Slatan Dudow
Encyclopedia
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and screenwriter who made a number of films in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
and East Germany.
Dudow was born in Zaribrod, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
(today Dimitrovgrad, Serbia
Dimitrovgrad, Serbia
Dimitrovgrad is a town and 483 km² large municipality located in the Pirot District of the Republic of Serbia. According to 2011 census, the municipality of Dimitrovgrad has a population of 10,056 people and the town 6,247.-Name:...
), but emigrated to Berlin in 1922 with the intention of becoming an architect. He gave up this plan and began studying theatre in 1923, first under Emmanuel Reicher, and then, from 1925 to 1926, as a Theatre Studies student at the university, under Max Herrmann
Max Herrmann
Max Herrmann was a German literary historian and theorist of theatre studies. He is considered to be the founding father of theatre studies in Germany....
. He worked together with Leopold Jessner
Leopold Jessner
Leopold Jessner was a noted producer and director of German Expressionist theater and cinema. His first film, Hintertreppe , is considered a major turning point which paved the way for the later German Expressionist experiments of German filmmakers F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, and G.W...
and Juergen Fehling, served as a chorus member under Erwin Piscator
Erwin Piscator
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator was a German theatre director and producer and, with Bertolt Brecht, the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of drama, rather than its emotional manipulation of the audience or on the production's formal...
, and was a director's assistant to Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
on the production of Metropolis (film)
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
. During this time, Dudow also ran a bookstore with his wife and worked as a foreign correspondent for a Bulgarian newspaper. In 1929 he visited the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where he met Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
and Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
; it was through these meetings that Dudow eventually met Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. After his return from the USSR, Dudow directed Brecht's theatrical piece Die Massnahme, "The Decision
The Decision
The Decision , also known as The Measures Taken, is a Lehrstück by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. Written in collaboration with Slatan Dudow and the composer Hanns Eisler, it consists of eight sections in prose and unrhymed, irregular verse, with six major songs...
", and began his film directing career. He was commissioned by the left-wing, Soviet-German production company Prometheus-Film to direct a short film Wie der Berliner Arbeiter wohnt (1929) as part of the documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
series Wie lebt der Berliner Arbeiter? Dudow's first feature, Kuhle Wampe
Kuhle Wampe
Kuhle Wampe is a 1932 German feature film about unemployment and left wing politics in the Weimar Republic. The script was conceived and written by Bertolt Brecht...
(To Whom Does the World Belong?)(1932) was a collaboration with Brecht (who provided the script and helped to finance the project), Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
, and Ernst Ottwalt. It was originally banned because it was perceived as being politically subversive.
As a member of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, or KPD), Dudow was arrested by the Nazis shortly after they took power in January 1933. As a Bulgarian citizen, he was soon expelled from Germany; but for unknown reasons (to which Brecht alludes in a July 1933 letter to the Russian playwright Sergei Tretyakov
Sergei Tretyakov
Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov was a Russian constructivist writer, playwright and special correspondent for Pravda. He graduated 1916 from the department of law at Moscow University...
), he was unable to return to Bulgaria. He made his way to France sometime in 1934, and remained there under constant threat of expulsion until 1939/1940, when he went to Switzerland. In Paris, Dudow completed the film Seifenblasen, which he had begun working on in Berlin, and also staged Brecht's Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reichs. He also began working on his comedy Der Feigling. In Switzerland, Dudow continued work on three further dramatic comedies, Das Narrenparadies, Der leichtgläubige Thomas, and Der Weltuntergang. Several of his plays, along with theoretical writings on drama, were later published in the GDR under the pseudonym Stefan Brodwin.
After returning to Berlin in 1946 as one of the founding directors of the DEFA
Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft
Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, better known as DEFA, was the public-owned film studio in East Germany throughout that country's history.-History:...
studios, Dudow began adapting his play 'Der Weltuntergang' for the screen. Despite the symbolic capital Dudow brought to DEFA as a renowned Weimar-era left-wing filmmaker, this first project was shelved by the authorities apparently because the film was deemed formalist." Dudow soon after produced a Socialist Realist melodrama, Unser täglich Brot (1949), and together with Kurt Maetzig
Kurt Maetzig
Kurt Maetzig is an East German film director who had a significant effect on the film industry in the GDR. He is one of the most respected filmmakers of East Germany. He currently lives in Wildkuhl, Mecklenburg, and has three children....
