Famous Biographies

Born: Berlin, Germany, 21 February 1942. Perhaps the best known female director to emerge from the New German Cinema, Von Trotta began her career as a stage actress and, in the late 1960s, appeared in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff (whom she married in 1971). She then co-s Continue reading the biography

Born: Tokyo, Japan, 28 January 1927. The son of a painter who specialized in floral designs, he studied painting at the Tokyo Art Institute and made his first contact with film as a critic. He began directing documentary shorts in the early 50s and moved onto features in the 60s. His first feature-l Continue reading the biography

Paolo Taviani Born: San Miniato, Italy, 8 November 1931. Vittorio Taviani Born: San Miniato, Italy, 20 September 1929. The first films of the Taviani brothers were made with their long-standing friend, Valentino Orsini. Together they experimented in a documentary mode in an attempt to go beyond neo- Continue reading the biography

Born: Lyons, France, 25 April 1941. Tavernier quit law school to write film criticism for Cahiers du Cinéma and other major journals, worked as an assistant director and publicist (e.g., for Jean-Pierre Melville) and authored a couple of books on American cinema before making his first feature, The Continue reading the biography

Born: Le Pecq, France, 9 October 1908. Died: Paris, France, 5 November 1982. Jacques Tati is a chessmaster of modern film comedy, a creator of complex comic structures in which gag constructions and audience expectations become pawns on his cinematic board. The recurring figure in these games is Mon Continue reading the biography

Tarr was only 22 when he made one of the most successful of the documentary-fiction films with his Családi tuzfészek / Family Nest (1979). Since then he has made four feature films, moving steadily away from his generic starting point. His third film, Panelkapcsolat / Prefabricated People (1982), Continue reading the biography

Born: Lavorazhe, Russia, 4 April 1932. Died: Paris, France, 29 December 1986. Distinguished Soviet director whose austerely poetic, deeply personal films made him one of the most treasured artists of his generation. Tarkovsky followed his prize-winning short diploma piece, The Steamroller and the Vi Continue reading the biography

Born: Geneva, Switzerland, 6 December 1929. Alain Tanner, with his portraits of life among Geneva’s marginal and harmless rebels, can easily be considered the director who introduced American audiences to the fact that not only bankers and diplomats live in Geneva. Influenced by his involvemen Continue reading the biography

Born: Budapest, Hungary, 18 February 1938. A leading director of the Hungarian new cinema. A graduate of Budapest’s Academy of Film Art, he drew attention at various international festivals in the early 60s with three attractive shorts, then turned to feature films with equal success. His Conf Continue reading the biography

Born: Nossendorf, Germany, 8 December 1935. Flamboyant, ingenious “chronicler of the German soul” who has made some of the most formally arresting films of the New German Cinema. Syberberg made numerous shorts and TV documentaries before directing his first narrative features, Scarabea ( Continue reading the biography