Margit Carstensen

Margit Carstensen

Margit Carstensen (29 February 1940 – 1 June 2023) was a German theatre and film actress, best known outside Germany for roles in the works of film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Carstensen was born and raised in the northern German city of Kiel. Upon graduation from the local high school in 1958, she studied acting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. This education led to her first stage appearances in Kleve, Heilbronn, Münster, and Braunschweig. In 1965, Carstensen began a four-year engagement with the German Playhouse in Hamburg. In 1969, she gained a local profile for her work in the Theater am Goetheplatz in Bremen, where she first met director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She then worked under his direction in a comedy by the 18th-century Venetian Carlo Goldoni, The Coffee Shop (which was recorded for television in 1970), bringing her national attention in West Germany. She subsequently played the role of serial murderess Geesche Gottfried in the premiere of Fassbinder's own play Bremen Freedom (also televised, in 1972), and then in the title role of his Henrik Ibsen adaptation Nora Helmer (televised in 1974) derived from A Doll's House. Outside of theatre, Carstensen played leading roles in the Fassbinder films The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), her best-known role for him; Martha (1974), analysing a traditional marriage in a contemporary setting; Fear of Fear (1975); Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven (1975); Satan's Brew (1976); Chinese Roulette (1976) and Women in New York (1977). She also appeared in episodes of two Fassbinder television productions: Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972), and Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). From 1973 to 1976, Carstensen held a steady acting engagement in Darmstadt. In 1977, she moved to West Berlin where she performed on the highly regarded Staatliche Schauspielbühnen. In 1982, she moved to Stuttgart in order to work with director Hansgünther Heyme, where she appeared in a series of plays directed by him. During this time, Carstensen also worked in international film productions, such as Andrzej Żuławski's Possession (1981) and Agnieszka Holland's Angry Harvest (1985); the latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. By the late 1980s, she had developed ongoing working relationships with German directors Werner Schroeter, Christoph Schlingensief, and Leander Haußmann. For the 2003–04 season, Carstensen appeared in the Vienna Burgtheater, in the premiere of Elfriede Jelinek's play Bambiland under the direction of Schlingensief. During the 2007–08 season Carstensen assisted with the Austrian-German TV documentary Mr. Karl – A Person for People, directed by Kurt Mayer. In 2016, she was still on television, appearing in the long-running series Tatort. Carstensen received many awards in her career. Among these were the 1973 German Film Awards (Gold), for her acting in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and the 2002 Bavarian Film Award, for her acting in Scherbentanz. In 1972 she was chosen by the German Film Critics Guild as Best Actress of the Year. In 2019, she was awarded the Götz-George-Preis for her life's work. Description above from the Wikipedia article Margit Carstensen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For: Acting

Born: Kiel, Germany, 1940-02-29

Died: 2023-06-01

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1970	The Coffee House	Vittoria	53
2	1970	The Niklashausen Journey	Margarete	60
3	1971	The Ancestress	Berta	0
4	1972	The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant	Petra von Kant	74
5	1972	Bremen Freedom	Geesche Gottfried	60
6	1973	Tenderness of the Wolves	Frau Lindner	57
7	1974	Nora Helmer	Nora Helmer	71
8	1974	Martha	Martha	70
9	1975	Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven	Frau Thälmann	78
10	1975	Fear of Fear	Margot	63
11	1976	Satan’s Brew	Andree	64
12	1977	Chinese Roulette	Ariane Christ	71
13	1977	Adolf and Marlene	Marlene	60
14	1977	Women in New York	Sylvia Fowler	57
15	1978	Spiel der Verlierer	Frl. Rosner	0
16	1979	The Third Generation	Petra Vielhaber	61
17	1981	Possession	Margit Gluckmeister	73
18	1982	Liebeskonzil	Staatsanwältin	0
19	1983	Die wilden Fünfziger	Sekretärin	20
20	1985	Angry Harvest	Eugenia	65
21	1985	La moitié de l'amour	Ivy	0
22	1989	100 Years of Adolf Hitler – The Last Hour in the Führerbunker	Martha Goebbels	68
23	1992	Terror 2000	Margret	47
24	1997	The 120 Days of Bottrop	Self	56
25	1998	Gesche's Poison	Mutter Timm	0
26	1998	Rider of the Flames	Sinclair's mother	0
27	1999	Sonnenallee	Director	67
28	2000	John Gabriel Borkman	Gunhild	0
29	2000	Manila	Regine Gorler	50
30	2002	Der Narr und seine Frau heute Abend in Pancomedia	Die Leserin	20
31	2002	Shattered Glass	Käthe	60
32	2004	Agnes and His Brothers	Roxy	60
33	2007	Hands off Mississippi	Frau Strietzel	67
34	2007	It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine.	Linda Barnes	70
35	2008	Mister Karl	Self	0
36	2009	Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir		0
37	2009	Mea Culpa – A ReadyMadeOpera		0
38	2013	Finsterworld	Frau Sandberg	63
39	2015	Fassbinder: Love Without Demands	Self (archive footage)	64
40	2015	Fassbinder	Self	62
41	2020	Schlingensief – A Voice That Shook the Silence	Self (archive footage)	60

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1951	Deutscher Filmpreis	Self	60
2	1964	Vorsicht Falle!		0
3	1970	Scene of the Crime	Margarethe	61
4	1972	Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day	Erste Hausfrau	76
5	1973	World on a Wire	Maya Schmidt-Genter	72
6	1974	Derrick	Frau Hauser	60
7	1979	Bayerischer Filmpreis	Self	0
8	1980	Berlin Alexanderplatz	Angel #1	77
9	1988	Anwalt Abel	Frau Nussbauer	0

Margit Carstensen

Film

Television