 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jutta Hoffmann was born March 3, 1941, in Halle (Saale). She already became a member of the theatre group of Buna-Werke in Schkopau during her time at school. After finishing high school, Hoffmann studied at Potsdam-Babelsberg's film school from 1959 to 1962.
In 1960, while still at film school, she made her acting debut in the DEFA film "Das Rabauken-Kabarett" and in the same year she also made her stage debut in "Und das am Heiligabend", a production of Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater where Hoffmann became a cast member after finishing actor's training. She worked as a cast member until 1973 and became one of the most distinctive and popular actresses of Maxim Gorki Theater. One of her most successful performances during that time was the role of Sabine in Claus Hammel's contemporary play "Um neun Uhr an der Achterbahn" (1965, directed by Horst Schönemann), and the role of Minna von Barnhelm (1972, directed by Albert Hetterle).
Hoffmann interrupted her engagement for two seasons from 1965 to 1967 and went to Deutsches Theater in order to work with Benno Besson. At Deutsches Theater, she, for instance, played Donna Elvira in Molière's "Don Juan" (1967). From 1973 on, Jutta Hoffmann was a cast member of Berliner Ensemble where she played the role of Vivie in Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1973, directed by Wolfgang Pintzka), among other roles.
In mid-1975, she played the title role – alongside Jürgen Holtz – in B. K. Tragelehn's and Einar Schleef's production of Strindberg's "Miss Julie". The performance was heavily contested in the GDR and was banned after the tenth show. "The production did not conform to the theatre's tradition. At some point, the Brecht heirs felt offended." (Hoffmann to Kahle, 1984). During the following years, things calmed down around the theatre actress, partly in consequence of the management's situation at the theatre at Schiffbauerdamm.
|
|
|
Besides her theatre career, Jutta Hoffmann continually worked as a film and TV actress. After her success in the role of the professor's daughter Penny in Vogel's "Julia lebt" (1963), she played in films by Egon Günther's "Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam" and in Herrmann Zschoche's film "Karla" (both filmed in 1964/65). Both films were banned after the SED's 11th plenary assembly.
"In 'Karla', the young Jutta Hoffmann looks like Giulietta Masina's sister. With her eyes alone, she turns the circumstances upside down." (A. Kilb, Die Zeit, February 23, 1990). The political conditions did not hurt the actress's renown. Critics praised her versatile acting talent and her artistic scale of expression. "She is one of those artists who stand a chance to be ranked among the greats of her profession one day." (Sobe, 1974).
The collaboration with Egon Günther, in particular, gave Hoffmann the opportunity to use her acting talent in the best possible way. "Her characters are always a dazzling display of inventions and of course also of vitality (…). The performance of something one discovered and of that one wants to convey blends in with the joy of physical performance." (Michael Ebert, cited by Kahle).
With the role of Leonore in Günther's internationally successful TV film version of Arnold Zweig's novel "Junge Frau von 1914" (1969), Hoffmann became internationally known. In 1971, she entered the movie screen in Günther's film "Der Dritte" ("The Third") that won awards at the festivals in Karlovy Vary and in Venice. At the Berlinale film festival Hoffmann even won the award as "Best actress".
In "Die Schlüssel" (1972), again directed by Günther, she played the young working woman Ric who travels to Poland for a vacation with her boyfriend, a student. In Poland, the intellectual and the 'dropout' who wants to be happy without professional ambition come into conflict. Because of the delicate topics that were mentioned in the film, the film was contested in the GDR. Nevertheless, it ranks among the best DEFA productions of the 1970s.
In the elaborate production of "Lotte in Weimar", based on Thomas Mann's novel, Hoffmann in the role of the gossipy Adele Schopenhauer upstaged the international star Lilli Palmer who was cast for the film’s title role.
Another key period of her career was her collaboration with Thomas Langhoff who cast her for his TV movie "Hedda Gabler" (1979/80). "There was not much going on, and she did not have a lot of work. Furthermore, there were several quarrels at Berliner Ensemble. She was a new cast member and had to get along with a group of actors who had been working together for a long time. (…) She then developed the role for herself and played her that way. She came through with her own interpretation that went along pretty well with what I had in mind or had prepared. It just was a fortunate collaboration. She played a totally bound and deeply constricted person who again and again wanted to free and to defend herself." (Langhoff, cited by Kahle).
Langhoff also put Hoffmann in his unconventional TV adaptation of Geothe’s "Stella" where she starred alongside Jutta Wachowiak and Michael Gwisdek. In 1983, she played a leading role in "Die Zeit der Einsamkeit", based on a story by Stephan Hermlin, her first role in a TV production after a long absence. Because of the lack of role offers from GDR theatres – the role of Cäcilie in Theater im Palast's production of "Stella" (1981), directed by Ruth Berghaus, was an exception – Jutta Hoffmann made more and more performances at theatres in West Germany from the 1980s on. After she had been a guest of Luc Bondy's and played the role of Sofia Jegerowna Weinitzewa in Thomas Brasch's adaptation "Anton Tschechows Platonow" at West Berlin's Freie Volksbühne, Hoffmann performed at Festspiele Salzburg in 1982/83 in the role of Leonore d'Este in Dieter Dorn's production of "Torquato Tasso".
Since that time, Hoffmann was regularly seen at Munich’s Kammerspiele and played Fräulein Montag in "Der neue Prozeß" by Peter Weiss, Olivia in Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night", directed by Dieter Dorn, and the role of Helma in "Der Park" (1984), a a play by Botho Strauß. In 1984, the magazine Theater heute named her "Actress of the year" for her performance in Peter Zadek’s production of Garcia Lorca’s "Yerma" at Munich’s Kammerspiele.
During the 1990s, Hoffmann only occasionally appeared in TV productions. She played the clever sister-in-law from East Germany in the TV series "Motzki", that was conceived by Wolfgang Menge, and repeatedly played chief inspector Wanda Rosenbaum in the TV crime series "Polizeiruf 110".
In recent years, Hoffmann was rarely seen on the movie screen. In 1997, she played a member of the all-women band that breaks out of prison in Katja von Garnier's film "Bandits", and in 2003, she played a supporting role in Oskar Roehler's film "Der alte Affe Angst" ("Angst").
Since 1992, Jutta Hoffmann, who has also worked as an acting teacher in Berlin and at Vienna's Mozarteum, teaches as a professor at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. She has a daughter, Katharina (born 1962), from her first marriage with director Herrmann Zschoche, and a son, Valentin, from her second marriage with the Austrian actor and director Nikolaus Haenel. Jutta Hoffmann lives in Hamburg.
|
|
|
|
|
*03.03.1941
Halle (Saale)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
