Max Mack
Max Mack (actually: Moritz Myrthenzweig ; born October 21, 1884 in Halberstadt ; † February 18, 1973 in London ) was a German film director . He is one of the pioneers of German silent film .
Life
Mack, born the son of a Jewish cantor, worked as a theater actor at the Stadttheater Eisenach from 1906 and was brought to the Vitascope film production company in 1911 by director Viggo Larsen . There he made his directorial debut in the same year. From 1912 until the end of the First World War he was one of the most productive filmmakers. Even before Stellan Rye's The Student from Prague , Mack's film The Other premiered in 1913 . The film with Albert Bassermann in the double leading role deals with the topic of schizophrenia and is considered the first German auteur film . Also in 1913, Mack led the way with the popular success Where is Coletti? the crime comedy in the German film. As early as 1915, Ernst Lubitsch had small supporting roles in Mack's films.
In 1916, together with Ewald André Dupont, he published one of the first books on film theory, The Fidgeting Screen . In 1917 he founded his own production company, Max Mack-Film GmbH. As early as 1928 Mack took part in sound film experiments; His first full-length sound film Nur am Rhein ... takes up the then current topic of the occupation of the Rhine in order to set itself apart from the rampant sentimental "Rhine bliss".
Max Mack was demonstrably involved in 138 films in the course of his film career; mostly before 1920. The sound film offered Max Mack no further work; with the rise of the National Socialists he was no longer wanted as a Jew. He emigrated to Great Britain , where he made the less successful film Be Careful, Mr. Smith in 1935 , after which his career was finally over. With no practical work opportunities, Mack set out to write down his memories, the 1943 entitled With a Sigh and a Smile. A Showman Looks Back released in London. He married a well-off widow in London, whose daughter he was mentally handicapped he was looking after.
Mack died in London at the age of 88.
Filmography (selection)
as a director, unless otherwise stated
- 1911: The White Slave, Part 3 (as an actor)
- 1911: brain reflexes
- 1912: Blind love
- 1912: Coeur-As
- 1912: demon jealousy
- 1912: The picture of the mother
- 1912: The end of the song
- 1912: The unemployed photographer
- 1912: The trap
- 1912: The yellow race
- 1912: The wedding torch
- 1912: The whims of fate
- 1912: love wins
- 1912: Dear friends
- 1912: The gypsy
- 1912: A fight in the fire
- 1912: Hungry Dogs (Director, Actor)
- 1912: In high spirits
- 1912: Pictures of Life
- 1912: Beach rats
- 1912: lived twice
- 1912: The end of the song
- 1913: The blue mouse
- 1913: The other
- 1913: The Berlin Range
- 1913: Mrs. Hanni
- 1913: where is Coletti?
- 1913: the last day
- 1913: The King
- 1913: The Tango Queen
- 1914: the pearl
- 1914: The world without men
- 1914: Doctor's judgment
- 1914: a strange case
- 1914: Hans and Hanni
- 1914: Hanni, come back! Forgive everything!
- 1915: The Katzensteg
- 1915: The eighth commandment
- 1915: Nahira
- 1915: Pension Lampel
- 1915: The shot in a dream
- 1915: just a lie
- 1915: Poor Marie (involvement as director uncertain)
- 1915: Robert and Bertram, the funny vagabonds
- 1916: Adamant's last race
- 1916: The champagne bet
- 1916: The green demon
- 1916: The swamp
- 1916: The lullaby
- 1916: Fritzi's great idea
- 1916: The green mask's confession
- 1916: The fakir in tails
- 1916: The dancing heart
- 1916: That came from beyond ...
- 1916: woman in the mirror
- 1916: The Maharaja's favorite wife
- 1917: The Maharaja's favorite wife. Second part
- 1917: The Legacy
- 1917: The Duke's niece
- 1917: The black loo
- 1917: thieves and love
- 1917: The brain case
- 1917: The riddle of the steel chamber
- 1917: The living dead
- 1918: The cheated Don Juan
- 1918: Brown rats
- 1918: his wife
- 1918: The dancer Adina
- 1918: Othello
- 1918: victim after victim
- 1918: Dagny and her two men
- 1918: The fall of the Macwell house
- 1919: betrayal and atonement
- 1919: Matrimonium Sacrum
- 1919: The cabinet of rarities
- 1919: Free love
- 1919: The maid's son
- 1919: Sinful Blood
- 1920: Figaro's wedding
- 1920: The Maharaja's Favorite Wife, Part 3
- 1921: The big and the small world
- 1921: The Secrets of Berlin, Part 3 - Berlin-Moabit. Behind lattice windows
- 1921: The Secrets of Berlin, Part 4 - Berlin Fröbelstrasse. In the asylum for the homeless
- 1922: Shackles of tradition
- 1922: The tailoring trade
- 1922: The tragedy in the Bang house
- 1923: The bat
- 1923: quarantine
- 1923: The beautiful girl
- 1925: Father Voss
- 1925: The Uninvited Guest
- 1925: The girl with the protection
- 1926: The journey into adventure
- 1927: A day of roses in August ...
- 1927: I stand in gloomy midnight
- 1928: The Battle of the Tertia
- 1928: I once had a beautiful fatherland
- 1929: The youth of tomorrow
- 1929: Bus No. 2
- 1930: Only on the Rhine ... (also script)
- 1932: Ludwig Manfred Lommel (short sound film, 2 acts)
- 1932: a thousand and one nights
- 1935: Be careful, Mr. Smith
- 1935: The Wigan Express
- 1935: Mack's Comedies
Awards
- 1965: Film tape in gold for many years of excellent work in German film
literature
- Manfred Kreckel: Mack, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 615 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Jürgen Kasten: Exoticism of opposites. On the contrast dramaturgy of THE FAVORITE WOMAN OF MAHARADJA III. PART (1920/21). In: Filmblatt. 17th year, no. 50, winter 2012/13, ISSN 1433-2051 , pp. 35-45.
- Michael Wedel (Ed.): Max Mack: Showman im Glashaus (= Kinemathek. Vol. 88). Friends of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-927876-11-9 .
- Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. P. 325 ff., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8
Web links
- Literature by and about Max Mack in the catalog of the German National Library
- Max Mack in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Max Mack at filmportal.de
- Biography on cyranos.ch
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mack, Max |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Myrthenzweig, Moritz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German film director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 21, 1884 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Halberstadt |
| DATE OF DEATH | 18th February 1973 |
| Place of death | London |