Jiří Weiss

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Jiří Weiss (born March 29, 1913 in Prague , † April 9, 2004 in Santa Monica ) was a Czech scriptwriter and film director.

Life

Jiří Weiss comes from a Jewish Czech-German mixed family. After completing his law degree, he worked as a journalist and from 1934 onwards he directed short films. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, Weiss fled to London in 1939 because of his origins and stayed there until the end of the war. During this time he also worked for the London-based Czech government in exile . Here he shot numerous documentary films and short films about the Czechoslovak pilots fighting for the Royal Air Force for the GPO Film Unit .

From 1947 Weiss directed feature films again, where he was mostly also responsible for the script and taught at the film and television faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops , which marked the end of the Prague Spring , led Weiss back into exile. He lived in Rome and England before settling in the United States. Until 1982 he gave film lectures at Hunter College in New York City and then at UC Santa Barbara in Los Angeles . He also wrote screenplays and plays and published his memoirs in the book The White Mercedes . The collapse of the communist regime enabled Weiss to return and in 1990 he was able to direct a feature film for the last time.

He was married to Katerina Weiss and had a son and a daughter.

Awards

Weiss received several prizes at the film festivals in San Francisco, Berlin, Donostia-San Sebastián, Karlovy Vary, Venice and Vancouver:

Filmography (selection)

  • 1950: New fighters are resurrected ( Vstanou noví bojovníci )
  • 1953: My friend Fabian ( Můj přítel Fabián )
  • 1956: Miss Robinson ( Robinsonka )
  • 1956: Game for Life ( Hra o život )
  • 1957: The Wolf Trap ( Vlčí jáma )
  • 1959: Romeo, Juliet and the Darkness ( Romeo, Julie a tma )
  • 1961: The Coward ( Zbabělec )
  • 1962: Golden Fern ( Zlaté kapradí )
  • 1966: 31 degrees in the shade ( Ninety Degrees in the Shade )
  • 1967: Murder on native species ( Vražda po česku )
  • 1990: Martha and I ( Martha et moi )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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 8: T - Z. David Tomlinson - Theo Zwierski. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 312.
  2. ↑ Short biography of ČSFD.cz, online auj: www.csfd.cz , Czech, accessed on November 4, 2010
  3. ^ The New York Times: Jiri Weiss, 91, Czech Director Who Shaped Postwar Cinema , June 6, 2004
  4. ↑ Los Angeles Times: Jiri Weiss, 91; Czech Filmmaker, Author and Playwright , May 26, 2006
personal data
SURNAME Weiss, Jiří
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech screenwriter and film director
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 2004
Place of death Santa Monica