Tom Tykwer is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He
is best known internationally for directing the thrillers Run Lola Run,
Heaven, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the action thriller The
International, and collaborated with The Wachowskis for the science fiction film
Cloud Atlas and Sense8. Early life
Tykwer was born in Wuppertal, West Germany. 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 for which he was too young to buy tickets. 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 became known to
German directors as a film buff. Career
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 was screened at the Hof Film Festival and well received by the
audience, which inspired Tykwer to continue pursuing filmmaking. He made a
second short film, "Epilog", 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, the psychological thriller
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, 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, 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,
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, 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, Tykwer later said, "symbolises an entire life
for me, in just ten minutes." 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 and critics alike.
= Pale 3= Since Winter Sleepers, the music for all
of Tykwer's films 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.
Filmography Awards
1994: Bavarian Film Awards, Best New Director
1998: Bavarian Film Awards, Best Production
2005: State-Award of the Film Commission North Rhine-Westphalia
2006: Bavarian Film Awards, Best Director
2012: Nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score
References External links
Official website Tom Tykwer at the Internet Movie
Database Tom Tykwer at the Filmportal.de
Interview at Stumped?