Fritz Maurischat

Fritz Maurischat’s estate comprises around 270 designs, most of which are carried out in charcoal. In addition to personal documents, correspondence, scripts and playbills, it also contains a typescript of his unpublished memoirs ‘Zwischen Regie und Kamera. Ein Filmarchitekt erzählt’. Notes on his professional beginnings as a scene painter and decorator can be found, and about his special effects collaboration with Eugen Schüfftan, alongside lively descriptions of his work. Maurischat drew and redrew entire sequences of scenes while considering changes in takes, cross-fades and other special effects. His designs visualized ‘Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen’ (GER, 1929, directed by Maurice Tourneur), a film about smugglers in which Marlene Dietrich plays the pilot during a dramatic aeroplane crash. A series on Richard Eichberg’s cinematic ballad ‘Großstadtschmetterling’ (GER / GB, 1929) shows the metamorphosis of a small statue into a real dancer. Of note is the inclusion of what is known as a paper film for Frank Wysbar’s first directorial work ‘Im Bann des Eulenspiegels’ (GER, 1932). The series pasted onto large sheets can be viewed as one of the first storyboards in film history. Maurischat drew the entire film from start to finish, made visual notes and indicated musical segues. Other designs attest to his collaborations with Arnold Fanck and Luis Trenker, as well as his contributions to successful postwar productions, including Josef von Baky’s ‘Die ideale Frau’ (FRG, 1959) and Gottfried Reinhardt’s ‘Liebling der Götter’ (FRG, 1960). (Text: Kristina Jaspers)