Pabst began his career as a film director at the behest of
Carl Froelich who hired Pabst as an assistant director. He directed his first film,
The Treasure, in 1923. Film theorist
Karel Reisz noted that Pabst was among the first filmmakers to time his cuts to specific movements, using cutting on action to create seamless transitions and enhance the fluidity of his films. Pabst's best known films concern the plight of women, including
The Joyless Street (1925) with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen,
Secrets of a Soul (1926) with
Lili Damita,
The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) with
Brigitte Helm, and ''
Pandora's Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) with American actress Louise Brooks. He also co-directed with Arnold Fanck a mountain film entitled The White Hell of Pitz Palu'' (1929) starring Leni Riefenstahl. After the coming of sound, he made a trilogy of films that secured his reputation:
Westfront 1918 (1930),
The Threepenny Opera (1931) with
Lotte Lenya (based on the
Bertolt Brecht and
Kurt Weill musical), and
Kameradschaft (1931). Pabst also filmed
three versions of
Pierre Benoit's novel ''
L'Atlantide in 1932, in German, English, and French, titled Die Herrin von Atlantis
, The Mistress of Atlantis
, and L'Atlantide
, respectively. In 1933, Pabst directed Don Quixote, once again in German, English, and French versions. He made A Modern Hero (1934) in the USA and Street of Shadows'' (1937) in France. Pabst was planning to emigrate to the United States, but when war was declared in 1939 he found himself trapped in France on a visit to his mother. He was forced to return to Nazi Germany. Under the auspices of propaganda minister,
Josef Goebbels, Pabst made two films in Germany during this period:
The Comedians (1941) and
Paracelsus (1943). Pabst directed four opera productions in Italy in 1953:
La forza del destino for the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence (conducted by
Dimitri Mitropoulos, the cast included
Renata Tebaldi,
Fedora Barbieri,
Mario del Monaco,
Aldo Protti,
Cesare Siepi), and a few weeks later, for the
Arena di Verona Festival, a spectacular
Aïda, with
Maria Callas in the title role (conducted by
Tullio Serafin, with del Monaco),
Il trovatore and again
La forza del destino. He directed
The Last Ten Days (1955), the first post-war German feature film to feature
Adolf Hitler as a character. ==Death==