Erich Kettelhut
Erich Kettelhut | |
---|---|
Born | Erich Karl Heinrich Kettelhut 1 November 1893 |
Died | 13 March 1979 | (aged 86)
Occupation(s) | Production designer Art director Set decorator |
Years active | 1919–1960 |
Spouse | Aenne Willkomm |
Erich Karl Heinrich Kettelhut (1 November 1893 – 13 March 1979) was a German
Career
Early career
Kettelhut was born in Berlin in 1893. After leaving school, he received training at a craft school as a theatre artist. In 1909 he first met Otto Hunte, when they were placed in charge of art direction at the Aachen's Stadttheater.[1] The two became long-time collaborators during their early cinema careers. From 1910 until 1912 Kettelhut studied at the College of Applied Arts in Berlin. This was followed by time spent as an apprentice in local theatres around Germany including a period as a scene painter at the Metropolitan Opera in Berlin and a role as the head of the design department in Mühlhausen.[1] His role in theatre was interrupted when Kettelhut was called to serve at the Front in 1914.[1] After being discharged at the end of the First World War his old colleagues, Hunte and Karl Vollbrecht, found Kettelhut employment at Martin Jacoby-Boy's design agency in Berlin. One of the firm's clients was MayFilms, the production company for film maker Joe May and was through these ties that Kettelhut first began his work within cinema.[1][2]
Lang, Hunte and Vollbrecht, 1919–1926
Kettelhut was first employed in cinema for May Film's 1919 production Die Herrin der Welt (
In 1924, Kettelhut worked on one of his most important films,
Hunte and Kettelhut's work during this period is often discussed as a shared output with the two men holding the same design ideology. When they were interviewed to discuss their creations, they would discuss the architectural or mechanical features of their design rather than the artistic. Unlike their contemporaries, Robert Herlth (Faust) and Walter Reimann (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Hunte and Kettelhut preferred to approach a challenge by looking at the economic restrictions and technical difficulties to ensure they did not hit problems at construction. Herlth and Reimann were more concerned with the look and artistic design and encouraged on-set improvisation to overcome technical issues.[4]
After Lang, 1927–1932
After Metropolis, Kettelhut, Hunte and Vollbrecht went their own ways. This allowed Kettelhut to come to the fore as a designer, and from this point he was normally the lead designer in the films he worked on, mainly for
Until 1932, Kettelhut continued to work with producer
During this time, the early days of cinema sound, many studios experimented with
Work during Nazi Germany 1933–1945
Kettelhut continued to find employment in Germany after the Nazis came to power. He found himself working with German directors such as Paul Martin, Reinhold Schünzel and Arthur Robison, producing mainly comedies for home-grown talent like Willy Fritsch. During this period Kettelhut was more often listed in his films as the production designer rather than art director. From 1937 he struck a strong professional relationship with director Georg Jacoby, and worked on a string of musicals with him, including Gasparone (1937), Der Vorhang fällt (1939), Kora Terry (1940) and Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (1941). Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (Women Are Better Diplomats) was a long shoot and went over budget, mainly due to problems with filming in the newly developed Agfacolor. With the end of the Second World War, Kettelhut left the film industry for five years. The release of Erich Engel's rom-com Fahrt ins Glück in 1948, for which Kettelhut worked as the production designer, was postponed. It was actually shot in 1944 but needed to wait four years until its premiere, in East Germany.
Later career 1946–1979
Kettelhut returned to film in 1950, with the
In the mid-1950s, Kettelhut found himself in constant demand, working on three or four films a year. In 1955, as well as Kinder, Mütter und ein General he also acted as production designer on Drei Mädels vom Rhein, Drei Tage Mittelarrest and Eine Frau genügt nicht?. In the late 1950s, Kettelhut contributed outstanding design sets to two submarine dramas, the sympathetic anti-war tale Haie und kleine Fische (Sharks and Little Fish) and the loose biographical film U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien.[1] Kettelhut's final outing on the big screen saw him reunited with Fritz Lang, in what would also be the director's final film, The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960).[11]
With his career in film behind him, Kettelhut found work in the emerging television industry. He provided art direction for the television movies Geschichte einer Geschichte (1963) Das Feuerzeichen (1965) and Schwarzer Freitag (Black Friday) and the short lived 1963 television comedy series Die merkwürdigen Erlebnisse des Hansjürgen Weidlich.[1] He died in Hamburg, West Germany on the 13 March 1979 at the age of 86.
Awards and recognition
In 1968 Kettelhut was awarded the 'Special Award for Outstanding Contributions to German Cinema' for his lifelong body of work at the annual German Film Awards (
Filmography
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Key: † As art director; ‡ As production designer; S As set decorator; A Art department
References
- ^ ISBN 9781571816559.
- ^ a b c d Neumann, Dietrich, ed. (1997). Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner. Munich: Prestel.
- ISBN 9781571133502.
- ^ ISBN 9789053569849.
- ^ Altendorf, Guido; Wilkening, Anke (Directors) (2011). Das Erbe Der Niebelungen [The Heritage of Die Nibelungen] (in German). Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.
- ^ Glancey, Jonathan (5 November 2009). "From Metropolis to Blade Runner: architecture that stole the show". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ Deutelbaum, Marshall. "Review of:Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner". Film Criticism. academia.edu. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9780520222991.
- ^ "Early Sound Film and Multiple Language Versions". filmreference.com. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
- ^ "Drei Mädchen spinnen". bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
- ISBN 9780520021525.
- ^ "Deutsche Filmakademie bon 1951 bis heute". deutsche-filmakademie.de. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
External links
- Erich Kettelhut at IMDb