Otto Preminger is a renowned Austrian-American film director, actor and producer. Winner of various film festivals and Oscar winner.
Biography
The future film director was born in December 1905 on the fifth in the small Ukrainian town of Vyzhnytsya (then it belonged to Austria-Hungary). Otto was the son of a highly respected Jewish family. His father Markus was a famous lawyer in Austria-Hungary, for some time he even worked as the chief prosecutor of the empire.
Parents provided their two sons with a prosperous existence. Preminger wrote in his autobiography that the father never punished the children, but sat down and discussed with them any problems that arose. From an early age, the future director literally raved about the theater. He knew by heart the monologues of the stage characters of the classical repertoire, and dreamed of becoming an actor.
In post-war Vienna, Markus began his own legal practice. Otto, and later his younger brother Ingwald, followed the path of his father, and both went to receive legal education after graduation. By the way, my brother, like Otto himself, later neglected jurisprudence and also became a director.
In 1926, Otto received his doctorate, but he did not have to work side by side with his father. In the mid-thirties, the well-known events began to develop rapidly, which as a result led to the Second World War. The surge of Nazi sentiment among the German population of Austria forced many Austrians to leave their native country. In 1935, Otto followed their example and emigrated to the United States.
Career
Preminger began his career with the feature film Big Love, filmed in Austria in 1931. After emigrating, the director came with his ideas to Broadway, where he staged his first performance. The production turned out to be extremely successful, and in 1936 the aspiring director set off to conquer Hollywood. There he reached a cooperation agreement with the famous Twentieth Century Fox studio. The studio organized a big PR campaign for the new director, presenting the Austrian as the most outstanding filmmaker in Europe, but for the first year Otto actually did not produce anything, but only watched the work of professionals.
In Hollywood, a talented director faced a cold-blooded dictate of production rules, which more than once became the cause of serious conflicts on the set. The apotheosis of Otto's rebelliousness is the movie "The Kidnapped", created by him in 1938, after which the director, who has not resigned himself to the restrictions and rules dictated by mass culture, is blacklisted by all film studios.
Preminger returned to theatrical direction and only after several long years was able to engage in film production again. Real success and recognition fell on the director after his film "Laura", for this work Preminger received his first "Oscar". The obsession with the image of the ideal woman, the active use of flashbacks and offscreen commentary - in "Laura" the style of noir, which has become a classic genre of cinema, is perfectly sustained.
Since 1945, Otto began to experiment and try himself in the production of melodramas, along the way continuing to release the detective stories that were popular at that time. In the early fifties, the famous Preminger started work on independent films. Many studios did not allow him to use certain themes, character behavior, and vocabulary.
In these works, noir is replaced by moralizing, fatal beauties - by caring friends, in the male characters there is much less cynicism and selfishness than in the "early Preminger". Then comes the turn of forbidden topics. Otto completely immerses himself in the study of drug addiction, hidden homosexuality, examines in detail sexual violence. Thanks to his authority, he issues such films as "The Man with a Golden Hand", "Advice and Consent", "The Cardinal" and others to the public.
In total, the talented director has forty films of various genres, his last work was "The Human Factor" of 1979 release. He also starred in several films and produced over thirty films.
Personal life and death
The famous director was married three times. The beauty Marion Mill became Otto's first wife in 1931. After 17 years, they divorced, and three years later, the charming artist Mary Gardner became the new darling of the legendary director in 1951. This marriage lasted only eight years. The third wife of Preminger is named Hope Bryce. The wedding took place in 1971. Otto and Hope lived together for fifteen years, until the director's tragic death.
In addition to legitimate wives, there were other women in Otto's life. Several American actresses, Austrian screen star Hedy Lamarr and stripper Rose Lee. This woman, a real gypsy by birth, charmed Otto with her sensual exoticism. True, their hot romance, which began in 1943, ended in a month. The breakup was more a consequence of difficult times and circumstances than a mutual desire of the couple.
After this short passion, Rose gave birth to a son, Eric, to whom she gave her last name. To Otto's credit, who learned about the child only twenty years later, he recognized his son as his heir and made him a full member of the family.
Preminger passed away at the age of 80 on April 23, 1986, leaving behind a vast cinematic legacy. Many of his films are considered classics of post-war Hollywood.
