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09/11/08
Werner Schroeter honoured with the "Leone Speciale" in Venice
New film NUIT DE CHIEN (DIESE NACHT) premieres at the 65th Mostra
As the 65th international film festival in Venice (27 August to 6 September) drew to a close, the jury, led by Wim Wenders, presented director Werner Schroeter with a special prize for his life work. The laudatio for the "Leone Speciale" honours the 63-year-old for his "innovative, uncompromising and often provocative" catalogue of film, theatre and opera productions. His creative work now spans more than 4 decades.
Following a lengthy break from film, Schroeter presented his new feature film NUIT DE CHIEN in Venice. The film is based on the novel "Para esta noche" (1943) by the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti.
As early as the late nineteen seventies, Fassbinder made the following prediction to his friend Werner Schroeter, in his own so inimitable dialectic:
"I know of no one else, besides myself, who is so desperately intent on chasing after a shamelessly utopian and probably infantile vision of something like love (these words, ladies and gentlemen, unmask themselves in any case, don’t they?) and stands there helpless in the face of every-gray-green experience. But: experience makes you dumb. Both of us will probably continue as before.”
RWF, “Chin-up, Handstand, Salto Mortale – Firm Footing“ (first publ. in: Frankfurter Rundschau, 24 February 1979), English transl. in: The Anarchy of the Imagination: Interviews, Essays, Notes, ed. Michael Töteberg and Leo A. Lensing, 1992
In BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE (1970) and WORLD ON A WIRE (1973) Schroeter made cameo appearances for RWF.
In 1978, he received his first Bundesfilmpreis for KINGDOM OF NAPLES. Two years later, PALERMO OR WOLFSBURG earned him the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1991, he and his team were honoured with the Deutscher Filmpreis in several categories for MALINA, based on Elfriede Jelinek's screenplay. These included best film, best director, best lead actress (Isabelle Huppert), and best editing, awarded to Fassbinder's cutter Juliane Lorenz, who has edited a total of six Schroeter films. These include THE ROSE KING (1985/86), the documentary A LA RECHERCHE DU SOLEIL (1986), which received the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, and TWO (DEUX) from the year 2002.
You can watch an interview with Werner Schroeter about his latest film and the cinema trailer at the following addresses:
http://www.arte.tv/de/Videos-auf-ARTE-TV/2151166,CmC=2215916.html
http://www.arte.tv/de/Videos-auf-ARTE-TV/2151166,CmC=2216320.html
Photo on left: Werner Schroeter as photographer Deisters in BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE, 1970 © RWFF
Photo on right: Werner Schroeter during the making of MALINA, 1990 © Lore Bermbach
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