Biography
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 c...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Pan Olbrychski
2025
as Self
Biographical documentary film presenting the silhouette and artistic path of the outstanding actor Daniel Olbrychski. The narrative of the main charac...
Peter Lorre : Derrière le masque du maudit
2024
as Self
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg
2024
as Self
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 Told in Anita’s own words, from her unpublished memoir, and i...
The Stones and Brian Jones
2024
as Self
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, k...
Merkel
2022
as Self
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 scien...
Werner Herzog - Radikaler Träumer
2022
as Self
With exclusive behind-the-scenes access into Herzog’s everyday life, rare archive material and in-depth interviews with celebrated collaborators – inc...
Alain Resnais, l'audacieux
2022
as Self
A genius inventor of forms, Alain Resnais is one of the fathers of cinematic modernity. This portrait, rich in archives, looks back on the career of a...
Come With Me to the Cinema – The Gregors
2022
as Self
From the 1950s onwards, Erika and Ulrich Gregor brought countless film historical milestones to Berlin and shaped cinema discourse in post-war Germany...
Romy Schneider & Alain Delon: An Enduring Passion
2022
as Self
Austrian actress Romy Schneider (1938) and French actor Alain Delon (1935), once fervent lovers in the early sixties, maintained a close friendship an...
The Forest Maker
2022
Director, Writer, Producer
Together with African small farmholders Tony Rinaudo, an Australian agronomist, has been fighting against the spread of the desert for 30 years and ch...
A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner
2021
as Self
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 wit...
Volker Schlöndorff: The Beat of the Drum
2020
as Self - Filmmaker
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 p...
Last Year in Dachau
2020
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Near Munich, in Bavaria, Germany, is the Schleißheim Palace, where French filmmaker Alain Resnais shot his film Last Year at Marienbad in 1960. Nearby...
Melville, le dernier samouraï
2020
as Self
Like nobody else Jean-Pierre Melville influenced modern filmmaking. This documentary follows his creative process step by step, showing him becoming t...
Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
2019
as Self - Filmmaker
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 confr...
Hollywood's Second World War
2019
as Self
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 ...
Fuck the Message
2019
as Self
Sympathisanten - Unser deutscher Herbst
2018
as Self
West Germany in the 1970s. Many artists, journalists and intellectuals were branded as sympathizers of Baader-Meinhof's left-wing terrorism. The paren...
Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
2017
as Self
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 mi...
The Nameless Day
2017
Writer, Director
The retired Chief superintendent Jakob Franck who often had to inform relatives as a "death messenger", now hopes to lead a life beyond the dead.
Return to Montauk
2017
Producer, Director, Screenplay
During a book tour in the United States, Max meets and falls in love with a young woman. Many years later, Max returns to the United States, hoping to...
Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life
2017
as Self
An account of the life and work of legendary cinematographer and director Carlo Di Palma (1925-2004) and an emotional journey through the great moment...
Tangerine Dream: Sound from Another World
2016
as Self
Documentary of German electronic musical group Tangerine Dream.
Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century
2015
as Self - Filmmaker
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 w...
From Caligari to Hitler
2015
as Self - Filmmaker
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 ...
The Poet and the Filmmaker: Volker Schlöndorff on Baal
2015
as Interviewer
In this feature-length interview, conducted by Robert Fischer in February 2015, Volker Schlöndorff talks about the making of his film BAAL (1969), bas...
Fassbinder
2015
as Self
A film portrait of the influential Bavarian actor, director and screenwriter who publicly confessed his homosexuality.
Henri Langlois vu par...
2014
as Self
Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.
Henri Langlois vu par...
2014
Director
Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.
Diplomacy
2014
Screenplay, Director
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 p...
Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections
2012
as Self
Gérard Courant's "Filmed Diary" of December 14, 2011, produced in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Between December 7 and 15, 2011, Gérard Courant was in...
Calm at Sea
2012
Director, Writer
October 1941. Eighteen months into France’s occupation by German troops, young Communist members of the Resistance shoot dead an officer of the German...
Nuits transparentes
2011
Strolling through France (Roanne, Nice and Carcassonne) with some excursions abroad (Munich, Montreal, New York).
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
2010
as Narrator (French version) (voice) (uncredited)
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind ...
Michael Nyman in Progress
2010
as Self
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 endles...
Code Name: Melville
2010
as Self
Mixing interviews, rare archival footage and film extracts, the film shows how Melville's works were impacted by what he experienced in his youth duri...
Memories of Last Year in Marienbad
2010
as Himself - Narrator
A documentary about the film Last Year at Marienbad
Melville Steps Out of the Shadows
2010
as Interviewee
A documentary about the making of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1949 film "Le silence de la mer"
Memories of Last Year in Marienbad
2010
Producer, Editor
A documentary about the film Last Year at Marienbad
Unraveling the Enigma: The Making of Marienbad
2009
as Self
Interviews with Alain Resnais' collaborators about the making of Last Year at Marienbad, including sketches and production photos.
