George Schnéevoigt
George Schnéevoigt ( born December 23, 1893 as George Fritz Ernst Fischer in Copenhagen, † February 6, 1961 ) was a Danish cinematographer, film director and screenwriter.
Life and work
George Schnéevoigt was a pioneer of Scandinavian cinema. Together with his mother, the Finnish theater actress Siri Fischer- Schnéevoigt, he traveled as a 14 -year-old to Berlin. There he was given by Ludwig Hartau and Tilla Durieux acting lessons. Then we saw the 18 -year-olds in small roles at the New Theatre. The way to Schnéevoigt in photography and camera technology allowed to proceed form. In 1912 he returned to Copenhagen and started only 20 years old, work as a cinematographer and director for a small film company. In 1915 he was hired by the production company Nordisk and continued his work in both functions continue. Through collaboration with director Carl Theodor Dreyer George Schnéevoigt reached immediately after the end of World War II his artistic zenith.
1920/21 George photographed Schnéevoigt several films in Sweden and Norway, after a stopover in Copenhagen in 1924 a movie ( Pietro, the corsair ) in Germany. 1926 or 1928/29, George went Schnéevoigt for several obligations again to Norway. From 1928 he worked only as a director. His specialty was Nordic substances, " in which he miteinbezog the landscape as a central action and design element. " His first sound film "Eskimo" turned Schnéevoigt 1930 on Greenland in a Danish and a German version. Also attention was his playing in Lapland love story " Laila " (1936 ), which he had already 1928/29, first staged in Norway as a silent film.
" Schnéevoigts productions were characterized by both content and design simplicity, sometimes of great naturalistic naivety. " 1942 ended Schnéevoigt George, who had his sound film productions always rotated with the cameraman Valdemar Hermann Christensen, his cinematic activities.
Private
In February 1915, he married his first wife, the almost 20 years older Danish dancer Tilly von Kaulbach ( 1874-1966 ), for whose company " Kaulbach's art film " he had already directed three films in 1913. His 1901 born in Germany stepson Fridtjof Kaulbach, who had been involved in this film, was a godson Fridtjof Nansen and was named after his godfather.
George Schnéevoigts mother Siri Schnéevoigt 1937 had appeared in his film Laila, which was shown in September 1938 as The dark reputation in the German Reich.
His son Alf Bent Schnéevoigt George (1915-1982), in turn, also worked as a cinematographer, but only during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II. Moreover Schnéevoigt George was the nephew of Jean Sibelius.