| Tom Tykwer | |
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Tom Tykwer, Biberach/Riß, 2006 |
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| Born | 23 May 1965 Wuppertal, Germany |
| Occupation | film director, screenwriter, film composer |
Tom Tykwer (born 23 May 1965) is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run (1998), Heaven (2002), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), and The International (2009).
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Tykwer was born in Wuppertal, Germany. He was fascinated by film from an early age. He started making amateur Super 8 films at the age of eleven and later helped out at a local arthouse cinema to see more films, including those he was too young to buy tickets for. After graduating from high school, he unsuccessfully applied to numerous film schools around Europe and moved to Berlin, where he worked as a projectionist. In 1987, at the age of 22, he became the programmer of the Moviemento cinema and was known to German directors as a highly respected film buff.[1]
In Berlin, Tykwer met and befriended the filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim, who urged him to create stories from his own experience and suggested that Tykwer record arguments with his girlfriend at the time, and turn them into a short film. Because (1990) was screened at the Hof Film Festival[2] and well-received by the audience, which inspired Tykwer to continue pursuing filmmaking. He made a second short film, Epilog (1992), that plunged him into personal financial debt, but gained him valuable technical filmmaking experience. Tykwer wrote the screenplay for—and directed—his first feature film, Deadly Maria, which aired on German television and saw a limited theatrical release in Germany and the international film festival circuit.
In 1994, Tykwer founded the production company X Filme Creative Pool with Stefan Arndt, Wolfgang Becker, and Dani Levy. Tykwer and Becker wrote the screenplay for Life Is All You Get while working on Tykwer's second feature, Winter Sleepers (1997), a much bigger and more complex production than Deadly Maria. Winter Sleepers brought Tykwer to the attention of German cineastes and film festivals, but Tykwer was struggling financially. He knew he needed a new film, and the result was Run Lola Run (1998), which became the most successful German film of 1998, scored $7 million at the US box office, and elevated Tykwer to international fame. As Lola was becoming a success worldwide, Tykwer was already at work on his next film, The Princess and the Warrior, shot in his home town of Wuppertal. The film centered on a love story between a nurse and a former soldier.
Miramax produced his next film, Heaven (2002), based on a screenplay by the late Polish filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieślowski. It was shot in English, starred Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi, and filmed in Turin and Tuscany. He was approached by French producers to film a short contribution to Paris, je t'aime (2006), a film comprising 20 short films by many famous directors depicting love in Paris. Tykwer shot the 10-minute short film, True, with Natalie Portman and Melchior Beslon. He shot the film quickly with almost no pre-production, and the result was a tiny masterpiece that Tykwer later said, "symbolises an entire life for me, in just ten minutes."[3] Tykwer's next film was an adaptation of the novel Perfume by the German novelist Patrick Süskind, and was filmed in the Spanish cities of Figueras, Girona and Barcelona. Tykwer later made his Hollywood debut with the big-budgeted 2009 conspiracy thriller The International, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, which was shot in several locations ranging from Berlin, Milan, New York, and Istanbul. The film received a lukewarm reception from the public to critics alike.
Since Winter Sleepers, the music for all of Tykwer's films (with the exception of Heaven) have been composed by Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil, and Tykwer himself, unusual for a film director. The trio named Pale 3, originally a film scoring group, expanded to produce music unrelated to film.
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Because | Short Film Also Writer/Producer/Composer |
| 1992 | Epilog | Short Film Also Writer/Producer/Composer |
| 1993 | Deadly Maria | Alternate Title: Die tödliche Maria Also Writer/Producer/Composer |
| 1997 | Winter Sleepers | Alternate Title: Winterschläfer Also Writer/Composer |
| 1998 | Run Lola Run | Alternate Title: Lola rennt Also Writer/Composer |
| 2000 | The Princess and the Warrior | Alternate Title: Der Krieger und die Kaiserin Also Writer/Composer |
| 2002 | Heaven | |
| 2004 | Paris, je t'aime | Segment: Faubourg Saint-Denis Also Writer/Composer |
| 2006 | Perfume: The Story of a Murderer | Alternate Title: Das Parfum Also Writer/Composer |
| 2009 | The International | Also Composer |
| 2009 | Deutschland 09 | Segment: Feierlich reist Also Writer |
| 2010 | Three | Alternate Title: Drei Also Writer |
| 2011 | Cloud Atlas | Pre-Production |
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