Fembio Special: European Jewish Women
Leontine Sagan
(Leontine Schlesinger [birth name], Medi Schlesinger)
born on February 13, 1889 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary
died on May 19, 1974 in Pretoria, South Africa
Austro-Hungarian actress, stage and film director
50th anniversary of death on May 19, 2024
Biography
Today, Leontine Sagan is best known as the director of the original version of the film Mädchen in Uniform, a work that was an exception for her. She had staged Christa Winsloe's play in Berlin in 1931 under the title Yesterday and Today, and she filmed it in the same year. It was the first film she directed, and it immediately made her world-famous.
Leontine Sagan was born Leontine Schlesinger in Budapest in 1889. Her mother belonged to the Jewish bourgeoisie in Vienna; her father worked in the diamond fields of South Africa. She spent her childhood and youth at times in South Africa and at times in Austria-Hungary; she continued to alternate between these two poles throughout her life. A turning point in her life came during one of her trips to Europe when she saw Maxim Gorky’s play Night Asylum, directed by Max Reinhardt, in Berlin and was instantly captivated. For the first time she felt the immediacy of the experience and understood that this was the essential purpose of the theater; she resolved to become an actress.
But first she had to return to South Africa, where she took lessons in shorthand and typing. She then worked for several years as a secretary at the Austro-Hungarian consulate while continuing to pursue her passion for art and literature.
After reaching the age of majority at 21, she traveled back to Europe and attended Max Reinhardt's acting school in Berlin. This was followed by engagements in Bohemia, Dresden and Vienna. From 1916, she spent twelve years in Frankfurt am Main, first at the Neues Theater and later at the Schauspielhaus. During this time, she expanded her repertoire to include a wide range of roles that included the great classical roles. She later also gave lessons at the theater school attached to the Schauspielhaus. It was here that she began to direct productions; at the time, this was highly unusual work for a woman. In 1918, she married the Viennese Victor Fleischer, whom she had met two years earlier during a stay in Vienna. He set up the Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt there, an art history publishing house, that quickly became successful.
Restlessness, burning ambition and the fear that her personal development might already be over led Sagan to move to Berlin at the age of 37. The initial years were a struggle, and it was not until 1931, following an engagement obtained at the English Theater thanks to a good command of English from her time in South Africa, that she succeeded in breaking into the German theater world. She directed the play Yesterday and Today by Christa Winsloe and was subsequently asked to direct the film adaptation. She was delighted to accept the challenge; Mädchen in Uniform was a worldwide success.
In 1932, Sagan traveled to England at the invitation of Alexander Korda from London Film Productions. He wanted to produce a film with her, and his brother Zoltan was to assist her as producer. However, this collaboration went badly, the script was too “bookish” and what she had envisioned as a satire became a flat comedy. It was therefore no great surprise that the film Men of Tomorrow (1932) was unsuccessful. From then on, she was to concentrate entirely on the theater, which interested her much more in any case.
She was first asked to direct the play Children in Uniform, the English version of Yesterday and Today, at the Royal Duchess Theatre in London, which was a great success.
Sagan toured South Africa with an all-female ensemble, performing Children in Uniform and Nine till Six by Aimee Stuart. She then returned to England, where she first produced several plays for the Oxford University Dramatic Society and then began her long-standing collaboration with the musical star Ivor Novello. Sagan was the first woman to direct at the legendary Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.
In 1939, she received a contract for Hollywood from David O. Selznick, the film producer of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Sagan had no great expectations of her stay there, and viewed the contract more as an opportunity to see the country at the film company's expense. It was of little concern for her if she failed to make a movie in the United States, and thus her efforts there came to nothing. But she did experience three carefree months on American soil.
Sagan spent most of the following few years back in England, apart from occasional theater performances in the United States and Australia. However, she yearned for South Africa and for the landscape that was her home. In 1947, she returned there with her husband and during the following years, she built up the South African National Theater. She continued to direct and act until 1963.
Leontine Sagan died in Pretoria in 1974.
(Text from 2014; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2024.)
Please consult the German version for additional information (pictures, sources, videos, bibliography).
Quotes
Male directors can afford to be unsuccessful, but a female film director, who is a curiosity in her own right, would be tainted by it.
When I think of what I have lived through and experienced, it is like a tidal wave washing over me. There has been so much.
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