Volker Schlöndorff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Volker Schlöndorff
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Schlöndorff in November 2009
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| 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 an important part of the New German Cinema movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He won an Oscar and the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. These awards were 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 Start
Volker Schlöndorff was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, on March 31, 1939. His father was a doctor. In 1956, his family moved to Paris, France. There, Volker studied philosophy and political science. He also studied film at a special school called the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques.
He became friends with other filmmakers like Louis Malle. Malle gave him his first job as an assistant director on the movie Zazie in the Metro (1960). He also worked on other films like A Very Private Affair (1962) and Viva Maria! (1965). Schlöndorff also helped with films by famous directors like Alain Resnais and Jean-Pierre Melville.
During this time, he made his first short film, Who Cares? (1960). It was about French people living in Frankfurt. He also worked on a 40-minute documentary called Méditerranée (1963). This film was highly praised by other directors.
Early Film Career in Germany
Schlöndorff returned to Germany to direct his first full-length movie, Young Törless (1966). This film was based on a novel and was shown at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. The story is about a young student named Törless at a military boarding school. He sees another student being bullied but doesn't stop it. The film shows how Törless learns about his own responsibility. It was seen as a comment on Germany's past and won an award at Cannes.
The New German Cinema movement started around 1962. It was a group of young German filmmakers who wanted to make new and exciting movies. Schlöndorff quickly joined this group, and Young Törless became an important film for the movement.
His next film was Degree of Murder (1967). It was a counter-culture film with music by Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. The movie starred Jones's girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg. It was popular with young people at the time.
He then made Man on Horseback (1969), which was set in medieval Germany. It told the story of Michael Kohlhaas, a horse trader who seeks revenge after being cheated. The film starred David Warner and Anna Karina.
Schlöndorff also made TV movies. In 1970, he directed Baal, based on a play by Bertolt Brecht. He cast Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta in the film. Schlöndorff married Margarethe von Trotta in 1971. He then made another TV movie, The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach (1971). It was about peasants who rob a tax cart but struggle with their new money.
His film The Morals of Ruth Halbfass (1972) looked at people who had lost their sense of right and wrong. Von Trotta also starred in and helped write his next film, A Free Woman (1972). This movie explored the challenges faced by modern women in Munich.
International Success
Schlöndorff's first big financial success was The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975). He co-wrote and co-directed it with von Trotta. The film is about a woman named Katharina Blum who falls in love with an army deserter. She then becomes a target of a police investigation and a harsh newspaper. The movie was very popular in West Germany.
After directing an opera in 1976, Schlöndorff made another political film, Coup de Grâce (1976). It was based on a French novel and starred von Trotta. The film is about a young aristocrat who supports the Bolshevik Revolution after being rejected by a German soldier.
In 1978, Schlöndorff contributed to the film Germany in Autumn. This movie featured short films by several German directors about the political situation in West Germany in 1977.
His most successful film was The Tin Drum, released in 1979. It was based on the famous novel by Günter Grass. Grass had refused many offers to adapt his book, but he approved Schlöndorff's vision.
The Tin Drum tells the story of Oscar Matzerath, who decides to stop growing at age three after getting a tin drum for his birthday. He also discovers he can shatter glass with his high-pitched scream. 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 it with Apocalypse Now). It also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1979.
Schlöndorff then made The Circle of Deceit (1981). This film was about the challenges faced by war photographers covering the Lebanon Civil War.
Hollywood and Later Films
Schlöndorff's first English-language film was Swann in Love (1984). It was based on a French novel and starred Jeremy Irons and Alain Delon.
He then went to the United States to direct a TV movie version of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman (1985). It starred Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich, who both won awards for their acting. Schlöndorff was also nominated for an award for his directing.
He made another TV movie in the US, A Gathering of Old Men (1987). This film, starring Richard Widmark and Holly Hunter, was about racial discrimination in Louisiana in the 1970s.
Schlöndorff returned to theatrical films with the science fiction movie The Handmaid's Tale (1990). The story is set in a future where most women cannot have children due to pollution. Fertile women are forced to become "Handmaids" and have children for wealthy men. The film starred Natasha Richardson and Robert Duvall.
He also directed Voyager (1991), based on a novel by Max Frisch. This film was about a man who survives a plane crash and then questions his life.
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 starred John Malkovich as Abel Tiffauges, a French soldier accused of a serious crime involving children. After being captured by the Nazis, he works at a German training camp and takes local children, believing he is protecting them. The film won an award at the 1996 Venice Film Festival.
He then made Palmetto (1998) in Hollywood. This mystery film starred Woody Harrelson as a journalist who gets involved in a plan to extort money.
Schlöndorff returned to Germany for The Legend of Rita (2000). This film was loosely based on the lives of members of a German political group who went to East Germany in the 1970s.
His film The Ninth Day (2004) was set during World War II. It tells the story of a Catholic priest who is released from a concentration camp for nine days. He faces a difficult choice: cooperate with the Nazi Party or return to the camp.
Schlöndorff also directed Strike (2006), a film about labor strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard in Poland in the 1970s. This film also showed the history of the Solidarity Movement that led to the fall of Communism.
His film Diplomacy (2014) was about a real event in 1944. It showed how a Swedish diplomat helped convince a German general not to destroy Paris during World War II.
Personal Life
Volker Schlöndorff was married to fellow film director Margarethe von Trotta from 1971 to 1991. He is now married to Angelika Schlöndorff, and they have a daughter.
He founded a film production company called Bioskop. This company produced his own 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
Feature Films
- 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 Short Films
- 1960: Who cares? (short)
- 1963: Méditerranée (documentary)
- 1977: Just for Fun, Just for Play (documentary)
- 1978: Germany in Autumn (segment "Die verschobene Antigone")
- 1980: The Candidate (documentary)
- 1992: Billy Wilder, How Did You Do It? (documentary, also known as Billy Wilder Speaks)
- 1992: The Michael Nyman Songbook (documentary)
- 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 at Cannes Film Festival for The Tin Drum
- 1980: Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film for 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
