Dorrie, Doris: German Director (International Hit Men)

One of Germany’s foremost directors, Doris Dörrie has had over two decades a consistent output of award-winning, critical and box office hits since her first feature, the 1983 Straight Through the Heart, which was selected for the Venice and Tokyo International Film Festivals.

A year later, she directed her breakthrough film, the comedy Men, a box office hit in Germany and abroad.

Her other films include Me and Him, Nobody Loves Me, Am I Beautiful, Naked, and The Fisherman and His Wife.

In addition she has directed numerous documentaries – including the recent How to Cook your Life about American Zen Buddhist monk/chef —), and directs opera productions such as Cosi Fan Tutte (Staatsoper Berlin 2001), Turandot (2003), Rigoletto (2004/2005 Münchner Staatsoper), Madame Butterfly (Münchner Staatstheater 2005), and La Finta Giardiniera (Salzburger Festspiele 2006).

Born 1955 in Hanover, Ms. Dörrie studied Latin and ancient Greek in high school. After graduation she went to the United States where she studied drama, philosophy and psychology from 1973 to 1975. Upon returning to Germany she studied film at Munich’s film school, the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film and started her career as a film critic for the prestigious newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

When not directing, Ms. Dörrie teaches screenwriting at her alma mater, Munich’s HFF and is a successful author of short stories and novels. The weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT has called her “One of the best storytellers of contemporary German literature”. Her first collection of short stories Liebe, Schmerz, und das ganze verdammte Zeug was published in 1986. She followed it with Was wollen Sie von mir (1988), Der Mann meiner Träume and Für immer und ewig (1991), Samara (1996) and, Am I Beautiful (1998), a collection of 17 interconnected short stories on which her film of the same name is based. After receiving several awards for her short stories, she published her first novel, Was machen wir jetzt and Enlightenment Guaranteed, in 2000.

The film Naked is based on her novel Happy. Her next novel, the 2002 Das blaue Kleid, was on the bestseller list of the weekly magazine SPIEGEL for several weeks and won her the prestigious Deutsche Buchpreis. She has also published seven children’s books. Her latest novel is Und was wird aus mir, a story about career and love in the Hollywood dream factory.

Selected Filmography

2007 HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE

2005 DER FISCHER UND SEINE FRAU (THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE)

2002 NACKT (NAKED)

2000 ERLEUCHTUNG GARANTIERT (ENLIGHTENMENT GUARANTEED)

1998 BIN ICH SCHÖN (AM I BEAUTIFUL)

1994 KEINER LIEBT MICH (NOBODY LOVES ME)

1992 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TÜRKE! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)

1989 GELD (MONEY)

1988 ICH UND ER (ME AND HIM)

1986 PARADIES (PARADISE)

1985 MÄNNER (MEN)