Queer Places:
Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf, Bahnhofstraße 2, 14532 Stahnsdorf, Germania
.jpg)
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe;
December 28, 1888 – March 11, 1931) was a German film director. When, at the
tail end of the silent era, Mauritz
Siller and F.W. Murnau were imported to Hollywood, their homosexuality was
a known commodity. Like the designer Erté, they enjoyed as Europeans greater
latitude in their personal freedom, perhaps because their "foreignness"
already set them apart.
Murnau was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air force, surviving several crashes without any severe injuries.[1]
One of Murnau's acclaimed works is the 1922 film Nosferatu, an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Although not a commercial success due to copyright issues with Stoker's novel, the film is considered a masterpiece of Expressionist film. He later directed the 1924 film The Last Laugh, as well as a 1926 interpretation of Goethe's Faust. He later emigrated to Hollywood in 1926, where he joined the Fox Studio and made three films: Sunrise (1927), 4 Devils (1928) and City Girl (1930). The first of these three is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.[2]
Murnau's first film for William Fox, Sunrise, was a tremendous critical success, and he was pretty much able to write his own ticket after that. Charmed by the young actor David Rollins, Murnau asked him to pose for nude photographs around his swimming pool. Rollins complied, and when he asked the studio later if this was usual procedure, he was told simply that he "should be nice to the director."
In 1931, Murnau travelled to Bora Bora to make the film Tabu (1931) with documentary film pioneer Robert J. Flaherty, who left after artistic disputes with Murnau, who had to finish the movie on his own. A week prior to the opening of the film Tabu, Murnau died in a Santa Barbara hospital from injuries he had sustained in an automobile accident that occurred along the Pacific Coast Highway near Rincon Beach, southeast of Santa Barbara.
Of the 21 films Murnau directed, eight are considered to be completely lost. One reel of his feature Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna survives. This leaves only 12 films surviving in their entirety.
A week prior to the opening of the film Tabu, Murnau drove up the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles, California in a hired Rolls-Royce. The young driver, a 14-year-old Filipino servant,[17] crashed the car against an electric pole. Murnau hit his head and died in a hospital the next day, in nearby Santa Barbara,[3][1] before the premiere of his last film.
Murnau was entombed in Southwest Cemetery in Stahnsdorf (Südwest-Kirchhof Stahnsdorf) near Berlin.[18][19] Only 11 people attended the funeral. Among them were Robert J. Flaherty, Emil Jannings, Greta Garbo and Fritz Lang, who delivered the eulogy. Garbo also commissioned a death mask of Murnau, which she kept on her desk during her years in Hollywood.[8]In July 2015, Murnau's grave was broken into, the remains disturbed and the skull removed by persons unknown.[20] Wax residue was reportedly found at the site, leading some to speculate that candles had been lit, perhaps with an occult or ceremonial significance. As this disturbance was not an isolated incident, the cemetery managers are considering sealing the grave.[21][22]
My published books:
