One of European cinema’s most distinctive, fearless and tireless narrative and documentary filmmakers, Eckhart Schmidt, died of natural causes at his home in Munich on Oct. 24, only a few days before his 86th birthday.
His best-known film, the psychological horror thriller, “The Fan,” was graphic and shocking when it premiered in 1982, and its stomach-churning tale of a cannibalistic groupie was influential on a generation of horror filmmakers, but the film didn’t achieve mass commercial success upon its initial release.
Banned in several territories for its jarring, bloody portrait of a rock star-obsessed teenager, in the past decade the film has undergone a global rediscovery, popping up in sold-out screenings at film festivals (like Thessaloniki in 2019) and a social media obsession to match its heroine’s zeal (but thankfully not her savagery).
Related Stories
Before his multi-disciplinary career in the visual arts, Schmidt worked as a film critic for the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, for the monthly magazine Film and for the Bayerischer Rundfunk television channel.
Popular on Variety
Later, his journalistic endeavors co-existed with his filmmaking efforts. In the ‘70s, Schmidt became founder and publisher of the punk magazine S!A!U! The magazine offered Schmidt creative collaborations with such luminaries as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Herbert Achternbusch, Werner Schroeter, David Byrne, Devo and Patti Smith.
Starting in the late ‘60s, with his feature film debut, “Jet Generation” (1968), a sort of “La Dolce Vita” for post-war German youth, Schmidt directed 10 features over the next three decades.
His 1994 adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fantasy fable “The Sandman,” competed for the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. This critic reviewed the film admiringly for Variety, calling it “a cool-toned adult fairy tale about a young man’s obsessive quest to discover his exceedingly strange childhood roots.”
Along with his narrative output, Schmidt also produced more than 80 documentary films, usually focused on filmmakers, especially Hollywood filmmakers, both the creators and the stars.
Schmidt directed and produced over 20 documentaries on opera, including the first major HDTV production of Richard Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” in 1989.
Schmidt’s longtime friend, executive producer of “September 5” and former Constantin Films CEO, Martin Moszkowicz, remembered him as “not only a visionary writer and director but also a true supporter of young talents in the film industry. Without his generous guidance and belief in me, I would not have been able to pursue my own career in the movie world.”
Moszkowicz, whose first two feature film productions in the early ‘80s were directed by Schmidt, credits Schmidt with “an immeasurable impact on countless filmmakers,” and also describes him as “a true friend whose warmth and loyalty will never be forgotten. His legacy lives on through the stories he helped shape and the people he touched.”
The “legacy” that Moszkowicz refers to continued to expand right up to 2024, when Schmidt faced health issues that finally ceased the creation of his incredibly prolific array of digital shorts and features, poems, stories and original photography.
A quick look at Schmidt’s IMDb profile shows his last decade packed to the brim with poetic digital musings (usually filmed in Italy) alongside newly edited versions of past interviews with major film figures of Hollywood and Europe.
To honor Schmidt’s career, ARD 1 will begin screening his 1996 documentary, “Sunset Boulevard: 27 Miles of America,” on Oct. 30. The film be available to viewers until Jan. 25.
Schmidt is survived by his wife, Gorana Dragas, and his daughter Judith Elias, both of Munich.
