Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirkwas a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth26 April 1897
CountryGermany
german-director hunter
Ross Hunter was my assistant on Take Me to Town, He was a young man, an actor before that, and learned a lot on the picture. During shooting, Goldstein left, and Ross was most pleasant. He never interfered.
german-director great
I think the great artists, especially in literature, have always thought with the heart.
german-director hard
But I always wanted my characters to be more than cyphers for the failings of their world. And I never had to look too hard to find a part of myself in them.
attended began german-director physical remained remains suggested theory
And it really began with Einstein. We attended his lectures. Now the theory of relativity remained - and still remains - only a theory. It has not been proven. But it suggested a completely different picture of the physical world.
art create trying war
The war was the end of an era, in art as well. And we were trying to create a new philosophy.
anarchism art became marxism rosa time
At the same time, of course, Marxism arose - Rosa Luxembourg, Leninism, anarchism - and art became political.
bought came far german-director land piece tiny
When we first came to America, I bought a tiny piece of land far out in the country. But there was no place to live on it, only a shed.
average ideas people
My idea at this time, which was slowly developing, was to create a comedie humaine with little people, average people - samples from every period in American life.
dirty hands land
For a house, somewhere near Los Angeles I found an old church. Very old, no longer used. So we moved the church to the land, and I took off the steeple, and I got my hands dirty.
art style common
There arose a belief in style - and in banality. Banality encompassed politics, too, because it was a common belief that politics were not worthy of art.
character home wife
I was making films about American society, and it is true that I never felt at home there, except perhaps when my wife and I lived on a farm in the San Fernando Valley. But I always wanted my characters to be more than cyphers for the failings of their world. And I never had to look too hard to find a part of myself in them
real reflection expression
There is a wonderful expression: seeing through a glass darkly. Everything, even life, is inevitably removed from you. You can't reach, or touch, the real. You just see reflections