Robert Wiene

Robert Wiene
Born	24 April 1873 Breslau, Silesia Germany
Died	17 July 1938 (aged 65) Paris France
Occupation	Screenwriter, director
Years active	1913 - 1938

Robert Wiene (27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was an important film director of the German silent cinema. He is particularly known for directing the influential German silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and a succession of other expressionist films. Wiene also directed a variety of other films of varying styles and genres. Following the Nazi rise to power in Germany, Wiene fled into exile.

Early life

Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also started to act, at first in small parts on stage. His first involvement with film was in 1912, writing and directing Die Waffen der Jugend.

Peak success

His most memorable feature films are the 1920 horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Raskolnikow (1923), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, both of which had a deep influence on the German cinema of that time.

Exile

After Hitler took power in Germany, Wiene left Berlin, and went first to Budapest, where he directed One Night in Venice (1934), later to London, and finally to Paris where together with Jean Cocteau he tried to produce a sound remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Wiene died in Paris ten days before the end of production of a spy film, Ultimatum, after having suffered from cancer. The film was finished by Wiene's friend Robert Siodmak.

Selected filmography

Director

• He This Way, She That Way (1915)
• The Canned Bride (1915)
• The Queen's Love Letter (1916)
• The Queen's Secretary (1916)
• Lehmann's Honeymoon (1916)
• The Robber Bride (1916)
• The Wandering Light (1916)
• Frau Eva (1916)
• Steadfast Benjamin (1916)
• The Man in the Mirror (1917)
• Fear (1917)
• Life Is a Dream (1917)
• The Night of Queen Isabeau (1920)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, released in 1920)
• Genuine (1920)
• The Three Dances of Mary Wilford (1920)
• Panic in the House of Ardon (1920)
• A Woman's Revenge (1921)
• The Infernal Power (1922)

• Raskolnikow (1923)
• The Doll Maker of Kiang-Ning (1923)
• I.N.R.I. (1923)
• Orlacs Hände (1924)
• Boarding House Groonen (1925)
• The Guardsman (1925)
• Der Rosenkavalier (1925)
• The Queen of Moulin Rouge (1926)
• The Famous Woman (1927)
• The Mistress (1927)
• The Great Adventuress (1928)
• Folly of Love (1928)
• The Woman on the Rack (1928)
• The Other (1930)
• The Prosecutor Hallers (1930)
• The Love Express (1931)
• One Night in Venice (1934)
• Ultimatum (1938)

Writer

• The Weapons of Youth (1913)
• The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach (1917)
• Frank Hansen's Fortune (1917)
• Imprisoned Soul (1917)
• The Princess of Neutralia (1917)
• Countess Kitchenmaid (1918)
• The Homecoming of Odysseus (1918)
• Her Sport (1919)
• Diamonds (1920)
• The Adventure of Doctor Kircheisen (1921)
• The Power of Darkness (1924)
• The Guardsman (1925)
• Strauss Is Playing Today (1928)

Bibliography

• Jung, Uli & Schatzberg, Walter. Beyond Caligari: The Films of Robert Wiene. Berghahn Books, 1999.

External links

• Robert Wiene at the Internet Movie Database