teven filmproducent en -screenwriter

* 1.6. 1935, Munich, Germany

Education: Munich University (art, theatre history, German)

Thoughtful, stylish director who began his career in repertory theatre but soon graduated to editing and narrating literary programs for German radio. He began working in TV in 1970, and made several shorts and documentaries before being commissioned in 1978 to make a full-length television film, THE GUARDIAN AND HIS POET, about Swiss poet Robert Walser and his publisher/mentor. Well received at several major film festivals, GUARDIAN paved the way for Adlon to make his first feature, CELESTE (1981), a painstaking recreation of the last days of Marcel Proust as witnessed by his maid.

Adlon's first major international acclaim came with SUGARBABY (1985), an offbeat love story featuring a subway conductor and a portly female mortician. It was praised for its joyful portrayal of sexual desire on the part of an unglamorous, overweight woman (played by Marianne Sägebrecht, who was also at the center of two later Adlon films, BAGDAD CAFE, 1988 and ROSALIE GOES SHOPPING, 1989). Adlon's wife Eleanore has produced all but one of his films and wrote the script for BAGDAD CAFE.

Filmografie Percy Adlon

1979   HERR KISCHOTT                                   director

1981   CELESTE                                             director, screenwriter

1982   THE LAST FIVE DAYS/LETZE FUNF TAGE   director

1983   THE SWING/DIE SCHAUKEL                     director, screenwriter

1985   HERSCHEL UND DIE MUSIK DER STERNE     director

1985   SUGARBABY/ZUCKERBABY                       producer, director, story

1988   BAGDAD CAFE/OUT OF ROSENHEIM          producer, director, story

1989   ROSALIE GOES SHOPPING                       producer, director, screenwriter

1991   SALMONBERRIES                                   director, screenplay

Deze film gaat over twee vrouwen in de bevroren vlakten van Alaska. Ook hun harten zijn  bevroren. De openlijk homoseksuele Canadese zangeres k.d.lang (met kleine letters) speelt de  rol van Kotzebue. Ze is een jongensachtige Eskimo-vrouw die in haar leventje nooit liefde heeft gekend. De andere vrouw is een bibliothecaresse (gespeeld door Rosel Zech) die ernstig getraumatiseerd raakte toen haar man werd gedood, terwijl ze samen over de Berlijnse Muur probeerden te vluchten. Twee levens in figuurlijk ijs gevat. Maar tussen hen groeien de blozende zalmkleurige bessen van de  korte zomer. Een mooi beeld voor de liefde die zich niet laat invriezen. Percy Adlon regisseerde deze ontdekking van de warmte.  

 

1993   YOUNGER AND YOUNGER                        director, screenplay