Hubbry Logo
Alfred GrevenAlfred GrevenMain
Open search
Alfred Greven
Community hub
Alfred Greven
logo
7 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Alfred Greven
Alfred Greven
Alfred Greven
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Alfred Greven (9 October 1897—9 February 1973) was a German film producer. He is best known for his work during World War II, when he was head of the German-controlled French film company Continental Films.

Life and career

[edit]

In the 1930s, Greven was a producer at UFA where he worked with some French directors on multi-language film productions.[1]

Greven is best known for his role during the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, when he was the managing director of Continental Films, the French film production company set up by Germany. In this capacity, Greven produced notable films by French directors including Henri-Georges Clouzot, Christian-Jaque, Henri Decoin, Maurice Tourneur and André Cayatte. Greven also created the distribution company Société de gestion et d'exploitation du cinéma, which bought and set up new cinemas in France.[1][2]

Joseph Goebbels was dissatisfied with the high quality of Greven's work in France, because he thought Greven raised the level of French cinema and inspired national pride, which was not supposed to be his task. Goebbels wrote in his diary that the French had been content with "cheap trash", and he wished Greven would continue to provide them with that. Goebbels thought Greven's commitment to French cinema threatened the establishment of Germany as the dominant power in European culture, which he wanted to be analogous to how the United States dominated the American continents through its cinema.[3]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Alfred Greven

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
''Alfred Greven'' is a German film producer known for heading Continental Films, the German-owned production company that dominated French cinema during the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. Born on 9 October 1897 in Elberfeld, Germany, Greven entered the film industry in the 1920s, producing several films in the 1930s. Appointed by Joseph Goebbels to lead Continental Films in occupied Paris, he oversaw the production of thirty feature films intended to be entertaining and profitable rather than overt propaganda, employing prominent French talent including directors Henri-Georges Clouzot, Henri Decoin, Maurice Tourneur, and Marcel Carné. Notable productions under his leadership included Clouzot's L'Assassin habite au 21 and Le Corbeau, alongside other films ranging from comedies to dramas that reflected a complex mix of compliance and occasional quality defiance within the constraints of German control. After the Liberation, Greven returned to Germany, where he continued his producing career with films such as Bonjour Kathrin. Described as an enigmatic and authoritative figure who wielded significant power over French filmmaking during the occupation, he died on 9 February 1973 in Cologne.

Early Life

Birth and early years

Alfred Greven was born on 9 October 1897 in Elberfeld, Germany, a city that is now part of Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia. Little additional information is documented about his family background, childhood, or education prior to his later professional life.

Pre-War Career in Germany

Entry into film industry

Alfred Greven entered the film industry in the early 1930s. His earliest documented credit came in 1932 as assistant unit manager on the film Trenck – Der Roman einer großen Liebe. By 1933, Greven had advanced to production manager on Schwarzwaldmädel, taking on greater responsibility in overseeing production processes. Later that same year, he received his first producer credit for Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt, signaling the start of his transition into producing roles within the German film sector. These initial positions reflected Greven's early focus on production management and coordination, establishing his foothold in the industry before assuming more prominent leadership roles in subsequent years. Greven joined the Nazi Party in 1931.

Productions in the 1930s

Alfred Greven continued his career in the German film industry during the 1930s, taking on roles as producer, executive producer, and production supervisor for various companies. He is credited with involvement in films such as Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt (1933), where he worked in a production capacity. In 1935, Greven served as production supervisor for Le domino vert (also known as The Green Domino), a German-French co-production. The following year, he acted as executive producer on Heißes Blut (released internationally as Hot Blood, 1936). Greven's career advanced significantly toward the end of the decade when he was appointed head of production (Produktionschef) at Terra-Filmkunst AG in 1937. In February 1939, Joseph Goebbels named him head of production at UFA, one of Germany's leading film studios, though his tenure there proved brief. These leadership positions placed him in charge of overseeing multiple film projects at major studios during the late 1930s, reflecting his growing influence in German cinema production prior to the war.

