The Munich-born Percy Adlon wrote film history with his bizarre comedy “Out of Rosenheim”: Marianne Sägebrecht finds a friend in the American wasteland. Adlon died at the age of 88.
“Out of Rosenheim” is now cult: In the bizarre comedy, published in 1987, Marianne Sägebrecht, wearing a traditional hat and carrying a suitcase, suddenly finds herself alone on the street in a Californian town after an argument. There she meets a young black motel owner (CCH Pounder) – the beginning of a touching female friendship. Under the title “Baghdad Café”, the film was a global success and was showered with awards. The director of the comedy has now died: Percy Adlon, born in Munich, died peacefully last Sunday at the age of 88 with his family in Los Angeles, California, his family confirmed on Monday.
Marianne Sägebrecht as Jasmin Münchgstettner and CCH Pounder as Brenda in “Out of Rosenheim”, which has the international title “Baghdad Café” via imago-images.de
With Sägebrecht in the leading role, Adlon scored a second success in the mid-1980s: in “Zuckerbaby,” the native Bavarian, whom Adlon once described as an “Alpine version of Marlene Dietrich,” embodied a lonely employee of a funeral home who changed into the voice of a subway train -driver in love.
Shortly after his success with “Out of Rosenheim,” Adlon took the film title as a model and moved far away from Upper Bavaria. At the end of the 1980s he moved to Los Angeles. “I came here and stayed – like Jasmine from the Bagdad Café,” he once wrote.
Too stubborn for a Hollywood career
In the USA, Percy Adlon liked to shoot without the big Hollywood studios. Although he briefly dreamed of a career in the film metropolis, he quickly realized that he was far too stubborn for that, he once said: “I want to control my own budget. I’d rather remain that little fish that all the big fish in Hollywood think, ‘You’re not even plankton to us’.”
In addition to feature films, Adlon, who came from the Adlon hotelier family in Berlin, made around 150 documentaries in his career. In 2002 he also made his debut as an opera director with the production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Liebestrank” in Berlin. A few years later he brought “Out of Rosenheim” to the stage as a musical. The play premiered in Barcelona and then went on tour, but was canceled due to lack of success.
“Free spirit, cult director and proud Bavarian in Hollywood”.
Bavaria’s Art Minister Markus Blume (CSU) praised Adlon on Monday as a “free spirit, cult director and proud Bavarian in Hollywood”. Adlon brought Bavaria’s cultural heritage to the international stage with films like “Out of Rosenheim” and “Zuckerbaby”. According to Blume, Adlon was also significantly involved in the design of the anniversary exhibition on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the sculptor Fritz Koenig (1924-201) in Landshut. Blume said he was touched and impressed by Adlon’s passion and inventiveness at the anniversary exhibition. The Free State is deeply grateful to Percy Adlon for his life’s work and his commitment to his Bavarian homeland. (APA)
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