Anatoly Mikhailovich Litvak, better known as Anatole Litvak, was a Ukrainian-born American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in various countries and languages.
42 Facts About Anatole Litvak
2.
Anatole Litvak began his theatrical training at age 13 in Petrograd, Russia.
3.
Anatole Litvak returned Swedish star Ingrid Bergman to popularity with American audiences in 1956 with Anastasia, in which she won her second Oscar.
4.
Anatole Litvak directed Olivia de Havilland to an Academy Award nomination for The Snake Pit.
5.
Anatole Litvak directed Jean Gabin in his screen debut and directed Elia Kazan in his earliest acting role, City for Conquest.
6.
Anatole Litvak's solo-directed, The Battle of Russia, won numerous awards and was nominated for an Oscar.
7.
Anatole Litvak filmed aerial warfare with the US Eighth Air Force.
8.
Anatole Litvak was promoted to full colonel by the end of the war for his volunteer wartime efforts.
9.
Anatole Litvak received special awards from the governments of France, Britain, and the United States.
10.
Anatoly Mikhailovich Anatole Litvak was born in Kyiv, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire, and grew up in a Lithuanian Jewish family.
11.
Anatole Litvak began work in film at Leningrad's Nordkino Studios, where he was assistant director for nine silent films in the 1920s.
12.
Anatole Litvak followed it with two Lilian Harvey films, No More Love and Calais-Dover.
13.
Anatole Litvak returned to Germany for The Song of Night, shot at the same time as an English version, released as Tell Me Tonight.
14.
Anatole Litvak went to England to direct Sleeping Car, starring Ivor Novello.
15.
Anatole Litvak made Cette vieille canaille and Flight Into Darkness.
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Anatole Litvak became known in the industry for emphasizing sound effects over dialogue in sound films.
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Anatole Litvak preferred to keep the camera running with tracking shots and pans.
18.
Anatole Litvak was lucky to have left France before its fall to the Nazi invasion and occupation.
19.
Anatole Litvak directed such films as The Woman I Love ; Tovarich with Boyer, a comedy celebrating "outmoded values of the ruined Russian aristocracy"; The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse ; and The Sisters, starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.
20.
Biographer Alexander Walker said in his book about Vivien Leigh, that Anatole Litvak tried to open Hollywood's eyes to the threat Germany posed to Europe and the world.
21.
Anatole Litvak learned from him that the studios were trying to protect their investments in German box office and did not want to produce films that would offend that country.
22.
Anatole Litvak seems to have topped every other effort in his direction of each and every sequence of this picture.
23.
Anatole Litvak's fight scenes are terrific; his love scenes give you creeps of joy; his pacing of the yarn, because it told so much, was perfection.
24.
Anatole Litvak is definitely at the top of the heap with this contribution.
25.
Anatole Litvak directed two films released the same year: Out of the Fog and Blues in the Night.
26.
Anatole Litvak, having by then become an American citizen, enlisted in the United States Army at the beginning of US involvement in World War II.
27.
Anatole Litvak joined with fellow director Frank Capra to make the Why We Fight war training film series, most of which included newsreel footage.
28.
Anatole Litvak became involved with helping the Soviet Union in August 1941, soon after it was invaded by Nazi Germany.
29.
Anatole Litvak was treasurer of the Russian War Relief Association, which sponsored international radio benefits with stars such as Edward G Robinson and Ronald Colman.
30.
Anatole Litvak co-produced and alone directed The Battle of Russia in 1943.
31.
US ambassador to Russia W Averell Harriman asked Litvak to narrate the English-language film into Russian during the screening.
32.
Anatole Litvak was decorated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for his work on this film.
33.
Anatole Litvak later directed Operation Titanic, and War Comes to America, the final film in the Why We Fight series.
34.
Anatole Litvak filmed aerial warfare with the US Eighth Air Force.
35.
Anatole Litvak was nominated in 1948 for a Best Director Oscar for The Snake Pit, starring Olivia de Havilland.
36.
Anatole Litvak had purchased the pre-publication rights to the story which is based on a fictionalized autobiography.
37.
Anatole Litvak directed Anastasia, filmed in Paris in 1956, starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes.
38.
Anatole Litvak felt she would be an excellent actress for the part and insisted on her starring in the film.
39.
Anatole Litvak produced, but did not direct, Jules Dassin's 10:30 PM Summer.
40.
Anatole Litvak filmed The Night of the Generals in France, Germany and Poland; a movie about three Nazi Generals suspected of murder, starring Peter O'Toole and Donald Pleasence.
41.
In 1937, Anatole Litvak became the third husband of American actress Miriam Hopkins; their marriage ended in divorce in 1939.
42.
Anatole Litvak died in 1974 in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.