Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1985 • United States
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich
Dustin Hoffman delivers a bravura performance in Volker Schlöndorff’s sterling adaptation of Arthur Miller’s classic drama about the limitations of the American dream. During the postwar boom of the late 1940s, Willy Loman (Hoffman) is an aging traveling salesman who despairs that his life has been lived in vain. Facing dispensability and insignificance in an increasingly youth-driven economy, Willy is not ready to part with his cherished fantasies of an America that admires him for triumphs in the marketplace. But the reality is far more complex than that, as the measure of Willy’s self-delusion and contradictions is revealed through his increasingly strained relationships with his two sons, Biff (John Malkovich) and Harold (Stephen Lang), each grappling with his own understanding of what it means to be a “success.”
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1990 • United States
Starring Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway, Aidan Quinn
Adapted by Harold Pinter from the landmark novel by Margaret Atwood, the original screen adaptation of THE HANDMAID’S TALE takes place in an authoritarian future America where young, heal...
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1991 • Germany
Starring Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa
Volker Schlöndorff’s richly absorbing adaptation of Swiss writer Max Frisch’s celebrated novel “Homo Faber” follows the journey of Walter Faber (Sam Shepard), an American construction engineer whose...
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1996 • Germany
Starring John Malkovich, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gottfried John
Having previously collaborated on their Oscar-winning adaptation of THE TIN DRUM, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière and director Volker Schlöndorff turned once again to the traumas of mid...
