Paul Rudolf Parsifal "Percy" Adlon (; born 1 June 1935) is a German director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his film '' Bagdad Cafe''. He is associated with the New German Cinema movement (ca. 1965–1985), and has been noted for his strong female characters and positive portrayals of

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

relationships.

Early life

Adlon was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. He grew up in Ammerland/

Starnberger See Lake Starnberg, or ''Starnberger See'' ) — called Lake Würm, or ''Würmsee'' , until 1962 — is Germany's second-largest body of fresh water, having great depth, and fifth-largest lake by area. It and its surroundings lie in three different B ...

. He studied art, theater history, and

German literature German literature () comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a less ...

at Munich's

Ludwig-Maximilian University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous oper ...

; took acting and singing classes; and was a member of the student theater group.

Career

Percy's films are shown and compete regularly at international film festivals, such as the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

, the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

, and others. He started his professional career as an actor, became interested in radio work, was a narrator and editor of literature series and a presenter and voice-over actor in television for 10 years. In 1970, he made his first

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

for Bavarian television, followed by more than 150 documentary films about art and the human condition. His first one-hour portrait '' Tomi Ungerer's Landleben'' started a very successful co-operation with Benigna von Keyserlingk who became Adlon's

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

and

feature films A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

. Their first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

'' Céleste'', drew international attention at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

in 1981. '' Bagdad Cafe'' (1987) started their co-operation with Dietrich v. Watzdorf (Bayerischer Rundfunk). The story of

Jasmin Münchgstettner Jasmin may refer to: Plants *''Gardenia jasminoides'', also called gardenia *''Jasminocereus'', a genus of cacti *''Jasminum officinale'', the flowering plant commonly called jasmine *''Solanum laxum'', syn. Solanum jasminoides People * Jasm ...

and the Café owner Brenda was an international hit.

Marianne Sägebrecht Marianne Sägebrecht (; born 27 August 1945) is a German film actress. Her background included stints as a medical lab assistant and magazine assistant editor before she found her calling in show business. Claiming to be inspired by Bavaria's ma ...

whom Percy Adlon discovered in 1979 became a cult figure, and he developed songs with Tony, Oscar, and Grammy award nominated

Bob Telson Robert Eria Telson (born May 14, 1949) is an American composer, songwriter, and pianist best known for his work in musical theater and film, for which he has received Tony, Pulitzer, and Academy Award nominations. Biography Robert Eria Telson ...

on such songs as " Calling You" a classic. Percy and Eleonore Adlon have won numerous awards, including top honors in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

for ''Bagdad Cafe'', and in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

for '' Salmonberries'', two Césars, the Ernst-Lubitsch-Award, a Norwegian Amanda Award, the Swedish and the Danish Academy awards, the

Prix Humanum Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who al ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, prizes in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

as well as

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

n and German Federal Film Awards, among others. Percy Adlon is the recipient of the Officer's Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany, and a voting member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

Personal life

Percy is the great-grandson of

Lorenz Adlon Lorenz Adlon (; 29 May 1849 – 7 April 1921) was a German caterer, gastronomer and hotelier. Early life Lorenz Adlon (baptized Laurenz) was born in Mainz as Laurenz, the sixth out of nine children of a Catholic shoemaker, Jacob Adlon, and his w ...

, the founder of the

Hotel Adlon The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin is a luxury hotel in Berlin, Germany. It is on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the central Mitte district, at the corner with Pariser Platz, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate. The original Hotel Adlo ...

