Max Neufeld

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Neufeld around 1918

Maximilian Neufeld , also Massimiliano Neufeld and Massimo Neufeld , (born February 13, 1887 in Guntersdorf , Austria-Hungary , † December 2, 1967 in Vienna , Austria ) was an Austrian actor and film director . He was the younger brother of the actor Eugen Neufeld .

Life

Max Neufeld initially played in his father's drama troupe and got his first job as an actor at the old city ​​theater in Klagenfurt in 1905 . He subsequently appeared both in provincial theaters and from 1912 at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. He received his first film roles in 1913 from the Viennese art film industry , which, after several supporting roles in films such as Johann Strauss on the beautiful blue Danube , Treue Seelen or Under the False Flag in Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld (1914), put him in a leading role for the first time. He played predominantly “young lovers” and “down-to-earth boys” in peasant dramas.

During the First World War , he served as an artillery officer between 1916 and 1918. He returned to film during the war. He has now become a popular performer among lovers, whom he embodied in films such as the war drama Freier Dienst (1918), Don Caesar, Count of Irun (1918), The Ahnfrau (1919), Don Ramiro and The Dead Wedding Guest (1921). As the first male film star, the Viennese art film starred alongside popular actresses and film stars such as Hansi Niese in Frau Gertrud Namenlos (1914) and Liane Haid in the propaganda film Mit Herz und Hand fürs Vaterland (1915). Exceptions to his type cast were rare. He played the mad doctor in The Woman of the Insane (1921) and the seduced monk in Eva, die Sünde (1920). In his own production of Brandstifter Europa (1926), he even played a dark, demonic role as “Monk Rasputin”, which remained the absolute exception.

Grave of Max Neufeld

After 1921 he worked primarily as a director, but continued to take on film roles, mostly in his own films. He regularly directed dramas, melodramas, comedies and adventure stories. In the second half of the twenties he developed into an experienced master of light, Viennese comedies , such as The Ballet Duke , but also chamber-style films with depth, such as The Route . After founding the interest group of Austrian filmmakers, the Filmbund , in 1922, he became its board member. He directed and played the leading role in the first film adaptation of Hoffmann's stories in 1923 by Wiener Vita-Film .

From the mid-1920s onwards he occasionally wrote the scripts for his films, and from the late 1920s onwards he also worked occasionally in Germany, for example for the Berlin Nero-Film , for which he directed One Night in the Grand Hotel in 1931 . For the Cine-Allianz he staged the German-Austrian co-production Sehnsucht 202 (1932) in 1932, in which the focus was on those affected by the current high unemployment after the global economic crisis in 1929.

In 1933, after the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Max Neufeld had to leave Berlin because of his Jewish origins, and for the next few years he traveled to Europe with productions in Vienna, Paris, Rome and Madrid. An application made to the Reichsfilmkammer in Berlin in 1936 for a special permit for further filmmaking in Germany was rejected, as was the importation of productions in which Max Neufeld participated. Although Jews were no longer allowed to be employed in film in Austria since 1936 , he stayed in Vienna until the " Anschluss of Austria " to Germany. Then he fled to Rome, where he directed films until 1941, after which he worked in Spain. After the Second World War, he returned to Rome, but from 1948 also made films in Vienna again. He directed his last film in 1957: The most beautiful day of my life .

Max Neufeld rests in the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 72B, Row 19, Number 80).

Filmography

Only as an actor (until 1919 + 1927):

As a director (R), as an actor (S), as a screenwriter (DB):

