Max Nivelli
Max Nivelli (born January 1, 1878 in Kuźnica , Russian Empire , † February 27, 1926 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ) was a Berlin film producer during the Weimar Republic . He was one of the first to deal with the topics of anti-Semitism and prejudice in their films . Despite his untimely death at the age of 48 and although he only worked in the film industry for barely ten years, he produced 19 films during this time, the majority of which were full-length feature films. As with most cinema works of the time, these were silent films in black and white on celluloid . To date only his last film "Unity and Law and Freedom" has been found, restored and digitized.
Early years
Max Nivelli was born as Menachem (Mendel) Lewin in Kuźnica, a small town on the eastern border of Poland , at that time part of the Russian Empire. His parents, Samuel and Zipa Lewin, were confectionery manufacturers. As a young man he emigrated to Berlin, where between 1903 and 1911 he became the owner and partner of a number of companies that manufacture jams, sweets and chocolate.
In 1904 he married Helene Kaufmann from Rozdzień, now a suburb of Katowice , Poland. They had two daughters - Dorothea and Regina.
In 1912 Mendel Lewin took the name Max Nivelli (almost an anagram of his family name Lewin). He studied opera singing at the renowned Stern Conservatory in Berlin, performed in many opera productions across Europe and taught solo singing (in German and Russian) at the Ochs-Eichelberg Conservatory in Berlin.
Film production
In 1918 Nivelli founded his first film production company with partner Erwin Kampf, Nivelli-Film-Fabrikation. In the same year the company produced four full-length feature films. Nivelli himself wrote the screenplay of the first of these Lebensbahnen - A Singer's Life and even took on the role of the opera singer (performance and singing).
The following year he announced the partnership and formed a new production company, Nivo-Film & Co. He joined the Austrian director Joseph Delmont together to the films The Outlaw (aka The ritual murder ) and The unleashed humanity to produce . These works were of a social and political nature and became the most successful and famous of his career.
Nivelli preferred to work on more than one project with the same director. Apart from Delmont, he had a successful collaboration with Carl Boese , with whom he made four films, including Nocturno der Liebe , based on the life story of the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin . Nivelli also produced two films with Arthur Ullmann as director and then the “Albani Series” - three successive cinema romances directed by Guido Schamberg (Parisch) with the Italian actress Marcella Albani .
Later years
In the years of economic crisis and hyperinflation in Germany (1921-1924) Nivelli lost most of his fortune. Together with his partner Arthur Gregor, he now turned to other branches of the film industry, including import, export, distribution and distribution. In addition, he managed the Berlin cinema Lichtspiel Palmenhaus and was a member of the board of directors of Paw-Film, a Polish production and sales company based in Warsaw . In 1924, towards the end of this era, Nivelli resumed his activity as a producer and made four short documentaries, most of which showed state memorial ceremonies and festive events.
In June 1925 he and his partner Sander Kaisermann founded a new production company, Nivelli Film Max Nivelli & Co. He immediately threw himself on his next project, another socially oriented film entitled Unity and Law and Freedom . This was his third joint project with director Joseph Delmont, which was based in part on his earlier film The Unleashed Humanity , from which he used previously shot scenes. Just a few days before filming was completed, Max Nivelli died of a sudden heart attack.
The trade press described him as a brilliant, creative and dynamic filmmaker, and his colleagues from the Berlin film industry considered him a popular personality.
Most important films
The ritual murder / the outlaws
This cinema piece, produced in 1919 and marketed as an " educational film ", was intended to draw the audience's attention to the dangers of anti-Semitic propaganda in general and the blood legend in particular. After the end of World War I , a wave of Jewish immigrants inundated Western Europe , and anti-Semitism and xenophobia rose across Germany. The term “the Jewish question ” became a popular topic in German society, as did the question of intimate relationships between Germans and Jews, which until then were taboo and are now being debated.
The setting is a village in tsarist Russia , where a cruel pogrom is taking place against the Jewish population. Before the pogrom there were rumors of a ritual murder committed after the disappearance of a young girl. According to rumors, the girl was murdered by the leader of the Jewish community. A Russian student who is in love with the community leader's daughter rushes to his aid and just in time prevents the mob from stoneing him. When the missing girl is found unharmed and safe, the conspiracy to accuse the Jews of ritual murder is exposed, but it comes too late for the community leader's daughter, who is fatally wounded during one of the raids. Her father and the student vow to work together to fight the prejudices that led to this tragedy.
