Rolf Raffé

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Rolf Raffé , born in Anton Gustav Steichele (born June 23, 1895 in Munich ; † February 20, 1978 there ), was a German film director , film producer and screenwriter .

Live and act

Immediately after he returned from the First World War, Raffé founded his own production company, Indra-Film, in his hometown of Munich in 1919. An early, still short Indra production was the silent film “Der Kinematograph” with the later star humorist Karl Valentin . In 1919 Raffé married the young actress Carla Nelsen (born August 12, 1897 in Munich), who was to become his preferred leading actress for a few years. With Nelsen in the female lead role, Raffé directed and produced the ambitious history and equipment films “Ludwig II., King of Bavaria”, “Empress Elisabeth of Austria”, “Tsar Nicholas II of Russia” and most recently, in the winter of 1922/23, “Queen Caroline of England” . None of these films, designed as dramas or melodramas, were artistically remarkable and met with a great response from the audience. Even decades later, it was said about his Ludwig film that it "often seems involuntarily funny in its awkward dramaturgy and acting."

After her participation in Raffé's “Rex Mundi” , Carla Nelsen withdrew from the film business as early as 1925, while the Munich-based man without his wife continued to play historical dramas from European royal families with decreasing success until the end of the silent film era (“ Louise von Coburg, tragedy of a king's daughter ”,“ The fate of those von Habsburg ”) tried, this time with Erna Morena in the female lead as Nelsen's replacement. For a time (mid-1920s) Raffé owned another production company, Eos-Film.

After several projects that he was unable to realize, Rolf Raffé experienced his personal 'Waterloo' in 1932 with the feature film “The Beggar Woman of Paris” . After shooting outside in Paris and shooting inside in Berlin, shooting was canceled, presumably for financial reasons. The Nord-Film distributor continued to advertise the film until June 1933, but it never came into theaters. Affected with the flaw of having failed his sound film debut, Raffé was never able to direct a feature film again.

Apart from a short film, which he made again with Karl Valentin ( “A fatal violin solo” ) based on his own script in 1936 , his activities are currently in the dark until the early post-war years. After 1945 he was the owner and managing director of the regional cultural film Rolf Raffé, which is based in the Zeil of Frankfurt am Main. In this function, the Munich resident limited himself to the production of documentary film material; his contribution to the compilation feature film “ Lachkabinett ” (1953) is just that Valentin short film from 1936. Raffé died in 1978 in his native Munich, largely forgotten by the film industry.

Filmography

as a director and producer of feature length films, unless otherwise stated

  • 1919: Ludwig II, King of Bavaria / The silence on Lake Starnberg
  • 1920: the cinematograph
  • 1920: Empress Elisabeth of Austria (also screenplay)
  • 1921: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
  • 1923: Queen Caroline of England
  • 1924: When movie stars travel (short documentary)
  • 1924: Rex Mundi
  • 1925: The first estate. The big capitalist
  • 1926: slaves of money
  • 1927: The smuggler
  • 1927: Louise von Coburg, tragedy of a king's daughter
  • 1928: The fate of the Habsburgs
  • 1932: The Beggaress of Paris (unfinished)
  • 1936: The fateful violin solo (short film, also screenplay)
  • 1951: Mechanization of Agriculture (Documentary)
  • 1954: Arteries of the economy (short documentary film)
  • 1959: Bread for Everyone (short documentary film)

literature

  • Hans Richter (ed.): Filmstern 1922 . Hans Hermann Richter Verlag, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1921/22, p. 85.
  • Johann Caspar Glenzdorf: Glenzdorf's international film lexicon. Biographical manual for the entire film industry. Volume 3: Peit – Zz. Prominent-Filmverlag, Bad Münder 1961, DNB 451560752 , p. 1345.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The files of the Reich Chamber of Culture can be used for academic work upon request.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ File of the Reich Chamber of Culture, signature R 9361-V / 112141, Federal Archives Berlin-Lichterfelde
  2. ↑ Ludwig II., King of Bavaria on filmfest-muenchen.de
  3. ^ The beggar of Paris and the English, in: "Film-Journal", No. 40, year 1932, p. 2.
  4. ↑ The last rental advertisement appeared on the title page of the "Film-Journal", No. 23, June 4, 1933.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Raffé, Rolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steichele, Anton Gustav (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer, film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1978
Place of death Munich