Paul Leni

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Paul Leni (break from work while recording the film Das Wachsfigurenkabinett .)

Paul Josef Leni (also: Paul Josef Levi , born July 8, 1885 in Stuttgart ; † September 2, 1929 in Hollywood ) was a German graphic artist , set designer , set designer and director who significantly influenced the film of the Weimar Republic.

Live and act

After attending grammar school in Stuttgart, the banker's son turned his passion, drawing, into a profession. In Berlin he attended the Academy of Fine Arts . In the 1910s he worked for the theater, especially for Meinhard-Bernauer's theaters , furnished the Wittelsbach cinema on Bayrischer Platz and designed caricatures, advertisements and film posters. From 1913 he also designed film decorations. initially for Joe May and Max Mack . Drafted during the First World War, he made his first film as a director, the documentary feature film Der Feldarzt / Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hard . From 1917 he worked again in Berlin for the film company Projektions-AG Union (PAGU) as a set designer for Ernst Lubitsch and as a director, staging, among other things, the fairy tale film Sleeping Beauty .

Cover of the special issue Film of the magazine Das Plakat , designed by Paul Leni , October 1920

In 1918/19 he made the "decorative equipment" for Joe May's three-hour monumental film Veritas vincit . In addition to the established May-Film GmbH, the artistically ambitious Gloria-Film GmbH was also his client. He directed Prince Kuckuck based on the novel by Otto Julius Bierbaum , the historical drama The Conspiracy to Genoa based on Friedrich Schiller , the Kammerspiel Backstairs and in 1923 the episode film Das Wachsfigurenkabinett . Conrad Veidt and Fritz Kortner were repeatedly stars of his films. In addition to his directing work, Leni continued to design sets for other directors, above all Ewald André Dupont , Joe May , Richard Oswald , Karl Grune , Alexander Korda , Arthur Robison and Michael Kertész, who became famous in Hollywood as Michael Curtiz . Together with the cameraman and trick specialist Guido Seeber , Leni developed a series of eight cinematic crossword puzzles in 1925/26, which were shown in cinemas as a rebus film .

Leni stayed connected to the stage. In 1923 he opened the artist's cabaret Die Gondel on Potsdamer Platz together with the composer Hans May , for which Kurt Tucholsky wrote songs among others . He staged short stage prologues for major cinemas in Berlin, which were performed at festive premieres before the main film.

In 1926 Leni traveled with his wife, the dancer Lore Sello, via New York to Hollywood, where the film producer Carl Laemmle had hired him. Leni was able to quickly establish himself in the American studio system with four commercially and artistically successful films. At the same time, he was able to shape the style with optical and staging innovations from Europe. B. for the horror films of Universal Pictures . The Cat and the Canary was the atmospheric adaptation of a stage thriller from Broadway , The Man Who Laughs with Conrad Veidt in the title role was an elaborate film adaptation of the novel by Victor Hugo , which was particularly successful in Europe.

In the summer of 1929, as a result of blood poisoning, Leni contracted an inflammation of the skin, from which he died in September. He was married to the dancer and actress Lore Sello (1899-1989).

Filmography (selection)

As a film architect

As a director

literature

  • Paul Leni. Graphics - theater - film. Compiled by Hans-Michael Bock . Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-88799-008-0 .
  • The wax museum. Screenplay by Henrik Galeen for Paul Leni's film from 1923 (= FILMtext ). With an introductory essay by Thomas Koebner and materials for the film by Hans-Michael Bock. edition text + kritik, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88377-430-8 .

Web links

Commons : Paul Leni  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Compare the information under the GND number of the German National Library
personal data
SURNAME Leni, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leni, Paul Josef (full name); Levi, Paul Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist, set designer, production designer and director
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart , Germany
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1929
Place of death Hollywood