Paul Leni
Paul Leni ( born July 8, 1885 in Stuttgart, † September 2, 1929 in Hollywood ) was a set designer, production designer and director who influenced the expressionist film significantly.
Life and work
After attending high school in Stuttgart, the son of a banker his passion, the drawing made, to the profession. In Berlin he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1910s he worked for the theater, especially for the Meinhard Bernauer 's theaters, the cinema equipped Wittelsbach from the Bavarian court and designed cartoons, advertisements, and movie posters. From 1913 he also designed film decors. first for Joe May and Max Mack. During the First World War moved in, he made his first film as a director, the documentary feature film The Surgeon General / The Diary of Dr. Hart. From 1917 he worked again in Berlin for the film company projection AG Union ( PAGU ) as production designer for Ernst Lubitsch and as a director, staged including the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.
1918/19, he made the " Decorative Design " by Joe Mays three-hour epic film Veritas vincit. In addition to the established May- Film GmbH and the artistically ambitious Gloria -Film GmbH was his client. He directed Prince cuckoo on the novel by Otto Julius Bierbaum, the historical drama The conspiracy to Genoa to Friedrich Schiller, the chamber play back stairs and 1923 film episodes Waxworks. Repeats were Conrad Veidt and Fritz Kortner stars of his films. In addition to his government work Leni designed to continue screenshots for other directors, especially Ewald André Dupont, Joe May, Richard Oswald, Karl Grune, Alexander Korda, Arthur Robison and Michael Kertész, who became famous in Hollywood as Michael Curtiz. Together with the cameraman and trick specialists Guido Seeber developed Leni 1925/26, a series of eight cinematic crossword puzzles that have been shown as Rebus movie in the theater.
Leni but remained connected stage. In 1923 he opened on Potsdamer Platz and the composer Hans May the cabaret artists The gondola, for besides other also Kurt Tucholsky wrote songs. For large cinemas in Berlin, he directed short stage prologues, which were performed on festive premieres before the main feature.
1926 Leni went together with his wife, the dancer Lore Sello, via New York to Hollywood, where had hired him, the film producer Carl Laemmle. Leni was able to establish with four commercially and artistically successful films quickly in the American studio system, where he was at the same time style icon, for example, for the horror films of Universal Pictures with optical and staging innovations from Europe. The Cat and the Canary was an atmospheric adaptation of a stage thrillers from Broadway, The Man Who Laughs with Conrad Veidt in the title role was an elaborate adaptation of the novel by Victor Hugo, who was especially successful in Europe.
In the summer of 1929 due to ill Leni blood poisoning from a heart inflammation of the skin, of which he died in September.