Percy Adlon

Early life

Adlon was born on June 1, 1935 in Munich, Germany. He grew up in Ammerland, Starnberger See. He studied art, theater history, and German literature at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilian University; took acting and singing classes; and was a member of a student theater group.

Career

Adlon 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, Adlon made his first short film for Bavarian television, followed by more than 150 documentary films about art and the human condition. His first was a one-hour portrait of French artist and writer Tomi Ungerer, entitled Tomi Ungerer's Landleben. Adlon became fascinated by Ungerer after meeting at an exhibition in Munich and spending time at his home in Nova Scotia, so decided to make him the subject of his first film.

Adlon's first feature film Céleste (1980) was about the relationship between the French writer Marcel Proust and his cook Céleste Albaret during the last years of Proust's life.

In 1987 he directed Bagdad Cafe, starring Marianne Sägebrecht as a German tourist, CCH Pounder as a motel and truck stop cafe owner in the Mojave Desert, and Jack Palance. Critically acclaimed, Roger Ebert awarded the film 3½ out of 4 stars in his review, stating that "[Percy Adlon] is saying something in this movie about Europe and America, about the old and the new, about the edge of the desert as the edge of the American Dream" and that the charm of Bagdad Cafe is that "every character and every moment is unanticipated, obscurely motivated, of uncertain meaning and vibrating with life". The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited Bagdad Cafe as one of his 100 favorite films.

In 1989, Adlon directed Rosalie Goes Shopping, starring Sägebrecht, Brad Davis, and Judge Reinhold, which was screened at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. The film met mixed critical reviews, with Deseret News describing it as "dark satire masquerading as bright comedy" and a comment on American consumerism, while Rita Kempley of The Washington Post considered it to be "deficit of dramatic tension" and thought that Adlon's message was "scatterbrained".

In 1991, Adlon directed Salmonberries, a picture starring k.d. lang as Kotzebue, an orphaned Eskimo and young woman of androgynous appearance who has a lesbian relationship with an East German widowed librarian. The film was generally well-received, with Kevin Thomas of the L.A. Times describing it as "endearing, remarkably assured and stunning-looking" and noted that Adlon with sensitivity "raises crucial questions of cultural and sexual identity", though Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it a "halting, awkward effort" with "stilted direction" and "sharp camera angles, arty editing".

In 1993, Adlon directed the film Younger and Younger, starring Donald Sutherland, Brendan Fraser and Lolita Davidovich. The film won Adlon the Silver Raven Award at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Leonard Klady of Variety considered it to be an "unusual human comedy", a family yarn which "spins out from its simple premise into fantasy, music, black comedy and innumerable offbeat digressions." Klady further noted that the film illustrated "Adlon's unique method of tackling everyday life", which has "ironically been the greatest strength and most problematic aspect to his commercial appeal".

In 1997, Adlon co-produced Eat Your Heart Out, a romantic comedy film filmed in Venice Beach, California, which was directed by his son, .

Adlon co-directed his final picture, Mahler on the Couch (2010) with his son Felix, a period film about an affair between Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius, and the subsequent psychoanalysis of Mahler's husband Gustav Mahler by Sigmund Freud. In a review for The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt wrote that the film "manages to pose a serious, intimate study in obsessive jealousy while, like a gaga celebrity hunter, bumping into just about everybody who's anybody in Viennese society circa 1910... The film's great gift, though, is Romaner... She fully inhabits the role of this complex personality whose passion for love and art collides with her role of wife and mother."

Personal life

Percy Adlon was the great-grandson of Lorenz Adlon, the founder of the Hotel Adlon. He was the grandson of Louis Adlon Sr., and the son of opera tenor . 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 A'zion and Gideon Adlon.

Percy and Eleonore Adlon lived in Pacific Palisades, California. Percy Adlon died there on 10 March 2024, at the age of 88.

is a half-brother of Percy, 15 years younger and son of Emil Meyerhöfer.

Awards

Filmography

• ** (The Aura in the Distance) (1974, documentary) director, writer
• Der Vormund und sein Dichter (The Guardian and the Poet) (1978, TV film) director, writer, producer (Adolf Grimme Award in Gold)
• Herr Kischott (1980, TV film) director
• *Céleste * (1980) director, writer (Special Jury Award IFF Chicago)
• Fünf letzte Tage (Five Last Days) (1982) director (German Federal Film Award, Bavarian Film Award, OCIC-Prize, IFF Venice, 1982)
• The Swing (1983) director, writer
• Sugarbaby a.k.a. Zuckerbaby (1985) director, writer (Ernst-Lubitsch-Award for Marianne Sägebrecht)
• Herschel und die Musik der Sterne (1986, TV film) director, writer
• Out of Rosenheim a.k.a. Bagdad Cafe (US) (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 (1989) director, writer, producer (official German Entry, 1989 Cannes Film Festival. 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 (Silver Raven, 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, a.k.a. Forever Flirt (International: English title)
• Hawaiian Gardens (2001) director, writer
• Koenig's Sphere: The German Sculptor Fritz Koenig at Ground Zero (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

• L'elisir d'amore (2003) opera by Gaetano Donizetti, directed by Adlon for the Berlin State Opera.
• Wolkenstein (2004) A new opera by Wilfried Hiller and Felix Mitterer, directed by Adlon. Premiere at the Staatsoper Nürnberg.

