Miriam Dehne

Miriam Dehne (born February 23, 1968 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a German film director and screenwriter.

The storylines of the Berlin-based director and screenwriter deal with dreams, the self-discovery process and the attempt to master as best as possible the balancing act between ideal and reality without selling oneself out. Miriam Dehne is also her own screenwriter.

Her strong-willed characters sporting high heels, angel wings and sprinkles of glitter in their hair embark on a tragicomic search for themselves in storylines that are both poetic and surreal. Not much separates the Angle’s flight from its crash. Such a perspective on the world arises neither from the director’s sheer powers of observation nor a capacity for self-reflection, but rather from a life of experiences that catapult the viewer into a world where both are combined and to which the viewer invariably becomes a witness.

Biography and Artistic Development

Miriam Dehne grew up in Düsseldorf.
Father, Dr. Achim Dehne (died 1988) was a psychiatrist, author and member of the Wiener Gruppe.
Mother, Sabine Dehne, teaches art, English and German.

Sister, Pia Dehne, is a successful painter and lives with her husband, the musician Marko Pezzati, in New York.

After graduating from the Rückertgymnasium in Düsseldorf, Miriam Dehne studied textile design in Mönchengladbach. She then moved to Berlin where she studied design at the Hochschule der Künste (HdK, today UDK) under Professor Wolfgang Joop. She holds a degree in design. Following her studies she worked as a costume designer and assistant director for various theater and film productions.

Her first Super 8 films were created during her time at the UDK.

Jobs: cocktail waitress at the “Potsdamer Abkommen”, a Berlin scenester hangout until 1989; and phone receptionist in a high-end bordello.
Based on her experiences in the bordello: the film “Babsi“, a surrogate for many women’s fates. Theme: the smallest factory in the world, body = capital. ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel. Also created for the same format: “Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful“, a film about the lives of young models.

Following an internship at Burda Verlag, Offenburg, Miriam Dehne worked as an independent reporter covering arts and culture in Berlin and attended screenwriting and directorial seminars by Judith Weston, Mark W. Travis, Keith Cunningham and Tom Schlesinger.

Since 1994 various TV features, documentaries, and short films (for Arte, ZDF, Pro7, RTL).

In 2001 Miriam Dehne presented Detlef Bothe’s theatrical play “Pornostars mit Liebeskummer”, which premiered at the Staatstheater in Hannover and starred Michaela Schaffrath (ex-pornostar Gina Wild) and Niels Bruno Schmidt.

She authored a number of screenplays including “Angel of Germany” (with co-author David Tattu), “Venus in Vegas”, “Little Paris”, and a handful of short stories and plays including “Ticket nach Vegas”.
The short story “Lady Luck” received an award from the Berlin-Rheinsberg Author’s Forum (AF).

Berlinale 2005: Premier of “Stadt als Beute”, episode film (directed by Miriam Dehne, Irene von Alberti, Esther Gronenborn). Episode “Lizzy” (starring Inga Busch, supporting roles: Julia Hummer, Stipe Erceg), screenplay and direction by Miriam Dehne.
Produced for/with: ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel, Volksbühne Berlin and Filmgalerie 451.
Based on the play of the same name by playwright and Prater artistic director René Pollesch.

2008 wrote and directed the first German fiction series for the web “They Call Us Candygirls”.

2008 feature film “Little Paris”. The story about dreaming about a career in dancing and the search for oneself, set in the small town of Crailsheim in Baden-Württemberg. The screenplay was inspired by a TV-documentary about the daily lives of gogo-girls living there.
Storyline: Luna (Sylta Fee Wegmann) breaks out of a dismal small-town existence in order to become a professional dancer. In contrast: the friends that stay behind, Eve (Jasmin Schwiers) and Barbie (Nina-Friederike Gnädig).
Additional roles played by Inga Busch, Julia Dietze, Stipe Erceg, Volker Bruch, Ralph Kretschmar.

Press Reviews

“The exquisite visuals may play with the kind of small-town despair associated with the sparse aesthetic of the Berlin-school, yet, alongside this, approaches are found that recall more of Sofia Coppola’s tartlet-laden filmic operetta „Maria Antoinette”. Such shifts in style between disco-glitz and melancholy are ventured all too rarely in German film.”^[1]

“Weltschmerz in Pink: emancipation is depicted in a new, wild, and naïve way. Miriam Dehne outdoes many young German filmmakers—because she searches for magical moments against conventions and good taste. In the end she manages to come up with truly great cinema.”^[2]

“Just what have the three directors and former school mates come up with? They’ve taken Pollesch lines and merely developed them further—into three very different film episodes. Lines like “Whores tell about a life they don’t have.” Miriam Dehne savors tales from the porn-millieu, and has put the line to good use. Julia Hummer, sporting a blond wig, is the table dancer: an unusual role for the dreamer of German actors, but she sought it out for herself. And Inga Busch, the huge, passionate Pollesch-protagonist who yells “sheisse” in such a wonderful way, and who finds herself in the bar by chance, finds herself dependent on it, and experiences a life “she doesn’t have.” The body as a shit-hotel, also a quintessential Pollesch line, takes on a totally different meaning in this context.”^[3]

