Leopold Lindtberg

Director

Born 1902 in Vienna, Austria. Died in 1984 in Sils Maria, Switzerland. He was born the son of a Jewish merchant in Vienna. He studied German language and literature, theatre studies and art history at the University of Vienna and took acting lessons at the Vienna Conservatory alongside his studies. In 1922 he made his debut as an actor at the Berlin ”dramatic theatre”. In 1926 he directed for the first time (Theatre Bielefeld). He first came into contact with the talkies when he directed the short film WENN SICH ZWEI STREITEN (1932). After the National Socialist seizure of power, he emigrated via Paris, Warsaw and Tel Aviv to Switzerland in 1933, where he was naturalised in 1951. From 1933-48 he was a director at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, then a permanent guest director and honorary member of the Vienna Burgtheater, from 1963-64 professor at the Reinhardt Seminar, from 1963-65 director of the film school at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and from 1965-68 director of the Schauspielhaus Zurich. With the film adaptation of the novella DIE MISSBRAUCHTEN LIEBESBRIEFE (1940) by Gottfried Keller, he won the Coppa Mussolini at the Venice International Film Festival in 1940. He directed several Swiss films that became classics, such as FÜSILIER WIPF (1938), CONSTABLE STUDER (1939), LANDAMMANN STAUFFACHER (1941). In his most important film THE LAST CHANCE (1945), he took a critical look at Swiss refugee policy.

Filmography
(a selection)

Director

1953
The Village by Leopold Lindtberg
1950
Die Vier im Jeep by Leopold Lindtberg, Elisabeth Montagu
1949
Swiss Tour by Leopold Lindtberg
1946
Matto regiert by Leopold Lindtberg
1945
Die letzte Chance by Leopold Lindtberg
1943
Marie Louise by Leopold Lindtberg
1940
Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe by Leopold Lindtberg
1939
Wachtmeister Studer by Leopold Lindtberg

Screenwriter

1940
Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe by Leopold Lindtberg
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