Volker Schlöndorff

Directing

Volker Schlöndorff

Born 1939-03-31 · 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.

Acting credits

Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power poster
6.8

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?

Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power

2019

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer poster
7.6

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.

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

2022

Knef - Die frühen Jahre poster
8.0

A documentary about the life of the actress Hildegard Knef.

Knef - Die frühen Jahre

2005

Filmmakers in Action poster
7.2

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.”)

Filmmakers in Action

2006

Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century poster
7.5

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.

Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century

2015

Le Doulos poster
7.4

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

Le Doulos

1962

Léon Morin, Priest poster
7.1

Barny, although a Marxist, is intrigued by the mysteries of religion. In confession, she teases a priest, Léon Morin, but he is a young and intelligent man and ready to discuss anything.

Léon Morin, Priest

1961

Cave of Forgotten Dreams poster
7.1

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.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

2010

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg poster
7.2

An exploration of the life of Anita Pallenberg, European actress and rock ’n’ roll muse. Told in Anita’s own words, from her unpublished memoir, and in the words of her family, this bittersweet film is a never-seen-before look at life with The Rolling Stones.

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg

2024

Henri Langlois vu par... poster
5.0

Thirteen filmmakers share personal reflections on Henri Langlois—the visionary founder of the Cinémathèque Française—recounting his influence on their lives, his role in preserving film history, and his enduring impact on world cinema.

Henri Langlois vu par...

2014

The Stones and Brian Jones poster
7.1

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.

The Stones and Brian Jones

2024

Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections poster
NR

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.

Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections

2012

Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song poster
6.5

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.

Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song

2002

No artwork available
10.0

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.

Die Verhoevens

2003

Chance at Love poster
5.6

Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.

Chance at Love

1964

Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life poster
5.2

An account of the life and work of legendary cinematographer and director Carlo Di Palma (1925-2004) and an emotional journey through the great moments of cinema, from Italian neorealism to the masterpieces of Woody Allen.

Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life

2017

Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands poster
7.3

No synopsis available yet.

Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands

2004

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder poster
7.3

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.”

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder

2017

A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner poster
8.5

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.

A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner

2021

Hollywood's Second World War poster
8.0

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.

Hollywood's Second World War

2019

Cinématon poster
4.9

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.

Cinématon

1978

From Caligari to Hitler poster
7.4

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.)

From Caligari to Hitler

2015

Hands Up! poster
5.7

The reunion of a group of former medical students results in a flood of bitter memories.

Hands Up!

1985

Code Name: Melville poster
6.7

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.

Code Name: Melville

2010

Behind the camera

The Tin Drum poster
7.0

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

The Tin Drum

1979

The Tin Drum poster
7.0

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

The Tin Drum

1979

The Handmaid's Tale poster
6.1

In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.

The Handmaid's Tale

1990

Palmetto poster
6.0

After being released from prison on a bum charge, Harry Barber is out for payback to regain his lost two years. He's hired by Mrs. Malroux to fake the kidnapping of her stepdaughter (the daughter of a dying millionaire). He discovers that he is being set up on multiple levels and will soon face a longer sentence if he doesn't prove the truth.

Palmetto

1998

Death of a Salesman poster
6.9

Willy Loman, an aging, failing salesman, struggles to accept reality and his failure to achieve the American Dream.

Death of a Salesman

1985

The Ninth Day poster
6.5

During WWII, head priest Henri Kremer is mysteriously freed from Dachau. He learns that he can return home to Luxembourg, for only nine days, during which he'll have to face a persuasive Gestapo chief who will put his faith to the test.

The Ninth Day

2004

Diplomacy poster
7.0

On the night of August 24, 1944, the fate of Paris rests with General von Choltitz, who plans to destroy the city on Hitler's orders. As the general prepares to detonate explosives throughout the capital, Swedish consul Raoul Nordling uses diplomacy in a desperate bid to convince him to defy the orders and save Paris.

Diplomacy

2014

Diplomacy poster
7.0

On the night of August 24, 1944, the fate of Paris rests with General von Choltitz, who plans to destroy the city on Hitler's orders. As the general prepares to detonate explosives throughout the capital, Swedish consul Raoul Nordling uses diplomacy in a desperate bid to convince him to defy the orders and save Paris.

Diplomacy

2014

The Forest Maker poster
6.2

Together with African small farmholders Tony Rinaudo, an Australian agronomist, has been fighting against the spread of the desert for 30 years and challenges ideas of conventional reforestation with his simple yet effective method.

The Forest Maker

2022

The Forest Maker poster
6.2

Together with African small farmholders Tony Rinaudo, an Australian agronomist, has been fighting against the spread of the desert for 30 years and challenges ideas of conventional reforestation with his simple yet effective method.

The Forest Maker

2022

The Forest Maker poster
6.2

Together with African small farmholders Tony Rinaudo, an Australian agronomist, has been fighting against the spread of the desert for 30 years and challenges ideas of conventional reforestation with his simple yet effective method.

The Forest Maker

2022

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum poster
7.0

After a chance encounter with a wanted man, a woman is harassed by the police and press until she takes violent action.

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

1975

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum poster
7.0

After a chance encounter with a wanted man, a woman is harassed by the police and press until she takes violent action.

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

1975

Swann in Love poster
5.6

In Belle Époque Paris, a 19th-century Parisian aristocrat falls in love with a lower-class prostitute who seduces him but never loves him.

Swann in Love

1984

Coup de Grâce poster
6.4

A countess loves her brother's Prussian-officer friend in the 1919 Baltic area.

Coup de Grâce

1976

Circle of Deceit poster
6.1

To escape his crumbling marriage, German journalist Laschen travels to Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians to produce an essay. Together with his photographer, he meets some influential people and discovers the everyday face of the war.

Circle of Deceit

1981

Circle of Deceit poster
6.1

To escape his crumbling marriage, German journalist Laschen travels to Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians to produce an essay. Together with his photographer, he meets some influential people and discovers the everyday face of the war.

Circle of Deceit

1981

Voyager poster
6.2

April 1957: Rational engineer Faber's plane crashes in Mexico, where he learns that he became a father in 1938. He takes a ship from NYC to France and meets cute, young Sabeth. Is it fate?

Voyager

1991

Voyager poster
6.2

April 1957: Rational engineer Faber's plane crashes in Mexico, where he learns that he became a father in 1938. He takes a ship from NYC to France and meets cute, young Sabeth. Is it fate?

Voyager

1991

Visitation poster
NR

A plot of land, a house by the lake, its changing inhabitants. This one plot of land reflects 70 years of German history from Weimar, the Nazis, the war, the Soviet occupation and reconstruction to the fall of the GDR.

Visitation

2026

Visitation poster
NR

A plot of land, a house by the lake, its changing inhabitants. This one plot of land reflects 70 years of German history from Weimar, the Nazis, the war, the Soviet occupation and reconstruction to the fall of the GDR.

Visitation

2026

Visitation poster
NR

A plot of land, a house by the lake, its changing inhabitants. This one plot of land reflects 70 years of German history from Weimar, the Nazis, the war, the Soviet occupation and reconstruction to the fall of the GDR.

Visitation

2026

The Ogre poster
6.4

Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany.

The Ogre

1996

The Ogre poster
6.4

Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany.

The Ogre

1996