Continental Films in Occupied France

Appointment and establishment

Following the German occupation of France in June 1940, the Nazi regime implemented policies to control cultural production, including the film industry, in the occupied zone as part of its broader effort to manage media and economic activity. Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, appointed German producer Alfred Greven as managing director of a new film production company in 1940. Continental Films was established in October 1940 as a German-owned and German-controlled entity based in Paris, entirely bankrolled by the German government with its finances, production, and distribution tightly integrated with the German film industry. Greven, who had worked in the German film business since the 1920s and briefly headed production at UFA in 1939, oversaw the company as its director and general manager. The company's creation reflected German film policy in occupied France, which sought to produce French-language feature films under close supervision to recapture local audiences—who had largely boycotted imported German pictures—and generate profits while preventing anti-German content. The stated mission emphasized commercially viable, entertaining productions rather than overt propaganda.

Leadership and production approach

Alfred Greven exercised near-total control over Continental Films as its managing director, overseeing operations with an authoritarian approach while answering directly to Joseph Goebbels's propaganda ministry. He prioritized the creation of entertaining and profitable French-language films rather than overt propaganda, a strategy that enabled the company to produce high-quality output despite its German ownership. Greven deliberately recruited prestigious French directors and talent to achieve this aim, hiring figures such as Henri Decoin and Henri-Georges Clouzot alongside others including Maurice Tourneur and Marcel Carné, as well as top actors and technicians. This hiring practice allowed Continental to draw on the best available French filmmaking expertise, even as some professionals participated reluctantly due to economic pressures or to protect family members during the occupation. Under his leadership, Continental produced thirty feature films between 1941 and 1944, supported by substantial German resources that facilitated ambitious projects intended to rival Hollywood standards in quality and appeal. Greven enforced strict guidelines on content, disallowing political messages to steer clear of anything that could be seen as anti-Nazi or overtly patriotic French, thereby navigating the constraints of German censorship while focusing on commercial entertainment. His management style at times involved displays of dominance over French personnel, including staging humiliating situations such as inviting directors to observe German military parades from the company balcony, which prompted sharp responses and occasional departures from meetings. These interactions reflected the tensions inherent in his position, though they did not prevent the company from securing elite French collaboration for its productions.

Notable films produced

Continental Films, under Alfred Greven's management, produced thirty feature films between 1941 and 1944, emphasizing entertaining and profitable genres such as comedies, dramas, romances, detective stories, and costume pictures rather than Nazi propaganda. Greven employed some of the most prestigious French directors of the era, including Maurice Tourneur, Henri Decoin, Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Marcel Carné, to create these works. Notable among these productions is Le Corbeau (The Raven, 1943), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and starring Pierre Fresnay as a doctor accused amid a wave of poison-pen letters that incite mass hysteria, accusations, violence, suicide, and murder in a small village. The film proved highly controversial: the Nazis interpreted it as discouraging denunciations, while after the Liberation it faced backlash and was banned for twenty years, with Clouzot receiving a temporary lifetime ban from filmmaking (later reduced to two years). Another significant title is La Main du Diable (The Devil's Hand, 1943), a supernatural tale starring Pierre Fresnay as a struggling artist who purchases a magical talisman (a shriveled hand), which some contemporary audiences interpreted as an allegorical warning against collaboration with the Nazis. These films, along with others from Continental's output, highlight Greven's approach of backing high-quality French talent to produce commercially viable cinema during the occupation.

Controversies and wartime role

Alfred Greven served as the head of Continental Films, a German-owned production company established in Paris in October 1940 that dominated French filmmaking during the Nazi occupation until 1944. The company produced thirty feature films, employing prominent French actors and directors under Greven's leadership, with the stated aim of creating entertaining and profitable pictures rather than overt propaganda. Despite this official focus on entertainment, Continental's status as a German-controlled entity sparked significant controversy, as it operated within the framework of Nazi oversight of French cinema and was perceived by some contemporaries as an instrument of occupation policy. A 1942 account described the company as transforming French cinema into a polished tool of occupation propaganda, reflecting wartime suspicions about its role in maintaining cultural normalcy under German influence. Greven, a former UFA executive with Francophile leanings, exercised near-total control over the studio and recruited major French talent, yet his position inevitably associated him with collaboration through the company's ties to the occupying authorities. Recent historical analysis emphasizes that the films avoided direct propaganda content, prioritizing quality French storytelling, though the broader context of German ownership fueled ongoing debates about the moral and political implications of working with Continental during the occupation.

