Volker Schlöndorff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Volker Schlöndorff
|
|
|---|---|
Schlöndorff in November 2009
|
|
| Born | 31 March 1939 |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1960–present |
| Movement | New German Cinema |
| Spouse(s) | Margarethe von Trotta (1971–1991; divorced) Angelika Gruber |
Volker Schlöndorff (born 31 March 1939) is a famous German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has made movies in Germany, France, and the United States. He was a key part of the New German Cinema movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He won an Oscar and the Palme d'Or (a top award at the Cannes Film Festival) for his film The Tin Drum (1979). This movie was based on a book by Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass.
Contents
Early Life and Film Beginnings
Volker Schlöndorff was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. His father was a doctor. In 1956, his family moved to Paris, France. There, Volker studied philosophy and political science at the Sorbonne. He also studied film at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques.
He became friends with other filmmakers like Bertrand Tavernier and Louis Malle. Louis Malle gave him his first job as an assistant director on the film Zazie in the Metro (1960). Volker also worked as an assistant director on other important films, like Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad (1961). During this time, he made his first short film, Who Cares? in 1960. He also worked on a 40-minute documentary called Méditerranée (1963). This film was highly praised by famous directors like Jean-Luc Godard.
Early Film Career in Germany
Volker Schlöndorff returned to Germany to direct his first full-length movie, Young Törless (1966). This film was based on a book by Robert Musil. It was shown at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and won an award there.
The New German Cinema Movement
The New German Cinema movement started around 1962. It was a group of young German filmmakers who wanted to make new and exciting movies. They were inspired by the French New Wave movement. Even though Schlöndorff wasn't in the first group, his film Young Törless became a very important movie for this movement.
Schlöndorff's next film was Degree of Murder (1967). This movie was popular with young people in the "swinging sixties." It featured music by Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones.
He then made Man on Horseback (1969), which was also popular with the youth culture. This film was set in medieval Germany. It told the story of Michael Kohlhaas, a horse trader who seeks revenge after being cheated. The movie starred David Warner and Anita Pallenberg.
Working with Bertolt Brecht and Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Schlöndorff then directed Baal (1970) for West German television. This was an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's first play. He cast Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the main role, along with Margarethe von Trotta. Schlöndorff and von Trotta later married in 1971.
He made another TV movie, The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach (1971), also starring Fassbinder. This film showed how seven poor peasants in 19th-century Germany struggled after robbing a tax cart.
The Morals of Ruth Halbfass (1972) explored people who had lost their sense of right and wrong. Von Trotta also starred in this film. She then co-wrote and starred in Schlöndorff's next movie, A Free Woman (1972). This film looked at the challenges faced by modern women in Munich. It was loosely based on von Trotta's own experiences after her divorce.
International Film Success
Schlöndorff's first big financial hit was The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975). He co-wrote and co-directed this film with von Trotta. It was based on a book by Heinrich Böll. The story is about a young woman whose life is ruined by a powerful newspaper that spreads false information about her. This newspaper was inspired by a real German tabloid.
Schlöndorff felt that West Germany was experiencing political tension because of a group called the Red Army Faction. Both Böll's book and Schlöndorff's film showed how police and journalists acted during this time, similar to how people were treated during McCarthyism in the U.S. in the 1950s. This included illegal police actions and tabloid attacks. The film was very successful in West Germany.
After directing an opera, Schlöndorff made another political film, Coup de Grâce (1976). This movie starred von Trotta as a young woman who supports the Bolshevik Revolution after being rejected by a German soldier.
He then contributed to the film Germany in Autumn (1978). In this movie, several German filmmakers made short films about the political chaos in West Germany during 1977.
The Tin Drum
Schlöndorff's most successful film was The Tin Drum, released in 1979. It was based on the famous book by Günter Grass. Grass had refused many offers to adapt his book, but he finally gave Schlöndorff his approval and helped with the film.
The Tin Drum stars David Bennent as Oscar Matzerath. On his third birthday, Oscar decides to stop growing. He pretends to fall down stairs to explain his small size. He also discovers he can shatter glass with his powerful high-pitched scream if anyone tries to take his tin drum. The film takes place in the city of Danzig from the end of World War I to the end of World War II.
The film was highly praised. It won the Palme d'or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival (sharing the award with Apocalypse Now). It also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1979.
Schlöndorff then made The Candidate (1980), a documentary about a political campaign. He also directed The Circle of Deceit (1981), a film about war photographers during the Lebanon Civil War.
