Dimitri Buchowetzki (1885–1932), born Dmitry Savelyevych Bukhovecky, was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor in Germany, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, and France.

Life and career

Initially Buchowetzki studied law. Later he starred in a number of silent films, mostly playing antagonistic characters, including Yakov Protazanov’s melodramas Giant of the Spirit (1918) and Maidservant Jenny (1918). He played the hussar officer Minski in Aleksandr Ivanovski’s Pushkin adaptation The Stationmaster (1918) and appeared in the title role of Aleksandr Razumnyi’s pro-Bolshevik film Comrade Abram (1919). In 1919, Buchowetzki immigrated to Germany, via Poland, where he directed his most artistic works: the expressionistic Fedor Dostoevsky adaptation The Brothers Karamazov (1921), the historical drama Danton (1921, based on Georg Büchner’s play), and Othello (1922), all starring Emil Jannings. Bukhovetski also made high-budget period pictures such as Peter the Great (1922). Pola Negri, whom Buchowetzki had directed in the German-made Sappho (1924), invited him to Hollywood, where he directed her in a series of erotic melodramas, including Men (1924), Lily of the Dust (1926), and The Crown of Lies (1926). Buchowetzki began work at MGM on Love (1927) with Greta Garbo and Ricardo Cortez. However, producer Irving Thalberg was unhappy with the early filming, and replaced Buchowetzki with Edmund Goulding, cinematographer Merritt B. Gerstad with William H. Daniels, and Cortez with John Gilbert.

Selected filmography

Director Screenwriter