Volker Schlöndorff

Volker Schlöndorff

Born: March 31, 1939
in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany
Volker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker. He won an Oscar as well as the Palme d'or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival for The Tin Drum (1979), the film version of the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass. In 1991, he was the Head of the Jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival. Schlöndorff has adapted many literary works for his movies, including some critically well-received US productions, but he is also engaged in post-war German politics. He served as the chief executive for the UFA studio in Babelsberg. Schlöndorff also teaches film and literature at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he conducts an Intensive Summer Seminar. He was married to fellow film director Margarethe von Trotta from 1971 to 1991. He is currently married to Angelika Schlöndorff, and the couple has one daughter.

Movies for Volker Schlöndorff...

The Stones and Brian Jones
Title: The Stones and Brian Jones
Character: Self
Released: April 25, 2024
Type: Movie
A look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, as well as the creative musical genius of Brian Jones, key to the success of the band.
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Title: German Genius
Released: May 23, 2023
Type: TV
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Merkel
Title: Merkel
Character: Self
Released: November 24, 2022
Type: Movie
Driven by extensive archive material and interviews with those who know her, this is the astonishing story of how a triple outsider – a woman, a scientist, and an East German – became the de facto leader of the “Free World”, told for the first time for an international audience.
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Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Title: Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Character: Self
Released: October 27, 2022
Type: Movie
With exclusive behind-the-scenes access into Herzog’s everyday life, rare archive material and in-depth interviews with celebrated collaborators – including Christian Bale, Nicole Kidman, and Robert Pattinson, we are given an exciting glimpse into the work and personal life of the iconic artist.
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Come With Me to the Cinema – The Gregors
Title: Come With Me to the Cinema – The Gregors
Character: Volker Schlöndorff
Released: September 1, 2022
Type: Movie
From the 1950s onwards, Erika and Ulrich Gregor brought countless film historical milestones to Berlin and shaped cinema discourse in post-war Germany. A look at the life and work of the couple without whom Arsenal and the Forum wouldn’t exist.
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Romy Schneider & Alain Delon: An Enduring Passion
Title: Romy Schneider & Alain Delon: An Enduring Passion
Character: Self
Released: August 7, 2022
Type: Movie
Austrian actress Romy Schneider (1938) and French actor Alain Delon (1935), once fervent lovers in the early sixties, maintained a close friendship and a certain working relationship after their breakup until her death in 1984: a universal and eternal love.
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Title: Studio 3 – Live aus Babelsberg
Character: Self
Released: January 3, 2022
Type: TV
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A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner
Title: A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner
Character: Self
Released: November 1, 2020
Type: Movie
Born in Berlin in 1896, Lotte Eisner became famous for her passionate involvement in the world of both German and French cinema. In 1936, together with Henri Langlois, she founded the Cinémathèque Française with the goal of saving from destruction films, costumes, sets, posters, and other treasures of the 7th Art. A Jew exiled in Paris, she became a pillar of the capital's cultural scene, where she promoted German cinema.
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Volker Schlöndorff: The Beat of the Drum
Title: Volker Schlöndorff: The Beat of the Drum
Character: Self - Filmmaker
Released: August 27, 2020
Type: Movie
The life and work of the brilliant German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff, a cross-border artist who, by leaving Germany and making the whole world his place of work, acquired the objective perspective necessary to portray his country's society better than anyone else while providing a unique and original point of view on the troubled history of the European continent.
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Last Year in Dachau
Title: Last Year in Dachau
Character: Self - Narrator (voice)
Released: July 10, 2020
Type: Movie
Near Munich, in Bavaria, Germany, is the Schleißheim Palace, where French filmmaker Alain Resnais shot his film Last Year at Marienbad in 1960. Nearby is the Dachau concentration camp, where thousands of people were killed between 1933 and 1945. An essay about the present and the past, beauty and horror, life and death.
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Melville, le dernier samouraï
Title: Melville, le dernier samouraï
Character: Self
Released: March 29, 2020
Type: Movie
Like nobody else Jean-Pierre Melville influenced modern filmmaking. This documentary follows his creative process step by step, showing him becoming the father of the Nouvelle Vague and one of the most iconic directors of French cinema.
