Bernhard Wicki

Actor, Director

About

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Also Known As

Bernhardt Wicki

Birth Place

Austria

Born

October 28, 1919

Died

January 05, 2000

Cause of Death

Heart Failure

Biography

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Key figure of post-war German cinema whose preoccupation with recent German history anticipated the work of the New German Cinema.As an actor, Wicki's memorable early screen roles include the Yugoslav partisan in Helmut Kautner's anti-war film "The Last Bridge" (1954), one of the officers conspiring against Hitler in G.W. Pabst's "It Happened in Broad Daylight" (1955) and the dying frien...

Filmography

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Das Spinnennetz (1989)

Die Grunstein-Variante (1984)

Die Eroberung der Zitadelle (1978)

Das Falsche Gewicht (1971)

Morituri (1965)

The Visit (1964)

Photos & Videos

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Morituri (1965) -- (Movie Clip) One Can't Choose One's Parents

Morituri (1965) -- (Movie Clip) You Are Under My Authority

Family & Companions

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Agnes Fink

Wife

Actor. In films by Wicki, Margarethe von Trotta and others; born on December 14, 1919; married from 1945 until her death on October 28, 1994.

Elisabeth Endriss

Wife

Actor.

Bibliography

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"Zwei Gramm Licht"

Bernhardt Wicki (1960)

Biography

Key figure of post-war German cinema whose preoccupation with recent German history anticipated the work of the New German Cinema.

As an actor, Wicki's memorable early screen roles include the Yugoslav partisan in Helmut Kautner's anti-war film "The Last Bridge" (1954), one of the officers conspiring against Hitler in G.W. Pabst's "It Happened in Broad Daylight" (1955) and the dying friend in Michelangelo Antonioni's "La Notte" (1961). After a 15-year hiatus, Wicki returned to screen acting in 1976, appearing mostly in character parts (he played the Germanic Dr. Ulmer--in the middle of Texas--in Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas" 1984).

As a director, Wicki first gained international attention with the adroitly handled anti-war film, "The Bridge" (1959) and was named best director at Berlin for "The Miracle of Malachias" (1961). He also directed the German section of the Hollywood WWII epic "The Longest Day" (1962) and the Marlon Brando spy thriller "Morituri" (1965).

Wicki's more recent work includes two films adapted from Joseph Roth: "The False Weight" (1971), about the fall of the Hapsburg Dynasty, and "The Spider's Web" (1989), on the rise of Nazism.

Filmography

Director (Feature Film)

Das Spinnennetz (1989)

Die Grunstein-Variante (1984)

Die Eroberung der Zitadelle (1978)

Das Falsche Gewicht (1971)

Morituri (1965)

The Visit (1964)

The Longest Day (1962)

Director German episodes

The Bridge (1961)

The Miracle of Malachias (1961)

Cast (Feature Film)

Killing Cars (1991)

Martha and I (1991)

Fruhlingssinfonie (1986)

Marie Ward (1985)

Dangerous Moves (1984)

Paris, Texas (1984)

Eine Liebe in Deutschland (1984)

Death Watch (1980)

Die Glaeserne Zelle (1978)

Police Commissioner

The Left-Handed Woman (1977)

Crime and Passion (1976)

Of Wayward Love (1964)

Professor Brenner

The Restless Night (1964)

La notte (1962)

Circus of Love (1958)

The Affairs Of Julie (1958)

The Last Bridge (1957)

Kinder, Mutter und ein General (1955)

Writer (Feature Film)

Das Spinnennetz (1989)

Die Grunstein-Variante (1984)

Die Eroberung der Zitadelle (1978)

Das Falsche Gewicht (1971)

The Bridge (1961)

The Miracle of Malachias (1961)

Producer (Feature Film)

The Miracle of Malachias (1961)

Cast (Special)

The Mysterious Stranger (1982)

Life Events

1938

Stage acting debut

1938

Was arrested and incarcerated for ten months at the Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen because of his communist views and his membership in the radical Bauhaus school of architecture

1945

Began stage directing career, working in Switzerland, Monaco and Germany

1950

Screen acting debut in "The Falling Star"

1958

Film directing debut, the feature-length documentary "Why Are They Among Us?"

1959

Fiction feature directing debut, "The Bridge"

1960

Published book of photographs

1965

Hollywood directing debut, "Morituri/The Saboteur, Code Name Morituri"

1989

Helmed the epic "Das Spinnennetz/The Spider's Web"; debuted at the Cannes Film Festival

1990

Narrated "Martha and I"

1990

Acted in Antonioni's "La Notte"

Videos

Morituri (1965) -- (Movie Clip) One Can't Choose One's Parents Complex bit, as German merchant ship captain Mueller (Yul Brynner) realizes Marlon Brando might be (in fact, is!) a spy and saboteur working for the Brits, but accepts his thanks, having just vouched for him with his Nazi superiors, before he confronts his new passenger (Janet Margolin), whom he has deduced is a Jewish refugee, in Morituri, 1965.

