Volker Schlöndorff

Volker Schlöndorff
Born: Mar 31, 1939
Wiesbaden, Germany
Career: 1961-2006
Countries: France
Germany
West Germany
Genre/Type: Drama
Biography by Hal Erickson
Acclaimed German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff was educated at Paris' Lycee Henry IV and the Sorbonne; he majored in political science and economics. While still in Paris, Schlöndorff studied directing at the highly regarded IDHEC film school. He worked in France for four years as an assistant director, then made his directorial bow with 1966's Young Torless. Set in an exclusive boys school, the film was designed as a parable concerning the unprotested rise of Nazism; it won the critics prize at the Cannes Festival, and its box office success helped open career doors for many other "New German Cinema" directors, among them Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders. Schlöndorff formed a partnership in the late '60s with a consortium of German TV stations which underwrote many of his subsequent projects. One of the more successful of these projects was The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975), the scorching tale of a young woman driven to drastic measures as the result of the wrongful scrutiny and societal condemnation leveled at her after her one-night stand with a mysterious man.

In 1979, Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum, an adaptation of Gunter Grass' allegorical tale of a young boy who refuses to grow up mentally or physically as a reaction to the horrors of war, won a number of honors, including the Golden Palm at Cannes and the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The director made his American debut with the 1985 televised adaptation of Death of a Salesman, which starred Dustin Hoffman. 1990's The Handmaid's Tale, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's terrifying future dystopia, provided one of Schlöndorff's greatest international successes. His subsequent work throughout the '90s was sporadic, with 1998's Palmetto earning widespread critical lambast.

Schlöndorff has often worked in collaboration with his ex-wife, actress/writer/director Margarethe Von Trotta, on such films as The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.
1 2 3 »

Filmography

Movie/Film Released Rating Role Buy
Strike 2006 Director
Ulzhan 2006 Director / Screenwriter
Die Verhoevens 2004 Participant [Starring]
Epreuves d'Artistes 2004 Archival Appearance
The Ninth Day 2004 Director
Ten Minutes Older: The Cello 2002 Director
The Legend of Rita 2000 Director / Screenwriter
Palmetto 1998 Director
The Ogre 1996 Director / Screenwriter
A French Woman 1995 Associate Producer
Die Nacht der Regisseure 1995 Actor [Starring]
Ich Will Nicht Nur, Dass Ihr Mich Liebt 1993 Actor [Starring]
Voyager 1991 Director / Screenwriter
The Handmaid's Tale 1990 Director
A Gathering of Old Men 1987 Director
Death of a Salesman 1985 Director
1 2 3 »

Videos of Volker Schlöndorff

Back to the topTop Questions about Volker Schlöndorff

Volker Schlöndorff (born 31 March 1939, Wiesbaden, Germany) is a Berlin-based German filmmaker. He won an Oscar as well as the Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Tin Drum (1979), the film version of the novel by Nobel Prize-winn...
Werner Herzog: The Hollywood Interview (From The Hollywood Interview. 17 November 2009, 10:22 PM, PST) ‘Pope Joan’ gets score by Marcel Barsotti (From MovieScore Magazine. 26 September 2009, 7:54 AM, PDT)
Based On Novel | Character Name In Title | Husband Wife Relationship | Cigarette Smoking more

Popular Products on Volker Schlöndorff

Awards

Year Movie/Film Role
1990 Berlin International Film Festival The Handmaid's Tale In Competition ()
1979 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Tin Drum Best Foreign Language Film (Won)
1972 Venice International Film Festival Strohfeuer Film Presented ()
Table of Contents
Biography
Filmography
Videos
Top Questions
Products
Awards