G. W. Pabst

G. W. Pabst

G. W. Pabst during production of the film L'Opéra de quat'sous (The Threepenny Opera) in 1931
Born Georg Wilhelm Pabst
(1885-08-25)25 August 1885
Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)
Died 29 May 1967(1967-05-29) (aged 81)
Vienna, Austria
Resting place Zentralfriedhof
Years active 1901–1957
Spouse(s) Gertrude Hennings (m. 1924–67)

Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967), known professionally as G. W. Pabst, was an Austrian theatre and film director.

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]

When World War I began, Pabst returned to Europe, where he was interned in a Prisoner-of-war camp in Brest. While imprisoned, Pabst organised a theatre group at the camp. 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.[3]

Pabst's early and most famous films concern the plight of women, including The Joyless Street (1925) with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen, Geheimnisse einer Seele (1926) with Lili Damita, The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) with Brigitte Helm, 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: Westfront 1918 (1930), 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 A Modern Hero (1934) in the U.S. and Mademoiselle Docteur (1936) in France, Pabst returned to Austria and Germany in 1938 to take care of family business, he said later. During World War II, he made two films in Germany, Komödianten (1941) and Paracelsus (1943).

In 1953, Pabst directed four opera productions in Italy: La forza del destino for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence (conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos, the cast included Renata Tebaldi, Fedora Barbieri, Mario del Monaco, Aldo Protti, Cesare Siepi), and a few weeks later, for the Arena di Verona Festival, a spectacular Aïda, with Maria Callas in the title role (conducted by Tullio Serafin, with del Monaco), Il trovatore and again La forza del destino.[4]

In 1955, he directed the first post-war German feature film to feature the character of Adolf Hitler, The Last Ten Days.[5]

Death

On 29 May 1967, Pabst died in Vienna at the age of 82.[6] He was interred at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.[7]

Filmography

Grave of G. W. Pabst, his wife and son at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna

Awards

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Bock, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim. The Concise Cinegraph: An Encyclopedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books. p. 355. ISBN 0-857-45565-6.
  2. 1 2 Langham, Larry (2000). Destination Hollywood: The Influence of Europeans on American Filmmaking. McFarland. p. 80. ISBN 0-786-40681-X.
  3. ↑ "Opening Pandora's Box". The Criterion Collection. 2006.
  4. ↑ "Music: Pabst's Blue Ribbon". time.com. 10 August 1953.(Subscription required.)
  5. ↑ "Opening Pandora's Box". The Criterion Collection. 2006.
  6. ↑ Reuters (31 May 1967). "G. W. Pabst, Maker Of Films Abroad. Early Viennese Producer and Director Dies at 82". New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2010. G.W. Pabst, the Austrian film producer and director, died here last night. He was 82 years old.(Subscription required.)
  7. ↑ Bahn, Paul G. (2014). The Archaeology of Hollywood: Traces of the Golden Age. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 236. ISBN 0-759-12378-0.
  8. ↑ "ASAC Dati: Premi". Retrieved 30 September 2014.

Further reading

External links


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