- Born
- Died
- Director of Photography, Bruno Mondi, shot over 100 movies. He created great silent movies in the 20ties, revue films in the 30s, propaganda films in Nazi Germany of the 40s, anti-fascist films in the Soviet zone of Germany in the 50s and entertainment films in West Germany in the 60s.
In 1918 he started his career as a trainee at the Bioskop-Film in Berlin. By 1921 he was camera assistant on Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang. Between 1924 - 1932 German cinema was at the top, and Bruno Mondi shot 26 very successful films like Die tolle Lola (1927) with superstar Lilian Harvey, or Das Girl von der Revue (1928), which was highlighted in Berlin's Roaring Twenties.
In 1932 Bruno Mondi met Veit Harlan as an actor in _Unsichtbare Front, Die_. 1935 Harlan directed his first film _Krach im Hinterhaus (1935)_ with Henny Porten in the main role and Bruno Mondi at the camera. 3 years later Harlan became the most successful director in Nazi Germany. Until 1945 Bruno Mondi and Veit Harlan made 11 films, including as films as Die goldene Stadt (1942), which was the first European feature film in color, Der große König (1942) and Burning Hearts (1945), still the biggest historical German war movie, and the anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Süß (1940), which will remain the most notorious film forever.
After World War II Bruno Mondi went on working at films without any problems, whereas Veit Harlan has been accused of aiding and abetting genocide. Mondi shot socialist-style re-education films in the Soviet zone like Wozzeck (1947) and Rotation (1949). With huge effort they made the fairy tale Das kalte Herz (1950), the first color feature film of the German Democratic Republic, which got international recognitions for the fascinating special effects. After that Mondi switched again and went to West Germany to shoot another 33 movies, most of them entertainment feature films, and a lot of them with tremendous success again, like the "Sissi"-films with new Romy Schneider.
Bruno Mondi is a luminous example for a brilliant and inventive cameraman and a frightening example for a perfect technician, not asking for the aim of his work.- IMDb Mini Biography By: StateOfThings@aol.com
- Mondi was hired in 1946 by the DEFA as one of its chief cameramen. In this capacity he made in 1950 the first DEFA color film Heart of Stone.
- The fifties he moved to the West German and Austrian film industry. Here he worked especially for several colorful productions by the director Ernst Marischka, especially the popular Sissi trilogy.
- Bruno Mondi was able to continue his career successfully after the war and he experienced again a late heyday in the 50's.
- He finished an apprenticeship at the educational establishment for cinema engineering and at the photo school in Berlin.
- His son Georg Mondi (born 1936) also became a cinematographer.
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