. Percy was the grandson of Louis Adlon Sr., who had five children with his first wife Tilly. After almost 15 years of marriage, he met a hotel guest, the German-American Hedwig Leythen (1889–1967), called Hedda, at a New Year's Eve party in the

, left his wife and children, and in 1922 he married her. It was one of the biggest scandals of Berlin in the 1920s. Tilly moved with her daughter Elisabeth, then two, to the south of Germany, while the other children Susanne Adlon-Meyerhöfer (mother of Percy), Lorenz, and twins Carl and Louis (junior) were sent to boarding school and later all four emigrated to America. Adlon's father was opera tenor Rudolf Laubenthal. He grew up in the Bavarian countryside with his mother Susanne and attributes the strong, often unconventional, women's roles in his films to his being brought up in this manner. His son, Felix, also a film director, is the former husband of American actress Pamela Adlon and the father of her three daughters, including actresses

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

and

Gideon Adlon Gideon Adlon (born ) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring roles in the comedy film '' Blockers'' (2018), the drama film ''The Mustang'' (2019), and the horror film '' The Craft: Legacy'' (2020). Adlon also starred in the Ne ...

. Percy and Eleonore Adlon live in Pacific Palisades, California, US. is a half-brother of Percy, 15 years younger and son of Emil Meyerhöfer.

Awards

Adolf Grimme Awards, Germany 1979 * Won, Adolf Grimme Award in Gold Fiction/Entertainment for ''The Guardian and His Poet'' (1978). Shared With: Rolf Illig (lead actor) Amanda Awards, Norway 1989 * Won, Amanda Best Foreign Feature Film (Årets utenlandske spillefilm) for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). Bavarian Film Awards 1988 * Won, Bavarian Film Award Best Screenplay (Drehbuchpreis) for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). Shared With: Eleonore Adlon 1983 * Won, Bavarian Film Award Best Direction (Regiepreis) for ''Fünf letzte Tage'' (1982). Bavarian TV Awards 1997 * Won, Bavarian TV Award Directing for ''The Glamorous World of the Adlon Hotel'' (1996). Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (BIFFF) 1994 * Won, Silver Raven for ''Younger and Younger'' (1993). Cannes Film Festival 1989 * Nominated, Palme d'Or for ''Rosalie Goes Shopping'' (1989). Chicago International Film Festival 1984 * Nominated, Gold Hugo Best Feature for ''The Swing'' (1983). * Nominated, Gold Hugo Best Feature for ''Fünf letzte Tage'' (1982). * Nominated, Gold Hugo Best Feature for ''Céleste'' (1980). César Awards, France 1989 * Won, César Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger) for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). * Won, César Best Film of the European Community (Meilleur film de l'Europe communautaire) for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). Ernst Lubitsch Award 1988 * Won, Ernst Lubitsch Award for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). Film Independent Spirit Awards 1989 * Nominated, Independent Spirit Award Best Foreign Film for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). French Syndicate of Cinema Critics 1989 * Won, Critics Award Best Foreign Film for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). Tied with ''The Dead''. Guild of German Art House Cinemas 1989 * Won, Guild Film Award - Gold German Film (Deutscher Film) for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). * Won, Guild Film Award - Silver German Film (Deutscher Film) for ''Céleste'' (1980). Manhattan Film Festival 2012 * Won, Buzz Award for Céleste (1980). Medias Central European Film Festival 7+1 2011 * Won, Audience Award Best Picture for ''Mahler on the Couch'' (2010). Shared With: Felix O. Adlon Montréal World Film Festival 1991 * Won, Grand Prix des Amériques for ''Salmonberries'' (1991). Robert Festival 1989 * Won, Robert Best Foreign Film (Årets udenlandske spillefilm) for ''Bagdad Cafe'' (1987). Tokyo International Film Festival 1993 * Nominated, Tokyo Grand Prix for ''Younger and Younger'' (1993). Valladolid International Film Festival 1985 * Won, Silver Spike for ''Sugarbaby'' (1985). Venice Film Festival 1982 * Won, OCIC Award for ''Fünf letzte Tage'' (1982). * Nominated, Golden Lion for ''Fünf letzte Tage'' (1982).

