The Brilliant But Almost Forgotten Oskar Werner

Utterly devoid of sensuality. Ugly, bird-like nostrils.

Looks like a pansy pantywaist.

Discusses periods with Simone Signoret. He may have appeared in a few importance film roles but he didn't increase their importance.

I wish I were an Oskar Mayer Werner.

[quote] Sole brother to Klaus Kinski

I don't know what that means, but Max certainly isn't a "Sole brother"!

Liked him in "The Shoes of the Fisherman."

[quote] The Brilliant…

Where is that 'brilliance" most apparent?

In what scene? In what film?

sole brother? nein

soul brother? nein

Are you an actor R5? If not, than the brilliance is lost on you

I think my father would disagree R6

Yeah, Max hits it out of the ballpark too

He was a great actor. A couple of weeks ago when I was home sick I watched Decision Before Dawn - one of the Best Picture nominees 1951. He played a German prisoner in WWII who is recruited as a spy by the Allies, and has to go back into Germany and take huge risks. Not a false note in his performance. So suble, real, and believable. Emotionally profound. I would call him a soulful actor. Klaus Kinski also had a bit in the film, at least I think I recognized him. Anyway, I'm always so impressed by Oskar Werner, and I think he was very handsome, too.

So this performer was both brilliant and subtle?

OP's Godard thread didn't take off. Same off-putting declarative binaries.

OP, we appreciate your desire and willingness to discuss mid century European cinema. But why start with provocative unsustainable critical statements, and weird Sheboygan Conservatory of Purple Pablum Rhetoric ("Let's keep him alive")? This just demotivates the 10 (at most) old DLers who have the references to discuss "forgotten" personalities of the context. For example, why turn it into a competition with Kinski?

Say something nice and invite people into your discussion.

What caused the falling out???

from IMDB.....

Oskar Werner cut his hair for the final scene to purposely create a continuity error. This was due to his hatred for the director.

According to producer Lewis M. Allen, François Truffaut and Oskar Werner hated each other by the end of filming. For the last two weeks, they didn't speak to one another.

[quote] What caused the falling out???

He was an alcoholic.

[quote] they didn't speak to one another.

There was hardly any dialogue in 'Fahrenheit'. It was positively Pinteresque.

R11 Performers can be both brilliant and subtle.

[quote] He played a German prisoner in WWII who is recruited as a spy by the Allies, and has to go back into Germany and take huge risks. Not a false note in his performance. So suble, real, and believable

Excellent performance but more real than you'd think.

In December 1941, Werner was drafted into the Deutsche Wehrmacht.

So many officers had been killed on the Russian front that they needed replacements desperately. And, I was for them the embodiment of the Aryan type. But I am a pacifist. I didn't want any responsibility, so I behaved stupidly. I fell from my horse and made mistakes reading the range finders on the cannon, and finally, they kicked me out of training school.

In 1944, he secretly married actress Elisabeth Kallina , who was half Jewish.

That December, he deserted the Wehrmacht and fled with his wife and daughter to the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods), where they remained in hiding until the end of the war. He would later remember, "The artillery fire was constant for two and a half days. The shells hit all around our little hut and it was shaking like a leaf ... We knew that to go out there would be suicide, but it was better than to have to wait for execution."

I fell out with Jules & Jim a few decades ago. I must have watched it 15 times in my youth. I only see Oskar nowadays when I rewatch my beloved Lola Montes. Oskar could put a look in his eyes that fit the period. You don't see it anymore so much on the big screen. A kind of far a way look and some world weariness.

[quote] You don't see it anymore so much

I can't see it either.

trying again. be patient.

Verboten linken

another.

I think he was a fine looking young man.

R20:

In my twenties I fell hard for a blond from Zurich who looked like Oskar.

Kubrick sacked him after three weeks shooting in Barry Lyndon.

(Alcohol)

Werner was a bizarre choice for "Fahrenheit 451"--they obviously chose him because the main character's last name (Montag) is German and because "Jules et Jim" was such a sensation, but his German accent is nearly impenetrable (especially when he reads aloud the opening paragraph of "David Copperfield"). He's an attractive man, but his accent was much too thick for him to make it in Hollywood.

