Frans Weisz

Biography

Frans Weisz is a Dutch film director. He originally studied at theatre school, but transferred in 1958 to the newly founded Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam; he was the first student to be accepted into the school. After he graduated he went to Rome, where he studied for several years at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. In Italy he made his first films: Ping Pong et Poi… and Gli eroi di ieri, oggi, domani (1964).

Upon his return to the Netherlands, Jan Vrijman produced his short Een zondag op het eiland van de Grande Jatte and his first feature film, Het gangstermeisje. In the early 1970s, Weisz and producer Rob du Mée made a number of popular feature films such as De inbreker and Rooie Sien, but they ran into difficulties with their fourth production, Heb meelij, Jet!. The film flopped, too few tickets were sold and it was the end of Du Mée's career as a producer. Weisz' feature-filmmaking career also went through a rough patch.

He shot a number of theatre productions for Hauser Orkater and made a comeback in 1981 with Charlotte, a German-Dutch co-production about the Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon. It was the beginning of a series of successes for Weisz and he received Golden Calf awards for the film Leedvermaak and the series Bij nader inzien.

Frans Weisz is the son of the actor Géza Weisz, who was murdered during the Second World War. Certainly starting with the film Charlotte, the persecution of the Jewish people played an important role in his work, and this can be seen as well in his films Leedvermaak and Qui vive. Both films are based on texts from writer Judith Herzberg, with whom Weisz also co-wrote the screenplays.