Post-War Life

Following the Liberation of Paris in August 1944, Continental Films abruptly ceased operations as the German occupation ended and French authorities took control of properties associated with the occupier. Alfred Greven, as the German director appointed by the Nazi regime, left France around this time and returned to Germany, avoiding prolonged presence during the initial phase of post-occupation purges. No major arrest, internment, or formal trial of Greven by French authorities is documented in available historical accounts of the immediate aftermath. As a German national who had headed a German-financed company, he was not subject to the same épuration légale processes that targeted French collaborators, and he appears to have departed without significant legal penalty or prosecution related to his wartime production activities. This outcome contributed to the enduring mystery surrounding his post-war life, as explored in later historical analyses and documentaries.

Later years

After World War II, Alfred Greven returned to West Germany and resumed work in the film industry on a limited scale compared to his earlier career. He served as producer and production manager for Du darfst nicht länger schweigen (1955) and as production manager for Die Freundin meines Mannes (1957). He later took on directing and producing roles for Alarm im Mittelmeer (1959) and directed the short film Nato-Manöver (1963). Detailed accounts of Greven's personal life and activities in the decades following the war remain scarce, with few records of his day-to-day existence or additional professional engagements. He died on 9 February 1973 in Cologne.

Death

Death and burial

Alfred Greven died on 9 February 1973 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany. Details concerning his burial or funeral are not documented in available sources.

Legacy and historical assessment

Alfred Greven's legacy remains closely tied to his leadership of Continental Films, the German-financed production company that dominated French cinema during the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1944. Charged with producing entertaining and profitable films rather than overt propaganda, Greven employed many of the era's most prominent French directors and actors, enabling the continuation of substantial French filmmaking under severe constraints. This facilitated opportunities for talents such as Henri-Georges Clouzot, whose early directing work at Continental proved formative despite later controversies. Post-war assessments initially emphasized the collaborationist dimensions of Continental's activities, as evidenced by the épuration hearings that scrutinized participants' involvement and motivations. Recent scholarship has introduced greater nuance, challenging longstanding clichés by documenting the spectrum of reasons professionals worked with the company—from ideological alignment to economic necessity and efforts to shield family members from reprisals. Christine Leteux's comprehensive study, drawing on newly accessible archives, has been recognized as a corrective that overturns simplifications and illuminates the moral and political complexities of the period without reductive judgments. Bertrand Tavernier has noted the long-awaited nature of such balanced reevaluation. Greven himself endures as an enigmatic figure in historical accounts, having deliberately vanished after the Liberation and remained silent until his death in 1973, with scant photographic or personal documentation surviving. This opacity extends to aspects of his post-war life and earlier German career, which receive comparatively limited scholarly attention compared to his wartime role. Ongoing debates persist regarding the extent to which Continental's output preserved French cinematic culture or compromised it through association with the occupying regime, reflecting the persistent ambiguities surrounding Greven's influence and the company's historical significance.

References

  1. https://www.amazon.com/Continental-Films-Control-Wisconsin-Studies/dp/0299339807
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/26/style/IHT-the-subtle-subversion-of-occupation-films.html
  3. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0340442/
  4. https://www.the-tls.com/history/twentieth-century-onwards-history/continental-films-christine-leteux-book-review-ginette-vincendeau
  5. https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd106213771X.html
  6. https://dievergessenenfilme.wordpress.com/tag/alfred-greven/
  7. https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/le-domino-vert_ea43d4a6ae9a5006e03053d50b37753d
  8. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027729/fullcredits/
  9. https://cinemareborn.com.au/Le-Corbeau
  10. https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.book.epl?ISBN=9780299339807
  11. http://www.frenchfilms.org/continental-films.html
  12. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstreams/853fb379-5ffd-4332-bd68-25211646b971/download
  13. https://politics-prose.com/book/9780299339807
  14. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1942/09/19/continental-films
  15. https://filmstarpostcards.blogspot.com/2023/06/continental-films.html
  16. https://nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=33384
  17. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/919985
  18. https://www.lavie.fr/ma-vie/culture/la-continental-le-mystere-greven-53306.php
  19. https://www.la-croix.com/Culture/TV-Radio/Alfred-Greven-tete-pensante-cinema-lOccupation-2019-04-20-1201016940
  20. https://grokipedia.com/page/alfred_greven
  21. https://www.lemonde.fr/televisions-radio/article/2018/12/19/la-continental-le-mystere-greven-l-agent-double-du-cinema-nazi_5399973_1655027.html
  22. https://www.filmportal.de/person/alfred-greven_b7f73fa365414d56a34f43fce907cef8
  23. https://www.beliane.com/documentary/catalogue/art-and-culture/the-greven-mystery
  24. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7616382/
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.