Director Volker Schlöndorff is the only German film director to have won both an Oscar AND a Palme d'Or - for the phenomenal cinematic adaptation of Günther Grass' novel 'The Tin Drum'. The work has gone down in cinematic history as a masterpiece of German filmmaking. KINO caught up with Schlöndorff in the legendary Marlene Dietrich Hall at the Babelsberg Film Studio in Berlin, and talked to him about his latest film ‘Return to Montauck’ which is loosely based on a novel by Max Frisch. We also quizzed him on the other cinematic adaptations which have brought him worldwide acclaim, including 'The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum' - based on a novel by Heinrich Böll - and 'The Death of a Salesman', an adaptation of Arthur Miller's play of the same name, with Dustin Hoffman in the lead role.
Schlöndorff opens up about why he regrets turning down an offer from Steven Spielberg and why he thinks his lifelong commitment to political filmmaking possibly got in the way of his career.