About:
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann is a historical novel based on the life of Georg Wilhelm Pabst, the famous Weimar-era German film director. Mr. Kehlmann is a German novelist and playwright.
- 352 pages
- Publisher : S&S/Summit Books
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1668087790
My rating for The Director - 5
Buy The Director from Amazon.com*
More books by Daniel Kehlmann*
Books translated by Ross Benjamin*
Thoughts:
This historical novel tells of the rise and fall of the famous director, and the compromises he made to make his art. Mr. Pabst is a complex figure, who made a deal with the devil in order to be able to work and make his vision come to life.
The story is told by Mr. Pabst's fictional assistant, Franz Wilzek, an old man who is being interviewed on a television show. Much like the totalitarian regime they worked under, Wilzek's memory is flexible, elusive and unreliable constantly in fatigue and still suffering from shock.
At the heart of The Director (Lichtspiel) by Daniel Kehlmann is Mr. Pabst's conviction that making art is the most important thing he can do. Art, he philosophizes, will remain long after he dies, and long after the dictatorship he's working for will no longer exist. Creating art under pure evil, however, is soiled, as his wife, Trude, keeps reminding him, and that there's a price he must pay for capitulation to the Nazi propaganda machine.
Man of La Book's Margin Notes: The Star Maker
Before P.W. Pabst sold his soul to the Nazi regime he was known as a visionary director of the silent era for his keen eye and natural acting style. The director's pre-WWIl career was also marked by his ability to discover talent, two of which became the silver screen most iconic leading ladies.
Mr. Pabst's ability to recognize something special in his actors is central to Daniel Kehlmann's The Director, Fleeing to Hollywood, Mr. Pabst was unable to navigate the American studio system and was ignored by the icons whom he helped to jumpstart their meteoric careers. Being reduced to an outsider set the state for his decision to return Austria.
Le Divina: When Mr. Pabst Greta Garbo cast as his leading lady, Greta Rumfort, in 1927's The Joyless Street (Die freudlose Gasse - watch for free on YouTube), she was almost unknown outside of Scandinavia. The movie took place in post-WWI Vienna, a town recovering from war, suffering from poverty and hyperinflation. The director captured Ms. Garbo's magnetism and emotional depth, which caught the eye of Hollywood moguls across the ocean, and an MGM contract. To movie buffs, The Joyless Street is considered an expressionist masterpiece, but to the rest of the world, Greta Garbo is one of cinema's most iconic actresses.
The Girl in the Black Helmet: Louise Brooks was a Kansas girl trying to make it in Hollywood, but she was only offered minor roles in minor films (mostly). A bold and brave woman, Ms. Brooks traveled to Europe where Mr. Pabst invited her, personally, to star in his 1929 feature, Pandora's Box (Buchse der Pandora - watch for free on YouTube). Ms. Brooks took on the role of Lulu, a tragic and seductive woman and amazed everyone with her acting style. Since these were silent filma, her performance using exaggerated acting was exactly what the movie needed. Known for her distinctive, sleek bob (the "black helmet"), Louise Brooks immediately. became an icon of the avant garde culture. That same year, Mr. Pabst caste Louise Brooks as the star of another one of his films, Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen - watch for free on YouTube), which solidify their partnership during the silent film era.
I enjoyed reading about the filmmaking techniques, groundbreaking at the time, that Mr. Pabst used. I spent much time researching the movies mentioned, as well as actors and other luminaries of the time who are part of the story. The historical cameos while enriching the novel, also shift focus to the reality of a European society whose members know one another and run the same circles, from politicians, to moviemakers, actors and cultural contemporaries show the reality of a closed off European society.
Ross Benjamin's translation is crisp and seamless. He captures the tensions of the filming of Pabst's lost movie, Der Fall Molander, in an emotional, and gripping narrative, in which we can feel the director slowly crossing a line that he drew himself. This book captures the essence of an artist being caught in authoritarian machinery, trying to work the system that's clearly working him.
Synopsis:
Famous film director G.W. Pabst left German when the Nazis seized power, but he finds his fame only goes so far in Hollywood. He struggles to understand the machination of the American film industry and is unable to replicate his tremendous European success. He is reduced to a failed director, who even people he made stars, like Greta Garbo, want little to do with him.
In 1939, Mr. Pabst, his wife Trude, and Jakob, their son, returned to annexed Austria to visit his ailing mother. They failed to leave before the war started, and the borders closed, leaving them trapped. When Joseph Gobbels hears that the cinematic genius is back in the Riech, he offers him a budget, technology, and artistic freedom but only if he directs movies for Nazi Germany. Believing true art can rise above politics, Mr. Pabst agrees, only to find out he sold his soul to the devil which is going to eventually cost him the collapse of everything he belies in.
Can art ever truly be separated from the political regime under which it was made, or does accommodation always equal complicity?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Buy The Director from Amazon.com*
More books by Daniel Kehlmann*
Books translated by Ross Benjamin*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
Can art ever truly be separated from the political regime under which it was made, or does accommodation always equal complicity?
I just watched the movie you linked, it’s old but the mastery is there
I just finished this last week and totally agree with your 5 stars. Funny side note: I was so curious what Pabst actually looked like that I used an ai image editor free trial to restore one of his old photos, and reading Kehlmann’s portrayal of him afterwards was even more fascinating.