Eckhart Schmidt
Eckhart Schmidt Filmkunstwochen 2020
Born	(1938-10-31) October 31, 1938 Šternberk, Czechoslovakia
Other names	Raoul Sternberg
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer, writer, photographer
Years active	1957 – present
Known for	Der Fan

Eckhart Schmidt (born October 31, 1938) is a German film director, producer, writer and photographer.^[1]

In 1982 he directed the film Der Fan, with Désirée Nosbusch in the lead role, which became a cult film in Germany and worldwide.^[2][3][4] The film is an adaptation from his novel of the same title.

Life and work

In the beginning of his career Schmidt worked as a film critic for the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, for the monthly magazine Film and for the Bayerischer Rundfunk television channel.

He started making films in the sixties and, after the success of Der Fan (1982) he made more than ten feature films in Germany.

In the nineties Schmidt made three feature films in Italy, influenced by Italian directors such as Valerio Zurlini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Francesco Rosi, Federico Fellini etc.

In the early 2000s Schmidt started shooting his feature films in high definition, which were all filmed in Los Angeles.

While living in Rome in 2016, Schmidt made a collection of nine feature films under the title ROMAN CYCLE, which he brought from the cinema to the Blu-ray release.^[5]

While making feature films, he also directed and produced more than eighty documentary films on topics varying from the Myth of Hollywood, Italian Cinema, Classical Music and Cities, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

In 1989, in cooperation with NHK and Sony, Schmidt was the artistic director of the first major HDTV production in the world of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung. He made more than twenty documentaries about opera stars, composers, conductors, opera productions and opera houses such as the Los Angeles Opera.

In the seventies Schmidt began a collaboration with Joachim Fuchsberger for numerous TV variety shows. This partnership lasted for fifteen years.

Schmidt's literary activities began in the seventies as a founder and publisher of the punk magazine S!A!U! He had the opportunity to work with – among others – Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Herbert Achternbusch, Werner Schroeter, David Byrne, Devo and Patti Smith.^[6][7]

In the following years Schmidt continued to write and publish novels and poetry. The focus of his works centers on young women and their hopes, anxieties and fears. His poetry is accompanied by his works as a photographer.

In the 2011 Schmidt developed a new creative format, FOTOVISION, a combination of poetry, photography and music.

Schmidt has been living and working in Rome, Palermo, Los Angeles and Munich since 2016.

Filmography

Books

• Der Fan – Tagebuch einer Sechzehnjährigen, Droemer Knaur, München, 1982, ISBN 978-3426024522
• Das Gold der Liebe, Droemer Knaur, München, 1983, ISBN 978-3426024539
• Die Story, Droemer Knaur, München, 1984, ISBN 3-426-02455-1
• Das Tagebuch des Feuerpferds, Dieve Verlag, 1988, ISBN 978-3927131088
• Die Einsamkeit des Eisbären und andere faszinierende Geschichten (= Geheimnisvolle Tierwelt), Bastei Luebbe Verlagsgruppe, Köln, 1989, ISBN 3-404-63204-4
• Der Bayerische Filmpreis '94, '95 und '96; Olzog – Aktuell GmbH, 1999, ISBN 3-7892-7393-7
• Window Girls – Fotobuch, Belleville, 2008, ISBN 978-3936298598
• Mulholland Drive – Opening Scenes: Fotobuch, Belleville, 2009, ISBN 978-3936298826
• ROMA/AMOR – Fotobuch, Belleville, 2010, ISBN 978-3936298154
• Hotel/Minorella – Tagebuch einer 16-Jährigen (Zwei Romane), ES Publishing, München, 2011, ISBN 978-3000351549, as Raoul Sternberg
• Bad Girls Are Good Girls – A Poetry album, ES Publishing, München, 2013, ISBN 978-3000436949
• Niemals allein, für immer einsam – Generation Y, ES Publishing, München, 2013, ISBN 978-3000439179
• NASS – Tagebuch einer 16-Jährigen, ES Publishing, München, 2014, ISBN 978-3000442186, as Raoul Sternberg
• Corridos – Erzählungen, ES Publishing, München, 2014, ISBN 978-3000361180, as Raoul Sternberg
• Love and Hate in L. A., Belleville, 2014 ISBN 978-3943157789
• Hollywood Girl, ES Publishing, München, 2016, ISBN 978-3000529146
• Amore Verticale, ES Publishing, München, 2017, ISBN 978-3000558283
• La La Land Stories, ES Publishing, München, 2017, ISBN 978-3000570841
• Stichworte, ES Publishing, München, 2018, ISBN 978-3000590849
• Pomeriggio a Roma, ES Publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-3000590856
• Motel Girls – Gedichte und Fotografien, 2018, ISBN 978-3943157000
• Erster Kuss und so ..., 2019, ISBN 978-3982058009
• Gefängnis Zoo, 2019, ISBN 978-3982058016
• BlumenMädchen, ES Publishing, 2020, ISBN 978-3-9820580-2-3
• Küsse.Bisse, ES Publishing, 2021, ISBN 978-3-9820580-3-0

References

External links

• Eckhart Schmidt at IMDb
• https://eckhart-schmidt.de/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20070509205215/http://www.german-films.de/en/germanfilmsquaterly/previousissues/seriesgermandirectors/eckhartschmidt/index.html

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