Dark Gentleman – Christoph Waltz on his 70th birthday

Billy Wilder has one, Hedy Lamarr naturally does too, and Fritz Lang—see our retrospective—certainly does. And since 2014, so has Christoph Waltz. We are talking about a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one of the highest honors, which not only recognizes achievements in the entertainment industry but also, quite literally, cements the Hollywood legend. Ever since Quentin Tarantino cast him as the sharp-tongued, multilingual SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds”—launching his global career—Waltz has become an indispensable figure in the Dream Factory. To mark his 70th birthday this October, we look back at the career of the Vienna-born actor—a path not always easy—and revisit some of his most defining performances. He personally told us that the METRO holds a very special place in his heart: it was here, at the age of four, that he visited a movie theater for the first time with his grandmother.

Waltz hadn’t originally intended to become an actor. “I became one out of a lack of imagination, because I couldn’t think of anything better,” he once said in an interview. He studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, and began performing on stage in Vienna, Zurich, and Salzburg in 1977. Reinhard Schwabenitzky soon cast the young man in leading roles for his television films, showcasing Waltz’s unique gift for portraying characters whose outward poise and inner insecurity seem at odds with one another. Whether as a teenager asserting himself against the labels imposed by his environment, an outsider wrongly committed to a psychiatric ward, or a celebrated Schlager singer crumbling under the weight of others’ expectations—Waltz embodies characters where there is a disconnect between how they see themselves and how others perceive them.

And then there is that mouth, a focal point of so much of his expression: a slight smirk, a thin-lipped smile, or a subtle twitch of the lips can convey superiority and cynicism, but also subversive mockery—often all at once. After decades spent primarily in German television, Tarantino turned this ability into a trademark: Waltz plays characters who demonstrate their superiority above all through language. Three years after “Inglourious Basterds”, he once again portrays an articulate figure straddling the line between worlds in “Django Unchained”—though this time on the right side. In a remarkably short time, the Austrian actor transformed into a highly sought-after, two-time Oscar winner. Whether in Westerns, dramas, (tragi)comedies, or spectacular blockbusters, this character actor has retained his greatest strength: the fact that one can never quite trust his smile.
(Florian Widegger)

Billy Wilder has one, Hedy Lamarr naturally does too, and Fritz Lang—see our retrospective—certainly does. And since 2014, so has Christoph Waltz. We are talking about a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one of the highest honors, which not only recognizes achievements in the entertainment industry but also, quite literally, cements the Hollywood legend. Ever since Quentin Tarantino cast him as the sharp-tongued, multilingual SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds”—launching his global career—Waltz has become an indispensable figure in the Dream Factory. To mark his 70th birthday this October, we look back at the career of the Vienna-born actor—a path not always easy—and revisit some of his most defining performances. He personally told us that the METRO holds a very special place in his heart: it was here, at the age of four, that he visited a movie theater for the first time with his grandmother.

Waltz hadn’t originally intended to become an actor. “I became one out of a lack of imagination, because I couldn’t think of anything better,” he once said in an interview. He studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, and began performing on stage in Vienna, Zurich, and Salzburg in 1977. Reinhard Schwabenitzky soon cast the young man in leading roles for his television films, showcasing Waltz’s unique gift for portraying characters whose outward poise and inner insecurity seem at odds with one another. Whether as a teenager asserting himself against the labels imposed by his environment, an outsider wrongly committed to a psychiatric ward, or a celebrated Schlager singer crumbling under the weight of others’ expectations—Waltz embodies characters where there is a disconnect between how they see themselves and how others perceive them.

And then there is that mouth, a focal point of so much of his expression: a slight smirk, a thin-lipped smile, or a subtle twitch of the lips can convey superiority and cynicism, but also subversive mockery—often all at once. After decades spent primarily in German television, Tarantino turned this ability into a trademark: Waltz plays characters who demonstrate their superiority above all through language. Three years after “Inglourious Basterds”, he once again portrays an articulate figure straddling the line between worlds in “Django Unchained”—though this time on the right side. In a remarkably short time, the Austrian actor transformed into a highly sought-after, two-time Oscar winner. Whether in Westerns, dramas, (tragi)comedies, or spectacular blockbusters, this character actor has retained his greatest strength: the fact that one can never quite trust his smile.
(Florian Widegger)