Henry Cornelius (director)

Owen Henry Cornelius (born August 18, 1913 in Cape Town , South Africa ; † May 2, 1958 in London , Great Britain ) was a South African-British film director , screenwriter , film producer and film editor , whose quantitatively narrow oeuvre shaped the style of British comedy after the Second World War was.

Life

Cornelius came to Berlin in 1931 to receive artistic training from Max Reinhardt . In 1933 he was allowed to stage a play at the local Schiller Theater for the first time, but after the National Socialists came to power he preferred to leave Germany that same year. Cornelius traveled on to Paris, where he studied journalism at the Sorbonne .

In 1934 he made his first contacts with film in the editing department at Studios de Montrouge. 1935 Cornelius moved to London, where he worked first with the French René Clair together, who as assistant editor on his comedy him in the same year The Ghost and Travel ( The Ghost Goes West ) committed. Decades later, Clair's directing style would have an impact on Cornelius' own productions. Cornelius initially remained an assistant editor until 1940, but also worked as an independent film editor for Alexander and Zoltan Korda's adventure films Danger on the Doro Pass and Four Feathers . In 1940 Cornelius returned to South Africa for three years to work as deputy head of the state union Unity in the production of documentaries. Back in London, he initially worked as a production assistant, from 1945 also as a production manager for Michael Balcon's production company Ealing and as a screenwriter (e.g. at Whitechapel ).

With the comedy Blockade in London in 1948 Cornelius staged a small masterpiece for Ealing about a London district that suddenly declared itself independent from the rest of England after finding an ancient document. Another great success was the 1953 comedy The Fiery Isabella . Again he succeeded in a bizarre story that developed its charm mainly from the loving drawing of solitary and curious types. This time Cornelius told the story of two friends who compete in a race with two vintage cars, accompanied by all sorts of obstacles. In his next production, Cornelius deviated from the comedy style. I am a Camera focused on the easy-going singer Sally Bowles, who shared a little room with a burnt-out young writer in Berlin at the end of the Weimar Republic . In this work, which was remade in 1971 by Bob Fosse as a cabaret which is far more famous, Cornelius was able to bring his own Berlin experiences from those years to bear.

Shortly before his untimely death in 1958, Henry Cornelius made two more comedies, Crazy Mr. Webb and Welcome to the Kittchen . The latter work had to be completed by his colleague Charles Crichton because of the unexpected death of Cornelius . Despite certain merits, Cornelius was unable to follow up on the successes of his early years with these late works.

Filmography

as director (complete)

• 1949: Blockade in London ( Passport to Pimlico , also script collaboration)
• 1951: The Galloping Major ( The Galloping Major , also screenplay collaboration)
• 1953: The fiery Isabella ( Genevieve , also production)
• 1955: I Am a Camera
• 1958: Crazy Mr. Webb ( Next to No Time , also script collaboration)
• 1958: Welcome to Kittchen (Law and Disorder)

as film editor (selection)

• 1938: Danger at the Doro Pass (The Drum)
• 1939: Four Feathers (The Four Feathers)

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 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 166.

Web links

• Henry Cornelius in the Internet Movie Database (English)