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Paul Leni is a Director, Scriptwriter, Editor, Art Direction, Costume Design and Art Direction Allemand born on 8 july 1885 at Stuttgart (German)

Paul Leni

Paul Leni
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Birth name Paul Josef Levi
Nationality German
Birth 8 july 1885 at Stuttgart (German)
Death 2 september 1929 (at 44 years) at Hollywood (USA)

Paul Leni est un réalisateur et chef décorateur allemand, né Paul Josef Levi le 8 juillet 1885 à Stuttgart, mort à Los Angeles (Californie) le 2 septembre 1929.

Biography

Né dans une famille juive, Paul Leni quitte Stuttgart à l'âge de 15 ans pour s'installer à Berlin. Il veut devenir peintre, et participe aux mouvements d'avant-garde, mais, rapidement, il travaille pour le cinéma. Dès 1914, ses talents de plasticien sont reconnus ; jusqu'à sa mort, il sera décorateur aussi bien dans ses films que dans ceux réalisés par d'autres cinéastes réputés.

Il se lance dans la réalisation en 1916, mais c'est à partir de 1921 qu'il accède à la notoriété avec Escalier de service (Hintertreppe), et qu'il devient une figure importante du cinéma expressionniste et du Kammerspiel. En 1924, il réalise Le Cabinet des figures de cire (Das Waschsfigurenkabinett), que l'historien Georges Sadoul décrit comme « le chant du cygne expressionniste ».

En 1926, sollicité par le producteur Carl Laemmle, patron de la Universal Pictures, Leni devient un des premiers réalisateurs allemands à rejoindre Hollywood. Il y réalise quatre films, tous pour Universal. Le premier, en 1927, est La Volonté du mort (The Cat and the Canary). Inspiré d'une pièce de John Willard, le film, qui alterne épouvante et humour, connaît un grand succès. La même année, Leni dirige The Chinese Parot, une aventure du détective Charlie Chan qui semble aujourd'hui perdue. En 1928, Leni présente L'Homme qui rit (The Man who Laughs), adaptation réussie du roman de Victor Hugo dans laquelle Conrad Veidt incarne le personnage principal. Enfin, en 1929, il réalise son dernier film Le Dernier Avertissement (The Last Warning), une comédie policière ayant pour cadre un théâtre à l'abandon.

Paul Leni, malade, veut retourner en Europe, mais il est emporté par une septicémie le 2 septembre 1929.

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Paul Leni (20 films)

Display filmography as list

Director

The Last Warning, 1h29
Directed by Paul Leni
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Horror, Crime
Actors Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, Roy D'Arcy, Margaret Livingston, John Boles, Bert Roach
Rating68% 3.4381353.4381353.4381353.4381353.438135
Five years after a theater was closed following a murder of one of its actors during a performance, a producer decides to solve the mystery by again staging the play with the remaining cast. During the repeat performance another murder occurs. Eventually it is discovered that the murders were part a ploy devised by the stage manager to sabotage the production.
The Man Who Laughs, 1h50
Directed by Paul Leni
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Horror, Romance
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about disabilities, La cécité
Actors Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Brandon Hurst, Olga Baclanova, Cesare Gravina, Stuart Holmes
Rating75% 3.7953053.7953053.7953053.7953053.795305
Taking place in England in the year 1690, The Man Who Laughs features Gwynplaine, the son of an English nobleman who has offended King James II. The monarch sentences Gwynplaine's father to death in an iron maiden, after calling upon a surgeon, Dr. Hardquannone, to disfigure the boy's face into a permanent grin. As a title card states, the King condemned him "to laugh forever at his fool of a father."
The Cat and the Canary, 1h22
Directed by Paul Leni
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Fantastic, Comedy, Horror comedy, Horror
Themes Théâtre, Ghost films, Films based on plays, Comedy horror films
Actors Laura La Plante, Forrest Stanley, Creighton Hale, Tully Marshall, Flora Finch, George Siegmann
Rating70% 3.5446953.5446953.5446953.5446953.544695
In a decaying mansion overlooking the Hudson River, millionaire Cyrus West approaches death. His greedy family descends upon him like "cats around a canary", causing him to become insane. West orders that his last will and testament remain locked in a safe and go unread until the 20th anniversary of his death. As the appointed time arrives, West's lawyer, Roger Crosby (Tully Marshall), discovers that a second will mysteriously appeared in the safe. The second will may only be opened if the terms of the first will are not fulfilled. The caretaker of the West mansion, Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox), blames the manifestation of the second will on the ghost of Cyrus West, a notion that the astonished Crosby quickly rejects.
Waxworks
Waxworks (1924)
, 1h30
Directed by William Dieterle, Leo Birinski, Paul Leni
Origin German
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Themes Children's films
Actors Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings, William Dieterle, Fritz Alberti, Georg John
Rating65% 3.2954153.2954153.2954153.2954153.295415
A young nameless poet (Dieterle) enters a wax museum where the proprietor works in the company of his daughter. The proprietor hires the poet to write a back-story for his wax models of Harun al-Rashid (Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Veidt), and Jack the Ripper (Krauss) in order to draw an audience to the museum. With the daughter by his side, the poet notices that the arm of Harun al-Rashid is missing and writes a story incorporating the missing arm.
Backstairs
Backstairs (1921)
, 40minutes
Directed by Paul Leni
Origin German
Genres Drama, Thriller
Actors Henny Porten, William Dieterle, Fritz Kortner
Rating67% 3.3718053.3718053.3718053.3718053.371805
A crippled postman (Fritz Kortner) adores a woman (Henny Porten), who is in love with another man (William Dieterle), leading the postman to try to destroy the relationship by murdering the woman's love interest.
Prinz Kuckuck, 1h39
Directed by Paul Leni
Origin German
Genres Drama
Actors Conrad Veidt, Olga Limburg, Magnus Stifter, Max Gülstorff, Paul Biensfeldt, Wilhelm Diegelmann

Jeremias Kraker, millionnaire excentrique, a adopté le jeune Henry Felix. À sa mort, Kraker lui laisse tous ses biens. Carl et Berta, les neveu et nièce de Kraker, se sentent floués par le testament. Ils surnomment Henry le « prince coucou », car il fait son nid dans la fortune des Kraker.

Scriptwriter

Editor

Waxworks
Waxworks (1924)
, 1h30
Directed by William Dieterle, Leo Birinski, Paul Leni
Origin German
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Themes Children's films
Actors Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings, William Dieterle, Fritz Alberti, Georg John
Rating65% 3.2954153.2954153.2954153.2954153.295415
A young nameless poet (Dieterle) enters a wax museum where the proprietor works in the company of his daughter. The proprietor hires the poet to write a back-story for his wax models of Harun al-Rashid (Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Veidt), and Jack the Ripper (Krauss) in order to draw an audience to the museum. With the daughter by his side, the poet notices that the arm of Harun al-Rashid is missing and writes a story incorporating the missing arm.

Art