Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films

Michael Verhoeven (photo © Sentana Filmproduktion)
Director’s Portrait Michael Verhoeven
Michael Verhoeven was born in 1938 in Berlin, the son of German actor
and director Paul Verhoeven and the actress Doris Kiesow, and is married to the
actress Senta Berger. In the 50s, Verhoeven gathered experience as a cinema
and theater actor. He then studied medicine and completed the state medical
examination to become a qualified doctor. In 1967, one year after completing his
medical studies, he directed his first feature film, Paarungen, an adaption of
Strindberg’s Totentanz. Since then, he as continuously worked in film and television,
and occasionally for the theater, as a screenwriter and director. He received his
first German Film Award in 1971 for o.k. – the film that initiated the controversy in
1970 at the Berlinale. He received further awards for The White Rose (Die
weiße Rose, 1982), The Nasty Girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen,
1989/90) and My Mother’s Courage (Mutters Courage, 1995/96),
including a Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Direction, a New York Critics’ Award, and a
Golden Globe and OSCAR nomination for The Nasty Girl. My Mother ’s
Courage won the Bavarian Film Prize and the Award of the City of Jerusalem for
Best Film. His most recent film Enthüllung einer Ehe (2000) won a FIPA
D’ARGENT in the feature film section and a FIPA D'OR for Best Leading Actor at the
FIPA television festival in Biarritz. Verhoeven is currently working an a new cinema
project, a film adaptation of Laura Waco’s novel Von Zuhause wird nichts erzählt.
Verhoeven is also one of the very few directors
who began his career in the 60s and has been able to
continually work up to today. In the meantime, he has
made 13 films for the cinema and more than 20 for
television. From the very beginning, he has had the
courage to address uncomfortable topics and has proven
a social conscience: ”With my work, it has always been
important to me that political concerns become private
ones, for the two cannot be separated.” As a result,
such films as A Terrific Exit (Ein unheimlich
starker Abgang, 1973) appeared, a passion play
about a broken young woman, or MitGift (1975),
a wicked satire about a murderous society with a
superficial shine, or Killing Cars (1985), ”a green
action thriller that came out too early because, at that
time, no one gave any thought to whether or not other
types of energy were more environmentally friendly.“
Again and again, Michael Verhoeven looks for the
critical analysis of National Socialism and its consequences:
The White Rose, The Nasty Girl and My
Mother’s Courage are but a few of his exceptional
works.
Often Verhoeven puts women in the foreground of
his films: ”That probably has to do with my experience
that in life, very often the women carry the burden. I
don’t expect a film to change society, but I do believe
that the sum of activities of individuals can make a difference.
A film can only be a building block.“
Hans-Günther Pflaum spoke to Michael Verhoeven
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