The film premiere was a grandiose event to which the critics of all well-known newspapers were invited, as well as celebrities from the Berlin art and literature scene. After the performance there was loud applause. The press described the film as a “masterpiece”, “one of the best films that have been produced so far” and “a film whose hero is not an individual, but rather a whole nation”. Max Nivelli was seen as the driving force behind this project, "in which he succeeded in spreading his vision of the elucidation and the need to combat prejudice". He should therefore be counted among “the most monumental film producers of his time”. Within six weeks of the premiere - an absolute record time at the time - the film was sold worldwide and the pre-orders for Nivelli's next planned project with Delmont were already pouring in - the film The Unleashed Mankind .
Unleashed humanity
This film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Max Glass , published in 1919 . In it the author describes a gloomy world devastated by disease and war. The filmmakers decided to give this story a more contemporary context and produced a work that processed the events of January 1919 in Berlin, the so-called “ Spartacus Uprising ”, as fictional material for the first time. Last but not least, the film is considered to be one of the anti- Bolshevik films of its time.
The plot revolves around a group of workers who instigate a violent uprising in order to destroy the prevailing order - with actions that almost start a civil war. The film reflected the German public's growing fear of political radicalization . This fear was not unfounded - another attempted coup took place during the production work (the “ Kapp Putsch ”), this time carried out by nationalist and monarchist splinter groups. Press reports about the shooting drew government attention to the project. There was concern about the possible impact of this film on Germany's reputation abroad. The Foreign Office summoned Nivelli and asked him to show the film to a censor before it was released. Although Nivo-Film approved the work in June 1920, due to the sensitivity of the subject, Nivo-Film decided to wait with distribution.
The premiere, attended by numerous public figures and members of the government, took place six months later. Most of the critics declared the film a success. It was hailed as an “important historical document”, as “one of the best films of recent years”, as “gripping and realistic”. Some even praised the courage the filmmakers had shown in addressing such a sensitive subject when the recent incidents were still fresh in the public mind. On the other hand, socialist-oriented press organs claimed that the workers had been portrayed negatively and that the film aimed to frighten the public. From an artistic point of view, the work was considered groundbreaking - 17,000 people were involved in its production. It was said that its “clear thematic direction, strong structure and emotional imagery” gave this film “character and speed”.
Filmography
| year | title | Director | category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | Life tracks - a singer's life | Ernst Sachs | motion pictures |
| 1918 | The luck seeker | Arthur Ullmann | motion pictures |
| 1918 | The stolen soul | Carl Boese | motion pictures |
| 1918 | The curse of Nuri | Carl Boese | motion pictures |
| 1918 | The old picture | Arthur Ullmann | motion pictures |
| 1919 | The ritual murder
Alternative name: The Outlaws |
Joseph Delmont | motion pictures |
| 1919 | Nocturno of love
Alternative name: Chopin |
Carl Boese | motion pictures |
| 1919 | Bajazzo's daughter
Alternative name: The old song |
Arthur Ullmann | motion pictures |
| 1920 | Unleashed humanity | Joseph Delmont | motion pictures |
| 1922 | Dolores | Carl Boese | motion pictures |
| 1922 | Fate of women | Guido Schamberg | motion pictures |
| 1923 | The game of love | Guido Schamberg | motion pictures |
| 1923 | Love and marriage | Unknown | motion pictures |
| 1923 | In the intoxication of passion | Guido Schamberg | motion pictures |
| 1924 | The Samland Baths (The East Prussian Amber Coast) | Unknown | Short documentary |
| 1924 | The Tannenberg celebration in Königsberg | Unknown | Short documentary |
| 1924 | The constitution ceremony in Berlin | Unknown | Short documentary |
| 1924 | The commemoration ceremony for the dead heroes | Unknown | Short documentary |
| 1926 | Unity and justice and freedom | Joseph Delmont | motion pictures |
Web links
- Max Nivelli at filmportal.de
- Max Nivelli in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Max Nivelli at The German Early Cinema Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Landesarchive Berlin - Rep. 805, No. 517 - marriage certificate from Mendel Lewin & Helena Kaufmann
- ^ Central and State Library, Berlin Address Book, 1904–1911
- ^ General Register Office, England - marriage certificate from Regina Lewin & Friedrich Wolfgang Schwarz, District of St. Martin, County of London - Volume 1a, p. 982
- ↑ Central and State Library, Berlin Address Book 1915 , Part I, p. 1828
- ↑ Stern's Conservatory of Music, Berlin; Listed as a student from 1909–1910, 1910–1911
- ↑ German Stage Yearbook, 1914 (Volume 25, p.851); 1915 (vol. 26, p.732); 1916 (vol. 27, p.754); 1917 (vol. 28, p.753); 1918 (Volume 29, p.759)
- ↑ Dr. Richard Stern, The Ochs Eichelberg Conservatory - What should music students know about Berlin, Berlin, 1913–1914
- ↑ Central and State Library, Berlin Address Book 1919 , Part I, p. 1983
- ↑ Der Film, magazine for the general interests of cinematography - No. 19, 1918, Ed .: Max Matthison, Kühne Verlag, Berlin.
