Paul Czinner

{{Short description|American film director (1890–1972)}} {{Multiple issues| {{Self-contradictory|about=birth place|date=September 2025}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2009}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Paul Czinner | image = Elisabeth Bergner and Paul Czinner.jpg | caption = Paul Czinner with Elisabeth Bergner | birth_date = {{birth date|1890|05|30|df=yes}} | birth_place = Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) | death_date = {{death date and age|1972|06|22|1890|05|30|df=yes}} | death_place = London, England | alma_mater = University of Vienna | occupation = Film director, screenwriter | years_active = 1919–1966 | spouse = Elisabeth Bergner (m. 1933–1972, his death) }}

'''Paul Czinner''' (30 May 1890 – 22 June 1972) was a Hungarian-born British writer, film director, and producer.<ref>{{cite book|title=The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema|page=1977|author=Richard Taylor, Nancy Wood, Julian Graffy, Dina Iordanova|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1838718497|date=2019}}</ref>

==Biography== Czinner was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Austria-Hungary.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=I0byBwAAQBAJ&q=czinner|first=John|last=Cones|title=Motion Picture Biographies: The Hollywood Spin on Historical Figures|date=April 2015|pages=6|publisher=Algora |isbn=9781628941166}}</ref>

After studying literature and philosophy at the University of Vienna, he worked as a journalist. From 1919 onward, he dedicated himself to work for the film industry as a writer, director and producer. Czinner became engaged to actress Gilda Langer in early 1920. Shortly after their engagement, Langer succumbed to the Spanish flu; she died on 31 January 1920.<ref>{{cite book | first1 = Ilona | last1 = Brennicke | first2 = Joe | last2 = Hembus | title = Klassiker des deutschen Stummfilms, 1910–1930 | location = Munich | publisher = Goldmann | year = 1983 | language = de | isbn = 978-3-442-10212-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ilUbAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA57 | page = 57}}</ref>

In 1924, he offered the leading role in his film ''Nju'' to Elisabeth Bergner. They became partners. Both were Jewish, and after the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler began to persecute Jews in Germany, the couple fled. They went first to Vienna, and then on to London, where they were married. Despite Czinner's homosexuality, theirs was a happy union, and one which enriched them personally and professionally. In 1934, he realised his film ''Catherine the Great'', with his wife playing the main role. The film was not shown in Germany.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

They emigrated to the United States in 1940, and worked on Broadway. After the end of World War II, they returned to England, where Czinner successfully adapted numerous operas—such as ''Don Giovanni'' and ''Der Rosenkavalier''—to film.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

==Death== Czinner died on 22 June 1972 in London, aged 82.<ref>{{IMDb name|0194492}}</ref>

==Selected filmography== * ''Inferno'' (1919) * ''Husbands or Lovers'' (1924) * ''Jealousy'' (1925) * ''The Fiddler of Florence'' (1926) * ''Doña Juana'' (1927) * ''Fräulein Else'' (1929) * ''The Way of Lost Souls'' (released in USA as ''The Woman He Scorned'') (1929) * ''Ariane'' (1931) * ''Dreaming Lips'' (1932) * ''Ariane, Russian maid'' (1932) * ''{{Interlanguage link|Mélo (1932 film)|fr|3=Mélo (film, 1932)|lt=Mélo}}'' (1932) * ''Catherine the Great'' (1934) * ''Escape Me Never'' (1935) * ''As You Like It'' (1936) * ''Dreaming Lips'' (1937) * ''Stolen Life'' (1939) * ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPEUtU3DWg Don Giovanni film from the Salzburg performance]'', based on Mozart's opera. (1954) * ''The Bolshoi Ballet'' (1958) * ''The Royal Ballet'' (1959) * ''Der Rosenkavalier'', based on the opera by Richard Strauss (1962) * ''Romeo and Juliet'', ballet film starring Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn (1966)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Paul Czinner |sopt=t}} * {{IMDb name|0194492}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czinner, Paul}} Category:1890 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Film directors from Austria-Hungary Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Category:University of Vienna alumni Category:Hungarian expatriates in England Category:Hungarian film directors Category:Jewish Hungarian film people Category:German-language film directors Category:20th-century Hungarian Jews Category:Hungarian film producers Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States Category:Hungarian expatriates in Germany Category:Hungarian expatriates in Austria