Curt Courant
Curt Courant (May 11, 1899 in Katowice, † April 20, 1968 in Los Angeles ) was a German cinematographer and later an expert on film- technical matters.
Life and work
Courant began in 1916 as an assistant in the photochemistry of May movie. 18- year old, he was already co- director of photography on the side of Carl Hoffmann at director Joe May He turned primarily Dramas, rare comedies and became one of the greatest cinematographers of German cinema.
After the seizure of power by the Nazis he emigrated and acquired by a number of British and French films an international reputation. In the German invasion of France in 1940, he fled to the United States.
Despite repeated application he did not get membership in the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC ), but was assigned to 1941, the Special Forces War Department Special Services Division under Frank Capra in the USA entered the war.
Only Charles Chaplin left him at Monsieur Verdoux - The Strangler Paris to work as a co- camera man back in his learned profession. Then he came twice more as technical director and most recently in the rotated outside the U.S. Jayne Mansfield strip It happened in Athens used. Courant was an expert in the field of indirect light and soft focus effects.
Courant's nephew is the Belgian -born cinematographer Willy Kurant.