Curt Courant

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Curt Courant (born May 11, 1899 in Katowice , † April 20, 1968 in Los Angeles ) was a German-American cameraman and later an expert on film technology matters.

Fritz Lang with cameraman Curt Courant (center) on the set of the film Woman in the Moon (1929)

Life

Courant began in 1916 as an assistant in the photochemistry of the May film. At the age of 18 he was already co-chief cameraman at the side of Carl Hoffmann for director Joe May . He mainly shot film dramas , less often comedies, and became one of the most important cameramen in German cinema.

After the seizure of power by the Nazis, he emigrated and British and French films acquired by a number of international fame. When German troops marched into France in 1940, he fled to the USA.

Despite repeated application not he was a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), but was of the war entrance of the USA 1941 Special Forces War Department Special Services Division under Frank Capra allocated.

It was only Charles Chaplin who let him work as a co-cameraman with Monsieur Verdoux - The Woman Murderer of Paris . He then worked twice as technical director and most recently in the Jayne Mansfield film It Happened in Athens, which was filmed outside the USA . Courant was considered an expert in indirect light and soft focus effects.

Courants nephew is the Belgian cameraman Willy Kurant .

Filmography

literature

  • Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than is given ..." Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. Acabus-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 128 f.

Web links

Commons : Curt Courant  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Courant, Curt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Katowice
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1968
Place of death los Angeles