Georg Wilhelm Pabst

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Georg Wilhelm Pabst (August 25, 1885 - May 29, 1967) was an Austrian film director. Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today's Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic), the son of a railroad employee.

Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began. He was interned there near Brest until 1919.

Some of his most famous films concern the plight of women in German society, including Joyless Street (1925) with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen, The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) with Brigitte Helm, Pandora's Box (1928), and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), the last two starring American actress Louise Brooks. He also co-directed with Arnold Fanck a mountain film entitled The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) starring Leni Riefenstahl. After the coming of sound he made a trilogy of films that secured his reputation Westfront 1918 (1930), The Threepenny Opera (1931) (based on the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill musical), and Kameradschaft (1931). Pabst also filmed three versions of Pierre Benoit's novel L'Atlantide in 1932, in German, English, and French, titled Die Herrin von Atlantis, The Mistress of Atlantis, and L'Atlantide, respectively.

After making A Modern Hero (1934) in the U.S. and Mademoiselle Docteur (1936) in France, Pabst returned to Austria and Germany in 1938, he later claimed, to take care of family business. He made two films during the Nazi period, Komödianten (1941) and Paracelsus (1943).

Pabst died in Vienna, Austria and was interred at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

[edit] Filmography, as director, includes

Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen (1956)
Rosen für Bettina (1956)
Es geschah am 20. Juli (1955)
Der Letzte Akt (1955)
Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr (1954)
Cose da pazzi (1953)
La Conciencia acusa (1953)
Geheimnisvolle Tiefe (1949)
Der Prozeß (1948)
Der Fall Molander (1945)
Paracelsus (1943)
Komödianten (1941)
Jeunes filles en détresse (1939)
Le Drame de Shanghaï (1938)
Mademoiselle Docteur (1936)
A Modern Hero (1934)
Du haut en bas (1933)
Don Quixote (1933)
Die Herrin von Atlantis (1932)
Kameradschaft (1931)
Die 3groschenoper (1931)
Skandal um Eva (1930)
Westfront 1918 (1930)
Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929)
Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1929)
Die Büchse der Pandora (1929), aka Pandora's Box, aka Lulu
Abwege (1928)
Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney (1927)
Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe (1926)
Geheimnisse einer Seele (1926)
Die freudlose Gasse (1925)
Gräfin Donelli (1924)
Der Schatz (1923)

[edit] References

PABST, Georg Wilhelm, « Servitude et grandeur de Hollywood », Le rôle intellectuel du cinéma, Paris, SDN-Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle, 1937, pp.251-255.
AMENGUAL, Barthélémy, G.W. Pabst, Paris, Seghers, 1966
ATWELL, Lee, G.W. Pabst, Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1977
MITRY, Jean, Histoire du cinéma. Art et industrie, 5 volumes, Paris, Editions Universitaires - J.P. Delarge, 1967-1980
KRACAUER, Siegfried, De Caligari à Hitler. Une histoire psychologique du cinéma allemand, Paris, Flammarion, 1987²
The Films of G.W. Pabst. An extraterritorial cinema, edited by Eric Rentschler, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1990
BAXTER, John, "G.W. Pabst" in International Directory of Films and Filmmakers, Chicago, 1990, pp.376-378
G.W. Pabst, herausgegeben von Wolfgang Jacobsen, Berlin, Argen, 1997
GROPPALI, Enrico, Georg W. Pabst, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1983
VANDEN BERGHE, Marc, La mémoire impossible. Westfront 1918 de G.W. Pabst. Grande Guerre, soldats, automates. Le film et sa problématique vus par la 'Petite Illustration' (1931), Bruxelles, 2001 - this text is available online on www.art-chitecture.net/publications.php
G.W. Pabst extensive Filmography on www.imdb.com/name/nm0655065