“If the Candy Girls were art and not just an internet soap one might compare its visual language to works by kitsch art icon Jeff Koons or with works by video artist Francesco Vezzoli. Dehne reflects on this and replies: ‘In their own divergent ways Koons and Vezzoli have dealt with pornchic. Both use its beauty and absurdity in order to actually talk about something more than just sex. It has to pounce on you and be so obvious that it tips over and affords the viewer a glimpse of what’s behind.’”^[4]

Filmography – Selection

As director and screenwriter

• 2009, 2008: They Call Us Candy Girls, webisode, MySpace, 30 episodes
• 2008: Little Paris, feature film, SWR
• 2005: Stadt als Beute, feature film, ZDF, episode: Lizzy, episode film
• 2002: 99 Euro films, feature film, episode: Loreley S., short film
• 1993-2001: The Bull Never Wins, shortfilm; Vivi Kiss, shortfilm; I Love My Pony, ARTE, documentary film; Urban Style Mutation, documentary film; Cinderella’s Kleid, ARTE, shortfilm; Die Hochzeitsmacher, ARTE, documentary film, Surabaya Johnny, ARTE, staging of Brecht & documentary film; Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful, ZDF-Kleines Fernsehspiel, documentary film; Barbie lebt, ARTE, documentary film; Babsi, a Name with Many Faces, ZDF-Das kleines Fernsehspiel, poetic documentary

Music Video – Selection

Direction and Screenplay

• 2009: Glaub Ihnen kein Wort - Cassandra Steen
• 2009: Wishing you Well - Stanfour
• 2002: Ich und Elaine - 2Raumwohnung

Theater – Selection

Direction

• 2001: Pornostars mit Liebeskummer, Staatstheater Hannover

Publications – Selection

• Angel Of Germany. Lyrics, mit Inga Humpe. 2Raumwohnung, 2009.
• Du Bewegst Dich Richtig, 2Raumwohnung, 2007.
• A Dress from L.A, one of many stories about the designers Stefan Loy and Frank Ford / HEKMAG magazine, Berlin.
• Der Kaiser ist in der Gardrobe, fictional interview on the fashion industry and ecology, HEKMAG magazine, Berlin.
• Naomis Dress, diary of a German actress in Hollywood, theme: fashion and glamour, HEKMAG magazine, Berlin.
• Mom’s Room, English language play inspired by images of Marylin Minter, sleek magazine, Berlin.
• Diamond Daliah, short story about love and the decline of the art market, HEKMAG magazine, Berlin.
• Lady Luck, short story from the series ”Trip to Vegas”, Author’s Forum Rheinsberg, Rheinsberg.

Little Paris

• 2008: Nomination, 22nd Braunschweig International Film Festival:
  • KINEMA German-French Youth Award
• 2008: Nomination, 19th FilmArtFestival Mecklenburg-Pomerania:
  • Feature Film Competition/Top Prize – State of Mecklenburg-Pomerania
  • Best Emerging Actor Award: Sylta Fee Wegmann
• 2009: Longlist, German Film Award:
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Nina-Friederike Gnädig
  • Best Original Music Score: Marco Meister, Kriton Klingler-Ioannides

They call us Candy Girls

• 2008: Recipient, 2nd IPTV AWARD at Munich Media Days:
  • Most Innovative Project

Stadt als Beute

• 2005: Nomination, femme totale – 10th International Women's Film Festival Dortmund:
  • International Feature Film Award for Women Directors
• 2005: Honorable Mention, International Confederation of Art Cinemas/Confédération International des Cinémas DÀrt et Essai in the scope of the Berlinale
• 2006: Longlist, German Film Award:
  • Best Supporting Actress: Julia Hummer
  • Best Supporting Actress: Inga Busch

A Dress from L.A.

• 2007: ADC (Art Directors Club) – Award:
  • Best Editorial: Magazine Article, for the article A Dress from L.A. , one of the many stories about designers Stefan Loy and Frank Ford.

External links

• Miriam Dehne at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Miriam Dehne site, German and English version
• Little Paris Website
• Stadt als Beute Website

References

1. ^ Little Paris. In: Der Spiegel. Nr. 52/ 2008, p.127.
2. ^ Hans Schifferle: Weltschmerz in Pink. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. Nr. 294, S.11.
3. ^ Christina Tilmann: Das Raubtier auf der Potse. In: Der Tagesspiegel. 15.02.2005.
4. ^ Philip Oehmke: Zuckersüße Revolution. In: Der Spiegel. Nr. 24/2008, p.170-172.

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Name	Dehne, Miriam
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Date of birth	February 23, 1968
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