Aleksandar Lifka (20 May 1880 – 12 November 1952) was an Yugoslav

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

Life

Lifka was born in Brassó in the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, in what is now Romania to a Czech family. After spending his childhood with his parents in Žatec near Prague, he moved to Vienna to study at technical high school. During that time, he experimented with

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a sin ...

moving pictures, but without success. After completing his education, Lifka traveled to Paris, where he bought a

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

camera. In 1900, he shot the visit of the emperor Franz Joseph and Queen Elisabeth to the town of

Gödöllő Gödöllő (; german: Getterle; sk, Jedľovo) is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is 34,396 according to the 2010 census and is growing rapidly. It can ...

, in Hungary. After his father's death, Lifka and his older brother Karl started a traveling movie theater. It had professional equipment ( Gaumont,

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

, Körting) and had a luxurious interior. The first city in which they showed their films was Trieste, Italy. The tour continued in 1901 to

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

, Bjelovar,

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

(Croatia), and Ljubljana (Slovenia), and in 1902 to

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Zemun,

Újvidék Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

(now Novi Sad, Serbia), and

Szabadka Subotica ( sr-cyrl, Суботица, ; hu, Szabadka) is a city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Subotica is ...

(now Subotica, Serbia). In 1903, the Lifka brothers bought another tent, and Karl separated and settled in Linz and Salzburg. Aleksandar Lifka shot documentary film of some political events, and of common people in the towns he visited. Lifka visited

again in 1905, and in 1910, he renovated the grand hall of Hungaria Hotel into a permanent movie theater. His wife, Beck Erzsébet, helped him to run the cinema. During World War I, he was hired by Filmkriegspresse to create films about battles in Galizia, where he was wounded. After the end of war, he returned to Subotica, which then belonged to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and stopped making films. Only twenty of his original films survived. After World War II, he accepted Yugoslav citizenship. He died on 12 November 1952 at his vineyard. He is buried in Subotica.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lifka, Aleksandar 1880 births 1952 deaths Czech cinematographers Serbian cinematographers Hungarian people of Czech descent Serbian people of Czech descent People from Brașov Film people from Subotica Yugoslav filmmakers