Ophùls, Marcel

(Hans Marcel Oppenheimer / November I, 1927, Frankfurt am Main, Germany-)

   The son of German film director Max Ophuls and actress Hilde Wall, he fled Berlin with his parents after the Nazi rise to power in 1933 and took refuge in Paris. In 1941, his family settled in California, where he attended Hollywood High School. After serving with a theatrical unit of the US occupation forces in Japan, he resumed his studies at Occidental College and then the University of California, Berkeley. Back in France in 1950, he completed his studies in philosophy at the Sorbonne before entering films as an assistant director (1951 Monsieur Fabre / USA: Amazing Mon­sieur Fabre, Henri Diamant-Berger; Un Grand Patron / UK: Great Man / USA: Perfectionist, Yves Ciampi; 1952 La Fille au Fouet, Jean Dréville; Moulin Rouge, John Hus­ton, USA; 1953 Act of Love / Un Acte d'Amour, Anatole Litvak, USA / France; 1955 Lola Montès / Lola Montez / UK: The Fall of Lola Montes / USA: The Sins of Lola Montes, as Marcel Wall, Max Ophuls, France / West Germany). In 1969, after directing a couple of action comedies, he shot for French TV Le Chagrin et la Pitié, a controversial three-and-a-half-hour documentary on the conduct of the French people during the oc­cupation of France. Released in theaters in 1971, the movie was banned from TV until 1981. He appeared as an actor in two films (1981 Egon Schiele-Exzesse / Egon Schiele, Enfer et Passion / UK and USA: Egon Shiele: Excess and Punishment, Herbert Vesel, West Germany / France / Austria; 1983 Liberty Belle, Pascal Kané).

 Filmography

1960 ◘ Henri Matisse ou Le Talent du Bonheur (documentary; short; also screenwriter)

        ◘ L'Amour à vingt Ans / Lamore a vent'anni / Liebe mit zwanzig / Hatachi no koi / Milosc dwudzies-tolatkow / USA: Love at Twenty (co-director only; segment "Munich"; France / Italy / West Germany / Japan / Poland)

        ◘ Peau de Banane / Buccia di banana / USA: Ba­nana Peel (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

1965 ◘ Feu à Volonté / Hagan juego, senoras / USA: Make Your Bets, Ladies (also co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Spain)

1971 ◘ Le Chagrin et la Pitié / Haus nebeman—Das Chronik einer franzôsische Stadt im Kriege / Zorn und Mitleid / UK and USA: The Sorrow and the Pity (documentary; also co-screenwriter, in­terviewer; shot in 1969)

1972 ◘ A Sense of Loss (documentary; Switzerland / USA)

1976 ◘ The Memory of Justice / Nicht Schuldig? (documentary; UK / USA / France / West Germany)

1988 ◘ Hôtel Terminus / Hôtel Terminius: Klaus Barbie, sa Vie et son Temps / Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (documentary; also screenwriter, producer, actor as himself; West Germany / France / Switzerland)

1991 ◘ November Days / Novembertage—Stimmen und Wege (documentary; Germany / UK)

1994 ◘ Veillée d'Armes / Veillée d'Armes: Histoire du Journalisme en Temps de Guerre / The Troubles We've Seen—Die Geschichte der Kriegsberich-terstattung / The Troubles We've Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime (documentary; also screenwriter; France / Germany / UK)

 Television Filmography

1967 ◘ Munich ou la Paix pour cent Ans (documentary)

1970 ◘ The Harvest of My Lai / Die Ernte von My Lai (documentary; medium-length; also screenwriter; France / West Germany)

        ◘ Clavigo (documentary;West Germany)

        ◘ Zwei ganze Tage / Zwei ganze Tage—Wir wollen uns ein Luftschloss bauen / Faisons un Rêve (documentary; also screenwriter; West Germany / France)

1971 ◘ Auf der Suche nach meinem Amerika / USA: America Revisited (TV series; documentary; also screenwriter; West Germany)