This film is very much worth seeing, though, for its intelligent direction, its cinematography by Nicholas Roeg and its brilliant score by Bernard Herrmann, and a fine performance in a dual role by Julie Christie, who plays both the young dissident who tries to woo Montag to her cause and as Montag's hilariously empty-headed wife. (She is unexpectedly genuinely moving in the second tole, which was originally supposed to be played by another actress who became unable to play the role at the last minute--the wife is an absolutely awful person, but she's very funny in the part and she also makes you realize how horrible this woman's life is, even though she initially thinks she has everything.)

Wait what? He was Klaus Kinski’s “sole brother”?

Yes, R28. Mrs Kinski slept around with African-American shipmen visiting Bremen.

But her family refused to accept these mixed-race illegitimate child.

R27 I thought 'Fahrenheit 451' a rather cold film. But your level-headed review makes me think I should re-view it.

I had a crush on him after watching 'Ship of Fools' i was maybe eleven years old. He played a doctor with a heart condition. He had an intensity that appealed to me, otherwise I've never been attracted to a blonde guy since.

What does he have to do with Klaus Kinski? I don't get it.

[quote]Werner's portrayal of the philosophical Dr. Schumann in the 1965 film Ship of Fools won him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. His portrayal of Fiedler in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and his second BAFTA nomination.

[quote] What does he have to do with Klaus Kinski?

They were both Cherman!

[quote] Wait what? He was Klaus Kinski’s “sole brother”?

[quote] What does he have to do with Klaus Kinski? I don't get it.

OP meant to say he was Klaus Kinski's "soul brother," but he fucked up on the spelling. (Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic])

Kinski and Werner didn't actually have much in common at all, other than that they were both international male movie stars from the German-speaking world, each most usually associated with a different famous director (Herzog for Kinski, Truffaut for Werner).

What part would he have played in Barry Lyndon? He’s very good in Jules and Jim as the third wheel in the love story?

But was Oscar Verner a 'sole brother' to Hardy Kruger, Udo Keer and Clows Maria Brandower?

Klaus was no father. Ninety-nine percent of the time I was terrified of him. He was so unpredictable that the family lived in constant terror. I would do anything to put him behind bars for life. I am glad he is no longer alive.

I bet this dreary, cheap movie set him into alcoholism.

The poster describes it as 'bitter-sweet' but my dull memory has the story ending in suicide.

The apex of his career was Columbo

He was obviously drunk and asleep while appearing in this.

He barely has the strength to raise his eyelids.

[quote] my beloved Lola Montes

Is only available on expensive CD and Blue-Ray.

Ustinov! Walbrook! and Werner.

Colombo was such a piece of ass

R42 A piece of ass but a sole bruvva?

[quote] The apex of his career was Columbo

No. It was his nadir.

R39, R40 He looks as big-nosed and dissolute as Stephen Fry.

Prissy.

Very similar to Albert Lieven.

But both had a healthy career in Brit movies.

He never went shirtless.

Never butch.

R38 That was a loose remake of Interlude (1957), that starred June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi - directed by Douglas Sirk. Which was itself a loose remake of When Tomorrow Comes (1939) strarring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer.

The 1957 version looked as though it was sponsored by the German Tourist Board with lots of gratuitous glorious Technicolor shots of German tourist attractions.

But, as I said above at R38, I thought the 1968 version depressing and dreary (unlike most of the reviewers on IMDB).

[quote]Werner was a bizarre choice for "Fahrenheit 451"--they obviously chose him because the main character's last name (Montag) is German and because "Jules et Jim" was such a sensation.

R27 Or maybe it was because Francois Truffaut directed both Jules et Jim, and Fahrenheit 451, and liked working with him?

R49, see R13.

To all you people who made fun of my spelling "sole" for "soul," I'm French you connards!!!

He kind of looks like Owen Wilson?

WHET Owen Wilson?

He was incinerated in that movie he did with Julie Christie

Oskar Werner was really Oskar Bschließmayer which it seems is the same as Oskar Bschlussmayer.

So does Bschlussmayer have any connection with The Anschluss in which Germany connected with Austria in March 1938?

“Interlude” was a remake of “Intermezzo” a Swedish film with Ingrid Bergman that was remade with her in Hollywood.

R47 wrote:

[quote] R38 That was a loose remake of Interlude (1957), that starred June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi - directed by Douglas Sirk. Which was itself a loose remake of When Tomorrow Comes (1939) strarring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer.

R50 Truffaut probably didn't hate him when he cast him.

R55 Intermezzo was remade as Honeysuckle Rose (1980). But I don't think Interlude was a remake of Intermezzo, though there are similarities.