Kurt Kren
Directing
Born 1929-09-20
Died 1998-06-23
Wien, Austria
66 credits
Read biography
Kurt Kren was born in 1929 in Vienna, Austria from a Jewish father and a German mother. From 1939 till the end of World War II, Kren lived in Rotterdam, where he was sent to with one of the Children's Transports. In 1947 Kren returned to Vienna, and his father provided him a job at the National Bank.
He began making films in 1957. 2/60 48 Köpfe Aus Dem Szondi -Test (1960) was his first serial film and 3/60 Bäume Im Herbst (1960) confirmed this structural orientation. He realized in the 1960s his most famous films with the Viennese actionists, where his skill of short film blossomed. In 1966, he took part in the « Destruction in Art Symposium » organized by Metzger in London. In 1968 he visited the USA for the first time, showing his films in New York and St. Louis. This very year he became a founder of the Austria Filmmakers Cooperative. After a participation in a happening "Kunst und Revolution" ("Art and Revolution") at the University of Vienna in 1968, Kren's films were confiscated and he was fired from the National Bank. He participated in 1970 in the International Underground Film Festival (London) and in 1971, in the Cannes Film Festival. He then moved to Cologne for five years. Retrospectives were set up by the London National Film Theatre in 1976 and the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1979. He was also involved in the Dokumenta 6 of Kassel in 1977.
From 1978 to 1989, Kren lived in the USA and presented lectures for universities and schools. He did many jobs such as security officer in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Within this period he made his bad home movies as he used to call them inspired by his travels across the country. He finally returned to his native Vienna in 1990. He died from pneumonia in Vienna in 1998.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 66
Directing
46 credits
10c/65: Brus Wishes You a Merry Christmas
6/64: Mom and Dad (An Otto Mühl Happening)
10/65: Self-Mutilation
Vienna Actionists Vol 1 & 2
Black Movie I
The Films of Kurt Kren 1957-1995
7/64: Leda and the Swan
2/60: 48 Heads from the Szondi-Test
4/61: Walls Pos.-Neg. and Way
39/81 Which Way to CA?
3/60: Trees in Autumn
11/65: Helga Philipp Painting
17/68: Green-red
43/84: 1984
8/64: Ana - Action Brus
26/71: Cartoon - Balzac and the Eye of God
37/78: Tree Again
10b/65: Silver – Action Brus
29/73 Ready-Made
Das Walk
24/70 Western
23/69: Underground Explosion
49/95: thousandyearsofcinema
1/57: Experiment with Synthetic Sound (Test)
41/82 Getting Warm
Rome
33/77 No Danube
38/79: Sentimental Punk
9/64: O Christmas Tree
15/67: TV
13/67: Sinus Beta
44/85: Foot'-age Shoot'-out
32/76: To W + B
31/75: Asylum
22/69 Happy-End
18/68: Venecia kaputt
28/73: Time Exposure(s)
50/96 Snapshots (For Bruce)
40/81: Breakfast in Grey
34/76: Tschibo
47/91 A Celebration
5/62: People Looking out of the Window, Trash, etc.
48/94 Fragment W.E.
16/67: September 20th
Piano Salon 1. Floor
46/90 Falter 2
Acting
13 credits
10c/65: Brus Wishes You a Merry Christmas
Satisfaction
Scheiss-Kerl
No Danube - Kurt Kren and His Films
Birth of a Nation
The Lascivious Wotan
Amore - Aktion mit einem Masochisten
Exit... But No Panic
Porträtfilm: Kurt Kren
29/73 Ready-Made
Portrait: Kurt Kren
15/67: TV
31/75: Asylum
Other credits
5 credits
Becoming Otto
The 120 Days of Bottrop
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Part 3
Home Movies 1971-81
Homage to Kurt Kren
Producing
2 credits
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