Rainer Simon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rainer Simon (born January 11, 1941 in Hainichen , Saxony ) is a German film director and screenwriter who was an important DEFA director in the 1980s .

life and work

After his parents divorced, Rainer Simon grew up with his mother, a secretary. He attended elementary school in Hainichen. At the age of 17 he joined the SED . After graduating from high school in Frankenberg in 1959 , there was two years of military service in the National People's Army .

Simon studied directing from 1961 to 1965 at the University of Film and Television Potsdam- Babelsberg. He finished his studies with the diploma film Peterle and the Christmas goose Auguste (1964) and was then hired by DEFA . As assistant director at the DEFA studio for feature films, Simon initially assisted film director Ralf Kirsten on Der verlorene Engel (1965) and Konrad Wolf on I was nineteen (1967). His first own film project, a film adaptation of Horst Bastian's novel Die Moral der Banditen , he was unable to realize as a result of the 11th plenary session of the SED Central Committee . In 1966 he directed the semi-documentary film Friends of Werbellinsee about the international holiday camp "Pioneer Republic of Wilhelm Pieck" for the DEFA studio for popular science films . From 1968 he worked as a director in the DEFA studio for feature films in Potsdam-Babelsberg. As material for his debut film How do you marry a king? (1968) Simon chose a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm and combined it with thematic and stylistic idiosyncrasies. More movies followed, such as his second fairy tale film Six soldiers of the world (1972) and Till Eulenspiegel (1975) after the film story of Christa and Gerhard Wolf, but also present films that critically the GDR represented -Alltag. The film adaptation of Paul Kanut Schäfer's novel Jadup und Boel was banned by the GDR censors shortly before its premiere in 1981 and only premiered in 1988. Through his political stance, which was reflected in his films as well as his political statements, Simon became a case for the state security , which repeatedly shadowed and spied on him. The director celebrated his greatest success in 1985 with the film Die Frau und der Fremde , which was awarded a Golden Bear at the 1985 Berlinale . The films Das Luftschiff (1982) and Wengler & Sons (1986) were also made during those years .

In 1987 Simon received the Konrad Wolf Prize.

In September 1989 the film The Ascent of Chimborazo was released as a GDR / FRG coproduction, a feature film about Alexander von Humboldt with Jan Josef Liefers in the leading role, shot on original locations in Ecuador .

After the fall of the Wall , Rainer Simon made the films Der Fall Ö. (1990) and Far Land Pa-ish (1993). Above all, he worked in South America, where he performed in several countries and film workshops in Ecuador with Indians of the Andes and the jungle, the documentary The colors of Tigua , talking with fish and birds and the call of the Fayu Ujmu realized. There were also several photo exhibitions. From 1993 to 1996 Rainer Simon worked as a professor at the University for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg . In 2000 he directed Soliman by Ludwig Fels at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam . In 2005 Simon's autobiography Fernes Land - die DDR, DEFA and the call of the Chimborazo as well as his first novel Regenbogenboa about a German who spends the last 30 years of his life in the Amazon jungle was published. In 2011 the book “Looking Behind the Pictures - Texts and Photos from America” was published on the occasion of a photo exhibition and in 2014 the novel “Fictitious Mails”.

Simon lives in Potsdam, is divorced and has two daughters.

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. We wanted to make realistic films about the GDR . WSWS, April 11, 2009