Elfi von Dassanowsky

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Elfriede Maria Elisabeth Charlotte Dassanowsky (born February 2, 1924 in Vienna , † October 2, 2007 in Los Angeles ), also known as Elfi Dassanowsky and Elfriede Dassanowsky , was an Austrian opera singer (mezzo-soprano), pianist and film producer .

As a producer of Belvedere Film , which she co-founded in 1946 , she discovered some film stars of the Austrian post-war period such as Gunther Philipp , Nadja Tiller and Oskar Werner . In 1962 she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a voice coach for Hollywood actors for a long time . In 1999 she and her son, the film scholar Robert Dassanowsky , re-founded Belvedere Film, based in Vienna and Los Angeles.

Life

Elfi von Dassanowsky was born in Vienna as the daughter of Franz Leopold von Dassanowsky, civil servant at the Vienna Financial Directorate and later in the Ministry of Commerce , and his wife Anna (née Grünwald). She was a student at the Institut der Englischen Fräulein in Vienna and at the age of fifteen she became one of the youngest women admitted to the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts as protégé of the concert pianist Emil von Sauer . Even as a piano student she was from the Wien-Film - Director Karl Hartl charged with Curt Jurgens to give for the purpose of filming piano lessons. Dassanowsky received vocal training and learned to act from Eduard Volters and Wilhelm Heim.

Since she refused membership in Nazi organizations, she had to interrupt her studies for a longer labor service. Nevertheless, in 1945 she received an offer for a film role from UFA Berlin , which she refused. At that time, Ufa was looking for a replacement for its previous star Zarah Leander , who had fallen out of favor with Joseph Goebbels . Dassanowsky, however, did not want to make a film career with the help of a government that she opposed from the beginning and the end of which was already in sight. In 1946 Elfi von Dassanowsky made her operatic debut as Susanna in Mozart's Figaro's wedding at the Stadttheater St. Pölten and organized concerts for the Allied High Command in Vienna . In the same year she was introduced to Emmerich Hanus , who was like a confidante to her in artistic terms from the beginning.

Like Emmerich Hanus, Elfi von Dassanowsky wanted to produce more than just individual independent films or films in collaboration with institutions of the various Allied powers that controlled the larger production studios. She became one of the few women in film history and one of the youngest to have helped create a film studio. Because at the age of 22 she founded the Belvedere-Film with Emmerich Hanus and August Diglas , the first new film studio in Vienna after the war. There today's classics like Die Glücksmühle (1946) and Märchen vom Glück (1949) were recorded, which gave young actors like Gunther Philipp and the then Miss Austria Nadja Tiller their first film roles.

Dassanowsky starred in dramas , comedies and operettas - revues , the foundation supported by theater groups like The podium and was broadcaster. She later toured West Germany with her one-woman show, gave master classes for singing and piano and was a model for the Austrian painter Franz Xaver Wolf.

After her marriage in Canada in 1955, she settled first in New York and then in Los Angeles . In the 1960s, she preferred to stay behind the camera in Hollywood instead of becoming a starlet, working as a voice trainer for director and producer Otto Preminger , among others . She became a successful businesswoman in Los Angeles and founded Belvedere Film together with her son Robert Dassanowsky in 1999 , based in Los Angeles and Vienna. As producer of the award-winning short film Semmelweis ( USA / Austria 2001), the spy comedy Wilson Chance (USA 2005), the documentary Felix Austria! (also: The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel ) (USA / Austria 2013) and as a screenwriter for the feature film Mars in Aries , she was one of the few women who could look back on a long career in the film industry and maintain a leading position.

