Lau Lauritzen senior

Lauritz (Lau) Lauritzen (sr.) (Born March 13, 1878 in Silkeborg , † July 2, 1938 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish director and film writer. His works also included the Pat and Patachon series .

Life

Lauritzen was originally a career officer, but decided to switch to acting. In 1907 he made his debut in Aarhus and then played in Vejle, among others . He also worked as a theater director. At the age of 32, he got an engagement for five years as a director in Copenhagen in 1910 .

In 1911 he got access to the film as a screenwriter. In 1914 he came to Nordisk Film, which operates across Europe, and received his first directorial assignment. He was able to fully demonstrate his talent for comic films there, although the foreign market was lost due to the First World War. Lauritzen had great success with his comedies , thrillers and melodramas. He wrote the scripts , directed the films and edited them himself. In the five years he made 204 silent films, at times he made over 40 films a year. Of course, many of these productions were very short.

Due to his fame in film circles, he became the artistic director of the Palladium Film Company after the war in 1919. There he insisted on his idea of ​​a comedian duo that had to consist of a small fat one and a long thin one. He found this duo with Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen as Pat and Patachon and made them known throughout Europe under the name of lighthouse and trailer . The two were particularly popular in German-speaking countries.

Lauritzen was responsible for all films with Pat and Patachon until 1932, after which the duo also worked under other directors. In 1936 Lauritzen retired from the film business. His son Lau Lauritzen (1910–1977) also became a film director.

Web links

• Lau Lauritzen senior in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Biography on film-zeit.de