-aged woman rebuilding her life, received multiple awards, as did his shot-on-digital-video projects DIE FREUNDE DER FREUNDE (Friends of Friends, 2001/02), a contemporary retelling of Henry James’s short story, and KALTER FRÜHLING (Cold Spring, 2003), a tragicomedy about a young woman with syphilis. Graf returned to the big screen with the erotic drama DER FELSEN (A Map of the Heart, 2001/02) and a portrait of youth culture in the former East Germany,
DER ROTE KAKADU (The Red Cockatoo, 2004/05).
In between the different crime stories for television Graf shot DAS GELÜBDE (The Vow, 2007) about a Catholic saint in the early 19th century. Apart from these projects, he collaborated in 1999/2000 with director Michael Althen on an award-winning television documentary portrait of his father. Graf has daughters both with former wife, director and screenwriter Sherry Hormann (b. 1960), and with director and Oscar winner Caroline Link (b. 1964). He teaches film at the International Film School in Cologne. [dir – DE] 1974/75: Carlas Briefe [dir,scr,pro]. 1976/77: Der Mädchenkrieg [act]. 1977/78: Auf Achse: Tommys Trip / Schwarze Fracht [TVS – scr]; Keiner kann was dafür [TV – act]. 1978: Jörg Preda berichtet: Die Beute der Fremden / Ein Spieler ist am Ende / Wiedersehen in Bangkok / Gute alte Freunde [TVS – scr]. 1978/79: Geteilte Freude [TV – scr]; Der kostbare Gast [dir,scr,pro]. 1979: 1 + 1 = 3 [act]. 1980/81: Familientag: Lehrgeld / 2 Jahre warten [TVS – dir, scr]. 1981: Neonstadt: 3. Running Blue [dir]. 1981/82: Das zweite Gesicht [dir,scr,mus]. 1982: Danni [act]. 1983: Köberle kommt: Köberle kommt: Fiesematenten / Bau, Schau, Wem / Am Wein klebt Lüge / Das Susaphon / Fisch gestrichen / Eine Blume namens ‘Falsche Liebe’ [TVS]; Der Fahnder: Ein König ohne Reich / Der Dichter vom Bahnhof [TVS]. 1983/84: Treffer [TV – dir,mus]; Der Fahnder: Liebe macht blind [TV – dir,act]; Der Fahnder: Eine Beute kriegt Beine [TV – ide]. 1984: Kieselsteine [TV – act – AT]. 1984/ 85: Tango im Bauch [act]; Der Fahnder: Lauter gute Freunde [TV – dir,co-scr]; Der Fahnder: Cop Conny [TV]; Tatort: Schwarzes Wochenende [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1985: Drei gegen Drei; Der Fahnder: Der Parasit [TV – act]. 1986: Reise für den blassen Mann [SF]. 1986/87: Der Fahnder: Der kleine Bruder / Über dem Abgrund / Glückliche Zeiten [TVS – dir,scr]; Bei Thea [TV]; 1987: Die Katze. 1987/88: Die Beute [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1988/89: Tiger, Löwe, Panther [dir,mus, act]. 1989/90: Spieler [dir,mus]. 1990/91: Der Fahnder: Das Versprechen / Bis ans Ende der Nacht / Baal [TVS – dir, mus]. 1990-92: Das Ende einer Reise [DO – voi]. 1993: Morlock: Die Verflechtung [TV – dir,scr,mus]; Der Fahnder: Verhör am Sonntag / Nachtwache [TVS]. 1993/94: Frauen sind was Wunderbares [mus]; Die Sieger. 1994: Rules of the Road – Reise ohne Hoffnung [DO – voi]. 1995: Tatort: Frau Bu lacht [TV – dir,mus]; Irren ist männlich [act]. 1995/ 96: Sperling und das Loch in der Wand [TV – dir,mus]; Reise nach Weimar [TV]. 1996/97: Doktor Knock oder der Triumph der Medizin [TV – dir,mus]; Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge [TVD – dir,scr,app,voi]. 1997: Der Skorpion [TV – dir,mus]. 1998: Sperling und der brennende Arm [TV – dir, mus]. 1998/99: Deine besten Jahre [TV]. 1999: Bittere Unschuld [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1999/2000: München – Geheimnisse einer Stadt [TV – dir,scr,act,mus,voi]. 2001/02: Der Felsen [dir,co-scr,voi]; Die Freunde der Freunde [TV – dir, co-scr]. 2002: Hotte im Paradies. 2003: Kalter Frühling [TV]. 2004: Polizeiruf 110: Der scharlachrote Engel [TV]. 2004/05: Der rote Kakadu. 2005/06: Polizeiruf 110: Er sollte tot … [TV]. 2006: Musik im Fahrtwind – Joachim Kai-
ROLAND GRÄF ser [TVD – app]; Eine Stadt wird erpresst [TV – dir,coscr]; Fremder Bruder [act]. 2007: Das Gelübde [dir,co-scr]; Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]. 2007/08: Kommissar Süden und der Luftgitarrist [TV]. 2008/09: Deutschland 09. EP 6. Der Weg, den wir nicht zusammen gehen [dir,scr]; Im Angesicht des Verbrechens [TV].
ROLAND GRÄF Born October 13, 1934, Meuselbach (Germany) One of DEFA’s most innovative directors of the 1970s and 1980s, former cinematographer Gräf became acclaimed for feature films that combined documentary style with narrative form. Undertaking an industrial apprenticeship from 1949, he attended the Arbeiter- und Bauernfakultät (Workers’ and Farmers’ Faculty) in Jena from 1952 to 1954, and then studied cinematography at Babelsberg’s Film Academy for five years. He joined DEFA’s documentary unit in 1960, and moved to its features studio the following year, where he was instrumental in establishing the realist documentary look that younger filmmakers favoured. Although Jürgen Böttcher’s JAHRGANG 45 (Born 1945, 1965/66) – which Gräf photographed on location around East Berlin – was banned, it remained stylistically influential, and he went on to shoot such works as Frank Vogel’s DAS SIEBENTE JAHR (The Seventh Year, 1968), Herrmann Zschoche’s truck driver comedy WEITE STRASSEN – STILLE LIEBE (Open Roads and Unrequited Love) and Lothar Warneke’s hospital drama DR. MED. SOMMER II (Dr. Sommer II, both 1969), in addition to several television films. Gräf made his directorial debut with the kitchen sink drama MEIN LIEBER ROBINSON (My Friend Robinson, 1970) about a young man’s difficulty in telling his father that he is soon to become a grandfather. BANKETT FÜR ACHILLES (Banquet for Achilles, 1974/75) was a vivid portrait of a foreman’s last day at work, which juxtaposed the ceremony of retirement speeches with the continuing demands of everyday life, while DIE FLUCHT (The Flight, 1976/77) was one of the few DEFA productions to address Germany’s East-West divide, albeit with a somewhat clichéd depiction of work problems in the GDR and of West Germans as money-grabbing blackmailers. P. S. (1978) afforded Gräf the opportunity to develop his ‘documentary realism’ further, combining Roland Dressel’s camerawork with an elliptical narrative structure, and the film received numerous awards in the East as well as the West. His subsequent adaptation of Günter de Bruyn’s MÄRKISCHE FORSCHUNGEN (Research in Brandenburg, 1981) harmonised realist and stylised approaches in presenting its parable of life in East Germany.
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Despite being a favourite of critics, Gräf only found significant favour with audiences with his historical drama about everyday life under fascism, DAS HAUS AM FLUSS (The House By the River, 1984/85) based on Friedrich Wolf’s short story ‘Der Russenpelz’ (The Russian Fur Coat). Gräf’s biopic of a controversial German writer of the 1920s and 30s, FALLADA – LETZTES KAPITEL (Fallada: The Final Chapter, 1987/88) again imbued the past with contemporary resonance and received a number of awards. In the months after the fall of the Wall, Gräf directed two of DEFA’s final productions, including an adaptation of Christoph Hein’s controversial novel DER TANGOSPIELER (The Tango Player, 1990), and the secret agent thriller DIE SPUR DES BERNSTEINZIMMERS (The Mystery of the Amber Room, 1991/ 92). Since the demise of DEFA, most of Gräf’s various projects were rejected by potential backers as ‘uncommercial’ and Gräf’s post-Wall activity was reduced to directing a couple of television crime show episodes. He taught as Professor for screen acting at Babelsberg Film Academy. His wife Christel Gräf (b. 1935) was script editor for some of the most interesting DEFA productions of the 1960s to 1980s and collaborated on a number of her husband’s films. [cam – DD] 1956: Nach Arbeitsschluß [SD]. 1957: Eis-Etüde [SD]; Fechten [SD]; Kindergarten-Fasching [SD]. 1958: Armeesportler [SD]. 1959: 250 % [SD]; Beim Frisör [SD]. 1960: Mehr als das übliche [SD]; Nicht nur ein Abenteuer [SD]. 1960/61: Küßchen und der General. 1961/62: Rotkäppchen. 1962: Josef und alle seine Brüder [TV]; Wind von vorn. 1963: Drei Kriege. 1. Tauroggen [TV]. 1964: Drei Kriege. 2. Hinter den Fronten [TV]; Egon und das achte Weltwunder [TV]. 1965: Drei Kriege. 3. In Berlin [TV]; Tiefe Furchen [TV]. 1965/66: Jahrgang 45. 1967: Leben zu zweit. 1968: Das siebente Jahr. 1969: Telegenerell [TV]; Weite Straßen – stille Liebe; Dr. med. Sommer II. 1970: Mein lieber Robinson [dir,cam]. 1971/72: Sechse kommen durch die Welt. 1972/73: Die Taube auf dem Dach. [dir,scr – DD] 1974/75: Bankett für Achilles [dir]. 1975/76: Auftrag für M & S [TV – cam]. 1976/77: Die Flucht [dir,coscr]. 1978: P. S. 1981: Märkische Forschungen. 1982/83: Fariaho. 1984/85: Das Haus am Fluß. 1987/88: Fallada – letztes Kapitel [dir,co-scr]. 1990: Der Tangospieler [DD/ DE]. [dir – DE] 1991/92: Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers [dir, scr]. 1994/95: Faust: Der Club des Drachen / Mordpoker [TVS]. 1995: Sommergeschichten: Quartett zu fünft [TV]. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app].
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JULES GREENBAUM
JULES GREENBAUM (Julius Grünbaum) Born January 15, 1867, Berlin (Germany) Died November 1, 1924, Berlin (Germany) The founder of production and distribution companies Deutsche Bioscop and Vitascope, Greenbaum was one of the pioneers of the German film industry. He introduced such directors as Max Mack and Richard Oswald to the cinema, and produced the groundbreaking drama DER ANDERE (The Other, 1912/13). Originally working in textiles, Grünbaum ‘Americanised’ his name to Jules Greenbaum while living in Chicago during the late 1880s. Returning to Berlin in 1895, he entered the nascent film industry with his brother Max Grünbaum as a partner, trading in foreign prints and cinema apparatus from 1897, and founded production company Deutsche Bioscope (as it was originally spelt) in 1899. Bioscope’s earliest known work was the actuality film FRÜHJAHRSPARADE (Spring Parade, 1899) featuring Kaiser Wilhelm II, and by 1902 the company was marketing its own projectors and other equipment, and employed two full-time cameramen, one of whom toured variety theatres and local fairs to show its films. From as early as 1904, Greenbaum’s firm held a monopoly on shooting pictures featuring the Imperial Fleet, while cameraman Georg Furkel was dispatched to Germany’s African colonies to make documentaries about railroad construction and native uprisings in 1907. Greenbaum opened his first cinema in Berlin in 1906, and founded his Vitascope company the following year to handle this side of business. Greenbaum thereafter instituted vertical integration of his production and distribution networks, releasing his product solely to Vitascope cinemas and signing exclusive deals with American, Canadian and British distributors. From 1909, Vitascope also moved into manufacturing Tonbilder (short musical films synchronized with gramophone accompaniment) directed by Franz Porten, with his daughter Henny as a frequent star. The company’s first feature, ARSÈNE LUPIN CONTRA SHERLOCK HOLMES (Arsène Lupin Versus Sherlock Holmes), followed in 1910, directed by Viggo Larsen who had previously helmed Danish producer Nordisk’s Holmes series. Director Max Mack debuted at the company with GEHIRNREFLEXE (Mental Reflexes, 1911) and then undertook the first Autorenfilm, DER ANDERE, scripted by established playwright Paul Lindau and starring esteemed stage actor Albert Bassermann, which was widely considered to have rendered cinema-going a respectable pursuit in Germany. Greenbaum’s motivation, however, remained primarily financial rather than artistic.
After undertaking a short-lived merger with Paul Davidson’s PAGU in 1914 to battle market saturation by French and other foreign producers, the outbreak of World War I eradicated this problem and led to the foundation of Greenbaum-Film GmbH in 1915. Vitascope’s former scenarist and publicity manager Richard Oswald briefly became the company’s foremost director after being declared unfit for military service, and a new contract with Albert Bassermann was signed in 1916. In 1919, close affiliation to the newly-founded Ufa initially brought additional stability, but then led to a lengthy court case concerning Greenbaum’s inability to supply cinemas in the Balkans – even though the political situation in the region made this virtually impossible. Greenbaum-Film GmbH was effectively bankrupted, and traded as a mere husk from 1922. Following Greenbaum’s death in 1924, GreenbaumFilm GmbH was run by his sons George and Mutz and then by Hermann Millakowksy until its liquidation in 1932. [pro – DE – since 1899 numerous actualities and short documentaries, from 1907 Tonbilder as well]. 1910: Entsühnt; Frei; Liebesdurst; Prinzeßchen; Sein einzig Gut; Welke Rosen; Wintersport in Schierke, Harz [SD]; Vater und Sohn; König und Page; Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes: 1. Der alte Sekretär / 2. Der blaue Diamant; Es wär so schön gewesen; Die kitzlige Jungfrau; Weh, daß wir scheiden müssen; Die Pulvermühle. 1910/11: Der große König und sein Kammerhusar; Der ehrliche Finder. 1911: Frau Potiphar; Vergebens; Arsène Lupins Tod; Liesa; Die List der Verliebten; Seemanns Lieb und Leid; Dienertreue; Sherlock Holmes contra Professor Moryarty. Serie 1: Der Erbe von Bloomrod; Die Geliebte des Chinesen; Stapellauf des ersten Turbinen-Linienschiffes ‘Kaiser’ am 22.3.1911 in Kiel [SD]; Bist Du der Weihnachtsmann?; Trotziges Blut; Opfer der Liebe; Der Pferdedieb. Drama aus dem Wilden Westen; Zahn um Zahn; Testament des Junggesellen; Die weiße Sklavin. 3. Teil; Edith; Abgründe II. Teil; Herz und Ehre; Ihr Jugendfreund; Komtesse und Diener; Die Braut des Freundes; Roman eines Blumenmädchens; BallhausAnna; Opfer der Untreue; Mondnachtzauber; Der Rosendieb; Besiegte Sieger; Die keusche Susanne: Wir sind ein glückliches Ehepaar; Aus dem Tagebuch einer Prinzessin; Knospen; Nicht bestanden; Aus Spiel wird Ernst; Navaho, die Liebe eines Indianermädchens; Ein menschliches Wrack; Wie die Saat, so die Ernte; Leichtsinn; Die Braut des Erfinders; Ninon de l’Enclos; Gehirnreflexe; Das Tippmädel; Coeur-As; Nixchen; Zapfenstreich; Bekehrt. 1911/ 12: Er und Sie; Kranke Seelen; Der Landstreicher und das Kind. 1912: Der Spion; Die Liebe einer Stunde; FrühlingsErwachen; Die Todesangst; Zwei Paar Schuhe; Der Liebe Dornenweg; Die Konfektioneuse; Die Jüdin; Der Eid des Stephan Huller [2 parts]; Das Kraftmittel; Die Todesfahrt; Der Todespreis; Die schwarze Katze [2 parts]; Nachtgestalten; Zwei Verirrte; Zollstation No. 12; Die Bettlerin; Flüchtiges Glück; Das Weib ohne Herz; Kinomann kauft eine Gartenbank; Not bricht Eisen; Wiedergefunden; Der Zug des
MUTZ GREENBAUM Herzens; Treff Bube. 1912/13: Der Andere; Die dunkle Stunde; Der Mutter Augen. 1913: Draußen vor der Tür; Gräfin Spinarosa tanzt; Graf Woronzow – mein Verlobter; Zwei Bestien; Kinomann bekommt Zwillinge; Maja; Wenn Menschen hassen; Die Spur im Schnee; Das weiße Grab; Weiße Lilien; Wo ist Coletti?; Der grüne Teufel; Im Leben verspielt; Das goldene Bett; Menschen und Masken [2 parts]; Das Leben – ein Spiel; Die schwarze Hand; Seelenadel; Endlich allein; Ehre – um Leben; Das Recht auf Glück; Das silberne Kreuz; Das weiße Pferd; Wenn die Glocken läuten; Die kleine Residenz; Der letzte Tag; Frau Hanni; Das Geheimnis von Lissabon; Die Berliner Range; Der Schatten ihres Glücks; Die Wasser schweigen; Die blaue Maus; Die Millionenmine; Die Tango-Königin; Der König; Die Brillanten der Herzogin; Die Nacht zuvor; Drei Zeichen am Kreuzweg. 1913/14: Die Ehe auf Kündigung; Zum Paradies der Damen; Die Welt ohne Männer; Die braune Bestie. 1914: Transport verwundeter Japaner in Tokio [SD]; Leiden eines Doppelgängers; Gauklerblut; Pauline; Der Schuß um Mitternacht; Zweite Tür links; Die Perle; Das Feuer; Lunys Geburtstag; Wem gehört das Schwein?; Weib gegen Weib; Ein Kindesherz; Ich räche Dich; Peterchen spielt ‘Schiffchen’; Peterchen spielt Köchin; Der verhängnisvolle Schatten; Der Hund von Baskerville; Die beiden Rivalen; Die blaue Maus. 2. Teil; Die Schleuse; Nelly [2 parts]; Die Toten leben; Das Urteil des Arztes; Wollen Sie meine Tochter heiraten?; Marketenderin; Ballhaus-Anna. 2. Teil; Ein Skandal in der Gesellschaft; Das einsame Haus; Lache, Bajazzo!; Der große Diamant; Ivan Koschula; Ein seltsamer Fall; Das eiserne Kreuz; Detektiv Braun; Die Geschichte der stillen Mühle; Hans und Hanni. 1915: Das Zeitungsmädel; Aschenbrödel; Das Laster. Soziales Drama; Mädels, ran an die Front!; Endlich zu zweien; Dämon und Mensch; Eine Lausbubengeschichte; Solo – Allein; Die Sage vom Hund von Baskerville; Der Erbförster; Die Goldfelder von Jacksonville; Lumpengesindel; Wenn die Frau kocht …; Das unheimliche Zimmer; Hampels Abenteuer; Der fesche Rudi; Die bösen Buben; Fürstliches Blut; Marionetten; Mieze Strempels Werdegang; Das Sportsmädel; Der Fund im Neubau: 1. Der Fingernagel / 2. Bekenntnisse eines Mörders; Abgründe; Der kleine und der große Lump; Monsieur Herkules; O, diese Weiber; Schlemihl; Lümpchens Glück; Piccolos Rache; Teufelchen; Die wilde Blume; Das Wiegenlied. 1915/16: Lumpenliesel; Die verkaufte Braut; Das tanzende Herz; Das Phantom der Oper. 1916: Die Glücksschmiede; Fritzis toller Einfall; Der Sumpf; Das arme Schneiderlein; Der Fakir im Frack; Das Geständnis der grünen Maske; Schloß Phantom; Elses letzter Hauslehrer; Die Sektwette; Ramara; Komteß Else; Adamants letztes Rennen; Der lebende Tote; Der Erbe von ‘Het Steen’. 1917: Else als Detektiv; Das Nachtgespräch; Else und ihr Vetter; Zimmer Nr. 7; Das eigene Opfer ihrer Rache; Ein Tropfen Gift; Die schwarze Loo; Du sollst keine anderen Götter haben; Am Hochzeitsabend; Der Versicherungskobold; Herr und Diener; Die Nichte des Herzogs; Ein scharfer Schuß; Der eiserne Wille. 1917/18: Der Groschenroman; Das gestohlene Hotel. 1918: Die Schuld des Vaters; Der Schönheitspreis; Die Glocken der Katharinenkirche; Die erwachende Venus; Der Weg ins Freie; Die Dame im Schaufenster; Das Tagebuch des Apothekers
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Warren; Die tanzende Hanni; Ein nächtliches Ereignis; Denn höher als die Liebe steht die Pflicht; Vater und Sohn; Dr. Schotte; Der Teilhaber; Die Brüder von Zaarden; Das Glück von Lindenberg; Die Pokerpartie; Die Kraft des Herzens; Aus dem Leben einer Schulreiterin; Die verschlossenen Türen; Lorenzo Burghardt; Das Schicksal der Margarete Holberg; Der gelbe Schatten. 1919: Der Eid des Stephan Huller. 1. Teil; Dunkle Wege; Die rote Herzogin; Die schwarze Loge; Der letzte Zeuge; Das Werk seines Lebens; Die Dame im Auto; Seelenverkäufer. Das Schicksal einer Deutsch-Amerikanerin; Um Diamanten und Frauen; Eine schwache Stunde; Die Duplizität der Ereignisse. 1919/20: Der Mann im Nebel; Professor Larousse. 1920: Die Stimme; Die Söhne des Grafen Dossy; Dr. Macdonalds Sanatorium; Masken: 1. Mister Rex / 2. Varieté / 3. Ein Trappistenkloster; Das Haus ohne Fenster; Das Doppelgesicht; Der Frauenarzt; Puppen des Todes; Die blaue Katze. 1920/21: Die Nächte des Cornelius Brouwer; Urne Nr. 13; Das rote Haus. 1921: Der Eid des Stephan Huller. 2. Teil.
MUTZ GREENBAUM (Max Greenbaum, aka Max Greene) Born February 3, 1896, Berlin (Germany) Died July 5, 1968, Findon (Sussex, England) Mutz Greenbaum, the son of pioneer film producer Jules Greenbaum, became one of the most versatile cinematographers in Weimar cinema and from the early 1930s established an equally successful career in Britain. While still a teenager he started his career, with his elder brother George (b. 1889), as a cameraman in his father’s company Greenbaum-Film GmbH, working with the in-house directors Richard Oswald, Max Mack and Adolf Gärtner. In 1919 and 1920 he directed several episodes of popular detective series DER MANN IM NEBEL (The Man in the Fog) featuring the gentleman detective Harry Higgs, and DAS DOPPELGESICHT (The Double Face), PROFESSOR LAROUSSE, and URNE NR. 13 (Urn No. 13) in the Phantomas series, all produced by his father. During the 1920s he photographed films for other companies and directors as well, among them Franz Hofer, Reinhard Bruck and Carl Boese, with whom he shot DIE TÄNZERIN BARBERINA (Barberina, the Dancer, 1919/20), the first film starring Otto Gebühr as the Prussian King Frederick the Great. Camera colleagues included Emil Schünemann, Gustave Preiss, Theodor Sparkuhl, Giovanni Vitrotti, and Akos Farkas. SÜNDENBABEL (Sinful Babel, 1925), starring Reinhold Schünzel, was co-scripted by Greenbaum with director Constantin J. David; the set designs were by Alfred Junge, later one of Greenbaum’s collaborators in Britain. After Jules Greenbaum relinquished control of Greenbaum-Film because of ill health (he died in an asylum in 1924), his sons managed the company for
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a short time before producer Hermann Millakowsky took over. The company was finally liquidated in 1932. In 1930 Greenbaum worked in England for the first time on German director E. A. Dupont’s multi-lingual production (MLV) TWO WORLDS / ZWEI WELTEN / LES DEUX MONDES, made at Elstree with the American cinematographer Charles Rosher. The film, about a love affair between a Jewish girl and an Austrian officer in World War I, was a co-production between B.I.P. and Greenbaum-Film. Subsequently he shot WIENER LIEBSCHAFTEN / AMOURS VIENNOISES (Viennese Love Affairs) for the directors Robert Land and Jean Choux, another MLV production, this time in the Gaumont and Tobis Studios in Paris. Greenbaum’s last two German films were Richard Oswald’s broad historical panorama ‘1914’. DIE LETZTEN TAGE VOR DEM WELTBRAND (‘1914’. The Last Days Before the Great War) and Friedrich Zelnik’s operetta DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTL (The Girl and the Kaiser), both produced in Babelsberg in the winter of 1930/31. Then he moved to England permanently, becoming one of the most influential of the German technicians who helped improve the skills and artistic values of the British film industry during the 1930s. After a smaller multi-lingual production, the British-French 77, PARK LANE / 77 RUE CHALGRIN (1931), directed by Albert de Courville, Greenbaum was contracted by producer Michael Balcon to work for Gaumont-British Picture Corporation and its sister company Gainsborough Pictures, starting with HINDLE WAKES. Albert de Courville, Victor Saville, Sinclair Hill, Walter Forde, and Graham Cutts were some of the directors he worked with. Several films were remakes of successful German films, such as the comedy SUNSHINE SUSIE (1931), with Renate Müller, star of the original version, DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (The Private Secretary, 1930); Milton Rosmer’s EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES (1934/35); and STORM IN A TEACUP (1937) based on a play by Bruno Frank. Greenbaum was involved with some of the best British films of the period. He excelled on some of Carol Reed’s early pictures, notably THE STARS LOOK DOWN (1939), with its realistic depiction of a mining town. The historical drama TUDOR ROSE (1935/36) won an award for best photography at the Venice Film Festival in 1936. During World War II he worked on anti-Nazi films such as Leslie Howard’s PIMPERNEL SMITH (1941) and the Boulting Brothers’ PASTOR HALL (1940), about a priest fighting the Nazis, based on a story by Ernst Toller. He continued working with the Boultings (John and Roy) on THUNDER ROCK (1942), starring Michael Redgrave. From 1943 he worked exclusively under an Anglicised name, Max Greene, that he had previously occasionally used.
In 1943/44 he also tried his hand at directing, codirecting, with Victor Hanbury and Lance Comfort, the two spy thrillers ESCAPE TO DANGER and HOTEL RESERVE for RKO Radio British Productions. On his own he directed THE MAN FROM MOROCCO (1944), starring exiled actor Anton Walbrook (Adolf Wohlbrück) as a freedom fighter. After the war he concentrated on photography again. Apart from Jules Dassin’s thriller NIGHT AND THE CITY (1949/50), shot for the Fox studio in London, he worked exclusively for Herbert Wilcox and his Imperadio Pictures. In 1956 he changed to the Boultings’ company Charter Film Productions. Their religious satire HEAVENS ABOVE! (1963), starring Peter Sellers, was Greenbaum’s last feature film. [cam – DE] 1915: Hampels Abenteuer; Das Spiel mit dem Tode. 1915/16: Das tanzende Herz. 1916: Der Sumpf; Der Fakir im Frack; Das Geständnis der grünen Maske; Die Sektwette. 1917/18: Das gestohlene Hotel. 1918: Der gelbe Schatten; Der Fluch des Nuri [co-cam]. 1918/19: Das Caviar-Mäuschen [co-cam]; Die nach Liebe dürsten. 1919: Das Werk seines Lebens; Die Dame im Auto [co-cam]; Die Sumpfhanne. 1919/20: Drei Nächte; Der Mann im Nebel [dir]; Die Tänzerin Barberina; Professor Larousse [dir,coscr]. 1920: Planetenschieber; Masken; Das Doppelgesicht [dir]; Ich – bin – Du …; Das Floß der Toten [co-cam]. 1920/ 21: Urne Nr. 13 [dir]; Haschisch, das Paradies der Hölle. 1921: Der Gang durch die Hölle; Die Gebieterin von St. Tropez; Der Eid des Stephan Huller. 2. Teil; Die Beichte einer Gefallenen; Der vergiftete Strom; Die Minderjährige. 1921/22: Die Rache der Afrikanerin; Wege des Lasters. 1922: Der Halunkengeiger; Die Glocke. 2. Teil: Das verlorene Elternhaus; Wildnis [co-cam]; Die Küsse der Ira Toscari; Liebes-List und -Lust; Christoph Columbus. 1923: Wettlauf ums Glück [co-cam]; Frühlingserwachen [AT]; Das Laster des Spiels; Graf Cohn; Das gestohlene Hotel. 1923/24: Das Geschöpf. 1924: Die Herrin von Monbijou; Das Mädel von Capri [co-cam]; Das blonde Hannele [co-cam]; Düstere Schatten, strahlendes Glück; Lumpen und Seide [co-cam]; Das goldene Kalb [co-cam]; Prater [co-cam]. 1924/25: Heiratsschwindler. 1925: Sündenbabel [cam,co-scr,pro]; Die unberührte Frau; Zersprengte Ketten [pro]; Unser täglich Brot [cam,co-scr]. 1925/26: Tragödie einer Ehe / Human Law [DE/GB]. 1926: Die Flucht in den Zirkus; Das Mädel auf der Schaukel. 1926/27: Potsdam, das Schicksal einer Residenz. 1927: Der Meister der Welt [co-cam]; Das Schicksal einer Nacht; Die rollende Kugel [co-cam]; Der goldene Abgrund. Schiffbrüchige des Lebens / Rapa-Nui [cam – DE/FR]. 1927/28: Wer das Scheiden hat erfunden [co-cam]; Die Königin seines Herzens [co-cam]; Der Präsident [co-cam]. 1928: Marter der Liebe [co-cam]; Die Republik der Backfische; Frauenraub in Marokko. 1928/29: Mascottchen. 1929: Sensation im Wintergarten; Die stärkere Macht; Spielereien einer Kaiserin. 1929/30: Es gibt eine Frau, die dich niemals vergißt [MLV]. 1930: Liebe und Champagner [co-cam]; Nur am Rhein … [co-cam]; Die große Sehnsucht; Two Worlds [MLV – co-cam – GB/DE]; Zwei Welten [MLV – co-cam – GB/DE]; Les deux mondes
HEINRICH GRETLER [MLV – co-cam – GB/DE/FR]; Zwei Menschen [co-cam]; Wiener Liebschaften [MLV – DE/FR]; Amours viennoises [MLV – DE/FR]; ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand. 1930/31: Die Försterchristl [co-cam]. [cam – GB] 1931: 77, Park Lane [co-cam]; Hindle Wakes; 77 rue Chalgrin [MLV – co-cam]; A Gentleman of Paris; Sunshine Susie. 1932: The Faithful Heart; Love on Wheels; There Goes the Bride [MLV – co-cam]; The Midshipmaid. 1933: Britannia of Billingsgate; The Constant Nymph; It’s a Boy! 1934: Princess Charming; Chu Chin Chow; Evensong. 1934/35: Emil and the Detectives; Oh, Daddy! 1935: Bulldog Jack; Car of Dreams; The Guv’nor [MLV]. 1935/36: Tudor Rose. 1936: Seven Sinners; Strangers on Honeymoon. 1937: Storm in a Teacup; Non-Stop New York; The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel; The Green Cockatoo. 1937/38: We’re Going to Be Rich. 1938: Keep Smiling; Climbing High [co-cam]; Old Iron. 1939: There Ain’t No Justice; An Englishman’s Home [co-cam]; The Stars Look Down. 1940: Pastor Hall; Under Your Hat. 1940/41: This England. 1941: Pimpernel Smith [cam,techn.supv]; Ships With Wings [co-cam]; Hatter’s Castle [GB/US]. 1941/42: They Flew Alone. 1942: Thunder Rock; Squadron Leader X. 1943: The Sky’s the Limit [SF]; Escape to Danger [co-dir, cam – GB/US]; The Yellow Canary. 1943/44: Hotel Reserve [co-dir,cam,pro – GB/US]. 1944: The Man from Morocco [dir]. 1945/46: Wanted for Murder [cam,pro]. 1946: Piccadilly Incident. 1947: The Courtneys of Curzon Street. 1947/48: So Evil My Love. 1948: Elizabeth of Ladymead; Spring in Park Lane. 1949: Maytime in Mayfair. 1949/50: Night and the City [GB/US]. 1950: Odette; Into the Blue. 1951: The Lady With the Lamp. 1952: Derby Day; Trent’s Last Case. 1953: Laughing Anne. 1954: Trouble in the Glen [co-cam]; Lilacs in the Spring. 1955: King’s Rhapsody. 1956: My Teenage Daughter. 1956/57: Brothers in Law. 1957: Lucky Jim. 1958: The Moonraker; Carlton-Browne of the F.O. 1959: I’m All Right, Jack; The Third Man: Toys of the Dead [TV]. 1960: A French Mistress; Suspect. 1960/ 61: The Secret Ways [US]. 1962: Sparrows Can’t Sing [cocam]. 1963: Heavens Above! 1966: Three Weeks in Britain [SF – co-cam]. 1967: The Money Mark [SF].
HEINRICH GRETLER Born October 1, 1897, Zurich-Hottingen (Switzerland) Died September 30, 1977, Zurich-Hottingen (Switzerland) Often bringing a wryly humorous edge to his performances as authority figures and kind-hearted paternal types, Swiss actor Gretler stood out in particular in dialect films and light comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. After training to become a teacher in Küsnacht between 1912 and 1915, Gretler studied acting while working at schools in Zurich. He had appeared on stage for six years before his screen debut in Emil Harder’s epic of the origins of the Swiss nation, WILLIAM TELL – THE BIRTH OF SWITZERLAND (1924). Relocating to Berlin in 1926, Gretler worked at various popular theatres, standing out in Friedrich Hol-
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laender’s 1931 revue ‘Höchste Eisenbahn’ (High Time) as well as in productions by Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. He also had small parts in German films including Fritz Lang’s M (1931) and DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1932/ 33) and Hollaender’s ICH UND DIE KAISERIN (The Only Girl, 1932/33). After the Nazis seized power, Gretler initially went on tour with Weill/Brecht’s ‘Mahagonny Songspiel’ to Paris and London, and then returned to Zurich’s Schauspielhaus from 1933 to 1935, and again from 1938 to 1945, as well as appearing at the anti-fascist Cabaret Cornichon from 1935 to 1940. On screen, he took roles in dialect comedies such as Walter Lesch’s WIE D’WAHRHEIT WÜRKT (The Effect of Truth, 1933) and in patriotic dramas such as Hermann Haller and Leopold Lindtberg’s FÜSILIER WIPF (Fusilier Wipf, 1938) and the latter’s LANDAMMANN STAUFFACHER (State Official Stauffacher, 1941). In Max Haufler’s FARINET (1938/39), Gretler was memorable as a worldly-wise sceptic, and he played leads in Lindtberg’s adaptations of two Friedrich Glauser crime novels, WACHTMEISTER STUDER (Police Constable Studer, 1939) and MATTO REGIERT (Madness Reigns, 1946/47). After the war, Gretler played a myriad of archetypal Swiss figures in Heimatfilms, including the grandfather in Luigi Comencini’s HEIDI (1952) and Franz Schnyder’s HEIDI UND PETER (Heidi and Peter, 1954/55). The actor also appeared regularly on German and Swiss television from 1960 until his death. [act – DE] 1924: William Tell – The Birth of Switzerland / Die Entstehung der Eidgenossenschaft [US/CH]. 1927: Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel. 1928: Der Mann mit dem Laubfrosch. 1929: Menschen am Sonntag. 1929/30: Die letzte Kompagnie. 1930: Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci. 1931: Voruntersuchung; M; Berlin – Alexanderplatz. Die Geschichte vom Franz Biberkopf. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Fünf von der Jazzband; Der Orlow. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse. [act – CH] 1933: Wie d’ Wahrheit würkt. 1934/35: Jä – soo! 1935: Zyt ischt Gält. 1938: Füsilier Wipf. 1938/39: Farinet / L’Or dans la montagne [CH/FR]. 1939: Euseri Schwyz [DO – voi]; Wachtmeister Studer. 1940: Gottfried Keller – Sein Leben und Werk [SD – voi]; Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe. 1941: Gilberte de Courgenay; Landammann Stauffacher. 1942: Steibruch. 1943/44: Marie-Louise. 1946/47: Matto regiert. 1948/49: Weißes Gold [AT/CH]. 1949: Mitenand gahts besser [SF]; Piccolo bandito. Der Geist Pestalozzis über die Kriegswaisen [SF]; Swiss Tour; Der Seelenbräu [AT]. [act – DE] 1950: Föhn [DE/CH]; Vom Teufel gejagt. 1951: Der unsichtbare Stacheldraht [SF]; Der fidele Bauer [AT]; Der Stein des Anstoßes [SD]; Der letzte Schuß; Gefangene
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Seele; Nachts auf den Straßen. 1951/52: Herz der Welt. 1952: Die Zeiten ändern sich [SD]; The Devil Makes Three [US]; Heidi [CH]; Der Weibertausch; Die große Versuchung. 1952/53: Das Dorf unterm Himmel; Die Venus vom Tivoli [CH]. 1953: Junges Herz voll Liebe; Dein Herz ist meine Heimat / Magdalena Percht [DE/AT]; Mit 17 beginnt das Leben. 1954: Die Sonne von St. Moritz; Rosen-Resli; Frühlingslied [DE/IT]; Uli der Knecht [CH]. 1954/ 55: Ein Mann vergißt die Liebe; Heidi und Peter [CH]. 1955: Oberarzt Dr. Solm; Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld; Der Fischer vom Heiligensee; Rosenmontag; Sohn ohne Heimat; Die Försterbuben; Uli der Pächter [CH]; Das Erbe vom Pruggerhof [DE/AT]. 1956: Der Glockengießer von Tirol; Kleines Zelt und große Liebe; Der Schandfleck [DE/ AT]; Zwischen uns die Berge [CH]. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben. 1957: Der Jungfrauenkrieg [AT]; Der König der Bernina [CH/AT]; Der 10. Mai [CH]; Die Heilige und ihr Narr [AT]; Der Pfarrer von St. Michael. 1958: Es geschah am hellichten Tag / El cebo [CH/DE]; … und nichts als die Wahrheit; Der schwarze Blitz; Ein wunderbarer Sommer [LI]; Die Käserei in der Vehfreude [CH]. 1959: Die ideale Frau; Alt-Heidelberg; La vache et le prisonnier / La vacca e il prigioniero [FR/IT]; Hast noch der Söhne ja …? [CH]. 1960: Liebling der Götter; Himmel, Amor und Zwirn; Scheidungsgrund: Liebe; Waldhausstraße 20 [TV]; Anne Bäbi Jowäger. Wie Jakobli zu einer Frau kommt [CH]; Immer will ich Dir gehören; Sabine und die 100 Männer. 1960/61: Die Gejagten / Die Heuchler [CH/DE]. 1961: Le cave se rebiffe / Il re dei falsari [FR/IT]; Via Mala. 1961/ 62: Es Dach überem Chopf [CH]. 1962: Wie Anne Bäbi Jowäger haushaltet und wie es ihm mit dem Doktern geht [CH]; Liebling, ich muß dich erschießen; Freddy und das Lied der Südsee; Wilde Wasser [DE/AT]; Der 42. Himmel [CH]; Kohlhiesels Töchter; … und ewig knallen die Räuber [AT/LI]. 1963: Einzelgänger [TV – CH]; Der Unsichtbare; Stadtpark [TV]; Haben [TV]. 1964: Das Leben des Horace A. W. Tabor [TV]. 1965: Gsetz isch Gsetz [TV – CH]; Die hölzerne Schüssel [TV – CH]; Ein Wintermärchen [TV]. 1966: De Tod uf em Oepfelbaum [TV – CH]. 1966/ 67: Die Mohrin [TV]. 1966-68: Landarzt Dr. Brock [TVS]. 1967: Zoo. Mörder aus Menschenliebe [TV – CH]; König Ödipus [TV]. 1968: Der Talisman [TV]. 1969: Der Nagel [TV]. 1970: Der verhinderte Seitensprung / Keine Angst, Liebling, ich paß schon auf [AT/CH]; Spiele der Macht [TV – CH]; Immerdie verflixten Weiber [CH]. 1971: Ein Kind ist verschwunden [TV – CH]. 1974: Im Sunnegrund [TV – CH]. 1975: Zu Gast im Studio Zwei: Heinrich Gretler [TVD – CH]. 1976: Der Tag, an dem der Papst gekidnappt wurde [TV – CH/DE]. 1978: Anne Bäbi Jowäger [complete version – CH].
ALFRED GREVEN Born October 9, 1897, Elberfeld, now WuppertalElberfeld (Germany) Died February 9, 1973, Cologne (West Germany) As head of Continental Films in Paris during the German occupation, Greven produced thirty features between 1940 and 1944.
A typesetter by training, Greven volunteered at the outbreak of World War I, during which he was twice awarded the Iron Cross. After the war, he entered the film industry and by the late 1920s had worked in a managerial capacity at an array of production companies and first-run cinemas including Berlin’s UfaPalast am Zoo. In the early 1930s, Greven, who became a member of the Nazi party in 1931, joined Harry Piel’s Ariel Film, where he produced two of Third Reich cinema’s rare excursions into science fiction, the Wellsian invisible man picture EIN UNSICHTBARER GEHT DURCH DIE STADT (The World Is Mine, 1933) and DIE WELT OHNE MASKE (Ruler of the World, 1934). Greven’s career breakthrough was Hans Steinhoff’s Deka production DER ALTE UND DER JUNGE KÖNIG (The Making of a King, 1934/35), which found favour with the new regime for its ‘Führer-like’ depiction of Frederick the Great. He was rewarded with his own unit at Ufa, which produced German and French-language versions (MLVs) of features by Herbert Selpin, Georg Jacoby and Viktor Tourjansky. Following a highly successful two-year stint as head of production of Terra-Filmkunst, Greven was promoted to head of production at Ufa in February 1939 – a position he would hold for just three months after locking horns with Goebbels over the latter’s decision not to release Paul Martin’s PREUSSISCHE LIEBESGESCHICHTE (A Prussian Love Story, 1938) starring the propaganda minister’s former mistress Lída Baarová. In summer 1939 he supervised the production of Albert Valentin’s L’HÉRITIER DES MONDÉSIR (The Mondésir Heir), made by Ufa in French in their Babelsberg studios and starring Fernandel. Valued for his business acumen, Greven was made managing director of the Nazi-controlled Continental Films following the seizure of Paris in 1940, and he undertook his assignment to secure Europe-wide distribution with enthusiasm. Greven employed the cream of French film talent to work on Continental’s productions, including actors Danielle Darrieux and Edwige Feuillère and directors Maurice Tourneur and Henri-Georges Clouzot. Prestige works such as Tourneur’s LA MAIN DU DIABLE (Carnival of Sinners / The Devil’s Hand) and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s LE CORBEAU (The Raven, both 1943) found international acclaim, but caused disfavour with Goebbels and Reich film controller Fritz Hippler who chided Greven for effectively competing with Ufa’s domestic output. Greven escaped the liberation of Paris in August 1944 with various (illegally copied) prints and company funds. Initially interned by Soviet forces in 1945, Greven settled in West Germany, where Ufa’s liquidators demanded restitution of over 50,000 Reichsmarks, but the case was eventually dropped. A 1953 plan to ap-
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point Greven head of a North German Film Office in Hamburg fell through following press reports about his Nazi past. Greven’s sporadic post-war activities included two Cold War documentaries he directed, ALARM IM MITTELMEER (Alarm in the Mediterranean, 1959) and NATO-MANÖVER (NATO Manoeuvre, 1963); and he produced the TV children’s series PETER IST DER BOSS (Peter’s the Boss, 1972). Greven’s life and career were the subject of the TV documentary TARNNAME CONTINENTAL (Code Name: Continental, 1997) and he was portrayed by Christian Berkel in Bertrand Tavernier’s drama about Continental Films, LAISSEZ-PASSER (Safe Conduct, 2001/02). [pro – DE] 1932: Trenck. 1933: Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt; Schwarzwaldmädel; Schwarzwaldbauern [SD]. 1934: Die Welt ohne Maske; Die blaue Küste [SD]; Gern hab’ ich die Frau’n geküßt; Abenteuer eines jungen Herrn in Polen. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König. 1935: Der grüne Domino [MLV]; Le domino vert [MLV]. 1935/36: Heißes Blut [MLV]; Les deux favoris [MLV]. 1936: Stadt Anatol [MLV]; Puits en flammes [MLV]; Ritt in die Freiheit. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war; Die wirkliche Liebe [SF]. 1937/38: Die feindlichen Väter [SF]; Ich sehe hell … ich sehe dunkel [SF]; Kriminalfall Erich Lemke [SF]; Kameraden auf See. 1938: Die fromme Lüge; Der Kapland-Diamant [SF]; Das verlorene Lächeln [SF]; Blinder Eifer schadet nur [SF]; Die Moritat vom Biedermann [SF]; Ida [SF]; Der Dorfbarbier [SF]; Geheimzeichen LB 17; Der liebe Besuch [SF]; Das Menuett von Boccherini [SF]; Der falsche Admiral [SF]; Wer bist du? [SF]; Eine Frau kommt in die Tropen; Familie auf Bestellung [SF]; Das Schwert des Damokles [SF]; Schwarzfahrt ins Glück. Die kleine Sünderin; Der halbe Weg. 33 Minuten in Grüneberg [SF]; Angenehme Ruhe [SF]; Der eingebildete Kranke [SF]; Der betrogene Kalif [SF]; Kleines Intermezzo [SF]; Wochenendfriede [SF]; Der Skarabäus [SF]; Andere Länder, andere Sitten [SF]; Haydns letzter Besucher [SF]; Schatten über St. Pauli; Spuk im Museum [SF]; Fracht von Baltimore; Steputat & Co.; Ziel in den Wolken; Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht?; Lauter Lügen; Spiel im Sommerwind. 1938/ 39: Rosemarie will nicht mehr lügen [SF]; Im Namen des Volkes; Der anonyme Brief [SF]; Der Schritt vom Wege. Effi Briest; Aufruhr in Damaskus; Männer müssen so sein; Die Stimme aus dem Äther; Der Florentiner Hut. 1939: Modell Lu. Der Lebensweg eines Hutes [SF]; Das Stilett [SF]; Der Gouverneur; Fräulein; Der Vorhang fällt; Evtl. spätere Heirat nicht ausgeschlossen [SF]; Die Sache mit dem Hermelin [SF]; Notgemeinschaft Hinterhaus [SF]; Sensationsprozeß Casilla; Das Fenster im 2. Stock [SF]; Heimatland; Barbara, wo bist Du? [SF]; Tee zu zweien [SF]; 12 Minuten nach 12; Das Lied der Wüste; L’Héritier des Mondésir. 1939/41: Kadetten. [pro – FR] 1941: Le dernier de six; Le club des soupirants; L’Assassinat du Père Noël; Ne bougez plus; Péchés de jeunesse; Mam’zelle Bonaparte; Caprices; Annette et la dame blonde; La symphonie fantastique; Les inconnus dans la
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maison. 1941/42: Premier rendez-vous. 1942: L’Assassin habite au 21; La fausse maîtresse; Simplet; Défense d’aimer; Mariage d’amour; Picpus. 1943: La main du diable; Vingt-cinq ans de bonheur; Au bonheur des dames; Le val d’enfer; Le corbeau; Mon amour est près de toi; La ferme aux loups; Adrien; Pierre et Jean; La vie de plaisier; Le dernier sou. 1943/44: Les sapeurs-pompiers de Paris [SD]. 1944: Les caves du Majestic. [pro – DE] 1955: Du darfst nicht länger schweigen. 1955/ 56: Bonjour, Kathrin. 1957: Die Freundin meines Mannes. 1959: Alarm im Mittelmeer [DO – dir]. 1962: Von jungen Leuten [SD]. 1963: Nato-Manöver [SD – dir]. 1972: Peter ist der Boss [TVS].
HELMUT GRIEM Born April 6, 1932, Hamburg (Germany) Died November 19, 2004, Munich (Germany) Handsome, blond, blue-eyed Griem became a film heartthrob in the early 1960s, but later subverted his image playing cold-hearted Nazis and decadent aristocrats in international productions, as well as portraying everyman figures and broken heroes in German films. While studying philosophy and comparative literature between 1953 and 1956, Griem joined an amateur theatre group and appeared at the Hamburger Buchfinken cabaret, where he was spotted by the director of Lübeck’s Städtische Bühnen theatre and engaged to appear in N. Richard Nash’s ‘The Rainmaker’. Further roles followed during the 1956/57 season, with Griem also serving as an assistant director. He then joined the ensemble of Cologne’s Städtische Bühnen for three years, and while there made his television debut in a 1957 broadcast of DER ZERBROCHENE KRUG (The Broken Jug), a filmed performance of Heinrich von Kleist’s classic play. Griem’s first cinema role was an upstanding lieutenant in Frank Wysbar’s army thriller FABRIK DER OFFIZIERE (Officer Factory, 1960). Receiving the popular Bambi Award for best male newcomer, he was immediately typecast as squeaky clean leading man material. He starred as a sailor in the melodrama BIS ZUM ENDE ALLER TAGE (Girl from Hong Kong) and as a committed doctor in Wysbar’s BARBARA (both 1961), alongside appearances in French and Italian productions. Disenchanted with his film career, Griem thereafter concentrated for some years primarily on stage work, enjoying triumph after triumph at theatres and festivals across Germany and Austria. Griem’s return to the screen as chillingly charming and sophisticated SS officer Aschenbach in Luchino Visconti’s LA CADUTA DEGLI DEI (The Damned, 1968/69) brought international acclaim, as did his bisexual Baron von Heune in Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1971/72).
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Griem’s performance as the dependable Count Dürkheim in Visconti’s LUDWIG (1972) in turn prompted a succession of more heroic roles such as a Jewish doctor in the British-Israeli co-production CHILDREN OF RAGE (1975) and as a resistance fighter in Jacques Rouffio’s LA PASSANTE DU SANS-SOUCI (The Passerby, 1981/82). In West German films Griem played emotionally and physically scarred characters, as in Vojtech Jasny’s Böll adaptation ANSICHTEN EINES CLOWNS (The Clown, 1975), or else resolute figures including a doctor battling an epidemic in Peter Fleischmann’s DIE HAMBURGER KRANKHEIT (The Hamburg Syndrome, 1978/79). While continuing a prolific stage career, Griem also had guest roles in small-screen literary adaptations including Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80) and Claude Chabrol’s LES AFFINITÉS ÉLECTIVES (Elective Affinities, 1981/82). In the mid-1990s, Griem took on more regular television work in one-off dramas and mini-series, including Alberto Negrin’s two-part MISSUS (Spy in Black, 1993/94) and alongside Richard Chamberlain in DIE VERLORENE TOCHTER (The Lost Daughter, 1996/97). [act – DE – TV] 1957: Der zerbrochene Krug. 1958: Die Brüder. 1960: Zum Geburtstag; Fabrik der Offiziere [FF]. 1961: Bis zum Ende aller Tage [FF]; Barbara [FF]; Der Traum von Lieschen Müller [FF]. 1962: Oggi a Berlino [FF – IT]. 1963: À cause, à cause d’une femme [FF – FR]; Maria Magdalene; Don Carlos. Infant von Spanien. 1964: Sessel am Kamin; Die Sanfte. 1964/65: Christinas Heimreise. 1965: Antigone. 1965/66: Die Ballade von Peckham Rye [AT/ DE]. 1967: Liebe für Liebe; Blick von der Brücke; Bel ami. 1968/69: La caduta degli dei / Die Verdammten [FF – IT/DE]. 1969/70: Peter und der Wolf [voi]. 1970: The McKenzie Break [FF – GB]. 1971: Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass. 1971/72: Cabaret [FF – US]. 1972: Ludwig / Ludwig … ou le crépuscule des dieux / Ludwig II. [FF – IT/FR/DE]. 1973: Der Zuschlag; Der zerbrochene Krug. 1975: Children of Rage [FF – GB/IL]; Es fängt ganz harmlos an; Amphitryon; Ansichten eines Clowns [FF]; Männergeschichten, Frauengeschichten. 1975/76: Voyage of the Damned [FF – GB]. 1976: Il deserto dei tartari / Le désert des tatares / Die Tatarenwüste [FF – IT/FR/DE]. 1977: Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [voi]; Mannen i skuggan / Crnosunce [FF – SE/YU]. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst. EP 12: Die verschobene Antigone [FF]; Die gläserne Zelle [FF]. 1978: Rollen im Theater [TVD – app]; Les rendez-vous d’Anna / Rendezvous d’Anna [FF – FR/BE/DE]. 1978/79: Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz. 2. Teil [FF]; Die Hamburger Krankheit / La maladie d’Hambourg [FF – DE/FR]. 1979/ 80: Berlin Alexanderplatz [part 2-13, Epilog – TV]. 1980: Kaltgestellt [FF]; Tales of the Unexpected: Genesis & Catastrophe [GB]; Malou [FF]. 1980/81: Stachel im Fleisch [FF]. 1981: Die Versuchung; Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [FF – DE/FR/IT]; La trap-
pola originale [IT]. 1981/82: Les affinités électives / Die Wahlverwandtschaften [FR/DE]; La passante du SansSouci / Die Spaziergängerin von Sans-Souci [FF – FR/DE]. 1984: Der Leutnant und sein Richter; Klotz am Bein. 1984/85: Peter the Great [US]. 1985: The Second Victory [FF – GB]. 1985/86: Caspar David Friedrich. Grenzen der Zeit [FF]. 1986/87: Troilus und Cressida. 1987/88: Faust [FF]. 1988: Onkel Wanja. 1989: Shooting Stars [GB]; A proposito di quella strana ragazza [FF – IT]. 1989/90: The Plot to Kill Hitler [US]; Hard Days, Hard Nights [FF]. 1990: Landläufiger Tod [AT/DE]. 1991: Maskierte Wahrheit: Theater und Philosophie [TVD – app]; Extralarge: Magic Power / Zwei Supertypen in Miami: Magic Power [US/IT/DE]; Extralarge: Black Magic / Zwei Supertypen in Miami – Extralarge gegen Tod und Teufel [IT/DE]. 1991/ 92: Eine verlorene Liebe. 1993: Verlassen Sie bitte Ihren Mann [FF – AT/DE]; Charlemagne, le prince à cheval / Carlo Magno / Karl der Große [FR/IT/DE]. 1993/94: Inside the Vatican / Weltmacht Vatikan [CA/GB/DE]; Missus [FR/IT]. 1994: Endloser Abschied; 1945 [AT]; Helmut Griem – Ein deutscher Hamlet [TVD – app]. 1995: Die Grube; Der gefälschte Sommer. 1996: Brennendes Herz – Tagebuch einer Flucht [FF]; Anwalt Abel – Das schmutzige Dutzend. 1996/97: Die verlorene Tochter [CH]. 1997: Koerbers Akte: Tödliches Ultimatum. 1999: Die Stunde des Löwen. 1999/2000: Der letzte Zeuge: Familienbande; Der Mörder in Dir. 2000: Das Traumschiff 2000 – Olympia. 2000/01: Piccolo mondo antico [IT]. 2001: Amokfahrt zum Pazifik; Lourdes [IT/FR]; SK Kölsch: Altes Eisen. 2001/02: Liebe, Lügen, Leidenschaften. 2002: Legenden: Romy Schneider [TVD – app]. 2003/04: Liebe auf Bewährung.
HERWART GROSSE (Herwart Willy Grosse) Born April 17, 1908, Berlin (Germany) Died October 27, 1982, Berlin (East Germany) DEFA’s foremost film villain of the early post-war years, the officious-looking, pinch-cheeked Grosse revealed a talent for more nuanced roles – and even comedy – in later years. After serving a commercial apprenticeship, Grosse joined the ‘Fichte-Bund’, a proletarian sports, athletics and social club which brought him into contact with actor Albert Florath. A member of the German Communist Party from 1932, Grosse appeared in agitprop theatre, and after the Nazis had come to power, worked at various Berlin theatres prior to the outbreak of World War II. His first film appearances were in Herbert Maisch’s ANDREAS SCHLÜTER (1941/42) and Werner Klingler’s DER VERTEIDIGER HAT DAS WORT (Defence, Take the Floor) and DIE DEGENHARDTS (The Degenhardts, both 1943/44) before being called up to fight in 1944. Returning from internment as a prisoner-of-war, Grosse eventually moved to East Berlin’s Deutsches
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Theater in 1946, where he stood out playing the villain in the adaptation of Schiller’s classic play ‘Kabale und Liebe’ (Intrigue and Love), whereupon he became typecast as a stage villain for many years. On screen, his career in villainy at DEFA commenced in 1947, with stand-out performances including the capitalist company director in Kurt Maetzig’s DER RAT DER GÖTTER (Council of the Gods, 1949/50) and Gestapo chief Müller in Gerhard Klein’s DER FALL GLEIWITZ (The Gleiwitz Affair, 1960/61). One of his rare early departures from type was as head medic Dr. Carlsen in Konrad Wolf’s PROFESSOR MAMLOCK (1960/61), although he was subsequently cast in a variety of less one-dimensional parts, with his keen sense for comedy and irony frequently bringing additional depth to his characterisations. He was the fatherly advisor to a striving communist in Günther Rücker’s DIE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years, 1964/65) and a cranky Frederick the Great in Erwin Stanka’s DIE GESTOHLENE SCHLACHT (The Stolen Battle, 1971). Grosse’s television roles included communist Otto Finke in the provocative ICH – AXEL CAESAR SPRINGER (Myself – Axel Caesar Springer, 1967/68). His final appearance was in the TV mini-series MARTIN LUTHER (1982/83). [act – DD] 1941/42: Andreas Schlüter [DE]. 1943/44: Der Verteidiger hat das Wort! [DE]; Die Degenhardts [DE]. 1947/48: Straßenbekanntschaft. 1948: … und wieder 48!; Berliner Ballade [DE]. 1949/50: Der Rat der Götter. 1951: Das verurteilte Dorf. 1951/52: Karriere in Paris. 1953: Eine Liebesgeschichte [SF]. 1953/54: Das geheimnisvolle Wrack. 1954: EINE Bären GESCHICHTE [SF]. 1955: Robert Mayer – Der Arzt aus Heilbronn. 1956: Persil bleibt Persil [SF]; Damals in Paris … [TV]. 1957: Bunbury oder Ernst muß man sein [TV – dir]; Synthese [SD]; Ein Lebenslauf [SF]. 1957/58: Archive sagen aus: Unternehmen Teutonenschwert [DO – voi]. 1958: Parlamentarier [SF – voi]; Der junge Engländer [voi]; Eine schöne Bescherung [TVD – voi]. 1958/59: Ware für Katalonien. 1959: Mord in Lwow [TVD – voi]; Der Fremde auf der Insel [TV]; Jupp wird gemustert [SF]; Genfer Auslese [TVD – voi]; Der Fall Heusinger [SD – voi]; Bevor der Blitz einschlägt; Genfer Nachlese [TVD – voi]; Minna von Barnhelm [TV]; Ein Künstler des Volkes [SD – voi]. 1960: Das Film-Magazin Nr. 1 [dir,scr]; Projekt Merkur [TV]; Elend und Größe unserer Tage. Aus dem Anekdotenbuch von F. C. Weiskopf [TV]; Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius [TV]; Die Trickbetrügerin [SF]; Scherbengericht [SF – dir]; Spotkania w mroku / Begegnung im Zwielicht [PL/DD]; Das kleine und das große ABC [SF – dir]; Die Mutprobe [SF]. 1960/61: Der Fall Gleiwitz; Aktion J [TVD – voi]; Professor Mamlock; Der Arzt von Bothenow. 1961: Mord an Rathenau [TV]; Im Schneesturm [TV – voi]; Künstlerporträt Wolfgang Heinz [TVD – app]; Reportá psaná na oprãtce [CS]. 1961/62: Freispruch mangels Beweises; Ach, du fröhliche … 1962: Josef und alle seine Brüder [TV – voi]; Minna von Barnhelm oder Das Soldatenglück. 1963: Sonntagsfahrer; Brüder und Schwestern
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[DO – voi]; Globke heute [SD – voi]. 1964: Prozeß Richard Waverly [TV]; Pension Boulanka. 1964/65: Wolf unter Wölfen [TV]; Die besten Jahre; Nichts als Sünde. 1965: Der Nachfolger [TV]; Kommando 52 [SD – voi]; Dr. Schlüter [5 episodes – TVS]; Karla. 1965/66: Fräulein Schmetterling. 1966: Geliebter Lügner [TV]; Hannes Trostberg [TV]; Lebende Ware. 1966/67: Geisterstunde [TVD – voi]; Kämpfer und Sieger: Folge 3 / Folge 11: Die große Chance [TVD – voi] Turlis Abenteuer. 1967/68: Tod im Preis inbegriffen [TV]; Ich – Axel Caesar Springer: 1. Vom schweren Anfang / 2. Männer werden gemacht / 3. Seid nett zueinander [TV]; Piloten im Pyjama: 1. Yes, Sir / 2. Hilton-Hanoi / 3. Der Job / 4. Die Donnergötter [TVD – voi]; Schüsse unterm Galgen; Krupp und Krause [3 parts – TV]. 1968: Alchimisten [TV]; Iphigenie auf Tauris [TV]. 1968/69: Krause und Krupp [2 parts – TV]; Der Engel im Visier [TV]. 1968-70: Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit [TVD – voi]. 1969: Seine Hoheit – Genosse Prinz; Netzwerk. 1969/70: Es gibt eine solche Partei [TV – voi]. 1970: Kein Mann für Camp Detrick [TV – voi]; Der Mörder sitzt im Wembley-Stadion [TV]; Husaren in Berlin. 1970/71: Bye-bye Wheelus [DO – voi]; Über ganz Spanien wolkenloser Himmel [TV]. 1971: Johannes R. Becher [TV]; König Lear [TV]; Liebeserklärung an G. T.; Zwischen Freitag und morgen [TV]; Die gestohlene Schlacht / Ukradená bitva [DD/CS]. 1972: Prof. Dr. med. Maria Fabian [TV]; Aller Liebe Anfang [TV]; Bach in Arnstadt [TV]. 1973: Erlesenes. 20 [TV]; Wolz. Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten. 1973/74: Spätsaison [TV]. 1974: Ein nützlicher Mensch [TV]; Am Ende der Welt. 1975: Lügen haben lange Beine [TV]. 1975/76: Sein letzter Fall [TV]; Beethoven. Tage aus einem Leben. 1976: Leben und Tod König Richard des Dritten [TV]; Die Leiden des jungen Werthers; Eintritt kostenlos [SD – voi]; Lasset die Kindlein … [TV]; Die Liebe und die Königin [TV]. 1976/77: Verfolgung [TV]. 1977: Das unsichtbare Visier: Der afrikaanse Broederbond [TV]; Trampen nach Norden; Zwei Krawatten [TV – DD/DE]. 1977/78: Fleur Lafontaine. 2 Teile [TV]. 1978: Ehe der Hahn kräht [TV]; Hilfe, ich bin ein Kind! [TV]; Stine [TV]; Nun gut, wir wollen fechten [TVD]. 1978/ 79: Lachtauben weinen nicht. 1979: Momentaufnahme eines Komödianten: Herwart Grosse [TVD – app]; Die Heimkehr des Joachim Ott [TV]. 1979/80: Levins Mühle. 1980: Albertine oder Das schlimme Ding, sich in eine Braut zu verlieben [TV]; Suturp – Eine Liebesgeschichte [TV – voi]. 1980/81: Kippenberg [TV]. 1981: ‘Da kommen sie und fragen’. Neun Tage aus Goethes Leben [TVD – voi]; Ein Tag aus Goethes Kindheit [TV]. 1982/83: Martin Luther [5 parts – TV].
GUSTAF GRÜNDGENS (Gustav Gründgens) Born December 22, 1899, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel (Germany) Died October 7, 1963, Manila (Philippines) German theatre legend Gründgens is remembered not only for his enigmatic performance style and celebrated stage productions, but also for his opportunist career choices during the ‘Third Reich’, which served
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as the inspiration for ‘Mephisto’, the 1936 novel by his former brother-in-law Klaus Mann, filmed by István Szabó in 1980/81. The son of a prominent industrialist, Gründgens made his acting debut at an army theatre in Saarbrücken in 1917. He underwent formal training at Düsseldorf’s Hochschule für Bühnenkunst (College of Stagecraft) from 1919, studying under Louise Dumont and Gustav Lindemann, and played his first professional engagements in Halberstadt, Kiel and Berlin between 1920 and 1922. Joining Hamburg’s Kammerspiele theatre in 1923, he also appeared in operettas and made his directorial debut there in 1924. Relocating to Berlin in 1927, he worked as both actor and director at various theatres, staged operas and appeared in cabaret alongside his first wife, Thomas Mann’s daughter Erika (1905–1969), to whom he was married from 1925 to 1928. After the Nazis came to power, he was named actor of state and appointed theatre manager at the Staatliches Schauspielhaus in 1934, later becoming general manager at Preußische Staatstheater from 1937. Undertaking film work in 1929, Gründgens specialised in shady fraudsters, cynical bon viveurs, and menacingly brooding characters. He was a chillingly subdued and slightly effeminate Robespierre in Hans Behrendt’s DANTON (1930/31), and stood out playing a proto-fascist gang leader in Fritz Lang’s M (1931), and the cuckolded baron in Max Ophüls’s LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932/33). In Hans Steinhoff’s TANZ AUF DEM VULKAN (Dance on the Volcano, 1938), in contrast, Gründgens sparkled as a musical entertainer and witty raconteur. He also occasionally directed films, including a remake of F. W. Murnau’s DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (The Grand Duke’s Finances, 1933) and the aviation comedy CAPRIOLEN (Capers, 1937). Given his own production unit at Terra-Film in 1938, he made DER SCHRITT VOM WEGE (The False Step, 1938/39), an adaptation of Theodor Fontane’s ‘Effi Briest’ starring Marianne Hoppe, to whom he was married from 1936 to 1946; the mistaken identity comedy ZWEI WELTEN (Two Worlds, 1939); and a biopic of composer FRIEDEMANN BACH (1940/41). Imprisoned by the Soviets for nine months at the end of the war, Gründgens returned to Berlin’s Deutsches Theater in 1946, and then served as general manager at Düsseldorf’s Städtische Bühnen from 1947 to 1951. He thereafter became managing director at the city’s Schauspielhaus until 1955, after which he was appointed general manager and artistic director at Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus, a position he retained until his death. Alongside Peter Gorski’s German Film Award-winning documentation of Gründgens’s trademark role
as Mephisto in the Hamburg stage production of Goethe’s FAUST, the actor made only one other post-war film appearance, as an elegantly conniving British lord in Helmut Käutner’s farce DAS GLAS WASSER (A Glass of Water, both 1960). [act – DE] 1929/30: Ich glaub’ nie mehr an eine Frau. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; Va Banque [MLV]; Brand in der Oper [MLV]. 1930/31: Danton [MLV]. 1931: M [MLV]; Der Raub der Mona Lisa; Luise, Königin von Preußen; Yorck. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Teilnehmer antwortet nicht; Eine Stadt steht Kopf [dir,lyr,act,pro]. 1932/33: Liebelei [MLV]. 1932-34: ‘Liebelei’. Une histoire d’amour [MLV – FR]. 1933: Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Der Tunnel [MLV – FR/DE]; Le tunnel [MLV – FR/DE]; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs [dir]. 1934: Schwarzer Jäger Johanna; Das Erbe in Pretoria; So endete eine Liebe. 1934/35: Hundert Tage [MLV – IT]. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna; Pygmalion. 1936: Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung. 1937: Capriolen [dir,act]. 1938: Tanz auf dem Vulkan. 1938/39: Der Schritt vom Wege [dir,act,pro]. 1939: Zwei Welten [dir,pro]. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger; Friedemann Bach [supv,act,pro]. 1960: Das Glas Wasser; Faust [sup,co-dir,act]. 1961: Jørgen Roos zeigt Hamburg [DO – app]. 1963: Zur Person: Gustaf Gründgens [TV – app]. 1963/64: Don Gil von den grünen Hosen [TV – codir]; Totentanz [TV – co-dir]. 1989: Der Prinzipal – Die Legende Gustaf Gründgens [TVD]; Joachim Kaiser: ‘… ich erinnere mich’. 2. Gustaf Gründgens [TVD].
KARL GRUNE Born January 22, 1890, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died October 2, 1962, Bournemouth (England) Although largely forgotten today, director, scriptwriter and producer Grune was a highly acclaimed figure in 1920s German film culture. Intertitles and dialogue were kept to a minimum in his films, asserting that narrative and atmosphere could most effectively be communicated by way of camerawork, lighting and visual effects. A teacher’s son, Grune trained to be an actor under Ferdinand Gregori and Hermann Thimig from 1907 and spent three years at provincial theatres in Austria and Bavaria before being engaged at Vienna’s Volksbühne, where he was also entrusted with directorial duties. Called up in 1914, he was wounded in Russia and by 1918 had returned to work as an actor and director at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater and ResidenzTheater. On the recommendation of his brother-in-law Max Schach, who was film and theatre critic for the Berliner Tageblatt, Grune was given a job as scenarist and director at Friedrich Zelnik’s production company Berliner Film-Manufaktur in 1919, and in 1922 founded his own company, Stern-Film GmbH, together with Schach. Collaborating closely with cam-
EGON GÜNTHER
eraman Karl Hasselmann, who worked on eleven of his pictures, Grune created his most famous work, DIE STRASSE (The Street, 1923), a rumination on the nocturnal temptations and dangers of a modern city, which had no intertitles and inaugurated an entire genre of ‘street films’. Thereafter employed at various companies, Grune made an experimental melodrama told from the viewpoint of a horse, ARABELLA (1924), as well as a doppelganger film, DIE BRÜDER SCHELLENBERG (Two Brothers, 1925/26), starring Conrad Veidt, before turning to historical epics such as the twopart KÖNIGIN LUISE (Queen Louise, 1927/28). The equally lavish WATERLOO (1928) was heavily inspired by Abel Gance’s NAPOLÉON (Napoleon, 1925–27), even making use of triple-screen set-ups for some scenes. Founding his own Karl Grune-Film company in 1929, he then became head of production at Munich’s Emelka studios after Schach took over there as general manager, and was entrusted with training upand-coming directors. Grune also served as vice-president of Dacho, the association of German filmmakers, until 1930. As a Jew, Grune emigrated to Britain after the Nazis came to power, and was employed at Schach’s newlyfounded Capitol Film Production, where he directed three opulent costume dramas with numerous émigrés among their casts and technical personnel: ABDUL THE DAMNED (1934/35), a thinly veiled historical parable of Hitler’s dictatorship transposed to 19th century Turkey, starring Fritz Kortner; THE MARRIAGE OF CORBAL (1935/36), a swashbuckler set during the French Revolution and featuring Ernst Deutsch; and PAGLIACCI (1936), a partially coloured adaptation of the Leoncavallo play with Richard Tauber in the leading role. Grune subsequently became the company’s artistic director and assumed British nationality. However Capitol’s films, which were derided by critics including the later novelist Graham Greene, proved costly flops at the British box-office, leading to the collapse of Schach and Grune’s company and terminating both their careers in the British film industry. [dir – DE] 1919: Manon. Das hohe Lied der Liebe [co-scr]; Der Mädchenhirt [dir,co-scr]; Wer unter Euch ohne Sünde ist … [co-scr]; Hölle der Jungfrauen [scr]; Menschen in Ketten; Aus eines Mannes Mädchenjahren [co-scr]. 1921: Nachtbesuch in der Northernbank; Mann über Bord [dir, scr]; Die Nacht ohne Morgen; Die Jagd nach Wahrheit; Frauenopfer. 1922: Der Graf von Charolais [dir,pro]. 1922/ 23: Schlagende Wetter [dir,pro]. 1923: Die Straße. Die Geschichte einer Nacht [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1924: Arabella [dir, co-des,pro]; Komödianten [dir,pro]. 1925: Eifersucht [dir, pro]. 1925/26: Die Brüder Schellenberg [dir,co-scr]. 1927: Am Rande der Welt [dir,co-scr]. 1927/28: Königin Luise
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[2 parts]. 1928: Marquis d’Eon. Der Spion der Pompadour; Waterloo. 1929: Katharina Knie [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1930/ 31: La maison jaune de Rio [MLV – co-dir – FR]; Das gelbe Haus des King-Fu [MLV – FR/DE]. 1931: Menschen unter der Lupe [SF]. 1931/32: Heimkehr [SF]; Peter Voß, der Millionendieb [pro]. [dir – GB] 1934/35: Abdul the Damned. 1935/36: The Marriage of Corbal. 1936: Pagliacci. 1947: The Silver Darlings [pro].
EGON GÜNTHER Born March 30, 1927, Schneeberg (Germany) Günther, initially an East German author and playwright, turned to directing films from the mid-1960s onwards and became a prolific exponent of character-centred literary adaptations and original works for cinema and television. Called up as one of Hitler’s teenage soldiers in 1944, he studied German literature, philosophy and education theory at Leipzig’s Karl Marx University from 1948 to 1951. Thereafter a teacher, and then as editor for a publishing house in Halle/Saale, he began to publish prose, poetry and plays. Employed as a scriptwriter at DEFA’s feature film studio from 1958, Günther started directing his own scripts, which were frequently based on treatments by his then-wife Helga Schütz. His directorial debut was LOTS WEIB (Lot’s Wife, 1964/65), an artistically ambitious and ironic film that used a couple’s marital crisis as a conduit for exploring broader social issues. His next project, WENN DU GROSS BIST, LIEBER ADAM (When You Grow Up, Dear Adam, 1965), a satire on East German society, was banned and remained unreleased until 1990. DER DRITTE (The Third, 1971) about a young woman’s quest for a new partner, found international acclaim, while DIE SCHLÜSSEL (The Keys, 1972/73), a downbeat drama set in Poland, proved a resounding flop with audiences and the Communist Party alike and was prohibited from being shown outside the GDR. Both films starred Jutta Hoffmann. Günther suffered less censorship woes with his historical films and literary adaptations. A number of these were set during World War I, including ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1967/68, based on Johannes R. Becher) and JUNGE FRAU VON 1914 (Young Woman of 1914, 1969) and ERZIEHUNG VOR VERDUN (Education Before Verdun, 1973), both based on novels by Arnold Zweig. From the mid-1970s a number of his films related to the life and work of Goethe, including the Thomas Mann adaptation LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1974/75), with international star Lilli Palmer in the lead, and DIE LEIDEN DES JUNGEN WERTHERS (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1976) that featured Katharina Thalbach.
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In 1977, in protest at the folk singer Wolf Biermann’s expatriation, Günther’s resigned from the Association of East German Film and Television Workers and subsequently continued his career in West Germany. Primarily undertaking television work, Günther directed adaptations of Lion Feuchtwanger’s émigré novel EXIL (Paris Gazette, 1979/80), contemporary East German author Klaus Poche’s HANNA VON ACHT BIS ACHT (Hanna from 8 Till 8, 1983) and Uwe Timm’s novel about Germany’s forgotten colonial past, MORENGA (1983–85). His three-part HEIMATSMUSEUM (Local Heritage Museum, 1986/87) based on Siegfried Lenz’s bestseller proved a huge success with audiences, whereas his big-screen 1930s kidnapping drama ROSAMUNDE (1988) and the post-unification DEFA production STEIN (1990/91), about an isolated East German artist, both sank without trace. Günther’s interest in Goethe continued with the television biopic LENZ: ICH ABER WERDE DUNKEL SEIN (Lenz, 1992), and DIE BRAUT (The Mask of Desire, 1998/99), about Goethe’s marriage to Christiane Vulpius. Günther received the German Film Award for outstanding lifetime achievement in 1999. He published two autobiographical novels ‘Einmal Karthago und zurück’ (Return to Carthage, 1974) and ‘Reitschule’ (Riding School, 1981), as well as a number of other novels and plays. [dir – DD] 1959/60: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [scr]. 1960: Spotkania w mroku / Begegnung im Zwielicht [scr – PL/DD]; Silvesterpunsch [scr]; Der Fremde [co-scr]; Ärzte [scr]. 1961: Das Kleid [scr]. 1962/63: For eyes only [act]. 1963: Jetzt und in der Stunde meines Todes [scr]. 1964: Alaskafüchse [scr]. 1964/65: Lots Weib [dir,co-scr]. 1965: Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam [dir,co-scr]. 1966/67: Die gefrorenen Blitze [act]. 1967/68: Abschied [dir,co-scr,lyr]. 1969: Junge Frau von 1914 [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1970: Anlauf [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1971: Der Dritte [dir,co-scr]. 1972/73: Die Schlüssel [dir,co-scr]. 1973: Erziehung vor Verdun [TV – dir,co-scr,act]; Der wunderbare Schatz [TV – co-scr]. 1974/ 75: Lotte in Weimar [dir,scr]. 1976: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [dir,co-scr]. 1977: Ursula [TV – dir,co-scr,act – CH/DD]. 1978: Weimar, du Wunderbare [TVD – dir,scr, app – DE]. 1978/79: Blauvogel [act]. [dir – DE – TV] 1979/80: Exil / L’Exile [TVS – dir,co-scr – DE/FR]. 1981: Euch darf ich’s wohl gestehen [dir,scr,act]. 1982/83: Die Krimistunde. Folge 4 / Folge 6. 1983: Hanna von acht bis acht. 1983-85: Morenga [dir,co-scr,act]. 1984: Mamas Geburtstag. 1984/85: Die letzte Rolle. 1986/87: Heimatmuseum [dir,scr]; Heimatmuseum – Ein Roman wird Film [TVD – app]. 1988: Rosamunde [FF – dir, scr]. 1990/91: Stein [FF – dir,co-scr – DD/DE]. 1991: Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [TVD – app]. 1992: Lenz. Ich aber werde dunkel sein [dir,scr]; Besuch bei Egon Günther [TVD – app]. 1994/95: Die Probe – König Lear [SF – co-dir]. 1997: Danny und Britta [SF – dir,scr];
Rückkehr aus großer Entfernung – Die Filme des Egon Günther [TVD – app]; Das 7. Jahr – Ansichten zur Lage der Nation [DO – co-dir]. 1998/99: Die Braut [FF – dir,scr]. 1999: Else – Geschichte einer leidenschaftlichen Frau [dir, scr]. 2002: Zur Person: Egon Günther [TVD – app]; Bronnen – Was für ein chaotisches Leben [TVD – co-dir, co-scr].
MICHAEL GWISDEK Born January 14, 1942, Berlin-Weißensee (Germany) Michael Gwisdek’s career as a scene-stealing character actor renowned for his total commitment to his profession ranges from roles in East German genre productions from the late 1960s to the box-office hits of post-reunification cinema. A trained commercial designer, Gwisdek attended the East Berlin State Acting School from 1965 to 1968, after which he was engaged by the Städtisches Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), followed by a decade at Berlin’s Volksbühne and eight years at the city’s Deutsches Theater through to 1991. Gwisdek’s screen debut was a bit part in Gottfried Kolditz’s DEFA western SPUR DES FALKEN (Trail of the Falcon, 1967/68). Occasionally appearing in telecasts of plays in which he was performing in KarlMarx-Stadt, his first sizeable film role was in Kurt Maetzig’s MANN GEGEN MANN (Man Against Man, 1975). He thereafter stood out in two films by Ulrich Weiss, playing a traitor in the controversial adaptation of Willi Bredel’s wartime resistance novel DEIN UNBEKANNTER BRUDER (Your Unknown Brother, 1981) and as lonely boxer OLLE HENRY (Old Henry, 1982/83). For his near-mute performance in the latter he received the East German Critics’ Award. During the 1980s, Gwisdek appeared in films by West German director Hark Bohm, and also showcased his comic abilities in Bodo Fürneisen’s television film MERKWÜRDIGES BEISPIEL EINER WEIBLICHEN RACHE (A Curious Example of Female Revenge, 1986/87), and as a gay barman in Heiner Carow’s COMING OUT (1988/89), DEFA’s first open treatment of homosexuality. Gwisdek made his directorial debut with the acclaimed DEFA production TREFFEN IN TRAVERS (Meeting in Travers, 1988) about eighteenth-century German revolutionary Georg Forster, which featured Gwisdek’s then-wife Corinna Harfouch. A German Film Award for best actor followed for his lead role in Roland Gräf’s adaptation of Christoph Hein’s novel DER TANGOSPIELER (The Tango Player, 1990), after which Gwisdek both directed and starred in ABSCHIED VON AGNES (Farewell to Agnes, 1993/94), an intense chamber play about the GDR’s ongoing psychological legacy, and DAS MAMBOSPIEL (The Big Mambo, 1997/98), a postmodern
MICHAEL GWISDEK
tale about a film producer seeking to make a star out of his much younger girlfriend. A post-reunification television regular, Gwisdek had regular parts on detective series TATORT (Crime Scene) since 1995. He picked up the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for his performance as a businessman who comes to a homeless youngster’s aid in Andreas Dresen’s portmanteau film NACHTGESTALTEN (Night Shapes, 1998), and played memorable supporting roles in Oskar Röhler’s DIE UNBERÜHRBARE (No Place to Go, 1999), Wolfgang Becker’s GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2002/03), Leander Haußmann’s HERR LEHMANN (Berlin Blues, 2003) and Til Schweiger’s BARFUSS (Barefoot, 2004). Gwisdek’s son Robert (b. 1984) who (like his brother Johannes) started as a child in his father’s film TREFFEN IN TRAVERS, has become an actor. [act – DD] 1967/68: Spur des Falken. 1968: Die Toten bleiben jung; Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir; Weiße Wölfe / Bijeli vukovi [DD/YU]. 1972/73: Stülpner-Legende [TV]. 1973: Antigone [TV]. 1973/74: Till Eulenspiegel. 1974: Das Schilfrohr [TV]; Das Lügenmaul [TV]; Mein lieber Mann und ich [TV]. 1975: Die Männer vom River Clyde [TV]; Jede Woche Hochzeitstag [TV]; Mann gegen Mann; Hostess. 1976: Polizeiruf 110: Der Fensterstecher [TV]. 1976/77: Schach von Wuthenow [TV]. 1977: Der gepuderte Mann im bunten Rock oder Musjöh lebt gefährlich [TV]. 1977/ 78: Addio, piccola mia; Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr. 1979: Minna von Barnhelm oder Das Soldatenglück [TV]; Der Menschenhasser [TV]; Ramona. 1979/80: Warschauer Konzert [TV]; Muhme Mehle [TV]; Die Stunde der Töchter. 1980/81: Experimente; Jadup und Boel. 1981: Feuerdrachen [TV]; Märkische Forschungen; Dein unbekannter Bruder. 1982: Stella nach Goethe [TV]. 1982/83: Olle Henry. 1983: Der Fall Bachmeier – Keine Zeit für Tränen [DE]; Ärztinnen. 1984: Hälfte des Lebens. 1985-87: Sansibar oder Der letzte Grund [TV – DE/CH/DD]. 1986/87: Merkwürdiges Beispiel einer weiblichen Rache [TV]. 1987: Der kleine Staatsanwalt [DE]; Der Werwolf von W. [TV – DE]. 1987/88: Yasemin [DE]; Die Schauspielerin; Polizeiruf 110: Eifersucht [TV]. 1988: Treffen in Travers [dir,co-scr]. 1988/ 89: Pestalozzis Berg [CH/DE/IT/DD]; Coming out; Die gestundete Zeit [TV]. 1989/90: Herzlich willkommen [DE]. 1990: Die vier Tugenden. EP: Besonnenheit [TV – DE]; Der Tangospieler [DD/DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1990/91: Das Heimweh des Walerjan Wróbel [FF]; Farßmann oder Zu Fuß in die Sackgasse [FF]; Der Verdacht [FF]. 1991: Sie und Er. 1991/92: Die Spur des
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Bernsteinzimmers [FF]. 1992: Das große Fest. 1992/93: Errances [DZ]. 1993: Derrick: Nach acht langen Jahren. 1993/94: Abschied von Agnes [FF – dir,scr,act]; Wachtmeister Zumbühl [FF – CH/DE]. 1994: Zwischentöne: Michael Gwisdek [TVD – app]. 1995: Dig, Dag und Ritter Runkel [ANI – voi]; Der Kontrolleur; Schwarz Rot Gold: Im Sumpf; Der Mann auf der Bettkante; Die Tote von Amelung; Edgar Wallace: Der Blinde; Tatort: Wer nicht schweigt, muß sterben. 1995/96: Gefährliche Freundin; Unter die Haut. 1996: Brittas Entscheidung; Tatort: Der Phönix-Deal; Doppelter Einsatz: Gebäudeschaden. 1996/ 97: Une femme sur mesure / Eine Frau nach Maß [FR/ DE]; Napoleon Fritz. 1996-98: Sieben Monde [FF]. 1997: Die Bubi Scholz Story. 1997/98: Das Mambospiel [dir,scr, cut,act]; Tatort: Ein Hauch von Hollywood. 1998: Die vier Spezialisten: Fahrkarte ins Jenseits; Nachtgestalten [FF]. 1999: Der Elefant in meinem Bett; Zimmer mit Frühstück; Die Unberührbare [FF]; Das Geheimnis der Sicherheit [SF – CH]. 1999/2000: Der letzte Zeuge: Der Weg zur Hölle; Freunde [FF]; Frau2 sucht HappyEnd [FF]. 2000: Mörderinnen; Eine Hand voll Gras [FF]; Der Bulle von Tölz: Mord im Chor; Donna Leon – Venezianische Scharade; Marga Engel schlägt zurück. 2000/01: Vaya con dios [FF]. 2001: Ein Fall für zwei: Ein schändlicher Plan. 2001/02: Liebesau – die andere Heimat; Tatort: Schlaraffenland. 2002: Wer liebt, hat Recht; Marga Engel kocht vor Wut; Der letzte Zeuge: Das Klassentreffen. 2002/03: Bella Block: Tödliche Nähe; Good Bye, Lenin! [FF]; Das Konto. 2003: Herr Lehmann [FF]; Edel & Starck: Der Spaltpilz [TV]; Die schnelle Gerdi und die Hauptstadt: Berlin – ich komme [TV]; Zur Zeit verstorben [SF]. 2003/04: Kleinruppin Forever [FF]; Das blaue Wunder; Kleine Schwester. 2004: Lively Up Yourself [FF]; Das Traumhotel: Überraschung in Mexiko [AT]; Sterne leuchten auch am Tag; Intimzone Schwiegereltern; Marga Engel gibt nicht auf; Abschnitt 40: Terroristen [TV]; Hölle im Kopf; Rosa Roth: Flucht nach vorn; Barfuss [FF]. 2004/05: Speer und er; Almost Heaven [FF]. 2004-08: Ich will da sein – Jenny Gröllmann [DO – app]. 2005: Ich bin ein Berliner; Die Luftbrücke – Nur der Himmel war frei. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen [FF]; Nette Nachbarn küsst man nicht; Reine Formsache [FF]. 2006/07: Pornorama oder Die Bekenntnisse der mannstollen Näherin Rita Brauchts [FF]; Die Schatzinsel; Die Anwälte [3 episodes]. 2007: Alma ermittelt – Tango und Tod; Tatort: Macht der Angst. 2007/08: Das Wunder von Berlin; Küss mich, wenn es Liebe ist; Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [FF]; Wenn wir uns begegnen; Die Blücherbande. 2007-09: Hinter Kaifeck. 2008/09: Hilde [FF]; Männersache [FF]; Tatort: Kalte Flut.
DOLLY HAAS (Dorothy Clara Louise Haas) Born April 29, 1910, Hamburg (Germany) Died September 16, 1994, New York (New York, USA) With her androgynous looks, petite frame, and bobbed hair, early 1930s Weimar star Haas played a string of plucky heroines, often in narratives that required her characters to cross-dress as boys. Born to a British father and an Austrian mother, Haas attended ballet classes from age six, and gave her stage debut in a juvenile role at Hamburg’s Kammerspiele theatre in 1924. After completing her schooling, she was engaged for one of the main supporting parts in Erik Charell’s 1927 Berlin production of ‘The Mikado’, before Max Reinhardt cast her in hit stage revue ‘Wie werde ich reich und glücklich’ (How to Get Rich and Happy, 1930). Her first film roles followed the same year, playing a dancing, singing shop-window dummy in Wilhelm (later William) Dieterle’s EINE STUNDE GLÜCK (One Hour of Happiness) and the lead in Anatole Litvak’s DOLLY MACHT KARRIERE (Dolly Gets Ahead). Haas’s screen persona was that of a pint-sized go-getter who could outperform men at every turn: for example, in Géza von Bolváry’s LIEBESKOMMANDO (Love’s Command, 1931), she joined the military in place of her brother so that he could pursue a career as an artist; in Hans Steinhoff’s SCAMPOLO, EIN KIND DER STRASSE (Scampolo, 1932), she came to the aid of a destitute banker; and in Victor Janson’s DER PAGE VOM DALMASSE-HOTEL (Pageboy at the Dalmasse Hotel, 1933), she saved a rich aristocrat from gold-diggers. Frequently dressed as boys in these films, she parodied her image in DAS HÄSSLICHE MÄDCHEN (The Ugly Girl, 1933), directed by Hermann Kosterlitz (later Henry Koster). However, following a riot at the film’s premiere orchestrated by the Nazis and aimed at her co-star Max Hansen, Haas went to Britain to star in Marcel Varnel’s GIRLS WILL BE BOYS (1934), and in 1936 left Germany forever. Following an impressively poignant, and uncharacteristically tragic, performance in the Lillian Gish part of the British remake of D. W. Griffith’s BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1936), directed by Hans (soon to become John) Brahm (1893–1982), Haas received a three-year
contract from Columbia in Hollywood. However, although paying Haas well, the studio never made any pictures with her, while her marriage to Brahm lasted only from 1937 to 1941. Relocating to New York, she initially undertook theatre work with Erwin Piscator, and scored several successes on Broadway from 1943. Apart from occasional television appearances, Haas made a memorable comeback to the big screen in a supporting part opposite O. E. Hasse in Alfred Hitchcock’s I CONFESS (1952/53). Honoured by a film retrospective at the Berlin Film Festival in 1983, she was seen on camera again to discuss her life as one of the three subjects (apart from Lotte Goslar and Maria Ley-Piscator) in Rosa von Praunheim’s TV documentary DOLLY, LOTTE, UND MARIA (1986/87). From 1943 until her death Haas was married to ‘The New York Times’ caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003). [act – DE] 1930: Eine Stunde Glück; Dolly macht Karriere. 1931: Der Ball [MLV – FR/DE]; Der brave Sünder; Liebeskommando. 1931/32: Es wird schon wieder besser …; Ein steinreicher Mann. 1932: Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / Um einen Groschen Liebe [MLV – mus,act – DE/AT]; So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht [DE/AT]; Großstadtnacht [MLV – FR/DE]. 1932/33: Die kleine Schwindlerin. 1933: Das häßliche Mädchen; Kleines Mädel – großes Glück; Der Page vom Dalmasse-Hotel. 1933/34: Es tut sich was um Mitternacht. 1934: Girls Will Be Boys [GB]. 1934/35: Warum lügt Fräulein Käthe? 1936: Broken Blossoms [GB]; Spy of Napoleon [GB]. 1939: We Are Not Alone [GB]. 1949: Studio One: Riviera [TV – US]. 1952/53: I Confess [US]. 1954: The Fugitive [TV – US]; Armstrong Circle Theatre: The Fugitive [TV – US]. 1956: Regarding File Number 4356 [TV – US]. 1986/87: Dolly, Lotte und Maria [TVD – app].
WILLY HAAS Born June 7, 1891, Prague (Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic) Died September 4, 1973, Hamburg (West Germany) Willy Haas was one of the Weimar Republic’s most astute and challenging film and literary critics, while also writing screenplays for a number of the period’s key films. Reading law at Prague’s Charles University from 1909 to 1911, Haas set up the literary journal ‘Die Herder-
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blätter’ while still a student, publishing writings by the likes of Franz Kafka and Robert Walser. Haas then worked alongside Walter Hasenclever and Kurt Pinthus as an editor at the Kurt Wolff publishing house in Leipzig until being called up to serve in the Austro-Hungarian army at the outbreak of World War I. Relocating to Berlin in 1920, he joined the trade paper ‘Film-Kurier’ as an archivist, but soon showed talent as a reviewer and rose to the position of senior editor, with his 1921 article ‘Wozu treiben wir denn Filmkritik?’ (What Is the Purpose of Film Criticism?), inaugurating a discussion throughout the trade press. Haas also wrote theatre reviews and collaborated on film scripts with Thea von Harbou, Arthur Rosen and Fanny Carlsen. The first of these was F. W. Murnau’s DER BRENNENDE ACKER (Burning Soil, 1921/22), after which he penned lightweight dramas and film operettas for stars such as Ossi Oswalda and Lya Mara. His literary adaptations proved especially noteworthy, and included G. W. Pabst’s DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE (The Joyless Street, 1925), adapted from Hugo Bettauer’s novel; Karl Grune’s DIE BRÜDER SCHELLENBERG (Two Brothers, 1925/26) based on Bernhard Kellermann’s novel and starring Conrad Veidt in a dual role; two adaptations of Gerhart Hauptmann plays, filmed as Friedrich Zelnik’s DIE WEBER (The Weavers, 1927) and Erich Schönfelder’s DER BIBERPELZ (The Beaver Coat); as well as a treatment of Émile Zola’s THÉRÈSE RAQUIN (Shadows of Fear, both 1927/28) co-authored with Fanny Carlsen for director Jacques Feyder. Haas’s sole sound film in Germany was Adolf Trotz’s sexual enlightenment drama WEGE ZUR GUTEN EHE (Paths to a Good Marriage, 1933). After leaving ‘Film-Kurier’ in 1925, while continuing to contribute on a freelance basis, he founded the cultural journal ‘Die literarische Welt’ with publisher Ernst Rowohlt, which swiftly became a mainstay of Weimar society. Haas returned to Prague following the burning of the Reichstag in 1933, and worked as a film critic and publishing editor while also acting as editor for Czech newsreels. When German troops invaded in 1939, he emigrated via France and Trieste to Bombay, where he furnished scripts for Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani’s production company, including a version of Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’ titled JHUTHI SHARM (Naked Truth, 1940). Thereafter joining the British secret service in India, he became a British citizen in 1946 and returned to Europe the following year. Initially writing for the Czechoslovak government’s ‘Central European Observer’, he then held a post in the Foreign Office’s German section before being appointed allied controller of Hamburg-based daily newspaper ‘Die Welt’ in April 1948. Gaining West
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German citizenship in 1950, he wrote articles for the weekly British press digest ‘Englische Rundschau’, and from 1953 held a permanent position as literary and theatre critic at ‘Die Welt’. Subsequently publishing several books and essay collections, he was awarded the Federal Republic’s Order of Merit in 1957, and the Grand Order of Merit in 1965. In his honor a Willy Haas Prize is awarded annually for important international publications (books and DVDs) at CineFest in Hamburg since 2004. [scr – DE] 1921/22: Der brennende Acker. 1922: Der Kampf ums Ich [ide]. 1923: Im Namen des Königs [co-scr]. 1923/24: Dr. Wislizenus; Der geheime Agent [ide]. 1925: Die freudlose Gasse; Das Mädchen mit der Protektion. 1925/26: Die Brüder Schellenberg [co-scr]. 1926: Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe. 1927: Die Weber [co-scr]; Das tanzende Wien. An der schönen blauen Donau. 2. Teil. 1927/28: Der Biberpelz [co-scr]; Thérèse Raquin [co-scr]; Heut’ tanzt Mariett [co-scr]. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena [co-scr]. 1929/30: Tonka Šibenice [MLV – CS]; Erlebnis einer Nacht [MLV – co-scr – CS]. 1933: Wege zur guten Ehe [MLV]; L’Amour qu’il faut aux femmes [MLV – DE/FR]. 1940: Jhuthi Sharm [IN]; Prem nagar [IN].
MICHAEL HANEKE Born March 23, 1942, Munich (Germany) Michael Haneke’s films, which have found increasing international acclaim since the 1990s, provide a bleak examination of contemporary society, alienation, repression and violence, and the deadening influence of the mass media on people’s lives. Haneke studied philosophy and psychology in Vienna. After graduation, he worked as a film critic and stage director, before turning to writing screenplays and ultimately directing for television, primarily working on original dramas and literary adaptations. His first feature film, conceived as the first part of a trilogy, DER SIEBENTE KONTINENT (The Seventh Continent, 1988/89) was based on the true story of the suicide of a middle-class Viennese family, whose search for meaning leads them to destroy their apartment before killing themselves. The film was narrated in fragmented episodes, making use of the characteristic elliptical style and abrupt editing that also marks Haneke’s later films. After making NACHRUF FÜR EINEN MÖRDER (Obituary of a Murderer, 1991) for television, Haneke directed BENNY’S VIDEO (1992), the second part of his trilogy. The film follows a teenager fascinated by the visual media, whose bedroom is full of television screens and who constantly shoots events on a video camera, including his casual murder of a young girl. After returning to television to make an adaptation of the Joseph Roth novel DIE REBELLION (1993), Haneke completed his trilogy with 71 FRAGMENTE EI-
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NER CHRONOLOGIE DES ZUFALLS (71 Fragments
of a Chronology of Chance, 1993/94), a complex mosaic of narrative fragments that culminates in the chance meeting of various characters, united by a brutal massacre in a bank by a disturbed student. Haneke contributed a section to the ensemble project, LUMIÈRE & COMPAGNIE (1995) and completed a literary adaptation for television, Kafka’s DAS SCHLOSS (The Castle, 1996). He returned to cinema for a further study of the relationship between visual media and violence in the disturbing FUNNY GAMES (1996), which, through the imprisonment and torture of a middle-class Austrian family forces the audience into confronting its voyeuristic tendencies. Haneke’s growing reputation in European art cinema was maintained with CODE INCONNU: RÉCIT INCOMPLET DE DIVERS VOYAGES (1999/2000), starring Juliette Binoche. The film marked a return to his use of a mosaic of narrative fragments, linked by the chance encounter of a number of diverse characters. The award-winning LA PIANISTE (The Piano Player, 2000/01) was a film adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s controversial semi-autobiographical novel, starred Isabelle Huppert, and was shot in French. Huppert also starred in Haneke’s subsequent film, LE TEMPS DU LOUP (Time of the Wolf, 2002/03), a bleak study of survival focused on the difficulties of rebuilding a sense of community in the aftermath of an unspecified disaster. The surveillance thriller CACHÉ (Hidden, 2005) confirmed Haneke’s status as one of Europe’s most interesting filmmakers. Starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth he directed a close remake of his own FUNNY GAMES aimed at the US market in 2006/07. [dir,scr – AT] 1973: … und was kommt danach? (After Liverpool) [TV – DE]. 1976: Drei Wege zum See [TV – DE/ AT]; Sperrmüll [TV – dir – DE]. 1978/79: Lemminge: 1. Arkadien / 2. Verletzungen [TV]. 1982: Variation [TV – dir, scr – DE]. 1983/84: Wer war Edgar Allan? [dir,co-scr]. 1984/85: Fraulein – Ein deutsches Melodram [TV – dir,coscr – DE]. 1985: Schmutz [co-scr]. 1988/89: Der siebente Kontinent. 1991: Nachruf für einen Mörder [TVD]. 1992: Benny’s Video [AT/CH]. 1993: Tatort: Kesseltreiben [TV – scr – DE]; Die Rebellion [TV]. 1993/94: 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls [dir – AT/DE]. 1995: Der Kopf des Mohren [scr]; Lumière & Compagnie [co-dir – FR/ES/SE]; Charms Zwischenfälle [act]. 1996: Das Schloß [TV]; Funny Games. 1999/2000: Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages [FR]. 2000/01: Die Klavierspielerin / La pianiste [AT/FR]. 2002/03: Le temps du loup / Wolfzeit [FR/ AT]. 2005: Caché [FR/AT/DE/IT]. 2006/07: Funny Games U.S. [GB/FR/DE/IT]. 2008/09: Das weiße Band [AT/FR/DE].
MAX HANSEN (Max Haller) Born December 22, 1897, Mannheim (Germany) Died November 13, 1961, Copenhagen (Denmark) With his naughty boy appearance, nasal voice, and comic timing, Hansen, already a star of 1920s stage operettas and cabaret, became one of the most beloved singer-actors in early German sound comedies and musicals, but his film career came to an untimely end with the Nazis’ rise to power. Born to Danish-Swedish parents, Hansen grew up with foster parents in Munich and started his career on stage from 1914, appearing in the cabaret ‘Simplizissimus’ and subsequently in Vienna, where he specialised in delivering comic couplets, opera parodies, and musical sketches. In 1923 he became a star playing in Emmerich Kálmán’s popular operetta ‘Gräfin Mariza’, and with this production he eventually arrived in Berlin. From 1925 he released his own recordings and cofounded the ‘Kabarett der Komiker’ (The Comedians’ Cabaret), while also appearing in productions by Max Reinhardt and Erik Charell. During the same time Hansen began appearing in films, starting with HUSARENFIEBER (Hussar Fever, 1925), and then playing the lead in Richard Oswald’s IM WEISSEN RÖSSL (White Horse Inn, 1926), which was based on a famous folk comedy. Hansen’s reprise of this role in Charell’s 1930s adaptation of Ralph Benatzky’s musical version of the story proved Hansen’s biggest stage triumph. In 1929 Hansen performed some of his hit songs in a series of sound film shorts. The following year, Hansen, alongside colleagues Paul Morgan and Carl Jöken, founded their own company, Trio-Film. Its only production, DAS KABINETT DES DR LARIFARI (The Cabinet of Dr Larifari, 1930), was a zany and inventive parody of silent cinema but did not become a boxoffice hit. More successful was Erich Engel’s WER NIMMT DIE LIEBE ERNST? (Who Takes Love Seriously?, 1931), which charted the lives of a group of loveable rogues in the backstreets of Berlin, and which was similar in style to the poetic realism of René Clair’s SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS (1930). Hansen proved his comic talent further in DIE – ODER KEINE (This One or None, 1932), where he parodied his co-star, the soprano Gitta Alpar. During the premiere of Hansen’s final film, DAS HÄSSLICHE MÄDCHEN (The Ugly Girl, 1933), costarring Dolly Haas and directed and written by Hermann Kosterlitz (soon Henry Koster) and Felix Joachimson (soon Felix Jackson), the Nazis organised a riot in the cinema – accused of being Jewish, Hansen was verbally abused and pummelled with tomatoes. Rather than his never proven Jewish background, the Nazis’ ire was more likely caused by one of Hansen’s
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songs, which had made fun of Hitler as a closet homosexual. While Hansen in vain cooperated with the Nazis trying to prove his ‘Aryanism’ he relocated immediately to Vienna, where he resumed his stage career. In 1938, shortly before Austria’s annexation to the Reich, he moved to Copenhagen. He opened his own seasonal theatre, and in subsequent years toured Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland. During the 1940s he appeared in a number of Swedish films and provided songs using the pseudonym ‘Sylvester’. In 1951, Hansen temporarily returned to West Germany, and resumed his most famous stage role in ‘Im weissen Rössl’ in Hamburg and Berlin. The documentary WAR’N SIE SCHON MAL IN MICH VERLIEBT? (Have You Ever Been in Love With Me?) told his story in 2004/05. [act – DE] 1925: Husarenfieber. 1926: Familie Schimeck. Wiener Herzen; Die Kleine vom Varieté; Im weißen Rößl; Als ich wiederkam; Der lachende Ehemann. 1926/27: Die selige Exzellenz. 1927: Venus im Frack; Die geheime Macht; Frau Sorge. 1927/28: Freiwild. 1928: Das Girl von der Revue. 1929: Max Hansen: Wir haben uns gut verstanden … [SF – mus,sng,act]; Max Hansen: Jetzt geht’s der Dolly gut [SF – mus,sng,act]. 1929/30: Gaukler / Les saltimbanques [DE/FR]. 1930: Wien, du Stadt der Lieder; Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari [co-scr,lyr,act,pro]; TerraMelophon-Magazin Nr. 1; Der Hampelmann. 1930/31: Schuberts Frühlingstraum. 1931: Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst? [MLV]. 1931/32: Der Frauendiplomat. 1932: Einmal möcht’ ich keine Sorgen haben; Die – oder keine. 1933: Das häßliche Mädchen; Glückliche Reise. [act – SE] 1935: Csardas. Ihre tollste Nacht [MLV – CS]. 1936: Rendezvous im Paradies [MLV]; Skeppsbrutne Max [MLV]. 1939: Rosor varje kräll. 1942/43: Lille Napoleon [mus]. 1943: En flicka för mej. 1944: Gröna hissen. 1945: En förtjusande fröken [mus,act]; Trötte Teodor [mus,act]. 1946: Bröder Emellan. 1946/47: Bröllopsnatten; Ingen väg tillbaka [mus]. 1951: Tull-Bom [mus]; Sköna Helena.
THEA VON HARBOU (Thea Gabriele von Harbou) Born December 27, 1888, Tauperlitz bei Hof (Germany) Died July 1, 1954, Berlin (West Germany) Pulp novelist and screenwriter Harbou is best known for her collaborations with Fritz Lang, but she also scripted seminal works by other Weimar filmmakers, and eventually became a director herself. Publishing animal stories in provincial newspapers while still at school, Harbou’s first novel, ‘Wenn’s Morgen wird’ (When Morning Comes), was serialised in the ‘Deutsche Zeitung’ when she was sixteen. Debuting as an actress at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus in 1906, she subsequently appeared at theatres in Wei-
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mar, Chemnitz and Aachen, and married actor and director Rudolf Klein-Rogge (1885–1955) in 1914. She retired from the stage to become a full-time writer following the huge success of her short story collection ‘Der Krieg und die Frauen’ (War and Women, 1913). Moving to Berlin in 1918, her first film script was an adaptation of her novella DIE LEGENDE VON DER HEILIGEN SIMPLICIA (The Legend of Holy Simplicity, 1920) for producer and director Joe May. While adapting her novel DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921) for May, she met Lang and thereafter scripted all his films from DAS WANDERNDE BILD (The Wandering Image, 1920) through to DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1932/33). The two married soon after her divorce from KleinRogge, although the latter would play major roles in Lang’s pictures, such as the scientist Rotwang in METROPOLIS (1925/26), a film famed for the gulf between Harbou’s narrative and Lang’s visuals. She also furnished scripts for four works by Murnau, including PHANTOM (The Phantom, 1922) and DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (The Grand Duke’s Finances, 1923), as well as for Dreyer’s MICHAEL (Heart’s Desire / Chained, 1923/24) and Arthur von Gerlach’s ZUR CHRONIK VON GRIESHUUS (The Chronicles of the Gray House, 1923–25). Her first sound film was Lang’s M (1931), after which the couple separated, with their divorce finalised in April 1933. While Lang emigrated, Harbou became president of the Society of German Film Authors and remained much in demand under the Nazis, scripting numerous comedies and literary adaptations. National Socialist ideology was evident especially in her scripts for Hans Steinhoff’s DER ALTE UND DER JUNGE KÖNIG (The Making of a King, 1934/35) and Veit Harlan’s DER HERRSCHER (The Ruler, 1936/37) and JUGEND (Youth, 1937/38). However, her two attempts at directing – the murder-in-a-convent tale ELISABETH UND DER NARR (Elizabeth and the Fool, 1933) and the Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation HANNELES HIMMELFAHRT (Hannele’s Heavenly Journey, 1933/34) – both flopped disastrously. Briefly imprisoned by the British after the war, Harbou thereafter prepared German dialogue for dubbed versions of major British releases, including Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN (1949). New Harbou novels were serialised in the press, while her final screenplays ran the gamut of popular early post-war genres, comprising Rudolf Jugert’s anti-war film ES KOMMT EIN TAG (A Day Will Come, 1950), Rolf Hansen’s medical melodrama DR. HOLL (The Affairs of Dr. Holl, 1950/51) and Richard Häussler’s Heimatfilm DEIN HERZ IST MEINE HEIMAT (Your Heart Is My Home, 1953).
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Her older brother Horst von Harbou (b. 1879) was a prominent stills photographer in the German studios during the Weimar and Nazi period. [scr – DE] 1920: Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia; Das wandernde Bild [co-scr]; Die Frauen von Gnadenstein [co-scr]. 1920/21: Kämpfende Herzen [co-scr]; Der Leidensweg der Inge Krafft [ide]. 1921: Der müde Tod [co-scr]; Das indische Grabmal: 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur [co-scr]; Das Haus des Dr. Gaudeamus [sma – AT]. 1921/22: Der brennende Acker; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler: 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922: Phantom; Der steinerne Reiter [ide]. 1922/23: Die Prinzessin Suwarin. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen: 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1923: Die Austreibung; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. 1923/24: Michael. 1923-25: Zur Chronik von Grieshuus. 1925/26: Metropolis [scr, ide]. 1927/28: Spione [co-scr,sma]. 1928/29: Frau im Mond [scr,sma]. 1931: M [MLV]. 1932: Das erste Recht des Kindes. 1932/33: Der Läufer von Marathon [co-scr]; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]; Le testament du Dr. Mabuse [MLV]. 1933: Elisabeth und der Narr [dir]. 1933/34: Hanneles Himmelfahrt [dir]. 1934: Was bin ich ohne Dich? [co-scr]; Turandot, princesse de Chine [MLV]; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König [co-scr]. 1935: Ein idealer Gatte; Der Mann mit der Pranke; Ich war Jack Mortimer [co-scr]. 1935/36: Die unmögliche Frau. 1936: Eskapade [co-scr]; Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung. 1936/37: Der Herrscher [co-scr]. 1937: Versprich mir nichts! [co-scr]; Der zerbrochene Krug; Mutterlied [MLV – co-scr – IT/DE]; Solo per te [MLV – coscr – IT/DE]. 1937/38: Der Tiger von Eschnapur [MLV – sma]; Le tigre du Bengale [MLV – sma]; Das indische Grabmal [MLV – sma]; Le tombeau hindou [MLV – sma]; Jugend. 1938: Verwehte Spuren; Die Frau am Scheidewege [HU]. 1938/39: Menschen vom Varieté [MLV – co-scr – HU/DE]; A varieté csillagai [MLV – co-scr – HU]. 1939: Hurra! Ich bin Papa! 1939/40: Lauter Liebe [co-scr]. 1940: Wie konntest Du, Veronika! 1940/41: Am Abend auf der Heide. 1941: Annelie. 1942: Mit den Augen einer Frau. 1942/43: Gefährtin meines Sommers. 1943: Die Gattin. 1943/44: Eine Frau für drei Tage; Via Mala. 1944: Erzieherin gesucht. 1944/45: Fahrt ins Glück. 1950: Es kommt ein Tag [co-scr]. 1950/51: Dr. Holl. 1953: Dein Herz ist meine Heimat / Magdalena Percht [sma – DE/ AT]. 1958/59: Der Tiger von Eschnapur / La tigre di Eschnapur / Le tigre du Bengale [sma – DE/IT/FR]; Das indische Grabmal / Il sepolcro indiano / Le tombeau hindou [sma – DE/IT/FR].
CORINNA HARFOUCH (Corinna Meffert) Born October 16, 1954, Suhl (East Germany) With her chameleon-like range of looks and performance styles, former East German character actress Harfouch became a major star in the years following German unification.
A trained nurse, Harfouch enrolled at East Berlin’s College of Performing Arts in 1978 and appeared in the documentary AUF DEM WEG ZUR BÜHNE (Headed for the Stage, 1981) before debuting at the Städtisches Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). Harfouch worked repeatedly with director Roland Gräf at DEFA, playing a woman destroyed by her experiences during the war in DAS HAUS AM FLUSS (The House By the River, 1984/85); a seductive secretary who is also a Gestapo informer in FALLADA – LETZTES KAPITEL (Fallada: The Final Chapter, 1987/88); a bookseller in Gräf’s adaptation of Christoph Hein’s novel DER TANGOSPIELER (The Tango Player, 1990); and a woman on the trail of her husband’s killers in DIE SPUR DES BERNSTEINZIMMERS (The Mystery of the Amber Room, 1991/92). She rose to international prominence and received the East German Critics’ Award and the Best Actor Award at Karlovy Vary for her performances as a Gentile actress during the Third Reich whose love for a Jewish colleague leads her to pretend to be Jewish too in Siegfried Kühn’s DIE SCHAUSPIELERIN (The Actress, 1987/88), and the wife of an 18th-century German revolutionary in the directorial debut of her then-husband Michael Gwisdek, TREFFEN IN TRAVERS (Meeting in Travers, 1988). After German unification, Harfouch starred in two attempts to come to terms with Berlin’s thirty-year physical division, Horst Seemann’s ZWISCHEN PANKOW UND ZEHLENDORF (Between Pankow and Zehlendorf, 1990/91) and Margarethe von Trotta’s DAS VERSPRECHEN (The Promise, 1993/94). Her standout stage performances of this period included the lead in Frank Castorf’s 1993 production of Ibsen’s ‘The Woman from the Sea’ and General Harras in the Berliner Volksbühne’s 1996 production of Carl Zuckmayer’s ‘Des Teufels General’ (The Devil’s General). She and co-star Katharina Thalbach received the Adolf Grimme TV Award for their performances in Hermine Huntgeburth’s television thriller GEFÄHRLICHE FREUNDIN (Dangerous Friend, 1995/96), after which Harfouch starred opposite Til Schweiger in the hit film DER GROSSE BAGAROZY (The Devil and Ms. D, 1998/99) directed by Bernd Eichinger, with whom the actress has been linked romantically. She picked up a German Television Award for her lead in Hark Bohm’s dramatisation of one of Germany’s most famous miscarriages of justice, VERA BRÜHNE (The Trials of Vera B., 2000/01), as well as a German Film Award for her supporting role in Huntgeburth’s children’s film BIBI BLOCKSBERG (2002), and the film’s sequel, BIBI BLOCKSBERG UND DAS GEHEIMNIS DER BLAUEN EULEN (Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls, 2004). Harfouch has played the title role in television detective series BLOND: EVA BLOND! from 2002 to 2006,
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and gave a chilling, and internationally acclaimed, performance as Magda Goebbels in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s DER UNTERGANG (Downfall, 2003/04). In the bitter-sweet comedy FREI NACH PLAN (According to Plan, 2006/07) she was one of three sisters (Dagmar Manzel and Kirsten Block playing the others) at the birthday party of a mother suffering from alcoholism. IM WINTER EIN JAHR (Aftermath, 2007/ 08) directed by Oscar-winning Caroline Link tells another story of a complicated family situation. Robert Gwisdek (b. 1984), one of her two sons from the marriage with actor-director Michael Gwisdek, has become an actor as well. [act – DD] 1979/80: Polizeiruf 110: Vergeltung? [TV]. 1980: Der Herr von Pourceaugnac [TV]. 1981: Auf dem Weg zur Bühne [DO – app]. 1982/83: Verzeihung, sehen Sie Fußball? 1984/85: Das Haus am Fluß. 1986/87: Wengler & Söhne. Eine Legende. 1987: Der kleine Staatsanwalt [DE]. 1987/88: Yasemin [DE]; Fallada – letztes Kapitel [DD]; Die Schauspielerin [DD]. 1988: Treffen in Travers [DD]. 1988/89: Pestalozzis Berg [CH/DE/IT/DD]. 1990: Der Tangospieler [DD/DE]. 1990/91: Zwischen Pankow und Zehlendorf [DD/DE]. [act – DE] 1991: Hüpf, Häschen hüpf oder Alptraum eines Staatsanwalts [TV]. 1991/92: Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht [6 episodes – TVS]; Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers. 1992: Thea und Nat [TV]. 1992/93: Inge, April und Mai; Tatort: Verbranntes Spiel [TV]. 1993: Goldstaub [TV]. 1993/94: Charlie & Louise – Das doppelte Lottchen; Abschied von Agnes; Stockholm Marathon [SE/DE]; Das Versprechen / Les années du mur [DE/CH/FR]. 1994: Eine kleine banale Geschichte [SF]. 1994/95: 5 Stunden Angst [TV]. 1995: Die Wand [DE/AT]; Ärzte: Weiß wie Schnee, rot wie Blut [TV]; Sexy Sadie; Verdammt, er liebt mich [TV]; Wer anhält, stirbt [TV]; Irren ist männlich. 1995/96: Gefährliche Freundin [TV]. 1996: ‘Den Menschen spielen in seiner Wollust nach Grausamkeit’. Porträt der Schauspielerin Corinna Harfouch. [TVD – app]; Das Tor des Feuers [TV]; Zwischentöne: Corinna Harfouch [TVD – app]; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. 1996/97: Geisterstunde. Fahrstuhl ins Jenseits. 4. Das Spiegelbild [TV]; Der Ausbruch [TV]. 1997: Des Teufels General [TV]; Corinna Harfouch. Eine preußische Diva [TVD – app]. 1997/98: Das Mambospiel [TV]. 1998: Solo für Klarinette; Bis zum Horizont und weiter. 1998/99: Der große Bagarozy. 1999: Grüne Wüste; Stunde des Wolfs [TV]. 1999/2000: Der letzte Zeuge: Der Weg zur Hölle [TV]; Fandango – Members Only. 2000: Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app]; Jetzt oder nie – Zeit ist Geld; Doppelter Einsatz Berlin: Wehe dem, der liebt [TV]. 2000/01: Vera Brühne [TV]. 2001: Die Entstehung des Films ‘Vera Brühne’ [TVD – app]; Das Monstrum; Tatort: Gewaltfieber [TV]; The Burning Wall: Dissent and Opposition Behind the Berlin Wall [DO – US]; Abgeschminkt: Corinna Harfouch [TVD – app]. 2001/02: Verrückt nach Paris; Erkan & Stefan gegen die Mächte der Finsternis; Gebürtig [AT/DE/HU]. 2002: Bibi Blocksberg; Blond: Eva Blond!: Das Urteil spricht der Mörder [TV]; Blond: Eva Blond!: Das Buch der Beleidigungen [TV]; Der
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Gefesselte [DE/AT/CH/NO]. 2003: hamlet X; Die fremde Frau [TV]. 2003/04: Der Untergang; Hitlers letzte Tage. Der Film ‘Der Untergang’ [TVD – app]. 2004: Blond: Eva Blond!: Der Zwerg im Schließfach [TV]; Blond: Eva Blond!: Wie das Leben so spielt [TV]; Bibi Blocksberg und das Geheimnis der blauen Eulen; C(r)ook / Basta – Rotwein oder Totsein [AT/DE]. 2004/05: Durch diese Nacht sehe ich keinen einzigen Stern. 2005: Rose [TV]; Silberhochzeit. 2005/ 06: Elementarteilchen; Das Parfum – Die Geschichte eines Mörders / El perfume – Historia de un asesino / Le parfum – Histoire d’un meurtrier [DE/ES/FR]; Wut [TV]. 2006: Mein Vater, der Türke [TVD – voi]; Blond: Eva Blond!: Epsteins Erbe [TV]; Blond: Eva Blond!: Der sechste Sinn [TV]; Helen, Fred und Ted [TV]; Tatort: Pauline [TV]; Made in GDR [DO – app]. 2006/07: Frei nach Plan; Teufelsbraten [TV]; An die Grenze [TV]; Freigesprochen [AT/LU]. 2006-08: Meine Mutter, mein Bruder und ich. 2007/08: Berlin Calling; Im Winter ein Jahr. 2007-09: Whisky mit Wodka. 2008: Das Duo: Verkauft und verraten [TV]. 2008/09: Ein Dorf sieht Mord [TV]; This Is Love; Hinter dem Paradies [TV]; Tatort: Lena O. [TV].
VEIT HARLAN Born September 22, 1899, Berlin-Charlottenburg (Germany) Died April 13, 1964, Capri (Italy) Originally a left-wing actor, Veit Harlan became one of the most infamous propagandist filmmakers of the ‘Third Reich’, couching Nazi ideology in the guise of melodrama and lavish epics. After the war he remained a controversial symbol of an artist torn between career and political opportunism. After training as a silversmith, the son of playwright Walter Harlan (1867–1931) studied with Max Reinhardt and began taking up minor roles on stage and as an extra in Max Mack’s films. In 1916 he volunteered for military service and spent time fighting on the western front in France. After World War I, he worked at various theatres both in Berlin and in the provinces. During the period up to 1933, he worked with a number of leading left-wing directors, including Erich Engel and Erwin Piscator. Harlan made his film debut as an actor in 1926 and appeared in several silent films up to 1929, e.g. as Jewish hairdresser Mandelstam in the satire DIE HOSE (The Bloomers, 1927), and in a number of sound films afterwards. In 1933 Harlan who was married to Jewish actress Dora Gerson publicly declared his support for National Socialism. With his career as an actor stagnating, Harlan became a director in 1934, initially taking on low budget film comedies such as DER MÜDE THEODOR (The Tired Theodore, 1935/36). MARIA, DIE MAGD (Maria the Maid, 1936) was his first successful attempt at melodrama, the genre with which he became most associated. Swedish-born Kristina Söderbaum became his leading actress (and
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from 1939 his third wife), their early collaborations including JUGEND (Youth, 1937/38), VERWEHTE SPUREN (Windswept Tracks, 1938) and DIE REISE NACH TILSIT (Journey to Tilsit, 1939). Harlan had started to attract the attention of the Nazi authorities, particularly after DER HERRSCHER (The Ruler, 1936/37), an adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann’s play ‘Vor Sonnenaufgang’ which paid particular homage to the Führer principle. With DAS UNSTERBLICHE HERZ (Immortal Heart, 1938/39), an adaptation of his father’s play, Harlan gained a reputation for his skilled staging of big set pieces involving large numbers of extras. This ability made him a natural choice to take on more prestigious propaganda films, and he was assigned the antiSemitic JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940), his most notorious film. He followed this up with another propagandistic homage to a powerful German ruler, Frederick II, in DER GROSSE KÖNIG (The Great King, 1940– 42), at that point the most expensive film made under National Socialism. With his own production group at Ufa Harlan subsequently worked on several prestigious Agfacolor film projects, including DIE GOLDENE STADT (The Golden City, 1941/42), the biggest box-office hit of the war period, and two costume melodramas, shot side by side: IMMENSEE (1942/43), adapted from the Theodor Storm story, and OPFERGANG (The Great Sacrifice, 1942–44). The historical epic KOLBERG (Burning Hearts, 1943–45), meanwhile, constituted a propagandistic appeal to fight to the bitter end. His co-author on those films was Alfred Braun (1888–1978) a pioneer of German radio, whose directorial debut ZWISCHEN NACHT UND MORGEN (Between Night and Morning, 1942–44) was produced by Harlan. After the war, Harlan and Söderbaum settled in Hamburg. Banned from filmmaking by the Allies, Harlan in 1949 faced charges of ‘crimes against humanity’, but was eventually acquitted in 1950. His attempts to return to filmmaking met with resistance from sections of the public: screenings of his first postwar film, UNSTERBLICHE GELIEBTE (Immortal Lover, 1950) provoked demonstrations in several cities. Harlan reestablished himself as a director with a number of innocuous entertainment films, before making the headlines again with his film about a real-life spy scandal VERRAT AN DEUTSCHLAND (Traitor to Germany, 1954), banned for alleged ‘communist sympathies’, and with his controversial study of homosexuality, ANDERS ALS DU UND ICH (Bewildered Youth, 1957). In 1965 KOLBERG was re-released in an edited version combining the feature film with documentary footage from World War II as DER 30. JANUAR 1945. On television a number of documentaries about Harlan and his notorious films aired. In Horst König-
stein’s JUD SÜSS – EIN FILM ALS VERBRECHEN? (Jud Süss – A Film As a Crime?, 2001) about his trial in Hamburg, Harlan was played by Axel Milberg. Harlan’s son Thomas (b. 1929), from his marriage with Hilde Körber, became a writer and filmmaker who tried to overcome the burden of his father’s legacy through controversial books and films, e.g. WUNDKANAL. HINRICHTUNG FÜR VIER STIMMEN / EXECUTION FOR FOUR VOICES (1983/84).
Veit Harlan was also the uncle of actress and painter Christiane Harlan (b. 1932, aka Susanne Christian), the wife of director Stanley Kubrick, and her brother, film producer Jan Harlan (b. 1937). [act – DE] 1926/27: Der Meister von Nürnberg. 1927: Die Hose. Skandal in einer kleinen Residenz; Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen; 1 + 1 = 3. Ehe man Ehemann wird. 1928: Somnambul. Ein kriminal-telepathischer Film. 1929: Revolte im Erziehungshaus; Es flüstert die Nacht … 1931: Gefahren der Liebe; Hilfe! Überfall!; Yorck. 1932: Die elf Schill’schen Offiziere; Friederike; Die unsichtbare Front. 1932/33: Der Choral von Leuthen. 1933: Taifun; Flüchtlinge [MLV]. 1934: Ein Mädchen mit Prokura; Gern hab’ ich die Frau’n geküßt; Der Fall Brenken; Abschiedswalzer. Zwei Frauen um Chopin [MLV]; Nur nicht weich werden, Susanne! 1934/35: Mein Leben für Maria Isabell; Der rote Reiter. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna; Stradivari [MLV]; Die Pompadour [ass-dir,scr – AT]; Krach im Hinterhaus [dir]. [dir – DE] 1935/36: Kater Lampe; Der müde Theodor. 1936: Fräulein Veronika [CH/AT]; Maria, die Magd [dir, co-scr]. 1936/37: Die Kreutzersonate; Der Herrscher. 1937: Mein Sohn, der Herr Minister. 1937/38: Jugend. 1938: Verwehte Spuren [dir,scr]. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz [dir,co-scr]. 1939: Die Reise nach Tilsit [dir,scr]; Pedro soll hängen [dir,scr]. 1940: Jud Süß [dir,co-scr]. 1940-42: Der große König [dir,scr]. 1940-53: Tiefland [dir]. 1941/42: Die goldene Stadt [dir,scr,pro]. 1942/43: Immensee [dir,scr,pro]. 1942-44: Opfergang [dir,co-scr, pro]; Zwischen Nacht und Morgen / Augen der Liebe [coscr,pro]. 1943-45: Kolberg [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1944/45: Der Puppenspieler [co-scr,pro]. 1950: Unsterbliche Geliebte [dir,scr]. 1951: Hanna Amon [dir,scr]. 1952/53: Die blaue Stunde [dir,scr]. 1953: Sterne über Colombo [dir,co-scr]. 1953/54: Die Gefangene des Maharadscha [dir,co-scr]. 1954: Verrat an Deutschland [dir,co-scr]. 1957: Anders als Du und ich (§ 175). 1958: Liebe kann wie Gift sein; Ich werde dich auf Händen tragen [dir,co-scr]. 1964: Kolberg – der letzte ‘Film der Nation’ [TVD]. 1965: Der 30. Januar 1945. (Kolberg) [FF/DO]. 1973: Die große Rolle. 2. Jud Süß – die Alptraumrolle [TVD]. 1979: Laterna Teutonica. 5. Des Teufels Regisseure [TVD]. 1984: Jud Süß. Veit Harlans Film und das deutsche Gewissen [TVD]. 2001: Jud Süß – Ein Film als Verbrechen? [TV].
KARL HARTL KARL HARTL (Karl Anton Hartl) Born May 10, 1899, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died August 29, 1978, Vienna (Austria) Active as a director and producer from the 1930s to the 1950s, Hartl brought formal innovation and skilled handling of dramatic scenes to a range of popular genres. Taken on at Vienna-based production company Sascha-Film alongside school friend Gustav Ucicky in 1916, Hartl began serving as assistant director under Sándor (later Alexander) Korda in 1919. He produced films made by Korda in Berlin before returning to Vienna in 1926, where he reedited versions of foreign pictures for release. As a production manager in Vienna in 1927, and in Munich and Berlin from 1928, he worked closely with Ucicky, who was by now a director, and co-scripted his early sound films DER UNSTERBLICHE LUMP (The Immortal Vagabond, 1929/30) and HOKUSPOKUS (Hocuspocus, 1930). Hartl made an unexceptional directorial debut with EIN BURSCHENLIED AUS HEIDELBERG (A Student’s Song of Heidelberg, 1930) and was blinded in his right eye by an ill-judged explosion during the shooting of BERGE IN FLAMMEN (Mountains on Fire, 1931), which he co-directed with Luis Trenker. He thereafter proved himself a highly innovative maker of light-hearted follies such as DIE GRÄFIN VON MONTE CHRISTO (The Countess of Monte Christo, 1931/32) and DER PRINZ VON ARKADIEN (Prince of Arcadia), both of which were scripted by Walter Reisch, as was Hartl’s sci-fi drama F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer, 1932), shot like most of his films in this period in multilingual versions. His other outstanding works as director include another sci-fi film, GOLD (1933/34), starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm; the Napoleonic romance SO ENDETE EINE LIEBE (End of an Affair, 1934); the Johann Strauß operetta DER ZIGEUNERBARON (The Gypsy Baron, 1934/35); and the supremely inventive detective comedy DER MANN, DER SHERLOCK HOLMES WAR (The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes, 1937) starring Albers and Heinz Rühmann. Placed in charge of artistic direction at Terra-Filmkunst GmbH in November 1937, he was then appointed head of production at Wien-Film GmbH, the company that controlled Austrian cinema following the country’s annexation to the Reich in 1938. Specialising primarily in politically innocuous films with a specifically Viennese atmosphere, Wien-Film’s output under Hartl comprised light-hearted dramas, musical comedies, melodramas and adaptations of stage plays. He directed only a single film during these years, replacing Eduard von Borsody on the Mozart biopic
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WEN DIE GÖTTER LIEBEN (Whom the Gods Love,
1942). After the war, Hartl returned to directing with DER ENGEL MIT DER POSAUNE (1948), chronicling an Austrian family’s private and political life over the past five decades. For the British remake THE ANGEL WITH THE TRUMPET (1949/50), Hartl combined footage from the original with new scenes featuring Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney and Anthony Bushell. The latter was also named as director on release prints since Hartl was unable to obtain a British work permit. Most of Hartl’s subsequent films in West Germany were forgettable. Two exceptions that stand out thematically and stylistically are WEG IN DIE VERGANGENHEIT (Visit to the Past, 1954), a drama about friendships forged during the ‘Third Reich’, and the unconventional biopic MOZART (The Life and Loves of Mozart, 1955) starring Oskar Werner. In the early 1960s Hartl was once more in demand at the new Wien-Film as a ‘film doctor’ drafted in to assist on troubled productions. He was married to Austrian actress Marte Harell (1907–1996) from 1930 until his death. [ass-dir – AT] 1918: Der Mandarin. 1919/20: Die Jagd nach dem Glück. 1920: Prinz und Bettelknabe [ass-dir, cut]. 1921/22: Herren der Meere [ass-dir,cut]; Eine versunkene Welt [ass-dir,cut]. 1922: Zigeunerliebe [ass-dir, act]; Samson und Delila. 1923: Das unbekannte Morgen [DE]; Jedermanns Frau. 1924: Tragödie im Hause Habsburg [pro]. 1925: Der Tänzer meiner Frau [DE]. 1926: Madame wünscht keine Kinder [ass-dir,pro – DE]; Die Pratermizzi. 1927: Tingel-Tangel [ass-dir,act,pro]; Café Elektric [ass-dir,pro]. 1928: Ein besserer Herr [ass-dir – DE]; Herzen ohne Ziel / Corazones sin rumbo [ass-dir – DE/ES]. [dir – DE] 1929: Vererbte Triebe [ass-dir,co-scr]; Der Sträfling aus Stambul [ass-dir,scr]. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV – co-scr]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV – co-scr]; The Temporary Widow [MLV – co-scr]; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg [dir,cut]. 1931: Berge in Flammen [MLV – co-dir,co-scr,cut,act – DE/FR]; Les monts en flammes [MLV – cut – DE/FR]. 1931/32: The Doomed Battalion [MLV – co-dir,co-scr – DE/US]; Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Der Prinz von Arkadien [dir,cut – AT]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV]; F.P. 1 [MLV]. 1933: Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin [MLV – dir, scr]; Caprice de princesse [MLV – co-dir,co-scr]. 1933/34: Gold [MLV]. 1934: L’Or [MLV – co-dir]; So endete eine Liebe [dir,scr]. 1934/35: Zigeunerbaron [MLV]; Le baron tzigane [MLV – co-dir]. 1935/36: Die Leuchter des Kaisers [dir,co-scr,cut – AT]. 1936: Ritt in die Freiheit. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war [dir,co-scr]. 1938: Gastspiel im Paradies [dir,scr]. [pro – DE] 1939: Frau im Strom; Mutterliebe; Das jüngste Gericht. 1939/40: Donauschiffer; Der Postmeister. 1940: Krambambuli; Meine Tochter lebt in Wien; Ein Leben lang; Der liebe Augustin; Operette. 1940/41: So gefällst Du mir!; Liebe ist zollfrei; Dreimal Hochzeit. 1941: Heimkehr;
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Wir bitten zum Tanz. 1941/42: Brüderlein fein; Schicksal; Wiener Blut; Wien 1910. 1942: Die heimliche Gräfin; Sommerliebe; Wen die Götter lieben. Mozart [dir,cut,pro]; Zwei glückliche Menschen. 1942/43: Späte Liebe; Frauen sind keine Engel; Das Ferienkind. 1943: Reisebekanntschaft; Die kluge Marianne; Der weiße Traum [pro,supv]; Schwarz auf Weiß; Romantische Brautfahrt. 1943/44: Am Ende der Welt; Schrammeln; Glück bei Frauen; Hundstage; Freunde. 1944: Die goldene Fessel; Der gebieterische Ruf; Der Wille zum Leben [DO/FF]; Am Vorabend; Das Herz muß schweigen. 1944/45: Wie ein Dieb in der Nacht; Umwege zu Dir; Wiener Mädeln; Liebe nach Noten; Ein Mann gehört ins Haus [DE/AT]. 1946: XIV. Renée [HU]. [dir – AT] 1948: The Mozart Story [US/AT]; Der Engel mit der Posaune [dir,co-scr]. 1949: Eroica [supv]. 1949/50: The Angel With the Trumpet [MLV – co-dir,co-scr,pro – GB]; The Wonder Kid [dir,scr,ide,cut,pro – GB/AT]. 1951: Der schweigende Mund [dir,co-scr,cut]. 1952: Haus des Lebens [dir,co-scr – DE]. 1953: Liebeskrieg nach Noten [dir,co-scr – DE]; Alles für Papa [dir,co-scr – DE]. 1954: Weg in die Vergangenheit. 1955: Mozart [dir,scr]. 1956: Rot ist die Liebe [dir,scr – DE]. 1957: Kleines Biest mit langen Haaren / Meine schöne Mama [pro – DE/AT]. 1960: Wilhelm Tell – Burgen in Flammen [co-scr,supv – CH]. 1962: Flying Clipper – Traumreise unter weißen Segeln [DO – cut, supv – DE].
LILIAN HARVEY (Lilian Helen Muriel Pape) Born January 19, 1906, Crouch End (England) Died July 27, 1968, Juan-les-Pins (France) Promoted by Ufa as the ‘sweetest girl in the world’, blond, British-born Harvey starred in a succession of European operettas and comedies from the late 1920s to the late 1930s, while a brief sojourn in Hollywood proved less successful. Harvey moved with her family from Britain to Berlin in 1914, and spent World War I in Switzerland. She joined the Berlin State Opera’s ballet school in 1923 and was engaged in a revue in Vienna the following year. While there, she made her screen debut in Robert Land’s DER FLUCH (The Curse, 1924). Back in Berlin, producer and director Richard Eichberg initially employed her as a stunt double for his wife Lee Parry in mountaineering scenes of DIE MOTORBRAUT (A Motorist Wife, 1924). After this, he cast her opposite Otto Gebühr in the melodrama LEIDENSCHAFT (Passion), followed by her breakthrough film, LIEBE UND TROMPETENBLASEN (Love and Fanfares, both 1925). In DIE KEUSCHE SUSANNE (The Girl in the Taxi, 1926), Eichberg paired petite Harvey with Willy Fritsch, and the two ascended to the position of German cinema’s ‘dream couple’ after being contracted to Ufa in 1928. Their first sound film was Wilhelm Thiele’s LIEBESWALZER (The Love Waltz, 1929/30), after which they headlined in operettas such as Thie-
le’s DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930), Erik Charell’s DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931) and Paul Martin’s EIN BLONDER TRAUM (Happy Ever After, 1932). Unlike Fritsch, however, Harvey also starred in the French and English language versions of these films. Following an invitation from the Fox Film Corporation in 1932, Harvey made three films in Hollywood, including Rowland V. Lee’s fantasy I AM SUZANNE! (1933). She returned to Europe in 1935, and worked on pictures in Britain and Italy, as well as at Ufa, where she was once again paired with Fritsch in the screwball comedy GLÜCKSKINDER (Lucky Kids, 1936), and in FRAU AM STEUER (Woman At the Wheel, 1939). Placed under Gestapo surveillance for aiding Jewish and gay colleagues, Harvey left Germany to star opposite Vittorio de Sica in Augusto Genina’s CASTELLI IN ARIA (Castles in the Air, 1938/39) before emigrating to France, where she appeared in Jean Boyer’s biopic SÉRÉNADE (Schubert’s Serenade, 1939/40) and her final film, MIQUETTE (1940). Following the Nazi occupation of Paris, Harvey fled to the USA in 1941, where she worked for the Red Cross in Hollywood and rejected all film offers. She performed at the exiled ‘Kabarett der Komiker’ in 1944, as well as in English-language stage productions in New York, and returned to Paris in 1946. She subsequently starred in stage productions in various European countries. Harvey received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award in 1965, and a street in Potsdam was named in her memory in 2003. [act – DE] 1924: Der Fluch [AT]; Die Motorbraut. 1925: Leidenschaft; Liebe und Trompetenblasen; Die Kleine vom Bummel. 1926: Prinzessin Trulala; Die keusche Susanne; Vater werden ist nicht schwer. 1927: Die tolle Lola; Eheferien; Du sollst nicht stehlen. 1928: Eine Nacht in London / A Knight in London [DE/GB]; Ihr dunkler Punkt. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]; Adieu, Mascotte; Wenn Du einmal Dein Herz verschenkst. 1929/30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]; The Love Waltz [MLV]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; The Temporary Widow [MLV]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV]; Einbrecher [MLV]. 1931: Princesse! À vos ordres! [MLV]; Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Le congrès s’amuse [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]. 1931/32: Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV]; La fille et le garçon [MLV]. 1932: Quick [MLV]; Quick [French MLV]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Un rêve blond [MLV]; Happy Ever After [MLV]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]; Moi et l’impératrice [MLV]; The Only Girl [MLV]. 1933: My Lips Betray [US]; My Weakness [US]; I Am Suzanne! [US]. 1934/35: Let’s Live Tonight [US]. 1935: Invitation to the Waltz [GB]; Schwarze Rosen [MLV]; Did I Betray? [MLV]; Roses noires [MLV]. 1936: Glückskinder [MLV]; Les gais lurons [MLV]. 1937: Sieben Ohrfeigen; Filmstars privat: Li-
O. E. HASSE lian Harvey [SD]; Fanny Elßler. 1938: Capriccio. 1938/39: Castelli in aria [MLV – IT]; Ins blaue Leben [MLV – IT]. 1939: Frau am Steuer. 1939/40: Sérénade [act,pro – FR]. 1940: Miquette [FR]. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Lilian Harvey [TVD – app]. 1969: Star unter Sternen. 4. Begegnung mit Willy Fritsch [TVD – app]. 1976: Sterne, die vorüberzogen. Erinnerungen an den deutschen Tonfilm. 1: Lilian Harvey [TVD – app]. 1983: Das ungewöhnliche Leben der Lilian Harvey [TVD].
O. E. HASSE (Otto Eduard Hasse) Born July 11, 1903, Obersitzko (Germany, now Obrzycko, Poland) Died September 12, 1978, Berlin (West Germany) Primarily a stage actor, Hasse also made a name for himself playing stern but never wholly unsympathetic authority and military figures as well as villains in major West German, French and Hollywood films of the 1950s and early 1960s. Hasse studied law for three semesters in Berlin before enrolling at Max Reinhardt’s acting seminary. He made his screen debut as an extra in F. W. Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924), and subsequently appeared at various theatres in Berlin and the provinces. In Carl Lamac’s short DER VERHEXTE SCHEINWERFER (The Bewitched Spotlight, 1934) Hasse played opposite Bavarian comedian Karl Valentin. Minor film roles – often as doctors and other socially upstanding characters – followed in films such as Karl Ritter’s STUKAS (Dive-Bombers, 1940/41) and Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s DIE ENTLASSUNG (Bismarck’s Dismissal, 1942). Drafted into military service in 1944, he was seconded into the Luftwaffe’s film unit to narrate Wolfgang Kiepenheuer’s documentary RETTET DEN DEUTSCHEN WALD (Save the German Forests, 1944). Swiftly establishing his stage credentials across German-speaking countries after the war, Hasse also dubbed Humphrey Bogart, Charles Laughton and Spencer Tracy for German-language release prints. His own film breakthrough came with a number of prominent roles in the early 1950s, including in Anatole Litvak’s DECISION BEFORE DAWN (1951); as a murderer in Alfred Hitchcock’s I CONFESS (1952/53); Clark Gable’s opposite number in the Nazi secret service in Gottfried Reinhardt’s BETRAYED; and the eponymous admiral opposed to Hitler in Alfred Weidenmann’s CANARIS (Canaris: Master Spy, both 1954). He received awards at the Brussels and Vichy film festivals for his lead in Géza von Radványi’s DER ARZT VON STALINGRAD (The Doctor of Stalingrad, 1957), but soon refocused his attention towards the stage again, making only a handful of film and television
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appearances after the mid-1960s, including EISZEIT (Ice Age, 1974/75), in which he played the ageing Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun during the Nazi occupation. On stage and later on television, he played George Bernard Shaw opposite Elisabeth Bergner in Jerome Kilty’s duologue ‘Dear Liar’ in 1961, and undertook several U.S. tours. The Federal Republic’s Grand Order of Merit was conferred upon the actor in 1974. [act – DE] 1924: Der letzte Mann. 1931/32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932: ‘Kreuzer Emden’; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen? 1933: Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen. 1934: Die vertauschte Braut [MLV]; Klein Dorrit; Der verhexte Scheinwerfer [SF]; Peer Gynt. 1934/35: Knock-out. 1935: Ein ganzer Kerl; Der Gefangene des Königs; Der ahnungslose Engel. 1935/36: Der schüchterne Casanova; Die große und die kleine Welt. 1936: Diener lassen bitten. 1937: So weit geht die Liebe nicht. 1938: Drei wunderschöne Tage. 1940/41: Stukas. 1941: Tobis-Studio Film Nr. 8: Der Selbstmörder 2. Fassung [SF]; Alles für Gloria; Illusion. 1941/42: Rembrandt. 1941-44: Philharmoniker. 1942: Die Entlassung; Dr. Crippen an Bord. 1942/43: Gefährtin meines Sommers. 1943: Der ewige Klang; Geliebter Schatz. 1943/44: Glück unterwegs [DE (CS)]; Der große Preis; Der Täter ist unter uns; Komm zu mir zurück! [DE (CS)]; Aufruhr der Herzen. 1944: Rettet den deutschen Wald [SD – voi]. 1948: Berliner Ballade. 1948/49: Anonyme Briefe. 1950: The Big Lift [US]; Epilog. 1951: Decision Before Dawn [US]. 1952: Der große Zapfenstreich. 1952/53: I Confess [US]. 1953: Der letzte Walzer; Wenn am Sonntagabend die Dorfmusik spielt; Das Lachkabinett. 1954: Betrayed [GB]; Canaris. 1955: Above Us the Waves [GB]; 08/15 – II. Teil; 08/15 in der Heimat; Alibi. 1956: Kitty und die große Welt; Ernst Reuter [SD – voi]. 1956/57: Les aventures d’Arsène Lupin / Gli avventure di Arsenio Lupin [FR/IT]; Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein; Sait-on jamais? / Un colpo da due miliard [FR/IT]. 1957: Les espions / Le spie [FR/IT]; Der gläserne Turm; Der Arzt von Stalingrad. 1958: Der Maulkorb; Solange das Herz schlägt. 1959: Der Kaiser von Amerika [TV]; Frau Warrens Gewerbe [DE/CH]. 1960: Majestäten [TV]; Au voleur / Affäre Nabob [FR/DE]. 1961: Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi [CH/DE]; Das Leben beginnt um acht; Le caporal épinglé [FR]. 1962: Lulu [AT]; Le vice et la vertu / Il vizio e la virtù [FR/IT]. 1963: Mein Vater hatte recht [TV]; Geliebter Lügner [TV]; O. E. Hasse [SD]. 1964: Rameaus Neffe [TV]; Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse / Les rayons de la mort du Docteur Mabuse / I raggi mortali del Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]. 1965: Trois chambres à Manhattan / Tre camere a Manhattan [FR/IT]. 1969: Caesar und Cleopatra [TV]. 1971/72: Pilatus und andere [TV – voi]. 1972: L’État de siège / L’Amerikano / Der unsichtbare Aufstand [FR/IT/ DE]. 1973: Ein Abend mit O.E. Hasse [TVD – app]. 1974: L’età della pace [IT]. 1974/75: Eiszeit; Läster-Lexikon: Das Gesetz und seine Männer – die Juristen [TV]. 1975: Die Geisel [TV]. 1976/77: Sanfter Schrecken [TV]. 1977: Der Alte: Konkurs [TV].
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REINHARD HAUFF
REINHARD HAUFF Born May 23, 1939, Marburg an der Lahn (Germany) One of the most politically motivated directors of the New German Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s, director Hauff is known first and foremost for his frequently controversial character studies of socially and politically excluded individuals. After commencing a degree in German literature and theatre studies, Hauff became involved with student theatre in Munich and worked as a trainee in Bavaria Studios’ entertainments section. Offered a position as assistant editor and director in 1962, he broke off his studies and worked under the likes of Rolf von Sydow, Heinz Liesendahl and Michael Pfleghar on television specials and dramas, as well as on documentaries and features. Also directing television shows on his own from 1963, e.g. with soul singer Wilson Pickett or rock star Janis Joplin, he made the satirical drama WIRB ODER STIRB (Advertise or Die, 1967) and co-directed (with Volker Koch) a documentary portrait of two ageing cabaret artists, UNTERMANN – OBERMANN (Knave & King, 1968/69). His first television drama, DIE REVOLTE (The Revolt, 1969), concerned a civil servant’s attempt to become involved with the students movement. AUSWEGLOS (No Way Out, 1969/70) and OFFENER HASS GEGEN UNBEKANNT (Hating Them on Principle, 1970) were fact-based case studies of the reception of released prisoners in the outside world. Hauff gained international attention with his film about fin-de-siècle Bavarian robber and folk hero MATHIAS KNEISSL (1970/71). He founded the production company Bioskop-Film GmbH with Volker Schlöndorff and Eberhard Junkersdorf in 1973, and intensified his cinematic focus on outsiders of one kind or another. DIE VERROHUNG DES FRANZ BLUM (The Brutalisation of Franz Blum, 1973) dramatised a middle class man’s survival in prison, and was based on the experiences of scriptwriter and convicted bank robber Burkhard Driest, with whom Hauff worked repeatedly. The television film ZÜNDSCHNÜRE (Fuses, 1974) was adapted from Franz Josef Degenhardt’s novel about resistance by young people during the ‘Third Reich’, while PAULE PAULÄNDER (1975) looked at the extreme hardship of one rural teenager, with Hauff exploring his use of amateur performers on the latter film in DER HAUPTDARSTELLER (The Main Actor, 1977), co-written with his wife Christel Buschmann (b. 1942). Hauff won a German Film Award for MESSER IM KOPF (Knife in the Head, 1978), a film released at the height of debates concerning the state’s emergency politics in the face of terrorist threats, and starring Bruno Ganz as an innocent biochemist shot during a heavy-handed police raid.
ENDSTATION FREIHEIT (Last Stop Freedom, 1980) and DER MANN AUF DER MAUER (The Man on the Wall, 1982) assumed a similarly critical stance towards recent German history. Controversy also accompanied Hauff’s reconstruction of the trial of the left-wing ‘Rote Armee Fraktion’, STAMMHEIM (1985), which received the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, despite protests from some members of the international jury. After his three-part television adaptation of Johannes Mario Simmel’s bestseller MIT DEN CLOWNS KAMEN DIE TRÄNEN (Clowns Bring Tears, 1989/90), Hauff dedicated himself to assisting and promoting the next generation of German filmmakers, and from 1993 to 2000 served as director of the German Film and Television Academy dffb in Berlin. His older brother Eberhard (b. 1932) was a television director and long time director of Munich Film Festival. [dir – DE] 1963: Karmon Israeli Dancers [TV]; Melankomische Geschichten mit Hanns Dieter Hüsch [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1965: Buona Sera in Las Vegas [TV]; Louis Prima Show [TV]. 1966: Die Ofarims [TV – dir,co-scr]; Olentia [TV]; Die Ray-Anthony-Show [TV]. 1966/67: Guten Abend. Töne, Takte und Theater [6 episodes – TV]. 1967: Show Real: 1. Variation für Schlagzeug / 2. Variation für Saxophon / 3. Variation für Geige [TV – dir,co-scr]; Wirb oder stirb [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1968: The Vibrations [TV]; Cinderella Rockefella [TV – dir,co-scr]; Wilson-Pickett-Show [TV]. 1968/69: Untermann – Obermann [TVD – dir,co-scr,pro]. 1969: Janis Joplin [TV]; Die Revolte [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1969/70: Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? [act]; Ausweglos – Aussagen über einen Lebenslauf [TVD – dir,co-scr]. 1970: Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach [act]; Offener Haß gegen Unbekannt [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1970/71: Mathias Kneißl [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1971: Jakob von Gunten [TV – act]; Das goldene Ding [TV – act]. 1972: Haus am Meer [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1972/73: Desaster [TV – dir,scr]. 1973: Die Verrohung des Franz Blum [dir,pro]. 1973/74: Übernachtung in Tirol [TV – act]. 1974: Zündschnüre [TV]; Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle [act]; Das Andechser Gefühl [act,pro]. 1975: Paule Pauländer [TV – dir,pro]. 1977: Der Hauptdarsteller [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1978: Messer im Kopf [dir,pro]. 1980: Endstation Freiheit [dir, pro]. 1982: Der Mann auf der Mauer [dir,pro]. 1983: Morgen in Alabama [act]. 1983/84: Zehn Tage in Calcutta. Begegnung mit Mrinal Sen [TVD – dir,scr,voi,app]. 1985: Stammheim. 1987: Linie 1 [dir,co-scr]. 1988/89: Blauäugig. 1989: Spielen willst Du ja alles [TVD – app]. 1989/ 90: Mit den Clowns kamen die Tränen [TV]. 1992/93: Peter Przygodda, Schnittmeister [TVD – app]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1998: Höchstpersönlich: Rolf Zacher [TVD – app]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app].
HEIN HECKROTH MAX HAUFLER Born June 4, 1910, Basel (Switzerland) Died June 25, 1965, Zurich (Switzerland) One of Switzerland’s best-known comic and dramatic actors, former landscape artist Haufler also directed a number of highly significant Swiss films during World War II. Raised in a theosophical commune, Haufler studied art at Basel University, but initially found employment as a builder and house-painter. His landscape paintings began to gain acclaim in 1928, and he exhibited not only in Switzerland, but also in Britain, France, Norway and Germany. After studying at the Académie Ozenfant in Paris in 1935, Haufler’s attention shifted to the performing arts, and he worked as an actor at Basel’s Resslirytchi cabaret, as well as in a few humorous dialect films. His first film as director was the strikingly original homage to counterfeiter FARINET (1938/39), based on the novel by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. He followed this up with the domestic comedy EMIL, ME MUES HALT REDE MITENAND! (Emil, We Ought to Talk, 1941) and a ‘Swissified’ adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s play ‘Katharina Knie’ titled MENSCHEN, DIE VORÜBERZIEHEN (The Itinerants, 1941/42). Haufler’s subsequent directorial work comprised documentary shorts and advertising films. Shortly after the end of the war, he appeared alongside Ian Hunter and Michael Rennie in the British production WHITE CRADLE INN (High Fury, 1945/ 46). Otherwise, he portrayed distinct regional characters in Swiss productions and enjoyed international success with parts such as K.’s uncle in Orson Welles’s Franz Kafka adaptation LE PROCÈS (The Trial, 1962) and a ship’s captain in Bernhard Wicki’s wartime drama MORITURI (1964/65). Apart from his acting roles in films and on television Haufler lent his voice to radio dramas. He was a member of the ensemble at Zurich’s Cabaret Fédéral from 1949 to 1952, and at the city’s Schauspielhaus theatre from 1951 to 1957, before becoming resident guest player at Darmstadt’s Landestheater between 1957 and 1959. Haufler’s West German TV appearances were frequently directed by Peter Lilienthal, including the actor’s final role as a grumpy pensioner in ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1965/66). The collapse of Haufler’s project to film Otto F. Walter’s novel ‘Der Stumme’ (The Mute) and the circumstances surrounding his suicide were explored in Richard Dindo’s documentary MAX HAUFLER, ‘DER STUMME’ (Max Haufler: ‘The Mute’, 1982). [act – CH] 1936: s’Vreneli am Thunersee. 1936/37: Was isch denn i mym Harem los? [co-scr,act]. 1938/39: Farinet / L’Or dans la montagne [dir,scr,act,pro – CH/FR]. 1941:
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Emil, me mues halt rede mitenand! [dir,scr]. 1941/42: Menschen, die vorüberziehen [dir,co-scr]. 1942: Steibruch. 1943: Wilder Urlaub [ass-dir]; Wir bauen auf [SD – dir,scr]. 1944: Die bildspendende Flüssigkeit [SD – dir, scr]; M.F.O. [SD – dir,scr]. 1945: Rieter-Werkfilm [SD – dir,scr]. 1945/46: White Cradle Inn [ass-dir,act – GB]. 1946: Das Gesetz der Strasse [SD – dir,scr]. 1946/47: Matto regiert. 1948: Nach dem Sturm [ass-dir,act – CH/AT/LI]. 1948/49: Venezianische Rhapsodie [SD – dir,scr,cut]. 1949: The Good Way / La bonne route [ass-dir – US/GB/ CH]; Entendons-nous, tout ira mieux [SF MLV]; Mitenand gahts besser [SF – MLV]. 1950: Die Fabrikation von Maggi’s Produkten [SD – dir,scr]; Der Geist von Allenwil [SF – dir,co-scr,cut]. 1951/52: Palace Hotel. 1952: Heidi. 1953: Familie ‘M’ Junior [SD/FF]. 1954: Gesegnetes Land [SD – voi]; Ein Menschenalter oder Jakob fürchtet sich im Dunkeln [SD – dir,scr]; Uli der Knecht. 1954/55: Heidi und Peter [co-scr,act]. 1955: Reise nach Manitoba [TV]; Modernste Vermessungsinstrumente [SD – dir,scr]. 1956: Philemon und Baucis [TV – DE]; Zwischen uns die Berge. 1957: Abu Kasems Pantoffeln [TV – DE]; Der Richter und sein Henker [TV – DE/CH]; Bäckerei Zürrer; Der 10. Mai. 1958: Es geschah am hellichten Tag / El cebo [ass-dir,act – CH/DE]; Ein wunderbarer Sommer [LI]; Die Käserei in der Vehfreude [ass-dir,act]. 1959: Der Mustergatte; Ein Mann geht durch die Wand [ass-dir,act – DE]; Hinter den sieben Gleisen; Weihnachten auf dem Marktplatz [TV]; HD Läppli [scr]. 1960: Anne Bäbi Jowäger. 1. Wie Jakobli zu einer Frau kommt / 2. Jakobli und Meyeli; Der Teufel hat gut lachen [ass-dir,co-scr,act]. 1960/61: Town Without Pity / Stadt ohne Mitleid [US/CH]. 1961: Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi [CH/DE]; Die Schatten werden länger [ass-dir,act – CH/DE]; Biographie eines Schokoladentages [TV – ass-dir,act – DE]; Chikita. 1962: Die Kollektion [TV – DE]; Wie Anne Bäbi Jowäger haushaltet und wie es ihm mit dem Doktern geht. [1. Gesamtfassung]; Stück für Stück [TV – DE]; Freud [US]; Le procès / Der Prozeß / Il processo [FR/DE/IT]. 1962/63: Die Spieler [TV – DE]; Miracle of the White Stallions [US]; Schule der Geläufigkeit [TV – DE]. 1963: Die Wölfe [TV – DE]; Der gemütliche Kommissar [TV – DE]; Striptease [TV – DE]. 1963/64: Der Prozeß Carl von O. [TV – DE]; Kennwort: Reiher [DE]. 1964: Geld und Geist. 1964/65: Morituri [US]. 1965/66: Abschied [TV – DE]. 1978: Anne Bäbi Jowäger. [2. Gesamtfassung]. 1982: Max Haufler, ‘Der Stumme’ [DO / FF – dir, scr,pro].
HEIN HECKROTH Born April 14, 1901, Gießen (Germany) Died July 7, 1970, Amsterdam (Netherlands) An accomplished painter and stage designer, German émigré Heckroth left an indelible mark on British cinema with his costume and set designs for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s films of the 1940s and 1950s. After studying painting in Frankfurt/Main, Heckroth began as an art director for the stage in Münster and Essen, while also pursuing a career as a visual artist
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(influenced by cubist and surrealist movements). In 1932 he staged with Kurt Joos the highly acclaimed anti-war ballet ‘Der grüne Tisch’ (The Green Table). After the Nazis’ rise to power, Heckroth fled initially to the Netherlands, then undertook a tour of ‘Der grüne Tisch’ through Belgium, Britain, and the United States. After a brief stopover in Paris, Heckroth settled in England in 1935, where he taught at Dartington Hall, an innovative arts centre run by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. Interned as an enemy alien at the start of World War II, Heckroth was temporarily deported to Australia, before being allowed back into Britain. His contact with the British film industry began with Gabriel Pascal’s CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (1945), for which Heckroth designed the costumes. He worked in the same capacity for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s wartime fantasy A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) and for the exoticist melodrama BLACK NARCISSUS (1947), which marked the beginning of a long collaboration with the two filmmakers. Working in his first two films for Powell and Pressburger under the supervision of veteran art director Alfred Junge, Heckroth took over as their principal production designer in the classic ballet film THE RED SHOES (1948) which displayed his surrealist set designs to stunning effect. Another showcase for Heckroth’s talents was the visually sumptuous, but narratively ponderous THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (1951). Heckroth’s work for other directors, on the other hand, such as Launder and Gilliat’s THE STORY OF GILBERT AND SULLIVAN (1953), or Helmut Käutner’s West German LUDWIG II. – GLANZ UND ELEND EINES KÖNIGS (Ludwig II – A King’s Glory and Misery, 1954) often gave little indication of his taste for theatricality, visual symbolism, and flamboyant use of primary colours, although in Josef von Baky’s ROBINSON SOLL NICHT STERBEN (Robinson Must Not Die, 1956/57) about a group of street urchins idolising the author Daniel Defoe, he conveyed in his sets an atmospheric impression of 17th century London. In 1957 Heckroth returned to West Germany to take up the post of principal designer for a major Frankfurt theatre. In the 1960s, apart from stage and film assignments (e.g. Wolfgang Staudte’s version of DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER / THE THREEPENNY OPERA, 1962/63), Heckroth increasingly worked for West German television, including literary adaptations, such as DAS BILDNIS DES DORIAN GRAY (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1960/61). In 1963 he was reunited with Michael Powell for the television adaptation of Béla Bartòk’s opera HERZOG BLAUBARTS BURG (Bluebeard’s Castle). Heckroth’s last big-screen assignment was Alfred Hitchcock’s subdued Cold War thriller TORN CURTAIN (1966).
[des – GB] 1945: Caesar and Cleopatra [cos] 1946: A Matter of Life and Death [cos]. 1947: Black Narcissus [des,cos]. 1948: The Red Shoes. 1948/49: The Small Back Room. 1950: Gone to Earth / The Wild Heart [GB/US]; The Elusive Pimpernel. 1951: The Tales of Hoffmann. 1953: The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan [des,cos]. 1954: Ludwig II. – Glanz und Elend eines Königs [DE]. 1955: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice [SF – GB/DE]; Oh … Rosalinda! 1956: The Battle of the River Plate. [des – DE – TV] 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben [FF]. 1957/58: Juchten und Lavendel [cos]. 1959: Ein Traumspiel. 1960: Das Spukschloß im Spessart [FF]. 1960/61: Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray. 1961: Kaiser Jones. 1962: Aimée; Nur eine Karaffe …; Wetter veränderlich [AT]. 1962/ 63: Die Dreigroschenoper / L’Opéra de quat’sous [FF – des, cos – DE/FR]. 1963: Herzog Blaubarts Burg. 1965: Tatort. 1966: Torn Curtain [US]. 1968: Graf Öderland. 1969: Undine [supv,des].
JOHANNES HEESTERS (Johan Marius Nicolaas Heesters) Born December 5, 1903, Amersfoort (Netherlands) A leading man in film operettas and other light entertainment genres at Ufa in the 1930s and 1940s, Dutch-born Heesters became a German national institution known to all as ‘Jopie’. He earned the accolade of being the ‘world’s oldest working actor’ in 1999, and was still going strong as a supercentenarian. Taking acting and singing lessons in Amsterdam as a teenager, he thereafter appeared at various theatres in the city, as well as in The Hague, Brussels and Rotterdam. His breakthrough in German-speaking countries came with his lead in Carl Millöcker’s operetta ‘Der Bettelstudent’ (The Beggar Student) at Vienna’s Volkoper in 1934, and a string of engagements in Berlin followed the next year. Heesters made his film debut in Theo Frenkel Snr.’s CIRQUE HOLLANDAIS (1924), but did not step in front of the camera again until Richard Oswald’s BLEEKE BET (1934), shot in Amsterdam. Starring in Ufa productions from 1936, Heesters appeared opposite singer Marta Eggerth in DAS HOFKONZERT (The Court Concert) and began his screen partnership with Marika Rökk as the ‘dream couple of German revue pictures’ in Georg Jacoby’s adaptations of the Millöcker operettas DER BETTELSTUDENT (The Beggar Student) and GASPARONE (1937). Sporting his trademark white silk scarf, top hat and tails, he played bon viveurs and dandies in numerous film operettas, musicals and society comedies, while very occasionally taking serious roles as in Viktor Tourjansky’s ILLUSION (1941). Performing with Jewish émigrés in Amsterdam in 1938, Heesters also appeared in experimental television broadcasts in Berlin in 1942, and toured Germany and its occupied neighbours the following year.
JOHANNES HEESTERS
Continuing his career in stage operettas across the German-speaking world after the war, he played Count Danilo in Franz Lehár’s ‘The Merry Widow’ over 1600 times. On screen, his characters started to assume fatherly traits in the 1950s, although he still retained his image as a dapper charmer. He retired from the cinema following Géza von Cziffra’s pop musical JUNGE LEUTE BRAUCHEN LIEBE (Young People Need Love, 1961), making only one subsequent guest appearance as a beggar in Xaver Schwarzenberger’s OTTO – DER FILM (Otto – the Movie, 1985). He meanwhile performed in dozens of television films, revue spectaculars and broadcasts of stage productions in which he was appearing. In 1975, he received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema. An ever greater reverence surrounded Heesters’s stage performances from the 1990s onwards, whether as the lead in Curt Flatow’s ‘Ein gesegnetes Alter’ (A Blessed Age), in which he toured from 1996 to 2001; portraying himself in the musical biopic ‘Heesters’ at Stuttgart’s Komödie-Theater in 2003; or playing the Voice of God as a centenarian in the 2004 open-air production of Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ‘Jedermann’ (Everyman) at Cologne Cathedral. Heesters was married to Belgian operetta singer Louise (Wiesje) Ghijs from 1930 until her death in 1985, and to regular co-star Simone Rethel (b. 1949) from 1992. His daughter Nicole Heesters (b. 1937) is a successful actress, primarily on stage and television. [act – DE] 1924: Cirque Hollandais [NL]. 1934: Bleeke Bet [NL]. 1934/35: De vier Mullers [MLV – AT]. 1935/36: Die Leuchter des Kaisers [AT]. 1936: Der Bettelstudent; Das Hofkonzert [MLV]. 1937: Wenn Frauen schweigen; Gasparone. 1938: Nanon. 1938/39: Das Abenteuer geht weiter. 1939: Hallo Janine; Meine Tante – Deine Tante. 1939/40: Liebesschule. 1940: Die lustigen Vagabunden [act,sng]; Rosen in Tirol [act,sng]. 1941: Der Trichter Nr. 12 [SF]; Immer nur … Du! [act,sng]; Jenny und der Herr im Frack [act, sng]; Illusion. 1942: Karneval der Liebe. 1943/44: Es lebe die Liebe [act,sng]; Glück bei Frauen; Es fing so harmlos an. 1944/45: Frech und verliebt. 1944-46: Die Fledermaus. 1946: XIV. Renée [HU]. 1947: Wiener Melodien [AT]. 1949: Liebe Freundin [AT]. 1950: Wenn eine Frau liebt; Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies. 1950/51: Professor Nachtfalter. 1951: Tanz ins Glück [AT]; Die Csardasfürstin. 1952: Im weissen Rössl. 1953: Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach [MLV – US]; Liebeskrieg nach Noten; Die geschiedene Frau; Schlagerparade; Hab’ ich nur Deine Liebe [AT]. 1954/55: Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox; Stern von Rio [MLV – DE/ IT]; Bel ami [MLV – AT]; Stella di Rio [MLV – DE/IT]. 1955: Biografie und Lieder. 45 Minuten mit Johannes Heesters [TV]. 1955/56: Ein Herz und eine Seele [AT]. 1956: Meine Schwester und ich [TV]; Heute heiratet mein Mann; Opernball [AT]. 1957: Viktor und Viktoria; Von allen ge-
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liebt. 1958: Bühne frei für Marika! 1958/59: Besuch aus heiterem Himmel; Frau im besten Mannesalter. 1959: 100 Jahre Wiener Operette [DO – AT]; Die unvollkommene Ehe [AT]; Nocturno im Grand Hotel [TV]. [act – DE – TV] 1959/60: Am grünen Strand der Spree. 5. Capriccio Italien. 1961: Junge Leute brauchen Liebe [FF – AT]; Heut geh’ ich ins Maxim; Ein zärtliches Lied. 1961/62: Nicht zuhören, meine Damen! [AT/DE]. 1962: Hotel Victoria; Mein Bruder Jacques [CH]; Ich knüpfte manche zarte Bande. 1963: Es kommt auf die Sekunde an; Die lustige Witwe. 1964: Leider lauter Lügen. 1965: Viktoria und ihr Husar. 1966: Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies. 1966/67: Zwischenstationen: Johannes Heesters [TVD]. 1967: Een avondje met … Corry [NL]. 1968: Auf ins Metropol; Wenn die kleinen Veilchen blühen [DE/AT]; Unsere liebste Freundin. 1969/70: Der Kommissar: Parkplatz-Hyänen. 1970: Schauspielerporträt: Johannes Heesters [TVD]. 1971: Gastspiele. 1972: Ein Kessel Buntes [DD]; Paganini [AT/DE]. 1972/73: Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Opernball [AT/DE]. 1973: Der Künstlerstammtisch; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. II. Neue Geschichten mit Lilli Palmer; Johannes Heesters: 70 Jahre jung [TVD – AT/DE]. 1974: Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies; Anneliese Rothenberger gibt sich die Ehre [AT/DE]. 1975: Treffpunkt Herz. 1978: Musik ist Trumpf [DE/AT/CH]; Johannes Heesters: Es kommt auf die Sekunde an. 1979: Träume kann man nicht verbieten; Die Alten kommen. 1980: Liebe bleibt nicht ohne Schmerzen. 1981: Jetzt schlägt’s 13. 1982: Sonny Boys. 1984: Die schöne Wilhelmine. 1985: Erinnerungen werden wach: Inge Meysel im Gespräch mit Peter von Zahn [TVD]; Otto – Der Film [FF]; Alte Gauner: Die große Prüfung; Johannes Heesters … ich knüpfte manche zarte Bande; Stars in der Manege. 1986: Ein Abend für Johannes Heesters [DE/AT]. 1988: Durch dich wird diese Welt erst schön. 1989-93: Zwei Münchner in Hamburg [TVS]. 1990: Melodien für Millionen. 1990/91: Mauritius-Los. 1991: Altes Herz wird nochmal jung. 1992: Seniorenclub. 1993: Johannes Heesters – Ein Leben im Frack [TVD]; Das letzte Edelweiß; Begegnungen. Johannes Heesters im Gespräch mit Paul Burkhalter [TVD]; Charme mit Herz. Johannes Heesters zum 90. Geburtstag; Geschichten aus der Heimat. XXX; Johannes Heesters: ‘Ich möchte 100 Jahre werden …’ [TVD]. 1993/94: Silent Love [SF]. 1994: Die schönsten Geschichten mit Johannes Heesters; Zwei alte Hasen: Grandhotel. 1995: Zwischen Tag und Nacht: Ein heißer Preis. 1996: Ein gesegnetes Alter; Herzensbrecher wider Willen [TVD]; Höchstpersönlich: Johannes Heesters [TVD]; Johannes Heesters – Bevor der letzte Vorhang fällt [TVD]. 1999: Höre nie auf anzufangen – Der Ufa-Star Carola Höhn [DO]; Komiker wurde ich nur aus Versehen [TVD]. 2001: Ein Star und seine Stadt: Otto. Mein Ostfriesland. 2001/02: alphateam – Die Lebensretter im OP [season 7 – TVS]. 2003: Johannes Heesters: Ich werde 100 Jahre alt [TVD]; In aller Freundschaft: Zurück ins Leben. 2004: Harald Juhnke – Ein Leben für die Show [TVD – app]. 2008: 1 1/2 Ritter – Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde.
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BRIGITTE HELM (Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm) Born March 17, 1906, Berlin (Germany) Died June 11, 1996, Ascona (Switzerland) A glamorous and capricious Ufa star of the late 1920s and early 1930s, Helm is best remembered internationally for playing Maria in METROPOLIS (1925/26). Helm was educated at a religious seminary near Berlin, and her first contact with theatre came through school productions. Doubling for her sister she took a part in a short information film in 1920, but it was after completing her Abitur that she caught the eye of Fritz Lang, who cast her in the dual female lead role as the virgin and the robot Maria in METROPOLIS, shot in 1925/26. Ufa signed the young actress to a ten-year contract and launched her into a series of starring roles, playing a miller’s daughter in Karl Grune’s AM RANDE DER WELT (At the Edge of the World) and a blind girl in G. W. Pabst’s DIE LIEBE DER JEANNE NEY (The Loves of Jeanne Ney, both 1927). However, following the success of her next film, Henrik Galeen’s ALRAUNE (A Daughter of Destiny, 1927), Helm found herself typecast playing coldhearted, statuesque vamps. She successfully sued Ufa for refusing to offer her other parts, and was soon showcased in a different light – downing a draught of poison for the sake of true love – in Hanns Schwarz’s sumptuous melodrama DIE WUNDERBARE LÜGE DER NINA PETROWNA (The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna, 1928/29). The same year she also appeared alongside her METROPOLIS partner Alfred Abel in Marcel L’Herbier’s stylish Zola adaptation L’ARGENT (Money). Helm’s sound film debut was opposite tenor Jan Kiepura in DIE SINGENDE STADT, the German-language version of Camine Gallone’s European coproduction CITY OF SONG (1930), and the actress also stood out playing Gilgi, an independent young working woman who – in line with the social mores of the day – nevertheless constantly dreams of meeting the great love of her life, in Johannes Meyer’s film version of Irmgard Keun’s popular novel EINE VON UNS (One of Us, 1932). She put in her last vamp performance, as the desert queen Antinea, in the French-, German-, and Englishlanguage versions of Pabst’s DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS / L’ATLANTIDE / THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS (1932), and went on to make movies in France and Britain as well. Helm’s final appearance on screen was in Herbert Selpin’s EIN IDEALER GATTE (An Ideal Husband, 1935), after which her Ufa contract came to an end and she turned her back on the film industry. Marrying industrialist Hugo Kunheim she retired to the Swiss alpine resort of Ascona. In 1968, she received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement
award for her outstanding contribution to German cinema. [act – DE] 1925/26: Metropolis. 1927: Am Rande der Welt; Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney; Alraune. 1928: Abwege; Die Yacht der sieben Sünden; Der Skandal in Baden-Baden; L’Argent [FR]. 1928/29: Autour de L’Argent [SD – FR]; Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]; Manolescu. Der König der Hochstapler. 1930: Die singende Stadt [MLV – GB/DE]; Alraune. 1931: Im Geheimdienst; Gloria [MLV]; Gloria [French MLV – DE/FR]; The Blue Danube [GB]. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: L’Atlantide [MLV – DE/FR]; Die Herrin von Atlantis [MLV]; The Mistress of Atlantis [MLV]; Eine von uns; Hochzeitsreise zu Dritt [MLV – AT]; Voyage de noces [MLV – AT]. 1932/33: Der Läufer von Marathon; Spione am Werk [MLV]. 1933: L’Étoile de Valencia [MLV]; Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Adieu les beaux jours [MLV]; Inge und die Millionen. 1933/34: Gold [MLV]. 1934: L’Or [MLV]; Die Insel [MLV]; Vers l’abîme [MLV]; Fürst Woronzeff [MLV]; Le secret des Woronzeff [MLV]. 1935: Ein idealer Gatte.
PAUL HENCKELS Born September 9, 1885, Hürth (Germany) Died May 27, 1967, Kettwig an der Ruhr (West Germany) A prolific character actor on stage and screen, Henckels stood out playing petit bourgeois ‘little men’ (often with pretensions of grandeur) in German films of the 1930s and 1940s. Taking private acting lessons while serving an apprenticeship in locomotive construction and working at his father’s steel ware business, Henckels joined Krefeld’s Stadttheater and trained under Louise Dumont in Düsseldorf from 1905 to 1907. Becoming a member of the ensemble at the city’s Schauspielhaus, he rose to co-manager of the theatre by 1919, while also directing productions there and running his own school of mime and expression where his pupils included Gustaf Gründgens. Relocating to Berlin in 1921, he co-founded and became artistic director of the Schlosspark-Theater, and thereafter worked at various theatres. Henckels made his screen debut in Robert Wiene’s I.N.R.I. (Crown of Thorns, 1923) and undertook numerous minor roles in silent productions, including an informer in Erich Schönfelder’s DER BIBERPELZ (The Beaver Coat, 1927/28) and a merciless bureaucrat in James Bauer’s § 173 STGB – BLUTSCHANDE (Incest, 1929). He made his directorial debut with the sound film short PAUL GRAETZ ALS BERLINER ZEITUNGSJUNGE (Paul Graetz as a Berlin Paper Boy, 1928/ 29), and then moved into character leads in comedies. His petit bourgeois figures were variously prissy fusspots like SCHNEIDER WIBBEL (Tailor Wibbel,
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1930), which he also directed; or crackpot comic creations, as in ER UND SEIN DIENER (Master and Servant, 1931), directed by István Székely (later Steve Sekeley). He found particular success playing scurrilous characters in adaptations of novels by Heinrich Spoerl, including in Erich Engel’s DER MAULKORB (The Muzzle, 1937/38) and in Helmut Weiss’s DIE FEUERZANGENBOWLE (1943). Following his role as an impoverished poet in Paul Verhoeven’s Agfacolor DAS KLEINE HOFKONZERT (Palace Scandal, 1944– 49), Henckels earned the nickname of ‘German cinema’s starving artist’. Henckels’s first post-war screen appearance after the short film GRÜN, GELB, ROT (1946) was as a doctor in Georg Klaren’s DEFA adaptation of Georg Büchner’s WOZZECK (1947). Although he continued to appear in supporting roles in West German productions, he turned increasingly to stage work, while also directing radio dramas and acting in the television series NACHSITZEN FÜR ERWACHSENE (Detention for Grown-Ups, 1961). Paul Henckels received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1962, and published three volumes of anecdotal memoirs in 1956, 1960 and 1966. [act – DE] 1923: I.N.R.I. Ein Film der Menschlichkeit; Das Geheimnis von Brinkenhof; Dudu, ein Menschenschicksal. Die Geschichte eines Clowns. 1925: Das Haus der Lüge. 1926: Wenn das Herz der Jugend spricht; Staatsanwalt Jordan. 1927: Frühere Verhältnisse; Feme; Der Kampf des Donald Westhof; Am Rüdesheimer Schloß steht eine Linde. 1927/28: Der Biberpelz; Ledige Mütter; Thérèse Raquin; Die Rothausgasse. 1928: Der Ladenprinz; Polnische Wirtschaft; Der Unüberwindliche; Die seltsame Nacht der Helga Wangen; Die große Liebe; Geschlecht in Fesseln; Ariadne in Hoppegarten; Die Wochenendbraut; Liebfraumilch. 1928/29: Paul Graetz als Berliner Zeitungsjunge [SF – dir]; Tagebuch einer Kokotte. 1929: Der Boxstudent [SF]; Das närrische Glück; Die Liebe der Brüder Rott. Irrlichter; Meineid; Durchs Brandenburger Tor; Gestörtes Ständchen [SF]; Morgenröte; Mutterliebe; § 173 StGB. Blutschande; Frühlings Erwachen; Napoleon auf St. Helena; Sprengbagger 1010; Die Frau ohne Nerven; Fruchtbarkeit. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]; Die letzte Kompagnie. 1930: Cyankali; Skandal um Eva; Dreyfus; Die große Sehnsucht [ass-dir,act]; Die Lindenwirtin; Die zärtlichen Verwandten; Dolly macht Karriere; Pension Schöller; Das gestohlene Gesicht [MLV]; Flachsmann als Erzieher; Einbrecher [MLV]; Schneider Wibbel [dir,act]; Ihre Majestät die Liebe [MLV]. 1930/31: Der wahre Jakob. 1931: Täter gesucht; Das Ekel; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Der ungetreue Eckehart; Gloria [MLV]; Er und sein Diener [MLV – HU]; Mein Leopold; Der Stolz der 3. Kompagnie; Kadetten; Man braucht kein Geld [MLV]; Wäsche – Waschen – Wohlergehen. 1931/32: P. S. [DO]; Es wird schon wieder besser …; Rasputin; Der tolle Bomberg. 1932: Der
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Hexer [MLV – DE/AT]; Wie kommen die Löcher in den Käse? [SF]; Unheimliche Geschichten; Die – oder keine; Das Testament des Cornelius Gulden; Mieter Schulze gegen Alle; Wer gibt, der hat [SF]; Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers; Rosmarin im Glück [SF]; Eine Stadt steht Kopf. 1932/33: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]. 1933: Die Nacht im Forsthaus. Der Fall Roberts; Taifun; Kleiner Mann – was nun?; Der Traum vom Rhein; Reifende Jugend; Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Die Wette [SF]; Glückliche Reise; Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten; Mädels von heute; Das 13. Weltwunder [SF]; Der Störenfried; Das lustige Kleeblatt; Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs; Rivalen der Luft. 1933/34: Zwischen zwei Herzen; In Sachen Timpe; Der verlorene Sohn; Der Kuckuck am Steuer [SF – dir,act]. 1934: Ein Mädchen mit Prokura; Die große Chance; Der Meisterboxer; Charleys Tante; Liebe dumme Mama; Alte Kameraden; Jede Frau hat ein Geheimnis; Abschiedswalzer [MLV]; Das Erbe in Pretoria; Der Herr Senator; Peter, Paul und Nanette; Ferien vom Ich; Hermine und die sieben Aufrechten / Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten [DE/CH]. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König. 1935: Alle Tage ist kein Sonntag; Viktoria; Ein idealer Gatte; Das Einmaleins der Liebe; Liebesträume [MLV – HU]; Verlieb’ Dich nicht am Bodensee; Eine Seefahrt, die ist lustig; Arena Humsti Bumsti [SF]; Der Dschungel ruft. 1935/36: Mädchenjahre einer Königin; Die große und die kleine Welt; Die unmögliche Frau; Paul und Pauline. 1936: Das Hermännchen; Schabernack; Ave Maria; Drei tolle Tage; Unter dem Pantoffel [SF]; Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung; Hummel – Hummel; Der lustige Witwenball; Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser. 1936/37: Die gläserne Kugel. 1937: Karussell; Capriolen; Fremdenheim Filoda; Zweimal zwei im Himmelbett. 1937/38: Der Maulkorb. 1938: Skandal um den Hahn; Diskretion – Ehrensache!; Tischlein deck Dich, Esel streck Dich, Knüppel aus dem Sack; Napoleon ist an allem schuld. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz; Der Florentiner Hut. 1939: 12 Minuten nach 12; Ein ganzer Kerl. 1939/40: Weißer Flieder; Ihr Privatsekretär; Was wird hier gespielt? 1940: Tran und Helle: Wartesaal [SF]; Herz modern möbliert; Friedrich Schiller. Der Triumph eines Genies. 1940/ 41: Männerwirtschaft. 1940-42: Der große König. 1941: Frau Luna; Immer nur … Du!; Der Strom; Zwei in einer großen Stadt. 1941/42: Zwischen Himmel und Erde; So ein Früchtchen; Wiener Blut; Die Nacht in Venedig; Rembrandt. 1942: Hab’ mich lieb! 1942/43: Liebesgeschichten; Altes Herz wird wieder jung; Das Bad auf der Tenne; Großstadtmelodie. 1943: Herr Sanders lebt gefährlich; Die Feuerzangenbowle. 1943/ 44: Die Zaubergeige; Träumerei; Junge Adler; Das Leben ruft. 1943-45: Kolberg. 1944/ 45: Eine reizende Familie; Das Leben geht weiter; Frühlingsmelodie; Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl; Das seltsame Fräulein Sylvia; Eine alltägliche Geschichte. 1944-49: Das kleine Hofkonzert. 1945: Dr. phil. Döderlein. 1946: Grün, gelb, rot [SF – DE]. 1947: Wozzeck [DD]. 1947/48: Die seltsamen Abenteuer des Herrn Fridolin B. [DD]. 1948/49: Diese Nacht vergeß’ ich nie; Gesucht wird Majora. 1949: Hafenmelodie. 1950: Insel ohne Moral; Glück aus Ohio; Rausch einer Nacht. 1951/52: Herz der Welt. 1952: Klettermaxe; Drei Tage Angst; Pension Schöller; Einmal am Rhein; Ferien vom Ich; Der fröhliche Wein-
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berg; Fräulein Casanova [AT]. 1953: Die Stärkere; Hollandmädel; Fanfaren der Ehe; Das tanzende Herz; Königliche Hoheit. 1953/54: Staatsanwältin Corda. 1954: Schneider Wibbel [TV – dir,act]; Clivia; Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel; Maxie [AT]; Der Zarewitsch [MLV]; Le Tzarevitch [MLV – DE/FR]; Ball der Nationen. 1954/55: Die spanische Fliege. 1955: Griff nach den Sternen; Die Mädels vom Immenhof; Mamitschka; Du darfst nicht länger schweigen; Drei Mädels vom Rhein. 1956: Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Tausend Melodien; Kirschen in Nachbars Garten; Küß mich noch einmal; Hochzeit auf Immenhof; Drei Birken auf der Heide; Der Fremdenführer von Lissabon. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Tolle Nacht; Der tolle Bomberg; Ferien auf Immenhof; Egon, der Frauenheld; Der Herzspezialist [TV]; Ein Stück vom Himmel; Heute blau und morgen blau. 1958: Ein idealer Gatte [TV]; Liebe kann wie Gift sein; Bäume sterben aufrecht [TV]. 1958/59: Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich. 1959: Immer die Mädchen [AT]. 1960: Sooo nicht, meine Herren! [AT]. 1960/61: Frau Irene Besser. 1961: Via Mala; Bridge mit Onkel Tom [TV – AT]; Nachsitzen für Erwachsene [TVS]. 1964/65: Ich – erste Person Einzahl [TV – scr,act].
ROBERT HERLTH (Robert Paul Fritz Herlth) Born May 2, 1893, Wriezen an der Oder (Germany) Died January 6, 1962, Munich (West Germany) At the vanguard of Weimar-era set design, Herlth, often in collaboration with Walter Röhrig (1897– 1945), defined the look of many German film classics through to 1960. Receiving his call-up papers while two years into a degree in painting at Berlin’s Fine Art College in 1914, Herlth was transferred to the Army Theatre in Vilnius at the recommendation of designer Hermann Warm in 1916. Returning to Berlin in 1919, he completed his studies at the State School of Applied Arts. Warm offered him a position at production company Deutsche Bioscop where among his first tasks was the creation of figurines based on sketches by Warm for William Wauer’s MASKEN (Masks, 1920). Herlth subsequently designed the German episode and parts of the Chinese sequence of Fritz Lang’s DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny, 1921). First collaborating with Röhrig on décor and costume designs at Decla-Bioscop, the pair followed producer Erich Pommer to Ufa, where they operated as a team until 1936. In the mid-1920s, their designs included the oppressive interiors of G. W. Pabst’s DER SCHATZ (The Treasure, 1922/23); the light-flooded hotel lobby for F. W. Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924); and the open moorland exteriors and austere farmers’ dwellings in Arthur von Gerlach’s ZUR CHRONIK VON GRIESHUUS (The Chronicles of the Gray House, 1923–25). Herlth and Röhrig’s sets for Murnau’s TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925) were meanwhile marked by their simplicity. Herlth
also worked as designer on various Berlin stage productions during this period. After the advent of sound, Herlth frequently collaborated with director Gustav Ucicky on films with historical subject matter, such as DAS FLÖTENKONZERT VON SANSSOUCI (The Flute Concert of SansSouci, 1930), MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/33), and DER ZERBROCHENE KRUG (The Broken Jug, 1937). He and Röhrig were furthermore responsible for the ostentatious sets of Gerhard Lamprecht’s PRINZESSIN TURANDOT (Princess Turandot, 1934) and Reinhold Schünzel’s AMPHITRYON (1935). In 1935/36 they scripted and directed their own fairytale picture, HANS IM GLÜCK (Lucky Hans and his Golden Journey). Moving on from Ufa, Herlth worked at Tobis, and from 1939 at Terra, where he designed entertainment films for directors such as Géza von Bolváry, whose film operetta DIE FLEDERMAUS (The Bat, 1944–46) was Herlth’s first colour film assignment. Returning to the stage after the war, Herlth’s first post-war film was Harald Braun’s ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND MORGEN (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1947), after which he travelled to Rome to collaborate with Gastone Medin on Carmine Gallone’s LA LEGGENDA DI FAUST (Faust and the Devil, 1948/49). He subsequently worked on West German productions by directors Rudolf Jugert, Harald Braun, Rolf Hansen and Arthur Maria Rabenalt, as well as on several of Kurt Hoffmann and Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s more ambitious projects. Herlth received the German Film Award for Alfred Weidenmann’s lavish Thomas Mann adaptation BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1959) and then spent the final year of his life designing exclusively for television. After the war one of his frequent collaborators was his younger brother Kurt Herlth (1896–?) another one was Gottfried Will. [co-des – DE] 1920: Masken [ass-des]; Toteninsel [co-des, cos]; Das Geheimnis von Bombay. 1921: Irrende Seelen; Schloß Vogelöd; Das Spiel mit dem Feuer; Der müde Tod; Satansketten; Fräulein Julie; Pariserinnen; Die Intriguen der Madame de la Pommeraye. 1921/22: Der Taugenichts [des]. 1922: Luise Millerin; Der Graf von Essex [co-des,cos]. 1922/23: Der Schatz. 1923/24: Kaddisch. 1923-25: Zur Chronik von Grieshuus. 1924: Komödie des Herzens; Der letzte Mann. 1925: Tartüff [co-des,cos]. 1925/26: Faust [co-des,cos]. 1927: Luther. 1927/28: Looping the Loop. 1928: Rutschbahn [DE/GB]; Four Devils [US]. 1928/29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse; Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna. 1929: Manolescu; The Informer [MLV – GB]. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; The Temporary Widow [MLV]; Rosenmontag; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht. 1930/31: Der falsche Ehemann. 1931: Nie
WERNER HERZOG wieder Liebe [MLV]; Im Geheimdienst; Der kleine Seitensprung [MLV]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]; Le petit écart [MLV – DE/FR]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Le congrès s’amuse [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]; Yorck. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Un homme sans nom [MLV]; Der schwarze Husar. 1932/33: Morgenrot; Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV – co-des,cos]; Moi et l’Impératrice [MLV – co-des,cos]; The Only Girl [MLV – co-des,cos]. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; La guerre des valses [MLV]; Flüchtlinge [MLV]; Au bout du monde [MLV]. 1933/34: Der ewige Traum [MLV]; Rêve éternel [MLV – DE/FR]. 1934: Die Czardasfürstin [MLV]; Princesse Czardas [MLV]; Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV]; Nuit de mai [MLV]; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]; Turandot, princesse de Chine [MLV]. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV]; Barcarolle [MLV]; Ufa-Märchen [SF]. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna [co-des,cos]; Amphitryon [MLV]; Les dieux s’amusent [MLV]; Königswalzer [MLV]; Valse royale [MLV]. 1935/36: Hans im Glück [co-dir,coscr]. 1936: Savoy-Hotel 217; Unter heißem Himmel. 1936/ 37: Der Herrscher. 1936-38: Olympia. 1. Fest der Völker / 2. Fest der Schönheit [DO]. 1937: Der zerbrochene Krug [des,cos]. 1937/38: Der Maulkorb [des]. 1938: Der Spieler [MLV]; Le joueur [MLV – DE/FR]; Du und ich. 1939: Morgen werde ich verhaftet [des]; Maria Ilona [des]; Opernball. 1940: Kleider machen Leute; Rosen in Tirol. 1941: Die schwedische Nachtigall. 1941/42: Andreas Schlüter. 1942/43: Wenn die Sonne wieder scheint; Liebespremiere [des]. 1943: Ein Mann mit Grundsätzen? [des]. 1943/44: Melusine [des]. 1944/45: Der Fall Molander [des]. 194446: Die Fledermaus [des]. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen [des]. 1947/48: Film ohne Titel. 1948/49: La leggenda di Faust [IT]. 1949: Verspieltes Leben; 1 × 1 der Ehe [des]; Geliebter Lügner [des]. 1949/50: Kein Engel ist so rein [des]. 1950: Liebe auf Eis; Das doppelte Lottchen; Dämonische Liebe [DE/AT]; Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor [DD]. 1950/51: Dr. Holl [des]. 1951: Das weiße Abenteuer [des]. 1951/52: Herz der Welt; Hinter Klostermauern. 1952: Die Försterchristl [des]; Der große Zapfenstreich; Alraune [des]; Im weissen Rössl. 1952/53: Das Dorf unterm Himmel; Der Kaplan von San Lorenzo. 1953: Musik bei Nacht [des]; Die geschiedene Frau [des]; Hochzeitsglocken. 1953/54: Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben. 1954: Das fliegende Klassenzimmer [des]; Der letzte Sommer. 1954/55: Magic Fire. The Story of Richard Wagner [US]. 1955: Geliebte Feindin; Solang’ es hübsche Mädchen gibt …; Hanussen; Der letzte Mann; Teufel in Seide. 1955/ 56: Regine. 1956: Heute heiratet mein Mann; Die TrappFamilie; Heiße Ernte. 1956/57: Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; … und führe uns nicht in Versuchung; Das Wirtshaus im Spessart [des]. 1958: Taiga; Auferstehung / Resurrezione / Résurrection [DE/IT/FR]; Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika; Ein gewisser Judas [TV]. 1958/59: Dorothea Angermann. 1959: Das schöne Abenteuer; Buddenbrooks; Ein Tag, der nie zu Ende geht. 1960: Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben; Auf Engel schießt man nicht; Gustav Adolfs Page [AT]. 1961: Jack Mortimer [TV]; Die Auster und die Perle [TV]. 1963: Herr und Hund [TV]; In einer fremden Stadt [TV]; Zum Tee bei Dr. Borsig [TV]; Millionär für 3 Tage [TV].
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WERNER HERZOG (Werner Stipetic) Born September 5, 1942, Munich (Germany) Werner Herzog became one of the internationally most celebrated German auteurs during the 1970s and early 1980s. Often taking the form of a quest for filmmaker, protagonists, and audience alike, his films blur the boundaries of documentary and fiction, and centre on marginalized characters and obsessive loners in extreme situations, frequently in far-flung locations. Herzog shot the short HERAKLES (Hercules, 1961/ 62) only a year after graduating from high school, and founded his own production company in 1963, run by his brother Lucky Stipetic. Commencing a degree in history, comparative literature and theatre studies in Munich, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study film at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, and also spent a couple of years in Mexico. His first feature film, LEBENSZEICHEN (Signs of Life, 1967), was shot on location in Greece and received the German Film Award for best debut feature. He worked repeatedly with amateur performers: AUCH ZWERGE HABEN KLEIN ANGEFANGEN (Even Dwarfs Started Small, 1969/70) featured a cast of dwarfs. JEDER FÜR SICH UND GOTT GEGEN ALLE (The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, 1974) starred Bruno S., a semi-autistic factory worker and street musician. The latter also played the lead in STROSZEK (1976/77) a whimsical tale of three social misfits emigrating to the United States. Meanwhile, on the dream-like HERZ AUS GLAS (Heart of Glass, 1975/ 76), Herzog had all the actors hypnotised and act in trance. Herzog reached a wider audience with AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, 1972), his first collaboration with eccentric actor Klaus Kinski, which was filmed in remotest Peru at considerable danger to cast and crew. A personal friend of Weimar film historian Lotte H. Eisner, Herzog helmed an international cast for his Murnau remake NOSFERATU – PHANTOM DER NACHT (Nosferatu the Vampyre, 1978). The same year he adapted Georg Büchner’s play WOYZEK (1978/79). This was followed by FITZCARRALDO (1981/82), shot under perilous conditions in the Amazon and featuring Kinski in the title role of an opera-obsessed 19th century adventurer who hauls an entire ship over a mountain. The film won the Director’s Prize at Cannes, while Les Blank’s documentary BURDEN OF DREAMS (1981/82) recorded the monumental problems and personal conflicts that accompanied the shooting. In 2004, Herzog published his diaries of the ill-fated production under the title ‘Eroberung des Nutzlosen’ (Conquest of the Useless). During the 1980s, Herzog extended his activities to direct stage operas both in Germany and internation-
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ally, while he critiqued Western civilisation with WO DIE GRÜNEN AMEISEN TRÄUMEN (Where the Green Ants Dream, 1983/84), about the exploitation of Australian Aborigines. Herzog’s final collaboration with Kinski was COBRA VERDE (1987), based on a novel by Bruce Chatwin about the history of the slave trade in West Africa. Following the mountaineering drama SCREAM OF STONE (1990/91), shot in Patagonia, Herzog predominantly made films for television. Several of these documented human endurance in the face of adversity, such as LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY (1997), charting a German-American’s experiences as a Viet Cong prisoner; WINGS OF HOPE (1999/2000) about a woman who survived a plane crash in the South American jungle; and WHEEL OF TIME (2002/03), about an arduous Buddhist pilgrimage circling Mount Kailash on the Tibetan plateau. MEIN LIEBSTER FEIND / MY BEST FIEND (1998/99), meanwhile, provided a caustic homage to Herzog’s erstwhile star, Klaus Kinski. GRIZZLY MAN (2005) researched the fate of the self-proclaimed ‘expert’ Timothy Treadwell, using footage shot by Treadwell in the wilderness before he was killed by a bear. Herzog’s first feature film in a decade, INVINCIBLE (2000/01), retelling the real-life story of a Jewish strongman in Weimar Germany, was widely panned by critics. RESCUE DAWN (2006) was the fictional retelling of the story Herzog covered in the documentary LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY. Apart from directing, writing, and producing his own films, Herzog occasionally appeared as actor in other filmmakers’ films, most memorably as the hero’s father in Harmony Korine’s JULIEN DONKEY-BOY (1999), and, revealing an unexpected talent for poking fun at himself, as an obsessive filmmaker in Zak Penn’s fake documentary INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS (2003/04), which Herzog also co-scripted and produced. His son Rudolph Herzog (b. 1973) started as a professional magician and became a filmmaker in the style of his father, with whom he collaborated on INVINCIBLE and THE WHITE DIAMOND (2003/04). [dir – DE] 1961/62: Herakles [SF – dir,scr,cut,snd,pro]. 1964: Spiel im Sand [SD – dir,scr,cut,snd,pro]. 1966: NDF-Report [TVD – app – AT]; Die beispiellose Verteidigung der Festung Deutschkreutz [SF – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1967: Lebenszeichen [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1967/68: Letzte Worte [SF – dir,scr,pro]. 1967-72: Der Welt zeigen, daß man noch da ist [SD – act]. 1968: Maßnahmen gegen Fanatiker [SF – dir,scr,snd,pro]. 1968/69: Die fliegenden Ärzte von Ostafrika [DO – dir,scr,snd,pro]. 1968-70: Fata Morgana [dir,scr,snd,pro]. 1969/70: Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen [dir,scr,mus,pro]; Geschichten vom Kübelkind [act]. 1970: Behinderte Zukunft [DO – dir,scr,act, pro]. 1970/71: Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit [DO – dir,scr,snd,act,pro]. 1972: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
[dir,scr,pro]. 1973/74: Anderthalb Tage Fußweg [SD – app]; Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner [DO – dir,scr,voi,act,pro]. 1974: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle [dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1975/76: How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck [DO – dir,scr,snd,pro]; Herz aus Glas [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1976: Mit mir will keiner spielen [SD – dir,scr,pro]; La Soufrière [SD – dir,scr,snd,voi,pro]. 1976/ 77: Stroszek [dir,scr,pro]. 1976-78: Was ich bin, sind meine Filme [DO – act]. 1978: Nosferatu – Phantom der Nacht / Nosferatu – Fantôme de la nuit [dir,co-scr,pro,act – DE/FR]. 1978/79: Woyzeck [dir,scr,pro]. 1979/80: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe [SD – app – US]; Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers [DO – app – US]. 1980: Glaube und Währung [DO – dir,scr,pro]; Huie’s Predigt [DO – dir,scr,pro]. 1981/ 82: Fitzcarraldo [dir,scr,pro]; Burden of Dreams [DO – app – US]. 1982: Interview mit Lotte Eisner [TVD – app]; Chambre 666 / N’importe quand … [DO – app – US/FR]. 1983: Man of Flowers [act – AU]. 1983/84: Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen [dir,scr,pro]. 1983-85: Tôkyô-ga [DO – app – DE/US]. 1984: Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten [DO – dir,scr,voi,pro]; Gasherbrum – Der leuchtende Berg [DO – dir,scr,app,pro]. 1987: Sonntagsgespräch: Werner Herzog [TVD – app]; Cobra Verde [dir,scr,pro]; Herzog in Afrika [DO – app,pro – CH/DE]. 1987-89: Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein / Trudno byt’ bogom / Un dieu rebelle [act – DE/SU/FR]. 1988: Lightning Over Braddock [act – US]; Les Français vus par …: Les Galois [TVD – dir,scr – FR]; Gekauftes Glück [act – CH/DE]; Bis ans Ende … und dann noch weiter [TVD – app]. 1988/89: Wodaabe, les bergers du soleil / Wodaabe – die Hirten der Sonne [TVD – dir,scr, voi,pro – FR/DE]. 1990: Echos aus einem düsteren Reich / Bokassa I – Echos d’un sombre empire [DO – dir,scr,act, pro – DE/FR]. 1990/91: Schrei aus Stein / Cerro Torre, le cri de la roche / Scream of Stone [DE/FR/CA]. 1991: SchneeweissRosenrot [DO – app]; Jag Mandir [TVD – AT/DE]; Filmstunde 1–4 [TV – dir,act – AT]. 1991/92: Lektionen in Finsternis [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1992: La donna del lago [TV – IT]. 1993: Glocken aus der Tiefe / Bells from the Deep [DO – dir,scr,voi,pro – DE/US]. 1993/94: Die Verwandlung der Welt in Musik [TVD – dir,scr,app]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1995: Gesualdo – Tod für fünf Stimmen [TVD – dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1996: Brennendes Herz – Tagebuch einer Flucht [act]. 1997: Little Dieter Needs to Fly [TVD – dir,scr,app,voi – DE/GB]. 1997/98: Höllenfahrten [TVD – dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1997-2006: All In This Tea [DO – app – US]. 1998: What Dreams May Come [act – US]. 1998/99: Der letzte Dokumentarfilm [DO – app – DE/NL]; Mein liebster Feind / My Best Fiend [DO – dir,scr,app,voi, pro – DE/GB]. 1999: Der Ball ist ein Sauhund [TVD – app]; Julien Donkey-Boy [act – US]. 1999/2000: Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel / Wings of Hope [TVD – dir,scr,app,pro – DE/GB]. 2000/01: Invincible [dir,scr,pro]. 2001: Pilgrimage [TVD – dir,pro – DE/GB]. 2001/02: Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet [dir,scr,pro – DE/US/JP]. 2002/03: Wheel of Time [TVD – dir,scr,co-cam,pro – DE/GB]. 2003/04: Incident At Loch Ness [act,pro – US]; The White Diamond [DO – dir,app,voi]. 2004/05: Grizzly Man [DO – dir,scr,voi – US]; In The Edges: The Grizzly Man Session [DO – app – US]. 2005: The Wild Blue Yonder [dir,scr – DE/GB/FR]. 2006: Rescue Dawn [dir,scr – US]. 2006/07: Mister Lonely [act –
WERNER RICHARD HEYMANN GB/FR]; Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]; Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app]. 2007: Encounters at the End of the World [DO – dir,scr,snd – US]; Bierbichler [DO – app]; The Grand [act – US]. 2008: Imagine …: Werner Herzog – Beyond Reason [TVD – app – GB]. 2008/09: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [US].
WERNER RICHARD HEYMANN Born February 14, 1896, Königsberg (Germany, now Kaliningrad, Russia) Died May 30, 1961, Munich (Germany) Jewish-born Heymann wrote hit tunes for Ufa’s early sound operettas and musicals, before being forced into exile. He later furnished scores and songs for major productions in Hollywood. Heymann debuted as a pianist with the Königsberg Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of twelve and studied at the Royal College of Music after his family moved to Berlin in 1912. Horrified by his experiences at the front in 1914, Heymann wrote music for antiwar dramas following World War I. He worked at Max Reinhardt’s satirical ‘Schall und Rauch’ cabaret from late 1919 and then as musical director at Trude Hesterberg’s ‘Wilde Bühne’ cabaret from 1921 to 1923. Heymann became assistant to Ufa’s head of music Ernö Rapée in 1925, and took over from him the following year. Leading orchestras at two first-run cinemas in Berlin, he arranged music for the premieres of prestige productions such as F. W. Murnau’s FAUST (1925/26) and Fritz Lang’s SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28). After a stint at Tobis in 1928, Heymann returned to Ufa as musical director on the company’s first sound film, Hanns Schwarz’s MELODIE DES HERZENS (Melody of the Heart, 1929). He then wrote the songs for Wilhelm Thiele’s LIEBESWALZER (The Love Waltz, 1929/30), including the Lilian Harvey evergreen ‘Du bist das süßeste Mädel der Welt’ (You are the Sweetest Girl in the World). Working closely with lyricist Robert Gilbert, they created further enduring hits for the ‘dream couple’ of Harvey and Willy Fritsch, such as ‘Liebling, mein Herz lässt dich grüßen’ (Darling, My Heart Goes Out to You) for Thiele’s DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930) and ‘Das gibt’s nur einmal’ (It Can Only Happen Once) for Erik Charell’s DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931). ‘Das ist die Liebe der Matrosen’ (That’s How Sailors Love You) for Hanns Schwarz’s BOMBEN AUF MONTE CARLO (Bombs Over Monte Carlo, 1931) was one of many pieces written for Hans Albers. The male vocal harmony sextet The Comedian Harmonists performed in these films too, and scored huge successes with their recordings of these numbers.
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Emigrating to Paris after the Nazis came to power, Heymann made a tentative trip to Hollywood to score Erik Charell’s CARAVAN (1934), and then returned to Europe, where he composed for French and British productions by émigré directors Robert Siodmak and Kurt Bernhardt. Settling permanently in Hollywood in 1937, he worked repeatedly for Ernst Lubitsch on films including NINOTCHKA, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (both 1939) and TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1941/42). He received four Oscar nominations for his contributions to films ranging from Hal Roach’s and D. W. Griffith’s ONE MILLION B.C. (1939/40) to Harry Joe Brown’s KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY (1943/44). Returning to Germany in 1951, Heymann rekindled his partnership with Gilbert on several nostalgic stage plays and films, and also collaborated with lyricist Hans Fritz Beckmann on Paul Verhoeven’s HEIDELBERGER ROMANZE (A Heidelberg Romance, 1951). Mostly, however, he contributed to a series of lacklustre remakes of his 1930s films. [mus – DE] 1925/26: Die Brüder Schellenberg; Wie einst im Mai; Die Fahrt ins Abenteuer; Michel Strogoff [FR]; Faust. Eine deutsche Volkssage. 1926: Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen …! Sechs Akte aus dem Leben einer praktischen Berlinerin; Wien – Berlin; Im weißen Rößl; Der Mann im Feuer; Sein großer Fall; Das Mädel auf der Schaukel; Eine Dubarry von heute; Der Sohn des Hannibal; Brennende Grenze; Vater werden ist nicht schwer; Die sieben Töchter der Frau Gyurkovics / Flickorna Gyurkovics [DE/SE]; Durchlaucht Radieschen. 1926/27: Meine Tante – Deine Tante. 1927: Die Bräutigame der Babette Bomberling; Jugendrausch; Valencia, Du schönste aller Rosen; Regine. Die Tragödie einer Frau; Der letzte Walzer; Die heilige Lüge; Der fidele Bauer; Der große Sprung. Eine unwahrscheinliche, aber bewegte Geschichte. 1927/28: Spione. 1928: Wilhelm Gombert: Lied des Gondoliere aus ‘Paganini in Venedig’ [SF]. 1928/29: Paganini in Venedig [SF]. 1929: Des Haares und der Liebe Wellen [SF]; Melodie des Herzens [MLV,]. 1929/30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]; The Love Waltz [MLV]. 1930: Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV,]; Autour d’une enquête [MLV]; Princesse! À vos ordres! [MLV]; Der Ball [MLV – FR/DE]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Le capitaine Craddock [MLV]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV]; Le bal [MLV – FR]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Le congrès s’amuse [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]. 1931/32: Der Sieger [MLV]; Le vainqueur [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: Quick [MLV]; Quick [French MLV]; Un rêve blond [MLV]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV – lyr,mus]; Happy Ever After [MLV]; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; À moi le jour, à toi la nuit [MLV]; Early to Bed [MLV]. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV]; Inge und die Millionen; Adorable [US]; Gambling Ship [US]. [mus – US] 1934: Caravan [MLV – mus,lyr]; Caravane [MLV]. 1935: La petite sauvage [FR]. 1936: The Beloved Vagabond [MLV – GB]; Le vagabond bien-aimé [MLV –
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GB]; Le grand refrain [FR]. 1936/37: The King and the Chorus Girl. 1937: Angel. 1937/38: Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife. 1939: Ninotchka; The Earl of Chicago; The Shop Around the Corner. 1939/40: Primrose Path; One Million B.C. 1940: He Stayed for Breakfast; This Thing Called Love. 1940/41: That Uncertain Feeling; Topper Returns. 1941: My Life With Caroline; Paris Calling; Bedtime Story. 1941/ 42: To Be or Not to Be; The Adventures of Martin Eden. 1942: The Wife Takes a Flyer; They All Kissed the Bride; Flight Lieutenant; A Night to Remember. 1943: Appointment in Berlin. 1943/44: Knickerbocker Holiday; Hail the Conquering Hero; Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. 1944: Mademoiselle Fifi; My Pal Wolf; 3 Is a Family; The Missing Juror; Together Again. 1944/45: It’s in the Bag!; Hold That Blonde. 1945: Kiss and Tell. 1945/46: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. 1946/47: Blondie’s Big Moment; Lost Honeymoon. 1947: Always Together. 1947/48: The Mating of Millie. 1948: Let’s Live a Little. 1949: Tell It to the Judge; A Kiss for Corliss. 1949/50: A Woman of Distinction. 1950: Emergency Wedding. [mus – DE] 1951: Durch Dick und Dünn; Heidelberger Romanze. 1952: Alraune [mus,lyr]. 1953: Tante Jutta aus Kalkutta [act]. 1954: Ein Haus voll Liebe / Das verliebte Haus [DE/AT]; Geliebtes Fräulein Doktor. 1955: Der Kongreß tanzt [AT]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955/56: Kiki vom Montmartre [TV]. 1957: 20 Million Miles to Earth [US]. 1959/ 60: Bomben auf Monte Carlo.
WALTER HEYNOWSKI Born November 20, 1927, Ingolstadt (Germany) Often aimed at undermining West Germany’s and the United States’ democratic credentials, the films of East German documentary filmmaker and Cold War propagandist Heynowski in close cooperation with Gerhard Scheumann mixed original footage, photographic montages and interviews. First exposed to Marxism in 1946, Heynowski began writing for left-wing youth magazine ‘Die Zukunft’, and moved to East Berlin in 1948, where he became editor-in-chief of the satirical periodical ‘Frischer Wind’, and later of ‘Eulenspiegel’. Joining East German Television as series producer for weekly current affairs programme ZEITGEZEICHNET (Sign of the Times) from 1956 to 1959, he served briefly as interim commissioner at the station prior to directing his first exposé, MORD IN LWÓW (Murder in Lwów, 1959), about the Nazi past of Theodor Oberländer, then West German minister for refugees. His two-hour AKTION J. (Operation J, 1960/ 61) – documenting the earlier anti-Semitic exploits of chancellor Adenauer’s undersecretary Hans Globke – was also released in cinemas, and received several awards. Pursuing his campaign against the West German political establishment at DEFA’s documentary unit from 1963, Heynowski commenced a close working relationship with Gerhard Scheumann. The pair’s
first spectacular success was DER LACHENDE MANN (The Laughing Man, 1965/66), a remarkably frank interview with mercenary Siegfried ‘Congo’ Müller. Following their four-part series of interviews with members of the U.S. Air Force shot down over Vietnam, PILOTEN IM PYJAMA (Pilots in Pyjamas, 1967/ 68), the ‘Studio H&S’ was founded, providing Heynowski and Scheumann with a full-time production team. H&S developed a unique multimedia operation in the East German cinema landscape, bringing out tie-in books to accompany its film and television releases, and providing explanatory and ‘making of’ booklets penned by in-house scenarist Robert Michel for screenings on both sides of the Iron Curtain. H&S’s productions regularly picked up awards at West Germany’s Oberhausen Festival and at East Germany’s Leipzig’s Documentary Festival, on the board of which Heynowski served repeatedly. However, Heynowski and Scheumann’s methods left much to be desired from an ethical standpoint, with the pair often covering up their identities or getting interviewees drunk in order to elicit a candid response, as well as assuming a self-righteous tone that facilitated their presentation of conjecture (or outright lies) as fact. Their numerous subsequent productions comprised further exposés about the high-flying careers of former Nazis in the West, and attacks on NATO’s military policy, especially in the context of post-colonial conflicts in Vietnam, Chile and Cambodia. H&S was eventually dissolved after Scheumann openly questioned state media policy. However, he and Heynowski were kept on at DEFA, signing their works such as the two-part DIE GENERALE (The Generals, 1986) – about former NATO military leaders who now supported disarmament – as products of the ‘H&S Workshop’. Heynowski’s career unsurprisingly came to an end with the fall of the Wall. [dir – DD] 1953: Das Stacheltier. 1. Folge [SF – scr]; Die DEFA-Rakete 1. Folge [scr]. 1956-59: Zeitgezeichnet [TVD – pro]. 1958: Riegenringeleien [TV-ANI]; Politisches Poem [TV]; Nahost unverschleiert [TVD]; Eine schöne Bescherung [TVD]. 1959: Mord in Lwow [TVD – dir,scr]; Wie geht’s, Marianne [TVD]; Genfer Auslese [TVD – dir,scr]; Der Generalstreich [TV-ANI]; Genfer Nachlese [TVD – dir,scr]; Hoppla, jetzt kommt Willy! [TVD]. 1960: Der verbogene Paragraph [TV-ANI]. 1960/61: Aktion J [TVD – dir,scr]. 1961: Die Anatomie des Dr. A. [TV-ANI]; Im Schneesturm [TV]. 1963: Brüder und Schwestern [DO – dir,scr]; Globke heute [SD – dir,scr]. 1964: Hüben und drüben [DO – dir,scr]. [co-dir,co-scr,pro – DO – DD] 1965: o.k. [SD – dir,co-scr]; Fotograf im Jahre 0 [SD – dir,scr]; Im Raum Oberhof [SD – dir,scr]; BID 65 [SD – dir,scr]; Kommando 52 [SD – dir,scr]; Auf Wiedersehen [TVD – dir,co-scr]. 1965/66: Der lachende Mann [SD – co-dir,co-scr]; Pankoff [SD – scr]; Ehrenmänner [SD – dir,co-scr,pro]; Liebesbriefe [SD – dir,co-
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scr,pro]. 1966: PS zum Lachenden Mann [TVD]; Wink vom Nachbarn [TVD – co-scr,pro]; Grüße von Ost nach West [TVD – dir,scr]; Heimweh nach der Zukunft. Max Steenbeck erzählt [TVD – dir,co-scr]; 400 cm3 [SD – dir,co-scr, pro]. 1966/67: Geisterstunde [TVD – dir,co-scr,pro]. 1967: Der Zeuge [TVD]; Der Fall Bernd K. [TVD]; Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung [SD]. 1967/68: Piloten im Pyjama: 1. Yes, Sir / 2. Hilton-Hanoi / 3. Der Job / 4. Die Donnergötter [TVD]. 1968/69: Der Präsident im Exil [TVD]. 1968-70: Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit [TVD]. 1968-72: Remington cal. 12 [SD]. 1969/70: Augenblicke für später [TVD – pro]. 1970: Ein Mann seltener Art. Aussagen über Hans Otto [TVD – pro]. 1970/71: Bye-bye Wheelus. 1971: Implacabilis [TVD – pro]; 100 [SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1972: Martha Lehmann [SD – pro]. 1973: Das Trauerspiel [TVD – co-scr, ide,pro]; Ich bin ein Fritz [TVD – pro]; Mitbürger! Zum Gedenken an Salvador Allende [SD]. 1973/74: Krieg der Mumien. 1974: Der goldene Strich [TVD – pro]; Psalm 18 [SD]; Internationalisten [pro]; Ich war, ich bin, ich werde sein. 1974/75: El golpe blanco. Der weiße Putsch. 1975: Theaterarbeit [TVD – pro]; Geldsorgen [SD]; Meiers Nachlaß [SD]; Ohne Arbeit [DO – pro]; Eine Minute Dunkel macht uns nicht blind. 1975-77: Vietnam: 1. Die Teufelsinsel / 2. Der erste Reis danach / 3. Ich bereue aufrichtig / 4. Die eiserne Festung. 1976: Die Gruppe Floh de Cologne [pro]; Eintritt kostenlos [SD]; Immer wenn der Steiner kam. 1976/77: Konsequenz [pro]. 1978: Die Toten schweigen nicht; Am Wassergraben [SD]; Im Feuer bestanden. 1979: Ein Vietnamflüchtling [SD]; Phoenix. 1980: Die fernen Freunde nah; Fliege, roter Schmetterling [SD]. 1980-83: Kampuchea: Sterben und Auferstehn / 2. Die Angkar / 3. Der Dschungelkrieg. 1981: Exercises [SD]. 1983: Im Zeichen der Spinne [TVD]; Aparte Bilder [SD]; Ein Pfeiler im Strom; Zum Beispiel: Regensburg [SD – dir,scr]. 1984: Das lustige Spiel [SD]; Amok [SD]. 1985: Hector Cuevas; Schnappschüsse aus Chile [SD]. 1986: Die Generale [TVD – DD/GB/NL/GR]; Der springende Punkt [SD]. 1987: Teufelszeug [SD]. 1988: Atlantik [SD – pro]; Ätna [SD – pro]; Kentauren [SD – pro]; Kamerad Krüger; Die Lüge und der Tod [TVD]; Der Mann an der Rampe [SD]. 1989: Die dritte Haut [TVD]; Knabenjahre [pro]. 1990: Großer Bahnhof [dir,scr,pro]; Es kommt alles aus mir selbst [SD – dir, co-scr,pro]. 1991: Hunger – Ein deutscher Lebenslauf [TVD – DE].
imprisoned by the Nazis after they came to power, with his professional engagements officially monitored and restricted. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and was able to appear at provincial theatres in Allenstein (now Olsztyn, Poland) and Wuppertal, in addition to making his first film appearance in a bit part in Alfred Weidenmann’s JUNGE ADLER (Young Eagles, 1943/44). After the war, he undertook stage work in Rostock before being engaged by Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, and went on to appear at the Volksbühne and Maxim Gorki Theater from 1954. Hindemith’s first lead at DEFA was a returning soldier in Gerhard Lamprecht’s ‘rubble film’ IRGENDWO IN BERLIN (Somewhere in Berlin, 1946). He subsequently appeared in Slatan Dudow’s UNSER TÄGLICH BROT (Our Daily Bread, 1949); played a foreman in Dudow and Kurt Maetzig’s FAMILIE BENTHIN (The Benthin Family, 1950); and a party secretary in Maetzig’s SCHLÖSSER UND KATEN (Castles and Cottages, 1956). Very occasionally Hindemith was cast in more ambiguous or anti-heroic roles, as in Heiner Carow’s DIE HOCHZEIT VON LÄNNEKEN (The Lanneken Wedding, 1963) or Günther Rücker’s DIE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years, 1964/65). Hindemith also worked on a number of culturally and politically significant East German television films and series, such as Günter Reisch and Hans-Joachim Kasprzik’s GEWISSEN IN AUFRUHR (Revolt of Conscience, 1961); Achim Hübner’s DR. SCHLÜTER (1965); and Horst E. Brandt and Heinz Thiel’s KRUPP UND KRAUSE (Krupp and Krause, 1967/68). He occasionally portrayed historical figures, such as the title role in Max Jaap’s MORD AN RATHENAU (The Assassination of Walther Rathenau, 1961), and General von Hohenberg in Günter Reisch’s Karl Liebknecht biopics SOLANGE LEBEN IN MIR IST (So Long As I Live, 1964/65) and TROTZ ALLEDEM! (In Spite of Everything, 1971). Hindemith received East German National Awards in 1950 and 1951.
HARRY HINDEMITH Born June 16, 1906, Brussels (Belgium) Died January 21, 1973, Berlin (East Germany) With his everyman appearance, character lead Hindemith portrayed contemporary protagonists and class-conscious proletarian types in early DEFA productions. After studying music in Mannheim and Karlsruhe, Hindemith worked as messenger at a bank while taking acting lessons in Würzburg, and made his stage debut at the city’s Stadttheater in 1930. A member of the Communist Youth Association from 1925 and of the German Communist Party from 1928, he was initially
[act – DD] 1943/44: Junge Adler [DE]. 1946: Irgendwo in Berlin. 1947/48: Straßenbekanntschaft. 1948: … und wieder 48!; Achtung Gefahr! [SD]. 1948/49: Quartett zu fünft. 1949: Unser täglich Brot; Der Auftrag Höglers. 1950: Familie Benthin. 1950/51: Wilhelm Pieck – Das Leben unseres Präsidenten [DO – voi]. 1951: Roman einer jungen Ehe. 1951/52: Sein großer Sieg. 1952: Anna Susanna. 1952/53: Die Unbesiegbaren; Jacke wie Hose. 1955: Der Teufelskreis; Genesung; Drei Mädchen im Endspiel; Der Fackelträger. 1955/56: Mich dürstet. 1956: Technische Schwierigkeiten [SF]; Schlösser und Katen: 1. Der krumme Anton / 2. Annegrets Heimkehr; Bärenburger Schnurre. 1957: Tatort Berlin. 1957/58: Les misérables / Die Elenden / I miserabili [FR/DD/IT]; Sie kannten sich alle. 1958: Der Lotterieschwede; Wann wir schreiten
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Seit’ an Seit’ [SD – voi]; Die Feststellung; Tilman Riemenschneider [ide]. 1958/59: SAS 181 antwortet nicht. 1959: Zu jeder Stunde. 1959/60: Hatifa; Schritt für Schritt; Die heute über 40 sind. 1960: Scherbengericht [SF]; Die Liebe und der Co-Pilot; Das kleine und das große ABC [SF]; Der Fremde. 1960/61: Italienisches Capriccio. 1961: Wer zahlt die Zeche? [TV]; Kuttel; Gewissen in Aufruhr [TV]; Schneewittchen; Mord an Rathenau [TV]. 1961/62: Schweißerbrigade [SD – voi]; An französischen Kaminen. 1962: Weimarer Pitaval: Auf der Flucht erschossen [TV]; Du sollst nicht töten [TV]; Die neue Losung [TV]. 1963: Bonner Pitaval: Die Affäre Heyde-Sawade [TV]; Die Fontäne [TV]; Vanina Vanini [TV]; Die Hochzeit von Länneken. 1964: Der Neue. Teil II [TV]; Der tanzende Stein [TV]; Als Martin 14 war. 1964/65: Lots Weib; Solange Leben in mir ist; Die besten Jahre; Denk bloß nicht, ich heule. 1965: Dr. Schlüter [4 episodes – TV]. 1966: Zweimal Neunzehn [TV]. 1966/67: Kriminalfälle ohne Beispiel: Der Fall Timo Rinnelt [TV]; Er ging allein [TV]. 1967: Der Mensch neben dir: Die Verantwortung [TV]; Brot und Rosen; Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog; 1913. Aus dem bürgerlichen Heldenleben [TV]. 1967/68: Krupp und Krause [3 episodes – TV]. 1968: Alchimisten [TV]. 1969: Rendezvous mit Unbekannt. [TVS]; Sankt Urban [TV]; Kriminalfälle ohne Beispiel: Das Verbrechen an Timo Rinnelt und seine Aufklärung [TV]; Staub und Rosen [TV]. 1969/70: Meine Stunde Null. 1969-71: Dolles Familienalbum [TVS]. 1970: Der Sonne Glut [4 episodes – TV]. 1971: Trotz alledem!; Èernye suchari / Schwarzer Zwieback [SU/DD]. 1971/72: Der Adjutant [TV]. 1972: Die Ecksteins [TV]; Kriminalfälle ohne Beispiel: Der Fall Brühne-Fehrbach [TV]. 1972/73: Ninotschka sucht den Frühling [TV].
mous film, DER EWIGE JUDE (The Eternal Jew, 1940). Designed to garner support for the deportation and genocide of Jews, the film provided a perfidious compilation of diverging extracts, including scenes of films from the Weimar period featuring Jewish actors such as Ernst Lubitsch, Curt Bois, Fritz Kortner, and Peter Lorre. Hippler juxtaposed these scenes with animated material, and footage from ghettoes in Poland, and in one especially repugnant montage created an analogy between Jews and rats. Falling out with Goebbels after differences during the Ufa jubilee film MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43), Hippler was fired from his post, and spent the rest of the war at the front. After the end of the war, Hippler was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. After his release he worked surreptitiously on a number of documentaries, and in 1961 worked in his wife’s travel agency. In the 1980s Hippler resurfaced in public – he published his account of his Nazi past in ‘Die Verstrickung’ (Caught Up in It, 1981), in which he denied any responsibility for his actions, and claimed that Goebbels had been the actual director of DER EWIGE JUDE. He also repeatedly appeared as an interviewee on television, e.g. in Horst Königstein’s JUD SÜSS – EIN FILM ALS VERBRECHEN? (Jud Süss – A Film As a Crime?, 2001) about Veit Harlan’s post-war trial in Hamburg. Unrepentant to the end, Hippler became a darling of the extreme Right and contributed reviews and commentaries to right-wing publications.
FRITZ HIPPLER Born August 17, 1909, Berlin (Germany) Died May 22, 2002, Berchtesgaden (Germany) One of the most notorious and fanatical figures of Nazi cinema, Hippler was not only responsible for one of the most odious examples of cinematic antiSemitism, but also in charge of other aspects of cultural activity during the ‘Third Reich’. Hippler was a member of the Nazi Party and the SA storm-troopers from an early age. As regional leader in Berlin of the Nazi Student Association, he helped to organise the book burnings in 1933. In the mid1930s, Hippler worked for newsreel documentaries, and directed his first films, WORT UND TAT (Word and Deed, 1938) and DER WESTWALL (Siegfried Line, 1939). In 1939 Goebbels appointed Hippler to lead the film section within the Ministry of Propaganda as Reichsfilmintendant (Reich Film Director), making him the second most influential person after Goebbels regarding the ideological content of German film production. Hippler subsequently directed the war propaganda documentary FELDZUG IN POLEN (Campaign in Poland, 1939) and what was to become his most infa-
[dir – DE – DO] 1938: Wort und Tat [SD – co-dir]. 1939: Der Westwall; Der Feldzug in Polen! 1940: Der ewige Jude.
ALFRED HIRSCHMEIER Born March 19, 1931, Berlin-Pankow (Germany) Died March 27, 1996, Potsdam (Germany) DEFA’s foremost set designer from the 1950s to the 1980s, the highly versatile Hirschmeier worked with directors Kurt Maetzig, Frank Beyer and Konrad Wolf on numerous award-winning productions. Serving an internship as a scenery painter at DEFA after leaving school at the age of sixteen, he went on to study stage and costume design at East Berlin’s College of Applied Arts, and then rejoined DEFA in 1953 as assistant to set designers Willy Schiller and Otto Erdmann. Also designing film posters at this time, Hirschmeier’s first un-supervised screen creation was a Hamburg parking lot for Kurt Maetzig’s films about ERNST THÄLMANN (1953–55), with his first credit as sole designer coming on Günter Reisch’s satirical JUNGES GEMÜSE (Fresh Cabbage, 1955/56). After initially employing a rather neutral blend of Ufa’s decorative style and Soviet socialist realism,
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Hirschmeier’s work under Frank Beyer and Konrad Wolf in particular underscored and intensified the emotional impact of narrative situations. Akin to a Hollywood production designer storyboarding scenes in advance, Hirschmeier was already furnishing sketches for individual shots during the scripting stage of Beyer’s KÖNIGSKINDER (And Your Love Too, 1961/62), and prior to Wolf’s GOYA (1970/71) was developing his own ‘optical scripts’ illustrating the entire film in advance. He ceased using these, however, after observing their potential to stifle creativity and innovation. Hirschmeier’s most striking work for Beyer included NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN (Naked Among Wolves, 1962), in which his stark spatial organisation strengthened the sense of confinement within a concentration camp, and DER AUFENTHALT (The Turning Point, 1982), in which the use of sombre colours effectively enhanced the claustrophobic setting of a prison cell. For Wolf, meanwhile, he juxtaposed sets and locations that suggested both openness and enclosure, for the existentialist DER GETEILTE HIMMEL (Divided Sky, 1963/64) and the realist SOLO SUNNY (1978/ 79). Hirschmeier conducted meticulous historical research when designing period pieces such as Rainer Simon’s WENGLER & SÖHNE (Wengler & Sons, 1986/87) and DIE BESTEIGUNG DES CHIMBORAZO (The Ascent of Chimborazo, 1988/89). He was equally adept at giving free rein to his imagination in operettas and fairytales such as Horst Bonnet’s ORPHEUS IN DER UNTERWELT (Orpheus in the Underworld, 1973) and Jürgen Brauer’s GRITTA VON RATTENZUHAUSBEIUNS (The Legend of High Countess Gritta Von Ratsinourhouse, 1984). Supremely versatile, Hirschmeier also worked on fairytale and popular science films for East German television. Serving on the committee of the GDR’s Association of Film and Television Workers from 1977 to 1982, Hirschmeier became chair of the scenography section at Babelsberg Film Academy ‘Konrad Wolf’ from 1990. Disillusioned with French production company CIP which took over the DEFA studios in 1992 and kept him on as senior art designer, he worked increasingly for the stage during the final years of his life. [des – DD] 1953/54: Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse; Alarm im Zirkus. 1954/55: Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse. 1955/56: Junges Gemüse. 1956: Schlösser und Katen. 1. Der krumme Anton / 2. Annegrets Heimkehr. 1956/57: Zwei Mütter. 1957: Die Schönste; Vergeßt mir meine Traudel nicht. 1958: Im Sonderauftrag. 1958/59: SAS 181 antwortet nicht. 1959: Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [co-des – DD/PL]. 1959/60: Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1960: Septemberliebe; Ärzte. 1960/61: Ballade vom freien Friedrich [SF]; Das Film-Magazin Nr. 1.
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1961: Der Tod hat ein Gesicht [co-des]. 1961/62: Königskinder; Ach, du fröhliche …; An französischen Kaminen [co-des]. 1962: Nackt unter Wölfen. 1963: Karbid und Sauerampfer; Preludio 11 – DD/CU]. 1963/64: Der geteilte Himmel. 1964: Salon Pitzelberger [SF]. 1964/65: Nichts als Sünde [co-scr,des]. 1965: Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam. 1966: Der kleine Prinz. 1966/67: Hochzeitsnacht im Regen; Geschichten jener Nacht: 3. Materna. 1966-68: English for You [TVS]. 1967: Ich war neunzehn. 1967/68: Rosen [TV – DD/SU]; Mord am Montag. 1968: Mit mir nicht, Madam! 1968-70: Elektronische Datenverarbeitung [6 episodes – TVD]. 1969: Der Mensch neben dir: Stationen. 1970/71: Goya / Goja, ili Tâkij pu poznani’ [co-des – DD/SU]. 1971: Zwischen Freitag und morgen; Der kleine und der große Klaus [TV]. 1972/73: Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita. 1973: Orpheus in der Unterwelt; Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz. 1974: Greta Heckenrose; Jakob der Lügner. 1975: Die schwarze Mühle [TV]. 1975/ 76: Die Regentrude. 1976: Der Hasenhüter; Mama, ich lebe. 1977: Die zertanzten Schuhe. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia. 1978/79: Solo Sunny. 1979: Don Juan, KarlLiebknecht-Str. 78. 1980: Unser kurzes Leben. 1982: Der Aufenthalt. 1982/83: Frühlingssinfonie [DE]. 1983: Bockshorn. 1984: Die Grünstein-Variante [TV – DE]; Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns. 1984/85: Das Haus am Fluß. 1985: Tier- & Jagdgeschichten vier [DO]. 1985/86: Caspar David Friedrich. Grenzen der Zeit [DE]. 1986/87: Wengler & Söhne. 1987: Einer trage des anderen Last … 1988: Willkommen in der Kantine [SF]. 1988/89: Die Besteigung des Chimborazo [DD/DE]. 1989/90: Das Licht der Liebe [DD/ DE]. 1990: Der Tangospieler [DD/DE]. 1990/91: Der Verdacht [DE]; Bis ans Ende der Welt / Jusqu’au bout du monde / Until the End of the World [co-des – DE/FR/AU]. 1991: Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [TVD – app – DE]. 1992: Das große Fest [TV – DE]. 1994/95: Wenn alle Deutschen schlafen [TV – DE]. 1995: Nikolaikirche [TV – DE].
WERNER HOCHBAUM (Werner Paul Adolf Hochbaum) Born March 7, 1899, Kiel (Germany) Died April 15, 1946, Potsdam (Germany) Only rediscovered in the 1970s, 1930s director Hochbaum’s studies of working class life, sombre psychological dramas, and mildly subversive light entertainment films employed a distinctive aesthetic that stood in sharp contrast to many of his contemporaries. After working as an actor and scenarist in his native Kiel, Hochbaum moved to Hamburg in 1927 and gained a position as film critic with social democratic daily newspaper ‘Hamburger Echo’. His writings included reviews of German and Hollywood productions as well as theoretical pieces on screenwriting, aesthetics and collectivist filmmaking. Through the paper’s cultural editor, Heinrich Braune, he became acquainted with Walther Ruttmann and Béla Balázs, and developed plans for a montagedriven feature about the rhythm of modern life in
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Hamburg. Unable to gain funding for the project, however, Hochbaum’s directorial debut instead was VORWÄRTS (Forwards, 1928), a one-reel trade unionist documentary. Setting up his own production company, Hochbaum directed BRÜDER (Brothers, 1929), a film about Hamburg dockworkers that was shot partly on location using an amateur cast. Now considered a masterpiece of Weimar proletarian cinema, it was barely reviewed in the contemporary press and failed to secure national distribution. Two short campaign films for the local SPD followed, but plans for further features fell through, and Hochbaum’s company was dissolved in 1932. Relocating to Berlin, he shot RAZZIA IN ST. PAULI (Raid in St. Pauli, 1932), a visually innovative film set in a pub in Hamburg’s port-side red light district. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Hochbaum was repeatedly arrested. He was eventually able to complete MORGEN BEGINNT DAS LEBEN (Life Begins Tomorrow, 1933), a psychological study chronicling the rehabilitation of a released convict, but subsequently emigrated to Vienna. He gained attention with VORSTADTVARIETÉ (Suburban Cabaret, 1934), a film operetta that subverted numerous genre clichés, and DIE EWIGE MASKE (The Eternal Mask, 1935), a drama about a man’s quest to regain his sanity. The latter gained international acclaim and earned Hochbaum a contract at Ufa, where he shot Marika Rökk’s first German picture, LEICHTE KAVALLERIE (Light Cavalry, 1935). SCHATTEN DER VERGANGENHEIT (Shadows of the Past, 1936), shot in Vienna, reworked the themes of social rehabilitation and underworld raids into a mistaken identity thriller, while EIN MÄDCHEN GEHT AN LAND (A Girl Comes Ashore, 1938) was again set in Hamburg’s docklands. Yielding to pressure from Goebbels, he made the propagandistic DREI UNTEROFFIZIERE (Three NonComs, 1938/39) before being banned from working in the German film industry in June 1939, ostensibly on account of a court case brought against him for suspected treason in 1923. Hochbaum worked on several newsreels at the front following the start of World War II, but was discharged from army service suffering from tuberculosis in late 1941. He may have worked pseudonymously on various film scripts in the following years, but his health declined rapidly. After the war, he was one of the co-founders of Berlin-based production company Demo-Film in 1945, but had to hand over the management to Peter Pewas, and died the following year. [dir – DE] 1928: Vorwärts [SD]. 1929: Brüder [dir,scr,pro]; Wille und Werk [SD – dir,pro]. 1930: Zwei Welten [SD – dir,pro]. 1932: Razzia in St. Pauli; Besserer Herr gesucht
zwecks … [SF – co-dir,scr]. 1932/33: Schleppzug M 17 [co-dir]. 1933: Morgen beginnt das Leben. 1934: Vorstadtvarieté [dir,co-scr – AT]. 1935: Die ewige Maske [dir,co-scr – CH]; Cavalerie légère [MLV]; Leichte Kavallerie [MLV]. 1935/36: Der Favorit der Kaiserin [dir,co-scr]. 1936: Schatten der Vergangenheit [AT]; Hannerl und ihre Liebhaber [AT]. 1937: Man spricht über Jacqueline [dir,co-scr]. 1938: Ein Mädchen geht an Land [dir,co-scr]. 1938/39: Drei Unteroffiziere. 1939/40: Donauschiffer [co-scr]. 1945: Dob, der Stallhase [SD – pro]; Befreite Musik [SD – co-dir,pro].
HEINZ HOENIG Born September 24, 1951, Landsberg am Lech (West Germany) Rugged, rough-edged Hoenig has been a prolific character actor in German film and television since the 1970s, in both villainous and sympathetic parts that usually emphasise his bulky physicality. After different jobs, including as a locksmith and as a social worker for drug addicts, Hoenig went to the United States to take acting lessons. Returning to Germany, he appeared on the Berlin stage under the direction of Helma Sanders-Brahms who subsequently cast him in her films UNTER DEM PFLASTER IST DER STRAND (Under the Pavement Lies the Strand, 1974) and HEINRICH (1976/77). He had prominent parts alongside Bruno Ganz in Reinhard Hauff’s socially critical MESSER IM KOPF (Knife In the Head, 1978), and in Uwe Frießner’s DAS ENDE DES REGENBOGENS (Rainbow’s End, 1979), a bleak social drama about a teenage hustler, but only gained wider recognition playing a radio operator in Wolfgang Petersen’s U-Boat drama DAS BOOT (1980/81). He worked once again with Frießner on DER DRÜCKER (The Pusher, 1986), a hard-hitting exposé about the descent of an unemployed door-todoor salesman into criminality. Hoenig also repeatedly worked with action film director Dominik Graf. In DIE KATZE (The Cat, 1987) he played an emotionally volatile criminal who staged a hostage crisis in a bank, and heappeared in TIGER, LÖWE, PANTHER (Tiger, Lion, Panther, 1988/ 89) and DIE SIEGER (The Invincibles, 1993/94). A year previously, he had impressed in the role of a maimed World War II veteran in KRÜCKE (Crutch, 1991–93), for which he received the German Film Award. Since the 1990s Hoenig appeared in numerous film and television productions, while also recording voice-overs for dubbed versions of international productions, such as the animation film SOUTH PARK (1999). In the somewhat derivative serial killer thriller ANTIKÖRPER (Antibodies, 2004/05), meanwhile, Hoenig portrayed a police inspector, a role he has also frequently assumed on various television productions.
FRANZ HOFER [act – DE – TV] 1974: Unter dem Pflaster ist der Strand [FF]. 1976: Mensch Mädchen. 1976/77: Direktion City: Name: Ohne; Pfarrer in Kreuzberg: Harry, der Rocker; Heinrich [FF]. 1977/78: Paul kommt zurück. 1978: Ein Mord am Lietzensee; Messer im Kopf [FF]; Bares Geld; Willi und die Kameraden. 1979: Das Ende des Regenbogens [FF]; Der Tote bin ich. 1980: Tatort: Der Zeuge; SOKO 5113: Rosis Bruder [2 parts]. 1980/81: Das Boot [FF+TV]. 1981: Operation Leo [FF – SE]. 1981/82: Sei zärtlich, Pinguin [FF – DE/AT]; Mit starrem Blick aufs Geld [DO]. 1982: Die Barrikade [DE/CS]; Mamma [FF – SE]; Danni [FF]. 1982/83: Angst vor dem Leben; Die leichten Zeiten sind vorbei [FF]. 1983-85: Es muß nicht immer Mord sein: Eine Nummer zu groß. 1985: Der Formel Eins Film [FF]; Ami go Home oder Der Fragebogen von Ernst von Salomon. 1985/86: Killing Cars [FF]; Detektivbüro Roth: Theaterdonner. 1986: Der Drücker; Dann ist nichts mehr wie vorher; Der Fahnder: Der kleine Bruder. 1987: Die Krimistunde. Folge 28; Die Katze [FF]. 1987/88: Judgement in Berlin [FF – US]; Reporter. 1988: Fifty Fifty [FF]; Stadtromanzen. 1988/89: Tiger, Löwe, Panther [FF]; Der Leibwächter [DE/FR]; Die Stimme [FF]. 1989: Eurocops: Der Schwur; Butterbrot [FF]. 1989/ 90: Herzlich willkommen [FF]; Der achte Tag [FF]; Sekt oder Selters [TVS]; Abenteuer Airport: Mogadischu-Mann. 1990: Tatort: Rendezvous; Eine Frau namens Harry [FF]; Ein Fall für zwei: Vaterliebe; Der goldene Schnitt. 1990/91: Der Fahnder: Bis ans Ende der Nacht. 1991: Der Castillo-Coup; Tatort: Blutwurstwalzer; Die Männer vom K3: Ein langes Wochenende; Vogel und Osiander [TVS]. 1991/92: Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht [TVS]; Lilli Lottofee [TVS]; Der große Bellheim. 1991-93: Krücke [FF]. 1992: Die Angst wird bleiben; Ein Fall für zwei: Scheine spielen Schwarz; Frohes Fest, Lucie; Klippen des Todes; Einer zahlt immer. 1992/93: Die Spur führt ins Verderben; Auf eigene Gefahr: Muttergefühle. 1993: Wolffs Revier: Poker; Tatort: Bauernopfer. 1993/94: Polismördaren / Der Polizistenmörder [FF – SE/ DE]; Die Sieger [FF]. 1994: Ich klage an; Lemgo; Faust: Inkasso; Ex [FF]. 1994/95: A. S.: Auf eigene Faust; Der Schattenmann. 1995: Die Nacht hat 17 Stunden. 1995/96: Countdown [SF]; Sylter Geschichten: Winter auf Sylt; Die Drei: Unschuldig; Nur aus Liebe [FF]. 1996: Für immer und immer [FF]; Alles nur Tarnung [FF]; Die Männer vom K3: Eine saubere Stadt; Verdammtes Glück; Lorenz im Land der Lügner [FF – voi – DE/LU]; Ein todsicheres Ding. 1996/97: Der Ausbruch; Der König von St. Pauli [TVS]; Mein Kind muß leben [DE/CH]. 1997: Mayday – Flug in den Tod [FF]; Back in Trouble [LU/DE]. 1997/98: Kidnapping – la sfida / Kidnapping – Ein Vater schlägt zurück [IT/DE]. 1998: Das blaue Auge; Stan Becker – Auf eigene Faust; Sylvia – Eine Klasse für sich [season 1 – TVS]; Kai Rabe gegen die Vatikankiller [FF]; S.O.S. Barracuda 2; Stan Becker – Echte Freunde. 1998/99: Rendezvous mit dem Teufel. 1999: Tödliche Schatten; Stan Becker – Ein Mann, ein Wort. 1999/2000: Zwei Asse und ein König. 2000: Donna Leon – Vendetta; Stan Becker – Ohne wenn und aber; Nicht ohne dich. 2000-02: Die Affäre Semmeling. 2001: Die zwei Leben meines Vaters; Liebe und Verrat. 2002: Tödliches Rendezvous – Die Spur führt nach Palma; Sterne, die nie untergehen. 2002-04: König der Diebe / Král zlodejov [FF – DE/SK/YU/FR/AT]. 2003: Vom Himmel hoch / Ein himm-
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lischer Freund [AT/DE]; Tabaluga und das verschenkte Glück. 2003-05: Vera – Die Frau des Sizilianers. 2004: 7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald [FF]. 2004/05: Antikörper; Andersrum; Rose unter Dornen [DE/AT]. 2005: Urmel aus dem Eis; Papa und Mama. 2005/06: Die ProSieben Märchenstunde: Rotkäppchen – Wege zum Glück; FC Venus [FF]; 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug [FF]. 2006/07: Yo [FF – ES]; Jump! The Phillip Halsman Story [FF – AT/GB]. 2006-08: Der Arzt vom Wörthersee [TVS – 4 episodes]; Kopf oder Zahl [FF]. 2007: Schuld und Unschuld; Das Traumschiff: Rio de Janeiro. 2008: Island – Herzen im Eis. 2008/09: Alle meine Lieben; Der Assistent; Romy.
FRANZ HOFER (Franz Wygand Wüstenhofer) Born August 31, 1882, Malstatt (now part of Saarbrücken, Germany) Died May 5, 1945, Berlin (Germany) A prolific director of popular Wilhelmine genre cinema and one of German cinema’s first true auteurs, Franz Hofer was forgotten for many decades, but was rediscovered in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hofer began his artistic career at the Zentral-Theater in Berlin as an actor, author, dramaturge, and eventually as a director. He wrote his first screenplay in 1910 for the mystery drama DAS GEHEIMNIS DER TOTEN (A Dead Woman’s Secret), directed by Franz Porten and featuring the latter’s two daughters, Henny and Rosa. In the following years, Hofer made a name for himself writing screenplays for social dramas and crime thrillers. Several of these films encountered problems with the censors due to their perceived immorality. Hired by the newly founded Luna-Film in 1912 as a director, Hofer made more than twenty-five films for the company until his contract expired in 1915. His debut was DES ALTERS ERSTE SPUREN (The First Signs of Old Age, 1912/13), a drama about an ageing variety star, in which he also played a supporting role as a doctor. Unusually for the period, Luna-Film marketed Hofer’s films explicitly highlighting the director’s name. Always working from his own screenplays, Hofer demonstrated his versatility in a variety of genres, such as the social drama DER ROMAN EINER VERSCHOLLENEN (The Novel of a Disappeared Woman), or crime thrillers, often featuring strong-willed, independent female detectives, as in DER STECKBRIEF (Wanted!) and DIE SCHWARZE KUGEL (The Black Bullet). Hofer displayed a flair for spectacle and action in the Sensationsfilm DIE SCHWARZE NATTER (The Black Snake, all 1913), which staged a wrestling match with a bear, fights with wolves, and a breathtaking chase across rooftops. Hofer also won acclaim for his women’s dramas and comedies, such as DAS ROSA PANTÖFFELCHEN
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(The Pink Slipper, 1913) and FRÄULEIN PICCOLO (Miss Piccolo, 1914). In these, as in other films, Hofer’s preferred star was Dorrit Weixler (1892–1916) who projected the on-screen persona of a sassy, rebellious ingénue on the cusp of sexual maturity. In subsequent years Hofer promoted several other talents, including Ernst Lubitsch and Hans Albers. After the outbreak of World War I, Hofer directed three films with war-related topics, including the home front melodrama WEIHNACHTSGLOCKEN 1914 – HEIMGEKEHRT (Christmas Bells 1914 – Coming Home, 1914), starring Weixler as a young countess who falls in love with a lower-class comrade of her soldier brother. In 1915 Hofer signed up to join the army, but was quickly discharged after suffering a concussion. He signed a deal with Messter-Film and continued to produce melodramas, comedies, and detective films, introducing his new discovery Rita Clermont (1899– 1969). During 1916 and 1917 Hofer worked for Apollo-Film GmbH, building up yet another star with Lia Ley (1899–1992). The latter took the female lead in the melodrama HEIDENRÖSCHEN (Rose on the Heath, 1916), regarded by many as Hofer’s masterpiece for its rich mise-en-scène and intricate narrative. For the Bayerische Filmgesellschaft Fett & Wiesel, Hofer directed about twenty-four films between 1917 and early 1920, of which a series of folksy comedies proved most successful. Over the next decade, working for various companies, Hofer attempted to repeat the success of his earlier films, and with ever diminishing returns tried to create new stars out of a succession of hopefuls such as Wally Koch, Grita van Ryt, and Gerti Gerdt. An attempt in the early 1920s to cash in on the vogue for sex education melodramas with films such as WEGE DES LASTERS (Paths of Vice, 1921/22) and ZWISCHEN NACHT UND SÜNDE (Between Night and Sin, 1922) also had only limited success. Hofer’s Weimar-era films remained indebted to the style of the cinema of the 1910s, especially in their static staging and preference for long takes, and no longer had a major impact on either critics or audiences. The tabloid melodrama MADAME LU, DIE FRAU FÜR DIE DISKRETE BERATUNG (Madame Lu, the Woman for Discreet Advice, 1929) was his last silent film. Although Hofer had joined the NSDAP in 1932, the cinema of the ‘Third Reich’ did not offer him the opportunity of a comeback. His final assignments were the Heimatfilm DREI KAISERJÄGER (Three Imperial Hunters, 1933), co-directed by Robert Land, and Johannes Guter’s comedy FRÄULEIN LISELOTT (Miss Liselott, 1934), where Hofer found himself demoted to assistant director. He turned his back on the film industry and for the rest of his life wrote a number of stage plays, albeit with little success.
In the 1980s, some of Hofer’s films of the 1910s were re-appraised for their socially emancipatory perspective by film historian Heide Schlüpmann in her book ‘Die Unheimlichkeit des Blicks’ (The Uncanny Gaze, 1990). At the 1990 Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Hofer’s surviving oeuvre – only a fraction of his over eighty films are still extant – was showcased; in 1996 a fragment of DES ALTERS ERSTE SPUREN, long believed lost, was found by the Slovenian film archive. Further retrospectives followed, including in Hofer’s hometown Saarbrücken in 1999. [dir,scr – DE] 1910: Das Geheimnis der Toten [scr]. 1912: Die schwarze Katze [2 parts – scr]; Ehrlos?; Das Weib ohne Herz [scr]; Der Zug des Herzens [scr]. 1912/13: Des Alters erste Spuren [dir,scr,act]. 1913: Der Roman einer Verschollenen; Die schwarze Natter; Wer ist der Täter?; Drei Tropfen Gift; Hurra! Einquartierung; Der Steckbrief; Die schwarze Kugel oder Die geheimnisvollen Schwestern; Ein medizinisches Rätsel; Das rosa Pantöffelchen; Reingefallen; Ein seltsames Gemälde. 1913/14: Irrlichter. 1914: Das Liebesbarometer; Der unsichtbare Zeuge; Malheurchen Nr. 8; Der Hochtourist; Vampyre der Großstadt; Sein Störenfried; Todesrauschen; Deutsche Helden. Um des Lebens Glück betrogen; Weihnachtsglocken 1914 – Heimgekehrt; Fräulein Piccolo. 1914/15: Ein verliebter Racker; Kammermusik. 1915: Fräulein Hochgemuth; Das Spürnäschen; Papa Schlaumeyer [dir, scr,act]; Der Eremit; Jahreszeiten des Lebens; Die weiße Rose; Das Geheimnis einer Nacht; Der dreizehnfache Selbstmord [dir]. 1915/16: Eine schwere Last. 1916: Das rosa Pantöffelchen. II. Teil; Dressur zur Ehe; Der Posaunenengel; Wir haben’s geschafft [dir,scr,act]; Heidenröschen [dir,scr,act]; Der gepumpte Papa; Das Riesenbaby; Tote Gedanken; Das zweite Ich; Seltsame Menschen; Die Nottrauung. 1917: Der Theaterprinz; Der falsche Waldemar; Rauschende Akkorde; Das Luxusbad; Die Glocke; Fräulein Pfiffikus [dir,scr,act]. 1917/18: Die schleichende Gefahr [dir]. 1918: Das Patschuli-Mäuschen [dir,scr,act]; Der Bettler von Savern; Sr. Hoheit Brautfahrt; Leutnant Mucki; Stürme des Lebens; Seelen in Ketten. 1918/19: Die Angelfreunde; Die Heimat. 1919: Meier & Sohn; Hängezöpfchen; Das rosa Strumpfbändchen; Das Mädchen mit dem fremden Herzen; Die feindlichen Reporter; Der Erbe vom Lilienhof. 1920: Das Haus der Lüge; Graf Zornbock; Ein Walzer von Strauß; Ferréol; Der Riesenschmuggel; Der Schwarm der höheren Töchter; Ein nettes Früchtchen; Begierde; Der rätselhafte Tod (Mungos) [dir,scr,pro]. 1921: Aus den Akten einer anständigen Frau [dir,scr,cut,pro]; Die Gebieterin von St. Tropez [dir,scr,cut,pro]; Die Beichte einer Gefallenen [dir,scr, cut,pro]. 1921/22: Wege des Lasters [dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1922: Die Glocke. 2. Das verlorene Elternhaus [dir,scr, cut,pro]; Zwischen Nacht und Sünde [dir,scr,cut,pro]; Die Uhr [dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1923: Schwarze Erde [dir,scr, cut,pro]; Das Mädel aus dem Warenhaus [dir?,scr?,pro]. 1925: Der Schrei nach Glück [dir, pro]. 1926: Das rosa Pantöffelchen [dir]. 1927: Elternlos [dir]; Vom Leben getötet; Notschrei hinter Gittern. 1929: Madame Lu, die Frau
CARL HOFFMANN für diskrete Beratung. 1933: Drei Kaiserjäger [dir]. 1934: Fräulein Liselott [ass-dir].
CARL HOFFMANN Born June 9, 1881, Neiße an der Wobert (Germany, now Nysa, Poland) Died July 13, 1947, Minden (Germany) Leading Weimar-era cinematographer Hoffmann worked with almost all the period’s prominent filmmakers, and directed several popular films in the mid1930s. Working as a still photographer from age thirteen, Hoffmann ran his own studio in Freiburg until 1908, and then joined early film company Welt-Kino as a developer and projectionist, although subsequently also serving as cameraman for scenic location work. For the company Filmindustrie Heidelberg he shot a number of shorts in 1912 based on poems by Friedrich Schiller and Ludwig Uhland, as well as multipleact adaptations of classical dramas. Hoffmann’s plan to set up his own production company in Munich was scuppered by the outbreak of World War I, and he instead joined the Berlin-based Deutsche Mutoscop & Biograph in 1915. The following year, Erich Pommer engaged him as head cameraman at Decla, where he photographed numerous films for director Otto Rippert, including the HOMUNCULUS (1916) series, in addition to popular dramas starring Alwin Neuß and Hella Moja. Turning freelance in 1920, he founded his own film copying lab with fellow cinematographer Gotthardt Wolf, and thereafter worked for an array of production companies. He collaborated repeatedly with Fritz Lang, including on HALBBLUT (The Half-Caste), DIE SPINNEN (The Spiders, both 1919), DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1921/22) and DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungen, 1922–24), and also worked with directors Joe May, Paul Leni, Richard Oswald, F. W. Murnau, Karlheinz Martin and Arthur Robison. A close friend of the period’s other two top cameramen, Karl Freund and Fritz Arno Wagner, the three would occasionally come to each other’s assistance, with Hoffmann for example standing in for Freund during the shooting of Murnau’s FAUST (1925/26). Following the advent of sound, Hoffmann vociferously asserted that the new sound technology should not signal the demise of fluid camerawork, as he demonstrated to full effect in Erik Charell’s worldwide hit DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931). Following his directorial debut, the experimental DER GEHEIMNISVOLLE SPIEGEL (The Mystic Mirror, 1927), Hoffmann later made the short ICH BIN DU (I Am You, 1933/34), before helming a string of sophisticated comedies such as DAS EINMALEINS
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DER LIEBE (Love’s Arithmetic) and DIE LUSTIGEN WEIBER (The Merry Wives of Windsor, both 1935),
on which his former assistant Günter Anders ascended to the position of cameraman. His final film as director was AB MITTERNACHT, the German-language version of Vladimir Strizhevsky’s French production NUITS DE PRINCES (Midnight Princes, 1937/38). Thereafter employing the title ‘senior camerawork supervisor’, Hoffmann’s final projects included two uncompleted Agfacolor productions in 1944/45. His son Kurt Hoffmann (1910–2001) became one of West Germany’s most successful directors. [cam – DE] 1912/13: Die Bürgschaft; Des Sängers Fluch; Der Gang nach dem Eisenhammer. 1913: Fiesko; Macbeth. 1914: Irrfahrt ins Glück; Die Finsternis und ihr Eigentum; Der Musikant vom Tegernsee. 1916: Homunculus: 1. Teil / 2. Das geheimnisvolle Buch / 3. Die Liebestragödie des Homunculus / 4. Die Rache des Homunculus / 5. Die Vernichtung der Menschheit / 6. Das Ende des Homunculus; Der Tod des Erasmus; Friedrich Werders Sendung; Der Schwur der Renate Rabenau. 1916/17: Die Spinne; Wer küßt mich?; Wenn die Lawinen stürzen. 1917: Die Hochzeit im Excentric-Club; Der Mann im Havelock; Das Mädel von nebenan; Das Defizit; Der Königssee [SD]; Das Buch des Lasters; Die Faust des Schicksals; Die Fremde; Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart; Der Jubiläumspreis; Das Spiel vom Tode; Und wenn ich lieb’ nimm Dich in acht …!; Die Königstochter von Travankore; Die Tochter der Gräfin Stachowska; Zwei blaue Jungen; Die Kraft des Michael Argobast. 1917/18: Heide-Gretel. 1918: Das verwunschene Schloß; Die Sünde; Wundersam ist das Märchen der Liebe; Der Cowboy; Das Herz vom Hochland; Die Krone des Lebens; Clown Charly; Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt. 1. Das Schicksal der Aenne Wolter; Arme Lena!; Der Wilderer; Die Frauen des Josias Grafenreuth; Das Lied der Mutter; Bergfrühling; Weine nicht, Mutter; In den wilden Schroffen des Hochgebirges [SD]; Das bemooste Haupt; Marionetten des Hasses; Die Augen von Jade; Schiffbrüchige der Liebe. 1919: Die Frau mit den Orchideen; Die Stätte des Friedens; Halbblut; Der Knabe in Blau; Prinz Kuckuck; Johannistraum; Die Spinnen: 1. Der goldene See / 2. Das Brillantenschiff; Wahnsinn; Unheimliche Geschichten; Der Hirt von Maria Schnee; Nachtgestalten; Störtebecker; Aus den Geheimnissen eines Frauenklosters; Sanatorium zum Amor; Die Dienerschaft läßt bitten [SF]. 1920: Patience; Der Reigen; Der Januskopf [co-cam]; Uriel Acosta; Kurfürstendamm [co-cam]; Die Augen der Welt; Sturm; Sehnsucht. Bajazzo; O wär’ er doch ein Suppenhuhn; Der Graf von Cagliostro [AT/DE]; Eine Frau mit Vergangenheit [co-cam]; Das Haus zum Mond; Von morgens bis mitternachts. 1920/21: Die Verschwörung zu Genua [co-cam]; Der Liebling der Frauen. 1921: Der Erbe der van Diemen; Landstraße und Großstadt; Der Flug in den Tod [co-cam]; Der Herr der Bestien [co-cam]; Die Schreckensnacht in der Menagerie [co-cam]; Lady Hamilton; Unter Räubern und Bestien [co-cam]; Die Tigerin [co-cam]; Das Geld auf der Straße [AT/DE]; Die Intriguen der Madame de la Pomme-
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raye. 1921/22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler: 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit; Sterbende Völker: 1. Heimat in Not / 2. Brennendes Meer [co-cam]. 1922: Der steinerne Reiter [co-cam]. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen: 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache [co-cam]. 1924: Die Andere. 1924/25: Die Frau mit dem schlechten Ruf. 1925: Blitzzug der Liebe; Varieté [co-cam]. 1925/26: Faust. 1926: Die sieben Töchter der Frau Gyurkovics / Flickorna Gyurkovics [DE/SE]. 1926/27: Die Frauengasse von Algier; Natur und Liebe. Vom Urtier zum Menschen. Schöpferin Natur [DO/FF – co-cam]. 1927: Jugendrausch [co-cam]; Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel [co-dir,cam]. 1927/28: Looping the Loop. Die Todesschleife. 1928: Ungarische Rhapsodie. 1928/29: Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna. 1929: Manolescu. Der König der Hochstapler; Hochverrat [co-cam]. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]. 1930: Der Tiger; Hokuspokus [MLV]; The Temporary Widow [MLV]; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci. 1930/31: Der falsche Ehemann. 1931: Im Geheimdienst; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Le congrès s’amuse [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]; Yorck. 1931/32: Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV]; La fille et le garçon [MLV]. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Un homme sans nom [MLV]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; Stupéfiants [MLV – DE/FR]; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann? [co-cam]. 1932/33: Morgenrot. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; La guerre des valses [MLV]; Der Tunnel [MLV – FR/DE]; Le tunnel [MLV – FR/DE]; Inge und die Millionen. 1933/34: Ich bin Du [SF – dir]; Kairo [SD]. 1934: Die Czardasfürstin [MLV]; Princesse Czardas [MLV]; Menschen im Schatten, Menschen im Licht [SD – dir,cam]; Quellen des Lebens [SD – dir]; Peer Gynt. 1935: Das Einmaleins der Liebe [dir]; Viktoria [dir]; Die lustigen Weiber [dir]. 1936: Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich [dir,pro]; Mit Vollgas in die Ehe [SF – dir,pro]; Rolf hat ein Geheimnis [SF – dir,pro]. 1937: Versprich mir nichts! [sup]; Signal in der Nacht. 1937/38: Ab Mitternacht [MLV – dir – FR/DE]. 1938/39: Der Florentiner Hut [co-cam]. 1939: Ein Lied verklingt [SF – dir]; Ich bin Sebastian Ott [co-cam]; Gold in New Frisco [co-cam]; Befreite Hände [co-cam]. 1939/40: Golowin geht durch die Stadt. 1940: Das Fräulein von Barnhelm; Das Mädchen von Fanö. 1941: Alarmstufe V; Zwei in einer großen Stadt. 1942: Symphonie eines Lebens [co-cam]. 1943/44: Via Mala. Die Straße des Bösen. 1944/45: Ein toller Tag. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume [DE (CS)].
JUTTA HOFFMANN Born March 3, 1941, Halle an der Saale (Germany) Petite and fragile in appearance, Hoffmann, primarily a stage actress, earned widespread acclaim with her portrayals of strong female characters both in DEFA productions and in films made after unification. After playing in an amateur theatre group at the Buna Chemical Works in Schkopau (near Halle), Hoffmann trained at the DEFA Film School in Babelsberg from 1959 to 1962, and after a brief appearance in Günter Reisch’s MAIBOWLE (May Punch, 1959) she
made her proper screen debut in Werner R. Wallroth’s DAS RABAUKEN-KABARETT (Hooligans’ Cabaret, 1960). Gaining a substantial following at East Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater from 1962 to 1973, she also performed at the Deutsches Theater between 1965 and 1967, and joined the Berliner Ensemble in 1973. Her first film success was Frank Vogel’s JULIA LEBT (Julia Lives, 1963). However, her subsequent performances as an idealist young teacher in Vogel’s DENK BLOSS NICHT, ICH HEULE (Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry, 1964/65) and as the lead in Herrmann Zschoche’s KARLA (1965) were banned and were unseen until 1990. Hoffmann went on to gain international attention playing Leonore in Egon Günther’s television adaptation of Arnold Zweig’s novel JUNGE FRAU VON 1914 (Young Woman of 1914, 1969), and received the Venice Film Festival’s best actress award for her role as a self-assured woman in search of a husband in Günther’s DER DRITTE (The Third, 1971). She also appeared in Günther’s DIE SCHLÜSSEL (The Keys, 1972/73) and in his Thomas Mann adaptation LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1974/75). For director Frank Beyer, she played opposite Manfred Krug in DAS VERSTECK (The Hiding Place, 1976/77) and opposite Armin Mueller-Stahl in the television production GESCHLOSSENE GESELLSCHAFT (No Exit, 1978), both of which were suppressed on account of their socially critical content as well as stars involved in the Biermann protest affair. Hoffmann also collaborated repeatedly with experimental director Thomas Langhoff on innovative television adaptations of plays and novels by Ibsen, Goethe and Stephan Hermlin. Working increasingly in the West from the 1980s, she performed at the Salzburg Festival, at Munich’s Kammerspiele and at Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus. On television she was cast in Thomas Nennstiel’s and Wolfgang Menge’s postunification satire series MOTZKI (1993) and as Police Commissioner Wanda Rosenbaum in four episodes of the popular crime show POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call) since 1998. Her performance as a fugitive female convict in Katja von Garnier’s big-screen BANDITS (1996/97) was nominated for a German Film Award, and she played the mother of the central character in Oskar Roehler’s DER ALTE AFFE ANGST (Angst, 2003). From 1993 to 2006 she was a professor at Hamburg’s College of Music and Theatre. [act – DD] 1959: Maibowle. 1960: Das RabaukenKabarett; Ärzte. 1962: Blaulicht: Schwarzes Benzin [TV]. 1963: Julia lebt. 19636: Koffer mit Dynamit / Praha,
KURT HOFFMANN nultá hodina [DD/CS]. 1964: Engel im Fegefeuer. 1964/ 65: Solange Leben in mir ist; Nichts als Sünde [sng,voi]; Denk bloß nicht, ich heule. 1965: Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam; Karla. 1965/66: Spur der Steine. 1966: Frau Jenny Treibel oder Wo sich Herz zum Herzen findet [TV]. 1967: Kleiner Mann – was nun? [TV]. 1967/68: Schüsse unterm Galgen. 1969: Zeit zu leben; Weite Straßen – stille Liebe; Junge Frau von 1914 [TV]; Dr. med. Sommer II. 1970: Anlauf [TV]. 1971: Trotz alledem!; Weil es mir Spaß macht [SD – voi]; Der Dritte. 1971/72: Januskopf [voi]. 1972/73: Die Schlüssel. 1974/75: Lotte in Weimar. 1976/77: Das Versteck; Abschied vom Frieden [TV]. 1977: Die Entdeckung [SF]; Ursula [TV – CH/DD]. 1977/ 78: Fleur Lafontaine [TV + FF]. 1978: Das Leben des Galilei [TV]; Geschlossene Gesellschaft [TV]. 1978/79: Blauvogel. 1979: Die Rache des Kapitäns Mitchell [TV]. 1979/80: Hedda Gabler [TV]. 1981/82: Das Graupenschloß [TV]; Busch singt. 1. Aurora – Morgenrot [DO – voi]. 1982: Stella nach Goethe [TV]. 1983: Die Zeit der Einsamkeit [TV]. [act – DE] 1984/85: Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit. 1985: Torquato Tasso [TV – DD]; Torquato Tasso [TV]. 1988/89: Die gestundete Zeit [TV]. 1989/90: Ach, Boris! [AT]. 1991: Der zerbrochene Krug [TV]; Lulu [TV]. 1993: Motzki [TVS]. 1994: Der Mann im schwarzen Mantel [TV]. 1994/95: Die Probe – König Lear [SF]. 1995: Bella Block: Liebestod [TV]. 1996/97: Bandits. 1998: Polizeiruf 110: Mörderkind [TV]. 2000/01: Polizeiruf 110: Bei Klingelzeichen Mord [TV]. 2001: Polizeiruf 110: Angst [TV]. 2002: Polizeiruf 110: Wandas letzter Gang [TV]. 2003: Der alte Affe Angst. 2006/07: An die Grenze [TV]. 2008: Die Frau aus dem Meer [TV].
KURT HOFFMANN (Kurt Bertrand Paul Hoffmann) Born November 12, 1910, Freiburg (Germany) Died June 25, 2001, Munich (Germany) Many of Hoffmann’s gently ironic comedies and faithful literary adaptations were critically respected as well as popular box offices hits at the time, making him one of West Germany’s most successful directors of the 1950s and 1960s. After graduating from high school, the son of cinematographer and director Carl Hoffmann took a trainee position as third assistant director on Erik Charell’s DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances), photographed by his father, and on Robert Siodmak’s STÜRME DER LEIDENSCHAFT (Tempest, both 1931). He was assistant director to Reinhold Schünzel from 1932 to 1937, and worked on musical comedies – the genre in which he would ultimately make his name – such as VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1933) and AMPHITRYON (1935). Following Schünzel’s departure from Nazi Germany, Hoffmann served in the same capacity under Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Hans Steinhoff, Herbert Maisch and Erich Engel.
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After directing three shorts in 1938, Hoffmann’s feature debut was the Heinz Rühmann comedy PARADIES DER JUNGGESELLEN (Bachelor’s Paradise, 1939). Further wartime Rühmann vehicles including QUAX, DER BRUCHPILOT (Quax, the Crash Pilot, 1941) followed, as well as a remake of rural farce KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (Kohlhiesel’s Daughters, 1942/43). After the war, Hoffmann made a few melodramas and thrillers before turning to musical comedy with TAXI-KITTY (1950). He launched Swiss actress Liselotte Pulver in KLETTERMAXE (Spring-Heeled Max, 1952), and subsequently built her up into the era’s biggest female comedy star, with hits including the nostalgic Hungarian-set romance ICH DENKE OFT AN PIROSCHKA (I Often Think of Piroschka, 1955). The popular ‘Spessart trilogy’, starring Pulver and comprising DAS WIRTSHAUS IM SPESSART (The Spessart Inn, 1957), DAS SPUKSCHLOSS IM SPESSART (The Haunted Castle, 1960) and HERRLICHE ZEITEN IM SPESSART (Glorious Times in the Spessart Inn, 1967) mixed slapstick, fairytale, rustic folklore, and cabaret interludes into self-reflexive genre parodies. Showing a particular affinity for family films, Hoffmann adapted several books by Erich Kästner, who personally wrote screenplays for DAS FLIEGENDE KLASSENZIMMER (The Flying Classroom, 1954) and DREI MÄNNER IM SCHNEE (Three Men in the Snow, 1955). More adult themes were addressed in his Thomas Mann adaptation BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (The Confessions of Felix Krull, 1957) and the satirical WIR WUNDERKINDER (Aren’t We Wonderful?, 1958), which dissected forty years of German history by following the divergent life paths of two former school friends. Hoffmann’s adaptation of M. Y. Ben-Gavriel’s novel DAS HAUS IN DER KARPFENGASSE (The House on Karpfengasse, 1963–65), about the fates of various Jewish boarders in a Prague apartment house during the Nazi occupation, won two German Film Awards but proved a financial disaster, and Hoffmann subsequently returned to the safer terrain of comedies starring Pulver and Rühmann, in addition to several less successful family pictures. His final big-screen feature was the Rühmann vehicle DER KAPITÄN (The Captain, 1971). In the 1970s Hoffmann directed and appeared as the narrator in the television omnibus film SONNTAGSGESCHICHTEN (Sunday Stories, 1976) prior to retiring from the business. [ass-dir – DE] 1931: Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]. 1932: Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; La belle aventure [MLV]; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann? 1932/33: Heut kommt’s drauf an. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV];
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Georges et Georgette [MLV]. 1934: Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV]; La jeune fille d’une nuit [MLV]; Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV]; Nuit de mai [MLV]; Die englische Heirat. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV]; Les dieux s’amusent [MLV]; Künstlerliebe. 1935/36: Donogoo Tonka. Die geheimnisvolle Stadt [MLV]; Donogoo [MLV]. 1936: Boccaccio; Das Mädchen Irene. 1937: Land der Liebe; Versprich mir nichts!; Ein Volksfeind. 1937/38: Frau Sylvelin; Yvette. Die Tochter einer Kurtisane. 1938: Mordsache Holm; Wochenendfriede [SF – dir]; Der Skarabäus [SF – dir]; Andere Länder, andere Sitten [SF – dir]; Du und ich; Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht?; Lauter Lügen. [dir – DE] 1939: Paradies der Junggesellen; Hurra! Ich bin Papa! 1941: Quax, der Bruchpilot. 1942/43: Ich vertraue dir meine Frau an; Kohlhiesels Töchter. 1943: Ich werde dich auf Händen tragen. 1948: Das verlorene Gesicht. 1949: Heimliches Rendezvous; Fünf unter Verdacht. 1950: Der Fall Rabanser; Taxi-Kitty. 1951: Fanfaren der Liebe; Königin einer Nacht. 1952: Klettermaxe; Liebe im Finanzamt. 1953: Musik bei Nacht; Hokuspokus; Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer. 1953/54: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1954: Das fliegende Klassenzimmer; Feuerwerk. 1955: Drei Männer im Schnee [AT]; Ich denke oft an Piroschka. 1956: Heute heiratet mein Mann; Salzburger Geschichten. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Das Wirtshaus im Spessart. 1958: Wir Wunderkinder. 1958/59: Der Engel, der seine Harfe versetzte. 1959: Das schöne Abenteuer. 1959/60: Lampenfieber. 1960: Das Spukschloß im Spessart. 1961: Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi [dir,scr – CH/ DE]. 1962: Schneewittchen und die sieben Gaukler [CH/DE]. 1962/63: Liebe will gelernt sein [dir,pro]. 1963: Schloß Gripsholm [dir,cut,pro]. 1963-65: Das Haus in der Karpfengasse [TV]. 1964: Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius. 1965/ 66: Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden …? 1966: Liselotte von der Pfalz. 1967: Herrliche Zeiten im Spessart [dir,pro]; Rheinsberg. 1968: Morgens um sieben ist die Welt noch in Ordnung. 1969: Star unter Sternen: Begegnung mit Willy Fritsch [TVD – app]; Ein Tag ist schöner als der andere [dir,scr]. 1971: Der Kapitän. 1976: Sonntagsgeschichten [TV – dir,voi]. 1985: Humor ist eine ernste Sache. Der Filmregisseur Kurt Hoffmann [TVD – app]. 1987: Adele Sandrock. Erinnerungen an eine große Schauspielerin [TVD – app].
HANNELORE HOGER Born August 20, 1942, Hamburg (Germany) A favourite of director Alexander Kluge since the 1960s, in whose films she portrayed defiant protagonists with a keen sense of irony, stage and screen actress Hoger later became a household name through her portrayal of female detective Bella Block on German television. Born into a theatrical family, Hoger studied acting at Hamburg’s College of Music and under Eduard Marks from 1958. Making her professional debut two years later, she then worked at theatres in cities across West Germany, and in 1975 was named stage actress
of the year by magazine ‘Theater heute’. She also directed productions in Darmstadt, Vienna, Frankfurt/ Main and Kaiserslautern since 1986. Appearing on television from 1965, Hoger was first cast by Kluge as circus manager Leni Peickert in DIE ARTISTEN IN DER ZIRKUSKUPPEL: RATLOS (The Artists Under the Big Top: Disoriented, 1967), and later played history teacher Gabi Teichert in both DEUTSCHLAND IM HERBST (Germany in Autumn, 1977/78) and DIE PATRIOTIN (The Patriot, 1977– 79), as well as a dual role in DIE MACHT DER GEFÜHLE (The Power of Emotion, 1981–83). Hoger brought a similarly comic edge to character roles in Tankred Dorst’s EISENHANS (Strange Fruits, 1982/83), Adolf Winkelmann’s SUPER (1983/84) and Hans-Christoph Blumenberg’s DER SOMMER DES SAMURAI (Summer of the Samurai, 1985/86). Egon Monk’s mini-series DIE BERTINIS (The Bertinis, 1988), cast Hoger’s real-life daughter Nina Hoger (b. 1961) in scenes featuring her character as a young woman. Hoger also had a central part in Edgar Reitz’ 13-part chronicle of life in the 1960s, DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT (The Second Heimat, 1988–92), as the eccentric landlady of the suburban villa in which the destinies of the main characters converge. Since gaining national fame as the hard-nosed but empathetic police inspector Bella Block in the eponymous television crime show, that ran for 26 episodes from 1993 until 2009, Hoger played comparable characters in the series DIE DREI (The Three, 1995–97), and as the minister of the interior in Thomas Bohn’s action thriller STRAIGHT SHOOTER (1998) starring Dennis Hopper. In Helmut Dietl’s ROSSINI ODER DIE MÖRDERISCHE FRAGE, WER MIT WEM SCHLIEF (Rossini, 1996) she stood out as a lovelorn reporter. The short film series 8 NEUE MINUTEN-FILME (2007) marked a reunion with Kluge after many years. [act – DE – TV] 1965: Zeitsperre; Tag für Tag. 1966: Wilhelm Tell. 1967: Frau Blackburn, geb. 5. Jan. 1872, wird gefilmt [SD – voi]; Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos [FF – act,voi]. 1967-69: Die unbezähmbare Leni Peickert [FF]. 1968/69: Marija. 1969: Leben und leben lassen. 1969/70: Piggies; Der große Verhau [FF – cam,sfx,act]. 1969/77: ‘Zu böser Schlacht schleich ich heut nacht so bang –’ [FF – cam,act]. 1969-71: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte [FF]. 1970: Wir verbauen 3 x 27 Millia. Dollar in einen Angriffsschlachter [SF – co-cam,act]; Der Pott. 1971: Eduard IV. 1972: Der Marquis von Keith. 1972/73: Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben. 1973: Kleiner Mann, was nun? 1974: Die Schwiegertochter; Badische Revolte 1848. 1974/75: Eiszeit [FF]. 1975: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum; Der Gehülfe [CH]; Die Geisel. 1976/77: Heinrich [FF]. 1977: Mensch Mutter. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst [FF]; Freddie Türkenkönig. 197779: Die Patriotin [FF]. 1978: Kläger und Beklagte [TVS]; Der
FRIEDRICH HOLLAENDER Tag, an dem Elvis nach Bremerhaven kam. 1979: Tatort: Mitternacht oder kurz danach; Die lebenslängliche Frau; Tatort: Schweigegeld; Eine Rückkehr. 1979/80: Un-Ruhestand [TVS]. 1980: Ein Mann fürs Leben. 1980-82: Defekte. 1981/82: Kraftprobe [FF]. 1981-83: Die Macht der Gefühle [FF]. 1982: Die Frau im rosa Mantel; Schlaflose Tage. 1982/83: Angst vor dem Leben; Eisenhans [FF]. 1983: Der Groß-Cophta. 1983/84: Super [FF]; Tausend Augen [FF]. 1984-87: Tiere und Menschen [TVS]. 1985/86: Der Sommer des Samurai [FF]. 1986: Hoffnungsspuren: Ein fernes Leben. 1986/87: Jacob hinter der blauen Tür [FF]. 1987: Dortmunder Roulette [TVS]. 1988: Die Bertinis; Peter Strohm: Damenopfer; Peter Strohm: Das blaue Wunder. 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat [10 episodes – TVS]. 1989: Das Sonntagsgespräch: Hannelore Hoger [TVD]; Frühlings Erwachen [AT]. 1989/90: Marleneken; Lippels Traum [FF]. 1990: Der Alte: Ganz für sich allein. 1991: Erinnerung an Clara Haskil; Kollege Otto; Derrick: Ein Tod auf dem Hinterhof; Tandem. 1992: Derrick: Langsamer Walzer; Der Alte: Der Tod ist kein Ende; Tatort: Unversöhnlich. 1993: Ein Fall für zwei: Ticket zum Himmel; Bella Block: Die Kommissarin; Chopin – Bilder einer Trennung [voi]. 1993/94: Himmel und Hölle. 1994: Der König: Auch Mörder müssen sterben; Der Alte: Der Vollmondmörder; Derrick: Eine Endstation; Grenzgänger [DE/GB]; Der König [TVS]. 1994/95: Sonntag & Partner [TVS]. 1995: Bella Block: Liebestod; Martin Berg – Anwalt der Gerechtigkeit: Mord im Klinikum. 1995/96: Die Drei [17 episodes – TVS]. 1996: Rossini oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief [FF]; Bella Block: Geldgier. 1996/97: Die Drei [10 episodes – TVS]. 1997: Theater als ‘Räuber ohne Kopf’ – Hannelore Hoger über ihren Beruf [TVD – app]; Höchstpersönlich: Hannelore Hoger [TVD – app]; Bella Block: Tod eines Mädchens. 1998: Straight Shooter [FF]; Bella Block: Auf der Jagd; Das Meisterspiel [DO – voi]. 1998/99: Long Hello and Short Goodbye [FF]; Einfach Klasse! 1999: Bella Block: Geflüsterte Morde; After-Play; Bella Block: Abschied im Licht; Fiesta der Leidenschaft. 1999/2000: Marlene – Eine Diva aus Deutschland [TVD – voi]; Bella Block: Blinde Liebe. 2000: Bella Block: Am Ende der Lüge; Falsche Liebe – Die Internetfalle. 2000/01: Bella Block: Schuld und Liebe. 2001: Vier Meerjungfrauen; Bella Block: Bitterer Verdacht. 2001/02: Pest – Die Rückkehr; Bella Block: Im Namen der Ehre. 2002: Abgeschminkt: Hannelore Hoger [TVD – app]; Bella Block: Kurschatten. 2002/03: Bella Block: Tödliche Nähe; Weihnachten im September. 2003: hamlet X [FF]; Wenn Weihnachten wahr wird; Bella Block: Das Gegenteil von Liebe; Bella Block: Hinter den Spiegeln. 2003/04: Der letzte Zeuge: Anatomie des Herzens. 2004: Bella Block: Die Freiheit der Wölfe; Hölle im Kopf. 2004/05: Bella Block: … denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun. 2005: Der Fahnder: Familienbild; Gero von Boehm begegnet: Hannelore Hoger [TVD – app]; Bella Block: Die Frau des Teppichlegers; Bella Block: Das Glück der anderen. 2005/ 06: Vier Meerjungfrauen II – Liebe à la carte. 2005/06: Bella Block: Mord unterm Kreuz. 2006: Commissario Laurenti – Die Toten vom Karst; Bella Block: Blackout. 2006/07: Bella Block: Weiße Nächte; Die Katze; Eine stürmische Bescherung; Die Katze. 2007: 8 neue Minuten-Filme [SF]; Die Zürcher Verlobung – Drehbuch zur Lie-
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be. 2007/08: Bella Block: Reise nach China; Pretty Mama. 2008: Bella Block: Falsche Liebe [TV]; Das tapfere Schneiderlein [TV]. 2008/ 2009: Bella Block: Das Schweigen der Kommissarin. [2 Teile] [TV]; Rooibos mit Milch [TV]; Henri IV [DE/FR].
FRIEDRICH HOLLAENDER (aka Frederick Hollander) Born October 18, 1896, London (England) Died January 18, 1976, Munich (Germany) A composer and lyricist of many evergreens, as well as a director in the early 1930s, Hollaender is best remembered for the hits he wrote for Marlene Dietrich in Germany and Hollywood. Born into a musical family – his father Victor Holländer was working as musical director at Barnum & Bailey’s circus at the time of his birth – he studied at the Stern Conservatory and at the Berlin Music Academy. His first published composition, ‘Two Children’s Songs’, dates from 1913. After touring as a conductor during World War I, Hollaender established himself in Berlin’s theatre scene working both for Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater and the cabaret Schall und Rauch, while writing satirical topical songs for many revues, including ‘Laterna Magica’ (1926), and ‘Bei uns um die Gedächtniskirche rum’ (All Around the Memorial Church, 1927). In 1919 Hollaender married actress and singer Blandine Ebinger (1899–1993) for whom he wrote some of her most famous songs. His second wife was the dancer and actress Hedi Schoop (1905– 1995) whom he married in 1932. His first film score was for Paul Leni’s PRINZ KUCKUCK (Prince Cuckoo, 1919). His association with the jazz band ‘Weintraub Syncopators’ led to him being employed for DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30). He served as music director and wrote four songs for the film’s star Marlene Dietrich, which, in her characteristically husky and suggestive delivery, became world wide hits. This included the evergreen ‘Falling In Love Again’ (Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß …) – a title appropriated for his 1965 autobiography. In 1931, Hollaender began to mount revues at his own Berlin outlet, the Tingel-Tangel Theater (T-T-T) while also keeping up his work for the cinema. He scored a particular success with the song ‘Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte’ (If I Could Wish For Something) from Robert Siodmak’s black comedy DER MANN, DER SEINEN MÖRDER SUCHT (Man Looking for His Murderer, 1930). Hollaender was then offered the opportunity to write and direct a film at Ufa, ICH UND DIE KAISERIN (The Empress and I, 1932/33), an extravagant, but somewhat stilted, musical comedy starring Lilian Harvey, Conrad Veidt, and Mady Christians, which
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was also made in English and French language versions (THE ONLY GIRL, MOI ET L’IMPÉRATRICE). After the Nazis seized power, Hollaender went to the United States. His early years in Hollywood saw setbacks – an attempt at an English-language TingelTangel Theatre flopped, and he had plenty of time to write a novel about German film émigrés in Paris, ‘Those Torn from Earth’ (published in 1941). He gave up directing after BANDITS AND BALLADS (1934) a short western musical starring singer Ruth Etting for RKO. Contracted to Paramount by Ernst Lubitsch, Hollaender became one of the most successful Hollywood composers, gaining four Oscar nominations over the years, the final one (together with musical director Morris Stoloff) for the Dr. Seuss musical THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T. (1952/53). He was reunited with Dietrich on the comedy western DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) writing ‘The Boys in the Backroom’; and again in Billy Wilder’s A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1947/48), where songs such as ‘Black Market’ encapsulated the moral fatigue and disillusion of post-war Berlin, and where he was also on screen, accompanying Dietrich’s performances on the piano. In 1955 Hollaender left Hollywood and settled in West Germany, where he concentrated largely on theatre work. In Wilder’s frantic Cold War comedy ONE, TWO, THREE (1961), he put in an appearance as a morose bar pianist in an East Berlin hotel. [mus – DE] 1919: Prinz Kuckuck. 1926: Kreuzzug des Weibes. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV – mus,lyr,act]; The Blue Angel [MLV – mus,act]. 1930: Zapfenstreich am Rhein; Der Andere [MLV – mus,lyr]; Le procureur Hallers [MLV – DE/FR]; Die große Sehnsucht [mus,lyr]; Pension Schöller [mus,lyr]; Einbrecher [MLV – mus,lyr]; Flagrant délit [MLV]; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht [mus,lyr, act]; Der Weg nach Rio; Das Schicksal der Renate Langen [mus,lyr]. 1930/31: Drei Tage Liebe; La maison jaune de Rio [MLV – FR]; Das gelbe Haus des King-Fu [MLV – FR/ DE]; Das Lied vom Leben. 1931: Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV – mus,lyr]; Tumultes [MLV]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV – dir,mus]; Moi et l’impératrice [MLV – codir,mus]; The Only Girl [MLV – dir,mus]. [mus – US] 1933: The Song of Songs; I Am Suzanne! 1933/ 34: Hold That Girl. 1934: Carolina; Bandits and Ballads [SF – dir]. 1935: College Scandal; Paris in Spring; Shanghai; Every Night at Eight; The Crusades; Accent On Youth; Here Comes Cookie; It’s a Great Life!; Hands Across the Table; So Red the Rose; Millions in the Air; Collegiate. 1935/36: Anything Goes [mus,lyr]; Desire. 1936: The Moon’s Our Home; Till We Meet Again; Girl of the Ozarks; Poppy; The Return of Sophie Lang; Rhythm on the Range; A Son Comes Home; My American Wife; The Texas Rangers; Straight from the Shoulder; Murder With Pictures; Valiant Is the Word for Carrie; The Accusing Finger; The Hideaway Girl; The Jungle Princess [mus,lyr]; Let’s Make a Mil-
lion. 1936/37: A Doctor’s Diary; Champagne Waltz; John Meade’s Woman; Her Husband Lies. 1937: Bulldog Drummond Escapes; The Crime Nobody Saw; Internes Can’t Take Money; Night of Mystery; I Met Him in Paris [mus,lyr]; Mountain Music; The Great Gambini; Wild Money; Easy Living; Artists & Models; One Hundred Men and a Girl; This Way Please; Angel; Blossoms on Broadway; Thrill of a Lifetime; True Confession; Daughter of Shanghai. 1937/38: Scandal Street; Bulldog Drummond’s Peril; Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife; Her Jungle Love; Stolen Heaven. 1938: Dangerous to Know; Heart of Arizona; Cocoanut Grove; Hunted Men; You and Me; Booloo; Sons of the Legion; King of Alcatraz. 1938/39: Zaza; St. Louis Blues; Midnight; Papá Soltero; Grand Jury Secrets; Man About Town. 1939: Hotel Imperial; The Gracie Allen Murder Case; Invitation to Happiness; Million Dollar Legs; Island of Lost Men; Our Leading Citizen; The Renegade Trail; Honeymoon in Bali; Television Spy; Disputed Passage; Destry Rides Again. 1939/40: Remember the Night; The Farmer’s Daughter; Too Many Husbands; The Biscuit Eater; Typhoon; Safari; The Great McGinty. 1940: The Doctor Takes a Wife; Queen of the Mob; Golden Gloves; Rangers of Fortune; Arise, My Love; Moon Over Burma; Seven Sinners; South of Suez; A Night at Earl Carroll’s; Victory. 1940/41: Life With Henry; There’s Magic in Music [mus,lyr]; Footsteps in the Dark. 1941: Border Vigilantes; Strange Alibi; Million Dollar Baby; Manpower; Here Comes Mr. Jordan; Three Sons o’ Guns; Man from Montana; Aloma of the South Seas; Burma Convoy; Buy Me That Town; You Belong to Me; Confessions of Boston Blackie; The Man Who Came to Dinner. 1942: Murder in the Big House; The Spoilers; Wings for the Eagle; The Talk of the Town; Little Joe, The Wrangler; The Forest Rangers; Henry Aldrich, Editor; Lost Canyon. 1942/ 43: Background to Danger. 1943: Colt Comrades; Tornado; Princess O’Rourke; Conflict. 1943/44: Once Upon a Time. 1944: The Missing Juror; The Old Texas Trail. 1944/ 45: Leave It to Blondie; The Affairs of Susan. 1945: Pillow to Post; Christmas in Connecticut; Voice of The Whistler. 1945/46: Cinderella Jones; Janie Gets Married; Two Guys from Milwaukee; Never Say Goodbye; The Verdict; The Time, the Place and the Girl. 1946: The Bride Wore Boots; The Perfect Marriage. 1946/47: Blondie’s Big Moment; That Way With Women; Stallion Road; The Red Stallion. 1947: Unusual Occupations [SD]; Devil Ship; Blondie’s Anniversary; Berlin Express. 1947/48: Trapped by Boston Blackie; A Foreign Affair [mus,lyr,act]; That Lady in Ermine. 1948: Wallflower; Romance on the High Seas; Two Guys from Texas; That Wonderful Urge; Caught. 1948/49: A Woman’s Secret; Strange Bargain; Walk Softly, Stranger. 1949: Adventure in Baltimore; Bride for Sale; A Dangerous Profession. 1949/50: Born to Be Bad; Never a Dull Moment. 1950: Born Yesterday. 1951: My Forbidden Past; Darling, How Could You! 1951/52: The First Time. 1952: Jungle Jim In the Forbidden Land; The Harem Girl; The Devil Makes Three [lyr]; The Member of the Wedding; Androcles and the Lion. 1952/53: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 1953: Savage Mutiny. 1953/54: It Should Happen to You; Sabrina. 1954: Phfft! [mus – DE] 1955: We’re No Angels; The Crooked Web. 1956: Uranium Boom. 1957: 20 Million Miles to Earth.
OSKAR HOMOLKA [mus – DE] 1958: Der große Dreh [TV – scr,mus]. 1959: The Blue Angel [US]. 1960: Friedrich Hollaender erzählt. [TV – scr,mus,app]; Das Spukschloß im Spessart. 1961: Höchste Eisenbahn [TV – dir,scr,mus]; One, Two, Three [act – US]. 1963: Hoppla, aufs Sofa! [TV – dir,scr,mus]. 1964: Das Blaue vom Himmel [TV]. 1967: Die Friedrich Hollaender-Show. Eine Mars-O-Vision-Sendung [TV – dir,scr,mus]. 1973: Spötterdämmerung [TVD – app]. 1973/74: Il portiere di notte [IT]. 1974: Musikalische Spielereien von und mit Friedrich Hollaender [TV – scr, mus,app].
OSKAR HOMOLKA (aka Oscar Homolka) Born August 12, 1898, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died January 27, 1978, Tonbridge, Kent (England) With his bulky frame, air of menace and trademark bushy eyebrows, Homolka excelled at playing impulsive, unpredictable, though often rather likeable villains in German, British and Hollywood films, and he occasionally was cast in sympathetic roles. Studying at Vienna’s Academy of Music and Performing Arts from 1915 to 1917, Homolka made his stage debut in 1918. Moving to Berlin in 1925, he worked at the Deutsches Theater and the Junge Bühne Berlin, where he took the lead in Brecht’s staging of his own play ‘Baal’. Homolka joined the LessingTheater in 1932. Undertaking film work from 1926, he caused a stir as a pimp alongside Asta Nielsen’s ageing prostitute in Bruno Rahn’s DIRNENTRAGÖDIE (Tragedy of the Street, 1927) and as a Machiavellian teacher in Georg Asagaroff’s REVOLTE IM ERZIEHUNGSHAUS (Reform School Uprising, 1929). While also appearing in ZWISCHEN NACHT UND MORGEN (Between Night and Dawn, 1931), Gerhard Lamprecht’s sound remake of DIRNENTRAGÖDIE, Homolka’s typecasting as a villain found him mostly confined to genres such as crime dramas, adventure films and spy thrillers. After leaving Nazi Germany for Vienna in 1934, Homolka emigrated to Britain in 1935, and made his English-language stage debut in Glasgow. He gave a complex performance as a spy in Alfred Hitchcock’s SABOTAGE (1936) before being contracted to a single-picture deal by Paramount in Hollywood to appear in James Hogan’s EBB TIDE (1937). Settling permanently in the United States from 1939, Homolka was afforded a couple of opportunities to show off his comic abilities, as in Howard Hawks’s screwball comedy BALL OF FIRE (1941) and his Oscar-nominated turn as Uncle Chris in George Stevens’s I REMEMBER MAMA (1948). Also performing on stage in New York from 1940, he was a signatory to the declaration of the Council for a Democratic Germany in 1944, and a member of
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émigré theatre group ‘The Players from Abroad’ after 1946. Returning to Austria in 1950, Homolka played village magistrate Adam in Heinrich von Kleist’s ‘Der zerbrochene Krug’ (The Broken Jug) at the Salzburg Festival and a jealous husband in Karl Hartl’s film DER SCHWEIGENDE MUND (Heaven Says No, 1951). Thereafter resettling in southern England, he commuted between film and television engagements in London and Hollywood, and theatrical tours of Austria and Switzerland. He stood out especially as conniving Soviet Colonel Stok in Guy Hamilton’s FUNERAL IN BERLIN (1966) and Ken Russell’s BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN (1967), both adapted from Len Deighton spy novels and starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. Homolka received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1967. [act – DE] 1926: K 13 513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines; Brennende Grenze; Das Mädchen ohne Heimat / Vom Freudenhaus in die Ehe [DE/AT]. 1927: Dirnentragödie; Regine; Die heilige Lüge; Der Kampf des Donald Westhof; Petronella [CH/DE]; Die Leibeigenen; Fürst oder Clown. 1927/28: Schinderhannes; Die Rothausgasse. 1929: Revolte im Erziehungshaus; Masken. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; Dreyfus; ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand; Der Weg nach Rio. 1931: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen; Im Geheimdienst; Les nuits de Port-Said / Las noches de Port-Said [MLV – FR/US]; Nachtkolonne. 1932/ 33: Moral und Liebe; Spione am Werk [MLV]. 1933: Unsichtbare Gegner [MLV – DE/AT]. [act – US] 1935/36: Rhodes of Africa [GB]. 1936: Everything Is Thunder [GB]; Sabotage [GB]. 1937: Ebb Tide. 1939: Hidden Power. 1940: Seven Sinners; Comrade X; The Invisible Woman. 1940/41: Rage in Heaven. 1941: Ball of Fire. 1943: Mission to Moscow; Hostages. 1946: The Shop at Sly Corner [GB]. 1948: I Remember Mama. 1949: Anna Lucasta. 1950: The White Tower. 1951: Der schweigende Mund [AT]. 1952: Top Secret [GB]. 1953: The House of the Arrow [GB]. 1954: Robert Montgomery Presents: The Pink Hippopotamus [TV]; Prisoner of War; Television Hour: Love Song [TV]; Armstrong Circle Theatre: East of Nowhere [TV]. 1954/55: The Seven Year Itch. 1955: Producers’ Showcase: Darkness at Noon [TV]; Guerra e pace [IT]. 1957: Climax!: Carnival At Midnight [TV]; DuPont Theatre: Dowry for Ilona [TV]; Matinee Theatre: The Master Builder [TV]; Matinee Theatre: You Touched Me [TV]; Murder in the House [TV]; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Reward to Finder [TV]; A Farewell to Arms. 1958: The Key [GB]; La tempesta / La tempête [IT/FR]; Playhouse 90: The Plot to Kill Stalin [TV]; Heart of Darkness [TV]. 1959: Five Fingers: Operation Ramrod [TV]. 1959-60: General Electric Theatre [TVS – season 8]. 1960: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Hero [TV]; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Ikon of Elijah [TV]; Dupont Show of the Month: Arrowsmith [TV]; Play of The Week: A Very Special Baby [TV]; Victory [TV]; Playhouse 90: In the Presence of Mine Enemies [TV]; Assasi-
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nation Plot at Teheran [TV]; Play of The Week: Rashomon [TV]. 1961: Mr. Sardonicus. 1961/62: Thriller: Waxworks [TV]; Theatre ’62: Spellbound [TV]. 1962: Boys’ Night Out; The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm; World of Disney: The Mooncussers [TV]. 1963: For This Belief, Many Thanks [TV]; Breaking Point: Solo for B-Flat Clarinet [TV]; The Long Ships / Dugi brodovi [GB/YU]. 1963/64: Burke’s Law: Who Killed Jason Shaw? [TV]. 1964: Ambassador at Large [TV]; Hazel: A Lesson in Diplomacy [TV]; The Rogues: Plavonia, Hail and Farewell [TV]. 1965: Joy in the Morning. 1966: Funeral in Berlin [GB]. 1966/67: The Happening. 1967: Jack of Diamonds / Der Diamantenprinz [US/DE]; Billion Dollar Brain [GB]; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [TV]. 1968: Assignment to Kill. 1969: The Madwoman of Chaillot [GB]. 1969/70: The Executioner. 1970: Song of Norway. 1972: Van der Valk und das Mädchen [TV – DE]. 1974: Border Line [TV]; The Tamarind Seed [GB]. 1975: Smithsonian Institution Special: The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond [TV]; One of Our Own [TV].
MARIANNE HOPPE (Marianne Stefanie Paula Henni Gertrud Hoppe) Born April 26, 1909, Rostock (Germany) Died 23 October 2002, Siegsdorf (Germany) Esteemed as a doyenne of the German stage, Hoppe’s engaging, highly nuanced performance style and the breadth of her dramatic range also made her a graceful and popular leading lady in films of the 1930s and early 1940s. After training at the Deutsches Theater’s acting school in Berlin, and taking private lessons from Lucie Höflich, she debuted at the Bühne der Jugend in 1928, and thereafter performed a wide variety of classic and contemporary roles for Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater, Arthur Hellmer at Frankfurt/Main’s Neues Theater and Otto Falckenberg at Munich’s Kammerspiele. After her screen debut in 1933 in Franz Osten’s costume drama DER JUDAS VON TIROL (The Judas of Tyrol), Hoppe was cast in leads such as city girl Ursula who falls in love with HEIDESCHULMEISTER UWE KARSTEN (The Country Schoolmaster, 1933), directed by Carl Heinz Wolff, and the eponymous tomboy heroine of Johannes Meyer’s Prussian military legend SCHWARZER JÄGER JOHANNA (Johanna of the Black Rifle Brigade, 1934). She starred in Carl Froelich’s rural comedies KRACH UM JOLANTHE (What a To-Do!, 1934) and WENN DER HAHN KRÄHT (When the Cock Crows, 1935/ 36), as well as in a few propaganda films such as Veit Harlan’s Prussian paean to the Führer principle, DER HERRSCHER (The Ruler, 1936/37). Married to actor and director Gustaf Gründgens since 1936, she became a mainstay of Berlin’s Staatliches Schauspielhaus under his management until 1945, and took leads in two films he directed, playing avia-
trix Mabel Atkinson in CAPRIOLEN (Capers, 1937) and Effi Briest in his Theodor Fontane adaptation DER SCHRITT VOM WEGE (The False Step, 1938/39). Hoppe also stood out in two wartime pictures by Helmut Käutner, as a patiently waiting bride in AUF WIEDERSEHEN, FRANZISKA! (Good Bye, Franziska!, 1940/41) and as the tragic heroine of ROMANZE IN MOLL (Romance in a Minor Key, 1942/43), a part that she imbued with both empathy and amiability. Despite divorcing Gründgens in 1946, she continued to work for him at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus theatre until 1955. Specialising in psychologically scarred characters, Hoppe excelled as the schizophrenic protagonist in Kurt Hoffmann’s DAS VERLORENE GESICHT (Secrets of a Soul, 1948), but her postwar film roles became sporadic. Showered with awards and accolades through decades of stage appearances in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, as well as at the Salzburg Festival, she also appeared on hit television films such as DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner, 1969–75) and Helmut Dietl’s KIR ROYAL (1984–86), in which she portrayed an ageing star. Although the New German Cinema did not use her much, she had significant roles in Wim Wenders’s FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (Wrong Move, 1974/75) as well as playing a grieving widow in Thomas Mauch’s television film TOD EINES VATERS (Death of a Father, 1978). Projecting a regal presence right up to her death, she was the subject of Werner Schroeter’s interview film eulogy DIE KÖNIGIN – MARIANNE HOPPE (The Queen – Marianne Hoppe, 2000). [act – DE] 1933: Der Judas von Tirol; Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten; Der Schimmelreiter. 1934: Krach um Jolanthe; Schwarzer Jäger Johanna; Alles hört auf mein Kommando; Oberwachtmeister Schwenke. 1935: Die Werft zum grauen Hecht; Anschlag auf Schweda. 1935/36: Wenn der Hahn kräht. 1936: Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung. 1936/37: Der Herrscher. 1937: Capriolen; Gabriele eins, zwei, drei. 1938/39: Der Schritt vom Wege. 1939: Kongo-Expreß. 1940/41: Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska! 1942: Stimme des Herzens. 1942/43: Romanze in Moll. 1944: Ich brauche Dich. 1944/45: Das Leben geht weiter. 1948: Das verlorene Gesicht. 1949: Schicksal aus zweiter Hand. 1949/50: Nur eine Nacht. 1953/54: Der Mann meines Lebens. 1954: Konsul Strotthoff. [act – DE – TV] 1956/57: Das Haus im Nebel. 1958: Dreizehn alte Esel [FF]; Die Troerinnen des Euripides. 1961: Fast ein Poet; Die seltsame Gräfin [FF]. 1961/62: Der Walzer der Toreros. 1962: Rose Bernd; Der Schatz im Silbersee / Blago u Srebnom jezeru / Le trésor du lac d’argent [FF – DE/YU/ FR]. 1963: Die Teilnahme; Ödipus; Harlekinade. 1964: Die Goldsucher von Arkansas / Alla conquista dell’Arkansas / Les chercheurs d’or de l’Arkansas [FF – DE/ IT/FR]; Das Leben des Horace A. W. Tabor. 1965: Ten Little Indians [FF – GB]; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im
ROLF HOPPE Gespräch mit Marianne Hoppe und René Deltgen [TVD – app]; Ein Wintermärchen. 1966: Briefe nach Luzern. 1966/ 67: Die Mission. 1967: Andere Zeiten – andere Sitten; Der Tod läuft hinterher. 1967/68: König Richard II. 1968: Tag für Tag. 1969: Der Kommissar: Keiner hörte den Schuß. 1969/70: Der Kommissar: Parkplatz-Hyänen. 1973: Der Kommissar: Sommerpension. 1974: Im Hause des Kommerzienrates. 1974/75: Heiratskandidaten; Falsche Bewegung [FF]. 1975: Der Kommissar: Der Mord an Dr. Winter. 1978: Wie würden Sie entscheiden?: Ihr letzter Wille; Tod eines Vaters. 1979: Die Magermilchbande [TVS]; Ländliche Idylle. 1980: Der Alte: Bruderliebe. 1981: Die Baronin; Die Karten lügen nicht und andere Geschichten; Der Richter. 1982: Die feine englische Art. 1982/83: Marianne und Sofie [FF]. 1983: Der Alte: Zwei Särge aus Florida. 1983/84: Er-Goetz-liches. 1984/85: Liebfrauen. 1984-86: Kir Royal: Adieu Claire. 1985: Der seidene Schuh [AT/DE]. 1985-87: Francesca [FF]. 1986/87: Bei Thea. 1987: Zeugen des Jahrhunderts: Marianne Hoppe im Gespräch mit Hajo Schedlich [TVD – app]; Schloß Königswald [FF]. 1989: Geschichten hinterm Deich [TVS]; Heldenplatz [AT/DE]; Tassilo – ein Fall für sich: Lindauer Pieta. 1991: Der Tod kam als Freund. 2000: Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe [DO – app]; Tanz mit dem Tod. Der Ufa-Star Sybille Schmitz [TVD – app].
