Archive 2007
Hanna Schygulla
© Winner
She was the face of German cinema in the 70s and 80s, and Hanna Schygulla’s name remains inseparably linked with that of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, together with whom she made a total of twenty films. Although Fassbinder did not "create" Schygulla, he quite intentionally cast her as the main star of his films from the very beginning. With her naïve, erotic charisma she resembled a suburban Marilyn. Following Effi Briest, she gained world-wide fame with "The Marriage of Maria Braun", and "Lili Marlen". In 1982, after Fassbinder’s death, Schygulla won the Cannes "Palme d’Or" for best actress for her role in The Story of Piera.
Schygulla was born in Kattowitz in 1943 but grew up in Munich. She took acting classes while reading German and Romance philology at university. When she met the young and very radical Fassbinder, he asked her whether she wanted to play Antigone – which she did.
Hanna Schygulla first appeared on screen in 1968 in Jean-Marie Straub's short film "The bridegrom, the actres and the pimp" then in "Hunting scenes from Bavaria" by Peter Fleischmann and three awardwinning Fassbinder films, 2Love is colder than death", "God of plague" and "Katzelmacher". In 1972 she became known to a wider German audience through Fassbinder’s TV series "Eight hous are not a day", and in 1974 "Effie Briest" became their first boxoffice success. She also starred in Wim Wenders' "The wrong movement" and Vojtech Jasny’s "The Clown".
Following her success with Fassbinder’s "The Marriage of Maria Braun", for which she won two awards, Hanna Schygulla went international. She worked with a number of European directors including Scola, Godard, Saura, Ferreri, Wajda, Trotta and Branagh, and she also appears in Fatih Akin’s new film "The edge of Heaven".