biography

I was born in Münster, Germany, in 1950. At the age of 15 I shot my first 8 mm films and took my first portrait photographs with a professional Hasselblad 1000F that I had inherited from a great-uncle. At the University of Münster I studied journalism, art history and Romance languages. Between 1968 and 1971 I made films in 8 and 16 mm for performances at the Münster City Theatre, and with some of the theatre's actors I shot my first short films of my own.

In 1972 I moved to Rome and studied at the ISOP film school. Part of my final thesis on “Literature in Film” (1975) was the film My Miracles – Seven Poems by Else Lasker-Schüler. In Rome I had the opportunity to watch directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti at work. In 1973, while translating his book Empirismo eretico for the Institute of Journalism in Münster, I met Pier Paolo Pasolini. A planned position as his assistant director never came about, because his film project about the Apostle Paul (San Paolo) could not be financed.

In 1974 I met the German-French director Jean-Marie Straub and his wife and collaborator Danièle Huillet, and assisted them in filming Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron. This grew into a friendship and a closer collaboration; I played small roles in Straub's films Klassenverhältnisse and Der Tod des Empedokles. Until 1976 I made several films as an independent producer. Since 1977 I have worked as a freelance author and director of films and radio programmes for German, Italian and international television and radio broadcasters.

My most important films include the musical film essays Poemi Asolani (1985), A Ray of Sun (1996), Red Moon over Naples (1998), Palestrina (2009) and Santini's Network (2013), the Brazilian music trilogy Symphonia Colonialis (1991), O Trem Caipira (1994) and Drums and Gods (2000), as well as the literary film essays Putting Things Straight (1979) and Penn'a Du (1981).

For the German broadcaster SWF/SWR in Baden-Baden I created, among others, the “acoustic films” Allein mit meinem Zauberwort (1977, on Annette von Droste-Hülshoff), Ich sterbe am Leben und atme im Bild wieder auf (1979, on Else Lasker-Schüler) and Bis wohin reicht mein Leben (1982, on Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé), and the radio biographies Pausen des Schweigens (1986, on Gian Francesco Malipiero), Nicht ich habe Angst, die Angst hat mich (1990, on Gustav Meyrink) and Die akzeptierte Tragödie (1991, on Count Hermann Keyserling).

In 2015 I led workshops on “Music in Film” at the University of Münster, and in 2017 at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma on the interplay of image and sound. I live and work in Rome. Many of my films can now be watched online, in several language versions: Watch the films