Acting
May 15, 1961
Constantine, France [now Algeria]
Solveig Dommartin
Acting
Biography
Solveig Dommartin (May 16, 1961 in Constantine, Algeria – January 11, 2007 in Paris) was a French-German actress. Her acting career began in the theatre with "Compagnie Timothee Laine" and with the "Theater Labor Warschau". She had her first experiences with film as an assistant of Jacques Rozier. Her debut as a film actress was Wings of Desire (1987) under Wim Wenders. She was able to learn the challenging circus acrobatics in only eight weeks, and performed the full role without using a stunt double. She co-authored Until the End of the World (1991) with Wenders and travelled around the world with him in search of locations for the project. Wim Wenders said about Until the End of the World: "Solveig Dommartin and I had written the story of our film together, and we thought that we only had the right to enter into such a sacred area like a persons's dreams, if we would bring something into the work that was sacred to ourselves". Dommartin died of a heart attack in 2007, aged 45. She was survived by her daughter, Venus. Description above from the Wikipedia article Solveig Dommartin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Feature Films (9)
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.
Wings of Desire
In 1999, a woman's life is forever changed after she survives a car crash with two bank robbers, who enlist her help to take the money to a drop in Paris. On the way, she runs into another fugitive from the law — an American doctor on the run from the CIA. They want to confiscate his father's invention – a device which allows anyone to record their dreams and visions.
Until the End of the World
Dah and Jocelyn come from former French colonies to coach their rooster, "S'en fout la mort", for an illicit cock-fight in the basement of a restaurant.
No Fear, No Die
A group of angels look longingly upon the life of humans. Berlin now is a very different place: unified in name but overrun with crime, corruption, and—in what turns out to be a key theme here—Americans.
Faraway, So Close!
Ninon is a spirited hotel-manager who teaches self-defense classes to her terrified eldery neighbors. Daiga, an aspiring Lithuanian actress newly arrived to Paris, becomes fascinated with the life of a mysteriously beautiful drag performer.
I Can't Sleep
Jeanne is a woman who is driven by her very active conscience. She attempts to assuage her idealistic bent by trying out life as a nun, but this doesn't work out. After she leaves the convent, she takes a job at a factory, where the callousness of management spurs her to become a labor activist. Her efforts are marked by great persistence and fervor, but she lacks any kind of diplomacy or persuasiveness, and as the years progress, she manages to alienate everyone in her life. By the end of the film, there is only one way that she can see to resolve the horrible situation she finds herself in.
I Have You Under My Skin
A young Russian man arrives in Berlin in search of a woman, but becomes entangled with two others one of whom falls in love with him and another who represents a classic Russian heroine like out of a novel from one of his countrymen idols.
The Prisoner of St. Petersburg
A documentary which follows director Wim Wenders and Sean Naughton, the high-definition-video designer on UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, in Tokyo, and details the creation of the film’s groundbreaking high-definition sequences.
Wim Wenders in Tokyo
Don Quichotte (Luchini) is a modern filmmaker with views on the perfect film. Sancho Pança (Risch) is systematically condradicting Quichotte, whose film materializes in front of them as he lists his ideas
Lettre de la Sierra Morena
Television & Series (1)
Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.