ROLF HOPPE Born December 6, 1930, Ellrich im Harz (Germany) Heavy-built, bald East German character actor Hoppe convinced both in villainous and comic roles during a prolific career since the 1960s. Hoppe studied at the Erfurt Conservatory and made his professional debut at the city’s Städtische Bühnen theatre. Following a bout of vocal chord paralysis, he worked at theatres in Halle/Saale, Greifswald, Leipzig and Gera before joining the ensemble of Dresden’s Staatstheater in 1961. He repeatedly played Mammon in Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ‘Jedermann’ (Everyman) at the Salzburg Festival. A regular in DEFA productions and on television from the mid-1960s, he won the East German Art Award for his supporting role as the King of Spain in Konrad Wolf’s GOYA (1970/71). He was cast as villains in Gottfried Kolditz’s westerns SPUR DES FALKEN (Trail of the Falcon, 1967/68) and ULZANA (1973), and played a head SS stormtrooper in Wolfgang Luderer’s LEBENDE WARE (Human Wares, 1966) and a foreign agent in Roland Gräf’s DIE FLUCHT (The Flight, 1976/77). Comic parts included the eponymous knight in Konrad Petzold’s DIE HOSEN DES RITTERS VON BREDOW (Von Bredow’s Trousers, 1972/73), and Jupiter in Horst Bonnet’s adaptation of Jacques Offenbach’s ORPHEUS IN DER UNTERWELT (Orpheus in the Underworld, 1973). After gaining international acclaim for his performance as a Nazi general (modelled on Reichsmar-
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schall Hermann Göring) in István Szabó’s MEPHISTO (1980/81), Hoppe worked on numerous West German and international productions, playing Clara Schumann’s ambitious father in Peter Schamoni’s FRÜHLINGSSINFONIE (Spring Symphony, 1982/ 83) and a prison governor in Bernhard Wicki’s DIE GRÜNSTEIN-VARIANTE (The Grünstein Version, 1984). Further significant roles at DEFA and on East German television followed, such as the Prince of Saxony in Hans-Joachim Kasprzik’s series SACHSENS GLANZ UND PREUSSENS GLORIA (Saxony’s Splendour and Prussia’s Glory, 1982–85) and as an old shipyard manager in Roland Gräf’s DAS HAUS AM FLUSS (The House By the River, 1984/85). Since unification, Hoppe portrayed a Nazi victim in Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s BRONSTEINS KINDER (Bronstein’s Children, 1990/91) and a rabbi in Dani Levy’s ALLES AUF ZUCKER! (Go for Zucker!, 2004), but also villains such as Nazi Julius Streicher in Joseph Vilsmaier’s COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (The Harmonists, 1997), and the prison governor in Frank Beyer’s DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Koepenick, 1997). On television, Hoppe demonstrated his horsemanship playing a stud farm owner in Michael Werlin’s series ALLES GLÜCK DIESER ERDE (Winner Takes All, 1993/94), and he had repeated guest roles on the popular crime series TATORT (Crime Scene) since 1994. [act – DD] 1963: Jetzt und in der Stunde meines Todes. 1964/65: Solange Leben in mir ist; Die besten Jahre. 1965: Der Frühling braucht Zeit; Dr. Schlüter [TV]; Karla. 1965/ 66: Fräulein Schmetterling. 1966: Lebende Ware. 1966/ 67: Die Ohrfeige [TV]; Frau Venus und ihr Teufel. 1967: Kleiner Mann – was nun? [TV]; Ich war neunzehn. 1967/ 68: Die Nacht im Grenzwald; Spur des Falken; Hauptmann Florian von der Mühle. 1968: Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir; Mohr und die Raben von London; Nebelnacht; Weiße Wölfe / Bijeli vukovi [DD/YU]. 1969: Rendezvous mit Unbekannt. [TVS]; Sankt Urban [TV]; Tödlicher Irrtum. 1969/70: Ich – Axel Caesar Springer: 5. Der Königsmacher [TV]; Jeder stirbt für sich allein [TV]. 1970/71: Das letzte Wort [TV]; Kriminalfälle ohne Beispiel: Tod eines Millionärs [TV]; Goya / Goja, ili Tâkij pu poznani’ [DD/SU]. 1971: Männer ohne Bart; Die Verschworenen [TV]; Die gestohlene Schlacht / Ukradená bitva [DD/CS]. 1971/72: Leichensache Zernik; Eolomea; Die Brüder Lautensack [TV]. 1972: Grüße aus Sarmatien für den Dichter Johannes Bobrowski [SD – voi]. 1972/73: Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow; Susanne und der Zauberring; Die Hosen des Ritters von Bredow; Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel / Tøi oøíšky pro Popelku [DD/CS]. 1973: Apachen; Die Zwillinge [TV]; Orpheus in der Unterwelt; Leben mit Uwe; Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz; Für die Liebe noch zu mager?; Ulzana; Wie füttert man einen Esel. 1973/74: Das Geheimnis des Ödipus [TV]; Hans Röckle und der Teufel;
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Johannes Kepler. 1973-75: Das Mädchen Krümel [TVS]. 1974: Kit & Co; Mein lieber Mann und ich [TV]; Slatan Dudow [SD – voi]. 1974/75: Zwischen Nacht und Tag; Ikarus; Goldene Zeiten – feine Leute [TV]. 1974-76: Zur See [TVS]. 1975: … die böszewichter müssen dran; Polizeiruf 110: Die Rechnung geht nicht auf [TV]; Die Überlebende [TV]; Jede Woche Hochzeitstag [TV]; Unser stiller Mann; Die Entführung [TV]. 1975/76: Daniel Druskat [TV]; Das Licht auf dem Galgen; Sein letzter Fall [TV]; Beethoven. Tage aus einem Leben; Auftrag für M & S [TV]. 1975-78: Gefährliche Fahndung [TVS]. 1976: Unterwegs nach Atlantis. 1976/77: Happy End [TV]; Die Flucht. 1977: Ernst Schneller [TV]; Jörg Ratgeb, Maler; Der gepuderte Mann im bunten Rock oder Musjöh lebt gefährlich [TV]. 1977/78: Polizeiruf 110: Doppeltes Spiel [TV]; Ein Sonntagskind, das manchmal spinnt; Fleur Lafontaine [TV]. 1978: Fragen an einen alten Mann [TV]; Volpone [TV]; Sabine Wulff; Das unsichtbare Visier: King-Kong-Grippe [TV]; Die lange Straße [TV]. 1978/79: Nathan der Weise [TV]; Hochzeitsreise [TV]; Schatzsucher. 1978-80: Elektra [TV]. 1979: Heute abend und morgen früh. 1979/80: Komödianten-Emil; Levins Mühle; Emilia Galotti [TV]. 1980: Meines Vaters Straßenbahn [TV]; Pugowitza. 1980/81: Mephisto [HU]; Ûnost Petera / Peters Jugend [SU/DD]; Der lange Ritt zur Schule. 1981: Feuerdrachen [TV]; Rächer, Retter und Rapiere [TVS]; Die Gerechten von Kummerow. 1981/82: Sonjas Rapport; Das Graupenschloß [TV]; Bahnwärter Thiel [TV]. 1982: Hurra, hurra, hurra, die Feuerwehr ist da! [TVD]; DEFA Kinobox 14/82 [DO – voi]; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Nur ein Schluck [TV]; Mein Vater ist ein Dieb. 1982/ 83: Frühlingssinfonie [DE]; Martin Luther [TV]. 1982-85: Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria: Brühl / Aus dem Siebenjährigen Krieg [4 episodes – TV]. 1983: Die ewigen Gefühle [TV – DE]; Ärztinnen. 1983/84: Jedermann [TV – AT]; Wer war Edgar Allan? [TV – AT/DE]. 1984: Die Grünstein-Variante [TV – DE]; Redl ezredes / Oberst Redl [HU/ DE/AT]; Hälfte des Lebens. 1984/85: Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Hubertusjagd [TV]; Besuch bei van Gogh; Die Gänse von Bützow; Das Haus am Fluß. 1985: Irrläufer [TV]; Kaiser und eine Nacht [DE/CH]. 1985/86: Die letzten Tage des Georg W. [TV – DD/CU]. 1986: Der Nachbar [TV – CH/DE]; An der Unstrut [SD – voi]; Die F96 [TVD – voi – DD/ DE]. 1986/87: Johann Strauß – Der ungekrönte König / Johann Strauß – Le roi sans couronne [AT/DD/DE/FR]; Liane; Ein Chinese sucht seinen Mörder [TV – DE/CN]. 1986-88: Vera – Der schwere Weg der Erkenntnis [TV]. 1987: DEFA Kinobox 57/87 – Ostseebox [SD – voi]; Bia³a wizytówka / Die Söhne des Fürsten [TVS – PL/DE]. 1987/88: Melanios letzte Liebe [TV]. 1987-89: Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein / Trudno by bogom / Un dieu rebelle [DE/SU/FR]. 1988: Siamesische Hunde [TV – DE]; Der Bruch. 1988/89: Pestalozzis Berg [CH/DE/IT/DD]; Die Tänzerin / Maihime [DE/JP]; Bangkok Story [DE]; Ein brauchbarer Mann. 1989/ 90: Das Licht der Liebe [DD/DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1990: Kohl – Ein deutscher Politiker. 1990/91: Bronsteins Kinder [FF]; Ende der Unschuld; Trillertrine [FF]. 1991: Mein Bruder, der Clown; Die Männer vom K3: Halali für einen Jagdfreund. 1991/92: Schtonk! [FF]; Der absurde Mord; Eine verlorene Liebe; Brandnacht [CH/DE]; Die Lok [FF]. 1992: Den demokratiske terroristen /
Der demokratische Terrorist [FF – SE/DE]; Das große Fest. 1993: Durchreise; Rosamunde Pilcher – Stürmische Begegnung; Das Traumschiff: Indien / Malediven [DE]. 1993/94: Die Elefantenbraut; Alles Glück dieser Erde [TVS]; Wachtmeister Zumbühl [FF – CH/DE]; Mario und der Zauberer [FF – DE/FR/AT]; Jagdfreunde. 1994: Tatort: Der schwarze Engel; Der Mond scheint auch für Untermieter [TVS]; Zu treuen Händen. 1994/95: Spreebogen; La piovra 7 [TVS – IT]; Im Zweifel für … 1995: Dig, Dag und Ritter Runkel [ANI – voi]; Sommergeschichten: Quartett zu fünft; Matulla & Busch – Zwei Alte pokern hoch; Kommissar Rex: Entführt [AT]; Nadja – Heimkehr in die Fremde; Tatort: Der Spezialist. 1995/96: Unser Mann: Das Siegel des Todes. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]; Tatort: Schlaflose Nächte; Tatort: Parteifreunde; Polizeiruf 110: Kurzer Traum; Im Rausch der Liebe; Frauen morden leichter [TVS]; Lorenz im Land der Lügner [FF – DE/LU]. 1996/97: Geisterstunde. Fahrstuhl ins Jenseits [4 episodes]. 1997: Reise in die Dunkelheit; Tatort: Tödlicher Galopp; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Comedian Harmonists [FF – DE]; Sardsch; Palmetto / Palmetto – Dumme sterben nicht aus [FF – US/DE]; Zucker für die Bestie; Sterben ist gesünder. 1997-2001: Dr. Sommerfeld – Neues vom Bülowbogen [TVS]. 1998: Der Schläfer; Rot wie das Blut; Feuerläufer – Der Fluch des Vulkans; Der Handymörder; Eine Sünde zuviel; Mörderisches Erbe – Tausch mit einer Toten; Hans im Glück [FF – DE]; Der Bunker – Eine todsichere Falle [DE/CZ]. 1998/99: Letzter Atem; Klemperer – Ein Leben in Deutschland. 1999: Haltet sie auf! [SF]; Rosamunde Pilcher – Klippen der Liebe; Das Traumschiff: Neuseeland; Am Ende siegt die Liebe; Auf eigene Gefahr [TVS – season 3]; La piovra 10 [TVS – IT]. 2000: Models; Das Rätsel des blutroten Rubins; Die Verbrechen des Professor Capellari: Milenas Bücher. 2001: SOKO Kitzbühel [TVS – AT – season 1]; Der Bulle von Tölz: Der Liebespaarmörder. 2002: Der letzte Zeuge: Der heilige Krieg; Trenck – Zwei Herzen gegen die Krone. 2003: Tatort: Der schwarze Troll; Wilsberg: Tod einer Hostess. 2003/04: Am Kap der Liebe. 2004: Donna Leon – Acqua alta; Alles auf Zucker! [FF – DE]. 2006/07: Giganten: Goethe – Magier der Leidenschaften. 2007: Commissario Laurenti – Tod auf der Warteliste; Commissario Laurenti – Der Tod wirft lange Schatten; SOKO Rhein-Main: Der letzte Brief. 2008: Der Besuch der alten Dame [DE/AT]; Commissario Laurenti – Totentanz. 2008/09: winki / Ich, Tomek [FF – PL/DE]; Hinter dem Paradies. 2009: Mazel.
PAUL HÖRBIGER Born April 29, 1894, Budapest (Austria-Hungary, now Hungary) Died March 5, 1981, Vienna (Austria) Charming, frequently befuddled, and self-deprecating to the point of servility, Austrian actor and crooner Hörbiger personified old-fashioned Viennese sentimentalism in a career that spanned six decades. The son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger (1860–1931) whose mystical Cosmic Ice Theory enjoyed a substantial following after World War I, he was raised in Vi-
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enna from 1902 and, after serving in the military during the war, trained briefly to become an actor. He started out at the Stadttheater in Reichenberg (now Liberec, Czech Republic) and was then at the Deutsches Theater in Prague from 1920 to 1926 before coming to Berlin with a three-year contract from Max Reinhardt. In silent films, he played both comic characters like the butler and chauffeur in Fritz Lang’s SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28) as well as villains as in Hans Behrendt’s DIE RÄUBERBANDE (Band of Thieves, 1928). However, it was early sound film comedies and operettas by directors Géza von Bolváry and Erik Charell that established his image as a kind-hearted Viennese schmoozer, a characterisation he took to its zenith in Max Ophüls’s LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932/33). Hörbiger proved a restrained counterpart to Jenny Jugo in Carl Boese’s FRÄULEIN FRAU (Miss Madame, 1933/34), … HEUTE ABEND BEI MIR! (Join Me Tonight) and HERZ IST TRUMPF (Love All, both 1934). Otherwise, he could be seen as a less grouchy version of countryman Hans Moser, with whom he was frequently paired as a comic duo. The kinds of roles the two were cast in were often interchangeable, encompassing Austro-Hungarian officials and noblemen, as well as street musicians and winegarden entertainers. Hörbiger also portrayed numerous figures from Austrian history, including Emperor Franz Joseph II, Haydn, Johann Strauss (both elder and younger), Schubert, Franz Grillparzer and Field Marshall Radetzky. Returning to Vienna in 1940 after earning Goebbels’s ire for aiding Jewish colleagues, he spent three years at the Burgtheater and worked in repertory before being arrested on suspicion of high treason in early 1945. After the war, Hörbiger gave guest appearances in theatres in Zurich, New York, West Germany, Moscow and Israel, and became a member of the ensemble at Berlin’s Renaissance-Theater from 1952 to 1965, whereafter he rejoined Vienna’s Burgtheater and undertook major roles well into his eighties. Despite initially interesting parts in post-war films, such as the intimidated porter in Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN (1949), he soon revived his pre-war screen persona in Austrian and West German productions, and performed schmaltzy Viennese ballads on television. A perennial audience favourite, he received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1969. His brother Attila Hörbiger (1896–1987) likewise enjoyed a lengthy stage and screen career in Austria and Germany, with the two making joint appearances in films stretching from Gustav Ucicky’s DER UN-
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STERBLICHE LUMP (The Immortal Vagabond, 1929/ 30) to Rudolf Steinböck’s DER ALPENKÖNIG UND DER MENSCHENFEIND (The King of the Alps, 1965). [act – DE] 1925/26: Die Försterchristl. 1927/28: Sechs Mädchen suchen Nachtquartier; Spione. 1928: Dyckerpotts Erben; Die große Abenteuerin; Heut’ spielt der Strauß; Die Dame mit der Maske; Die Räuberbande; Der fesche Husar / A noszy fiú esete tóth marival / The Gallant Husar [DE/HU/GB]; ‘Song’ / Show Life [DE/GB]; G’schichten aus dem Wiener Wald; Das letzte Souper; Ungarische Rhapsodie; Die tolle Komtess [DE/GB]; Die Wochenendbraut. 1928/29: Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist Du!; Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse; Möblierte Zimmer. 1929: Ein kleiner Vorschuß auf die Seligkeit [DE/GB]; Wer wird denn weinen, wenn man auseinander geht; Der Sträfling aus Stambul; Das grüne Monokel; Frauen am Abgrund; Die Drei um Edith. 1929/30: Ich glaub’ nie mehr an eine Frau; Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]; Delikatessen. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt; Das lockende Ziel [co-scr,ide]; Nur Du; Wie werde ich reich und glücklich?; Das alte Lied; Drei Tage Mittelarrest; Der Herr auf Bestellung. 1930/31: Die Försterchristl; Grock [MLV]; Die lustigen Weiber von Wien; Walzerparadies. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Der Stumme von Portici [SF]; KabarettProgramm Nr. 4 [SF]; Der Zinker [DE/AT]; Sein Scheidungsgrund; Der ungetreue Eckehart; Kyritz – Pyritz; Der Hellseher; Der verjüngte Adolar; Berge in Flammen [MLV – DE/FR]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Reserve hat Ruh; Arm wie eine Kirchenmaus; Lügen auf Rügen. 1931/32: Ein steinreicher Mann; Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932: Es war einmal ein Walzer; Ein toller Einfall [MLV]; Quick [MLV]; Johann Strauß, K.u.K. Hoffballmusikdirektor; Zwei glückliche Tage; Drei von der Kavallerie; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Annemarie, die Braut der Kompagnie; Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / Um einen Groschen Liebe [MLV – DE/ AT]; Trenck; Friederike; Paprika [MLV – DE/IT]; Das Geheimnis um Johann Orth; Der große Bluff [MLV]; So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht [DE/AT]; Kaiserwalzer; Die unsichtbare Front. 1932/33: Keinen Tag ohne Dich; Zwei gute Kameraden; Liebelei [MLV]; Ein Lied für Dich [MLV]. 1933: Gruß und Kuß – Veronika!; Heimkehr ins Glück; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; Pardon, tévedtem [MLV – HU]; Skandal in Budapest [MLV – DE/HU]; Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe [MLV]. 1933/34: Fräulein Frau. 1934: Die Abschieds-Symphonie [SF]; Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV]; … heute Abend bei mir!; Die Czardasfürstin [MLV]; Spiel mit dem Feuer; Rosen aus dem Süden; Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Ich heirate meine Frau; Besuch am Abend; Der Herr ohne Wohnung [AT]; Herz ist Trumpf; Petersburger Nächte. 1934/35: Frischer Wind aus Kanada [MLV]. 1935: Endstation [act,pro]; Das Einmaleins der Liebe; Königswalzer [MLV]; Wenn die Musik nicht wär’; Liebeslied. 1936: Seine Tochter ist der Peter [ass-dir,act – AT]; Die Puppenfee [AT]; Schabernack [act,pro]; Drei Mäderl um Schubert [act,pro]; Fiakerlied [act,pro]; Kinderarzt Dr. Engel; Lumpacivagabundus [AT]. 1937: Der Scheidungsgrund [MLV – CS/DE]; Peter im Schnee [co-scr,act – AT]; Die Austernlilli [pro]; Die Landstreicher; Einmal werd’ ich Dir gefallen; Florentine [AT]. 1937/38: Immer, wenn ich glücklich bin … [AT]; Verlieb-
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te Herzen [MLV – CS]; Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Heimat; Prinzessin Sissy [ass-dir,act]; Liebelei und Liebe; Der Blaufuchs. 1938/39: Drunter und drüber [act,pro]; Männer müssen so sein; Salonwagen E 417. 1939: Ich bin Sebastian Ott; Kitty und die Weltkonferenz; Unsterblicher Walzer; Mutterliebe; Hochzeitsreise zu dritt [act, pro]; Das Glück wohnt nebenan. Drunt’ in der Lobau hab’ ich ein Mädel geküßt [pro]; Maria Ilona; Opernball; Der ungetreue Eckehart [pro]. 1939/40: Wiener G’schichten; Falstaff in Wien. 1940: Der liebe Augustin; Herzensfreud – Herzensleid [act,pro]; Operette; Wunschkonzert. 1941: Oh, diese Männer; Wir bitten zum Tanz; Sonntagskinder [pro]. 1941/42: Brüderlein fein; So ein Früchtchen; Die große Liebe. 1942: Die heimliche Gräfin; Wen die Götter lieben. Mozart. 1942/43: I pagliacci [MLV – IT/DE]; Lache Bajazzo! [MLV]. 1943: Schwarz auf Weiß; Romantische Brautfahrt. 1943/44: Schrammeln; Die Zaubergeige. 1944/45: Glück muß man haben. [act – AT] 1947: Der Hofrat Geiger. 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune; Kleine Melodie aus Wien. 1949: Der Bagnosträfling [DE]; The Third Man [GB]; Die seltsame Geschichte des Brandner Kaspar [DE]; Eine Nacht im Séparée [DE]; Der Seelenbräu. 1950: Liebe auf Eis [DE]; Schwarzwaldmädel [DE]; Epilog [DE]; Dämonische Liebe [DE/AT]. 1950/ 51: Der alte Sünder. 1951: Die Frauen des Herrn S. [DE]; Verklungenes Wien; Was das Herz befiehlt [DE]; Der fidele Bauer; Wenn die Abendglocken läuten [DE]; Hallo, Dienstmann [ide,act]. 1951/52: Frühlingsstimmen. 1952: Ich heiße Niki [DE]; Mein Herz darfst Du nicht fragen [DE]; Das Land des Lächelns [DE]; Man lebt nur einmal [DE]; Mikosch rückt ein [DE]; Ich hab’ mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren [DE]; 1. April 2000; Hannerl; Die Fiakermilli. 1952/53: Von Liebe reden wir später [DE]. 1953: Die Rose von Stambul [DE]; Der Feldherrnhügel; Glück muß man haben; Junges Herz voll Liebe [DE]; Das tanzende Herz [DE]; Mit 17 beginnt das Leben [DE]; Die Privatsekretärin [DE]. 1953/54: Perle von Tokay; Der Raub der Sabinerinnen [DE]. 1954: Der treue Husar [DE]; Meine Schwester und ich [DE]; Der Zigeunerbaron [MLV – DE]; Die schöne Müllerin [DE]; Bruder Martin; Schützenliesel [DE]; Una Parigina a Roma / Begegnung in Rom [IT/DE]; Die Stadt ist voller Geheimnisse [DE]; Mädchenjahre einer Königin; Baron tzigane [MLV – DE]; An der schönen blauen Donau. 1954/55: Ehesanatorium. 1955: Eine Frau genügt nicht? [DE]; Die Deutschmeister; Banditen der Autobahn [DE]; Der fröhliche Wanderer [DE]; Mein Leopold [DE]; Sarajevo; Du mein stilles Tal [DE]; Die Försterbuben [DE]; Charley’s Tante [DE]. 1955/ 56: Hilfe – sie liebt mich! [DE]; Bademeister Spargel; Ein Herz und eine Seele. 1956: Lügen haben hübsche Beine; Lumpazivagabundus [DE]; Husarenmanöver / Ihr Korporal [DE/AT]; Was die Schwalbe sang [DE]; Das Donkosakenlied [DE]; Manöverball [DE]; Die Christel von der Post [DE]; Der schräge Otto [DE]. 1957: Grüße aus dem Kamptal [SD]; … und die Liebe lacht dazu [DE]; Ober, zahlen!; Lemke’s sel. Witwe [DE]; Hoch droben auf dem Berg [DE]; Der schönste Tag meines Lebens; Heimweh … dort wo die Blumen blüh’n; Die Winzerin von Langenlois; Wien, Du Stadt meiner Träume. 1957/58: Heiratskandidaten [AT/DE]. 1958: Hallo, Taxi; Hoch klingt der Radetzkymarsch; Sebastian Kneipp – Ein großes Leben. 1959: Heimat – Deine
Lieder [DE]. 1960: Sabine und die 100 Männer [DE]; Kauf Dir einen bunten Luftballon [DE/AT]. 1961: Hotel Victoria [TV – DE]; … und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier; Der Orgelbauer von St. Marien. 1962: Drei Liebesbriefe aus Tirol; Die letzten Masken; Tanze mit mir in den Morgen; Hotel Victoria [TV – DE]; … und ewig knallen die Räuber [AT/ LI]; Sing, aber spiel nicht mit mir; Die lustigen Vagabunden. 1962/ 63: Unsere tollen Nichten. 1963: Alles gerettet [TV]; Der Bauer als Millionär [TV]; Im singenden Rößl am Königssee; Ferien vom Ich [DE]; Die ganze Welt ist himmelblau. 1964: Die Bekehrung des Ferdys Pistora [TV]; Die bess’ren älteren Herren [TVD – AT – app]; Das hab’ ich von Papa gelernt [DE/AT]; Die große Kür [DE/AT]; Happy-End am Attersee. 1965: Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind; Die verhängnisvolle Faschingsnacht [TV]; Ruf der Wälder; Das ist mein Wien; Leinen aus Irland [TV]. 1966: König Ottokars Glück und Ende [TV]. 1967: Auf der Pawlatschen [TV]. 1968/69: Lied aus Wien [TVS]; Der alte Richter [TVS]. 1971: Tatort: Mordverdacht [TV – AT/ DE]. 1971/72: Sie nannten ihn Krambambuli [DE/AT]. 1972/73: Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier! [season 1 – AT/ DE]. 1973: Leo Slezak – zum 100. Geburtstag [TVD – app]. 1974: Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe [TV – AT/DE]; Eine Stunde mit Paul Hörbiger [TV – AT/DE – app]; Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier! [season 2 – TVS – AT/DE]. 1977: Peter Alexanders Wiener G’schichten [TV – DE/AT]; Mich hätten Sie sehen sollen! Viktoria und ihr Husar [TV]. 1980: Komödie der Eitelkeit [TV]. 1980/81: Ich hab’ für Euch gespielt. Erinnerungen von und mit Paul Hörbiger [TVD – AT/DE – app].
BRIGITTE HORNEY Born March 29, 1911, Berlin-Dahlem (Germany) Died July 27, 1988, Hamburg (West Germany) Her slightly slanted eyes and high cheekbones, along with her husky voice and enigmatic demeanour, underlined Horney’s screen persona as one of German cinema’s most unconventional female stars during the 1930s and 1940s. The daughter of renowned psychoanalyst Karen Horney (1885–1952), she attended acting classes and studied dance before being given the lead role in Robert Siodmak’s ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1930). She thereafter appeared at Würzburg’s Stadttheater and Berlin’s Lessing-Theater and Deutsches Theater before joining the ensemble of the city’s Volksbühne from 1932 to 1943. Horney’s screen breakthrough was as torch singer Rubby, entertaining audiences in a shady tavern with Theo Mackeben’s hit ‘So oder so ist das Leben’ (Life Goes This Way and That) in LIEBE, TOD UND TEUFEL (The Devil in a Bottle, 1934), based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Bottle Imp’. In 1936/37, Horney made two films in Britain, THE HOUSE OF THE SPANIARD and SECRET LIVES. Back in Nazi Germany, many of Horney’s tough, independent protagonists were far removed from the state’s expectations of appropriate femininity, while
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some of her roles fitted National Socialist ideology rather better, such as her loyal comrade-in-arms in Paul Wegener’s EIN MANN WILL NACH DEUTSCHLAND (A Man Wants to Get to Germany, 1934) or her patriotic ‘ethnic German’ in Viktor Tourjansky’s FEINDE (Enemies, 1940). She starred as the downcast, plain-looking DAS MÄDCHEN VON FANÖ (The Girl from Fano, 1940), but was offered more glamorous parts in Gustav Ucicky’s SAVOY HOTEL 217 (1936) and, as Catherine the Great, in Josef von Báky’s MÜNCHHAUSEN (Munchausen, 1942/43). Fleeing to Switzerland shortly before the end of the war, Horney appeared at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus theatre from 1946 to 1948, and was then in Basel from 1950. In the early 1950s, Horney resettled in the United States and became an American citizen in 1953, to secure the legacy of her late mother who had been Dean of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis since 1941. Undertaking sporadic theatre tours of Europe, she appeared in television adaptations including Jean-Paul Sartre’s GESCHLOSSENE GESELLSCHAFT (No Exit, 1959), and occasionally appeared in films such as Harald Braun’s SOLANGE DU DA BIST (As Long As You’re Near Me, 1953) and Frank Wysbar’s NACHT FIEL ÜBER GOTENHAFEN (Darkness Fell on Gotenhafen, 1959/60), as well as a couple of Edgar Wallace films in the mid-1960s. She thereafter specialised in haughty old ladies on television, with guest parts on DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner), DERRICK and DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (Ship of Dreams), and starring in the series JAKOB UND ADELE (Jakob and Adele, 1982–89) and TEUFELS GROSSMUTTER (Devil’s Grandmother, 1985). Her final part was as an aristocratic matriarch in DAS ERBE DER GULDENBURGS (The Guldenburg Inheritance, 1986–90), an epic soap opera about a North German beer-brewing dynasty. Horney received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for her outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1972. [act – DE] 1930: Abschied. 1930/31: Fra Diavolo [MLV – DE/FR]. 1931/32: Rasputin. Der Dämon der Frauen. 1933: Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten. 1933/34: Der ewige Traum [MLV]; Rêve éternel [MLV – DE/FR]. 1934: Ein Mann will nach Deutschland; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]; Blutsbrüder. 1935: Der grüne Domino [MLV]. 1936: Savoy-Hotel 217; Stadt Anatol [MLV]; The House of the Spaniard [GB]. 1936/37: Secret Lives [GB]. 1937: Revolutionshochzeit; Der Katzensteg. 1937/38: Verklungene Melodie. 1938: Anna Favetti; Du und ich; Ziel in den Wolken. 1938/ 39: Aufruhr in Damaskus. 1939: Der Gouverneur; Eine Frau wie du; Befreite Hände. 1940: Feinde; Das Mädchen von Fanö. 1941: Illusion. 1942: Geliebte Welt. 1942/43: Münchhausen. 1943/44: Am Ende der Welt. 1948: Die Frau am Weg [AT]. 1949: Verspieltes Leben. 1950: Melo-
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die des Schicksals. 1953: Solange Du da bist. 1954: Gefangene der Liebe; Der letzte Sommer. 1957: Der gläserne Turm. 1959: Geschlossene Gesellschaft [TV]. 1959/ 60: Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen. 1960: Eine etwas sonderbare Dame [TV]; Das Erbe von Björndal [AT]. 1961: Ein Stern in einer Sommernacht [TV]; Ruf der Wildgänse [AT]. 1962: Daphne Laureola [TV]. 1962/63: Miracle of the White Stallions [US]. 1963: Dann geh zu Thorp [TV]. 1964: Der Hexer. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Brigitte Horney [TVD]; Neues vom Hexer. 1965/66: Ich suche einen Mann. 1966: Das Geheimnis der weißen Nonne [MLV – DE/GB]. 1966/67: The Trygon Factor [MLV – GB]. [act – DE – TV] 1967: Eine etwas sonderbare Dame. 1968: Antonia. 1969: Auktion bei Gwendoline. 1970: Paradies der alten Damen. 1971: Die Auferstehung des Stefan Stefanow [AT]. 1972: Das Geheimnis der alten Mamsell; Die Vitrine. 1972/73: Der Kommissar: Tod eines Hippiemädchens. 1974: Der Kommissar: Jähes Ende einer interessanten Beziehung; Strychnin und saure Drops. 1976/ 77: Derrick: Eine Nacht im Oktober; Eichholz & Söhne [TVS]. 1976-78: Heidi [TVS – DE/CH/AU]. 1977: Der Alte: Der Alte schlägt zweimal zu; Haus der Frauen. 1978: Kleine bunte Freudenspender; Wo die Liebe hinfällt. 1979: Einzelzimmer; Wunder einer Nacht [AT/DE]; Huckleberry Finn and His Friends / Die Abenteuer von Tom Sawyer und Huckleberry Finn [TVS – CA/DE]. 1980: Derrick: Die Entscheidung; Charlotte [FF – DE/NL]; Teegebäck und Platzpatronen. 1981: Die Karten lügen nicht und andere Geschichten; Gustav Knuth – Ein Mime wird 80; Billy [TVS – US]; Das Traumschiff. 1981/82: Der Alte: Teufelsküche. 1982: So oder so ist das Leben I. Vier Begegnungen in einer Großstadt; Urlaub am Meer; Liebe alte Bekannte. 1982/83: Bella Donna [FF]; Rendezvous der Damen; Das Traumschiff. Folge 12. 1982-89: Jakob und Adele [10 episodes – TVS]. 1983: Ein Mord liegt auf der Hand. 1984: Mamas Geburtstag. 1985: Alte Gauner: Die große Prüfung; Teufels Großmutter [12 episodes – TVS]. 1986: Das Erbe der Guldenburgs [14 episodes – season 1 – TVS]. 1989/90: Das Erbe der Guldenburgs [13 episodes – season 2 – TVS].
NINA HOSS Born July 7, 1975, Stuttgart (West Germany) Her unconventional face dominated by large eyes, chiselled cheekbones, and voluptuous lips, Hoss typically portrays icy beauties whose steely exterior often hides emotional vulnerability. Active in the theatre, in television and in films, Hoss is one of Germany’s most acclaimed stage and screen actresses of the new century. The daughter of a trade unionist and a theatre director and actress, Hoss came into contact with acting from an early age. She recorded radio dramas for the Süddeutscher Rundfunk aged six and appeared in a play directed by her mother at Stuttgart’s Theater im Westen aged fourteen. Leaving school, she trained at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’ in
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Berlin and subsequently pursued a prolific stage career, performing regularly at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and at the Berliner Ensemble, in productions including Robert Wilson’s adaptation of Georg Büchner’s ‘Leonce und Lena’ (2003) and in the title role of ‘Medea’ (2006). Joseph Vilsmaier discovered Hoss for the cinema and cast her in UND KEINER WEINT MIR NACH (And Nobody Weeps for Me, 1995) a film about six adolescents growing up in Munich in the mid-1920s. Her breakthrough came as a 21-year-old in the title role of Bernd Eichinger’s ambitious TV remake of the 1958 film DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (A Girl Called Rosemary, 1995/96), playing a prostitute caught up in the moral hypocrisies of West Germany’s economic miracle in the 1950s. The extensive publicity surrounding Eichinger’s production and its popularity with audiences made Hoss a domestic star. Internationally she gained recognition for her performance as an anti-fascist cabaret singer in Ottokar Runze’s Klaus Mann adaptation DER VULKAN (The Volcano, 1998/99), which won her the best actress award at the Montréal Film Festival. Hoss collaborated repeatedly with director Christian Petzold. In the psychological TV thriller TOTER MANN (Something to Remind Me, 2001) she was cast as an avenging femme fatale, while in WOLFSBURG (2002/03), she portrayed a grieving mother who gradually falls in love with the man who caused her son’s death in a hit-and-run accident. Hermine Huntgeburth’s romantic drama DIE WEISSE MASSAI (White Masai Woman, 2004/05), commercially the most successful German film of its year, saw Hoss as a Swiss tourist who decides to go native after falling in love with a Masai during a trip to Kenya. In ELEMENTARTEILCHEN (Atomised, 2005/ 06), Oskar Roehler’s adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel ‘Les particules élémentaires’, Hoss had a histrionic cameo as the two male leads’ dissolute mother, a caricature of an ageing 1960s hippie. Her international break-through came with Petzold’s YELLA (2006/07) about a woman leaving her small town in eastern Germany, searching for a better life in the West and becoming involved in the world of venture capital. It gained Hoss, amongst other accolades, a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and a German Film Award. In ANONYMA – EINE FRAU IN BERLIN (Anonyma – A Woman in Berlin, 2007/08) Hoss portrayed a woman in conquered Berlin in 1945 who takes a Soviet officer as a friend and protector against being raped by other soldiers. Set in provincial East Germany, JERICHOW (2008), a remake of the film noir THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946), reunited Hoss with Petzold once more.
[act – DE] 1995: Und keiner weint mir nach. 1995/96: Das Mädchen Rosemarie [TV]. 1997/98: Maestro [TV]; Feuerreiter / Hölderlin, le cavalier de feu / Ognisty jedziec [DE/ FR/PL]; Liebe Deine Nächste! 1998/99: Der Vulkan / Le volcan [DE/FR]. 1999: Die Geiseln von Costa Rica [TV]. 2001: Toter Mann; Selbstbeschreibung [TVD – app]; Epsteins Nacht [DE/CH/AT]. 2001/02: Nackt. 2002/03: Wolfsburg. 2003: Leonce und Lena [TV]; Abgeschminkt: Nina Hoss [TVD – app]; Bloch – Schwestern [TV]. 2004/05: Die weiße Massai. 2005/06: Leben mit Hannah; Elementarteilchen. 2006: Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald. 2006/07: 10 vor 11: Kindsmord als letzter Ausweg. Nina Hoss spielt Medea [TVD – app]; Yella. 2007/08: Die Frau des Anarchisten / La mujer del anarquista / La femme de l’anarchiste [DE/ES/FR]; Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin. 2008: Jerichow.
PAUL HUBSCHMID (aka Paul Christian) Born July 20, 1917, Aarau (Switzerland) Died December 31, 2001, Berlin (Germany) Swiss-born actor Hubschmid made his name primarily as a leading man in early post-war Hollywood pictures, billed as Paul Christian, and in West German movies of the 1950s. After attending the Max Reinhardt Acting School in Vienna, Hubschmid made his stage debut at the city’s Deutsches Theater, and then remained at the Theater in der Josefstadt until 1948, while also undertaking guest appearances at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. His film debut was the Swiss production FÜSILIER WIPF (Fusilier Wipf, 1938), and he also stood out opposite Hilde Krahl in Hans Schweikart’s DAS GESETZ DER LIEBE (Law of Love, 1944/45). In Hollywood under the pseudonym Paul Christian from 1948 to 1953, he starred opposite Maureen O’Hara in Charles Lamont’s BAGDAD (1949), alongside Maria Montez in John Brahm’s IL LADRO DI VENEZIA (The Thief of Venice, 1949/50), and confronting THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) in Eugène Lourié’s classic sci-fi film. Relocating to West Germany in 1953, Hubschmid got to sweep almost all the period’s leading ladies off their feet, including Marika Rökk in MASKE IN BLAU (Mask in Blue, 1952/53), Gertrud Kückelmann in MUSIK BEI NACHT (Music By Night, 1953), Sonja Ziemann in MIT 17 BEGINNT DAS LEBEN (Life Begins at 17, 1953), and Liselotte Pulver in SCHULE FÜR EHEGLÜCK (School for Connubial Bliss, 1954). He also played lead roles in Helmut Käutner’s DIE ZÜRCHER VERLOBUNG (The Affairs of Julie, 1956/ 57), opposite Romy Schneider in Alfred Weidenmann’s SCAMPOLO (1957), and as architect Harald Berger in Fritz Lang’s DER TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR (The Tiger of Eshnapur) and DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, both 1958/59).
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International appearances included the Franco-German co-production DIE UNMORALISCHEN / LE GRAIN DE SABLE (The Circular Triangle, 1964) and the British spy thriller FUNERAL IN BERLIN (1966). Frequently appearing on West German television, he was particularly memorable in Rolf von Sydow’s WIE EIN BLITZ (Like a Flash, 1969/70), a three-part adaptation of Francis Durbridge’s crime novel ‘Bat Out of Hell’. Hubschmid also became a regular in stage musicals from 1961, putting in over two thousand performances as Professor Higgins in ‘My Fair Lady’, and going on tour in more serious dramas, including Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’. He received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1980. From 1967 to 1980 he was married to stage, screen, and TV actress Eva Renzi (1944–2005). [act – DE] 1938: Füsilier Wipf [CH]. 1939: Der letzte Appell; Maria Ilona. 1939/40: Mir lönd nöd lugg [CH]. 1940: Mein Traum [CH]; Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe [CH]. 1941/ 42: Der Fall Rainer. 1942: Meine Freundin Josefine. 1942/ 43: Altes Herz wird wieder jung. 1943: Wilder Urlaub [CH]; Liebesbriefe. 1944: Der gebieterische Ruf. 1944/45: Das seltsame Fräulein Sylvia. 1944/45: Das Gesetz der Liebe. 1947/48: Gottes Engel sind überall [AT]. 1948: ArlbergExpress [AT]; Der himmlische Walzer [AT]. 1949: Geheimnisvolle Tiefe [AT]; Bagdad [US]. 1949/50: Il ladro di Venezia / The Thief of Venice [IT/US]. 1951/52: Palace Hotel [CH]. 1952: No Time For Flowers [US]. 1952/53: Maske in Blau; Die Venus vom Tivoli [CH]. 1953: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms [US]; Musik bei Nacht; Mit 17 beginnt das Leben. 1953/54: Ungarische Rhapsodie [MLV – DE/FR]. 1954: Schule für Eheglück; Glückliche Reise; Ingrid, die Geschichte eines Fotomodells. 1955: Die Frau des Botschafters; Il tresoro di Rommel [IT]. 1956: Liebe, die den Kopf verliert [AT]; Die goldene Brücke; Heute heiratet mein Mann; Du bist Musik; Salzburger Geschichten. 1956/57: Glücksritter; Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Kleines Biest mit langen Haaren / Meine schöne Mama [DE/AT]; Italienreise – Liebe inbegriffen; Scampolo. 1958: Ihr 106. Geburtstag; La morte viene dallo spazio / Le danger vient l’espace [IT/FR]. 1958/59: Der Tiger von Eschnapur / La tigre di Eschnapur / Le tigre du Bengale [DE/IT/FR]; Das indische Grabmal / Il sepolcro indiano / Le tombeau hindou [DE/IT/FR]. 1959: Alle Tage ist kein Sonntag; Liebe, Luft und lauter Lügen; Auskunft im Cockpit [SF – CH]; Marili; Das große Messer [TV]. 1960: Heldinnen; Die Rote Hand; Die junge Sünderin. 1960/62: Festival / Schwarze Rose, Rosemarie [ES/DE]. 1961: Die große Reise [TV]; Napoléon II, l’Aiglon / Kaiserliche Hoheit [FR/DE]; Isola Bella. 1962: Ich bin auch nur eine Frau. 1963: Elf Jahre und ein Tag; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/AT]. 1964: Die Diamantenhölle am Mekong / Les diamants du Mékong / La sfida viene da Bangkok [DE/FR/IT]; Die Lady / Un certain désir [DE/FR]; Le grain de sable / Die Unmoralischen / Il triangolo circolare / O triangulo circular [FR/DE/IT/PT]; Heirate mich, Chéri
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[DE/AT]; Le majordome / Sie werden lästig, mein Herr / Operazione maggiordomo [FR/DE/IT]. 1964/65: Die schwedische Jungfrau; Moi et les hommes de quarante ans / Jacqueline e gli uomini / Caroline und die Männer über 40 [FR/IT/DE]; Mozambique [GB/ZA]. 1965: Die Herren: Die Bürger; Ruf der Wälder [AT]; Dis-moi qui tuer [FR]. 1965/66: Ich suche einen Mann; Der Mann mit den tausend Masken / Upperseven, L’uomo da uccidere [DE/IT]; Playgirl. 1966: Karriere / A belles dents [DE/FR]; Funeral in Berlin [GB]. 1967/ 68: Negresco **** – Eine tödliche Affäre; Manon 70 / Hemmungslose Manon [FR/DE]. 1968: In Enemy Country [US]. 1969: This Is Your Captain Speaking [DO – CH]; A Taste of Excitement [GB]; Hotel Royal [TV]. 1969/70: Skulduggery [US]; Wie ein Blitz [TV]. 1970: Biografie. Ein Spiel [TV]. 1971/72: Das Jahrhundert der Chirurgen [TVS]. 1972: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. I [TV]; Versuchung im Sommerwind. 1974: Die Abwerbung [TV]; Der Kommissar: Traumbilder [TV]. 1975: Das ohnmächtige Pferd [TV]; Musik ist Trumpf [TV – DE/AT/CH]. 1980: Bei Harrods fing es an [TV]. 1981: Thriller [TV – GB]; Zurück an den Absender [TV]. 1982/83: Bolero. 1984-86: Kir Royal: 1. Wer reinkommt, ist drin / 4. Adieu Claire / 5. Königliche Hoheit [TVS]. 1986: In bester Gesellschaft [TV]. 1988: Klassezämekunft [CH/AT/DE]. 1988/89: Forsthaus Falkenau [TVS]. 1989-91: Jolly Joker [TVS]. 1991/92: Linda. 1999: Höchstpersönlich: Paul Hubschmid [TVD – app].
HUILLET, DANIÈLE see STRAUB, JEAN MARIE OTTO HUNTE Born January 9, 1881, Hamburg (Germany) Died December 28, 1960, Potsdam-Babelsberg (East Germany) One of most respected production designers in German cinema from the late 1910s to the late 1940s, Otto Hunte’s sets were characterised by their detailed attention to design realism, and their adherence to classical architectural and theatrical conventions. The son of a sculptor, Hunte trained to be a stage painter and started to work in theatres from 1900, working for a Berlin-based company. During a stint at the theatre in Aachen in 1909/10 he met the graphic designer Otto Kettelhut who later became his frequent collaborator on many film sets. In active service as a soldier during World War I, he debuted as a film architect on Fritz Lang’s exotic adventure DIE SPINNEN (The Spiders, 1919), for which Hunte created atmospheric sets in collaboration with a team of other designers, including Hermann Warm. In the following years, Hunte repeatedly worked for directors Joe May and Fritz Lang. For May’s DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921) he built an entire Indian city, including temples and towers, in the Berlin suburb of Woltersdorf, while for the latter, he was, in collaboration with colleagues Ket-
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telhut and Karl Vollbrecht, responsible for the medieval world of DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungen, 1922–24), as well as for the simultaneously futurist and ancient look of METROPOLIS (1925/26). For director G. W. Pabst, Hunte recreated revolutionary Russia and Paris in DIE LIEBE DER JEANNE NEY (The Loves of Jeanne Ney, 1927). In his first sound film DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30), largely set in a seedy cabaret, the effect of Hunte’s sets was more subtle and intimate, while in subsequent musical comedies such as DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends) and DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (The Private Secretary, both 1930) he integrated modern design trends and architectural fashions of the day to invoke an atmosphere of urban sophistication. After the Nazis’s seizure of power, Hunte returned to the monumentalist style of his earlier work, e.g. in the sets for Karl Hartl’s science fiction film GOLD (1933/ 34), and in the cold and oppressive classicist sets that dominate Veit Harlan’s anti-Semitic propaganda film JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940) and Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s biopic DIE ENTLASSUNG (Bismarck’s Dismissal, 1942). From 1938, Hunte taught young film designers at the newly founded Deutsche Filmakademie (German Film Academy) in Babelsberg. Hunte worked on the first post-war German production, creating a melancholic impression of a devastated Berlin in the ‘rubble film’ DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS (The Murderers Are Among Us, 1946). He was hired again for the DEFA crime film RAZZIA (Raid, 1948), but retired soon after. As in Curt Siodmak’s Hollywood sci-fi thriller THE MAGNETIC MONSTER (1952/53) some footage from Hartl’s GOLD was used, that film is included in some Hunte filmographies. [des – DE] 1919: Die Spinnen. 1. Der goldene See / 2. Das Brillantenschiff; Die Herrin der Welt. 1. Die Freundin des gelben Mannes / 2. Die Geschichte der Maud Gregaards / 3. Der Rabbi von Kuan-Fu / 4. König Makombe / 5. Ophir,
die Stadt der Vergangenheit / 6. Die Frau mit den Milliarden / 7. Die Wohltäterin der Menschheit / 8. Die Tragödie der Rache. 1920: Das wandernde Bild; Die Frauen von Gnadenstein. 1920/21: Der Leidensweg der Inge Krafft; Junge Mama. 1921: Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur. 1921/22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1925/26: Metropolis. 1927: Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney. 1927/28: Spione. 1928/29: Frau im Mond. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV]; Die Privatsekretärin [MLV]; Dactylo [MLV]. 1930/31: … und das ist die Hauptsache. 1931: Um eine Nasenlänge; Hurrah – ein Junge!; Sunshine Susie [MLV – GB]. 1931/32: Unter falscher Flagge; Die Vier vom Bob 13 [MLV]; L’Amour en vitesse [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: La petite de Montparnasse [MLV – FR]; Das Mädel vom Montparnasse [MLV – FR/DE]; Moderne Mitgift; Der Orlow; Eine Tür geht auf; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; À moi le jour, à toi la nuit [MLV]; Early to Bed [MLV]. 1933: Der Stern von Valencia [MLV]; L’Étoile de Valencia [MLV]; Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten. 1933/34: Gold [MLV]. 1934: L’Or [MLV]; Ich sing mich in Dein Herz hinein; Herr Kobin geht auf Abenteuer; Die englische Heirat; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]; Le diable en bouteille [MLV]. 1935: Les époux célibataires [MLV]; Mach’ mich glücklich [MLV]; Der grüne Domino [MLV]; Le domino vert [MLV]. 1935/36: Donogoo Tonka. Die geheimnisvolle Stadt [MLV]; Donogoo [MLV]. 1936: Boccaccio; Stadt Anatol [MLV]; Puits en flammes [MLV]. 1936/37: Die Kreutzersonate; Die Kronzeugin. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war; Streit um den Knaben Jo. 1937/38: Frau Sylvelin; L’Étrange M. Victor. 1938: Am seidenen Faden. 1938/39: Mann für Mann. 1939: Fräulein; Das Lied der Wüste. 1940: Jud Süß. 1940/41: … reitet für Deutschland; Anschlag auf Baku. 1942: Die Entlassung. 1942/43: Altes Herz wird wieder jung. 1943: Ein glücklicher Mensch; Herr Sanders lebt gefährlich. 1944/45: Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl; Eine alltägliche Geschichte. 1945: Der Scheiterhaufen. 1946: Die Mörder sind unter uns [DD]. 1946/47: Razzia [DD].
HERBERT IHERING (Herbert Georg Albrecht E. Gustav Ihering) Born February 29, 1888, Springe am Deister (Germany) Died January 15, 1977, Berlin (East Germany) Ihering was one of Weimar Germany’s most influential film and theatre critics whose reviews and commentaries were instrumental to the early success of Bertolt Brecht. Although progressive-minded and left-leaning, Ihering nevertheless remained active throughout the ‘Third Reich’. Ihering studied German literature at universities in Freiburg, Munich, and Berlin. His first theatre review appeared in ‘Die Schaubühne’ in 1909, and Ihering soon established himself as a regular contributor to a wide array of newspapers and theatrical journals. In 1922, Ihering moved to the ‘Berliner Börsen-Courier’ (for which he had already been writing occasional stage reviews since 1913, and film reviews since 1918). Although somewhat right of centre in its political and economic views, this influential newspaper maintained a left-wing cultural section that also carried articles by Béla Balázs and Bertolt Brecht. It was Ihering who helped ensure that Brecht secured the 1922 Heinrich von Kleist Drama Award. Meanwhile, a very public debate raged between Ihering and the period’s other great icon of theatre criticism, Alfred Kerr, as to what the correct duty of the critic should be: Kerr favoured blunt personal reviews that could guide audiences, while Ihering advocated constructive criticism that actively sought to contribute to the development of German film and theatre. At the end of 1933, the Nazis shut down the ‘Berliner Börsen-Courier’. Ihering, however, took over Kerr’s position at the ‘Berliner Tageblatt’, left open since the latter’s emigration in February of that year. The émigré community responded with disgust, and Klaus Mann used him as the basis for his turncoat character Dr. Ihrig in the novel ‘Mephisto’. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry ultimately banned Ihering’s column in June 1936, although he was rewarded with a position as head of casting at the Tobis film production company, before being seconded to Vienna’s Burgtheater in 1942. During the war years, he also published several monographs on German actors and books about theatre. From 1945 to 1954, Ihering was literary manager at East Berlin’s Deutsches Theater. He renewed contact
with Brecht as early as October 1945, and supported the latter’s setting-up of the Berliner Ensemble. Ihering was made a full member of the German Academy of Arts in East Berlin in 1950. However, by the early 1960s, his continued reviews of productions in both parts of Berlin stood at odds with state policy; his regular column in the Academy’s journal ‘Sinn und Form’ was cancelled, and he had to step down as the Academy’s secretary for performing arts. Though still receiving official laurels, he no longer constituted a force to be reckoned with. In West Germany, he was belatedly remembered with the 1969 West Berlin Art Award, and a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1971.
MARKUS IMHOOF Born September 19, 1941, Winterthur (Switzerland) An avant-garde Swiss documentary and feature director, Imhoof’s films have consistently picked up international awards and been banned or censored for their critical stance towards Swiss institutions. The son of Germanist Walther Imhoof undertook what he refers to as his first ‘escape bid’ while enrolled at a high school specialising in the Classics, by also attending an art and design college and – because of his love for riding – a military training school. At age nineteen, he made his first short film about these experiences, an homage to Jean Vigo’s ZÉRO DE CONDUITE (1933) entitled WEHE, WENN WIR LOSGELASSEN (Once the Apron-Strings Have Been Cut, 1961). Imhoof went to study at Zurich University and became assistant to former film director Leopold Lindtberg at the city’s Schauspielhaus theatre. As part of his film courses at the Zurich College of Art and Design, he shot HAPPY BIRTHDAY (1967) and RONDO (1968), the latter about the Swiss prison system. Further documentary shorts followed, including ORMENIS 199 + 69 (1969), SCHWEIZER MALER UND BILDHAUER (Swiss Painters and Sculptors) and PHLEBOLOGISCHES SYMPOSIUM (Phlebological Symposium, both 1970), before Imhoof made a longer documentary, VOLKSMUND – ODER MAN IST, WAS MAN ISST (You Are What You Eat, 1971). The director’s first feature, FLUCHTGEFAHR (Danger of Escape, 1974), expanded on themes first raised
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in RONDO, and in 1976, he founded his own production company, Limbo-Film AG. Following TAUWETTER (Thaw, 1977), about the marital crisis of a German dentist’s wife, and the television film ISEWIXER (Pipe Polishers, 1979), Imhoof made the taboo-breaking DAS BOOT IST VOLL (The Boat Is Full, 1980/81). Set in a small village near the border with Nazi Germany, the film challenged Switzerland’s reputation as a refuge from the Third Reich and the myth of the nation’s neutrality during World War II. Refused state funding on account of ‘lacking historical distance and respect’, DAS BOOT IST VOLL received the Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar. Imhoof regarded DIE REISE (The Journey, 1985/86) as a thematic follow-up: based on autobiographical essays by Bernhard Vesper, the son of a conformist Nazi writer and partner of 1970s left-wing RAF (‘Rote Armee Fraktion’) terrorist Gudrun Ensslin, the film explored the post-war generation’s conflicting sentiments towards their parents and the recent National Socialist past. Imhoof’s subsequent pictures have included DER BERG (The Mountain, 1990), a love triangle played out as a life-or-death struggle at an isolated weather station, and FLAMMEN IN PARADIES (Fire in Paradise, 1996), a drama about love and societal norms before the outbreak of World War I. Apart from his films, Imhoof has worked for the theatre, directing mainly operas in Saarbrücken, Darmstadt and Vienna among others. He has also taught at film academies in Milan, Berlin and Zurich. [dir,scr,pro – CH] 1961: Wehe, wenn wir losgelassen [SF – dir,scr,cut,snd,pro]. 1963: Prinzessin Tuamasi [SF – dir,scr, cut,pro]. 1967: Happy Birthday [SF – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1968: Rondo [SD – dir,scr,cut,snd,pro]. 1969: Ormenis 199+69 [SD – dir,scr,cut,snd,pro]. 1970: Phlebologisches Symposium [SD – dir,scr,cut,snd,pro]; Schweizer Maler und Bildhauer [SD – dir,scr]. 1971: Volksmund – oder man ist, was man isst [DO – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1974: Fluchtgefahr. 1977: Tauwetter [TV – CH/DE]. 1979: Isewixer [TV]. 1980/81: Das Boot ist voll [CH/DE/AT]. 1983: Glut [act – CH/DE]. 1985/86: Die Reise [dir,scr – DE/CH]. 198891: Le film du cinéma suisse [DO]. 1990: Der Berg [dir,coscr]. 1996: Flammen im Paradies / Les raisons du coeur [dir,co-scr,pro – CH/FR/DE]. 1999: Zornige Küsse [co-scr – CH/DE]. 2005: Steinschlag [TV – co-scr].
GEORG JACOBY Born July 21, 1882, Mainz (Germany) Died February 21, 1964, Munich (West Germany) During his fifty-year career, workmanlike director Jacoby turned out over 200 films but remains best known for his spectacular musicals of the late 1930s and 1940s, starring his second wife Marika Rökk.
The son of theatre manager and playwright Wilhelm Jacoby (1855–1925), he started out as an actor at theatres in Bremen and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) before going to Berlin to work as a stage director. Trying his hand at screenwriting, he started directing films in 1913, and made comedies and patriotic dramas for a number of production companies during World War I. Jacoby’s choice of subject matter was shaped primarily by prevalent box-office trends. His early Weimarera output included sexual enlightenment films such as the three-part KEIMENDES LEBEN (The Seeds of Life, 1918/19) and a serial version of Ewald Gerhard Seeliger’s bestseller ‘Peter Voss, der Millionendieb’ (Peter Voss Who Stole Millions) titled DER MANN OHNE NAMEN (The Man Without a Name, 1920/21). The Italian-made epic QUO VADIS? (1923/24) featured Emil Jannings and was co-directed by the Italian Gabriellino d’Annunzio. Jacoby later made exotic adventure films for his own production company while directing Reinhold Schünzel comedies and courtroom dramas for other firms. With the coming of sound, he carved out a niche making rural musicals such as DIE LINDENWIRTIN (Landlady Among the Linden Blossom, 1930) as well as adaptations of comic stage plays including his father’s popular PENSION SCHÖLLER (Schoeller Boarding House, 1930), which he remade in 1952 and 1960. His artistically most ambitious film during this period was a subdued prostitution drama, MORAL UND LIEBE (Morals and Love, 1932/33), which the Nazis banned after its initial release. Inaugurating his ‘Hungarian period’ at Ufa, Jacoby made the operetta DIE CSARDASFÜRSTIN (The Czardas Princess, 1934) starring singer Marta Eggerth, and the musical HEISSES BLUT (Hot Blood, 1935/36) with Marika Rökk, whose regular director he became. After working together on the operettas DER BETTELSTUDENT (The Beggar Student, 1936) and GASPARONE (1937) as well as on the Hollywood-inspired revue film EINE NACHT IM MAI (A Night in May, 1938), the couple got married in 1940. They enjoyed even greater success with FRAUEN SIND DOCH BESSERE DIPLOMATEN (Women Are Better Diplomats, 1939–41), the first German feature shot in colour; KORA TERRY (1940), showcasing Rökk in a dual role as twin sisters; and Jacoby’s greatest commercial hit, DIE FRAU MEINER TRÄUME (The Woman of My Dreams, 1943/44), again in Agfacolor. Jacoby and Rökk, whose pictures were very popular with audiences in the Soviet Union, had their post-war comeback with KIND DER DONAU (Marika, 1950), shot in Vienna for Sovexport. The film followed the formula of the couple’s earlier pictures, as did their subsequent West German productions, of
EMIL JANNINGS
which the last was DIE NACHT VOR DER PREMIERE (The Show Opens Tomorrow, 1959). In his non-Rökk films, Jacoby sought to revitalise genres that had been popular in the 1920s and early 1930s, such as crime capers and military farces. [dir – DE] 1913: Buckelhannes [act]; Madame Incognito. 1913/14: Die Löwenhochzeit. 1914: Die Filmprinzessin; Die Flammentänzerin; Das Geheimnis des Affen; Das Rennen um Leben; Der letzte Flug. 1915: Die Tänzerin; König Motor; Irrende Liebe [pro]; Der Mann ohne Gedächtnis [dir,scr]; Der schwarze Moritz. 1916: Ein toller Einfall [dir,scr]; Die Braut des Reserveleutnants oder ‘Fürs Vaterland’; Bogdan Stimoff [AT/DE]; Der Skandal; Das zweite Leben [dir,scr]; Gold; Rübezahls Hochzeit [act]. 1916/17: Die Entdeckung Deutschlands [co-dir]; Der feldgraue Groschen. 1917: Giovannis Rache; Unsühnbar; Jan Vermeulen, der Müller aus Flandern. 1917/18: Dem Licht entgegen [dir,co-scr]. 1918: Der Flieger von Görz [dir,co-scr]; Das Schwabemädle [dir,co-scr]. 1918/19: Keimendes Leben. 1. Teil / 2. Teil / 3. Moral und Sinnlichkeit [3 parts – dir,co-scr]; Das Karussell des Lebens [dir,co-scr]. 1919: Vendetta. Blutrache [dir,co-scr]; Kreuziget sie!; Das Teehaus zu den zehn Lotosblumen; Der Tod und die Liebe [co-scr]; Aberglaube [dir,scr]; Komtesse Dolly [dir,co-scr]; De profundis. Aus der Tiefe [dir,co-scr]; Erdgift [co-scr]; Der rote Henker [co-scr]; Hundemamachen [co-scr]. 1919/20: Die Frau ohne Seele [co-scr]; Schneider Wibbel [co-scr]; Indische Rache [co-dir,co-scr]. 1920: Va banque. Der Mut zum Glück [co-scr]; Künstlerlaunen [co-scr]; Die schwarze Rose von Cruska [co-scr]. 1920/21: Der Mann ohne Namen. 1. Der Millionendieb / 2. Der Kaiser der Sahara / 3. Gelbe Bestien / 4. Die goldene Flut / 5. Der Mann mit den eisernen Nerven / 6. Der Sprung über den Schatten [dir,co-scr,act]. 1921: Die Sünden der Mutter. 1921/22: Seine Exzellenz von Madagaskar. 1. Das Mädchen aus der Fremde / 2. Stubbs, der Detektiv [dir,co-scr]; Das Mädel mit der Maske [co-scr]. 1922: Man soll es nicht für möglich halten oder Maciste und die Javanerin [co-scr]; Der große Wurf; So sind die Männer [dir,co-scr]. 1923: Das Paradies im Schnee [dir,cut,pro – DE/CH]. 1923/24: Quo vadis? [co-dir – IT]. 1924: Komödianten des Lebens [dir,pro]. 1925: Husarenfieber [dir,co-scr]; Der Hahn im Korb. 1925/26: Der Ritt in die Sonne [dir,co-scr]; Das Gasthaus zur Ehe. 1926: Der Stolz der Kompagnie; Der dumme August des Zirkus Romanelli; Die Insel der verbotenen Küsse [co-dir,act,pro]. 1926/27: Die Frau ohne Namen. [2 parts – dir,pro]; Colonialskandal [dir,pro]; Die Jagd nach der Braut [dir,pro]. 1927: Das Frauenhaus von Rio [pro]; The Fake [GB]. 1927/28: Ledige Mütter [pro]; Der Faschingskönig / Jokeren [dir,co-scr – DE/DK]. 1928: The Physician [GB]; Küsse, die man nie vergißt [dir,co-scr]; Die Wochenendbraut; Indizienbeweis; Quartier Latin [pro]; Die Abenteurer G.m.b.H. [pro]; Nachtgestalten / The Alley Cat [pro – DE/ GB]. 1929: Meineid; Mutterliebe; Frauen am Abgrund. 1929/30: Der Witwenball. 1930: Die Lindenwirtin; Der keusche Josef [dir,cut]; Pension Schöller; 1000 Worte Deutsch; Geld auf der Straße [AT/DE]. 1930/31: Sturm im Wasserglas / Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau [AT/DE]. 1931: Der verjüngte Adolar; Hurrah – ein Junge!; Strohwitwer;
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Die spanische Fliege; Kadetten. 1932: Melodie der Liebe; Ja, treu ist die Soldatenliebe; Liebe, Scherz und Ernst [supv]; Liebe in Uniform; Der große Bluff [MLV]; Marion, das gehört sich nicht [MLV – sma]. 1932/33: Moral und Liebe; Sag mir, wer Du bist. 1933: Zwei im Sonnenschein; Ist mein Mann nicht fabelhaft?; Die Wette [SF]; Eine ideale Wohnung [SF]; Der streitbare Herr Kickel [SF]; Das 13. Weltwunder [SF]; Der Störenfried; Ein Mädel wirbelt durch die Welt; Der Polizeibericht meldet … Die Frau im schwarzen Schleier. 1933/34: Liebe und Zahnweh [SF]. 1934: Hochzeit am 13. [SF]; Die Czardasfürstin [MLV – dir,coscr]; Princesse Czardas [MLV – co-dir,co-scr]; Der kühne Schwimmer; G’schichten aus dem Wienerwald [AT]; Besuch am Abend; Der letzte Walzer [MLV]. 1934/35: Warum lügt Fräulein Käthe? [dir,co-scr]. 1935: Ehestreik; Leutnant Bobby, der Teufelskerl [AT]; Herbstmanöver. 1935/36: Heißes Blut [MLV]; Les deux favoris [MLV]. 1936: Der Bettelstudent; Und Du, mein Schatz, fährst mit. 1936/ 37: Die Kronzeugin. 1937: Husaren, heraus!; Spiel auf der Tenne; Gasparone. 1937/38: Großalarm. 1938: Eine Nacht im Mai. 1939: Der Vorhang fällt. 1939-41: Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten. 1940: Kora Terry. 1941: Tanz mit dem Kaiser [MLV]. 1942: Bunter Reigen [SF]; Hab’ mich lieb! [co-scr,pro]. 1943: Die Gattin. 1943/44: Die Frau meiner Träume [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1950: Kind der Donau [dir,co-scr,pro – AT]. 1950/51: Frühling auf dem Eis [AT]. 1951: Das Herz einer Frau [AT]; Sensation in San Remo; Die Csardasfürstin [dir,co-scr]. 1952: Pension Schöller [dir,co-scr]. 1952/53: Maske in Blau [dir,pro]. 1953: Die geschiedene Frau. 1954/55: Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox [dir,co-scr]. 1955: Drei Tage Mittelarrest [dir, scr]; Drei Mädels vom Rhein [dir,co-scr]. 1956: Die wilde Auguste [dir,co-scr]; Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Zu Befehl, Frau Feldwebel! 1957: Familie Schimek [AT]; Kleren maken de man [dir,scr – NL]; Nachts im Grünen Kakadu. 1958: Bühne frei für Marika! 1959: Die Nacht vor der Premiere. 1959/60: Bomben auf Monte Carlo. 1960: Pension Schöller [dir,co-scr].
EMIL JANNINGS (Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz) Born July 23, 1884, Rorschach (Switzerland) Died January 2, 1950, Wolfgangsee (Austria) One of Weimar cinema’s foremost dramatic actors, Jannings enjoyed enormous international success in the late 1920s before lending his services to ‘Third Reich’ cinema. Jannings started training to become an actor at Görlitz’s Stadttheater in 1900, and performed with numerous provincial and repertory companies between 1901 and 1914, the year he came to Berlin and made his first film appearance, in Walter Schmidthässler’s propaganda film IM SCHÜTZENGRABEN (In the Trenches). Jannings’s career took off in the capital, with engagements at several of Max Reinhardt’s theatres in 1915/16, at the Königliches Schauspielhaus in 1918, and at the Deutsches Theater until 1920.
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Jannings initially gained the attention of international filmgoers playing Louis XV in Ernst Lubitsch’s MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919), and a series of performances as decadent leaders followed, including Henry VIII in Lubitsch’s ANNA BOLEYN (Deception, 1920), the lead in Dimitri Buchowetzki’s PETER DER GROSSE (Peter the Great, 1922), Nero in Gabriellino d’Annunzio and Georg Jacoby’s QUO VADIS? (1923/24), and Harun al-Rashid in Paul Leni’s DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks, 1923). Moving away from costume pictures, Jannings scored an international success in two Ufa productions, playing the downtrodden hotel porter in F. W. Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924), and the cabaret artist whose jealousy leads him to commit murder in E. A. Dupont’s VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925). He also took the lead role in Murnau’s TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925) and played Mephistopheles in FAUST (1925/26), before leaving for Hollywood, where he had been signed by Paramount. Once again cast as hapless souls destined to meet a tragic end, Jannings starred as a bank clerk who forsakes his career and family out of love for a manipulative siren in Victor Fleming’s THE WAY OF ALL FLESH, and as a Czarist general who finds himself re-enacting his own past as a Hollywood movie extra, in Josef von Sternberg’s THE LAST COMMAND (both 1927). Jannings received the very first best actor Oscar on account of these two films, and then worked under Lubitsch’s direction one final time in THE PATRIOT (1928), playing Czar Paul I. Jannings’s pronounced German accent was no match for sound films, and he returned to Berlin in 1929. He was cast as the male lead in Josef von Sternberg’s DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30) based on Heinrich Mann’s novel ‘Professor Unrat’, and later played another college professor in Carl Froelich’s TRAUMULUS (The Dreamer, 1935). Between 1930 and 1936, Jannings placed renewed emphasis on stage work, while also starring as Fuhrer figures in Nazi productions, such as Hans Steinhoff’s DER ALTE UND DER JUNGE KÖNIG (The Making of a King, 1934/35), Veit Harlan’s Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation DER HERRSCHER (The Ruler, 1936/37) – on which Jannings also served as artistic supervisor – as well as his leads in Steinhoff’s ROBERT KOCH, DER BEKÄMPFER DES TODES (Robert Koch, 1939) and OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kru-
ger, 1940/41). He was on production company Tobis’s board of directors from 1936, and was able to exercise influence on movies that recast historical events from a National Socialist perspective. Jannings was denazified following the war, but undertook no further film work.
[act – DE] 1914: Im Schützengraben / Der 12jährige Kriegsheld. 1915/16: Frau Eva. 1916: Im Angesicht des Toten; Der Morphinist; Aus Mangel an Beweisen; Passionels Tagebuch; Das Leben ein Traum; Stein unter Steinen; Nächte des Grauens; Der 10. Pavillon der Zitadelle; Die Bettlerin von St. Marien; Unheilbar. 1916/17: Hoheit Radieschen; Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach. 1917: Kinder des Ghettos; Das Geschäft; Gesühnte Schuld; Lulu; Wenn vier dasselbe tun; Das fidele Gefängnis; Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari. 1917/18: Nach zwanzig Jahren. 1918: Der dunkle Weg; Keimendes Leben [2 parts]; Die Augen der Mumie Mâ; Der Mann der Tat. 1919: Colombine. Die Braut des Apachen; Vendetta. Blutrache; Die Tochter des Mehemed; Rose Bernd; Madame Dubarry. 1919/20: Das große Licht. 1920: Kohlhiesels Töchter; Die Brüder Karamasoff; Algol; Der Schädel der Pharaonentochter; Anna Boleyn. 1920/ 21: Der Stier von Olivera. 1921: Der Schwur des Peter Hergatz; Danton; Die Ratten; Das Weib des Pharao. 1921/22: Othello. 1922: Peter der Große. 1922/23: Tragödie der Liebe [4 parts]. 1923: Du sollst nicht töten; Alles für Geld [act,pro]; Das Wachsfigurenkabinett. 1923/24: Der Film im Film [DO]; Quo vadis? [IT]. 1924: Nju. Eine unverstandene Frau; Gesühnte Schuld; Der letzte Mann. 1925: Tartüff; Liebe macht blind; Varieté. 1925/26: Faust. 1927: The Way of All Flesh [US]; The Last Command [US]. 1927/28: The Street of Sin [US]. 1928: The Patriot [US]; Die Filmstadt Hollywood [DO]; Sins of the Fathers [US]. 1929: Betrayal [US]. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Liebling der Götter. 1931: Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]. 1932/33: Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole [MLV – FR/AT]; The Merry Monarch [MLV – AT]. 1933: Der schwarze Walfisch [MLV]. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König. 1935: Traumulus. 1936/37: Der Herrscher [act,supv]. 1937: Der zerbrochene Krug [act,supv]. 1939: Der Trichter (Nr. III) [SF]; Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes [act,pro]; Der letzte Appell [act,pro]. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger [act,pro]. 1942: Die Entlassung [act,pro]. 1942/ 43: Altes Herz wird wieder jung. 1943: Zeitspiegel Nr. 12: 12 Minuten mit Emil Jannings [SD]. 1943/44: Der Vater. 1944/45: Wo ist Herr Belling?
MICHAEL JARY (Maximilian Michael Andreas Jarczyk) Born September 24, 1906, Laurahütte (Silesia, Germany, now Siemianowitz, Poland) Died July 12, 1988, Munich (West Germany) Jewish-Catholic composer Jary, often collaborating with gay lyricist Bruno Balz (1902–1988), ironically provided Nazi cinema with its most enduring wartime musical hits. Enrolled at the Heiligkreuz monastery as an elevenyear-old, Jarczyk (as he would continue to be known until the mid-1930s) swiftly ascended to the position of soloist and by fourteen was composing choral pieces. Receiving formal training at the Beuthen Conservatory, he led a church choir and two male choirs by age eighteen, and performed his own works on radio.
MICHAEL JARY
Progressing to Berlin’s State College of Music in 1930, he studied under Arnold Schönberg, Igor Stravinsky and Otto Klemperer and was awarded the prestigious Beethoven Prize in 1931. However, at his finals in 1933, Nazi hardliner Professor Paul Gräner labelled Jarczyk’s compositions ‘the intellectualist cacophony of a Polish Jew’, effectively ending his career on the spot. In order to make ends meet, he took work as a pianist at various Berlin bars, cafés and dancehalls, using the pseudonyms Max Jantzen and Jackie Leeds before settling on Michael Jary. His orchestral arrangements at the cosmopolitan Moka-Efti danceateria and Kakadu-Bar soon gained him new attention. Using the names Max Janzen and Jarcyk-Jansen he undertook his first film compositions for two short films, among them ZWEI GENIES (Two Geniusses, 1934), the debut film of Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk). His repertoire of sentimental ballads and up-tempo swing-inspired numbers characterised the rest of his film work. Gaining a contract at Terra-Filmkunst, he composed musical numbers and scores for several films by director Carl Boese, including the GermanPolish co-production ABENTEUER IN WARSCHAU (Adventure in Warsaw, 1937), his first collaboration with Balz. The duo subsequently penned the evergreens ‘Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern’ (That Cannot Shake a Sailor), performed both in Kurt Hoffmann’s PARADIES DER JUNGGESELLEN (Bachelor’s Paradise, 1939) and Eduard von Borsody’s WUNSCHKONZERT (Request Concert, 1940), as well as the Zarah Leander hits ‘Davon geht die Welt nicht unter’ (That Won’t Make the World Go Under) and ‘Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh’n’ (I Know One Day a Miracle Will Happen), first heard in Rolf Hansen’s DIE GROSSE LIEBE (The Great Love, 1941/42). Within a month of the war’s end, Jary formed the Berlin Radio Orchestra, whose big band sound took early post-war Germany by storm. Working on films again from 1948, Balz and Jary collaborated on many popular hits, including the foxtrot ‘Winke, winke’ (‘Lily the Pink’ in English), sung by Evelyn Künneke in Géza von Cziffra’s DIE DRITTE VON RECHTS (Third from the Right, 1950), and the tango ‘Das machen nur die Beine von Dolores’ (Dolores’s Legs), featured in Cziffra’s DIE VERSCHLEIERTE MAJA (Maya of the Seven Veils, 1951) and – following its initial stupendous success – in DIE BEINE VON DOLORES (Dolores’s Legs, 1957). The pair’s final chart-topper was singer Heidi Brühl’s ‘Wir wollen niemals auseinandergeh’n’ (Let’s Never Never Drift Apart), with Jary giving up composing for films in 1961 as new musical tastes asserted themselves. Nevertheless, a number of his evergreens have been and still are re-used in films and TV-shows.
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[mus – DE] 1934: Spuk im Spielklub [SF]; Zwei Genies [SF]. 1935/36: Die große und die kleine Welt. 1936: Die unerhörte Frau; Spiel an Bord; Annemarie; Romanze [AT]. 1937: Mädchen für alles; Dyplomatyczna ona [MLV – PL/DE]; Abenteuer in Warschau [MLV – PL/DE]. 1937/38: Schüsse in Kabine 7. 1938: Ida [SF]; Der liebe Besuch [SF]; Der falsche Admiral [SF]; Schwarzfahrt ins Glück; Wochenendfriede [SF]; Andere Länder, andere Sitten [SF]; Spuk im Museum [SF]; Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht?; Lauter Lügen. 1938/39: Rosemarie will nicht mehr lügen [SF]; Der anonyme Brief [SF]; Männer müssen so sein; Der Florentiner Hut. 1939: Modell Lu [SF]; Das Stilett [SF]; Der überraschende Säugling [SF]; Paradies der Junggesellen; Kitty und die Weltkonferenz; Zwei Welten. 1939/40: Weißer Flieder. 1940: Falschmünzer; Wunschkonzert; Blutsbrüderschaft. 1940/41: Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska! 1941: Familienanschluß; Kleine Mädchen – große Sorgen; Was geschah in dieser Nacht? 1941/42: Die große Liebe; Maske in Blau. 1942: Das große Spiel; Karneval der Liebe. 1942/43: … und die Musik spielt dazu. Saison in Salzburg [MLV]; Großstadtmelodie. 1943: Geliebter Schatz; Ein Mann mit Grundsätzen?; Gabriele Dambrone. 1943/44: Das war mein Leben; Melusine. 1944: Intimitäten. 3x klingeln; Ein Mann wie Maximilian. 1944/45: Fahrt ins Glück; Liebe nach Noten. 1947: Und finden dereinst wir uns wieder … 1947/48: Straßenbekanntschaft [DD]. 1949: Heimliches Rendezvous; Gefährliche Gäste. 1950: Gabriela; Des Lebens Überfluß; Lockende Gefahr; Der Mann, der sich selber sucht; Mädchen mit Beziehungen; Die Dritte von rechts. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein [mus,act]. 1951: Engel im Abendkleid; Die verschleierte Maja; Tanz ins Glück [AT]; Kommen Sie am Ersten …!; Fräulein Bimbi [AT]. 1951/52: Haus im Haus [SD]; Die Stimme des Anderen; Der bunte Traum. 1952: Der keusche Lebemann; Toxi; Mikosch rückt ein; Tanzende Sterne; Königin der Arena. 1953: Das singende Hotel; Keine Angst vor großen Tieren; Das Nachtgespenst [pro]; Die Kaiserin von China; Heimlich, still und leise; Schlagerparade [mus,act]; Blume von Hawaii. 1954: Eine Frau von heute [act]; Fräulein vom Amt [mus,pro]; Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel; Große StarParade [mus,act]; Mannequins für Rio / They Were So Young [MLV – DE/US]; An jedem Finger zehn; Die Stadt ist voller Geheimnisse; Ewiger Walzer [act]. 1955: Der falsche Adam; Das Wunder des Films [DO/FF]; Vatertag; Wie werde ich Filmstar? [supv,mus,pro]; Drei Tage Mittelarrest; Banditen der Autobahn; Zwei blaue Augen. 1956: Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Die gestohlene Hose; Mädchen mit schwachem Gedächtnis; Zu Befehl, Frau Feldwebel! [mus,pro]; Roter Mohn [AT]; Der schräge Otto. 1956/57: Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Tolle Nacht; Vater sein dagegen sehr; Drei Mann auf einem Pferd; Es wird alles wieder gut; Nachts im Grünen Kakadu; Das Herz von St. Pauli; Die Beine von Dolores; Zwei Herzen im Mai. 1957/58: Lilli. Ein Mädchen aus der Großstadt. 1958: Hoppla, jetzt kommt Eddie. 1959: Bobby Dodd greift ein; Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee. 1959/60: Als geheilt entlassen. 1960: Pension Schöller; Mal drunter – mal drüber; Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehn; Kauf Dir einen bunten Luftballon [DE/AT]; Mein Mann, das Wirtschaftswunder. 1961: Bei Pichler stimmt die Kasse nicht.
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GOTTFRIED JOHN
GOTTFRIED JOHN Born August 29, 1942, Berlin (Germany) With his tall, gaunt frame, melancholic face, and deep, sonorous voice, John became one of the most distinctive German actors from the 1970s onwards, also contributing subtle performances to international productions. John began his stage career in the early 1960s, and became closely associated at the theatres of Krefeld and Heidelberg with the avant-garde director Hans Neuenfels, who cast him in roles including Shakespeare’s Richard III and Macbeth. Moving to Munich, John made his official film debut (following some uncredited bit parts in the early 1960s) in the title role of Volker Vogeler’s JAIDER, DER EINSAME JÄGER (Jaider, The Lonely Hunter, 1970/71), in which his screen presence was compared to Clint Eastwood. He then played the lead in Hans W. Geissendörfer’s western CARLOS (1970/71). Both films established his screen persona as a melancholic rebel and taciturn loner. Beginning with the television series ACHT STUNDEN SIND KEIN TAG (1972), John appeared regularly in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films, most notably as a Jewish property developer in IN EINEM JAHR MIT 13 MONDEN (In a Year With 13 Moons, 1982) and as the hero’s nemesis in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80). During the 1970s, John also often had guest parts in television series such as DERRICK and DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner). Since the 1980s John’s career became more international including big-screen productions such as MATA HARI (1984) and the British television series GAME, SET, AND MATCH (1987). In the mid-1990s, memorable appearances included a megalomaniac Russian general in the James Bond adventure GOLDENEYE (1995), a lead in the atmospheric British film INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA (1995) and a supporting role in Volker Schlöndorff’s European co-production DER UNHOLD (The Ogre, 1995/96). In three television films under the series title BECKMANN UND MARKOWSKI (1994–99), John starred as maverick police inspector Beckmann who is also an alcoholic and a gambler. John revealed a hitherto largely untapped talent for farcical comedy when he played Julius Caesar in Claude Zidi’s Franco-German comic book adaptation ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX CONTRE CÉSAR (Asterix and Obelix Against Caesar, 1998/99). This was followed by other figures from classical or biblical antiquity including King Herod Antipas in MARIA MADDALENA (1999/2000), and Cicero in IMPERIUM: AUGUSTUS (2002/03). [act – DE – TV] 1961/62: Café Oriental [FF]. 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt [FF]. 1970/71: Jaider – der
einsame Jäger; Carlos. 1972: Acht Stunden sind kein Tag [5 episodes]. 1973: Welt am Draht. 1975: Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt zum Himmel [FF]; Der Kommissar: Der Held des Tages. 1976: Derrick: Das Superding. 1976/77: Bolwieser [TV]. 1976/83: Bolwieser [FF]. 1976-80: Jörg Preda berichtet [TVS]. 1977: Edwards Film [AT]; Und Rosa und Marilyn und … 1977/78: Fedora [FF]; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair [FF]; Marija. 1978: Ich hab’ dich lieb; Die Ehe der Maria Braun [FF]; 1982: Gutenbach; In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden [FF]; Wo die Liebe hinfällt. 1978/79: Die große Flatter; Theodor Chindler. 1979: Die Ratten. 1979/80: Berlin Alexanderplatz [13 episodes – TVS]. 1980: Reiseabrechnung; Lili Marleen [FF]; Die Priwalowschen Millionen [TVS]. 1981/ 82: Ente oder Trente [FF]. 1982: Bartholomé oder Die Rückkehr der weißen Götter / Bartolomé de Las Casas [FF – DE/MX/CR]. 1982/83: Die Matrosen von Kronstadt. 1983/ 84: Super [FF]; Die Mitläufer [DO/FF]. 1984: Chinese Boxes [FF – DE/GB]; Mata Hari [FF – GB]. 1984/85: Die Schwärmer. 1985: Verworrene Bilanzen; Otto – Der Film [FF]; Ein Fall für zwei: Fluchtgeld. 1985/86: Pattbergs Erbe. 1986: Das Gehirn zu Pferde; Of Pure Blood [US]; Franza [AT]. 1987: Game, Set, and Match [TVS – GB]. 1987/88: Blue Blood; Schön war die Zeit [FF]. 1988/89: La piovra 4 [TVS – IT]. 1989: Ein Fall für zwei: Seitensprung. 1989/90: Der achte Tag [FF]. 1990: Death Has a Bad Reputation [GB]; Night of the Fox [US/GB/FR/DE]; Wings of Fame [FF – NL/ GB]; Drehort Pfarrhaus. 1990/91: Verfehlung [FF]. 1991: Ich schenk Dir die Sterne … [FF – DE/AT/FR]. 1992: Space Rangers [TVS – US]; Die Zeit danach [FF – AT]; Colpo di coda / Pakt mit dem Tod / Échec et mat [IT/DE/FR]. 1993: Novalis – Die blaue Blume [FF]; Das Sahara-Projekt; La Bibbia: Abramo / Die Bibel – Abraham / Abraham [IT/DE/US]. 1993/94: Polizeiruf 110: Arme Schweine. 1994: Elfenbein; Beckmann & Markowski: Tödliches Netz; Die Falle; Wolffs Revier: Taekwon-Do. 1995: Institute Benjamenta (This Dream People Call Human Life) [FF – GB]; Ein letzter Wille; Tatort: Der König kehrt zurück; GoldenEye [FF – GB]. 1995/ 96: Brüder auf Leben und Tod; Der Unhold / Le roi des aulnes / The Ogre [FF – DE/FR/GB]. 1996: La casa dove abitava Corinne / Bedrohliche Schatten [IT/DE]; Beckmann & Markowski: Im Zwiespalt der Gefühle. 1997: Millenium: The Hand of Saint Sebastian [US]. 1997/98: Bin ich schön? [FF]. 1998: Die Fremde in meiner Brust; Glatteis. 1998/ 99: Tales of the South Seas: Paradise Regained / Jack London: Abenteuer Südsee [AU/FR/DE]; Astérix et Obélix contre César / Asterix und Obelix gegen Caesar / Asterix e Obelix contro Cesare [FF – FR/DE/IT]; Balzac [FR]. 1999: Beckmann & Markowski: Gehetzt; Teuflischer Engel. 1999/2000: Gli amici di Gesù: Maria Maddalena / JesusLegenden: Maria Magdalena [IT/DE]. 2000: Proof of Life [FF – US]. 2001: Nancy & Frank – A Manhattan Love Story [FF]. 2001/02: Die Cleveren: Arzt und Dämon. 2002: Der Solist: In eigener Sache; The Gathering Storm [US]. 2002/ 03: Imperium: Augustus / Mein Vater, der Kaiser / Mi padre, el emperador [IT/DE/ES/FR]. 2003: Daddy / Entrusted / Im Visier des Bösen [FR/GB/DE]; Das Sams in Gefahr [FF]; Renzo e Lucia [IT]. 2003/04: Julie, chevalier de Maupin / Il mistero di Julie [FR/IT]. 2004: Die schöne Braut in Schwarz; Donna Leon – Acqua alta; Cowgirl [FF]. 2004/05: The Piano Tuner of EarthQuakes / L’Accordeur de tremblements
RUDOLF JUGERT de terre [FF – GB/DE/FR]. 2005/06: Störtebeker. 2006/07: Flood [GB/ZA/CA]; Das zweite Leben. 2007/08: Das Papstattentat; John Rabe [FF – DE/CN/FR]. 2008/09: Schwarze Blumen / Flores negras [FF – AT/DE/ES].
RUDOLF JUGERT (Rudolf Gustav Wilhelm Jugert) Born September 30, 1907, Hanover (Germany) Died April 14, 1979, Munich (West Germany) Helmut Käutner’s former assistant Jugert made his mark as director with a series of ambitious and highly popular early post-war West German productions. Studying a broad array of subjects at various universities while travelling with fiancée and dancer Katja Julius, he worked part-time at Leipzig’s Schauspielhaus theatre from 1931, and was engaged there as a dramaturge in 1934. Thereafter rising to the position of director and ultimately senior manager, he made Käutner’s acquaintance while the latter was performing with his ‘Die vier Nachrichter’ cabaret troupe. After fiancée Julius relocated to Italy on account of her Jewish roots in 1936, she financed Jugert’s training as a film director at Cinecittà’s Centro Sperimentale Cinematografico in Rome in 1938. Initially returning to Germany to assist on Käutner’s debut feature KITTY UND DIE WELTKONFERENZ (Kitty and the World Conference, 1939), Jugert went on to work on all but one of Käutner’s pictures up to 1943. However, he refused to comply with the Nazis’ demand that he direct a propaganda film in order to be allowed to helm a feature of his own. Julius meanwhile followed him to Germany and trained as a photographer in Hanover. Jugert was called up during the shooting of GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (Great Freedom No. 7, 1943/44), and ended the war as an American prisoner-of-war before finally marrying Julius in September 1945. He assisted Käutner anew on the first feature shot in the British Zone, the portmanteau film IN JENEN TAGEN (Seven Journeys, 1946/47), for which he also directed the fifth episode. Jugert’s own directorial debut, FILM OHNE TITEL (Film Without a Name, 1947/48), was produced by Käutner’s Camera-Film GmbH and became the most commercially successful film of 1948. His pacifist study ES KOMMT EIN TAG (A Day Will Come, 1950), starring Maria Schell, was in turn vaunted by some German critics and politicians as signalling the nation’s return to artistically outstanding filmmaking. Jugert thereafter shot three Hildegard Knef vehicles for Erich Pommer’s Intercontinental Film GmbH: the Käutner-scripted NACHTS AUF DEN STRASSEN (Detour, 1951), the melodrama ILLUSION IN MOLL (Illusion in a Minor Key, 1952), and EINE LIEBESGESCHICHTE (A Love Story, 1953/ 54), based on Carl Zuckmayer’s novella. He also di-
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rected the Theodor Fontane adaptation ROSEN IM HERBST (Effi Briest, 1955). Beset by struggles with producers who repeatedly insisted on title changes or refused him the final cut, Jugert was regarded by 1960 as something of a hasbeen. Although his final cinema release, an adaptation of Charles Morgan’s bleak wartime resistance thriller KENNWORT: REIHER (The River Line, 1963/64), received critical acclaim, he turned almost exclusively to television from the early 1960s, which afforded him greater artistic freedom. His small-screen output included the films BERLINER BLOCKADE (Berlin Blockade, 1968), as well as series such as DER BASTIAN (Bastian, 1973) and, finally, UNTERNEHMEN RENTNERKOMMUNE (The Pensioners’ Commune, 1978/79). [ass-dir – DE] 1939: Kitty und die Weltkonferenz. 1939/40: Frau nach Maß. 1940: Kleider machen Leute. 1940/41: Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska! 1941: Leichte Muse. 1941/ 42: Fronttheater. 1942: Wir machen Musik. 1942/43: Romanze in Moll. 1943: Geliebter Schatz. 1943/44: Große Freiheit Nr. 7. 1944/45: Unter den Brücken. [dir – DE] 1946/47: In jenen Tagen [ass-dir,act]. 1947/48: Film ohne Titel [dir,co-scr]. 1949: Hallo Fräulein!; 1 × 1 der Ehe. 1950: Es kommt ein Tag. 1950/51: Eine Frau mit Herz. 1951: Nachts auf den Straßen. 1952: Ich heiße Niki; Illusion in Moll. 1953: Ein Herz spielt falsch; Jonny rettet Nebrador [dir,act]. 1953/54: Eine Liebesgeschichte. 1954: Gefangene der Liebe; Ihre große Prüfung. 1955: Rosen im Herbst. 1955/56: Studentin Helene Willfüer; Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe [AT]. 1956: Nina; Der Meineidbauer. 1957: Der Mörder [TV]; Ein Stück vom Himmel; Eva küßt nur Direktoren [AT]. 1958: Frauensee [AT]. 1959: Die feuerrote Baronesse; Endstation Rote Laterne; Die Wahrheit über Rosemarie. 1960: Der Satan lockt mit Liebe; Die junge Sünderin. 1960/61: Hochzeit der Feinde. 1961: Zeit des Glücks [TV]; Die Stunde, die du glücklich bist. 1962: Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius; Axel Munthe, der Arzt von San Michele / Le livre de San Michele / Donne senza paradiso [codir – DE/FR/IT]. [dir – DE – TV] 1962/63: Johannes-Passion; Mario und der Zirkus; Ein Windstoß. 1963: Bezaubernde Mama. 1963/ 64: Kennwort: Reiher [FF]. 1964: Ein Pfirsich für die Dame. 1965: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott; Mord auf Befehl; Intermezzo; Paris muß brennen!; Tatort; Die 5. Kolonne: Ein Mann namens Pavlov; Der Tag danach. 1966: Die 5. Kolonne: Stahlschrank SG III; Der Fall Vera Brühne; Das Mädchen Angelika. 1966/67: Der Vater und sein Sohn [13 episodes – TVS]. 1967: Hugenberg – Gegen die Republik; Brückenallee Nr. 3. 1967/68: Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Reifenspur. 1968: Der Fall Tuchatschewskij; Komödie um Karin; Berliner Blockade; Der Reformator. 1968/69: Das Wunder von Lengede. 1969: Verratener Widerstand; Jacques Offenbach; Meine Schwiegersöhne und ich [13 episodes – TVS]. 1970: Blaue Blüten [AT]; Preußen über alles – Bismarcks deutsche Einigung. 1971: König Drosselbart [SF]; Annemarie Lesser – Legende einer Spionin [dir, scr]. 1972: Unsere heile Welt [13 episodes – TVS]. 1973:
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Der Bastian [13 episodes – TVS]. 1974: Der Herr Kottnik [13 episodes – TVS]. 1974/75: Der wilde und der zahme Westen [28 episodes – TVS]. 1975: Unsere Penny [13 episodes – TVS]. 1975-76: Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre [season 4 – 6 episodes – TVS]. 1976: König Drosselbart [CH]; Allerleirauh [CH]; Die Gänsemagd [CH]. 1976/77: Die kluge Bauerntochter [CH]; Frau Holle [CH]. 1977: Drei sind einer zuviel [13 episodes – TVS]. 1978: Unternehmen Rentnerkommune [13 episodes – TVS]. 1978/79: Balthasar im Stau. 1982: Liebe alte Bekannte [co-dir].
JENNY JUGO (Eugenie Walter) Born June 14, 1905, Mürzzuschlag (AustriaHungary) Died September 30, 2001, Geretsried (Germany) Exhibiting a combination of vitality, coquetry, charm and great naturalness in front of the camera, brunette Jugo was a major star of the 1930s and 1940s, primarily in romantic comedies. The convent-educated daughter of a factory manager, Walter entered into a brief marriage with actor Emo Jugo when she was sixteen, and retained her name throughout her professional career. Securing a threeyear contract with Ufa in 1924, she initially made little impact in dramatic roles. She then appeared in two sumptuous productions by Russian émigré directors, Aleksandr Volkov’s CASANOVA (The Loves of Casanova, 1926/27), shot in Paris, and Aleksandr Razumni’s PIQUE-DAME (Queen of Spades, 1927), shot in Berlin. Her breakthrough was opposite Werner Krauss in Hans Behrendt’s adaptation of Carl Sternheim’s satire, DIE HOSE (A Royal Scandal, 1927). She subsequently worked repeatedly with Behrendt, and starred with Krauss again in Arthur Robison’s LOOPING THE LOOP (1927/28), a touching tale of romance between a young woman and a sad circus clown. With the advent of sound, Jugo for the first time undertook acting and diction lessons, although her career was aided immeasurably by her liaison with Ufa executive Ernst Hugo Correll. Following a few lightweight comic dramas, she settled into a series of eleven star vehicles directed by Erich Engel, beginning with situation comedies WER NIMMT DIE LIEBE ERNST? (Who Takes Love Seriously?, 1931) and FÜNF VON DER JAZZBAND (Five of the Jazz Band, 1932) and later taking in the role of Eliza in George Bernard Shaw’s PYGMALION (1935) as well as the costume dramas MÄDCHENJAHRE EINER KÖNIGIN (Girlhood of a Queen, 1935/36) and DIE NACHT MIT DEM KAISER (The Night With the Emperor, 1936). The pair’s final film was VIEL LÄRM UM NIXI (Much Ado About Nixi, 1941), shot in Italy in both German and Italian language versions.
Jugo also stood out in a number of films by other directors, including Hanns Schwarz’s ZIGEUNER DER NACHT (Gypsies of the Night, 1932), Joe May’s EIN LIED FÜR DICH (A Song for You, 1932/33), Carl Boese’s FRÄULEIN FRAU (Miss Madame, 1933/34) and HERZ IST TRUMPF (Love All, 1934), and Willi Forst’s ALLOTRIA (Hokum, 1936). After the war, she headlined in the DEFA production TRÄUM’ NICHT, ANNETTE (Don’t Dream, Annette, 1948), directed by then-partner Eberhard Klagemann, who also produced her final pictures, Helmut Käutner’s KÖNIGSKINDER (Royal Children, 1949) and Erich Engel and Camillo Mastrocinque’s LAND DER SEHNSUCHT (Land of Longing, 1950). Thereafter Jugo retired, receiving the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for her outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1971. [act – DE] 1924: Die Puppe vom Lunapark; Der Turm des Schweigens. 1924/25: Die gefundene Braut. 1925: Blitzzug der Liebe; Liebe macht blind; Schiff in Not; Friesenblut; Der Kampf gegen Berlin; Wenn die Liebe nicht wär! 1926: Ledige Töchter. 1926/27: Prinz Louis Ferdinand; Casanova [FR]. 1927: Pique-Dame; Die Hose; Die indiskrete Frau. 1927/28: Sechs Mädchen suchen Nachtquartier; Looping the Loop. Die Todesschleife. 1928: Die Carmen von St. Pauli; Die blaue Maus. 1928/29: Die Flucht vor der Liebe. 1929: Die Schmugglerbraut von Mallorca; Der Bund der Drei. 1930: Heute Nacht – eventuell …!; Die große Sehnsucht; Kopfüber ins Glück [MLV – FR]. 1931: Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst? [MLV]; Ich bleib’ bei Dir [MLV]; Die nackte Wahrheit [MLV – FR/US]. 1932: Fünf von der Jazzband; Zigeuner der Nacht [MLV]; Eine Stadt steht Kopf. 1932/33: Ein Lied für Dich [MLV]. 1933: Es gibt nur eine Liebe. 1933/ 34: Fräulein Frau. 1934: … heute Abend bei mir!; Pechmarie; Herz ist Trumpf. 1935: Pygmalion. 1935/36: Mädchenjahre einer Königin. 1936: Allotria; Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser. 1936/37: Gefährliches Spiel. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne; Die kleine und die große Liebe. 1938/39: Ein hoffnungsloser Fall. 1939: Nanette. 1940: Unser Fräulein Doktor. 1941: Der Trichter Nr. 12 [SF]; Non mi sposo più [MLV – IT]; Viel Lärm um Nixi [MLV]. 1943: Die Gattin. 1944/45: Sag’ endlich ja. 1948: Träum’ nicht, Annette! [DD]. 1949: Königskinder. 1950: Land der Sehnsucht / Terra d’amore [DE/IT].
ALFRED JUNGE Born January 29, 1886, Görlitz, Schlesien (Germany) Died 16 July 1964, Bad Kissingen (Germany) The stage-trained set designer Junge worked on some of the key films of Weimar cinema, to become one of the most important art directors of British cinema, working for Gaumont-British, The Archers, and M-G-M’s British studio. After the early death of his father Junge began an apprenticeship with a housepainter, and took art school
ALFRED JUNGE
courses on the side. Stagestruck, from age eighteen he worked at the Stadttheater Görlitz, acting, painting, and creating special effects, for which he took a course in electricity. After work as a scenic artist and designer for provincial theatres, he moved to Berlin to work for the Staatsoper and the Staatstheater. His theatre career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. In 1920 he started working as a set designer at the Ufa studios. He got his first credit collaborating with Walter Reimann on the artistically ambitious Gloria-Film DIE GRÜNE MANUELA (Green Manuela, 1922/23), directed by E. A. Dupont, with whom he worked steadily for the next few years, beginning with DAS ALTE GESETZ (The Ancient Law, 1923), and who would have an important influence on Junge’s career. For the stylized picture DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks, 1923) Junge and Fritz Maurischat had to turn director-designer Paul Leni’s imaginative sketches into three-dimensional reality. Another director he repeatedly worked with in the early 1920s at Gloria was Hans Steinhoff, e.g. on MENSCH GEGEN MENSCH (Man Against Man, 1924), collaborating with O. F. Werndorff, with whom he also worked on Dupont’s international success VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925). From the mid-1920s the inventive Junge worked on standard productions for Ufa, as well as for smaller firms like Phoebus, Greenbaum, or National-Film, and directors such as Holger-Madsen (SPITZEN, Lace, 1926), Erich Waschneck (DIE CARMEN VON ST. PAULI, Carmen of St. Pauli, 1928; DIE DREI UM EDITH, Three Around Edith, 1929), and Wilhelm Dieterle (ICH LEBE FÜR DICH, I Live for You, 1928/29). When E. A. Dupont returned from Hollywood to take over B.I.P. studios at Elstree as production manager and director in 1927, he called upon Junge – along with German cinematographer Werner Brandes – to work with him on MOULIN ROUGE and PICCADILLY, both of which were set in the world of the variety theatre. After several more silent films in Germany, Junge returned to Elstree in 1930 to collaborate with Dupont on his multilingual productions (MLVs) TWO WORLDS / ZWEI WELTEN / LES DEUX MONDES and CAPE FORLORN / MENSCHEN IM KÄFIG / LE CAP PERDU (again working with Maurischat). Criss-
crossing the Channel, Junge designed sets for MLVs such as Dupont’s SALTO MORTALE in Babelsberg and Alexander Korda’s MARIUS / ZUM GOLDENEN ANKER in Joinville, as well as some other German productions. In 1932 Junge definitively relocated to London, where Michael Balcon made him head of the art department at the Gaumont-British Studios in Shepherd’s Bush. One of his first assignments there was WALTZ TIME (1933), an English version of Johann
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Strauß’s ‘Die Fledermaus’ directed by Wilhelm Thiele, Ufa’s film-operetta specialist. Until 1938 he designed sets for all kinds of genres, collaborating with a range of the studio’s British directors, including Alfred Hitchcock (THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, YOUNG AND INNOCENT) and Victor Saville (I WAS A SPY, EVERGREEN, IT’S LOVE AGAIN). Other films were made with émigré directors, such as Anatole Litvak (SLEEPING CAR) and Lothar Mendes (JEW SÜSS). His final film for Gaumont-British was Carol Reed’s CLIMBING HIGH in 1938. The following year Junge worked for the new British studio of M-G-M at Denham, creating the sets of an English public school for Sam Wood’s GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1939). On Gaumont-British’s THE FIRE RAISERS (1933) Junge worked for the first time with Michael Powell. In 1939 they renewed their collaboration on the Conrad Veidt war thriller CONTRABAND, written by Hungarian émigré Emeric Pressburger. When Powell and Pressburger formed their company The Archers in January 1942, Junge joined them as art director. Over the next five years, the team created a series of masterworks of the British cinema: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, A CANTERBURY TALE, I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, and finally BLACK NARCISSUS, which earned Junge an Oscar for his stunning Technicolor design. In 1948 Junge took over the art department at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios at Elstree, which was responsible for films made by US directors in European studios. His work there included films by George Cukor, Gene Kelly (whose INVITATION TO THE DANCE was shot in 1952/53, but not released until 1956), Richard Thorpe (the Arthurian adventure KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE earned Junge another Oscar nomination in 1953), Curtis Bernhardt, Delmer Daves, John Ford, Mitchell Leisen, and Richard Brooks. His last assignment, as a freelance designer, was Charles Vidor’s Hemingway adaptation A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1957), made on location in Italy and at the Cinecittà studios; Junge left this fraught David O. Selznick production after scouting locations in northern Italy. Junge, whose colourful sketches were exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, died in Germany while recuperating from a stroke. [des – DE] 1922: Der falsche Dimitry [ass-des]. 1922/23: Die grüne Manuela [co-des]; Inge Larsen [co-des]. 1923: Das alte Gesetz [co-des]; Das Wachsfigurenkabinett [co-des]. 1924: Mensch gegen Mensch [co-des]; Der Mann um Mitternacht; Die Kleine aus der Konfektion. 1924/25: Athleten. 1925: Sündenbabel; Ein Lebenskünstler; Die vertauschte Braut; Varieté [co-des]; Der Kampf
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gegen Berlin. 1926: Spitzen; Brennende Grenze; Liebeshandel; Die Tragödie eines Verlorenen. 1926/27: Da hält die Welt den Atem an [co-des]. 1927: Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin; Regine. 1927/28: Moulin Rouge [GB]. 1928: Die Carmen von St. Pauli; Piccadilly [GB]. 1928/29: Ich lebe für Dich [co-des]. 1929: Der Günstling von Schönbrunn [codes]; Die Drei um Edith. 1930: Two Worlds [MLV – GB/DE]; Zwei Welten [MLV – GB/DE]; Les deux mondes [MLV – GB/ DE/FR]; Cape Forlorn [MLV – co-des – GB]; Menschen im Käfig [MLV – co-des – GB]; Le cap perdu [MLV – co-des – GB]. 1931: Salto mortale [MLV – co-des]; Salto mortale [French MLV – co-des – DE/FR]; Les Nuits de Port-Said / Las noches de Port-Said [MLV – FR/US]; Marius [MLV – FR/US]; Zum goldenen Anker [MLV – FR/US]. 1931/32: Goldblondes Mädchen, ich schenk’ Dir mein Herz – Ich bin ja so verliebt … 1932: 8 Mädels im Boot; Teilnehmer antwortet nicht; After the Ball [MLV – GB]; The Midshipmaid [GB]. [des – GB] 1932/33: The Good Companions. 1933: Sleeping Car; Waltz Time; Britannia of Billingsgate; Orders Is Orders; The Ghoul; I Was a Spy; The Fire Raisers; Just Smith; Channel Crossing; A Cuckoo in the Nest; Friday the 13th [co-des]; The Constant Nymph; Turkey Time. 1933/34: The Night of the Party. 1934: Jack Ahoy; Red Ensign; Evergreen [co-des]; A Cup of Kindness; Wild Boy; Little Friend; My Song for You [MLV – GB/DE]; Evensong; Jew Süss; Lady in Danger; Road House; The Iron Duke; The Man Who Knew Too Much [co-des]; Dirty Work. 1935: Bulldog Jack; Brown on Resolution; The Clairvoyant; Me and Marlborough; Car of Dreams; The Guv’nor [MLV]. 1936: It’s Love Again; Everything Is Thunder; His Lordship. 1936/37: Head Over Heels. 1937: King Solomon’s Mines; Gangway; Young and Innocent. 1938: The Citadel [co-des]; Climbing High. 1939: Goodbye, Mr. Chips. 1939/40: Contraband; Busman’s Holiday. 1941: He Found a Star. 1943: The Silver Fleet; The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp; The Volunteer [SF – des,act]. 1944: A Canterbury Tale. 1945: I Know Where I’m Going! 1946: A Matter of Life and Death. 1947: Black Narcissus. 1948/49: Edward, My Son. 1949: Conspirator. 1950: The Miniver Story. 1951: Calling Bulldog Drummond. 1951/52: Ivanhoe [co-des]. 1952: The Hour of 13. 1952/53: Time Bomb. 1953: Never Let Me Go; Invitation to the Dance [co-des]; Mogambo; Knights of the Round Table [co-des]. 1954: Flame and the Flesh [US]; Seagulls Over Sorrento; Betrayed; Beau Brummell; Bedevilled [US]. 1955: The Adventures of Quentin Durward; That Lady [co-des]. 1956/57: The Barretts of Wimpole Street. 1957: A Farewell to Arms [pre-pro – US].
WINFRIED JUNGE Born July 19, 1935, Berlin (Germany) Documentarist Junge is best known for his long running studies of individuals from the East German village of Golzow, whose lives he has followed on film for four decades. Commencing a degree in German literature at East Berlin’s Humboldt University in 1953, Junge transferred to Babelsberg Film Academy the following year
and published film reviews in student journal ‘Forum’ from 1955 to 1961. Graduating in 1958, he joined DEFA’s science films unit, initially as a scenarist and then as assistant to director Karl Gass. He moved to the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries in 1961, and also directed a documentary-style narrative feature based on a script by Vera and Claus Küchenmeister, DER TAPFERE SCHULSCHWÄNZER (Brave Little Truant-Boy, 1967), depicting an eleven-year-old’s discovery of East Berlin’s old quarter and newly constructed city-centre. Initially conceived as a one-off, Junge’s documentary, ‘WENN ICH ERST ZUR SCHULE GEH …’ (When I Finally Go to School, 1961) prompted by Gass, recorded a year-group’s first day at school in Golzow, a village east of Berlin. The project started to develop into a long-term chronicle with NACH EINEM JAHR (After One Year, 1962). Junge and his regular cameraman Hans-Eberhard Leupold received numerous awards for their subsequent Golzow documentaries, charting the students’ progress as eleven- and fourteen-year-olds, and then as exam finalists and jobholders. In terms of its scope and aims, Junge’s project can be compared with the highly acclaimed British SEVEN UP! series, a similar long-term documentary initiated by Michael Apted for Granada Television. However, Junge’s Golzow series predates its British equivalent by three years. Material from different episodes was edited into the feature-length ANMUT SPARET NICHT NOCH MÜHE (The History of Golzow’s Children, 1979) and the four-hour LEBENSLÄUFE (Life Stories, 1980/81), which profiled nine of the documentaries’ subjects in detail. The series continued unabated following reunification, co-directed with former editor Barbara Becher (b. 1943), whom Junge married in 1968. The four-and-a-half hour DREHBUCH: DIE ZEITEN (Changing Times, 1992/93) featured Winfried and Barbara Junge reflecting on the dictates of East German censorship on the series’ previous entries, while the couple’s subsequent individual portraits included BRIGITTE UND MARCEL (Brigitte and Marcel, 1961– 98), which reached a poignant climax with twentynine-year-old Brigitte’s death to heart disease, and the emigration story JOCHEN – EIN GOLZOWER AUS PHILADELPHIA (Jochen: A Golzower from Philadelphia, 2001). Junge’s other multi-part projects under the GDR comprised an award-winning series about the construction of a hydroelectric plant at Markersbach in the Erzgebirge mountains, which lasted from 1973 to 1981, and a two-part co-production with Britain’s Amber Films workshop, VON MARX UND ENGELS ZU MARKS & SPENCER / FROM MARKS & SPENCER TO MARX AND ENGELS (1987/88), comparing working-class lifestyles in the shipping ports of Rostock and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
CURD JÜRGENS [dir,scr – DD] 1959/60: Freiheit, Freiheit über alles [SD – ass-dir]. 1960: Kosmos – Erinnerungen an Alexander von Humboldt [DO – ass-dir]; Naturschutz unserer Zeit [SD – co-scr]; Fünf Jahreszeiten [SD – ass-dir]. 1960/61: Bis der Mensch kam [SD]. 1961: … und es staubt nicht mehr [SD – scr]; Geht Ihnen ein Licht auf? [SD – co-scr]; Wie wär’s mit…? [SD – scr]; Allons enfants … pour l’Algérie [DO – ass-dir]; ‘Wenn ich erst zur Schule geh’ …’ [SD]; Der Affenschreck [SD]. 1962: Nach einem Jahr. Beobachtungen in einer 1. Klasse [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1963: Der Kinder wegen – Flucht ins Vaterland [SD – dir,co-scr]; Ausgerechnet Hygiene [SD – scr]; Ferientage [SD]. 1964: Von lernenden Menschen [SD]; Kinder lernen in aller Welt [SD]. 1965: Filmsommerliches [SD]; Wir verstehen uns [SD – co-scr]; Studentinnen [SD]; Sie filmen an der Moldau [TVD – dir,co-scr]. 1966: Elf Jahre alt [SD – dir,coscr]. 1967: Der tapfere Schulschwänzer [dir,co-scr]. 1967/68: Mit beiden Beinen im Himmel [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1968: Jubiläum einer Stadt – 750 Jahre Rostock [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1969: Wenn man vierzehn ist [SD – dir,coscr]; Auf der Oder [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1970: In Syrien auf Montage [SD – DD/SY]. 1970/71: Syrien auf den zweiten Blick [SD]. 1971: Einberufen [SD]; Die Prüfung – Chronik einer Schulklasse [SD]. 1972: Wenn jeder tanzen würde, wie er wollte, na! [SD]. 1973: Ich bin ein junger Pionier [DO]. 1973/74: Keine Pause für Löffler [DO]; Sagen wird man über unsere Tage [DO]. 1975: Ich sprach mit einem Mädchen [SD]. 1976: Jugend und Solidarität. DDR-Magazin 6/76 [SD – co-dir,co-scr]; Somalia – Im Jahre 7 seiner Revolution [TVD]; Somalia – Die große Anstrengung [SD]; Somalia – Nicht länger arm sein [SD]. 1976/77: Freunde fern in Afrika [SD]. 1977: Termin Spirale I [SD]. 1978: Akrobaten ohne Seil [TVD – dir,co-scr]; Hummelflug [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1979: Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe. Die Geschichte der Kinder von Golzow. Eine Chronik [DO]. 1980/81: Markersbach. Energie des Wassers und des Menschen [TVD – dir,co-scr]; Lebensläufe. Die Geschichte der Kinder von Golzow in einzelnen Porträts [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1984: Diese Golzower. Umstandsbestimmung eines Ortes [TVD]. 1986/87: Das Pflugwesen – es entwickelt sich [SD]. 1987/88: Diese Briten, diese Deutschen. Zueinander unterwegs nach Newcastle und Rostock. 1. Von Marx und Engels zu Marks & Spencer / 2. From Marks & Spencer to Marx and Engels [DO – co-dir,co-scr – DD/GB]. 1988: Gruß aus Libyen oder Grün ist eine schöne Farbe [SD]. 1989/90: Nicht jeder findet sein Troja [DO – co-dir,scr – DD/SY]; … und der Vater blieb im Krieg [TVD]. [co-dir,co-scr + Barbara Junge – DE] 1992: Der DEFA-Komplex: Golzow – Eine unendliche Geschichte? [TVD – app]. 1992/93: Drehbuch: Die Zeiten. Drei Jahrzehnte mit den Kindern von Golzow und der DEFA [DO – dir,scr]. 1993/94: Das Leben des Jürgen von Golzow [DO]. 1995: Vielleicht bin ich ein Don Quichotte: Winfried Junge und die Kinder von Golzow [TVD – app]; Die Geschichte vom Onkel Willy aus Golzow [DO]. 1996/97: Da habt ihr mein Leben – Marieluise, Kind von Golzow [DO]. 1997: Was geht euch mein Leben an [DO]. 1998: Brigitte und Marcel – Golzower Lebenswege [DO]. 1998/99: Ein Mensch wie Dieter – Golzower [DO]. 2001: Jochen –
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ein Golzower aus Philadelphia [DO]. 2003: Eigentlich wollte ich Förster werden – Bernd aus Golzow [DO]. 2005-08: Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind … Die Kinder von Golzow. Das Ende der unendlichen Geschichte [4 parts – DO].
CURD JÜRGENS (Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens) Born December 13, 1915, Munich (Germany) Died June 18, 1982, Vienna (Austria) Blue-eyed, blond, and gruffly masculine, Jürgens was both West German cinema’s highest-paid leading man of the 1950s and a sought-after international star. Growing up in Berlin, Jürgens took acting lessons and was discovered by actor-director Willi Forst, debuting as the youthful Emperor Franz Joseph in Herbert Maisch’s KÖNIGSWALZER (The Royal Waltz, 1935). He appeared at various Berlin theatres from 1936 to 1938, and thereafter joined Vienna’s Deutsches Volkstheater until 1941, as well as Berlin’s Komödie from 1940 to 1942 and Vienna’s Burgtheater from 1941 to 1953. Initially in Austrian pictures after the war, Jürgens worked in West German productions from 1950, playing both romantic leads and action heroes, such as the captain of the cavalry in Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s DER LETZTE WALZER (The Last Waltz, 1953). He achieved lasting success as the Luftwaffe commander in Helmut Käutner’s adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s play DES TEUFELS GENERAL (The Devil’s General, 1954/55) and starred opposite Yves Montand in Yves Ciampi’s LES HÉROS SONT FATIGUÉS (Heroes and Sinners, 1955). After being bewitched by Brigitte Bardot in Roger Vadim’s ET DIEU CRÉA LA FEMME (… And God Created Woman, 1956), he returned to playing dashing adventurers including the leads in Carmine Gallone’s screen version of Jules Verne’s MICHEL STROGOFF (Michael Strogoff, 1956) as well as another Käutner’s Zuckmayer adaptation, DER SCHINDERHANNES (Duel in the Forest, 1958). Cast in numerous Hollywood productions, his costars included Robert Mitchum in Dick Powell’s THE ENEMY BELOW (1957), Ingrid Bergman in Mark Robson’s THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS, Danny Kaye in Peter Glenville’s ME AND THE COLONEL (both 1958), Orson Welles in Lewis Gilbert’s FERRY TO HONG KONG (1959), and he played a Bond villain opposite Roger Moore in Gilbert’s THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977). His West German productions from the 1960s onwards were largely forgettable, including a series of 1970s films set in St. Pauli, Hamburg’s red-light district. He was later offered more ambitious roles in television miniseries such as an adaptation of Stefan Heym’s novel COLLIN (1981) and Simon Langton’s SMILEY’S PEOPLE (1981/82) with Alec Guinness.
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Jürgens directed four films during his career, none of which were particularly distinguished: PRÄMIEN AUF DEN TOD (Premiums for Corpses, 1949), GANGSTERPREMIERE (The Gangsters’ Opening Night, 1951), OHNE DICH WIRD ES NACHT (Lost Without You, 1956) and BANKRAUB IN DER RUE LATOUR (Bank Robbery in the Rue Latour, 1961). On stage, he returned to Vienna’s Burgtheater from 1965 to 1968, and again from 1973, as well as appearing as Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ‘Jedermann’ (Everyman) at the Salzburg Festival. As a writer, his play ‘Geliebter Michael’ (Beloved Michael) premiered in Munich in 1946. His autobiography, chronicling his partying, jet-set lifestyle, several marriages, and his career, became a bestseller in 1976. Jürgens received the German Film Award for outstanding lifetime achievement in 1981. [act – DE] 1935: Königswalzer [MLV]. 1935/36: Familienparade. 1936: Die Unbekannte. 1937: Liebe kann lügen; Zu neuen Ufern. 1938/39: Salonwagen E 417. 1939: Die gute, alte Zeit [SF]. 1939/40: Weltrekord im Seitensprung. 1940: Herz ohne Heimat; Operette. 1942: Stimme des Herzens; Wen die Götter lieben. Mozart. 1942/43: Frauen sind keine Engel. 1943: Ein glücklicher Mensch. 1943/44: Eine kleine Sommermelodie. 1944: Am Vorabend. 1944/ 45: Wiener Mädeln. 1947: Das singende Haus [AT]; Hin und her [AT]. 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune [AT]; Der himmlische Walzer [AT]; An klingenden Ufern [AT]; Verlorenes Rennen [AT]; Das Kuckucksei [AT]. 1948/49: Lambert fühlt sich bedroht [AT]. 1949: Hexen [AT]; Schuß durchs Fenster [AT]; Prämien auf den Tod [dir,co-scr,act – AT]. 1950: Küssen ist keine Sünd’ [DE/AT]; Gute Nacht, Mary; Pikanterie; Ein Lächeln im Sturm [MLV – FR]. 1950/51: Talent zum Glück. 1951: Der schweigende Mund [AT]; Gangsterpremiere [dir,co-scr,act – AT]. 1952: Knall und Fall als Hochstapler [DE/AT]; Haus des Lebens; 1. April 2000 [AT]; Du bist die Rose vom Wörthersee; Praterherzen [AT]. 1953: Man nennt es Liebe; Musik bei Nacht; Der letzte Walzer; Alles für Papa. 1953/54: Meines Vaters Pferde. 1. Lena und Nicoline; Rummelplatz der Liebe / … und immer lockt die Sünde [MLV – US/DE]. 1954: Eine Frau von heute; Gefangene der Liebe; Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr; Du bist die Richtige [DE/AT]; Orient Express / Orient-Express / Orientexpreß [ass-dir,act – IT/FR/DE]. 1954/55: Des Teufels General. 1955: Liebe ohne Illusion; Die Ratten; Les héros sont fatigués / Die Helden sind müde [FR/DE]; Du mein stilles Tal; Teufel in Seide. 1956: Die goldene Brücke; Ohne Dich wird es Nacht [dir,act]; Et Dieu créa la femme [FR]; Londra chiama Polo Nord [IT]; Michel Strogoff / Michele Strogoff / Mihajlo Strogov [FR/IT/YU]; Œil pour oeil / Occhio per occhio [FR/IT]. 1957: Bitter Victory / Amère victoire [GB/FR]; Les espions / Le spie [FR/IT]; The Enemy Below [US]; Tamango / Tamango [FR/IT]. 1958: This Happy Feeling [US]; Me and the Colonel [US]; Der Schinderhannes; The Inn of the Sixth Happiness [GB]; Le vent se lève / Il vento si alza [FR/IT]. 1959: Ferry to Hong Kong [GB]; The Blue Angel [US]; Katia [FR]. 1959/60: Wernher von Braun / I Aim at the Stars
[DE/US]. 1960: Schachnovelle; Gustav Adolfs Page [AT]. 1961: Bankraub in der Rue Latour [dir,act]; Le triomphe de Michel Strogoff / Il trionfo di Michele Strogoff [FR/IT]. 1961/62: The Longest Day [US]. 1962: Il disordine / Le désordre [IT/FR]; Dick Powell Theatre: The Great Anatole [TV – US]; I dongiovanni della Costa Azzurra [IT]. 1962/63: Die Dreigroschenoper / L’Opéra de quat’sous [DE/FR]; Miracle of the White Stallions [US]. 1963: Berlin-Melodie. Vom Zille-Ball zum Jazzlokal [TV]; Hide and Seek [GB]; Of Love and Desire [US]; Un château en Suède / Il castello in Svezia [FR/IT]; Psyche 59 [GB]; Begegnung in Salzburg / Deux jours à vivre [DE/FR]. 1963/64: Les parias de la gloire / Los parias de la gloria / I disperati della gloria [FR/IT/ES]. 1964: The Hell Walkers [TV – US]; DM-Killer [AT]; Lord Jim [GB]. 1965: Das Liebeskarussell [AT]. 1965/66: Zwei Girls vom roten Stern / Duel à la Vodka [DE/FR]; Der Kongreß amüsiert sich / Le congrès s’amuse [DE/AT/FR]. 1966: Das Geheimnis der gelben Mönche / Tiro a segno per uccidere [AT/IT]; Blüten, Gauner und die Nacht von Nizza / Le jardinier d’Argenteuil [DE/FR]; Der schwarze Freitag [TV]. 1966-67: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Five Daughters Affair [2 parts – TVS – US]. 1967: Der Lügner und die Nonne [AT/DE]; Zwischenstation mit Curd Jürgens [TVD]; Dalle Ardenne all’ inferno / … und morgen fahrt ihr zur Hölle / La gloire des canailles [IT/DE/FR]; Niente rose per OSS 117 / Pas de roses pour OSS 117 [IT/FR]. 1968: Der Arzt von St. Pauli; Babeck [TV]; Bitka na Neretvi / La battaglia della Neretva / Die Schlacht an der Neretva [YU/IT/DE]. 1968/69: The Assassination Bureau [GB]; La legione dei dannati / La brigada de los condenados / Die zum Teufel gehen [IT/ES/DE]. 1969: Battle of Britain [GB]; Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins; Hello – Goodbye [US]. 1969/70: Ohrfeigen; Das Stundenhotel von St. Pauli; Cannabis / New York – Parigi per una condanna a morte / Cannabis – Engel der Gewalt [FR/IT/DE]. 1970: The Invincible Six [US/IR]; Der Pfarrer von St. Pauli; Millionen nach Maß [TV]; The Mephisto Waltz [US]. 1971: Käpt’n Rauhbein aus St. Pauli; Fieras sin jaula / Due maschi per Alexa [ES/IT]; Nicholas and Alexandra [US]; Kill! [FR/ES/IT/DE]; Der Kommissar: Traum eines Wahnsinnigen [TV]. 1971/72: Wie bitte werde ich ein Held? / À la guerre comme à la guerre / Le eccitanti guerre di Adelina [DE/FR/IT]. 1972: Ansichten eines Stars – Gespräche mit Curd Jürgens [TVD – app]; Profession: Aventures [FR]. 1972/73: Occupation [TVS – GR]. 1973: Der Kommissar: Ein Mädchen nachts auf der Straße [TV]; Vault of Horror. EP: This Trick Will Kill You [GB]; Soft Beds, Hard Battles [GB]. 1973: Klimbim [episode 4 – TV]. 1974: A Fall of Eagles [TVS – GB]; Fräulein Else [TV – AT/DE]; Cagliostro [IT]; Die gelbe Nachtigall [TV – AT]. 1975: Derrick: Madeira [TV]; Der zweite Frühling; Povero cristo [IT]; Ab morgen sind wir reich und ehrlich / E una banca rapinammo per fatal combinazion [AT/IT]. 1975/76: Auch Mimosen wollen blühen; Folies bourgeoises / Twist / Die verrückten Reichen [FR/IT/DE]. 1976/77: Curd Jürgens – Der Filmstar, der vom Theater kam [TVD – app]. 1977: Der Koloß auf tönernen Füßen [TVD – app – AT]; The Spy Who Loved Me [GB]; La lunga strada senza polvere [IT]; Tatort: Rot, rot, tot [TV]. 1977/78: Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo. 1977-79: Missile X – Geheimauftrag Neutronenbombe / Allarme nucleare / La Guerra de los misiles [DE/IT/ES]. 1978/79: Steiner – Das
PHIL JUTZI Eiserne Kreuz. 2. Teil. 1979: Goldengirl [US]; Berggasse 19 [TV – AT/DE]; La gueule de l’autre [FR]. 1979/80: Warum die UFOs unseren Salat klauen. 1980/81: Tegeran-43 / Téhéran-43 [SU/FR/CH]. 1981: Collin [TV]. 1981/82: Smiley’s People [TV – GB].
PHIL JUTZI (Philipp Jutzi, aka Piel Jutzi) Born July 22, 1896, Alt-Leiningen (Germany) Died May 1, 1946, Neustadt an der Weinstraße (Germany) The director of several key works of Weimar realist cinema, Jutzi was a linchpin of left-wing filmmaking who went on to lend his services to the Nazis after 1933. The son of a tailor, he attended art college, initially becoming a landscape painter and, in 1916, designed artwork for cinema advertising. In 1919, he worked as cameraman, and later as director and scriptwriter, at the Heidelberg-based Internationale Film-Industrie, a company producing slapstick, detective, and Wild West genres in the German provinces. He came into contact with the communist organisation IAH (Internationale Arbeiterhilfe, or International Workers’ Relief) in Berlin at the beginning of the 1920s and became a cameraman, recording demonstrations and street riots. Jutzi then joined Prometheus Film, preparing German release versions of Soviet pictures including Eisenstein’s BRONENOSEC ‘POTËMKIN’ (Battleship Potemkin, 1925; sound version 1930) and in 1928 served as cinematographer on two German-Soviet co-productions, Grigori Roshal’s SALAMANDRA / FALSCHMÜNZER (Salamander) and Fedor Ozep’s (Fyodor Otsep’s) IVOJ TRUP / DER LEBENDE LEICHNAM (The Living Corpse). In 1928/29, Jutzi directed UM’S TÄGLICHE BROT – HUNGER IN WALDENBURG (The Shadow of the Mine), a semi-documentary on the poverty of Silesian coalminers, based on a script by Leo Lania (an English version, THE SHADOW OF A MINE, presented at the London Workers’ Film Society in 1929, is the only extant print). MUTTER KRAUSENS FAHRT INS GLÜCK (Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness, 1929), inspired by Heinrich Zille’s illustrations and photographs of working-class life in Berlin, became Prometheus Film’s greatest artistic and commercial success, as well as a canonical example of Weimar realist cinema. Jutzi then directed an adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s novel BERLIN – ALEXANDERPLATZ (1931) for Allianz-Tonfilm, starring Heinrich George as Franz Biberkopf. Several other projects, however, were scrapped due to internal differences at Prometheus Film. UM’S TÄGLICHE BROT and MUTTER KRAUSENS FAHRT INS GLÜCK were banned by the Nazis in
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1933. Although Jutzi, a former Communist Party member, had joined the NSDAP in March of that year, he was at first relegated to filming two-reel comedies and crime shorts. In 1934/35 he was able to direct two features in Austria – ASEW, about a Russian traitor who simultaneously heads a terror group and works for the secret police, and DER KOSAK UND DIE NACHTIGALL (The Cossack and the Nightingale), a romantic spy thriller. Back in Germany, he was offered further work on shorts and as a cameraman, including for the German Post Office’s trial television broadcasts in the late 1930s. Seriously incapacitated due to poor health from 1942, Jutzi shot a few information films for the National Film and Photographic Institute’s science and education division, before withdrawing to his parents’ house in Alt-Leiningen following the end of the war. [dir – DE] 1913: Fiesko. 1919: Das blinkende Fenster [dir,scr]; Der maskierte Schrecken [dir,scr]; Die Rache der Banditen [dir,scr]; Bull Arizona, der Wüstenadler [co-dir]; Die das Licht scheuen …! [dir,scr]. 1919/20: Das deutsche Lied. Henkerskarren und Königsthron [co-dir]. 1920: Red Bull, der letzte Apache; Feuerteufel; Bull Arizona. 2. Das Vermächtnis der Prärie; Der Fremde mit der Teufelsfratze 1921: Rote Rache; Die Piraten des Rio Negro. 1922: Der graue Hund. Greyhound. 1924/25: Fröhlich Pfalz – Gott erhalt’s [DO – co-cam]. 1925: Die große Gelegenheit [cocam]. 1926: Kladd und Datsch, die Pechvögel [dir,scr,cam, des]. 1926/27: Die Machnower Schleuse [SD – dir,cam, cut]. 1927: Die Rote Front marschiert [SD]; Kindertragödie [co-dir]. 1928: Salamandra / Falschmünzer [cam – SU/ DE]; Fröhliche Pfalz [SD – dir,cam,cut]; Weltstadt im Grünen [SD – dir,cam,cut]; ivoj trup / Der lebende Leichnam [cam – SU/DE]. 1928/29: Um’s tägliche Brot. Hunger in Waldenburg [dir,cam]; Die Ehe der Maria Lavalle [cocam]. 1929: Blutmai 1929 [SD – dir,cam,cut]; 1. Mai Weltfeiertag der Arbeiterklasse [SD – dir,scr,cut]; Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück [dir,cam]. 1929/30: 100.000 unter roten Fahnen [SD – dir,cam]. 1930: Die Todeszeche [SD – dir,cam]. 1931: Berlin – Alexanderplatz. Die Geschichte vom Franz Biberkopf. [dir – DE – SF] 1932: Was gibt’s Neues heut? [dir,cam]. 1932/33: Eine wie Du [dir,scr,cam]. 1933: Tempo, Carlo, Tempo; Die Goldgrube. 1934: Dr. Bluff; Los Nr. 13013 [dir,scr]; Herr Mahler in tausend Nöten; Herr oder Diener?; Frau Eva wird mondain!; Halb und halb; Carlos schönstes Abenteuer; Bitte ein Autogramm!; Ich versichere Sie; Ein fideles Büro; Ich tanke, Herr Franke; Tante Mariechen; Und sie singt doch; Das Geschäft blüht; Ein falscher Fünfziger; Ferner liefen; Aufschnitt; Die einsame Villa [dir,scr]; Mucki; Mausi; Warum so aufgeregt?; Adam, Eva und der Apfel; Am Telefon wird gewünscht [dir,scr]. 1934/35: Asew / Lockspitzel Asew [FF – AT/ DE]; Der Kosak und die Nachtigall [FF – AT]. 1935: Die Frauen haben es leicht [dir,scr]; Anekdoten um den Alten Fritz. 1936: Münchhausens neuestes Abenteuer; Heiteres
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und Ernstes um den Großen König; Zeugen gesucht; Tajemnica Panny Brinx [sup – PL]; Die lange Grete; Das häßliche Entlein; Wie ein Wunder kam die Liebe … [scr]. 1936/37: Es wird nichts so fein gesponnen [dir,scr]. 1937: Frauen wollen betrogen sein [dir,scr]; Die Seitensprünge des Herrn Blohm [dir,scr]; Wiederseh’n macht Freude [dir,scr]; Der andere Mann [dir,scr]; Sparkasse mit Likör [dir,scr]; Die Unterschlagung [dir,scr]; Alkohol und Steuerrad; Ferngespräch mit Hamburg; Pension Elise Nottebohm. 1938: Der Haustyrann [dir,cut]; Der Schein trügt [dir,scr,cut]; Es kann der Beste nicht in Frieden leben [dir,cut]; Wir marschieren mit [cam]. 1939: Die Sache mit
dem Hermelin; Das Fenster im 2. Stock; Das Gewehr über! [cam]. [SD – cut,cam] 1941: Schulgymnastik für Mädchen 15- bis 18jährig; Schulgymnastik für Mädchen 12- bis 16jährig. 1941/42: So ein Früchtchen [FF – cam]. 1942: Schulgymnastik für Mädchen 9- bis 12jährig. 1943: Schulgymnastik für Mädchen 6- bis 9jährig. 1943/44: Bodenbearbeitung im Garten. 1944: Ackerbodenbearbeitung [cam]; Beerenobstpflanzung und Schnitt [cam]; Brandenburg-Preußen, Potsdam [cam]; Großmarkthalle; Kindergymnastik; Richtiges Tragen von Lasten; Ziegen und Lämmer. 1945: Flüssigkeitswechselgetriebe [cam].
ROMUALD KARMAKAR Born February 15, 1965, Wiesbaden (West Germany) Encompassing documentaries and fiction films, Karmakar’s work since the late 1980s is characterised by a pared-down, sparse aesthetic, and by its thematic focus on psychologically and ethically disturbing topics. Born to French-Iranian parents, Karmakar spent most of his youth in Athens. After returning to Germany, he shot his first feature film, EINE FREUNDSCHAFT IN DEUTSCHLAND (A Friendship in Germany, 1984/85) about Adolf Hitler’s youth. Alongside HELLMAN RIDER, an interview with independent director Monte Hellman, and GALLODROME (both 1988), a film about cockfighting, Karmakar gained further experience as Herbert Achternbusch’s assistant on MIX WIX (1988/89). Further projects followed, including a documentary about John Cassavetes, SAM SHAW ON JOHN CASSAVETES (1989/90) and a film about boxing, INFIGHT (1994), Karmakar first courted controversy with WARHEADS (1989–92). This documentary chronicled the life and work of a German and a British mercenary, and their involvement in military conflicts from Africa to Croatia. Refraining from any moral comment, Karmakar was accused by some critics of glorifying his protagonists, while others praised the objectivity of his observations and his willingness to explore ethically uncomfortable subjects. His first fiction film, DER TOTMACHER (Deathmaker, 1995), was a claustrophobic chamber piece, based on the interrogation transcripts of Fritz Haarmann, the most notorious serial killer of the Weimar period, chillingly portrayed by Götz George. A mixture of black farce and fake fly-on-the-wall documentary, MANILA (1998/99), co-written by novelist Bodo Kirchhoff, concerned a group of German tourists stranded at Manila airport, and featured such diverse performers as Fassbinder regular Margit Carstensen, Hollywood actress Elisabeth McGovern, and veteran film comedian Eddi Arent. As in Karmakar’s previous films, an atmosphere of claustrophobia and quiet menace was pervasive, and caused divergent responses from critics. Pared down to a minimal aesthetic of few camera positions and a sparse set, DAS HIMMLER-PROJEKT (The Himmler Project, 1999) demanded much of au-
diences as it consisted of the actor Manfred Zapatka delivering a three and a half hour speech Himmler originally gave in 1943 to SS generals. DIE NACHT SINGT IHRE LIEDER (The Night Sings Its Songs, 2003) again met with diverse reactions from admiration to violent rejection and ridicule following its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004. Based on the play by Norwegian author Jon Fosse, the film concerned the marriage crisis of a young Berlin couple, and displayed Karmakar’s by now familiar sense of claustrophobia and theatricality. At the same festival in a different section, Karmakar’s Holocaust documentary LAND DER VERNICHTUNG (Country of Destruction, 2003) premiered, confirming his status as a serious, provocative, and uncompromising filmmaker. With HAMBURGER LEKTIONEN (Hamburg Lectures, 2005/06) he returned to the concept of DAS HIMMLER-PROJEKT: the film presents Zapatka reading out ‘lectures’ the Islamic hate preacher Mohammed Fazazi had given at the Al-Quds Mosque in Hamburg in 2000; among his followers were some of the terror pilots of 9/11. [dir – DE] 1984: Candy Girl [SF – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]; Adelheid und Konrad [SF – dir,scr,cam,cut]; Einsame Cowboys [SF – act]. 1984/85: Eine Freundschaft in Deutschland [DO/FF – dir,scr,co-cam,cut,snd,act,pro]. 1987: Coup de Boule [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut,mus,snd,pro]. 1988: Hellman Rider [DO – co-dir,snd,pro]; Gallodrome [SD – dir, scr,cut,pro]. 1988/89: Mix Wix. Ein Kapitalist gibt auf [ass-dir,scr]; Hunde aus Samt und Stahl [DO – dir,scr]. 1989: Der Tyrann von Turin [SD – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1989/ 90: Sam Shaw on John Cassavetes [SD – dir,cam,cut, pro]. 1989-92: Warheads [DO – dir,scr,cam – DE/FR]. 1991: Film über einen Kampfhund und andere Geschichten [TVD – app]; München Berlin München – Der Filmkritiker Michael Althen [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Die Söldner [TVD – app]; Der bewaffnete Mann [TVD – app]; Demontage IX – Unternehmen Stahlglocke [SD – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1992: Bericht von der Balkanfront [TVD – app]. 1993: Hunde des Kriegs [TVD – app]; Kriegsspiele, Kampfhunde, Kopfstöße. Der Filmemacher Romuald Karmakar [TVD – app]. 1994: Der Tyrann von Turin [TVD – app]; Infight [TVD – dir,scr, pro]. 1995: Boxen in zweiter Absicht. Romuald Karmakar über die Intelligenz des Boxens [TVD – app]; Der Totmacher [dir,co-scr,pro]; Der Totmacher [TVD – app]. 1998: Das Frankfurter Kreuz / Francfort – Fin de Siècle [TV – dir, co-scr – DE/FR]. 1998/99: Manila [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1999:
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Das Himmler-Projekt [DO – dir,co-scr,pro]. 2000: Eine Geheimrede Himmlers [TVD – app]. 2002: 196 BPM [DO – dir,cam,pro]; Die Nacht von Yokohama [SD – dir,scr, cam,pro]. 2003: Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder [dir,co-scr, pro]; 196 beats per Minute. Romuald Karmakar filmt den Tekkno-König DJ Hell [TVD – app]; Land der Vernichtung [DO – dir,scr,cam,cut,pro]. 2003/04: Überraschende Begegnungen der kurzen Art [TVD – app]. 2004/2005: Between the Devil and the Wide Blue Sea [DO – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 2005/06: Hamburger Lektionen [DO – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 2008/09: Deutschland 09: EP 11. Ramses [dir,scr].
ERICH KÄSTNER Born February 23, 1899, Dresden (Germany) Died July 29, 1974, Munich-Neuperlach (West Germany) Renowned for his well-loved, witty children’s books as well as for his adult satires and poems, Kästner also wrote screenplays and oversaw numerous adaptations of his works from the 1930s through to the 1960s. Kästner gained his doctorate in German literature from Leipzig University in 1925. Relocating to Berlin in 1927, he freelanced as a journalist and wrote for cabarets before rising to prominence with his poetry collection ‘Herz auf Taille’ (A Fitted Heart), which was followed by the children’s novels ‘Emil und die Detektive’ (Emil and the Detectives’, both 1928), ‘Pünktchen und Anton’ (Anna Louise and Anton) and ‘Der 35. Mai’ (The 35th of May), as well as his critique of contemporary urban fascism, ‘Fabian’ (all 1931). Kästner’s first contact with the film industry came in 1927, when he negotiated rights deals for two works by other authors with Reinhold Schünzel. He subsequently collaborated on a series of projects with Emmerich Pressburger, writing the treatment for Gerhard Lamprecht’s original film version of EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives); adapting Hans Reimann and Toni Impekoven’s comic play ‘Der Igel’ (The Hedgehog) for Eugen Schüfftan and Franz Wenzler’s DAS EKEL (The Scoundrel); and scripting Max Ophüls’s first short, DANN SCHON LIEBER LEBERTRAN (I’d Rather Have Cod Liver Oil, all 1931), in which children and adults swap roles. After the Nazis’ rise to power, Kästner’s children’s book ‘Das fliegende Klassenzimmer’ (The Flying Classroom, 1933) was banned even before being distributed. His previous books, socially astute and urbanely ironic, contravened the Nazis’ sense of a nationalist sensibility and were consequently burned, and he was banned from publishing. However, he continued to work under the nom de guerre Eberhard Foerster, authoring several light comedies, including Hans Deppe’s VERWANDTE SIND
AUCH MENSCHEN (Relatives Are People Too, 1939), Helmut Käutner’s FRAU NACH MASS (Made-to-
Measure Woman, 1939/40) and Peter Paul Brauer’s DER SENIORCHEF (The Old Boss, 1942).
In the early 1940s he was hired by Ufa under the pseudonym Berthold Bürger to furnish the script for the company’s silver jubilee film MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43). He furthermore served as a writer on Kurt Hoffmann’s Heinz Rühmann vehicle ICH VERTRAUE DIR MEINE FRAU AN (I Entrust My Wife to You, 1942/43), adapted two of his novels for Hans Deppe’s DER KLEINE GRENZVERKEHR (Little Border Traffic, 1943) and wrote a script titled ‘Das doppelte Lottchen’ which he later reworked into his 1949 children’s novel of the same name, in turn filmed by Disney as THE PARENT TRAP in 1961 and remade in 1998. Settling in Munich after the war, Kästner initially undertook senior editorial duties at the Americanbacked newspaper ‘Die neue Zeitung’ and children’s magazine ‘Pinguin’, in addition to writing for cabarets ‘Die Schaubude’ and ‘Die kleine Freiheit’, which he co-founded in 1951. Publishing new children’s books, poetry anthologies and his memoirs, he also scripted the dialogue for the German dubbed version of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) and worked on a string of adaptations of his novels, including Josef von Báky’s DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN (Two Times Lotte, 1950), Carl Heinz Schroth’s DIE VERSCHWUNDENE MINIATUR (The Missing Miniature) and Kurt Hoffmann’s DAS FLIEGENDE KLASSENZIMMER (The Flying Classroom, both 1954), DREI MÄNNER IM SCHNEE (Three Men in the Snow, 1955), SALZBURGER GESCHICHTEN (Salzburg Stories, 1956) and LIEBE WILL GELERNT SEIN (Love Wants to be Learned, 1962/63). Kästner received numerous literary awards as well as the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1969. [sma – DE] 1931: Das Ekel [scr]; Dann schon lieber Lebertran [SF – scr,ide]; Emil und die Detektive [scr,sma]; Die Koffer des Herrn O. F. [lyr]. 1934/35: Emil and the Detectives [GB]. 1936: Tøi mui ve snìhu [CS]; Stackars miljonärer [SE]. 1937: Paradise for Three [US]. 1939: Verwandte sind auch Menschen. 1939/40: Frau nach Maß. 1942: Der Seniorchef [scr,sma]. 1942/43: Ich vertraue dir meine Frau an [scr]; Münchhausen [scr]. 1943: Der kleine Grenzverkehr [scr,sma]. 1950: Das doppelte Lottchen [scr,sma, voi,act]. 1952: Hibari no komori-uta [JP]. 1953: Twice Upon a Time [GB]; Pünktchen und Anton [scr,sma – DE/ AT]. 1954: Seine Majestät Gustav Krause [TV]; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer [scr,sma,act]; Emil und die Detektive; Das lebenslängliche Kind [TV]; Die verschwundene Miniatur [scr,sma]. 1955: Drei Männer im Schnee [scr,sma – AT]. 1956: Emil to tantei tachi [JP]; Salzburger Geschichten
CHRISTINE KAUFMANN [scr,sma]. 1957: Pega Ladrão [BR]. 1958: Pünktchen und Anton [TV – CH]. 1959/60: Pünktchen und Anton [TV]. 1961: The Parent Trap [US]. 1962: Peter Pan oder Das Märchen vom Jungen, der nicht groß werden wollte [TV]. 1962/63: Liebe will gelernt sein [scr,sma]. 1964: Emil and the Detectives [US]; Doddy und die Musketiere [TV – ide]; Der mit den 5 PS … Kurt Tucholsky [TV – act]. 1965: Alle mal herhören, auch die, die schwerhören …! [TV – scr,act]. 1966-69: Die Konferenz der Tiere [ANI]. 1970/71: Seine Majestät Gustav Krause [TV]. 1973: Verwandte sind auch Menschen [TV]; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer. 1973/74: Drei Männer im Schnee. 1974: Emil und die Detektive [TV]. 1978: Lästerlexikon: Die Pädagogen und ihre Opfer [TV]. 1979: Fabian. 1980: Das lebenslängliche Kind [TV – AT]. 1985/86: Das verlorene Gesicht [TVD – app]. 1986: Parent Trap II [TV – US]. 1987: Das lebenslängliche Kind [TV]. 1989: Der Traum vom Gesichtertausch [TV – scr]. 1991: Die verschwundene Miniatur [TV]. 1992: Der doppelte Emil [TVD – voi]. 1993/94: Charlie & Louise – Das doppelte Lottchen. 1998: The Parent Trap [US]. 1998/99: Pünktchen und Anton. 2000: Emil und die Detektive. 2001/02: Das fliegende Klassenzimmer. 2006/07: Das doppelte Lottchen [ANI].
CHRISTINE KAUFMANN (Christine Maria Kaufmann) Born January 11, 1945, Lengdorf (Styria, Austria) Entering films as a child star in the early 1950s, Kaufmann subsequently had a very brief career in Hollywood, and later portrayed ethereal and sometimes kooky beauties in West German films of the 1970s and 1980s. Born to a French mother and a German father, Kaufmann was raised in Munich and from 1952 attended ballet classes at the Theater am Gärtnerplatz and the Bayerisches Staatsopernballett. She made her film debut the same year, and her career as a child star began in earnest with a lead in Harald Reinl’s ROSEN-RESLI (Rose-Girl Resli, 1954), based on a novel by ‘Heidi’ author Johanna Spyri. Appearing in international productions as a teenager from 1958, her first Hollywood picture was Gottfried Reinhardt’s grim courtroom melodrama TOWN WITHOUT PITY (1960/61), in which she gave a poignant performance as a rape victim opposite Kirk Douglas. During the making of J. Lee Thompson’s TARAS BULBA (1962), she fell in love with co-star Tony Curtis who left first wife Janet Leigh to marry her. Receiving a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer, Kaufmann turned down the lead in Stanley Kubrick’s LOLITA (1962) and retired from films to start a family out of the limelight. After giving birth to two daughters, Kaufmann divorced Curtis in 1967, and returned to Europe. From 1971 she worked in New German Cinema, standing out in particular in several highly stylised, quasi-operatic melodramas by director Werner Schroeter, begin-
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ning with DER TOD DER MARIA MALIBRAN (The Death of Maria Malibran, 1971). Fassbinder, too, cast her in supporting roles in LILI MARLEEN (1980) and LOLA (1981). Alongside these parts that often merely showcased her classic good looks, Kaufmann was cast against type, and made to look deliberately ugly, as the eccentric Olga in Helmut Dietl and Franz Geiger’s television series MONACO FRANZE – DER EWIGE STENZ (Monaco Franze, the Eternal Dandy, 1982); and she played a similarly eccentric character in Percy Adlon’s OUT OF ROSENHEIM (Bagdad Café, 1987). Also undertaking stage work from 1972, she performed at Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt and the Bad Hersfeld Festival during the 1980s. From the early 1990s, Kaufmann made occasional appearances on German and Austrian television, focussing her activities primarily on her career as a New Age author, advocating positive thinking and healthy eating, and promoting her own range of ‘naturally inspired’ cosmetics and face creams on a German home shopping channel. Her younger daughter, Allegra Curtis (b. 1966) is a stage, screen and television actress in Germany. [act – DE] 1952: Im weissen Rössl. 1953: Salto mortale; Der Klosterjäger. 1953/54: Staatsanwältin Corda. 1954: Rosen-Resli; Der schweigende Engel. 1955: Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh’n. 1955/56: Ein Herz schlägt für Erika. 1956: Die Stimme der Sehnsucht. 1957: Witwer mit fünf Töchtern; Die Winzerin von Langenlois [AT]. 1958: Mädchen in Uniform / Jeunes filles en uniformes [DE/FR]; Der veruntreute Himmel; Sag ja, Mutti! [AT]; Primo amore [IT]. 1959: Alle lieben Peter; Vacanze d’inverno / Brèves amours [IT/FR]; Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei / Los últimos dias de Pompeya / Die letzen Tage von Pompeji [IT/ES/DE]. 1959/ 60: Ein Thron für Christine / Un trono paru Cristy [DE/ES]. 1960: Totò, Fabrizi e i giovani d’oggi [IT]; Labbra rosse / Les fausses ingénues [IT/FR]; Der letzte Fußgänger; Constantino il Grande [IT]. 1960/61: Town Without Pity / Stadt ohne Mitleid [US/CH]. 1961: Via Mala; Un nommé La Rocca / Quello che spara per primo [FR/IT]; Toller Hecht auf krummer Tour; La congiura dei 10. Lo spadaccino di Siena [MLV – IT/FR]; Le mercenaire [MLV – IT/FR]. 1962: Der Zigeunerbaron / Princesse Tzigane [DE/FR]; Tunnel 28 / Escape from East Berlin [DE/US]; 90 Minuten nach Mitternacht; Taras Bulba [US]. 1964: Wild and Wonderful [US]. 1969: Lovebirds (Una strana voglia d’amore) / Liebesvögel [IT/DE]; Das Bastardzeichen [TV]. [act – DE – TV] 1969/70: Wie ein Blitz. 1969-71: Paul Temple [TVS – GB/DE]. 1970/71: Gestrickte Spuren [AT]. 1971: Murders in the Rue Morgue [FF – US]; Der Kommissar: Traum eines Wahnsinnigen; Der Tod der Maria Malibran. 1972/73: Immobilien; Willow Springs. 1973: Welt am Draht; Chaplins Hut. 1973/74: Zum Abschied Chrysanthemen [FF]. 1974: Histoires insolites: Un jour comme les autres avec des cacahuètes [FR]. 1974/75: Lockruf des Goldes [DE/FR]. 1974-77: Die Fälle des Herrn Konstantin [TVS].
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1975: Auf Biegen oder Brechen [FF]; Hundert Mark; Ab morgen sind wir reich und ehrlich / E una banca rapinammo per fatal combinazion [FF – AT/IT]. 1975/76: Les flocons d’or / Goldflocken [AG – FR/DE]. 1976: Derrick: Hals in der Schlinge. 1977: Die Jüdin von Toledo [AT]; Das Männerquartett. 1977/78: Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk [DE/ AT]. 1978: Enigma rosso / Trafico de menores / Orgie des Todes [FF – IT/ES/DE]. 1978/79: Der Durchdreher [FF]; Der ganz normale Wahnsinn [TVS]. 1979: Le comte de Monte-Cristo / Der Graf von Monte Christo [FR/DE]. 1979/80: Egon Schiele – Exzesse / Egon Schiele, enfer et passion [FF – DE/AT/FR]. 1980: Lili Marleen [FF]. 1980/81: Die Laurents [TVS]. 1981: Lola [FF]; Begegnungen [DE/AT]; Tag der Idioten [FF]. 1981/82: Inflation im Paradies: Schnelle Nacht / Luxus [FF]. 1982: Die Ausgesperrten [FF – AT]; Monaco Franze – Der ewige Stenz [10 episodes – TVS]. 1982/83: Ziemlich weit weg [FF]; Die wilden Fünfziger [FF]. 1983: Die Schaukel [FF]; Pankow ’95. 1984: Laufen, leiden, länger leben. 1986: Ein heikler Fall: Das Fleisch ist schwach; Die Insel [TVS]. 1987: Out of Rosenheim [FF]. 1987/88: Lorentz & Söhne [TVS]. 1987-89: Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein / Trudno byt’ bogom / Un dieu rebelle [FF – DE/SU/ FR]. 1988-90: Harald & Eddi [TVS]; Gesundmacher [TVD]; Julius Caesar. 1988/89: Der Geschichtenerzähler / The Storyteller [FF – DE/US]. 1992: Das Double. 1992/93: Glückliche Reise: Ibiza. 1993: Missione d’Amore / Mission der Liebe [IT/DE]. 1994: Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet: Ausgerechnet Florenz; Wer wagt, gewinnt; Birkenhof & Lerchenau. 1994/95: Die Knickerbockerbande – Das sprechende Grab [FF – AT]. 1995: Von Fall zu Fall: Stubbe sieht rot; Weihnachten mit Willy Wuff – Eine Mama für Lieschen. 1995/96: Ein flotter Dreier; Balko: Ein Toter zu wenig. 1996/97: Park Hotel Stern: Entscheidungen. 1997/ 98: Einsatz Hamburg Süd: Trau keinem! 1998: Höllische Nachbarn; A. S. (Steins Fälle): Das Tier; Caipiranha [FF]; Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Goldene Regeln; Super Nachbarn – Krieg im Doppelhaus; Die Schläfer. 1999: Snoopers [FF – AT]; Blutiger Ernst [SF]. 1999/2000: SOKO 5113: Das Rendezvous. 2002: Haider lebt – 1. April 2021 [FF – AT]; Club der Träume: Marmaris. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD]. 2006/07: Die ProSieben Märchenstunde: Aschenputtel – Für eine Handvoll Tauben. 2007: Im Namen des Gesetzes: Dunkle Ahnung. 2008: Mein Leben – Christine Kaufmann. Geliebte Ungeliebte [TVD – app]; Liebesticket nach Hause; Heimat – Deine Filme [TVD – app]. 2008/09: Fahr zur Hölle Gott.
HELMUT KÄUTNER Born March 25, 1908, Düsseldorf (Germany) Died April 20, 1980, Castellina (Italy) One of the most respected directors of postwar West German cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s, Käutner is best known for his naturalist character-centred dramas, literary adaptations, and gentle comedies. Käutner studied German literature and philosophy at Munich University from 1928, writing newspaper articles and appearing in stage revues while still a student. Together with Kurd E. Heyne, Bobby Todd and
Werner Kleine, he founded the ‘Die vier Nachrichter’ (Four Informers) cabaret troupe in 1930, and all four made their screen debut in Louis Ralph’s KREUZER EMDEN (Cruiser Emden, 1932). Thereafter performing at numerous theatres, he met Erica Balqué while at Leipzig’s Schauspielhaus; the two married in 1934 and frequently collaborated on scripts and films throughout Käutner’s career. After ‘Die vier Nachrichter’ was banned by the Nazis in 1935, Käutner worked as a songwriter, interior designer, stage actor, director, playwright and screenwriter. His first film as director, KITTY UND DIE WELTKONFERENZ (Kitty and the World Conference, 1939) was banned upon the outbreak of World War II, shortly after its premiere, due to its ‘pro-British tendencies’. A number of poetic realist films followed, including ROMANZE IN MOLL (Romance in a Minor Key, 1942/43), the elegiac retelling of a tragic adulterous affair set in the 19th century; GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (Great Freedom No. 7, 1943/44), a melancholic melodrama set in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district; and UNTER DEN BRÜCKEN (Under the Bridges, 1944/ 45), an affectionate look at the life on river barges – all of which laid the foundations of Käutner’s international reputation. After the war, Käutner’s production company Camera-Film GmbH was granted a British licence and he directed the portmanteau film IN JENEN TAGEN (Seven Journeys, 1946/47), charting the varied fates of a car’s successive owners during the ‘Third Reich’. He then co-scripted and produced FILM OHNE TITEL (Film Without a Name, 1947/48), the debut of his regular assistant Rudolf Jugert. Käutner’s subsequent films proved colossal failures, however, and he worked primarily in theatre and ghost-writing screenplays while turning out low-budget productions in a variety of genres for the next few years. His return to the big-time came with DIE LETZTE BRÜCKE (The Last Bridge, 1953/54), a tale of a female doctor collaborating with Yugoslav partisans during World War II, which picked up awards in West Germany, Cannes and the United States. His next features, including LUDWIG II. – GLANZ UND ELEND EINES KÖNIGS (Ludwig II, 1954), DIE ZÜRCHER VERLOBUNG (The Affairs of Julie, 1956/57) and in particular the Carl Zuckmayer adaptations DES TEUFELS GENERAL (The Devil’s General, 1954/55) and DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Koepenick, 1956) – were likewise showered with awards, and featured the era’s major stars. MONPTI (Love from Paris, 1957) provoked a furore due to the ‘adult’ role played by a teenage Romy Schneider. A brief intermezzo in Hollywood with two films featuring Sandra Dee failed to cause a ripple, while his German all-star DER SCHINDERHANNES (Duel in the Forest, 1958), again based on a Zuckmay-
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er play, proved little more than a formulaic attempt to repeat previous successes. He then founded the Hamburg-based company Freie Film Produktion with Wolfgang Staudte and Harald Braun, but it produced only a single work – Käutner’s modernised update of ‘Hamlet’, DER REST IST SCHWEIGEN (The Rest Is Silence, 1959). DAS GLAS WASSER (A Glass of Water, 1960) again picked up a swathe of awards and accolades; while later films met with a response ranging from disinterest to hostility. In his last decade he concentrated solely on television and theatre work, both as actor and director. Käutner received ‘Filmband in Gold’ awards both for his outstanding lifetime achievement in 1973, and for his eponymous lead in Hans Jürgen Syberberg’s KARL MAY (1974). [dir – DE] 1932: Kreuzer Emden [act]. 1938/39: Die Stimme aus dem Äther [scr]; Salonwagen E 417 [co-scr,lyr]. 1939: Marguerite: 3 [co-scr]; Schneider Wibbel [co-scr]; Kitty und die Weltkonferenz [dir,scr,lyr]. 1939/40: Frau nach Maß [dir,scr]. 1940: Kleider machen Leute [dir,scr]. 1940/41: Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska! [dir,co-scr]. 1941/ 42: Anuschka [dir,co-scr]. 1942: Wir machen Musik [dir, scr,lyr]. 1942/43: Romanze in Moll [dir,co-scr,lyr,act]. 1943/44: Große Freiheit Nr. 7 [dir,co-scr,lyr,act]. 1944/45: Unter den Brücken [dir,co-scr]. 1946/47: In jenen Tagen [dir,co-scr,voi,pro]. 1947/48: Film ohne Titel [co-scr,pro]. 1948: Der Apfel ist ab [dir,scr,sma,act,pro]. 1949: Königskinder [dir,co-scr,act]. 1950: Epilog [dir,co-scr,act]. 1950/ 51: Der Verlorene [co-scr]. 1951: Weiße Schatten [dir, coscr]; Nachts auf den Straßen [co-scr]. 1952/53: Käpt’n Bay-Bay [dir,co-scr]. 1953/54: Die letzte Brücke / Poslednji most [dir,co-scr,act – AT/YU]. 1954: Bildnis einer Unbekannten [dir,co-scr,lyr,act]; Ludwig II. – Glanz und Elend eines Königs. 1954/55: Des Teufels General [dir,co-scr, act]. 1955: Griff nach den Sternen [co-scr]; Das Wunder des Films [DO/FF – voi]; Himmel ohne Sterne [dir,scr,voi]. 1955/56: Ein Mädchen aus Flandern [dir,co-scr,act]. 1956: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [dir,co-scr,act]. 1956/57: Die Zürcher Verlobung [dir,co-scr,lyr,act]. 1957: Franziska [co-scr]; Monpti [dir,co-scr,act,voi]; The Restless Years [US]. 1957/58: Juchten und Lavendel [TV – sma]. 1958: Ein Glas Wasser [TV – scr]; Der Schinderhannes [dir,act]; Stranger in My Arms [US]. 1959: Der Rest ist Schweigen [dir,scr, act,pro]; Die Gans von Sedan / Sans tambour ni trompette [dir,co-scr,act – DE/FR]. 1960: Das Glas Wasser [dir,co-scr, lyr]; Wir Kellerkinder [act]; Kirmes [pro]. 1960/ 61: Zu jung für die Liebe?! [co-dir,scr,act]; Schwarzer Kies [dir,scr]. 1961: Der Traum von Lieschen Müller [dir, co-scr,lyr]. [dir – DE – TV] 1962: Die Rote / La rossa [FF – dir,scr – DE/ IT]; Die Rebellion [pro]; Annoncentheater. 1963: Vorspiel auf dem Theater [TV-SF – dir,scr,act]; Das Haus in Montevideo [FF – dir,scr,lyr]. 1964: Das Gespenst von Canterville [dir,scr,act]; Lausbubengeschichten [FF]; Auskunft über Jean Renoir [TVD – app]. 1965: Romulus der Große [dir, scr,des]; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Helmut Käutner [TVD – app]; Die Flasche [dir,des];
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Robin Hood, der edle Ritter. 1965/66: Leben wie die Fürsten [dir,scr,des]. 1966: Wir machen Musik [TVD – scr,act]; Verbotenes Land [des,act]; Die spanische Puppe [dir,scr]. 1966/67: Stella [dir,scr,des]. 1967: Der Teufel und der liebe Gott [act]; Valentin Katajews chirurgische Eingriffe in das Seelenleben des Dr. Igor Igorowitsch [dir,scr,des, act]; Ein Mann namens Harry Brent [act]; Bel ami [dir, scr]. 1968: Babeck [act]. 1968/69: Tagebuch eines Frauenmörders [dir,scr,des]. 1969: Christoph Kolumbus oder die Entdeckung Amerikas [dir,scr]; Das Bastardzeichen [act]; Einladung ins Schloß oder Die Kunst das Spiel zu spielen [dir,scr]. 1970: Der Kommissar: Messer im Rücken [act]; Die Feuerzangenbowle [FF – dir,scr]; Der Kommissar: Anonymer Anruf; Hauser’s Memory [act – US]. 1970/71: Die Frau in Weiß [act]. 1971: Die gefälschte Göttin [dir,scr, act]; Der trojanische Sessel [act]; Tatort: Der Richter in Weiß [act]; Die seltsamen Abenteuer des geheimen Kanzleisekretärs Tusmann. 1972: Ornifle oder Der erzürnte Himmel [dir,scr,des]; Versuchung im Sommerwind [FF – act]; Ein Oldtimer erzählt [TVD – voi]. 1973: Die große Rolle. 2. Jud Süß – die Alptraumrolle [TVD – app]; Van der Valk und die Reichen [act – DE/AT]; Die preußische Heirat [dir,scr]. 1973/74: Derrick: Stiftungsfest. 1974: Karl May [FF – act]. 1974/75: Derrick: Nur Aufregungen für Rohn [act]. 1975: Die Stunde Null – Helmut Käutner [TVD – app]; Erlebte Filmgeschichte – Helmut Käutner [TVD – app]; Hundert Mark [act]. 1975/76: Feinde [act]; Margarete in Aix. 1976: Derrick: Auf eigene Faust [act]. 1976/77: Eichholz & Söhne [TVS – act]. 1977/78: Mulligans Rückkehr. 1979: Laterna Teutonica. 6. Käutner und dann Staudte [TVD – app].
PAUL KEMP (Peter Paul Kemp) Born May 20, 1896, Bad Godesberg (Germany) Died August 13, 1953, Bonn (West Germany) A prolific comic supporting actor in films from the 1930s to the early 1950s, Kemp specialised in playing perpetually anxious and gauche middle-class figures. A film enthusiast from an early age, Kemp worked as a pianist in a Ladenkino, the German equivalent of the Nickelodeon. During World War I, Kemp was an ambulance driver on the Western front. After the war, Kemp commenced a career as a stage actor, initially in Düsseldorf and later in Hamburg, where he often worked with Gustaf Gründgens. While in Hamburg, he also performed Chaplin parodies in cabarets and appeared in short commercial films advertising engine oil brands and life insurance policies. In 1929, Kemp moved to Berlin and gained wide acclaim with his performance as dying accountant Kringelein in Gustaf Gründgens’s 1930 stage version of Vicki Baum’s novel ‘Menschen im Hotel’ (Grand Hotel). The same year he made his film debut with CYANKALI. Subsequently his parts included an absentminded white-collar worker in DER SCHUSS IM TON-
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FILMATELIER (A Shot in the Sound Film Studio, 1930), and timid criminals in G. W. Pabst’s DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/ 31) and Fritz Lang’s M (1931). He displayed a tendency towards melancholy in Max Ophüls’s DIE VERKAUFTE BRAUT (The Sold Bride, 1932). In Reinhold Schünzel’s opulent farce AMPHITRYON (1935) he played a dual role, and a ‘best friend’ in Paul Martin’s screwball comedy GLÜCKSKINDER (Lucky Kids, 1936). Contracted to Ufa, Kemp concentrated mostly on film work during the 1930s and early 1940s and appeared in a number of productions directed by fellow comedian Theo Lingen, such as WAS WIRD HIER GESPIELT? (What’s Going On?, 1939/40), FRAU LUNA (Mrs. Luna, 1941), and DAS LIED DER NACHTIGALL (The Nightingale’s Song, 1943). During the last years of the war he mainly worked in (German) studios in Prague. After World War II, Kemp’s first post-war production was the Austrian film TRIUMPH DER LIEBE (The Triumph of Love, 1947) after which his prolific film career in Austria and West Germany continued, until his final appearance in GLÜCK MUSS MAN HABEN (You’ve Got to Be Lucky, 1953). [act – DE] 1930: Cyankali; Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier; Der König von Paris [MLV – FR/DE]; Lumpenball; Die große Sehnsucht; Dolly macht Karriere; Die blonde Nachtigall; Seitensprünge. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]. 1931: Meine Cousine aus Warschau [MLV]; M; Der Raub der Mona Lisa; Um eine Nasenlänge; Die schwebende Jungfrau; Ein Auto und kein Geld [HU]; Dann schon lieber Lebertran [SF]. 1931/32: Drei von der Stempelstelle. 1932: Gitta entdeckt ihr Herz; Die verkaufte Braut; Sehnsucht 202 [MLV – DE/AT]; Mieter Schulze gegen Alle; Zigeuner der Nacht. Heute Nacht geht’s los [MLV]; Ein Mann mit Herz. 1932/33: Ein Lied für Dich [MLV]. 1933: Unsichtbare Gegner [MLV – DE/AT]; Roman einer Nacht; Das Schloß im Süden [MLV]; Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin [MLV]; Das Lied vom Glück; Mit Dir durch dick und dünn. 1933/34: Der Flüchtling aus Chicago. 1934: Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV]; Die Czardasfürstin [MLV]; Charleys Tante; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV]; Der Gefangene des Königs; Der mutige Seefahrer. 1935/36: Der schüchterne Casanova; Heißes Blut [MLV]. 1936: Boccaccio; Glückskinder [MLV]; Blumen aus Nizza [AT]. 1937: Zauber der Bohème [AT]; Die verschwundene Frau [AT]; Musik für dich [AT]; Ihr Leibhusar [MLV – HU]. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Capriccio; Unsere kleine Frau [MLV – DE/ IT]; Dir gehört mein Herz [MLV – IT/DE]; Mia moglie si diverte [MLV – DE/IT]; Marionette [MLV – IT]. 1938/39: Das Abenteuer geht weiter. 1939: Premiere der Butterfly [MLV – IT]; Kornblumenblau. 1939/40: Was wird hier gespielt? 1940: Das leichte Mädchen; Der Kleinstadtpoet. 1941: Frau Luna; Immer nur … Du!; Jenny und der Herr im Frack. 1941/42: Ein Windstoß. 1942: Die große Nummer.
1942/43: Fahrt ins Abenteuer. 1943: Das Lied der Nachtigall. 1943/44: Glück unterwegs [DE (CS)]; Sieben Briefe [DE (CS)]; Dir zuliebe [DE (CS)]; Spuk im Schloß. 1944/45: Frech und verliebt; Leuchtende Schatten [DE (CS)]; Liebe nach Noten. 1947: Triumph der Liebe [AT]; Das singende Haus [AT]. 1948: Der himmlische Walzer [AT]. 1948/49: Lambert fühlt sich bedroht [AT]. 1949: Gefährliche Gäste. 1949/50: Absender unbekannt; Kein Engel ist so rein. 1950: Der Mann, der sich selber sucht; Mädchen mit Beziehungen; Die Nacht ohne Sünde; Die Dritte von rechts. 1950/51: Die Mitternachtsvenus. 1951: Engel im Abendkleid; Mutter sein dagegen sehr; Fräulein Bimbi [AT]; In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus. 1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad; Königin der Arena. 1953: Salto mortale; Liebeskrieg nach Noten; Glück muß man haben [AT]. 1965: Lieblinge unserer Eltern: Paul Kemp [TVD – app].
ERICH KETTELHUT (Erich Karl Heinrich Kettelhut) Born November 1, 1893, Berlin (Germany) Died March 13, 1979, Hamburg (West Germany) From Weimar fantasy films such as DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungen, 1922–24) and METROPOLIS (1925/26), to large-scale 1930s musical revues, to neo-realist post-war dramas, set designer Kettelhut’s career lasted half a century. In 1909, following an apprenticeship in stage design, Kettelhut and future regular collaborator Otto Hunte were placed in charge of art direction at Aachen’s Stadttheater. Kettelhut subsequently headed a theatre design department in Mühlhausen (Thuringia) until being called up to serve at the front in 1914. After World War I, Hunte and Karl Vollbrecht helped to secure Kettelhut a position with the Martin Jacoby-Boy design agency in Berlin, whose clients included Joe May’s production company. Employed as assistant art director on May’s eight-part DIE HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1919), Kettelhut met Fritz Lang and undertook miniature work on his DAS WANDERNDE BILD (The Wandering Image, 1920). At Ufa from 1921, he was teamed with Hunte and Vollbrecht on several of Lang’s prestigious projects, creating the shady underworld environs of DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1921/22), the voluminous studio-bound recreations of mediaeval palaces and the primordial German forest for DIE NIBELUNGEN (1922–24), as well as the futuristic cityscapes of METROPOLIS (1925/26). Aside of helping Walther Ruttmann on his documentary BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (Berlin, Symphony of a Big City, 1926/27) for FoxEurope Kettelhut continued to work on films produced by Erich Pommer at various studios until 1932. These included Joe May’s visually dazzling melodrama ASPHALT (1928/29), as well as a whole series of Lilian Harvey operettas and Hans Albers adven-
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tures, among them the science fiction film F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer, 1932), with its centre-piece of a mid-Atlantic aeroplane landing platform. After the Nazis came to power, Kettelhut worked for directors Arthur Robison and Paul Martin and, from 1936, designed many of Georg Jacoby’s musical extravaganzas, including FRAUEN SIND DOCH BESSERE DIPLOMATEN (Women Are Better Diplomats, 1939–41), the first German feature in colour. In the post-war era, Kettelhut was employed at studios in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Resuming his collaboration with his former boss at Ufa, returning émigré Erich Pommer, he worked on Rudolf Jugert’s EINE LIEBESGESCHICHTE (A Love Story, 1953/ 54) and László Benedek’s KINDER, MÜTTER UND EIN GENERAL (Children, Mother, and the General, 1954/55). His other outstanding postwar achievements included the stark décor for submarine dramas HAIE UND KLEINE FISCHE (Sharks and Little Fish, 1957) and U 47 – KAPITÄNLEUTNANT PRIEN (U-47: Lt. Commander Prien, 1958), and the eclectic sets for Fritz Lang’s DIE 1000 AUGEN DES DR. MABUSE (The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, 1960). Kettelhut concluded his career working on television dramas, and received the ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award in 1968. [des – DE] 1919: Die Herrin der Welt. 1. Die Freundin des gelben Mannes / 2. Die Geschichte der Maud Gregaards / 3. Der Rabbi von Kuan-Fu / 4. König Makombe / 5. Ophir, die Stadt der Vergangenheit / 6. Die Frau mit den Milliarden / 7. Die Wohltäterin der Menschheit / 8. Die Tragödie der Rache. 1920: Der Henker von Sankt Marien; Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia; Die Schuld der Lavinia Morland; Das wandernde Bild. 1921: Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur. 1921/22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922/23: Tragödie der Liebe (4 parts). 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1925/26: Metropolis. 1926/27: Der Sohn der Hagar; Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [DO]. 1927: Das tanzende Wien; Doña Juana. 1928: Ungarische Rhapsodie. 1928/ 29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse; Fräulein Else. 1929: Melodie des Herzens [MLV]. 1929/ 30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]; The Love Waltz [MLV]. 1930: Liebling der Götter; Einbrecher [MLV]; Flagrant délit [MLV]; Ihre Majestät die Liebe [MLV]. 1930/31: Son altesse l’amour [MLV – FR/DE]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Princesse! À vos ordres! [MLV]; Voruntersuchung [MLV]; Autour d’une enquête [MLV]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Le capitaine Craddock [MLV]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV]; Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]; Tumultes [MLV]. 1931/32: Der Sieger [MLV]; Le vainqueur [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: Quick [MLV]; Quick [French MLV]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Un rêve blond [MLV]; Happy Ever After
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[MLV]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV]; F.P. 1 [MLV]. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen; Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Adieu les beaux jours [MLV]; Du sollst nicht begehren; Abel mit der Mundharmonika; Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe [MLV]; Tambour battant [MLV]. 1934: Die Freundin eines großen Mannes; Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV]; La jeune fille d’une nuit [MLV]; Spiel mit dem Feuer; Fürst Woronzeff [MLV]; Le secret des Woronzeff [MLV]. 1934/ 35: Frischer Wind aus Kanada [MLV]; Jonny, haute-couture [MLV]. 1935: Ehestreik; Schwarze Rosen [MLV]; Did I Betray? [MLV]; Roses noires [MLV]. 1936: Schlußakkord; Glückskinder [MLV]; Les gais lurons [MLV]. 1936/37: Menschen ohne Vaterland. 1937: Sieben Ohrfeigen; Fanny Elßler; Gasparone. 1937/38: Großalarm. 1938: Fortsetzung folgt!; Nanon. 1938/39: Der grüne Kaiser. 1939: Frau am Steuer; Der Vorhang fällt; Evtl. spätere Heirat nicht ausgeschlossen [SF]; Notgemeinschaft Hinterhaus [SF]; Das Fenster im 2. Stock [SF]. 1939-41: Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten. 1940: Kora Terry. 1941: Tanz mit dem Kaiser [MLV]. 1941/42: Der 5. Juni. Einer unter Millionen. 1942: Diesel. 1942/43: Du gehörst zu mir. 1943/44: Eine Frau für drei Tage; Die Frau meiner Träume. 1944/45: Die Brüder Noltenius; Fahrt ins Glück. 1950: Drei Mädchen spinnen. 1951: Sensation in San Remo; Torreani; Die Csardasfürstin. 1952: Pension Schöller. 1952/53: Maske in Blau. 1953: Die Rose von Stambul; Rote Rosen, rote Lippen, roter Wein; Heimlich, still und leise; Der Vetter aus Dingsda. 1953/54: Eine Liebesgeschichte. 1954: Gefangene der Liebe. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: Eine Frau genügt nicht?; Drei Tage Mittelarrest; Drei Mädels vom Rhein. 1956: Nina; Preis der Nationen; Made in Germany. Ein Leben für Zeiss. 1957: Lemke’s sel. Witwe; Haie und kleine Fische; Von allen geliebt. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!; U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien. 1958/59: Der Mann, der sich verkaufte. 1959: Bobby Dodd greift ein; Marili. 1960: Sturm im Wasserglas; Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / Il diabolico Dr. Mabuse / Le diabolique docteur Mabuse [DE/IT/FR]; Bis daß das Geld euch scheidet …; Sabine und die 100 Männer. 1961: Geschichte einer Geschichte [TV]. 1962/63: Die merkwürdigen Erlebnisse des Hansjürgen Weidlich [TVS]. 1963: Maria Magdalene [TV]. 1964: Haus Herzenstod [TV]. 1965: Das Feuerzeichen [TV]. 1966: Der schwarze Freitag [TV].
WOLFGANG KIELING Born March 16, 1924, Berlin-Neukölln (Germany) Died October 7, 1985, Hamburg (West Germany) From beginnings as a child star in the 1930s, Kieling became one of the most respected actors from the 1950s to the 1980s, and unusually managed to combine work in both East and West Germany, as well as in international productions. Following stage appearances, Kieling became famous on the radio in the early 1930s as ‘Wölfchen’ (Little Wolf), and lent his voice to fairytale programmes and other radio plays. He also dubbed Hollywood child star Freddie Bartholomew in the German re-
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lease versions of DAVID COPPERFIELD (1935) and CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937). After some bit parts, Kieling’s feature film debut was Veit Harlan’s MARIA, DIE MAGD (Maria the Maid, 1936). He appeared regularly in films, while also training to be an assistant director and acting on stage, until 1942 when he was conscripted. As a soldier on the Eastern front he was repeatedly wounded before being captured by the Russian army early in 1945. Upon his release from a prisoner-of-war camp in 1949, Kieling returned to Berlin and worked as a dubbing actor, in stage productions, and as a radio newsreader. In 1954, Kieling and his second wife, stage and screen actress Gisela Uhlen left West Germany for East Berlin where they were given two-year contracts at DEFA. Kieling’s films included Konrad Wolf’s GENESUNG (Recovery, 1955), and Kurt Jung-Alsen’s war film BETROGEN BIS ZUM JÜNGSTEN TAG (Betrayed Until Judgment Day, 1956/57). Back in West Berlin and following his divorce from Uhlen in 1957, he concentrated primarily on stage and television work. His portrayal of a police constable in Jürgen Roland’s big-screen production POLIZEIREVIER DAVIDSWACHE (Hamburg: City of Vice / Seven Consenting Adults, 1964) won Kieling a German Film Award. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Cold War thriller TORN CURTAIN (1966) he played an East German agent. A vocal opponent of the Vietnam war and West German politics of the time, Kieling once again resettled in East Berlin in 1968, and appeared in DEFA productions including Frank Vogel’s DAS SIEBENTE JAHR (The Seventh Year, 1968), and Konrad Wolf’s Soviet-East German co-produced biopic GOYA (1970/71). Back again in West Germany from 1970, Kieling established himself as one of the most popular and prolific actors on television. Among his most widely acclaimed performances was the role of an ageing transvestite in the TV drama IM RESERVAT (In the Reservation, 1972/73). In the miniseries EXIL (1979/80) and DIE GESCHWISTER OPPERMANN (The Oppermanns, 1982), based on novels by Lion Feuchtwanger, Kieling played Jewish characters caught up in the ‘Third Reich’. Throughout his career, Kieling kept up his dubbing work, lending his voice to Hollywood stars including Frank Sinatra, Glenn Ford, Paul Newman, and Kirk Douglas, while children recognised his voice as that of the puppet character Bert in the German version of SESAME STREET. Rare big-screen opportunities included memorable turns as a tramp in Alf Brustellin’s DER STURZ (1978), and as a timid office worker in Carl Schenkel’s thriller ABWÄRTS (Going Down, 1983/84). Kieling’s daughter from his marriage to Uhlen, Susanne Uhlen (b. 1955), became a successful television
actress as did Florian Martens (b. 1958), his son with East-German stage designer Johanna Göllnitz. [act – DE] 1935: Die lustigen Weiber. 1935/36: Hier irrt Schiller [SF]. 1936: Guten Abend – gute Nacht [SF]; Maria, die Magd. 1936/37: Die Kreutzersonate. 1937: Heimweh. 1937/38: Gute Reise, Herr Meier [SF]. 1938: Klimbusch macht Wochenende [SF]; Altes Herz geht auf die Reise; Träume sind Schäume [SF]; Frauen für Golden Hill. 1939: Die Reise nach Tilsit; Seitensprünge; Pedro soll hängen [ass-dir]. 1939/40: Falstaff in Wien. 1940: Herz geht vor Anker. 1941: Krach im Vorderhaus; Jenny und der Herr im Frack. [act – DE – TV] 1953: Kopf oder Zahl. 1955: Genesung [FF – DD]. 1956: Damals in Paris … [TV – DD]. 1956/57: Betrogen bis zum jüngsten Tag [FF – DD]. 1957: Der Parasit. 1958: Der Mann, der nicht nein sagen konnte / Manden, der ikke ku’ sige nej [FF – CH/DK]. 1959: Arzt ohne Gewissen [FF]. 1960: Agatha, laß das Morden sein [FF]. 1960/61: Die Sendung der Lysistrata. 1961: Zuflucht; Frau Cheneys Ende [FF]; Wir waren Drei; Mörderspiel / Le jeu de l’assassin [FF – DE/FR]. 1961/62: Der rote Hahn. 1962: Wallenstein; Mord im Dom; Zahlungsaufschub; Heute kündigt mir mein Mann [FF]; Montserrat. 1962/63: Mirandolina; Der Belagerungszustand; Dantons Tod. 1963: Ein ungebetener Gast; Hedda Gabler. 1963/64: Die Teufelsspur; Der Traum des Eroberers. 1963-65: Das Haus in der Karpfengasse [FF+TV]. 1964: König Richard III; Bericht von den Inseln; Zeit der Schuldlosen [FF]; Polizeirevier Davidswache [FF]; Die Physiker. 1964/65: Das Kriminalmuseum: Der Brief; Der Sündenbock. 1965: Hotel der toten Gäste / El enigma de los Cornell [FF – DE/ES]; Die Banditen vom Rio Grande [FF]; Scharfe Schüsse auf Jamaika / A 001: operazione Giamaica / 001 operación Caribe [FF – DE/IT/ES]; Duell vor Sonnenuntergang [FF]; Don Quijote von der Mancha / Don Quichotte [voi – DE/FR]; Exil; Das Mädchen aus Mira. 1965/66: Der Kongreß amüsiert sich / Le congrès s’amuse [FF – DE/AT/FR]; Geschlossene Gesellschaft; Das Abgründige in Herrn Gerstenberg. 1966: Torn Curtain [FF – US]; Standgericht; S.O.S. – Morro Castle. 1966/67: Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Kiste; Die Rache des Dr. Fu Man Chu / Vengeance of Fu Man Chu [FF – DE/GB]. 1967: Pension Clausewitz [FF]; Ein Toter braucht kein Alibi; Geheimnisse in goldenen Nylons / Deux billets pour Mexico / Segreti che scottano [FF – DE/FR/IT]; Das Haus der tausend Freuden / La casa de las mil munecas [FF – DE/ES]; Fliegender Sand; Operazione S. Pietro / Au diable, les anges! / Die Abenteuer des Kardinal Braun [FF – IT/FR/DE]. 1967/68: Tevye und seine sieben Töchter / Tuvia vesheva benotav [FF – DE/IL]. 1968: Amsterdam Affair [GB]; Im Banne des Unheimlichen [FF]; Das siebente Jahr [FF – DD]; Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir [FF – DD]. 1968/69: Du bist min. Ein deutsches Tagebuch [DO – voi – DD]. 1969: Aus unserer Zeit: Das Duell [FF – DD]. 1969/70: Jeder stirbt für sich allein [DD]; Signale – Ein Weltraumabenteuer / Sygnaly MMXX [FF – DD/ PL]. 1970: Leichensache Zernik [FF – DD]; Kannibalen; Hunger 2000; La venganza del Doctor Mabuse / Dr. M schlägt zu [FF – ES/DE]. 1970/71: Goya / Goja, ili Tâkij pu poznani’ [FF – DD/SU]. 1971: Der Fall Jägerstätter [AT]; $ [FF – US]; Die Ahnfrau; El muerto hace las maletas / Der
JAN KIEPURA Todesrächer von Soho [FF – ES/DE]. 1971/72: Das Jahrhundert der Chirurgen: Der Arzt seiner Schwester; Der Angestellte; Tatort: Strandgut. 1972: Rechtsprechung; Der Eisberg der Vorsehung; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Ohne Kranz und Blumen; Das letzte Paradies; Sonderdezernat K 1: Vier Schüsse auf den Mörder; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Der Tod in der Maske; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau I; Bremer Freiheit. 1972/73: Ein Fall für Männdli [season 1 – TVS – CH/DE]; Immobilien; Weekend im Paradies; Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben; Im Reservat. 1973: Einladung zur Enthauptung; Zwischen den Flügen: Ein Wiedersehen. 1973/ 74: Zwischenstationen: Ende einer Freundschaft. 1974: Die Villa der Madame Vidac; Die Macher oder Warten auf Godeau; Derrick: Waldweg; Härte 10; Diplomatengepäck; Vreemde Wêreld / … und die Nacht kennt kein Erbarmen [FF – ZA/DE]. 1974/75: Lieben Sie Kishon?: Erholung in Israel; See-Leben I; Man lernt nie aus [TVS]. 1975: Unter einem Dach: Verständigung; Lichtspiele am Preußenkorso; Der Hypochonder; Es fängt ganz harmlos an; Baby Hamilton oder Das kommt in den besten Familien vor. 1975/76: Von Emma, Türkenpaul und Edwin mit der Geige: BleibeVerhandlung; Margarete in Aix. 1976: Ketten; Bei Westwind hört man keinen Schuß. 1976/77: Der Anwalt [season 2 – TVS]. 1977: Der Mann mit dem Zylinder; Der Preis; Die Kette; Meine dicke Freundin; Mr. Carlis und seine abenteuerlichen Geschichten: Der Kaufmann von Wladimir. 1978: Friedrich Schachmann wird verwaltet; Der Sturz [FF]; Der Geist der Mirabelle; In des Waldes tiefsten Gründen; Extratouren; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau V; Wo die Liebe hinfällt; Der Anwalt [season 3 – TVS]. 1978/79: Die Stühle des Herrn Szmil. 1979: … es ist die Liebe; Die Magermilchbande [episode 2]; Geschichten aus der Zukunft: Nach menschlichem Ermessen; Tatort: Schweigegeld; Pension Schöller. 1979/80: Barfuß im Park; Exil / L’Exile [DE/ FR]. 1980: Die ungeraden Wege des Arnold Bronnen [TVD]; Das Drehbuch; Ein unruhiger Sommer; Kreuzfahrten eines Globetrotters: Spuren im Dschungel; Ein Guru kommt. 1980/81: Der König und sein Narr. 1981: Das Traumschiff. Folge 2; Der Spot oder Fast eine Karriere; Oh du fröhliche. 1981/82: Kreisbrandmeister Felix Martin [TVS]. 1982: Liszt Ferenc / Franz Liszt [HU/DE]; Die Krimistunde. Folge 3; Wohl bekomm’s; Treffpunkt Airport; Hellseher wider Willen [TVS]; Mein Bruder und ich; Kontakt bitte … [season 1 – TVS]; Die Geschwister Oppermann. 1982/83: Satan ist auf Gottes Seite; Das Traumschiff. Folge 12. 1983: Das Herz aller Dinge; Strafanzeige gegen unbeteiligt; Morgen in Alabama [FF]; Der Trauschein. 1983/ 84: Der Alte: Der vierte Mann; Abwärts [FF]. 1984: Turf: Die letzte Wette; Der Alte: Der Klassenkamerad; Geld oder Leben; Das Geschenk; Patrik Pacard: Entscheidung im Fjord [DE/FR]; Kleine Stadt, ich liebe Dich [TVS]; Der Schiedsrichter. 1984/85: Didi und die Rache der Enterbten [FF]; Anruf genügt; Stadttheater; Grenzenloses Himmelblau; Die Schwarzwaldklinik: 4. Sterbehilfe / 7. Die Schuldfrage / 12. Die falsche Diagnose; Kontakt bitte … [season 2 – TVS]. 1985: Fernsehen anno dazumal; Herbert ist Hermann [TVS]; Heidelinde Weis: Die schöne Mama und andere Geschichten [DE/AT]; Die Schwarzwaldklinik: 23. Der Infarkt.; In Amt und Würden; Es war ein bißchen laut …; Zieh den Stecker raus, das Wasser kocht.
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JAN KIEPURA (Jan Wiktor Kiepura) Born May 16, 1902, Sosnowiec (Russia, now Poland) Died August 15, 1966, Harrison (New York, USA) Legendary Polish tenor Kiepura became a leading man in early German sound film musicals, often produced in multi-language versions. After serving with the Polish Army during the nation’s struggle for independence, Kiepura commenced a law degree at Warsaw University in 1921, while also taking singing lessons. He made his professional stage debut playing the title role in Gounod’s ‘Faust’ at the Lwów Opera House in 1925. Appearances on Polish radio and a small role in the silent film O CZEM SIÊ NIE MYŒLI (Not in Your Thoughts, 1926) followed, before Kiepura’s career took on international dimensions with numerous European tours taking in venues including Milan’s Scala and London’s Royal Albert Hall, as well as a South American tour in 1929. The singer’s first sound film was Carmine Gallone’s multi-lingual production DIE SINGENDE STADT / CITY OF SONG (1930), shot at Ufa’s Neubabelsberg studios. Playing a naïve, good-natured Italian singing sensation lured to fame and fortune by a big city vamp, he starred opposite Brigitte Helm in the German version, and Betty Stockfield in the Englishlanguage release. He was again cast playing celebrated tenors in Joe May’s EIN LIED FÜR DICH / MY SONG FOR YOU (1932–34), and Gallone’s MEIN HERZ RUFT NACH DIR / MY HEART IS CALLING (1934), both shot in German, French and English versions. Only his dual role in Karl Lamac’s ICH LIEBE ALLE FRAUEN (I Like All the Women, 1935) afforded Kiepura any real opportunity to demonstrate his skills as an actor. Having made frequent appearances in the United States since 1931, Kiepura also travelled to Hollywood to star opposite mezzo-soprano Gladys Swarthout in Paramount’s GIVE US THIS NIGHT (1935/ 36). Returning to Europe, he married his Hungarian co-star from the German and English versions of MEIN HERZ RUFT NACH DIR, Marta Eggerth (b. 1912), and headlined in two Austrian productions, Gallone’s OPERNRING (Thank You, Madame, 1936) and Geza von Bolváry’s ZAUBER DER BOHÈME (The Charm of La Bohème, 1937). Touring in France when Poland was invaded by the Wehrmacht, Kiepura gave a series of benefit concerts to support his homeland. Following France’s capitulation, he and Eggerth resettled in New York and were able to continue supporting the Polish cause through their enormous success on Broadway, with a two-year run in Franz Lehár’s ‘The Merry Widow’ earning them around one million dollars. Kiepura and Eggerth lived in Paris from 1947 to 1953, and Kiepura starred in three European remakes of his
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pre-war hits. Thereafter settling permanently in Rye, near New York, the couple became American citizens, and Kiepura undertook only sporadic appearances in Austria, Germany and Poland from the mid1950s until his death. Considered a national hero in his homeland, his career has been the subject of several films and plays including Janusz Zaorski’s BARYTON (The Baritone, 1984). [act – DE] 1926: O czym siê nie myli [PL]. 1930: Die singende Stadt [MLV – GB/DE]; City of Song [MLV – GB]. 1932: Das Lied einer Nacht [MLV]; Tell Me Tonight [MLV]; La chanson d’une nuit [MLV]. 1932/33: Ein Lied für Dich [MLV]; Tout pour l’amour [MLV]. 1934: My Song for You [MLV – GB/DE]; Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV]; Mon coeur t’appelle [MLV – DE/FR]; My Heart Is Calling [MLV – GB/ DE]. 1935: Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; J’aime toutes les femmes [MLV]. 1935/36: Give Us This Night [US]. 1936: Opernring [AT]. 1937: Zauber der Bohème [AT]. 1947/48: Addio, Mimì [IT]. 1949: La valse brillante [FR]. 1952: Das Land des Lächelns. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Marta Eggerth und Jan Kiepura [TVD]. 1967: Lieblinge unserer Eltern: Michael Bohnen und Jan Kiepura [TVD]. 1972: Jan Kiepura – Der totale Star [TVD – AT]. 2002-04: Csak egy kislány … – Találkozás Eggerth Mártával [SD – HU].
KIESLER, HEDWIG see LAMARR, HEDY
KLAUS KINSKI (Klaus-Günther Nakszynski) Born October 18, 1926, Zoppot (Germany, now Sopot, Poland) Died November 22, 1991, Lagunitas (California, USA) Projecting a public persona every bit as intense as the characters he played in films, temperamental Kinski accumulated over 150 screen credits in a forty-year career that took in New German Cinema, European co-productions, and Hollywood. Kinski’s family lived in Berlin from 1931, where aged sixteen, he was called up to serve in the German army during World War II. His first theatrical experiences came entertaining fellow inmates in a British POW camp. Kinski made his stage debut at Berlin’s Schloßpark-Theater in 1946. Guest appearances throughout West Germany and Austria followed, with the young actor becoming renowned for his outlandish, highlycharged recitals, for example of poetry by Villon and Rimbaud. He also started to take small film roles after 1947, playing a drag artist in Roberto Rossellini’s LA PAURA (Fear), the mentally ill Prince Otto in Helmut Käutner’s LUDWIG II. (Ludwig II, both 1954), a lieu-
tenant in Laszlo Benedek’s KINDER, MÜTTER UND EIN GENERAL (Children, Mother, and the General, 1954/55), and an assassin in Fritz Kortner’s SARAJEVO (1955). Alfred Vohrer’s DIE TOTEN AUGEN VON LONDON (Dead Eyes of London, 1961) was the first of many appearances as scenery-chewing villains and eye-rolling psychopaths in the long-running Edgar Wallace crime thriller series. Based in Rome from 1964, he also gained parts in international productions, delivering frenzied character studies in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western PER QUALCHE DOLLARI IN PIÙ (For a Few Dollars More), and David Lean’s DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (both 1965). Kinski subsequently appeared in countless horror, action and exploitation films. The actor left his stamp on New German Cinema playing the leads in Werner Herzog’s AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, 1972), NOSFERATU – PHANTOM DER NACHT (Nosferatu the Vampyre, 1978), WOYZECK (1978/79), and FITZCARRALDO (1981/82). By the mid-1970s, Kinski also frequently appeared in French films, opposite Romy Schneider in Andrzej Zulawski’s melodrama L’IMPORTANT, C’EST D’AIMER (That Most Important Thing: Love, 1974/75), and went on to several Hollywood productions, such as Billy Wilder’s BUDDY BUDDY (1981). He worked with Herzog once again on the slave trader epic COBRA VERDE (1987), with the pair’s quarrels frequently bringing shooting to a standstill. Kinski directed and starred in his long-planned pet project KINSKI – PAGANINI (Paganini) in 1987/88, although this was drastically recut by its producer and given only a scant cinema release. He brought out his best-selling memoirs – a characteristically over-the-top potpourri under the title ‘Ich bin so wild nach deinem Erdbeermund’ (I Am So Wild About Your Strawberry Mouth) in 1975, and these subsequently appeared in two abridged English-language versions, as ‘All I Need Is Love’ and ‘Kinski: Uncut’. A television talk show favourite during the final years of his life due to his unpredictable behaviour and obscene outbursts, Kinski remains an enduring cult favourite, to whom Werner Herzog offered a poignantly ironic homage with his feature-length MEIN LIEBSTER FEIND – KLAUS KINSKI (My Best Fiend, 1998/ 99). In 2007 footage shot at one of Kinski’s tumultuous stage performances of the New Testament in November 1971 was turned into the documentary JESUS CHRISTUS ERLÖSER (Jesus Christ Savior). Kinski’s daughters Pola (b. 1952) and Nastassja (b. 1959), as well as his son Nikolai (b. 1976), all became actors. [act – DE] 1947/48: Morituri. 1951: Decision Before Dawn [US]. 1954: Die Angst / La paura [DE/IT]; Ludwig II. – Glanz
NASTASSJA KINSKI und Elend eines Königs. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: Hanussen; Sarajevo [AT]. 1956: Waldwinter; Geliebte Corinna. 1957/58: A Time to Love and a Time to Die [US]. 1960: Der Rächer. 1960/61: The Counterfeit Traitor. 1961: Die toten Augen von London; Bankraub in der Rue Latour; Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen [MLV – DE/GB]; Die Kurve [TV]; Die seltsame Gräfin. 1961/62: Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee. 1962: Die Tür mit den sieben Schlössern / La porte aux sept serrures [DE/FR]; Der rote Rausch; Das Gasthaus an der Themse. 1963: Die Mondvögel [TV]; Der Zinker / L’Énigme du sergent noir [DE/FR]; Die schwarze Kobra [AT]; Der schwarze Abt; Das indische Tuch; Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse; Kali Yug, la dea della vendetta / Kali-Yug, déesse de la vengeance / Kali Yug – 1. Teil: Die Göttin der Rache [IT/FR/DE]; Il mistero del tempio indiano / Le mystère du temple hindou / Kali Yug – Aufruhr in Indien [IT/FR/DE]; Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Witwe / Araña negra [DE/ES]; Piccadilly null Uhr 12. 1963/ 64: Der letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz [AT/DE]; Wartezimmer zum Jenseits. 1964: Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß; Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Das Geheimnis der chinesischen Nelke / Il segreto del garofano cinese / FBI contre l’oeillet chinois [DE/IT/FR]; Das Verrätertor [MLV – GB/DE]; Traitor’s Gate [MLV – GB/DE]. [act – IT] 1964/65: The Pleasure Girls [GB]; Estambul 65 / Colpo grosso a Galata Bridge / L’Homme d’Instanbul [ES/ IT/FR]. 1965: Neues vom Hexer [DE]; La guerre secrète / La guerra segreta / Spione unter sich [FR/IT/DE]; Per qualche dollaro in più / Für ein paar Dollar mehr / La muerte tenia un precio [IT/DE/ES]; Doctor Zhivago [GB/US]. 1965/66: Our Man in Marrakesh [GB]; Circus of Fear / Psycho-Circus [GB/US]. 1966: Gern hab’ ich die Frauen gekillt / Spie contro il mondo / Le carnaval des barbouzes [AT/IT/FR]; Das Geheimnis der gelben Mönche / Tiro a segno per uccidere [AT/IT]; Quién sabe? 1966/67: Five Golden Dragons [GB]; Ad ogni costo / Diamantes a go-go / Top Job [IT/ES/DE]. 1967: Die blaue Hand [DE]; The Million Eyes of Sumuru [GB]; Geheimnisse in goldenen Nylons / Deux billets pour Mexico / Segreti che scottano [DE/FR/IT]. 1967/68: L’uomo, l’orgoglio, la vendetta / Mit Django kam der Tod [IT/ DE]; Coplan sauve sa peau / L’assassino ha le ore contate [FR/IT]; A qualsiasi prezzo [IT/DE]; Sigpress contro Scotland Yard / Mister zehn Prozent – Miezen und Moneten [IT/DE]. 1968: Das Gold von Sam Cooper / Ognuno per sè [DE/ IT]; Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte / Sartana – Bete um deinen Tod [IT/DE]; I bastardi / Le bâtard / Der Bastard [IT/FR/DE]; Il grande silenzio / Le grand silence [IT/FR]; Due volte Giuda / Dos veces Judas [IT/ES]. 1968/69: 5 per l’inferno; Marquis de Sade: Justine / Justine ovvero le disavventure della virtù [DE/IT]; La legge dei gangsters; Paroxismus [DE/IT]. 1969: A doppia faccia / Das Gesicht im Dunkeln [IT/DE]; Il dito nella piaga; … e Dio disse a Caino … / Satan der Rache [IT/DE]; Sono Sartana il vostro becchino; Wie kommt ein so reizendes Mädchen zu diesem Gewerbe? / Dove vai senza mutandine? [DE/IT]. 1969/70: Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht / Il Conte Dracula / El Conde Drácula [DE/IT/ES]; La peau de Torpedo / Der Mann mit der Torpedohaut / Dossier 212: destinazione morte [FR/DE/IT]. 1970: Appuntamento col disonore / Spezialkommando Wildgänse / Sastanak sa necasnim [IT/DE/YU]; I leopardi di
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Churchill / Leopardi di Churchill [IT/ES]; La belva. 1970/71: Per una bara piena di dollari; Giu la testa … hombre!; La bestia uccide a sangue freddo. 1971: Lo chiamavano King; Prega il morto e ammazza il vivo; La vendetta è un piatto che si serve freddo; Nella stretta morsa del ragno / Dracula im Schloß des Schreckens / Edgar Poe chez les mortsvivants [IT/DE/FR]; Il venditore di morte; Gli fumavano le Colt … lo chiamavano Camposanto; L’Occhio del ragno; Black Killer; El retorno de Clint el solitario / Il ritorno di Clint il solitario [ES/IT]. 1972: Sette croci a San Ramon; Io monaca … per tre carogne e sette peccatrici / Ich, die Nonne und die Schweinehunde [IT/DE]; Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes [DE]. 1972/73: Occupation [TVS – GR]. 1973: Rivelazioni di uno psichiatra sul mondo perverso del sesso; La morte sorride all’assassino; La mano spietata della legge; Il mio nome è Shanghai Joe; La mano che nutre la morte. 1973/74: Eroi all’inferno; Le amanti del mostro. 1974: Che botte, ragazzi! / Zwei durch dick und dünn [IT/DE]; Le orme. 1974/ 75: L’Important, c’est d’aimer / L’Importante è amare / Nachtblende [FR/IT/DE]. 1975: Lifespan [US]; Margot Werner [TV – DE]; Un genio, due compari, un pollo / Un génie, deux associés, une cloche / Nobody ist der Größte [IT/FR/ DE]; Das Netz [DE]. 1976: Jack the Ripper – Der Dirnenmörder von London [CH/DE]; Madame Claude [FR]. 1976/ 77: Nuit d’or / Nuit d’or – Die Nacht aus Gold [FR/DE]. 1977: Operation Thunderbolt [IL]; Mort d’un pourri [FR]; Zoo/zéro [FR]. 1977/78: La chanson de Roland [FR]. 1978: Nosferatu – Phantom der Nacht / Nosferatu – Fantôme de la nuit [DE/FR]. 1978/79: Woyzeck [DE]. 1979: Haine [FR]. 1979/80: La femme-enfant / Stumme Liebe [FR/DE]. 1980: Schizoid [US]; Les fruits de la passion / Shina ningyo [FR/ JP]. 1981: Buddy Buddy [US]; Venom [GB]; The Soldier [US]. 1981/82: Love and Money [US]; Fitzcarraldo [DE]; Burden of Dreams [DO – US]. 1982: Android [US]. 1983/ 84: The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud [US]; The Little Drummer Girl [US]. 1984: The Revenge of Stolen Stars [US]; Faerie Tale Theatre: The Beauty and the Beast [TV – US]; Geheimcode Wildgänse / Arcobaleno selvaggio [DE/ IT]; The Hitchhiker / Le Voyageur: Lovesounds [TV – US/CA/ FR]; The Titan Find [US]. 1985: El caballero del dragón [ES]; Commandos Leopard / Kommando Leopard [IT/DE]. 1985/ 86: Crawlspace [US]. 1986: Timestalkers [TV – US]. 1987: Cobra Verde [DE]; Herzog in Afrika [DO – CH/DE]. 1987/ 88: Kinski – Paganini [dir,scr,act,cut – IT/FR]. 1988: Nosferatu a Venezia [co-dir,act]. 1988/89: Kinski girando Paganini [DO – dir,cut,app]. 1998/99: Nina Hagen = Punk + Glory [DO – voi – DE]; Mein liebster Feind / My Best Fiend [DO – app – DE/GB]. 2007: Jesus Christus Erlöser [DO – app – DE].
NASTASSJA KINSKI (Nastassja Nakszynski) Born January 24, 1961, Berlin (West Germany) Admired for her beauty and her gentle, innocently sexy on-screen persona, multilingual Kinski’s eclectic and uneven career from the mid-1970s onwards encompassed horror films, soft-porn, New German cinema, Hollywood action films, and comedies.
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Estranged from her father, actor Klaus Kinski, Nastassja was raised by her mother between Venezuela and Munich. Her first film appearance was in Wim Wenders’s FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (Wrong Move, 1974/75), followed by a part in the Hammer horror production TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER (1975/76) alongside Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee. But she reached a broader audience with her lead in Wolfgang Petersen’s feature-length television crime film TATORT – REIFEZEUGNIS (For Your Love Only, 1976/77), which was released in cinemas outside Germany. Several similar parts as naively seductive Lolita figures followed and a poster of her naked with a snake became an international bestseller. In 1976, Kinski raised eyebrows by becoming involved with the much older Roman Polanski, and moved to New York, where she studied acting under Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. Her breakthrough came as the tragic heroine of Polanski’s Thomas Hardy adaptation TESS (1978/79), earning her a Golden Globe and a French César award. She thereafter specialised in playing off-beat characters, including a circus performer in Francis Ford Coppola’s ONE FROM THE HEART, the lead in Paul Schrader’s remake of Jacques Tourneur’s CAT PEOPLE (both 1981), and spending most of her screen time in a bear costume among a cast of other oddball figures in Tony Richardson’s THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE (1984). Kinski returned to West German cinema with a celebrated performance as 19th century pianist Clara Wieck in Peter Schamoni’s FRÜHLINGSSINFONIE (Spring Symphony, 1982/83), and gained greater attention still as Harry Dean Stanton’s lost and found wife in Wim Wenders’s PARIS, TEXAS (1983/84). Concentrating on raising a family for the greater part of the 1980s, Kinski worked in relatively low-key European and international film and television productions. She returned to German cinema in Wenders’s IN WEITER FERNE, SO NAH! (Faraway, So Close!, 1992/93) before making her Hollywood comeback in action thriller TERMINAL VELOCITY (1994), and gaining critical acclaim for her role in ONE NIGHT STAND (1996/97), starring opposite Wesley Snipes. She subsequently appeared in a succession of contemporary dramas, postmodern romances, and high-tech thrillers, none of which managed to make much impression. [act – DE] 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung. 1975/76: To the Devil a Daughter / Die Braut des Satans [GB/DE]. 1976/77: Tatort: Reifezeugnis [TV]. 1977: Notsignale: Im Nest [TV]. 1977/78: Leidenschaftliche Blümchen. 1978: Così come sei / Así como eres [IT/ES]. 1978/79: Tess [FR/GB]. [act – US] 1981: One from the Heart; Cat People. 1981/82: Love and Money. 1982/83: Frühlingssinfonie [DE]; La lune dans le caniveau / Lo specchio del desiderio [FR/IT]. 1983:
Exposed; Unfaithfully Yours. 1983/84: Paris, Texas [DE/ FR]. 1984: The Hotel New Hampshire [US/GB/CA]; Maria’s Lovers. 1985: Harem [FR]; Revolution [GB]. 1987: Maladie d’amour [FR]. 1988: Silent Night [DE]; Acque di primavera / Les eaux printanières / Torrents of Spring [IT/FR/GB]. 1989: In una notte di chiaro di luna [IT/FR]. 1989/90: Il segreto [IT]; Il sole anche di notte / Le soleil même la nuit / Nachtsonne [IT/FR/DE]. 1990/91: Uniennye i oskorblennye / Umiliati e offesi [SU/CH/IT]; L’alba [IT]. 1991: L’Envers du decors: Portrait de Pierre Guffroy [DO – FR]. 1991/92: In camera mia [IT]; La bionda [IT]. 1992/93: In weiter Ferne, so nah! [DE]. 1994: Terminal Velocity; Crackerjack [CA]. 1995/96: Danielle Steel’s The Ring [TV]; Somebody Is Waiting. 1996/97: Clair [IT]; Father’s Day; One Night Stand; Savior. 1997: Little Boy Blue; Bella Mafia [TV]. 1997/98: Your Friends & Neighbors. 1998: Susan’s Plan; Ciro norte [SF – IT]; Playing By Heart; The Lost Son [GB/FR]. 19982000: The Magic of Marciano. 1999: The Intruder [GB/ CA]. 1999/2000: Kingdom Come [GB/US]; A Storm in Summer [TV]. 2000: Red Letters; Time Share – Doppelpack im Ferienhaus / Time Share [DE/US]; Quarantine [TV – CA]; The Claim [GB/CA/FR]. 2000/01: Town & Country; An American Rhapsody. 2001: Cold Heart; Blind Terror [CA];.com for Murder; Say Nothing [TV – US/CA]; Diary of a Sex Addict; The Day the World Ended [TV]; Beyond the City Limits / Rip It Off [US/CA]; The District: Tug of War [TV]. 2002: Mary Higgins Clark’s All Around the Town [TV – CA/US]. 2002/03: Paradise Found / Paradies – Die Leidenschaft des Paul Gauguin [AU/GB/FR/DE]. 2002-04: À ton image [FR]. 2003: Les Liaisons dangereuses [TV – FR/ CA]. 2004: La Femme Musketeer / Lady Musketier – Alle für eine [TV – US/DE/HR]. 2004-06: Inland Empire [US/FR].
RALF KIRSTEN Born May 30, 1930, Leipzig (Germany) Died January 23, 1998, Berlin (Germany) Best-known for his 1960s films starring Manfred Krug, East German director Kirsten specialised in addressing everyday reality in a contemplative way. A founder member of the socialist Free German Youth organisation in Leipzig, Kirsten commenced a degree in theatre studies prior to joining Prague’s FAMU Film School in 1952. Training as a director, his dissertation film was the DEFA children’s feature BÄRENBURGER SCHNURRE (A Funny Tale from Baerenburg, 1956). He made another children’s picture at DEFA, SKIMEISTER VON MORGEN (Skiing Stars of Tomorrow, 1956/57), and then worked in East German television and as assistant director of Slatan Dudow and Carl Balhaus. After co-directing the East German-Polish co-production BEGEGNUNG IM ZWIELICHT (Encounters in the Dark, 1960) together with Wanda Jakubowska, he was placed under full-time contract to DEFA. STEINZEITBALLADE (Stone Age Ballad, 1960), about female solidarity during the post-war reconstruction of German cities, used Brechtian distanci-
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ation techniques, and flopped at the box office despite being praised as an intriguing experiment. AUF DER SONNENSEITE (On the Sunny Side, 1961), a tale of a steelworker’s rise to acting stardom which drew heavily on the life-story of its leading man Manfred Krug, inaugurated an immensely successful string of collaborations that included the historical adventure MIR NACH, CANAILLEN! (Follow Me, Rascals!, 1963/64) and the genteel romance FRAU VENUS UND IHR TEUFEL (Lady Venus and Her Devil, 1966/67). Several films tackled contemporary problems in GDR society: BESCHREIBUNG EINES SOMMERS (Description of a Summer, 1962) documented moral hypocrisies among the socialist hierarchy; while NETZWERK (Network, 1969), critiqued the way in which older factory workers were treated by the industry’s drive towards rationalisation. Arguably Kirsten’s most significant film, DER VERLORENE ENGEL (The Lost Angel), about the artist Ernst Barlach, whose work had been denounced by the Nazis as ‘degenerate’, was banned in 1965, and reached cinemas only after the shooting of additional footage in 1970. Kirsten addressed the Nazi period again in ICH ZWING DICH ZU LEBEN (I’ll Force You to Live, 1977), depicting a disillusioned village teacher’s attempt to stop his fifteen-year-old son from becoming a soldier during the final days of the war. Kirsten’s further works included LACHTAUBEN WEINEN NICHT (Doves Don’t Cry, 1978/79), which questioned workers’ lack of influence in policy-making, and the biopic KÄTHE KOLLWITZ – BILDER EINES LEBENS (Kaethe Kollwitz – Images of a Life, 1986), another artist who had been repudiated by the Nazis. Kirsten also taught directing at the Babelsberg Film Academy. [dir,scr – DD] 1955: Blázni mezi námi [co-dir,co-scr – CS]. 1956: Bärenburger Schnurre [dir]. 1956/57: Skimeister von morgen [dir]. 1957/58: Nur eine Frau [ass-dir]. 1958/59: Verwirrung der Liebe [ass-dir]. 1960: Spotkania w mroku / Begegnung im Zwielicht [ass-dir – PL/DD]; Steinzeitballade. 1960/61: Hoffnung auf Kredit [TV – dir]. 1961: Auf der Sonnenseite [dir,co-scr]; Film-Magazin Nr. 3. Stelldichein bei Huckebein [SF – dir]. 1962: Beschreibung eines Sommers. 1963: Träume sind Schäume [SF – dir]. 1963/64: Mir nach, Canaillen! 1965-70: Der verlorene Engel. 1966/67: Frau Venus und ihr Teufel [dir,co-scr]. 1969: Netzwerk. 1970: Zwei Briefe an Pospischiel [TV – dir]. 1971: Junger Mann [TV – dir]. 1972: Die Elixiere des Teufels / Elixíry ïábla [DD/CS]. 1973: Unterm Birnbaum. 1974/75: Eine Pyramide für mich. 1977: Ich zwing dich zu leben. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [act]. 1978/79: Lachtauben weinen nicht. 1983/84: Wo andere schweigen [dir]. 1986: Käthe Kollwitz – Bilder eines Lebens.
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GERHARD KLEIN Born May 1, 1920, Berlin (Germany) Died May 21, 1970, Berlin (East Germany) Although he made only a handful of features, the realist, documentary-like narratives and pictorial style of director Klein’s ‘Berlin films’ exerted a huge influence on East German cinema. The teenaged Klein worked for the Communist resistance between 1933 and 1935, and was twice arrested by the Nazis. After the war, he initially held positions on the Communist Party’s Senior Youth Committee and at the Municipal Youth Welfare Department in Berlin. In 1946, he joined DEFA, where he started out scripting shorts before graduating to the position of assistant director in the studio for newsreels and documentaries. He moved to the feature film studio in 1952, where he was instrumental in establishing the production of children’s pictures. It was with one of these, ALARM IM ZIRKUS (Alarm At the Circus, 1953/54), that he and young scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase first developed the so-called ‘Berlin film’, in which tales of everyday life in the divided Berlin were presented in the manner of a news exposé. The box-office hit BERLIN – ECKE SCHÖNHAUSER (Berlin – Schoenhauser Corner, 1957) famously centred on ‘juvenile delinquency’ in the eastern sector of the city; but their subsequent attempt to revisit the same subject matter in BERLIN UM DIE ECKE (Berlin Around the Corner, 1965) was banned outright since such ‘critical approaches’ were no longer desirable to the regime, and the film remained unreleased until 1990. In the fairytale adventure DIE GESCHICHTE VOM ARMEN HASSAN (The Story of Poor Hassan, 1958), Klein deployed a near-poetic documentary style of storytelling to impart a parable about social inequality under capitalism. Klein received international acclaim for DER FALL GLEIWITZ (The Gleiwitz Affair, 1960/61), which presented a documentary re-enactment of the fake attack on a German radio station in Gleiwitz (now Gliwice) staged by SS troops in 1939 in order to facilitate Hitler’s invasion of Poland. SONNTAGSFAHRER (Sunday Trippers, 1963) and an episode in the multi-director portmanteau film GESCHICHTEN JENER NACHT (Tales of That Night, 1966/67) in turn used a wryly humorous approach to explore some of the problems affecting everyday existence in East Germany after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Klein died a few days into production of LEICHENSACHE ZERNIK (The Zernik Murder Case, 1971/ 72) – a police drama drawing on the exposé style of the ‘Berlin films’ – and the film was completed, using none of the material that Klein had already shot, by
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scriptwriter Kohlhaase and former assistant director Helmut Nitzschke. [dir – DD] 1949: Kali [SD – dir,scr]. 1950: 700 Meter unter Tage [SD – dir,scr]; Für ein einiges, glückliches Vaterland [SD]; Maul- und Klauenseuche [SD]; Stahl [SD – scr]; Baustelle X [SD – dir,scr]. 1951: Aladin [SF – dir,scr]; Gäste aus Moskau [DO – dir,scr]; Arbeit aus neuem Geist [SD – scr]. 1953: Die DEFA-Rakete 2. Folge [dir]. 1953/54: Alarm im Zirkus. 1955/56: Eine Berliner Romanze. 1957: Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser … 1958: Die Geschichte vom armen Hassan; Die Feststellung [co-dir]; Der Schinderhannes [act – DE]. 1959: Seltsame Jagd [SF]; Die offene Hand [SF]. 1959/60: Ein Sommertag macht keine Liebe [co-dir]. 1960/61: Der Fall Gleiwitz. 1963: Sonntagsfahrer. 1964/ 65: Denk bloß nicht, ich heule [act]. 1965: Berlin um die Ecke [dir,co-scr]. 1966/67: Geschichten jener Nacht. EP 4: Der große und der kleine Willi [dir,scr]. 1971/72: Leichensache Zernik [co-scr]. 1997: Der liebe Gott in Berlin – Der Regisseur Gerhard Klein 1920 – 1970 [TVD – app – DE].
RUDOLF KLEIN-ROGGE (Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge) Born November 24, 1885, Cologne (Germany) Died May 29, 1955, Wetzelsdorf (Austria) The screen’s original Dr. Mabuse, Klein-Rogge excelled at playing sinister figures in 1920s and 1930s German productions, and was a regular of Fritz Lang’s Weimar films. Taking acting lessons while studying art history in Berlin and Bonn, Klein-Rogge made his stage debut in Halberstadt in 1909. He went on to appear at theatres in Aachen, Kiel and Düsseldorf. He married regular co-star and author Thea von Harbou in 1914. He joined Nuremberg’s Städtische Bühnen theatre both as actor and director the following year, and then ascended to Berlin’s Lessing-Theater, where he remained from 1918 to 1924. After a few minor screen roles in 1919, Klein-Rogge played an underworld fence in Fritz Lang’s KÄMPFENDE HERZEN (Struggling Hearts, 1920/21), which von Harbou had co-scripted. Although she and Klein-Rogge subsequently divorced so that she could marry Lang, Klein-Rogge continued to be cast in stand-out parts in the pair’s projects, including the dervish in DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny / Between Two Worlds, 1921), the eponymous master-criminal in DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1921/22), Attila the Hun in DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungen, 1923/24), and the scientist Rotwang in METROPOLIS (1925/26). His intense looks and bearing found him cast in similar roles in other directors’ films, such as a tyrant in Fritz Wendhausen’s DER STEINERNE REITER (The Stone Rider, 1922), a pirate in Arthur Robison’s PIETRO, DER KORSAR (Sea Wolves, 1924/25), and the
Tsar in Aleksandr Volkov’s CASANOVA (The Loves of Casanova, 1926/27), which was shot in Paris. Further film work in Paris included a role in one of the first French-speaking sound films, Henri Chomette’s LE REQUIN (The Shark, 1929). Klein-Rogge’s final performance for Lang was in DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1932/33). Klein-Rogge subsequently played lead roles in von Harbou’s two disastrous attempts at directing, as a feeble-minded character in ELISABETH UND DER NARR (Elizabeth and the Fool, 1933) and as a bricklayer in HANNELES HIMMELFAHRT (Hannele’s Heavenly Journey, 1933/34). Thereafter cast primarily in supporting parts, KleinRogge was occasionally given the opportunity to demonstrate his adeptness at comedy in Douglas Sirk’s DAS HOFKONZERT (The Court Concert, 1936) or as a blustering councillor in Erich Waschneck’s DIE GÖTTLICHE JETTE (The Divine Jetta, 1937). Klein-Rogge’s final screen appearance was in Carl Froelich’s HOCHZEIT AUF BÄRENHOF (Wedding in Baerenhof, 1941/42) before retiring from the industry. [act – DE] 1912/13: Der Film von der Königin Luise. 1. Die Märtyrerin auf dem Königsthron / 2. Aus Preußens schwerer Zeit. 1919: Flitter-Dörtje; Die Launen eines Milliardärs; Das Licht am Fenster; Spiele eines Milliardärs; Morphium; Die Schreckensnacht im Irrenhaus Ivoy; Das Geheimnis der Irren. 1919/20: Der Fall Tolstikoff. 1920: Der schwarze Graf; Wildes Blut; Die geschlossene Kette; Das wandernde Bild. 1920/21: Kämpfende Herzen; Die Nächte des Cornelius Brouwer. 1921: Am Webstuhl der Zeit; Das gestohlene Millionenrezept; Der müde Tod; Zirkus des Lebens. 1921/22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922: Der steinerne Reiter. 1922/23: Die Prinzessin Suwarin. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1924/25: Pietro, der Korsar. 1925: Der Mann seiner Frau; Der rosa Diamant. 1925/ 26: Metropolis. 1926: Mädchenhandel; Die lachende Grille; Der Herr der Nacht. 1926/27: Der Zigeunerbaron; Casanova [FR]. 1927: Die letzte Nacht / The Queen Was in the Parlour [DE/GB]; Tingel-Tangel [AT]; Die raffinierteste Frau Berlins; Das Mädchen aus Frisco; Die Sandgräfin. 1927/28: Spione. 1928: Eine Nacht in Yoshiwara; Tu m’appartiens! [FR]; Mädchenschicksale; La faute de Monique [FR]; Wolga – Wolga; Die schönste Frau von Paris. 1929: Le requin [FR]; Tarakanova [FR]. 1930: Eskimo [NO/DK]. 1932/33: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]; Le testament du Dr. Mabuse [MLV]. 1933: Der Judas von Tirol; Elisabeth und der Narr. 1933/34: Hanneles Himmelfahrt. 1934: Die Welt ohne Maske; Grenzfeuer; Gern hab’ ich die Frau’n geküßt; Der Fall Brenken; Zwischen Himmel und Erde; Die Frauen vom Tannhof. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König; Der Kosak und die Nachtigall [AT]. 1935: Das Einmaleins der Liebe; Der Ammenkönig. 1935/36: Der Kaiser von Kalifornien. 1936: Ein selt-
ALEXANDER KLUGE samer Gast; Die Stunde der Versuchung; Moral; Die un-erhörte Frau; Intermezzo; Truxa; Das Hofkonzert [MLV]. 1936/37: Der Herrscher. 1937: Die göttliche Jette; Madame Bovary; Streit um den Knaben Jo; Die gelbe Flagge; Der Katzensteg. 1937/38: Ab Mitternacht [MLV – FR/DE]; Die Frau und der Tod / Abenteuer in Marokko [CH/DE]. 1938: Sergeant Berry [co-scr]; Zwei Frauen. 1938/39: Menschen vom Varieté [MLV – HU/DE]. 1939: Parkstraße 13; Schneider Wibbel; Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes; Kennwort: Machin; Rheinische Brautfahrt. 1939/40: Das Herz der Königin. 1940: Die unvollkommene Liebe; Kora Terry. 1941/42: Hochzeit auf Bärenhof.
ALEXANDER KLUGE (Alexander Ernst Kluge) Born February 14, 1932, Halberstadt (Germany) The intellectual mentor of the New German Cinema movement, lawyer, politician, director, writer, theorist, and producer Kluge was instrumental in the restructuring of the West German media landscape from the 1960s through to the 1980s, both through his political and philosophical interventions, and through his cerebral feature films, documentaries, and visual essays for cinema and television. A former student of law, church music, and history, Kluge earned his doctorate in 1956 with a thesis on university self-administration, and in 1961 co-authored (with Hellmut Becker) a study on expenditure control within the field of cultural policy. Kluge gained initial experience of filmmaking after taking a trainee post with CCC-Film, where he worked on the sets of productions including Fritz Lang’s DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1958/59). His first short, BRUTALITÄT IN STEIN (Brutality in Stone, 1960), which he co-directed with Peter Schamoni, picked up several awards at the Oberhausen Shortfilm Festival, and in 1962, Kluge was one of the instigators of the Oberhausen Manifesto, which demanded a new beginning in German film culture. Together with Edgar Reitz and Detten Schleiermacher, he became a director of the newly-founded Institute of Filmmaking in Ulm, and in 1963 founded his own production company, Kairos-Film. His debut feature ABSCHIED VON GESTERN (Yesterday Girl, 1965/66), starring his sister ‘Alexandra’ Kluge (b. 1937), was the first work of Young German Cinema to gain international acclaim, receiving a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in addition to German Film Awards for best direction and production. From this point, Kluge’s films were marked by an auteurist style blending political commentary and ironic humour amid seductive visuals. However, although his productions were lauded by critics and film festival juries, they seldom found favour with cinemagoers.
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The director’s multiple-award-winning second feature, DIE ARTISTEN IN DER ZIRKUSKUPPEL: RATLOS (The Artists Under the Big Top: Disoriented, 1967), introduced the character of Leni Peickert, played by Hannelore Hoger, who would recur in numerous films as a conduit for Kluge’s meditations on art, society, reality and utopia, most conspicuously in DIE UNBEZÄHMBARE LENI PEICKERT (The Indomitable Leni Peickert, 1967–69). Post-1968 shifts in political and social attitudes were examined through the microcosm of (frequently unsettling) portraits of everyday life in Frankfurt in GELEGENHEITSARBEIT EINER SKLAVIN (Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave, 1973) and IN GEFAHR UND GRÖSSTER NOT BRINGT DER MITTELWEG DEN TOD (The Middle of the Road is a Very Dead End, 1974), the latter co-directed by Edgar Reitz. DER STARKE FERDINAND (Strongman Ferdinand, 1975/
76), in turn, was a satirical take on the federal government’s knee-jerk response to the perceived threat of left-wing terrorism, and proved the director’s most accessible and popular film. In the late 1970s, Kluge initiated and supervised productive collaborations with key exponents of New German Cinema, including DEUTSCHLAND IM HERBST (Germany in Autumn, 1977/78), DER KANDIDAT (The Candidate, 1979/80), and KRIEG UND FRIEDEN (War and Peace, 1982/83). His own films became ever more unstructured ruminations on personal and political themes, as in DIE MACHT DER GEFÜHLE (The Power of Emotion, 1981–83) and VERMISCHTE NACHRICHTEN (Miscellaneous News, 1985/86). Following the introduction of commercial cable television in Germany, Kluge launched independent production company DCTP with Japanese backing in 1987, which became a major source of award-winning prime-time arts magazine shows, interviews (real and fake), and cultural documentaries that he went on producing, shooting, editing and presenting through a number of channels with titles such as: ‘Prime Time / Spätausgabe’, ‘10 vor 11 / Ten to Eleven’, or ‘News & Stories’, created by himself as a political lobbyist. In the same style and picking up an idea of Eisenstein Kluge produced a multi-DVD edition of his version of Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ Under the title NACHRICHTEN AUS DER IDEOLOGISCHEN ANTIKE (News From the Ideological Ancient World, 2008) lasting more than nine hours. His film work aside, Kluge also established himself as an important academic scholar during the 1970s and published a number of influential books, including, with Oskar Negt, ‘Öffentlichkeit und Erfahrung’ (1972, Public Sphere and Experience), ‘Kritische Theorie und Marxismus’ (Critical Theory and Marxism, 1974), and ‘Geschichte und Eigensinn’ (History
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and Obstinacy, 1981), as well as a bracing indictment of the German film industry of the 1960s in ‘Filmwirtschaft in der BRD und Europa’ (Film Industry in West Germany and Europe, 1973, co-written by Florian Hopf and Michael Dost). The hefty book ‘Bestandsaufnahme – Utopie Film’ (State of Play – Utopia Film, 1983) edited by Kluge was a collection of essays reviewing the past twenty years of filmmaking in West-Germany. Kluge published numerous books that combined stories and ideas from his films or for unshot films as well as essayistic approches to politics and culture. These texts were reedited and combined by the author-editor into new volumes. Kluge received numerous literary and cultural awards as well as a special honorary award of the German Film Awards for his lifetime achievement and importance for German cinema. All of his films as well as a selection of his TV-shows were collected in an extensive DVD edition in 2007/08. [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1960: Brutalität in Stein [SD – co-dir, co-scr,pro]. 1961: Rennfahrer [SF – dir,pro]; Thema Amore [SF – dir,scr]; Rennen [SF – co-dir,pro]. 1962/63: Lehrer im Wandel [SD – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1963: Die Ewigkeit von gestern [SF – co-dir]; Protokoll einer Revolution [SF – co-scr,pro]. 1964: Porträt einer Bewährung [SD]. 1964/ 65: VariaVision. Unendliche Fahrt – aber begrenzt [AG – scr]. 1965: … Geist und ein wenig Glück [TVD – app]. 1965/66: Abschied von gestern [dir,scr,sma,voi,pro]. 1966: Das Pokerspiel [SF – dir,pro]; Mahlzeiten [consultant]. 1967: Frau Blackburn, geb. 5. Jan. 1872, wird gefilmt [SD – dir,scr,voi,pro]; Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1967-69: Die unbezähmbare Leni Peickert. 1968: Feuerlöscher E. A. Winterstein [SF]. 1969/70: Ein Arzt aus Halberstadt [SD]; Der große Verhau. 1969/77: ‘Zu böser Schlacht schleich ich heut nacht so bang –’ [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1969-71: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte. 1970: Wir verbauen 3 x 27 Millia. Dollar in einen Angriffsschlachter [SF – dir,scr,sma, pro]. 1973: Besitzbürgerin, Jahrgang 1908 [SD]; Die Reise nach Wien [co-scr]; Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin. 1974: In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod [co-dir,co-scr,mus,co-des,pro]; Biermann-Film [SD – co-dir,pro]. 1975/76: Der starke Ferdinand [dir,scr, voi,pro]. 1977: Die Menschen, die das Staufer-Jahr vorbereiten / Die Menschen, die das Staufer-Jahr vorbereiten. II. Nachrichten von den Staufern [DO – co-dir,co-scr, pro]. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst [co-dir,co-scr]. 1977-79: Die Patriotin [dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1979/80: Der Kandidat [DO – co-dir,co-scr,voi,app,pro,]. 1980/81: Das ist Film – Kluge, Godard und andere … [DO – app]. 1980-82: Zwischen den Bildern. 3. Über die Trägheit der Wahrnehmung [TVD – app]. 1981-83: Die Macht der Gefühle [dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1982/83: Krieg und Frieden [co-dir,co-scr]. 1983: Auf der Suche nach einer praktisch-realistischen Haltung [SF]. 1984/85: Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit [dir,voi,act,pro]. 1985: Filmgeschichte(n). Die Stunde der Filmemacher [DO –
co-dir,pro]. 1985/86: Vermischte Nachrichten. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1995: Hunger nach Sinn. Alexander Kluge [TVD – app]. 2002: Vom Glauben an den neuen Film. Porträt eines Festivals: Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen [TVD – app]; Kennwort Kino: Aufbruch der Träumer [TVD – app]. 2006: Schnitte in Raum und Zeit. Zehn Miniaturen über Filmmontage [DO – app]; Musik im Fahrtwind [TVD – app]. 2006/07: Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app]. 2007: 8 neue Minuten-Filme [SF]; Vom Glanz und Vergehen der Gruppe 47 [TVD – app]. 2008/09: Alexander Kluge – Tür an Tür mit einem anderen Leben [TVD – app]. [+ numerous TV documentaries and short films]
HILDEGARD KNEF (Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef) Born December 28, 1925, Ulm (Germany) Died February 1, 2002, Berlin (Germany) A glamorous post-war film star and popular singer with an enormous German fan base, Knef also maintained a successful international acting career and wrote a massive bestseller ‘The Gift Horse’, her autobiography. Raised in Berlin, Knef started out at the Ufa studios as a trainee animator in 1942, and joined the Babelsberg State Film School. Appearing in bits in Ufa films from 1944 and enjoying a love affair with Tobis production chief and SS officer Ewald von Demandowsky, Knef made her stage debut in Berlin shortly after hostilities ended, and shot to fame playing the female lead in the first German post-war feature, Wolfgang Staudte’s DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS (The Murderers are Among Us, 1946). She subsequently received the Locarno Film Festival’s best actress award for her lead in Rudolf Jugert’s directorial debut, FILM OHNE TITEL (Film Without a Name, 1947/48). Married to US film officer Kurt Hirsch from 1947 to 1950, Knef resettled in America and commenced her English-language career under the name Hildegarde Neff. Hollywood appearances included the Cold War thriller DIPLOMATIC COURIER (1951/52) and the lavish Ernest Hemingway adaptation THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952). She had a major stage success in the original Broadway production of Cole Porter’s ‘Silk Stockings’, based on the Garbo comedy NINOTCHKA (1939). Back in Europe, she remained a major figure in West German cinema throughout the 1950s, specialising in female protagonists who exuded self-confidence and sex appeal. Knef’s brief nude scene in Willi Forst’s DIE SÜNDERIN (The Story of a Sinner, 1950) helped the film to become a succès de scandale, while NACHTS AUF DEN STRASSEN (Detour, 1951) and ALRAUNE (Unnatural, 1952) were attempts to build her up into a femme fatale. Her supporting role in Josef von Báky’s newspaper thriller DER MANN, DER SICH VERKAUF-
GUSTAV KNUTH TE (The Man Who Sold Himself, 1958/59) meanwhile
earned Knef a German Film Award. Although she continued to star in American, British, French and Italian pictures, few of her films in the 1960s were particularly memorable, and included ill-advised remakes of Weimar classics, such as Rolf Thiele’s LULU (1962), and Wolfgang Staudte’s DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1962/63). In 1963, Knef launched her singing career, performing and writing the lyrics for numerous Berlin chansons that have since become evergreens. After a seven-year absence from the screen, Knef gave an award-winning performance in Alfred Vohrer’s adaptation of the Hans Fallada novel JEDER STIRBT FÜR SICH ALLEIN (Everyone Dies Alone, 1975). Her final role of note was as a reclusive film star in Billy Wilder’s FEDORA (1977/78), after which she appeared only occasionally in (largely unexceptional) films and on television. Her 1970 autobiography ‘Der geschenkte Gaul’ (The Gift Horse) was adapted into a musical in 1979. Retiring to Hollywood after her 1982 world tour flopped, she resettled in Berlin in 1990, with the numerous ups and downs of her personal life, including repeated plastic surgery and battles with cancer and other health problems, providing constant fodder for German tabloids. One of her last public appearances was at the festival premiere of the documentary WOMAN AND A HALF – HILDEGARD KNEF at the Berlinale 2001. Kai Wessel’s biopic HILDE – played by Heike Makatsch – debuted as a special at the Berlinale 2009 to mixed reviews. [act – DE] 1944/45: Die Brüder Noltenius; Frühlingsmelodie; Fahrt ins Glück; Unter den Brücken. 1946: Die Mörder sind unter uns [DD]. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen. 1947/48: Film ohne Titel. 1950: Die Sünderin. 1951: Es geschehen noch Wunder; Decision Before Dawn [US]; Nachts auf den Straßen. 1951/52: Diplomatic Courier [US]. 1952: The Snows of Kilimanjaro [US]; Night Without Sleep [US]; Alraune; Illusion in Moll; La fête à Henriette [FR]. 1953: The Man Between [GB]. 1953/54: Eine Liebesgeschichte. 1954: Geständnis unter vier Augen; Svengali [GB]. 1957: Madeleine und der Legionär. 1958: La fille de Hambourg [FR]. 1958/59: Subway in the Sky [GB]; Der Mann, der sich verkaufte. 1959/60: La Strada dei Giganti [IT]. 1960: Die geliebte Stimme [TV]. 1961: Golden Boy [TV]. 1962: Lulu [AT]; Laura [TV]; Caterina di Russia / Catherine de Russie [IT/FR]; Landru [FR/IT]. 1962/63: Die Dreigroschenoper / L’Opéra de quat’sous [DE/FR]; Ballade pour un voyou [FR]. 1963: Berlin-Melodie [TV]; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/AT]; Gibraltar / Spionaggio a Gibilterra / Misión en el estrecho [FR/IT/ES]. 1963/64: Wartezimmer zum Jenseits. 1964: Verdammt zur Sünde. 1964/65: Mozambique [GB/ZA]. [act – DE – TV] 1965: Mrs. Dally. 1966: Um 8 beginnt unser Leben [TVD]. 1967/68: The Lost Continent [FF – GB].
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1968: Eine Berlinerin – Hildegard Knef [SD]. 1969: Die Knef. Bericht über ein Konzert. 1971: ‘Ich brauch’ Tapetenwechsel …’. 1973: Knef ’73. Was sie sagt, was sie singt und wie man über sie spricht. 1974: Knef ’74. 1975: Hildegard Knef und ihre Lieder; Jeder stirbt für sich allein [FF]. 1977/78: Fedora [FF]. 1978: Großstadt-Miniaturen; Atelier: Hildegard Knef und Peter Frankenfeld im Gespräch mit Martin Schwarze [TVD]. 1979: Der Alte: Illusionen über einen Mord. 1979/80: Warum die UFOs unseren Salat klauen [FF]. 1981/82: Der Gärtner von Toulouse. 1982: Thalia unter Trümmern – Das Berliner Theater der Nachkriegszeit 1945–1951 [DO]. 1984: Scarecrow and Mrs. King: Waiting For Godorsky [US]; Flügel und Fesseln / L’Avenir d’Émilie [FF – DE/FR]. 1985: Nein, ich gebe niemals auf [TVD]. 1988: La casa 4 (Witchcraft) [FF – IT]. 1989: Das Cabinet des Erich Pommer [TVD]; In inniger Feindschaft / Champ clos [DE/FR]. 1989/90: Il sole anche di notte / Le soleil même la nuit / Nachtsonne [FF – IT/FR/DE]. 1990: Hildegard Knef zwischen gestern und heute [TVD – app]; Ein Schloß am Wörthersee: Adel verpflichtet zu nichts. 1991: Hoppla, jetzt komm ich [TVD]; Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [TVD]. 1991/92: Berlin Break [TVS – US/DE]. 1992: Das Haus am See [4 episodes – TVS]; Wenn ich sonntags in mein Kino geh’ … [TVD]. 1993/94: Tödliches Erbe. 1994: Wie Pech und Schwefel: True Love. 1994/95: Peter Strohm: Die Gräfin. 1995: Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen [DO]. 1995/96: Die Stadtindianer: Und morgen bist du tot. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO]. 1998: Höchstpersönlich: Hildegard Knef [TVD]; Eine fast perfekte Hochzeit [AT]. 1999/2000: Marlene – Eine Diva aus Deutschland [TVD]. 2000: Aber schön war es doch [TVD]. 2000/01: A Woman and a Half – Hildegard Knef [DO]. 2001/02: Marlene Dietrich – Her Own Song [TVD – DE/US]. 2005: Legenden – Hildegard Knef [TVD]; Knef – die frühen Jahre [TVD – app].
GUSTAV KNUTH (Gustav Adolf Karl Friedrich Knuth) Born July 7, 1901, Brunswick (Germany) Died February 1, 1987, Neumünster (Switzerland) Heavy-built, with a brash demeanour but always exuding joviality and benevolence, Knuth became one of West German film and television’s best-loved comic character actors in a career that lasted from the mid-1930s through to the 1980s. Knuth appeared in local repertory in Brunswick from 1918. He worked at theatres in Basel and Altona in the 1920s, and was thereafter a member of the ensemble of Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus from 1933 to 1937, and of Berlin’s Prussian State Theatre from 1937 to 1944. Knuth’s screen debut was as an earthy village blacksmith in Hans Steinhoff’s DER AMMENKÖNIG (The Valley of Life, 1935). Knuth’s portrayals of wellmeaning but frequently timid and ungainly young men stood at odds with the regime’s prescribed images of masculinity, as with his meek boatswain
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in Fritz Kirchhoff’s SCHATTEN ÜBER ST. PAULI (Shadows Over St. Pauli, 1938), his fisherman in Hans Schweikart’s DAS MÄDCHEN VON FANÖ (The Girl from Fano, 1940), or his shy sailor in Helmut Käutner’s GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (Great Freedom No. 7, 1943/44). After the war, Knuth returned briefly to Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus before settling as a member of Zurich’s Schauspielhaus from 1946. Knuth’s comic talents were showcased to great effect in Erich Engel’s DER FRÖHLICHE WEINBERG (The Grapes Are Ripe, 1952) and, playing a hammy stage manager, in Kurt Hoffmann’s DER RAUB DER SABINERINNEN (Rape of the Sabean Women, 1953/54). He brought grumpy indifference to his characterisations of a haulier in Robert Siodmak’s Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation DIE RATTEN (The Rats, 1955) and to the portrait of a lecherous petit-bourgeois boss in the screen version of Irmgard Keun’s novel DAS KUNSTSEIDENE MÄDCHEN (The High Life, 1959/60). Good humour marked his Hungarian station master in Kurt Hoffmann’s ICH DENKE OFT AN PIROSCHKA (I Often Think of Piroschka, 1955) and his Duke Max of Bavaria in Ernst Marischka’s popular SISSI trilogy (1955–57), starring Romy Schneider as his onscreen daughter. Working in television from the early 1960s, Knuth became a regular of family shows, often playing largerthan-life patriarchs, for example as a veteran trapeze artist in the ten-part SALTO MORTALE (1967–71) and as a Wilhelmine coachman whose livelihood is threatened by increasing motorisation in Wolfgang Staudte’s seven-part DER EISERNE GUSTAV (The Iron Gustav, 1978/79). [act – DE] 1935: Der Ammenkönig. 1937: Heimweh. 1938: Schatten über St. Pauli. 1938/39: Mann für Mann. 1939: Der Vorhang fällt; Das Lied der Wüste; Pedro soll hängen. 1940: Zwischen Hamburg und Haiti; Das Mädchen von Fanö. 1940/41: Friedemann Bach. 1942: Das große Spiel. 1942/43: Gefährtin meines Sommers. 1943: Ein glücklicher Mensch. 1943/44: Große Freiheit Nr. 7. 1944/45: Das Leben geht weiter; Fahrt ins Glück; Tierarzt Dr. Vlimmen; Unter den Brücken. 1949: Das Geheimnis der roten Katze; Tromba; 1 × 1 der Ehe; Der blaue Strohhut; Geliebter Lügner. 1950: Der Theodor im Fußballtor [DE/AT]; Land der Sehnsucht / Terra d’amore [DE/IT]; Es kommt ein Tag. 1950/51: Eine Frau mit Herz; Das seltsame Leben des Herrn Bruggs. 1951: Der blaue Stern des Südens [AT]. 1951/52: Palace Hotel [CH]. 1952: Das kann jedem passieren; Der fröhliche Weinberg. 1952/53: Die Venus vom Tivoli [CH]. 1953: Keine Angst vor großen Tieren; Die Nacht ohne Moral; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen? 1953/54: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1954: Die Mücke; Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins. 1955: Geliebte Feindin; Griff nach den Sternen; Die Ratten; Himmel ohne Sterne; 08/15 in der Heimat; Ich denke oft an Pi-
roschka; Sissi [AT]. 1955/56: Regine. 1956: Hengst Maestoso Austria [AT]; Heute heiratet mein Mann; Heidemarie [MLV – CH]; Wenn wir alle Engel wären; Der Bettelstudent; Spion für Deutschland; Sissi, die junge Kaiserin [AT]. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben. 1957: … und die Liebe lacht dazu; Das Schloß in Tirol; Der 10. Mai [CH]; Ein Stück vom Himmel; Der Graf von Luxemburg; Sissi – Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin [AT]; Europas neue Musikparade 1958; Wenn Frauen schwindeln. 1958: Man ist nur zweimal jung [AT]; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; Der schwarze Blitz; Hoch klingt der Radetzkymarsch [AT]; Kleine Leute – mal ganz groß; Das Dreimäderlhaus [CH/AT]. 1958/59: Geliebte Bestie [AT]. 1959: Alle lieben Peter; 2 x Adam – 1 x Eva; Buddenbrooks [2 parts]; Freddy unter fremden Sternen. 1959/60: Das kunstseidene Mädchen / La gran vita / La grande vie [DE/IT/FR]; Ich heirate Herrn Direktor [AT]; Kein Engel ist so rein; Lampenfieber. 1960: Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone [CH]; Conny und Peter machen Musik; Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben; Auf Engel schießt man nicht; Der Teufel hat gut lachen [CH]; An heiligen Wassern [CH]. 1961: Eine hübscher als die andere; Die Hazy Osterwald Story [CH]; … nur der Wind; Der Lügner; Chikita [CH]; Und Pippa tanzt [TV]. [act – DE – TV] 1962: Der Privatsekretär. 1962/63: Alle meine Tiere [TVS]. 1963: Eine schöne Bescherung; Die Nylonschlinge [FF]; Meine Tochter und ich [FF]; Die ganze Welt ist himmelblau [FF – AT]. 1963/64: Hallo, Max! [TVD – app]; Ein Volksfeind [AT/DE]. 1964: Das hab’ ich von Papa gelernt [FF – DE/AT]; Jetzt dreht die Welt sich nur um dich [FF – AT]; Die Physiker; Heiß weht der Wind / Mein Freund Shorty [FF – DE/AT]; Das Leben des Horace A. W. Tabor. 1965: Schüsse im 3/4-Takt / Operazione ‘Terzo uomo’ [FF – AT/IT]; Gustav Knuth [TVD]; Kabale und Liebe [AT]; Heidi [FF – AT]; Tante Frieda – Neue Lausbubengeschichten [FF]; Großer Ring mit Außenschleife. 1965/66: Der Kongreß amüsiert sich / Le congrès s’amuse [FF – DE/AT/FR]. 1966: Onkel Filser – Allerneueste Lausbubengeschichten [FF]. 1966/67: Großer Mann – was nun? [TVS]. 1967: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Gisela Uhlen und Gustav Knuth [TVD – app]; Kranichtanz [CH/DE]; Der Meteor [DE/CH]. 1967/68: Salto Mortale [season 1 – TVS – DE/CH]. 1968: Frau Wirtin hat auch einen Grafen / Susanna … e i suoi dolci vizi alla corte del re [FF – AT/DE/IT]; Heute zwischen gestern und morgen. 1968/69: Komm, liebe Maid und mache … [FF]. 1969: Charley’s Onkel [FF]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 3. Teil: Pepe, der Paukerschreck [FF]; Die Reise nach Tilsit; Ludwig auf Freiersfüßen [FF]. 1969/70: Die Herberge. 1970: Professor Sound und die Pille [CH]. 1970/71: Drüben bei Lehmanns [TVS]. 1971: Glückspilze; Salto Mortale [season 2 – TVS – DE/CH]; Die heilige Johanna [AT]. 1972: Der Illegale. Biografie eines Spions. 1972/73: Kleinstadtbahnhof [TVS]; Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Liebesg’schichten und Heiratssachen [AT/DE]. 1973: Neues vom Kleinstadtbahnhof [TVS]; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. II. 1973/74: Die Powenzbande. 1974: Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Verlobung in Linz [AT/DE]. 1975: Damals wie heute; Treffpunkt Herz; Ja, wir lieben dieses Land. 1976: Das kleine Hofkonzert. 1976/77: Schwindelig vor Geld und Liebe. 1977: Links und rechts vom Ku’damm; Gas-
MARIANNE KOCH licht; Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert. 1977/78: Kleine Geschichten mit großen Tieren. 1978: Wo die Liebe hinfällt. 1978/79: Der eiserne Gustav. 1979: Peter Alexander: Wir gratulieren 1 [DE/AT]; Die Alten kommen: Alte Schule. 1980/81: Leute wie Du und ich (III); Der Bockerer [FF – AT/DE]; Der Schützling. 1981: Gustav Knuth – Ein Mime wird 80 [DO]; Oh du fröhliche. 1982: So oder so ist das Leben I. 1982/83: Polizeiinspektion 1: Opas Memoiren. 2001: Augenzwinkernd durchs Leben – Gustav Knuth [TVD].
MARIANNE KOCH (Marianne Elisabeth Koch) Born August 19, 1931, Munich (Germany) Chestnut-haired, fresh-faced and glamorous, Koch was a popular West German film and television actress during the 1950s and 1960s, who also appeared in international productions. Koch first appeared on stage at the age of ten. In 1949, she had taken a job in the film labs at Geiselgasteig studios and started studying medicine, when director Viktor Tourjansky cast her in DER MANN, DER ZWEIMAL LEBEN WOLLTE (The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice, 1950). A part as a chambermaid in Rolf Hansen’s DR. HOLL (The Affairs of Dr. Holl, 1950/ 51) followed. Koch soon became typecast in lachrymose parts in pictures such as Helmut Käutner’s LUDWIG II. (Ludwig II, 1954), in which she portrayed Princess Sophie from carefree youth through to anguished womanhood. Koch broke from type with her performance as a politically aware young actress in Käutner’s adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s play DES TEUFELS GENERAL (The Devil’s General, 1954/55). Koch debuted on television in one of the first prerecorded operas shot for the small screen, Mozart’s DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL (The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1955), directed by Kurt Wilhelm. On the big screen, meanwhile, she alternated between comic and serious roles, appearing as a countess who passes herself off as a servant girl in Kurt Hoffmann’s mistaken identity farce SALZBURGER GESCHICHTEN (Salzburg Stories, 1956); then as a television announcer plagued by her conscience in Franz Peter Wirth’s DIE FRAU AM DUNKLEN FENSTER (The Woman by the Dark Window, 1959/60); and returning to light-hearted mode as Rosalinde in Géza von Cziffra’s DIE FLEDERMAUS (The Bat, 1961/62). Her parts as a neurotic wife in Douglas Sirk’s INTERLUDE (1956) and as a lesbian in CONTRONATURA / SCHREIE IN DER NACHT (The Unnaturals, 1968/69) were further away from her straight-laced image. From 1956 on, Koch appeared increasingly in international co-productions, working on crime thrillers,
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spy thrillers, and adventure films in France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Israel and the USA. Her role as the distraught mother in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI (A Fistful of Dollars, 1964) brought major international attention, while on West German television, Koch stood out playing Helen Baker in Hans Quest’s mini-series of the Francis Durbridge crime thriller TIM FRAZER (The World of Tim Frazer, 1962), and in the title role of Georg Tressler’s series DIE JOURNALISTIN (The Woman Journalist, 1969/70). She also appeared as a presenter and a regular guest panellist on entertainment shows such as WAS BIN ICH?, the German version of WHAT’S MY LINE. In 1973, Koch mostly retired from acting, returned to studying medicine and ran her own specialist practice in Munich from 1985 to 1997. She published a series of popular books about everyday health problems. [act – DE] 1950: Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte; Servus Peter. 1950/51: Dr. Holl; Talent zum Glück. 1951: Mein Freund, der Dieb. 1952: Der keusche Lebemann; Wetterleuchten am Dachstein / Hoch vom Dachstein [DE/ AT]. 1952/53: Skandal im Mädchenpensionat. 1953: Der Klosterjäger; Geh’ mach’ dein Fensterl auf [DE/AT]; Die große Schuld / Der Wildschütz [DE/AT]; Night People [US]. 1953/54: Liebe und Trompetenblasen. 1954: Schloß Hubertus; Bruder Martin [AT]; Ludwig II. – Glanz und Elend eines Königs. 1954/55: Des Teufels General. 1955: Der Schmied von St. Bartholomä; Solange du lebst; Königswalzer; Zwei blaue Augen; Die Entführung aus dem Serail [TV]. 1956: Don Giovanni [TV]; Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz; Wenn wir alle Engel wären; Salzburger Geschichten; Four Girls in Town [US]; Interlude [US]. 1956/57: Der Stern von Afrika / La estrella de Africa [DE/ES]. 1957: Vater sein dagegen sehr; Drei Mann auf einem Pferd; Der Fuchs von Paris / Le rénard de Paris [DE/FR]. 1957/58: Gli italiani sono matti / Los Italianos estan locos [IT/ES]. 1958: … und nichts als die Wahrheit; Die Landärztin. 1958/59: Frau im besten Mannesalter. 1959/60: Die Frau am dunklen Fenster. 1960: Heldinnen; Mit Himbeergeist geht alles besser [AT]; Pleins feux sur l’assassin [FR]. 1961: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Napoléon II, l’Aiglon [FR]. 1961/62: Die Fledermaus [AT]; Im Namen des Teufels / The Devil’s Agent [DE/GB]. 1962: Heißer Hafen Hongkong / Il segreto di Budda [DE/IT]; Liebling, ich muß dich erschießen; Tim Frazer [TV]. 1963: Der schwarze Panther von Ratana / La belva di Saigon [DE/IT]; Death Drums Along the River [GB]; Tim Frazer. Der Fall Salinger [TV]. 1963/64: Der letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz [AT/DE]. 1964: Steht’s in den Sternen [TV]; Das Ungeheuer von London-City; Per un pugno di dollari / Per un puñado de doláres / Für eine Handvoll Dollar [IT/ES/DE]; Coast of Skeletons [GB]. 1964/65: Vergeltung in Catano / Tierra de fuego [DE/ES]. 1964/67: Der Fall X 701. 1965: Un lugar Ilamado ‘Glory’ / Die Hölle von Manitoba [ES/DE]. 1965/66: Wer kennt Jonny R.? / La balada de Johnny Ringo [DE/ES]; Mivtza Kahir / Trunk to Cairo [IL]. 1967: Clint, el solitario / Clint il solitario / Tal der Hoffnung [ES/IT/DE]; Der Tod läuft hinterher [TV]. 1968: España, otra vez [ES].
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1968/69: Der Kommissar: Die Pistole im Park [TV]; Contronatura / Schreie in der Nacht [IT/DE]. 1969: Der rasende Lokalreporter [TVS]; Sandy the Seal [GB]. 1969/70: Die Journalistin [TVS]. 1970: Tournee [episode 4 – TVS]. 1971: Glückspilze [TV]. 1992: Frauengeschichten: Ich wollte nie ein Filmstar werden / Mit 40 ist man nicht hinüber [TVD].
VOLKER KOEPP Born June 22, 1944, Stettin (Germany, now Szczecin, Poland) Documentary filmmaker Koepp’s films focus on everyday life in East Germany and Eastern Europe prior to and since unification, favouring associative thematic organisation of footage over authoritative narration. Koepp attended Babelsberg Film Academy from 1966 to 1969. He graduated as a director and scenarist with his dissertation film WIR HABEN SCHON EINE GANZE STADT GEBAUT (We’ve Already Built an Entire City, 1968), and then furnished a segment for Karl Gass’s multi-director documentary DER OKTOBER KAM … (When October Came …, 1970), after which he gained a full-time position in DEFA’s documentary division. Koepp started out with biographical portraits of figures associated with the workers’ and anti-fascist movements. Frequently co-scripted with Wera and Claus Küchenmeister, these included TEDDY (1973), about the early life of German Communist Party leader Ernst Thälmann; a study of Marxist film director SLATAN DUDOW (1974); and ICH ERINNERE MICH NOCH (I Still Remember, 1977), about antiNazi resistance fighter Walter Hähnel. In 1974, Koepp and cameraman Christian Lehmann also inaugurated an extended series of ‘fly on the wall’ documentaries intended to highlight contemporary issues in GDR working life. Based around female workers at a textiles plant in Wittstock, the series comprised four shorts before tentatively concluding with the feature-length LEBEN IN WITTSTOCK (Life in Wittstock, 1984). In MÄRKISCHE ZIEGEL (Brandenburg Tiles, 1988/ 89), Koepp and Thomas Plenert, his regular cinematographer since the late 1980s, documented the intense physical demands at a rooftile factory in Zehdenick, where labour methods had remained largely unchanged for a century. Their return following unification just two years later, however, found the factory drastically altered by capitalism, as shown in MÄRKISCHE GESELLSCHAFT MBH (Brandenburg Tile Co. Ltd., 1991). Further instalments of the Wittstock series similarly highlighted changed circumstances: Koepp was refused access to the textiles plant to film NEUES AUS WITTSTOCK (News from Wittstock, 1990–92), and
found the workers unwilling to speak to him; by WITTSTOCK, WITTSTOCK (1996/97) the plant had closed down, leaving the now unemployed women critical of the benefits of unification. Koepp’s other post-reunification films included DIE WISMUT (Wismuth, 1993), an unflinching exposé of the environmental hazards caused by uranium mining in the East; two films about the remaining Jewish survivors in the Ukrainian town of Czernowitz, HERR ZWILLING UND FRAU ZUCKERMANN (Mr Zwilling and Mrs Zuckermann, 1998) and DIESES JAHR IN CZERNOWITZ (This Year in Czernowitz, 2003/04). Other films explored the lives of disenfranchised families in the former East Prussia: KALTE HEIMAT (Cold Homeland, 1994/95), KURISCHE NEHRUNG (Curonian Spit, 2000), SCHATTENLAND – REISE NACH MASUREN (Shadowland – Journey to Masuria, 2005/06), HOLUNDERBLÜTE (Elder Flowers), SÖHNE (Sons, both 2006/07), and MEMELLAND (Memel Territory, 2008). On September 5, 2008 he was one of the more than 60 filmmakers participating in the TV-project 24H BERLIN – EIN TAG IM LEBEN (24h Berlin – A Day in the Life) covering stories in the capital for 24 hours. [dir,co-scr – DD] 1967: Sommergäste bei Majakowski [DO – dir,cam]. 1968: Wir haben schon eine ganze Stadt gebaut [SD – dir,scr]. 1970: Die Rolle des Meisters im System der sozialistischen Betriebswirtschaft [SD – dir,scr]; Der Oktober kam … [DO – co-dir]; Junge Leute [SD – dir, scr]. 1971: Schuldner [SD – dir,scr]. 1971/72: Treffpunkt Kino [TVS – co-dir,co-scr]. 1972: Grüße aus Sarmatien für den Dichter Johannes Bobrowski [SD – dir,scr]; Musik in Scheiben [SF – scr]. 1973: Gustav J. [SD – dir,scr]; Teddy [SD]. 1974: Slatan Dudow [SD]; Aus meiner Kindheit [coscr]. 1974/75: Mädchen in Wittstock [SD]. 1975: Er könnte ja heute nicht schweigen [SD]. 1976: Wieder in Wittstock [SD – dir,scr,voi]; Das weite Feld [DO]. 1977: Ich erinnere mich noch [SD]; Hütes-Film [SD]. 1978: Wittstock III [SD]; Am Fluß [SD]. 1979: Tag für Tag [SD]. 1980: Haus und Hof [SD]. 1981: Leben und Weben. (Wittstock IV) [SD]. 1982: In Rheinsberg [DO]; DEFA Kinobox 14/82 [DO]. 1983: Alle Tiere sind schön da [SD]. 1984: Leben in Wittstock [DO]. 1985: Afghanistan 1362 [DO]. 1986: An der Unstrut [SD]; Die F96 [TVD – DD/DE]. 1987: Feuerland [SD – dir, scr]. 1988/89: Märkische Ziegel [DO]. 1989/90: Arkona – Rethra – Vineta [DO – dir,scr – DE/DD/FR]. 1990: Märkische Heide, Märkischer Sand [DO – dir,scr]. [dir,scr – DE] 1990-92: Neues aus Wittstock [DO – dir,coscr – DE/FR]. 1991: In Grüneberg [SD]; In Karlshorst [SD]; Märkische Gesellschaft mbH [DO]. 1991/92: Sammelsurium [DO]. 1992: Der DEFA-Komplex: Von den Helden der herrschenden Klasse [TVD – app]. 1993: Ein Landfilm [SD]; Das Rad [SD]; Die Wismut [DO]. 1993/94: Oben – Unten [FF – act]. 1994/95: Kalte Heimat – Leben in Ostpreußen [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1995/96: Fremde Ufer [DO]. 1996: Die Sache mit der Realität: Eine Collage über den Dokumentarfilm. [TVD – app]. 1996/97: Wittstock, Wittstock [DO]. 1997: Das 7. Jahr – Ansichten zur Lage der Nation: Märki-
WOLFGANG KOHLHAASE sches Wasser, märkischer Schnaps [DO – co-dir]. 1997/98: Playboys [SF – act]. 1998: Frankfurt oder Frankfurt [TVD – co-dir]; Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann [DO]. 1998/ 99: Der letzte Dokumentarfilm [DO – app – DE/NL]. 1999: Menschen, Straßen: Die Gilge [DO]. 2000: Kurische Nehrung [DO]. 2000/01: Uckermark [DO]. 2003: Frankfurter Tor [TVD]. 2003/04: Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz [DO – dir, scr,pro]. 2005/06: Schattenland – Reise nach Masuren [DO – dir,scr,pro]. 2006/07: Söhne [DO – dir,co-scr, pro]; Holunderblüte [dir,co-scr,pro]. 2008: Memelland [dir ,scr,pro]. 2008/09: 24h Berlin – Ein Tag im Leben (DO – co-dir).
WOLFGANG KOHLHAASE Born March 13, 1931, Berlin (Germany) East German screenwriter Kohlhaase scripted several influential DEFA features during long-term collaborations with directors Gerhard Klein, Konrad Wolf, and Frank Beyer. Teenaged Kohlhaase became editor on youth magazine ‘Start’ in 1947, and then joined the staff of the communist youth organisation’s newspaper ‘Junge Welt’. Employed as a dramaturgical assistant at DEFA from 1950 to 1952, he thereafter launched a career as a freelance scriptwriter and author. Kohlhaase’s association with Gerhard Klein commenced on the children’s film ALARM IM ZIRKUS (Alarm At the Circus, 1953/54). The two then worked on a number of neorealist-inspired films about young people’s lives in the divided Berlin, which found international acclaim as the ‘Berlin films’, especially the box-office hit BERLIN – ECKE SCHÖNHAUSER (Berlin – Schoenhauser Corner, 1957). DER FALL GLEIWITZ (The Gleiwitz Affair, 1960/61) offered a documentary-style re-enactment of an event staged by the SS and used by the Nazi government in 1939 as an excuse for starting World War II. An attempt to revisit the ‘Berlin film’ genre with BERLIN UM DIE ECKE (Berlin Around the Corner, 1965) fell foul of the cultural clampdown after the SED’s Eleventh Plenum, and a rough-cut would not be shown in public until 1987, with a full cinema release following in 1990. LEICHENSACHE ZERNIK (The Zernik Murder Case, 1971/72) was in turn vaulted when Klein died during production, and the project was redone in a substantially revised form by his long-term assistant Helmut Nitzschke. Kohlhaase’s work with Konrad Wolf began on the anti-war film ICH WAR NEUNZEHN (I Was Nineteen, 1967). Their later features included MAMA, ICH LEBE (Mama, I’m Alive, 1976), adapted from Kohlhaase’s own radio play about anti-Nazi resistance during World War II, as well as the contemporary drama DER NACKTE MANN AUF DEM SPORTPLATZ (The Naked Man in the Stadium, 1973).
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Kohlhaase gained a co-directing credit with Wolf on SOLO SUNNY (1978/79), concerning a young female singer’s quest for an individual style – both in her music and in life. After Wolf’s death in 1982, Kohlhaase oversaw a feature-length documentary exploring the director’s cultural legacy. In the 1980s Kohlhaase worked twice with director Frank Beyer, on DER AUFENTHALT (The Turning Point, 1982), the award-winning adaptation of Hermann Kant’s autobiographical novel which addressed questions of individual guilt in wartime, and on the crime caper DER BRUCH (The Break-In, 1988), starring West German actors Götz George and Otto Sander. Writing both for the big-screen and television since unification, Kohlhaase furnished a number of scripts exploring difficult episodes in recent German history. INGE, APRIL UND MAI (Inge, April, and May, 1992/ 93), which he co-directed with Gabriele Denecke, depicted a boy’s experiences in Berlin at the end of World War II. DIE STILLE NACH DEM SCHUSS (The Legend of Rita, 1999/2000), directed by Volker Schlöndorff, tackled the controversial subject of a left-wing terrorist who defected to East Germany and remained there with impunity until the fall of the Wall. With the everyday comedy SOMMER VORM BALKON (Summer in Berlin, 2005) Kohlhaase found in director Andreas Dresen a new partner to explore modern possibilities for the ‘Berlin film’ genre. They renewed their successful cooperation with WHISKY MIT WODKA (Whisky and Wodka) in 2007/08. An eloquent public speaker, Kohlhaase continued to appear at DEFA retrospectives around the globe from the 1990s onwards. [co-scr – DD] 1952/53: Die Störenfriede. 1953: Bitte nicht stören [SF]; Die DEFA-Rakete 1. Folge. Satire – Humor – Zirkus – Tanz [scr]; Die Streichholzballade [ANI – scr]. 1953/54: Der Bart ist ab [SF]; Alarm im Zirkus. 1954: EINE Bären GESCHICHTE [SF]. 1955/56: Eine Berliner Romanze [scr]. 1957: Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser … [scr]. 1959: Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [DD/PL]. 1960/61: Der Fall Gleiwitz. 1962: Josef und alle seine Brüder [TV]. 1963: Sonntagsfahrer. 1965: Berlin um die Ecke. 1967: Grenada, Grenada, Grenada moja … [DO – SU]; Ich war neunzehn. 1970: Fisch zu viert [TV – scr,sma]. 1971/72: Leichensache Zernik. 1972: Fisch zu viert [TV – co-scr,sma – DE]; Turek erzählt [TVD – scr]. 1973: Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz. 1974: Fisch zu viert [TV – co-scr,sma – AT]. 1975/76: Das Licht auf dem Galgen. 1976: Lasset die Kindlein … [TV – co-scr,sma]; Mama, ich lebe. 1977: Ein Trompeter kommt [TV – scr]; Konrad Wolf [TVD – app]. 1977/78: Der Übergang; Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr. 1978/79: Solo Sunny [co-dir,co-scr]. 1982: Der Aufenthalt [scr]. 1984: Die Grünstein-Variante [TV – DE]. 1985: Die Zeit die bleibt. Ein Film über Konrad Wolf [DO].
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1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [DE/AT/IT/CS]. 1988: Der Bruch [scr,lyr]. [scr – DE] 1989: Eine gewisse Freiheit. Wolfgang Kohlhaase – Drehbuchautor [TVD – app]. 1991: Nachtausgabe: Verbotene Filme der DDR [TVD – app]; Die Augenzeugen [TVD – app]; Begräbnis einer Gräfin [TV – scr,sma]. 1992/ 93: Inge, April und Mai [co-dir,scr,sma]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1997: Der liebe Gott in Berlin – Der Regisseur Gerhard Klein 1920–1970 [TVD – scr,app]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV]; Finden und Erfinden – Der Drehbuchautor Wolfgang Kohlhaase [TVD – app]. 1998: Zur Person: Wolfgang Kohlhaase [TVD – app]; Mein Leben ist so sündhaft lang. Victor Klemperer – ein Chronist des Jahrhunderts [TVD – co-dir,scr]. 1999/2000: Die Stille nach dem Schuss [co-scr]. 2001/02: Baby [co-scr – DE/NL]. 2005: Sommer vorm Balkon. 2006/07: Wolfgang Kohlhaase – Leben in Geschichten [TVD]. 2007/08: Auge in Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]; Whisky mit Wodka.
FRITZ KORTNER (Fritz Nathan Kohn) Born May 12, 1892, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died July 22, 1970, Berlin (West Germany) One of the giants of Weimar and post-World War II German-speaking theatre as an actor and director, Kortner also enjoyed a prolific film career. After studying at Vienna’s Academy of Music and Performing Arts from 1908 to 1910, Kortner spent a decade appearing at theatres in Mannheim, Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, and Hamburg. Leopold Jessner then engaged him for Berlin’s Staatstheater in 1919, and from 1923 he was a member of Berthold Viertel’s expressionist theatre group ‘Die Truppe’ (The Troupe), gaining laurels in particular for his striking interpretation of Shylock in ‘The Merchant of Venice’. His screen career commenced in 1915 with roles in adventure films directed by and starring Harry Piel. Kortner also appeared in a number of Austrian melodramas, and even directed two, GREGOR MAROLD (1918) and DIE ELSE VOM ERLENHOF (Else of Erlenhof, 1919). In German productions, meanwhile, Kortner exhibited equal adroitness in expressionistic, naturalistic, and melodramatic roles, standing out in F. W. Murnau’s SATANAS (1919), Reinhold Schünzel’s KATHARINA DIE GROSSE (Catherine the Great, 1920), Paul Leni and Leopold Jessner’s HINTERTREPPE (Backstairs, 1921), Arthur Robison’s SCHATTEN (Warning Shadows, 1923), and G. W. Pabst’s DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA (Pandora’s Box, 1928/29). With the advent of sound, the actor brought his commanding voice to bear on the screen, starring in the German-language version of E. A. Dupont’s ATLANTIC (1929), as well as in the title roles of Richard Oswald’s DREYFUS (The Dreyfus Case, 1930), Hans Behrendt’s DANTON, and Fedor Ozep’s (Fyodor
Otsep’s) DER MÖRDER DIMITRI KARAMASOFF (The Brothers Karamazov, both 1930/31). He made his debut as a sound film director with the satire DER BRAVE SÜNDER (The Upright Sinner, 1931) starring the popular comedians Max Pallenberg and Heinz Rühmann. Emigrating to Vienna after the Nazis came to power, and onwards to London in 1934, Kortner published anti-fascist texts and starred in Karl Grune’s allegorical fable about fascist ideology, ABDUL THE DAMNED (1934/35). He relocated to New York in 1937, and moved to Hollywood in 1941, where he worked as a screenwriter and appeared in anti-Nazi pictures including James Hogan’s THE STRANGE DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (1943). Having been singled out in the Nazis’ anti-Semitic campaigns, Kortner received a hostile welcome when he returned to Germany in 1947. The traumatic experiences of returning émigrés were explored in his first postwar films, in Jacques Tourneur’s BERLIN EXPRESS (1947) and DER RUF (The Last Illusion, 1948/ 49), which Kortner also scripted. Thereafter reasserting himself as a stage director and actor, he worked at theatres in Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Also writing and directing for television, DIE SENDUNG DER LYSISTRATA (Lysistrata, 1960/61), starring Romy Schneider, was never broadcast in Bavaria on account of its ‘pacifist tendencies’. Kortner published his memoirs, ‘Aller Tage Abend’ (Every Day’s Evening), in 1959, and his stage techniques were the subject of two documentaries by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg in the mid-1960s. [act – DE] 1915: Manya, die Türkin; Im Banne der Vergangenheit; Das Geheimnis von D.14; Die große Gefahr; Police Nr. 1111. 1916: Das zweite Leben. 1917: Der Brief einer Toten [AT]. 1917/18: Der Märtyrer seines Herzens [scr,act – AT]. 1918: Beethoven; Der Stärkere [AT]; Das andere Ich [AT]; Gregor Marold [dir – AT]; Sonnwendhof [AT]; Frauenehre [AT]. 1919: Das Auge des Buddha [AT]; Ohne Zeugen [AT]; Die Else vom Erlenhof [dir,act – AT]; Satanas. 1920: Die Brüder Karamasoff; Gerechtigkeit; Va banque; Die Verschleierte; Katharina die Große; Christian Wahnschaffe. 1. Weltbrand; Der Schädel der Pharaonentochter; Die Nacht der Königin Isabeau; Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadscha. 3. Teil; Das Haus zum Mond. 1920/21: Das Haus der Qualen; Die Verschwörung zu Genua; Haschisch, das Paradies der Hölle; Aus dem Schwarzbuch eines Polizeikommissars. 1. Teil: Loge Nr. 11. 1921: Landstraße und Großstadt; Der Eisenbahnkönig. 1. Mensch und Mammon / 2. Lauernder Tod; Hintertreppe; Am roten Kliff; Die Jagd nach Wahrheit. 1921/22: Die Finsternis und ihr Eigentum; Sterbende Völker. 1. Heimat in Not / 2. Brennendes Meer. 1922: Luise Millerin; Der Ruf des Schicksals; Der Graf von Essex; Am Rande der Großstadt; Peter der Große. 1922/23: Nora. 1923: Arme Sünderin; Schatten; Ein Weib, ein Tier, ein Diamant. 1923/24: Dr. Wislizenus.
HERMANN KOSTERLITZ 1924: Armes kleines Mädchen [SF]; Moderne Ehen; Wenn Männer schweigen; Orlacs Hände [AT]; Høíchy v manelství [CS/DE]. 1925/26: Dürfen wir schweigen? 1926: Überflüssige Menschen; Beethoven [AT]. 1927: Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin; Primanerliebe; Alpentragödie; Die Geliebte auf dem Königsthron (Draga Maschin); Die Ausgestoßenen. Heimkehr des Herzens; Die Geliebte des Gouverneurs [co-scr,act]; Mein Leben für das Deine; Maria Stuart (2 parts); Frau Sorge. 1928: Im Anfang war das Wort … [FF/ DO]; Marquis d’Eon; Die große Liebe; Somnambul. 1928/ 29: Die Büchse der Pandora. 1929: Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt; Die Frau im Talar; Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen; Die stärkere Macht; Atlantic [German MLV – GB]; Giftgas; Frøken statsadvokat [NO]. 1930: Der Andere [MLV]; Dreyfus; Die große Sehnsucht; Menschen im Käfig [MLV – GB]. 1930/31: Danton [MLV]; Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff [MLV]; Les frères Karamazoff [MLV – FR/DE]. 1931: Der brave Sünder [dir,co-scr]. 1932: So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht [dir,co-scr – DE/AT]. [act – US] 1934: Chu Chin Chow [GB]; Little Friend [GB]; Evensong [GB]. 1934/35: Abdul the Damned [GB]. 1935: The Crouching Beast [GB]. 1936: Pagliacci [co-scr,act – GB]; Midnight Menace [GB]. 1942/43: The Purple V. 1943: The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler [scr,ide,act]. 1944: The Hitler Gang. 1945/46: The Wife of Monte Cristo. 1946: Somewhere in the Night; The Razor’s Edge. 1946/47: The Brasher Doubloon (The High Window). 1947: Berlin Express. 1947/48: The Vicious Circle. [act – DE – TV] 1948/49: Der Ruf [FF – scr,act]. 1950: Epilog [FF]. 1951: Blaubart [FF – MLV – FR/CH/DE]. 1951/52: Die Stimme des Anderen [FF – co-scr]. 1954: Die Stadt ist voller Geheimnisse [FF – dir,co-scr]. 1955: Sarajevo [FF – dir – AT]. 1958: Androklus und der Löwe [dir]. 1960/61: Die Sendung der Lysistrata [dir,scr]. 1962: Große Monologe: Das letzte Band. 1964: Der eingebildete Kranke oder Von Menschen und Figuren [dir]; Leonce und Lena [dir]. 1965: Fünfter Akt, Siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt ‘Kabale und Liebe’ [DO]. 1966: Fritz Kortner spricht Monologe für eine Schallplatte [DO – DE/AT]. 1967: Premieren von gestern [TVD – app]; Der schwierige Kortner [TVD – app]. 1968: Der Kaufmann von Venedig [AT/DE]. 1969: Der Vater [dir,co-scr]; Der Sturm [dir,co-scr]. 1970: Clavigo [dir, co-scr]. 1970/71: Emilia Galotti [co-dir – AT]. 1980: Kortnergeschichten [TVD – app]. 1987: Ich bin ein Schwieriger [TVD – app]; Donauwellen [scr – AT].
HERMANN KOSTERLITZ (aka Henry Koster) Born May 1, 1905, Berlin (Germany) Died September 21, 1988, Camarillo (California, USA) A comedy scriptwriter-turned-director renowned for his lightness of touch, Kosterlitz transferred his skills for sophisticated entertainment seamlessly from Weimar cinema to Hollywood. Trained as a commercial artist, Kosterlitz started out drawing newspaper caricatures and illustrating children’s books in the early 1920s. In 1922, he began
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publishing discursive articles and short stories under the pseudonym ‘Herkos’, and later designed advertising slides that were projected in cinemas. He also tried his hand at advertising films, several of which became popular on account of their humorous approach. Thereafter a gag writer for director Bruno Rahn, Kosterlitz’s first attempt at screenwriting was DIE GROSSE GELEGENHEIT (The Great Opportunity, 1925), which he co-authored. Encouraged by the picture’s success, he purchased his own camera to shoot scenes of Berlin life. In the years that followed, Kosterlitz scripted a series of bright, airy comedies, including six for Kurt Bernhardt (for whom he also worked as a script doctor on further productions), as well as Erich Engel’s WER NIMMT DIE LIEBE ERNST? (Who Takes Love Seriously?, 1931) and FÜNF VON DER JAZZBAND (Five of the Jazz Band, 1932). In addition to serving as Engel’s occasional assistant director, he made his own directorial debut with DAS ABENTEUER EINER SCHÖNEN FRAU (The Adventure of Thea Roland, 1932), which Rudolf Arnheim called ‘the paragon of sophisticated comedy’. Production, however, of his second feature, DAS HÄSSLICHE MÄDCHEN (The Ugly Girl, 1933), starring Dolly Haas and Max Hansen, was halted when the Nazis came to power and the shooting was completed by another director. Although Kosterlitz’s and co-author Felix Joachimson’s names were removed from the credits, the film became the subject of antiSemitic protests when screened in Germany. Initially emigrating to France, he co-wrote several (sometimes uncredited) scripts, including for Kurt Bernhardt’s L’OR DANS LA RUE (1934), before relocating via Budapest to Vienna, where he directed a number of features for the European subsidiary of Universal, including PETER (1934), KLEINE MUTTI (Little Mother, 1935), and KATHARINA – DIE LETZTE (Catherine the Last, 1935/36) all of which starred Franciska Gaál. Subsequently passing through Italy and the Netherlands, Kosterlitz received a contract from Universal in Hollywood in January 1936. Employing the name Henry Koster from this point onwards and often working with German emigré colleagues like Felix Jackson (aka Joachimson), he launched the career of Deanna Durbin in THREE SMART GIRLS (1936), which proved box-office dynamite. Koster stayed at Universal until 1943, and then worked at M-G-M (until 1947) and Twentieth Century-Fox (until 1964). He received an Oscar nomination for THE BISHOP’S WIFE (1947) starring Cary Grant and Loretta Young, and also directed such classics as the James Stewart vehicle HARVEY (1950), DÉSIRÉE (1954) with Marlon Brando as Napoleon, as well as the very first CinemaScope film, THE ROBE (1953).
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A founding member of the European Film Fund, Koster provided numerous victims of Nazi persecution with affidavits so that they could emigrate to America. He became a US citizen in 1942, the same year that he married film actress Peggy Moran (1918–2002). [scr – DE] 1925: Die große Gelegenheit [co-scr]; Die Dame aus Berlin. 1926: Wenn Menschen irren; Die Waise von Lowood. 1926/27: Kinderseelen klagen euch an [co-scr]; Prinz Louis Ferdinand [co-scr]. 1927: Eins + Eins = Drei. Ehe man Ehemann wird [co-scr]. 1928: Das letzte Fort [co-scr]; Liebfraumilch [co-scr]; Høích / Sündenfall [CS/DE]. 1928/29: Tagebuch einer Kokotte [co-scr]. 1929: Sündig und süß [co-scr]. 1929/30: Die letzte Kompagnie [co-scr, ide]. 1930: La lettre [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]; Seine Freundin Annette [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]; Une femme a menti [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]; Das Weib im Dschungel [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]. 1930/31: Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV – co-scr]; L’Homme qui assassina [MLV – co-scr]; Leichtsinnige Jugend [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]. 1931: Le réquisitoire [MLV – co-scr – FR/US]; Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst? [MLV – co-scr]; Ich bleib’ bei Dir. Marys Start in die Ehe [MLV – co-scr]. 1932: Fünf von der Jazzband [co-scr]; There Goes the Bride [MLV – sma – GB]; Zigeuner der Nacht [MLV]; Coeurs joyeux [MLV – FR]; Das Abenteuer einer schönen Frau [dir – DE]; Der Rebell [MLV – co-scr]. 1933: Das häßliche Mädchen [dir,co-scr]; Toto [MLV – sma – FR]; Le sexe faible [co-scr – FR]; Der Tunnel [MLV – co-scr – FR/DE]; Le tunnel [MLV – co-scr – FR/DE]. 1934: Die vertauschte Braut [MLV – ide]; L’Amour en cage [MLV – ide – DE/FR]; Les nuits moscovites [FR]; Pechmarie [co-scr]; L’Or dans la rue [co-scr – FR]; Peter / Peter, Peter [dir – AT/ HU]; Ball im Savoy / Bál a Savoyban [co-scr – HU/AT]. 1935: Kleine Mutti / Kismama [dir – AT/HU]; De Kribbebijter [codir – NL]; Das Tagebuch der Geliebten [MLV – dir,co-scr – AT/IT]; Il diario di una donna amata [MLV – dir,co-scr – IT/AT]. 1935/36: Katharina – die Letzte [dir – AT]. [dir – US] 1936: Three Smart Girls. 1937: One Hundred Men and a Girl. 1938: The Rage of Paris [dir,pro]. 1939: Three Smart Girls Grow Up; First Love. 1940: Spring Parade. 1941: It Started With Eve. 1942: Between Us Girls. 1944: Music for Millions. 1945/46: Two Sisters from Boston. 1947: The Unfinished Dance; The Bishop’s Wife. 1948: The Luck of the Irish. 1949: Come to the Stable; The Inspector General. 1949/50: Wabash Avenue. 1950: My Blue Heaven; Harvey. 1951: Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell; No Highway / No Highway in the Sky [GB/US]; Elopement. 1952: O. Henry’s Full House. EP 1: The Cop and the Anthem; Stars and Stripes Forever; My Cousin Rachel. 1953: The Robe. 1954: Désirée. 1954/55: A Man Called Peter. 1955: The Virgin Queen; Good Morning, Miss Dove. 1956: D-Day, The Sixth of June; The Power and the Prize. 1957: My Man Godfrey. 1958: Fraulein. 1958/59: The Naked Maja. 1960: The Story of Ruth. 1961: Flower Drum Song. 1962: Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. 1963: Take Her, She’s Mine [dir,pro]. 1964/65: Dear Brigitte. 1965: The Singing Nun.
SIEGFRIED KRACAUER Born February 8, 1889, Frankfurt/Main (Germany) Died November 26, 1966, New York City (USA) Film theorist and social critic Kracauer is best-known for two distinct contributions to German film history: a series of articles celebrating the paraphernalia of popular cinema-going in the 1920s and early 1930s; and his 1947 study ‘From Caligari to Hitler’, which argued that films of the Weimar Republic could be retrospectively viewed as prefiguring Nazism. Publishing his first article in the liberal paper ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’ at the age of eighteen, Kracauer sat in on philosophy and sociology lectures while studying architecture in Darmstadt, Berlin and Munich. Working as an architectural engineer from 1912, he was awarded his doctorate in 1914 with a thesis on the development of wrought-iron work. Called up briefly during 1917, he then published several articles and a 1919 monograph on sociologist Georg Simmel, whom he had known personally for several years. During this time, he also made the acquaintance of leading Weimar thinkers such as Theodor W. Adorno, Leo Löwenthal, Ernst Bloch, and Walter Benjamin. Kracauer joined the ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’ full-time in 1922, and in the same year published the monograph ‘Soziologie als Wissenschaft’ (Sociology as Science). Developing an approach centred about an analysis of the everyday, he wrote regular film reviews and articles for the newspaper from 1924, in which he contemplated such phenomena as the popularity of Hollywood films or the cinema-going habits of shopgirls. After publishing the autobiographical novel ‘Ginster’ anonymously in 1928, Kracauer’s analysis of the minutiae of the life of white-collar workers in Weimar Germany, ‘Die Angestellten’ (The Salaried Masses), was serialised in the ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’ prior to its publication in January 1930. Promoted to chief editor of the culture section three months later, his position started to become less tenable as the newspaper’s political agenda shifted towards the right. Kracauer emigrated to France the day after the burning of the Reichstag. Able to secure employment as a commentator and film critic for French and Swiss journals, he received an offer to become a special research assistant at the Museum of Modern Art’s Film Library in New York in 1939. Experiencing considerable difficulties in leaving Europe, he eventually took up the post in 1941. Thereafter writing almost exclusively in English, Kracauer worked on two classified projects about Nazi film propaganda during the war, and then published ‘From Caligari to Hitler’. Attempting to uncover latent ‘psychological dispositions’ that were manifested unconsciously in films, he polemically re-presented Weimar cinema as a dark and shadowy province inhabited by ‘pre-fascist’ tyrants and forebodings. Al-
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though subsequently disputed by many critics, the study played a seminal role in redefining international perceptions and expectations of pre-1933 German films. West German cineastes of the early 1960s took Kracauer’s book as a rallying call to develop a sociologically informed model of film criticism. Naturalised as an American citizen shortly after the war, Kracauer joined the Bureau of Applied Social Research in 1952, where he ultimately rose to the position of research director. His final book-length study was ‘Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality’ (1960), in which he asserted that the specificity of film lay in its photographic ‘registration’ of reality, as contrasted with other media’s ‘recreation’ of reality.
LIEBE 47 (Love ’47, 1948/49), as well as playing the pacifist pioneer Bertha von Suttner in Harald Braun’s HERZ DER WELT (The Alfred Nobel Story, 1951/ 52). Krahl’s performance as a scheming British aristocrat in Helmut Käutner’s screen version of Eugène Scribe’s DAS GLAS WASSER (A Glass of Water, 1960), meanwhile earned her a German Film Award. On television, she appeared in numerous productions including the adaptation of Brecht’s SCHWEYK IM ZWEITEN WELTKRIEG (Schweyk in World War Two, 1961) and of Chekhov’s DIE MÖWE (The Seagull, 1963), alongside popular shows such as the hit comedy series OPPEN UND EHRLICH (Oppen and Ehrlich, 1992/93). Krahl’s actress daughter Johanna Liebeneiner (b. 1945) has worked extensively in German television.
HILDE KRAHL (Hildegard Kolaèný) Born January 10, 1917, Brod na Savi (AustriaHungary, now Slavonski Brod, Croatia) Died June 28, 1999, Vienna (Austria) An extremely versatile actress, Krahl’s film, theatre and television career spanned six decades. Krahl was raised in Vienna, and made her stage debut in cabaret. She was a member of the ensemble of the Theater in der Josefstadt from 1936 to 1966, and was seconded by director Heinz Hilpert to play at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater from 1938 to 1944. Krahl first appeared on the big screen in two Austrian productions, E. W. Emo’s DIE PUPPENFEE (The Fairy Dolly) and Géza von Bolváry’s MÄDCHENPENSIONAT (Girls’ Dormitory, both 1936). Willi Forst then entrusted her with the lead in SERENADE (1937), playing a psychologically complex painter. Krahl’s roles thereafter took on everything from serious drama to knockabout comedy, and she ascended to star status with her performance as Heinrich George’s daughter in Gustav Ucicky’s adaptation of Pushkin’s DER POSTMEISTER (The Stationmaster, 1939/40). Other memorable roles included the fresh-faced lead in Helmut Käutner’s ANUSCHKA (1941/42) and pianist Clara Schumann in Harald Braun’s TRÄUMEREI (Dreaming, 1943/44). In 1944, Krahl married director and Ufa production head Wolfgang Liebeneiner, with whom she had worked on DAS ANDERE ICH (Her Other Self, 1941) and GROSSSTADTMELODIE (Melody of a Great City, 1942/43). Focussing on her stage career after the war, Krahl appeared repeatedly at Hamburg’s Kammerspiele and Vienna’s Burgtheater. Her roles in West German films continued to be marked by the actress’s breadth of ability, and she stood out both in Liebeneiner’s adaptation of Wolfgang Borchert’s seminal post-war play ‘Draußen vor der Tür’ (The Man Outside), titled
[act – DE] 1936: Die Puppenfee [AT]; Mädchenpensionat. Prinzessin Dagmar [AT/HU]; Lumpacivagabundus [AT]. 1937: Serenade. 1938: Gastspiel im Paradies; Der Hampelmann. 1939: Die barmherzige Lüge; Der Weg zu Isabel. 1939/40: Donauschiffer; Der Postmeister. 1940: Herz modern möbliert. 1940/41: Komödianten. 1941: Das andere Ich. 1941/42: Anuschka. 1942: Meine Freundin Josefine. 1942/43: Großstadtmelodie. 1943/44: Träumerei. 1944/ 45: Das Leben geht weiter. 1944-45/50: Das Gesetz der Liebe. 1948/49: Liebe 47. 1949: Schatten der Nacht. 1949/50: Meine Nichte Susanne. 1950: Wenn eine Frau liebt. 1950/51: Das Tor zum Frieden [AT]. 1951: Weiße Schatten; Der Weibsteufel [AT]. 1951/52: Herz der Welt. 1952: 1. April 2000 [AT]. 1952/53: Die Venus vom Tivoli [CH]. 1954: Jedem die Seine [TV]; Hochstaplerin der Liebe [AT]; Die Mücke; Ewiger Walzer. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: Eine Frau genügt nicht?; Geheimnis einer Ärztin / Liebe am Scheideweg [DE/AT]; Nacht der Entscheidung. 1956: Mein Vater, der Schauspieler. [act – DE – TV] 1958: Schwester Bonaventura. 1960: Das Glas Wasser [FF]. 1961: Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg; Das Salzburger große Welttheater; Die Marquise von Arcis. 1962: 90 Minuten nach Mitternacht [FF]; Heute kündigt mir mein Mann [FF]; Der Schlaf der Gerechten. 1962/63: Der Belagerungszustand. 1963: Lady Frederick; Mittagswende; Die Möwe. 1964: Kolportage [AT]. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Hilde Krahl [TVD – app]; Sodom und Gomorrha; Eine Frau denkt …; Spiel. 1966: Der Trauschein; Die Troerinnen des Euripides; Der Kaktusgarten. 1967: Der Hund von BlackwoodCastle [FF]. 1968: Die Rivalin; Vanillikipferln. – Ein Abend zu dritt. – Donau so blau. 1969: Der Kreis der Hilde Krahl [TVD – app]; Liebe gegen Paragraphen; Duett im Zwielicht. 1970/71: Liliom; Aus Mangel an Beweisen. 1973: Vier Fenster zum Garten. 1974: Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Drei Schwestern [AT/DE]. 1976: Derrick: Ein unbegreiflicher Typ; Erben [CH]. 1977: Begegnung im Herbst. 1980: Die liebe Familie [TVS – AT]; Ein heiliger Abend [AT]. 1981: Wunschloses Glück [AT]. 1990/91: Wie gut, daß es Maria gibt [season 1 + 2 – TVS]. 1991: Mütter: Bis auf den heutigen Tag [TVD – app – AT]; Savannah Bay
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[AT]. 1992/93: Oppen und Ehrlich [season 1 + 2 – TVS]. 1992-94: Der Fotograf oder Das Auge Gottes: Der Spruch der Füchse. 1995/96: Bruder Esel [8 episodes – TVS].
GÜNTHER KRAMPF (Günther Otto Krampf) Born February 8, 1899, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died August 7, 1950, London (England) A noted cinematographer in Weimar cinema and associated with some of the period’s greatest classics, Krampf later continued his career in the British film industry. Krampf studied at Vienna’s Technical College and entered the film industry in the aftermath of World War I, training as a cameraman with various companies in Vienna, Berlin, and Florence. On F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU (1921), he assisted Fritz Arno Wagner, starting a pattern for working on films with fantastic or supernatural subjects, including Robert Wiene’s ORLACS HÄNDE (The Hands of Orlac, 1924), Henrik Galeen’s DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1926), and Richard Oswald’s ALRAUNE (Daughter of Evil, 1930). Krampf was also repeatedly employed by Prometheus, a company funded by the Communist Party, working on left-leaning projects that included Kurt (Curtis) Bernhardt’s historical drama SCHINDERHANNES (The Prince of Rogues, 1927/28), Hans Tintner’s CYANKALI (Cyanide, 1930), based on a stage play by Friedrich Wolf; and the agit-prop film KUHLE WAMPE (Whither Germany?, 1931/32), marking a collaboration with director Slatan Dudow and writer Bertolt Brecht. Working for G. W. Pabst on DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA (Pandora’s Box, 1928/29), Krampf was at least in part responsible for transforming American actress Louise Brooks into an enduring screen icon. Krampf’s visual style, variously described by critics and film historians as impressionist and naturalistic, and his inventive and meticulous use of technology earned him an international reputation that brought him to England in the early 1930s. Following a collaboration with fellow Austrian Oscar Werndorff on the gothic melodrama THE BELLS (1931), he began to work more regularly at Michael Balcon’s Gaumont British studio. Early successes included the train thriller ROME EXPRESS (1932), starring Conrad Veidt, the horror film and Boris Karloff vehicle THE GHOUL (1933), as well as LITTLE FRIEND (1934), Berthold Viertel’s subtle study of a child witnessing the disintegration of her parents’ marriage. Following a final assignment in Germany on Gustav Ucicky’s propagandist take on the Joan of Arc story in DAS MÄDCHEN JOHANNA (The Maid Joan) in 1935, Krampf returned to England to shoot Maurice Elvey’s spectacular science fiction story THE TUNNEL, the remake of a Franco-German co-production of 1933.
Although widely admired and respected, Krampf also had a reputation of being excessively perfectionist and difficult to work with. His career began to decline in the late 1930s, and he worked mostly on B movies for smaller studios such as Welwyn, and on early Ealing comedies such as the anti-Nazi farce THE BLACK SHEEP OF WHITEHALL (1941), starring Will Hay. More notable among Krampf’s wartime work were Leslie Arliss’s atmospheric mystery thriller THE NIGHT HAS EYES (1941/42), and his collaboration in 1944 with Alfred Hitchcock on two French-language anti-Nazi propaganda shorts, BON VOYAGE and AVENTURE MALGACHE. After the war, Krampf’s career gradually petered out, in part caused by chronic illness. Among his last major assignments was the political drama FAME IS THE SPUR (1946/47), directed by the Boulting Brothers and starring Michael Redgrave. [cam – DE] 1920: Der Henker von Sankt Marien; Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia [co-cam]; Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadscha. 3. Teil. 1921: Die Geschichte des grauen Hauses. 1. Der Mord aus verschmähter Liebe / 2. Der Mord aus Verworfenheit / 3. Der Mord aus Verzweiflung / 4. Der Mord aus Habsucht; Am roten Kliff; Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens [ass-cam]. 1922: Pömperlis Kampf mit dem Schneeschuh. 1922/23: Ein Glas Wasser [co-cam]; Die Prinzessin Suwarin [co-cam]. 1923: Der verlorene Schuh [co-cam]. 1923/24: Hotel Potemkin [AT]. 1924: Orlacs Hände [co-cam – AT]; Pension Groonen [co-cam – AT]. 1925: Das Mädchen mit der Protektion; Herrn Filip Collins Abenteuer. 1926: Der Student von Prag [co-cam]. 1926/ 27: Sintflut [co-cam]; Der Sohn der Hagar [co-cam]; Ein Mordsmädel. 1927: Grand Hotel …!; Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen; Der König der Mittelstürmer [co-cam]. 1927/28: Schinderhannes. 1928: Dorine und der Zufall [AT]; Bergenstoget plyndret i natt / Schneeschuhbanditen [co-cam – NO/DE]; Das letzte Souper; Die von der Scholle sind; Indizienbeweis [co-cam]. 1928/29: Die Büchse der Pandora. 1929: Die Schleiertänzerin / Le meneur de joies [co-cam – DE/FR]; Narkose; Masken. 1929/30: Die letzte Kompagnie. 1930: Cyankali; Alraune; Die Königin einer Nacht [MLV]. 1930/31: Das Lied der Nationen [MLV – FR]. 1931: The Bells [MLV – co-cam – GB]; Der brave Sünder; Das Kind und die Welt [DO – co-cam]. 1931/32: The First Mrs. Fraser [GB]; Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? [cam – GB] 1932: Rome Express. 1933: The Lucky Number [co-cam]; The Ghoul; Sleeping Car [co-cam]. 1934: Little Stranger; Little Friend; Death at Broadcasting House. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna [co-cam – DE]; The Tunnel; The Amateur Gentleman. 1936: Everything Is Thunder; His Lordship. 1937: Paradise for Two. 1938: Marigold; The Outsider. 1939: Black Eyes; Dead Man’s Shoes [MLV]; On the Night of the Fire. 1940: Convoy [co-cam]; Sailors Three. 1941: The Black Sheep of Whitehall. 1941/42: The Night Has Eyes. 1942: Suspected Person; Sabotage at Sea; Women Aren’t Angels. 1943: Escape to Danger [co-cam – GB/ US]; Warn That Man. 1943/44: On Approval [co-cam]. 1944: Bon Voyage; Aventure Malgache [SF]. 1945/46: La-
WERNER KRAUSS tin Quarter. 1946: Meet Me At Dawn. 1946/47: Fame Is the Spur [co-cam]. 1947/48: This Was a Woman. 1949: Tinker. 1949/50: Portrait of Clare. 1950/51: The Franchise Affair.
WERNER KRAUSS Born June 23, 1884 Gestungshausen, near Coburg (Germany) Died October 20, 1959, Vienna (Austria) Known internationally for his portrayal of the title character in DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919/20), versatile screen and stage actor Krauss appeared in over one hundred films. Krauss had appeared extensively in repertory and at provincial theatres before joining Max Reinhardt’s chain of theatres in Berlin in 1913. From 1924, he headlined at the capital’s Staatstheater and Deutsches Theater, as well as at Vienna’s Burgtheater. Krauss’s screen debut was Richard Oswald’s HOFFMANNS ERZÄHLUNGEN (Tales of Hoffmann, 1916), and he subsequently worked in numerous of the director’s detective pictures, melodramas, and sexual enlightenment films. Generally cast as depraved or mentally off-balance, his sadistic Philipp Galen in DIDA IBSENS GESCHICHTE (The Story of Dida Ibsen, 1918) was a tour de force. Gaining star status after the end of World War I, the actor’s performance as Dr. Caligari launched him into a lengthy series of ‘demonic’ roles. Although many of his characterisations tended towards exaggeration, others were sufficiently subtle to prevent him from becoming typecast, and he stood out as an emotionally dulled railway trackwalker in Lupu Pick’s SCHERBEN (Shattered, 1921). He portrayed a number of historical personalities, including Robespierre in DANTON (All For a Woman, 1921), Pontius Pilate in I.N.R.I. (Crown of Thorns, 1923), and Napoleon in NAPOLEON AUF ST. HELENA (Napoleon on St. Helena, 1929). Krauss also recreated several of his celebrated stage roles for the screen, such as Iago in OTHELLO (1921/ 22), Shylock in DER KAUFMANN VON VENEDIG (The Merchant of Venice, 1923), or Orgon in TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925). He worked repeatedly with director G. W. Pabst, most notably in the psychoanalytic study GEHEIMNISSE EINER SEELE (Secrets of a Soul, 1925/26), and was memorable as the lonesome circus clown in Arthur Robison’s LOOPING THE LOOP (1927/28). Krauss enjoyed his greatest stage triumphs in the early 1930s in Carl Zuckmayer’s ‘Der Hauptmann von Köpenick’ (The Captain of Koepenick) and Gerhart Hauptmann’s ‘Vor Sonnenuntergang’ (Before Sunset). Named interim president of the Reichstheaterkammer (Reich Chamber of Theatre) in 1933, Krauss be-
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came one of the Nazis’ foremost cultural representatives, and contributed to a number of propaganda pictures, such as Hans Steinhoff’s ROBERT KOCH, DER BEKÄMPFER DES TODES (Robert Koch, 1939), Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s DIE ENTLASSUNG (Bismarck’s Dismissal, 1942), and insisting on playing five different Jewish figures in Veit Harlan’s anti-Semitic JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940). Krauss spent the end of the war in Austria, but was deported to Germany in 1946. Declared ‘only minimally incriminated’ following his denazification process, he was permitted to return to Vienna to work at the Burgtheater, and to assume Austrian nationality. Although his initial tours of Germany were accompanied by protests in 1950, the actor was granted West German citizenship in 1951, and was subsequently fully rehabilitated, receiving both the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1954, and the High Decoration of the Republic of Austria in 1955. He appeared in three final films during the early 1950s, and published his autobiography ‘Das Schauspiel meines Lebens’ (The Play of My Life) in 1958. [act – DE] 1916: Hoffmanns Erzählungen; Zirkusblut; Der Ungreifbare; Die vertauschte Braut; Das unheimliche Haus; Die Rache der Toten; Die Hand; Das unheimliche Haus. 2. Freitag, der 13te; Das unheimliche Haus. 3. Der chinesische Götze; Stein unter Steinen; Nächte des Grauens; Der Erbe von ‘Het Steen’; Die Bettlerin von St. Marien; Unheilbar. 1917: Das Bacchanal des Todes. Das Opfer einer großen Liebe; Die Pagode; Die Fremde; Gesühnte Schuld; E, der scharlachrote Buchstabe; Fräulein Pfiffikus; Die Tochter der Gräfin Stachowska; Die schöne Prinzessin von China [ANI]; Die Kaukasierin. 1917/18: Die schleichende Gefahr; Wenn Frauen lieben und hassen. 1918: Es werde Licht! 3. Teil; Der Prozeß Hauers; Das verwunschene Schloß; Der Bettler von Savern; Das Gift der Maria Medici; Sr. Hoheit Brautfahrt; Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Dida Ibsens Geschichte; Colomba; Stürme des Lebens; Madame d’Ora; Mazeppa, der Volksheld der Ukraine; Opium; Seelen in Ketten. 1918/19: Sühne; Die Heimat; Der Friedensreiter. 1919: Die Beichte einer Toten; Die Frau mit den Orchideen; Das gelbe Haus; Das Mädchen und die Männer; Totentanz; Die Insel der Glücklichen; Das ewige Rätsel; Rose Bernd; Phantome des Lebens; Opfer. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari; Die Frau ohne Seele; Ewiger Strom. 1920: Johannes Goth; Die Brüder Karamasoff; Das Schicksal des Edmund Hall; Sieger Tod; Die Frau im Himmel; Der Staatsanwalt; Die Kwannon von Okadera. 1920/ 21: Christian Wahnschaffe. 1. Weltbrand / 2. Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker; Das Medium. 1921: Danton; Scherben; Die Beute der Erinnyen; Das Haus in der Dragonergasse; Sturmflut des Lebens; Fledermäuse; Der Tanz um Liebe und Glück; Der Roman der Christine von Herre; Lady Hamilton; Zirkus des Lebens. 1921/22: Othello; Der brennende Acker. 1922: Luise Millerin; Nathan der Weise. Die Erstürmung Jerusalems. 1922/23: Alt-Heidelberg; Der Schatz; Der Menschenfeind; Fridericus Rex. Ein Königsschicksal. 3. Sanssouci / 4. Schicksalswende. 1923: Adam
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und Eva; Der Puppenmacher von Kiang-Ning; Zwischen Abend und Morgen; Du sollst nicht töten; Der Kaufmann von Venedig; Fräulein Raffke; Das unbekannte Morgen; I.N.R.I.; Das Wachsfigurenkabinet. 1923/24: Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924: Dekameron-Nächte / Decameron Nights [DE/GB]; Gesühnte Schuld. 1924/25: Ein Sommernachtstraum; Reveille, das große Wecken. 1925: Die freudlose Gasse; Tartüff; Eifersucht; Der Trödler von Amsterdam; Die Moral der Gasse; Das Haus der Lüge; Die Dame aus Berlin; Nana [FR/DE]. 1925/26: Geheimnisse einer Seele. 1926: Das graue Haus; Kreuzzug des Weibes; Der Student von Prag; Überflüssige Menschen; Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit. 1926/27: Laster der Menschheit; Da hält die Welt den Atem an. 1927: Die Hose; Der fidele Bauer; Funkzauber; Die Hölle der Jungfrauen. 1927/28: Looping the Loop. Die Todesschleife. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena. Der gefangene Kaiser. 1931: Yorck. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]. 1934/35: Hundert Tage [MLV – IT]. 1936: Burgtheater [AT]. 1938: Salzburg, die Festspielstadt [SD]. 1939: Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes; Der letzte Appell. 1940: Jud Süß. 1941: Annelie. 1941/42: Zwischen Himmel und Erde. 1942: Die Entlassung. 1942/43: Paracelsus. 1944: Die Kunst der Maske [SD]. 1949: Prämien auf den Tod [AT]. 1950: Der fallende Stern. 1955: Sohn ohne Heimat. 1958: Das verräterische Herz [TV – AT]. 1966/67: Werner Krauß – Porträt eines Komödianten [TVD].
THOMAS KRETSCHMANN Born September 8, 1962, Dessau (East Germany) Tall, handsome, and ruggedly masculine, Kretschmann has been a leading man in German films since the late 1980s, and specialised in ‘Teutonic’ characters in international productions. Originally a professional swimmer trained by East Germany’s Olympic team, Kretschmann fled the GDR in 1982 for West Berlin, where he studied acting and eventually started out at the Schiller Theater. His film debut was in a supporting role in Wieland Speck’s East-West gay love story WESTLER (1984/ 85), but his screen career only began in earnest following his leading role as a Wehrmacht officer in Joseph Vilsmaier’s World War II epic STALINGRAD (1991/92). In Klaus Lemke’s youth melodrama DIE RATTE (The Rat, 1992/93), he played a petty criminal idolised by his younger brother, and subsequently repeatedly appeared in films directed by Peter Patzak, such as JENSEITS DER BRANDUNG (Beyond the Surf, 1994) and BRENNEDES HERZ (Burning Heart, 1996). From the mid-1990s onwards, Kretschmann’s career became increasingly international, with roles in Patrice Chéreau’s LA REINE MARGOT (Queen Margot, 1993/94), the pan-European Arthurian fantasy PRINZ EISENHERZ / PRINCE VALIANT (1996/97) and in the low budget Science Fiction adventure TOTAL REALITY (1997).
Based in Los Angeles from 2000, his Hollywood career took off with a series of roles as Germans during World War II, most prominently in the U-Boat drama U-571 (1999/2000) and, as the Wehrmacht officer who helps Adrian Brody’s character to survive in war-torn Poland in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning LE PIANISTE (The Pianist, 2001/02). Kretschmann was also seen in the vampire film BLADE II (2001) and in another horror film sequel, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (2004). Kretschmann worked again with German directors in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s acclaimed Hitler biopic DER UNTERGANG (Downfall), where he portrayed Hitler’s brother-in-law, and in Hans W. Geissendörfer’s SCHNEELAND (Snowland, both 2003/04), a bleak story of child abuse in Lapland. With Peter Jackson’s remake of KING KONG (2004/05), where he played a ship’s captain, Kretschmann returned to the terrain of the Hollywood blockbuster. Subsequently, he appeared alternately in international and German productions, playing such diverse roles as Pope John Paul II. in the American TV biopic HAVE NO FEAR: THE LIFE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II (2005) and a cannibalistic killer in Martin Weisz’ ROHTENBURG (2005/06) which, inspired by a real-life case, was banned from German cinemas due to infringement of the personal rights of the murderer. In 2008, Kretschmann took the lead in DER SEEWOLF (The Sea Wolf, 2008), a German TV version of Jack London’s previously adapted adventure novel. [act – DE – TV] 1984/85: Westler. 1986/87: Totes Geld. 1989: Der Alte: Bahnhofsbaby; Radiofieber. 1989/90: Der Mitwisser. 1990: Unter einem Dach [TVS]; Derrick: Beziehung abgebrochen; Rothenbaumchaussee. 1991: Die Männer vom K3: Der Vollmondmörder; Shining Through [FF – US]. 1991/92: Krigerens hjerte [FF – NO/SE/FI/DK/IS]; Stalingrad [FF]. 1992/93: Die Ratte [FF]; Engel ohne Flügel [FF]. 1993/94: La Reine Margot / La Regina Margot [FF – FR/IT]; Affären [FF]. 1994: Tödliche Besessenheit – Das Geheimnis der Martha E. [FF]; Ainsi soient-elles / Mujeres a flor de piel [FF – FR/ES]; Jenseits der Brandung [FF]. 1994/95: Anna – Im Banne des Bösen. 1995: Nachtbus [SF – AT]; Derrick: Teestunde mit einer Mörderin; Ich liebe den Mann meiner Tochter; Wir zusammen allein mit dir; Marciando nel buio [FF – IT]. 1995/96: La sindrome di Stendhal [FF – IT]; Unter die Haut. 1996: Brennendes Herz – Tagebuch einer Flucht [FF]; La Dernière fête / Die Geschichte eines Untergangs [FR/DE]; Il Tocco: la sfida / A tres bandas [FF – IT/ES]. 1996/97: Prinz Eisenherz / Prince Valiant [FF – DE/GB/IE]. 1997: Total Reality [FF – US]; Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei: Generalprobe; Die falsche Prinzessin / La principessa e il povero [DE/IT]; Die Mädchenfalle – Der Tod kommt online. 1997/98: Coppia omicida [FF – IT]; Die Diebin; Nina – Vom Kinderzimmer ins Bordell. 1998: Traumschiff 2000: Jamaica / Galapagos; Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams [2 parts – CA/US/DE]; Der Tod in deinen Augen; Esther / Die Bibel – Esther [US/IT/DE].
PETER KREUDER 1998/99: Ein tödliches Wochenende; Der Solist: Kein Weg zurück. 1999: Green Sails [AU/US]; Relic Hunter: Diamond in the Rough / Relic Hunter – Die Schatzjägerin: Der Millionen-Dollar-Handschuh [CA/DE]; V.I.P: Return of the Owl / V.I.P. – Die Bodyguards: Die Rückkehr der Eule [US/DE]; Relic Hunter: The Emperor’s Bride / Relic Hunter – Die Schatzjägerin: Der Sarkophag [CA/DE]. 1999/2000: U-571 [FF – US]. 2000: Poison [CA/US]; Relic Hunter: M.I.A. / Relic Hunter – Die Schatzjägerin: Die Entführung [CA/DE]; Der Solist: Kuriertag; Feindliche Übernahme – althan.com [FF]. 2000/01: Der Solist: Niemandsland; I Cavalieri che fecero l’impresa [FF – IT/FR]. 2001: V.I.P: Molar Ice Cap / V.I.P. – Die Bodyguards: Der perfekte Tag [US/DE]; Blade II [FF – US]. 2001/02: Le pianiste / Pianista / Der Pianist / The Pianist [FF – FR/PL/DE/GB]. 2002: Der Solist: In eigener Sache; 24 – Season 2 [2 episodes – TVS – US]; Papà Rua Alguem 5555 / My Father, Rua Alguem 5555 [FF – IT/BR/HU]. [act – US] 2002/03: In Enemy Hands. 2003: Karen Sisco: The One That Got Away [TV]; Immortel (ad vitam) / Immortal (ad Vitam) [FR/IT/GB]. 2003/04: The Karate Dog; Der Untergang [DE]; Head in the Clouds / Juegos de mujer [US/GB/ES/CA]; Schneeland [DE]. 2004: SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2; Resident Evil: Apocalypse [US/DE/FR/CA]; Frankenstein [TV]. 2004/05: King Kong; The Celestine Prophecy. 2005: Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II [TV – US/LT]. 2005/06: Rohtenburg. 2006/07: Next; Partition [CA/ZA/GB]; Die wilden Hühner und die Liebe; In Transit / In Tranzit [GB/RU]; Eichmann [GB]. 2007: Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken; Bionic Woman [TVS – pilot]. 2007/08: Transsiberian [ES/DE]; Wanted; Valkyrie. 2008: Der Seewolf [TV – DE]; Mogadischu [TV – DE]. 2008/09: Romy [TV – DE]; The Young Victoria [GB]; The Truth About Men [NZ].
PETER KREUDER (Peter Paul Kreuder) Born August 18, 1905, Aachen (Germany) Died June 28, 1981, Salzburg (Austria) Dubbed ‘the king of the evergreens’ in Germany, celebrated pianist and composer Kreuder furnished songs and scores for numerous films over a forty-year period. Kreuder started piano lessons at the age of three, and when he was six gave his first public recital. He gained a position as stage pianist at Hamburg’s Kammerspiele theatre at the age of twelve, and graduated to musical director and composer at the Thalia-Theater the following year. He completed his studies at Munich’s State Academy of Music between 1922 and 1924, while simultaneously serving as musical director at the city’s Deutsches Theater. Thereafter leading the musical sections of theatres in Berlin, Vienna, and Munich, Kreuder became heavily influenced by jazz and swing, and developed a characteristic ‘sliding’ style, prefacing every note with two further ‘introductory’ notes, and concluding every piece in the lowest range of the keyboard. He gave his
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first major jazz concert in 1932, and his first operetta, ‘Franzi’, premiered in 1937. Working on films from 1930, one of Kreuder’s early scores was for E. A. Dupont’s PETER VOSS, DER MILLIONENDIEB (Peter Voss Who Stole Millions, 1931/ 32). He gained international acclaim with his songs for Pola Negri’s comeback vehicle MAZURKA (1935), directed by Willi Forst, and received the Parisian Prix mondiale for his score to Gustav Ucicky’s DAS MÄDCHEN JOHANNA (Joan the Maid, 1935). Other hits from these years remain popular to this day, such as ‘Sag’ beim Abschied leise “Servus”’ (in English as ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’) from Willi Forst’s BURGTHEATER (Burg Theatre, 1936), ‘Goodbye, Jonny’ from the Hans Albers western WASSER FÜR CANITOGA (Water for Canitoga, 1938/39), or several Marika Rökk numbers including ‘Musik! Musik! Musik!’ (Don’t Need Any Millions) from HALLO JANINE (1939) and ‘Für eine Nacht voller Seligkeit’ (For One Night of Bliss) from KORA TERRY (1940). With jazz and swing the subject of increasing disapproval by the Nazi regime, Kreuder fled to Sweden during a 1939 Scandinavian tour, but was forcibly repatriated to Germany in 1942. Settling in Austria after the war, he composed the music for the first postwar Austrian feature, Franz Antel’s DAS SINGENDE HAUS (The Singing House, 1947). Named the third-greatest big band leader in the world by critics in Washington, Kreuder then signed a lucrative contract as musical director for radio stations in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires in late 1947, and remained in South America for eight years, while also undertaking numerous North American and European tours. He scored further films in South America, and upon returning to Europe, worked on a few lesser pictures. He toured with Josephine Baker in 1956 and 1957, and helped Zarah Leander to a stage comeback with his musical ‘Madame Scandaleuse’ in 1958. Kreuder adopted Austrian citizenship in 1959 and continued to compose and perform around the world up to his death. [mus – DE] 1930/31: Die lustigen Weiber von Wien. 1931: Kadetten. 1931/32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb; Wenn dem Esel zu wohl ist … [mus,lyr]. 1932: Die Nacht der Versuchung; Die Herrgotts-Grenadiere / Der goldene Gletscher [CH/DE]. 1932/33: Eine Frau wie Du [act]. 1933: Die weiße Majestät [MLV – DE/CH/FR]. 1933/34: Un de la montagne [MLV – DE/CH/FR]. 1934: Das Stahltier [FF/DO]. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna; Mazurka; Tag der Freiheit. Unsere Wehrmacht [SD]; Henker, Frauen und Soldaten. 1936: Allotria; Glückskinder [MLV]; Ein Hochzeitstraum; Les gais lurons [MLV]; Burgtheater [AT]; Weiße Sklaven. 1936/37: Frauenliebe – Frauenleid. 1937: Confession [US]; Capriolen; Serenade; Gasparone. 1937/38: Rätsel um Beate; Der Maulkorb. 1938: Gestern und Heute [SD]; Wort und Tat [SD]; Eine Nacht im Mai; In geheimer Mission;
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Dreizehn Mann und eine Kanone. 1938/39: Wasser für Canitoga. 1939: Hallo Janine; Opernball; Nanette; Mein Mann darf es nicht wissen. 1940: Die 3 Codonas; Ritorno [MLV – IT]; Traummusik [MLV – DE/IT]; Kora Terry; Romans [mus,act – SE]. 1942/43: Liebesgeschichten. 1943: In flagranti. 1943/44: Es lebe die Liebe; Es fing so harmlos an. 1944/45: Frühlingsmelodie; Frech und verliebt. 1947: Das singende Haus [AT]. 1950: ¡Qué hermanita! [AR]; El heroico Bonifacio [AR]. 1951: Concierto de bastón [AR]; Cosdas de mujer [AR]; El honorable inquilino [AR]; El gaucho y el diablo [AR]; El paraíso [AR]. 1952: Alle kann ich nicht heiraten. 1953: Der kleine Herr Niemand [TV]; Liebeskrieg nach Noten; So ein Affentheater; Arlette erobert Paris; Schlagerparade [mus,act]. 1954: Canción de la nieve [AR]; Der erste Kuß [DE/AT]; Ein Mädchen aus Paris; Die Mücke; An jedem Finger zehn. 1955: Ihr erstes Rendezvous [DE/AT]. 1955/56: Hilfe – sie liebt mich! 1960: Frauen in Teufels Hand [AT]. 1963: Kabarett der Komiker: Es war einmal … [TV]. 1968/69: Ein dreifach Hoch dem Sanitätsgefreiten Neumann [DE/IT]; Kommissar X: Drei goldene Schlangen [DE/IT]. 1974: Wetterleuchten über dem Zillertal oder Der gestohlene Himmel / Il cielo rubato [DE/IT]. 1975: Schön war die Zeit. Ein Abend mit Peter Kreuder und seinen Melodien [TV – app]. 1983: Haus Vaterland [TV]. 1986: Camilla Horn 85 [SD]. 1987: Schloß Königswald.
