Hanna Schygulla

Hanna Schygulla (born 25 December 1943) is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German Cinema. Schygulla won the 1979 Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress for Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, and the 1983 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for the Marco Ferreri film The Story of Piera.
Early life
Schygulla was born in Königshütte (now Chorzów, Poland) to German parents Antonie (Mzyk) and Joseph Schygulla. Both the names Schygulla (also spelled Szyguła) and Mzyk are of Polish/Silesian origin. Her father, a timber merchant by profession, was drafted as an infantryman in the German Army and was captured by American forces in Italy, subsequently being held as a prisoner of war until 1948. In 1945, Schygulla and her mother arrived as refugees in Munich, following the expulsion of the majority German-speaking population of Königshütte by Communist Poland. Much later, in the 1960s, Schygulla studied Romance languages and German studies, while taking acting lessons in Munich during her spare time.
Career
Acting eventually became her focus, and she became particularly known for her film work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. During the making of Effi Briest (1974), an adaptation of a German novel by Theodor Fontane, Fassbinder and Schygulla fell out over divergent interpretations of the character. Another issue for Schygulla was low pay, and she led a revolt against Fassbinder during the making of Effi Briest, shot in September 1972 some time before its commercial release. His response was typically blunt: "I can't stand the sight of your face any more. You bust my balls". They did not work together again for several years until The Marriage of Maria Braun in 1978. The film was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival, where she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her performance. In 1980 she acted in Fassbinder's miniseries adaptation of Berlin Alexanderplatz.
Schygulla starred alongside Bruno Ganz in Volker Schlöndorff's Circle of Deceit (1981), and with Isabelle Huppert in Jean-Luc Godard's Passion (1982). She was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival in 1987.
In the 1990s, she became a chanson singer. In Juliane Lorenz's documentary film Life, Love and Celluloid (1998), on Fassbinder and related topics, Schygulla performs several songs.
Schygulla appeared in the Béla Tarr film Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), and in VB51 (2002), a performance by the artist Vanessa Beecroft. Five years later, she appeared in the film The Edge of Heaven, directed by Fatih Akın. She also appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's film Fassbinder's Women (2000).
In 2007, she received the Honorary Award from the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and in 2010 she received the Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival. She acted in the Alexander Sokurov film Faust (2011) and in the French drama film The Prayer (2018) by Cédric Kahn. It was screened in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.
Schygulla lived in Paris from 1981 to 2014, then moved to Berlin.
Filmography
Hunting Scenes from Bavaria (1969), as Paula
Love is Colder than Death (1969), as Johanna
Katzelmacher (1969), as Marie
Kuckucksei im Gangsternest (1969), as Maria
Gods of the Plague (1970), as Johanna Reiher
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970), as Hanna
(1970, TV film), as Johanna
Rio das Mortes (1971, TV film), as Hanna
Mathias Kneissl (1971), as Mathilde Schreck
(1971, TV film), as Berta
Whity (1971), as Hanna
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971), as Hanna, actress
Jakob von Gunten (1971, TV film), as Lisa Benjamenta
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972), as Anna Epp / Hans's single sister
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), as Karin Thimm
Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972–1973, TV miniseries), as Marion Andreas
Effi Briest (1974), as Effi Briest
The Wrong Move (1975), as Therese Farner
The Clown (1976), as Marie
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), as Maria Braun
The Third Generation (1979), as Susanne Gast
(1979, TV miniseries), as Frau Piesch
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, TV miniseries), as Eva
Lili Marleen (1981), as Willie
Circle of Deceit (1981), as Ariane Nassar
That Night in Varennes (1982), as Countess Sophie de la Borde
Passion (1982), as Hanna
Antonieta (1982), as Anna
The Story of Piera (1983), as Eugenia
Sheer Madness (1983), as Olga
A Love in Germany (1983), as Paulina Kropp
The Future is Woman (1984), as Anna
Peter the Great (1986, TV miniseries), as Catherine Skevronskaya
The Delta Force (1986), as Ingrid Harding (Stewardess)
Barnum (1986, TV Film) as Jenny Lind
Casanova (1987, TV film), as Casanova's Mother
Forever, Lulu (1987), as Elaine
Miss Arizona (1988), as Rozsnyai Mici
The Summer of Miss Forbes (1989, TV film), as Mrs. Forbes
Abraham's Gold (1990), as Barbara 'Bärbel' Hunzinger
Aventure de Catherine C. (1990), as Fanny Hohenstein
Dead Again (1991), as Inga
Golem, l'esprit de l'exil (1992), as L'Esprit de l'Exil
Warsaw – Year 5703 (1992), as Stefania Bukowska
Gibellina, Metamorphosis of a Melody (1992)
Madame Bäurin (1993), as Tante Agathe
The Blue Exile (1993), as The Actress
Golem, le jardin pétrifié (1993), as Michelle
Aux petits bonheurs (1993), as Lena
Hey Stranger (1994), as Tania
A Hundred and One Nights (1995), as La seconde ex-épouse de M. Cinéma
Pakten (1995), as Ewa Loehwe
Lea (1996), as Wanda
Metamorphosis of a Melody (1996), as Spirit of Exile
Chronique (1997), as La femme du restaurant
The Girl of Your Dreams (1998), as Magda Goebbels
Black Out p.s. Red Out (1998), as Martha
Hanna Schygulla Sings (1999)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), as Tünde Eszter
Promised Land (2004), as Hanna
(2005), as Frau Marx
Vendredi ou un autre jour (2005), as La dame patronnesse de l'équipage
Winter Journey (2006), as Martha "Mucky" Brenninger
The Edge of Heaven (2007), as Susanne / Lotte's mother
Faust (2011), as Moneylender's 'Wife'
Avanti (2002), as Suzanne
Lullaby to My Father (2012)
Vijay and I (2013), as Will's mother
The Quiet Roar (2014), as Eva
Unless (2016), as Danielle Westerman
Fortunata (2017), as Lotte
The Prayer (2018), as Soeur Myriam
The Mystery of Henri Pick (2019), as Ludmila Blavitsky
Everything Went Fine (2021)
Peter von Kant (2022)
Poor Things (2023), as Martha Von Kurtzroc
References
External links
1943 births
Living people
Best Actress German Film Award winners
German film actresses
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners
Golden Orange Honorary Award winners
Honorary Golden Bear recipients
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
People from Chorzów
People from the Province of Upper Silesia
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners
German women singers
German expatriates in France
Actresses from Paris
Singers from Paris
20th-century French actresses
21st-century French actresses
20th-century German actresses
21st-century German actresses