The long wait is almost over. Eva Mattes’ spectacular farewell to her long-running role as police superintendent Klara Blum in the series Tatort is finally coming to German TV screens. The episode, titled WOFÜR ES SICH ZU LEBEN LOHNT (What is worth living for), is like a class reunion for great Fassbinder actresses. Hanna Schygulla, (…)

September this year was overshadowed by the sad news of the death of actor Hilmar Thate at the age of 85. Thate grew up in Halle, where he began his training as an actor at the age of 16. He embarked on his professional theatre career in 1949 and subsequently also appeared in numerous films (…)

Occasion for celebration is already in the offing as we return from our summer break. On 22 September, Roger Fritz turns 80. It would be quicker to say what Fritz has not done during his life as an artist than to recount everything he has done. He was an assistant to Herbert List and later (…)

Kurt Raab would have turned 75 on 20 July this year. Anyone who saw this actor on screen did not quickly forget him. He seemed to have come from another time. His strongly rolled R recalled a bygone era of acting and rather than simply speaking he declaimed. His fevered, exaggerated performances were a rarity (…)

This year, 10 June marked the thirty-fourth anniversary of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s death, and the film critic John Patterson used this occasion to write an appreciation of the director, which was printed in the Guardian. In his article, Patterson speaks of how shaken he was as a young movie buff by the news of the (…)