JOACHIM KRÓL Born June 17, 1957, Herne (West Germany) Król is an inconspicuous, slightly melancholic looking character star in comic as well as dramatic roles since the early 1990s, whose portrayals of shy romantics and inhibited, but warm-hearted everymen have endeared him to domestic audiences. After running a pub in Dortmund, Król took acting lessons at Munich’s Falckenberg School, before appearing in small parts on stage. Debuting on the screen in 1983/84 and following a series of bits as well as a supporting role in Doris Dörrie’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TÜRKE! (1991), Król won wide recognition paying one of the leads as part of a duo of dimwit brothers exploring East Germany in the company of a Russian army deserter in Detlev Buck’s road movie WIR KÖNNEN AUCH ANDERS (No More Mr Nice Guy, 1992). He subsequently appeared in Tom Tykwer’s directorial debut DIE TÖDLICHE MARIA (The Deadly Maria, 1993), and cemented his stardom in Sönke Wortmann’s hit comedy DER BEWEGTE MANN (The Most Desired Man, 1994), in which he portrayed a shy gay man lusting after his straight lodger, played by Til Schweiger. Król also had a leading role in Wortmann’s subsequent hit, DAS SUPERWEIB (The Super Woman, 1995), where he played a divorce lawyer, and in 1996 he appeared in a TV remake of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ES GESCHAH AM HELLICHTEN TAG (It Happened in Broad Daylight) as the police inspector played by Heinz Rühmann in 1958.
In the whimsical road movie ZUGVÖGEL … EINMAL NACH INARI (Trains’n’Roses, 1996), he starred as a truck driver who dreams of travelling to a competition of fellow train timetable enthusiasts in Northern Lapland, while in Tykwer’s LOLA RENNT (Run Lola Run, 1997/98) he was almost unrecognisable in a cameo role as a tramp, his face hidden behind a straggly beard. In Tykwer’s next film, DER KRIEGER + DIE KAISERIN (The Princess and the Warrior, 1999/ 2000), Król played a psychiatric patient. In the early 2000s, he repeatedly played Italian police inspector Brunetti in television plays adapted from novels by Donna Leon, and from 2006 German police inspector LUTTER. Mostly sticking to the same type of character, Król changed his persona for the thriller LAUTLOS (Without a Sound, 2002–04), in which he was cast as a professional hit man. [act – DE – TV] 1983/84: Kaltes Fieber [FF]. 1985: Ticket nach Rom. 1987/88: Wo immer du bist … / Gdziekolwiek jest, jeli jest [FF – DE/PL]. 1988: Die Hochzeit des Figaro [SF]. 1988-90: Liebesgeschichten [TVS]. 1989/90: Der Fahnder: Romeo; Eine Wahnsinnsehe. 1990: Eurocops: Besuch aus Wien; ¯ycie za ¿ycie. Maksymilian Kolbe / Leben für Leben – Maximilian Kolbe [FF – PL/DE]. 1991: Happy Birthday, Türke! [FF]; Das Nest: Wandlungen. 1991/ 92: Eurocops: Evelyns Traum. 1992: Blank Meier Jensen: Gesundheit für die Dritte Welt; Wir können auch anders … [FF]. 1993: Eurocops: Letzte Fahrt; Neues Deutschland: Ohne mich; Die tödliche Maria [FF]. 1993/94: Polizeiruf 110: Totes Gleis. 1994: Wolffs Revier: Grauzone; Faust: Ciao Bruno; Der bewegte Mann [FF]; Ohne Schein läuft nichts [TVS]; Keiner liebt mich [FF]. 1994/95: Wilsberg: Und die Toten lässt man ruhen. 1995: Regen in New York [SF]; Einmal Macht und zurück – Engholms Fall; Das Superweib [FF]. 1995/96: Eine unmögliche Hochzeit; Schräge Vögel. 1996: Es geschah am hellichten Tag; Rossini – oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief [FF]; Zugvögel … Einmal nach Inari [FF – DE/FI]. 1997: Waar blijft het licht / When the light comes / Die Stunde des Lichts [FF – NL/NO/DE]; Die Unschuld der Krähen. 1997/98: Lola rennt [FF]; Bin ich schön? [FF]. 1998/99: Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod – Gloomy Sunday [FF]. 1999/ 2000: Der Krieger + die Kaiserin [FF]. 2000: Donna Leon – Vendetta; Donna Leon – Venezianische Scharade. 200002: Viel passiert – Der BAP Film [DO]. 2001: Anne Frank – The Whole Story [US]. 2001/02: Der Kuss des Bären / Le baiser de l’ours / El beso del oso / Il bacio dell’orso / El beso del oso / Bear’s Kiss / Medveij pocelu [FF – DE/FR/ES/ IT/SE/RU]. 2002: Donna Leon – In Sachen Signora Brunetti; Donna Leon – Nobilità. 2002-04: Lautlos [FF]. 2003: Wenn Weihnachten wahr wird; Das Kleine Fernsehspiel – reloaded [TVD – app]; Drechslers zweite Chance. 2003/04: Silentium [FF – AT]; Schneeland [FF]. 2004: Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]. 2004/05: Mensch Einstein: Ein Genie und seine Welt [TVD – host]; Unkenrufe / Wrózby kumaka [FF – DE/PL]. 2004-06: Warum halb vier? [DO – app]. 2005: Tod eines Keilers / Der Keiler [AT/ CH/DE]. 2005/06: Kronprinz Rudolf / Kronprinz Rudolfs
RENATE KRÖSSNER letzte Liebe [AT/DE]. 2005-07: Die drei Räuber [ANI – voi]. 2006: Tatort: Stille Tage. 2006/07: Lutter: Essen is’ fertig; Lutter: Um jeden Preis; Windland. 2007: SOKO Köln: Man l(i)ebt nur einmal. 2007/08: Lutter: Blutsbande; Adam Resurrected / Ein Leben für ein Leben – Adam Resurrected / Adam Ben Kelev [FF – US/DE/IL]. 2008: Lutter: Toter Bruder; Tatort: Häschen in der Grube. 2008/09: Mein Leben; Henri IV [DE/ FR]; Vision – Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen [DE/FR].
RENATE KRÖSSNER Born May 17, 1945, Osterode (Germany) Although primarily active as a television actress since the mid-1960s, Krößner’s occasional forays into film met with considerable success, most notably in the DEFA classic SOLO SUNNY (1978/79). Growing up in East Berlin, Krößner graduated from the State Acting School in 1964. She worked at a number of smaller theatres prior to joining the ensemble of the Theater in Brandenburg in 1971, and thereafter toured with classical and contemporary plays. She made her television debut in 1965, and appeared in Lutz Köhlert’s TV film TIEFE FURCHEN (Deep Rifts) the same year. Working regularly in East German television throughout the next decade, she first gained attention playing a supporting role in Heiner Carow’s BIS DASS DER TOD EUCH SCHEIDET (Until Death Does You Part, 1977/78). International acclaim followed with her lead role as a non-conformist singer in Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase’s SOLO SUNNY (1978/79), which earned her the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear award. Despite (or because of) this success in a film considered controversial by the East German regime, Krößner’s career stalled afterwards. Her only sizeable roles were in the five-part television series VERFLUCHT UND GELIEBT (Cursed and Loved, 1980/81) and as the central protagonist in the Theodor Fontane adaptation MATHILDE MÖHRING (1983). The same year, Krößner also appeared in Peter Beauvais’s DIE EWIGEN GEFÜHLE (Eternal Feelings), shot in the East for West Germany’s WDR channel. Moving to West Berlin in 1985, Krößner established herself as a recurrent guest star in popular television series such as crime show TATORT (Crime Scene). Her performance in Adolf Winkelmann’s featurelength drama NORDKURVE (North Curve, 1992) earned her a German Film Award, and roles in numerous television productions followed, including Manfred Stelzer’s post-unification comedy GRÜSS GOTT, GENOSSE (Greetings, Comrade, 1992/93), Jens Hercher’s tennis drama TRÄNEN EINES SIEGERS (Tears of Victory, 1995), and Dominik Graf’s crime thriller DER SKORPION (The Scorpion, 1997). Playing the spouse to the police detective in the hit police series STUBBE – VON FALL ZU FALL (Detective
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Stubbe – From Case to Case) from 1998 to 2003, Krößner then starred as Commissioner Carla Krause in EINMAL BULLE, IMMER BULLE (Once a Cop, Always a Cop, 2003/04). Her appearances on the big screen, meanwhile, were sporadic, and since featuring in Rainer Simon’s FERNES LAND PA-ISCH (Far Away Country Pa-Isch, 1993/94), her other credits have been for minor roles in Sebastian Peterson’s HELDEN WIE WIR (Heroes Like Us, 1999), Werner Herzog’s INVINCIBLE (2000/ 01), and Dani Levy’s ALLES AUF ZUCKER! (Go For Zucker!, 2004). Krößner’s long-term partner is film and television actor Bernd Stegemann (b.1949). [act – DD – TV] 1965: Tiefe Furchen; Köpfchen Kamerad. 1968: Kriminalfälle ohne Beispiel. 3. Die Dominas-Bande. 1970: Der Sonne Glut. 1. Zum Leben angetreten / 2. Aufbruch in den Morgen / 3. Saat im Sturm / 4. Die Klassenschlacht. 1971: Die Pulverprobe. 1973/74: Bittere Pillen. 1974/75: Die Spuren des Helfried Pappelmann; Eine Pyramide für mich [FF]. 1975/76: Polizeiruf 110: Schwarze Ladung. 1976: Alle meine Kinder; Die unverbesserliche Barbara [FF]; Feuer unter Deck [FF]. 1977: Cyankali. 1977/78: Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr [FF]; Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet [FF]. 1978/79: Solo Sunny [FF]. 1980: Susi oder Das verschenkte Girl. 1980/81: Verflucht und geliebt [TVS]. 1982: Einer vom Rummel [FF]. 1983: Mathilde Möhring; Die ewigen Gefühle [DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1986: Tatort: Gebrochene Blüten. 1987/88: Der Fahnder: Der Fighter. 1988: Spielergeschichten: Lotto mit dem Tod; Nachtfeuer. 1988/1989: Tatort: Armer Nanosh. 1989: Der Alte: Ein Tag der Angst. 1991: Gossenkind; Praxis Bülowbogen: Abschiedsbriefe. 1992: Vera Wesskamp [TVS]; Nordkurve. 1992/93: Tatort: Tod einer alten Frau; Grüß Gott, Genosse. 1993: Polizeiruf 110: Tod im Kraftwerk; SOKO 5113: Die Kontaktperson; Die Kommissarin: Blutsbande. 1993/94: Fernes Land Pa-Isch [FF]; Angst [DE/AT]. 1994: Brandheiß: Sein Kampf – Schirinowski und seine Freunde; Tatort: Jetzt und alles; Glück im Grünen; A. S.: Ich bereue nichts; Peter Strohm: Skarabäus. 1994/95: Der Verräter. 1995: Der König: Die zwölfte Nonne; Tränen eines Siegers; Kinder des Satans; Eiskalte Liebe. 1995/96: Hallo Onkel Doc!: Kuckucksei; Wolkenstein: Judas; Bruder Esel [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1996: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Hetzjagd; Sanfte Morde. 1996/97: Die Geliebte: Die Jugendliebe; Der letzte Zeuge: Der süße Tod. 1997: Der Skorpion; Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1998: Ein Fall für zwei: Gunst der Stunde; Ärzte: Hoffnung für Julia. 1998/99: In aller Freundschaft: Ein Herz und eine Seele; Sturmzeit. 1998-2003 Stubbe. Von Fall zu Fall [TVS – 12 episodes] 1999: Einfach raus; Warten ist der Tod; Die Cleveren: Das Mörderkind; Helden wie wir [FF]; Waschen, Schneiden, Legen [FF]; Der Hahn ist tot; Auf eigene Gefahr: Tod eines Sheriffs. 2000: Der König vom Block; Strandgut [SF – dir]; Die Einsamkeit der Krokodile [FF]. 2000/01: Sommer und Bolten: Gute Ärzte, keine Engel: Späte Gerechtigkeit; Invincible [FF]. 2001: Zutaten für Träume. 2001/02: In aller Freundschaft: Eine Frage der Ehre. 2002: Sperling und
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der stumme Schrei; Geliebte Diebin; Hannas Baby. 2003: SOKO Leipzig: Die Millionärin. 2003/04: Einmal Bulle, immer Bulle [TVS – 6 episodes]. 2004: Carola Stern – Doppelleben; Alles auf Zucker! [FF]; SOKO 5113: Inas Rückkehr. 2005: Siska: Gestehe deine Schuld; Der Elefant – Mord verjährt nie: Der Duft der Angst. 2005/06: Mondscheinkinder [FF]; Unter den Linden – Das Haus Gravenhorst [TVS – 3 episodes]. 2006/07: Küss mich, Genosse! 2007: Polizeiruf 110: Verstoßen; Siska: Alibi für Tommi. 2007/08: Die Umarmung [SF]. 2008: Dunkelrot [SF]. 2008/09: Der Mauerfall.
MANFRED KRUG Born February 8, 1937, Duisburg (Germany) A major acting and singing star in East Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, who was especially popular with young audiences, sharp-witted and laid-back Krug subsequently asserted himself as a leading television actor in the West after relocating in 1977. Krug worked as a smelter in the steel industry for four years prior to joining East Berlin’s State Acting School in 1954. Expelled for bad behaviour the same year, he took an internship with the Berliner Ensemble and gained his state acting certificate there. Establishing himself as a jazz and ballad singer, he toured East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, and found particular success as Sporting Life in Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’, a role he performed at East Berlin’s Komische Oper from 1970 to 1976. Making his film and television debuts in 1956/57, Krug was initially cast playing delinquents and thieves on account of his sizeable frame and scarred forehead. He first broke from this mould playing a Polish member of the International Brigade in Frank Beyer’s Spanish Civil War drama FÜNF PATRONENHÜLSEN (Five Cartridges, 1959/60), and thereafter scored a hit with Ralf Kirsten’s comedy AUF DER SONNENSEITE (On the Sunny Side, 1961). Krug was repeatedly cast as socialist and anti-fascist protagonists; however, his foreman in Beyer’s SPUR DER STEINE (Traces of Stones, 1965/66) proved too anarchic for the East German regime, and the film was withdrawn from cinemas after some staged tumults. It was characteristic for Krug’s screen heroes to push things to the limit, though, as with his self-styled daredevils in historical adventure films such as Kirsten’s MIR NACH, CANAILLEN! (Follow Me, Rascals!, 1963/64) or his brawny truck drivers in road movies such as WEITE STRASSEN – STILLE LIEBE (Open Roads and Unrequited Love, 1969) or WIE FÜTTERT MAN EINEN ESEL (How to Feed a Donkey, 1973). After supporting the protest against Wolf Biermann’s expatriation in 1976, Krug found himself subject to restrictions, and he left for West Berlin the following year. Undertaking occasionally interesting
roles in television films including FLÄCHENBRAND (Conflagration, 1980/81) and JOSEPH SÜSS OPPENHEIMER (1983), Krug really made his mark in popular television shows. He was a trucker in long running drama series AUF ACHSE (On the Road, 1977–92), headed the DETEKTIVBÜRO ROTH (Roth Detective Agency, 1985/ 86), and played singing Inspector Paul Stöver in 41 episodes of TATORT (Crime Scene) from 1984 to 2001. He gained a massive following as canny lawyer Robert Liebling in LIEBLING – KREUZBERG (1985–97), the opening seasons scripted by his friend Jurek Becker. Becker and Krug did enjoy another television triumph with topical satire WIR SIND AUCH NUR EIN VOLK (Only One People, 1993/94), in which the actor played a ‘typical’ East German cast adrift by unification. He published a bestselling account of his departure from East Germany in 1996, which was adapted into a television film, ABGEHAUEN (Getting Away, 1998), directed by Frank Beyer. Krug suffered a stroke in 1997, and subsequently reduced his appearances considerably. [act – DD] 1956/57: Mazurka der Liebe. 1957: Die Schönste; Gefährliche Wahrheiten [TV]; Vergeßt mir meine Traudel nicht; Ein Mädchen von 16 1/2. 1957/58: Brigade Karhan [TV]. 1958/59: Ware für Katalonien; Reportage 57. 1959: Wenn die Nacht kein Ende nimmt [TV]; Tote Seelen [TV]; Ich selbst und kein Engel [TV]; Bevor der Blitz einschlägt; Der Freischütz [TV]. 1959/60: Leute mit Flügeln; Was wäre, wenn …?; Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1960: Fräulein mit Courage [TV]; Die Talente [TV]; Johnny Belinda [TV]; Nicht nur ein Abenteuer [SD – voi]. 1960/61: Bei Anruf Mord [TV]; Hoffnung auf Kredit [TV]; Professor Mamlock; Drei Kapitel Glück; Guten Tag, lieber Tag [lyr,act]. 1961: Urfaust [TV]; Drei von vielen [SD – voi]; Auf der Sonnenseite; Der Düker [SD – voi]; Achtung – 8 x aufgeblendet. EP 4: Bankraub [sng]. 1961/62: Königskinder; Revue um Mitternacht. 1962: Stelldichein bei Huckebein: Labyrinth der Liebe; Unbändiges Spanien [DO – voi]; Minna von Barnhelm oder Das Soldatenglück; Der Kinnhaken [co-scr, act]; Beschreibung eines Sommers; Nebel; Boxer a smr [CS]. 1962/63: Silvester [SD – voi]. 1963: Der andere neben dir [TV]; Im Januar 1963 [SD – voi]; Engel, Sünden und Verkehr; Liebe braucht keine PS [SF – sng]. 1963/64: Mir nach, Canaillen! [scr,act]. 1964: Das Märchen von Jens und dem Kasper [SF – voi]. 1964/65: Die antike Münze / Starinata moneta [DD/BG]; König Drosselbart; Nichts als Sünde [sng]. 1965: Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam. 1965/66: Fräulein Schmetterling [voi]; Spur der Steine. 1966: Chanson von der Spree [SD – sng]; Der kleine Prinz [TV – sng]. 1966/67: Hochzeitsnacht im Regen [sng]; Frau Venus und ihr Teufel [scr,act,sng]; Turlis Abenteuer [voi,sng]. 1967: Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog. 1967/68: Abschied; Hauptmann Florian von der Mühle. 1968: Gesicht einer Jugend [SD – mus]; Wege übers Land [TV]; Käuzchenkuhle
HARDY KRÜGER [mus,act]; Mit mir nicht, Madam! 1969: Weite Straßen – stille Liebe; Junge Frau von 1914 [TV]; Netzwerk. 1969/70: Meine Stunde Null [co-scr,act]. 1970: Der Oktober kam … [DO – voi]; 365 Meter über Berlin [SD – sng]; Husaren in Berlin. 1971: Leo oder wer rastet der rostet [ANI – sng]; Zwischen Freitag und morgen [TV – voi]; Die Verschworenen [TV]; Der Mann, der nach der Oma kam [sng]; Weil es mir Spaß macht [SD – app]; Die gestohlene Schlacht / Ukradená bitva [DD/CS]. 1971/72: Eolomea. 1972/73: Das Lachen soll euch nicht im Halse stecken bleiben [2 parts – DO – voi,act]; Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita [TV – lyr,act,sng]; Stülpner-Legende [TV – sng,act]. 1973: Manfred Krug [SD – co-scr,app]; Wie füttert man einen Esel [mus,act]. 1974: Kit & Co. 1975: Niemand liebt Dich so wie ich: Manfred Krug in concert [TVD]; Bei Manfred Krug [SD]. 1975/76: Daniel Druskat [TV]. 1976: KM – 100 Jahre nach Highgate [SD – voi]; Trini; Feuer unter Deck. 1976/77: Der rasende Roland [TV – act,sng]; Das Versteck; Abschied vom Frieden [TV]. [act – DE – TV] 1977/78: Paul kommt zurück; Auf Achse [TVS – season 1 – 13 episodes]. 1978: Die tragische Muse von Rummelsburg; Die Faust in der Tasche [FF]. 1978/79: Phantasten. 1979: Live: Manfred Krug; Lebensläufe: Manfred Krug [TVD]. 1980: Ein Mann fürs Leben. 1980/81: Flächenbrand. 1981: Das Traumschiff: Die erste Reise: Karibik. 1981/82: Die Fischer von Moorhövd [TVS]; Väter. 1982/83: Sesamstraße [TVS]; Rendezvous der Damen; Das Traumschiff. Folge 7. 1983: Wer raucht die Letzte?; Die Krimistunde. Folge 5; Konsul Möllers Erben; Friedrich Luft im Gespräch mit Manfred Krug [TVD]; Action auf Achse: Das Abenteuer einer Abenteuerserie [TVD]; Auf Achse [TVS – season 2 – 13 episodes]; Jakob und Adele. Folge 2; Geschichten aus der Heimat. I; Joseph Süß Oppenheimer. 1983/84: Manfred Krug: Krumme Touren. 1984: Tatort: Haie vor Helgoland; Ich stelle mich: Manfred Krug [TVD]; Tatort: Gelegenheit macht Liebe; Ein Heim für Tiere: Caesar. 1985: Tatort: Irren ist tödlich; Das Sonntagsgespräch: Manfred Krug [TVD]. 1985/86: Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 1 – 6 episodes]; Tatort: Leiche im Keller; Detektivbüro Roth [TVS – 35 episodes]. 1986: Tatort: Tod auf Eis; Auf Achse [TVS – season 3 – 13 episodes]. 1986/87: Tatort: Tod im Elefantenhaus; Tatort: Pleitegeier; Tatort: Schmutzarbeit. 1987: Die Krimistunde. Folge 3; Whopper-Punch 777 [FF]; Herzlichen Glückwunsch Berlin; Tatort: Voll auf Hass; Auf Achse [TVS – season 4 – 9 episodes]. 1987/88: Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 2 – 13 episodes]; Die Krimistunde. Folge 30; Tatort: Spuk aus der Eiszeit; Sonntagsbesuche. 1988: Rosamunde [FF]. 1988/89: Tatort: Armer Nanosh; Tatort: Zeitzünder. 1989: Tatort: Lauf eines Todes; Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 3 – 8 episodes]. 1989/90: Tatort: Finale am Rothenbaum. 1990: Auf der Couch: Manfred Krug [TVD]; ‘… die Post ist da!’; Neuner [FF]. 1991: Tatort: Tod eines Mädchens; Kinder, Kader, Kommandeure [DO – sng,voi]; Auf Achse [TVS – season 5 – 12 episodes]. 1991/92: Tatort: Blindekuh; Tatort: Stoevers Fall. 1992: Tatort: Das Experiment; Tatort: Amoklauf; Kriminalrevue; Auf Achse [TVS – season 6 – 7 episodes]. 1992/93: Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 4 – 13 episodes]. 1993: Zwischentöne: Frank Beyer über Manfred Krug
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[TVD]; Tatort: Um Haus und Hof; Tatort: Pizza Mafiosa. 1993/94: Der Blaue [FF]; Tatort: Ein Wodka zuviel; Tatort: Singvogel; Wir sind auch nur ein Volk [TVS – 8 episodes]; Tatort: Tod eines Polizisten. 1995: Tatort: Tödliche Freundschaft; Tatort: Der König kehrt zurück; Tatort: Tod auf Neuwerk. 1996: Tatort: Fetischzauber; Tatort: Lockvögel; Tatort: Parteifreunde; Power, Witz und Schnauze [TVD]; Tatort: Ausgespielt; Tatort: Mord hinterm Deich. 1997: Manfred Krug und die DDR [TVD]; Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 5 – 18 episodes]; Tatort: Undercover Camping. 1998: Tatort: Arme Püppi [TV – co-scr,act]; Abgehauen [TV – sma,voi]; Tatort: Schüsse auf der Autobahn; Tatort: Habgier. 1999: Tatort: Traumhaus; Tatort: Der Duft des Geldes. 1999/2000: Tatort: Blaues Blut. 2000: Tatort: Rattenlinie; ‘Wenn ich singe’. Manfred Krug – Der Sänger [TVD]; Tatort: Der schwarze Skorpion; Mord nach der Tagesschau [TVD]; Tatort: Tod vor Scharhörn. 2000/01: Es ermitteln: Paul Stoever und Nestor Burma [TVD]. 2001: Geiger, Gaukler, Gentleman – Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD].
HARDY KRÜGER (Franz Eberhard August Krüger) Born April 12, 1928, Berlin-Wedding (Germany) Blond, blue-eyed, with boyish good looks, actor Krüger enjoyed an international film career from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, working with directors including Howard Hawks, Helmut Käutner, Joseph Losey, and Stanley Kubrick. Sent to an elite National Socialist boarding school from 1941, the fifteen-year-old Krüger was chosen by director Alfred Weidenmann to appear in the propaganda film JUNGE ADLER (Young Eagles, 1943/44). Forced into action as a soldier in 1945, he was captured by U.S. forces and imprisoned. After the end of the war, he was playing bits and walk-ons at Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus theatre and worked as an announcer on radio station NWDR. The first post-war film in which Krüger stood out was Johannes Meyer’s DIESE NACHT VERGESS’ ICH NIE (I’ll Never Forget This Night, 1948/49), and in the coming years he played a succession of romantic leads in undemanding entertainment pictures, with only Rudolf Jugert’s ILLUSION IN MOLL (Illusion in a Minor Key, 1952) and Harald Braun’s SOLANGE DU DA BIST (As Long As You’re Near Me, 1953) affording him the chance to attempt more complex characterisations. International attention followed his portrayal of plucky prisoner-of-war von Werra in Roy Ward Baker’s British war film THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY (1956), and he equally convinced as a Dutch artist framed for the murder of his lover in Joseph Losey’s thriller BLIND DATE (1959). He subsequently played numerous roles as soldiers and adventurers in international productions such as Howard Hawks’s HATARI! (1962), Robert Aldrich’s THE FLIGHT OF
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THE PHOENIX (1965) and THE WILD GEESE (1978), and Stanley Kubrick’s BARRY LYNDON (1973–75).
In West Germany, he starred as a young doctor accused of murder in the whodunit GESTEHEN SIE, DR. CORDA! (Confess, Dr. Corda, 1958), and played an inhibited intellectual in Helmut Käutner’s moderndress retelling of ‘Hamlet’, DER REST IST SCHWEIGEN (The Rest Is Silence, 1959). He also financed Victor Vicas’s Iron Curtain melodrama ZWEI UNTER MILLIONEN (Two Among Millions, 1961), in which he starred opposite Loni von Friedl. The directors of the New German cinema of the 1970s, however, found little use for Krüger, except for an appearance in Peter Schamoni’s unconventional ‘sauerkraut western’ POTATO FRITZ (Montana Trap, 1975/76). The owner-manager of a game lodge in Tanzania from 1961 to 1973, Krüger fronted a string of television shows from HARDYS BORDBUCH (Hardy’s Log Book, 1963–68) through to WELTENBUMMLER (The Globe Trotter, 1987–92), in which he indulged his passion for exploring exotic locales. Krüger also wrote a number of books, including the chronicle ‘Eine Farm in Afrika’ (A Farm in Africa, 1970) and the autobiographical novel ‘Junge Unrast’ (Youthful Unrest, 1983). Daughter Christiane Krüger (b. 1945) and son Hardy Krüger jr. (b. 1968) are both well-regarded film and television actors. [act – DE] 1943/44: Junge Adler. 1948/49: Diese Nacht vergeß’ ich nie. 1949: Kätchen für alles; Das Fräulein und der Vagabund. 1950: Das Mädchen aus der Südsee; Insel ohne Moral. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein. 1951: Mein Freund, der Dieb. 1952: Ich heiße Niki; Alle kann ich nicht heiraten; Illusion in Moll. 1953: The Moon Is Blue [MLV – US]; Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach [MLV – US]; Solange Du da bist; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen?; Ich und Du. 1954: Der letzte Sommer; An der schönen blauen Donau [AT]. 1955: Der Himmel ist nie ausverkauft; Alibi. 1956: Liane – das Mädchen aus dem Urwald; Die Christel von der Post; The One That Got Away [GB]. 1957: Banktresor 713; Der Fuchs von Paris / Le rénard de Paris [DE/FR]. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!; Bachelor of Hearts [GB]. 1959: Der Rest ist Schweigen; Blind Date / Die tödliche Falle [GB/DE]; Die Gans von Sedan / Sans tambour ni trompette [DE/FR]; Bumerang. 1960: Un taxi pour Tobrouk [FR/ES]. 1961: Liane die Tochter des Dschungels; Zwei unter Millionen [act, pro]. 1961/62: Les dimanches de Ville d’Avray [FR]. 1962: Hatari! [US]; Les quatre vérités / Las cuatro verdades / Le quattro verita [FR/ES/IT]. 1963: Le gros coup / Il triangolo del delitto [FR/IT]. 1963-68: Hardys Bordbuch [TVS – 13 episodes – dir,scr,app]. 1964/65: Los pianos mecanicos / Les pianos mecaniques / Amori di una calda estate [FR/ ES/IT]. 1965: Le chant du monde [FR]; The Flight of the Phoenix [US]. 1966: L’Espion / Lautlose Waffen [FR/DE]; La grande sauterelle / Ein Mädchen wie das Meer / Femmina [FR/DE/IT]. 1967/68: Le franciscain de Bourges [FR]. 1968:
La monaca di Monza [IT]; Bitka na Neretvi / La battaglia della Neretva / Die Schlacht an der Neretva [YU/IT/DE]. 1968/69: Krasnaja palatka / La tenda rossa [SU/IT]. 1969: The Secret of Santa Vittoria [US]. 1970/71: Night Hair Child [GB]. 1971: Das Messer [TV]. 1972: Die Hinrichtung / Death of a Stranger [DE/IL]; Un solitaire [FR]. 1973-75: Barry Lyndon [GB]. 1974: Paper Tiger [GB]. 1975/76: Potato Fritz [act,pro]. 1976: A Bridge Too Far [US]. 1976/77: À chacun son enfer / Jedem seine Hölle [FR/DE]. 1978: The Wild Geese [GB/CH]; Blue Fin [AU]. 1979: Das ist Ihr Leben: Hardy Krüger [TVD]. 1981/82: Feine Gesellschaft – Beschränkte Haftung. 1982: Die Welt von oben [TVS DO – co-dir,app]; Wrong Is Right [US]. 1984: Slagskämpen / The Inside Man [SE/GB]. 1985: Nein, ich gebe niemals auf [TVD – app]. 1986: Geschichten aus der Heimat. XI [TV – scr,act]; Wiedersehen im Herbst [TV]. 1986-88: War and Remembrance [TVS – US]. 1987-92: Weltenbummler [TVD – 15 episodes – dir,scr,act]. 1987/88: Ein Lachen im Gesicht und Narben auf der Seele [TVD]. 1995: Schlußklappe ’45. Szenen aus dem deutschen Film [TVD – app]. 1997: Das Traumschiff: Hawaii [TV]. 1998: Hardy Krüger [TVD – app]. 2000/01: Von Werra [DO – app – CH/DE].
ILSE KUBASCHEWSKI (Ilse Kramp) Born August 18, 1907, Berlin (Germany) Died October 30, 2001, Starnberg (Germany) Presiding over a small empire of distribution and production companies and crucially influencing the kind of genres post-World War II audiences watched, Kubaschewski was the matriarch of the West German film industry in the 1950s. She began her career in Berlin as a typist for Paul Czinner’s production company and later for the distributor Siegel-Monopol. From 1942–45 Kubaschewski managed a small suburban cinema, together with Luggi (Ludwig) Waldleitner, who would also become a significant figure in the postwar industry. After the war, Kubaschewski resumed her activities in southern Germany, aided by the fact that her husband since 1938, Hans Kubaschewski, a former Ufa branch manager (and later Head of Warner Bros. Germany), was advising the American military authorities on the issuing of licences to politically opportune film personnel. Kubaschewski founded her distribution company Gloria-Film in 1949, specialising initially in the rerelease of old Ufa hits. In 1953 she launched the production company Divina, and two years later her empire also included a number of prestigious first-run cinemas. Gloria’s corporate strategy in the 1950s and 1960s was to a large extent based on Kubaschewski’s prior professional background in mainly provincial or suburban exhibition and distribution and on her own personal taste in films. Her reliance on a primarily female constituency explains why Gloria only reluctantly
REGINE KÜHN
moved into promoting more ‘male’ genres. Eventually the company did, and ‘Kuba’ had one of her greatest distribution successes with the 08/15 cycle, a series of films centred on the experiences of ordinary German soldiers during World War II. The genres Gloria most strongly became associated with were Heimatfilme and female-centred melodramas. Kubaschewski’s business instinct usually proved right; Heimatfilme such as GRÜN IST DIE HEIDE (The Heath Is Green, 1951), and film operettas, such as KAISERWALZER (1953, Emperor’s Waltz), resulted in unprecedented box-office profits. Gloria’s image as the distributor of parochial Heimatfilme obscures the fact that the company responded early to the increasingly international dimension of the West German film market. Gloria distributed films by Hollywood B-film studio Republic, and also showed a good instinct in acquiring the West German distribution rights for other foreign films, including Federico Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA in 1959. Other international ventures included the profitable costume cycle ANGÉLIQUE (1964–68), a series of five Franco-West German-Italian co-productions, starring Michèle Mercier as the resourceful heroine embroiled in romantic intrigues during the reign of Louis XIV. Following the decline of the Heimatfilm in the 1960s, Kubaschewski developed a pragmatic but not overly enthusiastic attitude towards emerging generic trends such as westerns, crime films and soft porn. In the latter half of the 1960s, the company had a steadily decreasing annual programme and dwindling revenues. Gloria survived into the 1970s, before Kubaschewski sold the company in 1973. Subsequently she concentrated on running her Munich-based cinema ‘GloriaPalast’ and gradually retired altogether. [pro – DE] 1953: Ave Maria; Komm zurück …; Sterne über Colombo. 1953/54: Die Gefangene des Maharadscha. 1954: 08/15; Verrat an Deutschland. Der Fall Dr. Sorge. 1955: 08/15 – II. Teil; Rosen im Herbst; 08/15 in der Heimat. 1956: Weil du arm bist, mußt du früher sterben; Die goldene Brücke; Kirschen in Nachbars Garten; Wo die alten Wälder rauschen; Die Trapp-Familie. 1956/57: Königin Luise. 1957: Weißer Holunder; Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam; Heute blau und morgen blau; Der Arzt von Stalingrad. 1958: Heimatlos; Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika; Die Landärztin; Der Haustyrann. 1958/59: Dorothea Angermann. 1959: Alle lieben Peter; Arzt ohne Gewissen; Heimat – Deine Lieder; Ein Tag, der nie zu Ende geht. 1960: Mein Schulfreund; Faust; Der Gauner und der liebe Gott; Weit ist der Weg; Auf Engel schießt man nicht. 1961: Vertauschtes Leben; Freddy und der Millionär / La signorina miliardo [DE/IT]; Der Traum von Lieschen Müller. 1962: Der Vogelhändler. 1963: Meine Tochter und ich; Piccadilly null Uhr 12. 1963/64: Vorsicht, Mister Dodd! 1964: Hilfe, meine Braut klaut [AT/DE]; Angélique, Marquise des Anges / Angélique / Angelica [FR/DE/IT]. 1964/65: Mer-
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veilleuse Angélique / Angelique. 2. Teil / La meravigliosa Angelica [FR/DE/IT]. 1965/66: Angélique et le roi / Angélique und der König / Angelica alla carte del ré [FR/DE/IT]. 1967: Indomptable Angélique / Unbezähmbare Angélique / L’indomabile Angelica [FR/DE/IT]; I giorni dell’ira / Der Tod ritt dienstags [IT/DE]; Dalle Ardenne all’ inferno / … und morgen fahrt ihr zur Hölle / La gloire des canailles [IT/DE/FR]. 1967/68: Angélique et le Sultan / Angélique und der Sultan / Angelica e il gran sultano [FR/DE/IT]. 1968/69: Cathérine. Il suffit d’un amour / Cathérine – Ein Leben für die Liebe / Cathérine: un solo impossibile amore [FR/DE/IT]. 1969: Unser Doktor ist der Beste; Alle Kätzchen naschen gern; Hilfe – ich liebe Zwillinge. 1970: Hurra, unsere Eltern sind nicht da; Wenn die tollen Tanten kommen; Wenn Du bei mir bist; Unsere Pauker gehen in die Luft; Nachbarn sind zum Ärgern da. 1970/71: Wer zuletzt lacht, lacht am besten. 1971: Tante Trude aus Buxtehude; Mache alles mit; Hilfe, die Verwandten kommen; Kommissar X jagt die roten Tiger / F.B.I. – Operazione Pakistan [DE/IT]; Wenn mein Schätzchen auf die Pauke haut; Die tollen Tanten schlagen zu; Verliebte Ferien in Tirol; Hochwürden drückt ein Auge zu. 1971/72: Sie nannten ihn Krambambuli [DE/AT]; Sie liebten sich einen Sommer / Tenerezza d’estate [DE/IT]. 1972: Blutiger Freitag / Violenza contro violenza [DE/IT]; Meine Tochter – deine Tochter; Die lustigen Vier von der Tankstelle [DE/AT]; Auch Fummeln will gelernt sein; Immer Ärger mit Hochwürden; Ludwig / Ludwig … ou le crépuscule des dieux / Ludwig II. [IT/FR/ DE]. 1973: Das Wandern ist Herrn Müllers Lust [DE/AT]; Reigen; Wenn jeder Tag ein Sonntag wär. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden. 1974: Auch ich war nur ein mittelmäßiger Schüler. 1974/75: Change. 1976: Die Elixiere des Teufels. 1977: Freude am Fliegen; Drei Schwedinnen in Oberbayern. 1979: Sunny-Boy und Sugar-Baby. 1982/83: Wie hätten Sie’s denn gern? 1986: Bitte laßt die Blumen leben.
REGINE KÜHN (Regine Walter) Born November 23, 1941, Torgau (Germany) During the 1970s and 1980s, East German screenwriter Kühn’s structurally innovative original scripts and literary adaptations frequently ran into problems with the regime due to their challenging and critical subject matter. Reading for a degree in theatre studies in Moscow between 1960 and 1965, she married director Siegfried Kühn in 1962, and the couple collaborated on a screen adaptation of Brecht’s ‘Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui’ (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) for Lenfilm. However, Brecht’s widow Helene Weigel objected to the script, and the production was scrapped. Returning to East Germany in 1966, Kühn was employed briefly at the DEFA studio for feature production, and then as chief teaching assistant on the inaugural course in scenario-writing at Babelsberg Film Academy. Kühn’s first collaboration with her husband Siegfried at DEFA was an adaptation of Herbert Otto’s story about a romance between a manual
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labourer and a teacher, ZEIT DER STÖRCHE (Time of the Storks, 1970). The couple also collaborated on the Goethe adaptation DIE WAHLVERWANDTSCHAFTEN (Elective Affinities, 1973/74). In 1975, Regine Kühn then wrote a script for director Rainer Simon based on Brigitte Reimann’s critique of political inflexibility ‘Franziska Linkerhand’. Studio chiefs considered the subject matter potentially explosive, and the film was ultimately shot by director Lothar Warneke in a toned-down version from which Kühn distanced herself, as UNSER KURZES LEBEN (Our Short Life, 1980). Separating from Siegfried Kühn in 1980, the couple continued to work together professionally. However, shooting on their drama ‘Schwarzweiß und Farbe’ (Black&White and Colour), about a nuclear power station, ended after a single day in 1981, with the SED Politburo anxious about ‘undesired’ debates on state energy policy. The Kühns realised two final DEFA features together: DIE SCHAUSPIELERIN (The Actress, 1987/88), based on a Hedda Zinner novel concerning a gentile actress who pretends to be Jewish during the Third Reich so that she can stay with her husband; and the GDR satire DIE LÜGNERIN (The Liar, 1991–93), about a woman who leaves her partner, home, and grown-up children to start a new life. Since unification, Kühn worked as scriptwriter and occasional co-director of Eduard Schreiber (b. 1939) on several documentary projects, among them a longterm series about the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Brandenburg, LANGE NACH DER SCHLACHT (Long After the Battle, 1991–95). She also scripted a number of television films, including Sabine Landgraeber’s SCHWEIGEN IST GOLD (Silence is Golden, 2000) and Matthias Tiefenbacher’s post-unification comedy DIE SCHÖNSTE AUS BITTERFELD (The Beauty from Bitterfeld, 2003). [scr – DD] 1970: Zeit der Störche. 1970/71: Goya / Goja, ili Tâkij pu poznani’ [act – DD/SU]. 1972/73: Die Taube auf dem Dach. 1973/74: Die Wahlverwandtschaften. 1979: Don Juan, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 78 [act]. 1980: Unser kurzes Leben. 1987/88: Die Schauspielerin. 1989: Spuren [SD]. [scr – DD] 1991-93: Die Lügnerin. 1991-95: Lange nach der Schlacht [DO – co-scr]. 1996: Tod im Kreml [TVD – co-scr]. 1998: Todesengel [TV]. 1999: Zwischen Lust und Last – Fünf Frauen und ihre Filme [DO – app]; Zone M [DO – ass-dir,scr]; Aviatricen. Die Stars der Stalinschen Luftfahrt [TVD – co-dir,co-scr]. 2000: Trotzkis Traum. Psychoanalyse im Lande der Bolschewiki [TVD – DE/ RU]; Schweigen ist Gold [TV]. 2003: Die Schönste aus Bitterfeld [TV].
SIEGFRIED KÜHN Born March 14, 1935, Breslau (Germany, now Wroc³aw, Poland) In the 1970s, director Kühn helmed several successful DEFA productions exploring social and workplace conflicts, and turned out a total of twelve features during two decades at the studio. After working in the mining industry from 1950 to 1958, Kühn began studying directing at Potsdam’s College of Film Art before being seconded to the VGIK Film School in Moscow, where he completed his training under Sergei Gerasimov. He made his directorial debut at Mosfilm with ONI NE PROIDUT (Closed Passage, 1964/65) and also directed a number of productions at Moscow’s Satire Theatre. Returning to East Germany in 1966, he was initially a research assistant at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, and directed the documentary DAS ROTE PLAKAT (The Red Placard, 1967), whose release was delayed until 1973 following objections from several artists who appeared in it. Joining DEFA in 1968, Kühn assisted director Günter Reisch on JUNGFER, SIE GEFÄLLT MIR (Maiden, You Please Me, 1968/69), and then debuted at the studio with IM SPANNUNGSFELD (Electrical Conflict, 1969), a contemporary drama addressing problems arising from the introduction of computers within industry. ZEIT DER STÖRCHE (Time of the Storks, 1970), adapted by then-wife Regine Kühn from a story by Herbert Otto, charted the social tensions of a romance between a manual worker and a teacher. His self-referential and formally irreverent comedy DAS ZWEITE LEBEN DES FRIEDRICH WILHELM GEORG PLATOW (The Second Life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow, 1972/73), in turn followed a middle-aged level-crossing attendant who refuses to accept the threat of redundancy when his job is automated, and instead retrains and finds his entire life rejuvenated. Released with little fanfare, the film unexpectedly proved one of the era’s most important films. He thereafter collaborated anew with Regine Kühn on an adaptation of Goethe’s novel DIE WAHLVERWANDTSCHAFTEN (Elective Affinities, 1973/74) which foregrounded the tale’s social implications. Kühn’s later films were often regarded less successful than his promising beginnings. UNTERWEGS NACH ATLANTIS (The Path to Atlantis, 1976), about a Wilhelmine confidence trickster who presents himself as an archaeologist, constituted a rather leaden and uneven mix of social critique and historical comedy. Further literary adaptations included Gottfried Keller’s novella ROMEO UND JULIA AUF DEM DORFE (A Village Romeo and Juliet, 1983) and Herbert Otto’s novel DER TRAUM VOM ELCH (Dreaming of the Elk, 1985/86), and Kühn sought to rekindle the success of DAS ZWEITE LEBEN DES FRIEDRICH WILHELM
SIEGFRIED KÜHN GEORG PLATOW with an autobiographical comedy based on his wartime experiences, KINDHEIT (Child-
hood, 1986), which featured the earlier film’s leading man, Fritz Marquardt. Kühn’s final three features before retiring from directing were HEUTE STERBEN IMMER NUR DIE ANDEREN (Nowadays Only the Others Die, 1990), starring Katrin Sass, and two interesting films scripted by Regine Kühn and featuring strong female protagonists, DIE SCHAUSPIELERIN (The Actress, 1987/88) and DIE LÜGNERIN (The Liar, 1991–93).
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[dir,scr – DD] 1964/65: Oni ne proidut [dir – SU]. 1967: Das rote Plakat [DO]. 1968: Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir [assdir]. 1969: Im Spannungsfeld [dir,co-scr]. 1970: Zeit der Störche. 1972/73: Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow. 1973/74: Die Wahlverwandtschaften. 1976: Unterwegs nach Atlantis [dir,co-scr]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [act]. 1979: Don Juan, Karl-LiebknechtStr. 78. 1983: Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe. 1985/86: Der Traum vom Elch. 1986: Kindheit. 1987/88: Die Schauspielerin [dir]. 1990: Heute sterben immer nur die anderen [DD/DE]. 1991-93: Die Lügnerin [dir – DE].
KAREL LAMAÈ (aka Carl Lamaè) Born January 27, 1897, Prague (Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic) Died August 2, 1952, Hamburg (West Germany) Czech actor, director and producer Lamaè was a key figure of early sound films and multi-language versions, often in collaboration with actress Anny Ondra. Originally a pharmacist, Lamaè worked as a cameraman at the front during World War I, and entered the nascent Czechoslovak film industry as an actor, scriptwriter, and technical advisor in 1918. Together with Jan Stanislav Kolár, he co-directed AKORD SMRTI (The Chord of Death, 1919), and then acted in and directed a series of shorts including the knockabout chase comedy GILLY POPRVÉ V PRAZE (Gilly’s First Trip to Prague, 1920), featuring actress Anna Ondráková, who would subsequently gain international celebrity as Anny Ondra. In 1921, Lamaè and Ondráková founded their own production company, Kalosfilm. Building up a regular team of cast and crew including scriptwriter Václav Wasserman, actor and director Martin Friè, and cameramen Otto Heller and Václav Vich, Lamaè’s greatest successes during his time in Prague were a two-part adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek’s ‘The Good Soldier Schweik’ titled DOBRÝ VOJÁK ŠVEJK and ŠVEJK NA FRONTÌ; the sophisticated comedy VELBLOUD UCHEM JEHLY (Never the Twain, all 1926), about a marriage between a beggar’s daughter and an industrialist’s son; and, as an actor, PÁTER VOJTÌCH (Father Vojtech, 1928), in which he played the title role under Friè’s direction. Moving to Berlin with their established team, Lamaè and Ondra founded production company Ondra-Lamaè-Film, whose first feature was the military comedy DER K. U. K. FELDMARSCHALL (The Fake Field Marshall, 1930), shot in German, Czech, and French versions. Lamaè thereafter made notable crime pictures, such as the Edgar Wallace adaptations DER ZINKER (The Squeaker, 1931) and DER HEXER (The Ringer, 1932). However, the mainstay of his output remained lightweight vehicles for Ondra, including their first German sound film DIE VOM RUMMELPLATZ (Fairground People, 1930), the comedy revue KIKI (1932), the operetta POLENBLUT (Polish Blood, 1934), fea-
turing Hans Moser in the German version, and the circus romp DER JUNGE GRAF (The Young Count, 1935). He also made a number of shorts with Bavarian comedian Karl Valentin in 1933 and 1934, which would later be re-released in the compilation DAS LACHKABINETT (Comedy Cavalcade, 1953). Under increasing pressure from the Nazis to cease operations in Berlin, Lamaè went to Vienna to make PAT UND PATACHON IM PARADIES (Long & Short in Paradise, 1937) with Danish comedians Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen. He then emigrated via the Netherlands and France to Great Britain, where he directed several features including the spy thriller THEY MET IN THE DARK, starring James Mason, and the anti-Nazi satire SCHWEIK’S NEW ADVENTURES (both 1943). After the war, he made two further films in France, and his final picture, the Arabian costume adventure DIE DIEBIN VON BAGDAD (The Thief of Baghdad, 1952), in West Germany. [act – CS] 1919: Utrpením ke slávì; Aloisùv los; Akord smrti [Co-dir,act]; Palimpsest; Probuzené svìdomí; Vzteklý enich [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1920: Gilly poprvé v Praze [SF – dir,scr,act,pro]; Zlatá ena; Tam na horách; Zpìv zlata; Setøelé písmo / Tajemstrí staré knihy; Magdalena. 1921: Ukøiovaná; Dìvèata, vdávejte se!; Pøíchozí z temnot; Otrávené svìtlo [co-dir,co-scr,act,pro]; Souboj s Bohem. 1922: Führe uns nicht in Versuchung [AT]; O zázraèném kvìtu; Snìhová Rùenka; Snìhulka a sedm trpaslíkù; Hütet eure Töchter [AT]; Mrtví ijí; Maharadovo potìšení. Harémy kouzla zbavené; Poslední polibek; Koryatoviè; Drvoštìp [dir,act]. 1923: Tu ten kámen; Der junge Medardus [AT]; Mu bez srdce / Der Mann ohne Herz [CS/DE]; Únos bankéøe Fuxe. 1923/24: Helena. 1. Der Raub der Helena / 2. Der Untergang Trojas [DE]; Der geheime Agent [DE]. 1924: Dáma z baru; Bílý ráj [dir,co-scr,pro]; Dvojí ivot; Chyte ho! Lupiè nešika [dir,co-scr,act]; Høíchy v manelství [CS/DE]. 1925: Vdavky Nanynky Kulichovy; Svatební košile; Karel Havlíèek Borovský [dir,co-scr,act]; Do panského stavu; Šest mušketýrú; Syn hor; Lucerna [dir,scr, act]; Josef Kajetán Tyl; Hrabìnka z Podskalí [dir,scr,act]. 1926: Dobrý voják Švejk [dir,act]; Švejk na frontì [dir,act]; Anièko, vra se!; Velbloud uchem jehly [dir,co-scr,act]; Pantáta Bezoušek [dir,act]; Osm srdcí v plamenech. 1927: Sladká Josefínka [dir,act,pro]; V panském stavu; Kvìt ze Šumavy [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. [dir – DE] 1927/28: Dcery Eviny / Evas Töchter / Anny … fille d’Ève [CS/DE/CH]. 1928: Saxophon-Susi; Der erste Kuß;
HEDY LAMARR Høích / Sündenfall [CS/DE]; Páter Vojtìch [act – CS]. 1929: Sündig und süß; Høichy lásky [CS/DE]; Adjunkt Vrba [act – CS]; Das Mädel mit der Peitsche; Die Kaviarprinzessin; Praské švadlenky [act – CS]; Starý høích [act – CS]. 1929/ 30: Das Mädel aus U.S.A. 1930: Die vom Rummelplatz [dir,pro]; C. a k. polní maršálek [MLV – dir,cut – CS]; Der K. u. K. Feldmarschall [MLV – dir,pro – CS/DE]; Eine Freundin so goldig wie du [dir,pro]; Monsieur le Maréchal [MLV – CS/FR]. 1930/31: Er und seine Schwester [MLV – dir,cut,pro – CS/DE]. 1931: On a jeho sestra [MLV – dir, cut – CS]; Der Zinker [co-dir,pro – DE/AT]; To neznáte Hadimršku [MLV – co-dir – CS]; Wehe, wenn er losgelassen [MLV – co-dir,pro – CS/DE]; Mam’zelle Nitouche [MLV – pro – FR/DE]; Mamsell Nitouche [MLV – dir,pro – FR/DE]; Die Fledermaus [MLV – dir,act,pro – FR/DE]; La chauvesouris [MLV – co-dir,pro – DE/FR]. 1931/32: Eine Nacht im Paradies [MLV – dir,pro]; Une nuit au Paradis [MLV – codir,pro]. 1932: Lelíèek ve slubách Sherlocka Holmese [MLV – CS]; Funebrák; Faut-il les marier? [MLV – co-dir, pro – DE/FR]; Die grausame Freundin [MLV – dir,pro]; Der angenehme Patient [SF – pro]; Der Dienstmann [SF – pro]; Der Hexer [MLV – dir,pro – DE/AT]; Kantor ideál [MLV – cut,lyr,act – CS]; Kiki. Der Lebensweg einer kleinen Choristin [MLV – dir,pro – DE/FR]; Kiki [French MLV – co-dir,pro – DE/FR]; Baby [MLV – co-dir – FR]; Baby [German MLV – FR]. 1932/33: Die Tochter des Regiments [MLV – dir,pro]; La fille du régiment [MLV – co-dir,pro – DE/FR]. 1933: S vylouèením veøejnosti [cut,act – CS]; Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen [dir,pro]; Dvanáct køesel / Dwanaœcie krzese³ [scr – CS/PL]; Orchesterprobe [SF – dir,pro]; Dobrý tramp Bernášek [dir,scr,act – CS]; Das verliebte Hotel [dir,pro]; Jindra, hrabìnka Ostrovínová [dir,act – CS]. 1933/34: Der Doppelgänger [pro]. 1934: Ein gemütlicher Nachmittag [SF – pro]; Tøi kroky od tìla [act – CS]; Die vertauschte Braut [MLV – dir,pro]; Im Schallplattenladen [SF – pro]; Karneval und Liebe [dir,scr – AT]; L’Amour en cage [MLV – dir,pro – DE/FR]; Klein Dorrit [dir,pro]; So ein Theater! [SF – dir,pro]; Der verhexte Scheinwerfer [SF – dir,pro]; Der Fall Brenken; Frasquita [AT]; Polenblut [MLV – dir,pro – CS/ DE]; Polská krev [MLV – CS]; Nezlobte dìdeèka [CS]. 1934/35: Knock-out. Ein junges Mädchen – ein junger Mann [co-dir,pro]. 1935: Großreinemachen [dir,pro]; Der junge Graf [dir,pro]; Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; J’aime toutes les femmes [MLV]; Im weißen Rößl [dir,pro – AT/DE]; Der Postillon von Lonjumeau [AT/CH]. 1935/36: Der schüchterne Casanova [dir,co-scr]. 1936: Flitterwochen [dir,pro]; Na tý louce zelený [dir,act – CS]; Wo die Lerche singt [CH]; Ein Mädel vom Ballett [dir,pro]; Der Hund von Baskerville [dir,pro]. 1936/37: Vor Liebe wird gewarnt [dir,pro]. 1937: Pat und Patachon im Paradies [AT]; Dùvod k rozvodu [MLV – CS]; Pat und Der Scheidungsgrund [MLV – dir,pro – CS/DE]; Peter im Schnee [dir,coscr – AT]; Die Landstreicher; Florentine [AT]. 1937/38: Immer, wenn ich glücklich bin … [AT]. 1938: Milování zakázáno [co-dir, act – CS]; Frühlingsluft; Ducháèek to zaøídí [CS]; Lucerna [CS]; Pozor, straší …! [dir,co-scr,lyr – CS]; Slávko nedej se! [CS]; Place de la Concorde [FR]. 1939: U pokladny stál … [CS]; De spooktrein [NL]; Narcisse [scr – FR]. 1943: They Met in the Dark [GB]; Schweik’s New Adventures [dir,scr – GB]. 1944: It Happened One Sunday
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[GB]. 1946/1947: La colère des dieux [FR]. 1947: Une nuit à Tabarin [FR]. 1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad. 1953: Das Lachkabinett [co-dir].
HEDY LAMARR (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) Born November 9, 1913, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died January 19, 2000, Orlando (Florida, USA) Gaining notoriety for a brief nude scene in the film EKSTASE (Ecstasy, 1932), Hedy Lamarr later became a Hollywood icon and was promoted by M-G-M as ‘the most beautiful woman in films’. Privately educated in Switzerland, the teenage Hedwig Kiesler made her screen debut in Georg Jacoby’s Austrian-made sound films GELD AUF DER STRASSE (Money on the Street, 1930) and STURM IM WASSERGLAS (Storm in a Water Glass, 1930/31). After taking acting lessons in Vienna, she went to Berlin where she was cast by Alexis Granowsky in his contemporary satire DIE KOFFER DES HERRN O. F. (The Thirteen Trunks of Mr. O. F. / Build and Marry) and Carl Boese’s MAN BRAUCHT KEIN GELD (His Majesty, King Ballyhoo, both 1931). Following a few minor appearances at Deutsches Theater she returned to Vienna and acted at the city’s Theater in der Josefstadt and Raimundtheater. Kiesler then starred in what was to become the defining film of her career, Gustav Machatý’s AustrianCzech co-production EKSTASE (Ecstasy, 1932), a lyrical melodrama about an adulterous affair. Lamarr’s brief nude scenes and the film’s adult depiction of sexuality ensured both EKSTASE and its star worldwide notoriety. Emigrating to London in 1937, Lamarr secured a ten-year contract at M-G-M in Hollywood. Renamed Hedy Lamarr in homage to late silent star Barbara LaMarr (1896–1926), she was cast in exotic melodramas such as John Cromwell’s ALGIERS (1938) and Richard Thorpe’s WHITE CARGO (1942), as well as gothic thrillers such as Jacques Tourneur’s EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944) and Edgar Ulmer’s THE STRANGE WOMAN (1946). She aided the War Effort considerably through appearances on radio and at the Hollywood Canteen, and together with composer George Antheil patented a system of frequency hopping technology for radio-guided torpedoes that would ultimately become implemented as standard by the US military from 1962 (and which is now the basis of ‘roaming’ technology for mobile phones). After World War II, Lamarr founded her own production company, Mars Film Corporation, and later starred as the legendary temptress in Cecil B. DeMille’s SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949). A project begun in Italy under the working title ‘Eterna femmina’ was never completed, but the footage shot
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with Lamarr as Helen of Troy was included in Marc Allégret’s L’AMANTE DI PARIDE (The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships, 1954). Fêted as a ‘woman of science’ in a series of advertisements for Boeing in 2003, the evolving posthumous view of Lamarr as ‘more than just a pretty face’ is explored in Austrian filmmaker Georg Misch’s documentary CALLING HEDY LAMARR (2004). [act – US] 1930: Geld auf der Straße [AT/DE]. 1930/31: Sturm im Wasserglas / Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau [AT/DE]. 1931: Die Koffer des Herrn O. F. [DE]; Man braucht kein Geld [MLV – DE]. 1932: Extase / Ekstase [MLV – CS/AT]; Extase [MLV – CS/AT]. 1937/38: Her Jungle Love. 1938: Algiers. 1938/39: I Take This Woman. 1939: Lady of the Tropics. 1940: Boom Town; Comrade X. 1940/41: Come Live With Me; Ziegfeld Girl. 1941: H. M. Pulham, Esq. 1942: Tortilla Flat; Crossroads; White Cargo. 1943: The Heavenly Body. 1944: The Conspirators; Experiment Perilous. 1945: Her Highness and the Bellboy; House of Dracula. 1946: The Strange Woman [act,pro]. 1947: Dishonored Lady. 1948: Let’s Live a Little. 1949: Samson and Delilah. 1950: A Lady Without Passport; Copper Canyon. 1951: My Favorite Spy. 1954: L’Amante di Paride [act,pro – IT]; I cavalieri dell’illusione [act,pro – IT]. 1957: Zane Grey Theatre: Proud Woman [TV]; The Story of Mankind [TV]. 1957/58: The Female Animal [TV]. 1990: Instant Karma [archival].
GERHARD LAMPRECHT Born October 6, 1897, Berlin (Germany) Died May 4, 1974, Berlin (West Germany) Starting out as Germany’s youngest film director in 1920, Lamprecht excelled at realist dramas that recreated everyday settings, characters, and lifestyles in precise detail. A prison chaplain’s son, he worked as a part-time cinema projectionist from age twelve, and by 1914 had sold his first script to production company Eiko-Film. Contracted to join Messter-Film as a scenarist in 1917, Lamprecht was then called up to fight, but soon wound up writing scripts from his sickbed in a military hospital. These included DER WELTSPIEGEL (Mirror of the World, 1918), which was filmed by Lupu Pick, with the pair thereafter co-authoring several pictures and Lamprecht becoming head of scriptwriting at Pick’s Rex-Film in 1919. Placed in charge of the company’s starring vehicles for Bernd Aldor, he also edited and acted in a number of features. Lamprecht’s directorial debut was ES BLEIBT IN DER FAMILIE (Keep It in the Family, 1920), made for the Paul Heidemann production company. He struck box-office gold with a series of quickly shot ‘Confessions of a Woman’ films starring Ruth Weyer such as DIE BEICHTE DER MÖRDERIN (One Mother’s Confession) and DIE BEICHTE DER KRAN-
KENSCHWESTER (Confessions of a Nurse, both
1921). His talent for realist drama became more evident with his adaptation of Thomas Mann’s BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1923), and he started the trend for exposés of urban working-class misery when he collaborated with artist Heinrich Zille on DIE VERRUFENEN (Slums of Berlin, 1925). Together with producer Franz Vogel and regular scriptwriter Luise Heilborn-Körbitz, he founded his own company, Gerhard Lamprecht-Filmproduktion. Cashing in on the success of DIE VERRUFENEN, the company’s first productions were MENSCHEN UNTEREINANDER (People Among People, 1925/26), about life in a tenement building, and DIE UNEHELICHEN (Children of No Importance, 1926), based on reports by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty and Exploitation of Children. When the market became flooded with similar products, Lamprecht turned to historical melodrama with DER KATZENSTEG (Betrayal) and Prussian military pictures including the two-part DER ALTE FRITZ (Old Fritz, both 1927). His greatest international success was the Ufa sound film EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives, 1931), based on Erich Kästner’s popular children’s novel scripted by Billie (later Billy) Wilder and starring Fritz Rasp as the sinister ‘man with the bowler hat’. During the ‘Third Reich’, Lamprecht developed into a pedestrian, workmanlike director of genre films and occasional literary adaptations such as MADAME BOVARY (1937) and DER SPIELER (The Gambler, 1938). Actively avoiding propaganda pictures, he also toned down the nationalistic tendency of scripts he was working with, as in the case of DIESEL (1942). Lamprecht’s best films during this period were melodramas featuring working class protagonists such as FRAU IM STROM (Woman in the River, 1939) and DU GEHÖRST ZU MIR (You Belong to Me, 1942/43). After World War II, Lamprecht directed the DEFA ‘rubble film’ IRGENDWO IN BERLIN (Somewhere in Berlin, 1946), which drew heavily on EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE, and rounded off his career with a string of entertainment pictures. He retired from active filmmaking in the late 1950s. A collector of film prints and memorabilia since the early 1910s, he sold his collection to the city of Berlin, which became the founding stock of the Deutsche Kinemathek in 1963. His ten-volume catalogue on German silent films, published between 1967 and 1970, became a standard reference work. [dir – DE] 1918: Der Weltspiegel [co-scr]. 1919: Der Flimmerprinz [scr]; Marionetten der Leidenschaft [co-scr]; Herr über Leben und Tod [co-scr]; Der Seelenverkäufer [scr]; Tö-
FRITZ LANG tet nicht mehr! [co-scr]. 1920: Niemand weiß es [co-scr]; Es bleibt in der Familie [SF – dir,co-scr]; Liebe und Trompetenblasen [act]; So ein Lausbub! (Paulchen Semmelmann) [scr]; Die sturmfreie Bude [act]. 1920/21: Erfolg verblüffend [dir,co-scr]; Pfropf- und Wumpfenschrumpfer [dir, co-scr]. 1921: Der Friedhof der Lebenden [dir,co-scr,act]; Aus den Erinnerungen eines Frauenarztes. 1. Fliehende Schatten / 2. Lüge und Wahrheit [dir,co-scr]; Frauenbeichte. 1. Die Beichte der Ausgestoßenen / 2. Die Beichte der Mörderin / 3. Die Beichte der Krankenschwester. 1921/22: Die Erlebnisse einer Kammerzofe. 1922/23: Das Haus ohne Lachen [dir,co-scr]; Und dennoch kam das Glück [dir,scr]. 1923: Buddenbrooks [dir,co-scr]. 1924: Die Andere. 1925: Die Verrufenen. Der fünfte Stand [dir,co-scr]; Hanseaten [dir,co-scr]. 1925/26: Menschen untereinander [dir,coscr,pro]. 1926: Die Unehelichen [dir,co-scr,pro]; Schwester Veronika [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1927: Der Katzensteg [dir, co-scr,pro]; Der alte Fritz. 1. Friede / 2. Ausklang [dir,pro]. 1927/28: Erstarrte Märchenwelt [SD]. 1928: Unter der Laterne. Trink, trink, Brüderlein, trink [dir,co-scr,pro]; Der Mann mit dem Laubfrosch [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1930: Zweierlei Moral [dir,co-scr]. 1931: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen. Dirnentragödie; Emil und die Detektive. 1932: Der schwarze Husar; Was wissen denn Männer [MLV]. 1932/33: Spione am Werk [MLV]. 1933: Ein gewisser Herr Gran [MLV]; Un certain M. Grant [MLV]. 1933/34: Einmal eine große Dame sein [MLV]; Un jour viendra [MLV]. 1934: Parade vor Friedrich dem Großen [SD]; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]; Turandot, princesse de Chine [MLV – co-dir]. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV]; Barcarolle [MLV – co-dir]. 1935: Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV]; Un homme de trop à bord [MLV]; Der höhere Befehl. 1936: Ein seltsamer Gast. 1937: Madame Bovary; Die gelbe Flagge. 1938: Der Spieler [MLV]; Le joueur [MLV – co-dir – DE/FR]. 1938/39: Die Geliebte. 1939: Frau im Strom. 1940: Mädchen im Vorzimmer. 1941: Clarissa. 1942: Diesel [dir,scr]. 1942/43: Du gehörst zu mir. 1944/45: Kamerad Hedwig; Die Brüder Noltenius. 1946: Irgendwo in Berlin [dir,scr – DD]. 1948/49: Quartett zu fünft [DD]. 1949: Madonna in Ketten. 1953/54: Meines Vaters Pferde. 1. Lena und Nicoline / 2. Seine dritte Frau. 1954: Der Engel mit dem Flammenschwert. 1955: Oberwachtmeister Borck. 1957: Menschen im Werk [DO].
FRITZ LANG Born December 5, 1890, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died August 2, 1976, Beverly Hills (California, USA) One of the most influential directors of the 20th century, Lang was an iron-willed perfectionist, whose work encompasses monumental fantasies and disturbing social dramas during his Weimar years, as well as his later contributions to Hollywood film noir. After studying art and architecture in Vienna and Munich between 1907 and 1912, Lang undertook several trips to Asia before setting up as an artist in Paris. Returning to Vienna just prior to the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Austrian army as a volunteer, and was seconded to the front as a reserve lieutenant in 1916. Wounded repeatedly, he started to write short
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stories and film scripts while recuperating in army hospitals. The first of these to be filmed was the detective adventure DIE PEITSCHE (The Whip, 1916), directed by Adolf Gärtner. Joe May subsequently shot two Lang scripts, DIE HOCHZEIT IM EXCENTRIC-CLUB (Wedding in the Eccentric Club) and HILDE WARREN UND DER TOD (Hilde Warren and Death, both 1917). Contracted to Decla in Berlin by producer Erich Pommer in 1918, Lang wrote mysteries, detective pictures, costume dramas, and action films prior to his directorial debut, the melodrama HALBBLUT (The Half-Caste, 1919). Major success came the same year with exotic adventure DIE SPINNEN (The Spiders), even though only the first two of four planned parts were filmed. While working on Joe May’s eight-part DIE HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1919), he met writer Thea von Harbou: the couple married in 1922, with von Harbou scripting all Lang’s films from 1920 until their divorce in 1933. They co-wrote the two-part adventure DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb), which May directed, and then made the portmanteau fantasy DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny, both 1921) at Decla. Lang next directed a two-part adaptation of Norbert Jacques’s newspaper serial DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1921/22), about a power-crazed master criminal who hypnotises others into doing his nefarious bidding. Following the stylised national epic DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungen, 1922–24), Lang visited New York with producer Erich Pommer, with Manhattan’s skyscrapers supposedly giving him the idea for the dystopian parable METROPOLIS (1925/26), which has become an enduring classic of the science fiction genre. The most expensive film made in Germany up to that point, the production was intended to cement Ufa’s reputation as a serious competitor to Hollywood, but instead drove the company into a serious financial crisis. The director’s final silents were the thriller SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28) and the space travel drama FRAU IM MOND (The Woman in the Moon, 1928/29) for his own production company, after which for Nero-Film he made a stunning sound film debut with M (1931), starring Peter Lorre as a child-murderer sought both by police and the criminal underworld. A sequel to his early 1920s hit, DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1932/33), made in a French language version at the same time, was banned by the Nazis, and Lang emigrated to France, where he made LILIOM (1933/34), before relocating to Hollywood via London. Rejecting the first few scripts presented to him, Lang made his mark in America with the ‘mob rule’ thriller FURY (1936) starring Spencer Tracy. His first col-
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our picture was revenge western THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES starring Henry Fonda, followed by pioneer drama WESTERN UNION (both 1940). During World War II, he worked with Bertolt Brecht on HANGMEN ALSO DIE! (1942), about the anti-Nazi
resistance movement in Czechoslovakia. Thereafter co-founding Diana Productions with producer Walter Wanger, Lang made a series of film noir classics starring Wanger’s wife Joan Bennett, most notably THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944) and SCARLET STREET (1945). Other sombre thrillers included THE BLUE GARDENIA (1952/53) and THE BIG HEAT (1953), while he also brought noirish traits to the western RANCHO NOTORIOUS (1951), starring Marlene Dietrich. Enticed back to Berlin by producer Artur Brauner, Lang made colour remakes of DER TIGER VON ESCHNAPUR (The Tiger of Eshnapur) and DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, both 1958/ 59), while his last film revisited another of his Weimar successes with DIE 1000 AUGEN DES DR. MABUSE (The 1,000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse, 1960). In the years that followed, Lang participated in a series of celebrated (self-mythologising) interviews with Jean-Luc Godard, who also cast him as the elderly director battling producers to shoot an epic about Odysseus in LE MÉPRIS (Contempt, 1963). [dir – DE] 1916: Die Peitsche [scr]. 1917: Die Hochzeit im Excentric-Club [co-scr]; Hilde Warren und der Tod [scr]. 1918: Die Frauen des Josias Grafenreuth [scr]. 1918/19: Die Rache ist mein! [scr]; Bettler-G.m.b.H. [scr]. 1919: Die Frau mit den Orchideen [scr]; Halbblut [dir,scr]; Wolkenbau und Flimmerstern [co-scr]; Totentanz [scr]; Der Herr der Liebe; Lilith und Ly [scr – AT]; Die Spinnen. 1. Der goldene See / 2. Das Brillantenschiff [dir,scr]; Pest in Florenz [scr]; Harakiri. Die Geschichte einer Japanerin; Die Herrin der Welt. 8. Die Tragödie der Rache [co-scr]. 1920: Das wandernde Bild [dir,co-scr]. 1920/21: Kämpfende Herzen [dir,co-scr]. 1921: Der müde Tod; Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur [co-scr]. 1921/22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1923/24: Der Film im Film. Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen [DO – app]. 1925/26: Metropolis. 1927/28: Spione [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1928/29: Frau im Mond [dir,pro]. 1931: M [MLV – dir,co-scr]. 1932/33: Siegfrieds Tod; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]; Le testament du Dr. Mabuse [MLV]. 1933/34: Liliom [dir,co-scr – FR]. [dir – US] 1936: Fury [dir,co-scr]; You Only Live Once. 1938: You and Me [dir,pro]. 1940: The Return of Frank James; Western Union. 1941: Man Hunt; Confirm or Deny. 1942: Hangmen Also Die! [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1944: The Woman in the Window; Ministry of Fear. 1945: Scarlet Street [dir,pro]. 1946: Cloak and Dagger. 1947: Secret Beyond the Door [dir,pro]. 1949: House By the River. 1950: American Guerrilla in the Philippines. 1951: Rancho Notorious. 1951/52: Clash By Night. 1952/53: The Blue
Gardenia. 1953: Hollywood Goes Afishin’ [SD – app]; The Big Heat. 1954: Human Desire. 1954/55: Moonfleet. 1955: This Is Your Life: Ilse Intrator Stanley [TV – app]; While the City Sleeps. 1955/56: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. [dir – DE] 1958/59: Der Tiger von Eschnapur / La tigre di Eschnapur / Le tigre du Bengale [dir,co-scr,sma – DE/IT/FR]; Das indische Grabmal / Il sepolcro indiano / Le tombeau hindou [dir,co-scr,sma – DE/IT/FR]. 1959: Künstlerporträt: Fritz Lang [TVD – app]. 1960: Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / Il diabolico Dr. Mabuse / Le diabolique docteur Mabuse [dir,co-scr – DE/IT/FR]. [app – DE] 1963: Paparazzi / I paparazzi [SD – FR/IT]; Le mépris / Il disprezzo [act – FR/IT]; Begegnung mit Fritz Lang [SD]. 1967: Cinéastes de notre temps: Le dinosaure et le bébé, dialogue en huit parties entre Fritz Lang et Jean-Luc Godard [DO – FR]. 1968: Zum Beispiel Fritz Lang [TVD]. 1970/71: Der Ästhet und die Wirklichkeit [TVD]; Der Idealist und die Zivilisation [TVD]; Der Bürger und die politische Macht [TVD]. 1972: 75 Years of Cinema Museum [DO – US]. 1974: Fritz Lang Interviewed by William Friedkin [DO – US]; Die schweren Träume des Fritz Lang [TVD]. 1989: The Exiles [DO – US]. 1995: A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies [DO – GB]. 2006/07: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Fritz Lang [DO – app].
ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA Born November 12, 1978, Bucharest (Romania) One of the most promising young stars of the new century, Lara won international recognition for her female lead in the Hitler biopic DER UNTERGANG (Downfall, 2003/04l). Exuding shyness and radiance, and known for her alluring smile, the dark-blond actress was also once celebrated as the ‘most beautiful German girl’ by tabloid newspaper BILD. The daughter of Romanian actor and theatre director Valentin Plãtãreanu fled Ceauºescu’s regime with her family, and settled in West Germany at the age of four. She grew up in Freiburg/Breisgau and Berlin where she graduated at the Französisches Gymnasium in 1997. Following her film debut in the student film WITH LOVE RITA in 1989 she studied acting at the Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg, co-founded by her father, until 2000. From the mid-1990s she played a number of small parts on television but also starred in the title role of the family series MENSCH, PIA! in 1996. In 1997 she portrayed a naive teenager in the TV thriller DIE MÄDCHENFALLE – DER TOD KOMMT ONLINE (Girl’s Trap – Death Comes Online). The same year she played the male lead’s girlfriend in the biopic of a popular German boxer from the 1960s, in DIE BUBI SCHOLZ STORY. Her big screen debut was the comedy SÜDSEE, EIGENE INSEL (Our Island in the South Pacific, 1998/99), about a family creating their South Sea holiday in their own basement.
HEINER LAUTERBACH
For her portrayal of an East German fleeing to West Berlin in the Cold War drama DER TUNNEL (The Tunnel, 2000) Lara won a New Face Award. She started appearing in big-budget European TV productions such as NAPOLÉON (2001) with Gérard Depardieu, playing the Emperor’s Polish love interest Maria Walewska, and she took over Geraldine Chaplin’s old part in the TV version of Boris Pasternak’s DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (2002). Her international breakthrough was the Oscar-nominated Nazi drama DER UNTERGANG, in which she was cast as Hitler’s (Bruno Ganz) naive and optimistic personal secretary, witnessing the last days of the ‘Third Reich’ in the ‘Führerbunker’. The role earned her the popular Bambi award in Germany. Lara was subsequently seen opposite Tim Roth and reunited with her UNTERGANG co-star Ganz in Francis Ford Coppola’s YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH (2006/07), a World War II drama based on a novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. On the set of CONTROL (2005–07), Anton Corbijn’s acclaimed study of doomed British punk singer Ian Curtis, in which Lara played the singer’s Belgian girlfriend, she became romantically involved with lead actor Sam Riley and moved to London. She continued her international career with a supporting role in James Ivory’s THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION (2007), and also contributed to Theo Angelopoulos’s TRILOGIA II: I SKONI TOU XRONOU / TRIOLOGY II: THE DUST OF TIME (2007/08). In 2008 she was a member of the international jury of the Cannes Film Festival, and appeared in Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s bestseller THE READER / DER VORLESER. [act – DE] 1989: With Love Rita [SF]. 1994: Stella Stellaris [TV]; Zappek [1 episode – TVS]. 1994/95: Ich begehre dich [TV]. 1996: Mensch, Pia! [10 episodes – TVS]. 1996/97: Faust: Tote weinen nicht [TV]. 1997: Das Vorsprechen [SF]; Die Mädchenfalle – Der Tod kommt online [TV]; Tatort: Fürstenschüler [TV]; Die Bubi Scholz Story [TV]; Sperling und der falsche Freund [TV]. 1998/99: Polizeiruf 110: Sumpf [TV]; Südsee, eigene Insel; Fisimatenten. 1999: Vertrauen ist alles [TV]; Die Kommissarin: Die Geliebte des Killers [TV]. 1999/2000: Crazy; Honolulu. 2000: Luftpiraten – 113 Passagiere in Todesangst [TV]; Der Tunnel [TV]. 2000/01: Leo und Claire. 2001: 99 Euro Films: Privat; Liebe und Verrat [TV]; Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht. 2001/02: Schleudertrauma [TV]; Nackt; Napoléon / Napoleon [TV – FR/GB/DE]. 2002: Doctor Zhivago [TV – GB/DE/US]; Trenck – Zwei Herzen gegen die Krone [TV]. 2003/04: Der Wunschbaum [TV]; Der Untergang. 2004: Leise Krieger [SF]; Cowgirl; Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe. 2004/05: Der Fischer und seine Frau. 2005/06: Offset [DE/FR/CH]; Wo ist Fred? 2005-07: Control [GB/JP/AU]. 2006/07: I Really Hate My Job [GB]; Youth Without Youth [US]. 2007: The Company [TV – US]; The City of Your Final Destination [GB]. 2007/08: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex.
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2007-09: Hinter Kaifeck. 2008: Miracle at St. Anna [US]; Trilogia II: I skoni tou Xronou / Triology II: The Dust of Time [GR/IT/DE];; The Reader / Der Vorleser [US/DE]. 2008/09: Mein Leben – Alexandra Maria Lara und Valentin Platareanu [TVD – app]; L’Affaire Farewell [FR].
HEINER LAUTERBACH Born April 10, 1953, Cologne (West Germany) From soft porn performer to rugged macho in 1980s comedies and action films to character actor, Lauterbach’s career since the mid-1970s has encompassed a wide range of different types of films and personas. Training to be an electrician, Lauterbach took private acting lessons and started his stage career in the early 1970s. His first film roles were in three episodes of the long-running soft porn series SCHULMÄDCHENREPORT (School Girls Report). In the 1980s he began to appear regularly on German television, and made an impact as a black marketer in the post-World War II drama KOLP (1983/84), on the set of which he met his wife, actress Katja Flint. His big breakthrough came with Doris Dörrie’s phenomenally popular lifestyle comedy MÄNNER (Men, 1985), in which he played an aggressively ambitious advertising executive who fights to save his marriage after he learns that his wife has had an affair. Lauterbach and Dörrie reunited for the far less successful drama PARADIES (Paradise, 1986), and the awful German-American co-production ICH UND ER (Me and Him, 1987/88), in which Lauterbach provided the off-screen voice of Griffin Dunne’s penis. The role of the detective in the German episodes of the European police series EUROCOPS from 1988 until 1993 made him a popular television star as well. In the 1990s, Lauterbach contributed to a number of box-office hits, including Sönke Wortmann’s DAS SUPERWEIB (The Super Woman, 1995), and as a film producer in Helmut Dietl’s satire of Munich’s incrowd, ROSSINI ODER DIE MÖRDERISCHE FRAGE, WER MIT WEM SCHLIEF (Rossini, 1996). He played the leading role in Dominik Graf’s TV thriller DER SKORPION (The Scorpion), and starred as a womanising University professor in Wortmann’s DER CAMPUS (both 1996/97). In Joseph Vilsmaier’s Dietrich biopic, MARLENE (1999/2000), Lauterbach portrayed legendary Weimar-era film producer Erich Pommer, and for Oliver Hirschbiegel’s psycho-thriler DAS EXPERIMENT (The Experiment, 2000) he provided the voice-over narration. In 2003 he reunited with director Dörrie and his two co-stars from MÄNNER for the TV film EIN SELTSAMES PAAR (The Odd Couple). Working mainly for television he proved his talent in different genres, playing an undercover cop in 24 episodes of the action series FAUST (1993–97) and the media mogul Axel Springer in the biopic DER
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VERLEGER (2000/01), or the father of a ‘patchwork family’ in the comedy series MITTEN IM LEBEN (In
the Midst of Life, 2006/07). He subsequently lent his star name to TV ‘event movies’ including DIE STURMFLUT (The Flood, 2004), DRESDEN (2005/06), DIE GUSTLOFF (The Sinking of the Gustloff, 2007/08), and DAS PAPSTATTENTAT (Assassinate the Pope, 2008). [act – DE – TV] 1975-77: Schulmädchen-Report. 9. Reifeprüfung vor dem Abitur / 10. Irgendwann fängt jede an / 11. Probieren geht über Studieren [FF]. 1977-93: Derrick: [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1977-81: Der Alte [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1981: La Certosa di Parma / Die Kartause von Parma / La chartreuse de Parme [IT/DE/FR]. 1982: Inside the Third Reich [US]. 1983: Wochenendgeschichten: Geburtstag. 1983/84: Kolp [FF]; Das Gespinst. 1984/85: Eine Frau für gewisse Stunden [FF]. 1984-86: Ein Fall für zwei [TVS – 4 episodes] 1985: Männer [FF]; Tatort: Der Tausch. 1985/86: Nur Frauen, kein Leben [FF]. 1986: Cortuga; Zwei Reisen mit Flesch; Die Andere; Paradies [FF]. 1987: Alles aus Liebe: Von Frau zu Frau; Duett in Bonn [TVS]. 1987/88: Semmelweis Ignaz – Arzt der Frauen [AT/DE]; Ich und Er [FF – voi]. 1988: Das Nest. [TVS – Season 1 – episode 1]. 1988/89: Bodo – Eine ganz normale Familie [FF]; Francesco / Franziskus [FF – IT/DE]; Bangkok Story [FF]; African Timber [FF – DE/FR]; Die schnelle Gerdi: Oktoberfest. 1988-93: Eurocops [TVS – 17 episodes]. 1989: Umwege nach Venedig; Regina auf den Stufen. 1990: Liebe, Tod und Eisenbahn; Il commissario Corso: Dieci giorni tutto compreso [IT]. 1990/ 91: Von Gewalt keine Rede; Max Ernst. Mein Vagabundieren – Meine Unruhe [DO – voi]; Der Fahnder: Tauschgeschäfte. 1991: Tatort: Wer zweimal stirbt. 1991/92: Lilli Lottofee: Lilli und Leo auf Du und Du mit der großen Welt. 1992: Wolffs Revier: Geldwäscher; Eine phantastische Nacht. 1992/93: Ebbies Bluff [FF]. 1993: Tatort: Flucht nach Miami; Eurocops: Flamingo [dir,co-scr,act]. 1993/ 94: Charlie & Louise – Das doppelte Lottchen [FF]. 199397: Faust [TVS – 24 episodes]. 1994: Nicht nur der Liebe wegen; Mittsommernacht in Stockholm. 1994/95: Der Schattenmann. 1995: Das Wunschkind; Das Superweib [FF]. 1995/96: Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1996: Rossini – oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief [FF]; Tatort: Mord hinterm Deich. 1996/97: Der Skorpion; Der Campus [FF]. 1997/98: Opernball [DE/AT]; Der dreckige Tod; Tödliche Diamanten [AT]. 1998: Cascadeur – Die Jagd nach dem Bernsteinzimmer [FF]; Eine Sünde zuviel; Der Eisbär [FF]. 1998/99: St. Pauli Nacht [FF]; Schlaraffenland [FF]. 1999: Erleuchtung garantiert [FF]. 1999/2000: Zwei Asse und ein König; Marlene [FF]. 2000: Höchstpersönlich: Katja Flint [TVD – app]; Nicht heulen, Husky / Winter of Regret [DE/CA]; Das Experiment [FF – voi]. 2000/01: Der Verleger; Die Affäre Semmeling. 2001: 666 – Traue keinem, mit dem du schläfst! [FF – app]. 2001/02: Suche impotenten Mann fürs Leben [FF]. 2002: Tödliches Rendezvous – Die Spur führt nach Palma; Eine Liebe in Afrika; In der Mitte eines Lebens; Treibjagd. 2003: Im Namen des Herrn; Ein seltsames Paar. 2003/04: Zwei Männer und ein Baby; Der Bernsteinfischer. 2004: Abgeschminkt: Hei-
ner Lauterbach [TVD – app]; Kommissarin Lucas – Vergangene Sünden. 2004/05: In Liebe eine Eins; Die Sturmflut. 2005: Andersrum [co-dir,act,pro]. 2005/06: Dresden. 2006: Donna Leon – Endstation Venedig. 2006/07: Das Glück am anderen Ende der Welt; Mitten im Leben [TVS – 9 episodes]; Die Entführung. 2007/08: Die Gustloff; Das Papstattentat; Unschuldig [TVS – 2 episodes]; Wir sind das Volk – Liebe kennt keine Grenzen. 2008/09: Der Vulkan; Denn die Seele ist in deiner Hand.
ZARAH LEANDER (Sara Stina Hedberg) Born March 15, 1907, Karlstad (Sweden) Died June 23, 1981, Stockholm (Sweden) Tall, with a somewhat matronly figure and deep contralto voice, Swedish-born torch song diva Leander was one of the biggest female stars during the ‘Third Reich’, and subsequently became a countercultural icon for German gay men and drag queens. Taking piano lessons from an early age, Leander first sang in public in 1913. She worked briefly as a secretary for a publishing company. Appearances in revues, operettas, and stage comedies across Sweden followed between 1929 and 1935. Leander also made recordings from 1930, and undertook her first film appearances in Swedish films. She came to Vienna in 1936 after securing an engagement to headline in an operetta at the Theater an der Wien. Leander starred in her first German-speaking film in Austria the same year, playing a revue star in Géza von Bolvary’s PREMIERE (1936/37), a crime thriller about a backstage murder at a theatre. A contract at Ufa followed, with Detlef Sierck (later: Douglas Sirk) establishing her typical persona of long-suffering women whose unhappy love lives transcend into über-tragic melodrama in ZU NEUEN UFERN (To New Shores / Life Begins Anew) and LA HABANERA (both 1937). Sierck’s films also gave Leander plenty of opportunity to sing her distinctive melancholy ballads. After Sierck’s departure into exile, other directors continued the formula, especially Carl Froelich who directed Leander in HEIMAT (Magda, 1938), ES WAR EINE RAUSCHENDE BALLNACHT (One Enchanted Evening / The Life and Loves of Tchaikovsky, 1939), and DAS HERZ DER KÖNIGIN (The Heart of a Queen, 1939/40), in which she played Mary Queen of Scots. After the outbreak of World War II, Leander’s selfsacrificing characters served a propagandist example for women left alone on the ‘home front’, particularly in DER WEG INS FREIE (The Way to Freedom, 1940/41) and DIE GROSSE LIEBE (The Great Love, 1941/42), one of the most successful films of the Nazi period.
CHRISTIAN LEHMANN
After being told to adopt German nationality and to stop having her fees paid in foreign currency, Leander broke her Ufa contract in 1943 and returned to Sweden. The authorities there banned her from working, and further bans to this effect were extended in Germany and Austria at the end of the war. However, by 1949, Leander was able to restart her singing and acting career. Although her post-war films never matched the success of her earlier work, her first comeback vehicle, Géza von Cziffra’s GABRIELA (1950), was still that year’s third-highest-grossing film in West Germany. Drifting gradually into ever more minor guest roles in films, her operetta and musical appearances in West Germany and Austria continued to be highly successful, with the high camp tragédienne taking on a mantle somewhat comparable to that of Judy Garland in the USA, appealing at once to her old-time mainstream fans, and to a newly appreciative gay audience. In 1973 Leander’s biography was published in German translation as ‘Es war so wunderbar – Mein Leben’ (It Was So Wonderful – My Life). She made her final stage appearance in Stockholm in 1978. [act – DE] 1930/31: Dantes mysterier [MLV – SE]; Dante’s mysteries [MLV – SE]. 1931: Falska millionären [MLV – SE/ FR]. 1935: Äktenskapsleken [SE]. 1936/37: Premiere [AT]. 1937: Zu neuen Ufern; La Habanera. 1938: Heimat; Der Blaufuchs. 1939: Der Trichter Nr. II [SF]; Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht; Das Lied der Wüste. 1939/40: Das Herz der Königin. 1940/41: Der Weg ins Freie. 1941/42: Die große Liebe. 1942: Zarah Leander [SD]. 1942/43: Damals. 1950: Gabriela. 1952: Cuba Cabana. 1953: Ave Maria. 1953/54: Bei Dir war es immer so schön. 1956: Parodie und Prosa [TV]. 1959: Der blaue Nachtfalter. 1964: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Zarah Leander [TVD – app]; Das Blaue vom Himmel [TV]. 1966: Come imparai ad amare le donne / Das gewisse Etwas der Frauen / Comment j’ai appris à aimer les femmes [IT/ DE/FR]. 1970: Was die Rechte nicht sieht …, kommt erst recht aus dem Ohr hinaus [TV]. 1975: Ein Walzer zu zweien [TV – DE/AT].
CHRISTIAN LEHMANN Born July 20, 1934, Halbau (Silesia, now I³owa, Poland) Lehmann’s contemplative style of cinematography contributed significantly to the success of a range of documentaries made at East German DEFA studios from the 1960s onwards, and he continued his career after unification. Studying photography and cinematography, first in Leipzig, and then at the Babelsberg Film Academy, Lehmann graduated in 1959. The same year he started working as an assistant to cinematographer Wolfgang Randel at DEFA’s documentary section, and in 1961 had his first assignment as a cam-
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eraman mostly shooting with heavy 35mm equipment. In the following years he frequently worked with documentary directors such as Jürgen Böttcher, Karlheinz Mund, Richard Cohn-Vossen, and Volker Koepp, often collaborating on the films’ scripts. For Böttcher, he shot a number of shorts, including IM PERGAMON-MUSEUM (In the Pergamon Museum, 1962), CHARLIE & CO. (1963), about the activities of an amateur circus in Magdeburg, and BARFUSS OHNE HUT (Barefoot Without a Hat, 1964), which consists of interviews with a group of youth holidaying on the Baltic coast. Lehmann was one of the cameramen involved in the longtime documentary project about the ‘children from Golzow’ directed by Winfried (and Barbara) Junge from 1961 until 2008. Among Lehmann’s collaborations with Karlheinz Mund were CANTO DE FÉ (1965), a portrait of Spanish communist exiles living in Dresden and EINE SOMMERREISE (A Summer Journey, 1968) about a journey to the Soviet Union, which only reached the cinemas in a censored form. From time to time Lehmann directed as well such as with BAUERNREGEL (Farmer’s Rules, 1972). The following year, Lehmann and director Volker Koepp embarked on what would become their most ambitious project, and ongoing portrait of a group of young female workers in a textiles factory in Wittstock. Following four short films on the subject made throughout the 1970s, Lehmann and Koepp revisited the women for the feature length LEBEN IN WITTSTOCK (Life in Wittstock, 1984), and again after unification in NEUES AUS WITTSTOCK (News from Wittstock, 1990–92), and WITTSTOCK, WITTSTOCK (1996/97). Following unification, most of Lehmann’s assignments – now using lightweight video cameras as well – were on projects dealing with the former GDR, such as Peter Voigt’s DÄMMERUNG – OSTBERLINER BOHÈME DER 50ER JAHRE (Nightfall – Bohemian Life in East Berlin of the 1950s, 1993). [cam – DD – SD] 1956: Filmnachwuchs [co-cam]. 1957: Der Junge mit der Lampe; Küche [dir,cam]; Pantomime [dir,cam]. 1958: So lang noch untern Linden [SF – cocam]; Sprechstunde [dir,cam]; Dresden, wenige Jahre danach. 1959: Der Elefant von Hoyerswerda [dir,cam]. 1961: Drei von vielen; Stimmen der Wälder [co-cam]. 1961/62: Schweißerbrigade [co-scr,cam]. 1962: Im Pergamon-Museum; Unbändiges Spanien [DO]; Ofenbauer; Drei von uns. 1962/63: Silvester [co-cam]. 1963: Arabischer Besuch [co-dir,cam]; Leipziger Messe [co-cam]; Quartett [cocam]; Lerne leiten, ohne zu klagen [TVD – co-cam]; Das SHOK-Ensemble tanzt [co-cam]; Die Geschäfte des Cäsar Springer [TVD – co-cam]; Stars; Auf der Strecke; Geliebt von Millionen [co-cam]; Unsere Nationale Volksarmee 14/63 [co-cam]; Charlie & Co. 1964: Rund um die Welt 8/64 [TVD]; Haben Sie auch nichts vergessen? [co-cam]; Bilder aus Ceylon [co-cam]; Begegnung in Südostasien
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[DO – co-cam]; Drei Tage im Mai [co-cam]; Barfuß und ohne Hut; Harlekin, Pantalone und wir [co-cam]. 1964/65: Meister von morgen. 1964-66: Soziales Verhalten [DO – co-cam]. 1965: Die große Reise [co-cam]; Jagdgesellschaft [co-cam]; Spielplatz; Tito in Deutschland [DO – co-cam]; Treffpunkt Leipzig [co-cam]; Die Unbekannte; Bonjour, Paris [co-cam]; Kindertheater; Canto de Fé [TVD – co-cam]. 1965/66: Häuser unterm Kreuz. 1966: Berlin heute [cocam]; Memento [co-cam]; Promotion [co-cam]. 1966/67: Dresdner Botschaft [co-cam]; Paul Dessau [co-cam]. 1967: Fest der Freundschaft [co-cam]; Grenada, Grenada, Grenada moja … [DO – SU]; Der Meister; Wir waren in KarlMarx-Stadt [co-cam]; Schuhgröße 26. 1967/68: Tierparkfilm. 1968: Der Blumengarten [co-scr,cam]; DDR-Magazin Nr. 40 – Brecht-Dialog; Hauptfilm läuft [TV – co-cam]; Frühling an der Müritz [co-cam]; Eine Sommerreise [co-dir, co-scr,cam]; Herbstzug der Kraniche [co-cam]. 1968/69: Du bist min. Ein deutsches Tagebuch [DO]. 1969: Seilfahrt 69; Gedanken über eine Straße; Auf der Oder [co-cam]. 1969/70: Hauptfilm läuft [TV – co-cam]; … damit es weitergeht [co-cam]. 1970: Freundschaft – Kampfgemeinschaft – Solidarität [DO – co-cam]; Grisuten [co-cam]; Otto Nagel 1894–1967; Leute vom Lande [co-scr,cam]; Tag der Tiere [co-cam]; Mathematiker. 1971: Berlin – Jerewan. Erinnerungen an eine Reise [TVD – co-cam]; Faxenmacher [co-cam]; Einberufen [co-cam]; Theodor Fontane: Wanderungen durch die Mark [DO]; Versuch über Schober [cocam]; … noch ohne Vorhang [co-cam]. 1971/72: Treffpunkt Kino [TVD – 8 episodes]. 1972: 792 sec. mit Frank Schöbel [co-cam]; In Sachen H. und acht anderer [cocam]; Grüße aus Sarmatien für den Dichter Johannes Bobrowski; Musik in Scheiben; Bauernregel [dir,scr,cam]. 1973: Gustav J.; Ich bin ein Fritz [TVD – co-cam]; DDRMagazin 12/73 [co-cam]; Teddy; Manfred Krug; Wer die Erde liebt [DO – co-cam]; Pablo Neruda; Es lebe die Freundschaft [co-cam]; Physiker in Wroclaw [co-cam]; DDR – PRL brüderlich vereint / PRL – NRL zwiazani braterswem [DO – co-cam – DD/PL]; Zeit der Riesen. 1974: Volksrepublik Bulgarien – Deutsche Demokratische Republik – im festen Bruderbund [DO – co-cam]; Weggefährten [DO – co-cam]; Die Mamais; Slatan Dudow. 1975: Er könnte ja heute nicht schweigen; An Ob und Irtysch [coscr,cam]; Nordzuschlag – Sibirische Charaktere [DO]; Floh de Cologne. 1976: WML – Steiger oder Maler; Wieder in Wittstock; Die Gruppe Floh de Cologne [DO]; Das weite Feld [DO]; Tiergeschichten [co-cam]; In Sibirien. 1977: Liebeserklärung an Berlin [TVD – co-cam]; Ich erinnere mich noch [co-cam]; Das kürzere Streichholz [TVD]; Hütes-Film; Murieta. 1977/78: Berlin. 1978: Wittstock III; Im Bruch hinterm Berge – Ehm Welk und Biesenbrow [TVD – co-scr, cam]; Am Fluß [co-scr,cam]. 1978/79: Begegnungen im Schnee. 1979: Tag für Tag. 1980: Das schöne schwierige Leben TVD – co-cam]; Posten neun Neumann, Schranken geschlossen [co-cam]; Haus und Hof; Fernfahrer Hans Hoffmann und seine Tochter [TVD]. 1980/81: Lebensläufe. Die Geschichte der Kinder von Golzow in einzelnen Porträts [DO – co-scr,co-cam]. 1981: Leben und Weben (Wittstock IV); ‘Bürger Luther’ Wittenberg 1508–1546 [TVD]; Stadtlandschaften [co-scr,cam]; Der Theaterdampfer. 1981-84: DEFA Kinobox [SD – 9 episodes – co-cam].
1982: In Rheinsberg [DO]; Compañera Inge. 1983: Walter Ballhause – einer von Millionen [co-scr,cam]; Drei Lieder; Die Demonstration [co-cam]; Zeichen in Bäumen [dir,scr, cam]. 1983/84: Der schönste Traum [DO]. 1984: Woran wir uns erinnern [DO]; Leben in Wittstock [DO]. 1985: Herbstblätter [TV]; Die Zeit die bleibt [DO]. 1986: Die F96 [TVD – co-scr,cam – DD/DE]; Ernst Braun – Ich glaube, ich habe richtig gehandelt. 1987: Weil ich nicht singen kann, male ich [scr,cam]; Leuchtkraft der Ziege; Chausseestr. 126. 1987-89: Probleme am laufenden Band. 1988: Abendgrüße für das Fernsehen der DDR [TVS]; Vom Bürgersohn zum Kommunisten [TVD]; Die Cousins [DO – co-dir – DE/DD]; flüstern & SCHREIEN. ein rockreport [DO – co-cam]; Wanderer im Wind [TVD]; ‘Eine Lerche sang mir heute …’ [co-cam]. 1989: Aschermittwoch; Knabenjahre [DO – scr,cam]; Geschichte eines Bildes ‘Der Turm der blauen Pferde’, Franz Marc, 1913; Zum Sehen geboren [DO – co-cam]; In Berlin 16.10.’89-4.11.’89 [DO – cocam]; Wagen wir die Dinge zu sehen, wie sie sind; Gartenarbeit [TVD]. 1989-91: Letztes Jahr in Deutschland / Last Year in Germany [DO – co-cam – DE/GB]. 1990: Alexander der Große – hörgeschädigt [TVD]; Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit [DO – DE]; Umgang mit Köpfen; Wind sei stark [TVD]. [cam – DE – DO] 1990-92: Neues aus Wittstock [DE/FR]. 1991: Seelower Höhen; Waldschlößchen [TVD]; Wieland Förster – Protokoll einer Gefangenschaft. 1991/92: Metanoia – Berichte deutscher Männer 1945–1953 [co-cam]. 1991-95: Lange nach der Schlacht. [co-cam]. 1992: Trilogie der ungebrochenen Herzen: Das Feld brennt. 1992/93: Wiedereinrichter; ABF-Memoiren; Drehbuch: Die Zeiten; Albert Kahn – Architekt der Moderne. 1993: Sunny [SD]; Dämmerung – Ostberliner Bohème der 50er Jahre. 1994: Aktion Ungeziefer; Der Ort Die Zeit Der Tod. Ein Heimatfilm [TVD]; AK Zwo [TVD – co-cam]; Herbsterfahrung: Porträt über Marianne Birthler [TVD]. 1994/95: Auschwitz. Fünf Tage im November [TVD]. 1995: ‘und ich habe Cézembre erobert …’; Hier ist verborgen [TVD]; Tomar – Das größte Kloster Portugals [TVD]; Belem – Zeugnis portugiesischer Macht [TVD]; Der Fritz. 1996: Verwehte Spuren [TVD]. 1996/97: Wittstock, Wittstock. 1998: Der Zögling [TVD – co-cam]. 2000: Ich bin Ernst Busch [TVD – co-cam]. 2002: Frühlings Erwachen – Eine Nachkriegsjugend [TVD]. 2003: Núria Quevedo – Berlinerin aus Barcelona. 2004: Eine Hinterlassenschaft [SD]. 2005: Im Labyrinth. Wieland Forster [TVD]. 2006: Bertolt Brecht – Bild und Modell.
PAUL LENI (Paul Josef Levi) Born July 8, 1885, Stuttgart (Germany) Died September 2, 1929, Hollywood (California, USA) A highly accomplished designer and director in German films since before World War I, Leni later paved the way for the style of classic Hollywood horror with several mystery thrillers shot at Universal in the late 1920s.
RUTH LEUWERIK
A banker’s son, Leni came to Berlin around 1900 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, and swiftly made his name as a painter, illustrator, and set decorator. In 1910, he designed the Jugendstil (art nouveau) header used on the cover of cinema trade journal Lichtbild-Bühne, and thereafter furnished original artwork for numerous film posters, in addition to serving as interior decorator at one of Berlin’s first luxury film palaces, the Lichtspielhaus Wittelsbach. In 1913, he commenced a lengthy association with producer and director Joe May at Continental Kunstfilm, working as art director on detective pictures EIN AUSGESTOSSENER (The Outcast, 1913) and DAS PANZERGEWÖLBE (The Armoured Vault, 1914). Called up during the war, he directed the documentary drama DER FELDARZT / DAS TAGEBUCH DES DR. HART (Field Doctor Hart, 1917). Continuing to serve as production designer to Ernst Lubitsch and Joe May, Leni now also directed highly artistic features of his own, including exotic adventure DAS RÄTSEL VON BANGALOR (The Mystery of Bangalore), fairytale DORNRÖSCHEN (Sleeping Beauty, both 1917), and expressionist drama PATIENCE (1920). At Gloria-Film between 1919 and 1921, his designs included the lowly farmers’ dwellings in E. A. Dupont’s DIE GEIER-WALLY (Vulture Wally, 1921) and the resplendent interiors of historical costume epics such as his own DIE VERSCHWÖRUNG ZU GENUA (Andrea Doria – The Genoa Conspiracy, 1920/21) and Richard Oswald’s LADY HAMILTON (1921). In the chamber drama HINTERTREPPE (Backstairs, 1921), meanwhile, Leni’s deft pictorialism stood out over co-director Leopold Jessner’s somewhat heavy-handed symbolism. After founding production company Paul Leni-Film in 1922, he and composer Hans May opened the cabaret theatre ‘Die Gondel’ financed by Russian émigrés. These same émigrés owned Neptun-Film, which produced Leni’s DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks, 1923), an omnibus feature comprising three distinct episodes starring Emil Jannings as Harun al-Rashid, Conrad Veidt as Ivan the Terrible, and Werner Krauss as Jack the Ripper. Leni continued to demonstrate extreme versatility over the next couple of years, designing sets for society dramas, collaborating with Guido Seeber on a series of short quiz films for cinema audiences, arranging short live sketches for festive cinema premieres, and providing artwork for the cover of Rudolf Kurtz’s influential study ‘Expressionismus und Film’. Receiving a contract from Carl Laemmle in Hollywood, Leni adapted hit Broadway thriller THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1926/27), with the film commanding attention due to its extraordinary lighting and pictorial effects. Thereafter considered a master of atmospheric mysteries, he shot THE CHINESE
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PARROT (1927), an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1927/28) starring Conrad Veidt, and thriller THE LAST WARNING (1929).
Contracting severe blood poisoning in June 1929, Leni suffered paralysis and loss of voice during his final months. Leni’s posthumous influence was seminal on Universal’s horror series. James Whale acknowledged Leni as a major inspiration for his THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). [des – DE] 1913: Ein Ausgestoßener. 1. Der junge Chef. 1914: Das Panzergewölbe. 1914/15: Ein Ausgestoßener. 2. Der ewige Friede. 1915: Das achte Gebot; Der Katzensteg [des,act]. 1917: Der Blusenkönig; Der Feldarzt / Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart [dir,des]; Prima vera [dir,des]; Das Rätsel von Bangalor [co-dir,co-scr,des]; Dornröschen [dir, des,cos]; Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari. 1918: Mania; Der Fall Rosentopf; Die platonische Ehe [dir,des,cos]. 1918/ 19: Veritas vincit (Die Wahrheit siegt!). 1919: Rausch; Prinz Kuckuck [dir,des]. 1920: Patience [dir,des]; Der weiße Pfau [co-scr,des]; Die Schuld der Lavinia Morland. 1920/21: Die Verschwörung zu Genua [dir,co-scr,des]. 1921: Die Geier-Wally; Lady Hamilton [des,cos]; Hintertreppe [co-dir,des]; Kinder der Finsternis. 1. Der Mann aus Neapel / 2. Kämpfende Welten; Frauenopfer. 1922/ 23: Tragödie der Liebe [4 parts]. 1923: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett [dir,des]. 1923/24: Der Film im Film. Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen [DO – app]. 1924: Die Liebesbriefe der Baronin von S. 1924/25: Der Farmer aus Texas. 1925: Die Frau von vierzig Jahren; Der Tänzer meiner Frau. 1925/26: Rebus-Film Nr. 1-8 [ANI – dir,des]; Manon Lescaut [des, cos]; Einspänner Nr. 13 / Fiaker Nr. 13 [AT/DE]; Die Försterchristl; Wie einst im Mai [des,cos]. 1926: Der goldene Schmetterling [AT/DE]. [dir – US] 1926/27: The Cat and the Canary [dir,des]. 1927: The Chinese Parrot. 1927/28: The Man Who Laughs. 1929: The Last Warning.
RUTH LEUWERIK (Ruth Leeuverik) Born April 23, 1924, Essen (Germany) Graceful yet homely, and combining maternal sensitivity with a degree of emancipation, Leuwerik was a popular star who epitomised the contradictory ideals of 1950s West German femininity in Heimatfilms and costume romances. After attending commercial college, Leuwerik worked during World War II as a milling cutter and later as a stenographer. Taking private acting lessons following the war, she toured for a while with the Westphalian State Theatre, and from 1947 worked at theatres in Bremen, Lübeck, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf. Leuwerik’s screen debut was 13 UNTER EINEM HUT (One Hat for Thirteen Heads, 1949/50), after which she rapidly established herself as one of the foremost
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female stars of West German cinema. She starred opposite Dieter Borsche in Harald Braun’s VATER BRAUCHT EINE FRAU (Father Needs a Wife, 1952) and KÖNIGLICHE HOHEIT (His Royal Highness, 1953), as well as in Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s KÖNIGIN LUISE (Queen Luise, 1956/57); and opposite O. W. Fischer in Helmut Käutner’s BILDNIS EINER UNBEKANNTEN (Portrait of an Unknown Woman) and LUDWIG II. (Ludwig II, both 1954). Leuwerik was able to demonstrate greater versatility with her portrayal of a woman living through fifty years of German history in Rolf Thiele’s GELIEBTES LEBEN (Dear Life, 1953), for which she received a German Film Award. Domestic popularity increased further following her portrayal as Maria von Trapp in Liebeneiner’s saccharine DIE TRAPP-FAMILIE (The Trapp Family, 1956) and its sequel DIE TRAPPFAMILIE IN AMERIKA (The Trapp Family in America, 1958). Leuwerik undertook character leads in Rudolf Jugert’s Theodor Fontane adaptation ROSEN IM HERBST (Effi Briest, 1955), Robert Siodmak’s Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation DOROTHEA ANGERMANN (1958/59), and Gottfried Reinhardt’s LIEBLING DER GÖTTER (Sweetheart of the Gods, 1960), a biopic of tragic early sound film actress Renate Müller. She furthermore appeared in the screen version of Alfred Andersch’s novel DIE ROTE (Redhead, 1962), and in jolly maternal vein opposite Heinz Rühmann in the adaptation of Curt Goetz’s comedy DAS HAUS IN MONTEVIDEO (The House in Montevideo, 1963), both directed by Helmut Käutner. Working increasingly in television from 1963, Leuwerik played leads in HEDDA GABLER (1963), NINOTSCHKA (Ninotchka, 1964/65), and Peter Beauvais’s Schnitzler adaptation DAS WEITE LAND (Far and Wide, 1969), where she was reunited with her former screen partner O. W. Fischer. Her final screen appearance was in Franz Seitz’s UNORDNUNG UND FRÜHES LEID (Disorder and Early Torment, 1976), based on a story by Thomas Mann. She portrayed a matriarch in Franz Peter Wirth’s eleven-part adaptation of Mann’s BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1978/79), and gueststarred in episodes of popular crime series DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner) and DERRICK. Retiring as an actress in the 1980s, Leuwerik has since sat on the jury of the Bavarian Film Awards and dedicated herself to charity work. [act – DE] 1949/50: Dreizehn unter einem Hut. 1952: Vater braucht eine Frau; Die große Versuchung. 1953: Ein Herz spielt falsch; Geliebtes Leben; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen?; Königliche Hoheit. 1954: Bildnis einer Unbekannten; Ludwig II. – Glanz und Elend eines Königs. 1955: Geliebte Feindin; Rosen im Herbst. 1956: Die gol-
dene Brücke; Die Trapp-Familie. 1956/57: Königin Luise. 1957: Franziska; Immer wenn der Tag beginnt. 1958: Taiga; Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika. 1958/59: Dorothea Angermann. 1959: Die ideale Frau; Ein Tag, der nie zu Ende geht. 1960: Liebling der Götter; Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben; Auf Engel schießt man nicht. 1961: Die Stunde, die du glücklich bist. 1962: Die Rote / La rossa [DE/IT]. 1963: Elf Jahre und ein Tag; Das Haus in Montevideo; Hedda Gabler [TV]; Ein Alibi zerbricht [AT]. 1964/65: Ninotschka [TV]. 1965: Das Künstlerporträt: Ruth Leuwerik [TVD – app]. 1969: Das weite Land [TV – AT]. 1970/71: Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen. 1974: Der Kommissar: Der Segelbootmord [TV]. 1975/76: Meine beste Freundin [TV]. 1976: Unordnung und frühes Leid. 1977/78: Derrick: Ein Hinterhalt [TV]. 1978/79: Buddenbrooks [TV – episodes 1-9]. 1980: Kaninchen im Hut [TV]. 1982/83: Derrick: Der Täter schickte Blumen [TV]. 1996/97: Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge [TVD – app]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app].
DANI LEVY Born November 17, 1957, Basel (Switzerland) The output of director Dani Levy from the mid-1980s onwards has been consistent in terms of style, content, and production personnel. Frequently starring himself, his films are tragicomic tales of urban relationships, anxieties, and neuroses. Born to Jewish-German parents who escaped the Nazis to Switzerland, Levy started out working as a clown, acrobat, and musician. After relocating to Berlin, he joined the acclaimed youth theatre ‘Rote Grütze’ as an actor. His film debut was in a supporting role in GERMAN DREAMS (1985), after which he appeared in, and cowrote, DU MICH AUCH (And You Too, 1985/86). His first film as director was ROBBYKALLEPAUL (1988), a comedy about the romantic and sexual permutations among a group of friends sharing a flat in Berlin. Co-starring with Levy, and also co-author of the screenplay was his longtime partner, actress Maria Schrader, a regular collaborator on many of his subsequent films. I WAS ON MARS (1991), shot on location in New York, starred Schrader as a naïve young Pole visiting the United States and Levy as an Italian who steals her money, leading to a protracted love triangle that involves Levy’s cousin. STILLE NACHT (Silent Night, 1995), this time without Levy’s appearance and partly set in Paris, again placed Schrader at the centre of a romantic ménage-à-trois. The complex trans-Atlantic thriller MESCHUGGE (Crazy, 1997), starring Levy and Schrader and again partly shot in New York, marked a significant departure in tone and content from Levy’s previous films, thematising the Holocaust and neo-Nazi violence in post-unification Germany. VÄTER (Father, 2001/02), on the other hand, covered more familiar territory
WOLFGANG LIEBENEINER
with its story of a young couple’s marital conflicts over child education and professional development. ALLES AUF ZUCKER (Go for Zucker!, 2004), a domestic box office smash and awarded the Ernst Lubitsch prize as well as three German Film Awards, was after MESCHUGGE the film to most explicitly raise Jewish issues. The comically broad, but amiable farce concerned two warring factions of a Jewish-German family, divided for decades by the Berlin Wall, and centred on the fractured relationship between two brothers, one religiously orthodox, the other assimilated and secular. In the satire MEIN FÜHRER – DIE WIRKLICH WAHRSTE WAHRHEIT ÜBER ADOLF HITLER
(Mein Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler, 2005/06) comedian Helge Schneider played a mentally disturbed Hitler taking acting lessons from a Jewish teacher played by Ulrich Mühe. Apart from his own films, Levy continued to appear as an actor in the films of other directors, such as in Stefan Ruzowitzky’s TEMPO (1996) and Max Färberböck’s AIMÉE & JAGUAR (1998). He also directed music videos, and founded in 1994, together with Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, and the producer Stefan Arndt, the production company X-Filme. [act – DE] 1982: Haste mal ’ne Mark [TV – ass-dir,act]; Ich bin seine Schwester [TV]. 1983: Motel [TVS – CH]. 1985: German Dreams. 1985/86: Du mich auch [co-scr,act – DE/ CH]. 1988: RobbyKallePaul [dir,co-scr,ide,act,pro – DE/ CH]. 1989: Liebesgeschichten: Abgeschleppt [TV – dir]. 1990/91: Hausmänner [TV]. 1991: Drop-Out [CH/DE]; I was on Mars [dir,co-scr,act,pro – DE/CH]. 1992: Amok [SF]. 1992/93: Halbe Welt – Gute Nacht [AT]. 1993: Neues Deutschland: Ohne mich [TV – dir,scr,cut,act,pro]. 1993/94: Burning Life. 1994: Apokalypse Pink [SF – pro]; Einer meiner ältesten Freunde; Die Mediocren. 1995: Stille Nacht [dir,co-scr,cut,pro]. 1996: Tempo [AT]; Kondom des Grauens. 1997: Faust: Auf den Tag genau [TV]; Meschugge / La girafe [dir,co-scr,cut,act,pro – DE/CH]. 1998: Die Hochzeitskuh [TV – DE/CH]; Aimée & Jaguar. 1999: Autostadt Wolfsburg – Das Geheimnis der Sicherheit [SF – dir – CH]. 2000: La Répétition [FR]. 2001: Adriano – Letzte Warnung [SF – dir]. 2001/02: Väter [dir,co-scr]. 2002: Hannah und ihr Papa [SF – dir,scr,act,pro]. 2003: De soie et de cendre [TV – FR]. 2004: Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]; Alles auf Zucker! [dir,co-scr,act]. 2005: Gero von Boehm begegnet: Dani Levy [TVD – app]. 2005/06: Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler [dir,scr]. 2006: Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin [DO – app]; Freie Sicht aufs Mittelmeer [TV – dir,scr,sma – CH]; Mein Leben – Dani Levy [TVD – app]. 2008: Familie Deutsch [SF]. 2008/09: Deutschland 09: EP 2. Joshua [dir,scr,act].
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WOLFGANG LIEBENEINER (Wolfgang Georg Louis Liebeneiner) Born October 6, 1905, Liebau (Germany, now Lubawka, Poland) Died November 28, 1987, Vienna (Austria) Actor-turned-director Liebeneiner was one of Nazi Germany’s leading filmmakers whose career continued unabated in West Germany. His entertainment pictures were usually characterised by exceptional casting and a high level of technical proficiency. Liebeneiner was signed in 1928 to Munich’s Kammerspiele theatre by Otto Falckenberg, and made his professional debut in Frank Wedekind’s ‘Spring Awakening’. Serving as a directorial assistant from 1929, he also directed productions at the theatre from 1931. Liebeneiner’s screen debut was the German language version DER SPRUNG INS NICHTS (Half-Way to Heaven, 1930/31), a multilingual production shot at the Paramount studios in Joinville. His first German film was Heinz Paul’s DIE ANDERE SEITE (The Other Side, 1931), based on R. C. Sherriff’s celebrated World War I trench drama ‘Journey’s End’ (1929). However, it was his performance as a doomed Austrian officer in Max Ophüls’s melancholy adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932/33) that established him as a romantic lead, in which capacity he continued to appear until 1936. At Berlin’s Deutsches Theater from 1932, he was seconded to the Staatstheater by Gustaf Gründgens in 1936, received the honorific title ‘actor of state’ in 1938, and remained at the theatre as both actor and director until its closure in 1944. Liebeneiner’s first film as a director was the comedy VERSPRICH MIR NICHTS! (Promise Me Nothing, 1937). Appointed to the board of production company Terra the same year, he subsequently served as head of the Babelsberg Film Academy’s creative faculty between 1938 and 1944, as an honorary chairman at the Reichsfilmkammer (Reich Film Chamber) from 1939, and ultimately as production chief at Ufa from 1942 until the end of the war. Alongside these official functions, Liebeneiner directed a range of films, including the Heinz Rühmann comedies DER MUSTERGATTE (Model Husband, 1937) and DER FLORENTINER HUT (The Italian Straw Hat, 1938/39). In a more propagandist vein were the ponderous biopics BISMARCK (1940) and DIE ENTLASSUNG (Bismarck’s Dismissal, 1942), in which the unyielding ‘Iron Chancellor’ was portrayed as a precursor to Hitler. ICH KLAGE AN (I Accuse, 1941), ostensibly a melodrama about a doctor who kills his terminally ill wife, was intended to justify and promote the regime’s euthanasia programme. Liebeneiner was declared denazified in 1947. He directed plays at Hamburg’s Kammerspiele theatre, including the 1947 first-run production of Wolfgang
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Borchert’s celebrated drama about a returning soldier, ‘Draußen vor der Tür’ (The Man Outside), which he then adapted for the screen as LIEBE 47 (Love ’47, 1948/49).The female lead was played by his second wife Hilde Krahl who won an award in Locarno 1949 and starred in most of his films from DAS ANDERE ICH (The Other Ego, 1941) until 1. APRIL 2000 (1952).Their daughter Johanna Liebeneiner (b. 1945) is an established stage and television actress. In the 1950s, Liebeneiner directed numerous box-office hits, often starring Ruth Leuwerik, such as the musical biopic DIE TRAPP-FAMILIE (The Trapp Family, 1956), Prussian melodrama KÖNIGIN LUISE (Queen Luise, 1956/57), and prisoner-of-war drama TAIGA (1958). Settling in Vienna from 1954, Liebeneiner directed operas and stage comedies, while his television work included the prestigious ‘christmas mini series’ DIE SCHATZINSEL (Treasure Island, 1966) and TOM SAWYERS UND HUCKLEBERRY FINNS ABENTEUER (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1967/68).
Liebeneiner’s stolid two final big-screen ventures, DAS CHINESISCHE WUNDER (Chinese Miracle, 1976) and GÖTZ VON BERLICHINGEN MIT DER EISERNEN HAND (Iron Hand, 1978), were produced
as tax write-offs. [act – DE] 1930/31: Der Sprung ins Nichts [MLV – FR/ US]. 1931: Die andere Seite. 1931/32: Wenn dem Esel zu wohl ist …. 1932/33: Liebelei [MLV]. 1932-34: ‘Liebelei’. Une histoire d’amour [MLV – FR]. 1933: Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV]; Rivalen der Luft. 1934: Freut euch des Lebens; Musik im Blut; Was bin ich ohne Dich?; Abschiedswalzer [MLV]; Rhapsodie [SF]; Alles hört auf mein Kommando; Der zerstreute Walzer [SF]. 1934/35: Asew / Lockspitzel Asew [AT/DE]. 1935: Alle Tage ist kein Sonntag; Die blonde Carmen; Künstlerliebe; Die selige Exzellenz; Eine Nacht an der Donau. 1935/36: Donaumelodien. 1936: Das Schönheitsfleckchen [SF]; Die un-erhörte Frau. [dir – DE] 1937: Versprich mir nichts!; Der Mustergatte. 1937/38: Yvette. Die Tochter einer Kurtisane; Es leuchten die Sterne [act]. 1938: Du und ich; Ziel in den Wolken. 1938/39: Der Florentiner Hut. 1939/40: Die gute Sieben. 1940: Bismarck [dir,co-scr,act]. 1940/41: Friedemann Bach [act]. 1941: Ich klage an [dir,co-scr]; Das andere Ich. 1942: Die Entlassung. 1942/43: Großstadtmelodie [dir, scr]. 1944/45: Das Leben geht weiter [dir,co-scr]. 1948/ 49: Liebe 47 [dir,scr]. 1949/50: Tobias Knopp, Abenteuer eines Junggesellen [ANI – co-dir,voi]; Meine Nichte Susanne [dir,scr]. 1950: Des Lebens Überfluß; Wenn eine Frau liebt. 1950/51: Das Tor zum Frieden [AT]. 1951: Der Weibsteufel [dir,scr – AT]; Der blaue Stern des Südens [AT]. 1951/52: Herz der Welt [act]. 1952: 1. April 2000 [AT]. 1953: Die Stärkere [dir,act]; Das tanzende Herz [dir,coscr]. 1954: Und ewig bleibt die Liebe; Die schöne Müllerin; Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins. 1954/55: Die heilige Lüge. 1955: Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen; Urlaub
auf Ehrenwort [dir,co-scr]. 1955/56: Vor 100 Jahren fing es an [DO – act]. 1956: Waldwinter; Die Trapp-Familie. 1956/57: Königin Luise. 1957: Franziska; Immer wenn der Tag beginnt [dir,co-scr]. 1958: Taiga; Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika; Sebastian Kneipp – Ein großes Leben [AT]. 1959: Meine Tochter Patricia [AT]; Jacqueline. 1959/60: Ich heirate Herrn Direktor [dir,co-scr – AT]. 1960: Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben; Ingeborg; Schlußakkord [dir,act – DE/FR/IT]. 1961: Das letzte Kapitel. 1962: Die große Szene. 1962/63s: Charleys Tante. 1963: Die Zaubergeige; Mittagswende; Liebeshändel in Chioggia; Schwejks Flegeljahre [FF – AT]. 1964: Die Baßgeige; Gonzague; Jetzt dreht die Welt sich nur um dich [FF – AT]. 1964/65: Dreizehn bei Tisch. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Wolfgang Liebeneiner [TVD – app]; Sodom und Gomorrha; Kandidat Cormoran; Eine Frau denkt …; Die Schelme im Paradies [dir,co-scr]. 1965/66: Um Lucretia. 1966: Towarisch; Polenblut; Der Glückstopf; Die Schatzinsel [DE/FR]; Betrug der Zeiten. 1967: Keine Angst vor Kolibris; Ein Schloß in Schweden [dir,scr]. 1967/68: Tom Sawyers und Huckleberry Finns Abenteuer [DE/FR]. 1968: Die Rivalin; Ein ehrenwerter Herr; So eine Liebe [act]; Der Kritiker des Herzens; Vanillikipferln. – Ein Abend zu dritt. – Donau so blau. 1968/69: Mister Barnett [dir,scr]. 1969: Mamsell Nitouche [dir,scr]; Wenn süß das Mondlicht auf den Hügeln schläft [FF]; Abel, wo ist dein Bruder? 1970: Scher Dich zum Teufel, mein Engel; Ein Mädchen für alles; Eine konsequente Frau. 1970/ 71: Aus Mangel an Beweisen. 1971: Besuch auf einem kleinen Planeten; Die sieben Ohrfeigen [AT/DE]; Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk [part 1-6 – AT/ DE]. 1972: Der Hutmacher; Gasparone [dir,co-scr]; Plaza Fortuna. 1972/73: Eine egoistische Liebe; Geschichten zu zweit. 1973: La belle Epoque; Verwandte sind auch Menschen [dir,scr]; Schwarzwaldmädel [dir,scr]. 1974: Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk [part 7-13 – AT/ DE]. 1975: Spannagl & Sohn [TVS]. 1976: Das chinesische Wunder [FF]; Das kleine Hofkonzert. 1977/78: Mirjam und der Lord vom Alexanderplatz [TVS]. 1978: Der Abschlußtag; Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand [FF – dir,scr]; Der Abschlußtag. 1978/79: Ein Mann für alle Fälle [3 episodes]. 1979: Jane; Nachbarn und andere nette Menschen [DE/AT/CH]. 1980: Das Drehbuch. 1980/81: Leute wie Du und ich [part 2 + 3]. 1981: Gustav Knuth – Ein Mime wird 80 [DO – co-dir]. 1982: So oder so ist das Leben II; Goethes Hermann und Dorothea [act – AT]; Der Garten. 1983: Ein Mann für alle Fälle; Der Mustergatte [dir,scr – DE/AT]; Montagsgeschichten I. 1983/84: Dein Vater kann dir die Welt nicht erklären in einer Stunde. Wolfgang Liebeneiner im Gespräch mit seiner Tochter Johanna [TVD – app].
HARRY LIEDTKE Born October 12, 1882, Königsberg (Germany, now Kaliningrad, Russia) Died April 28, 1945, Bad Saarow-Pieskow (Germany) Playing dapper daredevils, and exuding a winning air of self-confidence, Liedtke was one of German cin-
HARRY LIEDTKE
ema’s first male stars in popular genres encompassing detective serials, action adventures, and comedies. Liedtke initially undertook commercial training and worked as a store assistant, before attending acting classes. He subsequently performed at provincial theatres and Berlin’s Kleines Theater, in addition to spending a season at the New German Theatre in New York. Returning to Germany, he appeared at theatres in Mannheim and Berlin between 1909 and 1916, after which he worked almost exclusively in film. Liedtke’s screen debut was in 1912, and he repeatedly played suave noblemen in Messter-Film productions. From 1915, he appeared in popular Stuart Webbs and Joe Deebs detective adventures directed by Ernst Reicher and Joe May, and took key roles in several of Paul Leni’s early features, such as playing the Handsome Prince in DORNRÖSCHEN (Sleeping Beauty, 1917). Ernst Lubitsch cast him as youthful charmers in burlesques such as DAS FIDELE GEFÄNGNIS (The Merry Jail, 1917) and DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (The Oyster Princess, 1919), and in historical dramas such as MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919) and DAS WEIB DES PHARAO (Pharaoh’s Wife, 1921). After starring in Georg Jacoby’s serial DER MANN OHNE NAMEN (The Man Without a Name, 1920/ 21), adapted from Ewald Gerhard Seelinger’s bestseller ‘Peter Voss, der Millionendieb’ (Peter Voss Who Stole Millions), Liedtke’s other major roles during the 1920s included the eponymous aristocrat in F. W. Murnau’s DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (The Grand Duke’s Finances, 1923), and old-school romantics in Friedrich Zelnik’s DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTEL (The Bohemian Dancer, 1925/ 26) and AN DER SCHÖNEN BLAUEN DONAU (The Beautiful Blue Danube, 1926). Liedtke also starred in a British-German screen version of Noël Coward’s play THE QUEEN WAS IN THE PARLOUR (1927), directed by Graham Cutts. Liedtke’s career faltered with the transition to sound films, since his voice made him sound considerably older. He played an out-of-sorts lady-killer alongside Lilian Harvey in Anatole Litvak’s NIE WIEDER LIEBE (No More Love, 1931), but soon found himself typecast as grey-haired father figures and high-society figures as in Victor Janson’s Dolly Haas vehicle DER PAGE VOM DALMASSE-HOTEL (Pageboy at the Dalmasse Hotel, 1933). He was given a final chance to shine as the head of the family in Heinz Rühmann’s SOPHIENLUND (1942). During the final days of the war, Liedtke and actress-wife Christa Tordy (1902–1945) were killed by advancing Soviet infantrymen. [act – DE] 1912: Die Rache ist mein; Zu spät. 1912/13: Harry Raupach. 1913: Eva; Schuldig; Der wankende Glaube.
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1914: Das Vaterland ruft. 1914/15: Eine Liebesgabe; Über alles die Pflicht!; Der Krieg brachte Frieden. 1915: Meyer und Meier oder Die Kunststopferin; Er soll dein Herr sein; Von Sieben die Häßlichste; Die Tat von damals; Sein erstes Kind; Die Austernperle [SF]; Die Söhne des Grafen Steinfels. 1916: Des Guten zuviel; Der Amateur; Liebe und List [SF]; Die einsame Frau; Das Bild der Ahnfrau; Die Verschollene; Der Schal der Sünde; Die bleiche Renate; Börse und Adel; Leutnant auf Befehl; Wie ich Detektiv wurde; Das rätselhafte Inserat; Arme Eva Maria. 1916/17: Die leere Wasserflasche. 1917: Die Hochzeit im Excentric-Club; Ehre; Lulu; Das fidele Gefängnis; Prima vera; Eine Nacht in der Stahlkammer; Rafaela; Das Rätsel von Bangalor; Dornröschen; Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari. 1918: Der Rodelkavalier; Opfer; Das Mädel vom Ballett; Der Flieger von Görz; Die Augen der Mumie Mâ; Der gelbe Schein; Die blaue Mauritius; Carmen; Mausi. 1918/19: Irrungen; Das Karussell des Lebens; Moral und Sinnlichkeit – Keimendes Leben 3. Teil. 1919: Die Austernprinzessin; Rebellenliebe; Vendetta. Blutrache; Kreuziget sie!; Die Tochter des Mehemed; Madame Dubarry; Tropenblut; Der Tempelräuber; Komtesse Dolly; Im Schatten des Geldes; Retter der Menschheit. 1919/20: So ein Mädel; Die Tänzerin Barberina; Indische Rache; Das einsame Wrack. 1920: Mein Mann, der Nachtredakteur; Der Schauspieler der Herzogin; Der Gefangene. Sklaven des XX. Jahrhunderts; Sumurun. 1920/21: Der Mann ohne Namen [6 parts]. 1921: Das Weib des Pharao; Die Sünden der Mutter. 1921/22: Das Spiel mit dem Weibe. 1922: So sind die Männer. 1922/ 23: Die Fledermaus. 1923: Die Liebe einer Königin; Der Kaufmann von Venedig; Der Seeteufel [2 parts]; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs; Nanon. 1923/24: Die Hermannsschlacht; Ein Traum vom Glück; Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924: Orient. Die Tochter der Wüste; Die Puppenkönigin. 1924/25: Um Recht und Ehre. 1925: Liebe und Trompetenblasen; Die Frau für 24 Stunden; Gräfin Mariza; Der Abenteurer; Die Insel der Träume. 1925/26: Der Mann ohne Schlaf; Die Försterchristl. 1926: Die Wiskottens; Die Welt will belogen sein; An der schönen blauen Donau; Der Feldherrnhügel [DE/AT]; Der Veilchenfresser; Der Soldat der Marie; Kreuzzug des Weibes; Das Mädel auf der Schaukel; Die lachende Grille; Madame wünscht keine Kinder; Nixchen; Eine tolle Nacht. 1926/27: Faschingszauber. 1927: Die Geliebte; Die letzte Nacht / The Queen Was in the Parlour [DE/GB]; Das Fürstenkind; Regine; Die Spielerin; Das Schicksal einer Nacht; Ein Mädel aus dem Volke; Die rollende Kugel; Das Heiratsnest; Wochenendzauber; Der Bettelstudent; Mein Freund Harry. 1927/28: Dragonerliebchen; Amor auf Ski. 1928: Der Herzensphotograph; Großstadtjugend; Robert und Bertram; Das Spiel mit der Liebe; Der moderne Casanova; Der Faschingsprinz; Die Zirkusprinzessin; Ich küsse ihre Hand, Madame. 1928/29: Der Held aller Mädchenträume. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]; Der lustige Witwer; Der schwarze Domino; Der Erzieher meiner Tochter; Vater und Sohn; Die Konkurrenz platzt. 1929/30: Donauwalzer; Delikatessen; O Mädchen, mein Mädchen, wie lieb’ ich Dich!. 1930: Die große Sehnsucht; Der Korvettenkapitän; Der keusche Josef. 1930/31: Der Liebesarzt; … und das ist die Hauptsache. 1931: Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]. 1932: Liebe in Uniform. 1933: Wenn
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am Sonntagabend die Dorfmusik spielt; Der Page vom Dalmasse-Hotel. 1933/34: Zwischen zwei Herzen. 1935: Liebesleute. 1936: Stadt Anatol [MLV]. 1936/37: Gefährliches Spiel. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Preußische Liebesgeschichte. 1941: Quax, der Bruchpilot. 1942: Sophienlund. 1943/44: Der Majoratsherr; Das Konzert.
ALBERT LIEVEN (Fritz Albert Liévin) Born June 23, 1906, Hohenstein (Germany, now Olsztynek, Poland] Died December 16, 1971, Farnham (Surrey, England) Often typecast in international productions as a stereotypical Nazi villain, Lieven maintained a long and prolific career in both Britain and Germany from the 1930s to the early 1970s. The son of a doctor, Lieven started his acting career in the late 1920s at theatres in Gera, Königsberg, and Berlin. His film debut was the military farce ANNEMARIE, DIE BRAUT DER KOMPAGNIE (Annemarie, the Company Bride, 1932), in which he starred as a dashing young ensign. Lieven’s career continued uninterrupted after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, and he became popular portraying impetuous young men and romantic leads in melodramas such as REIFENDE JUGEND (The Growing Youth, 1933), and comedies, including a German version of the perennial British crossdressing farce, CHARLEYS TANTE (Charley’s Aunt, 1934). Lieven also appeared in several multi-language productions (MLVs), including DIE KLUGEN FRAUEN (Wise Women, 1935), the German-language version of Jacques Feyder’s classic LA KERMESSE HÉROÏQUE, which was filmed at the Tobis studios in Paris. Lieven and his Jewish wife Tatiana left Nazi Germany and emigrated to Britain. His first role on the London stage was in 1937 as Prince Ernest of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Laurence Housman’s ‘Victoria Regina’, while in the play’s film version, VICTORIA THE GREAT (1937) his stage role was filled by fellow émigré Walter Rilla. In 1939, Lieven appeared in two theatre productions, RAKE’S PROGRESS and THE DEACON AND THE JEWESS, which count among the first plays to be televised in Britain in their entirety. Following the start of World War II, however, he concentrated his activities on films, playing a seemingly endless gallery of Nazi villains and snarling Prussians, beginning with SPY FOR A DAY (1939), and including Carol Reed’s NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (1940) and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1942/43). During the war, Lieven also joined other émigrés in working for the BBC’s radio propaganda section as a newsreader and reporter.
Occasionally, Lieven managed to escape being typecast, playing French diplomat Talleyrand in THE YOUNG MR. PITT (1942), and a portrait painter in the psychological melodrama THE SEVENTH VEIL (1944/45). Mainly a supporting actor in British productions, the post-war period offered Lieven a number of leading roles, playing opposite Lilli Palmer in the tragic romance BEWARE OF PITY (1945/46), an adaptation of a Stefan Zweig novel, and reprising a role originally made famous by Conrad Veidt in SLEEPING CAR TO TRIESTE (1948), a lacklustre remake of ROME EXPRESS (1932). Following a stint on Broadway in 1948 in a production of Terence Rattigan’s ‘Winslow Boy’, and an international stage tour, Lieven continued appearing in British films, while simultaneously resuming his German film (and increasingly television) career from the early 1950s onwards. In West German productions, Lieven initially went back to his pre-war image with romantic leads in films including KLETTERMAXE (Spring-Heeled Max), and FRITZ UND FRIEDERIKE (Fritz and Friederike, both 1952), but began to portray more ambiguous and outright villainous characters. Notable films include one of G.W. Pabsts’s final films, DAS BEKENTNIS DER INA KAHR (Ina Kahr’s Confession, 1954) and Helmut Käutner’s DES TEUFELS GENERAL (The Devil’s General, 1954/55). Meanwhile, on British television, Lieven took on the lead role in Rudolph Cartier’s adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s stage play THE CAPTAIN OF KOEPENICK (1957/58). On the big screen, Lieven was reunited with his earlier co-star Lilli Palmer in the wartime drama CONSPIRACY OF HEARTS (1959/ 60), and he played the German commandant in the all-star blockbuster THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1960/61). Apart from a few appearances in the West German Edgar Wallace series and occasional international productions, television began to dominate Lieven’s schedule in the 1960s, both in Germany and the UK where his appearances included a guest role in an episode of THE AVENGERS. Another important collaboration with Cartier was the Holocaust drama DR. KORCZAK AND THE CHILDREN (1962). He gained particular recognition in several adaptations of Francis Durbridge crime thrillers, made for West German television. His last roles included a TV adaptation of the Kafka novel AMERIKA ODER DER VERSCHOLLENE (America, or the Lost One, 1969), and Helmut Käutner’s remake of the nostalgic backto-school comedy DIE FEUERZANGENBOWLE (The Hot Wine Punch, 1970). [act – DE] 1932: Annemarie, die Braut der Kompagnie; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; Kampf um Blond. Mädchen, die spurlos verschwinden. 1933: Die vom Niederrhein. 1933: Reifende Jugend. 1933/34: Es tut sich was
PETER LILIENTHAL um Mitternacht. 1934: Charleys Tante; Krach um Jolanthe; Fräulein Liselott; Eine Siebzehnjährige; Glückspilze; Hermine und die sieben Aufrechten / Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten [DE/CH]. 1935: Mach’ mich glücklich [MLV]; Viktoria; Die klugen Frauen [MLV – FR]. 1935/36: Kater Lampe. 1936: Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung; Stülke und Lehmann [SF]; Aufmachen, Kriminalpolizei! [SF]. 1937/38: Lausbuben [SF]. [act – GB] 1939: Rake’s Progress [TV]; The Deacon and the Jewess [TV]; Spy for a Day. 1940: The Big Blockade; Night Train to Munich; For Freedom; Convoy; Let George Do It!; Neutral Port. 1941: Mr. Proudfoot Shows a Light [SF]; Jeannie. 1942: The Young Mr. Pitt. 1942/43: The New Lot. A Military Training Film [SF]; The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. 1943: Yellow Canary. 1943/44: English Without Tears. 1944/45: The Seventh Veil. 1945/46: Beware of Pity. 1946/47: Frieda. 1948: Sleeping Car to Trieste. 1949: Marry Me; The Queen of Spades [TV]. 1950/51: The Dark Light. 1951: Hotel Sahara; Die Dubarry [DE]. [act – DE] 1952: Klettermaxe; Fritz und Friederike. 1952/ 53: Desperate Moment [GB]. 1953: Die Rose von Stambul; Geliebtes Leben. 1954: Heimweh nach Deutschland; Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr; Frühlingslied [DE/IT]. 1954/55: Das Lied von Kaprun / Das Lied der Hohen Tauern [DE/AT]; Des Teufels General. 1955: Reifende Jugend; Der Fischer vom Heiligensee; Nacht der Entscheidung. 1955/56: Loser Takes All [GB]. 1956: Londra chiama Polo Nord [IT]. 1956/ 57: El batallón de las sombras [ES]. [act – DE – TV] 1957: Frauenarzt Dr. Bertram [FF]; Mammis Wanderjahre; Die liebe Familie. 1957/58: Television World Theatre: The Captain of Koepenick [GB]; Alle Sünden dieser Erde [FF]; … und abends in die Scala [FF]. 1958: Die Abiturientin; Ein idealer Gatte. 1958/59: Subway in the Sky [FF – GB]. 1959: Die Andere; Der Patriot. 1959/60: Conspiracy of Hearts [FF – GB]. 1960: Twentieth Century Theatre: Glorious Morning [GB]; Schachnovelle [FF]; Foxhole in Cairo [FF – GB]. 1960/61: Frau Irene Besser [FF]; The Guns of Navarone [FF – GB]. 1961: ITV Play of the Week: Doctor Everyman’s Hour [GB]; Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen [MLV – DE/GB]; The Devil’s Daffodil [MLV – GB]; Cross of Iron [GB]; Das Halstuch. 1961/62: Lockende Tiefe; The Devil’s Agent / Im Namen des Teufels [FF – IE/DE]. 1962: Mystery Submarine [FF – GB]; Der Kronanwalt; Studio 4: Dr. Korczak and the Children [GB]; Freddy und das Lied der Südsee [FF]; Death Trap [FF – GB]. 1963: Man of the World: In the Picture [GB]; The Victors [FF – GB]. 1963: Dumala; Night Express [GB]; Festival: Stalingrad [GB]; Death Drums Along the River [FF – GB]; Der Mann nebenan. 1963/64: Amouren. 1964: Briefe eines toten Dichters [AT]; Legende einer Liebe; Das Verrätertor [MLV – GB/DE]; Traitor’s Gate [MLV – GB/DE]; Die Schlüssel. 1964/65: R3: The Patriot [GB]. 1965: Tatort; City of Fear [FF – GB]; African Gold [FF – ZA]; Willkommen in Altamont. 1965/66: The Avengers: A Surfeit of H2O [GB]. 1966: Samba [AT]; Hobby; Die Flucht [AT]. 1967: Canale Grande [AT]; Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte. 1968: Kidnap – Die Entführung des Lindbergh-Babys; Der Gorilla von Soho [FF]. 1969: Dynamit [AT]; Amerika oder Der Verschollene. 1969/70: Wie ein Blitz; Die Kriminalerzählung. 1970: Wer ist der Nächste?; Die Feuerzangenbowle [FF]; Cher Antoine oder Die
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verfehlte Liebe; Tiefe blaue See. 1971: Die heilige Johanna [AT/DE].
PETER LILIENTHAL Born November 27, 1929, Berlin (Germany) The work of director Peter Lilienthal has charted an independent course since the late 1960s, combining intimate, character-driven narratives with sophisticated cinematic stylisation. Most of his films communicate clear socio-political messages, and have often been concerned with developments in world politics. Emigrating to Uruguay with his Jewish parents in 1939, Lilienthal attended Montevideo University and gained experience in making shorts as a member of its student film club. He received a grant to attend the IDHEC Film School in Paris in 1956, and then transferred to Berlin’s College of Fine Arts, where he studied painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Joining television studio SWF in Baden-Baden as a directorial and production assistant in 1959, he graduated to full-time director in 1961. Gaining recognition for his highly stylised TV adaptations of absurdist plays including Fernando Arrabal’s GUERNICA and S³awomir Mro¿ek’s STRIPTEASE (both 1963), Lilienthal established himself as a freelance director in West Berlin. His first theatrical feature, MALATESTA (1969), explored questions of political violence through the story of Italian anarchist Enrico Malatesta, and won two German Film Awards. In 1971, Lilienthal was among the co-founders of the Filmverlag der Autoren production and distribution company. His widely acclaimed ‘South American trilogy’ – shot on location in Portugal and Nicaragua – comprised LA VICTORIA (1973), charting a hitherto apolitical female office worker’s decision to support Chile’s Unidad Popular party; ES HERRSCHT RUHE IM LAND (Calm Prevails Over the Country, 1975), documenting a rural Chilean community’s stifled disquiet at the regime’s military coup and brutal clampdown on opposition; and DER AUFSTAND (The Uprising, 1979/80), following a former member of Nicaraguan dictator Somoza’s National Guard as he gradually shifts allegiance to the Sandinista rebel movement. In Germany, Lilienthal shot HAUPTLEHRER HOFER (Schoolmaster Hofer, 1974/75), about a teacher’s efforts to reform archaic social hierarchies in an Alsace community at the beginning of the twentieth century; and DAVID (1978/79), about a Jewish boy’s experiences in Berlin between 1933 and 1945. Lilienthal’s subsequent protagonists were bound up less in major historical events than in the trials of everyday life. He won German Film Awards for DEAR MR. WONDERFUL (1981/82), starring Joe Pesci as a
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New York entertainer, and for DAS AUTOGRAMM (The Autograph, 1983/84), which explored the solidarity of the oppressed in Latin America. Appointed chair of the Film and Media Department at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) in 1985, Lilienthal moved back primarily into television; notable productions included DAS SCHWEIGEN DES DICHTERS (The Poet’s Silence, 1985/86), about an author coping with his disabled son and conquering his writer’s block; ANGESICHTS DER WÄLDER (Facing the Forests, 1993–95), a parable about the Arab-Israeli conflict which was co-produced with Israel; and DENK ICH AN DEUTSCHLAND – EIN FREMDER (I Think About Germany – A Stranger, 2001), an autobiographical exploration of the filmmaker’s experiences as a German Jew. The documentary CAMILO – DER LANGE WEG ZUM UNGEHORSAM (Camilo – The Long Way to Disobedience, 2007) chronicled the trajectory of an US soldier of Nicaraguan descent, and his gradual development towards pacifism as result of his experiences during the Iraq war. Working regularly with New German cinéastes throughout his career, Lilienthal has appeared in several films by friends and colleagues, including Wim Wenders’s DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND (The American Friend, 1976/77). [dir – DE – TV] 1958: Studie 23 [AG – co-dir]. 1959: Im Handumdrehen verdient [TVD]. 1960: Die Nachbarskinder. 1961: Biographie eines Schokoladentages; Der 18. Geburtstag. 1962: Stück für Stück; Picknick im Felde [dir,scr]. 1962/63: Schule der Geläufigkeit. 1963: Striptease; Guernica – Jede Stunde verletzt und die letzte tötet [dir,scr]. 1964: Marl – Das Porträt einer Stadt [TVD]; Das Martyrium des Peter O’Hey [dir,co-scr]; Seraphine – oder die wundersame Geschichte der Tante Flo [dir,scr]. 1965/66: Abschied; Unbeschriebenes Blatt. 1966: Der Beginn [dir,co-scr]; Abgründe. 1. Robert / 2. Claire [dir,coscr]. 1966/67: Der Findling [FF – act]. 1967: Verbrechen mit Vorbedacht [dir,co-scr]. 1967/68: Tramp [dir,scr]. 1968/69: Horror [dir,scr]. 1969: Malatesta [FF – dir,co-scr]. 1970: Ich, Montag – Ich, Dienstag – Ich, Mittwoch – Ich, Donnerstag [TVD – dir,scr]. 1970/71: Die Sonne angreifen [dir,scr]. 1971: Noon in Tunesia [TVD – dir,scr]; Jakob von Gunten [dir,co-scr]; Start Nr. 9 [TVD – dir,pro]. 1972: Tatort: Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße [act]; Shirley Chisholm for President [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1973: La Victoria [dir,co-scr]. 1974/75: Hauptlehrer Hofer [dir,co-scr, pro]. [dir – DE] 1975: Es herrscht Ruhe im Land [dir,co-scr,pro – DE/AT]. 1976/77: Kadir [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Der amerikanische Freund / L’Ami américain [act – DE/FR]. 1977/78: Aus der Ferne sehe ich dieses Land [act]. 1979: David [dir,scr, pro]; Milo Milo [act – DE/GR]. 1979/80: Der Aufstand [dir,co-scr,des]; Oye Raimundo, adónde vas? / Kindheit in Amacueca – Oye Raimundo, adónde vas? [pro – MX/DE]. 1980: Typisch Eddie [TVD – app]. 1981/82: Dear Mr. Won-
derful. 1982/83: Der Platzanweiser. Porträt eines Kinomanen [act]. 1983: Julius geht nach Amerika [TV – act]. 1983/84: Das Autogramm / L’autographe [dir,scr,des – DE/FR]. 1985/86: Das Schweigen des Dichters [TV – dir, scr]. 1987/88: Der Radfahrer von San Cristóbal [dir,coscr]. 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat. 8. Die Hochzeit [TV – act]. 1990: Die vier Tugenden: Gerechtigkeit [TV – dir,scr]. 1991: Don Giovanni oder Der Bestrafte Wüstling [TV – dir,scr]. 1993-95: Angesichts der Wälder [dir,scr – DE/IL]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]; Wasserman. Der singende Hund [TV – dir,scr]. 2000: Der Atemkünstler [SF – scr]. 2001: Starbuck Holger Meins [DO – app]; Denk ich an Deutschland: Ein Fremder [TVD – dir,scr]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2006-08: Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app]. 2007: Camilo – Der lange Weg zum Ungehorsam [DO – dir,scr – DE/ BE]. 2008: Michael Ballhaus – Eine Reise durch mein Leben [TVD – app].
LEOPOLD LINDTBERG (Leopold Lemberger) Born June 1, 1902, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died April 18, 1984, Sils-Maria (Switzerland) Featuring specifically Swiss characters and settings, the films of Austrian-born émigré Lindtberg created both an identity and an international profile for Swiss cinema in the late 1930s and 1940s. After studying acting at the Vienna Conservatory, Lindtberg performed at theatres in Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Bielefeld. He debuted as a stage director at Erwin Piscator’s experimental theatre in Berlin, and directed the short film WENN ZWEI SICH STREITEN (When Two Quarrel, the Third Rejoices, 1932). When the Nazis seized power, he emigrated to Switzerland, and produced over 120 plays at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus theatre prior to the end of World War II. In Switzerland Lindtberg’s breakthrough film was an adaptation of Robert Faesli’s novel FÜSILIR WIPF (Fusilier Wipf, 1938), co-directed with Hermann Haller. Alongside films by Max Haufler and Hans Trommer, it inaugurated a string of productions intended to bolster Swiss national identity against Nazi pan-Germanism. In Lindtberg’s adaptation of Friedrich Glauser’s crime thriller WACHTMEISTER STUDER (Police Constable Studer, 1939) the central hero, a free-thinking local policeman, came to embody Swiss national values. The film starred Heinrich Gretler, whom Lindtberg also cast in another patriotic drama, LANDAMMANN STAUFFACHER (State Official Stauffacher, 1941). Other films that Lindtberg directed during World War II included screen versions of Gottfried Keller’s novel DIE MISSBRAUCHTEN LIEBESBRIEFE (The Misappropriated Love Letters, 1940), and of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s novella DER SCHUSS VON DER KANZEL (The Shot from the Pulpit, 1942). The narrative of DIE LETZTE CHANCE (The Last Chance,
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1944/45) was comprised of tales of refugees escaping to neutral Switzerland under dramatic circumstances. The film won both a Golden Globe and the Peace Award at Cannes. After the war had ended, Lindtberg shot another Glauser adaptation with Gretler in the starring role, MATTO REGIERT (Madness Reigns, 1946/47), and addressed immediate post-war concerns in a number of films. These included Swiss-American co-productions SWISS TOUR (Four Days Leave, 1949) and DIE VIER IM JEEP (Four in a Jeep, 1950/51), as well as Swiss-British feature UNSER DORF (The Village, 1952/53), about war orphans from various nations being taken in at a Swiss children’s home in the Alps. This latter film marked the end of Lindtberg’s lengthy association with Lazar Wechsler’s production company Praesens-Film, as well as the end of his cinema career. Backers for further projects were not forthcoming, and he spent the rest of his life directing for television and focussing on stage work in Zurich and Vienna. [dir – CH] 1927: Hoppla, wir leben! [ass-dir – DE]. 1932: Wenn zwei sich streiten [SF – dir,co-scr – DE]. 1934/35: Jä – soo! 1938: Füsilier Wipf. 1939: Der schönste Tag meines Lebens [SF]; Wachtmeister Studer. 1940: Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe [dir,co-scr]. 1941: Landammann Stauffacher [dir,scr]. 1942: Der Schuß von der Kanzel [dir,scr]. 1943/44: Marie-Louise. 1944/45: Die letzte Chance. 1946/47: Matto regiert [dir,co-scr]. 1947/48: Die Gezeichneten / The Search [ide,sma – CH/US]. 1949: Swiss Tour [dir,scr]. 1950/51: Die Vier im Jeep. 1952/53: Unser Dorf. Pestalozzidorf / The Village [dir,co-scr – CH/GB]. [dir – AT – TV] 1955: Die Schule der Väter [DE]. 1956: Einen Jux will er sich machen [DO]. 1956/57: Maria Stuart. 1957: Einen Jux will er sich machen [DO]. 1958: Vorposten der Zivilisation [SD – dir,scr – CH]; König Hirsch. 1958/59: Maria Stuart [DO]. 1962: Medea [scr]; Lumpazivagabundus oder Das liederliche Dreieck [dir,scr]; Das Mädel aus der Vorstadt. 1964: Die letzten Tage der Menschheit [dir,scr]; Nathan der Weise. 1967: Kranichtanz [CH/DE]; Der Meteor [DE/CH]. 1970: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg [DE]; Jedermann [DE/AT]; Ein Mann seltener Art. Aussagen über Hans Otto [TVD – app – DD]. 1972: Ein Stern geht auf aus Jaakob [DE]. 1973: Der Kommissar: Herr und Frau Brandes [DE]; Die beiden Nachtwandler oder Das Notwendige und das Überflüssige. 1973/74: Freude am Spiel [TVD – app – CH]. 1974: Derrick: Johanna [DE]; Rosmersholm; Derrick: Kein schöner Sonntag [DE]. 1977: Herausforderung des Lebens [TVD – CH]; Liebesgeschichten und Heiratssachen. 1979: Kampl. 1984: Leopold Lindtberg im Gespräch mit Roy Oppenheim [TVD – app – DE]; Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift [act].
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THEO LINGEN (Franz Theodor Schmitz) Born June 10, 1903, Hanover (Germany) Died November 10, 1978, Vienna (Austria) During a career lasting fifty years, popular comedian Lingen specialised in punctilious servants, obsequious officials, and snobbish aristocrats, and drew heavily in his performance style on the comic potential of his tall, gawky frame, big nose, and squeaking nasal voice. Lingen adopted his professional name (after his father’s birthplace) while working in provincial theatre during the early 1920s. He joined Frankfurt/Main’s Neues Theater in 1926, and in Berlin played Macheath in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’ in 1929. Lingen’s first film was Anatole Litvak’s comedy DOLLY MACHT KARRIERE (Dolly Gets Ahead, 1930), and he subsequently played likeable rogues in Fritz Lang’s M (1931) and DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1932/ 33). From 1933 he worked exclusively in comedy and, teamed with the short and corpulent Austrian comedian Hans Moser as his perennial antagonist or partner-in-crime in over two dozen films, was the very embodiment of Prussian precision. As Lingen’s career progressed, the jumpiness of his early characterisations became increasingly caricatured, so that his later performances bordered on hysteria. In 1936 Lingen made his directorial debut with four shorts based on the legend of medieval prangster Till Eulenspiegel, and went on to direct eighteen feature films, including a high-tempo version of Paul Lincke’s operetta FRAU LUNA (Mistress Moon, 1941) starring Lizzi Waldmüller. He also wrote scripts and adapted several of his own plays for the screen. One of Lingen’s biggest hits was playing the dual role of an industrialist and his butler in the film version of his stage comedy JOHANN (1942), directed by Robert A. Stemmle. Adopting Austrian nationality after World War II, Lingen toured Argentina, Switzerland and West Germany in the 1950s, and played in a wide range of films, including E. W. Emo’s remake of the early sound film UM EINE NASENLÄNGE (By a Nose, 1949) and the sporting comedy DER THEODOR IM FUSSBALLTOR (Theodor the Goalie, 1950); adaptations of farces by Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach, such as Karl Georg Külb’s DIE VERTAGTE HOCHZEITSNACHT (Honeymoon-on-Hold, 1953); and Heimatfilms like Luigi Comencini’s HEIDI (1952). Lingen was occasionally offered straight parts in television dramas, such as in Ludwig Cremer’s adaptation of Lessing’s MINNA VON BARNHELM (1963), while he continued to appear in variety shows, sketch programmes, and sitcoms into the late 1970s.
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He was married to singer Marianne Zoff (1893–1984), with their actress-daughter Ursula Lingen (b. 1928) debuting in her father’s HIN UND HER (To and Fro, 1947).The couple also raised Zoff’s daughter from her marriage to Bertolt Brecht, actress Hanne Hiob (1923–2009). Lingen published his memoirs in 1963. [act – DE] 1930: Dolly macht Karriere; Zwei Krawatten; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci; Ins Blaue hinein … [SF]; Die Firma heiratet. 1931: M [MLV]; Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin; Zwei himmelblaue Augen; Ronny [MLV]. 1931/32: Der Frauendiplomat; Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Ein toller Einfall [MLV]; Moderne Mitgift; Mein Name ist Lampe [SF]; Das Testament des Cornelius Gulden; Flucht nach Nizza; Friederike; Zigeuner der Nacht [MLV]; Der Orlow; Das Abenteuer einer schönen Frau; Im Bann des Eulenspiegels; Nur ein Viertelstündchen [SF]; Der große Bluff [MLV]; Marion, das gehört sich nicht [MLV]; Eine Stadt steht Kopf; So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht [DE/AT]; Welle 4711 [SF]. 1932/33: Meine Frau – seine Frau [SF]; Und wer küßt mich? [MLV]; Die kleine Schwindlerin; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]; Gipfelstürmer. 1933: Liebe muß verstanden sein; Kleiner Mann – was nun?; Wie werde ich energisch? [SF]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; Zwei im Sonnenschein; Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt; Gutgehendes Geschäft zu verkaufen [SF]; Höllentempo; Kleines Mädel – großes Glück; Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin [MLV]; Keine Angst vor Liebe; Das Lied vom Glück; Die Goldgrube [SF]; Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs; Schlagerpartie [SF]; Ein Mädel wirbelt durch die Welt; Konjunkturritter; Das Blumenmädchen vom Grand-Hotel [MLV]. 1933/34: Ich kenn’ Dich nicht und liebe Dich [MLV]; Es tut sich was um Mitternacht; Der Doppelgänger; Csibi, der Fratz [AT]; Schön ist es, verliebt zu sein. 1934: Die Abschieds-Symphonie [SF]; Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV – ass-dir,act]; … heute Abend bei mir!; Herr oder Diener? [SF]; Ein Walzer für Dich; Der Doppelbräutigam [MLV – DE/CS]; Gern hab’ ich die Frau’n geküßt; Liebe dumme Mama; Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Ich heirate meine Frau; Ich sehne mich nach Dir; Ihr größter Erfolg; Petersburger Nächte; Die Katz’ im Sack [MLV – FR]. 1934/35: Winternachtstraum; Der Schlafwagenkontrolleur [MLV]; Der Himmel auf Erden [AT]. 1935: Ein falscher Fuffziger; Held einer Nacht [MLV – CS]; Wer wagt – gewinnt!; Das Einmaleins der Liebe; Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; Im weißen Rößl [AT/DE]; Der Ammenkönig; Der Kurier des Zaren [MLV – FR/DE]. 1935/36: Wer zuletzt küßt … [AT]; Die Entführung. 1936: Opernring [AT]; Der verkannte Lebemann; Wie Eulenspiegel zu Marburg den Landgrafen malte [SF – dir,co-scr,act]; Wie Eulenspiegel ein Urteil spricht [SF – dir,co-scr,act]; Fräulein Veronika / Der Schlaumeier [CH/AT]; Wie Eulenspiegel den Neunmalweisen Rede und Antwort steht [SF – dir,co-scr, lyr,act]; Ein Hochzeitstraum; Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich; Till Eulenspiegel: Wie Eulenspiegel ein Urteil spricht [SF – dir,co-scr,lyr,act]; Wie Eulenspiegel sich einmal erbot, zu fliegen [SF – dir,co-scr,lyr,act]; Es geht um mein Leben. 1936/37: Der Mann, von dem man spricht [AT]; Premiere [AT]; Gefährliches Spiel. 1937: Heiratsinstitut Ida & Co.; Die Austernlilli; Fremdenheim Filoda; Unentschul-
digte Stunde [AT]; Zauber der Bohème [AT]; Die verschwundene Frau [AT]; Der Tiger von Eschnapur [MLV]; Das indische Grabmal [MLV]. 1937/38: Immer, wenn ich glücklich bin … [AT]; Finale [AT]; Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Diskretion – Ehrensache!; Der Optimist; Dir gehört mein Herz [MLV – IT/DE]; Tanz auf dem Vulkan; Marionette [MLV – IT]. 1938/ 39: Drunter und drüber; Das Abenteuer geht weiter. 1939: Marguerite: 3 [dir,act]; Hochzeitsreise zu dritt; Opernball; Der ungetreue Eckehart; Rote Mühle. 1939/40: Ihr Privatsekretär; Was wird hier gespielt? [dir,sma,act]. 1940: Das Fräulein von Barnhelm; Herz modern möbliert [dir,act]; Rosen in Tirol; Sieben Jahre Pech. 1940/41: Hauptsache, glücklich! [dir]; Dreimal Hochzeit. 1941: Frau Luna [dir, act]; Was geschah in dieser Nacht? [dir,act]; Sonntagskinder. 1941/42: Wiener Blut; 7 Jahre Glück [MLV – IT/DE]; Sette anni di felicità [MLV – IT/DE]. 1942: Liebeskomödie [dir,act]; Johann [sma,act]. 1942/43: Tolle Nacht [dir,act]. 1943: Das Lied der Nachtigall [dir,scr,act]. 1943/44: Es fing so harmlos an [dir,coscr,act]. 1944: Schuß um Mitternacht. 1944/45: Philine [dir,act]; Glück muß man haben [dir,co-scr,act]; Liebesheirat [dir,co-scr,act]. 1946: Tanzrausch [HU]; XIV. Renée [HU]. 1947: Wiener Melodien [AT – co-dir]; Hin und her [AT – dir,co-scr,act]. 1949: Nichts als Zufälle; Um eine Nasenlänge. 1950: Der Theodor im Fußballtor [DE/AT]; Es schlägt 13! [AT]. 1950/ 51: Die Mitternachtsvenus. 1951: Hilfe, ich bin unsichtbar!; Durch Dick und Dünn [dir,co-scr,act]. 1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad; Pension Schöller; Schäm’ Dich, Brigitte! [AT]; Man lebt nur einmal; Heidi [CH]. 1953: Heute nacht passiert’s; Die vertagte Hochzeitsnacht; La figlia del reggimento [MLV – IT]; Die Tochter der Kompanie [MLV – IT]; Heimlich, still und leise; Hurra – ein Junge! 1954: Räubergeschichte [TV]. 1954/55: Heidi und Peter [CH]. 1955: Wie werde ich Filmstar? [dir,act]; Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh’n; Die Wirtin zur Goldenen Krone [AT – dir,act]. 1955/56: Ein Herz und eine Seele [AT]. 1956: Ein tolles Hotel [AT]; Das Liebesleben des schönen Franz [AT]; Meine Tante – Deine Tante; Opernball [AT]; Der Mustergatte; Wo die Lerche singt [AT]; Halluzinationen [TV]; August, der Halbstarke [AT]. 1956/57: Vater macht Karriere [DE/AT]. 1957: … und die Liebe lacht dazu; Die Unschuld vom Lande; Familie Schimek [AT]; Mit Rosen fängt die Liebe an [AT]; Drei Mann auf einem Pferd; Egon, der Frauenheld; Die Beine von Dolores; Almenrausch und Edelweiß [AT]. 1957/58: Was Ihr wollt [TV]. 1958: Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume [AT]; Ein Lied geht um die Welt; Eine Reise ins Glück; Die Sklavenkarawane / Caravana de esclavos [DE/ES]; König Hirsch [TV – AT]. 1959: Die Nacht vor der Premiere; Die gute Sieben [TV]; Der Löwe von Babylon / En las ruinas de Babilonia [DE/ES]; Die Gans von Sedan / Sans tambour ni trompette [DE/FR]. 1960: Pension Schöller; Sie können’s mir glauben [TV – dir,act]; Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben; Der Teufel hat gut lachen [CH]. 1960/61: Die Kassette [TV]. 1961: Bei Pichler stimmt die Kasse nicht [co-scr,act]. 1962: Die Schule der Ehe (II) [TV – dir,act]. 1963: Berlin-Melodie [TV]; Die Schule der Ehe [TV – AT]; Der Musterknabe [AT]; Minna von Barnhelm [TV]. 1964: Das alte Hotel [TVS – AT]; König Cymbelin [TV – AT]; Kolportage [TV – AT]; Tonio Kröger. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Ge-
DIETRICH LOHMANN spräch mit Theo Lingen [TVD]; Don Juan oder Die Liebe zur Geometrie [TV]; Die fromme Helene. 1966: Schwarzer Peter [TV]. 1967: Das große Glück [AT]; Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche; Der Vogelhändler [TV]. 1967/68: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 1. Zur Hölle mit den Paukern. 1968: Wenn die kleinen Veilchen blühen [TV – DE/AT]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 2. Zum Teufel mit der Penne; Herbst [TV]; Was ihr wollt [TV]; Donaug’schichten [TVS – AT]. 1968/69: Königin einer Nacht [TV]. 1969: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 3. Pepe, der Paukerschreck; Christoph Kolumbus oder die Entdeckung Amerikas [TV]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 4. Hurra, die Schule brennt. 1970: Johann Strauß und seine Zeit [TV – AT]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 5. Wir hau’n die Pauker in die Pfanne; Die Feuerzangenbowle. 1970/71: Wer zuletzt lacht, lacht am besten. 1971: Tante Trude aus Buxtehude; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 6. Morgen fällt die Schule aus; Hilfe, die Verwandten kommen; Wenn mein Schätzchen auf die Pauke haut; Ball im Savoy [TV]; Die tollen Tanten schlagen zu. 1972: Betragen ungenügend!; Hauptsache Ferien; Immer Ärger mit Hochwürden. 1973: So’n Theater [TV]; Orpheus in der Unterwelt [TV]. 1973/74: Die Powenzbande [TV]. 1974: Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies [TV]; Der Monddiamant [TV]; Im Hause des Kommerzienrates [TV]. 1974/75: Hoftheater [TVS]. 197476: Klimbim [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1975: Tristan [TV]; Beschlossen und verkündet [TVS]; Damals wie heute [TV]; Schlagerfestival 1925 [TV – voi]; Der Geheimnisträger. 1975-77: Lady Dracula. 1976: Lingen über Lingen [TVD – scr,app]. 1976-78: Zwei himmlische Töchter und Die Gimmicks [TVS]. 1977: Es dirigiert: Theo Lingen [TV – app]; Egon Friedell – Genie, Kauz und Dilettant [TVD]. 1977/ 78: Kleine Geschichten mit großen Tieren. [TV]; Wilhelm Busch – Die Trickfilmparade: Max und Moritz und andere Streiche [ANI – voi]. 1977-80: Pariser Geschichten [TVS]. 1979/80: Unsere heile Welt [TVS]. 1993: Theo Lingen [TVD – app]. 1999: Komiker wurde ich nur aus Versehen [TVD – app].
CAROLINE LINK Born June 2, 1964, Bad Nauheim (West Germany) Caroline Link established herself as a director from the mid-1990s onwards with a series of films that became audience hits, both domestically and abroad. Link’s films are examples of a quietly assertive classical narrative cinema, well-made, well-acted films with compelling stories, and often concerned with the theme of childhood. After leaving school, Link spent a year in the United States, before gaining practical experience at the Bavaria film and television studios, working as an assistant of director Dominik Graf, who would later become her private partner. After making a short documentary about cinematographer Gernot Roll she studied film direction at the Hochschule für Film- und Fernsehen in Munich from 1986. Following a short, BUNTE BLUMEN (Colourful Flowers, 1986), she co-directed the documentary GLÜCK
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ZUM ANFASSEN (Tactile Happiness, 1989) about the encounter of a pop idol and his fan. She subsequently worked as scriptwriter and/or assistant director for TV series such as DER FAHNDER (The Investigator), and directed the children’s film KALLE DER TRÄUMER (Kalle the Dreamer, 1992). Her big screen debut, JENSEITS DER STILLE (Beyond the Silence, 1996) told the story, spanning over two decades, of a young musician and her relationship with her parents who are both deaf. The sensitively acted and narrated film won wide acclaim, and became a surprise success with audiences. PÜNKTCHEN UND ANTON (Annaluise and Anton, 1998/99) was a modernised version of Erich Kästner’s children’s classic, which again became a boxoffice hit. NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA (Nowhere in Africa, 2001) continued this streak, becoming the biggest domestic box-office success in Germany of its year, outclassing competition from Hollywood blockbusters. A historical drama, based on an autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig and shot on location in Africa, it told the story of a Jewish family who in 1938 emigrates to Kenya. Owing to its beautiful images, engaging story, and strong performances, the film won the Oscar for best foreign film at the Academy Awards in Hollywood, the first German film to win this accolade since Volker Schlöndorff’s DIE BLECHTROMMEL (The Tin Drum, 1978/79). IM WINTER EIN JAHR (A Year in Winter, 2007/08) was an intimately observed portrait of a family coming to terms with the tragic death of a teenage son. It received a German Film Award in Silver in 2009. [dir,scr – DE] 1985: Gernot Roll – Porträt eines Kameramanns [SD]. 1986: Bunte Blumen [SF]. 1989: Glück zum Anfassen [SD – co-dir,scr]; Sommertage [TV]. 1990/91: Der Fahnder: Tim [TV – scr]; Der Fahnder: Das Versprechen / Bis ans Ende der Nacht / Baal [TV – ass-dir]. 1992: Kalle der Träumer [TV]. 1993/94: Spurlos [SF – dir]. 1995: Die Kunst ist weiblich? [TVD – app]. 1996: Emmeran [TVS – 4 episodes]; Jenseits der Stille [dir,co-scr]. 1998/99: Pünktchen und Anton. 2001: Nirgendwo in Afrika. 2007: Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]. 2007/08: Im Winter ein Jahr.
DIETRICH LOHMANN Born March 9, 1943, Schnepfenthal (Germany) Died November 14, 1997, Los Angeles (California, USA) One of the stylistically most influential and innovative cinematographers working in New German Cinema, Lohmann subsequently found himself much in demand in Hollywood. Lohmann started out as a trainee with production company Olympia-Film in Munich. He then trained
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to become a film technician at Berlin’s College of Photography, Optics and Film, and by 1967/68 was assistant to cameraman Thomas Mauch on films by Werner Herzog and Alexander Kluge. Through Kluge, Lohmann became connected with the Institute of Filmmaking in Ulm, where he worked as cameraman on several productions, including Ula Stöckl’s debut film 9 LEBEN HAT DIE KATZE (The Cat Has Nine Lives) and Edgar Reitz’s CARDILLAC (both 1968). The following year, he shot Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s first feature, LIEBE IST KÄLTER ALS DER TOD (Love is Colder than Death), and the two collaborated on a further thirteen productions over the next three years, consisting of eight features, three television films, the five-part mini-series ACHT STUNDEN SIND KEIN TAG (Eight Hours are Not a Day, 1972), as well as the small-screen version of Fassbinder’s stage play BREMER FREIHEIT (Bremen Freedom, 1972). From 1971, Lohmann lectured at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin, and at the documentary department of the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFFM) in Munich. At the same time, he consolidated his reputation in New German Cinema through work with Nikos Perakis, Alf Brustellin, Bernhard Sinkel, and Robert Van Ackeren, as well as with Hans Jürgen Syberberg. After 1977, Lohmann also worked with Austrian director Peter Patzak, both on cinema and television films and on numerous episodes of the whimsical detective series pastiche KOTTAN ERMITTELT (Kottan Investigates). While still photographing European television productions such as Véra Belmont’s MILENA (The Lover, 1989/90) and Andrew Birkin’s SALZ AUF UNSERER HAUT (Salt on Our Skin / Desire, 1991/92), Lohmann began to work increasingly in Hollywood from the mid-1980s, not only on productions helmed by German directors, such as Carl Schenkel’s KNIGHT MOVES (1991) and IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS (1996), but also on major television productions including director Dan Curtis’s mini-series WAR AND REMEMBRANCE (1986–88). Remaining active until shortly before his death from leukaemia in 1997, Lohmann had become a soughtafter cinematographer both for low-budget art films such as Chantal Akerman’s UN DIVAN À NEW YORK (A Couch in New York, 1995) and for blockbusters such as Mimi Leder’s THE PEACEMAKER (1997) and DEEP IMPACT (1998). [cam – DE] 1967: Lebenszeichen [ass-cam]; Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos [ass-cam]. 1967/68: Letzte Worte [SF – ass-cam]. 1968: Gardemädchen [SF]; Klaus [co-cam]; Das Blumenmädchen [SF]; 9 Leben hat die Katze; Maßnahmen gegen Fanatiker [SF]; Cardillac. 1968/69: Die Geschäftsfreunde [SF – co-cam]. 1969: Ciao Onassis; Tana; Liebe ist kälter als der Tod; Katzelmacher; Baal [TV]. 1969/
70: Ein großer graublauer Vogel / Un grosso uccello grigio azzurro [DE/IT]; Götter der Pest; Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen [cam]; Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? 1969/77: ‘Zu böser Schlacht schleich ich heut nacht so bang –’ [cocam]. 1969-71: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte [co-cam]. 1970: Rio das Mortes; Weg vom Fenster [TV]; Der amerikanische Soldat; Die Niklashauser Fart [TV]; Fassbinder produziert: Film Nr. 8 [TVD – app]; Pioniere in Ingolstadt [TV]. 1971: Einer wird verletzt, träumt, stirbt und wird vergessen [SF]; Oberschüler [SF]; Jakob von Gunten [TV]; Händler der vier Jahreszeiten; Taxi bitte [TV]; Land [TV]; Akkord [SF]. 1971/72: Harlis. 1972: Ludwig – Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König. 1. Der Fluch / 2. Ich war einmal [TV]; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag. 1. Jochen und Marion / 2. Oma und Gregor / 3. Franz und Ernst / 4. Harald und Monika / 5. Irmgard und Rolf [TV]; Bremer Freiheit [TV – co-cam]; Wildwechsel. 1972/73: Die Wohngenossin [TV]. 1972-74: Fontane Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen [co-cam]. 1973: Mona und der Sarg [SF]; Ich kann auch ’ne Arche bauen [TV]. 1973/74: Die letzten Tage von Gomorrha [TV]. 1974: Karl May; Am Rande der Autobahn [TV]; Erdbeben in Chili [TV]. 1974/75: Der letzte Schrei. 1975: Winifred Wagner und die Geschichte des Hauses Wahnfried 1914–1975 [DO]; Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [co-cam]; Berlinger. 1975/76: Vera Romeyke ist nicht tragbar. 1976: Sprich mit mir wie der Regen [SF]; Bomber und Paganini [DE/ AT]; Das Brot des Bäckers. 1976/77: Der Mädchenkrieg; Das Schlangenei / The Serpent’s Egg [DE/US]. 1977: Nur ein kleines bißchen Liebe [SF]; Hitler. Ein Film aus Deutschland; Klaras Mutter [TV]. 1977/78: Taugenichts; Deutschland im Herbst [co-cam]; Kottan ermittelt: Wien-Mitte [TV – AT]. 1978: H-Moll Messe – Ana begegnet der Musik des Johann Sebastian Bach [TVD]; Der Schneider von Ulm; Der Sturz; Kassbach – Ein Porträt [AT]. 1978/79: Santa Lucia [TV – AT]. 1979: Kottan ermittelt: Drohbriefe [TV – AT]; Milo Milo [DE/GR]; Die Reinheit des Herzens. 1979/80: So weit das Auge reicht / A perte de vue [co-cam – DE/FR/ CH]. 1980: Kaltgestellt; Match [TV – AT]. 1981: Geld oder Leben [TV]; Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull [TV]. 1981/82: Kottan ermittelt: So long, Kottan / Die Einteilung / Kansas City / Die Entführung / Hausbesuche / Fühlt wie du [TV – AT]. 1982: Phönix an der Ecke [TV – AT]. 1982/83: Kottan ermittelt: Genie und Zufall / Die Enten des Präsidenten / Smoky und Baby und Bär [TV – AT]. 1982-84: Liebe ist kein Argument. 1983: Die letzte Runde / Strawanzer [AT/DE]; Kottan ermittelt: Mein Hobby: Mord / Der Kaiser schickt Soldaten aus / Mabuse kehrt zurück [TV – AT]. 1983/84: Unerreichbare Nähe. 1984: Rainhard Fendrich: Elf Titel [TV – AT]; Liebe läßt alle Blumen blühen [TV – DE/FR]; Die Försterbuben [AT]. 1984/85: Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie [TV]. 1985: Rudolfsee [TV – AT]. 1986: Der Aufstand [TV – AT]. 1986/87: Der Joker [co-cam]. [cam – US] 1986-88: War and Remembrance [TVS – 9 episodes – co-cam]. 1988: The Great Escape II: The Untold Story [TV]. 1988/89: Zwei Frauen [DE]. 1989: Carl Anton
PETER LOHMEYER Postl aus Poppitz bei Znaim – Charles Sealsfield [TVD – cocam – DE]. 1989/90: Das serbische Mädchen; Milena / Geliebte Milena / The Lover [FR/DE/CA]. 1990: The Rose and the Jackal [TV]; Silhouette [TV]; Dark Shadows [TVS]. 1991: Ted & Venus; Knight Moves / Knight Moves – Ein mörderisches Spiel [US/DE]; Deadlock [TV]. 1991/92: Salz auf unserer Haut [DE]. 1992: Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt [TVD – app – DE]. 1992/93: The Innocent / … und der Himmel steht still [GB/DE]. 1993: Me and the Kid. 1993/94: Color of Night. 1994: La machine / Die Maschine [FR/DE]. 1995: Un divan à New York / Eine Couch in New York [FR/ BE/DE]. 1995/96: Snakes & Ladders [DE/IE/GB]. 1996: In the Lake of the Woods [TV]; The Way We Are. 1997: The Peacemaker. 1998: Deep Impact.
PETER LOHMEYER Born January 12, 1962, Niedermarsberg (West Germany) Immersing himself within his characterisations, prolific and versatile stage, screen and television actor Lohmeyer’s understated portrayals have earned him a sizeable following as a star of post-unification cinema and television. A priest’s son, Lohmeyer attended drama school in Bochum from 1982, but left in 1984 to make his debut at the city’s Schauspielhaus theatre. Taken on at Stuttgart’s Staatstheater the following summer, he has since gained acclaim both in classical and contemporary roles at theatres in Vienna, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and Berlin. On television, he played his first lead as a prisoner on temporary release in Alexander von Eschwege’s drama NOCH EIN JAHR UND SECHS TAGE (Another Year and Six Days to Go, 1983). He also starred as a mentally unbalanced lifeguard in Eschwege’s DER KAMPFSCHWIMMER (The Frogman, 1985), and became more widely known in sympathetic roles in Dominik Graf’s comedies TIGER, LÖWE, PANTHER (Tiger, Lion, Panther, 1988/89) and SPIELER (The Gamblers, 1989/90). Lohmeyer has since played Manfred Krug’s scrounging son in Werner Masten’s NEUNER (1990), a ‘new man’ in Peter Timm’s HAUSMÄNNER (House-Husbands, 1990/91), a laid-back Lothario in Rainer Kaufmann’s EINER MEINER ÄLTESTEN FREUNDE (One of My Oldest Friends, 1994), and Grand Duke Leopold of Baden in Peter Sehr’s historical drama KASPAR HAUSER (1992/93). He played police officers in the television series DIE STRASSEN VON BERLIN (Streets of Berlin, 1995– 97) and in Martin Walz’s New York-set KONDOM DES GRAUENS (Killer Condom, 1996), but also portrayed a blackmailer in Robert Bramkamp’s DIE EROBERUNG DER MITTE (Conquest of the Centre, 1994/95) and a pimp in Mark Schlichter and Andreas Simon’s TV thriller DER AUSBRUCH (Breakout, 1996/97).
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Still greater recognition came with Lohmeyer’s supporting part as a tight-lipped detective in Peter Lichtefeld’s road movie ZUGVÖGEL … EINMAL NACH INARI (Trains’n’Roses, 1996), which earned him a German Film Award, and as the father in Sönke Wortmann’s DAS WUNDER VON BERN (The Miracle of Berne, 2002/03), in which his football-mad screen son was played by real-life son Louis Klamroth (b. 1989). Lohmeyer set up his own production company in 1994, which co-produced two films in which he featured, Lars Becker’s gangster picture BUNTE HUNDE (The Break, 1994/95) and Volker Einrauch’s thriller DIE MUTTER DES KILLERS (The Killer’s Mother, 1995/96). He tried his hand at directing with a segment for the experimental compilation 99 e FILMS (99 Euro Films, 2001). [act – DE] 1983: Wochenendgeschichten: Noch ein Jahr und sechs Tage [TV]. 1983/84: Alles aus Liebe: Kellermanns Prozeß [TV]. 1985: Alles Paletti [TV]; Der Kampfschwimmer [TV]. 1986: Der Fahnder: Der kleine Bruder [TV]. 1986/87: Der Fahnder: Hendriks Alleingang [TV]. 1987/88: Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany [DE/CH/ GB]. 1988/89: Tiger, Löwe, Panther; Ungewiß ist die Zukunft der Leibwächter [TV]. 1989: Don Juan oder Der steinerne Gast [TV]. 1989/90: Spieler; Peter Strohm: Die Erben [TV]. 1990: Der Kameramann [TV]; Neuner; Und wenn’s nicht klappt, dann machen wir’s nochmal [TV]. 1990/91: Hausmänner [TV]. 1991: Vogel und Osiander [TVS]. 1991/ 92: Schlafende Hunde [TV]; Nie wieder schlafen – Nie mehr zurück; Misunderstanding of the Moon [NL/IT]. 1992: Vogel & Osiander: Bogey [TVS]; Starkstrom [TV]; Zorc – Der Mann ohne Grenzen [TVS]; Tatort: Amoklauf [TV]; Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht: Die neue Wohnung [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Gespenster [TV]. 1992/93: Kaspar Hauser; Der kleine Vampir – Neue Abenteuer [TVS]. 1993: Die grosse Liebe [SF]; Wolffs Revier: Die Spinne [TV]; Bella Block: Die Kommissarin [TV]. 1993/94: Nacht der Frauen [TV]; Erotique / Let’s Talk About Sex: Taboo Parlor [SF]. 1994: Einer meiner ältesten Freunde; Doppelter Einsatz: Sahnehäubchen [TV]; Mein lieber Mann; Internationale Zone [TV – AT]; Ausgespielt [TV]; Die Männer vom K3: Keine Chance zu gewinnen [TV]; Zu treuen Händen [TV]. 1994/95: Die Eroberung der Mitte; Unbeständig und kühl [TV]; Der Verräter [TV]; A. S.: Kidnapping [TV]; Bunte Hunde [act,pro]. 1995: Die Partner: Puppentheater [TV]; Bella Block: Liebestod [TV]. 1995/96: Die Mutter des Killers [act, pro]; Unter die Haut [TV]. 1995-97: Die Straßen von Berlin [TVS – 10 episodes]. 1996: Kondom des Grauens; Still Movin’; Zugvögel … Einmal nach Inari [DE/FI]. 1996/97: Die Staatsanwältin [TV]; Der Ohrenwurm [SF]; Der Ausbruch [TV]; Liebe Lügen [TV]. 1996-98: Sieben Monde. 1997: Obsession [DE/FR]; Der Pirat [TV]; Kleines Tropikana / Tropicanita [DE/CU/ES]. 1997/98: Nighthawks [SF]; Mammamia [TV]; Playboys [SF]; Balko: Amok [TV]; Pauls Reise. 1998: Abgehauen [TV]; Frontera Sur [ES/AR/DE]; Die Buggy-Bande [TV]. 1998/99: Altöl und Champagner [SF]; Alles wegen Mama [TV – app]; Ein einzelner Mord [TV]. 1999:
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Die Stunde des Löwen [TV]; Der Elefant in meinem Bett [TV]; Tatort: Der schwarze Ritter [TV]. 1999/2000: Recycled [TV]; Nie mehr zweite Liga [TV]. 2000: Hacerse el sueco [CU/DE/ES]; Der Mistkerl. 2000/01: Das verflixte 17. Jahr [TV]. 2001: Vater braucht eine Frau [TV]; Prüfstand 7 [DO]; 99 Euro Films [dir,scr – episode 7]; Messerscharf – Tödliche Wege der Liebe [TV]. 2001/02: Der Felsen. 2002: Kaos / Chaos [IE]; Mutanten; Geld macht sexy [TV]; Polish Actors Are Dangerous [SF]. 2002/03: Das Wunder von Bern. 2003: Beach Boys – Rette sich wer kann [TV]; Das Duo: Der Liebhaber [TV]. 2003/04: Der Wunschbaum [TV]; Dear Enemy / Le bêlement de l’agneau / I dashur armik [DE/FR/ AL]; Süperseks; Der Boxer und die Friseuse [TV]; Sergeant Pepper. 2004: Cowgirl; Schuss ins Blau [DO – app]; Playa del futuro. 2004/05: Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb; Oktoberfest. 2005: Obaba [ES/DE]; Leonys Aufsturz. 2005/06: Freunde für immer – Das Leben ist rund: Der Mediator [TV]; Vineta. 2006: Deepfrozen [AT/CH/LU]; Der Junge ohne Eigenschaften; Spur der Hoffnung [TV]; Peter Lohmeyer sein [SF]; Bum-Bum [SF]. 2006/07: Früher oder später. 2007: ladyland: Zeitarbeit / Männerjob [TV]; Der andere Junge; Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken; Vorne ist verdammt weit weg. 2007/ 08: Golgatha auf Türkisch [SF]; Don Quichote – Gib niemals auf! [TV]; Großstadtrevier: Nichts als Lügen / Morgendliche Begleitung / Der Unberührbare [TVS]; Alter und Schönheit; Zwischen heute und morgen. 2008: In letzter Sekunde [TV]. 2008/09: Koffie to go [TVS]; Soul Kitchen; De Vliegenierster van Kazbek [NL].
LORIOT (Bernhard-Victor Christoph Carl von Bülow; aka Vicco von Bülow) Born November 12, 1923, Brandenburg an der Havel (Germany) Loriot’s work minutely depicts the hierarchies and rituals of everyday middle-class German life, simultaneously satirising and empathising with it. One of Germany’s best-loved caricaturists and comedians for over four decades, his work in film and television encompassed cartoons, animated drawings, television sketch series, and feature-length films. Loriot first came into contact with filmmaking as an extra on Herbert Maisch’s biopic FRIEDRICH SCHILLER – DER TRIUMPH EINES GENIES (Friedrich Schiller, 1940). Conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1941, he rose to the rank of lieutenant. After World War II, he was employed as a lumberjack, and between 1947 and 1949 attended art college in Hamburg. For the first time adopting the pseudonym Loriot (the French word for oriole, the bird on his family’s coat of arms), he set up as a freelance caricaturist, and from 1950 drew cartoons for magazines including ‘Stern’ and ‘Quick’. His trademark dumpy-nosed figures were initially targeted by conservative and Christian groups who considered them ‘sub-human’ representations, and sev-
eral cartoon strips were pulled from publication. Signing a contract with Zurich-based publisher Diogenes, he brought out his first anthology of cartoons and satirical writing in 1954, and has since sold over five million books. A brief acting career led to Vicco von Bülow (as he was then billed) playing bits in Frank Wysbar’s HAIE UND KLEINE FISCHE (Sharks and Little Fish, 1957), Bernhard Wicki’s DIE BRÜCKE (The Bridge, 1959) and THE LONGEST DAY (1961/62), and DAS WUNDER DES MALACHIAS (Miracle of Malachias, 1960/61). It was on television, though, that Loriot became a household name, presenting and appearing in selfpenned sketches on the occasional series CARTOON (1967–72). Thereafter also directing his one-off shows, he made TELECABINETT (1974) and LORIOT I through to LORIOT VI (1976–79). Loriot’s cartoon creations, meanwhile, expanded into an industry of its own, branching out from newspapers, magazines and books into posters, postcards, figurines, and other merchandise. Like other television personalities of the 1970s, Loriot exchanged TV for the big screen with the feature-length screwball comedy ÖDIPUSSI (1987/88), which he both wrote and directed, and in which he starred as an aged mummy’s boy who falls in love with his repressed psychotherapist, played by regular television co-star Evelyn Hamann (1942–2007). Premiering simultaneously in East and West Berlin, the film was a major hit. Loriot and Hamann reunited for PAPPA ANTE PORTAS (1990/91), shot on location in East Germany just prior to unification, which told the story of a company manager who is suddenly made redundant. During his career, Loriot received numerous awards as artist, writer, filmmaker, and recording artist. [act – DE] 1940: Friedrich Schiller. Der Triumph eines Genies. 1957: Haie und kleine Fische. 1959: Die Brücke. 1960/61: Das Wunder des Malachias. 1961/62: The Longest Day [US]. 1967-72: Cartoon [TVS – dir,scr,act]. 1968: Le grand amour [FR]. 1974: Telecabinett [TV – dir,scr, act]. 1976-79: Loriot I – VI [TVS – dir,scr,act]. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper. Ein musikalischer Spaß [TV]. 1979: Berliner Philharmoniker I [TV – dir,scr]. 1981: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull [TV]. 1981/82: Wer spinnt denn da, Herr Doktor? 1982: Berliner Philharmoniker II [TV – dir,scr]. 1986/87: Evelyn und die Männer oder Wie Hund und Katze [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1987/88: Ödipussi [dir,scr, act]. 1988: Loriot zum 65. Geburtstag [TV – dir,scr,act]. 1989: Otto – der Außerfriesische. 1990/91: Pappa ante portas [dir,scr,act]. 1993: Loriots 70. Geburtstag [TV – dir,scr,act]. 1996: Der Hexer – Horst Wendlandt, Filmproduzent [TVD – app]. 1997: Loriot – Weihnachten bei den Hoppenstedts [TV – dir,scr,act]. 1998: Loriots 75. Geburtstag [TV – scr,act]. 2002: Ein Abend für Evelyn Hamann [TV]. 2003: Loriots 80. Geburtstag [TV – dir,scr,act];
PETER LORRE Leonard Bernstein: Candide [TV]. 2006: Musik im Fahrtwind [TVD – app].
PETER LORRE (Ladislav ‘László’ Loewenstein) Born June 26, 1904, Rózsahegy (Austria-Hungary, now Ruomberok, Slovakia) Died March 23, 1964, Hollywood (California, USA) Forever associated in German film history with his performance as a serial killer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931), Lorre also appeared in numerous British and Hollywood film classics from the 1930s to the 1960s, and made a poignant post-World War II return to Germany with his only film as a director. Breaking off his training as a banker for a career on the stage, Lorre worked at theatres in Breslau (now Wroc³aw, Poland), Zurich and Vienna from 1924. He gained acclaim in Bertolt Brecht’s 1929 production of Marieluise Fleisser’s ‘Pioniere in Ingolstadt’ (Pioneers in Ingolstadt) at Berlin’s Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, and scored even greater success in the original production of Brecht’s ‘Mann ist Mann’ (A Man’s a Man) in 1931 (filmed by Brecht with an amateur camera). His first major screen role as a child killer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931) created a sensation. Lorre used his small, stocky figure, bulging round eyes, and babyface physiognomy to communicate with terrifying authenticity middle-class self-assurance, brutality, hysteria, and sheer terror. Years later, the Nazis used extracts of Lorre’s performance in two notorious anti-semitic propaganda pictures, JUDEN OHNE MASKE (Jews Without a Mask, 1937) and DER EWIGE JUDE (The Eternal Jew, 1940). Receiving offers from Hollywood, Lorre feared typecasting, and instead took comic supporting roles in German films such as Hanns Schwarz’s BOMBEN AUF MONTE CARLO (Bombs Over Monte Carlo) and Alexander Granowsky’s DIE KOFFER DES HERRN O. F. (The Thirteen Trunks of Mr. O. F., both 1931). Emigrating after the Nazis seized power, Lorre moved to Austria, France and Britain, where he was cast in Alfred Hitchcock’s THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934), and then onward to Hollywood. He made his American debut as a mad scientist in Karl Freund’s MAD LOVE, and played Raskolnikov in Josef von Sternberg’s adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (both 1935). He briefly returned to London to appear in Hitchcock’s SECRET AGENT (1936), and became an American citizen the same year. Lorre starred as a Japanese detective in eight MR. MOTO mysteries between 1937 and 1939, and stood out in John Huston’s THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and Michael Curtiz’s CASABLANCA (1942). His sinister yet comical pairing with hulking British actor Syd-
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ney Greenstreet in the former film led to a series of features together. However, plans to collaborate on a film with Bertolt Brecht came to nothing. Returning to Europe in 1949, Lorre scripted, directed, and played the lead in DER VERLORENE (The Lost One, 1950/51). This bleak, noirish attempt to address the recent Nazi past earned him a German Film Award, but flopped in cinemas. Lorre, often troubled by drug-related illness, went back to Hollywood and made regular television appearances, as well as taking roles as rotund stooges in pictures including John Huston’s BEAT THE DEVIL (1953) and Joseph Newman’s THE BIG CIRCUS (1959). Just before his death, Lorre gained a new generation of fans with his performances in Roger Corman’s TALES OF TERROR and THE RAVEN (both 1962), and Jacques Tourneur’s THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963). [act – DE] 1928/29: Die verschwundene Frau [AT]. 1931: M [MLV]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV]; Die Koffer des Herrn O. F. 1932: Fünf von der Jazzband; Schuß im Morgengrauen [MLV]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; Stupéfiants [MLV – DE/FR]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]. 1933: Was Frauen träumen; Les requins du pétrole [MLV – AT]; Unsichtbare Gegner [MLV – DE/AT]; Du haut en bas [FR]. 1934: The Man Who Knew Too Much [GB]. [act – US] 1935: Mad Love; Crime and Punishment. 1936: Secret Agent [GB]; Crack-up. 1936/37: Nancy Steele Is Missing. 1937: Think Fast, Mr. Moto; Lancer Spy; Thank You, Mr. Moto 1938: Mr. Moto’s Gamble; Mr. Moto Takes a Chance; I’ll Give a Million; Mysterious Mr. Moto; Mr. Moto’s Last Warning. 1939: Mr. Moto in Danger Island; Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation. 1939/40: Strange Cargo. 1940: I Was an Adventuress; Island of Doomed Men; Stranger on the Third Floor; You’ll Find Out; The Face Behind the Mask. 1940/41: Mr. District Attorney. 1941: They Met in Bombay; The Maltese Falcon; All Through the Night. 1941-44: Arsenic and Old Lace. 1942: In This Our Life; Invisible Agent; The Boogie Man Will Get You; Casablanca. 1942/43: Background to Danger. 1943: The Constant Nymph; The Cross of Lorraine; Passage to Marseille. 1944: The Mask of Dimitrios; The Conspirators; Hollywood Canteen. 1944/45: Hotel Berlin. 1945: Confidential Agent. 1945/46: Three Strangers; Black Angel; The Verdict. 1946: The Chase; The Beast with Five Fingers. 1946/47: My Favorite Brunette. 1948: Casbah. 1949: Rope of Sand; Quicksand. 1949/50: Double Confession [GB]. 1950/51: Der Verlorene [dir,co-scr,act – DE]. [act – US – TV] 1952: The Lux Video Theatre: Taste; Suspense: The Tortured Hand. 1953: Beat the Devil / Il tesoro dell’Africa [FF – GB/IT]; The US Steel Hour Presents the Theatre Guide: The Vanishing Point. 1954: The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars: The Pipe; Climax!: Casino Royale; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [FF]; Arsenic and Old Lace. 1955: Producers’ Showcase: Reunion in Vienna; Eddie Cantor Comedy Theatre: The Sure Cure; Climax!: A Pro-
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mise to Murder; Rheingold Theatre: The Blue Landscape; The Screen Directors Playhouse: Number 5 Checked Out. 1955/56: The Fifth Wheel; The Screen Directors Playhouse: Number Five Checked Out; Studio 57: The Finishers; Meet Me in Las Vegas [FF]. 1956: Congo Crossing [FF]; Climax!: The Man Who Lost His Head; Around the World in 80 Days [FF]; Playhouse 90: Sizeman and Son; 20th Century-Fox Hour: Operation Cicero. 1956/57: Playhouse 90: The Last Tycoon. 1957: The Buster Keaton Story [FF]; Climax!: A Taste for Crime; Silk Stockings [FF]; The Story of Mankind; Playhouse 90: The Jet-Propelled Couch; The Sad Sack [FF]; Hell Ship Munity [FF]; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Diplomatic Corpse. 1959: The Big Circus [FF]; The Red Skelton Show: Appleby the Weatherman; Five Fingers: Thin Ice; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Man from the South. 1959/60: Scent of Mystery [FF]. 1960: Playhouse 90: The Cruel Day; Wagon Train: The Alexander Portlass Story; The Red Skelton Show: Clem and the Beanstalk; Rawhide: Incident of the Slavemaster; Checkmate: The Human Touch. 1960/ 61: The Best of the Post: The Baron Loved His Wife. 1961: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [FF]. 1961/62: The Gertrude Berg Show: First Test / The Trouble with Crayton [TVS]. 1962: Tales of Terror: The Black Cat [FF]; Five Weeks in a Balloon [FF]; Route 66: Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing; The Raven [FF]. 1963: The Jack Benny Program: The Peter Lorre/Joanie Sommers Show; Diamond Fever; 77 Sunset Strip: ‘5’. [5 parts]; Kraft Suspense Theatre: The End of the World, Baby; The Comedy of Terrors [FF]. 1964: The Red Skelton Comedy Hour: Clem Strikes Oil; Muscle Beach Party [FF]; The Patsy [FF]. 2006: The Mysterious Mr. Lorre: A Conversation with Stephen Youngkin [SD – app].
ROLF LOSANSKY Born February 18, 1931, Frankfurt/Oder (Germany) East Germany’s foremost director of children’s films, Losansky specialised in adolescent dramas and preteen fantasy adventures. Already a qualified printing technician, he studied directing at Babelsberg Film Academy from 1955 to 1960 and, while a student, served as a researcher on Andrew Thorndike’s documentary series ARCHIVE SAGEN AUS (The Archives Testify). After graduating, in 1961/62 he worked as assistant director on Frank Beyer’s KÖNIGSKINDER (And Your Love Too) and Günter Reisch’s ACH, DU FRÖHLICHE (A Lively Christmas Eve). Losansky’s directorial debut, GEHEIMNIS DER 17 (The Mystery of 17, 1962/63), concerned a group of eleven-year-old amateur historians, and he followed it up with an adaptation of Franz Fühmann’s crime novel for children, DIE SUCHE NACH DEM WUNDERBUNTEN VÖGELCHEN (In Search of the Magical Bird, 1963). Thereafter taken on full-time at DEFA’s feature film studio, he directed DER REVOLVER DES CORPORALS (The Corporal’s Revolver, 1966/67), about boys fighting in the Cuban freedom movement, and
EUCH WERD ICH’S ZEIGEN (I’ll Show You!, 1971),
chronicling the attempt of a thirteen-year old boy from the city to gain acceptance in a rural community. … VERDAMMT ICH BIN ERWACHSEN (Damn It, I’m Grown Up, 1973/74) focussed not only on everyday problems of a fifteen-year-old, but was also one of the first East German pictures to address environmental issues. In his films aimed at younger children, Losansky made extensive use of animation and special effects, with fantasy elements assisting his youthful protagonists in gaining a handle on the demands of day-today life. EIN SCHNEEMANN FÜR AFRIKA (A Snowman for Africa, 1976/77) and DAS SCHULGESPENST (The School Ghost, 1985/86) were constructed as contemporary fairytales, while DER LANGE RITT ZUR SCHULE (The Long Ride to School, 1980/81) concerned a boy who dreams of being a cowboy. MORITZ IN DER LITFASSSÄULE (Moritz in the Advertising Pillar, 1982/83) featured a schoolboy anxious about getting poor grades. Losansky’s amateur leads were consistently supported by popular actors including Dieter Franke, Jutta Wachowiak, Rolf Hoppe, Barbara Dittus, and Rolf Ludwig. Following unification, he was the only one of DEFA’s directors of children’s films to successfully continue his career, with ZIRRI – DAS WOLKENSCHAF (Zirri – The Cloud Sheep, 1992/93), FRIEDRICH UND DER VERZAUBERTE EINBRECHER (Friedrich and Robin Hood, 1996), and HANS IM GLÜCK (Lucky Hans and His Golden Journey, 1998). [dir – DD] 1957: Eis-Etüde [SD]; Kindergymnastik [SD]. 1958: Armeesportler [SD]. 1959: Brände [SF – act]; Soldat und Sportler [SD]; Maibowle [act]. 1959/60: Das hölzerne Kälbchen [act]. 1961/62: Königskinder [ass-dir, act]; Ach, du fröhliche … [ass-dir,act]. 1962/63: Geheimnis der 17 [dir,co-scr]; Lehrtage [SF – co-scr]. 1963: Die Suche nach dem wunderbunten Vögelchen [dir,co-scr, act]. 1964: Als Martin 14 war [act]; Gefährliche Schätze [TVD – co-scr]; Motorradhelden [SF – dir,scr]. 1966/67: Der Revolver des Corporals [dir,scr]. 1968: Im Himmel ist doch Jahrmarkt. 1969: In 97 Tagen [SD – scr]; 6 aus 49 Maiknüller [SF]; On Schuppeen [SF]. 1971: Hut ab, wenn du küßt!; Euch werd ich’s zeigen [dir,scr]. 1973/74: … verdammt, ich bin erwachsen [dir,scr]. 1974/75: Blumen für den Mann im Mond. 1976/77: Ein Schneemann für Afrika. 1978: Achillesferse [dir,scr]. 1980/81: Der lange Ritt zur Schule. 1982/83: Moritz in der Litfaßsäule [dir,scr]. 1984: Film-Salabim [DO – act]; Weiße Wolke Carolin [dir,scr]. 1985/86: Das Schulgespenst [dir,scr]. 1987: Zuckertütenzeit [TV-SD – dir,scr]. 1989: Abschiedsdisco [dir,scr]. 1990: Wenn die Hähne krähen [SD – dir,coscr,voi]. 1992: Hier und Jetzt [TV – DE]. 1992/93: Zirri – Das Wolkenschaf [DE]. 1996: Friedrich und der verzauberte Einbrecher [dir,co-scr – DE]. 1998: Hans im Glück [dir,co-scr – DE]. 2004: Remember [SF – ide,act – DE].
KLAUS LÖWITSCH HANNS LOTHAR (Hans Lothar Neutze) Born April 10, 1929, Hanover (Germany) Died March 11, 1967, Hamburg (Germany) Commended for the effortless realism of his characterisations during the 1950s and 1960s, Lothar is remembered as a versatile character lead whose life and career was cut tragically short. The younger brother of actors Günther Neutze (1921–1991) and Horst-Michael Neutze (1923–2006), he made his stage debut at the age of twelve. He became a member of the ensemble at Hanover’s Städtische Bühnen theatre after World War II, and then at Frankfurt’s Kleines Theater am Zoo until 1952, before joining Hamburg’s Thalia-Theater from 1955 to 1962. Lothar’s screen debut was Gustav Fröhlich’s WEGE IM ZWIELICHT (Paths in Twilight, 1947/48). He appeared in a few more films prior to his acclaimed performance as Christian Buddenbrook, beset by delusions in Alfred Weidenmann’s two-part adaptation of Thomas Mann’s BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1959). Receiving the German Film Award for best supporting actor, he got another award for his portrayal in Wolfgang Staudte’s critique of the West German judicial system, DER LETZTE ZEUGE (The Last Witness, 1960). In Billy Wilder’s Cold War comedy ONE, TWO, THREE (1961), meanwhile, he demonstrated superb comic timing as James Cagney’s heel-clicking assistant. Making his television debut in Rudolf Steinböck’s adaptation of John Patrick’s DAS HEISSE HERZ (The Hasty Heart, 1955), Lothar appeared in some of the finest television dramas of the 1960s, including Rainer Erler’s award-winning SEELENWANDERUNG (Metempsychosis, 1962), and Theo Mezger’s adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s FLUG IN GEFAHR (Flight Into Danger, 1964). Married to actress Ingrid Andree (b. 1931) from 1959 to 1965, the two starred in Josef von Báky’s STURM IM WASSERGLAS (Tempest in a Tea-Cup, 1960) and Jürgen Roland’s POLIZEIREVIER DAVIDSWACHE (Hamburg: City of Vice / Seven Consenting Adults, 1964). Lothar was about to open his first stage production as director when he suffered a fatal kidney failure. His and Andree’s daughter, Susanne Lothar (b. 1960), is a successful film and television actress who played major roles in Michael Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES (1996) and DIE KLAVIERSPIELERIN (The Piano Teacher, 2000/01). [act – DE – TV] 1947/48: Wege im Zwielicht [FF]. 1951: Die Schuld des Dr. Homma [FF]. 1955: Das heiße Herz; Der Fall Winslow. 1955/56: Das träumende Mädchen. 1956: Keiner stirbt leicht. 1957: Minna von Barnhelm; Die Festung; Das heiße Herz. 1958: Stunde der Wahrheit; Biedermann
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und die Brandstifter; Der Tod auf dem Rummelplatz; Begegnung in Singapur; Der Tod des Handlungsreisenden. 1959: Ende des sechsten Stocks; Menschen im Netz [FF]; Buddenbrooks [2 parts – FF]. 1960: Sturm im Wasserglas [FF]; Das Lied der Taube; Die Verwandlung; Der letzte Zeuge [FF]; An heiligen Wassern [FF – CH]. 1961: Bis zum Ende aller Tage [FF]; One, Two, Three [FF – US]. 1961/62: Wenn beide schuldig werden [FF – AT]. 1962: Seelenwanderung [TV + FF]. 1962/63: Stalingrad. 1963: Was Ihr wollt; Wochentags immer [FF]; Freundschaftsspiel; Das Himmelbett; Kleider machen Leute; Schloß Gripsholm [FF]; Der schlechte Soldat Smith; Piccadilly null Uhr 12 [FF]. 1963/64: Die 5. Kolonne: Eine Puppe für Klein-Helga. 1964: Polizeirevier Davidswache [FF]; Flug in Gefahr; Emil and the Detectives [FF – US]; Stunden der Angst. 1964/65: Der Fall Harry Domela; Drei leichte Fälle. 1965: Die Katze im Sack; Der neue Mann; Vier Schlüssel [FF]. 1965/66: Lange Beine – lange Finger [FF]. 1966: Wir machen Musik; Stoppt die Welt – ich möchte aussteigen!; Der Fall Lothar Malskat.
KLAUS LÖWITSCH Born April 8, 1936, Berlin (Germany) Died December 3, 2002, Munich (Germany) Specialising in steely-gazed, tough-talking machos, bald and stocky character actor Löwitsch was a prolific presence on West German film and television from the 1960s to the 1990s. Löwitsch made his stage debut at age ten. After leaving school, he spent time as a member of the Vienna Opera House’s ballet corps prior to enrolling at the Max Reinhardt Acting Academy in 1955. He scored early stage successes in musicals including ‘Kiss Me Kate’ and ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, and from 1961 played critically-acclaimed leads in classical and contemporary productions at theatres in Munich, Konstanz, Cologne, Zurich, and Hamburg. Löwitsch’s screen debut was in Josef von Báky’s DUNJA (Her Crime Was Love, 1955), and he went on to play regular supporting roles in popular entertainment fare such as the Heinz Rühmann vehicle DER PAUKER (The Crammer, 1958), the comedy thriller DIE SCHWARZE KOBRA (The Black Cobra, 1963), and Ernst Hofbauer’s sex-and-crime exploitation film HEISSES PFLASTER KÖLN (Dangerous Turf, 1967). He won a German Film Award for his performance in Roger Fritz’s hard-hitting rape drama MÄDCHEN MIT GEWALT (The Brutes, 1969), and was thereafter often typecast as a thug or underworld figure. Löwitsch entered into a productive association with director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who cast him in leading roles in HÄNDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN (The Merchant of Four Seasons, 1971), EINE REISE INS LICHT – DESPAIR (Despair, 1977/78), and DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage of Maria Braun, 1978), in which he played the heroine’s long-lost husband.
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A regular on television since the early 1960s, Löwitsch stood out in literary adaptations as well as in original dramas such as Wolfgang Tumler’s explosive political thriller HART AN DER GRENZE (Pushed to the Limit, 1984/85). He became best known, though, for his starring roles in cop shows and detective series, such as DETEKTIVBÜRO ROTH (Roth Detective Agency, 1985/86), the spin-off HAFENDETEKTIV (Harbor Limits, 1986–91) and also in the function of co-scripting episodes and exercising overall creative control, PETER STROHM (1987–96). Later TV successes included Oliver Hirschbiegel’s chamber play DAS URTEIL (The Verdict, 1997), for which Löwitsch received the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award and the Bavarian Television Award. Löwitsch’s final big-screen appearance was as a Russian terrorist in Christian Duguay’s action film EXTREME OPS (2002). Löwitsch’s sonorous voice lent itself naturally to the media of radio and audio-book. On radio, he played Zaphod Beeblebrox in the German-language adaptation of Douglas Adams’s ‘A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, and he won an award for best audio-book for the trilogy ‘Offenbarung und Untergang’ (Revelation and Demise), recorded while he was battling pancreatic cancer. [act – AT] 1955: Dunja. 1956: Wo die Lerche singt; Der Jäger von Fall [DE]. 1957: Sieben Jahre Pech; Träume von der Südsee [DE]; Der Page vom Palast-Hotel. 1958: Der Pauker [DE]; Prater 58 [DO]. 1959: … und noch frech dazu! [DE]. 1960: Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben [DE]; Gustav Adolfs Page. 1960/61: Gehn Sie nicht allein nach Hause [DE]. 1961: Das Donauweibchen [TV]; Höllenangst [TV]. 1963: Wie es Euch gefällt [TV]; Die schwarze Kobra; Die wahre Geschichte vom geschändeten und wiederhergestellten Kreuz [DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1964: Der Hund des Generals; Das Kriminalmuseum: Akte Dr. W; Lydia muß sterben; Adlig sein dagegen sehr; Machenschaften. 1964/65: Die Reise. 1965: Geld – Geld – Geld; Geld kennt keine Grenzen; Das Kriminalmuseum: Das Etikett. 1965/66: Polizeifunk ruft: Der Pferdenarr. 1966: Der Mann aus Brooklyn; Das Märchen; Mädchen – Mädchen [FF]; Ein Riß im Eis; Guten Abend. Töne, Takte und Theater. Folge 3 + 4. 1966/ 67: Kommissar Brahm: Ein klarer Fall. 1966-69: Das Paradeisspiel. 1967: Liebe für Liebe; Heißes Pflaster Köln [FF]; Dem Täter auf der Spur: 10 Kisten Whisky. 1968: Bis zum Happy End [FF]; Im Dickicht der Städte; Tag für Tag. 1969: Amerika oder Der Verschollene; Mädchen mit Gewalt [FF]. 1970: Der Kommissar: Eine Kugel für den Kommissar; Pioniere in Ingolstadt. 1971: Ball im Savoy; Händler der vier Jahreszeiten [FF]; Das Messer. 1972: Dem Täter auf der Spur: In Schönheit sterben; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag [TVS – 5 episodes]; Sonderdezernat K 1: Vorsicht – Schutzengel!; Dem Täter auf der Spur: Kein Hafer für Nicolo; Wildwechsel [FF]. 1972/73: Eine egoistische Liebe; Desaster. 1973: Welt am Draht; Die blutigen Geier
von Alaska [FF]; Libero [FF]; Schloß Hubertus [FF]; Nora Helmer. 1974: Tatort: 3:0 für Veigl; Der Jäger von Fall [FF]; Der Kommissar: Jähes Ende einer interessanten Beziehung; The O.D.E.S.S.A. File / Die Akte Odessa [FF – GB/DE]; Zwei himmlische Dickschädel [FF]. 1974-77: Die Fälle des Herrn Konstantin [TVS]. 1975: Rosebud [FF – US]; Derrick: Hoffmanns Höllenfahrt; Der Kommissar: Fährt der Zug nach Italien?; Schatten der Engel [FF – DE/CH]; Die Wahl; Der aufsehenerregende Fall des Studienrats Adam Juracek. 1975/76: Eurogang: Urlaub für Harry Krausch; Fluchtversuch [FF]. 1976: Die Brüder [FF]. 1976/77: Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz / Cross of Iron [FF – DE/GB]. 1977: Das Rentenspiel. 1977/78: Auf den Hund gekommen; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair [FF]. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun [FF]; Tatort: Die Kugel im Leib; Jörg Preda berichtet: Wiedersehen in Bangkok. 1978/79: Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz. 2. Teil [FF]. 1979: Pakleni otok [FF – YU]; Der Alte: Nach Kanada. 1979/80: Exil / L’Exile [DE/FR]. 1980: Der Alte: Sportpalastwalzer; Desideria – La vita interiore / Desideria [FF – IT/DE]. 1981: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken: Rio; Sonderdezernat K 1: Die Rache eines V-Mannes; Night Crossing [FF – US]; Tatort: So ein Tag … 1982: Firefox [FF – US]; Der Bauer von Babylon [DO]. 1983: Die Krimistunde. Folge 7; Tatort: Der Schläfer; Die goldenen Schuhe [DE/FR/IT]; Rummelplatzgeschichten: Bauernhochzeit. 1983/84: Eine Art von Zorn. 1984: Tatort: Acht, neun – aus! 1984/85: Kaminskys Nacht [FF]; Hart an der Grenze. 1985: Gotcha! [FF – US]. 1985/86: Tiere und Menschen: Der Löwe ist los; Der Alte: Sein erster Fall; Detektivbüro Roth [TVS – 35 episodes]. 1986: Derrick: Ein eiskalter Hund. 1986-91: Hafendetektiv [TVS – 24 episodes]. 1987-96: Peter Strohm [TVS – 5 seasons – 63 episodes – DE/AT/CH]. 1992: Zorc – Der Mann ohne Grenzen [TVS – 10 episodes]. 1993: Profile: Klaus Löwitsch [TVD]. 1996/97: Napoleon Fritz [ide, act]. 1997: Das Urteil [FF]. 1999: Die Straßen von Berlin: Das rote Pulver. 2000: Ich bin Ernst Busch [TVD – voi]; Feindliche Übernahme – althan.com [FF]. 2000/01: Was tun, wenn’s brennt? [FF]. 2002: Extreme Ops [FF – US/GB/ DE/LU].
ERNST LUBITSCH Born January 29, 1892, Berlin (Germany) Died November 30, 1947, Hollywood (California, USA) One of the most celebrated directors of the silent period, Lubitsch was one of the first German filmmakers to emigrate to Hollywood in the early 1920s. From his early farces set in urban Jewish milieus to his later Ruritanian romances, Lubitsch gained acclaim for his distinct style of sophisticated comedy and visual as well as verbal innuendos, referred to as the ‘Lubitsch touch’. After fleetingly following in his father’s footsteps as a tailor, Lubitsch joined Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater as a bit player in 1911, ascending to more substantial roles between 1914 and 1918. He also acted in 1–4 reelers for Paul Davidson’s production company
ERNST LUBITSCH
PAGU, playing wily apprentices whose Jewish chutzpah ultimately won out in comedies such as DIE FIRMA HEIRATET (The Perfect Thirty-Six, 1913) and DER STOLZ DER FIRMA (The Pride of the Company, 1914). Lubitsch’s directorial debut was FRÄULEIN SEIFENSCHAUM (Miss Soapsuds, 1914/15), followed by dozens of PAGU comedies, including SCHUHPALAST PINKUS (Shoe Palace Pinkus, 1916), and MEYER AUS BERLIN (Meyer from Berlin, 1918). Lubitsch also branched out into exotic costume adventures such as DIE AUGEN DER MUMIE MÂ (The Eyes of the Mummy, 1918), starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. When, after the end of World War I, inflation hit the Weimar Republic, Lubitsch made a string of atmospheric historical epics including MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919), SUMURUN (One Arabian Night), and ANNA BOLEYN (Deception, both 1920). The expense of constructing massive sets, arranging crowd scenes, and hiring only the cream of Berlin actors could be earned back immediately by selling the films on foreign markets, where their very lavishness in turn gained Lubitsch an international profile. At the same time, the director continued making high-tempo all-star comedies whose visual humour was juxtaposed with intertitles containing increasingly sophisticated wordplay, as in DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (The Oyster Princess), DIE PUPPE (The Doll, both 1919), KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (Kohlhiesel’s Daughters, 1920), and DIE BERGKATZE (The Wildcat, 1921). Leaving PAGU with Davidson, he joined the short-lived American-financed company EFA, and shot the Ancient Egyptian epic DAS WEIB DES PHARAO (Pharaoh’s Wife, 1921). Travelling to Hollywood at Mary Pickford’s invitation, the two made a hit romantic comedy, ROSITA (1923), but parted ways due to a personality clash. Lubitsch next made five comedies at Warner Bros., in which he cemented the ‘Lubitsch touch’, before moving to M-G-M, where he shot THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG (1926/27) about a prince who falls in love with an innkeeper’s daughter. Then signed to Paramount, he received Oscar nominations for best film and best direction for his final silent, THE PATRIOT (1928), starring Emil Jannings, and for his first sound film, THE LOVE PARADE (1929), which set the style for early sound operettas. While Lubitsch’s popularity increased in the U. S. thanks to comedies TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) and THE MERRY WIDOW (1934), the Nazis stripped him of German citizenship in 1935. Briefly appointed head of production at Paramount, he returned to his true passion of directing, making ANGEL (1937) with Marlene Dietrich, and BLUEBEARD’S EIGHTH WIFE (1937/38) with Claudette Colbert. He went back to M-G-M for NINOTCHKA starring Greta Garbo as a Soviet commissar who finds
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love on a trip to Paris. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (both 1939) was a whimsical tale about the romance of two timid shop assistants (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan), set in turn-of-the century Budapest. Lubitsch gained independent backing to make the marital comedy THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING (1940/41) and his Nazi satire TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1941/42). At 20th Century-Fox, he again received Oscar nominations for best film and best direction for his first colour picture, the fantasy HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943). Suffering a serious heart attack, he served as producer on Otto Preminger’s A ROYAL SCANDAL (1944/45) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s DRAGONWYCK (1945/ 46) before making his final comedy, CLUNY BROWN (1945/46), which poked gentle fun at British high society. Lubitsch received an honorary Oscar just prior to his death during the shooting of THAT LADY IN ERMINE (1947/48), which was completed by Preminger. [act – DE] 1913: Die ideale Gattin; Die Firma heiratet. 1914: Bedingung – kein Anhang!; Der Stolz der Firma; Fräulein Piccolo. 1914/15: Ein verliebter Racker; Fräulein Seifenschaum [dir,act]. 1915: Aufs Eis geführt [dir,act, pro]; Zucker und Zimt [dir,scr,act,pro]; Arme Maria; Blindekuh [dir,act]; Der gemischte Frauenchor [dir,act]; Sein einziger Patient [dir,act]; Robert und Bertram oder: Die lustigen Vagabunden; Der Kraftmeyer [dir,scr,act]; Der letzte Anzug [dir,act]; Der schwarze Moritz; Als ich tot war [dir, scr,act]; Wie ich ermordet wurde / Der Mann mit der Narbe. 1915/16: Dr. Satansohn. 1916: Schuhpalast Pinkus [dir,act]; Das schönste Geschenk [dir,act]; Der G.m.b.H.Tenor [dir,act]; Die neue Nase [dir,act]; Keiner von beiden [dir]. 1917: Käsekönig Holländer [dir,scr,act]; Der Blusenkönig [dir,co-scr,act]; Ossi’s Tagebuch [dir,co-scr]; Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland; Wenn vier dasselbe tun [dir,coscr,act]; Das fidele Gefängnis [dir,co-scr,act]; Prinz Sami [dir,co-scr,act]. 1918: Der Rodelkavalier [dir,scr,act]; Das Mädel vom Ballett [dir]; Ich möchte kein Mann sein [dir, co-scr]; Der Fall Rosentopf [dir,scr,act]; Die Augen der Mumie Mâ [dir]; Meyer aus Berlin [dir,scr,act]; Carmen [dir]. 1918/19: Meine Frau, die Filmschauspielerin [dir,co-scr]. 1919: Die Austernprinzessin [dir,co-scr]; Rausch [dir]; Der lustige Ehemann; Madame Dubarry [dir]; Die Puppe [dir, co-scr,act]. 1919/20: Die Wohnungsnot [dir,scr]; Romeo und Julia im Schnee [dir,co-scr]. 1920: Kohlhiesels Töchter [dir,scr]; Mephistophela [dir]; Sumurun [dir,co-scr,act]; Anna Boleyn [dir]; Salome [dir]. 1921: Die Bergkatze [dir, scr]; Das Weib des Pharao [dir,pro]. 1922: Alte Wimo [SF – AT]; Die Flamme [dir,pro]. [dir,pro – US] 1923: Rosita; The Marriage Circle. 1924: Three Women [dir,ide,pro – US]; Forbidden Paradise. 1925: Kiss Me Again; Lady Windermere’s Fan. 1926: So This Is Paris. 1926/27: The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg. 1928: The Patriot. 1928/29: Eternal Love. 1929: The Love Parade [MLV]; Parade d’amour [MLV]. 1929/30: Paramount on Parade [co-dir – MLV – US-version + local versions: Parada Paramount / Paramount revui / Paramount-
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Parade / Paramount-Revue / Parada Paramountu / Paramount op Parade]. 1930: Monte Carlo; Kohlhiesels Töchter [sma]. 1931: The Smiling Lieutenant [MLV]; Le lieutenant souriant [MLV]; Broken Lullaby / The Man I Killed. 1931/32: One Hour With You [MLV – co-dir]; Une heure près de toi [MLV – co-dir]. 1932: Trouble in Paradise; If I Had a Million: The Clerk [dir]. 1933: Mr. Broadway [DO – app]; Design for Living. 1934: The Merry Widow [MLV]; La veuve joyeuse [MLV]. 1935: Hands Across the Table [supv]. 1935/36: Desire [supv,pro]. 1936: I Loved a Soldier [pro]. 1937: Angel. 1937/38: Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife. 1939: Ninotchka; The Shop Around the Corner. 1940/41: That Uncertain Feeling. 1941/42: To Be or Not to Be [dir,ide, pro]. 1942-45: Here Is Germany. Official Orientation Film #11 [DO – dir,sma]. 1943: Heaven Can Wait. 1944/45: A Royal Scandal [pro]. 1945/46: Dragonwyck [pro]; Cluny Brown. 1947/48: That Lady in Ermine. 1983: To Be or Not to Be [sma – US].
TONI LÜDI Born January 6, 1945, Taufkirchen an der Vils (Switzerland) Regularly collaborating with his wife Heidi Lüdi, Toni Lüdi established himself in the 1970s as one of New German Cinema’s most respected set designers and since worked on many domestic and international productions. Lüdi studied at London’s Hammersmith Art College and Munich’s Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Visual Arts), where he met his future wife, Heidi Hürzeler (b. 1949, Basel). In the late 1960s, he made his first contacts with the Munich film scene, and had a walk-on part in Hans W. Geissendörfer’s DER FALL LENA CHRIST (The Case of Lena Christ, 1968). Between 1970 and 1974 Lüdi ran a graphic design studio in Munich, creating titles, illustrations, and decorations for television programmes. In 1976, Wim Wenders hired the Lüdis to design the sets for his Patricia Highsmith adaptation DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND (The American Friend). In the following years, the couple (mostly in a professional partnership, occasionally on their own) worked for some of the most prominent directors of the New German Cinema movement, including Margarethe von Trotta and Reinhard Hauff, They became most closely associated with director Hans W. Geissendörfer. For the TV series THEODOR CHINDLER (1978/79) and DER ZAUBERBERG (The Magic Mountain, 1981), they faithfully recreated the Wilhelmine and Weimar periods. For Geissendörfer’s weekly soap opera LINDENSTRASSE (since 1985), Lüdi built the eponymous Munich street in a studio in Cologne. From the 1980s, Lüdi also worked as a set decorator on international productions, such as George Roy Hill’s John le Carré adaptation THE LITTLE DRUM-
MER GIRL (1983/84), and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s nature drama L’OURS (The Bear, 1987/88). While Heidi Lüdi worked for Wenders again on HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (Wings of Desire, 1986/87), Toni collaborated with Edgar Reitz on DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT (The Second Heimat, 1988–92). For Romuald Karmakar’s chamber film DER TOTMACHER (Deathmaker, 1995) he contributed sparse settings and claustrophobic atmosphere. Actively involved in the Verband der Szenenbildner, Filmarchitekten und Kostümbildner (Professional Association of Set Decorators, Film Architects, and Costume Designers), Lüdi has also taught his craft at universities. [des – DE] 1971: Das goldene Ding [TV]. 1972: Marie [TV]. 1976/77: Der amerikanische Freund / L’Ami américain [co-des – DE/FR]. 1977: Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst [co-des]. 1978/ 79: Theodor Chindler [TV – co-des]. 1979: Der Preis fürs Überleben / Le prix de la survie [DE/FR]. 1979/80: Im Herzen des Hurrican; Panische Zeiten. 1980: Endstation Freiheit. 1981: Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [co-des – DE/FR/IT]. 1982: Die Heartbreakers. 1982-84: Trauma. 1983: Ediths Tagebuch. 1983/84: Abwärts; The Little Drummer Girl [US]. 1984: Forbidden / Versteckt [TV – US/DE]. 1985-2008: Lindenstraße [TVS – co-des]. 1986/87: Die glückliche Familie. [season 1 – TVS]. 1987/88: L’Ours [co-des – FR]. 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat. Chronik einer Jugend in 13 Filmen [TV – co-des]. 1995: Der Totmacher. 1996-2002: alphateam – Die Lebensretter im OP [Season 1,7 – TVS – co-des]. 1998: Das Frankfurter Kreuz / Francfort – Fin de Siècle [TV – DE/ FR]. 2008: Das Verhör des Harry Wind [CH/DE].
ROLF LUDWIG (Rolf Erik Ludewig) Born July 28, 1925, Stockholm (Sweden) Died March 27, 1999, Berlin (Germany) East German stage, screen and television actor Ludwig’s keenly observed character parts imbued scenes with penetrating moments of irony, lucid realism, or humour. Raised in Dresden, the teenaged Ludwig trained as a printer before being conscripted into the Luftwaffe in 1943. Shot down, he remained in a British prisonerof-war camp until 1947, participating enthusiastically in productions at the camp theatre. He made his professional debut in Hamburg and appeared at theatres in Lübeck and Dresden before settling in East Berlin in 1950. Initially engaged by various theatres, he made his name especially at Deutsches Theater during the 1960s and 1970s, where he developed from a comedian into one of East Germany’s greatest character actors. From the early 1950s, Ludwig played a wide range of cranky, eccentric, and comic supporting roles in
ROLF LUDWIG
films and on television, as well as the memorably overblown lead in Slatan Dudow’s DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖLN (The Captain from Cologne, 1956), a biting satire on militarism and West German consumerism. He occasionally played villains, as in the television adaptation of Johannes R. Becher’s play DER WEG NACH FÜSSEN (The Path to Fuessen, 1962). From the late 1960s, Ludwig worked repeatedly for director Egon Günther, e.g. appearing as a domineering father in ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1967/68), as the third love in DER DRITTE (The Third, 1971), as an eager-to-please waiter in LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1974/75), and as the isolated writer in Günther’s drama about the demise of East Germany, STEIN (1990/91). He portrayed everymen in Heiner Carow’s DIE LEGENDE VON PAUL UND PAULA (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1972), or the five-part television drama VERFLUCHT UND GELIEBT (Cursed and Loved, 1980/81), while also playing a drug-addicted prison doctor in Günter Rücker and Günther Reisch’s DIE VERLOBTE (The Fiancée, 1979/80). The latter proved one of the actor’s last major roles after he fell into poor health, although he continued to lend his services to student productions for several years. [act – DD] 1951/52: Sein großer Sieg. 1952/53: Die Unbesiegbaren. 1954: Ede sonnabends [SF]; Wer seine Frau lieb hat; Sommerliebe. 1955: Der Diener zweier Herren [TV]; Der Teufelskreis; Drei Mädchen im Endspiel; Der Richter von Zalamea; Martins Tagebuch [SD – voi]. 1955/56: Thomas Müntzer; Mich dürstet. 1956: Der Hauptmann von Köln; Fuchs tönende Wochenschau. 1. Folge [SF – voi]. 1957: Das Gesellschaftsspiel – eine unglaubliche Geschichte oder? [SF]; Bennos böses Ich [SF]. 1958: Im Sonderauftrag. 1958/59: Der kleine Kuno. 1959: Das Feuerzeug; Guter Rat ist billig [SF]; Das Leben beginnt. 1959/60: Was denn nun, Herr Jahoda? [TV]; Hochmut kommt vor dem Knall; Die heute über 40 sind. 1960: Komödie der Irrungen [TV]; Der Diener zweier Herren [TV]; Pascha in Nöten [SF]. 1960/61: Der Fall Gleiwitz; Italienisches Capriccio; Der Mann mit dem Objektiv. [act – DD – TV] 1962: Der Weg nach Füssen. 1963: Der Mann des Tages; Der Morin – das Schwein. 1963/64: Viel Lärm um nichts [FF]. 1964: Der Kammersänger; Volpone; Das Abendgericht; Asphalt-Story; Die 1002. Nacht. 1964/ 65: Solange Leben in mir ist [FF]. 1965/66: Flucht ins Schweigen [FF]. 1966: Feinde; Die Perser; Die Ermittlung. 1967: Laurencia; Kleiner Mann – was nun? 1967/68: Der Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa; Abschied [FF]. 1968:
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Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir [FF]. 1968/87: Die Russen kommen [FF]. 1968-70: Karriere [FF]. 1969: Seine Hoheit – Genosse Prinz [FF]; Nathan der Weise; Tödlicher Irrtum [FF]; Netzwerk [FF]. 1970: Die Heirat. 1971: Arzt wider Willen; Optimistische Tragödie; Kretschinskis Hochzeit; Trotz alledem! [FF]; Der Dritte [FF]. 1972: Ein Engel reist ins Paradies; Die Legende von Paul und Paula [FF]. 1972/ 73: Zement. 1973: Polizeiruf 110: Der Ring mit dem blauen Saphir; Die Zwillinge. 1974: Nachtasyl. 1974/75: Die unheilige Sophia; Lotte in Weimar [FF]; Eine Pyramide für mich [FF]; Requiem für Hans Grundig. 1976: Schauspielereien: Die Trauerrede und andere heitere Begebenheiten; Süßer Vogel Jugend; Die Geheimakte; Camping – Camping. 1976/77: Wer reißt denn gleich vor’m Teufel aus? [FF]. 1977: Ein Trompeter kommt; Polizeiruf 110: Des Alleinseins müde; Vier Tropfen: Quitt; Ich zwing dich zu leben [FF]. 1977/78: Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr [FF]. 1978: Nun gut, wir wollen fechten [TVD]. 1979: Kennst Du das Land; Die Rache des Kapitäns Mitchell. 1979/80: Die Verlobte [FF]; Levins Mühle [FF]. 1980: Schauspielereien: Kommt ein Vogel geflogen …; Polizeiruf 110: Der Hinterhalt; Pugowitza [FF]. 1980/81: Verflucht und geliebt. 1981/82: Generalprobe; Komm mit mir nach Chicago; Das Graupenschloß. 1982: Schwanengesang; Wiederbegegnung; Der entführte Prinz. 1982/83: Hommage à Hölderlin [FF]; Der Mann und sein Name; Es geht einer vor die Hunde; Moritz in der Litfaßsäule [FF]. 1983: Die ewigen Gefühle [DE]. 1983/84: Eine sonderbare Liebe [FF]; Wo andere schweigen [FF]; Meine Frau Inge und meine Frau Schmidt [FF]; Einzug ins Paradies [TVS]. 1984: Die Grünstein-Variante [DE]. 1984-86: Bebel und Bismarck. 1984-87: Katja unterwegs in der DDR [TVS – DE]. 1985/86: Das Buschgespenst; Das Schulgespenst [FF]; Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn … [FF]. 1985-87: Sansibar oder Der letzte Grund [DE/CH/DD]. 1986: Schauspielereien: Ein ehrlicher Finder; Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor; Käthe Kollwitz – Bilder eines Lebens [FF]. 1986/87: Wallenstein; Schauspielereien: Genau auf Tag und Stunde; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Unter einem Dach; Schwein gehabt [FF]. 1987: Ganz in Familie; Schauspielereien: Berliner Pflanzen; Chausseestr. 126 [SD – voi]. 1987/88: Späte Ankunft. 1988: Der blaue Boll. [act – DE – TV] 1990/91: Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen [FF]; Stein [FF – DD/DE]. 1991: Die Jüdin von Toledo; Das Trio. 1992: Lenz. Ich aber werde dunkel sein. 1993: Der Biberpelz. 1994/95: Die Probe – König Lear [SF]. 1995: Nikolaikirche; Ärzte: Herberge für einen Frühling; Achterbahn: Ferien jenseits des Mondes. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]. 1997: Winterkind [FF].
MAX MACK (Moritz Myrthenzweig) Born October 21, 1884, Halberstadt (Germany) Died February 18, 1973, London Hampstead (England) The director of numerous box office hits during the 1910s and ’20s, Mack’s significance was long overlooked within German cinema history due to his inconspicuous, workmanlike style. The son of a synagogue cantor, Myrthenzweig adopted the name Max Mack while working as an actor with travelling theatre groups from 1902. He joined Max Reinhardt’s ensemble as a stand-in in 1907, and thereafter specialised in Oriental characters, although he also gained acclaim playing Amandus in Max Halbe’s ‘Jugend’ (Youth). Mack made his screen acting debut in 1910, but swiftly moved into scriptwriting and directing, turning out a two-reeler every fortnight. The success of his pictures lay in no small part in their sophisticated advertising campaigns, something that could also be said of his groundbreaking DER ANDERE (The Other, 1912/13), which was asserted to have rendered cinema-going culturally respectable, since it was scripted by respected playwright Paul Lindau and starred theatrical luminary Albert Bassermann. It was marketed under the neologism Autorenfilm (writer’s film), as were Mack’s Berlin comedies WO IST COLETTI? (Where is Coletti?), DIE TANGO-KÖNIGIN (The Tango Queen), and DIE BLAUE MAUS (The Blue Mouse, all 1913), which proved outstanding commercial hits, even receiving distribution in the United States. In 1917, he founded production company Max MackFilm, which made comedy shorts and occasional dramas. The company expanded into Solar-Film in 1919, but Mack soon sold his share in order to direct FIGAROS HOCHZEIT (The Marriage of Figaro, 1919/ 20) at newly founded Terra-Film. During these years, Mack also published two anecdotal accounts of the film industry, ‘Die zappelnde Leinwand’ (The Flickering Screen, 1916) and ‘Wie komme ich zum Film?’ (How Do I Get Into Movies?, 1919). Averaging three features a year throughout the next decade, he made pictures starring Ossi Oswalda and Willy Fritsch, including international hit DIE FAHRT INS ABENTEUER (The Wooing of Eve, 1925/26), and undertook an attempt to communicate a pacifist message in military drama EIN TAG DER ROSEN IM AU-
GUST … DA HAT DIE GARDE FORTGEMUSST (Roses
in August, 1927). Mack’s initial experience in sound films was the experimental short EIN TAG FILM (A Day in Film, 1928), with Hans Albers and Willi Forst, while his first all-talking feature was topical drama NUR AM RHEIN … (Only on the Rhine, 1930). Also working in Prague, he shot the German-Czechoslovak co-production TAUSEND FÜR EINE NACHT (A Thousand for One Night, 1932) and a series of variety shorts. Forced to emigrate when the Nazis came to power, Mack resettled in London, where he directed his final feature, the wooden comedy BE CAREFUL, MR. SMITH (1935). A proposed remake of D. W. Griffith’s ORPHANS OF THE STORM and attempts to secure contacts in Hollywood came to nought, and so he wrote his memoirs. Published in 1943 as ‘With a Sigh and a Smile’, almost the entire run was pulped to aid the war effort. He thereafter translated French plays whose copyright had expired for amateur dramatics groups, before marrying a wealthy widow. [dir – DE] 1910: Japanisches Opfer [act]; Die Pulvermühle [act]. 1910/11: Der ehrliche Finder [scr]. 1911: Frau Potiphar [scr,act]; Vergebens [scr(?),act]; Dienertreue [scr, act]; Die weiße Sklavin. 3. Teil [act]; Ihr Jugendfreund [scr(?),act]; Ballhaus-Anna [scr,act]; Opfer der Untreue [scr,act]; Gehirnreflexe [dir,scr,act]; Coeur-As [dir,scr,act]. 1912: Die Falle [dir,act]; Blinde Liebe; Die gelbe Rasse; Lebensbilder; Die lieben Freunde; Die schwarze Katze. 1. Teil [act]; Die Hochzeitsfackel; Zweimal gelebt; Die Liebe siegt [dir,act]; Hungrige Hunde [dir,act]; Die Launen des Schicksals [dir,act]; Das Bild der Mutter [dir,scr(?),act]; Dämon Eifersucht [dir,act]; Im Übermut; Strandratten; Ein Kampf im Feuer [dir,act]; Die Zigeunerin [dir,scr]; Das Ende vom Liede; Der stellungslose Photograph [dir,act]. 1912/13: Der Andere; Die dunkle Stunde [dir,act]; Der Mutter Augen [SF – dir,scr,act]. 1913: Maja [dir,act]; Buckelhans [dir,act]; Wo ist Coletti?; Endlich allein [dir,scr]; Wenn die Glocken läuten; Der letzte Tag; Frau Hanni; Die Berliner Range; Die blaue Maus; Die Tango-Königin; Der König. 1913/14: Zum Paradies der Damen; Die Welt ohne Männer. 1914: Die Perle; Die blaue Maus. 2. Teil; Das Urteil des Arztes; Der große Diamant; Ein seltsamer Fall; Hans und Hanni [dir, act]. 1914/15: Kehre zurück! Alles vergeben! 1915: Zwei glückliche Paare; Das achte Gebot; Nur eine Lüge; Arme Maria [dir(?)]; Der Katzensteg [dir,scr(?)]; Der Schuß im Traum; Die Erkenntnis [dir(?),scr]; Robert und Bertram oder: Die lustigen Vagabunden [dir,scr]; Pension Lampel;
THEO MACKEBEN Doktor Holm [scr(?)]; Nahira; Das Wiegenlied; Die Hand am Vorhang. 1915/16: Das tanzende Herz. 1916: Fritzis toller Einfall; Die aus dem Jenseits kam …; Die Frau im Spiegel; Der Sumpf; Der Fakir im Frack; Das Geständnis der grünen Maske [dir,scr]; Die Sektwette; Adamants letztes Rennen; Diebe – und Liebe; Der lebende Tote; Das Rätsel der Stahlkammer. 1916/17: Das Legat. [dir,pro – DE] 1917: Die schwarze Loo [dir]; Der Fall Hirn; Der karierte Regenmantel. 1917/18: Er oder Er [?]; Othello oder: Das Verhängnis eines Fürstenhauses; Schwiegermutter; Der geprellte Don Juan; Goslar, die alte deutsche Kaiserstadt [SD – dir]. 1918: Die Prinzessin Adina; Wanderratten; Die feindlichen Nachbarn; Tulpe ist verloren gegangen [dir]; Er soll dein Herr sein; Opfer um Opfer; Sein Weib; Der preisgekrönte Dackel; Dagny und ihre beiden Männer; Weh dem, der erbt; Hochzeit machen, das ist wunderschön; Das Mädel aus 1001 Nacht; Brüder. 1919: Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam; Das Raritätenkabinett; Der Flimmerprinz; Sündiges Blut; Der Sohn der Magd; Freie Liebe [dir,co-scr,pro]; Verrat und Sühne. 1919/20: Das Lachtäubchen [act(?)]; Matrimonium sacrum; Figaros Hochzeit [dir]. [dir – DE] 1920: Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadscha. 3. Teil. 1920/21: Die große und die kleine Welt [dir,co-scr]. 1921: Die Geheimnisse von Berlin. 2. Teil: Berlin W. Die Weltstadt in Glanz und Licht / 3. Berlin-Moabit. Hinter Gitterfenstern / 4. Teil: Berlin Fröbelstraße. Im Asyl für Obdachlose. 1922: Die Tragödie im Hause Bang; Fesseln der Tradition; Die Schneiderkomteß; Die Modegräfin; Das schöne Mädel. 1922/23: Die Fledermaus [dir,co-scr]. 1923: Quarantäne. 1924/25: Vater Voss [dir,scr]. 1925: Das Mädchen mit der Protektion; Der ungebetene Gast [dir,scr – AT]. 1925/26: Die Fahrt ins Abenteuer. 1927: Ein Tag der Rosen im August … da hat die Garde fortgemußt; Steh’ ich in finstrer Mitternacht; Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland. 1928: Ein Tag Film [SF – dir,scr]; Der Kampf der Tertia [dir,co-scr]. 1929: Autobus Nr. 2. 1930: Nur am Rhein … [dir,scr]. 1932: Ludwig Manfred Lommel [SF]; Aafa-Kunterbunt I–III [SF]; Tausend für eine Nacht [MLV – CS/DE]. 1932/33: Varieté Nr. 7 [SF – dir,pro]. 1934: You Belong to Me [act – US]. 1935: Be Careful, Mr. Smith [dir, pro – GB]; The Wigan Express [SF – dir,pro – GB]; Mack’s Comedies [SF – dir,pro – GB].
THEO MACKEBEN Born January 5, 1897, Stargard (Prussia, now Starogard Gdanski, Poland) Died January 10, 1953, Berlin (West Germany) Mackeben’s song ‘So oder so ist das Leben’ (Life’s like this or like that), like many of his other hits, summed up a specific experience or emotion, while many of his lyrics entered vernacular language. Though best known for his ‘evergreens’, Mackeben was a prodigious composer and musical arranger for films in the 1930s and ‘40s, at the same time pursuing ambitions to be recognised as a serious opera composer. Studying piano and violin from an early age Mackeben toured the Far East as an accompanist before re-
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turning to Berlin where he became a conductor. After the performance of his oratorio ‘Hiob’ in 1928 he was engaged as musical director for the premiere of Brecht/Weill’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’. Inspired by Weill’s music, Mackeben’s precise direction ensured the show’s success. Two years later he adapted the music for the film version, directed by G. W. Pabst. Initially a musical arranger, modifying classics for films such as Ophüls LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932/ 33), Mackeben also had moderate success with his own compositions in musical theatre. Not until Brigitte Horney sang ‘So oder so ist das Leben’ to express a compelling combination of fatalism and independence in LIEBE, TOD UND TEUFEL (Love, Death and The Devil, 1934) did Mackeben make his mark as a film composer. This was followed by Gustav Gründgens’s suggestive rendition of ‘Die Nacht ist nicht allein zum Schlafen da’ (Nighttime is not just for sleeping) from TANZ AUF DEM VULKAN (Dance on the Volcano, 1938) and several songs popularised by Zarah Leander in a series of musical comedies and melodramas. Aiming to be respected for his serious music Mackeben conducted the Berlin State Orchestra playing an own composition for Carl Fröhlich’s historical drama DAS HERZ DER KÖNIGIN (Mary Queen of Scots, 1939/40). The strangely effective, if unwieldy, score was not appreciated by leading lady Leander’s fans but Mackeben refused to churn out the expected melodies. He wrote Italian-style arias for her role as an opera singer in DER WEG INS FREIE (The Way to Freedom) and brooding background music for the anti-British propaganda film OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, both 1940/41). The projected performance of his opera ‘Peter Paul Rubens’ came to nothing when the score was destroyed in an air raid, but Mackeben remained active as a musical director in theatre and in films. He composed songs stamped with public approval and strange, almost inaccessible scores such as that for DIE SÜNDERIN (The Sinner, 1950) which underlines the film’s noir elements. A workaholic, Mackeben suffered a stroke in September 1952. He died four months later of a heart attack. [mus/mus dir – DE] 1929/30: Die Jagd nach dem Glück. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]. 1931: Ich geh’ aus und Du bleibst da [MLV]; L’Inconstante. Je sors et tu restes là [MLV]; Berlin – Alexanderplatz. 1931/32: Ein steinreicher Mann. 1932: Fünf von der Jazzband [mus,act]; Die verkaufte Braut; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann?; Das Abenteuer einer schönen Frau. 1932/33: Liebelei [MLV]. 1932-34: ‘Liebelei’. Une histoire d’amour [MLV – FR]. 1933: Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. 1934: Die Csardasfürstin [MLV]; Princesse Czardas [MLV]; Pechmarie; Der zerstreute Walzer [SF]; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]; Le diable en bouteille [MLV]. 1935: Les époux célibataires [MLV]; Mach’ mich
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glücklich [MLV]; Viktoria; Das Einmaleins der Liebe; Pygmalion; I Give My Heart [GB]; Viktoria; Der Student von Prag. 1936: Mädchen in Weiß. Ich bin auf der Welt, um glücklich zu sein; Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich; Intermezzo; Unter heißem Himmel. 1937: Patrioten; Daphne und der Diplomat; Das große Abenteuer. 1938: Break the News [MLV – GB]; Heimat; Ein Mädchen geht an Land; Tanz auf dem Vulkan. 1938/39: Bel Ami; Die Hochzeitsreise. 1939: Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht; Ich bin Sebastian Ott. 1939/40: Bal paré; Das Herz der Königin. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger; Der Weg ins Freie. 1941/42: Hochzeit auf Bärenhof. 1942/43: Dove andiamo, Signora? [MLV – IT]; Altes Herz wird wieder jung; Das Bad auf der Tenne; Frauen sind keine Engel; Abenteuer im GrandHotel [MLV]; Germanin. 1943: Die Gattin. 1943/44: Das Konzert. 1944/45: Sag’ endlich ja; Das seltsame Fräulein Sylvia. 1947: … und über uns der Himmel. 1947/48: Chemie und Liebe [DD]. 1948: Träum’ nicht, Annette! [DD]. 1948/49: Anonyme Briefe. 1949: Wer bist Du, den ich liebe?; Die Reise nach Marrakesch. 1950: Die Sünderin. 1951: Es geschehen noch Wunder; Die Dubarry; Gefangene Seele. 1952: Der große Zapfenstreich. 1953/54: Bei Dir war es immer so schön. 1954: Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins. 1954/55: Bel ami [MLV – AT]. 1958: Rivalen der Manege. 1963: Die Dubarry [TV]. 1966: Come imparai ad amare le donne / Das gewisse Etwas der Frauen / Comment j’ai appris à aimer les femmes [IT/DE/FR]. 1975: Die Dubarry [TV]; So oder so ist das Leben.
KURT MAETZIG Born January 25, 1911, Berlin-Charlottenburg (Germany) One of East Germany’s leading directors, Maetzig’s career was temporarily derailed following the state’s disapproval of his DAS KANINCHEN BIN ICH (I Am the Rabbit, 1964/65). Studying chemistry and business management at Munich’s Technical College from 1930, Maetzig gained a working knowledge of film technology at his father’s laboratory. Graduating in 1935, he ran the Radius special effects studio prior to being banned from holding a position within the film industry after 1937 on account of Jewish ancestry on his mother’s side. He subsequently joined the communist resistance in 1944. A founding member of the Filmaktiv group which laid the foundations for the resumption of film production in the Soviet Zone, Maetzig produced, directed, scripted, and provided the voiceover for weekly newsreel DER AUGENZEUGE (Eyewitness, 1946/47), in addition to making a number of documentary shorts about the socialist rebuilding of Germany. One of four licence-holders at the inception of DEFA in May 1946, he made his feature debut with the award-winning EHE IM SCHATTEN (Marriage in the Shadows, 1947). Based on the fate of actor Joachim Gottschalk and his Jewish wife during the ‘Third Reich’, the film proved successful in all occu-
pied zones. DIE BUNTKARIERTEN (Those in Gingham, 1948/49) presented an episodic cross-section of proletarian life in Berlin from the Wilhelmine period through to the end of World War II, while in DER RAT DER GÖTTER (Council of the Gods, 1949/50), he used the example of chemicals conglomerate IG Farben to denounce the complicity of industry with the Nazi regime. His two-part, big-budget, all-colour biopic of ERNST THÄLMANN (Ernst Thaelmann, 1953–55) set the style for representations of communist struggle during the Weimar Republic, and his widescreen Agfacolor adaptation of Stanis³aw Lem’s paean to international cooperation DER SCHWEIGENDE STERN (Spaceship to Venus, 1959) was DEFA’s first science fiction picture. In SCHLÖSSER UND KATEN (Castles and Cottages, 1956), Maetzig had already explored contemporary issues affecting social reconstruction in East Germany, but the overtly critical stance of DAS KANINCHEN BIN ICH (The Rabbit Is Me, 1964/65) caused it to be singled out at the SED’s 11th Plenum in November 1965, with the various productions that were vaulted during the ensuing cultural crackdown becoming known as ‘the rabbit films’. It remained unreleased until 1990. Following this debacle, Maetzig re-established himself as a workmanlike director whose pictures toed the state line and remained stylistically unexceptional. He stepped down from his position as vice-chancellor of Potsdam’s Academy of Film Art, which he had assumed upon the institution’s opening in 1954, but remained active in promoting local film clubs and as a member of the Union for Film and Television Employees. In 1987, he published ‘Filmarbeit’, a collection of interviews and writings. After unification he remained a critical witness in a number of documentaries about DEFA. [dir – DD] 1945/46: Berlin im Aufbau [SD]. 1946-47: Der Augenzeuge [newsreel – supv]. 1946: Einheit SPD – KPD [SD]; FDGB [DO – co-dir]; Leipziger Messe 1946 [SD]; Musikalischer Besuch [SD – co-dir]. 1947: Ehe im Schatten [dir,scr]. 1948/49: Die Buntkarierten. 1949/50: Der Rat der Götter. 1950: Immer bereit [DO]; Familie Benthin [co-dir]. 1950/51: Die Sonnenbrucks [co-scr]. 1951: Roman einer jungen Ehe [dir,co-scr]. 1953/54: Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse [dir,co-scr]. 1954/55: Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse [dir,co-scr]. 1956: Schlösser und Katen. 1. Der krumme Anton / 2. Annegrets Heimkehr [dir,co-scr]. 1957: Vergeßt mir meine Traudel nicht [dir,co-scr]. 1958: Das Lied der Matrosen [co-dir]. 1959: Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [dir,co-scr – DD/PL]. 1960: Septemberliebe. 1961: Der Traum des Hauptmann Loy [dir, scr]; Der Schatten [TV – co-dir,scr]. 1961/62: Lampe und Krokodil [SD – dir,scr,cam]; An französischen Kaminen. 1963: Preludio 11 [DD/CU]. 1964/65: Das Kaninchen bin ich [dir,co-scr]. 1966/67: Das Mädchen auf dem Brett.
HANS-MARTIN MAJEWSKI 1967: Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog. 1969: Aus unserer Zeit: Der Computer sagt: nein [dir,co-scr]. 1971/72: Januskopf. 1975: Mann gegen Mann [dir,scr]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [act]. [app – DE] 1991: Nachtausgabe: Verbotene Filme der DDR [TVD]; Die Augenzeugen [TVD]; Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [TVD]. 1993: Zur Person: Kurt Maetzig [TV]; Zeitzeugen: Gerald Syring im Gespräch mit Kurt Maetzig [TVD]; Die UFA – Mythos und Wirklichkeit [TVD]. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO]. 2002: Jenseits der Ufa. Zum Scheitern des deutschen Nachkriegsfilms [TVD]; Nelken für Reisch [SD].
HANS-MARTIN MAJEWSKI Born January 14, 1911, Schlawe (Germany) Died January 1, 1997, Bötersen (Germany) Using symphonic style as well as Jazz and electronic music Hans-Martin Majewski was one of the most prolific composers in West German cinema after the war. The son of a veterinary surgeon, he began studying his father’s profession at Königsberg University but switched to music in 1932. At the conservatory in Leipzig he studied musical theory, piano and conducting. His first job was as a conductor and arranger at the Theater des Volkes in Berlin in 1935, while his first composition for the stage was Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’. In 1938, his operetta ‘Insel der Träume’ (Island of Dreams), self-published with his Majo-Bühnenvertrieb, premiered. During the same time he took on assignments as a répétiteur at the Ufa studios in Tempelhof and Ufastadt Babelsberg. Director Arthur Maria Rabenalt hired Majewski to write music for his film FLUCHT INS DUNKEL (Flight into the Dark, 1939). His use of jazz and atonality brought him into conflict with the Nazi authorities: his contract at the theatre was cancelled and he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in January 1940. Because of his musical background his talents were exploited by his officers to entertain the troops. After the end of the war he arranged shows for British troups in Flensburg and Hamburg but – because he was mistaken for Helmut Majewski, a composer and highranking Nazi official – he was arrested for some months. After his release he settled with his family in Hamburg composing and writing for cabarets and more than 100 radio plays for the NWDR and other stations. He resumed his career composing music for the screen in 1948, scoring the drug thriller BLOCKIERTE SIGNALE (Blocked Signals, 1948) and Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s drama of postwar depression, LIEBE 47 (Love ’47, 1948/49). For the following four decades Majewski was busy composing music for more than 120 documentaries about art and industrial topics.
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He used many different styles – from classical music through jazz and songs – and was a pioneer in using new technologies and inventions, such as the trautonium (cooperating with specialist Oscar Sala) for the electronic score of the comedy POSTLAGERND TURTELTAUBE (Turtledove Poste Restante, 1952). His feature films covered all kinds of genres and he worked with some of the most important West German directors and stars of the period: For Kurt Hoffmann, specialist for refined comedies from literary sources, he scored the Thomas Mann adaptation BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (Felix Krull, 1957) starring Horst Buchholz, SCHLOSS GRIPSHOLM (Castle Gripsholm, 1963) and RHEINSBERG (1967) from Kurt Tucholsky, and Erich Kästner’s DAS FLIEGENDE KLASSENZIMMER (The Flying Classroom, 1954). He found the right sounds for war films such as DER STERN VON AFRIKA (The Star of Africa, 1956/57) and HAIE UND KLEINE FISCHE (Sharks and Little Fish, 1957) and light comedies starring Liselotte Pulver and Romy Schneider, star vehicles such as OHNE DICH WIRD ES NACHT (Without You There Is Night, 1956) starring and directed by Curd Jürgens. The critically acclaimed DIE BRÜCKE (The Bridge, 1959) was directed by Berhard Wicki, with whom Majewski worked on the Dürrenmatt adaptations DIE EHE DES HERRN MISSISSIPPI (The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi, 1961), and DER BESUCH (The Visit, 1963/64) with Ingrid Bergman und Anthony Quinn. Majewski won the German Film Award on four occasions, for WEG OHNE UMKEHR (Way With No Return, 1953), NASSER ASPHALT (Wet Asphalt, 1958), DIE BRÜCKE (1959) and DER LORD VON BARMBECK (The Lord of Barmbeck, 1973). From the mid-1960s, he concentrated on television, scoring more than 150 TV dramas, entertainment series and crime thrillers. In the early 1980s Majewski re-scored a series of American film classics for German release – e.g. I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932), THE THIN MAN (1934), STAGECOACH (1938/39), I MARRIED A WITCH (1942) – because there were no original music tracks to use in the dubbing. Apart from his film and television work, Majewski continued to compose regularly for theatres in Hamburg, Berlin, Zurich, among other cities. Among his over 80 scores his music for the world premiere of Peter Weiss’s play ‘Die Verfolgung und Ermordung des Jean Paul Marat, dargestellt von einer Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton’ (Marat/ Sade, 1964/65) stood out, and it was used for most German performances and TV adaptations. Among the many awards Majewski received, were a ‘Filmband in Gold’ lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to German cinema in 1977 and the Erich-Wolfgang Korngold-Preis in 1995.
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Married to the ballet dancer Lotti Kiessling, he had four children; his son Hans-Martin jun. (b. 1945) became a cameraman. [mus – DE] 1939: Flucht ins Dunkel. 1941/42: Fronttheater. 1948: Blockierte Signale. 1948/49: Liebe 47. 1949: Amico; 0 Uhr 15 Zimmer 9. 1949/50: Tobias Knopp [ANI]; Meine Nichte Susanne. 1950: Wenn eine Frau liebt. 1951: Primanerinnen; Der blaue Stern des Südens [AT]. 1951/52: Der Weg zu Dir; Europa ruft uns [SD]; Loreley [SD]. 1952: Klettermaxe; Postlagernd Turteltaube; Liebe im Finanzamt. 1953: Prozeß in Dur [TV]; Das Nachtgespenst; Weg ohne Umkehr [mus,act]. 1953/54: Männer im gefährlichen Alter. 1954: Das fliegende Klassenzimmer; Sie; Double Destin / Das zweite Leben [FR/DE]; Drei vom Varieté; Die verschwundene Miniatur; Die goldene Pest; Ingrid, die Geschichte eines Fotomodells; Herr über Leben und Tod. 1954/55: Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox. 1955: Heldentum nach Ladenschluß: 3. Romeo und Julia auf dem Tandem / 4. Captain Fox; Hanussen; Urlaub auf Ehrenwort; Parole Heimat: 1. Max und Leo / 2. Das Findelkind; Nacht der Entscheidung; Prozeß in Dur. Ein heiteres Spiel [TV]; Alibi. 1955/56: Ich suche Dich. 1956: Ohne Dich wird es Nacht; Heute heiratet mein Mann; Hochzeit auf Immenhof; Kitty und die große Welt; Liebe / Uragano sul Po [DE/IT]. 1956/ 57: Der Stern von Afrika / La estrella de Africa [DE/ES]. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Der tolle Bomberg; Ferien auf Immenhof; Haie und kleine Fische; Der Fuchs von Paris / Le rénard de Paris [DE/FR]; El Hakim; Scampolo; Autobahn [SD]. 1957/58: Das gab’s nur einmal [DO]; Der Greifer. 1958: Mylord weiß sich zu helfen [TV]; Nasser Asphalt; Der Mann im Strom; Der Maulkorb; Peter Voss, der Millionendieb; Warum sind sie gegen uns?; Unruhige Nacht; Solange das Herz schlägt; Die Brüder [TV]. 1958/59: Die Halbzarte [AT]. 1959: … und das am Montagmorgen; Menschen im Netz; Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Labyrinth / Neurose [DE/IT]; Die Brücke; Bezaubernde Arabella; Professor Schellfisch [TV]; Bumerang. 1959/60: Ich schwöre und gelobe; Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen. 1960: Im Bannkreis des Mondes [SD]; Ein Sack voll Kleingeld [TV]; Schachnovelle; Division Brandenburg; Fabrik der Offiziere; Agatha, laß das Morden sein; An heiligen Wassern [CH]. 1960/61: Frage 7 / Question 7 [US/DE]; Das Wunder des Malachias. 1961: Mir passiert nichts [SD]; Die Diktatoren [DO]; Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi [CH/DE]; Frau Cheneys Ende; Das Riesenrad. 1962: Aberglauben – Aber Glauben? [SD]; Ein Mann ist ein Mann [TV]; Musterbauhütte Freiburg [SD]; Die Wunderflasche [SD]; Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt; Der rote Rausch; Liebling, ich muß dich erschießen; Tunnel 28 / Escape from East Berlin [DE/US]; Heute kündigt mir mein Mann; Schönes Wochenende [TV]. 1962/63: Allemande im Herbst [SF – mus,pro – DE/BE]; Das spezifische Gewicht [SF – pro – DE/BE]; Liebe will gelernt sein; Hütet Eure Töchter! 1. Inge. 1963: Bauhütte 63 [SD]; Berlin – Partner des Fortschritts [SD]; Des Pudels Kern [SD]; Eis – Grönländisches Skizzen [SD]; Energie-Schwerpunkt Süd-West [SD]; Porträt einer Rundfunkanstalt [SD]; Reisender ohne Gepäck [TV]; Der Schlüssel liegt beim Chef [SD]; Von Punkt zu Punkt [SD]; Elf Jahre und ein Tag; Schloß Gripsholm; Verlorener Sohn
[TV]; Das Glück läuft hinterher [TV]; Minna von Barnhelm [TV]; Kein Grund zur Unruhe [TV]; Was Männer nicht wissen müssen [DO]; Das wissen die Götter! [TV]. 1963/ 64: Der Besuch / La rancune / La vedetta della signora [DE/ FR/IT]. [mus – DE – TV] 1964: Albisola – Savona Mare [SF – mus, pro]; Das ist Berlin [DO]; Europa-Center [SD]; Frieden auf der Straße [SD]; Gute Besserung [SD]; Ein Tag in Berlin [DO]; General Frederic; Eurydike; Ich fahre Patschold; Das Strafquartett; Medea; Lebenslauf einer Stadt [SD]. 1964/ 65: Das große Ohr; Christinas Heimreise; Götterkinder. 1965: Kennen Sie diese Stadt? [SD]; Schwarz-Weiß-Blues [SF – mus,pro]; Der Vater [SD]; De Luitenant [TV – BE]; Tatort; Abends Kammermusik; Bernhard Lichtenberg; Die Sommerfrische; Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt von der Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Ansichtskarte; Der Spleen des George Riley; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Brille; Mach’s Beste draus; Berta Garlan; Großer Ring mit Außenschleife. 1965/66: Wenn die Musik nicht wär’ [TVS]; Ganovenehre [FF]; Die großen Spione: Der Mann, der sich Abel nannte. 1966: Barlach-Studien [SD]; Erinnerungen eines Flügels [TVS]; Tänzerische Impressionen; Caligula; Drei Tage bis Mitternacht; Geibelstraße 27. 1966/67: Berlin – ein Zentrum deutscher Entwicklungshilfe [SD]; Ich bin Schwester [SD]; Der Duft von Blumen; Großer Mann – was nun? [TVS – 8 episodes]. 1967: Die Zimmerwirtin; Zug der Zeit; Herr Schrott verwertet sich [TVS – 4 episodes]; Frühling in Baden-Baden; Philoktet; Der Teufel und der liebe Gott; Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt von der Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade; Rheinsberg [FF]; Der Tag, an dem die Kinder verschwanden; Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte; Ein Mann namens Harry Brent. 1967/68: Mathilde Möhring. 1968: Stewardessen [TVS – 6 episodes]; Zeit der halben Herzen; Berliner Blockade; Der Auftrag; Der zehnte Mann; Der Unfall; Die Katze; Was ihr wollt. 1969: Intermezzo – Das Duell; 7 Tage Frist [FF]; Herzblatt oder wie sag’ ich’s meiner Tochter? [FF]; Der Lauf des Bösen; Die Geschichte der 1002. Nacht [mus,act]. 1969-77: Die Kriminalerzählung [TVS – 2 seasons – 26 episodes]. 1969/70: Besuch gegen zehn. 1970: Königin Christine. 1970-74: Der Fall von nebenan [TVS – 3 seasons – 52 episodes] [TVS]. 1971: Der Wohnwagen; Das Ding an sich – und wie man es dreht; Oliver. 1972: Massagesalon der jungen Mädchen [FF]; Agent aus der Retorte; Die Hinrichtung / Death of a Stranger [FF – DE/IL]; Plaza Fortuna. 1972/73: Morgenstern am Abend [TV – mus,act]. 1972-73: Privatdetektiv Frank Kross [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1973: Ein Abend mit O. E. Hasse [TVD]; Briefwechsel; Gott schützt die Liebenden [FF]; Der Lord von Barmbeck [FF]; Ein besserer Herr. 1973/74: Der Verfolger. 1974: Magdalena – vom Teufel besessen [FF]; Wer stirbt schon gerne unter Palmen [FF]; Silverson; Zinngeschrei. 1974-76: Der Kommissar [TVS – 3 episodes]; Derrick [TVS – 5 episodes]. 1975: Das Messer im Rücken [FF]; Verlorenes Leben [FF]; Hans und Heinz Kirch; Intermezzo für fünf Hände. 1976: Die Elixiere des Teufels [FF]; Sonntagsgeschichten. 1976/77: Das Gesetz des Clans; Die Standarte / La última bandera [FF –
HEIKE MAKATSCH DE/AT/ES]. 1977: Hier kein Ausgang – nur Übergang; Haben Sie nichts zu verzollen?; Spuk in Felixburg. 1977/78: Mr. Carlis und seine abenteuerlichen Geschichten [TVS – 13 episodes]; Der Schimmelreiter [FF]. 1978: Heil Dir, Hammonia; Spannende Geschichten [TVS]; Der Pfingstausflug [FF – DE/CH]; Unsere kleine Welt. 1978/79: Der Mörder [FF]. 1979: Hotel Paradies; Derrick: Das dritte Opfer; Der Alte: Eine große Familie. 1980: Herkulespillen; Tatort: Schönes Wochenende; Überfall in Glasgow. 1980/ 81: Stern ohne Himmel [FF]. 1980-81: Onkel Bräsig erzählt [TVS]. 1981: Der Nächste bitte; Das Ordensband; Das Streichquartett. 1981/82: Feine Gesellschaft – Beschränkte Haftung [FF]. 1982: Die Präsidentin; Sein Doppelgänger; Urlaub am Meer; Die Pawlaks; Die feine englische Art [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1983: Ruhe im Saal [TVS]; Der Spleen des George Riley. 1984: Ein Fall für zwei: Chemie eines Mordes; Ein liebes Paar; Mensch ohne Fahrschein; Paulchen. 1984/85: Berliner Weiße mit Schuß [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1985: Theaterblut. 1985/86: Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – season 1 – 6 episodes]. 1986: Norddeutsche Geschichten; Wasser für die Blumen; Das Mord-Menü; Völkerschlachtdenkmal. 1987: Wer lacht schon über Rosemann. 1988/89: Ein Kuckuck im Nest. 1990: Der veruntreute Himmel.
HEIKE MAKATSCH Born August 13, 1971, Düsseldorf (West Germany) Blond and pretty Makatsch first achieved domestic fame as a bubbly TV presenter in the 1990s, before moving on to lead and supporting parts in German and international cinema. Following an aborted attempt at studying sociology at Düsseldorf University, Makatsch joined the German music television channel VIVA, modelled on MTV, as a presenter and VJ (video jockey) in 1993. After two years she changed over to RTL 2 presenting BRAVO TV. In 1997 she briefly hosted her own chat show. Her cheery, uncomplicated persona, ‘girlie’ look, and youthful patter, delivered in her inimitable gravelly voice, made her a favourite among teenage viewers and pop fans. Her film debut was in Detlev Buck’s comedy MÄNNERPENSION (Jailbirds, 1995), portraying a gangster’s moll and wannabe pop star. Her subsequent film roles offered more complex characters – as a woman torn between two men in Peter Sehr’s melodrama OBSESSION (1997), and – once again opting for broad comedy – as a Salvation Army officer in Buck’s LIEBE DEINE NÄCHSTE! (Love Thy Neighbour, 1997/98). On the set of the former production, she first met British actor Daniel Craig (b. 1968), with whom she was romantically involved from 2001 to 2005. Makatsch consolidated her acting credentials with supporting roles in Doris Dörrie’s BIN ICH SCHÖN? (Am I Beautiful?, 1997/98) and Max Färberböck’s World War II drama AIMÉE & JAGUAR (1998), and
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moved on to leads, such as Kurt Tucholsky’s girlfriend in GRIPSHOLM (1999/2000), and as part of the ensemble cast of Dörrie’s NACKT (Naked, 2001/ 02). Based in London while living with Craig, she began to appear in a number of international productions, playing the main character’s girlfriend in LATE NIGHT SHOPPING (2001) a comedy about a group of twentysomethings; a scientist who turns into a zombie in the science fiction thriller RESIDENT EVIL (2001/02); and an office siren on a mission to seduce Alan Rickman in Richard Curtis’s sentimental feelgood hit LOVE ACTUALLY (2003). She acted in a series of short films directed by Camille Griffin as well. In Germany, she starred as a woman-in-peril in the horror sequel ANATOMIE 2 (Anatomy 2, 2002) and as a country singer in ALMOST HEAVEN (2005). Deviating somewhat from her usual on-screen persona, in the TV biopic MARGARETE STEIFF (2005), she portrayed the wheelchair-bound founder of the famous toy company struggling to overcome her physical disability. The same year the derivative international special effects blockbuster A SOUND OF THUNDER (in production since 2002) was finally released, in some countries straight-to-DVD. After giving birth of her daughter Mieke Ellen with guitarist Max Schröder in 2007, she was cast as postwar film legend Hildegard Knef in Kai Wessel’s allstar biopic HILDE, based on Knef’s memoirs, and then played feminist pioneer and pre-World War I peace activist Hope Bridges Adams in DR. HOPE (2008/09). [act – DE] 1993: Interaktiv [TVS]; Heikes Hausbesuche [TVS]. 1995: Männerpension. 1995-99: Bravo TV [TVS]. 1996/97: Obsession [DE/FR]. 1997: Heike Makatsch – Die Show [TVS – 8 episodes]. 1997/98: Bin ich schön?; Liebe Deine Nächste! 1998: Das Gelbe vom Ei [TV]; Aimée & Jaguar; Männer und andere Katastrophen [TV]. 1998/99: killer.berlin.doc [TVD – app]; Die Häupter meiner Lieben. 1999: Camino de Santiago [TV – ES]; POP 2000 [TVS]; Longitude [TV – GB]. 1999/2000: Gripsholm [DE/CH/AT]. 2000: Late Night Shopping [GB]. 2000/01: The Announcement [US]; Ein göttlicher Job; Die Affäre Semmeling [TV]. 2001: Nachts im Park [DE/CH]. 2001/02: Resident Evil [DE/ US/GB]; Nackt. 2002: A Weekend with Eva [SF – GB]; Anatomie 2; Europe – 99euro-films 2. 2002/03: Love Actually [GB]. 2002-05: A Sound of Thunder [DE/US]. 2003: Das Wunder von Lengede [TV]. 2004: Lively Up Yourself; Say Sorry [SF – GB]; Familie auf Bestellung [TV – AT]; Durch die Nacht mit … Heike Makatsch und Peaches [TVD – app]. 2004/05: Keine Lieder über Liebe; Tara Road [IE]; Almost Heaven. 2005: Gero von Boehm begegnet … Heike Makatsch [TVD – app]; Margarete Steiff [TV]. 2005/06: Hui Buh – Das Schloßgespenst. 2006: Schwesterherz [scr, act]. 2006/07: Mrs. Ratcliffe’s Revolution [GB]. 2006-08: Schade um das schöne Geld [TV]. 2008/09: Dr. Hope [TV]; Hilde; Die Tür.
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LUCIE MANNHEIM
LUCIE MANNHEIM Born April 30, 1895, Berlin-Köpenick (Germany) Died July 18, 1976, Braunlage (West Germany) Forced into exile, celebrated German-Jewish stage and screen actress Lucie Mannheim gained a reputation in Britain, her adopted country, and she returned to West Germany after World War II. Renowned for her warm voice and naturalistic performances, she nevertheless failed to regain the prestige she had enjoyed in the 1920s. Growing up in a middle-class musical family, Mannheim studied drama in Berlin and was engaged at the Volksbühne for her first comedy role ‘Die Heirat’ (The Marriage, 1919) directed by Jürgen Fehling who became a professional mentor and private partner for many years. Taken on by the Berlin Staatstheater in 1922, Mannheim attracted public attention in a string of classical plays. Comedy remained her forte and she excelled in farces, receiving excellent reviews for her jaunty, charming, but sensible style. Primarily appreciated by theatregoers for her vocal intensity Mannheim had less success in her earlier silent films, which included a starring role in G. W. Pabst’s directorial debut DER SCHATZ (The Treasure, 1922/23). With the advent of sound films Mannheim played opposite Franz Lederer in the German version of E. A. Dupont’s multi-lingual production ATLANTIC (1929), and she co-starred with Fritz Kortner and Gustaf Gründgens in the historical drama DANTON (1930/31). Other leading parts followed. Banned from performing in state theatres in 1933 Mannheim appeared in the operetta ‘Die Kaiserin’ (The Empress) at the Volksbühne through the personal intervention of actress Käthe Dorsch. She delighted the public and even charmed Hitler at one performance. Suffering from stress Mannheim went into exile via Vienna to London where she quickly re-established herself in comedies, nourishing hopes of becoming part of a permanent ensemble. Her British film debut was in Alfred Hitchcock’s spythriller THE 39 STEPS (1935) playing the crucial supporting role of the elegant, enigmatic spy Annabella Smith. Becoming a British citizen by her marriage to fellow actor Marius Goring, who ran the Germanlanguage department of the BBC, Mannheim made a series of propaganda programmes during the war. Her film appearances remained sporadic, but included two notable supporting roles in the spy thrillers THE YELLOW CANARY (1943) and HOTEL RESERVE (1944). Together with her husband, Mannheim returned to the theatre in the British zone of Germany in 1949. In a revival of the farce ‘10,000 Taler’, Mannheim renewed her popularity on the German stage, appearing with former colleagues in classical and contemporary plays. In spite of positive reviews of her possessive mother in ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ (1958) she was
disappointed not to be permanently engaged by the Berlin Staatstheater. In 1951 Mannheim appeared in her first German film for twenty years playing the wife of Hans Albers in NACHTS AUF DEN STRASSEN (Detour). Throughout the decade she alternated making British and German films partnered with actors such as Heinz Rühmann (DER EISERNE GUSTAV, Iron Gustav, 1958) and Laurence Olivier in the thriller BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (1965). She appeared in her last film when she was seventy-five, playing in Maximilian Schell’s adaptation of Turgenev’s FIRST LOVE (1969/70). [act – DE] 1918/19: Zwischen zwei Welten. 1920: Jungmädchenstreiche. 1922: Der steinerne Reiter. 1922/23: Der Schatz; Die Prinzessin Suwarin. 1923: Der Puppenmacher von Kiang-Ning; Die Austreibung. 1929: Atlantic [German MLV – GB]. 1930/31: Danton [MLV]. 1931: Der Ball [MLV – FR/DE]. 1932: Madame wünscht keine Kinder [MLV – DE/AT]. 1935: The 39 Steps [GB]. 1936: East Meets West [GB]. 1936/37: The High Command [GB]. 1943: The Yellow Canary [GB]. 1944: The True Story of Lili Marlene [SD – GB]; Tawny Pipit [GB]; Hotel Reserve [GB/US]. 1951: Nachts auf den Straßen; So Little Time [GB]. 1952: The Man Who Watched Trains Go By [GB]. 1953: Ich und Du. 1953/54: Das ideale Brautpaar. 1954: Die Stadt ist voller Geheimnisse. 1955: Das Ostergeschenk [TV]; Du darfst nicht länger schweigen. 1957: The Lass of Richmond Hill [TV – GB]; Die Silberschnur [TV]; Frauenarzt Dr. Bertram. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; Der eiserne Gustav. 1959: Arzt aus Leidenschaft; Der zerbrochene Krug [TV]. 1959/60: Beyond the Curtain [GB]. 1960: Die Verwandlung [TV]; Der letzte Zeuge. 1961: Die göttliche Jette [TV]. 1963: Herrn Walsers Raben [TV]. 1964: Der Trojanische Krieg findet nicht statt [TV]; General Frederic [TV]; Gerechtigkeit in Worowogorsk [TV]. 1965: Interview mit der Geschichte [TVS – episode 4]; Bunny Lake Is Missing [GB]. 1966: Der Kinderdieb [TV]; Das Vergnügen, anständig zu sein [TV]. 1968: Die Mördergesellschaft [TV]; Der Monat der fallenden Blätter [TV]. 1969/70: First Love [DE/CH]. 1970: Cher Antoine oder Die verfehlte Liebe [TV].
GÜNTER MARCZINKOWSKY (Günter Otto Wilhelm Marczinkowsky) Born September 10, 1927, Berlin-Pankow (Germany) Died December 28, 2004, Hamburg (Germany) A consistently innovative DEFA cameraman, Marczinkowsky’s cinematography added a rigorously stylised aesthetic dimension to several significant East German films. The son of a baker, Marczinkowsky started an apprenticeship as a film technician at Berlin’s Geyer labs in 1942, before being called up to fight in 1944. After the end of the war, he was employed as a film developer
FERDINAND MARIAN
and projectionist in Berlin. In 1947 he became cameraman Robert Baberske’s assistant, in which capacity he served on a number of early DEFA classics, directed by Slatan Dudow, Wolfgang Staudte, and Falk Harnack. Marczinkowsky was also camera operator for Georg Krause on several West German productions in the mid-1950s. He graduated to the position of director of photography in 1956, and entered into a lengthy artistic association with director Frank Beyer, following their work together on EINE ALTE LIEBE (An Old Love, 1958/59). His unusual camera perspectives and angled shots in Beyer’s KÖNIGSKINDER (And Your Love Too, 1961/62) caused a sensation. His subsequent efforts in widescreen cinematography demonstrated his versatility, from the objective capturing of everyday life in a concentration camp in NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN (Naked Among Wolves, 1962), which received the 1963 National Award, via the accentuation of cramped working and living conditions in Beyer’s banned film SPUR DER STEINE (The Trace of Stones, 1965/66), to the highlighting of a pervasive sense of alienation in Egon Günther’s ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1967/68). Marczinkowsky employed stylisation as a means of achieving distance from simple reproductions of reality, as could be seen again in Beyer’s holocaust tragicomedy JAKOB DER LÜGNER (Jacob the Liar, 1974), which picked up the National Award as well as an Oscar nomination. He also photographed a large number of fairy tales, musicals and ballet films for East German television. In 1980, Marczinkowsky moved to Hamburg, working on two West German television films directed by Frank Beyer and as cameraman on a few television series before retiring. [ass-cam – DD] 1947/48: 1-2-3 Corona. 1948/49: Die Kuckucks. 1949: Unser täglich Brot. 1949/50: Bürgermeister Anna. 1950: Familie Benthin. 1950/51: Das Beil von Wandsbek. 1951: Der Untertan. 1951/52: Karriere in Paris. 1952: Frauenschicksale. 1953: Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck. 1954: 08/15 [DE]; Leuchtfeuer [DD/SE]; Phantom des großen Zeltes [DE]. 1954/55: Ein Polterabend. 1955: 08/15 – II. Teil [DE]; Robert Mayer – Der Arzt aus Heilbronn; Der Teufelskreis. 1956: Das tapfere Schneiderlein. [cam – DD] 1956/57: Rivalen am Steuer. 1957: Die Schönste [ass-cam]; Abenteuer in Bamsdorf. 1958: Agitationsstreifen 9/58: Emil und Orje – PK-Bericht / Emil und Orje über die Partei / Frau Wagner und Frau Sauerbier über Demokratie [SF]; Agitationsstreifen 10/58: ‘Brandt’-Reden [SF]; Kapitäne bleiben an Bord. 1958/59: Eine alte Liebe. 1959: Der Bumerang [SF]; Ehesache Lorenz; Jupp contra Bundeswehr [SF]. 1959/60: Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1960/ 61: Urlaub ohne Dich; Das Film-Magazin Nr. 1: Die Vogelscheuche. 1961/62: Königskinder. 1962: Die Holzhacker [SF]; Weimarer Pitaval: Auf der Flucht erschossen [TV]; ‘La-
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chteltier’: Tücke des Objekts [SF]; Mann ist Mann [SF]; Lügen haben kurze Beine [SF]; Von Melodie zu Melodie. XIV. Folge [TV]; Nackt unter Wölfen; Pünktlich wie die Maurer [SF]. 1962/63: Unglaublich [SF – co-cam]. 1963: Bonner Pitaval: Die Affäre Heyde-Sawade [TV]; Kampf um Deutschland [DO – co-cam]; Karbid und Sauerampfer [cocam]; Musik dringend gesucht [TV]. 1964: Spiel zu dritt [TV-SF]. 1965/66: Spur der Steine. [cam – DD – TV] 1966: Orpheus und Eurydike; Romeo und Julia; Der kleine Prinz. 1966/67: Brennende Ruhr. 1967/ 68: Abschied [FF]. 1968/69: Effi Briest. 1969: Die Nachtigall und der Kaiser. 1969/70: Rottenknechte. 1970: Don Juan. 1971: Die Chansonreise. 1972/73: Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita. 1973/74: Das Geheimnis des Ödipus. 1974: Jakob der Lügner [FF]. 1975: Die schwarze Mühle. 1976/77: Abschied vom Frieden [co-cam]. 1977: Auftrag: Überleben. 1977/78: Wie soll sich eine Frau entscheiden? 1979: Verlobung in Hollerbusch. [cam – DE – TV] 1980/81: Der König und sein Narr. 1981: Die zweite Haut. 1982: Die Barrikade [DE/CS]; Der kleine Bruder. 1983: Geheimsender 1212. 1983/84: Die Lehmanns [TVS]. 1983-85: Es muß nicht immer Mord sein [TVS – 5 episodes]. 1984: Die schöne Wilhelmine. 1984/ 85: Didi und die Rache der Enterbten [FF]. 1985: Fundsache; Johannes Heesters … ich knüpfte manche zarte Bande. 1985/86: Finkenwerder Geschichten [TVS]. 1986/ 87: Evelyn und die Männer oder Wie Hund und Katze. 1987/88: In guten Händen. 1988/89: Berliner Weiße mit Schuß [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1994: Die schönsten Geschichten mit Johannes Heesters. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app].
FERDINAND MARIAN (Ferdinand Haschowec) Born August 14, 1902, Vienna (Austria) Died August 7, 1946, near Munich (Germany) A leading man whose dark features frequently predestined him to play racial outsiders in Third Reich propaganda films, Marian maintained the popularity of a matinée idol. Marian took his professional name from his father, a bass at Vienna’s Volksoper opera house. He began training as an engineer at the city’s technological design museum, but broke off his studies and initially took casual labour before starting to act in minor roles at the Stadttheater in Graz in 1924. Stints at theatres in Trier, M. Gladbach, Aachen, Hamburg and Munich followed, with Marian ultimately appearing at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater in 1938. His first film successes came 1937 opposite Pola Negri in Gerhard Lamprecht’s MADAME BOVARY and alongside Zarah Leander in Detlef Sierck’s LA HABANERA, where the actor was immediately typed playing decadent and emotionally cold – yet roguishly seductive – lady-killers. He portrayed ‘dastardly’ Englishmen in two wartime anti-British propaganda films, appearing as the justice
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of the peace battling Irish loyalists in Max W. Kimmich’s DER FUCHS VON GLENARVON (The Fox of Glenarvon, 1940), and as Cecil Rhodes in Hans Steinhoff’s OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, 1940/41). However, it was Marian’s starring role as the Jewish villain in Veit Harlan’s anti-Semitic hate film JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940) that became the actor’s most controversial and notorious screen appearance. He subsequently appeared primarily in non-political entertainment pictures, such as Helmut Käutner’s ROMANZE IN MOLL (Romance in a Minor Key, 1942/ 43), and as Hans Albers’s enigmatic nemesis Count Cagliostro in Ufa’s jubilee spectacle MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43). Marian saw out the final six months of the war in Austria, and then returned to Munich, before settling in Freising. He was officially banned from working due to his participation in JUD SÜSS, and his fatal car accident in 1946 was widely conjectured to have been a suicide. [act – DE] 1933: Der Tunnel [MLV – FR/DE]. 1936: Ein Hochzeitstraum. 1936/37: Die Stimme des Herzens. 1937: Madame Bovary; La Habanera. 1938: Nordlicht. 1938/ 39: Der Vierte kommt nicht. 1939: Morgen werde ich verhaftet. 1939/40: Aus erster Ehe. 1940: Der Fuchs von Glenarvon; Jud Süß. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger. 1942: Ein Zug fährt ab. 1942/43: Romanze in Moll; Münchhausen; Reise in die Vergangenheit. 1943: Tonelli; In flagranti. 1943/44: Freunde. 1944/45: Dreimal Komödie; Die Nacht der 12. 1944-45/1950: Das Gesetz der Liebe.
EVA MATTES Born December 14, 1954, Tegernsee (West Germany) Bringing both vigour and sensitivity to her performances, versatile Mattes established herself as a leading actress in the New German Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. The daughter of composer and conductor Willy Mattes (1916–2002) and actress and dancer Margit Symo (1913–1992), Eva Mattes worked as a dubbing artist on imported series such as LASSIE, PIPPI LONGSTOCKINGS, and DAVID COPPERFIELD for German television while still at school. She made her stage and screen debuts without any formal training aged ten. She was a member of the ensemble at Hamburg’s Deutsches Schauspielhaus theatre from 1972 to 1979, gaining press attention and critical acclaim for her performance as Beppi in Franz Xaver Kroetz’s ‘Stallerhof’, which included a lengthy nude scene. She also played leads in productions by Wilfried Minks at theatres in Hamburg, Berlin, and Bochum. Mattes received a German Film Award as best newcomer on account of her supporting roles in Michael Verhoeven’s O.K. (1970) and Reinhard Hauff’s MATHIAS KNEISSL (1970/71). Another German Film
Award followed for her parts in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 1972) and WILDWECHSEL (Wild Game/Jail Bait, 1972), and she was named best supporting actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance opposite Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog’s WOYZECK (1978/ 79). She subsequently starred in Helma Sanders-Brahms’s DEUTSCHLAND BLEICHE MUTTER (Germany Pale Mother, 1979/80), and gave an intense, insightful portrayal as Marcel Proust’s housekeeper in Percy Adlon’s CÉLESTE (1981). Donning a false beard, slovenly jeans, and a leather jacket, her perhaps most unusual role was as Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Radu Gabrea’s EIN MANN WIE EVA (A Man Called Eva, 1983/84), an irreverent homage to the recently deceased director. The actress furthermore stood out in Margarethe von Trotta’s segment ‘Eva’ in FELIX (1986), and as a peace-advocating East German preacher in the director’s DAS VERSPRECHEN (The Promise, 1993/94). Since unification, Mattes had memorable supporting roles in films including Didi Danquart’s VIEHJUD LEVI (Jew-Boy Levi, 1998/99) and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Stalingrad drama ENEMY AT THE GATES (2000/01). She played Magda Goebbels in Kai Wessel’s controversial comedy GOEBBELS UND GEDULDIG (Goebbels & Geduldig, 2000/01), and won another German Film Award for her performance in Ben Verbong’s children’s fantasy DAS SAMS (The Slurb, 2001), based on the popular series of children’s books by Paul Maar. On television she played Detective Superintendent Klara Blum in provincial Konstanz in the police series TATORT (Crime Scene) since 1999. [act – DE] 1964: Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius. 1967: Der Tag, an dem die Kinder verschwanden [TV]. 1968-70: Alle Hunde lieben Theobald: Struppi und der kleine Bruder [TV]. 1969: Der Kommissar: Der Papierblumenmörder [TV]. 1969/70: Der Kommissar: Parkplatz-Hyänen [TV]. 1970: o.k. 1970/71: Liebe unter 17; Mathias Kneißl [TV]. 1971: Berührungen – Auf der Suche nach Geborgenheit [TVD]. 1972: Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant; Die Hochzeit [TV]; Wildwechsel; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag. 4. Harald und Monika [TV]. 1972/73: Immobilien [TV]; Desaster [TV]. 1972-74: Fontane Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen. 1973: Liebe leidet mit Lust [TV]; Supermarkt. 1974: Die Jungfrau von Orleans [TV]. 1975/76: Die Hinrichtung / … E la notte si tinse di sangue / Né pour l’enfer / Born for Hell [DE/IT/FR/CA]. 1976/77: Tausend Lieder ohne Ton [TV]; Stroszek. 1976-78: Was ich bin, sind meine Filme [DO – app]. 1977: Frauen in New York [TV]. 1978: In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden; Union der festen
THOMAS MAUCH Hand [TV]. 1978/79: Schluchtenflitzer; Woyzeck; Die Schattengrenze [TV]. 1979: David; Eva Mattes: Fragen an die Mutter [TVD – app]. 1979/80: Deutschland bleiche Mutter. 1981: Vor den Vätern sterben die Söhne [TV]; Céleste. 1981/82: Deutschland kann manchmal sehr schön sein [TV]. 1981-83: Kleine Zeichen. 1982: Vergiftet oder arbeitslos? [TVD]; Geschichten aus europäischen Schlössern: Ludwigsburg – Schubart und Franziska von Hohenheim [TV]. 1982/83: Die wilden Fünfziger. 1983: Liebe Melanie [TV]; Rita Ritter. 1983/84: Ein Mann wie EVA. 1984: Sterne [ANI – voi]. 1985: Auf immer und ewig. 1986: Felix. EP 3: Eva. 1986/87: Andi – Protokoll einer Inszenierung von Peter Zadek [TVD – app]. 1987/88: Fussel [ANI]. 1988: Herbstmilch. 1989: Von Ulm nach Metz, von Metz nach Mähren [TV]; Elektro-Lähmung. 1990: Der Kaufmann von Venedig [TV – DE/AT]. 1991: Der Drogen-Ratgeber für Eltern [TVD]; Der Held des Tages [TV]. 1991/92: Das Sommeralbum [DE/UA]; Die Serpentintänzerin / Szerpentintáncosnö [DE/HU]. 1992: Karate-Billi kehrt zurück [TV]; Karate-Billi kehrt zurück [TV]. 1992/93: Der Kinoerzähler. 1993: Motzki [TVS – episodes 2-13]. 1993/94: Das Versprechen / Les années du mur [DE/CH/ FR]. 1994: Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, genannt Romy Schneider [TVD – app – DE/FR]. 1994/95: Schlafes Bruder [AT/DE]. 1996: Mondlicht [TV]; In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon / The Glamorous World of the Hotel Adlon [TV – DE/US]; Alice Guy Blanché [DO]; Der Schrei der Liebe [TV]; Jugofilm [AT]. 1997: Widows – Erst die Ehe, dann das Vergnügen; Wolffs Revier: Urlaub in den Tod [TV]. 1998: Zucker & Sohn [TV]; Und alles wegen Mama [TV]. 1998/99: Viehjud Levi [DE/CH/AT]; Mein liebster Feind / My Best Fiend [DO – DE/GB]. 1999: Otomo; Tatort: Der schwarze Ritter [TV]. 1999/2000: Die Straußkiste / Forever Flirt [TVD – DE/US]. 2000: ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’ [TVD – app]; Salamander [TV]. 2000/01: Duell – Enemy at the Gates / Enemy at the Gates [DE/GB/ IE]; Himmlische Helden [TV]; Goebbels und Geduldig [TV]; Suck My Dick. 2001: Danach hätte es schön sein müssen [voi]; Das Sams – Der Film. 2001/02: Polizeiruf 110: Braut in Schwarz [TV]. 2001-09: Tatort [TVS – 17 episodes]. 2003: Die Farbe der Seele [TV]; Das Netz [DO – voi]; Das Sams in Gefahr; Franz [TV]. 2003/04: Texas Kabul [DO – voi]; Lauras Stern [ANI – voi]. 2004: Die Dreigroschenoper [TV]; Warum läuft Herr V. Amok? [SF]; Die Baroness und das Guggenheim [DO – voi]; Abgeschminkt: Eva Mattes [TVD – app]. 2005: Der kleine Eisbär 2 – Die geheimnisvolle Insel [ANI – voi]; Das kurze Leben des José Antonio Gutierrez [DO– DE/CH – voi]; Das Herz sitzt links – Klaus Wagenbach [TVD – voi]. 2005/06: Das kurze Leben des José Antonio Gutierrez [DO – DE/CH – voi]. 2007: Memory Books – Damit Du mich nie vergisst [DO – DE/CH – voi]. 2007/08: Schattenwelt. 2008: Geschichten vom Essen [TVD – voi]. 2008/09: Lippels Traum; Das Glück ist eine Katze [TV].
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THOMAS MAUCH Born April 4, 1937, Heidenheim an der Brenz (Germany) Mostly associated with the films of Werner Herzog, Mauch was an independent cinematographer whose innovative techniques were in demand by directors of the New German Cinema from the 1960s. Educated at a Waldorf school, Mauch trained as a photographer, with work experience in a Munich film company, producing documentaries and films for industry. After five years working as an assistant he became a freelance cameraman in 1963, at the same time teaching in the filmmaking department of the School of Design in Ulm and making films with the students. In the mid-1960s he became associated with the early efforts of the New German Cinema movement, shooting Alexander Kluge’s ABSCHIED VON GESTERN (Yesterday Girl, 1965/66) and Edgar Reitz’s MAHLZEITEN (Mealtime, 1966). LEBENSZEICHEN (Signs of Life, 1967) marked the beginning of an enduring artistic partnership with director Werner Herzog. Among other collaborations, Mauch was most notably responsible for the atmospheric imagery of the South American jungle in the director’s AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES (Aguirre, The Wrath of God, 1972) and FITZCARRALDO (1981/82), and he accompanied Herzog to the United States to shoot STROSZEK (1976/77) and to West Africa for the colonial epic COBRA VERDE (1987). Linked to director Helma Sanders-Brahms both privately and professionally, Mauch photographed several of her films, including SHIRINS HOCHZEIT (Shirin’s Wedding, 1975) and DIE BERÜHRTE (Touched, 1980/81). He also collaborated with Werner Schroeter on his quasi-operatic NEAPOLITANISCHE GESCHWISTER (The Reign of Naples, 1978) and PALERMO ODER WOLFSBURG (Palermo or Wolfsburg, 1979/80). On the latter film Mauch also acted as producer. Apart from his contributions to the films of other directors, Mauch also wrote and directed films himself, mostly financed by and released through television. Mauch’s films as director often satirised social and gender conventions. EINE ANTIAUTORITÄRE FRAU? (An anti-authoritarian woman, 1970) was the story of an unusual relationship between a bourgeois woman and her cleaner, while his cinema debut, ADRIAN UND DIE RÖMER (Adrian and the Romans, 1987/88) concerned the comic misunderstandings of an urban neurotic male who falls in love with two women at the same time who turn out to be mother and daughter. MARIA VON DEN STERNEN (Maria of the Stars, 1988/89) was set in the tenement of Hamburg’s social housing projects, and proved a commercial failure. Mauch’s short film DIE ACHSE (The Axis, 1984) reflected, through a collage of newsreel footage
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and scenes from Nazi entertainment films, on the instrumentalisation of his own profession during the ‘Third Reich’. After unification, Mauch continued as one of the most respected German cinematographers, entrusted with prestige projects such as Thomas Mitscherlich’s Nazi period drama DIE DENUNZIANTIN (The Denunciation, 1992/93), the Polish-German co-production AUF WIEDERSEHEN, AMERIKA (Goodbye America, 1992–94), Jan Schütte’s tragicomic story of three Polish immigrants to the United States returning to their country of origin; and Edgar Reitz’s third part of his HEIMAT trilogy, HEIMAT 3 – CHRONIK EINER ZEITENWENDE (Heimat 3 – Chronicle of an Epochal Change, 2002–04). Mauch has also been a lecturer at the School of Art in Offenbach, where many of his students became important cinematographers themselves. [ass-cam – DE] 1959: Krebsforschung I + II [SD]. 1959/ 60: Baumwolle [SD]; Yucatan [SF]. 1960: Ärztekongreß [SD]; Moltopren I-IV [DO]. 1962: Tiger – Sperber – Bambinos [SD – cam]. 1962/63: Geschwindigkeit. Kino eins [SF]. 1963: ASTA-Arzneimittel [SD]. 1963/64: Der Chef wünscht keine Zeugen. [cam – DE] 1964: Formosa [TVD – dir,scr,cam,pro]; General Yeh [SF – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1964/65: VariaVision. Unendliche Fahrt – aber begrenzt [AG – co-cam]; Der Wald von Overloon [SF – co-dir,co-scr,cam,pro]. 1965/66: Abschied von gestern [co-cam]; Die Wahl [DO]. 1966: Ende einer Maßnahme [TVD]; Mahlzeiten; Die Kinder [SF]. 1966/67: Wir waren vorbereitet, für Donnerstag, morgens um sechs in den Streik zu [DO]; Haben Sie Abitur? [SD]; Zum Beispiel Bresson [SD]; Fußnoten [TV]; 1967: Frau Blackburn, geb. 5. Jan. 1872, wird gefilmt [SD]; Panek [SF]; Lebenszeichen; Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos [co-cam]. 1967/68: Letzte Worte [SF]. 1967-69: Die unbezähmbare Leni Peickert [co-cam]. 1967-72: Der Welt zeigen, daß man noch da ist [SD – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1968: Feuerlöscher E. A. Winterstein [SF – co-cam]; Laos [TVD – dir,scr,cam,pro]; 9 Leben hat die Katze [co-cam, pro]; Filmstunde [TVD]. 1968/69: Die fliegenden Ärzte von Ostafrika [DO]. 1969/70: Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen; Der große Verhau [co-cam]. 1969/77: ‘Zu böser Schlacht schleich ich heut nacht so bang –’ [cocam]. 1969-71: Willi Tobler und der Untergang der 6. Flotte [co-cam]. 1970: Handicaps [SF]; Wir verbauen 3 x 27 Millia. Dollar in einen Angriffsschlachter [SF – co-cam]; Eine antiautoritäre Frau? [TV – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1971: vorfrühling [SF]. 1972: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes. 1973: Besitzbürgerin, Jahrgang 1908 [SD]; Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin. 1973/74: Die Sache mit dem Gärtner [TV – dir,co-scr,pro]; Feinde fürs Leben [TV – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1974: Unter dem Pflaster ist der Strand. 1974/75: Glück hat Flügel [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 1975: Popp und Mingel [TV]; Die Verwandlung [TV]; Shirins Hochzeit [TV]. 1975/ 76: Der starke Ferdinand; Une fille unique / Ausgetretene Wege [cam,pro – FR/DE]; How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck [DO]. 1976: Das Ulmer Horn [SF – dir,
scr,cam,pro]; Strafprotokoll aller und jeder. [SF – dir,scr,cam,pro]; Erikas Leidenschaften [TV – cam,pro]. 1976/77: Heinrich [co-scr,cam]; Stroszek. 1976-78: Was ich bin, sind meine Filme [DO – app]. 1977-79: Die Patriotin [co-cam]. 1978: Tod eines Vaters [TV – dir,scr, pro]; Neapolitanische Geschwister / Regno di Napoli [DE/IT]. 1978/79: Endlose Verabredung [AG]; 1979/80: Palermo oder Wolfsburg [cam,pro – DE/ CH]; Der Kandidat [DO – co-cam]; Die sieben Todsünden: Stolz oder Die Rückkehr / Zorn oder Männersache [TV – CH]; Glaube und Währung [DO]; Huie’s Predigt [DO]. 1980/81: Desperado City; Die Berührte. 1981: Die Leidenschaftlichen [TV]. 1981/82: Fitzcarraldo. 1981-83: Die Macht der Gefühle [co-cam]. 1982: Interview mit Lotte Eisner [TVD]; Stern des Meliès [act]; Kiez. 1982/83: Krieg und Frieden; Heinrich Penthesilea von Kleist [co-cam]; Vater und Sohn [voi]. 1983: Ein friedliches Paar [SF]; Dingo [TV]; Der vierzehnte Gesang [TV]; Auf der Suche nach einer praktisch-realistischen Haltung [SF]; Der Anschlag [SF]; Wochenendgeschichten: Noch ein Jahr und sechs Tage [TV]. 1983/84: Die Hermannsschlacht [TV]. 1984: Die Achse [TV – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1984/85: Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit; André Heller sieht sein Feuerwerk [TVD]. 1984-86: Sturz durch Träume [TVD – cocam]. 1985: Nicht nichts ohne Dich; Der T-Mann [TV]; Der Galaxenbauer [TV]. 1985/86: Das alte Ladakh [DO]; Vermischte Nachrichten [co-cam]. 1986: War Zone – Todeszone. 1986/87: Ein Treffen mit Rimbaud; Aquaplaning [TV – co-cam]; Das weite Land [AT/DE]. 1987: Wahlspot für die Grünen [SF]; z.B. Otto Spalt [cam,app]; Cobra Verde [co-cam]; Herzog in Afrika [DO – app – CH/DE]. 1987/ 88: Adrian und die Römer [co-dir,cam]; Fussel [AG]; Wallers letzter Gang. 1987-89: Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein / Trudno byt’ bogom / Un dieu rebelle [co-cam – DE/SU/FR]. 1988/89: Maria von den Sternen [dir,scr,pro]. 1989: Zug [SF – dir,scr,cam,pro]; Butterbrot; Handkamera Arriflex 2c [TVD – app]; Im Grunde meines Herzens bin ich Elektriker [TV – cam,pro]. 1989/90: Neues vom Tage. Die plebejische Nachricht [DO]; Das schnellste Pferd der Welt [TVD]. 1990: Murder East, Murder West / Mord Ost – Mord West [TV – GB/DE]. 1990/91: Wunderjahre [TV – cocam]; Unsichtbare Tage oder Die Legende von den weißen Krokodilen [DO]. 1991: Mocca für den Tiger [TV – cam,pro]. 1991/92: Ein Lied für Beko / Klamek ji bo Beko [DE/AM]. 1992: Des Lebens schönste Seiten [TV – cam, pro]. 1992/93: Die Denunziantin. 1992-94: Auf Wiedersehen, Amerika / Do widzenia, Ameryko [DE/PL]. 1993: Vom Mörder und seiner Frau [TV – cam,pro]. 1993/94: Transatlantis. 1994/95: i.d. / Undercover [co-cam – GB/ DE]. 1995: Die Kommissarin: Todesmelodie [TV]. 1995/96: Reisen ins Leben [DO – co-cam]. 1996: Orson Welles: The One-Man Band / Orson Welles: L’homme orchestre [DO – DE/FR/CH]. 1997/98: Walli, die Eisfrau [TV]; Zugriff: Die Geisel [TV]. 1998: The Tale of Sweety Barrett / Aulabárður [IE/IS]. 1998/99: Mein liebster Feind / My Best Fiend [DO – act – DE/GB]. 1999: Schwarz greift ein: Die Brandstifter [TV]. 1999/2000: Saint-Cyr / Die Schule der verlorenen Mädchen [FR/DE/BE]. 2000: La moitié du ciel [co-cam – FR]. 2000/01: Ein Fall für zwei: Spiel, Satz und Mord / Schneetreiben / Code Mira [TVS]. 2002-04: Hei-
FRITZ MAURISCHAT mat 3 – Chronik einer Zeitenwende [TV]. 2003: Herbert Marcuse – Die Asche der Revolution [TVD]. 2004/05: Hitlerkantate [TV]; Warchild / Izginuli [DE/SI]. 2004-08: Ich will da sein – Jenny Gröllmann [DO – co-cam]. 2006: Heimat-Fragmente – Die Frauen. 2007/08: Mozart in China [AT/DE/CN].
GORDIAN MAUGG Born May 23, 1966, Heidelberg (West Germany) Mixing fiction and documentary, archival footage and dramatic interpretation, and obsolete technologies with the latest technical possibilities, director Maugg’s cine-literate films provide thought-provoking and visually complex reflections on the relationship between past and present. Leaving school, Maugg worked for a TV production company in his hometown, before studying visual communication at Kassel’s art college between 1987 and 1993. During this time, he made a number of short films, as well as the feature-length LIEBE IST EIN GERÄUSCH VON SAND IN DEN HÄNDEN (Love Is the Sound of Sand in the Hands, 1988/89), which contrasted the present-day romance of a young woman with the memories of her grandmother of meeting her future husband in the 1930s. In 1993, Maugg won critical acclaim and several domestic as well as international awards for DER OLYMPISCHE SOMMER (The Olympic Summer, 1991–93). Based on a novella by East German screenwriter Günther Rücker, the film tells the story of a young Pommeranian butcher’s apprentice who in 1936 travels to Berlin on his bike to watch the Olympic Games, finding love with a young widow in the process. Shot entirely in black-and-white on a handheld Askania camera made in 1927, and interspersing the gentle love story with archival footage of actual events as well as a literary voice-over narration by Otto Sander, Maugg’s film was a masterful evocation of its historical moment. In 1994, Maugg founded his own production company, with offices in Heidelberg and Berlin. His next film, the black comedy DIE KAUKASISCHE NACHT (The Caucasian Night, 1995) dealt with a Western capitalist’s visit to Georgia in the immediate aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the ensuing culture clash this visit engenders. Conceived as a tongue-in-cheek modern version of Lev Kuleshov’s silent satire NEOBYÈAJNYE PRIKLJUÈENIJA MISTERA VESTA V STRANE BO¼ŠEVIKOV (The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr West in the Land of the Bolsheviks, 1924), and starring many veteran actors from the Soviet film industry, the film once again confirmed Maugg’s awareness of both general and cinema history. In HANS WARNS – MEIN 20. JAHRHUNDERT (Hans Warns – My 20th Century, 1998/99), Maugg recon-
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structed the life of a sea captain and amateur photographer, who in still as well as moving pictures captured his journeys around the globe, from before World War I until the 1960s. The bittersweet ZUTATEN FÜR TRÄUME (Ingredients for Dreams, 2001) starred Renate Krößner as a former GDR celebrity chef who ten years after reunification works in a factory canning gherkins, when she is persuaded by a former lover to enter a cooking competition. ZEPPELIN! (2004/05) once again combined archival footage with a dramatic narrative in telling the story of the famous air ship disaster in 1937, and the impact it had on three generations of a family. In the TV biopic DENK ICH AN DEUTSCHLAND IN DER NACHT … DAS LEBEN DES HEINRICH HEINE (The Life of Heinrich Heine, 2005/06), Rüdiger Vogeler starred as 19th century Jewish German poet. For her ninetieth birthday in 2009, Maugg made a TV portrait of ‘Loki’ Schmidt, the wife and companion of ex-chancellor Helmut Schmidt for nearly eighty years. Apart from his own films, Maugg has produced Susanne Binninger’s documentary DIE KANDIDATEN (The Candidates, 1996/97), a behind-the-scenes look at a popular Saturday night TV show. Maugg has been a guest lecturer at the Hamburg Media School and the Bauhaus University in Weimar where he worked as script editor on a number of short films of his students. [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1986: Der rein zufällige Tod eines Mercedesfahrers an sich [SF]. 1987: Zeugung [SF]; Steile Höhen zu erklimmen [TVD – co-dir,co-scr]. 1987/88: Zweifel an meinem Genie!? [SF]. 1988/89: Kassel. Manche sagen es sei eine tote Stadt [DO – co-dir,co-scr,co-cam,cut]; Mit der Kuhscheiße am Bein [DO]; Liebe ist ein Geräusch von Sand in den Händen. 1990: Gregor oder: Die zwei Seelen in der Brust des Zwillings unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des aszendenten Löwe [SF]. 1991-93: Der olympische Sommer. 1995: Die kaukasische Nacht [TV]. 1996/97: Die Kandidaten [DO – pro]. 1998/99: Hans Warns – Mein 20. Jahrhundert. 2001: Zutaten für Träume [TV – dir,coscr]. 2004/05: Zeppelin! [dir,co-scr,pro]. 2005/06: Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht … Das Leben des Heinrich Heine [TV – dir,co-scr]. 2006: Jakobs Zimmer [SF – dra]. 2008: Im Herbst kein Lied [SF – dra]. 2009: Wir Schmidts. Loki und Helmut – ein Leben [TVD – dir,co-scr]; Der Hungerwinter 1946 [TV – dir,co-scr].
FRITZ MAURISCHAT Born April 27, 1893, Berlin (Germany) Died December 11, 1986, Wiesbaden (West Germany) Maurischat was one of the most highly regarded production designers in German cinema from the Weimar years through the Nazi period and into the postwar era, and was also involved in developing special effects and new technologies.
