biography of Hanna Schygulla

Hanna Schygulla (German: [ˈhana ʃyˈɡʊla] ^ⓘ; 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. 

Schygulla was born in Königshütte (now Chorzów, Poland) to German parents Antonie (née 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.

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".^[5] 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.

mini bio : 

Lead icon of the influential New German Cinema of the 70's & 80's, Schygulla's natural blonde beauty and amazing versatility keep her among the world's top actresses. She won best actress at Cannes in 1983 for The Story of Piera (1983) (aka "The Story of Piera"), an Italian/German co-production. The Turkish/German co-production, The Edge of Heaven (2007) (aka "The Edge of Heaven"), won the 2007 Cannes award for best screenplay. The now silver-haired actress appears to have shunned plastic surgery.

One of many protégés of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who gave Schygulla especially tender treatment and nurturing, while he terrorized, manipulated, and slept with many of the other actors and filmmakers Fassbinder developed in his incestuous family-like theatrical and film troupes.

Over 12 years, Hanna Schygulla appeared in 23 Fassbinder movies (including his first feature film), the most-acclaimed being The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) (aka "The Marriage of Maria Braun") (for which she won the Silver Bear), Lili Marleen (1981) and Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). After a disagreement with Fassbinder, she did not appear in his final 4 movies. Their mentor/muse relationship is often favorably compared with that of Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich. Schygulla met Fassbinder while she was studying romance languages and taking acting lessons in Munich, then became a member of his collective theatre troupe, "Munich Action Theatre", which eventually evolved into his film group.

After Fassbinder's 1982 death, she appeared in a few commercial films, and when she does act now, concentrates on complex roles in films with unique, international social messages. Her better known non-Fassbinder movies include Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991), Casanova (1987) (with Faye Dunaway), Andrzej Wajda's A Love in Germany (1983) (aka "A Love in Germany") and Margarethe von Trotta's Sheer Madness (1983) (aka "Sheer Madness"). She's renowned for portraying strong, sensual women, and her language ability enables her to appear in films produced by many countries. Her singing was featured in Lili Marleen (1981) and Sheer Madness (1983) (aka "Sheer Madness"). Since 1997, she has turned away from movie acting, primarily to chanson singing, recording CDs, appearing in the movie, Hanna Schygulla Sings (1999) and, in 2007, a one-woman autobiographical musical (including songs of Janis Joplin, Édith Piaf, Billie Holiday, Brecht). She was the lead and sang in a live Vanessa Beecroft conceptual art piece in a German castle, with Fassbinder's long-time associate, Irm Hermann, plus 23 other women. Schygulla has worked on producing films about Berlin's Holocaust memorial, and about her work with Fassbinder.

Many of Fassbinder's film plots reflect his bizarre working relations with cast and crew, and he often reserved the most glamorous costumes and dramatic roles for Hanna Schygulla, intentionally pressuring his other talented actresses, such as his feisty ex-wife Ingrid Caven, and the abused Irm Hermann. The extremely tense relationships in the all-female The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (aka "Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant") somewhat reflect real-life interactions of Hermann, Schygulla (both are in the movie), Fassbinder, and his mother.

Hann Schygulla's childhood family situation somewhat parallels her role, typifying Germany's moral dilemmas at the end of World War II, in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) (aka "The Marriage of Maria Braun"). Schygulla was born on Christmas Day 1943, in Kattowice, Upper Silesia (then a section of Poland annexed by the Third Reich). Her German father was an infantryman in Italy, who was in a POW camp until she was 5. After the war, the German population was expelled from the Kattowice area.

trivia  : 

• Was considered for the lead role in Sophie's Choice (1982) but Meryl Streep, who won an Academy Award for her performance, was cast instead.
• Although she played Derek Jacobi's mother in Dead Again (1991), she is five years his junior in real life.
• She and Rainer Werner Fassbinder made 23 movies together: Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972), Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Bremen Freedom (1972), The Third Generation (1979), Effi Briest (1974), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Gods of the Plague (1970), The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972), The Coffee Shop (1970), Katzelmacher (1969), Love Is Colder Than Death (1969), Lili Marleen (1981), The Niklashausen Journey (1970), Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971), Rio das Mortes (1971), Beware of a Holy Whore (1971), Whity (1971), Die Ahnfrau - Oratorium nach Franz Grillparzer (1971), Baal (1970), The Bridegroom, the Actress, and the Pimp (1968), Mathias Kneissl (1971) and Jail Bait (1972).
• No other actress won more German Film Awards than her (in 1970 for Love Is Colder Than Death (1969), in 1971 for Whity (1971), in 1975 for Wrong Move (1975) and, in 1979, for The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)). Two of them (1970, 1975) were awards for the acting ensemble.
• As she has lived in Paris since 1981, she is fluent in French.
• Getting a star on the new "Boulevard of the Stars" in Berlin, the German equivalent of the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.
• In the 1990s, she started singing and released her album "Hanna Schygulla chante/singt".
• The only German actress to date who received an award from the National Society of Film Critics (in 2009 for her memorable supporting role in The Edge of Heaven (2007)).
• Living in Paris.
• Schygulla lived in Paris from 1981 to 2014, when she left for Berlin.
• One of Germany's most famous actresses.
• In the 1960s, Schygulla studied Romance languages and German studies, while taking acting lessons in Munich during her spare time.
• She visited Argentina as guest at Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
• Was awarded with the Bavarian Cross of Merit on March 24, 2011.
• Received a lifetime achievement award for her acting career at the Febiofest in Prague on March 26, 2011.
• She was considered for the part of Frantiska Plamínková in Milada (2017), eventually played by Dagmar Bláhová.
• 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.
• 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.
• Festival tribute at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival, France.
• She was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival in 1987.

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