Michael Verhoeven

Michael Verhoeven at the Baden-Baden TV Film Festival 2009

With his wife Senta Berger, 2013

Michael Verhoeven (born July 13, 1938 in Berlin ) is a German film director and actor .

Life

Verhoeven began his career as a young actor in films from the 1950s (for example in Das fgende Klassenzimmer , Der Jugendrichter and Der Pauker with Heinz Rühmann ), but then decided to study medicine, and in 1969 did his doctorate on psychiatric masking of brain tumors, paying special attention to misleading findings and worked as a doctor for several years, including in Boston , where he had followed his wife Senta Berger . At the end of the 1960s, he and her founded the film production company Sentana and began making films as a director.

His experimental anti- Vietnam war film ok caused a major scandal as a competition entry at the 1970 Berlinale , which led to the competition being abandoned and without an award.

In 1982 he filmed the story of the Scholl siblings in The White Rose . For his film The Terrible Girl (1990), he received an Oscar nomination for best foreign film. These two films and others that deal with the history of the Third Reich ensured that Michael Verhoeven became one of the most important political German film directors.

He became known to the television audience through the production of the series Die Schnell Gerdi and the sequel The Fast Gerdi and the Capital .

Michael Verhoeven has been the owner of Kino Toni am Antonplatz in Berlin since 1992 . After long negotiations with the Treuhand , Verhoeven also bought the Berlin Filmtheater am Friedrichshain in the Prenzlauer Berg district in 1995 .

Together with Senta Berger, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1999 and the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2002. In 2005 Michael Verhoeven received the Marion-Samuel-Prize .

Verhoeven made his first documentary in 2000: The case of Liebl - A Bavarian in Togo , about a repatriate who was not familiar with the German bureaucracy and threatened to be deported. In 2006, after seven years of work, his second documentary, The Unknown Soldier, about reactions to the Wehrmacht exhibition, was released . In his documentary Human Failure , which was released in 2008, Verhoeven dealt with the question of the extent to which the German civilian population benefited from the seizure of Jewish assets during the Nazi era. In his documentary film The Second Execution - America and the Death Penalty, made in 2011 in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk , Verhoeven deals with the alleged felon of African American origin Romell Broom and his execution on September 15, 2009 in Lucasville, Ohio , which failed 18 times and finally canceled.

Michael Verhoeven was one of the founding members of the German Film Academy in 2003 .

Private life

He is the son of the actor and director Paul Verhoeven and the actress Doris Kiesow (1902–1973), brother of Lis Verhoeven (1931–2019) and uncle of the actress Stella Adorf . He has been married to actress Senta Berger since 1966 . The couple has two sons: Simon Vincent (* 1972) and Luca Paul (* 1979).

Filmography (selection)

play

1954: The flying classroom
1955: Marianne
1955: Reach for the stars
1958: The timpanist
1960: At 17 you don't cry
1960: The youth judge
1960: ... and cheeky too!
1962: I can no longer be silent
1962: When both are guilty
1963: The house in Montevideo
1963: Jack and Jenny
1964: Rascal stories
1965: The Fifth Column (TV series) - Episode: Flowers for Room 19
1966: Uncle Filser - The very latest rascal stories
1969: The Commissioner - Dr. Meinhardt's sad end
1970: ok
1971: The inspector: Waiter Windeck
2004: René Deltgen - The gentle rebel (television documentary; contemporary witness)

