Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich /maɐ̯’le:nə ‘di:tʀɪç/ (Berlino, 27 dicembre 1901 – Parigi, 6 maggio 1992) è stata un’attrice e cantante tedesca naturalizzata statunitense.

Fra le più note icone del mondo cinematografico della prima metà del Novecento, la Dietrich fu un vero e proprio mito, lasciando un’impronta duratura attraverso la sua recitazione, le sue immagini e l’interpretazione delle canzoni (arricchite da una voce ammaliante e sensuale). La Dietrich fu una delle prime dive grazie ad un insieme di qualità, raramente ripetuto dopo di lei, che fu sufficiente a farla entrare nella leggenda dello show business quale modello di femme fatale per antonomasia. Il suo mito nacque e si sviluppò in contrapposizione a quello della divina Greta Garbo, entrambe star di punta di due compagnie di produzione rivali.

L’American Film Institute ha inserito la Dietrich al nono posto tra le più grandi star della storia del cinema.

-George Orson Welles (Kenosha, 6 maggio 1915 – Los Angeles, 10 ottobre 1985) è stato un attore, regista, sceneggiatore, scrittore, drammaturgo e produttore cinematografico statunitense.

La carriera successiva di Welles fu ostacolata da una lunga serie di difficoltà e inconvenienti che non gli permise di continuare a lavorare a Hollywood e che lo costrinse a trasferirsi in Europa, dove continuò a cercare di realizzare le proprie opere finanziandosi soprattutto con apparizioni in film altrui. Fra i suoi molti progetti, Welles riuscì a realizzare e dirigere film come: Macbeth (1948), Otello (1952), L’infernale Quinlan (1958), Il processo (1962), F come falso (1975) ed altri.

La sua fama è aumentata dopo la sua morte, avvenuta nel 1985, ed è considerato uno dei maggiori registi cinematografici e teatrali del XX secolo^[]. Palma d’oro a Cannes nel 1952 (all’epoca Gran Prix du Festival), ricevette, tra gli altri riconoscimenti, l’Oscar alla carriera nel 1971. Nel 2002 è stato votato dal British Film Institute come il più grande regista di tutti i tempi. L’American Film Institute ha inserito Welles al sedicesimo posto tra le più grandi star della storia del cinema.

theatre de l’Etoile 1959

Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich (/mɑːrˈleɪnəˈdiːtrɪk/, German pronunciation: [maɐ̯ˈleːnə ˈdiːtʁɪç]; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992)was a German actress and singer who held both German and American citizenship.Throughout her unusually long career, which spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s, she maintained popularity by continually reinventing herself.

In the 1920s in Berlin, Dietrich acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international fame and resulted in a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in Hollywood films such as Morocco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), and Desire (1936). She successfully traded on her glamorous persona and “exotic” looks, and became one of the highest-paid actresses of the era. Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she still made occasional films after the war, Dietrich spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.

Dietrich was noted for her humanitarian efforts during the war, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and even advocating their US citizenship. For her work on improving morale on the front lines during the war, she received several honors from the United States, France, Belgium, and Israel. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema.

George Orson Welles (/ˈwɛlz/; May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; in radio, the legendary 1938 broadcast “The War of the Worlds”; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films.

Welles directed a number of high-profile stage productions for the Federal Theatre Project in his early twenties, including an adaptation of Macbeth with an entirely African American cast, and the political musical The Cradle Will Rock. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds performed for his radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually occurring. Although some contemporary sources claim these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to notoriety.

His first film was Citizen Kane (1941), which he co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in as Charles Foster Kane. Welles was an outsider to the studio system and directed only 13 full-length films in his career. He struggled for creative control on his projects early on with the major film studios and later in life with a variety of independent financiers, and his films were either heavily edited or remained unreleased. His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. He has been praised as “the ultimate auteur”.

Welles followed up Citizen Kane with critically acclaimed films including The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942 and Touch of Evil in 1958. Although these three are his most acclaimed films, critics have argued other works of his, such as The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Chimes at Midnight (1966),are underappreciated.

In 2002, Welles was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics,and a survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the second most acclaimed director of all time (behind Alfred Hitchcock). Known for his baritone voice, Welles was an actor in radio and film, a Shakespearean stage actor, and a magician noted for presenting troop variety shows in the war years.

fonti wikipedia