References

References

1. [http://www.percyadlon.com/about/long_bio.html PercyAdlon.com Official bio]
2. (1993). "Cinema in the Federal Republic of Germany: The New German Film, Origins and Present Situation : with a Section on GDR Cinema : a Handbook". Inter Nationes.
3. Forde, John. (2006). "Percy Adlon". [[Routledge]].
4. (5 July 2010). "Our guest on 04.07.2010 Percy Adlon – filmmaker, author, producer". dw.com.
5. "Percy Adlon". Film.de.
6. "Tomi Ungerers Landleben". artchock.de.
7. "'Celeste', A Memoir Of Proust". The New York Times.
8. Thomas, Kevin. (23 June 1988). "MOVIE REVIEW: 'Bagdad Cafe' Serves Endearing and Quirky Version of America – Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times.
9. Maslin, Janet. (22 April 1988). "Review/Film; Exotic U.S. In Bavarian Perspective". [[The New York Times]].
10. Ebert, Roger. (9 September 1988). "Bagdad Cafe movie review".
11. "Bagdad Cafe". [[Rotten Tomatoes]].
12. (12 January 2021). "From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time".
13. ''Cannes Film Festival'', [http://www.festival-cannes.com/index.php/en/archives/films/year/1989 All the films - Festival 1989]. Retrieved 2007-05-26.
14. Hicks, Chris. (19 May 1990). "Rosalie Goes Shopping". Deseret News.
15. Kempley, Rita. (23 March 1990). "''Rosalie Goes Shopping''". Washington Post.
16. "SALMONBERRIES (1991)".
17. (7 April 1994). "MOVIE REVIEW : HEAD'Salmonberries' Goes Off the Beaten Path". L. A. Times.
18. (1994). "FILM REVIEW; K. D. Lang's Debut, In an Alaskan Chill". The New York Times.
19. "Adlon, Percy".
20. Klady, Leonard. (9 June 1993). "Younger and Younger". Variety.
21. Robinson, George. (May 15, 2012). "A Father-And-Son Team Take On Freud And Mahler". NY Jewish Week.
22. (14 October 2010). "Mahler on the Couch - Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
23. Adlon, Hedda. (30 December 1994). "Hotel Adlon". Heyne.
24. "Our guest on 04.07.2010 Percy Adlon – filmmaker, author, producer | DW | 08.10.2010".
25. (4 February 2019). "Pamela Adlon, the TV Auteur Hiding in Plain Sight". The New Yorker.
26. (11 March 2024). "FIlmemacher Percy Adlon stirbt mit 88 Jahren". BR.de.
27. (11 March 2024). "“Out of Rosenheim” director dies at 88". breakinglatest.news.
28. (29 June 2015). "Ein "Ciao" zum Abschied: Thomas Meyerhöfer geht in den Ruhestand - BR.de". Bayerischer Rundfunk.
29. "Das Werdenfels-Gymnasium Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1913 bis 200".
30. Rundfunk, Bayerischer. "Eins zu Eins. Der Talk - Bayern 2 - Download, MP3, Video - Podcast - BR".
31. (26 January 2012). "radioWelt: Thomas Meyerhöfer - ModeratorInnen - Bayern 2 - Radio - BR.de".
32. (2024). "Percy Adlon".
33. (19 April 2021). "Shout! Factory Reissues 'Bagdad Cafe' on Digital Platforms".
34. (2 March 2011). "Bayerischer Filmemacher im Exil".
35. "Official Selection 1989: All the Selection". festival-cannes.fr.
36. [https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-swing-1983 THE SWING: DIE SCHAUKEL]
37. [https://mubi.com/en/us/films/celeste CÉLESTE]
38. (2024). "Cesar Awards (France) - Best European Union Film (Meilleur film de l'Union Européenne): All winners".
39. [https://mubi.com/en/films/bagdad-cafe/awards AWARDS & FESTIVALS: BAGDAD CAFÉ]
40. [https://mubi.com/en/us/films/sugarbaby SUGARBABY: ZUCKERBABY]
41. [http://deutsches-filmhaus.de/filme_einzeln/a_einzeln/adlon_percy/fuenf_letzte_tage.htm Fünf letzte Tage: 1982]
42. (15 March 2014). "Out of Rosenheim (1987)". Swedish Film Institute.
43. (6 July 2001). "Hawaiian Gardens".
44. "Koenig's Sphere: The German Sculptor Fritz Koenig at Ground Zero (2001)".
45. (26 October 2007). "Japan’s ‘Khan’ opens Thai fest".