Ernst Plhak

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Ernst Plhak (born December 7, 1888 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † 1942 in Berlin-Kreuzberg ) was an Austrian cameraman for Italian, American and, most recently, German film.

Live and act

After four years of attending a Viennese grammar school, Plhak received his theoretical vocational training at the technical university in his hometown and from Josef Maria Eder at the graphic teaching and research institute . Plhak had already come across cinematography, which had hardly been developed until then, when he started as an office apprentice at the Vienna branch of Pathé Frères in 1903 . In 1905 he moved to the sales department there. For further training, Vienna's Pathé branch manager then took him to Paris , where the rival company Gaumont temporarily became Plhak's new employer. From there, Ernst Plhak went to the Clarendon Film Company in London in 1908 and the following year to two film companies in Turin and Rome . In Turin, at that time the film center of Italy, he claims to have been involved in early large-scale productions of Pasquali Film such as “The Mistress of the Nile”, “Princess Montecabelo”, “Pompeii” . Ernst Plhak first arrived in Berlin in 1911, but found no employment there, and then traveled on to Chicago , where he claims to have “earned a lot of money” with the Selig Polyscope Company .

The outbreak of the First World War drove Plhak back to Europe. After six months of service as a soldier, Ernst Plhak arrived again in Berlin, where he was now allowed to work as an independent cameraman. His first work in the empire (probably 1916) included several short comedies with Dorrit Weixler in the leading role. Ernst Plhak then photographed a series of sometimes sensational materials, especially multi-part dramas and melodramas such as The Memoirs of Satans , but also various literary adaptations such as The Marquise von O. (based on Heinrich von Kleist ), King Nicolo (based on Frank Wedekind ), and Lederstock (after James Fenimore Cooper ) and Schwarzwaldmädel (after the operetta of the same name by August Neidhart and Leon Jessel ). Towards the end of his career, Plhak also shot an elaborate costume and period film with Marie Antoinette by Rudolf Meinert . This strip, which he was allowed to photograph under the guidance of the experienced recording surgeon Max Faßbender , was to remain Plhak's most ambitious work. In the years of hyperinflation (around 1923), when he did not receive any more orders as a cameraman, Plhak claims to have “worked for many American companies in Berlin”. A little later (after 1925), Plhak's trail is lost.

Ernst Plhak had been married to Lotte Thude, a former manager at Alfred Duskes ' film production company Literaria Film , since July 1, 1916 .

Filmography

as head cameraman (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Mühsam / Egon Jacobsohn: Lexikon des Films , p. 141
  2. ↑ ibid.

literature

  • Kurt Mühsam / Egon Jacobsohn: Lexicon of the film . Lichtbildbühne publishing house, Berlin 1926. p. 141

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Plhak, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 1942
Place of death Berlin-Kreuzberg