Willi Forst
Encyclopedia
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs (7 April 1903 in Vienna
– 11 August 1980, in Vienna) was an Austria
n actor
, screenwriter
, film director
, film producer
and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking
film audiences, as a director, one of the most significant makers of the Viennese period musical melodramas and comedies of the 1930s known as Wiener Film
e. From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Records
label owned by Carl Lindström AG.
in the silent film Café Elektric
in 1927. He was best known however for his characters in light musicals, which rapidly made him a star. He developed the genre of the Viennese Film with writer Walter Reisch
in the 1930s, beginning with the Franz Schubert
melodrama Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933) which became an iconic role for actor Hans Jaray and Maskerade
(1934), which launched his fame as a significant director and brought Paula Wessely
to international fame. He founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film, in 1937 and considered a move to Hollywood the same year.
Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, he was much courted by the National Socialists but succeeded in avoiding overt political statement, concentrating entirely on the opulent period musical entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during the war
. During the seven year period of National Socialist rule in Austria, he only made four films, none of them political (although his ardent Vienna-Austrian topos is considered subversive of pan-German Nazism by many film historians), and which are considered among his finest and classics of the Viennese Film genre.
He had comparatively little success after the war with the exception of the film Die Sünderin
("The Sinner") (1950) starring Hildegard Knef
, which became a scandal because of the protests of the Roman Catholic church against its nudity, the first in German-speaking cinema, but which subsequently attracted an audience of seven million people. He gave international actress Senta Berger
her first role in 1957 and that same year directed his last film (Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume), after which he retired from the industry, suggesting that his style was no longer in demand.
After the death of his wife in 1973 he lived a reclusive life in the Swiss
canton of Tessin
. He died of cancer in Vienna in 1980 and is buried in Neustift am Walde
. Forst is today considered one of Europe's important early sound directors.
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
– 11 August 1980, in Vienna) was an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
film audiences, as a director, one of the most significant makers of the Viennese period musical melodramas and comedies of the 1930s known as Wiener Film
Wiener Film
Wiener Film is an Austrian film genre, consisting of a combination of comedy, romance and melodrama in an historical setting, mostly, and typically, the Vienna of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
e. From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Records
Odeon Records
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
label owned by Carl Lindström AG.
Biography
His first major role was opposite Marlene DietrichMarlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
in the silent film Café Elektric
Café Elektric
Café Elektric is an Austrian film directed by Gustav Ucicky.- Plot outline :The daughter of a wealthy industrialist falls for a pickpocket .- Cast :* Willi Forst ... Fredl* Marlene Dietrich ... Erni Göttlinger...
in 1927. He was best known however for his characters in light musicals, which rapidly made him a star. He developed the genre of the Viennese Film with writer Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".-Selected filmography:...
in the 1930s, beginning with the Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
melodrama Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933) which became an iconic role for actor Hans Jaray and Maskerade
Maskerade (film)
Maskerade , is an Austrian operetta film, and a classic of German language cinema. The exceptional script of this, a great example of the genre of the Wiener Film, was by Walter Reisch and Willi Forst, who also directed...
(1934), which launched his fame as a significant director and brought Paula Wessely
Paula Wessely
Paula Anna Maria Wessely was an Austrian theatre and film actress. Die Wessely , as she was affectionately called by her admirers and fans, was Austria's foremost popular postwar actress....
to international fame. He founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film, in 1937 and considered a move to Hollywood the same year.
Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, he was much courted by the National Socialists but succeeded in avoiding overt political statement, concentrating entirely on the opulent period musical entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. During the seven year period of National Socialist rule in Austria, he only made four films, none of them political (although his ardent Vienna-Austrian topos is considered subversive of pan-German Nazism by many film historians), and which are considered among his finest and classics of the Viennese Film genre.
He had comparatively little success after the war with the exception of the film Die Sünderin
Die Sünderin
Die Sünderin is a German film by the director Willi Forst produced in 1950. The title role was played by Hildegard Knef.-Plot:...
("The Sinner") (1950) starring Hildegard Knef
Hildegard Knef
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was a German actress, singer and writer. She was billed in some English language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff.-Early years:...
, which became a scandal because of the protests of the Roman Catholic church against its nudity, the first in German-speaking cinema, but which subsequently attracted an audience of seven million people. He gave international actress Senta Berger
Senta Berger
Senta Berger is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting...
her first role in 1957 and that same year directed his last film (Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume), after which he retired from the industry, suggesting that his style was no longer in demand.
After the death of his wife in 1973 he lived a reclusive life in the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
canton of Tessin
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
. He died of cancer in Vienna in 1980 and is buried in Neustift am Walde
Neustift am Walde
Until 1892 Neustift am Walde was an independent municipality in the outskirts of Vienna, Austria and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna...
. Forst is today considered one of Europe's important early sound directors.
As actor
- 1922 Sodom und Gomorrha
- 1922 Oh, du lieber Augustin
- 1922 Der verwechselte Filmstar
- 1923 Lieb' mich und die Welt ist mein
- 1927 Die elf Teufel
- 1927 Café ElektricCafé ElektricCafé Elektric is an Austrian film directed by Gustav Ucicky.- Plot outline :The daughter of a wealthy industrialist falls for a pickpocket .- Cast :* Willi Forst ... Fredl* Marlene Dietrich ... Erni Göttlinger...
