Helmut Käutner

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Helmut Käutner
Helmut Käutner (1960)
Born(1908-03-25)25 March 1908
Düsseldorf, Rhine Province, Prussia, Germany
Died20 April 1980(1980-04-20) (aged 72)
Castellina in Chianti, Province of Siena, Italy
OccupationsFilm director, actor
Years active1940–1976
Signature

Helmut Käutner (25 March 1908 – 20 April 1980) was a German film director active mainly in the 1940s and 1950s. He entered the film industry at the end of the Weimar Republic and released his first films as a director in Nazi Germany. Käutner is relatively unknown outside of Germany, although he is considered one of the best filmmakers in German film history.[1] He was one of the most influential film directors of German post-war cinema and became known for his sophisticated literary adaptations.

Biography

He was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. Käutner started out as a director in the Nazi era, but his films remained largely free of National Socialist propaganda.[2] One of his early successes was Romanze in Moll (1943), an adaptation of Guy du Maupassant's short story "Les Bijoux". Other remarkable films were Große Freiheit Nr. 7 and Under the Bridges.

His 1956 film Der Hauptmann von Köpenick was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 29th Academy Awards.[3] Three years later, his film The Rest Is Silence was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. Käutner made two films for Universal Pictures in Hollywood: The Restless Years (1958) and A Stranger in My Arms (1959). However, neither of them received critical success and Käutner was unhappy with the lack of creative freedom he had, so he returned to Germany.[4] He died in Castellina in Chianti, Italy.

Selected filmography

Director

Feature Films

Television

Screenwriter

Actor

Literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Tast: Helmut Käutner – Unter den Brücken. 1944/45. Schellerten: Kulleraugen, 2007; ISBN 978-3-88842-033-7
  • Hans-Jürgen Tast: Helmut Käutner – In jenen Tagen. 1947. Schellerten: Kulleraugen, 2007; ISBN 978-3-88842-034-4

References

Further reading

  • Peter Cornelsen. Helmut Käutner. Seine Filme, sein Leben. München: Heyne 1980. ISBN 3-453-86027-6.
  • Wolfgang Jacobsen & Hans-Helmut Prinzler: Käutner. Berlin: Wiss.-Verl. Spiess 1992. ISBN 3-89166-159-2.
  • Thomas Koebner, Fabienne Liptay, Claudia Mehlinger & René Ruppert (eds.): Helmut Käutner. München: edition text + kritik 2008. ISBN 978-3-88377-943-0.
  • Hans Dieter Schäfer. Moderne in Dritten Reich. Kultur der Intimität bei Oskar Loerke, Friedo Lampe und Helmut Käutner. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003; ISBN 3-515-08432-0.