Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck ; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war films. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.
41-456: In the 1950s, he achieved his greatest commercial success with film melodramas Magnificent Obsession , All That Heaven Allows , Written on the Wind , A Time to Love and a Time to Die , and Imitation of Life . While those films were initially panned by critics as sentimental women's pictures, they are today widely regarded by film directors, critics, and scholars as masterpieces. His work
82-632: A brief return behind the camera in West Germany in the 1970s, teaching at the film school Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich. Sirk's melodramas of the 1950s, while highly commercially successful, were generally very poorly received by reviewers. His films were considered unimportant (because they revolve around female and domestic issues), banal (because of their focus on larger-than-life feelings) and unrealistic (because of their conspicuous and distinctive style). Their often melodramatic manner
123-453: A car to evade him. She is left blind as a result of the accident. Merrick soberly commits to becoming a doctor, trying to fulfill Dr. Phillips's legacy. He also has fallen in love with Helen. He helps her adjust to her blindness under the guise of being Robby, a poor medical student. Merrick secretly arranges for Helen to travel to Europe and consult with the best eye surgeons in the world. After extensive tests, these surgeons tell Helen there
164-667: A director who had fallen sick, Sirk directed his first production, the Hermann Bossdorf play Bahnmeister Tod ("Stationmaster Death"), which became a surprise success, and from that point Sirk was (in his own words) "lost to the theatre". In addition to the theatre, Sirk worked in many areas of the arts during this formative period - he painted, took a summer job as a set-designer at a Berlin film studio, published his own German translation of Shakespeare's sonnets, translated some of Shakespeare's plays, and published writings of his own. Schauspielhaus manager Dr Paul Eger offered Sirk
205-420: A kid, I was a big admirer of foreign film. Foreign film, like E.T. , William Wyler, or Douglas Sirk, or Frank Capra." Polyester (1981) directed by Waters was, according to Waters, informed by Sirk's Universal melodramas. Magnificent Obsession (1954 film) Magnificent Obsession is a 1954 American romantic drama film directed by Douglas Sirk starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson . It
246-553: A newspaper reporter. He spent a few years in Denmark as a child, before his parents returned to Germany and became citizens. Sirk discovered the theatre in his mid-teens, particularly Shakespeare's history plays, and also began to frequent the cinema, where he first encountered what he later described as "dramas of swollen emotions"; one of his early screen favourites was Danish-born actress Asta Nielsen . In 1919, he enrolled to study law at Munich University , but he left Munich following
287-509: A pay raise and the chance to present "one of those crazy modern [i.e. Expressionist ] plays" but Sirk declared that he only wanted to direct "the classics" and took up an offer to become first director at a playhouse in Chemnitz in Saxony. The post proved to be a baptism of fire for the new director - although the company started out with classic works by Molière , Büchner and Strindberg ,
328-600: A soldier of the Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland on 22 May 1944 near Novoaleksandrovka, Kirovograd Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR (now Novooleksandrivka, Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine). By the 1930s Sirk had become one of Germany's leading stage directors, with a list of credits that included a production of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera . Sirk joined UFA (Universum Film AG) studios in 1934, where he directed three shorts, followed by his first feature, April, April (1935), which
369-661: A typical Sirk melodrama—in particular All That Heaven Allows . Tarantino paid homage to Sirk and his melodramatic style in Pulp Fiction , when character Vincent Vega, at a '50s-themed restaurant, orders the "Douglas Sirk steak" cooked "bloody as hell". Aki Kaurismäki alluded to Sirk as well; in his silent film, Juha , the villain's sport car is named "Sierck". Sirk was also one of the directors mentioned by Guillermo del Toro in his Oscar acceptance speech for Best Picture for The Shape of Water : "Growing up in Mexico as
410-451: A widespread nostalgia for old-fashioned Hollywood films in the 1970s. His work is now widely considered to show excellent control of visuals, extending from lighting and framing to costumes and sets that are saturated with symbolism and shot through with subtle barbs of irony. Sirk's films have been quoted in films by directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder (whose Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