- 1927 Die drei Niemandskinder
- 1928 Amor auf Ski
- 1928 Ein besserer Herr
- 1928 Ein Tag Film
- 1928 Unfug der Liebe
- 1928 Die blaue Maus
- 1928 Liebfraumilch
- 1929 Der Sträfling aus Stambul
- 1929 Die Lustigen Vagabunden
- 1929 Fräulein Fähnrich
- 1929 Atlantik (his first sound film); Poldi, with Fritz KortnerFritz KortnerFritz Kortner was an Austrian-born stage and film actor and theatre director.Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916. Also in that year...
- 1929 Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist du!
- 1929 Die Weißen Rosen von Ravensberg
- 1929 Gefahren der Brautzeit
- 1929 Katharina Knie
- 1930 Das Lied ist aus
- 1930 Der Herr auf Bestellung
- 1930 Ein Burschenlied aus Heidelberg
- 1930 Ein Tango für Dich
- 1930 Petit officier… Adieu!
- 1930 Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel Takt
- 1931 Der Raub der Mona LisaDer Raub der Mona LisaDer Raub der Mona Lisa is a 1931 German film directed by Géza von Bolváry. It is based on a true story.- Plot :...
, Vicenzo Peruggia, with Gustaf GründgensGustaf GründgensGustaf Gründgens , born Gustav Heinrich Arnold Gründgens, was one of Germany's most famous and influential actors of the 20th century, intendant and artistic director of theatres in Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg...
, Roda Roda - 1931 Die Lustigen Weiber von Wien
- 1932 Der Prinz von Arkadien
- 1932 Ein blonder Traum
- 1932 So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht
- 1932 Peter Voss, der Millionendieb
- 1933 Ihre Durchlaucht, die Verkäuferin
As director
- 1933 Leise flehen meine Lieder (screenplay and direction; appeared in English in 1934 as The Unfinished SymphonyThe Unfinished SymphonyThe Unfinished Symphony is a 2005 documentary that examines issues experienced by people surviving cancer in Canada. The film is directed by Nicholas Arnold.-Summary:...
) - 1933 Brennendes Geheimnis
- 1934 Ich kenn' dich nicht und liebe dich
- 1934 So endete eine Liebe
- 1934 MaskeradeMaskerade (film)Maskerade , is an Austrian operetta film, and a classic of German language cinema. The exceptional script of this, a great example of the genre of the Wiener Film, was by Walter Reisch and Willi Forst, who also directed...
- 1935 Königswalzer
- 1935 Mazurka
- 1936 Burgtheater
- 1936 Allotria
- 1937 Capriolen
- 1937 Serenade
- 1938 Es leuchten die Sterne
- 1939 Ich bin Sebastian Ott
- 1939 Bel AmiBel Ami (1939 film)Bel Ami is a German film version of Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami directed by Willi Forst and released in 1939.- Plot :In Paris, in about 1900, George Duroy, just returned from Morocco, spends a night with the singer Rachel, who is rehearsing the song Bel Ami. Later at a party he tells the...
, directed and acted (Georges Duroy) - 1940 Operette, directed and acted (Franz Jauner)
- 1942 Wiener Blut
- 1944 Hundstage
- 1944 Ein Blick zurück
- 1945 Wiener Mädeln, directed and acted (Carl Michael Ziehrer)
- 1947 Der Hofrat Geiger
- 1948 Die Frau am Weg
- 1948 Das Kuckucksei
- 1949 Die Stimme Österreichs
- 1950 Die SünderinDie SünderinDie Sünderin is a German film by the director Willi Forst produced in 1950. The title role was played by Hildegard Knef.-Plot:...
- 1950 Herrliche Zeiten
- 1951 Es geschehen noch Wunder
- 1952 Alle kann ich nicht heiraten
- 1952 The White Horse InnThe White Horse Inn (1952 film)The White Horse Inn The White Horse Inn The White Horse Inn (German:Im weißen Rößl is a 1952 German musical film directed by Willi Forst and starring Johanna Matz, Johannes Heesters and Walter Müller. It is based on the operetta Im weißen Rößl.-Cast:* Johanna Matz ... Josepha...
- 1954 Bei Dir war es immer so schön
- 1954 Weg in die Vergangenheit, directed and acted (Clemens)
- 1955 Die Drei von der Tankstelle
- 1955 Ein Mann vergisst die Liebe
- 1956 Kaiserjäger
- 1957 Die unentschuldigte Stunde
- 1957 Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume
Sources
- Kirsten Burghardt, Werk, Skandal, Exempel. Munich 1996 (deals with Forst's film "Die Sünderin") ISBN 3-926372-61-3
- Robert Dachs, Willi Forst. Eine Biographie. Vienna 1986. ISBN 3-218-00437-3
- Armin Loacker (ed.), Willi Forst - Ein Filmstil aus Wien. 2003. ISBN 3-901932-24-0