Margarethe von Trotta: The Political Is Personal November 2-8 at the Quad

The Quad announces the full lineup for our upcoming Margarethe von Trotta retrospective including rare imported prints of Rosa Luxemburg, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, and Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness

Plus films from Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff featuring some of von Trotta's most prominent performances as an actress

After coming of age in post-WWII Berlin and studying art, Margarethe von Trotta followed her burgeoning cinematic interests to France, where she immersed herself in the films of the French New Wave and flourished among fellow cineastes. She returned to West Germany to raise a family and be part of the New German Cinema, initially as an actress. But her own creative instincts would take hold, as would the impulse to be the change that she wanted to see—namely, become a female filmmaker in a movement that was short on them (her only peer was the late Helma Sanders-Brahms). Von Trotta began collaborating with then-husband Volker Schlöndorff on screenplays and then as an assistant director and finally as a co-director before making her own films and forsaking acting altogether. Often engaging with overtly political material, her work foregrounds women’s stories and explores the nature of female identity and the multi-faceted relationships between women, never shying away from tough emotional terrain—and in the process providing dramatic banquets for some of Germany’s best actresses. Now von Trotta has returned to her cinephile roots with her illuminating documentary Searching for Ingmar Bergman (opening exclusively at the Quad, November 2), and accordingly we return to her early work—both in front of and behind the camera—from the heyday of the New German Cinema.

Margarethe von Trotta is available for select interviews. Please email emma@quadcinema.com with requests.
The American Soldier
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970, West Germany, 80m, 35mm
Beware of a Holy Whore
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971, West Germany/Italy, 103m, 35mm
Coup de Grâce (Der Fangschuss)
Volker Schlöndorff, 1976, France/West Germany, 97m, 35mm
Gods of the Plague
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970, West Germany, 91m, 35mm
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
Volker Schlöndorff & Margarethe von Trotta, 1975, West Germany, 106m, 35mm
Marianne & Juliane (aka The German Sisters)
Margarethe von Trotta, 1981, West Germany, 106m, DCP
Rosa Luxemburg
Margarethe von Trotta, 1986, Czechoslovakia/West Germany, 122m, 35mm
The Second Awakening of Christa Klages
Margarethe von Trotta, 1978, West Germany, 88m, 35mm
Sheer Madness (aka Friends and Husbands)
Margarethe von Trotta, 1983, West Germany/France, 105m, 35mm
Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness
Margarethe von Trotta, 1979, West Germany, 95m, 35mm

Searching for Ingmar Bergman

Opens Fri November 2—Exclusive New York engagement
Margarethe von Trotta, Germany/France, 99m, DCP
One of the key figures to emerge from the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s, Margarethe von Trotta was first inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Ingmar Bergman’s landmark The Seventh Seal. As a tribute to the Swedish legend on the occasion of his centennial, she’s made this sensitive, generous documentary exploration, interviewing collaborators like Liv Ullmann and admirers like Olivier Assayas. It’s a rich insider’s look at what makes Bergman’s films so resonant, and reveals much of von Trotta herself in the process. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release

Official selection: Cannes Classics

“A valentine from one director to another.” —Variety