Film producer, director, writer, actor, architect, bobsledder
Years active
1921–1982
Luis Trenker (bornAlois Franz Trenker, 4 October 1892 – 12 April 1990) was aSouth Tyrolean film producer, director, writer, actor, architect,alpinist, andbobsledder.
Alois Franz Trenker was born on 4 October 1892 inUrtijëi,Tyrol (German:St. Ulrich in Gröden,Italian:Ortisei) in theAustro-Hungarian Empire (in present-day northern Italy).[1] His father Jacob Trenker was a painter from North Tyrol, and his mother Karolina (née Demetz) was from Urtijëi inVal Gardena. He grew up speaking two languages: German, the language of his father, andLadin, the language of his mother. He attended the local primary school from 1898 to 1901, and then attended the Josefinum inBolzano in 1902 and 1903. From 1903 to 1905, he attended the arts and crafts school in Bolzano, where he developed his skills as a woodcarver.
In 1912, he entered the Realschule inInnsbruck, where he studied Italian as a foreign language. There he began his middle school studies. During his high school years, he spent his holidays working for mountain guides and ski instructors. After his matriculation examinations in 1912, Trenker studied architecture at theTechnical University in Vienna.
At the start ofWorld War I, Trenker fought as a cadet in anAustro-Hungarian heavy artillery unit on the Eastern Front inGalicia andRussisch-Polen. From 1915 to 1918, he fought in the mountain war against Italy, from 1916 in one of the Mountain Guide Companies (k.k. Bergführerkompanien [de]) in theDolomites. At the end of the war he had achieved the rank of Lieutenant. He would write 23 books based on his war experiences, the most important of which wereFort Rocca Alta andBerge in Flammen, the latter of which was made into the 1931 filmMountains on Fire.
At the end of the war, Trenker made several unsuccessful attempts to start an architecture business in Bolzano. In 1924 he graduated from theTechnical University ofGraz, and then worked as an architect in Bolzano, forming a business partnership with the Austrian architectClemens Holzmeister. In 1924, Trenker participated in theWinter Olympic Games inChamonix as a member of the Italian five-man bobsled team. Under the leadership of Pilot Lodovico Obexer, they ended up in sixth place.
Trenker's first contact with film came in 1921, when he helped directorArnold Fanck on one of hismountain films. The main actor could not perform the stunts required, and so Trenker assumed the leading role. He gradually assumed more roles on the set, and by 1928 was directing, writing, and starring in his own films. By then, he had abandoned his job as an architect to concentrate on his films.
In 1928 he married Hilda von Bleichert, the daughter of a fabrics manufacturer from Leipzig, with whom he had four children. In 1932 Trenker created (withCurtis Bernhardt andEdwin H. Knopf) ahistorical filmThe Rebel. Trenker stated that the film's plotline of aTyroleanmountaineer Severin Anderlan leading a revolt against occupying French forces in 1809, during theNapoleonic Wars. The greatestTirolean patriotAndreas Hofer was a proto-type of "Severin Anderlan" ... Trenker was designed to mirror what was happening in contemporary Germany as it rejected the terms of theTreaty of Versailles.[2]
The main theme of Trenker's work was the idealization of peoples connection with their homeland and pointing out the decadence of city life (most clearly visible in his 1934 filmDer verlorene Sohn (The Prodigal Son). This loosely played into the hands of Nazi propagandists, who seized upon the nationalistic elements of his work. However, Trenker refused to allow his work to be subverted as such and eventually moved to Rome in 1940 to avoid further governmental pressure. After a pair of documentary films, however, Trenker returned to Bolzano and stopped making films. The style he had developed in the thirties was not limited to nationalistic, folkloristic, and heroic clichés. His impersonation of a hungry, downtrodden immigrant in depression era New York was regarded as one of the seminal scenes for futureItalian neorealism by the likes ofRoberto Rossellini.
Trenker was accused of fascist opportunism after the war, but the charges were eventually dropped. In the 1950s, he returned to the movie industry, though by 1965 he was making primarily documentary films that focused on the Austrian province ofTyrol andSouth Tyrol (his homeland), which had become part of Italy. He also returned to writing about the mountains.
In 1988 Hilda Trenker von Bleichert died. Luis Trenker died on 13 April 1990 in Bolzano at the age 97. He was buried in his family's plot atUrtijëi. In 1992, for the centennial of his birth, his native town of Ortisei dedicated a monument that shows him in mountaineer garb while looking at the Langkofel, a mountain he liked to climb. In March 2004, theMuseum Gherdëina displayed a collection of Trenker's belongings from a bequest of his family.
Birgel, Franz A. (2000). "Luis Trenker: A Rebel in the Third Reich?" In "Through a National Socialist Lens: Cinema in Nazi Germany." Ed. Robert Reimer and intro. David Bathrick. Rochester, NY: Camden House. Pages 37–64.
Friehs, Julia, and Daniel Winkler, Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah (1955). "Südtirol-Trentino, Heimatfilm und Nachkriegskino" inZibaldone. Zeitschrift für italienische Kultur der Gegenwart. Südtirol. Nr. 49/2010.
Friehs, Julia, and Daniel Winkler, Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah. "Alpine Medienavantgarde? Luis Trenker, der John Wayne der Dolomiten" inJournal für Kulturstudien 21. S. 80–91.
Gorter, Wolfgang (1977).Mein Freund Luis Trenker. Heering, Seebruck am Chiemsee.ISBN978-3-7763-5150-7.
König, Stefan, and Florian Trenker (2006).Bera Luis. Das Phänomen Luis Trenker. Eine Biographie. München: Berg und Tal.ISBN978-3-939499-02-2.
Köpf, Gerhard (1994).Ezra und Luis oder die Erstbesteigung des Ulmer Münsters. Innsbruck.
Kratochvíl, Antonín (1980).Abendgespräche mit Luis Trenker. München: Athos.ISBN978-3-88499-008-7.
Leimgruber, Florian (1994).Luis Trenker, Regisseur und Schriftsteller. Bozen: Frasnelli-Keitsch.ISBN978-88-85176-04-1.
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