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Following an apprenticeship, Maurischat started out as a stage designer and painter at theatres in Dresden and Dessau between 1910 and 1913. In 1914 he founded a commercial design company, but before he could exploit its potential further, Maurischat was drafted into the army. After the end of World War I he returned to Berlin, and resumed his commercial enterprise. Until 1932 he acted as advisor for a chain of department stores on Christmas decorations and exhibitions. Maurischat first worked on a film production in 1922, and towards the end of 1923 he was made technical and artistic director of Joe May’s studios in the Berlin suburbs of Woltersdorf and Weissensee. He subsequently assisted set designer and director Paul Leni in realising the latter’s rough sketches and ideas for the classic fantasy DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks, 1923). From 1924 Maurischat collaborated with camera technician Eugen Schüfftan on developing a trick photography technique, which became known as the ‘Schüfftan effect’. Maurischat supervised this special effects technique on several films, including the Michael Balcon production DER GEISTERZUG / THE GHOST TRAIN (1927), and perfected it for the next decades on many of his own assignments. In 1931, he also contributed to three experimental colour films for Carl Froelich’s company. As a production designer, Maurischat gained acclaim for professional and tastefully realised sets on entertainment films, working for directors including E. A. Dupont (SALTO MORTALE, 1931; co-designed with Alfred Junge), and with Luis Trenker on the latter’s US-German co-production THE REBEL (1932). He repeatedly worked with director Frank Wysbar. Maurischat also perfectly captured the gloomy atmosphere of an oppressive Prussian girls school in Leontine Sagan’s MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1931). Making a seamless transition to Nazi cinema, Maurischat took on a number of ideologically prestigious assignments from the mid-1930s, working on Hans Steinhoff’s Prussian heritage drama DER ALTE UND DER JUNGE KÖNIG (The Old and The Young King, 1934/35), alongside more innocuous films, including Detlef Sierck’s Zarah Leander melodrama ZU NEUEN UFERN (To New Shores, 1937), in which Maurischat built Victorian London and an Australian penal colony in the Ufa studios. In Herbert Selpin’s Hans Albers adventure SERGEANT BERRY (1938), his sets recreated the story’s locations of Chicago and Mexico. During World War II, Maurischat contributed to a number of explicitly propagandist films; these included Selpin’s anti-British 19th century colonial drama CARL PETERS (1940/41), set in Eastern Africa, and the pro-Euthanasia melodrama ICH KLA-
GE AN (I Accuse, 1941). Perhaps his most spectacular sets were for Selpin’s ill-fated disaster epic TITANIC (1942/43), for which Maurischat also su-
pervised the impressive special effects of the sinking ship – some of this footage was later reused in Roy Ward Baker’s British production A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (1958). Maurischat resumed his film career in West Germany after the war with Josef von Baky’s DER RUF (The Last Illusion, 1948/49), starring Fritz Kortner as a Jewish academic exile with difficulties in reintegrating into post-war German society. However, few of Maurischat’s subsequent film assignments gave him the artistic or technical opportunities that previous productions had offered. Apart from the cinema, Maurischat also lent his services to designing stage sets at theatres in Vienna and Berlin, he worked on TV productions, and in 1961 advised the German broadcaster ZDF on the technical refurbishment of the Taunus studios in Wiesbaden. Among his last film assignments was Gottfried Reinhardt’s Nazi-era melodrama LIEBLING DER GÖTTER (Darling of the Gods, 1960) chronicling the rise and death of 1930s film star Renate Müller. [des – DE] 1922: So sind die Männer. 1923: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett. 1924: Die Liebesbriefe der Baronin von S. 1924/25: Der Farmer aus Texas. 1925: Die Frau von vierzig Jahren; Ein Lebenskünstler; Die vertauschte Braut; Der Kampf gegen Berlin. [sfx – DE] 1926: Die Wiskottens [des]; Die Liebesbriefe des schönen Franz [des]; Die keusche Susanne; Eine Dubarry von heute. 1926/27: Klettermaxe; Der Zigeunerbaron; Die Czardasfürstin. 1927: Am Rande der Welt; Die weiße Spinne; Svengali!; Bigamie; Der Geisterzug / The Ghost Train [DE/GB]; Das tanzende Wien; Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney; Die Stadt der tausend Freuden; Die Sandgräfin; Königin Luise. 1. Jugend der Königin Luise. 1927/28: Die Sache mit Schorrsiegel. 1928: Haus Nr. 17 / Number 17 [DE/GB]; Geschlecht in Fesseln [des]; Die Republik der Backfische [des]. 1928/29: Die Mitternachtstaxe [des]; Großstadtschmetterling [DE/GB]. 1929: Durchs Brandenburger Tor [des]; Autobus Nr. 2; Narkose; Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen; Jenseits der Straße; Jennys Bummel durch die Männer; Sprengbagger 1010; Vagabund [des – AT]; Masken; Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern. [des – DE] 1930: Jagd auf Dich [SF]; Cape Forlorn [MLV – GB]; Menschen im Käfig [MLV – GB]; Le cap perdu [MLV – GB]. 1931: Salto mortale [MLV]; Salto mortale [French MLV – DE/FR]; Mädchen in Uniform; Die Nacht ohne Pause. 1932: Im Bann des Eulenspiegels; Spuk am Rhein [ANI – dir]; Der Rebell [MLV]; The Rebel [MLV – DE/US]. 1932/33: SOS Eisberg [MLV – DE/US]; S.O.S. Iceberg [MLV – US/DE]. 1933: Nordpol – Ahoi! [DE/US]; Anna und Elisabeth; Kleines Mädel – großes Glück; Der Page vom Dalmasse-Hotel; Die Stimme der Liebe; Ein Mädel wirbelt durch die Welt. 1933/34: Der verlorene Sohn. 1934: Selbst ist der Mann [SF]; Ein schwerer Junge [SF]; Lockvogel [MLV]; Le miroir aux alouettes [MLV]; Ein Kind, ein Hund, ein Vagabund.
JOE MAY 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König; Der Dämon des Himalaya [CH/DE]. 1935: Nacht der Verwandlung; Vergiß mein nicht! [MLV]; Wenn die Musik nicht wär’. 1935/36: Martha. Les dernières roses [MLV]; Martha. Letzte Rose [MLV]; Familienparade. 1936: Der Bettelstudent; Drei Mäderl um Schubert; Das Hofkonzert [MLV]; La chanson du souvenir [MLV]. 1936/37: Ball im Metropol. 1937: Die Austernlilli; Zu neuen Ufern; Unentschuldigte Stunde [AT]. 1937/38: Fahrendes Volk [MLV – FR/DE]. 1938: Schwarzfahrt ins Glück. Die kleine Sünderin; Liebesbriefe aus dem Engadin / Lettere d’amore dall’Engadina [DE/IT]; Sergeant Berry. 1938/39: Ich verweigere die Aussage; Salonwagen E 417. 1939: Die Reise nach Tilsit; Wir tanzen um die Welt. 1939/40: Ein Mann auf Abwegen. 1940: Trenck, der Pandur. 1940/41: Carl Peters. 1941: Ich klage an. 1941/42: Geheimakte WB 1. 1942/43: Titanic. 1943/ 44: Der Verteidiger hat das Wort!; Die Degenhardts. 1944: Solistin Anna Alt. 1944/45: Frau über Bord. 1945: Dr. phil. Döderlein. 1948/49: Der Ruf. 1949: Verführte Hände; Die seltsame Geschichte des Brandner Kaspar. 1950: Wenn eine Frau liebt; Die Treppe; Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies. 1951: Die Frauen des Herrn S.; Gangsterpremiere [AT]; Heidelberger Romanze. 1951/52: Das letzte Rezept. 1952: The Devil Makes Three [US]. 1952/53: Käpt’n Bay-Bay. 1953: Martin Luther [DE/US]; Liebeserwachen [co-scr]; Jonny rettet Nebrador. 1953/54: Der Mann meines Lebens. 1954: Rosen aus dem Süden; Rittmeister Wronski. 1954/55: Ein Mann vergißt die Liebe. 1955: Rosenmontag; Dunja [AT]. 1956: Waldwinter; Ohne Dich wird es Nacht; Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter. 1956/57: Wie ein Sturmwind. 1957: Die letzte Station [TV]. 1958: Stefanie. 1958/59: Serenade einer großen Liebe / For the First Time / Come prima [DE/US/ IT]. 1959: Die ideale Frau. 1959/60: Man on a String [US]. 1960: Liebling der Götter; Die Botschafterin. 1961: Wie einst im Mai [TV]. 1961/62: Unsere Jenny [TV]; Das Vergnügen, anständig zu sein [TV].
JOE MAY (Julius Otto Mandl) Born November 7, 1880, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died April 29, 1954, Hollywood (California, USA) Major Wilhelmine and Weimar-era producer-director May exemplifies the talented, but also idiosyncratic European auteur whose working methods proved ultimately incompatible with the studio production system in Hollywood. The son of a wealthy industrialist family, Mandl squandered the family fortune with his playboy lifestyle, marrying singer Hermine Pfleger in 1902. She subsequently adopted the stage name Mia May, whereupon Mandl called himself Joe May. After filming a short prologue for a theatrical revue in which Mia was headlining in Hamburg in 1911, he made his feature debut at Continental-Kunstfilm in Berlin with the tragic romance IN DER TIEFE DES SCHACHTES (In the Depth of the Pit, 1912), which also marked Mia’s first screen appearance.
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He inaugurated the company’s Stuart Webbs detective series with DIE GEHEIMNISVOLLE VILLA (The Mysterious Villa, 1913/14), and in 1915 founded his own production company, May-Film, launching a competing adventure series featuring detective ‘Joe Deebs’. He simultaneously fostered Mia’s career as a melodramatic tragedienne, and gave chances to upand-coming talents including Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang, and Ewald André Dupont at his studios in Berlin suburbs Weissensee and Woltersdorf. Commencing work on his lavish three-hour VERITAS VINCIT (1918/19) before the end of World War I, the picture’s success led him to undertake the eight-part exotic adventure DIE HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1919), again starring Mia. May often acted as artistic supervisor, assigning his assistants to take over direction. Affiliated to Ufa during these years, May then shifted allegiance to American-backed EFA in 1921, and became the company’s foremost maker of prestige productions after Ernst Lubitsch. His works for EFA included the two-part DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921), scripted by Harbou and Lang, and the high-society crime drama TRAGÖDIE DER LIEBE (Love Tragedy, 1922/23). Forced to restructure his company due to rampant inflation in 1923, Mia retired from the screen following the suicide of the couple’s actress-daughter Eva May (1902–1924). An attempt to make an international hit, DER FARMER VON TEXAS (The Farmer from Texas, 1924/25), proved a financial disaster, and May thereafter shot a string of lesser pictures for other producers. An assured comeback followed under the auspices of Erich Pommer’s production unit at Ufa, with May making in succession some of the classics of the late silent and early sound period, including HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1928) and ASPHALT (1928/29), and co-scripting with Hans Székely UNGARISCHE RHAPSODIE (Hungarian Rhapsody, 1928), directed by Hanns Schwarz. May furthermore produced Gustav Ucicky’s musical DER UNSTERBLICHE LUMP (The Immortal Vagabond) and Kurt Bernhardt’s military ballad DIE LETZTE KOMPAGNIE (The Last Company, both 1929/30) prior to making his own sound debut with IHRE MAJESTÄT DIE LIEBE (Her Majesty Love, 1930), considered a high point of German screen comedy. After the premiere of the Jan Kiepura musical EIN LIED FÜR DICH (My Song For You, 1932/33), May emigrated via Paris and London to Hollywood, where Pommer commissioned him to make MUSIC IN THE AIR (1934) at Fox. The first Hollywood production whose cast and crew was composed primarily of émigrés from Nazi Germany, it flopped terribly, as did his stylish courtroom drama CONFESSION (1937), made at Warner Bros.
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MIA MAY
Thereafter May turned out B-pictures at Universal, including THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1939/ 40), and gained a reputation for being difficult – he was fired as director of the anti-Nazi film THE STRANGE DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (1943). His final picture was the wartime comedy JOHNNY DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANY MORE (1944). With financial backing from friends, Joe and Mia May opened a Viennese restaurant in Los Angeles in 1949, which closed after just a few weeks. [dir – DE] 1911: Die Fahrt nach Hamburg. 1912: In der Tiefe des Schachtes [dir,scr]; Vorgluten des Balkanbrandes [DO – dir,scr]. 1913: Ein Ausgestoßener. 1. Der junge Chef [dir,scr]; Entsagungen; Heimat und Fremde [dir,scr]; Verhängnis [pro]; Geschwister [pro]; Das Werk [pro]; Die unheilbringende Perle [dir,scr,pro]; Das verschleierte Bild von Groß-Kleindorf [dir,pro]; Die Mona Lisa von Groß-Kleindorf [dir,pro]. 1913/14: Das Fischermädchen von Manholm [dir,scr]; Die geheimnisvolle Villa. 1914: Der Mann im Keller; Der Spuk im Hause des Professors; Das Panzergewölbe [dir,scr,pro]; Der geheimnisvolle Nachtschatten [pro]. 1914/15: Der ewige Friede [scr]. [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1915: Das Gesetz der Mine; Violette Rosen; In der Nacht … [scr,pro]; Sein schwierigster Fall; Der Geheimsekretär; Die Gespensteruhr; Die Sünde der Helga Arndt; Charly, der Wunderaffe [AT]. 1916: Des Vaters letzter Wille [dir,pro]; Nebel und Sonne; Ein Blatt Papier [dir, co-scr,pro]; Ein einsam Grab [scr,des,pro]; Wie ich Detektiv wurde; Die Stieftöchter [pro]; Der Floh-Zirkus [pro]; Das rätselhafte Inserat [scr,pro]; Arme Eva Maria. 1916/17: Die leere Wasserflasche [dir,co-scr,pro]; Die Silhouette des Teufels [scr,pro]. 1917: Die Liebe der Hetty Raymond; Die Hochzeit im Excentric-Club [dir,co-scr,pro]; Ehre [dir, pro]; Hilde Warren und der Tod [dir,pro]; Krähen fliegen um den Turm; Der Onyxknopf [dir,co-scr,pro]; Der schwarze Chauffeur; Das Klima von Vancourt [dir,co-scr,pro]; Die Kaukasierin; Ein Lichtstrahl im Dunkel; Sein bester Freund [supv,co-scr,pro]. 1917/18: Der lebendige Tote [supv,scr, pro]. 1918: Das Geheimnis der Cecilienhütte [supv,pro]; Wogen des Schicksals; Opfer; Fünf Minuten zu spät [supv, co-scr,pro]; Ihr großes Geheimnis; Die Ratte [supv,scr,pro]; Das rollende Hotel [supv,pro]; Die Bettelgräfin; Diplomaten [supv,pro]; Die Krone von Palma [supv,pro]; Die platonische Ehe [scr,pro]; Das Auge des Götzen [supv,pro]. [supv,pro – DE] 1918/19: Veritas vincit (Die Wahrheit siegt!) [dir,ide,pro]; Die närrische Fabrik [supv,co-scr,pro]; Der Muff. 1919: Der blaue Drachen; Fräulein Zahnarzt [dir,co-scr,pro]; Der Amönenhof; Die Herrin der Welt. 1. Die Freundin des gelben Mannes / 2. Die Geschichte der Maud Gregaards / 3. Der Rabbi von Kuan-Fu / 4. König Makombe / 5. Ophir, die Stadt der Vergangenheit / 6. Die Frau mit den Milliarden / 7. Die Wohltäterin der Menschheit / 8. Die Tragödie der Rache [supv,co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1920: Der Henker von Sankt Marien; Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia [dir,pro]; Die Schuld der Lavinia Morland [dir,co-scr,pro]; Das wandernde Bild; Die Frauen von Gnadenstein [supv,co-scr,pro]. 1920/21: Der Leidensweg der Inge Krafft [supv,scr,pro]; Junge Mama [supv,co-scr,pro].
1921: Tobias Buntschuh; Am Webstuhl der Zeit; Die Erbin von Tordis; Iwo der Bucklige. 1: Vorgluten des Balkankrieges [dir,act]; Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur [dir,pro]; Ilona. 1921/22: Scheine des Todes. 1922/23: Tragödie der Liebe [4 parts – dir,pro]. 1923/24: Der geheime Agent. 1924: Die Liebesbriefe der Baronin von S. 1924/25: Der Farmer aus Texas [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1925/26: Dagfin [dir,scr,pro]. 1926: Derby; Staatsanwalt Jordan. 1927/28: Die Durchgängerin. 1928: Heimkehr [dir,co-scr,cut]; Ungarische Rhapsodie [co-scr]. 1928/29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse [dir,co-scr]. 1929: Maman Colibri [co-scr – FR]. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]; Die letzte Kompagnie. 1930: Ihre Majestät die Liebe. Du bist nicht die Erste [MLV – dir,pro]. 1930/31: Son altesse l’amour [MLV – FR/DE]; … und das ist die Hauptsache [dir,pro]. 1931/32: Paris – Méditerranée [MLV – dir,pro – FR]; Zwei in einem Auto / Eine Reise ins Glück [MLV – dir,pro – FR/DE]. 1932: Hochzeitsreise zu Dritt [MLV – supv – AT]; Voyage de noces [MLV – supv – AT]. 1932/33: Ein Lied für Dich [MLV]; Tout pour l’amour [MLV – co-dir]. [dir – US] 1933/34: Two Hearts in Waltz Time [co-dir – GB]. 1934: Dactylo se marie [dir,co-scr – FR]; My Song for You [MLV – sma – GB/DE]; Music in the Air. 1935: No Monkey Business [sma – GB]. 1937: Confession. 1938/39: Society Smugglers. 1939: The House of Fear. 1939/40: The Invisible Man Returns [dir,ide]; The House of the Seven Gables. 1940: You’re Not So Tough; The Invisible Woman [ide]. 1941: Hit the Road. 1943: The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler [co-dir,ide]; El Camino de los Gatos [scr – MX]. 1943/ 44: Uncertain Glory [ide]. 1944: Johnny Doesn’t Live Here Any More. 1949/50: Buccaneer’s Girl [ide].
MIA MAY (Hermine Pfleger) Born June 2, 1884, Vienna (Austria) Died November 28, 1980, Hollywood (California, USA) A silent film diva who starred predominantly in films produced by her husband Joe May, her career in melodramas and exotic adventure serials spanned the 1910s and 1920s, after which she retired. May’s first stage appearance at the age of five led to many child roles. Under her initial stage name Herma Angelot, May toured Vienna’s theatres as a singer and dancer before marrying Julius Otto Mandl in 1902. After a career break she returned to the Apollo theatre in Vienna, then calling herself Mia May. In turn her husband assumed the pseudonym Joe May. In 1912 she played the leading role of a woman who commits suicide through unrequited love in her husband’s first film IN DER TIEFE DES SCHACHTES (In the Depth of the Pit, 1912). While managing the MayFilm Company from 1915, she also acted in some of the successful Joe Deebs detective films. Her performance in the Mia May-series produced and partly directed by her husband saw her rise to star-
CARL MAYER
dom in melodramas, including DIE SÜNDE DER HELGA ARNDT (The Sin of Helga Arndt, 1915). Her films were typically formulaic, and her own acting abilities limited to the melodramatic register, but this did not harm her popularity. Towards the end of the World War I she played the lead role in the three-hour VERITAS VINCIT (1918/ 19) and the title role in the highly dramatic eight-part adventure series DIE HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1919), confirming her status as German cinema’s undisputed serial queen. In order not to compete with her daughter Eva May (1902–1924), who was beginning to make a mark in the kind of roles previously played by her, May subsequently reduced her appearances to spectaculars, such as the two-part adventure DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921), scripted by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou, and the four-part social thriller TRAGÖDIE DER LIEBE (Love Tragedy, 1922/23). Following the suicide of Eva in 1924, May retired from films, later accompanying her husband to exile in America in 1933. With the latter’s career in terminal decline, she supported her husband’s attempt in the late 1940s to open a Viennese restaurant in Los Angeles, but the venture flopped. [act – DE] 1912: In der Tiefe des Schachtes [SF – scr,act]. 1913: Ketten der Vergangenheit; Wer hebt den Stein? 1914: Wenn Wunden heilen. 1915: In der Nacht …; Sein schwierigster Fall; Die Gespensteruhr; Die Sünde der Helga Arndt; Charly, der Wunderaffe [AT]. 1916: Nebel und Sonne; Ein einsam Grab; Arme Eva Maria. 1916/17: Die Silhouette des Teufels. 1917: Die Liebe der Hetty Raymond; Ehre; Hilde Warren und der Tod; Der schwarze Chauffeur; Ein Lichtstrahl im Dunkel. 1918: Wogen des Schicksals; Opfer; Fünf Minuten zu spät; Ihr großes Geheimnis; Die Bettelgräfin; Die platonische Ehe. 1918/19: Veritas vincit (Die Wahrheit siegt!). 1919: Fräulein Zahnarzt; Der Amönenhof; Die Herrin der Welt. 1. Die Freundin des gelben Mannes / 2. Die Geschichte der Maud Gregaards / 3. Der Rabbi von Kuan-Fu / 4. König Makombe / 5. Ophir, die Stadt der Vergangenheit / 6. Die Frau mit den Milliarden / 7. Die Wohltäterin der Menschheit / 8. Die Tragödie der Rache. 1920: Die Schuld der Lavinia Morland; Das wandernde Bild. 1920/21: Der Leidensweg der Inge Krafft. 1921: Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur. 1922/23: Tragödie der Liebe. [4 parts]. 1924: Die Liebesbriefe der Baronin von S.
CARL MAYER Born February 20, 1894, Graz (Austria-Hungary) Died July 1, 1944, London (United Kingdom) Often referred to as a ‘Filmdichter’ (cinema poet), Carl Mayer was one of the most influential screenwriters of German and Austrian cinema of the 1920s,
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noted for the psychological depth and social realism of his narratives and characters. The son of a merchant, Mayer left school without graduating, and subsequently worked in various jobs in provincial Austrian theatres. From 1917 he was employed as an assistant director at the Residenztheater in Berlin. The same year he and the actress Gilda Langer launched a film production company. His breakthrough in the German film industry, however, was the screenplay for the expressionist classic DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 1919/20), co-authored by Hans Janowitz. DER GANG IN DIE NACHT (The Dark Road, 1920) was Mayer’s first of many scripts for director F. W. Murnau. Lupu Pick’s SCHERBEN (Shattered, 1921) and SYLVESTER (1923) and Leopold Jessner’s HINTERTREPPE (Backstairs, 1921), meanwhile, formed a loose trilogy of ‘Kammerspielfilme’ or chamber play films, on account of their claustrophobic, intimate atmosphere. Again for Jessner, Mayer adapted Wedekind’s play ‘Lulu’ as a star vehicle for silent diva Asta Nielsen, ERDGEIST (Earth Spirit, 1922/23). DIE STRASSE (The Street, 1923), written for Karl Grune, initiated the ‘street film’ genre, while his screenplay for Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924) won acclaim, not least through its economic use of only a single intertitle. Following one further collaboration on the Molière adaptation TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925), Murnau left for Hollywood and invited Mayer to follow. The writer however decided to stay in Berlin, but supplied the scripts for Murnau’s first two American films, the classic SUNRISE (1926/27) and FOUR DEVILS (1928). In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Mayer repeatedly collaborated with director Paul Czinner and his actress wife Elisbateh Bergner, for whom he (co-)wrote the screenplays for the Schnitzler adaptation FRÄULEIN ELSE (Miss Else, 1928/29), ARIANE (1931), and DER TRÄUMENDE MUND (Dreaming Lips, 1932). He also acted as script consultant on Gerhart Lamprecht’s children’s film classic EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives, 1931) and Leni Riefenstahl’s directorial debut DAS BLAUE LICHT (The Blue Light, 1931/32). Following the Nazis’ rise to power, the Jewish Mayer emigrated to Prague, and from there, with the help of the Czinners, to London in 1935. Although he continued to receive support from his friends, including from the young British documentarist and critic Paul Rotha, Mayer was unable to find continuous employment in the British film industry. Gravely ill since the early 1940s, he finally succumbed to cancer towards the end of World War II. [scr – DE] 1919: Die Frau im Käfig. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari [co-scr]. 1920: Johannes Goth; Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin; Genuine; Der Gang in die Nacht; Der
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Dummkopf. 1920/21: Verlogene Moral. 1921: Schloß Vogelöd; Danton [scr consultant]; Scherben [co-scr]; Grausige Nächte; Hintertreppe. 1921/22: Vanina. 1922/23: Erdgeist. 1923: Der Puppenmacher von Kiang-Ning; Die Straße [ide]; Sylvester. 1924: Der letzte Mann. 1925: Tartüff. 1926/27: Sunrise – A Song of Two Humans [US]; Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [DO – ide]. 1928: Four Devils [US]. 1928/29: Fräulein Else [scr consultant]. 1929/30: Die letzte Kompagnie [scr consultant]. 1930: Stürme über dem Montblanc [co-scr]. 1930/31: Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV – scr consultant]; Ariane [MLV]. 1931: Ariane [MLV – FR]; Emil und die Detektive [scr consultant]; Ariane, jeune fille russe [MLV – FR]. [scr consultant – GB] 1931/32: Das blaue Licht [DE]. 1932: Der träumende Mund [MLV – co-scr – DE]; Mélo [MLV – co-scr – FR/DE]. 1935/36: As You Like It [co-scr]. 1936/37: Dreaming Lips [MLV – co-scr]. 1938: Pygmalion [co-scr]. 1939/40: The Fourth Estate [DO]. 1940/41: Major Barbara [co-scr – GB]. 1943: World of Plenty [DO]. 1952/53: Der träumende Mund [co-scr]. 1955: Der letzte Mann [sma]. 2005: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [sma – US].
EDMUND MEISEL Born August 14, 1894, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died November 14, 1930, Berlin (Germany) Meisel’s reputation as an innovative composer for avantgarde film and stage music in the 1920s was consolidated by his score for Eisenstein’s BRONENOSEC ‘POTËMKIN’ (Battleship Potemkin, 1925). An essential contributing factor to the international success of the film, Meisel completed the music in twelve days. Moving from Vienna to Berlin as a child, Meisel studied music, becoming a violinist and conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. His friendship with the theatre director Erwin Piscator led to a developing interest in composing music for stage and screen. Following Piscator’s theory of music as an essential dramatic means of achieving political ideals, Meisel experimented with a wide range of musical styles while working with him on the stag production ‘Trotz Alledem’ (Despite It All, 1925). Parodies of opera duets, ironic reworkings of patriotic songs, jazz rhythms, and proletarian anthems were all part of his repertoire. Always interested in the mechanical reproduction of music Meisel invented a ‘noise machine’ and his music accompanied performances of Brecht’s plays, ‘Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schweijk’ (The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweijk, 1928) and ‘Mann ist Mann’ (Man Is Man, 1927). Through his communist connections Meisel was commissioned to write the musical accompaniment for the German release of BRONENOSEC ‘POTËMKIN’ (Battleship Potemkin) in 1926. In the wake of this success he wrote film music for Arnold Fanck’s mountain drama DER HEILIGE BERG (The Holy Mountain,
1925/26) and the German-Russian co-production ÜBERFLÜSSIGE MENSCHEN (Superfluous People, 1926) Meisel’s emphasis on rhythm and interest in unconventional sound found a suitable expression in Walther Ruttmann’s BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (Berlin, The Symphony of the City, 1926/27). At the peak of his career Meisel was in demand from both film and theatre companies. He renewed the collaboration with Eisenstein for the German version of OKTJABR’ (Ten Days That Shook the World, 1927). For the International Radio Exhibition in Berlin, he composed pieces for the experimental sound film DEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK (German Radio, 1928). Many of his plans for sound films were delayed or abandoned due to personal disagreements or practical problems. While waiting for the building of British Talking Pictures studios in London to be completed in 1929, Meisel experimented with recording techniques collaborating on Oswell Blakeston’s short film I DO LOVE TO BE AT THE SEASIDE and a synchronisation with music and sound effects for the Edgar Wallace crime thriller DER ROTE KREIS (The Crimson Circle, 1928). A change in musical taste marked his return to Berlin in 1930. Using his ‘noise machine’ as well as voices Meisel finished a recorded sound version of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN and wrote a chanson as the accompanying music to a short Russian animation film. In five days Meisel composed the music for the premiere of one of the last big silent film performances. The more melodic tones of GOLUBOJ EKSPRES (The Blue Train, 1929) appealed immediately to the contemporary taste and were recorded with the Lewis Ruth-Band within fourteen hours. During the recording, Meisel was taken ill with acute appendicitis and died during an emergency operation. [cinema music – DE] 1926: Bronenosez ‘Potëmkin’ (1905 God) [SU 1925 – German version 1926]. 1925/26: Der heilige Berg. 1926: Überflüssige Menschen. 1926/27: Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [DO]. 1928: Oktjabr’ [SU 1927 – German version]; Deutscher Rundfunk [DO – experimental sound film]. 1929: I Do Love to Be at the Seaside [AG – GB]; Der rote Kreis [DE 1928 – Engl. sound version 1929]. 1930: Bronenosez ‘Potëmkin’ [SU 1925 – German sound version 1930]; Vintik-špintik [ANI – SU 1927 – German sound version 1930]; Stürme über dem Montblanc [songs – sound film]; Goluboj ekspress [SU 1929 – German sound version 1930].
LOTHAR MENDES Born May 15, 1894, Berlin (Germany) Died February 25, 1974, London (England) At one point one of the more prolific migrant directors working between Berlin, Hollywood and London in the 1920s and 1930s, Mendes remains an enig-
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matic figure, leaving behind the legacy of an uneven career. A childhood friend of Ernst Lubitsch, Mendes trained as an actor, and started out in films after World War I. After co-scripting the serial DER SILBERKÖNIG (The Silver King, 1921), he began directing German and Austrian productions, working with some of Weimar cinema’s major stars, including Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings, Paul Wegener, Lya de Putti, and Lil Dagover. However, few of Mendes’s films from this period have survived; among those still extant is the Ufa production DIE DREI KUCKUCKSUHREN (Three Cuckoo Clocks, 1925/26). Mendes relocated to Hollywood in 1926; he married screen star Dorothy Mackaill, and soon found regular employment at Paramount. Alongside Ludwig Berger, he took over directing duties from Mauritz Stiller on THE STREET OF SIN (1927/28), which starred Emil Jannings. Other films included THE FOUR FEATHERS (1929), the third silent adaptation of A. E. W. Mason’s perennial colonial bestseller, which Mendes co-directed with Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper. Mendes was also among several directors (including Lubitsch) assigned to PARAMOUNT ON PARADE (1929/30). Among his solo credits was the critically acclaimed but financially unsuccessful PAYMENT DEFERRED (1932), the film version of a moralistic melodrama in which Charles Laughton reprised his stage performance as a suburban killer. By the mid-1930s, Mendes worked in Britain and directed his undoubtedly most important film, JEW SÜSS (1934). With Conrad Veidt in the title role and based on Lion Feuchtwanger’s bestselling novel about anti-Semitism in 18th century Germany, the big-budget Gaumont-British production became one of the earliest international films to condemn, albeit in historical disguise, Hitler’s racial policies, and is likely to have motivated the Nazi film industry to produce its own counter-version with Veit Harlan’s JUD SÜSS (1940). Mendes’s next British film was the whimsical H. G. Wells fantasy THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES (1936) for Alexander Korda’s London Film Productions, which was followed by MOONLIGHT SONATA (1936/37), in which an inconsequential narrative was woven around the musical performances by seventy-six-year old Polish pianist and composer Ignacy Paderewski in his only feature film appearance. Back in the United States during World War II, Mendes freelanced for various studios. He got a writing credit on Jules Dassin’s M-G-M production NAZI AGENT (1941), starring once again Conrad Veidt, while at RKO he directed FLIGHT FOR FREEDOM (1942/43), a romantically embellished biopic of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart starring Rosalind Rus-
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sell. The rest of Mendes’s assignments were minor productions, with his last directing credit at Columbia on the B-thriller THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN in 1945/46. [dir – DE] 1918: Tájfun [act – HU]. 1920: Jou-Jou [act – AT]. 1921: Der Silberkönig: 1. Der 13. März / 2. Der Mann der Tat / 3. Claim 36 / 4. Rochesterstreet [co-scr]; Das Geheimnis der Santa Maria; Der Abenteurer [dir,scr]. 1921/22: Deportiert; Scheine des Todes [dir,co-scr]. 1923: S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen. 1924: Der Mönch von Santarem. 1925: Liebe macht blind. 1925/26: Die drei Kuckucksuhren. 1926: Der Rebell von Valencia; Prince of Tempters [US]. [dir – US] 1927/28: The Street of Sin [co-dir]. 1928: A Night of Mystery. 1929: Interference; The Four Feathers [co-dir]; Dangerous Curves; Illusion; The Marriage Playground. 1929/30: Paramount on Parade [co-dir – MLV – US-version + local versions: Parada Paramount / Paramount revui / Paramount-Parade / Paramount-Revue / Parada Paramountu / Paramount op Parade]. 1931: Ladies’ Man; Personal Maid [co-dir]. 1932: Strangers in Love; Payment Deferred. 1932/33: Luxury Liner. 1934: Jew Süss [GB]. 1936: The Man Who Could Work Miracles [GB]. 1936/37: Moonlight Sonata [GB]. 1941: International Squadron; Nazi Agent [ide]. 1942/43: Flight for Freedom. 1943/44: Tampico. 1945/46: The Walls Came Tumbling Down.
OSKAR MESSTER (Oskar Eduard Messter) Born November 21, 1866, Berlin (Germany) Died December 6, 1943, Tegernsee (Germany) As an inventor of cinematographic technology, influential producer of military, news and entertainment films and as a film historian, Oskar Messter dominated the early years of German cinema. Increasingly sidelined by the industry from the 1920s, Messter was most concerned in his later years with preserving his reputation as the most important pioneer of German films. After an apprenticeship and military training, Messter took over his family’s optical and photographic business. His design for a projector for moving pictures in 1896 signalled the start of the German film industry. As well as specialising in improved cinematographic equipment, he began making films and opened ‘Biophon’ theatres, where the film projector and gramophone were connected, creating the illusion of fully synchronised sound. Though popular, Messter’s high quality ‘Tonbild’ (sound picture) productions, mostly consisting of opera arias and theatre sketches, proved unprofitable and he turned to silent films in 1909. Suffering under the financial instability of the time, Messter restructured his companies, resulting in Messter Concern in 1913, which encompassed all areas of filmmaking
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from camera manufacture to the cinema. No longer involved in every detail of the business, Messter still remained the supervising director. During World War I, Messter used his film and military experience to make carefully censored film reports, DOKUMENTE ZUM WELTKRIEG (World War Documents, 1914) and the weekly newsreel MESSTER-WOCHE. His development of a camera for aerial panoramic filming and a machine-gun camera for training pilots earned him the Iron Cross. Messter promoted the propaganda value of films, and by 1917 leading German film production companies were bought up and amalgamated into the government-subsidised Universum Film AG (Ufa), which included a large part of Messter’s ventures. Messter constantly busied himself with experiments; on colour film, background projection installations, adapting his aerial film camera, and improving sound quality in films. After quarrels concerning appropriate equipment, Messter withdrew from Tobis AG in 1930. In the mid-1920s he backed the faltering MessterOstermayr Film GmbH, founded by Eduard Messter and Otmar Ostermayr in 1922, but in spite of some successful films, such as DREI TAGE MITTELARREST (Three Days Detention, 1930), the company was forced into liquidation. Financially, Messter supported some projects of Carl Froelich, his old cameraman turned director-producer. Messter’s perhaps greatest legacy constituted his film historical research. Throughout the 1920s he gradually built up a considerable archive of correspondence and witness accounts from colleagues and clients, which now form part of the German National Archive. A large collection of film equipment and early German films were bequeathed to the German Museum in Munich. Ufa produced ALS MAN ANFING ZU FILMEN (The Beginning of Film, 1934), featuring Messter. His autobiography was published in 1936. Retiring to Tegernsee, Messter became increasingly isolated. Shortly after his death in 1943 his family’s original optical business was bombed in Berlin. [pro – DE – Since 1896 numerous actualities and short documentaries (with and without the Kaiser and his family), from 1903 Tonbilder as well. – Detailed filmography from 1910] 1910: Salome; Der Kinderarzt; Faule Eier; Z III [DO]; Ringer; Liebe und Hühneraugen; Des Sängers Fluch; Ein Besuch unserer Kaiserin in Hagenbecks Tierpark [DO]; Das Glückshufeisen; Ein Pechtag; Schwiegermutters Rodelfahrt; Wegen einer Fliege; Bobsleighrennen 1910 in Davos [DO]; Müller ist kitzlich; Eine Räubergeschichte; Bitterwasser; Lustige Vagabundenstreiche; Schneeschuhläufer in Nöten; Die Albula-Bahn in Graubünden [DO]; Die zerstörte Z II bei Weilburg am 25.4.1910 [DO]; Der Schützenkönig; Parade der drei Luftkreuzer Z II, P II, M I [DO]; Das deutsche Kronprinzenpaar bei der Fasanenjagd in Öls 1910 [DO];
Der alte Kammermusikus; Ein temperamentvoller Schauspieler; Der erste Frühlingsausflug der Großstädter; Wenn Kalkulators in die Baumblüte ziehen; Meine Tante; Wie das Leben spielt; Die kleine Lotte; Schmidt will nicht heiraten; Der gute Likör; Ringkampf Konkurrenz [DO]; Was der kleine Hans tat; Die Blumenverkäuferin; Die Ballschuhe; Graf Pumski; Eine Erfahrung fürs Leben; Eine Fahrt durch Berlin [DO]; Zwei Äuglein braun; Rückkehr des Kaiserpaares und der königlichen Prinzen von der Herbstparade am 1.9.1910 [DO]; Wiedergefunden; Verkannt; Der neue Musikprofessor im Mädchenpensionat; Der Schüchterne; Die zweite Frau; Der gestohlene Hundertmarkschein; Der berühmte Tenor; Unschuldig; Bundrika, die Negerköchin; Die Konkurrenten; Lenchens Geburtstag; Zeitkarikaturen [DO]; Das Bouquet; Japanisches Opfer; Liebe und List; Der bestrafte Don Juan; Favorit; Der Hund des alten Leiermanns; Der Klapperstorch ist schuld daran; Einquartierung; Der Kälberbraten; Der Storch in seinem Nest; Die zwei Schwestern; Das Junggesellen-Horoskop; Babys aus dem Tierreiche [DO]; Babys aus dem Tierreiche [DO]; Komödie und Wirklichkeit; Madame Meyer in Nöten; Klein-Elschens Traum; Der verlorene Sohn; Die verschwundene Dame; Der Alpenjäger; Schusterpech; Die Söhne des deutschen Kronprinzenpaares an der See [DO]; Wenn die Not am größten; Das Liebesglück der Blinden; Ein kurzer Traum; Das Automobil der Zukunft [ANI]; Der elektrische Apparat als Retter; Der Traum einer Putzmacherin; Medea; Eine Hochzeitsnacht; Bubenstreiche; Die ewige Lampe: Huppchen – Puppchen [TB]; Brüderlein fein: Nicht zu schnell und nicht zu langsam [TB]; Faun und Nymphe [TB]; Brüderlein und Schwesterlein [TB]; Auf dem Gesindeball [TB]; Boccaccio: Fassbinderlied [TB]; Der Zigeunerbaron: Terzett [TB]; Malerin Mika Mikum: Rhythmische Tanzkarikaturen. Menuett [TB]; Maxi Funkelstein [TB]; Der Eremit [TB]; Saharet: Auf dem Maskenball [TB]; Saharet: La Malaguena [TB]; Saharet: La Serenada [TB]. 1910/11: Turnübungen und Spiele in der Unteroffizierschule zu Potsdam [DO]; Friedel, der Geiger; Das holde Vis à Vis; Ein mutiger Alter; Ich heirate meine Köchin; Auf falschem und auf rechtem Wege; Die Nachtwandler; Der geprellte Schwiegervater; Das verzauberte Café; Bilder aus Deutsch-Guinea. II [DO]; Eine Tanzstunde vor hundert Jahren [TB]; Cavalleria Rusticana: Trinklied [TB]. 1911: Eine Fügung des Schicksals; Das Adoptivkind; Eine billige Badereise; Bobby als Aviatiker; Bobby hat Hundemedizin getrunken; Briefkasten an den lieben Gott; Erinnerungen an die Nordpol-Expeditionen André und Wellmann [DO]; Die Fabrikation der Jason Glühstrümpfe [DO]; Das Glöckchen des Glücks; Ein gutes Geschäft; Im Scheunenviertel [DO]; Meyer als Geschäftsreisender; Militärmarsch Mamzelle Nitouche [TB]; Mitsu Jaccy; Ein nettes Geburtstagsgeschenk; Pechfritze als Kavalier; Renate; Der Schatzgräber; Sklaven der Eifersucht; Soldatenschicksal; Strandhexlein; Das Unglück als Retter; Der Vogelhändler [TB]; Die Waschfrau; Wer andern eine Grube gräbt; Wie sich Mieze hilft; Die große Tierschau in Buenos Aires [DO]; Töpferei bei den Eingeborenen in Deutsch-Neu-Guinea [DO]; Der tüchtige Weinreisende; Der vergrabene Schatz; Mericke aus Neu-Ruppin kommt nach Berlin; Eine Geschichte aus dem Spreewald; Pierette; Zauberkünste; Bobby wird Kellner; Das Geheimnis der Ber-
OSKAR MESSTER ge; Das Massen-Rendezvous; Der Lebenslauf eines Zylinderhutes; Fatale Verwechslung; Eine Seiltanzparodie; Das gefährliche Alter; Der schwarze Sepp; Bobby soll sich duellieren; Ihr Kind; Naturaufnahme aus Grönland [DO]; Diebstahl aus Liebe; Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar; Eine Forschungsreise durch das nördliche Eismeer nach Grönland [kurz] [DO]; Bobby als Zettelankleber; Wen es juckt, der kratze sich; Wie auch wir vergeben; Bobby hat Hunger; Ein Duell ohne Zeugen; Ringkampf der Meisterringer Petersen und Luppa [DO]; Ein Spiel um das Lebensglück zweier Menschen; Künstlerliebe; Verlaufen; Bobby hat Salzheringe gegessen; Kopenhagener Skizzen [DO]; Die Laune einer Dollarprinzessin; Der treuen Magd Opfer und ihr Lohn; Der alte Lumpensammler; Onkels Testament; Flinkes Kindermädchen; Mütter, verzaget nicht; Die Nebenbuhler [TB]; Der Vampyr; Die Rache des Cowboys; Das Geständnis des Wilddiebes; Die schrecklichen Folgen des Hosenrockes; Bobby und seine Wirtin; Zu späte Reue!; Zur rechten Zeit; Paradeturnen zur hundertjährigen Jahnfeier in Berlin [DO]; Tragödie eines Verräters; Die verwechselten Wagen; Bobby als Jongleur; Perlen bedeuten Tränen; Mutters Todestag; Die Pennbrüder und das große Los; Des Künstlers Untergang; Berlin aus der Vogelschau [DO]; Marianne, ein Weib aus dem Volk; Das Barmädel; Edelmut unter Feinden; Tragödie eines Streiks; Gebüßt; Der Rosenkavalier; Eine Spritztour nach Dresden [DO]; Schwimmübung der Zweiten Garde-Dragoner an der Oberspree [DO]; Die Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur in Berlin [DO]; Ein Fehltritt; Das Geheimnis des Schlosses; Gefährlicher Liebeskampf zweier Frauen; Ein liebes Mädel; Folge des Leichtsinns; Die Großstadt bei Nacht, wie sie weint und lacht; Schicksalsgewalten; Besuch in der Waldschule im Grunewald bei Berlin [DO]; Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen; Zigeunerliebe; Frau Rechtsanwalts erster Erfolg; Nur einen Helden will sie lieben!; Liebe und Leidenschaft; Das treue Soldatenherz; Der Müller und sein Kind; Die beleidigte Telephonistin; Voltigieren und Lanzenstechen [DO]; Der neue Inspektor; Schwer gestraft; Schiffbrüchige des Lebens; Im Glück vergessen; Körperübungen im frühen Kindesalter. System: Oberltn. Neumann-Neurode [DO]; Die schlechte Zensur; Das angenommene Kind; Das Gespenst der Vergangenheit; Papa, warum hast du mich nicht lieb?; Adressatin verstorben; Hansastadt Bremen [DO]; Eine Forschungsexpedition durch das nördliche Eismeer nach Grönland [DO]. 1911/12: Ein Leben; Des Lebens Würfelspiel; Geächtet; Heimat; Arme kleine Japanerin; Mamas Schutzengel; Dem Glück entgegen. 1912: Ein Freundschaftsdienst; Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gern; Die Hochzeit von Valeni; Die Stradivarius-Geige; Ein neuer Erwerbszweig; Der Kuß des Fürsten; Die List der Schneidersfrau; Der Werdegang eines Daimler-Motors [DO]; Die Kunst des Schminkens [DO]; Bilder aus der sächsisch-böhmischen Schweiz [DO]; Wohltäter der Tiere; Orientalischer Tanz [DO]; Quälendes Dasein; Wellenkämpfe [DO]; Haus Falkenberg; Tanzkarikaturen; Damen-Ringkampf-Konkurrenz [DO]; Komtesse Seerose; Schatten des Lebens; Alles elektrisch; Hans Falkenberg; Ein kleines Versehen; Isaak, der Handelsjude; Für die Ehre des Vaters; Im Tode vereint; Der Schwester geopfert; Ein Ehrenwort; Das Spiel ist aus; Maskenscherz; Die Toten schweigen; Einer Mutter Opfer;
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Teuer erkauftes Glück; Es muß ein Schauspieler sein; Die Rache ist mein; Und alles um die Liebe; Die Versuchung; Der gute Kamerad; Eine verfehlte Spekulation; Wie entsteht ein Brikett [DO]; Die Tänzerin; Mimosa-san; Für’s Vaterland; Die Königin der Nacht; Hexenfeuer; Eine Nacht im Palais de dance; Um Haaresbreite; Wenn das Herz spricht; Schwatwalfang [DO]; Henny Portens Reise nach Köln zur Eröffnung des ‘Modernen Theaters’ [DO]; Das Geheimnis seiner Frau; Die Hohe Schule; In flagranti ertappt; Jung und Alt; Kämpfende Herzen; Der Traum des Junggesellen; Unter der Maske; Die Weinprobe; Im Steinbruch [DO]; Der Schatten des Meeres; Der anhängliche Regenschirm; Erloschenes Licht; Junggesellen-Abschied; Luischens Liebe; Das Vaterherz; Des Pfarrers Töchterlein; Doktor Tod; Gequälte Herzen; Im Banne der Schuld; Minchen Schwartzkopf oder der nervöse Freier; Problematische Naturen; Verspielt; Weihnachtsfreud – Weihnachtsleid; Das Opfer; Deutsche Schiffbautechnik [DO]; Zu spät; Margot [TB]; Die Spatzenhochzeit [TB]; La Traviata: Finale des 3. Aktes [TB]; Pariser Moden-Revue [TB]; Erst ’ne Weile rechts [TB]. 1912/ 13: Gerda Gerovius; Haben wir uns nicht schon mal kennen gelernt?; Harry Raupach; Die verhängnisvolle Bluse; Partien aus dem Schwarzatal [DO]; Flüchtiges Glück; Malongo vom Kongo; Ihr guter Ruf; Die Wogen des Meeres [DO]; Der Kongo [DO]. 1913: Illustrationen zu dem Roman ‘Problematische Naturen’ von Friedrich Spielhagen; Mamsell Nitouche; Mutter und Tochter; Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen; Bobby ist mit dem linken Fuß zuerst aufgestanden; Schmidt geht auf den Maskenball; List gegen List; Schwester Martha; Verratenes Glück; Frauenleid; Statistinnen des Lebens; Die Tochter des Adjutanten; Zurückerobert; In Vertretung; Neue Münchener Photographien [dok (?)]; Eva; Die Fabrikation eines Elektromotors [DO]; Der Theaterbrand; Richard Wagner; Eine wilde Jagd im Automobil; Aus eines Mannes Mädchenzeit; Hasard; Hazard; Falsche Perlen; Der Feind im Land; Hochspannung; Schuldig; Der wankende Glaube; Des Meeres Sühne; Detektiv Kelly; Gebrochene Schwingen; Eine heimliche Ehe; Liebeswahn; Des Meeres Sühne; Narren der Liebe; Komtesse Ursel; Der Familiendiamant; Unter falschem Verdacht; Eine wässerige Geschichte; Im Spiel des Schicksals; Ultimo; Die Männer sind alle Verbrecher; Der Weg des Lebens; Der blaue Vogel; Ihre Hoheit; Moderne Nomaden; Um das Glück betrogen; Ach, Amalie [TB]; In der Nacht [TB]; Ja, wenn das der Petrus wüßte [TB]; Niedliche kleine Dingerchen [TB]; Tango [TB]; Weinlied [TB]. 1913/14: Tirol in Waffen; Der Trainer; Die Diva in Nöten; Die verhängnisvolle Hausnummer oder Der Liebhaber im Löwenkäfig; Zuviel des Guten; Das Tal des Traumes; Bergnacht. 1914: Leben und Treiben der 20000 gefangenen Belgier sowie Franzosen im Munsterlager [DO]; Österreichische Ulanen im Felde [DO]; Seine Majestät Wilhelm II. [DO]; Szenen vor und aus Lüttich [DO]; Das Gebot der Pflicht; Maria Magdalena; Ein Millionenraub; Moulin Rouge; Warum nimmst du denn den Hut?; Der Tag der Vergeltung; Verhängnisvolles Glück; Durchs Ziel; Eine dunkle Tat; Fräulein Leutnant; Die große Sünderin; Ein Sklave seiner Vergangenheit; Wenn Wunden heilen; Fantomo; Erstarrte Liebe; Die zerbrochene Puppe; Am Altar der Liebe; Er rechts, sie links; Ihr Sklave; Nordlandsrose; Das Geheimnis der Telefunken; Im Banne
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des Mondes; Der polnische Jude; Tanzrivalen; Zu hoch hinaus; Die grosse Tierschau [DO]; Gretchen Wendland; Sein braunes Mädel; Alexandra; Dokumente zum Weltkrieg (Serie I-III) [DO]; Der europäische Krieg in der Karikatur [DO]; Ein Überfall im Feindesland; Unsere zukünftige Wehrmacht [DO]; Treff Sieben; Um ein Haar; Wie Max sich das Eiserne Kreuz erwarb; Max darf nicht rauchen; Maxens Kriegsberichte; Mississippi dippi dip [TB]. 1914/15: Das Ende vom Liede; Der Honvedhusar; Fürst Seppl; Des kleinen Lord erste Freundschaft; Maxens Kriegsberichte III. 1915: Komödianten; Der Schadchen; Schwanentanz [DO]; Sein einziger Sohn; Die Stiefmutter; Die Konservenbraut; Drei Väter – ein Sohn; Fräulein Hochgemuth; Der Sieg des Herzens; Das Spürnäschen; Es war ein Traum; Papa Schlaumeyer; Die Spur des Ersten; Märtyrerin der Liebe; Der Eremit; Die Heiratsjagd; Der Lebensretter; Die Stunde der Vergeltung; Nur nicht heiraten; Auf der Alm, da gibt’s ka Sünd; Jahreszeiten des Lebens; Musketier Kaczmarek; Ein neuer Erfolg der Chirurgie [DO]; Police Nr. 1111; Die tolle Komtesse; Die weiße Rose; Die Wellen schweigen; Dr. Eisenbart; Guten Morgen, Herr Fischer; Paulchens Fingerhut; Das Geheimnis einer Nacht; Das Schicksal der Gabriele Stark; Der weiße Tod; Das große Schweigen. 1915/16: Frau Eva; Rita macht alles; Rechtsanwalt Dr. James Burns; Ihr bester Schuß; Eine schwere Last; So’n Rackerchen; Der Schirm mit dem Schwan. 1916: Der Sekretär der Königin; Triumph der Liebe; Moritz Wasserstrahl als Stratege [AT]; Aufnahmen aus Berlin [DO]; Ein Schwerenöter; Abseits vom Glück; Der Mann im Spiegel; Werner Krafft. Der Maschinenbauer; Die Petroleumquelle; Ein dolles Mädel; Vampirette; Lehmanns Brautfahrt; Dick Carter; Bummelstudenten; Wien im Krieg [AT]; Jückijoli [ANI]; Das wandernde Licht; Der standhafte Benjamin; Das Stahlwerk der Poldihütte während des Weltkrieges [DO – AT]; Die Dame mit der Maske; Ehemanns Urlaub; Das Leid der Liebe; Die Räuberbraut; Winter im Harz [DO]; Paul Banners Schicksal; Bad Nauheim in der Kriegszeit [DO]; Das Kurleben in Wiesbaden während des Weltkrieges [DO]; Der Ruf der Liebe; Die kleine Fürstin; Gestern noch auf stolzen Rossen [AT]; Warschau in der Zeit der deutschen Verwaltung [DO]; Halt – nicht küssen!; Der wandernde Blumentopf; Das Leben ein Traum; Die Perlkette; Unsere Kriegsbeschädigten im Beruf und bei Spiel und Sport [DO]; Lehrer Matthiesen; Bilder aus dem Leben weil. S. M. Kaiser Franz Josefs I. [DO]; Österreich-Ungarns Krieg im ewigen Schnee und Eis [DO]; Ein Tag bei der Armee Boehm-Ermolli [DO]; Gelöste Ketten; Feenhände; Die Trauerfeierlichkeiten für weiland Sr. Majestät Kaiser Franz Joseph I. [DO – AT]; Weihnachtstränen; Der Nörgler [AT]; Im goldenen Käfig; Sami, der Seefahrer [AT]. 1916/17: Besuch Kaiser Karls I. im Großen Hauptquartier am 26.1.1917 [DO]; Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach; Der Liebesbrief der Königin; Irrende Liebe. 1917: Der Gewissenswurm [AT]; Der Weg zum Frieden [AT]; Wir und die anderen [AT]; Versiegelte Lippen; Das verschnupfte Miezerl; Max und Moritz; Der Alt-AusseerSee [DO – AT]; Bilder aus dem Salzkammergut Hallstatt [DO – AT]; Der St. Wolfgang- oder Obersee [DO – AT]; Beisetzungsfeierlichkeiten des Grafen Zeppelin [DO]; Der Viererzug [AT]; Krieg im ewigen Schnee [DO – AT]; Die Geschiedenen; Teddys Raid; Christa Hartungen; Los vom
Mann; Der Brief einer Toten [AT]; Veilchen Nr. 4; Der Diebstahl [AT]; Der gewonnene Prozeß [AT]; Die goldene Wehr [AT]; Was die Liebe vermag [AT]; Die Prinzessin von Neutralien; Die 10. Isonzoschlacht [DO – AT]; Das schwindende Herz [AT]; Der Mann mit der Maske [AT]; Eine verfahrene Geschichte; Albert läßt sich scheiden [AT]; Verheiratete Junggesellen; Gefangene Seele; Frank Hansens Glück; Der Doppelmensch; Elbefahrt von Leitmeritz nach Schreckenstein [DO]; Luftkämpfe. Ein Tag bei einer Jagdstaffel im Westen [DO]; Nachträtsel; Furcht; Die Claudi vom Geiserhof; Hann, Hein und Henny!; Höhenluft; Eine Fahrt auf der Zahnradbahn von Puchberg nach Hochschneeberg [DO]; Der Vetter aus Mexiko; Der graue Herr; Der Richter; Die Faust des Riesen. 2 Teile; Vertauschte Seelen; Ein Tag aus dem Leben einer Puppe; Dem Frieden entgegen [AT]; Der geizige Hannes [AT]; Die Liebe einer Blinden [AT]; Der neue Tantalus [AT]; Der Mann ohne Kopf [AT]; Gräfin Küchenfee; Frau Lenes Scheidung; Frank Boyers Diener [AT]; Das neue Leben [AT]; Der Schmuck der Herzogin [AT]; Er muß sie haben [AT]; Der grüne Diamant [AT]; Fred Roll. 2 Teile [AT]; Um ein Weib [AT]; Er rächt seine Schwiegermutter [AT]. 1917/18: Die Kunst zu heiraten; Edelsteine; Pinselputzi rendevouzelt [AT]; Der unwiderstehliche Theodor; Rotterdam – Amsterdam; Der Märtyrer seines Herzens [AT]; Pinselputzi stiftet Unheil und eine Ehe [AT]; Der Liebe Macht, des Rechtes Sieg [AT]; Alte und junge Geister [AT]. 1918: Er ist Papa! [AT]; Das Haus zum blauen Löwen [AT]; Auf Probe gestellt; Das Geheimnis des Ingenieurs Branting; Das Abenteuer einer Ballnacht; Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall; Der Stärkere [AT]; Sein letzter Seitensprung; Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier; Der Rubinsalamander; Seine tapfere Frau [AT]; Das Nachtlager von Mischli-Mischloch [AT]; Der Weg zum Reichtum [AT]; Wiener Modeschau [DO – AT]; Österr.-ungar. Artillerie war an der Westfront [DO – AT]; Der Glücksjunge; Wenn die Liebe auf den Hund kommt [AT]; Der Tribut des Künstlers [AT]; Der vorsichtige Kapitalist [AT]; Wer zuletzt lacht [AT]; Die beiden Meier [AT]; Der Sohn des Hannibal; Der falsche Demetrius; Das Maskenfest des Lebens; Emmahu, der Schrecken Afrikas; Der Mann mit den sieben Masken; Die Sieger; Die Reise S. M. König Ludwigs von Bayern nach Sofia [DO]; Erst das Geschäft und dann das Vergnügen; Die blaue Mauritius; Die Heimkehr des Odysseus; Haben Sie Fritzchen nicht gesehen?; Donaureise König Ludwigs [DO]; Die blaue Laterne; Die Vase der Semiramis; Die Edelsteinsammlung; Das Baby [AT]; Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell; Das Todestelephon; Bräutigam auf Aktien; Opfer der Gesellschaft. 1918/19: Die Hochzeitsreise; Irrungen; Der Einbrecher wider Willen. 1919: Die schwarze Locke; Ihr Sport; Die Diamanten des Zaren; Die rollende Kugel; Argus X; Die Schuld; Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth; Paulchen Fingerhut; Die lebende Tote; Der Fürst der Diebe und seine Liebe; Ein schwaches Weib; Rose Bernd; Die Fahrt ins Blaue; Monica Vogelsang. 1920: Nur ein Viertelstündchen. Lustige Karikaturen; Die goldene Krone. 1920/21: Der Stier von Olivera. 1921: Die Geliebte Roswolskys; Die Perle des Orients. 1934: Als man anfing zu filmen [DO – app].
ELFI MIKESCH ERNÖ METZNER Born February 25, 1892, Szabadka, Hungary (now Subotica, Serbia) Died September 25, 1953, Hollywood (California, USA) Best known as a set designer on German, British, and Hollywood films from the 1920s to the 1940s, Metzner was also the director of several experimental films and agit-prop shorts. After attending Art College in Budapest, Metzner initially worked as a graphic designer and painter, before being drafted into the army at the outbreak of World War I. After the war he relocated to Berlin, where he began to work in the film industry in the early 1920s. His first assignment was Ernst Lubitsch’s SUMURUN (1920), where he assisted the film’s art director Kurt Richter, before taking on jobs as a costume designer on productions by Paul Leni among others. He collaborated on the sets for the politically controversial, but financially successful Prussian heritage drama FRIDERICUS REX (1920–23), and was among the first designers to use the former Zeppelin hangar at Staaken turned film studio, in Robert Wiene’s biblical epic I.N.R.I. (Crown of Thorns, 1923). From 1925, beginning with GEHEIMNISSE EINER SEELE (Secrets of a Soul, 1925/26), Metzner repeatedly worked for director G. W. Pabst. His realistic recreation of a coal mine in KAMERADSCHAFT (Comradeship, 1931) contrasted with his earlier depiction of a lush brothel in TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929) and his fantastic imagination of a desert palace in DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS (Mistress of Atlantis, 1932). Financed by the German Social Democratic Party, Metzner directed a series of short documentaries. DEIN SCHICKSAL (Your Fate, 1927/28) warned of the dangers of Weimar’s right-wing parties; IM ANFANG WAR DAS WORT … (In the Beginning Was the Word) told the story of the Social Democrat print media since the 19th century; while FREIE FAHRT (Steam Ahead, both 1928) celebrated the achievements of the party through staged scenes. The experimental short ÜBERFALL (Accident, 1928), the surreal story of a man’s urban odyssey, and his encounters with gangsters and prostitutes that ends with him being beaten up, won international acclaim. Critics compared it with Luis Buñuel’s contemporaneous UN CHIEN ANDALOU, and it was banned by the censors, on account of its violence. Metzner’s next directorial effort ACHTUNG! LIEBE! LEBENSGEFAHR! (Attention! Love! Danger!, 1929) was a quasi-adventure film, centred around the exploits of car-racing playboy Bob Stoll, who financed, co-scripted and starred in the film. In 1933, Metzner initially emigrated to France, where he collaborated with Pabst for one last time on DU HAUT EN BAS (High and Low, 1933). He then moved
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to Britain, where some of his most inventive work was realised, including the stylishly modern sets for the science fiction film THE TUNNEL (1935), and the expressionist fairy-tale dwellings for the whimsical THE ROBBER SYMPHONY (1935/36), directed by fellow Hungarian émigré Friedrich Fehér. After a number of lesser assignments, Metzner moved to Hollywood, but found few work opportunities in the studio system. Among his contributions were the sets for René Clair’s delightful fantasy IT HAPPENED TOMORROW (1944). [cos – DE] 1920: Sumurun [des]. 1920/21: Der Stier von Olivera; Die Verschwörung zu Genua. 1920-23: Fridericus Rex: 1. Sturm und Drang / 2. Vater und Sohn / 3. Sanssouci / 4. Schicksalswende [des]. 1921: Das Weib des Pharao. 1922: Sein ist das Gericht; Don Juan. 1922/23: Schlagende Wetter; Alt-Heidelberg [des]. 1923: I.N.R.I. Ein Film der Menschlichkeit [des,cos]. 1924: Arabella. 1924/ 25: Ein Sommernachtstraum [des,cos]. 1925: Der Gardeoffizier [AT]. [des – DE] 1925/26: Geheimnisse einer Seele. 1927: Naftalin [SF – dir – HU]; Man steigt nach [dir,co-scr,des]. 1927/ 28: Dein Schicksal! [DO – dir]. 1928: Im Anfang war das Wort … [SF – dir]; Freie Fahrt [dir]; Mikosch rückt ein; Hotelgeheimnisse; Überfall [SF – dir,co-scr]. 1929: Kehre wieder, Afrika! [DO – co-dir]; Tagebuch einer Verlorenen [des, cos]; Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü. 1929/30: Achtung! Liebe! Lebensgefahr! / Rivalen im Weltrekord [dir,co-scr,des]. 1930: Westfront 1918; Der Andere [MLV]; Le procureur Hallers [MLV – DE/FR]; Zwei Krawatten; Die Firma heiratet. 1931: Kameradschaft / La tragédie de la mine [DE/FR]; Eine Nacht im Grandhotel [MLV]; Der unbekannte Gast. 1931/ 32: Ein bißchen Liebe für Dich [MLV]; Monsieur, Madame et Bibi [MLV – DE/FR]; Skandal in der Parkstraße. 1932: L’Atlantide [MLV – DE/FR]; Die Herrin von Atlantis [MLV]; The Mistress of Atlantis [MLV]; Zigeuner der Nacht [MLV]; Cœurs joyeux [MLV – FR]. 1932/33: Das Meer ruft; Der Läufer von Marathon. [des – GB] 1933: Du haut en bas [FR]. 1934: Princess Charming; Chu Chin Chow. 1934/35: Oh, Daddy! 1935: The Tunnel. 1935/36: The Robber Symphony [MLV]; La symphonie des brigands [MLV]. 1936: Seven Sinners; Strangers on Honeymoon; O.H.M.S. 1936/37: Take My Tip. 1944: It Happened Tomorrow [US]. 1947: The Macomber Affair [US].
ELFI MIKESCH Born May 31, 1940, Judenburg (Austria) A trained photographer, Elfi Mikesch contributed from the early 1970s onwards to avantgarde, underground, and feminist films in a range of capacities, but primarily as a cinematographer, director, and producer. The daughter of a film projectionist, Mikesch moved in the early 1960s to West Germany, where she made the acquaintance of gay directors Rosa von Praunheim and Werner Schroeter, with whom she began
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to collaborate on a number of artistic projects later on in the decade, often under the pseudonym ‘Oh Muvie’. Her first film as director was CHARISMA – EINE ERINNERUNG AN DEN TOD (Charisma – A Memory of Death) in 1970, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s story ‘The Masque of Red Death’. In 1978, Mikesch won acclaim for her semi-documentary ICH DENKE OFT AN HAWAII (I Often Think of Hawaii), the portrait of a 16year old working class schoolgirl and her escapist dreams. The subsequent documentary WAS SOLL’N WIR DENN MACHEN OHNE DEN TOD (What Shall We Do Without Death, 1979/80) depicted a burgeoning romance in an old people’s home in Hamburg. During the same period, Mikesch also designed the covers for the feminist film journal ‘Frauen und Film’, and developed slide shows and photo-series with artists including Praunheim and Heinz Emigholz. MACUMBA (1981/82) combined fictional material with documentary footage, and was compared by critics with the work of U.S. avant garde director Maya Deren. As a cinematographer for other directors, she created a quasi-expressionist visual aesthetic for Praunheim’s HORROR VACUI (1983/84) and ANITA – TÄNZE DES LASTERS (Anita, Dances of Vice, 1987), while visually emphasizing Werner Schroeter’s melodramatic and elegiac style in DER ROSENKÖNIG (The Rose King, 1984–86). From 1983 she repeatedly collaborated with director Monika Treut, beginning with the controversial VERFÜHRUNG – DIE GRAUSAME FRAU (Seduction – The Cruel Woman, 1984/85) and the lesbian comingout story DIE JUNGFRAUENMASCHINE (The Virgin Machine, 1987/88). Directed by Mikesch, MAROCAIN (1989) was a hallucinatory travelogue set in Morocco. Throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, Mikesch mainly continued her productive collaborations with a close-knit group of directors, including Heide Breitel, Lily Grote, Praunheim (DER EINSTEIN DES SEX, Einstein of Sex, 1998/99), Treut (GENDERNAUTS, 1998), Schroeter (MALINA, 1990, DEUX, 2002), and Emigholz (D’ANNUNZIO’S HÖHLE, D’Annunzio’s Cave, 2002–05). On September 5, 2008 she was one of the more than sixty filmmakers participating in the TV-project 24H BERLIN – EIN TAG IM LEBEN (24h Berlin – A Day in the Life) covering stories in the capital for twenty-four hours. [filmmaker – DE] 1970: Charisma. Eine Erinnerung an den Tod. 1971: Salome [TV – cos]. 1971/72: Leidenschaften [TV – co-cam,snd,cos]. 1976: Family Sketch. 1977/78: Ich denke oft an Hawaii. 1979: Execution. A Study of Mary [SF]. 1979/80: Was soll’n wir denn machen ohne den Tod [DO]; Palermo oder Wolfsburg [fot – DE/CH]. 1980: Apocalypso [dir,pro]; Berlinale 80 [DO – app].
[cam – DE] 1980/81: Zechmeister [AT]. 1981/82: Macumba [AG – filmmaker]; Im Jahr der Schlange [TVD – co-cam]. 1981-83: Canale Grande [AG – cam,act – DE/AT]. 1982/ 83: Die blaue Distanz [filmmaker]; Das Frühstück der Hyäne [filmmaker]; Okiana [cam consultant]. 1983: Böse zu sein ist auch ein Beweis von Gefühl. 1983/84: Mikado [consultant]; Horror Vacui. 1983-92: Female Misbehavior [DO – DE/US]. 1984/85: Verführung: Die grausame Frau [filmmaker]. 1984-86: Der Rosenkönig. 1985: Ein Virus kennt keine Moral. 1987: Anita – Tänze des Lasters. 1987/ 88: Die Jungfrauenmaschine [cam,des,pro]. 1989: Marocain [TV – filmmaker]. 1989/90: Feuer unterm Arsch – Vom Leben und sterben schwuler Männer in Berlin [DO]. 1990: Malina [DE/AT]. 1990/91: My Father Is Coming. 1991: The Party – Nature Morte. 1993/94: Erotique / Let’s Talk About Sex: Taboo Parlor [SF]; Hey Stranger [DE/BE]. 1994: Out of America [DO]. 1995-97: Daily Chicken. 1996: Gefährliche Orte – Bombenleger [filmmaker]; Poussières d’amour – Abfallprodukte der Liebe [DE/FR]. 1997/98: Life, Love & Celluloid [DO]. 1998: Gendernauts – Eine Reise ins Land der neuen Geschlechter [DO – co-cam]. 1998/99: Der Einstein des Sex – Leben und Werk des Doktor Magnus Hirschfeld [DE/NL]. 1999: Ka-hey, Ich grüße dich [DO – filmmaker]; Die Markus Family [DO – filmmaker]. 2000: ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’ [TVD]; Dokumentarisch arbeiten: Träumen, spielen, jagen [TVD – app]. 2000/01: Kriegerin des Lichts [DO]. 2001: Mon Paradis – Der Winterpalast [DO – filmmaker]; Denk ich an Deutschland: Ein Fremder [TVD]. 2001/02: Deux [FR/PT/DE]. 2002: Ich kann das schon! [DO]; Pfui, Rosa! Ein Selbstportrait von Rosa von Praunheim [TVD – app]. 2002-05: Photographie und jenseits / Photography and Beyond: 8. D’Annunzios Höhle / 12. Goff in der Wüste [DO – co-cam] 2003: Fremde Kinder: Ich bin der Eiffelturm [TVD]; Liebesversuche. Portrait Werner Schroeter [TVD – app]; Les parents terribles [TV – FR/ES]; Passion Hölderlin [DO – cocam]. 2004: Den Tigerfrauen wachsen Flügel [DO – DE/ RC]. 2005: Christoph Schlingensief und seine Filme [DO]; Mädchengeschichten: Made in Taiwan [TVD – DE/RC]. 2005/06: Brinkmanns Zorn [DO]. 2006: Hahnemanns Medizin – Vom Wesen der Homöopathie [TV – filmmaker]. 2006/07: Sechs tote Studenten. 2007: Meine Mütter – Spurensuche in Riga [DO – co-cam]. 2007/08: Zisternen – Istanbuls versunkene Paläste [DO – filmmaker]; Tote Schwule – Lebende Lesben [DO – co-cam]; Stark fürs Leben [TVD]; Spielzone – Im Sog virtueller Welten [TVD]. 2008/ 09: 24h Berlin – Ein Tag im Leben [TVD – co-dir].
BRIGITTE MIRA Born April 20, 1910, Hamburg (Germany) Died March 8, 2005, Berlin (Germany) After decades of supporting roles in stage and film comedies, Mira became an unlikely star of the New German Cinema of the 1970s, especially in the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Following a musical education, Mira started her career with comic parts in stage operettas at various theatres in Germany and Austria. In 1941, she moved
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to Berlin, where she appeared in cabaret and stage productions, and made her film debut in a series of Nazi propaganda shorts, LIESE UND MIESE (1943). After World War II, Mira continued her career as a prolific comic actress in stage comedies, operettas, and later musicals. Until the late 1950s she only sporadically appeared in films, such as BERLINER BALLADE (Berlin Ballad, 1948), but subsequently became a more permanent fixture in light entertainment films, almost exclusively in minor supporting roles. Although half-Russian by birth and brought up in Hamburg and Düsseldorf, Mira came to epitomise the quintessential Berliner, a proletarian everywoman with a heart of gold, perpetually self-deprecating, and with an unshakably optimistic outlook on life. In the early 1970s experimental theatre director Peter Zadek, and filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder cast her in groundbreaking stage and later film productions. Fassbinder, who first used her in his TV series ACHT STUNDEN SIND KEIN TAG (Eight Hours Are Not a Day, 1972), gave Mira her first leading film role in ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF (Fear Eats Soul, 1973), a poignant study of an elderly cleaner who marries a much younger Algerian guest worker, defying widespread disapproval, racism, and rejection. With her subtle and courageous performance in one of the key West German films of the 1970s, Mira emerged overnight as a sought-after actress. Fassbinder gave her another starring role in MUTTER KÜSTERS’ FAHRT ZUM HIMMEL (Mother Kusters’s Ascent to Heaven, 1975), as a proletarian widow who becomes the victim of political manipulation and media exploitation. As one of the most unlikely members of the Fassbinder entourage, Mira had supporting roles in many of his films up to LILI MARLEEN (1980). Other directors of the New German Cinema used her as well, such as Werner Herzog in JEDER FÜR SICH UND GOTT GEGEN ALLE (Everyone For Himself and God Against All) and Lothar Lambert in 1 BERLIN-HARLEM (both 1974). By the late 1970s Mira had become a public institution with almost universal appeal – respected by the cultural elites and loved by the public. In countless TV films, talk-show appearances and sitcoms throughout the 1980s and 1990s she was celebrated as the nation’s favourite granny. [act – DE – TV] 1943: Liese und Miese [SFS]. 1948: Berliner Ballade [FF]. 1953: Budenzauber; Was nicht im Baedeker steht; Selbst ist der Mann; Kabarett ohne Titel; Ope’ rette sich wer kann. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala [FF]. 1958: Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen [FF]; Der Stern von Santa Clara [FF]; So ein Millionär hat’s schwer [FF – AT]; Drei Orangen. 1958/59: Schlag auf Schlag [FF]. 1959: Du bist wunderbar [FF]; Nelson-Premiere; Die Liebe des Jahres.
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1960: Der Vetter aus Dingsda; Im Namen einer Mutter [FF]; Geschminkte Jugend [FF]. 1961: Wie einst im Mai; Die Marquise von Arcis; Ich kann nicht länger schweigen [FF]. 1962: Bubusch; So toll wie anno dazumal [FF]; 1962: Sie schreiben mit: Fortsetzung folgt; Meine Frau Susanne: Scherben bringen Glück. 1962-65: Jedermannstraße 11 [TVS – 26 episodes]. 1963: Im Tingeltangel tut sich was; Berlin-Melodie; Feuerwerk; Die Nacht am See [FF]; Jack und Jenny [FF]. 1964: Paul Klinger erzählt: Abenteuerliche Geschichten: Das Pilzgericht; Fröhliche Weihnachten wünscht Zaubermeister Merlin; Frau Luna. 1965: Comeback; Annie get your gun; Des Bundesbürgers liebste Wellen; Der Forellenhof: Gäste aus Kanada; Mrs. Cheneys Ende. 1965/66: Bei Pfeiffers ist Ball; Unser Pauker [TVS – 20 episodes]. 1966: Wie lernt man reisen?; 100 Jahre Kurfürstendamm; Schwarzer Peter. 1966/67: Wilhelmina [TVS – 5 episodes]. 1967: Im Ballhaus ist Musike. 1968: Im Ballhaus wird geschwoft; Der Partyphotograph [FF]. 1969/70: Alle Hunde lieben Theobald: Whisky und Wodka; Das Stundenhotel von St. Pauli [FF]. 1970: Der Vetter aus Dingsda; Recht oder Unrecht: Prozeß Mariotti [DE/CH]; Dreißig Silberlinge. 1970/71: Drüben bei Lehmanns [TVS – 26 episodes]; Zwanzig Mädchen und die Pauker: Heute steht die Penne Kopf [FF]; Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1971: Wir hau’n den Hauswirt in die Pfanne [FF]; Semesterferien: Wollen wir wetten? 1972: Hofball bei Zille; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag: Harald und Monika. 1972/73: Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe [FF]. 1973: Sechs unter Millionen [TVS – 13 episodes]; Angst essen Seele auf [FF]; Kleiner Mann, was nun? 1974: Die schwebende Jungfrau; Käpt’n Senkstakes Abenteuer: Ehrenhäuptling der Watubas; Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle [FF]; 1 Berlin-Harlem [FF]; Faustrecht der Freiheit [FF]; Wie ein Vogel auf dem Draht. 1975: Hurra – ein Junge; Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt zum Himmel [FF]; Angst vor der Angst; Der Geheimnisträger [FF]; Jeder stirbt für sich allein [FF]. 1975/76: Die Unternehmungen des Herrn Hans [TVS – 20 episodes]; Satansbraten [FF]. 1976: Anita Drögemöller und die Ruhe an der Ruhr [FF]; Express: Mein Gott, Bottrop!; Chinesisches Roulette / Roulette chinoise [FF – DE/FR]; Adolf und Marlene [FF]. 1976/77: Liebe das Leben, lebe das Lieben [FF]; MS Franziska [TVS – episodes 3-8]. 1977/78: Die Frau gegenüber [FF]. 1977-1991: Drei Damen vom Grill [TVS – 12 seasons – 140 episodes]. 1978: Die beiden Freundinnen; Wann heiraten Sie meine Frau?; Die Geburtstagsfeier; Großstadt-Miniaturen; Unsere kleine Welt; Die Protokolle des Herrn M.: Schlesier-Grete. 1978-87: Locker vom Hocker oder Es bleibt schwierig [TVS]. 1979: Nachbarn und andere nette Menschen; Derrick: Ein Todesengel; Fabian [FF]; Pension Schöller; Leute wie Du und ich; Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt; Primel macht ihr Haus verrückt [FF]. 1979/80: Unsere heile Welt; Freundinnen: Adel verpflichtet nicht; Berlin Alexanderplatz [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1980: Fröhliche Geister; Kein Reihenhaus für Robin Hood [FF]; Das eine Glück und das andere [AT]; Lili Marleen [FF]; … und ab geht die Post! 1980/81: Achtung Zoll: Sonderangebot. 1981: Nach Mitternacht [FF]; Der Alte: Der Gärtner; Satirische Treffpunkte; Georg Thomallas Geschichten: Ein bißchen Hallelujah. 1981/82: Ab in den Süden; Drei gegen Hollywood; Kamikaze 1989 [FF]. 1982: Brigitte und ihr
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Koch [TVS – 1st season]; Auf der Suche nach dem verlorenen Ei; Die Krimistunde. Folge 3; Man müßte Klavier spielen können; Kleine Geschenke erhalten die Freundschaft; Leben im Winter; Die Murmel; Bühnenbild mit Dame. 1982/83: Die wilden Fünfziger [FF]; Das Traumschiff. Folge 8. 1983: Zwei Tote im Sender und Don Carlos im Pogl; So oder so ist das Leben IV; Hinter der Tür; Frauengeschichten: Brigitte Mira [TVD]; Geschichten aus der Heimat. I; Funkes Werkstatt [TVS]. 1983/84: Einmal Ku’damm und zurück. 1984: Brigitte und ihr Koch [TVS – 2nd season]; Sigi, der Straßenfeger [FF]; Levin und Gutman. 1984/85: Die Spur der Anderen. 1985: Ein dreifach’ Hoch … auf 50 Jahre ‘In die Röhre Gucken’; Berliner Weiße mit Schuß II; Zu neuen Ufern: Kreativität oder Das Ei des Kolumbus; Schwarzer Lohn und weiße Weste; Alte Gauner: Die große Prüfung. 1985/86: Unternehmen Köpenick [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1986: La forêt noire [SF – FR]; Tödliche Liebe; Die Krimistunde. Folge 22; Wasser für die Blumen; Was zu beweisen war. 1986-91: Die Wicherts von nebenan. [TVS – 4 seasons – 50 episodes]. 1986/87: Vicky und Nicky; Wartesaal zum kleinen Glück: Haie und ein kleiner Fisch. 1987: Herzlichen Glückwunsch Berlin; Ein Fall für zwei: … zum Tode verurteilt. 1987/88: Im Schatten der Angst. 1988: Ein Fall für zwei: Tödliche Versöhnung; Trouble im Penthouse; Rosamunde [FF]. 1988/89: Der Landarzt: Guter Rat ist teuer; Derrick: Blaue Rose. 1989: Killer kennen keine Furcht; Praxis Bülowbogen [TVS – 2nd season]; Justitias kleine Fische: Besuch der nackten Dame. 1989/90: Spreepiraten [TVS – 26 episodes]; Harald & Eddi [TVS – 4th season]. 1990: Begegnungen. Brigitte Mira im Gespräch mit Paul Burkhalter [TVD]. 1990/91: Gesucht wird Ricki Forster; Eine Dame mit Herz, teils bitter, teils süß …; Zwei Münchner in Hamburg: Liebe Tante Käthe. 1991: Funny Girls: Brigitte Mira [TVD]; Brigitte Mira – Kleine Frau ganz groß [TVD]; Mörderische Entscheidung – Umschalten erwünscht. 1991/92: Geheimakte Lenz. 1992: Ingolf Lücks Sketchsalat [TVS – 2 episodes]; Klippen des Todes; Café Scandal [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1992/93: Die Spur führt ins Verderben. 1992: Gute Zeiten – schlechte Zeiten. 1993: Der Showmaster; Zwei wie Paul und Caroline; Nie wieder Köpenick. 1993/94: Alles Glück dieser Erde [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1994: Briefgeheimnis: Besuch aus England. 1995: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Der goldene Schuß; Kanzlei Bürger: Hühnchen aus Polen; Feuerbach: Schräge Vögel singen nicht. 1996: Das Süße der Fremden; Willi und die Windzors; Drei alte Schachteln in der Bar. 1996/97: Blue Note – A Story of Modern Jazz [DO]. 1997: Zu Gast bei Christiane Herzog [TVD]. 1997-99: Sara Amerika [FF]. 1998: Großstadtrevier: Abrakadabra. 1999: Dr. Sommerfeld – Neues vom Bülowbogen [TVS – 3rd season – 2 episodes]; Der Clown: Mayday. 2000: Ein lasterhaftes Pärchen; ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’ [TVD]. 2000/ 01: Streit um Drei. 2001: Brigitte Mira [TVD]; Aszendent Liebe. 2002: Angst isst Seele auf [SF]. 2004: In aller Freundschaft: Vergesslichkeiten; Idole: Harald Juhnke [TVD]. 2004/05: War’n Sie schon mal in mich verliebt? [DO – DE/AT].
BRUNO MONDI Born September 30, 1903, Schwetz an der Weichsel (Germany, now Swiecie, Poland) Died July 18, 1991, Berlin (Germany) Considered the pioneer of Agfacolor films in Germany, cinematographer Mondi consistently applied his theory of ‘colour dramatisation’ while filming in the early 1940s. His work is characterised by carefully pre-planned schemes and precise execution to convey visual significance. Beginning an apprenticeship with Deutsche Bioscop at age fifteen, Mondi studied at the Institute for cinema technology in Berlin and went on to work as a camera assistant with cinematographer Heinrich Gärtner, who became a close working partner. Shooting mainly light-entertainment films, his first credit as co-cameraman was DIE FRAU MIT DEM ETWAS (The It-Woman, 1925) Mondi’s collaboration on Veit Harlan’s directorial debut KRACH IM HINTERHAUS (Backyard Fights, 1935) marked a turning point in his career, and initiated a close working relationship with the director. Both insisted on a clear plan of action, working out exact details before shooting started, so that the technical aspect was fully harnessed to artistic aims. Together they made elaborate and effective melodramas including the notorious JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940). Mondi’s use of light and colour in Harlan’s melodrama OPFERGANG (Sacrifice, 1942–44) captured the spirit of a decadent bourgeoisie and inadvertently also symbolised the decadence of the last years of Nazi cinema. After the war Mondi began to work for DEFA, who valued his thoughtful, painstaking approach. His black and white post-war films show a strong tendency towards expressionism. In the stark Büchner adaptation WOZZECK (1947) his dizzying, subjective camera angles captured the world from the hero’s disorientated perspective. Returning to colour photography in 1950, Mondi reasserted his position as the leading cinematographer with a series of West German and Austrian productions, most notably the costume romance trilogy SISSI (1955–57), starring Romy Schneider, and based on the life of the 19th century Austrian empress Elisabeth. Mondi’s camera accurately reflected the prevailing aesthetics of the time, as well as proving the perfect visual foil for the intellectual narrow-mindedness and consumerism of post-war Germany. Like many old masters of the cinema, Mondi turned increasingly to television in the 1960s. [co-cam – DE] 1925: Die Frau mit dem Etwas. 1926: Durchlaucht Radieschen. 1927: Die tolle Lola; Der Fürst von Pappenheim; Die Leibeigenen. 1928: Das Girl von der Revue; ‘Song’. Die Liebe eines armen Menschenkindes /
HANS MOSER Show Life [DE/GB]; Die tolle Komtess [DE/GB]. 1929: Ein kleiner Vorschuß auf die Seligkeit [DE/GB]; Wer wird denn weinen, wenn man auseinander geht; Autobus Nr. 2 [cam]; Jennys Bummel durch die Männer [cam]. 1929/ 30: The Flame of Love [MLV – GB/DE]; Hai-Tang. Der Weg zur Schande [MLV – GB/DE]; Hai-Tang [MLV – GB/DE]. 1930: Besuch um Mitternacht [SF – cam]; Zärtlichkeit [MLV – cam – FR]; Der Greifer [MLV – GB/DE]; Night Birds [MLV – GB/DE]; Tingel-Tangel [cam]. 1931: Let’s Love and Laugh [MLV – GB/DE]; Die Bräutigamswitwe [MLV – GB/ DE]; Das Geheimnis der roten Katze [cam]; Trara um Liebe; Der Draufgänger. 1931/32: Holzapfel weiß alles. [cam – DE] 1932: Das Millionentestament; Die unsichtbare Front; Unmögliche Liebe. 1932/33: Salon Dora Green; Heut kommt’s drauf an. 1933: Gruß und Kuß – Veronika!; Heimkehr ins Glück; Drei Kaiserjäger. 1933/34: Ich kenn’ Dich nicht und liebe Dich [MLV]; Toi que j’adore [MLV – DE/FR]; Zigeunerblut. 1934: Der Vetter aus Dingsda; Da stimmt was nicht; Jungfrau gegen Mönch; Hohe Schule [DE/AT]. 1934/35: Frischer Wind aus Kanada [MLV]; Jonny, haute-couture [MLV]. 1935: Nacht der Verwandlung; Pygmalion; … nur ein Komödiant [AT]; Der Student von Prag; Krach im Hinterhaus. 1935/36: Mädchenjahre einer Königin [co-cam]. 1936: Schabernack; Ave Maria; Fridericus; Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser. 1936/37: Gefährliches Spiel. 1937: Die Warschauer Zitadelle; Die Fledermaus; Einmal werd’ ich Dir gefallen [co-cam]. 1937/38: Jugend. 1938: El barbero de Sevilla; Verwehte Spuren; Du und ich. 1938/ 39: Das unsterbliche Herz. 1939: Die Reise nach Tilsit; Pedro soll hängen. 1939/40: Stern von Rio [co-cam]; Falstaff in Wien. 1940: Jud Süß; Bismarck. 1940-42: Der große König. 1941/42: Die goldene Stadt. 1942/43: Immensee. 1942-44: Opfergang. 1943-45: Kolberg. 1947: Wozzeck [DD]. 1947/48: Chemie und Liebe [DD]. 1948: … und wieder 48! [DD]. 1948/49: Rotation [DD]. 1949: Der Biberpelz [DD]; 0 Uhr 15 Zimmer 9. 1950: Das kalte Herz [DD]. 1951: Aus Stein und Erde [SD]; Sensation in San Remo; Die Csardasfürstin. 1952: Pension Schöller. 1952/53: Maske in Blau. 1953: Südliche Nächte; Hab’ ich nur Deine Liebe [AT]. 1954: Mädchen mit Zukunft [cocam]; Gefangene der Liebe [co-cam]; Das sündige Dorf [co-cam]; Mädchenjahre einer Königin [AT]. 1955: Die Deutschmeister [AT]; Krach um Jolanthe; Liebe ist ja nur ein Märchen; Sissi [AT]. 1956: Waldwinter; Opernball [AT]; Sissi, die junge Kaiserin [AT]. 1957: Casino de Paris / Casinò de Paris / Casino de Paris [FR/IT/DE]; Das Schloß in Tirol; Sissi – Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin [AT]; Scampolo. 1958: Der veruntreute Himmel; Das Dreimäderlhaus [CH/AT]. 1959: Unser Wunderland bei Nacht; Ein Mann geht durch die Wand; Alt-Heidelberg. 1960: Der wahre Jacob; Willy, der Privatdetektiv. 1961: Davon träumen alle Mädchen. 1962: Berlin – Impressionen aus einer Weltstadt [SD]; Der Prozess Sokrates [TV]. 1963: Gassenhauer [TV]; Im Tingeltangel tut sich was [TV]. 1963/64: Wartezimmer zum Jenseits. 1964: Letters of Mozart – Briefe Mozarts [SD]; Ein langer Tag [TV]; Liebe auf den zweiten Blick [TV]. 1965/66: Förster Horn [TVS]. 1967: Ein Schloß in Schweden [TV]. 1968: Der Urlaub [TV].
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HANS MOSER (Johann Julier) Born August 6, 1980, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died June 19, 1964, Vienna (Austria) Short, stocky and with a perpetually crumpled face, Moser became one of the best-loved comedians in German-speaking cinema from the 1920s through to the 1960s. He typically portrayed alternately servile and grumpy domestic servants and waiters, as well as irascible minor officials. Near-incomprehensible mumbling, waving arm gestures, and squeaky exclamations were the hallmarks of his eccentric performance style. As Johann Julier, Moser grew up in Vienna where he attended business school and became an accountant. At the same time he took acting lessons with the royal court actor Josef Moser, whose surname he later adopted. In the early 20th century, he toured the provinces with theatre groups, occasionally engaged by theatres in Vienna. During World War I he served as a soldier. Entering cabaret at the end of the war, he began playing character roles in Vienna in 1920. From 1925 he worked with Max Reinhardt at the Josefstadt Theatre. Success soon beckoned in a series of roles, particularly in plays by Nestroy, Schnitzler and Horvath. Moser performed in theatres in Berlin and Vienna, taking part in the Salzburg Festival from 1925–27. Moser began to be cast in film productions from the mid-1920s onwards. Notable among his early supporting parts were his anti-Semitic politician in DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (City Without Jews, 1924), based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer, but on the whole, his early appearances remained unremarked by either the public or the critics. By the early 1930s he gradually turned to film fulltime and only occasionally appeared on stage in Vienna. Initially a secondary foil to other comedians, Moser first made an impression under the direction of Willi Forst as a pawnbroker in the Franz Schubert biopic LEISE FLEHEN MEINE LIEDER (Lover Divine, 1933) and as a gardener in the melodrama MASKERADE (Masquerade, 1934). Subsequently Moser became extremely popular with audiences as the perennially grumpy menial in obligatory uniform, cap, or waiter’s tails in a series of comedies. As a quintessentially Austrian character, he was often teamed up with Northern German actors such as Theo Lingen or Heinz Rühmann, with national rivalries and differences adding to their comic exchanges. After World War II Moser returned to the stage in Salzburg, then in Vienna. He also returned as the irascible grouch in films such as HALLO, DIENSTMANN (Hello, Porter, 1951), Nestroy adaptations, remakes of his earlier films, and other pre-war hits, such as DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends,
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1955). His formerly caustic humour gradually turned into sentimental resignation, and his later films became tragicomedies. Making rare stage appearances in Vienna and Munich during the 1950s, Moser played in the Salzburg Festival production of DER BAUER ALS MILLIONÄR (Farmer as a Millionaire, 1961), documented on film. In his later years Moser was seen more often on television, and found particular acclaim in the production of Ödön von Horvath’s play GESCHICHTEN AUS DEM WIENERWALD (Tales from the Vienna Wood, 1961). [act – AT] 1921: Kleider machen Leute. 1924: Die Stadt ohne Juden; Ssanin / Sanin [AT/PL]. 1925: Das Spielzeug von Paris. 1926: Der Feldherrnhügel [DE/AT]; Schützenliesl [DE]. 1926/27: Die Familie ohne Moral. 1927: Madame wagt einen Seitensprung / Im Hotel ‘Zur süßen Nachtigall’ [DE/AT]. 1928: Spitzenhöschen und Schusterpech / Veterán Votruba [AT/CS]; Der Dienstmann [SF – scr,act – DE]. 1930: Liebling der Götter [DE]; Geld auf der Straße [AT/ DE]. 1931: Der verjüngte Adolar [DE]; Man braucht kein Geld [MLV – DE]; Ehe mit beschränkter Haftung [MLV – DE]. 1932: Der angenehme Patient [SF – co-scr,act – DE]; Der Dienstmann [SF – scr,act – DE]; Der große Trick [SF – DE]; Madame wünscht keine Kinder [MLV – DE/AT]. 1933: Leise flehen meine Lieder / Schuberts unvollendete Symphonie [MLV – AT/DE]; Kurzschluß [SF]; Fuchs auf der Hetzjagd [SF]. 1934: Das hohe C [SF]; Mayer beim Zahnarzt [SF]; Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV – DE]; Karneval und Liebe; Maskerade; Frasquita; Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV – DE]; Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Polenblut [MLV – CS/DE]; Hohe Schule [DE/AT]; Vorstadtvarieté. 1934/35: Die Fahrt in die Jugend; Winternachtstraum [DE]; Der Himmel auf Erden. 1935: Eva; Endstation [DE]; … nur ein Komödiant; Die ganze Welt dreht sich um Liebe; Ein junger Herr aus Oxford (Buchhalter Schnabel); Zirkus Saran; Familie Schimek [DE]. 1935/36: Wer zuletzt küßt …; Confetti. 1936: Schabernack [DE]; Das Gäßchen zum Paradies [MLV – CS/DE]; Hannerl und ihre Liebhaber; Fräulein Veronika / Der Schlaumeier [CH/AT]; Burgtheater. 1936/37: Der Mann, von dem man spricht. 1937: Die glücklichste Ehe der Welt; Mein Sohn, der Herr Minister [DE]; Unentschuldigte Stunde; Die verschwundene Frau; Die Fledermaus [DE]; Mutterlied [MLV – IT/DE]; Solo per te [MLV – IT/DE]. 1937/38: Immer, wenn ich glücklich bin …; Finale; Es leuchten die Sterne [DE]. [act – DE] 1938: 13 Stühle; Kleines Bezirksgericht. 1938/ 39: Liebe – streng verboten!; Menschen vom Varieté [MLV – HU/DE]. 1939: Das Ekel; Anton der Letzte; Opernball; Der ungetreue Eckehart. 1939/40: Wiener G’schichten. 1940: Meine Tochter lebt in Wien; Der Herr im Haus’; Rosen in Tirol; Sieben Jahre Pech. 1940/41: Liebe ist zollfrei. 1941: Wir bitten zum Tanz. 1941/42: Wiener Blut; 7 Jahre Glück [MLV – IT/DE]; Maske in Blau; Sette anni di felicità [MLV – IT/DE]. 1942: Einmal der liebe Herrgott sein; Karneval der Liebe. 1942/43: Dove andiamo, Signora? [MLV – IT]; Abenteuer im Grand-Hotel. Vergiß, wenn Du kannst [MLV]; Das Ferienkind. 1943: Reisebekanntschaft;
Schwarz auf Weiß. 1943/44: Schrammeln. 1944/45: Wiener Mädeln; Geld ins Haus (Der Millionär [1950]). [act – AT] 1946: XIV. Renée [HU]. 1946/47: Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt. 1947: Das singende Haus; Der Hofrat Geiger. 1948: Der Herr Kanzleirat. 1949: Um eine Nasenlänge [DE]; 1-2-3 Aus! 1950: State Secret [GB]; Küssen ist keine Sünd’ [DE/AT]; Der Theodor im Fußballtor [DE/AT]; Es schlägt 13!; Es liegt was in der Luft [MLV – CH]. 1951: Zwei in einem Auto; Hallo, Dienstmann. 1952: Schäm’ Dich, Brigitte!; 1. April 2000; Du bist die Rose vom Wörthersee [DE]; Der Onkel aus Amerika [DE]. 1953: Einmal keine Sorgen haben / Einen Jux will er sich machen [DE/AT]; Hollandmädel [DE]. 1954: Kaisermanöver; Verliebter Sommer. 1954/55: Ehesanatorium. 1955: Die Deutschmeister; Der Kongreß tanzt; Ja, ja, die Liebe in Tirol [DE]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle / Le chemin du paradis [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955/56: Symphonie in Gold; Ein Herz und eine Seele. 1956: Lumpazivagabundus [DE]; Meine Tante – Deine Tante [DE]; Opernball; Kaiserball; Solange noch die Rosen blüh’n [DE]; Roter Mohn. 1957: Ober, zahlen!; Vier Mädels aus der Wachau; Die unentschuldigte Stunde; Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal [DE]; Die Lindenwirtin vom Donaustrand; Heute blau und morgen blau [DE]. 1957/58: Liebelei [TV – DE]. 1958: Hallo, Taxi; Zirkuskinder; Ooh … diese Ferien; Der Sündenbock von Spatzenhausen [DE]; Gräfin Mariza [DE]. 1958/59: Herrn Josefs letzte Liebe [coscr,act – DE]. 1959: Die schöne Lügnerin / La belle et l’Empereur [DE/FR]. 1961: Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald [TV]; … und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier; Mariandl; Höllenangst [TV]; Der Bauer als Millionär. 1961/62: Die Fledermaus; Kaiser Joseph und die Bahnwärterstochter [TV]; Der verkaufte Großvater [DE]. 1962: Drei Liebesbriefe aus Tirol; Mariandls Heimkehr; Leutnant Gustl [TV]. 1963: So schön wie heut’ [TV – DE]. 1964: Die bess’ren älteren Herren [TVD].
ARMIN MUELLER-STAHL Born December 17, 1930, Tilsit (East Prussia, now Sowetsk, Russia) A respected film and TV actor in the GDR, MuellerStahl moved to West Germany after falling foul of the East German authorities. His career continued to prosper and expanded into the international arena, his reputation confirmed by an Oscar nomination for his role in SHINE (1995/96). Qualified as a music teacher in 1949, Mueller-Stahl studied acting for a year, but was expelled for an apparent lack of talent. He nevertheless appeared on stage in East Berlin, including at the Volksbühne 1954, often in classical plays. From the mid-1950s he acted in DEFA productions and on television, attracting attention in the TV film FLUCHT AUS DER HÖLLE (Escape from Hell, 1959/ 60) and gaining great popularity on television as a communist James Bond in the series DAS UNSICHTBARE VISIER (The Invisible Visor, 1972–77). Demonstrating versatility, Mueller-Stahl played a range of film roles, winning acclaim for his portrayal
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of a blind violinist in DER DRITTE (The Third, 1971). Maintaining his musical talents, he also wrote and performed chansons. After he publicly denounced the expatriation of the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann in 1977, MuellerStahl was blacklisted by the authorities. As working opportunities dried up, he left the GDR for the West in 1980. His West German breakthrough came with a memorable leading role in Fassbinder’s LOLA (1981), as a repressed official in a small West German town during the 1950s who is seduced by a prostitute. He subsequently had a supporting part in Fassbinder’s DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (Veronika Voss, 1981/82). Mueller-Stahl quickly branched out into international productions, playing a war criminal in CostaGavras’s MUSIC BOX (1989), a Jewish patriarch in AVALON (1990) and an East German cab driver in New York in Jim Jarmusch’s NIGHT ON EARTH (1991). GESPRÄCH MIT DEM BIEST (Conversation With the Beast, 1996) marked his debut as a director and writer. Following his Oscar nomination as the troubled hero’s autocratic father in SHINE (1995/96), Mueller-Stahl became a frequent presence in Hollywood productions, ranging from blockbusters, such as THE PEACEMAKER (1997), THE X FILES (1998), and MISSION TO MARS (1999/2000) to Peter Kassowitz’ Holocaust tragicomedy JAKOB THE LIAR (1997/98), the remake of an East German film made in 1974, in which Mueller-Stahl appeared as well. Commuting between the United States and Europe, and between film, television, and stage appearances, Mueller-Stahl portrayed the author Thomas Mann in Heinrich Breloer’s mini-series DIE MANNS – EIN JAHRHUNDERTROMAN (The Manns – Novel of a Century, 2000/01) as well as the family’s head Johann Buddenbrook in Dr. Breloer’s adaptation of Mann’s novel BUDDENBROOKS (2007/08). He was a recurring guest star, as the Israeli prime minister, in the American television drama series THE WEST WING (2003–04). In EASTERN PROMISES (2006/07), David Cronenberg’s atmospheric gangster drama set in London’s underworld, Mueller-Stahl played the superficially jovial patriarch of a Russian crime syndicate. Mueller-Stahl’s reflections on his life and works form the basis of three novels ‘Verordneter Sonntag’ (Sunday by decree), ‘Drehtage’ (Shooting days) and ‘Unterwegs nach Hause’ (On the way home, 1996). In the new century he concentrated on his old love, painting. [act – DD] 1955: Heimliche Ehen. 1955/56: Der Querkopf [SF]. 1958: Rose Bernd [TV]; Begegnung in Prag [TV]. 1959: Wenn die Nacht kein Ende nimmt [TV]; Ich selbst und kein Engel [TV]; Beton [TV]; Der Marquis von Keith [TV]; Die grüne Mappe [TV]. 1959/60: Flucht aus der Hölle
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[TV]; Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1960: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen [TV]. 1961: Achtung – 8 x aufgeblendet. 1961/62: Königskinder; … und Deine Liebe auch. 1962: Die letzte Chance [TV]; Das Mädchen ohne Mitgift [TV]; Monolog für einen Taxifahrer [TV – voi]; Nackt unter Wölfen. 1963: Christine; Rauhreif [TV]; Der andere neben dir [TV]; Preludio 11 [DD/CU]. 1964: Rose Bernd [TV]; Alaskafüchse. 1964/65: Wolf unter Wölfen [TV]. 1966: Columbus 64 [TV]; Emilia Galotti [TV]. 1966/67: Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz. 1968: Wege übers Land [TV]. 1969: Die Dame aus Genua [TV]; Tödlicher Irrtum. 1970: Kein Mann für Camp Detrick [TV]. 1971: Arzt wider Willen [TV]; Die Verschworenen [TV]; Weil es mir Spaß macht [SD – app,sng]; Der Dritte. 1971/72: Januskopf. 1972/73: Den Wolken ein Stück näher [TV]; Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita [TV]; Die Hosen des Ritters von Bredow; Stülpner-Legende [TV]. 1972-77: Das unsichtbare Visier [TVS – 9 episodes]. 1973/ 74: Die eigene Haut [TV]. 1974: Kit & Co; Jakob der Lügner. 1975/76: Nelken in Aspik; Die Lindstedts [TVS – episode 6]. 1976/77: Die Flucht. 1978: Geschlossene Gesellschaft [TV]. [act – DE] 1980: Die längste Sekunde [TV]; Ich möchte fliehen [TV]. 1980/81: Die Emigranten [TV]; Ich werde warten [TV]. 1981: Lola; Sonderdezernat K 1: Die Rache eines V-Mannes [TV]; Collin [TV]; Eugenie Marlitt und die Gartenlaube [TV]. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss; Der Westen leuchtet!; Wohin und zurück: An uns glaubt Gott nicht mehr [TV – AT]. 1982: Die Flügel der Nacht; Flucht aus Pommern. Schicksale im Kriegswinter 1944/45 [TV]; Ruhe sanft, Bruno [TV]; L’Homme blessé [FR]. 1982/ 83: Viadukt / Der Fall Sylvester Matuska. Geschichte eines Eisenbahnattentäters / Sylvester Syndrome [HU/DE/ US]; Un dimanche de flics / Zwei Profis steigen aus [FR/ DE]. 1982-84: Trauma. 1983: Glut [CH/DE]; Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [DE/FR]; Tatort: Freiwild [TV]; Rita Ritter. 1983/84: Tausend Augen; Die Mitläufer [DO]. 1984: Ein Fall für zwei: Morgengrauen [TV]; Derrick: Stellen Sie sich vor, man hat Dr. Prestel erschossen [TV]; Redl ezredes / Oberst Redl [HU/DE/AT]; Vergeßt Mozart / Zabudnite na Mozarta [DE/CS]; Gauner im Paradies [TV]. 1984/85: Bittere Ernte; Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit. 1985: Hautnah [TV]; Unser Mann im Dschungel. 1985/86: Auf den Tag genau [TV]; Momo [DE/IT]. 1986: Abenteuer in Bangkok [TV]; Franza [TV – AT]. 1986/87: Amerika [TV – US]; Der Joker. 198689: Das Spinnennetz [DE/AT/IT/CS]; Schauplatz ‘Spinnennetz’ [TVD – app]. 1987: Wortwechsel: Armin MuellerStahl [TVD – app]; Sonntagsgespräch: Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; Jokehnen oder Wie lange fährt man von Ostpreußen nach Deutschland? [TV]; Georges Simenon: Die grünen Fensterläden [TV – AT]. 1988: Deutsche: Armin Mueller-Stahl im Gespräch mit Günter Gaus [TVD – app]; Tagebuch für einen Mörder [TV]; Killing Blue. 1988/ 89: Schweinegeld. Ein Märchen der Gebrüder Nimm; Bernhard Wicki: Regisseur [TVD – app]. 1989: Le Gorille se mange froid / Der Gorilla und der Berliner Kongreß [TV – FR/DE]; A hecc [HU/DE]; Music Box [US]. 1990: Avalon [US]. 1990/91: Bronsteins Kinder. 1991: Kafka [US/FR]; Vom ‘Verordneten Sonntag’ zum amerikanischen Traum [TVD – app]; Night on Earth [US/FR/DE/GB/JP]. 1991/92:
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Utz [GB/IT/DE]; The Power of One / Im Glanz der Sonne / La Puissance de l’ange [US/DE/FR]. 1992: Loin de Berlin / Far from Berlin [FR/DE]. 1992/93: Der Kinoerzähler. 1992-94: Taxandria [BE/DE/FR]. 1993: Red Hot [CA]; Europäische Profile: Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; Ich stelle mich: Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; Das Geisterhaus / Åndernes Hus / A casa dos espíritos [DE/DK/PT]. 1993/94: Rotwang muß weg! [voi]. 1994: Holy Matrimony [US]; Theodore Rex [US]. 1994/95: A Pyromaniac’s Love Story [US]. 1995: The Last Good Time [US]. 1995/96: Der Unhold / Le roi des aulnes / The Ogre [DE/FR/GB]; Shine [AU/ GB]. 1996: Armin Mueller-Stahl – … jetzt ist Sonntag angesagt [TVD – app]; DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]; Gespräch mit dem Biest / Conversation with the Beast [dir,scr,act – DE/US]; In the Presence of Mine Enemies [US]. 1996/97: The Game [US]. 1997: 12 Angry Men [US]; The Assistant [CA]; The Peacemaker [US]. 1997/98: The Commissioner / The Commissioner – Im Zentrum der Macht / Le commissaire [GB/DE/BE/US]; Jakob the Liar [US]; Tanger – Legende einer Stadt / Tangier – Legende d’une ville / Tangier – Legend of a City [DO – DE/FR/US]. 1998: The X Files. The Movie [US]. 1998/99: Pilgrim / Inferno [TV – CA/US/MX]; The Thirteenth Floor / The 13th Floor – Bist du was du denkst? [US/DE]; The Third Miracle [US]. 1999: La Bibbia: Gesu / The Bible: Jesus / Die Bibel: Jesus [TV – IT/US/DE]. 1999/2000: Mission To Mars [US]. 2000: Leben als Abenteuer: Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; The Long Run [ZA]. 2000/2001: Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman [TV]. 2001: Unterwegs zur Familie Mann [TVD – app]; Geiger, Gaukler, Gentleman – Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; Armin Mueller-Stahl – Das Leben ist kein Film [TVD – app]; Drehtage [TVD – app]; Crociati / Die Kreuzritter [TV – IT/DE]. 2002: Zweite Heimat Hollywood – Armin Mueller-Stahl über die Blickrichtung von innen nach außen [TVD – app]. 2003-04: The West Wing. [TVS – 4 episodes – US]. 2004: The Story of an African Farm [ZA]; Mein Leben – Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; The Dust Factory [US]; Die Macht des Wissens [TVS – 6 episodes – host]. 2005/06: Where Love Reigns [GB/CA/ ZA]; Local Color [US]; Ich bin die Andere; Armin Mueller-Stahl. Aus dem Leben eines Gauklers [TVD – app]. 2006/07: Der rote Elvis [DO – app]; Eastern Promises [GB/CA/US]; Leningrad [RU]. 2007/08: Buddenbrooks; Dmitri Schostakowitsch – Dem kühlen Morgen entgegen [DO – app]; The International [US/DE]. 2008: Deutschland, deine Künstler – Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]; Gero von Boehm begegnet … Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]. 2008/09: Die Treuhänderin – Frau und Macht [TV]; Angels & Demons [US].
ULRICH MÜHE (Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe) Born June 20, 1953, Grimma (East Germany) Died July 22, 2007, Walbeck (Germany) Originally a stage actor in the GDR, Ulrich Mühe became better known through his roles in TV versions of classical plays. After unification he emerged as one of Germany’s most significant actors, typically
portraying intellectually and emotionally intense individuals. Educated in Grimma and trained as a builder, Mühe studied at the Hans Otto drama school in Leipzig in 1975 after completing his military service. First playing walk-on and smaller parts, he was engaged by the State Theatre in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz) in 1979, before giving guest performances in Berlin. By 1983 he rose to become the star of the ensemble at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Under the direction of Piet Drescher he played in many TV productions of plays such as ‘Macbeth’ and Goethe’s ‘Faust’. His first minor film roles were for DEFA, including OLLE HENRY (Ol’ Henry, 1982/83) set in the postwar reconstruction period. He portrayed the troubled poet Hölderlin in HÄLFTE DES LEBENS (Half of Life, 1984). In an experimental biopic of the 19th century playwright and poet Georg Büchner, LIEB GEORG (Dear George, 1988), Mühe gave an impressive performance, capturing the poet’s tormented psychology. Playing the lead as the ambitious careerist Theodor Lohse, a human chameleon, Mühe gained major recognition with Bernhard Wicki’s DAS SPINNENNETZ (The Spider’s Web, 1986–89), an adaptation of Joseph Roth’s novel. Other historical parts included his roles in the TV films DAS LETZTE U-BOOT (The Last UBoat, 1992/93) and ENDE DER UNSCHULD (End of Innocence, 1990/91), both dealing with Germany’s problems with the Nazi past. BENNY’S VIDEO (1992) marked Mühe’s first collaboration with director Michael Haneke. The two worked together again in 1996 on the controversial FUNNY GAMES, where Mühe portrayed a liberal family man terrorised in his own house by a gang of homicidal youths; and on the television adaptation of Franz Kafka’s DAS SCHLOSS with Mühe as the haunted anti-hero. His partner in those (as well as others) was his third wife, actress Susanne Lothar (b. 1960). Mühe proved equally adept at lighter fare. Particularly popular were his role in the family comedy RENNSCHWEIN RUDI RÜSSEL (Rudy the Racing Pig, 1994/95) as a clueless Egyptologist whose family adopt a pet pig; in the dual role of Nazi minister Goebbels and his Jewish double in Kai Wessel’s historical farce GOEBBELS UND GEDULDIG (Goebbels & Geduldig, 2000/01); and as Hitler’s Jewish acting teacher in Dany Levy’s MEIN FÜHRER (My Führer, 2005/06). Mühe regularly contributed to popular TV series such as ROSA ROTH, TATORT (Crime Scene), and SISKA, and starred as pathologist Dr. Robert Kolmaar in DER LETZTE ZEUGE (The Last Witness, 1996–2007) for which he received a German Television Award. He acted in TV dramas, notably as West German politician Günter Gaus in a dramatisation of the last
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days of Willy Brandt’s chancellorship, IM SCHATTEN DER MACHT (In the Shadow of Power, 2003). Next came the role that brought Mühe worldwide recognition, the haunted Stasi agent who gets drawn into the lives of a couple he is supposed to investigate, in Florian Henckel-Donnersmarck’s Oscar-winning thriller DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN (The Lives of Others, 2004/05). Mühe’s reserved, yet emotionally powerful performance gained him a German Film Award as well as a European Film Award. In a tragic case of life imitating art, Mühe accused his second wife, actress Jenny Gröllmann (1947–2006) in an interview of having spied on him for the Stasi during their marriage in the 1980s. Gröllmann denied this and instigated legal proceedings against her former husband. Both already gravely ill, they died of cancer within twelve months of each other. Their daughter Anna Maria Mühe (b. 1985) has also become a successful actress. [act – DD – TV] 1969: Nathan der Weise. 1978: Macbeth. 1981: Kabale und Liebe; Faust I. 1982/83: Der Mann und sein Name; Olle Henry [FF]. 1983: Gespenster; Faust II. 1983/84: Die Poggenpuhls. 1984: Die Frau und der Fremde [FF]; Hälfte des Lebens [FF]. 1984/85: Die dritte Frau. 1985/86: Das Buschgespenst. 1985-87: Sansibar oder Der letzte Grund [DE/CH]. 1986: Der Snob. 1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [FF – DE/AT/IT/CS]; Schauplatz ‘Spinnennetz’ [TVD – app]. 1987: Die erste Reihe. 1987/88: Späte Ankunft. 1987-89: Nadine, meine Liebe; Die gläserne Fackel [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1988: Lieb Georg. Das kurze Leben des Georg Büchner; Polizeiruf 110: Flüssige Waffe; Ich bin klein – aber wichtig [TVD – voi]. 1988/89: Bernhard Wicki: Regisseur [TVD – app]. 1989: Prinz Friedrich von Homburg; Egmont; Imago [SF]; Sehnsucht [FF]. 1989/90: Nathan der Weise; Philotas; Hard Days, Hard Nights [FF – DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1990: Rönnes Reise [SF]; Die Zeit ist aus den Fugen [DO – app]; Der kleine Herr Friedemann. 1990/91: Ende der Unschuld. 1991: Die Jüdin von Toledo; Jugend ohne Gott. 1991/92: Schtonk! [FF]. 1992: Benny’s Video [FF – AT/CH]; Das tödliche Auge; Wehner – Die unerzählte Geschichte. 1992/93: Das letzte U-Boot. 1993: Neues Deutschland: Heilige Kühe; Extralarge: Diamonds / Zwei Supertypen in Miami – Heiße Diamanten [IT/DE]. 1993/ 94: Der Blaue [FF]; Auf der anderen Seite des Himmels. Der Schauspieler Ulrich Mühe [TVD – app]. 1994: Geschäfte [AT]. 1994/95: Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel [FF]; … nächste Woche ist Frieden. 1995: Nikolaikirche; Rosa Roth: Lügen; Nadja – Heimkehr in die Fremde; Peanuts – Die Bank zahlt alles. 1995/96: Tödliches Schweigen; Tatort: Die Abrechnung [CH]. 1996: Zwischentöne: Ulrich Mühe [TVD – app]; Engelchen [FF]; Das Schloß [AT]; Funny Games [FF – AT]. 1996-2007: Der letzte Zeuge [TVS – 73 episodes]. 1997: Sterben ist gesünder. 1997/98: Feuerreiter / Hölderlin, le cavalier de feu / Ognisty jedziec [FF – DE/ FR/PL]. 1998: Straight Shooter [FF]; 36 Stunden Angst – Ein Vater kämpft um sein Kind; Siska: Tod einer Würfelspielerin; Todesengel. 1999: Tatort: Traumhaus; Einfach raus. 2000/01: Goebbels und Geduldig. 2001: Drei Mal
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Leben [AT]; Yasmina Reza – Dreimal Leben. 2001/02: Amen [FF – FR]. 2002: Friedrich Gulda – So What?! [DO – voi – AT]. 2002/03: Im Schatten der Macht. 2003: Die Bühnenrepublik: Theater in der DDR [TVD – voi]; Spy Sorge / Richard Sorge – Spion aus Leidenschaft [JP/DE]; hamlet X; Alles Samba. 2003/04: Hunger auf Leben; Schneeland [FF]. 2004: Der Auftrag – Erinnerung an eine Revolution [dir]; Abgeschminkt: Ulrich Mühe [TVD – app]. 2004/05: Das Leben der Anderen [FF]. 2005/06: Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler [FF]. 2006: Das Geheimnis von St. Ambrose; Peer Gynt [FF]. 2006-08: Nemesis [FF]. 2007: Verwehte [SF]. 2007/08: ‘Jetzt bin ich allein’. Der Schauspieler Ulrich Mühe [TVD – app].
RENATE MÜLLER Born April 26, 1906, Munich (Germany) Died October 10, 1937, Berlin (Germany) One of the most vivacious and popular stars of the early 1930s, Renate Müller enchanted audiences across Europe with her down-to-earth charm in a string of sophisticated comedies and musicals. Her early death brought an abrupt end to a brief but dazzling career. Growing up in Bavaria, Müller moved to Berlin with her family in 1924. After taking singing lessons, she attended drama classes at the Max Reinhardt School, where film director G. W. Pabst was her teacher. She then gave stage performances in Thale/Harz and in Berlin. Encouraged by director-actor Reinhold Schünzel, Müller embarked on a film career in the late 1920s. Among her early appearances was as boxer Max Schmeling’s fiancée in LIEBE IM RING (Love in the Ring, 1929/30), which was shot as a silent film and afterwards synchronised with sound. As early sound films often used musical interludes, Müller’s training as a singer soon proved to be productive. Her song ‘Ich bin ja heut’ so glücklich’ (I’m so happy today) from DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (The Private Secretary, 1930) became a hit. She repeated that role in the French and English versions as well: DACTYLO (1930) and SUNSHINE SUSIE (1931). Over the next years, Müller became closely associated with Schünzel, acting in eight light ironic comedy films under his direction. The most notable results of their collaboration were the classic VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1933) in which she plays a young soprano who pretends to be a female impersonator in order to obtain employment, and DIE ENGLISCHE HEIRAT (The English Wedding, 1934) where she was cast as a confident and independent woman who leaves her disappointing husband. In Gustav Ucicky’s Prussian heritage costume drama DAS FLÖTENKONZERT VON SANSSOUCI (The Flute Concert at Sanssouci, 1930), meanwhile, she
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added a much-needed note of frivolity to the film’s overall reverent tone, flirting seductively with Theo Lingen. One of her last appearances was in Willi Forst’s sophisticated comedy ALLOTRIA (1936), where she acted alongside Adolf Wohlbrück, Heinz Rühmann, and Jenny Jugo. From 1934 onwards Müller reduced her film work due to ill health. This sparked persistent rumours at the time and afterwards of the actress having fallen out of favour with the Nazi regime, owing to her relationship with a Jewish émigré. When she died in a Berlin sanatorium, ostensible of a cerebral haemorrhage, suspicions were raised concerning a possible suicide or murder, allegations that were always denied by Müller’s family. During World War II, Allied propaganda used the persisting popularity of Müller in a series of strategically placed rumours that painted her as Hitler’s lover. Müller’s short life was the subject for Artur Brauner’s production LIEBLING DER GÖTTER (Sweetheart of the Gods, 1960) starring Ruth Leuwerik as Müller. [act – DE] 1929: Peter, der Matrose; Teure Heimat; Revolte im Erziehungshaus. 1929/30: Liebe im Ring. 1930: Der Sohn der weißen Berge [MLV]; Liebling der Götter; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci; Die Privatsekretärin [MLV]; Dactylo [MLV]; Liebeslied [MLV – IT]. 1930/1931: Sturm im Wasserglas / Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau [AT/DE]. 1931: Der kleine Seitensprung [MLV]; Sunshine Susie [MLV – GB]. 1932: Mädchen zum Heiraten [MLV]; Marry Me [MLV – GB]; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann?; Wenn die Liebe Mode macht. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV]. 1934: Die englische Heirat. 1935: Liselotte von der Pfalz. Frauen um den Sonnenkönig; Liebesleute. 1936: Allotria; Eskapade. Seine offizielle Frau. 1936/1937: Togger. 1940: Der Trichter Nr. 10 [SF].
berg (1932–1999), one of the leading cameramen of the New German Cinema. Müller’s meeting with director Wim Wenders initiated a long-standing professional association; indeed Müller’s approach had a direct influence on the development of Wenders’s film style. Highlights of their collaboration include FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (Wrong Move, 1974/75), and PARIS, TEXAS (1983/84). Müller also shot DIE LINKSHÄNDIGE FRAU (The Left-Handed Woman, 1977) for Peter Handke and won awards for his camerawork on Peter Stein’s claustrophobic TV film KLASSEN-FEIND (Class Enemy, 1982). Following Peter Bogdanovich’s US production SAINT JACK (1978), Müller found a new long-term associate in the independent director Jim Jarmusch. His expressive black and white photography for DOWN BY LAW (1986), the colourful fantasy images in MYSTERY TRAIN (1989) and again atmospheric black and white for the punk-Western DEAD MAN (1995) helped the director achieve cult status. As well as working alongside Wenders again in the 1990s (e.g. on the latter’s acclaimed documentary BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, 1998), Müller filmed for a host of international directors including Andrzej Wajda on the Holocaust drama KORCZAK (1989/90), Lars von Trier on BREAKING THE WAVES (1996) and DANCER IN THE DARK (2000), Sally Potter on THE TANGO LESSON (1997) and Michael Winterbottom on 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (2001/02). After an apparent fallout with Wenders that he hinted at in VON EINEM DER AUSZOG (One Who Set Forth, 2005–07), a documentary about Wenders’s early years, Müller shot a number of publicity films and worked as a consultant in a ‘Masterclass’ of the Rutger Hauer Film Factory in Rotterdam.
ROBBY MÜLLER (Robert Müller) Born April 4, 1940, Willemstad, Curaçao (Dutch Antilles) Born to Dutch parents, cinematographer Müller established his reputation on high profile releases of the New German Cinema in the 1970s and 1980s. Known for his commitment to a realist style, he typically avoids tricks, special filters or excess equipment in favour of an aesthetic of immediacy, authenticity, and rawness. As a child Müller travelled worldwide with his family and learnt to use a camera from his father, who worked for an oil company. He graduated from school in Amsterdam, completed military service and studied at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam from 1962 to 1964. He debuted with short films made with fellow students, before becoming assistant to Gerard Vanden-
[cam – NL] 1963: Megapolis I [SF – cam,act]; Vogel [SF]. 1964: De lengte van een ster [SF]. 1965: Een zondag op het eiland van de Grande-Jatte [SF – ass-cam]. 1966: Aah … Tamara [SF – co-cam]; Een ochtend van zes weken [ass-cam]; Eiland [SF]; Het gangstermeisje [ass-cam]. 1967: Bacher [SF]; Norwegian Wood [SF]; Toets [SF]; Der Fall Lena Christ [TV – DE]. 1967/68: Liebe und so weiter [TV – ass-cam – DE]. 1968: Don’t Miss, Miss Pizz [SF]; Objectief gezien [SF]; To Grab the Ring [ass-cam]. 1968/69: Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame [ass-cam – DE]; Alabama: 2000 Light Years [SF]. 1969: 11.50 from Zurich [SF – asscam]; She Is Like a Rainbow; Jonathan [DE]. [cam – DE] 1969/70: Die Anpassung [TV]. 1969-71: Summer in the City. Dedicated to the Kinks. 1970: Frankenstein cum Cannabis [SF – NL]; Pakbo [TV]; Eine Rose für Jane [TV]. 1970/71: Carlos [TV]. 1971: He bezoek [SF – NL]; Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter [DE/AT]. 1971/72: Can [DO]. 1972: Marie [TV]. 1972/73: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe / La lettera scarlatta [DE/ES]. 1973: Die Reise nach Wien; Die Eltern [TV]. 1973/74: Alice in den Städten; Perahim – die zweite Chance [TV]. 1974: Ein bißchen Liebe;
KARLHEINZ MUND Wandas Paradies [TV]. 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung. 1975: Nathalie; Das Double [TV]; Es herrscht Ruhe im Land [cocam – DE/AT]; Im Lauf der Zeit. 1976: Die Wildente [DE/ AT]. 1976/77: Der amerikanische Freund / L’Ami américain [DE/FR]. 1977: Atavar. The Return of the Wolf [NL]; Die linkshändige Frau; Das Ende einer Karriere [TV]. 1977/78: Die gläserne Zelle. 1978: Mysteries [NL]; Saint Jack [cam, app – US]. 1979: Entree Bruxelles [SF – NL]; Striptease [TV – NL]; Opname [NL]. 1980: Honeysuckle Rose [US]. 1980/ 81: They All Laughed [US]. 1981: Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [co-cam – DE/FR/IT]. 1982: Een zwoele Zomeravond [NL]; KlassenFeind. 1982/83: Les îles / Die Inseln [FR/DE]; Un dimanche de flics / Zwei Profis steigen aus [FR/DE]. 1983/84: Les tricheurs / Die Spieler / Os Batoteiros [cam,act – FR/DE/ PT]; Paris, Texas [DE/FR]. [cam – US] 1984: Finnegan, Begin Again [TV]; Repo Man; Body Rock. 1985: The Longshot; To Live and Die in L.A.; Fool for Love. 1986: The Believers; Down By Law; Coffee and Cigarettes [SF]. 1987: Barfly. 1988/89: Aufzeichnungen zu Kleidern und Städten [DO – DE]. 1989: Il piccolo diavolo [IT]; Mystery Train; Motion and Emotion. The Films of Wim Wenders [TVD – app – GB]. 1989/90: Korczak / Korczak [PL/DE]. 1990: Red Hot & Blue: Night and Day [GB/US/DE/FR]. 1990/91: Bis ans Ende der Welt / Jusqu’au bout du monde / Until the End of the World [DE/FR/AU]. 1992/93: Mad Dog and Glory. 1992-94: When Pigs Fly [NL/US]. 1993: De Domeinen Ditvoorst [DO – act – NL]. 1994/95: Hoogste tijd [NL]. 1995: Dead Man; Par-delà les nuages / Al di là delle nuvole / Jenseits der Wolken [FR/IT/ DE]. 1996: Breaking the Waves [DK]. 1997: The Tango Lesson [GB]. 1998: Shattered Image [FR/GB]; Buena Vista Social Club [DO – co-cam – DE/US/CU]. 1998/99: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [US/FR]. 2000: Dancer in the Dark [DK/SE/FI/FR/US]. 2000/2001: My Brother Tom [GB/DE]. 2000-02: Poem – Ich setzte den Fuß in die Luft und sie trug [3 episodes – DE]. 2001/02: 24 Hour Party People [GB]. 2004: Visions of Europe: Prologue [co-cam – DE]; Nach grauen Tagen [SF – DE]. 2005-07: Von einem der auszog – Wim Wenders’ frühe Jahre [DO – app – DE]. 2007: Night Shift [SF – consultant].
KARLHEINZ MUND Born September 11, 1937, Eberswalde (Germany) A writer and director of documentaries for East Germany’s DEFA, Mund’s realistic films were often considered over-critical by authorities in the GDR. His main themes included studies of unusual, unknown artists, international socialist solidarity, everyday life in the Soviet Union and the education of vulnerable groups. Born into a working-class family, Mund undertook an apprenticeship as a mechanic before completing his schooling in Berlin. Beginning his long involvement with DEFA’s studio for news and documentaries as a lighting assistant in 1958, Mund became a director in 1963. The interim years were spent studying at the Film Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg.
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His diploma film 15000 VOLT (1963) dealt with railway workers on the line between Leipzig and Halle. At the graduation screenings the film was not shown in its entirety because of a controversial final sequence that used Wolf Biermann’s song ‘Frühjahrslied der Eisenbahnerin’ (Spring Song of a Railworker). Twenty years later, Mund returned to this work, developing the heroine’s story with a disabled son in EISENBAHNERFAMILIE (Railway Family, 1983.) HARLEKIN, PANTALONE UND WIR (Harlekin, Pantalone and Us, 1964) was Mund’s directorial debut. This was the first of many films made by Mund which dealt with the creativity of unknown or forgotten people, such as Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht’s companion in DIE MIT-ARBEITERIN (The Co-Worker, 1972) or Pierre de Geyter, a woodcutter and amateur composer of the ‘Internationale’ in DE GEYTER – GESCHICHTE EINES LIEDES (De Geyter – Story of a Song, 1978). Mund’s second film CANTO DE FÉ (Song of Hope, 1965) began a series of films promoting solidarity with socialist workers and examining the situation of foreign workers in East Germany. MEMENTO (1966) was shown only in an abridged version because scenes of a dilapidated Jewish graveyard were thought to present the state in a negative light. Similarly EINE SOMMERREISE (A Summer Trip, 1968) was radically cut and altered due to possibility that audiences could draw parallels between the story of German troops attacking the Ukraine and the recent invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. Among Mund’s films pleading for a more creative and caring education for disabled children SIE BRAUCHEN UNS – BEOBACHTUNGEN IN EINER HILFSSCHULE (They Need Us – Observations in a Special
School, 1981) was withheld from distribution because of its uncomplimentary picture of state schools. Although PROBLEME AM LAUFENDEN BAND (Problems on the Production Line, 1987–89), articulating worker’s anger over bad management at the motor works in Nordhausen, reached the cinema, the follow-up was banned because of its critical stance. After the unification of Germany Mund continued to make documentaries, now frequently concerned with aspects of German history, and based on eyewitness accounts. After the end of DEFA he worked as a freelance writer and director. [SD – dir,co-scr – DD] 1963: 15000 Volt [dir,scr]; Brüder und Schwestern [DO – ass-dir]; Kampf um Deutschland [DO – ass-dir]. 1964: Hüben und drüben [DO – ass-dir]; Harlekin, Pantalone und wir. 1965: Nur ein Viertelstündchen [ass-dir]; Z [co-scr]; Wir verstehen uns [co.scr]; Canto de Fé [TVD]. 1966: Memento; RBI – Radio Berlin International; Helft Vietnam. 1967: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. 1967/68: Die VI. Deutsche Kunstausstellung. 1968: Der Blumengarten; DDR-Magazin Nr. 40 – Brecht-Dialog [dir]; Eine
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Sommerreise [co-dir,co-scr]. 1969: Seilfahrt 69. 1969/70: Oxi – Nein. 1970: Otto Nagel 1894-1967; Leute vom Lande. 1971: Faxenmacher; Theodor Fontane: Wanderungen durch die Mark [DO]. 1972: Die Mit-Arbeiterin. Gespräche mit Elisabeth Hauptmann [TVD]. 1973: Mein Freund Genek; Physiker in Wroclaw. 1974: Weggefährten. Begegnungen im 25. Jahr der DDR [DO – co-dir]; Von allerhandSlag Lüüd [dir,scr]. 1975: An Ob und Irtysch; Nordzuschlag – Sibirische Charaktere. 1976: WML – Steiger oder Maler; Köchin in der Taiga [dir,scr]; In Sibirien [dir,scr]; Jenseits der großen Erde. 1978: De Geyter – Geschichte eines Liedes [SD – dir]; Im Bruch hinterm Berge – Ehm Welk und Biesenbrow [TVD]. 1979: Erinnerungen an Otto René Castillo. 1980: Wizyta – Zu Besuch. 1981: Jule, Bubi und Co.; Sie brauchen uns. Beobachtungen in einer Hilfsschule; Stadtlandschaften. 1982: Compañera Inge. 1983: Walter Ballhause – einer von Millionen; Eisenbahnerfamilie [TVD]. 1984: Vom Büchermachen in finsterer Zeit – Gespräche mit Fritz Landshoff [TVD]. 1984/85: ‘Ein Bild malen ist wie Mais anbauen’ – Bauernmalerei aus Nikaragua. 1985: Das Münster zu Doberan [SD – dir]. 1985/86: Spanien im Herzen – Hans Beimler und andere [DO]. 1985-87: DEFA Kinobox [SF – 5 episodes]. 1986: Spielzeug für die Schwächeren. 1987: In Polnowat am Ob. Erinnerung an Prof. Wolfgang Steinitz [TVD]. 198789: Probleme am laufenden Band. 1989: Geschichte eines Bildes ‘Der Turm der blauen Pferde’, Franz Marc, 1913; ‘Schpergsche’ Lichtmess – Ein Männerfest [SD – dir,coscr]; Schulstunde mit Torso [DO]. 1989/90: Zeitschleifen – Im Dialog mit Christa Wolf [DO]; Aufgeben oder neu beginnen – Walter Janka [DO]. [DO – dir,scr – DE] 1991: Schulstunde mit Ton; Warteschleife? – IFA – Nordhausen/November 91. 1992: Ein Spanier im Rathaus – Helios Mendiburu. 1992/93: Wiedereinrichter; ABF-Memoiren [dir,co-scr]. 1993: Ramba-Zamba. Theaterarbeit mit Behinderten. 1997/98: Das Bergwerk – Franz Fühmann. 2003: Núria Quevedo – Berlinerin aus Barcelona.
FRIEDRICH WILHELM MURNAU (Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe) Born December 28, 1888, Bielefeld (Germany) Died March 11, 1931, Santa Barbara (California, USA) Director Murnau is one of the leading representatives of German silent cinema (alongside Lang, Pabst and Lubitsch), praised for his ability to integrate elements of Expressionism into his films, yet also able to create something autonomous and unique, particularly through his attention to fluidity and movement on screen. The son of a wealthy manufacturer, he studied philology in Berlin, and subsequently started acting in student productions and taking lessons at the Max Reinhardt Acting School in Berlin. After visiting the artist colony of Murnau in Bavaria in 1909, he adopted that name for his stage work, including a European tour with Reinhardt’s company. At the out-
break of World War I he joined a Guards regiment and led a company on the Eastern front, before transferring to the Luftwaffe in 1916. He was eventually captured and interned after an emergency landing in Switzerland in 1917. After the war, he devoted himself fully to filmmaking, with his first film, DER KNABE IN BLAU (The Boy in Blue, 1919) inspired by the Gainsborough painting ‘Blue Boy’ and Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. Also in 1919, Murnau completed the episodic film SATANAS under the supervision of Robert Wiene, which starred Conrad Veidt and which saw Murnau collaborate with cinematographer Karl Freund for the first time. Veidt featured in Murnau’s SEHNSUCHT (Desire, 1920), like much of Murnau’s early work now lost. Murnau teamed up with Freund again for his next film, DER BUCKLIGE UND DIE TÄNZERIN (The Hunchback and the Dancer, 1920), which also marked his first collaboration with the writer Carl Mayer, who subsequently worked with Murnau on several key projects. In 1921 Murnau completed SCHLOSS VOGELÖD (The Haunted Castle) in only 16 days, securing the director’s reputation for creating a nightmarish atmosphere of terror on screen. This ability was seen to full effect in NOSFERATU – EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, 1921), Murnau’s unlicensed version of Bram Stoker’s vampire novel, ‘Dracula’. Recognised as one of the peaks of German silent cinema, the film was most memorable for its revelation of the hidden poetry of nature and for its atmospheric imagery. Murnau then collaborated with writer Thea von Harbou on a number of films, including DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (The Grandduke’s Finances, 1923), his only comedy. Karl Freund’s pioneering use of the mobile ‘unchained camera’ helped to make Murnau’s DER LETZTE MANN (The Last Laugh, 1924) a showcase for innovative modern cinematography. The tale of the tragic decline of a hotel porter, played by Emil Jannings, was narrated using only one intertitle and Freund’s camerawork and Murnau’s direction heralded a new sense of space and movement in silent cinema. Murnau’s next two films, versions of the plays TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, 1925) and FAUST (1925/26), enjoyed lavish budgets but not the full appreciation of the critics, despite praise for Murnau’s ability to draw memorable performances from his actors. In 1926 he was invited to Hollywood, signing a four-year contract with Fox Studios. His first American film, SUNRISE – A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1926/27), scripted by Mayer, combined images of a rural idyll with celebrated scenes of city life, flooded with light. The critics united in appreciation of the film, which was highly successful at the
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first Academy Awards ceremony, including an award for Murnau for Artistic Quality of Production. Despite its critical accolades, the film was a commercial failure, limiting Murnau’s independence on his subsequent films, FOUR DEVILS (1928) and OUR DAILY BREAD (1929/30; sound version: CITY GIRL) that were reedited and post synchronised with music scores. In 1929 Murnau undertook a sailing trip on his yacht, ‘Bali’ to Tahiti, where he planned to work with celebrated documentary maker Robert Flaherty on a project about island life. After disagreements, the pair fell out, and Murnau instead filmed TABU – A STORY OF THE SOUTH SEAS (1930/31) on his own. The film caused controversy on account of its depiction of nudity and for revealing Murnau’s long-suppressed homosexuality. He returned to Hollywood deep in debt. Before the premiere of TABU, F. W. Murnau had a serious car accident driving from Hollywood to Mon-
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terey, and died in hospital. He was buried in Berlin the following month. [dir – DE] 1919: Der Knabe in Blau; Satanas. 1920: Der Januskopf; Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin; Abend – Nacht – Morgen; Sehnsucht. Bajazzo; Der Gang in die Nacht. 1920/21: Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna. 1921: Schloß Vogelöd. Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses; Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens. 1921/22: Der brennende Acker. 1922: Phantom. 1923: Die Austreibung. Die Macht der zweiten Frau; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. 1923/24: Der Film im Film. Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen [DO – app]. 1924: Komödie des Herzens. 6 Tagebuchblätter [co-scr]; Der letzte Mann. 1925: Tartüff. 1925/26: Faust. Eine deutsche Volkssage. 1926/27: Sunrise – A Song of Two Humans [dir,CUT – US]. 1928: Die Filmstadt Hollywood [DO – app]; Four Devils [dir,cut – US]. 1929/30: Our Daily Bread / City Girl [dir,cut – US]. 1930/ 31: Tabu. A Story of the South Seas [co-dir,co-scr,cut,pro – US].
KÄTHE VON NAGY (Ekaterina Nagy von Cziser) Born April 4, 1904, Szatmar (Hungary) Died December 20, 1973, Los Angeles (USA) A popular actress in film operettas and musical comedies of the 1930s, Hungarian-born Käthe von Nagy started out in silent films. Often playing tomboys, she could also embody, as in Gustav Ucicky’s propaganda film FLÜCHTLINGE (Fugitives, 1933), the Nazi feminine ideal: dazzling, full of youthful fitness and confidence, yet loyal to her man. Growing up as a bank director’s daughter in Szabadka (Subotica), Nagy was educated in Vienna and in Transsylvania and took acting lessons at Bèla Gàal’s film school in Budapest. Her family initially opposed an acting career but eventually allowed her to travel to Berlin where she auditioned for film parts, while working for a Hungarian newspaper. In 1927 she played a supporting role in MÄNNER VOR DER EHE (Men before Marriage), a comedy directed by Constantin J. David, whom she later married. She then specialised in ‘cute teenager’ roles in a string of films, such as DIE REPUBLIK DER BACKFISCHE (Teenagers’ Republic, 1928) and MASCOTTCHEN (Mascots, 1928/29) which consolidated her reputation as a light comedy star of German cinema, even gaining international recognition for her role in DIE DURCHGÄNGERIN (The Runaway Girl, 1927/28). In the late 1920s, von Nagy expanded her repertoire and took on more serious roles. This included the Italian production ROTAIE (Rails, 1929) in which she portrayed an impoverished factory-worker who makes a suicide pact with her husband. By the early 1930s, the actress had fully overcome her teenager persona and she adopted a more adult and sophisticated image. She worked with some of the late Weimar period’s most significant directors, such as Joe May (IHRE MAJESTÄT DIE LIEBE, Her Majesty Love, 1930), Hanns Schwarz (IHRE HOHEIT BEFIEHLT, Her Grace Commands), Reinhold Schünzel (RONNY, both 1931) and Gerhard Lamprecht on EINMAL EINE GROSSE DAME SEIN, (Just Once a Great Lady, 1933/34) and PRINZESSIN TURANDOT, (Princess Turandot, 1934). One of her regular partners in romantic comedies was Willy Fritsch, as in Schwarz’s IHRE HOHEIT BEFIEHLT (Her Grace Commands, 1931), and Ludwig
Berger’s ICH BEI TAG UND DU BEI NACHT (Early to Bed, 1932). The latter was among several of her films made in multi-lingual versions (MLVs). Owing to her linguistic abilities Nagy played in most French versions of her films, making her a popular figure in French cinema under the name Kate de Nagy. In 1935 she appeared in Marcel L’Herbier’s LA ROUTE IMPÉRIALE (The Imperial Road) and 1936 in Robert Siodmak’s CARGAISON BLANCHE (White Cargo). Though living in France with her second husband, Nagy continued working in Germany and Austria. At the outbreak of World War II, she took over Dita Parlo’s role in MAHLIA LA MÉTISSE (Mahlia the Mestiza, 1939–42) after which she practically retired from films, apart from a remake of CARGAISON CLANDESTINE (Secret Cargo, 1947) in France. Her final film appearance was in Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTL (The Forester’s Daughter, 1952). [act – DE]. 1927: Männer vor der Ehe; Gustav Mond … Du gehst so stille; Der Anwalt des Herzens; Das brennende Schiff / Le bateau de verre [DE/FR]; Die Sandgräfin. 1927/ 28: Die Königin seines Herzens; Die Durchgängerin. 1928: Die Republik der Backfische. 1928/29: Mascottchen. 1929: Aufruhr im Junggesellenheim; Der Weg durch die Nacht; Unschuld / Die kleine Veronika [DE/AT]; Rotaie [IT]. 1929/30: Gaukler / Les saltimbanques [MLV – DE/ FR]. 1930: Der Andere [MLV]; Ihre Majestät die Liebe [MLV]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Le capitaine Craddock [MLV]; Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin; Ronny [MLV]; Ronny [French MLV]. 1931/32: Der Sieger [MLV]; Le vainqueur [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; La belle aventure [MLV]; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; À moi le jour, à toi la nuit [MLV]. 1933: Flüchtlinge [MLV]; Au bout du monde [MLV]. 1933/34: Einmal eine große Dame sein [MLV]; Un jour viendra [MLV]. 1934: Die Freundin eines großen Mannes; Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV]; La jeune fille d’une nuit [MLV]; Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV]; Nuit de mai [MLV]; Turandot, princesse de Chine [MLV]; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]; Le diable en bouteille [MLV]. 1935: La route impériale [FR]; Die Pompadour [AT]. 1936: Ave Maria; Cargaison blanche [FR]. 1937: La bataille silencieuse [MLV – FR]. 1937/38: Nuits de princes [MLV – FR]; Finale [AT]. 1938: Unsere kleine Frau [MLV – DE/IT]; Am seidenen Faden; Mia moglie si diverte [MLV – DE/IT]; Accord final / Symphonie am Genfersee [CH/FR]. 1938/39: Salonwagen E 417.
SEYMOUR NEBENZAHL 1939: Renate im Quartett. 1939-42: Mahlia la métisse [FR]. 1947: Cargaison clandestine [FR]. 1952: Die Försterchristl.
SEYMOUR NEBENZAHL Born July 22, 1897, New York City (USA) Died September 23, 1961, Munich (West Germany) Part of a dynasty of film producers, Seymour Nebenzahl and his company Nero created some of the artistically most significant German films of the late 1920s and early 1930s, many of which transported pacifist and anti-fascist messages. He later produced a number of well-regarded films (often with input from fellow émigrés) in France and Hollywood. Born in New York to Polish/Hungarian parents, Seymour Nebenzahl was educated in New York and Berlin. His father Heinrich (Jesekiel/Chaskel) Nebenzahl (1870–1938) had accumulated wealth as an egg-importer before turning to film production after returning to Berlin from the USA. Nebenzahl Sr. took over film companies in Germany from 1917, co-producing numerous popular genre films with Harry Piel as well as putting some money into experiments such as MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG (People on Sunday, 1929). Seymour worked for the family business in England, made his fortune, married a German heiress, Else Jacoby, and returned to Berlin in the early 1920s. In 1925 with his father, he founded a film company which developed into Nero by 1927. One of the most successful German film companies of the time, Nero produced many so-called ‘Mittelfilme’ (films with an average budget), but became more prominently known for its prestige projects. Nero’s first collaboration with the director G. W. Pabst was DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA (Pandora’s Box, 1928/29), starring the American Louise Brooks. Following the demise of silent cinema, Pabst directed the pacifist war film WESTFRONT 1918 (1930) for Nebenzahl, hailed for its innovative use of sound. In collaboration with Warner Bros. and Tobis Nero also produced Pabst’s adaptation of Brecht/Weill DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (Threepenny Opera, 1930/ 31), but was subsequently sued by both Brecht and Weill. Other Pabst assignments for Nero included the award-winning production KAMERADSCHAFT (Comradeship, 1931), a realistic drama about a mining disaster, and the escapist desert adventure DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS (The Mistress of Atlantis, 1932), starring Brigitte Helm. Fritz Lang, meanwhile, directed two of his best German films for Nero, M (1931) and DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr Mabuse, 1932/33). Considered as an allegory of the Nazi terror to come, the film was banned in Germany but Nebenzahl passed copies to Amsterdam and Copenhagen,
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and escaped with the negatives to Paris after the Nazis took power and raided his office. In Paris Nebenzahl became a rallying point for film artists who had fled Nazi Germany, and he worked with émigrés including his cousin Robert Siodmak on LA CRISE EST FINIE! (The Crisis Is Over, 1934), Anatole Litvak on MAYERLING (1935), Fedor Ozep on TARAKANOVA (1937/38), and Max Ophüls on a version of Goethe’s WERTHER (1938). An American citizen from birth, Nebenzahl returned to the U.S. in 1938 where he produced the social drama WE WHO ARE YOUNG (1940) for M-G-M. HITLER’S MADMAN (1942/43), directed by Douglas Sirk (= Detlef Sierck) dramatised the Gestapo terror regime of Reinhard Heydrich in Czechoslovakia. In 1944 Nebenzahl founded Nero Films Inc in Hollywood, producing predominantly entertainment and genre films, which were released through United Artists. Later Hollywood productions include the labyrinthine film noir THE CHASE (1946) and two remakes of Nero’s Weimar classics, SIREN OF ATLANTIS (1947/48), and Joseph Losey’s version of M (1950/51), with its story relocated from Berlin to postwar Los Angeles. In 1945 Seymour returned to Berlin to re-establish a German Nero. The company dealt mostly with managing its Weimar back catalogue, but also produced one final film, BIS ZUM ENDE ALLER TAGE (To the End of All Days, 1961) under the direction of Franz Peter Wirth. Seymour’s son Harold Nebenzahl (b. 1922) continued the family tradition. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps he started out as an associate producer on his father’s Hollywood remake of M. He worked on a number of American and European productions from the 1950s to the late 1980s in different professional capacities. His credits include Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1971/72), Ingmar Bergman’s THE SERPENT’S EGG (1976/77), and Billy Wilder’s FEDORA (1977/78). He also published a series of novels. [pro – DE] 1927: Die Gefangene von Shanghai; Rätsel einer Nacht; Der Sprung ins Glück / Totte et sa chance [DE/FR]. 1927/28: Tragödie im Zirkus Royal; Das Mädchen der Straße; Die Durchgängerin. 1928: Liebeskarneval; Das letzte Souper; Das letzte Fort. 1928/29: Die Büchse der Pandora; Tagebuch einer Kokotte. 1929: Meineid; Trust der Diebe; Unschuld / Die kleine Veronika [DE/AT]; Ehe in Not. 1929/ 30: Der Witwenball; Gaukler / Les saltimbanques [MLV – DE/FR]. 1930: Der Detektiv des Kaisers; Westfront 1918; Skandal um Eva; Kohlhiesels Töchter. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]; Ariane [MLV]. 1931: M [MLV]; 24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau; Kameradschaft / La tragédie de la mine [DE/FR]; Eine Nacht im Grandhotel [MLV]. 1932: L’Atlantide [MLV – DE/FR]; Die Herrin von Atlantis [MLV]; The Mistress of Atlantis [MLV]. 1932/33: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]; Le testament du Dr. Mabuse [MLV].
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[pro – FR] 1933: Le sexe faible; Eve cherche un père [MLV – FR/IT]. 1934: La crise est finie!; Le roi des Champs-Élysées. 1935: Mayerling; La vie parisienne [MLV]; Parisienne Life [MLV]. 1936: Cargaison blanche. 1937/38: Tarakanova [MLV]. 1938: Werther. 1938/39: Les ôtages. [pro – US] 1940: We Who Are Young. 1942: The Prisoner of Japan; Tomorrow We Live. 1942/43: Hitler’s Madman; Isle of Forgotten Sins. 1943/44: Summer Storm. 1945: Whistle Stop. 1946: The Chase. 1947: Heaven Only Knows. 1947/48: Siren of Atlantis. 1950/51: M. 1961: Bis zum Ende aller Tage [DE].
POLA NEGRI (Barbara Apolonia Chalupec) Born January 3, 1894, Janowo (Poland) Died July 31, 1987, San Antonio (Texas, USA) Raven-haired, Polish-born Negri, a major silent screen idol, was a larger-than-life personality who enjoyed success both in Berlin and Hollywood. Negri studied acting in Warsaw between 1909 and 1911. Her stage debut followed at the city’s Kleines Theater in 1912, after which she worked at the Teatr Wielki in 1913, performing as a dancer in the Arabesque mime show ‘Sumurun’. The actress, whose professional name was an homage to Italian novelist Ada Negri, made her first film appearance in Jan Pawlowski’s NIEWOLNICA ZMYS£ÓW (Slave of the Senses, 1914). She came to Berlin during World War I, where she joined the Deutsches Theater. Her German film debut was a dual role in NICHT LANGE TÄUSCHTE MICH DAS GLÜCK (Happiness Did Not Deceive Me Long, 1917), after which she rose to stardom under Ernst Lubitsch’s direction, playing leading roles in CARMEN (Gypsy Blood), DIE AUGEN DER MUMIE MÂ (The Eyes of the Mummy, both 1918), SUMURUN (One Arabian Night, 1920), and DIE BERGKATZE (The Wildcat, 1921). In all these pictures, legions of men were falling under the spell of Negri’s vamps, and fighting battles to the death in order to possess her. She even managed to ignite the French Revolution as the eponymous courtesan in Lubitsch’s MADAME DUBARRY (1919), which stormed the US box office under the title PASSION in 1920. A Paramount contract took Negri to Hollywood in 1922, and she enjoyed further success playing Catherine the Czarina in Lubitsch’s comedy FORBIDDEN PARADISE (1924). An inveterate self-publicist, the actress’s endless scandals and love affairs with such figures as Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino also provided gossip columnists with plentiful fodder. Negri’s thick accent hampered her chances in American sound films, and she returned via Paris to Berlin, where she made her comeback in Willi Forst’s MAZURKA (1935). However, although indisputably still enjoying star status, the actress now tended to
be cast as self-sacrificing mothers or underappreciated spouses, as in Gerhart Lamprecht’s MADAME BOVARY (1937). She returned to the USA in 1941, and pastiched her old vamp persona in Andrew L. Stone’s HI DIDDLE DIDDLE (1943). Only one further film appearance followed, as a glamorous villainess in James Neilson’s THE MOON-SPINNERS (1964). Working as a realtor in San Antonio, Texas, from the late 1950s, Negri published her fantasy-laden autobiography ‘Memoirs of a Star’ in 1970. [act – PL] 1914: Niewolnica zmys³ów; Raba strastei, raba poroka. 1915: Czarna ksi¹zka; Zona; Tajemnice Warszawy: Pókoj Nr. 13. 1916: Jego ostatni czyn; Studenci; Bestia. 1916/17: Tajemnice Warszawy: Tajemnica alei Ujazdowskich. [act – DE] 1917: Tajemnice Warszawy: Arabella [PL]; Jego ostatni czyn [PL]; Nicht lange täuschte mich das Glück; Zügelloses Blut; Küsse, die man stiehlt im Dunkeln; Die toten Augen; Wenn das Herz in Haß erglüht. 1918: Mania; Die Augen der Mumie Mâ; Der gelbe Schein; Carmen. 1918/19: Das Karussell des Lebens. 1919: Vendetta. Blutrache; Dämmerung des Todes; Kreuziget sie!; Madame Dubarry; Komtesse Dolly. 1919/20: Die Marchesa d’Arminiani. 1920: Sumurun; Das Martyrium; Arme Violetta; Salome. 1921: Die Bergkatze; Sappho. 1922: Die Flamme. [act – US] 1923: Bella Donna; Hollywood; The Cheat; The Spanish Dancer. 1923/24: Shadows of Paris. 1924: Men; Lily of the Dust; Forbidden Paradise. 1924/25: East of Suez. 1925: The Charmer; Flower of Night; A Woman of the World. 1926: The Crown of Lies; Good and Naughty; Hotel Imperial. 1927: Barbed Wire; A Woman on Trial. 1928: The Secret Hour; Three Sinners; Loves of an Actress; The Woman from Moscow. 1929: The Woman He Scorned [GB]. 1931: A Woman Commands. [act – DE] 1933/34: Fanatisme [FR]. 1935: Mazurka. 1936: Moskau – Shanghai. 1937: Madame Bovary; Tango Notturno. 1938: Die fromme Lüge; Die Nacht der Entscheidung. 1943: Hi Diddle Diddle [US]. 1964: The MoonSpinners [US/GB].
WERNER NEKES Born April 29, 1944, Erfurt (Germany) Nekes is best known for his avant-garde films from the mid-1960s onwards. Originally strongly influenced by pictorial art, his films gained in complexity through his intensive engagement with the history and archaeology of film, art and technique, as well as with literary sources, as exemplified in the award-winning ULIISSES (Ulysses, 1980–82). Nekes grew up in Oberhausen and Mülheim/Ruhr. While still at school he started writing and initially studied linguistics and psychology in Freiburg before moving to Bonn in 1964. He became chairman of the student film club, associating with filmmakers, sculp-
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tors and painters, including Dore O., who became a professional and private partner. Nekes exhibited his art works and made his first 8mm film before working on 16mm films in co-operation with Jochen Gottlieb. When his films were rejected by the short-film festival in Oberhausen, he arranged his own counter-event. A series of film seminars at an Institute for Youth Education followed. Nekes and Dore O. moved to Hamburg in 1967, where they married. The couple became leading figures in the developing experimental film scene, arranging screenings in their flat and co-founding the Hamburger Filmmacher Cooperative and the Hamburger Filmschau. He organised film events as well as seminars and retrospectives in various European cities, also regularly holding film shows followed by discussions with filmmakers in ‘Prokinoff’ in Hamburg. Between 1970 and 1972 Nekes was also a professor at the Hamburg Art Academy. After spending the next year in Sweden, he travelled extensively, arranging seminars on film and film theory as well as retrospective showings worldwide. Having already gained prestigious awards for his films, including the German Film Prize for JÜM-JÜM (1967) in 1970 and HYNNINGEN (1973/74) in 1975, he relocated to Mülheim/Ruhr before becoming visiting professor at the University of Wuppertal in 1981. 1982–84 he was professor at the Art School in Offenbach. ULIISSES (1980–82), a complex combination of elements from James Joyce’s novel, Homer’s Odyssey, and Neil Oram’s science fiction stage play ‘The Warp’, was awarded four prizes, including Film of the Year at the London Film Festival in 1982. While Nekes’s earlier films were meticulously constructed montages of relatively simple images he later used different shooting techniques, producing image structures by means of multiple exposures and specifically developed equipment. From LAGADO (1976/ 77) onwards he experimented with the use of sound as a supplementary medium for transmitting information. During the 1980s and 1990s, Nekes’s films became increasingly concerned with the pre-history of cinema and with early film technology. An avid collector of optical machines and apparatuses from antiquity and different cultures to the beginning of the 20th century, several of Nekes’s films, including WAS GESCHAH WIRKLICH ZWISCHEN DEN BILDERN? (Film Before Film, 1985) and the five-part series MEDIA MAGICA (1995–98), thematised this archaeology
of cinema, and addressed general issues concerning visual perception and deception. Nekes’s private collection was the subject of various exhibitions, including in Cologne (2002), Graz (2004), London (2005, under the title ‘Eyes, Lies, and Illusions’), and Hamburg-Altona (2005).
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[filmmaker – AG – DE] 1965: Tom Doyle und Eva Hesse. 1965-69: Palimpsest. 1966: Artikel; Fehlstart; Start. 196668: Play-Play-Play [co-cam]. 1967: Ach, wie gut, daß niemand weiß; Bogen; jüm-jüm; gurtrug Nr. 1; gurtrug Nr. 2; K/örper; operation; Schnitte für ABABA; schwarzhuhnbraunhuhnschwarzhuhnweißhuhnrothuhnweiß oder putputt; Das Seminar [co-dir]. 1968: Alaska [cam,act]; Gruppenfilm; Mama, da steht ein Mann; Muhkuh; Ort und Niederlassung der Dore O. und Engpaß [cam,pro]; Tarzans Kampf mit dem Gorilla; Vis-à-vis; Zipzibbelip; Kelek. 1969: Lawale [cam,act]; Nebula; Dämonische Leinwand. 4. Teil: Heimkehr nach St. Pauli [act]. 1970: Abbadono. 1970/71: Kaldalon [cam,act]. 1971: Spacecut. 1972: Arbatax; Aus Altona; Blonde Barbarei [act]; T-Wo-Men (whatever happened between the pictures?). 1973/74: Diwan: 1. sun-amul. – 2. alternatim. – 3. kantinele. – 4. moto. – 5. hynningen. 1974: Makimono; Kaskara [act]. 1975: Photophthalmia. 1975/76: Amalgam: 1. Knoten. – 2. Gewebe. – 3. Textur. – 4. Geflecht. 1976: Falun. 1976/1977: Lagado. 1977: Frozen Flashes [cam,snd,act]. 1977/78: Mirador. 1978: Bei der Lichtbildnerin; Horly. 1979: Hurrycan; Little Night. 1980-82: Zwischen den Bildern. 3. Über die Trägheit der Wahrnehmung [TVD – app]; Uliisses. 1981: Beuys [SD]; Happening. Kunst und Protest 1968 [TVD – app]; Peggy und die anderen oder: Wer trägt die Avantgarde? [TVD]. 1982: Nekes [SD]; Blick aus dem harmonischen Gefängnis. 1983-85: Optisches ABC. 1985: Was geschah wirklich zwischen den Bildern? – Media Magica I [DO]. 1986: Johnny Flash [FF]. 1988: Vorgeschichte des Films [DO]. 1989: Zu Gast bei Werner Nekes [DO – app]. 1990/91: Candida [cam,pro]. 1993: Schatten-Projektionen. Ein Ausstellungsprojekt [DO]. 1993-96: Schattentheater der Welt: 1. China – Schattentheater der Provinz Shaanxi / 2. Indien – Tholu Bommalata / 3. Bali – Wayang Kulit / 4. Thailand – Nang Yai / 5. Thailand – Nang Talung / 6. Ägypten / 7. Türkei – Karagöz / 8. Türkei – Karagöz / 9. Griechenland – Karagiosis [DO – 9 episodes – dir,pro]. 1994: 00 Schneider – Jagd auf Nihil Baxter [FF – act]. 1995: Anthony Moore – Musician [DO]; Aus der Meistergilde der Schüttelreimer. 199598: Media Magica: II Durchsehekunst / III Belebte Bilder / IV Vieltausendschau / V Bild – Raum / VI Wundertrommel [TVD – 5 episodes]. 1997: Der Tag des Malers. 1998: Die kritische Masse. film im underground hamburg ’68 [DO – app]. 2004: Richard Bradshaw’s Shadowtheater [DO]. 2005/06: Der Photograph [DO – app]. 2008: Loplop.
WOLFGANG NEUSS (Hans Wolfgang Otto Neuss) Born December 3, 1923, Breslau (Germany, now Wroc³aw, Poland) Died May 5, 1989, Berlin-Charlottenburg (West Germany) An eccentric original who became a Berlin cabaret institution, Neuss’s politically subversive performances were a breath of fresh air in the staid cultural climate of 1950s West Germany. His irrepressible non-conformism and unrepentant drug use later made him a cult figure in the 1980s.
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Neuss started an apprenticeship at a slaughterhouse before running away to Berlin in 1938, hoping to become a clown. Initially placed in a borstal as a vagrant, he subsequently worked in an ammunitions plant, and on a road-building project prior to being drafted into the army in 1940. Sent to the Eastern front, Neuss shot off his left index finger to avoid military service – ironically earning himself an Iron Cross (First Class) in the process. In 1944 he managed to escape to Denmark by boat. In Copenhagen, he appeared in cabaret and then formed his own comedy troupe, the Reichs-Kabarett der Komiker (Rekadeko) while held in an internment camp in Flensburg. Appearances in Munich, Bremen and Hanover followed after the war, and in 1949 he met long-term comedy partner Wolfgang Müller. Their activities extended from theatre, cabaret and film to the radio, and they recorded several hit songs. From the early 1950s, Neuss frequently used a kettledrum as a prop in his stage performances, which became his trademark. Off-stage, Neuss directed shows of Berlin’s cabaret troupe Die Stachelschweine, as well as Carl Sternheim’s satire ‘Die Hose’ (The Bloomers) alongside several of his own plays in Berlin and Munich between 1957 and 1959. Often typecast as streetwise Berlin everymen, Neuss’s first film roles were little more than bit parts, including Carol Reed’s Cold War thriller THE MAN BETWEEN (1953). Neuss and Müller frequently appeared together, playing comic brigands in Kurt Hoffmann’s DAS WIRTSHAUS IM SPESSART (The Spessart Inn, 1957) and as the film’s narrators in WIR WUNDERKINDER (Aren’t We Wonderful?, 1958). Neuss subsequently scripted and starred in Jochen Wiedermann’s satire WIR KELLERKINDER (We Cellar Children, 1960), as well as GENOSSE MÜNCHHAUSEN (Comrade Münchhausen, 1961/ 62), which he also directed. Following Müller’s death in a plane crash in 1960, Neuss continued to tour alone in shows such as ‘Das jüngste Gerücht’ (Latest Rumour/Last Judgement) and ‘Neuss Testament’ (Neuss’/New Testament), while additionally working in television and the theatre. In the late 1960s, Neuss became a vocal supporter of left-wing causes, and actively participated in the student protests of 1968. In the 1970s, Neuss’s career went into decline and he gradually withdrew from public life, while his convictions for drug possession, and his increasingly dishevelled and emaciated appearance continued to attract press attention. In the early 1980s, Neuss’s uniquely anarchic qualities were rediscovered, and he took on one final film role, toothless and in drag, as a female politician in Gerhardt Schmidt’s satire IS’ WAS KANZLER? (What’s Up, Chancellor?, 1983/84). An anthology of Neuss’s many writings, ‘Das Wolfgang Neuss Buch’ (The Wolfgang Neuss Book), was published in 1981, and an extended edition appeared
under the title ‘Neuss und Altes’ (Neuss Stuff, Old Stuff) in 1997. [act – DE] 1950: Der Mann, der sich selber sucht; Wer fuhr den grauen Ford? 1950/51: Schön muß man sein. 1952: Pension Schöller; Man lebt nur einmal; Mikosch rückt ein; Ich hab’ mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren; Die Spur führt nach Berlin; Zwischen Nylon und Chemnitz. Ein literarisches Kabarett [TV – dir,act]; Der Onkel aus Amerika. 1952/53: Von Liebe reden wir später. 1953: Kopf oder Zahl [TV]; Keine Angst vor großen Tieren; Hollandmädel; Die Kaiserin von China; The Man Between [GB]; Weg ohne Umkehr; Hurra – ein Junge! 1954: Die schöne Müllerin; Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins; Phantom des großen Zeltes; Die goldene Pest. 1954/55: Des Teufels General; Ein Mann vergißt die Liebe; Die heilige Lüge. 1955: Oberwachtmeister Borck; Banditen der Autobahn [co-scr, act]; Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen; Der fröhliche Wanderer; Mein Leopold; Unternehmen Schlafsack; Himmel ohne Sterne; Urlaub auf Ehrenwort; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV – DE/FR]; Charley’s Tante. 1956: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Mädchen mit schwachem Gedächtnis; Ohne Dich wird es Nacht; Küß mich noch einmal; Zu Befehl, Frau Feldwebel!; Ein Mann muß nicht immer schön sein; Die Christel von der Post; Spion für Deutschland. 1957: Der müde Theodor; Drei Mann auf einem Pferd [TV – act,lyr]; Ferien auf Immenhof; Frühling in Berlin; Das Wirtshaus im Spessart. 1957/58: Die grünen Teufel von Monte Cassino. 1958: Schwarzwälder Kirsch; Kennen Sie die Milchstraße? [TV – co-scr,act]; Wir Wunderkinder; Der Maulkorb; Der Stern von Santa Clara; Nick Knattertons Abenteuer. Der Raub der Gloria Nylon. 1958/59: Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich. 1959: Die Nacht vor der Premiere; Napoleon in New Orleans [TV]; Rosen für den Staatsanwalt; Liebe verboten – Heiraten erlaubt; Der lustige Krieg des Hauptmann Pedro. 1959/60: Als geheilt entlassen. 1960: Wer nicht hören will, muß fernsehen … [TV]; Zwei Berliner in Paris [TV – scr,act]; Wir Kellerkinder [scr,act]; 20 Minuten Aufenthalt [TV]. 1961: Immer Ärger mit dem Bett; Macky Pancake [TV]; Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox! [TVS]; Der Traum von Lieschen Müller. 1961/62: Genosse Münchhausen [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1962: Wenn ich Chef wäre [SF – scr,act]. 1962/63: Die endlose Nacht. 1963: Der Fall Yussuf Ben Shehodet [TV]; Der Fall Blü-Tee [TV]; Der Fall Bacchus [TV]. 1963/64: Die Tote von Beverly Hills. 1963-65: Hallo Nachbarn! [TVS]. 1964: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Kabarettisten [TV – scr,act]; Blick zurück – doch nicht im Zorn [TV]. 1965: Interview mit der Geschichte [TVS]; Serenade für zwei Spione / Sinfonia per due spie [DE/IT]. 1966: Katz und Maus; Der schwarze Freitag [TV]. 1968: Wenn man trotzdem lacht oder: Freiheit, die wir meinen [TV]. 1969: Rotmord [TV]. 1972: Bretter, die die Zeit bedeuten [TVD – app]. 1973: Ich lache Tränen, heule Heiterkeit [TVD]. 1973/74: Chapeau Claque. 1973-75: Glutmensch [TV]. 1974: Die halbe Eva [TV]. 1982: Besuch beim Mann mit der Pauke [TVD – app]. 1983: Das fliegende Chaos [AG]. 1983/84: Is’ was Kanzler?
GITTA NICKEL GITTA NICKEL Born May 28, 1936, Briensdorf (Germany, now Borzynowo, Poland) Best known as the director of documentaries that examined everyday life in the GDR, Nickel also made films that dealt with life under socialism in other parts of the Eastern Bloc. Her work successfully managed to incorporate individual voices, rather than relying solely on accompanying commentary. Nickel studied pedagogy and German at Berlin’s Humboldt-University, graduating in 1957. Initially employed at DEFA as assistant director in the studios for popular science films and later entertainment productions, she started working on her first documentaries in 1963, collaborating with Karl Gass, who became her husband. From 1965 she directed a number of documentaries, including LIEDER MACHEN LEUTE (Songs Make People, 1968) portraying a singing ensemble from Octoberclub Berlin, ZUM BEISPIEL … (For Example…, 1971), which concerned steelworkers, and depictions of workers in a textile factory in WIR VON ESDA (We’re from Esda, 1976). A shipyard in Stralsund was the setting for JUNGSEIN – UND WAS NOCH? (Young and What Else, 1977), while GUNDULA, JAHRGANG ’58 (Gundula, Born ’58, 1981/82) told the story of a nurse who tours small bars as a pop singer. In other films Nickel broadened her horizons by focussing on problems faced in a range of socialist states, such as pre-school education of German and Soviet children (WIR VERSTEHEN UNS, We Understand Each Other, 1965), the industrialisation of Siberia in SIBIRIEN, MEIN HAUS (Siberia, My Home, 1967), and collective farming in the Ukraine (DAS IST EINFACH MEIN LEBEN, That’s Just My Life, 1975). For television, Nickel directed a series of portraits of contemporary artists. Most of Nickel’s films involved lengthy preparation periods, up to nine years in the case of HEUWETTER (Time to Make Hay, 1972), to allow for an extensive compilation of appropriate material, and for careful contextualisation. She emphasised the importance of working in a close-knit group, drawing from the strengths of a well-integrated core team, which usually included cinematographer Nicola/Niko Pawloff and often Wasil Filipow, Klaus Schieber or Andreas Walter as sound engineer. Throughout her career Nickel received many awards, HEUWETTER gaining two international prizes as well as the GDR Art Award in 1973. Elected into the union for Film and Television workers in 1972 she became part of the governing body in 1977 and president of the National Festival for Documentaries and Short Films in Neubrandenburg in 1980. After the demise of the GDR, Nickel directed a documentary about the DEFA studios at Babelsberg, BABELSBERG – GLANZ UND ELEND EINER FILM-
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STADT (Babelsberg: Glamour and Misery of a Film City, 1991), while ES BEGANN IN EBERSWALDE (It
Started in Eberswalde, 1994/95) charted the different lives, careers, and experiences of two journalists and childhood friends from the 1930s to the 1990s. [FF – ass-dir – DD] 1953: Startarten für Segelflugmodelle [SD – cut]. 1954: Anfertigen eines Handpuppenkopfes [SD – cut]; Orientieren im Gelände mit Kompass [SD – cut]; Orientieren im Gelände ohne Kompass [SD – cut]. 1954/ 55: Ein Brief wird befördert [SD – cut]. 1959: Ehesache Lorenz. 1959/60: Leute mit Flügeln. 1960: Steinzeitballade. 1960/61: Küßchen und der General. 1961: Auf der Sonnenseite. 1962: Der Kinnhaken. [DO – dir,co-scr,cut – DD] 1963/64: Feierabend [SD – assdir]. 1965: Wir verstehen uns [SD – dir,scr]. 1965/66: Asse [ass-dir]. 1966: … dann springt mein Herz [SD – dir,scr]. 1967: Sibirien, mein Haus [SD – dir,scr,cut]. 1968: Lange Rede – kurzer Sinn [dir,scr,cut]; Lieder machen Leute [SD – dir,scr,cut]. 1969: Hier und dort [dir,scr,cut]. 1970: Der Oktober kam … [co-dir]; Sie [SD – dir,scr,cut]; 365 Meter über Berlin [SD – dir,scr,cut]; Walter Felsenstein [TVD – dir, scr,cut]. 1971: Zum Beispiel … Silbitzer im Wettbewerb [SD]; Im Märzen die Bäuerin [SD – dir,scr,cut,voi]; Berlin – Jerewan [TV-SD – co-dir,scr,cut]; Palucca [TVD – dir,scr, cut]. 1972: Heuwetter. Geschichten aus Hohenselchow 1972 und 1963. 1972/73: Das Lachen soll euch nicht im Halse stecken bleiben [2 parts – dir,scr,cut]. 1973: 99 Tage Frieden [TV-SD – dir,scr,cut]; Tay Ho – Das Dorf in der 4. Zone [SD – dir,scr,cut]; Die Söhne der Thai [SD – dir, scr,cut]. 1974: Paul Dessau [TVD]; … und morgen kommen die Polinnen [TVD]. 1975: Das ist einfach mein Leben [TVD – DD/SU]. 1976: Wir von ESDA [TVD]; Die May [TVD]. 1977: Konrad Wolf [TVD]; Jung sein – und was noch? [TVD]. 1978: … und das Weib sei nicht mehr untertan [TVD]. 1980: Verbrennt nicht unsere Erde [dir, scr,cut]. 1980/81: Musikanten – Das Gewandhausorchester Leipzig [TVD]. 1981: Manchmal möchte man fliegen. 1981/82: Gundula, Jahrgang ’58 [dir,co-scr]. 1983/84: … und der Mensch lebt auf der Erde. 1984: Renate Holland-Moritz [TVD]; Damit man sich auf uns berufen kann – Vladimir Pozner [TVD]. 1985: Roswitha Trexler. 1986: Wenn man eine Liebe hat. 1987: Wie ein Fisch im Wasser; Das Zünglein an der Wahrheit [SD]. 1988: Zwei Deutsche. 1989: Den Wind auf der Haut spüren; Siegfried Matthus [TVD]; Was wird aus mir … 1990: Eine deutsche Geschichte. Wir haben die Mauer durchbrochen [TVD – DD/ DE]; China meine Liebe, mein Leben. Eva Siao – ein Porträt [TVD – DD/DE]; Brüder und Schwestern in Deutschland [TVD – DD/DE]. [TVD – dir – DE] 1991: Leb’ wohl Deutschland [dir,co-scr, cut]; Babelsberg. Glanz und Elend einer Filmstadt [dir,coscr,cut]. 1992: MittenDRIN [dir,co-scr,cut]; … un de Mäuse sin mir. Fridel Hönisch – die frechste Oma Sachsens [dir, co-scr]. 1993: Workaholics. Helden der Arbeit – was nun? [app]; István Szábo; Der DEFA-Komplex: Frauen – Film – Träume [app]; Keep smiling mit Rainer Bach [dir,co-scr]; Das war die DDR – Eine Geschichte des anderen Deutschland: Ich war Bürger der DDR / In Fürsorge für das Volk [co-dir,co-scr]; Hellerau – Dornröschen? 1994: Christel,
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laß’ die Puppen tanzen; Schwarzer Mann, bring’ mir Glück; Jahrgang 1914. Zwei deutsche Journalisten [dir, co-scr]. 1994/95: Es begann in Eberswalde. Borgelt und Dengler – zwei deutsche Journalisten [dir,co-scr]. 1995: Die neue Republik: Wir und die Einheit [dir,co-scr]. 1996: Schalom Genossen. Alice und Gerhard Zadek erinnern sich [dir,co-scr – DE/NL]; Zwischen den Fronten. Richard Baier – Lebenslauf eines deutschen Journalisten [dir,co-scr]; Die Zukunft liegt in Asien. Martin Posth [dir,co-scr]. 1997: Hauff & Henkler [dir,co-scr]; Jedes Jahr ist Heuwetter; Rentner haben niemals Zeit. 1998: Fips Fleischer. Ich bin ein Live-Man [co-dir,co-scr]; Nächstes Jahr in Deutschland. Eine ukrainisch-jüdische Familie [dir,co-scr]. 1998/99: Klassefrauen [TVD – season 1 – 5 episodes]. 1999: Das Millionending. Angelika und ihr Clan; Ruth Hohmann. Ein Leben für den Jazz; Die da in der Platte. Geschichten aus Marzahn [dir,co-scr]; Pfundskerle; Klassefrauen [TVD – season 2 – 4 episodes]. 1999/2000: Mächtig gewaltig. Die Olsenbande lebt [long + short version]. 2000: Alleinunterhalter; Schilkins Schnapsideen; Bunte Ehen. 2001: Zu Hause in Ostpreußen. 2002: Der Gosenwirt. Dr. Hartmut Hennebach [co-dir,co-scr]; Dresdner Knabenstimmen erobern die Welt. Der Kreuzkantor Roderich Kreile [co-dir, co-scr]. 2003: Ich habe alles außer Zirkus gemacht. Der Filmkomponist Karl-Ernst Sasse [dir,co-scr]. 2004: Gundula – Solo für eine Krankenschwester.
ASTA NIELSEN (Asta Sofie Amalie Nielsen) Born September 11, 1881, Copenhagen (Denmark) Died May 25, 1972, Copenhagen (Denmark) Nielsen was an internationally acclaimed silent cinema actress whose expressive and naturalistic performances transcended the formulaic plots of the films in which she appeared. Best known for her portrayals of tragic and erotic women, she achieved international fame with her unconventional production of HAMLET (1920) playing the title role. Asta Nielsen was born into a poor family in Copenhagen, Denmark. Having auditioned at the Royal Theatre, she was accepted into its acting school at the age of fourteen. After the birth of an illegitimate daughter, Nielsen began her professional career in 1902 but despite theatrical engagements and tours she had only limited success. In 1910 she collaborated with Urban Gad on the film AFGRUNDEN (The Abyss) playing Magda, a runaway wife who is ultimately driven to murder her lover. After AFGRUNDEN’s unexpected international success the couple signed an exclusive contract with German producers and released a series of popular films in which Nielsen’s compelling performances won critical acclaim as well as popularity with audiences. Nielsen’s characters were often caught up in socially unacceptable love affairs (NACHTFALTER, The Moth, 1911; DIE ARME JENNY, Poor Jenny, 1911/
12), but she equally convinced in comedies involving cross-dressing and gender deception (JUGEND UND TOLLHEIT, Youth and Madness, 1912; ZAPATAS BANDE, Zapata’s Gang, 1913/14). After ending her relationship with Gad, she worked under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch in RAUSCH (Intoxication, 1919) and co-starred with Greta Garbo in G. W. Pabst’s DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE (The Joyless Street, 1925). Dissatisfied with her roles and in need of creative freedom Nielsen formed her own company ‘Art-Film’, which produced three films including her idiosyncratic version of HAMLET (1920), played as a woman in disguise, and FRÄULEIN JULIE (Miss Julie, 1921). Her third film DER ABSTURZ (The Fall, 1922) narrates the love of an older woman for a younger man, prefiguring a recurring theme in Nielsen’s later films. Unpopular with producers because of her open criticism of the film industry and her left-wing sympathies, Nielsen’s film career came to and end shortly after the conversion to sound, following a final role in UNMÖGLICHE LIEBE (Crown of Thorns, 1932). The Nazis’ rise to power eventually forced her back to Denmark. Refusing offers to return to screen or stage she diversified into writing, painting, broadcasting, only tempted back in front of the screen for the biographical film ASTA NIELSEN (1968). At the age of eighty-eight she married Christian Teede, her third husband. Many of Nielsen’s films have been lost and were long dismissed as trivial, yet contemporary critics were united in praise of her skill in conveying emotional processes through facial expressions and physical gestures. Following her death Nielsen has been re-evaluated, and she is now remembered for her creative originality, diversity and subtle support of feminine empowerment. [act – DE] 1910: Afgrunden [DK]. 1911: Nachtfalter; Heißes Blut; In dem großen Augenblick; Den sorte drøm [DK]; Zigeunerblut; Der fremde Vogel; Balletdanserinden [DK]; Die Verräterin; Die Macht des Goldes. 1911/12: Die arme Jenny. 1912: Zu Tode gehetzt; Der Totentanz; Jugend und Tollheit; Die Kinder des Generals; Wenn die Maske fällt; Das Mädchen ohne Vaterland; Komödianten. 1912/13: Die Sünden der Väter; Der Tod in Sevilla. 1913: Die Suffragette; S 1; Die Film-Primadonna; Engelein. 1913/14: Das Kind ruft; Zapatas Bande. 1914: Das Feuer. Die alte Gnädige; Engeleins Hochzeit; Die ewige Nacht; Die falsche Asta Nielsen; Vordertreppe und Hintertreppe; Aschenbrödel; Die Tochter der Landstraße; Die weißen Rosen. 1915: Der erste Patient. 1916: Das Liebes-ABC; Das Waisenhauskind; Dora Brandes; Stein unter Steinen; Eine Rose der Wildnis; Im Lebenswirbel; Das Eskimobaby; Die Börsenkönigin. 1918: Mod Lyset [DK]. 1919: Rausch; Das Ende vom Liede; Nach dem Gesetz; Graf Sylvains Rache. 1920: Der Reigen; Kurfürstendamm; Hamlet [act,pro]; Steuermann Holk; Brigantenrache. 1921: Irrende Seelen; Die Geliebte Roswol-
ASTA NIELSEN skys; Fräulein Julie [act,pro]. 1921/22: Vanina. 1922: Der Absturz [act,pro]; Die Tänzerin Navarro. 1922/23: Erdgeist. 1923: I.N.R.I. Ein Film der Menschlichkeit. 1923/ 24: Das Haus am Meer; Lebende Buddhas; Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924: Die Schmetterlingsschlacht; Die Frau im Feuer; Hedda Gabler. 1924/25: Athleten. 1925:
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Die freudlose Gasse; Die Gesunkenen. 1926/27: Laster der Menschheit. 1927: Dirnentragödie; Gehetzte Frauen; Kleinstadtsünder; Das gefährliche Alter. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]. 1932: Unmögliche Liebe. Vera Holgk und ihre Töchter. 1968: Asta Nielsen [dir,scr,act – DK].
DORE O. (Dore Oberloskamp) Born August 9, 1946, Mülheim/Ruhr (Germany) Originally a painter, Dore O. was one of the principal experimental West German filmmakers from the 1960s onwards, often in partnership with her husband Werner Nekes. Her films refuse to be co-opted by political messages or social comment, and instead combine images of landscapes, rooms, and faces into visually and technically complex lyrical compositions. Dore O. attended college in Krefeld where she began to paint. She produced books and art objects, exhibiting in Mülheim and Düsseldorf. Her association with Nekes began in the mid-1960s, as a prop assistant on the short FEHLSTART (False Start), and acting alongside Nekes in ARTIKEL (both 1966). Later she collaborated in a variety of technical roles, eventually advancing to designer and co-director. O. married Nekes in 1967, and the couple became leading figures in the developing experimental film scene, arranging screenings in their flat and in art galleries as well as co-founding the Hamburger Filmmacher Cooperative and the Hamburger Filmschau. After JÜM-JÜM (1967), made with Nekes, Dore O. directed her first solo outing, the very personal, experimental ALASKA (1968). The following year, LAWALE consisted of long takes depicting everyday scenes from her childhood. Attracted to Nordic landscapes, she filmed KALDALON (1970/71) in Iceland where images of water, rocks, steam and smoke were technically enhanced to appear blue-tinged. Lengthy periods spent in her house in Sweden (1973– 78) inspired several films, including KASKARA (1974), which provided a view from a window and incorporated split-screen techniques and dissolves, winning the Grand Prix at the festival XPRMTL in Knokke and the German Film Critics’ Award in 1974. In 1978 she and Nekes relocated to Mülheim/Ruhr where they lived with their family – daughter Rona and son Jonathan – in a former leather factory and cooperated with artists from the region. Her paintings, photographs, and films were shown at exhibitions and retrospectives around the world. BLINDMAN’S BALL (1988) concerns a sick man and his fears of going blind, and was chosen as the best experimental film in Oberhausen in 1989. Her first full-length feature film CANDIDA (1990/91), inspired by Frans Masareel’s series of woodcuts ‘Die
Idee’ (The Idea), is a poetic fable about a free and just society. In ENDO-HEAT (1997) and THERMOMENT (1998) O. experimented with ‘making music visible’ by filming a musician with a thermo-sensitive camera. Using the image of a spiral staircase as a central visual and philosophical metaphor, EYE-STEP (2000) included a kaleidoscope of scenes from locations including India and the director’s hometown of Mülheim. [filmmaker – AG – DE] 1966: Fehlstart [des]; Artikel [act]. 1967: jüm-jüm [co-dir,des,act]; Das Seminar [SD – act]; gurtrug Nr. 1 [act]; gurtrug Nr. 2 [act]. 1968: Alaska; Ort und Niederlassung der Dore O. und Engpaß; Vis-à-vis [act]; Mama, da steht ein Mann [act]; Kelek [act]. 1969: Lawale; Nebula [act]; Dämonische Leinwand. 4. Teil: Heimkehr nach St. Pauli [act]. 1970: Abbadono [act]. 1970/71: Kaldalon. 1971: Spacecut [cam]. 1972: Blonde Barbarei; T-Wo-Men (whatever happened between the pictures?) [act]. 1973/74: Diwan: 1. sun-a-mul. – 2. alternatim. – 3. kantinele. – 4. moto. – 5. hynningen [act]. 1974: Kaskara; Makimono [act]. 1975/76: Amalgam: 1. Knoten. – 2. Gewebe. – 3. Textur. – 4. Geflecht [ass,act]. 1976/77: Lagado [des,act]. 1977: Frozen Flashes. 1977/78: Mirador. Abenteuer im Land der Schatten-Steine [des]. 1979: Hurrycan [des,act]. 1980-82: Uliisses [des,act]. 1981: Beuys [SD]; Peggy und die anderen oder: Wer trägt die Avantgarde? [TVD – scr]. 1982: Nekes [SD – co-filmmaker]; Stern des Meliès. 1983: Der Hut. Im Lichte neuester Forschung [SF – ass]. 1983-85: Optisches ABC [des]. 1985: Enzyklop; Was geschah wirklich zwischen den Bildern? [DO – des]; Der Telefonvoyeur [SF – cam]. 1986: Johnny Flash [ass,des,act]. 1988: Blindman’s Ball. 1990/ 91: Candida. 1992: Triptychon mit Schafen [SD – sfx]. 1994: Xoanon. 1997: Endo-Heat. 1998: Thermoment; Die kritische Masse. film im underground hamburg ’68 [DO – app]. 2000: Eye-Step.
UWE OCHSENKNECHT Born January 7, 1956, Biblis near Worms (West Germany) Equally adept at playing comedy and drama, Ochsenknecht emerged as one of the most recognisable leading men of German cinema in the 1980s and early 1990s, and he subsequently continued a successful career as (mostly supporting) actor and singer. After graduating from acting school in Bochum in 1974, Ochsenknecht took on small parts in television
UWE OCHSENKNECHT
series, before his breakthrough in Wolfgang Petersen’s popular DAS BOOT (The Boat, 1980/81), about the adventures of a World War II German U-boat and its motley crew. He played Mozart’s librettist Emmanuel Schikaneder in the German-Czech co-production VERGESST MOZART (Forget Mozart, 1984) among other lesser productions, before becoming an overnight star as a laid-back loafer turned stressed yuppie in MÄNNER (Men, 1985), Doris Dörrie’s mildly feminist take on the screwball comedy. Dörrie cast him again in the male lead of her crime caper GELD (Money, 1988/89). Perhaps his most famous role, based on a real-life character, was as a penniless painter who resorts to forging Hitler’s diaries, in Helmut Dietl’s media satire SCHTONK (1991/ 92). From the early 1990s, Ochsenknecht pursued a separate career as a pop singer with some success, releasing several CDs. He meanwhile appeared regularly in mostly undistinguished comedies and dramas in films and on television, often portraying either comically selfish or introspectively brooding ‘new men’. Reunited with director Dörrie, he played a part in the portmanteau film BIN ICH SCHÖN? (Am I Beautiful, 1997/98), and in her ERLEUCHTUNG GARANTIERT (Enlightenment Guaranteed, 1999) he starred as a forty-something divorcee who seeks spiritual reawakening in a Japanese Zen monastery, but who gets sidetracked by Tokyo’s relentless modernity. Ochsenknecht developed his international profile by appearing in the 2000 US science fiction TV miniseries FRANK HERBERT’S DUNE, and gained acclaim for his role as a murder suspect’s alleged accomplice in VERA BRÜHNE (2000/01), Hark Bohm’s TV drama chronicling one of post-war West Germany’s most notorious miscarriages of justice. In TV biopics he embodied historical figures such as 19th Century chancellor BISMARCK (1989/90), BEETHOVEN (2006/07), and Pope Leo X in LUTHER (2002/03). In ELEMENTARTEILCHEN (2005/06), Oskar Roehler’s acerbic adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s bestselling novel ‘Atomised’, Ochsenknecht portrayed the main characters’ father. From an early age, his two sons Wilson Gonzalez (b. 1990) and Jimi Blue (b. 1991) have appeared in films (DIE WILDEN KERLE, The Wild Soccer Bunch, 5 parts, 2002–08). [act – DE – TV] 1973/74: Dein gutes Recht: 9. Durch die Mühle. 1976: Zwischen 18 und 20: 5. Hans / 6. Britta; Ausgerissen! Was nun? 1977: Die Straße [AT]. 1978: Rick und Ritschi; Unternehmen Rentnerkommune [TVS]; Avalanche Express [FF – IE/US]. 1979: Uns reicht das nicht; Das Ding. 1979/80: Derrick: Tödliche Sekunde. 1980: Tatort: Schönes Wochenende. 1980/81: Das Boot [FF]. 1982: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken: Die Kompagnons; Tatort: Wat Recht is, mut Recht bliewen; Büro, Büro [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1983:
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Die Zeiten ändern sich [TVS]; Rummelplatzgeschichten [TVS]; Wenn ich mich fürchte … [FF]. 1983/84: Alles aus Liebe: Kellermanns Prozeß; Der Fahnder: Liebe macht blind. 1984: Tatort: Verdeckte Ermittlung; Das leise Gift; Der Rekord [FF – DE/CH]; Parker [FF – GB]; Vergeßt Mozart / Zabudnite na Mozarta [FF – DE/CS]. 1985: Die Sache ist gelaufen; Die Krimistunde. Folge 18; Männer [FF]. 1985/ 86: Operation Dead End [FF]. 1986: Rotlicht [FF – CH]; Irgendwie und sowieso [TVS]; Rebellion der Gehenkten [DE/ MX/FR]. 1987: Tatort: Blindflug; Die Dollarfalle [DE/CH]. 1987/89: Doppelgänger [FF – DE/CH]. 1988: Notwehr. 1988/89: Geld [FF]; Die Stimme [FF]. 1989: Butterbrot [FF]. 1989/90: All Out / De plein fouet [FF – CH/FR/DE]; Bismarck. 1990: Feuer, Eis & Dynamit [FF]. 1991: Ein Fall für zwei: Helens Geheimnisse; Auf Achse: Musa und und Marie. 1991/92: Schtonk! [FF]. 1992: Tatort: Der Mörder und der Prinz; Ein Mann für jede Tonart [FF]. 1992/93: Kaspar Hauser [FF]. 1993/94: Mona Must Die / Ein fast perfektes Verhältnis [FF – US/DE]; Einfach nur Liebe [FF]; Felidae [ANI – voi]. 1995: Way to Dusty Death [US]; Spur eines Zweifels; Honigmond. 1995/96: Die Straßen von Berlin [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1996: Das Zauberbuch / Kouzelny mesec [DE/CZ]; Der Unfisch [FF – AT]. 1996/97: Die Gang [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1997: Tödliches Alibi; Ballermann 6 – Auf der Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens [FF]; Weihnachtsfieber; Widows – Erst die Ehe, dann das Vergnügen [FF]; Geliehenes Glück. 1997/98: Bin ich schön? [FF]. 1998: Weekend mit Leiche [FF]; Zucker & Sohn; Auch Männer brauchen Liebe; Operation Noah; Und alles wegen Mama. 1998-2000: Schrott. Die Atzenposse [FF]. 1999: Enemy of My Enemy [FF – US]; Bodyguard – Dein Leben in meiner Hand; Stan Becker – Ein Mann, ein Wort; Erleuchtung garantiert [FF]; Fußball ist unser Leben [FF]. 1999/ 2000: Siska: Das letzte Konzert. 2000: Der tote Taucher im Wald [FF]; L’Impero [IT]; Frank Herbert’s Dune / Dune – Der Wüstenplanet [US/CA/DE]. 2000/01: Vera Brühne. 2001: Küss mich, Tiger!; Stern der Liebe; Mein Vater und andere Betrüger; Siska: Hass macht blind; Crociati / Die Kreuzritter [IT/DE]. 2002: Harte Brötchen. 2002/03: Nachtschicht: Amok!; Luther [FF]; Die Wilden Kerle – Alles ist gut, solange du wild bist! [FF]. 2003: Abgeschminkt: Uwe Ochsenknecht [TVD – app]; Ein seltsames Paar. 2003/04: Engelchen flieg. 2004: Der Bulle von Tölz: Der Tölzi; Für immer und jetzt; Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe [FF]; De Bloedbruiloft / Die Bluthochzeit [FF – BE/DE]. 2004/ 05: Die Wilden Kerle 2 [FF]. 2005: Tollpension. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen [FF]; Der beste Lehrer der Welt; Die Wilden Kerle 3 [FF]. 2005-07: Liebe nach Rezept. 2006: Kein Geld der Welt. 2006/07: Die Wilden Kerle 4 [FF]; Giganten: Beethoven – Genie am Abgrund; Angsthasen. 2006-08: Schade um das schöne Geld. 2007: Siska: Sei still und stirb; Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken [FF]; Lauf um Dein Leben – Vom Junkie zum Ironman [FF]; Mord in aller Unschuld; Sommer [FF]; Ein Ferienhaus in Marrakesch. 2007/08: Crash [SF]; Der Alte: Die Nacht kommt schneller als du denkst; De brief voor de koning / Der Brief für den König [FF – NL/ DE]. 2008: Mein Schüler, seine Mutter & ich. 2008/09: Der Vulkan; Ein Date fürs Leben; Lippels Traum [FF]; Böses Erwachen [AT]; Tod bei Ankunft.
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ERIK ODE (Fritz Erik Signy Odemar) Born November 6, 1910, Berlin (Germany) Died July 19, 1983, Weißbach/Tegernsee (West Germany) Following a varied forty-year show business career, Ode gained national recognition playing the title role in the West German television police series DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner) from 1968 to 1976. The son of actors Fritz Odemar (1890–1955) and Erika Nymgau (1889–1981), Ode became a chorister at the Deutsches Opernhaus and made his film debut playing the young Jesus in Robert Wiene’s I.N.R.I. (Crown of Thorns) in 1923. He undertook an apprenticeship at a photochemical factory in 1927, and was assistant to cinematographers Otto Kanturek and Fritz Arno Wagner. He made his stage debut the following year at Berlin’s Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, followed by countless cabaret, operetta and stage-play appearances as singer, dancer and actor at various theatres. From 1930, the versatile Ode also took on a vast array of supporting roles in films, playing a newspaper editor in Robert Wohlmuth’s film industry satire DAS KABINETT DES DR. LARIFARI (The Cabinet of Dr. Larifari, 1930), a smooth-talking gigolo in Reinhold Schünzel’s SAISON IN KAIRO (Cairo Season, 1933), and a carefree student in Robert A. Stemmle’s CHARLEYS TANTE (Charley’s Aunt, 1934). He worked at Munich’s Staatsschauspiel theatre in 1939, entertained troops in Norway and France, and then performed at a number of smaller theatres in Berlin from 1943. He was called up to fight shortly before the end of the war. Returning to cabaret and Berlin’s Komödie am Kurfürstendamm theatre in 1945/46, Ode also directed radio dramas for station NWDR (Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk) in Hamburg. In 1948, he became head of programming at radio station RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor) in Berlin, and then carved out a successful career as a stage director, also helming 1950s revue films and musicals featuring stars such as Peter Alexander, Caterina Valente, Vico Torriani, and Marika Rökk. Ode furthermore directed a number of remakes of successful 1930s comedies, including DER MUSTERGATTE (The Model Husband, 1956) starring Harald Juhnke, and EINMAL EINE GROSSE DAME SEIN (Oh, to be a Fine Lady!, 1957). Having worked regularly as both director and actor in television from the 1960s, it was Ode’s portrayal of DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner), running for 97 episodes, that proved especially popular, and his 1972 memoirs were entitled ‘Der Kommissar und ich’ (The Commissioner and I). He continued to work occasionally as a director and actor on the stage before retiring in 1982.
From 1942 until his death, Ode was married to the film, theatre and television actress Hilde Volk (1912– 1995), who appeared in a number of episodes of DER KOMMISSAR alongside her husband. [act – DE] 1923: I.N.R.I. Ein Film der Menschlichkeit. 1930: Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg. 1931: Sein Scheidungsgrund; Der Hochtourist; Kadetten. Hinter den roten Mauern von Lichterfelde. 1932: Kavaliere vom Kurfürstendamm; Ja, treu ist die Soldatenliebe; Die eiserne Jungfrau [SF]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]. 1933: Was Frauen träumen; Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Glück im Schloß; Das Schloß im Süden [MLV]. 1933/34: Zigeunerblut. 1934: Charleys Tante; Die Sporck’schen Jäger; Der kühne Schwimmer; Jungfrau gegen Mönch. Ein lustiger Krieg in den schweizer Bergen; Ritter wider Willen [SF]. 1934/35: Winternachtstraum. Ein lustiger Film. 1935: Held einer Nacht [MLV – CS]; Vergiß mein nicht! [MLV]; Der Dschungel ruft. 1935/36: Der Favorit der Kaiserin; Mädchenjahre einer Königin; Heißes Blut [MLV]. 1936: Der Abenteurer von Paris; Drei tolle Tage; Wette um einen Kuß [SF]; Blonder Mann übern Weg [SF]. 1937: Land der Liebe; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Die verliebte Dachstube [SF]. 1937/38: Rätsel um Beate; Großalarm. 1938: Spuk im Museum [SF]; Stärker als die Liebe; Das Leben kann so schön sein. 1938/39: Ein hoffnungsloser Fall; Ich verweigere die Aussage. 1939: Modell Lu. Der Lebensweg eines Hutes [SF]; Alarm auf Station III; Wir tanzen um die Welt. 1939/40: Karlsbader Reise [SD]. 1942: Kleine Residenz. 1943: Tonelli. 1943/44: Eine kleine Sommermelodie; Meine Herren Söhne. 1944/45: Wir seh’n uns wieder. [dir – DE] 1948: Sie sind nicht gemeint [SF – act]; Stadtmeier und Landmeier [SF – act]; Berliner Ballade [voi]. 1949/50: Herrliche Zeiten [DO/FF – co-dir,act]. 1950: Skandal in der Botschaft [dir,act]; Servus Peter [act]. 1952: Das Land des Lächelns [co-dir]; Der Kampf der Tertia. 1953: So ein Affentheater; Schlagerparade. 1954: Der erste Kuß [DE/AT]; An jedem Finger zehn. 1955: Heldentum nach Ladenschluß: 4. Captain Fox; Wunschkonzert; Musik im Blut. 1956: Lügen haben hübsche Beine [AT]; Bestseller [TV]; Der Mustergatte. 1957: Eine große Liebe [TV – dir,scr]; Einmal eine große Dame sein; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut [dir,act]. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala. 1958: Ohne Mutter geht es nicht; Scala – total verrückt [dir,co-scr]. 1958/59: Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt. 1959: Wenn das mein großer Bruder wüßte! [dir,act – AT]; Die Liebe des Jahres. Eine musikalische Groteske [TV]. 1960: Das Fenster zum Flur [TV]; Schlager-Raketen. 1961: Rosen für Marina [TV – act]; Heute gehn wir bummeln. [act – DE – TV] 1962: Bubusch [dir]; Theorie und Praxis [dir]; Meine Frau Susanne [TVS – dir,act]. 1963: Das Ende vom Anfang [dir]; Feuerwerk [dir]; Herr Lamberthier [dir]; Fräulein, schreiben Sie [dir]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Der stumme Kronzeuge; Wachet auf und singet. 1963/64: Der Kaiser vom Alexanderplatz [dir]. 1964: Spätsommer. 1964/65: Das Kriminalmuseum: Der Brief. 1965: Wolken am Himmel [dir]; Mrs. Cheneys Ende [dir,act]; Die 5. Kolonne: Besuch von drüben. 1965/66: Förster Horn [TVS – dir]; Die 5. Kolonne: Die ägyptische Katze. 1966: Der schwarze Freitag. Der New Yorker Börsenkrach 1929; Das
ANNY ONDRA Kriminalmuseum: Die Reisetasche. 1966/67: Tagebücher. 1967: Crumbles letzte Chance [dir]; Keine Leiche ohne Lily [dir]; Nach all den Jahren [dir]; Die Flucht nach Holland. 1967/68: Der Mann, der keinen Mord beging [TVS]. 1968-76: Der Kommissar [TVS – 97 episodes; dir,act in 3 episodes]. 1973: Fernsehverweigerung. 1974: Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Mein Freund Uwe [AT/DE]. 1976: Preußenkorso 45-48. 1978: Polizeiinspektion 1: Bitte ein Autogramm. 1978-81: Sonne, Wein und harte Nüsse [TVS – 2 seasons – 26 episodes]. 1979: Die Geisterbehörde; Derrick: Die Versuchung [dir,act]. 1980: Pygmalion [DE/AT]; Derrick: Eine unheimlich starke Persönlichkeit [dir]. 1981: Schuld sind nur die Frauen ….
ANNY ONDRA (Anne Sophie Ondráková) Born May 15, 1903, Tarnów (Austria-Hungary, now Poland) Died February 28, 1987, Hollenstedt (West Germany) Blond, spirited and charming, Anny Ondra progressed from leading lady in Czech musical comedies to being the darling of German films in the late 1920s and 1930s, following a brief but notable intermezzo in British cinema. The daughter of a Czech officer spent her childhood in Prague, appearing in small roles on stage. Discovered by film director Gustav Machaty, she was given the title role in DÁMA S MALOU NO KOU (Lady with the Small Foot, 1919). From then on she played nice and capricious young girls in numerous films. Under the direction of Carl Lamaè she became the leading comedy star in Czech cinema, while also appearing in films in Austria and Germany, such as HÜTET EURE TÖCHTER (Look After Your Daughters, 1922). In the late 1920s, Ondra convinced with two serious parts in Alfred Hitchcock’s THE MANXMAN (1927) and BLACKMAIL (1928/29), the latter filmed in both a silent and a sound version. Her heavy continental accent precluded any further international appearances after the coming of sound, and in 1930 she founded the Ondra-Lamac Film Company in Berlin together with her favourite director. Her first sound film DIE VOM RUMMELPLATZ (Fairground People, 1930) showcased Ondra’s talents as a musical comedy star, and also featured her dancing and singing in a ‘Mickey Mouse’ costume. More unusual was her tragicomic turn in the title role of the Charles Dickens adaptation KLEIN DORRIT (Little Dorrit, 1934) directed by Lamaè, and she showed an aptitude for sophisticated humour in Reinhold Schünzel’s screwball comedy DONOGOO TONKA (1935/36). In 1933, Ondra gained publicity by marrying the heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling (1905–2005), with whom she co-starred in KNOCK-
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OUT (1934/35); their marriage would last for more
than five decades until Ondra’s death. After Lamaè left Germany – their last film together was DER SCHEIDUNGSGRUND (Cause for Divorce, 1937) – Ondra’s stardom declined and she practically retired from films. During the war she appeared in only two productions, starring alongside Heinz Rühmann in the comedy DER GASMANN (The Gasman, 1940/41) and filming in her old, and then Nazioccupied, home town of Prague for HIMMEL, WIR ERBEN EIN SCHLOSS (Heaven, We Inherit a Castle, 1942). After World War II, her last screen appearances were in Carl Froelich’s SCHÖN MUSS MAN SEIN (You Have to Be Beautiful, 1950/51), and DIE ZÜRCHER VERLOBUNG (The Affairs of Julie, 1956/57), in which she and Schmeling had cameo appearances as themselves. [act – CS] 1919: Dáma s malou nokou; Palimpsest. 1920: Nikyho velebné dobrodrustvi [DE/CS/AT]; Gilly poprvé v Praze [SF]; Tam na horách; Dráteníèek; Zpìv zlata; Setøelé písmo / Tajemstrí staré knihy. 1921: Pøíchozí z temnot; Otrávené svìtlo. 1922: Führe uns nicht in Versuchung [AT]; Hütet eure Töchter [AT]; Zigeunerliebe [AT]; Sodom und Gomorrha: 1. Die Sünde / 2. Die Strafe [AT]; Drvoštìp. 1923: Tu ten kámen; Mu bez srdce / Der Mann ohne Herz [CS/DE]; Únos bankéøe Fuxe. 1924: Bílý ráj; Chyte ho! Lupiè nešika; Høíchy v manelství [CS/DE]. 1924/25: Ich liebe Dich! [DE]. 1925: Vdavky Nanynky Kulichovy; Karel Havlíèek Borovský; Do panského stavu; Šest mušketýrú; Lucerna; Hrabìnka z Podskalí. 1926: Trude, die Sechzehnjährige [DE]; Anièko, vra se!; Velbloud uchem jehly; Die Pratermizzi [AT]; Pantáta Bezoušek; Seine Hoheit, der Eintänzer [AT]. 1927: Sladká Josefínka; Milenky starého kriminálníka; Kvìt ze Šumavy; The Manxman [GB]. 1927/28: Dcery Eviny / Evas Töchter / Anny … fille d’Ève [CS/DE/CH]. [act – DE] 1928: Saxophon-Susi; Eileen of the Trees [GB]; God’s Clay [GB]; Der erste Kuß. 1928/29: Blackmail [GB]. 1929: Sündig und süß; Das Mädel mit der Peitsche; Die Kaviarprinzessin. 1929/30: Das Mädel aus U.S.A. 1930: Die vom Rummelplatz [act,pro]; Die große Sehnsucht; Der K. u. K. Feldmarschall [MLV – P – CS/DE]; Eine Freundin so goldig wie du [act,pro]. 1930/31: Er und seine Schwester [MLV – act,pro – CS/DE]. 1931: On a jeho sestra [MLV – CS]; Der Zinker [act,pro – DE/AT]; Mam’zelle Nitouche [MLV – pro – FR/DE]; Mamsell Nitouche [MLV – FR/DE]; Die Fledermaus [MLV – FR/DE]; La chauve-souris [MLV – act,pro – DE/FR]. 1931/32: Eine Nacht im Paradies [MLV – act,pro]; Une nuit au Paradis [MLV – act,pro]. 1932: Fautil les marier? [MLV – DE/FR]; Die grausame Freundin [MLV]; Der angenehme Patient [SF – pro]; Der Dienstmann [SF – pro]; Der Hexer [MLV – pro – DE/AT]; Kantor ideál [MLV – act – CS]; Kiki. Der Lebensweg einer kleinen Choristin [MLV – act,pro – DE/FR]; Kiki [French MLV – act,pro – DE/ FR]; Baby [MLV – FR]; Baby [German MLV – FR]. 1932/ 33: Die Tochter des Regiments [MLV – act,pro]; La fille du régiment [MLV – act,pro – DE/FR]. 1933: Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen [act,pro]; Vorspeisen gefällig? [SF];
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Orchesterprobe [SF – pro]; Das verliebte Hotel [act,pro]. 1934: Ein gemütlicher Nachmittag [SF – pro]; Die vertauschte Braut [MLV – act,pro]; Im Schallplattenladen [SF – pro]; L’Amour en cage [MLV – act,pro – DE/FR]; Klein Dorrit [act,pro]; So ein Theater! [SF – pro]; Der verhexte Scheinwerfer [SF – pro]; Polenblut [MLV – act,pro – CS/DE]; Polská krev [MLV – CS]. 1934/35: Knock-out [act, pro]. 1935: Großreinemachen [act,pro]; Der junge Graf [act,pro]; Im weißen Rößl [pro – AT/DE]. 1935/36: Donogoo Tonka. Die geheimnisvolle Stadt [FF MLV]. 1936: Flitterwochen [act,pro]; Ein Mädel vom Ballett [act,pro]; Der Hund von Baskerville [pro]. 1936/37: Vor Liebe wird gewarnt [act,pro]. 1937: Dùvod k rozvodu [MLV – CS]; Der Scheidungsgrund [MLV – act,pro – CS/DE]; Der Unwiderstehliche. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Narren im Schnee. 1940/41: Der Gasmann. 1942: Himmel, wir erben ein Schloß [DE (CS)]. 1950: Trio [GB]. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein. 1956/57: Die Zürcher Verlobung.
MARCEL OPHÜLS (aka Marcel Wall) Born November 1, 1927, Frankfurt/Main (Germany) Ophüls’s documentaries frequently dealt with the consequences and legacies of war, especially in terms of individual ethics and responsibilities. An acclaimed but often controversial director, his style is characterised by its polemically subjective approach, deliberate digressions, and foregrounding of the filmmaker as a protagonist. The son of film director Max Ophüls, Marcel grew up in France and from 1941 in the United States. He studied at the University of California and at the Sorbonne in Paris, while gaining a foothold in the film industry as a trainee production assistant from the early 1950s, including on John Huston’s MOULIN ROUGE (1952). During this period he often used the name Marcel Wall (his mother’s maiden name). On his father’s LOLA MONTÈS (The Fall of Lola Montes, 1955) he worked both as an assistant director and as a supporting actor. From 1956 to 1959 he was employed by the West German broadcaster Südwestfunk (SWF). In the early 1960s Ophüls was briefly part of the French ‘nouvelle vague’ – alongside François Truffaut and Andrzej Wajda, he contributed a German episode to the multi-national L’AMOUR À VINGT ANS (Love at Twenty, 1961/6 ), while his comedy PEAU DE BANANE (The Banana Skin, 1963) starred Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jeanne Moreau. After the follow-up, FAITES VOS JEUX, MESDAMES (Fire at Will, 1964/65), a spoof spy thriller starring Eddie Constantine, Ophüls refocused his energies on documentaries, and turned television journalist. Made in 1967 for French television, MUNICH OU LA PAIX POUR CENT ANS (Munich, or Peace in our Time) reconstructed the Munich Conference of 1938
and included witness accounts from veteran politicians Anthony Eden and Edouard Daladier. Co-produced by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Swiss television, LE CHAGRIN ET LA PITIÉ (The Sorrow and the Pity, 1969) charted over four-and-a-half hours examples of resistance and collaboration during World War II in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. The film caused considerable political controversies, both in Germany and in France. Ophüls continued to explore issues of war-related guilt in the West German TV documentary DIE ERNTE VON MY LAI – AUSWIRKUNGEN EINES MASSAKERS (The Harvest of My Lai, 1970) about
the aftermath of the notorious mass murder of Vietnamese civilians by the US Army in 1968. In a lighter vein was his adaptation of Sacha Guitry’s comedy ‘Faisons un rêve’, ZWEI GANZE TAGE – WIR WOLLEN UNS EIN LUFTSCHLOSS BAUEN (Two Whole Days – Let’s Build a Fairy Castle, 1970). In 1973 and 1974, Ophüls worked in the United States as a staff producer for CBS and ABC News, before directing THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE (1973–75), a Golden Globe-nominated collage of material encompassing the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, the bombing of Dresden, and conflicts in Algeria and Vietnam. After falling out with the British producers the film was reedited by Lutz Becker under the title SPUREN DER GERECHTIGKEIT (Tracks of Justice). Back in Europe from 1979, Ophüls provided a portrait of legendary film and stage actor/director Fritz Kortner in KORTNERGESCHICHTEN (Kortner-Stories, 1980), and occasionally appeared in supporting parts in films by other directors, such as Herbert Vesely’s artist biopic EGON SCHIELE – EXZESSE (Egon Schiele – Excess and Punishment, 1979/80). Ophüls revisited issues of war crimes with HOTEL TERMINUS – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KLAUS BARBIE (1985–87), which won an Academy Award
for best documentary feature in 1989. Instead of a simple biographical account of the former Gestapo chief of Lyon and his crimes, Ophüls’s film provided a bitterly acerbic exposé of local and international, and private as well as governmental acts of collusion and collaboration. As with his previous work, some critics found the director’s on-screen presence as distractive, and his interview technique as too interventionist. NOVEMBERTAGE – STIMMEN UND WEGE (November Days, 1989/90) charted the dreams and anxieties of ordinary East German citizens, as well as the self-justifications of GDR politicians in the period immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, with Ophüls himself cast characteristically as ironic observer. VEILÉES D’ARMES (The Troubles We’ve Seen – The History of Journalism in Wartime, 1993/ 94) was set against the backdrop of the Bosnian conflict and interrogated the ethics of war correspon-
MAX OPHÜLS
dents, featuring veterans of the profession such as the BBC’s Martin Bell and CBS’s Walter Cronkite. [dir,scr – DE] 1942: Why We Fight. No. 1: Prelude to War [SD – act – US]. 1951: Monsieur Fabre [trainee – FR]; Nuits de Paris [trainee – FR]; Un grand patron [trainee – FR]. 1951/52: Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee / Die Jungfrau mit der Peitsche [MLV – ass-dir – CH/FR/DE]. 1952: Plaisirs de Paris [MLV – trainee – FR]; Moulin Rouge [ass-dir – GB]. 1953: Un acte d’amour / Act of Love [ass-dir – FR/US]. 1954/55: Marianne de ma jeunesse [MLV – ass-dir – DE/FR]; Marianne [MLV – ass-dir – DE/FR]. 1955: Lola Montès / Lola Montez [ass-dir,act – FR/DE]. 1957: Der Punkt auf dem i [TV – dir]; Die Ballade vom Groschen [TV-SF – dir]. 1957/58: Standpunkte [TV-SF]. 1958: Das Pflichtmandat [TV]. 1960: Matisse ou le talent du bonheur [SD – FR]. 1961/62: L’Amour à vingt ans / L’amore a vent’anni / Hatachi no koi / Liebe mit zwanzig. EP: München / Mi³oæ dwudziestolatków [FR/IT/JP/DE/PL]. 1963: Peau de banane / Buccia di banana [dir,co-scr – FR/IT]. 1964/65: Faites vos jeux, mesdames / Hagan juego, senores [dir,co-scr – FR/ES]. 1965/66: Zwei Girls vom roten Stern / Duel à la Vodka [co-scr – DE/FR]. 1967: Munich ou La paix pour cent ans. 1. La faiblesse des bons. – 2. La malice des méchants [TVD – FR]; Till Eulenspiegel [TV – co-scr]. 1969: Le chagrin et la pitié – Chronique d’une ville française sous l’occupation / Das Haus nebenan – Chronik einer französischen Stadt im Kriege [DO – dir,co-scr – CH/DE]. 1970: Die Ernte von My Lai. Auswirkungen eines Massakers [TVD]; Clavigo [TV]; Auf der Suche nach meinem Amerika. Eine Reise nach 20 Jahren [TVD]; Zwei ganze Tage. Wir wollen uns ein Luftschloß bauen [TV]. 1971/72: A Sense of Loss [DO – dir,scr,pro – US/CH]. 1973-75: The Memory of Justice / Nicht schuldig? [DO – GB/DE/US]. 1979/ 80: Egon Schiele – Exzesse / Egon Schiele, enfer et passion [act – DE/AT/FR]. 1980: Kortnergeschichten [TVD]. 1981/82: Festspiele [TVD]; Yorktown – Le sens d’une victoire [TVD – FR]. 1982: Liberty Belle [act – FR]. 1982/83: Das schöne irre Judenmädchen [TV – act]. 1985: Les tombes du président [TV-SD – FR]. 1985-87: Hotel Terminus. The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie [DO – dir,scr,pro – US]. 1989/90: Novembertage – Stimmen und Wege / November Days [DO – DE/CH/GB]. 1993/94: Veillées d’armes. Histoire du Journalisme de Guèrra / The Troubles We’ve Seen. Die Geschichte der Kriegsberichterstattung / The Troubles We’ve Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime [SD – FR/DE/GB].
MAX OPHÜLS (Max Oppenheimer) Born May 6, 1902, St. Johann/Saar (now Saarbrücken, Germany) Died March 26, 1957, Hamburg (West Germany) Despite having been uprooted several times and having worked in Germany, France, and Hollywood from the 1930s through to the 1950s, Ophüls was an auteur with a consistent style and recurring themes. Many of his best-known films are characterised by a combina-
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tion of melancholy irony, visual lyricism, and themes of loss and nostalgia. Born into a merchant family, Oppenheimer started as an actor on stage in Stuttgart in 1920, adopting the name Ophüls. Over the next few years he appeared in theatres in Aachen and Dortmund, and eventually advanced to being director. Contracted by Ufa in 1931, Ophüls’s first assignment was as assistant on Anatole Litvak’s NIE WIEDER LIEBE (No More Love, 1931), followed by his directorial debut, the comedy DANN SCHON LIEBER LEBERTRAN (I’d Rather Have Cod Liver Oil, 1931). His first full-length feature film, DIE VERLIEBTE FIRMA (Company in Love, 1932) was a musical comedy, quickly followed by two further light entertainment films. Ophüls’s breakthrough came with LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932–34), a tragic romance set in Vienna during the final days of the Hapsburg Empire, and based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler. Shortly after the film’s premiere, with the Nazis in power, Ophüls emigrated to Paris, where he continued his career with films in a variety of different genres, including the exotic YOSHIWARA (1937), set in Japan, the Goethe adaptation WERTHER (1938), the sombre Parisian-set melodrama SANS LENDEMAIN (Without Tomorrow, 1939), and a return to the Habsburg Empire with the historical drama DE MAYERLING À SARAJÉVO (1939/40). During the 1930s, Ophüls also filmed in Italy and the Netherlands, often working with producers emigrated from Germany. After the outbreak of World War II, Ophüls and his family escaped to the United States via Lisbon. Only after several years did film projects materialise. After being removed as director from the Preston Sturges/Howard Hughes production VENDETTA (eventually directed by Mel Ferrer and released in 1950), Ophüls directed the costume drama THE EXILE (1947). LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1947/48), regarded by many as his masterpiece, marked a return to the themes of tragic love and the Habsburg Empire, and was based on Stefan Zweig’s tale of a young woman’s unrequited love for a selfish pianist. Ophüls’s next two films, CAUGHT (1948) and THE RECKLESS MOMENT (1949), meanwhile, told contemporary stories and incorporated visual and narrative elements that were later identified as constituting film noir conventions. In the early 1950s, Ophüls worked again in France, starting with the witty erotic escapades that comprise his Arthur Schnitzler adaptation LA RONDE (MerryGo-Round, 1950), followed by another episodic film based on various stories by Guy de Maupassant, LE PLAISIR (1951/52). MADAME DE … (1953) was a woman’s melodrama, again with echoes from LIEBELEI, while his final film LOLA MONTÈS (The Fall of
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Lola Montes, 1955), despite being passionately defended by the young critics and filmmakers of the nouvelle vague, proved an expensive flop at the box office. For the remainder of his life, Ophüls concentrated on work for the stage and radio. [dir – DE] 1931: Nie wieder Liebe [MLV – ass-dir]; Dann schon lieber Lebertran [SF]. 1932: Die verliebte Firma; Die verkaufte Braut [dir,co-scr]. 1932/33: Lachende Erben [dir, co-scr]; Liebelei [MLV – dir,co-scr]. [dir – FR] 1932-34: ‘Liebelei’. Une histoire d’amour [MLV – dir,co-scr]. 1933/34: On a volé un homme. 1934: La signora di tutti [dir,scr – IT]. 1935: Divine [dir,co-scr]. 1935/36: Cinephonie: Ave Maria de Schubert [SD]; Cinephonie: La valse brillante (en la b) de Chopin [SD]. 1936: La tendre ennemie [dir,scr]; Komedie om geld [dir,co-scr – NL]. 1937: Yoshiwara [dir,scr]. 1938: Werther [dir,co-scr]. 1939: Sans lendemain [dir,co-scr]. 1939/40: De Mayerling à Sarajévo. 1940: L’École des femmes [dir,scr]. 1946-50: Vendetta [US]. 1947: The Exile [dir,scr – US]. 1947/48: Letter from an Unknown Woman [US]. 1948: Caught [US]. 1949: The Reckless Moment [US]. 1950: La ronde [dir,scr]. 1951/52: Le plaisir. 1953: Madame de … / I gioielli di Madame de … [dir,co-scr – FR/IT]. 1955: Lola Montès /Lola Montez [dir,co-scr,lyr – FR/DE]. 1957/58: Montparnasse 19 (Les amants de Montparnasse) / Montparnasse [coscr – FR/IT]. 1962: Der tolle Tag [TV – co-scr – DE].
FRANZ OSTEN (Franz Ostermayr) Born December 23, 1876, Munich (Germany) Died December 2, 1956, Bad Aibling (West Germany) One of the pioneers of cinema in Southern Germany and for most of the Wilhelmine and Weimar years a prolific director of rustic, Bavarian Heimatfilme and other popular entertainment, Osten later made his name with a string of Indian-themed films in the mid to late 1920s. Based in India for most of the 1930s, he was instrumental in the development of a national film industry on the subcontinent. The eldest son of a portrait photographer, Osten took acting lessons and trained as a photographer. In 1905 he and his younger brother, Peter Ostermayr (1882– 1967) took over their father’s studio. From 1907 the brothers tried their luck with a travelling cinema, moving into film production two years later. For companies including Gaumont, Eclair, and Pathé, they filmed newsreels featuring Bavarian landscapes and cultural events, later continuing as cameramen (alongside a third brother, Ottmar, 1886–1958) at the Freiburg-based newsreel outfit ‘Der Tag im Film’. After Peter founded his company ‘Münchner Kunstfilm Peter Ostermayr’, Osten made his debut as a director in 1911 with ERNA VALEWSKA. Serving as a soldier during World War I, Osten resumed his career in 1918 in Munich, now as director
and production manager at Peter’s ‘Münchner Lichtspielkunst’ (M.L.K. known as Emelka). In the company’s newly built studio at Munich Geiselgasteig he directed Emelka’s first feature film, the Heimatfilm DER OCHSENKRIEG (The Ox War, 1920). Set in rural Bavaria in the 15th century, the film chronicled the longstanding feud of two warring farming families, and marked the first of several collaborations with cinematographer Franz Planer. SCHATTENKINDER DES GLÜCKS (Orphans of Happiness, 1922) featured the Hungarian actress and later Hollywood star Vilma Banky (born Vilma Lonchit, 1898–1991). After Peter Ostermayr sold Emelka in 1923, Osten worked for a variety of companies in Munich throughout the 1920s, branching out from Heimatfilm topics into crime thrillers, comedies, and melodramas. Through contacts with the London-based lawyer Himansu Rai (1892–1940), Osten travelled to India in 1925; this expedition resulted in a short documentary, REISEBILDER AUS INDIEN (Travel Images from India, 1925/26), and, more significantly, DIE LEUCHTE ASIENS / PREM SANYAS (The Light of Asia, 1925), an Indian-German co-production between Emelka and the Great Eastern Corporation (Delhi). Unlike the exoticist Indian films by directors including Joe May that had been popular with German audiences since the late 1910s, Osten’s film about the life of Buddha as a young man (portrayed by Rai) aimed at cultural authenticity. Osten returned to India in 1928/29. Contracted by Ufa, and in collaboration once again with Himansu Rai and with British Instructional Films (London), he made SHIRAZ / DAS GRABMAL EINER GROSSEN LIEBE (1928), which told a romantically embellished story of the origins of the Taj Mahal, and SCHICKSALSWÜRFEL / A THROW OF DICE / PRAPANCHA PASH (1928/29). Written by Max Jungk and Niran-
jan Pal and inspired by the Mahabharata, the lavishly produced film told a romantic drama replete with tiger hunts, court intrigues, and opulent palace scenes. Back in Germany, Osten made his first sound films, modestly budgeted Heimatfilme for small production companies including Lothar Stark and Ideal. In 1935 he returned to India to join Rai’s newly founded Bombay Talkies Ltd. Alongside other Germans, such as cinematographer Josef Wirsching, set designer Karl von Spreti, and lab technician Wilhelm Zolle, Osten helped to build Bombay Talkies into one of India’s foremost film studios. Between 1935 and 1939, Osten directed sixteen Hindi-language films; ACHHUT KANYA (The Untouchable, 1936) is regarded as one of the early examples of socially realist film in Hindi cinema. A member of the foreign section of the Nazi party since 1936, Osten’s career in India came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of World War II, and he was in-
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terned in 1939 by the British authorities in Bombay. His film KANGAN (The Bracelet, 1939), in production at the time, was completed by Indian colleagues. A year later he returned to Germany, where he temporarily led the casting division at the Bavaria studios. He subsequently tried to establish a film archive, and eventually became head of the tourist board of the spa town of Bad Aibling. Unlike their older brother, Peter and Ottmar Ostermayr continued their film career after World War II and initiated a new wave of Heimatfilme, especially adaptations of popular novels by Bavarian author Ludwig Ganghofer. Both remained active until the late 1950s. Peter’s son Paul Ostermayr (1909–1976) entered the industry in the late 1920s as a lab technician and editor, and – under the name Paul May – became a prolific director of popular genre cinema from the late 1930s until the mid 1960s, and also worked in television. [dir – DE] 1910: Die Wahrheit [act]. 1911: Erna Valewska. 1916: Träume sind Schäume oder ‘Zu Höherem geboren’ [scr]. 1918: Der Jäger von Fall [cam]. 1919: Das vollendete Schicksal; Das Opfer der Isis [cam]; Ruhm und Frauengunst; Vetter Fürst; Der Tod von Phaleria; Aus Liebe gesündigt; Die nicht sterben dürfen; Am Weibe zerschellt. 1919/20: Die Nacht der Entscheidung. 1920: Mit 300 PS. zum Standesamt; Der gelbe Gaukler; Liebe und … Koffer; Der Ochsenkrieg [dir,scr]; Der Kopf des Gonzales. 1921: Der Brand im Variété Mascotte; Die Kette der Schuld; Bedaure, besetzt [SF]; Der Verfluchte; Der Welt Liebe und Leid. 1921/22: Das schwarze Gesicht. 1922: Schattenkinder des Glücks; Um Liebe und Thron. 1923: Das rollende Schicksal; Die Tragödie einer Liebesnacht. 1924: Der Schrecken des Meeres; Aus der Jugendzeit klingt ein Lied. 1925: Die Leuchte Asiens / Prem Sanyas [DE/IN]. 1925/26: Reisebilder aus Indien [SD]; Der siebente Junge. 1926: Sonja [SF]; Die kleine Inge und ihre drei Väter; Die Villa im Tiergarten. 1927: Einbruch; Was Kinder den Eltern verschweigen; Die raffinierteste Frau Berlins. 1928: Die Dame in Schwarz; Das Grabmal einer großen Liebe / Shiraz [DE/GB/IN]. 1928/29: Schicksalswürfel / A Throw of Dice / Prapancha Pash [DE/GB/IN]. 1929: Karl Valentin, der Sonderling [pro]. 1931: Sankt Elisabeth in unseren Tagen [DO]; Im Banne der Berge. 1932: Fürst Seppl – Skandal im Grandhotel. 1932/33: Der sündige Hof. 1933: Der Judas von Tirol. 1933/34: Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz; Die Reise ins Glück [SF]. 1934: Rhapsodie [SF]; Ein Heiratsantrag [SF]; Der zerstreute Walzer [SF]. [dir – IN] 1935: Jawani Ki Hawa. 1935/36: Mamta; Miya Bibi. 1936: Janma Bhoomi; Jeevan Naya; Achhut Kanya. 1936/37: Izzat. 1937: Prem Kahani; Savitri; Jeevan Prabhat. 1938: Nirmala; Vachan; Bhabi. 1939: Nav Jeevan; Durga; Kangan.
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RICHARD OSWALD (Richard W. Ornstein) Born November 5, 1880, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died September 11, 1963, Düsseldorf (West Germany) Richard Oswald was a prolific director and producer of German films from the 1910s through to the early 1930s, frequently working with famous actors including Conrad Veidt. In the late 1910s he gained notoriety with his sexual enlightenment films that combined serious topics with commercial appeal. The son of a wealthy merchant, Oswald studied acting from 1896, subsequently touring on various stages, eventually as a director. After experiencing anti-Semitic attacks in Vienna, Oswald relocated to Düsseldorf in 1911 (where he made his film debut as an actor in two films), and in 1913 to Berlin. In 1914, he started working for Jules Greenbaum’s Deutsche Vitascope, writing screenplays such as the 4-part Conan Doyle adaptation DER HUND VON BASKERVILLE (The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1914/15) the last two parts of which he also directed. Following the start of World War I, Oswald made his directorial debut with DAS EISERNE KREUZ (The Iron Cross, 1914), which encountered problems with the censors. In the following years, he churned out a series of detective films, and in 1916 founding his own company. He started more ambitious projects such as the atmospheric HOFFMANNS ERZÄHLUNGEN (Tales of Hoffman, 1916) and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s DAS BILDNIS DES DORIAN GRAY (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1917). ES WERDE LICHT! (Let There Be Light, 1916/17), concerning a painter who contracts syphilis, initiated a series of Aufklärungsfilme (sexual enlightenment films), films that blended sex education with melodramatic storylines. SÜNDIGE MÜTTER (Sinning Mother) thematised abortion, while DIDA IBSENS GESCHICHTE (Dida Ibsen’s Story, both 1918) recounted a sado-masochist relationship, starring notorious dancer Anita Berber and Werner Krauß. The most ambitious and politically radical film in the series was ANDERS ALS DIE ANDERN (Different from the Others, 1918/19), starring Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel, which used the story of a violinist who is being blackmailed because he is gay as a means to demand the repeal of Germany’s draconian laws concerning homosexuality. Many of the later films in the series were made during a brief phase after the end of the war with no state censorship rules. After new regulations came into being, the boom of the Aufklärungfilme came to an end. In 1919 he opened his own cinema in Berlin and in 1921 turned his production company into a stock corporation. Oswald filmed ambitious historical epics such as LADY HAMILTON (1921), LUCREZIA BORGIA
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(1922), and CARLOS UND ELISABETH (1923/24), but returned once again to cheaper popular genre fare – mostly ‘Milieufilms’, social melodramas with a tinge of eroticism – by mid-decade, especially after his company folded in 1926. In 1928/29, as one of his last silent productions, Oswald shot the historical drama CAGLIOSTRO in French studios. In the early 1930s, Oswald specialised in operettas and musical comedies, but also released the historical drama DREYFUS and a film depicting the events that led to World War I in ‘1914’ – DIE LETZTEN TAGE VOR DEM WELTBRAND (‘1914’, The Last Days Before the War, both 1930). DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Koepenick, 1931) was based on Carl Zuckmayer’s popular play about a small time criminal who impersonates a Prussian officer. Following the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933, Oswald worked in Austria, France, the Netherlands and Britain, before relocating permanently to the United States in 1938. Among his few assignments during his time in Hollywood were a remake of DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK as PASSPORT TO HEAVEN (1941), and the comedy THE LOVABLE CHEAT (1948/49) with Buster Keaton and Curt Bois. Oswald’s career came to an end after a failed attempt in the early 1950s to launch an ambitious historical television series. Oswald’s son Gerd Oswald (1918–1989) continued in the family tradition, and became a successful director and producer in Hollywood from the 1950s onwards, with films such as A KISS BEFORE DYING (1956). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he also occasionally worked in Germany, producing films such as the youth melodrama AM TAG, ALS DER REGEN KAM (The Day the Rains Came, 1959). From the mid-1960s he became a prolific television director in the US on series including BONANZA and STAR TREK. Gerd’s son Richard Oswald works as an assistant director in Hollywood (THERE WILL BE BLOOD, 2007). [scr – DE] 1911: Halbwelt [act]; Zouza [SF – act]. 1914: Sie kann nicht nein sagen; Wollen Sie meine Tochter heiraten?; Lache, Bajazzo! [dir,scr]; Ivan Koschula [dir,scr]; Ein seltsamer Fall; Das eiserne Kreuz [dir,scr]; Detektiv Braun; Die Geschichte der stillen Mühle [dir,scr]. 1914/ 15: Der Hund von Baskerville [4 parts – dir,scr]. 1915: Das Laster [dir,scr]; Dämon und Mensch [dir,scr]; Die Goldfelder von Jacksonville [SF]; Hampels Abenteuer [dir,scr]; So rächt sich die Sonne; Der Fund im Neubau. 1. Der Fingernagel / 2. Bekenntnisse eines Mörders [dir,scr]; Und wandern sollst Du ruhelos … [dir,scr,pro]; Schlemihl [dir, scr]; Die verschleierte Dame [dir,scr,pro]; Die silberne Kugel [dir,pro]. [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1916: Hoffmanns Erzählungen [dir,coscr,act,pro]; Zirkusblut; Seine letzte Maske; Das unheimliche Haus. 1. Teil / 2. Freitag, der 13te / 3. Der chinesische Götze; Die Rache der Toten. 1916-18: Es werde Licht!
1.–3. Teil / 4. Sündige Mütter (Strafgesetz § 218). 1917: Hulda, die verloren gegangene Dame. Das unheimliche Haus 587. Teil [ANI – scr,pro]; Des Goldes Fluch [dir,co-scr, pro]; Königliche Bettler [dir,pro]; Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray; Der Schloßherr von Hohenstein; Der Tod des Baumeisters Olsen [pro]; Die zweite Frau [dir,co-scr,pro]; Der Weg ins Freie; Das Kainszeichen. 1917/18: Das Perlenhalsband [dir – SF]; Der ewige Zweifel [dir – SF]; Rennfieber [dir,pro]. 1918: Der lebende Leichnam; Die seltsame Geschichte des Baron Torelli; Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Das Dreimäderlhaus. Schuberts Liebesroman; Dida Ibsens Geschichte; Jettchen Geberts Geschichte: 1. Jettchen Gebert / 2. Henriette Jacoby; Peer Gynt. 1. Peer Gynts Jugend / 2. Peer Gynts Wanderjahre und Tod [supv,pro]; Die Reise um die Erde in 80 Tagen. 1918/19: Anders als die Andern. 1919: Das gelbe Haus; Die sich verkaufen. Die Prostitution. 2. Teil [dir,co-scr,pro]; Die Arche 1. Teil / 2. Die letzten Menschen [dir,co-scr,pro]; Wahnsinn [pro]; Der Tod des andern [scr]; Unheimliche Geschichten [dir,co-scr, sma,pro]; Nachtgestalten (Eleagabal Kuperus). 1920: Der Reigen; Die Nacht auf Goldenhall [pro]; Kurfürstendamm; Manolescus Memoiren; Das vierte Gebot / Martin Schalanters letzter Gang [dir,scr – AT/DE]; Die Geheimnisse von London. 1920/21: Die Liebschaften des Hektor Dalmore; Ein Königsdrama [dir]. 1921: Das Haus in der Dragonergasse [dir,pro]; Lady Hamilton; Die goldene Pest [pro]; Dr. Gyllenborgs doppeltes Gesicht [pro]. 1921/22: Das Logierhaus für Gentlemen [pro]. 1922: Die Dame und ihr Friseur [pro]; Lucrezia Borgia. 1922/23: Erdgeist [pro]; Paganini [pro]. 1923/24: Carlos und Elisabeth. 1924: Lumpen und Seide. 1925: Die Frau von vierzig Jahren; Vorderhaus und Hinterhaus [dir,scr]; Halbseide [dir,scr]. 1925/ 26: Dürfen wir schweigen? [dir,pro – DE] 1926: Wir sind vom k.u.k. InfanterieRegiment [dir,scr,pro]; Im weißen Rößl; Als ich wiederkam; Eine tolle Nacht [dir,scr,pro]. 1927: Lützows wilde verwegene Jagd; Feme; Gehetzte Frauen; Funkzauber; Dr. Bessels Verwandlung. 1927/28: Geächtet [SF – dir]; Die Rothausgasse. 1928: Villa Falconieri [DE/IT]. 1928/29: Cagliostro / Cagliostro. Liebe und Leben eines großen Abenteurers [dir – FR/DE]. 1929: Der Hund von Baskerville [dir]; Frühlings Erwachen; Ehe in Not [dir]; Die Herrin und ihr Knecht [dir]. 1930: Wien, du Stadt der Lieder; Dreyfus; Die zärtlichen Verwandten; Alraune; ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand. 1930/31: Schuberts Frühlingstraum. 1931: Viktoria und ihr Husar; Arm wie eine Kirchenmaus; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick. 1932: Unheimliche Geschichten; Gräfin Mariza; Ganovenehre. 1932/33: Die Blume von Hawaii. 1933: Ein Lied geht um die Welt; Abenteuer am Lido [dir – AT/CS]; Wenn du jung bist, gehört dir die Welt [supv – AT]. 1934: Bleeke Bet [dir – NL]; My Song Goes Round the World [MLV – GB]. 1936: Heut’ ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben! [dir,ide – GB]. 1937/38: Tempête sur l’Asie [dir,co-scr,pro – FR]. 1941: Passport to Heaven [dir – US]. 1942: Isle of Missing Men [dir,co-scr,pro – US]. 1948/49: The Lovable Cheat [dir,co-scr – US]. 1950: Mayerling [TV – US].
OSSI OSWALDA OSSI OSWALDA (Oswalda Stäglich) Born February 2, 1897, Niederschönhausen, today part of Berlin (Germany) Died July 17, 1947, Prague (Czechoslovakia) Celebrated as Germany’s answer to Mary Pickford, Oswalda was a popular film comedienne from the mid-1910s through to the late 1920s. Especially adept at slapstick and broad farce, she was the high-octane star of many of Ernst Lubitsch’s early films. Oswalda trained as a ballet dancer and started her professional career in the chorus line of operetta productions in Berlin. Discovered by screenwriter Hanns Kräly, she made her film debut in Lubitsch’s SCHUHPALAST PINKUS (The Shoe Palace, 1916). Under Lubitsch’s direction, she developed her cinematic alter ego of a hyperactive, coquettish, spoilt Lolita whose anarchic antics caused havoc amid the films’ sedate and ordered Prussian surroundings, but who invariably got tamed in time for the happy end. Slightly chubby, sporting curls and dressed – like Pickford – like an outgrown child, her characters often displayed a far greater sexual awareness than her American counterpart. Indeed, some critics at the time found Oswalda’s star image too provocative. In WENN VIER DASSELBE TUN (When Four Do As One, 1917), she played cupid for her retired bourgeois father (Emil Jannings), while in ICH MÖCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN (I Don’t Want To Be a Man, 1918) she was cast as a hard-drinking, smoking and gambling young woman who rejects her family’s attempts to turn her into a lady and instead chooses to cross-dress as a man. In PRINZ SAMI (Prince Samy, 1917) and DER RODELKAVALIER (The Tobogganing Cavalier, 1918), Oswalda provided the romantic and comic foil for Ernst Lubitsch’s loveable Jewish underdogs. In MEINE FRAU, DIE FILMSCHAUSPIELERIN (My Wife the Film Star, 1918/19) Oswalda (whose fictional characters were frequently named Ossi) was given the opportunity to parody her established image in the part of a temperamental film diva. Her comic timing and mercurial personality also contributed significantly to two of Lubitsch’s most accomplished early comedies, playing the dual role of an animated doll and the daughter of a doll-maker in DIE PUPPE (The Doll), and an American millionaire’s daughter in DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (The Oyster Princess, both 1919). During this period, Oswalda also appeared in films by other directors, including Erich Schönfelder and Georg Jacoby. In the early 1920s, Oswalda founded her own production company, Ossi-Oswalda-Film, which released five films through Ufa between 1921 and 1924, directed by and co-starring Viktor Janson, with whom she had already appeared in several Lubitsch productions. Oswalda’s then husband, Baron Gustav von Koczian, managed the company’s finances.
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By the mid-1920s, she had updated her screen appearance, and mostly abandoned the old-fashioned children outfits in favour of more glamorous attire, and a more modern outlook. She subsequently starred in a number of Ufa comedies alongside Willy Fritsch, including Max Mack’s DAS MÄDCHEN MIT DER PROTEKTION (The Girl With Protection, 1925), and DIE FAHRT INS ABENTEUER (Journey Into Adventure, 1925/26). Another major Ufa star, Harry Liedtke, was her partner in Felix Basch’s DAS MÄDCHEN AUF DER SCHAUKEL (The Girl On a Swing, 1926) and Richard Oswald’s EINE TOLLE NACHT (A Crazy Night, 1926). Oswalda also teamed up with some of Weimar cinema’s top comedians, such as Curt Bois in GRÄFIN PLÄTTMAMSELL (Countess Ironing-Maid) and Siegfried Arno in SCHATZ, MACH’ KASSE (Darling, Count the Cash, both 1926). In 1929, Oswalda returned to the stage in ‘Rosen aus Florida’ (Roses from Florida), an operetta by Leo Fall, followed by a guest appearance in Vienna in a production of Franz Lehár’s ‘Der Graf von Luxemburg’ (The Count of Luxemburg). However, following the transition to sound, her cinema career came to an abrupt end. She only appeared in two more films, as a circus artiste in Georg Jacoby’s DER KEUSCHE JOSEF (Josef the Chaste, 1930), and as a variety dancer in Alfred Zeisler’s DER STERN VON VALENCIA (The Star of Valencia, 1933). For the remainder of her life, she slipped into obscurity and eventually poverty. Living largely forgotten in Prague in the 1940s with Julius Aussenberg, the producer and former manager of the German subsidiary of Fox Studios, she gained a final film credit for providing the story for the Czech production ÈTRNÁCTÝ U STOLU (Fourteen At the Table, 1943). [act – DE] 1916: Schuhpalast Pinkus; Der Hilferuf; Der Tod auf Zeche Silva; Leutnant auf Befehl; Der G.m.b.H.-Tenor. 1917: Ossi’s Tagebuch; Wenn vier dasselbe tun; Das fidele Gefängnis; Prinz Sami. 1917/18: Dem Licht entgegen. 1918: Der Rodelkavalier; Das Mädel vom Ballett; Ich möchte kein Mann sein; Meyer aus Berlin; Das Schwabemädle. 1918/19: Meine Frau, die Filmschauspielerin. 1919: Die Austernprinzessin; Das Millionenmädel; Die Puppe; Hundemamachen. 1919/20: Die Wohnungsnot. 1920: Kakadu und Kiebitz; Das Valutamädel; Putschliesel. 1921: Amor am Steuer [act,pro]. 1921/22: Das Mädel mit der Maske [act,pro]. 1922: Der blinde Passagier [act,pro]. 1923: Das Milliardensouper [act,pro]. 1923/24: Colibri [act,pro]. 1924: Ein Weihnachtsfilm für Große [SF]; Niniche. 1925: Blitzzug der Liebe; Das Mädchen mit der Protektion; Herrn Filip Collins Abenteuer. 1925/26: Die Fahrt ins Abenteuer. 1926: Die Kleine vom Varieté; Das Mädel auf der Schaukel; Gräfin Plättmamsell; Schatz, mach’ Kasse; Eine tolle Nacht. 1927: Frühere Verhältnisse; Florette e Patapon [IT]; Ein schwerer Fall [act,pro]; Es zogen drei Burschen …; Wochenend wider Willen. 1927/28: Eddy
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Polo mit Pferd und Lasso. 1928: Ossi Oswalda kleidet sich ganz in Bembergseide [SF]; Die Vierte von rechts; Das Haus ohne Männer; Ossi hat die Hosen an. Abenteuer eines Unterrocks / Sir or Madam [DE/GB]. 1929: Der Dieb im Schlafcoupée [AT]. 1930: Der keusche Josef. 1933: Der Stern von Valencia [MLV]. 1943: Ètrnáctý u stolu [sma – CS].
ULRIKE OTTINGER (Ulrike Weinberg) Born June 6, 1942, Konstanz (Germany) Internationally acclaimed director Ottinger was at the vanguard of experimental and feminist filmmaking in the 1970s and early 1980s. She subsequently explored representations of race and ethnicity in a series of travelogues, documentaries, and fiction films. A former trainee bank clerk, Ottinger studied art in Munich from 1959, before working as a photographer and painter in Paris between 1962 and 1968, where she wrote her first film script in 1966. In conjunction with the University of Konstanz’s film section, she formed Filmclub Visuell in 1969, and ran this until 1972. She then collaborated with Tabea Blumenschein (b. 1952) – who would work on all Ottinger’s films up to 1979, most often as lead actress – to make her debut picture, LAOKOON & SÖHNE (Laocoon & Sons, 1972/73), which she directed, photographed, scripted, produced and acted in. Through its emphasis on props, costume, and stylised performances, the film’s aim was to comment on gender roles and the latency of fascism, and initiated Ottinger’s cinematic explorations of the construction of reality by way of its asynchronous use of sound and image and its referencing of literary quotations, myths and ritual. These themes were addressed again in DIE BETÖRUNG DER BLAUEN MATROSEN (The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors, 1975), which drew on the legend of the sirens. Ottinger’s next film, MADAME X – EINE ABSOLUTE HERRSCHERIN (Madame X: An Absolute Ruler, 1977/78), a feminist parody of pirate films and at the same time a satire of the women’s movement, reached a larger audience thanks to having been co-produced by television channel ZDF. In BILDNIS EINER TRINKERIN (Ticket of No Return, 1979), Blumenschein played a female dandy, with the film satirising conventional representations of women and adopting alcoholism as a metaphor for alienation. Alongside FREAK ORLANDO (1981) and
DORIAN GRAY IM SPIEGEL DER BOULEVARDPRESSE (Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow
Press, 1983/84), it formed a loose trilogy exploring the exclusion and pigeonholing of those marginalised within modern society. Ottinger’s main themes were carried over into the documentary CHINA – DIE KÜNSTE – DER ALLTAG (China – The Arts – The People, 1985), in which the director avoided a voyeuristic, exoticising approach towards her subject matter by way of detached camerawork and the absence of any narration. She continued this project with the 500-minute-long JOHANNA D’ARC OF MONGOLIA (Joan of Arc of Mongolia, 1989), which won that year’s German Film Award; TAIGA (1991/92), and her 363-minute-long study of post-Communist Central Europe SÜDOSTPASSAGE (Southeast Passage, 2002). Ottinger addressed issues of the Jewish diaspora in EXIL SHANGHAI (Exile Shanghai, 1995–97), which combined historical footage and newly filmed material in order to trace the city’s past as a refuge for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and the consequent interaction between two distinct cultures. In her short ESTER (2002), contemporary European migrants enact the Purim celebrations of a former generation of Jewish refugees. ZWÖLF STÜHLE (Twelve Chairs, 2003/04), shot largely on location in the Ukraine with Russian and Ukrainian actors, marked a return to more fictional material for Ottinger. Based on a popular novel from the 1920s, the film told the story of a treasure hunt, and as in her previous films, blurred the boundaries between fantasy and reality, and between past and present. [filmmaker – DE] 1972/73: Laokoon & Söhne. 1973: Berlinfieber. Happening Dokumentation Wolf Vostell [SD]. 1975: Die Betörung der blauen Matrosen. 1977/78: Madame X – Eine absolute Herrscherin [AG]. 1979: Bildnis einer Trinkerin. Aller jamais retour. 1981: Freak Orlando. 1983/84: Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse. 1985: China – Die Künste – Der Alltag [DO]. 1986: Sieben Frauen – Sieben Sünden. EP 1: Superbia – Der Stolz [TV]. 1986/87: Ein Treffen mit Rimbaud [pro]. 1987: Usinimage [SF]. 1989: Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia. 1990: Frauengeschichten: Eva Ebner [TVD – app]; Countdown [DO]. 1991/92: Taiga. Eine Reise ins nördliche Land der Mongolen [DO]. 1995-97: Exil Shanghai [DO]. 2000: Die Blutgräfin [AT/DE]. 2002: Südostpassage. Eine Reise zu den neuen weißen Flecken auf der Landkarte Europas [DO]; Das Exemplar; Ester. Ein Purimspiel in Berlin [SF]. 2003/04: Zwölf Stühle. 2006/07: Prater [DO – AT/DE].
G. W. PABST (Georg Wilhelm Pabst) Born August 27, 1885, Raudnitz, Bohemia (now Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic) Died May 29, 1967, Vienna (Austria) G. W. Pabst’s films, which comprise some masterpieces of Weimar cinema, often revolve around themes of poverty, extravagance, sexuality and violence, and frequently caused problems with censors, meaning many of his films were released only in an abridged form. The son of an Austrian railway official grew up in Vienna, where he studied drama. He appeared on stage in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, before working as actor and director in the German Theatre in New York in 1910. Returning to Europe at the beginning of the World War I, he was interned in France, and organised a theatre in the POW camp. On his return to Vienna in 1919, he became director of the avant-garde theatre Neue Wiener Bühne. While visiting the set of Carl Froelich’s IM BANNE DER KRALLE (In Thrall to the Claw, 1921), Pabst gave his only performance in front of the camera. He subsequently became a shareholder in Froelich’s production company. Moving to Berlin, Pabst’s directorial debut was DER SCHATZ (The Treasure, 1922/23), a film that drew its visual and literary allusions from medieval legends. Assistant director Mark Sorkin, who became his closest associate, then encouraged him to make DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE (Joyless Street, 1925). Set in Vienna during the inflation period, the film depicted a society torn apart by poverty, touched on the theme of prostitution, and presented extremes of social status and human emotions. These themes were picked up in his later productions, including the intimate GEHEIMNISSE EINER SEELE (Secrets of a Soul, 1925/26), an Ufa production which popularised Freud’s psychoanalysis. Combining exquisite cinematography by Fritz Arno Wagner and sets with innovative montage effects, Pabst set the standard for his later films with DIE LIEBE DER JEANNE NEY (The Loves of Jeanne Ney, 1927), a story about Russian émigrés in Paris. Pabst hired the American actress Louise Brooks for his film version of Frank Wedekind’s ‘Lulu’, DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA (Pandora’s Box, 1928/29). Her tour-de-force performance as the enigmatically
amoral heroine led to her playing a similar role in Pabst’s subsequent film TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929). His next two films explicitly promoted Franco-German reconciliation. The pacifist message of his antiwar sound film WESTFRONT 1918 (1930) and of KAMERADSCHAFT (Comradeship, 1931), a film detailing a mining disaster on the Franco-German border, earned him the nickname ‘Red Pabst’. Lawsuits and censorship threats surrounded the making of DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/31), and detracted from Pabst’s subtle and atmospheric adaptation of the Weill/Brecht opera. His last production for Seymour Nebenzahl’s Nero Film was the desert adventure DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS (Mistress of Atlantis, 1932). Except for a brief stint in Hollywood (A MODERN HERO, 1933/34), Pabst was mainly based in France until the end of the decade, where he directed a series of films, including DON QUIXOTTE, DU HAUT EN BAS (High and Low, both 1933), MADEMOISELLE DOCTEUR (Spies from Salonika / Street of Shadows, 1936), and JEUNES FILLES EN DÉTRESSE (Girls in Distress, 1939). Although he had refused offers to return to Nazi Germany for most of the 1930s, he was unable to leave when war broke out during a visit to his mother in annexed Austria, and subsequently completed two historical dramas in Germany, KOMÖDIANTEN (Comedians, 1940/41), and PARACELSUS (1942/ 43), which, while on the whole relatively innocuous, nonetheless incorporated elements of Nazi ideology. Shortly after the war Pabst attempted to rehabilitate himself with a historical study of anti-Semitism in DER PROZESS (The Trial, 1947/48). He subsequently made eleven more films in Austria, Italy and West Germany, including satires, melodramas, and thrillers. Two of his later films addressed the Nazi past. DER LETZTE AKT (The Last Ten Days, 1954/55) dramatised Hitler’s last days in the bunker, while ES GESCHAH AM 20. JULI (It Happened on July 20, 1955) concerned the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944. However, Pabst never matched the success or critical acclaim of his Weimar films. His first colour film, DURCH DIE WÄLDER, DURCH DIE AUEN (Through the Forests and Through the Trees, 1956), marked the
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end of his career, after which he retired due to ill health. [dir – DE] 1921: Im Banne der Kralle [act – AT]. 1921/22: Der Taugenichts [ass-dir(?),co-scr]. 1922: Luise Millerin [ass-dir,co-scr]. 1922/23: Der Schatz. Ein altes Spiel um Gold und Liebe [dir,co-scr]. 1924: Gräfin Donelli. 1925: Die freudlose Gasse [dir,cut]. 1925/26: Geheimnisse einer Seele. Ein psychoanalytischer Film. 1926: Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe. Menschen von gestern im Leben von heute [dir,cut]. 1927: Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney [dir,cut]. 1928: Abwege [dir,cut]. 1928/29: Die Büchse der Pandora. Variationen auf das Thema Frank Wedekinds ‘Lulu’. 1929: Tagebuch einer Verlorenen [dir,pro]; Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü [co-dir]. 1929/30: Prix de Beauté (Miss Europe) [co-scr – FR]. 1930: Moral um Mitternacht [supv]; Westfront 1918. Vier von der Infanterie; Skandal um Eva. 1930/ 31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]. 1931: Kameradschaft / La tragédie de la mine [DE/FR]. 1932: Die Herrin von Atlantis. Eine Fata Morgana [MLV]; L’Atlantide [MLV – DE/FR]; The Mistress of Atlantis [MLV]. 1932/33: Don Quichotte [MLV – FR/GB]; Don Quixote [MLV – FR/GB]. [dir – FR] 1933: Du haut en bas; Cette nuit-là [supv]. 1933/ 34: A Modern Hero [US]. 1936: Mademoiselle Docteur [MLV]. 1938: Le drame de Shanghaï. 1938/39: L’Esclave blanche [supv]. 1939: Jeunes filles en détresse. [dir – DE] 1940/41: Komödianten [dir,co-scr]. 1940-53: Tiefland [consultant]. 1942/43: Paracelsus. 1944/45: Der Fall Molander [unfinished]. [dir – AT] 1947/48: Der Prozeß. 1949: Duell mit dem Tod [supv,scr,pro]; Geheimnisvolle Tiefe [dir,pro]; 1-2-3 Aus! [pro]. 1950: Ruf aus dem Äther [supv,pro]. 1952/53: La voce del silenzio / La voix du silence [dir,scr – IT/FR]. 1953: Cose da pazzi [dir,pro – IT]. 1954: Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr [DE]. 1954/55: Der letzte Akt. 1955: Es geschah am 20. Juli [DE]. 1955/56: Rosen für Bettina [DE]. 1956: Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen [DE].
LILLI PALMER (Lilli Marie Peiser) Born May 24, 1914, Posen (Germany, now Poznan, Poland) Died January 27, 1986, Westwood (California, USA) Finding fame in Britain and Hollywood as an émigré, Palmer established herself as a versatile international star in German and European films from the mid1950s through to the 1980s. Palmer was raised in Berlin where she worked in amateur stage productions while studying with acting coaches including Lucie Höflich. In 1932 she made her professional debut at the city’s Rose-Theater, and went on to playing soubrettes in operettas and in comedy parts at the Landestheater in Darmstadt. When the Nazis came to power, Palmer emigrated to Paris where she performed song-and-dance routines in cabarets and nightclubs in a double act with her older sister Irene.
Moving to England in 1934, Palmer made her film debut as the female lead in Irving Asher’s CRIME UNLIMITED (1935). A series of supporting roles followed, such as a chambermaid in Alfred Hitchcock’s spy thriller SECRET AGENT (1936), before she achieved national recognition with the leading role in Milton Rosmer’s THE GREAT BARRIER (1936/37). From 1938 she participated in early BBC television productions. Also working in British theatre from 1936, Palmer married actor Rex Harrison in 1943. Memorable parts during the war years included her portrayal as a ghostly apparition in THUNDER ROCK (1942), a Czech war refugee in THE GENTLE SEX (1942/43), and as an Austrian Jew fleeing the Nazis in THE RAKE’S PROGRESS (1945). Alongside Harrison, Palmer moved to the United States in 1945. Her first Hollywood success was as a resistance fighter in Fritz Lang’s wartime thriller CLOAK AND DAGGER (1946). She and Harrison appeared together regularly, in Broadway productions from 1949, on television, and in Irving Reis’s film THE FOUR POSTER (1952), which received an award at the 1953 Venice Film Festival. Relocating to Europe in the early 1950s following the end of her marriage, Palmer’s German film debut was as the circus director in Kurt Hoffmann’s FEUERWERK (Fireworks, 1954), with her rendition of the song ‘O mein Papa’ proving a hit to the extent that the picture’s English-language release title became OH! MY PA-PA!
Now a German star seen primarily in ‘problem dramas’, she picked up the German Film Award for her performance as Curd Jürgens’s obsessive wife in Rolf Hansen’s TEUFEL IN SEIDE (Devil in Silk, 1955), and again for her lead in Falk Harnack’s ANASTASIA, DIE LETZTE ZARENTOCHTER (Anastasia: The Czar’s Last Daughter, 1956). Other notable film appearances included DER GLÄSERNE TURM (The Glass Tower, 1957), playing an adulterous socialite, and the remake of Leontine Sagan’s Weimar classic MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1958), in which Palmer’s screen partner was the young Romy Schneider. From the late 1950s, Palmer resumed her international career, and starred in French, British, Hollywood, and Italian films alongside her work in Germany. Regularly on West German television from the early 1970s, Palmer played the title role in Egon Günther’s Thomas Mann adaptation LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1974/75), an unsuccessful bid by East Germany’s DEFA studio to break into international markets. Apart from her acting and television appearances, Palmer gained in later years acclaim as a painter, and as the author of four bestselling novels and two autobiographies, ‘Dicke Lilli – gutes Kind’ (Change Lobsters – and Dance, 1974) and ‘Der rote Rabe’ (The Red Raven, 1977).
CHRISTIANE PAUL [act – GB] 1935: Crime Unlimited. 1935/36: First Offence [MLV]; Wolf’s Clothing. 1936: Secret Agent. 1936/37: Good Morning, Boys; The Great Barrier. 1937: Secrets of the Stars [SD]; Sunset in Vienna; Command Performance. 1938: Starlight: Moving Furniture [TV]; Starlight: S-s-s-h! The Wife! [TV]; Crackerjack; Bath H&C [TV]. 1939: Little Ladyship [TV]; A Girl Must Live; Take Two Eggs [TV]; One Night, One Day … [TV]; Blind Folly. 1940: The Door With Seven Locks. 1942: Thunder Rock. 1942/43: The Gentle Sex. 1943/44: English Without Tears. 1945: The Rake’s Progress. 1946: Beware of Pity; Cloak and Dagger [US]. [act – US] 1947: Body and Soul. 1947/48: My Girl Tisa. 1948: No Minor Vices; Hans le marin [FR]. 1949-54: Suspense [TV]. 1950: The Philco Television Playhouse: The Uncertain Molly Collicutt [TV]. 1950/51: The Long Dark Hall [GB]. 1951: Pictura. An Adventure in Art [DO – voi]. 1952: The Four Poster; Three Hours Between Planes [TV]; Omnibus: The Trial of Anne Boleyn [TV]. 1953: Main Street to Broadway; US Steel Hour: The Man in Possession [TV]. 1954: Four Star Playhouse: Lady of the Orchids [TV]; Feuerwerk [DE]. [act – DE] 1955: Teufel in Seide. 1956: Hallmark Hall of Fame: The Taming of the Shrew [TV – US]; Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter; Zwischen Zeit und Ewigkeit / Entre hoy y la eternidad [DE/ES]. 1956/57: Wie ein Sturmwind. 1957: Der gläserne Turm. 1957/58: Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will; Montparnasse 19 / Montparnasse [FR/IT]. 1958: Mädchen in Uniform / Jeunes filles en uniformes [DE/FR]; La vie à deux [FR]. 1959: But Not For Me [US]; Frau Warrens Gewerbe [DE/CH]. 1959/60: Conspiracy of Hearts [GB]. 1960/61: The Counterfeit Traitor [US]. 1961: The Pleasure of His Company [US]; Frau Cheneys Ende. 1961/62: Julia, Du bist zauberhaft / Adorable Julia [AT/ FR]; Finden Sie, daß Constanze sich richtig verhält? [DE/ CH]; Le rendez-vous de minuit [FR]. 1962: Leviathan [FR]; L’amore difficile: Il Serpente / Erotica: Der Ehemann [IT/DE]. 1962/63: Miracle of the White Stallions [US]. 1963: Finché dura la tempesta (Beta Som) [IT]; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/AT]; Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa [pro]. 1964: Le grain de sable / Die Unmoralischen / Il triangolo circolare / O triangulo circular [FR/DE/IT/PT]; Operation Crossbow [GB/IT]. 1964/65: The Amourous Adventures of Moll Flanders [GB]. 1965: Le Tonnerre de Dieu / Matrimonia alla françese / Herr auf Schloß Brassac [FR/IT/DE]. 1965/66: Zwei Girls vom roten Stern / Duel à la Vodka [DE/FR]; Der Kongreß amüsiert sich / Le congrès s’amuse [DE/AT/FR]. 1966: Le voyage du père / Destinazione marciapiede [FR/IT]. 1967: Zwischenstation mit Lilli Palmer [TVD]; Jack of Diamonds / Der Diamantenprinz [US/DE]; Sebastian [GB]; Paarungen; The Diary of Anne Frank [TV – US]; Oedipus the King [GB]. 1967/68: Nobody Runs Forever / High Commissioner [GB/US]. 1968/69: De Sade / Das ausschweifende Leben des Marquis de Sade [US/DE]. 1969: Hard Contract [US]; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Arthur Maria Rabenalt und Lilli Palmer [TVD – app]. 1969/70: La peau de Torpedo / Der Mann mit der Torpedohaut / Dossier 212: destinazione morte [FR/DE/IT]. 1970: La residencia [ES]; Hauser’s Memory [TV – US]. 1970/71: Night Hair Child [GB]. 197076: The Other Side of the Wind [FR/IR]. 1971: Murders in
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the Rue Morgue [US]; Der Kommissar: Grauroter Morgen [TV]. 1972: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. I. Zehn Geschichten mit Lilli Palmer [TV – co-scr,act]. 1973: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. II. Neue Geschichten mit Lilli Palmer [TV – co-scr,act]. 1974: Lilli Palmer – ganz persönlich [TV]; Derrick: Johanna [TV]; The Zoo Gang [TVS – GB/US]. 1974/ 75: Lotte in Weimar [DD]. 1976: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. III. Drei Geschichten mit Lilli Palmer [TV]. 1977: Das ist Ihr Leben: Lilli Palmer [TVD]; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. IV. Szenen einer Familie [TV]. 1978: The Boys from Brazil [US]; Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. V. Neue Szenen einer Familie [TV]. 1980: Kaninchen im Hut und andere Geschichten mit Martin Held [TV]; Weekend. Heufieber [TV]. 1980/81: Kinder [TV]. 1981: Heut’ abend … Lilli Palmer zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TVD]. 1981/82: Feine Gesellschaft – Beschränkte Haftung. 1982: Helmut Schmidt – unpolitisch [TV – app]; Heut’ abend … Elisabeth Bergner zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TVD – app]; Imaginary Friends [TV – GB]; Eine etwas sonderbare Dame [TV]. 1984: Love Boat: My Mother, My Chaperone [TV – US]. 1984/85: The Holcroft Covenant [GB]; Peter the Great [TV – US].
CHRISTIANE PAUL Born March 8, 1974, Berlin (East Germany) Versatile, intelligent, and highly attractive, Christiane Paul emerged as one of post-unification cinema’s most vivacious actresses. Working as a model from the age of sixteen and appearing on the cover of teenage magazines, Paul’s film debut was in Niklaus Schilling’s unification farce DEUTSCHFIEBER (German Fever, 1991/92), and she played her first lead opposite Götz George in the romantic comedy ICH UND CHRSITINE (Me and Christine, 1992/93). She won a prize for her role in the juvenile delinquency melodrama EX (1994), and another one as the frustrated girlfriend of a work-obsessed partner in WORKAHOLIC (1995/96). In Wolfgang Becker’s metropolitan fable DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (Life Is All You Get, 1995–97), Paul was cast as an enigmatic musician whose desire for independence undermines her relationship with a shy trainee butcher, played by Jürgen Vogel. Following a number of supporting roles, e.g. in Til Schweiger’s KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR (1996) and Joseph Vilsmaier’s lavish biopic MARLENE, she sparkled as Moritz Bleibtreu’s love interest in Fatih Akin’s trans-European road movie IM JULI (In July). In Martin Eigler’s crime melodrama FREUNDE (Friends, all 1999/2000), Paul’s character was torn between two childhood friends turned adversaries. From 2000, Paul frequently appeared in comedies, including NEUES VOM WIXXER (The WiXXer Returns, 2006), a spoof of the 1960s West German Edgar Wallace adaptations, in which she parodied the kind of woman-in-peril role once played by Karin Dor.
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Throughout the 1990s, Paul combined her acting with studying medicine. In 1999 she wrote her doctoral thesis on artificial hip joints, and until 2006 practised as a doctor alongside her film and television career. [act – DE – TV] 1991/92: Deutschfieber. 1992: Sentimental Journey [SF]. 1992/93: Ich und Christine. 1993/94: Unter der Milchstraße. 1994: Nur der Sieg zählt [TV]; Ex. 1994/95: Alles außer Mord: Das Kuckucksei [TV]. 1995/96: Workaholic [TV]. 1995-97: Das Leben ist eine Baustelle. 1996: Zwei Leben hat die Liebe [TV]; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. 1997: 5 Minuten Ikarus [SF]; Dumm gelaufen; Der Pirat [TV]; Boomtown Berlin: 5 Minuten Ikarus [TV]; Der Schutzengel [TV]; Zucker für die Bestie [TV]. 1997/98: Mammamia [TV]. 1998: Götterdämmerung – Morgen stirbt Berlin [TV]. 1998/99: Die Häupter meiner Lieben. 1999/2000: Marlene; Im Juli; Freunde. 2001: Partner akut [ANI – voi]; Himmelreich auf Erden [TV]. 2001/02: Väter. 2002: Echte Männer? [TV]. 2003/04: Sergeant Pepper. 2004: Der Auftrag – Erinnerung an eine Revolution [TV]; Außer Kontrolle [TV]. 2004/05: Küss mich, Hexe! [TV]; Im Schwitzkasten. 2005: Die Nacht der großen Flut [TV]; Gefühlte Temperatur [SF]. 2005/06: Reine Formsache; Die Tote vom Deich [TV]. 2006: Neues vom WiXXer; Felix 2 – Der Hase und die verflixte Zeitmaschine [ANI – voi]. 2006/07: Ein verlockendes Angebot [TV]; Copacabana [TV]. 2007: Vorne ist verdammt weit weg. 2007/08: Die Welle. 2008: Trilogia II: I skoni tou Xronou / Triology II: The Dust of Time [GR/IT/DE/RU]. 2008/09: Lara; Ob ihr wollt, oder nicht! [DE/NL]; Lippels Traum; Der große Kater [CH/DE].
WERNER PETERS Born July 7, 1918, Werlitzsch, (today WiedemarWerlitzsch, Germany) Died March 30, 1971, Wiesbaden (West Germany) One of the most prolific actors in East and West Germany as well as in international productions from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Peters’s protagonists often managed to expose the most unappealing aspects of the German national psyche, and he was frequently typecast as a Nazi, spy, traitor, or otherwise morally deficient individual, roles he played to perfection. His signature part was the titular anti-hero in Wolfgang Staudte’s adaptation of Heinrich Mann’s biting satire of Wilhelmine society, DER UNTERTAN (The Kaiser’s Lackey, 1951). After graduating from acting school, Peters debuted on stage at the theatre in Stralsund in 1937, followed by engagements in Leipzig, Kassel, and Mainz. In 1939, Peters was conscripted into the army and served as a soldier until the end of World War II. He subsequently resumed his acting career at theatres in Gera, Munich, and eventually East Berlin. His film debut was a small part in Harald Braun’s post-war drama ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND MORGEN (Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1947); the
following year the East German DEFA offered him a contract. Peters appeared in some of the post-war period’s most acclaimed productions, Kurt Maetzig’s DIE BUNTKARIERTEN (Those in Gingham), Wolfgang Staudte’s ROTATION (both 1948/49), as well as Erich Engel’s AFFAIRE BLUM (The Blum Affair, 1948) and DER BIBERPELZ (The Beaver’s Fur, 1949). The leading role in DER UNTERTAN gave Peters the opportunity to deliver an acting tour-de-force. Deliberately grotesque, his caricature of an overweight, perpetually flinching, puffing, and sweating Wilhelmine petit bourgeois was a mixture of sentimental joviality, opportunistic cunning, cowardice, and pomposity. This devastating portrait of the national character obviously hit a raw nerve, as the film fell foul of the West German censors and was condemned as communist propaganda. In the East, Peters was awarded a national prize for his performance. Peters and Staudte were reunited on DEFA’s imaginative fairy-tale film DIE GESCHICHTE VOM KLEINEN MUCK (The Story of Little Muck, 1953). Peters continued his career in the GDR until 1955, when he resettled in West Germany. In Robert Siodmak’s NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM (The Devil Strikes At Night, 1957) he played a seedy, smalltime Nazi official who comes under suspicion of being a serial killer and who is executed despite being innocent. This part earned him an award as best supporting actor at the German Film Prize of that year. Over the following decade, Peters’s screen characters frequently came to represent the underside of the West German economic miracle, and he specialised in Nazis, corrupt capitalists, pimps, blackmailers, and other minor crooks or big-time criminals in films including Rolf Thiele’s DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958), the crime thriller DER GREIFER (The Cop, 1957/58), and Staudte’s ROSEN FÜR DEN STAATSANWALT (Roses for the Prosecutor, 1959). In the European co-produced World War II spy thriller GEHEIMAKTION SCHWARZE KAPELLE (The Black Chapel, 1959), Peters portrayed SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Some directors played more creatively with his image and confounded expectations: in Fritz Lang’s DIE 1000 AUGEN DES DR. MABUSE (The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse, 1960) he is introduced as a suspicious insurance agent, but is later uncovered as a master sleuth. As a result, afterwards he was occasionally chosen as a detective or police inspector in various films. In the 1960s, Peters became a television regular, while in the cinema he repeatedly appeared in the Edgar Wallace series, as well as in further Dr Mabuse sequels, Karl May adaptations and other genre franchises. He was also increasingly cast in international productions, playing Nazis in George Seaton’s THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (1960/61) and 36 HOURS
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(1964/65), high-ranking German officers in BATTLE OF THE BULGE (1965) and THE SECRET WAR OF HARRY FRIGG (1968), a psychiatrist in A FINE MADNESS (1966), and, perhaps most incongruously, a detective called Gino in the heist film EINER FRISST DEN ANDEREN (Dog Eat Dog, 1963/64). One of his last roles was a shady antique dealer in Italian cult director Dario Argento’s gory serial killer film L’UCCELLO DALLE PIUME DI CRISTALLO (The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, 1969). Apart from his on-screen appearances, Peters was also active in dubbing, lending his voice to a range of American and British actors, including Rod Steiger, Ernest Borgnine, George C. Scott, Donald Pleasance, and perhaps most prominently Orson Welles in the German release version of THE THIRD MAN (1949). He also wrote German dialogues for the British television series THE AVENGERS, an enduring favourite with German audiences. [act – DD] 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen. 1948: Affaire Blum. 1948/49: Die Buntkarierten; Rotation. 1949: Der Biberpelz; Der Kahn der fröhlichen Leute. 1951: Modell Bianka; Der Untertan. 1951/52: Karriere in Paris. 1952: Kein Hüsung; Anna Susanna. 1952/53: Die Unbesiegbaren. 1953: Des Vetters Eckfenster [TV]; Der Mann, der alles macht [SF]; Der König in Thule [SF]; Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck. 1953/54: Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse. 1954: Der Teufel vom Mühlenberg; Sommerliebe. 1954/55: Ein Polterabend; Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse. [act – DE] 1955: Der 20. Juli; Hotel Adlon; Vor Gott und den Menschen; Star mit fremden Federn [DD]. 1956: Das Sonntagskind; Die Stimme der Sehnsucht; Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter; Spion für Deutschland. 1957: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam; Das Herz von St. Pauli; Madeleine und der Legionär. 1957/58: Besuch aus der Zone [TV]; Lilli. Ein Mädchen aus der Großstadt; Der Greifer. 1958: Schmutziger Engel; Blitzmädels an die Front; Grabenplatz 17; Mit Eva fing die Sünde an; Liebe kann wie Gift sein; Das Mädchen Rosemarie; Der Tod auf dem Rummelplatz [TV]; Dreizehn alte Esel; Unruhige Nacht; Meine 99 Bräute; Romarei – das Mädchen mit den grünen Augen / Romarey: Operazione Mazaref [DE/IT]. 1959: Die feuerrote Baronesse; Kriegsgericht; Endstation Rote Laterne. Blonde Mädchen für Havanna; Bobby Dodd greift ein; Jons und Erdme / La donna dell’altro [DE/IT]; Rosen für den Staatsanwalt; Geheimaktion Schwarze Kapelle / I Sicari di Hitler / R.P.Z. appelle Berlin [DE/IT/FR]; Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee; La chatte sort ses griffes [FR]. 1959/60: Strafbataillon 999. 1960: Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / Il diabolico Dr. Mabuse / Le diabolique docteur Mabuse [DE/IT/FR]; Gauner in Uniform / Hauptmann – Deine Sterne [DE/AT]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV]. 1960/61: The Counterfeit Traitor [US]. 1961: … denn das Weib ist schwach; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse / Le retour du Docteur Mabuse / F.B.I. contro Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]; Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein / Pourquoi toujours du caviar? [DE/FR]; Diesmal muß es Kaviar
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sein! / Top Secret – c’est pas toujours du caviar [DE/FR]; Auf Wiedersehn. 1961/62: Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse. 1962: Die Tür mit den sieben Schlössern / La porte aux sept serrures [DE/FR]; Jeder stirbt für sich allein [TV]; Der Teppich des Grauens / Terrore en la noche / Il terrore di notte [DE/ES/IT]; Ipnosi / Hipnosis / Nur tote Zeugen schweigen [IT/ES/DE]. 1962/63: Das Feuerschiff; Der Fluch der gelben Schlange; Die endlose Nacht. 1963: Die weiße Spinne; Der schwarze Abt; Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse; Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Witwe / Araña negra [DE/ ES]. 1963/64: Das Phantom von Soho; Einer frißt den anderen / L’ora di uccidere [DE/IT]. 1964: Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß. 1964/65: 36 Hours [US]; Die schwarzen Adler von Santa Fe / I gringos non perdonano / Les aigles noirs de Santa Fé [DE/IT/FR]; Tiempo de violencia / Tre per una rapina / Zwischenlandung Düsseldorf [ES/IT/DE]. 1965: Die großen Spione: Der Fall Klaus Fuchs [TV]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Der Ring [TV]; Durchs wilde Kurdistan / El savaje Kurdistan [DE/ES]; Zeugin aus der Hölle / Gorke trave [DE/YU]; Battle of the Bulge [US]; Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen / El ataque de los Kurdos [DE/ES]; Blue Light [TV – US]. 1966: A Fine Madness [US]; I Deal in Danger [US]; Die Hölle von Macao / Les corrumpus / Il sigillo di Pechino [DE/FR/IT]. 1966/67: Lotosblüten für Miß Quon / Trappola per 4 / Coup de gong à Hong-Kong [DE/IT/FR]; Mister Dynamit – morgen küßt Euch der Tod / Mister Dinamita, mañana os besara la muerte / Mister Dinamita, muori ta lentamente … te la godi ti più [DE/ES/IT]. 1967: Geheimnisse in goldenen Nylons / Deux billets pour Mexico / Segreti che scottano [DE/FR/IT]; Assignment K [GB]. 1967/68: Un Killer per sua maestà / Le teneur aime les bonbons / Zucker für den Mörder [IT/FR/DE]. 1968: The Secret War of Harry Frigg [US/GB]; Istanbul Express [TV – US]. 1969: Dem Täter auf der Spur: Das Fenster zum Garten [TV]; Spion unter der Haube [TV]; Blonde Köder für den Mörder / La morte bussa due volte [DE/IT]; L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo / Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Handschuhe [IT/DE]. 1969/70: Unter den Dächern von St. Pauli. 1970: Dem Täter auf der Spur: Frau gesucht … [TV]; Perrak. 1971: Die Tote aus der Themse. 1971–75: Graf Luckner / Les aventures du Capitaine Luckner [TVS – DE/FR]. 1972: Novellen aus dem Wilden Westen: Der Prozess [TV].
WOLFGANG PETERSEN Born March 14, 1941, Emden (Germany) Alternately praised as a meticulous professional or criticised as a workman-like director of anonymous Hollywood blockbusters, Petersen’s films in Germany and Hollywood have divided opinion since he entered filmmaking in the early 1970s. His international breakthrough was DAS BOOT (1980/81). While at school in Hamburg, Petersen made his first 8mm films. He trained at drama school and worked in youth theatre before studying at the newly-founded Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb) in Berlin. His graduation project, ICH WERDE DICH TÖTEN, WOLF (I Will Kill You, Wolf, 1970/71) was broadcast on German television and he subsequent-
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ly worked for TV channels, including directing for the popular detective series TATORT (Crime Scene). His TV productions often touched on controversial issues, especially REIFEZEUGNIS (For Your Love Only, 1976/77) which featured Nastassja Kinski as a schoolgirl in love with her teacher, SMOG (1972/ 73) a ‘mockumentary’ drawing attention to the dangers of environmental pollution; and DIE KONSEQUENZ (The Consequence, 1977) which thematised homosexuality and underage sex. The latter film was banned from being broadcast in the state of Bavaria. Petersen’s cinema debut was the psychological thriller EINER VON UNS BEIDEN (One of Us Two, 1973/ 74), starring Jürgen Prochnow, a regular collaborator of Petersen, who also took the lead, as the captain of a German U-boat during World War II, in the director’s DAS BOOT (The Boat, 1980/81), adapted from an autobiographical novel by Lothar Buchheim. Although critical reception was at first mixed, it was a resounding success with the public, winning several awards. In the US, DAS BOOT gained six Oscar nominations. A five-hour long TV version, which allowed for more detailed narrative and character development, won an Emmy in 1985. In the wake of this success, Petersen was entrusted with the fantasy film DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE (The NeverEnding Story, 1983/84), which had the biggest budget for a German post-war production up to that time. Thereafter, Petersen primarily took on Hollywood assignments, such as the science fiction film ENEMY MINE (1984/ 85), shot as the previous two films at the Bavaria Studios near Munich. He relocated to Santa Monica in 1987. Petersen established himself as one of Hollywood’s top directors following the success of IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1992/93), which starred Clint Eastwood as an ageing secret service agent who failed to prevent the Kennedy assassination but is given a second chance to foil another presidential assassination attempt. OUTBREAK (1994/95) with Dustin Hoffman and Donald Sutherland exploited contemporary fears of viral epidemics. AIR FORCE ONE (1996/97), with Harrison Ford and Glenn Close centred on terrorists hijacking the presidential plane. THE PERFECT STORM (1999), with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, combined impressive special effects with a more intimate humaninterest story. While these films were all international box-office hits, they often had a somewhat lukewarm critical reception, a tendency that continued with the ancient epic TROY (2003/04), and POSEIDON, the remake of a 1970s disaster movie, that proved a flop at the box office in 2006. [dir – DE – TV] 1965: Stadt auf Stelzen. 1966/67: Der Eine – der Andere [SF – dir,scr]; Der Findling [FF – ass-dir]. 1967: Kuckucksjahre [FF – ass-dir]. 1968: Ich nicht [SF – dir,scr].
1969: Miriam [SF – assistance]. 1970: Sonnabend, der 1. [SF – assistance]. 1970/71: Ich werde dich töten, Wolf [FF – dir,scr]. 1971: Tatort: Blechschaden. 1971/72: Anna und Totò; Tatort: Strandgut; Tatort: Jagdrevier. 1972/73: Smog [dir,co-scr]; Tatort: Nachtfrost. 1973: Van der Valk und die Reichen [DE/AT]. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden [FF]. 1974: Auf’s Kreuz gelegt. 1974/75: Die Stadt im Tal [dir,act]; Stellenweise Glatteis. 1975: Tatort: Kurzschluß [dir,co-scr]. 1976: Hans im Glück [dir,co-scr – DE/AT]; Vier gegen die Bank [dir,scr]. 1976/77: Tatort: Reifezeugnis; Planübung. 1977: Die Konsequenz [dir,co-scr]. 1978: Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte [dir,co-scr – DE/ AT]. 1980/81: Das Boot [FF+TV – dir,scr]. 1983/84: Die unendliche Geschichte [FF – dir,scr]; Tausend Augen [FF – pro]. 1984: Von Hamburg nach Hollywood. Der Regisseur Wolfgang Petersen [TVD – app]. [pro – US] 1984/85: Enemy Mine [dir]. 1990: Häuser auf dem Sunset Boulevard [TVD – app – DE]. 1990/91: Shattered / Tod im Spiegel [dir,scr,pro – US/DE]. 1991: Kennen Sie Dieter Meichsner? [TVD – app – DE]. 1992/93: In the Line of Fire [dir,pro]. 1994/95: Vom Tatort zur Traumfabrik [TVD – app – DE]; Outbreak [dir,pro]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany [TVD – app – DE]. 1996/97: Air Force One [dir,pro]. 1997: Red Corner. 1998: Instinct. 1999: Bicentennial Man; The Perfect Storm [dir,pro]. 2000: Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app – DE]; Mord nach der Tagesschau [TVD – app – DE]. 2000/ 01: Michael Ballhaus – Begegnung mit dem Auge Hollywoods [SD – app – DE]. 2001: Starbuck Holger Meins [DO – app – DE]. 2001-03: The Agency [TVS – 2 seasons – US/CA]. 2003/04: Troy [dir,pro]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app – DE]. 2005/06: Avenger [TV]. 2006: Chicxulub [SF]; Poseidon [dir,pro].
CHRISTIAN PETZOLD Born September 14, 1960, Hilden (West Germany) Often set against bland and empty cityscapes and featuring haunted protagonists, director Petzold’s films provide a melancholy portrait of post-unification Germany. Rich in film-historical allusions and musical references, his narratives, sounds, and images combine into intricate and emotionally affective cinematic collages. From 1981 Petzold read German literature and drama at West Berlin’s Free University, writing his dissertation on the radical 1960s pop-art poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. Between 1988 and 1994 he studied at the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie (dffb), and was taught by filmmakers and academics Hartmut Bitomsky and Harun Farocki with whom he collaborated on various projects. Student peers at the dffb included future directors Thomas Arslan (b. 1962) and Angela Schanelec (b. 1962), whose work alongside Petzold’s is often collectively discussed by critics as the ‘Berlin School’. After a number of shorts, Petzold’s graduation film and first full-length feature was PILOTINNEN (Pi-
LUPU PICK
lots, 1994), a television drama about two beauticians who attempt to escape their male-dominated work environment. His TV production CUBA LIBRE (1995) chronicled a destructive amour fou. DIE BEISCHLAFDIEBIN (The Sex Thief, 1997/98) drew like its predecessors on popular genres in its tale of a woman who seduces and then robs her male victims in order to finance her sister’s studies. During this period Petzold consolidated his core production team, including cinematographer Hans Fromm, production designer Kade (Klaus-Dieter) Gruber, editor Bettina Böhler, and composer Stefan Will. Petzold’s former teacher Harun Farocki collaborated on all his screenplays. DIE INNERE SICHERHEIT (The State I Am In, 1999/ 2000) was Petzold’s first cinema release and began his ‘Trilogy of Ghosts’. It centred on the teenage daughter of a fugitive 1970s terrorist couple who desperately yearns for a normal life. Part thriller, part coming-ofage drama, Petzold’s film was less interested in political commentary and more in the dysfunctional psychology of a family perpetually on the run; in interviews he acknowledged the influence of Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire road movie NEAR DARK (1987). In the television drama TOTER MANN (Something to Remind Me, 2001), about an avenging femme fatale, Petzold cited classical film noir and neo-noir conventions, and transported them into the prosaic environs of affluent contemporary Stuttgart. This also marked his first collaboration with actress Nina Hoss, whose glacial yet vulnerable beauty and understated performance style are ideally suited to his unsettling fables. WOLFSBURG (2002/03), originally produced for television but eventually released in cinemas, was set in the eponymous town primarily known for its VW plant. It told the story of a car dealer (Benno Fürmann) who kills a young boy in a hit-and-run accident. Haunted by his guilt, he develops a doomed relationship with his victim’s grieving mother (Hoss) who is searching for clues about her son’s death in the town’s scrapyards. Drawing on cultural references as diverse as Grimm’s fairytales, Eric Rohmer’s films, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s BLOW-UP, Petzold’s second part of his ghost trilogy, GESPENSTER (Ghosts, 2004), was filmed in Berlin, on locations such as the Tiergarten woods, crumbling bourgeois villas, and post-modern Potsdamer Platz. As in WOLFSBURG, the enigmatic narrative featured a distressed mother whose search for her missing daughter brings her into contact with two teenage drifters. Again, Petzold focused on individuals whose failure to integrate into mainstream society renders them caught in a lonely, off-kilter ‘ghost’ world. Petzold achieved major international recognition with the final part of his ghost trilogy, YELLA (2006/ 07), starring Hoss as an East German woman who at-
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tempts to make a career as an investment broker in the West German city of Hanover, but whose past catches up with and ultimately destroys her. YELLA cleverly maintained an ambiguity over its supernatural elements, including its ending, which was inspired by the American cult horror CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962), with other cinephile nods to films including Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE (1964) and Nicolas Roeg’s DON’T LOOK NOW (1973). Hoss received the Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival in 2007 for her performance, and won a German film prize in 2008. Petzold returned to noir territory with JERICHOW (2008), based on a novel by James M. Cain and a loose remake of Luchino Visconti’s OSSESSIONE (1942) and the two Hollywood versions of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946; 1981). Set (like parts of YELLA) in an economically depressed and desolate part of East Germany, it featured a deadly love triangle between Hilmi Sözer as a Turkish entrepreneur, Hoss as his wife, and Fürmann as an ex-soldier. Petzold’s Turkish-born wife, Aysun Bademsoy (b. 1960) collaborated on some of her husband’s early films, and is a prolific director of documentaries in her own right. Her work frequently deals with Turkish-German relations, especially the life of young Turkish women in Germany (e.g. NACH DEM SPIEL, After The Game, 1997; ICH GEH JETZT REIN, I Go In Now, 2008). [dir,scr – DE] 1987: Mission [SF – co-dir,co-scr,cam]. 1988/89: Der VW-Komplex / Le complexe VW [DO – assdir – DE/FR]. 1989: Weiber [SF – dir,scr,cam,cut]. 1990: 19 Portraits [SD – app,snd,light]; Glanz und Elend der Hochbegabten [SF – dir,scr,cut]; Night comes falling [SF – act]; Ostwärts [SD – dir,co-cam,cut]; Süden [SD – dir,scr,cam, cut,snd]. 1990/91: Am Rand [SD – snd]. 1991: Das Kino und der Wind und die Photographie [TVD – ass-dir]; Kino, Flächen, Bunker [TVD – ass-dir]; Happy Birthday, Türke! [acr]. 1992: Das warme Geld [SF – dir]; Die UFA [TVD – ass-dir – DE/FR]; Kamera und Wirklichkeit – Rumänien 1989 [TVD – ass-dir]. 1993: Ein Tag im Leben der Endverbraucher [TVD – ass]. 1993/94: Imaginäre Architektur – Der Baumeister Hans Scharoun [TVD – ass-dir]. 1994: Pilotinnen [TV]. 1995: Abzüge [SD]; Cuba Libre [TV]. 1997/98: Die Beischlafdiebin [TV]. 1999/2000: Die innere Sicherheit. 2001: Toter Mann [TV – dir,co-scr]. 2002/03: Wolfsburg. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2003/04: Freedom2speak v2.0 [DO – app]. 2004: Gespenster. 2005: Passagen – Der Filmemacher Christian Petzold [TVD – app]. 2006/07: Yella. 2007: Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]. 2008: Jerichow.
LUPU PICK Born January 2, 1886, Jassy (Romania) Died March 7, 1931, Berlin (Germany) A multi-talented actor, director, screenwriter, as well as co-founder of two production companies, Pick is
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mostly remembered as the director of two intimate dramas that became classics of the 1920s ‘Kammerspielfilm’ (chamber play film). Arriving in Berlin at the age of ten, Pick completed an apprenticeship in the retail trade, while taking acting lessons. After marrying actress Edith Posca, he was engaged at the Kleine Theater in Berlin, making a name for himself as an actor. From 1915, Pick was part of the film director Richard Oswald’s group of actors, playing dubious characters, mainly in their successful detective series. Cast as the incompetent doctor in Oswald’s first sex-education film, ES WERDE LICHT (Let There Be Light, 1916/ 17), Pick was also responsible for the film’s original story. Co-founder of Rex Film, Pick initially made eight popular genre films, but also addressed socially relevant issues, such as capital punishment in TÖTET NICHT MEHR! (Kill No More!, 1919) and abortion in AUS DEN ERINNERUNGEN EINES FRAUENARZTES
(The Memoirs of a Gynaecologist, 1921). A collaboration with the renowned writer Carl Mayer resulted in SCHERBEN (Shattered, 1921), which narrates the downbeat tale of a station guard and his violated daughter, using only one title. Pick and Mayer followed this with the equally claustrophobic SYLVESTER (New Years Eve, 1923), which depicted an alienated society, where a café owner is driven to suicide by the demands of his wife and mother. Both films helped to initiate the ‘Kammerspielfilm’ as a prominent subgenre in 1920s Weimar cinema. After Rex Film became a joint-stock company in 1923, Pick concentrated on management and only directed three films himself, including DAS HAUS DER LÜGE (The House of Lies, 1925) based on Ibsen’s ‘Wild Duck’, and EINE NACHT IN LONDON / A KNIGHT IN LONDON (1928), an Anglo-German co-production starring Lilian Harvey. The same year he also gained attention as an actor, as a Japanese diplomat in Fritz Lang’s SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28), and became chairman of the umbrella organisation of German film workers unions, DACHO. With his newly founded Lulu Pick Film Production GmbH, he made a historical film, NAPOLEON AUF ST. HELENA (Napoleon on St Helena, 1929), with Werner Krauß in the title role. His only sound production GASSENHAUER (Street Singers, 1930/31), a crime comedy about a group of cabaret singers getting involved in a murder case, also marked the end of his career, and he did not live to see the film’s release. [act – DE] 1910: Japanisches Opfer. 1915: Und wandern sollst Du ruhelos …; Auf der Alm, da gibt’s ka Sünd; Schlemihl; Satan Opium. 1916: Hoffmanns Erzählungen; Die grüne Phiole; Seine letzte Maske; Das unheimliche Haus; Die Rache der Toten; Das unheimliche Haus. 2. Teil: Frei-
tag, der 13te; Das unheimliche Haus. 3. Teil: Der chinesische Götze; Lehrer Matthiesen; Nächte des Grauens; Der Fall Routt …! 1916/17: Es werde Licht! 1. Teil [co-scr,ide, act]. 1917: Aus Liebe gefehlt; Der Fall Dombronowska; Des Goldes Fluch; Das Geschäft; Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray; Frank Hansens Glück; Der Schloßherr von Hohenstein; Die Pagode; Die Fremde; Der Tod des Baumeisters Olsen; Die Claudi vom Geiserhof; Das Geheimnis der Briefmarke; Höhenluft; Die zweite Frau; Das Opfer der Yella Rogesius; Edelweiß; Die schwarze Kugel. 1918: Die Serenyi; Maria Magdalena; Der letzte Augenblick; Mr. Wu [dir, scr,pro]; Die Rothenburger [dir,scr,act]; Der Weltspiegel [dir,co-scr,pro]; Die Liebe des van Royk [dir,scr,pro]; Die tolle Heirat von Laló [dir,scr,pro]. [pro – DE] 1918/19: Mein Wille ist Gesetz [dir,scr,pro]. 1919: Der Terministenklub [dir]; Die Herrenschneiderin [dir]; Marionetten der Leidenschaft [dir,co-scr,pro]; Herr über Leben und Tod [dir,co-scr,pro]; Der Seelenverkäufer [dir,scr,pro]; Kitsch [dir,pro]; Tötet nicht mehr! [dir,co-scr, act,pro]. 1920: Niemand weiß es [dir,co-scr,act,pro]; Der verbotene Weg [act,pro]; Der Dummkopf [dir,act,pro]. 1921: Das Achtgroschenmädel [2 parts]; Scherben [dir, co-scr,pro]; Das Kind der Straße [2 parts]; Grausige Nächte [dir,pro]; Aus den Erinnerungen eines Frauenarztes. 1. Fliehende Schatten / 2. Lüge und Wahrheit [dir,co-scr, act,pro]. 1922: Zum Paradies der Damen [dir,co-scr,act, pro]; Am Rande der Großstadt. 1922/23: Stadt in Sicht; Das Haus ohne Lachen. 1923: Sylvester [dir,pro]. 1925: Das Haus der Lüge [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1925/26: Die letzte Droschke von Berlin [act,pro]. 1926: Der Feldherrnhügel [act – DE/AT]; Das Panzergewölbe [dir,co-scr,pro]; Gräfin Plättmamsell. 1927: Familientag im Hause Prellstein; Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen. 1927/28: Spione [act]. 1928: Eine Nacht in London / A Knight in London [dir,pro – DE/GB]. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1930/31: Gassenhauer [MLV – dir,pro]; Les quatres vagabonds [MLV – dir,pro].
HARRY PIEL (Heinrich Piel) Born July 12, 1892, Düsseldorf-Benrath (Germany) Died March 27, 1963, Munich (Germany) Nicknamed the ‘Dynamite Director’ due to his predilection for staging explosions in his spectacular adventure films and detective serials. Piel’s pictures, usually starring himself, combined stunts, wild animals, exotic vistas, and turbulent plots. He almost constituted a popular genre tradition in himself, which spanned the Wilhelmine, Weimar, Nazi, and post-World War II periods. Leaving school aged sixteen, Piel was a cadet on a sailing ship, took a business course and trained as a student pilot. These skills enabled him to further his career, which started with SCHWARZES BLUT (Black Blood, 1912) produced, directed and written by himself. Contracted to various companies he produced and directed a number of spectacular films. DIE GROSSE WETTE (The Big Bet, 1915) marked his de-
HARRY PIEL
but in the science-fiction genre and UNTER HEISSER ZONE (In the Hot Zone, 1916), his first film with daring wild-animal stunts. After directing eight Joe Deebs detective films, he created his own Harry Piel adventure series, performing his own stunts and becoming an internationally recognised star. Often cooperating with producer Heinrich Nebenzahl, he founded a string of production companys, e.g. Metro-Film GmbH, Hape-FilmCompany, Ariel-Film, but worked for other companies (Phoebus, Nero, Ufa) as well. He also played double roles, as in SEIN GRÖSSTER BLUFF (His Biggest Bluff, 1927), where he was teamed up with a young Marlene Dietrich. Piel moved effortlessly into sound films with the mistaken identity comedy ER ODER ICH (Him or Me, 1930). During the ‘Third Reich’, Piel appeared in popular operetta films such as SCHWARZWALDMÄDEL (Black Forest Girl, 1933), while continuing with his typical animal and circus films, such as DER DSCHUNGEL RUFT (The Jungle Calls, 1935) or MENSCHEN, TIERE, SENSATIONEN (People, Animals, Sensations, 1938). EIN UNSICHTBARER GEHT DURCH DIE STADT
(The Invisible Man is loose, 1933) was one of only few science fiction and fantasy films made during the Nazi period. His patriotic story about an animalcatcher, PANIK (Panic, 1940–43), meanwhile, was banned because its air-raid scenes were considered too realistic, and the censors perceived it could undermine public morale during the war. After World War II Piel was briefly imprisoned as a Nazi ‘fellow traveller’ and banned from practicing his profession for five years. In 1950 he founded ArielFilm but Piel’s specific brand of popular cinema no longer appealed to post-war cinema audiences, nor could the visibly ageing performer still convince as a daredevil. Piel’s comeback attempt, DER TIGER AKBAR (The Tiger Akbar, 1950/51) reflected on his advancing age by casting him in a tragic May to September romance between an animal trainer and a younger colleague. His last major release was GESPRENGTE GITTER – DIE ELEFANTEN SIND LOS (Broken Gates – Elephants on the Loose, 1952/53), a film which was an edited version of the never released PANIK, made ten years earlier. During the 1950s, Piel released a few more shorts, before retiring at the end of the decade. [dir,scr – DE] 1912: Schwarzes Blut [dir,scr,pro]; Dämone der Tiefe [dir,scr,pro]; Der Börsenkönig [dir,scr,pro]; Der Triumph des Todes; Schatten der Nacht. 1913: Der schwarze Pierrot; Der grüne Teufel; Im Leben verspielt; Menschen und Masken [2 parts]; Seelenadel; Erblich belastet?; Harakiri; Die Millionenmine. 1913/14: Die braune Bestie. 1914: Ein Millionenraub; Das Teufelsauge; Das geheimnisvolle Zeichen; Das Abenteuer eines Journalisten
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[dir]; Der geheimnisvolle Nachtschatten; Ein seltsamer Fall [dir]. 1914/15: Der schwarze Husar. 1915: Der Bär von Baskerville; Manya, die Türkin; Im Banne der Vergangenheit; Das Geheimnis von D.14; Police Nr. 1111; Das verschwundene Los [dir,scr,pro]; Die große Wette [dir,scr, pro]. 1916: Das lebende Rätsel [dir,pro]; Unter heißer Zone [dir,scr,pro]; Das geheimnisvolle Telephon. 1916/17: Zur Strecke gebracht. 1917: Das Schicksal rächt sich [dir]; Um eine Million; Die Abenteuer des Kapitän Hansen; Der Sultan von Johore; Der stumme Zeuge; Der weiße Schrecken; Sein Todfeind. 1917/18: Das amerikanische Duell [dir,scr, act]. 1918: Kapitän Hansens Abenteuer [dir]; Die Ratte [dir]; Das rollende Hotel; Diplomaten [dir]; Die Krone von Palma [dir]; Das Auge des Götzen. 1918/19: Die närrische Fabrik [dir,co-scr]; Der Muff. [dir,act,pro – DE] 1919: Der blaue Drachen [dir]; Der rätselhafte Klub; Der große Unbekannte [dir,act]; Der große Coup; Über den Wolken; Eine angebrochene Ehe. 1919/20: Die Geheimnisse des Zirkus Barré. 1920: Die Luftpiraten [dir,scr,act]; Das fliegende Auto; Der Verächter des Todes; Das Gefängnis auf dem Meeresgrunde. 1920/ 21: Der Reiter ohne Kopf. 1. Die Todesfalle / 2. Die geheimnisvolle Macht / 3. Harry Peels schwerster Sieg. 1921: Der Fürst der Berge; Unus, der Weg in die Welt. 1921/ 22: Das verschwundene Haus. 1922: Das schwarze Kuvert. 1922/23: Rivalen; Der letzte Kampf. 1923: Abenteuer einer Nacht; Menschen und Masken. 1. Der falsche Emir / 2. Ein gefährliches Spiel; Sein gefährlichstes Spiel. 1924: Auf gefährlichen Spuren; Der Mann ohne Nerven / L’Homme sans nerfs [co-dir,act,pro – DE/FR]. 1924/25: Schneller als der Tod / Face à mort [DE/FR]. 1925: Zigano, der Brigant vom Monte Diavolo / Zigano [DE/FR]; Abenteuer im Nachtexpreß [dir,co-scr,act]. 1926: Der schwarze Pierrot [dir,scr,act]; Achtung Harry! Augen auf! [dir,scr,act]; Was ist los im Zirkus Beely? [dir,act]. 1927: Sein größter Bluff [dir,co-scr,act]; Rätsel einer Nacht [dir, co-scr,act]; Bezwinger der 1000 Gefahren [dir,cut]. 1927/ 28: Panik [dir,act]. 1928: Mann gegen Mann [dir,act]; Seine stärkste Waffe [dir,act]. 1928/29: Die Mitternachtstaxe. 1929: Männer ohne Beruf; Sein bester Freund. 1929/30: Menschen im Feuer. 1930: Achtung! – Auto-Diebe!; Er oder ich [MLV]; Lui et moi [MLV]. 1931: Schatten der Unterwelt [MLV]; Ombres des bas fonds [MLV]; Bobby geht los [MLV]; L’Auberge du père Jonas [MLV]. 1931/32: Der Geheimagent. 1932: Jonny stiehlt Europa; Das Schiff ohne Hafen. 1933: Sprung in den Abgrund; Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt; Schwarzwaldmädel [pro]; Schwarzwaldbauern [SD – pro]. 1934: Die Welt ohne Maske; Der Herr der Welt [dir,scr,pro]. 1934/35: Artisten. 1935: Der Dschungel ruft [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1936: 90 Minuten Aufenthalt. 1936/37: Sein bester Freund. 1937: Wie einst im Mai [pro]. 1937/38: Der unmögliche Herr Pitt [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1938: Menschen, Tiere, Sensationen [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1939: Der Trichter Nr. III [SF – act]. 1940-43: Panik [dir,co-scr]. 1942: Die große Nummer [sma]. 1944/45: Mann im Sattel [dir,scr,act]. 1950/51: Der Tiger Akbar [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1952/53: Gesprengte Gitter – Die Elefanten sind los [dir,cut,act,pro]. 1954: Ein Leben für den Film: Vierzig Jahre Harry Piel [TVD – app]. 1955: Affenliebe [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Wenn Tiere erwachen
JULIUS PINSCHEWER [SD – dir,cut,pro]; Wenn Tiere betteln [SD – dir,cut,pro]. 1963: Wiedersehen im Fernsehen [TVD – app].
JULIUS PINSCHEWER Born September 15, 1883, Hohensalza (Bromberg, now Inowroc³aw, Poland) Died April 16, 1961, Berne (Switzerland) One of the pioneers of the film advertising industry in Germany, Pinschwer’s short commercials were both artistically inventive and effective in selling a product or an idea. Pinschewer studied politics, economics and philosophy, while working in a bank, a department store and a chemical laboratory. Recognising the advertising potential in the new medium of film, he founded his first advertising film company in Berlin in 1912. Recommended by big companies in Germany and expanding internationally with a branch in London, Pinschewer’s belief in the subtle, persuasive power of his films was confirmed. A short foray into feature films was less successful but during World War I he made propaganda films for war loans. By 1919 Pinschewer not only produced short films but also had a practical monopoly on the release of ‘artistic advertising’ films. As a producer he was responsible for the artistic development of most of his films, from idea to screenplay and direction to editing. His early films consisted of short, whimsical scenes, often played by noted actors, including Asta Nielsen. Later he turned to animated films, favouring fairy-tale or exotic material, again employing top artists for various techniques, including silhouettes, abstracts and puppets. Initially promoting brand names, he later switched to making films for more general purposes (‘Buy Books’, ‘Heat with Gas’) and social campaigns (Milk for child nourishment). Always keen to keep ahead of the competition, Pinschewer exploited technical and artistic innovations in his films. In 1929 he made his first sound film for Tri-Ergon records DIE CHINESISCHE NACHTIGALL (The Chinese Nightingale). In 1933 Pinschewer, being Jewish, went into exile in Switzerland. There he continued producing cartoons in colour and sound for Swiss, Dutch and British markets, changing his focus back to brand names and exhibitions. He also refined his style, relying increasingly on humour to engage the audience, and succeeded in transforming his material form into associative, flowing abstractions. SPIEL DER WELLEN (Play of the Waves, 1926) was the prototype Pinschewer developed and varied effectively thereafter. Apart from advertising films Pinschewer, a Swiss citizen since 1948, made two cartoon films with Jewish themes, CHAD GADJO (The Little Lamb, 1930), based
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on a traditional poem, and HATIKWAH (1949/50) illustrating the Israeli national anthem. He also directed two puppet films and four animated film versions of Swiss folk songs. [SF – pro – DE] 1911: Carmol tut wohl; Corsets Gebr. Lewandowski; Die Suppe [ANI]. 1912: Alt-Heidelberg, du feine [DO]; Die Flasche [ANI]; Der Nähkasten. 1913: Der gute Klebstoff. 1916: Als der Großvater die Großmutter nahm; Der Astronom; Der Bilderdieb; Einquartierung; Die Eröffnung der Zeichnung der Kriegsanleihe in der Reichsbank; Früher ‘Die Mona Lisa’ genannt; Hausmütterchens Sparkasse; Der Neue Hut; Der schüchterne Freier; ‘– sie wachen für Euch!’; Spuk in der Küche; Der Verdacht; Ein Wort Hindenburgs über die Kriegsanleihe; Der wundervolle Duft; Die Zaubertasche; Leidvoll und freudvoll; Die deutsche Sommerzeit. 1917: Im Reiche des Geldes [3 parts]; Englands Kriegsanleihen; Deutsche Helden; Auch ein U-BootErfolg; Deutschlands Volksvermögen [ANI]; Eine gute Kapitalanlage [ANI]; Der Weg zum Frieden [ANI]; Die Zauberschere [ANI]. 1918: Das Gebot der Stunde [ANI – scr,pro]; Worauf wir vertrauen [ANI]; Das Geheimnis des Tanks [ANI]; Ein Boxkampf mit John Bull [ANI]; Der Kino als Berater [ANI]; Ein neuer Dreibund [ANI – dir,pro]; Was jeder braucht; Unter den Fittichen des Berliner Krippen-Vereins; Der gefoppte Einbrecher; Eine Forderung des Tages; Aegir. Ein Film-Festspiel [dir,scr,pro]; Ein im Mittelpunkt des Interesses stehendes Gebäude: Die Reichsbank; Jung-Siegfried; Die Zauberflasche; Der beste Schuß [ANI]. 1919: Im Mietbüro. 1920: Aus der Entwicklung der Landwirtschaft; Die feindlichen Brüder [ANI]; Hansi im Luftballon; Die Schmugglerjagd [dir,pro]; Aus der Schule geplaudert; Colombinchen; Durch dick und dünn; Faun und Mädchen [dir,pro]; Jettchens Meisterstück; Loreley; Der Schreiber und die Biene; Schwamm drüber; Der Tanz der Flaschen [ANI]; Im Artistenklub; Im Wandel der Zeiten; Max, Moritz und der Chinese; Pierrot auf dem Eise; Das Ahnenbild [dir,pro]; Afrikanisches Abenteuer; Ein kleiner Feinschmecker; Streik im Himmel; Vaterfreuden [dir,scr,pro]; Im Lande der Apachen [ANI]; Das Schwammgirl. 1920/ 21: Der Reifendieb; Das Stiergefecht. 1921: Münchener Kindl; Auf Schleichwegen; Der verliebte Stiefel; Eulalias Verjüngung; Der Zahnteufel [ANI]; Der Feuerdrache [ANI]; Am Nil [ANI]; Die neue Salome; Im Tierpark; Hansi als Lohengrin; Puppengesellschaft. 1921/22: Marionetten [ANI]; Taifun; Zaubertrank; Der Traumflieger; Höllenfahrt; Das Geheimnis der Marquise [dir,pro]; Der Sieger [ANI – co-dir,pro]. [(co-)dir,pro – DE] 1922: Suleikas Entführung [ANI]; Herstellung von Glocken in der schlesischen Glockengießerei von A. Geittner Söhne, Breslau [pro]; Die drei Mohren [ANI]; Vom König, der gern Klöße aß [ANI]; Seemannsliebe [ANI]; Das Wunder [ANI]; Streik der Hemden [ANI]; Schokoladenliebe [ANI]; Eine süße Geschichte; Der böse Schnupfen [ANI]; In den Dschungeln. 1922/23: Khasana, das Tempelmädchen [ANI]; Badereise meiner Wäsche nach Freienwalde an der Oder [pro]; Die Besteigung des Himalaja (Mount Everest) [ANI]; Petrus schläft [ANI]. 1923: Ein Sommernachtstraum [ANI]; Schnauzl [pro]; Der Fall Ego, das Geheimnis der Ferdinandstraße in Hamburg
FRANZ PLANER [pro]; Wie die Hoffmann-Schokolade entstand [pro]; Die automatische Puppe; Der Schatz des Tutanchamon [ANI]; Der Kurzschluß-Teufel; Die Geisha [pro]; Am Nordpol; Der Kampf mit dem Dollar [pro]; Adam und Eva im Paradiese. 1923/24: Preuße und Pandure; Schneewittchen. 1924: Im Zirkus [pro]; Die Belagerung; Der Brand im Wolkenkratzer [ANI]; Der gerettete Skalp [pro]; Bad Elster, die Perle des sächsischen Vogtlandes [pro]; Die Barcarole; Abbau auch im Harem [ANI]; Im Urwald [ANI]; Der gefoppte Winter; Der Glücksvogel [ANI]; Nunak, die Eskima [ANI]; Das Zauberpferd [ANI]; Meiers Werdegang; Glück auf! [ANI]; Sonnenersatz [ANI]; Eine staubige Geschichte; Ewald-Film GmbH, Berlin [ANI]; Wintersport mit Hindernissen [ANI]; Die Loreley [ANI]; Intermezzo in Afrika [pro]; Die Hölle friert [pro]; Die fliegende Flasche [ANI]; Ein Klostergeheimnis; Der wandelnde Ofen [ANI]. 1924/25: Die Tintenbuben [pro]; Jettes Ausgang [ANI]; Jettes Traum [ANI]; Der fliegende Omnibus [ANI]; Jung Siegfried [ANI]. 1925: Der Reisende [ANI]; Der Kaufmann von Bagdad [ANI]; Der Pfennig muß es bringen! [ANI]; Petrus wird photographiert; Dresden ist die Ursprungsstätte der bekannten ChlorodontZahnpaste [SD – pro]; Das Heinzelmännchen; Der kluge Einfall [ANI]; Ministerbesuch anläßlich der Eröffnung der Jahrtausendausstellung in Köln [SD – pro]; Von der alten zur modernen Bäckerei [pro]; Die Handelsstadt Kiel [SD – pro]; Der Astronom [ANI]; Die Lustbarkeitssteuer im Kinotheater [SD]; Der kluge Dackel [ANI]; Meier glüht [ANI]; Nordlandsfahrt der Deutschen Flotte [pro]; Altenburg [pro]; Das wiedergefundene Paradies [ANI]; Bräutliche Rheinfahrt [ANI]; Ri-Ri? [pro]; Heißdampfpflüge erbaut von Dampfpflugfabrik Kemna-Breslau [SD – pro]; Film [ANI]; Meiers fahren nach Indien; Aus einer alten Hansestadt [SD – pro]; Stilles Geschäft [ANI]; Hermann Pfauter, Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik, Chemnitz [SD – pro]; Das flüssige Gold [ANI]; Bilder aus der Grafschaft Glatz [SD – pro]; Der Retter [ANI]; Das Seegespenst [ANI]; Aus dem Leben eines Hemdes [ANI]; Hermsdorf-Schomburg, Isolatoren G.m.b.H. [DO – pro]; Ballsaison [ANI]. 1925/26: Altona [DO – pro]. 1926: Der Absturz; Frau Krause und die Dienstbotenfrage [ANI]; Das Zündholz [ANI]; Auf der Skitour [ANI]; Die Zweitourenpresse ‘Windsbraut’ [SD – pro]; Herr Pitt [ANI]; Die Geschichte vom Schokoladenkaspar [ANI]; Der schlesische Granit und seine Bedeutung [SD – pro]; Gera [SD – pro]; Fritzchens Werdegang [ANI – pro]; Die verhexte Villa [pro]; Der Liebhaber [ANI]; Hänschens Rettung [pro]; Das widerspenstige Auto [ANI]; Der Aufstieg [ANI]; Der besiegte Zauberer [pro]; Falstaff [pro]; Der Hamster [pro]; Spiel der Wellen [ANI]; Tod der Langenweile! [ANI]; Die Braut [pro]; Maschinenfabrik Johannisberg GmbH, Geisenheim am Rhein. [SD – pro]; Der Arm [ANI]; Das Elfenkleid [pro]; Nach Feierabend [ANI]; Der Raucher [ANI – pro]; Helene [ANI]; Charlies Schuhe [pro]; Eignung zum Film [ANI]; Die Wollgewinnung [SD – pro]; Tut-Ench-Amon [pro]; Die Stichbildung der Nähmaschine [SD – pro]; Schwerter Schokoladenfabrik Riedel & Engelmann, Dresden [SD – pro]; Altenburg, die alte freie Reichsstadt [SD – pro]; Altona am Elbestrand [SD – pro]; Drei wichtige Dinge [SD – pro]; Von der Wolle zum fertigen Kleiderstoff [SD – pro]; Streik im Himmel [pro]; Die AtaGarde [ANI]. 1927: Im Filmatelier [ANI – pro]; Der kaffee-
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durstige Scheich [pro]; Das Rätselwort; Rinderschlachtung in Argentinien [SD]; Wochenende [pro]; Die Kunst des Rechnens [pro]; Aus Deutschlands graphischer Industrie [SD – pro]; Das neue Buchungsverfahren [pro], die ‘Definitiv-Kontroll-Buchhaltung’ [SD – pro]; Der kluge Einfall [ANI]; Die Abreise [ANI – pro]; Schlaraffenland [ANI – pro]; Der Spuk im Opernhaus; Dort wo der Rhein … [ANI – pro]. 1928: Die Entstehung der Pelzmode [pro]; Die Herstellung der Agfa-Seide [SD – pro]; Der böse Traum [ANI – pro]; Der Rundfunk auf dem Lande [ANI – pro]; Küchen-Rebellen [ANI – pro]. 1929: Gustes Waschtag [pro]; Die chinesische Nachtigall [ANI]; Das Geld im Sparstrumpf [ANI – pro]; DasWetterhäuschen [ANI – pro]. 1930: Montansalpeters Mondfahrt [pro]; Werden und Wirken der Sparkassen [SD – pro]; Kirmes in Hollywood [ANI – pro]; Die FerienReise [ANI]; Wohl, nun kann der Guß beginnen [pro]; Chad Gadjo [ANI – pro]; Marionetten-Kabarett [ANI]; Der Teufel mit dem alten Weib [ANI]; Der Kampf um den Sparpfennig [SD – pro]; Venezianische Serenade [ANI – pro]; Die Katastrophe [ANI]; Carmen [ANI]; Tres Caballeros. 1932: Kreislauf [ANI – pro]; Was koche ich heute [SD]. 1932/33: Taler, Taler Du mußt wandern [ANI – pro]. 1933: Die Waschbären [pro]; Das Nachtgespenst [SD – pro]. [SF – pro – CH] 1933/34: Die Schmierkobolde. 1934: Küchenrebellen – Eine saubere Geschichte. 1935: De Lichtwacht; Der Sängerkrieg auf der ‘Wattburg’; De Lichtdief. 1936: Waarheen? 1939: Spiel der Wellen; Schweizer ‘Sinfonie’. 1939/40: Ohne Arbeit [dir,pro]. 1940?: Krachnuss; Aufstand der Felder; Die kleine Kartoffel. 1940: Die Schweiz am Werk / La Suisse au travail / Switzerland at Work. 1940/41: 6/8 in einem Boot; Fußspuren. 1941: Auch Fabriken wollen essen; Elfen modern. 1946: À pleines voiles / Mit frischem Wind / Under Full Sail / Con las velas des plegades. 1947: Cent ans de Chemins de fer Suisses. 1948: King Coal. 1948/49: Wenn der Winter naht. 1949: Le petit cheminot / Der kleine Eisenbähnler; Willie Does His Stuff [GB]. 1949/50: Auch reisen will gelernt sein; Globi’s gutes Herz [ANI]; Hatikwah [ANI]; Help on Wings; Das Spiel von der Kiste; Der wilde Bach. 1950?: BLS [ANI]. 1950: Bread [GB]; Save Baby Save [GB]. 1951/ 52: Fondue. 1952: Schweizer Volkslieder: Addio la caserma / D’Bärnertracht / S’Bienzerbuerli / Gentille batelière [SD – 4 episodes]; Chumm mit id’ Winterferie!; ‘Précision’; Ein schweizer Bauernkünstler. Jean-Jacques Hauswirth 1808–1871 [SD]; Der verzauberte Alltag. 1954: Hereinspaziert – halbe Preise; Mr. Kolynos [GB]. 1955/56: Das schwache Entlein. 1956: Vielfalt / Diversité / Varieta / Diversity. 1957: Vielfalt / Diversité / Varieta / Diversity. 1960: 50 Jahre Pinschewer-Film (1910-1960) [DO].
