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Alfred Junge

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Alfred Junge
Born29 January 1886
Görlitz, Silesia, German Empire
(present-day Görlitz, Germany)
Died16 July 1964
Bad Kissingen, West Germany
OccupationArt director
Years active1923–1957 (film)

Alfred Junge (29 January 1886, Görlitz, Silesia (now Saxony), Germany – 16 July 1964, Bad Kissingen, West Germany) was a German-born production designer who spent a large part of his career working in the British film industry.[1][2]

Biography

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Junge had wanted to be an artist from childhood. Dabbling in theatre in his teenage years, he joined the Görlitz Stadttheater at eighteen and was involved in all areas of production. He worked in the theatre for over fifteen years.[citation needed] Junge began his career in film at Berlin's UFA studios, working there as an art director from 1920 until 1928, when he relocated to British International Pictures as part of the production team of director E.A. Dupont.[3][1] He remained with BIP at Elstree Studios until 1930 when he returned briefly to the continent to work in Germany and then in France with Marcel Pagnol. From 1932 he remained in Britain.[1]

Michael Balcon placed him in charge of the new Gaumont British art department[3] where his organisational skills as well as talent came into their own, running a large staff of art directors and craftsmen who worked on any number of films at one time. After being Gaumont Britain's first real supervising art director, he moved to MGM-British where he continued until the outbreak of the Second World War.

After a brief spell spent interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man, Junge returned to film work.[1] In 1939, he had worked with Powell and Pressburger on Contraband, the first of eight pictures he made with the partnership.[4][2] The last of these was Black Narcissus (1947);[4] his designs for the Himalayas-set film earned Junge the Oscar for Best Art Direction.[5]

From 1947 to 1955, he was in charge of MGM-British's art department, working on transatlantic titles such as Ivanhoe (1952).[1][3] During this period he received a second nomination for the Arthurian epic Knights of the Round Table (1954).[6]

He was the first film production designer to have one of his pictures hung in the Royal Academy in London. This was a sketch of The Road to Estaminet du Pont which he created in preparation for his work on The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943).[citation needed] Michael Powell called him "probably the greatest art director that films have ever known".[3]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Junge, Alfred August". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60591. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b "Harry Ransom Center | Digital Collections | Alfred Junge". hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  3. ^ a b c d Bergfelder, Tim. "Junge, Alfred (1886-1964)". Screenonline. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Junge, Alfred (1886-1964): Film and TV Credits | Screenonline". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  5. ^ "The 20th Academy Awards | 1948". www.oscars.org. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  6. ^ "The 26th Academy Awards | 1954". www.oscars.org. Retrieved 2024-02-17.

See also

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