Director

1967: pairings (also screenplay)
1969: Engelchen continues - hop, hop rider
1969: The bed student or: What do I do with the girls?
1969: The commissioner : Dr. Meinhardt's sad end
1969: Tables (short film)
1970: beach chairs (unfinished)
1971: Bonbons ... R, DA, Pro, short film, 10 min.
1970: ok (also screenplay), Berlin International Film Festival 1970
1971: Who loves in a glass house ... Der Graben (movie, also screenplay), Berlin International Film Festival 1971
1972: Crime scene: Kressin and the man with the yellow suitcase
1973: Sonja abolishes reality or ... an incredibly strong exit (also script) - TV film
1973: Hairdresser ... (R, DA, Pro, short film)
1973: Over the Years (documentary, unfinished)
1974: Krempoli - A Place for Wild Children (TV series) (also screenplay)
1975: The Challenge: Rest of Life - TV Movie
1976: MitGift (also screenplay) - TV film
1977: Beer and Games (14-part television series)
1977: Found food (also script)
1977: The men's quartet - TV film
1978: 1982: Gutenbach - TV movie
1978: Girlfriends (TV series) Episode: Edith and Marlene
1979: Seductions - TV film
1980: Am Südhang (also screenplay) - TV film
1980: The cause (also screenplay) - TV film
1980: Sunday children (also screenplay)
1982: The White Rose (also screenplay)
1982: The test of courage (also screenplay) - TV film
1983: Dear Melanie - TV movie
1983: The Spider Murphy Gang (script only)
1984: The Gate to Happiness - TV movie
1986: Stinkwut - TV movie
1986: Killing Cars (also screenplay)
1986: Against the Rule - TV film
1987: Gunda's father - TV movie
1988: Semmelweis, Ignaz - doctor of women (also screenplay) - TV film
1989: The Fast Gerdi (TV series) (also screenplay) - TV film
1990: The Girl and the City - TV movie
1990: The Terrible Girl (also screenplay)
1990: Land of milk and honey (also screenplay) - TV film
1992: Lilli Lottofee (also screenplay) - mini-series
1993: An Unholy Love (also screenplay)
1995: Mutters Courage (also screenplay)
1998: George Tabori - Theater is Life (Documentary)
1999: Bed and breakfast
2000: The case of Liebl (documentary film)
2000: Unveiling a marriage (also screenplay)
2002: the little sister. The White Rose - a legacy
2004: The Fast Gerdi and the Capital (TV series) (also screenplay)
2005: Tatort - The Players
2006: The Unknown Soldier (Documentary)
2008: Bloch - Forgive, don't forget
2008: Human Error (Documentary)
2011: The Second Execution - America and the Death Penalty (Documentary)
2012: Bloch - hot and cold soul
2013: Bloch - The lavender queen
2014: Let's go! (also script)
2014: Glückskind (also screenplay)
2016: Welcome to the Hartmanns as a producer

Awards

Michael Verhoeven (left) in 1971 at a reception given by the German Chancellor

1971: Film tape in gold (screenplay) for Ok

1975: Golden Camera (director) for The Challenge

1981: Arles: French Critics' Prize for Sunday Children

1982: Amiens: Grand Prix for Sunday children

1982: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival : Antifascist Rose for The White Rose

1983: Silver film tape for The White Rose

1983: DAG television award in gold for the test of courage

1990: Silver Bear at the Berlinale 1990 for The Terrible Girl

1991: Oscar nomination for The Horrible Girl

1994: Member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts

1998: Josef Neuberger Medal of the Düsseldorf Jewish Community

1999: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class

2001: Robert Geisendörfer Prize (director, television: Unveiling a marriage)

2002: Bavarian Order of Merit

2003: Munich Medal shines in gold

2005: Golden Ox - Honorary Award of the Film Art Festival Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to Senta Bergers and Michael Verhoevens Sentana-Filmproduktion

2005: Marion Samuel Prize from the Remembrance Foundation for the entire work

2006: Achievement Award of the Jewish Film Festival (Jerusalem) for his constant commitment against National Socialism

2007: Honorary Prize of the Bavarian Film Prize

2009: Full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts

2009: Prize for Understanding and Tolerance from the Jewish Museum Berlin

2009: Herbert Strate Prize from the Filmstiftung NRW and the cinema association HDF Kino

2010: Simon Snopkowski Prize

2012: Peace Prize of German Films - Die Brücke as an honorary award

2013: Film Prize of the City of Munich

2015: Hans Vogt Film Award

2016: Bavarian Film Award in the Best Production category for Willkommen bei den Hartmanns (together with Max Widemann, Quirin Berg and Simon Verhoeven)