Hollywood and Later Career
Schlöndorff's first English-language film was Swann in Love (1984). It was based on a famous French novel. The film starred Jeremy Irons and Alain Delon.
He then went to the United States to make a TV movie of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman (1985). It starred Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich. Both actors won awards for their performances, and Schlöndorff was nominated for an Emmy for his directing.
He made another TV movie in the US, A Gathering of Old Men (1987). This film was about racial discrimination in Louisiana in the 1970s.
Schlöndorff returned to feature films with the science fiction movie The Handmaid's Tale (1990). This was followed by Voyager (1991). This film starred Sam Shepard and Julie Delpy.
He also directed a documentary about the famous director Billy Wilder called Billy Wilder, How Did You Do It? (1992). Schlöndorff had always admired Wilder and sought his advice when making The Tin Drum.
In the early 1990s, Schlöndorff worked to save the historic Babelsberg film studios in Germany. He served as the chief executive for the UFA studio there from 1992 to 1997.
Schlöndorff returned to Germany to make The Ogre (1996). This film, starring John Malkovich, was well-received and explored themes similar to The Tin Drum.
He went back to Hollywood for Palmetto (1998). This mystery film starred Woody Harrelson and Elisabeth Shue. It was Schlöndorff's last film in the US to date.
Schlöndorff then made The Legend of Rita (2000) in Germany. This film was loosely based on the lives of members of the Red Army Faction who went to East Germany.
After some documentaries, Schlöndorff directed The Ninth Day (2004). This was his third film about World War II. It tells the story of a Catholic priest who is released from a concentration camp for nine days and faces a difficult moral choice.
He also filmed Strike (2006) in what was once Danzig. This movie was a docudrama about labor strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard in Poland. It also showed the history of the Solidarity Movement that led to the fall of Communism.
Schlöndorff's film Ulzhan (2007) starred Philippe Torreton and David Bennent. His World War II-era film Diplomacy (2014) premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. It tells the true story of how a Swedish diplomat helped persuade a German general not to destroy Paris in 1944.
Personal Life
.jpg)
Volker Schlöndorff was married to fellow film director Margarethe von Trotta from 1971 to 1991. He helped raise her son. He is now married to Angelika Schlöndorff, and they have a daughter.
He started a production company called Bioskop, which produced his films and those of Margarethe von Trotta.
In 1991, he was the head of the jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.
Schlöndorff also teaches film and literature at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.
Filmography
Features
- 1966: Young Törless
- 1967: Degree of Murder
- 1969: Man on Horseback
- 1971: The Morals of Ruth Halbfass
- 1972: A Free Woman
- 1975: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
- 1976: Coup de Grâce
- 1979: The Tin Drum
- 1981: The Circle of Deceit
- 1984: Swann in Love
- 1990: The Handmaid's Tale
- 1991: Voyager
- 1996: The Ogre
- 1998: Palmetto
- 2000: The Legend of Rita
- 2004: The Ninth Day
- 2006: Strike
- 2007: Ulzhan
- 2012: Calm at Sea
- 2014: Diplomacy
- 2017: Return to Montauk
TV films
- 1970: Baal
- 1971: The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach
- 1974: Stayover in Tyrol
- 1985: Death of a Salesman
- 1987: A Gathering of Old Men
- 2005: Enigma: An Unacknowledged Love
Documentaries and shorts subjects
- 1960: Who cares? (short)
- 1963: Méditerranée (documentary)
- 1967: Der Paukenspieler (segment "Ein unheimlicher Moment")
- 1975: The Novels of Henry James (TV series, episode "Georgina's Reasons")
- 1977: Just for Fun, Just for Play (documentary)
- 1978: Germany in Autumn (segment "Die verschobene Antigone")
- 1980: The Candidate (documentary)
- 1983: War and Peace (short)
- 1992: Billy Wilder, How Did You Do It? (documentary, aka Billy Wilder Speaks)
- 1992: The Michael Nyman Songbook (documentary)
- 1996: Lumière sur un massacre (TV series, episode "Le parfait soldat")
- 2002: Ein Produzent hat Seele oder er hat keine
- 2002: Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (segment "The Enlightenment")
Awards and Recognition
- 1978 Special Recognition award (shared) at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival for Germany in Autumn
- 1979 Palme d'Or Cannes Film Festival The Tin Drum
- 1980 Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film The Tin Drum
- 2004 Bavarian Film Awards Honorary Award
- 2009 Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2019 Commander's cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
See also
In Spanish: Volker Schlöndorff para niños
- New German Cinema
- Cinema of Germany