FRANZ PLANER (Franz B. Planer, aka Frank Planer) Born March 29, 1894, Karlsbad (Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) Died January 10, 1963, Hollywood (California, USA) Trained in the fluid but sharp-edged style of German cinematography in the 1920s, Franz Planer became
FRANZ PLANER
one of Hollywood’s most sought-after cameramen of the 1940s and 1950s, equally adept at creating atmospheric chiaroscuro compositions in the studio, lighting stars, capturing outdoor locations, and filming Technicolor fantasy films. Trained as a portrait photographer, Planer worked also as a news cameraman in Vienna, Paris and Munich. He entered the German film industry in 1920, primarily filming light entertainment fare for second-rate directors, but also working for F. W. Murnau in DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (The Grand Duke’s Finances, 1923), and providing Brigitte Helm with the appropriate star lighting in Henrik Galeen’s ALRAUNE (A Daugther of Destiny, 1927). With the advent of sound, Planer advanced to more prestigious productions, including Wilhelm Thiele’s comedy hit DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930) and Max Ophüls’s melancholy romance LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932–34). After the Nazis came to power, Planer moved to Vienna with his Jewish wife, where he shot a number of operettas and revue musicals such as PREMIERE (1936/37) and ZAUBER DER BOHÈME (The Charm of La Bohème, 1937). Throughout the 1930s, Planer worked across Europe, including in Britain (THE DICTATOR, 1934/35; and THE BELOVED VAGABOND, 1936), France (e.g. AVE MARIA DE SCHUBERT, Ave Maria, 1936), and Italy (CASTA DIVA, 1935). During this period Planer frequently collaborated with former colleagues who had been exiled, including Max Ophüls and Curtis Bernhardt. However, he also on occasion worked in Germany, photographing CAPRIOLEN (Love in Stunt Flying, 1937) for Gustaf Gründgens. Contracted by Columbia Studios, Planer moved to Hollywood in 1937. His first American film was George Cukor’s classic screwball comedy HOLIDAY (1938) with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. He subsequently diversified into a wide range of genres, including Robert Florey’s proto-noir horror film THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1940) with Peter Lorre, low-budget war films such as SUBMARINE RAIDER (1942), and the Mae West vehicle THE HEAT’S ON (1943). After completing his contract with Columbia, he repeatedly worked with other European émigrés, such as the producer Seymour Nebenzahl (THE CHASE, 1946), and directors Robert Siodmak (CRISS CROSS, 1948) and – once again – Max Ophüls on LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1947/48). In the 1950s, Planer shot mostly colour films, including the Jules Verne adventure 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954), the western THE BIG COUNTRY (1958) and the comedy BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961) with Audrey Hepburn. The latter Planer had already photographed to great effect in ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953), and she was also the
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co-star of his last film, THE CHILDREN’S HOUR (1961). [cam – DE] 1919/20: Der Brunnen des Wahnsinns [co-cam]. 1920: Der Ochsenkrieg; Der Klosterjäger; Die Trommeln Asiens. 1920/21: Die Trutze von Trutzberg. 1921: Die Nacht der Einbrecher [co-cam]. 1921/22: Das schwarze Gesicht. 1922: Der Favorit der Königin [co-cam]; Um Liebe und Thron [co-cam]. 1923: Die Finanzen des Großherzogs [co-cam]. 1924: Gehetzte Menschen [cocam]; Schicksal. 1925: Der Mann seiner Frau; Finale der Liebe. 1926: Fünf-Uhr-Tee in der Ackerstraße; Nur eine Tänzerin / Bara en danserska [co-cam – DE/SE]; Der Sohn des Hannibal; Schatz, mach’ Kasse. 1927: Die Achtzehnjährigen; Einbruch; Wie heirate ich meinen Chef; Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen; Die Pflicht zu schweigen; Das Frauenhaus von Rio; Die Ausgestoßenen; Der große Unbekannte; Alraune. 1927/28: Die Rothausgasse. 1928: Heut’ spielt der Strauß; Weib in Flammen; Wolga – Wolga [co-cam]. 1928/29: Die Flucht vor der Liebe. 1929: Die Liebe der Brüder Rott. Irrlichter; Der Narr seiner Liebe; Frauen am Abgrund; Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer. 1930: Heute Nacht – eventuell …!; Zapfenstreich am Rhein [co-cam]; Der Sohn der weißen Berge [MLV – cocam]; Les chevaliers de la montagne [MLV – co-cam – DE/FR]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV]; Hans in allen Gassen [MLV]; La folle aventure [MLV]. 1931: Nie wieder Liebe [MLV]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]; Der Storch streikt; L’Aiglon [MLV – co-cam – FR]; Der Herzog von Reichstadt [MLV – co-cam – FR]; Sein Scheidungsgrund [co-cam]; Der Herr Bürovorsteher; Le chant du marin [FR]. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo. 1932: Der Prinz von Arkadien [co-cam – AT]; Teilnehmer antwortet nicht; Der schwarze Husar; Das erste Recht des Kindes. Aus dem Tagebuch einer Frauenärztin; Eine Stadt steht Kopf. 1932/33: Der Choral von Leuthen; Liebelei [MLV]. 1932-34: ‘Liebelei’. Une histoire d’amour [MLV – co-cam – FR]. [cam – FR] 1933: Leise flehen meine Lieder / Schuberts unvollendete Symphonie [MLV – co-cam – AT/DE]; The Unfinished Symphony [MLV – AT/DE]; Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin [MLV – DE]; Caprice de princesse [MLV – DE]; La garnison amoureuse [co-cam]. 1934: Dactylo se marie [co-cam]; Maskerade [AT]; So endete eine Liebe [DE]; Les nuits moscovites [co-cam]. 1934/35: The Dictator [GB]. 1935: Casta diva [MLV – IT]; The Divine Spark [MLV – IT/ GB]. 1935/36: Cinephonie: Ave Maria de Schubert [SD]; Cinephonie: La valse brillante (en la b) de Chopin [SD]; Tarass Boulba [co-cam]. 1936: The Beloved Vagabond [MLV – GB]; Le vagabond bien-aimé [MLV – GB]; Opernring [AT]; Blumen aus Nizza [AT]; Die Julika. Ernte [AT]. 1936/37: Premiere [AT]. 1937: Die ganz großen Torheiten [DE]; Capriolen [co-cam – DE]; Zauber der Bohème [AT]. [cam – US] 1938: Holiday; Girl’s School; Adventure in Sahara. 1940: Glamour for Sale; The Face Behind the Mask. 1940/41: Meet Boston Blackie. 1941: They Dare Not Love; Time Out for Rhythm; Sweetheart of the Campus; Our Wife; Three Girls About Town; Sing for Your Supper; Honolulu Lu; Harvard, Here I Come. 1941/42: The Adventures of Martin Eden. 1942: Canal Zone; The Wife Takes a Flyer;
RUDOLF PLATTE Flight Lieutenant; Sabotage Squad; The Spirit of Stanford [co-cam]; The Daring Young Man; Submarine Raider. 1942/43: Something to Shout About. 1943: Appointment in Berlin; My Kingdom for a Cook; Destroyer; The Heat’s On. 1943/44: Once Upon a Time. 1944: Secret Command; Strange Affair. 1944/45: Leave It to Blondie. 1945: I Love a Bandleader; Snafu. 1946: Her Sister’s Secret; The Chase. 1946-50: Vendetta [co-cam]. 1947: The Exile. 1947/48: Letter from an Unknown Woman. 1948: One Touch of Venus; Criss Cross. 1949: Champion; Take One False Step; Once More, My Darling. 1950: 711 Ocean Drive; Three Husbands; Cyrano De Bergerac. 1951: The Scarf; The Blue Veil; Decision Before Dawn; Death of a Salesman. 1952/ 53: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 1953: Roman Holiday [co-cam]; 99 River Street; Bad for Each Other. 1954: The Long Wait; A Bullet Is Waiting; The Caine Mutiny; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [co-cam]. 1954/55: General Electric Theatre: The High Green Wall [TV]. 1955: Not As a Stranger; The Left Hand of God. 1956: The Mountain. 1957: The Pride and the Passion. 1957/58: Stage Struck [co-cam]. 1958: The Big Country. 1959: The Nun’s Story. 1959/60: The Unforgiven. 1961: Breakfast at Tiffany’s; King of Kings [co-cam]; The Children’s Hour.
RUDOLF PLATTE (Rudolf Antonius Heinrich Platte) Born February 12, 1904, Dortmund-Hörde (Germany) Died December 18, 1984, Berlin (West Germany) A prolific and popular character actor in German films from the late 1920s to the early 1980s, Platte’s persona ranged from that of a cheerfully talkative and bumbling foil to the main protagonist, frequently cast as a small-time rogue, servant, or tramp. Platte made his stage debut in Düsseldorf in 1925. After gaining experience at various theatres in northern Germany and following a period as a director at the Lobe Theatre in Breslau, he was invited to Berlin by Victor Barnowsky in 1927. Two years later he made his film debut in an adaptation of the youth drama REVOLTE IM ERZIEHUNGSHAUS (Revolt in the Borstal, 1929). Playing goodhumoured, ordinary characters in minor parts, Platte established his screen image in a range of prestigious early 1930s productions, including F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1, 1932) and VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria). He also appeared in one of the earliest Nazi propaganda films, HITLERJUNGE QUEX (Hitler Youth Quex, both 1933). As a shy salesman dealing in cotton-jersey undergarments, Platte for once managed to escape the supporting cast, and was given the title role in Carl Boese’s SCHÜTZENKÖNIG WIRD DER FELIX (Felix Is Right on Target, 1934). He played another leading part in what proved his final film role during the ‘Third Reich’, as the criminologist Bruch in DER MEISTERDETEKTIV (The Master Detective, 1943/44).
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Throughout his film career, Platte maintained his presence as an actor and director on stage. He collaborated with Werner Finck and Hans Deppe in the cabaret ‘Katakombe’, which was banned in 1935. From 1940–44 he worked as director at the Behrendstraße Theatre. After World War II, he again directed at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and other theatres in Berlin, usually light entertainment productions. Platte returned to film roles in 1949, and appeared in countless popular genre productions in the 1950s and 1960s. On rare occasions he was given serious character parts, such as the Czech refugee in Rolf Thiele’s MAMITSCHKA (1955), or as a book dealer with a Nazi past in Wolfgang Staudte’s HERRENPARTIE (Destination Death, 1963/64). From the 1960s onwards, Platte extended his activities to television, appearing in popular series such as DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner) and DERRICK, as well as in television plays, becoming typecast anew, this time as a slightly senile, emaciated old man. Big screen parts became more sporadic, and his final film role was in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (Veronika Voss, 1981/82), as a melancholy Jewish pensioner who commits suicide alongside his wife (played by Johanna Hofer). [act – DE] 1929: Revolte im Erziehungshaus. 1930/31: Drei Tage Liebe; Zimmer 12a [SF]. 1931: Spiele nicht mit Schießgewehr [SF]; Der Stolz der 3. Kompagnie. 1932: Das Millionentestament; Die – oder keine; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann?; Liebe auf den ersten Ton; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; Ahoi – Ahoi! [SF]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]; Eine Tür geht auf. 1932/33: Zwei gute Kameraden. 1933: Der Stern von Valencia [MLV]; Hitlerjunge Quex; Keine Angst vor Liebe; Seine erste Liebe [SF]; Die Sonne geht auf; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV]. 1933/34: So ein Flegel; Gold [MLV]. 1934: Hochzeit am 13. [SF]; Herr Mahler in tausend Nöten [SF]; Pappi; Halb und halb [SF]; Der Meisterboxer; Seine beste Erfindung [SF]; Charleys Tante; Was bin ich ohne Dich?; Der Vetter aus Dingsda; Heinz im Mond; Schützenkönig wird der Felix; Die Liebe siegt; Der Herr Senator; Grüß mir die Lore noch einmal; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]. 1934/35: Ufa-Märchen [SF]; Zigeunerbaron [MLV]. 1935: Emma III [SF]; Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV]; Liebeslied. 1935/36: Hans im Glück; Donogoo Tonka [MLV]; Hier irrt Schiller [SF]. 1936: Stjenka Rasin; Flitterwochen; Wochenendzauber [SF]; Wie imponiere ich meiner Frau [SF]; Blinde Passagiere; Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich; Ein Mädel vom Ballett; Spezialist für Alles [SF]; Der lustige Witwenball; Das Hofkonzert [MLV]. 1936/37: Wie der Hase läuft; Die Kronzeugin. 1937: Der glückliche Finder [SF]; Mädchen für alles; Wenn Frauen schweigen; Heiratsinstitut Ida & Co; Husaren, heraus!; Autobus ‘S’. Ein Mann kam nicht nach Hause; Fremdenheim Filoda; Die Landstreicher; Gasparone; Monika. 1937/38: Großalarm. 1938: Müller contra Müller [SF]; Das Mädchen von gestern Nacht; Frühlingsluft; Der liebe Besuch [SF]; Wie ein Ei dem anderen
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[SF]; Der falsche Admiral [SF]; Schwarzfahrt ins Glück; Angenehme Ruhe [SF]; Diskretion – Ehrensache!; Andere Länder, andere Sitten [SF]; Der lose Falter [SF]; Unsere kleine Frau [MLV – DE/IT]; Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht?; Der Blaufuchs. 1938/39: Im Namen des Volkes; Ich bin gleich wieder da. 1939: Frau am Steuer; Der Vorhang fällt; Ehe in Dosen; Wer küßt Madeleine?; Tee zu zweien [SF]; 12 Minuten nach 12; Der singende Tor [MLV – IT/DE]; Casa lontana [MLV – IT/DE]; Rote Mühle. 1939/40: Liebesschule; Meine Tochter tut das nicht. 1940: Mädchen im Vorzimmer; Für die Katz; Die lustigen Vagabunden; Ritorno [MLV – IT]; Traummusik [MLV – DE/IT]; Blutsbrüderschaft; Alarm. 1941: Familienanschluß; Sonntagskinder. 1941/42: So ein Früchtchen; Alles aus Liebe. 1942: Ein Walzer mit dir. 1943/44: Der Meisterdetektiv. 1949: Kätchen für alles; Nach Regen scheint Sonne. 1949/ 50: Absender unbekannt; Dreizehn unter einem Hut; Dieser Mann gehört mir. 1950: Maharadscha wider Willen; Wenn Männer schwindeln; Der Mann, der sich selber sucht; Mädchen mit Beziehungen; Es begann um Mitternacht; Die Dritte von rechts; Eva im Frack. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein. 1951: Weh’ dem, der liebt; Die Frauen des Herrn S.; Engel im Abendkleid; Unschuld in tausend Nöten; Die verschleierte Maja; Wildwest in Oberbayern; Wenn die Abendglocken läuten. 1952: Meine Frau macht Dummheiten; Drei Tage Angst; Pension Schöller; Mein Herz darfst Du nicht fragen; Man lebt nur einmal; Der Weibertausch; Traumschöne Nacht [MLV – FR/DE]; Hannerl [AT]; Die Fiakermilli [AT]. 1952/53: Die Junggesellenfalle. 1953: Frauen – Filme – Fernsehfunk [DO]; Das singende Hotel; Hollandmädel; Liebeskrieg nach Noten; Damenwahl; Blume von Hawaii; Die süßesten Früchte. 1953/54: Die tolle Lola. 1954: Geld aus der Luft; Meine Schwester und ich; Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel; Tanz in der Sonne; Verliebter Sommer [AT]; Musik, Musik und nur Musik. 1954/55: Die spanische Fliege. 1955: Ball im Savoy; Der falsche Adam; Mamitschka; Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlager; Das Bad auf der Tenne. 1956: Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Mädchen mit schwachem Gedächtnis; Die ganze Welt singt nur Amore; Du bist Musik; Die schöne Meisterin. 1956/57: Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Zwei Herzen voller Seligkeit; Tante Wanda aus Uganda; Tolle Nacht; Die Unschuld vom Lande; Das einfache Mädchen; Es wird alles wieder gut; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut; Heute blau und morgen blau; Wenn die Bombe platzt [AT]. 1957/58: Lilli. Ein Mädchen aus der Großstadt. 1958: Bühne frei für Marika!; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; Der Maulkorb; Scala – total verrückt; Der Haustyrann. 1959: La Paloma; Wenn das mein großer Bruder wüßte! [AT]; Melodie und Rhythmus; Buddenbrooks (Part 1); Salem aleikum. 1959/ 60: Das kunstseidene Mädchen / La gran vita / La grande vie [DE/IT/FR]; Als geheilt entlassen. 1960: Das Fenster zum Flur [TV]; Marina; Gauner in Uniform / Hauptmann – Deine Sterne [DE/AT]; Wenn die Heide blüht; Willy, der Privatdetektiv; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV]. 1961: Der Mann von drüben [TV]; Eine hübscher als die andere; Immer Ärger mit dem Bett; Die göttliche Jette [TV]; Adieu, Lebewohl, Goodbye; So liebt und küßt man in Tirol. 1961/ 62: Ihr schönster Tag; Der rote Hahn [TV]. 1962: Onkel Harry [TV]; Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius; Verrückt und zugenäht;
Der Vogelhändler; Sein bester Freund; Der 42. Himmel [MLV – CH]. 1963: Stahlnetz: Das Haus an der Stör [TV]. 1963/64: Herrenpartie / Muski izlet [DE/YU]; Der Kaiser vom Alexanderplatz [TV]. 1964: Mit besten Empfehlungen [TV]; Freddy, Tiere, Sensationen. [act – DE – TV] 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Grethe Weiser und Rudolf Platte [TVD]. 1965/66: Gespenster. 1966: Weiß gibt auf. 1966/67: Das kleine Teehaus. 1967: Kaviar und Linsen; Crumbles letzte Chance; Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte. 1967/ 68: Professor Columbus [FF]. 1969: Komm, flüstere in mein gutes Ohr; Josefine, das liebestolle Kätzchen / Sì pura come un angelo … resterà vergine? [FF – DE/IT]. 1969/ 70: Die Herren mit der weißen Weste [FF]. 1970: Rudolf Platte [TVD – app]. 1970/71: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1971: Das Geld liegt auf der Bank. 1972: Der Kommissar: Der Tennisplatz; Der Fall Opa. 1972/73: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau [2 episodes]. 1973: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1974: Auch ich war nur ein mittelmäßiger Schüler [FF]; Derrick: Mitternachtsbus. 1974/75: Unter einem Dach: Der Poet unterm Dach. 1975: Der Kommissar: Der Mord an Dr. Winter; Rheinpromenade; Berlin – 0.00 bis 24.00: Petruschat stört den Städtebau; Herz mit Schnauze [TVD – app – AT]; Hundert Mark. 1975/76: Von Emma, Türkenpaul und Edwin mit der Geige. 1976/77: Derrick: Offene Rechnung; Sanfter Schrecken. 1977: Links und rechts vom Ku’damm. 1978: Der Hit; Großstadt-Miniaturen; Der Alte: Marholms Erben. 1979: Einzelzimmer; Der Alte: Die Lüge; Die Alten kommen. 1980: Teegebäck und Platzpatronen. 1980/81: Leute wie Du und ich (III). 1981: Die Wildente; Zurück an den Absender; Georg Thomallas Geschichten: Die Sprüche Salomons. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss [FF]. 1982: Der Alte: Eine Frau ist verschwunden. 1983: Ein Mord liegt auf der Hand; Leute wie Du und ich (V); Rummelplatzgeschichten: Benjamin und Rita. 1984: Alles aus Liebe: Wenn ich dich nicht hätte; Jakob und Adele [TVS – episode 4].
ULRICH PLENZDORF Born October 26, 1934, Berlin (Germany) Died August 9, 2007, Berlin (Germany) Plenzdorf’s updating of Goethe’s classic ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ in his play and novel ‘Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.’ (The New Sorrows of Young W) started out as a screenplay and became one of the biggest international successes of GDR literature in the early 1970s. Plenzdorf was also an influential screenwriter at DEFA from the early 1960s until the early 1980s most of time adapting novels for the screen and the stage. Following early experiences as a stagehand (1955–58) and a stint as a soldier in the East German National People’s Army (1958/59), Plenzdorf studied screenwriting at the film academy in Babelsberg. In 1963 he joined DEFA’s division for feature films as a writer. His first film was Ralf Kirsten’s historical romp MIR NACH, CANAILLEN! (Follow Me, Bastards, 1963/ 64), starring Manfred Krug, but already his second
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film, KARLA (1965) about a young teacher struggling with the system’s bureaucratic constraints, was seen as too critical by the authorities and stopped during production. It took a few years before Plenzdorf was reunited with the director, Hermann Zschoche, on the road movie WEITE STRASSEN – STILLE LIEBE (Long Roads – Quiet Love, 1969). KENNEN SIE URBAN? (Do You Know Urban?, 1970) directed by Ingrid Reschke (1935–1971), one of the very few female directors at DEFA, confirmed Plenzdorf’s reputation as a writer with a perceptive take on contemporary social problems in East Germany. Originally staged at the theatre in Halle in 1972, ‘Die neuen Leidern des jungen W.’ incorporated authentic youth jargon, and registered disillusionment among the country’s younger citizens. The text had previously been rejected by DEFA as a screenplay, and despite its theatrical triumphs, was once again rejected in a second version submitted in 1973. Eberhard Itzenplitz finally directed a West German TV adaptation in 1975/76. Plenzdorf’s screenplay for the romantic drama DIE LEGENDE VON PAUL UND PAULA (The Legend of Paul and Paul, 1972), which was started in cooperation with Ingrid Reschke but (after her death in a car crash) directed by Heiner Carow, was approved by the authorities, and became one of DEFA’s most popular films. Plenzdorf continued the story of the main protagonists in his novel ‘Legende vom Glück ohne Ende’ (Legend of a Happiness Without End, 1979). He worked again with Zschoche on the teenage coming-of-age drama LIEBE MIT 16 (Love at Sixteen, 1973/74), and, adapting Günther de Bruyn’s bestselling novel ‘Buridans Esel’ (Buridan’s Ass, 1963/ 68), GLÜCK IM HINTERHAUS (Happiness in the Backyard, 1978/79), about a librarian’s midlife crisis. However, their next collaboration, INSEL DER SCHWÄNE (Island of Swans, 1981/82), a youthcentred drama set against the backdrop of a soulless Berlin housing estate, once again caused offence with its social critique. In the late 1970s, Plenzdorf began writing occasionally for West German television productions, including Frank Beyer’s DER KÖNIG UND SEIN NARR (The King and His Jester, 1980/81) from the novel by Martin Stade. After Beyer’s BOCKSHORN (1983) based on Christoph Meckel’s novel, Plenzdorf was effectively on DEFA’s blacklist – none of his film projects came to fruition in East Germany until the fall of the Wall. Shortly before the official demise of DEFA in 1992, Plenzdorf contributed to some of the company’s final productions, including Beyer’s DER VERDACHT (Suspicion), and Rainer Simon’s DER FALL Ö. (The Oedipus Case, both 1990/91). Few of Plenzdorf’s post-unification projects measured up to his best work. He worked with up-and-com-
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ing director Andreas Dresen on the TV drama DAS ANDERE LEBEN DES HERRN KREINS (The Other Life of Mr Kreins, 1994), adapted Hans Fallada’s DER TRINKER (The Drinker), and wrote a vehicle for veteran East German actors Erwin Geschonneck and Fred Delmare with MATULLA & BUSCH (both 1995). He also took over from his colleague Jurek Becker to write the forth season of the popular TV series LIEBLING KREUZBERG, starring Manfred Krug. The latter’s autobiography formed the basis of Plenzdorf’s last film work, the screenplay for Frank Beyer’s ABGEHAUEN (Gone, 1998) about the crisis among GDR artists after the expulsion of singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann in 1976. Increasingly suffering from ill health, Plenzdorf spent his last years mostly out of the public eye. [scr – DD] 1963/64: Mir nach, Canaillen! [co-scr]. 1965: Karla [co-scr]. 1969: Weite Straßen – stille Liebe. 1970: Kennen Sie Urban? 1972: Die Legende von Paul und Paula. 1973/74: Liebe mit 16 [co-scr]. 1975/76: Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. [TV – DE]. 1978/79: Glück im Hinterhaus [co-scr]. 1980: Es geht seinen Gang oder Mühen in unserer Ebene [TV – DE]. 1980/81: Der König und sein Narr [TV – DE]. 1981/82: Insel der Schwäne [co-scr]. 1983: Bockshorn [co-scr]. 1984/85: Ein fliehendes Pferd [TV – co-scr – DE]. [TV – scr – DE] 1990/91: Der Fall Ö. [FF – co-scr]; Der Verdacht [FF]. 1991: Hüpf, Häschen hüpf oder Alptraum eines Staatsanwalts. 1992/93: Vater Mutter Mörderkind; Liebling Kreuzberg [TVS – episodes 28–40]. 1994: Das andere Leben des Herrn Kreins [co-scr]. 1995: Der Trinker; Matulla & Busch – Zwei Alte pokern hoch. 1997: Der Laden [coscr]. 1998: Abgehauen.
ERICH POMMER Born July 20, 1889, Hildesheim (Germany) Died May 8, 1966, Los Angeles (California, USA) One of the most significant producers of the 1920s and early 1930s, Pommer helped to create an international reputation for German films after World War I. He later promoted the idea of a ‘pan-European’ cinema before being forced to emigrate by the Nazis. After World War II, and a varied career in Britain and the United States, Pommer was instrumental in the reconstruction of the West German film industry. The son of a textile merchant, Pommer began working for the French film companies Gaumont (from 1907) and Éclair (from 1912) in their respective branches in Vienna and Berlin. Wounded in active service during World War I, Pommer contributed to the war effort through working on newsreels and documentaries. In 1915 he co-founded the Decla-Film-Gesellschaft Holz and Co, based on the German branch of Éclair (Deutsche Éclair), and then amalgamated with the Meinert Film Company, extending its range. Early productions included a staple diet of popular genre
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productions such as detective serials, adventure films, melodramas and two-reelers with the comedian Harry (Lambertz-Paulsen). Following the end of World War I and Pommer’s return to Berlin, Decla’s productions became more ambitious with ‘world-class’ films such as DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919/20). A further merger with Deutsche Bioscop followed in 1920. During these years Pommer fostered the careers of influential directors such as Fritz Lang, whose Decla Bioscop productions include DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny, 1921) and DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Dr Mabuse – The Gambler, 1921/22), and F. W. Murnau (SCHLOSS VOGELÖD, The Haunted Castle, 1921). Following Decla-Bioscop’s take-over by Ufa, Pommer in 1923 became a member of the company’s executive board, and continued to build up a team of talented directors, writers, cinematographers, and actors. Pommer’s strategy was to invest in expensive prestige productions targeted at the international market, such as Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungs, 1922– 24) and Murnau’s FAUST. Lang’s monumental science fiction epic METROPOLIS (both 1925/26), however, overshot its budget drastically, causing Pommer to lose his position at Ufa, while the company nearly went bankrupt. A brief period working for Paramount in the USA inspired Pommer to adopt tighter shooting schedules and new camera technology. Called back by the new management of a restructured Ufa in 1927, he embarked on a series of quality entertainment productions, notably Joe May’s ASPHALT (1928/29), and DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30). Following the advent of sound, Pommer’s production group at Ufa created a number of extremely popular musical comedies and operettas, such as DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930), and DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931). Most of these films were shot simultaneously in multi language versions (MLV) with different actors, a common practice during the early years of sound. Alongside other Jewish filmmakers, Ufa terminated Pommer’s contract after the Nazi takeover in 1933. Pommer first went to Paris as head of Fox Film Europe, producing two films, directed by Max Ophüls and Fritz Lang. Moving to Britain, Pommer produced for Alexander Korda (FIRE OVER ENGLAND, 1936) and formed ‘Mayflower Pictures Corp.’ with actor Charles Laughton. The partnership resulted in three films, among them Pommer’s only directorial venture VESSEL OF WRATH (1937/38), and Alfred Hitchcock’s JAMAICA INN (1939). At the outbreak of World War II Pommer signed a contract with RKO and relocated to Hollywood,
where most of his film projects failed to materialise due to ill-health. Pommer returned to Berlin after the war as a control officer for the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) with the task of restructuring the West German film industry. Although Pommer achieved much in kick-starting postwar production, he became disillusioned by his efforts, and formed an independent company, Intercontinental Film, in 1951. The first production NACHTS AUF DEN STRASSEN (Detour, 1951) won public and critical acclaim. Pommers subsequent three West German productions encompassed melodramas and anti-war films. Increasingly suffering from ill health, he retired to California in the mid-1950s, unable to realise further projects. [pro – AT] 1913: Das Geheimnis der Lüfte; Zwischen zwei Feuern; Tabak und Liebe; Ein Schritt vom Wege. 1914: Der Todesritt auf dem Riesenrad; Der Herr ohne Wohnung. [pro – DE – Decla-Film] 1915: Berlin im Kriegsjahr [SD]; Das Gewissen; Der Glaube siegt; Brot!; Carl und Carla; Die Masuren; Wien in Kriegszeiten; Der Barbier von Filmersdorf; O diese Männer; Die Goldquelle; Ein Schrei in der Nacht; Ein unbeschriebenes Blatt. 1915/16: Die Stimme des Toten. 1916: Dynamit; Der Weg der Tränen; Streichhölzer, kauft Streichhölzer!; Das Licht im Dunkeln; Der Thug; Papa soll nicht heiraten; Das Geheimnis des Sees; Komtesse Hella; Das Lied des Lebens; Der Tod des Erasmus; Der Schwur der Renate Rabenau. 1916/17: Dummy sucht seinen Verstand; Die Spinne; Wer küßt mich?; Wenn die Lawinen stürzen. 1917: Das Hochzeitsgeschenk; Frühling und Tod. Ein Mädchenschicksal; Das Goldfischchen; Der Mann im Havelock; Das Mädel von nebenan; Das Defizit; Die Glaswand; Der Königssee [SD]; Das Buch des Lasters; Die Faust des Schicksals; Doktor Lauffen [DE/AT]; Die Fremde; Harry lernt radfahren [SF]; Der Jubiläumspreis; Das Spiel vom Tode; Und wenn ich lieb’ nimm Dich in acht …!; Tot und lebendig; Die Königstochter von Travankore; Die Tochter der Gräfin Stachowska; Comtesse Hanne; Zwei blaue Jungen; Die gute Partie; Die Kraft des Michael Argobast; Harry als Badeengel [SF]; Harry will energisch werden [SF]; Baroneßchen auf Strafurlaub. 1917/18: Genie und Liebe; Harry wird Familienvater [SF]; Heide-Gretel. 1918: Das verwunschene Schloß; Lebendig tot; Inge; Harry wird Millionär [SF]; Harry als Detektiv [SF]; Harry lernt gruseln [SF]; Der Volontär; Die Sünde; Baronesse und Vetter Fritz [SF]; Die fromme Helene [SF]; Der Cowboy; Hanne und ihre drei Freier [SF]; Frau Gräfin [SF]; Das Glück der Frau Beate; Die Krone des Lebens; Clown Charly; Arme Lena!; Der Wilderer; Harry als Wachsfigur [SF]; Die Frauen des Josias Grafenreuth; Das Lied der Mutter; Harry lernt Billardspielen [SF]; Harrys Glücksschirm [SF]; Bergfrühling; Hotel Wasserhose [SF]; In den wilden Schroffen des Hochgebirges [SD]; Das bemooste Haupt; Marionetten des Hasses. 1918/19: Die Rache ist mein!; Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt. 1. Das Schicksal der Aenne Wolter / 2. Hyänen der Lust; BettlerG.m.b.H. 1919: Die blonde Loo; Die Ehe der Frau Mary;
HENNY PORTEN Der falsche Schein; Die Frau mit den Orchideen; Halbblut; Wolkenbau und Flimmerstern; Die Insel der Glücklichen; Das ewige Rätsel; Unrecht Gut; Die Spinnen. 1. Der goldene See / 2. Das Brillantenschiff; Pest in Florenz; Harakiri; Opfer; Der Richter von Zalamea. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. 1920: Frauenruhm; Johannes Goth; Der Januskopf; Sieger Tod; Tötendes Schweigen; Die Frau im Himmel; [pro – DE – Decla-Bioscop] Das Blut der Ahnen; Genuine; Die Maulwürfe; Der siebente Tag; Die Augen der Maske; Die Tophar-Mumie; Toteninsel; Die Jagd nach dem Tode. 1. Teil / 2. Die verbotene Stadt / 3. Der Mann im Dunkel / 4. Die Goldmine von Sar-Khin; Die Nacht der Königin Isabeau; Die sieben Todsünden; Das Haupt des Juarez; Das Zeichen des Malayen; Die Kwannon von Okadera; Das Geheimnis von Bombay; Die Dreizehn aus Stahl. 1920/21: Kämpfende Herzen. 1921: Irrende Seelen; Hazard; Treibende Kraft; Schloß Vogelöd; Der Erbe der van Diemen; Um den Sohn; Das Spiel mit dem Feuer; Das Mädchen, das wartet; Die schwarze Pantherin; Der Roman der Christine von Herre; Violett; Der ewige Fluch; Zirkus des Lebens; Der Mord in der Greenstreet; Die Intriguen der Madame de la Pommeraye; Der müde Tod. 1921/22: Bardame; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 1. Der große Spieler – Ein Bild unserer Zeit / 2. Inferno, ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit; Vanina. Die Galgenhochzeit. 1922: Phantom; Der steinerne Reiter. 1922/23: Ein Glas Wasser; Die Prinzessin Suwarin; Der Evangelimann. [pro – DE – Ufa] 1922/23: Tatjana. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1923: Die Austreibung; Seine Frau, die Unbekannte; Der verlorene Schuh; Der Sprung ins Leben. 1923/24: Michael. 1924: Dekameron-Nächte / Decameron Nights [DE/GB]; Komödie des Herzens; Der letzte Mann; Der Turm des Schweigens. 1924/25: Pietro, der Korsar; Die gefundene Braut; Die Frau mit dem schlechten Ruf; Die Prinzessin und der Geiger / The Blackguard [DE/GB]. 1925: Blitzzug der Liebe; Tartüff; Das Mädchen mit der Protektion; Das Fräulein vom Amt; Liebe macht blind; Varieté; Der rosa Diamant; Herrn Filip Collins Abenteuer; Ein Walzertraum. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut; Der Geiger von Florenz; Die Brüder Schellenberg; Die drei Kuckucksuhren; Faust; Metropolis. 1926: Hotel Imperial [US]. 1927: Barbed Wire [US]. 1928: Heimkehr; Ungarische Rhapsodie. 1928/29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse; Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna. 1929: Melodie des Herzens [MLV]. 1929/30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]; The Love Waltz [MLV]; Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV]; Liebling der Götter; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht; Einbrecher [MLV]; Flagrant délit [MLV]. 1931: Voruntersuchung [MLV]; Autour d’une enquête [MLV]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Le capitaine Craddock [MLV]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Le congrès s’amuse [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]; Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]; Tumultes [MLV]. 1931/32: Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV]; La fille et le garçon [MLV]; Der Sieger [MLV]; Le vainqueur [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: Quick [MLV]; Quick [Fr. version] [MLV]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Un rêve
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blond [MLV]; Happy Ever After [MLV]; Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht [MLV]; À moi le jour, à toi la nuit [MLV]; Early to Bed [MLV]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV]; F.P. 1 [MLV]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]; Moi et l’Impératrice [MLV]; The Only Girl [MLV]. [pro – GB] 1933/34: On a volé un homme [FR]; Liliom [FR]. 1934: Music in the Air [US]. 1936: Fire Over England. 1936/37: Farewell Again. 1937/38: Vessel of Wrath [dir, pro]. 1938: St. Martin’s Lane. 1939: Jamaica Inn. 1940: Dance, Girl, Dance [US]; They Knew What They Wanted [US]. 1951: Nachts auf den Straßen. 1952: Illusion in Moll. 1953/54: Eine Liebesgeschichte. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1989: Das Cabinet des Erich Pommer [TVD – app].
HENNY PORTEN (Henny Frieda Ulrike Porten) Born January 7, 1890, Magdeburg (Germany) Died October 15, 1960, Berlin (West Germany) Alongside Asta Nielsen, Henny Porten was Germany’s first film star. Embodying traditional values of female virtue, she was a role model for many women, and was regarded a national treasure. Her stardom spanned nearly the entire first half of the 20th century. The daughter of an opera baritone and theatre manager in Dortmund, Porten appeared on stage from an early age. In 1895 the family moved to Berlin. Her first professional engagement in film was in MEISSNER PORZELLAN (Meissen Porcelain, 1906) a ‘living sound tableau’ (Biophon-Tonbild) produced by Oskar Messter and directed by her father Franz Porten (1859–1932). She made several appearances in these sound tableaux, which usually depicted scenes of famous opera arias with recorded music. Sometimes her partner was her older sister Rosa (1884–1972) who went on to script and direct films together with her husband Franz Eckstein often under the pseudonym ‘Dr. R. Portegg’. In 1910 Henny began appearing in longer films, and soon starred in Messter’s ‘Henny Porten Starfilm’ series, where she was introduced to audiences as a ‘beautiful woman with a beautiful soul’. Among the creative personnel working with Porten during this time were later influential directors and cinematographers such as Robert Wiene and Karl Freund. In 1917, Porten’s contract was transferred to the newly founded Ufa. After World War I, she won critical acclaim in the title role of the film version of Gerhart Hauptmann’s ROSE BERND (1919). International success followed with ANNA BOLEYN (Deception, 1920) directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Emil Jannings. E. A. Dupont’s atmospheric Alpine melodrama DIE GEIER-WALLY (Vulture Wally), featuring Porten as a free-spirited mountain girl, and the artistically ambi-
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tious ‘Kammerspielfilm’ (chamber play film) HINTERTREPPE (Backstairs, both 1921) expanded her acting range. Following a brief decline in popularity, Porten founded a new production company with the director Carl Froelich, managed by her husband Wilhelm von Kaufmann, resulting in a series of star vehicles for her. These films were often solidly produced, but comprised mostly formulaic narratives, such as the maternal melodramas MUTTER UND KIND (Mother and Child, 1924) or MUTTERLIEBE (Mother Love, 1929). Porten’s first sound film SKANDAL UM EVA (Scandal About Eva) was directed by G. W. Pabst, but a greater box-office success was achieved by KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (Kohlhiesel’s Daughters, both 1930), a popular folkloristic farce previously filmed by Lubitsch (and again remade in the 1960s), in which Porten played the dual role of two sisters, one charming and pretty, the other grumpy and ugly. The biopic LUISE, KÖNIGIN VON PREUSSEN (Queen of Prussia, 1931), however, proved to be politically controversial. A sound remake of MUTTER UND KIND (Mother and Child, 1933) marked Porten’s transition into the industry of the ‘Third Reich’, but the continuation of her career was threatened by her refusal to divorce her Jewish husband. Hounded by the press, she appeared in only a few, and largely insignificant films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with the exception of her portrayal as the benign matriarch of a bourgeois household in FAMILIE BUCHHOLZ (The Buchholz Family, 1943/44), a nostalgic portrait of Berlin life at the turn of the century. After the war, Porten acted on stage in Lübeck and Hamburg. In the early 1950s, she returned to the screen in a minor role in a West German production, then in leading parts in two DEFA films, CAROLA LAMBERTI (1954) and DAS FRÄULEIN VON SCUDERI (Mademoiselle Scudéri, 1954/55). With no further film offers, Porten retired and died five years later. [act – Sound Tableau – DE] 1906: Meißner Porzellan. Salon-Gavotte von C. Alfredi. 1906/07: Der Trompeter von Säckingen: Behüt’ dich Gott. 1908: Daß nur für mich dein Herz erbebt aus ‘Der Troubadour’; Lohengrin: Nun sei bedankt mein lieber Schwan; Schaukellied; Tief im Böhmerwald; Funiculi – Funicula. Szene aus einer italienischen Osteria; Der Bettelstudent, Große Szene I. Akt: Auftritt des Obersten Ollendorf: ‘Ach ich hab sie ja nur auf die Schulter geküßt’; Der Freischütz; Im Fasching; Die kleine Baronesse; Der Tannhäuser. 1909: Stolzenfels am Rhein; Die Zauberflöte; Herbstmanöver: Kußlied; Sehnsucht; Apachentanz; Der Rastelbinder; Othello der Mohr von Venedig; Weihnachts-Tonbild: Der Brief an den lieben Gott. 1909/10: Hexenlied; Spinnlied; Zu Mantua in Banden. 1910: Linda von Chamonix; Lohengrin; Die kitzlige Jungfrau; Weh, daß wir scheiden müssen.
[act – FF – DE] 1910: Das Geheimnis der Toten; Schuld und Sühne; Verkannt; Das Liebesglück der Blinden. 1910/11: Friedel, der Geiger; Das verzauberte Café. 1911: Das Adoptivkind; Das Glöckchen des Glücks; Ein Duell ohne Zeugen; Ein Spiel um das Lebensglück zweier Menschen; Künstlerliebe; Mütter, verzaget nicht; Zu späte Reue!; Perlen bedeuten Tränen; Des Künstlers Untergang; Tragödie eines Streiks; Ein Fehltritt; Gefährlicher Liebeskampf zweier Frauen; Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen; Liebe und Leidenschaft; Der Müller und sein Kind; Im Glück vergessen; Das Gespenst der Vergangenheit; Papa, warum hast du mich nicht lieb?; Adressatin verstorben. 1911/12: Ein Leben; Des Lebens Würfelspiel. 1912: Der Kuß des Fürsten; Schatten des Lebens; Ein Ehrenwort; Maskenscherz; Die Toten schweigen; Einer Mutter Opfer; Teuer erkauftes Glück; Die Königin der Nacht; Um Haaresbreite; Henny Portens Reise nach Köln zur Eröffnung des ‘Modernen Theaters’ [SD]; Jung und Alt; Kämpfende Herzen; Der Schatten des Meeres; Erloschenes Licht; Des Pfarrers Töchterlein; Das Opfer. 1912/13: Ihr guter Ruf. 1913: Eva; Der Feind im Land; Der wankende Glaube; Komtesse Ursel; Der Weg des Lebens; Ihre Hoheit; Um das Glück betrogen. 1913/14: Das Tal des Traumes; Bergnacht. 1914: Durchs Ziel; Die große Sünderin; Nordlandsrose; Gretchen Wendland; Alexandra; Ein Überfall im Feindesland. 1914/15: Das Ende vom Liede. 1915: Der Sieg des Herzens; Märtyrerin der Liebe; Nur nicht heiraten; Auf der Alm, da gibt’s ka Sünd; Die Wellen schweigen; Das Schicksal der Gabriele Stark; Das große Schweigen. 1915/16: Ihr bester Schuß; Der Schirm mit dem Schwan. 1916: Abseits vom Glück; Das wandernde Licht; Die Räuberbraut; Der Ruf der Liebe; Der wandernde Blumentopf; Gelöste Ketten; Feenhände. 1916/17: Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach; Der Liebesbrief der Königin. 1917: Christa Hartungen; Die Prinzessin von Neutralien; Gefangene Seele; Die Claudi vom Geiserhof; Hann, Hein und Henny! [SF]; Höhenluft; Die Faust des Riesen [2 parts]; Gräfin Küchenfee. 1917/18: Edelsteine. 1918: Auf Probe gestellt; Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall; Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier; Das Maskenfest des Lebens; Die Sieger; Die Heimkehr des Odysseus; Die blaue Laterne; Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell. 1918/19: Irrungen. 1919: Ihr Sport; Die Schuld; Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth; Die lebende Tote; Rose Bernd; Die Fahrt ins Blaue; Monica Vogelsang. 1920: Kohlhiesels Töchter; Die goldene Krone; Anna Boleyn. 1921: Die Geier-Wally [act,pro]; Hintertreppe [act,pro]; Frauenopfer [act,pro]. 1921/22: Der Bobsport [SF]. 1922: Sie und die 3 [act,pro]. 1922/23: Inge Larsen [act,pro]. 1923: Die Liebe einer Königin; Der Kaufmann von Venedig; Das alte Gesetz; I.N.R.I. Ein Film der Menschlichkeit; Das Geheimnis von Brinkenhof. 1923/24: Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924: Mutter und Kind; Gräfin Donelli; Das goldene Kalb; Prater. [act,pro – DE] 1924/25: Kammermusik. 1925: Um ein Haar; Das Abenteuer der Sibylle Brant; Tragödie. 1925/ 26: Rosen aus dem Süden. 1926: Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen …!; Die Flammen lügen; Violantha. Die Königin der Berge [DE/CH]. 1926/27: Meine Tante – Deine Tante. 1927: Die große Pause. 1927/28: Liebe und Diebe. 1928: Lotte; Zuflucht; Henny Porten. Leben und Laufbahn einer
RUDOLF PRACK Filmkünstlerin [DO – app]; Liebe im Kuhstall; Liebfraumilch. 1928/29: Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist Du! 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO – app]; Mutterliebe [ide,sma,act, pro]; Die Herrin und ihr Knecht. 1930: Skandal um Eva; Kohlhiesels Töchter. 1931: 24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau; Luise, Königin von Preußen. [FF – act – DE] 1933: Alle machen mit [SF]; Mutter und Kind. 1935: Krach im Hinterhaus. 1938: Der Optimist; War es der im 3. Stock? 1940/41: Komödianten. 1942: Symphonie eines Lebens. 1942/43: Wenn der junge Wein blüht. 1943/44: Familie Buchholz; Neigungsehe. 1949/50: Absender unbekannt. 1954: Carola Lamberti – Eine vom Zirkus [DD]. 1954/55: Das Fräulein von Scuderi [DD/SE]. 1966: Lieblinge unserer Eltern: Henny Porten [TVD].
FRANKA POTENTE Born July 22, 1974, Münster (West Germany) With her athletic build and her shocking red punk haircut, Potente became an overnight star in the title role of Tom Tykwer’s LOLA RENNT (Run, Lola, Run, 1997/98). She has since appeared in a range of German and international productions. Potente studied acting at Munich’s Otto Falckenberg college and at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. After an appearance in a student film her proper film debut was the leading role in the teenage comedy NACH FÜNF IM URWALD (After Five in the Jungle, 1995). Small roles in several television productions followed prior to her breakthrough in LOLA RENNT. Directed by her then private partner Tom Tykwer, the film provided an inventive collage of urban life, and showcased Potente’s physical, down-to-earth persona and naturalistic performance style. Her recording of the title song ‘Komm zu mir / Wish’ was used in a number of international films. Potente next appeared in Doris Dörrie’s BIN ICH SCHÖN? (Am I Beautiful, 1997/98), but had a bigger impact with the horror film ANATOMIE (Anatomy, 1999), a box office hit in which she played a resourceful medical student who uncovers sinister activities in a University morgue. Potente also appeared in the film’s sequel, ANATOMIE 2 (Anatomy 2, 2002). She reunited with Tykwer for DER KRIEGER + DIE KAISERIN (The Princess and the Warrior, 1999/2000), a poetic parable set in a psychiatric asylum, and a marked change from the high octane style of their earlier collaboration. In 2001, Potente made her international debut in a supporting role in the crime drama BLOW, and then appeared as Matt Damon’s love interest in the Hollywood blockbusters THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2000/ 01) and THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2003/04). Developing a prolific portfolio in productions abroad, Potente also continued to appear in German productions, including Oskar Roehler’s adaptation of Michel
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Houellebecq’s ‘Atomised’, ELEMENTARTEILCHEN (2005/06). In 2005/06, Potente made her debut as a director with the short film DER DIE TOLLKIRSCHE AUSGRÄBT (Digging for Belladonna), a silent cinema spoof in which an urban punk is transported back to the year 1918. In Steven Soderburgh’s GUERRILLA and THE ARGENTINE (2007/08) a double-biopic of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara she played Tamara Bunke, the German companion of the South-American revolutionary. [act – DE] 1995: Nach fünf im Urwald. 1996: Zwei Brüder: In eigener Sache [TV]. 1996/97: Die drei Mädels von der Tankstelle; Coming In [TV]; Rennlauf [TV – AT]. 1997: Une vie pour une autre / Rose und Melanie [TV – FR/DE]; Das Xperiment [SF]; Easy Day [SF]. 1997/98: Opernball [TV – DE/AT]; Lola rennt; Bin ich schön? 1998/99: Südsee, eigene Insel; Schlaraffenland. 1999: Winke & Lächle [SF]; Downhill City [DE/FI]; Anatomie. 1999/2000: Der Krieger + die Kaiserin; Dancing at the Blue Iguana [sng – US/GB]; Head Over Heels [sng – US]. 2000/01: The Bourne Identity [US]. 2001: Blow [US]; Storytelling [US]; Starportrait: Franka Potente [TV]. 2001/02: La Mer [SF]. 2002: Try Seventeen [CA/US]; Anatomie 2. 2002/03: Blueprint. 2003: I Love Your Work [US]; Durch die Nacht mit … Franka Potente und John Carpenter [TVD]. 2003/04: The Tulse Luper Suitcases – Part 2: Vaux to the Sea [GB/NL]; Creep [GB/DE]; The Bourne Supremacy [US]. 2004: Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen; Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt [SF – dir,scr]. 2006/07: Eichmann [GB]. 2007: Romulus, My Father [AU]; The Shield [TV – episodes 74-76 – US]; La Traque / Die Hetzjagd [TV – FR/DE]. 2007/08: Die Brücke [TV]; Guerrilla [US/ES]; The Argentine [US/ES]. 2008/09: Shanghai [US].
RUDOLF PRACK (Rudolf Anton Prack) Born August 2, 1905, Vienna (Austria) Died December 3, 1981, Vienna (Austria) Rudolf Prack’s portrayals of principled, courteous, and mild-mannered heroes made him one of the most popular leading men in West German films of the 1950s, especially in the Heimatfilm genre. With his frequent co-star Sonja Ziemann (they appeared in six films together), they formed the emblematic screen couple of the decade, articulating a collective desire among postwar audiences for an ideal world. The son of a post office worker, Prack attended commercial college and began training to become a bank clerk. Afterwards he took a job in a bank in order to finance his training at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Schönbrunn. He was given his first theatrical engagement by Hans Thimig at the Theatre of the Josefstadt in Vienna. In 1937 Prack secured his first film role in Carl Lamaè’s musical comedy FLORENTINE. In 1939 Gustav Ucicky contracted him to Wien-Film, where Prack en-
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joyed his first major success in Ucicky’s pompous homage to motherly love in MUTTERLIEBE (A Mother’s Love). He became a screen idol through his role as a poacher in Karl Köstlin’s KRAMBAMBULI (1940), based on a 19th century story by Marie Freifrau von Ebner-Eschenbach. In Veit Harlan’s DIE GOLDENE STADT (The Golden City, 1941/42) Prack played a farmer’s son deserted by his fiancée Anna (Kristina Söderbaum), who in turn succumbs to the temptations of the big city. By the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, Prack’s portrayal of clean-cut young men made him a role model for the generations rebuilding Germany after the war. Prack’s persona was typified in his role as the magnanimous and kindly forest ranger in Hans Deppe’s tale of displaced exiles seeking solace within new German borders, GRÜN IST DIE HEIDE (The Heath Is Green, 1951), one of the most successful in a wave of Heimatfilme during the 1950s and early 1960s. In DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (The Private Secretary, 1953), the remake of an early 1930s comedy, the aspirational fantasies of a newly economically vibrant Germany came true in the story of the love between the lowly secretary for the company director. Prack’s anodyne acting style aided identification with his roles: whether portraying a forest ranger, a gynaecologist as in ROMAN EINES FRAUENARZTES (Story of a Gynaecologist, 1954), an archduke as in KAISERWALZER (The Emperor Waltz, 1953), a crown prince as in KRONPRINZ RUDOLFS LETZTE LIEBE (Crown Prince Rudolph’s Last Love, 1955/56) or a tsar as in DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1955), Prack’s characters remained perpetually noble and selfless. His roles on television deviated little from his established screen persona, with his mid-1960s portrayal of the title role in LANDARZT DR. BROCK (Country Doctor Brock, 1966–68), a 26-part series and notable success. It was not until 1976 when he played a downat-heel major in Wilhelm Pellert’s JESUS VON OTTAKRING (The Jesus of Ottakring) that he ironically undermined his image. With his popularity in decline Prack turned to writing radio plays and short stories. Perhaps his most interesting roles came at the very end of his career, as his guest appearances in Hans Jürgen Syberberg’s KARL MAY (1974) and Ottokar Runze’s DIE STANDARTE (The Standard, 1976/77) commented on his faded celebrity status. [act – DE] 1937: Florentine [AT]. 1938: Prinzessin Sissy; Der Optimist. 1939: Mutterliebe. 1940: Krambambuli; Ein Leben lang; Der liebe Augustin. 1940/41: Spähtrupp Hallgarten. 1941/42: Die goldene Stadt. 1942: Die große Nummer. 1942/43: Die unheimliche Wandlung des Alex Roscher; Reise in die Vergangenheit. 1943: Der ewige
Klang. 1943/44: Aufruhr der Herzen; Orientexpreß; Die heimlichen Bräute. 1944/45: Leuchtende Schatten [DE/ CS]; Liebe nach Noten; Ein Herz schlägt für Dich. 1946: Der weite Weg [AT]; Glaube an mich [AT]. 1948: Zyankali [AT]; Königin der Landstraße [AT]; Morgen ist alles besser; Fregola [AT]. 1949: Heimliches Rendezvous; Um eine Nasenlänge. 1950: Maharadscha wider Willen; Schwarzwaldmädel; Mädchen mit Beziehungen. 1950/ 51: Eine Frau mit Herz. 1951: Engel im Abendkleid; Johannes und die 13 Schönheitsköniginnen; Die Dame in Schwarz; Grün ist die Heide. 1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad; Tausend rote Rosen blühn; Lockende Sterne; Ferien vom Ich; Wenn abends die Heide träumt. 1953: Kaiserwalzer [AT]; Wenn am Sonntagabend die Dorfmusik spielt; Komm zurück …; Die Privatsekretärin. 1954: Kaisermanöver [AT]; Große Star-Parade; Roman eines Frauenarztes. 1955: Ball im Savoy; Heimatland [AT]; Der Kongreß tanzt [AT]. 1955/56: Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe [AT]. 1956: Dany, bitte schreiben Sie; Kaiserball [AT]; Roter Mohn [AT]. 1957: Das einfache Mädchen; Heimweh … dort wo die Blumen blüh’n [AT]; Der Page vom Palast-Hotel [AT]. 1958: Die Landärztin; Eine Reise ins Glück; Der Priester und das Mädchen [AT]. 1958/59: Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt. 1959: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Frauenarztes; Du bist wunderbar; Heimat – Deine Lieder. 1959/60: Ein Herz braucht Liebe. 1960: Die junge Sünderin. 1960/61: Frau Irene Besser. 1961: Vertauschtes Leben; Mariandl [AT]. 1962: Mariandls Heimkehr [AT]. 1963: Schwejks Flegeljahre [AT]. 1964: Holiday in St. Tropez; Die lustigen Weiber von Tirol; Happy-End am Attersee [AT]. 1965: Ruf der Wälder [AT]; Heidi [AT]. 1966-68: Landarzt Dr. Brock [TVS]. 1968/69: Ein dreifach Hoch dem Sanitätsgefreiten Neumann [DE/IT]. 1969/70: Frau Wirtin bläst auch gern Trompete / Susanna IV. / Le piacevoli notti di Justine [DE/AT/IT]. 1970: Der Kurier der Kaiserin: Geheimverhandlungen [TV]. 1970/71: Gestrickte Spuren [TV – AT]. 1971: Glückspilze [TV]; Verliebte Ferien in Tirol. 1971/72: Sie nannten ihn Krambambuli [DE/AT]. 1973: Wenn jeder Tag ein Sonntag wär. 1974: Karl May; Der Jäger von Fall. 1975: Schön war die Zeit [TV]. 1976: Jesus von Ottakring [AT]. 1976/77: Die Standarte / La Última bandera [DE/AT/ES]. 1980: Ringstraßenpalais [TVS – AT].
ROSA VON PRAUNHEIM (Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky, born Holger Radtke) Born November 25, 1942, Riga (Latvia) A veteran of underground cinema and queer politics in Germany, Praunheim’s prolific work from the late 1960s encompassed documentaries, agit-prop, comedies, musicals and biopics. Many of his films, which frequently featured himself as a central protagonist, overcame the limitations of their shoestring budgets through improvisations and polemical content. After growing up in East Berlin with adoptive parents the family settled in the Frankfurt/Main suburb of Praunheim, from which Holger Mischwitzky took his artistic pseudonym. He temporarily studied painting
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in Berlin, and subsequently embarked on a career as an independent artist in the late 1960s, directing his first short film in 1967. In 1968, he worked as an assistant of American underground filmmaker Gregory Markopolous, who exerted a strong influence on Praunheim. He also collaborated with Werner Schroeter on a number of projects. From the early 1970s, Praunheim became increasingly engaged in the gay liberation movement, and his films began to reflect his political activism, most notably NICHT DER HOMOSEXUELLE IST PERVERS, SONDERN DIE SITUATION, IN DER ER LEBT (Not the Homosexual Is Perverse, But the Situation in Which He Finds Himself, 1970/71), which kick-started a debate concerning homosexuality in the West German media. In 1970 he also made the comedy DIE BETTWURST, the unlikely romance between two eccentric characters, and the film many critics regard as Praunheim’s most accomplished. Apart from films about gay politics, Praunheim directed in the 1970s a number of celebrity portraits for German television, including teasing interviews with singers (and gay icons) Marianne Rosenberg (PORTRÄT MARIANNE ROSENBERG) and Evelyn Künneke (ICH BIN EIN ANTISTAR, I Am an Anti-Star, both 1976), the latter becoming the first in a line of elderly female muses for Praunheim. The 1980s marked the beginning of a collaborative partnership between Praunheim and the actress, former dancer, and Jewish émigré Lotti Huber (1912– 1998), who appeared in a number of his films, including Praunheim’s two homages to expressionist cinema, HORROR VACUI (1983/84) and ANITA – TÄNZE DES LASTERS (Anita, Dances of Vice, 1987), the latter a biopic of the Weimar actress and dancer Anita Berber. During the same time he also made a number of films concerning the AIDS epidemic, such as the musical EIN VIRUS KENNT KEINE MORAL (A Virus Knows No Morality, 1985). In the early 1990s, Praunheim caused a public outcry when he ‘outed’ a number of closeted gay entertainers and politicians on German television. ICH BIN MEINE EIGENE FRAU (I Am My Own Woman, 1991/92) told the life story of the transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (1928–2002) in East Germany, while DER EINSTEIN DES SEX (The Einstein of Sex, 1998/99) was a biopic of Weimar-era sexologist and gay liberation pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935). In a more self-indulgent vein, Praunheim celebrated his fiftieth birthday with the auto-biopic NEUROSIA – 50 JAHRE PERVERS (Neurosia – Fifty Years of Perversion, 1994/95) and his sixtieth with the TV documentary PFUI, ROSA! (2002). In the new millennium, Praunheim maintained his reputation for courting controversies with DEIN HERZ IN MEINEM HIRN (Your Heart in My Brain, 2004/05), which drew on a real-life case of cannibal-
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ism that had hit the international headlines in 2003. He continued his portraits of gay and lesbian artists LIEBE UND LEID – ALBRECHT BECKER (Love and Harm) and SCHWEIN GEHABT – JOE LUGA (Talk About Luck, both 2005). Researching for a film in preparation of his sixty-fifth birthday he discovered the story of his natural mother and shot the documentary MEINE MÜTTER – SPURENSUCHE IN RIGA (My Mothers – Research in Riga, 2007) about his visit to his birthplace, the central prison in Riga. Teaching at the Film Academy in Babelsberg (HFF) Praunheim supervised a number of student films among others a series ‘HFF Goes to Calcutta’ shot in India. On September 5, 2008 he was one of the more than 60 filmmakers participating in the TV-project 24H BERLIN – EIN TAG IM LEBEN (24h Berlin – A Day in the Life) covering stories in the capital for twenty-four hours. [filmmaker – DE] 1967: Von Rosa von Praunheim [SF]; Silvo [SD – act]. 1968: Die Schachtel [TV – ass-dir]; (A)lter (a)ction [TV – ass-dir]; Faces [SF – co-cam]; Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße [SF – 2 parts]; Argila [ass-dir]; Neurasia [ass-dir]; Grotesk – burlesk – pittoresk [SF]. 1969: Schwestern der Revolution [SF]; Eika Katappa [AG – act]; Samuel Beckett [TVD]. 1970: Die Bettwurst [TV]; Rosa Lilies [SF – co-cam,act]; Macbeth Oper von Rosa von Praunheim [TV]; Was die Rechte nicht sieht …, kommt erst recht aus dem Ohr hinaus [TV]. 1970/71: Sylvester 70/71 [dir,scr,cam]; Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt. 1971: Homosexuelle in New York [SD]. 1971/72: Leidenschaften [TV]. 1972-79: Armee der Liebenden oder Revolte der Perversen / Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts [DO – DE/US]. 1973: Berliner Bettwurst; Axel von Auersperg [TV]. 1974: Rosa von Praunheim zeigt [SF]; Monolog eines Stars [TV]. 1975: Die Betörung der blauen Matrosen [act]. 1975/76: Underground and Emigrants [TVD]. 1976: Porträt Marianne Rosenberg [TVD – dir,app]; Ich bin ein Antistar. Das skandalöse Leben der Evelyn Künneke [TVD]. 1976-78: Der 24. Stock [DO – 2 parts]. 1977: Frühling für Frankfurt [SF]; Porträt George und Mike Kuchar [TV]. 1977-79: Tally Brown, New York [DO]. 1979: Todesmagazin oder: Wie werde ich ein Blumentopf? [TVD]; Gräfin von Richthofen [SF]. 1980: Red Love [SF]. 1980/81: Rote Liebe (Wassilissa). 1980-82: Rote Liebe. 1981: Unsere Leichen leben noch [DO]; Rosa von Praunheim – Ein Leben zwischen Karriere, Sex und Tod [DO – app]. 1982: Mein New York [TVD]. 1982/83: Stadt der verlorenen Seelen – Berlin Blues. 1983/84: Horror Vacui. 1984: Der Biß [act]. 1985: Ein Virus kennt keine Moral. 1986/87: Dolly, Lotte und Maria [TVD]. 1987: Anita – Tänze des Lasters; z.B. Otto Spalt [app]. 1988/89: Überleben in New York [DO]. 1988-90: Positiv [DO]. 1989: Wortwechsel: Gero von Boehm im Gespräch mit Rosa von Praunheim [TVD – app]. 1989/90: Schweigen = Tod [DO]; Feuer unterm Arsch – Vom Leben und sterben schwuler Männer in Berlin [DO]. 1990: Affengeil. Eine Reise durch
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Lottis Leben [DO]. 1990/91: Ein Mann namens Pis [TVD]. 1991: Schrill, schräg und schwul [TVS]; Stolz & schwul [TVD]. 1991/92: Ich bin meine eigene Frau [DO]. 1993: Meine Oma hatte einen Nazipuff [TVD]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – act]. 1994/95: Neurosia: Fünfzig Jahre pervers [DO]. 1995: Vor Transsexuellen wird gewarnt [TVD]. 1996: Standpunkte eines Streitbaren. Rosa von Praunheim [TVD – app]; I Was a Jewish Sex Worker [DO – app – US]. 1997: Chainsmokers [SF – act]. 1997/ 98: Schwuler Mut. 100 Jahre Schwulenbewegung [DO]. 1998/99: Der Einstein des Sex – Leben und Werk des Doktor Magnus Hirschfeld [DE/NL]. 1999: Erotic Tales: Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? [TV]; Wunderbares Wrodow [TVD]. 2000: ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’. Die glücklichen Opfer des Rainer Werner F. [TVD]. 2000-02: Kühe vom Nebel geschwängert. 2001: Charlotte in Schweden [SD]; Trompetenstöße für die Ewigkeit [SF]; Tunten lügen nicht [TVD]. 2002: Hollywood Dogs [SF – supv]; Swimming underground [SD – supv]; Pfui, Rosa! [TVD]; Rosa Zeiten – Ein Gespräch mit Rosa von Praunheim zum 60. Geburtstag [TVD – app]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO]. 2003: Ich: F2 [SF – supv]; Ratten 07 [TVD]; Trudchen [SD]. 2003/04: DemRusto [SF – supv]; Kuckuck [SF – supv]; Lingam & Yoni [SF – supv]; Verdammt [SF – supv]; Warum läuft Herr V. Amok? [SF – supv]. 2004: H.I.V. So long! A Fairy Tale [SF]; Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]. 2004/05: Umsonst gelebt – Walter Schwarze [SD]; Männer, Helden und schwule Nazis [DO]; Dein Herz in meinem Hirn. 2005: Liebe und Leid – Albrecht Becker [SD]; Schwein gehabt – Joe Luga [SD]; Be Crazy [SD – supv]; Calcutta Calling [SD – supv]; Jin-Riki-Sha [SD – supv]; Krishna’s Dancer [SF – supv]; DIN-E-INTZAAR [SD – supv]; Göttliche Durga [SD – supv]; Stauzone [SD – supv]. 2005/ 06: Dog [SF – supv]. 2006: Mr. und Mrs. Murali [SD – supv]. 2006/07: Sechs tote Studenten; Der will nur spielen! [SF – supv]. 2007: Mit Olga auf der Wolga [DO]; Meine Mütter – Spurensuche in Riga [DO]; Jacob’s Gate [supv]. 2007/08: Tote Schwule – Lebende Lesben [DO]. 2008: Kleine Lichter [supv]; Narrenspiel [supv]; Weltstadt [DO]; Durch die Nacht mit … Rosa von Praunheim und Todd Verow [TVD – app]; Sex und 68 [TVD – app]; Der rosa Riese [DO]. 2008/09: 24h Berlin – Ein Tag im Leben [TVD – co-dir].
EMERIC PRESSBURGER (Imre József Pressburger) Born December 5, 1905, Miskolc (Hungary) Died February 5, 1988, Ipswich (United Kingdom) Co-founder with Michael Powell of ‘The Archers’ Film Productions, screenwriter and producer Pressburger was one of the most significant figures of British cinema from the late 1930s to the 1960s, following formative years in the German film industry. After the death of his father, Pressburger broke off his engineering studies in Prague and Stuttgart, briefly working as a journalist before becoming a screenwriter for Ufa in Berlin in 1930. His first assignment
was Robert Siodmak’s ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1930), co-written with Irma von Cube, a sombre drama which concerned the interlocking lives of a group of tenants residing in a run-down hostel. The comedy RONNY, a multi language production (MLV) shot in German and French, was directed by Reinhold Schünzel, with whom Pressburger worked repeatedly in the early 1930s. He also wrote the screenplay for Max Ophüls’s DANN SCHON LIEBER LEBERTRAN (I’d Rather Have Cod Liver Oil), and contributed to the script of the spirited children’s adventure EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives, all 1931). Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Pressburger emigrated to France in 1933. Producer Arnold Pressburger (no relation) realised Emeric’s final German film screenplay, MEIN HERZ RUFT NACH DIR (My Heart Is Calling You) a year later in Berlin, shot by the Italian director Carmine Gallone. In 1935 Pressburger relocated to England. Initially working on British language versions or remakes of continental productions he was commissioned to write the screenplay for Michael Powell’s spy-thriller THE SPY IN BLACK (1938/39), which initiated nearly two decades of close collaboration between the two men. During World War II, Powell and Pressburger contributed to the war effort with realistic, and matter-of-fact dramas such as 49TH PARALLEL (1941), and ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT IS MISSING (1942), but their subsequent work became increasingly complex, both narratively and visually. Filmed in Technicolor, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943) satirised reactionary tendencies in the military elite and provided the moving account of a friendship between a British and a German officer across the decades. A CANTERBURY TALE (1944) was a lyrical homage to the English countryside and its place in British history and culture, while I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING! (1945) depicted a young woman’s identity crisis set against the stunning scenery of the Scottish Hebrides. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) remains one of the most enchanting and witty fantasy films produced in Britain. After the war, the Archers’ films continued in their anti-naturalist aesthetic approach. BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) a melodrama concerning a group of nuns who try to set up a mission in the Himalayas, made its impact through elaborate sets, expressive colour tones, and through the rhythm of the music. The motif of dichotomies between art and life concerned Pressburger in many scripts, and found one of its most direct expressions in the ballet film THE RED SHOES (1948). After a string of lesser films, the Archers’ partnership came to an end in the late 1950s, after which
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Pressburger wrote scripts for other directors, such as Julian Aymes (MIRACLE IN SOHO, 1957), Fred Zinnemann (BEHOLD A PALE HORSE, 1963/64), and Michael Anderson (OPERATION CROSSBOW, 1964), but none of these achieved the same success as his earlier work. Although Pressburger collaborated with Powell twice again – on THEY’RE A WEIRD MOB (1966) and the children’s fantasy film THE BOY WHO TURNED YELLOW (1972) – these films merely provided a postscript to an exceptionally creative partnership. [scr – DE] 1930: Abschied (So sind die Menschen) [co-scr]. 1931: Das Ekel; Der kleine Seitensprung [MLV – co-scr]; Le petit écart [MLV – co-scr – DE/FR]; Dann schon lieber Lebertran [SF – co-scr]; Emil und die Detektive [co-scr]; Ronny [MLV – co-scr]; Ronny [French MLV – co-scr]. 1932: Wer zahlt heute noch? [SF – scr,sma]; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV – co-scr]; Sehnsucht 202 [MLV – DE/AT]; La belle aventure [MLV – co-scr]; Eine von uns [co-scr]; Une jeune fille et un million [MLV]; Held wider Willen [SF – co-scr]; A vén gazember [MLV – DE/HU]; … und es leuchtet die Pußta [MLV – DE/HU]. 1933: Une femme au volant [FR]; Incognito [FR]. 1934: Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV]; Mon coeur t’appelle [MLV – co-scr – DE/FR]; My Heart Is Calling [MLV – co-scr – GB/DE]. 1935: Monsieur Sans-Gêne [MLV – co-scr,sma – FR]; La vie parisienne [MLV – FR]; Parisienne Life [MLV – FR]. 1936: One Rainy Afternoon [MLV – sma – US]. [FF – co-dir,co-scr,pro – GB] 1937: The Challenge [MLV – scr – GB/DE]. 1938/39: The Spy in Black [scr]. 1939: Spy for a Day [sma]. 1939/40: Contraband [scr,sma]. 1941: Atlantic Ferry [sma]; 49th Parallel [scr,sma,pro]; Breach of Promise [sma]. 1942: ‘… One of Our Aircraft Is Missing’; Squadron Leader X [sma]. 1943: The Silver Fleet [pro]; The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp; The Volunteer [SD]. 1944: A Canterbury Tale. 1945: I Know Where I’m Going! 1945/46: Wanted for Murder [co-scr]. 1946: A Matter of Life and Death. 1947: Black Narcissus]; The End of the River [pro]. 1948: The Red Shoes Sketches [SF – co-dir]; The Red Shoes. 1948/49: The Small Back Room. 1950: Gone to Earth / The Wild Heart [GB/US]; The Elusive Pimpernel. 1951: The Tales of Hoffmann. 1953: Twice Upon a Time [dir,scr,pro]. 1955: Oh … Rosalinda! 1956: The Battle of the River Plate. 1956/57: Ill Met by Moonlight. 1957: Miracle in Soho [scr,pro]. 1963/64: Behold a Pale Horse / Et vient le jour de vengeance [sma – US/FR]. 1964: Operation Crossbow [co-scr – GB/IT]. 1966: They’re a Weird Mob [scr – GB/AU]. 1972: The Boy Who Turned Yellow [scr].
JÜRGEN PROCHNOW Born June 10, 1941, Berlin (Germany) With his penetrating eyes and his deeply lined face Prochnow seemed physically predestined to play taciturn anti-heroes and social outsiders, which he frequently did in German productions of the 1970s and 1980s. Subsequently working primarily in Holly-
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wood, he became a stock villain in action films. He remains best known internationally for his leading role as the submarine captain in DAS BOOT (1980/81). Prochnow undertook an apprenticeship in a bank, while working as a stage extra at the Düsseldorf State Theatre. He studied drama at the Folkwang school in Essen from 1963 to 1966, before taking on engagements at various German theatres. On television, Prochnow was particularly noted for his roles in Wolfgang Petersen’s films. In EINER VON UNS BEIDEN (One of Us Two, 1973/74) he played a blackmailer, while in DIE VERROHUNG DES FRANZ BLUM (The Brutalisation of Franz Blum, 1973) he portrayed a sensitive prisoner. In Volker Schlöndorff’s DIE VERLORENE EHRE DER KATHARINA BLUM (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, 1975) he was cast as an army deserter. Petersen caused a major controversy with DIE KONSEQUENZ (The Consequence, 1977), in which Prochnow played a gay actor convicted of abusing minors, who forms a relationship in jail with the son of his warden. In all these examples, Prochnow’s characterisation of outwardly quiet and reserved, but inwardly intensely emotional figures gained him the reputation as one of the most impressive actors in New German Cinema. Following the success of DAS BOOT (1980/81) Prochnow’s career became more international, and he frequently appeared in Hollywood productions. These often fitted the Teutonic villain stereotype, and Prochnow played his fair share of Nazis (e.g. THE KEEP, 1982; THE ENGLISH PATIENT, 1995/ 96), megalomaniac criminals (BEVERLY HILLS COP II, 1987), enigmatic strangers (TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, 1992; IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, 1993/94), or otherwise shady characters, as in THE DA VINCI CODE (2005/06). In a less demonic, if still haunted, register, Prochnow portrayed the hero’s doomed father in David Lynch’s science fiction epic DUNE (1983/84), and a Jewish writer who during the Nazi period is hidden by his German lover, in FORBIDDEN (1984). On U.S. television he was cast as Arnold Schwarzenegger in the biopic SEE ARNOLD RUN (2004), a bizarre choice given the absence of any obvious physical similarities between the two actors. Prochnow’s German credits since DAS BOOT have been fairly sporadic, consisting primarily of a number of TV appearances, guest starring in detective series such as EIN FALL FÜR ZWEI (A Case for Two), as a lone cop fighting organised crime in the three partthriller TÖDLICHE WAHL (Deadly Choice, 1994/95), or as a rich industrialist in a maritial muddle in the TV satire OHNE EINANDER (Without Each Other, 2006/07), an adaptation of the novel by Martin Walser. His older brother is actor Dieter Prochnow (b. 1939).
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[act – DE – TV] 1970: Unternehmer. 1971: Leb wohl, Judas; Zoff [FF]. 1971/72: Tatort: Jagdrevier. 1972: Auf Befehl erschossen; Knast. 1972/73: Alarm [TVS]; Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe [FF]. 1973: Die Verrohung des Franz Blum [FF]. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden [FF]. 1974: Die Schwiegertochter; Macbeth. 1975: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [FF]; Shirins Hochzeit; Schaurige Geschichten [TVS – DE/SE]. 1976: Hans im Glück [DE/AT]; Frauensiedlung; Erinnerung an die Leidenschaft. 1976/77: Operation Ganymed. 1977: Die Konsequenz; Tatort: Das Mädchen von gegenüber. 1979: Kotte. 1979/80: So weit das Auge reicht / A perte de vue [FF – DE/FR/CH]. 1980: Unter Verschluß. 1980/81: Das Boot [FF+TV]. [act – US] 1982: The Keep. 1982/1983: Krieg und Frieden: Gespräche im Weltraum [DE]; Love Is Forever / In den dunklen Fluten des Mekong [TV – US/DE]. 1983/84: Dune. 1984: Forbidden / Versteckt [US/DE]. 1984/85: Der Bulle und das Mädchen [DE/AT]. 1985: Murder: By Reason of Insanity [TV]. 1985/86: Killing Cars [DE]. 1986/87: Terminus [FR/DE]; Des Teufels Paradies [DE]. 1987: Beverly Hills Cop II; The Seventh Sign. 1988: A Dry White Season. 1989: The Fourth War; L’Affaire Walraff / The Man Inside [FR/ US]. 1989/90: Der Skipper [DE]. 1990: Hurricane Smith [AU]. 1990/91: Robin Hood [GB]. 1991: Viimeisellä rajalla / Die letzte Grenze / The Last Border [FI/DE/SE]. 1992: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me; Jewels [TV]; Interceptor; Body of Evidence [US/DE]; The Fire Next Time [TV]. 1992/93: Der Fall Lucona: Geld, Sex und Macht / Intrigo in alto mare / The Lucona Affair [DE/AT/IT/US]; Die Wildnis [TV – DE]. 1993: Guns of Honor [TV – GB]; Red Eagle [TV – GB]; Trigger Fast. 1993/94: In the Mouth of Madness. 1994: L’honneur des grandes neiges [TV – CA/FR]. 1994/95: Judge Dredd; Tödliche Wahl [TV – DE]. 1995: Fesseln [TV – DE]. 1995/96: The English Patient. 1996: Privateer 2: The Darkening; Sorellina e il principe del sogno [TV – IT]; Der Schrei der Liebe [TV – DE]. 1996/97: DNA. 1998: Liebe im Schatten des Drachen [DE]; The Replacement Killer; Human Bomb [TV]; The Fall; Esther / Die Bibel – Esther [TV – US/IT/ DE]. 1999: Wing Commander; Der blonde Affe [DE/DK/ NL]; Heaven´s Fire / Inferno der Flammen [TV – US/CA/DE]; Die Millenium-Katastrophe – Computer-Crash 2000 [TV – DE]. 2000: Gunblast Vodka [PL/FR]; Poison [TV – CA/US]; Padre Pio [TV – IT]; The Last Stop; Final Ascent / Final Descent [CA/US]. 2001: Last Run; The Elite; Jack the Dog; Ripper [CA]; Dark Asylum; Davon stirbt man nicht [TV – DE]. 2002: Ein Abend für Evelyn Hamann. Die große Geburtstagsgala [TV – DE]. 2002/03: Baltic Storm [DE/GB]. 2003: Heart of America [CA/DE]; House of the Dead [CA/ US/DE]; Idole: Mensch, Grönemeyer [TVD – app – DE]; The Poet [DE/AT/GB]. 2003/04: Julie, chevalier de Maupin / Il mistero di Julie [TV – FR/IT]. 2004: See Arnold Run [TV]. 2004/ 05: The Celestine Prophecy. 2005/06: Chain Reaction: House of Horrors; The Da Vinci Code; Schröders wunderbare Welt [DE]. 2006: Beerfest. 2006/07: Primeval [US/ZA]; Ohne einander [TV – DE]. 2007: Nanking [DO]; Ein Fall für zwei: Schmutzige Hände [TV – DE]. 2008: Oko [CZ/SK]; La Conjura de El Escorial [ES]; Merlin and the War of the Dragons; Oko [CZ/SK]. 2008/2009: Nachtschicht: Russisch Roulette [TV – DE]; Tod bei Ankunft [TV – DE].
LISELOTTE PULVER Born November 11, 1929, Berne (Switzerland) Pulver rose to fame in the 1950s in West German comedies and light romantic dramas, typically playing cheerful tomboys with an infectious laugh, a sense for mischief, and a heart of gold. During the 1960s, she made several attempts at escaping her established persona, which she primarily achieved in productions outside Germany. After gaining a business diploma, Pulver worked as a model while taking acting lessons at the conservatory in Berne where she made her stage debut. Contracted to the theatre in Zurich in 1949/50, she often made guest appearances and went on tour. Her film debut was SWISS TOUR (1949) followed by the Alpine melodrama FÖHN (White Hell, 1950), in which she was partnered with Hans Albers. In 1952, she appeared as a hot-blooded Cuban dancer in KLETTERMAXE (Spring-Heeled Max), for the first time under the direction of Kurt Hoffmann, with whom she would work repeatedly over the next two decades. Hoffmann was instrumental in establishing her screen image, especially in the successful nostalgic drama ICH DENKE OFT AN PIROSCHKA (I Often Think of Piroschka, 1955), in which she portrayed an impish, but deeply romantic Hungarian schoolgirl. Their later collaborations included the popular ‘Spessart’ trilogy of films, DAS WIRTSHAUS IM SPESSART (The Spessart Inn, 1957), DAS SPUKSCHLOSS IM SPESSART (The Haunted Castle, 1960), and HERRLICHE ZEITEN IM SPESSART (Glorious Times in the Spessart, 1967). Pulver’s broad comic performance style found a perfect outlet in Axel von Ambesser’s remake of the perennially popular Alpine farce KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (Kohlhiesel’s Daughters, 1962), in which she played two very different sisters. More unusual for her, but still adding to her popularity, were two prestigious Thomas Mann adaptations, BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (Confessions of Felix Krull, 1957) and BUDDENBROOKS (The Buddenbrooks, 1959). From the late 1950s onwards, Pulver appeared in international productions, which included her co-starring with Gérard Philipe in the Dostoevsky adaptation LE JOUEUR (The Gambler, 1958), and playing opposite Jean Gabin in MONSIEUR (1964). She surprised audiences with a restrained and subtle characterisation of a young woman caught up in a tragic wartime romance in Douglas Sirk’s Hollywood production A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE (1957/58), based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. Altogether different was her blond sexpot in Billy Wilder’s Cold War satire ONE, TWO, THREE (1961), a role that revealed both Pulver’s talent for slapstick and her underused potential as a film bombshell.
LISELOTTE PULVER
Again in a different register, she uncovered an untapped vein of repressed sexuality with her portrayal as a lesbian Mother Superior in Jacques Rivette’s SUZANNE SIMONIN, LA RELIGIEUSE DE DIDEROT
(The Nun, 1965). From the late 1960s onwards Pulver gradually but definitively moved into television, as the directors of the New German Cinema found no use for her during the 1970s. Television series and appearances on entertainment shows thus figured largely in Pulver’s later career. 1978–85 she hosted the German version of the children’s programme SESAME STREET, alongside fellow actors Manfred Krug and Henning Venske. Her memoirs ‘Wenn man trotzdem lacht’ (Laughing in Spite of It) were published in 1990. In the mid1990s, Pulver took on a supporting role in Sönke Wortmann’s bestseller adaptation DAS SUPERWEIB (The Super Woman, 1995), a rare return to the big screen. [act – DE] 1949: Swiss Tour [CH]. 1950: Föhn [DE/CH]. 1951: Heidelberger Romanze. 1952: Klettermaxe; Fritz und Friederike. 1952/53: Hab’ Sonne im Herzen; Von Liebe reden wir später. 1953: Das Nachtgespenst; Ich und Du. 1953/54: Männer im gefährlichen Alter. 1954: Schule für Eheglück; Der letzte Sommer; Unsere kleine Stadt [TV]; Uli der Knecht [CH]. 1955: Griff nach den Sternen; Hanussen; Ich denke oft an Piroschka; Uli der Pächter [CH]. 1955/56: Smaragden-Geschichte [TV]. 1956: Heute heiratet mein Mann; Jeanne oder die Lerche [TV]. 1956/57: Les aventures d’Arsène Lupin / Gli avventure di Arsenio Lupin [FR/IT]; Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Das Wirtshaus im Spessart. 1957/58: A Time to Love and a Time to Die [US]. 1958: Helden; Le joueur / Il giocatore [FR/IT]. 1959: Das schöne
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Abenteuer; Buddenbrooks (2 parts). 1960: Das Glas Wasser; Das Spukschloß im Spessart; Gustav Adolfs Page [AT]. 1961: One, Two, Three [US]. 1961/62: Lafayette / Lafayette, una spada per due bandiere [FR/IT]; Maléfices [FR]. 1962: Kohlhiesels Töchter. 1963: Frühstück im Doppelbett; Ein fast anständiges Mädchen / Una chica casi formal [DE/ES]. 1963/64: A Global Affair [US]. 1964: Monsieur / Monsieur / Intrigo a Parigi [FR/DE/IT]; Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius. 1965: Le gentleman de Cocody / Donne, mitra e diamanti [FR/IT]; Suzanne Simonin, la religieuse de Diderot [FR]. 1965/66: Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden …? 1966: Der Regenmacher [TV]; Blüten, Gauner und die Nacht von Nizza / Le jardinier d’Argenteuil [DE/FR]. 1967: Herrliche Zeiten im Spessart. 1969: This Is Your Captain Speaking [DO – CH]; PistolenJenny [TV]; Die Hochzeitsreise [DE/IT]. [act – DE – TV] 1970: Timo [TVS – 10 episodes]. 1971: Hoopers letzte Jagd. 1971/72: Le trèfle à cinq feuilles [FF – FR]. 1973: Begegnungen: Liselotte Pulver [TVD]; Die Baumwollpflücker; Orpheus in der Unterwelt. 1974: Hallo Peter! 1974/75: Monika und die Sechzehnjährigen [FF]. 1975: Moral. 1976: Hallo Peter! 1976/77: Hungária kávéház: Legyen az özvegyem [HU]. 1977: Sesamstraße [TVS].1977/78: Der Alte: Ein Koffer. 1978: Brot und Steine [FF – CH]. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper. 1980: Kreuzfahrten eines Globetrotters: Winterkreuzfahrt. 1980/81: Drunter und Drüber [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1982: Jeden Mittwoch. 1983: Boeing – Boeing [AT]. 1984: Komische Geschichten: Liselotte Pulver [TVD]. 1985: Tiroir secret / Die Geheimschublade [FR/IT/DE]. 1986: Lauf doch nicht immer weg [CH]. 1987/88: Herbst in Lugano. 1988: Mit Leib und Seele: Himmel und Hölle. 1993: Alles aus Liebe [2 episodes]. 1994: Natale con papà / Weihnachtsfest mit Hindernissen [IT/DE]. 1995: Das Superweib [FF].
PUTTI, LYA DE see DE PUTTI, LYA
PEER RABEN (Wilhelm Rabenbauer) Born July 3, 1940, Viechtafell (Germany) Died January 21, 2007, Mitterfels (Germany) One of the most faithful of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s artistic collaborators, composer Peer Raben’s scores combined simple melodies and melodramatic touches with modernist arrangements. In later years, Raben became a regular contributor to various documentaries about Fassbinder. A childhood friend of the actor Kurt Raab, Raben studied music and drama at Munich University, before taking on acting assignments at theatres in Berlin and Wuppertal. Raben first came into contact with Fassbinder in 1966, when he co-founded the ActionTheater company in Munich, which would eventually become the antiteater. Working as an actor, director, composer, and author, Raben was in the late 1960s romantically involved with Fassbinder and temporarily shared an apartment with him and actress Irm Hermann. From 1968 until Fassbinder’s death in 1982, Raben scored nearly all of the director’s feature films and television productions. Characteristic for these collaborations was the mixing of pre-existing material and a linking score, particularly evident in the collage of classical music, the repetition of popular songs as incessant leitmotifs, and Raben’s pseudo-dramatic flourishes and musical pastiches in films such as DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage of Maria Braun, 1978) and LILI MARLEEN (1980). Raben’s immediately recognisable style heightened the films’ intrinsic artificiality and eclecticism and added a layer of irony. In 1980, Raben received the German Film Prize for his scores for Luc Bondy’s DIE ORTLIEBSCHEN FRAUEN (The Ortlieb Women, 1979/80) and Robert van Ackeren’s DIE REINHEIT DES HERZENS (The Purity of the Heart, 1979). After Fassbinder’s death, he worked repeatedly with van Ackeren on the latter’s stylised erotic melodramas such as DIE FLAMBIERTE FRAU (A Woman in Flames, 1982/83) and DIE VENUSFALLE (The Venus Trap, 1987/88). Other directors seeking Raben’s talents included Ulrike Ottinger and Werner Schroeter. Raben’s only film as a director was the forgettable comedy HEUTE SPIELEN WIR DEN BOSS (Today We Play Being the Boss, 1981) written by and starring
Kurt Raab and Peter Kern, and also involving various other members of Fassbinder’s entourage. In addition to his film scores, Raben continued to work in the theatre, particularly on productions by Peter Zadek. He also wrote radio plays as well as cabaret-style chansons for actress (and briefly Fassbinder’s wife) Ingrid Caven, which the latter recorded and publicly performed to great acclaim in France and Germany. Among his last completed compositions was the score for the short film ‘The Hand’, one of the three segments of the compilation film EROS (2004). The segment’s director, Wong Kar-Wei, had chosen Raben specifically out of admiration for the composer’s previous work. [mus – DE] 1968: Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter [SF – act]. 1969: Fernes Jamaica [SF – pro]; Liebe ist kälter als der Tod [mus,act,pro]; Katzelmacher [mus, pro]. 1969/70: Ende einer Kommune [TVD – act]; Götter der Pest [mus,pro]; Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? [mus,act, pro]. 1970: Handicaps [SF]; Das Kaffeehaus [TV – scr, mus,act]; Whity [mus,pro]; Rio das Mortes [mus,pro]; Der amerikanische Soldat [mus,act,pro]; Die Niklashauser Fart [TV – mus,act]; Fassbinder produziert: Film Nr. 8 [TVD – act]; Pioniere in Ingolstadt [TV – mus,pro]. 1970/71: Mathias Kneißl [TV]; Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte [mus, pro]. 1971: Die Ahnfrau [TV – dir,scr,mus]. 1972: Adele Spitzeder [TV – dir,co-scr,mus]; Tschetan, der Indianerjunge. 1972/73: Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe [mus,act]. 1973: Kleiner Mann, was nun? [TV]. 1973/74: La Paloma [CH/ FR]. 1974: Faustrecht der Freiheit. 1974/75: Eiszeit. 1975: Mutter Küsters’ Fahrt zum Himmel; Angst vor der Angst [TV]; Leonce und Lena [TV – AT/DE]; Die Herausforderung [TV]; Schatten der Engel [DE/CH]. 1975/76: Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt [TV]; Satansbraten. 1976: Alpensaga I: Liebe im Dorf [TV – AT]; Chinesisches Roulette / Roulette chinoise [DE/FR]; Alpensaga II: Der Kaiser am Lande [TV – AT]. 1976/77: Bolwieser [TV + FF]. 1977: Alpensaga III: Das große Fest [TV – AT]; Halbe-Halbe; Das Ende einer Karriere [TV]; Violanta [CH]. 1977/78: Das andere Lächeln [TV]; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair; Spiel der Verlierer. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun; In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden; Alpensaga IV: Die feindlichen Brüder [TV – AT]. 1978/ 79: Neues vom Räuber Hotzenplotz; Die dritte Generation. 1979: Treu und Redlichkeit [TV]; Bildnis einer Trinkerin. Aller jamais retour; Die Reinheit des Herzens; Zuhaus unter Fremden [TV]; Die Jahre vergehen [TV – AT]. 1979/ 80: Die Ortliebschen Frauen; Berlin Alexanderplatz. [TV – 14 episodes – mus / act in ep. 2]; Ende und Anfang [TV –
ARTHUR MARIA RABENALT AT]. 1980: Mosch [TV]; Alpensaga V: Der deutsche Frühling [TV – act – AT]; Lili Marleen; Malou [mus,act]; Tatort: Beweisaufnahme [TV]. 1980/81: Der Mond ist nur a nackerte Kugel. 1981: Lola; Heute spielen wir den Boss – Wo geht’s denn hier zum Film? [dir,mus]; Tag der Idioten; Tatort: Sterben und sterben lassen [TV]. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss; Warum hast Du so traurige Augen [TV]. 1982: Querelle – Ein Pakt mit dem Teufel / Querelle [DE/FR]; Der Bauer von Babylon. Rainer Werner Fassbinder dreht ‘Querelle’ [DO]; Dies rigorose Leben; Grenzenlos. 1982/83: Die flambierte Frau. 1983: Glut [CH/ DE]; Die Schaukel; Die Perser von Aischylos [TV]. 1983/84: Les tricheurs / Die Spieler / Os Batoteiros [FR/DE/PT]; Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse; L’Air du crime / Zeit des Argwohns [CH/FR]. 1984: Baumeister Solness [TV]; ‘Der Mensch ist ein häßliches Tier’ [TVD – app]. 1984/85: Hulla di Bulla [TV]; Väter und Söhne [TV]. 1985: Blanche – oder Das Atelier im Garten [TV]. 1985/86: Tommaso Blu. 1986: Tatort: Die Macht des Schicksals [TV]. 1986/87: Andi – Protokoll einer Inszenierung von Peter Zadek [TVD – mus,app]. 1987/88: Die Venusfalle. 1988: Julius Caesar [TV]. 1989: Blut für die Freiheit [TV – DE/AT]; In Zeiten wie diesen [TV]. 1989/90: Bismarck [TV]. 1990/91: Wounded Faces. 1990-92: Glück 1. 1991: Happy Birthday, Türke!; Lulu [TV]; La Paloma fliegt nicht mehr [TV]. 1991/92: Im Sog der Angst [TV]; Zwischensaison / Hors saison [CH/ DE/FR]; Die wahre Geschichte von Männern und Frauen. 1992: Frauen über R. W. Fassbinder [TVD]; Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt [TVD – app]. 1999: Vino Santo – Es lebe die Liebe, es lebe der Wein [TV – AT/DE]. 2000: ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’ [TVD – mus,app]; Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe [DO]. 2001-03: Heimatfilm! [TV]. 2004: Eros [co-mus – US/IT/HK/CN/FR/LU/GB]. 2005: Kontakt [DE/MK].
ARTHUR MARIA RABENALT (Arthur Maria Lothar Konrad Heinrich Friedrich Rabenalt) Born June 25, 1905, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died February 26, 1993, Wildbad Kreuth (Germany) Specialising in popular entertainment, director Rabenalt’s career encompassed Nazi cinema and postwar West German productions. He also wrote about the cinema of the 1930s and 1940s in a number of books. Still in his teens, Rabenalt began his stage career directing operas at theatres in Darmstadt, Berlin, and Gera. From the mid-1920s, he also occasionally worked (uncredited) as a production assistant on several films, including G. W. Pabst’s DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE (Joyless Street, 1925). After the Nazis’ rise to power, Rabenalt’s association with some avantgarde stage productions made him suspect to the new regime, which terminated his career in the theatre. He debuted as a film director in 1934, and began to specialise in light entertainment fare. Following the ban of EIN KIND, EIN HUND, EIN VAGABUND (A Child, a Dog, a Vagabond, 1934), Ra-
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benalt temporarily filmed in Italy, France and Austria. Back in German studios from 1938, Rabenalt worked in a range of genres, including the Heimatfilm JOHANNISFEUER (St John’s Fire, 1939), circus melodramas such as DIE 3 CODONAS (The Three Codonas, 1940) and ZIRKUS RENZ (Circus Renz, 1943), and musical comedies, such as LIEBESPREMIERE (Love Premiere, 1942/43). Some of Rabenalt’s films in the early 1940s supported Nazi ideology more explicitly, including the equestrian drama … REITET FÜR DEUTSCHLAND (Riding For Germany, 1940/41), starring Willy Birgel as a Prussian riding champion of the 1920s, and the World War II espionage thriller ACHTUNG! FEIND HÖRT MIT! (Caution! The Enemy Listens!, 1940). Rabenalt was also briefly co-director of and consultant on Leni Riefenstahl’s project TIEFLAND (The Lowlands, 1940–53). After the war, Rabenalt founded the cabaret ‘Schaubude’ in Munich, and resumed his career as a stage director, first in Baden-Baden, then in Berlin. His comeback as a film director was the East German production CHEMIE UND LIEBE (Chemistry and Love, 1947/48), an anti-capitalist satire based on a play by Béla Balász. Another DEFA production, DAS MÄDCHEN CHRISTINE (Christina, 1948), followed, but from 1949 he worked exclusively on West German films. In the 1950s, Rabenalt again confirmed his credentials as a versatile entertainment specialist. Successes included his remake of the Weimar horror classic ALRAUNE (1952), starring Hildegard Knef and Erich von Stroheim, Heimatfilme such as DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTL (Forester’s Daughter, 1952), and operettas such as DER ZIGEUNERBARON (The Gypsy Baron, 1954), which he remade for television in 1965. Contemporary subjects included GLÜCKSRITTER (Fortune Hunters, 1956/57) about an investigative journalist who uncovers a conspiracy of former Nazis involving his father-in-law, a powerful media magnate. From 1960, Rabenalt worked almost exclusively in television, mostly adapting classic comedies and operettas. In his later years, he wrote a number of novels (mostly mildly erotic pulp fiction) and memoirs, alongside factual books about Nazi cinema. The latter included ‘Film im Zwielicht’ (Film in the Twilight, 1958), in which he argued for an ‘apolitical’ tradition within the cinema of the ‘Third Reich’, which covered his own films. ‘Joseph Goebbels und der “großdeutsche” Film’ (Joseph Goebbels and the ‘Greater German’ Film, 1985) was a compilation of facts, personal memories, and gossip. [dir – DE] 1933: Mädels von heute [co-dir]. 1934: Pappi [co-dir,co-scr]; Was bin ich ohne Dich?; Eine Siebzehn-
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jährige; Ein Kind, ein Hund, ein Vagabund / Vielleicht war’s nur ein Traum. 1935: Die klugen Frauen [MLV – co-dir – FR]. 1935/36: Die Liebe des Maharadscha / Die weiße Frau des Maharadscha [MLV – IT/DE/AT]; Una donna fra due mondi [MLV – co-dir – IT/DE]. 1936: Das Frauenparadies [dir,co-scr – AT]. 1936/37: Millionenerbschaft [AT]. 1937/ 38: Fahrendes Volk [MLV – co-dir – FR/DE]. 1938: Liebelei und Liebe; Schwarz und Weiß [SF]. 1938/39: Rosemarie will nicht mehr lügen [SF]; Männer müssen so sein. 1939: Modell Lu [SF]; Flucht ins Dunkel; Johannisfeuer. 1939/40: Weißer Flieder. 1940: Die 3 Codonas; Achtung! Feind hört mit! 1940/41: … reitet für Deutschland. 1940-53: Tiefland [co-dir]. 1941: Leichte Muse. 1941/42: Fronttheater. 1942: Meine Frau Teresa. 1942/43: Liebespremiere. 1943: Zirkus Renz. 1943/44: Das Leben ruft. 1944: Am Abend nach der Oper. 1944/45: Regimentsmusik; Wir beide liebten Katharina. 1947/48: Chemie und Liebe [DD]. 1948: Das Mädchen Christine [DD]; Morgen ist alles besser. 1948/49: Anonyme Briefe. 1949: Martina; Nächte am Nil; 0 Uhr 15 Zimmer 9. 1950: Die Frau von gestern Nacht; Hochzeit im Heu [AT/ DE]. 1950/51: Unvergängliches Licht. 1951: Das weiße Abenteuer; La Leggenda di Genoveffa [IT]. 1952: Die Försterchristl; Alraune; Wir tanzen auf dem Regenbogen [MLV – co-dir – DE/IT]; Die Fiakermilli [dir,co-scr – AT]. 1952/53: Lavendel – eine ganz unmoralische Geschichte / Lavendel [dir,co-scr – DE/AT]. 1953: Der letzte Walzer; Der Vogelhändler; Der unsterbliche Lump. 1954: Die Sonne von St. Moritz; Der Zigeunerbaron [MLV]; Baron tzigane [MLV]; Der Zarewitsch [MLV]; Le Tzarevitch [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955: Solang’ es hübsche Mädchen gibt …; Unternehmen Schlafsack; Liebe ist ja nur ein Märchen. 1956: Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz; Tierarzt Dr. Vlimmen; Zwischen Zeit und Ewigkeit / Entre hoy y la eternidad [dir,ide – DE/ ES]. 1956/57: Glücksritter. 1957: Kærlighed mod betaling [DK]; Frühling in Berlin. 1957/58: Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will [dir,co-scr]. 1958: En søman gar i land [DK]; Vergiß mein nicht / Vento di primavera [co-dir – DE/IT]. 1958/59: Geliebte Bestie [AT]. [dir – DE – TV] 1959: Laß mich am Sonntag nicht allein [FF]; Der musikalische Leckerbissen. 1960: Der Held meiner Träume [FF]; Heiterkeit und Fröhlichkeit; Das große Wunschkonzert [FF – AT]; Der große Sachse. 1961: Frédéric Chopin und George Sand; Herr Hofrat war verhindert; Mann im Schatten [FF – AT]; Cancan und Barcarole; Du holde Kunst; Das Wunderkind Europas. 1961/62: Die Kaiserin [DE/AT]; Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt. 1962: Gasparone [sup]; Liebe im September; Der Impresario von Smyrna. 1963: Das Stiftungsfest der ‘Fleißigen Biene’; Meier Helmbrecht. 1964: Die beiden Klingsberg [DE/AT/ CH]; Doddy und die Musketiere. 1964/65: Literatur. 1965: Das unverschämte Glück, ein Mann zu sein; Unsterblichkeit mit Marschmusik; Ein Haus voll Musik; Carrie; Der Zigeunerbaron; Die Tänzerin Fanny Elßler. 1966: Geronimo und die Räuber; Jan Himp und die kleine Brise. 1966/67: Sing ein Lied mit Onkel Bill. 1967: Zur blauen Palette; Andere Zeiten – andere Sitten; Im Rhythmus der Jahrhunderte [DO]. 1969: Garden-Party; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Arthur Maria Rabenalt und Lilli Palmer [TVD – app]. 1969/70: Hilfe, mich liebt eine
Jungfrau / Une pucelle en or [FF – DE/FR]. 1970/71: Haie an Bord [FF]. 1972: Der Zarewitsch. 1973: Madaus einmal anders [SD]. 1973/74: Das Land des Lächelns. 1975: Der Zigeunerbaron [dir,co-scr]. 1977/78: Caribia [FF – dir, co-scr].
CARL RADDATZ Born March 13, 1912, Mannheim (Germany) Died May 19, 2004, Berlin (Germany) During World War II, Raddatz established himself as a virile star, often portraying self-confident daredevils and heroic soldiers in melodramas, propagandist war films, and comedies. Later film roles allowed him to present a more sensitive side, and he ended his long career playing benevolent patriarchs and grandfather figures on German television. Active as a stage actor since 1931, Raddatz’s film debut was a supporting part in Karl Ritter’s military propaganda film URLAUB AUF EHRENWORT (Leave on Word of Honour, 1937), which promoted soldierly virtues. During the next few years, he frequently appeared in melodramas, such as Victor Tourjansky’s VERKLUNGENE MELODIE (Faded Melody, 1937/ 38). He was also occasionally cast as a villain, as in the Heimatfilm ZWIELICHT (Twilight, 1939/40), or as a redeemable rogue, as in the backstage musical WIR TANZEN UM DIE WELT (We Dance Around the World, 1939). Following the outbreak of World War II, Raddatz repeatedly appeared in propaganda films. He played a sensitive air force lieutenant in WUNSCHKONZERT (Request Concert, 1940), and a steadfast fighter pilot in Karl Ritter’s STUKAS (Dive-Bombers). Ritter’s ÜBER ALLES IN DER WELT (Above Everything in the World, both 1940/41) thematised the alleged victimisation of expatriate Germans after 1939. In Gustav Ucicky’s particularly noxious HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1941), which attempted to justify Germany’s attack on Poland, Raddatz starred alongside Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger. DER 5. JUNI (The Fifth of June, 1941/42) was another homage to soldierly comradeship and self-sacrifice for the national cause. Out of uniform and partnered with Kristina Söderbaum, Raddatz returned to the melodrama genre in two Veit Harlan films, as a lovesick conductor in an adaptation of Theodor Storm’s IMMENSEE (1942/ 43) and as a man torn between two women in OPFERGANG (Sacrifice, 1942–44). Shortly before the end of the war, Raddatz starred in Helmut Käutner’s UNTER DEN BRÜCKEN (Under the Bridges, 1944/ 45) a lyrical and realistic love story set against the daily lives of two river-barge skippers. After the war, Raddatz resumed his career almost immediately, appearing in Käutner’s portemanteau film IN JENEN TAGEN (In Those Days, 1946/47) and co-
FRITZ RASP
starring with Zarah Leander in her comeback vehicle GABRIELA (1950). Throughout the 1950s Raddatz remained a prominent presence in West German films, his parts ranging from the dashing Prussian officer in Rudolf Jugert’s ‘Effi Briest’ adaptation ROSEN IM HERBST (Roses in Autumn, 1955) to a meek and morally ambivalent industrialist in Rolf Thiele’s satire of West Germany’s economic miracle, DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958). After a long break from the big screen, and in marked contrast to his image in the 1940s, he appeared in Alfred Vohrer’s Nazi period film JEDER STIRBT FÜR SICH ALLEIN (Everyone Dies Alone, 1975), as a quiet resistance fighter. From the 1960s onwards, Raddatz mostly concentrated on television assignments, often cast as a patrician northerner, such as Johann Buddenbrook in a serial adaptation of Thomas Mann’s BUDDENBROOKS (1978/79), but also playing a kindly vet in the series EIN HEIM FÜR TIERE (A Home for Animals, 1984). His last television role was in 1990 in an episode of the detective series DERRICK. [act – DE] 1937: Urlaub auf Ehrenwort. 1937/38: Verklungene Melodie. 1938: Liebelei und Liebe. 1938/39: Silvesternacht am Alexanderplatz. 1939: 12 Minuten nach 12; Befreite Hände; Wir tanzen um die Welt. 1939/40: Zwielicht; Golowin geht durch die Stadt. 1940: Wunschkonzert. 1940/41: Über alles in der Welt; Stukas. 1941: Heimkehr. 1941/42: Der 5. Juni. Einer unter Millionen. 1942/43: Immensee. 1942-44: Opfergang. 1943/44: Eine Frau für drei Tage; Das war mein Leben. 1944/45: Die Schenke zur ewigen Liebe; Unter den Brücken. 1946/47: Zugvögel; In jenen Tagen. 1947: Und finden dereinst wir uns wieder … [voi]. 1949: Wohin die Züge fahren; Schatten der Nacht. 1950: Gabriela; Der Schatten des Herrn Monitor; Epilog; Taxi-Kitty. 1951: Gift im Zoo. 1952: Türme des Schweigens. 1953: Geliebtes Leben. 1953/54: Regina Amstetten. 1954: Geständnis unter vier Augen. 1954/55: Oase [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955: Rosen im Herbst; Nacht der Entscheidung. 1956: Friederike von Barring; Preis der Nationen; Made in Germany. Ein Leben für Zeiss. 1958: Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1959: Jons und Erdme / La donna dell’altro [DE/IT]. 1960/61: The Counterfeit Traitor [US]. [act – DE – TV] 1962: Die Pariser Komödie. 1965/66: Die großen Spione: Der Mann, der sich Abel nannte. 1967/68: Schmutzige Hände. 1968: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Carl Raddatz [TVD – app]. 1973: Die preußische Heirat. 1975: Jeder stirbt für sich allein [FF]. 1976: Der Künstlerstammtisch [TVD – app]; Warten auf Godot. 1978/79: Buddenbrooks. 1983: Haus Vaterland. 1984: Geschichten zur Weihnacht: Heute und damals; Ein Heim für Tiere: Komet. 1985: Berlin zur Kaiserzeit [DO – voi]. 1987: ‘Hoppla wir leben’ – Die Goldenen Zwanziger. 1988: Rosinenbomber. 1990: Derrick: Solo für Vier. 2002: Carl Raddatz zum 85. Geburtstag – eine Reverenz [TVD – app].
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FRITZ RASP (Fritz Heinrich Rasp) Born May 13, 1891, Bayreuth (Germany) Died November 30, 1976, Munich (West Germany) Gaunt, with deep-set eyes and thin lips that often divided to form a malevolent grin, Rasp played cads and villains in German films for over half a century. Rasp went to acting school in Munich in 1908, and made his stage debut at the city’s Schauspielhaus. Four years at provincial theatres followed, until he joined Berlin’s Deutsches Theater in 1914. Serving as a soldier between 1916 and 1918, he returned to Max Reinhardt productions in the capital after World War I, and subsequently demonstrated exceptional versatility in a broad range of roles on different Berlin stages. Rasp’s film debut was in an unidentified picture directed by his friend, actor Ernst Mátray in 1915. He began to appear in films more frequently following his performance as a simpleton in Fred Sauer’s JUGEND (Youth, 1922). Typecast on account of his looks as rascals and ne’erdo-wells – albeit with the occasional ironic take on these types of character along the way – he repeatedly played weighty supporting parts in Fritz Lang’s films, including the sombre secretary to the master of METROPOLIS (1925/26) or the duplicitous Colonel Jellusic (renamed Ivan Stepanov in the English-language release) in SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28). There was the occasional kindly role, such as the secretary in Kurt Bernhardt’s KINDERSEELEN KLAGEN EUCH AN (Children’s Souls Accuse You, 1926/ 27), but Rasp’s standout performances from this period for the most part remained villains. Most notably under G. W. Pabst’s direction, he played a gangster sidelining as a police informant in DIE LIEBE DER JEANNE NEY (The Loves of Jeanne Ney, 1927); the reckless seducer in TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929); and Peachum, king of the beggars in DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/31). Perhaps most iconic was his bowler-hatted thief in Gerhard Lamprecht’s EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives, 1931). During the ‘Third Reich’, Rasp initially worked in Vienna, and later continued to portray villains in crime thrillers and other genre films. He also appeared in Pabst’s medieval tale PARACELSUS (1942/43), while acting on stage at Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre between 1936 and 1944. After World War II, he was back at Berlin’s Hebbel-Theater in 1945, before undertaking lengthy stints at the Deutsches Theater from 1947 to 1950, and at Munich’s Residenztheater from 1951 to 1960. His first post-war film role, Gerhard Lamprecht’s DEFA production IRGENDWO IN BERLIN (Somewhere in Berlin, 1946), constituted a rubble-bound
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homage to the pair’s earlier success with EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE. Further supporting roles followed throughout the 1950s, with Rasp playing a number of eccentric or sinister old men in the Edgar Wallace series between 1959 and 1963. He also became a regular on West German television from the mid-1950s, appearing in adaptations of classic plays, contemporary dramas, and detective series. He enjoyed a final success in the 1970s, playing a dapper but wily pensioner in Bernhard Sinkel’s comedy LINA BRAAKE (1974/75). [act – DE] 1916: Schuhpalast Pinkus. 1917: Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland. 1921/22: Das verschwundene Haus. 1922: Jugend. 1922/23: Time is Money. 1923: Der Mensch am Wege; Zwischen Abend und Morgen; Schatten. 1924: Arabella; Komödianten; Die Puppe vom Lunapark. 1924/25: Ein Sommernachtstraum. 1925: Menschen am Meer; Götz von Berlichingen zubenannt mit der eisernen Hand; Das Haus der Lüge. 1925/26: Qualen der Nacht; Metropolis. 1926: Der Liebe Lust und Leid; Überflüssige Menschen; Die Waise von Lowood. 1926/27: Kinderseelen klagen euch an. 1927: Der letzte Walzer; Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney; Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel. 1927/28: Schinderhannes; Spione. 1928: Die Carmen von St. Pauli. 1928/29: Frau im Mond. 1929: Der Hund von Baskerville; Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Frühlings Erwachen; Die Drei um Edith. 1930: Dreyfus; Die große Sehnsucht; Tropennächte [MLV – FR/US]. 1930/31: Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff [MLV]; Les frères Karamazoff [MLV– FR/ DE]; Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]. 1931: Der Zinker [DE/AT]; Die Pranke [MLV – IT/DE]; Emil und die Detektive. 1931/32: Die Vier vom Bob 13 [MLV]. 1932: Die grausame Freundin [MLV]; Der Hexer [MLV – DE/AT]. 1932/33: Der sündige Hof. 1933: Der Judas von Tirol; Der Schuß am Nebelhorn. 1933/34: Altgermanische Bauernkultur [SD]. 1934: Grenzfeuer; Charleys Tante; Klein Dorrit; Lockvogel [MLV]. 1934/35: Asew / Lockspitzel Asew [AT/DE]. 1935/ 36: Die Leuchter des Kaisers [AT]. 1936: Onkel Bräsig; Der Hund von Baskerville. 1936/37: Togger. 1937: Einmal werd’ ich Dir gefallen. 1938: Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht? 1939: Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht; Frau im Strom. 1939/40: Leidenschaft. 1940: Alarm. 1942/43: Paracelsus. 1946: Irgendwo in Berlin [DD]. 1950: Skandal in der Botschaft. 1952: Haus des Lebens. 1953: Hokuspokus; Die Mühle im Schwarzwäldertal. 1954/55: Magic Fire. The Story of Richard Wagner [US]. [act – DE – TV] 1955: Die Bauernpassion; Squirrel; Madame Aurélie; Kopf in der Schlinge; Der Revisor; Gottes Utopia; Die Heiratskomödie; Der Cornet [FF]; Ein Weihnachtslied in Prosa. 1956: Das Abschiedsgeschenk; Oberst Chabert; Wo war David Preston?; Zwölftausend. 1957: Don Carlos. 1958: Der öffentliche Ankläger. 1958/59: Vor Himmelskörpern wird gewarnt. 1959: Johanna von Lothringen; Land, das meine Sprache spricht; Das mittlere Fenster; Eine Dummheit macht auch der Gescheiteste; Froen [FF – DK]; Kasimir und Karoline. 1959/60: Der rote Kreis / Den blodrøde cirkel [FF – DE/DK]; Bezaubernde Julia; Der Mann, der Donnerstag war; Am grünen Strand der
Spree: Bastien und Bastienne. 1960: Gericht über Las Casas; Die Bande des Schreckens [FF]; Das schwarze Schaf [FF]. 1961: Die seltsame Gräfin [FF]. 1961/62: Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee [FF]. 1962: Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett / Tête-à-tête sur l’oreiller [FF – DE/FR]. 1963: Der Zinker / L’Énigme du sergent noir [FF – DE/FR]; Maria Stuart; Erotikon – Karussell der Leidenschaften [FF]. 1964: Eurydike; Herodes und Mariamne; Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius [FF]. 1965/66: Volpone oder Der Fuchs; Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden …? [FF]. 1966/ 67: Der Prozeß der Jeanne d’Arc zu Rouen 1431. 1969: Die Verspätung. 1970/71: Tatort: Frankfurter Gold. 1971: Die Weber; Der Kommissar: Tod eines Ladenbesitzers. 197176: Gestern gelesen [TVS]. 1972: Fritz Rasp erzählt. Januar 1972 [TVD]; Pero und Jovo. 1973: Die große Rolle. 2. Jud Süß – die Alptraumrolle [TVD]; Erlebte Filmgeschichte – Fritz Rasp [TVD]. 1974: Tausend Francs Belohnung. 1974/ 75: Lina Braake oder Die Interessen der Bank können nicht die Interessen sein, die Lina Braake hat [FF]. 1975: Dorothea Merz.
WALTER REIMANN Born June 2, 1887, Berlin (Germany) Died November 8, 1936, Bad Godesberg (Germany) Forever associated with his designs for the silent classic DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI, art director Walter Reimann helped to popularise Expressionist cinema worldwide, while his own artistic preferences were more eclectic. Following an apprenticeship, Reimann worked as freelance artist and stage decorator in Berlin, and between 1912 and 1914 in Sweden. During World War I, he served at the Eastern Front, although he managed to exhibit and sell some of his (mostly landscape) paintings during this period. He also drew illustrations and cartoons for army newsletters and propaganda pamphlets. At an army theatre group in Wilna (Vilnius), he became friends with fellow soldiers Hermann Warm, Robert Herlth, and Walter Röhrig – all of whom would become important designers in Weimar cinema. Reimann started his film career in 1919, initially at the Societäs-Film, then, on recommendation of Warm, at Erich Pommer’s Decla-Film. The same year he joined Warm and Röhrig in designing the sets for Robert Wiene’s DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919/20). Warm later asserted that it was Reimann who first suggested the use of painted ‘Expressionist’ sets, and as the most accomplished painter of the three, it was Reimann who significantly influenced the final look of the film. Reimann always understood himself as an artist and painter first, but only in a few cases he enjoyed the same freedom and control as on CALIGARI. For the science fiction drama ALGOL (1920), he created once again striking fantastic sets. In contrast, in his collaborations with director Berthold Viertel, especially on
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the Ibsen adaptation NORA (A Doll’s House, 1922/ 23), he adopted a visually subtle, naturalistic style. Throughout the 1920s, Reimann worked with some of the period’s major directors, including E. A. Dupont on the gypsy melodrama DIE GRÜNE MANUELA (Green Manuela, 1922/23), Arthur Robison on the operetta DER LETZTE WALZER (The Last Waltz), and Henrik Galeen on the horror classic ALRAUNE (both 1927). From 1923 onwards he also frequently intervened in public debates on issues of design and film art, and aired his views in a variety of publications. In 1928, Reimann briefly went to Hollywood to design Ernst Lubitsch’s Alpine melodrama ETERNAL LOVE (1928/29). After his return to Berlin he published articles and gave lectures on his experiences in the American film industry. He also worked twice at London’s Elstree studios, on BIP’s courtroom drama DREYFUS (1930/31) and the comedy MAID HAPPY (1933). In 1933, Reimann designed and wrote the screenplay for Thea von Harbou’s box-office flop ELISABETH UND DER NARR (Elisabeth and the Fool) and again collaborated with her on HANNELES HIMMELFAHRT (Hannele’s Heavenly Journey, 1933/34). A member of the Nazi party since 1934, Reimann was originally given the task of designing the buildings of the Nazi festival site ‘Stedingsehre’ in Northern Germany (eventually constructed by the architect Ernst Behrens) and became involved in the production of EWIGER WALD (Eternal Forest), a party-funded, semi-documentary paean to German nationalism, pagan mysticism, and medieval pageantry. His last feature film was Reinhold Schünzel’s melodrama DAS MÄDCHEN IRENE (The Girl Irene, both 1936). [(co-)des – DE] 1919: Hans im Glück; Die Lackstiefel [SF]; Pest in Florenz; Verbrechen und Liebe; Das Sahnenbaiser [SF]. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari [co-des,cos]. 1920: Der Menschheit Anwalt. 1. Die Wunde der Zeiten; Algol. 1921/22: Vanina [des,cos]; Sterbende Völker. 1. Heimat in Not / 2. Brennendes Meer. 1922: Herzog Ferrantes Ende [des,cos]; Es leuchtet meine Liebe; Der falsche Dimitry. 1922/23: Nora; Die grüne Manuela. 1923: S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen; Ein Weib, ein Tier, ein Diamant. 1923/ 24: Neuland oder Das glückhaft Schiff. 1924: Die Perücke. 1924/25: Wunder der Schöpfung [DO]. 1925: Liebesfeuer; Der Hahn im Korb; Die Insel der Träume. 1925/26: Der Ritt in die Sonne. 1926: K 13513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines. 1927: Der letzte Walzer; Schuldig; Alraune. 1928/29: Eternal Love [des,cos – US]. 1929: Polizeispionin 77; Die Frau ohne Nerven; Sei gegrüßt, Du mein schönes Sorrent. 1930: Zapfenstreich am Rhein. 1930/31: Dreyfus [GB]. 1931: Mal was Anderes! [SF]. 1931/32: Rasputin. Der Dämon der Frauen. 1932: Unheimliche Geschichten; Theodor Körner; Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers; Die Herren vom Maxim; Paprika [MLV – DE/IT]. 1933: Paprika! [Italian MLV – DE/IT]; Maid Happy [GB]; Elisabeth und der
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Narr [scr,des]. 1933/34: Hanneles Himmelfahrt. 1934: Was bin ich ohne Dich?; Alte Kameraden. 1936: Ewiger Wald [DO]; Das Mädchen Irene; Die Ballmutter [SF]; In 40 Minuten [SF]; Karo König [SF]; Achtung, Kurve! [SF]; Das Patentkunstschloß [SF]; Heiratsbüro Fortuna [SF].
HERBERT REINECKER Born December 24, 1914, Hagen (Germany) Died January 27, 2007, Berg am Starnberger See (Germany) One of the most prolific writers for popular German film and television in genres ranging from war drama to thrillers and detective series, Reinecker’s immensely successful career lasted from the Nazi period into the new millennium. Joining the Hitler Youth in 1932, Reinecker became author and editor of several youth-oriented Nazi magazines, and from 1936 began publishing novels, plays and short stories, which often promoted particular aspects of Nazi ideology. Following the outbreak of World War II, Reinecker joined the Waffen-SS as a war correspondent, reporting on military actions in Eastern Europe and Norway. In 1943, he became the editor of the Hitler Youth’s official magazine, ‘Junge Welt’ (Young World). Together with director Alfred Weidenmann, Reinecker co-wrote the script for the educational drama JUNGE ADLER (Young Eagles, 1943/44), conceived as a propaganda vehicle to promote young people’s contributions to the war effort. The same year, Reinecker was assigned propaganda duties in the newly formed SS division of the Hitler Youth, an elite group of young recruits trained to fight an Allied invasion. Shortly before the end of the war, Reinecker went into hiding in rural Austria, and only gradually re-emerged in the late 1940s, publishing short stories in provincial newspapers under various pseudonyms. In 1951, he relocated to Hamburg, where he wrote radio plays for the regional broadcaster NWDR and was reunited with Weidenmann, collaborating on a number of documentaries and feature films. For producer Erich Pommer and director Laszlo Benedek, Reinecker adapted his own 1953 novel KINDER, MÜTTER UND EIN GENERAL (Children, Mothers, and the General, 1954/55), about a group of young men drafted in as recruits to fight the enemy in the last days of World War II, obviously drawing on his own wartime experiences. Several of Reinecker’s screenplays in the 1950s thematised the Nazi years, including CANARIS (1954), SPION FÜR DEUTSCHLAND (Spy For Germany, 1956), and DER STERN VON AFRIKA (Star of Africa, 1956/57). He also worked on a number of literary adaptations, including Robert Siodmak’s DOROTHEA ANGERMANN (1958/59), and Gerd
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Oswald’s SCHACHNOVELLE (Three Moves to Freedom, 1960). In the 1960s, he contributed, occasionally under the pseudonym ‘Alex Berg’, to many of West Germany’s most popular genre franchises, including the Karl May western series, and the Edgar Wallace and Jerry Cotton crime thrillers. From 1963, Reinecker began a long-lasting professional association with Munich-based television producer Helmut Ringelmann, culminating in the phenomenally successful detective series DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner, 1968–76). Starring Erik Ode as a dour Munich-based cop surrounded by a team of younger assistants, the series combined international models such as Raymond Burr’s IRONSIDE and Georges Simenon’s French detective Maigret with stories that drew on a particularly West German social milieu. Another hit formula emerged with DERRICK (1974–98), starring Horst Tappert as a stylishly dressed, taciturn detective inspector solving crimes among Munich’s high society. Loved by audiences and derided by critics in equal measures, the series finally folded after three decades and 281 episodes. As with DER KOMMISSAR, DERRICK had a considerable international success and remains the bestselling German television export. In the 1980s and 1990s, Reinecker and Ringelmann continued to diversify into new formulas and formats, including DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (since 1981), a German version of the US series LOVE BOAT, which combined the attractions of sun-drenched locations, formulaic human interest stories, cruise ship glamour, and an all-star cast. Other hits included one-off drama ‘specials’ for stars such as Lilli Palmer, and the series JAKOB UND ADELE (1982–89), which chronicled the adventures of two sprightly pensioners (portrayed by veteran stars Carl-Heinz Schroth and Brigitte Horney). Following the demise of DERRICK in the late 1990s, Reinecker developed and wrote some of the early episodes of a new crime series, SISKA. Owing to old age and declining health he retired soon after, while SISKA eventually ran until 2008. [scr – DE] 1939: Der Mann mit dem Plan [SF – co-scr]. 1941/42: Der Fall Rainer [sma]. 1943/44: Junge Adler [coscr,ide]. 1951: Düsseldorf – Magnet des Westens [SD]; Illustrierte [SD]. 1952: Von mir zu Dir [SD – scr]; Weg in die Freiheit [SD]; Vater braucht eine Frau [co-scr,sma]. 1953: Abteilung für Notwohnungen [TV – scr,sma]; Das unsichtbare Geld [SD]; Einmal kehr ich wieder … / Dal matinska svadba [sma – DE/YU]; Ich und Du [co-scr]. 1953/54: Eine Stadt spielt Indianer [SD]. 1954: Verliebter Sommer [coscr – AT]; Canaris [co-scr]. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General [co-scr,sma]. 1955: Der Himmel ist nie ausverkauft [co-scr]; Roman einer Siebzehnjährigen [sma]; Alibi [scr,sma]. 1956: Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter; Kitty und die große Welt; Die Trapp-Familie; Spion für
Deutschland. 1956/57: Der Stern von Afrika / La estrella de Africa [DE/ES]. 1957: Banktresor 713; Der Fuchs von Paris / Le rénard de Paris [DE/FR]; El Hakim; Scampolo. 1958: Taiga; Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika; Solange das Herz schlägt. 1958/59: Dorothea Angermann. 1959: Liebe auf krummen Beinen [co-scr]; Menschen im Netz; Bumerang. 1960: Schachnovelle [co-scr]; Eine Frau fürs ganze Leben [co-scr]; An heiligen Wassern [CH]. 1961: Die Stunde, die du glücklich bist. 1962: Lulu [AT]. 1963: Das Unbrauchbare an Anna Winters [TV]; Der Mann aus England [TV]; Die 5. Kolonne: Es führt kein Weg zurück [TV]; Die 5. Kolonne: Das gelbe Paket [TV]; Night Express [GB]; In einer fremden Stadt [TV]; Schloß Gripsholm; Unterm Birnbaum [TV]; Um acht Uhr kommt Sadowski [TV]; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/AT]; Ein Alibi zerbricht [AT]. 1963/64: Kennwort: Reiher. 1964: Nachtzug D 106 [TV – scr,sma]; Die 5. Kolonne: Zwei Pistolen [TV]; Der Hexer [co-scr]; Die Goldsucher von Arkansas / Alla conquista dell’Arkansas / Les chercheurs d’or de l‹Arkansas [co-scr – DE/IT/FR]. 1965: Schüsse im 3/4-Takt / Operazione ‘Terzo uomo’ [AT/IT]; Neues vom Hexer; Das Liebeskarussell [co-scr – AT]; Mordnacht in Manhattan. 1965/66: Ich suche einen Mann. 1966: Der Bucklige von Soho; Maigret und sein größter Fall / Il caso difficile del commissario Maigret / Maigret fait mouche [AT/IT/FR]; Der Mörderclub von Brooklyn. 1967: Die blaue Hand; Der Mönch mit der Peitsche; Rheinsberg; Der Hund von Blackwood-Castle; Der Tod läuft hinterher [TV]. 1968: Der Tod im roten Jaguar / La morte in Jaguar rossa [DE/IT]; Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten / L’uomo dal lungo fucile [DE/YU/IT]; Babeck [TV]. [scr – DE – TV] 1968-76: Der Kommissar [TVS – 97 episodes]. 1969: 11 Uhr 20. 1969/70: Unter den Dächern von St. Pauli [FF]. 1970: Engel, die ihre Flügel verbrennen [FF]. 1971-78: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau [TVS – 5 episodes]; Das Mädchen von Hongkong [FF – DE/FR]. 1973: Karussells werden im Himmel gemacht. 1974: Mütter. 1974/75: Verbrechen nach Schulschluß [FF – sma]. 1974-98: Derrick [TVS – 281 episodes]. 1977/78: Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk [DE/AT]; Kleine Geschichten mit großen Tieren; 1977-81: Polizeiinspektion 1 [TVS – season 1-4 – 6 episodes]; Unsere kleine Welt; … von Herzen, mit Schmerzen; Der große Karpfen Ferdinand und andere Weihnachtsgeschichten; Der ganz normale Wahnsinn [TVS – 12 episodes]. 1979: Jahreszeiten der Liebe; … es ist die Liebe; Nachbarn und andere nette Menschen [DE/AT/CH]; Die Alten kommen [co-scr]; 1979/80: Wochenendgeschichten; Kaninchen im Hut; Gesucht wird …; Liebe bleibt nicht ohne Schmerzen; Familienfest; Knobbes Knoten; Das war’n noch Zeiten. 1979-84: Leute wie Du und ich [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1981: Die Karten lügen nicht; Chefetage [DE/CH]; Georg Thomallas Geschichten [TVS – 6 episodes]; Liebe hat ihre Zeit. 1981/82: Väter. 1981-86: Das Traumschiff. [TVS – seasons 1-3 – co-scr]. 1982: Treffpunkt Airport; Urlaub am Meer. 1982/83: Rendezvous der Damen. 1982-84: So oder so ist das Leben [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1982-89: Jakob und Adele [TVS – 10 episodes]. 1983: Geschichten aus der Heimat: Das Silvesterbaby. 1983/84: Funkeln im Auge. 1984: So oder so ist das Leben III.; Freundschaften; Die Dame und die Unterwelt; Mensch Bachmann [TVS – 6 episodes]; Der Lehrer und andere Schulgeschichten; Ge-
LOTTE REINIGER schichten aus der Heimat: Nächtliche Begegnungen; Polizeiinspektion 1 [TVS – season 7 – 2 episodes]. 1984/85: Der kleine Riese [scr,sma]. 1986/87: Wer erschoß Boro? 1988: Der Weg nach Lourdes. 1989: Jakob – oder Liebe hört nicht auf; Herr Siebenfink und die Sache mit Caroline [DE/AT]. 1992-94: Der Fotograf oder Das Auge Gottes [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1996: Gnadenlos – Zur Prostitution gezwungen. 1997: Gesang der Nachtvögel. 1998/ 99: Gnadenlos 2 – Ausgeliefert und mißbraucht; Siska [TVS – 4 episodes].
MAX REINHARDT (Maximilian Goldmann) Born September 9, 1873, Baden, near Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died October 31, 1943, New York (USA) One of the most important producers and directors of the German stage for the first half of the 20th century, Max Reinhardt influenced the course of German cinema in several ways. Reinhardt himself very sporadically worked as a film director. Meanwhile countless actors, directors, designers, and writers were trained in Reinhardt’s acting schools or on his theatre productions prior to entering the film industry. Following an apprenticeship in a bank, Reinhardt took acting lessons, and made his stage debut in Vienna in 1890, subsequently appearing in productions in Vienna and other cities. Relocating to Berlin in 1894, he joined the Deutsches Theater, whose management he took over in 1905. The same year he founded the first of several acting schools. Over the next decade Reinhardt expanded his activities, first in Berlin, taking over other theatres, later venturing into Austria as well, launching the Salzburg festival in 1920. During the 1910s and 1920s Reinhardt became associated not only with lavish, expensive productions, using complex staging techniques and lighting to maximize audience engagement, but also with promoting the literary avantgarde, including plays by Expressionist writers such as Franz Werfel and Else Lasker-Schüler. Reinhardt’s first venture into filmmaking was in 1910 with a film version of his popular stage production, the Oriental fantasy SUMURUN, produced for the Deutsche Bioscop (Ernst Lubitsch – a Reinhardt actor – would remake the same material ten years later). This was followed in 1912/13 by three films. DAS MIRAKEL (The Miracle, 1912/13) about a young nun given temporary freedom from her duties by the Virgin Mary, was once again an adaptation of a Reinhardt stage hit. EINE VENEZIANISCHE NACHT (A Venetian Night) was produced for Paul Davidson’s PAGU in Italy as well as DIE INSEL DER SELIGEN (Island of the Blessed, both 1913), a bucolic fantasy about a group of
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daytrippers encountering an island of gods and nymphs. The film’s actors included Ernst Hofmann, who subsequently became a matinee idol in German films, and Leopoldine Konstantin, who also had a significant film career, and who would decades later reappear in Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS (1946). In 1921 the plan to form his own production company Max Reinhard-Film under the roof of Europäische Film-Allianz (EFA), funded by Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players-Lasky, came to nothing. It was not until Reinhardt went into American exile in 1933 after the Nazis’ rise to power that he would one last time become involved in a film production. Codirected by William Dieterle, a former pupil, the adaptation of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMERNIGHT’S DREAM (1934/35) was a lavish, beautifully shot fantasy, and marked by the inspired casting of child star Mickey Rooney as Puck. Perhaps as a result of the film’s indifferent reception, it remained Reinhardt’s last contact with the film industry, and he concentrated his activities for the remainder of his life on training aspiring actors. The influence of Reinhardt’s staging and lighting techniques on Weimar cinema was later documented by Lotte Eisner in her postwar study ‘L’Écran démoniaque’ (The Haunted Screen, 1952). Reinhardt’s son Gottfried Reinhardt (1911–1994) became a screenwriter as well as film director and producer. Starting out in Hollywood in the 1940s, his career peaked in the 1950s. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he temporarily worked in West Germany, where his films included the German-American co-production TOWN WITHOUT PITY (1960/61), a courtroom drama starring Kirk Douglas, and LIEBLING DER GÖTTER (Sweetheart of the Gods, 1960), a biopic of Weimar film star Renate Müller. [dir – DE]. 1910: Sumurun. 1912/13: Das Mirakel [codir]. 1913: Eine venezianische Nacht; Die Insel der Seligen. 1925: Schneepiraten [act]. 1934/35: A Midsummer Night’s Dream [co-dir – US]. 1935: A Dream Comes True [SD – dir – US]. 1956: Producers’ Showcase: Rosalinda [TV – sma – US].
LOTTE REINIGER (Charlotte Reiniger) Born June 2, 1899, Berlin-Charlottenburg (Germany) Died June 19, 1981, Dettenhausen, near Tübingen (West Germany) Reiniger was a ground-breaking animator whose popular and internationally acclaimed shadow play films included the world’s first animated feature in 1926. Reiniger was interested in animation from an early age, and taught herself how to create silhouette cutouts. In 1916/17 she studied acting under Max Reinhardt, while also appearing in bit parts at the Deut-
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sches Theater, where she produced silhouette portraits of other actors. In 1918, Paul Wegener had her manufacture silhouettes for the opening credits and intertitles of his DER RATTENFÄNGER (The Pied Piper of Hamelin), and through him she met a group of young filmmakers headed by art historian Carl Koch (1892–1963) and Hans Cürlis (1889–1982) of the Institute for Cultural Research. With their assistance, she produced her first short shadow play film, DAS ORNAMENT DES VERLIEBTEN HERZENS (The Ornament of the Lovestruck Heart, 1919/20), before marrying Koch in 1921, who became her closest collaborator. During the early 1920s, Reiniger made advertising films for Julius Pinschewer, as well as several further shorts that ran in Ufa cinemas. She then embarked on a three-year project, creating her masterpiece based on themes from 1001 Nights, DIE GESCHICHTE DES PRINZEN ACHMED, later retitled DIE ABENTEUER DES PRINZEN ACHMED (The Adventures of Prince Ahmed, 1923–26). Reiniger’s assistants on this first animated feature ever produced included not only her husband, but also Walther Ruttmann and Berthold Bartosch. For Reiniger’s subsequent three-part DOKTOR DOLITTLE UND SEINE TIERE (Dr. Dolittle and His Animals, 1928) Paul Dessau, Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith composed the live musical accompaniment. Subsequently, she and Koch wrote the script for Rochus Gliese’s silent live-action feature DIE JAGD NACH DEM GLÜCK (The Pursuit of Happiness, 1929/30), for which Reiniger and Koch furnished a soundtrack as well. In the early 1930s further shadow play films included PAPAGENO (1935), based on Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’. She was invited to England in 1936, where she worked on some shorts, before spending the years 1939–44 living with her husband and French director Jean Renoir at Luchino Visconti’s house in Rome. Here, she helped Koch writing the scripts to his films LA TOSCA (The Story of Tosca, 1940/41), on which he took over from Renoir as director, and the protospaghetti western UNA SIGNORA DELL’OVEST (Girl of the Golden West, 1941/42). Returning to Berlin in 1944, Reiniger worked for the National Film and Photographic Institute’s science and education division. After the war, she became a set designer at the city’s Theater am Schiffbauerdamm during the 1946/47 season. Moving to London in 1949, she initially found employment with husband-and-wife puppeteers Jan Bussell and Ann Hogarth, the creators of the early children’s television programme MUFFIN THE MULE. Living at the Abbey Arts Centre, an artist’s colony in the North London suburb of New Barnet from 1951, Reiniger made shorts for the GPO Film Unit, the BBC, and American television between 1953 and
1955, as well as short animated pictures that were shown during the interval of pantomimes in theatres. She and Koch founded their own production company Fantasia Productions Ltd, but only two films came out of that: HELEN LA BELLE (1957) and the Mozart fantasy A NIGHT IN HARLEM (1958). Following her husband’s death in 1963, she concentrated again on theatre work, while also illustrating books including editions of Mozart’s operas, and writing several works such as her ‘Shadow Theatre and Shadow Films’ (1970). Over the years she participated in a series of documentaries presenting her art and about the history of animation film. [dir,ani,pro – DE – ANI] 1916: Rübezahls Hochzeit [silhouettes]. 1917: Die schöne Prinzessin von China [silhouettes]. 1918: Der fremde Fürst [act]; Der Rattenfänger [silhouettes]; Apokalypse [silhouettes]. 1919/20: Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens. 1920: Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag [silhouettes]; Amor und das standhafte Liebespaar. 1920/21: Der Stern von Bethlehem; Der fliegende Koffer. 1921/22: Das Geheimnis der Marquise [silhouettes]. 1922: Dornröschen. 1922/23: Aschenputtel. 1922-24: Kind und Welt: Das Großstadtkind und die Gartenarbeitsschule [DO – ani]. 1923-26: Die Geschichte des Prinzen Achmed / Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed. 1924: Die Barcarole [silhouettes]. 1927/ 28: Heut’ tanzt Mariett [silhouettes]; 1927/28: Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere. 1. Die Reise nach Afrika / 2. Die Affenbrücke / 3. Die Affenkrankheit. 1928: Der scheintote Chinese. 1929/30: Die Jagd nach dem Glück [co-scr,ani, sound-dir]. 1930: Zehn Minuten Mozart; Tres Caballeros [ani]. 1931/32: Harlekin. 1932/33: Don Quichotte [MLV – silhouettes – FR/GB]; Don Quixote [MLV – silhouettes – FR/ GB]; Sissi [DE/AT]. 1933: Lotte Reiniger’s SilhouettenOpernhaus: Carmen. 1934: Das rollende Rad; Das gestohlene Herz. 1934/35: Lotte Reiniger’s SilhouettenOpernhaus: Der kleine Schornsteinfeger; Der Graf von Carabas. 1935: Papageno [CH]; Galathea. Das lebende Marmorbild. [dir,ani – GB – ANI] 1936: The King’s Breakfast. 1937: The Tocher. A Film Ballet; La Marseillaise [silhouettes – FR]. 1938: The H.P.O. 1939: Dream Circus. 1939/40: L’Elisir d’amore [IT]. 1940/41: La Tosca [co-scr,ass-dir – IT]. 1941/ 42: Una signora dell’Ovest [co-scr,ass-dir – IT]. 1944: Die goldene Gans [DE]. 1949: Not Without Licence. 1950: The Dancing Fleece. 1951: Mary’s Birthday; Christmas Is Coming; Christmas Decorations [TVD – app]. 1952: The Frog Prince. 1953: You’ve Asked For It – The Art of Lotte Reiniger [SD – app]; Aladdin; The Magic Horse. 1953/54: Snow White and Rose Red; The Three Wishes; The Grasshopper and the Ant; Sleeping Beauty; Caliph Stork; Thumbelina; Cinderella. 1954: The Gallant Little Tailor. 1955: Hansel and Gretel; Jack and the Beanstalk. 1956: The Star of Bethlehem. 1957: Helen La Belle [dir,ani,pro]. 1958: A Night in Harlem [dir,ani,pro]. 1960: The Pied Piper of Hamelin. 1961: The Frog Prince. 1962: Wee Sandy. 1963: Cinderella. 1964/65: Lotte Reinigers Kunst [SD – app]. 1969: All Creatures Great and Small [TVS – app – GB/US]. 1970: The
HARALD REINL Art of Lotte Reiniger / Ein Scherenschnittfilm entsteht. Lotte Reiniger bei der Arbeit [SD – app – GB/DE]. 1973: Der verlorene Sohn / The Lost Son. 1975: Aucassin and Nicolette [CA]; Bewegte Bilder. Deutsche Trickfilme der Zwanziger Jahre [TVD – consultant – DE]; Film im Schatten. Der Trickfilm im Dritten Reich [TVD – consultant – DE]. 1977: Walter Ruttmann 1887-1941. Versuch einer Befreiung [TVD – app consultant – DE]. 1978-80: The Rose and the Ring [CA]. 1980: Die Frau hinter den Schatten: Lotte Reiniger [TVD – app – DE]. 1980/81: Das ist Film – Kluge, Godard und andere … [DO – app – DE]; Düsselchen und die vier Jahreszeiten [DE].
HARALD REINL Born July 9, 1908, Bad Ischl (Austria-Hungary) Died August 9, 1986, Puerto de la Cruz (Spain) A versatile and commercially minded director of countless popular genre films from the late 1940s to the 1980s, with a particular flair for outdoor scenery, Reinl must count as one of the most prolific filmmakers of the West German film industry. This productivity was to a large extent due to a tight-knit team, often consisting of the same actors, cameramen, editors, costume designers and composers, which provided continuity across successive productions. While studying law at Innsbruck Reinl was employed as a stunt skier by the director Arnold Fank for his alpine film STÜRME ÜBER DEM MONTBLANC (Storms Over Montblanc, 1930) and doubled for Leni Riefenstahl in DER WEISSE RAUSCH (The White Flame, 1930/31). He also worked as an assistant director on Max Obal’s ABENTEUER IM ENGADIN (Adventures in the Engadin, 1932). Reinl became ski champion in an international student competition. He completed his doctorate but did not follow a legal career, rather taking on the post as manager at a ski school in France during the 1930s. In collaboration with Austrian cinematographer Guzzi Lantschner (b. 1910), Reinl returned to filmmaking in 1938 with two documentary shorts depicting Alpine scenery and themes. Between 1940 and 1944 he was also involved in the production of Leni Riefenstahl’s long-delayed and ill-fated project TIEFLAND (The Lowlands, 1940–53). Reinl’s filmmaking career began in earnest after World War II. Starting with the Heimatfilm BERGKRISTALL (Mountain Crystal, 1948/49), many of his films from the late 1940s and 1950s were formulaic melodramas set against spectacular Alpine scenery. ROSEN-RESLI (Rose-Girl Resli, 1954), written by ‘Heidi’ author Johanna Spyri, made a child star out of Christine Kaufmann, and marked the debut of actress Karin Dor, who was Reinl’s wife from 1954 to 1968, and one of his favourite actresses. In the mid 1950s Reinl expanded into a range of other genres. The Spanish Civil War drama SOLANGE DU
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LEBST (As Long As You Live, 1955) was a politically
dubious glorification of General Franco’s cause that resulted in controversies at the time; more conventional war films included the submarine drama U 47 – KAPITÄNLEUTNANT PRIEN (U 47: Captain Prien, 1958), and DIE GRÜNEN TEUFEL VON MONTE CASSINO (The Green Devils at Monte Cassino, 1957/58). Demonstrating a flair for anticipating popular genre trends, Reinl contributed during the 1960s to all the major film series of the decade, including the Edgar Wallace thrillers and Karl May westerns. For the latter series Reinl created with DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE (Treasure of Silver Lake, 1962) a visually appealing escapist adventure that, unusually for films of this kind, was well received abroad. After a short excursion into filming literary adaptations, Reinl returned to detective series, directing entries of the ‘Jerry Cotton’ and ‘Kommisar X’ franchises, while also helming comedies, melodramas, adventure films, and musicals, cementing his reputation as the commercially adept, skilled craftsman of German genre cinema. Reinl’s choice of subject matter continued to evolve, and included the audacious UFO theories of Erich von Däniken, presented in Reinl’s documentary ERICH DÄNIKEN: BOTSCHAFT DER GÖTTER (Message of the Gods, 1975/76). Living in semi-retirement on the Canary Island of Tenerife since the mid 1970s, Reinl was stabbed to death by his third wife. [ass-dir – DE] 1930: Stürme über dem Montblanc [act]. 1930/31: Der weiße Rausch [act]. 1932: Abenteuer im Engadin. 1938/39: Wildwasser [SD – ass-dir,co-scr,cut]. 1939: Oster-Skitour in Tirol [SD – co-dir,co-scr,cut]. 1939/ 40: Bergbauern [SD]. 1940-53: Tiefland [ass-dir,co-scr, cut]. 1947: Wintermelodie [MLV – AT/FR]. [dir – DE] 1947/48: Zehn Jahre später [SF – dir,scr,cut]. 1948/49: Bergkristall / Der Wildschütz von Tirol [dir,co-scr, cut – AT/DE]. 1950: Funk und Sport [SD – dir,scr,cut – DE/ AT]. 1950/51: Gesetz ohne Gnade [dir,cut – AT/DE]. 1951: Nacht am Mont Blanc / Weiße Hölle am Mont Blanc [dir,scr,cut – AT/DE]. 1951/52: Hinter Klostermauern [dir, co-scr]. 1952: Der Herrgottschnitzer von Ammergau. 1953: Der Klosterjäger. 1954: Rosen-Resli [dir,scr]; Der schweigende Engel [dir,co-scr]. 1955: Solange du lebst [dir,co-scr]. 1955/56: Ein Herz schlägt für Erika. 1956: Die Fischerin vom Bodensee [dir,co-scr]; Johannisnacht. 1957: Die Prinzessin von St. Wolfgang [dir,co-scr]; Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal [dir,co-scr]; Almenrausch und Edelweiß [AT]. 1957/58: Die grünen Teufel von Monte Cassino. 1958: U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien; Romarei – das Mädchen mit den grünen Augen / Romarey: Operazione Mazaref [DE/IT]. 1959: Froen [DK]; Paradies der Matrosen. 1960: Die Bande des Schreckens; Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehn. 1961: Der Fälscher von London; Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse / Le retour du Docteur Mabuse / F.B.I. contro Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]. 1961/62: Die unsichtbaren Krallen
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des Dr. Mabuse. 1962: Der Teppich des Grauens / Terrore en la noche / Il terrore di notte [DE/ES/IT]; Der Schatz im Silbersee / Blago u Srebnom jezeru / Le trésor du lac d’argent [DE/YU/FR]. 1963: Die weiße Spinne; Der Würger von Schloß Blackmoor; Winnetou I / La valle die lunghi coltelli / La révolte des indiens Apaches [DE/IT/FR]. 1963/64: Zimmer 13 / L’attaque du fourgon postal [DE/FR]. 1964: Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Der letzte Mohikaner / El ultimo Mohicano / La valle della ombre rosse [DE/ES/IT]. 1965: Winnetou III / Vinetu III [DE/YU]; Der unheimliche Mönch. 1966: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried von Xanten / 2. Kriemhilds Rache [dir,co-scr]. 1967: Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel; Dynamit in grüner Seide / Il più grande colpo della malavita americana [DE/ IT]. 1968: Der Tod im roten Jaguar / La morte in Jaguar rossa [DE/IT]; Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten / L’uomo dal lungo fucile [dir,scr – DE/YU/IT]. 1968/69: Todesschüsse am Broadway. 1969: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 3. Teil: Pepe, der Paukerschreck.; Dr. med. Fabian – Lachen ist die beste Medizin. 1969/70: Erinnerungen an die Zukunft [DO – dir,scr]. 1970: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 5. Teil: Wir hau’n die Pauker in die Pfanne. 1970/71: Wer zuletzt lacht, lacht am besten. 1971: Kommissar X jagt die roten Tiger / F.B.I. – Operazione Pakistan [DE/IT]; Verliebte Ferien in Tirol. 1971/72: Sie liebten sich einen Sommer / Tenerezza d’estate [dir,scr – DE/IT]. 1972: Der Schrei der schwarzen Wölfe; Grün ist die Heide. 1972/73: Die heile Welt und ihre Märchenhelden [TVD – app]. 1973: Die blutigen Geier von Alaska; Schloß Hubertus. 1973/74: Ein toter Taucher nimmt kein Gold / Dooie duikers deel nie [DE/ZA]. 1974: Der Jäger von Fall. 1975/ 76: Erich von Däniken: Botschaft der Götter [DO]. 1976/ 77: … und die Bibel hat doch recht [DO]. 1978: Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand [co-dir]. 1980/81: Sieben Weltwunder der Technik [TVD – 7 episodes]. 1982: Im Dschungel ist der Teufel los. 1985: Harald Reinl – Kino ohne Probleme [TVD – app]. 1986: Sri Lanka – Leuchtendes Land [DO].
GÜNTER REISCH (Günter Julius Hermann Reisch) Born November 24, 1927, Berlin A director for the DEFA studios from the late 1940s, Reisch continued to act as mentor to creative talents at the film academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg after the unification of Germany in 1991. Most of Reisch’s works focus on the representations of crucial events in the revolutionary workers movement. The orphaned son of a baker, Reisch grew up in Potsdam. Drafted into the army at the end of the war, he was captured by the Americans but was able to complete his Abitur and take acting lessons. In 1947 he was accepted as a trainee at the DEFA studios, then assistant director especially to Kurt Maetzig from 1949 to 1955. His directorial debut JUNGES GEMÜSE (Small Fry, 1955/56) established a productive partnership with writer Günther Rücker, which lasted over the next decades. Together with Kurt Maet-
zig, Reisch filmed DAS LIED DER MATROSEN (Song of the Sailors, 1958), a ballad-like narrative depicting the naval uprising in Kiel in 1918. This marked his increasing concentration on representing historical events through discerning protagonists. GEWISSEN IN AUFRUHR (Conscience in Uproar, 1961), a five part television drama, was a typical example of DEFA’s ant-fascist tradition and represented political positions of the Cold War: it chronicled the fate of a West German general who chooses humanity above obeying orders and opposes the rearmament of the Federal Republic. Reisch also directed comedies, ridiculing the opportunism, arrogance and other bourgeois weaknesses of everyday life in the GDR in an ironic and imaginative way. He cast a mildly ironic light on the developments in the GDR with ACH, DU FRÖHLICHE … (A Lively Chritmas Eve, 1961/62) and occasionally interwove musical elements, as in JUNGFER, SIE GEFÄLLT MIR (Madam, I Like You, 1968). In a more serious vein, TROTZ ALLEDEM! (Despite All, 1971) recounted episodes of the life of communist martyr Karl Liebknecht, while UNTERWEGS ZU LENIN (On the Way to Lenin, 1969/70) co-produced with the Soviet Mosfilm-Studios was awarded a special prize at the international film festival Karlovy Vary in 1970. WOLZ. LEBEN UND VERKLÄRUNG EINES DEUTSCHEN ANARCHISTEN (Wolz, 1973) marked an-
other collaboration with Rücker and combined actual political events from the 1920s with fantastic narrative elements, a novelty in East German cinema. One of the most inspired DEFA comedies was ANTON DER ZAUBERER (Anton The Magician, 1977), which reflected the early years of the GDR through the multifaceted accounts of the inventive ‘fixer’ Anton. DIE VERLOBTE (The Fiancée, 1979/80) told the story of a class-conscious communist imprisoned by the Nazis. During the shooting of this film Reisch was taken ill and the film was completed by Rücker. The finished film won awards in Karlovy Vary, Sydney and at the National Film Festival in Karl-Marx Stadt (Chemnitz). WIE DIE ALTEN SUNGEN … (Like The Elders Sung, 1985/86) was a sequel to Reisch’s earlier film ACH, DU FRÖHLICHE …, revisiting the same characters, including a director who has difficulty reconciling his socialist ideals with the lifestyle of his family and neighbours. In 1989 Reisch co-directed with Andreas Dresen the documentary ZIMBABWE – DREAMS OF THE FUTURE, his final film for DEFA. From 1967 to 1988 Reisch had been vice president of the association of film and TV workers in the GDR. After unification, Reisch continued teaching at the film academy in Babelsberg and among others acted as advisor and mentor on Dresen’s STILLES LAND (Quiet Land, 1991/92) and Gordian Maugg’s DER
WALTER REISCH
OLYMPISCHE SOMMER (The Olympic Summer, 1991–93). [ass-dir – DD] 1948/49: Quartett zu fünft. 1949/50: Der Rat der Götter. 1950: Immer bereit [DO]; Familie Benthin. 1950/51: Blaue Fahnen nach Berlin [SD – co-dir]. 1951: Roman einer jungen Ehe; Das verurteilte Dorf. 1951/52: Freundschaft siegt / My za mir! [DO – co-dir – DD/SU]. 1953/54: Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse. 1954/55: Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse. [dir – DD] 1955/56: Junges Gemüse. 1957: Spur in die Nacht [dir,scr]. 1958: Krieg und Frieden [TV – dir,scr]; Das Lied der Matrosen [co-dir]. 1959: Maibowle [dir,co-scr]; Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [co-scr – PL]. 1960: Silvesterpunsch [dir,scr]. 1961: Gewissen in Aufruhr [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1961/62: Ach, du fröhliche … 1962/63: Der Dieb von San Marengo [dir,co-scr]. 1964/65: Solange Leben in mir ist [dir,co-scr]. 1966/67: Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz [dir,co-scr]. 1968: Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir [dir, co-scr]. 1969/70: Unterwegs zu Lenin / Na puti k Leninu [dir,scr – DD/SU]. 1971: Trotz alledem! 1973: Wolz. Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten [dir,co-scr]. 1975/76: Nelken in Aspik [dir,scr]. 1977: Anton der Zauberer [dir,co-scr,act]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [app]. 1979/80: Die Verlobte [co-dir,co-scr]. 1985/86: Wie die Alten sungen … [co-dir,co-scr,act]. 1989: Zimbabwe – Dreams of the Future [DO – co-dir]. 1991-93: Der olympische Sommer [consultant – DE]. 1993: Glamour und Protest – Ein Cowboy im Sozialismus [TVD – app – DE]. 2001: Ist die Liebe nicht schön!?! [SF – consultant – DE]. 2002: Nelken für Reisch [SD – app – DE]. 2004/05: Mozartbrot … ein zu kurzes Märchen [SF – consultant – DE]. 2006/07: Der rote Elvis [DO – app – DE].
WALTER REISCH Born May 23, 1903, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died March 28, 1983, Los Angeles (California, USA) Reisch’s successful career as a screenwriter spanned the period from the 1920s to the late 1950s, and encompassed light comedies and musicals in the German and Austrian film industries, as well as epic blockbusters and star vehicles in Hollywood. Involved in the Austrian film industry from an early age earning money as an extra, Reisch abandoned his medical studies to become an assistant to Hungarian born director-producer Alexander Korda in the early 1920s. Until mid-decade he worked in a range of different capacities, from assistant director to screenwriter, mostly on light entertainment films, with material drawn from popular stage farces and operettas. In 1926 Reisch relocated to Berlin, initially working for the company Aafa-Film as screenwriter, often without getting credit on the resulting films. ZWEI HERZEN IM 3/4-TAKT (Two Hearts in Waltz Time, 1930) marked the beginning of a creative partnership with the director Geza von Bolvary, lasting for six
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films. Their films, musical comedies and operettas, combined being popular genre films and ironic reflections on the genre’s very rules at the same time. Contracted to Ufa, Reisch wrote the screenplays for some of the company’s most successful films of the early 1930s, which encompassed a variety of genres, such as the spy thriller IM GEHEIMDIENST (In the Secret Service, 1931), the science fiction film F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1), and musical star vehicles for Lilian Harvey such as EIN BLONDER TRAUM (Happy Ever After, both 1932). Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Reisch continued working in Viennese studios, writing the screenplays for Willi Forst’s biopic of Franz Schubert, LEISE FLEHEN MEINE LIEDER (Lover Divine, 1933), and the award-winning comic society drama MASKERADE (Masquerade in Vienna, 1934). In the mid-1930s he also turned his attention to directing with EPISODE (1935), SILHOUETTEN (Silhouettes), and – in Britain’s Denham Studios – MEN ARE NOT GODS (both 1936), a comedy set, like other Reisch narratives, in a theatrical milieu. Contracted to M-G-M in 1937, Reisch went to Hollywood, where he established himself among the top screenwriters of the studio system with classics such as Lubitsch’s Greta Garbo vehicle NINOTCHKA (1939), Alexander Korda’s historical romance THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (1941), and the Victorian thriller GASLIGHT (1944), starring Ingrid Bergman. After the war, Reisch worked for Universal and Twentieth Century-Fox, often collaborating with fellow screenwriters Charles Brackett and Richard Breen, and winning a collective Oscar for TITANIC (1952/53). In the mid-1950s, Reisch briefly returned to West Germany to direct two films, the spy thriller DIE MÜCKE (The Gnat, 1954), and an adaptation of poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s historical allegory DER CORNET (The Cornet, 1955), but although the films received respectable reviews, their impact was relatively minimal. Reisch returned to Hollywood, penning his last screenplay for the Jules Verne adventure JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959). A planned collaboration with director Volker Schlöndorff in the early 1980s fell through due to Reisch’s terminal illness. [scr – DE] 1921: Die Narrenkappe der Liebe [ass-dir – AT]; Miss Hobbs [AT]. 1924: Der Fluch [co-scr – AT]. 1924/25: Oberst Redl [co-scr – AT]. 1925: Leibfiaker Bratfisch [AT]; Frauen aus der Wiener Vorstadt [AT]; Ein Walzer von Strauß / Der Walzer von Strauß [co-scr – AT/DE]. 1926: Küssen ist keine Sünd’ / Die letzte Einquartierung [co-scr]; Schützenliesl; Die Pratermizzi [AT]; Seine Hoheit, der Eintänzer [AT]. 1926/27: Faschingszauber. 1927: Ein rheinisches Mädchen beim rheinischen Wein; Ein Mädel aus dem Volke; Die Beichte des Feldkuraten [co-scr – AT]; Tin-
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gel-Tangel [AT]; Das Heiratsnest; Die elf Teufel; Die indiskrete Frau; Die Dollarprinzessin und ihre sechs Freier; Der Bettelstudent. 1927/28: Dragonerliebchen. 1928: Der Faschingsprinz; Die Zirkusprinzessin [co-scr]. 1928/29: Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist Du! [co-scr]; Fräulein Fähnrich [co-scr]; Der Held aller Mädchenträume. 1929: Der lustige Witwer [co-scr]; Der schwarze Domino [co-scr]; Die süße Yvonne [SF]; Rabmadár / Achtung – Kriminalpolizei! Gefangene Nr. 7 [co-scr – HU/DE]; Schwarzwaldmädel [coscr]; Dich hab’ ich geliebt; Die Nacht gehört uns [MLV – co-scr,lyr]; La nuit est à nous [MLV – co-scr]. 1929/30: Donauwalzer; Ich glaub’ nie mehr an eine Frau [co-scr]. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt [co-scr]; Hokuspokus [MLV – co-scr,lyr]; The Temporary Widow [MLV – co-scr]; Ein Tango für Dich [scr,lyr]; För hennes skull [MLV – co-scr – SE]; Mach’ mir die Welt zum Paradies [MLV – co-scr – SE/DE]; Va Banque. Alles oder Nichts [MLV – ide]; Le joker [MLV – ide – FR]; Wie werde ich reich und glücklich?; Das Lied ist aus; Brand in der Oper [MLV – co-scr]; Barcarolle d’amour [MLV – co-scr]; Die singende Stadt [MLV – co-scr – GB/DE]; City of Song [MLV – co-scr – GB]; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci; Der Herr auf Bestellung [scr,lyr]. 1930/31: Die lustigen Weiber von Wien. 1931: Im Geheimdienst; Der Raub der Mona Lisa [scr,lyr]; Liebeskommando [co-scr]. 1931/32: Die Gräfin von Monte Christo [dir,scr,lyr]. 1932: Der Prinz von Arkadien [scr,lyr – AT]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV – co-scr,lyr]; Un rêve blond [MLV – co-scr]; Happy Ever After [MLV – sma]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV – coscr,lyr]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV – co-scr]; F.P. 1 [MLV – co-scr]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV – co-scr,lyr]; Moi et l’Impératrice [MLV – co-scr]; The Only Girl [MLV – co-scr]. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV – co-scr]; The Song You Gave Me [MLV – sma – GB]; Prince of Arcadia [MLV – sma – GB]; Leise flehen meine Lieder / Schuberts unvollendete Symphonie [MLV – ide – AT/DE]; Inge und die Millionen [lyr]. 1933/34: Two Hearts in Waltz Time [sma – GB]; The Countess of Monte Cristo [sma – US]. 1934: Maskerade [co-scr – AT]; The Unfinished Symphony [MLV – co-scr,sma – AT/DE]; So endete eine Liebe [co-scr]. 1935: Casta diva [MLV – IT]; The Divine Spark [MLV – IT/ GB]; Escapade [sma – US]; Episode [dir,scr,lyr,pro – AT]. 1936: Silhouetten [dir,scr,lyr,pro – AT]; Men Are Not Gods [dir,co-scr – GB]. [co-scr – US] 1938: Gateway [sma]; The Great Waltz. 1939: Ninotchka. 1940: My Love Came Back [sma]; Comrade X [sma]. 1940/41: That Uncertain Feeling; That Hamilton Woman. 1942: Somewhere I’ll Find You; Seven Sweethearts; Tales of Manhattan [sma]. 1943: Madame Curie; The Heavenly Body. 1944: Gaslight. 1946/47: Song of Scheherazade [dir]. 1948: The Countess of Monte Cristo [sma]. 1949: The Fan. 1950: The Mating Season. 1951: The Model and the Marriage Broker. 1952/53: Niagara; Titanic. 1954: Die Mücke [dir,scr – DE]. 1955: The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing; Der Cornet. Die Weise von Liebe und Tod [dir,scr]. 1956: The Teenage Rebel. 1956/57: Silk Stockings [sma]. 1957: The Big Show [DOK – app]; Einmal eine große Dame sein [sma – DE]; Stopover Tokyo [coscr,pro]. 1957/58: Fraulein [pro]. 1958: The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker. 1959: Journey to the Center of the Earth. 1960: Ninotchka [TV – sma].
EDGAR REITZ Born November 1, 1932, Morbach (Germany) Active as a director, producer and writer since the 1950s, Reitz is best-known for the eleven-part TV series HEIMAT (1981–84). Drawing in part on his own background and biography, the series represents a German chronicle of the 20th century as reflected through the events and lives in a small village in the remote Hunsrück region. Reitz subsequently expanded this project over the next two decades into a mammoth trilogy. The son of a clock-maker and a milliner, Reitz left his deeply provincial roots behind to study German, theatre, history of art and journalism in Munich, while writing poetry, publishing a literary magazine, taking acting lessons and joining student theatre activities. From 1953 he attempted to make films, later working as an assistant on Willy Zielke’s documentary films. From 1962 to 1965 he was employed by the industrial and advertising film production Insel-Film as manager for development and experimentation. One of the signatories of the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, declaring ‘Daddy’s cinema is dead’, Reitz promoted changes in German cinema. He founded and taught at the film department at the Institute of Design in Ulm in 1963. After working as a cameraman for Alexander Kluge’s ABSCHIED VON GESTERN (Yesterday Girl, 1965/66), Reitz established his own production company in 1966, directing his first feature film MAHLZEITEN (Mealtime) the same year. Unable to find a distributor for his next films, Reitz experimented with 8mm episode films while running a bar combined with a cinema. At the same time he collaborated with other directors and financed his own projects by making documentaries and educational films. His continued attempts at ‘conventional films’ were not always well received. The historical drama DER SCHNEIDER VON ULM (The Tailor of Ulm, 1978) proved a devastating box office flop. In contrast, the TV series HEIMAT (1981–84), which took over three years to make, became a multi-media phenomenon. Originally shown on television, it was screened in its entirety at film festivals and in cinemas, both in Germany and abroad, where it was enthusiastically received. In Germany the series gave rise to a public debate on the problematic concept of ‘Heimat’ (Homeland), especially its instrumentalisation during the Nazi period. Reitz himself actively contributed to this debate in interviews and articles. Reitz’s ambitious follow-up DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT (The Second Heimat, 1988–92), a 13-part (25 hours) epic detailed Munich’s student and art scene in the 1960s prior to the 1968 revolts, and once again drew on Reitz’s own biography. Although praised by many, others missed the stylistic coherence of its predecessor, and found the narrative too long-winded.
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For the cinema’s centenary celebrations in 1995 the British Film Institute sponsored a series of individual documentaries narrating the film histories of different countries. Reitz shot the German contribution, DIE NACHT DER REGISSEURE (Night of the Directors, 1994), a kaleidoscope of German film history that united an eclectic list of directors and their reflections – from Leni Riefenstahl to Wim Wenders. HEIMAT 3 – CHRONIK EINER ZEITENWENDE (Heimat 3 – Chronicle of a Change of Epoch, 2002–04) began as an online project. It marked a partial return to the geographical settings of the first series and to some of the characters of the second, while covering the period of Germany’s reunification in the late 1980s and late 1990s. Lavishly produced, and engagingly narrated, the series nonetheless failed to match the success of the previous two parts of the trilogy. [dir – DE – SD] 1953: Auf offener Bühne [co-dir,co-scr, cam,cut,pro]; Gesicht einer Residenz [co-dir,co-scr,cam, cut,pro]. 1956: Schöpfung ohne Ende [DO – ass-dir]. 1957/58: Schicksal einer Oper [co-dir,co-scr,cam,cut]. 1959: Krebsforschung I + II [dir,scr,cam]. 1959/60: Baumwolle [dir,scr,cam]; Yucatan [dir,scr,cam]. 1960: Ärztekongreß [dir,scr,cam]; Moltopren I-IV [DO – dir,scr,cam, cut]. 1961: Post und Technik [dir,scr]; Kommunikation – Technik der Verständigung [dir,scr,cam,cut]. 1962: Einer wie Du und ich aus Europa. 1962/63: Geschwindigkeit. Kino eins [dir,scr,cam,cut]. 1964/65: VariaVision. Unendliche Fahrt – aber begrenzt [AG – dir,scr]. 1965: Binnenschiffahrt [dir,scr]. [dir – DE] 1965/66: Abschied von gestern [cam]. 1966: Mahlzeiten [dir,scr,voi,pro]; Die Kinder [SF – dir,scr,snd, pro]. 1966/67: Fußnoten [TV – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1967: Karin Rohn. Gymnastik für alte Leute [TVD – dir,scr,cam,cut, pro]. 1968: Feuerlöscher E. A. Winterstein [SF – cam]; Filmstunde [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Cardillac [dir,scr,pro]. 1968/69: Uxmal [dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1969/70: Geschichten vom Kübelkind [SF – 22 episodes – co-dir,co-scr,cam,pro]. 1971: Das goldene Ding [TV – co-dir,co-scr,cam,pro]; Kino zwei [TVD – dir,scr,cam,snd,pro]. 1973: Die Reise nach Wien [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1974: In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod [co-dir,co-scr,cam,mus,des,pro]; Biermann-Film [SD – co-dir,co-cam]. 1975: Wir gehen wohnen [SD – dir,pro]; Wir planen ein Picnic [SD – dir,pro]; 7 Jahre – 70 Jahre / Die Pralinen der Frau Mauser [SF – cam, pro]; Altstadt – Lebensstadt / Bethanien [SD – dir,cam, pro]. 1975/76: Der starke Ferdinand [pro]. 1976/77: Stunde Null [TV – dir,co-src,pro]. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst [co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1978: Der Schneider von Ulm [dir,scr,pro]. 1979: Susanne tanzt [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut, pro]. 1980-82: Geschichten aus den Hunsrückdörfern [TVD – dir,scr,cam,pro]. [app – DE – TVD] 1981-84: Heimat. Eine Chronik in elf Teilen [TV – dir,scr,pro – 11 episodes]; Beständiger Wechsel. Das Dorf, die Zeiten und der Heimatfilm. 1982: Ein Denkmal für den Hunsrück. Ein paar Tage mit Edgar Reitz. 1984: Das Sonntagsgespräch: Edgar Reitz. 1985:
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Filmgeschichte(n). Die Stunde der Filmemacher [DO – codir,pro]. 1985/86: Das Schweigen des Dichters [TV – pro]. 1987/88: Der Radfahrer von San Cristóbal [pro]. 198891: Abschied vom Drehbuch. 1988-92: Die zweite Heimat. Chronik einer Jugend in 13 Filmen [TV – dir,pro – 13 episodes]. 1989: Das Geheimnis vor der Kamera. 1991: ‘Ich schreibe mit meinen Kameras Romane’: Edgar Reitz. 1991/ 92: Liebe zum Kino. Edgar Reitz – ein Porträt. 1992: Bis zum Augenblick der Wahrheit [TVD – app,pro]; Ein Film kommt auf die Welt. 1993: Edgar Reitz – Return to Heimat [GB]; Wortwechsel: Edgar Reitz im Gespräch mit Gabriele von Arnim. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – dir,scr,pro]. 1996: Den Lebenslauf zum Kunstwerk machen. 1997: Heimat – Weggehen, um anzukommen. 1997/98: In Heaven [pro – AT/DE]. 1998: Entering Reality [SD – pro]; Verlorene Flügel [pro]. 2000: Der Atemkünstler [SF – pro]. 2002: Edgar Reitz. Liebe zum Kino; Vom Glauben an den neuen Film. 2002-04: Heimat 3 – Chronik einer Zeitenwende. [TV – 6 episodes – dir,scr,pro]; Einer für Schabbach. Wie ‘Heimat 3’ entstand; Schabbach ist überall [TVD – app,pro]; Drei für Schabbach. ‘Heimat 3’ und die Folgen [TVD – app,pro]. 2004: Prof. Edgar Reitz im Gespräch mit Walter Greifenstein; Over Heimat [NL]; Wortwechsel: Walter Janson im Gespräch mit Edgar Reitz; Gero von Boehm begegnet: Edgar Reitz; Von Sex bis Simmel; Heimat: The Story of a Nation [GB]. 2005: Künstler hautnah: Edgar Reitz. Der Kolossale. 2005/06: Heimat-Fragmente – Die Frauen [dir,scr,pro].
HANS RICHTER (Johannes Siegfried Richter) Born April 6, 1888, Berlin (Germany) Died February 1, 1976, Minusio, near Locarno (Switzerland) A painter, photographer and filmmaker, Richter was heavily influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism. A cosmopolitan artist who worked across Europe and in the USA, his most famous film is the collaboratively created DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY (1944–47). Richter was born into a well-to-do family, completing an apprenticeship in his father’s carpentry business, before studying art in Berlin and Weimar. He painted in an Expressionist style and exhibited his works in Munich in 1916 after being invalided out of the army during military service. With the Swedish painter Viking Eggeling, Richter settled on a family estate in the Lausitz region in 1919. Together they proclaimed a ‘universal artistic language’ and Richter embarked on costly film experiments. His first film depicted the Dutch painter and art theorist Theo von Doesburg lecturing in Paris, and was later incorporated in FILM IST RHYTHMUS (Film Is Rhythm, 1921–23). Separating from Eggeling, Richter’s new film was RHYTHMUS 23 (Rhythm 23, 1923–25) which was inspired by his own cylindrical painting and cut drastically after its
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premiere in Paris. Hand-colouring the abstract films was both time-consuming and expensive. Richter’s RHYTHMUS 25 (Rhythm 25, 1925) is missing and presumed lost, like other films he made. Maintaining his interest in Dada and the Surrealist movement, Richter made short narrative films in this style, shooting on location. One of the most delightful surviving examples is the simultaneously comic and disturbing VORMITTAGS-SPUK (Ghosts Before Breakfast, 1928), a surreal choreography of inanimate objects and human characters. Richter also made advertising shorts such as BAUEN UND WOHNEN (Building and Living, 1928). Appointed as a manager of the film section at the Stuttgart exhibition ‘Film and Photo’ in 1929, he published a book ‘Filmgegner von gestern – Filmfreunde von heute’ (Film enemies yesterday – Film Friends today), which provided a manifesto for the experimental film. Over the next decade, Richter made a film in England, EVERYDAY (1929), travelled to Russia, made advertising films in the Netherlands, worked as a production manager in Zurich and completed his second book ‘Der Kampf um den Film’ (The Fight for Cinema) in 1939. The book remained unpublished for forty years. Invited to New York by the Guggenheim Museum in 1941, he embarked on his most ambitious project that would eventually become DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY (1944–47). Drawing on brief narrative sketches provided by illustrious artists including Man Ray, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Fernand Léger, and accompanied by music composed by Darius Milhaud and John Cage among others, Richter designed a hallucinatory collage of images. The film added up to a compendium of modern art and won an award in Venice for its contribution to the development of cinematography. In addition to his film work, Richter taught at and became director of the City College, retiring in 1956. Among his later projects were the film DADASCOPE (1956–61), and the creation of huge cylindrical paintings, including one depicting the Watergate scandal (1974). [filmmaker – DE – AG] 1920: Präludium. 1921-23: Film ist Rhythmus. 1923-25: Rhythmus 23. 1925: Rhythmus 25. 1927/28: Filmstudie. 1928: Inflation; Die Dame mit der Maske [sfx]; Vormittags-Spuk; Bauen und Wohnen [SD – dir,scr]; Ariadne in Hoppegarten [FF – doc intro]; Rennsymphonie. 1928/29: Hände [SF – collaboration]. 1929: Alles dreht sich, alles bewegt sich!; Der Zweigroschen-Zauber; Tempête sur La Sarraz [AG – co-dir,act – CH]. 1929/75: Everyday [GB/CH]. 1930: Die neue Wohnung [SD – CH]. 1931: Europa Radio. 1932/33: Metall [dir,co-scr – SU/DE]. 1933: Halloh Everybody [SD – dir,scr – NL]. 1934: Daily Life [SF – dir,cut – FR]. 1935/36: Van bliksernschicht to televisie [SD – dir,scr,cut – NL]. 1937/38: Hans im Glück [SF – dir,scr,cut – CH]. 1938: Die Eroberung des Himmels [SD –
dir,scr,cut – CH]; Die Geburt der Farbe [SD – dir,scr,cut – CH]; Wir leben in einer neuen Zeit [SD – dir,scr,cut – CH]. 1938/39: Kleine Welt im Dunkel [SF – dir,scr,cut – CH]. 1939: Die Börse [SD – dir,scr,cut – CH]. [filmmaker – US – AG] 1942: War and Peace. 1944: The Movies Take a Holiday. 1944-47: Dreams That Money Can Buy [dir,scr,pro]. 1946/47: Ursonate. 1951: Thirty Years of Experiment [DO]. 1952-57: 8 x 8. A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements. 1956-58: Chesscetera. 1956-61: Dadascope [part 1 – SD]. 1961: 40 Years of Experiment [DO]. 1962: Alexander Calder: From the Circus to the Moon [SD]. 1968: Dadascope [part 2 – SD]; Rhythmus 21-68. Hans Richter filmt und malt [TVD – app – CH]. 1968/69: Deutschland DADA [DO – app]. 1969: Index – Hans Richter [DO – app]. 1971/72: Richter on Film [DO – app]. 1973: Hans Richter [TVD – app]; Ich lebe in der Gegenwart. Versuch über Hans Richter [TVD – app – CH]. 1975: Hans Richter [TVD – app]. 1976: Hans Richter im Gespräch [TVD – app – DE]. 1984: Hans Richter. Maler und Filmpionier [TVD – app – DE]. 1987: Hans Richter: Film Artist [DO – app]. 1990: Man kann keine Filme machen, ohne Ansichten zu haben [TV – app].
LENI RIEFENSTAHL (Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl) Born August 22, 1902, Berlin (Germany) Died September 8, 2003, Pöcking (Germany) One of the most controversial figures of German film history, Riefenstahl was among the most powerful female directors of the first half of the 20th century. Her non-fiction films made during the ‘Third Reich’ aided the Nazi party’s self-representation. While her own political involvement has remained the topic of debate, the propaganda value of her work remains effective and influential. After attending an art and crafts college and studying ballet, Riefenstahl was forced to abandon a career as a dancer due to a knee-injury. Impressed by the film DER BERG DES SCHICKSALS (The Mountain of Fate, 1923/24), Riefenstahl met director Arnold Fanck and took on the leading role in his next film, DER HEILGE BERG (The Holy Mountain, 1925/26). Learning mountain climbing as well as skiing, Riefenstahl starred in a series of Fanck’s Alpine melodramas in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Riefenstahl’s debut as director, editor, and producer followed in Fanck’s tradition with the mystical mountain drama DAS BLAUE LICHT (The Blue Light, 1931/32), for which she provided the original idea and played the leading role. The film benefited from the contributions of Fanck’s cinematographer Hans Schneeberger, providing atmospheric chiaroscuro compositions, and from a tight script co-written by the film theorist and poet Béla Balázs. After the Nazis came to power, Riefenstahl, an ardent admirer and personal friend of Hitler, was commissioned to film the party rallies in Nuremberg in 1933,
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1934 and 1935. Following the first attempt DER SIEG DES GLAUBENS (The Victory of Faith, 1933), the next film TRIUMPH DES WILLENS (Triumph of the Will, 1934/35) succeeded in presenting, through means of editing and cinematography, a formally accomplished account of well-drilled masses and an isolated, god-like Führer. Her expensive two-part OLYMPIA film (1936–38) – supported by an army of cameramen and some former avantgarde filmmakers such as Walther Ruttmann, Wilfried Basse and Willy Zielke – proved her skills in combining a feeling for rhythm with a more static classicist aesthetic to capture huge spectacles on film. It remains unclear how far Riefenstahl was personally committed to the regime’s ideology, or how far she was a political opportunist. In any case, her films have irrevocably created the ‘look’ of the ‘Third Reich’, and images and scenes from her films are endlessly reproduced to the present day. Moreover, their influence can be traced in modern advertising films, sports reportage, and pop videos. Riefenstahl was classed a ‘fellow traveller’ during the de-Nazification process after World War II. More than other colleagues who had worked for or had been Nazis, she was publicly denounced for her role in the ‘Third Reich’. Riefenstahl countered the attacks on her with lawsuits, attempting to play down her past with a mixture of half-truths, excuses and naïve attempts to justify her behaviour. Her film career had already stalled since the outbreak of war. The production of the Spanish-themed melodrama TIEFLAND (Lowland), a vanity project begun in 1940 and starring herself as a hot-blooded gypsy girl, encountered numerous obstacles. It was never completed during the war and was eventually released in 1953. Although relatively innocuous in terms of its narrative content, the film caused controversies after the war when it was alleged that Riefenstahl had ‘borrowed’ concentration camp inmates and used them as gypsy extras. Her film career effectively over, Riefenstahl diversified and became a renowned photographer, filming the Nuba tribe in Sudan, taking pictures of the Olympic Games in Munich 1972 under a pseudonym, and at already an advanced age, learning deep-sea scuba diving and specialising in underwater photography aided by the last in a long line of willing male companions. In 1992/93, the documentary filmmaker Ray Müller shot a three-hour long interview portrait of her, DIE MACHT DER BILDER (The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl), in which she continued to refuse any responsibility for her actions, claiming her work as art for art’s sake, and painting herself as a victim of circumstances. She had made a similar argument already years earlier in her voluminous autobiography published in Ger-
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man in 1987, and in an English translation as ‘The Sieve of Time’ in 1992 as well as in numerous interviews and documentaries on television. [act – DE] 1924/25: Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit [DO]. 1925/26: Der heilige Berg. 1927: Der große Sprung. 1928: Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg. 1929: Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü. 1930: Stürme über dem Montblanc. 1930/ 31: Der weiße Rausch. Neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs. 1931/32: Das blaue Licht [dir,ide,cut,act,pro]. 1932/33: SOS Eisberg [MLV – DE/US]; S.O.S. Iceberg [MLV – US/DE]. [pro – DE – SD] 1933: Der Sieg des Glaubens [DO – dir,cut]. 1934/35: Triumph des Willens [DO – dir,cut,pro]. 1935: Tag der Freiheit. Unsere Wehrmacht [dir,cut,pro]. 193638: Olympia. 1. Fest der Völker / 2. Fest der Schönheit [DO – dir,cut,pro]. 1938/39: Wildwasser; Der Wurf im Sport; Kraft und Schwung. Die Grundelemente des Turnens. 1939: Höchstes Glück der Erde auf dem Rücken der Pferde; Lustiger Streit im Schwimmstadion zwischen Franz, Orje und dem Frollein; Oster-Skitour in Tirol. 1939/ 40: Hochalm; Bergbauern. 1940: Laufen; Der Sprung; L’Art équestre éternel. 1940-53: Tiefland [FF – dir,scr,act, pro]. 1943: Schwimmen und Springen; Josef Thorak – Werkstatt und Werk. 1944: Arno Breker – Harte Zeit, starke Kunst. [app – DE – TVD] 1972: Erinnerung an einen Sommer in Berlin. 1976: Je später der Abend. 1977: Leni Riefenstahl: ‘Ich habe nicht darüber nachgedacht …’. 1980: Lebensläufe: Leni Riefenstahl im Gespräch mit Hermann Schreiber. 1992/93: Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl [DO – DE/GB/BE/FR]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1998: Zwischen weißem Rausch und Abgrund. 19982002: Vom Hirschkäfer zum Hakenkreuz [DO – app]. 1999: Berliner Begegnungen: Leni Riefenstahl im Gespräch mit Engelbert Sauter. 2000: Leni Riefenstahl: Ein Traum von Afrika [DO – app]. 2000/01: Hitlers Frauen. 3. Leni Riefenstahl – Die Regisseurin. 2002: Impressionen unter Wasser [DO – dir,cut,act,pro]; Why are your creative? Leni Riefenstahl, Regisseurin; Ich wollte nie so alt werden – Eine persönliche Begegnung mit Leni Riefenstahl; Die umstrittene Jahrhundertfrau – Begegnung mit Leni Riefenstahl; ‘Die Maßlosigkeit, die in mir ist…’. Sandra Maischberger im Gespräch mit Leni Riefenstahl; Hitler war ihr Schicksal – Leni Riefenstahl. 2006/07: Hitlers nützliche Idole. 3. Leni Riefenstahl – Die Regisseurin.
KATJA RIEMANN Born November 1, 1963, Kirchweyhe (West Germany) Katja Riemann’s screen persona, established in a series of comedies and romantic dramas in the 1990s, is the pretty, blond, and feisty girl next door. For a decade she was, at least domestically, one of postunification cinema’s biggest stars. Riemann studied acting in Hanover and Munich, attracting the attention of Munich Studio Theatre director Dieter Dorn. From 1987 to 1989 she performed in Munich stage productions, and between 1990 and
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1992 she acted in several stage classics at Berlin’s Schiller Theatre. A parallel television career commenced auspiciously with Riemann’s lead in director Peter Beauvais’s historical television drama SOMMER IN LESMONA (Summer in Lesmona, 1986) earning her the prestigious Adolf Grimme Prize. In KATJAS SCHWEIGEN (Katja’s Silence), an episode of the renowned crime series TATORT (Crime Scene), and in the historical series REGINA AUF DEN STUFEN (Regina on the Stairs, both 1989), Riemann mastered increasingly complex and tragic roles. Her emerging screen career, by contrast, flourished in romantic comedies. Riemann’s award-winning portrayal of the aptly named comic book artist Frenzy in Katja von Garnier’s surprise hit ABGESCHMINKT (Making Up, 1992) marked her cinema breakthrough and initiated a boom period for German film comedy. An archetypal example for the films of this period was Sönke Wortmann’s box-office hit, DER BEWEGTE MANN (The Most Desired Man, 1994), which paired Riemann with emerging male screen idol Til Schweiger. The film, a superficially risqué, but ultimately conformist tale of urban life and sexuality, made Riemann and Schweiger the quintessential dream couple of the 1990s. Riemann subsequently settled for the stereotype established by Wortmann’s film – an ostensibly independent woman who secretly yearns for a decent bloke and domestic bliss. The same persona re-surfaced in STADTGESPRÄCH (Talk of the Town, 1995), in which she played a radio DJ, and a string of unremarkable genre films that followed. More unusual were her turn in Garnier’s BANDITS (1996/97), an ironic jailbreak musical for which Riemann learned to play drums, and in her fourth outing with director Rainer Kaufmann DIE APOTHEKERIN (The Pharmacist, 1997), as an unlikely serial killer. From the late 1990s onwards, with the comedy boom levelling out and her stardom dimming, Riemann began to take on leading parts and supporting roles, as for example in Oskar Roehler’s AGNES UND SEINE BRÜDER (Agnes and His brothers, 2004). She also expanded into different genres, such as historical dramas set during the Nazi period, e.g. Joseph Vilsmaier’s COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (1997) and Margarete von Trotta’s ROSENSTRASSE (2003). The latter film earned Riemann’s performance as a German woman who helps hiding a Jewish girl during the ‘Third Reich’ a ‘Golden Lion’ award at the Venice Film Festival. Trotta and Riemann were reunited on the melodrama ICH BIN DIE ANDERE (I Am the Other, 2005/06), in which Riemann portrayed a schizophrenic femme fatale. [act – DE] 1986: Sommer in Lesmona [TV]. 1987/88: Der Fahnder: Familienbande [TV]; Faust. 1988: Böse Miene
oder Die Gunst des Vergessens [TV]; Tina & Leopold [TV]; Die Bertinis [TV]; Liebesgeschichten: Tina und Leopold [TV]. 1988/89: Dobrodruzství kriminalistiky / Täter unbekannt – Sternstunden der Kriminalistik: Antropologie / Das rätselhafte Skelett [TV – CS/DE]. 1989: Salz für das Leben [SF]; Tatort: Katjas Schweigen [TV]; Regina auf den Stufen [TV – 10 episodes]. 1990/91: Von Gewalt keine Rede [TV]; Der Fahnder: Zwischen den Stühlen [TV]. 1991: Die Distel. 1991/92: Andere Umstände [TV]. 1991/92: Der Millionär [TVS]. 1992: Ein Mann für jede Tonart; Abgeschminkt. 1993: Durchreise [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Blue Dream – Tod im Regen [TV]. 1993/94: Das gläserne Haus [TV]; Himmel und Hölle [TV]. 1994: Höchstpersönlich: Katja Riemann [TVD – app]; Der bewegte Mann; Nur über meine Leiche. 1994/95: Küss mich! 1995: Deutschlandlied [TV]; Stadtgespräch; Angst hat eine kalte Hand [TV]; Blutbad [SF]. 1995/96: Nur aus Liebe. 1996: Hart to Hart: Till Death Do Us Hart [TV – US]. 1996/97: Bandits [mus,act]. 1997: Die Apothekerin; Comedian Harmonists. 1998: Macht [TV]; Verführt – Eine gefährliche Affäre [TV]; Männer sind wie Schokolade [TV]. 1998/99: Long Hello and Short Goodbye; Balzac [TV – FR]. 1999: Else – Geschichte einer leidenschaftlichen Frau [TV]. 1999/2000: Desire / Begierde [CA/ DE]. 2000: Tatort: Die kleine Zeugin [TV]; Girl. 2000/01: Goebbels und Geduldig [TV]. 2001: Drei Engel für Dr. No [SF]; Lachen tut gut – Comedy für UNICEF [TV]; Nobel [IT]. 2001/02: Bibi Blocksberg. 2002: Nachtmusik [SF]. 2002/ 03: Der Job seines Lebens [TV]. 2003: hamlet X; Rosenstraße [DE/NL]. 2003/04: Bergkristall. 2004: Agnes und seine Brüder; Bibi Blocksberg und das Geheimnis der blauen Eulen; Der Job seines Lebens 2 [TV]. 2004/05: Küss mich, Hexe!; Die Diebin und der General [TV]. 2005/06: Ich bin die Andere; Das wahre Leben [DE/CH]; Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler. 2006: Durch die Nacht mit … Sibylle Berg und Katja Riemann [TVD – app]; Blood and Chocolate [US]. 2006/07: Shanghai Baby; Ein fliehendes Pferd. 2007: Up! Up! To the Sky. 2008/09: Der Vulkan [TV].
WALTER RILLA (Walter Wilhelm Karl Ernst Rilla) Born August 22, 1894, Neunkirchen (Germany) Died November 21, 1980, Rosenheim (Germany) An elegant and intelligent actor, Rilla matured from a good-looking, brooding young man in Weimar cinema via villains in British films of the 1940s and 1950s to elderly gentlemen in West German and international productions. After studying literature, philosophy, and art history in Königsberg, Breslau, Lausanne and Berlin, Rilla founded the art journal ‘Erde’ (Earth) in 1919, attracting contributors such as writers Bertolt Brecht and Heinrich Mann. In the early 1920s he worked as assistant director for various theatres, before becoming an actor. After his film debut in 1922, he appeared in F. W. Murnau’s only comedy, DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (The Archduke’s Finances), and as a snob-
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by aristocrat in Reinhold Schünzel’s ALLES FÜR GELD (All for Money, both 1923). Rilla specialised in the portrayal of sophisticated intellectuals, including students (DAS GEFÄHRLICHE ALTER, That Dangerous Age, 1927), and artists, as in Paul Czinner’s DER GEIGER VON FLORENZ (The Violinist of Florence, 1925/26). Often he played the young lovers of older women, as in KOMM ZU MIR ZUM RENDEZVOUS (Rendezvous, 1930), and, opposite Henny Porten, in 24 STUNDEN AUS DEM LEBEN EINER FRAU (24 Hours in a Woman’s Life, 1931). In the mid-1930s, Rilla, whose wife was Jewish, emigrated to Britain, where he was given substantial supporting roles in costume films such as THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934), ABDUL THE DAMNED (1934/ 35), and, as Queen Victoria’s brother-in-law Prince Ernst, in the patriotic hagiography VICTORIA THE GREAT (1937), and its sequel SIXTY GLORIOUS YEARS (1938). After the outbreak of World War II, Rilla became frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner in variety of British films, segueing with advancing age into roles as white-haired, elderly statesmen or scientists. Rilla returned to West Germany in the late 1950s, appearing frequently in domestic and European co-productions, particularly in crime film series such as the Edgar Wallace and Dr Mabuse franchises, but also in films by younger directors, such as Rudolf Thome’s DETEKTIVE (Detectives, 1968). Apart from his film work, Rilla had a prolific career as an actor and director for television and radio, which often offered him greater creative challenges than his increasingly formulaic screen roles. [act – DE] 1922: Hanneles Himmelfahrt; Die Stumme von Portici; Das größte Zugstück der Welt; Wer wirft den ersten Stein; Jeremias. Der Kampf um Jerusalem; Das schöne Mädel. 1922/23: Die Magyarenfürstin. 1923: Alles für Geld; Im Namen des Königs; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs; Der Sprung ins Leben. 1924: Der Mönch von Santarem; Die Puppe vom Lunapark. 1924/25: Die Prinzessin und der Geiger / The Blackguard [DE/GB]. 1925: Liebesfeuer; Die da unten. 1925/26: Einspänner Nr. 13 / Fiaker Nr. 13 [AT/DE]; Der Geiger von Florenz; Dürfen wir schweigen?; Wie einst im Mai. 1926: Der Rebell von Valencia; Die Welt will belogen sein; Hoheit tanzt Walzer; Die geschiedene Frau; Wie bleibe ich jung und schön?; Die Königin des Weltbades; Die Sporck’schen Jäger. 1926/27: Kinderseelen klagen euch an. 1927: Die Bräutigame der Babette Bomberling; Arme kleine Colombine; Die weiße Spinne; Orientexpreß; Das gefährliche Alter; Die geheime Macht; Doña Juana. 1927/28: Seine Mutter; Die Sache mit Schorrsiegel. 1928: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen; Prinzessin Olala; Eva in Seide; Die große Liebe; Der Mann mit dem Laubfrosch. 1928/29: Der Monte Christo von Prag / Praký Monte Christo [AT/CS]. 1929: Vererbte Triebe; Høichy lásky [CS/DE]; Die fidele Herrenpartie; Polizeispionin 77; § 173
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StGB. Blutschande; Ehe in Not; Phantome des Glücks [lyr]. 1930: Karriere. Tango der Liebe; Es kommt alle Tage vor …; Die große Sehnsucht; Komm’ zu mir zum Rendezvous [MLV]; Namensheirat. Diskretion – Ehrensache; Zweierlei Moral. 1930/31: Schachmatt [ass-dir,act]; Schatten der Manege; Leichtsinnige Jugend [MLV – FR/US]. 1931: Die Männer um Lucie [MLV – FR/US]; 24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau. 1931/32: P. S. [DO]. 1932: Der kleine Pit [SF]. 1932/33: Hände aus dem Dunkel. 1933: Ein gewisser Herr Gran [MLV]; Un certain M. Grant [MLV]; Abenteuer am Lido [AT/CS]; Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. [act – GB] 1934: Der Springer von Pontresina [DE/CH]; The Scarlet Pimpernel. 1934/35: Abdul the Damned. 1935: Lady Windermeres Fächer [DE]. 1935/36: Liebeserwachen [DE]. 1936: Ein Lied klagt an [DE]. 1937: Victoria the Great; Mollenard [FR]. 1938: Sixty Glorious Years. 1939: The Gang’s All Here; Black Eyes; Hell’s Cargo [MLV]; At the Villa Rose. 1941: False Rapture [US]. 1943: Candlelight in Algeria. 1944: Mr. Emmanuel. 1945/46: Lisbon Story. 1949/50: Golden Salamander. 1950: State Secret; My Daughter Joy; Shadow of the Eagle [GB/IT]; I’ll Get You for This. 1952: Venetian Bird. 1952/53: Desperate Moment. 1953: Star of India / La stella dell’India [GB/IT]. 1954: The Green Buddha. 1955: Track the Man Down; The Gamma People. [act – DE] 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Scampolo. 1957/58: Examen des Lebens [TV]. 1958: … und nichts als die Wahrheit; Der Kreis [TV]; Das Lächeln der Gioconda [TV]. 1958/59: Serenade einer großen Liebe / For the First Time / Come prima [DE/US/IT]. 1959: Die Wahrheit über Rosemarie; Der Kirschgarten [TV]; Entscheidung [TV]; Das Genie und die Göttin [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1959/60: Der liebe Augustin. 1960: Song Without End [US]. 1960/61: The Secret Ways [US]. 1961: Das Rendezvous von Senlis [TV – dir,scr]; Siegfrieds Tod [TV – dir]; Der Fälscher von London; Riviera-Story; Unser Haus in Kamerun; In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa [TV]. 1961/62: Kümmert euch nicht um Sokrates [TV]. 1962: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm [US]; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse; Das lange Weihnachtsmahl [TV – dir]; Cairo [GB]; Überfahrt [TV – dir,act]. 1963: Plüsch – Plissees – Pleureusen [TV]; Sanders of the River [GB]; Dumala [TV – dir]; Joanna Marlowe [TV]; Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse; Die zwölf Geschworenen [TV]; Death Drums Along the River [GB]; Der Mann nebenan [TV – dir]. 1963/64: Zimmer 13 / L’attaque du fourgon postal [DE/FR]; Kennwort: Reiher. 1964: Code 7, Victim 5 [GB]; Table Bay [GB]; Nachtzug D 106 [TV]; Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse / Les rayons de la mort du Docteur Mabuse / I raggi mortali del Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]; Die reinsten Engel [TV – dir]; Das 7. Opfer; Ein Abschiedsgeschenk [TV – dir,act]. 1964/65: The Face of Fu Manchu [GB]. 1964/67: Der Fall X 701. 1965: 24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau [TV]; Die großen Spione: Der Fall Klaus Fuchs [TV]; Platons Gastmahl [TV – dir,voi]; Abends Kammermusik [TV]; Vier Schlüssel. 1966: Die venezianische Tür [TV – dir,act]; Die Rechnung – eiskalt serviert / Un cercueil de diamants [DE/FR]; Grieche sucht Griechin; Martin Soldat [FR]; Helm [TV]. 1967: Der Heldenmantel [TV – dir]; Asche
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und Glut [TV]; Der Tod des Sokrates [TV – dir]; I giorni dell’ira / Der Tod ritt dienstags [IT/DE]. 1967/68: Reisegesellschaft [TV]. 1968: Madame Legros [TV]; Der zehnte Mann [TV]; Detektive. 1969: Die sieben Männer der Sumuru [DE/ES/US]; Der Kommissar: Keiner hörte den Schuß [TV]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 3. Teil: Pepe, der Paukerschreck; Das Vermächtnis [TV – dir]. 1970: Millionen nach Maß [TV]. 1970/71: Der Teufel kam aus Akasawa / El diabolo venia a Akasawa [DE/ES]. 1971: Auf neutralem Boden [TV]. 1971/72: Malpertuis: Histoire d’une maison maudite / Malpertuis – Geisterschloß des Todes [FR/BE/DE]. 1975: König Heinrich IV [TV]; Eurogang: Ein Wagen voll Madonnen [TV]; Der aufsehenerregende Fall des Studienrats Adam Juracek [TV]. 1976: Waffen für Amerika [TV]; Die Tannerhütte; Unordnung und frühes Leid. 1977: Heinrich Heine [TV]. 1978: Großstadt-Miniaturen [TV].
GÜNTHER RITTAU Born August 6, 1893, Königshütte (Germany, now Chorzów, Poland) Died August 7, 1971, Munich (Germany) As a cinematographer of choice in the 1920s, Rittau worked with, and influenced a regular team of cameramen and set designers. He specialised in trick photography, while his later ventures into directing did not live up to expectations. Studying at the Technical University in Berlin, Rittau showed a range of interests, before specialising in photo-chemistry. He worked in this field before producer Erich Pommer contracted him to his companies Decla and later at Ufa to develop film technology. Here he learned his skills as a cinematographer. First noted for his work with Carl Hoffmann on Fritz Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungen, 1922– 24), Rittau used relatively simple trick techniques such as dissolves and double exposure to outstanding stylistic effect. On Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/ 26) working with director of photography Karl Freund, Rittau perfected back projection filming, and together with Eugen Schüfftan and the set designers Erich Kettelhut and Otto Hunte, they found innovative ways of combining miniatures with actual size sets. For HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1928) and ASPHALT (1928/29) Rittau and Kettelhut developed hydraulic cranes to enable the camera to move and shoot smoothly from various heights and angles. With the introduction of sound, Rittau overcame technical shortcomings and teething problems, as his work on DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30) and STÜRME DER LEIDENSCHAFT (Storms of Passion, 1931) attest to. Rittau was particularly in demand for films that required extensive trick-film experience, but his visual style could be effectively applied to a wide variety of genres due to the fact that it encompassed a wide spectrum of dynamics, psychology and
atmospheric awareness as well as technical gimmickry. After the Nazis came to power, Rittau continued to work in Germany, and while he remained in demand as a top cameraman, he harboured ambitions to direct films. His debut BRAND IM OZEAN (Fire in the Ocean, 1939), with its story of friendship, greed and betrayal against a background of sinking ships and explosions, gave ample opportunity to display the range of Rittau’s skills, prioritising visual communication over dialogue. Symbolism pervades his works. Rittau’s greatest achievement as director was the propaganda U-boat film U-BOOTE WESTWÄRTS! (Submarines Go West, 1941), whose technically brilliant photography of a diving submarine was plundered for U-boat films all through the 1950s. After World War II Rittau’s film projects became more mediocre, and mostly comprised formulaic Heimatfilme with no distinctive visual requirements. Only the anti-war film KINDER, MÜTTER UND EIN GENERAL (Children, Mothers and A General, 1954/ 55), where he was reunited with his former producer Erich Pommer, recalled his earlier films of note. By the 1960s his eyesight was beginning to fail, but another reason for his gradual retirement was that he felt no artistic affinity with the emerging directors of the New German Cinema, whom he regarded as lacking in professional competence. Rittau saw his legacy instead protected by the generation of cinematographers that he had trained, such as Ernst W. Kalinke, Otto Baecker, and Konstantin Irmen-Tschet. [co-cam – DE] 1921: Der Eisenbahnkönig. 1. Mensch und Mammon / 2. Lauernder Tod. 1922: Der steinerne Reiter. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1924: Der Turm des Schweigens [cam]. 1924/25: Die gefundene Braut [cam]. 1925/26: Metropolis. 1927: Der Kampf des Donald Westhof; Fürst oder Clown [cam]. 1928: Heimkehr; Was ist los mit Nanette? 1928/29: Asphalt. Der Polizeiwachtmeister und die Brillantenelse [cam]. 1929: Melodie des Herzens [MLV]. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragödie des Untermieters [SF]; Liebling der Götter; Einbrecher [MLV]; Flagrant délit [MLV]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Princesse! À vos ordres! [MLV]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Le capitaine Craddock [MLV]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV]; Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]; Tumultes [MLV]. 1931/32: Der Sieger [MLV]; Le vainqueur [MLV – DE/FR]. 1932: Quick [MLV]; Un rêve blond [MLV]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Happy Ever After [MLV]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV]; F.P. 1 [MLV]. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen; Wie werde ich energisch? [SF]; Die verlorene Melodie [SF]; Abel mit der Mundharmonika [cam]. 1933/34: Gold [MLV]. 1934: L’Or [MLV]; Fürst Woronzeff [MLV]; Le secret des Woronzeff [MLV]. 1934/35: Zigeunerbaron [MLV]; Le baron tzigane [MLV]. 1935: Der grüne Domino
KARL RITTER [MLV]; Le domino vert [MLV]; Liebeslied. 1936: Waldwinter; Ritt in die Freiheit. 1937: Gueule d’amour [cam]; Starke Herzen. 1937/38: Verklungene Melodie [cam]. 1938: S.O.S. Sahara [cam]; Nordlicht [cam]. 1938/39: L’Entraîneuse [cam]. [dir – DE] 1939: Der Vorhang fällt [cam]; Brand im Ozean; L’Héritier des Mondésir [cam]. 1940/41: U-Boote westwärts! 1941: Der Strom. 1943: Der ewige Klang [dir,coscr]; Meine vier Jungens. 1944: Die Jahre vergehen … Der Senator. 1944/45: Eine alltägliche Geschichte. 1945: Der Scheiterhaufen. 1948: Vor uns liegt das Leben [dir,co-scr]. 1952: Laßt uns auch leben [SD]. [cam – DE] 1954: Das Kreuz am Jägersteig. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: Der Fischer vom Heiligensee; Das Forsthaus in Tirol; Das Erbe vom Pruggerhof [DE/AT]. 1956: Die fröhliche Wallfahrt; Wenn wir alle Engel wären. 1956/57: Schütze Lieschen Müller. 1957: Die fidelen Detektive. Zwischen München und St. Pauli. 1960: Studieren und probieren [SD].
KARL RITTER Born November 7, 1888, Würzburg (Germany) Died April 7, 1977, Buenos Aires (Argentina) Ritter was among the ideologically most committed directors and producers of ‘Third Reich’ cinema. An active member of the Nazi party since the mid-1920s, many of his films explicitly promoted military values and virtues, generically packaged as war and adventure films. The son of an opera-singer and a music professor, Ritter embarked on a military career before studying architecture in Munich. Turning to graphic art and painting, he became involved in the film industry through his employment as a public relations agent for Südfilm in 1926, editing a book of Walt Disney cartoons. He subsequently worked as a production manager and screenwriter, also directing a short film with comedian Karl Valentin in 1932. Owing to his early membership in the Nazi party, Ritter’s film career progressed quickly following his signing a contract with Ufa in 1933. His first film as producer was HITLERJUNGE QUEX (Hitler Youth Quex, 1933), directed by Hans Steinhoff, and one of the few films of the period to openly glorify the Nazi party. Following an order by Propaganda Minister Goebbels to involve actors and directors in studio management in order to improve the quality of German films, Ritter was put on Ufa’s Board of Directors. Ritter’s first film as director was the bucolic farce WEIBERREGIMENT (The Women’s Regiment, 1936). Although he continued to make the occasional light entertainment fare, for example the musical comedy CAPRICCIO (1938) with Lilian Harvey, a substantial number of his films were more determinedly propagandist. This was particularly the case with a series of military films that glorified unquestioning selfsacrifice and other soldierly ‘virtues’, as in PATRIO-
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TEN (Patriots, 1937), and STUKAS (Dive-Bombers,
1940/41). Many of Ritter’s films were designed to stir up hatred for the state’s enemies – POUR LE MERITE (1938) was anti-democratic and anti-French; KADETTEN (Cadets, 1939/41) was racist and anti-Russian; GPU (The Red Terror, 1941/42) was anti-Soviet; while BESATZUNG DORA (Crew Dora, 1942/43) promoted anti-British sentiments. However, as Germany’s war situation developed, propaganda priorities often changed overnight, causing censorship problems for the unambiguous messages of Ritter’s films. Appointed a professor on the occasion of Hitler’s 50th birthday, Ritter was drafted into the air force at the end of the war. Although taken prisoner by the Soviet army, he managed to escape to Bavaria. Graded as a ‘fellow traveller’ of the Nazi regime, Ritter was banned from making films in the French-occupied zone of Germany. In 1949 he emigrated to Argentina where Winifred Wagner helped him establish a film production company. Together with other Germans based in Argentina, and involving his sons, he made EL PARAÍSO (1951), but the film proved a flop. In 1953 Ritter returned to West Germany, directing the melodrama STAATSANWÄLTIN CORDA (Public Prosecutor Corda, 1953/54), about a female prosecutor who falls in love with a defendant. BALL DER NATIONEN (Ball of Nations, 1954), starring Gustav Fröhlich and Zsa Zsa Gabor, was a further attempt at a musical comedy. Neither film left a mark with audiences, while his plans in 1955 for a remake of Wedekind’s ‘Pandora’s Box’ did not materialise. Despite his proclaimed intention ‘to restore the strength of the German cinema’, Ritter failed to assert himself in the West German film industry and he retired to Argentina. During the 1930s Ritter’s sons Heinz, Hans, and Gottfried also entered the film industry as cameraman, still photographer, editor and other activities, often cooperating with their father. [dir – DE] 1928: Das Spreewaldmädel. Wenn die Garde marschiert [co-scr]. 1929: Kehre zurück! Alles vergeben! Die übermütigen Abenteuer einer jungen Durchgängerin [co-scr]; Fräulein Lausbub. Die Geschichte eines weiblichen Tunichtguts [co-scr]. 1931: Der Zinker [pro – DE/ AT]. 1932: Melodie der Liebe [pro]; Die verkaufte Braut [pro]; Im Photoatelier [SF]; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen? [pro]. 1933: Liebe muß verstanden sein [pro]; Hitlerjunge Quex [pro]; Rivalen der Luft [pro]. 1934: Freut euch des Lebens [pro]; Die Insel [MLV – pro]; Vers l’abîme [MLV – pro]; Lockvogel [MLV – pro]; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV – pro]; Le diable en bouteille [MLV – pro]; Le miroir aux alouettes [MLV – pro]. 1934/35: Die törichte Jungfrau [pro]. 1935: Ehestreik [pro]; Königswalzer [MLV – pro]; Valse royale [MLV – pro]. 1935/36: Die letzten Vier von Santa Cruz [pro]. 1936: Weiberregiment [dir,pro]; Verräter
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[dir,pro]. 1937: Patrioten [dir,ide,pro]; Unternehmen Michael [dir,scr,pro]; Urlaub auf Ehrenwort [dir,pro]. 1938: Capriccio [dir,pro]; Pour le Mérite [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1938/ 39: Die Hochzeitsreise [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1939: Im Kampf gegen den Weltfeind. Deutsche Freiwillige in Spanien [DO]; Legion Condor [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1939/40: Bal paré. Münchner G’schichten [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1939/41: Kadetten [dir,scr,pro]. 1940/41: Über alles in der Welt [dir,coscr,pro]; Stukas [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1941/42: GPU [dir,co-scr, pro]. 1942/43: Besatzung Dora [dir,scr,ide,pro]. 1943: Liebesbriefe [pro]. 1943/44: Sommernächte [dir,pro]. 1944: Erzieherin gesucht [pro]. 1944/45: Kamerad Hedwig [pro]; Das Leben geht weiter [co-scr,pro]. 1951: El paraíso [dir,scr,pro – AR]. 1953/54: Staatsanwältin Corda [dir,scr]. 1954: Ball der Nationen [dir,co-scr].
ARTHUR ROBISON (aka Artur Robison) Born June 25, 1888, Chicago (Illinois, USA) Died October 20, 1935, Berlin (Germany) The director of one of Weimar cinema’s enduring classics, SCHATTEN (Warning Shadows, 1923), Robison made his name as a consummate professional in a range of genres. Born into a family of German-Americans, Robison grew up in the United States and from 1895 in Germany. He studied medicine and subsequently worked as a general practitioner before returning to the United States in 1911, where he appeared as an actor on stage in German-language theatres. Back in Germany after his father’s death in 1914, Robison entered the film industry, writing scripts for adventure serials. Working for Lu Synd-Film his directorial debut was DES NÄCHSTEN WEIB (Your Neighbour’s Wife), starring Synd and Friedrich Kühne, followed by NÄCHTE DES GRAUENS (Nights of Terror, both 1916) with Synd, Werner Krauss and Emil Jannings. Over the following years he worked in Switzerland and, once again, in the United States. ZWISCHEN ABEND UND MORGEN (Between Evening and Morning, 1923) marked his first collaboration with cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner, who also contributed much to the foreboding and claustrophobic atmosphere of SCHATTEN, Robison’s next and most famous production. The film, which starred Fritz Kortner as an intensely jealous husband, whose inner violent fantasies are given expression in a shadowplay performance, won wide acclaim, and remains a classic of Weimar cinema’s ‘haunted screen’. Subsequently contracted by Erich Pommer to Ufa, Robison’s assignments included the lavish costume dramas PIETRO, DER KORSAR (Peter the Pirate, 1924/25) and MANON LESCAUT (1925/26), confirming Robison’s talent for ambitious entertainment productions. The Parufamet production DER LETZTE WALZER (The Last Waltz, 1927) was among only a
handful of German films during these years with a successful release in the United States. Following the circus melodrama LOOPING THE LOOP (1927/28), which had been partially shot in London, he made THE INFORMER (1929) for British International Pictures, an atmospheric adaptation of Liam O’Flaherty’s novel, elevated by Werner Brandes’s chiaroscuro camerawork and Lya de Putti’s naturalistic performance as the fiancée of an IRA informer. In the early 1930s, Robison directed a number of German language versions of M-G-M productions in Hollywood, before returning to Germany in 1933, again working for Ufa. His final film was a remake of DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1935), with Adolf Wohlbrück in the title role. [dir – DE] 1916: Die Frau mit den zwei Seelen [scr]; Des Nächsten Weib [dir,scr]; Nächte des Grauens [dir,scr]. 1921/22: Die Finsternis und ihr Eigentum [scr]. 1923: Zwischen Abend und Morgen. Der Spuk einer Nacht [dir,scr]; Schatten. Eine nächtliche Halluzination [dir,co-scr]. 1924/25: Pietro, der Korsar [dir,scr]. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut [dir,co-scr]. 1927: Der letzte Walzer [dir,co-scr]. 1927/28: Looping the Loop. Die Todesschleife [dir,coscr]. 1929: The Informer [MLV – GB]. 1930: Mordprozeß Mary Dugan [MLV – US]; Jenny Lind [MLV – US]. 1931: Soyons gais [MLV – co-dir – US]; Quand on est belle [MLV – US]; Le père célibataire [MLV – co-dir – US]. 1933: Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe [MLV]; Tambour battant [MLV – co-dir]. 1934: Fürst Woronzeff [MLV – dir,coscr]; Le secret des Woronzeff [MLV – co-dir,co-scr]. 1935: Les époux célibataires [MLV – co-dir,co-scr]; Mach’ mich glücklich [MLV – dir,co-scr]; Der Student von Prag [dir, co-scr].
OSKAR ROEHLER Born January 21, 1959, Starnberg (West Germany) One of the most interesting new auteurs to emerge since the 1990s, Oskar Roehler’s meticulous psychological studies and social satires, often concerned with obsessive relationships, excessive characters, and damaged family ties, have combined an attention to visual stylization with acerbic dialogues, mostly written by himself. The son of the writers Gisela Elsner and Klaus Roehler, he grew up in West Berlin with his father, while his mother, a committed communist, emigrated to East Germany. In the 1980s Oskar Roehler worked as a freelance journalist and published a volume of short stories in 1984. By the mid-1990s, and following his mother’s suicide in 1992, he started writing screenplays, including for Niklaus Schilling’s DEUTSCHFIEBER (German Fever, 1991/92) and several of Christoph Schlingensief’s iconoclastic films, including DIE 120 TAGE VON BOTTROP (The 120 Days of Bottrop, 1997).
MARIKA RÖKK
Roehler’s directorial debut, GENTLEMAN (1995), was a homage to Bret Easton Ellis’s novel about a serial killer, ‘American Psycho’, while his second film, SILVESTER COUNTDOWN (1997) depicted the sexual obsessions of a young urban couple. GIERIG (Greedy, 1998/99) was set among characters connected to Berlin’s club scene. Roehler’s major breakthrough was DIE UNBERÜHRBARE (No Place to Go, 1999), a stark and claustrophobic black-and-white drama about a writer on the verge of suicide, given particular intensity by Hannelore Elsner’s bravura performance in the leading role, which was clearly modeled on Roehler’s own mother. The film won numerous awards, both in Germany and internationally. Roehler’s follow-up, SUCK MY DICK (2000/01) was a modern interpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. DER ALTE AFFE ANGST (Angst, 2002/03) concerned the fragile relationship between a film director and a doctor, and the former’s relationship with his father who is dying from cancer. As with DIE UNBERÜHRBARE the film, especially in its father-and-son narrative, invited parallels to Roehler’s biography – his own father, bearing the same name as the character in the film, had died of cancer in 2000. AGNES UND SEINE BRÜDER (Agnes and His Brothers, 2004) was a sarcastic comedy concerning the protracted relationship between three brothers one of whom has a sex change, while ELEMENTARTEILCHEN (Atomised, 2005/06) was an adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s bestselling novel and a biting critique of the legacy of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Reminiscent of David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART (1990) and Fassbinder’s ‘BRD-trilogy’, LULU & JIMI (2007/08) liberally quoted musical and melodrama conventions in its interracial love story set in 1950s West Germany. [dir,scr – DE] 1991/92: Deutschfieber [co-scr]. 1992: Terror 2000 – Intensivstation Deutschland [co-scr,act]. 1994/ 95: Ex [co-scr]. 1995: Gentleman [dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1996: United Trash [co-scr]. 1997: Silvester Countdown [dir,scr, pro]; Die 120 Tage von Bottrop [co-scr]. 1998/99: Latin Lover – Wilde Leidenschaft auf Mallorca [TV – dir,co-scr]; Gierig [dir,co-scr]. 1999: Die Unberührbare. 2000/01: Suck My Dick. 2001/02: Fahr zur Hölle, Schwester! [TV – dir]. 2002: Der alte Affe Angst [dir,co-scr]. 2004: Agnes und seine Brüder. 2005/06: Elementarteilchen. 2006/07: Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Christoph Schlingensief – Die Piloten [DO – app]; Lulu & Jimi.
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MARIKA RÖKK (Marie Karoline Rökk) Born November 3, 1913, Cairo (Egypt) Died May 16, 2004, Baden, near Vienna (Austria) A vivacious Hungarian musical star during the Nazi era through to the 1950s, Rökk compensated her limited acting abilities with boundless energy and athleticism, while her films provided other attractions, as lavish settings, costumes, and colour photography. Following an early childhood in Budapest, where she began taking dancing lessons, her family moved to Paris in 1924. Joining the dance ensemble ‘The Hoffmann Girls’ when she was eleven, Rökk’s first public performance was at the Moulin Rouge. Rökk spent the 1920s touring New York, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Cannes, London and Paris. In Budapest and Vienna she made headlines in operettas and musical comedies. Rökk’s first film experience was as a dancer, appearing in two British comedies under the direction of Monty Banks, KISS ME SERGEANT and WHY SAILORS LEAVE HOME (both 1930). She subsequently starred in two Hungarian films in 1931 and 1933, before being contracted by Ufa in 1935. Her first German release was Werner Hochbaum’s circus comedy LEICHTE KAVALLERIE (Light Cavalry, 1935), followed by her first collaboration with director Georg Jacoby on HEISSES BLUT (Hot Blood, 1935/36). Jacoby became Rökk’s favourite director as well as her first husband, and they formed a creative partnership until the end of the 1950s. Their films usually recycled the same basic formula that had already been perfected in the ‘backstage musical’ in Hollywood: Rökk was cast as an independently minded musical star who encounters various professional complications, romantic entanglements, and misunderstandings, leading up to the spectacular revue finale, with Mister Right waiting in the wings. In her musical numbers, Rökk interspersed her always competent, but rarely exceptional, singing and dancing abilities with sometimes breathtaking acrobatic stunts. Rökk’s most congenial partner was the Dutch Johannes Heesters, especially in Jacoby’s DER BETTELSTUDENT (The Beggar Student, 1936), GASPARONE (1937), and HALLO JANINE (Hello Janine!, 1939). She took on a dual role playing two different sisters in KORA TERRY (1940), and played opposite Willy Fritsch in the first German colour feature film FRAUEN SIND DOCH BESSERE DIPLOMATEN (Women Are Better Diplomats, 1939–41). Only occasionally was Rökk seen in other genres or more serious roles, as for example in the Tschaikovsky biopic ES WAR EINE RAUSCHENDE BALLNACHT (One Enchanted Evening, 1939). Initially banned from performing in Germany and Austria after World War II, Rökk resumed her film career in Vienna in 1948. With Jacoby as director and of-
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ten reunited with Heesters as co-star, she made films in West Germany from 1951, reviving her screen persona with DIE CSARDASFÜRSTIN (The Czardas Princess, 1951) and BÜHNE FREI FÜR MARIKA! (Stage Free for Marika, 1958). Although her film career had largely ebbed out by the end of the 1950s, and was definitely over by the early 1960s, she continued to maintain a stage presence in numerous operettas and musicals up to 1987. Particular successes included the title role in Jerry Hermann musical ‘Hello Dolly’. Never abandoning her thick Hungarian accent, which was a trademark of hers, Rökk advertised cosmetics in television commercials, and appeared on various TV shows. Parodying her cheerful star image, her last film appearance was in Peter Schamoni’s comedy SCHLOSS KÖNIGSWALD (Königswald Castle, 1987), which united her with a cast of other ageing German film divas, including Marianne Hoppe, Camilla Horn, and Carola Höhn. Rökk’s memoirs, ‘Herz mit Paprika’ (Heart With Paprika), were published in 1974 and reissued in 1993. [act – DE] 1930: Kiss Me, Sergeant [GB]; Why Sailors Leave Home [GB]. 1931: Csókolj meg, édes! [HU]. 1933: Kísértetek vonata [MLV – HU]. 1935: Leichte Kavallerie [MLV]. 1935/36: Heißes Blut [MLV]. 1936: Der Bettelstudent; Und Du, mein Schatz, fährst mit. 1937: Karussell; Gasparone. 1938: Eine Nacht im Mai. 1939: Hallo Janine; Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht. 1939-41: Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten. 1940: Kora Terry; Wunschkonzert [app]. 1941: Tanz mit dem Kaiser [MLV]. 1942: Hab’ mich lieb! 1943/44: Die Frau meiner Träume. 1948: Fregola [AT]. 1950: Kind der Donau [AT]. 1951: Sensation in San Remo; Die Csardasfürstin. 1952/53: Maske in Blau. 1953: Die geschiedene Frau. 1957: Nachts im Grünen Kakadu. 1958: Bühne frei für Marika! 1959: Die Nacht vor der Premiere. 1960: Mein Mann, das Wirtschaftswunder. 1961: Heute gehn wir bummeln. 1961/62: Die Fledermaus [AT]. 1962: Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies [AT]. [act – DE – TV] 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Marika Rökk [TVD – app]. 1969: Der keusche Lebemann. 1970: Eine Frau in unseren Träumen [app]; So schön wie heut’. 1973: Die Schöngrubers [TVS]; Der letzte Walzer. 1975: Schön war die Zeit. 1979/80: Die Gräfin vom Naschmarkt [AT]. 1980/81: Frauengeschichten: Marika Rökk. Die Frau meiner Träume [TVD]. 1987: Schloß Königswald [FF]. 1988: Ein Abend für Marika Rökk. 1993: Marika Rökk – Die lebende Legende [TVD – app].
GÜNTHER RÜCKER Born February 2, 1924, Reichenberg (Bohemia, now Liberec, Czechoslovakia) Died February 24, 2008, Meiningen (Germany) A versatile author, screenwriter, and director, Rücker worked on some important East German feature films and documentaries.
After leaving school, Rücker was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1942. At the end of the war he ended up a British prisoner of war. On his release, he went to Leipzig and became a trainee teacher, and a radio journalist for the regional broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. He studied drama between 1947 and 1949, and subsequently worked in the theatre and as a radio director in Leipzig and East Berlin. From the early 1950s he established himself as a freelance author, especially of radio plays and documentaries, in which he dealt with contemporary topics such as the Foreign Legion, or the colonial conflict in Indochina. From the mid-1950s he also worked for DEFA studios. Rücker had a long creative partnership with director Günter Reisch, whose comedy JUNGES GEMÜSE (Small Fry, 1955/56) was the feature film debut for both. Although some of Rücker’s early screenplays were for feature films, including his contribution to Kurt Maetzig’s science fiction film DER SCHWEIGENDE STERN (First Spaceship on Venus, 1959), he became particularly known for his collaborations with political documentarists Andrew and Annelie Thorndike. Many of these films attacked the legacy of fascism and militarism in West Germany. Together with Wolfgang Kohlhaase, he wrote the screenplay for DER FALL GLEIWITZ (The Gleiwitz Case, 1960/61), a detailed reconstruction of the events that preceded the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Rücker’s first film as director, DIE BESTEN JAHRE (The Best Years, 1964/65) told the story of a returning war veteran and his attempts to establish himself as a teacher in the new East Germany. Based partly on one of his radio plays, Rücker developed DER DRITTE (The Third, 1971), a film about a twice-divorced academic and her search for a suitable partner. Under Egon Günther’s direction and starring Jutta Hoffmann as the main protagonist, DER DRITTE became one the most popular East German films to deal specifically with women’s issues. Reisch and Rücker’s WOLZ. LEBEN UND VERKLÄRUNG EINES DEUTSCHEN ANARCHISTEN (Wolz, 1973) combined actual political events from the 1920s with fantastic narrative elements, brought new stylistic touches into DEFA films. Equally successful was Heiner Carow’s romantic drama BIS DASS DER TOD EUCH SCHEIDET (Until Death Does You Part, 1977/78). DIE VERLOBTE (The Fiancée, 1979/80) was set in the Nazi period, and focused on the sacrifices of a communist resistance fighter and her experience in prison. For this film, Rücker adapted an autobiographical novel by Eva Lippold and co-directed when Reisch took ill. In 1984, Rücker published a volume of short stories, to be followed subsequently by further compilations of novellas, dramas, and stories. One of these he
HEINZ RÜHMANN
turned into a screenplay for HILDE, DAS DIENSTMÄDCHEN (Hilde, the Maid, 1985/86), which he also co-directed with Jürgen Brauer. The partly autobiographical coming-of-age narrative was set in rural Bohemia shortly before the war, and chronicled the infatuation of an adolescent boy with the maid who works in his parent’s home. At the same time, the film documented the rise of fascism in the region, as well as local resistance activities. Rücker’s career came to an end after German unification and the demise of DEFA. His novella ‘Der Geselle’ (The Apprentice), about a young man’s bike ride from Pommerania to Berlin to witness the Olympic Games in 1936 became the basis for DER OLYMPISCHE SOMMER (The Olympic Summer, 1991–93), a film by West German director Gordian Maugg, a student of Reisch. [co-scr – DD] 1954: Zehn Jahre später [TV – sma]. 1954-56: Du und mancher Kamerad [DO]. 1955/56: Junges Gemüse. 1957: Der Fall Harzmann und andere [SD]; Archive sagen aus: Urlaub auf Sylt [SD]. 1957/58: Archive sagen aus: Unternehmen Teutonenschwert [DO]. 1958: Parlamentarier [SF]. 1959: Der Fall Heusinger [SD – consultant]; Die Stiere des Hidalgo [SD]; Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [DD/PL]. 1959/60: Freiheit, Freiheit über alles [SD]. 1959-63: Das russische Wunder. 2 Teile [DO]. 1960/61: Der Fall Gleiwitz. 1961: Patrice Lumumba [SD]. 1963: Requiem für einen Lampenputzer [TV – dir,scr,sma]. 1964: Das Abendgericht [TV]. 1964/65: Die besten Jahre [dir,scr]. 1965: Viktorina über Sibirien (part 1) [DO]. 1970/71: Syrien auf den zweiten Blick [SD]. 1971: Der Herr Schmidt [TV – scr – DE]; Der Dritte. 1973: Wolz. Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten [scr]. 1974: Anläßlich eines Gesuchs [TV – scr,sma]. 1975: Lisa [TV – sma]. 1977/78: Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet [scr]. 1978: De Geyter – Geschichte eines Liedes [SD]. 1979/80: Die Verlobte [co-dir,co-scr]. 1980-82: Hotel Polan und seine Gäste [TV]. 1984: Miklos Radnóti [SD – scr]. 1985/86: Hilde, das Dienstmädchen [co-dir,scr,sma,voi]. 1991-93: Der olympische Sommer [sma – DE]. 2002: Nelken für Reisch [SD – app – DE].
HEINZ RÜHMANN (Heinrich Wilhelm Rühmann) Born March 7, 1902, Essen (Germany) Died October 3, 1994, Aufkirchen/Berg (Germany) Average-looking and un-heroic, Rühmann represented a character German audiences could identify with – the quintessentially bashful and mischievous petit bourgeois, who overcomes the odds through wit, minor deceptions and cheek, while generally accepting his fate. Rühmann’s status as a national icon endured across decades, and remained unaffected by political changes. Growing up in Essen, Rühmann moved to Munich where he attended secondary school. Without gradu-
403
ating he took acting lessons and began performing in provincial theatres. By the mid-1920s he was engaged in Munich, later alternating between the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and the Kammerspiel in Munich. Against the type of his later roles, Rühmann made his film debut as a delinquent son who abused his mother’s love in DAS DEUTSCHE MUTTERHERZ (The German Mother’s Heart, 1926). After successfully acting, singing and dancing in Wilhelm Thiele’s DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930), Rühmann became one of the most sought after comic actors in German cinema. He provided the timid foil for stars with a largerthan-life personality, and ideally complemented Hans Albers’s daredevils in films such as BOMBEN AUF MONTE CARLO (Bombs on Monte Carlo, 1931) and DER MANN, DER SHERLOCK HOLMES WAR (The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes, 1937). Rühmann debuted as director with the comedy LAUTER LÜGEN (Many Lies, 1938) with Hertha Feiler (1916–1970), later his wife, in the lead. Rühmann also frequently produced, usually his own films, but also the early works of director Kurt Hoffmann. As a leading man, Rühmann’s roles in the late 1930s included a pedantic bank director in DER MUSTERGATTE (Model Husband, 1937), a shy musician in NANU, SIE KENNEN KORFF NOCH NICHT? (You don’t know Korff yet?), and a hairdresser in 13 STÜHLE (13 Chairs, both 1938). Some of Rühmann’s best known films were made during World War II by his own production group at Terra-Filmkunst, including QUAX, DER BRUCHPILOT (Quax the Crash Pilot, 1941), in which Rühmann portrays a lowly clerk who is given the chance to become a pilot, Rühmann’s private hobby; and the perennial favourite DIE FEUERZANGENBOWLE (The Hot Wine Punch, 1943), playing a successful writer who goes back to school, masquerading as a student. One of his favourite directors was Kurt Hoffmann, who from PARADIES DER JUNGGESELLEN (Paradise for Bachelors, 1939) to DER KAPITÄN (The Captain, 1971) directed Rühmann in some of their greatest successes. After the end of the war, having been banned from filmmaking by the Allied authorities, Rühmann toured the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany with his own stage version of DER MUSTERGATTE. In 1947 he and Alf Teichs, who had been head of production at Terra, founded Comedia-Film. The films, successful with the press but flops at the box office, put Rühmann deep into dept and he returned to the stage. In West German films of the 1950s, the carefree cheek of Rühmann’s pre-war roles now often gave way to sentimentality and self-pity. Segueing into paternal, tragicomic figures, he nonetheless maintained his rapport with audiences. The peak of his popularity
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came with his starring roles in Hans Quest’s remake of CHARLEYS TANTE (Charley’s Aunt, 1955), the award-winning DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Köpenick, 1956), and DER BRAVE SOLDAT SCHWEJK (The Good Soldier Schwejk, 1960). Among his more serious roles, he convinced as a dour police inspector chasing a serial killer in ES GESCHAH AM HELLICHTEN TAG (It Happened in Broad Daylight, 1958), and as a postman in Robert Siodmak’s film about the Nazi period, MEIN SCHULFREUND (My School Chum, 1960). A string of domestic hits continued through the 1960s and into the early 1970s. Despite his popularity at home, however, Rühmann failed to make an impact internationally, although he did contribute to a number of European co-productions in the 1960s, and he had a significant supporting part in Stanley Kramer’s all-star SHIP OF FOOLS (1964/65). In his last two decades Rühmann concentrated mostly on television, appearing in sketch shows, quiz programmes, Christmas galas, cameo roles, and poetry readings. He published his memoirs ‘Das war’s’ (That’s It) in 1982 and an illustrated biography, ‘Ein Leben in Bildern’ (A Life in Pictures) in 1987. Rühmann’s last film was Wim Wenders’s IN WEITER FERNE, SO NAH! (Faraway, So Close, 1992/93). [act – DE] 1926: Das deutsche Mutterherz. 1927: Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen. 1930: Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Einbrecher [MLV]; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht. 1931: Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin; Der brave Sünder; Der Stolz der 3. Kompagnie; Man braucht kein Geld [MLV]. 1931/32: Es wird schon wieder besser … 1932: Strich durch die Rechnung [MLV]. 1932/33: Lachende Erben; Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]. 1933: Heimkehr ins Glück; Drei blaue Jungs – ein blondes Mädel; Alle machen mit [SF]; Es gibt nur eine Liebe; Die Finanzen des Großherzogs. 1933/34: So ein Flegel. 1934: Pipin der Kurze; Ein Walzer für Dich; Heinz im Mond; Frasquita [AT]. 1934/35: Der Himmel auf Erden [AT]. 1935: Eva [AT]; Wer wagt – gewinnt!; Der Außenseiter. 1935/36: Wer zuletzt küßt … [AT]. 1936: Allotria; Wenn wir alle Engel wären!; Lumpacivagabundus [AT]. 1936/37: Der Mann, von dem man spricht [AT]. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war; Der Mustergatte [supv,co-scr,act]; Die Umwege des schönen Karl. 1937/38: Fünf Millionen suchen einen Erben. 1938: 13 Stühle; Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht?; Lauter Lügen [dir]. [act,pro – DE] 1938/39: Der Florentiner Hut. 1939: Paradies der Junggesellen; Hurra! Ich bin Papa! [act]. 1939/ 40: Lauter Liebe [dir,pro]. 1940: Kleider machen Leute; Wunschkonzert [act]. 1940/41: Hauptsache, glücklich!; Der Gasmann [act]. 1941: Quax, der Bruchpilot. 1941/42: Fronttheater [act]. 1942: Sophienlund [dir,pro]. 1942/43: Ich vertraue dir meine Frau an. 1943: Die Feuerzangenbowle. 1943/44: Quax in Afrika. 1944: Der Engel mit dem
Saitenspiel [dir,pro]. 1945: Sag’ die Wahrheit. 1948: Der Herr vom andern Stern; Glück im Stall [SD – pro]; Die kupferne Hochzeit; Berliner Ballade [pro]. 1949: Das Geheimnis der roten Katze; Martina [pro]; Mordprozeß Dr. Jordan [pro]; Ich mach’ Dich glücklich; Sechzehn gegen einen [SD – pro]; Kinder zeichnen ihre Welt [SD – pro]; 0 Uhr 15 Zimmer 9 [pro]. 1949/50: Herrliche Zeiten [DO – pro]. 1950/51: Amore e sangue / Schatten über Neapel [pro – IT/DE]. [act – DE] 1952: Das kann jedem passieren; Schäm’ Dich, Brigitte! [AT]. 1953: Keine Angst vor großen Tieren; Briefträger Müller [co-dir,act,pro]. 1954: Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins. 1954/55: Zwischenlandung in Paris / Escale à Orly [DE/FR]. 1955: Wenn der Vater mit dem Sohne; Charley’s Tante. 1956: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Das Sonntagskind. 1957: Vater sein dagegen sehr. 1958: Es geschah am hellichten Tag / El cebo [CH/DE/ES]; Der Mann, der nicht nein sagen konnte / Manden, der ikke ku’ sige nej [act,pro – CH/DK]; Der Pauker; Der eiserne Gustav. 1959: Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Ein Mann geht durch die Wand. 1959/60: Der Jugendrichter. 1960: Mein Schulfreund; Der brave Soldat Schwejk; Das schwarze Schaf. 1961: Der Lügner. 1961/62: Max, der Taschendieb. 1962: Er kann’s nicht lassen. 1963: Meine Tochter und ich; Das Haus in Montevideo. 1963/64: Vorsicht, Mister Dodd! 1964: Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius. 1964/65: Ship of Fools [US]. 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Heinz Rühmann [TVD – app]; Das Liebeskarussell [AT]. 1965/66: Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden …?; La bourse et la vie / Geld oder Leben [FR/DE/IT]. 1966: Grieche sucht Griechin; Maigret und sein größter Fall / Il caso difficile del commissario Maigret / Maigret fait mouche [AT/IT/FR]. 1967: Operazione S. Pietro / Au diable, les anges! / Die Abenteuer des Kardinal Braun [IT/FR/DE]. [act – DE – TV] 1968: Der Tod des Handlungsreisenden; Die Ente klingelt um ½ 8 / Siamo tuttu matti [FF – DE/IT]; Heute zwischen gestern und morgen. 1969: Sag’s dem Weihnachtsmann. 1969/70: Endspurt; Mein Freund Harvey. 1971: Der Kapitän [FF]; Der Pfandleiher. 1972: Heinz Rühmann. Porträt eines Schauspielers [TVD]. 1972/73: Der Hausmeister. 1973: Oh, Jonathan – oh, Jonathan [FF]. 1975: Treffpunkt Herz. 1976: Heinz Rühmann liest ‘Reineke Fuchs’ von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Das chinesische Wunder [FF]; Gefundenes Fressen [FF]; Kein Abend wie jeder andere. 1976/77: Summa Summarum. 1977: Herr und Hund. 1977/78: Diener und andere Herren; Wilhelm Busch – Die Trickfilmparade: Max und Moritz und andere Streiche [ANI – voi]. 1978: Guten Tag, liebes Glück [TVD]. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper; Balthasar im Stau. 1979: Rund um die Oper; Aller guten Dinge sind drei. 1980/81: Ein Zug nach Manhattan. 1982: Heinz Rühmann: Schauspieler, Flieger, Mensch [TVD]; Liebe alte Bekannte. 1983: Es gibt noch Haselnußsträucher. [app – DE – TVD] 1984: Heinz Rühmann liest Geschichten zur Weihnacht in der St. Michaelis Kirche Hamburg. 1986: Im Gespräch: Heinz Rühmann und Siegfried Fischer-Fabian; Heinz Rühmann erzählt: Weihnachtliche Geschichten von Felix Timmermanns; Heinz Rühmann liest inder St. Michaelis Kirche Hamburg. 1987: Showgeschich-
WALTHER RUTTMANN ten. Heute von: Heinz Rühmann. 1990: Begegnungen. Heinz Rühmann im Gespräch mit Engelbert Sauter. 1990/ 91: Herzlichst, Heinz Rühmann [TVS – 53 episodes]. 1992: Heinz Rühmann liest … [TVS – 21 episodes]; Heinz Rühmann – Ein Volksschauspieler; Herzlichen Glückwunsch: Heinz Rühmann zum 90. Geburtstag [DE/AT/CH]; 75 Jahre Ufa. Heinz Rühmann: Meine frühen Ufa-Jahre. 1992/93: In weiter Ferne, so nah! [FF – act]. 1994: Heinz Rühmann. Ein großer, kleiner Mann; Heinz Rühmann. Kleiner Mann ganz groß; Ein Freund, ein guter Freund. Heinz Rühmann 1902–1994. 2001: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Ein Überlebenskünstler. 2007: Legenden: Heinz Rühmann.
WALTHER RUTTMANN (Walter Ruttmann) Born December 28, 1887, Frankfurt/Main (Germany) Died July 15, 1941, Berlin (Germany) Remembered principally for his experimental documentary, BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (Berlin, Symphony of a Big City, 1926/27) Ruttmann was continually engaged in developing film technology, and was a leading representative of the cinematic avant-garde in the 1920s. Born into a wealthy, mercantile family, Ruttmann studied architecture in Zurich, and painting in Munich and Marburg. His early success as a painter was cut short by his military service at the Eastern front during World War I. His battle experiences caused him to become a committed pacifist. Following periods in sanatoria he returned to painting, and became interested in the cinema. He constructed and patented equipment for cartoons, making LICHTSPIEL OPUS I (Film Opus I, 1919–21), a ten minute experimental short. Made up of over 10.000 individual coloured pictures, it was the first ‘proper’ cartoon produced in Germany. Ruttmann subsequently made three further abstract shorts, confirming his growing reputation and place at the forefront of contemporary experimental cinema. For Fritz Lang’s NIBELUNGEN (The Nibelungs, 1922–24), Ruttmann created an animated sequence and for Lotte Reiniger’s feature-length silhouette cartoon DIE GESCHICHTE DES PRINZEN ACHMED (The Story of Prince Ahmed, 1923–26) he provided lively backgrounds. Made in 1926 but released the following year, Ruttmann’s masterpiece, BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT was a 65-minutes documentary organised around musical principles and presenting a collage of urban scenes, covering a spring day in Berlin from dawn till after dark. Ruttmann’s depiction of moving trains, machines, offices, traffic, leisure activities and nightlife combined to create a sense of realism and involvement that was meant to enthral the audience. The film received a mixed reaction – while
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many reviewers hailed it as the biggest cinematic breakthrough in years, others criticised it as superficial and stylised. It was repeatedly compared with a number of other similar cinematic ‘city poems’ made at about the same time, including Dziga Vertov’s ÈELOVEK S KINOAPPARATOM (The Man With a Movie Camera, 1929). Extending his experimental work to sound films, Ruttmann’s second full-length film MELODIE DER WELT (World Melody, 1928/29), a ‘symphonic documentary’ made for the Hamburg-Amerika-Line, became the first full-length German sound film to be released. As in BERLIN, the travelogue comprised a collage of contrasting images, scenes, and vistas, this time drawing on material from around the world. In fascist Italy, Ruttmann shot the feature film ACCIAIO (Steel, 1932/33), a tale of love and jealousy between two steelworkers, based on a novel by Luigi Pirandello, and using a steel plant as the impressive background for the narrative. A year later he designed a framing sequence for Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi Party Conference film TRIUMPH DES WILLENS (Triumph of the Will, 1934/35) but this was later discarded. For most of the 1930s, until his death, Ruttmann worked as a director for Ufa’s advertising section, directing documentaries, educational, industrial and propaganda films, and winning awards for his industrial films METALL DES HIMMELS (Metal of the Sky, 1934/35) and MANNESMANN (1936/37). [dir – DE] 1919-21: Lichtspiel opus 1 [ANI – co-dir,pro]. 1921/22: Ruttmann Opus II, 1921 [ANI – co-dir,pro]; Der Sieger. Ein Film in Farben [SF – dir,ani]. 1922: Das Wunder. Ein Film in Farben [SF – ani]. 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried [ani]. 1923/24: Lebende Buddhas [ani]. 1923-25: Ruttmann Opus III [ANI – co-dir,pro]. 1923-26: Die Geschichte des Prinzen Achmed [ANI – ass]. 1925: Ruttmann Opus IV [ANI – co-dir,pro]; Das wiedergefundene Paradies [SF – dir]. 1926: Der Absturz [SF – co-dir,ani]; Der Aufstieg [SF – co-dir,ani]; Spiel der Wellen [SF – codir,ani]. 1926/27: Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1927: Hoppla, wir leben! [ass-dir,ani]; Dort wo der Rhein … [SF – dir]. 1928: Das weiße Stadion [DO – cut – CH]; Deutscher Rundfunk [DO – dir,scr,cut]; Die Kapelle Etté spielt den Ramona [SD – dir]. 1928/29: Melodie der Welt [DO – dir,scr,cut]. 1929: Des Haares und der Liebe Wellen [SF]; Tempête sur La Sarraz [SF – co-cam,act – CH]. 1930: La fin du monde [ass-dir,snd – FR]. 1931: Feind im Blut [dir,co-scr,cut – CH/DE]; Tönende Welle [SD – dir]; In der Nacht [SF]. 1931/32: Ceux du ‘Viking’ [MLV – supv, cut – FR]. 1932/33: Acciaio [dir,scr,cut – IT]. 1933: Blut und Boden [SD – co-dir]. 1933/34: Altgermanische Bauernkultur [SD]. 1934/35: Metall des Himmels [SD]; Triumph des Willens [DO – co-dir,co-scr]. 1935: Kleiner Film einer großen Stadt … der Stadt Düsseldorf am Rhein [SD – dir,co-scr]; Stuttgart, die Großstadt zwischen Wald und Reben – die Stadt des Auslanddeutschtums [SD]; Stadt
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Stuttgart. 100. Cannstatter Volksfest [SD]. 1935/36: Schiff in Not [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1936/37: Mannesmann [DO – dir,scr]. 1937: Helden der Küste [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1937/38: Im Zeichen des Vertrauens [SD – dir,co-scr]; Mannesmann [SD – dir,scr]. 1938: Im Dienste der Menschheit [SF]; Weltstraße See – Welthafen Hamburg [SD]; Henkel. Ein deutsches Werk seiner Arbeit [SD]. 1938/39: Hinter den Zahlen [SD – co-scr]. 1939/40: Deutsche Waffenschmieden [SD]. 1940: Deutsche Panzer [SD]; Aberglaube [SD – dir,coscr]. 1941: Ein Film gegen die Volkskrankheit Krebs [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1951: Thirty Years of Experiment [DO – dir – US]. 1977: Walter Ruttmann 1887–1941. Versuch einer Befreiung [TVD – app].
STEFAN RUZOWITZKY Born December 25, 1961, Vienna (Austria) Ruzowitzky emerged as one of Austria’s most commercially minded directors in the 1990s; and he has received major international attention after winning an Academy Award for his Holocaust drama DIE FÄLSCHER (The Counterfeiters, 2006). Ruzowitzky studied drama and history at Vienna University. From the early 1980s, he worked initially in the theatre and wrote radio plays, then moved on to television, where he directed commercials and music videos for German pop acts such as ‘Scorpions’, ‘Die Prinzen’, and Stefan Raab, eventually also for international groups, such as the boyband ‘N’Sync’. His cinema debut TEMPO (1996), a glossy, youthoriented story set in Vienna about an eighteen-year old bike courier who inadvertently gets involved with the cocaine trade, very much betrayed Ruzowitzky’s background in commercial television and music videos. The film, which featured fellow director Dani Levy in a supporting role, was awarded the Max Ophüls prize in 1997. DIE SIEBTELBAUERN (The Inheritors, 1997/98) provided a modern update of the Heimatfilm genre. Set in provincial Austria, but closer in spirit to Italian spaghetti westerns than to 1950s rural idylls, Ruzowitz-
ky’s film featured rape, arson, communal blood feuds, and repeated violent murder. The horror film ANATOMIE (Anatomy, 1999), was made in Germany and starred Franka Potente as a medical student at Heidelberg University who uncovers sinister activities among her fellow students. Convincingly emulating the narrative formula of Hollywood ‘slasher’ films, the film became a box-office success both domestically and abroad, leading to a sequel in 2002. Ruzowitzky’s ambition to appeal to international audiences was all too obvious in the US-Austrian coproduction ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN (2000/01), a World War II farce starring Matt LeBlanc (of FRIENDS fame), cross-dressing British stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard, and Udo Kier as a German army general. Widely panned by critics, the film became a massive box-office flop. DIE FÄLSCHER (The Counterfeiters, 2006) marked an unexpected turn in Ruzowitzky’s career. Based on the memoirs of Holocaust survivor Adolf Burger, the film recounted a secret operation during World War II where a group of concentration camp internees were forced by the Nazis to forge foreign currencies to support the German war effort. Despite some negative reviews in Germany and Austria (which specifically singled out for criticism Ruzowitzky’s conventional direction), the film was almost uniformly praised in the UK and the USA, which secured its Oscar triumph as ‘best foreign-language’ film. Back in Germany, Ruzowitzky’s follow-up was the children’s film HEXE LILLI – DER DRACHE UND DAS MAGISCHE BUCH (Lili the Witch, 2007/08) distributed by Walt Disney. [dir,scr – AT] 1994: Monte Video [TVS – ide]. 1996: Tempo. 1997/98: Die Siebtelbauern [AT/DE]. 1999: Anatomie [DE]. 2000/01: All the Queen´s Men / Die Männer Ihrer Majestät [dir – DE/AT/HU]. 2002: Anatomie 2 [DE]. 2006: Die Fälscher [DE/AT]. 2007/08: Hexe Lilli – Der Drache und das magische Buch [DE].
LEONTINE SAGAN (Leontine Schlesinger) Born February 13, 1889, Budapest (Austria-Hungary) Died May 20, 1974, Pretoria (South Africa) One of very few female directors working in the German film industry of the 1930s, Sagan is primarily remembered for her contribution to MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1931), a milestone of Weimar cinema, and a pioneering film for its sympathetic depiction of same-sex attractions between women. Sagan started her stage career as an actress, but subsequently became a director, unusual for women at the time. In this capacity she worked in theatres in Vienna, Frankfurt, and Berlin, collaborating with Max Reinhardt and Viktor Barnowsky. Specialising in dramas by female playwrights, Sagan made an impact with the stage version of Christa Winsloe’s ‘Gestern und heute’ (Yesterday and Today), a play that attacked the repressive atmosphere and military discipline in Prussian boarding schools for girls, and which centred on the infatuation of a young pupil with her older teacher, an infatuation that ends in the girl’s suicide. Carl Froelich signed Sagan up as director for the film version, MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM, while acting as supervisor. The film became an outstanding international hit, not least due to the story’s intimations of lesbianism, and the strong performances by the film’s leads, Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck. In 1932, Sagan went to Britain, where she shot her second film MEN OF TOMORROW, a domestic melodrama, co-directed by Zoltan Korda, and starring Merle Oberon. The same year, Sagan left for the United States, working primarily in the theatre. Moving from America to Africa, she temporarily worked in Rhodesia before settling in South Africa in 1939. Concentrating mostly on stage assignments and instrumental in the foundation of South Africa’s National Theatre, Sagan returned to screen work one final time in 1946, directing the episode ‘Tomboy Princess’ for George King’s British production GAIETY GEORGE, a biopic of the 19th century Irish stage impresario George Howard. dir – DE] 1931: Mädchen in Uniform. 1932: Men of Tomorrow [co-dir,cut – GB]. 1946: Gaiety George. EP: Tomboy Princess [dir – GB].
MARIANNE SÄGEBRECHT Born August 27, 1945, Starnberg (Germany) Large in terms of body size as well as personality, and projecting a maternal, earthy sexuality, Bavarian actress Sägebrecht became a cult star in the 1980s, and subsequently won acclaim as a character actress in domestic and international film and television productions. Trained as a medical assistant, Sägebrecht initially worked in a psychiatrist’s surgery. From 1971 she began to organise, produce and act in provincial cabaret, revue, and avant-garde stage productions. Also managing cafés and pubs frequented by actors and artists, she became a local celebrity among Munich’s theatrical subculture, while gaining national recognition with the revue programme ‘Opera Curiosa’. Following her performance as a prostitute in a production of Martin Sperr’s play ‘Adele Spitzeder’, director Percy Adlon cast her in his TV adaptation of Cervantes’s ‘Don Quixote’, HERR KISCHOTT (1979/ 80), and again in a supporting role in his costume drama DIE SCHAUKEL (The Swing, 1983), a nostalgic recreation of bourgeois family life in pre-World War I Munich. Sägebrecht’s domestic breakthrough came with the leading part of an overweight mortuary assistant in love with a subway driver in Adlon’s urban romance ZUCKERBABY (Sugarbaby, 1984/85). An even greater hit, both in Germany and in the United States, proved OUT OF ROSENHEIM (Bagdad Café, 1987), in which Sägebrecht played a repressed Bavarian housewife who gets stranded at a highway diner in California’s Mojave Desert and develops a friendship with the diner’s manager. Adlon’s follow-up, ROSALIE GOES SHOPPING (1988/89), set in Los Angeles, got a more lukewarm response. Recognition of Sägebrecht in the United States led to supporting roles in Hollywood productions, including a masseuse in Paul Mazursky’s MOON OVER PARADOR (1988) and as Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner’s housekeeper in Danny de Vito’s THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989). Turning down offers from directors including Woody Allen, Peter Hyams and Mel Brooks, Sägebrecht returned to Europe and starred opposite Michel Piccoli as the wife of a Jewish doctor in 1930s Prague in Jiri Weiss’s MARTHA UND ICH (Martha and Me, 1989/ 90). In the 1990s, Sägebrecht continued a busy work schedule in domestic and international film and tele-
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vision productions, mostly in supporting roles, as in Sönke Wortmann’s MR BLUESMAN (1992/93), Volker Schlöndorff’s DER UNHOLD (The Ogre, 1995/ 96), Roger Hanin’s SOLEIL (Sun, 1996), and as a Gallic chieftain’s wife in the comic book adaptation ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX CONTRE CÉSAR (Asterix and Obelix Take on Caesar, 1998/99). On television, she appeared in episodes of long-running series such as KOMMISSAR REX (Rex: A Cop’s Best Friend), CAFÉ MEINEID, and SESAMSTRASSE (Sesame Street), and since 2000 starred as high-spirited chef MARGA ENGEL in a series of films. Since the mid-1990s, Sägebrecht has published several autobiographical and cookery books. [act – DE] 1979/80: Herr Kischott [TV]. 1980/81: Manche mögen’s prall. 1983: Die Schaukel; Anderland: 22. Die Prinzessin will Clown sein [TV]. 1983/84: Im Himmel ist die Hölle los. 1984: Ein irres Feeling. 1984/85: Zuckerbaby. 1986/87: Herz mit Löffel; Eine Handvoll Vergnügen – ‘Crazy Boys’. 1987: Das Lächeln am Fuße der Leiter [TV]; Out of Rosenheim. 1988: Moon Over Parador [US]. 1988/89: Rosalie Goes Shopping. 1988-90: Liebesgeschichten: Fragen Sie Frau Clarissa [TV]. 1989: Gleichnisse: Das Fest [TV]; Die Toten Hosen – 3 Akkorde für ein Halleluja [DO]; The War of the Roses [US]. 1989/90: Martha und ich / Martha et moi [DE/FR]. 1992: Die Vorboten Armageddons [SF]; Dust Devil [GB]. 1992/93: La vida láctea / The Milky Life / La vie lactée [ES/DE/FR]; Mr. Bluesman. 1993/94: Mona Must Die / Ein fast perfektes Verhältnis [US/DE]; Èrotique / Let’s Talk About Sex. EP: Taboo Parlor [SF]. 1994: Eine Mutter kämpft um ihren Sohn [TV]; Terrain glissant [TV – FR]. 1994/95: Il Piccolo Lord / Der kleine Lord [TV – IT/DE]. 1995: Beauville [SF – BE]; All Men are Mortal [GB/NL/FR]. 1995/96: Ohne Hose [SF]; Der Unhold / Le roi des aulnes / The Ogre [DE/FR/GB]. 1996: Katrin und Wladimir [TV]; Lorenz im Land der Lügner [DE/LU]; Soleil / Sonne [FR/IT/ DE]. 1996/97: Luise knackt den Jackpot; Une femme sur mesure / Eine Frau nach Maß [TV – act,ide – FR/DE]. 1997: Johnny [SF – NL]; Sophie – Schlauer als die Polizei: Adams letzte Fahrt [TV]; Und plötzlich war alles anders [TV]; Left Luggage [NL/GB/BE/US]. 1998: Spanish Fly [TV – FR/GB/ ES]. 1998/99: Astérix et Obélix contre César / Asterix und Obelix gegen Caesar / Asterix e Obelix contro Cesare [FR/ DE/IT]. 1999: Kommissar Rex: Das Testament [TV – AT]; Ich wünsch dir Liebe [TV]; Ganz unten, ganz oben [TV]; Am Ende siegt die Liebe [TV]; Erntedank – Thanksgiving [AT/ DE]; Die Sekretärin des Weihnachtsmanns / La Secrétaire du Pére Noël [TV – DE/FR]. 1999/2000: Private Lies / Scheidung auf amerikanisch [TV]. 2000: Lilalu im Schepperland [TVS – voi]; Sans famille / Findelkind [TV – FR/DE]; Il Ritorno del piccolo lord / Der kleine Lord – Retter in der Not [TV – IT/DE]; Marga Engel schlägt zurück [TV]. 2001: Sesamstraße [TVS – 25 episodes]; Café Meineid: Ein weiches Herz [TV]. 2002: Marga Engel kocht vor Wut [TV]. 2002/ 03: Großglocknerliebe – kein Heimatfilm. 2004: Marga Engel gibt nicht auf [TV]; Charlotte und ihre Männer [TV]. 2005: Out of München. Percy Adlon zum 70. Geburtstag [TVD – app]. 2006/07: Bezaubernde Marie [TV]; Das Ge-
heimnis meiner Schwester [TV]; Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]. 2007/ 08: In aller Freundschaft: Atemlos [TV]; Frau Holle [TV]; Immer Wirbel um Marie [TV].
HELKE SANDER Born January 31, 1927, Berlin (Germany) Feminist filmmaker Sander has been active in many fields since the 1960s, including writing and teaching, alongside her core activity of producing and directing for cinema, theatre and television. Her films combine intimate, personal narratives with a wider political perspective, often – but not exclusively – dealing with gender-related issues. The daughter of an engineer, Sander attended drama school in Hamburg after gaining her Abitur. In 1959 she married the Finnish author Markku Lahtela and moved to Helsinki, where she gave birth to a son, Silvio Lahtela, who became a writer. Between 1962 and 1965 she directed plays and organised events in Finnish towns, also directing films for Finnish television. Returning to Germany in 1965, she studied at the German Film and TV Academy (dffb) in Berlin between 1966 and 1969. Sander’s first short film was SUBJEKTITÜDE (Subjectivity, 1966). She became actively involved in the student protest movement and made the critical documentary BRECHT DIE MACHT DER MANIPULATEURE (Break the Power of the Manipulators, 1968) as part of a campaign against the right-wing Axel Springer publishing empire. A founder of the women’s movement in Berlin, her speech at the conference of the Socialist German Student’s Union (SDS) in 1968 attracted great attention and ignited the feminist movement in the Federal Republic. Sander’s political activities are reflected in her films, KINDERGÄRTNERIN, WAS NUN? (Nursery school teacher, what now?) and KINDER SIND KEINE RINDER (Children are No Cattle, both 1969) were a result of her involvement in childcare organisations, while MACHT DIE PILLE FREI? (Does the Pill Bring Liberation?, 1972) argued for the right to and the decriminalisation of abortion. An organiser of the first international women’s film conference in Berlin in 1973, Sander was also a founder of ‘Frauen und Film’, the first feminist film magazine in Europe. In 1977, Sander made her first feature film, the semidocumentary DIE ALLSEITIG REDUZIERTE PERSÖNLICHKEIT – REDUPERS (The All-Around Reduced Personality – Redupers), which she wrote, directed, and acted in. DER SUBJEKTIVE FAKTOR (The Subjective Factor, 1980/81) was an autobiographically inflected chronicle of the West German women’s movement, while DER BEGINN ALLER SCHRECKEN IST LIEBE (Love is the Beginning of All Terror,
OTTO SANDER
1983) told the story of a love triangle between two female friends and one of the women’s husband. Throughout the 1980s and beyond, her films commented on aspects of gender politics in Germany, in both documentary and fictional form. Between 1981 and 2003 Sander taught as a professor at the Academy for Fine Arts in Hamburg. In cooperation with her students she made a number of short films, such as the series AUS BERICHTEN DER WACH- UND PATROUILLENDIENSTE (From Reports on Guard and Patrol Watch, 1984). Sander’s post-unification documentary BEFREIER UND BEFREITE (Liberators and the Liberated, 1990–92), courted national and international controversy with its account of the mass rape of German women by Allied soldiers at the end of World War II. MUTTERTIER MUTTERMENSCH (Mother Animal, Mother Human Being, 1998/99) was an examination of the changing role of motherhood, while in the new millennium, MITTEN IM MALESTREAM (In the Midst of the Malestream, 2005), returned to a reflection on the aims and achievements of the women’s movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. [dir – DE] 1964: Skorpioni [TV – FI]; Viimeinen Yö [TV – FI]. 1965: Naurukierukka [TV – FI]. 1966: Subjektitüde [SF – dir,scr]; Thérèse Raquin [TV – ass-dir]. 1967: 3000 Häuser [SF – act]; Die Worte des Vorsitzenden [SF – ass-dir,voi]; Finnische Schriftsteller [TV – dir,scr]; Silvo [SD – dir,scr,act]. 1967/68: Die Brille [SF – act]. 1968: Ihre Zeitungen [SF – ass-dir,act]; Brecht die Macht der Manipulateure [DO – dir,scr]. 1968/69: Nicht löschbares Feuer [SD – ass-dir]. 1969: Kindergärtnerin, was nun? [SD – dir,scr,cam,cut, pro]; Das schwache Geschlecht muß stärker werden [TVD – co-dir]; Kinder sind keine Rinder [DO – dir,scr,cocam]. 1971: Eine Prämie für Irene [DO – dir,scr]. 1972: Macht die Pille frei? [TVD – co-dir,co-scr]. 1973: Männerbünde [TVD – dir,scr]. 1976: Unsichtbare Gegner [act – AT]. 1977: Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers [dir,scr,act]. 1977-79: Die Patriotin [co-scr]. 1980: Friedensfrauen [SD – co-dir,pro]; Mit den Füßen auf der Erde, mit dem Kopf in den Wolken [TVD – act]. 1980/81: Der subjektive Faktor [dir,scr,pro]. 1981: Wie geht das Kamel durchs Nadelöhr? [DO – dir,act]. 1982/83: Die Gedächtnislücke [co-scr,pro]; Vater und Sohn [act]. 1982-84: Fräulein Berlin [act]. 1983: Der Beginn aller Schrecken ist Liebe [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1984: Nr. 1 – Aus Berichten der Wach- und Patrouillendienste [SF – dir,scr,pro]. 1985: Die Erfahrungsschere [DO – co-dir,act,pro]. 1986: Sieben Frauen – Sieben Sünden: Völlerei – Völlerei? Füttern! [TV – dir,co-scr]; Felix: Muß ich aufpassen? [dir,co-scr]. 1987: Wahlspot für die Grünen [SF – dir,co-scr]. 1987-89/1992: Schluckauf [pro]. 1988: Die Meisen von Frau S.; Das schwache Geschlecht muß stärker werden. Teil II [TVD – app]. 1989: Die Deutschen und ihre Männer. Bericht aus Bonn [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1990-92: BeFreier und Befreite. Krieg – Vergewaltigungen – Kinder. 2 parts [DO – dir,coscr,cut,pro]. 1991: Jadebusen. Über die Formbarkeit des Körpers [SF – ide]. 1992: Des Lebens schönste Seiten [TV –
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act]. 1996: Die rote Fahne [DO – dir]. 1997: Dazlak [dir, co-scr]. 1998/99: Muttertier Muttermensch [DO – dir,scr, cut,act,pro]. 1999: Zwischen Lust und Last – Fünf Frauen und ihre Filme [DO – app]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2005: Mitten im Malestream [DO – dir,scr,act,voi,pro].
OTTO SANDER Born June 30, 1941, Hanover (Germany) Among the most acclaimed stage actors of his generation, Sander also left an indelible mark on cinema and television, typically playing shy, melancholy loners. While attending school in Hanover and Kassel, Sander took part in school plays. After gaining his Abitur, he spent a year in the Navy before studying drama, German literature, history of art and philosophy in Munich between 1962 and 1967. Sander’s film debut was Roland Klick’s short LUDWIG (1963/64). At the same time he took acting classes at the Otto Falckenberg school and appeared in cabaret. Making his stage debut at the Kammerspiel in Düsseldorf in 1965, Sander was then engaged by theatres in Heidelberg and Berlin, gaining increasing recognition as an outstanding stage performer. After a number of TV dramas and television adaptations of his celebrated stage performances, Sander began to take on roles in cinematic productions, playing a strait-laced Prussian squire in Eric Rohmer’s DIE MARQUISE VON O (Marquise of O, 1975) and a drunken officer in Wolfgang Petersen’s DAS BOOT (1980/81). In the title role of DER MANN IM PYJAMA (The Man in Pyjamas, 1981) he demonstrated a considerable talent for comedy. Together with Bruno Ganz he directed and acted in GEDÄCHTNIS (Memory, 1981/82) a film portrait of two old German actors, Curt Bois, who was forced into exile and Bernhart Minetti, who made a career in Nazi Germany. Sander played against type as a perma-tanned ladykiller in SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY (1987). In the award winning crime comedy DER BRUCH (The Breakthrough, 1988) he was cast as a professional burglar. Paired again with Ganz in Wim Wenders’s DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (Wings of Desire, 1986/87), Sander impressed in a highly restrained performance as a melancholy angel. He returned to the same character in Wenders’s sequel IN WEITER FERNE, SO NAH! (Faraway, So Close, 1992/93). Since the 1990s Sander continued his prolific career in film and television productions. On the small screen he contributed to popular series such as WOLFFS REVIER (Wolff’s Patch), POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Call 100), and DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (Love Boat). In 2005, he took on the title role of HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Köpenick)
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in an adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s perennially popular and repeatedly filmed play. On the big screen, meanwhile, Sander was cast in Margarethe von Trotta’s Cold War drama DAS VERSPRECHEN (The Promise, 1993/94), while showing perhaps less discerning taste by appearing in Josef Vilsmaier’s vapid historical biopics COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (The Harmonists, 1997) and MARLENE (1999/2000), and providing the voice-over narration for an entry into the puerile cartoon comedy franchise WERNER – GEKOTZT WIRD SPÄTER! (Werner – Vomiting Comes Later!, 2002/03). Owing to his deep and sonorous voice, he has frequently narrated documentaries, read audio books and dubbed actors for German versions of foreign films, such as Dustin Hoffman in Volker Schlöndorff’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1985). Married to the actress Monika Hansen, he became stepfather of her children Ben und Meret Becker, who also made careers as actors in theatre, film and TV. [act – TV – DE] 1963/64: Ludwig [SF]. 1965: Nachruf auf Egon Müller. 1968/69: Sonntags am Meer. 1969: Nicht fummeln, Liebling [FF]. 1970/71: Die Mutter. 1971: Peer Gynt. 2 parts. 1972: Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige [AT]; Prinz Friedrich von Homburg [DE/AT]. 1973: Optimistische Tragödie; Das Sparschwein. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden [FF]; Ermittlungen gegen Unbekannt. 1974: Der Fall Ezra Pound; Die Bakchen; Meine Sorgen möcht’ ich haben [FF]; Lehmanns Erzählungen. 1975: Sommergäste [FF]; Erzählen; Hundert Mark.; Die Marquise von O … / La Marquise d’O … [FF – DE/FR]. 1975/76: Das Ende vom Anfang [dir,act]. 1976: Vier gegen die Bank. 1977: Heinrich Zille; Die ganz begreifliche Angst vor Schlägen. 1977/ 78: Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk [DE/AT]. 1978: Phantom [SF]. 1978/79: Trilogie des Wiedersehens; Wie es euch gefällt; Die Blechtrommel / Le tambour [FF – DE/FR]. 1979: Shakespeares Memory; Tatort: Mitternacht oder kurz danach; Rückwärts [SF]; Plastikfieber. 1979/80: Palermo oder Wolfsburg [FF – DE/CH]; Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe [co-scr,act]; Unsere heile Welt [TVS – 1 episode]. 1980: Gesucht wird …; Die Ursache; Legen wir zusammen. 1980/ 81: Ein Fall für Otto Spalt [SF]; Im Schlaraffenland; Das Boot [FF + TV]. 1981: Kalt wie Eis [FF]; Recycling [SD]; Der Mann im Pyjama [FF]. 1981/82: Wer spinnt denn da, Herr Doktor? [FF]; Gedächtnis [TVD – co-dir,co-scr,app]. 1982/ 83: Mercier und Camier [dir,act]. 1983: Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [FF – DE/FR]; Der Mord mit der Schere oder Das Mysterium von Heiligwalck [SF]. 1984: Die Abschiebung. 1985: Rosa Luxemburg [FF]. 1985/86: Miko – Aus der Gosse zu den Sternen [FF]; Caspar David Friedrich. Grenzen der Zeit [FF]; Close-Up [SF]. 1986: Kurz vor Schluß [FF]; Drei Schwestern. 1986/87: Der Himmel über Berlin / Les ailes du désir [FF – DE/FR]; Waldhaus: Schlechte Karten. 1987: Wahnfried / Richard & Cosima [FF – DE/FR]; Die Krimistunde. Folge 25; z.B. Otto Spalt [FF]; Sentimental Journey. 1988: Der Bruch [FF – DD]. 1988/89: My Name ist Bertolt Brecht – Exil in USA [DO – voi]. 1989: Venedig: traumhaft billig! [FF]; Wie du mir ….
1989/90: Vorwärts; Amaurose [FF – DE/IT]; Der Fahnder: Nebenjob. 1990: Zeit der Rache [FF – AT]. 1990-92: Das untergegangene Vaterland [DO – app]. 1991: Stuppi & Wolf. 1991/92: Mit tödlicher Sicherheit [DE/FR]; Struppi & Wolf; Chaupi Mundi – Die Mitte der Welt [FF – voi]; Eine verlorene Liebe; Die Serpentintänzerin / Szerpentintáncosnö [FF – DE/HU]. 1991-93: Der olympische Sommer [FF – voi]. 1992: Schlusschor. 1992/93: Inge, April und Mai [FF]; In weiter Ferne, so nah! [FF]; Ludwig 1881 [FF – CH/DE]; Der Kinoerzähler [FF]. 1993: Bauernschach [AT]; Biódagar [FF – IS]. 1993/94: Hölderlin Comics [DO]; Polizeiruf 110: Totes Gleis; Das Versprechen / Les années du mur [FF – DE/CH/FR]. 1994: Apokalypse Pink [SF]; Tri sestrj [FF – RU]; Das Traumschiff: Mauritius; A. S.: Die Diva. 1994/ 95: Paradies der Träume – Die Geschichte des Kinos [TVD – app]. 1995: Das Loch östlich von Schluft [SF]; Nikolaikirche; Lumière & Compagnie [FF – FR/ES/SE]; Matulla & Busch – Zwei Alte pokern hoch. 1995/96: Friedemann Brix – Eine Schwäche für Mord: Bommel in der Klemme. 1996: Abendbrot [SF]; Truck Stop [FF]; Vom Handwerk der Schauspielkunst [TVD – app]; Gespräch mit dem Biest / Conversation with the Beast [FF – DE/US]; Kondom des Grauens [FF]. 1996/97: Liebe Lügen. 1997: Der Traum von der Freiheit; Comedian Harmonists [FF]; Polizeiruf 110: Das Wunder von Wustermark; Wolffs Revier: Eiskalt; Der Laden [voi]. 1997/98: Bin ich schön? [FF]. 1998: Einsteins Ende; Stan Becker – Auf eigene Faust; Männer sind wie Schokolade. 1998/99: Der Einstein des Sex – Leben und Werk des Doktor Magnus Hirschfeld [FF – DE/NL]; Majestät brauchen Sonne [DO – voi – DE/NL]. 1999: Downhill City [FF – DE/FI]; POP 2000 [TVS]; Untersuchung an Mädeln [FF – AT]; E-m@il an Gott. 1999/2000: Marlene [FF]. 2000: Dafür kann man Hamburg manches verzeihen – Hans Erich Nossack [TVD]; Jedermann; Forever Young – Brigitte Mira; Les Misérables / Los Miserables / Les Misérables – Gefangene des Schicksals [FR/IT/ES/DE/US]; ‘Lieber Fidel’. Maritas Geschichte [DO – voi]. 2000/01: Sass [FF]. 2001: Morgengrauen [SF]; 100 Pro [FF – voi]; Abgeschminkt: Otto Sander [TVD – app]. 2002: Das Jahrhundert des Theaters [TVD – voi]; Tödliches Vertrauen; Sterne, die nie untergehen; Macius [TVS – voi – DE/FR/PL/ HU]; Ein Fall für zwei: Alpträume. 2002/03: Werner – Gekotzt wird später! [ANI – voi]; PiperMint … das Leben, möglicherweise [voi – DE/LU]. 2003: Die Russen kommen!: Lolita ist berühmt – nicht ich. Vladimir Nabokov [TVD – voi]; Hotel Nooteboom [TVD – voi]; Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, Dunarea [FF – AT]; Aus Liebe zu Deutschland – Eine Spendenaffäre [voi]; Käferjunge [ANI – voi]. 2003/04: Kaluoka’hina – Das Zauberriff [ANI – voi]; Tatort: Die Spieler. 2004: Das Traumschiff: Australien; Die Baroness und das Guggenheim [DO – voi]; Polizeiruf 110: Dettmanns weite Welt; Attentat auf Adenauer [TVD – voi]. 2004-08: Siebenstein: Rudi und der Weihnachtselch. 2005: Durch die Nacht mit … Otto Sander und István Szabó [TVD – app]; Little Spoon [SF]; Michelangelo Superstar [TVD – voi]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick. 2005/06: Das Parfum – Die Geschichte eines Mörders / El perfume – Historia de un asesino / Le parfum – Histoire d’un meurtrier [voi – German MLV – DE/ES/FR]. 2005-07: Der kleine König Macius – Der Film / Le petit roi Macius [ANI – voi – DE/FR]. 2006: Unter
HELMA SANDERS-BRAHMS kaiserlicher Flagge [voi]; Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald [FF]. 2008: Krabat [FF – voi].
HELMA SANDERS-BRAHMS (Helma Sanders) Born November 20, 1940, Emden (Germany) Sanders-Brahms established herself as one of West Germany’s most prominent women filmmakers in the 1970s, directing, scripting and often producing her own films. Her work has often found a greater appreciation abroad than in Germany itself. The daughter of a photographer, Sanders went to theatre school in Hanover, after gaining her Abitur in 1960. Between 1962 and 1965 she studied theatre, German, English and education, after which she became a TV presenter, and spent time training in Italy with directors Sergio Corbucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Her first film ANGELIKA URBAN, VERKÄUFERIN, VERLOBT (Angelika Urban, Sales Assistant, Engaged, 1969/70) was rejected by the broadcaster WDR as too long, but it won two awards at the Oberhausen festival that year. Following this success, she was hired by ZDF television to direct GEWALT (Violence, 1970). In the early 1970s some of her politically didactic documentaries included DIE INDUSTRIELLE RESERVEARMEE (The Industrial Reserve Army, 1970/71), about the situation of foreign workers in West Germany, and DIE MASCHINE (The Machine, 1972/73), a film about the work of a rotary press. The 19th century writer Heinrich von Kleist was the inspiration for two of Sanders-Brahms’s films: ERDBEBEN IN CHILI (Earthquake in Chile, 1974) was based on his eponymous novel, while HEINRICH (1976/77) was a reconstruction of his life. The low budget UNTER DEM PFLASTER IST DER STRAND (Under the Pavement Lies the Strand, 1974), which chronicled the romantic relationship of two actors against the socio-political context of the early 1970s, marked a turning point in SandersBrahms’s work as she started to incorporate a subjective element into many of her films. SHIRINS HOCHZEIT (Shirin’s Wedding, 1975) told the story of a young Turkish woman who travels to Germany and is subjected to a cycle of exploitation that forces her into prostitution. Owing to its controversial subject matter, Germany’s Turkish-language newspapers unleashed a campaign against the film, resulting in the leading actress Ayten Erten receiving death threats. The narrative of Sanders-Brahms’s best-known film, DEUTSCHLAND BLEICHE MUTTER (Germany Pale Mother, 1979/80), centred on a German mother bringing up her daughter during World War II while her husband fights on the Eastern Front. Widely screened at festivals in the USA and the UK, and
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highly acclaimed there by feminist critics, the film was met with opposition in Germany by some reviewers who dismissed its representation of history as sentimental, self-pitying, and lacking in objectivity. Based on the personal account of a young schizophrenic woman and filmed in an improvisational style without a finished screenplay, DIE BERÜHRTE (Touched, 1980/81) provided a poignant portrait of Germany’s social outsiders, while the Franco-German co-production FLÜGEL UND FESSELN (The Future of Emily, 1984) charted a mother-daughter relationship, starring French actress Brigitte Fossey and German cinema icon Hildegard Knef. The Cold War division of Germany was the theme of MANÖVER (Manoeuvre, 1988) a comedy set in the 1950s, while APFELBÄUME (Apple Trees, 1991/92) was an attempt to present an insider’s view of life in East Germany. The documentary JETZT LEBEN – JUDEN IN BERLIN (Living Now – Jews in Berlin, 1994) provided an intimate portrait of a Jewish-Russian painter and his family who in the mid-1980s resettled from Odessa to Berlin. MEIN HERZ – NIEMANDEM! (My Heart – No One’s, 1996/97) was a fictional retelling of the love story between Expressionist poets Else Lasker-Schüler and Gottfried Benn. After a ten-year break from directing feature films, Sanders-Brahms returned with the historical biopic of 19th century composers Clara and Robert Schumann in GELIEBTE CLARA (Beloved Clara, 2007/08). [dir,scr – DE] 1969/70: Angelika Urban, Verkäuferin, verlobt [SD – dir,scr,cut,voi,pro]. 1970: Gewalt [TV]. 1970/ 71: Die industrielle Reservearmee [SD – dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1971/72: Der Angestellte [TV]. 1972/73: Die Maschine [DO – dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1973/74: Die letzten Tage von Gomorrha [TV]. 1974: Unter dem Pflaster ist der Strand [dir, co-scr,voi,pro]; Erdbeben in Chili [TV]. 1975: Shirins Hochzeit [TV]. 1976/77: Heinrich. 1978: Von wegen ‘Schicksal’ [DO – ass]. 1978/79: Vringsveedeler Triptychon [DO – dir,scr,cut,voi,pro]. 1979/80: Deutschland bleiche Mutter [dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1980/81: Die Berührte [dir,scr,cos,pro]; Der subjektive Faktor [act]. 1981/82: Die Erbtöchter: Lügenbotschaft / Les filles héréditaires – Message-Mensonge [TV – dir,scr,cos,act,pro – DE/FR]. 1982: Conte pour Anna et tous les enfants qui savent danser sous la lune [TV – FR]. 1984: Flügel und Fesseln / L’Avenir d’Émilie [dir,scr,voi,pro – DE/FR]. 1985: Alte Liebe [TVD – dir, scr,pro]. 1985/86: Laputa. 1986: Felix: Er am Ende [dir]; Hermann mein Vater [dir – FR/DE]. 1988: Manöver [dir, pro]. 1991/92: Apfelbäume. 1994: Ein Schwarzer in der Traumfabrik [TVD – dir]; Jetzt leben – Juden in Berlin [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1995: Lumière & Compagnie [co-dir – FR/ES/SE]. 1996: In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon / The Glamorous World of the Hotel Adlon [TV – co-scr – DE/US]. 1996/ 97: Mein Herz – Niemandem! [dir,scr,cut]. 1998/99: Muttertier Muttermensch [DO – act]. 2000: Mascha Rabben – … nur drei bis vier Sätze am Telefon [DO – app].
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2001: Mascha Rabben aus Gomorrha – Auf der Suche nach Mary Malone [SD – app]. 2003: Die Farbe der Seele [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 2007/08: Geliebte Clara [dir,scr,pro – DE/FR/HU].
ADELE SANDROCK (Adele Caroline Sandrock) Born August 19, 1863, Rotterdam (Netherlands) Died August 30, 1937, Berlin (Germany) An Old School theatrical actress, Sandrock in her later years played countless tyrannical matriarchs in 1920s and 1930s German entertainment films, taking on the mantle of a Teutonic counterpart to the roles that Dame Edith Evans and Margaret Rutherford portrayed decades later in British cinema. Raised in Rotterdam and Berlin, both she and elder sister Wilhelmine Sandrock (1862–1948) were given acting lessons by their mother. Adele’s first public performance was at Berlin’s Urania theatre at the age of fifteen, which was followed by appearances at the Hoftheater in Meiningen in 1879, and subsequent engagements in Berlin, Moscow, Vienna and Budapest. It was after joining Vienna’s Burgtheater in 1895, however, that she rose to prominence as a great tragédienne, not least in works written by her lover, the playwright Arthur Schnitzler, who detailed their relationship in the ‘The Writer and the Actress’ episode of his play ‘Der Reigen’ (Hands Around). Returning to Berlin in 1898, Sandrock undertook tours of Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. She subsequently became a regular at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater between 1905 and 1910, although her style remained divorced from Max Reinhardt’s modernist influence. She made her film debut in 1911, which proved to have few immediate consequences. From 1914, she again launched herself into guest appearances, tours, and recitals, but it was in 1919, while performing at Berlin’s Volksbühne, that she first proved popular in her new bread-and-butter role as a comical fire-breathing old dragon. Sandrock became a frequent fixture in German films from the 1920s, embodying a cavalcade of domineering aunts, stepmothers and grandmothers trussed up in nineteenth-century garb and exuding a majestic, high-handed and self-centred attitude that proved an assured scene-stealer in light-hearted comedies by directors such as Georg Jacoby, Carl Boese, and E. W. Emo. Sandrock also enjoyed belated success as the theatre-obsessed Frau Neuber in Georg Zoch’s ALLES HÖRT AUF MEIN KOMMANDO (Everyone Jumps At My Command, 1934), and in two Reinhold Schünzel films, playing Victorian-age relic Lady Mavis in DIE ENGLISCHE HEIRAT (The English Wedding, 1934) and the goddess Juno in AMPHITRYON (1935). One of her rare serious parts was the grief-stricken moth-
er in Gustav Ucicky’s nationalist U-boat drama MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/33). Renowned for terrorising those around her with wellchosen put-downs in real life, ‘Tante Sadele’ (Auntie Sadele), as she was affectionately known, penned her entertaining (if somewhat liberally embellished) memoirs under the title ‘Mein Leben’ (My Life), which were published posthumously by her sister in 1940. [act – DE] 1911: Marianne, ein Weib aus dem Volk. 1915: Die Beichte einer Verurteilten. 1916: Passionels Tagebuch. 1917: Unsühnbar. 1919: Gebannt und erlöst; Malaria. Urlaub vom Tode; Der Galeerensträfling [2 parts]. 1919/20: Die Tänzerin Barberina; Die letzten Kolczaks. 1920: Patience. Die Karten des Todes; Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag; Manolescus Memoiren; Der siebente Tag; Herztrumpf; Das Haupt des Juarez; Exzellenz Unterrock. 1920/21: Verlogene Moral; Das goldene Netz; Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna. 1921: Grausige Nächte; Die schwarze Pantherin; Der Roman der Christine von Herre; Lady Hamilton; Violett. Der Roman einer Mutter; Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski; Kinder der Finsternis. 1. Der Mann aus Neapel / 2. Kämpfende Welten; Erlebnisse einer Sekretärin. 1921/22: Die siebente Nacht; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. 2 parts. 1922: Herzog Ferrantes Ende; Lucrezia Borgia; Der Absturz; Die Tänzerin Navarro. 1922/23: Alt-Heidelberg; Die Magyarenfürstin; Die Prinzessin Suwarin. 1923: Die Liebe einer Königin; Der Hof ohne Lachen. 1923/24: Helena. 1. Der Raub der Helena / 2. Der Untergang Trojas; Die Radio-Heirat. 1924: Die Schmetterlingsschlacht; Op hoop van zegen / Die Fahrt ins Verderben [NL/DE]. 1924/25: Aschermittwoch. 1925: Das Mädchen mit der Protektion. 1925/26: Die Försterchristl; Deutsche Herzen am deutschen Rhein. 1926: Trude, die Sechzehnjährige; Die Waise von Lowood; Nixchen; Droomkoninkje / Die vom Schicksal Verfolgten [NL/DE]. 1926/27: Der Himmel auf Erden; Die leichte Isabell. 1927: Die Geliebte; Die drei Niemandskinder; Frühere Verhältnisse; Feme; Ein rheinisches Mädchen beim rheinischen Wein; Das Schicksal einer Nacht; Arme kleine Sif; Die rollende Kugel; Das Mädchen mit den fünf Nullen; Im Luxuszug; Die Stadt der tausend Freuden. Das Geheimnis einer Mutter; Deutsche Frauen – Deutsche Treue. 1927/28: Königin Luise. 2 parts; Sechs Mädchen suchen Nachtquartier; Die Durchgängerin. 1928: Lotte. Die Geschichte vom ‘häßlichen Entlein’; Der Ladenprinz; Leontines Ehemänner; Mary Lou; Kaczmarek; Serenissimus, der Vielgeliebte, und die letzte Jungfrau; Die Zirkusprinzessin. 1928/29: Verirrte Jugend; Fräulein Else. 1929: Aufruhr im Junggesellenheim; Der Erzieher meiner Tochter; Die Drei um Edith; Katharina Knie. 1929/ 30: Donauwalzer. 1930: Der Nächste – Bitte!; Skandal um Eva; Die große Sehnsucht [app]; Die zärtlichen Verwandten; Ein Walzer im Schlafcoupé; 1000 Worte Deutsch; Eine Freundin so goldig wie du; Seitensprünge; Die Königin einer Nacht [MLV]; Ihre Majestät die Liebe [MLV]. 1930/31: Die Försterchristl; Walzerparadies. 1931: Der Schrecken der Garnison; Die Schlacht von Bademünde; Die schwebende Jungfrau; Der verjüngte Adolar; Jeder fragt nach Erika; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Keine Feier ohne Meyer;
KATRIN SASS Strohwitwer. 1931/32: Ein steinreicher Mann; Der Sieger [MLV]; Le vainqueur [MLV – DE/FR]; Goldblondes Mädchen, ich schenk’ Dir mein Herz – Ich bin ja so verliebt …; Der tolle Bomberg. 1932: Einmal möcht’ ich keine Sorgen haben; Ein toller Einfall [MLV]; Ballhaus Goldener Engel; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; Ich will nicht wissen, wer Du bist; Liebe, Scherz und Ernst; Schön war’s doch [SF]; Friederike; Liebe auf den ersten Ton; Der große Bluff [MLV]; Der verliebte Blasekopp. 1932/33: Morgenrot; Eine Frau wie Du; Die Tochter des Regiments [MLV]. 1933: Kleines Mädel – großes Glück; Glückliche Reise; Der Störenfried; Es knallt [SF]. 1933/34: Der Flüchtling aus Chicago; Zigeunerblut. 1934: Ich heiße Benjamin; Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV]; La jeune fille d’une nuit [MLV]; Ein Walzer für Dich; Gern hab’ ich die Frau’n geküßt; Ich sing mich in Dein Herz hinein; Der Fall Brenken; Da stimmt was nicht; Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Die englische Heirat; Der Herr Senator; Ich sehne mich nach Dir; Der letzte Walzer [MLV]; Alles hört auf mein Kommando; Der Herr ohne Wohnung [AT]; Petersburger Nächte. 1934/35: Der blaue Diamant; Der Taler der Tante Sidonie [SF]; Der Himmel auf Erden [AT]. 1935: Alle Tage ist kein Sonntag; Ein falscher Fuffziger; Eva [AT]; Mach’ mich glücklich [MLV]; Der Kampf mit dem Drachen; Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV]; Der Gefangene des Königs; Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; Leutnant Bobby, der Teufelskerl [AT]; Zirkus Saran [AT]; Es waren zwei Junggesellen; Kirschen in Nachbars Garten; Die Gesangstunde [SF]. 1935/36: Der Favorit der Kaiserin; Der schüchterne Casanova; Rendezvous in Wien [AT]; Die große und die kleine Welt; Engel mit kleinen Fehlern. 1936: Die Puppenfee [AT]; Flitterwochen; Skandal um die Fledermaus. 1940: Der Trichter Nr. 10 [SF – app]. 1965: Lieblinge unserer Eltern: Adele Sandrock [TVD – app]. 1987: Die komische Göttin [TVD – app].
KATRIN SASS Born October 23, 1956, Schwerin (East Germany) One of the promising new acting talents at DEFA in the late 1970s and 1980s, Saß made a poignant comeback decades later in the box office hit GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2001/02). After leaving school Saß trained as a telephonist before attending theatre school in Rostock. She first came to public attention in BIS DASS DER TOD EUCH SCHEIDET (Until Death Does You Part, 1977/78). While still a student at drama school she had been picked by director Heiner Carow to play the film’s central character, a shop assistant overwhelmed by marital problems. As well as appearing on stage, Saß was cast in small parts in TV series such as POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Call 110) and DER STAATSANWALT HAT DAS WORT (The Prosecutor may speak). In BÜRGSCHAFT FÜR EIN JAHR (Guarantee for a Year, 1980/81), Saß convinced as a single working class mother, fighting for the custody of her three children. The film won an award at the Berlin film festival in 1982. She also gained the prestigious ‘Große Klap-
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pe’ prize in 1987 for her leading role in Roland Gräf’s DAS HAUS AM FLUSS (House on the River, 1984/85), which dealt with the influence of fascism on everyday life during World War II. In 1985/86 she starred in the romantic drama DER TRAUM VOM ELCH (Dreaming of the Elk), directed by Siegfried Kühn. At the beginning of the 1990s Saß appeared in Frank Beyer’s TV films SIE UND ER (She and Him, 1991) and DAS GROSSE FEST (The Big Party, 1992). From 1993 to 1997 she played a police inspector from Brandenburg in the cop series POLIZEIRUF 110, but her career began to fall apart towards the end of this period, owing to bouts of alcoholism, an addiction she revealed in her frank autobiography ‘Das Glück wird niemals alt’ (Happiness Never Grows Old), published in 2003. Saß resumed her career with notable supporting roles in director Andres Dresen’s DIE POLIZISTIN (The Police Woman, 2000) and made a comeback in a leading role with HEIDI M. (2000/01), in which she was cast as a middle-aged, divorced working class woman facing her growing loneliness. However, it was the reunification comedy GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2001/02) that brought Saß firmly back to the public’s attention. Her sensitive portrayal of a committed socialist who falls into a coma and reawakens in a new society from which her son protects her, played a considerable part in the film’s success. [act – DD] 1977/78: Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet. 1979: Die Schmuggler von Rajgorod. 1979/80: Die Verlobte. 1980: Polizeiruf 110: Nerze [TV]; Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Chirurgus Johann Paul Schroth [TV]. 1980/81: Bürgschaft für ein Jahr; Familie Rechlin [TV]. 1981: Zahl bar, wenn du kannst [TV]. 1983: Nachhilfe für Vati [TV]. 1983/ 84: Polizeiruf 110: Schwere Jahre [TV]; Meine Frau Inge und meine Frau Schmidt. 1984: Ab heute erwachsen. 1984/85: Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Vaters Frau [TV]; Das Haus am Fluß. 1985: Rabenvater. 1985/86: Der Traum vom Elch. 1987/88: Fallada – letztes Kapitel. 1988: Zum Teufel mit Harbolla. 1990: Heute sterben immer nur die anderen [DD/DE]. [act – TV – DE] 1991: Jugend ohne Gott; Sie und Er. 1991/ 92: Moebius [FF]. 1992: Das große Fest; Tatort: Berlin – Beste Lage. 1992/93: Inge, April und Mai [FF]; Tatort: Tod einer alten Frau. 1993: Polizeiruf 110: Blue Dream – Tod im Regen; Stunde der Füchse. 1993/94: Ein Fall für zwei: Der wahre Reichtum; Polizeiruf 110: Totes Gleis. 1993-95: Immenhof [TVS]. 1994: Dreimal die Woche; Der Nachlaß; Polizeiruf 110: Opfergang; Wolffs Revier: Tod einer Familie. 1995: Polizeiruf 110: 7 Tage Freiheit; Zwischentöne: Katrin Saß [TVD]; Polizeiruf 110: Jutta oder Die Kinder von Damutz; Polizeiruf 110: Im Netz. 1995/96: Peter Strohm: Die Kröte; Kurklinik Rosenau: Verleumdung. 1996: Polizeiruf 110: Die Gazelle; Polizeiruf 110: Kurzer Traum. 1997: Härtetest [FF]; Polizeiruf 110: Der Sohn der Kommissarin; Polizeiruf 110: Das Wunder von Wustermark; Wolffs Revier: Im Namen des Vaters; Das vergessene Leben. 1997/98: Hallo Onkel Doc!: Die wilde Clara. 1998: Wolffs Revier:
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Zwei Seelen, ein Gedanke; Sperling und der brennende Arm; Ein Mann stürzt ab; Tatort: Todesangst. 1998/99: Ein tödliches Wochenende; Klemperer – Ein Leben in Deutschland [TVS – episodes 7-11]. 1999: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Das Maß ist voll. 1999/2000: Tatort: Blüten aus Werder; Wolffs Revier: Yankee Bomber; Die Männer vom K3: Tyrannenmord. 2000: Die Polizistin; Verhängnisvolles Glück; Schimanski – Tödliche Liebe. 2000/01: Heidi M. [FF]; Die Cleveren: Phönix aus der Asche. 2001: Ein Fall für zwei: Tödliche Schnappschüsse. 2001/02: Good Bye, Lenin! [FF]. 2001-03: Der Schmerz geht, der Film bleibt [TVD – app]. 2002: Tatort: Rückspiel. 2002/03: Babij Jar [FF – DE/BY]; Tatort: Bienzle und der Taximord. 2004: Bella Block: Die Freiheit der Wölfe; Problemzone Schwiegereltern; Der Alte: Der Tangomord; Tatort: Feuertaufe; Bloch – Ein krankes Herz. 2004/05: Mutterseelenallein [FF]; Unkenrufe / Wrózby kumaka [FF – DE/PL/GB]; Warchild / Izginuli [FF – DE/SI]. 2005: Siska: Verlorener Sohn. 2005/06: Meine verrückte türkische Hochzeit; Der Alte: Tödliches Schweigen; Verschleppt – Kein Weg zurück; Unter anderen Umständen. 2006/07: Mitten im Leben [TVS – episodes 1-9]. 2006-08: Donne-moi la main / Reich mir deine Hand [FF – FR/DE]. 2007: Hochzeit um jeden Preis; Heimweh nach drüben; Der Kriminalist: Ein ideales Opfer. 2007/08: Dell & Richthofen [TVS]; Tatort: Tod einer Heuschrecke; Der Alte: Die Nacht kommt schneller als du denkst; Donna Leon – Die dunkle Stunde der Serenissima; Siska: Seele im Nebel; Lulu & Jimi [FF]. 2008: Stille Post. 2008/09: Die Freundin der Tochter; Liebe verlernt man nicht.
ULRICH SCHAMONI Born November 9, 1939, Berlin (Germany) Died March 9, 1998, Berlin (Germany) An influential figure among the first generation of the New German Cinema in the 1960s, Schamoni’s later career never reached the recognition of his contemporaries or that of the younger directors he inspired. Brash, funny and somewhat arrogant, Schamoni’s ironic approach to filmmaking was criticised during his heyday as malicious and exploitative. The son of Dr Victor Schamoni (1901–1942), an academic, critic and film director (SPUK IM SPIELKLUB, The Haunted Gambling Den, 1934), and his wife Maria, a screenwriter and editor, Ulrich Schamoni left school at seventeen to study acting and media in Munich. To avoid conscription he relocated to West Berlin where he worked as assistant director in films, theatre and television and wrote the novel ‘Dein Sohn lässt grüßen’ (Your Son Sends His Greetings, 1962) which chronicled the reckless behaviour of a group of young people during the post war economic boom period, and their protest against the superficiality of their consumerist elders. Schamoni’s directorial debut was the short film HOLLYWOOD IN DEBLATSCHKA PESCARA (1964/65), documenting a day’s shooting of the big-budget international co-production GENGHIS KHAN in Yugo-
slavia. His skilful depiction of the immense expenditure of time, effort and money put into producing a few minutes of bloodthirsty genre cinema earned him the main award at the Oberhausen short film festival in 1965. The same year Schamoni contributed an ironic, ruthless account on the festival and state of German cinema for the ZDF series FILMFORUM. ES (It, 1965) was Schamoni’s first feature film. Cheaply produced, and reminiscent of the style of the French Nouvelle Vogue, it generated public debate with its previously taboo topic of abortion (illegal at the time). Nominated for an Oscar, the film also won five German Film Awards in Gold, in spite of derogatory criticism. Schamoni also faced criticism for the short LOCKENKÖPFCHEN (Curly) a pseudo-documentary parodying cinema verité conventions, and ALLE JAHRE WIEDER (As Every Year, both 1966/67), Schamoni’s second feature film. The latter film narrates the story of a man who – accompanied by his girlfriend – visits his estranged wife and children at Christmas. Several media celebrities appeared as themselves, giving an appearance of authenticity. The film was vehemently attacked by German critics, but won awards for direction and screenplay. Schamoni’s next two films failed at the box-office but the cheaply and quickly produced EINS (One, 1971) received critical praise as well as a German Film Award. Written by the director, it told the story of a young entrepreneur who instructs two odd characters how to win a fortune in casinos on his behalf, using his grandfather’s sure fire roulette system. CHAPEAU CLAQUE (Top Hat, 1973/74) was a similarly sarcastic portrait of a young industrialist selfishly exploiting the system to lead a life of ease. Increasingly disillusioned with the film culture in West Germany Schamoni concentrated on TV films, especially ‘mockumentaries’. In the mid-1980s Schamoni became involved in cable TV and radio projects in West Berlin but high production costs and disappointing viewing figures caused him to abandon them. He subsequently withdrew entirely from film and television work. Schamoni’s brothers all contributed in various capacities to German cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. Victor Schamoni (1932–1975) appeared in Vlado Kristl’s film DER BRIEF (The Letter, 1966) and worked as a cameraman, mostly on productions in which some of his more prominent younger brothers were involved. Thomas Schamoni (born 1936) directed his first short film KINDERSPIELE (Children’s Games) in 1962, and won recognition with EIN GROSSER GRAUBLAUER VOGEL (A Big Grey-Blue Bird, 1969/70), a surreal tale incorporating elements from popular genres such as science fiction and spy thrillers. He was one of the founders of distribution and production company Filmverlag der Autoren.
MARIA SCHELL
Peter Schamoni (born 1934) was the most prolific brother, and made his name principally as a producer. As a director, he shot his first short film in 1957 (MOSKAU 1957), while his feature debut SCHONZEIT FÜR FÜCHSE (No Shooting Time for Foxes, 1965/66) was one of the early notable successes of the New German Cinema. His subsequent feature films mostly followed a conventional genre approach, such as the sauerkraut western POTATO FRITZ (1975/ 76), the Clara Schumann biopic FRÜHLINGSSINFONIE (Spring Symphony, 1982/83), starring Nastassja Kinski; and the World War II farce SCHLOSS KÖNIGSWALD (Königswald Castle, 1987), with its ensemble cast of Nazi-era film divas including Marika Rökk, Marianne Hoppe, and Camilla Horn. He won greater critical acclaim for a series of documentaries he directed since the 1960s, many of which were about art and artists. These included HUNDERTWASSERS REGENTAG (Hundertwasser’s Rainy Day, 1971), MAX ERNST: MEIN VAGABUNDIEREN – MEINE UNRUHE (Max Ernst: Journey Into the Subconscious, 1991) and BOTERO – GEBOREN IN MEDELLIN (Botero – Born in Medellin, 2007/08). [dir – DE] 1961: Die Wildente [TV – ass-dir – DE/CH/AT]. 1961/62: Das Vergnügen, anständig zu sein [TV – ass-dir]. 1963: Maria Magdalene [TV – ass-dir]. 1964: Der Kammersänger [TV – ass-dir]; Legende einer Liebe [TV – ass-dir]. 1964/65: Hollywood in Deblatschka Pescara [SD – dir, scr]. 1964-66: Woyzeck [TV – dir,scr]. 1965: … Geist und ein wenig Glück [TVD – dir,scr]; Es [dir,act]. 1965/66: Irrungen – Wirrungen [TV – scr]. 1966: Die Fliegen [TV – ass-dir,scr]; Der Brief [act]. 1966/67: Der Duft von Blumen [TV – act]; Lockenköpfchen [SF – dir,scr]; Alle Jahre wieder [dir,co-scr]. 1968: Quartett im Bett [dir,scr]. 1969: Für meine Kinder – Von Vati [SF – dir,scr]. 1969/70: Wir – zwei [dir,act]. 1971: Eins [dir,scr,act]. 1972/73: Mein Bruder Willi [SD]. 1973/74: Chapeau Claque [dir,scr,des,act,pro]. 1978/79: Was wären wir ohne uns [TVS – 4 episodes – dir, scr]. 1979/80: Das Traumhaus [dir,pro]. 1982: Der Vikar von Helmeringhausen – oder Was nützt es für die Ewigkeit? [TVD – dir,co-scr]. 1982/83: Der Platzanweiser. Porträt eines Kinomanen [act]. 1983/84: Ullis Allerlei [TVD – dir,scr,cam,cut,act]; So lebten sie alle Tage [TVS – dir,act]. 1985: Alles Paletti [TV – act].
MARIA SCHELL (Margarete Schell) Born January 15, 1926, Vienna (Austria) Died April 26, 2005, Preitenegg (Austria) Noted for her intensely emotional performances in tearful melodramas of the 1950s, Maria Schell was one of post-war Germany’s biggest female stars. After Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany, Schell’s family emigrated to Switzerland. Following education in Zurich and in a convent in Alsace, Schell attended a commercial training course, while taking drama and
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voice lessons. She subsequently appeared in theatres in Vienna and Berne. Playing Gretchen in ‘Faust’, she toured with Albert Bassermann in 1950, and gave guest performances in various countries. Her film debut was in STEIBRUCH (Quarry, 1942), a Swiss village melodrama, acting alongside her mother, Margarete Noé von Nordberg. Her first breakthrough was the Austrian family saga DER ENGEL MIT DER POSAUNE / THE ANGEL WITH THE TRUMPET, 1948/49), also shot in an English version. Over the next decade Schell was frequently paired with male stars Dieter Borsche and O. W. Fischer in a series of romantic tearjerkers such as DR. HOLL (Affairs of Dr. Holl, 1950/51), BIS WIR UNS WIEDERSEH’N (Till We Meet Again, 1952) and SOLANGE DU DA BIST (As Long As You Are There, 1953). She gained international recognition with her role as a nurse in Helmut Käutner’s anti-war film DIE LETZTE BRÜCKE (The Last Bridge, 1953/54), which won an award in Cannes. Two years later Schell won a prize in Venice for her title role as the laundress in the French production GERVAISE (1955/56), an adaptation of Zola’s classic realist novel. In Robert Siodmak’s adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann’s naturalist drama DIE RATTEN (The Rats, 1955), Schell portrayed a desperate mother. Contracted to M-G-M in 1957, Schell starred in Hollywood alongside Yul Brynner in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1957) and in a two-part TV remake of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1959). She also played in the epic western CIMARRON (1960) opposite Glenn Ford, and in the more sombre THE HANGING TREE (1958/59) alongside Gary Cooper. In the 1960s, she filmed in France, Italy and Spain, working for directors including Philippe de Broca, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rouffio. Besides her film assignments Schell continued with her stage career, touring Switzerland, Austria and West Germany, and participating in the Salzburg Festival in 1955 and 1979. From the 1970s onwards she frequently appeared in American and German TV series, and was among the all-star casts of big-budget Hollywood releases, including VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1975/76) and, as a Kryptonite elder, in SUPERMAN (1977/78). Among her last films produced for the cinema were, alongside Romy Schneider, the Franco-West German co-production LA PASSANTE DU SANS-SOUCI (The Passerby, 1981/82) and the British 1919 (1984), in which she and Paul Schofield portrayed two elderly people who reminisce about having been Siegmund Freud’s patients decades previously. Schell had another success playing a matriarch in the German TV series DIE GLÜCKLICHE FAMILIE (A Happy Family, 1986–1991). She subsequently made headlines following a suicide attempt, and after a series of brain haemorrhages in the 1990s she gradually
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retired. Her final public appearance was at the premiere of her brother Maximilian’s documentary portrait of her, MEINE SCHWESTER MARIA (My Sister Maria, 2001). [act – DE] 1942: Steibruch [CH]. 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune [MLV – AT]; Maresi [AT]; Nach dem Sturm [CH/ AT/LI]. 1949/50: The Angel With the Trumpet [MLV – GB]. 1950: Es kommt ein Tag. 1950/51: Dr. Holl. 1951: The Magic Box [GB]; So Little Time [GB]. 1952: Bis wir uns wiederseh’n; The Heart of the Matter [GB]. 1952/53: Der träumende Mund. 1953: Solange Du da bist; Tagebuch einer Verliebten. 1953/54: Die letzte Brücke / Poslednji most [AT/YU]. 1954: Herr über Leben und Tod; Napoléon / Napoleone Bonaparte [FR/IT]. 1955: Die Ratten. 1955/ 56: Gervaise [FR/IT]. 1956: Liebe / Uragano sul Po [DE/IT]; Künstlerporträt: Maria Schell [TVD – app]. 1956/57: Rose Bernd. 1957: Ungarn in Flammen [DO – voi]; Le notti bianche / Nuits blanches [IT/FR]; The Brothers Karamazov [US]. 1957/58: Une vie / Una vita [FR/IT]. 1958: Playhouse 90: Words from a Sealed-Off Box [TV – US]; Der Schinderhannes. 1958/59: The Hanging Tree [US]. 1959: Playhouse 90: For Whom the Bell Tolls [TV – US]; Raubfischer in Hellas. 1960: The Mark [GB]; Ninotchka [TV – US]; Cimarron [US]. 1961: Das Riesenrad. 1962: Ich bin auch nur eine Frau. 1963: Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa [act,pro]; L’Assassin connaît la musique … [FR]. 1964: Who Has Seen the Wind? [TV – US]. 1965: Nora oder Ein Puppenheim [TV]. 1968: Die ungarische Hochzeit [TV – DE/AT]; 99 mujeres / Der heiße Tod / 99 donne [ES/DE/IT]; Le diable par la queue / Non tirate il diavolo par la coda [FR/IT]. 1969: Schwabinger Vorstadtbrettl [TV – app]; Der Kommissar: Schrei vor dem Fenster [TV]; El proceso de las brujas / Der Hexentöter von Blackmoor / Il trono di fuoco [ES/DE/IT]; La provocation / Provokatia [FR/IL]. 1970: Chamsin [act,pro]. 1970/71: Dans la poussiere du soleil [FR/ES]. [act – TV – DE] 1971: Willy und Lilly; Die keusche Susanne. 1971/72: Die Pfarrhauskomödie [FF – pro]. 1971-74: Die Ohrfeige [FF]. 1972: Marie. 1972/73: Assignment: Vienna: So Long, Charlie [US]; Occupation [TVS – GR]; Immobilien. 1973: Der Kommissar: Der Tod der Karin W.; Der kleine Doktor [TVS – 2 epsisodes]. 1974: The O.D.E.S.S.A. File / Die Akte Odessa [FF – GB/DE]; Das Konzert [AT]; Die Kurpfuscherin; Der Kommissar: Am Rande der Ereignisse. 1974/75: Change. 1975: Der ‘unanständige’ Mozart [AT]; Tatort: Die Abrechnung; Die Heiratsvermittlerin; So oder so ist das Leben [FF – act,pro]. 1975/76: Folies bourgeoises / Twist / Die verrückten Reichen [FF – FR/IT/DE]; Voyage of the Damned [FF – GB]. 1976: Klimbim [TVS – episode 18]; … ich küsse ihnen 1000 mahl die hände [co-scr,act]; Mein Kind; Derrick: Yellow He; Kojak: The Pride and Princess [US]; Teerosen. 1976-79: Die Schönheitsgalerie: Cornelia Vetterlein / Irene Marquise von Pallavicini [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1977: Bühne frei für Peter Weck [DE/AT]. 1977/78: Spiel der Verlierer [FF]; Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo [FF]; Superman [FF – GB]. 1978: Derrick: Klavierkonzert; Hallo Peter! [app]; Die erste Polka [FF]. 1979: Moral; Christmas Lilies of the Field [US]; The Martian Chronicles: The Settlers [US]; Der Wald. 1979/80: Der Thron-
folger. 1980: Liebe bleibt nicht ohne Schmerzen; Der Zerrissene. 1980/81: … und die Tuba bläst der Huber: Alte Liebe / Die musikalische Therapie [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1981: Frau Jenny Treibel. 1981/82: La passante du Sans-Souci / Die Spaziergängerin von Sans Souci [FF – FR/DE]. 1982: Die Krimistunde. Folge 1; Inside the Third Reich [US]; Der Besuch der alten Dame; Absender: Gottfried August Bürger; Absender: Johann Wolfgang Goethe; Elisabeth von England. 1982/83: Das Traumschiff. Folge 7. 1983: Der Trauschein. 1983/84: Král’ drozdia brada / König Drosselbart [FF – CS/DE]. 1984: Samson and Delilah [US]; Meine Lieblingsgeschichte; 1919 [FF – GB]. 1985: Sie – er – es [TVD – app]; Der träumende Mund oder Die Liebe des Filmvorführers. 1986-91: Die glückliche Familie. [TVS – 27 episodes]. 1987/88: Herbst in Lugano. 1988: Wortwechsel [TVD – app]; Wahlbekanntschaften: Der Pilot, der Pianist, der Filmstar [TVD – app]; Das Sonntagsgespräch [TVD – app]. 1989: Schmunzelgeschichten; Showgeschichten. 1990: Das letzte Wort / Le dernier mot [DE/FR]. 1991: Mütter [TVD – app – AT]; Das Instrument, das ich mir selbst bin [TVD – app]. 1992: Nach langer Zeit / Maria des Eaux-Vives [DE/CA]. 1994/95: Der Clan der Anna Voss. 1995: Ein Leben voller Leidenschaft [TVD – app]; Tatort: Heilig Blut. 1996: Holger kommt! [TVD – app]. 1997: Eine unmoralische Frau: Aufstieg und Fall der Neuberin [TVD – app]; Und immer wieder Hoffnung – Maria Schell [TVD – app]. 1998: Dr. Berg – Nur das Leben zählt / La passion du Docteur Berg [DE/FR]. 2001: Meine Schwester Maria [DO – app – AT/DE/CH]. 2002: Die erotischen Welten des Jess Franco [DO – app].