Filmography

* ' (''The Aura in the Distance'') (1974, documentary) Director, writer * '' Der Vormund und sein Dichter'' (''The Guardian and His Poet'') (1978, TV film) Director, Writer (written by), Producer (Adolf Grimme Award in Gold) * '' Herr Kischott'' (1980, TV film) Director * '' Céleste '' (1980) Director, (Writer Special Jury Award IFF Chicago) * ''

Fünf letzte Tage ''Fünf letzte Tage'' (''Five Last Days'') is a German film about the last days in 1943 of Sophie Scholl. Scholl was a member of the anti-war group Weiße Rose. She was executed for her non-violent activities by the National Socialist regime duri ...

'' (''Five Last Days'') (1982) Director) (German Federal Film Award, Bavarian Film Award, OCIC-Prize, IFF Venice, 1982) * ' (1983) Director, Writer * '' Sugarbaby'' (1985) Director, Writer ... a.k.a. '' Sugarbaby'' (Ernst-Lubitsch-Award for Marianne Sägebrecht) * ''

Herschel und die Musik der Sterne ''Herschel und die Musik der Sterne'' (''Herschel and the Music of the Stars'') is a 1986 television film written, produced, and directed by Percy Adlon. Anneliese Goldman briefly reviewed the film in 1986, concluding that "The superb nuances and ...

'' (1986, TV film) Director, Writer * '' Out of Rosenheim'' a.k.a. ''Bagdad Cafe'' (USA) (1987) Director, Writer, Producer (Grand Prix IFF Rio de Janeiro, César, best foreign Film (French FIlm Award), Ernst-Lubitsch-Award (Director), Swedish and Danish Film Academies, Bavarian Film Award (original screenplay) Prix Humanum, Belgium.) * '' Babycakes'' (1989, TV film), American remake of ''Zuckerbaby'' aka ''Sugarbaby'', co-writer * ''

Rosalie Goes Shopping ''Rosalie Goes Shopping'' is a 1989 English-language German film directed by Percy Adlon and starring Marianne Sägebrecht, Brad Davis, and Judge Reinhold. Plot Rosalie Greenspace is an expatriate German woman living in rural Arkansas with he ...

'' (1989) Director, Writer, Producer (Official German Entry,

1989 Cannes Film Festival The 42nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 23 May 1989. The Palme d'Or went to ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' by Steven Soderbergh. The festival opened with ''New York Stories'', anthology film directed by Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, ...

. Best Film - Section "Cinema & Denaro", IFF EuropaCinema & TV, Viareggio.) * '' Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter'' (1990, TV film) Director * '' Salmonberries'' (1991) Director, Writer ... a.k.a. Percy Adlon's Salmonberries (Germany: poster title) (Grand Prix des Ameriques, Montreal. Bavarian Film Awards for director P.A. and for Rosel Zech, Best Actress.) * '' Younger and Younger'' (1993) Director, Writer, Producer. (Special Prize of the Jury, Brussels. Best Actress IFF Tokyo Lolita Davidovich) * ''In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon'' (1996, TV film) Director ... a.k.a. ''The Glamorous World of the Adlon Hotel'' (Bavarian Television Award) * '' Eat Your Heart Out'' (1997) Producer * '' Die Straußkiste'' (1999) Director, Writer

Cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

... a.k.a. '' Forever Flirt'' (International: English title) * '' Hawaiian Gardens'' (2001) Director, Writer * '' Koenig's Sphere'' (2001) Director ... a.k.a. Koenigs Kugel (German title) * ''Bagdad Cafe - The Musical'' (2003–2006) Director * '' Orbela's People'' (2007) * '' Mahler auf der Couch'' (2010)

Other work

* ''Elisir D'Amore'' (2003) opera by

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style ...

, directed by Percy Adlon for the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden. * ''Wolkenstein'' (2004) A new opera by

Wilfried Hiller Wilfried Hiller (born 15 March 1941) is a German composer. He became known above all for his stage works for families, children and young people. Life and work Hiller was born the son of the teacher August Hiller and his wife Josepha Hiller, n� ...

and Felix Mitterer, directed by Percy Adlon. Premiere at the State Opera Nürnberg.

References

External links

*
Bagdad Café
Sundancechannel.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Adlon, Percy Living people 1935 births Percy Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People from Starnberg (district) Television people from Munich