Luis Trenker: Difference between revisions

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1892|10|04|df=y}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1990|04|13|1892|10|04|df=y}}

'''Luis Trenker''' (born '''Alois Franz Trenker''', 4 October 1892 – 13 April 1990) was a [[South Tyrol]]ean [[film producer]], [[Film director|director]], [[writer]], [[actor]], [[architect]], [[Mountaineering|alpinist]], and [[Bobsleigh|bobsledder]].

Alois Franz Trenker was born on 4 October 1892 in [[Urtijëi]], [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]] ({{lang-de|link=no|St. Ulrich in Gröden}}, {{lang-it|Ortisei}}) in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]] (in present-day northern Italy).<ref>Vierhaus, Rudolf (2008) ''[[Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=-MAlCv4xROAC&pg=PA94 "Trenker"] Volume 10:94 Walter de Gruyter {{ISBN|9783110963816}}</ref> His father Jacob Trenker was a painter from North Tyrol, and his mother Karolina (''née'' Demetz) was from Urtijëi in [[Val Gardena]]. He grew up speaking two languages: German, the language of his father, and [[Ladin language|Ladin]], the language of his mother. He attended the local primary school from 1898 to 1901, and then attended the Josefinum in Bolzano in 1902 and 1903. From 1903 to 1905, he attended the arts and crafts school in Bolzano, where he developed his skills as a woodcarver.

In 1928 he married Hilda von Bleichert, the daughter of a fabrics manufacturer from Leipzig, and together they had four children. In 1932 Trenker created (with [[Curtis Bernhardt]] and [[Edwin H. Knopf]]) an [[historical film]] ''[[The Rebel (1932 film)|The Rebel]]''. Trenker stated that the film's plotline of a [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrolean]] [[mountaineer]] Severin Anderlan leading a revolt against occupying French forces in 1809, during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. The greatest [[German Tyrol|Tirol]]ean [[Patriotism|patriot]] [[Andreas Hofer]] was a proto-type of "Severin Anderlan" ... Trenker was designed to mirror what was happening in contemporary Germany as it rejected the terms of the [[Treaty of Versailles]].<ref>Prawer p. 207.</ref>

The main theme of Trenker's work was the idealization of peoples connection with their homeland and pointing out the decadence of city life (most clearly visible in his 1934 film ''Der verlorene Sohn'' (''The Prodigal Son''). This loosely played into the hands of Nazi propagandists, who seized upon the nationalistic elements of his work. However, Trenker refused to allow his work to be subverted as such and eventually moved to [[Rome]] in 1940 to avoid further governmental pressure. After a pair of documentary films, however, Trenker returned to Bolzano and stopped making films. The style he had developed in the thirties was not limited to nationalistic, folkloristic, and heroic clichés. His impersonation of a hungry, downtrodden immigrant in depression era New York was regarded as one of the seminal scenes for future [[Italian neorealism]] by the likes of [[Roberto Rossellini]].

* ''[[His Best Friend (1962 film)|His Best Friend]]'' (1962), ''His Best Friend'', {{small|director, screenplay, actor}}

* Birgel, Franz A. (2000). “Luis"Luis Trenker: A Rebel in the Third Reich?” In "Through a National Socialist Lens: Cinema in Nazi Germany." Ed. Robert Reimer and intro. David Bathrick. Rochester, NY: Camden House. Pages 37–64.

* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=279 Virtual History -– Photographs]