William Karfiol

Biography

A winter’s day in 1875 saw the birth of William Karfiol in Klikowa—today the Polish city of Tarnow—yet his art would soon heat up the flickering screens of early German cinema. Behind the camera he conjured silent laughter: Benjamin, der Schüchterne revealed a bashful hero in 1916, Sein Badepuppchen splashed into 1918 with aquatic mischief, and Hoppla, Vater sieht’s ja nicht slipped past censors the following year, winking at parental blindness. Alternately guiding and shepherding productions, Karfiol stamped his passport as both director and producer until the spring of 1945, when he took his final bow in war-battered Berlin on 29 April.