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Gernot Roll
Gernot Roll
	Gernot Roll in 2015
Born	9 April 1939; Dresden, Germany
Died	12 November 2020 (aged 81); Munich, Germany
Occupations	Cinematographer; Film director; Script writer;
Awards	Grimme-Preis; Deutscher Filmpreis; Deutscher Kamerapreis; Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; Bavarian Film Awards;

Gernot Roll (9 April 1939 – 12 November 2020) was a German cinematographer, film director and script writer. He collaborated on several films with directors Edgar Reitz and Sönke Wortmann. He was regarded as an expert on literary adaptations and film biographies, such as The Buddenbrooks, filming Thomas Mann's novel in eleven television episodes directed by Franz Peter Wirth, and the same work again in 2008 in the film directed by Heinrich Breloer.

Life

Roll was born in Dresden and grew up in Pirna.^[1] At the age of 14 he began training as a cameraman and then worked at the DEFA Studios in Berlin-Babelsberg.^[2]^[3] His first film as a camera assistant was the fairy tale film The Singing Ringing Tree.^[2] In 1960 he went to West Germany to work at Bavaria Film in Munich.^[2]^[4] He filmed literary works such as Geschlossene Gesellschaft [de],^[1] and television series such as Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre and Tatort.^[2] From 1976, he worked as a freelance cinematographer.^[4] He was considered an expert in literary adaptations and film biographies.^[3] In 1979, he was the cinematographer for The Buddenbrooks, eleven episodes for television of Thomas Mann's novel, directed by Franz Peter Wirth.^[5]

Roll's breakthrough came with the celebrated 16-hour TV series Heimat – Eine deutsche Chronik by Edgar Reitz in 1984.^[2] Among his films were Caroline Link's Jenseits der Stille and Helmut Dietl's Rossini [de]. He worked with Sönke Wortmann for Der bewegte Mann, with Peter Sehr [de] for Kaspar Hauser [de], and with Link again for Oscar-winning Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa).^[1]^[6] He also worked with directors including Jo Baier, Axel Corti and Peter Keglevic.^[4]

Roll's debut as a director was in the film Radetzkymarsch [de].^[7] Roll was the director for films including the children's classic The Robber Hotzenplotz [de] in 2006.^[2] In 2008, he was the cinematographer for Heinrich Breloer's film Die Buddenbrooks.^[5]

Roll was one of the founding members of the Deutsche Filmakademie in 2003.^[8]

He was married to the producer Rita Serra-Roll;^[1] their son is the actor Michael Roll (born 1961).^[1] They lived in the Hunsrück.

Roll died on 12 November 2020 in Munich after a severe illness, at the age of 81.^[2]^[9]

Films for which Roll was the cinematographer include:^[9]^[10]

Filmography
Year	Title	Director	Notes
1970	The Last Escape	Walter Grauman
1971–72	Salto Mortale	Michael Braun [de]	TV series
1977	Zero Hour	Edgar Reitz
1979	The Buddenbrooks	Franz Peter Wirth^[11]	TV series
1980	Car-napping	Wigbert Wicker [de]
1980	Ein Stück Himmel	Wirth
1984	Heimat – eine deutsche Chronik	Reitz	TV series
1985	Morenga	Egon Günther
1985	Mit meinen heißen Tränen	Fritz Lehner
1989	The Rose Garden	Fons Rademakers
1982	Kleine Haie	Sönke Wortmann
1994	Der bewegte Mann	Wortmann
1996	Das Mädchen Rosemarie	Bernd Eichinger	TV film
1996	Beyond Silence	Caroline Link
2001	Nowhere in Africa	Link
2001	Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman	Heinrich Breloer	miniseries
2002	Jedermanns Fest	Lehner
2005	Speer und Er	Breloer
2008	Buddenbrooks	Breloer^[5]
2010	Henri 4	Jo Baier
2013	Home from Home	Reitz
2019	Brecht	Breloer

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Grübl, Josef (12 November 2020). "Meister des Lichts". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 13 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Dieckmann, Cordula; Etscheit, Georg (12 November 2020). "Kameramann Gernot Roll ist tot". Sächsische Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 12 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Kameramann Gernot Roll ist tot". Der Spiegel. Hamburg. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Gernot Roll / Ehrenpreis 1998". Deutscher Kamerapreis (in German). 28 March 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c Pommerenke, Silvy. "Buddenbrooks / Eine Filmkritik". kino-zeit.de (in German). Retrieved 3 December 2020.
^ Yue, Tao (4 April 2003). "FILM REVIEW HHH: From a Distance – 'Nowhere in Africa': Quiet and Compelling". The Tech. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b Grübl, Josef (16 January 2015). "Stilles Genie hinter der Kamera". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Munich. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
^ Jungblut, Peter (12 November 2020). "Kameramann der "Heimat"-Chroniken: Gernot Roll gestorben". BR24 (in German). Retrieved 15 November 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Gernot Roll". filmportal.de (in German). 12 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
^ "Gernot Roll". IEC – HOME (in German). Retrieved 23 November 2020.
^ "Buddenbrooks / 1979". deutsches-filmhaus.de (in German). Retrieved 3 December 2020.
^ "In Dresden geborener Kameramann Gernot Roll gestorben" (in German). MDR. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.