Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff (born 1939) is a German director and screenwriter, a central figure of the New German Cinema and a longtime adapter of major European literature for the screen. He trained in France, including a period as an assistant to Louis Malle, and brought a polished international sensibility into German filmmaking. His features have ranged from intimate political dramas to large-scale literary adaptations, several of them made in partnership with his then-wife Margarethe von Trotta. His acclaimed films include Young Törless, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Coup de Grâce, The Tin Drum (which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes), Death of a Salesman, and Diplomacy.