  • Steel and Stone (Ö, 1919; R, S)
  • The single yard (Ö, 1919; R, S)
  • Herzblut (Ö, 1920; R, S; not certain)
  • Let the little ones come to me (Ö, 1920; R)
  • Wildfire (A, 1920; R, S)
  • Winter storms (A, 1920; R, S)
  • Eve, Sin (Ö, 1920; S)
  • His light of life (Ö, 1921; R)
  • The woman in white (Ö, 1921; R, S)
  • The films of Princess Fantoche (Ö, 1921; R)
  • The madman's wife (Ö, 1921; S)
  • 1921: The dead wedding guest (R, DB)
  • Faustrecht (Austria, 1922; R)
  • Hoffmann's stories (Austria, 1923; R, S)
  • The Iron King (Ö, 1923; R)
  • 1924: Hotel Potemkin (R)
  • The last hour (Ö, 1924; R)
  • A waltz by Strauss (Ö, 1925; R, S, DB; together with Otto Kreisler )
  • Arsonists of Europe (Austria, 1926; R, S)
  • The Ballet Duke (Austria, 1927; R, DB)
  • 1927: The rough shirt (R, DB)
  • The route (Austria, 1927; R, DB)
  • The family without morals (Ö, 1927; R, DB)
  • His wife's lover (Ö, 1928; R, DB)
  • The two seals (Ö, 1928; R)
  • Order to marry (Ö, 1928; R)
  • Crevette model house (A, 1928; R)
  • Archduke Johann (Austria, 1929; R)
  • The white paradise (Ö, 1929; R)
  • Night pub (Austria, 1929; R)
  • Rasputin (D, 1929; R, S)

Sound films (only as a director):

  • One night in the Grandhotel (D, 1931)
  • Opera redoubt (D, 1931)
  • Purple and Guard Blue (Austria, 1931)
  • One night in the Grandhotel (D, 1931)
  • Due cuori felici (ITA, 1932; only as screenwriter, director is Baldassarre Negroni )
  • A little love for you (D, 1932; also screenplay)
  • Monsieur, Madame et Bibi (F, 1932; co-director with Jean Boyer )
  • 1932: Hasenklein can't help it
  • Longing 202 (D / Ö, 1932)
  • Une jeune fille et un million (F, 1932; co-director with Fred Ellis)
  • The Tsar's Diamond (D, 1932)
  • Overnight happiness (D, 1932)
  • Around a million (D, 1933)
  • The Song of the Sun (D, 1933)
  • 1933: Csibi, the face
  • La canzone del sole ( Version of The Song of the Sun ) (ITA, 1934)
  • 1934: A star falls from the sky
  • Temptation (F / GB, 1934)
  • Antonia, romance hongroise (version by Temptation ) (F, 1935; co-directed with Jean Boyer)
  • 1935: Your Highness waltzes
  • Tanecek panny Márinky (version of Highness dances the waltz ) (Austria / CZ, 1935)
  • Valse éternelle (version of Highness dances a waltz ) (Austria / CZ, 1936)
  • 1936: Through life with music
  • La casa del peccato (ITA, 1938)
  • Mille lire al mese (ITA, 1938)
  • Una moglie in pericolo (ITA, 1939)
  • Assenza ingiustificata (ITA, 1939; also screenplay)
  • Ballo al castello (ITA, 1939)
  • Taverna rossa (ITA, 1940)
  • Fortuna (ITA, 1940)
  • Cento lettere d'amore (ITA, 1940)
  • La canzone rubata (ITA, 1940)
  • La prima donna che passa (ITA, 1940)
  • Madrid de mis sueños (SP, 1942)
  • Idilio en Mallorca (SP, 1942)
  • Un uomo ritorna (ITA, 1946)
  • Il tiranno di Padova (ITA, 1946; also screenplay)
  • 1948: Anni
  • 1948: Lost race
  • 1949: darling of the world
  • L'inconnu d'un soir (F, 1949; co-director with Hervé Bromberger)
  • Licenza premio (ITA, 1951)
  • Abracadabra (ITA, 1952)
  • Your mouth promises me love (D, 1954; also screenplay)
  • 1957: The most beautiful day of my life (also screenplay)

literature

  • Armin Loacker (Ed.): Art of Routine - The actor and director Max Neufeld. Filmarchiv Austria publishing house, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-902531-46-9 .
  • Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 4, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-218-00546-9 , p. 377f.
  • Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 2: J-R. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 973.
  • 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. 368 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Neufeld, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neufeld, Maximilian (full name); Neufeld, Massimiliano; Neufeld, Massimo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor and film director
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Guntersdorf , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 1967
Place of death Vienna , Austria