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Karlheinz Martin (May 6, 1886 – January 13, 1948) was a German stage and film director, best known for his expressionist productions.
After enjoying success with experimental productions in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg, Martin went to Berlin, where he premiered Ernst Toller's anti-war drama, ''Transfiguration'' (''Die Wandlung'') on September 30, 1919. Performed in a hall seating fewer than 300 spectators, the production used the intimacy of the space to drive home the horrors of Toller's script. The sets were jagged flats placed against blackness, and lit with harsh white spotlights. Scenes ended in blackouts not, as was customary at the time, with the curtain falling. Fritz Kortner became famous for his intense portrayal of the young hero.
Martin turned to film in 1920, when he directed a cinematic adaptation of one of the most celebrated expressionist dramas,
Karlheinz Martin (May 6, 1886 – January 13, 1948) was a German stage and film director, best known for his expressionist productions.
After enjoying success with experimental productions in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg, Martin went to Berlin, where he premiered Ernst Toller's anti-war drama, ''Transfiguration'' (''Die Wandlung'') on September 30, 1919. Performed in a hall seating fewer than 300 spectators, the production used the intimacy of the space to drive home the horrors of Toller's script. The sets were jagged flats placed against blackness, and lit with harsh white spotlights. Scenes ended in blackouts not, as was customary at the time, with the curtain falling. Fritz Kortner became famous for his intense portrayal of the young hero.
Martin turned to film in 1920, when he directed a cinematic adaptation of one of the most celebrated expressionist dramas, Georg Kaiser
Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, (25 November 1878 – 4 June 1945) was a German dramatist.
Biography
Kaiser was born in Magdeburg.
He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, ...
's ''From Morn to Midnight
''From Morn to Midnight'' (german: Von morgens bis mitternachts) is a 1920 German silent expressionist film directed by Karlheinz Martin based on the 1912 play ''From Morning to Midnight'' by Georg Kaiser. It is one of the most radical films ...
'' (''Von morgens bis mitternachts'') with actor Ernst Deutsch
Ernst Deutsch, also known as Ernest Dorian (16 September 1890 – 22 March 1969), was a Jewish Austrian actor. In 1916, his performance as the protagonist in the world première of Walter Hasenclever's Expressionist play '' The Son'' in Dres ...
as the Cashier who embezzles money from a bank and goes on a desperate search for meaning in his life in a nightmarish metropolis.
After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Martin revived Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...
's ''The Threepenny Opera
''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a " play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, ''The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François Villon, with music ...
'' in Berlin, and
premiered Georg Kaiser
Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, (25 November 1878 – 4 June 1945) was a German dramatist.
Biography
Kaiser was born in Magdeburg.
He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, ...
's pacifist drama, '' The Soldier Tanaka'' (''Der Soldat Tanaka'').
Selected filmography
*''From Morn to Midnight
''From Morn to Midnight'' (german: Von morgens bis mitternachts) is a 1920 German silent expressionist film directed by Karlheinz Martin based on the 1912 play ''From Morning to Midnight'' by Georg Kaiser. It is one of the most radical films ...
'' (1920)
*'' The House on the Moon'' (1921)
*'' The Pearl of the Orient'' (1921)
* '' Punks Arrives from America'' (1935)
*'' The Voice of the Heart'' (1937)
Further reading
*Michael Patterson. ''The Revolution in German Theatre: 1900-1933.'' (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981).External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Karlheinz Film people from Freiburg im Breisgau 1886 births 1948 deaths