Markus Imhoof

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Markus Imhoof (2019)

Markus Imhoof (born September 19, 1941 in Winterthur ) is a Swiss film director , theater director and screenwriter . He has been responsible for some of the most important productions in Swiss film history since the late 1970s .

Life

Markus Imhoof's father was a professor of German and history at the Technikum Winterthur , his mother, who was born on an Indian mission, was an English teacher, and his sister Ursula, who was three years older, is a Romance philologist. Markus Imhoof attended the Humanist Gymnasium in Winterthur and graduated in 1961. He then studied German, art history and history at the University of Zurich . He became Leopold Lindtberg's assistant at the Schauspielhaus Zurich . His daughter Barbara (* 1966) is a biologist, his son David (* 1969) is an actor.

In 1967/68 he attended film school at the Zurich School of Applied Arts with Kurt Früh and teachers at the Polish film school in Lodz. He directed his first short films, including Rondo , which was banned by the Justice Department of the Canton of Zurich until 1976 because of its criticism of the prison system. His film Ormenis 199 † 69 about the Swiss cavalry was supported by the military with 25,000 francs. Since the work was disapproved of by its financiers, among other things because of a scene with horses in gas masks, they tried to ban it afterwards. The film was censored on television, but received several awards in the original version, including a. the federal quality premium and the Venice silver medal.

In 1970 Imhoof founded Nemo Film GmbH together with Fredi M. Murer , Yves Yersin , Kurt Gloor , Alexander J. Seiler , Claude Champion and Georg Radanowicz .

From 1974 Imhoof made feature films in a documentary style. In preparation for his film absconding Imhoof worked for several months as a prison guard. The film depicts the criminal career of a car mechanic who gets caught in the mill of justice because of a trivial matter and tries to rise up in the pecking order of the prison. He helps a «professional» to escape and - left alone - continues on the path once taken. In 1980 his film Das Boot ist voll caused a sensation. In it, Imhoof addressed the long secret behavior of Switzerland towards Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who were sent back to their deaths.

From 1970 to 1976 he was a member of the Federal Film Commission.

In 1977 he founded Limbo Film AG together with his school friend George Reinhart , who later produced over 50 films, e.g. B. by Daniel Schmid , Jacques Rivette , Chantal Akerman , Léa Pool , Thomas Brasch , and founded the Fotomuseum Winterthur a few years before his death .

In 1978 Imhoof moved to Milan, and in 1986 to Berlin, where he once again chose a political topic with a personal perspective with his film Die Reise frei, based on the novel essay by Bernward Vesper , which is part of the Berlin student movement.

In 1988 he returned to Switzerland and, in addition to his film work, also directed operas and drama.

Together with the writer Thomas Hürlimann , Imhoof wrote the screenplay «Der Berg», a Huit-Clos story about the mysterious double murder that took place in 1922 in the weather station on Mount Säntis. The film was shot on Mount Pilatus in 1990 with Susanne Lothar , Mathias Gnädinger and Peter Simonischek . The film premiered in the competition at the Berlinale .

In 1996 Imhoof founded Fl.im.Pa. Filmproduktion AG, together with Pierre-Alain Meier and Thomas Koerfer from Frenetic Films AG . Together with Zero Film, Berlin, and Robert Boner from Cinémanufacture Paris, they produced the film Flammen im Paradies (Les Raisons du Cœur) . The script is based freely on the story of Imhoof's grandmother, who traveled to India in 1899 to marry a missionary she did not know. Elodie Bouchez , Laurent Grévill , Sylvie Testud and Bruno Todeschini play the leading roles .

Imhoof has lived in Berlin since 2003. He is a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts , the German Film Academy , the European Film Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

In his first full-length documentary film More than Honey , Imhoof deals with the worldwide death of bees. This film also has a personal background: Imhoof's grandfather was a beekeeper and his daughter Barbara is a bee researcher in Australia. The production of the film took five years. In 2012 More than Honey premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival on the Piazza Grande. With 29 prizes in Switzerland and abroad and theatrical releases in 30 countries, it is the most successful Swiss documentary film to date. In 2015 he founded the Aurelia Foundation together with Thomas Radetzki, which works to preserve the bees.

His documentary Eldorado celebrated its world premiere in 2018 in the competition of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival (out of competition but unsuccessfully nominated for the documentary film award). In his film Imhoof connects his family history with the current refugee crisis and exposes the global flow of goods, money and people.

His archive is located in the archive of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

Theater productions (excerpt)

Filmography

  • 1961: Woe if we let go (short film; lead role, direction, script, production)
  • 1962: Princess Tuamasi (puppet short film; direction, script, sound, editing, production)
  • 1968: Happy Birthday (short film; director, script, editor)
  • 1968: Rondo (short documentary; direction, script, sound, editing)
  • 1969: Ormenis 199 † 69 (short documentary film; direction, script, sound, editing, production)
  • 1970: 5 artist portraits (CH TV and Pro Helvetia)
  • 1972: Popular expression - or you are what you eat (documentary film; direction, script, editing, co-production)
  • 1974: Risk of fleeing (director, book)
  • 1977: Thaw (director, book)
  • 1979: Isewixer (director, co-author, TV)
  • 1981: The boat is full (director, script, co-production)
  • 1982: Via Scarlatti 20, produced by Ermanno Olmi for RAI
  • 1986: Die Reise (direction, script, co-production; based on Bernward Vesper 's autobiographical novel of the same name)
  • 1990: Der Berg (direction, book with Thomas Hürlimann)
  • 1991: Les petites Illusions (director) (part of "Le film du cinéma suisse", F. Buache)
  • 1996: Flammen im Paradies (direction, book, co-production)
  • 1999: Angry Kisses (book, director Judith Kennel )
  • 2012: More than Honey (director, script, co-production)
  • 2018: Eldorado (director, script, co-production)

Awards

Publications

  • The boat is full. A film book . With still photographs by George Reinhart and a foreword by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Ammann, Zurich 1983.
  • with Claus-Peter Lieckfeld: More Than Honey. The life and survival of bees . orange-press , Freiburg im Breisgau 2012, ISBN 978-3-936086-67-6 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Markus Imhoof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Glashütte Original - Documentary Award. In: Website of the Berlinale Berlin.
  2. ↑ Martina Knoben: And again the boats are full. Retrieved May 21, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Markus Imhoof Archive. Inventory overview on the website of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
  4. ↑ Swiss Film Prize 2020: Honorary Prize for Markus Imhoof. In: admin.ch. June 29, 2020, accessed June 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Imhoof, Markus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss film director, theater director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterthur