Douglas Sirk

26.04.1900, Hamburg, Germany - 14.01.1987, Lugano, Switzerland

 

Director
Sirk is a famous director of Hollywood films from the 1950s who began his career in Germany as a theatre director. After WW I, in 1919, he studied law in Munich but later transferred to the Hamburg University where he took up philosophy and art history. At the same time he worked as a journalist and started to direct in theatre. Between 1922 and 1937, he directed many plays and became a renowned theatre director. In 1934, he was hired by UFA and started directing short films; soon he directed his first feature film 'twas een april (Dutch version) i.e. April, April! (German version). Even though he had much success in Germany with his later UFA produced films, because of the emergence of Nazism, he left the country in 1937 with his Jewish wife Hilde Jary. He spent some time in France and the Netherlands, but soon accepted an invitation to come to the USA to direct the remake of his successful film Zu neuen Ufern (1937). Nevertheless, the first film he directed in Hollywood was Hitler's Madman (1943). In his early phase in the US, he also directed the thriller Lured (1947) and Sleep, My Love (1948). He made his most famous films for the Universal International Pictures Studio between 1951 and his retirement in 1959. Those include the melodrama Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind, (1956), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), The Tarnished Angels (1958) and Imitation of Life (1959), which was at the time Universal’s most commercially successful film - and Sirk’s last film. He then left the US, stopped directing and returned to Europe where he lived in Switzerland until he died in 1987. During his later American phase, his films were commercially successful but not well accepted by film critics. In the 1960s, thanks to Jean-Luc Godard and the magazine Cahiers du cinéma, his work was critically revalorized, mostly due to the long interview that Jon Halliday did with Sirk in 1971. From then on, besides his visual style, the ironical and socially critical aspects of his Hollywood films became better understood and esteemed.

Filmography


Films by this director

All That Heaven Allows

(USA, 1955)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Russell Metty
Synopsis:

Cary Scott, a wealthy widow with two grown-up children falls in love with a gardener, Ron Kirby. He is younger, does not care about social norms and lives freely. He is truly in love with Cary and wants them to get married, but Cary is worried about her children’s opinion and the snobbish society she is a part of. Will she chose love or remain bound by stiff social norms?

color, 89'

Written on the Wind

(USA, 1956)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Russell Metty
Synopsis:

Kyle Hadley and Mitch Wayne have been best friends since childhood. Kyle is the son of an oil tycoon who spends his time drinking and having fun. Mitch is from a poorer family, but because of his diligence he is raised to the position of a geologist in Kyle’s father’s company. Both of them fall in love with Lucy, but Kyle manages to win her over and marries her before Mitch gets the chance to reveal his feelings to her. Meanwhile Kyle’s sister Marylee is obsessed with Mitch…

color, 99'

Imitation of Life

(USA, 1959)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Russell Metty
Synopsis:

Plaža na Coney Islandu ljeta 1947. godine. Među mnoštvom kupača uzbuđeno tražeći svoju 6-godišnju kći Susie, privlačna Lora Meredith upozna simpatičnu tamnoputu spremačicu Annie Johnson i njezinu kći Sarah Jane, djevojčicu neobično svijetle puti. Lora je ambiciozna glumica koja, ne želeći pristati na kompromise, već dugo nema posla i preživljava snimajući reklame, no koja na Annieinu zamolbu pristane u zamjenu za stan i hranu zaposliti Annie. Istog dana Lora upozna i Stevea Archera...

color, 125'

Magnificent Obsession

(USA, 1954)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Russell Metty
Synopsis:

Naočiti Bob Merrick bogati je i neodgovorni playboy, nesvršeni student medicine koji je od preminulog oca naslijedio četiri milijuna dolara. Otac je rano preminuo i nije stigao uživati u bogatstvu, zbog čega je Bob odlučio maksimalno se posvetiti uživanju. Živeći u malom gradu Brightwoodu, Bob jednog dana tijekom plovidbe jezerom u svom modernom motornom čamcu počne juriti najvećom brzinom, što rezultira teškom nesrećom. Kad na mjesto nesreće stigne ekipa prve pomoći, u Bobo...

color, 108'

A Time to Love and a Time to Die

(USA, 1958)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Russell Metty
Synopsis:

Tijekom ratne 1944. godine njemački vojnik Ernst Graeber sudjeluje u borbama na rusko-njemačkom bojištu. Kad jednom prilikom sa svojim suborcima Steinbrennerom i Hirschlandom dobije zapovijed za ubijanje ruskih civila, sva trojica će to odbiti a Hirschland će počiniti samoubojstvo. Ubrzo potom Ernst otiđe na dugo očekivani dopust, da bi po povratku u rodni grad četvrt u kojoj su mu živjeli roditelji pronašao potpuno razrušenom. Odlučan pronaći ih pod svaku cijenu, Ernst će u...

color, 132'

All I Desire

(USA, 1953)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Carl E. Guthrie
Synopsis:

Vođena ambicijom da se afirmira na Broadwayju, glumica u vodviljima Naomi Murdoch je prije deset godina pobjegla od svog supruga, dobrodušnog školskog nastavnika Henryja Murdocha, i njihovo troje djece iz gradića Riverdalea u Wisconsinu. Iako se nije uspjela probiti na Broadwayju, Naomina obitelj vjeruje da je u New Yorku postala poznata i cijenjena glumica, u tolikoj mjeri da njezina starija kći, maturantica Lily, majci napiše pismo u kojem izrazi želju da ju vidi u publici...

b/w, 80'

The Tarnished Angels

(USA, 1957)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Irving Glassberg
Synopsis:

Saint Louis tijekom druge polovine 50-ih godina prošlog stoljeća, u veljači dok gradom vlada karnevalsko ludilo. Među brojnim atrakcijama koje se nude u sklopu glasovitog Mardi Grasa, odnosno Pokladnog utorka, su i pogibeljna natjecanja starih modela zrakoplova. Naočiti Burke Devlin novinar je koji je dobio zadatak napisati reportažu o jednom od pilota takvih zrakoplovnih oldtimera, o ratnom junaku Rogeru Shumannu, nekadašnjem satniku koji sad jedva preživljava sudjelujući u bizarn...

b/w, 91'

There's Always Tomorrow

(USA, 1955)

Directed by: Douglas Sirk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Russell Metty
Synopsis:

Sredovječni Clifford Groves je proizvođač igračaka iz Pasadene oženjen privlačnom Marion, s kojom ima troje djece, kćeri Vinny, tinejdžericu, adolescenticu Ellen i najmlađu Frances. No Clifford više ne uživa u braku, jer osjeća da je njegov zajednički život s Marion već neko vrijeme zapao u rutinu i dosadu. Štoviše, i on i Marion su materijalisti koji sve više postaju svjesni da su vlastite snove i život o kakvom su nekad maštali žrtvovali zbog obitelji i djece...

b/w, 84'
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