Carl August Hugo Froelich (5 September 1875 – 12 February 1953) was a German film pioneer and
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
. He was born and died in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
Biography
Apparatus builder and cameraman
From 1903 Froelich was a colleague of
Oskar Messter
Oskar Messter (21 November 1866 – 6 December 1943) was a German Reich, German inventor and film tycoon in the early years of film, cinema. His firm Messter Film was one of the dominant German producers before the rise of Universum Film AG, ...
, one of the advance guard of
German cinema, for whom initially he worked on the construction of cinematographic equipment. As cameraman for Messter's weekly newsreels he filmed among many other things the aftermath of a train accident on the Berlin
elevated railway
An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the Track (rail transport), tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concre ...
on 28 September 1908, one of the worst transport disasters of the time.
Film director and producer
Between 1912 and 1951 he made 77 films.
In 1913 Froelich made his directorial debut with ''
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
'' (''see alo
List of films about Richard Wagner''.) In 1920 he founded his own production company, Froelich-Film GmbH, among the productions of which were ''
Kabale und Liebe'' (1921), ''
Die Brüder Karamasoff'' (1922), and ''
Mutter und Kind'' (1924). During these years he often filmed with the actress
Henny Porten
Frieda Ulricke "Henny" Porten (7 January 1890 – 15 October 1960) was a German actress and film producer of the silent film, silent era, and Germany's first major film star. She appeared in more than 170 films between 1906 and 1955.
Biography
...
, who made her screen debut in one of his earliest films, and with whom between 1926 and 1929 he shared ownership of a production company.
In 1929 Froelich made one of the first German
sound film
A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...
s, ''
Die Nacht gehört uns'' ("The Night Belongs To Us"), using the
Tri-Ergon sound system. In 1930 he took over two glasshouses in
Berlin-Tempelhof, which had been used as studios in the days of
silent film
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
, and had them converted to sound film studios. Here he produced many films, including
Rolf Hansen's short film ''
Das Schönheitsfleckchen'' (1936) ("The Beauty Spot"), the first German
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
in colour. In 1931 he was advisor, as "senior artistic director", to
Leontine Sagan's famous boarding-school film and later
lesbian
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
classic, ''
Mädchen in Uniform'' ("Girls in Uniform") (1931).
By 1933 Froelich was one of Germany's most noted film artists, producing successful films with the stars of the period, among others
Hans Albers
Hans Philipp August Albers (22 September 1891 – 24 July 1960), also known by his nickname “der blonde Hans” (The Blond Hans), was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the m ...
,
Heinz Rühmann
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann (; 7 March 1902 – 3 October 1994) was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a Ge ...
,
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cin ...
and
Zarah Leander
Zarah Leander (; 15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Sweden, Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned UFA GmbH, Universum Film AG (UFA). Althou ...
.
Some of the best-known of the films he made during this period were:
* 1934: ''
Ich für dich, du für mich'' for the Reich Propaganda Directorate of the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...
* 1938: ''
Heimat
''Heimat'' () is a German word
translating to 'home' or 'homeland'.
The word has connotations specific to German culture, German society and specifically German Romanticism, German nationalism, German statehood and regionalism so that it h ...
''
* 1940: ''
Das Herz der Königin
''The Heart of the Queen'' (''Das Herz der Königin'') is a 1940 German historical film, making selective use of the life story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her execution by Queen Elizabeth I for anti-English and pro-Scottish propaganda, in the ...
'' ("The Queen's Heart"), an anti-
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
historical film
A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction such as ...
about
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legit ...
* 1941: ''
Der Gasmann'', a
propaganda film
A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...
, in which Heinz Rühmann plays a gas-meter reader suspected of being a foreign spy
Culture politics
Froelich became a member of the
National Socialist Party in 1933 and took over the direction of the ''Gesamtverbandes der Filmherstellung und Filmverwertung'' ("Union of Film Manufacture and Film Evaluation"). In 1937 he was awarded a professorship and in 1939 was appointed president of the ''
Reichsfilmkammer'', an office which he retained until the end of the
war
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
in 1945. The ''Reichsfilmkammer'' was subordinate to the ''
Reichskulturkammer
The Reich Chamber of Culture (''Reichskulturkammer'', abbreviated as RKK) was a government agency in Nazi Germany. It was established by law on 22 September 1933 in the course of the '' Gleichschaltung'' process at the instigation of Reich Minist ...