451-469: Is a remake of the 1935 film by the same name , starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor . Both are based on the 1929 novel Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas . Sirk sometimes claimed that the story was based distantly on the Greek legend of Alcestis . In 1948, spoiled playboy Bob Merrick behaves recklessly and loses control of his speedboat, crashing it and becoming injured. Rescuers send for
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#1732780412120492-471: Is no hope for recovery. Soon after this, Robby shows up at her hotel to provide emotional support and discovers that Helen has already guessed his real identity. Merrick asks Helen to marry him. Later that night, Helen realizes she will be a burden to him and runs away. Many years pass, and Merrick is now a dedicated and successful brain surgeon who secretly continues his philanthropic acts and searches for Helen. One evening, Randolph arrives with news that Helen
533-527: Is partly based on All That Heaven Allows ) and, later, Quentin Tarantino , Todd Haynes , Pedro Almodóvar , Wong Kar-wai , David Lynch , John Waters and Lars von Trier . More specifically, Almodóvar's vibrant use of color in 1988's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown recalls the cinematography of Sirk's films of the 1950s, while Haynes' Far from Heaven was a conscious attempt to replicate
574-456: Is seen as a "critique of the bourgeoisie in general and of 1950s America in particular", while painting a "compassionate portrait of characters trapped by social conditions". Beyond the surface of the film, Sirk worked with complex mise-en-scène and lush Technicolor to underline his statements. Sirk was born Hans Detlef Sierck on 26 April 1897, in Hamburg, of Danish parentage; his father was
615-404: Is very sick, possibly dying, in a small Southwest hospital. Merrick arrives to find that Helen needs complex brain surgery to save her life and performs this operation. After a long night waiting for the results, Helen awakens, discovers that she can see, and reunites with Merrick. Sirk began production on Magnificent Obsession , his previous production, Taza, Son of Cochise having wrapped up
656-824: The Hitler–Stalin Pact and was only shown in German cinemas in December 1941, after the attack on the Soviet Union . He was conscripted into the German Army during the Second World War , and while serving on the Eastern Front as a fusilier in the Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland was killed in action at Novoaleksandrovka either on 6 March 1944 or 22 May 1944. This article about
697-669: The April 1967 issue of Cahiers du cinéma , which included an extended interview with Sirk by Serge Daney and Jean-Louis Noames, an appreciation by Jean-Louis Comolli ("The Blind Man and the Mirror or The Impossible Cinema of Douglas Sirk"), and a "biofilmographie" compiled by Patrick Brion and Dominique Rabourdin. Leading American critic Andrew Sarris praised Sirk in his 1968 book The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 , although Sirk failed to qualify for Sarris' controversial "pantheon" of great directors. From around 1970 there
738-557: The Wind (1956), Battle Hymn (1957), The Tarnished Angels (1957), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), and Imitation of Life (1959). Despite the enormous success of Imitation of Life in 1959 (partially fueled by the scandal surrounding the murder of Lana Turner 's boyfriend by her daughter), Sirk left the United States and retired from filmmaking. He died in Lugano, Switzerland, nearly 30 years later, with only
779-585: The actress Lydia Brincken Sirk fathered one son, Klaus Detlef Sierck (1925–1944), born on 30 March 1925 in Berlin- Charlottenburg , Germany. His ex-wife joined the Nazi party and because of Sirk's remarriage to a Jewish woman was able to legally bar him from seeing their son, who became one of the leading child actors of Nazi Germany, known for Die Saat geht auf (1935), Streit um den Knaben Jo (1937) and Kopf hoch, Johannes! (1941). He died as
820-929: The director's seat. Frank Skinner composed the score for this film, the theme of which inspired a song of the same title with lyrics by Frederick Herbert. The Four Lads recorded the song with the Percy Faith orchestra. Victor Young also recorded an instrumental version of the song which featured a viola solo by Anatole Kaminsky. However, much of the score is Skinner's arrangements of works by Chopin ( Nocturne No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1 and Étude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3 "Tristesse" ), Beethoven ("Ode to Joy" theme from 9th Symphony ), and Johann Strauss II ( Wiener Blut ). The film opened at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on August 4, 1954. Audiences were greeted by co-star Agnes Moorehead in
