Joseph Losey

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Joseph Losey, 1965

Joseph Losey (born January 14, 1909 in La Crosse , Wisconsin , † June 22, 1984 in London ) was an American director .

life and work

After attending high school in La Crosse in the American Midwest - together with Nicholas Ray - Losey studied medicine at Dartmouth College on the east coast from 1925. Here he was a member and temporarily head of the Dartmouth Drama Club. After completing his degree (BA), he studied literature at Harvard University , which he dropped out after a year. In New York he wrote reviews of theatrical productions and worked as a stage master and increasingly also as a theater director. During this time his socialist engagement began.

Losey stayed in Moscow from mid-March to early July 1935. He attended a directing course from Sergej Eisenstein and got to know Bertolt Brecht , Hanns Eisler and Erwin Piscator , who were also in Moscow.

After returning to the United States, he worked on various stages. He was with the Rockefeller Foundation for five years . In the Human Relations Commission Film Project department , he oversaw the editing of documentary and educational films. In 1939 he made the short film Pete Roleum and His Cousins with music by Hanns Eisler as his first film work . Eisler also wrote the music for his second short film A Child Went Forth (1941–1942). In 1942 he hosted the radio show World at War for NBC and CBS , before moving to MGM at a personal invitation from Louis B. Mayer .

1946–1947 Losey worked with Charles Laughton and Brecht, who lived in exile in Los Angeles, on his play Galileo's life (English title Galileo) and he staged the premiere in Hollywood with Brecht. On October 30, 1947, he accompanied Brecht to his interrogation before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in Washington. After Brecht's departure from the USA, he directed Galileo in New York in December 1947 , again with Laughton in the title role. In 1974 he finally filmed Galileo in England with Chaim Topol in the title role.
In 1948 he made his first feature film for RKO , The Boy with Green Hair . Until 1951 he made other feature films, including M based on Fritz Lang 's classic of the same name .

In 1951 Losey's name was also mentioned during interrogations of Communist Party sympathizers before the HUAC. He joined the US Communist Party in 1946 and left it about a year later. To avoid the summons, he shot his next film Imbarco a mezzanotte (English title Stranger on the Prowl) in Italy under the pseudonym Andrea Forzano. After his return to the USA, since his name was mentioned before the HUAC, Losey found no employment in film, radio or theater. After a few weeks he went to Europe again in January 1953, this time into final exile. At first he made several films under changing pseudonyms, and finally he settled in England. In Time Without Pity (1957) he used his own name again for the first time. He made most of his films in England, including the three masterpieces The Servant (1963) based on a novel by Robin Maugham , Accident - Incident in Oxford (1967) based on a novel by Nicholas Mosley and The Mediator (1971) with Harold Pinter as screenwriter based on a novel by LP Hartley , for which he received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival . All three films explore in a subtle and complex way social pressures and sexual addictions in British class society. Losey's regular leading actors include Dirk Bogarde and Stanley Baker , and he has worked with Richard Burton and Alain Delon several times. He has also played a key role in the careers of Tom Courtenay , Edward Fox and James Fox and has repeatedly worked with well-known actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor , Monica Vitti , Jeanne Moreau , Romy Schneider and Jane Fonda .

Filmography (selection)

Awards

literature

  • Penelope Houston : Losey's Paper Handkerchief. In: Sight & Sound , summer 1966, p. 142 f.
  • Gilles Jacob: Joseph Losey, or The Camera Calls. In: Sight & Sound, Spring 1966, pp. 62–67.
  • Tom Milne : Losey on Losey. [Book-length interview]. Doubleday, Garden City, NY 1968.
  • Georg Alexander et al .: Joseph Losey (= Film series. Volume 11). Hanser, Munich and Vienna 1977, ISBN 3-446-12357-1 . [206 p.]
  • Michel Ciment: Le Livre de Losey. Entretiens avec le cinéaste. Paris, Stock / Cinéma, 1979.
  • David Caute: Joseph Losey . New York: Oxford University Press 1994.
  • Michel Ciment: Joseph Losey: L'œil du maître. Institut Lumière / Actes Sud, 1994.
  • Bernd Kiefer, Marcus Stiglegger : [Article] Joseph Losey . In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Ed. 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 445-449 [with references].
  • Robert Cohen : Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Losey, and Brechtian Cinema. In: Eckart Goebel, Sigrid Weigel (eds.): "Escape to Life:" German Intellectuals in New York: A Compendium on Exile after 1933 . De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-220416-0 , pp. 142-161.

Web links

proof

  1. ↑ See David Caute: Joseph Losey, New York: Oxford University Press 1994, p. 42.
  2. ↑ On Losey's studies at Dartmouth and Harvard, cf. Caute, 32 ff.
  3. ↑ On Losey's stay in Moscow, cf. Robert Cohen: Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Losey, and Brechtian Cinema . In: Eckart Goebel, Sigrid Weigel (eds.): "Escape to Life:" German Intellectuals in New York: A Compendium on Exile after 1933 . De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, pp. 142–161, here pp. 144 ff.
  4. ↑ See ibid., P. 148 ff.
  5. ↑ See ibid.
  6. ↑ See ibid.
  7. ↑ See Losey's statement in the FBI documentation on Losey, # 100-343468, 230, May 11, 1956 document.
  8. ↑ See Caute, p. 532.
  9. ↑ See Colin Gardner: Joseph Losey , Manchester University Press 2004.
  10. ↑ See Losey's filmography in Tom Milne: Losey on Losey , Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968, pp. 178-80.
  11. ↑ See ibid., P. 180.
personal data
SURNAME Losey, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH La Crosse , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1984
Place of death London