Hein Heckroth
Hein Heckroth (14 April 1901 in
Heckroth was born in 1901 in Giessen, Germany. As a young man, he moved to
When World War II broke out, Heckroth was imprisoned by the British government as an enemy alien and shipped to Australia. His friends in the art world rallied to his defense; Read campaigned for his release, as did Michael Foot. As part of their efforts, the organized his first solo exhibition in Britain in May 1943. Their efforts were successful, and Heckroth was allowed to return to England. After his return, he designed an ambitious stage production of War and Peace which incorporated a number of filmic elements, including film projected onto the stage. The art director Vincent Korda noticed this, and he was soon recruited as the costume designer on Gabriel Pascal's Caesar and Cleopatra.[1]
His entry into the film world was noticed by another German emigre, Alfred Junge, who was working as the worked as a set and costume designer in films such as the production designer for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the acclaimed filmmaking duo known as The Archers. He served under Junge as the costume designer on A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus.
Heckroth's greatest success came in 1948, when The Archers made him their production and costume designer on The Red Shoes Junge was unwilling to design a film with the radical edge that Powell was looking for, and Heckroth's work quickly earned him notice. He won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction) for his work on the film with his art director, Arthur Lawson.[4]
Heckroth remained one of The Archers' principal collaborators for the next several years, designing their films
During the four year gap between The Tales of Hoffmann and Oh... Rosalinda!!, Heckroth returned to Germany, where he became the chief designer at the Frankfurt City Theatre. He also switched from a career in film to one in television. He invited Powell to Germany to direct the television versions of two stage productions he'd been hired to design,
His designs in "The Red Shoes" are preserved at
.See also
- List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees
References
- ^ a b c Moor, Andrew. "Gothic Riots: The Work of Hein Heckroth". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ISBN 0-224-02310-1.
- ISBN 1-84457-094-0.
- ^ .
- )
External links
- Hein Heckroth at IMDb
- Allmovie bio
- Hein Heckroth at the BFI's Screenonline
- Hein-Heckroth-Gesellschaft e.V.