G. W. Pabst

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

G.W. Pabst
Zentralfriedhof
Years active1901–1957
Spouse
Gertrude Hennings
​
(m. 1924)​
ChildrenMichael Pabst (1941-2008)

Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic.

Early years

Pabst was born in

Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today's Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic), the son of a railroad official. While growing up in Vienna, he studied drama at the Academy of Decorative Arts and initially began his career as a stage actor in Switzerland, Austria and Germany.[1][2] In 1910, Pabst traveled to the United States, where he worked as an actor and director at the German Theater in New York City.[1]

In 1914, he decided to become a director, and he returned to recruit actors in Europe.[3] Pabst was in France when World War I began, he was arrested and held as an enemy alien and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp near Brest.[4] While imprisoned, Pabst organised a theatre group at the camp and directed French-language plays.[4] Upon his release in 1919, he returned to Vienna, where he became director of the Neue Wiener Bühne, an avant-garde theatre.[1]

Career

Pabst began his career as a film director at the behest of Carl Froelich who hired Pabst as an assistant director. He directed his first film, The Treasure, in 1923.[2] He developed a talent for "discovering" and developing the talents of actresses, including Greta Garbo, Asta Nielsen, Louise Brooks, and Leni Riefenstahl.[5]

Pabst's best known films concern the plight of women, including

The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) with Brigitte Helm, and Pandora's Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) with American actress Louise Brooks. He also co-directed with Arnold Fanck a mountain film entitled The White Hell of Pitz Palu
(1929) starring Leni Riefenstahl.

After the coming of sound, he made a trilogy of films that secured his reputation:

The Threepenny Opera (1931) with Lotte Lenya (based on the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill musical), and Kameradschaft (1931). Pabst also filmed three versions of Pierre Benoit's novel L'Atlantide in 1932, in German, English, and French, titled Die Herrin von Atlantis, The Mistress of Atlantis, and L'Atlantide, respectively. In 1933, Pabst directed Don Quixote
, once again in German, English, and French versions.

After making

Josef Goebbels, Pabst made two films in Germany during this period: The Comedians (1941) and Paracelsus
(1943).

Pabst directed four opera productions in Italy in 1953:

Aïda, with Maria Callas in the title role (conducted by Tullio Serafin, with del Monaco), Il trovatore and again La forza del destino.[6]

He directed The Last Ten Days (1955), the first post-war German feature film to feature Adolf Hitler as a character.[5]

Death

On 29 May 1967, Pabst died in Vienna at the age of 81.

Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.[8]

Awards

Filmography

Zentralfriedhof
in Vienna

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-857-45565-9
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-786-40681-X
    .
  3. ^ "The Treasure (Der Schatz, 1923): GW Pabst's compelling debut excavates the root of all evil". Silent London. 26 March 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b
  5. ^ a b "Opening Pandora's Box". The Criterion Collection. 2006.
  6. ^ "Music: Pabst's Blue Ribbon". time.com. 10 August 1953. Archived from the original on 28 May 2008.(Subscription required.)
  7. New York Times
    . Reuters. 31 May 1967. Retrieved 19 March 2010. G.W. Pabst, the Austrian film producer and director, died here last night. He was 82 years old.(Subscription required.)
  8. ISBN 978-0-759-12378-6
    .
  9. ^ "ASAC Dati: Premi". Retrieved 30 September 2014.

Further reading

  • Amengual, Barthélémy. G.W. Pabst. Paris, Seghers, 1966
  • Atwell, Lee. G.W. Pabst. Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1977
  • Baxter, John. "G.W. Pabst" in International Directory of Films and Filmmakers. Chicago, 1990. pp. 376–378
  • Groppali, Enrico. Georg W. Pabst. Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1983
  • Jacobsen, Wolfgang (ed.) G.W. Pabst. Berlin, Argen, 1997
  • Kagelmann, Andre and Keiner, Reinhold. "Lässig beginnt der Tod, Mensch und Tier zu ernten: Überlegungen zu Ernst Johannsens Roman Vier von der Infanterie und G. W. Pabsts Film Westfront 1918" in Johannsen, Eric; Kassell (ed.) Vier von der Infanterie. Ihre letzen Tage an der Westfront 1918. Media Net-Edition, 2014. S. 80-113.
    ISBN 978-3-939988-23-6
  • Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton, Princeton university press, 1947
  • Mitry, Jean. Histoire du cinéma: Art et industrie (5 volumes) Paris, Editions Universitaires – J.P. Delarge, 1967–1980
  • Rentschler, Eric (ed.) The Films of G.W. Pabst. An extraterritorial cinema. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1990
  • Pabst, Georg Wilhelm. "Servitude et grandeur de Hollywood" in Le rôle intellectuel du cinéma, Paris, SDN-Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle, 1937. pp. 251–255
  • Van den Berghe, Marc. La mémoire impossible. Westfront 1918 de G.W. Pabst. Grande Guerre, soldats, automates. Le film et sa problématique vus par la 'Petite Illustration' (1931), Bruxelles, 200

External links

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