MAXIMILLIAN SCHELL Born December 8, 1930, Vienna (Austria) Since the early 1960s Maximilian Schell balanced a successful dual career as a multiple award-winning actor in international productions, and as an equally acclaimed director. In the latter field he made a particular impact with his literary adaptations during the 1970s, and documentary portraits of Marlene Dietrich and his sister Maria. Brother to actors Carl (born 1927), Maria, and Immy (1935–1992), Maximilian was educated in Basel and Zurich, and went on to study German and History of Art in Zurich, Basel and Munich. Initially engaged as actor and director in Basel in 1953, he performed in London, New York and at the Salzburg Festival as well as in various theatres in Germany, including a period with Gustaf Gründgens at Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, gaining special praise for his ‘Hamlet’. Schell’s first film part was as a deserter in Laszlo Benedek’s KINDER, MÜTTER UND EIN GENERAL (Children, Mothers and a General, 1954/55), and over the next decade he often played intense and haunted individuals. He gained international recognition with Helmut Käutner’s World War I drama EIN MÄDCHEN AUS FLANDERN (A Girl from Flanders,
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1955/56), and soon afterwards appeared as a Nazi officer alongside Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift in his first Hollywood production THE YOUNG LIONS (1957). For his portrayal of a German defence attorney in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961) he won an Oscar as best actor. By the late 1960s, Schell worked both in front and behind the camera. Together with Rudolf Noelte he co-produced and took the leading role in a film version of Kafka’s DAS SCHLOSS (The Castle, 1967/68). His directorial debut was FIRST LOVE (1969/70) based on a Turgenev novel, followed by DER FUSSGÄNGER (The Pedestrian, 1972/73), both of which won national and international acclaim. The atmospheric crime thriller DER RICHTER UND SEIN HENKER (Endgame, 1975), based on a novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and GESCHICHTEN AUS DEM WIENER WALD (Tales from The Vienna Woods, 1978/ 79), based on Ödön von Horváth’s stage play, confirmed Schell’s reputation for well-produced literary adaptations. Schell continued to act in Hollywood films and other international productions throughout this period, specialising in villainous or enigmatic characters, including in THE O.D.E.S.S.A. FILE (1974), which also featured his sister Maria; and in the World War II battle drama A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1976). For his portrayal of a Nazi war criminal masquerading as a Jewish businessman in THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH (1975), he received an Oscar nomination as best actor. He was nominated again for his supporting role as an anti-Nazi activist in Fred Zinnemann’s JULIA (1976/77). MARLENE (1982/83) came to fruition after Schell had spent years of persuading the reclusive star (who he had worked with previously on JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG) to agree to the project. Assembling material from interview tapes, documentaries and films, Schell’s widely acclaimed portrait centred on the ageing star’s reluctance to be interviewed and reveal too much of her mystique. Throughout the documentary, which was partly shot in Dietrich’s Paris apartment, the star is heard, but never seen except in archival footage. Norbert Kückelmann’s MORGEN IN ALABAMA (Tomorrow in Alabama, 1983) provided Schell with his first acting part in a German film in over twenty years. He subsequently played the title role in the American TV serial PETER THE GREAT (1984/85), won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Lenin in the TV production STALIN (1992), and was cast as a murderous civil servant in JUSTIZ (Justice, 1993) and as an Auschwitz survivor in THROUGH ROSES (1996). With MEINE SCHWESTER MARIA (My Sister Maria, 2001) Schell returned to directing and to the format of the documentary portrait, this time a tender study of his ageing sister.
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[act – DE] 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: Der 20. Juli; Reifende Jugend. 1955/56: Ein Mädchen aus Flandern. 1956: Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz; Ein Herz kehrt heim. 1956/57: Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein. 1957: Taxichauffeur Bänz [CH]; Der Meisterdieb [TV]; The Young Lions [US]. 1958: Ein wunderbarer Sommer [LI]; Die Bernauerin [TV]; Die sechste Frau [TV]; Playhouse 90: Child of Our Time [TV – US]. [act – US] 1959: Playhouse 90: Judgment at Nuremberg [TV]; Desilu Playhouse: Perilous [TV]; Eine Dummheit macht auch der Gescheiteste [TV – DE]; The Fifth Column [TV]. 1959/60: Sunday Showcase: Turn the Key Deftly [TV]. 1960: Alcoa Theatre: The Observer [TV]; Family Classics: The Three Musketeers [TV]; Hamlet [TV – DE]. 1961: Judgment at Nuremberg. 1961/62: Five Finger Exercise. 1962: I sequestrati di Altona / Les sequestres d’Altona [IT/FR]; The Reluctant Saint / Cronache di un convento [US/IT]. 1963: Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa [pro – DE]. 1964: Letters of Mozart – Briefe Mozarts [SD – co-dir,act – DE]; Topkapi. 1964/ 65: Der seidene Schuh [TV – DE]. 1964-66: John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Days of Drums [DO – voi (German version)]. 1965: Return from the Ashes [GB]. 1966: The Deadly Affair [GB]; Die venezianischen Zwillinge [TV – AT]; Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre: Washington Square [TV]; Más allá de las montañas / The Desperate Ones [ES/US]. 1967: Counterpoint. 1967/68: Das Schloß [co-scr,pro – DE]; Heidi kehrt heim [DE]. 1968: Krakatoa, East of Java. 1968/69: Simón Bolívar [ES/IT]. 1969/70: First Love [dir,co-scr,pro – DE/CH]. 1971: Trotta [co-scr – DE]. 1972: Paulina 1880 [FR/DE]; Pope Joan [GB]. 1972/73: Der Fußgänger / Der Fussgänger [dir,co-scr,act,pro – DE/CH]. 1974: The Rehearsal; Die Verwandlungen des M. S. [TV – DE]; The O.D.E.S.S.A. File / Die Akte Odessa [GB/DE]. 1975: The Man in the Glass-Booth; Der Richter und sein Henker / Il giudice e i suo boja [dir,scr,act,pro – DE/IT]; Atentat u Sarajevu / Sarajevský atentát [YU/CS]; Ansichten eines Clowns [pro – DE]. 1976: A Bridge Too Far; St. Ives. 1976/77: Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz / Cross of Iron [DE/GB]; Julia. 1978: Gespräche mit Jedermann [TVD – AT]; Avalanche Express [IE/US]. 1978/79: Amo non amo [IT]; Players; Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald [dir,co-scr,voi,pro – DE/AT]. 1979: The Black Hole. 1980: The Diary of Anne Frank [TV]. 1981: The Chosen. 1982: The Phantom of the Opera [TV]. 1982/ 83: Les îles / Die Inseln [act,pro – FR/DE]; Marlene [DO – dir,co-scr,act – DE/FR/CS]. 1983: Wege zu Beethoven [TVS – dir,co-scr – US/DE]; The Great Hamlets [TV]; Morgen in Alabama [DE]. 1984/85: Die Föhnforscher [pro – DE]; Peter the Great [TV]. 1985: The Assisi Underground; Der seidene Schuh [TV – AT/DE]. 1988/89: Showgeschichten [TVS – DE]. 1989/90: Der Rosengarten / The Rose Garden [DE/NL/US]. 1990: The Freshman; Wiseguy [TVS – season 4]; Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung in Moskau [TVD – DE]; Young Catherine [TV – GB/CA/IT/US/SU/DE]. 1990/94: Das Labyrinth [DE]. 1991: Ich über mich [TVD – app – AT]. 1992: Miss Rose White [TV]; Stalin [TV – US/GB/CA/RU/HU]; A Far Off Place. 1993: Justiz [DE/CH]; Candles in the Dark [TV – dir,act]; La Bibbia: Abramo / Die Bibel – Abraham / Abraham [TV – IT/DE/US]. 1994: Little Odessa. 1995: The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years [TV – AU]; Ein Leben voller Leidenschaft [TVD – app – DE]. 1996: The Vampyre Wars;
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Through Roses [TV]. 1996/97: Telling Lies in America. 1997: The Eighteenth Angel; Left Luggage [NL/GB/BE/US]. 1998: Vampires; Deep Impact; Wer liebt, dem wachsen Flügel … [DE/AT]. 1998/99: Fisimatenten [DE]; I Love You, Baby [DE]. 1999: Joan of Arc [TV – CA]. 2000: The Song of the Lark [TV]; Hamlet in Hollywood – Die Welten des Maximilian Schell [TVD – app]. 2001: Liebe, Lügen, Leidenschaften [TV – DE]; Meine Schwester Maria [DO – dir, co-scr,app,pro – AT/DE/CH]. 2002: Der Bestseller – Mord auf italienisch [TV – AT/DE]. 2002-07: Der Fürst und das Mädchen [TVS – 3 seasons – 37 episodes]. 2003: Alles Glück dieser Erde [TV – AT]. 2003/04: Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers [TV – AT/DE]. 2004: Coast to Coast [TV – US/ CA]. 2004-08: Imperium [TVD – 3 seasons – presenter – DE]. 2005: Die Liebe eines Priesters [TV – AT]; Die Alpenklinik [TV – DE]. 2005/06: Rosamunde Pilcher – Die Muschelsucher / The Shell Seekers [TV – DE/GB]. 2006: The Salzburg Festival [TVD – GB]; Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen [DE]. 2006/07: Verstörung – und eine Art von Poesie [DO – app – DE]. 2007: Giganten: Einstein – Superstar der Wissenschaft [TV – DE]; Die Rosenkönigin [TV – AT]. 2008: Imperium der Päpste [TVD – presenter – DE]; The Brothers Bloom. 2008/09: Schwarze Blumen / Flores negras [AT/DE/ES]; T.M.A. [CZ].
GERHARD SCHEUMANN Born December 25, 1930, Ortelsburg (Germany, now Szczytno, Poland) Died May 30, 1998, Berlin (Germany) A director, producer, and occasional writer of many documentaries made in the GDR from the 1960s through to the end of the 1980s, Scheumann worked closely with Walter Heynowski from 1965 as Studio H & S. The son of a civil servant Scheumann was educated at an elite Nazi school in Stuhm. After fleeing to Plön in Holstein in 1945 he turned to Marxism, completed his Abitur in the Soviet occupied zone in 1949, and trained as a journalist and reporter for the radio in Berlin. From 1953 to 1955 he taught theory and practice of broadcasting at the Institute for Radio in Weimar. Scheumann was the editor for cultural policy and science at East-German Radio and presented the news and current affairs programme ‘Treffpunkt Berlin’. In 1961 he transferred to East-German Television station (Deutscher Fernsehfunk) where he had already produced several historical and political series. He founded and managed the TV magazine PRISMA, which dealt with domestic policy. At the same time he made various documentaries on India, Burma and Nepal. In his film collaborations with Walter Heynowski (for details of their collaborations see the latter’s entry in ths volume) Scheumann often took on the role of interviewer or commentator. For many years he belonged to the committee of the Union of Film and
Television workers and from 1974–78 was secretary for the department of performing arts in the Academy of Arts in the GDR. [co-dir,co-scr,pro – SD – DD] 1959: Gewitter [co-scr]. 1961: Die DDR in Delhi [TVD – dir]; Sonaparata [TVD – dir]; Mansarde der Menschheit [TVD – dir]. 1962: Das Wort hat nicht der Staatsanwalt [TVD – dir]. 1965: o.k. [co-scr]; Jagdgesellschaft [co-scr]; Auf Wiedersehen [TVD – co-scr, voi]. 1965/66: Der lachende Mann [co-dir,co-scr,voi]; Ehrenmänner [co-scr,voi]. 1966: Wink vom Nachbarn [TVD – co-scr,voi]; Grüße von Ost nach West [TVD – scr,voi,pro]; PS zum Lachenden Mann [TVD – co-scr,voi]; Heimweh nach der Zukunft. Max Steenbeck erzählt [TVD – co-scr]; 400 cm3 [co-scr]. 1966/67: Geisterstunde [TVD – co-scr,pro]. 1967: Der Zeuge [TVD]; Der Fall Bernd K. [TVD – co-scr,pro]; Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung [coscr,voi]. 1967/68: Piloten im Pyjama: 1. Yes, Sir / 2. HiltonHanoi / 3. Der Job / 4. Die Donnergötter [TVD]. 1968/69: Der Präsident im Exil [TVD]. 1968-70: Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit. 1968-72: Remington cal. 12. 1969/70: Augenblicke für später. Erinnerungen von sowjetischen Frontkorrespondenten [TVD – pro]. 1970: Ein Mann seltener Art. Aussagen über Hans Otto [TVD – pro]. 1970/71: Bye-bye Wheelus. Filmtriptychon [DO]. 1971: Implacabilis. Die Barrikaden eines Zeitalters [TVD – pro]; 100 [pro]. 1972: Martha Lehmann [pro]. 1973: Ich bin ein Fritz. Episoden einer ungewöhnlichen Jugend [TVD – pro]; Das Trauerspiel [TVD – co-dir,ide,pro]; Mitbürger! Zum Gedenken an Salvador Allende. 1973/74: Krieg der Mumien [DO]. 1974: Der goldene Strich [TVD – pro]; Psalm 18; Internationalisten [DO – pro]; Ich war, ich bin, ich werde sein [DO]. 1974/75: El golpe blanco. Der weiße Putsch [DO]. 1975: Theaterarbeit [TVD – pro]; Geldsorgen; Meiers Nachlaß; Ohne Arbeit [DO – pro]; Eine Minute Dunkel macht uns nicht blind [DO]. 1975-77: Vietnam. 1. Die Teufelsinsel / 2. Der erste Reis danach / 3. Ich bereue aufrichtig / 4. Die eiserne Festung [DO – 4 episodes]. 1976: Die Gruppe Floh de Cologne [DO – pro]; Eintritt kostenlos; Immer wenn der Steiner kam [DO]. 1976/77: Konsequenz [DO – pro]. 1978: Die Toten schweigen nicht [DO]; Am Wassergraben; Im Feuer bestanden. Die letzten Stunden der Moneda [DO]. 1979: Ein Vietnamflüchtling; Phoenix [DO]. 1980: Die fernen Freunde nah [DO]; Fliege, roter Schmetterling. 1980/81: Kampuchea. Sterben und Auferstehn / 2. Die Angkar / 3. Der Dschungelkrieg [DO]. 1981: Exercises; Im Zeichen der Spinne. Anatomie einer Konterrevolution [TVD]; Aparte Bilder; Ein Pfeiler im Strom [DO]; Zum Beispiel: Regensburg [dir,scr]. 1984: Das lustige Spiel; Amok. 1985: Hector Cuevas [DO]; Schnappschüsse aus Chile. 1986: Die Generale [TVD – 2 episodes – DD/GB/NL/GR]; Der springende Punkt. 1987: Teufelszeug. 1988: Atlantik [pro]; Ätna [pro]; Kentauren [pro]; Kamerad Krüger [DO]; Die Lüge und der Tod [TVD]; Der Mann an der Rampe. 1989: Die dritte Haut [TVD]; Knabenjahre [DO – pro]. 1990: Großer Bahnhof [DO – pro]; Es kommt alles aus mir selbst [pro]. 1991: Hunger – Ein deutscher Lebenslauf [TVD – DE]. 1996: Abgeschossen. Die Geschichte von den Piloten im Pyjama [TVD – app – DE].
VOLKER SCHLÖNDORFF NIKLAUS SCHILLING (Niklaus Franz Josef Schilling) Born April 23, 1944, Basel (Switzerland) One of the early members of the New German Cinema movement in the 1960s, director Schilling reinvented himself several times over the next decades, always experimenting with new technologies. His films playfully quote and combine elements from various genres, such as melodramas and spy thrillers. In terms of narrative content, a recurrent theme concerns borders and separation, especially the inner German division. Born into a Catholic family, Schilling was first introduced to films during Sunday school. He attended business school and trained as a window dresser. In Zurich, Schilling became a camera assistant for the advertising film company Pro Film. He also filmed television reports. While working as a production assistant in Munich in 1965 he met directors Klaus Lemke, Rudolf Thome and Jean-Marie Straub. Together with Hubs Hagen, he worked as cameraman on projects arranged by the ‘Munich Group’. Between 1967 and 1969 he shot Lemke’s feature film 48 STUNDEN BIS ACAPULCO (48 Hours Until Acapulco, 1967), Straub’s DER BRÄUTIGAM, DIE KOMÖDIANTIN UND DER ZUHÄLTER (The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp) and Thome’s DETEKTIVE (Detectives, both 1968) as well as May Spils’s comedy hit NICHT FUMMELN, LIEBLING (Don’t Grope Darling, 1969). After directing some short films, Schilling made his first feature film in 1971, a privately financed melodrama NACHTSCHATTEN (Night Shadows) which reminded some critics of traditional German Heimatfilme, but which drew more on motifs from German romanticism and from the films of F. W. Murnau. Not until five years later was he able to complete the self-reflective comedy DIE VERTREIBUNG AUS DEM PARADIES (Exile from Paradise, 1976) concerning the film dreams of a small-time actor in Munich and Cinecittà. In this film as well as in RHEINGOLD (Rhinegold, 1977), a stylish melodrama set on an intercity train, Schilling displayed a keen awareness of German film history as well as technical skills. The cross-border satire DER-WILLI-BUSCH-REPORT (Willi Busch Report, 1979) with Thilo Prückner as a roving small-time reporter was shot entirely with a Steadicam, an apparatus that had only recently been developed. He used innovative video techniques in DIE FRAU OHNE KÖRPER UND DER PROJEKTIONIST (The Woman Without A Body and the Projectionist, 1983) and DORMIRE (1984/85). DEUTSCHFIEBER (German Fever, 1991/92), co-written by Oskar Roehler and once again starring Prückner, dealt with Schilling’s anti-hero Willi Busch’s experiences after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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[co-cam – SF – DE] 1961: Cosmos Action Painting [SD – co-dir,cam,cut,pro – CH]. 1962: Reinigungsanlage II [dir,cam,cut,pro – CH]. 1964: In dieser Stadt [co-cam, pro – CH]. 1965: 9XL – Es war einmal [cam – CH]; Verlorene Stunden [dir,scr,cam,pro – CH]. 1966: Flipper [asscam]; Power Slide; Henker Tom; Duell [ass-cam,des]; Flug 601 [dir,co-scr,co-cam,cut]; Operation Grünwald; Ein Haus am Meer. 1967: Auftrag ohne Nummer [dir,scr,cocam,cut]; Die Kapitulation; Kino; Die Sache mit Vidor; Galaxis; Sabine 18; 48 Stunden bis Acapulco [FF – ass-dir, co-cam]. 1967/68: Jane erschießt John, weil er sie mit Ann betrügt. 1968: Der Alte; Da capo; Einsamer Morgen [dir, scr,cam,cut,pro]; Fun City; Das Kleid; Mic; Zinnsoldat; Under My Thumb; Erotik auf der Schulbank: Sybille; Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter; Detektive [FF]; Bengelchen liebt kreuz und quer [FF]. 1969: Anna – Nana; Nicht fummeln, Liebling [FF]; Die Unvollendete [TV – AT]. 1970: Gebrauchsanweisung [CH]. 1970/71: Supergirl [FF – ide]. [dir,scr,cut – DE] 1971: Nachtschatten. 1976: Die Vertreibung aus dem Paradies. 1977: Rheingold [dir,scr]. 1979: Der Willi-Busch-Report. 1981/82: Zeichen und Wunder [DO – dir,scr,cam,cut,snd,app,voi]; Der Westen leuchtet! [dir,cam,cut]. 1983: Abschied vom Zelluloid [TVD – app]; Die Frau ohne Körper und der Projektionist [dir,scr,cam,cut – DE/LU]. 1984/85: Dormire [dir,scr,cam, cut,act]. 1986: Unter 4 Augen [TVD – dir,co-scr,cut,act, voi]. 1987-89: Der Atem [dir,scr,cut,snd,des – DE/CH]. 1991/92: Deutschfieber [dir,co-scr,cut,snd]. 1994/95: Die blinde Kuh [dir,scr,cam,cut].
VOLKER SCHLÖNDORFF Born March 31, 1939, Wiesbaden (Germany) One of the most influential directors of the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s and early 1980s, Schlöndorff’s reputation is based primarily on his meticulously produced literary adaptations. A cosmopolitan filmmaker who has worked in France and the United States as well as in Germany, Schlöndorff also held managerial positions, most notably running the Babelsberg film studios after German reunification. The son of a doctor, Schlöndorff in 1956 undertook a pupil exchange to France, eventually completing his schooling in France in 1959, before studying politics in Paris, where he met Louis Malle, who hired him on film projects and opera productions. He began working as an assistant to several French directors, including Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Resnais. His directorial debut DER JUNGE TÖRLESS (Young Törless, 1965/66), won critical acclaim, and marked the international breakthrough for a new generation of West German filmmakers in the 1960s. Subsequently, Schlöndorff earned a reputation for his formally innovative film adaptations, and for his ability to capture the zeitgeist of the younger generation with MORD UND TOTSCHLAG (Degree of Murder, 1966/67), and the international co-pro-
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duction MICHAEL KOHLHAAS – DER REBELL (Man on Horseback, 1968/69). Schlöndorff established his first production company in Munich in 1969. He was a key participant in the debates that led to the establishment of West Germany’s government support schemes for filmmakers. During the 1970s, Schlöndorff, often partially financed by German television, produced films that addressed social and political themes, including the features DER PLÖTZLICHE REICHTUM DER ARMEN LEUTE VON KOMBACH (The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach, 1970), and DIE MORAL DER RUTH HALBFASS (The Morals of Ruth Halbfass, 1971). DIE VERLORENE EHRE DER KATHERINA BLUM
(The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, 1975) was based on a novel by Heinrich Böll that criticised West Germany’s tabloid press and the state’s heavy-handed police. Co-directed by Margarethe von Trotta, one of Schlöndorff’s leading actresses, his regular writing partner, and from 1971 to 1991 also his wife, the film was attacked by the conservative CDU party. Schlöndorff and von Trotta worked together again on the acclaimed historical drama DER FANGSCHUSS (Coup de Grâce, 1976). He was among the group of filmmakers who contributed to the collaborative project DEUTSCHLAND IM HERBST (Germany in Autumn, 1977/78), a response to a particularly critical moment in West German history and politics. Schlöndorff’s biggest success was his Oscar-winning adaptation of the Günter Grass novel DIE BLECHTROMMEL (The Tin Drum, 1978/79) a commercially ambitious, large-scale European co-production set against the background of World War II and fascism. In the following years Schlöndorff capitalised on his growing international reputation by working with collaborators inside and outside West Germany on projects such as DIE FÄLSCHUNG (Circle of Deceit, 1981), set in war-torn Lebanon, and the Proust adaptation UN AMOUR DE SWANN (A Love of Swann, 1983), which was co-written by Peter Brook and Jean-Claude Carrière. In the mid-1980s, Schlöndorff temporarily moved to New York, his base for several American projects, including a version of Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1985), starring Dustin Hoffmann, and A GATHERING OF OLD MEN (1986/87), both originally screened on television. An admirer of director Billy Wilder, Schlöndorff conducted a series of interviews with his idol, which resulted in two TV documentaries, BILLY, HOW DID YOU DO IT? (1988–92), followed in 2006 by a re-edited, shorter English-language version, BILLY WILDER SPEAKS. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schlöndorff returned to Germany. HOMO FABER (The Voyager, 1990) featured an international cast (Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa) and retold Max Frisch’s phil-
osophical parable about a middle-aged engineer haunted by coincidences in striking images. The commercially disappointing World War II drama DER UNHOLD (The Ogre, 1995/96) with John Malkovich was made at the Babelsberg Studios near Berlin, which Schlöndorff had managed since 1992. DIE STILLE NACH DEM SCHUSS (Silence after the Shot, 1999/2000) marked a return to domestic political issues with an examination of the legacy of 1970s terrorism and radicalism in the wake of German reunification. DER NEUNTE TAG (The Ninth Day, 2003/ 04), thematised Catholic resistance during the ‘Third Reich’, featuring Ulrich Matthes as a priest. In the TV chamber play ENIGMA – EINE UNEINGESTANDENE LIEBE (Enigma: An Unacknowledged Love, 2005), Mario Adorf starred as an ageing Nobel laureate engaged in a verbal duel with a young journalist. With STRAJK – DIE HELDIN VON DANZIG / STRAJK – BOHATERKA Z GDANSKA (Strike, 2006/ 07), Schlöndorff returned to Gdansk, the location of DIE BLECHTROMMEL. The film told the story of a woman who in 1980 caused the strike that led to the foundation of Solidarnoœæ. Originally contracted to direct the bestseller adaptation DIE PÄPSTIN (Pope Joan, 2008), Schlöndorff was fired by producer Bernd Eichinger and replaced with Sönke Wortmann. This proved only a temporary setback as Schlöndorff teamed up again with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière on the international co-production ULZHAN – DAS VERGESSENE LICHT (2006/07), a drama about a man who travels to Kazakhstan to overcome his midlife crisis. In 2008 Schlöndorff published his memoirs ‘Licht, Schatten und Bewegung’ (Light, Shadows, and Movement). [ass-dir – FR] 1960: Zazie dans le Métro; Wen kümmert’s? [SF – dir,scr,cut – DE]; Die Nacht in Zaandam [TV – DE]. 1960/61: L’Année dernière à Marienbad / L’Anno scorso a Marienbad [FR/IT]; Léon Morin, prêtre / Leon Morin prete [ass-dir,act – FR/IT]. 1961: Vie privée / Vita privata [FR/IT]. 1961/62: Alger 1961 [SD]. 1962: Le doulos / Lo spione [ass-dir,act – FR/IT]; Vive la Tour! [SD]. 1963: Méditerranée [SD]; Le feu follet / Fuoco fatuo [FR/IT]; L’Aîné des ferchaux / Lo sciacallo [FR/IT]; Bon baisers de Bangkok [TVD]. 1963/64: Les baisers. 2. EP: Baiser de Judas / I baci. EP: Bacio di Giuda [FR/IT]. 1964: La chance et l’amour / L’amore e la chance [co-dir,act – FR/IT]. 1965: Viva Maria! [FR/IT]. [dir,scr – DE] 1965/66: Der junge Törless / Les désarrois de l’élève Toerless [DE/FR]. 1966: NDF-Report [TVD – app – AT]. 1966/67: Mord und Totschlag. 1967: Paukenspieler: Ein unheimlicher Moment [co-dir,co-scr]. 1967/81: Rêce do góry / Hands Up! [act – PL/GB]. 1968/69: Michael Kohlhaas – Der Rebell. 1969: Baal [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 1969/ 70: Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? [act]. 1970: Rio das Mortes [ide]; Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1970/71: Mathias Kneißl [TV – act]; Le souffle au coeur / Il soffio al cuore / Herzflimmern
DANIEL SCHMID [dubbing (German version) – FR/IT/DE]. 1971: Deutscher Film in Japan und das japanische Kino [TV-SD]; Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 1972: Strohfeuer [TV – dir,co-scr,pro]. 1973/74: Übernachtung in Tirol [TV – dir,co-scr,pro]. 1974: Das Andechser Gefühl [pro]; Georginas Gründe [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1974-76: Nouvelles de Henry James: Les Raisons de Georgina [TV – dir,co-scr – FR/DE]. 1975: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [co-dir, co-scr]. 1976: Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce [dir – DE/FR]. 1976/77: Nur zum Spaß – nur zum Spiel. Kaleidoskop Valeska Gert [DO – dir,co-scr,act]. 1977: Heinrich Böll [DO – app – IT]. 1977/78: Deutschland im Herbst [co-dir]. 1978: Der zoologische Palast [TV – co-dir]. 1978/ 79: Die Blechtrommel / Le tambour [dir,co-scr,pro – DE/ FR]. 1979/80: Der Kandidat [DO – co-dir,co-scr,app,pro]. 1980: Der Prager Prozeß 1979 [TV – act]. 1981: Die Fälschung / Le faussaire [dir,co-scr – DE/FR]. 1982/83: Krieg und Frieden [co-dir]. 1983: Un amour de Swann [FR]. 1985: Death of a Salesman / Tod eines Handlungsreisenden [TV – US/DE]; Private Conversations [DO – app – US]; Humor ist eine ernste Sache [TVD – app]. 1985/86: Vermischte Nachrichten [co-dir,co-scr]. 1986/87: A Gathering of Old Men / Ein Aufstand alter Männer [dir – US/GB/DE]. 1988-92: Billy, How Did You Do It? / Billy Wilder Speaks [TVD – dir,co-scr,app]. 1989: WilderAuktion [TVD – dir,scr,app]. 1989/90: The Handmaid’s Tale / Die Geschichte der Dienerin [dir – US/DE]. 1990: Präsentationsfilm [SD – app – DD]; Homo Faber / The Voyager [dir,co-scr – DE/FR/GR]. 1991: Filmstunde 1 [TV – app – AT]; Es wäre besser, ein anderer zu sein [TVD – app]. 1992: The Michael Nyman Songbook [TVD – DE/GB]; Sonntagstreff: Volker Schlöndorff im Gespräch mit Dieter Zimmer [TVD – app]; Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt [TVD – app]. 1993: Die Ufa – Mythos und Wirklichkeit [TVD – app]. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1994/95: Une femme française / A French Woman / Eine französische Frau [pro – FR/GB/DE]. 1995/96: Der Unhold / Le roi des aulnes / The Ogre [dir,co-scr – DE/FR/ GB]. 1996: Der Hexer – Horst Wendlandt, Filmproduzent [TVD – app]; Ein unbequemer Moralist [TVD – app]. 19962000: Jedermanns Fest / La dernière fête de Jedermann [TV – pro – AT/DE/FR]. 1997: Palmetto / Palmetto – Dumme sterben nicht aus [US/DE]. 1998-2000: Schrott. Die Atzenposse [act]. 1999/2000: Die Stille nach dem Schuss [dir,co-scr]; Ein Mann für jedes Alter [TVD – app]. 2001: Mit Oskar zum Oscar – Volker Schlöndorff [TVD – app]; Berliner Begegnungen: Peter Huemer im Gespräch mit Volker Schlöndorff [TVD – app]. 2001/02: Marlene Dietrich – Her Own Song [TVD – app – DE/US]; Ten Minutes Older: The Cello [co-dir – GB/DE/FR]. 2002: Ein Produzent hat Seele oder keine [TVD – dir,app]; Kennwort Kino: Aufbruch der Träumer [TVD – app]. 2002/03: Die Verhoevens [TVD – app]. 2002-04: Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2003/04: Freedom2speak v2.0 [DO – app]; Der neunte Tag / Le neuvième jour [dir – DE/LU]. 2004: Einfach und stolz – Die Schauspielerin Angela Winkler [TVD – app]; Von Sex bis Simmel [TVD – app]. 2005: Enigma – eine uneingestandene Liebe [TV – dir, co-scr]; Knef – die frühen Jahre [TVD – app]. 2005/06: Margarethe von Trotta – Mit Herz und Verstand [TVD –
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app]; Strajk – Die Heldin von Danzig / Strajk – Bohaterka z Gdanska [dir,voi – DE/PL]. 2006/07: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Fritz Lang [TVD – app]; Ulzhan / Ulzhan – Das vergessene Licht [dir,co-scr,pro – FR/DE/KZ]. 2008: Mein Leben – Volker Schlöndorff [TVD – app]; Sous le nom de Melville [DO – app – FR]. 2009: Gero von Boehm begegnet … Volker Schlöndorff [TVD – app].
DANIEL SCHMID Born December 26, 1941, Flims-Waldhaus (Switzerland) Died August 5, 2006, Flims-Waldhaus (Switzerland) During the 1960s and 1970s part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s personal entourage, and briefly one of his lovers, Schmid developed into an idiosyncratic director in his own right. His films were marked by a camp sensibility that often drew on Schmid’s love for Italian opera and popular culture, and frequently centred on eccentric female protagonists. Born in an Alpine tourist resort into a wealthy family of Swiss-Jewish hoteliers, Schmid moved to West Berlin in 1962 to read history and literature. Following an assistantship with director Peter Lilienthal on the television film ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1965/66), Schmid started to study at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb) in 1966. Here he first came into contact with Fassbinder. Over the next years Schmid shot a few shorts for television and worked as an assistant for other directors. He acted in small supporting parts in Fassbinder’s HÄNDLER DER VIER JAHRESZEITEN (The Merchant of Four Seasons, 1971), Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s LUDWIG (1972), and Wim Wenders’s DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND (The American Friend, 1976/77). Back in Switzerland, Schmid wrote, directed and produced his first feature HEUTE NACHT ODER NIE (Tonight or Never, 1972), a satire on Swiss society that received a number of awards at festivals. The film featured several actors of the Fassbinder clan, most notably Ingrid Caven who became a recurrent muse. As many of his subsequent films, the soundtrack provided a rich collage of musical references, from the Chilean songstress Rosita Serrano to Verdi. LA PALOMA (1973/74) starred Caven as a chanteuse in the mould of Marlene Dietrich and Zarah Leander. Working with Fassbinder’s composer Peer Raben as musical arranger, the film once again juggled numerous cultural influences. SCHATTEN DER ENGEL (Shadow of Angels, 1975) was the film version of Fassbinder’s controversial ‘The City, the Garbage, and Death’, which had led to heated debates concerning the play’s alleged antiSemitism. Set in the West German banking capital of Frankfurt/Main, the film depicted a sadomasochistic love triangle between Caven as the prostitute daugh-
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ter of a former Nazi, Fassbinder himself as her gay pimp, and Klaus Löwitsch as her client, a real estate investor simply referred to as the ‘rich Jew’. While the play’s provocative cocktail of anti-capitalism, Germany’s Nazi legacy, and sexual politics had caused public outrage, the film version, though strictly faithful to the original text, never encountered the same response, perhaps in part because Schmid conceived the narrative not as a social critique, but as a surreal, dreamlike fairytale. VIOLANTA (1977), an adaptation of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s 19th century novella, told a visually baroque story of incest, supernatural occurrences, suicide, and murder in an Alpine valley. Like most of his films this one was shot by cinematographer Renato Berta. In 1981, Schmid shot a whimsical semi-documentary fantasy, NÔTRE DAME DE LA CROISETTE, about a woman (Bulle Ogier) who visits the Cannes film festival and gets lost in daydreams about the festival’s past. HÉCATE – MAÎTRESSE DE LA NUIT (1982) starred former American supermodel Lauren Hutton as a mythical femme fatale in a febrile desert melodrama that felt like a bizarre cinematic encounter between Sternberg’s MOROCCO, Marguerite Duras’s INDIA SONG, and Rider Haggard’s colonial potboiler ‘She’. MIRAGE DE LA VIE (Imitation of Life, 1983) documented Schmid’s visit to see Douglas Sirk in the latter’s house in Lugano. Set in an old people’s home for retired singers and musicians in Milan, IL BACIO DI TOSCA (Tosca’s Kiss, 1983/84) was a gentle and lifeaffirming feature-length documentary, and became one of Schmid’s most accessible and best-loved films. In contrast, JENATSCH (1986/87) was an enigmatic fiction in which reality and fantasy, and past and present, could no longer be distinguished. ZWISCHENSAISON (Off Season, 1991/92) marked a reunion with several former Fassbinder collaborators, including Caven. The film was partly autobiographical and centred on the Swiss hotel in which Schmid had grown up. His final cinema release was BERESINA ODER DIE LETZTEN TAGE DER SCHWEIZ (Beresina or the Last Days of Switzerland, 1999), a black comedy about a Russian prostitute who inadvertently causes the collapse of the Swiss political system. Apart from his film work, Schmid had since the mid1980s directed to great acclaim stage operas by Alban Berg, Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi, among others, at the theatres in Zurich and Geneva, that were presented on television as well. [dir,scr – DE] 1965/66: Abschied [TV – ass-dir]. 1966: Heinrich der Löwe [TV-SD]; Blut [TV-SD]; Ein Schatz für’s Leben [TV-SD]; Abgründe: 1. Robert / 2. Claire [TV – ass-dir]. 1966/67: Der Findling [ass-dir]. 1967: Kuckucksjahre [ass-dir]; Jetzt mal Musik [TV-SD]. 1968: Orange Yellow
Dreams [TV-SD]; Neue Welle. Weiche Welle [TV-SD]; Aller Glanz [TV-SD]; Kiss me again (Wenn ich noch einmal zur Welt käm) [TV-SD]. 1969: Hänsel und Gretel [SF]; Miriam [SF]; Beckett in Berlin [TV-SD – co-scr,cam]; Exhibition Alan Jones [TV-SD]. 1970: Der Bomberpilot [ass-dir]; Thut alles im Finstern, Eurem Herrn das Licht zu ersparen [SF]. 1971: Händler der vier Jahreszeiten [act]; Der Tod der Maria Malibran [TV – ass]. [dir,scr – CH] 1972: Ludwig – Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König [TV – act – DE]; Heute Nacht oder nie [dir,scr, pro]. 1973/74: La Paloma [CH/FR]. 1975: Schatten der Engel [dir,co-scr – DE/CH]. 1975/76: Les flocons d’or / Goldflocken [TV – ass-dir – FR/DE]. 1976/77: Der amerikanische Freund / L’Ami américain [act – DE/FR]. 1977: Violanta [dir,co-scr – CH]. 1978: Judith Therpeauve [act – FR]. 1978/79: Roberte [act – FR]. 1980: Lili Marleen [act – DE]. 1981: Nôtre Dame de la Croisette. 1982: Hécate. Maîtresse de la nuit [dir,co-scr – FR/CH]; Cap Canaille [act – FR/ BE]. 1983: Mirage de la vie [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1983/84: Il bacio di Tosca [FF/DO]. 1984: Barbe-Bleue [TV – co-dir]. 1985: Lulu [TV – dir]. 1986: François Simon, la présence [DO – app – CH/FR]. 1986/87: Jenatsch [CH/FR/DE]. 1988: Guglielmo Tell [TV – dir]. 1988/89: Noch ein Wunsch [TV – act – CH/DE]. 1988-91: Le film du cinéma suisse: 2. 1912– 1931 Les amateurs [DO – dir]. 1991/92: Zwischensaison / Hors saison [CH/DE/FR]. 1994: Das geschriebene Gesicht [DO – CH/JP]. 1996: Linda di Chamounix [TV – co-dir]. 1999: Beresina oder Die letzten Tage der Schweiz [CH/DE/ AT]. 2002: Beatrice di Tenda [TV – co-dir – FR/CH]. 2005: Rainer Werner Fassbinder – Mit meinen Filmen bau’ ich ein Haus [TVD – app – DE]. 2006/07: Die Nacht ist heller als der Tag [DO – app – CH].
HANS-CHRISTIAN SCHMID Born August 19, 1965, Altötting (West Germany) Part of a new wave of notable German directors to emerge since the 1990s, Hans-Christian Schmid’s closely observed dramas frequently deal with characters who fall victim to personal obsessions. Several of his films also analyse the sometimes devastating effects that religion and other forms of belief have on people’s lives. After growing up in provincial Bavaria, Schmid studied documentary filmmaking at Munich’s Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (College for Television and Film). Here he made a number of short films, and directed his graduation film, DIE MECHANIK DES WUNDERS (The Mechanics of the Miracle, 1991/92) about his home town of Altötting, one of the most significant places of Catholic pilgrimage in Germany. Schmid subsequently received a scholarship to study screenwriting at the University of Southern California. His first feature film, HIMMEL UND HÖLLE (Heaven and Hell, 1993/94), set in rural Germany, told the story of a single mother whose daughter is indoctrinated by her fundamentalist Christian teachers. His
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follow-up, the comedy NACH FÜNF IM URWALD (It’s a Jungle Out There, 1995) proved popular with audiences and critics alike, and marked the film debut of actress Franka Potente as a free-spirited teenager trying to escape the constrictions of her small-town life. Set in the 1980s and based on real events, 23 (1998) told the story of a socially dysfunctional computer hacker whose belief in conspiracy theories increasingly removes him from reality. Critics praised Schmid’s direction as much as the acting tour de force by the film’s star, August Diehl, who won several awards for his performance. CRAZY (1999/2000) charted the coming-of-age of an unruly disabled teenager at a boarding school, and confirmed the director’s ability to engage with issues of adolescence in a sensitive and empathetic way. In an episodic narrative following various characters and stories, LICHTER (Lights, 2002/03) provided melancholy impressions of life across the German-Polish border, and conveyed a sense of restlessness and social mobility, underlined by a persistent use of handheld camera. The film won a Silver Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. REQUIEM (2004/05), the first film of his own production company 23/5 Filmproduktion, marked Schmid’s international breakthrough. Faithfully recreating the oppressive look and dispiriting atmosphere of a provincial West German town in the early 1970s, the film reconstructed the real-life case of a young woman from a traditional Catholic community, whose attempts to lead an independent life trigger a mental breakdown and a controversial exorcism. In her film debut, Sandra Hüller as the main protagonist delivered a remarkable performance that was showered with awards. Apart from his own films, Schmid has written screenplays and worked as a cinematographer on films by his long-time collaborator and scriptwriter Michael Gutmann, HERZ IM KOPF (Heart in the Head, 2001/ 02) and FAMILIENREISE (Family Trip, 2003/04). Schmid also produced Robert Thalheim’s AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN (In the End the Tourists Come, 2006/07), a whimsical tale about a group of characters working at or living near the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial site. For the first time since leaving college Schmid directed a documentary with WASCHKRAFT (Washing Power, 2007/08), before starting work on his first international co-production, the thriller STURM (Storm, 2008). [dir,scr – DE] 1989: Sekt oder Selters [SD]. 1990/91: Roots Rockin’ in Zimbabwe [DO – cut]. 1991: Baron Münchhausen [SF]; Das lachende Gewitter [SF]. 1991/92: Die Mechanik des Wunders [DO – dir,scr,cut]. 1993/94: Himmel und Hölle [TV]. 1995: Palumbina – Eine Trivialromanze [SF –
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co-scr]; Nach fünf im Urwald [dir,co-scr]. 1995/96: Der schönste Tag im Leben [TV – co-scr]. 1996: Nur für eine Nacht [TV – co-scr]. 1998: 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint [dir,co-scr]. 1999/2000: Crazy [dir,co-scr]. 2000: Ausflug [SF – co-scr]. 2001: Herz im Kopf [co-scr]. 2002/03: Lichter [dir,co-scr]. 2003/04: Familienreise [TVD – cam]. 2004/ 05: Requiem [dir,pro]. 2006/07: Am Ende kommen Touristen [co-scr,pro]. 2007/08: Waschkraft [DO – dir,scr,pro]. 2008: Sturm [dir,co-scr,pro – DE/DK/NL].
IRMIN SCHMIDT Born May 29, 1937, Berlin (Germany) Irmin Schmidt is best known as founding member of and keyboard player with cult krautrock band ‘Can’, but he has also had a prolific solo career, including as a composer for film and television since the late 1960s. Growing up in Austria and the Ruhr region, Schmidt studied music in Dortmund and later Essen, specialising in piano and horn. One of his composition teachers was Györgi Ligeti. In the early 1960s he trained to be a conductor, while researching traditional Japanese music (gagaku) with ethnomusicologist Marius Schneider at the University of Cologne. Subsequently, Schmidt conducted several orchestras, and was among the first German pianists to include the compositions of John Cage in their repertoire. The latter’s improvisational style had a significant influence on Schmidt’s own work. In 1968 Schmidt became co-founder of the band ‘Can’ alongside fellow musicians Holger Czukay (b. 1938, bass), Jaki Liebezeit (b. 1938, drums), and Michael Karoli (1948–2001, guitar). Other temporary members included the singers Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki, bassist Rosko Gee, and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah. Inspired by the musical avantgarde, ‘Can’ blurred the distinctions between classical and pop, drawing on inspirations as diverse as Karlheinz Stockhausen, jazz, ethnomusicology, funk, ambient music, and psychedelic rock. Albums such as ‘Monster Movie’ (1969), ‘Tago Mago’ (1971), and ‘Ege Bamyasi’ (1972) established the group as creative innovators. ‘Can’ quickly became associated with West Germany’s emerging ‘New German Cinema’ movement. Their music featured in films such as Roger Fritz’s MÄDCHEN MIT GEWALT (Girl with Violence, 1969), Thomas Schamoni’s EIN GROSSER GRAUBLAUER VOGEL (A Big, Grey-Blue Bird, 1969/70), Roland Klick’s DEADLOCK, and Jerzy Skolimovski’s DEEP END (both 1970). Some of these compositions were compiled on the album ‘Soundtracks’ (1970). The song ‘She Brings The Rain’, originally heard in EIN GROSSER GRAUBLAUER VOGEL, resurfaced three decades later in Oskar Roehler’s DIE UNBERÜHRBARE (No Place to Go, 1999).
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For West German television, ‘Can’ created soundscapes for thrillers such as the three-part adaptation of Francis Durbridge’s DAS MESSER (The Knife, 1971) – the title song ‘Spoon’ became a chart hit. The band also scored TOTE TAUBE IN DER BEETHOVENSTRASSE (Dead Pigeon in Beethoven Street, 1972), an episode of the crime series TATORT (Crime Scene), directed by Hollywood maverick Samuel Fuller. Wim Wenders, meanwhile, used ‘Can’ material in ALICE IN DEN STÄDTEN (Alice in the Cities, 1973/74), and again in BIS ANS ENDE DER WELT (Until the End of the World, 1990/91). After ‘Can’ split in 1978, Schmidt pursued a solo career. On the soundtrack for Reinhard Hauff’s MESSER IM KOPF (Knife in the Head, 1978) he played all instruments himself, while on Alexander von Eschwege’s DER TOTE BIN ICH (I am the Dead Man, 1979) he collaborated with Swiss Jazz saxophonist, and pioneer of electronic music, Bruno Spoerri (b. 1935) with whom Schmidt also recorded his first solo album ‘Toy Planet’ (1980). In the 1980s, Schmidt collaborated with a number of prominent directors of the New German Cinema, including Hark Bohm on IM HERZEN DES HURRICAN (In the Heart of the Hurricane, 1979/80). Active in the theatre since the 1960s, Schmidt was involved throughout the decade and beyond in prestigious stage productions at theatres in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Hanover. He also continued to score television series such as TATORT, and occasionally returned to conducting orchestras, for example in Hamburg in 1982. For Chris Petit’s film FLIGHT TO BERLIN (1983) he wrote the pop ballad ‘You Make Me Nervous’, with lyrics by British author Duncan Fallowell, with whom Schmidt later worked on his albums ‘Musk at Dusk’ (1987) and ‘Impossible Holidays’ (1991), and on an opera adaptation of Mervyn Peake’s eccentric fantasy novel trilogy ‘Gormenghast’, which premiered in Wuppertal in 1993. Following an official comeback album, ‘Rite Time’ (1989), Schmidt periodically reunited with former ‘Can’ members – with Czukay and Karoli on the 3 CD-box set ‘Anthology’ (1995), and with Karoli und Liebezeit on the CD ‘Pop 2000’ (1999), which included a cover version of Anton Karas’s Harry Lime theme from THE THIRD MAN (1949). Since the 1990s, Schmidt also repeatedly joined forces with his son-in-law, British sound engineer and programmer Jonathan Podmore (b. 1965, aka ‘Kumo’), on the albums ‘Masters of Confusion’ (2001) and ‘Axolotl Eyes’ (2008). [mus – DE – TV] 1965/66: Zwei wie wir … und die Eltern wissen von nichts [FF]. 1968: Agilok & Blubbo [FF]. 1968/69: Kamasutra – Vollendung der Liebe [FF]. 1969: Kuckucksei im Gangsternest [FF]; Mädchen mit Gewalt [FF – ‘Can’]. 1969/70: Ein großer graublauer Vogel / Un
grosso uccello grigio azzurro [FF – ‘Can’ – DE/IT]; Das Millionenspiel [‘Can’]. 1970: Mein schönes kurzes Leben [act,mus – ‘Can’]; Deep End [FF – DE/US]; Deadlock [FF – ‘Can’]. 1970/71: Cream – Schwabing-Report [FF]; Carlos [TV]. 1971: Das Messer. 1971/72: Can [DO – mus,app]. 1972: Tatort: Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße. 1973/ 74: Die letzten Tage von Gomorrha [‘Can’]; Alice in den Städten [FF]. 1975: Der Kommissar: Sturz aus großer Höhe. 1975/76: Eurogang: Keine Beweise gegen Martellan / Blüten für Frankfurt / Ein Wagen voll Madonnen / Die letzte Lieferung / Der Helfer / Urlaub für Harry Krausch [TVS]. 1978: Messer im Kopf [FF]. 1978/79: … als Diesel geboren [DO – ‘Can’]. 1979: Der Tote bin ich; Neues aus Transkastanien – Macken, Meisen und Marotten [TVS]. 1979/80: Im Herzen des Hurrican [FF]; Exil / L’Exile [DE/ FR]. 1980: Endstation Freiheit [FF]. 1980/81: Flächenbrand. 1981: Die Heimsuchung des Assistenten Jung. 1981-85: Alle Geister kreisen … (Todos os espiritos circulam) [FF]. 1982: Der Mann auf der Mauer [FF]; Ruhe sanft, Bruno. 1983: Rote Erde; Flight to Berlin / Fluchtpunkt Berlin [FF – GB/DE]. 1985: Kein schöner Land [TVS]; Tatort: Freunde. 1987: Imbiß. 1987/88: Reporter [6 episodes – TVS]. 1988-90: Rote Erde II [TVS]. 1990/91: Bis ans Ende der Welt / Jusqu’au bout du monde / Until the End of the World [FF – ‘Can’ – DE/FR/AU]; Pizza Colonia [FF – DE/IT]. 1991/92: Morlock: König Midas. 1992: Negerküsse. 1994/95: Der Mörder und sein Kind. 1995: Angst hat eine kalte Hand. 1996: Tatort: Aida [act]. 1996/97: Der rote Schakal. 1996-2000: L’amour, l’argent, l’amour / L’Amour – Die Liebe [FF – DE/CH/FR]. 1997: Schimanski – Hart am Limit; Zucker für die Bestie. 2001-08: Bloch [TVS – 13 episodes]. 2003: Tatort: Wenn Frauen Austern essen; Ich werde immer bei euch sein. 2003/04: Schneeland [FF]. 2004: Der Stich des Skorpion. 2004/05: In Sachen Kaminski. 2004-07: Paparazzo. 2006/07: Einsatz in Hamburg: Die letzte Prüfung. 2007/08: Palermo Shooting [FF].
JOSEPH SCHMIDT Born March 4, 1904, Dawideny (Bukovina, Austria-Hungary) Died November 16, 1942, Camp Girenbad near Zurich (Switzerland) Joseph Schmidt was one of the most famous tenors of the early 1930s, with an international career that encompassed radio broadcasts, hit records, films, and stage performances. Born into a orthodox Jewish family, Schmidt’s earliest musical education was in the local synagogue, where his singing talent was quickly spotted. Expanding his repertoire from religious to secular music, he gave his first public concert in Czernowitz (Chernivtsi) at the age of twenty with a programme encompassing opera arias and traditional Jewish songs. Subsequently moving to Berlin, he studied at the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik (State Music Academy), while continuing his religious singing at local synagogues.
SYBILLE SCHMITZ
Although small in stature and lacking traditional matinee idol looks, Schmidt’s career took off in the late 1920s through radio broadcasts. Equally adept at popular melodies, operetta, and classical song, Schmidt established himself as one of the foremost lyrical tenors of his day. His early sound film appearances were primarily designed to promote his successful phonograph recordings, and included the supporting role of an Italian tenor in Robert Wiene’s romantic comedy DER LIEBESEXPRESS (The Love Express, 1930/31), and a cameo appearance in Friedrich Fehér’s social drama GEHETZTE MENSCHEN (Hounded People, 1932). In contrast to his earlier film appearances, Richard Oswald’s musical EIN LIED GEHT UM DIE WELT (A Song Goes Round the World, 1933), was specifically tailored to Schmidt as a star vehicle. The narrative charted the rise of a tenor to international fame amid an obligatory romantic subplot, and gave Schmidt ample opportunity to sing, including the catchy title song – written by Hans May (1886–1958) with lyrics by Ernst Neubach (1900–1968) – which became his signature tune. By the time of the film’s German release, however, the Nazis were in power who forced Schmidt into exile. Schmidt was reunited with Oswald, May and Neubach (now fellow émigrés) on the Austrian production WENN DU JUNG BIST, GEHÖRT DIR DIE WELT (When You’re Young, The World Is Yours, 1933). The same team was responsible for an English-language version of their earlier German hit, produced by British International Pictures (BIP) in Britain and released as MY SONG GOES ROUND THE WORLD in 1934. Back in Vienna Schmidt starred in EIN STERN FÄLLT VOM HIMMEL (1934), again with music by May, which was remade by BIP in 1936 as A STAR FELL FROM HEAVEN under the direction of émigré director Paul Merzbach. The same year saw Schmidt’s final film in Austria, HEUT’ IST DER SCHÖNSTE TAG IN MEINEM LEBEN! (Today Is The Most Beautiful Day Of My Life). Apart from his film roles, Schmidt continued a busy international stage career until the late 1930s, touring Europe, Palestine, and the United States, where he gave a concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1937. After Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, however, Schmidt’s performing opportunities diminished drastically. He first fled to Belgium and after the outbreak of World War II to France, where he found himself interned as an enemy alien. After repeated attempts to escape, Schmidt eventually managed to enter neutral Switzerland, but was detained as an illegal immigrant. Physically weakened and not receiving adequate medical attention, Schmidt’s health deteriorated and he suffered a fatal heart attack while in an internment camp near Zurich.
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In 1958, Schmidt’s former collaborator Neubach wrote the screenplay for and produced a West German biopic of the singer’s life, which was directed by Geza von Bolvary. Coinciding with Schmidt’s 100th birthday in 2004, a music college in Berlin was renamed in his honour, and a commemorative stamp was issued. Since 2007 a memorial plaque marks the house in Berlin where Schmidt once lived; in 2008 a newly discovered asteroid was named after him. Many of Schmidt’s recordings, meanwhile, have been re-released on CD. [act,sng – DE] 1930/31: Der Liebesexpreß [MLV]. 1931/32: Goethe lebt …! 1932: Gehetzte Menschen [MLV]. 1933: Ein Lied geht um die Welt; Wenn du jung bist, gehört dir die Welt [AT]. 1934: Ein Stern fällt vom Himmel [AT]; My Song Goes Round the World [MLV – GB]. 1936: Heut’ ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben! [AT]; A Star Fell from Heaven [GB]. 1958: Ein Lied geht um die Welt. Die Joseph SchmidtStory. 2004: Joseph Schmidt – Geschichte eines kurzen Lebens [TVD].
SYBILLE SCHMITZ Born December 2, 1909, Düren (Germany) Died April 13, 1955, Munich (West Germany) Dark-haired, with large, expressive eyes, and an aura of sophistication, Schmitz was typically cast as a woman of mystery and introspection in films from the late 1920s to the 1940s. Educated in a convent school followed by drama school in Cologne, Schmitz gave her first stage performance at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Her film debut was in a film for the SPD political party, FREIE FAHRT (Full Steam Ahead, 1928), playing a young working class woman facing trials and tribulations. She subsequently contributed to Ernö Metzner’s surreal urban fable ÜBERFALL (Accident, 1928), and had a supporting role in G. W. Pabst’s TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929). Her portrayal of the sick Léone in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s VAMPYR (The Vampire, 1931/32) was well received, and in the sound film F. P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F. P. 1, 1932) she played a cool and independent feminine lead, wooed by Paul Hartmann and Hans Albers. In German films of the 1930s and early 1940s Schmitz came to embody the elegant, enigmatic femme fatale: George Sand in Geza von Bolvary’s ABSCHIEDSWALZER (The Last Waltz, 1934), Gloria Cheveley in Herbert Selpin’s EIN IDEALER GATTE (An Ideal Husband, 1935) and a Russian spy in Karl Hartl’s DIE LEUCHTER DES KAISERS (The Emperor’s Candlesticks, 1935/36). Schmitz also gave convincing performances in films concerned with miracles, magic and legends, such as
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Frank Wysbar’s otherworldly FÄHRMANN MARIA (Ferryman Maria, 1935) and DIE UNBEKANNTE (The Stranger, 1936). After 1938 she appeared less often on screen and was cast in overt propaganda films such as TRENCK, DER PANDUR (Pandour Trenck, 1940), again co-starring with Albers, and Werner Klingler’s WETTERLEUCHTEN UM BARBARA (Sheet Lightning Around Barbara, 1940/41). In the ill-fated big-budget TITANIC (1942/43), she was once more required to enact the glamorous woman with a past, playing a Danish countess. Few acting opportunities followed and Schmitz retired to a village in Austria. Only after the end of World War II, the ‘rubble film’ ZWISCHEN GESTERN UND MORGEN (Between Yyesterday and Tomorrow, 1947) gave her an opportunity to shine again, in the tragic role of a Jewish actress persecuted during the ‘Third Reich’. The upbeat, uncomplicated films made in West Germany in the 1950s, meanwhile, were not receptive to Schmitz’s melancholy star persona. Her last major production was Rudolf Jugert’s melodrama ILLUSION IN MOLL (Illusion in a Minor Key, 1952), in which she was cast as the older woman opposite up and coming new star Hildegard Knef. Schmitz only made one more film after that, became addicted to drugs, fell into poverty and eventually committed suicide. Decades later Rainer Werner Fassbinder based the story of DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (Veronika Voss, 1981/82) on the last years of Schmitz’s life. [act – DE] 1928: Freie Fahrt; Überfall [SF]. 1929: Tagebuch einer Verlorenen. 1931/32: Vampyr. L’étrange aventure de David Gray [FR]. 1932: F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV]. 1933: Rivalen der Luft. 1934: Musik im Blut; Der Herr der Welt; Abschiedswalzer [MLV]; Oberwachtmeister Schwenke. 1934/35: Punks kommt aus Amerika. 1935: Ein idealer Gatte; Stradivari [MLV]; Wenn die Musik nicht wär’; Ich war Jack Mortimer; Fährmann Maria. 1935/36: Die Leuchter des Kaisers [AT]. 1936: Die Unbekannte. 1936/37: Die Kronzeugin. 1937: Signal in der Nacht; Die Umwege des schönen Karl. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne [app]. 1938: Tanz auf dem Vulkan. 1938/39: Hotel Sacher. 1939: Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit; Die fremde Frau. 1940: Trenck, der Pandur. 1940/41: Wetterleuchten um Barbara.1941: Clarissa. 1941/42: Vom Schicksal verweht [MLV]. 1942/43: Titanic. 1943: Die Hochstaplerin. 1943/44: Das Leben ruft. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen. 1948/49: Die letzte Nacht. 1950: Die Lüge; Sensation im Savoy; Kronjuwelen. 1952: Illusion in Moll. 1953: Kuæa na obali [MLV – YU]; Das Haus an der Küste [MLV – YU].
ROMY SCHNEIDER (Rosemarie Magdalene Albach) Born September 23, 1938, Vienna (Austria) Died May 29, 1982, Paris (France) Romy Schneider spent the remainder of her career escaping ‘Sissi’, the role of the young Austrian empress that made her famous as a young girl in the mid-1950s. In later years, she emerged as a complex actress, projecting warmth and intelligence, mainly in French productions. Schneider was born into an acting dynasty, her mother Magda Schneider (1909–1996) had starred in Max Ophüls’s LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932–34), her father Wolf-Albach-Retty (1906–1967) had been a matinee screen idol in the 1930s and 1940s, while her grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty (1874–1980) was revered as the grande dame of the Vienna stage. After attending school in Berchtesgaden and Salzburg, Romy made her film debut at fourteen, playing her mother’s daughter in WENN DER WEISSE FLIEDER WIEDER BLÜHT (When The White Lilac Blooms Again, 1953). Again acting alongside her protective mother, Schneider won the hearts of the cinema-going public as a young Queen Victoria of England in MÄDCHENJAHRE EINER KÖNIGIN (Girlhood of a Queen, 1954). From 1955 to 1957, alongside her co-star Karlheinz Böhm, Schneider established herself as a public idol with a trilogy of ‘Sissi’ films, which presented a saccharine version of the life of the 19th century Elisabeth of Bavaria, the later Empress of Austria. Schneider came to embody an ideal of innocent femininity for her German-speaking audiences, which she quickly found oppressive. In Käutner’s ‘risqué’ MONPTI (Love from Paris, 1957) Schneider was partnered with Horst Buchholz, and she co-starred opposite Alain Delon (with whom she had a romantic liaison off screen) in CHRISTINE (1958), a remake of LIEBELEI, which had given Romy’s mother her most notable film role. The television production DIE SENDUNG DER LYSISTRATA (Lysistrata, 1960/61), Fritz Kortner’s pacifist update of the Aristophanes comedy, marked a departure for Schneider. A more mature and sexual Romy emerged in Luchino Visconti’s BOCCACCIO ’70 (1961/62), and in Orson Welles’s Kafka adaptation LE PROCÈS (The Process, 1962). German audiences largely rejected Schneider’s change of image. Although based in Paris from the early 1960s, she also appeared in a number of Hollywood films (e.g. Otto Preminger’s THE CARDINAL, 1963, and the Woody Allen-scripted WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT, 1965), but American producers were generally unsure what to do with her. Instead, Schneider became more firmly established in French cinema, repeatedly working with director Claude Sautet, including the popular
MARIA SCHRADER CÉSAR ET ROSALIE (César and Rosalie, 1972) and UNE HISTOIRE SIMPLE (A Simple Story, 1978).
Returning once more to the role of Sissi in Visconti’s LUDWIG (1972), Schneider’s performance deliberately aimed to erase the memory of her 1950s incarnation, portraying an older Elisabeth as disillusioned and unapproachable. During the 1970s, her film characters became increasingly independent and sexually confident. Her natural eroticism was exemplified by her role as Michel Piccoli’s avaricious accomplice in LE TRIO INFERNAL (The Infernal Trio, 1973/74) or as an unsuccessful actress torn between two men in L’IMPORTANT, C’EST D’AIMER (The Important Thing Is To Love, 1974/75). In Aleksander Petrovic’s film version of Heinrich Böll’s novel GRUPPENBILD MIT DAME (Group Portrait With Lady, 1976/77), Schneider played a woman who during World War II and after is repeatedly drawn to social outsiders. She won a César for her portrayal of the title role in Francis Girod’s LA BANQUIÈRE (The Banker, 1980). Schneider’s final film LA PASSANTE DU SANS-SOUCI (The Passerby, 1981/82), again co-starring Piccoli, was made following years of personal torment, including suicide attempts, two failed marriages, health problems, and the death of her teenaged son in a freak accident. Her eventual death from heart failure was widely conjectured at the time to have been suicide. Since 1982 a prize has been awarded in her name at the Montreux Film Festival. Schneider’s tragic life story has been retold in numerous biographies and documentaries. A made-for-TV biopic starring Jessica Schwarz as ROMY was completed in 2009. [act – DE] 1953: Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht. 1954: Feuerwerk; Mädchenjahre einer Königin [AT]. 1955: Die Deutschmeister [AT]; Der letzte Mann; Sissi [AT]. 1956: Kitty und die große Welt; Sissi, die junge Kaiserin [AT]. 1956/57: Robinson soll nicht sterben. 1957: Monpti; Sissi – Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin [AT]; Scampolo. [act – FR] 1958: Mädchen in Uniform / Jeunes filles en uniformes [DE/FR]; Christine / L’amante pura (Christine) [FR/IT]. 1958/59: Die Halbzarte [AT]. 1959: Ein Engel auf Erden / Mademoiselle Ange [DE/FR]; Die schöne Lügnerin / La belle et l’Empereur [DE/FR]; Katia [FR]. 1959/60: Plein soleil / Delitto in pieno sole [FR/IT]. 1960/61: Die Sendung der Lysistrata [TV – DE]. 1961/62: Boccaccio ’70. EP 2: Il lavoro / Boccacè 70. EP 2: Le travail (Boccaccio 70. EP: Der Job) [IT/FR]; Le combat dans l’île. 1962: Le procès / Der Prozeß / Il processo [FR/DE/IT]; L’Amour à la mer. 1962/63: The Victors [GB]. 1963: The Cardinal [US]. 1963/64: Good Neighbor Sam [US]. 1964: L’Enfer. 1964/65: What’s New, Pussycat? [US]. 1965: Romy. Anatomie eines Gesichts [DO – DE]. 1965/66: 10:30 p.m. Summer [US/ES]. 1966: La voleuse / Schornstein Nr. 4 [FR/DE]; Triple Cross – La fantastique histoire vraie d’Eddie Chapman. 1968: Otley [GB]; La piscine / La piscina [FR/IT]. 1969: My Lover, My Son [GB]; Les choses de la vie / L’amante [FR/IT]. 1969/70: Bloomfield
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[GB/IL]. 1970: Qui? / Il Cadavere dagli artigli d’acciaio [FR/IT]; La Califfa / La Califfa [IT/FR]; Max et les ferrailleurs / Il commissario Pelissier [FR/IT]. 1971/72: L’assassinio di Trotsky / L’Assassinat de Trotsky / The Assassination of Trotsky [IT/FR]. 1972: César et Rosalie / È simpatico, ma gli romperei il muso / César und Rosalie [FR/IT/DE]; Ludwig / Ludwig … ou le crépuscule des dieux / Ludwig II. [IT/FR/ DE]. 1973: Le train / Noi due senza domani [FR/IT]; Un amour de pluie / Male d’amore / Sommerliebelei [FR/IT/ DE]; Le mouton enragé / Il montone infuriato [FR/IT]. 1973/ 74: Le trio infernal / Trio infernale / Trio Infernal [FR/IT/DE]. 1974: Les innocents aux mains sales / Die Unschuldigen mit den schmutzigen Händen / Gli innocenti dalle mani sparche [FR/DE/IT]. 1974/75: L’Important, c’est d’aimer / L’Importante è amare / Nachtblende [FR/IT/DE]. 1975: Le vieux fusil / Das alte Gewehr [FR/DE]. 1976: Mado [FR/IT/ DE]; Une femme à sa fenêtre / Una donna alla finestra / Die Frau am Fenster [FR/IT/DE]. 1976/77: Tausend Lieder ohne Ton [TV – DE]; Gruppenbild mit Dame / Portrait de groupe avec dame [DE/FR]. 1978: Une histoire simple / Eine einfache Geschichte [FR/DE]. 1978/79: Bloodline / Blutspur [US/DE]; Clair de femme / Chiaro di donna / Die Liebe einer Frau [FR/IT/DE]. 1979/80: La mort en direct / Death Watch – Der gekaufte Tod [FR/DE]. 1980: La Banquière. 1980/81: Fantasma d’amore / Fantôme d’amour / Die zwei Gesichter einer Frau [IT/FR/DE]. 1981: Garde à vue. 1981/ 82: La passante du Sans-Souci / Die Spaziergängerin von Sans Souci [FR/DE]. 1994: Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, genannt Romy Schneider [TVD – app – DE/FR]. 2002: Legenden: Romy Schneider [TV – app – DE]. 2008: Romy Schneider – Eine Frau in drei Noten [DO – app – AT].
MARIA SCHRADER Born September 27, 1965, Hanover (West Germany) Primarily known as an actress, but also as a screenwriter and director, Maria Schrader’s selective choice of roles produced some of Germany’s most celebrated and interesting female film performances from the late 1980s onwards. Schrader studied acting at the Max-Reinhardt college in Vienna between 1983 and 1986. Frustrated by the constrictive nature of the training she quit, turning to fringe theatre work, where she met her subsequent partner, director Dani Levy, which led to a permanent relocation to Berlin. Her screen debut, ROBBYKALLEPAUL (1988) marked the beginning of her professional association with Levy. Her next role, as a wide-eyed young Pole on a journey of discovery in America in Levy’s I WAS ON MARS (1991), which she co-wrote, earned her a Max Ophüls Best Newcomer award. In Peter Welz’s BURNING LIFE (1993/94), a German answer to THELMA AND LOUISE, Schrader played a housewife who dreams of escaping her domesticity but instead becomes an unlikely bank robber. Her role as a lonely airport worker in Doris Dörrie’s KEINER LIEBT
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MICH (Nobody Loves Me, 1994) landed her an award
in 1995. Her signature portrayals of reticent women, whose reserve masks a latent vulnerability, were further refined in Levy’s STILLE NACHT (Silent Night, 1995) and MESCHUGGE (Crazy, 1997), which she co-scripted. Dörrie cast her again in the multi-narrative film BIN ICH SCHÖN? (Am I Beautiful, 1997/98). Schrader gained particular acclaim for her spirited interpretation of an ill-fated Jewish lesbian in Max Färberbock’s Nazi-era romance AIMÉE & JAGUAR (1998). The screen adaptation of Erica ‘Aimée’ Fischer’s autobiographical account drew widespread recognition for the performances of Schrader and her co-star Juliane Köhler, netting them a string of awards. In the new millennium her appearances included turns as a fey pastor in EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives), a worldly business executive in VIKTOR VOGEL – COMMERCIAL MAN (both 2000), a return to wartime Berlin in von Trotta’s drama ROSENSTRASSE (2003), and Hans W. Geissendörfer’s Lapland-set drama SCHNEELAND (Snowland, 2003/04). In addition to her work in film and television, Schrader has appeared in stage productions, and has lent her voice to audio-books. [act – DE] 1985: Anatomie einer Revolution [TV – AT]. 1987/88: Goldjunge [TV]. 1988: RobbyKallePaul [co-scr, act – DE/CH]. 1989/90: Liebesgeschichten: Abgeschleppt [TV]. 1991: I was on Mars [co-scr,act – DE/CH]. 1992/93: Je m’ appelle Victor / Mein Name ist Viktor [FR/BE/DE]; Halbe Welt – Gute Nacht [AT]. 1993: Neues Deutschland: Ohne mich [TV]; Magic Müller [TV]. 1993/94: Burning Life. 1994: Einer meiner ältesten Freunde; Keiner liebt mich. 1994/95: Peter Strohm: Wanderer im Watt [TV]. 1995: Risiko Null – Der Tod steht auf dem Speiseplan [TV]; Flirt [US/DE/JP]; Stille Nacht [co-scr,act]; Blutbad [SF]. 1995/96: Eine unmögliche Hochzeit [TV]. 1996: Der Unfisch [AT]. 1996/97: Der Kindermord [TV]. 1997: Meschugge / La girafe [co-scr,act – DE/CH]. 1997/98: Bin ich schön? 1998: Die Hochzeitskuh [TV – DE/CH]; Aimée & Jaguar. 1999: Camino de Santiago [TV – ES]. 2000: Ausflug [SF]; Emil und die Detektive; Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man; Josephine [DE/GB/HR]. 2001/02: Väter. 2002: Operation Rubikon [TV]; Die Nibelungen [TV]. 2003: Rosenstraße [DE/NL]. 2003/04: The Tulse Luper Suitcases – Part 2: Vaux to the Sea [GB/NL]; Schneeland. 2004/05: Acting [SF]. 2005-07: Liebesleben [dir,co-scr – DE/IL]. 2006/07: Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]; Auf dem Vulkan / Somni de felicitat [TV – DE/ES]. 2007/08: Tatort: Borowski und das Mädchen im Moor [TV]; Patchwork [TV]; 2008/09: Vorstadtkrokodile; Denn die Seele ist in deiner Hand [TV].
WERNER SCHROETER Born April 17, 1945, Georgental (Germany) Loosely associated with the New German cinema movement of the 1970s and 1980s, idiosyncratic director Werner Schroeter always remained an resolutely independent filmmaker, known for his mannerist visual style, and his operatic conception of cinematic performance. Growing up in Bielefeld and Heidelberg, Schroeter studied psychology for three semesters in Mannheim, and abandoned his film studies at the Academy for TV and Film in Munich (HFFM) after a few weeks. In 1967 he presented an 8mm-film at the Experimental Festival in Knokke, where he met the filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim, with whom he worked and lived in the following years. Throughout 1968 Schroeter made numerous experimental 8mm and 16mm films, including NEURASIA and ARGILA, which attracted attention at the 1969 Hamburg Film Show. The following year EIKA KATAPPA was awarded the Josef von Sternberg Prize at the International Film Week in Mannheim. Schroeter’s Films, which turned the actress Magdalena Montezuma into a star of the alternative film scene, did not rely on a traditional narrative structure, but offered instead a seamless series of iconic moments. Schroeter drew from a wide range of influences, including art, opera, literature, myth and history, underscored by classical as well as popular music. His intensely personal films won acclaim from the early 1970s at film festivals, especially in France. NEAPOLITANISCHE GESCHWISTER (The Reign/ Kingdom of Naples, 1978) widened Schroeter’s public appeal. Containing stronger narrative and documentary elements, the film provided a sprawling historical panorama of Neapolitan history from World War II to the 1970s through the eyes of a pair of siblings. PALERMO ODER WOLFSBURG (Palermo or Wolfsburg, 1979/80), which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1980, told the story of a young Sicilian immigrant in West Germany, and the events that lead him to kill his German girlfriend. Besides working on a series of TV documentaries, Schroeter sporadically pursued more ambitious projects such as TAG DER IDIOTEN (Day of Idiots, 1981) and DER ROSENKÖNIG (The Rose King, 1984–86), his final film with an already terminally ill Montezuma. MALINA (1990) marked Schroeter’s most expensive production to that point. Based on Ingeborg Bachmann’s novel, it starred French actress Isabelle Huppert as a writer whose complex personal relationships precipitate a mental breakdown. Awarded a German Film Award, the film received a mixed critical response. DEUX (Two, 2002), a Franco-German-Portuguese coproduction reunited Schroeter with Huppert in a typically opaque narrative that revolved around twin sis-
ROLF SCHÜBEL
ters and the fractured relationship with their mother. NUIT DE CHIEN / DIESE NACHT (This Night, 2008) had its premiere at the festival in Venice 2008 where Schroeter received a honorary Golden Lion for his body of work. Having regularly worked as a theatre and opera director since 1972, Schroeter’s unconventional productions of the classics have caused as many if not more controversies than his films. He presented an exhibition of photographs in Munich in 2009. [filmmaker – AG – DE] 1967: Verona [AG]. 1968: Callas Walking Lucia [AG]; Callas-Text mit Doppelbeleuchtung [AG]; Maria Callas Porträt [AG]; Mona Lisa [AG]; Maria Callas singt. 1957 Rezitativ und Arie der Elvira aus Ernani 1844 von Giuseppe Verdi [AG]; Übungen mit Darstellern [AG]; La morte d’isotta [AG]; Himmel hoch [AG]; Paula ‘Je reviens’ [AG]; Faces [AG]; Aggressionen [AG]; Virginia’s Death [AG]; Argila [AG]; Neurasia [AG]; Grotesk – burlesk – pittoresk [AG]. 1968/69: Alabama: 2000 Light Years [SF – act]. 1969: Schwestern der Revolution [SF – ass,act]; Eika Katappa [FF]; Samuel Beckett [TVD – co-scr,snd]; Nicaragua; Exhibition Alan Jones [SD – app]. 1970: Der Bomberpilot [FF]; Anglia [FF]. 1970/71: Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte [FF – act]. 1971: Salome [TV – dir,scr,mus]; Macbeth [TV – dir,scr,cut,pro]; Der Tod der Maria Malibran [TV – dir, scr,cam,cut,mus,pro]. 1971/75: Johannas Traum [SF – dir, scr,cam,pro]. 1972/73: Willow Springs [TV – dir,scr,cam, cut,mus,snd,des,pro]. 1972-79: Armee der Liebenden oder Revolte der Perversen / Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts [DO – co-cam – DE/US]. 1973: Welt am Draht [TV – act]. 1973/74: Der schwarze Engel [TV – dir,scr,cam, pro]. 1975/76: Les flocons d’or / Goldflocken [dir,scr, cam,mus,des,cos,pro – FR/DE]. 1978: Neapolitanische Geschwister / Regno di Napoli [dir,scr,cut,des – DE/IT]. 1979/ 80: Palermo oder Wolfsburg [dir,co-scr,cut – DE/CH]. 1980: Generalprobe [TVD – dir,scr,act]; Weisse Reise [dir, scr,cam,cut,mus,snd,pro – CH]. 1980/81: Zwischen Mond und Sonne [TV – act]. 1981: Tag der Idioten [dir,scr]; Liebeskonzil. Concilio d’amore. 1982: Das Gespenst [act]. 1983: Der lachende Stern [DO – dir,scr,cam,cut]. 1983-85: De L’Argentine [DO – dir,scr,cam – FR]. 1984-86: Der Rosenkönig [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1986: Auf der Suche nach der Sonne [TVD – dir,co-scr]. 1988: ‘Sehnsucht, das sagt sich so leicht’ [TVD – app]. 1990: So lange ich fliehen noch kann, da schütze ich mich [TV – app]; Malina [DE/AT]. 1996: Poussières d’amour – Abfallprodukte der Liebe [dir,co-scr,act – DE/FR]. 1999/2000: Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1999-2003: Axensprung: Ein Reisetagebuch [DO – app]. 2001/02: Deux [dir,co-scr – FR/PT/DE]. 2002: Pfui, Rosa! [TVD – app]. 2003: Liebesversuche. Portrait Werner Schroeter [TVD – app]; Begegnung mit Werner Schroeter [SD – app]. 2008: Nuit de Chien / Diese Nacht [dir,co-scr – FR/DE/PT].
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ROLF SCHÜBEL Born November 11, 1942, Stuttgart (Germany) Primarily known as a documentary filmmaker, Schübel’s films since the late 1960s have addressed both contemporary and historical topics of social and political relevance from a resolutely left-wing perspective. From the late 1990s, Schübel helmed a series of glossy big budget productions, which marked a significant departure from his earlier work. The son of a mechanic, Schübel studied literature and sociology at Tübingen in 1962, moving to Hamburg a year later. A member of the socialist German student’s union (SDS), Schübel came into contact with the filmmaker Theo Gallehr, who was researching a documentary on political student groups. He assisted Gallehr on the television production LANDFRIEDENSBRUCH (Breach Of Peace, 1967) which was never broadcast. Under the name ‘Cinecollective’, Schübel and Gallehr shot eight television documentaries on social topics between 1968 and 1972. They became known for their film about the closure of a chemical factory, ROTE FAHNEN SIEHT MAN BESSER (Red Flags Stand Out More, 1970/71), which was broadcast in a shortened version and attacked by the conservative press. Schübel received the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award in Gold for the film. Separating from Gallehr, Schübel set up his own production company in Hamburg. Initially he still focussed on the world of work but extended his perspective to include aspects of everyday life. Another theme that concerned him was the influence of the mass media, which he investigated in several documentaries. NACHRUF AUF EINE ‘BESTIE’ (Obituary of a Monster, 1982–84), about the child killer Jürgen Bartsch, brought Schübel another Grimme Award in Gold, as did DER INDIANER (The Indian, 1986/87), based on Leonhard Lentz’s autobiographical account of the effects of cancer treatment. DAS HEIMWEH DES WALERJAN WRÓBEL (Walerjan Wrobel Is Homesick, 1990/91) chronicled the fate of a seventeen year-old Polish forced labourer who was executed in Hamburg in 1942. Together with the Russian director Grigorij Uhraj, Schübel assembled a collage of memories into a richly detailed account of the decisive World War II battle of Stalingrad in the TV film TODFEINDE – VOM STERBEN UND ÜBERLEBEN IN STALINGRAD (Deadly Enemies – Death and Survival in Stalingrad, 1992). WOANDERS SCHEINT NACHTS DIE SONNE (The Sun Shines Elsewhere At Night, 1996/97) provided a portrait of the single mother Vera, who learns that she is HIV positive. In an unsentimental manner the film documented Vera’s dealing with the news and her subsequent attempt of finding new parents for her daughter.
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A significant change in style and approach became evident in the World War II love triangle EIN LIED VON LIEBE UND TOD – GLOOMY SUNDAY (1998/99), a lavishly produced melodrama in interwar Budapest starring Joachim Król. The film initiated a series of glossily produced films, usually centred around star performances. KOLLAPS (Collapse, 2001/02) with Sebastian Koch charted a journalist’s self-doubts and feelings of guilt, while BLUEPRINT (2002/03) starred Franka Potente in a science fiction story about human cloning. ZEIT DER WÜNSCHE (Time of Wishes, 2004/05), meanwhile, was set in an Anatolian village and told the story of a young woman, whose lover leaves to find work in Germany. Schübel has frequently aspired to combine popular generic conventions with political issues, which is also demonstrated by his assignments on the TV crime series TATORT (Crime Scene). [dir – DO – DE] 1967: Landfriedensbruch [TVD – ass-dir]. 1968: Der deutsche Kleinstädter [dir,co-scr]. 1969: Newark – Stadt im Quadrat [dir,co-scr]; Das 20-MilliardenDing – Über Konsum und Konsumzwang bei Jugendlichen [dir,co-scr]; Zwischen Wohlstand und Klassenkampf [dir,co-scr]. 1970: Ausbeutung der Lehrlinge [dir,co-scr]; Trau keinem über 30? [dir,co-scr]. 1970/71: Rote Fahnen sieht man besser [dir,co-scr]. 1971/72: Arbeitskampf [dir, co-scr]. 1973/74: Die Aufsteiger-Saga [dir,scr,pro]. 1975/ 76: Das Jubiläum – Unsere Firma wird 50 [TVD – dir,scr, pro]. 1976: Weihnachtsgeschichten von Herrn P. [dir,scr, pro]. 1977: Das Tor zum Garten der Träume [TVD – dir,scr, pro]; Lebenshilfe reichlich – Jugendzeitschriften und ihre Macher [dir,scr,pro]. 1977/78: Rund um die Uhr – Schichtarbeiter-Alltag [dir,scr,pro]. 1978: Eine Zeitung, die es wirklich gibt – Das Buxtehuder Tageblatt [dir,scr,pro]. 1980/81: Gemeinsam können wir viel erreichen [dir,scr, pro]. 1980-82: Bier für Lama Kara [TVD – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1982-84: Nachruf auf eine ‘Bestie’ [dir,scr]. 1984: Geht uns die Arbeit aus? [TVD – dir,scr]; Das Gesetz im Betrieb bin ich [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1985: Machtkämpfe [TVD – dir, scr,pro]; Wirtschaft konkret [TVD – dir,scr]. [dir,co-scr – DO – DE] 1986/87: Der Indianer. 1987: Courdemanche – La vie en rose? [TVD – dir,scr,pro]. 1988: Landunter? [TVD – dir,scr,pro]; Eine Stadt sieht mit [TVD – dir]. 1988/89: Europa, abends [act]. 1990/91: Das Heimweh des Walerjan Wróbel [dir,scr]. 1992: Todfeinde – Vom Sterben und Überleben in Stalingrad [TVD – co-dir,co-scr – DE/RU]. 1996: 2 1/2 Minuten [TV – dir,scr]. 1996/97: Woanders scheint nachts die Sonne [TV]. 1998/99: Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod – Gloomy Sunday. 2000: Eine öffentliche Affäre [TV]. 2001/02: Kollaps [TV – dir,co-scr]. 2002/ 03: Blueprint [dir]. 2004/05: Zeit der Wünsche [TV – dir]. 2006: Tatort: Aus der Traum [TV – dir]. 2007: Tatort: Der Tote vom Straßenrand [TV – dir]. 2008: Leo und Marie – eine Weihnachtsliebe [TV – dir,co-scr].
EUGEN SCHÜFFTAN (aka Eugène Schuftan, Eugen Schuftan) Born July 21, 1893, Breslau, Silesia (now Wroc³aw, Poland) Died September 6, 1977, New York (USA) Schüfftan lent his name to a special effects technique that employed miniatures and mirrors to create the illusion of full-size sets. The ‘Schüfftan effect’, used to great effect in Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/ 26), preceded, and was replaced by, the blue screen. Schüfftan later became a sought-after cinematographer in both Europe and Hollywood. The son of a factory worker, Schüfftan went to art school in Breslau and started out as an Impressionist painter in Berlin. He turned to Expressionism, working as an architect and as a set painter before his involvement in films. He came into contact with the film industry through his art-school teacher, the architect and set designer Hans Poelzig. Together with the technician Ernst Kunstmann, Schüfftan patented camera equipment to combine real objects and actors with models. The ‘Schüfftan effect’ was sold internationally – while Ufa bought it in Germany, in Hollywood Universal adopted the concept. Schüfftan spent a great amount of time in supervising the use of his techniques around the world. In this capacity, he worked on Abel Gance’s masterpiece NAPOLÉON (1927). Towards the end of the 1920s Schüfftan lost interest in his invention and became a cinematographer. Connected to art film circles, he shot Robert Siodmak’s semi-documentary MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG (People On Sunday, 1929) on location, partly with a hidden camera. He contributed dazzling images for a number of films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including Siodmak’s ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1930), which visually anticipated the style of French films of the late 1930s, and G. W. Pabst’s desert fantasy DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS / THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS (1932). His only full-length feature film as director, DAS EKEL (The Beast, 1931) was a satire on middle-class lifestyles. In 1933 Schüfftan left Germany, working mainly in France, where he was instrumental in creating the poetic realist style of films such as Marcel Carné’s LE QUAI DES BRUMES (Port of Shadows, 1938) and Max Ophüls’s SANS LENDEMAIN (There’s No Tomorrow, 1939). Emigrating to the USA in 1940, Schüfftan had difficulties finding employment as a cameraman due to the strict regulations of the American Society of Cinematographers. German directors in exile, such as Douglas Sirk (Detlef Sierck) and Robert Siodmak, often employed him under another job description, such as ‘supervisor’. After World War II, Schüfftan became a U.S. citizen but preferred to work in Europe, particularly in
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France, where he directed a number of short documentaries, but he also worked in Italy, Switzerland and West Germany. Among his later films, of particular note were his atmospheric images for Georges Franju’s horror film LES YEUX SANS VISAGE (Eyes Without a Face, 1959/60). In 1961 he won an Oscar for his black and white CinemaScope photography for Robert Rossen’s THE HUSTLER (1961). He retired from active filmmaking in the late 1960s. [sfx – DE] 1922-24: Die Nibelungen. 1. Siegfried / 2. Kriemhilds Rache. 1925: Eifersucht; Varieté; Ein Walzertraum. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut; Die Brüder Schellenberg; Metropolis; Dagfin. 1926: Die Boxerbraut; Die keusche Susanne; Eine Dubarry von heute; Kopf hoch, Charly!; Die lachende Grille; Was ist los im Zirkus Beely?; Love Me and the World Is Mine [US]. 1926/27: Klettermaxe; Der Zigeunerbaron; Die Csardasfürstin. 1927: Am Rande der Welt; Die weiße Spinne; Svengali!; Bigamie; Der Geisterzug / The Ghost Train [DE/GB]; Das tanzende Wien; Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney; Die Stadt der tausend Freuden; Die Sandgräfin; Madame Pompadour [GB]; Napoléon [FR]. 1927/28: Königin Luise. 2 parts; Die Sache mit Schorrsiegel. 1928: Haus Nr. 17 / Number 17 [DE/GB]. 1928/29: Großstadtschmetterling [DE/GB]; Blackmail [GB]. 1929: Autobus Nr. 2; Narkose; Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen; Jenseits der Straße; Jennys Bummel durch die Männer; Sprengbagger 1010; Masken; Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern; Menschen am Sonntag [cam]. [cam – DE] 1930: Jagd auf Dich [SF]; Abschied; Das gestohlene Gesicht [MLV – co-cam]; Ins Blaue hinein … [SF – dir]. 1930/31: Gassenhauer [MLV]; Les quatres vagabonds [MLV]. 1931: Das Ekel [co-dir,co-cam]; Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin; Dann schon lieber Lebertran [SF – co-cam]. 1931/32: Die Wasserteufel von Hieflau [dir, cam]. 1932: Die Herrin von Atlantis [MLV – co-cam]; L’Atlantide [MLV – co-cam – DE/FR]; The Mistress of Atlantis [MLV – co-cam]; Friederike [techn. dir]; Zigeuner der Nacht [MLV]; Coeurs joyeux [MLV – FR]. 1932/33: Der Läufer von Marathon. [cam – FR] 1933: Unsichtbare Gegner [MLV – co-cam – DE/ AT]; Les requins du pétrole [MLV – co-cam – AT]; La voix sans visage; Du haut en bas. 1933/34: Adémaï aviateur. 1934: Le scandale [co-cam]; La crise est finie! 1934/35: The Invader [GB]. 1935: Riders to the Sea [IE/GB]; Children of the Fog [GB]. 1935/36: The Robber Symphony [MLV – GB]; La symphonie des brigands [MLV – GB]. 1936: La tendre ennemie; Komedie om geld [NL]; Mademoiselle Docteur [MLV – cam,act]; María de la O. [ES]. 1937: Yoshiwara [FR]; Drôle de drame; Forfaiture; Mollenard. 1938: Le Quai des brumes [co-cam]; Le drame de Shanghaï [co-cam]; Werther; Trois valses. 1939: Goose Step [cam – US]; Sans lendemain; L’Émigrante. 1939/40: Les musiciens du ciel; De Mayerling à Sarajévo. [cam / ‘supervision’ – US] 1942/43: Hitler’s Madman. 1943: Voice in the Wind. 1943/44: Summer Storm. 1944: It Happened Tomorrow; Bluebeard. 1944/45: Strange Illusion. 1945: Club Havana; A Scandal in Paris. 1945/46: The
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Wife of Monte Cristo. 1946: The Dark Mirror. 1947: Carnegie Hall; Women in the Night [cam,des – US]. [cam – FR] 1950: Le traqué [MLV]. 1950/51: Les joyeux pélerins. 1951/52: Das Bankett der Schmuggler / Le banquet des fraudeurs [DE/BE]; Les crimes de l’amour: Mina de Vanghel; Les crimes de l’amour: Le rideau cramoisi. 1952: Les Hospices de Beaune [SD]; La p… respectueuse; Le chemin de Damas. 1952/53: Die Venus vom Tivoli [CH]; The Magnetic Monster [sfx-supv – US]. 1953/54: Ulisse [sfx – IT]. 1954: Una Parigina a Roma / Begegnung in Rom [IT/DE]. 1954/55: Marianne de ma jeunesse [MLV – sfx – DE/FR]; Marianne [MLV – sfx – DE/FR]. 1955: Charivari [SD – dir,cam]. 1957: Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans [TVS – US]. 1958: La première nuit [SF]; La tête contre les murs. 1958/59: The Bloody Brood [CA]. 1959: Un couple. 1959/60: Les yeux sans visage / Occhi senza volta [FR/IT]. 1960/61: Something Wild [US]. 1961: The Hustler [US]. 1962: The Nurses: Night Shift [TV – US]. 1962/63: Captain Sindbad [cam – US]; Les vierges / Le vergini [FR/IT]. 1963/64: Lilith [US]. 1964: La grande frousse. 1965: Trois chambres à Manhattan / Tre camere a Manhattan [FR/IT]. 1965/66: Der Arzt stellt fest / Angeklagt nach § 218 [CH/ DE]. 1966: Chappaqua [co-cam – US]. 1992: Spiegel, Licht und Schatten [TVD – app].
HORST SCHULZE Born April 26, 1921, Dresden (Germany) Principally a stage actor and singer, Schulze played an extensive gamut of character roles in East German films from the late 1950s, especially in literary adaptations. After finishing school and an apprenticeship as a car mechanic, Schulze took singing and acting classes in Dresden from 1937 to 1940. Drafted into the army during the war, he resumed his career after 1945, working successively in theatres in Dresden, Zittau, Weimar, and Berlin. Schulze made his film debut at DEFA as Graf Appiani in Martin Hellberg’s film version of Lessing’s EMILIA GALOTTI (1957). His portrayal of Socialist activist Karl Liebknecht in Günter Reisch’s two-part biographical picture SOLANGE LEBEN IN MIR IST (As Long As There Is Life In Me, 1964/65), and TROTZ ALLEDEM! (Despite It All!, 1971) were well-received by critics. In 1969 he won an award for his title role as an anti-fascist resistance fighter in the four-part TV film HANS BEIMLER, KAMERAD (Hans Beimler, Comrade, 1969). Schulze convincingly portrayed a wide variety of characters, including a brutal plantation owner in Konrad Petzold’s western OSCEOLA (1971) and the eager mediator in Siegfried Kuhn’s film adaptation of Goethe’s DIE WAHLVERWANDTSCHAFTEN (Elective Affinities, 1973/74). Schulze appeared as Baron Instetten in a TV adaptation of Theodor Fontane’s EFFI BRIEST (1968/69), as Dr Paul Kramer in a serialisation of Lion Feucht-
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wanger’s DIE BRÜDER LAUTENSACK (The Lautensack Brothers, 1971/72) and as an old professor searching for justice in a version of Fallada’s ALTES HERZ GEHT AUF DIE REISE (Journey Of An Old Heart, 1986). Since the 1990s Schulze has acted mainly in TV series, and has taught in the actors’ studio at the Staatstheater in Dresden and at the Hanns Eisler High School for Music in Berlin. [act – TV – DD] 1957: Emilia Galotti [FF]. 1959/60: Hochmut kommt vor dem Knall [FF]. 1960/61: Irkutsker Geschichte. 1961: Tempel des Satans. 1961/62: Freispruch mangels Beweises [FF]. 1962: Tote reden nicht. 1963: Christine [FF]; Jetzt und in der Stunde meines Todes [FF]. 1964/65: Solange Leben in mir ist [FF]. 1965: Die Ausnahme und die Regel; 1965-66: Dr. Schlüter [TVS – 5 episodes]. 1966: Lebende Ware [FF]; Der kleine Prinz. 1966/ 67: Geschichten jener Nacht: Die Prüfung [FF]; Begegnungen; Der Mord, der nie verjährt [FF]. 1967/68: Geheimkommando: 2. Geheimkommando Ciupaga; Der Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa; Mord am Montag [FF]. 1968: Geheimkommando: 3. Geheimkommando Spree; Zeit ist Glück; Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir [FF]; Weiße Wölfe / Bijeli vukovi [FF – DD/YU]; Androklus und der Löwe. 1968/69: Der Engel im Visier; Effi Briest. 1969: Hans Beimler, Kamerad; Wallenstein. 1969/70: Fiete Stein. 1970: Fernseh-Pitaval: Sprechen Sie zur Sache, Angeklagte!; KLK an PTX – Die Rote Kapelle [FF]. 1970/71: Artur Becker. 1971: Osceola [FF]; Die Verschworenen; Trotz alledem! [FF]. 1971/72: Die Bilder des Zeugen Schattmann; Die Brüder Lautensack. 1972: Appetit auf Frühkirschen; Das Geheimnis der Anden; Na krawêdzi [PL]; Nicht schummeln, Liebling! [FF – voi]. 1973: Attentäter; Fernseh-Pitaval: Verein zur Vermögensumverteilung e.V.; Jim Owens wunderbares Weihnachten oder Ein verhinderter Sankt Franziskus. 1973/74: Die Wahlverwandtschaften [FF]. 1974/75: Die Falle; Front bez flangov [FF – SU]. 1974-77: Soldaty svobody [FF – SU]. 1975: Fernseh-Pitaval: Zum Beispiel Flick; Steckbrief eines Unerwünschten. 1975/76: Auf der Suche nach Gatt; Abschied von Gabriele; Auftrag für M & S. 1976: Alle meine Kinder; Vybor celi [FF – SU]. 1976/77: Das Verhör; Abschied vom Frieden. 1977: Polizeiruf 110: Alibi für eine Nacht; Ernst Schneller; Das unsichtbare Visier: Der afrikaanse Broederbond. 1977/78: Hochzeit in Weltzow; Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet [FF]. 1978: Polizeiruf 110: In Maske und Kostüm; Das unsichtbare Visier: King-KongGrippe; Für Mord kein Beweis [FF]; Die lange Straße; Sami sred wâlzi [TVS – BG]. 1978-80: Archiv des Todes [TVS]. 1979: Das unsichtbare Visier: Insel des Todes. 1979/80: Das Rad; Levins Mühle [FF]; Hochhausgeschichten [TVS]. 1980: Yvonne; Die Spur des Vermißten; Adel im Untergang; Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Chirurgus Johann Paul Schroth. 1980/81: Der ungebetene Gast. 1980-82: Hotel Polan und seine Gäste. 1981: Kein Tag ist wie der andere; Zahl bar, wenn du kannst; Märkische Forschungen [FF]. 1981/82: Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Arzt in Uniform. 1982: Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Das scheinbar Unmögliche; Märkische Chronik I [TVS]; Pianke; Die Kündigung;
Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Nur ein Schluck; Chef der Gelehrsamkeit – Wilhelm von Humboldt. 1983: Kopf und Herz; Ärztinnen [FF]. 1983/84: Familie Neumann [TVS]; Johann Sebastian Bach [DD/HU]. 1984: Auf Gnade und Ungnade; Der Haken. 1984-86: Bebel und Bismarck. 1985: Verspielte Liebe. 1985/86: Rund um die Uhr [TVS]; Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg: An der Spree und nach Gransee [DE]. 1985-89: Barfuß ins Bett [TVS]. 1986: Der Snob; Ein idealer Gatte; Polizeiruf 110: Die alte Frau im Lehnstuhl; Altes Herz geht auf die Reise. 1987: Polizeiruf 110: Die letzte Kundin. 1987/88: Präriejäger in Mexiko; Märkische Chronik II [TVS]. 1988: Ihr seid dabei gewesen [SD – voi]. 1988/89: Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Noch nicht zu Hause. 1989: Abschiedsdisco [FF]; Gänsehaut. 1989/90: Heimsuchung. [act – TV – DE] 1990/91: Wunderjahre; Farßmann oder Zu Fuß in die Sackgasse [FF]. 1991: Die Wicherts von nebenan: Die diebische Elster / Mast- und Schotbruch; Luv und Lee [TVS]; Viel Rummel um den Skooter: Die Großeltern kommen / Fahrendes Volk. 1991/92: Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers [FF]. 1992-95: Die Gespenster von Flatterfels [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1993: Fraktur; Wer zweimal lügt; Ärzte: Die Narbe des Himmels. 1994/95: Tödliches Geld – Das Gesetz der Belmonts; Alles außer Mord: Marion Nr. 5. 1995: Notaufnahme [TVS]; Kanzlei Bürger [TVS]; Mona M. – Mit den Waffen einer Frau: Um Kopf und Kragen; Ärzte: Weiß wie Schnee, rot wie Blut. 1995/96: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Rosen im Schnee. 1996: Der Doppelgänger; Leinen los für MS Königstein [TVS]. 1997: Wolffs Revier: Der kleine Tod. 1998: Tatort: Money! Money!; Götterdämmerung – Morgen stirbt Berlin; Heimatgeschichten: Ein rettender Engel. 1999: Auf eigene Gefahr: Raubritter. 2000: Tatort: Berliner Bärchen. 2001: Tatort: Todesfahrt. 2001/ 02: Liebe ist die halbe Miete; Geliebte Diebin. 2006: Abschnitt 40: Mädchen und Jungs.
REINHOLD SCHÜNZEL Born November 7, 1888, Hamburg (Germany) Died September 11, 1954, Munich (West Germany) Reinhold Schünzel first made his name in films in the late 1910s as an actor, initially in villainous roles, and later as a popular comedian. Today Schünzel is better remembered as the director of some of the biggest box-office hits of the 1920s and 1930s, which were in wit and sophistication second only to Lubitsch. On account of his success Schünzel, although ‘half-Jewish’, was even tolerated for a while by the Nazis. After completing a business course, Schünzel, against the will of his parents, acted on stage, and in 1915 worked as a director and actor at the Meinhardt-Bernauer-Theater in Berlin. By 1916 he started appearing in films, usually as a villain. The same year he became part of director Richard Oswald’s core ensemble of actors, which included Conrad Veidt and the exotic dancer Anita Berber. For Oswald, Schünzel played a devious blackmailer in the homosexual emancipation melodrama ANDERS ALS DIE ANDERN (Different from the Others, 1918/19),
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while under Ernst Lubitsch’s direction, he portrayed a louche and shady aristocrat in MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919). In 1918, Schünzel also began to direct films, principally comedies, but also melodramas and epics. He showed a talent for extravagant productions with the historical film KATHARINA DIE GROSSE (Catherine The Great, 1920). Initially working independently and also producing, Schünzel was contracted to Ufa in 1926 and produced a series of very popular slapstick comedies, including HALLOH – CAESAR! (1926), DER HIMMEL AUF ERDEN (Heaven on Earth, 1926/27), and HERCULES MAIER (1927). These typically starred Schünzel himself alongside a stellar supporting cast of other popular comedians. Schünzel made a smooth transition to sound films. His early 1930s productions used music, dialogue and sound to great comic effect, adding sophistication and energy to his films. He maintained his sense for irony and erotically risqué subjects, as in his masterpiece VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1933), a musical comedy about a young woman (Renate Müller) who pretends to be a female impersonator. At the same time, Schünzel continued to act for other directors, most notably portraying corrupt police chief Tiger Brown in Pabst’s DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/31), and, once again for Oswald, in the anti-war film 1914 – DIE LETZTEN TAGE VOR DEM WELTBRAND (1914, The Last Days Before The World War, 1930). After the Nazis came to power, Schünzel, classified as a ‘half-Jew’, was given special permission by Josef Goebbels to continue working for Ufa. Seemingly unaffected by the political change, his films remained characterised by urbane irony, demonstrated by the sophisticated DIE ENGLISCHE HEIRAT (The English Wedding, 1934), again starring Renate Müller. AMPHITRYON (1935), a lavishly produced comic fantasy that drew on as well as satirised Greek mythology, was interpreted by some as poking fun at the Nazi regime. His final film in Germany LAND DER LIEBE (Land of Love, 1937) was a satirical operetta, released in a severely cut version. Schünzel then left for Hollywood, where he found himself distrusted by established German émigrés who had been forced to flee several years previously. Contracted to M-G-M, Schünzel’s attempt to repeat his European successes failed. Mixing ice-skating with a traditional musical format, THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 (1938/39), starring Joan Crawford and James Stewart, proved a massive box office flop, and a Russian-themed follow-up, BALALAIKA (1939), starring Nelson Eddy, did not fare much better. A biopic about Franz Schubert, NEW WINE (1941), was his last directorial assignment. Schünzel returned to acting,
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usually playing Nazis, most notably in Fritz Lang’s HANGMEN ALSO DIE! (1942), and as one of Claude Rains’s sinister houseguests in Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS (1946). Schünzel returned to West Germany in 1951. He played Polonius in ‘Hamlet’ at the Kammerspiel Theatre in Munich, and occasionally appeared in films. His last important part was the supporting role of a benevolent patriarch in Gerhard Lamprecht’s MEINES VATERS PFERDE (My Father’s Horses, 1953/54) which earned him a German Film Award. Schünzel’s daughter Annemarie worked as an actress in Hollywood films of the 1950s and early 1960s under the name Marianne Stewart. Forgotten for decades, Schünzel and his films were rediscovered at CineGraph’s first international film history conference in Hamburg in 1988. A resulting book-length study inspired director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg’s biopic BEIM NÄCHSTEN KUSS KNALL ICH IHN NIEDER! (At the Next Kiss I’ll Shoot Him Down!, 1994/95), an ironic take on Schünzel’s battles with Weimar stars, Nazi officials, and Hollywood producers. Since 2004, a Reinhold Schünzel Prize for merits in preserving and promoting the German film heritage is awarded annually at the CineFest in Hamburg. [act – DE] 1916: Werner Krafft. Der Maschinenbauer; Der oder der?; Bubi ist eifersüchtig; Der Fall Grehn; Seine kokette Frau; Im Banne des Schweigens; Ihr liebster Feind; Die Stricknadeln; Das Geständnis der grünen Maske; Das unheimliche Haus. 2. Freitag, der 13te / 3. Der chinesische Götze; Benjamin, der Schüchterne. 1917: Das Nachtgespräch; Der neueste Stern vom Variété; Die Erzkokette; Die ledige Frau; Der Schloßherr von Hohenstein; Das Armband; Des Herrn Theophils erstes Mißgeschick; Höhenluft; Gräfin Küchenfee. 1917/18: Die Liebe höret nimmer auf. 1918: Auf Probe gestellt; Es werde Licht! 3. Teil / 4. Sündige Mütter; Im Schloß am See; Das Mädel vom Ballett; Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Hannes Millionengründung [dir]; Hanne entlobt sich [dir,act]; Frühlingsstürme im Herbste des Lebens; Mitternacht; Die Filmkathi; Hanne muß was erleben [SF – dir]; Hanne, der Einbrecher [dir]; Prinzessin Hanne muß was erleben [dir,act]; Die Reise um die Erde in 80 Tagen; Hanne als Einbrecher; Lili; Um Krone und Peitsche. 1918/19: Liebe, die sich frei verschenkt; Das Karussell des Lebens; Das Geheimnis des Amerika-Docks; Anders als die Andern; Kain: 1. Das Verhängnis auf Schloß Santarem / 2. Im Goldrausch / 3. Opfernde Liebe / 4. Tor der Glückseligkeit. 1919: Die Rose des Fliegers; Das gelbe Haus; Das Mädchen und die Männer; Die Apachen; Die Peruanerin; Die sich verkaufen; Das Geheimnis der Wera Baranska; Die Liebschaften der Käthe Keller; Eine Nacht, gelebt im Paradiese; Seelenverkäufer; Blondes Gift; Lilli; Lillis Ehe; Madame Dubarry; Heddas Rache; Was den Männern gefällt; Wahnsinn; Seine Beichte; Die Pflicht zu leben; Liebe; Tänzerin Tod; Der Teufel und die Madonna; Unheimliche Geschichten; Die schwarze Marion; Ut mine Strom-
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tid; Baccarat; Nachtgestalten. 1919/20: Maria Magdalene [dir,act]; Drei Nächte; Die Tänzerin Barberina; Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße. 1 [dir,act]. 1920: Der Gefangene. Sklaven des XX. Jahrhunderts; Die Banditen von Asnières; Katharina die Große [dir,co-scr,act]; Moriturus; Der Marquis d’Or [dir,act,pro]; Der Graf von Cagliostro [dir, act,pro – AT/DE]; Die letzte Stunde [act,pro]; Das Chamäleon; Der Anti-Detektiv. 1920/21: Christian Wahnschaffe: 1. Weltbrand / 2. Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker. 1921: Der Roman eines Dienstmädchens [dir,act,pro – DE/ AT]; Lady Hamilton; Betrüger des Volkes; Das Geld auf der Straße [dir,act,pro – AT/DE]. 1921/22: Die Tochter der Verführten. 1922: Das Liebesnest [2 parts]; Luise Millerin; Bigamie; Der Pantoffelheld [dir,act,pro – AT/DE]; Die drei Marien und der Herr von Marana [dir,co-scr,act,pro – AT/ DE]. 1922/23: Der Schatz der Gesine Jakobsen; Der Menschenfeind. 1923: Alles für Geld [dir,act]. 1923/24: Neuland oder Das glückhaft Schiff. 1924: Windstärke 9 [dir]; Die Schmetterlingsschlacht; Lumpen und Seide; Ein Weihnachtsfilm für Große [SF]; Die Kleine aus der Konfektion. Großstadtkavaliere. 1924/25: Der Flug um den Erdball [6 parts]; Heiratsschwindler [dir,co-scr]; Die Blumenfrau vom Potsdamer Platz [dir,co-scr]. 1925: Zwischen zwei Frauen; Sündenbabel; Die Frau für 24 Stunden [dir,co-scr]; Der Hahn im Korb [co-scr,act]; Zersprengte Ketten. 1926: Der Stolz der Kompagnie [co-scr,act]; Fünf-Uhr-Tee in der Ackerstraße [co-scr,act]; Der dumme August des Zirkus Romanelli [co-scr,act]; Halloh – Caesar! [dir,co-scr,act, pro]; In der Heimat, da gibt’s ein Wiedersehn! [sup,act, pro]; Der Juxbaron. 1926/27: Der Himmel auf Erden [dir, sup,act,pro]. 1927: Üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit [dir, co-scr,act,pro]; Gustav Mond … Du gehst so stille [dir,act, pro]; Hercules Maier [sup,co-scr,act,pro]. 1927/28: Geächtet [SF – act]. 1928: Adam und Eva [sup,co-scr,act, pro]; Don Juan in der Mädchenschule [dir,act,pro]; Aus dem Tagebuch eines Junggesellen [co-scr,act,pro]. 1928/ 29: Cagliostro / Cagliostro [FR/DE – act]. 1929: Peter, der Matrose [dir,act,pro]; Kolonne X [dir,act,pro]; Phantome des Glücks [dir,scr]. 1929/30: Liebe im Ring [dir,act]. 1930: ‘1914’. Die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Der Ball [MLV – FR/DE]; Der kleine Seitensprung [MLV – dir,co-scr,ide]; Le petit écart [MLV – dir, coscr,ide – DE/FR]; Ronny [MLV – dir,co-scr]; Ronny [French V.] [MLV – dir,co-scr]. 1932: Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV – dir,co-scr]; La belle aventure [MLV – co-dir,scr]; Unheimliche Geschichten; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann? [dir]. 1933: Saison in Kairo [MLV – dir]; Idylle au Caire [MLV – dir]; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV – dir,scr]; Georges et Georgette [MLV – co-dir,scr]. 1934: Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV – dir]; La jeune fille d’une nuit [MLV – dir, scr]; Die englische Heirat [dir]. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV – dir,scr]; Les dieux s’amusent [MLV – co-dir,scr]; First a Girl [MLV – sma – GB]. 1935/36: Donogoo Tonka. Die geheimnisvolle Stadt [MLV – dir,scr]; Donogoo [MLV – co-dir,scr]. 1936: Das Mädchen Irene [dir,co-scr]. 1937: Land der Liebe [dir,co-scr]. [act – US] 1938: Rich Man, Poor Girl [dir]. 1938/39: The Ice Follies of 1939 [dir]. 1939: Balalaika [dir]. 1941: New Wine [dir]. 1942: Hangmen Also Die! 1943: First Comes Cour-
age; Hostages. 1944: The Hitler Gang; The Man in Half Moon Street. 1945/46: Dragonwyck. 1946: Notorious; The Plainsman and the Lady; Golden Earrings. 1947: Berlin Express. 1947/48: The Vicious Circle. 1951: Die Dubarry [co-dir – DE]. 1951/52: Washington Story. 1952: Liebe im Finanzamt [scr – DE]. 1953/54: Meines Vaters Pferde. 2. Seine dritte Frau [act – DE]; Eine Liebesgeschichte [act – DE]. 1954: Kabarett / Dieses Lied bleibt bei dir [act – DE]. 1957: Viktor und Viktoria [sma].
HELGA SCHÜTZ Born October 2, 1937, Falkenhain, near Goldberg (Germany, now Z³otoryja, Poland) Schütz, also a noted novelist, was a major screenwriter of DEFA documentaries and feature films from the 1960s onwards. A central theme of her work was the relation between the individual and the collective in socialist states. In particular DIE SCHLÜSSEL (The Keys, 1972/73) provoked a critical debate about these topics in the GDR. After schooling in Dresden, apprenticeship as a gardener and education at the Faculty for Workers and Farmers, Schütz studied dramaturgy at the East German Film Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg from 1958 to 1962. Starting as a freelance scriptwriter for DEFA, she wrote on a wide range of themes. In 1964 Schütz began to collaborate with author and director Egon Günther. Their first film LOTS WEIB (Lot’s Wife, 1964/65) examined socialist ethics and the hypocrisy of everyday life through the film’s depiction of a marriage breakdown. The government did not allow completion of WENN DU GROSS BIST, LIEBER ADAM (When You’re Grown Up, Dear Adam, 1965), an ironic fairy tale, where a child’s torch exposes liars. Günther’s DIE SCHLÜSSEL concerned a young East German couple on a visit to Poland, where they are forced to consider their future as individuals and socialists. Combining documentary footage and staged scenes, the film was not permitted to be shown outside the GDR owing to complaints from the Polish communist party. Retreating to literary and historical material, Schütz adapted Goethe’s DIE LEIDEN DES JUNGEN WERTHERS (The Sufferings of Young Werther, 1976), and Gottfried Keller’s URSULA (1977) both directed by Günther. She also wrote the script for Lothar Warneke’s film biography of Georg Büchner ADDIO, PICCOLA MIA (Adieu, My Small One, 1977/78). P. S. (1978) returned to contemporary concerns, dealing with the needs of a youth from a children’s home seeking his place in society. With the director Roland Gräf, Schütz co-wrote FALLADA – LETZTES KAPITEL (Fallada – The Final Chapter, 1987/88), depicting the conflict of a writer during the 1930s torn between rebellion and conformity.
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Returning to DEFA after unification Egon Günter again directed Schütz’s screenplay STEIN (1990/91) the story of the lonely death of an old actor who was banned from working in the GDR after his protest over the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968. Beside feature films, Schütz continued to write documentaries for East and West German TV, a series of portraits of classical writers and of East German cities, which combined historical contextualisation with an analysis of the present, and an emphasis on everyday life. Her autobiographical stories and novels recounting her experiences during and after World War II are widely acclaimed. Schütz received a number of awards for her books as well as her film scripts. [scr – DD] 1964: Es liegt an uns [SD]. 1964/65: Lots Weib [co-scr]. 1965: Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam [co-scr]. 1967: 7 Sätze über das Lernen [SD – co-scr]. 1969: Seilfahrt 69 [SD – co-scr]; Auftrag für morgen [SD – co-scr]. 1971: Stabwechsel [SD – co-scr]. 1971/72: Die Nuß [ANI – co-scr]. 1972/73: Die Schlüssel [co-scr]. 1973: Handschriften [DO – co-scr]; Zum Beispiel Malen [DO – co-scr]; Erziehung vor Verdun [TV – app]; Meister Maidburg in Annaberg [TVD]. 1975: Tage auf dem Lande [DO]. 1976: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [co-scr,app]. 1977: Ursula [TV – co-scr – CH/DD]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [coscr,app]. 1978: P. S. 1981: Vivos voco – Ich rufe die Lebenden [TVD]; ‘Da kommen sie und fragen’. Neun Tage aus Goethes Leben [TVD – co-scr]. 1982: Fontane, Theodor – Potsdamer Str. 134c [TVD]. 1984: Dresden [TVD – DE]; Der Zwinger in Dresden [TVD – dir,scr – DE]; Bettina von Arnim, geb. Brentano [TVD]. 1986: Erfurt [TVD – dir,scr – DE]. 1987: Rostock [TVD – dir,scr – DE]. 1987/88: Fallada – letztes Kapitel [co-scr]. 1990/91: Stein [co-scr – DD/DE]. 1991: Begegnung mit Helga Schütz – Mainzer Stadtschreiberin 1991 [TVD – app – DE]. 1991/92: Hinterm Vorhang sieht man einen Schatten. Elektronisches Tagebuch [TVD – dir, scr – DE]. 1992/93: ABF-Memoiren [DO – co-scr – DE]. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app – DE].
JAECKI SCHWARZ Born February 26, 1946, Berlin (Germany) Best known for one of his few leading roles in Konrad Wolf’s autobiographical film ICH WAR NEUNZEHN (I was Nineteen, 1967), Schwarz became stereotyped in DEFA productions from the 1960s to the late 1980s as the embodiment of the boy next door, a role he frequently imbued with dry humour. After finishing school Schwarz worked in the chemical industry before studying at the Film Academy at Potsdam-Babelsberg. In 1967 he was selected by Konrad Wolf to play the latter’s fictional alter ego in ICH WAR NEUNZEHN (I Was Nineteen). Playing a young German who returns to his home in 1945 as a member of the Red Army following years in Soviet
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exile, Schwarz’s acting abilities were widely acknowledged. He resumed his stage career in Magdeburg in 1969, and later in 1974 as part of the Berlin Ensemble. Aside from sporadic theatre appearances in the 1970s as a member of the Berliner Ensemble, Schwarz was seen primarily on television and in films, in the TV series KRUPP UND KRAUSE (1967/68), alongside Manfred Krug in the road movie WEITE STRASSEN – STILLE LIEBE (Open Roads and Unrequited Love, 1969), in a supporting role in the hit DER DRITTE (The Third, 1971) and again in an unusual lead opposite Jutta Hoffmann as an intellectual, proud student in DIE SCHLÜSSEL (The Keys, 1972/73). The latter film caused much controversy with its representation of the relationships between socialist states. Since unification Schwarz appeared in numerous TV series, often providing a comic note to his characterisations, e.g. from 1993 as ‘Sputnik’ in the series EIN STARKES TEAM (A Strong Team) playing an EastGerman ex-policeman opening a string of different themed restaurants providing his active colleagues with drinks and good advice, and since 1996 he starred as Kommissar Schmücke in the ARD series POLIZEIRUF 110 (Police Emergency Call) investigating in the East German provinces. [act – DD] 1966/67: Kaule; Geschichten jener Nacht: Der große und der kleine Willi. 1967: Ich war neunzehn. 1967/68: Krupp und Krause [TV]. 1969: Weite Straßen – stille Liebe. 1969/70: Jeder stirbt für sich allein [TV]; Rottenknechte. 5 parts [TV]. 1970: Wir kaufen eine Feuerwehr; Dornröschen; Du und ich und Klein-Paris. 1971: Trotz alledem!; Einberufen [SD – voi]; Ein Mann, der sterben muß [TV]; Der Dritte. 1971/72: Lützower. 1972/73: Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow; Die Hosen des Ritters von Bredow; Eva und Adam oder Wieviel Sterne hat der Himmel [TV]; Stülpner-Legende [TV]; Die Schlüssel. 1973: Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz; Ich bin ein junger Pionier [DO – voi]. 1973-75: Das Mädchen Krümel [TVS]. 1974: Suse, liebe Suse. 1974/75: Konzert für Bratpfanne und Orchester. 1975: Sein wichtigster Funkspruch [SD – voi]; Im Schlaraffenland [TV]; Wilhelm Pieck – Sohn unseres Volkes [DO – voi]; Ein verdammt wunderschöner Tag [TV]; Das blaue Licht. 1975-78: Gefährliche Fahndung [TVS – 7 episodes]. 1976: Somalia – Im Jahre 7 seiner Revolution [TVD – voi]; Somalia – Nicht länger arm sein [SD – voi]. 1977: Erkundigungen über Heinrich von Kleist [TVD – voi]; Die zertanzten Schuhe [TV]; Das Raubtier; Ihre Kinder [SD – voi]. 1978: Positionen [SD – voi]; STA III [SD – voi]; Er hat uns Vorschläge gemacht [TVD – voi]; Renaissance – Zeit der Riesen [TVD – voi]; Ein Rembrandt für die Neubauwohnung [TVD – voi]; Ein Mädchen aus Schnee; Das Ding im Schloß. 1978/79: Einfach Blumen aufs Dach; Glück im Hinterhaus; Alle meine Mädchen. 1978-80: Marx und Engels. Stationen ihres Lebens [TVS]. 1979: Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Ein reizender Abend [TV]; Der Sohn des Schauspielers [TV]; Die Rache des Kapitäns Mitchell [TV]. 1979/80: Alma schafft alle [TV]; Die Stunde der Töchter; Nora S. [TV]. 1980: Verbrennt nicht
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unsere Erde [DO – voi]; Blaue Pferde auf rotem Gras [TV]; Puppen für die Nacht [TV]; Der Spiegel des großen Magus [voi]; Die Kinder Palästinas [DO – voi]; Asta, mein Engelchen; Wie wär’s mit uns beiden?; Mein Vater Alfons. 1980/81: Zwei Zeilen, kleingedruckt / Dve stroèki melkim šriftom [DD/SU]; Bürgschaft für ein Jahr; Wäre die Erde nicht rund … [voi]. [act – TV – DD] 1980-82: Hotel Polan und seine Gäste. 1981: Jegor Bulytschow und die anderen; Märkische Forschungen [FF]. 1981/82: Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung; Front ohne Gnade: In den Felsen des Kaukasus. 1982: Wo gibt’s denn so was?; Das Mädchen und der Junge; Im Spiegel. 1982/83: Fariaho [FF]. 1983: Das Interview; Der kaukasische Kreidekreis; Kaskade rückwärts [FF]; Isabel auf der Treppe [FF]. 1983/84: Auf dem Sprung [FF]. 1984: Immer, wenn Lehmann kommt; Ach du meine Liebe; Schauspielereien: Denkzettel. 1984/85: Der Haifischfütterer [FF]; Flug des Falken; Die Gänse von Bützow [FF]. 1984-86: Ernst Thälmann. 1985: 1913. 1985/86: So viele Träume [FF]; Fahrschule [FF]. 1985-87: Spuk von draußen [TVS]. 1986: Schauspielereien: Ein ehrlicher Finder; Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor; Jungfer Miras Mirakel; Das Traumschiff: Mexico. 1986/87: Hasenherz [FF]; Polizeiruf 110: Abschiedslied für Linda. 1987: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Die Bestie; Ich liebe dich – April! April! [FF]. 1987/88: Polizeiruf 110: Mitternachtsfall; Späte Ankunft. 1988: Stunde der Wahrheit; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: Alles umsonst. 1988/89: Zwei schräge Vögel [FF]; Schulmeister Spitzbart [voi]. 1989: Der Mantel des Ketzers; Großer Frieden; Abschiedsdisco [FF]. 1989/ 90: Erster Verlust [FF]; Spreewaldfamilie [TVS]. 1989-90: Fritze Bollmann will nicht angeln: Der Ersatzmann. 1990: Alter Schwede; Der Rest, der bleibt [DE]; Der Tangospieler [FF – DD/DE]. 1990/91: Stein [FF – DD/DE]; Trillertrine [FF]; Wunderjahre [DE]. [act – TV – DE] 1991: Vaòek-Trilogie; Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. 1991/92: Geheimakte Lenz; Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers [FF]. 1992: Das war der wilde Osten [FF]; Tatort: Renis Tod. 1992/93: Rotlicht; Rosen-Emil [FF]; Liebling Kreuzberg: Wer schmeißt denn da mit Lehm. 1993: Achterbahn: Hut mit B.Deutung; Zwischentöne: Jaecki Schwarz über Winfried Glatzeder [TVD – app]; Im Himmel hört dich niemand weinen; Die Männer vom K3: Dreckiges Geld; Wer zweimal lügt; Auf eigene Gefahr: Die Katze; Hörigkeit des Herzens. 1993/94: Die Stadtindianer: Alte Narben; Alles Glück dieser Erde: Stunden der Angst; Burning Life [FF]; Wir sind auch nur ein Volk [TVS]. 1993–2009: Ein starkes Team [TVS – 43 episodes]. 1994: Ich klage an; Babysitter; Wolffs Revier: Klassenfahrt; Ich begehre dich. 1994/95: Spreebogen; Praxis Bülowbogen: Laß es bitte! 1995: Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht [TVS – Season 3 – 4 episodes]; Die Staatsanwältin; Verliebte Feinde; Polizeiruf 110: Bruder Lustig; Mordslust: Ein Würger kommt selten allein; Tödliches Leben; Die Grube; Doppelter Einsatz: Ein Mittwoch; Mobbing – die lieben Kollegen; Matulla & Busch – Zwei Alte pokern hoch; Heimatgeschichten: Alte Freunde / Sprung ins Glück; Feuerbach: Brave Bürger. 1995/96: Rosa Roth: Verlorenes Leben; Auf eigene Gefahr: Amateure; Die Drei: Das Ende eines Killers; Kurklinik Rosenau; Wolkenstein: Die Rabenmutter. 1995-2009: Poli-
zeiruf 110 [TVS – 39 episodes]. 1996: Eine fast perfekte Liebe; Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Wundersame Heilungen. 1996/97: Der rote Schakal; Une femme sur mesure / Eine Frau nach Maß [FR/DE]. 1997: Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei: Generalprobe; Weihnachtsfieber; Liebling Kreuzberg: Besorgte Väter; Das Lied zum Sonntag; Eine Familie zum Küssen; Spuk aus der Gruft; Mama ist unmöglich: (K)ein Fall für Mama. 1997/98: Dr. Sommerfeld – Neues vom Bülowbogen: Lennarts letztes Match. 1998: Männer sind was Wunderbares: 24 Stunden Wahrheit / Dein Freund und Helfer; Die Buggy-Bande. 1998/99: Der Landarzt: Skandal in Deekelsen; Im Visier der Zielfahnder: Die Frau ohne Namen; Fieber – Heiße Zeit für junge Ärzte: Baronin Münchhausen. 1999: Ein Mann steht auf; Die Straßen von Berlin: Hackfleisch; Der Elefant in meinem Bett; Jugendsünde; Zwei Dickköpfe mit Format. 1999/ 2000: Auf eigene Gefahr: Bis dass der Tod …; Rotlicht – In der Höhle des Löwen. 2000: Das Herz des Priesters; Deutschlandspiel; Rosa Roth: Tod eines Bullen; Das Traumschiff 2000: Mexiko; 2000/01: Zwei alte Gauner. 20002004: Für alle Fälle Stefanie [TVS – 5 seasons]. 2001: Tatort Ostdeutschland – 30 Jahre ‘Polizeiruf 110’ [TVD – app]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick. 2001/02: Liebesau – die andere Heimat; Tierarzt Dr. Engel: Der verlorene Hund; Ein Sack voll Geld. 2002: Höchstpersönlich: Jaecki Schwarz [TVD – app]; Schneemann sucht Schneefrau [DE/AT]; Er oder Keiner; Auch Erben will gelernt sein. 2002/03: Der kleine Mönch: Der seltsame Professor; Nicht ohne meinen Anwalt [TVS – 3 episodes]: Verliebte Diebe. 2003: Mein Leben & ich: Freunde und Lover; Ein Banker zum Verlieben; Ein Gauner Gottes; Ein Engel namens Hans-Dieter. 2003/ 04: Das Bernstein-Amulett; Stefanie – Eine Frau startet durch: Unversöhnlich. 2004: Gram [SF]; Der Hauptgewinn; Idole: Harald Juhnke [TVD – app]; Harald Juhnke – Ein Leben für die Show [TVD – app]; Nikola: Wir haben’s getan. 2004/05: Mein Leben & ich: Hausbesuch. 2004-06: Hilfe, meine Tochter heiratet. 2004-08: Ich will da sein – Jenny Gröllmann [DO – app]. 2005: Nikola: Das Ende; Rotkäppchen; Das Traumschiff: Burma / Myanmar. 2005/06: Reine Formsache [FF]; Unter den Linden – Das Haus Gravenhorst [TVS – 6 episodes]. 2006: Ein Hauptgewinn für Papa. 2006/07: Der Alte: Stumme Zeugin; Das Traumpaar. 2007: Suchkind 312; Das Traumschiff: Rio de Janeiro; In aller Freundschaft: Geplatzte Träume. 2007/08: Insel des Lichts. 2007-09: Küstenwache [TVS – 2 episodes].
TIL SCHWEIGER (Tilman Valentin Schweiger) Born December 19, 1963, Freiburg (West Germany) One of the most popular male stars in German cinema since the 1990s, and something of a Teutonic version of Brad Pitt, Schweiger has embodied with his muscular good looks and rough-edged charm a romantic ideal of masculinity that appeals to domestic audiences. After graduating from acting school in Cologne, Schweiger’s professional career commenced at the Contra-Kreis Theatre in Bonn. From 1990 he appear-
HANNA SCHYGULLA
ed occasionally in the long-running, popular weekly soap opera LINDENSTRASSE (Linden Street). His boy-next-door appeal caught the eye of the public, and of producer Bernd Eichinger, who offered him the lead in Wolfgang Büld’s comedy MANTA MANTA (1991). He played a winsome loser and amateur boxer in EBBIES BLUFF (1992/93), receiving a Max Ophüls Award for his performance. TV exposure in the police series DIE KOMMISSARIN (The Superintendent, 1993–99) led to DER BEWEGTE MANN (The Most Desired Man / Maybe, Maybe Not, 1994), Sönke Wortmann’s hugely successful film adaptation of Ralf König’s comic book novel. A stylish, if socially conformist, comedy of hetero- and homosexual romantic mores, the film established Schweiger as a national pin-up and positioned him, alongside co-star Katja Riemann, as one half of postWall cinema’s dream couple. His movie hunk image was remoulded into that of a good guy gone temporarily bad in Detlev Buck’s prison comedy MÄNNERPENSION (Jailbirds, 1995), and in two remakes of 1950s films, DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (The Girl Rosemarie, 1995/96) and DIE HALBSTARKEN (The Hooligans, 1996), in which he played Horst Buchholz’s part from the original film. In 1996, Schweiger produced and co-wrote the genre hybrid KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR, which became a surprise hit. His directorial debut, the heist film DER EISBÄR (The Polar Bear, 1998), had a weak narrative, but was bolstered by a solid ensemble cast of German stars and slick Tarantino-influenced dialogue. Apart from being the star and the director, Schweiger also co-produced the film. While maintaining a high-profile domestic film career, and landing lucrative advertising and modelling contracts, Schweiger branched out into a more international portfolio with an award-winning performance in the European co-production BANDYTA (Bastard, 1996), in which he starred opposite Pete Postlethwaite. He also appeared in supporting roles in mostly second-rate Hollywood productions, including THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS (1998), DRIVEN (2000/01), LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE (2002), and DEUCE BIGALOW – EUROPEAN GIGOLO (2005). Schweiger took on the title role as the taciturn cowboy hero in the Franco-German western spoof DIE DALTONS GEGEN LUCKY LUKE (The Daltons vs. Lucky Luke, 2004) an adaptation of a famous cartoon book series, and played flying ace Werner Voss in the World War I drama DER ROTE BARON (The Red Baron, 2006–08). Mainly targeted at and popular with his German fans, Schweiger continued to cultivate his established star persona of the loveable loser, maintaining control over his brand image by often directing, co-writing, producing and playing the lead role in his films. These
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included the romantic comedies BARFUSS (Barefoot, 2004) and KEINOHRHASEN (Rabbit Without Ears, 2007), and 1 1/2 RITTER – AUF DER SUCHE NACH DER HINREISSENDEN HERZELINDE (1 1/2 Knights – In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde, 2008), the latter featuring German comedy and TV stars from past and present. In 2008 Schweiger was cast opposite Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s World War II spaghetti western INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2008/09). [act – DE] 1990-92: Lindenstraße [TVS – episodes 220365]. 1991: Manta Manta. 1992/93: Ebbies Bluff. 199399: Die Kommissarin [TVS – 27 episodes]. 1994: Lemgo [TV]; Der bewegte Mann. 1994/95: Bunte Hunde. 1995: Polizeiruf 110: Schwelbrand [TV]; Männerpension; Das Superweib. 1995/96: Das Mädchen Rosemarie [TV]. 1996: Die Halbstarken [TV]; Adrenalin [TV]; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door [co-scr,act,pro]; Bandyta / Bastard / Brute [PL/DE/FR]. 1997: Judas Kiss [US]. 1998: The Replacement Killer [US]; S.L.C. Punk [US]; Der Eisbär [dir,act,co-pro]. 1998/99: Der große Bagarozy. 1999: Bang Boom Bang – Ein todsicheres Ding [app]; POP 2000 [TVS]. 1999/2000: Magicians [US/ DE]. 2000: Jetzt oder nie – Zeit ist Geld [act,pro]. 2000/01: Driven [US]; Was tun, wenn’s brennt? 2000-02: Auf Herz und Nieren [cut,pro]. 2001: Uprising [TV – US]; Investigating Sex [DE/US]; Joe and Max / Joe und Max – Rivalen im Ring [TV – US/DE]. 2002: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life / Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Die Wiege des Lebens [US/GB/DE/JP]. 2002/03: In Enemy Hands [US]. 2003: Erbsen auf halb 6 [co-pro]; (T)Raumschiff Surprise – Periode 1. 2003/04: King Arthur [US/IE]. 2004: Agnes und seine Brüder; Les Dalton / Die Daltons gegen Lucky Luke / Los Dalton [FR/DE/ES]; Barfuss [dir,co-scr,cut,act,co-pro]. 2004/05: Tramitz & Friends [TVS – Season 2 – episode 4]. 2005: Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo [US]; Liebling, wir graben Harry aus! / Bye Bye Harry! [DE/GB/BE]. 2005/06: Wo ist Fred? 2005-07: Mujeres asesinas: Claudia Sobrero, cuchillera [TV – AR]. 2006: Oh, wie schön ist Panama [ANI – voi]; One Way [act,pro]; Video Kings. 2006/07: Body Armour [US]. 2006-08: Der Rote Baron. 2007: Pastewka: Der Wecker [TV]; KeinOhrHasen [dir,co-scr,act,copro]; Already Dead [US]. 2007/08: Far Cry [DE/CA]; Phantomschmerz. 2008: Anna ‘fischt’ Til Schweiger [TVD – app]; 1 1/2 Ritter – Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde [dir,act,pro]. 2008/09: Männerherzen; Inglourious Basterds [US/DE].
HANNA SCHYGULLA Born December 25, 1943, Kattowitz (Germany, now Katowice, Poland) Remembered primarily for her high profile collaborations with director Rainer Werner Fassbinder from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Schygulla was one of the few internationally recognisable stars in a period of German cinema otherwise dominated by the director.
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A refugee at the end of the war ending up with her mother in Munich, Schygulla in the mid-1960s studied German and French, while taking acting lessons. Through her acquaintance with Fassbinder, Schygulla was introduced to the Action-Theatre and in 1968 became one of the co-founders of the ‘antiteater’. She appeared in several stage productions by Fassbinder, while taking on small parts in films directed by JeanMarie Straub, Peter Fleischmann and Reinhard Hauff. Fassbinder’s first film with Schygulla was LIEBE IST KÄLTER ALS DER TOD (Love Is Colder Than Death, 1969), awarded the German Film Award in 1970. Over the next few years, the two made numerous films together. In KATZELMACHER (1969), Fassbinder cast himself as a Greek guest worker who falls for a courtyard siren played by Schygulla. In DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, 1972), the title character, played by Margit Carstensen, was hopelessly obsessed with Schygulla’s cool young lesbian lover. As a ‘subcultural superstar’ Schygulla became known to a wider public through Fassbinder’s ‘alternative’ TV soap opera ACHT STUNDEN SIND KEIN TAG (Eight Hours Are Not a Day, 1972). After the literary adaptation FONTANE EFFI BRIEST (1972–74), in which Schygulla portrayed Theodor Fontane’s doomed 19th century heroine, she and Fassbinder announced the end of their collaboration. From the early 1970s onward Schygulla starred in films by other directors, including Wim Wenders’s FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (Wrong Move, 1974/75), and Vojtech Jasny’s ANSICHTEN EINES CLOWNS (Opinions of a Clown, 1975). In 1978 Schygulla was reunited with Fassbinder on what would become their best known film together, the post-war woman’s melodrama DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage of Maria Braun), as well as the biopic of Nazi-era singer Lale Andersen, LILI MARLEEN (1980), both international and domestic successes. Following Fassbinder’s death in 1982, Schygulla occasionally appeared in international productions directed by Jean-Luc Godard (PASSION, 1981/82), Carlos Saura (ANTONIETA) and Margarete von Trotta in (HELLER WAHN, Friends and Husbands, both 1982). For her part in Marco Ferreri’s STORIA DI PIERA (Story of Piera, 1982/83), she won an award at the Cannes Film Festival. Despite working continuously in Europe and the United States, few of her films in the 1990s left a lasting impression. The new millennium in contrast offered her more rewarding opportunities, such as Béla Tarr’s austere DIE WERCKMEISTERSCHEN HARMONIEN (Werckmeister Harmonies, 2000) and Fatih Akin’s melancholy transnational
drama AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE (The Edge of Heaven, 2007). [act – DE] 1968: Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter [SF]; Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern. 1969: Liebe ist kälter als der Tod; Katzelmacher; Die Revolte [TV]; Kuckucksei im Gangsternest; Baal [TV]. 1969/70: Ende einer Kommune [TVD]; Götter der Pest; Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? 1970: Das Kaffeehaus [TV]; Whity [act,sng]; Rio das Mortes; Die Niklashauser Fart [TV]; Fassbinder produziert: Film Nr. 8 [TVD]; Pioniere in Ingolstadt [TV]. 1970/71: Mathias Kneißl [TV]; Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte. 1971: Jakob von Gunten [TV]; Händler der vier Jahreszeiten; Die Ahnfrau [TV – ass-dir,act]. 1972: Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant; Acht Stunden sind kein Tag [TVS – 5 episodes]; Haus am Meer [TV]. 1972-74: Fontane Effi Briest oder Viele, die eine Ahnung haben von ihren Möglichkeiten und ihren Bedürfnissen und dennoch das herrschende System in ihrem Kopf akzeptieren durch ihre Taten und es somit festigen und durchaus bestätigen. 1974: Unser Werk [TV]; Der Katzensteg [TV]. 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung. 1975: Ansichten eines Clowns; Intermezzo für fünf Hände [TV]. 1976: Der Stumme [TV – CH]. 1976/77: Grüße von Rosita aus Peru [SD – voi]; Die Dämonen [TV – DE/HU]. 1976-78: Schritte ins Reich der Freiheit [DO – voi]. 1977: Die Rückkehr: Die Rückkehr des alten Herrn [AT]; Silvesternacht [SF]. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun; Aussagen nach einer Verhaftung auf Grund des Gesetzes gegen Unsittlichkeit [TV]. 1978/79: Die große Flatter [TV]; Die dritte Generation. 1979/80: Berlin Alexanderplatz. [TV – 13 episodes]. 1980: Lili Marleen. 1980/81: Das ABC ist subversiv [DO]. 1981: Cinemania: Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – FR]; Die Fälschung / Le faussaire [DE/FR]. 1981/82: La nuit de Varennes / Il mondo nuovo [FR/IT]; Passion [CH/FR]. 1982: Antonieta [FR/MX/ES]; Heller Wahn / L’amie [DE/FR]. 1982/83: Storia di Piera / L’histoire de Piera / Die Geschichte der Piera [IT/FR/DE]. 1983: Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [DE/FR]. 1984: L’Aide-mémoire [TV – FR]; Il futuro è donna / Le futur est femme / Die Zukunft heißt Frau [IT/FR/DE]. 1984/85: Peter the Great [TV – US]. 1985: The Delta Force [US]. 1985/86: Barnum [TV – CA/US]. 1986: Forever, Lulu / Für immer Lulu [US/DE]. 1987: Casanova [TV – US]; Miss Arizona [IT/HU]. 1988: El verano de la Señora Forbes / Der Sommer mit Frau Forbes [TV – ES/MX/DE/AT]. 1989: Abrahams Gold; Aventure de Catherine C. / L’ultima luna [FR/IT]. 1991: Dead Again [US]. 1991/92: Golem – L’Esprit de l’exil [FR]; Der Daunenträger / Le porteur de duvet / Tragarz puchu [DE/ FR/PL]. 1992: Gibellina, Metamorphosis of a Melody [DO – IL/FR]; Frauen über R. W. Fassbinder [TVD]; Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt. Der Filmemacher Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – app]. 1992/93: Madame Bäurin [TV]; Mavi Sürgün / Das blaue Exil [TR/DE/GR]. 1993: Aux petits bonheurs [FR]; The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of the Darkness [DO – IL/FR]; Golem – Le jardin pétrifié [FR]. 1993/94: The Bible – Abraham / Die Bibel – Abraham / La Bibbia – Abraham [TV – US/DE/IT]; Hey Stranger [DE/BE]. 1994: Hanna Schygulla – ‘Mein Leben, ein Traum?’ [TVD – app]; Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma / A Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema [FR/
GUIDO SEEBER GB]; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO]. 1994/95: Pakten [NO]. 1995-98: Black Out [GR/FR/PT]. 1996: MiliM [DO – IL]; Lea. 1997/98: Life, Love & Celluloid [DO]. 1998: Angelo nero [TV – IT]; La Niña de tus ojos [ES]. 1999: Hanna Schygulla Sings [TVD]. 2000: Die Werckmeisterschen Harmonien / Les Harmonies de Werckmeister / Werckmeister harmóniák [DE/IT/FR/HU]; ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’. Die glücklichen Opfer des Rainer Werner F. [TVD]. 2001: Janela da Alma [DO – BR]. 2001/02: Marlene Dietrich – Her Own Song [TVD – voi – DE/US]; Absolitude [TV – FR]. 2002: Fassbinder in Hollywood [TVD]; Du liebst mich sowieso! [SD – app]. 2004: Ha-Aretz Hamuvtachat / Terre promise / Promised Land [IL/FR/GB]; Mein Leben – Hanna Schygulla [TVD – app]; Von Sex bis Simmel [TVD – app]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app]; Die blaue Grenze. 2005: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Rainer Werner Fassbinder – Der Rastlose [TVD – app]; Rainer Werner Fassbinder – Mit meinen Filmen bau’ ich ein Haus [TVD – app]; Vendredi ou un autre jour [BE/FR]. 2005/06: Margarethe von Trotta – Mit Herz und Verstand [TVD – app]; Winterreise. 2006: Das unreine Mal [TV]. 2007: Auf der anderen Seite / Yasamin kiyisinda [DE/TR]; Fatih Akin – Tagebuch eines Filmreisenden [TVD – app]. 2008: Kommissar Stolberg: Tod im Wald [TV]. 2008: Clara, une passion française [TV – FR].
GUIDO SEEBER (Friedrich Konrad Guido Seeber) Born June 22, 1879, Chemnitz (Germany) Died July 2, 1940, Berlin (Germany) An early pioneer of ‘moving pictures’, Seeber’s skills as trick cine-photographer were in demand in the early decades of German cinema. He also published the specialist magazine ‘Filmtechnik’ and wrote standard works on animation and cinematography. Working from a young age with his father, who owned a photographic studio, Seeber in 1896 bought and developed Oskar Messter’s camera/projector, synchronising it with a gramophone to invent the ‘Seeberphon’, a technology for moving pictures with sound accompaniment. While continuing the family business after his father’s death, Seeber also trained as a filmmaker in Cologne and Frankfurt. As a cameraman and technical director for Deutsche Bioscop in Berlin, he made the short cartoon DIE GEHEIMNISVOLLE STREICHHOLZDOSE (The Mysterious Matchbox, 1909/10), shot longer feature films and instigated the building of film studios in Neubabelsberg. Here Stellan Rye directed DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1913), a groundbreaking film for German cinema, not least owing to Seeber’s trick photography that allowed for Paul Wegener’s character to appear twice in the same image as his ghostly ‘doppelgänger’. Returning to Bioscop after World War I, Seeber founded the German Cinetechnical Society in 1919. Working as a freelance cameraman, he shot the four-
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part Prussian historical drama FRIDERICUS REX (1920–23) and four films for director G. W. Pabst, including the classic DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE (The Joyless Street, 1925). His trick photography was particularly effective in the dream sequences in GEHEIMNISSE EINER SEELE (Secrets Of A Soul, 1925/ 26) and in Paul Wegener’s film about Tibet, LEBENDE BUDDHAS (Living Buddhas, 1923/24). Devoting his energies to experimental cinematography and producing unusual animated films, Seeber’s advertising film for the cinema and photo exhibition (KIPHO) in 1925 provided an outline of film production and a compendium of optical trick techniques. With Paul Leni he developed a series of crossword puzzle films known as REBUS-FILME (Rebus Films, 1925/26). Often hired as a cinematographer for films starring Asta Nielsen, Seeber filmed her for the last time in DIRNENTRAGÖDIE (Tragedy of the Street, 1927). A heart attack in 1932 left Seeber in ill health, and he retired as an active cameraman in 1934. The following year he took charge of the animation film department of Ufa in Neubabelsberg. [cam – SD – DE] 1898: König Albert von Sachsen wird in Chemnitz empfangen; Schützenzug der privaten Schützengesellschaft in Chemnitz am 31.5.1898; Schützenzug in Leisnig in Sachsen am 26.6.1898; Ein Lokomotivtransport der Sächsischen Maschinenfabrik in Chemnitz durch die Straßen am 28.6.1898 nachmittags 2 Uhr; Seine Majestät König Albert von Sachsen passiert die Interimsbrücke bei dem Wettin-Bundesschießen in Döbeln am 15.8.1898; Alarm bei der Berufsfeuerwehr in Chemnitz am 19.8.1898. 1900: Chemnitzer Straßenleben von der elektrischen Straßenbahn aus; Eine Fahrstuhlauf- und Abfahrt im Baugerüst beim Neubau der Türme des Domes Meissen; Die Enthüllung der Denkmäler auf dem Markt in Chemnitz am 22.7.1900; Ausfahrt der Chinakrieger von Bremerhaven mit der Straßburg am 31.7.1900. 1902: König Georg von Sachsen in Chemnitz am 10.9.1902. 1903: König Georg in Freiberg am 7.5.1903. 1904: Vom Turnfest in Chemnitz, Juli 1904. 1908: Die Flugmaschine der Brüder Orville und Wilbur Wright. 1909: Hallo! Die große Revue: Der Schönheitsabend; Zeppelin III in Berlin am 29.8.1909; Weihnachtsglück [SF]; Prosit Neujahr 1910! [ANI – dir,cam]. 1909/10: Die geheimnisvolle Streichholzdose [ANI – dir,scr,cam]. [(co-)cam – DE] 1910: Wem gehört das Kind?; Schuld und Sühne; Militärische Disziplin; Gräfin Ankarström; Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern; Rehabilitiert; Räuberhauptmann Nulpe. 1910/11: Mensch, bezahle deine Schulden. 1911: Das verkehrte Berlin [ANI – dir,cam]; Nachtfalter; Heißes Blut; Der Sieg des Hosenrocks; Sündige Liebe; In dem großen Augenblick; Zigeunerblut. Die Vagabundin; Der fremde Vogel; Die Verräterin; Die Macht des Goldes. 1911/12: Die arme Jenny. 1912: Zu Tode gehetzt; Der Totentanz; Va banque; Jugend und Tollheit; Das Geheimnis von Monte Carlo; Die Kinder des Generals; Wenn die Maske fällt; Das Mädchen ohne Vaterland.
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1912/13: Die Sünden der Väter; Der Tod in Sevilla. 1913: Der Student von Prag; Evinrude; Der Verführte; Die Suffragette; Ein Sommernachtstraum in unserer Zeit; Die Augen des Ole Brandis; Kadra Sâfa. 1913/14: Die goldene Fliege. 1914: Das Haus ohne Tür; Bedingung – kein Anhang!; Berliner unter sich [ANI – dir,cam]; Erlkönigs Töchter; Der Golem. 1918: Der fliegende Holländer. 1919: Alraune und der Golem. 1920: Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam; Das wandernde Bild. 1920/21: Hochstapler; Sturm und Drang; 1921: Tobias Buntschuh; Trick-Track. 192023: Fridericus Rex. Ein Königsschicksal. 4 parts. 1922/23: Alt-Heidelberg. 1923: Adam und Eva; Wilhelm Tell; Sylvester; Der sprechende Film [AG]. 1923/24: Lebende Buddhas. 1924: Der Klabautermann; Gräfin Donelli; Garragan. 1924/25: Ein Sommernachtstraum. 1925: Die freudlose Gasse; Die vom Niederrhein. 2 parts; Film [ANI – dir,cam, ani,pro]; Aus vergangener Zeit [SD – dir,scr]; 1925/26: Geheimnisse einer Seele; Rebus-Film Nr. 1-8 [ANI].1926: Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe. 1927: Dirnentragödie; Ehekonflikte; Ein rheinisches Mädchen beim rheinischen Wein; Liebesreigen; Ein Mädel aus dem Volke; Das Heiratsnest; Kleinstadtsünder; Wochenendzauber; Der Bettelstudent; Mein Freund Harry. 1927/28: Dragonerliebchen; Liebe im Schnee. 1928: Großstadtjugend; Robert und Bertram; Der Unüberwindliche; Das Spiel mit der Liebe; Der moderne Casanova; Der Faschingsprinz; Die Zirkusprinzessin. 1929: Das närrische Glück; Der schwarze Domino; Tempo! Tempo!; Es flüstert die Nacht …; Die fidele Herrenpartie; Die Konkurrenz platzt. 1929/30: Donauwalzer. 1930: Die Jagd nach der Million; Großstadtpiraten; Fundvogel; Kasernenzauber …!; Die lustigen Musikanten; Der Bettelstudent. 1930/31: Sturm im Wasserglas / Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau [AT/DE]. 1931: Die Frau, von der man spricht; Der Hellseher; Reserve hat Ruh; Lügen auf Rügen. 1931/32: Drei von der Stempelstelle. 1932: Zwei glückliche Tage. 1932/33: Zwei gute Kameraden; Varieté Nr. 7 [SF]. 1933: Die Fahrt ins Grüne; Das Tankmädel; Die vom Niederrhein. 1934: Ein Mädchen mit Prokura; Nur nicht weich werden, Susanne! 1934/35: Die Saat geht auf. 1936: Ewiger Wald [DO]. 1937: Von Zeppelin 1 bis LZ 130 [SD].
ULRICH SEIDL (Ulrich Maria Seidl) Born November 24, 1952, Vienna (Austria) Since the 1990s, director Ulrich Seidl developed a reputation as one of cinema’s most provocative filmmakers. His films, mostly set in Austria, often blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Caustic social critiques presented in a stylised fashion reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch and Diane Arbus, his work is occasionally very funny but at times almost unbearable to watch, all the more so because of his subjects’ frequent complicity in their humiliation. Raised in a devout Catholic household, the young Seidl’s original ambition was to become a priest. Following a degree in journalism and drama at Vienna University, he studied directing at the Vienna Film
Academy, where he produced a short film, EINSVIERZIG (One-Forty, 1980). His first full-length feature, DER BALL (The Ball, 1982) depicted hypocrisy and repression evident at a ritualistic graduation ball in a small Austrian village. Over the next decade Seidl honed his directorial skills working on television commissions for broadcasters ORF and 3SAT. 1990 saw his first cinematic release, the documentary GOOD NEWS (1990), in which the plight of South Asian immigrant newspaper sellers was juxtaposed with the xenophobia of bourgeois Viennese tabloid readers. The film’s unexpected box office success gave Seidl the financial freedom to pursue his next project, MIT VERLUST IST ZU RECHNEN (Losses To Be Expected, 1992), chronicling the affair of an elderly Austrian widower and a similarly aged widow of German descent living in a Czech village across the border. DIE LETZEN MÄNNER (The Last Real Men, 1994), an hour-long television film, followed a Viennese teacher’s Internet search for a submissive foreign bride, while TIERISCHE LIEBE (Animal Love, 1995) depicted the relationship of a cross-section of Austrians with their pets. Described by Werner Herzog as the ‘closest thing to a vision of hell’ that he had ever seen, the film only just shied away from showing bestiality onscreen. In the television assignments BILDER EINER AUSSTELLUNG (Pictures of an Exhibition, 1996), DER BUSENFREUND (The Bosom Friend, 1997) and SPASS OHNE GRENZEN (Fun Without Frontiers, 1998), Seidl coaxed an extraordinary level of self-exposure out of his subjects to less-then-flattering effect. MODELS (1999) documented the tedium and sordidness of the seemingly glamorous world of mannequins. This work marked a turning point for Seidl in terms of the relationship between reality and fiction: although the three female protagonists play themselves, a number of scenes were staged specifically for the camera. This step towards fiction allowed Seidl to push the limits of what he could show on screen, and included footage of his protagonists engaging in drug use and sexual activity. His next film went further still: an episodic portrait of suburbia set in the sweltering summer heat, HUNDSTAGE (Dog Days, 2001) was Seidl’s first official fiction film and featured several professional actors in the cast, including Maria Hofstätter as a mentally disabled young woman subject to a rape, and Georg Friedrich as a thug involved in a graphically shown assault. Nonetheless, in form and style it was difficult to distinguish from Seidl’s documentaries, and as in MODELS, many of the amateur ‘actors’ appeared to play versions of themselves. HUNDSTAGE premiered at Venice in 2001 and was awarded that year’s Grand Prix. Critics were quick to group him with other proponents of what has been dubbed the ‘New European Extremism’ as well
FRANZ SEITZ (jr.)
as to herald him, alongside Michael Haneke and Barbara Albert, as a figurehead of a resurgent Austrian cinema. Seidl contributed a section to the portmanteau documentary ZUR LAGE (State of the Nation, 2002), for which he shared directorial credit with Albert, Michael Glawogger and Michael Sturminger. Seidl’s segment became arguably the most overtly political statement of any of his films; like Haneke, he has maintained that his films are indictments of society at large, rather than of Austria specifically. JESUS, DU WEISST (Jesus, You Know, 2003), was the first of a trilogy of films focussing on Catholicism, along with VATER UNSER AUFZEICHNUNG (Lord’s Prayer Recording, 2004) and BRUDER, LASST UNS LUSTIG SEIN (Brother, Let’s Be Happy, 2006). JESUS, DU WEISST, an hour-long documentary offering an intimate, and unexpectedly gentle perspective on the nature of faith, was co-written with his wife, Veronika Franz, who had also contributed to the storyboard for HUNDSTAGE. The pair collaborated again on Seidl’s second fiction film, IMPORT EXPORT (2005–07) which followed two characters travelling between Austria and the Ukraine, once again raising questions about the nature of the real: the action referred to an actual online sex agency and used genuine locations – a seedy Ukrainian bar and, most hauntingly a geriatric ward (complete with real in-patients) – but the events themselves were mostly predetermined. The cast comprised a mix of professional and amateur actors, with Hofstätter and Friedrich once more making appearances. The film was received to international acclaim, but failed to match the box office success of some of his earlier work. [dir,scr – AT] 1980: Einsvierzig [SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1982: Der Ball [SF – dir,scr,pro]. 1984: Look 84 [SF]. 1989: Krieg in Wien [SD – co-dir]. 1990: Good News: Von Kolporteuren, toten Hunden und anderen Wienern [DO]. 1992: Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen [DO – dir,co-scr]. 1994: Die letzten Männer [TV]. 1995: Die Ameisenstraße [casting]; Tierische Liebe. 1996: Bilder einer Ausstellung [TVD]. 1997: Der Busenfreund [TVD]. 1998: Spass ohne Grenzen [TVD]. 1999: Models. 2001: Hundstage [dir,co-scr]. 2002: Zur Lage: Österreich in sechs Kapiteln [1 episode – dir,scr,cam]. 2003: Jesus, Du weisst [DO – dir,co-scr]. 2005-07: Import Export [dir,co-scr,pro]. 2006: Brüder lasst uns lustig sein – Eine Mozartfilmminute von Ulrich Seidl [SD – dir,scr,pro].
FRANZ SEITZ (jr.) (aka George Laforet) Born October 22, 1921, Munich (Germany) Died January 19, 2006, Munich (Germany) An influential industry figure in post-war West German cinema, Seitz’s career divided into three, almost completely separate areas – as a producer of countless popular genre films, as the director of prestigious lit-
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erary adaptations, and as a supporter of many early films of the New German Cinema in the 1960s. Seitz was born into the film industry, his father Franz Seitz sen. (1888–1952) was a well known figure in the Munich film scene, and the prolific director of mostly Bavarian-themed films since the mid-1910s. His mother was the actress Anni Terofal, his brother Hans Seitz (1923–1976) worked as line producer and – using the name Hans Terofal – as a comedian often in films produced by his brother. Directly after completing his Abitur, Seitz jr served with the army on the Eastern front where he was seriously wounded. From 1945–48 he painted, worked as a film architect with Richard Eichberg and in 1951 co-founded the film production company AllegroFilm. He produced and co-wrote DER LETZTE SCHUSS (The Last Shot, 1951), a Bavarian Heimatfilm, directed by his father. Seitz’s wider interests were indicated by his involvement in the production of Roberto Rossellini’s psychological drama LA PAURA (Fear, 1954) and G. W. Pabst’s anti-Nazi film ES GESCHAH AM 20. JULI (It Happened On July 20th, 1955). He still continued to produce numerous Heimatfilme, and when these declined in popularity in the early 1960s, a more profitable, cheekier version based on Ludwig Thoma’s Bavarian tales. His directorial debut was EIN MÄDCHEN AUS PARIS (The Girl from Paris, 1954), a musical comedy. He wrote numerous screenplays for ‘high quality’ entertainment films. The producer of Volker Schlöndorff’s internationally acclaimed debut film DER JUNGE TÖRLESS (Young Törless, 1965/66), Seitz showed early support for New German Cinema, while also co-producing Louis Malle’s LE SOUFFLE AU COEUR (Heart Flutters, 1970/71) and later Schlöndorff’s Oscar-winning DIE BLECHTROMMEL (The Tin Drum, 1978/79). Thomas Mann’s novels, with their recurring theme of conflict between the artist and bourgeois society, had a particular personal significance for Seitz. He produced five film versions of Mann’s novels and also directed DOKTOR FAUSTUS (1981/82). One of his final literary adaptations was the widely acclaimed ERFOLG (Success, 1990), based on the Lion Feuchtwanger novel. Active in various cinema associations and unions, Seitz served on the committee of the Union of German Film Producers as president and vice-president, and in a similar capacity at the Institute for Film Promotion (FFA) among others. His film productions won numerous Bavarian and German awards. [pro – DE] 1951: Der letzte Schuß [pro,co-scr]. 1952/53: Ehe für eine Nacht. 1953: Heute nacht passiert’s; Die vertagte Hochzeitsnacht; Tante Jutta aus Kalkutta; Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer; Die süßesten Früchte. 1954:
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HERBERT SELPIN
Morgengrauen; Ein Mädchen aus Paris [dir,pro]; Angst / La paura [DE/IT]. 1955: Es geschah am 20. Juli. 1956: Der Meineidbauer. 1956/57: Kleiner Mann – ganz groß [coscr,pro]. 1957: Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal. 1957/58: Die grünen Teufel von Monte Cassino. 1958: Mein Schatz ist aus Tirol. 1959: Die feuerrote Baronesse; Bei der blonden Kathrein; Ja, so ein Mädchen mit 16; Mein Schatz komm mit ans blaue Meer. 1960: Die zornigen jungen Männer; Schick Deine Frau nicht nach Italien. 1960/61: Schön ist die Liebe am Königsee. 1961: Silberfisch [SD – co-scr,pro]; Was macht Papa denn in Italien?; Isola Bella; Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel / Cariño mio [DE/ES]. 1961/62: Der verkaufte Großvater. 1962: Muß i denn zum Städtele hinaus; Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett / Tête-à-tête sur l’oreiller [co-scr,pro – DE/FR]. 1963: Venusberg; Moral 63; Ferien vom Ich. 1963/64: Kennwort: Reiher. 1964: Lausbubengeschichten [co-scr,pro]; Wälsungenblut [co-scr, pro]; Tonio Kröger. 1964/65: Die schwedische Jungfrau [co-scr,pro]. 1965: Kleine Front [SF]; Die Herren [pro + scr,pro (EP 1: Die Intellektuellen) + dir,pro (EP 4: Die Aristokraten)]; An der Donau, wenn der Wein blüht [DE/AT]; Tante Frieda – Neue Lausbubengeschichten [scr,pro]; Die fromme Helene. 1965/66: Ich suche einen Mann; Der junge Törless / Les désarrois de l’élève Toerless [DE/FR]. 1966: Grieche sucht Griechin [scr,pro]; Stella [SF]; Onkel Filser – Allerneueste Lausbubengeschichten [co-scr,pro]. 1966/67: Fast ein Held [DE/YU]. 1967: Liebesnächte in der Taiga; Paukenspieler [pro + dir,scr,pro (EP 1: Der Tanz des trauernden Kindes) + co-scr,pro (EP 5: Militärischer Spuk)]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. Zur Hölle mit den Paukern [scr,pro]; Wenn Ludwig ins Manöver zieht [scr, pro]; Il sesso degli angeli / Das Geschlecht der Engel [coscr,pro – IT/DE]. 1967/68: Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach / Cronaca di Anna Magdalena Bach [DE/IT]. 1968: Zum Teufel mit der Penne – Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 2. Teil [scr,pro]; Van de Velde – Die vollkommene Ehe [scr]. 1969: Dr. med. Fabian – Lachen ist die beste Medizin [scr]; Pepe, der Paukerschreck – Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 3. Teil [scr,pro]; Hurra, die Schule brennt – Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 4. Teil [scr,pro]; Ludwig auf Freiersfüßen [dir,scr,pro]. 1969/70: First Love [DE/CH]. 1970: Wir hau’n die Pauker in die Pfanne – Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 5. Teil [scr,pro]; Das Glöcklein unterm Himmelbett [scr,pro]. 1970/71: Le souffle au coeur / Il soffio al cuore / Herzflimmern [FR/IT/DE]. 1971: Morgen fällt die Schule aus – Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 6. Teil [scr,pro]; Der Kapitän [scr,pro]. 1972: Betragen ungenügend! [scr,pro]; Lilli – die Braut der Kompanie [co-scr]; Versuchung im Sommerwind [scr,pro]. 1972/73: Der Fußgänger / Der Fussgänger [act,pro – DE/CH]. 1973: Tornado [SD]; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer [scr,pro]. 1973/74: Als Mutter streikte [scr,pro]. 1974: Go and Win [SD – supv, pro]. 1975: Omega-Cup Soling Action [SD]. 1975/76: Abelard – Die Entmannung [dir,scr,pro]. 1976: Der blaue Kran [SF]; Unordnung und frühes Leid [dir,scr,pro]. 1977: Die Jugendstreiche des Knaben Karl [dir,scr,pro]. 1978: Filmforum: Drei deutsche Produzenten. Franz Seitz, Wolf C. Hartwig, Luggi Waldleitner [TVD – app]. 1978/79: Die Blechtrommel / Le tambour [co-scr,pro – DE/FR]; Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald [DE/AT]. 1979: Die wunder-
baren Jahre. 1981: Der Zauberberg / La montagne magique / La montagna incantata [DE/FR/IT]. 1981/82: Doktor Faustus [dir,scr,pro]. 1982: Action Please [DO]. 1983: Kulturstadt München [DO – co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1984: Flammenzeichen [dir,pro]; King Kongs Faust [act]. 1985: Big Mäc [co-scr,pro]; Harald Reinl – Kino ohne Probleme [TVD – app]. 1987/88: Sukkubus [scr,pro]. 1988: Josef Filser [TVS – scr,pro]. 1990: Erfolg [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 1993: Salzburger Nockerln [TVS – co-scr,pro]. 1994: Die Goldene Gans [TV – dir,co-scr]. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app]. 2005/06: Glück auf vier Rädern [TV – co-scr, pro]. 2007: Was kann denn schöner sein – Gedanken zum deutschen Heimatfilm [TVD – app].
HERBERT SELPIN Born May 29, 1902, Berlin (Germany) Died August 1, 1942, Berlin (Germany) A reliable director of popular entertainment pictures during the 1930s and early 1940s, Selpin showed a particular flair for adventure and action stories, but he also was responsible for overt Nazi propaganda. Abandoning his medical studies in Berlin, Selpin jobbed as an antiques dealer, bookseller and stockbroker. As well as becoming featherweight boxingchampion in Brandenburg, he won the German ballroom dancing championship three times. He worked as a professional dancer, touring Switzerland, Italy and Egypt. While visiting the Ufa studios in the mid1920s, he stayed on as an unpaid trainee, gaining work experience on F. W. Murnau’s FAUST (1925/ 26). He was employed by Fox-Europa for four years in various functions. In 1931 he made his directorial debut with the comedy CHAUFFEUR ANTOINETTE. The following year he directed the English and French language versions of the film, THE LOVE CONTRACT and CONDUISEZ-MOI, MADAME. He also signed responsible for the dubbed German version of CAMICIA NERA (Black Shirts, 1933) a semi-documentary fascist Italian film. Other films with an explicitly propagandist message included glorifications of German colonial history in DIE REITER VON DEUTSCH-OSTAFRIKA (The Riders from German East Africa, 1934) and CARL PETERS (1940/41), as well as raising anti-French sentiments with the Prussian-themed TRENCK, DER PANDUR (Pandour Trenck, 1940). The latter two films starred Hans Albers, a firm favourite of Selpin since the late 1930s with whom he collaborated on some of the star’s most popular films, especially the quasi-westerns SERGEANT BERRY (1938), with Albers as an American cop chasing drug smugglers in Mexico, and WASSER FÜR CANITOGA (Water For Canitoga, 1938/39), set in Canada and featuring the famous evergreen ‘Goodbye Johnny’. Albers’s and Selpin’s sympathy for unorthodox outsiders became also apparent in EIN MANN AUF
GÜNTHER SIMON ABWEGEN (A Man On The Wrong Track, 1939/40)
about an industrialist tired with his work. During the shooting of the big budget disaster epic TITANIC (1942/43) Selpin was arrested on charges of undermining morale, after making disparaging remarks about the German army. He was denounced by Walter Zerlett-Olfenius, a screenwriter with whom Selin had repeatedly collaborated since the 1930s. Threatened with execution, Selpin committed suicide in his cell. TITANIC was completed by Werner Klingler. [dir – DE] 1926: K 13 513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines [ass-dir]. 1929: The Woman He Scorned [ass-dir – GB]. 1930/31: Ariane [MLV – cut]. 1931: Kinder vor Gericht [cut]; Opernredoute [cut]; Der ungetreue Eckehart [cut]; So lang’ noch ein Walzer von Strauß erklingt [cut]; Chauffeur Antoinette [MLV]; Eine Nacht im Grandhotel [MLV – cut]. 1932: The Love Contract [MLV – GB]; Conduisez-moi, Madame [MLV – FR]. 1932/33: Der Läufer von Marathon [ass-dir,cut]. 1933: Kleiner Mann – was nun? [co-scr,ass-dir,cut]; Der Traum vom Rhein [dir,co-scr]; Mädels von heute. 1933/34: Zwischen zwei Herzen. 1934: Der Springer von Pontresina [DE/CH]; Die Reiter von Deutsch-Ostafrika. 1935: Ein idealer Gatte; Der grüne Domino [MLV]; Le domino vert [MLV – co-dir]. 1936: Spiel an Bord [dir,co-scr]; Romanze [AT]; Skandal um die Fledermaus [dir,scr]. 1937: Alarm in Peking [dir,co-scr]; Die rote Mütze. 1938: Ich liebe Dich; Sergeant Berry. 1938/39: Wasser für Canitoga. 1939/40: Ein Mann auf Abwegen. 1940: Trenck, der Pandur. 1940/41: Carl Peters [dir,coscr]. 1941/42: Geheimakte WB 1 [dir,co-scr]. 1942/43: Titanic [co-dir,co-scr].
GÜNTHER SIMON Born May 11, 1925, Berlin-Pankow (Germany) Died June 25, 1972, Berlin (East Germany) Best known for his portrayal of the leader of the German communist party in the 1920s, the title role in Kurt Maetzig’s award-winning film ERNST THÄLMANN (1953–55), Simon was mainly typecast in East German films as an exemplary worker and revolutionary role model. Following school and acting lessons, Simon served in the Wehrmacht as a paratrooper from 1943. As a prisoner of war, he joined a theatre group and returned to acting back in East Germany, making his stage debut in Köthen in 1947. He also performed in theatres in Schwerin, Dresden and Leipzig. His screen debut was Martin Hellberg’s DAS VERURTEILTE DORF (The Village Under Sentence, 1951), after which he seldom appeared on stage. His interpretation of Ernst Thälmann made a strong impression on the younger generation in the GDR and widened Simon’s popularity. Well into the 1960s he played heroes and ideal communists, such as the sailor Erich Steigert in DAS LIED DER MATROSEN
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(Song of the Sailors, 1958) or the reliable, workingclass official in BROT UND ROSEN (Bread and Roses, 1967). From the mid-1960s Simon portrayed the workerhero also on TV; as a miner in IRRLICHT UND FEUER (Light and Fire, 1966) and as the Krupp-worker Krause in the five-part serial KRUPP UND KRAUSE / KRAUSE UND KRUPP (Krupp and Krause, 1967–69). Occasionally Simon took on more complex roles, for example as a pit under-manager weighed down by his Nazi past in SONNENSUCHER (Sun Seekers, 1957/ 58), as a Cuban revolutionary turned traitor in PRELUDIO 11 (1963), and in Egon Günther’s debut film LOTS WEIB (Lot’s Wife, 1964/65) as a navy officer who cannot cope with his wife’s independence. The children’s film ALFONS ZITTERBACKE (Alfons Shiver-Cheek, 1965) was an opportunity for Simon to play comedy, but he reverted to type in his penultimate film REIFE KIRSCHEN (Ripe Cherries, 1971/72) as a class-conscious worker faced with a conflict between family and society. [act – DD] 1951: Das verurteilte Dorf. 1952: Anna Susanna. 1952/53: Jacke wie Hose. 1953-55: Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse / Führer seiner Klasse. 1955: Begegnungen mit Wilhelm Pieck [SD – voi]; Drei Mädchen im Endspiel. 1955/56: Lied über dem Tal. 1956: Das Traumschiff; Treffpunkt Aimée; Damals in Paris … [TV]; Tinko. 1956/57: Sheriff Teddy. 1957: Vergeßt mir meine Traudel nicht. 1957/58: Sonnensucher; Meine Frau macht Musik; Èerný prapor [CS]. 1958: Der Lotterieschwede; Das Lied der Matrosen; Geschwader Fledermaus. 1958/59: Der kleine Kuno; Senta auf Abwegen; Eine alte Liebe. 1959: Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [DD/PL]; Einer von uns; Kein Ärger mit Cleopatra. 1959/60: Die heute über 40 sind; Der Moorhund. 1959-63: Das russische Wunder [DO – voi]. 1960: Die Frau seiner Träume [SF]; Die Liebe und der Co-Pilot; Der Fremde; Ärzte. 1961: Der Traum des Hauptmann Loy; Der Tod hat ein Gesicht; Eine Handvoll Noten; Das Kleid. 1961/62: Der Vierte [TV]; Mord ohne Sühne; An französischen Kaminen. 1962: Die heilige Johanna [TV]; Nebel; Geheimarchiv an der Elbe. 1963: Preludio 11 [DD/CU]; Was ihr wollt [TV]; Schwarzer Samt. 1964: Titel hab’ ich noch nicht [TV]; Das Lied vom Trompeter; Der Reserveheld. 1964/65: Lots Weib. 1965: Ballade vom roten Mohn / Four Soldiers [TV – DD/GB]; Der Frühling braucht Zeit; Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam; Alfons Zitterbacke. 1965/66: Reise ins Ehebett. 1966: Irrlicht und Feuer [TV]. 1967: Brot und Rosen; Heroin. 1967/68: Krupp und Krause [TV]. 1968/69: Krause und Krupp [TV]. 1969: Der große Klaus [TV]; Der Maler mit dem Stern [TV]; Die Zeichen der Ersten [TV]; Verdacht auf einen Toten; Weil ich dich liebe …. 1969/70: Jeder stirbt für sich allein [TV]. 1970: Zwei Briefe an Pospischiel [TV]; KLK an PTX – Die Rote Kapelle. 1971: Junger Mann [TV]. 1971/72: Gefährliche Reise [TV]; Der Regimentskommandeur [TV]; Reife Kirschen. 1972: Nakovalnja ili èuk / Amboß oder Hammer sein / Nakoval’nja ili molot [BG/DD/SU].
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RAINER SIMON
RAINER SIMON Born January 11, 1941, Hainichen (Germany) A prominent director at DEFA from the late 1960s to the end of the 1980s, Simon gained a reputation for sensitive literary adaptations and imaginatively fantastic films. Simon completed his military service before studying to become a director at the East German Film Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg between 1961 and 1965. First employed by DEFA as an assistant, he made documentaries, including FREUNDE VOM WERBELLINSEE (Friends from Werbellinsee, 1966). His feature debut was the fairy-tale film WIE HEIRATET MAN EINEN KÖNIG (How to Marry a King, 1968). Although aimed primarily at children, Simon attempted to make the material interesting for adults by linking it to a particular social milieu. His adaptation of the traditional tale of TILL EULENSPIEGEL (1973/74) repurposed the central figure from a one-dimensional jester into a complex character, by setting him in the appropriate historical context and emphasising the conflict between a humanistic and mediaeval conception of the world. Among Simon’s films set in modern times were MÄNNER OHNE BART (Men Without Beards, 1971) concerning a student who has trouble combining the necessities of reality with his fantasies; and a satire on the German love for well-regulated organisations, ZÜND AN, ES KOMMT DIE FEUERWEHR (Light Up, the Firemen Are Coming, 1977/78). JADUP UND BOEL (Jadup and Boel) made in 1980/ 81 but not released until 1988, dealt with post-war dreams and socialist reality through the figure of a small-town mayor. In retrospect the film which had been censored and could be shown only in 1988 is considered by critics and historians as one of the best DEFA films made during the last decade of the GDR. DAS LUFTSCHIFF (The Dirigible, 1982), based on a picaresque novel by Fritz Rudolf Fries about an ‘anachronistic’ inventor of flying machines, was shot in cooperation with Czech, Spanish and Bulgarian studios and is an outsider’s history of the first part of the 20th century. The complicated production of the film was turned into a roman à clef by Fries under the title ‘Die Väter im Kino’ (Fathers in the Cinema). Simon’s attention to period detail, supported by meticulous historical research, proved particularly effective in representing the working-class milieu during World War I in DIE FRAU UND DER FREMDE (The Woman and the Stranger, 1984), based on Leonhard Frank’s novel ‘Karl und Anna’. Awarded a Golden Bear a the Berlin Film Festival in 1985 as well as several GDR prizes, the film could not be shown in the West on general release due to copyright difficulties. The family saga WENGLER & SÖHNE (Wegler & Sons, 1986/87) reflected German history from 1871
to 1845 through three generations of a working-class family. A fictional portrait of 19th century explorer Alexander Humboldt, and his trajectory from provincial Germany to the heights of the Andes is traced in impressive images in DIE BESTEIGUNG DES CHIMBORAZO (The Ascent of Chimbarazo, 1988/89). His first film after German unification, DER FALL Ö. (Case O, 1990/91), which some critics found too didactic, was set in Nazi-occupied Greece during World War II, the narrative unfolding in the style of an ancient Greek tragedy. He also contributed to the screenplay of Volker Schlöndorff’s multi-national coproduction DER UNHOLD (The Ogre, 1995/96). Simon, who published stories and books about his films, taught at the Film Academy in Babelsberg in the 1990s. He made documentary films in Ecuador about indigenous art and the Záparo Indians, including DIE FARBEN VON TIGUA (Colours of Tigua, 1994). [dir – DD] 1964: Überzeugungsmethode [SD – dir,scr]; Peterle und die Weihnachtsgans Auguste [SF – dir,scr]. 1965-70: Der verlorene Engel [ass-dir]. 1966: Freunde vom Werbellinsee [SD – dir,scr]. 1967: Ich war neunzehn [ass-dir]. 1968: Wie heiratet man einen König. Ein Märchen von Klugheit und Liebe [dir,scr]. 1969: Aus unserer Zeit: Gewöhnliche Leute [dir,co-scr]. 1971: Männer ohne Bart [dir,co-scr]. 1971/72: Sechse kommen durch die Welt [dir,co-scr]. 1973/74: Liebe mit 16 [co-scr]; Till Eulenspiegel [dir,co-scr]. 1977/78: Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr [dir,scr]. 1980/81: Jadup und Boel [dir,scr]. 1982: Das Luftschiff [dir,co-scr]. 1984: Die Frau und der Fremde [dir,scr]. 1984/85: Junge Leute in der Stadt [scr]. 1986/87: Wengler & Söhne. Eine Legende [dir,scr]. 1988/89: Die Besteigung des Chimborazo [dir,co-scr – DD/DE]. 1990/91: Der Fall Ö. [dir,scr – DE]. 1992: Hier und Jetzt [TVS – dir – DE – episode 5]. 1993/94: Fernes Land Pa-Isch [dir,co-scr – DE]. 1994: Die Farben von Tigua [SD – dir,scr – DE/EC]. 1995: Rainer Simon – Die Sekunde Leben [TVD – app – DE]. 1995/96: Der Unhold / Le roi des aulnes / The Ogre [coscr – DE/FR/GB]. 1998/99: Mit Fischen und Vögeln reden [TVD – dir,scr,pro – DE]. 2002: Der Ruf des Fayu Ujmu [dir, scr,pro – DE].
BERNHARD SINKEL Born January 19, 1940, Frankfurt/Main (Germany) Best known for his film debut, the comedy LINA BRAAKE (1974/75), Sinkel’s intelligent entertainment films frequently addressed controversial topics from Germany’s past and present. While studying law in Munich, Sinkel met Alf Brustellin (1940–1981) who became his long-term artistic collaborator. After a brief stint working as a lawyer, then as the supervisor of the archive of the news magazine ‘Der Spiegel’, Sinkel moved into films as a writer and production manager.
KURT SIODMAK
With Brustellin as cameraman they made their first TV film CLINCH (1973) a study of a disintegrating relationship. Their first feature film became an unexpectedly big cinema hit. LINA BRAAKE ODER DIE INTERESSEN DER BANK KÖNNEN NICHT DIE INTERESSEN SEIN, DIE LINA BRAAKE HAT (Lina
Braake Or: The Interests Represented By The Bank Cannot Be The Interests That Lina Braake Has, 1974/ 75) was a witty comedy about two old people (played by veteran actors Lina Carstens and Fritz Rasp), who use their skill and charm to outwit a bank and arrange for a more comfortable retirement in Sardinia. In 1975 Sinkel and Brustellin established the ABSfilm production company in Munich. BERLINGER (1975) was the story of an industrialist who refuses to compromise during the ‘Third Reich’ and in the postwar period. DER MÄDCHENKRIEG (The Girls’ War, 1976/77) tells the story of a German family in Prague between 1934 and 1946. KALTGESTELLT (Put On Ice, 1980) attempted to pick up on the zeitgeist of the 1980s in the conflict between a cynical secret service agent and a liberal teacher destroyed by circumstances. An extravagant TV version of Thomas Mann’s BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS FELIX KRULL (Felix Krull, 1981) was the final collaboration with Brustellin, who died that year in a car crash. Sinkel went on to direct the big-budget four-part TV film VÄTER UND SÖHNE (Fathers and Sons, 1984/ 85). The film followed the history of the chemical giant I.G. Farben, from 1911 to 1948, from its inception to the involvement in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. In his screenplay Sinkel could draw on personal family connections to the company. Although his good intentions as a writer and director were recognised, critics accused him of losing sight of his aims in extravagant settings and irrelevant subplots. Founding TV production company Alcor-Film in 1986, Sinkel’s first project was an international bigbudget co-production for TV, the biopic HEMINGWAY (1987/88). Sinkel wrote the screenplay based on Carlos Baker’s biography, but walked out of the production due to disagreements about his influence as director. Working since the 1990s mostly on opera and stage productions, Sinkel’s film assignments became very sporadic – a rare return was the award-winning DER KINOERZÄHLER (The Cinema Lecturer, 1992/93), a film set in the 1930s with Armin Mueller-Stahl as an elderly cinema lecturer who used to accompany silent films, and who is drawn to the promises by the Nazis. When in 1998 after years of preparation the producer Provobis stopped the film project ‘Der Maestro’ a few weeks before shooting was to commence, Sinkel turned once again to directing operas and writing novels.
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[dir,scr – DE] 1963: Caesar und Cleopatra [TV – act]. 1965: Nachruf auf Egon Müller [TV – act]. 1971: Sonntagsmalerei [TV – act]; Kino zwei [TVD – app]. 1972: Die Stadt der Hunde [TV – act,team]. 1973: Clinch [TV – dir,scr,pro]. 1974/75: Lina Braake oder Die Interessen der Bank können nicht die Interessen sein, die Lina Braake hat [dir,scr, pro]. 1975: Berlinger [co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1975/76: Der starke Ferdinand [adviser]. 1976/77: Der Mädchenkrieg [co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1977/78: Taugenichts [dir,co-scr,pro]; Deutschland im Herbst [co-dir,co-scr]. 1978: Der Sturz [co-scr,pro]. 1980: Kaltgestellt [dir,scr,pro]. 1981: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1984/85: Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie [TV]. 1987/88: Hemingway [TV – DE/US]. 1988: Die Stunde der Filmemacher: Ein Film namens ‘Hemingway’ [TVD – app]. 1992/93: Der Kinoerzähler [dir,scr,pro].
KURT SIODMAK (Curt Siodmak, aka Curtis Siodmak) Born August 10, 1902, Dresden (Germany) Died September 2, 2000, Three Rivers (California, USA) Kurt Siodmak maintained a successful dual career as a bestselling author of science fiction and horror novels, and as a screenwriter of popular genre films in German, French, British, and Hollywood cinema from the 1920s to the 1960s. From the mid-1920s Siodmak worked as a journalist and published short stories, often in the science fiction genre. His screenwriting career commenced in 1928, when he developed the idea for the semi-documentary MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG (People on Sunday, 1929), directed by his brother Robert, with whom he collaborated on several subsequent occasions. In the 1930s, Siodmak increasingly concentrated on science fiction, most notably F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1, 1932) which he adapted from his best selling novel about the building of a floating air base in the mid-Atlantic. The lavish Ufa film, produced in three language versions, established Siodmak’s international reputation. Following the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933, Siodmak, a Jew, fled Germany via Switzerland and Paris to England. He briefly worked at Elstree, before finding employment at Gaumont British, where he wrote the screenplay for THE TUNNEL (1935), a stylish remake of Kurt Bernhardt’s German science fiction film from 1933. In 1937, Siodmak moved to the United States, where he already enjoyed a considerable reputation, less as a screenwriter than as a literary figure. In Hollywood, Siodmak wrote a few scripts for Paramount, before signing a contract with Universal, his first assignment being the box-office hit THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1939/40), directed by fellow émigré Joe May. In the 1940s, Siodmak consolidated his expertise for horror and science fiction films,
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ROBERT SIODMAK
while continuing a high profile career as a book author, his novel ‘Donovan’s Brain’ (1942) in particular, translated into ten languages and filmed four times, gaining him world-wide recognition. Siodmak’s biggest film success was the horror classic THE WOLF MAN (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr, and he also wrote the screenplay for Jacques Tourneur’s poetic horror film I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943). During World War II, Siodmak worked for the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) and coordinated propaganda activities against Nazi Germany. In 1951, Siodmak gave his directorial debut with BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, subsequently followed by CURUCU, BEAST OF THE AMAZON (1956), and LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS (1957). During the 1950s, Siodmak repeatedly worked for television. In the 1960s, he returned to Europe for a number of film projects, which ranged from Ladislao Vajda’s DAS FEUERSCHIFF (The Lightship, 1962/63), adapted from a Siegfried Lenz novel, to his final film, the sex comedy LIEBESSPIELE IM SCHNEE (Ski Fever, 1966), which he wrote and directed. In the 1990s Siodmak published his memoirs in German and in English, the latter originally under the title ‘Even a Man Who is Pure in Heart … The Life of a Writer, Not Always to His Liking’ (1997). [(co-)scr – DE] 1928/29: Mascottchen. 1929: Flucht in die Fremdenlegion; Menschen am Sonntag [sma]. 1930: Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragödie des Untermieters [SF]; Der Schuß im Tonfilmatelier [scr,sma]; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht. 1931: Le bal [MLV – FR]; Der Ball [MLV – FR/DE]. 1932: Cercasi modella [MLV – IT/ DE]; Marion, das gehört sich nicht [MLV]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV – scr,sma]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV – coscr,sma]; F.P. 1 [MLV – co-scr, sma]; Die unsichtbare Front. 1934: Girls Will Be Boys [co-scr,sma – GB]; La crise est finie! [FR]; It’s a Bet [GB]. 1935: I Give My Heart [GB]; The Tunnel [GB]. 1937: I, Claudius [GB]; Non-Stop New York [GB]. [(co-)scr – US] 1937/38: Her Jungle Love [sma]. 1938: Spawn of the North [sma]. 1939/40: The Invisible Man Returns; Black Friday. 1940: The Ape; The Invisible Woman [sma]. 1941: Aloma of the South Seas [sma]; The Wolf Man; Pacific Blackout [sma]. 1942: Invisible Agent; London Blackout Murders. 1942/43: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man; The Purple V. 1943: I Walked With a Zombie; The Mantrap; False Faces; Son of Dracula [sma]. 1943/44: The Lady and the Monster [sma]. 1944: The Climax; The Phantom Speaks [sma]. 1944/45: House of Frankenstein [sma]; Frisco Sal. 1945: Shady Lady. 1945/46: The Beast with Five Fingers. 1946: The Return of Monte Cristo [sma]. 1947: Berlin Express [sma]. 1948: Tarzan’s Magic Fountain. 1949: Swiss Tour [CH]. 1951: Bride of the Gorilla [dir, scr]. 1952/53: The Magnetic Monster [dir,co-scr]. 1953: Donovan’s Brain [sma]. 1953/54: I Led 3 Lives: Infra Red Film [TV]; Riders to the Stars. 1954/55: Creature With the Atom Brain [scr,sma]. 1954/55: Waterfront: The Man [TV – sma]; 1955: Studio One: Donovan’s Brain [TV –
sma]. 1955/56: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers [sma]; Curucu, Beast of the Amazon [dir,scr]. 1957: Love Slaves of the Amazons [dir,scr,sma,pro]. 1958: Tales of Frankenstein [TV-SF – dir,sma,pro]. 1959/60: No. 13 Demon Street [TVS – dir,scr – US/SE]. 1961: The Devil’s Messenger [uncred (co-dir,co-scr)]. 1962: Ein Toter sucht seinen Mörder [MLV – sma – DE/GB]; Vengeance [MLV – sma – GB/ DE]; Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes / Sherlock Holmes et le collier de la mort / Sherlock Holmes. La valle del terrore [DE/FR/IT]. 1962/63: Das Feuerschiff [DE]. 1965: Captain Fathom [TVS-ANI – scr,pro]. 1966: Liebesspiele im Schnee / Ski Fever [dir,co-scr – AT/US/ CS]. 1970: Hauser’s Memory [TV – sma]. 1977: Liebesgeschichten: Der Heiligenschein [TV – sma – DE]. 1989: Das Cabinet des Erich Pommer [TVD – app – DE]. 1998: News & Stories: Curt Siodmak [TVD – app – DE]. 2001/02: Ritual [sma].
ROBERT SIODMAK Born August 8, 1900, Dresden (Germany) Died March 10, 1973, Locarno (Switzerland) Active as a director in Germany, France, Britain and Hollywood from the late 1920s to the late 1960s, Siodmak’s œuvre encompassed semi-documentaries and historical dramas, westerns and horror films. His perhaps greatest claim to fame consists of a series of film noir masterpieces in the mid- to late 1940s. The son of a Jewish merchant who had returned to Germany from America, Siodmak attended school in Dresden, played small parts in the theatre and took acting lessons with Erich Ponto. He worked as an accountant and magazine publisher before entering the film industry as a translator of intertitles and editor for Harry Piel, then continued as assistant director for the film company Nero, run by Siodmak’s uncle Heinrich Nebenzahl and his cousin Seymour. Heinrich Nebenzahl financed Siodmak’s directorial debut in MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG (People On Sunday, 1929), a witty semi-documentary tale of a group of young Berliners enjoying their day off work, based on an idea by his brother Kurt Siodmak. The team included several future star filmmakers (directors Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer and Fred Zinnemann, cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan). The success of this film earned Siodmak a contract with Ufa. His first film for Ufa, the black comedy DER MANN, DER SEINEN MÖRDER SUCHT (Man Looking for His Murderer, 1930), was followed by the claustrophobic ABSCHIED (Farewell, 1930), anticipating the despairing mood of some of his later French and Hollywood films. VORUNTERSUCHUNG (Criminal Hearing, 1931) was a courtroom drama. The variety show film QUICK (1932), starring Hans Albers, was Siodmak’s last film for Ufa. His final German production was BRENNENDES GEHEIMNIS (Burning Secret, 1932/33), a drama of adultery and the loss of childhood innocence, based on a novella by Stefan
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Zweig. The film was withdrawn from cinemas shortly after its premiere. When the Nazis seized power, Siodmak emigrated to Paris, where his films were once again produced by Seymour Nebenzahl until the financial failure of LA VIE PARISIENNE (Parisian Life, 1935) caused discord. MOLLENARD (Hatred, 1937) was again a financial disaster but won critical acclaim, while the detective film PIÈGES (Traps, 1939), a forerunner of film noir, became a box-office hit. Right before war started in Europe, Siodmak left for America. After a string of B-pictures he gained a contract with Universal and made several fantasy films before his breakthrough with the atmospheric PHANTOM LADY (1944), the story of a young secretary who sets out to prove her employer’s innocence in a murder case. CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944) cast Gene Kelly against type as a mother-fixated psychopath. The Gothic thriller THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1945), concerning a serial killer of disabled women, remains to this day a disturbing film. The pessimistic and brutal THE KILLERS (1946), based on a Hemingway short story, was nominated for an Oscar and propelled Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner to stardom. Siodmak consolidated his reputation as a master of film noir with THE DARK MIRROR (1947), CRY OF THE CITY (1948), and CRISS CROSS (1948). In 1951 Siodmak returned to Europe, working in France and Britain, where he made the swashbuckling adventure THE CRIMSON PIRATE (1951/52). In West Germany, his comeback film was an adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann’s naturalist drama DIE RATTEN (The Rats, 1955) and attracted considerable attention. NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM (The Devil Strikes at Night, 1957), reminiscent in visual style to his earlier Hollywood films, told the real-life case of the search for a serial killer during the Nazi period, and won several awards, as well as a nomination for an Oscar. In the 1950s many of Siodmak’s projects failed to materialise and he directed for British TV, and made adventure films. In France he filmed L’AFFAIRE NINA B. (The Nina B. Affair, 1961), a blackmail drama set among war criminals and financial sharks profiting from the post-war economic boom. Following several more films in West Germany, including a series of oriental adventure films based on stories by Karl May, and the lavishly produced, but rambling historical epic KAMPF UM ROM (The Last Roman, 1968/69), Siodmak retired from filmmaking. [dir – DE] 1927: Two Arabian Knights [co-scr – US]; Bezwinger der 1000 Gefahren [cut]. 1927/28: Tragödie im Zirkus Royal [ass-dir,co-scr]; Die Durchgängerin [co-scr]. 1928: Das letzte Fort [ass-dir]. 1929: Menschen am Sonntag. 1930: Tonbildbericht der Premiere: Die letzte Kompagnie [SD]; Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragö-
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die des Untermieters [SF]; Abschied; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht. 1931: Voruntersuchung [MLV]; Autour d’une enquête [MLV]; Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]; Tumultes [MLV]. 1932: Quick [MLV]; Quick [French MLV]. 1932/33: Brennendes Geheimnis [dir,co-scr]. [dir – FR] 1933: Le sexe faible. 1934: La crise est finie!; Le roi des Champs-Élysées [supv]. 1935: La vie parisienne [MLV]; Parisienne Life [MLV]. 1936: Le grand refrain [supv]; Mister Flow; Cargaison blanche. 1937: Mollenard. 1938: Ultimatum [co-dir]. 1938/39: Les frères corses [supv]. 1939: Pièges. [dir – US] 1941: West Point Widow; Fly-by-night. 1942: My Heart Belongs to Daddy; The Night Before the Divorce. 1943: Someone to Remember; Son of Dracula; Cobra Woman; Conflict [sma]. 1944: Phantom Lady; Christmas Holiday; The Suspect. 1945: The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry; The Spiral Staircase [dir,cut]. 1946: The Killers; The Dark Mirror. 1947: Time Out of Mind [dir,pro]. 1948: Cry of the City; Criss Cross [dir,scr]. 1949: The Great Sinner; Thelma Jordan. 1950: Deported. 1951: The Whistle at Eaton Falls. 1951/52: The Crimson Pirate [dir,scr – US/GB]. 1953/54: Le grand jeu / Il grande giuoco [FR/IT]. [dir – DE] 1955: Die Ratten. 1956: Mein Vater, der Schauspieler. 1957: Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam [dir,pro]; O.S.S. [TVS – 4 episodes – GB]. 1958/59: Dorothea Angermann. 1959: The Rough and the Smooth [dir,pro – GB]; Katia [FR]. 1960: Mein Schulfreund [dir,pro]. 1961: L’Affaire Nina B. [dir,scr – FR]. 1962: Tunnel 28 / Escape from East Berlin [DE/US]. 1964: Der Schut / Au pays des Skipétars / Una carabina per Schut [DE/FR/IT]. 1964/65: Der Schatz der Azteken / I violenti di Rio Bravo / Les mercenaires du Rio Grande [DE/IT/FR]; Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes / I violenti di Rio Bravo / Les mercenaires du Rio Grande [DE/IT/FR]. 1965/66: L’Homme de Marrakech / L’uomo di Casablanca / El Hombre de Marrakech [co-dir – FR/IT/ES]. 1966/67: Custer of the West [dir,coscr – US]. 1968/69: Kampf um Rom. 1. Teil / 2. Teil: Der Verrat / La guerra per Roma [DE/IT]. 1969/70: Ein großer graublauer Vogel / Un grosso uccello grigio azzurro [act – DE/IT]. 1971: Bei Robert Siodmak zu Gast [TVD – app].
DOUGLAS SIRK (Hans Detlef Sierck) Born April 24, 1897, Hamburg-Eimsbüttel (Germany) Died January 14, 1987, Ruviglia, near Lugano (Switzerland) Sirk’s reputation as a master of melodrama, primarily based on films he made in Hollywood in the 1950s, was re-established in the late 1960s when the French magazine ‘Cahiers du cinéma’ rediscovered him as an auteur, and when West German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder began to champion him. This also brought his 1930s German films back into the limelight. The son of a school teacher grew up in Hamburg, served in the Navy in World War I and studied law, philosophy and art history at various universities in
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Germany. First an assistant director at the theatre Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, he started directing in 1923. Until 1938 Sierck worked as director in theatres in Chemnitz and Bremen. Between 1929 and 1935 he was manager and artistic director of Altes Theater in Leipzig but because of problems with the Nazis, partly due to his second wife Hilde Jary, who was Jewish, he broke the contract. In 1934/35 he made three short films for Ufa, followed by a comedy, APRIL, APRIL!, and two dramas set in Scandinavia, the Henrik Ibsen adaptation STÜTZEN DER GESELLSCHAFT (Pillars of Society), and DAS MÄDCHEN VOM MOORHOF (The Girl on the Moors, all 1935), a Heimatfilm based on a story by Selma Lagerlöf. His first big hit was the melodrama SCHLUSSAKKORD (Final Chord, 1936), about a conductor torn between his wife and the nanny of their adopted child who turns out to be the child’s mother. Subsequently, Sierck was instrumental in building up Swedish singer Zarah Leander into one of Ufa’s biggest stars in two exotic melodramas. In ZU NEUEN UFERN (To New Shores), Leander played a 19th century English singer who is innocently sent to a penal colony in Australia, while in LA HABANERA (both 1937) she was cast as a Swedish tourist who falls in love with a dashing landowner on a trip to Puerto Rico. Following a trip to Rome in 1937, Sierck did not return to Germany, leaving behind his son from his first marriage, Klaus Detlef Sierck (1925–1944), who acted in a number of Nazi propaganda films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and who died as a soldier on the Eastern Front. While filming BOEFJE (Wilton’s Zoo, 1939) in the Netherlands he was given a contract by Warner Bros. and left for the USA. Changing his name from Sierck to Sirk, he was engaged by émigré producer Seymour Nebenzahl as director for HITLER’S MADMAN (1942/43) which chronicled the assassination of top Nazi Reinhard Heydrich and the subsequent Nazi massacre in the Czech village of Lidice. Throughout the 1940s Sirk remained busy directing B-films, comedies, detective thrillers and adventure films. With MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1953) he proved himself once again an expert in lushly produced, and visually complex tearjerkers. For Universal, he directed a series of melodramas, mostly starring Rock Hudson, that included ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955), WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1955/56), and THE TARNISHED ANGELS (1956/57). A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE (1957/58), an anti-war film based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, was partially shot in Germany. Sirk’s final film in Hollywood was what many regard his most accomplished work, IMITATION OF LIFE (1958). Leaving Hollywood for Lugano in 1959, Sirk occasionally directed stage productions in Munich and
Hamburg between 1963 and 1969. In 1971, the interview book ‘Sirk on Sirk’ by Jon Halliday launched a series of retrospectives, international rediscovery, and academic attention. From 1976 to 1978 Sirk supervised the production of three short films in his capacity as lecturer at the Academy for TV and Film in Munich, working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who adopted Sirk as an artistic father figure and became a close friend. [dir – US] 1934: Zwei Genies [SF]. 1934/35: Der eingebildete Kranke [SF]. 1935: 3 x Ehe [SF]; April, April! [MLV]; ’t was 1 April [MLV – co-dir]; Das Mädchen vom Moorhof; Stützen der Gesellschaft. 1936: Schlußakkord [dir, co-scr]; Das Hofkonzert [MLV – dir,co-scr]; La chanson du souvenir. Concert à la cour [MLV – dir,co-scr]. 1937: Zu neuen Ufern [dir,co-scr]; Liebling der Matrosen [coscr – AT]; La Habanera [dir,lyr]. 1938: Dreiklang [ide]; Accord final / Symphonie am Genfersee [supv – CH/FR]. 1939: Boefje [NL]. [dir – US] 1941: The Christian Brothers at Mont La Salle [SD]. 1942/43: Hitler’s Madman. 1943/44: Summer Storm [dir,co-scr]. 1945: A Scandal in Paris. 1946: Lured [dir,scr]. 1947: Sleep, My Love. 1948: Shockproof; Slightly French. 1950: Mystery Submarine; The First Legion [dir,pro]. 1950/ 51: Thunder on the Hill. 1951: The Lady Pays Off; Weekend With Father; Has Anybody Seen My Gal? 1952: No Room for the Groom; Against All Flags [co-dir]; Meet Me at the Fair; Take Me to Town. 1952/53: All I Desire. 1953: Taza, Son of Cochise; Magnificent Obsession. 1953/54: Sign of the Pagan. 1954: Captain Lightfoot. 1955: Never Say Goodbye [co-dir]; All That Heaven Allows; There’s Always Tomorrow. 1955/56: Written on the Wind. 1956: Battle Hymn; Interlude. 1956/57: The Tarnished Angels. 1957/58: A Time to Love and a Time to Die. 1958: Imitation of Life. 1976: Sprich mit mir wie der Regen [SF – co-dir – DE]. 1977: Silvesternacht [SF – co-dir – DE]. 1978: Bourbon Street Blues [SF – DE]; Filmarbeit mit Douglas Sirk [TVD – app – DE]. 1980: Douglas Sirk: Über Stars [TVD – app – DE]. 1983: Mirage de la vie [TVD – app – CH]. 1995: A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies [DO – app – GB].
MAX SKLADANOWSKY Born April 30, 1863, Berlin (Germany) Died November 30, 1939, Berlin (Germany) One of the founding fathers of cinematography, Skladanowsky occupies an important place in German film history. Sharing the fate of many pioneers, he was sidelined by subsequent developments. Leaving school at fourteen Skladanowsky trained in photography, glass painting and making mechanical and optical equipment. He travelled the country with his brother Emil (1866–1945) and his father Carl, staging magic lantern shows on a variety of themes. Max was responsible for the technical side of the family business and, when their father retired, contin-
KRISTINA SÖDERBAUM
ued to develop new technologies, resulting in an ‘electrical-mechanical-pyrotechnical waterworks show’ in 1891. Always intent on producing moving images, Skladanowsky experimented with self-made cameras and projectors. Exact dates are uncertain because Skladanowsky and his supporters are known to have altered them in the 1920s to reinforce his pioneer status. Around 1895 he developed the Bioscop, using alternating image projection through two lenses onto a screen. Using the ‘Bioscop’ (I, 2 x 50mm), the Skladanowskys were able to demonstrate a fifteen-minute programme of eight variety acts at the Wintergarten in Berlin on November 1, 1895, predating Auguste and Louis Lumière’s more famous first public screening on December 28 by nearly two months. Other performances with added local scenes followed in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. A previously booked show in Paris at the Folies Bergères was cancelled because the superiority of the Lumière’s show and their apparatus, the Cinématographe, had become apparent. Having improved on the Bioscop projector (II, 63mm) Skladanowsky shot a series of scenes, depicting life in Berlin to include in their new programme. His attempts to break into other areas of the cinema industry, marketing films, equipment and literature were less successful. His production company established in 1913 made only two unremarkable burlesque comedies, EINE FLIEGENJAGD ODER DIE RACHE DER FRAU SCHULTZE (A Fly Chase, or Mrs. Schultze’s Revenge, 1913), and DIE MODERNE JUNGFRAU VON ORLEANS (A Modern Joan of Arc, 1914), both starring
his brother Emil. Subsequently Skladanowsky largely returned to other optical media, such as magic lanterns and flip books. In the late 1920s and 1930s he and his daughter Lucie Hürtgen-Skladanowsky re-released through their company ‘Projektion für Alle’ short programmes ‘From the Archives of the inventor Max Skladanowsky’ on 35mm. After a public dispute with his brother, Max was finally designated the sole inventor of their cinematographic inventions in 1930. He got into further quarrels with fellow pioneer Oskar Messter in the 1930s, both claiming the title of the father of German cinematography. His detractors pointed to Messter’s overall greater technical advances and commercial effectiveness, while Skladanowsky’s exaggeration of his own accomplishments further undermined his claims. Wim Wenders restaged with some of his students at the Academy for Television and Film in Munich the ‘invention’ of the ‘Kintopp’, using an old handcranked (35mm-) camera in DIE BRÜDER SKLADANOWSKY (1993–95).
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[dir,cam,pro – DE] 1895: Wintergarten-Programm: 1. Italienischer Bauerntanz / 2. Komisches Reck / 3. Das boxende Känguruh / 4. Der Jongleur / 5. Akrobatisches Potpourri / 6. Kamarinskaja, russischer Nationaltanz / 7. Ringkampf Greiner – Sandow / 8. Der Erfinder des Bioscops (Apotheose) / Serpentintanz Mlle. Ancion. 1896: ‘Nicht mehr allein’. Parodie auf ‘Endlich allein’; Kleine Szene aus dem Straßenleben in Stockholm; Komische Begegnung im Thiergarten zu Stockholm; Programm II: Leben und Treiben am Alexanderplatz in Berlin; Alarm der Feuerwehr; Ausfahrt nach dem Alarm; Die Wachtparade; Mit Ablösung der Wache; ‘Unter den Linden’ in Berlin; Ankunft eines Eisenbahnzuges; Gebr. Skladanowsky, die Erfinder der Lebenden Photographien (Apotheose II). 1897: Am Bollwerk in Stettin. 1913: Eine Fliegenjagd oder Die Rache der Frau Schultze [SF]. 1914: Die moderne Jungfrau von Orleans [SF]. 1927/28: Aus den Kindertagen der Kinematographie. Eine historische Reminiscens mit Aufnahmen aus dem Jahre 1895 von Max Skladanowsky [SD]. 1929: Eine Fliegenjagd [SF]. 1930: Aus den Archiven des Erfinders Max Skladanowsky [SD]. 1935: Aus den Archiven des Erfinders Max Skladanowsky. Vom Nebelbild zum Filmstreifen [SD].
KRISTINA SÖDERBAUM Born September 5, 1912, Vetenskapsstaden, near Stockholm (Sweden) Died February 12, 2001, Hitzacker (Germany) Söderbaum’s striking blond hair, blue eyes, healthy and active persona fitted neatly into the racial fantasies propagated by the ‘Third Reich’, turning her into a leading star of Nazi cinema’s most controversial film projects. The daughter of a chemistry professor (and president of the Nobel Prize committee), Söderbaum was educated at exclusive boarding schools in Sweden and Paris, moved to Berlin in 1934 after the death of her parents, and studied German and art history. While in Berlin, Söderbaum appeared in Erich Waschneck’s film ONKEL BRÄSIG (Uncle Bräsig, 1936). Although her debut went largely unnoticed, the following year she met up-and-coming director Veit Harlan, who cast her as the female lead in JUGEND (Youth, 1937/38). The film marked the beginning of a long partnership which saw Söderbaum become a major star in Germany, and in 1939 also Harlan’s third wife. The film, which ends with her character committing suicide, also established a narrative pattern for many of her subsequent roles. The Harlan/Söderbaum team was behind ten major feature films up to 1945. In VERWEHTE SPUREN (Covered Tracks, 1938), Söderbaum starred as a Canadian searching for her missing mother, and in DIE REISE NACH TILSIT (Journey to Tilsit, 1939) she was cast as the wife of a prosperous fisherman who falls
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for the temptations of a Polish seductress. The latter film used the same source material as F. W. Murnau’s classic SUNRISE (1926/27) but with marked propagandistic overtones. In her most notorious film, the anti-Semitic historical drama JUD SÜSS (Jew Suess, 1940), Söderbaum played an innocent blond maiden raped by the film’s titular villain, before taking her own life by jumping in the river. Death by drowning became a recurrent destiny of Söderbaum’s characters, earning her the sarcastic soubriquet ‘Reichswasserleiche’, or ‘Reich Water Corpse’. In DIE GOLDENE STADT (The Golden City, 1941/ 42), Söderbaum played a farmer’s daughter who is seduced by the glitter of the big city Prague, but who meets a watery end in the marshes. The melodrama OPFERGANG (Sacrifice, 1942–44), considered by some critics as Harlan’s masterpiece, again culminated in the sacrificial death of the unconventional heroine after a terminal illness. After the war, Söderbaum acted mainly in the theatre in Hamburg, refusing film projects out of solidarity with Harlan, who had been banned from filmmaking by the Allies. Both Harlan and Söderbaum eventually resumed their career together. Their productions in the 1950s often faced public criticism and protests owing to the couple’s past. After Harlan’s death in 1964, Söderbaum trained as a photographer, specialising in portrait and fashion photography. Her film work was infrequent, her part in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s KARL MAY (1974) one of sporadic exceptions. She discussed her life in several television documentaries, and appeared in the series DER BERGDOKTOR (The Mountain Doctor, 1992). On the occasion of her eightieth birthday, Hans-Christoph Blumenberg directed a television portrait about her, DIE REISE NACH SCHWEDEN (Journey to Sweden, 1992). [act – DE] 1936: Onkel Bräsig. 1937/38: Jugend. 1938: Verwehte Spuren. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz. 1939: Die Reise nach Tilsit. 1940: Jud Süß. 1940-42: Der große König. 1941/42: Die goldene Stadt. 1942/43: Immensee. 1942-44: Opfergang. 1943-45: Kolberg. 1950: Unsterbliche Geliebte. 1951: Hanna Amon. 1952/53: Die blaue Stunde. 1953: Sterne über Colombo. 1953/54: Die Gefangene des Maharadscha. 1954: Verrat an Deutschland. Der Fall Dr. Sorge. 1957: Zwei Herzen im Mai. 1958: Ich werde dich auf Händen tragen. 1973: Die große Rolle. 2. Jud Süß – die Alptraumrolle [TVD – app]. 1974: Karl May. 1977: Das ist Ihr Leben: Kristina Söderbaum [TVD]. 1983/84: Frauengeschichten: Kristina Söderbaum [TVD – app]. 1986: Let’s Go Crazy. 1992: Wenn ich sonntags in mein Kino geh’ … Ein Film zum 75. Geburtstag der Ufa [TVD – app]; Der Bergdoktor [TVS – DE/AT – 1st season]; Die Reise nach Schweden [TVD – app]. 1992/93: Night Train to Venice.
HANS SÖHNKER (Hans Albert Edmund Söhnker) Born October 11, 1903, Kiel (Germany) Died April 20, 1981, Berlin (Germany) A versatile stage and screen actor from the 1920s to the 1970s, acclaimed for his understated performance style, Söhnker could shine in character parts, but he was less distinctive as a perpetually mild-mannered and elegant, but somewhat tepid leading man. Söhnker made his stage debut in 1922 at the Stadttheater in Kiel and subsequently performed on various stages, moving to Berlin in the 1930s. His first film appearances were in film operettas, as Marta Eggerth’s partner in the title role of DER ZAREWITSCH (The Young Tsar), in a version of Leon Jessel’s SCHWARZWALDMÄDEL (Black Forest Girl, both 1933), and again with Eggerth in DIE CZARDASFÜRSTIN (The Czardas Princess, 1934). Fearing to become typecast, he switched to more serious characters with ARZT AUS LEIDENSCHAFT (Vocation Doctor, 1936). As the happy-go-lucky counterpart to Heinz Rühmann he was a great hit in DER MUSTERGATTE (Model Husband, 1937). Among his best roles in the late 1930s and early 1940s were enigmatic charmers in films directed by Helmut Käutner: as a demanding bridegroom in FRAU NACH MASS (A Woman Made To Measure, 1939/ 40), a news reporter who neglects his wife in AUF WIEDERSEHEN, FRANZISKA! (Farewell Franziska!, 1940/41) and as Hans Albers’s rival and successful suitor for Ilse Werner in the melancholic port melodrama GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (Great Freedom No. 7, 1943/44). After World War II, Söhnker resumed his film career in 1947, specialising in the part of the paternal friend of young women, and playing distinguished gentlemen in mediocre entertainment films of the 1950s. He also played more hardened individuals in detective films such as DER FALL RABANSER (The Rabanser Case, 1950), in the German-Italian co-production SCHATTEN ÜBER NEAPEL (Camorra, 1950/ 51), the melodrama NUR EINE NACHT (Only One Night, 1949/50) and Käutner’s WEISSE SCHATTEN (White Shadows, 1951) with Hilde Krahl. Very much against type, he played a villainous Prof Moriarty to Christopher Lee’s Sherlock Holmes in SHERLOCK HOLMES UND DAS HALSBAND DES TODES (Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, 1962). From the mid-1950s Söhnker increasingly worked on the stage. Apart from further cinema assignments (e.g. in the Edgar Wallace series) he turned his talents to TV, portraying sharp-witted patriarchs in films and series such DER FORELLENHOF (Hotel Trout Farm, 1965) and the chief justice in LOKALTERMIN (Restaging the Crime, 1972/73) and BESCHLOSSEN UND VERKÜNDET (Decided and Announced, 1975).
ELKE SOMMER
From 1969 to 1971 he presented the light musical show ES MUSS NICHT IMMER SCHLAGER SEIN (It Doesn’t Always Have to Be a Hit) and wrote his memoirs ‘… und kein Tag zuviel’ (… and Not One Day Too Many) in 1974. [act – DE] 1933: Der Zarewitsch [MLV]; Schwarzwaldmädel. 1933/34: Annette im Paradies [MLV – DE/CS]. 1934: Die große Chance; Die Csardasfürstin [MLV]; Ich sing mich in Dein Herz hinein; Jede Frau hat ein Geheimnis; Sie und die Drei. 1935: Eva [AT]; Liebesträume [MLV – HU]; Der junge Graf; Herbstmanöver. 1935/36: Faithful [GB]. 1936: Flitterwochen; Die Drei um Christine; Arzt aus Leidenschaft; Diener lassen bitten; Wo die Lerche singt [CH]; Und Du, mein Schatz, fährst mit; Truxa. 1936/37: Patricia Gets Her Man [GB]. 1937: Der Unwiderstehliche; Der Mustergatte; Die Fledermaus; Musik für dich [AT]. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Der Tag nach der Scheidung; Die Frau am Scheidewege [HU]; Die 4 Gesellen; Geld fällt vom Himmel / Tüchtig, tüchtig – die Pasemanns [MLV – DE/SE]. 1938/39: Männer müssen so sein. 1939: Irrtum des Herzens; Gold in New Frisco; Brand im Ozean; Nanette. 1939/40: Frau nach Maß. 1940: Blutsbrüderschaft. 1940/41: Auf Wiedersehen, Franziska! 1941: Der Strom. 1941/42: Fronttheater [app]. 1941-43: Nacht ohne Abschied. 1942: Meine Frau Teresa. 1942/43: Liebespremiere. 1943: Ein Mann mit Grundsätzen? 1943/44: Große Freiheit Nr. 7. 1944: Der Engel mit dem Saitenspiel. 1944/ 45: Tierarzt Dr. Vlimmen. 1947/48: Film ohne Titel. 1949: Hallo, Fräulein-!; 1 × 1 der Ehe; Geliebter Lügner. 1949/ 50: Nur eine Nacht. 1950: Der Fall Rabanser. 1950/51: Amore e sangue / Schatten über Neapel [IT/DE]. 1951: Weiße Schatten; Mein Freund, der Dieb. 1952: Königin der Arena. 1953: Das singende Hotel; Die Stärkere; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen?; Ein Leben für Do. 1953/54: Männer im gefährlichen Alter. 1954: Hoheit lassen bitten; Ihre große Prüfung. 1955: Oberarzt Dr. Solm; Eine Frau genügt nicht?; Vor Gott und den Menschen; Zärtliches Geheimnis. 1955/56: Studentin Helene Willfüer. 1956: Wenn wir alle Engel wären; Geliebte Corinna. 1957: Die Freundin meines Mannes; Wie schön, daß es dich gibt [AT]; Immer wenn der Tag beginnt. 1958: Worüber man nicht spricht; Sag ja, Mutti! [AT]. 1958/59: Serenade einer großen Liebe / For the First Time / Come prima [DE/US/IT]. 1959: Jacqueline. [act – TV – DE] 1959/60: Einer von Sieben; Ich heirate Herrn Direktor [FF – AT]; Die erste Mrs. Selby. 1960: Schachnovelle [FF]; Die Fastnachtsbeichte [FF]; Wegen Verführung Minderjähriger [FF – AT]; Immer will ich Dir gehören [FF]. 1961: Fast ein Poet; Das Schweigen; Unser Haus in Kamerun [FF]. 1961/62: The Longest Day [FF – US]. 1962: Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes / Sherlock Holmes et le collier de la mort / Sherlock Holmes. La valle del terrore [FF – DE/FR/IT]. 1963: Gassenhauer; Maria Stuart. 1963/64: Das Phantom von Soho [FF]. 1964: Jetzt dreht die Welt sich nur um dich [FF – AT]; Die 5. Kolonne: Treffpunkt Wien; Sechs Stunden Angst. 1965: Briefe der Liebe: Goethe und Bettina [DE/AT/CH]; Olivia; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Leni Marenbach und Hans Söhnker [TVD – app]; Der Forellenhof
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[TVS]. 1966: Im Jahre Neun. 1967: Alle unsere Spiele [AT]; Der Hund von Blackwood-Castle [FF]. 1967/68: Salto Mortale [TVS – 1st season – DE/CH]. 1969: Kellerassel; Hauptsache Minister; Meine Schwiegersöhne und ich [TVS]. 1969/70: Endspurt. 1971: Der erste Frühlingstag; Salto Mortale [TVS – 2nd season – DE/CH]. 1972: Manolescu; Dem Täter auf der Spur: In Schönheit sterben. 1972/73: Lokaltermin [TVS]. 1973: Die große Rolle. 2. Jud Süß – die Alptraumrolle [TVD – app]. 1975: Beschlossen und verkündet [TVS]. 1977: Vorhang auf, wir spielen Mord. 1977/ 78: Der Alte: Ein Koffer. 1978/79: Achtung, Kunstdiebe! [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1979: Die Weber. 1980/81: Im schönsten Bilsengrunde [TVS].
ELKE SOMMER (Elke Schletz) Born November 5, 1940, Berlin (Germany) A blond, buxom bombshell in German and international productions of the 1960s and 1970s, Sommer later diversified into painting and writing. The daughter of a protestant pastor, Sommer spent time as an au-pair in London and trained to become a translator. Spotted by photographers while on holiday in Italy, Sommer won a beauty contest, leading to her film debut in the Italian comedy L’AMICO DEL GIAGUARO (Giagurro’s Friend, 1958), followed shortly after by UOMINI E NOBILUOMINI (Men and Gentlemen, 1958), in which she acted alongside Vittorio de Sica. Sommer’s first German film was the sombre adventure film DAS TOTENSCHIFF (Death Ship, 1959) with Mario Adorf and Horst Buchholz. In the following years she often found herself cast as a gangster’s moll, as in Gert Oswald’s AM TAG, ALS DER REGEN KAM (The Day the Rain Came, 1959) and as a ‘Lolita’ figure who seduces respectable older men, as in DAS MÄDCHEN UND DER STAATSANWALT (The Girl and the Public Prosecutor, 1962). Having appeared in French and British as well as German and Italian productions, Hollywood took notice of her in Carl Foreman’s war film THE VICTORS (1962/63). She was subsequently cast as an affectionate Swede opposite Paul Newman in the spy film THE PRIZE (1963). Her persona as a sexy and high-spirited funny girl was established with the Pink Panther film A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964), and further comedy parts included her playing an East German athlete in THE WICKED DREAMS OF PAULA SCHULTZ (1967). She also appeared in decorative roles in numerous spy thrillers, Karl May westerns, horror and adventure films. Following a busy international career spanning the 1960s and 1970s, Sommer starred once more in a German production, DER MANN IM PYJAMA (Man In Pyjamas, 1981), in a part that ironically commented on her screen image.
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Sommer matured into a solid character actress in television in historical serials, playing Magda Goebbels in INSIDE THE THIRD REICH (1982), while diversifying into presenting programmes, such as the motor sport magazine ELKE SOMMER’S WORLD OF SPEED AND BEAUTY (1984). From the 1970s she also performed on stage. In Germany she appeared mainly in talk shows or touring theatre, sometimes directing as well. She began a second career as a painter in 1966 and published her ‘Autobiographical Appraisal’ in 1989. [act – DE] 1958: L’Amico del giaguaro [IT]; Uomini e nobiluomini [IT]. 1959: La pica sul Pacifico [IT]; I ragazzi del juke box [IT]; Das Totenschiff [DE/MX]; Am Tag, als der Regen kam. 1959/60: Lampenfieber; Urlatori alla sbarra [IT]. 1960: Himmel, Amor und Zwirn; Saffo, Venere di Lesbos / Sapho [IT/FR]; … und sowas nennt sich Leben; Femmine di lusso [IT]. 1960/61: Geliebte Hochstaplerin. 1961: Zarte Haut in schwarzer Seide / De quoi tu t’mêles, Daniela? [DE/FR]; Don’t Bother to Knock [GB]; Auf Wiedersehn. 1961/62: Café Oriental; Douce violence [FR]. 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt; Un chien dans un jeu de quilles / Uno sconosciuto nel mio letto [FR/IT]; Nachts ging das Telefon; Bahia di Palma [ES]; Les bricoleurs [FR]. 1962/63: Verführung am Meer / Ostrva [DE/YU]; The Victors [GB]. 1963: … denn die Musik und die Liebe in Tirol; The Prize [US]. 1964: A Shot in the Dark [US]; Unter Geiern / Parmi les vautours [DE/FR]. 1964/65: Le bambole / Les poupées [IT/FR]; The Art of Love [US]. 1965: Hotel der toten Gäste / El enigma de los Cornell [DE/ES]; The Heroes of Telemark [GB]; Tausend Takte Übermut; The Oscar [US]. 1965/66: The Money Trap [US]. 1966: Le chien [TV – FR]; Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! [US]; Deadlier Than the Male [GB]; Die Hölle von Macao / Les corrumpus / Il sigillo di Pechino [DE/FR/IT]; The Venetian Affair [US]. 1967: The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz [US]. 1967/68: Las Vegas, 500 Millones / Radiografia di un colpo d’oro / An einem Freitag in Las Vegas / Les hommes de Las Vegas [ES/IT/DE/ FR]. 1968: The Wrecking Crew [US]. 1969: The Invincible Six [US/IR]. 1970: Percy [GB]; Zeppelin [GB]. 1971: Jamaican Gold [GB]; Elke [TV – US]. 1971/72: Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga / Die Schrecken des Nürnberger Schlosses [IT/DE]. 1972: Search: Probe [TV – US]. 197275: La casa dell’esorcismo / El diablo selleva los muertes / Der Teuflische [IT/ES/DE]. 1972-78: The Six Million Dollar Man [TVS – US]. 1973: Die Reise nach Wien. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden. 1974: Percy’s Progress [GB]; And Then There Were None / Ein Unbekannter rechnet ab / Dix petits nègres / Diez negritos / … E poi, non ne rimase nessuno [GB/DE/FR/ES/IT]. 1975: Carry On Behind [GB]; Das Netz. 1975/76: The Swiss Conspiracy / Per Saldo Mord [US/DE]. 1976: Pronto ad uccidere / Tote pflastern seinen Weg [IT/DE]; The Six Million Dollar Man: H + 2 + O = Death [TV – US]; Forty Million Bucks on a Dead Man’s Chest [GB]; Thoroughbreads [GB]. [act – TV – US] 1977: The Astral Factor [FF]; Nicht von gestern [TV – DE]; Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes. Program
2. 1978: Forever Fernwood [TVS]. 1978/79: The Prisoner of Zenda [FF – US]. 1979: I Miss You – Hugs and Kisses [FF – CA]; Stunt Seven; The Double McGuffin; Circus of the Stars. Program 4; The Top of the Hill. 1979/80: Exit Sunset Boulevard [FF – DE]. 1980: The Biggest Bank Robbery [FF – GB]. 1981: Love Boat; Der Mann im Pyjama [FF – DE]; Fantasy Island: A Night in the Harem / Druids. 1982: Inside the Third Reich; Nina [DE]; 6 Richtige [TVS – DE]. 1984: Elke Sommer’s World of Speed and Beauty; Játszani kell / Lily in Love [FF – HU/US]; Niemand weint für immer [FF – DE]. 1984/85: Coconuts [FF – DE/AT]; Peter the Great. 1985: Jenny’s War [GB/US]. 1986: St. Elsewhere: Brand New Bag; Anastasia – The Story of Anna. 1986/87: Adventures Beyond Belief [FF – US]; Der Stein des Todes [FF – DE]. 1988: Himmelsheim [episode 13 – DE]. 1991: Severed Ties [FF – US]. 1992/93: Happy Holiday [episode 4 – DE]. 1994: Schauplatz der Geschichte: Hollywood [DE]; Florian III [TVS – DE]. 1995: Höchstpersönlich: Elke Sommer [TVD – app – DE]. 1996: Alles nur Tarnung [FF – DE]; Sunset Boulevard – 27 Meilen Amerika [TVD – app – DE]. 1998: Nicht mit uns [DE]. 1999: Doppeltes Spiel mit Anne [FF – DE]. 1999/2000: Flashback – Mörderische Ferien [FF – DE]. 2002: Für alle Fälle Stefanie [TVS – season 8 – DE]. 2004/ 05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app – DE]. 2004/05: Reblaus [TV – DE]. 2005: Ewig rauschen die Gelder [TV – DE].
THEODOR SPARKUHL Born October 7, 1894, Hanover (Germany) Died June 13, 1946, Santa Fe (New Mexico, USA) Gaining recognition as the cinematographer of nearly all of Ernst Lubitsch’s films between 1916 and 1922, Sparkuhl subsequently proved a prolific and versatile craftsman on many German, European and Hollywood productions. The son of a banker, Sparkuhl started out in the film industry in 1911, initially selling projectors at Gaumont’s Berlin branch. The following year he began filming newsreels for the company and in 1913 he briefly worked at the new Eiko-Studios in BerlinMarienfelde. After the outbreak of World War I, he continued as a newsreel cameraman on the Eastern Front and in the Middle East. In 1916 Sparkuhl became a member of Lubitsch’s team at Paul Davidson’s PAGU in the studios at Berlin-Tempelhof. This association lasted from DER G.M.B.H.-TENOR (Tenor Ltd., 1916) until DIE FLAMME (Montmartre, 1922), and included stylish comedies such as DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (The Oyster Princess, 1919) and DIE BERGKATZE (The Wildcat, 1921) as well as big-budget historical epics such as MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919), ANNA BOLEYN (Deception, 1920), and DAS WEIB DES PHARAO (The Loves of Pharaoh, 1921). Following Lubitsch’s departure for Hollywood, Sparkuhl continued to work with some of Weimar cinema’s most acclaimed directors, including E. A. Du-
THEODOR SPARKUHL
pont on DAS ALTE GESETZ (This Ancient Law, 1923), Richard Oswald on CARLOS UND ELISABETH (1923/24), and Arthur Robison on MANON LESCAUT (1925/26). At Ufa’s Babelsberg studios he photographed the Anglo-German co-productions DEKAMERON-NÄCHTE / DECAMERON NIGHTS (1924) directed by Herbert Wilcox, and Graham Cutts’s DIE PRINZESSIN UND DER GEIGER / THE BLACKGUARD (1924/25). The latter was written and with sets designed by the young Alfred Hitchcock. For Seymour Nebenzahl’s company Nero, Sparkuhl shot G. W. Pabst’s marital drama ABWEGE (Crisis, 1928); the same year he photographed and co-directed (with Adolf Trotz) the courtroom drama DER STAATSANWALT KLAGT AN! (The Public Prosecutor Accuses!, 1928). In 1928 Sparkuhl moved to London under contract with British International Pictures (BIP). Among his assignments there were German director Henrik Galeen’s crime thriller AFTER THE VERDICT (1928), and he provided atmospheric images for Arthur Robison’s adaptation of Liam O’Flaherty’s IRA drama THE INFORMER (1929). He also worked with British directors such as Will P. Kellino and Castleton Knight. In 1930 Sparkuhl was appointed ‘chef des lumières’ for the new Etablissements Braunberger-Richebe in Paris. Notable among his French films were Marc Allégret’s MAM’ZELLE NITOUCHE and Jean Renoir’s LA CHIENNE (The Bitch, both 1931). In December 1931 Sparkuhl emigrated to the United States, and was admitted to the American Society of Cinematographers (A.S.C.) in September 1933. Until 1945 he worked almost exclusively for Paramount, and once again demonstrated his versatility in a range of different genres. Occasionally Sparkuhl teamed up with other German émigrés such as E. A. Dupont on FORGOTTEN FACES (1936) and Robert Siodmak on WEST POINT WIDOW (1941) – although no opportunity arose to collaborate again with Lubitsch who was a producer at Paramount during that period. Instead he repeatedly worked for director Mitchell Leisen (FOUR HOURS TO KILL, 1935; 13 HOURS BY AIR; THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1937, both 1936). Other memorable films included Rouben Mamoulian’s musical romance HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME (1937, in cooperation with Victor Milner), and William Wellman’s popular Foreign Legion adventure BEAU GESTE (1939). In the early 1940s, Sparkuhl’s credits included Stuart Heisler’s iconic ‘film noir’ THE GLASS KEY (1942), an adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel; Preston Sturges’s classic satire HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, and Frank Borzage’s wartime melodrama TILL WE MEET AGAIN (both 1943/44). His final film for Paramount was SALTY O’ROURKE (1945), directed by Raoul Walsh.
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In September 1945 he signed a three-year-contract with agent Paul Kohner, but only two further independent productions followed his departure from Paramount, the anti-Japanese spy thriller BLOOD ON THE SUN (1945) starring James Cagney, and the comedy THE BACHELOR’S DAUGHTERS (1946). [cam – DE] 1916: Der Millionenschuster; Ein toller Abend; Leutnant auf Befehl; Der G.m.b.H.-Tenor. 1917: Das fidele Gefängnis. 1918: Das Mädel vom Ballett; Die Rothenburger; Ich möchte kein Mann sein; Der Flieger von Görz; Keimendes Leben [2 parts]; Die tolle Heirat von Laló; Die Augen der Mumie Mâ [co-cam]; Meyer aus Berlin [cocam]; Carmen [co-cam]. 1918/19: Meine Frau, die Filmschauspielerin; Mein Wille ist Gesetz; Das Karussell des Lebens. 1919: Die Austernprinzessin; Vendetta [cam?]; Rausch [co-cam]; Kreuziget sie! [co-cam]; Der lustige Ehemann; Madame Dubarry; Komtesse Dolly; Die Puppe; Amt Zukunft [SF]. 1919/20: Die Marchesa d’Arminiani; Romeo und Julia im Schnee. 1920: Kohlhiesels Töchter; Sumurun; Anna Boleyn. 1921: Die Bergkatze; Der Roman eines Dienstmädchens [DE/AT]; Grausige Nächte; Das Weib des Pharao [co-cam]; Die Sünden der Mutter. 1921/22: Die Finsternis und ihr Eigentum. 1922: Sein ist das Gericht; Zum Paradies der Damen [co-cam]; Die Flamme [co-cam]. 1923: Die fünfte Straße [co-cam]; Karusellen [SE]; S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen [co-cam]; Das alte Gesetz. 1923/24: Carlos und Elisabeth [co-cam]; Neuland oder Das glückhaft Schiff [co-cam]. 1924: Dekameron-Nächte / Decameron Nights [DE/GB]; Komödie des Herzens. 1924/25: Die Prinzessin und der Geiger / The Blackguard [DE/GB]. 1925: Die Frau von vierzig Jahren [co-cam]; Die Gesunkenen. 1925/26: Manon Lescaut; Fedora [co-cam]. 1926: Die Flucht in den Zirkus [co-cam]; Die Boxerbraut; Der Soldat der Marie; Madame wünscht keine Kinder [co-cam]. 1926/ 27: Der Sohn der Hagar [co-cam]. 1927: Jugendrausch [co-cam]; Die Spielerin; Der letzte Walzer [co-cam]; Der Fluch der Vererbung [co-cam]; Zwei unterm Himmelszelt; Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland. 1928: Abwege; Liebeskarneval [co-cam]; Der Staatsanwalt klagt an [co-dir, co-cam]; After the Verdict / Die Siegerin [MLV – co-cam – GB/DE]. 1928/29: Champagner / Bright Eyes [AT/GB]. [cam – FR] 1929: Alf’s Carpet [co-cam – GB]; The Lady from the Sea [co-cam – GB]; The Flying Scotsman [GB]; The Informer [MLV – co-cam – GB]. 1930: J’ai quelque chose à vous dire [SF]; La meilleure bobonne [SF]; The Compulsory Husband [co-cam – GB]; Harmony Heaven [GB]; Suspense [co-cam – GB]; Les amours de minuit [MLV – co-cam]; Moritz macht sein Glück [MLV – co-cam]. 1930/31: Le blanc et le noir [co-cam – FR]; Mitternachtsliebe [MLV – co-cam – FR/DE]. 1931: Une grave erreur [SF]; Isolons-nous Gustave [SF]; On opère sans douleur [SF]; Les quatre jambes [SF]; Radio-folies [SF]; On purge bébé [co-cam]; Attaque nocturne [SF]; Mam’zelle Nitouche [MLV – co-cam – FR/DE]; La chienne; L’Amour à l’américaine [co-cam]; Le collier [SF]; Baleydier [co-cam]. 1931/32: Seul [SF – co-cam]. [cam – US] 1933: Midnight Club; Too Much Harmony. 1933/34: Search for Beauty [cam?]; No More Women [co-cam]. 1934: Caravan [MLV – co-cam]; Caravane [MLV – co-cam]; Enter Madame [co-cam]; Father Brown,
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Detective. 1935: Four Hours to Kill; College Scandal; The Last Outpost; Ship Cafe. 1936: 13 Hours by Air; Forgotten Faces; Yours for the Asking; The Big Broadcast of 1937; College Holiday [co-cam]. 1937: Internes Can’t Take Money; High, Wide and Handsome [co-cam]; Wells Fargo. 1938: Dangerous to Know; Tip-Off Girls; The Texans; If I Were King [co-cam]. 1938/39: St. Louis Blues; The Lady’s from Kentucky. 1939: Beau Geste [co-cam]; Rulers of the Sea [co-cam]; All Women Have Secrets; The Light That Failed. 1939/40: Opened by Mistake; The Way of All Flesh. 1940: Queen of the Mob; Rangers of Fortune; Second Chorus. 1940/41: There’s Magic in Music. 1941: West Point Widow; Buy Me That Town; Among the Living; Pacific Blackout. 1942: The Remarkable Andrew; Dr. Broadway; Wake Island [co-cam]; The Street of Chance; The Glass Key; Star Spangled Rhythm [co-cam]; Night Plane from Chungking. 1942/43: Salute for Three. 1943: Johnny Come Lately; The Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith [SF]; The Good Fellows. 1943/44: Hail the Conquering Hero [co-cam]; Till We Meet Again; Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. 1944: Murder, He Says. 1945: Salty O’Rourke; Blood on the Sun. 1946: The Bachelor’s Daughters.
MISCHA SPOLIANSKY Born December 28, 1898, Bia³ystok (Russia, now Poland) Died June 28, 1985, London (England) Composer Spoliansky encapsulated the atmosphere of Berlin’s ‘Roaring Twenties’ with his sophisticated cabaret songs and musicals that blended urban irony, melancholy, and a somewhat manic optimism. Born into a musical family who fled anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia in the aftermath of the 1905 revolution, Spoliansky had a nomadic childhood, growing up in Warsaw, Kalisz, Königsberg, Vienna, and Dresden. A musical prodigy, he gave his first public concert as a pianist at the age of ten. Following the outbreak of World War I, Spoliansky moved to Berlin and financed his musical studies at the Stern Conservatory with odd jobs, including as a café violinist. Discovered by operetta composer Viktor Hollaender (the father of film composer Friedrich Hollaender), he joined the cabaret ‘Schall und Rauch’ (Echo and Smoke). Here he worked with authors including Kurt Tucholsky and Walter Mehring, and accompanied performers such as Curt Bois, Mady Christians, Paul Graetz, Trude Hesterberg, and Rosa Valetti. From 1922 he established a long-lasting partnership with the lyricist Marcellus Schiffer (1892–1932) and French singer Margo Lion (1899–1989). Some of Spoliansky’s compositions of the early 1920s raised eyebrows, such as ‘Morphium’ (a languorous and subtly menacing tune about drug addiction, which formed the backdrop of a risqué dance routine by Anita Berber), and ‘Das Lila Lied’ (The Purple Song, 1920), a quirky, Kurt Weill-esque tango that
became an anthem for Berlin’s gay and lesbian subcultures. From the mid-1920s, Spoliansky had diversified into various activities, performing with Jazz bands such as Weintraubs Syncopators, accompanying Schubert recitals by tenor Richard Tauber, writing songs for the vocal harmony group Comedian Harmonists; recording George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, and arranging the music for Max Reinhardt’s stage production of Somerset Maugham’s comedy ‘Home and Beauty’. Mainly in collaboration with Schiffer but also other lyricists, Spoliansky wrote a series of popular stage musicals. ‘Es liegt in der Luft’ (It’s in the Air, 1928) marked a breakthrough for the young Marlene Dietrich, whose duet with Lion, ‘Wenn die beste Freundin mit der besten Freundin’ (When the best girlfriend with her best girlfriend), toyed with a lesbian subtext. Dietrich also appeared in the revue ‘Zwei Krawatten’ (Two Ties, 1929), which led to her subsequent casting as the star of DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30). Spoliansky’s infrequent links with the film industry since the early 1920s intensified with the advent of sound. In 1930 Oskar Fischinger used his English Waltz ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ for the animated avantgarde short STUDIE 4, the same year ZWEI KRAWATTEN (Two Neckties) was made (without Dietrich) into a film. On Anatole Litvak’s romantic comedy NIE WIEDER LIEBE (No More Love, 1931), Spoliansky wrote the soundtrack, while also appearing in a small supporting part as a pianist. The title song of EINMAL MÖCHT’ ICH KEINE SORGEN HABEN (One Day I Wish I Had No Sorrows, 1932) became a topical post-Wall-Street-crash hit for the film’s star, Max Hansen. Spoliansky also provided the music for the multi-lingual (MLV) production DAS LIED EINER NACHT (English version: TELL ME TONIGHT, 1932), a vehicle for Polish tenor Jan Kiepura. Once again, the film’s principal song became a hit, as did the title song of MY SONG FOR YOU (1934), another MLV starring Kiepura. Spoliansky emigrated to London in 1933, where he continued a prolific career, almost exclusively in films. Notable scores in the 1930s included Alexander Korda’s colonial adventures SANDERS OF THE RIVER (1934/35) and KING SOLOMON’S MINES (1937), and René Clair’s whimsical fantasy THE GHOST GOES WEST (1935). During the war, Spoliansky scored the anti-fascist drama THE MAN FROM MOROCCO (1944), and contributed to the BBC’s German-language broadcasts. His version of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Lied vom Weib des Nazisoldaten’ (Song of the Nazi Soldier’s Wife) was sung on air by Lucie Mannheim. After the war, Spoliansky sporadically composed again for the stage in West Germany, including the
GÜNTHER STAPENHORST
musicals ‘Katharina Knie’ (1957), starring Hans Albers, and ‘Wie lernt man Liebe’ (How To Learn Love, 1967). He also rearranged Paul Abraham’s 1930 operetta for a West German film adaptation of VIKTORIA UND IHR HUSAR (Victoria and her Hussar, 1954), while his music for Otto Preminger’s SAINT JOAN (1957) emulated a sound that was suitable for a Hollywood epic while remaining intimate and original. His final film score was for the AngloItalian co-production HITLER – THE LAST TEN DAYS (1973). In 1977 he was reunited with his former collaborator Margo Lion for a concert at Berlin’s Renaissance Theatre. One and a half decades after his death in 1985, the new millennium witnessed a renewed interest in Spoliansky: his 1931 musical comedy ‘Send for Mr Plim’ was revived to critical acclaim at London’s Battersea Arts Centre in 1999. It was subsequently re-staged across Europe, including a production at the Covent Garden Festival in 2000, and a 2001 radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3. [mus – DE] 1930: Studie 4 [ANI]; Wie werde ich reich und glücklich?; Zwei Krawatten. 1931: Nie wieder Liebe [MLV – mus,act]; Calais – Douvres [MLV]; Der Schlemihl. 1932: Einmal möcht’ ich keine Sorgen haben; Das Lied einer Nacht [MLV]; Tell Me Tonight [MLV]; La chanson d’une nuit [MLV]; Eine Stadt steht Kopf; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen? [mus – GB] 1933: The Lucky Number. 1933/34: Love at Second Sight [mus,lyr]. 1934: My Song for You [MLV – GB/DE]; The Private Life of Don Juan; Evensong. 1934/ 35: Sanders of the River. 1935: Car of Dreams; The Ghost Goes West. 1935/36: Forget Me Not [MLV – arr(?) – GB/DE]. 1936: H. G. Well’s The Man Who Could Work Miracles. 1937: King Solomon’s Mines; Paradise for Two. 1937/38: Over the Moon. 1941: Jeannie; Breach of Promise. 1942: Secret Mission. 1943/44: The True Story of Lili Marlene [SF – arr]. 1944: Mr. Emmanuel; Fiddlers Three [songs]; The Man from Morocco. 1945/46: Wanted for Murder [mus,lyr]. 1946: Meet Me at Dawn. 1947/48: This Was a Woman. 1948: Idol of Paris. 1949: Adam and Evelyne; Golden Arrow. 1949/50: The Happiest Days of Your Life. 1950: Midnight Episode; Into the Blue. 1950/51: Happy Go Lovely. 1954: Duel in the Jungle; Viktoria und ihr Husar [arr – DE]. 1955: 91:an Karlsson rycker [songs – SE]. 1957: Saint Joan [GB/US]; Sommarnöje sökes [songs – SE]. 1959: North West Frontier. 1965: The Battle of the Villa Fiorita [US/GB]. 1967: Wie lernt man Liebe? [TV – scr,mus – DE]. 1969: The Best House in London. 1973: Hitler: The Last Ten Days / Gli ultimi dieci giorni di Hitler [GB/IT]. 1977: Zwei Krawatten [TV – DD/DE]. 1981/82: Gedächtnis. Ein Film für Curt Bois und Bernhard Minetti [TVD – songs – DE]. 1985/86: ‘Auf Wiedersehen irgendwo in der Welt’. [TVD – app – DE].
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GÜNTHER STAPENHORST (Günther Gustav Stapenhorst) Born June 25, 1883, Gebweiler (Alsace, Germany, now Guebwiller, France) Died February 2, 1979, Munich (Germany) One of the most significant producers of German cinema in the early 1930s, Stapenhorst’s divided loyalties between exiles in Switzerland and Britain and continuing contacts with the industry of the ‘Third Reich’ led to him coming under suspicion of espionage during World War II. After 1945 he resumed producing box office hits in West Germany, while maintaining his international relations. After attending school and a naval academy, Stapenhorst joined the navy as a captain during World War I. After the war he ran an export company before entering the film industry in 1924 as a production manager for International Film Exchange’s first film ICH HATT’ EINEN KAMERADEN (I Had a Comrade, 1926). The company went bankrupt and Stapenhorst ran a cinema before becoming a production manager for Ufa in 1928. He supervised the making of comedies, musical comedies and literary adaptations, directed by Gustav Ucicky (HOKUSPOKUS, 1930), Reinhold Schünzel (RONNY, 1931), and Gerhard Lamprecht (EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE, Emil and the Detectives, 1931). Among Stapenhorst’s core team of collaborators were writers Emmeric Pressburger and Walter Reisch, as well as the director Karl Hartl. Following Erich Pommer’s departure in 1933, Stapenhorst was assigned some of Ufa’s most prestigious productions often shot in French language versions as well, projecting ‘national conservative’ values in line with the political line of Ufa’s major shareholder, the press baron Alfred Hugenberg. Resulting films included the Prussian heritage drama DAS FLÖTENKONZERT VON SANSSOUCI (The Flute Concert Of Sans-Souci, 1930), the naval epic MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/33), and the nationalistic action adventure FLÜCHTLINGE (Refugees, 1933). These films contrasted with more apolitical or even slightly subversive comedies such as Schünzel’s AMPHITRYON (1935). Refusing to become a member of the Nazi party, Stapenhorst moved to England, producing for Gaumont British and Alexander Korda’s London Films. For Milton Rosmer and Geoffrey Barkas’s big-budget film about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, THE GREAT BARRIER (1936/37), Stapenhorst brought over the German cinematographer Sepp Allgeier (who had recently photographed Leni Riefenstahl’s TRIUMPH DES WILLENS, Triumph of the Will, 1934/35), and cast the émigré actress Lilli Palmer in a leading role. In 1939 Stapenhorst was contracted to work for Elite Films in Switzerland. He produced the melodrama
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VERENA STADLER (1940), then established his own
production company, Gloriafilm, which had commercial and artistic success with MENSCHEN, DIE VORÜBERZIEHEN (People Who Walk Past, 1941/ 42) based on a Carl Zuckmayer source. The company employed a range of émigrés, including the authors Friedrich Raff and Horst Budjuhn. It remained unclear where the financial resources for Gloriafilm, with its new studios and offices, came from, though it was assumed that Stapenhorst had German backers, leading him to come under surveillance in 1941 and 1942. His repeated applications for a managerial position at Ufa were refused due to his previous ‘desertion’ to the UK. After the war, Stapenhorst founded a new company, Carlton-Film, in Munich, and later expanded into distribution, with offices in Vienna and London. Stapenhorst’s post-war productions included versions of Erich Kästner novels such as DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN (Two Times Lotte, 1950), a remake of ALRAUNE (Unnatural) starring Erich von Stroheim and Hildegard Knef, operettas such as IM WEISSEN RÖSSL (White Horse Inn, both 1952) and G. W. Pabst’s sentimental melodrama ROSEN FÜR BETTINA (Roses For Bettina, 1955/56). The anti-war film UNRUHIGE NACHT (Unsettled Night, 1958) won particular critical acclaim. Stapenhorst’s final production was a second remake of the popular operetta DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTEL (The Girl and the Kaiser, 1962), starring Peter Weck. Stapenhorst’s children entered the film industry as well: son Fritz as editor and director, Klaus as production manager and manager of Carlton-Film, and daughter Lore as script writer. [pro – DE] 1926: Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden; Kreuzzug des Weibes. 1927: Venus im Frack. 1928: Der Tanzstudent; Die Yacht der sieben Sünden; Die blaue Maus; Ihr dunkler Punkt. 1929: Adieu, Mascotte; Der Sträfling aus Stambul; Wenn Du einmal Dein Herz verschenkst. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; The Temporary Widow [MLV]; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci. 1931: Der kleine Seitensprung [MLV]; Le petit écart [MLV – DE/FR]; Emil und die Detektive; Ronny [MLV]; Ronny [French MLV]. 1931/32: Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV]. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Un homme sans nom [MLV]; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV]; La belle aventure [MLV]; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann? 1932/33: Morgenrot. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen; Saison in Kairo [MLV]; Idylle au Caire [MLV]; Walzerkrieg [MLV]; La guerre des valses [MLV]; Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe [MLV]; Flüchtlinge [MLV]; Au bout du monde [MLV]. 1934: Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz [MLV]; La jeune fille d’une nuit [MLV]; Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV]; Nuit de mai [MLV]; Turandot, princesse de Chine [MLV]; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]. 1934/35: Barcarole [MLV]; Barcarolle [MLV]. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den WolkenkommtdasGlück[MLV];Lesdieuxs’amusent[MLV].
1936/37: The Great Barrier [GB]. 1937: Paradies for Two [GB]; Paradise for Two [GB]; The Divorce of Lady X [GB]; The Challenge [MLV – GB/DE]. 1940: Verena Stadler [CH]. 1941: Emil, me mues halt rede mitenand! [CH]. 1941/42: Menschen, die vorüberziehen [CH]. 1942: Steibruch [CH]; Matura-Reise[CH]. 1949/50: So sind die Frauen. 1950: Das doppelte Lottchen. 1951: Das weiße Abenteuer. 1952: Die Försterchristl; Alraune; Im weissen Rössl. 1953: Ein Eckchen Afrika [SD]; Einmal keine Sorgen haben / Einen Jux will er sich machen [DE/AT]; Der letzte Walzer; Das Lachkabinett; Der unsterbliche Lump. 1953/54: Meines Vaters Pferde. 2 parts. 1954: Kabarett / Dieses Lied bleibt bei dir; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer; Die verschwundene Miniatur. 1955: Im Lande der spiegelnden Schleier [SD]; Solang’ es hübsche Mädchen gibt …; Königswalzer. 1955/56: Rosen für Bettina. 1956: Im Reiche des Seidou [SD]; Der Bettelstudent; Manöverball. 1958: Ich war ihm hörig; Der Sündenbock von Spatzenhausen; Unruhige Nacht; Gräfin Mariza. 1959: Paprika; Bei der blonden Kathrein. 1960: Studieren und probieren [SD]; Im weißen Rößl [AT/DE]. 1962: Die Försterchristel. 1972: 18 Bilder mit der Hand [TVD–app].
WOLFGANG STAUDTE (Wolfgang Georg Friedrich Staudte) Born October 9, 1906, Saarbrücken (Germany) Died January 19, 1984, Zigarski, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia) Perhaps the only director to make substantial contributions to both West and East German cinema at the height of the Cold War, Staudte’s work encompassed probing studies into the national past as well as more anonymous assignments. He later became known for his high quality television productions. Born into an acting family, Staudte came to Berlin in 1912 where he worked as car mechanic and motorcycle racer. By 1926 he was engaged at the Volksbühne Berlin, performing in productions by Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator. Staudte’s film debut was Lupu Pick’s backstreet musical drama GASSENHAUER (Street Singers, 1930/ 31), followed by a prolific career in small supporting parts, also appearing in overt Nazi propaganda films, including Karl Ritter’s LEGION CONDOR (1939) and Veit Harlan’s notorious JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940). Apart from acting, Staudte had since the mid-1930s directed a series of advertising shorts. His feature film debut as director was AKROBAT SCHÖ-Ö-ÖN (1942/ 43), a circus drama centred on the persona of famous Catalan clown Charlie Rivel (1896–1983). His third feature DER MANN, DEM MAN DEN NAMEN STAHL (The Man Whose Name Was Stolen, 1944/ 45), a manic screwball comedy featuring the Kafkaesque adventures of an office clerk, was withdrawn by the censors.
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Following the end of World War II, Staudte directed the first post-war German film, DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS (The Murderers Are Among Us, 1946) with the newly founded East German DEFA. The film, the story of a traumatised war veteran set against the rubbles of Berlin, addressed questions of collective national guilt and retribution, and won wide acclaim, as did Staudte’s next film ROTATION (1948/ 49) about a German working-class family’s experiences during the Nazi period. Staudte’s adaptation of Heinrich Mann’s satire of Wilhelmine values, DER UNTERTAN (The Kaiser’s Lackey, 1951) was regarded by West German censors as too subversive and withheld from distribution until 1957. Owing to the critical tone of his films and following his continued association with the GDR, Staudte found himself repeatedly under attack from the right-wing media in the West. Refusing to distance himself from DEFA, he turned to children’s films with DIE GESCHICHTE VOM KLEINEN MUCK (The Story of Little Muck, 1953). A production of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage’ starring Simone Signoret was not completed due to disagreements with the writer and marked the end of Staudte’s association with DEFA. Following a Dutch film, CISKE – DE RAT (Ciske the Rat, 1955), Staudte resumed his career in West Germany with ROSE BERND (1956/57), a melodramatic vehicle for the film’s star Maria Schell. The content of several of his subsequent films caused controversy, including KIRMES (The Fair, 1960), about an army deserter hounded to his death by his own community, and HERRENPARTIE (Gentlemen’s Party, 1963/64) concerning a group of former Wehrmacht soldiers revisiting as tourists the scenes of their earlier war crimes. Excursions into other genres had mixed results; a particular disaster was the internationally produced version of DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1962/63) starring Hildegard Knef, Curd Jürgens, and Sammy Davis Jr. From the end of the 1960s Staudte worked mainly for television. He directed the highly popular serials DER SEEWOLF (The Sea Wolf, 1971/72) and LOCKRUF DES GOLDES (Call of the Wild, 1974/75), both based on Jack London’s classic adventure novels, and numerous episodes for the crime series DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner) and TATORT (Crime Scene). Staudte also frequently coordinated the dubbing of international imports into German – his version of the horror classic THE EXORCIST (1974) won particular acclaim. [act – DE] 1930: Ins Blaue hinein … [SF]. 1930/31: Gassenhauer [MLV]. 1932: Tannenberg [DE/CH]; Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers. 1932/33: Der Choral von Leuthen. 1933: Unser täglich Brot [SD – voi]; Heimkehr ins Glück;
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Ein jeder hat mal Glück [SF – dir,scr]; Non Stop nach Afrika [SF – scr]. 1934: Die Bande vom Hoheneck; Schwarzer Jäger Johanna; Pechmarie; Kuddelmuddel [SF]. 1936: Stärker als Paragraphen; Gleisdreieck; Zwischen Sahara und Nürburgring [DO – dir,co-scr,cut]; Susanne im Bade. 1937: Schnelle Straßen [SD]; Deutsche Siege in 3 Erdteilen [DO – dir,co-scr,cut]. 1938: Mordsache Holm; Am seidenen Faden; Pour le Mérite; Es surren die Spindeln [SD]; Lauter Lügen; Spiel im Sommerwind. 1938/39: Drei Unteroffiziere. 1939: Evtl. spätere Heirat nicht ausgeschlossen [SF]; Legion Condor; Die fremde Frau; D III 88; Das Gewehr über!; Brand im Ozean. 1939/40: Aus erster Ehe; Beates Flitterwoche. 1940: Jud Süß; Blutsbrüderschaft. 1940/41: Jungens; … reitet für Deutschland; Friedemann Bach. 1941: Tobis-Studio Film Nr. 6: Ins Grab kann man nichts mitnehmen [SF – dir,scr]; Tobis-Studio Film Nr. 10: Ins Grab … (3. Fassung) [SF – scr]; Sechs Tage Heimaturlaub. [dir – DE] 1942: Aus eins mach’ vier [SF – dir,scr]; Das große Spiel [act]. 1942/43: Akrobat schö-ö-ön [dir,scr]. 1943/44: Ich hab von dir geträumt. 1944/45: Der Mann, dem man den Namen stahl [dir,co-scr]; Frau über Bord. 1946: Die Mörder sind unter uns [dir,scr – DD]. 1947/48: Die seltsamen Abenteuer des Herrn Fridolin B. [dir,scr – DD]. 1947-51: A Tale of Five Cities (German sma) / Passaporto per l’oriente / Fünf Mädchen und ein Mann / 5 Städte – 5 Mädchen / L’Inconnue des cinq cités [GB/IT/AT/DE/ FR]. 1948/49: Rotation [dir,co-scr,ide – DD]. 1949: Schicksal aus zweiter Hand [dir,scr]. 1950/51: Das Beil von Wandsbek [scr – DD]. 1951: Der Untertan [dir,co-scr – DD]; Gift im Zoo [co-dir]. 1953: Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck [dir,co-scr – DD]. 1954: Leuchtfeuer [dir,co-scr – DD/SE]. 1955: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder [dir,scr – unfinished – DD]; Ciske – de rat [MLV – dir,scr – NL]; Ciske – ein Kind braucht Liebe [MLV – dir,scr – NL/DE]. 1956/57: Rose Bernd. 1957: Madeleine und der Legionär [dir,lyr]. 1958: Kanonen-Serenade / Pezzo, capopezzo e Capitano [dir,co-scr,act – DE/IT]; Der Maulkorb. 1959: Der Rest ist Schweigen [pro]; Rosen für den Staatsanwalt [dir,ide]. 1960: Kirmes [dir,scr,pro]; Der letzte Zeuge. 1962: Die Rebellion [TV – dir,scr,pro]; Die glücklichen Jahre der Thorwalds. 1962/63: Die Dreigroschenoper / L’Opéra de quat’sous [dir,co-scr – DE/FR]. 1963/64: Herrenpartie / Muski izlet [dir,co-scr – DE/YU]. 1964: Das Lamm. 1965: Der Fall Kapitän Behrens [TV]. 1965/66: Ganovenehre. [dir – TV – DE] 1968: Die Klasse; Heimlichkeiten / Malki taini [FF – dir,scr,pro – DE/BG]. 1969: Die Gartenlaube; Die Kriminalerzählung. 1969/70: Die Herren mit der weißen Weste [FF]. 1969-71: Der Seewolf. 1970: Cinema Berolina: Magische Hände [SD – app]; Die Person. 1970-73: Der Kommissar [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1971: Fluchtweg St. Pauli [FF]. 1971/72: Der Seewolf [FF]. 1972: Verrat ist kein Gesellschaftsspiel; Marya Sklodowska-Curie. 1973: Nerze nachts am Straßenrand. 1973-84: Tatort [TVS – 7 episodes]. 1974: Kommissariat 9 [TVS – season 1]; Ein fröhliches Dasein; Lehmanns Erzählungen [dir,scr]; Schließfach 763. 1974/75: Lockruf des Goldes [DE/FR]. 1975/76: Um zwei Erfahrungen reicher. 1976: Kein Untertan. Wolfgang Staudte und seine Filme [TVD – app]; Prozeß Medusa. 1976/77: MS Franziska [TVS – 8 episodes]. 1977: Das verschollene Inka-Gold. 1977/78: Feuerwasser. 1978: Zwi-
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schengleis [FF]. 1978/79: Der eiserne Gustav. 1979: Laterna Teutonica: Käutner und dann Staudte [TVD – app]. 1982: Zeugen der Zeit. Hermann P. Reiser sprach mit Wolfgang Staudte [TVD – app]; Die Pawlaks. 1982/83: Nordlichter; Satan ist auf Gottes Seite. 1983: Die Großen und die Kleinen [act]; Der Snob [dir,scr]; So ein Theater. 1984/85: Der eiserne Weg [co-dir (death during production)]. 1996: Ein unbequemer Moralist. Wolfgang Staudte – Filmregisseur in Deutschland [TVD – app].
SIGFRIT STEINER (Siegfried Albert Steiner) Born October 31, 1906, Basel (Switzerland) Died March 21, 1988, Munich (Germany) Although stage and film actor Steiner had appeared in supporting roles in important Swiss films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he is primarily remembered for his stubborn, taciturn old men in films and television productions of the 1970s and 1980s. Growing up in the city of St Gallen, Steiner studied architecture and worked as a journalist. In 1927 he studied at the Studio des Théatre de l’Atelier in Paris, and attended acting classes at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Starting as an extra at Ufa, he was later engaged at the Deutsches Theater (1930/31) and the theatre in Gera. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Steiner returned to St. Gallen, managing a textile factory. He worked at the theatres in Lucerne and Bern, where he also directed, and from 1939 to 1957 in the theatre (Schauspielhaus) in Zurich. His debut in Swiss cinema was playing a lieutenant in FÜSILIER WIPF (Fusilier Wipf, 1938). He subsequently appeared in a series of films directed by Leopold Lindtberg, Edmund Heuberger and Max Haufler. Steiner co-wrote and directed DER DOPPELTE MATTHIAS UND SEINE TÖCHTER (Double Matthias And His Daughters, 1941) as well as directing the dialect film STEIBRUCH (Quarry, 1942), a milestone of Swiss cinemathat featured the young Maria Schell. During the 1940s he played supporting parts such as an army doctor in Lindtberg’s DIE LETZTE CHANCE (Last Chance, 1944/45), and also appeared in international productions, such as Fred Zinnemann’s war refugee drama THE SEARCH (1947/48). In the 1950s Steiner often collaborated with director Kurt Früh. He co-directed the Swiss version of S’WAISECHIND VO ENGELBERG (The Orphan of Engelberg, 1956), entitled HEIDEMARIE. Subsequently he undertook theatre engagements, 1957 in Frankfurt, 1959 in Munich and between 1972 and 1974 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. In Germany he made frequent appearances on television and in films, winning an award for his support-
ing role in EIN MANN IM SCHÖNSTEN ALTER (A Man In His Prime, 1963). Kurt Gloor’s DIE PLÖTZLICHE EINSAMKEIT DES KONRAD STEINER (The Sudden Loneliness of Konrad Steiner, 1976) brought Steiner again to wider public attention with his subtle portrayal of a retired cobbler, who following the death of his wife, refuses to go into an old people’s home. Another award-winning performance followed with his gruff, lonely farmer in Jörg Graser’s Bavarian rural ballad DER MOND IST NUR A NACKERTE KUGEL (The Moon Is Only a Naked Ball, 1980/81). Steiner continued to work until shortly before his death. [act – CH] 1925/26: Metropolis [act – DE]. 1926/27: Die Frauengasse von Algier [act – DE]. 1938: Füsilier Wipf. 1938/39: Derrière la façade [FR]. 1939: Wachtmeister Studer. 1940: Dilemma. 1940/41: Das Menschlein Matthias [ass-dir,act]. 1941: Bider der Flieger; Der doppelte Matthias und seine Töchter [dir,co-scr,act]. 1941/42: Menschen, die vorüberziehen. 1942: Steibruch [dir,co-scr]; Matura-Reise [dir,co-scr]. 1944: Der Kondukteur und sein Publikum [SF – dir]. 1944/45: Die letzte Chance. 1946: Siedlungen der Industrie [SF – dir]. 1946/47: Matto regiert. Wachtmeister Studers schwierigster Fall. 1947/48: Die Gezeichneten / The Search [CH/US]. 1948: La nuit blanche [FR]; Nach dem Sturm [CH/AT/LI]; Familie M [SF – co-dir]. 1949: Demokratie in Gefahr [SF]. 1950: Land der Sehnsucht / Terra d’amore [DE/IT]. 1951/52: Palace Hotel. 1952/53: Unser Dorf / The Village [CH/GB]. 1954: Der Prozess der Zwanzigtausend; Landarzt Dr. Hilfiker heiratet [SF]. 1955: Polizischt Wäckerli; Uli der Pächter. 1955/56: Landschaft im Umbruch [SD]. 1956: Heidemarie [MLV – dir (Swiss language version)]; Oberstadtgass. [act – TV – DE] 1957: Taxichauffeur Bänz [FF – CH]; Der Richter und sein Henker [DE/CH]. 1958: Es geschah am hellichten Tag / El cebo [FF – CH/DE]; César; Der Schinderhannes [FF]; Nachtasyl. 1958/59: Du gehörst mir [FF]. 1959: HD Läppli [FF – voi – CH]. 1960: Ein Fingerhut voll Mut; Die Friedhöfe; Der Teufel hat gut lachen [FF – CH]; Anne Bäbi Jowäger. 2. Jakobli und Meyeli [FF – CH]. 1960/61: Die Falle. 1961/62: Verräterische Spuren. 1962: Der Rosenstock; Dreht euch nicht um!; Der kleine Lord. 1963: Leb wohl, mein Traum; Aufstand der Gehorsamen [FF]; Ödipus; Das Kriminalmuseum: Zahlencode N; Ein Mann im schönsten Alter [FF]. 1963/64: Die Teepuppe; Die 5. Kolonne: Eine Puppe für Klein-Helga. 1964: Die fortschrittliche Lady; Actis; Die erste Legion; Lydia muß sterben; Sie werden sterben, Sire; Das Kriminalmuseum: Tödliches Schach. 1964/65: Der seidene Schuh. 1965: Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen; Bernhard Lichtenberg; Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder; Der Ritter vom Mirakel. 1965/66: Um null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu [FF]. 1966: Was jede Frau weiß; Betty Blue; Die 5. Kolonne: Das verräterische Licht; Der Fall Jeanne d’Arc; Bethanien; Ohne festen Wohnsitz; Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion [TVS – episode 5]; Polizischt Wäckerli in Gefahr [FF – dir,co-scr – CH]. 1967: Der Blinde; Asche und Glut; König Ödipus; Bäume sterben auf-
HANS STEINHOFF recht; Ein Schweigen am Himmel. 1968: Das Mißverständliche im Leben des Herrn Knöbel. 1969: Adrienne Mésurat; Sturm im Wasserglas; Der Kommissar: Auf dem Stundenplan Mord; Der Tanz des Sergeanten Musgrave; Der Nagel. 1969/70: Der Mann am Strick; Das große Projekt. 1970: Prometheus aus der Seitengasse; Claus Graf Stauffenberg – Porträt eines Attentäters; General Oster – Verräter oder Patriot; Der Kommissar: Der kleine Schubelik; Vor Sonnenuntergang; Hetzjagd [CH]; Professor Sound und die Pille [CH]; Preußen über alles – Bismarcks deutsche Einigung. 1970/71: Elsa Brandström. Stationen eines ungewöhnlichen Lebens; Das falsche Gewicht. 1971: Der Befund [CH]; Vertrauensbruch [CH]; Klassenkampf [CH]; Iwanow; Das Herz aller Dinge; Gute Abig, Signor Steiger [CH]. 1971/72: Im Namen der Freiheit. 1972: Novellen aus dem Wilden Westen [TVS – episode 7]; Tanz auf dem Regenbogen [TVS – CH/DE]; Der Schrei der schwarzen Wölfe [FF]; Frohe Ostern; Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt [CH]; Der 21. Juli. 1972/73: Der Kommissar: Schwarzes Dreieck; Der Fußgänger [DE/CH]. 1973: Der rote Schal; Fünf Frauen [CH]. 1973/74: Selbstbildnis Béatrice S. 1974: Fluchtgefahr [FF – CH]. 1974/75: Ein Fall für Männdli [TVS – CH – episode 20]. 1975: Filmriß. 1975/76: Die schöne Marianne [TVS – episode 3]; Der Anwalt [TVS – episode 12]. 1976: Insel der Rosen; Die plötzliche Einsamkeit des Konrad Steiner [FF – CH]; Die Magd [CH]. 1976/77: Woher wir kommen [TVS]; Krock & Co; Heinrich. 1977: Laub voll Trauer; Eden End; Waldrausch [FF]; Liebesgeschichten: Eine Jugendliebe / Schulzeit / Stark wie der Tod; Die Eisernen. 1978: Die Macht der Finsternis; Polizeiinspektion 1: Die Zeitungsrosl; Der Weg nach Tournon [AT/FR/CH/DE]; Geschlossene Gesellschaft [DD]; Brass Target [US]; Zeit zum Aufstehn; Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl; Wunnigel [DE/AT]; Zwischen den Jahren; Brot und Steine [FF – CH]; Nathan der Weise. 1978/79: Buddenbrooks [episode 10]. 1979: Hausgäste [SF]; Nirgendwo ist Poenichen: Friede auf Erden / Abschied von Eyckel; Mirko und Franka [AT]; Le comte de Monte-Cristo / Der Graf von Monte Christo [FR/DE]. 1979/80: Der Galgensteiger [CH/DE]. 1980: Ehe der Hahn kräht; Kreuzfahrten eines Globetrotters: Das volle Dutzend; Kaiserhofstraße 12; Kein Platz für Idioten [CH]; Nächtliches Gespräch mit einem verachteten Menschen. 1980/81: Der Mond ist nur a nackerte Kugel [FF]; Das gefrorene Herz [CH]; Don Quichottes Kinder [FF]. 1981: Die Leidenschaftlichen. Goethes Werther: Dichtung und Wahrheit; Das doppelte Leben [AT]; Der Fall Maurizius; Preußische Nacht; Derrick: Tod eines Italieners. 1981/82: Imperativ. 1982: Der Alte: Tod am Sonntag. 1982/83: Wagner [GB/DE/AT/HU/IT]; Angelo und Luzy: Der Betrug der alten Dame. 1983: Die schwarze Spinne [CH]; Spätholz [CH]; Glut [FF – CH/DE]; Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [FF – DE/FR]; Der Schatz im Haus; Joseph Süß Oppenheimer; Der Snob. 1983/84: Waldheimat: Wie das Zicklein starb [AT]; Lisa und die Riesen; Derrick: Tödlicher Ausweg; Blaubart [DE/CH]. 1984: Die Platzanweiserin; Steckbriefe. Ein bürgerlicher Dialog; Wochenendgeschichten: Schwarzer Bube. 1984/85: Die Schwarzwaldklinik: Der Weltreisende. 1985: Die Frau mit den Karfunkelsteinen. 1985/86: Fatherland / Vaterland [GB/DE/FR]. 1986: Sigfrit Steiner. Porträt eines Schau-
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spielers [TVD – app]; Unser Haus reicht nur für drei; Der Alte: Das Attentat; Duet for One [FF – US]. 1987: Am Abend aller Tage [SF]. 1988: Das Königsstechen; Wenn ich die Antwort wüßte … 1988/89: La nuit de l’eclusier / Die Nacht des Schleusenwärters [FF – CH/DE/FR].
HANS STEINHOFF (Johannes Reiter) Born March 10, 1882, Marienberg (Germany) Died April 20, 1945, near Glienig, near Berlin (Germany) Alongside Leni Riefenstahl, Karl Ritter and Veit Harlan, Steinhoff is remembered as the director of some of Nazi cinema’s most notorious propaganda productions, while many of his efficiently crafted Weimarera films have been forgotten. The son of a travelling salesman, Steinhoff grew up in Leipzig where he joined a local theatre company aged fifteen. He subsequently worked with more than a dozen different companies, appearing amongst others with actor Josef Kainz and dramatist Frank Wedekind (playing Alwa opposite the author’s Dr. Schön in the first production of ‘Lulu). In 1902/03, he became co-director of a Munich-based cabaret troupe; a year later he toured Europe in a production based on Max Reinhardt’s famous staging of Gorky’s ‘Lower Depths’. From about 1904 onwards his interest tended to centre on operettas, initially as singer, later as director. Following his association with Jean Gilbert, then Germany’s leading composer of the genre, he became director in chief of the country’s most illustrious revue theatre, the Metropol in Berlin. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I he moved to Vienna. Prompted by the decline of traditional variety theatres after the War, Steinhoff founded his own film company in 1921. Though his debut KLEIDER MACHEN LEUTE (Clothes Makes The Man, 1921) flopped, its critical success resulted in an invitation by the Berlin-based Gloria film company to direct the epic DER FALSCHE DIMITRY (The False Dimitri, 1922), based on events around the Russian usurper Boris Godunov. Following disagreements with the company’s general manager and severe censorship difficulties over his film adaptation of Norbert Jacques’s novel MENSCH GEGEN MENSCH (Man Against Man, 1924), Steinhoff joined the Terra production company in 1925, where he established himself as an efficient and reliable director covering a wide range of genres for the mass market. His professionalism and ability to deliver financially successful films on moderate budgets made him a sought-after director with small and medium-size companies. Virtually unknown today, Steinhoff’s pre-1933 films (especially those of the silent era) are
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prime examples of the kind of professionally made mass entertainment frequented and enjoyed by ordinary Germans during the Weimar Republic. In 1932, Steinhoff was contracted to a B-movie production unit at Ufa – which led to HITLERJUNGE QUEX (Hitler Youth Quex, 1933), the film that established his reputation as a Nazi propagandist. Though Steinhoff was an ardent admirer of Hitler, he never joined the party. Described by people who knew him personally as ‘totally apolitical’, he was an opportunist rather than a political activist. His standing as one of the leading directors of the ‘Third Reich’ rests mainly on his biopics DER ALTE UND DER JUNGE KÖNIG (The Old and the Young King, 1934/35), ROBERT KOCH, DER BEKÄMPFER DES TODES (Robert Koch, 1939), OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, 1940/41), all starring Emil Jannings; and REMBRANDT (1941/42), with Ewald Balser in the title role. Steinhoff also directed DIE GEIERWALLY (Geierwally, 1939/40), an atmospheric and influential Heimatfilm, and the ambiguous TANZ AUF DEM VULKAN (Dance on the Volcano, 1938) in which Gustaf Gründgens seems to incite resistance to dictatorship. Steinhoff died in the last days of the war when a plane taking him back to Prague – where he was filming a Hans Albers vehicle – was shot down by Russian antiaircraft fire. [dir – DE] 1921: Kleider machen Leute [dir,scr – AT]. 1922: Der falsche Dimitry. Ein Zarenschicksal [dir,co-scr]. 1922/ 23: Die Fledermaus [co-scr]; Inge Larsen. 1924: Mensch gegen Mensch. 1925: Der Mann, der sich verkauft [dir,co-scr]; Gräfin Mariza; Der Mann im Sattel [scr]. 1926: Schwiegersöhne [dir,co-scr – AT]; Wien – Berlin; Frau Sopherl vom Naschmarkt [AT]; Der Herr des Todes; Die Tragödie eines Verlorenen. 1927: Familientag im Hause Prellstein. Ein Spiel vom Geschäften und von lieber Verwandtschaft.; Das Frauenhaus von Rio; Die Sandgräfin. 1928: Das Spreewaldmädel. Wenn die Garde marschiert; Angst. Die schwache Stunde einer Frau; Ein Mädel und drei Clowns / The Three Kings [DE/GB]; Nachtgestalten. Nur ein Gassenmädel / The Alley Cat [dir,co-scr – DE/GB]. 1929: Gestörtes Ständchen [SF]; Maien-Andacht [SD]. 1930: Fundvogel [scr]; Rosenmontag; Chacun sa chance [MLV – co-dir – FR]; Kopfüber ins Glück [MLV – FR]. 1930/ 31: Die Faschingsfee; Der wahre Jakob. 1931: Die Pranke [MLV – IT/DE]; Mein Leopold. 1932: Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / Um einen Groschen Liebe [MLV – DE/AT]; Un peu d’amour [MLV]; Madame wünscht keine Kinder [MLV – DE/AT]; Madame ne veut pas d’enfants [MLV – codir – DE/FR]. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen [co-dir]; Liebe muß verstanden sein; Hitlerjunge Quex; Keine Angst vor Liebe; Mutter und Kind. 1934: Freut euch des Lebens; Die Insel [MLV]; Vers l’abîme [MLV – co-dir]; Lockvogel [MLV]; Le miroir aux alouettes [MLV]. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König. 1935: Der Ammenkönig. 1936:
Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung. 1937: Ein Volksfeind [dir,coscr]. 1938: Gestern und Heute [SD]; Eine Frau kommt in die Tropen [co-scr]; Tanz auf dem Vulkan [dir,co-scr]. 1939: Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes. 1939/40: Die Geierwally. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger. 1941/42: Rembrandt [dir,co-scr]. 1943: Gabriele Dambrone [dir,co-scr]. 1943/44: Melusine [dir,co-scr]. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume [dir,co-scr,pro].
ROBERT A. STEMMLE (Robert Adolf Ferdinand Stemmle) Born June 10, 1903, Magdeburg (Germany) Died February 24, 1974, Baden-Baden (West Germany) Stemmle’s diverse, prolific, and long career from the late 1920s to the 1970s included writing for different media and directing for stage and screen. Characterised by solid, technical skills, his films encompassed various genres, from comedies to crime thrillers. Stemmle started out as a teacher in 1923. Interested in puppet theatre and school performances, he published articles on the subject, and penned a play for puppet theatre in 1927, with which he toured German cities. Moving to Berlin in 1928 he started to study German and drama. His first play ‘Hans Dampf’ was performed in Meiningen and together with Werner Finck he founded the cabaret ‘Katakombe’, for which he wrote several satirical pieces on social issues. He won acclaim with his show ‘Kampf um Kitsch’, performed in 1933. From the 1930s, Stemmle worked in many areas, as a director and writer in theatre and films, as a journalist and novelist. During the 1930s, he co-wrote the screenplay for GLÜCKSKINDER (Lucky Kids, 1936), starring Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, a German remake of the Hollywood screwball comedy IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934). He frequently wrote for films featuring Heinz Rühmann, including the crime parody DER MANN, DER SHERLOCK HOLMES WAR (The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes, 1937), but he was also adept at more serious drama, such as the Emil Jannings vehicle TRAUMULUS (The Dreamer, 1935) based on the play by Arno Holz and Oskar Jerschke. Stemmle’s directorial debut, SO EIN FLEGEL (What a Cheek!, 1933/34) was later remade, again starring Heinz Rühmann, as DIE FEUERZANGBOWLE (The Hot Wine Punch, 1943). After World War II Stemmle worked in theatre and cabaret. From 1947 to 1949 he took charge of radio plays for the NWDR station in West Berlin. He resumed his film career with the script for Erich Engel’s AFFAIRE BLUM (1948), a DEFA production about an anti-Semitic murder case in the late 1920s. The same year he directed the gentle post-war satire BERLINER BALLADE (Berlin Ballad) based on a cabaret pro-
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gramme, and marking the breakthrough for actor Gert Fröbe. Alongside DER BIBERPELZ (The Beaver Fur, 1949) those were the only postwar films of his that gave an indication of Stemmle’s progressive beginnings. During the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, Stemmle resolutely followed public tastes, penning screenplays in succession for operettas, Heimatfilme, holiday films, Edgar Wallace thrillers, and Karl May westerns. As a director, he confirmed his reputation as a solid professional, relying on the cost-effective use of post-prouction sound, and meticulously planning his shoots. Drawing on techniques he had learnt from studying Alfred Hitchcock’s work, Stemmle’s films seldom needed much editing. From the mid 1960s he worked almost exclusively for television, writing four short films for Curd Jürgens and making numerous TV plays and series. [(co-)scr – DE] 1932: Der Rebell [MLV]; Die unsichtbare Front. 1933: Reifende Jugend; Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez [MLV – sma]; Kleines Mädel – großes Glück [lyr]; Mädels von heute; Mutter und Kind; Lisetta [MLV – DE/IT]; Das Blumenmädchen vom Grand-Hotel [MLV]. 1933/34: So ein Flegel [dir,co-scr,lyr]; Es tut sich was um Mitternacht [dir,scr,lyr]. 1934: Charleys Tante [dir,scr]; Krach um Jolanthe; Heinz im Mond [dir,scr]; Ein Kind, ein Hund, ein Vagabund / Vielleicht war’s nur ein Traum [lyr]; Glückspilze [dir,scr]; Oberwachtmeister Schwenke. 1935: Lärm um Weidemann; Viktoria; Ich war Jack Mortimer; Viktoria; Die klugen Frauen [MLV – co-scr,lyr – FR]; Traumulus. 1935/36: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen [dir,scr]; Desire [sma – US]. [dir,co-scr – DE] 1936: Glückskinder [MLV – co-scr]; Les gais lurons [MLV – co-scr]; Gleisdreieck. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war [co-scr]; Daphne und der Diplomat; Das Geheimnis um Betty Bonn. 1937/38: Kleiner Mann, ganz groß. 1938: Am seidenen Faden. 1938/39: Mann für Mann. 1939/40: Donauschiffer; Golowin geht durch die Stadt. 1940/41: Jungens; U-Boote westwärts! [lyr]. 1941: Quax, der Bruchpilot [scr]. 1942: Das große Spiel; Johann. 1943: Herr Sanders lebt gefährlich; Die Feuerzangenbowle [sma]. 1943/44: Meine Herren Söhne [dir]. 1944/45: Geld ins Haus. 1947/48: Wege im Zwielicht [scr]. 1948: Affaire Blum [scr – DD]; Berliner Ballade [dir]. 1948/ 49: Die Kuckucks [co-scr – DD]. 1949: Der Biberpelz [scr – DD]. 1950: Epilog [co-scr]; Abbiamo vinto! [IT]. 1951: Sündige Grenze [dir,scr]. 1951/52: Die Stimme des Anderen [co-scr]. 1952: Toxi; Heimweh nach Dir; Putzke will es wissen [SF – ide]. 1953: Südliche Nächte. 1953/54: Das ideale Brautpaar. 1954: Das Licht der Liebe [AT]; Emil und die Detektive [dir,scr]. 1955: Ein Herz voll Musik [dir,scr]; Du darfst nicht länger schweigen [dir,scr]; Die Försterbuben [dir,scr,pro]. 1956: Die ganze Welt singt nur Amore; Uns gefällt die Welt [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1957: … und die Liebe lacht dazu [dir,scr,pro]; Es wird alles wieder gut [scr]. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala [co-scr]. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda! [scr]; Majestät auf Abwegen [dir,scr]. 1959: Die unvollkommene Ehe [AT]; Jons und
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Erdme / La donna dell’altro [scr – DE/IT]. 1959/60: Das kunstseidene Mädchen / La gran vita / La grande vie [co-scr – DE/ IT/FR]. 1960: Mein Schulfreund [scr]; Der letzte Zeuge [co-scr]. 1961: Die seltsame Gräfin [co-scr]; Almost Angels [ide – US]. [dir,scr – TV – DE] 1962: Affäre Blum; Unser Vater, der Tierarzt [TVS – scr]; Jeder stirbt für sich allein [co-scr]; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [FF – co-scr]. 1963: Der Fall Maria Rohrbach; Der Henker von London [FF – scr]. 1963/64: Old Shatterhand / La battaglia di Fort Apache / Les cavaliers rouges [FF – co-scr – DE/IT/FR]. 1964: Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß [FF – co-scr]; Das Ungeheuer von London-City [FF – scr]; Der Fall Jakubowski. 1964/65: Der Schatz der Azteken + Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes / I violenti di Rio Bravo / Les mercenaires du Rio Grande [FF – co-scr – DE/IT/FR]. 1965: Kubinke; Die Kindertragödie [dir – AT]. 1965/66: Kaspar Hauser; Die Ersten und die Letzten [scr]. 1966: Rasputin. 1966/67: Der Zündholzkönig – Der Fall Ivar Kreuger. 1967: Der rasende Reporter – Egon Erwin Kisch [dir]; Anastasia; Postlagernd Opernball. Die Affäre Redl; Frühling in Baden-Baden [dir]. 1968: Anna Böckler. 1968/69: Neu-Böseckendorf – Das Schicksal eines Dorfes. 1969/70: Recht oder Unrecht: Der Fall Krumbholz / Prozeß Mariotti / Gerechtigkeit für Dettlinger / Der Fall Hetzel / Der Fall Meinberg [DE/CH]. 1970: Der Schuß [scr]. 1971: Brautwerbung [dir]. 1973-75: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit [TVS – dir (7 episodes), scr (9 episodes)].
ROBERT STOLZ Born August 25, 1880, Graz (Austria-Hungary) Died June 27, 1975, Berlin (West Germany) Stolz was a celebrated and prolific composer who repopularised the waltz in the 1920s, and he remains one of the last great exponents of the classical Viennese operetta. Many of his melodies have become enduring evergreens. Growing up in a musical family, Stolz studied music at his father’s academy in Graz, moving on to Berlin and Vienna for further training. Following graduation, he made his debut as a composer at the Staatstheater Salzburg with the operetta ‘Schön Lorchen’ (1903). After becoming musical director at Theater an der Wien, he also conducted stage performances of Franz Lehár’s ‘Die lustige Witwe’ (The Merry Widow). An extremely prolific composer, Stolz wrote one opera as well as forty-three operettas, ten musical plays, eleven musicals, nineteen songs for ice revues, and over 1,200 songs. Stolz became particularly renowned for his famous waltz compositions, which repeatedly featured in many films from the early 1930s onwards. Stolz soon became involved in the film industry himself, as composer or as musical director arranging other composers’ work. He fulfilled both functions in Geza von Bolvary’s film ZWEI HERZEN IM 3/4 TAKT (Two Hearts in Waltz Time, 1930), where the waltz became the
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pivot for the dramatic setting and plot, which concerned the loss and re-discovery of a piece of music. Three years later Stolz adapted the film into a stage operetta under the same title, which became once again a success. Stolz collaborated with Bolvary repeatedly in subsequent years, alongside other directors, including E. A. Dupont on the English, French and German versions of ZWEI WELTEN / TWO WORLDS / LES DEUX MONDES (1930), Carmine Gallone on the three language versions of MEIN HERZ RUFT NACH DIR / MY HEART IS CALLING / MON COEUR T’APPELLE (1934), and E. W. Emo on DER HIMMEL AUF ERDEN (Heaven On Earth, 1934/35). Disgusted by the Nazi regime, even though not personally under threat, Stolz moved to Vienna where he and Bolvary continued to collaborate on several film operettas and musicals, including ZAUBER DER BOHÈME (Charm of La Bohème 1937). Despite attempts by the Nazis to lure him back, Stolz refused and after Austria’s annexation by Germany he emigrated, initially to France. As a result, Stolz’s German citizenship was revoked and his assets confiscated. In 1940 Stolz went to the United States, where he managed to revive his career as composer, conductor and film scorer after initial difficulties. His compositions for Henry Koster’s SPRING PARADE (1940, song ‘Waltzing in the Clouds’) and René Clair’s IT HAPPENED TOMORROW (1944) were nominated for an Oscar. Stolz returned to Vienna in 1946 and composed continually, also for films, until the end of the 1960s. [mus/md – DE] 1913: König Menelaus im Kino [AT]; Der Millionenonkel [AT]. 1928: Der Mitternachtswalzer [AT]. 1929: Melodie des Herzens [MLV]. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt; Heute Nacht – eventuell …!; Hokuspokus [MLV]; The Temporary Widow [MLV]; Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari; Two Worlds [GB/DE]; Zwei Welten [GB/DE]; Les deux mondes [GB/DE/FR]; Ein Tango für Dich; Das Lied ist aus; Leutnant warst du einst bei den Husaren [MLV]; Mon coeur incognito [MLV– DE/FR]; Der Hampelmann; Der Herr auf Bestellung; In Wien hab’ ich einmal ein Mädel geliebt; Die Marquise von Pompadour [MLV]; Un caprice de la Pompadour [MLV]. 1930/31: Die lustigen Weiber von Wien. 1931: Der Raub der Mona Lisa; Liebeskommando. 1932: Ein Lied, ein Kuß, ein Mädel; Der Prinz von Arkadien [AT]; Ich will nicht wissen, wer Du bist; Ein Spaziergang mit Robert Stolz durch Wien [SD – mus,app]; Ein Mann mit Herz. 1933: Was Frauen träumen; Prince of Arcadia [MLV – GB]; Die Nacht der grossen Liebe; Hochzeit am Wolfgangsee. 1933/34: Abenteuer im Südexpreß. 1934: Mein Herz ruft nach Dir [MLV]; Mon coeur t’appelle [MLV – DE/ FR]; My Heart Is Calling [MLV – GB/DE]; Frühjahrsparade [HU/AT/DE]; Der Herr ohne Wohnung [AT]. [mus/md – AT] 1934/35: Der Himmel auf Erden. 1935: Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV – DE]; J’aime toutes les femmes [MLV – DE]; Zirkus Saran; Herbstmanöver [DE]; Im weißen Rößl [AT/DE]. 1935/36: Wer zuletzt küßt … [mus,act];
Confetti. 1936: Das Frauenparadies; Liebe im Dreivierteltakt [CS/AT]. 1937: Husaren, heraus! [DE]; Die Austernlilli [DE]; Millionäre; Unentschuldigte Stunde; Zauber der Bohème; Musik für dich. 1940: Spring Parade [US]. 1944: It Happened Tomorrow [US]. 1947: Une nuit à Tabarin [FR]. 1948: Rendezvous im Salzkammergut; Anni; Kleine Melodie aus Wien. 1949: Fledermaus-Ouverture [SD – mus,app]; Zigeunerbaron-Ouverture [SD – mus,app]; An der schönen blauen Donau [SD – mus,app]; Polkas von Strauß [SD – mus,app]; Ein bezaubernder Schwindler; Mein Freund, der nicht nein sagen kann. 1951: Tanz ins Glück. 1954: Alles für Dich mein Schatz [DE]. 1955: Die Deutschmeister. 1958: Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume. 1959: Traumrevue. 1961: Im schwarzen Rößl. 1965: Der Zigeunerbaron [TV – DE]. 1965/66: Der Kongreß amüsiert sich / Le congrès s’amuse [DE/AT/FR]. 1967: Mein Leben – meine Lieder. Robert Stolz im Interview mit Dietmar Schönherr [TVD – app – DE]; Verliebt in Österreich [DO]. 1968: Wenn die kleinen Veilchen blühen [TV – DE/AT]. 1969: Hochzeit am Bodensee [TV]. 1975: Der Tanz ins Glück [TV].
JEAN-MARIE STRAUB Born January 8, 1933, Metz (France) DANIÈLE HUILLET Born May 1, 1936, Paris (France) Died October 9, 2006, Cholet (France) Jean-Marie Straub and his wife Danièle Huillet constituted since the 1960s one of the longest creative partnerships in European experimental and art cinema. With their sparse, Brechtian influenced aesthetic and strong political commitment, their uncompromisingly cerebral and didactic films defiantly refused to make any concessions to public taste. Straub was brought up speaking French, but during the German occupation of his home region of Lorraine was forced to learn German. Following his studies, he moved to Paris in 1954, where met his future wife Danièle Huillet and worked as an assistant to film directors Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette, and Alexandre Astruc. In 1958 the couple moved to West Germany, married the following year and in 1962 made their first short film MACHORKA-MUFF, a polemic attack on the country’s remilitarisation some years previously. Their first full-length feature was NICHT VERSÖHNT (Not Reconciled, 1964/65), based on a novel by Heinrich Böll. The film captured the lives of three generations of a German family through a complex flashback narrative, and addressed issues of the Nazi past, war guilt, and the pressures of reconstruction. Like most of their later films, NICHT VERSÖHNT used amateurs and unknown actors speaking in flat, monotonous voices, and was shot in black and white. The film was hailed by some as a masterpiece, but met with widespread incomprehension when it was shown at the Berlin film festival in 1965.
BARBARA SUKOWA
As a result of the hostile audience response, the Straubs were refused public funding for their next project CHRONIK DER ANNA MAGDALENA BACH (The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, 1967/68). Drawing on manuscripts and letters by and about Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife, and interweaving voice-over narration with a complex use of sound and music, the film once again was rejected in Germany, while winning the prize as best film at the London film festival that year. By the end of the 1960s, the couple relocated to Italy, while their films continued to be made primarily within a German cultural context. GESCHICHTSUNTERRICHT (History Lesson, 1972) was based on a novel fragment by Bertolt Brecht, and investigated the historical connections between capitalism and imperialism. Music again played an important part in MOSES UND ARON (1974/75), an adaptation of an unfinished opera by Arnold Schönberg. KLASSENVERHÄLTNISSE (Class Relations, 1983) adapted a novel fragment by Franz Kafka, and unusually featured established actors such as Mario Adorf and Laura Betti alongside fellow experimental filmmaker Harun Farocki. Although often classed as part of the New German Cinema, Straub/Huillet remained resolute individualists, almost completely unaffected by changes in the German film industry and Germany more generally. Increasingly ignored even within art cinema circles, their films in the late 1980s and 1990s continued to explore their main themes, and comprised literary adaptations (SCHWARZE SÜNDE, Black Sin, 1988), unconventional versions of classic plays (ANTIGONE, 1992), and an analytical engagement with music and opera (VON HEUTE AUF MORGEN, From Now Till Tomorrow, 1996/97). [ass (Straub) – FR/IT] 1954: French Cancan / French Can Can; La tour de Nèsle / La torre di Nesle. 1955/56: Eléna et les hommes / Eliana e gli uomini. 1956: Un Condamné à mort s’est échappé [FR]; Le coup du berger [SF – ass-dir – FR]. 1957/58: Une vie / Una vita. Il dramma di una sposa. [filmmaker (Straub/Huillet) – DE] 1962: Machorka-Muff [SF]. 1964/65: Nicht versöhnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt, wo Gewalt herrscht. 1967/68: Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach / Cronaca di Anna Magdalena Bach [DE/IT]. 1968: Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter [SF]. 1969: Die Augen wollen sich zu jeder Zeit schließen oder Vielleicht eines Tages wird Rom sich erlauben seinerseits zu wählen / Othon. Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour [DE/IT]. 1971: Obrigkeitsfilm [act]. 1972: Einleitung zu Arnold Schoenbergs Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene [IT]; Geschichtsunterricht [IT/DE]. 1974/75: Moses und Aron. 1976: Fortini/Cani [IT]. 1978/79: Dalla nube alla resistenza / Von der Wolke zum Widerstand / De la nuée à la résistance / From the Cloud to the Resistance [IT/DE/FR/GB]. 1980/81: Troppo presto/troppo tardi / Zu
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früh/Zu spät [DO – IT/DE]. 1980-82: Zwischen den Bildern. 3. Über die Trägheit der Wahrnehmung [TVD – app]. 1982: En râchâchant [SF – FR]. 1983: The New Cinema [DO – app – CA]; Jean-Marie Straub und Danièle Huillet bei der Arbeit an einem Film nach Franz Kafka’s Romanfragment ‘Amerika’ [TVD – app]; Klassenverhältnisse / Rapports de classes [DE/FR]. 1983/84: Tausend Augen [act]. 1986/87: Der Tod des Empedokles oder Wenn dann der Erde Grün von Neuem euch erglänzt / La mort d’Empédocle [DE/FR]. 1988: Schwarze Sünde / Noir péché [DE/ FR]. 1989: Cézanne / Paul Cézanne im Gespräch mit Joachim Gasquet [DO – FR/DE]. 1990-92: Das untergegangene Vaterland [DO – app]. 1991: Die Antigone des Sophokles nach der Hölderlinschen Übertragung für die Bühne bearbeitet von Brecht 1948 [DE/FR]. 1994: Lothringen! [SF – DE/FR]. 1996/97: Von heute auf morgen. Oper in einem Akt von Arnold Schönberg [FR/DE]. 1998/99: Sicilia! [FR/IT/CH]. 2001: Operai, contadini / Ouvriers, paysans [DO – IT/FR]. 2003: Le retour du fils prodigue – Humiliés / Il Ritorno del figlio prodigo – Umiliati [FR/DE/IT]. 2003/ 04: Une visite au Louvre [DO – FR]. 2005: Quei loro incontri / Ces rencontres avec eux [IT/FR]. 2006: Europa 2005 – 27 octobre [TV – IT]. 2006-08: L’Itinéraire de Jean Bricard [SD – FR]. [filmmaker (Straub) – DE] 2006/07: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Fritz Lang [TVD – app]. 2007: Verteidigung der Zeit [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Le genou d’Artémide [SF – FR].
BARBARA SUKOWA Born February 2, 1950, Bremen (West Germany) Sukowa first made her mark as a classical stage actress, then starred in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films and television productions of the late 1970s, before expanding into an international career. Her performance style is characterised by an intensity that on occasion borders on the melodramatic. Following school, Sukowa studied acting at the Max Reinhardt school in Berlin. She made her stage debut in Peter Handke’s ‘Der Ritt über den Bodensee’ (Ride Across Lake Constance, 1971), followed by engagements in Bremen and Frankfurt. Between 1976 and 1980 she was part of the ensemble at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, playing leading roles in plays by Goethe, Ibsen and Shakespeare. Rainer Werner Fassbinder first cast Sukowa in a minor role in FRAUEN IN NEW YORK (Women in New York, 1977), his television remake of George Cukor’s THE WOMEN (1939), and then gave her the leading female part as a prostitute in his mammoth television production BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80). Sukowa played a prostitute again in the title role of LOLA (1981). In a part loosely based on Marlene Dietrich’s character in DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30), Sukowa seduced Armin Mueller-Stahl’s repressed official, while advancing her own interests. She was cast as an uncompromising left-wing terrorist in Margarethe von Trotta’s DIE BLEIERNE ZEIT (Ma-
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rianne and Juliane / The German Sisters, 1981), based on the life of RAF member Gudrun Ensslin. Charting the harrowing transformation from political idealism to fanaticism and final despair, Sukowa’s performance managed to convey extreme emotions. Trotta cast Sukowa again in the historical biopic ROSA LUXEMBURG (1985), in the title role of the MarxistJewish theorist and revolutionary. Her performance won a Golden Palm at Cannes. In Volker Schlöndorff’s HOMO FABER (The Voyager, 1990) Sukowa was cast alongside Sam Shepard and Julie Delpy. She also made an impact in Lars von Trier’s surreal EUROPA (1990), and played the wife of Jeremy Irons’s diplomat in David Cronenberg’s M. BUTTERFLY (1992/93). Subsequently she often undertook cameo parts, portraying enigmatic characters as in the Keanu Reeves film JOHNNY MNEMONIC (1994/95) and in John Turturro’s ROMANCE & CIGARETTES (2004/05). Reunited once more with von Trotta, DIE ANDERE FRAU (The Other Woman, 2003) featured Sukowa as an embittered woman betrayed during the Cold War by a Stasi agent who seeks redress from the latter’s wife. In ENTDECKUNG DER CURRYWURST (The Invention of the Curried Sausage, 2007), an adaptation of Uwe Timm’s novel, she starred as a woman trying to make ends meet in the chaotic final months of World War II. [act – DE] 1970: Cinema Berolina: Magische Hände [SD]. 1973/74: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit: Der Abstieg [TV]; Hauptsache die Kohlen stimmen [TV]. 1977: Schule mit Clowns [TV]; Verkaufte Träume [TV]; Frauen in New York [TV]; Heinrich Heine [TV]. 1978/79: Tatort: Der gelbe Unterrock [TV]. 1979/80: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken: Immer lustig [TV]; Berlin Alexanderplatz [14 episodes – TVS]. 1980-82: Die Jäger – Deadly Game. 1981: Lola; Die bleierne Zeit. 1982/83: Un dimanche de flics / Zwei Profis steigen aus [FR/DE]. 1983: Équateur [FR/GA]. 1984: Baumeister Solness [TV]. 1984/85: Space [TV – US]. 1985: Rosa Luxemburg. 1986/87: Die Verliebten [DE/YU]; The Sicilian [US]. 1990: L’africana / Die Rückkehr / L’Africaine [IT/DE/FR]; Homo Faber / The Voyager [DE/FR/GR]; Europa [DK/FR/DE/SE]. 1992: Colpo di coda / Pakt mit dem Tod / Échec et mat [TV – IT/DE/FR]. 1992/93: M. Butterfly [US]. 1994/95: Johnny Mnemonic [CA]. 1996/97: Office Killer [US]; Im Namen der Unschuld [TV]. 1997: New York Undercover: Pipeline [TV – US]. 1998: Zuflucht in Shanghai / The Port of Last Resort [DO – AT/US]; Nightworld: Lost Souls [TV – CA/LU]. 1998/99: The Cradle Will Rock [US]; The Third Miracle [US]. 1999: Star! Star! [GB/US]; The Lady in Question [TV – US]. 1999/2000: Urbania [US]. 2000/01: 13 Conversations About One Thing [US]. 2002: Liebe, Lügen, Leidenschaften: Das Komplott / Die Überraschung [TV]. 2003: Hierankl; Die andere Frau [TV]. 2004: Gero von Boehm begegnet … Barbara Sukowa [TVD – app]. 2004/ 05: Romance & Cigarettes [US]. 2005/06: Margarethe von Trotta – Mit Herz und Verstand [TVD – app]. 2007: Bar-
bara Sukowa – Mein Leben [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Die Entdeckung der Currywurst. 2008/09: Veronika Decides to Die [US]; Vision – Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen [DE/FR].
HANS JÜRGEN SYBERBERG Born December 8, 1935, Nossendorf (Germany) One of the most controversial personalities of the New German Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s, Syberberg attracted attention with his aesthetic approach, comprising widely acclaimed documentaries, sprawling collages of sound and vision, and sparse recital films. His public pronouncements, meanwhile, especially concerning the Nazi past, courted controversies, and his views became increasingly conservative in the 1990s. A landowner’s son growing up in Pomerania, Syberberg settled in Rostock after the end of World War II, and began to develop a strong interest in theatre and opera. With Bertolt Brecht’s permission, he filmed rehearsals for the Berliner Ensemble’s 1952/53 season using his 8mm camera, with the resulting footage later blown up to 35mm and employed in NACH MEINEM LETZTEN UMZUG… (After My Last Move, 1971). Syberberg moved to West Germany in 1953, and studied comparative literature and art history in Munich, successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis on ‘Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Use of the Absurd’. He subsequently shot numerous documentaries for television, including portraits of the actors Fritz Kortner and Romy Schneider, the puppeteer Count Franz Pocci, and soft porn producer Alois Brummer. Syberberg’s feature debut in 1968 was the Tolstoy adaptation SCARABEA – WIEVIEL ERDE BRAUCHT DER MENSCH? (Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need?), followed by SAN DOMINGO (1970), based on Heinrich von Kleist’s novella. For the latter, Syberberg relocated the action to contemporary Munich gripped by student protests, and thus managed to capture a quasi-factual record of the student movement’s radicalisation and descent into terrorism. The film attracted considerable criticism, and the director took refuge in a historical subject for his next picture, LUDWIG – REQUIEM FÜR EINEN JUNGFRÄULICHEN KÖNIG (Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King, 1972), which picked up awards for its outstanding production and script. Together with his two-part KARL MAY (1974) and his overlong and tiresome four-part film HITLER – EIN FILM AUS DEUTSCHLAND (Hitler: A Film from Germany, 1977), it formed a loose trilogy attempting to come to terms with German national psychology and history. This project was also at the heart of Syberberg’s other productions from this time, including the mockumentary THEODOR HIERNEIS ODER: WIE MAN
SZÖKE SZAKALL EHEM. HOFKOCH WIRD (Theodor Hierneis or, The Royal Cook, 1972). WINIFRED WAGNER UND DIE
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Höhle der Erinnerung [dir,scr,cam,cut,snd,des]. 2004: The Ister [DO – app – AU].
GESCHICHTE DES HAUSES WAHNFRIED 1914– 1975 (The Confessions of Winifred Wagner, 1975),
consisted of a five-hour long interview with the matriarch of the Wagner clan, whose unrepentant admiration for Hitler the film documents. Syberberg’s version of the opera PARSIFAL (1981/82) expanded on the subject of Richard Wagner, advancing a critique of the composer’s cultural standing in Germany. Syberberg’s films and books contained an effusive blend of political, historical and cultural commentary alongside accounts of his numerous run-ins with the media. His work strongly divided critical opinion in Germany, while his trilogy in particular received unqualified praise abroad, especially in France. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he turned to filming celebrated high cultural stage productions for television – primarily monologues by his favourite actress Edith Clever – including the six-hour literary recital DIE NACHT (The Night, 1984/85), EDITH CLEVER LIEST JOYCE (Edith Clever Reads Joyce, 1985), FRÄULEIN ELSE (Miss Else, 1986/87), based on the novella by Arthur Schnitzler, as well as the Heinrich von Kleist adaptations PENTHESILEA (1987/88) and DIE MARQUISE VON O… (The Marquess of O., 1989). Syberberg contributed as a talking head to numerous documentaries, appearing as one of the main interviewees in David Barison and Daniel Ross’s mammoth study of Martin Heidegger, THE ISTER (2004). [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1965: Fünfter Akt, Siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt ‘Kabale und Liebe’ [DO – dir,scr]; Romy. Anatomie eines Gesichts [DO – dir,scr]. 1966: Wilhelm von Kobell [DO]; Fritz Kortner spricht Monologe für eine Schallplatte [DO – DE/AT]. 1966/67: Die Grafen Pocci – Einige Kapitel zur Geschichte einer Familie [DO]. 1968: Scarabea – Wieviel Erde braucht der Mensch? 1969: Sex-Business – Made in Pasing [DO]; Auf der Suche nach einem Kuhstall [SD]. 1970: San Domingo. 1971: Nach meinem letzten Umzug … [DO – dir,scr,cam,pro]. 1972: Ludwig – Requiem für einen jungfräulichen König. 1. Der Fluch / 2. Ich war einmal. [TV]; Theodor Hierneis oder: Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird. 1974: Karl May [dir,scr,des,pro]. 1975: Winifred Wagner und die Geschichte des Hauses Wahnfried 1914 – 1975 [DO]. 1977: Hitler. Ein Film aus Deutschland. 1980/81: Das ist Film – Kluge, Godard und andere … [DO – app]. 1981/82: Parsifal [dir,pro – DE/FR]. 1982/83: Der Platzanweiser. Porträt eines Kinomanen [act]. 1984/85: Die Nacht; André Heller sieht sein Feuerwerk [TVD – dir]. 1985: Konrad Graf Pocci [TVD – dir, scr]; Edith Clever liest Joyce [TVD – dir,cam,snd,pro – DE/ AT]. 1986/87: Fräulein Else [TV – dir,pro – AT/DE]. 1987/ 88: Penthesilea [TVD – dir – DE/FR/AT]. 1989: Die Marquise von O… 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1994/95: Ein Traum, was sonst? [dir,scr]. 1996/97: Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge [TVD – app archival]. 1997:
SZÖKE SZAKALL (Jenö / Eugen Gerö, aka. S. Z. Sakall) Born February 2, 1882, Budapest (Austria-Hungary) Died February 12, 1955, Hollywood (California, USA) Best remembered as the cuddly, gentle head waiter in CASABLANCA (1942) and similar roles in Hollywood films of the 1940s, Szakall had previously appeared as a comic actor in German cinema of the 1920s and early 1930s. During his time at school Szakall wrote sketches and lyrics for variety shows using his nickname Szöke Szakall (which translates as blond beard). He became a bank clerk and served as a soldier in the AustroHungarian army during World War I. After the war he worked and performed in theatres and variety shows in Budapest, moving on to cabaret in Vienna and Berlin. He was successful as a comedian and author of one-act-plays, opening the Boulevard Theater with the composer Otto Stranski. In 1926 he co-wrote the Reinhold Schünzel comedy HALLOH – CAESAR! (1926), subsequently also acting on screen, for example in Schünzel’s frenetic DER HIMMEL AUF ERDEN (Heaven On Earth, 1926/27), and in the Jewish-themed FAMILIENTAG IM HAUSE PRELLSTEIN (Family Day At the Prellsteins, 1927). He also appeared in other genres, including Richard Eichberg’s melodrama GROSSSTADTSCHMETTERLING (Pavement Butterfly, 1928/29), starring Anna May Wong. Following the advent of sound, he played the juggling father-in-law in Joe May’s hilarious comedy IHRE MAJESTÄT DIE LIEBE (Her Majesty, Love, 1930), appeared in film operettas such as ZWEI HERZEN IM 3/4-TAKT (Two Hearts in Waltz Time, 1930) and GRÄFIN MARIZA (Countess Mariza, 1932) and in a number of short comedies, among those his play STREICHQUARTETT (String Quartet, 1932) that stayed in the repertoire of stage and television through decades. Leaving Berlin in 1933, Szakall worked in theatre, radio and films in Vienna and Budapest. Brought to London by Friedrich Zelnik for a role in THE LILAC DOMINO (1937), Szakall moved to Hollywood in 1939, simplifying his name to S. Z. Sakall. His jovial, rotund appearance, and his double chin, hanging jowls and thick Hungarian accent earned him a new nickname ‘Cuddles’ and the affection of the American public. Notable film appearances, apart from CASABLANCA, included Howard Hawks’s classic BALL OF FIRE (1941) and Michael Curtiz’ YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942). Contracted to Warner Bros. between 1941
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and 1951, he subsequently switched to M-G-M. His final film was the film operetta THE STUDENT PRINCE (1954). Sakall occasionally appeared on TV in the early 1950s and his memories were published in 1954 under the title ‘The Story of Cuddles – My Life Under the Emperor Francis Josef, Adolf Hitler, and the Warner Brothers’. [act – DE] 1916: Az ujszhülött apa [HU]; Suszterherceg [HU]. 1917: A dollárnéni [HU]. 1918: Az önkéntes tüzoltó [HU]. 1926: Halloh – Caesar! [co-scr]; Wenn das Herz der Jugend spricht. 1926/27: Der Himmel auf Erden; Da hält die Welt den Atem an. 1927: Familientag im Hause Prellstein. Ein Spiel vom Geschäften und von lieber Verwandtschaft.; Der fidele Bauer. 1928: Mary Lou; Einladung zum Nachtessen [SF – ide]; Rutschbahn. 1928/29: Großstadtschmetterling [DE/GB]. 1929: Wer wird denn weinen, wenn man auseinander geht; Die Frau ohne Nerven. 1930: Zwei Herzen im 3/4-Takt; Zweimal Hochzeit; Komm’ zu mir zum Rendezvous [MLV]; Susanne macht Ordnung; Der Hampelmann; Ihre Majestät die Liebe [MLV]; Kopfüber ins Glück [MLV – FR]; Ihr Junge. Wenn die Geigen klingen … [MLV – CS/DE/AT]. 1930/31: Die Faschingsfee; Walzerparadies. 1931: Meine Cousine aus Warschau [MLV]; Ich heirate meinen Mann [MLV – FR/US]; Der Stumme von Portici [SF]; Der Zinker [DE/AT]; Die Frau, von der man spricht; Die schwebende Jungfrau; Der unbekannte Gast. 1931/32: Es wird geheiratet [SF]; Ein harmloser Fall [SF]. 1932: Mädchen zum Heiraten [MLV]; Melodie der Liebe; Ich will nicht [SF]; Besserer Herr gesucht zwecks … [SF]; Ich will nicht wissen, wer Du bist; Gräfin Mariza; Mein Name ist Lampe [SF – dir, act]; Immer die Motorradfahrer [SF]; Ahoi – Ahoi! [SF]; Eine Stadt steht Kopf; Kaiserwalzer; Glück über Nacht; Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen?; Streichquartett
[SF – sma,act]. 1932/33: Eingetragener Verein [SF]; Eine Frau wie Du; Jubiläum [SF]. 1933: Es war einmal ein Musikus [MLV]; Großfürstin Alexandra [DE/AT]; Pardon, tévedtem [MLV – HU]; Abenteuer am Lido [AT/CS]; Skandal in Budapest [MLV – DE/HU]; Frühlingsstimmen [AT]; Tokajerglut [MLV – HU/AT]; Az ellopott szerda [MLV – HU]; Mindent a nõért [HU]; Wenn du jung bist, gehört dir die Welt [AT]. 1934: Helyet az öregeknek [MLV – HU]; Ende schlecht – alles gut [MLV – HU]. 1934/35: Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten [AT]. 1935: 4 1/2 Musketiere / Három és fél muskétás [AT/HU]; Das Tagebuch der Geliebten [MLV – AT/IT]; Barátságos arcot kérek! [HU]. 1936: Fräulein Lilli [AT]; Bubi / Mircha [AT/ HU]. 1937: The Lilac Domino [GB]. [act – US] 1939/40: Florian. 1940: It’s a Date; My Love Came Back; Spring Parade. 1940/41: That Night in Rio; The Man Who Lost Himself. 1941: The Devil and Miss Jones; Ball of Fire. 1942: Broadway; Yankee Doodle Dandy; Seven Sweethearts; Casablanca. 1942/43: The Human Comedy. 1943: Wintertime; Thank Your Lucky Stars. 1943/44: Shine On Harvest Moon. 1944: Hollywood Canteen. 1945: Wonder Man; Christmas in Connecticut; The Dolly Sisters; San Antonio. 1945/46: Cinderella Jones; Two Guys from Milwaukee; Never Say Goodbye; The Time, the Place and the Girl. 1947: Cynthia. 1947/48: April Showers. 1948: Romance on the High Seas; Embraceable You; Whiplash. 1949: My Dream is Yours; In the Good Old Summertime; Look for the Silver Lining; It’s a Great Feeling; Oh, You Beautiful Doll! 1949/50: Montana; The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady. 1950: Tea for Two. 1950/51: Sugarfoot; Lullaby of Broadway; It’s a Big Country. 1951: Painting the Clouds with Sunshine. 1953: Small Town Girl. 1954: Ford Television Theatre: Yours for a Dream [TV]; The Student Prince. 1962: Das Streichquartett [TV – sma – DE]. 1965: Das Streichquartett [TV – sma – DD]. 1981: Das Streichquartett [TV – sma – DE].
