Reinhard Hauff

'The task of the filmmaker should be provocation. If we can’t manage to provoke the audience, we have failed. Entertainment would be all that was left.' (Reinhard Hauff) (1)

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Reinhard Hauff (2)

Reinhard Hauff was born in 1939 in Marburg. He studied German and Theatre Studies in Vienna. During term breaks he worked in the entertainment department of the Bavaria Studios. From 1963 onwards Hauff worked as an assistant director on many entertainment shows, documentaries and television films. After 1966 he directed his own television productions, which were mostly entertainment shows. Hauff made his first television film in 1969 (Die Revolte) and many of his subsequent television films were so successful that they were shown in cinemas. (3)

Reinhard Hauff’s films are noted for their social and political themes. He is described as a realistic filmmaker, which is reflected by his use of real locations as well as the participation of amateur actors in his films. (4) He quotes Neo-Realist filmmakers, such as Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Francesco Rosi, as people who influenced him. (5) Hauff’s interest and sympathy lies with the weak and the oppressed, characters who are outsiders, and he aims to ‘transform complex political and social conflicts into human, dramatic stories.’ (6) He explains: ‘I’m fascinated by people who try to survive and keep their human dignity without having a real chance.’ (7)

Films directed by Reinhard Hauff

1969 Die Revolte

1969/70 Ausweglos

1970 Offener Hass gegen Unbekannt

1970/71 Matthias Kneissl

1972 Haus am Meer

1972/73 Desaster

1973 Die Verrohung des Franz Blum

1974 Zuendschnuere

1975 Paule Paulaender

1976 Der Hauptdarsteller

1977 Messer im Kopf

1978 Endstation Freiheit

1979 Der Mann auf der Mauer

1980/84 10 Tage in Calcutta

1981 Stammheim

1982 Linie 1

1983 Blauaeugig

1984 Mit den Clowns kamen die Traenen

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1 Reinhard Hauff in an interview with Klaus Eder in Eder, Klaus Reinhard Hauff. Texte und Materialien zu acht Filmen (Munich: Goethe Institut, 1992), p. 18

2 Phillips, Klaus New German Cinema. From Oberhausen Through the 1970s (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984), p. 145

3 Maric, Sylvia and Wulf, Reinhard Reinhard Hauff: Unterhaltung, Dokumentation, Fernsehspiel (Cologne: WDR, 1992), p. 3

4 ibid., p. 3

5 Eder, op. cit., p. 15

6 ibid., p. 17

7 Cited in Phillips, Klaus ‘Reinhard Hauff. A Cinema of Darwinism’ in Phillips, Klaus New German Filmmakers. From Oberhausen through the 1970s (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1984), .p. 144