50 years of Henckel von Donnersmarck: In an interview, he reveals why he takes a lot of time for his films, what he thinks of streaming projects – and what absurd passions he has pursued.
Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was only 33 years old when he was awarded an Oscar for his film “The Lives of Others”. Tomorrow (May 2nd) he will be 50.
For his birthday he talks about his plans and what sometimes keeps him from making films – sudden passions for all sorts of things, for example: perfume or baroque decorative dolphins.
Where will you celebrate your 50th birthday?
At the moment it looks like I might have to celebrate it all by myself in Beijing. I gave a talk here at the film festival. During the trip, however, the laminated photo page from my German passport completely broke off, and the airline did not let me on board with it when I wanted to take the return flight. Let’s see how quickly the German consulate can conjure up a new passport!
Otherwise a stay in Florida with my family would be planned. We wanted to go out to sea in a boat and I had hopes of catching a tarpon for the first time on this tour. I started fishing during the pandemic. My wife and my children can’t do much with this new passion, but on such an important birthday they have to be involved, right?
I would like to celebrate the fiftieth with my friends and relatives again later, as soon as the next film is finished, maybe even combine the celebration with a preview of the film.
How do you feel about this round number?
When you see the vigor with which octogenarians are fighting for the presidency in America, I don’t worry too much about fifty. In a way, a few gray hairs also make my job as a director easier – everyone finds it easier to take direction from a seasoned man than from a youngster.
Perhaps it is also due to this fact that Hitchcock only shot his most famous films – “Window on the Courtyard”, “Vertigo”, “Psycho”, “The Birds” – in his fifties and sixties. And Michael Haneke, at the age of 47, his first film.
At the age of 33 you were in the limelight on the Oscar stage with your debut feature film “The Lives of Others”. Is that still very relevant to you today?
Sixteen years is a long time. My daughter was three then, now she’s nineteen and studying fashion design in New York. My youngest is still in Christiane’s belly, now he’s fifteen and beats me on the rowing machine. But yes, of course I remember all the hustle and bustle very well. That started almost a year before and probably continued a year later.
Steven Spielberg told me backstage right after the ceremony, “You will always be associated with this award now. You will always be an Oscar winner. Your children will always be an Oscar winner’s children. Even your grandchildren.”
I understand what he means though. But it would never occur to me, for example, for Spielberg himself, to think at first sight of his name: “Oscar winner!” I would really think more of his big movies like “Jurassic Park” or “Ready Player One”.
Can you also imagine streaming projects that have no or only a short cinema run?
Certainly. I don’t think there is a filmmaker anymore who would deny that. Over the past 15 years, such brilliant and entertaining series have sprung up in television that we are utterly humbled: “Breaking Bad”, “House of Cards”, “Downton Abbey”, “The Queen’s Gambit”, “The Night Agent” and many more.
The directing craft is the same for streaming and cinema. Of course, much of the power of the images and sound is lost outside of the cinema. But with streaming you have more flexibility in terms of runtime.
The producer of The Queen’s Gambit, for example, spent decades trying to squeeze the novel into a movie. It just didn’t work. Finally, Netflix came as the savior, saying, “Take as much time as you want. Six episodes if you have to.” In the end it was seven and that was fine with them too.
That’s a lot of creative freedom! And since the vast majority of viewers see my movies on the small screen anyway, maybe even on their cell phones, I have to make my peace with that anyway.
Her film “The Tourist” was a box-office success, “Werk ohne Autor” was nominated for two Oscars. However, both films were also attacked and discussed controversially. How do you deal with this criticism?
That was not only the case with “The Tourist” and “Work without an Author”, but also with “The Lives of Others” – a student once sent me a magnificent linen-bound diploma thesis with the collected bad reviews of “Das Leben of the others”, which she had analyzed scientifically.
I read one or two, then got angry and threw the book in the wastebasket. I read some more of the nasty reviews on “The Tourist” because I just wanted to understand why such a loving, gentle film, which, as you say, was well received by audiences, elicited such passionate hatred from some critics has. I still haven’t quite figured it out. Maybe you can explain it to me?
But with “Werk ohne Autor” I didn’t read a single criticism anymore. Not to protect myself, but simply because I really didn’t care anymore. I know that I do everything I can to entertain and touch viewers with my films. And at some point it became clear to me: I make these films for the people who like them. If someone hates her, that’s not my concern.
After the Oscar success, you took your time. Three years until the thriller “The Tourist”, another eight years until “Work without an Author”. What was the reason for this?
There is a clever phrase attributed to various directors: “If you only know something about film, you don’t know anything about it either.” I have many interests and passions. That’s perhaps one of the key things that made my films so successful. The most important production remains one’s own life.
But I don’t even know if I actually had a choice whether to pursue them or not. Because these passions come over me with great vehemence and quite suddenly, like an “amour fou” with the hero of a French novel. Suddenly all I can do is deal with – let’s say – the life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, for two years maybe.
I then travel to the places where he lived, collect photos of him, read all his writings. And that is then suddenly superseded quite seamlessly by a fanatical interest in the art of frames. And then for a year or two I become blind to anything but frames: I learn everything about frame making, every aspect; read books about it, buy frames until the house overflows – even consider changing careers and becoming a framemaker; but then the next wave comes along, and suddenly it’s perfume that takes over all my thinking.
Then I collect the 200 most important perfume ingredients, practice recognizing them in every mixture, watch every documentary about it, visit the studios of great perfumers and could probably end up with “Wetten, dass..?” perform and identify the perfumes of each spectator.
I’ve been in the clutches of these alternating loves all my life: car brand pins at the IAA as a kid, then natural sponges, first editions of interwar German literature, doll furniture, portraiture, porcelain, African tribal art, handguns, baroque dolphin ornaments, albumen -Photography, fishing, etc. Every few years, however, I get a similar passion for a film story. And then I put my whole life into the film.
Since the last film, however, a lot of my time and attention has also been devoted to getting three children through a pandemic reasonably unscathed. I think politics has particularly sinned against the younger generation. I tried to compensate for that with talks and activities and just being there for the children.
To person
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was born in Cologne. After his debut film “The Lives of Others” won an Oscar for best international film, he moved to Los Angeles with his family. Since then he has released the films “The Tourist” and “Werk ohne Autor”. The filmmaker, who is over two meters tall, lives in the USA with his wife Christiane Asschenfeldt, they have three children.