Axel Corti was born in Paris in 1933 and died in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, in 1993. He was highly regarded all over the world mostly for his films based on literature. His best known included Franz Werfel’s Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift/A Pale Blue Woman’s Handwriting, Gernot Wolfgruber’s Herrenjahre/Men’s Years, Joseph Roth’s Radetzkymarsch and the Wohin und zurück/To where and back trilogy. Awards included Austria’s Prize for Film Artistry, the Prix Italia, Golden Camera, the Television Prize from the Frankfurt Academy for the Performing Arts and the Golden Nymph (Monte Carlo). He began his career in 1956 as leader of the literature department of the ORF Studio Tirol in Innsbruck. In 1958 he was engaged by the Burgtheater in Vienna as an assistant, where he became Dramaturge and Director in 1962. He also worked as chief director in Oberhausen and Ulm. Other work included productions at theatres including the Vienna State Opera, the Festwochen in Vienna, the Schiller Theater in Berlin, in Stuttgart, Graz, Brussels and at the Salzburg Festival. In Munich he adapted an operatic production for television. Corti also taught direction at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and held a professorship in film direction at the Academy for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna from 1972. His production of Verdi’s Traviata is one of Oper Frankfurt’s most successful.