Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Hermine Huntgeburth

Hermine Huntgeburth is a German film director and producer known for her versatile work in feature films and television, encompassing commercially successful family entertainment, literary adaptations, and critically acclaimed character studies. Her films often blend accessible storytelling with nuanced explorations of human relationships, earning her both broad audiences and industry recognition.

Born on November 13, 1957, in Paderborn, Huntgeburth studied film at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg and continued her education in Sydney in 1983 on a DAAD scholarship. She began her career with short films and screenwriting before making her feature debut with “Im Kreise der Lieben” (1991), which received the German Film Prize for Best Up-and-Coming Director.

She achieved significant commercial success with the children's film “Bibi Blocksberg” (2002) and the romantic drama “The White Massai” (2005), the latter becoming the most successful German feature film of its year. Further notable cinema works include the period adaptation “Effi Briest” (2009), the family adventures “Tom Sawyer” (2011) and “The Adventures of Huck Finn” (2012), and the Udo Lindenberg biopic “Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding” (2020). In television, she has directed numerous films and episodes, receiving multiple Grimme-Preis awards along with Bavarian Television Prizes and other honors for productions such as ‘Teufelsbraten’ (2007), ‘Neue Vahr Süd’ (2010), and ‘Männertreu’ (2014). Huntgeburth is also a member of the Akademie der Künste since 2005.

As mentioned above Hermine Huntgeburth directed two Euro-westerns: “Tom Sawyer” in 2011 and “Abenteuer des Huck Finn” (The Adventures of Huck Finn) in 2012.

HUNTGEBURTH, Hermine [11/13 1957, Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany -     ] – producer, director, writer, actress, married to producer, director, writer Volker Einrauch [1950-    ].

Tom Sawyer - 2011

The Adventures of Huck Finn – 2012

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Marco de Gastyne

Marc Henri Benoist, known as Marco de Gastyne, was born in Paris XVII where he died on November 8, 1982. It was a French painter, who became director.

Son of the writer Jules Benoist, better known as Jules de Gastyne, and the brother of the chief editor Guy de Gastyne, he studied painting (first Prix de Rome in 1911), and is admitted as a boarder at Villa Medici from 1911 to 1913. In 1914, he married Mary Christian, opera singer, with whom he had a daughter and whom he divorced after 10 years.

He then turned to the cinema, first as a director for René Le Somptier, Germaine Dulac or Robert Boudrioz1, then became director from 1922. In 1924, he remarried with Choura Milé na, of Russian origin, which he plays in his films. During the mute period, he toured La Chà ¢ telaine du Liban with “Arlette Marchal” (1926) and “The Wonderful Life of Joan of Arc” with Simone Genevois (1929).

In 1930, A Beautiful Bitch, her first talking movie, is a commercial success1, but will not be repeated later. He abandons the cinema in the late 1930s, returns to painting, then makes short films from 1945. In 1954, he filmed in Egypt a film, “The Mask of Tutankhamun” (or the “Treasury of the Pharaohs”) who will never be ridden. On this occasion, he would have noticed a young extras that he will send to try his luck in Paris: we will know her later under the name of Dalida.

He resumes his activity as a painter after having definitively left the film trays.

He was also an illustrator, as in the newspaper La Baïonnette.

Marco de Gastyne wrote one screenplay for a Euro-western, “La bête errante” (The Wandering Beast) in 1931.

de GASTYNE, Marco (aka Marc de Gastyne, Marc de gastyne) (Marc Henri Benoist) [7/15/1888, Paris, Île-de-France, France – 11/8/1982, Paris, Île-de-France, France] – painter, production designer, director, actor, son of the writer Jules de Gastyne (Jules Benoist), brother of production designer, art director Guy de Gastyne (Guy Benoist) [1888–1972], married to opera singer Mary Christian (Marie ÉLisabeth Jane Gabrielle Vien) [1886-1980] (1914-1924) father of Christian Charles Francis Georges Benoist [1909-1969], married to actress Choura Milena [1902-1976] (1924-19??).

The Wandering Beast – 1931

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Felix Meyburgh

Felix Meyburgh is a South African filmmaker. Born in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in 1951 he attended Pretoria Boys High School graduating in 1973. Meyburgh was director of photography on various local and international feature films, working on production of advertising and documentary films for Shell, BP, Mercedes and BBC. In 2009 he retired in Knysna, focusing on landscape photography. He has a tendency to catch final pictures on the camera. There are almost no alterations in printing due to his motion picture habits. Currently he is busy researching the effect of photons, electrons and other energy radiations from the sun.

Felix Meyburgh was a co-cinematographer on one Euro-wester, “3 Bullets… for a Long Gun” with Andre Liebenberg in 1970.

MEYBURGH, Felix (aka Felix Myburgh) [1951, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa -    ] – producer, cinematographer, cameraman, married to Mags Meyburgh father of automotive designer Eben Meyburgh [1994-    ], Alex Meyburgh, grandfather of filmmaker Catherine Meyburgh.

3 Bullets… for a Long Gun – 1970 (co)