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1940s: A visionary tale inspired by the life of the 20th century film director G.W. Pabst
1940s: A visionary tale inspired by the life of the 20th century film director G.W. Pabst
G.W. Pabst, one of cinema’s greatest, perhaps the greatest director of his era: when the Nazis seized power he was filming in France, to escape the horrors of the new Germany he flees to Hollywood. But under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, who he made famous, can help him. And thus, almost through no fault of his own, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. The returning family is confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. But Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in Berlin, wants the film genius, he won’t take no for an answer and makes big promises. While Pabst still believes that he will be able to resist these advances, that he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art, he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885 to 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theatre director before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic.
Pabst began his career as a film director with Carl Froelich who hired Pabst as an assistant director. He directed his first film, The Treasure, in 1923. He helped discover the actress Leni Riefenstahl.
The acclaimed Austrian director worked at the Warner Bros studios in Hollywood, California, during the 1930s. His sole American directorial effort was the romance-drama A Modern Hero.
Destination/Location: Vienna, Berlin, Hollywood Author: Daniel Kehlmann Departure: 1940s
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