RICHARD TAUBER (Carl Richard Denemy) Born May 16, 1891, Linz (Austria-Hungary) Died January 8, 1948, London (England) One of the most popular tenors of the first half of the 20th century and acclaimed as the ‘king of belcanto’, Richard Tauber also appeared in German, Austrian, and British films in the 1930s and 1940s. The illegitimate son of two actors, Tauber grew up initially with foster parents in Austria and subsequently with his father in Germany. He studied piano, composition, and conducting at Frankfurt/Main’s Hoch Conservatory, and then trained as a singer in Freiburg. His opera debut was in 1913 at the Stadttheater in Chemnitz in the role of Tamino in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’. From late 1913 until 1918 he was under contract at Dresden’s opera house. In the 1920s Tauber divided his time mainly between Berlin, Vienna, and Salzburg. He gained a reputation as a masterful Mozart interpreter, while also branching out into operetta. His collaborations with composer Franz Lehár proved particularly popular: ‘Gern’ hab’ ich die Frau’n geküsst’ (I Loved to Kiss the Ladies) from ‘Paganini’ (1925) was an instant hit, while ‘Dein ist mein ganzes Herz’ (You Are My Heart’s Delight) from ‘Das Land des Lächelns’ (The Land of Smiles, 1929) became Tauber’s signature tune. Its gramophone recording broadened his international fame. Tauber’s first film appearance was in the Ufa documentary short ACHTUNG! AUFNAHME! (Attention! Filming in Progress!, 1927). In Robert Land’s frothy society farce ICH KÜSSE IHRE HAND, MADAME (I Kiss Your Hand, Madame, 1928) starring Marlene Dietrich, Tauber lent his voice to male lead Harry Liedtke for the title song. The recording (written by Ralph Erwin and Fritz Rotter), a smooth, sophisticated tango, became one of the biggest hits of that year – it was subsequently covered by Carlos Gardel in Argentina (as ‘Yo beso vuestra mano, señora’), and in the United States among others by Bing Crosby in Billy Wilder’s THE EMPEROR WALTZ (1948). Dietrich later included one of the tenor’s other standards, ‘Frag’ nicht warum ich gehe’ (Don’t Ask Me Why I Cry; written by Robert Stolz and Walter Reisch), in her stage repertoire. To further his screen career, Tauber founded a shortlived production company. Under the direction of
Max Reichmann, he starred in a number of films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including the sailor’s melodrama ICH GLAUB’ NIE MEHR AN EINE FRAU (I Never Believe Again in a Woman, 1929/30), and a cinematic version of his stage triumph DAS LAND DES LÄCHELNS (The Land of Smiles, 1930). Tauber’s last German release was MELODIE DER LIEBE (Melody of Love, 1932) directed by Georg Jacoby. After the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933, Tauber was beaten up in Berlin by SA thugs. He relocated permanently to Vienna, where he premiered in Robert Stolz’s operetta ‘Der singende Traum’ (The Singing Dream). He supervised the musical arrangements for and sang in the melodrama LETZTE LIEBE (Last Love, 1934/35), starring Japanese soprano Michiko Tanaka with whom Tauber also appeared on stage in Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’. For a brief period in the mid-1930s, Tauber became an unlikely screen idol in Britain, winning over cinema audiences with his singing and natural charm despite his poor mastery of English, and a rather portly physique. His British film debut was as Franz Schubert in the sentimental biopic BLOSSOM TIME (1934) directed by fellow Austrian Paul Stein. HEART’S DESIRE (1935), again under Stein’s direction, poignantly featured Tauber as a Viennese ‘Heurigen’ singer who is whisked to London as a new stage sensation, but who becomes overwhelmed by his homesickness. On the set of the latter film, Tauber met his second wife, British actress Diana Napier, who also co-starred in the Ruritanian operetta LAND WITHOUT MUSIC (1936). Karl Grune’s downbeat PAGLIACCI (1936), based on Ruggero Leoncavallo’s eponymous opera, showed Tauber in a more dramatic vein. However, despite a memorable rendition by Tauber of ‘Vesti la giubba’ (an aria made famous by Enrico Caruso), Otto Kanturek’s innovative colour photography, and beautiful sets by Oscar Werndorff, PAGLIACCI flopped. As an internationally renowned Jewish performer, Tauber was a regular target of vicious attacks in the Nazi press, and following Austria’s annexation by Germany in 1938, he found himself expatriated. He subsequently applied for British citizenship which was granted in 1940. In the early 1940s, Tauber’s health began to decline. Increasingly incapacitated by arthritis, he nevertheless continued recording and performing on radio.
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After the end of the war, Tauber was reunited with director Paul Stein, appearing in small guest parts in the ‘Old Vienna’ concoction WALTZ TIME (1945), and in LISBON STORY (1945/46), a musical with a topical anti-Nazi angle. The following year, already suffering from terminal lung cancer, Tauber gave his last stage performance at the Royal Opera House in a production of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ by the visiting Vienna State Opera. [act,sng – DE] 1927: Achtung! Aufnahme! [SD]. 1928: Ich küsse ihre Hand, Madame [sng]. 1928/29: Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist Du! [sng]. 1929/30: Ich glaub’ nie mehr an eine Frau. 1930: Das lockende Ziel [act,pro]; Die Kunst der Maske [SD]; Reise-Abenteuer Sommerfahrten 1930 – Zweiter Teil [DO – app,pro]; Reise-Abenteuer Teil 3 [SD – app,pro]; Das Land des Lächelns [act,pro]. 1931: Die große Attraktion. 1932: Melodie der Liebe; Schubert-Lieder [SF]. 1933: Richard Tauber singt: Ein Lied aus meiner Heimat [SD – NL]. 1934: Blossom Time [GB]. 1934/35: Letzte Liebe [sng – AT]. 1935: Heart’s Desire [GB]. 1936: Land Without Music [GB]; Pagliacci [GB]. 1945: Waltz Time [GB]. 1945/46: Lisbon Story [GB]. 1953: Du bist die Welt für mich [voi – AT]. 1961: Premiere im Admiralspalast [TV – voi – DD]. 1964: Richard Tauber [TVD]. 1965: Lieblinge unserer Eltern: Richard Tauber [TVD]. 1971: Omnibus: This Was Richard Tauber [TVD – GB]; Auf der Suche nach Richard Tauber [TVD]. 2003: Richard Tauber – Dein ist mein ganzes Herz [TVD].
KATHARINA THALBACH Born January 19, 1954, Berlin (East Germany) One of the most celebrated stage, film and television actresses of her generation, Thalbach has been renowned for her emotional performances, and for projecting an earthy, maternal sexuality. The range of her characters extended from proletarian heroines and quirky misfits to ethereal princesses. The daughter of actress Sabine Thalbach (1932–1966) and director Benno Besson (1922–2006), both of whom worked for DEFA in the 1950s, Katharina Thalbach performed from the age of four. While still at school, she played in a 1969 Berliner Ensemble production of Brecht’s ‘Threepenny Opera’. She was feted as a great discovery and became major stage star in the GDR. Her first major film role was ES IST EINE ALTE GESCHICHTE (It’s an Old Story, 1971/72). Konrad Wolf cast her as a pregnant woman in DER NACKTE MANN AUF DEM SPORTPLATZ (The Naked Man in the Stadium, 1973) while she was actually pregnant. Under Egon Günther’s direction she played a young aristocrat in the adaptation of Thomas Mann’s LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1974/75), and was cast as the female heroine of Goethe’s tragic tale of doomed youth, DIE LEIDEN DES JUNGEN WERTHERS (Sufferings of Young Werther, 1976).
In 1976 Thalbach relocated to West Berlin with her partner, the writer and director Thomas Brasch (1945–2001). Margarethe von Trotta’s DAS ZWEITE ERWACHEN DER CHRISTA KLAGES (Christa Klages’s Second Awakening, 1977) introduced her to West Geman audiences in the supporting role of a bank clerk pursuing a female bank robber. Among the ensemble cast of Schlöndorff’s Oscar-winning DIE BLECHTROMMEL (The Tin Drum, 1978/79) Thalbach featured as the main protagonist’s stepmother and lover. In Hans W. Geissendorfer’s TV series THEODOR CHINDLER (1978/79), she played the unconventional revolutionary daughter of a pillar of Wilhelmine society. In the 1980s, Thalbach repeatedly appeared in films directed by her partner Brasch – as a juvenile delinquent in post-war Germany in the stylish ENGEL AUS EISEN (Iron Angel, 1980), as an actress undergoing an existential crisis in DOMINO (1981/82) and as a disabled makeup artist in DER PASSAGIER – WELCOME TO GERMANY (The Passenger – Welcome to Germany, 1987/88). Thalbach rarely worked in international productions, exceptions include a minor supporting part in Alan J. Pakula’s Holocaust drama SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1981/82), and the female lead in the biopic of World War II Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in Kjell Grede’s GOD AFTON, HERR WALLENBERG (Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg, 1990). Since the 1980s Thalbach won recognition not only as an actress, but also increasingly as a stage director, helming productions by Brecht, Shakespeare, and Carl Zuckmayer. She continued to deliver acclaimed film performances, for example as a seemingly inconspicuous accountant who during World War II betrays a group of conspirators against Hitler to the Gestapo in Thomas MItscherlich’s DIE DENUNZIANTIN (The Denunciation, 1992/93), or as an East German matriarch in the comedy SONNENALLEE (Sun Alley, 1998/99). In the new millennium, Thalbach impersonated legendary actress Therese Giehse in Heinrich Breloer’s TV biopic of the literary Mann family in DIE MANNS – EIN JAHRHUNDERTROMAN (The Manns – The Novel of a Century, 2001), and was seen in a lighter vein as a dotty fortune-teller in the children’s film DER RÄUBER HOTZENPLOTZ (Robber Hotzenplotz, 2005/06). In the British farce MRS. RATCLIFFE’S REVOLUTION (2006/07), Thalbach provided local authenticity for the tale of a family of British eccentrics who emigrate to East Germany to help support a communist society. She subsequently took the lead of an incurably romantic outsider in the bittersweet TV romance DER MOND UND ANDERE LIEBHABER (The Moon and Other Lovers, 2007/08). Thalbach’s daughter Anna Thalbach (b. 1973), looking uncannily like her mother twenty years earlier,
ULRICH THEIN
debuted alongside her mother in Brasch’s ENGEL AUS EISEN (1980), and from the 1990s became a major actress in television and film productions, including in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s DER UNTERGANG (Downfall, 2003/04). Anna’s daughter Nellie (b. 1995) started her career in the film industry aged eight by becoming a member of a childrens’ film festival jury. [act – DD] 1960: Gerichtet bei Nacht [TV]. 1962: Die letzte Chance [TV]. 1963/64: Der Neue [TV – 2 parts]. 1969-71: Dolles Familienalbum [TVS]. 1971/72: Es ist eine alte Geschichte. 1973: Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz. 1973/74: Die Wahlverwandtschaften [voi]; Johannes Kepler. 1974: Nachtasyl [TV]; Die Frauen der Wardins [TV]. 1974/75: Lotte in Weimar. 1975: Im Schlaraffenland [TV]; Das blaue Licht. 1976: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. [act – DE] 1977: Fluchtweg nach Marseille [DO]; Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages. 1977/78: Winterspelt 1944. 1978/79: Die Blechtrommel / Le tambour [DE/FR]; Theodor Chindler [TV]. 1980: Mosch [TV]; Das Käthchen von Heilbronn [TV]; Engel aus Eisen. 1981/82: Domino; Sophie’s Choice [US]. 1982-84: Fräulein Berlin; Friedliche Tage. 1983: Glut [CH/DE]. 1984: Werktreue? Die Klassiker und die Regisseure [TVD – app]. 1984/85: Traumspuren [SF]; Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie [TV]. 1985/86: Flucht in den Norden / Pako Pohjoiseen [DE/FI]; Close-Up [SF]. 1986: Paradies. 1987: z.B. Otto Spalt; Die Kraft der Frauen steckt in ihrer Phantasie [TVD – app]; Helsinki Napoli. All Night Long / Helsinki Napoli – All Night Long [FI/DE/CH]; Lyrics: Kitsch. Vom Leben und Sterben des armen Poeten [TV]; Couleur du temps (Berlin, Août 1945) [SF – FR]. 1987/88: Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany [DE/CH/GB]. 1988/89: Follow Me. 1989/90: Vorwärts [TV]; Der achte Tag; God afton, Herr Wallenberg [SE]. 1991-93: Lilien in der Bank; Die Lügnerin. 1992: Benno Besson, l’ami étranger / Benno Besson – Der fremde Freund [DO – CH/DE]. 1992/93: Die Denunziantin; Kaspar Hauser. 1993/94: Alles auf Anfang. 1994: Mein lieber Mann. 1994/95: Liebe, Leben, Tod [TV]. 1995: Bismarckpolka; Stille Nacht. 1995/96: Gefährliche Freundin [TV]; Unter die Haut [TV]. 1995-97: Die Furchtlosen Vier [ANI – voi]. 1996: Zur Person: Katharina Thalbach [TVD – app]. 1997: Scarmour [SF]; Katharina Thalbach – Die andere Courage [TVD – app]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV]; Back in Trouble [TV – LU/DE]; Das 7. Jahr – Ansichten zur Lage der Nation: Der Türsteher von Clärchen’s Ballhaus [DO – co-dir]; Die Rättin [TV]. 1997/98: Crash [TV]; Solo für Klarinette. 1998: Caipiranha; Der Eisbär. 1998/99: Sonnenallee; Der Vulkan / Le volcan [DE/FR]. 1999: Die Cleveren: Die Schneekönigin [TV]. 2000: Berliner Begegnungen: Katharina Thalbach zu Gast bei Ursula Hürzeler [TVD – app]. 2000/01: Die Cleveren: Jungfrauenschnaps [TV]; Zwei Brüder: Abschied [TV]; Goebbels und Geduldig [TV]; Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman [TV]; Abgeschminkt: Katharina Thalbach [TVD – app]. 2001: Drehtage [TVD – app]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [TV – dir,act]. 2001/ 02: Liebesau – die andere Heimat [TV – 2 episodes]. 2002: Harte Brötchen [TV]; Pommery und Putenbrust [TV]. 2002/ 03: Die Cleveren: Born und die Frauen [TV]; Der Job seines
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Lebens [TV]. 2002-04: König der Diebe / Král zlodejov [DE/SK/YU/FR/AT]. 2003: Till Eulenspiegel / Tijl Uilenspiegel [ANI – voi – DE/BE]; Durch die Nacht mit … Nina Hagen und Katharina Thalbach [TVD – app]; Die Quittung [TV]. 2004: Idole: Harald Juhnke [TVD – app]; Der Job seines Lebens 2 [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Dettmanns weite Welt [TV]; Pommery und Hochzeitstorte [TV]. 2004/25: NVA. 2005: Kabale und Liebe [TV – DE/AT]; Pommery und Leichenschmaus [TV]. 2005/06: Der Räuber Hotzenplotz; Offset [DE/FR/CH]; Strajk – Die Heldin von Danzig / Strajk – Bohaterka z Gdañska [DE/PL]; Nicht alle waren Mörder [TV]. 2006: Fürchte Dich nicht [TV]. 2006/07: Hände weg von Mississippi; Du bist nicht allein; Mrs. Ratcliffe’s Revolution [GB]; Rumpelstilzchen [DE/AT]. 2007: Deadline – Jede Sekunde zählt [TVS – 9 episodes]; Commissario Laurenti – Der Tod wirft lange Schatten [TV]. 2007/08: Der Mond und andere Liebhaber [TV].
ULRICH THEIN Born April 7, 1939, Braunschweig (Germany) Died June 21, 1995, Berlin (Germany) Ulrich Theim remains often identified with his role as ANTON DER ZAUBERER (Anton, the Magician, 1977), who uses his wits to cheat his way through the realities of everyday life under socialism. Starting out as an actor in DEFA productions in the early 1950s, from the 1960s onwards he also wrote scripts and directed. Having studied music, Thein first made his living as a musician with a dancehall orchestra, while also working as a professional boxer. From 1951 to 1963 he was employed at the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin, making guest appearances at other East German theatres. Contracted by DEFA in 1952, he increasingly also appeared on television. Already his second feature film saw him in the lead as an animal keeper in Gerhard Klein’s ALARM IM ZIRKUS (Alarm In The Circus, 1953/54). In Klein’s EINE BERLINER ROMANZE (Berlin Romance, 1955/ 56) Thein played an unemployed youth in West Berlin. He portrayed class-conscious, social revolutionaries in films such as DAS LIED DER MATROSEN (Song of the Sailor, 1958) and FÜNF PATRONENHÜLSEN (Five Cartridges, 1959/60), while also issuing more ambiguous characters such as the bourgeois Dr Schramm in Kurt Maetzig’s SEPTEMBERLIEBE (September Love, 1960) and a Nazi agent in KÖNIGSKINDER (And Your Love Too, 1961/62). With the two-part TV film DER ANDERE NEBEN DIR (The Other One Next to You, 1963), Thein established himself as a director, sometimes writing original scripts and occasionally basing them on other literary sources. Thein frequently played opposite his first wife, Annekathrin Bürger and his second wife Renate Geißler, who was the female lead in his TV film JULE – JULIA – JULIANE (1972) and DACH
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ÜBERM KOPF (Roof Over Your Head, 1979/80). In
general, Thein’s directorial efforts often attempted to represent the situation in the GDR via simple, popular narratives, as in EIN ALTES MODELL (An Old Model, 1975/76), which narrates the comic attempts of a pensioner to get his coffee grinder repaired. In the 1980s, the actor’s stocky build suited the title role in the TV film MARTIN LUTHER (1982/83), and he also impersonated the composer JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1983/84). Following reunification, Thein found fewer interesting parts to play and he only sporadically appeared on TV. [act – DD] 1952: Geheimakten Solvay. 1953: Eine Liebesgeschichte [SF]; Der König in Thule [SF]. 1953/54: Alarm im Zirkus. 1954: Der Fall Dr. Wagner; Das WirtschaftsWunder [SF]. 1954/55: Hotelboy Ed Martin. 1955: Marysa [TV]. 1955/56: Eine Berliner Romanze; Thomas Müntzer. 1956: Kleine Fische [SF]; Schlösser und Katen: Annegrets Heimkehr. 1957: Spur in die Nacht [mus,act]; Golden Boy [TV]. 1957/58: Sie kannten sich alle. 1958: Das Lied der Matrosen. 1958/59: SAS 181 antwortet nicht. 1959: Etüde für Kontrabaß [TV]; Maria Stuart [TV]; Ehesache Lorenz; Sensation in Glückstal [SF]. 1959/60: Haus im Feuer; Fünf Patronenhülsen. 1960: Revolte der Gefühle [TV]; Septemberliebe. 1960/61: Professor Mamlock. 1961: Der Traum des Hauptmann Loy. 1961/62: Der Vierte [TV]; Königskinder; … und Deine Liebe auch. 1962: Zum goldenen Anker [TV]; Fanny [TV]; Rue Paradis [TV]. 1962/63: Die Glatzkopfbande. 1963: Der andere neben dir [TV – dir,co-scr]; Jetzt und in der Stunde meines Todes. 1964: Titel hab’ ich noch nicht [TV – dir,scr]; Das Mädchen aus dem Dschungel [TV]; Glasmenagerie [TV]; Chronik eines Mordes. 1966: Columbus 64 [TV – dir,scr]; Koèár do Vidnì [voi – CS]. 1966/67: Geschichten jener Nacht: Die Prüfung [dir,scr] / Materna [act]. 1968: Mitten im kalten Winter [TV – dir,scr]; Das siebente Jahr. 1969: Unbekannte Bürger [TV – dir, co-scr]. 1970/71: Salut Germain / Résistance [TVS – DD/ FR]. 1972: Jule – Julia – Juliane [TV – dir,scr,act]. 1973-75: Broddi [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1975/76: Ein altes Modell [TV – dir,scr]. 1977: Polizeiruf 110: Die Abrechnung [TV]; Anton der Zauberer. 1978/79: Tull [TV]. 1979: Die Matrosen von Cattaro [TV – DD/YU]. 1979/80: Dach überm Kopf [dir,scr]. 1980: Der Direktor [TV]; Polizeiruf 110: Der Teufel hat den Schnaps gemacht [TV]. 1980/81: Polizeiruf 110: Trüffeljagd [TV]. 1981: Romanze mit Amélie [dir,co-scr]. 1982/ 83: Martin Luther [TV]. 1983/84: Johann Sebastian Bach [TV – DD/HU]. 1983-86: Treffpunkt Flughafen: Italienisches Zimmer – Afrikanische Nacht [TV – DD/CU]. 1985/ 86: Die Weihnachtsklempner [TV]. 1985-90: Wie ein Vogel im Schwarm [TV]. 1986/87: Liane; Mit Leib und Seele. 1987/88: Mensch, mein Papa …! [dir,scr,mus,act]; Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara [TV]. 1990: Tatort/Polizeiruf 110: Unter Brüdern [TV – DD/DE]. 1991: Agentur Herz [TVS – dir,scr (12 episodes), act (ep. 11)]. 1994: Zappek: Über’n Jordan [TV – DE]. 1994/95: Blutige Spur [TV – DE]. 1995: Ärzte: Weiß wie Schnee, rot wie Blut [TV – DE].
HERTHA THIELE Born May 8, 1908, Leipzig (Germany) Died August 5, 1984, Berlin (East Germany) Youthful, androgynous, and with a blonde bob, Thiele embodied for a brief moment in the early 1930s a particular version of modern German femininity in a handful of iconic films of the late Weimar years. After completing school and training as an actress, Thiele made her stage debut at the Schauspielhaus in Leipzig in 1928. She appeared in various theatres in Berlin, before becoming an overnight star in her film debut MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1931), directed by Leontine Sagan, under whose direction Thiele had already performed the same part on stage. Set in a girl’s boarding school, Thiele portrayed an emotionally highly-strung pupil infatuated with her teacher, played by Dorothea Wieck. The film’s hinting at lesbian subtext, and its critique of Prussian educational practices made it an international success. KUHLE WAMPE ODER WEM GEHÖRT DIE WELT? (Whither Germany, 1931/32), directed by Slatan Dudow and with a script by Bertolt Brecht, depicted the economic decline of a working-class family during the depression. Thiele portrayed the daughter, who by the end of the film awakens politically, and commits herself to political protest. In the anti-abortion melodrama DAS ERSTE RECHT DES KINDES (The Child’s First Right, 1932), written by Thea von Harbou, Thiele played a secretary who attempts to commit suicide when she finds out that she is pregnant. Thiele’s looks made her transition to the films of the Nazi period initially easy. She was cast as sporty young women and energetic daughters in a range of films. Notable of her films after 1933 was ANNA UND ELISABETH (Anna and Elizabeth), which saw her partnered once again with Wieck in an erotically charged tale of a friendship between two women. In Carl Froelich’s REIFENDE JUGEND (The Growing Youth), the New Woman’s ambitions to achieve education and qualifications for professions remained unfulfilled – Thiele’s character ends in conventional marriage. Partly as a result of her refusal to appear in the propaganda film HANS WESTMAR (all 1933), Thiele’s career in films and on stage came to an abrupt end the same year. In 1937 she emigrated to Switzerland, working in a film laboratory and as a domestic helper, before finding work at the Staatstheater in Berne in 1942. Thiele’s left-wing convictions led her to move to East Germany in 1949, where she worked in radio. Returning to Berne in the early 1950s, she eventually retrained as a nurse, working in this profession in Switzerland and in Paris. In 1966 Thiele once more moved to East Germany, performing on stage in Magdeburg and Leipzig. As
ROLF THIELE
part of the ensemble for East German television she appeared on television but rarely in DEFA productions. Her roles included a larger part in DIE UNVERBESSERLICHE BARBARA (The Incorrigible Barbara, 1976) and her final role in the high-school film INSEL IM SEE (Island in the Lake, 1980), playing an elderly woman who recalls her futile attempt to live according to humanist principles during World War II. Further plans, including an autobiographical film project with the West Berlin filmmaker Rosi S. M., did not materialise. [act – DE] 1931: Mädchen in Uniform. 1931/32: Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? 1932: Frau Lehmanns Töchter; Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Die elf Schill’schen Offiziere; Das erste Recht des Kindes. 1933: Anna und Elisabeth; Kleiner Mann – was nun?; Reifende Jugend; Elisabeth und der Narr; Die weiße Majestät [MLV – DE/CH/FR]. [act – TV – DD] 1966: Wiedersehen mit Hertha Thiele [TVD – app]. 1967: Geheimcode b 13. 1970: Der Mörder sitzt im Wembley-Stadion; Husaren in Berlin [FF]. 1970/71: Herr Peter Squenz. 1971: Die Verschworenen; IstanbulMasche; Florentiner 73. 1971/72: Reife Kirschen [FF]; Lützower [FF]. 1972: Polizeiruf 110: Minuten zu spät. 1972/ 73: Eva und Adam oder Wieviel Sterne hat der Himmel. 1973: Eva und Adam oder Drum prüfe!; Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort: … und wenn ich nein sage?; Die Kaffeestunde. 1974: Bessie Bosch; Die Richterin; Neues aus der Florentiner 73. 1975: Feigenblatt für Kuhle Wampe [TV – app]; Das Herz auf der linken Seite. Die Schauspielerin Hertha Thiele erzählt [TVD – app]; Hostess [FF]. 1975/76: Polizeiruf 110: Schwarze Ladung. 1976: Die Bibliothekarin; Die unverbesserliche Barbara [FF]. 1979: Don Juan, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 78 [FF]. 1980: Insel im See [SF].
ROLF THIELE Born March 7, 1918, Budweis (Austria-Hungary, now Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic) Died October 9, 1994, Munich (Germany) Thiele was an influential West German producer and director during the 1950s and 1960s. His films as a director were often effectively narrated, visually stylized, and displayed an unusual intelligence and ambitiousness compared to other films of the period. Initially specializing in tasteful literary adaptations and well-made genre films, Thiele’s later films dealt with risqué subjects such as prostitution and sexual obsessions, and towards the end of his career veered towards the seedy. Thiele studied sociology in Munich and Göttingen, where in 1946 he founded a film production company with his friend, the lawyer Hans Abich. ‘Filmaufbau’ became one the major companies in the early phase of post-war filmmaking in the Western Zones and the Federal Republic. Among the first films produced under Thiele’s supervision were Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s LIEBE 47 (Love 47, 1948/49) and Harald Braun’s reli-
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gious drama NACHTWACHE (Keepers of the Night, 1949). Thiele’s directorial debut was the bittersweet teenage romance PRIMANERINNEN (Sixth-Formers, 1951), followed by a series of similarly sentimental love stories. DIE BARRINGS (The Barrings, 1955) was a lavish family melodrama with an all-star cast including veterans such as Lil Dagover and Olga Tschechowa, and also featuring Nadja Tiller as the film’s cold-hearted femme fatale. The latter became Thiele’s favourite actress over the next decade – she starred again in the medical melodrama EL HAKIM (1957) and in the title role of Thiele’s best known film, DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958), a satire on West Germany’s economic miracle. Based on the real life murder case of the prostitute Rosemarie Nitribitt and her alleged involvement with German business tycoons, Thiele narrated the story as a black comedy, interspersed with quasi-avantgarde touches in terms of editing, cinematography, and use of music. Thiele’s next film, the stylish-looking LABYRINTH (1959) starred Tiller again as a bored socialite who undergoes a character transformation while staying in a psychiatric sanatorium. in LULU (1962), Tiller assumed the role previously played on screen by Asta Nielsen and Louise Brooks. VENUSBERG explored the sexual fantasies and identities of a group of women while in MORAL 63 (both 1963), Tiller and Thiele returned to the subject of prostitution and high society corruption. Two lavishly produced Thomas Mann adaptations TONIO KRÖGER, and WÄLSUNGENBLUT (The Blood of the Walsungs, both 1964) provided a brief respite from themes of sexual obsession, but towards the end of the decade, as Thiele’s budgets dwindled, his films degenerated into soft porn, including GRIMMS MÄRCHEN VON LÜSTERNEN PÄRCHEN
(The New Adventures of Snow White, 1969). Following a series of similar films, and a failed attempt to return to his earlier hits with the sequel to his most famous film, ROSEMARIES TOCHTER (Rosemary’s Daughter, 1976), Thiele retired from active filmmaking. [pro – DE] 1948: Alte Stadt am Lebensstrom [SD]. 1948/ 49: Liebe 47. 1949: Weiße Welt [SD]; Nachtwache. 1950: Schuhleistenherstellung [SD]; Es kommt ein Tag [co-scr, pro]; Spielerei [SF]. 1951: Der neue Zug [SD]; Niedersachsen im Aufbau [SD]; Wir sind doch Brüder [SD]; Keiner ohne den anderen [SD]; Primanerinnen [dir,pro]; Ein Weg [SD]; Ein Weg. Deutschland im ERP [SD]. 1951/52: Europa ruft uns [SD]; Loreley [SD]. 1952: Wir bauen unser Haus [SD]; Der Tag vor der Hochzeit [dir,pro]; Inselsommer [SD]. 1952/53: Junges Leben [SD]; Mechanisierte Gleiserneuerung [SD]. 1953: Fliegende Untertassen [SD]; Geliebtes Leben [dir,scr,pro]; Königliche Hoheit. 1954: Sie [dir,scr, pro]; Der Tag, an dem die Sonne erlosch [SD]; Fahrt in den
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Weltraum [ANI]; Ingrid, die Geschichte eines Fotomodells. 1954/55: … nicht mehr fliehen. 1955: Mamitschka [dir, scr,pro]; Die Barrings [dir,co-scr]; Zauber des Tanzes [SD]; Nacht der Entscheidung. 1956: Tokaido – Bilder einer Reise [SD]; Ohne Dich wird es Nacht; Friederike von Barring [dir,scr,pro]. 1957: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull; Der tolle Bomberg [dir]; Achtung, Synkope! [SD]; Skandal in Ischl [dir – AT]; El Hakim [dir]. 1958: Das Mädchen Rosemarie [dir,co-scr]; Wir Wunderkinder; Schwarze Nylons – heiße Nächte. 1958/59: Die Halbzarte [dir – AT]; Der Mann, der sich verkaufte. 1959: Menschen im Netz; Labyrinth / Neurose [dir,co-scr – DE/IT]; 2 x Adam – 1 x Eva; Buddenbrooks. 1959/60: Der liebe Augustin [dir]; Lampenfieber. 1960: Sturm im Wasserglas; Die Botschafterin [co-scr]; Brücke des Schicksals; Auf Engel schießt man nicht [dir,scr]; Agatha, laß das Morden sein. [dir – DE] 1961: Man nennt es Amore [dir,scr]. 1962: Lulu [dir,scr – AT]; Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett / Têteà-tête sur l’oreiller [DE/FR]. 1963: Venusberg [dir,scr]; Moral 63 [dir,co-scr]. 1964: Wälsungenblut; DM-Killer [dir,co-scr – AT]; Tonio Kröger [dir,co-scr]. 1965: Die Herren [co-dir]; Das Liebeskarussell [co-dir – AT]. 1966: Grieche sucht Griechin; Der Tod eines Doppelgängers / Les diamants d’envers [dir,scr – DE/BE]. 1967: Der Lügner und die Nonne [dir,scr – AT/DE]; Paukenspieler: Glockentönin Bim [dir,scr]. 1968: Die Ente klingelt um ½ 8 / Siamo tuttu matti [DE/IT]; Komm nur, mein liebstes Vögelein … / Dio me L’ha data, gvai a chi la tocca [dir,co-scr – DE/IT]. 1969: Grimms Märchen von lüsternen Pärchen [dir,scr]; Komm nach Wien, ich zeig Dir was! 1969/70: Ohrfeigen. 1970: Frisch, fromm, fröhlich, frei [dir,scr]. 1970/71: Der scharfe Heinrich. 1971: Rosy und der Herr aus Bonn. 1971/72: Gelobt sei, was hart macht [dir,co-scr]. 1972: Versuchung im Sommerwind. 1973/74: Undine 74 [DE/AT]. 1975/76: Frauenstation. 1976: Rosemaries Tochter; Unordnung und frühes Leid [co-dir]. 1977/78: Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo [pro]. 1988: Phönix aus der Asche. Hans Abich und die Filmaufbau Göttingen [TVD – app].
WILHELM THIELE (Wilhelm Isersohn, aka William Thiele) Born May 10, 1890, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died September 7, 1975, Woodland Hills (California, USA) Famous in early 1930s Weimar cinema for his inventive and sophisticated musical comedies, Thiele later emigrated to Hollywood, where he primarily directed B-movies, action, mystery, and adventure films. After studying at a Conservatory in Vienna, Thiele became an actor, appearing in Karlsbad and Stuttgart. During World War I he directed revues for troops in Vienna, and subsequently at the Volkstheater in Munich. While in Munich, he started out in films, initially as an actor in small parts from 1920. He then began to turn to writing and directing in Munich and Vienna, often biopics of famous composers. Moving to Berlin,
he worked on stage productions and simultaneously for Ufa. His early films ORIENTEXPRESS (Orient Express, 1927), HURRAH! ICH LEBE! (Hurrah I’m Alive, 1928) and ADIEU, MASCOTTE (Farewell Mascotte, 1929) demonstrated his talent as a director of light entertainment fare. Following the advent of sound, Thiele experienced the golden age of his career with a number of phenomenally successful film operettas. Scored by Werner Richard Heymann and starring Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, LIEBESWALZER (Love Waltz, 1929/ 30) and DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930) in particular became box-office hits. The latter marked a contrast to the typical Viennese operetta, by featuring a contemporary urban setting and touching on topical issues such as unemployment. However, in both this film and DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (The Private Secretary, 1930) all major problems usually dissipated by the time of the inevitable happy end. Thiele’s films were produced in multiple language versions for the international market, their style widely imitated by other directors. As a Jew, Thiele emigrated in 1933. In England he made a film version of the operetta ‘Die Fledermaus’ (WALTZ TIME) and in Austria he helmed a cinematic adaptation of Franz Lehár’s GROSSFÜRSTIN ALEXANDRA (Princess Alexandra, both 1933). He subsequently continued to America, where he initially directed stage operettas in New York and Chicago before obtaining a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1934. The box office failure of LOTTERY LOVER (1934) led to Thiele being downgraded to being an assistant director to Josef von Sternberg on THE KING STEPS OUT (1936). Thile subsequently directed B-films for Paramount. A new contract with M-G-M allowed him to attempt a remake of his Weimar film HURRAH! ICH LEBE! as THE GHOST COMES HOME (1940), but the film made no major impact. With greater success he directed two Tarzan adventures starring Johnny Weissmüller, TARZAN TRIUMPHS (1942/43) and TARZANS DESERT MYSTERY (1943). THE MADONNA’S SECRET (1945) became Thiele’s arguably most interesting assignment in Hollywood – a mystery thriller with noir touches, it starred fellow émigré Francis Lederer, and was atmospherically photographed by John Alton. After the war Thiele wrote screenplays for smaller studios, and branched out into advertising and documentary films. From 1952 he directed numerous television episodes, including for THE LONE RANGER and the drama anthology series CAVALCADE OF AMERICA. Later that decade Thiele returned to West Germany and directed the Heinz Erhardt comedy DER LETZTE FUSSGÄNGER (The Last Pedestrian), and a saccha-
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rine vehicle for teen star Sabine Sinjen, SABINE UND DIE 100 MÄNNER (Sabine and the 100 Men, both 1960), which also featured the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Thiele subsequently returned to the United States, and retired from active filmmaking. [dir – DE] 1920: Die letzte Nacht [co-dir,act]; Orchideen [act]. 1921: Lya’s beste Rolle [SF – scr]. 1922: Die Tat des Abbé Montmoulin [act]; Carl Michael Ziehrer, der letzte Walzerkönig [dir,co-scr,act]; Im Rausche der Milliarden [co-scr]. 1922/23: Carl Michael Ziehrers Märchen aus Alt-Wien [dir,co-scr]. 1923: Franz Lehár [co-dir,co-scr]; Das Totenmahl auf Schloß Begalitza [dir,scr]; Fiat Lux [AT]. 1924: Zwei Kinder [scr]. 1925: Liebesfeuer [scr]; Die Insel der Träume [co-scr]. 1926: Die Kleine vom Varieté [scr]; Sein großer Fall [co-scr]; Gräfin Plättmamsell [co-scr]. 1926/27: Die selige Exzellenz [co-dir,co-scr]; Die Csardasfürstin [co-scr]. 1927: Jugendrausch [co-scr]; Orientexpreß [dir,scr]; Der Anwalt des Herzens [dir,co-scr]. 1927/28: Herr Jedermann ist wissensdurstig [SF – scr]. 1928: Die Dame mit der Maske; Hurrah! Ich lebe! 1929: Adieu, Mascotte. 1929/30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]; The Love Waltz [MLV]. 1930: Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV – co-dir]; Die Privatsekretärin [MLV]; Dactylo [MLV]. 1931: Der Ball [MLV – FR/DE]; Le bal [MLV – FR]; Madame hat Ausgang [MLV – dir,co-scr – DE/FR]; L’amoureuse aventure [MLV – dir,co-scr – FR]. 1931/32: Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV]; La fille et le garçon [MLV – co-dir]. 1932: Mädchen zum Heiraten [MLV]; Marry Me [MLV – GB]. [dir – US] 1933: Waltz Time [GB]; Großfürstin Alexandra [DE/AT]. 1934: Lottery Lover. 1935/36: Don’t Get Personal [sma]. 1936: The King Steps Out [co-dir]; The Jungle Princess. 1937: Carnival in Paris [SF]; London By Night; Beg, Borrow or Steal. 1938: Stablemates [sma]. 1939: Bridal Suite; Bad Little Angel. 1940: The Ghost Comes Home. 1942/43: Tarzan Triumphs. 1943: Tarzan’s Desert Mystery. 1945: She Wouldn’t Say Yes [sma]; The Face of Marble [sma]; The Madonna’s Secret [dir,co-scr]. 1948: This Is Nylon [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1949: The Price of Freedom [SD – dir,co-scr]. 1949/50: The Du Pont Story [dir, co-scr]. 1952-57: Cavalcade of America [36 episodes – TVS]. 1954/55: The Lone Ranger [26 episodes – TVS]. 1956: Broken Arrow: Cry Wolf [TV]. 1957: Telephone Time: The Man Who Discovered O. Henry [TV]. 1960: Der letzte Fußgänger [co-scr,dir – DE]; Sabine und die 100 Männer [DE].
HERMANN THIMIG Born October 3, 1890, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died July 7, 1989, Vienna (Austria) Unassuming, timid, and gentle, Thimig’s comic body language and his diminutive frame brought a Chaplinesque quality to his film roles. Despite a long and prolific career, he remains best remembered for his role as a jobless actor and part-time female impersonator in Reinhold Schünzel’s VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1933).
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Thimig’s father Hugo (1854–1944) was an actor, director, and manager of the Burgtheater in Vienna. Attending primary and grammar school in Vienna, Thimig first theatrical engagement was in 1910 at the Hoftheater in Meiningen, moving from there to Berlin and Vienna. For the greatest part of his stage career, however, he was associated with the Burgtheater. DIE GRÄFIN HEYERS (Countess Heyers, 1916) was Thimig’s film debut, after which he played opposite Ossi Oswalda in OSSIS TAGEBUCH (Ossi’s Diary, 1917) and Henny Porten in AUF PROBE GESTELLLT (On Trial, 1918). He was cast as a timid bandit in Lubitsch’s DIE BERGKATZE (The Wildcat, 1921) and as an inhibited hedonist in DIE FLAMME (Montmartre, 1922). Few of his other film roles in the 1920s had a major impact. He rose to greater prominence in the early sound film period, appearing as a nervous pastor in both the German and the French versions of G. W. Pabst’s DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/ 31). Gustaf Gründgens’s EINE STADT STEHT KOPF (Topsy Turvy Town, 1932) based on Nikolaj Gogol’s satire ‘Revizor’ provided Thimig with a perfect leading role as a shy travelling salesman who everyone mistakes to be a Government inspector. One of his regular female partners was Renate Müller, with whom he appeared in DIE PRIVATSEKRÄTERIN (Private Secretary, 1930), DER KLEINE SEITENSPRUNG (The Little Escapade, 1931) and MÄDCHEN ZUM HEIRATEN (Girl to Marry, 1932), and to greatest comic effect, in VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1933). Thimig’s somewhat effete lack of manly behaviour was similarly evident in KLEINER MANN – WAS NUN? (Little Man – What Now?, 1933). The comedy JOHANN (1942) marked a new stage in Thimig’s career. He became typecast as the kindly older man in post-war films such as G. W. Pabst’s DER PROZESS (The Trial, 1947/48) and GEHEIMNISVOLLE TIEFE (Mysterious Shadows, 1949). In the 1950s, Thimig played in comedies, operettas, and Heimatfilme, with his final role 1962 as a pastor in ROMANZE IN VENEDIG (Romance in Venice). He retired after his final stage performance in 1968. Thimig’s siblings also were prolific actors, all strongly associated with the theatrical scene in Vienna. His sister Helene Thimig (1889–1974) began her illustrious stage career in 1907, and eventually married Max Reinhardt. She took the female lead in the early sound melodrama EIN MENSCH OHNE NAMEN (A Man Without a Name, 1932), but soon after accompanied her husband into American exile. In the 1940s, she appeared in a number of Hollywood films, including ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945), CLOAK AND DAGGER, and THE LOCKET (both 1946). In the late 1940s she resumed her stage career in Austria. A
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younger brother, Hans Thimig (1900–1991) also appeared on the Vienna stage from 1916, and in films since 1921. In the 1940s, he directed a number of light entertainment films for Vienna-based Wien-Film. After the war he continued to appear in films until the late 1970s. His daughter Henriette (b. 1947) followed the family tradition, and has sporadically performed film and television roles since the 1980s. [act – DE] 1916: Die Gräfin Heyers. 1917: Des Prokurators Tochter; Gesühnte Schuld; Ossi’s Tagebuch. 1918: Auf Probe gestellt; Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier. 1918-19: Keimendes Leben [3 parts]. 1919: Die schwarze Locke; Ihr Sport; Die Braut des Entmündigten; Das törichte Herz; Stiefkinder des Glücks; Der Sohn der Magd; Komtesse Dolly; Die Puppe; Freie Liebe. 1920: Zwischen den Dreien; Mein Mann, der Nachtredakteur; Die Brüder Karamasoff; Die goldene Krone; Das Valutamädel; Der Freihof; Putschliesel. 1920/21: Hannerl und ihre Liebhaber. 1921: Die Bergkatze; Das Abenteuer des Dr. Kircheisen; Kleider machen Leute [AT]; Die Sünden der Mutter; Der Fluch des Schweigens. 1921/22: Das Mädel mit der Maske; Bardame; Der Strom. 1922: Sie und die 3; Die Flamme; Die Küsse der Ira Toscari; Das Weib auf dem Panther. 1923: Du sollst nicht töten; Der verlorene Schuh; Der Sprung ins Leben. 1923/24: Die Radio-Heirat. 1924: Gesühnte Schuld. 1925: Der Tänzer meiner Frau; Der ungebetene Gast [AT]. 1926/27: Die Familie ohne Moral [AT]. 1927: Madame wagt einen Seitensprung / Im Hotel ‘Zur süßen Nachtigall’ [DE/AT]. 1928/29: Dein ist mein Herz [SF]. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]. 1930: Die Privatsekretärin [MLV]. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]. 1931: Wenn die Soldaten …; Der kleine Seitensprung [MLV]; Ich bleib’ bei Dir [MLV]; Mein Freund, der Millionär; Der Herr Bürovorsteher; Zwei himmelblaue Augen; Mein Leopold. 1931/32: Eine Nacht im Paradies [MLV]; Ein bißchen Liebe für Dich [MLV]. 1932: Mädchen zum Heiraten [MLV]; Traum von Schönbrunn; Kiki. Der Lebensweg einer kleinen Choristin [MLV – DE/FR]; Das Blaue vom Himmel; Marion, das gehört sich nicht [MLV]; Eine Stadt steht Kopf; Glück über Nacht. 1933: Kleiner Mann – was nun?; Die Fahrt ins Grüne; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV]. 1933/34: Csibi, der Fratz [AT]. 1934: Karneval und Liebe [AT]; Liebe dumme Mama; Peter, Paul und Nanette; Der Herr ohne Wohnung [AT]. 1934/35: Die Fahrt in die Jugend [AT]; Der Himmel auf Erden [AT]. 1935: Tanzmusik [AT]; Im weißen Rößl [AT/DE]. 1936: Der geheimnisvolle Mister X. 1937: Die Austernlilli. 1939: Marguerite: 3. 1941/42: Brüderlein fein. 1942: Johann. 1943: Die kluge Marianne; Liebesbriefe. 1944: Die goldene Fessel; Am Vorabend. 1944/45: Wie ein Dieb in der Nacht. [act – AT] 1946: Praterbuben. 1947/48: Der Prozeß. 1949: Geheimnisvolle Tiefe; Prämien auf den Tod. 1951: Der Fünf-Minuten-Vater; Fräulein Bimbi. 1952: Ich hab’ mich so an Dich gewöhnt; Abenteuer im Schloß. 1953: Eine Nacht in Venedig. 1954: Ewiger Walzer [DE]. 1956: Die Magd von Heiligenblut; Der Verschwender [TV]. 1958: Der veruntreute Himmel [TV]; Eine Reise ins Glück [DE]. 1959: Meine Tochter Patricia; Wenn die Glocken hell erklingen.
1960/61: Frau Irene Besser [DE]. 1961/62: Die vergessenen Jahre [DO]. 1962: Der fidele Bauer [TV]; Romanze in Venedig. 1964: Das alte Hotel [TVS]. 1967: Der Arzt wider Willen [TV].
RUDOLF THOME Born November 14, 1939, Wallau (Germany, now Biedenkopf) Director Rudolf Thome was one of the founding members of the New German Cinema in the 1960s. Often compared to his French counterpart Eric Rohmer, his films typically avoid major political issues, domineering star performances, and big budgets, and instead pursue a quiet but insistent investigation of ordinary relationships and everyday situations. In the early 1960s Thome studied German literature and history in Munich and Bonn, and began writing film reviews for local newspapers and later for the magazine ‘Film’. Co-directed with Eckhard Schmidt (b. 1938), Thome’s first film was the 8mm short DIE VERSÖHNUNG (Reconciliation, 1964). He than founded a production company, Alexandra Film, with fellow filmmakers Klaus Lemke (b. 1940) and Max Zihlmann (b. 1936), making more shorts and acting as production manager for Lemke and Zihlmann’s work. Thome’s feature debut was the black and white thriller homage DETEKTIVE (Detectives, 1968), financed by veteran producer Carol Hellman. A year later ROTE SONNE (Red Sun) followed, a central document of the Munich film scene of the late 1960s. In interviews, Thome cited Howard Hawks as his inspiration, especially the Hollywood director’s representation of women and his sparse mode of narration. SUPERGIRL (1970/71), produced for television, and FREMDE STADT (Strange City, 1972) complete Thome’s so-called ‘Schwabing period’ (named after the Munich suburb that functioned as a hub for filmmakers during this period). FREMDE STADT also marked the beginning of a long collaboration with cameraman Martin Schäfer. In 1973 Thome moved to West Berlin, where he took over as resident film critic for the newspaper ‘Der Tagesspiegel’ and city magazine ‘Hobo’, and became involved in local film groups. MADE IN GERMANY AND USA (1974) and TAGEBUCH (Diary, 1975) epitomised Thome’s new approach to filmmaking – made without a script and mostly improvised in a collaborative effort between director, crew, and actors. Making a virtue of necessity, this method had been forced on the team since Thome’s first Berlin film when the original screenwriter had unexpectedly walked off the project. Together with the British filmmaker Cynthia Beatt (b. 1949), Thome founded a new production company for the ethnographic feature film BESCHREIBUNG
ANDREW THORNDIKE EINER INSEL (Description of an Island, 1978/79), which was set on an island in the South Pacific. A new period of creativity began with the awardwinning BERLIN CHAMISSOPLATZ (1980). This and Thome’s subsequent films were characterised by a precise but unobtrusive representation of love and relationship problems, and provided an intimate and subjective perspective of urban everyday life in Berlin. With TAROT (1985) Thome returned to Goethe, after previous adaptations in TAGEBUCH (Diary, 1975) and STELLA (1966). TAROT’s narrative was based on Goethe’s ‘Wahlverwandtschaften’ (Elective Affinities). He returned to this source once more in DAS GEHEIMNIS (The Secret, 1994/95). In 1987 Thome commenced work on the cycle ‘Forms of Love’ with DAS MIKROSKOP (Microscope, 1987), continuing with DER PHILOSOPH (The Philosopher, 1988), which won the International Film Critics’ Award in Montreal in 1989, and 7 FRAUEN (7 Women, 1989). In these films storyline and situations were determined prior to shooting, but still left sufficient room for dialogue improvisation. With ROT UND BLAU (Red and Blue, 2002/03), Thome embarked on the trilogy ‘Zeitreisen’ (Journeys Through Time). The film starred Hannelore Elsner, and examined the impact of unexpected events on an individual. The gradual development of characters as they come to terms with past and present relationships was brought convincingly to life in dialogic form. The trilogy continued with FRAU FÄHRT, MANN SCHLÄFT (Woman Driving, Man Sleeping, 2003/04) and RAUCHZEICHEN (Smoke Signal, 2005/06). [dir,scr,pro – DE] 1964: Die Versöhnung [SF – dir,co-scr, cut,act,pro]. 1964/65: Nicht versöhnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt, wo Gewalt herrscht [act]. 1965: Frühstück in Rom [SF – pro]; Kleine Front [SF – pro]; … Geist und ein wenig Glück [TVD – app]. 1966: Stella [SF – dir,co-scr]. 1967: Galaxis [SF – dir,co-scr,ide,cut]; 48 Stunden bis Acapulco [act]. 1967/68: Jane erschießt John, weil er sie mit Ann betrügt [SF]. 1968: Detektive [dir]. 1969: Rote Sonne [dir,ide, pro]. 1970: Ich liebe dich, ich töte dich [act]. 1970/71: Supergirl [TV – dir,co-scr,sma,pro]; Terror Desire [act,pro]. 1972: Ribb’s Motorrad [SF – pro]; Fremde Stadt [dir,pro]; Über Nacht [act]. 1974: Made in Germany und USA [dir,ide,pro]. 1975: Tagebuch [dir,ide,act,pro]. 1978/79: Beschreibung einer Insel. 1980: Berlin Chamissoplatz; Hast du Lust, mit mir einen Kaffee zu trinken? [SF – dir,scr, app,pro]. 1982: Les filles héréditaires / Die Erbtöchter [TV – act – FR/DE]. 1982/83: System ohne Schatten [dir,pro]. 1983: American Postcard [SF – act]; Das, was ich vielleicht am besten kann … Das Kino des Rudolf Thome [TVD – app]. 1984: Zwei Bilder [SF – dir,act,pro]. 1985: Tarot. 1987: Das Mikroskop. 1988: Der Philosoph. 1989: 7 Frauen. 1991: Liebe auf den ersten Blick. 1992: Die Sonnengöttin. 1994: Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1994/ 95: Das Geheimnis [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1997: Film is a battle-
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ground [TVD – app]; Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan. 1997/98: Just Married. 1999: Paradiso – Sieben Tage mit sieben Frauen. 2000: venus.de – Die bewegte Frau. 2002/ 03: Rot und Blau. 2003/04: Frau fährt, Mann schläft. 2005: Du hast gesagt, dass Du mich liebst. 2005/06: Rauchzeichen. 2006/07: Das Sichtbare und das Unsichtbare. 2007: Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Pink.
ANDREW THORNDIKE (Andrew Thorndike IV) Born August 30, 1909, Frankfurt/Main (Germany) Died December 14, 1979, Berlin (East Germany) DEFA’s most celebrated documentary filmmaker and anti-Western propagandist, Thorndike gained international acclaim during the 1950s and 1960s, in particular for his ideologically motivated use of archival footage. A descendant of one of the original ‘Mayflower’ pilgrim fathers colonising America in the early 17th century, and son of the director of Ala-Anzeigen-AG, an advertising company that was part of the nationalist Hugenberg media group, Thorndike grew up on his family’s estate in Senzig, near Berlin. From 1928, he undertook commercial training before joining Ufa in 1931, where he swiftly became general representative for the corporation’s advertising film division, a position he held from 1933 to 1939. He subsequently served as a police reservist between 1939 and 1941. Hired by the Supreme Command of the German Army and Navy to manufacture training films from 1941, he also directed a short for Ufa’s documentary division, DIE HERRIN DES HOFES (Mistress of the Farm, 1942). Called up to serve in the Wehrmacht, Thorndike was taken prisoner of war in Russia in 1945, and soon after became a member of the Communist National Committee for a Free Germany. He went on to work as an assistant at the Central School for Antifascism and as an editorial assistant on the newspaper for German POWs in the Soviet Union. Returning to East Germany in 1948 he joined DEFA’s newsreel and documentary section the following year, where he directed a number of propaganda films including the feature-length DER WEG NACH OBEN (The Way Ahead, 1950) and WILHELM PIECK – DAS LEBEN UNSERES PRÄSIDENTEN (Wilhelm Pieck – Our President, 1950/51). Thorndike met Annelie Kunigk (b. 1925) on a film project in 1950, and the two began to collaborate closely from 1952, marrying in 1953. While working on ‘Stalin und das deutsche Volk’ (Stalin and the German People), Thorndike was lured to West Berlin in March 1953 and arrested ‘on suspicion of abetting treason’. Causing an international diplomatic incident, he was released, and returned to the East.
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The Thorndikes’ next major production, DU UND MANCHER KAMERAD (You and Many a Comrade, 1954–56) deployed archival material to chart a direct trajectory of political, military, and economic development from Imperial Germany via the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich to the contemporary Federal Republic. Uncovering the Nazi links of West German corporations, politicians, and military personnel became one of the main objectives of the series ARCHIVE SAGEN AUS (The Archives Testify, 1957/58). In 1958, the Thorndikes commenced a mammoth project documenting the history of the Soviet Union, DAS RUSSISCHE WUNDER (The Russian Miracle, 1959–63), a two-part epic covering Soviet achievements from Lenin to Gagarin. The film was showered with awards and state prizes, even if its methods were questioned by other documentarists. The couple’s next monumental project, DU BIST MIN (You Are Mine, 1968/69), was a filmic poem about Germany shot in 70mm widescreen format. After suffering several hitches, the production developed into something of a fiasco. Meanwhile, DEFA had set up a ‘Thorndike Production Unit’, and in 1968 consolidated this with the ‘DEFA-Gruppe 67’ (DEFA-Group 67), headed by Thorndike. In 1967, he also helped found the GDR’s Film and Television Workers Guild, over which he presided until his death. Annelie Thorndike, who was president of the International Documentary and Short Film Week in Leipzig for many years, attempted to establish herself as a documentary filmmaker independent of her late husband during the 1980s, but met with little success. [dir,(co-)scr – DO – DD] 1942: Die Herrin des Hofes [SD – dir – DE]. 1949: Der 13. Oktober [SD]. 1949/50: Von Hamburg bis Stralsund. 1950: Der Weg nach oben. 1950/51: Wilhelm Pieck – Das Leben unseres Präsidenten. 1951/52: Freundschaft siegt / My za mir! [ass-dir – DD/SU]. 1952: Die Prüfung [dir]. 1954: Die sieben vom Rhein. 1954-56: Du und mancher Kamerad [co-dir,co-scr]. 1957: Der Fall Harzmann und andere [SD]; Archive sagen aus: Urlaub auf Sylt [SD]. 1957/58: Archive sagen aus: Unternehmen Teutonenschwert [DO]. 1959-63: Das russische Wunder. [DO – 2 parts]. 1961: Die Konzessionen des Mister Urquhart [TVD]. 1965: Tito in Deutschland [co-dir]; Die Weichen sind gestellt [TVD – scr,app]. [pro – DO – DD] 1967/68: Geheime Kommandosache [TVD]. 1968: Potsdam [SD]; Weimar [TV-SD]. 1968/69: Du bist min. Ein deutsches Tagebuch [supv,co-dir,pro]. 1969: Eisen und Blut. 1970: Wladimir Iljitsch Uljanow – Lenin [SD – dir,scr,pro]; Unter den Linden. Geschichte und Geschichten [TVD]. 1971: Mein ganzes Leben lang [dir,scr, pro]; Start [dir,scr,pro]. 1972: Clara Zetkin [TV-SD]; Hier Deutsche Volkspolizei [dir,scr,pro]; Vittorio De Sica [TVD]. 1973: Treffen nach vier Jahrzehnten. 1973/74: KKW Bruno Leuschner. 1974: Maschinen-System FZ 200; Praha,
Thakurova 3 [SD]; WMW Rufbild-Film 1974. 1974-77: Die Alte Neue Welt [dir,scr]. 1975: Frontkameramänner [SD]. 1976: Drehen – Klemmhalter, Wendeschneidplatten, Hartmetalle; Kreuzschiebetischfräsmaschinen. 1977: Walzenbearbeitungsmaschinen; Die Bombe [SD]. 1979: Spitzen [SD]. 1980: RAWEWA – WMW-Industrieanlagen; Augenzeuge der Geschichte [TVD – 3 episodes]; Die Deutschen. Vom Werden unserer Nation in 5 Jahrhunderten. 1980/81: Ein Ding von Schönheit [SD]. 1981: Mikromat. Werkzeugmaschinen höchster Genauigkeit und Leistung. 1981/82: Busch singt [DO – 6 parts – co-pro].
NADJA TILLER (Nadja Maria Tiller) Born March 16, 1929, Vienna (Austria) In a period in West German cinema dominated by tragediennes, waifs, and tomboys, Tiller’s star image of the sardonic seductress in the 1950s and 1960s was bracingly refreshing – as was her cool, understated performance style and her cosmopolitan glamour. The daughter of stage actors, Tiller attended eighteen schools during her youth owing to her parents’ constant travelling. From 1943 she studied dance, ballet and acting at the Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, occasionally working as a model. Completing her training in 1949, she won the ‘Miss Austria’ competition. Up to 1952 she was engaged in the Theater in der Josefstadt. Tiller’s film debut was MÄRCHEN VOM GLÜCK (Good Luck Fairytale, 1949). She played opposite Hildegard Knef in ILLUSION IN MOLL (Illusion in a Minor Key, 1952) and with Grethe Weiser in the comedy DIE KAISERIN VON CHINA (Empress of China, 1953). Her image as an extravagant vamp formed in Rolf Thiele’s SIE (She, 1954) in which she played a supporting role next to her husband-to-be Walter Giller. She repeatedly worked with Thiele, including the internationally successful DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958). Based on a novel and scripted by Erich Kuby, the film dealt with the real-life scandal surrounding the murdered call girl Rosemarie Nitribitt, and alluded to the immorality and decadence triggered by the prosperity of the Adenauer era. For her role in Thiele’s LABYRINTH (1959), Tiller received a German Film Award in 1960. From the late 1950s, Tiller often performed abroad, for example, in Robert Siodmak’s L’AFFAIRE NINA B. (The Nina B. Affair, 1961) and Rossellini’s ANIMA NERA (Black Soul, 1962). Television films followed in the late 1960s and guest appearances in series such as TATORT (Crime Scene), and DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (Love Boat). As well as television work, Tiller returned to the stage, appearing with Giller in Lübeck, Berlin and Vienna. After a long absence from German film productions,
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she played a secret weapons expert in Hans-Christoph Blumenberg’s thriller DER SOMMER DES SAMURAI (Summer of the Samurai, 1985/86). In 1996/97 she appeared on stage as Hollywood diva Joan Crawford in the play ‘Nächte mit Joan’ (Nights With Joan, televised 1997). In his film BARFUSS (Barefoot, 2004), actor-director Til Schweiger cast Tiller as his mother. Maternal and grandmotherly roles also defined most of her appearances in television series since the turn of the millennium. [act – DE] 1949: Märchen vom Glück [AT]; Kleiner Schwindel am Wolfgangsee [AT]. 1950: Kind der Donau [AT]. 1952: Ich hab’ mich so an Dich gewöhnt [AT]; Schäm’ Dich, Brigitte! [AT]; Illusion in Moll. 1953: Einmal keine Sorgen haben / Einen Jux will er sich machen [DE/AT]; Die Kaiserin von China; Ein tolles Früchtchen [AT]; Schlagerparade. 1953/54: Liebe und Trompetenblasen. 1954: Mädchen mit Zukunft; Sie; Der letzte Sommer. 1954/55: Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox. 1955: Ball im Savoy; Griff nach den Sternen; Wie werde ich Filmstar?; Hotel Adlon; Die Barrings; Mozart [AT]; Das Bad auf der Tenne. 1955/56: Ich suche Dich. 1956: Fuhrmann Henschel [AT]; Friederike von Barring; Spion für Deutschland. 1957: Banktresor 713; Drei Mann auf einem Pferd; Kærlighed mod betaling [DK]; El Hakim; La tour, prends garde / Agli ordine del re / Cuvaj se, La Tur [FR/IT/YU]. 1958: Le désordre et la nuit [FR]; Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1958/59: Du rififi chez les femmes / Rififi fra le donne [FR/IT]. 1959: Labyrinth / Neurose [DE/IT]; Buddenbrooks; The Rough and the Smooth [GB]. 1960: Die Botschafterin. 1960/61: An einem Freitag um halb zwölf … / Vendredi 13 heures / Il mondo nella mia tasca [DE/FR/IT]; Geliebte Hochstaplerin. 1961: L’Affaire Nina B. [FR]. 1961/62: La chambre ardente / I peccatori della Foresta Nera [FR/IT]. 1962: Lulu [AT]; Anima nera [IT/FR]; L’amore difficile / Erotica [IT/DE]. 1963: Moral 63; Schloß Gripsholm; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/AT]. 1964: Tonio Kröger. 1965: Pleins feux sur Stanislas / Rendezvous der Killer [FR/DE]; Das Liebeskarussell [AT] 1965/66: Du Rififi à Paname / Rififi Internazionale / Rififi in Paris [FR/IT/DE]; Alfie [GB]. 1966: The Poppy Is Also a Flower [US]; Dýmky / Pfeifen, Betten, Turteltauben [CS/ AT]; Tendre vouyou / Un avventuriero a Tahiti [FR/IT]; Come imparai ad amare le donne / Das gewisse Etwas der Frauen / Comment j’ai appris à aimer les femmes [IT/DE/FR]; L’Estate [IT]. 1967: Nadja Tiller und Walter Giller [TVD – app]. 1968: Lady Hamilton – zwischen Schmach und Liebe / Le calde notti di Lady Hamilton / Les amours de Lady Hamilton [DE/IT/FR]. 1969: Waterloo [TV]; Hotel Royal [TV]; 11 Uhr 20 [TV]; Blonde Köder für den Mörder / La morte bussa due volte [DE/IT]. 1969/70: Ohrfeigen. 1970: Oh Happy Day; Engel, die ihre Flügel verbrennen; Die Feuerzangenbowle. 1971: Hallo, wer dort? [TV]; L’occhio nel labirinto [IT]; L’Etrusco uccide ancora / Das Geheimnis des gelben Grabes [IT/DE/YU]. [act – TV – DE] 1972: Der Kommissar: Überlegungen eines Mörders; Le moine / Il monaco / Der Mönch und die Frauen [FF – FR/IT/DE]. 1972/73: Geschichten zu zweit. 1974: Hallo – Hotel Sacher … Portier!: Die Frau Kammersängerin
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[AT/DE]. 1975: Baby sitter – un maledetto pasticcio / Jeune fille libre le soir / Das ganz große Ding [FF – IT/FR/DE]. 1975/76: Die schöne Marianne: Das Pseudonym. 1976: … in allen Lebenslagen. 1976/77: 4tel vor 8 [TVS – 26 episodes]; Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein [TVS]. 1978: Hotel zur schönen Marianne [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1978/79: Ein Mann für alle Fälle [episodes 1,2]. 1978-87: Locker vom Hocker oder Es bleibt schwierig [episodes 1,3]. 1980: Liebling, ich laß’ mich scheiden; Sternensommer [TVS]. 1980/81: Die Laurents [TVS]. 1982: Auf der Suche nach dem verlorenen Ei; Die Krimistunde [episode 3]; Tatort: Mordkommando; Sein erster Fall oder Die schwarze Katze im Sack [DE/AT]. 1982/83: Das Traumschiff [episode 11]. 1983/84: Er-Goetz-liches [episode 1]. 1985: Mütter und Töchter; Die Schwarzwaldklinik: Der Infarkt. 1985/ 86: Der Sommer des Samurai [FF]; Die Zierpflanze. 1987: Geschichten aus der Heimat XIII; Ein Abend für Nadja Tiller und Walter Giller. 1990: Il ricatto 2 [IT]. 1992: Geschichten aus der Heimat XX. 1992/93: Böses Blut. 1993: Schicksal der Woche [TVS]. 1993/94: Alles Glück dieser Erde [episodes 5-11]. 1994/95: Ein unvergeßliches Wochenende … auf Mallorca; Pakten [FF – NO]. 1995: Mordslust [episode 2]; Guten Morgen, Mallorca: Hass-Liebe. 1995/96: Sylter Geschichten: Die Gräfin. 1996: Freunde fürs Leben: Freundschaftsvertrag; Liane; Rosamunde Pilcher – Stunden der Entscheidung; Stunden der Entscheidung. 1996/97: Zu Gast bei Ulrich Tukur [TVD]; Die Drei: Das Leben der Cora Herrlich. 1997: Champagner und Kamillentee; Nächte mit Joan. 1998: Holstein Lovers. 1998/ 99: Sturmzeit. 1999: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Eine zweite Chance; Immer [SF]. 2000: Zwischen Liebe und Leidenschaft / L’Île du retour [DE/FR]. 2000/01: Das Weibernest. 2001: Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Alte Bäume, junges Grün. 2003: Der zweite Frühling. 2003/04: Das Bernstein-Amulett. 2004: Barfuss [FF]. 2004/05: Liebe wie am ersten Tag. 2005: Lauras Wunschzettel [AT]. 2005/06: Der Ferienarzt … im Tessin. 2007: Ich heirate meine Frau; Liebling, wir haben geerbt! 2008: Und ewig schweigen die Männer [AT]. 2008/2009: Wilmenrod – Es liegt mir auf der Zunge.
GYULA TREBITSCH Born November 3, 1914, Budapest (Austria-Hungary) Died December 12, 2005, Hamburg (Germany) A co-founder of Real-Film, one of the most significant West German companies of the postwar era, Trebitsch produced several acclaimed films, particularly during the 1950s. His insight into media developments, coupled with business acumen, ensured the success of his undertakings, which later included the production of award-winning TV films and series. Following school and a business course in his home town Trebitsch worked his way through the film industry from the bottom up, starting out in the post room of the Ufa branch in Budapest, later training as a projectionist and cinema manager. With the company’s support he founded Objektiv-Film to produce
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Hungarian films for Ufa, beginning with RÁD BÍZOM A FELESÉGEM (Look After My Wife, 1936/37). In 1942 Trebitsch was conscripted into a Jewish forced labour battalion and sent to the Russian front, before being deported to a concentration camp in Germany. Freed in 1945, he recovered in Itzehoe (Northern Germany), but many of his family had lost their lives in the Holocaust. After renting two cinemas in Itzehoe in 1946, Trebitsch went into business with Walter Koppel, overseeing the production for their company Real-Film in Hamburg. His first production ARCHE NORA (Nora’s Ark, 1947/48) was shot in the post-war rubble, but the company soon established a large studio site in Hamburg-Wandsbek. Making seven or eight feature films a year (and short documentaries), it was the biggest production company in West Germany at the time, particularly successful with literary adaptations featuring wellknown stars. Examples included DES TEUFELS GENERAL (The Devil’s General, 1954/55) starring Curd Jürgens; DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Köpenick, 1956) with Heinz Rühmann; DIE ZÜRCHER VERLOBUNG (The Affairs of Julie, 1956/57) with Liselotte Pulver; and DAS HERZ VON ST. PAULI (The Heart of St. Pauli, 1957) with Hans Albers. In contrast to his partner Koppel, Trebitsch saw the rise of television as an opportunity rather than as competition. He produced Fritz Kortner’s modern adaptation of Aristophanes’s DIE SENDUNG DER LYSISTRATA (The Mission of Lysistrata, 1960/61) featuring Romy Schneider, which caused controversies and was later released in cinemas. After separating from Koppel, Trebitsch took over the company site and relaunched it as Studio Hamburg, cooperating with broadcaster NDR. In the wake of complicated business arrangements he became general manager in 1971. Not only did Trebitsch achieve business targets in the audio-visual media industry, he initiated training courses and taught from 1978 until 1996 at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Hamburg. Relinquishing his position at Studio Hamburg, Trebitsch continued producing films with his daughter Katharina (b. 1949), making TV series, opera and ballet films. Their companies were the market leaders in quality TV programmes. Following a heart attack in 1992 Trebitsch maintained a consultant position. His son Markus (b. 1950) also became a producer. [pro – HU] 1936/37: Rád bízom a feleségem. 1937: Édes a bosszú; Tokaji rapszódia. 1938: A hölgy egy kissé bogaras. 1940: A szerelem nem szégyen. 1941/42: Kádár kontra Kerekes. [pro – DE] 1947/48: Arche Nora. 1947-51: A Tale of Five Cities / Passaporto per l’oriente / Fünf Mädchen und ein
Mann / 5 Städte – 5 Mädchen / L’Inconnue des cinq cités [German episode – GB/IT/AT/DE/FR]. 1948: Finale. 1948/ 49: Tönerne Kleinigkeiten [SD]; Die letzte Nacht. 1949: Die Freunde meiner Frau; Hafenmelodie; Ich rufe Sie an [SD]; Derby; Gegen Not und Flammen [SD]; Wasser für Millionen [SD]; Kätchen für alles; Musik zum Mitnehmen [SD]; Schicksal aus zweiter Hand; Schatten der Nacht; Gefährliche Gäste; 01 greift ein [SD]; Abseits vom großen Strom [SD]. 1949/50: Absender unbekannt. 1950: Die ersten Europäer [SD]; Hofball auf dem Eis [SD]; Gabriela; Zirkus auf dem Eis [SD]; Des Lebens Überfluß; Lockende Gefahr; Stumme Zeugen [SD]; Der Schatten des Herrn Monitor; Mädchen mit Beziehungen; Die Dritte von rechts; Nur ein Straßenbahner [SD]; Zeit [SD]. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein; 10.000 Fuß tief unter der Erde [SD]. 1951: Weh’ dem, der liebt; Engel im Abendkleid; Magische Signale [SD]; Kommen Sie am Ersten …!; Deutschlands Tor zur Welt [SD]; Auf neuen Wegen [SD]. 1951/52: Haus im Haus [SD]; Die Stimme des Anderen. 1952: Industriezentrum Hamburg [SD]; Hamburg im Blickpunkt der Welt [SD]; Ein Tag ohne Mutti [SD – pro]. 1953: Die große Stadt [SD]; Keine Angst vor großen Tieren [pro]; Eine Stadt kauft ein [SD]; Die große Stadt – Häuser, Schiffe, Menschen [SD]; Das kleine Einmaleins [SD]. 1954: Der Film im Reigen der Künste [SD]; Magisches Zelluloid [SD]; Zwei wachen über Millionen [SD]; Mit den Augen der Kamera [SD]; Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel; Die Stadt ist voller Geheimnisse; Der Schatz im Odenwald [SD]; Freie Fahrt für F 97 [SD]; Phänomen Film [SD]. 1954/55: Des Teufels General. 1955: Hinter den Kulissen des Films [SD]; Das Wunder des Films [DO]; Unternehmen Schlafsack; Zwei blaue Augen. 1956: CQ – DX Funkamateure [SD]; Die grüne Insel [SD]; Panto zeigt uns seinen Trick [SD]; Zweimal Strom [SD]; Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz; Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Tierarzt Dr. Vlimmen; Ein Herz kehrt heim; Drei Birken auf der Heide. 1956/57: Glücksritter; Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Haus der Sammlung [SD]; Die großen Diener der Menschheit [SD]; Tolle Nacht; Watten und Wurten [SD]; Vom Bach zum Strom [SD]; Nachts im Grünen Kakadu; Das Herz von St. Pauli; Dr. Crippen lebt. 1958: Flamme zwischen Öl und Kohle [SD]; Herz ohne Gnade; Bühne frei für Marika!; Das Mädchen vom Moorhof; Dreizehn alte Esel; Unruhige Nacht; Der Schinderhannes. 1958/59: Frau im besten Mannesalter. 1959: Die Nacht vor der Premiere; Die schöne Lügnerin / La belle et l’Empereur [DE/FR]; Salem aleikum; Frau Warrens Gewerbe [DE/CH]. 1959/60: Als geheilt entlassen; Die Frau am dunklen Fenster. 1960: Job oder Beruf? [SD]; Pension Schöller; Glocken läuten überall / Die Glocke ruft [AT/DE]; Gauner in Uniform / Hauptmann – Deine Sterne [DE/AT]. [pro – DE – TV] 1960/61: Die Sendung der Lysistrata; Geliebte Hochstaplerin [FF]. 1961: Heute gehn wir bummeln [ide – FF]; Der Lügner [FF]; Das Leben des Galilei. 1961-64: Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox! [TVS]. 1962: Annoncentheater. 1963-64: Hafenpolizei [TVS]. 1965: Schüsse aus dem Geigenkasten [FF]. 1965/66: Wenn die Musik nicht wär’ [TVS]. 1965-67: Gertrud Stranitzki [TVS]. 1965-70: Polizeifunk ruft [TVS]. 1967/68: Fidelio; Heidi kehrt heim [FF]. 1968: Elektra; Der Freischütz; Reisedienst Schwalbe
WILL TREMPER [TVS]. 1968/69: Kapitän Harmsen [TVS]. 1968-70: Ida Rogalski – Mutter von fünf Söhnen [TVS]. 1969: Arabella; Zar und Zimmermann; Weh’ dem, der erbt. 1969/70: Die Teufel von Loudon; Die Journalistin [TVS]. 1970: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Keiner erbt für sich allein. 1970-72: Hamburg Transit. [TVS]; Wozzeck. 1970-74: Der Fall von nebenan [TVS]. 1972: Das Paradies auf der anderen Seite. 1972/73: Eine geschiedene Frau. 1972-78: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau. Geschichten mit Lilli Palmer [TVS]. 1973: Orpheus in der Unterwelt. 1974: Konny und seine drei Freunde [TVS]; Comenius. 1974/75: Eiszeit [FF]; Tadellöser & Wolff. 1975: Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar; Liebe mal so – mal so; Alte Hüte aus Wien. 1975/76: Entscheidungen; Halbzeit [TVS]. 1976: Kein Abend wie jeder andere. 1976/77: Summa Summarum; Menschenfresser. 1977: Herr und Hund; Arabella. 1977/78: Diener und andere Herren; Wilhelm Busch – Die Trickfilmparade: Max und Moritz und andere Streiche [FF – ANI]. 1977-80: Pariser Geschichten [TVS]. 1978: Otto Show. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper; Balthasar im Stau. 1979: Aller guten Dinge sind drei. 1980/81: Ein Zug nach Manhattan. 1982: Heinz Rühmann: Schauspieler, Flieger, Mensch [TVD]; Die Geschwister Oppermann. 1983: Es gibt noch Haselnußsträucher. 1983-93: Diese Drombuschs [TVS]. 1984: Angelan Sota / Angelas Krieg [FF – FI/DE]; Heinz Rühmann liest Geschichten zur Weihnacht in der St. Michaelis Kirche Hamburg. 1986: Heinz Rühmann liest in der St. Michaelis Kirche Hamburg. 1986/87: Die Kameliendame [FF]. 1988: Die Bertinis. 1989: Umwege nach Venedig; Norddeutsche Profile: Zu Gast Gyula Trebitsch [TVD – app]; Begegnungen. Gyula Trebitsch im Gespräch mit Engelbert Sauter [TVD – app]. 1989/90: Das serbische Mädchen [FF]; Fröhliche Erbschaft! 1990/91: Herzlichst, Heinz Rühmann [TVS]; Wohin die Liebe fällt. 1991: Kennen Sie Dieter Meichsner? [TVD – app]; Taxi nach Rathenow; Tote Briefe. Wer kennt Joshua?; La Paloma fliegt nicht mehr. 1992: Heinz Rühmann liest … [TVS]; Herzlichen Glückwunsch: Heinz Rühmann zum 90. Geburtstag [app,pro – DE/AT/CH]; Zeugen des Jahrhunderts: Gyula Trebitsch im Gespräch mit Christa Schulze-Rohr [TVD – app]; 75 Jahre Ufa. Heinz Rühmann: Meine frühen Ufa-Jahre [TVD]. 1992/93: Eine Mörderin. 1993: Der Showmaster; Ein Mann namens Schmidt [TVD – app]; Peter & Paul [TVS]. 1994: Az igazi Trebitsch [TVD – app – HU]; Heinz Rühmann. Kleiner Mann ganz groß [TVD – app]; Unsere Schule ist die beste [TVS]. 1995: Ein Herz für Laura. 1996: Das Recht auf meiner Seite; Das Mahnmal – erbaut, verdrängt, wiederentdeckt [TVD – app]. 1999: Zeitzeugen: Gyula Trebitsch im Gespräch mit Christa Schulze-Rohr [TVD – app]; Film ab! Die Gyula Trebitsch Story [TVD – app]; Kill me softly – Frauenmord in Frankfurt. 2000: Fast ein Gentleman [TVS]; Tanz mit dem Tod [TVD – app]. 2001: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Ein Überlebenskünstler [TVD – app]; Augenzwinkernd durchs Leben – Gustav Knuth [TVD – app]; Legenden – Zarah Leander [TVD – app]. 2002: Jenseits der Ufa. Zum Scheitern des deutschen Nachkriegsfilms [TVD – app].
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WILL TREMPER Born September 19, 1928, Braubach am Rhein (Germany) Died December 14, 1998, Munich (Germany) Originally a journalist, later a screenwriter for 1950s hard-hitting youth dramas, and by the mid-1960s a maverick director working on the edges of sexploitation genres, Tremper was an early example of the non-conformist auteur in postwar West German cinema, incorporating spontaneity and contemporary issues into his work. Sidelined by the next generation, Tremper returned to journalism in the 1970s. Following school, Tremper undertook training as a photo journalist in Berlin. After taking on various short-term jobs, Tremper worked for the DENA news agency as well as writing reports on the filming of SAG DIE WAHRHEIT (Tell the Truth, 1946) and HERZKÖNIG (King of Hearts, 1947), both directed by Helmut Weiss, awakening his interest in films. Over the next years Tremper worked as a ghost writer for Curt Riess on a variety of reports and novels and started working for Inter-West Film in 1955. For producer Wenzel Lüdecke, Tremper wrote the scripts for three of the most dynamic films of the period, all starring Horst Buchholz. DIE HALBSTARKEN (The Hooligans, 1956), directed by Georg Tressler, explored the issue of juvenile delinquency in contemporary Berlin. The follow-up, ENDSTATION LIEBE (Final Destination Love, 1957), again directed by Tressler and starring Buchholz concerned a young man growing into adulthood, while Franz Wysbar’s NASSER ASPHALT (Wet Asphalt, 1958) featured Buchholz as a young reporter who hits upon the biggest scoop of his career. Especially the latter film allowed Tremper to reflect on his own professional experiences, and his ambivalent attitude towards sensationalist tabloid journalism. During this period Tremper continued to write documentary reports, this time for the weekly magazine ‘Stern’. A fortuitous encounter with a Swiss patron in 1960 funded Tremper’s directorial debut, FLUCHT NACH BERLIN (Escape to Berlin, 1960/61), based on a ‘Stern’ report, and one of the few West German films of the time to deal explicitly with the Cold War division of Germany. His next projects also drew on contemporary problems, though the satire ‘Die Russen kommen’ (The Russians Are Coming) was left incomplete as the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 had made much of the narrative obsolete overnight. DIE ENDLOSE NACHT (The Endless Night, 1962/63) was about a group of travellers awaiting their delayed flight and various fates. Several other planned projects at the time did not materialise. Tremper’s first gossipy series for the tabloid ‘Bild’, concerning German cinema during the 1930s and 1940s, appeared in 1963. Tremper’s newspaper sto-
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ries and reports often caused controversies, resulting in court cases and public rows with industry figures. Owing to financial constraints, Tremper was forced to accept a cut in his salary to make PLAYGIRL (1965/ 66), a comment on the sexual revolution which charted the erotic exploits of a fashion model (played by Eva Renzi). The same year he produced SPERRBEZIRK (Red Light District, 1966), a story set among pimps and prostitutes. Unable to find a backer, Tremper was unable to fund further projects, except for WIE KOMMT EIN SO REIZENDES MÄDCHEN ZU DIESEM GEWERBE (How Does Such a Charming
Girl Get Into This Business?, 1969), which was produced by Horst Wendlandt’s Rialto-Film, and which became another sex exposé featuring Klaus Kinski. In the 1970s Tremper worked as a journalist and author – a novel ‘Das TALL-Komplott’ was published in 1973. Tremper withdrew his name from his last script for Eberhard Itzenplitz’s film ROSINENBOMBER (Raisin Bombers, 1988). [(co-)scr – DE] 1955: Griff nach den Sternen. 1956: Die Halbstarken. 1957: Endstation Liebe. 1958: Nasser Asphalt. 1959: Menschen im Netz. 1960/61: Flucht nach Berlin [dir,scr,sma,cut,pro]. 1961/62: Deutschland, Deine Sternchen. 1962/63: Die endlose Nacht [dir,scr,pro]. 1963: Verspätung in Marienborn / Le train de Berlin est arrêté / Un treno è fermo da Berlino [TV – DE/FR/IT]. 1963/ 64: Zimmer 13 / L’attaque du fourgon postal [DE/FR]. 1965: Es [act]. 1965/66: Abschied [TV – act]; Playgirl [dir, scr,pro]. 1966: Sperrbezirk [dir,scr]. 1969: Wie kommt ein so reizendes Mädchen zu diesem Gewerbe? / Dove vai senza mutandine? [dir,scr – DE/IT]. 1969/70: Piggies [TV – act]. 1983: Wiederseh’n macht Freude [TVS]. 1988: Rosinenbomber [TV]. 1990: Karin Baal und die Halbstarken [TVD – app]. 1994/95: Artur Pohl. Ein unbekannter Klassiker [TVD – app]. 1996: Höchstpersönlich: Harald Leipnitz [TVD – app].
LUIS TRENKER Born October 4, 1892, St. Ulrich (Austria-Hungary, now Ortisei, Italy) Died April 12, 1990, Bozen (Bolzano, Italy) Mountaineer, skier, actor and director, Trenker first found fame in the Bergfilme (mountain films) of the late 1920s, then advanced to making his own films during the 1930s and 1940s, usually featuring larger than life heroes played by himself. Trenker went to school in St. Ulrich, Bozen, and Innsbruck. During the holidays he worked as a mountain guide and ski instructor. From 1912 to 1914 he studied architecture in Vienna. During World War I he served as an officer in a mountain patrol in the Dolomites. After the war he completed his studies in Vienna and Graz, working as an architect in Bozen between 1922 and 1927.
His film debut was in DER BERG DES SCHICKSALS (Mountain of Fate, 1923/24) directed by Arnold Fanck. The latter cast him again, alongside a young Leni Riefenstahl, in DER HEILIGE BERG (The Holy Mountain, 1925/26) and DER GROSSE SPRUNG (The Big Jump, 1927). Trenker relocated to Berlin in 1928, and moved into directing. Trenker’s Tyrolean background was the inspiration for many of his films. The war films BERGE IN FLAMMEN (Mountains on Fire, 1931) and DER REBELL (The Rebel, 1932) pleaded for reconciliation between different ethnic groups inhabiting the Alpine region, but also marked a rallying call for national independence. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Trenker’s films began to incorporate some of their ideology. This became particularly apparent in two films set in the United States, DER VERLORENE SOHN (The Prodigal Son, 1933/34) and DER KAISER VON KALIFORNIEN (The Emperor of California, 1935/36), which chronicled the various misfortunes and homesickness of emigrants in an essentially hostile environment. After CONDOTTIERI (1936/37), a historical swashbuckler set in Renaissance Italy, Trenker returned to the mountains. DER BERG RUFT (The Mountain’s Calling, 1937) was a remake of the earlier DER KAMPF UMS MATTERHORN (The Fight for the Matterhorn, 1928) and was also made the same year in an English-language version as THE CHALLENGE (1937), co-directed by Milton Rosmer. Trenker followed this up with the comedy LIEBESBRIEFE AUS DEM ENGADIN (Love Letters from Engadin, 1938). Following further film assignments, including an appearance in Max Kimmich’s anti-British propaganda film GERMANIN (1942/43), which cast Trenker as a German scientist in colonial Africa, he moved to Italy in 1942, where he made a documentary about Pope Pius XII, PASTOR ANGELICUS (1942). Returning to Tyrol in 1949, he subsequently directed a few short documentaries in Munich. He contributed to the Heimatfilm genre in the mid-1950s, acting in and directing VON DER LIEBE BESIEGT (Conquered By Love, 1956) based on his own novel ‘Schicksal am Matterhorn’ (Destiny on the Matterhorn) and directing the star skier Toni Sailer in SEIN BESTER FREUND (His Best Friend, 1962). In his later years he settled into the image of a rustic grandfather figure, a fountain of anecdotes and sage advice. On television Trenker narrated the series LUIS TRENKER ERZÄHLT (Luis Trenker Recounts, 1959–73) and BERGE UND GESCHICHTEN (Mountains and Stories, 1971–73). He also wrote novels and mountain guides. He published his memoirs in 1965 under the title ‘Alles gut gegangen’ (It’s All Gone Smoothly).
GEORG TRESSLER [dir – DE] 1923/24: Der Berg des Schicksals [act]. 1925/26: Südtirol. Ein Vorposten deutscher Kultur [DO – app]; Der heilige Berg [act]. 1927: Der große Sprung [act]. 1928: Der Kampf ums Matterhorn [act,pro]. 1929: Der Ruf des Nordens [act,pro]. 1929/30: Die heiligen drei Brunnen [act]. 1930: Der Sohn der weißen Berge [MLV – sma,act]; Les chevaliers de la montagne [MLV – sma,act – DE/FR]; Die große Sehnsucht [app]. 1931: Berge in Flammen [MLV – co-dir,co-scr,act – DE/FR]; Les monts en flammes [MLV – co-dir,scr,act – DE/FR]. 1931/32: The Doomed Battalion [MLV – co-dir,co-scr,ide,act – DE/US]. 1932: Der Rebell [MLV – co-dir,co-scr,act]; The Rebel [MLV – co-dir,co-scr, sma,act – DE/US]. 1933: 5 Minuten Skikurs [SD – dir,pro]; Dorschfang auf den Lofoten [SD – pro]. 1933/34: Der verlorene Sohn [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1934: Polarstürme [co-dir]. 1935/36: Der Kaiser von Kalifornien [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1936/37: Condottieri [MLV – dir,co-scr,act – IT]; Condottieri [Germna MLV – co-dir,co-scr,ide,act – IT/DE]. 1937: Der Berg ruft [MLV – dir,co-scr,act,pro]; The Challenge [MLV – dir,scr,act,pro – GB/DE]. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne [act]. 1938: Liebesbriefe aus dem Engadin / Lettere d’amore dall’Engadina [co-dir,co-scr,act,pro – DE/IT]; Davos, le paradis du ski dans le Graubündener Land [SD – dir,pro]; Das Skiparadies Parsenn im Graubündener Land [SD – pro]; The Skiing Paradise of the Parsenn in the Graubündener Land [SD – pro]. 1939: Grenzfeuer [pro]; Urlaub im Schnee [SD]; Der König der Berge [SD – dir,scr,pro]. 1939/40: Der Feuerteufel [dir,co-scr,act,pro]. 1940: Unsere Gebirgspioniere [SD – dir,pro]. 1942: Pastor Angelicus [DO – supv – IT]. 1942/43: Germanin [act]. 1943: Monte Miracolo [MLV – dir,co-scr,act – IT/AT]. 1943/48: Im Banne des Monte Miracolo [MLV – dir,scr,act,pro – AT/IT]. 1946/ 47: Erde [pro – AT/CH]. [dir,(co-)scr,pro – SD – DE]. 1949: Bildschnitzer im Grödnertal. 1949/50: Benvenuto, reverendo! [FF – supv – IT]; Barriera a settentrione [FF – dir,scr,act – IT]. 1950: Skiurlaub in den Dolomiten; An der Dolomitenstraße; Frühling in Südtirol; Schönes Venedig; Gondelfahrt durch Venedig; Niemals mutlos. 1950/51: Lofotenfischer; Aus König Laurins Rosengarten; Urlaub im Schnee. 1951/52: Bergsommer; Kleine Kletterfahrt. 1952: Die Sphinx von Zermatt. 1952/53: Sonniges Südtirol. 1953: Liebe zum Fels; Seilbahn und Pulverschnee; Kavaliere im Eis. 1953/54: SOS Zinnen-Nordwand. 1954-56: Gold aus Gletschern [DO – dir,pro]. 1955: Ski Heil! [pro]; Il prigioniero della montagna / Flucht in die Dolomiten [FF – dir,co-scr,act – IT/ DE]; Bergheimat Gröden [DO – act]. 1956: Von der Liebe besiegt [FF – dir,co-scr,sma,act]. 1957: Wetterleuchten um Maria [FF – dir]; Unser Freund der Haflinger [dir,pro]. 1959: Unser Maibaum [pro]. 1959-73: Luis Trenker erzählt [TVS – app]. 1960: Grüß Gott, Herr Pfarrer [dir,scr,cam, pro]. 1962: Sein bester Freund [FF – dir,scr]; Filmatelier in Fels und Eis [app]. 1963-65: Der weiße Rausch – einst und jetzt [DO – co-scr,act]. 1964: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Luis Trenker [TVD – app]; Sonntag in Gröden [app]. 1966: Zwei Wege, ein Gipfel [dir,scr,app]; Zufallsreise [TVD]. 1968: Der Tageslauf eines Bergpfarrers. 1969: Das ist Tirol [voi – AT]; Luftsprünge [TVS – 13 episodes – act]. 1970: Skifreuden in den Dolomiten; Mein Südtirol [TVD]. 1971: Erlebnisse am Matterhorn
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[DO]; Ich filmte am Matterhorn [TVD]. 1971-73: Berge und Geschichten [TVD – 3 episodes – app – AT]. 1972: Komm mit nach Sexten! [dir,scr,act]. 1975: Paradies Tirol – Meran [TVD – dir,scr]. 1975/76: Liebeserklärung an Südtirol [DO]. 1977: Sperrfort Rocca Alta. 1978: Krone der Schönheit. 1979: Heimat aus Gottes Hand [DO]. 1982: Südtirol und seine Bergführer [dir]; Kein Mime – sondern eine Natur [TVD – app]; Heut’ abend … Luis Trenker zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TVD – app]. 1986: Fast ein Jahrhundert – Luis Trenker [TVD – app – DE/AT/IT]. 1989: Wer war Arnold Fanck? [TVD – app].
GEORG TRESSLER (Hans Georg Georg Karl Philipp Tressler) Born January 25, 1917, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died January 6, 2007, Belgern (Germany) Georg Tressler is best known as the director of a handful of powerful West German films of the 1950s, which in their attention to social issues and in their quasi-neorealist style stood in sharp contrast to the typical genre productions of the time. Through his father, actor and director Otto Tressler (1871–1965), Georg Tressler was introduced to acting and played minor film roles as a teenager. After leaving school in Vienna, Tressler moved to Berlin, working as trainee director. He also appeared in director Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s MÄNNER MÜSSEN SO SEIN (Men Have to Act Like That, 1938/39) and drew cartoons. Conscripted in 1940, Tressler was sent to the Eastern Front but contracted yellow fever and returned to Vienna. During the Soviet occupation of Vienna he worked as a ski instructor in Styria. Rabenalt helped him to get a commission to direct the short URLAUB IM SCHNEE (Holiday in the Snow, 1946/47), which was followed by sixteen further shorts and documentaries, mostly made for Austrian ministries and the European Recovery Program (ERP) administration. Unable to get feature film assignments in the Austrian film industry, Tressler moved to West Germany in 1956. For producer Wenzel Lüdecke, he directed the hard-hitting and award-winning youth drama DIE HALBSTARKEN (The Hooligans, 1956). Based on a screenplay by Will Tremper, and shot in atmospheric black and white by cinematographer Heinz Pehlke, the film starred Horst Buchholz as a brooding teen rebel without a cause, and revealed generational conflicts in the Federal Republic that most previous productions had avoided to address. In 1957 Tressler made two other youth-based dramas, UNTER 18 (Under 18), shot in Austria, and ENDSTATION LIEBE (Final Destination Love). The latter once again starred Buchholz, who also took the lead in what arguably became Tressler’s finest film, DAS TOTENSCHIFF (TheShip of the Dead, 1959). A tough, testosterone-fuelled adventure narrative, based on a
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novel by B. Traven, and with Pehlke’s camera creating a high contrast visual style reminiscent of Hollywood film noir, DAS TOTENSCHIFF helped to confirm Buchholz’s star status that would facilitate his later international career. Tressler directed Liechtenstein’s first ever feature film EIN WUNDERBARER SOMMER (A Wonderful Summer, 1958). Attempting to develop an international profile, Tressler then shot in English the Walt Disney biopic of Ludwig van Beethoven, THE MAGNIFICENT REBEL (1960) with Karlheinz Böhm in the title role. The film was not a success, and Tressler’s projected international career ended before it had properly begun. Opportunities in West Germany, meanwhile, also began to dwindle. Only two of his subsequent films, the opera adaptation DIE LUSTIGEN WEIBER VON WINDSOR (The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1964) and the Austrian production DER WEIBSTEUFEL (Devil Woman, 1966) had a cinema release. From the early 1960s Tressler turned almost exclusively to television. He specialised in documentarytype crime films, detective series and family entertainment programmes. Based on screenplays by Ted Willis and starring popular actress Inge Meisel, he also made a string of Christmas specials. Frequently directing episodes of popular detective series such as DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner) and TATORT (Crime Scene), Tressler endeavoured to give a realistic representation of rural life in the industrial age as in DER LIFT (The Elevator, 1971) and DER MILLIONENBAUER (Millionaire Farmer, 1978/79). He also ventured into soft porn exploitation as in STOSSTRUPP VENUS BLÄST ZUM ANGRIFF (2069: A Sex Odyssey, 1974) and SUKKUBUS (1987/88). [act – AT] 1930/31: Sturm im Wasserglas / Die Blumenfrau von Lindenau [AT/DE]. 1935: Episode. 1938/39: Männer müssen so sein [DE]. 1946: Der weite Weg. 1946/47: Urlaub im Schnee [SF – dir,act]. 1947: Spielereien [SF – dir,scr]; Triumph der Liebe. 1948: ArlbergExpress; Maresi. [dir,scr – SD – AT] 1950: Die gute Erde [dir]; Stille Nacht?; Unser Christbaum 1950; Wintermärchen. 1951: Ertragreicher Kartoffelanbau [dir,scr,cut,pro]; Ein interessanter Nachmittag [dir,scr,cut,pro]; Wir zeichnen [dir,scr,pro]. 1952: Hansl und die 200.000 Kücken [dir,scr,cut,pro]; Der neue Gemüsegarten [dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1953: Dein Grünland. 1954: Einsteigen bitte! [SF – dir,co-scr,pro]; Rund um die Milchwirtschaft [dir,co-scr,cut]; Wie die Jungen sungen [SF – dir,co-scr – US/AT]. 1955: Auf Flügeln des Gesanges. Die Wiener Sängerknaben; Keine Sorge Franzl [dir,scr,ide]. [dir – TV – DE] 1956: Die Halbstarken [FF – dir,co-scr]. 1957: Unter 18 [FF – dir,co-scr – AT]; Endstation Liebe [FF]. 1958: Ein wunderbarer Sommer [FF – dir,co-scr – LI]. 1959: Das Totenschiff [FF – dir,co-scr,act,pro – DE/MX].
1960: Geständnis einer Sechzehnjährigen [FF – AT]; The Magnificent Rebel [FF – US]. 1962: Farbenfrohe Stadt [SD – dir,scr]; Siemens Staubsauger [SF]; Mit den Augen unserer Kinder [dir,scr – AT]. 1963: Kriminalgericht: Der Fall Krantz [dir,cut]; Der Fall Nebe [dir,cut]. 1963/64: Der Fall Calmette [dir,cut]. 1964: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor [FF – dir,scr – AT]; Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox! [TVS – 2nd season – 13 episodes]. 1965: Lautlose Jagd [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1965/66: Wenn die Musik nicht wär’ [TVS – 13 episodes]; Kostenpflichtig zum Tode verurteilt. 1965-67: Gertrud Stranitzki [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1966: Der Weibsteufel [FF – dir,co-scr – AT]; Ein Mann, der nichts gewinnt. 1966/67: Das Kriminalmuseum: Teerosen. 1967: Süverkrüps Laube; Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Briefmarke / Wer klingelt schon zur Fernsehzeit? 1967/68: Nationalkomitee ‘Freies Deutschland’. 1968: Der Kommissar: Die Tote im Dornbusch; Der Baum von Kfar Etzyon; Reisedienst Schwalbe [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1969: Der Kommissar: Geld von toten Kassierern; Weh’ dem, der erbt. 1969/70: Die Journalistin [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1970: Der Kommissar: Der kleine Schubelik; Keiner erbt für sich allein. 1970/71: F. M. D. – Psychogramm eines Spielers. 1971: Im Fahrwasser; Der Lift [dir,scr]; Wie das Leben so spielt: Der Ersatzmann. 1972: Tatort: Kennwort Gute Reise. 1972/73: Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre [TVS – 3rd season – 8 episodes]; Eiger. 1973/74: Dein gutes Recht [TVS – 13 episodes]. 1974: Stoßtrupp Venus bläst zum Angriff / Ach, jodel mir noch einen – Stoßtrupp Venus bläst zum Angriff [FF – AT/DE]. 1975: Die Kleine mit dem süßen Po [FF – AT]; Inspektion Lauenstadt [TVS – 11 episodes]. 1976: Ein Mann für Mama; Ausgerissen! Was nun? [TV – 6 episodes]. 1978: Faxe-Bier [SF]; Geschichten aus der Zukunft: Geliebte Knechtschaft. 1978/79: Der Millionenbauer; Krelling. 1980: Der Wurschtl; Familienfest; Knobbes Knoten und andere Geschichten aus der Schulzeit; … und ab geht die Post! 1980/ Drunter und Drüber [TVS – 6 episodes]. 1982: Kurtheater Holtendieck [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1983: Tatort: Geburtstagsgrüße. 1984: Freund mit Rolls Royce [dir,co-scr]. 1985: Mütter und Töchter. 1986/87: Kontakt bitte … [TVS – 4th season – 2 episodes]. 1987: Auch das noch [TVS – 3 episodes]; Sukkubus [FF]. 1988: Angst vor dem Höllenfeuer [TVD – co-dir]. 1991/92: Die Hütte am See [TVS – season 1 – 4 episodes]. 1992: Schloß Hohenstein. Irrwege des Glücks [TVS – season 1 – 6 episodes]. 1992/93: Marienhof [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1994: Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1996: Schöne G’schichten mit Helmut Fischer [TVS – 2 episodes].
MONIKA TREUT (aka Tonike Traum) Born April 6, 1954, Mönchengladbach (West Germany) Underground filmmaker and documentarist Monika Treut’s films since the mid-1980s frequently explored (taboo) issues of female sexuality, queer politics, gender roles, exile, and social activism. Many of her films centred on, and celebrated, social as well as sexual outsiders, and other non-conformists.
MARGARETHE VON TROTTA
After studying literature, Treut began working with video in 1976 and began to meet other women filmmakers, including Helke Sander and Elfi Mikesch. In 1984 she founded with the latter the production company Hyäne (Hyena). Mikesch became a close collaborator on Treut’s later films, especially as Treut’s frequent cinematographer, and had a significant influence on the visual look of her films. Their first feature-length film together, VERFÜHRUNG: DIE GRAUSAME FRAU (Seduction: The Cruel Woman, 1984/85) was based on the work of Leopold Sacher-Masoch, and explored, through an experimental narrative collage, sadomasochist fantasies among women. Owing to its stylish portrayal of rituals of submission, the film was attacked by some feminist critics. Treut and Mikesch’s next film, DIE JUNGFRAUENMASCHINE (The Virgin Machine, 1987/88) wittily told the story of a young woman (Ina Blum) who travels to the United States, where she explores the various facets of the American lesbian subculture. MY FATHER IS COMING (1990/91), shot in the United States, was the comic tale of a young queer German woman (Shelley Kästner), who is visited by her boorish Bavarian father (Alfred Edel). Based since 1990 mainly in the United States, where she taught at various colleges and universities, many of her subsequent films were documentaries. FEMALE MISBEHAVIOR (1983–92) featured queer academic Camille Paglia alongside ‘porn activist’ Annie Sprinkle and female-to-male transsexual Max Valerio, the latter two reappearing in the later GENDERNAUTS (1998). DIDN’T DO IT FOR LOVE (1995–97) was a portrait of a Norwegian-born dominatrix. In the new millennium, Treut expanded her spectrum, both in terms of themes and cultural contexts. KRIEGERIN DES LICHTS (Warrior of Light, 2000/ 01) portrayed a social worker in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, while DEN TIGERFRAUEN WACHSEN FLÜGEL (Tiger Women Grow Wings, 2004) documented the changes in social status of and opportunities for women in Taiwan, where she produced her next feature film GHOSTED (2008/09). [filmmaker – DO – DE] 1980: Berlinale 80 [co-filmmaker]; Space Chaser [co-filmmaker]. 1981: Ich brauche unbedingt Kommunikation; Kotz-Bitchband [SD]; Wie geht das Kamel durchs Nadelöhr? [co-cam,cut]. 1983-92: Female Misbehavior: 1. Bondage / 2. Annie / 3. Dr. Paglia / 4. Max [4 episodes – DE/US]. 1984/85: Verführung: Die grausame Frau [FF – co-filmmaker]. 1987/88: Die Jungfrauenmaschine [FF]. 1989: Marocain [TV – co-scr]. 1990/ 91: My Father Is Coming [FF]. 1992: Dr. Paglia [SF]. 1993: Domenica. Alle kommen, keiner war da [FF – act]. 1993/ 94: Erotique / Let’s Talk About Sex: Taboo Parlor [SF – DE/ US/HK]. 1995-97: Didn’t Do It For Love. 1996: Danske Piger viser alt – En film i 20 kapitler: Casting [SF – US/DK]. 1998: Gendernauts – Eine Reise ins Land der neuen Ge-
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schlechter. 1999-2003: Axensprung: Ein Reisetagebuch. 2000/01: Kriegerin des Lichts. 2003: Begegnung mit Werner Schroeter [SD]. 2004: Den Tigerfrauen wachsen Flügel [DE/RC]. 2005: Mädchengeschichten: Made in Taiwan [TVD – DE/RC]. 2008/09: Ghosted [DE/TW]
MARGARETHE VON TROTTA (Margarethe Maria von Trotta) Born February 21, 1942, Berlin Among the female directors of the New German cinema of the 1970s, Trotta had the highest public and international profile. Originally an actress, Trotta devoted herself almost exclusively to directing since 1977. Her films, ranging from literary adaptations to biopics and melodramas, invariably foreground a female perspective. Towards the end of World War II, Trotta moved with her mother to Düsseldorf. She completed a business course before working in an office. While in Paris, she first came into contact with the film industry and assisted on shoots. Returning to Düsseldorf she started to study art, French and German in Munich and Paris, while taking acting lessons in Munich. In 1964 she made her stage debut in Dinkelsbühl, followed by engagements in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. Appearing in films and on television from 1967, Trotta’s style of acting contrasted elements of restraint with emotional intensity, showcased in productions by Volker Schlöndorff (BAAL, 1969), Fassbinder (GÖTTER DER PEST, Gods of the Plague, 1969/70) and Herbert Achternbusch (DIE ATLANTIKCHWIMMER, The Atlantic Swimmers, 1975). Collaborating with Schlöndorff, her husband at the time, Trotta began writing screenplays. She co-wrote and co-directed the politically explosive Böll adaptation DIE VERLORENE EHRE DER KATHARINA BLUM (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, 1975), the first major commercial success of New German cinema and award winner at the San Sebastian film festival. In 1976 Trotta wrote a stage version of the same material. Later active principally as a director, Trotta’s first independent film set the standards for her subsequent work. The award-winning DAS ZWEITE ERWACHEN DER CHRISTA KLAGES (The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, 1977) told the story of a child-minder who robs a bank to support her nursery. International acclaim at film festivals in Venice, Valladolid, Chicago and Berlin followed for DIE BLEIERNE ZEIT (Marianne and Juliane / The German Sisters, 1981), a fictionalized portrait of the terrorist Gudrun Ensslin and her journalist sister Christiane. HELLER WAHN (Friends and Husbands, 1982), a domestic melodrama set against a plush high society background, marked a stark contrast to her previous films and had a mixed critical reception, but it re-
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vealed Trotta’s interest in melodrama as a formal strategy of addressing women’s issues. She repeatedly employed melodramatic conventions in her subsequent films. Made in 1985, Trotta’s historical biopic ROSA LUXEMBURG starring Barbara Sukowa gained the 1986 German Film Award as well as an award at Karlovy Vary. From the late 1980s, Trotta’s films were frequently co-productions, mainly with French and Italian partners. At the beginning of the 1990s Trotta directed two films in Italy, L’AFRICANA (The African Woman, 1990), a wordy love triangle, and the anti-mafia tale IL LUNGO SILENZIO (Storm Time, 1992/93). DAS VERSPRECHEN (The Promise, 1993/94), an epic drama set in the 1970s and chronicling a story of love and separation set against the Cold War division of Germany, had the most high profile release of her films in a decade. ROSENSTRASSE (2003), won acclaim for its portrayal of two women set against the racial divide imposed during the Nazi period. ICH BIN DIE ANDERE (I Am the Other, 2005/06) was a Hitchcockian psycho-thriller, while VISION (2008/ 09) reunited Trotta with Sukowa, playing the lead role in a story about Hildegard von Bingen, a medieval nun and mystic. [act – DE] 1961: Morte le mort plus rien ne meurt [co-scr, ass-dir – FR]. 1967: Tränen trocknet der Wind … 1967/ 1981: Rêce do góry / Hands Up! [act – PL/GB]. 1968/69: Spielst du mit schrägen Vögeln. 1969: Brandstifter [TV]; Baal [TV]. 1969/70: Götter der Pest; Drücker [TV]; Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? 1970: Hauptbahnhof München [TVS – 3 episodes]; Der amerikanische Soldat; Der Kommissar: Der kleine Schubelik [TV]; Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach [co-scr,act]. 1970/71: Paul Esbeck [TV]; Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte. 1971: Der Kommissar: Tod eines Ladenbesitzers [TV]; Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass [TV – ass-dir,act]. 1972: Strohfeuer [TV – co-scr,act]; Der Fall von nebenan: Alkoholiker [TV]; Motiv – Liebe: Wochenende mit Waltraud [TV]. 1972/73: Ein Fall für Männdli: Die Verrückte [TV – CH]; Desaster [TV]. 1973: Der Kommissar: Sonderbare Vorfälle im Hause von Professor S. [TV]. 1973/74: Übernachtung in Tirol [TV]. 1974: Une invitation à la chasse / Einladung zur Jagd [TV – FR/ DE]; Das Andechser Gefühl; Georginas Gründe [TV]. 1974-76: Nouvelles de Henry James: Les Raisons de Georgina [TV – FR/DE]. 1975: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [co-dir,co-scr]; Die Atlantikschwimmer. 1976: Der Fangschuß / Coup de grâce [co-scr,act – DE/FR]. 1976/77: Bierkampf. [dir,(co-)scr – DE] 1977: Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages [dir,co-scr]. 1977-79: Die Patriotin: Bundeswehrlied [dir]. 1979: Schwestern oder Die Balance des Glücks; Margarethe von Trotta. Porträt einer Regisseurin [TVD – app]. 1981: Die bleierne Zeit; Die Fälschung / Le faussaire [co-scr – DE/FR]. 1982: Heller Wahn / L’amie [DE/FR]. 1982/83: Die Anstalt [SD – pro]. 1983/84: Unerreichbare Nähe [co-scr]; Blaubart [TV – dir – DE/CH]. 1985: Möte med Margarethe von Trotta [TVD – app – SE]; ‘Ein Film aus
Gesten, Blicken, Zwischentönen’ [TVD]; Rosa Luxemburg. 1985/86: Die Lust zu kämpfen – die Kraft zu lieben [TVD – app]. 1986: Felix: Eva. 1987/88: Paura e amore / Fürchten und Lieben / Trois soeurs [IT/DE/FR]. 1990: Mannsbilder – Oskar Lafontaine [TVD – app]; L’africana / Die Rückkehr / L’Africaine [IT/DE/FR]. 1992/93: Il lungo silenzio / Le long silence / Zeit des Zorns [dir – IT/FR/DE]. 1993/94: Das Versprechen / Les années du mur [DE/CH/FR]. 1994: Hanna Schygulla – ‘Mein Leben, ein Traum?’ [TVD – app]; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1995: Die Neugier immer weiter treiben – Die filmische Befreiung der Margarethe von Trotta [TVD – app]. 1997: Winterkind [TV]; Corinna Harfouch. Porträt einer preußische Diva [TVD – app]. 1998: Mit fünfzig küssen Männer anders [TV – dir]. 1998/99: Dunkle Tage [TV]. 1999/2000: À l’ombre d’Hollywood / In the Shadow of Hollywood [DO – app – CA]; Jahrestage – Aus dem Leben von Gesine Cresspahl [TV – dir]. 2000: Mit Leidenschaft und Neugier – Die Regisseurin Margarethe von Trotta [TVD – app]. 2001: Mit Oskar zum Oscar – Volker Schlöndorff [TVD – app]. 2003: Rosenstraße [DE/NL]; Gero von Boehm begegnet … Margarethe von Trotta [TVD – app]; Die andere Frau [TV – dir]. 2004: Von Sex bis Simmel. Anmerkungen zum deutschen Film der 70er Jahre [TVD – app]. 2005/06: Margarethe von Trotta – Mit Herz und Verstand [TVD – app]; Ich bin die Andere [dir]. 2006/07: Tatort: Unter uns [TV – dir]. 2008: Achternbusch [DO – app]. 2008/09: Vision.
OLGA TSCHECHOWA (Olga von Knipper, aka Olga Chekhova) Born April 26, 1895, Alexandropol, Russia (now Gyumri, Armenia) Died March 9, 1980, Munich (West Germany) Born into a famous artistic family, Tschechowa became known in German films from the 1920s to the 1970s as an elegant femme fatale and sophisticated grande dame, hardly ever varying her on-screen image. Tschechowa spent her childhood in Georgia, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Her parents were connected to the court of the Czar and her aunt, the actress Olga Knipper (1868–1959), was married to the writer Anton Èehov (Chekhov). Tschechowa studied sculpture in Moscow and attended classes at Stanislavski’s drama school. She played small stage roles before marrying the actor Mihail Èehov (Mikhail Chekhov), Anton’s nephew. In 1917 she began appearing in films in Moscow. In 1920 Tschechowa moved to Berlin, where she first worked as a poster artist. Stage roles followed. Her early screen successes included playing a baroness in F. W. Murnau’s SCHLOSS VOGELÖD (The Haunted Castle, 1921), and the title role in Berthold Viertel’s adaptation of Ibsen’s NORA (A Doll’s House, 1922/23). Occasionally Tschechowa appeared in films in France, such as UN CHAPEAU DE PAILLE D’ITALIE
OLGA TSCHECHOWA
(An Italian Straw Hat, 1927) and in England, where she starred as a glamorous musical star in E. A. Dupont’s melodrama MOULIN ROUGE (1927/28). Between 1928 and 1929, she co-produced five films and directed DER NARR SEINER LIEBE (Foolishness of His Love, 1929) with her then husband as the male lead. In 1930 Tschechowa became a German citizen. She appeared in early sound film hits such as DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE (Three Good Friends, 1930) and played the leading part in MARY, the German version of Alfred Hitchcock’s MURDER (1930). Subsequently, her roles became increasingly decorative, and she was often cast as ‘the other woman’, as in Max Ophüls’s LIEBELEI (Light O’Love, 1932–34). Typecast as a cool and invariably bored aristocrat, she perfected this persona in BURGTHEATER (1936) and ANDREAS SCHLÜTER (1941/42). She played a female lead as an Irish patriot married to a dastardly Brit in the anti-British propaganda film DER FUCHS VON GLENARVON (The Fox of Glenarvon, 1940). After World War II her film appearances became more sporadic. RITTMEISTER WRONSKI (Captain Wronski, 1954) was notable for reuniting several older stars, such as Willy Birgel, Rudolf Forster and Tschechowa’s silent-film partner Paul Hartmann. In 1950 she attempted to establish a production company but had effectively retired from the cinema industry by the end of the 1950s. Having trained as a beautician in 1937, Tschechowa opened a beauty salon and started a cosmetics company in 1958, which she continued to run until her death. In 1970, Tschechowa appeared in the television series DUELL ZU DRITT (Three-way duel) alongside her granddaughter, Vera Tschechowa (b. 1940), who developed into a prolific and acclaimed actress in her own right. Shortly after, Tschechowa made a cinema comeback by appearing in DIE ZWILLINGE VOM IMMENHOF (Twins from Immenhof, 1973) and its sequel FRÜHLING AUF IMMENHOF (Spring In Immenhof, 1974). The actor and director Vadim Glowna, Vera’s husband from 1967 to 1971, made a film about their family TSCHECHOW IN MEINEM LEBEN (Chekhov in My Life, 1984). Tschechowa published two autobiographies ‘Ich verschweige nichts’ (I Won’t Keep Anything from You, 1952) and ‘Meine Uhr geht anders’ (My Clock Ticks Differently, 1973). In 2004, a widely discussed biography by British historian Anthony Beevor, ‘The Mystery of Olga Chekhova’, revisited a number of rumours that had been circulating since the postwar period, most notably that Tschechowa had secretly acted as a Soviet spy during World War II. [act – DE] 1917/18: Anja Kraeva [RU]. 1918: Kaliostro [RU]; Posledenie prikljuèenija Arsena Ljupena [RU]. 1920/21: Hochstapler. 1921: Schloß Vogelöd; Violett. 1921/22: Der
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Todesreigen; Scheine des Todes. 1922: Der Kampf ums Ich. 1922/23: Nora; Die Pagode [act,pro]; Tatjana. 1923: Der verlorene Schuh; Die Fahrt ins Glück. 1924: Soll und Haben; Die Bacchantin. 1924/25: Die Venus vom Montmartre; Die Millionenkompagnie; Die Stadt der Versuchung. 1925: Das alte Ballhaus [2 parts]; Liebesgeschichten; Soll man heiraten?; Die Gesunkenen; Der Mann aus dem Jenseits. 1925/26: Die Mühle von Sanssouci. 1926: Familie Schimeck; Trude, die Sechzehnjährige; Der Feldherrnhügel [DE/AT]; Der Mann im Feuer; Sein großer Fall; Brennende Grenze. 1926/27: Das Meer; Die selige Exzellenz. 1927: Der Meister der Welt; Un chapeau de paille d’Italie [FR]. 1927/28: Moulin Rouge [GB]. 1928: Marter der Liebe; Weib in Flammen [act,pro]; After the Verdict / Die Siegerin [MLV – act,pro – GB/DE]. 1928/29: Diane [act,pro]. 1929: Die Liebe der Brüder Rott [act, pro]; Der Narr seiner Liebe [dir,act,pro]; § 173 StGB. Blutschande; Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer. 1929/30: Liebe im Ring; Troika. 1930: Der Detektiv des Kaisers; Die große Sehnsucht [app]; Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV]; Le chemin du paradis [MLV]; Liebling der Götter; Zwei Krawatten; Ein Mädel von der Reeperbahn / Lidé v bouøi [DE/ CS]; Mary. Sir John greift ein [MLV – GB]. 1930/31: Liebe auf Befehl [MLV – US]. 1931: Panik in Chicago; Die Nacht der Entscheidung [MLV – US/FR]; Das Konzert [MLV – FR/ US]; Nachtkolonne. 1932: Trenck; Spione im Savoy-Hotel. 1932/33: Der Choral von Leuthen; Liebelei [MLV]. 193234: ‘Liebelei’. Une histoire d’amour [MLV – FR]. 1933: Wege zur guten Ehe [MLV]; L’Amour qu’il faut aux femmes [MLV – DE/FR]; Ein gewisser Herr Gran [MLV]; Un certain M. Grant [MLV]; Um ein bißchen Glück [MLV – CS]; Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten; Der Polizeibericht meldet … Die Frau im schwarzen Schleier. 1933/34: Zwischen zwei Herzen. 1934: Die Welt ohne Maske; Maskerade [AT]; Was bin ich ohne Dich?; Abenteuer eines jungen Herrn in Polen; Regine; Peer Gynt. 1934/35: Asew / Lockspitzel Asew [AT/DE]. 1935: Die ewige Maske [CH]; Liebesträume [MLV – HU]; Künstlerliebe; Sylvia und ihr Chauffeur [AT]. 1935/36: Die weissen Teufel [CH/DE]; Der Favorit der Kaiserin. 1936: Seine Tochter ist der Peter [AT]; L’Argent [FR]; Manja Valewska [AT]; Hannerl und ihre Liebhaber [AT]; Burgtheater [AT]. 1936/37: Liebe geht seltsame Wege. 1937: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Filmstars privat: Olga Tschechowa [SD]; Die gelbe Flagge; Gewitterflug zu Claudia. 1937/38: Das Mädchen mit dem guten Ruf; Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Rote Orchideen; Verliebtes Abenteuer; Der Trichter [SD]; Zwei Frauen. 1938/39: Bel Ami; Ich verweigere die Aussage. 1939: Parkstraße 13; Die unheimlichen Wünsche; Befreite Hände. 1939/40: Angelika; Leidenschaft. 1940: Der Fuchs von Glenarvon. 1941: Menschen im Sturm. 1941/42: Andreas Schlüter. 1942: Mit den Augen einer Frau. 1942/43: Reise in die Vergangenheit. 1943: Der ewige Klang; Gefährlicher Frühling. 1943/44: Melusine. 1944/45-1948: Mit meinen Augen. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume. 1949: Eine Nacht im Séparée. 1949/50: Kein Engel ist so rein. 1950: Maharadscha wider Willen; Zwei in einem Anzug; Aufruhr im Paradies [act,pro]; Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte. 1950/51: Eine Frau mit Herz [act,pro]; Begierde; Talent zum Glück [act,pro]. 1951: Mein Freund,
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der Dieb. 1951/52: Hinter Klostermauern [act,pro]. 1953: Heute nacht passiert’s; Alles für Papa. 1954: Rosen-Resli; Rittmeister Wronski. 1955: Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen; Die Barrings. 1958: U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien. 1963: Jack und Jenny. 1967: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Olga Tschechowa [TVD – app]. 1970: Duell zu dritt [TVS]. 1970/71: Gestrickte Spuren [TV – AT]. 1973: Die große Rolle: Jud Süß – die Alptraumrolle [TVD – app]; Die Zwillinge vom Immenhof. 1974: Frühling auf Immenhof. 1979: Das ist Ihr Leben: Olga Tschechowa [TV – app]. 1995: Olga Tschechowa – Eleganz und Arbeit [DO].
KONSTANTIN TSCHET (Konstantin Chetverikov; aka Irmen-Tschet) Born June 24, 1902, Moscow (Russia) Died May 27, 1977, Munich (West Germany) One of Ufa’s star cinematographers, Tschet specialised in special effects sequences, while also photographing lavish 1930s studio extravaganzas and early Agfacolor productions. The great-nephew of theatre director, theorist and reformer Konstantin Stanislavski, Tschet came to Berlin in the early 1920s and started out as a camera assistant at Ufa. He worked primarily with special effects expert Günther Rittau, e.g. on miniature sequences including the futuristic cityscapes in Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (1925/26) and the rocket launch in Lang’s FRAU IM MOND (Woman in the Moon, 1928/29). It was during this period that he adopted the name Irmen-Tschet, under which he worked for several years. He served as second cameraman alongside Rittau on Joe May’s HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1928), before shooting several big entertainment pictures and crime thrillers – mostly together with Rittau, although occasionally with Otto Baecker – following the introduction of sound. These included Hanns Schwarz’s BOMBEN AUF MONTE CARLO / MONTE CARLO MADNESS, Robert Siodmak’s VORUNTERSUCHUNG (Inquest, both 1931), Karl Hartl’s F.P. 1 ANTWORTET NICHT (F.P. 1, 1932), and Reinhold Schünzel’s VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, 1933), most of them produced in multiple language versions. In 1933 and 1934, he also photographed five pictures for director Hans Steinhoff, among them the propaganda film HITLERJUNGE QUEX (Hitler Youth Quex, 1933). Tschet continued both as a special effects expert and as cinematographer on numerous major international hits for Ufa up to 1945. His camerawork stood out especially in Paul Martin’s EIN BLONDER TRAUM / HAPPY EVER AFTER (1932) and GLÜCKSKINDER (Lucky Kids, 1936), Herbert Maisch’s KÖNIGSWALZER (The Royal Waltz, 1935) and Georg Jacoby’s KORA TERRY (1940). Tschet was entrusted with shooting the first
German colour feature, Jacoby’s FRAUEN SIND DOCH BESSERE DIPLOMATEN (Women Are Better Diplomats, 1939–41), as well as the Agfacolor spectacle celebrating Ufa’s 25th anniversary, Josef von Báky’s MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43). The film featured Brigitte Horney, who was marred to Tschet from 1941 to 1954. After the war, Tschet worked on a number of entertainment pictures directed by old colleagues such as Josef von Báky, Viktor Tourjansky, and Georg Jacoby, while also collaborating repeatedly with director Franz Schnyder in Switzerland. From 1960, he turned almost exclusively to documentaries and industrial films, and his final position was as head cameraman at the company Insel-Film. [cam – DE] 1925/26: Metropolis [co-cam]. 1926/27: Der Weltkrieg. 2. Des Volkes Not [DO – co-cam]. 1928: Heimkehr [co-cam]. 1928/29: Frau im Mond [co-cam]. 1929/ 30: Liebeswalzer [MLV]; The Love Waltz [MLV – co-cam]. 1930: Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragödie des Untermieters [SF – co-cam]; Liebling der Götter [co-cam]; Einbrecher [MLV – co-cam]; Flagrant délit [MLV – co-cam]; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht]. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV – co-cam]; Voruntersuchung [MLV]; Autour d’une enquête [MLV – co-cam]; Princesse! À vos ordres! [MLV – co-cam]; Bomben auf Monte Carlo [MLV]; Le capitaine Craddock [MLV – co-cam]; Monte Carlo Madness [MLV – co-cam]; Der Hochtourist. 1931/32: Aufforderung zum Tanz [SF – co-cam]. 1932: Der Frechdachs [MLV – cocam]; Ein toller Einfall [MLV – co-cam]; Vous serez ma femme [MLV]; Schuß im Morgengrauen [MLV]; Coup de feu à l’aube [MLV – co-cam]; Ein blonder Traum [MLV – co-cam]; Un rêve blond [MLV – co-cam]; Happy Ever After [MLV – co-cam]; F.P. 1 antwortet nicht [MLV – co-cam]; I.F. 1 ne répond plus [MLV – co-cam]; F.P. 1 [MLV]. 1933: Liebe muß verstanden sein [co-cam]; Hitlerjunge Quex; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV]; Georges et Georgette [MLV]. 1934: Freut euch des Lebens; Die Insel [MLV]; Vers l’abîme [MLV]; Lockvogel [MLV]; Le miroir aux alouettes [MLV]; Zwei Genies [SF]. 1935: Königswalzer [MLV]; Valse royale [MLV]; Die Geige lockt [SF]; Mazurka. 1935/36: Die letzten Vier von Santa Cruz; Was ein Häkchen werden will [SF]; Früh übt sich … [SF – co-cam]. 1936: Weiberregiment; Boccaccio; Glückskinder [MLV]; Les gais lurons [MLV]. 1936/37: Menschen ohne Vaterland. 1937: Sieben Ohrfeigen; Fanny Elßler; Gasparone. 1937/38: Großalarm. 1938: Fortsetzung folgt!; Nanon [co-cam]. 1938/39: Castelli in aria [MLV – IT]; Ins blaue Leben [MLV – IT]. 1939: Der Gouverneur; Hallo Janine. 1939-41: Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten [co-cam]. 1940: Kora Terry. 1940/ 41: Männerwirtschaft. 1942: Bunter Reigen [SF]. 1942/43: Münchhausen [co-cam]. 1943/44: Die Frau meiner Träume; Das Hochzeitshotel. 1944/45: Der Posaunist; Der Puppenspieler. 1948: Nach dem Sturm [CH/AT/LI]. 1948/49: Barry – Moines du Mont Saint-Bernard [co-cam – CH/FR]. 1949: Verspieltes Leben; Der blaue Strohhut. 1950: Alles für die Firma; Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte; Die fidele
ULRICH TUKUR Tankstelle. 1950/51: Unvergängliches Licht. 1951: Frischer Wind in alten Gassen [SD]; Heidelberger Romanze. 1951/ 52: Palace Hotel [CH]. 1952: Das kann jedem passieren; Wir tanzen auf dem Regenbogen [MLV – DE/IT]. 1952/ 53: Der träumende Mund. 1953: Salto mortale; Die geschiedene Frau [co-cam]. 1954: Hoheit lassen bitten; Unternehmen Xarifa [DO]; Weg in die Vergangenheit [AT]. 1955: Der Glücksbringer [SF]. 1956: Vergiß, wenn Du kannst [DE/AT]. 1957: Der 10. Mai [CH]. 1958: Die Käserei in der Vehfreude [CH]. 1960: Moderne Technik im Scheine des Lichtbogens [DO]; Anne Bäbi Jowäger. 1. Wie Jakobli zu einer Frau kommt / 2. Jakobli und Meyeli [CH]. 1961: Der Konzern [DO – co-cam]. 1963: ASTA-Arzneimittel [SD]. 1964: Geld und Geist [CH]. 1965: Körnermais in der Gascogne [SD]. 1965/66: Afrika tanzt [DO]. 1966: Eine Stadt bewirbt sich [SD]; 90 Jahre deutscher Geschichte – 90 Jahre Konrad Adenauer [DO – co-cam]. 1966/67: Neptun bittet zu Tisch [SD]. 1972: 18 Bilder mit der Hand [TVD – app].
ULRICH TUKUR (Ulrich Gerhard Scheurlen) Born July 29, 1957, Viernheim (West Germany) Actor Tukur established himself from the mid-1980s with intense performances. His breakthrough was his portrayal of RAF terrorist Andreas Baader in the controversial STAMMHEIM (1985). Tukur went to school in Hannover and Boston, before studying German, English and History at Tübingen, while jobbing as an accordion player and singer. From 1980 to 1983 he took acting courses at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart, making his stage debut in 1982. His film debut was Michael Verhoeven’s Nazi period drama DIE WEISSE ROSE (The White Rose, 1981/ 82). Several smaller parts followed, including in Percy Adlon’s DIE SCHAUKEL (The Swing, 1983), before he came to public attention with his charismatic performance as the articulate and demagogic terrorist Andreas Baader in Reinhard Hauff’s courtroom drama STAMMHEIM. The film attracted considerable political controversies when it won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival; and it catapulted Tukur into the first league of German actors. Tukur subsequently played the title role as a ‘feminist man’, artificially created in a laboratory, in FELIX (1986) – a rather leaden portemanteau comedy directed by various prominent feminist filmmakers. In a TV production of Wedekind’s LULU (1991), he acted alongside Susanne Lothar’s title character. For director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg, Tukur convincingly impersonated two famous and very different German film actors of the past, Hans Albers in the semi-documentary IN MEINEM HERZEN, SCHATZ … (In My Heart, Darling, 1988/89), and Conrad Veidt in a biopic of Reinhold Schünzel, BEIM NÄCHSTEN KUSS KNALL ICH IHN NIEDER (At the Next Kiss I’ll
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Shoot Him Down, 1994/95). Blumenberg and Tukur collaborated again on the crime comedy ROTWANG MUSS WEG! (Rotwang Must Go!, 1993/94), in which Tukur had a cameo as himself. A regular presence on German television, Tukur’s changeability as an actor predestined him to portray real-life characters, such as Friedrich Engels in LENZ ODER DIE FREIHEIT (The Lenz Papers, 1986), and Social Democrat politician Herbert Wehner in WEHNER – DIE UNERZÄHLTE GESCHICHTE (Wehner – The Untold Story, 1992). In Michael Verhoeven’s multinational production MUTTERS COURAGE (My Mother’s Courage, 1994/ 95) he was cast as an SS officer. This was not the first and only time that his blond, blue-eyed looks typecast him in this way, although mostly he managed to imbue his characters with a greater subtlety and humanity than is customary in these kinds of roles. This applied to his SS officer in Costa-Gavras’s AMEN (2001/02), and to his conscientious Wehrmacht officer in the TV production STAUFFENBERG (2003/04). A rare Hollywood assignment was Steven Soderbergh’s science fiction remake SOLARIS (2002) alongside George Clooney. In 2005 Tukur played US-General Lucius D. Clay in the TV-spectacle DIE LUFTBRÜCKE – NUR DER HIMMEL WAR FREI (The Big Lift) and Helmut Schmidt, then Minister of the Interior of the City of Hamburg in DIE NACHT DER GROSSEN FLUT (The Night of the Big Flood), about one the greatest natural disasters to hit postwar Germany. The same year he received a German Film Award for his portrayal of a Stasi officer in the Oscar success DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN (The Lives of Others). He won another one for his portrayal of JOHN RABE (2007–09), as the Nazi businessman who tried to protect Chinese civilians during the Nanking Massacre of 1937. In a lighter vein, Tukur made his first record ‘Tanzpalast’ in 1990 and subsequently toured and recorded with his swing band, ‘Die Rhythmus Boys’. He sang and played the lead in Peter Weck’s musical ‘Freudiana’ (1991) as well as in his own production of the revue ‘Blaubart’s Orchester’ (Bluebeard’s Orchestra, 1993/94). In collaboration with his second wife, the photographer Katharina John, he published an illustrated collection of stories ‘Die Seerose im Speisesaal’ in 2007. [act – TV – DE] 1981/82: Die weiße Rose [FF]. 1983: Die Schaukel [FF]; Liebe Melanie. 1983/84: Kaltes Fieber [FF]; Die Story [FF]; Le dernier civil / Der letzte Zivilist [FR/DE]. 1984: Ghetto. 1985: Stammheim [FF]. 1986: Lenz oder die Freiheit; Solaris TV – der freundliche Sender im All [TVS]; Felix [FF]. 1987/88: Ballhaus Barmbek – Let’s Kiss and Say Goodbye [FF]; Wo immer du bist … / Gdziekolwiek jest, jeli jest [FF – voi – DE/PL]. 1988: Julius Caesar.
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1988/89: In meinem Herzen, Schatz … [DO]; Das Milliardenspiel. 1989: Musikalisches Intermezzo: ‘Ach, verzeih’n Sie, meine Dame …’. 1989/90: Werner – Beinhart! [ANI – voi]. 1991: Die Kaltenbach-Papiere; Lulu. 1991/92: Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers [FF]. 1992: Den demokratiske terroristen / Der demokratische Terrorist [FF – SE/DE]; Wenn ich sonntags in mein Kino geh’ … [TVD]; Kleiner Furz [ANI – mus]; Wehner – Die unerzählte Geschichte. 1992/93: Das letzte U-Boot; Glückliche Reise: Dominicanische Republik. 1993: Maus und Katz. 1993/94: Felidae [ANI – voi]; Rotwang muß weg! [FF – mus,act]. 1994: Die Fröste der Freiheit; Goethes Faust Wurzel aus 1+2; Der König: Lebendig begraben; Geschäfte [AT]; Blaubarts Orchester [co-scr,act]; Schöne Frauen, schöne Leichen – Blaubart backstage [TVD]. 1994/95: Verweile doch, du bist so schön [TVD]; Mutters Courage / My Mother’s Courage [FF – DE/GB/AT]; Der Mörder und sein Kind; Beim nächsten Kuß knall ich ihn nieder! [FF]. 1995: Letzte und erste Tage; Tár úr steini [FF – IS]; Profile: Ulrich Tukur [TVD – app]; Das Alibi; Nikolaikirche; Draußen vor der Tür; Charms Zwischenfälle [FF – AT]; Lieder, so schön wie der Norden. 1996: Tatort: Perfect Mind – Im Labyrinth. 1996/97: Männer brauchen Liebe [FF – co-scr]; Zu Gast bei Ulrich Tukur [TVD]; Freier Fall. 1997: Ein Vater sieht rot; Blutige Scheidung; Der komische Kintopp [TVS – voi]; Einmal Casanova sein [co-scr,act]; Das Böse. 1998: Zu Gast bei Ulrich Tukur [TVD]. 1998/99: Pünktchen und Anton [FF]. 1999: Warten ist der Tod; Heimatabend 1999: Die beste Party. 1999/ 2000: Apokalypse 99 – Anatomie eines Amokläufers [FF]; Bonhoeffer – Die letzte Stufe / Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace [FF – DE/CA/US]. 2000: Jedermann; Heimkehr der Jäger [FF – AT]; Probieren Sie’s mit einem Jüngeren [AT]; Die Verbrechen des Professor Capellari: Zerbrechliche Beweise. 2000/01: Taking Sides – Der Fall Furtwängler / Taking Sides – Le cas Furtwängler / Taking Sides [FF – DE/FR/ GB]; Abgeschminkt: Ulrich Tukur [TVD – app]. 2001: Tatort: Filmriss. 2001/02: Amen [FF – FR]. 2002: Ein Abend für Evelyn Hamann; Solaris [FF – US]. 2003: Tatort: Das Böse; Die fremde Frau. 2003/04: Stauffenberg. 2004: Die Dreigroschenoper; Mein Vater, meine Frau und meine Geliebte [AT/PL/HU]. 2004/05: Le Couperet [FF – BE/FR]; Das Leben der Anderen [FF]. 2004-07: Earth / Unsere Erde [DO – voi (German version) – GB/DE]. 2005: Tatort: Der Teufel vom Berg [AT]; Die Nacht der großen Flut; Die Luftbrücke – Nur der Himmel war frei; Heute heiratet mein Mann [AT]. 2005/06: Dornröschen erwacht; Das Schneckenhaus; Une famille parfaite [FR]; Mein alter Freund Fritz. 2006/07: Rosa Roth: Der Tag wird kommen; Ein fliehendes Pferd [FF]. 2007: Der Spieler. Ulrich Tukur [TVD – app]; 42plus [FF – AT]. 2007/08: Das Vaterspiel [FF – AT/DE]; Der Mann, dem die Frauen vertrauten; Nordwand [FF]; John Rabe [FF – DE/CN/FR]. 2008: Séraphine [FF – FR]; Die Frau aus dem Meer; Eden à l’ouest / Paradeisos sti disi / Eden Is West [FF – FR/GR/IT]. 2008/09: Within the Whirlwind [FF – DE/PL/ BE]; Der große Kater [FF – CH/DE].
TOM TYKWER Born May 23, 1965, Wuppertal (West Germany) One of the most prominent German auteurs to emerge since the 1990s, Tykwer’s early films were idiosyncratic, cine-literate, and visually dazzling films that experimented with narrative techniques, while capturing the zeitgeist of millennial urban lifestyles and anxieties. His films since the new millennium have become more international, but often also more anonymous. Tykwer spent his childhood and youth in Wuppertal. In his early teens he shot his first Super8 films, while working in cinemas. Moving to Berlin, he managed the alternative art house Moviemento, establishing a reputation for its cinephile programming. As a sideline Tykwer edited screenplays and made a series of portraits of directors for television. His fascination with different perspectives on the same event was apparent in his early, short films: BECAUSE (1990), which presented three variations of developments from an original situation, and EPILOG (Epilogue, 1991/92) which formulated different versions of a couple’s quarrel in a continuous loop. Together with producer Stefan Arndt he founded the company Liebesfilm in 1992, which produced his first full-length feature film DIE TÖDLICHE MARIA (The Deadly Maria, 1993). The intimate, chamber-play psychodrama impressed audiences with its polished, aesthetic formality and its claustrophobic atmosphere. Joining up with directors Dani Levy and Wolfgang Becker, Tykwer and Arndt founded the company XFilms. Tykwer and Becker co-wrote a screenplay for the latter’s award-winning urban ballad DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (Life Is All You Get, 1995–97). In quick succession Tykwer directed two films which established his growing reputation. WINTERSCHLÄFER (Winter Sleepers, 1996/97) set in an Alpine ski resort, worked its way in concentric circles through to the lives of its protagonists, four thirty-somethings and an older farmer. The film’s widescreen images contrasted imposing mountain scenery with claustrophobic interiors and demonstrated Tykwer’s flair for striking visuals, aided by the work of his preferred cameraman Frank Griebe. LOLA RENNT (Run Lola Run, 1997/98) set in contemporary Berlin, and starring Tykwer’s then partner Franka Potente, was a kaleidoscopic experiment in form, providing three different developments from one original narrative premise. With its dynamic series of montages and techno-soundtrack (composed by Tykwer himself), the film became the most successful German film of the year and was also an international hit. DER KRIEGER + DIE KAISERIN (The Warrior and the Princess, 1999/2000), while visually as arresting as the previous film, nevertheless marked a radical shift in tone and rhythm. Again starring Potente, the
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enigmatic narrative drew on the conventions of melodrama, and told a romantic love story of a psychiatric nurse and a former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The international production HEAVEN (2000/01), despite displaying some of Tykwer’s trademark stylistic touches and continuing his interest in tragic romances, proved overall a more anonymous assignment. Based on a screenplay by the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, the film was a morbid love story between a suspected terrorist (Cate Blanchett) and the Italian cop who helps her escape after a botched bomb attack. Tykwer’s increasingly international career continued with his adaptation of Patrick Süskind’s bestselling novel DAS PARFUM (Perfume, 2005/06), a lavish German-Franco-Spanish co-production, featuring stars such as Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. In 2008 Tykwer contributed the short film DER MENSCH IM DING (Man Inside the Thing) to Alexander Kluge’s monumental DVD project of visualising Sergej Eisenstein’s concept of a film about Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’, NACHRICHTEN AUS DER IDEOLOGISCHEN ANTIKE (News from the Ideological Ancient World). Tykwer’s action thriller THE INTERNATIONAL, starring Clive Owen, Naomi Watts and Armin Mueller-Stahl, opened the Berlin Film Festival in 2009.
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[dir – DE] 1986: Friday Afternoon [dir,scr,cam,cut,mus, pro]. 1987: Drei Drachen vom Grill. Folge 750: Färbers geben nicht auf [SF – ass-cam]. 1990: Because [SF – dir, scr,mus,pro]. 1991: TV-Features [TVD – dir,scr]. 1991/92: Epilog [SF – dir,scr,mus,pro]. 1993: Die tödliche Maria [dir, co-scr,sma,mus,pro]. 1995-97: Das Leben ist eine Baustelle [co-scr]. 1996/97: Winterschläfer [dir,co-scr,mus]. 1997/98: Lola rennt [dir,scr,mus,lyr]. 1998: Die rennende Lola [TVD – app]. 1998/99: Absolute Giganten [ass-dir, pro]. 1999: Unter den Palmen [co-scr,pro – NL]. 1999/ 2000: Der Krieger + die Kaiserin [dir,scr,mus]. 2000: Nachtkultur mit Willemsen: ‘Zweimal Neuer Deutscher Film’. Wim Wenders trifft Tom Tykwer [TVD – app]; Geschichten von Liebe und Zufall [TVD – app]. 2000/01: Heaven [dir,mus – DE/US]. 2001/02: Good Bye, Lenin! [cut]. 2002/03: True [SF – dir,scr,mus – DE/FR]. 2002-04: Lautlos [pro]; Wer ist Helene Schwarz? [DO – app]. 2003: Why are your creative? [SD – app]; Das Kleine Fernsehspiel – reloaded [TVD – app]. 2003/04: Überraschende Begegnungen der kurzen Art [TVD – app]; Underexposure [pro – IQ]. 2004: Im freien Fall – Tom Tykwer und das Kino [DO – app]; Good Bye, Lenin! – Deleted Scenes [DO – app]. 2004/05: Ich Dich auch [DO – mus,pro]. 2004-06: Ein Freund von mir [pro]. 2005/06: Das Parfum – Die Geschichte eines Mörders / El perfume – Historia de un asesino / Le parfum – Histoire d’un meurtrier [dir,co-scr, mus – DE/ES/FR]. 2006: Paris, je t’aime: Faubourg SaintDenis [dir,mus – LI/CH/DE/FR]; Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin [DO – app]; Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald [pro]. 2007: Auge um Auge– Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]. 2007/08: The International [dir,mus – US/DE]. 2008: Der Mensch im Ding [SF – dir,scr,mus].
GUSTAV UCICKY Born July 6, 1899, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died April 26, 1961, Hamburg (West Germany) A prolific director of frothy entertainment films from the 1930s through the 1950s, Ucicky also turned out a number of virulent propaganda pictures during the ‘Third Reich’. Born to a scullery maid in the employ of his presumed father, the painter Gustav Klimt, Ucicky went on to train as a graphic designer at the Imperial Institute for Military Geography in Vienna. In 1916, he and school friend Karl Hartl were taken on as assistants at Sascha-Filmfabrik, Count Alexander Kolowrat’s production company. Ucicky became a fully-fledged cameraman during World War I, shooting documentary footage for newsreels until 1918. After the end of the war, he continued at Kolowrat’s new SaschaFilmindustrie, serving as head cinematographer on a string of lavish historical films directed by Hungarian émigré Michael Kertesz (later Curtiz), including the biblical epic SODOM UND GOMORRHA (1922). Ucicky made his directorial debut in Austria with the breezy romantic comedy TINGEL-TANGEL (Honky Tonk, 1927). The Sascha production CAFE ELECTRIC (1927) starred Willi Forst and Marlene Dietrich in an early leading role. Ucicky subsequently worked at Munich’s Emelka studios before making his first film in Berlin, VERERBTE TRIEBE (Inherited Passions, 1929), a melodramatic study of alcoholism that appealed for a compulsory sterilisation of criminals with hereditary mental conditions. His first two sound films at Ufa – the musical DER UNSTERBLICHE LUMP (The Immortal Vagabond, 1929/30) and the Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch vehicle HOKUSPOKUS (Hocuspocus, 1930) – secured his reputation as a dependable director of lighthearted entertainment films. His Prussian-themed pictures DAS FLÖTENKONZERT VON SANSSOUCI (The Flute Concert of Sans-Souci, 1930) and YORCK (1931) demonstrated his ability to allude to contemporary political concerns within a historical framework, while the Balzac adaptation MENSCH OHNE NAMEN (Man Without a Name, 1932) marked an unpretentious study of a soldier’s life. Ucicky’s U-boat drama MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/ 33) exalted death in battle as something akin to national duty. This was his first film scripted by Gerhard Menzel (1894–1966); the two collaborated regularly
until 1944, not only on propaganda material such as FLÜCHTLINGE (Fugitives, 1933) and DAS MÄDCHEN JOHANNA (Joan the Maid, 1935), but also on the Hans Albers adventure films SAVOY-HOTEL 217 (Savoy Hotel, Room 217) and UNTER HEISSEM HIMMEL (Contraband, both 1936), as well as on several Viennese romances. His Ufa contract ran out in 1936 and, after making the Emil Jannings vehicle DER ZERBROCHENE KRUG (The Broken Jug, 1937), he returned to Vienna and worked at Wien-Film, whose head of production was his old friend Karl Hartl. Films during this period included the Pushkin adaptation DER POSTMEISTER (The Stationmaster, 1939/40) along with one of the most demagogic pieces of Nazi film propaganda ever produced, HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1941). After the war, Ucicky started out with the lightweight choirboy drama SINGENDE ENGEL (Singing Angels, 1947), before his adaptations of Carl Zuckmayer’s NACH DEM STURM (After the Storm, 1948) and DER SEELENBRÄU (All Souls’ Brewery, 1949) established his position as a workmanlike director within the new Austrian film industry. He enjoyed a similar status in West Germany from 1952, turning out colourful big-screen adaptations of novels such as Selma Lagerlöf’s DAS MÄDCHEN VOM MOORHOF (The Girl of the Moors, 1958) and Trygve Gulbranssen’s DAS ERBE VON BJÖRNDAL (Heritage of Bjorndal, 1960), which proved commercially successful. He was preparing an adaptation of Knut Hamsun’s ‘Chapter the Last’ at the time of his death. A fervent collector of his father’s paintings during the Third Reich, numerous of the works he bequeathed to the Austrian National Gallery in his will were returned to the heirs of their rightful Jewish owners from the 1990s. [cam – AT] 1919: Boccaccio; Die Dame mit dem schwarzen Handschuh. 1919/20: 1920: Gefesselt / Leben um Leben; Gold; Die Sterne von Damaskus: 1. Ein Weib in der Wüste / 2. Die Gottesgeißel; Die Dame mit den Sonnenblumen; Mrs. Tutti Frutti; Golgatha. 1920/21: Cherchez la femme!; Narren der Liebe; Herzen im Sturm / Marodeure der Großstadt [AT/DE]. 1921: Dorothy’s Bekenntnis [co-cam]; Wege des Schreckens. 1922: Sodom und Gomorrha – Die Legende von Sünde und Strafe. 1. Die Sünde / 2. Die Strafe. 1923: Die Lawine; Der junge Medardus [co-cam]; Namenlos. 1923/24: Harun al Raschid. 1924: Die Sklaven-
GISELA UHLEN königin [co-cam]. 1925: Das Spielzeug von Paris [co-cam]. 1925/26: Die Mühle von Sanssouci [ass-cam – DE]; Einspänner Nr. 13 / Fiaker Nr. 13 [co-cam – AT/DE]; Dürfen wir schweigen? [DE]. 1926: Der goldene Schmetterling [cocam – AT/DE]; Die dritte Eskadron [co-cam – DE/AT]; Mikoschs letztes Abenteuer [DE]; Die Pratermizzi [co-cam – AT]. 1927: Tingel-Tangel [dir]; Café Elektric / Wenn eine Frau den Weg verliert [dir]. [dir – DE] 1928: Ein besserer Herr; Herzen ohne Ziel / Corazones sin rumbo [co-dir – DE/ES]. 1929: Vererbte Triebe; Der Sträfling aus Stambul. 1929/30: Der unsterbliche Lump [MLV]. 1930: Hokuspokus [MLV]; The Temporary Widow [MLV]; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci. 1931: Im Geheimdienst; Yorck. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Un homme sans nom [MLV – co-dir]. 1932/33: Morgenrot. 1933: Flüchtlinge [MLV]; Au bout du monde [MLV – co-dir]. 1934: Der junge Baron Neuhaus [MLV – dir,coscr]; Nuit de mai [MLV – co-dir, co-scr]. 1935: Das Mädchen Johanna. 1936: Savoy-Hotel 217; Unter heißem Himmel. 1937: Der zerbrochene Krug. 1938: Wort und Tat [SD – co-dir]; Frau Sixta. 1938/39: Aufruhr in Damaskus. 1939: Mutterliebe. 1939/40: Der Postmeister. 1940: Ein Leben lang. 1941: Heimkehr. 1942/43: Späte Liebe. 1943/ 44: Am Ende der Welt; Ein Rudel Wölfe. 1944: Der gebieterische Ruf; Das Herz muß schweigen. [dir – AT] 1947: Singende Engel [dir,co-scr]. 1948: Nach dem Sturm [dir,scr – CH/AT/LI]. 1949: Der Seelenbräu. 1950: Cordula [dir,scr]. 1952: Bis wir uns wiederseh’n [DE]. 1952/53: Der Kaplan von San Lorenzo [DE]. 1953: Ein Leben für Do [DE]. 1954: Die Hexe [dir,co-scr – DE]. 1955: Zwei blaue Augen [DE]. 1956: Der Jäger von Fall [DE]. 1957: Der Edelweißkönig [DE]; Die Heilige und ihr Narr. 1958: Das Mädchen vom Moorhof [DE]; Der Priester und das Mädchen. 1960: Das Erbe von Björndal.
GISELA UHLEN (Gisela Friedlinde Schreck) Born May 16, 1919, Leipzig (Germany) Died January 16, 2007, Cologne (Germany) A striking beauty in her youth, Uhlen developed into a formidable character actress who managed to remain in demand across the media industries of the Nazi period, East and West Germany, and into the new millennium. The niece of NOSFERATU actor Max Schreck (1879– 1936), Uhlen originally trained as a dancer. She gave her acting debut aged seventeen at the theatre in Bochum. In 1938 Heinrich George brought her to the Schiller Theater in Berlin, where she remained a member of the ensemble until the end of World War II. Uhlen’s film debut was the nationalistic melodrama ANNEMARIE – DIE GESCHICHTE EINER JUNGEN LIEBE (Annemarie: the Story of a Young Love, 1936), in which she played a church organist whose fiancé is killed during World War I. Although she never became one of the top stars of Nazi cinema, Uhlen established herself as a sought-after actress, frequently in leading parts.
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She repeatedly worked with director Hans Steinhoff – she co-starred with Gustaf Gründgens and Sibylle Schmitz in TANZ AUF DEM VULKAN (Dance on the Volcano, 1938); she was the Boer leader’s daughter-in-law in the anti-British epic OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, 1940/41), and in the historical biopic REMBRANDT (1941/42) she was the painter’s devoted servant and last wife. In Fritz Kirchhoff’s war film DER 5. JUNI (The Fifth of June, 1941/42) she was cast as a supportive soldier bride. In 1943, she portrayed a femme fatale opposite veteran French actor Harry Baur in the musical melodrama SYMPHONIE EINES LEBENS (Symphony of a Life, 1942), under the direction of Hans Bertram (1906–1993), whom Uhlen married. Shortly after the shoot had ended, Baur, whose wife was suspected of being a member of the French resistance, was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, resulting in his death soon after his release. Following the end of World War II, Uhlen was allowed by the Allied authorities to resume her acting career. In collaboration with Bertram she co-wrote the screenplay for and played one of the female leads in the family epic EINE GROSSE LIEBE (A Great Love, 1949), but the film proved a box-office flop. The couple’s second post-war collaboration, TÜRME DES SCHWEIGENS (Towers of Silence, 1952) did not fare much better. Uhlen divorced Bertram and married actor Wolfgang Kieling. Embroiled in a court case with Bertram over child custody, Uhlen and Kieling left for Switzerland, and later to the GDR, where she continued acting at the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin. DEFA gave her leading parts in East German film productions, including DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (The Dream Ship, 1956), directed by Herbert Ballmann (b. 1924), who became Uhlen’s fifth husband after her separation from Kieling. Further DEFA assignments followed with EMILIA GALOTTI (1957) and REIFENDER SOMMER (Ripening Summer, 1957/58). Uhlen subsequently returned to West Berlin, once again performing at the Schiller Theater. In West German film and mainly television productions of the 1960s and early 1970s, Uhlen specialised in chilling portraits of emotionally cold, ruthless, and cruel characters, and was frequently seen in villainous parts in crime thrillers, especially in Edgar Wallace adaptations such as DIE TÜR MIT DEN SIEBEN SCHLÖSSERN (The Door With Seven Locks, 1962), DAS INDISCHE TUCH (The Indian Scarf, 1963), and DER BUCKLIGE VON SOHO (The Hunchback of Soho, 1966). She was also regularly cast in highbrow literary adaptations on television, including Shakespeare’s KÖNIG RICHARD III. (Richard III, 1964) and Theodor Fontane’s MATHILDE MÖHRING (1967/68). In the European co-production LADY HAMILTON (1968), a costume sex romp about the af-
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fair between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, she had a supporting role as a brothel madam. Also pursuing a busy stage career, Uhlen got the opportunity to work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on the latter’s theatre production ‘Frauen in New York’ (Women in New York) at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus in 1977. This update of Clare Boothe Luce’s play (and of George Cukor’s Hollywood version THE WOMEN, 1939) was also transmitted on television. Fassbinder subsequently cast her as Hanna Schygulla’s indomitable mother in DIE EHE DER MARIA BRAUN (The Marriage of Maria Braun, 1978). Uhlen’s final cinema release was the acclaimed TOTO LE HÉROS (1990/91) by Belgian director Jaco van Dormael. Until the end of her life, she remained active as an actress, although mainly in guest appearances on television, including crime series such as TATORT (Crime Scene) and KOMMISSAR REX, as well as grandmother figures in long running TV soaps such as DER LANDARZT (The Country GP) and FORSTHAUS FALKENAU (Forest Lodge Falkenau). Uhlen wrote several volumes of autobiography between 1978 and 2002. Her daughter with Kieling, Susanne Uhlen (b. 1955) became a celebrated actress in film, television and on stage, who occasionally appeared alongside her mother. Her daughter Barbara (b. 1945) acted sporadically in film and television under the surnames of Bertram and Uhlen. [act – DE] 1936: Annemarie. Die Geschichte einer jungen Liebe. 1938: Liebelei und Liebe; Tanz auf dem Vulkan. 1938/39: Mann für Mann. 1939: Morgen werde ich verhaftet; Der letzte Appell. 1940: Die Rothschilds; Die unvollkommene Liebe; Zwischen Hamburg und Haiti. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger. 1941/42: Zwischen Himmel und Erde; Schicksal; Rembrandt; Der 5. Juni. Einer unter Millionen. 1942: Symphonie eines Lebens. 1943: Die beiden Schwestern. 1943/44: Die Zaubergeige. 1944/45: Der stumme Gast. 1949: Eine große Liebe [co-scr,act]. 1950: Der fallende Stern. 1951: Der schweigende Mund [AT]. 1952: Türme des Schweigens. 1953: Das Lächeln der Gioconda [TV]. 1955: Robert Mayer – Der Arzt aus Heilbronn [DD]; Die Bilder von Dresden [SD – voi – DD]; Friedrich Schiller [DO – DD]. 1956: Das Traumschiff [DD]; Mirandolina [TV – DD]. 1957: Emilia Galotti [DD]. 1957/58: Reifender Sommer [DD]. 1958: Der Prozeß wird vertagt [DD]. [act – TV – DE] 1960: Mit 17 weint man nicht [FF]; Der Groß-Cophta. 1960/61: Ruf zur Leidenschaft. 1961: 1913; Die kleinen Füchse; Biographie und Liebe. 1961/62: Der Gärtner von Toulouse. 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt [FF]; Die Tür mit den sieben Schlössern / La porte aux sept serrures [FF – DE/FR]; Sind wir das nicht alle? 1963: Aufstand der Gehorsamen; Joanna Marlowe; Das indische Tuch [FF]; Verlorener Sohn; Der Mann nebenan. 1964: König Richard III; Eurydike; Der Apollo von Bellac; Mitternachtsmarkt [AT]; Das Kriminalmuseum: Der Schlüssel. 1964/65: Der seidene Schuh. 1965: Hotel
der toten Gäste / El enigma de los Cornell [FF – DE/ES]; Die eigenen vier Wände; Ferien mit Piroschka [FF – DE/AT]. 1965/66: Geschlossene Gesellschaft; Unser Sohn Nicki [2 episodes]; Polizeifunk ruft: Zwei Promille. 1966: Kein Freibrief für Mord; Der Bucklige von Soho [FF]; Herr Hesselbach: Der Graf von Hesselbach. 1966/67: Das Kriminalmuseum: Teerosen. 1967: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Gisela Uhlen und Gustav Knuth [TVD – app]; Der Panamaskandal; Der schöne Gleichgültige; Der Tod läuft hinterher; Die Zimmerschlacht. 1967/68: Das Kriminalmuseum: Die Reifenspur; Mathilde Möhring. 1968: Lady Hamilton – zwischen Schmach und Liebe / Le calde notti di Lady Hamilton / Les amours de Lady Hamilton [FF – DE/IT/FR]. 1968/69: Der Ball. 1969: Hôtel du Commerce; Dr. med. Fabian – Lachen ist die beste Medizin [FF]. 1970: Der Kommissar: In letzter Minute; Cher Antoine oder Die verfehlte Liebe; Leiche gesucht. 1972: Ferdinand Lassalle; Frau Jenny Treibel. 1973: Besuch im Landhaus; Der Kommissar: Domanns Mörder. 1973/74: Drei Männer im Schnee [FF]. 1974: Die Kinder Edouards; Strychnin und saure Drops; Tatort: Als gestohlen gemeldet. 1975: Der Edelweißkönig [FF]. 1975/76: Unter einem Dach: Die Freundin; Die Hellseherin [CH]; Tatort: Zwei Leben; Lobster: Stirb! 1976/77: Eichholz & Söhne [8 episodes]. 1977: Frauen in New York; Arc de Triomphe; Polizeiinspektion 1: Weiberleut. 1978: Die Ehe der Maria Braun [FF]; Derrick: Ute und Manuela. 1979: Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl: Das Schloßgespenst. 1980: Derrick: Die Entscheidung; Jahre unseres Lebens: 1946/1947 – Bilder einer Zeit [TVD – app]. 1981: Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl [ANI/FF – DE/HU]. 1981/82: Wir haben uns doch mal geliebt. 1982: Sein erster Fall oder Die schwarze Katze im Sack [DE/AT]. 1983: Uta: Mutter auf Zeit; Die zweite Frau. 1985: Mütter und Töchter; Engels & Consorten [5 episodes]. 1986: Der Alte: Falsch verbunden. 1988-2006: Forsthaus Falkenau [17 seasons – 70 episodes]. 1989/90: Der Tüftler [13 episodes]; Ein Heim für Tiere: Der Rabe und das Äffchen. 1990: Derrick: Solo für Vier; Urlaub mal ganz anders. 1990/91: Toto le héros / Toto – der Held [FF – BE/FR/DE]. 1991/92: Der Landarzt: Alles aus Liebe. 1992: Ein Fall für zwei: Lebenszeichen. 1992/93: Der Landarzt: Hausverbot. 1994/ 95: Der Landarzt: Lillis Einstand. 1995: Schlußklappe ’45 [TVD – app]; Edgar Wallace: Die Katze von Kensington. 1996: Kommissar Rex: Unter Hypnose [AT]. 1997: Der Coup. 1998: Tatort: Bildersturm; Tierarzt Dr. Engel: Rebecca. 1998/99: Tatort: Der Heckenschütze; Edgar Wallace: Das Haus der toten Augen. 1999: Höchstpersönlich: Gisela Uhlen [TVD – app]. 2000/01: Die Rettungsflieger: Der Neue. 2001: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Ein Überlebenskünstler. Der Schauspieler Heinz Rühmann [TVD – app]. 2002: SOKO Kitzbühel: Wilderer [AT].
JOST VACANO Born March 15, 1934, Osnabrück (Germany) One of the most influential German cinematographers of the 1970s and 1980s, Jost Vacano became internationally renowned through his work on DAS
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BOOT, and later as the regular cameraman for Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. Throughout his career, Vacano experimented with camera technology to achieve a heightened sense of realism, fluidity, and mobility. Vacano’s interest in photography and cinematography dates to his school days. While studying at the Munich Technical College in the mid-1950s, he met director Peter Schamoni with whom he made a series of advertising and documentary shorts from 1957 to the mid-1960s. Vacano also collaborated with Peter’s brother Ulrich Schamoni on the short HOLLYWOOD IN DEBLATSCHKA PESCARA (1964/65), documenting the shooting of an epic European co-production in Yugoslavia. Vacano’s feature debut was Peter Schamoni’s SCHONZEIT FÜR FÜCHSE (No Shooting Time for Foxes, 1965/66), an early breakthrough of the New German Cinema. In the following years he photographed a number of television dramas, working with directors such as Peter Beauvais, including on popular crime series such as TATORT (Crime Scene). Vacano’s cinematography on Rolf Hädrich’s TV drama MORD IN FRANKFURT (Murder in Frankfurt, 1967/ 68) won him a prize at the Prague film festival. In the early 1970s, Vacano provided bleak images for SUPERMARKT (1973), Roland Klick’s gloomy study of a small time Hamburg hustler and rent boy. During the shooting for this film, and in order to capture the tracking shots of the central protagonist through urban surroundings both naturally and smoothly, Vacano experimented with a hand-held camera, which eventually led to designing a forerunner of the steadycam. Klick and Vacano worked together again on the Cold War thriller LIEB VATERLAND, MAGST RUHIG SEIN (Dear Fatherland, Be At Peace, 1975/76). Volker Schlöndorff’s Heinrich Böll adaptation DIE VERLORENE EHRE DER KATHARINA BLUM (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, 1975) made him one of the most recognised West German cameramen, and won him a prestigious German Film Award. Vacano subsequently shot two of director Wolf Gremm’s films, DIE BRÜDER (The Brothers, 1976) and TOD ODER FREIHEIT (Death or Freedom, 1977). The same year he photographed in the Netherlands the World War II drama SOLDAAT VAN ORANJE (Soldier of Orange) for Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, which marked the beginning of a long creative partnership. Vacano’s major international breakthrough, however, came with Wolfgang Petersen’s U-boat drama DAS BOOT (1980/81), for which he received an Oscar nomination. For shooting the interior scenes, Vacano used a hand-held Arriflex camera in combination with two gyroscopes to ensure image stability. This significantly contributed to a sense of authenticity and enhanced the film’s claustrophobic atmosphere. Fol-
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lowing Petersen’s Hollywood calling card, the special effects fantasy DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE (The Neverending Story, 1983/84) shot in Munich, Vacano moved to the United States. In Hollywood, his first assignment was John Frankenheimer’s thriller 52 PICK-UP (1986). He subsequently reunited with Verhoeven whose regular cinematographer he became for the next decade. Vacano was principally responsible for the ‘hyper-realist’ look of Verhoeven’s films during this period, which was first demonstrated to great effect in the dystopian ROBOCOP (1987). For the science fiction saga TOTAL RECALL (1990), Vacano devised a special shimmering red light for scenes set on the planet Mars, while in the critically panned SHOWGIRLS (1994/95) he made extensive use of steadycams and long takes to give the film’s show numbers a sense of fluid mobility. After two more films with Verhoeven, STARSHIP TROOPERS (1996/97) and HOLLOW MAN (2000), Vacano retired from active filmmaking. In 2001 he received a lifetime achievement award in Germany. [cam – TV – DE] 1957: Moskau 57 [SF]; Jazz im Kreml [DO]. 1957/58: Moskau ruft [SF]. 1962: Ein Mann ist ein Mann; Die Teutonen kommen [SD]; Bodega Bohemia [SF]. 1963: Glattes Parkett [SD]; Marsmenschen. – Monsieur Quinot. – Vergessen. 1963/64: Mit zwei Füßen im Grab. 1964: Ein schwieriger Fluß – der Neckar [SD]; Tod durch Torheit [SD]; Zwei Wagen aus einem Guß [SD]; Im Zwinger. Dresden 1964 [SD]; Die Stühle; Bis ans Ende. 1964/65: Hollywood in Deblatschka Pescara [SD]. 1965: Deutsches Requiem; Mariana Pineda; Kandidat Cormoran [co-cam]; Der Nebbich [co-cam]; Das Leben meines Bruders. 1965/ 66: Schonzeit für Füchse [FF]; Ein Tag ohne Morgen. 1966: Spielplatz; Freitag muß es sein. 1967: Tragödie in einer Wohnwagenstadt; König Ödipus. 1967/68: Mord in Frankfurt; Das imaginäre Leben des Straßenkehrers Auguste G.; Ostern. 1968: Der Unfall; Prüfung eines Lehrers. 1968/69: Ramon Yendias Flucht. 1969: Rumpelstilz; Nur der Freiheit gehört unser Leben; Alma mater; Die Geschichte der 1002. Nacht; Der Nagel. 1969/70: Eine große Familie. 1970: Schmetterlinge weinen nicht [FF]; Tatort: Kressin und der tote Mann im Fleet. 1970/71: Die Deutschstunde. 1970-74: Die Kriminalerzählung [TVS]. 1971: Kennen Sie Georg Linke?; Der Pedell. 1971/72: Mandala. 1972: Auf Befehl erschossen. Die Brüder Sass, einst Berlins große Ganoven; Federlesen. Bilder aus dem Leben eines Einfallsreichen; Plaza Fortuna. 1972/73: Entziehung – Ein Tagebuch; Ein Leben. 1973: Supermarkt [FF]. 1973/74: Der Tod der Schneevögel; Der Abituriententag; Sechs Wochen im Leben der Brüder G. 1974/75: Frau von Bebenburg; Am Wege [AT/DE]. [cam – FF – DE] 1975: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [co-cam]. 1975/76: Potato Fritz; Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein. 1976: 21 Hours at Munich [TV – US]; Die Brüder. 1977: Soldaat van Oranje [NL]; Tod oder Freiheit. 1977/78: Das fünfte Gebot / L’alba dei falsi dei [DE/IT]. 1979/80: Spetters [NL]. 1980/81: Das Boot. 1982/
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83: Die wilden Fünfziger. 1983/84: Die unendliche Geschichte. [cam – FF – US] 1986: 52 Pick-Up. 1987: RoboCop. 1988: Rocket Gibraltar. 1990: Tales from the Crypt: The Switch [TV]; Total Recall. 1992/93: Untamed Heart. 1994: The Crusades. 1994/95: Showgirls [FR/US]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany. Die amerikanische Herausforderung [TVD – DE – app]. 1996/97: Starship Troopers. 2000: Hollow Man.
CATERINA VALENTE (Catherine Valente) Born January 14, 1931, Paris (France) An accomplished all-round musical performer with a fresh and charming screen image, Valente injected Mediterranean vitality into many West German musical films of the 1950s and 1960s, before continuing as one of Germany’s most popular TV entertainers. Born into a family of travelling artists, her father was an accordionist and her mother a clown. Her older brother, Silvio Francesco (1927–2000) also became an entertainer, and later frequently appeared in films and TV shows alongside his sister. Valente appeared on stage and in the circus from the age of five. After the war, Valente worked as a cabaret singer and recording artist in France, Denmark, and Switzerland. In 1953, she was discovered by the West German bandleader Kurt Edelhagen (1920– 1982), with whom she made successful recordings that brought her nationwide recognition and stardom. Valente was particularly known for her vocal versatility, equally adept at Neapolitan folk songs, pop hits, ‘scat’ jazz improvisation in the style of Ella Fitzgerald, and Brazilian bossa nova. Similarly she could tap dance, waltz, or do the twist, just as the situation required. Valente’s first film appearance was in the all-star GROSSE STAR-PARADE (Great Star Parade, 1954). LIEBE, TANZ UND 1000 SCHLAGER (Love, Dance, and 1000 Hits, 1955) cast her in the lead in a formulaic story about a young singer who aspires to become a big revue star. The film partnered her with the Austrian crooner Peter Alexander and over the next decade, the two became the biggest musical film stars in West German cinema, often appearing as a screen couple. BONJOUR KATHRIN (1955/56), CASINO DE PARIS (1957), and … UND ABENDS IN DIE SCALA (And At Night to the Scala, 1957/58), among others, all had the same narrative formula of the young aspiring talent who finds fame and Mr Right by the end of the spectacular revue finale. The films were also often set against picturesque Mediterranean locations, and featured international stars in guest parts, for example the American tap dancing Nicholas Brothers in BONJOUR KATHRIN, and Bill Haley and the Comets in
HIER BIN ICH – HIER BLEIB ICH (Here I Am and
Here I Stay, 1958/59). From 1957 Valente regularly appeared on German television, and had her own variety show, BONSOIR KATHRIN. Following Kurt Hoffmann’s disappointing cinema release SCHNEEWITTCHEN UND DIE SIEBEN GAUKLER (Snow White and the Seven Circus Artists, 1962), Valente concentrated her activities almost exclusively on her TV work. The viewing figures for programmes including BONJOUR CATRIN – EIN LEBEN VOLL MUSIK (Bonjour Catrin – A Life With Music, 1977) and BRAVO, KATHRIN (1986) regularly broke viewing figure records in the 1970s and 1980s. Plans in the 1990s to found an academy for aspiring entertainers, offering training in song and dance, did not materialise. Following further stage shows in the mid-1990s, Valente announced her retirement in 2003. [act – DE] 1954: Große Star-Parade; Mannequins für Rio / They Were So Young [MLV – DE/US]. 1955: Ball im Savoy; Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlager. 1955/56: Bonjour, Kathrin. 1956: Alles maskiert! [TVS]; Du bist Musik. 1957: Das einfache Mädchen; Casinò de Paris [FR/IT/DE]. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala. 1957-64: Bonsoir, Kathrin! [TV]. 1958/59: Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich. 1959: Du bist wunderbar. 1961: Bonsoir Caterina [TVS – IT]. 1962: Schneewittchen und die sieben Gaukler [CH/DE]; Nata per la musica [TVS – IT]. [TV – act – DE] 1964: Zwischenstation mit Caterina Valente. 1964/65: The Entertainers [US]. 1965: Wenn es Nacht wird in den Städten. 1966: Un’ora insieme [IT]. 1966/67: Die Caterina-Valente-Show [TVS – DE/NL]. 1968: Caterina from Heidelberg [US/DE]. 1969: Bentornata Caterina [TVS – IT]. 1973: Ein Lächeln am Fuße der Leiter. 1975: Klimbim [TVS]. 1974: Musik ist mein Leben. 1975: Caterina Valente in Concert [GB]; Zu Gast bei Catrin [TVS]; Tittertime [GB]; Rendezvous bei Caterina Valente. 1976: Musikalisches Zwischenspiel mit Caterina Valente; Mein Kind; Das ist Ihr Leben: Caterina Valente. 1977: Rendezvous in Berlin; Bonjour Catrin. Ein Leben voll Musik. 1978: Verliebt in Musik. 1979: Hier sind meine Freunde; Show Talk: Begegnung mit Caterina Valente; Clopin – Clopant [FR]. 1979/80: Peter Frankenfeld. 1980/81: Das Casanova-Projekt [FF]. 1981: Music Circus [TVS – CH]; Wünsche, die ich mir erfülle. 1982: Heut’ abend … Caterina Valente zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger; Caterina [TVS – AT]; Die Großen und die Kleinen. 1986: Bravo, Catrin. 1987: Unter Freunden; Showgeschichten. Heute von: Caterina Valente. 1988/89: Die schnelle Gerdi [TVS]. 1989: Hotel Paradies [TVS – DE/AT]. 1990: Showfenster: Caterina Valente. 1991: Besuch bei Caterina Valente. 1992: Der Unschuldsengel. 1993: Caterina Valente. Die Show ein Leben – ein Leben für die Show. 1996: Caterina Valente. Auf der Straße der Erinnerung. 2001: Höchstpersönlich: Bibi Johns.
PETER VAN EYCK KARL VALENTIN (Valentin Ludwig Fey) Born June 4, 1882, Munich-Au (Germany) Died February 9, 1948, Planegg, near Munich (Germany) Posthumously recognised as a unique comic genius, Valentin’s zany sketches and farces took their cue from the comedian’s bizarre, stick-thin appearance, and from his inventive use of dialogue and Bavarian dialect. After serving an apprenticeship as a carpenter, Valentin made appearances as a small-time comedian and musician in and around Munich between 1897 and 1908, and attended a stage school for variety performers in 1902. He gave his first public performance of a self-authored monologue, ‘Das Aquarium’ (The Aquarium), in 1908, after which he was invited to play at the celebrated Volkssängerbühne theatre in Munich’s ‘Frankfurter Hof’. In 1911, he met his longterm comedy partner, the soubrette Elisabeth Wellano, who was thereupon rechristened Liesl Karlstadt (1892–1960). Valentin made a couple of one-reel comedies as early as 1912, but these sank without a trace. Meanwhile, he and Karlstadt put in guest appearances at cabarets and at theatres in Munich, as well as performing in Vienna, Zurich, and Berlin. Several of their slapstick routines were filmed at this time, focusing on the duo’s disparate physiognomy and playing off Valentin’s rake-like build, gangling limbs, and ski-slope nose against Karlstadt’s short and plump figure. Valentin and Karlstadt also contributed to Erich Engel and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘surrealist’ film experiment DIE MYSTERIEN EINES FRISIERSALONS (The Mysteries of a Barbershop, 1922/23), and appeared in Max Ophüls’e DIE VERKAUFTE BRAUT (The Bartered Bride, 1932). In 1931, Valentin started his own theatre in Munich, which soon closed down. In 1934 he opened a small museum exhibiting nonsense curios. This too soon went bankrupt, and was one of the reasons for his 1935 split with Karlstadt, who had invested in the enterprise. During the ‘Third Reich’, Valentin’s various tworeelers repeatedly fell foul of the censors, with his drinking comedy DER FIRMLING (Confirmation Day, 1934) and STRASSENMUSIK (Street Music, 1936) being passed for adults only, and DIE ERBSCHAFT (The Inheritance, 1936) receiving an outright ban on account of its ‘inclination towards poverty and squalor’. From 1939, he toured with a new stage partner, soubrette Annemarie Fischer, before making his final screen appearance in a filmed performance of the sketch ‘In der Apotheke’ (At the Chemist’s) with Liesl Karlstadt, which was included in the compilation DER TRICHTER NR. 14 – VOLKSHUMOR AUS
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lar Humour from Germany’s Provinces, 1941). Valentin retired from the stage in 1942, and appeared only occasionally on radio after the war. He died destitute and almost completely forgotten. After his death, his writings were published in a 6-volume edition, while his films and recordings continue to meet popular demand. Jo Baier’s TV biopic LIESL KARLSTADT UND KARL VALENTIN (2007/08) reasserted Karlstadt’s often neglected contribution in the creative process of their partnership. [act – DE – SF] 1912: Karl Valentins Hochzeit [scr,act]; Die lustigen Vagabunden [scr,act]. 1914: Der neue Schreibtisch [scr,act]. 1921: Die Schönheitskonkurrenz oder: Das Urteil des Paris; Der ‘entflohene’ Hauptdarsteller. 1922/ 23: Die Mysterien eines Frisiersalons [co-dir,co-scr, act]. 1928/29: In der Schreiner-Werkstatt [act,pro]; Karl Valentins Hochzeit [scr,act,pro]; Mit Karl Valentin und Liesl Karlstadt auf der Oktoberwiese [act,pro]. 1929: Karl Valentin als Musikal-Clown [act,pro]; Wochenschau von Karl Valentin und Liesl Karlstadt. Serie 14 [act,pro]; Karl Valentin, der Sonderling [FF]. 1931: Die verhexten Notenständer. 1932: Die verkaufte Braut [FF]; Im Photoatelier [scr, act]. 1933: Orchesterprobe [scr,act]; Es knallt. 1934: Der Theaterbesuch [co-scr,act]; Im Schallplattenladen [scr,act]; Der Geizhals; So ein Theater! [scr,act]; Der verhexte Scheinwerfer [scr,act]; Der Firmling [scr,act]; Der Zithervirtuose [scr,act]. 1935: Kirschen in Nachbars Garten [FF]. 1936: Ein verhängnisvolles Geigensolo [sma, act]; Beim Rechtsanwalt [sma,act]; Die karierte Weste; Kalte Füße; Straßenmusik [FF]; Der Bittsteller [sma,act]; Die Erbschaft [sma,act]; Musik zu zwein [sma,act]; Donner, Blitz und Sonnenschein [FF]. 1937: Ewig Dein. 1938: München [SD – app]; Der Antennendraht [scr,act]. 1941: Der Trichter Nr. 14. Volkshumor aus deutschen Gauen. IIA München. 1942: Nur nicht drängeln; Selbst Valentin macht mit. [sma – TV – DE] 1953: Das Lachkabinett [FF – archival material]. 1962: Der Firmling. 1964: Die Raubritter von München. 1976: Lach mit Karl Valentin. 1977: ‘Brüder, zur Sonne …’; Läster-Lexikon: Die Kunst und ihre Männer. 1978: Mit Bayern lachen. 1991: Der Hausverkauf.
PETER VAN EYCK (Götz von Eick) Born July 16, 1913, Steinwehr (Germany) Died July 15, 1969, Männedorf, near Zurich (Switzerland) Tall, blond, and with an arrogant, aristocratic demeanour, van Eyck epitomised the Prussian stereotype in both its positive and negative facets, playing ice-cold villains and worldly heroes in West German and international productions from the 1940s to the late 1960s. Musical student van Eyck left Germany in 1931 for extensive travels to France, Britain, North Africa, Spain,
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and the Caribbean, before arriving in the United States in 1937. He earned his living as a musical arranger for composers Aaron Copland and Irving Berlin, and worked as assistant director for various stage productions, including a brief stint at Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre, where he met his first wife, actress Ruth Ford. From 1942, he acted in Hollywood films, usually playing Nazi officers, as in Irving Pichel’s THE MOON IS DOWN (1942/43) and Billy Wilder’s FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO (1943), although occasionally he also portrayed more positive characters, as in ADDRESS UNKNOWN (1943/44). As an American citizen he returned to Germany in 1945, working as a control officer for the Film Section of the U.S Army’s Information Service Control Branch in Berlin. After completing his military service, van Eyck remained in West Germany and commenced his post-war film career with HALLO FRÄULEIN! (1949), playing an American occupation officer. From the early 1950s, van Eyck branched out into European productions, making a strong impression as an enigmatic truck driver in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s LE SALAIRE DE LA PEUR (The Wages of Fear, 1951/ 52). Further supporting roles, often in villainous parts, in French, British, and Hollywood productions followed, as well as a cameo as a card shark in Orson Welles’s MR ARKADIN / CONFIDENTIAL REPORT (1954/55). In West German productions, meanwhile, van Eyck projected a more varied persona, playing a protoJames Bond in Fritz Lang’s DIE 1000 AUGEN DES DR. MABUSE (The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse), a romantic lover in LIEBLING DER GÖTTER (Sweetheart of the Gods, both 1960); a morally dubious, but charming French dandy in DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958); and a homicidal husband in EIN ALIBI ZERBRICHT (An Alibi Collapses, 1963). One of his best later roles in international cinema was his Machiavellian Stasi chief in Martin Ritt’s bleak adaptation of John LeCarré’s THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965), while his performance in the bizarre Euro-Western SHALAKO (1968) as a Prussian aristocrat travelling the Wild West in the company of Brigitte Bardot bordered on self-parody. [act – US] 1942: The Wife Takes a Flyer; Once Upon a Honeymoon; Hitler’s Children. 1942/43: The Moon Is Down; Hitler’s Madman. 1943: Edge of Darkness; Five Graves to Cairo; Action in the North Atlantic. 1943/44: The Imposter; Address Unknown. 1944: The Hitler Gang; Resisting Enemy Interrogation [DO]. [act – DE] 1949: Hallo Fräulein!; Königskinder. 1949/50: Export in Blond. 1950: Epilog; Furioso; Die Dritte von rechts. 1951: Au cœur de la Casbah [FR]. 1951/52: Le
salaire de la peur / Vite vendute [FR/IT]. 1952/53: Single-Handed [GB]. 1953: Alerte au Sud / Allarme a Sud [FR/IT]; La chair et le diable / Il fuoco nelle venere [FR/IT]; Night People [US]. 1953/54: Le grand jeu / Il grande giuoco [FR/IT]. 1954/55: Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle [US]; Mr. Arkadin / Confidential Report / Dossier secret [US/FR/ ES]; A Bullet for Joey [US]. 1955: Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle [US]; Jump Into Hell [US]; Sophie et le crime [FR]; Your Play Time: The Intolerable Portrait [TV – US]; Der Cornet. Die Weise von Liebe und Tod. 1955-56: Warner Brothers Present: Casablanca [TVS – US]. 1956: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Safe Conduct [TV – US]; The Rawhide Years [US]; Run for the Sun [US]; Attack! [US]; Le feu aux poudres / X-3 operazione dinamite [FR/IT]. 1957: Fric-frac en dentelles [FR]; Tous peuvent me tuer / Tutti possono uccidermi [FR/IT]; Retour de manivelle / Delitto sulla Costa Azzura [FR/IT]; Der gläserne Turm; Dr. Crippen lebt. 1958: The Snorkel [GB]; Schmutziger Engel; Das Mädchen Rosemarie; Schwarze Nylons – heiße Nächte. 1958/59: Du gehörst mir; Rommel ruft Kairo [MLV]. 1959: Der Rest ist Schweigen; Lockvogel der Nacht; Verbrechen nach Schulschluß; Labyrinth / Neurose [DE/IT]; Geheimaktion Schwarze Kapelle / I Sicari di Hitler / R.P.Z. appelle Berlin [DE/IT/FR]; Abschied von den Wolken; Foxhole in Cairo [MLV – DE/GB]. 1960: Liebling der Götter; Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / Il diabolico Dr. Mabuse / Le diabolique docteur Mabuse [DE/IT/FR]; La Fête Espagnol [FR]. 1960/61: An einem Freitag um halb zwölf … / Vendredi 13 heures / Il mondo nella mia tasca [DE/FR/IT]. 1961: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; La fête espagnole [FR]; Die Stunde, die du glücklich bist. 1961/62: Liebe, Freiheit und Verrat / Legge di guerra / La Loi de la guerre [DE/IT/ FR]; Finden Sie, daß Constanze sich richtig verhält? [DE/ CH]; The Longest Day [US]; Im Namen des Teufels / The Devil’s Agent [DE/GB]. 1962: Ein Toter sucht seinen Mörder [MLV – DE/GB]; Vengeance [MLV – GB/DE]; Station Six-Sahara / Endstation 13 Sahara [GB/DE]. 1962/63: Verführung am Meer / Ostrva [DE/YU]. 1963: Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse; Das große Liebesspiel [DE/AT]; Ein Alibi zerbricht [AT]. 1963/64: Kennwort: Reiher. 1964: Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse / Les rayons de la mort du Docteur Mabuse / I raggi mortali del Dr. Mabuse [DE/FR/IT]; I misteri della giungla nera / Das Geheimnis der Lederschlinge [IT/DE]. 1965: La guerre secrète / La guerra segreta / Spione unter sich [act – FR/IT/DE]; Die Herren: Die Soldaten; Das Geheimnis der Lederschlinge / Il misteri della giungla nera [DE/IT]; Duell vor Sonnenuntergang; The Spy Who Came In from the Cold [GB]. 1966: À belles dents / Karriere [FR/DE]; Sechs Pistolen jagen Professor Z. / Sette Killers a caccia del Prof. ‘Z’ / Fin de semana con la muerte [DE/ES/PT]; Karriere / A belles dents [DE/FR]. 1966/67: Der Chef schickt seinen besten Mann / Requiem per un agente segreto / Consigna: Tánger 67 [DE/IT/ES]; Der Zündholzkönig – Der Fall Ivar Kreuger [TV]. 1967: L’Homme qui valait des millards / L’Uomo che valeva miliardi [FR/IT]. 1967/68: Tevye und seine sieben Töchter / Tuvia vesheva benotav [DE/IL]; Heidi kehrt heim. 1968: Rose rosse per il Führer [IT]; Shalako [GB]; Assignment to Kill [US]. 1968/69: Der Kommissar: Die Pistole im Park [TV]. 1969: The Bridge at Remagen [US].
CONRAD VEIDT CONRAD VEIDT (Hans Walter Conrad Veidt) Born January 22, 1893, Berlin (Germany) Died April 3, 1943, Hollywood (California, USA) One of the most iconic and internationally recognised stars of Weimar cinema, Veidt’s screen image combined demonic menace with seductive attractiveness. As an exile, he continued his career successfully in the UK and later Hollywood. Veidt attended grammar school but did not graduate. In 1913 he took acting classes at Max Reinhardt’s Theatre School at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, appearing in smaller roles. During World War I he was conscripted and played in theatres at the front as well as on the Reinhardt stages. His film debut was DER WEG DES TODES (The Path of Death, 1916/17). He soon rose to stardom in Richard Oswald’s sex-education films, horror films and melodramas, portraying social outsiders, and broken heroes alongside Werner Krauss, Reinhold Schünzel and Anita Berber. He won particular acclaim as a homosexual violinist who after being blackmailed commits suicide in ANDERS ALS DIE ANDERN (Different from the Others, 1918/19). Veidt subsequently directed himself in and also produced two films, WAHNSINN (Madness, 1919) and DIE NACHT AUF GOLDENHALL (The Night At Goldenhall, 1920). 1920 saw the release of his most famous film, Robert Wiene’s Expressionist classic DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 1919/20), in which he played the homicidal somnambulist Cesare. Veidt’s bizarre body contortions and haunting facial expressions established him as an ideal expressionist actor. Further demonic or possessed characters followed in horror films such as Paul Leni’s DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Waxworks, 1923), with Veidt as Ivan the Terrible, and in the title role of Henrik Galeen’s remake of DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1926). In contrast, in Joe May’s lavishly produced DAS INDISCHE GRABMAL (The Indian Tomb, 1921) he was cast as an exotic and sexually magnetic Maharaja. Veidt also appeared as Elisabeth Bergner’s loving father in Paul Czinner’s DER GEIGER VON FLORENZ (Impetuous Youth, 1925/26). Between 1926 and 1929 he made four films in Hollywood, including THE BELOVED ROGUE (1926/27) with John Barrymore, and most notably, the title role of the grotesquely disfigured Gwynplaine in Paul Leni’s disturbing gothic horror romance THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1927/28). After the advent of sound, Veidt played heroic characters, as in Kurt/Curtis Bernhardt’s war film DIE LETZTE KOMPAGNIE (The Last Battalion, 1929/30), but also impressed as the scheming and worldly cynical Count Metternich in the musical comedy DER KONGRESS TANZT (Congress Dances, 1931), pro-
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duced in multi-lingual versions with Veidt appearing in the German and English versions as well. In the English version of Karl Hartl’s science fiction film F.P. 1 (1932), Veidt starred in the leading part played by Hans Albers in the German version. Having already previously appeared as a master criminal in the British production ROME EXPRESS (1932), Veidt left Germany for London in 1933 with his Jewish wife. In Britain he became a star in films such as Lothar Mendes’s adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger’s JEW SÜSS (1934). Other notable parts in the UK included his enigmatic, Christ-like stranger in Berthold Viertel’s THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK (1935), and a German U-boat commander in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s thriller THE SPY IN BLACK (1938/39). Veidt became a British citizen in 1938, but moved to Hollywood two years later, where he continued campaigning against fascism privately and on screen. He often played Nazis, most famously Major Strasser in CASABLANCA (1942). The latter performance was cut from the dubbed West German release version in the 1950s and was only restored when the film was re-released in the 1970s. [act – DE] 1916/17: Der Weg des Todes. 1917: Wenn Tote sprechen; Furcht; Der Spion; Das Rätsel von Bangalor. 1918: Die Serenyi; Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen; Es werde Licht! 4. Teil: Sündige Mütter; Das Dreimäderlhaus; Dida Ibsens Geschichte; Colomba; Die Mexikanerin; Jettchen Geberts Geschichte. 1. Jettchen Gebert / 2. Henriette Jacoby; Der nicht vom Weibe Geborene; Peer Gynt. 1. Peer Gynts Jugend / 2. Peer Gynts Wanderjahre und Tod; Opium. Die Sensation der Nerven; Die Reise um die Erde in 80 Tagen; Die Japanerin; Opfer der Gesellschaft. 1918/19: Nocturno der Liebe; Anders als die Andern. 1919: Das gelbe Haus; Die sich verkaufen. Die Prostitution. 2. Teil; Die Okarina; Prinz Kuckuck; Wahnsinn [dir,act,pro]; Unheimliche Geschichten; Satanas; Nachtgestalten. 1919/20: Gewitter im Mai; Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. 1920: Patience; Der Reigen; Die Nacht auf Goldenhall [dir,act, pro]; Der Januskopf; Kurfürstendamm; Die Augen der Welt; Abend – Nacht – Morgen; Moriturus; Die Sippschaft; Manolescus Memoiren; Künstlerlaunen; Liebestaumel; Sehnsucht. Bajazzo; Der Gang in die Nacht; Der Graf von Cagliostro [AT/DE]; Das Geheimnis von Bombay; Menschen im Rausch. 1920/21: Christian Wahnschaffe. 1. Weltbrand / 2. Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker; Die Liebschaften des Hektor Dalmore; Der Leidensweg der Inge Krafft. 1921: Landstraße und Großstadt; Lady Hamilton; Das indische Grabmal. 1. Die Sendung des Yoghi / 2. Der Tiger von Eschnapur. 1922: Lucrezia Borgia. 1922/ 23: Paganini [supv,act,pro]. 1923: Wilhelm Tell; Glanz gegen Glück; Das Wachsfigurenkabinett. 1923/24: Carlos und Elisabeth; Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924: Nju; Schicksal; Orlacs Hände [AT]; Le Comte Kostia / Graf Kostja [FR/DE]. 1925: Liebe macht blind; Ingmarsarvet [SE]. 1925/26: Der Geiger von Florenz; Die Brüder Schellenberg; Dürfen wir schweigen? 1926: Kreuzzug des Weibes; Der
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Student von Prag; Die Flucht in die Nacht. 1926/27: The Beloved Rogue [US]. 1927: A Man’s Past [US]. 1927/28: The Man Who Laughs [US]. 1928: Die Filmstadt Hollywood [DO]. 1929: Rund um die Liebe [DO]; Das Land ohne Frauen; The Last Performance [US]. 1929/30: Die letzte Kompagnie. 1930: Die große Sehnsucht [app]; Menschen im Käfig [MLV – GB]. 1930/31: Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV]. 1931: Die Nacht der Entscheidung [MLV – US/FR]; Der Kongreß tanzt [MLV]; Congress Dances [MLV]; Die andere Seite. 1931/32: Rasputin. 1932: Der schwarze Husar; Rome Express [GB]; F.P. 1 [MLV]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]. [act – GB] 1933: I Was a Spy; The Wandering Jew; Wilhelm Tell [MLV – DE/CH]. 1933/34: The Legend of William Tell [MLV – DE/CH]. 1934: Bella Donna; Jew Süss. 1935: The Passing of the Third Floor Back; King of the Damned. 1936: Dark Journey. 1937: Under the Red Robe. 1937/38: Tempête sur l’Asie [FR]. 1938: Le joueur d’échecs [FR]. 1938/ 39: The Spy in Black. 1939/40: Contraband; The Thief of Bagdad. 1940: Escape [US]. 1941: A Woman’s Face [US]; Whistling in the Dark [US]; The Men in Her Life [US]; All Through the Night [US]; Nazi Agent [US]. 1942: Casablanca [US]. 1942/43: Above Suspicion [US].
MICHAEL VERHOEVEN Born April 13, 1938, Berlin (Germany) Initially a child actor in the 1950s, Verhoeven later turned to writing, directing and producing. His films from the mid 1960s onwards, while aesthetically conventional, often addressed significant social issues, often about Germany’s Nazi past. Verhoeven’s parents were film director Paul Verhoeven (1901–1975) and actress Doris Kiesow (1902– 1973). He began playing teenage roles on screen from 1954, including the Heinz Rühmann vehicle DER PAUKER (The Teacher, 1958). He later studied medicine in Munich and Berlin, and became a doctor in 1969, parallel to his cinema career. By 1965 he had co-founded a production company Sentana Film GmbH with the actress Senta Berger, whom he married in 1966. His first independent film as author, director and producer was PAARUNGEN (Couplings, 1967) based on the Strindberg play ‘The Dance of Death’ with his father and Lilli Palmer in the leads. OK (1970), re-imagining the Vietnam War in Bavaria, courted controversies and was attacked for its anti-American leanings at the film festival in Berlin. The film cemented Verhoeven’s long collaboration with the cameraman Igor Luther. The TV film DIE URSACHE (The Cause, 1980) depicted the fatal consequences of authoritarian social structures through the story of a poet, who had been humiliated as a child by his teacher. The border between individualised narratives and wider political meaning was often fluid in Verhoeven’s films. DIE MUTPROBE (The Dare, 1982) condemned the West
German practice at the time of subjecting conscientious objectors to military tribunals. DIE WEISSE ROSE (The White Rose, 1981/82) was based on the case of the Scholl siblings who initiated a student resistance to National Socialism and who were arrested, tried and executed. The film led to discussions in the press and at government level concerning the Scholls’ trial, and to demands of posthumously revoking their death sentence. The film was awarded the German Film Prize, but was not allowed to be shown by the Goethe Institutes abroad. The West German government eventually conceded the Nazi regime’s justice system to have been illegal and the verdict was consequently declared invalid. DAS SCHRECKLICHE MÄDCHEN (The Nasty Girl, 1989) once again triggered widespread debate with its story of a student (played by Lena Stolze, the star of DIE WEISSE ROSE) who discovers unpleasant facts while researching a report about her hometown of Passau during the Nazi period, and who subsequently encounters hostility among the town folk. The film was a hit in the United States and was awarded a Golden Globe. In MUTTERS COURAGE (My Mother’s Courage, 1994/95), based on an autobiographical story by George Tabori, a Jewish Hungarian woman managed to escape her deportation to a concentration camp with the help of an SS-officer, played by Ulrich Tukur. Verhoeven continued to write regularly for television, including for popular series such as TATORT (Crime Scene), DIE SCHNELLE GERDI (Swift Gerdi, 1988/ 89), and DIE SCHNELLE GERDI UND DIE HAUPTSTADT (Swift Gerdi in the Capital, 2003), starring Berger. Occasionally he also directed at theatres in Munich. Felix Moeller’s TV documentary DIE VERHOEVENS (2002/03) provided a panoramic portrait of the Verhoeven dynasty and their contribution to German stage and screen: father Paul, mother Doris, Michael’s sister, actress Lis (b. 1931), her daughter Stella Adorf (b. 1963), from her marriage to actor Mario Adorf, and the sons of Senta and Michael, Simon (b. 1972) and Luca (b. 1979). The Dutch/Hollywood director Paul Verhoeven (b. 1938) is not a direct relative. [act – DE] 1954: Das fliegende Klassenzimmer. 1954/55: Marianne de ma jeunesse [MLV – DE/FR]; Marianne [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955: Griff nach den Sternen; Admiral Bobby [TV]. 1955/56: Vor 100 Jahren fing es an [DO]. 1958: Die Lorbeermaske [TV]; Der Pauker. 1959: So angelt man keinen Mann; Blühende Träume [TV]; Der Mann im Manne [TV]; … und noch frech dazu! 1959/60: Der Jugendrichter. 1960: Ein Student ging vorbei; Mit 17 weint man nicht. 1961: Ich kann nicht länger schweigen. 1961/62: Wenn beide schuldig werden [AT]. 1962: Ein Buch mit Kapiteln
BERTHOLD VIERTEL [TV]. 1963: Der Geisterzug [TV]; Das Haus in Montevideo; Der Liebesdienst [TV]; Jack und Jenny; Der Blinde [TV]; Wachet auf und singet [TV]. 1964: Lausbubengeschichten; Die Herren von der Presse [TV]. 1965: Die 5. Kolonne: Blumen für Zimmer 19 [TV]. 1966: Onkel Filser – Allerneueste Lausbubengeschichten. [dir,scr,pro – TV – DE] 1967: Paarungen [FF]. 1968: Was ihr wollt [act]; Engelchen macht weiter – hoppe, hoppe Reiter [FF – dir]. 1969: Ludwig auf Freiersfüßen [FF – act]; Der Bettenstudent oder: Was mach’ ich mit den Mädchen? [FF – dir]; Tische [SF]. 1969/70: Der Kommissar: Dr. Meinhardts trauriges Ende [dir,act]. 1970: o.k. [FF – dir,scr,cut, act]; Wer im Glashaus liebt … [FF – dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1971: Bonbons [SF]; Der Kommissar: Kellner Windeck [act]. 1972: Tatort: Kressin und der Mann mit dem gelben Koffer [dir]. 1973: Ein unheimlich starker Abgang [FF]; Coiffeur [SF]. 1973/74: Krempoli – Ein Platz für wilde Kinder [TVS – 10 episodes – dir,co-scr]. 1975: Die Herausforderung [dir, pro]; MitGift [FF]. 1975/76: Bier und Spiele [TVS – 14 episodes – dir]. 1976: Gefundenes Fressen [FF]. 1977: Das Männerquartett [dir,scr]. 1978: 1982 – Gutenbach [dir]; Verführungen [dir]; Edith und Marlene [dir]. 1979: Sonntagskinder [FF]. 1979/80: Freundinnen [TVS – co-dir]; Am Südhang [dir,pro]. 1980: Die Ursache. 1981/82: Die weiße Rose [FF – co-dir,co-scr,pro]. 1982: Die Mutprobe; Heut’ abend … Senta Berger und Michael Verhoeven zu Gast bei Joachim Fuchsberger [TVD – app]. 1983: Spider Murphy Gang [FF – co-scr,pro]; Liebe Melanie. 1984: Das Tor zum Glück [dir,pro]. 1985/86: Killing Cars [FF – dir,pro]; Stinkwut. 1986/87: Gundas Vater; Gegen die Regel [dir]. 1987/ 88: Semmelweis Ignaz – Arzt der Frauen [AT/DE]. 1988/ 89: Die schnelle Gerdi [TVS – 6 episodes – dir,scr,act,pro]. 1989: Das schreckliche Mädchen [FF]; Das Mädchen und die Stadt [TVD – dir]. 1990: Schlaraffenland. 1991/92: Lilli Lottofee [TVS – 6 episodes – dir,scr,act,pro]. 1993: Eine unheilige Liebe. 1994/95: Mutters Courage / My Mother’s Courage [FF – dir,scr,act,pro – DE/GB/AT]. 1998: George Tabori – Theater ist Leben [TVD]. 1999: Zimmer mit Frühstück. 2000: Enthüllung einer Ehe [dir,scr]. 2000/01: Der Fall Liebl [TVD]. 2001: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Ein Überlebenskünstler. Der Schauspieler Heinz Rühmann [TVD – app]. 2001/02: Die kleine Schwester. Die Weiße Rose – ein Vermächtnis [TVD – dir,scr]. 2002/03: René Deltgen – Der sanfte Rebell [DO – app – LU]; Die Verhoevens [TVD – app]. 2003: Die schnelle Gerdi und die Hauptstadt [TVS – 6 episodes]. 2003/04: Tatort: Die Spieler [dir]. 2004: Von Sex bis Simmel [TVD – app]. 2006: Die poetische Geburtstagstorte – Ein Theater feiert seinen Meister [SD]; Der unbekannte Soldat [DO]; Unter Verdacht – Atemlos [act]. 2006/07: Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten [TVD – app]. 2007: Legenden: Heinz Rühmann [TVD – app]. 2007/08: Bloch: Vergeben, nicht vergessen [dir,act]; Menschliches Versagen [TVD].
BERTHOLD VIERTEL Born June 28, 1885, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died September 24, 1953, Vienna (Austria) Encompassing literature, stage, and screen, Berthold Viertel made a prominent impact on the cultural life
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in Austria and Germany, and to a lesser extent in the United States and Britain, in the first half of the 20th century. Viertel abandoned his studies in philosophy in 1910 and began to write poetry and cultural essays for the journal ‘Die Fackel’, edited by Karl Kraus. He subsequently became one of the founding members of the Volksbühne theatre in Vienna, where he began his directing career in 1913, collaborating with actors such as Fritz Kortner, Ernst Deutsch, and Helene Thimig. After the war he moved to Dresden where he directed a number of widely acclaimed productions of plays by Expressionist authors including Georg Kaiser, Friedrich Wolf, and Walter Hasenclever. In 1922 he followed a call from Max Reinhardt to Berlin, where his productions continued to promote avantgarde plays and writers, including Carl Sternheim and Arnolt Bronnen. Apart from his theatre work, Viertel also published essays and wrote short novels. From the early 1920s, Viertel repeatedly collaborated with the screenwriter Carl Mayer, first on the script for F. W. Murnau’s SCHLOSS VOGELÖD (Vogelöd Castle, 1921). In 1922/23, Viertel directed his first film, NORA, based on Ibsen’s play ‘A Doll’s House’, starring Olga Tschechowa. His second film, DIE PERÜCKE (The Wig, 1924), was a similarly theatrical endeavour, centred on the performances of his actors. Produced by the cinematographer Karl Freund and written by Béla Balázs, K 13 513 – DIE ABENTEUER EINES ZEHNMARKSCHEINES (The Adventures of a Ten-Mark Note, 1926) comprised an unusual narrative that followed the story of a bank note and the varying fates of its temporary owners. Viertel and Mayer collaborated again on Murnau’s Hollywood film FOUR DEVILS (1928), after which Viertel settled in America. Contracted to Fox and later Paramount, he directed a number of now largely forgotten films, including co-directing with William Dieterle a German-language version of Archie Mayo’s Somerset Maugham adaptation THE SACRED FLAME, DIE HEILIGE FLAMME (1930/31), featuring his second wife, Salka Viertel (1889–1978, born Salomea Steuermann), an actress, script writer and personal confidante of Greta Garbo, who would later publish a bestselling memoir of her time in Hollywood, ‘The Kindness of Strangers’ (1969). In 1932 Viertel returned to Europe, initially to Paris, then following an invitation from Alexander Korda, to Britain. Contracted to Gaumont-British, his first assignment was LITTLE FRIEND (1934), a quietly compelling drama about a small girl whose parents are divorcing. During the latter production, Viertel met the young British writer Christopher Isherwood, who would rework their encounter in his 1945 novella ‘Prater Violet’. THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK (1935) was a haunting parable starring Conrad Veidt as a Christ-like stranger who changes
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the lives of the people living in a run-down boarding house. Viertel’s final British film was a hagiographic portrait of one of the founding fathers of British colonialism, RHODES OF AFRICA (1935/36). When his British visa expired in 1939, Viertel returned to the United States, where he worked on a number of stage productions. When his long-time assistant director Fred Zinnemann prepared his film THE SEVENTH CROSS (1944) Viertel helped him with the casting. After the war he concentrated exclusively on stage productions, touring theatres in Vienna, Zurich and Berlin. He translated a number of plays by Arthur Miller (All My Sons) and Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), some of which were produced for German television in the 1950s and 1960s. Viertel’s son from his marriage to Salka, Peter Viertel (1920– 2007), became a novelist and screenwriter in Hollywood (e.g. THE AFRICAN QUEEN, 1951). [dir – US] 1921: Schloß Vogelöd [co-scr]. 1922/23: Nora [dir,co-scr – DE]. 1924: Die Perücke [dir,scr – DE]. 1926: K 13513. Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines [DE]. 1928: Four Devils [co-scr]. 1929: The One Woman Idea; Seven Faces. 1929/30: Our Daily Bread [co-scr]. 1930: Man Trouble. 1930/31: Die heilige Flamme [MLV – US/ DE]; The Spy [dir,co-scr,pro]. 1931: The Magnificent Lie. 1931/32: The Wiser Sex. 1932: The Man from Yesterday. 1934: Little Friend [dir,co-scr – GB]. 1935: The Passing of the Third Floor Back [GB]. 1935/36: Rhodes of Africa [GB].
JOSEPH VILSMAIER Born January 24, 1939, Munich (Germany) Vilsmaier started as a cinematographer in the late 1960s and became a director in the late 1980s. He initially made his name with a modern and naturalist take on the Heimatfilm genre, but his later films placed increasing emphasis on lavish production values. His father a prisoner of war, Vilsmaier grew up with his mother in the small Bavarian town of Pfarrkirchen and later in Munich. He spent five years at a boarding school and trained as a camera technician from 1953, while studying music at the conservatory in Munich. He was subsequently offered a job by the production company Bavaria-Film, working his way up to principal cinematographer. Among the numerous television programmes he worked on were Rainer Erler’s DAS BLAUE PALAIS (The Blue Palace, 1974) as well as on several episodes of the detective series TATORT (Crime Scene). From 1978 he worked freelance, shooting not only TV films and series but also documentaries, commercials and feature films. Vilsmaier developed an interest in the book ‘Herbstmilch’, the memoirs of a Bavarian farmer’s wife which chronicled rural life during the ‘Third Reich’, and
bought the film rights. Founding his own production company Perathon-Film and adapting the novel with Peter Steinbach, the screenwriter of Edgar Reitz’s HEIMAT, Vilsmaier’s screen version HERBSTMILCH (Autumn Milk, 1988) starred his wife, the CzechGerman actress Dana Vávrová (1967–2009), who would become a frequent collaborator. The film became a box office hit, despite considerably reducing the book’s panoramic scope. RAMA DAMA (We’re Cleaning Up!!, 1990), a quasisequel to the previous film, failed to match the earlier film’s success, but demonstrated the director’s propensity for visually overloading relatively thin plots. Vilsmaier’s next film, STALINGRAD (1991/ 92), was a Hollywood-style blockbuster, shot at great expense and with extravagant attention to period detail. Vilsmaier returned to literary adaptations with a remake of Erich Kästner’s popular ‘Das doppelte Lottchen’ (Two Times Lotte), CHARLIE & LOUISE (1993/94). SCHLAFES BRUDER (Brother of Sleep, 1994/95), was a costume melodrama about a musical prodigy. Typically opulent, COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (The Harmonists, 1997) told the story of the eponymous vocal harmony group of the Weimar period, and their later fate under the Nazis. Popular with the cinema-going public, critics attacked the film’s superficial engagement with its historical context and its pedestrian direction. Vilsmaier’s greatest commercial success, it nevertheless earned a number of awards. Negative reviews also dominated the critical response to the fictionalised Marlene Dietrich biopic MARLENE (1999/2000), singling out clichéd dialogues and situations, as well as its falsifications of historical facts. LEO UND CLAIRE (Leo & Claire / One Kiss, 2000/01) continued Vilsmaier’s series of glossy Nazi period dramas, while BERGKRISTALL (Rock Crystal, 2003/04) with its narrative similarities to Leni Riefenstahl’s DAS BLAUE LICHT (The Blue Light, 1931/ 32) marked a return to Alpine themes. Over the next years, these two thematic strands would characterise Vilsmaier’s output. Produced by Artur Brauner’s CCC, DER LETZTE ZUG (The Last Train, 2005/06) chronicled the deportations of Jews from Berlin in the early 1940s; the shoot was completed by Vávrová after Vilsmaier had suffered an accident during production. DIE GESCHICHTE VOM BRANDNER KASPAR (The Story of Kaspar Brandner, 2007/ 08) was based on a Bavarian story from the 19th century, while DIE GUSTLOFF (Sinking of the Gustloff, 2007/08) was an ‘event movie’ produced for television which retold the story of the Allied sinking of a refugee ship during the last days of World War II. [cam – TV – DE] 1966: Flucht ohne Ausweg [ass-cam]. 1967: Jet Generation [FF – ass-cam]. 1969: Wie eine Träne im Ozean [co-cam]. 1971/72: Die merkwürdige Lebens-
JÜRGEN VOGEL geschichte des Friedrich Freiherrn von der Trenck [cocam]. 1972: Alexander Zwo [co-cam]. 1972-74: Lerchenpark [TVS]. 1973: Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre [TVS – 3rd season]. 1973/74: Der Pendler; Krempoli – Ein Platz für wilde Kinder [TVS]. 1974: Giro d’Italia – Die härteste Show der Welt [DO]; Tatort: Acht Jahre später; Das blaue Palais [2 episodes]. 1974/76: Um Haus und Hof [TVS]. 1974-77: Ein Haus für uns [6 episodes]. 1975: Der Wittiber; Inspektion Lauenstadt [6 episodes]. 1975-80: Nonstop Nonsens [TVS]. 1976: Tatort: Fortuna III; Tatort: Abendstern. 1976/ 77: Krock & Co. 1977: Tatort: Drei Schlingen. 1977/78: Tochter des Schweigens [TVS]; Tatort: Rechnung mit einer Unbekannten; Tagebuch des Verführers; Auf Achse [9 episodes]. 1978: Der Alte: Ein unkomplizierter Fall; Tatort: Lockruf; Der harte Handel; Tatort: Der Feinkosthändler. 1979: Tango Argentina [DO]; … es ist die Liebe; Tatort: Schweigegeld; Fallstudien. 1980: Das Berchtesgadener Land [DO – dir,cam]; Matto regiert [co-cam – DE/CH]; Tatort: Schönes Wochenende; Ein zauberhaftes Biest [TVS]. 1981: Jeans; Leutersbronner Geschichten. 1981/82: Tatort: Das Mädchen auf der Treppe. 1982: Die Stunde des Löwen; Büro, Büro. [TVS – 1st season – co-cam]. 1983: Rote Erde; Sag nein – Künstler für den Frieden [DO – cocam]; Die goldenen Schuhe [co-cam – DE/FR/IT]; Für’n Groschen Brause. 1983/84: Ein Fall für zwei: Totes Kapital. 1984: Alles aus Liebe: Hildes Endspiel; Ein Fall für zwei: Morgengrauen; Geld oder Leben; Gespenstergeschichten [6 episodes]. 1984/85: Tatort: Doppelspiel; Der Fahnder [1st season – 3 episodes]. 1985: Geschichten aus der Heimat. VIII. 1986: Reschkes großer Dreh [TVS]; Ein Stück Himmel (II); Didi auf vollen Touren [FF]. 1987: Leere Welt. 1987/88: Didi – Der Experte [FF]. 1988: Der Schwammerlkönig [3 episodes]; Rosinenbomber. [dir,cam,pro – DE] Herbstmilch. 1988/89: Jakob und Adele. 10. Kurerlebnisse [TV – cam]. 1989: Mission Eureka [TVS – co-cam]. 1990: Rama dama [dir,co-scr,co-cam, pro]. 1991/92: Stalingrad [dir,co-scr,cam,pro]. 1993/94: Charlie & Louise – Das doppelte Lottchen; Der Prinz von Homburg [DO – cam]. 1994/95: Wia die Zeit vergeht [TVD – co-dir,co-cam,pro]; Schlafes Bruder [AT/DE]. 1995: Und keiner weint mir nach. 1996: Hollywood, Germany [TVD – app]. 1997: Hunger – Sehnsucht nach Liebe [pro]; Comedian Harmonists. 1998: Straight Shooter [pro]. 1999: Der Bär ist los / Hurá na medvìda [pro – DE/CZ]. 1999/2000: Marlene. 2000: Höchstpersönlich: Katja Flint [TVD – app]. 2000/01: Leo und Claire [dir,co-scr,cam, pro]. 2001: Drei Engel für Dr. No [SF – dir]. 2002: August, der Glückliche [TV – dir,cam – AT]. 2003: Pura Vida Ibiza [pro]; Den Frieden in der Hand. Das Holzkirchner Wallfahrtsgelübde. [TVD – co-dir]. 2003/04: Bergkristall. 2003-05: Vera – Die Frau des Sizilianers [TV – dir,cam]. 2005/06: Der letzte Zug; Das Weihnachts-Ekel [TV – dir,cam – AT]. 2006: Joseph Vilsmaier – ‘… so ist der Sepp’ [TVD – app]. 2006/07: Der Alte: Wenn Liebe zuschlägt [TV – dir,cam]. 2007: Siska: Schatten einer Frau [TV – dir,cam]. 2007/08: Die Gustloff [TV – dir]; Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar. 2008: Heimat – Deine Filme [TVD – app]. 2008/09: Nanga Parbat.
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JÜRGEN VOGEL (Jürgen Peter Vogel) Born April 29, 1968, Hamburg (West Germany) Renowned for his unmistakable, unaffected physical presence on screen, Vogel injected directness and honesty into his roles, often playing a psychologically damaged social outsider. Coming from a working-class family, Vogel modelled childrenswear for a mail-order catalogue at the age of nine, before learning kung fu and Thai boxing. After graduating from school, Vogel briefly took acting lessons. Alongside infrequent appearances in films, Vogel did a variety of odd jobs. In the mid-1980s he shared a flat with actor Richy Müller. He debuted as a teenager in children’s films and series for television but soon was cast in feature films such as Volker Maria Arend’s KINDER AUS STEIN (Stone Children, 1986). For his leading part as a disturbed kidnapper in Egon Günther’s ROSAMUNDE (1988) he received a Bavarian Film Award. He gained another one – as well as popularity and public recognition – for his performance in Sönke Wortmann’s KLEINE HAIE (Small Sharks, 1991/92). At the beginning of the 1990s Vogel appeared in numerous cinema releases and television films, playing a provincial thug in DURST (Thirst, 1991–93) and a violent football hooligan in SCHICKSALSSPIEL (Game of Fate, 1993). He interpreted these small-time hoodlums as broken characters, whose aggressive behaviour was rendered understandable. Vogel was given the opportunity to exploit his physical attractiveness in STILLE NACHT (Silent Night, 1995). Dani Levy’s sentimental love triangle cast him as a sensitive punk who is sexually and psychologically used by a capricious woman. In 1996 he founded Schwarzweiss Filmproduktion with Matthias Glasner, who directed SEXY SADIE (1995). This film allowed Vogel to build on his image as a violent yet vulnerable criminal. Starring opposite Corinna Harfouch as a prison doctor, he played a terminally ill serial killer. His daydreamer in Wolfgang Becker’s DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (Life Is All You Get, 1995– 97) also earned appreciation from critics and the public as well as a German Film Award. Vogel was cast against his usual image, stumbling through life without defending himself against the banal, funny and deeply saddening adversities of everyday life in 1990s Berlin. He took on Fritz Rasp’s classic role of the ‘thief in the bowler hat’ in the remake of EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES), and was one of two famous gangster brothers from the Weimar period in SASS (both 2000/01). In Doris Dörrie’s NACKT (Naked, 2001/02) he played a man experiencing a crisis in his marriage. In Glasner’s DER FREIE WILLE (The Free Will, 2004– 2006) Vogel presented a complex portrait of a rapist
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that earned him a Silver Bear in Berlin 2006, while in Dennis Gansel’s DIE WELLE (The Wave, 2007/08) he was cast as a high school teacher whose experiment to make pupils understand the dynamics of dictatorship goes disastrously wrong. Vogel and Glasner reunited on the latter’s THIS IS LOVE (2008). In Maximilan Erlenwein’s SCHWERKRAFT (Gravity, 2008), Vogel returned to his bad guy image, playing an ex-convict who teams up with a bank clerk suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome to stage a series of burglaries. [act – TV – DE] 1985: Bas-Boris Bode [TVS – DE/NL]; Wanderjahre [TVS]. 1985/86: Novemberkatzen; Das Go! Projekt [TV] 1986: Seine letzte Chance [TV]; Kinder aus Stein [TV] 1986/87: Der Fahnder: Der kleine Bruder [TV]; Reichshauptstadt – Privat [TV] 1987: Der Werwolf von W [TV] 1987/88: A.D.A.M.; Reporter: Die braune Front [TV] 1988: Rosamunde; Nachtfeuer [TV] 1989: Bumerang – Bumerang. 1989/90: Der Schnee der Anden [TV] 1990: Tatort: Rendezvous [TV]; Der Kameramann [TV]; The Wonderbeats – Kings of Beat. 1990/91: Der Fahnder: Das Versprechen [TV] 1991: Tatort: Blutwurstwalzer [TV] 1991/92: Kleine Haie; Eurocops: Evelyns Traum [TV]; Kinderspiele. 1991-93: Durst [DE/AT]. 1992: Schuld war nur der Bossa Nova [TV] 1992-94: Hecht & Haie: Rosenkavaliere [TV] 1993: Dann eben mit Gewalt [TV]; Schicksalsspiel [TV]; Domenica. Alle kommen, keiner war da; Die Männer vom K3: Tanz auf dem Seil [TV]; Three Shake-a-Leg Steps to Heaven [DE/LU/BE]; Polski Crash [DE/PL]. 1993/94: Faust: Rechtsaußen [TV]; Angst [TV – DE/AT]; Polizeiruf 110: Kiwi und die Ratte [TV]; Wachtmeister Zumbühl [CH/DE]. 1994: Die Schamlosen [TV]; Einer meiner ältesten Freunde; Ausgerechnet Zoé [TV – DE/CH]; Unschuldsengel [TV] 1994/95: Die Mediocren; Am Morgen danach [TV]; Babyfon – Mörder im Kinderzimmer [TV] 1995: Polizeiruf 110: 7 Tage Freiheit [TV]; Ein Fall für zwei: Mordsgefühle [TV]; Doppelter Einsatz: Faustpfand [TV]; Stille Nacht; Sexy Sadie [act,pro]. 1995/96: Rosa Roth: Verlorenes Leben [TV]; Die Drei: Marion mit den blauen Augen [TV] 1995-97: Das Leben ist eine Baustelle. 1996: Polizeiruf 110: Kleine Dealer, große Träume [TV]; Buddies – Leben auf der Überholspur [TV]; Charleys Tante [TV]; Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee / Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne / Smilla’s Sense of Snow [DE/DK/SE]; Der Kindermord [TV] 1996/97: A.S.: Umarmung mit dem Tod [TV]; Die Apothekerin. 1997: Der Pirat [TV] 1997/98: Das Mambospiel [TV]; Fette Welt. 1998: Ein großes Ding [TV] 1998/99: Manila. 1999: Le Sourire du clown [FR]; Mordkommission: Kalte Liebe [TV]; Zornige Küsse [CH/DE]. 2000: Das Phantom [TV] 2000/01: Emil und die Detektive; Sass. 2000-02: Poem – Ich setzte den Fuß in die Luft und sie trug [TV] 2001: Sesamstraße [TVS]. 2001: Nogo [AT]. 2001/ 02: Nackt; Scherbentanz; Good Bye, Lenin! 2002: Tatort: Flashback [TV]; Freund meiner Mutter [TV] 2002/03: Der Aufstand [TV]; Mein Name ist Bach [DE/CH]. 2003: Rosenstraße [DE/NL]; Die Geisel [TV]; Tatort: Der vierte Mann [TV] 2003/04: Die Kirschenkönigin [TV] 2004: Nach grauen Tagen [SF]; Barfuss; Außer Kontrolle [TV] 2004/05: Keine Lie-
der über Liebe; Das geheime Leben meiner Freundin [TV]; Tatort: Wo ist Max Gravert? [TV]; Der freie Wille [co-scr,act,pro]. 2004-06: Ein Freund von mir. 2005: Mutterglück [TV] 2005/06: Emmas Glück; TKKG – Das Geheimnis um die rätselhafte Mind-Machine; Wo ist Fred?; Paulas Geheimnis. 2006: Der Deutsche Film – Die fetten Jahre kommen noch [TVD – app]; Spur der Hoffnung [TV] 2006/ 07: Fat Machines [TVD – 8 episodes]; KDD – Kriminaldauerdienst [TVS – 10 episodes]; Alte Freunde [TV]; Die Schatzinsel [TV] 2007: Duell in der Nacht [TV]; KeinOhrHasen. 2007/08: Die Welle. 2008: This Is Love [act,pro]. 2008/09: Schwerkraft; Männersache; 12 Winter [TV]
RÜDIGER VOGLER Born May 14, 1942, Warthausen (Germany) A theatre, film, and television actor who excels in understated roles, Vogler made his mark in New German Cinema and became one of the most recognisable and recurring actors in Wim Wenders’s films. After studying music in Heidelberg between 1963 and 1965, Vogler debuted at the city’s Zimmertheater, and then worked at the Theater am Turm in Frankfurt/Main from 1966 to 1972, where he won acclaim for his performances in plays by Peter Handke. Vogler’s film debut and his first of many on-screen collaborations with Wenders, was the adaptation of Handke’s DIE ANGST DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER (The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick, 1971), in which he had a small part as a village idiot. Vogler’s first leading role was as a journalist who suddenly finds himself looking after a young girl, while travelling through the Unites States in ALICE IN DEN STÄDTEN (Alice in the Cities, 1973/74). Guest appearances at various theatres followed from 1973. With his wry smile and restrained manner, Vogler repeatedly portrayed characters wrestling inner demons, for example as the would-be writer in FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (The Wrong Move, 1974/75), which received a German Film Award for outstanding acting by the entire cast. In IM LAUF DER ZEIT (Kings of the Road, 1975), he appeared withdrawn and reticent almost to the point of apathy next to Hanns Zischler’s performance as a mechanic traversing the highways on the border to East Germany to service film projectors. Apart from his appearances in Wenders’s films, Vogler also worked with other New German Cinema directors. Handke’s DIE LINKSHÄNDIGE FRAU (The Left-Handed Woman, 1977) suggested an autobiographical dimension to his performance of a reserved actor. In Margarethe von Trotta’s DIE BLEIERNE ZEIT (Marianne and Juliane / The German Sisters, 1981) he watched the sibling drama between two strong-willed sisters unfold from the sidelines. During the same period, Vogler acted at Paris’s Théâtre des
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Amandiers de Nanterre, and he gave a memorable performance in Wenders’s stage adaptation of Handke’s epic poem ‘Über die Dörfer’ (Walk About the Villages) at the 1982 Salzburg Festival. On the big screen, Vogler had numerous supporting roles in European productions, including King Charles III in Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s IL SOLE ANCHE DI NOTTE (Night Sun, 1989/90) and General Jakofalvy in István Szabo’s A NAPFÉNY ÍZE (Sunshine, 1998/99). In the 1990s, Vogler again teamed up with Wenders, playing unassuming and endearingly ungainly characters, such as the detective in the futuristic BIS ANS ENDE DER WELT (Until the End of the World, 1990/91) and as a sound engineer in LISBON STORY (1994/95). A regular in mainstream television he had guest roles in detective series such as TATORT (Crime Scene) and EIN FALL FÜR ZWEI (A Case for Two) since the late 1980s. From the late 1990s onwards, he grew into the role of the benign father figure in TV and film melodramas, appearing in a number of post-reunification German box office hits, including Carlo Rola’s comedy PEANUTS – DIE BANK ZAHLT ALLES (Peanuts – The Bank Pays Everything, 1995) and, as Franke Potente’s father, in Stefan Ruzowitzky’s horror film ANATOMIE (Anatomy, 1999). [act – TV – DE] 1966: Publikumsbeschimpfung. 1967/68: Meine Mutter macht Mist mit mir. 1968: Graf Öderland. 1969: Kaspar. 1970/71: Chronik der laufenden Ereignisse. 1971: Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter [FF – DE/AT]. 1972: Agent aus der Retorte. 1972/73: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe / La lettera scarlatta [FF – DE/ES]. 1973: Die Gräfin von Rathenow. 1973/74: Alice in den Städten [FF]; Dein gutes Recht: Helfer in Not. 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung [FF]; Am Wege [AT/DE]. 1975: Reden und Reden lassen; Schülerrevolte; Nach der Scheidung; Hilde Breitner; Im Lauf der Zeit [FF]. 1976/77: Hungária kávéház [TVS – HU]; Loch im Kopp; Gruppenbild mit Dame / Portrait de groupe avec dame [FF – DE/FR]; Kreutzer [FF]. 1977: Die linkshändige Frau [FF]; Fluchtweg nach Marseille [DO]. 1977/ 78: Alzire oder der neue Kontinent [FF – CH/DE]; L’État sauvage [FF – FR]. 1978: Gesche Gottfried. 1978/79: Letzte Liebe [FF]. 1979: Henry Angst [FF]; Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt [TV]. 1979/80: Johannes [TVS]. 1980: Typisch Eddie [TVD]; Die grüne Seite [AT]. 1981: Beate und Mareile; Die bleierne Zeit [FF]; Logik des Gefühls [FF]. 1981/82: La passante du Sans-Souci / Die Spaziergängerin von SansSouci [FF – FR/DE]. 1982: L’Hôpital de Leningrad [FR]. 1982/83: Melzer [FF – CH/DE]; Gefängnispostsack X4 Südafrika [TVD]; Fanny Morgane oder Irgendwie muß das Glück ja heißen. 1983: La nuit du carrefour [FR]; Wochenendgeschichten: Wanda; Machinations [FR]. 1983/84: Der Havarist [FF]; Gnadenlos. 1984: Zwei Bilder [SF]; Die Praxis der Liebe [FF – AT/DE]; Un caso d’incoscienza [IT]. 1984/ 85: Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie. 1985: Ge-
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teiltes Land [SF]; Tarot [FF]. 1985/86: Laputa [FF]. 198587: Das Treibhaus. 1986: Mademoiselle Fifi. 1986/87: Evelyn und die Männer oder Wie Hund und Katze. 1987: Madrid [FF – ES]; Plaza Réal [FF]; Das Winterhaus. 1987/88: Felicitas auf leisen Pfoten [TVS]. 1988: Das Milliardenspiel; El mundo de Juan Lobón / Lobón – Wilderer de Sierra [ES/DE]. 1988/89: Erdenschwer. 1989/90: Asikel – Die Reise [DO – voi]; Il sole anche di notte / Le soleil même la nuit / Nachtsonne [FF – IT/FR/DE]; Pink Palace Paradise Beach [FF – AT]; Tatort: Tini. 1990: Anna Göldin – Letzte Hexe [FF – DE/CH/FR]; Das lange Gespräch mit dem Vogel; Die Geschichte mit Armin; Chasse gardée [FF – FR]. 1990/91: Transit [FF – FR/DE]; Bis ans Ende der Welt / Jusqu’au bout du monde / Until the End of the World [FF – DE/FR/AU]; Der Fahnder: Alte Kameraden. 1991: Pronto Soccorso 2 [FF – IT]; Anwalt Abel – Noch Zweifel, Herr Verteidiger?; Anwalt Abel – Reiche Kunden killt man nicht; Kleine Chefs und große Tiere. 1991/92: Derrick: Mord im Treppenhaus; Der König von Bärenbach [TVS]. 1992: Arisha, der Bär und der steinerne Ring [FF]; Der Alte: Der Tod ist kein Ende; Tatort: Bienzle und der Biedermann; Princesse Alexandra [FR]. 1992/93: Point d’orgue [FR]; In weiter Ferne, so nah! [FF]; Schöne Feindin. 1993: Revue de Jeunesse [FF – FR]; Feuer und Flamme / Tout feu, tout femme [TVS – DE/FR]; Das Sahara-Projekt; Bommels Billigflüge; Der Fahnder: Wer einmal lügt; Amico mio: Nonte ne andare / Die Kinderklinik: Bleib’ bei uns Hellen! [IT/DE]. 1993/94: Tatort: Singvogel; Wonderboy – De sueur de sang / Die Zärtlichkeit des Tigers [FF – FR/DE]; Tod in Miami. 1993-95: Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky [FF]. 1994: Ein Fall für zwei: Schuß ins Herz; Saubere Aktien [AT]; Hasenjagd [FF – AT/DE/LU]; Rosa Roth: In Liebe und Tod; Het Verdriet van Belgie / Le chagrin de Belges [BE]; Wolffs Revier: Mausetot. 1994/95: Lisbon Story [FF]; Les Milles [FF – FR]; Der Clan der Anna Voss. 1995: Der Alte: Tote reden doch; Belle Époque [FR]; Peanuts – Die Bank zahlt alles; Martin Berg – Anwalt der Gerechtigkeit: Mord im Klinikum. 1996/97: Die Schuld der Liebe [FF – AT/CH]. 1997: Un prete tra noi / Priester im Einsatz [TVS – IT/DE]; Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan [FF]. 1997/98: Operation Phoenix – Jäger zwischen den Welten: Das Baby und die Bestie; Hallo Onkel Doc!: Vater unser. 1997-99: Berlin-Cinema [DO – voi – CH]. 1998: Une minute de silence / Ende der Geduld [FF – FR/BE/DE]; Straight Shooter [FF]; Dr. Berg – Nur das Leben zählt / La passion du Docteur Berg [DE/FR]; Schlosshotel Orth: Konkurrenten [AT]; Die Männer vom K3: Tödliches Spiel; Götterdämmerung – Morgen stirbt Berlin; Die Zauberfrau. 1998/99: Die Braut [FF]; A napfény íze / Sunshine – Ein Hauch von Sonnenschein [FF – HU/DE/AT]; Rendezvous mit dem Teufel. 1999: Doppelter Einsatz: Die Todfreundin; Une pour toutes [FF – FR]; Anatomie; Zahn wahnsinnige Tage. 1999/2000: Zwei Asse und ein König. 2000: Mörderinnen; T.E.A.M. Berlin: Der Verrat; Mein langsames Leben [FF]. 2000/01: Sass [FF]; Leo und Claire [FF]. 2000-02: Die 8. Todsünde: Gespensterjagd / Das Toskana-Karussell. 2001: Ein Fall für zwei: Verbotene Gefühle; Verbotene Küsse. 2001/02: Bella Block: Im Namen der Ehre. 2002: Tatort: Flashback; Liebe ist die beste Medizin. 2003: SOKO Leipzig: Der unsichtbare Tod; Aus Liebe zu Deutschland – Eine Spendenaffäre; Verführung in sechs Gängen. 2004: Die schöne Braut in
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Schwarz; Ne fais pas ça! [FR]; Was heißt hier Oma!; München 7: Eine komische Oper. 2004/05: Edel & Starck: Adel verpflichtet; Kanzleramt: Bilderstreit; Der letzte Zeuge: Die Tote aus dem Moor. 2005: Colditz [GB]; Drei teuflisch starke Frauen; Polizeiruf 110: Die Mutter von Monte Carlo; Die Täuschung. 2005/06: Une saison Sibélius [FR]; Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht … Das Leben des Heinrich Heine; Sie ist meine Mutter; Die Nonne und der Kommissar. 2005-07: Von einem der auszog – Wim Wenders’ frühe Jahre [DO – app]. 2006: Ein Fall für zwei: Blutige Liebesgrüße; Liebe ist das schönste Geschenk. 2006/07: SOKO Köln: Tod einer Polizistin; Die großen und die kleinen Wünsche: David gegen Goliath / Amors Pfeile; Der Staatsanwalt [TVS – 4 episodes]. 2007: Drei teuflisch starke Frauen: Eine für alle / Die Zerreißprobe; Der Mann an ihrer Seite. 2007/08: SOKO 5113: Das Urteil; De brief voor de koning [FF – NL]; Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin [FF]; Effi Briest [FF]. 2008: Der Besuch der alten Dame [DE/AT]; Mit einem Schlag; Kreuzfahrt ins Glück: Hochzeitsreise nach Sambia. 2008/09: Lilly Schönauer – Hochzeit am See [DE/AT].
ALFRED VOHRER (Alfred Adolf Vohrer) Born December 29, 1914, Stuttgart (Germany) Died February 3, 1986, Munich (West Germany) Alongside Harald Reinl, Vohrer was one of the most prolific popular genre directors of West German cinema and television from the 1950s to the 1970s. While Reinl specialised in the great outdoors, Vohrer preferred more claustrophobic settings, excelling especially at crime thrillers and domestic melodramas. During the 1930s, following acting and singing lessons, Vohrer became a member of the Württemberg State Theatre in Stuttgart. Conscripted into the army, he fought on the Eastern front where he lost his right arm in battle. He subsequently began to work for Ufa, and became assistant to director Harald Braun. After the war and with his acting career effectively over, Vohrer returned to Stuttgart and initially worked in radio, before becoming involved in the dubbing of foreign films for the German market. Vohrer subsequently supervised the dubbing of approximately 1,000 films, including classics such as ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) and THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957). His cinema debut as a director was the youth drama SCHMUTZIGER ENGEL (Dirty Angel, 1958), followed by a number of films with a similar topic. Vohrer’s real breakthrough came in 1961 when he was hired by Horst Wendlandt’s Rialto company to direct the Edgar Wallace crime thriller DIE TOTEN AUGEN VON LONDON (The Dead Eyes of London, 1961). Over the following decade Vohrer became closely associated with the Wallace series, and developed, often with his favourite cameraman Karl Löb and with the composers Martin Böttcher and Peter Thomas, a trademark style that combined the series’
gothic horror and comedy elements with self-reflexive touches, unusual camera angles, obtrusive zooms, clever editing techniques, and almost psychedelic sound effects. Primarily working for the Wallace films, Wendlandt also assigned a few Karl May westerns to Vohrer, but these lacked the epic grandeur that Reinl had brought to previous entries. In the late 1960s, Vohrer moved to Munich, where he began to work for Luggi Waldleitner’s Roxy-Film, specialising in lavish melodramas, often based on the bestselling pulp novels by Johannes Mario Simmel and Heinz G. Konsalik. One of Vohrer’s last films produced for the cinema JEDER STIRBT FÜR SICH ALLEIN (Everyone Dies Alone, 1975) about an ordinary couple’s quiet resistance against the Nazis, was one of his politically most ambitious projects, and won acclaim beyond his usual audiences. By the mid-1970s, Vohrer increasingly focussed on television. Especially in the crime series DERRICK and DER ALTE (The Old Fox), with their narratives of murder and familial conflict set in lavish, but gloomy mansions of Munich’s upper classes, Vohrer found material conducive to his personal stylistic and thematic interests. His assignments on ‘brighter’ hit series such as SCHWARZWALDKLINIK (Black Forest Clinic) and DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (Love Boat), in contrast, were competent, but more anonymous. [ass-dir – DE] 1941/42: Zwischen Himmel und Erde. 1942: Hab’ mich lieb! 1942-44: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen / Augen der Liebe. 1943: Nora. 1943/44: Träumerei. 1944/ 45: Der stumme Gast; Der Puppenspieler. [dir – DE] 1949/50: Immer wieder Glück [ANI – dialogdir]. 1958: Schmutziger Engel; Meine 99 Bräute. 1959: Verbrechen nach Schulschluß. 1960: Mit 17 weint man nicht; Bis daß das Geld euch scheidet … 1961: Die toten Augen von London; Unser Haus in Kamerun. 1962: Die Tür mit den sieben Schlössern / La porte aux sept serrures [DE/FR]; Das Gasthaus an der Themse. 1963: Der Zinker / L’Énigme du sergent noir [DE/FR]; Das indische Tuch; Ein Alibi zerbricht [dir,act – AT]. 1963/64: Wartezimmer zum Jenseits. 1964: Der Hexer; Unter Geiern / Parmi les vautours [DE/FR]. 1965: Neues vom Hexer; Old Surehand. 1. Teil / Lavirint smrti [DE/YU]. 1965/66: Lange Beine – lange Finger. 1966: Der Bucklige von Soho; Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand [DE/YU]. 1967: Die blaue Hand; Der Mönch mit der Peitsche; Der Hund von BlackwoodCastle. 1968: Im Banne des Unheimlichen; Der Gorilla von Soho [dir,co-scr]. 1968/69: Der Mann mit dem Glasauge. 1969: 7 Tage Frist; Herzblatt oder wie sag’ ich’s meiner Tochter? 1969/70: Das gelbe Haus am Pinnasberg [dir,coscr]. 1970: Perrak [dir,act]. 1970/71: Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen. 1971: È tornato Sabata … hai chiuso un’ altra volta / Le retour de Sabata / Sabata kehrt zurück [cut – IT/FR/DE]; Liebe ist nur ein Wort. 1972: Der Stoff, aus dem die Träume sind; Und der Regen verwischt jede Spur / La pluie noire [DE/FR]. 1972/73: Alle Menschen werden Brüder. 1973: Gott schützt die Liebenden. 1973/74: Drei Männer im Schnee. 1974: Wer stirbt schon gerne unter
ALFRED VOHRER Palmen; Die Antwort kennt nur der Wind / Seul le vent connait la réponse [DE/FR]. 1974/75: Verbrechen nach Schulschluß. 1975: Der Edelweißkönig; Jeder stirbt für sich allein. [dir – TV – DE] 1975-86: Derrick [TVS – 29 episodes] Tote Vögel singen nicht. 1976: Anita Drögemöller und die Ruhe an der Ruhr [FF]; Das Schweigen im Walde [FF]. 197881: Der Alte [TVS – 12 episodes] 1980: Liebe bleibt nicht
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ohne Schmerzen. 1981: Georg Thomallas Geschichten [TVS – episodes 3, 4]; Liebe hat ihre Zeit. 1981/82: Väter. 1982/83: Rendezvous der Damen; Das Traumschiff [TVS – episodes 7-12]. 1983-84: Manfred Krug: Krumme Touren.1983-86: Weißblaue Geschichten [TVS – 7 episodes]. 1984: Der Lehrer und andere Schulgeschichten. 1984/85: Die Schwarzwaldklinik [TVS – Season 1 – 12 episodes]. 1985/86: Hessische Geschichten [TVS – 2 episodes].
OTTO WAALKES Born July 22, 1948, Emden (Germany) An exclusively domestic phenomenon, Otto Waalkes, with his trademark straggly blond hair, made a name for himself as a stand-up comic and cartoonist in the early 1970s. He later extended his fame through television and films. His persona was mostly that of a lecherous, hyperactive faun, or cretinous provincial. Particularly popular with male adolescents, Waalkes’s brand of humour was primarily of the scatological variety, but he could occasionally rise above it. Born in East Frisia (the butt of traditional German jokes as a backwater prone to inbreeding), Waalkes played guitar in a band while still at school. Moving to Hamburg to study at the University, he performed locally as a musician, amusing the public with his ‘messing around’ between songs. In 1972 he took part in his first stadium concert alongside rock singers Udo Lindenberg and Marius Müller-Westernhagen. An audio recording of Waalkes’s performance, a mixture of surreal stand-up routine and music, became an immediate sell-out, followed by a series of hit LPs. In the televised one-man DIE OTTO-SHOW (1973) and subsequent television specials, his act consisted of dressing up in various disguises (including drag), gurning and prancing about, making sexually suggestive jokes, imitating diverse sounds, and performing song parodies and nonsense poems. Brief animation sketches introduced his cartoon creations. During this period, he developed a collaborative partnership with satirist writers Robert Gernhardt, Bernd Eilert and Peter Knorr (GEK). Alongside his television appearances in the 1970s and early 1980s, Waalkes began publishing ‘Otto’ cartoon books, featuring his trademark elephant-like ‘Ottifants’. He also became involved in the MTV-style RONNYS POPSHOW (1982–91), which interspersed promotional chart videos with comic sketches, and which was ‘hosted’ by Ronny the chimpanzee who was dubbed with Waalkes’s voice. His first big screen outing, OTTO – DER FILM (Otto – The Film, 1985), which he co-wrote and co-directed with former Fassbinder cinematographer Xaver Schwarzenberger, became the most popular West German release of that year, outperforming Hollywood competition. The clichéd farce starred Waalkes as a country bumpkin and his adventures in the big city. His persona of a love-struck scatterbrain
was carried over into the sequel OTTO – DER NEUE FILM (Otto – The New Film, 1987), again a box-office smash. Subsequent sequels, such as OTTO – DER LIEBESFILM (Otto – The Love Story, 1992), and OTTO – DER AUSSERFRIESISCHE (Otto – The Outer-Frisian, 1989) were less successful. OTTO – DER KATASTROFENFILM (Otto – The Disaster Film, 1999/2000), a lavishly budgeted spoof of the disaster film genre, co-starred Waalkes’s wife Eva Hassmann (b. 1972), and featured the comedian in four different roles. Adept at commercially exploiting his franchise, Waalkes marketed a range of ‘Ottifant’ merchandise over the years, and produced a cartoon series for television. An animated film featuring the Ottifants, KOMMANDO STÖRTEBEKER (Störtebeker Commando, 2000/01) was panned by the critics, but found its audience regardless. He continued touring, returning to his original ‘one man with a guitar’ stage format in ‘Only Otto’. From the 1990s, he frequently worked as a voice artist in German dubbed versions of animated Hollywood productions, including Mushu in MULAN (1998) and Sid the Sloth in ICE AGE (2002). He returned to the big screen heading an ensemble cast of popular TV comedians (as well as veteran punk singer Nina Hagen as the Wicked Stepmother) in 7 ZWERGE – MÄNNER ALLEIN IM WALD (Seven Dwarfs – Alone in the Woods, 2004), which he co-scripted and co-produced. Similar in style to a British pantomime, this slapstick version of ‘Snow White’ spawned a sequel, 7 ZWERGE – DER WALD IST NICHT GENUG (Seven Dwarfs – The Woods Is Not Enough, 2005/06). [scr,act – TV – DE] 1973: Die Otto-Show. 1974: Otto. 1975: Otto – Das 3. Programm. 1976: Otto IV. 1977: Otto. 1978: Otto Show. 1979: Otto. 1981: So ein Otto [dir, scr,act]; Otto [dir,scr,act,pro]. 1982-91: Ronnys Popshow [TVS – dir,scr,voi,pro]. 1983: Hilfe! Otto kommt! [dir,scr, act,pro]. 1985: Otto – Der Film [FF – co-dir,co-scr,act]. 1987: Otto – Der neue Film [FF – co-dir,co-scr,act]. 1989: Otto – der Außerfriesische [FF – co-dir,co-scr,act]. 1992: Otto – Der Liebesfilm [FF – co-dir,co-scr,mus,act]. 1993: Ottifanten [TVS-ANI – voi,pro]. 1994: Otto – Die Serie [TVS – dir,scr,act,pro]. 1998: Mulan [ANI – voi German version – US]. 1998/99: St. Pauli Nacht [FF – act]. 1999/ 2000: Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm [FF – co-scr,act]. 2000/ 01: Kommando Störtebeker [ANI – ide,voi]. 2001: Ein Star und seine Stadt: Otto. Mein Ostfriesland. 2002: Only Otto.
JUTTA WACHOWIAK 2004: 7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald [FF – co-scr,act, co-pro]; Crazy Race 2 – Warum die Mauer wirklich fiel [act]. 2004/05: Siegfried [voi]. 2005/06: 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug [FF – co-scr,act,co-pro]. 2008: Happy Otto! Wir haben Grund zum Feiern … [ide,app].
JUTTA WACHOWIAK Born December 13, 1940, Berlin (Germany) A leading naturalist actress in East German films and on the stage, Wachowiak was instrumental in organising the street protests in East Berlin that helped topple the regime in the late 1980s. Initially training to become a secretary, Wachowiak went on to study at the Film Academy in Babelsberg from 1961 to 1963. She gave her stage debut at Potsdam’s Hans-Otto-Theater, and then joined the theatre in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) in 1968. Two years later, she became a member of the ensemble of East Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, which she remains to this day. Appearing in DEFA productions and on East German television from 1961, she gained greater attention towards the end of the decade thanks to her powerfully understated performances in Helmut Schiemann’s TV adaptation of Arnold Zweig’s novel DER STREIT UM DEN SERGEANTEN GRISCHA (The Case of Sergeant Grischa, 1967/68) and in Horst E. Brandt’s KLK AN PTX – DIE ROTE KAPELLE (KLK Calling PTX: The Red Orchestra, 1970). However, it was through her work with director Thomas Langhoff in the mid-1970s that Wachowiak really made her name. Beginning with the feature-length drama DIE FORELLE (The Trout, 1975/76), she became Langhoff’s lead actress of choice both in everyday tales such as BEFRAGUNG – ANNA O (The Questioning of Anna O, 1977) as well as in his unconventional adaptations of literary classics, including Theodor Fontane’s STINE (Christine, 1978) and STELLA NACH GOETHE (Goethe’s Stella, 1982). Wachowiak’s portrayals of women standing up to fascism and war were refreshingly unsentimental, both as Miriam in Langhoff’s MUHME MEHLE (Aunt Mehle) and as the lead in Günther Rücker and Günter Reisch’s internationally acclaimed DIE VERLOBTE (The Fiancée, both 1979/80), which received an award at East Germany’s National Feature Film Festival in 1982. Wachowiak also undertook several subtly nuanced performances in films by director Roland Gräf, including the school assistant in P.S. (1978), Mother Voss in DAS HAUS AM FLUSS (House on the River, 1984/85), and the wife of Weimar-era writer Hans Fallada in FALLADA – LETZTES KAPITEL (Fallada: The Final Chapter, 1987/88). She likewise stood out as the lead in Ralf Kirsten’s biopic KÄTHE KOLLWITZ – BILDER EINES LEBENS (Käthe Koll-
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witz: A Life in Pictures, 1986), portraying the artist in her dotage. Since the late 1980s, Wachowiak focused primarily on stage work at the Deutsches Theater, although several productions that she appeared in were televised, such as KIKERIKI (Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, 1988) and George Bernard Shaw’s HAUS HERZENSTOD (Heartbreak House, 1992). Wachowiak also played one of the gentile wives who secure their Jewish husbands’ freedom in 1943 Nazi Germany, in Margarethe von Trotta’s ROSENSTRASSE (2003). [act – DD] 1961: Auf der Sonnenseite. 1961/62: Altweibersommer; Ach, du fröhliche … 1962: Wind von vorn; Der Fluch der bösen Tat [SF]. 1962/63: Die Glatzkopfbande. 1963: Es geht nicht ohne Liebe [TV]; Die Spur führtin den ‘7. Himmel’ [TV]; Engel, Sünden und Verkehr. 1. Schutzengel. 1963/64: Mir nach, Canaillen! 1964/65: König Drosselbart. 1965: Der Nachfolger [TV]; Die Mutter und das Schweigen [TV]. 1966: Trick 17b [TV]; Pygmalion [TV]; Geheimkommando. 1. Geheimkommando Bumerang [TV]; Exekution [SD]. 1967/68: Der Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa [TV]; Krupp und Krause [TV]. 1969: Seine Hoheit – Genosse Prinz; Sankt Urban [TV]; Netzwerk. 1970: Die Illegalen [TV]; KLK an PTX – Die Rote Kapelle. 1971: Bürgschaften [TV]; Anflug Alpha 1. 1972: Martina [TV]. 1973: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis [TV]; Unterm Birnbaum. 1973/74: … verdammt, ich bin erwachsen. 1974/ 75: Blumen für den Mann im Mond; Bankett für Achilles. 1975/76: Die Forelle [TV]. 1976: Leben und Tod König Richard des Dritten [TV]; Absage an Viktoria [TV]. 1977: Befragung – Anna O [TV]; Das Herz der Dinge [TV]; Rückkopplung [TV]; Tod und Auferstehung des Wilhelm Hausmann [TV]. 1977/78: Der Übergang. 1978: Sabine Wulff; Stine [TV]; P. S. 1978/79: Glück im Hinterhaus. 1979/80: Muhme Mehle [TV]; Guten Morgen, Du Schöne! 4. Rosi [TV]; Die Verlobte. 1980: Der Spiegel des großen Magus [voi]. 1981: Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches [TV]; Märkische Forschungen. 1982: Stella nach Goethe [TV]. 1982/83: Verzeihung, sehen Sie Fußball? 1983: Die jüdische Frau [TV]. 1983/84: Einzug ins Paradies [TVS]. 1984: Ab heute erwachsen. 1984/85: Das Haus am Fluß. 1985: Jorinde und Joringel [TV]. 1985/86: So viele Träume. 1986: Käthe Kollwitz – Bilder eines Lebens. 1987/88: Fallada – letztes Kapitel. 1988: Der blaue Boll [TV]; Lieb Georg [TV – voi]; Verzeiht, daß ich ein Mensch bin. Friedrich Wolf [DO – voi]; Kikeriki [TV]. [act – TV – DE] 1990: Schlaraffenland. 1991: Sie und Er. 1992: Scheusal; Zukunftsgespräche: Die verdammten deutschen Gefühle [TVD – app]; Mein Land trägt meine Züge; Haus Herzenstod. 1993: Mein Name ist Marlene Dietrich; Der Biberpelz. 1994: Tatort: Geschlossene Akten; Zwischentöne: Christian Grashof über Jutta Wachowiak [TVD – app]. 1995: Nikolaikirche; Wie Harald Juhnke den Trinker spielt [TVD – app]; Der Trinker. 1996: DEFA. Es werden ein paar Filme bleiben [DO – app]. 1996/97: Der letzte Zeuge [5 episodes]. 1999/2000: Jahrestage – Aus dem Leben von Gesine Cresspahl. 2000: Zur Person: Jutta Wachowiak [TVD – app]; Alles mit Besteck [SF]. 2001: Das
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Staatsgeheimnis; Zutaten für Träume. 2001/02: In aller Freundschaft: Der letzte Tango. 2003: Die Bühnenrepublik: Theater in der DDR [TVD – app]; Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder; Rosenstraße [FF – DE/NL]. 2003/04: Hunger auf Leben. 2004: Zeit nach der Trauer. 2006/07: Der letzte Zeuge: Botschaft des Mörders.
FRANZ WACHSMANN (aka Franz Waxman) Born December 24, 1906, Königshütte (Germany, now Chorzów, Poland) Died February 24, 1967 Los Angeles (California, USA) Although now mainly remembered as one of the most influential composers of Hollywood’s classical period in the 1940s and 1950s, Wachsmann was already a prolific artist in Weimar Germany. After nearly losing his eyesight at the age of three as a result of an accident, Wachsmann developed an acute sense of hearing and a talent for music, especially playing the piano. On the insistence of his father he took a job at a bank, which he left to pick up his musical studies, from 1923 in Dresden, then studying composition and conducting at the conservatory in Berlin. In order to finance his studies Wachsmann worked as pianist at theatres in Berlin standing in for Friedrich Hollaender. In 1928/29 he was pianist and arranger of the ‘Weintraubs Syncypators’, at the time one of the most popular jazz bands in Europe. Through Hollaender he met Ufa producer Erich Pommer who hired him to orchestrate and conduct Hollaender’s compositions for DER BLAUE ENGEL (The Blue Angel, 1929/30). They collaborated on a number of films, sometimes also in front of the camera, as in DAS KABINETT DES DR. LARIFARI (The Cabinet of Dr Larifari), a comedy about sound film musicians, EINBRECHER (Burglars), and Robert Siodmak’s DER MANN, DER SEINEN MÖRDER SUCHT (Man Looking for His Murderer, all 1930). On Alexis Granowsky’s DAS LIED VOM LEBEN (The Song of Life, 1930/31), an experimental blend of documentary and feature film, Wachsmann was credited as musical director. For DAS MÄDEL VOM MONTPARNASSE (The Girl from Montparnasse) Wachsmann’s wrote the title song, featuring lyrics by Robert Gilbert. Among his other hits were the title melody ‘Für’n Groschen Liebe’ sung by Dolly Haas in SCAMPOLO (both 1932) and ‘Mir ist heut’ so millionär zu Mut’ from Hollaender’s film-operetta ICH UND DIE KAISERIN / THE ONLY GIRL (1932/33). On the production PAPRIKA (1932), Wachsmann first met the lyricist Kurt Schwabach with whom he formed a productive collaborative partnership. Soon after the Nazis came to power in 1933, Wachsmann was beaten up in the street for being Jewish, and he
and his second wife left for Paris. Fellow émigré Pommer hired Wachsmann to compose (with Jean Lenoir) the symphonic score for Fritz Lang’s LILIOM (1933/ 34), in which he balanced diverse musical elements such as choirs and electronic sound effects. In Billy Wilder’s MAUVAISE GRAINE (Bad Blood) and Robert Siodmak’s LA CRISE EST FINIE! (The Crisis Is Over, both 1934) Wachsmann’s songs were sung by French star Danielle Darrieux. The same year Pommer brought Franz Waxman (as he spelled his name from then on) to Hollywood to arrange the music by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical MUSIC IN THE AIR directed by Joe May. Waxman established himself as a film composer with an imaginative and distinctive score for James Whale’s THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), which was plundered for years for other productions at Universal. This success got him a contract as Musical Director at the studio. But, fed up with the administrative obligations of the job, he cancelled the contract and moved to M-G-M as conductor and staff-composer. M-G-M subsequently lent his services to producer David O. Selznick for a few films, some of which earned him his first Oscar nominations: two for THE YOUNG IN HEART (1938), one for REBECCA (1940), the first of four films Waxman scored for Alfred Hitchcock. For Selznick’s production GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) Waxman composed a ‘security score’; however only one of Waxman’s cues was used in the film. In 1937 his wife Alice joined him in Los Angeles, he also succeeded in bringing his parents and his sister to the United States. In 1939 be became an American citizen. In October 1942 he moved to Warner Bros. where he cooperated with its Music Director Leo F. Forbstein and orchestrator Leonid Raab, working repeatedly for producers Jerry Wald and Hal B. Wallis. From 1948 Waxman composed for other studios as well: for Paramount – where he won Oscars for Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BLVD. (1950) and George Stevens’s A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951) – for Twentieth Century-Fox, RKO, Allied Artists, Selznick, Columbia and again for M-G-M and Warner Bros. During the 1950s Waxman started working for television. Some producers used old Waxman compositions as ‘tracked music’, but he also scored some episodes of GUNSMOKE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and some documentaries. From the 1940s onward Waxman engaged in extra-cinematic musical activities, including conducting concerts, and composing classical pieces. In 1947 he founded the Los Angeles Music Festival, and was its director and principal conductor for twenty years. [mus – DE] 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari [mus,act];
FRITZ ARNO WAGNER Einbrecher [MLV]; Flagrant délit [MLV]; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht. 1930/31: Das Lied vom Leben [DE]. 1932: La petite de Montparnasse [MLV – FR]; Das Mädel vom Montparnasse [MLV – FR/DE]; Das erste Recht des Kindes; Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / Um einen Groschen Liebe [MLV – DE/AT]; Paprika [MLV – DE/IT]; Un peu d’amour [MLV]; Paprika [MLV]. 1932/33: Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV]; Moi et l’Impératrice [MLV]; The Only Girl [MLV]. 1933: Gruß und Kuß – Veronika!; Paprika! [Italian MLV – DE/IT]. [mus – US] 1933/34: Liliom [FR]. 1934: Mauvaise graine [MLV – FR]; La crise est finie! [FR]; Music in the Air. 1935: Bride of Frankenstein; Diamond Jim; The Affair of Susan; His Night Out; Three Kids and a Queen; Remember Last Night?; East of Java; The Great Impersonation; Magnificent Obsession; The Invisible Ray. 1935/36: Next Time We Love; Don’t Get Personal; First Offence [MLV – GB]; Love Before Breakfast; Sutter’s Gold. 1936: Flash Gordon; Dangerous Waters; Absolute Quiet; Trouble for Two; Fury; The Devil-Doll; His Brother’s Wife; Love on the Run. 1936/37: Captains Courageous; A Day at the Races. 1937: Personal Property; The Emperor’s Candlesticks; The Bride Wore Red; Man-Proof. 1937/38: Arsène Lupin Returns; Test Pilot; Port of Seven Seas. 1938: Three Comrades; Too Hot To Handle; The Young in Heart; The Shining Hour; Dramatic School; A Christmas Carol. 1938/39: Honolulu; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Ice Follies of 1939. 1939: Lucky Night; On Borrowed Time; Lady of the Tropics; At the Circus. 1939/40: Strange Cargo; Florian. 1940: Rebecca; Sporting Blood; Boom Town; I Love You Again; Escape; Flight Command; The Philadelphia Story. 1941: The Bad Man; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Man from Montana; The Feminine Touch; Unfinished Business; Honky Tonk; Suspicion; Kathleen; Design for Scandal. 1941/42: Woman of the Year. 1942: Tortilla Flat; Reunion in France; Her Cardboard Lover; Seven Sweethearts; Journey for Margaret. 1943: Air Force; Edge of Darkness; Old Acquaintance; Destination Tokyo. 1943/44: In Our Time. 1944: Mr. Skeffington; Janie; The Very Thought of You; To Have and Have Not. 1944/45: Objective, Burma!; Hotel Berlin. 1945: God Is My Co-Pilot; The Horn Blows at Midnight; Pride of the Marines; Confidential Agent. 1946: Her Kind of Man; Humoresque. 1947: Nora Prentiss; The Two Mrs. Carrolls; Possessed; Cry Wolf; Dark Passage; The Unsuspected; That Hagen Girl; The Paradine Case. 1948: Sorry, Wrong Number; No Minor Vices; Whiplash. 1948/49: Alias Nick Beal. 1949: Rope of Sand; Night Unto Night; Task Force; Johnny Holiday. 1949/50: Night and the City [US version – GB/US]. 1950: The Furies; Sunset Boulevard; Dark City. 1950/51: Red Mountain. 1951: Only the Valiant; He Ran All the Way; A Place in the Sun; The Blue Veil; Anne of the Indies; Decision Before Dawn. 1951/52: Phone Call from a Stranger. 1952: Lure of the Wilderness; My Cousin Rachel; Come Back, Little Sheba. 1952/53: Man on a Tightrope; Stalag 17; Elephant Walk. 1953: I, the Jury; A Lion Is in the Streets; Botany Bay. 1953/54: Prince Valiant; Demetrius and the Gladiators. 1954: Rear Window; This Is My Love; The Silver Chalice; Untamed. 1954/55: Mister Roberts. 1955: The Virgin Queen; The Indian Fighter. 1955/56: Miracle in the Rain; The Spirit of St. Louis. 1956: Crime in the
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Streets; Back from Eternity. 1956/57: Sayonara. 1957: Love in the Afternoon; Peyton Place. 1958: Run Silent, Run Deep; Home Before Dark. 1958/59: Count Your Blessings. 1959: Open Windows: Men and Women [TV]; The Nun’s Story; The Twilight Zone: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine [TV]; Beloved Infidel; Career. 1960: The 20th Century: Lenin and Trotsky [TVD]; The 20th Century: The Mysterious Deep [TVD]; The Story of Ruth; Sunrise at Campobello; Cimarron. 1961: Return to Peyton Place; King of the Roaring Twenties. 1961/62: My Geisha. 1962: Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man; Taras Bulba. 1962-70: The Virginian [TVS]. 1963: Arrest and Trial [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1963-67: The Fugitive [TVS]. 1964: Kraft Suspense Theatre [TVS – 3 episodes]. 1964-68: Peyton Place [TVS]. 1966: Gunsmoke: The Raid [TV]; Lost Command; The Longest Hundred Miles [TV].
FRITZ ARNO WAGNER Born December 5, 1889, Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig (Germany) Died August 18, 1958, Göttingen (West Germany) Fritz Arno Wagner was one of the most acclaimed German cinematographers from the 1920s to the 1950s, whose work for directors including F. W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, and G. W. Pabst helped to define the look of Weimar cinema. After graduating from a business course, Wagner became a foreign correspondent in Paris, and began working for Pathé Frères. Working his way through different departments, he became the manager of the Pathé branch in Vienna and then in Berlin, at the same time working as a cameraman. In 1913 he was deputy manager of Pathé Weekly in New York, reporting on the Mexican Civil War. At the outbreak of World War I he returned to Germany, joining the army and filming war reports. In 1919 he started work for PAGU as stills photographer and second cameraman for Ernst Lubitsch’s MADAME DUBARRY (Passion, 1919). He subsequently co-photographed the director’s exotic tale SUMURUN (1920), and also worked for Paul Ludwig Stein. SCHLOSS VOGELÖD (The Haunted Castle, 1921) marked Wagner’s first collaboration with F. W. Murnau, followed soon after by one of Wagner’s best remembered assignments, the horror classic NOSFERATU (1921), with its looming shadows and trick photography. For Fritz Lang, Wagner shot DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny, 1921). Artur Robison’s ZWISCHEN ABEND UND MORGEN (Between Evening and Morning) initiated a series of so-called Kammerspielfilme (chamber play films), with an emphasis on claustrophobic interiors that found its best expression in Wagner’s cinematography for SCHATTEN (Warning Shadows, both 1923). By the late 1920s Wagner reached the peak of his career with Fritz Lang’s SPIONE (Spies, 1927/28), M (1931), and DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE
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(The Testament of Dr Mabuse, 1932/33); as well as with a series of films for G. W. Pabst: DIE LIEBE DER JEANNE NEY (The Loves of Jeanne Ney, 1927), WESTFRONT 1918 (1930), and DIE 3-GROSCHENOPER (Threepenny Opera, 1930/31). Wagner’s visual style, characterised by clear, realistic lighting effects and fluid movements, suffered no setbacks with the introduction of sound. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Wagner’s cinematography helped to give a number of prestige productions the necessary gloss, and he signed as chief-cameraman on FLÜCHTLINGE (Fugitives, 1933), ROBERT KOCH, DER BEKÄMPFER DES TODES (Robert Koch, 1939), and OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, 1940/41). From 1937 to 1945 Wagner worked mainly for Tobis-Film. After the war he shot documentaries in Berlin and worked for the American newsreel ‘Welt im Bild’ (World in the Frame). Returning to features in 1949 he made a string of popular genre productions over the next decade, often with Karl Löb or Walter Hrich as his operator. During the shooting of OHNE MUTTER GEHT ES NICHT (It Cannot Go on Without Mother, 1958) he fell from his camera trolley and died as a result of the accident. [cam – DE] 1919: Madame Dubarry [pho,co-cam]; Vendetta [co-cam]; Der Galeerensträfling [2 parts]. 1920: Sumurun; Das Skelett des Herrn Markutius; Das Martyrium; Die geschlossene Kette; Arme Violetta. 1921: Schloß Vogelöd. Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses [co-cam]; Nachtbesuch in der Northernbank [co-cam]; Das Spiel mit dem Feuer; Der müde Tod; Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens; Pariserinnen. 1921/22: Bardame; Der brennende Acker [co-cam]; Lebenshunger. 1922: Wem nie durch Liebe Leid geschah; Der Ruf des Schicksals; Der Graf von Essex; Das hohe Lied der Liebe. 1922/23: Die Magyarenfürstin. 1923: Zwischen Abend und Morgen; Schatten; Der Großindustrielle; Der Sprung ins Leben. 1923-25: Zur Chronik von Grieshuus [co-cam]. 1924/25: Pietro, der Korsar. 1925: Das Fräulein vom Amt; Der rosa Diamant. 1925/ 26: Die drei Kuckucksuhren. 1926: Eine Dubarry von heute; Vater werden ist nicht schwer; Liebeshandel. 1926/27: Der Weltkrieg. 1. Teil. Des Volkes Heldengang [DO – cocam]; Natur und Liebe [DO – co-cam]. 1927: Am Rande der Welt; Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney. 1927/28: Spione. 1928: Marquis d’Eon. Der Spion der Pompadour; Das letzte Fort [co-cam]; Waterloo [co-cam]. 1929: Wenn Du einmal Dein Herz verschenkst; Napoleon auf St. Helena [cocam]. 1929/30: Die Jagd nach dem Glück. 1930: Westfront 1918 [co-cam]; Skandal um Eva; Dolly macht Karriere [co-cam]; Brand in der Oper [MLV – co-cam]; Barcarolle d’amour [MLV]. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/ US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]; Ariane [MLV – co-cam]. 1931: M [MLV]; Kameradschaft / La tragédie de la mine [DE/FR]; Ronny [German + French MLV]. 1931/32: Es wird schon wieder besser … 1932: Das Lied einer Nacht [MLV]; La chanson d’une nuit [MLV]; Das schöne Abenteuer [MLV – co-cam]; La belle aventure
[MLV]; Wie sag’ ich’s meinem Mann? [co-cam]; Tell Me Tonight [MLV]. 1932/33: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV – co-cam]; Le testament du Dr. Mabuse [MLV – co-cam]; Spione am Werk [MLV – co-cam]. 1933: Die Nacht der grossen Liebe; Château de rêve [MLV]; Das Schloß im Süden [MLV]; Der Weltkrieg [DO – co-cam]; Flüchtlinge [MLV – co-cam]; Au bout du monde [MLV – co-cam]. 1933/34: Volha v plamenech / Volga en flammes [CS/FR]. 1934: Ein Mann will nach Deutschland; Spiel mit dem Feuer; Prinzessin Turandot [MLV]; Turandot, princesse de Chine [MLV]; Liebe, Tod und Teufel [MLV]; Le diable en bouteille [MLV]. 1935: Amphitryon. Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück [MLV]; Les dieux s’amusent [MLV]; Schwarze Rosen [MLV]; Did I Betray? [MLV]; Roses noires [MLV]. 1936: Savoy-Hotel 217; Unter heißem Himmel. 1937: Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war [co-cam]; Der zerbrochene Krug; Tango Notturno. 1937/38: Das Mädchen mit dem guten Ruf. 1938: Schatten über St. Pauli; Adrienne Lecouvreur. 1938/39: Der Vierte kommt nicht; Ein hoffnungsloser Fall. 1939: Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes. 1939/40: Aus erster Ehe. 1940: Der Fuchs von Glenarvon; Feinde; Friedrich Schiller. Der Triumph eines Genies. 1940/41: Ohm Krüger [co-cam]. 1941: Was geschah in dieser Nacht? 1941/42: Der Fall Rainer. 1942: Die Entlassung. 1942/43: I pagliacci [MLV – co-cam – IT/ DE]; Altes Herz wird wieder jung; Lache Bajazzo! [MLV]. 1943: Ich werde dich auf Händen tragen; Ein glücklicher Mensch; Herr Sanders lebt gefährlich [co-cam]. 1943/44: Meine Herren Söhne [co-cam]. 1944-49: Das kleine Hofkonzert [co-cam]. [(co-)cam – DE] 1945: Befreite Musik [SD – DD]. 1948/49: Die Brücke [DD]; Du bist nicht allein. 1949: Mädchen hinter Gittern; Frauenarzt Dr. Prätorius. 1949/50: Herrliche Zeiten [DO – co-cam]. 1950: Kennen Sie Berlin? [DO]; Das Mädchen aus der Südsee; Die tödlichen Träume. 1951: Die Frauen des Herrn S.; Die Schuld des Dr. Homma; Torreani. 1951/52: Ein ganz großes Kind. 1952: Der Fürst von Pappenheim; Mein Herz darfst Du nicht fragen; 1. April 2000 [AT]; Fräulein Casanova [AT]. 1953: Die Rose von Stambul; Der Vetter aus Dingsda. 1953/54: Die tolle Lola; Aus eigener Kraft [DO]. 1954: Der treue Husar; Konsul Strotthoff; Clivia; Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten. 1955: Die Frau des Botschafters; Hotel Adlon. 1955/56: Meine 16 Söhne. 1956: Die wilde Auguste; Tausend Melodien; Hochzeit auf Immenhof; Geliebte Corinna. 1957: Das Mädchen ohne Pyjama; Kindermädchen für Papa gesucht; Ferien auf Immenhof; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut. 1958: Der Czardas-König. Die Emmerich-Kalman-Story; Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen; Ohne Mutter geht es nicht.
ANTON WALBROOK see ADOLF WOHLBRÜCK
LUGGI WALDLEITNER (Ludwig Waldleitner) Born December 1, 1913, Kirchseeon (Germany) Died January 16, 1998, Innsbruck (Austria) Alongside Artur Brauner, Franz Seitz, and Horst Wendlandt, Waldleitner was one of the most prolific
LUGGI WALDLEITNER
producers of West German popular cinema from the 1950s through to the 1970s. He typified the kind of ‘Daddy’s cinema’ the young directors of the 1960s wanted to overcome. The son of a restaurant proprietor, Waldleitner first came into contact with the film industry after meeting the cameraman Guzzi Lantschner in 1936, and taking on various jobs on Leni Riefenstahl’s OLYMPIA (1936–38). He was subsequently employed by a range of film companies in Berlin, initially mostly in administrative posts, later also working on the set as a production assistant, as on the comedy EIN MANN FÜR MEINE FRAU (A Man for My Wife, 1942/43). After the war, he and Ilse Kubaschewski ran a provincial cinema in Oberstdorf and founded the Gloria distribution company. Parting ways, Waldleitner worked as an executive producer for Kurt Ulrich’s Berolina between 1949 and 1951, before launching his own company Roxy-Film. Many of the early Roxy productions in the 1950s continued seamlessly with the narrative formulae, stars (Johannes Heesters, Carl Raddatz, Luise Ulrich), and style of the films that had been produced during the Nazi period. However, Waldleitner also made use of new talents such as Maria Schell in BIS WIR UNS WIEDERSEH’N (Until We Meet Again, 1952) and Nadja Tiller (DIE BARRINGS, The Barrings, 1955). Waldleitner was quick in recognising and capitalising on technological innovations, releasing the first West German CinemaScope film, the Franco-German coproduction OASE (Oasis, 1954/55). Many of his later films were realised as co-productions with foreign partners, mostly from France and Italy. During the 1950s, directors who frequently worked for Roxy included Karl Hartl and Rolf Thiele, the latter scoring a hit with DAS MÄDCHEN ROSEMARIE (Rosemary, 1958). In the 1960s, Roxy’s prominence at the box office slipped somewhat, sidelined both by the emerging generation of the New German cinema, and from commercial competitors such as Horst Wendlandt’s Rialto, which had introduced new popular formulae such as the Edgar Wallace thrillers and the Karl May westerns. Roxy’s output, in contrast, dwindled during the decade, and displayed no discernible focus or strategy. By the end of the 1960s, Roxy half-heartedly invested in soft porn and sex comedies, and only regained some momentum in the early 1970s with a series of adaptations of bestsellers by Johannes Mario Simmel and Heinz G. Konsalik, frequently directed by Alfred Vohrer. Hans W. Geissendörfer’s DIE GLÄSERNE ZELLE (The Glass Cell, 1977/78), based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, initiated a series of ambitious projects for Roxy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which included Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s LILI MARLEEN (1980), Vadim Glowna’s DIES RIGOROSE LEBEN
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(This Rigorous Life, 1982), and Percy Adlon’s DIE SCHAUKEL (The Swing, 1983). In the 1990s, Waldleitner collaborated with yet another generation of German filmmakers, including Sönke Wortmann on MR. BLUESMAN (1992/93) and Caroline Link on the acclaimed JENSEITS DER STILLE (Beyond the Silence, 1996). [pro – DE] 1936-38: Olympia. 1. Fest der Völker / 2. Fest der Schönheit [DO – ass-cam]. 1938/39: Wildwasser [DO – ass-cam,pro]. 1941: Sonntagskinder. 1941/42: So ein Früchtchen; Drei tolle Mädels [MLV – IT/DE]. 1942: Karneval der Liebe. 1942/43: Ein Mann für meine Frau. 1943: Die beiden Schwestern. 1943/44: Der Meisterdetektiv. 1944: Eines Tages … 1944/45: Eine reizende Familie; Das fremde Leben. 1949: Nichts als Zufälle; Um eine Nasenlänge; Eine Nacht im Séparée. 1952: Tausend rote Rosen blühn; Bis wir uns wiederseh’n. 1953: Liebeskrieg nach Noten; Alles für Papa. 1953/54: Regina Amstetten. 1954: Ihre große Prüfung. 1954/55: Oase [MLV – DE/FR]; Oasis [MLV – FR/DE]. 1955: Die Barrings. 1957: Der kühne Schwimmer; El Hakim. 1958: Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1959: Blind Date / Die tödliche Falle [GB/DE]; Bumerang. 1960: Schachnovelle; Conny und Peter machen Musik; Ingeborg. 1961: Frau Cheneys Ende. 1962: 90 Minuten nach Mitternacht; Straße der Verheißung. 1963: Wochentags immer; Elf Jahre und ein Tag. 1965: Io la conoscevo bene / Je la connaissais bien / Ich habe sie gut gekannt [IT/ FR/DE]. 1965/66: Der Mann mit den tausend Masken / Upperseven, L’uomo da uccidere [DE/IT]. 1966: La battaglia dei Mods / Siebzehn Jahr – blondes Haar [IT/DE]; Blüten, Gauner und die Nacht von Nizza / Le jardinier d’Argenteuil [DE/FR]; Operazione San Gennaro / Unser Boß ist eine Dame / Opération San Gennaro [IT/DE/FR]; Der Tod eines Doppelgängers / Les diamants d’envers [DE/BE]. 1967: Operazione S. Pietro / Au diable, les anges! / Die Abenteuer des Kardinal Braun [IT/FR/DE]. 1967/68: Manon 70 / Hemmungslose Manon [FR/DE]; 24 heures de la vie d’une femme / 24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau [FR/DE]. 1968: Al di là della legge / Die letzte Rechnung zahlst du selbst [IT/DE]; Die Ente klingelt um ½ 8 / Siamo tuttu matti [DE/IT]; Die große Treibjagd / El mercenario / L’ultimo mercenario [DE/ES/IT]; La moglie giapponese? [IT/DE]; Komm nur, mein liebstes Vögelein … / Dio me L’ha data, gvai a chi la tocca [DE/IT]. 1968/69: Venus im Pelz / Le Malizie di Venere [DE/CH/IT]; Les étrangers / Quelli che sanno uccidere / Frühstück mit dem Killer [FR/IT/DE]. 1969: 7 Tage Frist; Herzblatt oder wie sag’ ich’s meiner Tochter? 1969/70: La servante / Der leise Atem der Lust [FR/DE]; Das gelbe Haus am Pinnasberg; La horse / Der Erbarmungslose / Il clan degli uomini violenti [FR/DE/IT]; Cannabis / New York – Parigi per una condanna a morte / Cannabis – Engel der Gewalt [FR/IT/DE]. 1970: Perrak; Die Weibchen / Femmine carnivore / La mante réligieuse [DE/IT/FR]; Incontro d’amore [IT/DE]. 1970/71: Mädchen beim Frauenarzt; Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen; Der scharfe Heinrich; Le rouge aux lèvres / Blut an den Lippen / La Vestale di Satana [BE/FR/ DE/IT]. 1971: Liebe ist nur ein Wort; Schüler-Report – Junge, Junge, was die Mädchen alles von uns wollen! 1972: Der Stoff, aus dem die Träume sind; Und der Regen ver-
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wischt jede Spur [DE/FR]. 1972/73: La morte negli occhi del gatto / Les diablesses / Sieben Tote in den Augen der Katze [IT/FR/DE]; Alle Menschen werden Brüder. 1972-75: La casa dell’esorcismo / El diablo selleva los muertes / Der Teuflische [IT/ES/DE]. 1973: Gott schützt die Liebenden; Storia di una monaca di chausura / Der Nonnenspiegel / Une histoire du 17. siècle [IT/DE/FR]. 1973/74: Einer von uns beiden; Drei Männer im Schnee. 1974: Qu’importe le flacon pourvu qu’on ait l’ivresse / I piaceri della contessa Gamiani [FR/IT]; Die Antwort kennt nur der Wind / Seul le vent connait la réponse [DE/FR]. 1975: Bis zur bitteren Neige; Das Netz; Sternsteinhof. 1976: Rosemaries Tochter; Die Elixiere des Teufels. 1977: Die Jugendstreiche des Knaben Karl; Kleinhoff Hotel [IT/DE]. 1977/78: Die gläserne Zelle. 1978: Der Mann im Schilf; Filmforum: Drei deutsche Produzenten. Franz Seitz, Wolf C. Hartwig, Luggi Waldleitner [TVD – app]. 1979: La parte più appetitosa del maschio / Der Typ mit dem goldenen Fifi [IT/DE]; Worlds Apart [IL/DE]. 1979/80: Il cacciatore di squali / El cazador de tiburones [IT/ES]. 1980: Lili Marleen. 1980/81: Fantasma d’amore / Fantôme d’amour / Die zwei Gesichter einer Frau [IT/FR/DE]. 1982: Dies rigorose Leben. 1982/83: Marianne und Sofie; Wie hätten Sie’s denn gern?; Kassensturz. 1983: Ediths Tagebuch; Die Schaukel; Bei Anruf Liebe. 1983/84: Unerreichbare Nähe. 1984: Niemand weint für immer; Mama mia – Nur keine Panik!; Seitenstechen. 1984/85: Coconuts [DE/AT]. 1985: Die Einsteiger; Blue Moon; Va Banque. 1985/86: Die Schokoladen-Schnüffler. 1986: Geld oder Leber; Bitte laßt die Blumen leben. 1987: Whopper-Punch 777. 1987/88: Ballhaus Barmbek – Let’s Kiss and Say Goodbye; Starke Zeiten; Sukkubus. 1988: Zärtliche Chaoten II; Killing Blue. 1988/89: Zwei Frauen. 1989/90: Gavre Princip. Himmel unter Steinen [AT/DE]; High Score. 1990: Eine Frau namens Harry; Café Europa. 1992: Ich will nicht nur, daß ihr mich liebt. Der Filmemacher Rainer Werner Fassbinder [TVD – app]. 1992/93: Fiorile / Fiorile / Fiorile [IT/FR/DE]; Mr. Bluesman; Der Kinoerzähler. 1993/94: Mario und der Zauberer [DE/FR/AT]. 1994/95: Küss mich!; Roula. 1995: Honigmond. 1995/96: Diebinnen [TV]. 1996: Jenseits der Stille. 1996-98: Sieben Monde. 1998: Angel Express; Holgi. 2006/07: Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app].
GUSTAV VON WANGENHEIM (Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wangenheim) Born February 18, 1895, Wiesbaden (Germany) Died August 5, 1975, Berlin (East Germany) Best-known for his role in F.W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU (1921), actor and director von Wangenheim was a left-wing activist during the Weimar period, involved in a range of cultural interventions. Spending the ‘Third Reich’ in Soviet exile, he returned after the war to East Germany, and remained a senior cultural figure until his death. The son of celebrated stage and film actor Eduard von Winterstein, Wangenheim initially studied agricul-
ture, before taking acting lessons. During World War I he served as a soldier on the Western Front but was discharged after an eye injury in 1915. He then commenced his acting career at theatres in Vienna, Darmstadt, Hamburg, and Berlin. Wangenheim’s cinematic debut was Louis Ralph’s PASSIONELS TAGEBUCH (Passionel’s Diary, 1916). He subsequently appeared regularly in films, typically in the role of the dashing, impetuous young hero. In DIE ERZKOKETTE (The Supreme Flirt, 1917) he appeared for the first time on screen with his father. Ernst Lubitsch used him as a straight romantic lead in his comedies ROMEO UND JULIA IM SCHNEE (Romeo and Juliet in the Snow, 1919/20) and KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (Kohlhiesel’s Daughters, 1920). In Murnau’s horror classic NOSFERATU (1921), Wangenheim played a young, carefree estate agent who encounters a sinister vampire (Max Schreck) on his business trip to Transylvania. Two years later, he appeared in another classic of Weimar cinema’s ‘haunted screen’, Artur Robison’s SCHATTEN (Shadows, 1923). An active member of socialist and later communist organisations since the late 1910s, Wangenheim dedicated much time during the 1920s to his political activities. He founded proletarian amateur dramatic groups and wrote agit-prop plays, and for a while was the chairman of the Worker’s Theatre Association. Several of his initiatives, such as an anti-war mass pantomime, were banned by the authorities. Among other stage initiatives that Wangenheim founded or was involved in during this period were ‘Kollektiv Rote Schauspieler’ (Collective of Red Actors), ‘Die Roten Blusen’ (The Red Blouses), and ‘Truppe 31’ (Squad 31). After a five-year gap, Wangenheim returned to the screen in a leading role in Fritz Lang’s science fiction film FRAU IM MOND (Woman in the Moon, 1928/ 29). His final part in Weimar cinema was as French revolutionary Camille Desmoulins in Hans Behrendt’s historical drama DANTON (1930/31) opposite Fritz Kortner. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Wangenheim fled to Moscow via Paris. In 1935 he took over the leadership of ‘Kolonne Links’, a theatre group consisting of German exiles, and directed an anti-fascist film, BORCY (Fighter, 1936), featuring the ten-year-old Konrad Wolf in a supporting role. During the Stalinist purges of the late 1930s, Wangenheim denounced his fellow exiles, the actress Carola Neher (1900–1942) and her husband Anatol Becker, as Trotzkyites. The couple was arrested and swiftly convicted. Becker was executed in 1937; Neher, who had starred in major Weimar stage productions by Brecht, Klabund and von Horváth, and who had played the female lead in G. W.
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Pabst’s film version of DIE 3-GROSCHEN-OPER (The Threepenny Opera, 1930/31) died a few years later in a Gulag. Wangenheim subsequently wrote for the exile publication ‘Das Wort’, contributed to German-language programmes for Radio Moscow, and became one of the founding members of the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD) that coordinated anti-Nazi activities from Moscow during World War II and prepared for a Communist Germany afterwards. Wangenheim returned to Berlin in 1945, and joined the East German Communist party SED. For a short period he was artistic director at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and later at the Deutsches Theater. From 1948 he resumed his film career at DEFA, this time exclusively as director and screenwriter. His first post-war film … UND WIEDER 48! (Once again ’48, 1948) attempted to construct analogies between Germany’s post-World War II situation and the revolutions of 1848. The film starred his then wife Inge von Wangenheim (1912–1993) and featured his father in a supporting role. Until the mid-1950s, Wangenheim wrote and directed several more films, frequently ideologically conformist, Cold War-inspired tales that set out to expose West German and American treachery. Most of these featured in smaller or larger parts Eduard von Winterstein, who also played the lead in one of Wangenheim’s last films, the comedy HEIMLICHE EHEN (Secret Marriages, 1955). From the mid-1950s onwards until the end of his life, Wangenheim concentrated his activities on the stage, working as an actor and director at the theatre in Altenburg. Wangenheim’s son Friedel von Wangenheim (1939– 2001) appeared in the 1990s in a number of films by Werner Schroeter and Rosa von Praunheim, most notably portraying Weimar-era social reformer Magnus Hirschfeld in Praunheim’s biopic DER EINSTEIN DES SEX (The Einstein of Sex, 1998/99). [act – DE] 1916: Passionels Tagebuch; Das Leid der Liebe; Der Letzte eines alten Geschlechts; Homunculus. 3. Die Liebestragödie des Homunculus. 1917: Die Erzkokette. 1918: Ferdinand Lassalle. 1919: Kitsch; Die Welteroberer. 1919/20: Romeo und Julia im Schnee. 1920: Kohlhiesels Töchter; Der Tempel der Liebe; Das Haus zum Mond. 1921: Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens. 1922: Das Feuerschiff; Der Liebe Pilgerfahrt; Der steinerne Reiter. 1923: Schatten. 1928/29: Frau im Mond. 1930/31: Danton [MLV]. [dir – DD] 1936: Borcy [dir,scr,cut – SU]. 1948: … und wieder 48! [dir,scr]. 1949: Der Auftrag Höglers [dir,scr]. 1953: Nun steigt für uns der Mond [TV]; Du schöne Welt [TV]; Taillenweite 68 [TV]. 1953/54: Gefährliche Fracht. 1954: Die Liebesprobe [TV]. 1955: Heimliche Ehen [dir,scr]. 1955/56: Lied über dem Tal. 1959: Studentenkomödie [TV
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– sma]. 1970: Die fromme Marta [TV – scr]; Ein Mann seltener Art [TVD – app]. 1975: Gustav von Wangenheim [DO – app].
HERMANN WARM Born May 5, 1889, Berlin (Germany) Died May 17, 1976, Berlin (West Germany) The most prolific of the three set designers associated with the expressionist look of DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919/20), Warm’s other major achievements included Carl Theodor Dreyer’s LA PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928) and VAMPYR (The Vampire, 1931/32). A merchant’s son, Warm trained as a stage painter and attended the College for Applied Art in Berlin, subsequently working at various German theatres, including in Berlin and Düsseldorf. Film producer Jules Greenbaum hired Warm in 1912 for his Vitascope company; his first assignment was the spy thriller DER SPION (The Spy, 1912), for which he designed a moving wall that allowed the film’s protagonists to disappear at will. In the following years, Warm worked with directors including Max Mack, Harry Piel, and Rudolf Meinert, with whom he collaborated on the serial DER HUND VON BASKERVILLE (The Hound of Baskerville, 1914), starring Alwin Neuss as Sherlock Holmes. Meinert also began directing the science fiction drama DER TUNNEL (The Tunnel) in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I interrupted the shoot, and the film was re-made a year later by Wilhelm Wauer. In 1915, Warm was conscripted and sent to work with a military theatre on the Eastern front in Wilna (today’s Vilnius) where he first made the acquaintance of fellow art directors Robert Herlth and Walter Reimann. Following the end of World War I, Warm returned to Berlin, where Erich Pommer hired him as film architect for his company Decla. One of his first assignments was the opulent prestige historical drama PEST IN FLORENZ (Plague in Florence, 1919), directed by Otto Rippert and based on a screenplay by Fritz Lang. This production reunited Warm with his wartime comrades Herlth and Reimann. On Lang’s exotic adventure serial DIE SPINNEN (The Spiders, 1919), Warm collaborated with art directors Otto Hunte and Carl Ludwig Kirmse. While previous Decla productions had relied on costly exterior constructions, Warm’s next assignment (again in collaboration with Reimann, as well as Walter Röhrig) was shot entirely in the studio and became one of the most defining moments of the Weimar period and the start of a brief wave of ‘Expressionist’ films: DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 1919/20).
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The following year an industry merger led to the creation of Decla-Bioscop, with Warm in charge of the new company’s art and technical departments. He refused offers to design further Expressionist films, championing instead sets that functioned as backgrounds to the narrative. On films by F. W. Murnau (SCHLOSS VOGELÖD, The Haunted Castle) and Fritz Lang (DER MÜDE TOD, Destiny, both 1921), Warm once again worked with Herlth and Röhrig. In 1921, when Decla-Bioscop became part of Ufa, Warm decided to become a freelance artist. Over the next decade he signed for individual projects with a variety of companies and directors, including Max Mack, Henrik Galeen, and G. W. Pabst. By the end of the 1920s, Warm branched out into other European productions. Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer hired Warm to create the austere medieval sets for his masterpiece LA PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928) about the life and death of Joan of Arc. Warm later declared this his favourite assignment. Also in 1928, Warm designed the sets for two Anglo-German co-productions shot in London, Lupu Pick’s EINE NACHT IN LONDON / A KNIGHT IN LONDON and Anthony Asquith’s THE RUNAWAY PRINCESS / PRISCILLAS FAHRT INS GLÜCK. In the early sound period, Warm travelled between Paris and Berlin to work on multi-lingual co-productions (MLVs), including WIENER LIEBSCHAFTEN / AMOURS VIENNOISES (Amours in Vienna, 1930), and Joe May’s PARIS – MÉDITERRANÉE / ZWEI IN EINEM AUTO (Two in a Car, 1931/32). Around the same time he reunited with Dreyer on the artistic horror film VAMPYR. Warm’s creative opportunities began to dwindle following the Nazis’ rise to power. Together with Carl Haacker he designed Willi Forst’s melodrama MAZURKA and Arthur Robison’s remake of DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague) in 1935. Towards the end of the decade he was responsible for comedies starring Jenny Jugo, as well as films by Veit Harlan and Hans Steinhoff. In 1941, Warm emigrated to Switzerland, returning to Berlin in 1947. Among his post-war films, of particular note were the DEFA adaptation of Georg Büchner’s tragedy WOZZECK (1947), and MORITURI (1947/48) about a group of fugitive concentration camp inmates. In the late 1940s, Warm settled in Munich, and continued to take on assignments in the West German industry until the late 1950s. In later years, his first-hand memories of German film history became an important source for historians. In 1965 he received a German film award for his lifetime achievements. [(co-)des – DE] 1912: Der Spion. 1913: Wo ist Coletti?; Menschen und Masken [2 parts]; Der letzte Tag; Der Shylock von Krakau; Die blaue Maus; Die Millionenmine; Der
König. 1914: Pauline; Der Hund von Baskerville; Die beiden Rivalen; Das einsame Haus. 1915: Das unheimliche Zimmer; Der Tunnel. 1918: Der Volontär. 1919: Totentanz; Die Insel der Glücklichen; Die Spinnen. 1. Der goldene See / 2. Das Brillantenschiff; Pest in Florenz; Der Richter von Zalamea. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. 1920: Masken; Das Blut der Ahnen; Toteninsel; Das Haupt des Juarez. 1920/21: Die Jagd nach dem Tode [4 parts]. 1921: Schloß Vogelöd; Der müde Tod; Der ewige Fluch; Zirkus des Lebens. 1922: Phantom. 1922/23: Ein Glas Wasser; Rivalen; Der letzte Kampf. 1923: Der Kaufmann von Venedig; Quarantäne. 1923/24: Königsliebchen. 1924: Gräfin Donelli; Rosenmontag. 1925: Liebesgeschichten; Soll man heiraten?; Die rote Maus. 1926: Parkettsessel 47 / Le Fauteuil 47 [DE/FR]; Fräulein Josette – meine Frau / Mademoiselle Josette, ma femme [DE/FR]; Das süße Mädel; Der Student von Prag; Die Flucht in die Nacht; Die Frauen von Folies Bergères; Die Insel der verbotenen Küsse; Liebe. 1926/27: Die Frau ohne Namen; Colonialskandal; Der Millionenraub im Riviera-Expreß; Die Jagd nach der Braut. 1928: La Passion de Jeanne D’Arc [FR]; Eine Nacht in London / A Knight in London [DE/GB]; The Runaway Princess / Priscillas Fahrt ins Glück [GB/DE]. 1929: Die weißen Rosen von Ravensberg; Freiheit in Fesseln. Bewährungsfrist; Masken; Vertauschte Gesichter; Das Erlebnis einer Nacht. 1930: Es kommt alle Tage vor …; Fundvogel; Dreyfus; Wiener Liebschaften [MLV – DE/FR]; Amours viennoises [MLV – DE/ FR]. 1930/31: Der Mann, der den Mord beging [MLV]; L’Homme qui assassina [MLV]. 1931: Der Herr Finanzdirektor. 1931/32: Paris – Méditerranée [MLV – FR]; Zwei in einem Auto / Eine Reise ins Glück [MLV – FR/DE]; Vampyr. L’étrange aventure de David Gray [FR]. 1932: Friederike. 1933: Wenn am Sonntagabend die Dorfmusik spielt; Hochzeit am Wolfgangsee; Wenn ich König wär! 1933/ 34: Zigeunerblut. 1934: Pappi; Musik im Blut; Peter, Paul und Nanette; Peer Gynt. 1935: Ich liebe alle Frauen [MLV]; J’aime toutes les femmes [MLV]; Mazurka; Der Student von Prag; Krach im Hinterhaus. 1935/36: Mädchenjahre einer Königin. 1936: Ein Hochzeitstraum; Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser. 1936/37: Gefährliches Spiel. 1937: Die Warschauer Zitadelle; Ein Volksfeind. 1937/38: Jugend. 1938: Verwehte Spuren. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz. 1939/ 40: Die Geierwally. 1943/44: Jugendliebe. 1947: Wozzeck [DD]. 1947/48: Morituri. 1948: Vor uns liegt das Leben. 1948/49: Tragödie einer Leidenschaft. 1949: Königskinder. 1950: Die Sehnsucht des Herzens; Land der Sehnsucht / Terra d’amore [DE/IT]. 1950/51: Das ewige Spiel. 1951/52: Herz der Welt. 1952: Cuba Cabana. 1953: Hokuspokus; Die Privatsekretärin. 1953/54: Der Raub der Sabinerinnen. 1954: Verrat an Deutschland. 1955: Hanussen; Königswalzer. 1956: Dany, bitte schreiben Sie. 1958: Helden. 1959: Die Nackte und der Satan; Die Wahrheit über Rosemarie. 1960: Die Botschafterin. 1969/70: Männer sind zum Lieben da [act].
PAUL WEGENER LOTHAR WARNEKE Born September 15, 1936, Leipzig (Germany) Died June 5, 2005, Potsdam (Germany) Alongside Roland Gräf, Rainer Simon and Hermann Zschoche, Warneke belonged to a generation of directors whose documentary-style feature films with contemporary subjects brought new impetus into the DEFA studios in the early 1970s. The son of an office worker, Warneke studied theology at the Karl-Marx University in Leipzig from 1954 to 1959. Ordained as a vicar, he left the church and studied at the film academy in Babelsberg to become a director. Initially assistant director to Joachim Kunert, Egon Günther and Kurt Maetzig, he made his debut as co-director of the detective comedy MIT MIR NICHT, MADAME! (Not With Me Madam, 1968). Warneke soon developed his own style in his first film as sole director, DR. MED. SOMMER II (1969), concerning a young doctor in his first position. Warneke’s cameraman Roland Gräf filmed scenes in a documentary style, often on location. Choosing a topic from everyday life in the GDR, scenes were grouped loosely in an episodic form around the central character. Playing upon the popularity of the genre, Warneke’s second film was also set in a medical environment. ES IST EINE ALTE GESCHICHTE (It’s an Old Story, 1971/72) was a love story, beset with rivalry and friction among a group of student doctors. LEBEN MIT UWE (Living With Uwe, 1973) dealt with the conflict between career and marriage. ADDIO, PICCOLA MIA (Adieu, My Little One, 1977/78) represented an unusual subject for Warneke. Based on a scenario by Helga Schütz, the film traced the life of the 19th century author Georg Büchner and reflected on the ideas of the student movement in the West. Many of Warneke’s central protagonists were women torn between personal desires and social duties; examples include the former swimming champion in DIE UNVERBESSERLICHE BARBARA (The Incorrigible Barbara, 1976), and a young architect in UNSER KURZES LEBEN (Our Short Life, 1980), a project that was originally developed by Rainer Simon. With the writer Helga Schubert, Warneke worked on DIE BEUNRUHIGUNG (Uneasiness, 1981), the story of a woman who re-assesses aspects of her life while waiting for the results of a cancer test. The graphic imagery of Warneke’s cameraman Thomas Plenert (normally working on documentaries) and the intense performance of the leading actress Christine Schorn helped to make this one of the most important DEFA films of its time. It gained the director’s award and the award for the most effective film at the National Film Festival in the GDR. EINE SONDERBARE LIEBE (A Strange Love, 1983/ 84), also starring Schorn, had a mixed reception. BLONDER TANGO (Blond Tango, 1985) linked East
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German issues with international perspectives by placing exiles from Chile at the centre of the action. Provoking much discussion, EINER TRAGE DES ANDEREN LAST … (Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens, 1987) focussed on the uneasy relationship between communism and the church. After reunification Warneke made a short presentation film to interest international producers in the DEFA studios. He was unable to direct any more cinema films himself and taught during the last years of his life at the Academy for Film and TV in PotsdamBabelsberg. [dir – DD] 1963/64: Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt [ass-dir]. 1964/65: Lots Weib [ass-dir]; Das Kaninchen bin ich [act]. 1965: Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam [ass-dir]. 1967: Herren ihrer Betriebe [SD – co-scr]; Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog [ass-dir]. 1968: Mit mir nicht, Madam! [codir,app]. 1969: Dr. med. Sommer II [dir,co-scr,app]. 1971/72: Es ist eine alte Geschichte [dir,app]. 1972/73: Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow [act]. 1973: Leben mit Uwe [dir,co-scr,act]. 1976: Die unverbesserliche Barbara [dir,scr,app]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [dir,co-scr,app]. 1978/79: Solo Sunny [app]; Glück im Hinterhaus [app]. 1980: Unser kurzes Leben [dir,scr,app]. 1981: Die Beunruhigung [dir,co-scr,act]. 1983/84: Eine sonderbare Liebe [dir,co-scr,act]. 1985: Blonder Tango [dir,co-scr,act]. 1987: Einer trage des anderen Last … [dir,co-scr]. [dir – DE] 1990: Präsentationsfilm [DO]. 1992: Ich bin das achte Weltwunder – Marcello Cammi [DO]. 1992/93: Zwei Schicksale oder Eine kleine Königstragödie [DO – dir,scr]. 1997: Unser kurzes Leben: Lothar Warneke – Ein Moralist und seine Filme [TVD – app]; Das 7. Jahr – Ansichten zur Lage der Nation [DO]. 1998: Die Brandenburger. Chronik eines Landes [TVD].
FRANZ WAXMANN see WACHSMANN
PAUL WEGENER Born December 11, 1874, Jerrentowitz/Arnoldsdorf (Germany, now Jarantowice, Poland) Died September 13, 1948, Berlin (Germany) A heavy-built, classical actor with striking Asiatic features, Wegener was a driving force behind the development of German fantastic cinema in the 1910s, with his uncanny looks later finding him cast as racial outsiders in Nazi propaganda films. Growing up on his father’s estate at Bischdorf in Warmia, Wegener gained his Abitur while also appearing as an extra at Königsberg’s Stadttheater. He later took acting lessons while studying law in Freiburg and Leipzig. He joined the Stadttheater in Rostock in 1895, and then spent the years up to 1903 in repertory. In 1906, he became a member of Berlin’s Deutsches Theater, and rose to prominence playing tainted or fa-
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tally flawed heroes under Max Reinhardt’s direction. Wegener moved to Rudolf Bernauer and Carl Meinhardt’s Theater in der Königgrätzer Straße in 1913, before voluntarily enlisting with the military following the outbreak of World War I (In 1933 he published his experiences in ‘Flandrisches Tagebuch 1914’). Forced to return to Berlin due to poor health in 1915, he resumed his career under Reinhardt until 1920; he subsequently worked at numerous theatres and undertook guest appearances both at home and abroad. Together with writer Hanns Heinz Ewers and cameraman Guido Seeber, he scripted DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague / A Bargain with Satan) in 1913. Directed by Stellan Rye and starring Wegener in a split-screen dual role, the film would become acclaimed alongside Max Mack’s DER ANDERE (The Other, 1912/13) as the first artistically significant work of German cinema. The desire to liberate cinema aesthetics from mere plot-based functionality and to integrate the fantastic within a narrative structure would continue to influence Wegener’s output as a filmmaker and actor, as demonstrated by RÜBEZAHLS HOCHZEIT (Old Nip’s Wedding, 1916) and DER RATTENFÄNGER (The Pied Piper of Hamelin, 1918). His DER GOLEM, WIE ER IN DIE WELT KAM (The Golem: How He Came Into the World, 1920), based on Jewish legend, met with particular success, while in pictures such as DER YOGHI (The Yogi, 1916) and the self-financed and self-produced LEBENDE BUDDHAS (Living Buddhas, 1923/24), Wegener blended western fantasy with his deep personal interest in Eastern mysticism. He also travelled to M-G-M’s Nice studios to star in Rex Ingram’s THE MAGICIAN (1926), based on Somerset Maugham’s novel about notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley. Wegener kept working throughout the ‘Third Reich’, and played unsympathetic characters in propaganda pictures ranging from a communist in Franz Wenzler’s paean to storm trooper Horst Wessel, HANS WESTMAR (1933), to the weak military governor in Veit Harlan’s exhortation to total war, KOLBERG (Burning Hearts, 1943–45). At the end of the war four films featuring Wegener remained unfinished. Directing genre films between 1933 and 1937, Wegener also appeared at Berlin’s Schillertheater in 1938, and at the city’s Staatliches Schauspielhaus in 1943. After the war, he played a central role in setting up the Council for German Cultural Rejuvenation, and cut an imposing figure playing Lessing’s ‘Nathan the Wise’ at the Deutsches Theater in 1945. His final film appearance was in Karl-Heinz Stroux’s DER GROSSE MANDARIN (The Great Mandarin, 1948/49). [act – DE] 1913: Der Student von Prag [co-scr,act]; Evinrude; Der Verführte. 1914: Der Golem [dir,co-scr,act].
1914/15: Die Rache des Blutes. 1916: Der Yoghi [dir,scr, act]; Rübezahls Hochzeit [dir,scr,act]. 1917: Der Golem und die Tänzerin [dir,scr,act]; Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland [dir,scr,act]. 1918: Der fremde Fürst [dir,scr,act]; Der Rattenfänger [dir,scr,act]; Apokalypse [scr,act]; Gegen den Bruderkrieg [dir,scr]. 1919: Der Galeerensträfling [2 parts – scr,act]; Nachtgestalten. 1920: Sumurun; Der verlorene Schatten. Der Student von Prag [co-scr,act]; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam [dir,scr,act]; Steuermann Holk. 1921: Die Geliebte Roswolskys; Das Weib des Pharao. 1921/22: Vanina. Die Galgenhochzeit; Sterbende Völker. 1. Heimat in Not / 2. Brennendes Meer. 1922: Herzog Ferrantes Ende [dir,scr,act]; Das Liebesnest [2 parts]; Lucrezia Borgia; Monna Vanna. 1922/23: Der Schatz der Gesine Jakobsen. 1923: S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen. 1923/24: Lebende Buddhas [dir,co-scr,act,pro]; Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1925: Götter von Tibet [dir,pro]; Der Mann aus dem Jenseits. Feldgrau. 1925/26: Dagfin. 1926: The Magician [US]. 1927: Die Weber; Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen; Svengali!; Arme kleine Sif; Die Welt ohne Waffen; Ramper, der Tiermensch; Alraune. 1929: Paul Wegener: Chinesisches Märchen [SF]. 1930: Fundvogel. 1932: Unheimliche Geschichten; Marschall Vorwärts; Das Geheimnis um Johann Orth. 1933: Hans Westmar. Einer von vielen; Inge und die Millionen. 1934: Die Freundin eines großen Mannes [dir]; Ein Mann will nach Deutschland [dir,act]; Der rote Tod von Riga [dir,act]. 1935: … nur ein Komödiant [AT]; Der Mann mit der Pranke. 1935/36: August der Starke / August Mocny [dir – DE/PL]. 1936: Die Stunde der Versuchung [dir]; Moskau – Shanghai [dir]. 1936/37: Krach und Glück um Künnemann [dir]. 1937: Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit [dir]. 1938: Stärker als die Liebe; In geheimer Mission. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz. 1939: Das Recht auf Liebe. 1939/40: Zwielicht. 1940: Das Mädchen von Fanö. 1940/41: Mein Leben für Irland. 1940-42: Der große König. 1941/42: Hochzeit auf Bärenhof. 1942: Diesel. 1942/43: Wenn die Sonne wieder scheint. Der Flachsacker. 1942-44: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen / Augen der Liebe. 1943/44: Seinerzeit zu meiner Zeit. 1943-45: Kolberg. 1944/45: Der Fall Molander [unfinished]; Tierarzt Dr. Vlimmen [unf.]. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume [unf.]; Dr. phil. Döderlein [unf.]. 1948/49: Der große Mandarin.
KURT WEILL (Kurt Julian Weill) Born March 2, 1900, Dessau (Germany) Died April 3, 1950, New York (USA) Best-known for his composition of the ‘Threepenny Opera’, many of Weill’s songs for musical productions have become evergreens, especially ‘MackieMesser’ or ‘Mack the Knife’. The recording ‘Lost in the Stars’ in 1985 with various rock stars singing his songs marked a Weill renaissance. Born into a musical family, Weill took piano lessons, performed and composed songs from an early age. After leaving school in 1918, he studied music in Berlin, also acting as cantor for the Jewish community in
HELGE WEINDLER
Berlin-Friedenau. In 1922 his one-act pantomime for children was premiered at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm. Working with the dramatist Georg Kaiser, Weill completed an opera ‘Der Protagonist’, which premiered in Dresden in 1926. Through Kaiser he met the Austrian singer and actress Lotte Lenya (Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer, 1898–1981) whom he married the same year. As well as composing, Weill wrote articles and reviews for a radio magazine. He criticised the music that accompanied Ruttmann’s silent film BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (Berlin, Symphony of a Big City, 1926/27), suggesting that music should contribute to a film by providing a unifying element, which reflected the significance of the action rather than offering background music for individual scenes. His compositions, together with works by Paul Hindemith and Paul Dessau, were used for Lotte Reinigers silhouette film DOKTOR DOLITTLE UND SEINE TIERE (Dr Dolittle and His Animals, 1928). Meeting playwright Bertolt Brecht in 1927, Weill’s first collaboration with him resulted in the ‘Mahagony Songspiel’, which premiered the same year in Baden-Baden. He composed music for stage plays and worked with Brecht on ‘Die 3-Groschen-Oper’ (The Threepenny Opera), which became a sensational success after the first performance in Berlin in 1928. In the following years Weill and Brecht collaborated on several projects for theatre and radio. In 1930 Nero-Film set out to film ‘The Threepenny Opera’, with Weill, Brecht, the director G. W. Pabst and other writers working on the screenplay. The collaboration broke down, with both Brecht and Weill suing the production company. Unlike Brecht, Weill won his case, as the court decided that Nero was not allowed to use compositions or arrangements other than Weill’s music in the film version. The integration of Weill’s music into the film as an underlying leitmotif was praised at the premiere in 1931. Further collaborations between Weill and Brecht broke down over artistic and political differences. Leaving Germany after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 Weill continued composing in Paris. In London he worked on a biblical drama, which was eventually staged in New York as ‘The Eternal Road’ in 1937. After emigrating to the USA, Weill made contacts in Hollywood, composing for Fritz Lang’s YOU AND ME (1938). Weill also wrote the score for Jean Renoir’s anti-Nazi film SALUTE TO FRANCE (1944) and worked with Ira Gershwin on the satirical film musical WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (1944/45), a contemporary fairytale of a young man considered unfit for the army. Other film projects in Hollywood did not materialise; however, he wrote two successful Broadway musicals: ‘Love Life’ (1948) and ‘Lost in the Stars’ (1949).
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After his death Lenya created the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music (KWF) in New York. Since the 1980 there has been a tremendous international re-evaluation and renaissance of Weill’s works on stage, on records and on television. A musical ‘Speak Low’, chronicling Weill’s volatile relationship with Lenya, had its premiere on Broadway. [mus – US] 1927/28: Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere. 1. Abenteuer: Die Reise nach Afrika [ANI – DE]. 1930/31: Die 3-Groschen-Oper [MLV – DE/US]; L’Opéra de quat’sous [MLV – DE/US]. 1938: You and Me; Blockade. 1943/44: Lady in the Dark; Knickerbocker Holiday. 1944: Salute to France [SF]. 1944/45: Where Do We Go from Here? 1947: Community Sing 8658: I’ll Close My Eyes [SF]. 1948: One Touch of Venus. 1949/50: NBC Television Opera Theatre: Down in the Valley [TV]; September Affair. 1950: Knickerbocker Holiday [TV]. [since the 1950s numerous TV performances and some DVD editions of Weill’s operas and musicals, especially ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’ and ‘Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny’].
HELGE WEINDLER Born July 16, 1947, Furth im Wald (Germany) Died March 22, 1996, Almeria (Spain) Helge Weindler was a cinematographer working on West German films from the late 1970s to the 1990s. His style was a strong influence in films directed by Peter Bringmann, Dominik Graf and Doris Dörrie, and critics praised his visual imagination and sense of form, which lent his film images an international flair. After training as a photographer, Weindler moved to Munich, where he worked freelance. In 1971 he studied at the Academy for Television and Film in Munich, graduating as a director in 1976. From 1975 he worked as a cameraman for his fellow students. His first independent film was the documentary PUNK IN LONDON (1977) directed by Wolfgang Büld. Director Peter Bringmann’s road-movie THEO GEGEN DEN REST DER WELT (Theo Against the Rest of the World, 1979/80) starring Marius MüllerWesternhagen was Weindler’s first feature for the cinema and an unexpected success. The same team went on to repeat the formula with the action comedy DER SCHNEEMANN (The Snowman, 1984/85). An important partner for Weindler was his friend from student days, Dominik Graf, whom he helped develop an individual action style on TV in the crime series DER FAHNDER (The Investigator) and on the big screen with DAS ZWEITE GESICHT (Second Sight, 1981/82) and TREFFER (Bull’s Eye, 1983/84). The most productive collaboration came in his work for Doris Dörrie, especially the relationship comedy MÄNNER (Men, 1985), which was a huge success
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with cinemagoers and launched a wave of similar films. Less successful Dörrie films followed: PARADIES (Paradise, 1986), an excursion to Hollywood with ICH UND ER (Me and Him, 1987/88), and GELD (Money, 1988/89). In between Weindler shot the international co-production HELSINKI NAPOLI, ALL NIGHT LONG (1987), a gangster comedy, with Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki. In 1988 Weindler and Dörrie married. A year later they founded the company Cobra Film, which produced Dörrie’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TÜRKE! (Happy Birthday Turk, 1991) and KEINER LIEBT MICH (No One Loves Me, 1994). While shooting Dörries BIN ICH SCHÖN? (Am I Beautiful) in Spain in 1996, Weindler contracted meningitis and died suddenly. The production was suspended for a year; cinematography on the final film was credited to Theo Bierkens. In a TV documentary, … AUGENBLICK … (… Moment …, 1997), Dörrie reflected on her relationship with Weindler. [cam – DE] 1975: Das Kloster [SF]. 1976: Comeback [SF]; Auf und davon [SF]. 1977: Punk in London [DO – co-cam]. 1978: Elfriede [TV]; Das Spiel [TV]; Persil ist auch kein Schnittlauch [co-cam]; Brennende Langeweile [TV]. 1978/ 79: Uhrmacher Wandl [TV]; Geteilte Freude [TV]. 1978-80: Vagabunden Karawane [DO – co-cam]. 1979: Coda [SF]; Smash – Gefahr aus der Unendlichkeit [SF]; Vergiss es [SF]; Nachtmahr [SF]; Hotel ohne Aussicht [TV]. 1979/80: Theo gegen den Rest der Welt. 1980: Tatort: Der Zeuge [TV]; Rendezvous in Paris / Rendez-vous à Paris [TV – DE/FR]. 1980/81: Familientag: Lehrgeld / 2 Jahre warten [TVS – 2 episodes]. 1981: Wunden und Narben [DO]; Neonstadt [TV]. 1981/82: Das zweite Gesicht. 1982: Die Heartbreakers. 1982-84: Trauma. 1983: Auf Achse [TVS – 4 episodes]. 1983/84: Treffer [TV]. 1983-93: Der Fahnder [TVS – 12 episodes]. 1984/85: Der Schneemann; Hoffnungsspuren: Vorsichtige Berührung [TV]. 1985: Männer; Unser Mann im Dschungel. 1985/86: Gambit [TV – co-cam]. 1986: Paradies. 1986/87: Wann – wenn nicht jetzt? 1987: Helsinki Napoli. All Night Long / Helsinki Napoli – All Night Long [FI/DE/CH]. 1987/88: Ich und Er. 1988: Gold [TV – ide]. 1988/89: Geld. 1989: Inshallah [TV]. 1991: Der Castillo-Coup [TV]; Happy Birthday, Türke! 1992: I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive [DO].1993: Was darf’s denn sein? [DO]. 1994: Keiner liebt mich. 1997: … augenblick … [TVD]. 2006/07: Der Prospektor [DO – co-cam (archival)].
