Luise Fleck - Works

Works

In 1911 her first credited work as co-director was released: Die Glückspuppe ("Good Luck Doll"). Other dramas followed in the same year: Der Dorftrottel ("The Village Idiot"), Tragödie eines Fabriksmädels ("Tragedy of a Factory Girl") and Nur ein armer Knecht ("Just a Poor Fellow"). In 1913 were premiered her works as director and producer "Der Psychiater" ("The Psychiatrist") and Das Proletarierherz ("The Proletarian Heart").

During World War I she directed the pro-Habsburg propaganda dramas Mit Herz und Hand fürs Vaterland ("With Hand and Heart for the Fatherland") (1915) and Mit Gott für Kaiser und Reich ("With God for Kaiser and Reich") (1916). In 1918 appeared Der Doppelselbstmord ("The Double Suicide").

She also made use of Austrian literature in Die Ahnfrau ("The Ancestress"), based on the play of the same name by Franz Grillparzer, and Lumpazivagabundus, both from 1919. From 1911 to 1922, the year in which her husband Anton died, Luise is known to have directed over 45 films, and the number may have been considerably higher.

Luise Kolm, as she was then called, was principally responsible for the studio's production of socially critical dramas that dealt with questions of class conflict and ideological questions, unlike the standard productions of other film studios of the time. The actor Eduard Sekler, who worked for Wiener Kunstfilm, described her in this way: "Luise Kolm was a brilliant all-round talent while her husband Kolm just looked after the money - she did everything, she cut and spliced the films, wrote the intertitles and helped her brother in the laboratory. Without her drive and initiative it's doubtful if the firm could have remained in existence."

Further works by her were the film adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's middle-class tragedy Liebelei ("Flirtation") in 1927 and Wenn die Soldaten... ("when The Soldiers...") in 1931. Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld ("The Pastor of Kirchfeld") appeared in cinemas in 1937. It was Luise and Jacob Fleck's first sound film production, based on a well-known anti-clerical play of 1870 by Ludwig Anzengruber. It was intended as anti-Nazi and pro-Catholic "Austria propaganda", but was not perceived as such by the critics, who misinterpreted and discounted it.

Altogether Luise Fleck wrote at least 18 screenplays, directed 53 films and produced 129 films. Some sources assume far higher figures, allowing for her work being often uncredited.