Jiří Weiss facts for kids

Jiří Weiss (born March 29, 1913 – died April 9, 2004) was a famous Czech film director and writer. He also worked as a screenwriter, playwright, and teacher. He made many important films and documentaries throughout his long career.

About Jiří Weiss: A Filmmaker's Journey

Early Life and Big Dreams

Jiří Weiss grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in Prague. He was named after a Czech king, Jiří z Poděbrad. His father owned a factory. From a young age, Jiří believed in communist ideas, which were different from his parents' capitalist views. This caused some disagreements at home.

He was friends with Marianne Pollaková, who was the niece of the famous writer Franz Kafka. Jiří read Kafka's books when he was a teenager. He loved films, but his parents wanted him to become a lawyer. He decided to leave home and live with his friend, K. M. Walló, who later became a director too. This disagreement with his father was very serious.

In his early twenties, Jiří worked for a film company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Prague. During this time, he wrote his first book for children, called O věrné Hadimršce. He also became friends with many smart writers and thinkers, like Vladislav Vančura. Vančura even asked him to help with his movie Marijka the Faithless in 1934.

Becoming a Filmmaker

Jiří Weiss borrowed a small 16mm camera to make his first amateur film. He was inspired by Soviet filmmakers. His film was about young people canoeing on the Sázava river. He sent this film to the Venice Film Festival in 1935. It was a big success, ranking 5th out of 72 movies!

A company called Eastman Kodak Company noticed his talent. They traded his film for professional 35mm film. Jiří borrowed a camera again and made another film with the same actors and theme. He called it People in the Sun. He edited the film at night using equipment from the MGM offices.

This new film was shown in Prague alongside other artistic movies. Critics praised Jiří, and he won a state prize of 10,000 Kčs. In 1936, he started working at A-B studio in Prague. There, he made his first professional film, Sun Is Shining over Lužnice. He also learned from experienced directors like Martin Frič. In 1936, he directed a short documentary about airplanes called Give us the Wings.

Life During Wartime

Jiří was working on a documentary about Czechoslovakia's 20th anniversary when the Munich Agreement happened. This agreement allowed Germany to take over parts of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, after Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, Jiří had to leave. He fled to England. He used the film footage he had to make a documentary about his country's troubles.

In 1942, he wrote a book called Lost Government. He also helped direct a play in London. Later, he joined the No. 311 Squadron RAF, a special Czech air force squadron in Britain. He became a captain in the British Army. He joined the 21st Army Group to film the liberation of countries like France and Belgium. He was even there when the Buchenwald concentration camp was freed.

After the War and Later Years

Jiří returned to Prague on May 13, 1945. Sadly, all of his family, including his parents, had died in the Holocaust. He made his first full-length movie, The Stolen Frontier, in 1947.

Even though he had believed in communist ideas, Jiří became unhappy with the communist government in the early 1950s. He made his most famous films in the late 1950s and 1960s. These include Wolf Trap (1957), Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1959), and Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965). The last one was made with British filmmakers.

After the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, Jiří left Czechoslovakia again. He lived in West Berlin and taught at a film school. Later, he moved to the United States. He taught film at Hunter College in New York and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He became an American citizen in 1986.

He kept writing screenplays, but none of them were made into movies during this time. He also wrote two plays: The Jewish War (1986) and Berenice (1990). In 1991, he made his last film, Martha and I. He wrote a book about his memories called Bílý Mercedes in 1995.

Jiří Weiss was married three times and had two children. He passed away in Santa Monica in 2004.

Selected Filmography

Feature Films

• The Stolen Frontier (1947)
• Dravci (1948)
• The Last Shot (1950)
• New Fighters Shall Arise (1950)
• My Friend the Gipsy (1953)
• Wolf Trap (1957)
• Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1959)
• The Coward (1961)
• Golden Fern (1963)
• Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965)
• Martha and I (1991)

Documentaries

• People in the Sun (1935)
• Give us the Wings (1936)
• A Song About Carpathian Ruthenia (1937)
• Eternal Prague (1940)
• 100 Million Women (1942)
• Fighter Pilot (1943)
• Before the Raid (1943)
• Night and Day (1945)
• We Will Remain Faithful (1945)

Other Works

• O věrné Hadimršce (1935) - Children's book
• The Lost Government Or Do You Really Like It? (1945) - Book
• Jejich starosti / Zátopkovy nohy / Rothschildovy peníze (1966) - Book
• Bílý Mercedes (1995) - Memoirs

See also

In Spanish: Jiří Weiss para niños