- ↑ Wid's Year Book (Motion Pictures) 1921 , pp. 370-37; Ed .: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc., New York
- ^ Reichsfilmblatt, official organ of the Reich Association of German Movie Theater Owners - No. 20, 1923, Ed .: Deutsches Druck- und Verlagshaus (Hackebeil Group), Berlin
- ↑ Lichtbild Bühne (LBB), Illustrated Daily Newspaper of Films - No. 16, April 21, 1923, Ed .: Ing.Paul Levy, Berlin
- ^ Filmtheater Berlin, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Kurfürstendamm 193–194. Retrieved December 20, 2016 .
- ^ Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Przewodnik Przemysłu i Handlu Polskiego , 1926, Warsaw, Poland
- ↑ Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin - censorship card B.8810
- ^ DIF - Deutsches Filminstitut, Frankfurt am Main, Zensorentscheidungen, August 11, 1924 and September 4, 1924 .
- ^ Berliner Börsenzeitung , German daily newspaper, July 25, 1925, s. 3; Ed .: Berliner Börsen-Zeitung Druck und Verlag Ges.mbh
- ↑ Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Approval: I-No. St. 17510/25 - company number 69145
- ^ The film , March 14, 1926; Berlin
- ^ Film-Kurier , March 2, 1926; Ed .: W. Haas / Berlin "Filmkurier"
- ^ The Bridgeport Telegram March 2, 1926; Daily Newspaper, Bridgeport , Connecticut , USA
- ^ Monday , March 1st, 1926; Berlin
- ^ The Film , No. 10, March 7, 1926; Berlin
- ↑ Cynthia Walk: The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema (Edited by Christian Rogowski) - "Romeo with Sidelocks: Jewish-Gentile Romance ... and Other Early Weimar Assimilation Films" . Ed .: Camden House. Rochester, New York 2010, ISBN 1-57113-532-4 , pp. 84-101 .
- ^ Film program “Ritualmordet”, from the Norwegian National Library - Nasjonalbiblioteket.
- ↑ Der Kinematograph , specialist newspaper for the entire art of projection, No. 665, 1919; Ed .: E. Lintz, Düsseldorf.
- ^ BZ am Mittag , 1919; Ed .: Ullstein Verlag, Berlin
- ↑ Berliner Börsenzeitung , 1919; Ed .: Berliner Börsen-Zeitung Druck und Verlag Ges.mbh
- ↑ Neue Berliner 12-Uhr Zeitung, Berlin; The film, Berlin; First international film newspaper , central organ for all cinematography, publisher: R. Falk, Berlin 1919.
- ↑ Berliner Mittagszeitung , 1919; Berlin
- ↑ Neue Berliner 12-Uhr Zeitung , 1919; Berlin.
- ^ Filmkunst, Filmzeitschrift, 1919; Berlin
- ↑ Kinematograph , No. 679/80, 1919.
- ^ A b Philipp Stiasny: The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema (edited by Christian Rogowsky) - "Humanity Unleashed: Anti-Bolshevism as Popular Culture in Early Weimar Cinema" . Ed .: Camden House. Rochester, New York 2010, ISBN 1-57113-532-4 , pp. 48-66 .
- ^ Börsen-Zeitung , November 12, 1920.
- ↑ Eight o'clock evening paper , November 20, 1920.
- ↑ Eight o'clock evening paper , November 21, 1920.
- ^ Vossische-Zeitung , November 23, 1920.
- ↑ Forward - Morning Edition , November 21, 1920.
- ↑ The Day, Evening Edition , November 22, 1920.
- ^ BZ Am Mittag , November 22, 1920.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nivelli, Max |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lewin, Mendel (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Berlin film producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1878 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kuźnica , Russian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 27, 1926 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Charlottenburg |