Margarethe von Trotta (2)
Margarethe von Trotta
| Margarethe von Trotta was born in 1942 in
Berlin as the illegitimate child of Elisabeth von Trotta and the painter Alfred Roloff.
When the war was over she moved to Duesseldorf with her mother. The absence of her father
meant that von Trotta shared a strong bond with her mother, a relationship which, as von
Trotta explains, gave her a sensitivity for female friendships and solidarity, a theme
that runs through most of her films. (1) After
attaining her intermediate high school certificate, von Trotta went to Paris, where she
discovered the medium, film, and decided she wanted to become a director.
|
Margarethe von Trotta (2) |
| Von Trotta studied German and Romance language
and literature in Paris and Munich, where she also attended drama school, and soon she
became one of the best-known actresses of the New German Cinema. In 1969 she appeared in
Volker Schloendorff’s (whom she married in 1971) Baal where she played
alongside Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In the same year she played in Fassbinder’s Goetter
der Pest, and the following year in the two Fassbinder films Der amerikanische
Soldat and Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte. However, acting alone did not
satisfy von Trotta and in 1974 she co-directed Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum
together with Schlöndorff. She made her own directing debut with Das zweite Erwachen
der Christa Klages in 1978.
|
Margarethe von Trotta - the woman with the movie camera (3)
|
Margarethe von Trotta’s films are described as having a feminist theme: ‘the impossible quest for female identity, both barred by and founded upon the emotional interdependence of two women, … her heroines are always political creatures.’ (4) Indeed, von Trotta’s films focus on women’s relationships, either between family members or close friends. |
| Von Trotta herself rejects the notion of a
‘woman’s film’, arguing that it confines women filmmakers to a
‘ghetto’, rendering them ‘harmless’. (5) However at the same time she describes the
difference between films made by men and a female aesthetic form, explaining that this
lies in the choice of topics, a certain sensitivity and caution in the way the characters
are represented and the choice of actresses. Moreover, von Trotta argues that women
filmmakers do not separate the private and the political, or the public and personal life.
(6) Von Trotta’s interest
lies in the emotions of the films’ characters and she seeks to portray German reality
by means of her protagonists. (7)
|
|
|
|
| 1 Beisler, Lorenz (et. al.) Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Michelangelo Antonioni Dokumentation Winter 1991/92 (Filmstellen VSETH/VSU), p. 59 |
| 2 Phillips, Klaus (ed.) New German Filmmakers. FromOberhausen Through the 1970s (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984), p. 145 |
| 3 Fischetti, Renate Das neue Kino - acht portraits von deutschen Regisseurinnen (Frankfurt/M.: tende, 1992), p. 160 |
| 4 Elsaesser, Thomas and Wedel, Michael The BFI Companion to German Cinema (London: BFI Publishing, 1999), p. 236 |
| 5 Hochmut, Dietmar ‘Margarethe von Trotta. Die Balance von Erwachen und Wahn’ in Gehler, Fred (ed.) Regiestühle International (Berlin: Henschelverlag, 1987), p. 257 |
| 6 ibid., p. 225 |
| 7 Margarethe von Trotta in an interview with Frauke Hanck ‘Schwestern auf der Suche nach Wahrheit’ in Stuttgarter Zeitung 18.09.1981 |