GRETHE WEISER (Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe Nowka) Born February 27, 1903, Hanover (Germany) Died November 2, 1970, near Bad Tölz (West Germany) Weiser was typecast as a quintessential Berliner, loudmouthed, bossy, and irreverent, but with a big heart, and was known for her quick wit and eccentric hu-
mour. She was one of the most popular female comedians from the 1930s through to the late 1960s, and one of the few to command her own starring vehicles. After attending school, Weiser married and moved to Berlin, where she made her first stage appearance in her husband’s cabaret. Following singing and acting lessons, she continued with her stage career, performing at the Comic Opera in Berlin as well as in Hamburg and Dresden. After her first small film roles – cooks, servants and maids, as in MÄNNER VOR DER EHE (Men Before Marriage, 1927) – her portrayal of the title role in Erich Waschneck’s DIE GÖTTLICHE JETTE (The Divine Jette, 1937) as a Berlin comedienne and her rise to fame as a revue star became a hit with audiences. Other leading roles followed; as a marriage-saving usherette in MEINE FREUNDIN BARBARA (My Girlfriend Barbara, 1937) and a cheeky soubrette in EHE IN DOSEN (Marriage in Small Doses, 1939). During World War II Weiser was once again reduced to playing smaller parts, such as the cook in Carl Froelich’s two-part saga FAMILIE BUCHHOLZ (The Buchholz Familiy) and NEIGUNGSEHE (Marriage of Affection, both 1943/44), a film that also marked a rare screen outing for the silent film diva Henny Porten. After World War II she returned to the stage, first in Hamburg where she first played Mary Miller in ‘Das Kuckucksei’ (The Cuckoo’s Egg), a role with which she became identified. In 1954 she returned to Berlin. In post-war films she was again typecast as bossy widows and resolute old aunts, aggressive and full of natural wit, brash but elegant. At a time when other female stars were either refined like Ruth Leuwerik or constantly tearful like Maria Schell, Weiser’s characters (albeit only in a comic register) were refreshingly down to earth and unsentimental. In FERIEN VOM ICH (Holidays from Me, 1952) she portrayed an overworked stage star; she was a nightclub barmaid in DAMENWAHL (Lady’s Choice, 1953), and a go-getting business woman in LEMKE’S SEL. WITWE (Lemke’s Widow, 1957). In the 1960s she remained busily active, albeit with fewer film roles, and more television and stage appearances in theatres in Berlin and Munich. Her death in a car crash elicited a wave of public sympathy, demonstrating her popularity to the end. [act – DE] 1930: Kasernenzauber …! 1931: Salto mortale [MLV]. 1933: Kind, ich freu’ mich auf Dein Kommen; Gutgehendes Geschäft zu verkaufen [SF]; Gretel zieht das große Los; Schlagerpartie [SF]. 1933/34: Einmal eine große Dame sein [MLV]. 1934: Die bunte Palette [SF]; Schützenkönig wird der Felix; Die einsame Villa [SF]; Am Telefon wird gewünscht [SF]. 1934/35: Frischer Wind aus Kanada [MLV]. 1935: Den Zahn laß Dir man ziehen [SF]; Der Mann mit der Pranke; Einer zuviel an Bord [MLV]; Lady Windermeres Fächer; Anschlag auf Schweda; Die selige Exzellenz; Familie Schimek. 1935/36: Martha. Letzte Rose [MLV];
ULRICH WEISS Martha. Les dernières roses [MLV]; Der Raub der Sabinerinnen; Engel mit kleinen Fehlern. 1936: Der verkannte Lebemann; Eskapade; Männer vor der Ehe; Hilde und die 4 PS; Fräulein Veronika / Der Schlaumeier [CH/AT]; Geheimnis eines alten Hauses. 1936/37: Menschen ohne Vaterland. 1937: Die göttliche Jette; Mädchen für alles; Gabriele eins, zwei, drei; Meine Freundin Barbara. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne. 1938: Unsere kleine Frau [MLV – DE/IT]; Mia moglie si diverte [MLV – DE/IT]; Frauen für Golden Hill. 1938/39: Liebe – streng verboten!; Die Geliebte. 1939: Frau am Steuer; Marguerite: 3; Ehe in Dosen; Irrtum des Herzens; Verdacht auf Ursula; Hochzeitsreise zu dritt; Das Glück wohnt nebenan. Drunt’ in der Lobau hab’ ich ein Mädel geküßt; Mein Mann darf es nicht wissen; Rote Mühle. 1939/40: Alles Schwindel; Polterabend; Der Postmeister. 1940: Der rettende Engel; Wie konntest Du, Veronika!; Links der Isar – rechts der Spree; Zwischen Hamburg und Haiti. 1941: Krach im Vorderhaus; Oh, diese Männer; Leichte Muse; Sonntagskinder; Jenny und der Herr im Frack. 1941/42: Die große Liebe; Tre ragazze viennesi [MLV – IT/DE]; Drei tolle Mädels [MLV – IT/DE]; Alles aus Liebe. 1942: Wir machen Musik; Ein Walzer mit dir. 1943/44: Familie Buchholz; Neigungsehe; Der Meisterdetektiv; Hundstage; Die Frau meiner Träume. 1944/45: Das alte Lied; Ich glaube an dich; Verlobte Leute. 1945: Shiva und die Galgenblume. 1948: Morgen ist alles besser. 1948/49: Liebe 47. 1949: Amico; Nichts als Zufälle; Tromba; Artistenblut; Die Freunde meiner Frau; 1 × 1 der Ehe; Die Reise nach Marrakesch. 1949/50: Tobias Knopp, Abenteuer eines Junggesellen [ANI – voi]. 1950: Gabriela; Wenn Männer schwindeln; Die Nacht ohne Sünde; Die Dritte von rechts. 1951: Hilfe, ich bin unsichtbar!; Die verschleierte Maja; Fanfaren der Liebe; Johannes und die 13 Schönheitsköniginnen; Durch Dick und Dünn; Tanz ins Glück [AT]; Gangsterpremiere [AT]. 1952: Der Fürst von Pappenheim; Der keusche Lebemann; Der Obersteiger [AT]; Ferien vom Ich; Du bist die Rose vom Wörthersee; Königin der Arena; Der Onkel aus Amerika. 1953: Die Rose von Stambul; Hollandmädel; Damenwahl; Die Kaiserin von China; Der Vetter aus Dingsda; Hurra – ein Junge! 1953/54: Die tolle Lola; Bei Dir war es immer so schön. 1954: Mädchen mit Zukunft; Geld aus der Luft; Die sieben Kleider der Katrin; Viktoria und ihr Husar; Keine Angst vor Schwiegermüttern; Die Stadt ist voller Geheimnisse. 1954/55: Premiere im Metropol [TV]. 1955: Der doppelte Ehemann; Vatertag; Solang’ es hübsche Mädchen gibt …; Drei Tage Mittelarrest; Mein Leopold; Meine Kinder und ich. 1955/56: Ein Herz schlägt für Erika; Ein Herz und eine Seele [AT]. 1956: Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne; Kirschen in Nachbars Garten; Du bist Musik; Bonsoir Paris, bonjour l’amour / Süß ist die Liebe in Paris [FR/DE]; Der schräge Otto. 1957: Die verpfuschte Hochzeitsnacht; Tante Wanda aus Uganda; Das haut hin; Lemke’s sel. Witwe; Einmal eine große Dame sein; Casinò de Paris [FR/IT/DE]; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut; Künstlerporträt: Grethe Weiser [TVD – app]; Die Beine von Dolores; Der Kaiser und das Wäschermädel [AT]. 1958: Zauber der Montur [AT]; Scala – total verrückt; Der Haustyrann. 1959: So angelt man keinen Mann. 1960: Freddy und die Melodie der Nacht; Die junge Sünderin; Wir wollen niemals auseinan-
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dergehn. 1961: Ach Egon!; Freddy und der Millionär / La signorina miliardo [DE/IT]. 1962: Wenn die Musik spielt am Wörthersee; Eine Nachtlang am Lago Maggiore / Lieder erklingen am Lago Maggiore [CH/DE]. 1962/63: Der singende Vagabund [CH]. [act – TV – DE] 1963: Im Tingeltangel tut sich was; BerlinMelodie. Vom Zille-Ball zum Jazzlokal; Die Mondvögel; Ferien vom Ich [FF]; Ball der Diebe; Jenny und der Herr im Frack. 1964: Liebesgrüße aus Tirol [FF – AT]. 1965: Jean; Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Grethe Weiser und Rudolf Platte [TVD – app]; Die Chefin. 1965/66: Bei Pfeiffers ist Ball. 1966: Brille und Bombe: Bei uns liegen Sie richtig! [FF – DE/BR]. 1967: Premieren von gestern [TVD – app]; Keine Leiche ohne Lily. 1969: Die Lokomotive. 1970: So schön wie heut’; Die lieben Kinder; Das Kuckucksei; Theatergarderobe [TVS]. 1975: Herz mit Schnauze [TVD – app – AT]. 1982/83: Geliebte Grethe [TVD]. 1991: Funny Girls: Grethe Weiser [TVD – app].
ULRICH WEISS Born April 2, 1942, Wernigerode (Germany) Considered the most original and promising of the younger DEFA directors in the late 1970s, Weiß was nevertheless prevented by the studio from undertaking further film projects after OLLE HENRY (Ol’ Henry, 1982/83) caused controversies. While still a schoolboy, Weiß made 8mm films and studied film theory. He trained as a photographer in Limbach-Oberfrohna between 1960 and 1963 and worked as a company photographer with SDAG Wismut in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), all the while continuing his filmmaking activities. After working as a camera assistant for East German television for a year, he studied cinematography and directing at the Film Academy in Babelsberg. His graduation work comprised of two documentaries, PARAGRAPH 14 (1968), which he shot, wrote and directed; and AUFTRAG FÜR MORGEN (Task for Tomorrow, 1969), which he co-wrote and directed. Weiß was employed as a director by DEFA’s documentary department between 1971 and 1981. He made a film on the occasion of Heinrich Heine’s 175th anniversary, and another about the censorship of Eisenstein’s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN during the Weimar era. From 1976 he began to occasionally work for DEFA’s feature film department and was permanently engaged there for from 1982. His feature film debut was TAMBARI (1976) based on a children’s book by Benno Pludra. BLAUVOGEL (Blue Bird, 1978/79) deals with the search for identity, focussing on the story of a young English boy, who grows up in the initially alien world of a Native American tribe. Weiß used the popular ‘Indian film’ genre, DEFA’s politically correct version of the western, as a basis for a sensitive depiction of the confrontation between Native American culture and modernity, embodied by the white settlers.
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DEIN UNBEKANNTER BRUDER (Your Unknown
Brother, 1981), a re-working of Willi Bredel’s novel about the resistance to fascism used visual stylisation to create emotional distance. Weiß’s aesthetics was praised, but the critical reception overall was negative, and the film was not popular with the public. With Michael Gwisdek again in the lead, Weiß shot OLLE HENRY (Ol’ Henry, 1982/83), which he described as a ‘love-film, a post-war, anti-war film, an attempt to offer a new interpretation on the theme of man and woman, the relationship between the sexes’. However, the film apparently went too far. It was rejected by the studio heads, while the director’s plans for new films were refused; offers from abroad were blocked. Under a pseudonym Weiß helped write the screenplay for Maria Knilli’s FOLLOW ME (1988/89), about the life of dissidents in Prague. Not until after the reunification of Germany did Weiß complete another film, MIRACULI (1990/91). Once again the general public found the film’s coded, symbolic mix of personal and thematic fragments inaccessible. Subsequently Weiß fell seriously ill, but managed to shoot some documentaries and occasionally teach at Babelsberg. [dir,co-scr – DD] 1968: Paragraph 14 [SD – dir,scr,cam]. 1969: 20 Jahre danach [SD – scr]; Auftrag für morgen [SD]. 1970/71: Im Prüfstand [SD]. 1971: Montage ade … [SD]. 1972: Zum achtenmal [SD]; Meine Waffen sind nicht gebrochen – nur mein Herze brach [TVD – dir,scr]. 1972/ 73: Sehen – Hören – Selber machen … [SD – dir,scr]. 1974: Potemkin frei [TVD]. 1976: Tambari. 1978/79: Blauvogel [dir,scr]. 1981: Dein unbekannter Bruder [dir]. 1982/83: Olle Henry. 1983: Das Eismeer ruft [act]. 1988/89: Follow Me [co-scr – DE]. 1990/91: Miraculi [dir, scr – DD/DE]. 1990-93: Sternburg – Bierkampf im Osten [DO – DE]. 1992: Abstecher [DO – dir,scr – DE]. 1994: The Holy Family [SF – dir,scr – DE].
WIM WENDERS (Ernst Wilhelm Wenders) Born August 14, 1945, Düsseldorf (Germany) Alongside Fassbinder and Herzog, Wenders ranks as one of the most prominent directors associated with the New German Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. Cine-literate, with an overwhelming emphasis on mood and existential self-interrogation, Wenders’s films frequently centred on introspective protagonists, on the theme of travelling, and on the failure of interpersonal communication in an increasingly dystopian world. A doctor’s son, Wenders studied medicine and philosophy after finishing school. In 1966/67 he shot his first short film SCHAUPLÄTZE (Locations). After studying at the Academy for Television and Film in Munich, he made several short films and wrote re-
views about film and pop-music for newspapers and magazines. His first full-length film was his graduation assignment SUMMER IN THE CITY (1969–71). He subsequently became one of the co-founders of the influential co-operative Filmverlag der Autoren to promote the production and release of new German films. Having collaborated with his friend the writer Peter Handke on the short film 3 AMERIKANISCHE LP’S (3 American LP’s, 1969), the two worked again on DIE ANGST DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER
(The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick, 1971), an enigmatic parable about a homicidal goalkeeper, which was seen to express the anxieties and aimlessness of a whole generation. The actor Rüdiger Vogler portrayed the quintessential seeker in Wenders’s next films, ALICE IN DEN STÄDTEN (Alice In the Cities, 1973/74) and FALSCHE BEWEGUNG (The Wrong Move, 1974/75), travelling across the length and breadth of Germany. Shot without a screenplay, IM LAUF DER ZEIT (Kings of the Road, 1975), also followed the journey of two men along the border between the East and West Germany, musing about the demise of provincial cinemas in the mid-1970s. Important members of Wenders’s team during those years were Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller and editor Peter Przygodda. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, the stylish crime thriller DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND (The American Friend, 1976/77) starring Bruno Ganz, Dennis Hopper and Nicholas Ray attracted the attention of Francis Ford Coppola, who invited Wenders to direct HAMMETT (1980–82) in Hollywood. The shoot encountered various problems and the final result was only moderately successful. DER STAND DER DINGE (The State of Things, 1981/82) was a semiautobiographical tale about a film crew who get stranded in an out-of-season resort on Portugal’s Atlantic coast while working on a science fiction film. Stylishly shot in black and white, the film won a Golden Lion in Venice. PARIS, TEXAS (1983/84), an atmospheric FrancoGerman co-production shot in the wide open spaces of the American Southwest, starred Harry Dean Stanton as a latter-day version of a western hero, who wanders the desert in search of his lost wife (played by Nastassja Kinski). The film title (literally referring to an actual place in the United States) also picked up on one of Wenders’s central themes, the relationship between the old world and the new. During the 1980s Wenders branched out into shooting a number of pop music videos (especially for U2), and directed contemplative documentaries about the city of Tokyo and the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu in TOKYO-GA (1983–85) and about fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto in AUFZEICHNUNGEN ZU
WIM WENDERS KLEIDERN UND STÄDTEN (Notes on Clothes and
Cities, 1988/89). DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN (Wings of Desire,
1986/87), with its reflection on Berlin’s cold-war division marked a return to German subject matter and settings and collected a number of international awards. Brilliantly supported by Henri Alekan’s atmospheric black and white cinematography, the film, ostensibly about two angels observing from above the thoughts and desires in a divided Berlin, encapsulated the zeitgeist of Germany just prior to reunification. Wenders later made a sequel with IN WEITER FERNE, SO NAH! (Faraway, So Close!, 1992/93). BIS ANS ENDE DER WELT (Until the End of the World, 1990/91) was an uneven genre mix of global road movie, conspiracy thriller and science fiction. Running at nearly three hours it failed to live up to Wenders’s own high expectations. Later that decade, Ry Cooder, who had composed the music for PARIS, TEXAS and THE END OF VIOLENCE (1996/97), took Wenders to Cuba. The resulting BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1998), a refreshingly joyous documentary about a group of veteran Cuban musicians and singers, became a world-wide hit, perhaps because it lacked the tortuous introspection of so many of Wenders’s previous films. Wenders returned to the figure of a soul-searching outsider in LAND OF PLENTY (2004), focussing on a reclusive Vietnam veteran, and in DON’T COME KNOCKING (2005), where a has-been western star sets out to find his unknown child. THE PALERMO SHOOTING (2007/08) starring German punk singer Campino, met a lukewarm critical response when it premiered at the Cannes film festival. Most of Wenders’s films were (co-)produced by one of his companies he founded with various business partners: Road Movies, Wim Wenders Produktion, Reverse Angle, and Neue Road Movies. Apart from his film and television work, Wenders has published a number of volumes of photography collections, and taught film at universities and academies in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and elsewhere. He was also president of the European Film Academy. [filmmaker – SF – DE] 1966/67: Schauplätze. 1967: Same Player Shoots Again; Der Fall Lena Christ [TV – snd,pro]. 1967/68: Liebe und so weiter [TV – act]. 1968: Candy Man [SF – act]; Klappenfilm; Victor I; Ten Years After [DO – cam]; Amon Düül II Plays Phallus Dei [SD – cam]. 1968/69: Silver City; Polizeifilm; Alabama: 2000 Light Years. 1969: 3 Amerikanische LP’s. 1969-71: Summer in the City. Dedicated to the Kinks [FF]. [dir – DE] 1971: Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter [dir,scr,act – DE/AT]. 1972/73: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe / La lettera scarlatta [dir,co-scr – DE/ES]. 1973/74: Alice in den Städten [dir,co-scr]. 1974: Ein Haus für uns:
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Aus der Familie der Panzerechsen / Die Insel [TV – 2 episodes]; Ein bißchen Liebe [pro]. 1974/75: Falsche Bewegung [dir,co-scr]. 1975: Im Lauf der Zeit [dir,scr,pro]. 1976: Neues Deutsches Kino: Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders [TVD – app]. 1976/77: Der amerikanische Freund / L’Ami américain [dir,scr,pro – DE/FR]. 1977: Die linkshändige Frau [pro]. 1978: Long Shot [act – GB]. 1978/79: … als Diesel geboren [DO – pro]. 1979: Radio On [pro – GB/DE]. 1979/80: Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers [DO – co-cam,snd – US]; Nick’s Film – Lightning Over Water [DO – co-dir,scr,cut,pro]. 1980-82: Hammett [US]. 1981/ 82: Der Stand der Dinge / The State of Things [dir,scr, pro – DE/PT]. 1982: Quand je m’éveille / Reverse Angle – New York City. March 1982 [TVD – dir,scr,app – US/FR]; Chambre 666 / N’importe quand … [DO – dir,scr,app – US/FR]. 1983/84: Paris, Texas [DE/FR]; Tausend Augen [act]. 1983-85: Tôkyô-ga [DO – dir,voi,pro – DE/US]. 1984: King Kongs Faust [act]. 1984/85: I Played It for You [DO/ FF – co-scr,co-cam,act,co-pro – US]. 1986/87: Der Himmel über Berlin / Les ailes du désir [dir,co-scr,pro – DE/FR]. 1987: Helsinki Napoli. All Night Long [act – FI/DE/CH]. 1987/88: Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany [pro – DE/CH/GB]; Chocolat [pro – FR/DE]; Eisenerde Kupferhimmel / Yer demir gök bakir [pro – DE/TR]. 1988/89: Hare To Ke – Das Besondere und der Alltag / Hare to ke – Le particulair et le quotidien [DO – pro – DE/FR]; Aufzeichnungen zu Kleidern und Städten [DO – dir,scr,cam,act,voi,pro]. 1989: Motion and Emotion. The Films of Wim Wenders [TVD – app – GB]. 1990: Red Hot & Blue. EP 17: Night and Day [dir,scr – GB/US/DE/FR]. 1990/91: Bis ans Ende der Welt / Jusqu’au bout du monde / Until the End of the World [dir,scr,pro – DE/FR/AU]. 1991: SchneeweissRosenrot [DO – app]. 1992: Arisha, der Bär und der steinerne Ring [dir,scr,act,pro]; Die Abwesenheit / L’Absence / La Ausencia [pro – DE/FR/ES/AT]; La colonna sonora. Filmtondichtung [TVD – app]. 1992/93: In weiter Ferne, so nah! [dir, co-scr,sma,pro]; Peter Przygodda, Schnittmeister [TVD – app]. 1993: Neues Deutschland. EP 1: Ohne mich [TV – act]. 1993-95: Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky [co-dir,co-scr, act,pro]. 1994: Heinz Rühmann. Kleiner Mann ganz groß [TVD – app]; Die Nacht der Regisseure [DO – app]. 1994/ 95: Lisbon Story [dir,scr]. 1995: In Bildern leben – Die filmischen Reflexionen des Wim Wenders [TVD – app]; Par-delà les nuages / Al di là delle nuvole / Jenseits der Wolken [codir,co-scr,pro – FR/IT/DE]; Lumière & Compagnie [co-dir – FR/ES/SE]. 1996/97: The End of Violence / Am Ende der Gewalt [dir,sma,pro – FR/DE/US]. 1997: Go for Gold! / ¡A por el oro! / La ruée vers l’or [pro – DE/ES/FR]. 1997-99: Berlin-Cinema [DO – app – CH]. 1998: Willie Nelson’s Teatro [DO – US]; City of Angels [sma – US]; Buena Vista Social Club [DO – dir,scr – DE/US/CU]. 1998/99: Nina Hagen = Punk + Glory [DO – app]. 1999: The Million Dollar Hotel [dir,pro – DE/US]. 2000: Nachtkultur mit Willemsen: ‘Zweimal Neuer Deutscher Film’. Wim Wenders trifft Tom Tykwer [TVD – app]; Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app]. 2000-02: Viel passiert – Der BAP Film [DO – dir,scr]. 2001: Janela da Alma [DO – app – BR]. 2001/02: Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet [episode 5 – dir,scr,act,pro – DE/US/JP]. 2002: Kennwort Kino: Aufbruch der Träumer [TVD – app]; Fassbinder in
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Hollywood [TVD – app]. 2003: The Blues: The Soul of a Man [TVD – dir,scr – US/DE]. 2004: Land of Plenty / Land of Plenty. Auf der Suche nach Wahrheit [dir,co-scr,sma – US/DE]. 2005: Don´t Come Knocking [dir,scr – DE/US]. 2005-07: Von einem der auszog – Wim Wenders’ frühe Jahre [DO – app]. 2006: Die Kunst des Fußballs [TVD – app]. 2006/07: Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher [DO – app]. 2007: Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]. 2007/08: The Palermo Shooting [dir,scr,pro]. 2008: 8: Person to Person [co-dir,co-scr – FR].
HORST WENDLANDT (Hans Otto Gregor Gubanov) Born March 15, 1922, Criewen (now Schwedt an der Oder, Germany) Died August 30, 2002, Berlin (Germany) For a decade in the 1960s, Horst Wendlandt almost single-handedly represented popular West German cinema with his Edgar Wallace and Karl May films, which remained audience favourites through repeated releases, and later through television reruns. By the 1980s he once again dominated the German box office with a diet of shrewdly produced entertainment fare. The son of a German mother and Russian father, Wendlandt was brought up and adopted by his mother’s sister. After completing a business course, he worked as a cashier for Tobis-Film in the early 1940s. In the last years of the war, he joined the German air force, was captured by the US forces and spent two years as a prisoner-of-war. Back in Berlin he re-entered the film industry and was eventually employed as a production manager for Central-Europa-Film in 1950. He oversaw the making of operettas and comedies such as DER VETTER AUS DINGSDA (The Cousin from What-D’You-CallIt, 1953). For Artur Brauner’s CCC he extended his range to melodramas and international co-productions, including HERRIN DER WELT (Mistress of the World, 1959/60). Taking over as manager of Rialto-Film in 1961, Wendlandt developed the Edgar Wallace crime series, which ran until 1972. Made on low budgets and tight shooting schedules, the films recouped their costs many times over, as West German audiences could not get enough of the series’ mixture of horror, crime, and comedy. Regular directors working on the series included Alfred Vohrer and Harald Reinl, while actors most closely associated with the series were Joachim Fuchsberger, the comedian Eddi Arent, and especially Klaus Kinski, almost invariably cast as a mentally deranged villain. Rialto also hit a nerve with a second series of westerns based on novels by 19th century German author Karl May. Shot on spectacular locations in Yugoslavia with local partners and also French and Italian in-
vestment, the series even won acclaim as solid entertainment cinema abroad. The first entry in the series, DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE (Treasure of Silver Lake, 1962), directed by Harald Reinl and starring Hollywood actor Lex Barker and the French Pierre Brice, became a phenomenal domestic success. As the popularity of both Wallace and May films eventually waned by the end of the decade, and as other formulae proved less successful, Wendlandt in the early 1970s began to concentrate on distribution, beginning with a series of old Chaplin films, which proved an unexpected box-office-hit. Founding a specific distribution arm, Tobis (not to be confused with the pre-war company where he began his career), Wendlandt imported Italian Terence Hill/Bud Spencer genre spoofs and comedies, as well as Jean-Paul Belmondo action thrillers. Later in the decade Wendlandt occasionally went more upmarket with co-productions including Claude Sautet’s UNE HISTOIRE SIMPLE (A Simple Story, 1978) and Fassbinder’s LOLA (1981). In the 1980s Wendlandt once again focussed on Rialto’s production side. Though often panned by critics, his comedies starring popular TV personalities Otto Waalkes, Loriot and Hape Kerkeling scored highly in popularity ratings, and in terms of profits easily outclassed other domestic productions. After his death his company is continued by his children Matthias (b. 1952) and Susan (b. 1956). [pro – DE] 1953: Die Rose von Stambul; Der Vetter aus Dingsda. 1953/54: Das ideale Brautpaar. 1954: Clivia; Schützenliesel. 1955: Musik im Blut. 1956: Der erste Frühlingstag; Liebe / Uragano sul Po [DE/IT]; Du bist Musik; Ein Mann muß nicht immer schön sein. 1956/57: Wie ein Sturmwind. 1957: Die Unschuld vom Lande; Kindermädchen für Papa gesucht; Das einfache Mädchen; Die Frühreifen; Liebe, Jazz und Übermut [ide,pro]. 1957/58: … und abends in die Scala. 1958: Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!; Petersburger Nächte; Ihr 106. Geburtstag; Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen; Ohne Mutter geht es nicht. 1958/ 59: Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich; Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt. 1959: Peter schießt den Vogel ab; La Paloma; Du bist wunderbar; Alt-Heidelberg. 1959/60: Herrin der Welt [2 parts] / Les mystères d’Angkor / Il misterio dei tre continenti [DE/FR/IT]. 1960: Scheidungsgrund: Liebe; … und sowas nennt sich Leben; O sole mio. 1960/61: Der grüne Bogenschütze. 1961: Die toten Augen von London; Der Fälscher von London; Die seltsame Gräfin; Unser Haus in Kamerun [ide,pro]; The Devil’s Daffodil [MLV – GB]. 1961/62: Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee. 1962: Die Tür mit den sieben Schlössern / La porte aux sept serrures [DE/FR]; Das Gasthaus an der Themse; Ich bin auch nur eine Frau; Der Schatz im Silbersee / Blago u Srebnom jezeru / Le trésor du lac d’argent [DE/YU/FR]. 1963: Der Zinker / L’Énigme du sergent noir [pro – DE/FR]; Der schwarze Abt; Das indische Tuch; Winnetou I / La valle die lunghi coltelli / La révolte des indiens Apaches [DE/IT/FR]. 1963/64: Zimmer 13 / L’attaque du fourgon postal [DE/FR]; Wartezimmer zum Jen-
O. F. WERNDORFF seits. 1964: Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß; Der Hexer; Winnetou II / Le trésor des montagnes bleues [DE/FR]; Unter Geiern / Parmi les vautours [DE/FR]; Traitor’s Gate [MLV – GB/DE]; Das Verrätertor [MLV – GB/DE]. 1965: Neues vom Hexer; Der Ölprinz / Kraj Petroleja [DE/YU]; Winnetou III / Vinetu III [DE/YU]; Old Surehand. 1. Teil / Lavirint smrti [DE/YU]; Der unheimliche Mönch. 1966: Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi / Apanatsi [DE/ YU]; Der Bucklige von Soho; Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand [DE/YU]; Das Geheimnis der weißen Nonne [MLV – DE/GB]. 1966/67: Le plus vieux métier du monde / Das älteste Gewerbe der Welt [FR/DE/IT]; The Trygon Factor [MLV – GB]. 1967: Die blaue Hand; Le grand Dadais / Die Zeit der Kirschen ist vorbei [FR/DE]; Der Mönch mit der Peitsche; Der Hund von Blackwood-Castle. 1967/68: Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 1. Zur Hölle mit den Paukern. 1968: Im Banne des Unheimlichen; Van de Velde – Die vollkommene Ehe; Der Gorilla von Soho [co-scr,pro]; Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. 2. Zum Teufel mit der Penne. 1968/69: Der Mann mit dem Glasauge. 1969: Klassenkeile – Pauker werden ist nicht schwer – Schüler sein dagegen sehr; A doppia faccia / Das Gesicht im Dunkeln [IT/DE]; Van de Velde: Das Leben zu zweit – Die Sexualität in der Ehe; Dr. med. Fabian – Lachen ist die beste Medizin; Der Kerl liebt mich – und das soll ich glauben? [act,pro]; Wie kommt ein so reizendes Mädchen zu diesem Gewerbe? / Dove vai senza mutandine? [DE/IT]. 1969/70: Die Herren mit der weißen Weste [co-scr,pro]. 1970: Was ist denn bloß mit Willi los?; Die Feuerzangenbowle; Hurra, wir sind mal wieder Junggesellen! 1971: Die Tote aus der Themse; Rosy und der Herr aus Bonn; Unser Willi ist der Beste. 1971/72: Willi wird das Kind schon schaukeln; Cosa avete fatto a Solange? / Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel [IT/DE]; Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso / Das Rätsel des silbernen Halbmonds [IT/DE]; Le tulur / Il commissario Leguen e il caso Gassot / Der Killer und der Kommissar [FR/IT/DE]. 1972: Hauptsache Ferien; Keine Welt für Kinder [DO]; Le serpent / Il serpente / Die Schlange [FR/IT/DE]. 1972/73: Die heile Welt und ihre Märchenhelden [TVD – app]. 1973: Il mio nome è Nessuno / Mon nom est personne / Mein Name ist Nobody [IT/FR/DE]. 1975: Un genio, due compari, un pollo / Un génie, deux associés, une cloche / Nobody ist der Größte [IT/FR/DE]. 1976/77: Das Schlangenei / The Serpent’s Egg [DE/US]. 1978: Piedone l’africano / Plattfuß in Afrika [IT/DE]; Lo chiamavano Bulldozer / Sie nannten ihn Mücke [IT/DE]; Une histoire simple / Eine einfache Geschichte [FR/DE]. 1979/80: L’empreinte des géants / Giganten der Landstraße [FR/DE]; Aus dem Leben der Marionetten [TV – DE/AT]. 1980: Lili Marleen. 1980/81: Occhio alla penna [IT]. 1981: Lola; Der Mann im Pyjama. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss. 1982: L’As des as / Das As der Asse [FR/DE]. 1983: Premiers désirs / Erste Sehnsucht [FR/DE]; Un homme à ma taille / Ein Mann meiner Größe [FR/DE]. 1985: Otto – Der Film; Harald Reinl – Kino ohne Probleme [TVD – app]. 1985/86: Momo [DE/IT]. 1987: Otto – Der neue Film. 1987/88: Ödipussi. 1988: Beim nächsten Mann wird alles anders. 1989: Otto – der Außerfriesische; Spielen willst Du ja alles [TVD – act]. 1989/90: Der Skipper. 1990/91: Pappa ante portas. 1991: Einmal Arizona. 1991/92: Cosimas
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Lexikon. 1992: Otto – Der Liebesfilm; Wir Enkelkinder. 1992/93: Kein Pardon; Brandbilen som Försvann / Alarm in Sköldgatan [TV – SE/DE]; Polis, Polis, Potatismos / Und die Großen läßt man laufen [SE/DE]. 1993: Roseanna / Die Tote im Göta-Kanal [SE/DE]; Mannen på Balkongen / Der Mann auf dem Balkon [SE/DE]. 1993/94: Polismördaren / Der Polizistenmörder [SE/DE]; Stockholm Marathon [SE/DE]. 1994: Die Troublemaker. 1995: Der Mann auf der Bettkante [TV].1995-99: Edgar Wallace [TVS – 9 episodes]. 1996: Der Hexer – Horst Wendlandt, Filmproduzent [TVD – app]; Gnadenlos – Zur Prostitution gezwungen [TV]. 1997: Palmetto / Palmetto – Dumme sterben nicht aus [US/DE]; Ein tödliches Verhältnis; OK Garage [US/DE]; Julia – Kämpfe für deine Träume [TV]. 1998: Loriots 75. Geburtstag [TV – act]. 1999: Die Handschrift des Mörders [TV]. 1999/2000: Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm. 2001: Geiger, Gaukler, Gentleman – Armin Mueller-Stahl [TVD – app]. 2002: Ein Produzent hat Seele oder er hat keine – Volker Schlöndorff im Gespräch mit Horst Wendlandt [TVD – app].
O. F. WERNDORFF (Oskar Friedrich Werndorff) Born May 30, 1880, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died November 6, 1938, London (United Kingdom) In the 1920s Werndorff was associated with directors such as Reinhold Schünzel, Richard Oswald and E. A. Dupont. He later became a highly respected set designer in 1930s British cinema, repeatedly working with Alfred Hitchcock. Werndorff started his career as costume and set designer at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna in 1913. Returning from active service after World War I he entered the film industry, receiving his first credit on Robert Land’s crime thriller ADRIAN VANDERSTRAATEN (1919). The following year he collaborated for the first time with actor-director Reinhold Schünzel; Werndorff demonstrated his ability to create the illusion of vast buildings for historical spectacles such as DER GRAF VON CAGLIOSTRO (The Count of Cagliostro, 1920), and displayed an equal flair for more contemporary designs in comedies. In 1923 Werndorff moved to Berlin where he was hired – possibly through Schünzel’s connections – by director-producer Richard Oswald to design the costumes and scenes at the Spanish court in CARLOS UND ELISABETH (1923/24), starring Conrad Veidt and Aud Egede Nissen. At Terra-Film he first worked for E. A. Dupont. Following DER DEMÜTIGE UND DIE SÄNGERIN (The Humble and the Singer, 1924/25) both collaborated again on Erich Pommer’s Ufa production VARIETÉ (Variety, 1925), a highlight of Weimar cinema. Werndorff’s and his co-designer Alfred Junge significantly contributed to film’s authentic recreation of an artistic milieu. Again for Pommer, Werndorff was subsequently assigned Paul Czinner’s DER GEIGER
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ILSE WERNER
VON FLORENZ (Impetuous Youth, 1925/26) starring
Veidt and Elisabeth Bergner. Also working during this period with Alexander Korda, at that time directing films in Germany, Werndorff renewed his partnership with Schünzel on a pair of sophisticated comedies: DER HIMMEL AUF ERDEN (Heaven on Earth, 1926/27) and ÜB’ IMMER TREU’ UND REDLICHKEIT (Always Be True and Faithful, 1927). The producers Hermann Fellner, Josef Somlo and Arnold Pressburger, and their collaboration with Michael Balcon’s Gainsborough Pictures Ltd, facilitated Werrndorff’s first contacts to the British film industry. At the Ufa studios he lent his expertise to two Anglo-German co-productions, an adaptation of Noël Coward’s Ruritanian romantic comedy THE QUEEN WAS IN THE PARLOUR, directed by Graham Cutts, and Arnold Ridley’s comic thriller THE GHOST TRAIN (both 1927), directed by Geza von Bolvary. The latter also directed Werndorff’s next two AngloGerman ventures, HAUS NR. 17 / NUMBER 17, and DER FESCHE HUSAR / A NOSZY FIÚ ESETE TÓTH MARIVAL / THE GALLANT HUSSAR (1928), as well as THE WRECKER / DER WÜRGER (1929). The latter marked Werrndorff’s first work in a British studio. The film was shot as a silent film but released with an added soundtrack comprising music and sound effects. On several of above Felsom-productions his most important partner was film architect Emil Hasler, whose job it was to turn Werndorff’s design ideas into actual sets. From the late 1920s effectively settling in Britain, Werndorff in 1931 directed, partly on location in the Scottish highlands, his only film THE BELLS, from the French play ‘Le juif polonais’ (The Polish Jew) by Erckmann-Chatrian. His co-director was producer Harcourt Templeman. After a reunion with Alexander Korda on WEDDING REHEARSAL (1932) he designed the Johann Strauss biopic WALTZES FROM VIENNA (1933/34), the first of four films with Alfred Hitchcock. The others comprise some of Hitchcock’s most iconic British thrillers, THE 39 STEPS (1935), SECRET AGENT, and SABOTAGE (both 1936). Most of Werndorff’s films between 1933 and 1936 were produced by Michael Balcon for Gainsborough Pictures and Gaumont-British. On these productions he frequently collaborated with exiles from the German film industry. For director Berthold Viertel he designed a typical English boarding house visited by a Christ-like stranger (played by Conrad Veidt) in THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK (1935), as well as the sets for the biopic of arch-colonialist RHODES OF AFRICA (1935/36). In FIRST A GIRL (1935), Victor Saville’s remake of Schünzel’s VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (1933), Werrndorff’s sets provided art deco glamour as well as the ambience of a tradi-
tional British music hall. A similarly theatrical impression was created in Karl Grune’s PAGLIACCI (1936) starring Richard Tauber, and in THE LILAC DOMINO, the last British direction of Friedrich Zelnik. The last two films were produced by companies helmed by émigré producer Max Schach. After Schach’s enterprises went bust in 1936/37, and shortly before his premature death, Werndorff rejoined Balcon at his newly founded Ealing Studios for another three films. [(co-)des – DE] 1919: Adrian Vanderstraaten [AT]. 1920: Der Graf von Cagliostro [des,cos – AT/DE]. 1921: Der Roman eines Dienstmädchens [DE/AT]; Das Geld auf der Straße [AT/DE]. 1922: Der Pantoffelheld [des,cos – AT/DE]; Die drei Marien und der Herr von Marana [AT/DE]. 1923/24: Carlos und Elisabeth [des,cos]. 1924: Mensch gegen Mensch; Die Liebe ist der Frauen Macht; Das schöne Abenteuer. 1924/25: Der Demütige und die Sängerin. 1925: Varieté. 1925/26: Der Geiger von Florenz; Junges Blut; Nanette macht alles. 1926: Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe; Eine Dubarry von heute; Madame wünscht keine Kinder; Ledige Töchter. 1926/27: Der Himmel auf Erden. 1927: Venus im Frack; Üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit; Die letzte Nacht / The Queen Was in the Parlour [DE/GB]; Der Geisterzug / The Ghost Train [DE/GB]; Die berühmte Frau; Mein Leben für das Deine; Der fröhliche Weinberg. 1927/28: Sechs Mädchen suchen Nachtquartier. 1928: Dyckerpotts Erben; Die Frau auf der Folter; Die große Abenteuerin; Haus Nr. 17 / Number 17 [DE/GB]; Die Räuberbande; Der fesche Husar / A noszy fiú esete tóth marival / The Gallant Husar [DE/HU/GB]. [(co-)des – GB] 1929: The Wrecker / Der Würger [GB/DE]; Dark Red Roses. 1930: City of Song [MLV]; Die singende Stadt [MLV – GB/DE]. 1931: The Bells [MLV – co-dir,coscr]. 1931/32: The First Mrs. Fraser. 1932: Wedding Rehearsal; Perfect Understanding. 1933: The Lady Is Willing. 1933/34: Waltzes from Vienna. 1934: The Camels Are Coming. 1935: Fighting Stock; Heat Wave; The 39 Steps; The Passing of the Third Floor Back; First a Girl [MLV]; King of the Damned. 1935/36: Rhodes of Africa. 1936: Secret Agent; East Meets West; Pagliacci; Sabotage. 1937: For Valour; The Lilac Domino; Jericho; Mademoiselle Docteur [MLV]. 1937/38: We’re Going to Be Rich. 1938: Keep Smiling; The Gaunt Stranger; The Ware Case. 1938/39: Let’s Be Famous.
ILSE WERNER (Ilse Charlotte Still) Born July 11, 1921, Batavia on Java (now Jakarta, Indonesia) Died August 8, 2005, Lübeck (Germany) One of the biggest female stars of Nazi cinema, sporty and pretty Ilse Werner often played the sympathetic, optimistic young woman who was allowed to be independent and modern, as long as she simultaneously provided unconditional support to her male counterparts.
ILSE WERNER
The daughter of a Dutch colonial merchant and his German wife, Werner came to Germany at the age of ten. From 1936 she continued her education in Vienna, and studied acting at the Max Reinhardt school. Following her stage debut in 1937, she had her first film role in the Austrian comedy FINALE (Final Act, 1937/38). Contracted by Ufa the same year, Werner moved to Berlin, although her second German film, Rolf Hansen’s DAS LEBEN KANN SO SCHÖN SEIN (Life Can Be So Beautiful, 1938), which chronicled a young couple’s economic problems, fell foul of the censors, and was banned. Werner’s following films, such as FRÄULEIN (Miss), and IHR ERSTES ERLEBNIS (Her First Experience, both 1939) established a more appropriate ideal of Nazi femininity, as the perpetually cheerful, decent, and healthy girl-next-door and as the perfect marriage material. A somewhat more complex version of the same type emerged in Willi Forst’s elegant Guy de Maupassant adaptation BEL AMI (1938/ 39) where Werner’s wholesomeness provided a sharp contrast to the worldly glamour projected by her female co-stars Olga Tschechowa and Hilde Hildebrand. Werner’s star image became increasingly instrumentalised in propaganda productions. In WUNSCHKONZERT (Request Concert, 1940) she played a self-confident and down-to-earth young woman who falls in love with a air force pilot (Carl Raddatz), staying faithful to her man while he fights on various fronts. The film became a huge audience success, mostly due to Werner’s naturalness and genuine onscreen charm. It catapulted her into the premier league of Nazi cinema’s female stars, and gave her the opportunity to display her singing and whistling talents, the latter becoming something of a personal trademark. Owing to her popularity with men as well as with women, Werner took frequent breaks in her shooting schedule to entertain the troops during World War II. In DIE SCHWEDISCHE NACHTIGALL (The Swedish Nightingale, 1941), the melodramatic retelling of the doomed romance between the writer Hans-Christian Andersen and the singer Jenny Lind, Werner played the female lead. In Helmut Käutner’s witty and sophisticated musical comedy WIR MACHEN MUSIK (We Make Music, 1942), she was once again the energetic, loveable modern woman. While Ufa’s all-star jubilee production MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43) required her to be merely a decorative distraction in Hans Albers’s fantastic adventures, Käutner’s melancholy study of Hamburg port life GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7 (Great Freedom No. 7, 1943/44) demonstrated her ability as a serious character actress. Following the end of World War II, the Allied authorities initially banned Werner from working. Although
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she was soon allowed to resume her career and still only in her mid-twenties, she was perceived as a relic from old Ufa days. In 1948, she married an American journalist, John de Forest, and accompanied him to the United States, where she lived until the marriage ended in 1953. She subsequently returned to West Germany, but once again attempts to revive her career failed. After a comeback as a singer with the hit ‘Baciare’ in 1960 she subsequently earned her living with stage tours, guest appearances at health spas, in television and on radio, and gradually re-emerged in the public consciousness. By the late 1960s, she had her own television show, EINE FRAU MIT PFIFF (The Whistling Woman). In the 1970s, she worked mostly on stage, but also contributed to nostalgia programmes on TV, including Horst Königstein’s revue HAUS VATERLAND (1983), and IN MEINEM HERZEN SCHATZ … (In My Heart, Darling, 1988/89), Hans-Christoph Blumenberg’s documentary about Hans Albers. Ottokar Runze’s DIE HALLO-SISTERS (1990) in which Werner poignantly played an alcoholic, ageing former star, never had a cinema release, but found acclaim through TV. An autobiographical film portrait, directed by her in 1996, went straight to video. One of her last memorable television appearances was in 2000 in an episode of the crime series TATORT (Crime Scene). [act – DE] 1937/38: Finale [AT]. 1938: Frau Sixta; Das Leben kann so schön sein. 1938/39: Bel Ami. 1939: Fräulein; Drei Väter um Anna; Ihr erstes Erlebnis. 1939/40: Bal paré. 1940: Wunschkonzert. 1940/41: U-Boote westwärts! 1941: Die schwedische Nachtigall. 1941/42: Hochzeit auf Bärenhof. 1942: Wir machen Musik. 1942/43: Münchhausen. 1943/44: Große Freiheit Nr. 7. 1944/45: Ein toller Tag; Das seltsame Fräulein Sylvia. 1946: Sag die Wahrheit. 1949: Geheimnisvolle Tiefe [AT]. 1950: Gute Nacht, Mary; Epilog. 1951: Mutter sein dagegen sehr; Königin einer Nacht. 1953: Der Vogelhändler. 1954: Ännchen von Tharau. 1955: Griff nach den Sternen; Die Herrin vom Sölderhof. [act – TV – DE] 1965: Blick zurück im Film: Felix Knemöller im Gespräch mit Ilse Werner und Viktor de Kowa [TVD – app]. 1965-66: Die Bräute meiner Söhne [TVS]. 1967: Eine Frau mit Pfiff; Premieren von gestern 11 [TVD – app]. 1968: Familie Musici. 1971: Glückspilze. 1978/79: Noch ’ne Oper. 1983: Haus Vaterland. 1984: Das Sonntagsgespräch: Ilse Werner [TVD – app]. 1985: Fernsehen anno dazumal [TVD – app]. 1986: Besuch bei Ilse Werner [TVD – app]. 1988: Rivalen der Rennbahn [TVS]. 1988/ 89: Forstinspektor Buchholz [1. Staffel] [TVS]; In meinem Herzen, Schatz … [DO]. 1990: Die Hallo-Sisters; Roda Roda [TVS – AT]. 1990-97: Neues vom Süderhof [TVS]. 1991: Ein Leben – nicht nur – mit Pfiff [TVD – app]; Hoppla, jetzt komm ich [TVD – app]; Praxis Bülowbogen: Der goldene Westen. 1992: Eine Frau mit Pfiff; Wenn ich
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sonntags in mein Kino geh’ … [TVD]. 1992/93: Heiter bis wolkig. 1994: Briefgeheimnis: Elviras Green. 1996: Ilse Werner – Alles zu seiner Zeit [DO – dir,scr,app]; Alles wegen Robert De Niro; Großstadtrevier: Der G-Man. 1997: Höchstpersönlich: Ilse Werner [TVD – app]. 2000: Tatort: Bittere Mandeln; Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Immer wieder Dienstag. 2005: Legenden – Heinz Erhardt [TVD – app].
OSKAR WERNER (Oskar Josef Bschliessmeyer) Born November 11, 1922, Vienna (Austria) Died October 23, 1984, Marburg an der Lahn (West Germany) Projecting a genial, sensitive, and often tormented persona, Austrian actor Oskar Werner was a formidable presence on stage and screen from the 1940s, attracting attention both domestically and internationally. After leaving school, Werner made early appearances in cabaret and had bit parts in films in the late 1930s, playing bellboys and servants in films such as Erich Engel’s Grand Hotel-style Ufa production HOTEL SACHER (1939) and the anti-Semitic drama LEINEN AUS IRLAND (Linen from Ireland, 1939). Conscripted to the army, he appeared on stage in Vienna in the evenings. With his half-Jewish wife and newborn daughter he hid out in the woods in the last year of the war. From 1945 he was engaged at the Burgtheater and made guest appearances in Basel, Zurich and Salzburg. In his first post-war screen role, Werner played Paula Wessely’s son who becomes a Nazi in the Austrian family saga DER ENGEL MIT DER POSAUNE (The Angel With the Trumpet, 1948). In the Hollywood production DECISION BEFORE DAWN (1951) he was a prisoner-of-war who is trained to become a spy, while in the sentimental Anglo-Austrian co-production THE WONDER KID / ENTFÜHRUNG INS GLÜCK (1950), he played the ruthless kidnapper of a musical child prodigy. On stage in Frankfurt/Main Werner played Hamlet for the first time in 1953, a role he became particularly associated with. He subsequently founded his own theatre company and toured Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Although a committed pacifist, Werner often portrayed young soldiers on the big screen, as in G. W. Pabst’s DER LETZTE AKT (The Last Act, 1954/55) and in Franz Antel’s SPIONAGE (Espionage, 1954/ 55). By this time he had earned himself a reputation as a non-conformist, but unusually gifted artist, and his film parts often matched this public persona. Typical in this respect was the title role in Karl Hartl’s biopic MOZART (1955). At the end of the decade he demonstrated his wider talents by writing, directing and acting in the TV film EIN GEWISSER JUDAS (A Certain Judas, 1958), under the pseudonym Erasmus Nothnagel.
Werner won international acclaim with François Truffaut’s classic love triangle JULES ET JIM (Jules and Jim, 1961), and subsequently was rarely seen in German or Austrian films, increasingly taking on parts in international productions. He was reunited with Truffaut on FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966). Based on Ray Bradbury’s dystopian fable of a future world in which books are banned, Werner’s book-burning fireman was eventually converted into a bibliophile. The same year he was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Académie du cinéma française. Other international appearances included SHIP OF FOOLS (1964/65), in which he played a melancholy doctor engaged in a tragic romance with a drug-addicted aristocrat (Simone Signoret), and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965), which cast him as an idealistic Communist spymaster. His last film appearance was as a resigned Jewish émigré in the all-star drama VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1975/76). Regarded by producers as a notoriously ‘difficult’ actor, Werner suffered from worsening alcohol problems. Following years of erratic and diminishing professional activity, he retired from films, and for the most part theatre, after 1976. [act – AT] 1938: Geld fällt vom Himmel / Tüchtig, tüchtig – die Pasemanns [MLV – DE/SE]. 1938/39: Hotel Sacher [DE]. 1939: Leinen aus Irland [DE]. 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune. 1949: Eroica. 1949/50: The Angel With the Trumpet [MLV – GB]; The Wonder Kid [MLV – GB]. 1950: Ruf aus dem Äther; Ein Lächeln im Sturm [MLV – FR]; Das gestohlene Jahr [DE/AT]. 1951: Decision Before Dawn [US]. 1954/55: Spionage; Der letzte Akt. 1955: Mozart; Lola Montès / Lola Montez [FR/DE]. 1958: Ein gewisser Judas [TV – dir,co-scr,act – DE]. 1961: Jules et Jim [FR]. 1964: Torquato Tasso [TV – DE]. 1964/65: Ship of Fools [US]. 1965: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold [GB]. 1966: Fahrenheit 451 [GB]. 1967: Interlude [GB]. 1968: The Shoes of the Fisherman [US]. 1968/69: Oskar Werner. Ansichten eines Schauspielers [TVD – DE]. 1975: Columbo: Playback [TV – US]. 1975/76: Voyage of the Damned [GB]. 1984: Der Genieschauspieler [TVD – app – DE]. 1993: Ich über mich. Autobiographische Notizen des Schauspielers Oskar Werner [TVD – app].
OTTO WERNICKE Born September 30, 1893, Osterode (Germany) Died November 7, 1965, Munich (West Germany) Rotund actor Wernicke, a stalwart supporting actor in films of the Weimar and Nazi years, imbued his portrayals of police inspectors, civil servants, white or blue-collar workers, and petty officers with a sense of realism, ordinariness, and fallibility. Wernicke began to act in the theatre in 1909. Interrupted by military service during World War I, he resumed his stage career in Bonn, followed by long-
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term engagements in Munich (1921–37) and Berlin (1934–44). Wernicke had appeared sporadically on screen in bit parts since the 1920s, but it was Fritz Lang’s crime thriller M (1931) that marked Wernicke’s breakthrough in cinema. His gruff police inspector Lohmann had an obvious working-class background, representing a significant change from the ‘gentleman detectives’ of the silent period. Wernicke repeatedly played police inspectors, including in Lang’s DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1932/33). In the 1930s and early 1940s Wernicke was cast in a number of Nazi cinema’s most notorious propaganda films. In S.A.-MANN BRAND (Storm Trooper Brand, 1933) he played the proletarian father of the film’s stormtrooper hero; in Hans Steinhoff’s anti-British Boer War epic OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, 1940/ 41) he was cast as a concentration camp commander; and he also acted in Gustav Ucicky’s war-mongering refugee drama HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1941). In a less contentious mode, Wernicke lent gravitas to his portrayal of the real life figure of Captain Smith in Herbert Selpin’s ill-fated TITANIC (1942/43). Wernicke continued his stage and film career in postwar West Germany, where his film appearances included LANG IST DER WEG (Long Is the Road, 1948) a wartime drama about Jewish refugees. WER FUHR DEN GRAUEN FORD? (Who Drove the Grey Ford?, 1950), in which Wernicke once again played a police inspector, marked his only film as director. A serious stage accident in 1951 left Wernicke partially paralysed, although he did reappear in small parts from the mid- to late 1950s, including in Helmut Käutner’s box office hit DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK (The Captain of Koepenick, 1956), starring Heinz Rühmann. [act – DE] 1921: Der Mädchenhändler von Kairo. 1923: Die Mysterien eines Frisiersalons [SF]; Die suchende Seele; Wo Menschen Frieden finden. 1924: Mädchen, die man nicht heiratet. 1925: Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington. 1927/28: Die Hölle von Montmartre. 1931: M [MLV]; Die nackte Wahrheit [MLV – FR/US]; Stürme der Leidenschaft [MLV]. 1931/32: Peter Voß, der Millionendieb. 1932: Die Nacht der Versuchung; Die verkaufte Braut; Die Zwei vom Südexpreß. 1932/33: Die blonde Christl; Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [MLV]. 1933: S.A.-Mann Brand; Der Tunnel [MLV – FR/DE]. 1933/34: Der Flüchtling aus Chicago; Achtung! Wer kennt diese Frau? 1934: Die vertauschte Braut [MLV]; Der Herr der Welt; Liebe dumme Mama; Zwischen Himmel und Erde; Peer Gynt. 1934/35: Knockout. 1935: Ein ganzer Kerl; Der mutige Seefahrer; Henker, Frauen und Soldaten; Die lustigen Weiber. 1936: Straßenmusik; Arzt aus Leidenschaft; Das Schloß in Flandern; Onkel Bräsig; Gleisdreieck. Alarm auf Gleis B. 1936/37: Wie der Hase läuft. 1937: Autobus ‘S’; Heimweh; Unternehmen Michael; Manege; Das große Abenteuer; Starke Her-
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zen; Der Katzensteg; Wie einst im Mai. 1937/38: Rätsel um Beate. 1938: Geheimzeichen LB 17; Eine Frau kommt in die Tropen; Nordlicht; Liebesbriefe aus dem Engadin / Lettere d’amore dall’Engadina [DE/IT]; Dreizehn Mann und eine Kanone; Drei wunderschöne Tage; Salzburg, die Festspielstadt [SD]. 1938/39: Das unsterbliche Herz; Silvesternacht am Alexanderplatz. 1939: Ein Lied verklingt [SF]; Gold in New Frisco; D III 88; Johannisfeuer; Maria Ilona; Der Stammbaum des Dr. Pistorius. 1939/40: Was wird hier gespielt? 1940/41: Ohm Krüger; Friedemann Bach. 194042: Der große König. 1941: Heimkehr; Die Kellnerin Anna; Sein Sohn. 1942: Der Seniorchef. 1942/43: Titanic. 1943/ 44: Der große Preis; Das Leben ruft; Seinerzeit zu meiner Zeit. 1943-45: Kolberg. 1944/45: Der Fall Molander; Kamerad Hedwig. 1947: Zwischen gestern und morgen. 1948: Der Herr vom andern Stern; Lang ist der Weg. 1948/49: Du bist nicht allein. 1949: Amico. 1950: Susanna Jakobäa Krafftin; Wer fuhr den grauen Ford? [dir,act]; Vom Teufel gejagt; Die fidele Tankstelle. 1950/51: Amore e sangue / Schatten über Neapel [IT/DE]. 1955: Himmel ohne Sterne; Das große Projekt [TV]. 1955/56: Studentin Helene Willfüer. 1956: Die letzte Patrouille? [TV]; Der Hauptmann von Köpenick; Das Sonntagskind. 1959: Die feuerrote Baronesse; Kriegsgericht; Immer die Mädchen [AT]; Liebe verboten – Heiraten erlaubt.
PAULA WESSELY Born January 20, 1908, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died May 11, 2000, Vienna (Austria) Projecting a Germanic ideal of healthy and maternal femininity in her films of the 1930s and 1940s, Wessely was the highest paid film actress in the ‘Third Reich’. After the war she was revered as the grande dame of Austrian stage and screen. The niece of Josefine Wessely, a well-known actress at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Paula was trained for the profession at a young age. She studied drama at the State Academy for Music and Performing Arts, then at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna. She was engaged at the Volkstheater in 1924 and appeared in other theatres in Vienna and Prague. In Berlin she made an impression in Gerhart Hauptmann’s play ‘Rose Bernd’ in 1930, continuing to appear regularly at the Deutsches Theater until 1945. Her film debut was in Willi Forst’s popular Viennese comedy MASKERADE (Masquerade, 1934), one of the most sophisticated and elegant of its kind. A year later she played the leading role in Walter Reisch’s EPISODE (1935). Wessely’s naturalness and Viennese charm were particularly praised by critics both domestically and internationally, resulting in further film roles, and offers from abroad. During the ‘Third Reich’ Wessely and her husband, the actor Attila Hörbiger (1896–1987) enjoyed a prolific and highly successful career in Nazi cinema, working for companies including Terra and Wien-
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Film. She typically starred in polished melodramas, often under the direction of Geza von Bolvary (SPIEGEL DES LEBENS, Mirror of Life, 1938; and MARIA ILONA, 1939). Most of her films pursued implicit ideological aims, presenting female protagonists who were expected to suppress their desires in the name of matrimonial and national duty. In terms of explicit propaganda, Gustav Ucicky’s notorious anti-Polish rabble-rouser HEIMKEHR (Homecoming, 1941) was particularly obnoxious. After World War II she and her husband co-starred in Austria’s first major post-war film production, DER ENGEL MIT DER POSAUNE (The Angel With the Trumpet, 1948/49), an ambitious panorama of Viennese history from the late 19th century to the Nazi period, with Wessely taking on the central role of a family matriarch. Some of her post-war films she produced herself, including her performance as 18th century Habsburg empress MARIA THERESIA (1951). She subsequently continued her career mainly in melodramas and cheerful folksy films, such as DIE WIRTIN ZUR GOLDENEN KRONE (The Landlady of the ‘Golden Crown’, 1955). Many of her roles in the 1950s emphasised a strongly maternal dimension, and in her melodramas her screen characters frequently were prone to sacrifice themselves, as in DAS LICHT DER LIEBE (The Light of Love, 1954). A return to more contentious material marked her appearance in one of Veit Harlan’s postwar comeback attempts, ANDERS ALS DU UND ICH (Bewildered Youth, 1957), which pitted Wessely’s concerned mother against a sinister homosexual modernist artist out to seduce her sensitive son. Following her last big screen appearance as ‘Faith’ in Gottfried Reinhardt’s adaptation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s allegorical play JEDERMANN (Everyman, 1961), she continued to appear on stage, and more sporadically on television. Regarded as a national treasure, Wessely was at the time of her death an honorary member of the Burgtheater in Vienna. Wessely’s daughters Elisabeth Orth (b. 1936), Christiane Hörbiger (b. 1938), and Maresa Hörbiger (b. 1945) all became actresses and appeared in film and television as well as on stage. [act – AT] 1934: Maskerade; So endete eine Liebe [DE]. 1935: Episode. 1936: Die Julika. Ernte. 1937: Die ganz großen Torheiten [DE]. 1938: Spiegel des Lebens. 1939: Maria Ilona [DE]. 1940: Ein Leben lang [DE]. 1941: Heimkehr [DE]. 1942/43: Späte Liebe [DE]. 1943: Die kluge Marianne [DE]. 1944: Das Herz muß schweigen [DE]. 1948: Der Engel mit der Posaune. 1949: Vagabunden. 1950: Cordula [act,pro]. 1951: Maria Theresia [act, pro]. 1953: Ich und meine Frau [act,pro]. 1954: Das Licht der Liebe [act,pro]; Weg in die Vergangenheit [act,pro]. 1955: Die Wirtin zur Goldenen Krone [act,pro]. 1956: Liebe, die den Kopf verliert [pro]; Wo die Lerche singt [pro]. 1956/57: Maria Stuart [TV]. 1957: Anders als Du
und ich [DE]; Unter 18 [act,pro]. 1958: Im Prater blüh’n wieder die Bäume [pro]. 1959: Die unvollkommene Ehe [act,pro]. [act – TV – AT] 1960: Das weite Land. 1961: Der Bauer als Millionär [FF]; Jedermann [FF]; Anatol. 1962: Überfahrt [DE]. 1963: Port Royal [DE]. 1964: Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung. 1968: Fast ein Poet. 1969: Rumpelstilz [DE]. 1973: Nichts als Erinnerung. 1976: Die Dämmerung der Sehnsucht; Die Wessely [TVD – app – DE]. 1977: Glückssachen. 1978: Der große Karpfen Ferdinand und andere Weihnachtsgeschichten [DE]. 1979: Augenblicke: Alter Wein [AT/DE]. 1982: Liebe alte Bekannte [DE]. 1983/84: Wie war das damals? 1985: Aschermittwoch der Künstler. 1985/86: Der Unbestechliche.
BERNHARD WICKI Born October 28, 1919, St. Pölten (Austria) Died January 5, 2000, Munich (Germany) Perhaps best known as director of the powerful antiwar film DIE BRÜCKE (The Bridge, 1959), Wicki combined a dual career of being an actor and director, spanning the 1950s through to the 1990s. Growing up in Vienna, Wicki gained his abitur in Germany, and subsequently took acting lessons in Berlin. Owing to his participation in art classes at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Wicki was denounced and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938/39. On his release, Wicki was settling again in Berlin. Back in Vienna Wicki made his screen debut in Gustav Ucicky’s DER POSTMEISTER (The Stationmaster, 1939/40) as an extra. He subsequently appeared in his first stage production in Schönbrunn, thereafter performing at numerous theatres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. His first post-war film appearance was a supporting part in Harald Braun’s religious drama DER FALLENDE STERN (The Falling Star, 1950). Playing the male lead as a Yugoslav partisan leader in Helmut Käutner’s wartime drama DIE LETZTE BRÜCKE (The Last Bridge, 1953/54) brought Wicki public recognition. With his bulky frame, Wicki often portrayed dependable and solid characters in films of the 1950s, sometimes with an autocratic streak, as in the part of the heroine’s husband in Rudolf Jugert’s Theodor Fontane adaptation ROSEN IM HERBST (Roses in Autumn, 1955). Wicki was assistant director on Helmut Käutner’s MONPTI (Love from Paris, 1957), before making his own directorial debut with WARUM SIND SIE GEGEN UNS (Why Are They Against Us, 1958), a youth drama. His next film, DIE BRÜCKE (The Bridge, 1959) brought Wicki international acclaim as a director. The pacifist parable about a group of schoolboys who in the last days of the war are ordered to defend a strategically irrelevant bridge, was praised for its uncom-
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promising narrative, the naturalist acting of its ensemble cast, and its bleak visual style. DAS WUNDER DES MALACHIAS (Miracle of Malachias, 1960/61) was a satire about the post-war West German economic miracle. Subsequently, Wicki worked on international productions, such as the German sequences of the Hollywood war epic THE LONGEST DAY (1961/62), the Dürrenmatt adaptation DER BESUCH (The Visit, 1963/64), starring Ingrid Bergman; and the wartime spy thriller MORITURI (1964/65), with Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner. With his international directing career stalling from the late 1960s, Wicki returned in the 1970s to acting in films by Hans W. Geissendörfer, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder among others, his increasingly bulky presence now reminiscent of an Austrian version of Orson Welles. Meanwhile, he also directed stage productions in Austria and Germany, as well as a series of award-winning TV films. DIE EROBERUNG DER ZITADELLE (The Conquest of the Citadel, 1975/76) marked a return to the cinema. His last directing efforts were the drama SANSIBAR ODER DER LETZTE GRUND (Sansibar or the Last Reason, 1987) based on Alfred Andersch’s novel about the chance encounter of three refugees from the ‘Third Reich’ prior to World War II; and the lavishly produced DAS SPINNENNETZ (The Spider’s Web, 1986–89), drawing on Joseph Roth’s book about a ruthless political opportunist during the Weimar period. He continued acting in films and TV productions until the mid-1990s. Wicki was married to actress Agnes Fink (1919– 1994), and from 1995 to actress Elisabeth Endriss (b. 1944) who made the documentary VERSTÖRUNG – UND EINE ART VON POESIE (Distress – and Some Kind of Poetry) about her late husband in 2006/07. [act – DE] 1939/40: Der Postmeister [act]. 1950: Der fallende Stern. 1953: Junges Herz voll Liebe. 1953/54: Die letzte Brücke / Poslednji most [AT/YU]; Rummelplatz der Liebe / … und immer lockt die Sünde [MLV – US/DE]. 1954: Gefangene der Liebe; Double Destin / Das zweite Leben [FR/DE]; Die Mücke; Ewiger Walzer. 1954/55: Kinder, Mütter und ein General. 1955: Es geschah am 20. Juli; Du mein stilles Tal; Rosen im Herbst. 1955/56: Frucht ohne Liebe. 1956: Weil du arm bist, mußt du früher sterben; Tierarzt Dr. Vlimmen. 1956/57: Königin Luise; Flucht in die Tropennacht; Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Monpti [ass-dir]; Es wird alles wieder gut; Madeleine und der Legionär. 1957/ 58: La chatte [FR]. 1958: Warum sind sie gegen uns? [dir]; Unruhige Nacht; Frauensee [AT]. 1958/59: Frau im besten Mannesalter. 1959: Die Brücke [dir,co-scr]. 1959/60: Lampenfieber. 1960: Was haben wir von unserer Jugend zu erwarten? [TV]; La notte / La nuit [IT/FR]. 1960/61: Die Nashörner [TV]; Das Wunder des Malachias [dir,co-scr]. 1961/62: The Longest Day [co-dir – US]. 1962: L’amore difficile. EP 4: Il Serpente / Erotica. EP 4: Der Ehemann [IT/ DE]. 1962/63: Vacances portugaises / Os Sorrisos du Desti-
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no [FR/PT]. 1963: Elf Jahre und ein Tag. 1963/64: Der Besuch / La rancune / La vedetta della signora [dir – DE/FR/IT]. 1964/65: Morituri [dir – US]. 1965: Transit [co-dir,scr – CH/ DE]. 1966: Wilder Reiter GmbH. [act – TV – DE] 1967: Ostwind; Paukenspieler. EP 4: Die Träne [SF – dir,co-scr]. 1968: Affaire Dreyfus; Der Feldmarschall [AT]; Graf Öderland. 1969: Deine Zärtlichkeiten [FF]; Die Enthüllung [AT]. 1970/71: Karpfs Karriere [dir]; Carlos; Das falsche Gewicht [dir,scr]. 1971/72: Das Jahrhundert der Chirurgen: Die Krönung. 1972: Der Kommissar: Toter gesucht. 1973: Der Kommissar: Herr und Frau Brandes. 1973/74: Je später der Abend [TVD]. 1975: Crime and Passion / Frankensteins Spukschloß [FF – US/DE]. 1975/76: Die Eroberung der Zitadelle [FF – dir,scr, pro]. 1976: Drei Wege zum See [DE/AT]; Mein Kind. 1976/ 77: Glücksucher; Derrick: Eine Nacht im Oktober; Curd Jürgens – Der Filmstar, der vom Theater kam [TVD – dir,coscr,app]. 1977: Die linkshändige Frau [FF]. 1977/78: Die gläserne Zelle [FF]; Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair [FF]. 1978: Der Mann im Schilf [FF]; Die Abenteuer des David Balfour / The Adventures of David Balfour / Les aventures du David Balfour [DE/GB/FR]. 1978/79: Lemminge [AT]; Theodor Chindler [2 episodes]. 1979: Der Alte: Alte Kameraden. 1979/80: La mort en direct / Death Watch – Der gekaufte Tod [FF – FR/DE]; Ende und Anfang [AT]. 1980: Derrick: Zeuge Yurowski. 1980/81: Im Schlaraffenland. 1981: Der Alte: Der Zigeuner. 1981/82: Domino [FF]; No. 44 – The Mysterious Stranger / Der geheimnisvolle Fremde / Nr. 44 – Der geheimnisvolle Fremde [US/DE/AT]. 1982: Max Haufler, ‘Der Stumme’ [DO – CH]. 1982/83: Frühlingssinfonie [FF]; Bereg / Das Ufer [FF – SU/DE]. 1983: Eine Liebe in Deutschland / Un amour en Allemagne [FF – DE/FR]. 1983/84: Duell ohne Gnade / La diagonale du fou / Gefährliche Züge [FF – CH/FR/DE]; Ein Fall für zwei: Elf Jahre danach; Paris, Texas [FF – DE/FR]; Eine Art von Zorn. 1984: Bernhard Wicki im Gespräch mit Rupert Neudeck [TVD – app]; Die Grünstein-Variante [dir,co-scr]. 1984/85: Marie Ward – Zwischen Galgen und Glorie [FF]. 1985: Kabelclub. Heute zu Gast: Bernhard Wicki [TVD – app]; Nachtfahrer [SF – app]; Wicki liest Borchert; Ich stelle mich: Agnes Fink und Bernhard Wicki mit Claus Hinrich Casdorff [TVD]. 1985/86: Killing Cars [FF]; Pattbergs Erbe. 1985-87: Sansibar oder Der letzte Grund [dir – DE/CH]. 1986-89: Das Spinnennetz [FF – dir,scr,act – DE/AT/IT/CS]; Schauplatz ‘Spinnennetz’ [TVD – app]. 1987: Kinder wie die Zeit vergeht [TVD – app]. 1988: I promessi sposi [IT]. 1988/89: Bernhard Wicki: Regisseur [TVD – app]. 1989: Das Sonntagsgespräch: Bernhard Wicki [TVD – app]. 1989/90: Das Erbe der Guldenburgs. [TVS – Season 2]; Martha und ich / Martha et moi [FF – DE/FR]. 1990: Das Erbe der Guldenburgs [TVS – Season 3]; Ich über mich [TVD – app]; Erfolg. 1992: Das Geheimnis [AT]. 1993/94: Auf der anderen Seite des Himmels [TVD – app]; Prinzenbad [FF – DE/HU]. 1994: Wilder Thymian. 1999: Kino Kino Extra: Porträt Bernhard Wicki [TVD – app]. 2000: In memoriam Bernhard Wicki [TVD – app – AT]. 2006/07: Verstörung – und eine Art von Poesie [DO – app].
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DOROTHEA WIECK
DOROTHEA WIECK (Dorothea Bertha Olivia Wieck) Born January 3, 1908, Davos (Switzerland) Died February 9, 1986, Berlin (West Germany) A dark-haired classical beauty, and a graceful presence on screen, Dorothea Wieck is forever associated with her portrayal as a compassionate teacher in a repressive boarding school in the Weimar classic MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1931). A descendant of 19th century pianist and composer Clara Wieck-Schumann, Wieck grew up in Sweden and Southern Germany. She began her stage career in Vienna in 1924, and started appearing in German films from 1926, primarily in folkloristic romances. Wieck had her breakthrough in her sound film debut MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM in 1931. Directed by Leontine Sagan with an all-female cast, the film’s story of the tragic infatuation of a young pupil (Hertha Thiele) with her teacher (Wieck) in a girl’s boarding school was a scarcely veiled critique of Prussian authoritarianism and a relatively frank treatment of lesbian desire. ANNA UND ELISABETH (1933) reunited Wieck and Thiele in yet another tragic story with a lesbian subtext. Having gained international recognition with her previous films, Paramount invited Wieck to Hollywood, where she was cast as a nun in Mitchell Leisen’s directorial debut CRADLE SONG. Neither this film, nor the follow-up, the abduction melodrama MISS FANE’S BABY IS STOLEN (both 1933) were box office successes. Wieck was dropped by Paramount, and returned to Germany, where the Nazi authorities regarded her as suspicious owing to her stay in the United States. Following her part as a femme fatale in Arthur Robison’s remake of DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, 1935), her screen appearances became sporadic and smaller, as neither her appearance nor her acting style fitted the conventions of Nazi cinema. After the war, Wieck resumed her screen career in the courtroom drama MORDPROZESS DR. JORDAN (Murder Trial Dr Jordan, 1949), but her subsequent roles once again tended to be supporting parts at best, and she began to rely on other employments to sustain herself, including working in a fashion salon. In the 1950s, Wieck got her best acting opportunities in international productions – as the ‘Duchess’, an ageing circus artist, in Elia Kazan’s anti-Communist drama MAN ON A TIGHTROPE (1952/53), and as an embittered landlady in Douglas Sirk’s war film A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE (1957/58). She also had more substantial parts in Gottfried Reinhardt’s MENSCHEN IM HOTEL / GRAND HÔTEL (1959) and in Gerd Oswald’s Stefan Zweig adaptation SCHACHNOVELLE (Three Moves to Freedom, 1960).
Following her last screen appearance in DAS MÄDCHEN UND DER STAATSANWALT (The Girl and the Prosecutor, 1962), a mere bit part, Wieck concentrated on stage work, her own acting school, and occasional television roles, e.g. in the popular crime series DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner). In 1976, in one of her last public engagements, she portrayed in a stage version of MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM the antagonist of her own former character from the 1931 film. [act – DE] 1926: Heimliche Sünder; Ich hab’ mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren; Die kleine Inge und ihre drei Väter. 1926/27: Klettermaxe. 1927: Valencia, Du schönste aller Rosen; Mein Heidelberg, ich kann Dich nie vergessen!; Sturmflut; Hast du geliebt am schönen Rhein? 1927/28: Wenn die Schwalben heimwärts ziehen. 1931: Mädchen in Uniform. 1932: Ein toller Einfall [MLV]; Teilnehmer antwortet nicht; Gräfin Mariza; Theodor Körner; Trenck. 1933: Anna und Elisabeth; Cradle Song [US]; Miss Fane’s Baby Is Stolen [US]. 1934/35: Der stählerne Strahl. 1935: Liselotte von der Pfalz; Der Student von Prag. 1935/36: Die unmögliche Frau. 1937: Liebe kann lügen; Die gelbe Flagge. 1938/39: Der Vierte kommt nicht. 1939: Dein Leben gehört mir! 1940/41: Kopf hoch, Johannes! 194043: Panik. 1941/42: Andreas Schlüter. 1943: Invitati speciali. Corrispondenti di guerra [IT]. 1944: Der grüne Salon. 1944/45: Leb’ wohl, Christina! 1949: Mordprozeß Dr. Jordan; Fünf unter Verdacht. 1950/51: Das seltsame Leben des Herrn Bruggs. 1951/52: Herz der Welt; Hinter Klostermauern. 1952/53: Man on a Tightrope [US]; Gesprengte Gitter – Die Elefanten sind los. 1953/54: Der Mann meines Lebens. 1954: Der Froschkönig. 1954/55: Das Fräulein von Scuderi [DD/SE]. 1955: Unternehmen Schlafsack; Das Forsthaus in Tirol; Roman einer Siebzehnjährigen. 1956: Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter. 1957/58: A Time to Love and a Time to Die [US]. 1958: Maß für Maß [TV]. 1959: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Frauenarztes; Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Morgen wirst Du um mich weinen. 1960: Die Nacht in Zaandam [TV]; Schachnovelle. 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt; Die Revolution entläßt ihre Kinder [TV]. 1963: Feuerwerk [TV]. 1967: Bäume sterben aufrecht [TV]. 1968: Zu Hause [TV]; Der Kommissar: Toter Herr im Regen [TV]. 1972/73: Der Kommissar: Tod eines Hippiemädchens [TV].
ROBERT WIENE Born April 27, 1873, Breslau (Germany, now Wroc³aw, Poland) Died July 17, 1938, Paris (France) Wiene was long regarded in film historical accounts as a workman-like director of the 1910s and 1920s, whose best remembered film, DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (1919/20), was regarded as the creative work of the film’s screenwriters and set designers. Subsequent studies rediscovered Wiene as a significant director and screenwriter in his own right.
ROBERT WIENE
After studying law in Berlin and Vienna, Wiene entered the film industry in 1912. He worked as a director and scriptwriter, writing comedies, melodramas and other popular genres. Wiene’s writing centred around themes of fantasy and insanity, which also surfaced in his later films. He collaborated on eighteen Henny Porten films, including DAS WANDERNDE LICHT (The Wandering Light, 1916), a psychological drama concerning a woman who suspects her husband of being insane. His international breakthrough was DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, 1919/20), scripted by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, and starring Werner Krauß as a sinister mountebank who sends out a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit crimes. Critics raved about the film’s antinaturalist sets, idiosyncratic performance style, and complex narrative structure. As well as gaining worldwide public and critical recognition, this film launched the concept of ‘Expressionist cinema’ or ‘Caligarism’. Wiene’s attempt to apply the successful formula in GENUINE (1920), again written by Mayer and featuring lavishly stylised sets, failed. In 1922 Wiene founded Leonardo-Film, producing the Dostoevskij adaptation RASKOLNIKOW (Crime and Punishment, 1922/ 23) for which Wiene cast members of the Moscow Art Theatre. I.N.R.I. (Crown of Thorns, 1923) was an opulent biblical epic starring Henny Porten as the Virgin Mary, Asta Nielsen as Mary Magdalene, and Werner Krauß as Pontius Pilate. The Russian actor Grigori Chmara was cast in the role of Christ. Returning to Vienna, Wiene became artistic director for Pan-Film AG. With scriptwriter Ludwig Nerz, he created ORLACS HÄNDE (The Hands of Orlac, 1924), a macabre story of a pianist (Veidt) who loses his hands in an accident; given the hands of an executed criminal, the pianist begins to feel compelled to murder. The film received mixed reviews at the time, but became subsequently recognised as a classic of the horror genre and was remade several times over the next decades. Wiene’s most ambitious project, the opera film DER ROSENKAVALIER (The Knight of the Rose, 1925) was heavily criticised by the writer and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal who complained that Wiene had altered his original screenplay and had turned it into a crude film. Wiene’s subsequent films included romances and musicals. In his first sound film DER ANDERE (The Other, 1930) he used the Jekyll and Hyde motif once more, with Fritz Kortner playing a lawyer who unknowingly to himself transforms into a dangerous criminal. In contrast to the original film version made in 1912/13, Wiene avoided supernatural explanations, and rooted the narrative in the character’s psychology.
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Wiene’s spy thriller TAIFUN (Typhoon, 1933) was initially banned in Germany, but eventually released as POLIZEIAKTE 909 (Police File 909) in an abridged version in 1934. Persecuted as a Jew, Wiene fled Germany, first to Hungary and then to Britain, where he worked as an uncredited supervisor on Friedrich Feher’s imaginative (and in part Caligaresque) fantasy THE ROBBER SYMPHONY (1935/36). Unable to find further work, Wiene moved to France, where he began directing ULTIMATUM (1938), a spy thriller set prior to World War I. He died during the shoot and Robert Siodmak completed the film. His brother was the film director, screenwriter and actor Conrad Wiene (b. 1878 – after 1933). In some cases their credits are confused in filmographies. [scr – DE] 1912: Die Waffen der Jugend [dir?,scr]. 1914: Er rechts, sie links [dir]. 1915: Seine schöne Mama [coscr]; Lottekens Feldzug [co-scr]; Die Konservenbraut [dir,scr]; Arme Maria; Der springende Hirsch oder Die Diebe von Günstersburg [dir,scr]; Fluch der Schönheit [coscr]; Fräulein Barbier [co-scr]; Die büßende Magdalena; Die weiße Rose. 1915/16: Frau Eva [dir,co-scr]; Der Schirm mit dem Schwan. 1916: Der Sekretär der Königin [dir,scr]; Der Mann im Spiegel [dir? (or Conrad Wiene),co-scr]; Lehmanns Brautfahrt [dir,scr]; Das wandernde Licht [dir]; Der standhafte Benjamin [dir,scr]; Die Räuberbraut [dir]; Der wandernde Blumentopf [dir]; Das Leben ein Traum [dir? (or Conrad Wiene),co-scr]; Gelöste Ketten; Feenhände. 1916/1917: Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach [co-scr]; Der Liebesbrief der Königin [dir,scr]. 1917: Veilchen Nr. 4 [dir(?)]; Die Prinzessin von Neutralien; Verheiratete Junggesellen [co-scr]; Gefangene Seele; Frank Hansens Glück; Furcht [dir,scr]; Gräfin Küchenfee. 1917/18: Edelsteine. 1918: Auf Probe gestellt; Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall [scr, sma]; Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier; Die Heimkehr des Odysseus; Der Mann der Tat; Am Tor des Lebens [AT]; Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell; Opfer der Gesellschaft. 1919: Der verführte Heilige [dir,scr]; Die Hindernisehe [dir,scr – AT]; Ihr Sport; Die lebende Tote; Ein gefährliches Spiel [dir,scr – AT]; Satanas [scr,supv]; Die Welteroberer [dir?]. 1919/20: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari [dir]; Die drei Tänze der Mary Wilford [dir,co-scr]. 1920: Das Blut der Ahnen [co-scr]; Genuine [dir]; Die Jagd nach dem Tode [2 parts – co-scr]; Die Nacht der Königin Isabeau [dir,scr]; Brillanten [co-scr]. 1921: Die Rache einer Frau [dir]; Das Spiel mit dem Feuer [co-dir]; Das Abenteuer des Dr. Kircheisen. 1922: Die höllische Macht [dir,pro]. 1922/ 23: Raskolnikow [dir,scr,pro]. 1923: Der Puppenmacher von Kiang-Ning [dir,pro]; Die Macht der Finsternis; Der Türmer von St. Stephan [dir – AT]; I.N.R.I. [dir,scr]. 1923/ 24: Der Film im Film [DO – app]. 1924: Orlacs Hände [dir – AT]; Pension Groonen [dir – AT]. 1924/25: Schuhputzsalon Rolf G.m.b.H. [SF – co-scr]. 1925: Der Gardeoffizier [dir, co-scr – AT]; Der Rosenkavalier [dir,co-scr – AT]. 1926: Die Königin vom Moulin Rouge [dir,pro – AT]. 1927: Die Geliebte [dir]; Die berühmte Frau [dir]. 1928: Die Frau auf der Folter [dir]; Die große Abenteuerin [dir]; Heut’ spielt der Strauß; Leontines Ehemänner [dir]; Unfug der Liebe
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KLAUS WILDENHAHN
[dir]. 1930: Der Andere [MLV – dir]; Le procureur Hallers [MLV – dir – DE/FR]. 1930/31: Der Liebesexpreß [MLV – dir]; Nuits de Venise [MLV – co-dir]. 1931: Panik in Chicago [dir]. 1933: Taifun [dir,scr,pro]. 1933/34: Egy éj velencében [MLV – supv – HU]; Eine Nacht in Venedig [MLV – dir, scr – HU]. 1935/36: The Robber Symphony [MLV – supv – GB]; La symphonie des brigands [MLV – supv – GB]. 1938: Ultimatum [co-dir – FR]. 2005: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [sma – US].
KLAUS WILDENHAHN Born June 19, 1930, Bonn (Germany) One of the most significant German documentarists working in West German films from the 1970s until the 1990s, Wildenhahn’s book ‘Über synthetischen und dokumentarischen Film’ (Synthetic and documentary film) articulated the most influential theory on methods and techniques of documentary filmmaking in the Federal Republic. Wildenhahn abandoned his study of sociology, communications, and politics in 1954 to work as a medical orderly in London. Returning to Hamburg in 1959 he began his career in television, making adverts for the national lottery. From 1960 he produced reports for the political TV-magazine PANORAMA, which broke conventions of the then standard documentary style. His films often had a musical theme e.g. the two-part SMITH, JAMES O. – ORGANIST, USA (1965/66) and JOHN CAGE (1966) while another strand in his work comprised portraits of blue collar workers, such as IN DER FREMDE (Away from Home, 1967) about itinerant construction workers. The austere style of his films from 1964 to 1967 was influenced by cameraman Rudolf Körösi (b. 1938), who worked afterwards with documentary filmmaker Eberhard Fechner and others before moving into feature films with ex-documentarist Rolf Schübel. Between 1968 and 1972 Wildenhahn taught at the German Film and TV Academy (dffb) in Berlin, where he met Gisela Tuchtenhagen (b. 1943), who acted as his camerawoman and/or editor for the next eight years. At the dffb, he and other staff interested in the use and meaning of news footage began to collect material on the contemporary political situation, particularly about the student movement of the late 1960s. In 1971 he and a group of students produced DER HAMBURGER AUFSTAND OKTOBER 1923 (The Hamburg Uprising October 1923), uncovering a forgotten incident of political history. Returning to his interest in provincial topics, Wildenhahn observed farmers and agricultural workers in DIE LIEBE ZUM LAND (Love of the Land, 1973/ 74), and reported on the closure of a VW car-factory and the consequences for the workers, in the four-part documentary EMDEN GEHT NACH USA (Emden Goes to USA, 1975/76). He followed the latter with
a sequel, IM NORDEN DAS MEER IM WESTEN DER FLUSS IM SÜDEN DAS MOOR IM OSTEN VORURTEILE (Due North the Sea, Due West the River, Due South the Moor, and Prejudices in the East, 1975/76) in which he attempted to put his previously pronounced theories into practice, resulting in an atmospheric film about local landscapes and people. A connected feature film project did not materialise. Wildenhahn subsequently shot television documentaries that once again combined his dual interests, music and provincial life with WAS TUN PINA BAUSCH UND IHRE TÄNZER IN WUPPERTAL?
(What Do Pina Bausch and Her Dancers Do in Wuppertal?, 1982). In the 1980s Wildenhahn’s documentaries chronicled the period’s bitter industrial disputes in West Germany and Britain, usually presenting the worker’s perspective in YORKSHIRE (1984/85) and STILLLEGUNG – OBERHAUSEN MAI – JULI ’87 (The Oberhausen Closure, May–July ’87, 1987). The situation in East Germany before and after reunification was the subject of DER KÖNIG GEHT – SCHLOSS DRESDEN (SOMMER ’90) (The King Is Leaving – Dresden Castle, Summer ’90, 1990). REISE NACH OSTENDE (Journey to Ostend, 1989) contrasted a depiction of the battlefields of World War I with contemporary life in the Flanders region. Based on a series of short portraits about people living in Hamburg-St. Pauli for the TV programme DAS! (That!), Wildenhahn edited the individual episodes into a longer collage, NOCHEINMAL HH 4: REEPERBAHN NEBENAN (Hamburg HH 4: Reeperbahn Next Door, 1991). In 1999/2000, he returned to his hometown with EIN KLEINER FILM FÜR BONN (A Little Film for Bonn), a melancholy portrait chronicling the move of politicians and civil servants from the former federal capital on the Rhine to Berlin. Remaining true to his principles, Wildenhahn portrayed the little people affected, the chauffeurs, waiters, and office clerks, instead of high profile politicians. Besides his theoretical book Wildenhahn published poetry and a book comprising notes about other documentary filmmakers, the basis of a series of lectures he gave at various institutions over the years. [filmmaker – TVD – DE] 1961: Der merkwürdige Tod des Herrn Hammarskjöld. 1962: Der Tod kam wie bestellt. 1964: CDU-Parteitag. – CSU-Landesversammlung. – SPDParteitag; Parteitag 64; Zwischen 3 und 7 Uhr morgens. 1965: Ein Tag. Bericht aus einem Konzentrationslager [TV – ass-dir]; Bayreuther Proben; Eine Woche Avantgarde für Sizilien; Smith, James O. – Organist, USA. 1. Die Europa-Tournee des Jazz-Organisten Jimmy Smith / 2. Ein Jazz-Organist in Amerika. 1966: John Cage. 1967: In der Fremde; 498, Third Avenue. 1967/68: Heiligabend auf St. Pauli. 1968: Harlem Theater. 1968/69: Der Reifenschneider und seine Frau [DO – co-dir]. 1969: Wochen-
BILLY WILDER schau II + III [DO – co-dir]. 1969/70: Institutssommer. 1970/71: Der Tagesspiegel. Ein Film für West-Berliner Zeitungsleser und Journalisten. 1971: Der Hamburger Aufstand Oktober 1923. Eine Wochenschau, hergestellt in Hamburg, März bis August 1971. 1. Erinnerung / 2. Lieschen Müllers Geschichte / 3. Der Aufstand wird abgebrochen [DO – 3 parts]. 1971/72: Harburg bis Ostern. Ein Dokumentarfilm mit zwei Pastoren, einem Vikar, einigen Kirchenvorstehern, Konfirmanden und Kirchenmitgliedern der Johannisgemeinde Harburg. Drehzeit: Heiligabend 1971 bis Ostern 1972. 1973/74: Die Liebe zum Land. 1. Familienbetrieb mit 64 Stück Milchvieh, Kreis Flensburg 1973 / 2. Drei Treckerfahrer, ein Melker und ihreFrauen, Kreis Herzogtum Lauenburg 1973. 1974: Telekritik: 5 Bemerkungen zum Dokumentarfilm [snd,app]. 1974/75: Fernsehauge: Der Mann mit der roten Nelke. 1975/76: Emden geht nach USA [4 parts]; Im Norden das Meer Im Westen der Fluß Im Süden das Moor Im Osten Vorurteile. Annäherung an eine norddeutsche Provinz. 1979: Tor 2 [SD]. 1979/80: Der Nachwelt eine Botschaft. Ein Arbeiterdichter. 1980/81: Zwischen den Bildern. 2. Montage im dokumentarischen Film [TVD – app]. 1981: Bandonion. 1. Deutsche Tangos / 2. Tangos im Exil. 1982: Was tun Pina Bausch und ihre Tänzer in Wuppertal? 1983/84: Ein Film für Bossak und Leacock. 1984/85: Zehn Tage Juli 1984 Yorkshire / November/Dezember ’84 Yorkshire [2 parts]. 1986: Bln. DDR & ein Schriftsteller. April – Mai ’86; Pina Bausch: ‘Walzer’. 41 Minuten aus den Proben. 1987: Stillegung. Oberhausen Mai – Juli ’87. 1988: Rheinhausen. Herbst ’88. 1988/89: Mister Evans geht durch Hamburg. Über die Cholera 1892. 1989: Barmbek: Ein Aufstand wird abgebrochen; Reise nach Ostende. 1990: Der König geht. Schloss Dresden (Sommer ’90). 1991: Reeperbahn nebenan [TVS – 17 episodes]; Nocheinmal HH 4: Reeperbahn nebenan. 1992: Freier Fall: Johanna K. 1993: Reiseführer durch 23 Tage im Mai. 1994/95: Die dritte Brücke. Ein Film aus Mostar. Spätsommer ’94; Reise nach Mostar. 21. Aug. – 22. Sept. 1994. 1995: Profile: Klaus Wildenhahn [TVD – app]. 1995/96: Im Land der Kinoveteranen: Filmexpedition zu Dziga Vertov [TVD – app]. 1998: Die kritische Masse. film im underground hamburg ’68 [DO – app]. 1998/99: Der letzte Dokumentarfilm [DO – app – DE/NL]. 1999/2000: Ein kleiner Film für Bonn. Sommer ’99 [DO – filmmaker]. 2002/03: Man denkt, man kennt das Land [DO – ide]. 2005/06: Zuneigung – Die Filmemacherin Gisela Tuchtenhagen [DO – app].
BILLY WILDER (Samuel Wilder) Born June 22, 1906, Sucha (Austria-Hungary, now Sucha Beskidzka, Poland) Died March 27, 2002, Beverly Hills (California, USA) Following an early career as a screenwriter in Weimar cinema, Billy Wilder became one of the most successful Hollywood directors from the 1940s to the 1970s.
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Many of his often biting comedies and hard-hitting thrillers became award-winning classics. After World War I the Wilder family left Galicia for Vienna, where Samuel visited school until 1924. He started out as a journalist, writing sports and police reports for tabloids. In 1926 he accompanied the jazz musician Paul Whiteman to Berlin and worked as a freelance reporter, also ghost-writing for established screenwriters. Following his collaboration on Robert Siodmak’s semi-documentary MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG (People on Sunday, 1929), Wilder was engaged as a writer for a string of films, including the Erich Kästner adaptation EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives, 1931) and the Lilian Harvey musical EIN BLONDER TRAUM / HAPPY EVER AFTER (1932). After the Nazis came to power, Wilder emigrated to France; many of his family later perished in Auschwitz. In Paris, Wilder again initially made a living as a ghost-writer. He co-wrote and co-directed MAUVAISE GRAINE (Bad Seed), before moving to the United States, where he contributed to the Gloria Swanson star vehicle MUSIC IN THE AIR (both 1934), directed by fellow émigré Joe May. By the end of the 1930s Wilder had established himself as a sought-after screenwriter, repeatedly working for Ernst Lubitsch, as whose successor he was later often considered. His first Oscar nomination was for scripting Lubitsch’s NINOTCHKA (1939) together with Charles Brackett, his writing partner and/or producer on most films from 1937 until 1950. Other successes as a screenwriter included Howard Hawks’s BALL OF FIRE (1941). His Hollywood debut as a director was the screwball comedy THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR (1942), followed by FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO (1943), a desert war adventure. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), a bleak thriller about murder and sexual obsession, was Wilder’s first significant venture into film noir. THE LOST WEEKEND (1944/45), documenting the life of an alcoholic that spirals out of control, won him Oscars for best film, direction and screenplay, the first of several recognitions by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. After World War II Wilder returned as a U.S. colonel to Germany. He supervised the editing of Hanus Burger’s documentary on the liberation of the concentration camps DIE TODESMÜHLEN (The Death Mills, 1945). In a bombed-out Berlin he filmed A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1947/48) with Marlene Dietrich, an acerbic satire on the American post-war occupation and the incipient Cold War. SUNSET BLVD. (1950), the story of a faded silent film diva, played by Gloria Swanson, brought Wilder another Academy Award, and was a deeply ironic inside portrait of the Hollywood film industry. This was followed by ACE IN THE HOLE (1950/51), featuring Kirk Douglas as a
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hard-boiled and ruthless tabloid journalist; the prisoner-of-war drama STALAG (1952/53); and in a lighter vein, the romantic comedy SABRINA (1953/54), starring Audrey Hepburn as a modern Cinderella. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Wilder as producer, (co-)writer, and director released a string of hits, including two iconic Marilyn Monroe films, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1954/55) and the cross-dressing comedy classic SOME LIKE IT HOT (1958/59), as well as the more bittersweet THE APARTMENT (1959/60), starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine. During the filming of the frenetic cold-war satire ONE, TWO, THREE (1961) in Berlin, the Wall was erected and shooting had to be transferred to Munich. I. A. L. Diamond was Wilder’s co-author on most films from LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1956/57) through to BUDDY BUDDY (1981). Another consistent and popular element from the 1960s was his pairing of Jack Lemmon with fellow comedian Walter Matthau in THE FORTUNE COOKIE (1965/66), THE FRONT PAGE (1974) and BUDDY BUDDY (1981). In the 1970s, Wilder returned to Europe on two occasions, for the Anglo-American co-production THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1969/70), and for FEDORA (1977/78), made with West German production partners and featuring an international cast. The film’s plot provided a variation of the theme of faded Hollywood glamour that he dealt with nearly thirty years earlier in SUNSET BLVD. From the mid 1980s Wilder worked as a consultant for United Artists on various film projects. From 1988–92 he looked back on his life and work in Volker Schlöndorff’s six-part TV film BILLY, HOW DID YOU DO IT? (re-issued in an English-language version, BILLY WILDER SPEAKS, in 2006) and in 2001, Hollywood director Cameron Crowe published his collection of interviews as ‘Conversations with Billy Wilder’. He proved a witty, if not always reliable, raconteur of racy Hollywood lore in a number of documentaries.
Lottery Lover. 1934/35: Under Pressure; Emil and the Detectives [MLV – sma – GB]. 1935: Thunder In the Night. 1935/36: First Offence [MLV – sma – GB]. 1936/37: Champagne Waltz [sma]. 1937/38: Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife. 1938: That Certain Age. 1938/39: Midnight. 1939: Ninotchka; What a Life. 1940: Rhythm on the River [sma]; Arise, My Love. 1941: Hold Back the Dawn; Ball of Fire. [dir,co-scr – US] 1942: The Major and the Minor; Tales of Manhattan [sma]. 1943: Five Graves to Cairo. 1944: Double Indemnity. 1944/45: The Lost Weekend. 1945: Die Todesmühlen / Death Mills / Di toit milen [SD – supv – DE/ US]. 1946/47: The Emperor Waltz. 1947: The Bishop’s Wife [co-scr]. 1947/48: A Foreign Affair. 1948: A Song Is Born [ide]. 1949/50: Sunset Blvd. [dir,co-scr,pro – US] 1950/51: Ace in the Hole. 1952/53: Stalag 17. 1953/54: Sabrina. 1954: Emil und die Detektive [sma – DE]. 1954/55: The Seven Year Itch. 1955/56: The Spirit of St. Louis [dir,co-scr]. 1956/57: Silk Stockings [sma]. 1957: Love in the Afternoon; Witness for the Prosecution [dir,co-scr]. 1958/59: Some Like It Hot. 1959/60: The Apartment. 1961: One, Two, Three. 1962/63: Irma la Douce. 1964: Kiss Me, Stupid. 1965/66: The Fortune Cookie. 1969/70: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes [US/GB]. 1972: Avanti!; Alexander Trauner: Filmarchitekt [TVD – app]. 1974: The Front Page [dir,co-scr]. 1975: Eugen Schüfftan, Kameramann [TVD – app]. 1976: Witz mit Widerhaken. Das Kino des Billy Wilder [TVD – app – DE]. 1977/78: Fedora [DE]. 1979/80: Portrait d’un homme à 60% partait: Billy Wilder / Portrait of ‘a 60% Perfect’ Man: Billy Wilder [TVD – app – FR/US]. 1981: Buddy Buddy [dir,co-scr]. [app – TVD – US] 1986: Directed by William Wyler; The American Film Institute Salute to Billy Wilder. 1987-89: ‘Herr Ober, bitte einen Tänzer’ [DE]. 1988-92: Billy, How Did You Do It? / Billy Wilder Speaks [DE/US]. 1989: The Exiles [DO]; Wilder-Auktion [DE]. 1993: Billy Wilder, Artiste ou Ne réveillez pas le cinéaste qui dort [FR]. 1993/ 96: Billy Wilder über Billy Wilder [DE]. 1995: A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies [DO – GB]. 1996: Marlene Dietrich: Shadow and Light [US/GB].
[(co-)scr – DE] 1929: Der Teufelsreporter. Im Nebel der Großstadt [scr,act]; Menschen am Sonntag. 1930: Der Kampf mit dem Drachen oder: Die Tragödie des Untermieters [SF]; Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg; Seitensprünge [ide]; Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht. 1930/ 31: Der falsche Ehemann. 1931: Ihre Hoheit befiehlt [MLV]; Princesse! À vos ordres! [MLV]; Emil und die Detektive. 1931/32: Der Sieger [MLV]. 1932: Es war einmal ein Walzer; Ein blonder Traum [MLV]; Un rêve blond [MLV]; Happy Ever After [MLV]; Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / Um einen Groschen Liebe [MLV]; Un peu d’amour [MLV]; Where Is This Lady? [ide – GB]; Das Blaue vom Himmel; Madame wünscht keine Kinder [MLV – DE/AT]; Madame ne veut pas d’enfants [MLV – DE/FR]. 1933: Was Frauen träumen; Adorable [sma – US]. [(co-)scr – US] 1934: Mauvaise graine [MLV – dir,co-scr, ide – FR]; One Exciting Adventure [ide]; Music in the Air;
EDUARD VON WINTERSTEIN (Eduard Clemens Franz Anna Freiherr von Wangenheim) Born August 1, 1871, Vienna (Austria) Died July 22, 1961, Berlin (East Germany) One of the great classical actors on the German stage during the first half of the 20th century, Winterstein’s prolific film career spanned five decades, from the Wilhelmine period via Weimar cinema and the ‘Third Reich’ to East German productions of the 1950s. Tall and bulky in stature, with a stern expression and square jaw, he invariably portrayed iron-willed patriarchs and figures of authority. Born on his father’s side into Austrian nobility, his mother was Hungarian-born actress Luise Dub, who gave her son his first acting lessons. He started his
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stage career in 1889 at the theatre in Gera, followed for the next six years by engagements across the German provinces, including playhouses in Hof, Stralsund, Gelsenkirchen, Hanau, and Wiesbaden. His breakthrough came in 1895, playing the male lead in a production of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s classical play ‘Minna von Barnhelm’ at the Schiller Theater in Berlin. From 1898 he became primarily associated with the Deutsches Theater. Except for occasional tours, from the early part of the century he was a fixture of Berlin’s theatre scene until his death. Winterstein appeared in film productions from 1913, working for companies including Messter-Film and PAGU. He was Henny Porten’s antagonist in a number of melodramas: in MÄRTYRERIN DER LIEBE (Martyr for Love, 1915) he played an egotistical sculptor, and in the two-part serial DIE FAUST DES RIESEN (The Giant’s Fist, 1917) he portrayed her oppressive husband who is ultimately killed. Winterstein co-starred with Asta Nielsen in Richard Oswald’s DER REIGEN (The Merry-Go-Round), and as Claudius in HAMLET (both 1920). During the 1920s, he collaborated with major auteurs of Weimar cinema: Fritz Lang cast him as a cruel caliph in the oriental episode of DER MÜDE TOD (Destiny, 1921), while F. W. Murnau used him in DER BRENNENDE ACKER (The Burning Field, 1921/22) and PHANTOM (1922). He frequently impersonated historical figures: In the popular nationalistic FRIDERICUS REX series about the Prussian monarch Frederick the Great, he had the recurring part of Count Anhalt-Dessau, while he portrayed General Scharnhorst in Hans Behrendt’s PRINZ LOUIS FERDINAND (1926/27) and General Blücher in Lupu Pick’s NAPOLEON AUF ST. HELENA (Napoleon on St. Helena, 1929). One of his first sound films was Josef von Sternberg’s DER BLAUE ENGEL / THE BLUE ANGEL (1929/30), in which he played the stern school principal and Dr. Rath’s (Emil Jannings) disapproving superior. The nationalist U-boat drama MORGENROT (Dawn, 1932/ 33) featured Winterstein again as an officer. Following the outbreak of World War II, he lent his authoritative presence to Nazi propaganda productions: in Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s biopic BISMARCK (1940) he portrayed General von Manstein; in Karl Ritter’s battle drama STUKAS (Dive-Bombers, 1940/ 41), he was a front-line military surgeon; and as General Piet Cronje in Hans Steinhoff’s South African colonial epic OHM KRÜGER (Uncle Kruger, 1940/41), he commandeered the Boer army against the British enemy. In a somewhat lighter vein, he played Hans Albers’s gruff father in the Ufa jubilee extravaganza MÜNCHHAUSEN (1942/43). After the end of the war, Winterstein’s career continued almost seamlessly in East Germany. At the Deutsches Theater, he celebrated his greatest stage tri-
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umph in the title part of a 1955 production of Lessing’s play ‘Nathan der Weise’ (Nathan The Wise). His son, the actor and director Gustav von Wangenheim, who had spent the ‘Third Reich’ in Soviet exile, gave him his first post-war cinematic opportunity in his film … UND WIEDER 48! (Once Again ’48, 1948), and cast him repeatedly in further films throughout the 1950s. His perhaps most poignant post-war film role came in Georg C. Claren’s DIE SONNENBRUCKS (The Sonnenbrucks, 1950/51), in which he played an originally apolitical scientist who reflects on his behaviour under the Nazi regime. He also worked with other DEFA directors, including Wolfgang Staudte (DER UNTERTAN, The Kaiser’s Lackey, 1951) and Konrad Wolf (GENESUNG, Convalescence, 1955). His last two films were under the direction of Kurt Maetzig – the science fiction film DER SCHWEIGENDE STERN (Spaceship to Venus, 1959), and prior to that DAS LIED DER MATROSEN (The Sailor’s Song, 1958), where Winterstein slipped into the uniform of a Prussian general for a final time, in this instance General Hindenburg. Winterstein’s two-part autobiography ‘Mein Leben und meine Zeit’ (My Life and My Times, 1942 + 1947) was reissued in a one-volumed edition in the early 1980s. [act – DE] 1913: Gottheit Weib; Schuldig. 1913/14: Das Fischermädchen von Manholm. 1914/15: Zofia. Kriegs-Irrfahrten eines Kindes. 1915: Märtyrerin der Liebe. 1916: Felsenfest; Werner Krafft. Der Maschinenbauer; Siri; Passionels Tagebuch. 1917: Die Erzkokette; Die Claudi vom Geiserhof; Die Faust des Riesen [2 parts]. 1918: Das Recht auf Glück; Der lebende Leichnam; Pique Dame; Der Ring der drei Wünsche; Erborgtes Glück; Hiob; Opium; Das Schicksal der Margarete Holberg. 1919: Das Kloster von Sendomir; Der gelbe Tod [2 parts]; Irrlicht; Prinzessin Tatjana oder Wenn ein Weib den Weg verliert; Die Maske; Die Hexe von Norderoog; Die sich verkaufen; Blondes Gift; Das stille Weh; Madame Dubarry; In den Krallen des Vampyrs; Nerven; Der Kampf der Geschlechter; Madeleine; Ut mine Stromtid; Die Welt ohne Liebe. Die Diktatur der Liebe – 2. Teil. 1919/20: Die glühende Kammer; Maria Magdalene; Figaros Hochzeit; Die Frau auf der Schildkröte. 1920: Der Reigen; Das Götzenbild der Wahrheit; Maria Tudor; Das Martyrium; Der Sturz in die Flammen; Hamlet; Präsident Barrada; Das Haupt des Juarez; Lady Godiva; Der langsame Tod; Die Tänzerin Marion; Teufel und Circe; Betrogene Betrüger; Das Frauenhaus von Brescia; Uroda ¿ycia [2 parts – PL]. 1920/21: Die Bestie im Menschen; Der weiße Tod; Fridericus Rex. 1. Sturm und Drang / 2. Vater und Sohn. 1920–22: Aus dem Schwarzbuch eines Polizeikommissars [3 parts]. 1921: Fahrendes Volk; Danton; Die Fremde aus der Elstergasse; Die Beute der Erinnyen; Der müde Tod; Betrüger des Volkes; Die Abenteuerin von Monte Carlo [3 parts]; Die Konfektionspuppe. 1921/22: Frau Sünde; Der brennende Acker; Der Strom. 1922: Das Diadem der Zarin; Die vom Zirkus; Das Spielzeug einer Dirne; Der Paradiesapfel; Die weiße Wüste; Die Stumme von
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Portici; Das Feuerschiff; Wer wirft den ersten Stein; Das fränkische Lied; Phantom; Bigamie; Der falsche Dimitry; Lola Montez, die Tänzerin des Königs. 1922/23: Dämon Zirkus; Der Schatz der Gesine Jakobsen; Die Frau mit den Millionen [3 parts]; Der Menschenfeind; Fridericus Rex. 3. Sanssouci / 4. Schicksalswende. 1923: Der allmächtige Dollar; Wilhelm Tell; Liebe und Ehe; Frau Schlange; Glanz gegen Glück; Der Weg zu Gott. 1923/24: Die Radio-Heirat; Gott, Mensch und Teufel. 1924: Der kleine Herzog; Claire, die Geschichte eines jungen Mädchens; Mutter und Sohn; Die Zirkusdiva; Guillotine; Garragan; Schicksal; In den Krallen der Schuld. 1924/25: Aschermittwoch; Wallenstein [2 parts]; Der erste Stand. Der Großkapitalist [2 parts]. 1925: Was Steine erzählen; Götz von Berlichingen zubenannt mit der eisernen Hand; Freies Volk; Volk in Not; Der Abenteurer; Das Haus der Lüge; Die Gesunkenen. 1925/26: Die Mühle von Sanssouci; Die Försterchristl; Fedora; Tragödie einer Ehe / Human Law [DE/GB]. 1926: Die Frau in Gold / Les voleurs de gloire [SD – DE/FR]; Frauen der Leidenschaft; Fräulein Josette – meine Frau / Mademoiselle Josette, ma femme [DE/FR]; Des Königs Befehl; Die Kleine und ihr Kavalier; Der gute Ruf / Les mensonges [DE/FR]; Der Meineidbauer [DE/AT]; Der Herr des Todes; Das war in Heidelberg in blauer Sommernacht; Gern hab’ ich die Frau’n geküßt; Das rosa Pantöffelchen. 1926/27: Da hält die Welt den Atem an; An der Weser; Stolzenfels am Rhein; Prinz Louis Ferdinand. 1927: Lützows wilde verwegene Jagd; Ich war zu Heidelberg Student; Ein Tag der Rosen im August … da hat die Garde fortgemußt; Elternlos; Ein Mädel aus dem Volke; Vom Leben getötet; Die glühende Gasse; Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel. 1928: Herr Meister und Frau Meisterin; Die Siebzehnjährigen. 1929: Napoleon auf St. Helena. 1929/30: Der Blaue Engel [MLV]; The Blue Angel [MLV]. 1930: Der Andere [MLV]; Rosenmontag; Liebling der Götter; Er oder ich [MLV]; Lui et moi [MLV]; Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci; Der Weg nach Rio. 1930/31: Saltarello [MLV – IT]; Arme kleine Eva. 1931: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen; Im Geheimdienst. 1931/32: Der Geheimagent. 1932: Mensch ohne Namen [MLV]; Der weiße Dämon [MLV]; Das erste Recht des Kindes; Trenck; Friederike; An heiligen Wassern! 1932/33: Morgenrot; Der Läufer von Marathon; Spione am Werk [MLV]. 1933: Die Nacht im Forsthaus; Der Judas von Tirol; Hochzeit am Wolfgangsee; Der Schimmelreiter. 1933/34: Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz; Der ewige Traum [MLV]. 1934: Der letzte Walzer [MLV]; Regine. 1934/35: Der stählerne Strahl; Hundert Tage [MLV – IT]. 1935: Das Mädchen vom Moorhof; Die selige Exzellenz; Familie Schimek; Krach im Hinterhaus; Der höhere Befehl. 1935/36: Martha. Letzte Rose [MLV]. 1936: Waldwinter; 90 Minuten Aufenthalt. 1936/37: Das schöne Fräulein Schragg; Der Etappenhase. 1937: Madame Bovary; Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit; Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war; Die Korallenprinzessin / Princesa koral [DE/YU]; Der Katzensteg; Serenade; Die rote Mütze. 1937/38: Der Mann, der nicht nein sagen kann; Ballade. 1938: Steputat & Co.; Maja zwischen zwei Ehen; Napoleon ist an allem schuld; Preußische Liebesgeschichte. 1938/39: Im Namen des Volkes; Das unsterbliche Herz; Der grüne Kaiser; Menschen vom Varieté [MLV – HU/DE].
1939: Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit; Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes; Die barmherzige Lüge; Die goldene Maske; D III 88; Die Reise nach Tilsit; Befreite Hände. 1939/40: Das Herz der Königin. 1940: Für die Katz; Das Fräulein von Barnhelm; Bismarck. 1940/41: Kopf hoch, Johannes!; Ohm Krüger; Stukas. 1941: Annelie. 1941/42: Der Führer und sein Volk [SD]; Rembrandt; Andreas Schlüter. 1941–44: Philharmoniker. 1942/43: Gefährtin meines Sommers; Münchhausen; Wenn der junge Wein blüht. 1943: Ein glücklicher Mensch; Um 9 kommt Harald; Meine vier Jungens. 1943/44: Der Verteidiger hat das Wort!; Die Affäre Roedern; Aufruhr der Herzen. 1944/45: Der Puppenspieler. [act – DD] 1948: … und wieder 48! 1948/49: Die Buntkarierten. 1949: Der Auftrag Höglers. 1949/50: Semmelweis – Retter der Mütter. 1950: Die Jungen von Kranichsee. 1950/51: Die Sonnenbrucks. 1951: Der Untertan; Das verurteilte Dorf. 1953: Der Hessische Landbote [TV]. 1953/54: Gefährliche Fracht. 1955: Heimliche Ehen; Genesung. 1957: Emilia Galotti. 1958: Das Lied der Matrosen. 1959: Der schweigende Stern / Milcz¹ca gwiazda [DD/PL].
FRANZ WINZENTSEN Born January 10, 1939, Hamburg (Germany) An animation filmmaker from the 1960s onwards, Winzentsen became interested in children’s films, and developed an interest in questions of national memory and history, presenting it from a distinctly ironic point of view. Owing to the continuous bombing of his hometown, Winzentsen was evacuated as a child during World War II. He subsequently returned to Hamburg, finished school and studied graphic art, painting and photography. As a partner in Helmut Herbst’s Cinegrafik studios from 1964, Winzentsen made cartoons for industrial films and trailers for television. He subsequently expanded into experimental puppet plays. Winzentsen’s animated ERLEBNISSE DER PUPPE (Adventures of a Doll, 1966) depicted a paper clip doll that moved through scenes of bunkers, pipes and ruins constructed of photos. Winzentsen’s approach in his films typically led the viewer through moving graphic components without any storyline or action, most consistently in DER TURM (The Tower, 1974). The tower cut through horizontal areas, which gently shifted in shape and shade, interrupted by flashes of real film or photos. In cooperation with his wife Ursula Asher-Winzentsen (b. 1939) he made the abstract STAUB (Dust, 1967), which won an award at the Animation Film Festival in Annecy. The Winzentsens were an active part of the ‘Filmmacher Coop’ in Hamburg from the end of the 1960s, cooperating with other filmmakers (e.g. Werner Nekes, Dore O., Klaus Wyborny). In the 1970s the Winzentsens experimented
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with puppets, performing as the ‘Rhabarber’ (Rhubarb) theatre. After their child Hannah-Louise was born in 1969, the Winzentsens turned to children’s films, filming nearly 100 short animated episodes for TV programmes, including the series FRANZ (1971–75) and FLÜSTERPFERD (Whispering Horse, 1976–78). These often experimented with images and sound. More conventional was a series of animal stories, parodying standard culture documentaries. The Winzentsens used a combination of cartoon drawings and montages in their films, allowing for a unifying leitmotif through the reappearance of particular images. After their divorce the Winzentsens still collaborated on children’s films. Using photomontages, Franz Winzentsen assembled a series of stylistically varied, short episodes in FLAMINGO (1980–82), the first of his ‘Animation Diaries’. His growing interest in German history surfaced in the autobiographically influenced DIE ANPROBE (1938) (The Fitting – 1938, 1984/85), in which the narrator, as an unborn child, views the world awaiting him, in this case the ‘Third Reich’ in the late 1930s. The deliberately naïve commentary amused some audiences, while offending others. The technique was developed further in DER FOTOGRAF (The Photographer, 1988/89) produced in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Thomas Mitscherlich (1942–1998). In the film’s framing narrative a couple looked at photographs taken from the Wilhelmine era through the Weimar Republic and Nazi period to the post-war boom in West Germany. The film conveys its social critique through the naïve commentary and swift succession of diverse audiovisual elements. Many of these motifs, including dark bunkers, ruins, and sinister figures, reappeared in DIE KÖNIGIN DES SCHWARZEN MARKTES (Queen of the Black Market, 1986–89). Working in a small studio in the countryside Winzentsen continued to combine animation and actual film with found material and constructed ‘findings’ into ironic commentaries of the times, some used by German-French TV station as parts of their news show. In the 1980s Winzentsen expanded his artistic activities, combining films and associated materials with graphics and objects into multimedia installations. He taught animation films at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg from 1987 to 2002. After their separation in the late 1980s Ursula Asher made a few experimental films before retiring from filmmaking. Their daughter Hannah-Louise became an artist. [filmmaker – DE – ANI] 1964: Verfolgung. 1965: Der Hafenfilm. 1966: Erlebnisse der Puppe; Das Ginzeck; Die Rache der weißen Lokomotive [TV – dir,co-scr]; Die süße
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Stimme [TV – dir,co-scr]; Der König ruft die Wachen [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1967: Staub [co+UW (Ursula Winzentsen)]. 1968: Evarella 68 [TV – co-cam,gra]. 1969: Fremde Völker; Windstill; Dämonische Leinwand [AG – act]. 1970-73: Der Schneckenfilm [co+UW]. 1971-75: Franz [TV-ANI – ca. 60 episodes – co+UW]. 1972: Blonde Barbarei [AG – act]. 1973/74: Diwan [AG – act]. 1974: Landschaft mit Taucher; Der Turm (Rapunzel). 1975/76: Starmaus [TV-ANI – co+ UW]. 1976-78: Flüsterpferd [TV-ANI – 32 episodes – co+UW]. 1977/78: Mirador [AG – act]. 1978/79: Als die Igel größer wurden [TV-ANI – co+UW]. 1979: Geschichten vom Franz [TV – co+UW]. 1980: Geschichten vom Flüsterpferd [TV – co+UW]. 1980-82: Flamingo. Aus meinem Animationstagebuch 1980-82. 1981: Puppenbühne ‘Rhabarber’, Hamburg [TVD – scr,act]; Kanalligator [TVANI – co+UW]. 1982/83: Vater und Sohn [sfx]. 1983: Wie die Schnecke zu ihrem Haus kommt [TV-ANI – co+UW]; Der Kleistermann [TV-ANI – co+UW]. 1984: Starmaus II. Ein Mausjahr später [ANI – co+UW]; Falu Gruva (Die Grube von Falun). 1984/85: Die Anprobe (1938); Hin- und Rückfahrt [TV-ANI – co+UW]. 1985: Telefonfieber [TVANI – co+UW]. 1986: Abschalten [co-filmmaker]. 198689: Die Königin des schwarzen Marktes. 1987: La brouette / Die Schubkarre [TV-ANI – co+UW – FR/DE]. 1988/ 89: Der Fotograf [FF – co-dir,co-scr,co-cam,voi]; Europa, abends [FF – app]. 1989: Mein Herz schlägt blau – Ella Bergmann-Michel [SD – voi]. 1991-93: Der Untergang des goldenen Webstuhls [TV – dir,scr,co-cam,voi]. 1992: Der große Sturm. 1994: 100 Jahre Film. 1995: Der Porzellanladen. 1996: Hammer und Sichel – Die Geschichte eines Symbols; Regenzeiten – Über Niederschlagsphänomene im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert; Ostern – Eine Geschichte der Hasenzivilisation; Das Dreieck – Eine kosmologische Studie; Jahrestage – Eine Chronik der Opernbrände. 1997: Adler, Engel & Co; Schnee – Eine Akzeptanzstudie; Argentinien – Eine kleine Länderkunde; Der Besenbinder, der Fotograf und der Koch. 1998: Die kritische Masse. film im underground hamburg ’68 [DO – app]. 1998/99: Irrtümer: Fluchtversuch – Ein Irrtum der Natur / Steinschläge – Ein Irrtum der Wissenschaft / Fremde Zivilisationen – Ein Irrtum im All. 1999/2000: Fremder Pelz. 2001: Argentinien – Eine kleine Länderkunde Teil 2. 2001/02: Saba Meersburg. 2003: Die Branntweinflasche von der Buxtehuder Heide [SF]. 2005/06: Der heilige Hubertus und der Jagdteufel [4 parts]. 2008: Synopsis – Harald Eckert im Buxtehude Museum [SD]; Der Elektroheiler. 2009: Die so genannten Bremer Stadtmusikanten.
ADOLF WOHLBRÜCK (Adolf Wilhelm Anton Wohlbrück aka Anton Walbrook) Born November 19, 1896, Vienna (Austria-Hungary) Died July 9, 1967, Garatshausen (West Germany) Handsome, elegant, and with a perpetual air of irony, actor Wohlbrück specialised in sophisticated light comedies in Germany and Austria in the 1930s, before continuing his successful career in British cinema.
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KONRAD WOLF
Wohlbrück was born into an artistic family with a long tradition – his father was a circus clown, and his great-great-grandfather had already worked as an actor. After attending a monastic school near Vienna, he gained his Abitur at a grammar school in Berlin, continuing with acting classes at the Max Reinhardt Theatre Academy. As a lieutenant in World War I he was taken prisoner by the French and started a drama group for prisoners. He subsequently resumed his career by appearing on stage in Munich, Dresden, Düsseldorf, and Berlin. Wohlbrück’s film debut was in MARIONETTEN (Marionettes, 1915). In the 1920s he appeared in some episodes of the Stuart Webbs detective series, but his film career only took off in earnest in the 1930s. Wohlbrück played his first romantic lead in E. A. Dupont’s circus melodrama SALTO MORTALE, and a dashing young prince in the military farce DER STOLZ DER 3. KOMPAGNIE (The Pride of the 3rd Battalion, both 1931), the first of many films that cast him in an aristocratic role. Contracted to Ufa, he portrayed the composer Johann Strauß in WALZERKRIEG (Waltz War), while in Reinhold Schünzel’s cross-dressing hit VIKTOR UND VIKTORIA (Viktor and Viktoria, both 1933) he was cast the ‘most desirable bachelor in London’. He was a British gentleman again in Schünzel’s DIE ENGLISCHE HEIRAT (The English Wedding), while in Willi Forst’s MASKERADE (Masquerade, both 1934), he embodied Viennese elegance with his white silk scarf and slightly shady demeanour. Wohlbrück was seen in a more muscular and heroic role in Richard Eichberg’s Franco-German adventure spectacle DER KURIER DES ZAREN (Michel Strogoff). He followed in the footsteps of Paul Wegener and Conrad Veidt in a remake of DER STUDENT VON PRAG (The Student of Prague, both 1935); and once again played a charming playboy for Willi Forst in ALLOTRIA (1936). In 1936 Wohlbrück emigrated to England via France and Hollywood (where he appeared in THE SOLDIER AND THE LADY, 1936/37, a remake of DER KURIER DES ZAREN). In Britain, he changed his name to Anton Walbrook, and became a success in his first British role as Prince Albert in Herbert Wilcox’s VICTORIA THE GREAT (1937). He later played both villains (as in GASLIGHT, 1940) and heroes (as in the wartime melodrama DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT, 1941), but more typically portrayed emotionally complex, and morally ambivalent characters. Some of his most significant parts were in films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, especially his Prussian officer in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943) and the ballet impresario in THE RED SHOES (1948). Walbrook, who had supported Jewish actors and their families in Germany during the war, became a Brit-
ish citizen in 1947. He continued an international film career, winning particular acclaim for his role as the gently ironic master of ceremonies in Max Ophüls’s Schnitzler adaptation LA RONDE (Roundabout, 1950). From 1951 he made guest appearances on the West German stage, including working with Gustaf Gründgens at the theatre in Düsseldorf. He also occasionally appeared on West German television, most notably in a version of Vera Caspary’s previously filmed mystery thriller LAURA (1962), in which he played the acerbic art critic Waldo Lydecker. [act – DE] 1915: Marionetten. 1923: Martin Luther. 1925: Das Geheimnis auf Schloß Elmshöh. 1931: Salto mortale [MLV]; Der Stolz der 3. Kompagnie. 1931/32: Drei von der Stempelstelle; Die fünf verfluchten Gentlemen [MLV – FR]. 1932: Melodie der Liebe; Baby [German MLV – FR]. 1933: Walzerkrieg [MLV]; Keine Angst vor Liebe; Viktor und Viktoria [MLV]; Georges et Georgette [MLV]. 1934: Die vertauschte Braut [MLV]; Maskerade [AT]; Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will [MLV – CS]; Die englische Heirat; Regine. 1934/35: Zigeunerbaron [MLV]; Le baron tzigane [MLV]. 1935: Ich war Jack Mortimer; Der Student von Prag; Der Kurier des Zaren [MLV – FR/DE]; Michel Strogoff. Le courrier du tzar [MLV – FR/DE]. 1936: Allotria; Port Arthur [MLV – CS/FR]; Port-Arthur [MLV – CS/FR]. [act – GB] 1936/37: The Soldier and the Lady [MLV – US]. 1937: Victoria the Great; The Rat. 1938: Sixty Glorious Years. 1940: Gaslight. 1941: Dangerous Moonlight; 49th Parallel. 1943: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. 1944: Information Please [SF]; The Man from Morocco. 1948: The Red Shoes; The Queen of Spades. 1950: La ronde [FR]; König für eine Nacht [DE]. 1951: Wien tanzt [AT/LI]. 1951/ 52: Le plaisir [voi (German version) – FR]. 1953/54: L’Affaire Maurizius / Il caso Maurizius [FR/IT]. 1955: Oh … Rosalinda!; Lola Montès / Lola Montez [FR/DE]. 1956: Der Schwierige [TV – DE]. 1957: Saint Joan [GB/US]. 1957/58: I Accuse. 1960: Venus im Licht [TV – DE]. 1962: Laura [TV – DE]. 1963: Der Arzt am Scheidewege [TV – DE]. 1966: Robert und Elisabeth [TV – DE].
KONRAD WOLF Born October 20, 1925, Hechingen (Germany) Died March 7, 1982, Berlin (East Germany) Konrad Wolf is widely acknowledged as the most important filmmaker to have worked for DEFA, and one of the few East German directors to find international acclaim during the Cold War. His films combined a critical commitment to the causes of socialism and anti-fascism with a highly personal style. The son of the physician and celebrated socialist author Friedrich Wolf (1888–1953), Wolf grew up in Stuttgart. In 1933 he and his family went into exile in the Soviet Union, where Konrad appeared in fellow émigré Gustav von Wangenheim’s antifascist film BORCY (Fighter, 1936).
SÖNKE WORTMANN
Volunteering in the Red Army, Wolf became a soldier and took part in the Soviet attack on Berlin. At the end of the war he worked in the cultural affairs department of the Soviet administration in Berlin, before studying film directing at the film academy VGIK in Moscow in 1949. During his studies he gained experiences as an assistant to Joris Ivens and Kurt Maetzig. At DEFA Wolf’s first major film as director was LISSY (1956/57), a drama set in the early 1930s, chronicling a working class woman’s gradual disillusionment with her white-collar Nazi husband. His next film, the East German-Bulgarian co-production STERNE (Stars, 1958/59) was awarded a special prize by the jury at Cannes, and became Wolf’s first international success. The film documented a German soldier’s political awakening while guarding a transport of Greek Jews to Auschwitz during the war. With SONNENSUCHER (Sunseekers, 1957/58), Wolf turned his attention to contemporary developments in East Germany with an account of the extreme working conditions in the Soviet uranium mines, but because of its realistic depiction the film was perceived as too critical by the authorities and not released until 1972. PROFESSOR MAMLOCK (1960/ 61), based on a play by his father and again set during the ‘Third Reich’, was widely acclaimed and won awards at the Moscow Film Festival. DER GETEILTE HIMMEL (Divided Sky, 1963/64), based on the novel by Christa Wolf (no relation), sparked off debates about national identity in its frank depiction of the political division of Germany. Alongside his films, Wolf was active in matters of cultural and educational policies. In 1965 he became President of the Academy of Arts in East Germany and used his influence as a mediator between the culture industry and the political establishment. Drawing upon his own experiences in the last weeks of the war, Wolf made one of the most important German post-war films, the war drama ICH WAR NEUNZEHN (I Was Nineteen, 1967) about a young émigré returning to Germany as a soldier of the Red Army. GOYA (1970/71) marked a departure for Wolf in several respects. The big budget Soviet-East German coproduction, shot in 70mm, was an epic historical biopic of the eponymous painter set in 17th century Spain, and included some unusually expressive use of colour photography, whereas most of his earlier films had typically employed high contrast black and white. Among his important artistic collaborators on most of his films were the cinematographer Werner Bergmann and art director Alfred Hirschmeier. DER NACKTE MANN AUF DEM SPORTPLATZ (The Naked Man in the Stadium, 1973), a plea on behalf of artistic outsiders, was not well received in East Germany, while his next film MAMA, ICH LEBE (Mama, I’m Alive, 1976), the story of four German prisoners of war who volunteer for the Red Army, was chosen to
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represent East Germany at the West Berlin Film Festival. Returning to the subject of artistic outsiders and their place within the socialist system, Wolf co-directed SOLO SUNNY (1978/79), the portrait of a young nonconformist singer, with his long-time screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase. Subsequently Wolf devoted his time to the six-part documentary BUSCH SINGT (Busch Sings, 1981/82), based on the biography of the singer and actor Ernst Busch, but he was unable to complete the project prior to his death. In 1985, the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Potsdam-Babelsberg, East Germany’s film school, was named ‘Konrad Wolf’ in the director’s honour. Konrad’s older brother Markus ‘Mischa’ Wolf (1923– 2006) co-founded the East German foreign intelligence service and became a notorious spymaster. He published documents and notes that Konrad had collected for a planned autobiographical film under the title ‘Die Troika’ in 1989. [dir,(co-)scr – DD] 1936: Borcy [act – SU]. 1951/52: Freundschaft siegt / My za mir! [DO – ass-dir – DD/SU]. 1953/54: Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse [ass-dir]. 1954/55: Ernst Thälmann – Führer seiner Klasse [ass-dir]; Einmal ist keinmal [dir]. 1955: Genesung [dir]. 1956/57: Lissy. 1957/58: Sonnensucher [dir]. 1958/59: Sterne / Zwezdy [dir – DD/BG]. 1959/60: Leute mit Flügeln [dir]. 1960/61: Professor Mamlock. 1963/64: Der geteilte Himmel. 1966: Die Ermittlung [TV – act]; Der kleine Prinz [TV – dir]. 1967: Grenada, Grenada, Grenada moja … [DO – co-scr – SU]; Ich war neunzehn. 1970/71: Goya / Goja, ili Tâkij pu poznani’ [DD/SU]. 1973: Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz. 1976: Mama, ich lebe. 1977: Konrad Wolf [TVD – app]. 1977/78: Addio, piccola mia [act]. 1978/79: Solo Sunny [co-dir,co-scr]. 1981/82: Busch singt. 1. Aurora – Morgenrot / 2. Nur auf die Minute kommt es an / 3. 1935 oder Das Faß der Pandora / 4. In Spanien / 5. Ein Toter auf Urlaub / 6. Und weil der Mensch ein Mensch ist [DO – supv,ide; part 3: dir,scr; part 5: dir,voi]. 1983: ‘Dafür will ich gebraucht werden …’ Konrad Wolf [DO – app]. 1985: Die Zeit die bleibt [DO – app]. 1988: Verzeiht, daß ich ein Mensch bin. Friedrich Wolf [DO – app].
SÖNKE WORTMANN Born August 25, 1959, Marl (West Germany) Wortmann established himself as a director with a string of comedies in the 1990s, typically centred on urban lifestyles and modern gender relationships. In his films, protagonists are often placed in an initially hostile environment, which leads to inevitable misunderstandings and conflicts until a compromise brings harmony. Some of Wortmann’s films became extremely successful and broke box-office records. Often toying with risqué subjects, his films were nev-
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ertheless frequently criticised for their social conformism. After leaving school, Wortmann took on odd jobs and was briefly a professional football player, before studying at the Academy for Television and Film in Munich (HFFM) between 1984 and 1988, followed by a year at the Royal College of Art in London. While at the HFFM, he made five short films, including DREI D (Three D, 1988), an ironically self-reflexive study of a film student who is making his graduation film about a film student shooting his graduation film. Wortmann’s first full-length film was the TV production EINE WAHNSINNSEHE (A Crazy Marriage, 1989/90). His next TV assignment, the comedy ALLEIN UNTER FRAUEN (Alone Among Women, 1990/91) got a cinema release and established his classic formula with its story of a handsome, unreconstructed macho who moves in with a group of selfconfident modern women. It became a big hit with audiences, as did KLEINE HAIE (Small Sharks, 1991/92), the story of three friends trying to make it into acting school. On the basis of his success, Wortmann was fêted as the bright new hope of German cinema. His attempt to break new ground with the road-movie MR. BLUESMAN (1992/93), however, was less successful. Wortmann returned to his standard formula in DER BEWEGTE MANN (The Most Desired Man, 1994), which became the biggest German box office success up to this point. Based on a gay underground cartoon, Wortmann’s film transformed its subcultural source into a socially consensual farce about a handsome womaniser (Til Schweiger) thrown out by his pregnant girlfriend (Katja Riemann) who finds temporary refuge with a love-struck gay friend. Unlike its more subversive source material, the film celebrated heterosexual normality and turned its gay characters into cuddly, harmless stereotypes. Wortmann’s next film, DAS SUPERWEIB (The Super Woman, 1995) told the story of a housewife turned bestselling author, and despite its ostensibly independent main female protagonist, once again managed to transport a normative understanding of gender roles. Wortmann then helmed a remake of the traditional cross-dressing farce CHARLEYS TANTE (Charley’s Aunt, 1996) as part of Bernd Eichinger’s TV series ‘German Classics’. DER CAMPUS (The Campus, 1997) saw Heiner Lauterbach as a University professor under suspicion of having raped a student, a situation taken as the departure point for a deeply conservative satire of tabloid sensationalism and political correctness gone mad. ST. PAULI NACHT (Night in St Pauli, 1998/99) provided a panorama of Hamburg’s legendary red light and entertainment district in a series of episodic vignettes that shifted between drama and comedy. DER HIMMEL VON HOLLYWOOD / THE HOLLY-
WOOD SIGN (2001), a black comedy shot in Los Angeles and starring veteran Hollywood actors Tom Berenger, Rod Steiger and Burt Reynolds, flopped. Since 1998, with his production companies Little Shark Entertainment and Shark TV, Wortmann and his business partner Tom Spiess (co-)produced a number of films for screen or television. In the new millennium Wortmann re-established himself with cinema audiences by tapping into Germany’s obsession with its favourite sport, football. Proclaiming a seemingly untroubled sense of collective national identity, DAS WUNDER VON BERN (The Miracle of Berne, 2002/03) was a sentimental slice of historical nostalgia about West Germany’s triumph in winning the 1954 World Cup. The film became a huge domestic hit, only excelled by Wortmann’s ambitious follow-up documentary about the 2006 World Cup in Germany, which chronicled the trajectory of the German team to the semi-final, DEUTSCHLAND – EIN SOMMERMÄRCHEN (Germany: A Summer Fairytale, 2006). DIE BESTEN FRAUEN DER WELT (The Best Women in the World, 2007) was a TV documentary about the German women’s football team, which triumphed at the 2007 World cup, When Volker Schlöndorff was fired by the producers Constantin and Ufa-International shortly before starting to shoot the historical drama DIE PÄPSTIN / POPE JOAN (2008), Wortmann took over the project. [dir,(co-)scr – DE] 1984: Anderthalb (Gelsenkirchen Mon Amour) [SF]. 1985: Nachtfahrer [SF]. 1986: Reise für den blassen Mann [SF – co-dir]; Reschkes großer Dreh [TVS – 1 episode – act]; Fotofinish [SF]. 1986/87: Die glückliche Familie. [TVS – 1st season – act]. 1987: Noblesse oblige [SF – pro]. 1988: Drei D [dir,scr,pro]. 1988/89: Liebesgeschichten: Die Hochzeit des Figaro [TVS]. 1989: With Love from Winston [SF – pro]. 1989/90: Die glückliche Familie. [TVS – 2nd season – act]; Eine Wahnsinnsehe [TV – dir]. 1990/91: Wilde Herzen: Allein unter Frauen; Moving [act]. 1991/92: Kleine Haie. 1992/93: Mr. Bluesman [dir]. 1994: Der bewegte Mann. 1995: Das Superweib [dir]. 1996: Hollywood, Germany [TVD – app]; Harald [act]; Charleys Tante [TV – dir]. 1997: Der Campus. 1998: Kai Rabe gegen die Vatikankiller [act]. 1998/99: St. Pauli Nacht [dir]. 2000: Bernd Eichinger. Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird [TVD – app]. 2001: Lammbock [pro]; Der Himmel von Hollywood / The Hollywood Sign [DE/US/NL – dir]. 2002/03: Das Wunder von Bern [dir,coscr,pro]. 2005: Arnies Welt [TV – pro]. 2005/06: Freunde für immer – Das Leben ist rund [TVS – dir (5 episodes), coscr,pro]. 2006: Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen [DO – dir,scr,co-cam,act]. 2006/07: Münchner (Filmfest-)Geschichten – 25 Jahre Filmfest München [TVD – app]. 2007: Die besten Frauen der Welt [TVD – pro] 2007/08: Hardcover [pro]. 2008/09: Hangtime [pro]; Die Päpstin / Pope Joan / La Papessa / La Papisa [DE/GB/IT/ES].
KLAUS WYBORNY KLAUS WYBORNY Born June 6, 1945, Bittkau, near Magdeburg (Germany) Wyborny’s experimental films produced during the 1970s and 1980s frequently explored the history of film language and form. Wyborny began studying Mathematics and Physics at Hamburg University in 1964. He became a member of the students’ film and TV workshop (AKFF) and made short 8mm films as well as appearing in films by Hellmuth Costard, Werner Grassmann and Fritz Strohecker. He was one of the founding members of the Hamburg Filmmakers Cooperative in 1968. Wyborny typically shot his experimental black and white films in one day, re-working them by repeatedly filming sections, enlarging and manipulating the image. The amateurish pictures contrasted with the poetic commentary, which imitated and parodied those used in commercial movies. In 1968 he continued his physics studies in New York, where he also later taught. At film screenings organised by Jonas Mekas, he met Ken Jacobs, Jack Smith, Larry Gottheim and other avantgarde filmmakers. Using his original 8mm films, but blowing them up to 16mm, he created a collage of images that became his four-part film DÄMONISCHE LEINWAND (The Haunted Screen, 1969), quoting Lotte Eisner’s famous study of Weimar cinema in its title. The same year Wyborny completed a commission for a film about the artist Heiner Böttger, SEHENSWÜRDIGKEITEN (Sights). For TV he made a film tracing the development of a commune, ROT WAR DAS ABENTEUER – BLAU WAR DIE REUE (Red Was the Adventure – Blue Was Regret, 1971). Also produced for television, Wyborny’s DIE GEBURT DER NATION (The Birth of a Nation, 1972/ 73), an investigation of early film language and drawing on D. W. Griffith, got a rather tepid response in Hamburg, but in New York it was celebrated and bought by the Museum of Modern Art. Between 1974 and 1975 Wyborny worked as a lorrydriver, shot PICTURES OF THE LOST WORD (1971– 75) and from autumn 1975 taught cinematic art at the New York State University. During the winter semester of 1978/79 he taught at the Ohio State University in Columbus. The silent TV film DAS SZENISCHE OPFER (The Scenic Sacrifice, 1980) depicted industrial landscapes in the Ruhr region. Apart from his films, Wyborny was also active as a painter and performance artist. He often travelled to far-away places, working in Africa as an actor in TROPIAFRIC – GRÜSSE AUS DER WILDNIS (Tropiafric – Greetings From the Wilderness, 1982/83), and filming in East Africa and Cairo for VERLASSEN, VERLOREN, EINSAM, KALT (Abandoned, Lost, Lonely, Cold, 1982–92).
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With the actors Tilda Swinton and Hanns Zischler he made the feature film DAS OFFENE UNIVERSUM (The Open Universe, 1986–89) in the Caribbean. Zischler also played the title role in Wyborny’s SULLA (1990–2001), set in ancient Rome. As Wyborny repeatedly reworked and reedited his films precise dates and titles are difficult to document. [filmmaker – AG – DE] 1966: Klammer auf, Klammer zu [SF – act]. 1966-68: Play-Play-Play. 1966-69: Und abends legte sich Jacqueline auf ihr Bett und lachte. 1967: Gammler-Ballade [SF – act]; Null-Null-Zero [SF – ass-dir,scr,act]; Ein Brief aus der Provinz; Going to Stuttgart. 1968: Heimkehr; A Crowd in the Face; Es lebe die heimliche Revolution des 8mm; Heimkehr nach St. Pauli; Home Sweet Home; Im KZ; In the Sands; Nieder mit Coca Cola; Den Teufel im Nacken; Trip around the Clock; Auf zu den Sternen; Drei Tage mit Janine. Drei Tage mit John; Maisie IV; Der Markt von Ringköbing; Miami Beach; Streik. 1968/69: Das abenteuerliche, aber glücklose Leben des William Parmagino; Bumps. Shake. Two Hamburgers [cam,act]; Thorium 232; Das größte Verbrechen aller Zeiten. 1969: No Way to Treat a Lady; Dämonische Leinwand [4 parts]; In Kampen ist die Hölle los; Natascha will Thomas, den Mörder verlassen; Sehenswürdigkeiten. 1969/70: Percy McPhee – Agent des Grauens (6. + 7. Folge). 1969-71: Chimney Piece. 1970: Und niemand in Hollywood, der versteht, daß schon viel zu viele Gehirne umgedreht wurden [TV – act,cam]; Ludwig van Beethoven – Ein Leben für die Musik. 1970/71: Dallas Texas – After the Goldrush. 1970-74: Die phantastische Welt des Matthew Madson [ANI – co-scr,act]. 1971: Rot war das Abenteuer – Blau war die Reue [TV]. 1971-75: Pictures of the Lost Word. 1971-76: Elementare Filmgeschichte. 1971-78: Verwegen den Wellen entgegen. 1972: 4 ländliche Skizzen / 4 Rural Pieces. 1972/73: Die Geburt der Nation (The Birth of a Nation) [TV]. 1973/74: Diwan [act]. 1974: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle [co-cam]; The Ideal (Ecstasy & Beauty). 1975: Flug von SF nach NY. 1976: Fensterfilm; Bartleby. 1976/77: Der Ort der Handlung; Demon [act]. 1977: Sechs kleine Stücke auf Film; Unerreichbar Heimatlos. 1978: Four Shadows [voi – US]; Blond! 1978/79: Potpourri aus ‘Östlich von keinem Westen’. 1978-82: Normalsatz [act]. 1979: Cordallimente Italiano. 1980: Das szenische Opfer. 1980-82: Zwischen den Bildern. 3. Über die Trägheit der Wahrnehmung [TVD – app]. 1980-94: Aus dem Zeitalter des Übermuts: Dichtung und Wahrheit. 1981: Am Arsch der Welt (To have and to be). 1982: 2084. 1982/83: Tropiafric – Grüße aus der Wildnis [DO – sfx,act]. 1982-86: Am Rande der Finsternis. 1982-92: Verlassen, verloren, einsam, kalt. [2 versions]. 1983: Was ist ein Experimentalfilm? [SD – mus,act]. 1985: Gnade und Dinge. 1985-87: Die Gefühle der Augen [act]. 1986-89: Das offene Universum. (Open Universe). 1987: Ohne Titel (Out of New York). 1987/88: Brennende Betten [act]. 1988-91: Der Zynische Körper [app]. 1990-2001: Sulla. 1998: Die kritische Masse. film im underground hamburg ’68 [DO – app]. 2002-05: Photographie und jenseits / Photography and Beyond: 8. D’Annunzios Höhle [co-cam]. 2003-05:
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FRANK WYSBAR
Lieder der Erde: Eine andere Welt. [DO]. 2006: Hommage an Ludwig van Beethoven (op. 111 und Missa Solemnis).
FRANK WYSBAR (Frank Paul Wysbar, aka Frank Wisbar) Born December 9, 1899, Tilsit (Germany, now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast/Russia) Died March 17, 1967, Mainz (West Germany) One of the more idiosyncratic directors in Nazi cinema, Wysbar later worked on Hollywood B-movies and more successfully in television, before making a comeback in 1950s West German film with a series of World War II dramas. Conscripted into the German army in 1915, Wysbar continued as a professional soldier after the end of World War I, becoming an officer in 1925 and advancing to the rank of lieutenant. After leaving the Reichswehr in 1927, he initially tried his hand as a writer, and co-edited a literary and art magazine. Moving into the film industry, he first worked as an assistant for Carl Boese and Carl Froelich. His first major film as production manager was Leontine Sagan’s MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM (Girls in Uniform, 1931), a milestone of Weimar cinema. A year later, Wysbar got his first assignment as a director on the whimsical adventure IM BANN DES EULENSPIEGELS (Enthralled by Eulenspiegel, 1932), followed soon after by RIVALEN DER LUFT (Rivals of the Air, 1933), a romantic drama about young glider pilots. ANNA UND ELISABETH (1933) reunited Wysbar with the two stars of MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM, Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck, and told the story of a friendship between a sickly aristocrat and a peasant girl with supernatural healing powers. The narrative’s morbid tone and lesbian subtext led Nazi critics to denounce it as ‘decadent’. Wysbar’s next film, a Swiss-German adaptation of Gottfried Keller’s novella DAS FÄHNLEIN DER SIEBEN AUFRECHTEN (The Flag of the Righteous Seven, 1934) was considered more suitable. Directly funded by Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda, it won an award at the 1935 Venice film festival. Wysbar came under pressure from the authorities, not least because of his Jewish wife. In a memoir written in American exile in 1940 (and re-published in 2002), Eva Wysbar (1908–1984), a script editor at Tobis-Film before 1933, described the couple’s increasingly precarious position. Under Gestapo surveillance, Wysbar’s passport was confiscated in 1935. The same year, the couple was forced to divorce. FÄHRMANN MARIA (Ferryman Maria, 1935) became one of the most unusual films produced during the Nazi period. An ideologically ambivalent and lyrically photographed (by Franz Weihmayr) mystical fantasy, the story centred on a melancholy state-
less woman (Sibylle Schmitz) who in an unspecified swampland works as a ferryman between two antagonistic regions. Wysbar’s remaining films in Nazi Germany were innocuous comedies and other light entertainment. By 1938, he found himself blacklisted as a director, but worked as an advisor on experiments with colour film (Siemens-Berthon lenticular process) and on early television projects. He emigrated after the ‘Reichspogrom’, and was eventually reunited with Eva and his two daughters in America, although they separated later. It took several years before Wysbar was given official residency status and a work permit. In 1941 he moved to Los Angeles, and gradually managed to get assignments in Hollywood. His films (in his American period he spelled his name Wisbar) were poverty row productions, and included alongside B-westerns, juvenile delinquency melodramas and other low-budget fare a bizarre horror remake of FÄHRMANN MARIA, STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP (1945), subsequently championed by film historian William K. Everson as a cult classic. Gaining US citizenship in 1947, Wisbar worked mainly in television from the late 1940s, founding Wisbar Productions Inc., and specialising in advertising films and drama series, such as GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER. As producer, writer and sometime director Wisbar supervised more than 300 episodes of the series FIRESIDE THEATRE (NBC, 1950–54). During the 1952/53 season, Wisbar also acted as host in front of the camera. In 1956, Wysbar returned to West Germany and made a series of popular World War II-related cinema releases, including the U-boat drama HAIE UND KLEINE FISCHE (Sharks and Little Fish, 1957); a reconstruction of the battle of Stalingrad in HUNDE, WOLLT IHR EWIG LEBEN (Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever?, 1958/59); and NACHT FIEL ÜBER GOTENHAFEN (Darkness Fell on Gotenhafen, 1959/ 60), about the sinking of the refugee ship ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’. While some critics praised these films as even-handed attempts of coming to terms with the national past, others saw them as offering a retrospective exculpation of the ‘ordinary German’ under Nazism. Some of Wysbar’s later films dealt with contemporary topics, such as tabloid journalism in NASSER ASPHALT (Wet Asphalt, 1958), and escape attempts from behind the Iron Curtain in DURCHBRUCH LOK 234 (The Breakthrough, 1963). In the 1960s he worked mostly for West German television. [dir,co-scr – DE] 1931: Mädchen in Uniform [pro]; Die schwarze Maske [SF – pro]; Zwischen Zwölf und Viertel Eins [SF – pro]. 1932: Im Bann des Eulenspiegels [dir]. 1933: Anna und Elisabeth [dir,co-scr,pro]; Rivalen der
FRANK WYSBAR Luft [dir]. 1934: Hermine und die sieben Aufrechten / Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten [DE/CH]. 1935: Die Werft zum grauen Hecht; Fährmann Maria. 1936: Die Unbekannte. 1936/37: Ball im Metropol. 1937: Petermann ist dagegen! [dir – US] 1939: The Tell-Tale Heart [TV – GB]. 1943: Women in Bondage [ide,techn adv]. 1945: Strangler of the Swamp [dir,scr,ide]. 1946: Devil Bat’s Daughter [dir, pro]; Secrets of a Sorority Girl [co-dir]; Lighthouse. 1947/ 48: Madonna of the Desert [ide]; The Prairie. 1948: The Mozart Story [MLV – co-dir,co-scr – US-version – US/AT]. 1948/49: Rimfire [co-scr,sma]. 1950-54: Fireside Theatre: Operation Mona Lisa / The Boxer and the Stranger / That’s How It Is / Mission to Algiers / The Mural / Joe Giordano and Mr. Lincoln / Bread Upon the Waters / The Grass Is
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Greener [TVS – dir,pro,host]. 1954/55: General Electric Theatre: You Are Young Only Once / The Crime of Daphne Rutledge / Pretending Makes It Do / Too Old for the Girl [TVS]. [dir – DE] 1957: Haie und kleine Fische. 1958: Nasser Asphalt. 1958/59: Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben [dir,scr]. 1959/60: Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen [dir,co-scr]. 1960: Fabrik der Offiziere [dir,co-scr]. 1961: Barbara – wild wie das Meer. 1962: Marschier oder krepier / Marcia o crepa / Marcha o muere [dir,co-scr – DE/IT/ES]. 1963: Durchbruch Lok 234. 1965: Das Feuerzeichen [TV]; Willkommen in Altamont [TV]; Onkel Phils Nachlaß [TV]. 1966: S.O.S. – Morro Castle [TV]. 1966/1967: Flucht über die Ostsee [TV – dir,co-scr]. 1968: Johannes durch den Wald. Schinderhannes [TV – co-scr]; Die Kinder von Geltenhausen [TV – ide].
ROSEL ZECH (Rosalie Helga Lina Zech) Born July 7, 1942, Berlin (Germany) Blond and elegant with an often haughty or aloof demeanour, Zech was a prolific presence on stage, in cinema, and on television from the 1970s onwards. Her most famous film role was the drugaddicted Nazi screen diva in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (Veronika Voss, 1981/82). The daughter of river barge captain, Zech studied acting at the Max Reinhardt academy in Berlin. After her first stage engagement in 1962 she played at provincial theatres in West Germany and Switzerland. She met director Peter Zadek at the Landestheater in Stuttgart who eventually brought her to his ensemble at the Schauspielhaus Bochum in 1972. Her small-screen debut was DER POTT (1970) Zadek’s TV version of Sean O’Casey’s play ‘The Silver Tassie’. While gradually building up a reputation on stage, she also accumulated a number of film and television credits during the decade, mostly in minor roles, as in Ulli Lommel’s DIE ZÄRTLICHKEIT DER WÖLFE (The Tenderness of Wolves, 1972/73), Zadek’s EISZEIT (Ice Age, 1974/75), Peter Fleischmann’s DIE HAMBURGER KRANKHEIT (The Hamburg Syndrome, 1978/79), and Fassbinder’s LOLA (1981). Marking the third part of his ‘BRD-Trilogy’ about three different women’s experiences in 1950s West Germany, DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (1981/82) finally brought Zech overnight fame with her portrayal of a theatrical and self-deluded former film star who is exploited by a scheming psychiatrist. Her performance, veering between melodramatic excess and understatement, won her a Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival in 1982. Few subsequent cinema assignments gave her a similar opportunity. Alexander Kluge’s DER ANGRIFF DER GEGENWART AUF DIE ÜBRIGE ZEIT (The Blind Director, 1984/85) saw her as a doctor, and she played the ‘successful type’ in his VERMISCHTE NACHRICHTEN (Odds and Ends, 1987). Among the many television series Zech appeared in during the 1980s a few productions stood out, such as DIE KNAPP-FAMILIE (The Knapp Family, 1981–83) about a miners’ family in the Ruhr district, Egon Monk’s DIE GESCHWISTER OPPERMANN (The Oppermanns, 1982) based on the novel by Lion Feucht-
wanger, and DIE BERTINIS (The Bertinis, 1988) the story of a half-Jewish family during the Nazi years. Back again on the big screen, Percy Adlon’s SALMONBERRIES (1991) gave her a leading part as a repressed librarian in a lesbian love story set in Alaska, and partnered her with Canadian singer k. d. lang. For most of the 1990s and into the new millennium, however, she was relegated to small supporting roles, as in Sönke Wortmann’s MR. BLUESMAN (1992/ 93), Max Färberböck’s AIMEE & JAGUAR (1998), and Stefan Ruzowitzky’s horror sequel ANATOMIE 2 (2002). On television, in contrast, she regained her popularity in the long running Bavarian-set sitcom-drama series UM HIMMELS WILLEN (For Heaven’s Sake, 2002– 09) which cast her as the strict Mother Superior of a regional monastery which finds itself in constant conflict with narrow-minded local authorities. Alongside her television and film work, Zech continued to appear in distinguished stage productions – becoming one of the leading ladies of the German theatre performing in Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich. For her ‘Hedda Gabler’ she was named ‘Actress of the Year’ in 1977; she was also awarded a life achievement award by the regional Bavarian government in 1999, and won a theatre prize in 2001 for her performance in a production of Anne Meara’s drama ‘Afterplay’ in Munich. In 2009 she took on the role of Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage’. [act – TV – DE] 1970: Der Pott. 1972/73: Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe [FF]. 1973: Tatort: Stuttgarter Blüten; Kleiner Mann, was nun? 1974: Mädchen in Uniform. 1974/75: Die Möwe; Eiszeit [FF]. 1975: Motiv – Liebe: Annegrets Kind; Die Geisel. 1975/76: Geburtstage: Ecken sind nicht rund. 1977: Vorstadtkrokodile. 1978: Hedda Gabler; Verführungen. 1978/79: Die Hamburger Krankheit / La maladie d’Hambourg [FF – DE/FR]. 1979: Die Jahre vergehen [AT]. 1980: Der Menschenfeind; Mosch. 1981: Der Nächste bitte; Lola [FF]; Heute spielen wir den Boss – Wo geht’s denn hier zum Film? [FF]. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss [FF]. 1981-83: Die Knapp-Familie [5 episodes]. 1982: Die Geschwister Oppermann. 1983: Klawitter; Mascha. 1984/85: Tatort: Der Mord danach; Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit [FF]; Ein fliehendes Pferd. 1985: Julia. 1985/86: Vermischte Nachrichten [FF]. 1986: Der Alte: Terzett in Gold; Betrogene Liebe. 1986/87: Herz mit Löffel [FF]. 1987: Der Alte: Verwischte Spuren; Nebel im Fjord; Der Alte: Mord ist Mord; Dortmunder Roulette:
ROLF ZEHETBAUER Schlimm aber gut; Die Bombe [DE/FR]. 1987/88: Hemingway [DE/US]. 1988: Die Bertinis; Fabrik der Offiziere [FF – DE/CS]. 1989: Der Alte: Ausgestiegen. 1990: Bei mir liegen Sie richtig [FF]; Eines langen Tages Reise in die Nacht [AT]. 1991: Salmonberries [FF]. 1992: Frauen über R. W. Fassbinder [TVD]; Polizeiruf 110: Gespenster. 1992/93: Mr. Bluesman [FF]. 1993: Derrick: Nach acht langen Jahren; Der rote Vogel. 1993/94: Schade um Papa [3 episodes – AT]. 1994: Weißblaue Wintergeschichten; Schneewittchens Baby; Das Baby der schwangeren Toten. 1994/95: Hades [FF]; Neben der Zeit. 1994-96: Ärzte: Die indische Ärztin [4 episodes]. 1995: Dicke Freunde. 1996: Terror im Namen der Liebe. 1996/97: Die Geliebte [1 episode]; Lea Katz – Die Kriminalpsychologin: Das wilde Kind; Die letzte Rettung. 1997/98: Life, Love & Celluloid [DO]. 1998: Weißblaue Wintergeschichten; Der Schlüssel; Tatort: Der zweite Mann; Für alle Fälle Stefanie: Das Model und die Nonne; Tatort: Der Todesbote; Aimée & Jaguar [FF]. 1998/99: Im Visier der Zielfahnder: Die Frau ohne Namen. 1999: Siska: Blackout; Der Alte: Im Angesicht des Todes; Morgen gehört der Himmel Dir; Ein Fall für zwei: Abgebrüht. 2000: Oh, du Fröhliche. 2001: Ein unmöglicher Mann; Grosse Liebe wider Willen; Das Schneeparadies. 2001/02: Väter [FF]. 2002: Höchstpersönlich: Rosel Zech [TVD – app]; Der letzte Zeuge: Tod eines Stars; Zwei Affären und eine Hochzeit; Anatomie 2 [FF]; Der Auftrag – Mordfall in der Heimat. 2002–2009: Um Himmels Willen [TVS – 8 seasons – 104 episodes]; 2003: Plötzlich wieder 16; Stubbe – Von Fall zu Fall: Yesterday; Tatort: Veras Waffen; Tatort: Mörderspiele. 2004: Kammerflimmern [FF]; Der Alte: Tod im Morgengrauen; K3 – Kripo Hamburg: Fieber; Rosamunde Pilcher – Segel der Liebe. 2004/05: In Liebe eine Eins. 2005: Papa und Mama. 2006: Mr. Nanny – Ein Mann für Mama; Agathe kann’s nicht lassen: Die Tote im Bootshaus [AT]. 2007: Annas Alptraum kurz nach 6; Späte Aussicht. 2007/08: Das Traumschiff: Kilimandscharo – Malediven – Indien; Einsatz in Hamburg: Ein sauberer Mord; Donna Leon – Blutige Steine. 2008: Der Schwarzwaldhof; Um Himmels Willen – Weihnachten in Kaltenthal; Die Rebellin.
ROLF ZEHETBAUER (Rudolf Zehetbauer) Born February 13, 1929, Munich (Germany) Zehetbauer was one of the most prominent production designers of post-war German cinema. His specific expertise for recreating the ‘Third Reich’ brought him international assignments, most notably Bob Fosse’s CABARET (1971/72) for which he won an Oscar and a BAFTA award in 1973. Zehetbauer studied architecture and applied arts in Munich between 1947 and 1951. Work experience at the Bavaria studios introduced him to the film industry, and he would remain associated with the Southern German film scene in and around Munich from then on. His collaborators over the years were mainly Gottfried Will in the 1950s, later Werner Achmann and Herbert Strabel. His first independent work (to-
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gether with Carl Ludwig Kirmse) on the Heimatfilm DIE ALM AN DER GRENZE (The Border Fields, 1951) broke with the clichéd images of the genre and demonstrated his exactitude in capturing specific milieus. His reputation as an expert in visually recreating the ‘Third Reich’ began with CANARIS (Canaris Master Spy, 1954). For Robert Siodmak’s NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM (The Devil Strikes At Night, 1957), again set during the Nazi period, he received a German film award. He worked with Siodmak on a number of occasions in the 1950s, also providing the sets for DIE RATTEN (The Rats, 1955) and MEIN SCHULFREUND (My School Chum, 1960). Other major assignments included Gottfried Reinhardt’s lavish remake of Vicki Baum’s MENSCHEN IM HOTEL / GRAND HÔTEL (1959), and Julien Duvivier’s European co-production DAS KUNSTSEIDENE MÄDCHEN / LA GRAN VITA / LA GRANDE VIE (The High Life, 1959/60), based on Irmgard Keun’s bestseller about a young woman’s life during the final years of the Weimar republic. In 1963 Zehetbauer took over as head of design at the Bavaria studios when German cinema was in the doldrums. He turned to TV productions, including the cult science fiction series RAUMPATROUILLE (Space Patrol, 1966). Following his international breakthrough with CABARET (1971/72), he managed to attract a number of high profile productions to Southern Germany. Among the films shot in Geiselgasteig, and featuring sets by Zehetbauer, were Ronald Neame’s thriller THE O.D.E.S.S.A. FILE (1974); THE SERPENT’S EGG / DAS SCHLANGENEI, Ingmar Bergman’s ghostly vision of the ‘Third Reich’; and Robert Aldrich’s dystopian countdown to a nuclear Holocaust, TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING / DAS ULTIMATUM (both 1976/77). Zehetbauer also worked repeatedly with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, on the Nabokov adaptation EINE REISE INS LICHT – DESPAIR (Despair, 1977/78), the Nazi-era melodrama LILI MARLEEN (1980), and the director’s final film, the highly stylised adaptation of Jean Genet’s QUERELLE (1982). For Wolfgang Petersen’s DAS BOOT (1980/81) Zehetbauer built the set of a submarine to scale, which enhanced the claustrophobic atmosphere that made the film about a World War II U-boat crew such a success. Again in collaboration with Petersen, Zehetbauer met new technological challenges with the children’s fantasy film DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE (The NeverEnding Story, 1983/84) and with the science fiction drama ENEMY MINE (1984/85). Leaving Bavaria-Film in 1990, Zehetbauer formed his own company, Phantasy and Partners. He collaborated with Joseph Vilsmaier on SCHLAFES BRUDER (Brother of Sleep, 1994/95), for which he built a
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whole mountain village. For COMEDIAN HARMONISTS (The Harmonists, 1997), set in the late 1920s, he created extravagant sets that were marked by meticulous attention to period detail in terms of locations, furniture and accessories. In this as well as in Vilsmaier’s subsequent Marlene Dietrich biopic MARLENE (1999/2000) his impressive sets often overwhelmed the films’ far less accomplished plots. Apart from his activities in films, Zehetbauer pursued a second career as an interior designer. Assignments ranged from the Film Museum in Frankfurt to the KDW department store in Berlin to a theme park in Yalta as well as several projects in Munich. [(co-)des – DE] 1948: Der Herr vom andern Stern; Die kupferne Hochzeit. 1949: Ich mach’ Dich glücklich; 0 Uhr 15 Zimmer 9. 1950: Liebe auf Eis; Die fidele Tankstelle. 1950/51: Amore e sangue / Schatten über Neapel [IT/ DE]. 1951: Die Alm an der Grenze; Gefangene Seele. 1951/52: Der eingebildete Kranke. 1952: Alle kann ich nicht heiraten. 1953: Knall und Fall als Detektive [DE/AT]; Hollandmädel; Damenwahl; Liebeserwachen; Bezauberndes Fräulein. 1953/54: Bei Dir war es immer so schön. 1954: Der Modespiegel. 2. Folge [SD]; Fräulein vom Amt; Die Mücke; Canaris. 1955: Liebe ohne Illusion; Die Ratten; Hotel Adlon; Du mein stilles Tal; Alibi; Das Bad auf der Tenne. 1955/56: Frucht ohne Liebe. 1956: Vor Sonnenuntergang; Kitty und die große Welt; Liebe / Uragano sul Po [DE/IT]; Johannisnacht. 1956/57: Königin Luise. 1957: Franziska; Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam; Immer wenn der Tag beginnt; Scampolo. 1958: Ist Mama nicht fabelhaft?; Der Maulkorb; Solange das Herz schlägt. 1958/59: Dorothea Angermann. 1959: Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Jons und Erdme / La donna dell’altro [DE/IT]; Ein Mann geht durch die Wand; Bezaubernde Arabella. 1959/60: Das kunstseidene Mädchen / La gran vita / La grande vie [DE/IT/FR]; Der Jugendrichter. 1960: Mein Schulfreund; Soldatensender Calais; Der Gauner und der liebe Gott; Immer will ich Dir gehören; An heiligen Wassern [CH]. 1960/61: Town Without Pity / Stadt ohne Mitleid [US/CH]. 1961: Vertauschtes Leben; Mörderspiel / Le jeu de l’assassin [DE/FR]; Freddy und der Millionär / La signorina miliardo [DE/IT]. 1961/62: Max, der Taschendieb; Verräterische Spuren [TV]. 1962: Dicke Luft; Der Vogelhändler; Die Rache [TV]; Er kann’s nicht lassen; Alle Macht der Erde [TV]; Lokalbericht [TV]; Zaubereien oder Die Tücke des Objekts [TV]; Bekenntnisse eines möblierten Herrn; Die Nacht der Schrecken [TV]. 1962/63: Der jähzornige junge Mann [TV]; Spiel im Morgengrauen [TV]. 1963: Der Hexer [TV]; Sonderurlaub [TV]; Meine Tochter und ich; Orden für die Wunderkinder [TV]; Mein Herz ist im Hochland [TV]; Ein Mann im schönsten Alter; Das Fräulein an der Kasse [TV]. 1963/64: Die Gardine [TV]; Karl Sand [TV]; Der Seitensprung [TV]. 1964: Hotel Victoria. [1964] [TV]; Der Hund des Generals [TV]; Eurydike [TV]; Das hab’ ich von Papa gelernt [DE/AT]; Die Geschichte von Joel Brand [TV]. 1964/65: Die 5. Kolonne: Zwielicht [TV]; Christinas Heimreise [TV]; Der Ruepp [TV]; Es ist so schön ein Mädchen zu sein [TV]. 1965: Abends Kammermusik [TV]; Ro-
berta Peters [TV]; Kennen Sie Miß Johns? [TV]; Situation Hopeless – But Not Serious [US]; Oberst Wennerström. Spion zwischen Ost und West [TV]; Die Tochter des Brunnenmachers [TV]; Berta Garlan [TV]; Blue Light [TVS – US]. 1965/66: Um null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu; Das Bohrloch oder Bayern ist nicht Texas [TV]. 1966: Die 5. Kolonne: Ein Auftrag für … [TV]; Der Regenmacher [TV]; Das ganz große Ding [TV]; Ein Schloß [TV]; Die rote Rosa [TV]; Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion [TVS]; I Deal in Danger [US]; Im weißen Rössl [TV]; Flucht ohne Ausweg [TV]. 1966/67: Wo liegt Jena? [TV]. 1967: Die Zimmerwirtin [TV]; Der Dreispitz [TV]; Jack of Diamonds / Der Diamantenprinz [US/DE]; Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel; Das Attentat: Heydrich in Prag [TV]; Lord Arthur Savilles Verbrechen [TV]; Der Trinker [TV]; Sieben Wochen auf dem Eis [TV]. 1967/68: Schinderhannes [TV]; Mathilde Möhring [TV]; Madame Bovary [TV]; Schmutzige Hände [TV]; Tragödie auf der Jagd [TV]; Die Schlacht bei Lobositz [TV]. 1968: Die schwarze Sonne [TV]; Othello [TV]; Prüfung eines Lehrers [TV]. 1968/ 69: Asche des Sieges [TV]. 1969: Die Verschwörung [TV]; Sag’s dem Weihnachtsmann [TV]; Wie eine Träne im Ozean [TV]. 1969/70: Tartuffe oder Der Betrüger [TV]. 1970: The Last Escape [US]. 1971: Die heilige Johanna [TV – AT/DE]. 1971/72: Cabaret [US]; Herzbube / King, Queen, Knave [DE/US]. 1972: Der Schrei der schwarzen Wölfe; Unter anderem Ehebruch [I] [TV]. 1973: Oh, Jonathan – oh, Jonathan. 1974: The O.D.E.S.S.A. File / Die Akte Odessa [GB/DE]; Sirenengesang / Une femme fatale [DE/FR]; Härte 10 [TV]. 1975/76: The Swiss Conspiracy / Per Saldo Mord [US/DE]. 1976/77: Das Ultimatum / Twilight’s Last Gleaming [DE/US]; Das Schlangenei / The Serpent’s Egg [DE/US]; Des Teufels Advokat. 1977/78: Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair; Who’s Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? / Die Schlemmerorgie [US/DE]. 1978: Brass Target [US]; Die erste Polka. 1979: American Success Company [US]. 1979/80: Aus dem Leben der Marionetten [TV – DE/ AT]. 1980: Lili Marleen. 1980/81: Das Boot. 1981: Night Crossing [US]. 1981/82: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss; Doktor Faustus. 1982: Inside the Third Reich [TV – US]; Querelle – Ein Pakt mit dem Teufel / Querelle [DE/FR]; L’As des as / Das As der Asse [FR/DE]. 1982/83: Die wilden Fünfziger. 1983/84: Die unendliche Geschichte. 1984/ 85: Enemy Mine [US]. 1987: Schloß Königswald. 1987/ 88: Ödipussi. 1988: Traumkulisse. Zu Besuch bei Rolf Zehetbauer [TVD – app]; Der Nussknacker [TV]. 1989/90: Die unendliche Geschichte II – Auf der Suche nach Phantasien. 1990: Erfolg [TV]. 1992: Jackpot (Classe speziale) [IT]. 1994: Die unendliche Geschichte III – Rettung aus Phantasien. 1994/95: Schlafes Bruder [AT/DE]. 1997: Comedian Harmonists. 1998/99: Manila. 1999/2000: Marlene; Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm. 2001: Deutsche Lebensläufe: Ein Überlebenskünstler. Der Schauspieler Heinz Rühmann [TVD – app]. 2002/03: Luther. 2003: Raumpatrouille Orion – Rücksturz ins Kino.
WOLFGANG ZELLER WOLFGANG ZELLER (Wolfgang Friedrich Zeller) Born September 12, 1893, Biesenrode (Germany) Died January 11, 1967, Berlin (West Germany) A composer working on some of the earliest sound films, Zeller’s music was never populist or ‘catchy’. His scores were based on complicated structures, and he specialised in sombre, melancholy music, especially effective in melodramas, but also employed in propaganda films. The son of a vicar, Zeller studied composition and violin in Munich. During World War I he was injured at the front and eventually retired as unfit for active service. He began to compose music intensively in 1919, while making a living as a violinist, first at Deutsches Opernhaus (German Opera), then at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Between 1921 and 1929 he was the in-house composer, writing about eighty pieces for stage plays. For Lotte Reiniger, who made sets for a Volksbühne production, Zeller wrote the music for the silhouette film DIE GESCHICHTE DES PRINZEN ACHMED (The Adventures of Prince Ahmed, 1923–26). His score was so successful Tobis commissioned him to write the music for the first full-length German sound film, Walther Ruttmann’s MELODIE DER WELT (Melody of the World, 1928/29). Zeller showed his readiness for experimentation, using music as a background to dialogue, even when this was technically difficult. Work on Carl Theodor Dreyer’s VAMPYR (The Vampire, 1931/32) and G. W. Pabst’s L’ATLANTIDE / DIE HERRIN VON ATLANTIS / THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS (1932) as well as numerous short and documentary films followed. During the ‘Third Reich’, Zeller’s career suffered setbacks and he was mostly assigned minor productions. Emil Jannings reinstated Zeller in the late 1930s as the composer for DER ZERBROCHENE KRUG (The Broken Jug, 1937) and ROBERT KOCH, DER BEKÄMPFER DES TODES (Robert Koch, 1939). His sparse score was characterised by its clarity and gravity. Originally engaged to write the score for Veit Harlan’s anti-Semitic propaganda film JUD SÜSS (Jew Süss, 1940) the project was delayed and Zeller was sent to the front after the start of World War II. He was later recalled to continue his score for the film, with his music contributing significantly to the effect of the film. Harlan and Zeller collaborated again on the melodrama IMMENSEE (1942/43). After the end of the war, working in the eastern as well as in the western zones Zeller wrote the scores for EHE IM SCHATTEN (Marriage in the Shadows, 1947), Kurt Maetzig’s antifascist melodrama. MORITURI (1947/48), the story of an escape from a concentration camp, was the first of six collaborations with the director Eugen York.
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A later highlight was the macabre, demonic score for Wolfgang Staudte’s SCHICKSAL AUS ZWEITER HAND (Second Hand Fate, 1949), which also gave him the opportunity to show his hand as a composer of waltzes. In the 1950s, Zeller turned his attention to documentaries, including Bernhard Grzimek’s popular natural history film SERENGETI DARF NICHT STERBEN (Serengeti Must Not Die, 1958/59), which won an Oscar for the best documentary. [mus – DE] 1923-26: Die Geschichte des Prinzen Achmed [ANI]. 1927: Luther. 1927-31: Im Auto durch zwei Welten [DO]. 1928/29: Melodie der Welt [DO]. 1929: Das Land ohne Frauen. 1929/30: Prix de Beauté [FR]. 1930: Menschen im Busch [DO]; Zehn Minuten Mozart [ANI]. 1930/31: Himatschal, der Thron der Götter [DO]. 1931: Feind im Blut [CH/DE]; Tönende Welle [SD]. 1931/32: Vampyr. L’étrange aventure de David Gray [FR]. 1932: L’Atlantide [MLV – DE/FR]; Die Herrin von Atlantis [MLV]; The Mistress of Atlantis [MLV]; Ikarus. Günther Plüschows Fliegerschicksal [DO]; An heiligen Wassern!; Unmögliche Liebe. 1932/33: Die Insel der Dämonen. 193234: Deutschland – zwischen gestern und heute [DO]. 1933: Das alte Recht. 1934/35: Der alte und der junge König; Heilkräfte der Nordsee [SD]. 1935: Der Gefangene des Königs; Der Mann mit der Pranke; Stuttgart, die Großstadt zwischen Wald und Reben – die Stadt des Auslanddeutschtums [SD]; Stadt Stuttgart. 100. Cannstatter Volksfest [SD]. 1936: Die Kopfjäger von Borneo [NL/DE]; Ewiger Wald [DO]; Hamburg und seine Nachbarstadt Altona [SD]; Ritt in die Freiheit. 1936/37: Mannesmann [DO]; Der Herrscher; Pan. Das Schicksal des Leutnants Thomas Glahn. 1937: Der zerbrochene Krug; Petermann ist dagegen! 1937/38: Im Zeichen des Vertrauens [SD]; Les gens du voyage [MLV – FR/DE]; Das steinerne Buch [SD]; Mannesmann [SD]; Fahrendes Volk [MLV – FR/DE]. 1938: Im Dienste der Menschheit [SD]; Schatten über St. Pauli; Du und ich; Münster, Westfalens schöne Hauptstadt [SD]; Ziel in den Wolken; Spiel im Sommerwind; Schwäbische Kunde [SD]. 1939: Der Gouverneur; Der Polizeifunk meldet …; Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes; Die fremde Frau; Die unheimlichen Wünsche; Seitensprünge. 1940: Jud Süß; Aberglaube [SD]. 1940/41: Unser kleiner Junge. 1941: Ein Film gegen die Volkskrankheit Krebs [SD]; Die Kellnerin Anna; Menschen im Sturm. 1941/ 42: Andreas Schlüter. 1942/43: Wenn die Sonne wieder scheint. Der Flachsacker; Immensee. 1942-44: Zwischen Nacht und Morgen / Augen der Liebe. 1943: Meine vier Jungens. 1943/44: Der verzauberte Tag. 1944: Die Jahre vergehen … Der Senator. 1944/45: Ein toller Tag; Der Puppenspieler. 1944-49: Das kleine Hofkonzert. 1947: Es liegt an Dir [SD]; Ehe im Schatten [DD]. 1947/48: Grube Morgenrot [DD]; Morituri. 1948: Glück auf! [SD – DD]. 1948/49: Die letzte Nacht; Einfahrt frei! [SD – DD]; Die Brücke [mus,act – DD]; Und wenn’s nur einer wär’ [DD]. 1949: Wohin die Züge fahren; Schicksal aus zweiter Hand; Mordprozeß Dr. Jordan; Schatten der Nacht. 1949/ 50: Export in Blond. 1950: Die Lüge; Der Schatten des Herrn Monitor; Unsterbliche Geliebte. 1952: Zwei Menschen. 1952/53: Des Feuers Macht [DO]. 1953: Rote Ro-
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sen, rote Lippen, roter Wein; Mit 17 beginnt das Leben. 1953/54: Der goldene Garten. [DO]. 1954: Ännchen von Tharau. 1955: Du darfst nicht länger schweigen. 1955/56: Meine 16 Söhne. 1956: Kein Platz für wilde Tiere [DO]; Ein Herz kehrt heim. 1958: Die Landärztin. 1958/59: Serengeti darf nicht sterben [DO].
FRIEDRICH ZELNIK (aka Fred / Frederic Zelnik) Born May 17, 1885, Czernowitz (Austria-Hungary, now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) Died November 29, 1950, London (United Kingdom) A suave leading man in the 1910s, Zelnik became a successful director and producer of period operetta films in the 1920s and early 1930s, before emigrating to Britain where he anglicised his name to Fred[eric] Zelnik. Zelnik gained his first acting experience in student productions while attending high school in his home town. In 1903, he moved to Vienna, initially studying philosophy, and then completing his degree in law. Subsequently, he made his legitimate stage debut at the city’s Raimundtheater, and from 1909 performed at theatres in Nuremberg, Aachen, Worms, and Prague, prior to appearing at Berlin theatres owned by Rudolf Bernauer and Carl Meinhardt. Zelnik’s film debut was the Oskar Messter production DES SÄNGERS FLUCH (The Singer’s Curse, 1910), and he rose to stardom over the next few years playing elegant high society types. In 1915, he began producing his own starring vehicles with his company Berliner Filmmanufaktur, and soon after moved into directing as well. It was at this time that he launched the film career of his wife Lya Mara (1897–?) as a leading lady. Gradually withdrawing from acting in the late 1910s, Zelnik focused on producing and directing popular genre films that were carefully tailored to contemporary box-office tastes and consistently became hits. His successful series of costume melodramas invariably starred Mara, with her lovers played by a cavalcade of established male stars including Wilhelm Dieterle in DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTL (The Bohemian Dancer, 1925/26), Harry Liedtke in AN DER SCHÖNEN BLAUEN DONAU (The Beautiful Blue Danube, 1926), and Harry Halm in HEUT’ TANZT MARIETT (Marietta’s Dancing Day, 1927/28). Ironically, Zelnik’s best-remembered film today is his rather untypical ‘serious’ production DIE WEBER (The Weavers, 1927), based on a Gerhart Hauptmann play. Zelnik navigated the advent of sound without problems, turning out further operetta films starting with a remake of DIE FÖRSTERCHRISTL (1930/31). After the Nazis came to power, he and Mara emigrated to
London, where he directed and produced HAPPY, an English-language version of his last German film, ES WAR EINMAL EIN MUSIKUS (both 1933). Subsequently, Zelnik was sporadically active as a director and producer, although his British directing efforts in the mid-1930s, such as MISTER CINDERS (1934), SOUTHERN ROSES (1936), or THE LILAC DOMINO (1937) failed to match his earlier successes. He also made two films in the Netherlands in 1938 and 1939. He became a British citizen and remained in London after the war. He continued to work as a producer until the late 1940s – among the last projects he was involved with was the musical romance THE GLASS MOUNTAIN (1948/49) in collaboration with Italian producer Joseph Janni. Little is known of what happened to Mara (whose career had effectively come to an end by the early 1930s) following his death, although she is believed to have gone to live with a sister in Switzerland. [act – DE] 1910: Des Sängers Fluch; Verkannt; Japanisches Opfer; Das Liebesglück der Blinden. 1911: Das Glöckchen des Glücks; Der Müller und sein Kind; Im Glück vergessen. 1912: Europäisches Sklavenleben. 1915: § 14 BGB; Arme Maria; Der eiserne Ring; Seelen, die sich nachts begegnen; Das dunkle Schloß; Das Abenteuer des van Dola; Die Schwestern; Die büßende Magdalena; Das Rätsel von Sensenheim; Ein Gruß aus der Tiefe. Das Drama eines Fliegers [act,pro]; Der goldene Klub [pro]. [pro – DE] 1916: Der Einsiedler von St. Georg [act,pro]; Spiel im Spiel [act,pro]; Konsumgenossenschaft Berlin und Umgegend, das größte Arbeiterunternehmen der Reichshauptstadt [SD]; Fräulein Wildfang; Das goldene Friedelchen; Doktor Käthe; Die Fiebersonate [act,pro]; Jenseits der Hürde; Am Amboß des Glücks [act,pro]; Dorian Dare [act,pro]; Der schwarze Pierrot; Die Hochzeit der Cassilda Mediadores; Ein Zirkusmädel; Die Bettlerin von St. Marien. 1916/17: Die Rache des Avenarius; Lori & Co. 1917: Das große Los [dir,pro]; Sturmflut [act,pro]; Der Kinokönig; Der Pußtakavalier; Weiße Nächte; Das heilige Schweigen; Klein Doortje [dir,pro]; Illona Fehdis Schuld; Die Krone von Kerkyra [dir,pro]; Die Gräfin von Navarra [dir,pro]; Das Doppelgesicht [act,pro]; Die tolle Ada; Das verlorene Paradies; Das Edelfräulein; Der Fliegentüten-Heinrich; Die Gärtnerpoldi; Das Glück der schönen Crescenz; Edelweiß [dir,pro]; Frau Marias Erlebnis; Durchlaucht Hypochonder [dir,pro]; Halkas Gelöbnis. 1917/18: Das Geschlecht der Schelme [2 parts – act,pro]; Die Dreizehn; Gänseliesel [dir,pro]; Die Rose von Dschiandur [act,pro]; Der Fliegentüten-Othello. 1918: Das Vermächtnis des Hauses Moore; Die beiden Zimmerherren; Wenn die Frau nicht kochen kann; Die Serenyi; Am Scheidewege; Amalie – 45 Mark; Graf Michael [act,pro]; Der Liftjunge [dir,pro]; Die Verteidigerin [dir,pro]; Die Nonne und der Harlekin [act,pro]; Einen Jux will er sich machen; Am anderen Ufer; Das Frühlingslied [act,pro]; Die Rothenburger [act,pro]; Maximum [act,pro]; Fliegentüten-Heinrichs Pech [SF]; Fliegentüten-Heinrich als Rentier [SF]; Nachtschatten [dir,pro]; Wildbad Rothenburg o.T. und das Kinderheim der Genossenschaft Deutscher
HANS H. ZERLETT Bühnenangehöriger [SD]; Margarete. Die Geschichte einer Gefallenen [dir,pro]; Eine junge Dame von Welt; Liebeswirren [act,pro]. 1918/19: Charlotte Corday [dir,pro]; Eugen Onegin [act,pro]. 1919: Fliegentüten-Heinrich als Don Juan [SF]; Eine Stunde im Paradies; Die kleine Stasiewska; Lucas, Kapitel 15. Der verlorene Sohn [act,pro]; Die Sühne der Martha Marx; Leichtsinn und Genie. Kean [act,pro]; Fidelio; Die Damen mit den Smaragden [dir,pro]; Menschen, die vom Wege kamen; Das Fest der Rosella [dir,pro]; Die Madonna mit den Lilien [dir,act,pro]; Die Peruanerin; Manon [dir,pro]; Der goldene Klub; Leichtsinn und Lebewelt [dir,pro]; Pogrom; Der rote Sarafan [act,pro]; Not und Verbrechen; Der Kammerdiener seiner Frau [act]; Wer unter Euch ohne Sünde ist …; Hölle der Jungfrauen; Maria Evere [dir,pro]; Menschen in Ketten [act,pro]; Die Gesunkenen; Die Nacht des Grauens; Die Erbin des Grafen von Monte Christo [dir,pro]; Das Haus der Unschuld [dir,pro]; Im Dienste der Liebe [act,pro]; Die gelbe Fratze [act,pro]; Die Dame mit den Smaragden [dir,pro]. 1919/20: Das Grauen [act, pro]; Der indische Tod; Eine Demimonde-Heirat. [dir,pro – DE] 1920: Spiritismus; Die Prinzessin vom Nil [pro]; Die Erlebnisse der berühmten Tänzerin Fanny Elßler; Der Abenteurer von Paris [act,pro]; Yoshiwara, die Liebesstadt der Japaner [pro]; Der gelbe Diplomat [act,pro]; Das Gesetz der Wüste [pro]; Anna Karenina; Tod im Nacken [pro]; Kri-Kri, die Herzogin von Tarabac; Der Apachenlord [act,pro]; Die sieben Todsünden [dir]; Fasching; Der Mann mit den drei Frauen [act,pro]; Monte Carlo [act,pro]. 1920/21: Die Geliebte des Grafen Varenne; Das Medium [pro]; Aus den Tiefen der Großstadt [pro]; Miss Beryll … die Laune eines Millionärs. 1921: Der unsichtbare Gast; Der eifersüchtige Ehemann [SF – pro]; Aus den Memoiren einer Filmschauspielerin; Der Sträfling von Cayenne [act, pro]; Trix, der Roman einer Millionenerbin; Tanja, die Frau an der Kette; Das begrabene Ich [act]; Das Mädel von Piccadilly [2 parts]; Klub der Entgleisten [act,pro]; Die Ehe der Fürstin Demidoff; Um ein Erbe [act,pro]. 1921/22: Die Geliebte des Königs; Die Kreutzersonate [act,pro]. 1922: Yvette, die Modeprinzessin; Se. Exellenz der Revisor [dir, act,pro]; Die Tochter Napoleons; Erniedrigte und Beleidigte; Graf Festenberg [dir,act,pro]; Das Geschlecht der Grafen von Gheyn [pro]; Das Mädel aus der Hölle; Lyda Ssanin; Die Männer der Sybill. 1922/23: Irene d’Or [dir,act,pro]. 1923: Daisy. Die Abenteuer einer Lady [dir,act,pro]; Katjuscha Maslowa; Die Marionetten der Fürstin [dir,act,pro]; Der Matrose Perugio [dir,act,pro]; Nelly, die Braut ohne Mann. 1924: Die Herrin von Monbijou; Das Mädel von Capri; Auf Befehl der Pompadour. 1924/25: Athleten; Die Venus vom Montmartre. 1925: Frauen, die man oft nicht grüßt; Briefe, die ihn nicht erreichten; Das Geheimnis der alten Mamsell [act,pro]; Der Bankkrach Unter den Linden [supv]; Die Kirschenzeit. 1925/26: Die Mühle von Sanssouci [supv,pro]; Die Försterchristl. 1926: An der schönen blauen Donau; Der Veilchenfresser; Die lachende Grille. 1926/27: Der Zigeunerbaron. 1927: Die Weber; Das tanzende Wien. 1927/28: Heut’ tanzt Mariett. 1928: Mary Lou; Mein Herz ist eine Jazzband; Der rote Kreis. 1929: Lummox [dir (German version) – US]. 1930/31: Die Försterchristl [dir]; Walzerparadies. 1931: Jeder fragt nach Erika; Ein süßes Geheimnis. 1932: Die Tänzerin von Sans-
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souci; Spione im Savoy-Hotel; Kaiserwalzer [dir,co-scr, pro]. 1933: Es war einmal ein Musikus [MLV]; C’était un musicien [MLV – co-dir – FR]; Happy [GB]. [dir – GB] 1934: Mister Cinders. 1936: Southern Roses. 1937: The Lilac Domino. 1938: Vadertje Langbeen [dir, co-scr – NL]. 1938/39: Morgen gaat ’t beter [dir,scr – NL]. 1939: I Killed the Count; The Stars Look Down [supv]. 1943: Heaven Is Round the Corner [pro]. 1944: Give Me the Stars [pro]. 1948/49: The Glass Mountain / La montagna di cristallo [pro – GB/IT]. 1950/51: Hell Is Sold Out [pro].
HANS H. ZERLETT (Hans Helmut Zerlett, aka Hans Hannes) Born August 17, 1892, Wiesbaden (Germany) Died July 6, 1949, Buchenwald (Germany) Active as an accomplished actor, screenwriter, director, and producer in German films from the 1920s, Zerlett is mostly remembered today for his collaboration with the Nazi regime as a studio manager and some resulting propagandistic films made during World War II. Coming from a musical family, Zerlett left school to become a touring actor. He was engaged at various theatres, including the Residenztheater in Berlin. In 1917 he became the director at the Friedrichstadttheater, also writing light comedies. Zerlett’s first screenplay HÖHERE TÖCHTER (WellBred Daughters, 1927) led to him writing a series of comedies for Anny Ondra, the frenetic farce DIE VOM RUMMELPLATZ (Fairground People, 1930) a particular success. Although he mainly specialised in light entertainment films, Gustav Ucicky’s VERERBTE TRIEBE (Inherited Passions, 1929) was an exception, supporting the compulsory sterilisation of criminals with hereditary conditions. In the 1930s Zerlett turned to directing films, his first effort co-directing with Carl Lamaè the Ondra vehicle DIE TOCHTER DES REGIMENTS (Daughter of the Regiment, 1932/33). The following year he made the short film IM SCHALLPLATTENLADEN (In the Record Shop, 1934) with Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt. His first feature film DA STIMMT WAS NICHT (Something’s Not Right There) marked the beginning of his career as a writer and director in 1934. He soon developed a distinctive comedy style, which contrasted with prevailing slapstick. His first big success DIE SELIGE EXZELLENZ (His Late Excellency, 1935) demonstrated his skill in elegantly blending humour with gentle characterisations. Using the alias Hans Hannes he often wrote lyrics for songs. In 1939 Zerlett was appointed manager of Tobis-Film but unable to assert his authority sufficiently, he resigned from the post; this had repercussions on his subsequent career. During this period he made his two most controversial films, the musical comedy
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ROBERT UND BERTRAM (Robert and Bertram, 1939) and VENUS VOR GERICHT (Venus on Trial,
1941), both of which had a strong anti-Semitic content. By 1942, however, comedies transporting political subtexts were no longer required. Zerlett subsequently made eight light comedies in the last three years of World War II, including one of his most imaginative comedies, SPUK IM SCHLOSS (The Haunted Castle, 1943/44). In 1946 he was arrested by the Soviet army because of his associations with Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. During his early period of internment, he wrote and directed a musical play, ‘Mann im Mond’ (Man in the Moon), which was performed by inmates. In 1948 he was transported to the Soviet internment camp at Buchenwald where he died shortly afterwards. In the early 1950s during a denazification hearing he was posthumously cleared of collaboration. [(co-)scr – DE] 1926/27: Die leichte Isabell [sma]. 1927: Höhere Töchter. 1928: Saxophon-Susi [sma]; Der erste Kuß; Die Regimentstochter / Daughter of the Regiment [DE/GB]. 1929: Und Nelson spielt … [SF – sma]; Vererbte Triebe; Der Mann, der nicht liebt; Tagebuch einer Verlorenen [re-edit]; Das Mädel mit der Peitsche [sma]; Die Kaviarprinzessin. 1929/30: Wer hat Robby gesehen?; Die heiligen drei Brunnen. 1930: Besuch um Mitternacht [SF]; Moral um Mitternacht [scr,sma]; Die vom Rummelplatz; Die große Sehnsucht [scr,act]; Die Csikosbaroneß; Der Hampelmann; Zwei Menschen; Der Bettelstudent. 1931: Ich geh’ aus und Du bleibst da [MLV – co-scr,lyr]; L’Inconstante. Je sors et tu restes là [MLV]; Das Konzert [MLV – FR/US]; Mam’zelle Nitouche [MLV – FR/DE]; Mamsell Nitouche [MLV – FR/DE]; Delphine [MLV – FR/US]; The Beggar Student [GB]; Die Fledermaus [MLV – FR/DE]; La chauve-souris [MLV – DE/FR]. 1931/32: Ein bißchen Liebe für Dich [MLV]; Monsieur, Madame et Bibi [MLV – DE/ FR]. 1932: Faut-il les marier? [MLV – DE/FR]; Die grausame Freundin [MLV]; Due cuori felici [MLV – IT]; Kiki [MLV – dia-dir,scr – DE/FR]; Kiki [French MLV – DE/FR]; Ein Mann mit Herz; Baby [German MLV – dia-dir,scr,sma,lyr – FR]; Baby [MLV – scr,sma – FR]; Mirages de Paris [MLV – FR/ DE]; Großstadtnacht [MLV – FR/DE]. 1932/33: Die Tochter des Regiments [MLV – dia-dir,scr,lyr]; La fille du régiment [MLV – DE/FR]. 1933: Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen [dia-dir,scr]; Vorspeisen gefällig? [SF – lyr]; Château de rêve [MLV]; Glück im Schloß [scr,lyr]; Das Schloß im Süden [MLV – scr,lyr]; Das verliebte Hotel [dia-dir,scr,lyr]. 1934: Die vertauschte Braut [MLV – co-scr,lyr]; Im Schallplattenladen [SF]; Die Csardasfürstin [MLV]; Princesse Czardas [MLV]; Ein Walzer für Dich [co-scr,lyr]; L’Amour en cage [MLV – DE/FR]; Klein Dorrit [lyr]; Da stimmt was nicht [dir, scr,lyr]. [dir,scr – DE] 1934/35: Knock-out [co-dir,scr,lyr]. 1935: Die blonde Carmen [scr,lyr]; Der junge Graf [co-scr,lyr]; Die selige Exzellenz. 1936: Arzt aus Leidenschaft; Great International Heavyweight Boxing Contest Between Joe Louis
and Max Schmeling [DO – supv German version – US]; Moral; Diener lassen bitten [dir,scr,lyr]; Truxa [dir,scr,lyr]. 1936/37: Liebe geht seltsame Wege. 1937: Revolutionshochzeit; Die Fledermaus [supv]; Der Katzensteg [scr]. 1937/38: Es leuchten die Sterne [dir,scr,lyr]. 1938: Verliebtes Abenteuer; Zwei Frauen. 1939: Robert und Bertram; Die goldene Maske. 1939/40: Meine Tochter tut das nicht [dir,scr,lyr]. 1941: Venus vor Gericht. 1942: Kleine Residenz [dir,scr,lyr]; Einmal der liebe Herrgott sein; Meine Freundin Josefine [dir,lyr]. 1942/43: Reise in die Vergangenheit. 1943: Liebesbriefe [dir]. 1943/44: Spuk im Schloß. 1944: Schuß um Mitternacht. 1944-48: Mit meinen Augen. 1952: Tausend rote Rosen blühn [lyr].
REGINA ZIEGLER Born March 8, 1944, Quedlinburg (Germany) Regina Ziegler established herself in the early 1970s as one of the most prolific and successful producers in West Germany, and remained one of the few women working in the profession. Over four decades, she collaborated with some of German and international cinema’s most prominent directors, and took on difficult productions as well as audience pleasers. The daughter of a journalist who wrote film reviews for the local newspaper, Ziegler was a regular cinemagoer from an early age. Following school, she moved to Berlin and started studying law, but dropped out after one semester to become a production assistant for the broadcasting station SFB. In 1973 she founded a production company. Her first film, the award-winning ICH DACHTE, ICH WÄRE TOT (I Thought I Was Dead, 1973), a story about a teenager’s endeavours to sort out her life after a suicide attempt, was directed by Wolf Gremm (b. 1942), who became a close associate and in 1979 Ziegler’s second husband. In the following years, Ziegler produced innovative, challenging, and ambitious films by directors including Ulrich Schamoni, Rosa von Praunheim, Helma Sanders-Brahms, and Peter Stein. At the same time, she invested in more popular projects, such as the anarchic comedy PANISCHE ZEITEN (Panic Time, 1979/80), co-directed by and starring the German pop singer Udo Lindenberg. Further collaborations with Gremm included FABIAN (1979), an adaptation of Erich Kästner’s novel set against the background of the final years of the Weimar Republic, which demonstrated Ziegler’s ability to coordinate lavish, big-budget productions. The film was widely acclaimed and was nominated for an Oscar. Ruy Guerra’s ERÉNDIRA (1982/83), a co-production with Mexican and French partners marked a notable excursion into international art cinema. Other productions during the 1980s included Gremm’s SIGI, DER STRASSENFEGER (Sigi, The Street Sweeper, 1984), an undemanding vehicle for comedian Harald Juhnke (1929–2005), and Markus
REGINA ZIEGLER
Imhoff’s sombre Swiss-German DIE REISE (The Journey, 1985/ 86), which thematised Germany’s Nazi legacy and terrorism. The Holocaust drama KORCZAK (1989/90), a German-Polish co-production, was directed by Andrzej Wajda. From the 1990s and into the new millennium, Ziegler continued to work with emerging enfants terribles such as Christoph Schlingensief, established underground filmmakers such as Praunheim, and austere art cinema auteurs such as Jean-Marie Straub/Danièle Huillet, while also churning out solid, but fairly uninspiring middle- to low-brow entertainment. Prime examples of the latter included many of Gremm’s directorial efforts, such as the trans-Atlantic love story NANCY & FRANK (2001) and the TV thriller TÖDLICHES RENDEZVOUS (Deadly Rendezvous, 2002). In 1993 she successfully initiated the international TV series EROTIC TALES with prominent directors contributing softcore fantasies for late night television. In the late 1990s she restructured her Berlin based company by founding Zieglerfilm Köln (Cologne) and later Zieglerfilm München (Munich), handing over part of the business to her daughter Tanja (b. 1966). From 2005 she taught production at the Film Academy in Babelsberg. [pro – DE] 1973: Ich dachte, ich wäre tot; Berliner Bettwurst; Lohn und Liebe [TV]; Axel von Auersperg [TV]. 1973/74: Chapeau Claque. 1974: Meine Sorgen möcht’ ich haben. 1974/75: Anna und Edith [TV]; Elternbildung im Medienverbund [DO]. 1975: Familienglück; Sommergäste. 1976: Die Brüder. 1976/77: Heinrich; Der unanständige Profit [TV]. 1977: Tod oder Freiheit. 1978: … nur noch die Hälfte wert [DO]; Valse triste [SF]; Willi und die Kameraden [TV]. 1978/79: Trilogie des Wiedersehens [TV]; Die große Flatter [TV]; Monarch [DO]. 1979: … sonst würde das Kino sterben [TVD – app]; Fabian; Henry Angst; Groß und klein [TV]. 1979/80: Panische Zeiten; Das Traumhaus. 1980: Kein Reihenhaus für Robin Hood; Malou. 1980/81: Ohne Rückfahrkarte [TV]. 1981: Leiche im Keller [SF]; Ich habe mich überall Zuhause gefühlt [TVD]; Nach Mitternacht; Flüchtige Bekanntschaften [TV]; Der Träumer [SF]. 1981/82: Sei zärtlich, Pinguin [DE/AT]; Kamikaze 1989; Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Letzte Arbeiten [TVD]. 1982: Die Unerreichbare – The Unapproachable [TV – DE/ AT]; Klassen-Feind. 1982/83: Der steinerne Fluß; Heinrich Penthesilea von Kleist; Eréndira / La increible y triste historia de la candida Erédira y de su abuela desalmada / Die unglaubliche und traurige Geschichte von der unschuldigen Erendira und ihrer herzlosen Großmutter [FR/MX/DE]. 1982-84: Liebe ist kein Argument [act,pro]. [pro – TV – DE] 1983: Reise in ein verborgenes Leben; Hinter der Tür; Die Orestie des Aischylos. 1983/84: Die Hermannsschlacht; Die Familie oder Schroffenstein. 1984: Ich bin 73 und lebe nicht in Nostalgie [TVD]; Ein Jahr der ruhenden Sonne / Rok Spokojnego S³onca / A Year of the Quiet Sun [FF – DE/PL/US]; Sigi, der Straßenfeger [FF]; Da-
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vid [TVD]; Die-24-Stunden-Stadt [TVD]; Die Schwärmer; Die Abschiebung; Werktreue? Die Klassiker und die Regisseure [TVD]. 1984/85: André Heller sieht sein Feuerwerk [TVD]. 1984-86: Sturz durch Träume [TVD]. 1985: Drehen und Sehen lassen [TVD – app]; German Dreams [FF]; Minetti. Lear [TVD]; Der Park; Triumph der Liebe; Rosa Luxemburg [FF]. 1985/86: Das Gehirn zu Pferde; Die Reise [FF – DE/CH]; Pattbergs Erbe. 1985-87: Vicky und Nicky; Othello [DE/GB]. 1986: Tödliche Liebe; Drei Schwestern; Auf der Suche nach der Sonne [TVD]; Schummel ich? Schummelst Du? Shubidu!; Petropoulis [TVD]. 1986/87: Hexenschuß. 1987: Dem Tod auf der Spur; Erloschene Zeiten; Ein ungleiches Paar; Schuld und Sühne [DE/AT]. 1987/88: Im Schatten der Angst. 1988: Ich stelle mich: Regina Ziegler [TVD – app]; Der Boß aus dem Westen; Trouble im Penthouse; Der Spatzenmörder. 1988/89: Das Milliardenspiel. 1988-90: Spreepiraten [TVS]. 1989: Die Affäre Rue de Lourcine; Signiert: Andrzej Wajda / Sygnowane Andrzej Wajda [TVD – DE/PL]; Die Glocken der Sankt-KatharinenKirche / Dzwony w. Katarzyny [TVD – DE/PL]; Jede Menge Schmidt; Phädra; Killer kennen keine Furcht; Falstaff [DE/GB]; Stan posiadania / Liebesfesseln [FF – PL/DE]; Das Ende einer Liebesgeschichte [TVD]; Ich will leben; Pegij pes, begyšij kraem morja / Der scheckige Hund läuft am Meer entlang [FF – SU/DE]. 1989/90: Korczak [FF – PL/DE]; Gefährliche Verführung / Il piccolo popolo [DE/IT]; Die Zeit und das Zimmer; Novembertage – Stimmen und Wege / November Days [DO – DE/CH/GB]. 1990: Frag los; Drunter und drüber; Die Mauerbrockenbande; Edgar, Hüter der Moral [TVS]; Hallo Berlin; Femina [FF – PL/DE]; Das lange Gespräch mit dem Vogel. 1990/91: Mauritius-Los; Gesucht wird Ricki Forster; Marx & Coca Cola; Eine Dame mit Herz, teils bitter, teils süß …; Trillertrine [FF]. 1990-2000: Unterwegs in den USA [TVD]. 1991: Frauengeschichten: Regina Ziegler [TVD – app]; Begegnungen: Paul Burkhalter im Gespräch mit der Film- und Fernsehproduzentin Regina Ziegler [TVD – app]; Meine Tochter gehört mir [FF]; Das Wintermärchen; Die Antigone des Sophokles nach der Hölderlinschen Übertragung für die Bühne bearbeitet von Brecht 1948 (Suhrkamp Verlag) [FF – DE/FR]; Im besten Alter [TVS]. 1991/92: Die Hütte am See [1st season] [TVS]; Rodina heißt Heimat [DO]; Felix und zweimal Kuckuck [TVS]. 1992: Ich sehe was, was Du nicht siehst [TVD]; Die Brigitte Mira Show; Ingolf Lücks Sketchsalat [TVS]; Piercionek z or³em w koronie / Der Ring mit dem gekrönten Adler / L’Anneau de crin / The Ring with a Crowned Eagle [FF – PL/DE/FR/GB]; Klippen des Todes; Schlusschor; Café Scandal [TVS]. 1992/93: Mallorca – Liebe inbegriffen; Auf eigene Gefahr [1st season – TVS]. 1993: Im Teufelskreis; Erotic Tales: The Dutch Master / Der flämische Meister; Zwei wie Paul und Caroline [TVS]; Die Hütte am See [2nd season – TVS]; Zu Fuß und ohne Geld. 1993/94: Die Trotzkis [TVS]; Erotic Tales [1st season – TVS]. Beckmann & Markowski: Tödliches Netz; Tödliche Besessenheit – Das Geheimnis der Martha E.; Das kalifornische Quartett; Eine Frau will nach oben. 1994/95: Ich begehre dich. 1995: Die Nacht ist nicht allein zum Schlafen da; Tatort: Falsches Alibi; Zaubergirl; Die Kunst ist weiblich? [TVD – app]; Ärzte: Sportarzt Conny Knipper: Sieger und Verlierer; Ärzte: Sportarzt Conny Knipper: Fall-
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REGINA ZIEGLER
obst; Ärzte: Herberge für einen Frühling. 1995/96: Erotic Tales [2nd season – TVS]; Auf eigene Gefahr [2nd season – TVS]; Die unerwünschte Zeugin. 1996: Natascha – Wettlauf mit dem Tod; Die Nacht der Komödianten; Die Stunden vor Morgengrauen; Beckmann & Markowski: Im Zwiespalt der Gefühle. 1996/97: Die Staatsanwältin; Der Kindermord; Die Kids von Berlin [TVS]. 1997: Die Nacht der Stars 1997; Schmetterlingsgefühle; Polizeiruf 110: Die falsche Sonja; Champagner und Kamillentee; Die 120 Tage von Bottrop [app]; Kunst; Silvesterspaß mit Herbert Herrmann; Winnetous Rückkehr; Eine Lüge zuviel; Die zweite Geige; Hosenflattern. 1997/98: Solo für Klarinette [FF]. 1997-2004: Sprechstunde bei Dr. Frankenstein [TVS]. 1998: Die Nacht der Stars 1998; Rot wie das Blut; Mörderisches Erbe – Tausch mit einer Toten; Supersingle; Einschub in den Bericht des Politbüros [SF]; Männer sind wie Schokolade; Mit fünfzig küssen Männer anders; Männer aus zweiter Hand; Die Sünde der Engel; Beckmann & Markowski: Gehetzt. 1998/99: Die Häupter meiner Lieben [FF]; Sturmzeit; Wer zuletzt lügt, lügt am besten. 1998-2008: Die Anrheiner [TVS]. 1999: No trains no planes / Der Lügner [FF – NL/BE/DE]; Ich liebe meine Familie, ehrlich!; Männer und andere Katastrophen; Lachen tut gut – Comedy für UNICEF; Liebe ist das beste Elixier; Auf eigene Gefahr [3rd season – TVS]; Der Mörder in meiner Nähe. 1999/ 2000: Ein lasterhaftes Pärchen; Rotlicht – In der Höhle des Löwen; Erotic Tales [3rd season – TVS]. 2000: Die neue Bescheidenheit [SF]; ‘Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder’ [TVD – app]; Alzheimer – Spurensuche im Niemandsland [TVD]; Liebe, Tod und viele Kalorien; Ich pfeif’ auf schöne Männer; Frauen, die Prosecco trinken; Die Meute der Erben; Der Vamp im Schlafrock; Männer sind zum Abgewöhnen. 2000/01: Das Weibernest; Der Verleger. 2000-02: Gnadenlose Bräute. 2001: Beate Uhse – ein deutscher Sittenspiegel [TVD]; Heldentod [TVD]; Lachen tut gut – Comedy für UNICEF; Die Westentaschenvenus; Der Verehrer; Herz oder Knete; Sag einfach Ja!; Aszendent Liebe; Herz in Flammen; Nancy & Frank – A Manhattan Love Story [FF]. 2001/02: Erotic Tales [4th season – TVS]; Paule und Julia [FF]; Club der Träume: Mexiko-Yukatan; Suche impotenten Mann fürs Leben [FF]. 2002: Das Haus der Schwestern; Vollweib sucht Halbtagsmann; Die geheime Inquisition; Zwei Seiten der Liebe; Rotlicht – Die Stunde des Jägers; Tödliches Rendezvous – Die Spur führt nach Palma; Ein Liebhaber zuviel ist noch zuwenig; Die Kanzlermacher [TVD]; Aus lauter Liebe zu dir; Mord an Bord; Lachen tut gut – Comedy für UNICEF; Pommery und Putenbrust; Alptraum Flut – Wer zahlt? [TVD]; Club der Träume: Marmaris; Das Glück ihres Lebens; Tausche Firma gegen Haushalt; In der Höhle der Löwin; Katz und Hund; Suche Mann für meine Frau. 2002/03: Der alte Affe Angst [FF]; Der letzte Lude [FF]; Im Schatten der Macht; Wunschkinder und andere Zufälle; Eine zweimalige Frau; Die Schokoladenkönigin. 2002/03: Mutter kommt in Fahrt. 2002-04: Liebe ist die beste Medizin. 2003: Der zehnte Sommer; Erotic Tales [TVS]; Alles verspielt – Die Geschichte einer Sucht [TVD]; Rotlicht – Im Dickicht der Großstadt; Willy Brandt – Eine Jahrhundertgestalt [TVD]; Comedy für UNICEF; Alles Samba; Für alle Fälle Mama; Ein seltsames Paar; Im Tal des Schweigens;
Die Versuchung; Die Rapoports – Unsere drei Leben [TVD]; Endlich Sex!; Der Vater meines Sohnes; Idole: Harald Juhnke [TVD – app]; Verführung in sechs Gängen; Ein glücklicher Tag; Wellen [DE/LT]. 2003/04: Das BernsteinAmulett; Zwei Männer und ein Baby; Einmal Bulle, immer Bulle [TVS]; Verführung in 6 Gängen; Die Rosenzüchterin; Liebe auf Bewährung; Herzlichen Glückwunsch. 2003-06: Paul und Bataar. 2004: Judith Kemp; Mein Mann und seine Mütter; Die Geierwally [DE/AT]; Das Lächeln der Tiefseefische; Die Landärztin [DE/AT]; Attentat auf Adenauer [TVD]; Pommery und Hochzeitstorte; Hengstparade [DE/AT]. 2004/05: Unkenrufe / Wrózby kumaka [FF – DE/PL]; Was heißt hier Oma!; Lieben und Töten [DE/TH]. 2004-06: Eva Zacharias; Der See der Träume; Meine Tochter, mein Leben. 2005: Jennifer Nitsch – Tod einer Schauspielerin [TVD – app]; Drei Schwestern Made in Germany; Glück auf halber Treppe; Mongolei – Die Karawane; Pommery und Leichenschmaus; Der Erbhof – Im Tal des Schweigens II [DE/AT]; Fünf-Sterne-Kerle inklusive [DE/AT]; Die Landärztin – Diagnose Tollwut [DE/AT]; Sie ist meine Mutter; Herzentöter [FF]; Ich leih’ mir eine Familie; Einmal Dieb, immer Dieb. 2005/06: Charlotte Link: Die Täuschung; Die Frau des Heimkehrers; Stunde der Entscheidung; Die Frau im roten Kleid; Der beste Lehrer der Welt; Kurhotel Alpenglück; Die Hochzeit meiner Töchter; Folge deinem Herzen; Mein Traum von Afrika; Der Unbequeme – Der Dichter Günter Grass [DO]. 2006: Vom Ende der Eiszeit; KGB in Deutschland [TVD]; Die Unbeugsamen. Flucht aus Hitlers Elitengefängnis [TVD]; Am Ende des Schweigens; 2030 – Aufstand der Alten; Momella. Eine Farm in Afrika; Moppel-Ich; Mr. Bundesrepublik [TVD]; Der fremde Gast; Freie Fahrt ins Glück; Die Kanzlerin – Angela Merkels erstes Regierungsjahr [TVD]; Liebe ist das schönste Geschenk; Das Wunder der Liebe; Der Wildschütz – Im Tal des Schweigens III [DE/AT]. 2006/07: Tatort: Dornröschens Rache; Die Landärztin – Aus heiterem Himmel [DE/AT]; Die Landärztin – Der Vaterschaftstest [DE/AT]; Für immer Afrika; Mein Traum von Venedig. 2007: Suchkind 312; Zeruya Shalev – Das Hohelied der Liebe [TVD]; Niete zieht Hauptgewinn; Der zweite Frühling – Im Tal des Schweigens [DE/ AT]; Zwei Herzen und ein Edelweiß; Der indische Ring; 1:0 für das Glück; Der Heckenschütze; Wunschkinder III – Mamas Flitterwochen. 2007/08: Insel des Lichts; Die Landärztin – Ein neues Leben [DE/AT]; Treuepunkte; Schwarzwaldliebe; Die Frau, die im Wald verschwand; Die Wölfe; Das Echo der Schuld. 2008: Großer Bruder Uncle Sam – Ein neues Haus für alte Freunde [TVD]; Sehnsuchtsrouten – Kreuzfahrt im Reich der Drachen [TVD]; Der Besuch der alten Dame [DE/AT]; Sex, Tabus und Kalter Krieg. Wie die Deutschen liebten [TVD]; Mordkommission Istanbul: Die Tote in der Zisterne; 6 auf einen Streich: Das tapfere Schneiderlein; Alle Sehnsucht dieser Erde. 2008/09: Die Landärztin – Schleichendes Gift [DE/AT]; Kinder des Sturms; Tatort: Oben und unten; Henri IV [FF – DE/FR]; Der Mauerfall; Abschiede und andere Familienschwierigkeiten; Heiße Spur; Illegal; Schaumküsse.
SONJA ZIEMANN SONJA ZIEMANN (Sonja Alice Selma Toni Ziemann) Born February 8, 1926, Eichenwalde, near Berlin (Germany) One of the best-loved female stars of 1950s West German Heimatfilme and other light entertainment genres, Ziemann developed into a more versatile actress from the late 1950s. After attending dance classes with Tatjana Gsovsky in Berlin, Ziemann appeared from 1941 in various revues and operettas, and from 1942 in minor film roles. After World War II, she displayed her acting, comedic, and musical talents in operettas at the Metropol-Theater in Berlin, before turning increasingly to cinema, becoming one of the most popular film actresses of the Adenauer era. In the 1950s Sonja Ziemann became typecast as a nice, uncomplicated young woman, winning audiences with her cheery disposition in several Heimatfilme, film operettas, and comedies. She and her regular screen partner Rudolf Prack became one of the best-loved screen couples of the post-war period, spawning loyal fan communities. They co-starred in six films, including the Heimatfilm classic GRÜN IST DIE HEIDE (The Heath Is Green, 1951) and the remake of the Weimar-era comedy DIE PRIVATSEKRETÄRIN (The Private Secretary, 1953). GRÜN IST DIE HEIDE, with audience figures of sixteen million, and SCHWARZWALDMÄDEL (Black Forest Girl, 1950) with fourteen million, count among the biggest box office hits of the 1950s. In 1957/58 Ziemann was given the opportunity to play against type with her role as a philosophy student in the Polish-West German co-production ÓSMY DZIEÑ TYGODNIA / DER ACHTE WOCHENTAG (The Eight Day), based on a story of Polish writer Marek Hlasko, whom she married in 1961. Subsequently Ziemann broadened her image further with more complex and serious parts, for example in war films such as Frank Wysbar’s HUNDE, WOLLT IHR EWIG LEBEN (Dogs Do You Want to Live Forever, 1958/59), or melodramas such as Gottfried Reinhardt’s MENSCHEN IM HOTEL / GRAND HÔTEL (1959). In Helmut Käutner’s satire on the yellow press, DER TRAUM VON LIESCHEN MÜLLER (Lizzy Miller’s Dream, 1961) she portrayed an impressionable bank clerk who dreams of becoming a celebrity. In the 1960s Ziemann increasingly branched out into international productions. These included the Hollywood cold war thriller THE SECRET WAYS (1960/ 61), in which she co-starred alongside Richard Widmark, and the World War II battle drama THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN (1969). From the mid-1960s she appeared less and less frequently on screen, and began to concentrate more on stage assignments. At theatres in Zurich and Munich she played Eliza Dolittle in 1962 in the musical ‘My
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Fair Lady’ to considerable acclaim. Her television career included guest roles in the police series DER KOMMISSAR (The Commissioner) and the three-part TV-film DAS MESSER (The Knife, 1971). Since the 1970s she appeared on stage in various theatres in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, and Cologne as well as in a number of nostalgia shows, and other series on television. [act – DE] 1941/42: Ein Windstoß. 1942/43: Die Jungfern vom Bischofsberg. 1943: Geliebter Schatz. 1943/44: Eine kleine Sommermelodie; Hundstage; Freunde; Spuk im Schloß. 1944/45: Eine reizende Familie; Liebe nach Noten. 1946: Allez hopp [DD]; Sag die Wahrheit. 1947: Herzkönig. 1947/48: Wege im Zwielicht. 1949: Nichts als Zufälle; Die Freunde meiner Frau; Nächte am Nil; Um eine Nasenlänge; Nach Regen scheint Sonne; Eine Nacht im Separée. 1950: Maharadscha wider Willen; Schwarzwaldmädel; Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor [DD]. 1950/51: Schön muß man sein. 1951: Die Frauen des Herrn S.; Johannes und die 13 Schönheitsköniginnen; Grün ist die Heide. 1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad; Alle kann ich nicht heiraten; Made in Heaven [GB]; Am Brunnen vor dem Tore. 1953: Hollandmädel; Mit 17 beginnt das Leben; Die Privatsekretärin. 1953/54: Bei Dir war es immer so schön. 1954: Die sieben Kleider der Katrin; Meine Schwester und ich; Große Star-Parade; Der Zarewitsch [MLV]; Le Tzarevitch [MLV – DE/FR]. 1955: Liebe ohne Illusion; Ich war ein häßliches Mädchen; Mädchen ohne Grenzen; Das Bad auf der Tenne. 1956: Dany, bitte schreiben Sie; Opernball [AT]; Suprema confessione / Die große Sünde [IT/DE]; Kaiserball [AT]; Nichts als Ärger mit der Liebe [AT]. 1956/57: Die Zürcher Verlobung. 1957: Frühling in Berlin; Frauenarzt Dr. Bertram. 1957/58: Gli italiani sono matti / Los Italianos estan locos [IT/ES]; Ósmy dzieñ tygodnia / Der achte Wochentag [PL/DE]. 1958: Sérénade au Texas [FR]; Tabarin / Tabarin [FR/IT]; Die Beklagte [TV]. 1958/59: Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben. 1959: Liebe auf krummen Beinen; Menschen im Hotel / Grand Hôtel [DE/FR]; Abschied von den Wolken. 1959/60: Strafbataillon 999; Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen. 1960: Au voleur / Affäre Nabob [FR/DE]. 1960/61: The Secret Ways [US]. 1961: … denn das Weib ist schwach; A Matter of Who [GB]; Der Traum von Lieschen Müller. 1961/62: Ihr schönster Tag. 1962: Journey into Nowhere / Der Tod fährt mit [GB/DE/ZA]; Axel Munthe, der Arzt von San Michele / Le livre de San Michele / Donne senza paradiso [DE/FR/IT]. 1964: Frühstück mit dem Tod [DE/AT]; Hallø i himmelsengen / 2 x 2 im Himmelbett [DK/DE]; Das Leben des Horace A. W. Tabor [TV]. [act – TV – DE] 1965: Madeleine und Manouche. 1967: Josephine; Nach all den Jahren. 1968: Kolportage. 1968/ 69: De Sade / Das ausschweifende Leben des Marquis de Sade [FF – US/DE]. 1969: The Bridge at Remagen [FF – US]; Alle hatten sich abgewandt. 1970: Fröhliche Weihnachten. 1971: Das Messer. 1973: Der Kommissar: Der Geigenspieler. 1975/76: Unter einem Dach: Safe 373. 1977: Das Biest. 1979: Intimitäten. 1980: Jahre unseres Lebens: 1950-52 [TVD]. 1982-85: Ein Abend mit Georg Thomalla [TVS – app]. 1986: Träume über Träume [TVD – app]. 1992: Herzlichen Glückwunsch: Heinz Rühmann
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HANNS ZISCHLER
zum 90. Geburtstag [TVD – app – DE/AT/CH]. 1993: Frauengeschichten: Star sein ist kein Beruf [TVD – app]. 1995: Guten Morgen, Mallorca: Ein Fest für Marlene]. 1996: Höchstpersönlich: Harald Leipnitz [TVD – app]. 1996/97: Park Hotel Stern: Das Idol / Im roten Bereich. 1999: Dieter Borsche – Liebhaber und Gentleman [TVD – app]; Kein schöner Land – Lieder, Landschaften, Musikanten: Lüneburger Heide. 2004/05: Filmlegenden. Deutsch [TVD – app].
HANNS ZISCHLER Born June 18, 1947, Nuremberg (Germany) A multi-talented German essayist, translator, researcher and filmmaker, Zischler also acted in films since the 1960s, giving naturalistic performances characterised by understatement and subtle nuances. After studying ethnology, philosophy, music, and comparative literature in Munich and Berlin, Zischler joined the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer theatre as production manager in 1968, while at the same time translating French authors including Jacques Derrida and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Directing his own stage productions in Basel and Karlsruhe from 1976, and at Berlin’s Staatliche Schauspielbühnen between 1983 and 1985, he also contributed articles to newspapers and journals including Filmkritik and Freibeuter, as well as recording plays and documentaries for radio. He put in his first film appearances in the Munich Film School productions of Wim Wenders’s SAME PLAYER SHOOTS AGAIN (1967) and SUMMER IN THE CITY (1971), and later stood out as a speech therapist in IM LAUF DER ZEIT (Kings of the Road, 1975), forming a strong on-screen bond with Rüdiger Vogler’s character during their road trip to self-discovery. Zischler then co-directed (with Harun Farocki) a television adaptation of Heiner Müller’s DIE SCHLACHT – SZENEN AUS DEUTSCHLAND (The Battle: Scenes from Germany, 1976), and subsequently made a number of small-screen documentaries on literary themes, including ‘AMERIKA’ VOR AUGEN ODER KAFKA IN 34 MIN. 30 SEK. (‘America’ Before Your Very Eyes or, Franz Kafka in 43 mins. and 30 secs., 1978) and PUSCHKIN ZWEISTIMMIG (Pushkin Dialogue, 1986). His appearance in Rudolf Thome’s BERLIN CHAMISSOPLATZ (1980) was widely acclaimed, and was followed by his portrayal of a well-educated and sophisticated regular client of Gudrun Landgrebe’s prostitute in Robert van Ackeren’s DIE FLAMBIERTE FRAU (A Woman in Flames, 1982/83). Zischler accumulated numerous credits on French productions, including Claude Chabrol’s homage to Weimar cinema, DOCTEUR M (Club Extinction, 1989/90), and Jean-Luc Godard’s ALLEMAGNE NEUF ZÉRO (Germany Year Ninety, 1991). On Ger-
man television, he put in memorable performances as outwardly respectable men who turn out to be rotten to the core, such as an arch-villain in the TATORT (Crime Scene) episode BIENZLE UND BIEDERMANN (1992), and an adulterous priest in ALLES GLÜCK DIESER ERDE (Winner Takes All, 1993/94). In 1996, Zischler published ‘Kafka geht ins Kino’, on which he had been working since his 1978 television documentary about the writer. The book picked up the French Critics’ Award for best non-Frenchlanguage work on cinema in February 1997, and spawned a French television documentary, KAFKA VA AU CINÉMA (2002), as well as an English translation under the title ‘Kafka Goes to the Movies’ in 2003. While lending his cool elegance to numerous characters on German and French television in crime, melodrama or comedy series, he was also cast in big screen releases, such as Costa-Gavras’s AMEN (2001) based on Rolf Hochhuth’s controversial play ‘Der Stellvertreter’ (The Deputy); as a landlord in Hans Weingartner’s international hit DIE FETTEN JAHRE SIND VORBEI (The Edukators, 2003/04); as an agent in Steven Spielberg’s MUNICH (2004/05); and as notorious SS-commander and ‘Butcher of Lyon’ Klaus Barbie in LA TRAQUE (The Chase, 2007). In Kai Wessel’s biopic of post-war screen diva Hildegard Knef, HILDE (2008/09), he played the film producer Erich Pommer. Over the years he continued to write and edit books with his own publishing company, and research his favourite topics, such as the interrelations between literature and cinema. He received the Heinrich-MannAward of the Academy of Arts in Berlin for his work as actor, director, author, translator, photographer, and publisher in 2009. [act – DE] 1967: Same Player Shoots Again [AG]. 1968: Ballantine’s [SF]. 1968/69: Blinker [TV]; Alabama: 2000 Light Years [SF]. 1969: Super [TV]. 1969/70: Boomerang [SF]. 1969-71: Summer in the City. Dedicated to the Kinks. 1973: Einmal wirst auch Du mich lieben [TV]; Make Up [TVD]. 1974: Callgirls [TV]. 1975: Auf Biegen oder Brechen; Erzählen [TV]; Im Lauf der Zeit. 1976: Die Schlacht. Szenen aus Deutschland [TV – co-dir,co-scr]; Die Tannerhütte. 1977: Horizonville [SF – CH]; Jean Rouch [TVD – dir,scr]; Laub voll Trauer [TV]; Die linkshändige Frau; La vie devant soi [FR]; Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [TV]. 1978: Hamlet [TV – dir]; Les rendez-vous d’Anna / Rendezvous d’Anna [FR/BE/DE]; ‘Amerika’ vor Augen oder Kafka in 43 min. 30 sec [TV – dir,scr,act,pro]; Une femme semblable [SF – FR]. 1979: David; Henry Angst; De verwording van Herman Dürer [NL]. 1980: Berlin Chamissoplatz; Total vereist; Engel aus Eisen; Hast du Lust, mit mir einen Kaffee zu trinken? [SF]. 1980-82: Etwas wird sichtbar. 1981: Ich deutsche Behörde [SD – voi]; Majakowski [TVD]; Die Leidenschaftlichen [TV]; Malevil [FR/DE]; Kalt wie Eis; ‘Ich gehe in ein anderes Blau’ [TVD – dir,scr]; Das Haus im Park;
HANNS ZISCHLER Logik des Gefühls. 1981/82: Domino; Doktor Faustus; Deutschland kann manchmal sehr schön sein [TV]. 1982: Sartres ‘Wörter’ [TVD]; 26. September 1951. Bertolt Brecht schreibt einen offenen Brief – und was sonst noch geschah [TVD]; Der Überlebende [TVD]; Schlagschatten [TV]; Leuchtturm des Chaos [DO]; Chormann [TV – CH]; L’Allégement [CH]. 1982/83: Die flambierte Frau; System ohne Schatten. 1983: Rache am Ernst [SF]. 1983/84: Das Jahrhundert des Fortschritts [TVD – dir,scr]; Das Autogramm / L’autographe [DE/FR]; L’Air du crime / Zeit des Argwohns [CH/FR]. 1984: Nemesis [dir,co-scr,pro]; Les cavaliers de l’orage [FR/YU]; Diderot. Fragmente aus dem Leben eines Verschwenders [TVD – dir,scr,act,pro]; Lieber Vater [TV]. 1984/85: Die Erfindung des Wassermotors [TV – dir,scr]. 1984-86: Kir Royal: Das Volk sieht nichts / Adieu Claire [TVS – 2 episodes]; Afrika am Rhein [TV]. 1985: Part of the Struggle [TVD – GB]; Interno Berlinese / Leidenschaften [IT/DE]; Tarot. 1985/86: Das Verschwinden des Ettore Majorana [DO – voi]; Douce France [FR/DE]; Anemia [TV – IT]; A viso coperto / Entführt [TV – IT/DE]. 1985-87: Das Treibhaus [TV]. 1986: Puschkin zweistimmig [TV – dir]; Ich bin ein Mann der Bilder [TVD – dir,scr]; Entführt [TV – IT/DE/AT]. 1986-89: Das offene Universum. 1987: Couleur du temps [SF – FR]; Le milan noir [FR/CH]. 1987/88: Die Venusfalle. 1987-89: Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein / Trudno byt’ bogom / Un dieu rebelle [DE/SU/FR]. 1988: Les Français vus par …: Le dernier mot [TV – FR]; Mon cher sujet [FR/CH]; Himmelsheim / F 13 [TV]. 1988/89: Francesco / Franziskus [IT/DE]; Der Leibwächter [TV – DE/FR]; La révolution Française / Die französische Revolution [2 parts – FR/IT/CA/DE]; Das Haus am Watt [TV]. 1989: Derrick: Diebachs Frau [TV]; Motion and Emotion. The Films of Wim Wenders [TVD – GB]. 1989/90: Der Rosengarten / The Rose Garden [DE/NL/US]; Dr. M / Docteur M [DE/FR/IT]; Die Schönheit des Schimpansen [TV]; Hitlerjunge Salomon / Europa, Europa [DE/FR]. [act – TV – DE] 1990: Vincent Vincent [TVS – episode 4]; Die Kinder [TVS – GB]; Das vergessene Tal [CH/DE/AT]. 1990/91: Ende der Unschuld. 1990-2001: Sulla [FF]. 1991: Derrick: Störungen in der Lust zu leben; Allemagne neuf zéro [FR]; Lumumba – Tod des Propheten / Lumumba – La mort du prophète [DO – voi – DE/CH]; Der Alte: Es war alles ganz anders. 1991/92: Juste avant l’orage [FF – FR]; Salz auf unserer Haut [FF]; Der König von Bärenbach [TVS]. 1992: Abgetrieben; Die weiße Falle; Zorc – Der Mann ohne Grenzen [TVS]; La Peur [FR]; Tatort: Bienzle und der Biedermann; Herzsprung. 1992/93: Les grandes marées [TVS – FR]; The Cement Garden / Der Zementgarten [FF – GB/DE/FR]; Die Denunziantin [FF]; Rotlicht; In weiter Ferne, so nah! [FF]. 1993: Derrick: Geschlossene Wände; Wolffs Revier: Roulette; Stunde der Füchse; Adelheid und ihre Mörder: Kleine Fische; Rapt à crédit [FR]; Du fond du coeur – Germaine et Benjamin / Germaine und Benjamin [TVS – FR/DE]. 1993/94: Erzähl mir eine Landschaft; Charlie & Louise – Das doppelte Lottchen [FF]; Der Blaue [FF]; Spaziergang nach Syrakus [DO – voi – AT/CH/DE]; Alles Glück dieser Erde [TVS]; Le joueur de violon / Der Violinist [FF – BE/FR/DE]. 1994: Schneewittchens Baby; Ein Fall für zwei: Das fremde Herz; Das Baby der schwangeren Toten; Balle perdue [FR]; Z-Man’s Kinder; Rilke – Zwetaja –
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Brodsky [TVD – dir,scr]. 1994/95: Im Zweifel für …; A. S.: Der Test. 1995: Die Männer vom K3: Das 3. Mädchen; Femmes des Passions [FR]; Die Kommissarin: Todesmelodie; Adieu, mon ami; Martin Berg – Anwalt der Gerechtigkeit: Mord im Klinikum. 1995/96: Im Land der Kinoveteranen [TVD – voi]; Ehebruch – Eine teuflische Falle; Im Namen des Gesetzes: Hinter den Kulissen; Die Tunnelgangster von Berlin; Die Drei: Supergirl; Nach uns die Sintflut; Der Mann ohne Schatten: Der Mörder unseres Vaters; Letters from the East / Briefe aus Tallinn [FF – DE/GB/FI/EE]; Der letzte Kurier; Das Mädchen Rosemarie. 1996: Brennendes Herz – Tagebuch einer Flucht [ass]; Der Auftritt [TVD – voi]; Der Clown; Viel Spaß mit meiner Frau; Der Fahnder: Klassentreffen; Null Risiko und reich; Drancy Avenir [FF – voi – FR]; Die Geliebte: Nichts als Lügen. 1996/97: Die Drei: Der Preis der Liebe; Betrogen – Eine Ehe am Ende; Die Schuld der Liebe [FF – AT/CH]. 1997: Requiem für etwas, das sehr klein ist [SF]; Schwarze Sonne [DO – voi]; Ende einer Leidenschaft; Tatort: Mordsgeschäfte; Derrick: Die Nächte des Kaplans; Tatort: Schlüssel zum Mord; Stillleben / Nature morte [FF – voi – DE/FR]; Schwurgericht: Ein Kind war Zeuge; Le dernier ètè [FR]; Martin Berg – Anwalt der Gerechtigkeit [2 episodes]; Callboy; Die Bubi Scholz Story; Polizeiruf 110: Mordsmäßig Mallorca. 1997/98: Zwei Brüder: Tödliche Träume; Tatort: Blick in den Abgrund; Kidnapping – la sfida / Kidnapping – Ein Vater schlägt zurück [IT/DE]; Tatort: Voll ins Herz. 1998: Der Alte: Der Mann mit dem Hund; 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint [FF]; Tatort: Der zweite Mann; Der Handymörder; Operation Noah; Benzin im Blut: Die Geisel. 1998/99: A napfény íze / Sunshine – Ein Hauch von Sonnenschein [FF – HU/DE/AT]; The Alchemists [GB]; Wenn man sich traut. 1999: Musical Man [SF]; Der Redenschreiber; No sex; Ein Fall für zwei: Abgebrüht; Paradiso – Sieben Tage mit sieben Frauen [FF]; Ben & Maria – Liebe auf den zweiten Blick. 1999/2000: Der letzte Zeuge: 20. Drei Jahre und eine Nacht; Jahrestage – Aus dem Leben von Gesine Cresspahl; Rotlicht – In der Höhle des Löwen. 2000: Die Blutgräfin [FF – AT/DE]; Falsche Liebe – Die Internetfalle; Der Bebuquin – Rendezvous mit Carl Einstein [FF]; venus.de – Die bewegte Frau [FF]. 2000/01: Vera Brühne; Taking Sides – Der Fall Furtwängler / Taking Sides – Le cas Furtwängler / Taking Sides [FF – DE/FR/GB]; Leo und Claire [FF]. 2001: Der schöne Tag [FF]; Solange wir lieben; Stahlnetz: Innere Angelegenheiten; Der Tanz mit dem Teufel – Die Entführung des Richard Oetker; 666 – Traue keinem, mit dem du schläfst! [FF]; Edel & Starck: Der Mantel des Schweigens; Wenn die Liebe verloren geht. 2001/02: Beck [TVS – 6 episodes – SE]; Amen [FF – FR]; Tanners letzte Chance; Gioco di Ripley / Ripley’s Game [FF – IT/GB/US]; Väter [FF]. 2001-04: Chats perchés [DO – voi – FR]. 2002: S.O.S. Barracuda: Auftrag: Mord!; Südostpassage [DO – voi]; Das Exemplar [FF – voi]; Kafka va au cinéma / Kafka geht ins Kino [dir,scr,cam,voi – FR/DE]; Zwei Seiten der Liebe; Vaters Land [SD – app]; alphateam – Die Lebensretter im OP: Mut zur Wahrheit; Petites coupures / Small Cuts [FF – FR/GB]; Saltimbank [FF – FR]; Jean Moulin [FR]; Bloch – Silbergraue Augen; Antonia – Tränen im Paradies; P. I. – Post Impact / Apokalypse Eis [US/DE]. 2002/03: Der kleine Mönch: Sondereinsatz; Nicht ohne meinen Anwalt:
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Entscheidung fürs Leben; Zwei Tage Hoffnung; Rot und Blau [FF]; Mädchen Nr. 1; Ein Fall für zwei: Doppelmord; Olgas Sommer / L’Été d’Olga [FF – DE/FR]. 2003: Novaks Ultimatum; Die Russen kommen!: Lolita ist berühmt – nicht ich [TVD – voi]; Gelübde des Herzens; Es wird etwas geschehen [SF]; Tor zum Himmel [FF]; Aus Liebe zum Volk / Pour l’amour du peuple [DO – voi (French version) – DE/FR]; Walk on Water [FF – IL/SE]; Kant – reloaded; Polizeiruf 110: Barbarossas Rache; Küss mich, Kanzler!; Ein glücklicher Tag. 2003/04: Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei [FF – DE/AT]; Frau fährt, Mann schläft [FF]. 2004: Für immer im Herzen; Wolffs Revier: Spätfolgen; Donna Leon – Acqua alta. 2004/05: L’annulaire / Der Ringfinger / The Ringfinger [FF – FR/DE/GB]; Die Rosenkrieger: Liebe auf den zweiten Blick; Heiraten macht mich nervös; Wen die Liebe trifft;
Munich [FF – US]; Eine Krone für Isabell. 2005: Schiller reloaded; Undercover [FF – CH]; Un ami parfait [FF – FR]. 2006: Der falsche Tod. 2006/07: Der letzte Zeuge: Den Sieg im Blut; Deutsche Lebensläufe: Fritz Lang [TVD – voi]; Die Flucht; Overnight [FF – HU]; Tarragona – Ein Paradies in Flammen. 2007: Disengagement / Désengagement [FF – IL/DE/IT/FR]; Der Baum [SF]; Auge um Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte [DO – app]; La Traque / Die Hetzjagd [FR/DE]; Commissario Laurenti: Der Tod wirft lange Schatten. 2007/08: Flammen & Citronen / Tage des Zorns [FF – DK/DE]; Todsünde; Dr. Psycho – Die Bösen, die Bullen, meine Frau und ich [TVS – Season 2 – 5 episodes]; Im Winter ein Jahr [FF]. 2008: Die Frau aus dem Meer; Tatort: Häschen in der Grube. 2008/09: Hilde [FF]; Entführt; Hinter blinden Fenstern.
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Appendix: Historical and Thematic Contexts Pioneers and Early Film: Wilhelmine Cinema The ‘beginning’ of cinema is often dated from the first public film screening by the Lumière brothers in Paris on 28 December 1895, although the first film showing by the German pioneers Max and Emil Skladanovsky in Berlin predated the more famous event in France by nearly two months. The simultaneous development of film and projection equipment across different countries built on experiments by earlier scientists and photographers, including some German inventions. In 1896, the Lumières demonstrated the technological superiority of their Cinématographe at a screening in Cologne, and entered a distribution deal with the chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck, which sidelined the Skladanowskys’ ‘Bioscop’ projector. In 1896 Oskar Messter built his first projectors and started film screenings in Berlin. He and Jules Greenbaum, who began selling foreign films on the German market the next year, are the most important pioneers of the film industry in Germany. Films at the turn of the century lasted for only a few minutes and consisted of non-fictional city vistas, news reportage, and depictions of military pageants and royal engagements, leading some historians to declare Kaiser Wilhelm II as Germany’s first movie ‘star’. Despite such national topics, the film industry was resolutely international – indigenous productions constituted a minority when set against imports from France (e.g. Lumière, Pathé, Gaumont), Italy, and Scandinavia. Cinema as a distinctive venue emerged gradually – in the first decade screenings were associated with travelling exhibitors at rural fairgrounds, or functioned as integrated elements in theatrical variety shows in larger cities. In 1903, Messter offered a short-lived solution for synchronising images and sound with his Biophon technology and its related genre, the Tonbild, or ‘sound picture’. By 1905 the number of sedentary urban cinemas increased; these were initially small and simple, comparable
with American ‘nickelodeons’, and were called Ladenkinos (‘shop cinemas’). With the rise of cinema as a mass medium, suspicion grew about its potential for corrupting the nation; women, minors, and the lower social classes were seen as particularly endangered. Already since 1906, police had censored specific subject matter and acted against ‘unruly’ behaviour in cinemas. Churches, educators, and conservative politicians railed against the perceived depravity and vulgarity of cinema in the press, while some leading intellectuals came to the medium’s defence, initiating what became known as the Kinodebatte (the cinema debate). After 1910, films gradually became longer and fictional subjects more widespread, while distinctive companies, filmmakers and performers emerged. Danish company Nordisk became a dominant player in the German market in the early 1910s. Among the earliest film stars were Danish-born Asta Nielsen and Henny Porten, appearing in their unique brand of melodrama. Other popular genres of the 1910s included detective thrillers, often serialised in successive episodes, fairytales and fantasy subjects, westerns, ethnographic documentaries, slapstick comedies, and sensationalist ‘white slavery’ dramas. From 1913, film producers consciously attempted to raise cinema’s social respectability. This early ‘art film’ strategy, the Autorenfilm (‘author’s film’), consisted of casting actors from the legitimate stage, and drew on canonical literary texts. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Germany’s film market became isolated from cinematic development elsewhere – the distribution of foreign films was banned, and ‘enemy’ assets nationalised, e.g. Erich Pommer used Deutsche Eclair to found his own company Decla-Film. Messter introduced a weekly newsreel that brought German audiences reports from the front, although only a handful of feature films thematised the conflict directly. The most significant figure to emerge during the war years was Ernst Lubitsch whose witty and cinematically accomplished comedies were often set in Jewish-German urban milieus. His
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films were produced by Paul Davidson's Projections-AG »Union« (PAGU). The major industrial development occurred in December 1917 with the foundation of Ufa (Universum Film-AG). Set up on the initiative of the Imperial High Command to provide effective audio-visual propaganda against Germany’s enemies, and aided by loans from the major German banks, Ufa came into being as an explicitly national construction. It became the foundation for some of German cinema’s greatest financial and artistic triumphs, but it also set a more ambivalent precedent for the state’s involvement in the national film culture that would haunt German cinema for decades. Further Reading: P. C. Usai and L. Codelli (eds.), Before Caligari: German Cinema, 1895–1920 (1990); S. Hake, Passions and Deceptions: The Early Films of Ernst Lubitsch (1992); S. Hake, The Cinema’s Third Machine: Writing on Film in Germany, 1907–1933 (1993); T. Elsaesser and M. Wedel (eds.), A Second Life: German Cinema’s First Decades (1996), A. Oksiloff, Picturing The Primitive: Visual Culture, Ethnography, and Early German Cinema (2001). Names: Pioneers and Early Film Ottomar Anschütz, Carl Froelich, Jules Greenbaum, Oskar Messter, Guido Seeber, Max Skladanowsky Wilhelmine Cinema Alfred Abel, Albert Bassermann, Curt Bois, Paul Davidson, Richard Eichberg, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Carl Froelich, Urban Gad, Rochus Gliese, Jules Greenbaum, Franz Hofer, Georg Jacoby, Emil Jannings, Fritz Kortner, Werner Krauß, Paul Leni, Harry Liedtke, Ernst Lubitsch, Max Mack, Joe May, Mia May, Oskar Messter, Asta Nielsen, Franz Osten, Richard Oswald, Ossi Oswalda, Lupu Pick, Harry Piel, Henny Porten, Max Reinhardt, Adele Sandrock, Reinhold Schünzel, Guido Seeber, Theodor Sparkuhl, Conrad Veidt, Hermann Warm, Paul Wegener, Robert Wiene, Eduard von Winterstein, Friedrich Zelnik
Weimar During the period of the Weimar Republic (1919–33) German cinema arguably achieved its greatest international influence. Attempting to compete with Hollywood, the film industry pursued economic strategies of horizontal and
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vertical integration, exemplified by the increasing dominance of Ufa (Universum-Film AG) as a major studio; and it developed transnational networks and collaborative practices under the banner of a united ‘Film-Europe’. Some of the most acclaimed ‘masterpieces’ of German cinema were made during this period, which also produced some of the most influential national filmmakers and iconic stars. Weimar cinema was internationally admired, in particular for its accomplishments in production design and cinematography. But already in the early 1920s, its brightest talents were lured by the opportunities in Hollywood, and throughout the decade many left, either permanently or temporarily, for the United States. Other filmmakers moved across Europe, and worked in countries such as Great Britain and France. In terms of visual style and narrative, Weimar cinema has often been seen as synonymous with the horror classics of the ‘haunted screen’, and even more so with ‘Expressionism’. In reality, the latter movement was short-lived and had peaked by the early 1920s; later in the decade it was decisively displaced by the aims, ideas, and aesthetics of the so-called ‘New Sobriety’ (Neue Sachlichkeit). But Weimar cinema was even more diverse. Among the more than 3000 feature films produced in the 1920s and early 1930s, the majority comprised crowd-pleasing popular genres such as detective serials, adventure films, costume dramas, and comedies. Alongside big-budgeted productions with high artistic aspirations, the period witnessed various waves of temporary successful sub-genres, including sex-education films, historical melodramas, slapstick comedies, mountain films (Bergfilme), and nationalistic biopics glorifying the legendary 18th century Prussian monarch Friedrich II. Popular fictional genres apart, Weimar cinema also saw major contributions to the development of documentary, from the Kulturfilm to avant-garde ‘city symphonies’ of the late 1920s, which adopted principles of montage pioneered by Soviet directors. Whereas the mainstream industry increasingly came under the influence of right-wing business tycoons, left-wing parties and compa-
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nies helped to fund independent productions, which often chronicled the plight of the urban poor. The introduction of sound in the late 1920s fundamentally altered the German film industry. New practices emerged, such as the production of multi-lingual versions (MLVs), where the same film was shot simultaneously in different languages, using the same crews and sets but mostly different casts. Often referred to as German film’s ‘Golden age’, Weimar cinema came to an end with the Nazis’ rise to power. Many of the era’s most significant filmmakers were Jewish, and were subsequently banned from working, jailed, forced into exile, and in a number of instances murdered. Further Reading: S. Kracauer: From Caligari to Hitler. A Psychological History of the German Film (1947); L. H. Eisner: The Haunted Screen. Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt (1973); P. Petro: Joyless Streets: Women and Melodramatic Representation in Weimar Cinema (Princeton University Press, 1989).B. Murray: Film and the German Left in the Weimar Republic (1990); T. Saunders: Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany (1994); K. Kreimeier: The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945 (1996); T. Elsaesser: Weimar Cinema and After. Germany’s Historical Imaginary (2000); Richard W. McCormick: Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity. Film, Literature, and “New Objectivity”(2000); K. S. Calhoon (ed.): Peripheral Visions. The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema (2001); D. Scheunemann (ed.), Expressionist Film: New Perspectives (2003); S.S. Prawer: Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910–1933 (2005). Important names: Popular cinema (Publikumsfilm) Betty Amann, Siegfried Arno, Ludwig Berger, Kurt Bernhardt, Felix Bressart, Louis Brody, Mady Christians, Dolly Haas, Willy Haas, Max Hansen, Thea von Harbou, Karl Hartl, Lilian Harvey, Brigitte Helm, Paul Henckels, Paul Hörbiger, Georg Jacoby, Jenny Jugo, Alfred Junge, Gerhard Lamprecht, Harry Liedtke, Ernst Lubitsch, Max Mack, Lucie Mannheim, Fritz Maurischat, Joe May, Mia May, Lothar Mendes, Ernö Metzner, Bruno Mondi, Hans Moser, Seymour Nebenzahl, Pola Negri, Asta Nielsen, Anny Ondra, Franz Osten, Richard Oswald, Ossi Oswalda, Harry Piel, Franz Planer, Erich Pommer, Henny
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Porten, Fritz Rasp, Walter Reimann, Walter Reisch, Walter Rilla, Adele Sandrock, Reinhold Schünzel, Theodor Sparkuhl, Hans Steinhoff, Szöke Szakall, Wilhelm Thiele, Hermann Thimig, Olga Tschechowa, Gustav Ucicky, Karl Valentin, Fritz Arno Wagner, Gustav von Wangenheim, Eduard von Winterstein, Hermann Warm, O. F. Werndorff, Friedrich Zelnik Social drama (Sittenfilm) Anita Berber, Elisabeth Bergner, Louise Brooks, Ewald André Dupont, Richard Eichberg, Emil Jannings, Werner Krauß, Gerhard Lamprecht, Asta Nielsen, Richard Oswald, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Lupu Pick, Reinhold Schünzel, Conrad Veidt, Eduard von Winterstein Expressionism Alfred Abel, Anita Berber, Lil Dagover, Lya de Putti, Ernst Deutsch, Wilhelm Dieterle, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Karl Freund, Henrik Galeen, Rochus Gliese, Thea von Harbou, Robert Herlth, Carl Hoffmann, Otto Hunte, Emil Jannings, Erich Kettelhut, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Kortner, Günther Krampf, Werner Krauß, Fritz Lang, Paul Leni, Carl Mayer, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Erich Pommer, Fritz Rasp, Walter Reimann, Arthur Robison, Conrad Veidt, Fritz Arno Wagner, Gustav von Wangenheim, Hermann Warm, Paul Wegener, Robert Wiene New Sobriety (Neue Sachlichkeit) Béla Balázs, Wilfried Basse, Louise Brooks, Wilhelm Dieterle, Karl Freund, Werner Hochbaum, Oskar Homolka, Phil Jutzi, Hermann Kosterlitz, Günther Krampf, Gerhard Lamprecht, Carl Mayer, Edmund Meisel, Ernö Metzner, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Fritz Rasp, Walther Ruttmann, Berthold Viertel Early Sound Period / MLVs Hans Albers, Karl Anton, Siegfried Arno, Ludwig Berger, Hans-Otto Borgmann, Felix Bressart, Ernst Hugo Correll, Marlene Dietrich, Slatan Dudow, Ewald André Dupont, Richard Eichberg, Willy Eichberger, Rudolf Forster, Willy Fritsch, Franciska Gaál, Kurt Gerron, Gustaf Gründgens, Dolly Haas, Max Hansen, Lilian Harvey, Brigitte Helm, Paul Henckels, Werner Richard Heymann, Carl Hoffmann, Friedrich Hollaender, Oskar Homolka, Paul Hörbiger, Brigitte Horney, Otto Hunte, Emil Jannings, Jenny Jugo, Alfred Junge, Erich Kästner, Paul Kemp, Erich Kettelhut, Jan Kiepura, Fritz Kortner, Hermann Kosterlitz, Günther Krampf, Karel Lamaè, Hedy Lamarr, Gerhard Lamprecht, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Albert Lieven, Theo Lingen, Peter Lorre, Max Mack, Theo Mackeben, Lucie Mannheim, Fritz Maurischat, Joe May, Carl Mayer, Lothar Mendes, Ernö Metzner, Bruno Mondi, Hans Moser, Renate Müller, Käthe von Nagy, Seymour Nebenzahl, Anny Ondra, Max Ophüls, Richard Oswald, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Franz Planer, Rudolf Platte, Erich Pommer, Emeric Pressburger, Fritz Rasp, Walter Reisch, Walter Rilla, Günther Rittau, Karl Ritter,
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Arthur Robison, Heinz Rühmann, Leontine Sagan, Adele Sandrock, Joseph Schmidt, Sybille Schmitz, Eugen Schüfftan, Reinhold Schünzel, Kurt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Douglas Sirk, Mischa Spoliansky, Günther Stapenhorst, Hans Steinhoff, Robert Stolz, Szöke Szakall, Richard Tauber, Hertha Thiele, Wilhelm Thiele, Hermann Thimig, Luis Trenker, Olga Tschechowa, Konstantin Tschet, Gustav Ucicky, Conrad Veidt, Berthold Viertel, Fritz Arno Wagner, Hermann Warm, Franz Wachsmann, Kurt Weill, Otto Wernicke, Dorothea Wieck, Robert Wiene, Billy Wilder, Eduard von Winterstein, Adolf Wohlbrück, Wolfgang Zeller, Friedrich Zelnik, Hans H. Zerlett
Nazi Cinema Following Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi party’s Minister for “popular enlightenment” and propaganda, strove to bring all sectors of Germany’s culture under state control. In March, Ufa terminated the contracts of the majority of its Jewish personnel, including some of the company’s most successful producers, stars, directors, writers, and composers. Other studios followed Ufa’s example. By September, legislation had made it compulsory for anyone working within the industry to be a member of the newly formed Reich Film Chamber (Reichsfilmkammer); Jews were barred from membership. The chamber, under Goebbels’s direct control, coordinated all aspects of the film industry, from questions pertaining to funding, production, distribution, exhibition, international import and export, to public relation. The state decided what kind of films were seen and made in Germany, and by whom. At least in the early years of the regime, Goebbels appeared committed to maintain the film industry as a notionally independent business in order to safeguard profits. International collaboration continued, albeit to a lesser degree than in previous years, and with an increasing emphasis on countries such as Fascist Italy and Japan. Foreign distributors (including major Hollywood studios) maintained a representation in Nazi Germany until World War II.
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However, the grip of the regime became tighter as the decade progressed. This included the enforcement of already strict censorship policies established during the late Weimar years, now extended to script vetting prior to filming. Reception was similarly controlled – in 1936 Goebbels banned the expression of independent opinion in film reviews. In terms of content, Nazi cinema is often associated with images of mass rallies, party pageants, and ecstatic party-followers, glorifying Hitler as a god-like “Führer”. However, such open exhortations of the state were relatively rare. Instead, the film industry adopted well-established popular generic formulae and lavish production values, including from 1941 the use of colour. “Third Reich” cinema had its hierarchy of – ironically often foreign-born – stars, and was dominated by comedies, musicals, melodramas, exotic adventures, historical costume epics, and biopics of ‘great Germans’. Distracting home audiences from growing domestic problems became as important to the regime as explicitly instilling Nazi values. Nevertheless, cinema also transported fascist ideology more subtly couched in its generic confections, promoting the regime’s anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism, and warmongering. In 1937, the government took a majority stake in Ufa, a move that initiated the ultimately total nationalisation of the industry. The process was completed by 1941, merging studios such as Ufa, Tobis, Terra, Bavaria, and the Viennese Wien-Film into a giant state-owned cooperation, Ufa-Film GmbH (UFI). Already since the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, Nazi cinema had extended beyond national borders. This expansion continued after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when the film industries in occupied territories, from France to Czechoslovakia and from Norway to Greece, came under German control. However, as the war developed, film production dwindled. Cinemas and studio facilities were damaged or destroyed in bombing raids, while the regime put its remaining resources into the war, and German audiences were increasingly focussed on survival rather than on watch-
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ing films. As Allied forces advanced on Berlin, Soviet troops occupied the Ufa studios two weeks prior to VE day on 24 April 1945, marking a symbolic end of the Nazi film industry. Further Reading: Julian Petley, Capital and Culture: German Cinema 1933–1945 (1979); E. Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion. Nazi Cinema and its Afterlife (1996); L. Schulte-Sasse, Entertaining The Third Reich. Illusions of Wholeness in Nazi Cinema (1996); S. Hake, Popular Cinema of the Third Reich (2002); L. Koepnick, The Dark Mirror. German Cinema between Hitler and Hollywood (2002); A. Ascheid, Hitler's Heroines: Stardom and Womanhood in Nazi Cinema (2003); E. Carter, Dietrich’s Ghosts. The Sublime and the Beautiful in Third Reich Film (2004); David Welch and Roel Vande Winkel (eds.), Cinema and The Swastika. The International Expansion of Third Reich Cinema (2007). Important names: Propaganda Karl Anton, Willy Birgel, Louis Brody, Ernst Hugo Correll, René Deltgen, Otto Gebühr, Heinrich George, Veit Harlan, Paul Henckels, Robert Herlth, Fritz Hippler, Otto Hunte, Emil Jannings, Werner Krauß, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Theo Mackeben, Ferdinand Marian, Bruno Mondi, Walter Reimann, Herbert Reinecker, Leni Riefenstahl, Karl Ritter, Walther Ruttmann, Kristina Söderbaum, Hans Steinhoff, Andrew Thorndike, Gustav Ucicky, Fritz Arno Wagner, Paul Wegener, Otto Wernicke, Hans H. Zerlett ‘Third Reich’ entertainment cinema Hans Albers, Günther Anders, Richard Angst, Franz Antel, Karl Anton, Lída Baarová, Robert Baberske, Josef von Báky, Giuseppe Becce, Friedl BehnGrund, Willy Birgel, Geza von Bolvary, Hans-Otto Borgmann, Ernst Hugo Correll, Lil Dagover, Paul Dahlke, Erich Engel, O. W. Fischer, Willi Forst, Willy Fritsch, Carl Froelich, Gustav Fröhlich, Otto Gebühr, Joachim Gottschalk, Alfred Greven, Gustaf Gründgens, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Karl Hartl, O. E. Hasse, Johannes Heesters, Paul Henckels, Robert Herlth, Werner Hochbaum, Carl Hoffmann, Kurt Hoffmann, Marianne Hoppe, Paul Hörbiger, Brigitte Horney, Georg Jacoby, Michael Jary, Jenny Jugo, Curd Jürgens, Phil Jutzi, Helmut Käutner, Paul Kemp, Erich Kettelhut, Wolfgang Kieling, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gustav Knuth, Hilde Krahl, Peter Kreuder, Karel Lamaè, Gerhard Lamprecht, Zarah Leander, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Harry Liedtke, Albert Lieven, Theo Lingen, Theo Mackeben, Ferdinand Marian, Fritz Maurischat, Bruno Mondi, Hans Moser, Renate Müller, Pola Negri, Erik Ode, Anny Ondra, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Harry Piel, Rudolf
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Platte, Henny Porten, Rudolf Prack, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Carl Raddatz, Fritz Rasp, Günther Rittau, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Adele Sandrock, Sybille Schmitz, Reinhold Schünzel, Herbert Selpin, Douglas Sirk, Kristina Söderbaum, Hans Söhnker, Günther Stapenhorst, Wolfgang Staudte, Hans Steinhoff, Robert A. Stemmle, Robert Stolz, Hertha Thiele, Hermann Thimig, Luis Trenker, Olga Tschechowa, Konstantin Tschet, Gustav Ucicky, Gisela Uhlen, Karl Valentin, Fritz Arno Wagner, Hermann Warm, Paul Wegener, Grethe Weiser, Ilse Werner, Otto Wernicke, Paula Wessely, Dorothea Wieck, Eduard von Winterstein, Adolf Wohlbrück, Frank Wysbar, Wolfgang Zeller, Hans H. Zerlett, Sonja Ziemann
Rubble Films In 1945, Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union divided Germany into four occupation zones. In terms of the film industry, the country’s most extensive production facilities were located in the vicinity of Berlin in the Soviet sector, and were looted, or appropriated for the dubbing of Russian films, to be used in the ideological re-education of German civilians. Studios in the Western zones, for example the Bavaria complex near Munich, were used in the immediate post-war period for storing military equipment, and for housing displaced persons. The occupation authorities, advised by returning exiled filmmakers, were in no hurry to re-establish an industry that had been instrumental in promoting the ideology of the Nazi state, and which was seen as a potential economic threat to their own domestic industries. By decree, those cinemas that had not been bombed remained closed during the first two months after the end of the war, but opened afterwards with programmes consisting of British, French, Russian and Hollywood films. The occupation authorities used the medium, in particular documentaries showing the liberation of the concentration camps, as an educational tool to confront the German population with its complicity in the Holocaust. The attempt to denazify German society extended to film personnel, who were banned from professional activity until vetted and con-
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sidered ideologically redeemed. A number of prominent actors, directors and writers were temporarily interned; some died of malnutrition and disease while being imprisoned. However, as the relations between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies deteriorated rapidly, denazification became increasingly perfunctory, and the main goal shifted to winning over Germans as allies in the emerging new conflict of the Cold War. Within a short time all but a few major figures active in Nazi cinema had resumed working. Nazi cinema itself made a comeback, in the form of ideologically innocuous classics from the 1930s and early 1940s (mainly musicals and comedies) or films, referred to as Überläufer, which had been made but not released in the last years of the ‘Third Reich’. The Soviet sector restarted production in the former Ufa studios at Babelsberg, now called DEFA, releasing its first film in October 1946. The Western sector issued licenses to filmmakers soon after its Soviet counterpart, with the first West German premiere reaching the cinemas in December 1946. Many of the films made in the occupation zones between 1946 and 1949 addressed contemporary problems such as German war guilt, the Holocaust, the legacy of the Nazi past, and the problems of rebuilding a country out of near total destruction. Cinematically, they combined the visual stylisation of Weimar and Nazi cinema with a stark authenticity that has been compared with Italian neorealism and film noir. Their dwelling on urban ruins as a metaphor for a crisis of national identity earned these films the not always approving term ‘rubble films’. Mass audiences in Germany quickly grew tired of the morose narratives, and demanded more escapist fare, while for critics, the filmmakers’ often self-pitying tone did not go far enough in addressing the real problems. Further Reading: H. Fehrenbach, Cinema in Democratizing Germany: Reconstructing National Identity after Hitler (1995); U. Sieglohr (ed.), Heroines without Heroes. Reconstructing Female and National Identities in European Cinema, 1945–51 (2000); R. Shandley, Rubble Films. German Cinema in the Shadow of the Third Reich (2001).
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Important names: Rubble Films Slatan Dudow, Erich Engel, Gert Fröbe, Erwin Geschonneck, O. E. Hasse, Paul Henckels, Robert Herlth, Harry Hindemith, Otto Hunte, Rudolf Jugert, Curd Jürgens, Helmut Käutner, Hildegard Knef, Hilde Krahl, Gerhard Lamprecht, Peter Lorre, Theo Mackeben, Fritz Maurischat, Bruno Mondi, Erich Pommer, Rudolf Prack, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Carl Raddatz, Harald Reinl, Hans Söhnker, Wolfgang Staudte, Robert A. Stemmle, Rolf Thiele, Gyula Trebitsch, Georg Tressler, Gustav Ucicky, Peter van Eyck, Grethe Weiser, Ilse Werner, Otto Wernicke, Eduard von Winterstein, Sonja Ziemann
DEFA and East German Cinema In 1949, a few months after the foundation of the Federal Republic in the West, the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or DDR) came into being, with East Berlin as its capital. Although the Ufa successor DEFA (Deutsche Film Aktiengesellschaft) had been founded in 1946 as a limited company, it remained under Soviet control until 1953, and subsequently became a state-owned entity, conforming to the ideological dictates of the ruling Communist party, the SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands). DEFA thus became synonymous with national film production in the GDR, amounting to over 700 feature films over forty-five years. As with every other aspect of East German society, a rigid hierarchy and complex reporting structure, which included the state’s feared secret police, the Stasi, maintained the state’s power. At the same time, since box-office success was of lesser importance, the studio provided its employees, many of whom had already worked for Ufa, with a remarkable level of job security, and a degree of creative independence from market forces. Working practices at DEFA were characterised by a strong collaborative ethos, in particular by a close relationship between writers and directors. However, filmic content was scrupulously vetted both prior to production and at the level
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of distribution and exhibition. Even where projects had initially been approved, support could be withdrawn and completed films banned. DEFA’s feature films in the late 1940s and early 1950s engaged critically with topics such as the Nazi past and the history of class struggle. In terms of their subject matter and narrative techniques, these films continued the left-wing cinematic tradition of the late Weimar years. The studio became internationally acclaimed for its visually imaginative children’s films and fairytale adaptations, which were extremely popular across the Eastern Bloc, and were among the few East German films that were distributed beyond the Iron Curtain. Another important aspect of DEFA’s activities was the production of documentaries, whose educational potential was frequently exploited for propaganda purposes, but which also contributed to a remarkable ethnographic documentation of East German life in all its diverse dimensions. Following the Soviet example, the SED in 1952 issued the doctrine of ‘socialist realism’ – art should provide an aesthetically uncomplicated and ideologically unambiguous celebration of life under socialism. DEFA responded to this call with an epic two-part biopic of a famous party hero and martyr, the Weimar-era Communist leader Ernst Thälmann. After Stalin’s death and into the latter half of the 1950s, the state’s grip relaxed temporarily and a new generation of filmmakers developed a more complex style. Inspired by simultaneous new waves in Polish, Czech, and Soviet cinema and also drawing on the model of Italian neorealism and emerging Western European art film movements, the new approach came to be known as ‘critical realism’. Films began to deal with everyday life in the GDR in an authentic manner, covering issues such as the division of Germany, generational conflicts, and the role of the individual in a collectivist society. Keen to break out of its international isolation, DEFA also ventured into a number of co-productions with other East European film industries, and occasionally with Western partners, including from France. This fleeting flirtation with a more cosmopolitan outlook came to an abrupt end with the building of the Berlin
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Wall in 1961, and was followed by a period of greater introspection. The construction of a distinctive East German national identity, founded on the GDR’s master narrative of ant-fascist resistance, and in opposition to the compromised West German identity, came to the forefront in narratives with contemporary and historical subject matter. At the same time, filmmakers maintained a critical perspective on social and political issues in the GDR. While overall affirmative in their assessment of the state, films drew attention to instances of corruption, alienation and dissent. Eventually, after the SED Central Committee’s Plenary in 1965, the party was no longer willing to tolerate critical voices. It banned an entire year’s production output, sacked DEFA’s studio director, and curtailed the subsequent opportunities for those filmmakers it considered most subversive. Filling a void while also recognising that East German audiences continued to prefer Western-style entertainment over home-grown socialist cinema, filmmakers turned to popular generic formulae, producing socialist musicals, science fiction films, spy thrillers and comedies, and even providing with the Indianerfilm (Native American film) a politically correct, anticapitalist and anti-colonialist take on the western. By the early 1970s, and coinciding with a thaw in international relations, restrictions on filmic subject matter once more relaxed. As in previous episodes of cultural opportunity, filmmakers focused their attention on narratives of everyday life, with a particular emphasis on private, interpersonal relationships and experiences. By exercising a strict separation between the public and the private sphere, filmmakers were able to portray individual desires positively, instead of having to condemn them as remnants of bourgeois selfishness. But once again, a period of openness was followed by a clampdown, this time in the wake of the enforced expatriation of dissident singer Wolf Biermann in 1976, and the subsequent exile of several notable DEFA stars. Although interesting films continued to be made until the late 1980s, by the time of German unification DEFA was characterised, like the GDR more
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generally, by a moribund infrastructure, a lack of ideological and creative direction, and a lack of support from its target audience. Further Reading: S. Allan and J. Sandford (eds.), DEFA: East German Cinema, 1946–1992 (1999); B. Byg and B Moore (eds.), Moving Images of East Germany: Past and Future of DEFA Film (2002); D. Berghahn, Hollywood Behind The Wall: The Cinema of East Germany (2005). Important names: Feature Films Robert Baberske, Jurek Becker, Frank Beyer, Friedl Behn-Grund, Werner Bergmann, Kurt Böwe, Jürgen Brauer, Heiner Carow, Angelica Domröse, Roland Dressel, Horst Drinda, Slatan Dudow, Günther Fischer, Erwin Geschonneck, Winfried Glatzeder, Roland Gräf, Herwart Grosse, Egon Günther, Michael Gwisdek, Corinna Harfouch, Harry Hindemith, Alfred Hirschmeier, Jutta Hoffmann, Rolf Hoppe, Wolfgang Kieling, Ralf Kirsten, Gerhard Klein, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Renate Krößner, Manfred Krug, Regine Kühn, Siegfried Kühn, Rolf Losansky, Rolf Ludwig, Kurt Maetzig, Günter Marczinkowsky, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Mühe, Werner Peters, Ulrich Plenzdorf, Günter Reisch, Günther Rücker, Katrin Saß, Helga Schütz, Jaecki Schwarz, Günther Simon, Rainer Simon, Wolfgang Staudte, Katharina Thalbach, Ulrich Thein, Jutta Wachowiak, Lothar Warneke, Ulrich Weiß, Eduard von Winterstein, Konrad Wolf Documentaries Jürgen Böttcher, Paul Dessau, Karl Gass, Walter Heynowski, Winfried Junge, Volker Koepp, Christian Lehmann, Kurt Maetzig, Karlheinz Mund, Gitta Nickel, Günther Rücker, Gerhard Scheumann, Helga Schütz, Andrew Thorndike, Ulrich Weiß Children's Film Jürgen Brauer, Heiner Carow, Rolf Hoppe, Rolf Losansky, Günther Simon Antifascist Film Frank Beyer, Heiner Carow, Karl Gass, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Kurt Maetzig, Günter Marczinkowsky, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Günter Reisch, Günther Rücker, Gerhard Scheumann, Horst Schulze, Jaecki Schwarz, Günther Simon, Ulrich Thein, Andrew Thorndike, Jutta Wachowiak, Konrad Wolf Socialist Realism Harry Hindemith, Kurt Maetzig, Günter Reisch, Günther Simon, Ulrich Thein, Andrew Thorndike Banned Films Frank Beyer, Jürgen Böttcher, Roland Dressel, Roland Gräf, Egon Günther, Jutta Hoffmann, Manfred Krug, Kurt Maetzig, Günter Marczinkowsky, Helga Schütz, Rainer Simon
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West German Film The fragmentation of the German film industry during the occupation period continued after the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or BRD) in 1949. Filmmaking resumed in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Göttingen among other places, but the production sector never regained the cohesion and focus the industry had prior to the war, with the power shifting towards distributors. The cultural climate that dominated West Germany during the 1950s chimed with Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s motto ‘No experiments’, the political conservatism of the Cold War, and with the country’s determined effort at national reconstruction, resulting in the so-called ‘economic miracle’ (Wirtschaftswunder). Cinema abandoned soul-searching over the Nazi past, and for the most part adopted commercial generic formulae that had been tried and tested since at least the Weimar period. For the first post-war decade, this strategy, while decried by critics, proved remarkably successful. The most iconic genre of the period was the Heimatfilm, which showcased idyllic landscapes such as the Alps amidst narratives that typically negotiated the relationship between urban life and rural communities, and between modernity and tradition. Equally popular among domestic, and particularly female, audiences were melodramas, comedies, musicals, and nostalgic evocations of yesteryear. From the mid-1950s onwards, World War II dramas that dealt with the plight of the ordinary soldier catered more to male cinemagoers. By the late 1950s, however, the industry’s increasingly precarious financial situation, caused by a range of domestic and global factors, resulted in the demise of numerous companies and cinemas. In response to this crisis, the sector began to embrace internationalism, entering into co-production agreements with other European film industries. In the 1960s, Germany as a setting or thematic subject disappeared largely from commercial productions, exemplified by the two most popular film franchises of the decade, Edgar Wallace crime thriller adaptations (1959–1972), and a
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series of Euro-westerns (1962–1968) based on the adventure novels by 19th century writer Karl May. Meanwhile, a new generation of filmmakers, termed the ‘Young German Film’, articulated their rejection of the mainstream industry, most famously in a manifesto launched at the 1962 Oberhausen short film festival, which declared ‘Daddy’s cinema is dead’. Over the next eight years, the new movement, which oriented itself on other European ‘new waves’ such as the Nouvelle Vague in France, as well on earlier German art film traditions, slowly consolidated itself. Cultivating distinctive auteur personae, the filmmakers established a growing reputation at international film festivals, often bypassing commercial channels of distribution. Indeed, gaining independence from industry constraints was one of the movement’s explicit aims. Filmmakers aligned themselves from the beginning with television, which alongside government subsidies became an important source of funding. By the early 1970s, the domestic commercial sector was moribund, kept alive since the late 1960s by revenues from soft porn and other exploitation genres. With domestic production almost entirely focussed on art cinema, the commercial vacuum created was filled by Hollywood, which for the first time since the end of the war assumed a dominant position in the German market. The ‘New German Cinema’ of the 1970s and early 1980s reflected the idealism of its time. Many filmmakers were involved in left-wing activism. Political issues relating to the student movement, anti-war protests, anti-fascism, trade unionism, and anti-capitalism, as well as feminism and gay liberation, featured in the films of the era. NGC was highly diverse in terms of cinematic style, genre, and form (including feature films, shorts, experimental avantgarde, and documentary), although some commonalities can be identified. NGC marked a return to specifically German issues and concerns, in particular the country’s engagement – or rather lack of – with its Nazi past. Perhaps not surprisingly, this focus was applauded abroad much more than by domestic audiences. In its regular references to and adap-
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tations of the literary canon, from the classics to postwar authors such as Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Peter Handke, NGC emphasised its high cultural aspirations and revealed the social and educational background of its mostly middle-class auteurs. At the same time NGC commented on the more ambiguous influences of – especially American – popular culture on German society. A major watershed for West German Cinema, as well as for the country more generally, was the rise of the Red Army Fraction (Rote Armee Fraktion, or RAF), a terrorist group whose members came from the same generation, and had initially shared the same political goals, as the NGC filmmakers. An escalation of violence that culminated in the bloody ‘German Autumn’ in 1977 led to a collective soul-searching among filmmakers, and dampened the political idealism and creative energy of earlier years. A further setback came after the conservative government elected in 1982 reviewed its policies on government subsidy for film production, shifting the emphasis towards financial viability and consensual political content. Although directors associated with the New German Cinema continued to make internationally acclaimed films, popular genres made a comeback in the 1980s. Further Reading: E. Rentschler, West German Film in the Course of Time (1984); T. Elsaesser, New German Cinema: A History (1989); A. Kaes, From Hitler to Heimat: The Return of History as Film (1989); E. Carter, How German Is She? Postwar West German Reconstruction and the Consuming Woman (1997); J. Davidson, Deterritorializing the New German Cinema (1999); J. Knight, New German Cinema – Images of a Generation (2004); T. Bergfelder, International Adventures: German Cinema and International Co-productions in the 1960s (2005); J. von Moltke, No Place Like Home: Locations of Heimat in German Cinema (2005). Important names: 1950s/1960s: Popular Genres and European Co-productions Mario Adorf, Hans Albers, Peter Alexander, Günther Anders, Richard Angst, Franz Antel, Karl Anton, Karin Baal, Josef von Báky, Friedl Behn-Grund, Senta Berger, Willy Birgel, Hans Christian Blech, Karlheinz Böhm, Geza von Bolvary, Hans-Otto Borgmann, Dieter Borsche, Martin Böttcher, Harald Braun, Artur
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Brauner, Horst Buchholz, Lil Dagover, Paul Dahlke, René Deltgen, Ivan Desny, Karin Dor, Hannelore Elsner, Erich Engel, Heinz Erhardt, Hansjörg Felmy, O. W. Fischer, Willi Forst, Rudolf Forster, Horst Frank, Willy Fritsch, Gert Fröbe, Cornelia Froboess, Gustav Fröhlich, Joachim Fuchsberger, Otto Gebühr, Götz George, Walter Giller, Heinrich Gretler, Helmut Griem, Karl Hartl, O. E. Hasse, Hein Heckroth, Johannes Heesters, Paul Henckels, Robert Herlth, Kurt Hoffmann, Marianne Hoppe, Paul Hörbiger, Brigitte Horney, Paul Hubschmid, Georg Jacoby, Michael Jary, Rudolf Jugert, Curd Jürgens, Erich Kästner, Christine Kaufmann, Helmut Käutner, Paul Kemp, Erich Kettelhut, Wolfgang Kieling, Klaus Kinski, Hildegard Knef, Gustav Knuth, Marianne Koch, Fritz Kortner, Hilde Krahl, Peter Kreuder, Hardy Krüger, Ilse Kubaschewski, Fritz Lang, Ruth Leuwerik, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Albert Lieven, Theo Lingen, Hanns Lothar, Klaus Löwitsch, Hans-Martin Majewski, Lucie Mannheim, Fritz Maurischat, Brigitte Mira, Bruno Mondi, Hans Moser, Wolfgang Neuss, Erik Ode, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Lilli Palmer, Werner Peters, Rudolf Platte, Rudolf Prack, Liselotte Pulver, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Carl Raddatz, Fritz Rasp, Herbert Reinecker, Harald Reinl, Walter Rilla, Günther Rittau, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Helke Sander, Maria Schell, Maximilian Schell, Sybille Schmitz, Romy Schneider, Franz Seitz (jr.), Robert Siodmak, Kristina Söderbaum, Hans Söhnker, Elke Sommer, Günther Stapenhorst, Wolfgang Staudte, Sigfrit Steiner, Robert A. Stemmle, Robert Stolz, Rolf Thiele, Nadja Tiller, Gyula Trebitsch, Will Tremper, Luis Trenker, Georg Tressler, Olga Tschechowa, Konstantin Tschet, Gustav Ucicky, Gisela Uhlen, Caterina Valente, Peter van Eyck, Michael Verhoeven, Alfred Vohrer, Fritz Arno Wagner, Luggi Waldleitner, Hermann Warm, Grethe Weiser, Horst Wendlandt, Ilse Werner, Oskar Werner, Otto Wernicke, Paula Wessely, Bernhard Wicki, Dorothea Wieck, Adolf Wohlbrück, Frank Wysbar, Rolf Zehetbauer, Wolfgang Zeller, Sonja Ziemann 1970s/1980s: Young/New German Cinema Herbert Achternbusch, Percy Adlon, Mario Adorf, Karin Baal, Michael Ballhaus, Heinz Bennent, Senta Berger, Hans Christian Blech, Hark Bohm, Karlheinz Böhm, Marquard Bohm, Mathieu Carrière, Ivan Desny, Harun Farocki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Bruno Ganz, Hans W. Geissendörfer, Vadim Glowna, Helmut Griem, Reinhard Hauff, Werner Herzog, Heinz Hoenig, Hannelore Hoger, Gottfried John, Klaus Kinski, Nastassja Kinski, Alexander Kluge, Peter Lilienthal, Dietrich Lohmann, Eva Mattes, Thomas Mauch, Elfi Mikesch, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Robby Müller, Ulrike Ottinger, Rosa von Praunheim, Jürgen Prochnow, Peer Raben, Edgar Reitz, Helke Sander, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Ulrich Schamoni, Niklaus Schilling, Volker Schlöndorff, Daniel Schmid, Irmin
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Schmidt, Werner Schroeter, Hanna Schygulla, Franz Seitz (jr.), Bernhard Sinkel, Jean-Marie Straub, Barbara Sukowa, Hans Jürgen Syberberg, Katharina Thalbach, Rudolf Thome, Margarethe von Trotta, Jost Vacano, Michael Verhoeven, Rüdiger Vogler, Luggi Waldleitner, Wim Wenders, Rosel Zech, Regina Ziegler, Hanns Zischler
German Cinema Since Unification While the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and the subsequent reunification of the Federal Republic and the GDR in October 1990 marked an epochal change in the history of Germany and European integration, the impact of these events on the development of cinema was more gradual. One of the most immediate consequences was the dismantling of the industry in the East. As with all previously state-owned property, DEFA was taken into administration, including employees, back catalogue, and real estate. The ‘jewel in the crown’ was the studio complex at Potsdam-Babelsberg, a centre for German film production since 1911. The latter asset was sold in 1992 to the French company Compagnie Générale des Eaux (which subsequently merged into the international media conglomerate Vivendi-Universal). The new owners appointed West German director Volker Schlöndorff as the studio’s artistic director (a position he held until 1997), whose main remit was to promote the facilities as a base for international and domestic productions, the latter comprising mainly television soaps. Despite investment and publicity, it took a full decade to re-establish Babelsberg internationally, a consistent success only becoming tangible in the new millennium, after attracting high-profile productions such as THE PIANIST (2001), THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004), THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005), and THE READER (2008). DEFA’s legacy proved ambivalent in other respects. The majority of the studio’s personnel (including directors, writers, actors, and technicians) lost their jobs after unification as a result of privatisation. Even established DEFA filmmakers experienced difficulties in finding their place in an industry dominated by West German financial interests, production strate-
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gies, and audience preferences. Among the more positive aspects of reunification was the rediscovery of DEFA’s forty-year back catalogue, including those films that had fallen victim to state censorship, and which could now be released. However, apart from what could be learnt from watching old DEFA films, reflections on the history of the GDR registered to a surprisingly small extent in the cinematic output of the 1990s, before resurfacing in the new millennium with a new sense of urgency. Continuing the trend towards greater commercial orientation that had begun in the 1980s, many German filmmakers in the 1990s conceived of themselves less as auteurs with a particular political vision or aesthetic sensibility, and more as industry professionals. As in previous decades, the use of stars and genre was a means of product differentiation. But instead of drawing primarily on indigenous popular traditions as in the 1950s, filmmakers now consciously tried to emulate Hollywood templates. The romantic comedy became the defining genre of the decade, centred on twenty-something (almost exclusively West German) yuppies and their consumerist lifestyle. Another generic trend that persisted into the new millennium consisted of films that revisited the Nazi past in the form of lavishly produced epic spectacles. Beyond such popular strategies, arguably the most notable development since the late 1990s was the proliferation and growing visibility of films made by and about members of migrant and transnational communities. By the end of the first decade of the new millennium, German cinema stratified into a number of different modes of production, each with its own target audience. At one end of the spectrum are cartoon animations and lowbrow farces, usually starring television comedians, destined solely for domestic consumption, which occasionally manage to outperform Hollywood in the local market. At another end, there is a new generation of auteurs, whose work circulates not only domestically, but also has an international ‘art film’ appeal, on the grounds of its distinctive style and/or content. Independent companies such as X-Filme, or the loose grouping of filmmakers referred to as the ‘Berlin School’ emerged as a creative force for
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innovation, and achieved international recognition. Third, a middlebrow mode of production imitates the prestige, ‘well-made’ Hollywood film; these examples are often produced for domestic television but also include high-profile cinema releases that tap with variable success into international distribution. Into this equation one can add German involvement in pan-European and transatlantic collaborations, or expatriate German filmmakers and technicians who from the 1990s exercised an influence in Hollywood unheard of since the exiled filmmakers of the 1940s. All these activities demonstrate that German cinema in the new millennium has become inextricably tied to cultural and economic processes at a global level, and can no longer be understood (if that was ever possible) in national terms alone. Further Reading: L. Naughton, That Was the Wild East, Film Culture, Unification, and the New Germany (2002); D. Clarke (ed.), German Cinema: Since Unification (2006); R. Halle, German Film after Germany: Toward a Transnational Aesthetic (2008). Important names: 1980s/1990s: Romantic Comedies Detlev Buck, Helmut Dietl, Dörrie Doris, Bernd Eichinger, Joachim Król, Heiner Lauterbach, Dani Levy, Peter Lohmeyer, Loriot, Heike Makatsch, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Katja Riemann, Marianne Sägebrecht, Maria Schrader, Til Schweiger, Ulrich Tukur, Tom Tykwer, Jürgen Vogel, Otto Waalkes, Helge Weindler, Sönke Wortmann 1990s/2000s: Post-Unification Film Fatih Akin, Ben Becker, Wolfgang Becker, Moritz Bleibtreu, Daniel Brühl, Detlev Buck, August Diehl, Dörrie Doris, Andreas Dresen, Hannelore Elsner, Heino Ferch, Veronica Ferres, Benno Fürmann, Martina Gedeck, Michael Haneke, Corinna Harfouch, Heinz Hoenig, Jutta Hoffmann, Hannelore Hoger, Rolf Hoppe, Nina Hoss, Gottfried John, Romuald Karmakar, Volker Koepp, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Thomas Kretschmann, Joachim Król, Alexandra Maria Lara, Heiner Lauterbach, Dani Levy, Caroline Link, Peter Lohmeyer, Heike Makatsch, Eva Mattes, Gordian Maugg, Elfi Mikesch, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Mühe, Karlheinz Mund, Gitta Nickel, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Christiane Paul, Christian Petzold, Ulrich Plenzdorf, Franka Potente, Rosa von Praunheim, Jürgen Prochnow, Edgar Reitz, Katja Riemann, Oskar Roehler, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Marianne Sägebrecht, Otto Sander, Katrin Saß, Volker Schlön-
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dorff, Hans-Christian Schmid, Maria Schrader, Rolf Schübel, Jaecki Schwarz, Barbara Sukowa, Katharina Thalbach, Rudolf Thome, Margarethe von Trotta, Ulrich Tukur, Tom Tykwer, Joseph Vilsmaier, Jürgen Vogel, Rüdiger Vogler, Wim Wenders, Horst Wendlandt, Sönke Wortmann, Regina Ziegler, Hanns Zischler
Austria As late as the mid-1980s, a major international film encyclopaedia could dismiss Austria, without incurring much dissent, as one of Europe’s ‘least film-minded nations’. While this assessment is patently untrue, there is a tendency to this day to absorb the country’s film history into that of its culturally close neighbour Germany. This misrepresentation owes partly to the fact that the two industries have had long periods of symbiotic relationships, making definitions difficult at times as to what counts as an Austrian film. Cinema arrived in Vienna in 1896 with the public showing of a programme of Lumière shorts. French companies dominated the national market for the next decade, with local production gradually commencing around 1906. One of the earliest companies was Saturn-Film, which specialised in erotic tableaux that were marketed and distributed via mail-order catalogue. Other pioneers included husband-and wife team Anton (1865–1922) and Luise Kolm (1873– 1950) and Jakob Fleck (1881–1953) who founded their first company in 1910. Early genres included depictions of royal and military pageantry, comic sketches, and dramatically re-enacted news items. As films became longer and cinemas mushroomed, the medium’s artistic potential and moral dangers were as hotly debated as in Germany’s Kinodebatte around the same time, and as in Germany, producers attempted to raise cinema’s profile by adapting respected literary texts. The two most significant companies to emerge during the 1910s were Wiener Kunstfilm-Industrie, founded in 1912 by the Kolms and Fleck, and Sascha Filmindustrie, launched in 1913 by Count Alexander (‘Sascha’) Kolowrat-Krakowsky (1886–1927). The period also
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saw increasing collaboration and co-production with German entrepreneurs such as Oskar Messter. Popular genres of the 1910s included Alpine romances, operettas, biopics of famous Austrians, such as the ‘king of the waltz’, Johann Strauss, and during World War I patriotic propaganda and newsreels. Following the end of the war and the collapse of the multi-national Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna witnessed an influx of exiles and migrants, including the directors Sándor (Alexander) Korda (1893–1956) and Mihály Kertész (later Michael Curtiz, 1888–1962). The first postwar years marked a ‘golden age’ for Austria’s film industry. Rampant inflation aided its film exports, and for a while the country became a prominent filming location, attracting productions from Germany and beyond to its comparatively inexpensive studio facilities. The defining genre of these years was the epic spectacle, with narratives on biblical and historical subjects, shot on monumental sets with often idiosyncratic designs, and featuring lavish costumes, and armies of extras. A number of expressionist films were also made in the 1920s. However, as the boom came to an end in the mid-1920s, many filmmakers moved on to Berlin. By the late silent period, Austrian films had become heavily dependent on distribution in Germany, without which they were barely financially viable. Following the transition to sound, Viennesethemed films, including nostalgic operettas, melodramas and comedies, became a hugely successful genre, produced both in Austria and elsewhere. In 1933 the crisis-ridden Sascha merged with the Dutch-German conglomerate Tobis. That same year, with Austrian-born Adolf Hitler assuming power in Germany, Vienna witnessed the arrival of countless Jewish and other émigrés from the ‘Third Reich’. For a while, the local industry could offer working opportunities to exiled filmmakers, although this became difficult as German distributors increasingly dictated to its Austrian suppliers the same ideological terms that ruled German production. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, the film industry was absorbed accordingly. Tobis-Sascha was re-launched as Wien-Film GmbH, remaining at least notionally
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independent until it became part of the stateowned giant UFI in 1941. Most of the company’s output consisted of ideologically innocuous popular entertainment, continuing with the genres Austrian cinema had excelled at previously. However, Wien-Film also produced more explicit Nazi propaganda. After 1945, the country experienced ten years of Allied occupation, famously depicted in Carol Reed’s classic THE THIRD MAN (1949). In the first post-war decade, production resumed gradually and there were some attempts to reconstruct a specifically national cinema, focusing on contemporary issues. However from the mid-1950s onwards, the German and Austrian film industries once again formed a bi-national film market. Austria provided the Alpine scenery and cheap production facilities for German-financed Heimatfilme and Habsburg romances, while exporting popular stars. By the mid-1960s, commercial Austrian producers also became increasingly involved in European co-productions. Parallel to such ventures, a resolutely antipopulist avant-garde emerged. The Austrian movement was distinctive from other European new waves of the time in that it drew less on cinematic influences and more on developments in visual art and experimental literature. Although the movement comprised diverse aesthetic approaches, ranging from purely formal studies to taboo-breaking enactments of communal sex in the films of Otto Muehl (b. 1925), a common denominator was a rejection of certain aspects of Austrian society and culture, in particular political corruption, the Catholic repression of individuality and sexuality, and the country’s complicity in the ‘Third Reich’. In terms of narrative cinema, a ‘New Austrian Cinema’ established itself around 1970. As their counterparts of the New German Cinema across the border, Austrian filmmakers in the 1970s were driven by a desire to engage with a hitherto repressed past, and to critically reinvent local cinematic traditions, which resulted for example in a revisionist take on the Heimatfilm. While relatively minor in terms of quantitative output, this new Austrian cinema nevertheless managed to gain international acclaim. From this time onwards, developments in Aus-
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tria have tended to echo similar processes in Germany, albeit on a smaller scale. In the 1980s and 1990s, Austrian production witnessed a shift from a primarily art house mode of production towards commercially successful popular genres (comedies in particular), while since the late 1990s, the national cinema regained its international reputation with a select group of films and auteurs. Further Reading: R. von Dassanowsky: Austrian Cinema: A History (2005); S.S. Prawer, Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910–1933 (2007); R. Halle and Reinhild Steingrover, After the Avant-garde. Contemporary German and Austrian Experimental Film (2008), Catherine Wheatley, The Ethics of the Image: Michael Haneke’s Cinema (2009) Important names: Peter Alexander, Franz Antel, Helmut Berger, Karlheinz Böhm, Geza von Bolvary, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Axel Corti, Paul Czinner, Willy Eichberger, Valie Export, O. W. Fischer, Willi Forst, Rudolf Forster, Franciska Gaál, Michael Haneke, Karl Hartl, Paul Hörbiger, Curd Jürgens, Fritz Kortner, Hermann Kosterlitz, Hilde Krahl, Günther Krampf, Hedy Lamarr, Leopold Lindtberg, Carl Mayer, Hans Moser, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Franz Planer, Rudolf Prack, Max Reinhardt, Walter Reisch, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Maria Schell, Joseph Schmidt, Romy Schneider, Ulrich Seidl, Robert Stolz, Richard Tauber, Hermann Thimig, Nadja Tiller, Luis Trenker, Gustav Ucicky, Berthold Viertel, O. F. Werndorff, Oskar Werner, Paula Wessely, Bernhard Wicki, Robert Wiene
Switzerland Switzerland’s Alpine scenery has featured in countless movies, but the indigenous film culture remains to this day dominated by imports; internationally it is one of the lesser-known cinemas, and there is very little published in English on the country’s film history. The absence of a unified and economically sustainable national film industry is partly due to small population size, but is also the result of linguistic diversity – Switzerland boasts four official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh), with their own distinct regions and cultural identities. Developments in Switzer-
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land have often mirrored those in neighbouring countries with the same language – thus, while there are links between Swiss-German, Austrian, and German cinema, Francophone Swiss cinema has affinities with French film. Cinema arrived in Switzerland courtesy of the Lumières who introduced their Cinématographe in Geneva in 1896. The films presented Swiss locations, including the Schaffhausen waterfalls, and vistas of Basel, Interlaken and Lausanne. Subsequently, travelling showmen exhibited at fairgrounds before sedentary cinemas emerged by 1907. International companies Pathé, Gaumont, and Charles Urban regularly shot footage in Switzerland during these years. In the 1910s one of the most significant filmmakers was the Montreux-based American mountaineer-cinematographer Frederick Burlingham (1877–1924), whose travelogues promoted Switzerland’s tourist attractions, from snowy peaks to the picturesque appeal of Berne and Zurich. By the end of the decade, fictional representations became more common, blending mountain scenery and melodramatic narratives in the Bergfilm, which became popular in Germany. One of the genre’s best-known directors, Arnold Fanck, used Swiss locations and subject matter from 1921. Mountaineering subjects also characterised the productions of Swiss filmmakers, such as Eduard Bienz (1895–1960). In 1924 the Jewish-Galician immigrant Lazar Wechsler (1896–1981) founded what became the most significant company for the next three decades, Praesens-Film. Co-productions with German or French partners remained prominent throughout the 1920s, helmed by directors including Jacques Feyder, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Hanns Schwarz, and Carl Lamac. The introduction of sound in the late 1920s provided an opportunity for greater national differentiation through the use of the SwissGerman dialect, employed in locally popular comedies that made stars out of actors such as Heinrich Gretler. Between 1933 and 1935, the Swiss-German Terra-Film-AG released a number of lavishly produced dramas with a distinctly Nazi flavour, directed by filmmakers including Heinz Paul and Herbert Selpin.
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At the same time, Swiss or Swiss-Austrian films provided opportunities for directors and producers who had fallen out of favour in the ‘Third Reich’, such as Carl Lamac, Werner Hochbaum, or Günter Stapenhorst, and for permanent exiles from Germany such as Julius Pinschewer. The most influential émigré was the Austrian-born Leopold Lindtberg, who made his directing debut for Praesens-Film in 1935. Under the banner of a new cultural policy of ‘spiritual national defence’ (geistige Landesverteidigung) from 1937, which promoted national unity and international neutrality, cinema benefited from governmental subsidies and witnessed what many retrospectively regard as its ‘golden age’. Drawing on domestic social matters, and discussing issues of patriotism and national traditions as well as more universal humanist values, films were marked by a greater realism than previously. Apart from Lindtberg’s contributions, other important films of this period were directed by Siegfrit Steiner, Max Haufler, Franz Schnyder (1910–1993), and Hans Trommer (1904–1989). By the end of World War II, Praesens productions had attracted international acclaim, resulting in the immediate post-war period in a number of co-productions with American and British partners. In the 1950s, Swiss cinema functioned largely as an annex to the West German/Austrian boom in Heimatfilme, or else targeted diminishing local audiences with well-observed and deeply parochial dramas about middle-class lives. By the early 1960s, the annual number of indigenous productions had dropped to single figures. While the dominant Swiss cinema since the 1930s had been German-speaking, new waves in the early 1960s originated in Switzerland’s Francophone region and modelled themselves on the ‘Nouvelle Vague’. Jean-Luc Godard made his first films in Switzerland in the mid-1950s before relocating to Paris. Other Francophone directors to make a mark in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a ‘Swiss New Wave’ were Alain Tanner, Michel Soutter, and Claude Goretta. In the Swiss-German regions, new directions emerged more gradually, in the first instance in the field of experimental cinema and documen-
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tary, and from the 1970s onwards in feature films. As in the case of the Francophone Swiss New Wave’s relationship with France, the new generation of German-speaking filmmakers entered into a creative dialogue with colleagues from the New German Cinema, and pursued similar themes and political aims. These included a critique of certain aspects of the national self-image, a challenge of the country’s conservative political outlook, and a revisionist look at notions of Heimat and rural traditions, especially in the films by Fredi M. Murer (b. 1940) and Rolf Lyssy (b. 1936). The New Swiss Cinema reached its zenith by the mid-1980s following a number of international art house successes, but despite the emergence of more commercially oriented directors since the 1990s, such as Urs Egger (b. 1955) and Sabine Boss (b. 1966), national production slipped into relative obscurity once more. Apart from the occasional cinema release, usually co-produced with German, French, or Austrian partners, Switzerland is one of the least prolific European film nations in the new millennium. Important names: Swiss-German Film Kurt Früh, Bruno Ganz, Kurt Gloor, Heinrich Gretler, Max Haufler, Paul Hubschmid, Markus Imhoof, Leopold Lindtberg, Julius Pinschewer, Liselotte Pulver, Hans Richter, Maria Schell, Niklaus Schilling, Daniel Schmid, Günther Stapenhorst, Sigfrit Steiner
Exile and Transnational Traffic At least in a European context, discrete and self-sufficient national cinemas tend to be more of an ideological aspiration than actual reality. Occasional attempts to put this ideal into practice have mostly resulted in anomalous, artificial and ultimately unsustainable constructions. Cinema’s inherent transnationalism can be explained by three interlocking factors. First, film industries in Europe have always depended on collaboration and distribution across borders as essential for economic survival and growth, especially in the face of Hollywood competition. Second, wars, dictatorship and oppression, as well as adverse economic condi-
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tions have forced individuals to leave their country of origin and led them to contribute their professional and cultural expertise to their host country, which may have helped to shore up the latter’s cultural hegemony, but also changed it in the process. Finally, one of the main attractions of cinema for audiences has been the lure of the other, the appeal of unfamiliar locations, of travel and foreign adventures, as an opportunity to step out of one’s identity and quotidian existence. German cinema’s history has been fundamentally transnational from its beginnings. During its first decades, the industry was dominated by initially French and later Danish companies, producers, directors, and stars who exerted a significant influence on the development of popular genres and industrial practices. Producers entered into reciprocal relationships with other German-speaking territories such as Austria and Switzerland (see the respective previous sections). Following a period of isolation during World War I, Germany witnessed an influx of exiles from many parts of the disintegrated former Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as refugees from the Civil War in Russia. These émigrés from Central and Eastern Europe formed a significant contingent in Weimar cinema. Meanwhile, producers such as Erich Pommer promoted German cinema abroad, and established its international reputation in the 1920s. The same decade saw the first of many serious incursions by the major Hollywood studios in the German market, accompanied by the first of many waves of German talent emigrating to America. Cross-national traffic also became increasingly common between national film industries in Europe. The ‘Film Europe’ initiative, spearheaded by producers in Germany, Britain and France, aimed to project a collaborative response against Hollywood dominance. This led to co-productions and knowledge transfer, with film personnel regularly travelling between studios in London, Berlin and Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Outside the commercial film sector, the period also witnessed the establishment of a transnational network of independent filmmakers –
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comprising the international modernist avantgardes. As the universal language of silent film gave way to the linguistic diversity of sound cinema, different strategies of cultural adaptation began to emerge – once again, these practices were highly dependent on transnationally mobile personnel. After 1933, the Nazis’ racial exclusion policies initiated the most extensive migration in the history of German cinema, although ironically even Nazi cinema relied in its appeal on imported stars. For the most part, exiles’ preferred choice of destination included in the first instance other German-speaking territories (Austria, Switzerland), and as these became inaccessible they drew on pre-established cinematic connections, such as the ‘Film Europe’ industries, or the Hollywood-Weimar axis since the 1920s. Hollywood, from its inception an international rather than a purely American project, saw a major influence from incoming directors, screenwriters, and actors during this period. Within Europe, the film industries that benefited most from the influx of exiles were France, Britain and the Netherlands – in these countries the output of the 1930s and 1940s was significantly shaped by what one may call an exile sensibility. Cosmopolitan modes of travel became replaced by frantic escapes with the main aim being existential survival. Film exiles could be found from Australia to Egypt and from the Philippines to Latin America. Cinematographer Heinrich Gärtner (1895– 1962) and screenwriter Ladislao Vajda (1908– 1965) continued their career in Franco’s Spain, while actor/director Gustav von Wangenheim among other exiles found refuge in Moscow. Film critic Willy Haas fled to Bombay (where director Franz Osten had contributed to Hindi cinema since the 1920s). The Austrian film pioneers Luise Fleck-Kolm and Jakob Fleck, meanwhile, found themselves in Shanghai, where they collaborated with Chinese director Fei Mu. Others ended up in internment, or in concentration camps, where several actors, directors and other personnel perished. Nazi cinema meanwhile pursued its own brand of internationalism by absorbing the in-
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dustries of occupied countries after the outbreak of World War II (most notably France and Czechoslovakia), and engaging in co-productions with Italy and Japan. Following the end of World War II, it took a decade to reconstruct an industrial infrastructure for the two separate German film industries. Once again, internationalism became one of the key strategies to achieve this goal, especially in West Germany. By the early 1960s, the majority of national films were in fact co-productions with other European partners. The generation of the New German Cinema, meanwhile, oriented itself on the models of the French Nouvelle Vague, while also reflecting ambivalently on Hollywood’s influence on Germany’s film sector. In fact, from at least the late 1960s onwards, Hollywood productions have dominated exhibition. Migrations between European film industries or between Germany and Hollywood, either permanently or temporary, have continued after 1945 and into the new millennium; co-productions have remained one of the most common production strategies. The most significant new form of transnational cinema to have emerged since the 1960s is the cinema of the new German multiculturalism, itself the result of the Gastarbeiter migrations since the 1950s, and of the end of the Cold War. As with the refugees and exiles after the end of World War I, these new experiences of migration have helped to shape a revitalised transnational German cinema for the new millennium. Further Reading: T. Saunders, Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany (1994) J. Morrison, Passport to Hollywood. Hollywood Films, European Directors (1998); A. Higson and R. Maltby (eds.), ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange 1920–1939 (1999); L. Koepnick, The Dark Mirror. German Cinema between Hitler and Hollywood (2002); A. Phillips, City of Darkness, City of Light: Emigré Filmmakers in Paris 1929–1939 (2004); T. Bergfelder, International Adventures. Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s (2005); D. Welch and R. Vande Winkel (eds.), ‘Cinema and The Swastika. The International Expansion of Third Reich Cinema (2007). C. Haase: When Heimat Meets Hollywood. German Filmmakers and America, 1985–
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2005 (2007), M. Hagener, Moving Forward, Looking Back: The European Avantgarde and the Invention of Film Culture, 1919–1939 (2007); T. Bergfelder and C. Cargnelli (eds), Destination London: Germanspeaking Emigrés in British Cinema, 1925–1950 (2008), R. Halle, German Film after Germany: Toward a Transnational Aesthetic (2008). Important names: Migration: Hollywood Michael Ballhaus, Senta Berger, Karlheinz Böhm, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Louise Brooks, Horst Buchholz, Mady Christians, Lya de Putti, Wilhelm Dieterle, Uli Edel, Bernd Eichinger, Roland Emmerich, Gert Fröbe, Helmut Griem, Werner Herzog, Emil Jannings, Christine Kaufmann, Nastassja Kinski, Hildegard Knef, Fritz Lang, Paul Leni, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Robby Müller, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Pola Negri, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Wolfgang Petersen, Erich Pommer, Franka Potente, Jürgen Prochnow, Arthur Robison, Marianne Sägebrecht, Maria Schell, Maximilian Schell, Volker Schlöndorff, Romy Schneider, Til Schweiger, Hanna Schygulla, Elke Sommer, Theodor Sparkuhl, Barbara Sukowa, Ulrich Tukur, Tom Tykwer, Jost Vacano, Peter van Eyck, Conrad Veidt, Berthold Viertel, Oskar Werner, Wim Wenders, Bernhard Wicki Migration: Europe Betty Amann, Karl Anton, Lída Baarová, Josef von Báky, Geza von Bolvary, Paul Czinner, Lya de Putti, Ernst Deutsch, Slatan Dudow, E. A. Dupont, Richard Eichberg, Karl Freund, Franciska Gaál, Urban Gad, Mutz Greenbaum, Lilian Harvey, Johannes Heesters, Paul Hubschmid, Gottfried John, Alfred Junge, Curd Jürgens, Christine Kaufmann, Jan Kiepura, Klaus Kinski, Hildegard Knef, Marianne Koch, Karel Lamaè, Zarah Leander, Robby Müller, Käthe von Nagy, Pola Negri, Asta Nielsen, Anny Ondra, Lotte Reiniger, Niklaus Schilling, Romy Schneider, Kristina Söderbaum, Theodor Sparkuhl, Jean-Marie Straub, Szöke Szakall, Gyula Trebitsch, Olga Tschechowa, Conrad Veidt, Berthold Viertel, O. F. Werndorff Exile: Europe Ludwig Berger, Elisabeth Bergner, Curt Courant, Paul Czinner, Kurt Gerron, Karl Grune, Dolly Haas, Max Hansen, Hein Heckroth, Oskar Homolka, Alfred Junge, Fritz Kortner, Günther Krampf, Albert Lieven, Max Mack, Lucie Mannheim, Carl Mayer, Ernö Metzner, Seymour Nebenzahl, Max Ophüls, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Lilli Palmer, Julius Pinschewer, Franz Planer, Erich Pommer, Emeric Pressburger, Hans Richter, Walter Rilla, Joseph Schmidt, Eugen Schüfftan, Kurt Siodmak, Mischa Spoliansky, Günther Stapenhorst, Szöke Szakall, Richard Tauber, Conrad Veidt, Berthold Viertel, Gustav von Wangenheim, Robert Wiene, Adolf Wohlbrück, Friedrich Zelnik
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Exile: Hollywood Siegfried Arno, Albert Bassermann, Kurt Bernhardt, Felix Bressart, Mady Christians, Paul Dessau, Ernst Deutsch, Wilhelm Dieterle, Marlene Dietrich, Ewald André Dupont, Willy Eichberger, Hanns Eisler, Oskar Fischinger, Karl Freund, Franciska Gaál, Dolly Haas, Werner Richard Heymann, Friedrich Hollaender, Oskar Homolka, Fritz Kortner, Hermann Kosterlitz, Siegfried Kracauer, Hedy Lamarr, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Joe May, Lothar Mendes, Seymour Nebenzahl, Max Ophüls, Richard Oswald, Franz Planer, Erich Pommer, Max Reinhardt, Walter Reisch, Hans Richter, Eugen Schüfftan, Reinhold Schünzel, Kurt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Douglas Sirk, Szöke Szakall, Wilhelm Thiele, Peter van Eyck, Conrad Veidt, Berthold Viertel, Franz Wachsmann, Kurt Weill, Billy Wilder, Frank Wysbar
Other Themes, Genres, and Professions Documentary Film Percy Adlon, Wilfried Basse, Jürgen Böttcher, Harun Farocki, Eberhard Fechner, Kurt Gloor, Werner Herzog, Walter Heynowski, Markus Imhoof, Winfried Junge, Phil Jutzi, Romuald Karmakar, Volker Koepp, Hardy Krüger, Christian Lehmann, Thomas Mauch, Gordian Maugg, Elfi Mikesch, Karlheinz Mund, Marcel Ophüls, Ulrike Ottinger, Christian Petzold, Rosa von Praunheim, Edgar Reitz, Helke Sander, Rolf Schübel, Ulrich Seidl, Hans Jürgen Syberberg, Luis Trenker, Monika Treut, Wim Wenders, Klaus Wildenhahn, Wolfgang Zeller Avant-garde, Experimental Cinema and Animation Jürgen Böttcher, Ferdinand Diehl, Valie Export, Oskar Fischinger, Danièle Huillet, Loriot, Thomas Mauch, Elfi Mikesch, Werner Nekes, Dore O., Ulrike Ottinger, Julius Pinschewer, Rosa von Praunheim, Lotte Reiniger, Hans Richter, Walther Ruttmann, Werner Schroeter, Guido Seeber, Ulrich Seidl, JeanMarie Straub, Monika Treut, Franz Winzentsen, Klaus Wyborny, Wolfgang Zeller Heimatfilm/Bergfilm Richard Angst, Franz Antel, Giuseppe Becce, Arnold Fanck, Otto Gebühr, Heinrich Gretler, Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker Cinematography and Technological Developments Günther Anders, Richard Angst, Ottomar Anschütz, August Arnold, Robert Baberske, Michael Ballhaus, Friedl Behn-Grund, Werner Bergmann, Jürgen Brauer, Curt Courant, Roland Dressel, Karl Freund, Carl Froelich, Roland Gräf, Mutz Greenbaum, Carl Hoff-
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mann, Phil Jutzi, Günther Krampf, Christian Lehmann, Dietrich Lohmann, Günter Marczinkowsky, Thomas Mauch, Elfi Mikesch, Bruno Mondi, Robby Müller, Franz Planer, Günther Rittau, Niklaus Schilling, Eugen Schüfftan, Guido Seeber, Theodor Sparkuhl, Monika Treut, Konstantin Tschet, Gustav Ucicky, Jost Vacano, Joseph Vilsmaier, Fritz Arno Wagner, Helge Weindler Set Design Rochus Gliese, Robert Herlth, Alfred Hirschmeier, Otto Hunte, Alfred Junge, Erich Kettelhut, Paul Leni, Toni Lüdi, Fritz Maurischat, Ernö Metzner, Walter Reimann, O. F. Werndorff, Rolf Zehetbauer Producers Artur Brauner, Ernst Hugo Correll, Paul Davidson, Bernd Eichinger, Roland Emmerich, Willi Forst, Hans W. Geissendörfer, Jules Greenbaum, Alfred Greven, Karl Hartl, Alexander Kluge, Ilse Kubaschewski, Dani Levy, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Ernst Lubitsch, Theo Mackeben, Joe May, Oskar Messter, Seymour Nebenzahl, Richard Oswald, Wolfgang Petersen, Lupu Pick, Harry Piel, Julius Pinschewer, Erich Pommer, Henny Porten, Emeric Pressburger, Peer Raben, Karl Ritter, Ulrich Schamoni, Gerhard Scheumann, Til Schweiger, Franz Seitz (jr.), Günther Stapenhorst, Rolf Thiele, Gyula Trebitsch, Michael Verhoeven, Luggi Waldleitner, Wim Wenders, Horst Wendlandt, Friedrich Zelnik, Regina Ziegler Writers Herbert Achternbusch, Béla Balázs, Jurek Becker, Ewald André Dupont, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Henrik Galeen, Egon Günther, Willy Haas, Erich Kästner, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Regine Kühn, Loriot, Carl Mayer, Rudolf Platte, Emeric Pressburger, Herbert Reinecker, Walter Reisch, Günther Rücker, Helga Schütz, Franz Seitz (jr.), Kurt Siodmak, Robert A.
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Stemmle, Rolf Thiele, Will Tremper, Berthold Viertel, Robert Wiene, Billy Wilder, Hans H. Zerlett Composers Giuseppe Becce, Hans-Otto Borgmann, Martin Böttcher, Paul Dessau, Klaus Doldinger, Hanns Eisler, Günther Fischer, Werner Richard Heymann, Friedrich Hollaender, Michael Jary, Peter Kreuder, Theo Mackeben, Hans-Martin Majewski, Edmund Meisel, Peer Raben, Irmin Schmidt, Mischa Spoliansky, Robert Stolz, Franz Wachsmann, Kurt Weill International Stars Mario Adorf, Helmut Berger, Senta Berger, Elisabeth Bergner, Hans Christian Blech, Karlheinz Böhm, Curt Bois, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Felix Bressart, Louise Brooks, Horst Buchholz, Mathieu Carrière, Ivan Desny, Marlene Dietrich, Karin Dor, Willy Eichberger, Gert Fröbe, Bruno Ganz, Helmut Griem, Lilian Harvey, Curd Jürgens, Christine Kaufmann, Klaus Kinski, Nastassja Kinski, Hildegard Knef, Thomas Kretschmann, Hardy Krüger, Hedy Lamarr, Alexandra Maria Lara, Albert Lieven, Dietrich Lohmann, Peter Lorre, Ernst Lubitsch, Heike Makatsch, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Käthe von Nagy, Pola Negri, Asta Nielsen, Lilli Palmer, Franka Potente, Jürgen Prochnow, Liselotte Pulver, Marianne Sägebrecht, Maria Schell, Maximilian Schell, Romy Schneider, Til Schweiger, Hanna Schygulla, Elke Sommer, Barbara Sukowa, Ulrich Tukur, Caterina Valente, Peter van Eyck, Conrad Veidt, Rüdiger Vogler, Oskar Werner, Adolf Wohlbrück, Hanns Zischler Historians, Theorists and Critics Emilie Altenloh, Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs, Lotte H. Eisner, Willy Haas, Herbert Ihering, Siegfried Kracauer, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Hans Richter, Rudolf Thome, Will Tremper