Peter Eisenman: Building Germany's Holocaust Memorial
2009
as himself
This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect Peter Eisenman. Reaction of the German public to t...
Malle's Fire Within
2008
as Self
In these interviews, conducted in 2008, actor Alexandra Stewart and filmmakers Philippe Collin and Volker Schlöndorff discuss the making of The Fire W...
Ulzhan
2007
Director
Somewhere in the endless steppes of Central Asia lies a treasure. One man holds the key to it, a fragment of an ancient map. But in his restless quest...
Strike
2007
Director
A nearly illiterate woman becomes one of the founders of Poland's Solidarity union.
Filmmakers in Action
2006
as Self
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...
Billy Wilder Speaks
2006
as Self - Filmmaker / Interviewer
In 1988, German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) at his office in Beverly Hills, California, and...
Billy Wilder Speaks
2006
Editor, Director
In 1988, German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) at his office in Beverly Hills, California, and...
Knef - Die frühen Jahre
2005
as Self
A documentary about the life of the actress Hildegard Knef.
Enigma – Eine uneingestandene Liebe
2005
Director
Gottschalk meets Petersen
2005
as Himself
Who is Helene Schwarz?
2005
as Self
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 pat...
Von Sex bis Simmel
2005
as Self
A documentary by Hans Günther Pflaum and Peter H. Schröder.
The Ninth Day
2004
Director
A drama loosely based on Jean Bernard's Nazi-era prison diary.
Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands
2004
as Self (Interviewee)
Die Verhoevens
2003
as Himself
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 h...
Ten Minutes Older: The Cello
2002
Director
Collection of short films the summaries of which include; a foreign man moving to Italy, getting married and having a child; a four split scene short ...
The Enlightenment
2002
Director
Augustinus's philosophy time is captured from the point of view of an amazing little flying philosopher
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
2002
as Self
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.
Ein Produzent hat Seele oder er hat keine
2002
as Self
Horst Wendlandt tells the story of his cinematic work since the sixties. The dialogue between the "old and the young filmmaker" creates a fascinating ...
Ein Produzent hat Seele oder er hat keine
2002
Director
Horst Wendlandt tells the story of his cinematic work since the sixties. The dialogue between the "old and the young filmmaker" creates a fascinating ...
Everyman's Feast
2002
Producer
Austrian television director Fritz Lehner makes his feature debut with the big-budget drama Jedermann's Fest, based on the 1911 play by Hugo von Hofma...
Volker Schlöndorff Remembers The Tin Drum
2001
as Self
A documentary-montage of sketches, photos, storyboards, and film excerpts that is accompanied by Volker Schlöndorff's thoughts about his 1979 film TH...
The Legend of Rita
2000
Screenplay, Director
Rita Vogt is a radical West German terrorist who abandons the revolution and settles in East Germany with a new identity provided by the East German s...
Schrott - Die Atzenposse
2000
Palmetto
1998
Director
After spending two years in prison, framed for accepting a bribe, former newspaper reporter Harry Barber is released, bitter and disillusioned. Feelin...
The Ogre
1996
Director, Screenplay
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 s...
The Night of the Filmmakers
1995
as Self
A meditation on the first 100 years of German cinema, featuring an assembly of German filmmakers.
I Don’t Just Want You to Love Me
1992
as Self
A documentary about the life and work of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
The Michael Nyman Songbook
1992
Director
Ute Lemper sings a collection of art songs by Michael Nyman based on texts by Paul Celan, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Shakespeare and Arthur Rimb...
Billy, How Did You Do It?
1992
as Self
An interview between Volker Schlöndorff and Billy Wilder.
Billy, How Did You Do It?
1992
Director
An interview between Volker Schlöndorff and Billy Wilder.
Film Hour
1991
as Self
Werner Herzog interviews guests on the art of filmmaking.
Voyager
1991
Director, Screenplay
Walter Faber has survived a crash with an airplane. His next trip is by ship. On board this ship he meets the enchanting Sabeth and they have a passio...
The Handmaid's Tale
1990
Director
In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
A Gathering of Old Men
1987
Director
A regular day in a Louisiana sugarcane plantation changes course when a local white farmer is shot in self defense. A group of old, black men takes a ...
Private Conversations: On the Set of ‘Death of a Salesman’
1986
as Self - The Director
Playwright Arthur Miller, director Volker Schlöndorff and actor Dustin Hoffman are seen creating the Roxbury Productions and Punch Productions telepla...
Humor ist eine ernste Sache - Der Filmregisseur Kurt Hoffmann
1985
as Self
Death of a Salesman
1985
Director
Willy Loman is an over-the-hill salesman who faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family: Willy's ...
Hands Up!
1985
as Self (1981 footage)
The reunion of a group of former medical students results in a flood of bitter memories.
