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Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer (6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (AW-fəlss or OH-fəlss), was a German and French film director, screenwriter and art director. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of tracking shots, and his melancholic, romantic themes. The Harvard Film Archive has called Ophüls "a supreme stylist of the cinema and a master storyteller".
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Ophüls worked in Germany (1931–33), France (1933–40 and 1950–57), and the United States (1947–50). He made nearly 30 films, the latter ones being especially notable: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Reckless Moment (1949), La Ronde (1950), Le Plaisir (1952), The Earrings of Madame de… (1953), and Lola Montès (1955).
Ophüls was born Maximillian Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany, the son of Leopold Oppenheimer, a Jewish textile manufacturer and owner of several textile shops in Germany, and his wife Helene Oppenheimer (née Bamberger). He took the pseudonym Ophüls during the early part of his theatrical career so that, should he fail, it would not embarrass his father.
Initially envisioning an acting career, he started as a stage actor in 1919 and played at the Aachen Theatre from 1921 to 1923. He then worked as a theater director, becoming the first director at the city theater of Dortmund. Ophüls moved into theatre production in 1924. He became creative director of the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1926.
Having had 200 plays to his credit,[citation needed] he turned to film production in 1929, when he became a dialogue director under Anatole Litvak at UFA in Berlin. He worked throughout Germany and in 1931 directed his first film, the comedy short Dann schon lieber Lebertran (literally In This Case, Rather Cod-Liver Oil).
Of his early films, the most acclaimed is Liebelei (1933), which has a number of the elements for which he became known: luxurious sets, a feminist attitude, and a duel between a younger and an older man.
Predicting the Nazi ascendancy, Ophüls, a Jew, fled to France in 1933 after the Reichstag fire and became a French citizen in 1938. After France fell to Germany, he traveled through Switzerland and Italy, where he had directed Everybody's Woman (1934). In July 1941, before leaving for the United States, he stayed in Portugal, in Estoril, at Casa Mar e Sol. Once in Hollywood, championed by director Preston Sturges, a longtime fan, he directed a number of distinguished films.[citation needed]
His first Hollywood film was the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. vehicle The Exile (1947). Ophüls's Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), derived from a Stefan Zweig novella, is the most highly regarded of the American films. Caught (1949) and The Reckless Moment (1949) followed before his return to Europe in 1950.
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Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer (6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (AW-fəlss or OH-fəlss), was a German and French film director, screenwriter and art director. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of tracking shots, and his melancholic, romantic themes. The Harvard Film Archive has called Ophüls "a supreme stylist of the cinema and a master storyteller".
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Ophüls worked in Germany (1931–33), France (1933–40 and 1950–57), and the United States (1947–50). He made nearly 30 films, the latter ones being especially notable: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Reckless Moment (1949), La Ronde (1950), Le Plaisir (1952), The Earrings of Madame de… (1953), and Lola Montès (1955).
Ophüls was born Maximillian Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany, the son of Leopold Oppenheimer, a Jewish textile manufacturer and owner of several textile shops in Germany, and his wife Helene Oppenheimer (née Bamberger). He took the pseudonym Ophüls during the early part of his theatrical career so that, should he fail, it would not embarrass his father.
Initially envisioning an acting career, he started as a stage actor in 1919 and played at the Aachen Theatre from 1921 to 1923. He then worked as a theater director, becoming the first director at the city theater of Dortmund. Ophüls moved into theatre production in 1924. He became creative director of the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1926.
Having had 200 plays to his credit,[citation needed] he turned to film production in 1929, when he became a dialogue director under Anatole Litvak at UFA in Berlin. He worked throughout Germany and in 1931 directed his first film, the comedy short Dann schon lieber Lebertran (literally In This Case, Rather Cod-Liver Oil).
Of his early films, the most acclaimed is Liebelei (1933), which has a number of the elements for which he became known: luxurious sets, a feminist attitude, and a duel between a younger and an older man.
Predicting the Nazi ascendancy, Ophüls, a Jew, fled to France in 1933 after the Reichstag fire and became a French citizen in 1938. After France fell to Germany, he traveled through Switzerland and Italy, where he had directed Everybody's Woman (1934). In July 1941, before leaving for the United States, he stayed in Portugal, in Estoril, at Casa Mar e Sol. Once in Hollywood, championed by director Preston Sturges, a longtime fan, he directed a number of distinguished films.[citation needed]
His first Hollywood film was the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. vehicle The Exile (1947). Ophüls's Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), derived from a Stefan Zweig novella, is the most highly regarded of the American films. Caught (1949) and The Reckless Moment (1949) followed before his return to Europe in 1950.