Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta's extensive body of work has won awards internationally. She was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a successful team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Her films are concerned with relationships between and among women (sisters, best friends, etc.), as well as with relationships between women and men, and include political settings. Nevertheless, she rejects the suggestion that she makes "women's films".
Early life
The child of Elisabeth von Trotta and painter Alfred Roloff, Margarethe von Trotta was born in Berlin. She and her mother moved to Düsseldorf after the end of World War II. Through her acting career, von Trotta was able to create an initial name for herself before becoming a director. Within this first film of von Trotta's, one can see the conflict "between the personal and the public" that resonates throughout her early film career.
Trotta's first solo film was The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages) in 1978, which focused on "a young woman's political radicalization."
She is a professor of film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and remains an important personality of German cinema.
The Sister Films
Margarethe von Trotta's second feature film was Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (Schwestern oder die Balance des Glücks, 1979). Unintentionally, she created a "trilogy of sister films" with her succeeding works: Marianne and Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit, 1981) and Three Sisters (Fürchten und Lieben, 1988). Barbara Quart, author of the book Women Directors, commented on the three works: "It is the quest for wholeness that is the preoccupation of von Trotta's entire sister series." The women in these films are born into a traditional time (late 1940s and '50s), but they reject the positions that society has established for women.
Marianne and Juliane (also known in English as The German Sisters) (1981) also deals with losing a sister and learning how to handle the grief. In this film, it is predominantly the Nazi era that influences Marianne and Juliane, albeit in different ways.thumb|Margarethe von Trotta (January 2013)A theme within Marianne and Juliane that von Trotta uses throughout her works is that of "the personal is political". In Marianne's jail cell, the sisters come to terms with "their personal and political differences". This film won the AGIS Award, FIPRESCI Prize, Golden Lion Award, New Cinema Award, and OCIC Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1981, along with a few more listed in the awards section. This film was nominated for the Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988. Within this story, once again, women's feelings are investigated through the friendship between two females, Ruth and Olga. Rosa Luxemburg was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 1986. This film won the Guild Film Award-Gold at the Guild of German Art House Cinemas in German Film in 1987. There are three overlapping familial connections involving "mother-daughter relationships" within the story: "the bond between Hannah, a first-generation Jewish American, and her mother Ruth"; "the...mother-daughter bond between Ruth and her Jewish mother Miriam"; "and...the central relationship between surrogate mother Lena von Eschenbach/Fisher and Ruth." In this, the definition of a mother is stretched from the "biological" standpoint to the "symbolic."
Again, a deep bond is witnessed in this story, as in the rest of von Trotta's films, between Hildegard and a young nun, Richardis. Continuing with the interview, von Trotta says, "It's not a lesbian love! At one point she [Hildegard] says, ‘She is my mother and I'm her mother, I'm her daughter and she's my daughter.’ Hildegard couldn't have children, so in a way Richardis is her daughter and friend and mother [all at once]; it's a very deep love."
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (2012) portrays an important segment in the life of the German-Jewish academic Hannah Arendt. In an interview with Thilo Wydra, von Trotta is asked if Arendt is similar to the women she has portrayed in past films. Von Trotta replies with an explanation about how real-life characters from her past films, Rosa Luxemburg and Die bleierne Zeit (Marianne and Juliane), fought and died for causes they found to be right: Luxemburg wanted more equality in her community, and Gudrun Ensslin (Marianne) wanted to revolutionize humanity. Von Trotta says, "Hannah Arendt is a woman who fits into my personal mold of historically important women that I have portrayed in my films. ‘I want to understand,’ was one of her guiding principles. I feel that applies to myself and my films as well.