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Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
Title: Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
Character: Self - Filmmaker
Released: November 7, 2019
Type: Movie
The views and thoughts of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood have never been more relevant than today. Readers turn to her work for answers as they confront the rise of authoritarian leaders, deal with increasingly intrusive technologies, and discuss climate change. Her books are useful as survival tools for hard times. But few know her private life. Who is the woman behind the stories? How does she always seem to know what is coming?
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Hollywood's Second World War
Title: Hollywood's Second World War
Character: Self
Released: September 3, 2019
Type: Movie
For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of the masses, was quite simply their most important weapon. Government authorities monitored the production of feature films and the military itself produced documentaries aimed at rallying the American people to support the troops. This film tells the story of four Hollywood directors of European origin, who returned to the "Old World" during the Second World War to make propaganda documentaries for the US Army at the front: William Wyler from Alsace, Frank Capra from Italy, Anatole Litvak from Ukraine and - in post-war Germany - Billy Wilder from Austria.
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Fuck the Message
Title: Fuck the Message
Character: Self
Released: January 24, 2019
Type: Movie
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Title: Was tut sich - im deutschen Film?
Character: Himself
Released: July 4, 2018
Type: TV
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Sympathisanten - Unser deutscher Herbst
Title: Sympathisanten - Unser deutscher Herbst
Character: Self
Released: May 24, 2018
Type: Movie
West Germany in the 1970s. Many artists, journalists and intellectuals were branded as sympathizers of Baader-Meinhof's left-wing terrorism. The parents of the director, too: Margarethe von Trotta and his stepfather, Volker Schlöndorff. With extensive archive materials and film clips as well as Margarethe von Trotta's private diaries the film portrays one German family and the society of the time.
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Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
Title: Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
Character: Self
Released: October 28, 2017
Type: Movie
A funny walk through the life story of Billy Wilder (1906-2002), a cinematic genius; a portrait of a filmmaker who never was a boring man, a superb mind who had ten commandments, of which the first nine were: “Thou shalt not bore.”
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Tangerine Dream: Sound from Another World
Title: Tangerine Dream: Sound from Another World
Character: Self
Released: November 25, 2016
Type: Movie
Documentary of German electronic musical group Tangerine Dream.
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Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century
Title: Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century
Character: Self - Filmmaker
Released: October 17, 2015
Type: Movie
An unparalleled portrait of Arthur Miller (1915-2005), a major writer who left an indelible mark on the world. Miller's life is intimately connected with the great themes that marked the 20th century. Glamour, fame, social criticism and Marilyn Monroe.
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From Caligari to Hitler
Title: From Caligari to Hitler
Character: Self - Filmmaker
Released: May 28, 2015
Type: Movie
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1919, when the Republic of Weimar is born, to 1933, when the Nazis come into power. (Followed by Hitler's Hollywood, 2017.)
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The Poet and the Filmmaker: Volker Schlöndorff on Baal
Title: The Poet and the Filmmaker: Volker Schlöndorff on Baal
Character: Interviewer
Released: May 6, 2015
Type: Movie
In this feature-length interview, conducted by Robert Fischer in February 2015, Volker Schlöndorff talks about the making of his film BAAL (1969), based on the first play ever written by Bertolt Brecht. He describes his working relationship with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his group of actors and how the Brecht family hated the film when it first came out, resulting in BAAL’s inavailability for over 40 years.
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Fassbinder
Title: Fassbinder
Character: Self
Released: April 30, 2015
Type: Movie
A film portrait of the influential Bavarian actor, director and screenwriter who publicly confessed his homosexuality.
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Henri Langlois vu par...
Title: Henri Langlois vu par...
Character: Self
Released: July 27, 2014
Type: Movie
Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.
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Title: Bewegte Republik Deutschland
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2014
Type: TV
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Title: Open Opera – Wer wird Carmen?