Grave site in the Vienna Central Cemetery

In August 2007, Dassanowsky's left leg had to be amputated after an embolic blood clot formed during a July stay in Hawaii . She was flown in an ambulance from her vacation spot, Kailua-Kona, to Queens Hospital in Honolulu , where she had to be taken to intensive care. She was flown to St. Joseph's Medical Center Rehabilitation Clinic in Burbank , California , near her home in Los Angeles on August 10 to recover and regain mobility. A spokesman added that she was full of courage and was already thinking about her ongoing film projects. In addition, she wants to continue to stand up for the promotion of art and UNESCO . Heather Mills , activist, TV celebrity and ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney , wanted to stand by Dassanowsky during the difficult time of rehabilitation. Dassanowsky died of heart failure on October 2nd at the age of 83 in Los Angeles. The “cultural diva” was buried on July 25, 2008 in an honorary grave (group 40, row 1, number 11) at Vienna's central cemetery.

In 2015, the Elfi-Dassanowsky-Hof community building in Vienna- Mariahilf (6th district) was named after her.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1946: Symphony in Salzburg (documentary film)
  • 1947: Art treasures of the Klosterneuburger Stift (documentary film)
  • 1947: The mill of luck
  • 1947: The swapped husbands
  • 1948: The award-winning mole
  • 1949: Doctor Rosin
  • 1949: fairy tales of happiness
  • 2001: Semmelweis (short film)
  • 2005: Wilson Chance
  • 2013: Felix Austria! (Documentary)

Awards

Dassanowsky is the only Austrian to have received the prestigious Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center (2000).

Other awards:

Elfi von Dassanowsky Foundation

The organization should support the work of aspiring filmmakers and, if possible, be based in Vienna or have institutional connections there. The culture fund became active in February 2009.

The foundation of the same name awarded the Elfi Dassanowsky Prize for the best directorial performance by a woman in the international competition for the first time at VIS Vienna Independent Shorts on June 2, 2010. The prize winner is Inger Lise Hansen for her film Parallax (Norway / Austria 2009). The prize has been awarded annually since then.

literature

  • International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers . 4th edition. Vol. 4. Writers and Production Artists, 2000. ISBN 978-1-55862-453-5 .
  • Günther Berger: Insieme: Art and cultural history contributions . (Chapter: Elfi von Dassanowsky). Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2001, ISBN 3-631-37259-0 .
  • Rudolf Ulrich: Austrians in Hollywood . Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-901932-29-1 .
  • Carol Bidwell: Austria's shining light . In: Los Angeles Daily News . October 6, 1997, pp. 10-11.
  • Patricia Ward Biederman: Nazi Offer Spurned, Star Rises . In: Los Angeles Times . January 29, 1999.
  • Modern Austrian Literature . Special film edition. Vol. 32, 1999, pp. 126-140.
  • Elfi von Dassanowsky: Fairy tales of happiness at the farmers' market. Memories of the Belvedere films and the new beginnings in Austrian post-war cinema . In: Wiener Zeitung . September 10, 1999.
  • Anton Preinsack: Elfi von Dassanowsky: An Austrian film legend turned 80 . In: Celluloid . 2004/1, p. 42.
  • Elfi von Dassanowsky turns 80 . In: The Standard . January 30, 2004.

Web links

Commons : Elfi von Dassanowsky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview. ( Memento of March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wiener Zeitung , September 10, 1999; Retrieved November 8, 2013
  2. ↑ Österreich Journal No. 53, October 19, 2007, pp. 40–41 (PDF; 6.8 MB)
  3. ↑ Vienna City Hall correspondence December 5, 2008
  4. ^ Minutes of the meeting of the district council of the 6th district. (PDF) Wien.at, December 15, 2015, accessed on August 23, 2016 .
  5. ^ Minor Planet Circular . (PDF) International Astronomical Union, November 6, 2014, p. 90845 (English)
  6. ↑ JPL Small-Body Database Browser
  7. ↑ FinanzNachrichten.de: Always ahead of their time and now immortalized for all time: the new Elfi von Dassanowsky Foundation , February 27, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Dassanowsky, Elfi from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dassanowsky, Elfriede Maria Elisabeth Charlotte; Dassanowsky, Elfi; Dassanowsky, Elfriede
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (mezzo-soprano), pianist and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 2007
Place of death los Angeles