Nero-Film AG was a German
film production company founded in 1925 and based in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
during the
Weimar era
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is als ...
.
History
The company's name was derived from the names of its two founders: the letters "NE" stood for the name of the entrepreneur
Heinrich Nebenzahl
Heinrich Nebenzahl (1870–1938) was an Austrian-born film producer.Prawer p.7 In 1925 he founded the German production company Nero Film which prospered under the management of his son Seymour Nebenzahl. In 1933 the Jewish Nebenzahls were forced t ...
, and the letters "RO" for the initials of director
Richard Oswald. It was founded as ''Nero-Film GmbH'', a
limited liability company
A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of ...
, and was converted into an ''
Aktiengesellschaft
(; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (where it is equi ...
'', ''Nero-Film AG'', in 1927.
Under the influence of Nebenzahl's son
Seymour Nebenzal
Seymour Nebenzal (22 July 1899 – 23 September 1961) was an American-born Jewish-German film producer. He produced 46 films between 1927 and 1961.
Biography Germany
He got into film production through his father Heinrich Nebenzahl (1870– ...
, Nero-Film was one of the most artistically ambitious production companies in Germany, and with directors like
G.W. Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic.
...
and
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
it produced a number of major films of the Weimar era, such as ''
Pandora's Box
Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing physi ...
'', ''
Westfront 1918'', ''
The Threepenny Opera
''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a " play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François Villon, with mu ...
'', ''
M'', ''
Kameradschaft'', ''
L'Atlantide'' and ''
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (german: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), also called ''The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse'', is a 1933 German crime-thriller film directed by Fritz Lang. The movie is a sequel to Lang's silent film ''Dr. Mabuse the Gambl ...
''. In the film industry, the bourgeois-democratic Nero-Film and the proletarian
Prometheus Film were the last bulwark against the rise of artistic
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
. After the
Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Seymour Nebenzal was forced to emigrate, and Nero-Film AG was put out of business. ''
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (german: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), also called ''The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse'', is a 1933 German crime-thriller film directed by Fritz Lang. The movie is a sequel to Lang's silent film ''Dr. Mabuse the Gambl ...
'' became the first film censored by the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government; Nebenzal and Director
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
appeared before Reich Minister of Propaganda
Joseph Goebbels, who ordered ''Mabuse'' destroyed and banned it from the Reich.
Nebenzal, using his American passport, fled that evening to
Switzerland and then to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, where he re-established his company as Production Nero Film and, among other French productions, collaborated with the Director
Anatole Litvak
Anatoly Mikhailovich Litvak (russian: Анатолий Михайлович Литвак; 21 May 1902 – 15 December 1974), better known as Anatole Litvak, was a Ukrainian-born American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in vari ...
to produce
Mayerling
Mayerling is a small village (pop. 200) in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat river, in the Wienerwald (''Vienna woods''), southwest of Vienna. From 1550, it was in t ...
, a huge success for the star,
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...
.
Fleeing again to Los Angeles, as the Nazis invaded France, Nebenzal again re-established the company under the name of Nero Films Inc. Nebenzal's son, Harold, still manages the films in the Nero collection, including supervising a new print of his father's remake for Columbia Pictures in 1951 of ''
M'', directed by
Joseph Losey that was featured at
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...
Film Festival in 2016.
Selected filmography
* ''
Die Gefangene von Shanghai'' (1927)
* ''
Das letzte Fort'' (1928)
* ''
Tragödie im Zirkus Royal'' (1928)
* ''
Die Büchse der Pandora'' (1929)
* ''
Menschen am Sonntag'' (1930)
* ''
Vier von der Infanterie'' (1930)
* ''
Skandal um Eva'' (1930)
* ''
Die 3 Groschen-Oper'' (1931)
* ''
Ariane'' (1931)
* ''
M'' (1931)
* ''
Kameradschaft'' (1931)
* ''
L'Atlantide'' (1932) three versions: German, French, and English
* ''
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse
''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (german: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse), also called ''The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse'', is a 1933 German crime-thriller film directed by Fritz Lang. The movie is a sequel to Lang's silent film ''Dr. Mabuse the Gambl ...
'' (1933)
As Production Nero Film
* ''
Le Sexe faible'' (1933)
* ''
La crise est finie'' (1934)
* ''
La Vie parisienne'' (1936)
* ''
Mayerling
Mayerling is a small village (pop. 200) in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat river, in the Wienerwald (''Vienna woods''), southwest of Vienna. From 1550, it was in t ...
'' (1936)
* ''
Le Roman de Werther'' (1938)
* ''
Les Otages'' (1939)
As Nero Films Inc.
* ''
We Who Are Young
''We Who Are Young'' is a 1940 American drama film directed by Harold S. Bucquet, written by Dalton Trumbo and starring Lana Turner, John Shelton and Gene Lockhart.
Plot
Cast
* Lana Turner as Margy Brooks
* John Shelton as William Brooks
* ...
'' (1940)
* ''
Hitler's Madman
''Hitler's Madman'' is a 1943 World War II drama directed by Douglas Sirk. It is a highly fictionalized account of the 1942 Operation Anthropoid, assassination of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich and the resulting Lidice massacre, which the Nazi G ...
'' (1943)
* ''
Summer Storm'' (1944)
* ''
Whistle Stop'' (1945)
* ''
The Chase'' (1946)
* ''
Heaven Only Knows'' (1947)
* ''
Siren of Atlantis
''Siren of Atlantis'', also known as ''Atlantis the Lost Continent'', is a 1949 American black-and-white fantasy-adventure film, distributed by United Artists, that stars Maria Montez and her husband Jean Pierre Aumont. It was the first feature ...
'' (1948)
* ''
M'' (1951)
* ''
Bis zum Ende aller Tage'' (1961)
Seymour Nebenzal
Seymour Nebenzal (22 July 1899 – 23 September 1961) was an American-born Jewish-German film producer. He produced 46 films between 1927 and 1961.
Biography Germany
He got into film production through his father Heinrich Nebenzahl (1870– ...
's son
Harold Nebenzal
Harold may refer to:
People
* Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
* Harold (surname), surname in the English language
* András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold"
Art ...
continued the three-generation tradition of Nero-Film through the production of such motion picture masterpieces as
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
and
Gabriela Gabriela may refer to:
* Gabriela (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian feminine given name
* ''Gabriela'' (1942 film), a Czech film
* ''Gabriela'' (1950 film), a German film
* ''Gabriela'' (1983 film), a Brazilian film
* ''Gabriela' ...
.
Further reading
*
External links
* (in German)
* (in German)
Film production companies of Germany
Weimar culture
1925 establishments in Germany
1933 disestablishments in Germany
Mass media companies established in 1925
Mass media companies disestablished in 1933
Mass media in Berlin
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