Béla Balázs (4 August 1884,
SzegedSzeged is the fourth largest city of Hungary, the regional centre of South-Eastern Hungary and the capital of the county of Csongrád.- Name :...
– 17 May 1949,
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
), born
Herbert Bauer, was a
HungarianHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
-
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
film criticFilm criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
,
aestheteAesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
He was the son of German-born parents, adopting his
nom de plume in newspaper articles written before his 1902 move to Budapest, where he studied Hungarian and German at the Eötvös Collegium.
He is perhaps best remembered as the librettist of
Bluebeard's CastleDuke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer...
which he originally wrote for his roommate
Zoltán KodályZoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist, and philosopher.-Life:...
, who in turn introduced him to the eventual composer of the opera,
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
.
Béla Balázs (4 August 1884,
SzegedSzeged is the fourth largest city of Hungary, the regional centre of South-Eastern Hungary and the capital of the county of Csongrád.- Name :...
– 17 May 1949,
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
), born
Herbert Bauer, was a
HungarianHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
-
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
film criticFilm criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
,
aestheteAesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
He was the son of German-born parents, adopting his
nom de plume in newspaper articles written before his 1902 move to Budapest, where he studied Hungarian and German at the Eötvös Collegium.
He is perhaps best remembered as the librettist of
Bluebeard's CastleDuke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer...
which he originally wrote for his roommate
Zoltán KodályZoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist, and philosopher.-Life:...
, who in turn introduced him to the eventual composer of the opera,
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
. This collaboration continued with the scenario for the ballet
The Wooden PrinceThe Wooden Prince Op. 13, Sz. 60, is a one act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók in 1914-1916 to a scenario by Béla Balázs...
.
The collapse of the short-lived
Hungarian Soviet RepublicThe Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a Communist regime established in Hungary from March 21 until August 6, 1919, under the leadership of Béla Kun. It was the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia which brought the...
under
Béla KunBéla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician who ruled Hungary as leader of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...
in 1919 began a long period of exile in Vienna and Germany and, from 1933 until 1945, the Soviet Union.
György Lukács----György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. Most scholars consider him to be the founder of the tradition of Western Marxism...
, a close friend during their youth, became a bitter enemy during the ordeal of the
Stalinist purgesGreat Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
.
In Vienna he became a prolific writer of film reviews. His first book on film,
Der Sichtbare Mensch (
The Visible Man) (1924), helped found the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
"film as a language" theory, which also exerted an influence on
Sergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible...
and
Vsevolod PudovkinVsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
. A popular consultant, he wrote the screenplay for G. W. Pabst's film of
Die DreigroschenoperThe Threepenny Opera is a 1931 German musical film directed by G. W. Pabst. It was produced by Seymour Nebenzal's Nero-Film for Tonbild-Syndikat AG , Berlin and Warner Bros. Pictures GmbH, Berlin. The film is loosely based on the 1928 musical theatre success The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht...
(1931), which became the object of a scandal and lawsuit by
Brecht' was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner...
(who admitted to not reading the script) during production.
Later, he co-wrote (with
Carl MayerCarl Mayer was an Austrian screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , Der Letzte Mann , Tartuffe , and Sunrise , the last three being films directed by F. W...
) and helped
Leni RiefenstahlHelene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
direct the film
Das Blaue LichtThe film title The Blue Light may refer to:* the 1932-made German film Das Blaue Licht .* the 2003-made Japanese film Ao no Honō ....
(
1932-Events:*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released.-Academy Awards:...
). Riefenstahl later removed his and Mayer's name from the credits because they were Jewish. One of his best known films is
Somewhere in Europe"Somewhere In Europe" was the Irish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, performed in English by Liam Reilly.The song is a ballad, in which Reilly sings about his desire to meet a former lover once again. He sings that he is "back in Ireland", which implies that the romance took place during...
(
It Happened in Europe, 1947), directed by Géza von Radványi).
His last years were marked by petty vexations at home and ever increasing recognition in the German speaking world. In 1949, he received the most distinguished prize in
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
, the
Kossuth PrizeThe Kossuth-Prize is a state award in Hungary, named after Hungarian politician and freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 by the Hungarian Parliament, to acknowledge outstanding personal and group achievements in the fields of science,...
. Also in 1949, he finished
Theory of the Film published posthumously in English (London: Denis Dobson, 1952). In 1958, the Béla Balázs Prize was founded and named for him as an award to recognize achievements in
cinematographyCinematography , is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
.
External links