Rolf Thissen

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Rolf Thissen (born June 3, 1948 in Aachen ; † November 18, 2014 ) was a German journalist , film critic , documentary filmmaker , author and translator .

Life

Thissen was involved in the student film club while studying at the TH Aachen . Her own experimental films soon followed. His short film On the Road Again , shot in 1969 , was shown at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival .

In 1976 he began working as a film critic in the editorial team of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . In 1980 he moved to Munich and from then on worked as a freelance journalist. Among other things, he wrote for tip and the evening newspaper and also worked for the BR magazine, KinoKino .

From 1983 to 1993 Thissen ran the film production company Nord-Süd-Film with Bodo Fründt . There they both produced documentary films about directors such as Francis Ford Coppola , Michael Cimino and Martin Scorsese for the ZDF series for the Filmforum series . After all, both of them received their own series of programs with the half-hour film and television magazine From Our Ateliers . At the same time, he worked as a project developer and PR manager for film productions like Rossini - or the grueling question of who slept with whom or The Experiment was involved.

Among other things, Thissen wrote numerous books about various actors and directors for the Heyne film library . He also translated several film books by English-speaking authors into German. A planned biography of Leni Riefenstahl , in which Thissen saw his “masterpiece”, was stopped by the publisher shortly before going to press because Riefenstahl's memoirs had been published in the meantime.

Thissen succumbed to cancer in November 2014. He left behind his longtime partner, because of whom he moved back to North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010, as well as a daughter from a previous relationship.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1969: On the Road Again (short film)
  • 1989: Wonderful Visions on the Road to Hell - The Cinema and the Struggles of Martin Scorsese (Documentary)
  • 1993: Filmforum - What you should always know about sex - On the history of German educational films (documentary)

Fonts

  • with Leo Phelix: pioneers and celebrities of the modern sex film . Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-10219-7 , p. 348.
  • Russ Meyer - The King of Sex Films . (= Heyne Film Library . No. 87). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-453-86087-X .
  • Heinz Erhardt and his films. (= Heyne Film Library. No. 89). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1986, ISBN 3-453-86089-6 , p. 239.
  • Howard Hawks. His films - his life . (= Heyne Film Library. No. 110). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-00123-0 .
  • Eddie Constantine. His films - his life . (= Heyne Film Library. No. 151). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-04629-3 .
  • 100 years of film: numbers, facts, myths . (= Heyne Film Library. No. 182). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-09059-4 .
  • Sex (v) explained - The German educational film . (= Heyne Film Library. No. 220). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-09005-5 .
  • Stanley Kubrick - The director as an architect . (= Heyne Film Library. No. 274). Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16495-4 .
  • Veronica Ferres. Facets of a star . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-15356-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Thissen, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, film critic, documentary filmmaker, author and translator
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen , Germany
DATE OF DEATH 18th November 2014