Morituri (1965) -- (Movie Clip) You Are Under My Authority Posing as an SS officer catching a lift from Japan to occupied France, but actually a German defector working as an undercover British agent, Crain (a.k.a. "Kyl," Marlon Brando) tangles with the suspicious German merchant ship captain Mueller (Yul Brynner), Nazi 2nd officer Kruse (Martin Benrath) steering clear, in Morituri, 1965.

Morituri (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Must Have Been A Rat Clever shooting, Academy Award-nominated cinematography by Conrad Hall, with director Bernhard Wicki, following Marlon Brando as Nazi defector engineer Crain, blackmailed by the Brits into posing as a Gestapo officer in order to defuse the self-destruct system on a German merchant ship carrying precious rubber from Japan, in Morituri, 1965.

Morituri (1965) -- (Movie Clip) You Have No Family First scene for both, British Colonel Slatter (Trevor Howard) in India advises "Crain" (Marlon Brando) that he knows he faked his identity, and he's about to help the allies, in Morituri, 1965, from the novel by Werner Joerg Luddecke.

Longest Day, The (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Maybe I Was Wrong About Rhoda First appearance of Rod Steiger as a fictional American navy destroyer commander, joining in the overnight assault in the early hours of June 6 , 1944, then on the deck Jeffrey Hunter as fictional Fuller, Joseph Lowe as “Sparrow,” Peter Helm as Mac, more anecdotes as producer Darryl F. Zanuck builds toward the D-Day invasion, in The Longest Day, 1962.

Longest Day, The (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Request Reluctantly Approved Peter Lawford as Lovat, (Scottish-born British aristocrat Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser, a real person) minimizing his oratory en route to the D-Day invasion, then Edmond O’Brien as Gen. Barton, and Henry Fonda (then 56, the same age as his character) finally appearing 90 minutes into the picture as Gen. Teddy Roosevelt Jr., dramatizing a famous actual event, in The Longest Day, 1962.

Longest Day, The (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Send 'Em To Hell Robert Ryan as (the real) Gen. Gavin seems to be loving this bit with the flashlight, then Jack Hedley as an RAF officer briefing the men on a (real!) tactical gag, then John Wayne again as Col. Vandevoort (also a real person) with another (factual!) gimmick, and grim appraisal, building toward the event in Darryl F. Zanuck’s D-Day behemoth The Longest Day, 1962.

Longest Day, The (1962) -- (Movie Clip) We Keep Getting Fewer First appearance for Richard Burton of course as the solitary Brit flyer entering the HQ tavern, just managing a joke about the brew when he’s approached by fellow Donald Houston, and shares word of a lost colleague, beginning another story-line, in producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s D-Day epic The Longest Day, 1962.

Longest Day, The (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Why'd He Have To Mention Fort Bragg? In an airplane hangar in England converted to barracks, we’ve just met Red Buttons as American G.I. Steele and Richard Beymer as Schultz, having something of a personal reckoning, observed by buddy Martini (Sal Mineo), awaiting D-Day, in producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s The Longest Day. 1962.

Longest Day, The (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Open, London Calling Opening and scene-setting for producer Darryl F. Zanuck, hard to say which of his directors (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki) might be working here, the first introduced characters are Paul Hartmann as a German officer, and Zanuck’s paramour Irina Demick as a French partisan, in the expansive D-Day epic The Longest Day. 1962.

La Notte (1961) -- (Movie Clip) It Would Be Pointless Joining director Michelangelo Antonioni's deliberate opening, we meet hospitalized Tomasso (Bernhard Wicki) , Giovanni and Lidia (Marcello Mastroainni, Jeanne Moreau) completing their progress through Milan, interrupted by a neighbor (Maria Pia Luzi), in La Notte, 1962.

Longest Day, The - (Original Trailer) An all-star cast including John Wayne and Henry Fonda in a re-creation of the D-Day invasion on The Longest Day (1962).

Companions

Agnes Fink

Wife

Actor. In films by Wicki, Margarethe von Trotta and others; born on December 14, 1919; married from 1945 until her death on October 28, 1994.

Elisabeth Endriss

Wife

Actor.

Bibliography

"Zwei Gramm Licht"

Bernhardt Wicki (1960)

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