The Prague actress Bronislava Livia in 1925.
Art deco period. Silent movie star.
Bronislava Livia was born on 18.11.1901 in Jawatamachi, Nagasaki, Japan.
The now forgotten star of Czech silent film Bronislava Livia was born Bronislava Mauerová (or Maurerová) on 18 November 1901 in Nagasaki, Japan. However, her life is shrouded in a veil of mystery. She may have come from Romania and already at the age of eighteen had experience of acting in films in Budapest. But by the early 1920s she was already in Prague and became the winner of the first prize in the beauty contest of Miloš Havel’s film production company A-B, which also owned a film studio in Vinohrady.
Most of her silent films were often various melodramas, numerous comedies or sentimental stories. Only a few times did she act in more important or worthy films. Among the more significant ones, let’s mention for example. The roles of the daughter of Countess Revay (Olga Augustová) in the Slovak JÁNOŠÍK (1921), the actress Manetínská in the biographical drama about the leading Czech builder (Zdeněk Štěpánek) JOSEF KAJETÁN TYL (1925), the double role of the capricious mistress Katy Wendler and Kakonyová in Lamačov’s famous comedy DOBRÝ VOJÁK ŠVEJK (1926) with Karel Noll, the unfaithful wife Zdenka, who causes the social and moral downfall of her husband, the MP and lawyer JUDr. František Uhr (Karel Hašler) to the bottom of human society in Přemysl Pražský’s drama BATALION (1927), or a visitor to a beauty salon in Machatý’s world-famous drama about love, passion, betrayal, revenge and death EROTICON (1929).
Her film career was eventually interrupted (as with many of her colleagues) by the advent of sound film. Livia, as a foreigner, had very poor Czech and a very foreign accent. Although she still appeared in the Polish drama RYCERZE MROKU (1932) as Marika, she eventually became a clerk. During the occupation, she took German citizenship and after the liberation preferred to emigrate and disappear in West Germany. Her further life fate is not officially known…
Text extract translated from a contribution by Jaroslav Lopour
