Karl Grune

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Karl Grune (born January 22, 1885 in Vienna , † October 2, 1962 in Bournemouth , Great Britain ) was an Austrian film director .

Life

Grune initially wanted to be an actor and attended the conservatory in Vienna. His first season brought him to the City Theater in Budweis in 1910/11 . In the following years he played in Regensburg , Laibach and Czernowitz , where he also directed for the first time. Grune volunteered in the First World War in 1914. Due to a serious wound, he temporarily lost his ability to speak in 1918. 1916-18 he played at the Volksbühne in Vienna. 1918/19 at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He had his last theater season in Berlin in 1920/21 at the Barnowsky Theaters ( Lessing Theater and German Art Theater ). Grune mostly played supporting roles in the theater.

Friedrich Zelnik brought Grune to film and initially employed him as a dramaturge. Karl Grune made his film directorial debut in 1919. Many of his early films are considered lost .

In 1923 he shot the miners' film Schlagende Wetter in the Ruhr area with Liane Haid and Eugen Klöpfer in the lead roles. The film was notable for its naturalism , which was the norm at a time when painted and often expressionist film decorations . The street (1923) is considered to be Grune's main work. At the time of the post-war inflation he showed the temptations and abysses of the big city in the middle class living space and this time also relied on expressionist stylistic devices. In 1926, together with Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover, he created the film The Brothers Schellenberg , which also deals with the cryptic city that has attracted rapid success. In the pacifist film parable On the Edge of the World that followed in 1927, the focus is on a miller's family between two warring states; Wilhelm Dieterle , Albert Steinrück and Brigitte Helm play the main roles. However, the production company Ufa changed the ending of the film without Green's knowledge. Grune sued Ufa in court and lost. Immediately afterwards he filmed a homage to the Queen of Prussia of the same name with Queen Luise .

In 1928 Grune went to Munich, where he shot a major Waterloo film for the Emelka concern . Although the film was a losing proposition, Emelka appointed him head of production in 1930.

In 1933 Grune emigrated to England, where he continued his work as a director and producer. He shot The Red Sultan with Fritz Kortner , then in 1936 the opera film Der Bajazzo based on Ruggiero Leoncavallo with Richard Tauber . After that he could hardly gain a foothold in the film business.

Quotes

"Technology should only be a means to an end, never an end in itself."

"I've always tried to open up new things for the camera, and this also explains the fact that I've never shot two films of the same kind in a row."

(Karl Grune in: We about ourselves, Ed. Dr. Hermann Treuner, Sibyllen-Verlag, Berlin 1928)

Films (selection)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ in older sources the year 1890 is usually given, which however has proven to be wrong. In addition to Kay Weniger's 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...' the English death register also confirms the year of birth 1885

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Grune, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian film director
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 2nd October 1962
Place of death Bournemouth , UK