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F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (from 1910; born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; 28 December 1888 – 11 March 1931) was a German film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers for his work in the silent era.
An erudite child with an early interest in film, Murnau eventually studied philology and art before director Max Reinhardt recruited him to his acting school. During World War I, he served in the Imperial German Army, initially as an infantry company commander and communications officer and later with the German Army's Flying Corps as an observer/gunner. He survived several crashes without any severe injuries.
Murnau's first directorial work premiered in 1919, but he did not attain international recognition until the 1922 film Nosferatu, an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Although not a commercial success owing to copyright issues with author Stoker's estate, the film is considered a masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema and an early cult film. Murnau later directed the film The Last Laugh (1924), as well as a 1926 interpretation of Goethe's Faust. He immigrated to Hollywood in 1926, where he joined the Fox Studio and made three films: Sunrise (1927), 4 Devils (1928) and City Girl (1930). Sunrise has been regarded by critics and film directors as among the best films ever made.
Murnau travelled to Bora Bora to make the film Tabu (1931) with documentary film pioneer Robert J. Flaherty, although disputes with Flaherty led Murnau to finish the film on his own. A week before the successful opening of Tabu, Murnau died in a California hospital from injuries sustained in an automobile crash. Of the 21 films Murnau directed, eight are now considered to be completely lost. One reel of his feature Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna survives. This leaves only 12 films surviving in their entirety.
Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe was born in Bielefeld. By the age of seven, he was living in Kassel. He had two brothers, Bernhard and Robert, and two stepsisters, Ida and Anna. His mother, Otilie Volbracht, was the second wife of his father, Heinrich Plumpe (1847–1914), an owner of a cloth factory in the northwest part of Germany. Their villa was often turned into a stage for little plays, directed by the young Friedrich, who had already read books by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, as well as plays by Shakespeare and Ibsen, by the age of 12. Plumpe would take the pseudonym of "Murnau" from the town of Murnau am Staffelsee south of Munich, where he lived for a time. The young Murnau was said to have an icy, imperious disposition and an obsession with film. Some reference sources list him as being almost 210 cm (7 ft) tall, others however list him with a more modest 193 cm (6 ft 4).
Murnau studied philology at the University in Berlin and later art history and literature in Heidelberg, where director Max Reinhardt saw him at a students' performance and decided to invite him to his actor-school. He soon became a friend of Franz Marc (the Blue Rider artist based in Murnau), Else Lasker-Schüler and Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele. During World War I, Murnau served as a company commander on the Eastern Front. He then joined the Imperial German Flying Corps and flew missions in northern France as a combat pilot for two years, surviving eight crashes without severe injuries. After landing in Switzerland, he was arrested and interned for the remainder of the war. In his POW camp, he was involved with a prisoner theater group and wrote a film script.
After World War I ended, Murnau returned to Germany, where he soon established his own film studio with actor Conrad Veidt. His first feature-length film, The Boy in Blue (1919), was a drama inspired by the Thomas Gainsborough painting and by Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. He explored the theme of dual personalities, much like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in Der Janus-Kopf (1920) starring Veidt and featuring Bela Lugosi.[citation needed]
Murnau's best known film is Nosferatu (1922), an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), starring German stage actor Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok. The release would be the only one by Prana Film because the company declared itself bankrupt in order to avoid paying damages to Stoker's estate (acting for the author's widow, Florence Stoker) after the estate won a copyright infringement lawsuit. Apart from awarding damages, the court also ordered all existing prints of the film to be destroyed. However, one copy had already been distributed globally. This print, which has been duplicated time and again by a cult following over the years, has made Nosferatu an early example of a cult film.
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F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (from 1910; born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; 28 December 1888 – 11 March 1931) was a German film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers for his work in the silent era.
An erudite child with an early interest in film, Murnau eventually studied philology and art before director Max Reinhardt recruited him to his acting school. During World War I, he served in the Imperial German Army, initially as an infantry company commander and communications officer and later with the German Army's Flying Corps as an observer/gunner. He survived several crashes without any severe injuries.
Murnau's first directorial work premiered in 1919, but he did not attain international recognition until the 1922 film Nosferatu, an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Although not a commercial success owing to copyright issues with author Stoker's estate, the film is considered a masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema and an early cult film. Murnau later directed the film The Last Laugh (1924), as well as a 1926 interpretation of Goethe's Faust. He immigrated to Hollywood in 1926, where he joined the Fox Studio and made three films: Sunrise (1927), 4 Devils (1928) and City Girl (1930). Sunrise has been regarded by critics and film directors as among the best films ever made.
Murnau travelled to Bora Bora to make the film Tabu (1931) with documentary film pioneer Robert J. Flaherty, although disputes with Flaherty led Murnau to finish the film on his own. A week before the successful opening of Tabu, Murnau died in a California hospital from injuries sustained in an automobile crash. Of the 21 films Murnau directed, eight are now considered to be completely lost. One reel of his feature Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna survives. This leaves only 12 films surviving in their entirety.
Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe was born in Bielefeld. By the age of seven, he was living in Kassel. He had two brothers, Bernhard and Robert, and two stepsisters, Ida and Anna. His mother, Otilie Volbracht, was the second wife of his father, Heinrich Plumpe (1847–1914), an owner of a cloth factory in the northwest part of Germany. Their villa was often turned into a stage for little plays, directed by the young Friedrich, who had already read books by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, as well as plays by Shakespeare and Ibsen, by the age of 12. Plumpe would take the pseudonym of "Murnau" from the town of Murnau am Staffelsee south of Munich, where he lived for a time. The young Murnau was said to have an icy, imperious disposition and an obsession with film. Some reference sources list him as being almost 210 cm (7 ft) tall, others however list him with a more modest 193 cm (6 ft 4).
Murnau studied philology at the University in Berlin and later art history and literature in Heidelberg, where director Max Reinhardt saw him at a students' performance and decided to invite him to his actor-school. He soon became a friend of Franz Marc (the Blue Rider artist based in Murnau), Else Lasker-Schüler and Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele. During World War I, Murnau served as a company commander on the Eastern Front. He then joined the Imperial German Flying Corps and flew missions in northern France as a combat pilot for two years, surviving eight crashes without severe injuries. After landing in Switzerland, he was arrested and interned for the remainder of the war. In his POW camp, he was involved with a prisoner theater group and wrote a film script.
After World War I ended, Murnau returned to Germany, where he soon established his own film studio with actor Conrad Veidt. His first feature-length film, The Boy in Blue (1919), was a drama inspired by the Thomas Gainsborough painting and by Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. He explored the theme of dual personalities, much like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in Der Janus-Kopf (1920) starring Veidt and featuring Bela Lugosi.[citation needed]
Murnau's best known film is Nosferatu (1922), an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), starring German stage actor Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok. The release would be the only one by Prana Film because the company declared itself bankrupt in order to avoid paying damages to Stoker's estate (acting for the author's widow, Florence Stoker) after the estate won a copyright infringement lawsuit. Apart from awarding damages, the court also ordered all existing prints of the film to be destroyed. However, one copy had already been distributed globally. This print, which has been duplicated time and again by a cult following over the years, has made Nosferatu an early example of a cult film.