David Bennent

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David Bennent at the premiere of The Vampire on the Couch (2014)

David Bennent (born September 9, 1966 in Lausanne ) is a Swiss actor . Bennent worked with the most important theater directors on important European stages.

Life path

After his sister Anne Bennent, David Bennent is the second child of the actor Heinz Bennent and the dancer Paulette Renou (stage name Diane Mansart ), who was engaged at the Paris Opera . He spent the first years of his life with his parents and sister on the island of Mykonos in Greece. His mother taught him much of his school days. The first few days of school were traumatic for him as he was teased by the students because of his small height . Many medical treatments from childhood did little to help his physical growth; today he is 1.55 meters tall. At first Bennent wanted to be a jockey , but “something” drew him “to the theater, I didn't consciously go there.” The decision was made when he visited his sister Anne in Paris, who was taking lessons from director Patrice Chéreau , and he was Chéreau asked if he didn't want to play. Bennent did not take part in any regular drama school lessons, but taught himself the techniques of acting by himself. Only then did he expand his acting skills together with father and sister.

Bennent has starred in numerous plays and films for cinema and television. He is best known in the role of Oskar Matzerath in Volker Schlöndorff's film adaptation of the novel Die Blechtrommel (1979) by Günter Grass . Although he owed this role an easier career entry, he was committed to this film by the public all his life. Therefore he rejects a continuation of the film The Tin Drum over the last third of the novel.

In 1984 he had his first theater engagement at the Comédie Française in Paris . In Germany he first appeared in 1985 at the Schaubühne Berlin . The star director Peter Brook took him on in 1990 in his Paris ensemble, where he worked until 1997. In 1999 he and his sister Anne performed in the world premiere of George Tabori's Purgatory at the Vienna Academy Theater . Later he was permanently engaged at the Berliner Ensemble for four years . Bennent has played in many pieces at the Berlin Renaissance Theater since 2005 . In his free time he mainly lives in Mykonos . Bennent is fluent in German, French and English as well as some modern Greek.

With his father he appeared in Samuel Beckett's final, among others, and has been on tour across Europe since 1995. This production was hailed by the critics as a “great moment in theater”. The Zürcher Weltwoche described it as “warm, mysterious and poetic” and for the Süddeutsche Zeitung it was “strangely bright”. From 1997 to 2010 they followed up with another tour in which Bennent read texts from Heiner Müller's description of the pictures and his father recited his favorite poet Hölderlin from the epistolary novel Hyperion .

In 2016 he took on the role of Mammon in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival .

Important theater work

Filmography (selection)

Radio plays

literature

Documentaries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What is David Bennent actually doing? In: stern from June 15, 2001, interview.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Irene Bazinger: You always have to be so eccentric! ( Memento from March 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Berliner Zeitung from February 21, 2009, interview.
  3. ↑ a b Sven Siedenberg: A portrait of the actor David Bennent. Little David's great journey. In: Berliner Zeitung of September 14, 1995.
  4. ↑ a b Peter Zander: David Bennent: Why there is no new “tin drum”. In: Die Welt from December 17, 2007.
  5. ↑ biography on kino.de .
  6. ↑ Portrait of David Bennent at the Renaissance Theater (Berlin)
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Höbel : Beckett's Idiot. In: Der Spiegel , No. 24, June 12, 1995.
  8. ↑ Hartmut Krug: Better fool than King Lear. Actor Heinz Bennent turns 90. In: Deutschlandradio , July 18, 2011.
  9. ↑ Chapter: Bennent wants to be "tender" as a mammon . In: Sophia Felbermair: Buhlschaft with "Lolita-smack". In: ORF , July 22, 2016, accessed on May 20, 2017.
  10. ↑ Review of The Tie Club - Patrick Wildermann: When men chat too much. In: Der Tagesspiegel from October 17, 2005.
  11. ↑ Discussion of Happy Holidays - Patrick Wildermann: Gift. In: Der Tagesspiegel from December 15, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Bennent, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss actor
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Lausanne