Rudolph Cartier

Rudolph Cartier born Rudolph Kacser renamed himself in Germany to Rudolph Katscher 17 April 1904 7 June 1994 was an Austrian television director filmmaker screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television exclusively for the BBC He is best known for his 1950s collaborations with screenwriter Nigel Kneale most notably the Quatermass serials and their 1954 adaptation of George Orwells dystopian novel Nineteen EightyFour After studying architecture and then drama Cartier began his career as a screenwriter and then film director in Berlin working for UFA Studios After a brief spell in the United States he moved to the United Kingdom in 1935 Initially failing to gain a foothold in the British film industry he began working for BBC Television in the late 1930s among other productions he was involved in the making of Rehearsal for a Drama BBC 1939 The outbreak of war however meant that his contract was terminated his television play The Dead Eye was stopped in the production stage After the war he occasionally worked for British films before he was again hired by the BBC in 1952 He soon became one of the public service broadcasters leading directors and went on to produce and direct over 120 productions in the next 24 years ending his television career with the play Loyalties in 1976 Active in both dramatic programming and opera Cartier won the equivalent of a BAFTA in 1957 for his work in the former and one of his operatic productions was given an award at the 1962 Salzburg Festival The British Film Institutes Screenonline website describes him as a true pioneer of television while the critic Peter Black once wrote that Nobody was within a mile of Rudolph Cartier in the trick of making a picture on a TV screen seem as wide and as deep as CinemaScope