Lau Lauritzen Sr.

Director, screenwriter, actor. Born 13/3 1878 (Lauritz L.), deceased 2/7 1938 – at the age of 60. Married 1° to actress Hulda Lauritzen (born Christiansen) with whom he had a son, Lau Lauritzen Jr. (1910-1977), 2° with Ulla Poulsen (1895-1951) - later divorced.

After a short military career, he made his acting debut at Aarhus Teater around 1907, where he had an engagement for a few years. Then he came to Casino and Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen, where he got the opportunity to try his hand as a stage director.

Lau Lauritzen entered the world of film in 1911, partly as an actor and partly as a screenwriter. Until the end of 1913 he was seen sporadically in various roles, mainly at Nordisk Film. From 1914 he got a permanent position at Nordisk and gradually began to direct. Although he was still on the cast list in various films - including the lead role in the ballet film "Balleteusens Hævn" (Alexander Christian, 1914) - and wrote scripts for other directors, the position as director occupied more and more of his time. ‘Herberg for Hjemløse’, which premiered on 2 November 1914, is likely to be Lau's directorial debut.

In the period 1914-1919 he directed more than 200 films for Nordisk. None of them were spectacular dramas or erotic melodramas, which August Blom, Robert Dinesen, Holger-Madsen and the other directors took care of, but instead short farces and comedies, which his son Lau Jr. describes as "… always lively, always mediated by a mood which alternated between baroque, good-natured, satirical and not least compassionate" (from "50 aar i dansk film", 1956).

Lau Sr. had an ensemble of popular comic actors, who appeared in countless of his films: Lauritz Olsen, Oscar Stribolt , Frederik Buch, Ingeborg Bruhn Bertelsen, Rasmus Christiansen, Astrid Krygell , Kate Fabian, Christian Schrøder, Agnes Andersen - and not least Carl Schenstrøm – the later Fyrtaarnet in the series of features with Fyrtaarnet & Bivognen (Pat & Patachon or Long & Short).

In 1920 he got a position at Palladium, at the time a Swedish-owned company, and made six films in his first year. Shortly after that, Palladium fell into Danish hands, and on 17 October 1921 the company premiered "Film, Flirt og Forlovelse" - the first Pat & Patachon film with Carl Schenstrøm as Pat and Harald 'Miehe' Madsen as Patachon. The comedy duo was Lau's invention, and their films became hugely popular and successful - not only in Denmark, but also in large parts of Europe. The films became a pure gold mine for Palladium. In total the company made 29 silent Pat & Patachon films and two with sound.

‘Don Quixote’ (based on Cervantes' novel) from 1926 was Lau's most ambitious film artistically and according to his son, Lau Jr., his greatest experience as a film director. The exterior filming took place in Spain over 8 months, and no expenses were spared on either set design or costumes.

Lau made a handful of sound films after the Pat & Patachon era and was working on a new film at ASA when he collapsed from cardiac arrest.

Literature: Lau Lauritzen, Jr.: Lau Lauritzen, Sr. - in "50 aar i dansk film", published in 1956 in celebration of Nordisk Films Kompagni's 50th anniversary (ed. Balling, Kragh-Jacobsen and Sevel).