861-406: The early 1970s, to a focus on gender and sexuality in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Film critic Roger Ebert has said, "To appreciate a film like Written on the Wind probably takes more sophistication to understand than one of Ingmar Bergman 's masterpieces, because Bergman's themes are visible and underlined, while with Sirk the style conceals the message." Sirk's reputation was also helped by
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#1732780412120902-428: The film positively with an average rating of 7.4/10, earning it a score of "Fresh". Klaus Detlef Sierck Klaus Detlef Sierck (30 March 1925 – 1944) was a German child actor. He was the son of the theatre and film director Hans Detlef Sierck (better-known today as Hollywood director Douglas Sirk) and the theatre actress Lydia Brincken. After his parents separated in 1928, Sierck grew up with his mother and
943-401: The hospital, where she learns his connection to her husband's death. After his discharge, Merrick gets drunk at a party before he drives away. He runs off the road and ends up at the home of Edward Randolph, who explains the secret belief that powered his own art and Dr. Phillips's success. Merrick decides to try this new philosophy. While trying to make up to Helen, she steps into the path of
984-622: The lobby. The film was generally not well received critically but did well at the box office. Howard Thompson in The New York Times of August 5, 1954 wrote "[The film] is unquestionably a handsome one. Better still, generally restrained performances at least dignify a moist text, which may seem inspiration to some, pure corn to others." Jane Wyman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress . On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 88% of 25 critics reviewed
1025-818: The month before. Taza , a 3-D western, also starred Rock Hudson, and it was the second time the two had worked together (the first time being 1952's Has Anybody Seen My Gal? ). Hudson had previously played leading parts in Universal B-movies , usually directed by Joseph Pevney or Frederick De Cordova . The screenplay was written by Robert Blees and Wells Root , The film was produced by Ross Hunter . Pre-production scouting for locations began on August 26, 1953 by director Douglas Sirk, Director of Photography Russell Metty, and Unit Manager Edward K. Dodds. Rehearsals began on September 8. Second-unit footage of locations at Lake Tahoe began filming on September 14. An Unlimited Hydroplane speedboat , "Hurricane IV",
1066-582: The nearest resuscitator, located in Dr. Phillips's house across the lake. While the resuscitator is being used to save Merrick, Phillips suffers a heart attack and dies. Merrick ends up a patient at Phillips's clinic, where the staff members resent that Merrick caused Phillips's death, however inadvertently. Helen Phillips, Dr. Phillips's widow, receives a flood of calls, letters, and visitors all offering to pay back loans that Dr. Phillips refused to accept repayment of during his life. Many claimed he refused by saying "it
1107-468: The next few years, including a 20-film retrospective at the 1972 Edinburgh Festival (which Sirk attended), which also generated a book of essays. In 1974 the University of Connecticut Film Society programmed a complete retrospective of the director's American films, and invited Sirk to attend, but on the way to the airport, for the flight to New York, Sirk suffered a haemorrhage that seriously impaired
1148-701: The role, Bickford had at the same time made an agreement with Warner Bros. for another picture and walked out on the Magnificent Obsession when shooting began on the 1954 version of A Star is Born , in which he played studio head, Oliver Niles. Bickford was replaced by free-lance character actor Otto Kruger. While second-unit footage wrapped at Lake Tahoe, screen tests of Barbara Rush, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Jane Wyman, Gigi Perreau, Donna Corcoran, and Sheila James took place on Stage 8 in Universal City on September 16 and 17. Director Sirk
1189-439: The season was disrupted when the theatre's main financier and manager gave up and vanished overnight, forcing the cast and crew to form a collective to keep the theatre going, and the program soon changed to comedies and melodramas - "things that made money". Although Sirk later recalled the period as "a pretty terrible time", it was here that he learned his craft, and how to handle actors in "the most strained circumstances". This
1230-477: The violent collapse of a short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic . Between stints at university, he began writing for his father's newspaper, not long before his father became a school principal. Sirk continued his studies for a time at the University of Jena before transferring to Hamburg University , where he switched to philosophy and the history of art. It was here that he attended a lecture on relativity given by Albert Einstein . A major influence in this period