|-
| 1981 || Marianne and Juliane (Die bleierne Zeit)
| || Also known by the English title of The German Sisters
|-
| 1983 || Sheer Madness (Heller Wahn)
| ||
|-
| 1986 || Rosa Luxemburg
|Director||
|-
| || Anthology film. Segment "Eva"
|-
| 1988 || Love and Fear (Fürchten und Lieben / Paura e amore)
| || Also known as Three Sisters or Trois Soeurs in French
|-
| 1990 || The African Woman (Die Rückkehr / L'africana)
| ||
|-
| 1993 || The Long Silence (Zeit des Zorns / Il lungo silenzio)
| ||
|-
| 1995 || The Promise (Das Versprechen)
|Director||
|-
| 2003 || Rosenstrasse
|Director||
|-
| 2006 || ' (Ich bin die Andere)
| ||
|-
| 2009 || Vision (Vision – Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen)
| ||
|-
| 2012 || Hannah Arendt
|Writer, director||
|-
| 2015 || ' (Die abhandene Welt)
| ||
|-
| 2017 || Forget About Nick
|Director||
|-
| 2018 || Searching for Ingmar Bergman
|Writer, director|| Documentary
|-
| 2023 || Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert
|Writer, director||
|}
Television films and series
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Title
!Notes
|-
|2012
|: La fuga di Teresa
|TV series episode
|-
|2010
|Die Schwester
|TV film
|-
|2007
|Tatort: Unter uns
|TV series episode
|-
|2004
|Die andere Frau (The Other Woman )
|TV film
|-
|2000
|'
|
|-
|1999
|'
|TV miniseries
|-
|1998
|'
|TV film
|-
|1997
|'
|TV film
|}
Actress
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Notes
|-
|1984
|' (TV film)
|Jutta
|
|-
|1977
|'
|
|
|-
|1976
|Coup de Grâce
|Sophie von Reval
|
|-
|1976
|Das Andechser Gefühl
|Movie star
|
|-
|1976
|Die Atlantikschwimmer
|Swimming instructor
|
|-
|1974
|' (TV film)
|Katja
|
|-
|1973
|Desaster (TV film)
|Ulla Werther
|
|-
|1972
|A Free Woman
|Elisabeth Junker
|Also, Screenplay
|-
|1972
|The Morals of Ruth Halbfass
|Doris Vogelsang
|
|-
|1971
|Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte
|Babs
|
|-
|1971
|The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach
|Sophie
|
|-
|1970
|The American Soldier
|Chambermaid
|
|-
|1970
|Gods of the Plague
|Margarethe
|
|-
|1970
|Baal (TV film)
|Sophie
|
|-
|1969
|' (TV film)
|Anka
|
|-
|1969
|'
|Helga
|
|-
|1967
|'
|Gaby
|
|}
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Award
!Category
!Work
!Result
!Notes
|-
|2022
|European Film Awards
|Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|
|
|-
|2019
|German Film Awards
|Honorary Lifetime Award
|
|
|
|-
|2012
|Leo Baeck Medal
|
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="4" |2004
|Taormina International Film Festival
|Taormina Arte Award
|
|
|
|-
|Hessian Film Awards
|Honorary Award
|
|
|
|-
|David di Donatello Awards
|Best European Film
| rowspan="4" |Rosenstrasse (2003)
|
|
|-
|1987
|Guild of German Art House Cinemas
|Guild Film Award - Gold
| rowspan="2" |Rosa Luxemburg (1986)
|
|
|-
|1986
|Cannes Film Festival
|Palme d'Or
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1983
| rowspan="2" |Berlin International Film Festival
|Golden Bear
| rowspan="2" |Sheer Madness (1983)
|
| rowspan="2" |
|-
|OCIC Award
|Honorable Mention
|-
| rowspan="3" |1982
| rowspan="3" |David di Donatello Awards
|Best Foreign Film
| rowspan="5" |Marianne and Juliane (1981)
|
|
|-
|Valladolid International Film Festival
|
|Honorable Mention
|
|-
|Créteil International Women's Film Festival
|Grand Prix Award
|Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness (1979)
|
|
|-
|Gold Hugo
|Chicago International Film Festival
|The German Sisters (Die bleierne Zeit)
|
|
|-
|1972
|German Critics Association
Awards in Film
|Critics Award
|
|
|}
References
External links
- "Career Achievement Tribute: Margarethe Von Trotta"
- "What Goes Around: Margarethe von Trotta's history plays"