Filmverlag der Autoren
Encyclopedia
Filmverlag der Autoren is a German
film distributor
originally founded in 1971 to help finance and distribute independent films by German Autorenfilm directors, that is directors who are renowned for predominantly adapting their own screenplays. Many directors of the New German Cinema
movement were associated with it such as Werner Herzog
, Rainer Werner Fassbinder
, Wim Wenders
, and Alexander Kluge
; whose films were produced and distributed by the Filmverlag and many of whom were members of the Filmverlags board.
Throughout the 1970s, the films put out by the Filmverlag had a high reputation among critics and intellectuals, but the association often bordered bankruptcy. Notable productions of this era included Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God
(1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
(1974), Wenders's The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty
(1972), Alice in the Cities
(1974), Kings of the Road
(1976), The American Friend
(1977), Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons
(1971), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
(1972), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
(1974), Fox and His Friends
(1974), Kluge's In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod (1974), and the collaborative work Germany in Autumn
(1977/'78) about German society's reaction to the terrorism of the Red Army Faction
and the state's counter-measures during the German Autumn
events of 1977.
-publisher Rudolf Augstein
with the help of Bohm had bought himself into the venture in 1977, an event which prompted many of its founding members to leave and start their own production and distribution companies, such as Pro-ject Filmproduktion (started for Kluge's documentary Der Kandidat on Franz-Josef Strauß's 1980 campaign running for German chancellor) and Theo Hinz's Futura-Film (founded in 1983).
While the Filmverlag during Augstein's era scored impressive commercial successes such as Theo gegen den Rest der Welt (1980, starring Marius Müller-Westernhagen
) and Men…
(1985), it also began German distribution of less ambitious films such as The Terminator
(1984) and Up the creek (1984), and in the eyes of many of its founders its original political and intellectual credibility suffered.
.
In 1999, all home video distribution rights to the Filmverlags films and all rights to its label were acquired by Arthaus, a subsidiary of Kinowelt AG. In the following years, Arthaus published many of the Filmverlag films for the first time on VHS and DVD, and in 2009, Arthaus published all Filmverlag films in a large, 50-disc DVD box, half of which had not been published on home video before.
Since the re-organization of Kinowelt in 2003, the original Filmverlag is officially known today as Filmverlag der Autoren und Futura Film GmbH & Co. Verleih Vertriebsgesellschaft KG. It has three subsidiaries:
, thirteen filmmakers signed the founding papers of Filmverlag der Autoren. They are:
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
film distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
originally founded in 1971 to help finance and distribute independent films by German Autorenfilm directors, that is directors who are renowned for predominantly adapting their own screenplays. Many directors of the New German Cinema
New German Cinema
New German cinema is a period in German cinema which lasted from the late 1960s into the 1980s. It saw the emergence of a new generation of directors...
movement were associated with it such as Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
, Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
, Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, and Alexander Kluge
Alexander Kluge
Alexander Kluge is an author and film director.-Early life, education and early career:Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany....
; whose films were produced and distributed by the Filmverlag and many of whom were members of the Filmverlags board.
1970s
Efforts to found the Filmverlag had resulted from recurring frustrations the directors had faced in acquiring funding for their politically and aesthetically ambitious films. They had felt that in the established system which was partly commercially-oriented, partly stately-funded, the usual means of achieving funding were too limiting, gave them little control over their own work, or just did not allow for issues as challenging as they were having in mind to tackle, so they started the Filmverlag as an independent association to have complete control over their projects, from funding through to pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. The model which the founders of the Filmverlag were styling their association after was the Verlag der Autoren in Frankfurt, an independent association of stage writers publishing their own works. The first film produced by Filmverlag der Autoren was Furchtlose Flieger by Veith von Fürstenberg and Martin Müller.Throughout the 1970s, the films put out by the Filmverlag had a high reputation among critics and intellectuals, but the association often bordered bankruptcy. Notable productions of this era included Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a 1972 West German adventure film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role. The soundtrack was composed and performed by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh...
(1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is a 1974 West German drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog about the legend of Kaspar Hauser. Its original German title is Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle, which means "Every man for himself and God against them all"...
(1974), Wenders's The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty
The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty
The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty is a 1972 German language drama film directed by Wim Wenders. It was adapted from a novella by Wenders' long-time collaborator Peter Handke.-Plot:...
(1972), Alice in the Cities
Alice in the Cities
Alice in the Cities is a 1974 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. This was the first part of Wenders' "Road Movie Trilogy" which included The Wrong Move and Kings of the Road...
(1974), Kings of the Road
Kings of the Road
Kings of the Road is a 1976 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. It was the third part of Wenders' "Road Movie Trilogy" which included Alice in the Cities and The Wrong Move...
(1976), The American Friend
The American Friend
The American Friend is a 1977 film by Wim Wenders, loosely adapted from the novel Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith. The film is of the neo-noir genre, and features Dennis Hopper as career criminal Tom Ripley and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, a terminally ill picture framer whom Ripley...