Character: Self
Released: August 12, 2012
Type: TV
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Title: Square
Character: Self
Released: January 8, 2012
Type: TV
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Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections
Title: Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections
Character: Self
Released: December 14, 2011
Type: Movie
Gérard Courant's "Filmed Diary" of December 14, 2011, produced in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Between December 7 and 15, 2011, Gérard Courant was invited by the Dubai International Film Festival, in the United Arab Emirates. It was an opportunity for him to film many "Cinematons" of personalities from the Arab world and to continue his "Film Notebooks" from which he brought back 7 episodes.
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Title: Günther Jauch
Character: Self
Released: September 11, 2011
Type: TV
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Nuits transparentes
Title: Nuits transparentes
Released: April 14, 2011
Type: Movie
Strolling through France (Roanne, Nice and Carcassonne) with some excursions abroad (Munich, Montreal, New York).
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Title: Was wurde aus...?
Character: himself
Released: January 2, 2011
Type: TV
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Title: Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Character: Narrator (French version) (voice) (uncredited)
Released: November 3, 2010
Type: Movie
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.
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Michael Nyman in Progress
Title: Michael Nyman in Progress
Character: Self
Released: October 8, 2010
Type: Movie
Featuring unprecedented access to Michael Nyman's working life, this film shows one of the great composers of our time in all his diversity and endless energy. From London to Berlin, Mexico, Poland, the Netherlands, and Portugal the film is also a journey through the musical world today. It shows Michael Nyman, the musician, in his concerts with The Michael Nyman Band and live collaborations with other internationally known musicians and orchestras. But throughout his journeys, this film discovers Nyman's increasing passion for filming and photography.
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Title: Museums-Check mit Markus Brock
Character: Self
Released: May 30, 2010
Type: TV
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Title: Westpol: Eins zu eins
Character: self
Released: January 20, 2010
Type: TV
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Melville Steps Out of the Shadows
Title: Melville Steps Out of the Shadows
Character: Interviewee
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
A documentary about the making of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1949 film "Le silence de la mer"
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Memories of Last Year in Marienbad
Title: Memories of Last Year in Marienbad
Character: Himself - Narrator
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
A documentary about the film Last Year at Marienbad
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Unraveling the Enigma: The Making of Marienbad
Title: Unraveling the Enigma: The Making of Marienbad
Character: Self
Released: June 23, 2009
Type: Movie
Interviews with Alain Resnais' collaborators about the making of Last Year at Marienbad, including sketches and production photos.
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Peter Eisenman: Building Germany's Holocaust Memorial
Title: Peter Eisenman: Building Germany's Holocaust Memorial
Character: himself
Released: February 20, 2009
Type: Movie
This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect Peter Eisenman. Reaction of the German public to the completed memorial is also shown.
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Code Name: Melville
Title: Code Name: Melville
Character: Self
Released: November 15, 2008
Type: Movie
Mixing interviews, rare archival footage and film extracts, the film shows how Melville's works were impacted by what he experienced in his youth during WWII, and how it structured his whole approach to cinema, not only in its thematic but also in its aesthetics.
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Malle's Fire Within
Title: Malle's Fire Within
Character: Self
Released: May 13, 2008
Type: Movie
In these interviews, conducted in 2008, actor Alexandra Stewart and filmmakers Philippe Collin and Volker Schlöndorff discuss the making of The Fire Within.
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Filmmakers in Action
Title: Filmmakers in Action
Character: Self
Released: September 15, 2006
Type: Movie
What is the state of cinema and what being a filmmaker means? What are the measures taken to protect authors' copyright? What is their legal status in different countries? (Sequel to “Filmmakers vs. Tycoons.”)
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Billy Wilder Speaks
Title: Billy Wilder Speaks
Character: Self - Filmmaker / Interviewer
Released: June 22, 2006
Type: Movie
In 1988, German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) at his office in Beverly Hills, California, and turned on his camera for a series of filmed interviews. (A recut of the 1992 TV miniseries Billy, How Did You Do It?)
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Knef - Die frühen Jahre
Title: Knef - Die frühen Jahre
Character: Self
Released: November 25, 2005
Type: Movie
A documentary about the life of the actress Hildegard Knef.
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Gottschalk meets Petersen
Title: Gottschalk meets Petersen
Character: Himself
Released: May 14, 2005
Type: Movie
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Who is Helene Schwarz?
Title: Who is Helene Schwarz?
Released: February 13, 2005
Type: Movie
Only the chosen few know this woman who started working as a secretary for the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) on 13 February, 1966. The path of Helen’s career is paved with famous names – including that of Wolfgang Petersen, Holger Meins (who later became a member of the Red Army Faction) as well as directors Wolfgang Becker, Detlev Buck and Christian Petzold. All have fond memories of forgetting their troubles after having poured their hearts out over a cup of coffee in Helene’s office – for Helene was both friend and advisor to countless film students.
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Von Sex bis Simmel
Title: Von Sex bis Simmel
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 2005
Type: Movie
A documentary by Hans Günther Pflaum and Peter H. Schröder.
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Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands
Title: Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands
Character: Self (Interviewee)
Released: April 28, 2004
Type: Movie
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Die Verhoevens
Title: Die Verhoevens
Character: Himself
Released: June 29, 2003
Type: Movie
The history of a family, in the film business now for three generations, behind and in front of the camera. The film is not only a foray through the history of this remarkable family, but also through the history of German film and contemporary history as well.
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Title: Un film et son époque
Character: Self
Released: May 17, 2003
Type: TV
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Title: Gero von Boehm begegnet...
Character: Self
Released: April 9, 2002
Type: TV
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Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
Title: Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
Character: Self
Released: March 21, 2002
Type: Movie
The films, affairs and struggles of the iconic star of The Blue Angel as told by Rosemary Clooney, Roger Corman, Deanna Durbin and many more.
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Ein Produzent hat Seele oder er hat keine
Title: Ein Produzent hat Seele oder er hat keine
Character: Self
Released: March 18, 2002
Type: Movie
Horst Wendlandt tells the story of his cinematic work since the sixties. The dialogue between the "old and the young filmmaker" creates a fascinating spectrum of German film of the recent past.
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Title: Im Glashaus - Das philosophische Quartett
Character: himself
Released: January 20, 2002
Type: TV
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Volker Schlöndorff Remembers The Tin Drum
Title: Volker Schlöndorff Remembers The Tin Drum
Character: Self
Released: November 13, 2001
Type: Movie
A documentary-montage of sketches, photos, storyboards, and film excerpts that is accompanied by Volker Schlöndorff's thoughts about his 1979 film THE TIN DRUM.
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Title: Abendschau
Character: self
Released: May 4, 2000
Type: TV
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Schrott - Die Atzenposse
Title: Schrott - Die Atzenposse
Released: January 13, 2000
Type: Movie
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Title: Maybrit Illner
Character: Self
Released: October 21, 1999
Type: TV
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Title: Volle Kanne
Character: Self
Released: August 30, 1999
Type: TV
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Title: Beckmann
Character: Self
Released: January 25, 1999
Type: TV
Reinhold Beckmann hosts a weekly talk show.
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Title: Alpha Forum
Character: Self
Released: January 7, 1998
Type: TV
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Title: Nachtstudio
Character: Self
Released: September 3, 1997
Type: TV
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Title: Im Dialog
Character: self
Released: January 17, 1997
Type: TV
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Title: Die Harald Schmidt Show
Character: Self
Released: December 5, 1995
Type: TV
The Harald Schmidt Show is a German late night talk show hosted on Sky Deutschland by comedian Harald Schmidt. The show first aired from 5 December 1995 to 23 December 2003 on Sat.1. Schmidt then moved his show to Das Erste as Harald Schmidt and Schmidt & Pocher, but he returned to Sat.1 on 13 September 2011. After cancellation on Sat.1, the show continued on Sky Deutschland in September 2012.
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The Night of the Filmmakers
Title: The Night of the Filmmakers
Character: Self
Released: February 12, 1995
Type: Movie
A meditation on the first 100 years of German cinema, featuring an assembly of German filmmakers.
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Title: Morgenmagazin
Character: self
Released: December 15, 1992
Type: TV
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Title: Billy, How Did You Do It?
Character: Self
Released: August 8, 1992
Type: TV
Director Billy Wilder is interviewed by German critic Hellmut Karasek and director Volker Schlöndorff about his movies.
