Theodor Sparkuhl
Theodor Sparkuhl (born October 7, 1894 in Hanover , † June 13, 1946 in Los Angeles , California ) was a German cameraman.
The early years
Sparkuhl was born in Hanover as the son of the bank director Karl Sparkuhl. He began his professional career in 1911 as a salesman for projection equipment. Starting in 1912, Sparkuhl received practical training as a newsreel cameraman at the Berlin branch of the French film production company Gaumont . In this capacity he worked in Russia , the Middle East and, since the outbreak of World War I in 1914, on various sections of the Eastern Front.
In 1916 Sparkuhl, who had already photographed feature films as a simple camera operator for Eiko-Film in 1913, finally switched to entertainment film. Since then he has worked in various film studios as chief cameraman, among others for Georg Jacoby and above all for Ernst Lubitsch . From 1916 until his departure for Hollywood at the end of 1922, Sparkuhl was behind the camera in 20 Lubitsch films, including all of the director's great works from this period, including the lavish furnishing fabrics Madame Dubarry , Anna Boleyn and The Pharaoh's Wife .
As Sparkuhls only directorial effort came in 1927/28 together with Adolf Despite the film The prosecutor accuses . His last film produced in Germany was Georg Wilhelm Pabsts Abwege (1928).
Work in England, France and Hollywood
From 1928 to 1930 he shot for British International Pictures in London. In this short time he shot an English production by Henrik Galeen and a comedy with Pat and Patachon .
In 1930 Sparkuhl moved to France, where he worked with Jean Renoir ( Die Hündin , 1931) and Marc Allégret , among others .
On December 9, 1931, he, his Jerusalem-born wife, Helen, and their five children, born between 1917 and 1925, settled in the United States. In the following period Sparkuhl was employed by Paramount and photographed more than 50 feature films by 1945, including the classic adventure film Three Foreign Legionaries (1939) by William A. Wellman and the early style film noir Der gläserne Schlüssel (1942) by Stuart Heisler , the identify him as an experienced picture designer.
Sparkuhl's low-key lighting in The Glass Key and the two other early film noirs Damned to Life (1941) and The Black Curtain (1942) represents a remarkable break with the usual low-contrast lighting of the Hollywood crime films of the 1930s. Film historians rate it his innovative camera work in these films as an important contribution to the development of the typical noir style of the 1940s.
Filmography (selection)
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literature
- Rolf Aurich, Susanne Fuhrmann, Pamela Müller (Red.): Dreams of film. Cinema in Hanover 1896–1991. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name in the Theater am Aegi from October 6 to November 24, 1991. Society for Film Studies, Hanover 1991, p. 160
- Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 406 f.
Web links
- Theodor Sparkuhl in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Silver, Ursini, Ward, and Porfirio [2010]. Film Noir: The Encyclopedia , 4th rev., Exp. ed. Overlook. ISBN 978-1-59020-144-2
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sparkuhl, Theodor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German cameraman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 7, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hanover |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 13, 1946 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California |