(1977), Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons
The Merchant of Four Seasons
The Merchant of Four Seasons is a 1971 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, starring Hans Hirschmueller and Irm Hermann. The plot follows the life of a fruit-peddler, living in 1950s West Germany, who is driven over the edge by an uncaring society.The title apparently...
(1971), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a 1972 German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on his own play. This film has an all female cast and is set in the home of the protagonist, Petra von Kant. It follows the changing dynamics in her relationships with the other women...
(1972), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is a 1974 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem. The film won two awards at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and is considered to be one of Fassbinder's most powerful works...
(1974), Fox and His Friends
Fox and His Friends
Fox and His Friends, is a 1975 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, starring Fassbinder himself, Peter Chatel and Karlheinz Böhm. The plot follows the misadventures of a working-class homosexual who falls in love with the elegant son of an industrialist...
(1974), Kluge's In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod (1974), and the collaborative work Germany in Autumn
Germany in Autumn
Germany in Autumn is a 1978 West German omnibus film about the German Autumn. The film is composed of contributions from different filmmakers, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Edgar Reitz and Volker Schlöndorff. It was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won a...
(1977/'78) about German society's reaction to the terrorism of the Red Army Faction
Red Army Faction
The radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
and the state's counter-measures during the German Autumn
German Autumn
The German Autumn was a set of events in late 1977, associated with the kidnapping and murder of industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer, President of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations and the Federation of German Industries , by the Red Army Faction , and the hijacking of the...
events of 1977.
Augstein era
The Filmverlags orientation shifted towards a more mainstream program throughout the 1980s after Der SpiegelDer Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
-publisher Rudolf Augstein
Rudolf Augstein
Rudolf Karl Augstein was one of the most influential German journalists, founder and part-owner of Der Spiegel magazine....
with the help of Bohm had bought himself into the venture in 1977, an event which prompted many of its founding members to leave and start their own production and distribution companies, such as Pro-ject Filmproduktion (started for Kluge's documentary Der Kandidat on Franz-Josef Strauß's 1980 campaign running for German chancellor) and Theo Hinz's Futura-Film (founded in 1983).
While the Filmverlag during Augstein's era scored impressive commercial successes such as Theo gegen den Rest der Welt (1980, starring Marius Müller-Westernhagen
Marius Müller-Westernhagen
Marius Müller-Westernhagen is a German actor and musician.Possibly best known for the maudlin hit "Johnny Walker", Marius Müller Westernhagen has been a feature in German rock music since the mid seventies...
) and Men…
Men…
Men… is a 1985 West German film directed by Doris Dörrie. It was chosen as West Germany's official submission to the 59th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but did not manage to receive a nomination....
(1985), it also began German distribution of less ambitious films such as The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
(1984) and Up the creek (1984), and in the eyes of many of its founders its original political and intellectual credibility suffered.
After Augstein
In 1986, Augstein sold his interests in the Filmverlag to Futura-Film. In 1989, Futura-Film founded the subsidiary distributor Felix-Film with an emphasis upon films from the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
In 1999, all home video distribution rights to the Filmverlags films and all rights to its label were acquired by Arthaus, a subsidiary of Kinowelt AG. In the following years, Arthaus published many of the Filmverlag films for the first time on VHS and DVD, and in 2009, Arthaus published all Filmverlag films in a large, 50-disc DVD box, half of which had not been published on home video before.
Since the re-organization of Kinowelt in 2003, the original Filmverlag is officially known today as Filmverlag der Autoren und Futura Film GmbH & Co. Verleih Vertriebsgesellschaft KG. It has three subsidiaries:
- Futura Film Weltvertrieb im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH
- Pro-ject Filmproduktion im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH
- Felix Film GmbH
Founding members
On April 18, 1971 in MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, thirteen filmmakers signed the founding papers of Filmverlag der Autoren. They are:
- Hark BohmHark BohmHark Bohm is a German actor, screenwriter, film director, playwright and former professor for cinema studies. He was born in Hamburg-Othmarschen and grew up on the island Amrum. His younger brother was the actor Marquard Bohm, who starred in some of his early films...
- Michael FenglerMichael FenglerMichael Fengler is a German film producer, director and screenwriter. In 1970, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, he co-directed the film Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?. It was entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival....
- Peter LilienthalPeter LilienthalPeter Lilienthal is a German film director, writer, actor and producer. His 1979 film David won the Golden Bear at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival. His 1984 film Das Autogramm was entered into the 34th Berlin International Film Festival.-Filmography:*1958 – Studie 23. *1959 – Im...
- Hans NoeverHans NoeverHans Noever is a German film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 13 films between 1973 and 1986. His 1980 film Der Preis fürs Überleben was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival.-External links:...
- Pete Ariel
- Uwe Brandner
- Veith von Fürstenberg
- Florian Furtwängler
- Thomas Schamoni
- Laurens Straub
- Wim WendersWim WendersErnst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
- Hans W. Geissendörfer
- Volker VogelerVolker VogelerVolker Vogeler was a German film director and screenwriter. He directed 13 films between 1967 and 2000. His 1971 film Jaider, der einsame Jäger was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival....