Directing

Volker Schlöndorff

Born March 31, 1939 · Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany (age 87)

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 …

Known For

The Tin Drum

The Tin Drum · 1979

MovieDramaHistory

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 Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale · 1990

The Handmaid's Tale

MovieDramaScience Fiction

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

Last Year at Marienbad

Last Year at Marienbad · 1961

Last Year at Marienbad

MovieDramaRomance

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman · 1985

Death of a Salesman

MovieDramaTV Movie

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

Le Doulos

Le Doulos · 1962

MovieDramaThriller

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?

The Fire Within

The Fire Within · 1963

The Fire Within

Depressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living.

Viva Maria!

Viva Maria! · 1965

MovieAdventureComedy

1907 Central America: Maria II is the daughter of an Irish terrorist. After her father's death, she meets Maria I, a performer, and decides to stay with the circus, and on her debut as a singer, unintentionally invents the striptease and makes the circus famous. Their inadvertent encounter with a socialist revolutionary lands them leading a revolution against the dictator, the capitalists, and the Church.

Léon Morin, Priest

Léon Morin, Priest · 1961

Léon Morin, Priest

MovieDramaRomance

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.

Filmography

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The Tin Drum

The Tin Drum · 1979

MovieDramaHistory

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.

Screenplay

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale · 1990

The Handmaid's Tale

MovieDramaScience Fiction

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

Director

Last Year at Marienbad

Last Year at Marienbad · 1961

Last Year at Marienbad

MovieDramaRomance

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?

Second Assistant Director

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman · 1985

Death of a Salesman

MovieDramaTV Movie

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

Director

Le Doulos

Le Doulos · 1962

MovieDramaThriller

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?

First Assistant Director

The Fire Within

The Fire Within · 1963

The Fire Within

Depressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living.

Assistant Director

Viva Maria!

Viva Maria! · 1965

MovieAdventureComedy

1907 Central America: Maria II is the daughter of an Irish terrorist. After her father's death, she meets Maria I, a performer, and decides to stay with the circus, and on her debut as a singer, unintentionally invents the striptease and makes the circus famous. Their inadvertent encounter with a socialist revolutionary lands them leading a revolution against the dictator, the capitalists, and the Church.

Assistant Director

Léon Morin, Priest

Léon Morin, Priest · 1961

Léon Morin, Priest

MovieDramaRomance

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.

Assistant Director

Swann in Love

Swann in Love · 1984

MovieDramaRomance

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

Director

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum · 1975

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

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

Screenplay

A Very Private Affair

A Very Private Affair · 1962

A Very Private Affair

After achieving fame as a movie star, a woman finds her private life invaded by relentless fans, leading her mother’s ex-lover to intervene and offer protection.

Assistant Director

Diplomacy

Diplomacy · 2014

MovieDramaHistory

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.

Screenplay

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams · 2010

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

MovieDocumentary

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.

Narrator (French version) (voice) (uncredited)

The Ogre

The Ogre · 1996

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.

Director

Palmetto

Palmetto · 1998

MovieCrimeMystery

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.

Director

Return to Montauk

Return to Montauk · 2017

Return to Montauk

MovieDramaRomance

Author Max Zorn, now in his early 60s, is on a promotional book tour in New York when he encounters the woman he could never forget. They spend a weekend together, seventeen years have passed. Can there be a future for their past?

Producer

The Forest Maker

The Forest Maker · 2022

The Forest Maker

MovieDocumentary

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.

Director

Visitation

Visitation · 2026

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.

Writer

The Ninth Day

The Ninth Day · 2004

MovieDramaThriller

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.

Director

Young Törless

Young Törless · 1966

At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New German Cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director Volker Schlöndorff.

Director

A Gathering of Old Men

A Gathering of Old Men · 1987

A Gathering of Old Men

MovieDramaTV Movie

A group of elderly Black men on a Louisiana plantation gather to claim responsibility for the murder of a violent white farmer to protect the young Black man who actually killed him.

Director

Voyager

Voyager · 1991

MovieRomanceDrama

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?

Director

Degree of Murder

Degree of Murder · 1967

Degree of Murder

MovieDramaCrime

After accidentally killing her ex-lover during a fight, Marie enlists the help of a stranger and his friend to dispose of the body while becoming intimate with both men.

Director

Michael Kohlhaas - The Rebel

Michael Kohlhaas - The Rebel · 1969

Michael Kohlhaas - The Rebel

In medieval times, a horse merchant is forced by a noble to leave part of his stock as payment for crossing his land. Upon returning, he finds his horses near death, and when the noble refuses to compensate him, the merchant fights unsuccessfully against the injustice.

Director

German Genius

German Genius · 2023

Volker Schlöndorff

11 Uhr 20

11 Uhr 20 · 1970

SeriesAction & AdventureCrime

Barkeepeer Henry

Billy, How Did You Do It?

Billy, How Did You Do It? · 1992

Billy, How Did You Do It?

SeriesDocumentary

Director Billy Wilder is interviewed by German critic Hellmut Karasek and director Volker Schlöndorff about his movies.

Director