Svatopluk Innemann (18 February 1896 – 30 October 1945) was a
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus
*Czech (surnam ...
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 ...
,
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
,
screenwriter
A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
,
film editor
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...
and actor. He was one of the pioneers of Czech cinema.
Biography and works
Innemann, was a son of the Czech director
Rudolf Innemann and opera singer
Ludmila Lvová-Innemannová. He was born in Slovenia during their engagement,
but was raised in Prague, where he studied to be a pork butcher. Around 1918 he became interested in film, and began to work as a camera operator. As cameraman, he co-created his first film with
Otto Heller. From 1919 he worked independently.
Innemann's early career was varied; he was involved in
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...
s,
comedies and
melodrama
A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
s, short films and documentaries, often as cameraman. He made his directorial debut in
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 ...
s with the fairy-tale ''
Little Red Riding-hood'' in 1920. In 1925 he directed the popular comedy ''
From the Czech Mills'' and made a biographical film about
Josef Kajetán Tyl, an important personality of the
Czech National Revival
The Czech National Revival was a cultural movement which took place in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th centuries. The purpose of this movement was to revive the Czech Czech language, language, culture and national identity. The most pro ...
. In 1927 he directed ''
The Lovers of an Old Criminal'', starring the Czech actor
Vlasta Burian
Josef Vlastimil Burian, better known as Vlasta Burian, (9 April 1891 – 31 January 1962) was a Czechs, Czech actor, singer, comedian, footballer and film director. He is among the most famous Czech actors and comedians of the first half of the 2 ...
. He directed a total of 16 silent films: in 1931 he directed his first
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 ...
, ''Poslední bohém'' (The Last Bohemian), about the Czech writer
Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czechs, Czech writer, Humorism, humorist, Satire, satirist, journalist, Bohemianism, bohemian, first anarchist and then communist, and commissar of the Red Army against the Czechoslovak Legion. He is best k ...
, and made the popular comedy ''Muži v offsidu'' (Men in Offside) with
Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in more than 60 films from 1926 to 1962 and directed 20 films from 1933 to 1962.
Life and career
Haas was born in Brno, Austria-Hung ...
in the title role. It remains popular in the Czech Republic.
The 1932 film ''Před maturitou'', made in cooperation with the Czech writer
Vladislav Vančura, is considered Innemann's second creative peak. In 1933, he directed the
crime film
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
''Vražda v Ostrovní ulici'', the first film to be made in the
Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Barrandov has made several major Hollywood productions, including ''Mission: Impossible (film), ...
. His film career ended in 1937 with ''Švanda dudák'', based on a theme by Josef Kajetán Tyl. Later, during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he intended to perform his own play with very controversial topic (he tried to portray German leader
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
[Motl (2006), p. 249]), but from 1940 had to undergo treatments for a mental disorder. He was one of the very few Czech filmmakers who claimed German citizenship during the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Innemann cooperated with the ambitious Czech director and
Nazi collaborator Václav Binovec
Václav Binovec (12 September 1892 – 29 February 1976, in Prague) was a Czech film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He was often referred to under the pseudonyms of Willy Bronx or W. Bronx, and also V. Vabin.
Binovec set up the fil ...
. At the war's end, Innemann's wartime activities were investigated. He died on 30 October 1945 at his home in
Klecany, near Prague, with the investigation incomplete.
[Motl (2006), p. 249]
Filmography
Director
*''
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...
'' (1920)
*''Zelený automobil'' (1921)
*''Komptoiristka'' (1922)
*''Venoušek a Stázička'' (1922)
*''Buď připraven'' (1925)
*''
From the Czech Mills'' (1925)
*''Josef Kajetán Tyl'' (1925)
*''Švejk v ruském zajetí'' (1926)
*''
Lásky Kačenky Strnadové'' (1926)
*''
Falešná kočička'' (1926)
*''
The Lovers of an Old Criminal'' (1927)
*''
Prague at Night'' (1927)
*''Ve dvou se to lépe táhne'' (1928)
*''Neviňátka'' (1929)
*''Plukovník Švec'' (1929) - director
*''Tchán Kondelík a zeť Vejvara'' (1929)
*''Fidlovačka'' (1930)
*''
Muži v offsidu
''Muži v offsidu'' is a 1931 Czechoslovak sports comedy film directed by Svatopluk Innemann, based on a novel by Karel Poláček.
Production
Karel Poláček's comedic novel was a bestseller in Czechoslovakia. The movie was made only because t ...
'' (1931)
*''Třetí rota'' (1931)
*''Karel Havlíček Borovský'' (1931)
*''Poslední bohém'' (1931)
*''
Psohlavci'' (1931)
*''Malostranští mušketýři'' (1932)
*''Sňatková kancelář'' (1932)
*''Před maturitou'' (1932)
*''Písničkář'' (1932)
*''Šenkýřka "U divoké krásy"'' (1932)
*''Drž je!'' (1933)
*''Vůně domova'' (1933)
*''Prodaná nevěsta'' (1933)
*''Skřivánčí píseň'' (1933)
*''Vražda v Ostrovní ulici'' (1933)
*''U Svatého Antoníčka'' (1933)
*''Hudba srdci'' (1934)
*''Z bláta do louže'' (1934)
*''Tři kroky od těla'' (1934)
*''Sextánka'' (1936)
*''Arme kleine Inge'' (1936)
*''Tvoje srdce inkognito'' (1936)
*''Bílý cíl'' (1937)
*''Švanda Dudák'' (1937)
Cinematographer
*''Československý Ježíšek'' (1918)
*''Aloisův los'' (1918)
*''Akord smrti'' (1919)
*''Láska je utrpením'' (1919)
*''Divoká Marina'' (1919)
*''Boby nesmí kouřit'' (1919)
*''Utrpením ke slávě'' (1919)
*''Dáma s malou nožkou'' (1919)
*''Vzteklý ženich'' (1919)
*''Zlatá žena'' (1920
*''Šílený lékař'' (1920)
*''Sněženky'' (1920)
*''Za svobodu národa'' (1920)
*''Za čest vítězů'' (1920)
*''Magdalena'' (1920)
*''Děvče ze stříbrné hranice'' (1921)
*''Jak Vašíček přišel k nohám'' (1921)
*''Závěť podivínova'' (1923)
*''Lešetínský kovář'' (1924)
*''
The Lantern
''The Lantern'' is an independent daily newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, published by students at Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000.
Copies of the paper are fre ...
'' (1925)
*''Okovy'' (1925)
Actor
*''Byl první máj'' (1919)
*''Dáma s malou nožkou'' (1919)
Notes
References
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Innemann, Svatopluk
1896 births
1945 deaths
Film people from Ljubljana
Czech film directors
Czech cinematographers
Czech male screenwriters
Silent film directors
Czech male film actors
Czech male silent film actors
20th-century Czech male actors
Czech film editors
20th-century Czech screenwriters
Czech collaborators with Nazi Germany