Ulli Lommel turns 70

On 21 December the actor and director Ulli Lommel turns 70. When Rainer Werner Fassbinder made his first feature film, LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH, Lommel was already a known quantity in Germany, having played opposite such cinema greats as Maria Schell, Heinz Rühmann and Hildegard Knef in the 1960s. In 1969 he began a (…)

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Eva Mattes turns 60

On 14 December, the actress Eva Mattes will celebrate her sixtieth birthday. Mattes was still a teenager when she began her film and theater career, giving particularly memorable performances as a dubbing actor for the children’s TV series LASSIE and the German-language version of PIPPI LONGSTOCKING. She later became one of the most well-known faces (…)

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Annemarie Düringer dies

The Swiss actress Annemarie Düringer died on 26 November in Baden, Austria. It was her eighty-ninth birthday. Düringer was known for her numerous theater and film roles. From 1949 until shortly before her death, she was a member of Vienna’s Burgtheater ensemble, where she worked with directors such as Peter Zadek, Hans Neuenfels and Claus (…)

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Marcel Ophuls’ NOVEMBER DAYS on DVD

Marcel Ophuls’ documentary NOVEMBER DAYS will be available soon on DVD. The film was commissioned by the BBC and shot one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. By way of a series of interviews, it explores the “hangover” in the wake of German reunification. In taking stock of this situation, Ophuls quickly departs (…)

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