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I Don’t Just Want You to Love Me
Title: I Don’t Just Want You to Love Me
Character: Self
Released: June 11, 1992
Type: Movie
A documentary about the life and work of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
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Billy, How Did You Do It?
Title: Billy, How Did You Do It?
Character: Self
Released: January 25, 1992
Type: Movie
An interview between Volker Schlöndorff and Billy Wilder.
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Film Lesson
Title: Film Lesson
Character: Self
Released: December 20, 1991
Type: Movie
Werner Herzog interviews guests on the art of filmmaking.
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Title: Zeil um Zehn
Character: Self
Released: February 2, 1990
Type: TV
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Title: Romy Award
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: TV
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Title: ZDF-Mittagsmagazin
Character: Self
Released: October 2, 1989
Type: TV
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Title: Nachtcafé
Character: Self
Released: February 14, 1987
Type: TV
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Private Conversations: On the Set of ‘Death of a Salesman’
Title: Private Conversations: On the Set of ‘Death of a Salesman’
Character: Self - The Director
Released: June 23, 1986
Type: Movie
Playwright Arthur Miller, director Volker Schlöndorff and actor Dustin Hoffman are seen creating the Roxbury Productions and Punch Productions teleplay Death of a Salesman (1985).
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Title: American Masters
Character: Self
Released: June 23, 1986
Type: TV
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
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Humor ist eine ernste Sache - Der Filmregisseur Kurt Hoffmann
Title: Humor ist eine ernste Sache - Der Filmregisseur Kurt Hoffmann
Character: Self
Released: November 12, 1985
Type: Movie
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Hands Up!
Title: Hands Up!
Character: Self (1981 footage)
Released: January 21, 1985
Type: Movie
The reunion of a group of former medical students results in a flood of bitter memories.
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Title: Champs-Elysées
Character: Self
Released: January 16, 1982
Type: TV
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Title: Bayerischer Filmpreis
Character: Self
Released: December 1, 1979
Type: TV
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Title: NDR Talk Show
Character: Self
Released: February 9, 1979
Type: TV
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Cinématon
Title: Cinématon
Character: N°572
Released: December 20, 1978
Type: Movie
Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.
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Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema
Title: Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema
Character: Self
Released: December 2, 1976
Type: Movie
BBC documentary about the rise of the New German Cinema and several of its most important figures.
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Title: Kölner Treff
Character: Self
Released: January 25, 1976
Type: TV
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Title: Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1975
Type: TV
A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
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Title: III nach neun
Character: Self
Released: November 19, 1974
Type: TV
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Title: Spécial cinéma
Character: Self
Released: September 25, 1974
Type: TV
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Title: Je später der Abend
Character: Self
Released: March 18, 1973
Type: TV
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Mathias Kneißl
Title: Mathias Kneißl
Released: May 27, 1971
Type: Movie
Inspired by the real life events of Mathias Kneißl, a marginal man, son of poor farmers from Bavaria, in the late XIX Century. Mathias stole from the riches to give to the poor, becoming a hero for the rural people, and a popular social rebel. He was chased by the police until his unfortunate sentence.
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Title: Titel, Thesen, Temperamente
Character: Self
Released: December 4, 1967
Type: TV
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Neuer Deutscher Film Report
Title: Neuer Deutscher Film Report
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
Interview film with the protagonists of the New German Cinema in 1966.
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Title: Goldene Kamera Verleihung
Character: Self
Released: January 25, 1966
Type: TV
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Chance at Love
Title: Chance at Love
Released: December 30, 1964
Type: Movie
Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.
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Léon Morin, Priest
Title: Léon Morin, Priest
Character: Un soldat allemand (uncredited)
Released: September 21, 1961
Type: Movie
The widow Barny lives in Nazi-occupied France, looking after her half-Jewish daughter in a small village. When the Germans arrive, she decides to baptize her and chooses priest Léon Morin to do so. After spending some time with him, the relationship with her confessor turns into a confrontation with both God and her own repressed desire. 
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Title: Deutscher Filmpreis
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1951
Type: TV