'', which as a
National Socialist trade organisation regulated and controlled access to all artistic professions. He was one of the few filmmakers that received the title "Filmprofessor" from Goebbels.
[Cinzia Romani, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'' p38 ]
After the end of the war
After the end of the war Froelich was arrested and in 1948
de-Nazified. His studio had been badly damaged during the war and did not resume production. Only two more films were made under his direction before his death: ''
Three Girls Spinning'' and ''
Stips''.
Selected filmography
Director
* ''
Werner Krafft'' (1916)
* ''
Ikarus, the Flying Man'' (1918)
* ''
The Loves of Käthe Keller'' (1919)
* ''
Wandering Souls'' (1921)
* ''
The Brothers Karamazov'' (1921)
* ''
Island of the Dead'' (1921)
* ''
In Thrall to the Claw'' (1921)
* ''
The Weather Station'' (1923)
* ''
Mother and Child
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestat ...
'' (1924)
* ''
Chamber Music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...
'' (1925)
* ''
The Adventures of Sybil Brent'' (1925)
* ''
Tragedy
A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...
'' (1925)
* ''
The Flames Lie'' (1926)
* ''
Roses from the South'' (1926)
* ''
The Long Intermission'' (1927)
* ''
My Aunt, Your Aunt'' (1927)
* ''
Lotte'' (1928)
* ''
Escape'' (1928)
* ''
Love in the Cowshed'' (1928)
* ''
Violantha'' (1928)
* ''
The Night Belongs to Us'' (1929)
* ''
German Wine
German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Celts and Ancient Rome, Roman eras. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the st ...
'' (1929)
* ''
The Woman Everyone Loves Is You'' (1929)
* ''
Hans in Every Street'' (1930)
* ''
Fire in the Opera House'' (1930)
* ''
Louise, Queen of Prussia'' (1931)
* ''
Mädchen in Uniform'' (1931)
* ''
This One or None'' (1932)
* ''
Gitta Discovers Her Heart'' (1932)
* ''
Love at First Sight
Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common theme in creative works: a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been desc ...
'' (1932)
* ''
Ripening Youth'' (1933)
* ''
The Hymn of Leuthen'' (1933)
* ''
Trouble with Jolanthe'' (1934)
* ''
I for You, You for Me'' (1934)
* ''
Sergeant Schwenke'' (1935)
* ''
The Private Life of Louis XIV'' (1935)
* ''
I Was Jack Mortimer'' (1935)
* ''
The Dreamer'' (1936)
* ''
When the Cock Crows'' (1936)
* ''
If We All Were Angels'' (1936)
* ''
Such Great Foolishness'' (1937)
* ''
Heimat
''Heimat'' () is a German word
translating to 'home' or 'homeland'.
The word has connotations specific to German culture, German society and specifically German Romanticism, German nationalism, German statehood and regionalism so that it h ...
'' (1938)
* ''
The Four Companions'' (1938)
* ''
The Roundabouts of Handsome Karl'' (1938)
* ''
The Life and Loves of Tschaikovsky'' (1939)
* ''
The Gasman'' (1941)
* ''
Wedding in Barenhof'' (1942)
* ''
The Buchholz Family'' (1944)
* ''
Marriage of Affection'' (1944)
* ''
Three Girls Spinning'' (1950)
* ''
Stips'' (1951)
Writer
* ''
The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach'' (1917)
* ''
The Salamander Ruby'' (1918)
Producer
* ''
The Lovers of Midnight'' (1931)
* ''
The Hunter from Kurpfalz
''The Hunter from Kurpfalz'' (German: ''Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz'') is a 1933 German comedy film directed by Carl Behr and starring Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Walter Rilla and Fritz Kampers. It was produced by Carl Froelich and shot at the Johannist ...
'' (1933)
* ''
The Abduction of the Sabine Women'' (1936)
* ''
Carmen, la de Triana'' (1938)
* ''
Torreani'' (1951)
References
External links
*
Cinegraph.de: Das Froelich-Atelier
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Froelich, Carl
Artists from Berlin
1875 births
1953 deaths
Nazi Party members
Film directors from Berlin
German silent film directors