Eugen Schüfftan

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Eugen Julius Schüfftan (in the USA also Eugen Schuefftan ; * July 21, 1886 in Breslau , † September 6, 1977 in New York ) was a German cameraman and inventor . Together with Ernst Kunstmann, he developed the Schüfftan process , a mirror trick process mainly used in films from the 1920s, which was used in particular to depict seemingly monstrous backdrops in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis (1927). Schüfftan was the cameraman in charge of the style-defining documentary People on Sunday (1929) and in important films of French poetic realism of the 1930s , such as Hafen im Nebel (1938).

Life

Schüfftan began his career in Berlin as a painter of impressionist pictures, then turned to expressionism and then worked as an architect and decorative painter.

The artist came to film via detours. His fascination for the camera and camera technology led him to the mirror trick process, later named after him, which became famous in 1924 with Fritz Lang's film epic Die Nibelungen and in whose Metropolis (1927) it was first used on a large scale: the arrangement of one or more partially transparent mirrors allowed To depict miniature models behind actors as huge structures. Eugen Schüfftan initially became technical director at "Deutsche Spiegeltechnik GmbH & Co.", but after a few years handed over his post to the film architect Fritz Maurischat in order to devote himself to working as a cameraman again.

In 1930 Schüfftan was the cameraman in charge of the documentary People on Sunday, directed by Robert Siodmak and Billy Wilder . When the National Socialists came to power , his work was soon severely restricted. Schüfftan emigrated to France, where he shot with Marcel Carné ( A strange case , port in the fog ), among others . After the occupation of France , he emigrated to the USA, where he was able to continue his work.

In 1962 he received an Oscar for best cameraman for the film Sharks of the Big City . His trick techniques were later used in the films The Voyages of Odysseus and in Captain Sindbad, among others .

Eugen Schüfftan died on September 6, 1977 at the age of 91 in New York.

Awards

  • 1951: Prix ​​du Tourisme Français for L'Hotel-Dieu de Beaune
  • 1962: Oscar for Best Camera in a Black and White Film for City Sharks
  • 1962: Laurel Awards : Golden Laurel in the category Best Camera in a Black and White Film for Sharks of the Big City
  • 1964: Filmband in gold for many years of outstanding work in German film
  • 1975: Billy Bitzer Award : Award for life's work

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of the film , Volume 7, p. 187. Berlin 2001 Criticism
  2. Kay Less: In life, more is taken from you than is given ... Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria 1933 to 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 446.
  3. Life data on ancestry.com
  4. Eugen Schüfftan. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. Example: The stadium, in which a “competition of the sons” takes place, is flanked by statues, which according to the script should be 14 meters high and placed on 8 meter high plinths. The models used, however, were only around 20 cm tall (statement by film architect Erich Kettelhut , quoted in arte, “Die Reise nach Metropolis”, 2010).
    The stadium sequence was cut out of the film as early as 1927.