Work
After attending a boarding school near Augsburg, he was trained as a technician to make film cameras and then spent nine years at a music conservatory. Following this he was a member of a jazz group. Following his work as a technician he moved into film, first as an assistant, then as a cameraman.
His debut film, Herbstmilch in 1988, additionally starring his wife, Dana Vávrová, was a huge success, which was only to be outdone by Comedian Harmonists in 1997. Film critics are not that fond of Vilsmaier's work.
On most of the films he has directed, Vilsmaier is also the first cameraman.
While filming his latest film The Last Train (German: Der Letzte Zug), probably the last movie produced by Artur Brauner, he was injured by the collapse of a camera tower. From then on his ability to work was very limited, so Vávrová took over directing. The two of them were awarded the special prize by the jury at the 2006 Bavarian Film Awards for The Last Train.
His wife Dana Vávrová died on 5 February 2009. They had three daughters together, Janina, Theresa, and Josefina Vilsmaier. They are all actresses and have starred in a number of his films.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Vilsmaier
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“He does not go to the dictionary, the word-book, but to the word-manufactory itself, and has made endless work for the lexicographers.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In some withdrawn, unpublic mead
Let me sigh upon a reed,
Or in the woods, with leafy din,
Whisper the still evening in:
Some still work give me to do,—
Only—be it near to you!
For I’d rather be thy child
And pupil, in the forest wild,
Than be the king of men elsewhere,
And most sovereign slave of care:
To have one moment of thy dawn,
Than share the city’s year forlorn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)