Frank Paul Beyer (; 26 May 1932 – 1 October 2006) was a German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Trace of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the ruling SED. His 1975 film Jacob the Liar was the only East German film ever nominated for an Academy Award. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until his death he mostly directed television films.
Biography
Early life and career
Frank Beyer was born as Frank Paul Beyer in Nobitz in Thuringia, Germany, to Paul Beyer, a clerk, and Charlotte Beyer, a sales clerk. He had a brother, Hermann Beyer (born 30 May 1943) who should have become a successful actor. After the Machtergreifung of the Nazi Party in 1933 his father, a social democrat lost his job and was unemployed for several years. In 1942 he was drafted for military service and was killed one year later at the Eastern Front.
In 1938 Frank Beyer started attending primary school in Nobitz, and later the Realgymnasium Ernestinum in Altenburg. His education was interrupted for a few months in the aftermath of World War II. In fall 1946 he continued his education in Altenburg and played in an amateur dramatic society. He also became a member of the Free German Youth and later of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. After finishing school with his Abitur in 1950 he wanted to study history at the University of Leipzig, but at the request of the socialist unity party he stayed in Altenburg and worked as district party secretary for the local cultural association. At the same time he trained to become a film projectionist, and being interested in theater wrote play reviews for the local newspaper. Later he worked at the theater of the towns of Crimmitschau and Glauchau as an assistant director and dramaturge.
thumb|200px|right|[[Vlastimil Brodský (second from the left) and Frank Beyer (middle) before the premiere of Jacob the Liar at the Kosmos film theater in East Berlin.]]
Despite being banned from directing theatrical films, Frank Beyer was allowed to direct a film for East German television in 1968. The television film Der Geizige after the play The Miser by Molière was realized with the cast of the State Theater in Dresden. In 1971 he directed the five part television film Rottenknechte on the last days of the German navy during World War II, and in 1973 the four part television film Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita with his wife Renate Blume in the leading role. The film, which concentrates on the private and romantic life of a young woman, generated debates on marriage, relationships and socialist moral across the country. and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards in 1977. It was East Germany's first and only nomination for an Academy Award.
In 1983 he directed the road movie ' which was shot in the US and in Cuba and was not very successful at the box office after the theatrical release in 1984. For several years, until 1989 Frank Beyer worked on several projects in East and West Germany, with none being realized. He also worked as a director at the political cabaret Pfeffermühle in Leipzig. Only in 1988 one of his projects was realized. Together with the screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase he wrote the script to the criminal-comedy film ' based on a true event from post-war Berlin. The film was realized as a co-production between East and West Germany. A popular success in East Germany, the film was a box office disappointment in West Germany. He adapted a story by Jurek Becker in 1995 in Wenn alle Deutschen schlafen and had a major popular and critical success with the Nikolaikirche in 1995. The film concentrated on the last years of East Germany and tells the story of a family that is torn between the protest movement and the Stasi. Another success was the film Der Hauptmann von Köpenick based on the play The Captain of Köpenick by Carl Zuckmayer. In 1998 he directed Abgehauen, a film about the circumstances of the deprivation of Wolf Biermann's citizenship and the departure of Manfred Krug from East Germany. His last project was a film based on the novel Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson. He had already developed the project and completed pre-production, but due to conflicts with the producers he was replaced with Margarethe von Trotta.
Personal life
In 1956 Frank Beyer married a make-up artist he met at the theater in Altenburg. Their daughter Elke was already born in March 1955. In 1965 they were divorced. In January 1969 he married the actress Renate Blume. Their son Alexander was born in June 1969. They were divorced in spring 1975. Their son Alexander was adopted by Renate Blume's second husband, the singer and actor Dean Reed. Under his name Alexander Reed he became an actor, and had minor roles in two of his father's films, Der Hauptmann von Köpenick in 1997 and Abgehauen in 1998. In 1985 Frank Beyer married for a third time. The marriage to the television announcer Monika Unferferth was ended several years later. Until his death he lived together with the poet Karin Kiwus in Berlin.
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| 1963
| Carbide and Sorrel
| Karbid und Sauerampfer
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| 1966
| Trace of Stones
| Spur der Steine
| Screenplay by Karl Georg Egel
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| 1968
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| Der Geizige
| Television film
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| 1971
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| Rottenknechte
| Television film, co-written by Klaus Poche
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| 1972
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| Januskopf
| Actor
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| 1973
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| Die sieben Affären der Doña Juanita
| Television film, co-written by Eberhard Panitz
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| 1975
| Jacob the Liar
| Jakob der Lügner
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| 1977
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| '
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| 1978
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| Geschlossene Gesellschaft
| Television film
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| 1981
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| '
| West German television film, screenplay by Ulrich Plenzdorf
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| 1981
| The Second Skin
| Die zweite Haut
| West German television film, screenplay by Klaus Poche
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| 1983
| The Turning Point
| Der Aufenthalt
| East German film, screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. Won the Findling Award
|-style=background:#efefef;
| 1984
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| '
| East German film, screenplay by Ulrich Plenzdorf
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| 1989
| '
| Der Bruch
| Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase
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| 1991
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| '
| Television film, screenplay by Wolfgang Menge
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| 1991
| '
| Der Verdacht
| Screenplay by Ulrich Plenzdorf
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| 1992
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| '
| Television film, screenplay by Klaus Poche
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| 1992
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| '
| Television film, screenplay by Klaus Poche
|-style=background:#efefef;
| 1993
| The Last U-Boat
| Das letzte U-Boot
| Television film, dubbed in/original in English, screenplay by Knut Boeser
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| 1995
| While All Germans Sleep
| Wenn alle Deutschen schlafen
| Television film, screenplay by Jurek Becker
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| 1996
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| Nikolaikirche
| Television film, co-written with Eberhard Görner and Erich Loest
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| 1997
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| Der Hauptmann von Köpenick
| Television film, screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase
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| 1998
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| Abgehauen
| Television film, screenplay by Ulrich Plenzdorf
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References
Notes
Bibliography
External links
- Frank Beyer at Filmportal.de