1271-442: The vision in his left eye. Analyses of Sirk's work, with their emphases on aspects of Sirk's formerly-criticized style, revealed an oblique criticism of American society hidden beneath a banal facade of plotting conventional for the era - Sirk's films were now seen as masterpieces of irony. The criticism of the 1970s and early 1980s was dominated by an ideological take on Sirk's work, gradually changing from Marxist-inspired visions in
Douglas Sirk - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-516: Was a burgeoning interest among academic film scholars for Sirk's work - especially his American melodramas. The seminal work in this field was Jon Halliday 's book-length interview, Sirk on Sirk (1971) which presented Sirk as "... a sophisticated intellectual, a filmmaker who arrived in Hollywood with a very clear vision, leaving behind him an established career in German theatre and film". Several major revival seasons of Sirk's films followed over
1353-431: Was already used up." Edward Randolph, a famous artist and Dr. Phillips's close friend, explains to Helen what that phrase means. This helps her to understand why her husband left little money, even though he had a very successful practice. Merrick, who had once been a medical student but abandoned his studies, discovers why everyone dislikes him. He runs from the clinic, collapses in front of Helen's car, and ends up back at
1394-575: Was art historian Erwin Panofsky - Sirk was a select member of Panofsky's seminar group for a semester and wrote a large essay for him on the relationship between Medieval German painting and the mystery plays; in his 1971 interview with Halliday, Sirk declared, "I owe Panofsky a lot." To support himself while studying, Sirk began working as a second-line dramaturg at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 1922, substituting for
1435-557: Was distanced from his father during the Nazi period after the latter married actress Hilde Jary, who was Jewish. Klaus Detlef Sierck was active in film between 1935 and 1942. One of Sierck's greatest roles was Kadett Hohenhausen in Karl Ritter's Kadetten in 1939. The anti-Russian propaganda film about Prussian cadets captured and abused by inhuman Cossacks during the Seven Years' War could not initially be shown due to
1476-457: Was during the period of runaway inflation in Germany, and Sirk remembered that after distributing money to the company, they would have to run to the bank with their takings just before midday, because at 12 pm the banks would close their shutters and post the new dollar rate - "... if you got in too late, you had just a small percentage left of what you had earned ..." With his first wife
1517-634: Was filmed in both German and Dutch versions. His exotic melodramas Zu neuen Ufern and La Habanera made a star of the Nazi cinema out of Swedish singer Zarah Leander . Sirk left Germany in 1937 because of his political leanings and his Jewish (second) wife, actress Hilde Jary. Still in Europe he worked on films in Switzerland and the Netherlands. On arrival in the United States, he soon changed his German birth name to Douglas Sirk. By 1942, he
1558-502: Was ill, and utility director Joseph Pevney filled in. The next day, Corcoran, Hudson and Judy Nugent were tested by Pevney. Test shots were taken in Lake Arrowhead with the new Cinemascope anamorphic lens process, an early consideration. The production started in a flat widescreen process at an aspect ratio of 2:1, at that time Universal's standard ratio. Production began on September 21 at Lake Arrowhead with Sirk back in
1599-494: Was secured for the second unit footage of Hudson's boat. It was shot on Lake Arrowhead and was piloted by racer Bill Cantrell . Charles Bickford was originally cast in the role of Randolph, but was withdrawn from the cast on September 15. Sirk and Wyman were ill, and Rock Hudson injured, so filming of Magnificent Obsession was delayed longer than Bickford had anticipated. Although the studio and Bickford had come to an oral agreement and trade announcements mentioned Bickford in
1640-511: Was under contract to Columbia Pictures and directing the stridently anti-Nazi Hitler's Madman for Seymour Nebenzal , the legendary producer of Nero-Film , for whom Sirk also directed Summer Storm (1944). Sirk briefly returned to Germany after the war ended, but returned to the U.S. and established his reputation with a series of lush, colorful melodramas for Universal-International Pictures from 1952 to 1959: Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on
1681-526: Was viewed by critics as being in bad taste. Attitudes toward Sirk's films changed drastically in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s as his work was re-examined by French, American, and British critics. As Jean-Luc Godard wrote in his review of A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), "...I am going to write a madly enthusiastic review of Douglas Sirk's latest film, simply because it set my cheeks afire." The major critical reappraisal of Sirk began in France with