Happy 80th Birthday, Margarethe von Trotta!

21 February

Margarethe von Trotta is one of the best-known representatives of German auteur cinema.

Born in 1942 as the daughter of Elisabeth von Trotta – an unmarried woman with Russian roots – she grew up in Düsseldorf before coming in contact with the film scene in Paris. After visiting drama school, she appeared in her first film roles, including Klaus Lemke’s 1969 Brandstifter (The Arsonists). That same year, Margarethe von Trotta met her later life partner Volker Schlöndorff, with whom she would also have a close working relationship. She not only acted in many of Schlöndorff’s films but also took part in directing and editing them; she was involved with the scripts of films including Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach (The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach), Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit), and especially Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum), based on Heinrich Böll’s novel by the same name. This film, which took up the terrorism debate of the time, was an enormous box-office success despite being the target of many hostilities. At the latest with this film, Margarethe von Trotta had adopted a political position, and she was attacked for being a sympathiser with the Red Army Faction (RAF): this label was also a result of her social interaction with key figures of the left-liberal awakening and her support of International Red Aid.

The first film she directed independently, Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages (The Second Awakening of Christa Klages), focussed on a teacher who robs a bank to save her “Kinderladen” – an alternative, collectively-organised kindergarten. The film immediately won the German Film Awards’ Filmband in Silver for the best feature film. Margarethe von Trotta’s international breakthrough came with her feature film about sisters Gudrun and Christine Ensslin, Die bleierne Zeit (Marianne and Juliane).  Though received rather critically in Germany, the film won a number of awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Margarethe von Trotta’s films often focus on strong, defiant women, many of them historic personalities such as the great philosopher, political theorist and publicist Hannah Arendt, in her 2013 film by the same name. Von Trotta’s newest film, Bachmann & Frisch, on novelist Ingeborg Bachmann and her relationship with author Max Frisch, will come to cinemas soon.

Hannah Arendt (2012)

Hannah Arendt is an observer at Adolf Eichmann’s trial. She is expecting to be confronted with a monster. Instead, she is faced with a banal bureaucrat. The reflective portrait of a brave and determined woman.

A biographical feature film about the philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), focusing especially on her observations and analysis of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem. Condensed into a dynamically narrated portrait of an exceptional 20th century intellectual, the film also impresses with its intimate portrayal of the New York milieu of German-Jewish immigrants in the early 1960s.

Image © Heimatfilm