Paul Rotha

Personal Info

Known For Director

Gender Male

Birthday 1907-06-03

Deathday 1984-03-07 (76 years old)

Place of Birth London, England

Also Known As Поль Рота, Пол Рота

Paul Rotha

Biography

Paul Rotha (3 June 1907 – 7 March 1984) was an English documentary film-maker, film historian and critic. He was born Paul Thompson in London, and educated at Highgate School and at the Slade School of Fine Art. Rotha was a close collaborator of John Grierson, and Wolfgang Suschitzky was one of his cinematographers. He directed and produced dozens of documentaries including Contact (1933), Air Outpost (1937) The Face of Britain (1935), World of Plenty (1943), Land of Promise (1947), A City Speaks (1947) and many others. The World Is Rich (1947) and Cradle of Genius (1961), both of which were nominated for an Academy Award, and feature films including the BAFTA-nominated No Resting Place. Rotha was Head of BBC TV's Documentaries Department between May 1953 and May 1955. Rotha shared with Otto Neurath an interest in the techniques of visual communication, and the two men worked together on several films, where Neurath's ISOTYPE pictorial statistics were animated as an important component of the films' arguments. He was initially a major opponent of sound in movies, although he later developed the technique of multi-voice commentary, in which the argument of the film is conveyed via discussion between several distinct voices, a distinctive form of documentary exposition. Films using this technique include New Worlds for Old (1938), World of Plenty (1943), The World is Rich (1947) and Land of Promise (1946). Rotha wrote, produced and directed the 1958 crime drama Cat & Mouse, based on a novel by John Creasey and starring Lee Patterson and Ann Sears.

Known For

Director

1962
The Silent Raid

as Director

1961
1960
Cradle of Genius

as Director

1958
Cat & Mouse

as Director

1953
World Without End

as Director

1951
No Resting Place

as Director

1947
The Balance

as Director

1947
A City Speaks

as Director

1947
The World Is Rich

as Director

1946
Land of Promise

as Director

1945
1943
World of Plenty

as Director

1940
Island People

as Director

1936
People of Britain

as Director

1935
Shipyard

as Director

1935
1931
Australian Wines

as Director

Producer

1958
Cat & Mouse

as Producer

1947
The Balance

as Producer

1946
Land of Promise

as Producer

1944
New Builders

as Producer

1943
World of Plenty

as Producer

1942
Night Shift

as Producer

1942
The Countrywomen

as Producer

1941
Bampton Shows the Way

as Associate Producer

1941
Five and Under

as Producer

1937
Air Outpost

as Producer

1937
Today We Live

as Producer

Writer

1958
Cat & Mouse

as Writer

1951
1943
World of Plenty

as Writer

1936

Editor

1961