Swann in Love
1984
Director
In 19th-century Paris, Charles Swann risks his social standing in his obsessive pursuit of prostitute Odette. His overwhelming desire for her comes, i...
Krieg und Frieden
1982
Writer, Director
The third episodical film, after Deutschland im Herbst and Der Kandidat, in which notable German film makers reflect on the state of their country.
Circle of Deceit
1981
Writer, Director
Georg Laschen leaves his family in West Germany to go work as a war correspondent in Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians.
The Candidate
1980
Director, Writer
Made with an eye to the autumn of 1980 when the German parliamentary elections took place, The Candidate examines Germany’s history past and present a...
The Tin Drum
1979
Screenplay, Director
Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world ...
Cinématon
1978
as N°572
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 y...
Germany in Autumn
1978
Director, Screenplay
Germany in Autumn does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of German...
Beto Nervio contra el poder de las tinieblas
1978
Associate Producer
A comic strip detective and a superhero are hired to investigate separatedly the successive murders of CEOs within a real life corporation symbolizing...
Portrait of Valeska Gert
1977
Writer, Director
Documentary film.
Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema
1976
as Self
BBC documentary about the rise of the New German Cinema and several of its most important figures.
Coup de Grâce
1976
Director
A countess loves her brother's Prussian-officer friend in the 1919 Baltic area.
Georginas Gründe
1975
Writer, Director
Adaptation of a story by Henry James.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
1975
Screenplay, Director
After a chance encounter with a wanted man, a woman is harassed by the police and press until she takes violent action.
De qui dépend que l’oppression demeure ?
1975
as Self
On May 21, 1975, the trial of the members of the Red Army Faction (also known as the Baader-Meinstein Gang) began. Four members appeared before the St...
Stayover in Tirol
1974
Producer, Writer, Director
An adaptation of the Henry James short story Les raisons de Georgina.
A Free Woman
1972
Writer, Director, Producer
A divorced woman in her thirties fights a losing battle in Munich to attain belated self-fulfillment. The die is cast in a briskly impersonal society ...
The Morals of Ruth Halbfass
1972
Director, Screenplay
Ruth is the wife of Erich Halbfass, a well-heeled corsetry manufacturer. Business is booming, Erich splashes around in the house swimming pool and dau...
Mathias Kneißl
1971
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 ...
The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach
1971
Writer, Director, Producer
An intriguing Hans Christian Anderson-style fairy tale aesthetic and voice over narration. Sudden Wealth is a despairing chronicle of a group of starv...
Rio das Mortes
1971
Idea
Michel and Guenther, working in dead-end jobs, are obsessed with going to Peru to find buried treasure, using a map of the Rio das Mortes. Michel's gi...
Baal
1970
Director, Producer, Screenplay
Baal explores the cult of the genius, an anti-heroic figure who chooses to be a social outcast and live on the fringe of bourgeois morality.
Michael Kohlhaas - The Rebel
1969
Director, Writer
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 hor...
Der Paukenspieler
1967
Director, Writer
Five film directors were given the task of making short films based on titles of drawings by Paul Klee.
A Degree of Murder
1967
Director, Writer
After accidentally killing her ex-lover, a young woman hides the body with the help of two men she's romantically involved with, leading to a spiralin...
Neuer Deutscher Film Report
1967
Interview film with the protagonists of the New German Cinema in 1966.
Young Törless
1966
Director, Writer
At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing...
Viva Maria!
1965
Assistant Director
An IRA operative escapes to the Americas and teams up with a circus singer to create a popular vaudeville act. When the singer falls for a rebel, they...
Chance at Love
1964
as German soldier (segment "Chance du guerrier, La") (uncredited)
Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.
The Fire Within
1963
Assistant Director
Although his alcoholism has been treated, Alain still feels he is deeply unwell and does not feel he can leave the detoxification clinic once and for ...
Méditerranée
1963
Co-Director
[Here] Pollet made a work that is the very definition of what French critics like to call an ovni or ufo (as in ‘unidentified filmic object’). [It] ha...
Le Doulos
1962
as Man in Bar (uncredited)
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 sh...
Le Doulos
1962
First Assistant Director
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 sh...
A Very Private Affair
1962
Assistant Director
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 ...
Léon Morin, Priest
1961
as German Soldier (uncredited)
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 intelligen...
Léon Morin, Priest
1961
Assistant Director
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 intelligen...
Last Year at Marienbad
1961
Second Assistant Director
In a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.
Who Cares...
1960
Writer, Editor, Director
In the Frankfurt area, La Main Rouge hunts for Algerian soldiers who had deserted from the French army and fled across the German border.
Love Me Again
N/A
Thanks
Ewa and Halina are forcibly separated from each other by Ewa’s father in their youth because of their love for each other. When Ewa’s father dies 13 y...
Heimsuchung
N/A
Writer, Director
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 w...