Michel Michelet

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Michel Michelet (born June 14, 1894 in Kiev as Michail Isaakowitsch Lewin ; † December 28, 1995 in Los Angeles , California ) was a Russian-born film composer in France , Italy , Germany and the USA .

Life

Mikhail Levin began his artistic training at the conservatories in Kiev and St. Petersburg before coming to Germany in 1913. There he completed his studies in Leipzig , later he continued his education in Vienna . Michelet initially worked as a cellist , later he also worked as a composer of ballet and concert music and set pieces for the stage.

With the dawn of the sound film age in Europe (1929), Michelet moved to Paris , where he soon made contact with the local cinema industry. In the 1930s he was responsible, partly as Michel Michelet (from 1937), but mostly under the name of Michel Lévine, for the background music for a wealth of medium-quality entertainment films, including several works by the Kiev-based director Victor Tourjansky .

In 1941 the Jew Lewin managed to escape from the German-occupied France and Michelet settled in Los Angeles. There he continued his work for American film, but also wrote music for documentaries and educational films for the US Information Service . Michelet was nominated twice ( 1945 each ) for A Voice in the Wind and The Hairy Ape for an Oscar in the category Best Film Music (Drama / Comedy) . At the beginning of the 1950s he again wrote compositions for European cinema, now not only for French, but also for Italian and German productions, including Fritz Lang's two-part adventure play The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb . Michel Michelet wrote the scores for a total of over 100 films.

Eventually he returned to the USA, only composing sporadically for the big screen (especially for documentaries) and concentrating on the composition of classical works such as oratorios, requiems and sonatas for cello and piano. His last major work, Seven Visions of Judea , was published in 1989.

The composer, who last lived as Michael Michelet in Laguna Niguel , Orange County , California , died at the end of 1995 at the age of 102.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1930: The end of the world (La fin du monde)
  • 1930: La femme d'une nuit
  • 1932: Monsieur Tugendsam (Le rosier de Madame Husson)
  • 1932: Ce cochon de Morin
  • 1933: L'abbé Constantin
  • 1933: La voix sans visage
  • 1934: Le scandale
  • 1934: Ademaï aviateur
  • 1935: Sous la terreur
  • 1935: Black eyes (Les yeux noirs)
  • 1935: Tovaritch
  • 1936: Mister Flow
  • 1936: Unrest in the girls' boarding school (Le mioche)
  • 1936: Fight for Madeleine (La porte du large)
  • 1936: Volga boatmen (Les bateliers de la Volga)
  • 1937: Branded (Forfaiture )
  • 1937: Dunja (nostalgia )
  • 1937: The Lie of Nina Petrovna (Le mensonge de Nina Petrovna)
  • 1937: From midnight
  • 1938: Serge Panine
  • 1938: The big decision (Alerte en méditerranée)
  • 1938: L'Emigrante - novel by an adventurer (L'émigrante)
  • 1939: Rappel immédiat
  • 1939: Girl trafficker (Pièges)
  • 1940: 24 hours de perm '
  • 1942: Miss Annie Rooney
  • 1944: Voice in the Wind

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lt. According to the film scholar Kay Less , the month of birth that can sometimes be read (e.g. at IMDb) is definitely wrong
  2. ↑ Wölfer / Löper, p. 352.
  3. ↑ Lt. Information less

literature

  • Johann Caspar Glenzdorf: Glenzdorf's international film lexicon. Biographical manual for the entire film industry. Volume 2: Hed – Peis. Prominent-Filmverlag, Bad Münder 1961, DNB 451560744 , p. 1133.
  • Jürgen Wölfer, Roland Löper: The great lexicon of film composers. P. 352 f., Berlin 2003.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Michelet, Michel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lewin, Michail Isaakowitsch (maiden name); Levine, Michael; Lévine, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-born film composer in France, Italy, Germany and the USA
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiev
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1995
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States