Lazare Meerson

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Lazare Meerson , Russian Лазарь Меерсон , (born June 26 . Jul / 8. July  1897 greg. In Warsaw , Russian Empire ; † 28. June 1938 in London ) was a Russian- and Polish-born art director with outstanding career at the French pre-war cinema.

Life

Meerson fled civil war-torn Russia and first found a new home in Berlin in the early 1920s. There he made his first contacts with the film industry, but without having the opportunity to design his own decorations. In 1924 Meerson went to Paris . There he was hired by ' Albatros ', a production company founded by exiled Russians in Montreuil , and soon got to know the leading representatives of the country's cinéphile avant-garde, including Louis Delluc , René Clair , Marcel L'Herbier and Jacques Feyder .

Born in Brazil, Alberto Cavalcanti brought Meerson to his side as an assistant in L'Herbier's production of “ Mattia Pascal ” (Feu Mathias Pascal) at the end of 1924 . Just a few weeks later, with Feyder's “ homesickness for the alley ”, he was allowed to design film structures on his own for the first time. Meerson's decorations often evoked beautiful, unreal worlds and created romantic perspectives on metropolitan life. With his decorations he also created realistic and gloomy snapshots from the living and working world of modern people. His cinemas largely determined the poetic realism of French film in the 1930s; The works of Feyder and Clair in particular benefited greatly from Meerson's interior design. At the Academy Awards in 1932 he was nominated for Long Live Freedom for the Oscar for the best film construction .

Historicizing films such as Feyder's “ The Wise Women ”, which Meerson created in the style of a Dutch moral image from the Renaissance, remained the exception in his oeuvre. In 1936 Meerson moved to London, where he furnished Clair and Feyder's not very successful foreign-language productions " Daring Game " and " Tatjana " with Marlene Dietrich . In addition, two masterpieces of British prewar cinema were created: While Meerson revived the splendid courtly England in the time of Elizabeth I in Feuer über England , he conjured up the world of poverty-stricken Welsh miner families in the adaptation of AJ Cronin's The Citadel .

Lazare Meerson died unexpectedly in June 1938, just a few weeks after shooting his best British film. The brother of the fashion photographer Harry Meerson was married to the ballet dancer and model Mary Meerson , who also came from Russia, until his death .

Filmography

  • 1925: homesickness for the alley ( Gribiche )
  • 1926: Carmen
  • 1926: The Strange Adventure of a Pilot ( La proie du vent )
  • 1927: The Florentine hat
  • 1927: The two shy ones (Les deux timides)
  • 1928: money! Money!! Money!!! ( L'argent )
  • 1929: The new masters (Les Nouveaux messieurs)
  • 1929: Cagliostro ( Cagliostro )
  • 1929: Le requin
  • 1930: Under the roofs of Paris ( Sous les toits de Paris )
  • 1930: The end of the world ( La fin du monde )
  • 1930: L'étrangère (and German verse: The foreigner)
  • 1930: Le mystère de la chambre jaune
  • 1930: David Golder ( David Golder )
  • 1931: The Million (Le million)
  • 1931: Long live freedom ( A nous la liberté )
  • 1931: Le monsieur de minuit
  • 1931: Jean de la lune
  • 1931: The Ball (and French verse: Le bal)
  • 1931: Les cinq gentlemen maudits (and German verse: The five cursed gentlemen )
  • 1931: Prisonnier de mon coeur
  • 1931: Un coup de téléphone
  • 1932: La femme en homme
  • 1932: Conduisez-moi, Madame
  • 1932: La femme nue
  • 1932: Il a été perdu une mariée
  • 1932: July 14th ( Quatorze juillet )
  • 1933: Around a million
  • 1933: Ciboulette
  • 1933: La femme invisible
  • 1933: L'ange gardien
  • 1933: Primerose
  • 1933: The big game ( Le grand jeu )
  • 1933: Frauensee ( Lac-aux-dames )
  • 1933: Amok
  • 1934: La banque Nemo
  • 1934: Poliche
  • 1934: L'Hôtel du libre-échange
  • 1934: Zouzou
  • 1934: Justin de Marseille
  • 1934: Game in Monte Carlo ( Pension Mimosas )
  • 1935: Princesse Tam-Tam
  • 1935: The beautiful days ( Les beaux jours )
  • 1935: The wise women (and French verse: La kermesse héroique)
  • 1936: As You Like It ( As You Like It )
  • 1936: Fire over England
  • 1936: Tatjana ( Knight Without Armor )
  • 1937: The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel
  • 1937: South Riding
  • 1937: The Divorce of Lady X
  • 1938: Consenting Adults ( Break the News )
  • 1938: The Citadel

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 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 370.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meerson, Lazare
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Меерсон, Лазарь (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian and Polish-born film architect
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1938
Place of death London