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Gustav "Guzzi" Lantschner was born 1910 in Innsbruck and grew up in a famous Tyrolean sportsfamily. His brothers Otto and Gerhard as well as his sisters Inge and Hedwig were famous tyrolean skiers. He and his family won a lot of local races.
In 1930 Guzzi held the world record in the Kilomètre-Lancé race in St.Moritz with the speed of 105 km/h. His sportive life was crowned as a Gold winner in Downhill at the World Championship as well as Bronze in Combined both in 1932 in Cortina d´Ampezzo. In 1936 he won Silver in Combined in the Olympic Wintergames in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. After his sport successes he lived in Berlin and changed to German citizen already in 1935.
Earlier, in 1930, he met the German mountain filmer Arnold Fanck and Leni Riefenstahl. In 1932 he played together with Walter Riml
in Fancks "The white ecstasy". Their acting as carpenters of Hamburg was so famous that two other films in that role followed: "Adventure in the Engadin" and "Nordpol Ahoi!".
Since 1934 he worked as cutter and cameraman for Leni Riefenstahl on the films "Triumph of the Will" and "Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht" (1935).
For Riefenstahls Olympiafilms (1936) he was also engaged among others as cameraman, but mainly as a cutter together with his
brother Otto.
In 1939, directly after the beginning of WW.II he went together with Riefenstahl to occupied Poland. They shot the film "Feldzug in Polen" ("Crusade of Poland") which shows Hitlers first
invasion and occupation in WW.II. Later on Lantschner worked as a cameraman and war reporter for the German newsreel.
Shortly after WW.II he went to Argentina. There he lived in Bariloche for several years. During his time in Bariloche he made mountainfilms, documentaries of the "National Park of Nahuel Huapi" and also private films for the "Club Andino del Norte". His film production firm he named "Produccion Estudios Fitz Roy Bariloche".
After his return to Europe in 1954 he became Austrian citizen again. He made short films about mountaineering, documentaries of the building of powerplants, the city of Innsbruck and went also to India and Nepal for documentaries.
With Riefenstahl he has had a lifetime friendship. Guzzi Lantschner died in 2011.
The estate of Guzzi Lantschner