Fred Zinneman

Like Fritz Lang , Otto Preminger , Erich von Stroheim , Josef von Sternberg , Fred Zinnemann was also born in Vienna, one of the European capitals with the longest artistic tradition, where Mozart and Mahler wrote their great works. On April 29, 1907, the future filmmaker came into the world in a Jewish family –his father was a doctor–. As a child he wanted to be a violinist, but ended up enrolling in law at the university in his hometown. Since he did not quite like the law, he ended up traveling to Berlin, hired by the prestigious photographer Eugen Shuftan. He coincided there with Robert Siodmak and his compatriots From him Edgar G. Ulmer and Billy Wilder, with whom he would make his film debut, co-directing the legendary documentary Menschen am Sonntag , a portrait of the citizens of Berlin during their Sunday leisure.

Eager to dedicate himself to the cinema, Zinnemann ended up in the United States, where he was welcomed into his home by the actress and screenwriter Salka Viertel , whose house was famous because famous figures of the Seventh Art, such as Greta Garbo and Sergei Eisenstein, passed through there. His hostess’s husband, Berthold Viertel , gave her a job as an assistant director on one of his films, such as Man Trouble . He also played an extra in All Quiet on the Front , but was openly critical of the work of the film’s director, Lewis Milestone , and was eventually fired. After he passed through Mexico, where he filmed the documentary Redes, followed by numerous shorts, Irving Thalberg signed him to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, a company that gave him the opportunity to debut as a director in the fiction feature film, with Eyes in the Night and Kid Glove Killer , two intriguing by-products. His first big hit was The Seventh Cross , shot in 1944, during World War II. Spencer Tracy was a fugitive who has escaped from a German concentration camp with six other individuals who have been recaptured and executed.

Montgomery Clift shot his first feature film under Zinnemann’s direction, Lost Angels , in which he played an American soldier who helps a boy find his mother in Berlin after the end of the war. He also debuted with another of celluloid’s heavyweight filmmaker, Marlon Brando , in Men . The actor played Ken Wilocek, who after losing the ability to walk is sent to a war veterans hospital. The director shot many sequences in a real hospital, where he asked real patients to act as extras. It was the first film on which Zinneman collaborated with screenwriter Carl Foreman and producer Stanley Kramer . with Theresa, about adjusting to civilian life as a soldier, launched the career of Pier Angeli , legendary Italian star, who drew attention in the role of the protagonist’s wife. The same year that he shot this film, 1951, Zinneman had time to shoot Benjy , a short documentary about a boy with physical problems, narrated by Henry Fonda , with which the director won the first of his 4 Oscars –he also won one at the same time. director for From Here to Eternity and two, as director and producer, for A Man for Eternity -.

Married until his death to Renee Bartlett, with whom he had a son, Tim –a producer and director without much of a star–, Zinnemann became one of the most successful directors in Hollywood from 1952. That year he directed Alone in the Face of Danger , written again by Foreman and with Kramer as producer, which sought to denounce the lack of solidarity of Hollywood professionals with the victims of the Witch Hunt. Shot in real time, this western about a sheriff forced to single-handedly take on outlaws arriving in town relaunched Gary Cooper ‘s career.as a mature gallant. He suffered from a painful duodenal ulcer during filming, but Zinneman was extremely helpful in using pain to express the character’s psychological suffering. In the end, the legendary actor won the Oscar.

The following year, Zinnemann revalidated the massive success of Only in Danger with another of his most popular titles, From Here to Eternity , an adaptation of a James Jones novel , in which the director recounted life in Pearl Harbor during the days before the Japanese bombardment. He once again featured Montgomery Clift, as a former boxer who after joining the army refuses to fight in military championships, which will earn him contempt and demeaning treatment from a commander. The director was pressured by the producer Harry Cohn, who was very reluctant for the protagonist to be Clift, and who on the other hand made him accept Frank Sinatra. Zinnemann managed to keep Clift, and although he had to stay with Sinatra, until then a very mediocre actor, he managed to convert him with great effort into a great actor, to such an extent that that year he won the Oscar for best supporting role, one of the eight that the tape collected, including those related to film and director. The cast was one of the most luxurious of all time, as the director also included Burt Lancaster , Deborah Kerr , Donna Reed and Ernest Borgnine .

A huge star, the filmmaker had strong box office results with the musical Oklahoma , the drama A Hat Full of Rain , and the exceptional Story of a Nun , with Audrey Hepburn playing a real character, a nun who nursed in Africa. Another story taken from reality was also a mass phenomenon, A man for eternity , with Paul Scofield as Thomas More, in the role of his life, which made him the winner of one of the six Oscars that endorsed the film.

Since he shot Three Wandering Lives , And the Day of Vengeance came, and the aforementioned A Man for Eternity , Zinnemann gradually spaced out his new projects, but always kept the level very high. In the 1970s he only directed two major films, Jackal –about the assassination attempt suffered by De Gaulle at the hands of a professional sniper– and Julia (1977) , adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Lilian Hellman, which was Meryl Streep ‘s film debut. , actress who accompanied Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave on the screen . His last work was Five days, one summer, about a love triangle, set in the 1930s, starring Sean Connery . The director died in London on March 14, 1997, as a result of a heart attack.