(Weisbaden, Germany, 1939) began his career in cinema between 1960 and 1965 as the first assistant director of filmmakers of the stature of Alain Resnais (Last year in Marienbad), Jean-Pierre Melville (The confidant) and Louis Malle (A Private Life, Fatuous Fire or Long Live Mary!), representatives of the French New Wave. In 1966 he directed The Young Törless, an adaptation of Robert Musil's novel that won him the Fipresci Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and several awards. His films include Fuego de paja (1972), El honor perdido de Katharina Blum (1975), Tiro de gracia (1976) and the multi-awarded El tambor de hojalata (1979), after which he would make more than twenty works, such as television programs, documentaries and feature films, among which stand out Círculo de engaños (1981), Muerte de un viajante (1985, based on the work of Arthur Miller), The Walker (1991), The Legends of Rita (2000), The Ninth Day (2004) and La mer à l'aube (2011).