Alfred Young

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August Alfred Junge (born January 29, 1886 in Görlitz ; † July 21, 1964 in Bad Kissingen ) was a German film architect with an outstanding career in British film.

Life

The beginnings in Germany

Junge had started as an actor at the age of 18 at the municipal theater in his hometown of Görlitz and subsequently played on provincial theaters (for example in Upper Silesia , where he set up his domicile in Beuthen around 1908 ). After studying art in Italy , Junge came to Berlin , where he worked as a set designer at the State Opera and State Theater there. In 1920 he joined the film industry. There Junge initially assisted the experienced architect colleague Paul Leni , and from 1923 he was responsible as chief architect himself.

An early sponsor of Alfred Junge was the director EA Dupont , for whom the Görlitzer designed, among other things, the buildings for his most famous film Variété . In addition, he was mainly active for the directors Hans Steinhoff and Erich Waschneck . Dupont and Junge went to England in late 1927 to make two films ( Moulin Rouge and Night World ). Subsequently, both returned to Berlin. Two further engagements in England brought the team back to the British Isles in 1930. The contacts that arose there led to Junge's decision to settle in London in 1932 . Junge was naturalized on October 22, 1946.

The successes in England

He immediately made contact with the British film industry and initially worked for the Gaumont company . In addition to numerous weaker films, Junge has also designed several sets for Alfred Hitchcock (his subsidiary work Waltzes from Vienna and the early thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much and Young and Innocent ). With the leisurely adventure material King Solomon's Mines , the ready-to-use adaptation of AJ Cronin's socially critical novel The Citadel and the widely acclaimed, acclaimed teacher biography Goodbye, Mr. Chips , Junge worked his way up to the top of British film architects.

In 1942 a very successful cooperation began with the directing and production duo Michael Powell (with whom he had worked for the first time the decade before) and Emeric Pressburger , for whom Alfred Junge provided some of the most excellent large-scale color film productions of this decade over the next four years . Above all his decorations for the romantic fantasy fairy tale Errtum im Jenseits - especially worth mentioning: the sky sequences that Junge designed with his compatriot Hein Heckroth - and the nuns and school drama Black Narcissus , set in the Himalayan mountains in northern India , for which he Awarded an Oscar , were among the top achievements in British film architecture of the 1940s.

After receiving the Academy Award, the American film company named MGM Junge head of the design department of its British branch. In this capacity, he oversaw all MGM productions filmed in Great Britain in terms of their artistic design in the years to come. His best late works as a set designer comprised primarily historical subjects, above all the two splendid knight films Ivanhoe and The Knights of the Round Table with Robert Taylor in the respective leading roles. After the commercial failure of the extremely expensive and ambitious Hemingway remake in another country , conceived as a comeback by David O. Selznick , Junge retired from the film business in 1957 at the age of 71.

Filmography

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 4: H - L. Botho Höfer - Richard Lester. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 267 f.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The place of death London, which is often read, as well as the different dates of the young boy’s death are incorrect. Film historian Kay Less confirms both the above date and place of death; Bad Kissingen informed him of both.
personal data
SURNAME Boy, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Junge, August Alfred (full name at birth)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Goerlitz
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1964
Place of death Bad Kissingen