took on the direction of another Socialist Realist family drama 'Familie Benthin' (1950). Dudow's 1952 film Frauenschicksale, his first film in color, which he both wrote and directed, was popular with audiences, but was criticized by both Party authorities and Communist women's organizations for its depiction of women. Nevertheless, featuring a cast of important women actors of various generations (including Lotte Loebinger, Maly Delschaft, and Sonja Sutter
Sonja Sutter
Sonja Sutter is an German film actress. She was one of few actors that was allowed to appear in productions in both East and West Germany. She is remembered for her role as Fraulein Rottenmeier in the German TV-series Heidi from 1978. This series aired in many countries in Europe during the 80s...
), it is in large part its depiction of women, as well as of the circumstances of the divided city of Berlin, that make the film so interesting for viewers today. In 1953, Dudow submitted a treatment for another Socialist Realist film dealing with the problem of a divided Germany, Singende Jugend (Singing Youth), but this film, too, was never made. His next film, Stärker als die Nacht (1954), was written by the Communist writers Kurt Stern
Kurt Stern
Kurt Stern was a screenwriter who worked for Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft in East Germany. He worked in partnership with his wife Jeanne . In 1953, together with director Martin Hellberg, the Sterns were awarded the Gold Medal of the World Peace Council for the film Das verurteilte Dorf...
and Jeanne Stern; it deals with the Communist resistance in Germany during the Third Reich and is apparently based on the Sterns' own experience. Der Hauptmann von Köln
The Captain from Cologne
The Captain from Cologne is an East German film directed by Slatan Dudow. It was released in 1956.-Cast:* Rolf Ludwig as Albert Hauptmann* Erwin Geschonneck as Hans Karjanke* Else Wolz as Adele* Christel Bodenstein as Hannelore Ullrich...
(1956), a rather bleak satire featuring Rolf Ludwig, Christel Bodenstein, and Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Geschonneck
Erwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.-Early life:...
, was adapted by Dudow, along with Henryk Keisch and Michael Tschesno-Hell, from Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
's play Der Hauptmann von Köpenick. The film delivers a blasting critique of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
's military buildup under Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
and its institutional continuity with the Third Reich. Dudow's most famous GDR film, Verwirrung der Liebe (1959) is a big-budget, color(ful), Shakespearean romp written by Dudow and starring the young Angelica Domröse
Angelica Domröse
Angelica Domröse is a German actress, who became famous in the role of Paula in Heiner Carow's film "The Legend of Paul and Paula". Her Mediterranean appearance is the result of her biological father being a prisoner of war from France.-Life:After training as a shorthand typist Domröse worked in a...
, Annekathrin Bürger, and Willi Schrade, that finds him directing somewhat gentler satiric energies toward the GDR
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
itself. Dudow was widely considered a "film school of one" during the 1950s, and was a mentor to both Gerhard Klein and Heiner Carow
Heiner Carow
Heiner Carow was a German film director and screenwriter. His 1986 film So Many Dreams was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. The following year, he was a member of the jury at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival...
. Dudow's final film, Christine (1963), which was also written by him, was shot in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and accordingly takes a much darker look at social problems and the position of women in the GDR. Dudow died in a car crash in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
while it was being shot, and the film was never finished. (A partial reconstruction, based on a very rough cut, was undertaken in the 1970s and "premiered" -- for one screening only -- in 1974.)
Filmography
- Current Problems: How the Berlin Worker Lives (Zeitprobleme: Wie der Berliner Arbeiter wohnt) 1930;
- To Whom Does the World Belong? (Kuhle Wampe, oder Wem gehört die Welt?) 1932;
- Soap Bubbles (Seifenblasen) 1934;
- Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot) 1949;
- Family Benthin (Familie Benthin) 1950;
- The Destinies of Women (Frauenschicksale) 1952;
- Stronger than the Night (Stärker als die Nacht) 1954;
- The Captain from CologneThe Captain from CologneThe Captain from Cologne is an East German film directed by Slatan Dudow. It was released in 1956.-Cast:* Rolf Ludwig as Albert Hauptmann* Erwin Geschonneck as Hans Karjanke* Else Wolz as Adele* Christel Bodenstein as Hannelore Ullrich...
(Der Hauptmann von Köln) 1956; - Confusion of Love (Verwirrung der Liebe) 1959;
- Christine (Christine; unfinished) 1963 (reconstructed 1974).