Paul Rotha

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Paul Rotha , born Paul Thompson , (born June 3, 1907 in London , † March 7, 1984 in Wallingford , United Kingdom ) was a British film producer , director and author who was nominated for an Oscar in 1948 for the documentary The World Is Rich was.

Rotha was primarily a documentary filmmaker and also made a name for himself as a film historian - and critic.

Life path

Rotha was born in London as Paul Thompson. He graduated from Highgate School and the Slade School of Fine Art . He made a name for himself as a painter , designer , lecturer and art critic , and he also wrote the groundbreaking book The Film Till Now (1930), which is still regarded as a reference work even by students.

Rotha was a close associate of John Grierson , who is considered the father of British and Canadian documentary films. It was also Grierson who won Rotha to join the GPO Film Unit . He was also considered a competent leader in documentaries that dealt with social issues as well as topics that included war propaganda , which he also demonstrated in his numerous documentaries. He shared an interest in the techniques of visual communication with the economist Otto Neurath . The men worked together on several films. The cameraman Wolfgang Suschitzky also worked in the Rothas production unit at GPO .

From 1953 to 1955, Rotha was director of documentaries at the BBC and also served as president of the New London Film Society. He is also known as the founder of the Federation of Documentary Film Units and as the former chairman of the British Film Academy . In 1958 he was a member of the jury at the International Film Festival in Berlin .

Rotha was married to Irish actress Constance Smith, who wounded him with a knife in 1961 and 1968.

Chronology of his work in film

Rotha made his first short documentary film Australian Wines in 1931 , which was subsequently followed by dozens of documentaries and short films on a wide variety of topics, please refer to Contact (1933), The Face of Britain (1935), World of Plenty ( 1943), Land of Promise and A City Speaks (both 1947). He often appeared in several functions at the same time, taking responsibility for the respective film as author, director, producer and also film editor. For his film The World Is Rich , in which he deals with hunger and excess in the time after the end of the war and asks the question of how one can get the existing imbalance in the world under control, he was awarded an Oscar in 1948 category "Best documentary" nomination. However, the award went to Sid Rogell , Theron Warth, and Richard Fleischer and the war documentary Design for Death .

For his documentary No Resting Place from 1951, for which Rotha was responsible as author and director, he was awarded a Golden Lion , the film also received two nominations for the BAFTA Award . It deals with the accidental tragic death of a gamekeeper . The documentary The Life of Adolf Hitler was made in 1961 . Rotha appeared as a writer, director and editor. In the same year he directed the Oscar-nominated short documentary Cradle of Genius . The 1962 Dutch crime drama The Raid directed by Rotha is about resistance fighters.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1931: Australian Wines (short documentary film; director)
  • 1932: The Lodger (scenario)
  • 1933: Contact (documentary short film; director)
  • 1935: The Face of Britain (documentary short film; director)
  • 1935: Shipyard (short documentary film; director)
  • 1936: People of Britain (short film; director, editor)
  • 1936: Chapter and Verse (short film; producer)
  • 1936: The Way to the Sea (short film; producer)
  • 1937: Eastern Walley (short film; director)
  • 1937: Desert Outpost (Director)
  • 1937: Air Outpost (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1937: To-Day We Live: A Film of Life in Britain (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1938: New Worlds for Old (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1940: The Fourth Estate: A Film of a British Newspaper (documentary; writer, director)
  • 1940: Island People (documentary short film, director)
  • 1941: You're Telling Me! (Short film; producer)
  • 1941: The Battle of the Books (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1941: Five and Under (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1941: Defeat Diphtheria (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1941: Bampton Shows the Way (documentary short film; co-producer)
  • 1941: The Countrywomen (short film)
  • 1942: The Great Harvest (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1942: Night Shift (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1942: Life Begins Again (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1942: Essential Jobs (short film; producer)
  • 1943: World of Plenty (documentary short film; writer, director)
  • 1943: Defeat Tuberculosis (documentary short film; co-producer)
  • 1943: Worker and Warfront No. 8 (short film; producer)
  • 1944: New Builders (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1944: Children of the City (documentary short film; producer)
  • 1945: Britain Can Make It, No. 1 (short film; producer)
  • 1946: Land of Promise (documentary; director, producer)
  • 1946: Total War in Britain (documentary short film; director, producer)
  • 1947: A City Speaks (documentary; writer, director, producer)
  • 1947: The Balance (short film; director)
  • 1947: History of Writing (documentary short film; director)
  • 1948: The World Is Rich (documentary; director, producer)
  • 1951: No Resting Place (Writer, Director)
  • 1958: Visiting Mr. Scruby ( Cat and Mouse ; writer, director, producer)
  • 1961: Das Leben von Adolf Hitler ( Life of Adolf Hitler , documentary film; director, author, editor)
  • 1961: Cradle of Genius (documentary short film; director)
  • 1962: The Raid (De Overval; writer, director)

Awards / nominations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Paul Rotha. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved March 14, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b c d John Wakeman, Editor: World film Directors , Vol. One: 1890-1945 , New York: The HW Wilson Company, 1987, pp. 976-981
  3. ↑ Beauty held in knifing of director . In: Los Angeles Herald & Express, December 15, 1961 (English).
  4. ↑ The 20th Academy Awards | 1948 at oscars.org (English)
personal data
SURNAME Rotha, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, Paul (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film producer, film director and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1984
Place of death Wallingford , UK